Okay - as you all know, I am on my fourth ipod in three years.
The first one had my name engraved on it - a gift from Jon for our engagement. It got stolen.
The second one I named simply, "Jenn's Ipod" - it was a refurbished 20g classic that lasted me about two years until it finally broke down magnificently like a marathon runner at the end of his career.
Number three was "Rosebud" my red 8gig nano that I purchased right before vacation and lost right away.
So it's YOUR TURN to name my ipod. I'm looking for a clever name for my new 8gig red nano. JFreddie - I have high expectations for your entries.
Thanks! Jenn
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Chivas Win!
And now a post from our sponsor...
Chivas Win! Chivas Win! Everybody! Gather up the entire family and pile onto the scooter and we'll go cruising in the parade of cheering fans, waving the flag and plush goat mascot, and honking the horn setting off car alarms all along the street.
Apparently, the Chivas del Guadalajara beat América two to one while we were eating our dinner. This partially explains the comparatively empty streets earlier while were were out looking for somewhere to eat. Only one in every 7 or 8 shop owners was desparetly trying to get us to take a look at what they had to offer (Sorry, I still don't belive you that you have silver jewelry for free).
Now, however there is a true celebration going on outside our hotel. Waves of honking horns from vans, cars, trucks, mopeds, and scooters are driving up and down the main street. Everybody is in the color or jersey of the Chivas and most cars have a huge flag stuck out the window.
The most striking part is that it seems the whole family is included. You'll see a mother and child riding on a scooter driven by the father. Or a group of 5 crammed into a little hatch-back. A clowncar's worth piled into a van. All wearing jerseys and cheering for Los Chivas!
An exciting close to the lazy (recouperation after all the diving), last full day of vacation before travling home.
Chivas Win! Chivas Win! Everybody! Gather up the entire family and pile onto the scooter and we'll go cruising in the parade of cheering fans, waving the flag and plush goat mascot, and honking the horn setting off car alarms all along the street.
Apparently, the Chivas del Guadalajara beat América two to one while we were eating our dinner. This partially explains the comparatively empty streets earlier while were were out looking for somewhere to eat. Only one in every 7 or 8 shop owners was desparetly trying to get us to take a look at what they had to offer (Sorry, I still don't belive you that you have silver jewelry for free).
Now, however there is a true celebration going on outside our hotel. Waves of honking horns from vans, cars, trucks, mopeds, and scooters are driving up and down the main street. Everybody is in the color or jersey of the Chivas and most cars have a huge flag stuck out the window.
The most striking part is that it seems the whole family is included. You'll see a mother and child riding on a scooter driven by the father. Or a group of 5 crammed into a little hatch-back. A clowncar's worth piled into a van. All wearing jerseys and cheering for Los Chivas!
An exciting close to the lazy (recouperation after all the diving), last full day of vacation before travling home.
Pictures are Up!
Check out our pics from the trip. I'm hoping this other couple will supply us with some underwater photos soon also.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smock9/
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Cozumel - Highlights
Cozumel Parts 3-5 (Just the Highlights)
Basically we've been silent due to extreme exhaustion - sun + diving + touristing. So here are the highlights of the middle of our trip.
Cozumel Downtown
Everywhere you walk downtown is like running a gauntlet of falsely-charming peso-hungry dudes. On every block there are at least 3-5 silver jewelry stores, some tourist t-shirt places, and a tequila store. "Hey, Honeymooners! Special for you! 99% off!" - "Hey Amiga, Amigo, come try my store please!" - "What are you looking for honeymooners? Cuban cigars amigo?" For Jon and myself, this is like a new personal hell. I am already known for feeling bad about NOT buying stuff (I know it doesn't make sense) so we had a lot of personal growth this trip. I now feel like a Gold Medalist in the Aggressive-Shop-Owner-100meter.
Food
Well we went to the beautiful Wynston restaurant at the top of one of the taller condo buildings on the shore. The view was capital "A" - Amazing. We got to watch a spectacular sunset so it was wonderful. However. The food was lower case "o" - as in okay. Definitely the exception to the "Get what you pay for" rule. Maybe we should have known when they had Chilean Sea Bass (BIG NO NO) and Maryland Crab on the menu.
Today we went to La Mission for "real" mexican food as Jon likes to say. Holy crapola was that good. A couple margaritas, mariachi band, and some almost-orgasmic quacamole later - and I barely have the energy to finish this post. We plan to return to La Mission tomorrow for lunch!
