Posts Tagged ‘vacation’

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Cruisin’, and Other Happenings

By Chief Oddball on June 5th, 2010 at 9:23 pm

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Last weekend, Apple and I went on our first cruise. Thanks to my parents’ membership in the Disney Vacation Club, we were able to book a three-night cruise to the Bahamas that included Nassau and Castaway Cay, the latter of which is Disney’s own private island. I’ve never thought of myself as a “cruise person”; for some reason the thought of being trapped on a ship at sea with nowhere to go never sounded appealing, despite the fact that I often trap myself in my own house not only wittingly, but happily. Ask me today, however, and I’ll tell you that I would definitely go on a cruise again — especially if it’s a Disney cruise.

We may have been a bit spoiled. After all, the ship we sailed on — the Disney Wonder — was recently rated #1 for crew and service by a Condé Nast Traveler magazine poll. Disney does have a reputation for making every experience about as polished and professional as is possible, and our cruise was no exception, filled with some of the most friendly staff, finest accommodations and nicest locales I could imagine. And like most cruises, all of the food was free. Hard to beat that!

Mostly playing it low-key, we did just a smattering of activities, ranging from a tour of Nassau and its Ardastra Gardens and Zoo to taking in some of the musicals and shows that the ship’s crew put on for us. Even so, we felt like we filled each day to the brim with stuff to do, sights to see and food to eat, and it was a rare thing for us to even have a moment to just lay around and watch TV. (Which is perfect — because we probably do enough of that at home!)

I think my favorite day was the one we spent at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island. Those were some of the most incredible beaches I’ve ever seen, and talk about quiet — there was total silence out there at Serenity Bay. We made the most of it, basically just floating on our backs in the crystal clear waters and soaking up the tranquility. Just like in the movies, servers would walk up and down the beach every so often and ask if you wanted a drink. You could sit out there like Milton at the end of Office Space and complain about the margaritas. (Although once you got a load of the scenery, I’d imagine it’d be hard to complain about much of anything.)

Earlier today I spent a while uploading all of the best photos from the cruise, then titling and tagging them. If you want to see them, check them out right here.

I also edited together a collection of footage I shot using my iPhone, including stuff from the cruise ship, Ardastra Gardens and Castaway Cay:

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Taking Some Time Off

By Chief Oddball on November 13th, 2009 at 12:34 am

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Apple and I are in Orlando this weekend, enjoying some well-deserved vacation time apart from the usual workday world. Thanks to the generosity of my parents and their Vacation Club membership, we’re rooming at Disney’s Saratoga Springs resort, in a nice one-bedroom villa with our own kitchen and such. So far it’s been a very relaxing and enjoyable time, and we only just got here at 8 o’clock tonight.

Even our drive here was pleasant. Our Garmin GPS (which we call “Jill”, because that’s the name of the synthesized American dialect that comes preinstalled on the unit) took us on a route we haven’t used before, and which was fairly interesting in addition to being significantly shorter in distance, if not time.

The route also took us past some rather peculiar landmarks, including Pizza Hut House. That’s the name I couldn’t help but give to the bizarre house we passed in the middle of nowhere that had a roof shaped just like the old Pizza Hut restaurants. It even had three very out-of-place windows in the middle of the top part of the roof. Honestly, it looked like the kind of place you’d picture in your mind’s eye if you heard about a grisly murder scene. But maybe that’s because I watch too many movies with credited roles like “The Shape.”

Tomorrow we’re going to get up late, eat breakfast in the room and probably go traipsing around the Downtown Disney marketplace for a while. I’m going to have a hard time not stopping at the Virgin Megastore (no, they don’t sell virgins) and getting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I really shouldn’t do that. But just today I heard that a formerly-jeopardized side project is now a go after all, and I’m gonna make some money off that. And there’s something about being on vacation that makes you want to splurge on yourself. (Not only that, but this same Virgin Megastore is where I bought the original Unreal for PC way back in the day.)

We brought the MacBook and the in-room Internet works after some initial hiccups, so Apple is enjoying a stream of her favorite Korean TV show. The weather is great (supposed to be 75 and sunny tomorrow) so we’re going to make the most of it and have a good time.

