UnBelizeable

I waited WAY too long to make this blog update. Sorry about that.

Let me tell you about our recent trip to Belize.
Belize, for those who do not know, is a small country just South of Mexico, and just East of Guatemala. It has an ancient history in the Mayan culture and parts of it were once major ports for the Mayan civilization.

When we first got to Belize, we flew into Belize City and stayed one night on the mainland. After that, we took a boat to the resort island of Ambergris Caye. Everything was very laid back on the island. There were cars, but most people drove golf carts around. In fact, one of the first people we met on a golf cart was a guy from Michigan.

He owned a restaurant on the island called Sunset Grill. As we were trying to make the long walk from out hotel to the "downtown" area, he offered to give us a ride into town on his golf cart. Being the trusting folks we are, we accepted. As he took us into town, he gave us a tour and told us a little about the history of the town and how he had found himself living here after so long in the US. The tour ended, of course, at his restaurant. We had lunch here, mostly as a courtesy to him, but also because it was lunch time. One of the neat things about the restaurant is the location. It was right on the water. Not only that, but the place had a group of Tarpon that basically hung out around the restaurant and waited to get fed. BY HAND!

Molly and I both tried it out.
But the owner was much more comfortable feeding and grabbing the fish right out the water. Very cool!
The next day we took a LONG boat ride back to the mainland, and up a river to the Mayan ruins at Lamanai. This place was on the river, and was a major trading port for the Mayans to trade jade and other goods. It consisted of a bunch of temples (Jaguar Temple, Mask Temple, High Temple) and also a ball court, courtyard and other ruins. The cool thing is that most of the site had not even been excavated yet. There were still lots of ruins which were covered by trees and earth. So in 20 years, we could go back and get to see, basically, a whole new set of ruins.

The next day it was back out on the boat to go snorkeling. I can't do scuba diving, so snorkeling is our only option to explore the sea. We saw lots of fish, some nurse sharks and even a sea turtle. My 1st time seeing a sea turtle! (Thanks to Cap'n Ron over at Reef Adventures for setting up our excursions)

All in all we had a great time. We love traveling to new countries and experiencing new cultures. We picked up a great Habanero Hot Sauce that we've been putting on everything called Marie Sharps. For under $1200 (2 round-trip flights, hotel & excursions) in total, the trip was easily one of the cheapest we have been on, and was well worth the money.

Here are some other photos from our trip:

My 1st Belikin Beer (The Beer of Belize!)

Molly enjoying a fruity island beverage.

The Jaguar Temple at the Lamanai Ruins.

Me on the steps of the Jaguar Temple.

The steps up/down the High Temple.

Molly and I at the top of the High Temple.

A ball court at the ruins. (Sometimes they would kill the winners as a sacrifice to the Gods. Other times, they would kill the losers. Not my kind of game).

Molly outside our hotel (Banana Beach Resort in San Pedro)

Just Us.

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Real American Hero

It's too rare these days that we see our real hero's rewarded for their service and valor. Too often we find ourselves so preoccupied with pop culture and reality television to notice the amazing sacrifices that are being made for our right to freedom and liberty. I know I have made this mistake numerous times. Chron.com has a wonderful story today about a marine who made a great sacrifice for his country, and who was rewarded for protecting our freedom.

Gates hands Marine keys to new house

“We're really low-key people, so this is kind of crazy,” said the 29-year-old Texas A&M graduate. She turned to her husband and fellow Aggie, Marine Corps Capt. Daniel Moran, with a stunned grin of her face. “This is, like, ridiculous.”

The couple — and the crowd lining the streets of their Cypress neighborhood — were awaiting the arrival of U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who came to the Houston area Monday to present Capt. Moran with the keys to his new home.

The four-bedroom brick house was custom built for Moran by Helping A Hero, a nonprofit that has constructed 14 homes for local disabled veterans since 2006.

Moran, 28, medically retired from the Marine Corps last month after being seriously injured during his second tour of duty in Iraq three years ago. Monday's event marked the fourth time he'd met Gates, who was president of A&M when Moran and his wife were students there.

As Gates recounted, he first shook hands with Moran when he handed the young man his diploma upon graduation from A&M. The second time, Gates was visiting injured service members at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where Moran was a patient.

“He asked me to personalize a graduation-day photo of us,” Gates recalled. “I was honored but, after meeting Daniel, I came away thinking I should be the one seeking an autograph.”

The third time was at half time of a Texas A&M football game in 2007, when the secretary of defense presented Moran with a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor in front of 80,000 screaming fans.

On Oct. 9, 2006, Moran suffered a concussion from the explosion of a homemade bomb in Ramadi, Iraq. Despite his injury, Moran urged doctors to let him return to his platoon. Less than two weeks later, another improvised explosive device killed three of his Marines and wounded Moran, who sustained third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body. The blast also seared the inside of his lungs.

Moran's new home has special air filters to protect his vulnerable immune system.

I urge everyone to go to the Helping a Hero website at the link below, and if it is within your means, make a donation to this wonderful organization today.

