It’s not everyday that you see gas at $3.19!

September 29, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Moblog

Our Honeymoon: Cruisin’ the Caribbean

With our next cruise less than a month away, I thought I would re-post our honeymoon adventures from six years ago here.

Our honeymoon was such a blast! We didn’t miss any of our connecting flights and everything went smoothly.. Well, with the exception of my sinus problems. Every time it was time to land and the airplane would begin its descent, my head hurt so bad it felt like my eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets and my head was about to explode splattering brain goo all over the cabin. That really didn’t happen, but I wanted you to be able to visualize how painful it was each time we were about to land.

We arrived in Miami with plenty of time to board our cruise ship, the MS Paradise (the only smoke-free cruise ship in the entire world at the time), but too late to get an upgrade. The ship was already full. It wasn’t that bad really. Although it would have been nice to have gotten the upgrade, our cabin was comfortable enough for us. The bathroom was actually quite roomy and allowed plenty of room for Brian and me (we usually take our showers together).

When we first boarded our main concern was sustenance because there wasn’t really much to eat on the plane and the airports didn’t offer anything delectable either. Brian and I were both thrilled to find that the lunch buffet was currently being served on the lido. Food was the first order of business. After that, we went to our room only to find that our bags had not yet been delivered. We couldn’t shower because we had nothing to change into. We did some exploration in the meantime and pretty soon the ship was starting to pull away from the port. We return to our room quite hopeful that our bags had been delivered at this point, they had not, and immediately I start flipping out. Had we been cruising before, we would not have been so alarmed. I was really thinking that our bags got left on the dock. They were actually already on the ship, but it usually takes a while for everyone’s bags to be delivered to their staterooms.

Our bags arrived eventually and we were able to take our shower and change into clean clothes for dinner. However, by the time we were ready to go to dinner we were too late for the early seating. We ended up sitting at the late dinner where we met Kevin and Kim. They were married on August 10 and were honeymooning also. He’s 30 years of age and she’s 25. The four of us got along really well and we actually spent quite a bit of time together.

The following night we attended the early dinner and met yet another honeymooning couple, Jamie and Jay. They were a bit younger than Brian and I. Jay is 25 and Jamie is 23. But they’ve been together for almost nine years. They were on the same deck as us and, actually, their room was just around the corner. We went on a couple of excursions with Jamie and Jay also. You’ll see some highlights of our cruise below..

The picture at the right was taken during the captain’s cocktail party. They served free hors d’ourves and cocktails. This was a real treat because the cocktails on the ship cost about five bucks a glass. Brian doesn’t drink, but we went to participate in the festivities anyway. We got to dance to a couple of swing numbers. We had a lot of fun!

Cozumel, Mexico was our first port of call. We spent about 12 hours there. It was our lengthiest stop. It was funny because Jamie, Jay, Kevin and Kim ended up on the exact same excursion as Brian and myself. There were actually two time slots, one at 8:00 AM and another at 10:00 AM. None of us wanted to wake up early enough for the 8:00 AM one so we all ended up taking the later horseback riding adventure. We had such a blast, but our glutes and thighs ached tremendously the next day. At least that was all I suffered. Brian had welts on his butt from the friction of his pants. Yet another disadvantage of not wearing underwear!

Our second excursion on Cozumel was a sail, snorkel and beach party adventure. Kevin and Kim were on a different tour that afternoon, but Jamie and Jay signed up for the same tour so the four of us got to hang out. Snorkeling wasn’t as fun as I anticipated. I guess it’s not really as fun the first time. Brian ended drinking gallons of sea water and I really couldn’t see much of anything because my goggles kept fogging up. Those were pretty minor compared to what happened to Jay, though. He ended up losing his wedding ring. It came off his finger when he jumped into the water and he and Jamie spent most of the time searching for his ring rather than enjoying the snorkeling segment of the excursion. They were totally bummed for the rest of the day. Even towards the close of the cruise, I don’t think they ever got over that mishap.

While in Grand Cayman, we visited the turtle farm, the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory (which was next door), the town of Hell and we fed the stingrays. The stingrays were actually pretty docile. They don’t have any teeth so they can’t really hurt you. They just suck the food from your had like a Hoover. It was a really neat experience.. Except for when one of them decided to attack me. I was scared at first, but it turned out to be pretty comical. Brian didn’t even get a chance to feed them because as one of the stingrays approached, he got scared and dropped squid that he was holding.

In Ocho Rios, Jamaica we got a chance to swim and play with the dolphins at Dolphin Cove and we climbed Dunn River Falls part of the way. It was a lot of fun swimming and playing with Mitch, the seven-year old dolphin that we were assigned. Mitch and his girlfriend Sugy also performed some tricks for our group. The experience was absolutely amazing and it was all captured on video! After the swimming with the dolphins, I got my hair braided. I’d never had my hair done that way before. Brian said it looked nice.

Dunn River Falls was beautiful, but the water was very cold and the current was really strong. It took a lot to keep your ground and not topple backwards to the bottom. After a few minutes of trying, Brian and I eventually just gave up. We were content to just watch the other people climb the rocky waterfall.