Diving
Jon's been a little worried that when we get to the states, people will say, "What else did you do besides diving?" and we will say, "Ate and slept." However, please take into account that this has been the BEST diving experience we've had - or at least tied with Hawaii. First of all we have seen just about every species of fish that exist in this area of the world and amazing 80foot+ coral formations that make you really understand the precarious balance of life. We've done some beginner cave diving/swim throughs that actually made me hold my breath in wonder - ok not a great reaction underwater, but what can I say I was moved! We've seen 5-10 sea turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, some rare fish, a huge crab....and I'm not lying here, yesterday we saw a SEVEN FOOT MORAY EEL. Do you know what that is like? This guy could fit my head in his mouth if it so desired. It looked like a DINOSAUR!!! Definitely the scariest/most awesome thing I have seen below water.
Let's add to all of this the thing that will impress all of you non-divers out there. Between our morning and afternoon dives, the boat takes us to a local resort beach, feeds us, and then we spend an hour playing in the crystal clear blue water - and there really wasn't anyone else around.
Plus, when we get back from diving - smelling of old sea water, dripping wet and walk back to the hotel - no one wants us in their shop!
Basically we've been silent due to extreme exhaustion - sun + diving + touristing. So here are the highlights of the middle of our trip.
Cozumel Downtown
Everywhere you walk downtown is like running a gauntlet of falsely-charming peso-hungry dudes. On every block there are at least 3-5 silver jewelry stores, some tourist t-shirt places, and a tequila store. "Hey, Honeymooners! Special for you! 99% off!" - "Hey Amiga, Amigo, come try my store please!" - "What are you looking for honeymooners? Cuban cigars amigo?" For Jon and myself, this is like a new personal hell. I am already known for feeling bad about NOT buying stuff (I know it doesn't make sense) so we had a lot of personal growth this trip. I now feel like a Gold Medalist in the Aggressive-Shop-Owner-100meter.
Food
Well we went to the beautiful Wynston restaurant at the top of one of the taller condo buildings on the shore. The view was capital "A" - Amazing. We got to watch a spectacular sunset so it was wonderful. However. The food was lower case "o" - as in okay. Definitely the exception to the "Get what you pay for" rule. Maybe we should have known when they had Chilean Sea Bass (BIG NO NO) and Maryland Crab on the menu.
Today we went to La Mission for "real" mexican food as Jon likes to say. Holy crapola was that good. A couple margaritas, mariachi band, and some almost-orgasmic quacamole later - and I barely have the energy to finish this post. We plan to return to La Mission tomorrow for lunch!
Diving
Jon's been a little worried that when we get to the states, people will say, "What else did you do besides diving?" and we will say, "Ate and slept." However, please take into account that this has been the BEST diving experience we've had - or at least tied with Hawaii. First of all we have seen just about every species of fish that exist in this area of the world and amazing 80foot+ coral formations that make you really understand the precarious balance of life. We've done some beginner cave diving/swim throughs that actually made me hold my breath in wonder - ok not a great reaction underwater, but what can I say I was moved! We've seen 5-10 sea turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, some rare fish, a huge crab....and I'm not lying here, yesterday we saw a SEVEN FOOT MORAY EEL. Do you know what that is like? This guy could fit my head in his mouth if it so desired. It looked like a DINOSAUR!!! Definitely the scariest/most awesome thing I have seen below water.
Let's add to all of this the thing that will impress all of you non-divers out there. Between our morning and afternoon dives, the boat takes us to a local resort beach, feeds us, and then we spend an hour playing in the crystal clear blue water - and there really wasn't anyone else around.
Plus, when we get back from diving - smelling of old sea water, dripping wet and walk back to the hotel - no one wants us in their shop!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Cozumel Part 2
Day 2 in Cozumel was even more wonderful than Day 1. We woke up early and went down to the complimentary breakfast on the terrace. On a non-diving day I plan to take advantage of the omelet chef - but you have to be really careful what you eat before diving. Coffee, sodas, and many other things can kill a dive. Most people have had the misfortune to have to use the restroom when at the beach - imagine that when you have a bathing suit plus a couple layers of neoprene and scuba equipment on - oh yeah and you're in the middle of the ocean, 60feet under water and it takes 10 minutes to surface safely.
So after desayuno we made our way to the marina on the south end of the island. Everyone was so friendly! They were all helping us find the "Maximus" our boat. Blanca, our divemaster was extremely safety oriented which is great - we were also her only clients that day which was amazing. We saw little christmas tree worms (image) which retreat and hide when you swim by. Also a big sea turtle, a five-foot barracuda (image) which freak me out, and some HUGE Queen Triggerfish (image) and an incredible variety of fish and coral. On our second dive we saw a cluster of big spiny lobster (image with relative size) and Jon's favorite, the very elusive nudibranchs (image).