And after working till 10 every night this week, I’m sure going to enjoy it.

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Ketchup

By Chief Oddball on September 20th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

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No. It’s not a post about condiments. It’s yet another: Random Posting Surprise™. As in, I’ll start writing something and surprise myself as to what it’s about. I once again started slacking off on posting here after a fairly good start back when I last updated the Oddball Update’s design. This weekend I finally got around to recategorizing all my old posts in the archive — well, I started, anyway — and this left me feeling like I should take a break from that to post something new for a change.

Last week we were in Michigan for a few days, visiting friends and family. We spent Labor Day there, and I actually got to take a couple of days off from work, so it ended up being a four-day weekend for me. The weather was perfect most of the time we were there; sunny and in the mid-70s with the exception of a couple back-to-back rainy days. We had ample opportunity to chat with my family members, I got to see my friends Pooch and Reaper (and pick up Donutown besides, which simply has to happen every time I’m in town), and eat out at our favorite restaurants. We also did a fair amount of eating in this time as well, which was fine with us, because it meant enjoying that much more of my grandmother’s home cooking.

Surprisingly, I did not have much in the way of allergy troubles. I often get bouts of asthma-like congestion and an uncontrollable runny nose when I’m back in the homeland, likely due to the dust and molds present in my old house’s ductwork, if I had to guess. The season contributes a lot to this phenomenon, especially because when it’s cold enough to warrant firing up the furnace, the warm air blowing through those ducts is usually enough to put my sinuses on an express elevator to hell. This time, though, the furnace was not needed, and we only ran the A/C a couple of times. For the most part, I had no trouble. That was certainly a relief.

And, as I mentioned in my initial review of The Beatles: Rock Band, my video game day with my friends was inspiring enough for me to reacquaint myself with the “plastic musical instrument” genre of games after a long hiatus. Since then, Apple and I have continued to have a blast with the Beatles game. I’ve been able to re-familiarize myself with my old favorite songs, which I mostly haven’t listened to in a while, and Apple was introduced to a whole swath of the Beatles’ catalog with which she was previously unfamiliar. The other day she came into my room and took all the Beatles albums off my CD rack, then proceeded to arrange a mix disc which she put in her car. Listening to it on the way to dinner the other evening was like going on a trip down memory lane.

The Beatles’ music makes me think of my high school days, for it was then that I first started listening to them. My friend Pooch introduced me to the group and their music besides, and I promptly started buying up the albums, working my way back from the Beatles’ latter years, the tracks from which I was most familiar. Hearing those songs again today mostly reminds me of driving my old Grand Prix, for a Beatles CD or cassette tape was never far from my car stereo whenever I went home from school, drove to or from my friends’ houses or wherever else I was off to. There were a lot of things wrong with those years, but the smaller they get in my rear-view mirror, the more the good times come to the fore — hanging out with friends, discovering new music, playing the great computer games of the era, and enjoying Junes, Julys and Augusts filled with relaxation and creativity in the pleasant summer weather of Michigan.

Pooch is still introducing me to bands, although this time they’re mostly Japanese in origin. Last week’s trip to Michigan was no exception, for we got together and I picked up some new albums from Shoko Suzuki (whose lovely retro-sounding song “Hi, Hello” I’m listening to right now), Shonen Knife, Ayumi Hamasaki and Ryoko Shinohara.

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Goodies and Gadgets

By Chief Oddball on June 8th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

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We’re back from our trip to Vero Beach feeling both refreshed and happy to be home. We got a chance to enjoy essentially all of the activities that we’d hoped to while away — lying on the beach, the cool waters of the Atlantic, miniature golf, sleeping in, reading (and in my case, writing), watching movies, and exploring. The weather was about 50/50 thunderstorms and bright sun, which dictated our timetable for us, but allowed us to do a nice mix of indoor and outdoor stuff.

