Lee and Konlande's Blog

Cozumel 2008

2008-07-13T16:55:00Z

What a blast.

We took everybody and their brother down to the island for a week's stay.

We thought we were booking our trip with the Occidental Allegro. We now know its called the First Choice Holiday Village Whte Sands (The most obnoxious pop comes up that won't let you look at the details... Typical). I see also it goes by Occidental Playacar.

The resort is suffering through an indentiy crisis.

Its changed a lot since we were there two years ago. The primary focus is now on families with small children, and particularly those from the UK. Nothing wrong with that, except that I'm no longer the target audience.

I have three main beefs:

1) The main pool was under construction. Didn't know that in advance and having known this would have impacted our choice. Normally, The divers will come back from the afternoon dives to find our women in the pool, and we'd drink from the swim up bar until it was time to have dinner. Very relaxing way to watch the sun set. We were relegated to the kids pool, which had no swim up bar. We managed to make it work, but it sure would have been nice for the main pool to be open.

2) They built a new water park for the kids. That doesn't sound bad on the surface, but what was bad about it is that there is a loud whistle that blow about ever 15 minutes that can be heard almost to Playa Del Carmen! No need for that whistle to be that loud. And if your on the structure, its damn loud. Possibly loud enough to damage childrens ears.

3) There are different classes of service. In year's past we saw that there was a "fractional ownership" version of the villas. That was fine, because it wasn't all that prominent. But now there is also a roped off section, that is more exclusive. More and more of the resort is being chewed up by this, and I thought it was a bit tacky to have the different classes of service.

The other thing that was odd is that we originally planned on going to the Occidental Grand (a sister resort, walking distance south of the Allegro). We strayed away from the Grand because of reports of people getting sick (presumably from the food). Its so hard to understand the root cause of this, because you don't know if they stayed on the resort or went out... Its kind or hear-say. But we thought we'd play it safe and go to the Allegro (Where we'd been many times with no problems).

Well we had problems this time. Not sure what caused it, but one by one, most of the ladies in our group got sick. The guys seemed to be OK. So I suspect it was something they were eating that the guys weren't. Possibly raw vegetable or fruit? I had a slice of watermelon on a snorkel trip, without incident?!?

Various members of our groups had problems with their rooms. Sherri and I had a problem a hair dryer (more precisely, Sherri did, not me), which we took to the front desk and had replaced. But Sandra and Katie had problems with plumbing, and Kelsey and Alex had a problem with lights. Mom and Dad and Mike and Sharon had TV remote problems.

One of the we liked in the past about the resort is that they have a nice mexican dinner. You have to make reservations. So I thought it would be nice if we all went. My conversation with "Miguel" at the front desk did not go well. First he didn't want to book it, and instead wanted someone from each room to come and book. When I was able to provide room #'s of everyone, he begrudgingly agreed to book the nite. But then we couldn't sit together. They would charge extra for a large party?!? Even though they don't charge extra if the SAME number of people are sitting at seperate tables. Miguel must have gotten tired of arguing with me, because he booked three table for us. It all worked out, except we didn't get to sit together. The food was good, but the net effect was that as one of the trip organizers (and decision makers on where we go...) I was annoyed with my choice a resorts, rather than glad I chose them.

That said, there were many things that were just as expected. The beach, the buffet, breakfast and lunch... The room's bed. All was the same as in the past.

The biggest reason (for me at least) to return to the Allegro/Holiday Village/whatever is the dive shop. Dive Palancar has over the last 8 to 10 years I've been going here, been EXCELLENT! Great boats, short trips to the reef, each dive they negociate with the divers as to which reef to go (instead of going to a set pattern, as some others do). They offer training (onsite, which my nephew Jack did and became certified!). They have gear to rent, and offer air as well as nitrox. Since Ed and I breath at different rates, they offer a 100cf tank, which Ed dives with an 80cf. That keeps me from finishing the dive early. They swap your gear from tank to tank between dives, and are generally very helpful. And I've seen the same dive masters year after year. They KNOW the reefs in the area and can point out the most interesting stuff. Dive master's we dealt with were Pingo, Ismail, William, Lobo and ... I forget. They were all skilled and ready to help even the most novice or infrequent divers (which happened once or twice with people who had not dove recently... Ask Mike if he recalls the inflate vs deflate button on his BC!).