Pretty soon we were back in Maimi again. That was the end of our seven-day Western Caribbean adventure. We had been so pampered on the trip that we were both reluctant to return.. The only consolation we had was that we both agreed that we’ll get to do it all again in another few years!

Would you like to see more pictures from our trip? Follow this link..

September 28, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Travel

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Show and Tell at the Brubakers

We were over at Brian’s parents’ house the other day for dinner. We got to check out Donna’s new dining table. It’s a “pub” table. It’s higher than a regular dining table, but not quite bar stool height.

After dinner we got to check out Dave’s new handgun. It’s a Springfield Armory XD-40 subcompact. I was going to say it’s really cute, but I’ve been warned not to describe guns as cute. =P

It’s just the right weight for me. I think this would be my choice if I ever decide to get a gun for myself.

Oh, I got to show them my new netbook. It’s that little laptop looking thing that you see in the photo. It’s tiny, tiny, tiny.

September 27, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life, Toys

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Molly’s $60 Haircut

Hers are more expensive than mine! =P

September 26, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Babies, Moblog

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Heroes Season 3 Now Available on Instant Watch

This is a most exciting turn of events! Heroes, our most favorite TV series, has only been back on air a couple of days and already the episodes are available on Netflix. How awesome is that? I have to tell my friend Jan right away because she decided to forgo the season premier of Heroes in order to watch the season premier of Dancing With the Stars. I know Brian and I were both very disappointed in her. Just kidding, Jan!

Well, the good news is that she can catch up by watching the episodes on Netflix! Now if you don’t already have a Netflix membership, I can’t think of any better reason. I would sign up just for this. =P

September 24, 2008 | Posted by Ching under News, Web

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DELL Mini 9 Test Drive

This is what Twitter looks like on the DELL Mini 9. Max res is 1024 X 600. The screen is just big enough to play poker on UB. You can’t multi-table at all unless you switch mini view. You can “instant watch” movies on Netflix, but quality significantly decreases when you go into full screen mode. That part is disappointing. The ultra-compressed keyboard will take A LOT of getting used to as certain keys are not where my fingers feel they should be. Nothing that a little TyperShark won’t fix, though. I’ll get used to this keyboard soon enough.

September 23, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life

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My DELL Mini 9

My DELL Mini 9 arrived today. Happy early birthday to me!

September 23, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Moblog, Toys

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Poker Cruise Party-Slash-Orientation Thing

We had dealer practice yesterday, but we didn’t really get to practice much. It turned out to be more of an informational session because we got started late and ran into the poker cruise party-slash-orientation thing. We will need to set up another time to practice dealing. In the meantime, Brian and I both have to learn how to deal seven card stud, Omaha, Omaha hi/lo, and razz. We’ll keep you all posted on our progress.

September 22, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Poker

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Pictures from Rogie’s Baby Shower

We had a lot of fun at Rogie’s baby shower this afternoon. Here are some of the photos we took…

You can see more pictures here. I had to leave early because Brian and I had to attend dealer practice that day at 5p. Tell you guys more about that next time… I’m so excited for the poker cruise (even though we’ll be working). I’m counting the days!

September 21, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Life

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All You Can Bowl

Though it doesn’t look it from this photo, Brian actually had fun last night. We had planned to go cosmic bowling last week, but then we thought our plans fell through so we went to dinner with Brian’s parents at Carrabba’s instead. Right before dinner, our bowling plans were back on again.

We had a wonderful time at dinner. Joe stopped by our table so we got to introduce him to David and Donna. It was really cool. As always, dinner was great and the service was fabulous.

We initially planned to go to West Acres for cosmic bowling, but the Dills got out of their movie early and wanted to start bowling sooner. We ended up at Northrock Lanes instead. It worked out because, at three hours of all you can bowl, it’s a much better value.

We played girls against guys first, which the guys won by four pins (295 to 299, it was a low scoring round). Then we did a couples round, which the Dills won by two pins. Brian and I got pretty close, though. We scored 245 to their 247. During that round Jay and I both scored 137, but Becca outscored Brian 110 to 108 so we lost. Anyway, since Jay and I scored the same he challenged me to a bowl-off. Jay won the bowl-off with 141 to my 138, but only because he got lucky and managed to get two strikes in a row at the very end. =P

I was actually pretty impressed with how well Jay bowled despite ripping his jeans. We all had a good laugh about that. Jay was a pretty good sport about it and didn’t let it slow him down at all.

I didn’t do too bad over all. I can’t remember what I scored the first game we bowled before Cory and April got in the game, but I bowled a 123, 137, and 138. Not too bad, but I could tell how rusty I was. I missed really easy spares. I picked up a baby split, though. So that was pretty good. Last night reminded me of how much I like to bowl. I wish Brian would join a league with me. He won’t, though. Oh, well. Maybe we can do the all you can bowl thing again another day.

September 21, 2008 | Posted by Ching under Games

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