To Sosua and Beyond . . .

We arrived in the DR in good time and as usual Mechi had a nice meal prepared for us on the patio when we arrived. I think that's the think I like the most about coming here - the food that is 1. made for me 2. delicious and 3. healthy. Here's Tica and Mechi on the patio with lunch.

These past few days I've been in Sosua - a city with beautiful beaches and a little less than appealing ambiance otherwise.  Let's just say that it's a little less than clean, and has "special" women for male tourists everywhere.  

Anyway,  we stayed at an apartment of a friend that was great except for the lack of running water - seems we have a lot of bad luck with the water in borrowed houses. But it was within walking distance from the beach, and as I'm fond of saying, "Free is always in the budget." We walked along a few beaches, but after some investigation we ended up at my favorite (and Rafelo's favorite to boot) beach and spent the day in complete tranquility. This image I like to call Happy Feet - because they and I spent many a fond hour there and were oh so happy in the sand.

Here's Tica and Rafelo at the "home base." Note the perfect amount of shade provided by the fig tree as well as the ubiquitous sponsorship of Brugal.

For lunch we had some fresh fish which they brought to us (once it was cooked of course)

with fried plantains and ice cold soda. Yes, Rafelo loved the fish too.

We only spent one day at Sosua; one perfect day. On the way home we passed by La Laguna Gri Gri, which provided me with my first mangrove experience. Very cool trees, and check out my dream house which we boated past . . .

The plan is to spend the next day or so in La Vega at Tica's parents' house (I'm hoping we'll take the motorcycles up to the mountain), then we're off to Tia Fanti's house for Christmas dinner and to visit my cute little niece who can scream like no child I have ever heard - it's really amazing.

Guess That Makes Me an "Expert"

One of my articles was recently chosen to be the featured piece in an embedded design publication and is available for the world to either enjoy, or fall asleep to. It's pretty cool to see something you wrote on-line and it was kind-of weird to read through it again.

I once had a professor who told me that getting published on a topic makes you an expert - because now you're quotable. Not sure if I agree with the whole expert thing as I think that will take a life time, but if anybody wants to quote me . . . feel free ;)

You can find my article here if you're interested.

Who Needs Turkey?

Tica and I decided to take a "quick" trip to Colorado this Thanksgiving to do some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had considered inviting ourselves to visit friends and family, but airline tickets to California, Utah, and Virginia were just too expensive, so a road trip was all we had left. We really wanted to get some time in the mountains and Colorado sounded like just the place to do it. We checked the temperatures, consulted Google for hikes and driving directions and left early Wednesday evening to arrive on Thursday afternoon. It was a long drive, and we were able to get through all 16 CDs of the unabridged version of For Whom the Bell Tolls, and the 8 CDs of the first Harry Potter book.

When we got to Colorado, we found that it was WAY colder than we expected. Daytime temperatures were in the 20s and the nights were in the single digits and even dropped a little below 0 one night, but the winter scenery was breathtaking. Well it was either the scenery, or the fact that we were up at around 11,000 feet, but something was definitely taking my breath away! This was our first real winter backpacking experience and we learned a bit about what we'll need to take and do next time to be warmer and more comfortable. A quick shout out to Casey and Alisa for the boiling water in the nalgene to sleep with trick- it was AMAZING!! I owe you guys one.

Tica posted a few more pictures on facebook. Check em out:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=760028189&k=Y5A3ZY5ZT5ZMZFAGVDXXP

It Just Dawned on Me . . . I live in TEXAS!!!

Okay, I've finally realized that I can no longer live in denial. Texas is a strange place - and I live there. For instance, I've never heard of a "California Size" upgrade at a fast food restaurant where they give you a Styrofoam cup the size of a small dog, but I have "Texas Sized it" a time or two in the past few years without even blinking. I thought it strange, but hey, it's Texas - you expect some of that type of thing here. However, living in Austin has really sheltered and limited my Texas experience I'm realizing.

I would never have believed that just an hour from my home is a Texas town where camouflage is the new black; where 50 year old women at fast food restaurants will not only ask you if you'd like that "Texas Sized for only 85 cents more", but will share the most intimate details about the customer beside you; and where you can find "do-it-yer-self" waffles in the shape of the great state of Texas. Tica and I laughed so hard when we found the waffle maker above at a hotel we had stopped at. You don't find that type of thing much in Austin - I guess we've lived a sheltered Texas existence.

The experience and the waffles were delicious though!

Well, It's Up. . . Finally

After 2 years of owning my TV, I finally did what I set out to do when I purchased it - I mounted it on my wall. The week before the wall mounting Tica and I painted the wall the savory color you see in the photo above. You should have seen the stern looks I received when I started drilling holes in the freshly painted wall - or perhaps it's better that you didn't.

Anyhow, It's up and it looks great! I still need to hide the cables to the back and we're in the process of finding a different "entertainment" stand, but all in all, I'm quite satisfied with my manly TV hanging abilities.

Quick Trip to Utah

We just got back from an awesome trip to Utah. It's always nice to go home and visit the ones we love, but it's hard to come back for sure.


While there we did a really quick hike up to Lake Blanch. Samb was able to join us and it was awesome to have him back again. I really missed that guy while he was in the Nippon. Before the hike Katie (sister and Samb's ride back to Logan) failed to tell us that she needed to be in Logan to work at 7:00 until we had cell service at the top of the mountain at 5:00. The trip up took us about 2 hours, while the run back down took us less than 40 minutes - needless to say we were all pretty sore for the next couple of days from the run down.

While there we were also able to see the Fitch family and their newest addition - so very cute. Pictures just don't do the little guy justice, but here's one anyway . . .

Ninas Lindas in the DR

Tica was recently able to make a trip to the Dominican Republic to surprise Mechi for her birthday. Mechi was so surprised that she couldn't stop screaming, and Rafelo was sure that the ghost of Tica was appearing to him. It was an awesome opportunity - especially since the company paid for the trip ;-). While she was there, Tica decided to cut her hair and it was so cute that Luli quickly followed suit. I have to say that these ladies look HOT HOT HOT with their new hair.

Well, I started my first day in as a PME at NI and I have to say it's been good so far. My first (official) assignment is to update this demo to include new hardware (which of course I can't tell you about - super secret stuff). Anyhow, I got everything running today, and plan to make my additions tomorrow. I don't mind the extra time working on it because it's been raining like crazy down here lately and I don't get to play outside too much.