Whilst I still have the ambition to do so I thought it only fair to AT LEAST show the new rims El bought me for my Valentine's Day gift.
Ever since I left SC and my previous incarnation I was addicted to car customization thanks to some friends from back in the day, Mark Montemayor and Jeremy Espiritu. I don't drop huge amounts of cash into my cars like I used to, although I still enjoy installing my own stuff. I don't "Pimp My Ride" with chrome and fat body kits and shit, but rather like to upgrade minor details to make our travel a little more interesting. I have to credit just about every cosmetic accessory to El who maintains my juvenile addiction.
I chose this style simply because it looked kinda stock, but not overly showy. It was between these and the gold 200 spoke Diamondwire rims with spinners.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Thrillseekers
This weekend was incredibly beautiful again. We decided to do another trip of deep sea fishing with The Double Eagle II out in Clearwater Beach. Last time we went we had a great time, although it seemed short to us. This time around we thought we'd try the full day trip that takes us 35 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. Grouper and Sea Bass were supposed to be in their mating season and action was supposed to be good. Welp we woke up late and ended up settling for a half day excursion (15 miles out), but missed the charter by a half hour - that damn construction out in Tampa! Instead of wasting time in Clearwater doing nothing I bought us two tickets on the Thriller, a high speed Catamaran/Speedboat that tours around the Clearwater Beach area. We had a full load and the guide did a great job of entertaining and supplying us with plenty of information of what movie stars had homes where and basic history of the area. But the most thrilling part had to be when we went dolphin hunting. Not only did we find several pods, but they joined alongside us playing while we sped around the water. I've seen plenty of dolphins up close at Seaworld, but never like this. Literally, the dolphins were keeping up with the boat not even a foot away leaping and playing with us. Incredible. Eventhough we didn't get to do what we planned originally we still had a great time. We didn't feel so bad afterwards when we went to the dock to see what people had hauled in from the full day excursion with Double Eagle and saw that they didn't bring in as much as I thought they would. We plan on making up for it next weekend and may even be joined by Chris and Joy who sounded interested in trying it out.
Happy Valentine's Day!
For my Valentine's Day gift to Eleanor I decided to surprise her with a stay at Disney's Grand Floridian resort. We'd always talked about never having been to any Disney resort and wondering what it was like. So I planned a month ahead and made reservations for a brief stay, spend the day at Animal Kingdom and then dinner at Narcoossee's Seafood for a fireworks display over Magic Kingdom. It was a beautiful clear day and NO LINES at the theme park. So what did Eleanor get me? Something to pimp my ride...rims for the Eclipse Convertible. The whip definitely looks better with the new shoes on.
Upon arrival at The Grand Floridian resort at Disney we were shocked at how beautiful the property was. Not what I expected at all from Disney. I imagined Disney characters running around and Disney music piped in everywhere. But it wasn't like that. It actually reminded me of the Biltmore resort in Clearwater stylewise Eleanor and I had stayed once a couple of years ago. A monorail ran thru the hotel that led to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We were able to do an early check-in (the website said 3:00pm) which was nice so we could drop off our bags and go to Animal Kingdom for the day. Everything kicked off to a great start.
The hotel staff was very pleasant and quick. The restaurant staff, however, was another story. El and I came up with the new term for insincerely nice servers and hosts - Splenda - as in "she has a Splenda smile" or artificially sweet. We had lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe which was a foreshadowing of the dinner's experience later on.
I made dinner reservations for Narcoossee's Seafood when I made the reservations for the suite a month prior. The biggest selling point for choosing this as the Valentine's dinner spot was that it sat on the lagoon beyond Magic Kingdom and it was a fantastic view of the fireworks display. The Disney property is fantastic, but the service and care of the customers was probably one of the worst I have ever experienced. Not only did we not get the window seat I requested a month back, but also that our dinner reservation for 9:00 pm was forced back by terrible planning of management by about 50 minutes. Service was slo-o-ow by an apathetic staff and as much cash as I dropped for this resort I'd give it a 5 out of 10 overall.
Friday, February 04, 2005
The Golf Channel Turns 10!
Me and El at my job's 10 Year Anniversary Party was held at The Renaissance at SeaWorld. Despite the cold weather the party was nice. It was amazing in the 4+ years at TGC I still don't know half the people there. It was a pretty big to-do and everyone got dressed sharp for the evening. A nice little gift for everyone ended up being an Olympus digital camera for all the employees. Cool.
And we thought it was gonna be Hootie & The Blowfish
Surprise! Surprise! We knew that there was going to be live band playing at the shindig, but who-da-thunk-it? Huey Lewis & The News! Back from their tour at South Dakota's Play It Again! Sports Grand Opening across from the Twin Rivers Shopping Mall! Seriously, they got the crowd moving. The party was nicely done - great food, plenty of booze.
I Want A New Drug.
For a group that's been out of the limelight for maybe 10+ years they still sounded pretty good. They played a good chunk of their hits from their 80's heydays.
Ron visits
My brother-in-law came into town for an exhibit that he designed featured at the 2005 Builder's Conference (Dow). After his work-related issues were taken care of it was a leisurely visit. We missed him during El's birthday party, but we more than made up for it by taking him downtown on a Thursday night for some boozing (he puked) and the next day to GATORLAND! He'd been wanting to see this world famous attraction the last time he was down. I'm sure El was glad to see him since he moved to Las Vegas for work.
Gatorland was surprisingly interesting considering how close it was to our house (about 10 minutes). Why bother driving 6 hours to the Everglades when everything is so close to home. When we took my parents out to the 'Glades awhile back the airboat tour wasn't even as good as the one near our home (another 15 minute drive).
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