Long Live Pinata!

(In my best Wayne and Garth imitation) "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!" "I got Viva Pinata!"

No Podcast Tonight

Spark is sick and won't be able to do it. (Insert sad face here)...

New Geezer Radio Tomorrow....Hopefully

Spark and I were going to get together last night to do an episode of Geezer Radio, but we felt that we needed one more day to find out is someone wanted to be interviewed for Geezer Radio that night. It didn't work out for this week, but we decided to get it done tonight and forgot the interview for this one. Don't worry, a special interview from a person from HIGH-UP in Geezer Land will be doing an interview with us soon...can't tell you when (because...not even we know)...but soon.

Cruise Ship Day 5, 6 and the Trip Home

...Opportunity knocked on my door...literally! It turned out to be mo grandfather-in-law and my mother. They were worried about me because they couldn’t find me. Of course there was nothing wrong with me, I was trying to SLEEP!!! I was perfectly fine!!! Anyway, my mother came by to tell me that she had paid for a hop-on/hop-off tour for the both of us and that I could take a relaxing tour of Halifax and wouldn’t have to worry about exhausting myself. That was good enough for me. I grabbed my sunglasses, wallet and camera and I was on my way!

Halifax if beautiful and a wonderful place to visit. For a bit of history, please visit the following links:
Titanic
Halifax Explosion
Citadel Hill
I do have to say, though, that Canada should never be allowed to become part of the United States for one very good reason...Canada is the exact opposite of the US and that is what makes Canada/Halifax so beautiful!

I have a friend, and fellow Geezer that lives in Halifax, and I was so hoping on visiting him since I was in town. The Friday before I left, I sent him a message over XBL and told him I would be there soon. I then turned off my laptop and packed it away. What I didn’t know was that he sent me his phone number and told me to call him when I docked. Not knowing this and not having internet on the ship, I arrived in Halifax and didn’t call him...I felt so bad when I checked my messages when I got back from my trip on Saturday. I sent him an apology, and he responded to me saying he hoped that I had a great time, but not being able to hear him say that to me, I can’t tell if he forgives me, or understood. If you read this NTI Admiral, please know that I’m sorry I missed that message.

Okay, when I got back from my trip, the wife still hadn’t come back from her trip, so I went back to the Lido Deck and lay out on the deck to catch a few rays. The rest of the day finished fine with the usual stop by the casino and then dinner and then bed. (I don’t think I mentioned this before, but our dinner started at 8:15 every night, and by the time we finished dinner, it was 10:30 pm.)

Friday was amusing and relaxing! The day started out with the wife and I relaxing in the hot tube for three hours off and on. It was a nice a cool day and that is why I didn’t put on any sun-tan lotion and that is the reason why I completely burnt my shoulders. Finally, my mother, her mother and father, her brother and I headed for our rooms to get ready for something (I can’t remember what) when they announced that there would be a contest for people 16-years-old or higher. The contest was: Who can slide down the slide the fastest. My wife, being the young and energetic woman she is, jumped up and down and said “I want to win!”

I turned to my mother and said, “She’s going to get 20+ seconds, I guarantee it!” My mother, being the polite and loving mother-in-law that she is said, “Be nice!” Then the contest started. I don’t know how many exactly that there were, maybe 25 people, but prior to her slide, the fastest time was 13 seconds. The slowest time, three people before my wife, was clocked at 20 seconds.

Then they announced her name. It was time. Here is how I saw it happen. They announced for her to slide and she hopped on the slide and they said, “3...2...1...go!” I had been counting for the other contestants so I decided that I would count for her. When I got to ten, I expected to see her coming around the final turn but there was no sign, so I continued to count. When I got to 20 I started to wonder. When I got to thirty, I stopped counting. Finally, I saw her head as she started to come around the final turn. She wasn’t going that fast, and I thought, “Oh, Lord! This can’t be happening.”

