Look for a series of photoblog posts covering a trip to Europe in 1990. It’ll be legendary! Or something.

The next morning, I loaded up the kids and we drove to the Houston Zoo. Mrs. Flametoad regretfully skipped on this trip because the walk up and down the street did bad things for her broken toe. Walking all over a zoo just wasn’t in the cards. Despite the lack of Mommy, the tadpoles and I managed to have a great time. If you can’t see the photos below, you’re probably reading this on some third party site like Facebook. Just jump over to Flametoad.

Flickr Photostream.

Then in the coming weeks and months we started hearing the reports of gang violence down in Mexico. It was an all-out war between the drug cartels and the military. Thousands of troops were activated in border towns to quell the violence. We agonized over whether or not to go, but the violence seemed to mostly be higher north, closer to the border, so we decided to stay the course. Then, of course, H1N1 rears its head. The kids from New York who got the flu caught it while on a trip to Cancun! What to do?

Fortunately, Mrs. Flametoad had enough perspective on the health industry to understand that the scare was largely that– a scare. We again made the decision to stay the course—a decision made slightly easier by our trip insurance that would reimburse most of our expenses up to the time we got on the plane. Here’s where I’ll brag about American Express Travel. I’m glad that we booked our travel through them. Every step of the way was smoothed over for us. Weeks before we left, they mailed us a travel wallet with all our vouchers, hotel information, printed itinerary, and more. We stepped out of the Cancun airport and an American Express had shuttles waiting to take us to our hotel.

The Cancun area was directly hit by a hurricane back in 2005 and you can still see signs of the destruction today. Although the main highway running down the coast was in great shape, large piles of broken cement and debris are still piled on either side. Although I’ve been saying we went to Cancun, our resort was actually closer to Playa del Carmen. After a 30 minute ride in the van, we arrived in paradise.

The moment we stepped out of the van, we were greeted with champaign and cold towels. The entire stay, we were treated like royalty. The Imperial Valentine Maya itself was beautiful. I can’t describe it better than that. The architecture was grand, the grounds were well maintained, and the beach was beautiful. Our room, which was located near the beach, was fantastic. We had several different locations to choose from with regard to dining, and we thoroughly enjoyed every meal.

True to our plan, we never went sightseeing. We split our days between the amazing pool and the amazing beach. The most adventurous we ever got was going snorkeling on the beach one morning.

Basically, it was an incredible vacation. We benefited greatly from the swine flu. We were told that tourist occupancy over the entire region was at 20% while we were there. It’s normally at 80% at that time of year. We practically had the resort to ourselves. We never had to wait on a meal, nor did we ever have a bad spot at the pool. It was definitely one of those experiences that we could never repeat. As much as we loved the resort and loved the entire vacation, if we ever went back we’d only be up for disappointment. We’d never have the place to ourselves like we did that trip. The lowest occupancy they usually see during off season is 40%.

“Stop copying me! You don’t have to do everything I do!”
“Yes I do!”
“… Then do you want to do my homework?”

Sunday I picked up the third book in the Dresden Files series, Grave Peril. I’ve read maybe six chapters, but now I’ve managed to misplace it. Tonight after my monthly church vestry meeting I’ll have to go on a book hunt. Ed gave me Stephan King’s On Writing, and I ordered a used copy of Orson Scott Card’s Characters & Viewpoint, but I feel like I need to recharge my creative batteries with some fiction before diving into instructional nonfiction.

Went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. I may write about that later in the week. I also want to write a post about how much I hate the the new trend of college kids putting spacers in their ears. Bleauch!

For the two or three of you who use WordPress, you may be interested to know that the awesome Admin Drop Down Menu plugin has already been updated to work with the newly released WordPress 2.7.

The first round of Christmas cards went out yesterday. We ordered extra cards, so if you’re not on our list yet but would like to be, shoot me an e-mail with your address.

Seriously, I’ve got a backlog of news. Some is personal, some is just newsworthy stuff from the ‘net, and others I can’t quite talk about yet.