The only bad thing was the food; we didn’t have much luck with the new restaurants we tried, finding nothing to write home about. We did find a Carrabba’s on our way home, though. Next time perhaps we’ll stop there. Yes — we’re chain restaurant fans. In our defense, I’ll say that Apple provides all the home cooking we’ll need — so when we’re out, we like something consistent and predictable.

Anyway, I’m back to work this week, and in addition to my main job, I’ve got two side jobs that are ramping up. I’m doing about 60-90 minutes of work on each one during the weekday evenings, and devoting several more hours to them on the weekend. Neither one looks like a huge, overwhelming job, so this is working out perfectly. I hope there won’t be any snags.

By now, you’re probably wondering where the “goodies and gadgets” are. The first arrived on Sunday, when, after several days of discussion and debate, I decided to trade in my dust-gathering Playstation Portable (PSP) for a Nintendo DS. The DS is technologically behind the PSP by a wide margin, but the PSP’s hardware superiority actually worked against it in my eyes. The reason being that most PSP games that I’ve seen are visually dumbed-down versions of things you could play on your bigger consoles, like the PS2 or PS3. I don’t want that in a handheld. I rarely have my PSP with me, so the portability isn’t anywhere near the biggest selling point. Unique games are. And the PSP just doesn’t have any that I care about. It’s all just slimmed-down versions of console games that I could walk into the other room and play on a much bigger screen with much nicer graphics.

The Nintendo DS, on the other hand, has only the performance equivalence of an old N64. This forces DS game developers to be more creative and yields unique and eclectic games like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Dementium: The Ward, and stuff like that. Interactive novels, point-and-click games, auto mechanic sims, and other stuff is all available on the DS, and there’s nothing else like it on any other system I know (barring some overlap with the Wii). Not only that, but the DS adds additional senses to the experience, with its touch-screen and voice-recognizing microphone.

And, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t encouraged by the fact that Apple herself said she’d enjoy playing the DS too, which is a pretty cool thing for a gamer husband to hear his non-gamer wife say.

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Good Times

By Chief Oddball on May 31st, 2009 at 3:31 pm

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Not much to talk about lately — because everything has been great. This has been an excellent week, and so far, one of the best weekends I can remember having in a while.

My parents spent Memorial Day week with us, so we got to eat out at some new (and old favorite) restaurants, and my dad and I got to enjoy some good video entertainment as per usual. On Monday we went to see the new Star Trek movie, which we both thought was excellent. I consider myself a fairly hardcore Trek geek from way back, and while I’m not one of those guys who gets into ferocious flamewars over mundane questions like “Who was the best captain, Kirk or Picard?” I do find myself interested in maintaining continuity of events, histories and actions that took place throughout Trek history. Despite that, I very much enjoyed the new film, which essentially throws out most of the original canon (but employs a “trapdoor” excuse that keeps us old hats from flipping out).

JJ Abrams and crew have done a great job with the film, and their up-to-date treatment of it will no doubt bring a great many new fans into the fold. Despite all the “new-ness,” though, there were still a ton of shout-outs to the original fans, stuff that I really found awesome. When we first meet Scotty, for example, we find that he’s been banished to a Federation outpost in some frozen wasteland for trying to beam Admiral Archer’s prized beagle from one planet to another, causing the dog to vanish irretrievably. (After that terrible Enterprise episode “A Night In Sickbay,” I thought this was an excellent just desserts for bratty old Captain Furrow.) Perhaps my favorite character was Karl Urban’s Leonard McCoy — the man was straight-up channeling DeForest Kelley through the entire movie. Just completely awesome.

So yeah, if you’re a Trek fan, go see it. And if you’re not, go see it.

Later in the week, Dad and I also watched Battlestar Galactica’s series finale, which he had not yet seen. This was a good choice because he doesn’t get Sci-Fi HD at home, so he was able to see the last episode in glorious high-def. And for me, it was cool to see the finale again on my home theater screen, which was a lot more impressive than that computer monitor I watched it on the first time, out in Thailand.