For lunch, we decided to do the obligatory "WOO-SPRING-BREAK-CANCUN-WOOOO!" eating experience when on a tropical island/cruise ship stop. We ate at Carlos N Charlies - a total tourist trap situated conveniently between Senor Frogs (tourist trap) and the Hard Rock Bar (tourist trap.) At CnC the balloon guy comes around and makes everyone a "hat" in the shape of various naughty objects and the shot girl comes around blowing a whistle and tweaking guys' nipples to get them to chug. I am not making this up - whatever, the food was find and I have a balloon crown sitting in the hotel room. We will post pictures of this place later this week.
Let's see - at this point I was mucho overwhelmed people-wise and pretty tired so it was back to the hotel room for a nap and a couple of hours of reading. On the way we passed one of the stranger things I had ever seen - and avon convention on the hotel terrace. A couple of hundred hispanic women milling around in pink tshirts trying out cosmetics. Avon is scary enough when I understand the language. We steered clear of this particular event.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that this was our 3 year anniversary? We (I) decided that we (I) was too tired to go for a fancy meal so we basically ended the evening with more reading and some room service nachos. Hah! Happy anniverary....snoooore.
That's okay - we went out for the big expensive meal on day 3. I'll post that tomorrow.
So after desayuno we made our way to the marina on the south end of the island. Everyone was so friendly! They were all helping us find the "Maximus" our boat. Blanca, our divemaster was extremely safety oriented which is great - we were also her only clients that day which was amazing. We saw little christmas tree worms (image) which retreat and hide when you swim by. Also a big sea turtle, a five-foot barracuda (image) which freak me out, and some HUGE Queen Triggerfish (image) and an incredible variety of fish and coral. On our second dive we saw a cluster of big spiny lobster (image with relative size) and Jon's favorite, the very elusive nudibranchs (image).
For lunch, we decided to do the obligatory "WOO-SPRING-BREAK-CANCUN-WOOOO!" eating experience when on a tropical island/cruise ship stop. We ate at Carlos N Charlies - a total tourist trap situated conveniently between Senor Frogs (tourist trap) and the Hard Rock Bar (tourist trap.) At CnC the balloon guy comes around and makes everyone a "hat" in the shape of various naughty objects and the shot girl comes around blowing a whistle and tweaking guys' nipples to get them to chug. I am not making this up - whatever, the food was find and I have a balloon crown sitting in the hotel room. We will post pictures of this place later this week.
Let's see - at this point I was mucho overwhelmed people-wise and pretty tired so it was back to the hotel room for a nap and a couple of hours of reading. On the way we passed one of the stranger things I had ever seen - and avon convention on the hotel terrace. A couple of hundred hispanic women milling around in pink tshirts trying out cosmetics. Avon is scary enough when I understand the language. We steered clear of this particular event.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that this was our 3 year anniversary? We (I) decided that we (I) was too tired to go for a fancy meal so we basically ended the evening with more reading and some room service nachos. Hah! Happy anniverary....snoooore.
That's okay - we went out for the big expensive meal on day 3. I'll post that tomorrow.
Cozumel Part 1
So, welcome back to my semi-annual blog. This is a medium that takes literally seconds to create and deliver and I can only get around to it twice a year....oh well. However, let me repeat a fairly accurate conversation that happened on the streets of Cozumel, Mexico today.
Me: "You ready to go diving!??!"
Jon: "Yep. Are you going to keep some sort of record or journal about this trip?"
Me: "What like a log?"
Jon: "Yes, a log."
Me: "As in...a WEB-log, or a 'blog' if you will? As in... the one I already have that I don't post to?"
And so, here we are.
Cozumel Trip - Monday, October 21, 2008
The van picked us up at 4am. Well, 3:57am. It's the first time one of those things has ever been early - but we were ready. Very, very tired, but ready. We hauled an incredible amount of luggage out of the house and climbed into the van behind a very forlorn looking driver. The man looked like he had just been given some very bad news - kind of like he didn't care about anything anymore - like he had bigger issues than our petty vacation and he sure as hell wasn't going to use turn signals thank you very much! But despite Suicidal Steve we made it to the airport with our spirits soaring to FINALLY go on this much deserved vacation. We even zipped through security in MINUTES!!!
So, yeah, we're traveling internationally. And it took us about 10 minutes to clear everything. Yeah.