She finally turned the last corner and we could all see her pushing her way down the final part of the ramp. When she finally hit the water at the end, the announcer came on and said, “Good news, John, *******, has knocked you out of last place with a time of 41 seconds!” Everyone in our group started laughing hysterically, including my wife. A few more people went on and finally finished a couple minutes after that. The announcer came back on and said that they had two winners. Jason at 13 seconds and Padme at 41 seconds! They gave my wife a prize for coming in last place. I was so happy to hear that. We actually cheered her as she went up to get her prize.

The last night on the ship was kind of mix of good things/bad things. We had to pack and have our bags put outside of our cabin by 11 pm, so I had to pack after dinner. As soon as that finished though, I, alone, went down to the casino and watched people play black-jack. I think that’s the one thing that I do actually regret, not playing black-jack at any point on the cruise. Oh, well, I’m not even 30, so I’m sure I’ll get the chance to play sometime in the future.

The next morning, was a blur of the same hurry up and wait that plagued the trip from NYC to the cruise ship, but in reverse. This time I was on the cruise ship, trying to get to NYC via customs, and then getting a cab to Penn Station and then taking a leisurely train trip from NYC back to Richmond.

Cruise Ship Day 2, 3, and 4

Day 2 of the cruise was something that I am not normally accustomed to: relaxing and having someone waiting on me. It was an odd feeling. I didn’t really feel that comfortable, because I was in unfamiliar territory but I tried my hardest to relax. I sat on the deck of the ship, in the shade and just looked out at the surrounding water. It sure was a new experience. I had never been on a boat for more than an hour and now, it had been nearly a full day at sea. It wasn’t a bad feeling, just different.

Anyway, the first full day on the ship consisted to just laying around and doing what I could to stay hydrated and not hungry. They played island music the entire trip and it was kind of relaxing to hear the horribly covered Bob Marley songs. Since it was a big ship and cell phones didn’t work 100% of the time, I had to keep track of the family by keeping an eye out and constantly looking around. Often times, the wife and I could go a couple of hours of looking for but not finding anyone else in our family. With that in mind, you’ll understand when I say that that day, my wife continuously popped into and out of my life. Let’s just say that, with the exception of a little gambling in the Casino and dinner, not much happened on our first full day at sea.

But let’s focus on dinner. Tuesday was the Captain’s Dinner, which meant that you had to be wearing a suit and tie in order to attend. This night ticked me off more than any other night. Not because I had to dress up for the occasion, but because every three steps, a crew member from the ship stopped me and the wife and proceeded to take ten to eleven pictures of us in our “funeral wear”. It was annoying and my legs were throbbing after the 10+ miles that I walked in NYC and the cruise ship. By the time dinner rolled around, I was nearly too tired to EAT!!!

Me and the wife so wanted to create a baby that night, but I was way too tired and she had a headache. It wasn’t pretty.

The next day, though was our first stop on our six day cruise: Saint John, New Brunswick. Prior to the trip, my father-in-law and brother-in-law and I each signed up for a beer tasting tour so that we could get liquored up in Canada. It turned out though that instead of touring local pubs, we ended up taking a tour of Saint John that ended at a pub where we had one drink each. After that, the three of us ended up walking around Saint John and getting a good overview of the place. Just to give you an idea of how small the town was, Saint John reminded me more of Lynchburg, VA than Richmond, VA. It was small, but beautiful town.

That night was mostly the same activities, such as visiting the casino, and then dinner and then sleep. This turned out to be a good thing, because on the next day, the wife and I awoke to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Halifax is perhaps one of the most beautiful places in the world that my eyes have seen. It was just a shame that I was too tired and too sick to enjoy it.

I love my in-laws. They are the nicest group of people I could have blessed to have as in-laws...but they don’t have a working comprehension of how to take vacations. This is vacation on my family: rest all day, party all night. This is vacation on her family: go here, do that, rest all night and do it all over again the next day. When they go to a new city, they see EVERYTHING they can see in one day. Good for them, bad for me, because (as it turned out on this trip) after two days of walking EVERYWHERE, I was too tired to enjoy myself the rest of the trip.