The week was good, but this weekend has been far more than good. On Saturday, Apple and I had lunch at a new restaurant called AZN; it’s another of those ubiquitous “Asian fusion” restaurants, but unlike most of the others, it has pretty good prices and a nice variety of stuff, plus pretty darn good sushi. My entree was more on the Western side of the “fusion” recipe (a trio of three miniature hamburgers made with Kobe beef) but was nonetheless excellent. As is my routine these days, I took half of it home to enjoy later. Apple had a big bowl of spicy noodles that was filled with everything imaginable, from shrimp and scallops to chicken. AZN also has a very good iced green tea, which was nice and sweet, just as I like it.

After lunch we went to Whole Foods for some grocery shopping, and got everything we needed for a change…except orange juice, which was overpriced, so we stopped off at Publix on the way home to get a better deal on it. Most interesting of all about this trip was that we found a clutch of Apple’s favorite fruit — guavas — at Whole Foods, looking like they’d just been put out, but bearing absolutely no signage whatsoever, so we had no idea if they were organic or conventional, what they cost, or where they came from. Deciding to chance it, we bought one. When it rang up as 60 cents, we hurriedly packed our groceries in the car and I went back in the store to buy three more guavas. :) They taste great, too. Normally guavas are much more expensive than this in the U.S., so I don’t know if it was an error or what, but if it was, we made out like bandits. We even paid more for guavas in Thailand, and they’re as common as apples over there!

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A Weekend in Koh Samui

By Chief Oddball on March 3rd, 2009 at 8:41 pm

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Apple and I spent the weekend in Koh Samui, and the experience was so incredible that I’m going to post about it here, despite the fact that I really feel rather dead right now. Is this feeling due to the inevitable gloom associated with having to put an end to what was possibly life’s greatest vacation, you ask? Probably so, and it’s also possibly due to the major sunburn I’m still nursing. But with working hours (thankfully) over for the day, I can no longer hold back from espousing how great the island of Samui is.

A little backstory: Koh Samui is an island — “Koh” is Thai for “island,” actually — in the southeastern region of Thailand that’s well known as a favorite tourist destination, particularly for westerners of all stripes. During our first couple months of marriage, Apple and I watched Jules Asner spout off about how “Wild!” Samui was on her E! network show “Wild On!” and since then we’ve had an underlying desire to travel there ourselves. Now we’ve finally done it. And while we’re not exactly the world’s wildest couple, the short two-and-a-half days we spent there definitely rank among the best of our lives.

Originally we had planned to visit Samui in March, but everything sorta fell into place rather abruptly in late February, so after I cleared it with my boss, we decided to head out on the last Friday of the month. To kick off the trip, late Thursday evening Apple and I went to Sittara Spa for another one of those two-hour massages, which was an excellent way to just chill out and get things started on the right foot. The next morning, we set off for Samui.

Friday, February 27

Because we embarked from Hat Yai, getting to Samui was a bit complicated. Samui caters to westerners, who mostly arrive in Thailand via Bangkok, so you can fly directly to Samui island from Thailand’s capitol. But from Hat Yai, if you want to fly, you have to go via Bangkok — which is nuts, since you fly right over the island and waste a bunch of time and money connecting in Bangkok for no good reason. Your other option is to take a bus to Surat Thani and then cross over to Samui island on a ferry, so that’s what we did.

To be honest, it was a lonnnnng day. We got up at 6:40 AM and went to the print shop where Apple’s family works, so that we could get a ride to the travel agency. We were then taken to Hat Yai’s bus depot via tuk-tuk at 10:30. The bus trip itself was pretty long; after a variety of stops in various towns, we made it to Surat Thani around 5:30. It was great to finally get off the thing; although the seats were comfortable, the air conditioning wasn’t effective enough. The ferry departed half an hour later. The ferries that run between Surat Thani and Samui, incidentally, are so huge that the bus went along with us, as did a whole bunch of other cars and trucks. The good thing about that was, we got to leave our luggage on board the bus and didn’t have to drag it up on deck with us.

On the ferry to Koh Samui

On the ferry to Koh Samui

After a 90-minute ferry ride — on which I started nodding off, since as I noted this day was lonnnnng — we got to the island proper. We then retrieved our bags from the bus and hired a taxi to take us to the Samui Orchid Resort about 25 minutes away. Yeah…we did a LOT of traveling before we finally wound up getting where we wanted to go!

