Worth Another Look -- Speed Racer

I initially had no interest in seeing the movie version of Speed Racer. I was never into the cartoon and the trailer looked a little bit lame. The Wife got this movie off of Netflix and we both ended up loving it. Just from a visual standpoint, the storytelling is interesting. The wipes and transitions from scene to scene are cool. The car races themselves are, of course, impressive. There are some funny moments to the movie and the overall story is pretty good. We were both really blown away by this movie and if you wrote it off without seeing it like we did, it's worth another look --

Honeymoon Recap Pt. 2

One morning, we went to a talk about shopping in our ports of call. We were excited to hear about what kinds of deals you could get and where the best places to shop were. After 45 minutes, all we heard about was jewelry and shopping at Diamonds International, which is one of their recommended stores. We got up and left. Not everyone there is interested in buying jewelry! Some of us want to know where to get a good deal on a Luchador mask!

There is no dock In the port of Cabo, so the ship anchors off-shore and you take a water taxi into the marina. Our water taxi back to the ship that day was pretty miserable. We sat down in the front row, and behind us there was a girl crying in agonizing pain and clutching her ankle. Sitting to our left was a family of four with a father who was easily 50 years old, but acted like a college class clown douchebag. The girl behind us finally stopped crying once we left the marina, but then her boyfriend started sobbing and biting his arm. I guess he gets really sea sick and his biting was to prevent him from throwing up. I heard her say to someone else, "Well, he already threw up on his shorts once today." Ugh - just all sorts of crazyness going on around us for a miserable ten minute water taxi ride.

Another highlight of the trip was just wandering around the ports. We didn't book any shore excursions, so we'd just get off the ship, head into town and find our way around. It was a lot of fun to get lost and explore these towns. We even stopped in the Super Wal-Mart in Puerto Vallarta just to check it out. On our last day at sea, we signed up for a behind-the-scenes tour of the cruise ship. It's limited to a group of 16, and we got to see the food storage areas, the bridge, behind the scenes of the theater shows, where the crew eats their meals, their laundry operations and where / how they prepare all of that food. It was a little bit pricey but a very fun way to spend 4 hours and get TONS of questions answered.

They had a pretty cool dance club on the ship, too, and I find myself surprised to say this, but I actually had fun dancing. That's probably the first time I've ever said that. The Wife and I signed up for a 6-week dance class coming up in a few weeks here, too. Gotta make up some of those brownie points she earned going to the Star Wars convention a couple of years ago, and who knows, maybe I'll like the class, too!

Honeymoon Recap Pt. 1

For our honeymoon, the Wife and I went on a weeklong Carnival cruise to the Mexican Riviera with stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo san Lucas. We went on this exact cruise 4 years ago with a bunch of friends, so it was nice to take it with only us two. It was a relaxing and fun trip!

Our cruise director this time was not nearly as goofy and fun as last time, which was a bit of a letdown. All of the cruise directors seemed a bit more business-like - hey, I thought Carnival was supposed to be the fun ship! The food on the ship, of course, is really good with the exception of the breakfast buffet, which is average. Dinner in the restaurant every night was sofa king good!!! When we got home, it sunk in that we had to cook for ourselves again. We didn't get to choose from a flat iron steak or spaghetti carbonara or vegetable lasagna each night. So sad. I have to give props to Carnival for having a sugar-free dessert option each night, even if it did get repetitive. For the first four nights, it was sugar-free banana cake, coconut cake, lemon cake and then mango cake. Still, I appreciate the effort.

The shows on the cruise were a little lame, with the exception of comedian Russ Nagel and their pop music singing and dance show called Vroom. They use the same cast the entire week, anchored by a white male singer and an female Asian singer. The first night was some general music show, and the second night was a Latin show. The Wife and I laughed when the white guy came onstage and said in a very Gringo accent, "¡Hola, I'm Cuban Pete! I dance to the conga beat!" Um, no you're not - you're the same white guy from the previous night.

Christmas Gift

We're way past Christmas, but I just wanted to share a photo of what The Wife's Christmas gift to me was. The hoodie fits me way better than it fits this guy in the photo.



It's pretty awesome...though I have yet to wear it out in public.

I think I have the best wife!

'90s Memories - Monster Magnet

Get it on!!!

Reason #39

Presenting reason #39 why I love* my company...

I got a $50 Christmas bonus.

Which was then taxed down to $28.

(* - yes, I'm still being sarcastic)

Reason #62

Presenting reason #62 why I love* my company...

I got paid for 7.8 hours instead of 8 for Christmas Day because they "do a daily average for a period of weeks prior to when you became eligible for holiday pay." Isn't a paid holiday just a paid f**king holiday??? It's f**king Christmas!!!

(* - yes, I'm being sarcastic)

Reason #41

Presenting reason #41 why I love* my company...

Just to give another example of how wacky my workplace is, check out this disclaimer which appears all over our website: "All items may or may not be available at all stores." Is that confusing or is it just me? Wouldn't it be simpler to just say "Not all items available at stores"?

(* - yes, I'm being sarcastic)

'90s Memories - Powderfinger

I've probably listened to this song 18 times in the last three days. It's awesome.

End of the Year Recap

I know we're already more than a week into the new year but is it too late for a 2009 look back...? It is? Too bad.

2009 was a weird year for me. January through April saw me struggle to find a full time job again and balance my schoolwork. I finally landed a job in April although not one I am happy with. It's a very weird thing to work out of obligation instead of choice. If I would have seen the job posting for my current job while I was previously employed, I would have laughed. The work is monotonous and the website is atrocious! Yet...I work there doing stuff I could probably train someone with zero knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite to do. *sigh* It's something I still struggle with.

Part of me feels like I won't feel comfortable until I'm back in a situation / salary as I had at my previous job. And then part of me worries I won't feel that way even if I do get there again.

On the plus side, 2009 was the year I got married!!!! We planned our own wedding and had a reception in my Grandma's backyard. Hopefully it came off as "low key" rather than "cheap" or "ghetto." Because we really did want something low key and wanted to avoid the formulaic country club reception with filet mignon dinner. Not that there's anything wrong with that - there's really not. It was a lot of stress and I think The Wife and I probably got pissed at each other more in the months planning our wedding than at any previous point in our relationship but we're happy with how everything turned out. We were blessed to have so many family members fly out to be there on our special day, and be surrounded by our many local friends and family, too.

Other good news for the year included the birth of another nephew, and getting a Wii for Christmas.

¡Here's to 2010!