Half Moon Cay

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

Today we will visit our Second Port of Call, but this is my favorite port of call that we visit. Probably my most favorite place I have ever been to in the world. Today is Half Moon Cay, Carnival's Private Island that they own.

We'll tender onto the island this morning and spend the day on the Island. They will have a nice big feast for us on the island. We'll be snorkeling once again in the morning and chasing wild chickens in the afternoon.

Grand Turk

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

Today we will enter our first Port of Call which is Grand Turk. We should be pulling into port about 7:30 or so, and it's always a whole lot of fun seeing all the natives our there waiting for us to arrive. It is my second favorite port of call.

Our agenda for the day will include snorkeling and going to Jacks Shack to eat some Conch and play with Topher, the worlds coolest dog. A trip to Margarittaville's giftshop might also be on the agenda, we've eaten there a couple of times but Jacks is this awesome little hole in the wall that everyone tends to go to.

Second Day at Sea

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

Well tonight will be the first formal night, this will be the night that we dress up and get our formal pictures taken like this one. It's also the night when you can order as much lobster and prime rib as your hear desires in the main dining room. It is a formal night, meaning you need to dress up. It is one of the funnest nights on the cruise as everyone is dressed up like we're someone important...lol

Once again there is significant entertainment, comedians, gambling and just about anything you want to get into on days at sea. We will start hitting our three ports of call starting tomorrow, so we'll be relaxing today and getting a good nights sleep. Maybe even go get a late night pizza later (and ice cream).

First Day at Sea

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

Well we are in the Atlantic Ocean now and will be heading towards Grand Turk, sometime this morning or afternoon we will clear the shelf and be in about 20,000+' of Ocean. When we get past Cape Hatteras the Ocean will turn such a pretty and innocent shade of blue.

Days like this are when there are a lot of activities scheduled on the ship. Entertainment, gambling, eating or just laying by the pool and relaxing could very well be on the days agenda. It's our first full day at sea and we will have another one tomorrow, it could be a getting to know people day. We're already quite familiar with the ship.

Embarkation Day

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

This is the one of the longest days of the cruise, the other being when we get off. We're scheduled to arrive at the Port of Baltimore at around 1:30 for our Embarkation. We do not have Faster to the Fun this year so we will have to wait with everyone else, but I'm hearing it's a smooth process or so we hope.

At about 4:00 we will do our mandatory Muster Drill where everyone goes to their muster station for instructions in case we have problems at sea and hit an iceberg. They walk through everything like the safety flotation device and how to use it, and about everything you will need to know if there are problems.

We'll hopefully meet a new set of dinner guests this evening, we have remained friends with each and every couple we have dined with on every cruise. Looking forward to making new friends.

Off to Baltimore

As Michelle and I are off for a weeks vacation cruising in the Atlantic Ocean I'm going to write a series of absentee blog posts relevant to what we are doing that day. There are two deck cams on the Pride, the Bridge and the Aft where you can watch to see if you see us. Watch the Forward Cam as that is where the ice cream machines are that I tend to find.

Well today starts our vacation, Michelle and I will be traveling to Baltimore this evening and having dinner with some good friends, people who we have previously cruised with and have maintained friendships beyond the Carnival Pride. Gone is our friend Cheryl. but she will never be forgotten.

We'll be staying at the Holiday Inn at the Inner Harbor, we have stayed here for three of our five cruises to date (make this 4 out of 6) and we really like this hotel. It's just a walk to the inner harbor and just right across the street from the convention center.

We'll be leaving Morgantown this morning and tonight, tonight my pee will be going to the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Mississippi River.

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Looking for a little High School Football action? Morgantown High is once again on the road this week (three weeks in a row) when they travel to Brooke. University High is home and plays host to Wheeling Park and Clay Battelle is on the road and will take on Valley (Wetzel). You can check and see the scores from this evening on the WV Metronews High School Scoreboard. 

Well the big news is this is my last day of work before I start my vacation. Starting tomorrow and up until the 23rd, all of my blogs have been pre-written to cover our cruise and where we are at and what we are going to be doing that day. I will have Facebook available to me at Sea and will be posting most of my pictures on that platform.

Have yourselves a great day and let's get this day started.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through some of the pictures that I have either taken, scanned or stolen off of the internet through the years and find one special picture that stands out. Little lost moments in time from yesterday caught with a Cameras lens and relived right here in my blog. Sometimes it's pretty easy to find that one special picture and sometimes it's not that easy, one thing it consistently is however is a whole lot of fun.

You don't think I'm trying to say anything with this weeks pic you aren't paying attention. This weeks pic is from I think the last formal night from our last cruise, but it could have been the second formal night I would have to look and see if this was the tie I wore in our pictures to determine which night it was.

