Category Archives: 'Daily life'

Relaxing vacation

April and I really enjoyed our vacation. Going to our destination took about 16.5 hours. We stayed at Apopka, which is a suburb north of Orlando.

We had loads of fun on our trip and it gave me the opportunity to get away from daily life for awhile. Even the drive was enjoyable. April and I did not kill each other while on the road.

We went to St. Augustine and checked out the historic town on Sunday. St. Petersburg was another area we visited in which we took a boat ride and saw dolphins and multi-million dollar homes. We also went to Downtown Disney and Universal. Our last day was spent on Cocoa Beach.

For me the highlight of the trip was going to Cape Canaveral and visiting the NASA Kennedy Space Center. I took lots of pictures and really enjoyed the Apollo/Saturn V Center. I am not old enough to remember the Apollo missions, but I really enjoyed learning about them through the HBO mini series From the Earth to the Moon.

We also stopped at the International Space Station Center where we saw the future of NASA. I did get some space ice cream while I was visiting as well as a miniature Saturn V rocket. The ice cream was not good.

This was the first time I have been on the main section of Florida. My first trip to Florida was Pensacola, which is on the panhandle. The palm trees were also nice to look at.

Now back to my normal life.

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Florida Vacation

I am going on vacation to Florida! This Saturday April and I will be getting up in the middle of the night to make our way to Apopka, Florida by car. Apopka is a suburb of Orlando where we have family. It is nice to have family in such a warm climate.

While on vacation, I will not be checking email, making updates to this site, updating other sites I maintain, or surfing websites. I will be without a computer for six full days. That is a long time. Hopefully I will not go through online withdraw.

Time away from my computer is always a good thing since it keeps me from getting burned out. I will be able to replenish my body and mind while soaking up the Florida sun.

After mapping out the route I am guessing it will take between 15 and 17 hours, depending on how many times we stop. What worries me the most is the trip with my wife, who does not do too well with long trips. Someone suggested bringing benadryl to help her sleep.

While on the way home from our Gatlinburg trip she was starting to get on my nerves. I get on her nerves so I guess it works out. Anyway, I am looking forward to sunny days on the beach and 80° weather.

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Happy Birthday

On this day in 1979 a new life entered this world. People were dancing and singing praises. OK, so that last part probably did not happen.

Today at around 2:30 AM I turned 27 years young. Not too exciting. I am past the age of 21 so drinking is not new. Also the quarter-century mark has passed. Just another year older I guess. Nothing to really look forward to at this age.

So how am I spending my birthday? Working. Celebrating birthdays just is not what it used to be. I used to have birthday parties as a boy and those were exciting.

I received a G4 Mac mini. It is not new, but new to me. My wife will be fixing me a grand dinner tonight for my birthday. Bless her heart.

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Liquor sales should be allowed on Sundays

My wife and I were at the grocery store last Sunday doing some shopping and thought we would get some wine for my coming birthday. We completely forgot about the liquor law which bans selling of liquor on Sundays.

Let me be more specific. On Sundays in the state of Indiana you are banned from buying liquor from a grocery or liquor store. However, you can go to a restaurant and drink merrily while consuming your food. Then after consumption of alcohol these same people will then drive to their next location.

It seems dumb that you can go out dining and drink, but you cannot buy from a store and then drive home to drink. I recently read an article done by the Indianapolis Star and was interesting to see some responses. Half of the state thinks that the law should remain, 43% think it should be repealed, and 7% are undecided.

I cannot wrap my head around this idiotic law. This law should be repealed on the basis that if you want to drink you can drive to any restaurant selling liquor. So why are residents of Indiana banned from buying liquor in a store and taking it home to drink, which seems more logical to me then driving while intoxicated.

Currently I am researching where this is located in the Indiana law. I am by no means an alcoholic, but I do think that this law is ridiculous.

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Happy New Year!

OK, so I am a little late on the greeting. Things have been busy and today was the first day that I had time to write. So with that out of the way let’s get on with it.

2005 was a year of planning and 2006 will hopefully be the year of implementation. Personal debt has been cut and will continue to be slashed as the year progresses. My car will finally be paid off and hopefully April’s car as well. We are also starting our search for a house.

This will also be the year that April gets a new job before she ends up in a mental institute. As for me, I received some books this Christmas regarding web development. I will be working on refining my skills as well as building my portfolio.

So enough about my life. My lasts few posts have been more about technology and as this year starts I have thought about posting more tech tips. I will write about basic technology tips and may discuss more advanced material later.

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Jury duty

Today I did what may be considered to be the most dreaded service as a citizen…jury duty. It was a long day of waiting. I arrived at the county courthouse at 8 AM this morning, filled out a questionaire and waited. There were many people who were present for jury duty, over 200. There was a video that we had to watch that described the process of being a juror. No, I did not fall asleep during the video.

After the video there was more waiting. I waited until 11:15 AM and was told to go to lunch. Returned at 11:45 and waited some more. I was finally called to go to a courtroom with 28 others.

I was one of the first 14 to be questioned by the lawyers. Each lawyer had 30 minutes to question the jury to make sure that nobody had any issues serving as a juror. After my group, the second group was questioned. More waiting.

At 3 PM I found out that I was selected as a juror. I was told that I would be sitting as a juror until Wednesday. All the selected jurors were sent to the jury deliberation room. Guess what we all did. We waited! This lasted until 5 PM, then the judge came in to tell us that we are free to go and we will not need to serve as jurors. The case was settled out of court.

If you ever get called for jury duty I have some advice. Bring a book and be patient! It was a waiting game which I did a lot of reading and even listened to my iPod. It was an long day and was the first time that I had been selected for jury duty. I was relieved that I did not have to be a juror, but on the other hand I knew it would have been an interesting experience.

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Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. There are many things I am thankful for. April and I have paid off another loan. We have only our two car loans and school loans. We are doing better than we originally thought in our journey to becoming debt free. That is just one thing we are thankful for.

So what are you thankful for?

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Pictures of cabin

I have placed pictures of our cabin online. We stayed in a studio cabin. We really enjoyed our time in the cabin. We did not have too many complaints other than the bed not being very comfortable. The jacuzzi was used frequently.

Unfortunately, I am not sure when other pictures will be placed online. I have been pondering a new way to share pictures. Until then I will still continue to add photos to this site, but not as fast as I would like. My goal is to minimize the time it takes to add photos.

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