The diving was good. I did 12 dives in 5 days. The reef has made a rebound from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, so that's good. I wouldn't say its 100%, but its going in the right direction. We saw lots of turtles (here, here and here), nurse sharks, Angels (Grey, French, Queen and Rock Beauty) , big parrot fish, big groupers, and so on. The regular fair. We also saw more eels, splendid toadfish, flounder, Sting Rays, Crabs, Arrow Crabs, Spiney Lobsters, and barred black drum (a tiny fish I'd seen on the fish charts but have never seen in any other visit to Cozumel). Ran into some people we've dove with in years past (Dan from New Orleans and Arthur from Spring... I need their email's if anyone has them.). That was fun, and met several new dive buddies (Bubba and Natalie).

The timing was good for seeing turtles. They were laying eggs on the east side of the island. You can see tracks in the sand where the females crawl out of the water and lay eggs. In a couple weeks, the beach should be alive with little tortugas making a mad dash for the water! There was even a nest AT our resort near the dive shop!

Would I go back to Allegro? Maybe, but the Grand is looking more likely. Why? Because is looked more geared toward my preferences, and less towards families with small kids. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against kids... Its just that I hated the whistle ever 15 minutes, and liked the calm tranquillity of the Grand.

I also did three geocache's while on the south end of the island. Launched Scuba Steve a tracking bug to visit as many dive sites as possible. Should be fun watching where he goes.

We took a trip to Playa Del Carmen one evening, and had a nice dinner at a resuraunt called La PalapaHemingway. Mom and I had the fresh grilled snapper, which was served head-on. That bother'ed Sherri quite a bit. Taste the same to me! They served a fresh guacamole prepared at the table that was a hit with everyone. All in all I thought it was a good dinner! We sat upstair, which was open to see the street below. So we watched the sun go down and lights come on beneath us.

And finally we chartered a boat (the ProDive III) from Dive Palancar and took the entire group on a snorkel trip. All 13 of us on a charter boat, hopped into the water at three different spots (Columbia Shallow, Hollywood and Palancar shallow). We saw turtles, starfish, eels, and any number of fish.

That's my thoughts... What did you guys think?

GC1E3X6 - Cinco Ranch Song Series BONUS Travel Bug Hotel

2008-07-12T19:56:00Z

Cinco Ranch Song Series BONUS Travel Bug Hotel

Here's the audio clue:

This series has two agendas...

First, to show a nice walk/bike trail in the west end of Cinco Ranch.

This trail is new, and the vegetation is not fully grown, and there are some spots I have planned, I can't put out yet due to construction.

Second, to share some of my favorite songs.

For the most part, Houston radio stations don't play the music I listen to. I find most people who listen to these songs have a similar reaction... And that is: Hey, Where did you find this music, its great! So this is my effort to share with as many people as possible.

N  HG AH.GGB
W 0GD AI.FFB

The following table may help in sorting out the details:

Clip	Artist	CRSS #
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I

To help you here are the links to each of the series:

CincoRanch Song Series #1    CincoRanch Song Series #2    CincoRanch Song Series #3
CincoRanch Song Series #4    CincoRanch Song Series #5    CincoRanch Song Series #6
CincoRanch Song Series #7    CincoRanch Song Series #8    CincoRanch Song Series #9

If you've found this and have no idea what I'm talking about here, check out Geocaching!

Herding cats to Cozumel

2008-05-08T00:33:00Z

Sherri and I have booked our trip to Cozumel.
We'd love to have you guys come. The more the merrier.

We've decided to go back to the hotel we've stayed at in the past...
The Occidetnal Allegro.

Here are pics from our trip in 2006 or 2004 or even 1999.
(2002 we went to Cozumel, but at a different hotel)

As you can see, we do a lot of beach and water activities. Scuba and Snorking are high on our list of favorites. The diving in Cozumel is the most relaxing I've ever done as its drift diving. No swimming, just hop in, and the current takes you down the reef. If you aren't certified as a scuba diver, now is the time!

The girls tend to hang out at the beach, and then there's the swim up bar in the pool. Did I mention that the All Inclusive hotel also includes alcohol?

We've also done day trips to the mainland to see Chichen Itza, Tulum and Coba.
(Not to mention a shopping in Playa Del Carmen)

Everyone will need a passport for Cozumel!

We booked the trip out of:
SIENNA TRAVEL DIANE TAYLOR siennatravel@entouch.net
9711 CHRIESMAN WAY
MISSOURI CITY, TX 77459
281 778-9707 Phone
       281 778-9701 Fax

We've used Diane for many years and have never had a problem. Contact her and tell her you want to go the same time as us. We'll have a BLAST!