Me and the wife did disembark from the ship and visit the shops in the hanger, but that was as far as I went. With that said, while the wife and everyone else in my family toured Halifax, I returned to the ship and really relaxed for the first time all week. I ate some ice cream, stared at women in bikinis and then went back to my cabin for an all day Law and Order marathon. At around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, my eyes started to fade and I was just entering that half-way state of sleep and consciousness when...

Tomorrow I will continue and finish the saga of Vacation 1138: Too Tired Too Have Fun.

NYC Day 3 and Cruise Ship Day 1

Day 3 in NYC was mostly a half day to do what we wanted to do. I was so tired from the previous two days of running around the entire city, literally, so I just walked around the surrounding blocks that the hotel was near. The one thing that I was totally blown away by was the variety of stores and what you could buy. I found everything from really cheap iPods and unlocked 3G iPhones. Any cell phone that you could want, you could find in the area that I was in.

At around 10:30 in the morning, we headed back to the hotel, retrieved our bags and take them to the curb, while we awaited cabs to take us to the Carnival terminal. We all talked about various things about what we had seen and done over the past couple of days. Once the cabs came, we loaded everything and hopped in. It was a short ride, but it’s not very easy to traverse NYC because of all the one-way streets. When we get there, it’s another scenario of hurry up, wait, put your metal objects here, hurry up and then wait.

After a lot of hassle, running, and walking, the wife and I finally arrive at our cabin/home for the next five nights and six days. It’s smaller than my room at my first house and to give you an indication of how small. Take an average cubicle, expand by three feet in every direction and that is your living quarters. The bathroom was just about the size of one of our closets. The family at that time took a tour of the ship and it seemed impressive, until we found that there were only about five places that were fun (Casino, Lido Deck, Deck 10, Back Lido Deck, and shopping center) to be.

We ate a quick lunch and at 5:30 in the afternoon, I was again tired and exhausted and wanted to sit down, but a highlight of my week/weekend was coming up. The cruise-ship undocked and headed out to sea. From Deck 10, I could see the target of my camera: the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. They were an awesome site for someone who had always seen them in movies and never in real life. This time, I saw them in a detail that I never thought I ever would. It was kind of uplifting to see the symbol of our country. At that time, I got the song “Proud to be an American” running through my head, and because I didn’t have my Zune, I couldn’t get it out until I fell asleep.

The rest of the night was pretty much just settling down and experiencing new things that I am very not used to. Namely, going to a 5 Star Restaurant and a home that moves up and down regularly.

NYC Day 2

Day two of being in New York City started with a bang. That bang was me falling on the floor because my feet were hurting so much from all the walking the previous day. Once, I adjusted, though, everything was okay and I was good to go. I put on my walking shoes and headed for our first destination of the day: The Chelsea Market.

There is nothing close to what The Chelsea Market has in Richmond, so I was surprised that my mother-in-law booked us on a tour of the whole market. I had no idea that shops such as these existed but The Chelsea Market is basically a small market where specialty stores (bakeries, sea food distributors, pastry shops, a place to buy vegetables, and various other stores that were all unique in thought and items that they sold) set up shop and do business. You’ll never find a national chain like a game store or McDonalds there, which is why it’s such a unique place to shop. My favorite store there was a place called the T Salon, where you could buy all sorts of foreign teas. They also had these seed like things that if you drop them into a clear pitcher of water, in two to three days they will blossom into flowers and the water will turn to tea. I bought a couple of those because that’s the type of cool flower I like (drop it in water and forget about it).

Once we left the Chelsea Market, our group visited Morimoto’s which was fun to see. The guide then took us on a tour of the meat packing district and perhaps the most seedy part of NYC (in broad daylight with a heavy police presence, though) on a tour of the shops around the area. It ended on the 15th floor of a building that had a great birds-eye view of that part of NYC and a swimming pool with models (not on the job, but relaxing) in bikini’s and waitresses just as hot with all the...(must stop typing because the wife will see this...)