I had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with my family. My in-laws drove 3 hours to spend the holiday with us, and I know the kids enjoyed seeing them almost as much as they enjoyed seeing the kids. The weather has been pretty screwy around here, with the temperatures fluxuating from cold to hot and back within a few days. On Thanksgiving I switched off our furnace and turned on the A/C. A few hours later we found a puddle of water in the laundry room and a mystery was finally solved. Since dropping more than $4K on a replacement HVAC unit a month ago, we’ve had this strange fluxating weather I just described. We’ve also had mysterious puddles of water appear in the laundry room. We assumed they either came from putting too many clothes in the washing machine or from a leaky hose. Since the problem was intermittant, we hadn’t been able to pin down the exact source… until Thanksgiving.

Armed with a flashlight and some strong suspicions, I climbed into the attic and discovered that the crew had not tied the condensation pipe to the drain. Water from condensation was dripping out of the pipe and onto the attic insulation instead of into the elbow joint that led to the drain. The water was dripping between two walls down to the laundry room floor and coming out near the washer and dryer! After crawling over ductwork and insulation, I reached the elbow joint and connected the pipe to the drain.

Unfortunately, I had to rip out some drywall in the laundry room and run a dehumidifyer for a day and a half. It’s kinda a big mess. Yes, I’ve called the HVAC folks but I haven’t heard back from them. I’ll be following up with them today.

In other news, I’ve been working on a short story for a special project. It was slow going, but over the Thanksgiving break I was able to make headway and now I’m to the climax. I should be able to finish it by mid-week, do one round of edits, then let it sit for a week. I wrote it in first person and I’m toying with the idea of rewriting it in 3rd person. It’s less than five thousand words, so I don’t think it would take very long. We’ll see if I have time.

Finally, today is the first day of our second annual Midnight Charity Project. For the month of December, 12 to Midnight will be offering fans several ways to contribute to the Autism Research Institute. If you’re a gamer, take a few minutes to follow the link and find out how you can help the cause.

Believe it or not, having my oldest, best friend from come in from out of town was just the sideshow. My other best friend was getting married! Friday morning I had to go into work during the morning, but I split shortly before lunch and met up with the soon-to-be bride and groom and a good part of the wedding party for a yummy burger. We ran errands that afternoon, went out to the site of the ceremony for the wedding rehearsal, then back to the bride and groom’s house for wedding rehearsal dinner. It was heart-warming to see how well Tadpole 2 and Cerebral Misfire’s toddler played together, but it also makes me all the more sad that they have moved so far away. Regardless, we had a great time at the dinner, during which we groomsmen presented him with our traditional present–a pistol.

You have to understand that there’s a 14 year spread between when the first of us got married and when Jason, the last, was married. During that time we formed a few traditions. One is the pistol as a wedding present. The other is a bowling ball. Well, a ball and chain, really. You see, almost 10 years ago they thought it would be a great prank to make the groom (in that instance, me) wear a ball and chain during the bachelor party. The Ball is a 16 lb. bowling ball with a concrete anchor sunk several inches into it. A chain attaches to the anchor on one end and a dog collar on the other end. For added effect, the bride’s name is painted on the ball.

So after the rehearsal dinner we presented him with the ball and carried him off for a little public humiliation! We ended up at a bar playing pool, which was great fun!

handicap

After staying up entirely too late, we crawled into bed and prepared for the big day. All too early, Saturday morning rolled over us. The day was split between running errands, napping, and later in the afternoon setup for the wedding. The bride and groom had gambled that the weather would still be warm enough for an outdoor wedding but Mother Nature chose not to cooperate. A biting Northern blew threw Friday night, and the wind sliced through our clothes as we set up tables and chairs.

Despite one or two hiccups (like the rings still being locked in the truck moments before the ceremony was supposed to start) the wedding was beautiful. I was very honored to be the Best Man. The wind died down after the sun set, and leaving the reception chilly but tolerable. It was a fun reception, and after we packed the kids off to home with our babysitter, Mrs. Flametoad and I even got in a few turns around the dance floor.

All in all it was a wonderful wedding, and I can’t begin to say how happy I am for Jason and Jennifer. I’m also exhausted and incredibly glad it’s over.

In this election day, vote for The King.

I’m ready for this week to be over.