It's a picture of me in our cabin (check out that view) just getting ready to go down and have dinner. We grabbed a few pictures in the room with the ocean in the background. I have a similar picture that I use for my profile at work. There is just something to be said about the peace and serenity of being out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Have yourselves a great day today, I know I am.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well that is two days down, two more ahead of us and that just means that we need to get up and over this noon time hump before it's all downhill as we work towards another fun filled weekend and in our case the start of our VACATION!!!!!

I have to say my niece Amy and her Husband Ralphie have got to be two of the luckiest people I have ever met in my life. She always seems to win half the prizes at all the the lantern launches and it got to the point I told her I was taking her down this year. I think she won 6 prizes to my big ole goose egg other than the one I won online probably because I was the only one who participated.

I guess last weekend Amy won a couple tickets to the WVU Football game and she went. Pretty remarkable right? Why the picture in my post and what is its significance? Ralphie was entered in a high stakes gun bash and I'll be damned if he didn't win the Grand Prize, a 2018 Dodge Ram. I swear I should take her to Las Vegas with me next month, we would both come home rich...lol. Me, I'll probably lose $20 or so when I'm out there, her on the other hand. Have you ever seen the Vegas Vacation movie with Chevy Chase? I think she would give the Rusty character a real run for his money. Everyone would have a new car...lol

I told her she needs to write a book on winning, it would probably be a million seller as there are a bunch of desperate and gullible people out there who would part with a few bucks to buy it if they thought it gave them any chance of winning at all.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho

14 years ago

It was 14 years ago today, at the very moment that this is posting, that something happened in my life that forever changed and shaped it. It was just just something that someone had said the night before and a project I was wanting to do that everything just kind of unknowingly came together. I posted my very first blog and I'm still on the same site and 5,375 blog  posts later I'm still sitting here doing it and doing it on a daily basis and I've probably been doing it daily since 2006.

I have covered a lot since my blog started. I was working at the NRAC just after graduation when I started to write it. Someone had made a statement of "I'm a Grogger not a Blogger" and I know what a grogger was (beer drinker) but I didn't know what a blogger was. Turned out it's a web log or an online journal (hence the name) that one could capture and share their thoughts with others on the internet.

My blog has reported births, marriages, graduations, deaths, career changes, TV shows, parties, trips and vacations, softball, wvu athletics, finding lost siblings and the search associated with it as well as a number of other topics too numerous to mention.

It just goes to show you that any little thing that you do in your life could be a tiny seed. A seed that grows into something much bigger than you ever anticipated. Did I think I would still be writing this on a daily basis 14 years later? Well the obvious answer to that is a resounding no. But what I did do is create a pretty thorough document that has covered the events of my life. It has been a pain in the butt at times, and it has turned out to be a very valuable piece of documentation of my life with the time stamps to go along with it.

Here is to the next 14 years of blogging, I'll keep writing if you keep reading. 

Ok Lets get this work week over

It's the hardest work week of the year and it starts today for both Michelle and I. It's the week you work right before your big planned vacation. Considering we had to cancel our cruise last year, this week has been two years in the making.

To say that I'm already in vacation mode is an understatement, I do have a couple of important meetings this week and have finalized everything for my new GPS system at work as that purchase is ready to be made. Funny thing how Government contracts work, I got three quotes from three regional authorized dealers for what we are wanting and then it had to be put out for bid since it will be Government Property. Would you believe there was only one bid and it came in significantly higher than any of the resellers. Now of course the bidder is the actual manufacturer and the difference was the cost of a two day on site training session. I'm just happy to be getting this ultra precise piece of equipment.

I do have a couple of meetings this week, I am now on the Morale Subcommittee for the site and we are having our initial meeting today. We're going to see if we can make work life just a little better for the site. We already have a state of the art fitness facility (that I never seem to use anymore) and a fitness trail, but you can always make things a little better and that is going to be our focus.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho

Sunday

Here I sit on a semi quiet Sunday Morning, I'm up a little later than usual and I've got the movie avatar on in the background. I'm waking up and collecting my thoughts for the day.

The Mountaineers ran their season record to 2-0 with a 52-17 win against Youngstown State last night here in Morgantown. It was a rain filled game where the Mountaineers seemed like they were more set out to work on certain aspects of their game (running game specifically) than they had the previous week. The passing game has a first team pre-season All American QB and WR so we already know what they can do. Freshman Leddie Brown led the rushing effort with his first 100+ yard game but we had used a platoon of 4 backs on the day.

The NFL starts today when the Pittsburgh Steelers visit the Cleveland Browns at 1:00. Then Steelers will be without the services of star running back Le'veon Bell who is holding out in a contract dispute, that little move is costing him a mere $853,000 just for missing today's game. I don't know where he is getting his advice from, but it's not a wise move.