By the time we finally checked in, it was 8:30 in the evening and we’d both had fairly little to eat all day. The hotel restaurant closed at seven o’clock, so the front desk staff recommended that we take a stroll up the street to a little cafe a short distance away. It was dark by then and very quiet — all of the other guests were in town visiting the carnival that was running that night — which made us feel like we had the whole island to ourselves.

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Back in the Saddle

By Chief Oddball on March 22nd, 2008 at 9:27 pm

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We’re back from Orlando, and I’m back to work. It was a great few days off, everything went swimmingly (with a minor exception or two) and I’m feeling envigorated and ready to tackle some new tasks at work. Many thanks to my parents for sparing some extra Vacation Club points to let us stay at the resort this week.

Of all the things we’d planned to do in Disney World, the only thing we didn’t get to do was eat dinner at Epcot Center’s Canadian restaurant. For whatever reason, almost all the restaurants at Epcot were completely booked for the entire time we were there. I figure it was because of the upcoming Easter holiday, spring break and all that — but strangely, the park itself didn’t seem terribly busy. Oh well, we’ll get there next time.

Speaking of next time, we’ve already got the park entry paid for, whenever that occurs — as Florida residents, we get a killer deal on a 3-day ticket, and we only used two of the three days. So I bought the “No Expiration” option, so we can come back anytime and get in one day for free.

So, now that we’re home, in order to make up for the days I took off, I’m working all this weekend. Truth be told, I like working on the weekend. Because there’s usually no one else working — and if they are, they don’t bother me — I can easily get deep into some project and push forward on it without fear of outside distraction. I didn’t have much catching up to do after we got back from Orlando, so I’m spending this weekend designing some new icons for our company’s icon library product. It’s fun stuff.

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The Annual Disney Excursion

By Chief Oddball on March 8th, 2008 at 5:47 pm

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In just over a week, Apple and I will be embarking upon the next episode of what has become an annual ritual: a vacation to Disney World. Since 1988, this miniature city on the outskirts of Orlando has been woven into my life in some form or another, and over the years I’ve regarded the House of Mouse with many different perspectives.

For the first decade or so, I loved everything about Disney World. As I went through my “teenage angst” years, I became somewhat disenchanted, rejecting the commercialism and Disney/ABC’s role in what I saw was censorship of imported media properties, particularly those from Japan. In the following years I got married, started a career, became a homeowner and found zillions more things to worry about besides such media matters, leading me to, once again, take a very favorable view of Disney’s premier theme park.

Ironically, it was during those “teenage angst” years that my parents became members of the Disney Vacation Club, a long-term program into which they pay a fixed amount of money each year, and in return receive an allowance of “points” that they can spend on Disney vacations, or even at Disney partner hotels around the world. The program is so long-term, in fact, that it’s the sort of thing that may eventually be handed to my wife and I. When my parents were considering becoming members, they asked me if I thought it was something I might use one day. Well, honestly, I was a seventeen year old computer geek with no hope of bringing a girl home anytime soon; the very last thing I could see myself doing was going by myself to Disney World. Thankfully, my apathy at the time didn’t convince my parents not to go forward. Since then, their Vacation Club membership has become a very appreciated asset, in more ways than one.

So it’s once again thanks to said Vacation Club membership that we’ll be spending a few days in Orlando this month. Unlike most of the trips I take, this one will not be a “working vacation” (I won’t be sitting in a room slaving over a laptop for 80% of the time I’m there). I think that’s why I’ve come to look forward to these Disney excursions so much. Not only have I really come to appreciate the fact that Disney World is not just for kids, but it’s one of the few places I can go where I’m always pretty certain I won’t have to worry about work. And there’s tons of great food there — most of our days spent at Disney are planned around meals.