Trip Details:

For two persons $2,698.48
SUNDAY, JUNE 29 2008 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES HOUSTON GEO BUSH  to COZUMEL
Flight:1696 Class:I Departs 0905AM Arrives 1122AM

SUNDAY, JULY 06 2008 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES COZUMEL  to HOUSTON GEO BUSH
Flight:1698 Class:O Departs 1217PM Arrives 0237PM

Room Category: Superior
Room Type: 1 DOUBLE
Meal Plan: All-Inclusive Plan
Tourism Tax per day 2.000% Per room Included

Chicago!

2008-05-07T11:21:00Z

We made a trip to Chicago last weekend!

We walked everywhere, found as many squished pennies as we could for Sherri and otherwise took about 1 gig of pictures! (I've culled them down to the best 400 or so...). ChicagoC_XXX were taken by my camera, and ChicagoE_XXX were taken by Ed camera

Want to see? Click here

We visited the Billy Goat Tavern, Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Pizzeria Uno, The Sears Tower, Navy Pier, The Magnificent Mile, Lou Malnati's The House of Blues, and Blue Chicago.

What a trip.

Mike Quinn shows you how to make a Rhino

2008-04-07T03:15:00Z

Remeber Mike's Cow at the 2008 HLSR BBQ Cookoff that he did for Holy Cow Cookers? He sold it in Dallas at the Deep Ellum Art Festival this weekend. We bought a new turtle as well. Mike was filmed for an HGTV show... Its not aired yet. Can't wait to see if. Until then, we'll just have to do with this:

Missing Miss Molly

2008-04-07T03:10:00Z

Who misses Miss Molly? I do. So does this guy

BTW, her name is Molly Elswick. Who knew?!?

The last I recall seeing her was her bachelor-ette party at the Fabulous Satellite Lounge

She married one of the bar tenders. The wedding didn't last, and she's divorced.

I keep hearing she's playing. Somewhere in Conroe soon. It would make sense as she's supposedly living in the area. I can't seem to find the details though.

I wonder why she dropped off the map. The answer might be here.

Geocaching anyone?

2007-11-20T02:41:00Z

Ever heard of geocaching?

The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

My highschool buddy Dave Brennan had emailed a while back regarding this, and asked me this weekend, if I had ever got started. I have a GPS device ( Magellan Blazer12 which I don't recommend, as it is old and not as accurate as modern devices ) we bought for Sherri's father over 10 years ago, and have been interested geocaching, but never got off my duff to do it. Well, this weekend I got off my duff.

Dave sent me a link to a cache near us...
Sherri and I got a late run at it, but we ended up finding it. Click here for pics
We found the container which had several trinkets and a log (which we signed).

After doing some checking, it appears there is a cache on Ed & Heather's street!
Sort of. N 29° 54.169 W 095° 38.755

Here is its description:
The coordinates listed above will put you in the right area of town, but not within reasonable walking distance of the cache itself. In order to find this cache, you must first find three hidden "triplet" microcaches:

Mother's Day Baby: Cinco
Mother's Day Baby: Dee
Mother's Day Baby: Mayo

The triplets hold the secret coordinates that are the "key" to unlocking the secret hiding place of their kidnapper, the EVIL MICRO. The EVIL MICRO's Hideout contains several large safety pins on which to display the pink, blue, and green beads found at the triplets' microcaches.

Ed: Interested in finding it?

2007 HAAG Expo

2007-11-20T02:40:42Z

I've been to this for the last several years.
Many of you grew up during the golden age of coin-op games.
This show will essentially recreate the atmosphere of the game room.
They are also talking about bringing in consoles (like the Atari 2600 and so on) as a contrast.

Details here: Houston Arcade Expo
Houston Area Arcade Group
November 30-December 1, 2007

The Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their 6th Annual Arcade Expo on November 30th and December 1st at the Houston Grand Plaza Hotel.

Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 150 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play! You can also participate in arcade and pinball tournaments, win door prizes, try your luck at a game raffle, and partake in the full bar. There aren't many opportunities to enjoy large collections of classic arcade games, so if you are in the Houston area (or can get there!), you should be at this expo!
Tickets: Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 150 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play!

Dates: November 30-December 1, 2007
Times: Friday 6pm to 2am Saturday 10am to 2am
Houston Grand Plaza Hotel 8686 Kirby Drive Houston, TX 77054 713-748-3221

Cactus Music & Video returns!

2007-11-15T02:40:00Z

Catcus ~~Records and tapes~~ Music and Video closed shop March 31st 2006.
I used this event as one of the first topics on this blog.

Catctus is re-opening!

Its new location is 2110 Portsmouth, across the street from the Stag's Head Pub in Shepherd Plaza.
The phone number is the same as it was: 713-526-9272.

Here's what the Houston Press says about it.