HelpingaHero.org

Watch out Rick Moranis!

Today comes with an interesting scientific discovery in the Philippines. Scientists have discovered a species of giant rat-eating plants!

Giant rat-eating nepenthes plant named after David Attenborough


From the article:

Nepenthes attenboroughii, a previously unknown variety of pitcher plant discovered on a remote mountain in the Philippines, is so big that small rodents could be trapped inside and slowly dissolved by flesh-eating enzymes.

It is thought that only a few hundred of the plants exist, growing only on one mountain on the island of Palawan. The species was discovered by a team of scientists who had heard reports from missionaries who got lost in the dense jungle.

It's straight out of Rick Moranis' worst movie nightmare!

Still, it's kinda cool that scientists are still going around, discovering new species of plants and animals that we previously did not know existed. The world is truly a wondrous place, and while Space is obviously more sexy, there is still much that we do not know about our own planet. I am very interested to see what our scientists discover next.

What a curious little fellow

After weeks and weeks of Healthcare debate, it's time for another funny story.

This one is from our folks North of the border in Canada.

Take a look at this nutter who invaded a couple's holiday snap.

It was supposed to be an isolated beauty spot in the Canadian lakes - but a stranger still managed to creep into the shot.

The cheeky squirrel jumped into Melissa Brandts and her husband's picture when they had set the timer on their camera.

Mrs Brandts explained: 'We had our camera set up on some rocks and were getting ready when this curious little ground squirrel appeared, became intrigued with the sound of the focusing camera and popped right into our shot.

Of the photo in Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park she added: 'It was a once in a lifetime moment – we were laughing about this little guy for days!'

That story put a smile on my face :)

Chevy Volt still doesn't get me energized

I admit it. I drive a gas guzzler. An "evil" car that gets below average gas mileage.

And I love it to death. It's my "Youth" car that i think everyone deserves to have once in their life. Hey, at least I bought American, right!?!

That said, with the whole Cash for Clunkers thing and gas prices always in question, I have started to think about what I want for my next car. I imagine I will keep the mustang for a few more years, but eventually it'll be time to get something a bit more practical.

On CNN today there is a story about the 2010 Chevy Volt and it's supposed 230 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.

CNN: Chevy Volt to get 230 mpg rating

Not a terrible looking car, I suppose. And 230 miles per gallon is a heck of a deal, I will admit. However, there are a few things that give me pause when talking about the Volt.

The Volt's lithium-ion batteries will hold enough juice to drive the car for about 40 miles, GM has said. Once the car goes beyond that, a small gasoline engine will turn on, generating electricity to power the wheels for longer drives.

When gasoline is providing the power, the Volt might get as much as 50 mpg.

But that mpg figure would not take into account that the car has already gone 40 miles with no gas at all.

So let's say the car is driven 50 miles in a day. For the first 40 miles, no gas is used and during the last 10 miles, 0.2 gallons are used. That's the equivalent of 250 miles per gallon. But, if the driver continues on to 80 miles, total fuel economy would drop to about 100 mpg. And if the driver goes 300 miles, the fuel economy would be a just 62.5 mpg.

So really, you are driving an electric car for 40 miles, and after that, you're just driving a crappy 4-banger that has to say a prayer to get to 60 MPH in 30 minutes. For city driving, that might work out just perfectly, but I drive 25+ milers per day to work, then another 10 to school, then the 35 back to work. Now, I would still be able to do my daily commute on a one day charge, but what happens when I want to drive all the way to San Antonio?

Sure, I can drive the 40 miles on electric, but then the rest of the trip is on gas power. And chances are that I'm not going to be able to bring my charger everywhere with me, so for however long I'm gone, I'm just driving a really slow economy car with a tiny engine. Blech!

Then there's the cost. Obviously you can expect that the volt isn't going to be running around $15-20k like most economy cars. No, it will most likely be somewhere in the low to mid $30's. That's $10-15k more in up-front costs. Not to mention, all that electricity from "charging" overnight has got to come from somewhere. Which means you can expect your home electric bill to jump way up as well, since you'll be sucking a ton of juice to re-charge this baby for the 40 miles it gets sans gasoline.

Last, and certainly not least, is the concern over battery life. I'm sure we've all had iPods and cell phones and laptops, right? Think about them. They are great when you first get them. They stay charged for hours or days at a time with normal use. But as you get more and more charges through them and more and more use, the battery life starts to decline. I've got a 6 yr old iPod that won't turn on anymore unless it's plugged in because the battery has since crapped out. How long until the 40Miles that the Volt claims on electric falls to 38, or 35 or 30, or 20? And how long until the battery goes out for good and it's time to get it replaced with a new one?

I am hopeful that the technology is getting to the point where electric-type cars will make sense for everyone. While I do not subscribe to the belief that Global Warming is real, or that man even affects it as much as they claim, I DO think it couldn't hurt for us to start trying to look out for the environment. That said, I don't think the Chevy Volt is the right solution. I don't think our technology is there yet for something like this in mass production.