Mine and Michelles plans for the day include us doing our shopping for the week and I think Michelle is going to go to the vet to work. I'll be doing finances and paying bills and starting to pack for next week.

Have yourselves a great day.

Saturday Morning Rambling

Here I sit on a quiet Saturday Morning, I'm up early watching the movie Jobs and collecting my thoughts for the day. Michelle is back up home as her Grandmother is in the Hospital and she stayed up there last night. I'm here holding down the fort and partying with the cats.

Anything happening here today in Morgantown, well the West Virginia University Mountaineers open their home football slate today with a game against the Youngstown State Penguins. Coming off last weeks opening week win against Tennessee the Mountaineers look to go to 2-0 this evening. The game is at 6:30 this evening, so this town is going to be a little crazy around town today.

I did get a little news, we are cruising next week and this is the week we traditionally take, but they were going to go to Bermuda but they changed their itinerary and will be heading to the Eastern Caribbean instead of going to Bermuda. We have some friends that will be on the ship this week and will be affected by this change.

I'll be holding down the household today, might go out briefly to do a little field work later this morning, but I doubt it will be that successful all things considered. It's more of a formality that productivity.

Have yourselves a great day. 

Big Ole Hairy Friday

Yes it is once again that time of the week that we all look foreword to, when we can take time to cease the labors for the week and take a little bit of needed time out to enjoy the fruits of those labors. It is once again the dawn of another weekend and a Big Ole Hairy Friday.

Looking for some High School Football action? Well the Morgantown Mohigans are once again on the road as they travel to Fort Hill, Md. to take on Fort Hill. University High plays host to Brooke  and Clay Battelle is off this week and travels to Valley (Wetzel) next week. You can keep track of all the scores on the WVMetroNews High School Scoreboard.

I did get a little news yesterday about me working for RTI, I have been working for a company called MyHeadway who is contracted through RTI, but I work as RTI. As of January 1st, I am officially an RTI  employee as well as my primary career job working for AECOM. My tenure with Headway will carry over to RTI, it's just a simple matter of the prime wanting a bigger piece of the pie as they are the Prime on the NSDUH Contract.

One week from today I will be a very happy camper, next week is the week before my vacation and next Friday I will be packing to go on my cruise with Michelle. Yeah Us.

Have yourselves a great day.

Hi ho hi ho

Photo Flashback Thursday

Once a week I like to take a little bit of time out and look through some of the pictures that I have either taken, scanned or stolen off of the internet through the years and find one special picture that stands out. Little lost moments in time from yesterday caught with a Cameras lens and relived right here in my blog. Sometimes it's pretty easy to find that one special picture and sometimes it's not that easy, one thing it consistently is however is a whole lot of fun.

This weeks picture is kind of a prequel as to what we are going to be doing in less than two weeks. This was taken from our 2016 vacation pics when we were at Grand Turk. The fun loving puppy you see in the picture is none other than the world famous Topher, arguably the dog with the best life in the the entire world.

Topher will have a new fiend this year named Calypso that we have not met yet, but this dog here dives into the ocean, digs into the beaches and pretty much has dreadlocks as he is the original Party Animal.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho

Hump Day

Well we are already at Wednesday, so I guess that still means that when we approach the noon time hour it will be all downhill working towards another fun filled weekend. Something tells me next week will not be this smooth as we are awaiting vacation.

There is some good news to report, I do now finally and officially have all of my Vacation Blogs written. Everything from Saturday the 15th clear through Monday the 24th has been pre-written so that my blog does in fact post every day. They will post around 6:00 AM each day of the cruise. On the cruise we have a Social Media Internet Package so we will be posting many of our vacation pictures to Facebook and possibly doing a little live streaming from the ship.

My quarter for RTI has wound down, I may go out once or twice more before we leave, but that all depends at this point. I'm just ready to begin another quarter and get started again. I'm not sure where I will be working this coming quarter, but something tells me it will be closer than the last couple of years when I was going from Fairview to Terra Alta.

Have yourselves a great day today, change the world.

Hi ho hi ho

Tuesday's Tidbits

*  Holiday weekend is now in our rear view mirrors, time to start concentrating on starting the new work week, still sounds like a good reason to do a tidbits.

* It has been 20,002 days since my reported birth, by my calculation and using my patented 938 day calendar, that should make me 21 years old by my calculations or 54 by these old antiquated calendar's. Woo Hoo I topped the 20,000 plateau

* It has been 5,217 days since I graduated from WVU, a very proud moment in my life.

* 3,832 days ago Michelle and I went out for dinner and a movie, the night my changed for the better forever.

* 3,049 days ago I got down on one knee and proposed to Michelle, 4:00 in the morning right in the back yard.

* It was 2,579 days ago in front of our closest friends and family, Michelle and I became husband and wife.

* I have now lived 212 days longer than my Dad did, makes you think about how his life was too short.