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Road Trip of a Lifetime

By Chief Oddball on November 18th, 2007 at 5:54 am

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<turns on the lights>

Oh, hey. You all startled me. I didn’t think there was still anybody here, but I see you’re all still sitting there, waiting for me to post some fresh tidbit of content, some tasty morsel of one sort or another. Hope it wasn’t too dark in here for the last month or whatever it’s been, but I’ve been…well…busy, as you can no doubt imagine. You’re probably getting tired of hearing that excuse. Truth be told, so am I — but that’s a story for another day. Like tomorrow, maybe. Lots to say, very little time.

The Tennessee mountains

Anyway, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the brilliant road trip to Michigan from which Apple and I recently returned. We spent three weeks in my hometown, and saw miles of beautiful countryside on the way there. As for the trip northward itself, we drove my GTO the whole way, and I’m happy to report that we couldn’t have asked for a nicer ride — it was trouble-free for the duration. Plus, our new GPS unit was a real boon, guiding us effortlessly to our hotels during each evening stopover, and even finding a nice Korean restaurant in (of all places) Lexington, Kentucky. We even ate at quite possibly the best Red Lobster on this planet, which you’ll find in Valdosta, Georgia, y’all.

The centerpiece of our trip was my friend Reaper’s wedding, in which I was a groomsman. Our mutual friend Pooch (who occasionally authors on this very site) was the best man, and served admirably in the role. The whole event was definitely the highlight of our trip, and I again offer my sincere congratulations to Reaper and his wife. The wedding was beyond a doubt one of the nicest I’ve ever seen, and it appears that one could not ask for a happier pair of newlyweds! Everything went smashingly, and I even (not without a mite of embarrassment) worked myself into a Captain Morgan-induced stupor, during which I undoubtedly said numerous idiotic things. But it was a great and memorable time, and I’m glad to have been able to attend. May the bride and groom find many years of happiness ahead of them!

Despite having to work the whole time I was up north, Apple and I got to do almost all of our favorite stuff. We really made good use of our time, enjoying home cooking and great restaurants alike, partaking in the autumn tradition of the Michigan apple cider mill, hanging out with friends, shopping, touring the Ford Rouge plant, and lots of other stuff. The weather was excellent, too, although a little cold on certain days. Above all, it was great having my GTO on hand for the trip, which definitely made going places a lot more fun. Cruising those old familiar roads, including the well-traveled route between my home, Pooch’s house and our high school on dark and chilly evenings, brought back a lot of memories.

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Some Sanity Restored

By Chief Oddball on October 5th, 2007 at 2:10 am

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In the last few days, my crushing burden of side work has largely fallen away. In fact, this whole week has wound up being less hectic, more manageable, yet productive at the same time. And, I’ve had the time — and peace of mind — necessary to accomplish a few personal things on my lengthy list of stuff to get done before our big Road Trip to Motown™, scheduled to kick off in just one more week.

Of my two side jobs, one of them is done, and the money is in the bank. (There will be a little more to do once I get back from my trip, but for now, all is well.) On the other, I’ve gotten completely caught up — and while I haven’t heard back from the client about anything else they might need, I’m in no mood to remind them, if you know what I mean. At my day job, things are proceeding on schedule, and the launch of our redesigned website nears. Things are going well, and there’s just enough work to keep my schedule full for the foreseeable future, without going insane.

So, Apple and I have started making plans and doing prep work in the final days leading up to our trip. Last night I changed the oil in GTO, for example. After entering the work in my maintenance log, I had a chuckle at the realization that although the recommended time interval had gone by, there were probably only about 600-700 miles on the oil I disposed of. Oh well — if it weren’t for our little journey northward, I’d have left it in longer…but I like to start a 3,000 round trip on fresh fluids!

I updated the firmware on our Garmin nüvi GPS, then copied about six hours of audio books to its built-in 700 MB of memory. I also entered some “Favorite Locations” into its address book, including my home in Michigan, the Korean restaurant Apple and I always visit up north, and some other locales. The Garmin has a cool feature whereby you can search for food, shopping, lodging, etc. within the vicinity of any city you choose, so I looked for Asian restaurants around my home in Michigan. I couldn’t believe how many results came back — most of them for Thai restaurants, like a place called “Siam Spicy” near one of our favorite shopping malls. Hmmm, it looks like we might have some more restaurants we can try.

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