After the tour of that area was over, the family (all ten of us: me, the wife, my in-laws [Grandma, Grandpa, Sister, Brother, Mother and Father-in-law] and my mother and sister) split up. My mother and sister went to see Stomp, while the remaining eight went east on a tour of America’s version of Mecca: Ground Zero. Everything about that trip was exciting, even the trip over there.

On our trip to Ground Zero, the eight of us took the subway that had A/C and everything was fine. The car wasn’t that crowded and everyone found a seat. Well, the stop prior to the World Trade Center stop, a pedestrian got off the subway, but left their bag. The bag was a plastic one that looked like it contained a piece of round cheese or something like that, but my sister-in-law (she’s only 15) started freaking out!!! “Is it a bomb? Am I going to die? I don’t want to die!!” Okay, I’ll tell you the truth, the same though crossed my mind, but I just didn’t let it be known until now. My grandpa-in-law started laughing and then egging her on by saying, “Do you hear that?” My sis-in-law looked at him and said, “What?” He responded by saying “I think I hear it ticking.” She nearly started crying. It was funny in hind-sight, but I wasn’t laughing then.

Anyway, after we got there, my heart was pounding. I don’t know why exactly, but my thought at the time was that, “I am actually here. I am actually at a place where nearly 3000 people died. I am actually standing at the heart of the worst national tragedy we have ever faced.” I then looked around and was very disappointed. The entire area was fenced up and a continuous tarp covered the view of the other side. I couldn’t see anything. But what I could see amazed me. Giant canes were EVERYWERE! There must have been ten or eleven of them. I got as many pictures of what I could, but there wasn’t much to see, except: a huge building near the site that had two cranes and scaffolding all around it (must have been hit by a LOT of debris that day) and the church that was right next to the Twin Towers.

The tour of the church was fascinating. As was the walk down Broadway catching the other landmarks there: Trinity Church, Wall Street, the NY Stock Exchange, and the Bull in the middle of Broadway. After that, it was a long walk back to the subway, but we got there and once there, it was time to rest. Once the car reached the hotel exit, me, the wife and grandpa-in-law got off to go to the hotel. The others stayed on because they were headed to Central Park. Once my wife found out she was running to catch up to the train, but it had already left. My wife wasn’t happy about that, but when she heard what happened to them, she was glad she didn’t go with them. When I got back to the hotel, I removed my walking/satanic shoes and lay on the bed.

I must have fallen asleep because a couple hours later I awake to a knock on the door. It was my mother-in-law (the one that went to Central Park). She wanted to know where my wife was and I told her I didn’t know. I then asked, “How was Central Park.” This was her answer, “Well, we actually missed our stop and ended up in Queens.” I looked at her with amusement on my face and then she said, “We got there eventually, but by then it was too dark to enjoy, so we came back.” So getting off the train isn’t always a bad thing.

After that talk, and 13,500 steps/feet, I decided to call it a night and went to bed.

Tomorrow, Day 3 in NYC and Day 1 on the Cruise Ship.

NYC Day 1

New York is one of the most diverse and interesting places that I have EVER been too. We all arrived on Saturday the 16th. When I first stepped off the train, I was surrounded by people, but I didn’t think much about it. I thought that it was just from the fact that a lot of people were on the train. After I got off the platform and into the Pennsylvania Station, there were still a LOT of people. Again, I didn’t think about it because it is a busy train station in a big city. I was carrying my very heavy bag and surrounded by people, and therefore didn’t notice the thousands of people on the streets of NY on Saturday! It was ludicrous how many people were out on the street.