* I have 4,837 days to go until I retire, give or take a few hundred days here or there, or at least start doing something else with my life other than working.

* The next Backyard brawl where we beat Pitt's ass in Football is only 1,474 days away. The Mountaineers beat Tennessee's butt this past weekend.

* There are 336 more days to go until Michelle and I celebrate our Eighth Wedding Anniversary together. We've been together about 10 1/2.

* There are 211 days until the next start of my favorite season, Spring 2019. Although I am happy that Football season is getting here.

* 158 more days until Groundhog Day, Phil has still been hanging around eating our Apples. I'm even tossing him some of my red delicious for him to eat.

* 118 more days to go until my Goodbye 2018 Blog is posted, the blog that is my last blog of the year and recaps the previous year.

* There are 111 more shopping days left until Christmas. It's time to start planning. Walmart has their Halloween stuff out already.

* My next Anniversary of my 21st Birthday will be in 88 more days. I think this will be the 34th anniversary of that birthday using the antiquated calendar that most people use.

* 12 days away from our next cruise. We are once again on the Pride heading to the Caribbean. There are two cameras, the Foreward  and the Aft where you can see what is going on on the ship. You can watch all of our wacky adventures and see if they catch me streaking around the ship!

* I have written 5,368 blogs in what is now my almost 14 years of being a Blogger. Amazing I have stayed with it that long.

* No Drone flights this weekend, I'm slacking on that aspect of my flight time. I'm running out of season to fly. I'm such a slacker.

* I hate to mention this, but I do hate snow. sorry snowy weather is not my kind of weather.

* Went to JC Penney's in Clarksburg yesterday, bought myself some new duds to wear on our cruise.

* As vacation is getting closer and closer, I need to start writing my vacation blogs which I still have not done any of the yet. I'm such a slacker. I still have not even started them.

* We haven't officially started packing for our cruise yet, but we have. Everything we are taking except for clothes are in a tote ready to be packed.

* We fired up the smoker this past Sunday, we smoked a whole pork butt and it was awesome.

* I'm STILL converting some old VHS tapes to Digital Format for Trish. I really need to get back on this as I am such a procrastinator.

* Have yourselves a great day.

* Hi ho hi ho

Labor Day

Let us all take a day off today and celebrate the fact that we all work for a living and that we have very busy lives by simply taking a day off and extending our weekend just one more day. It's Labor Day.

Truth be told though, I think I'm going to go out and work here today for a while for RTI to try to close out this quarter or whittle it down a little more. It shouldn't be a long day, but I will most likely be out an hour or so just to create additional records of call.

Michelle and I smoked a pork butt yesterday, Hayley and Tyler came over and ate dinner with us and we sat around a few hours bs'ing and having some fun. Hayley is also a very busy person so we never really get to see her that often anymore, so it was nice to just take a little time out and catch up.

I think we are going to throw a few brats on the grill this afternoon for dinner and that is probably going to be our excitement for the day.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Sunday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit on a quiet Sunday Morning, I'm up a little early watching some replays of a few football games from yesterday and collecting my thoughts on the day.

I traveled yesterday for work, but I am going to be off today and we are going to be firing up the smoker here in a few hours. Michelle went to Harry's yesterday and got a nice pork butt that she rubbed and has sitting in the fridge. Hayley and Tyler are coming over for dinner as is Trish and Layla are coming over as well. It's going to be a good day.

Well the Mountaineers started their season off yesterday with a 40-17 win against the Tennessee Volunteers yesterday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Will Grier threw for 429 yards and 5 Touchdowns in his own hometown against the Vols. There were a lot of questions that I had going into yesterdays matchup, mainly the defense but they more than seemed up to the task and have a few disruptors and playmakers playing on the Defensive side of the ball.

One thing I may need to do in the very near future is start writing a lot of blogs to cover the time that we are away on our cruise. Two weeks from today we will be getting on the Carnival Pride once again and heading to the Eastern Caribbean, can';t get here soon enough is all I can say. '

Have yourselves a great day.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

Here I sit on an early Saturday Morning, I'm up early watching Chapelle Show on Comedy Central and collecting my thoughts for the day. I think Peanut sleeping someone and I'm thinking about laying back down very soon.

It's going to be a long day for me, I'm heading East to Work today. Traveling about an hour and a half each way, so I intend on getting a good start so I can get back by 3:30 this afternoon.

The West Virginia Mountaineers travel to Charlotte NC today to take on the Volunteers of Tennessee at 3:30 this afternoon. Football season is upon us and this is the start of the college season. The Mountaineers come into the season with a lot of hope and some high expectations by some, and a little less optimism by others. I'm not making any predictions as I have a tendency to speak with my heart rather than my head and am usually wrong, so I'm just going to enjoy the day and the game.

Have yourselves a great day today.

Hi ho hi ho