Well, anyway, both plane trips were fine. Even the layover wasn't too excruciating. 2.5hours/3hours/2.5hours - not short, but not long enough to want to choke on airplane pretzels or smash your inadequately small plastic cup of soda in an attendant's face. The second plane was a prop plane - not exactly a smooth or quiet ride. But I played with my ipod and tuned everything out.
Oh my ipod. My brand new gorgeous, finally configured Rosebud red ipod. I left you on the plane and I will NEVER see you again. And now someone is listening to Tiesto on you with MY ear buds. How disgusting and unfair life is....
Anyway. Even getting our luggage and going through "customs" was easy. Do you want to know what customs is in Cozumel? The "agent" says, please press this red button, and you do. Done. Finito.
Grabbed a crowded shuttle to the hotel. Not too bad. And definitely not the crowded broken down school bus with chickens on the floor you might expect if you watched "Romancing the Stone" too many times. Arrived at Casa Mexicana which is on a beautiful waterfront.
We checked in with no problems (see a trend here) and tracked down our dive shop. Blue XTSea is on the same block as the hotel so we went there and checked in....and guess what...no problems there either. We must be on vacation.
Our final adventure of the evening was finding and eating at Kinta - a new "modern mexican cuisine" restaurant in town. The trip there threatened to ruin my diving potential as the sidewalks were extremely slippery and my cheap flipflops might as well have been greased on the bottom. The food was worth it though. Panko-crusted gulf shrimp over mashed plaintains, Seafood risotto with scallops - freakin' amazing.
Okay enough....the rest of the posts should be a bit shorter!
P.S. If anyone finds an 8gig red ipod lovingly placed in a clear plastic case with a set of music on it that no one else on the planet would ever listen to - please notify me.
Me: "You ready to go diving!??!"
Jon: "Yep. Are you going to keep some sort of record or journal about this trip?"
Me: "What like a log?"
Jon: "Yes, a log."
Me: "As in...a WEB-log, or a 'blog' if you will? As in... the one I already have that I don't post to?"
And so, here we are.
Cozumel Trip - Monday, October 21, 2008
The van picked us up at 4am. Well, 3:57am. It's the first time one of those things has ever been early - but we were ready. Very, very tired, but ready. We hauled an incredible amount of luggage out of the house and climbed into the van behind a very forlorn looking driver. The man looked like he had just been given some very bad news - kind of like he didn't care about anything anymore - like he had bigger issues than our petty vacation and he sure as hell wasn't going to use turn signals thank you very much! But despite Suicidal Steve we made it to the airport with our spirits soaring to FINALLY go on this much deserved vacation. We even zipped through security in MINUTES!!!
So, yeah, we're traveling internationally. And it took us about 10 minutes to clear everything. Yeah.
Well, anyway, both plane trips were fine. Even the layover wasn't too excruciating. 2.5hours/3hours/2.5hours - not short, but not long enough to want to choke on airplane pretzels or smash your inadequately small plastic cup of soda in an attendant's face. The second plane was a prop plane - not exactly a smooth or quiet ride. But I played with my ipod and tuned everything out.
Oh my ipod. My brand new gorgeous, finally configured Rosebud red ipod. I left you on the plane and I will NEVER see you again. And now someone is listening to Tiesto on you with MY ear buds. How disgusting and unfair life is....
Anyway. Even getting our luggage and going through "customs" was easy. Do you want to know what customs is in Cozumel? The "agent" says, please press this red button, and you do. Done. Finito.
Grabbed a crowded shuttle to the hotel. Not too bad. And definitely not the crowded broken down school bus with chickens on the floor you might expect if you watched "Romancing the Stone" too many times. Arrived at Casa Mexicana which is on a beautiful waterfront.
We checked in with no problems (see a trend here) and tracked down our dive shop. Blue XTSea is on the same block as the hotel so we went there and checked in....and guess what...no problems there either. We must be on vacation.
Our final adventure of the evening was finding and eating at Kinta - a new "modern mexican cuisine" restaurant in town. The trip there threatened to ruin my diving potential as the sidewalks were extremely slippery and my cheap flipflops might as well have been greased on the bottom. The food was worth it though. Panko-crusted gulf shrimp over mashed plaintains, Seafood risotto with scallops - freakin' amazing.
Okay enough....the rest of the posts should be a bit shorter!
P.S. If anyone finds an 8gig red ipod lovingly placed in a clear plastic case with a set of music on it that no one else on the planet would ever listen to - please notify me.
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