I hope we haven't missed this (like I needed a reason to go visit)

What is its website? I thought it was this, but its not. It might end up being this.
I can't tell if this is real or someone posing as them.

If I had a tail, I'd wag it!

San Antonio Oct 2007

2007-10-29T01:39:00Z

Made a trip to San Antonio this weekend with Ed and Heather.
We had no reason or agenda in going.
Weather was wonderful.
Want to see? Click here These were my pics, Ed has some as well.
We hung out a bit at the Pat O'Brien's (since we were there at the original two weeks ago).
There was a bunch of TCU frat/sorority people there. They were stereo types of themselves.
From there we went down to the river walk for dinner (we called Alex, and tried to call Kelsey), and the "Parade of Coffins". With Dia De Los Muertos coming up, several decorated boats came down the river, with decorated coffins and people.
After that it was Dicks Last Resort, then to a club where the girls wanted to dance.
Ed and I watched them.

The next day a bit of shopping in La Villita, and to Market square were we found another Day of the Dead dance/celebration going on.

All in all, we had fun.

OMG stop strangling the catz!!

2007-10-20T14:03:46Z

Luke sends the following:

Date sent: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:25:17 -0500
From: "Luke Gilliam"
Subject: OMG stop strangling the catz!!

Sounds like a fight at the car stereo store.

Ring Tones?

2007-10-03T21:30:48Z

Heather has a new ~~blackberry~~ Blackberry with setable ringtones.
What would you like your ring tone to be when you call her?
And best of all..What do you think should be everyone else's ring tone be?

CSFFL 2007

2007-08-28T01:52:00Z

The Criff & Scoorter Fantasy Football League is about to kick off!

This will be our 12th year. I can't believe it.

To help things along, I've added the CSFFL Podcast to help explain things to our newbie team owners.

The short podcast mentions two locations, to save you from having to write them down I've included the links here:

Click here for the 2007 CSFFL League Page. This is where you will check on your team, standings and such.
You'll submit lineups and generally manage your team from this page.

Click here for the CSFFL Email List. This is the email list where we send messages concerning the league. This is where questions are asked and answered. Also there's a fair amount of smack thrown around, so put your big girl panties on and join us. There's a lot of info here to review from past years.

And finally, check out the Podcast to hear more!

What we did Sunday

2007-08-27T02:19:36Z

Ed Writes:

http://www.leekon.net/konlande/nascar/

He went to the Texas Motor Speeday

Rev up your motor by taking a ride in a real NASCAR NEXTEL stock car. Texas Motor Speedway, along with Team Texas High Performance Driving School, will be giving race car rides around The Great American Speedway Saturday, November 3 from 7-10 p.m. Cost for this experience of a lifetime is $150 per person. For more information or to reserve your ride, call (817) 215-8593. A limited number of tickets are available. Schedule and weather permitting. Must be 16 years of age or older to participate.

So Ed,
How was it?

GoDaddy?

2007-08-14T12:42:00Z

Time to renew our hosting provider.

What do you think? Like the web interface to email?
How about the blog?

They have added "Podcast" capabilities, which I will experiment with soon.

Want me to look elsewhere?

Let's talk about Ducks

2007-07-22T18:32:00Z

This last Saturday, Sherri and I went into town. And as we often do, we drove up the Westpark Tollway. Just past the Barker Cypress exit, I noticed a pair of ducks walking on the inside barrier, and in tow, they had about a dozen little ducklings. The ducklings were following closely behind the adults and up as close as they could get to the barrier. As each car flew past, I'm sure the ducks were blown around.

I realized immediately that they were in big trouble because there is no break in that barrier, and in order to get out of the situation they would need to lead their ducklings across several lanes of high speed traffic. They would either dehydrate due to being on the hot concrete, or get run over.

There's no way this story was going to end well.

I pulled over and tried to figure out a way help. I got a blanket out of the back of the car, thinking that I could catch the mother and the babies would follow. That might have worked, but as I approached them, they turned and went away from me. I was afraid that if I were to rush them, they would scramble into traffic.

Cars were buzzing by at 70mph (and faster). Really this was not going to end well.

About this time, another call pulled up and I got help. Henry Nichols's stopped because his wife was driving and she was in an absolute panic over the scene. She immediately got on the phone and called anyone she could reach. There were problems with conflicting jurisdiction issues on who should be in charge.

We ended up flanking the duck from the front and behind, which forced them into the street. But because I had help from Sherri and Henry, I was able to flag down oncoming traffic while forcing the ducks to cross the street.

The male went into attack mode and went after Henry, while the Mother made her way across and the little ducklings dutifully followed. I made sure the cars were help in check, and Sherri and Henry kept the ducks heading the correct direction.