The subway was an adventure all on its own. I first had to get a pass that had enough money for me and the wife plus my mother and sister. That wasn’t so difficult. And all those movies that had the NY subway in them...they aren’t lying! They are EXACTLY like you see them in the movies. The first car my family got into was hot as HELL and people in NY would walk into the car wait a couple seconds and then leave running. Me and the family just looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders. It turned out that the AC was broke in our car and that’s why everyone got off. When we finally got to our destination we got out of the HOT car and looked at the car in front and behind us were wall-to-wall people. I would have rather had the heat then the wall-to-wall people.

My first day in NY consisted of hopping on a subway (see above) for the first time and heading to Greenwich Village for dinner. Wow, talk about a different world. The Village, as they call it, is one of the most diverse places in the world. I saw more gay men and women than I have ever seen in my life!!! Not that I’m against homosexuality, it’s just that in the ultra-conservative Richmond, VA I hardly ever saw two women holding hands or kissing or sharing a bowl of pasta from the street. In the Village...they were everywhere and they were NOT one ounce ashamed of themselves. Another bit of culture shock were the shops. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many (male) gay porn stores I walked past, or how many shops openly carried bongs.

After dinner, it was off to the subway (in a subway car that had A/C) back to the hotel and then took a subway car to Times Square and the play Spam-A-Lot. Again, there were thousands of people all around. They didn’t wait for the pedestrian light cross the street and the drivers would rather run you over than wait for the next green light. The taxi drivers...don’t even get me started... Anyway, Times Square was AMAZING!!! Giant billboards, HUGE TV screens with news coverage, TV ad’s and other really cool advertisements. I saw the MTV studio, where the ball drops on New Years and a couple of other really cool things that I had heard about (and to tell you the truth, there were so many things there that I didn’t really catch the whole thing, there was just too much to take in).

Spam-A-Lot was a riot! And it was updated to include the trade of Brett Favre to the NY Jets. Once the play was over, we (me, my wife and my in-laws) hopped out of the theater and into a STILL BUSY Times Square...AT MIDNIGHT!!! There were STILL thousands of people and Times Square was lit up just like daytime. It was crazy! Yes, I know that NYC is the City that Never Sleeps, but come one! Anyway, we decided to walk back to our hotel, since it was only ten blocks away. On the way there, I got an awesome picture of the Empire State Building lit up and I THAT is when I found out that if you step in front of a moving cab, there is a chance he will not stop.

Finally, I got back to the hotel and after walking 14,100 steps/feet, I collapsed in the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

Tomorrow, day 2 and more NYC.

Back From Outer Space

Well, I'm back from my week long trip off the grid. This past week has been so fun and so EXHAUSTING that me and the wife might need another weekend just to recover. I was asked by Furgus to take a lot of pictures, and guess what, I came back with 407 (I think). I won't put them all up on the net, but I will screen them, post them and then link to them from this blog. Please be patient. In the meantime, look for stories about the following:

1. My impressions of NY and Spam-A-Lot
2. Greenwich Village, Times Square at midnight, Ground Zero, and the Statue of Liberty
3. Awards, Honors and Happiness
4. Hell on Earth: The Bad Sides of Vacation in Unfamiliar Territory.
5. Why Canada Shouldn't Be the 51st State

Look for these stories but not in that order or headline.

Off The Grid and Out of the Country

I will be going on vacation and going completely off the grid from 8/16 through 8/23. Where am I going? I am going to two foreign countries both to the north of where I am. First, it's off to New York, NY. Now a lot of you might not think that it's actually a foreign country and in reality it's not, but since I've lived in Richmond, VA (a small city) all my life, New York, NY is about as foreign as you can get. There are probably more people living in the five boroughs of NY than there are in the Tidewater area of Virginia (I don't have confirmed figures on that, but it's my guess). Then it's off to Halifax, Nova Scotia which is located north of Maine...in Canada...you can't go too much farther north than that and if you continue going north soon you'll be going south. So, I'll be out of the area and in no way, shape or form will I be able to monitor e-mail, this blog, the Geezer Gamer website updates, and Geezer Radio blog. So, if you have any questions or comments, you know where to leave them for me. See you when I get back. :~)