Half way to safety! Now the feeder.

The Mother duck hopped the curb and most of the babies followed, some didn't make it, and followed the curb. We had to flank them and help them over the curb. All this while traffic was waiting. It was pure chaos, with the lives of these ducks on the line.

How many times have you sped past a turtle or other animal only to make the same trip to see the carcass? I drive past this area all the time, and didn't want to see that. So I figured I'd try to help. We were able to get the all the ducklings out of the tollway and into the field.

Somedays things just end up working out as they should!

St Thomas 2007

2007-07-02T01:49:00Z

Finally!!! We're here, and here's the first day of pictures.

You wouldn't believe what it took to get here.
First, I closed a taxi door on Heather's hand! (OUCH) Luckily she had a ring on that more or less protectoed her, but I felt horrible for the accident.
Flight delayed out of Ft Lauderdale, causing us to miss our connecting flight in San Juan Puerto Rico.
So we had to spend the nigth at a Best Western.
When we finally get to San Juan, my new Verizon Blackberry goes belly up (with "Device Erro 348").
(( I've just deployed 60+ of these at work, not a good start!))
We had the first flight out of San Juan to St Thomas this morning.
Budget Rental car had given up our VAN (becuase we missed our flight).
So we had to get TWO cars.
Then we find out that Sherri has lost her phone.

One ordeal after another.

The saving grace is that this place (Villa Gardenia) is a FREAKING Paradise. Its H U G E.

Ed, Alex and I did a shallow water dive (50 mintues down time) at a place called McArches.
We cooked Chicken on the outdoor grill near the pool, and watched the clouds float by tonight.

Lets hope the drama is finished, and we are in store for more of what this beautiful Island has to offer.

We'll follow up in the comments as the days go by.

That's No Moon

2007-06-12T02:58:00Z

FINALLY, it arrived. Long story short, I had to sell my Impala (on Ebay), collect the money, decide what make and model. When I found what I wanted, I then had to find out where I could buy it. Fry's had it but they couldn't be bothered to close the deal. Found it online for $600 less. The catch is (was!) that they seller wasn't all that convienent. Order placed on the 19th, Deliver was scheduled from 11 to 4pm, and it arrived today at 9pm.

A qucik reconfig of my cable box, and I'm up and running.

P.S.
Scooter: Thanks for the correction on the quote!

Quick links regarding our upcoming vacation

2007-06-08T20:52:00Z

Click here for a countdown clock. Put in June 30th, 7:20am and you will have a countdown clock!

Info regarding St Thomas (including a webcam)

Diving - St Thomas: Here and here

Diving - St. John: here
Diving - St. Croix: here

Paradise Point, St. Thomas: (with another webcam) We should do this Wednesday Night.

Maps: of the Virgin Islands and of St Thomas showing where Villa Gardenia is located

Ferry info: here

Cruise ship schedule: here note this data is from 2006, may not be accurate now.

Conceirge: Katie Hadley

Toll Free: 877.953.7400 ext 265

Facsimile: 514.908.8904

Overseas: 514.393.3003 ext 265

www.caribbeanway.com

www.luxuryretreats.com

Frances Faulkner

2007-05-30T08:49:00Z

Frances Faulkner passed away last night. She was 89 years old.

She was the strongest woman I've ever met. She lived past several strokes and at least one heart attack. I can't imagine strength like this. What a blessing it was that she went in her sleep.

She was always social. Everywhere she went, she ended up in the middle of everything. In the later years of her life, we used to laugh as she played bingo in the nursing home. She would win more often than not. I think she liked winning as much as getting the prize. God bless that man who called Bingo in the Nursing home, truly he is a angel that walks on this earth.

She was at home in the kitchen. With all due respect to my Mom and my fair bride, I've never met anyone more comfortable in the kitchen. It was where she "held court". Even when it wasn't her kitchen! At Floyd's Ice house , she ended up in the kitchen as much as at a bar stool.

I was always afraid to eat shrimp from her Fridge. You never knew if it was for eating or fishing. That's not true. It was always for eating, just that she would give it up for fishing anytime. At least for her grandkids and great grandkids.

One of my fondest memories was being over at her house, sitting on a couch, with her and my Mom. I was sitting next to her, and she was running her hand through my hair. She and Mom were talking about my hair as if I wasn't there. I'm not sure why that moment sticks with me, except that it was one of unhurried joy. The moment hung in the air and lingered.

I have her with me, always. For my graduation from college, she gave me a diamond to put in my Aggie ring. It was her Mother's wedding diamond. This is how I will remember her, and keep her close to me at all time.