I still believe our best end-game is to figure out how to make a car that runs on water. I know the technology can get us there, we just need to get away from this electric craze and shift towards using the most abundant natural resource on the earth for travel. When we figure that out, I'd say we'd be on the right track.

Awesome/Funny website of the day

I'm sure you've all seen those pictures passed around the internet of funny test answers to kids exams. Well, here is a website that has a TON of them, and they are hilarious.

FunnyExams.com

Some examples:


If you don't laugh, you might need to have your funny-bone examined by a doctor.

ESPN Outside The Lines: High school teammates carry on

ESPN Outside The Lines: High school teammates carry on

ESPN Outside the Lines story about a pair of High School wrestlers who, together, overcame individual disabilities and hardships to succeed in wrestling and graduate from school.

If this story doesn't tear at your heart, nothing will...

Guns can be FUN!

Ok, obviously that title might make some people angry. Guns are not meant to be fun toys, they are meant for safety and protection. However, that does not mean that a person cannot enjoy themselves immensely while honing their shooting skills at the range or a friends ranch.

One of my more recent gun purchases was this Springfield 1911. (My other guns are a Ruger 10/22 rifle and a Sig Sauer SP 2022 9mm) I'll admit, it was an impulse buy. I saw them online, I knew people who had them, and by damn I was going to have one myself. .45 cal is much more expensive to shoot than the 9mm I am used to and the gun is very finicky about ammo, but when you have the thing in your hands at the range, it's like pure heaven.

Another fun thing about guns is the fact that almost anyone can learn and use one. It's not rocket science. Pull trigger, gun goes bang. Pretty self-explanatory. However, the ease of use means that shooting doesn't always have to be something you do alone. I even made it a point to bring Molly along with me when I went to the range a while ago and had one of the proudest moments as a husband that I've ever had.

Molly and I had been at our station for about 20 minutes and it came time to change out the targets. Just as we were changing out targets a group of 5 or 6 "college buddies" came and parked at the stations next to ours. As they laughed and joked, Molly got a little "apprehensive" since she didn't really like anyone watching her do things like this. Well, I line-up first and fire the first magazine at my target. Then Molly steps up to shoot. Just as she gets to the station (I go back behind her a few feet, out of the firing line and so I can see how she is shooting), one of the guys walks in between her and I on the way back from tossing some empty boxes into the trash can. He stops for a split second to watch Molly's 1st shot at the target. Boom, Dead on bulls-eye. She had been shooting ok at the start, but had never hit dead center like she did on this shot. She glanced back and saw me and the guy watching and I gave her that "good job" look. She turned back around and fired her second shot. Boom, 2nd shot landed about a millimeter away from the 1st shot. Simply amazing. At that point, the dude turned back to me and mouthed "Wow!". As Molly continued to shoot, I watching him go back to his group of friends and proceed to point over to our station and re-tell the story about the hottie that just shot two nearly perfect shots in a row while he watched.

I was beaming. That's my girl!

It's a shame I haven't made the time to get back to the range in the last month or so. I really enjoy it and it is a great way to relieve stress. If you are ever in Houston, just let me know and I will bring you out to the range and let you squeeze off some rounds. If you didn't like shooting before, I bet you will after we're done.

Excellent email of the day

Hilarious email forward. See how many you have done or agree with... (Warning: It's long!)

Getting married before you are 25 is like picking a movie to rent from the A-F aisle in a video store without checking anywhere else. Yeah you skipped "You Got Served", but you also skipped "Indiana Jones", "The Godfather", and sex with other people.

Last night, I gave a homeless guy a ride from McDonald's to where he'd stashed his bags about a mile down the road. He rocked out to my Stones CD the whole way, air-guitaring and singing his homeless ass off. **** yeah, homeless guy. **** yeah.

The thing I admire about the rat tail is that it takes commitment. It's not like one day you just decide you want one, you have to grow out that bad boy and you have to repeatedly convince the hairdresser to trust you because it's a great idea.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

My 4 year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

I was on the phone with my friend the other day when he yelled, "****! I can't find my phone! Hold on." At a loss, I chose to remain silent and let him work that one out himself...

Literally means exactly as you describe, dumbass. "I can't believe they fired me, I literally put my heart and soul into this job.." No, no you didn't. Unless you worked at an Aztec temple and they demanded sacrifice, you did not literally do ****.

Eating dessert, skipping class, and having sex all have one thing in common. Once the idea crosses your mind it's almost impossible not to do it, and if someone else says it out loud, it's 100% going to happen.

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us". Classy, bro.

Quit calling yourself fat if you are clearly not fat. I am not going to say you're not anymore. I'm just going to nod and make that ehhhh kinda sound.

If I say "You're killing me, Smalls" and the person I'm talking to looks at me with confusion and doesn't know why I've called them Smalls, I question why I'm friends with them.

I think the worst STD you could ever get is babies.

Sandwiches always taste better when someone else makes them.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time" is always the right answer.

Sometimes I wonder if philosophers were actually that much smarter than everyone else, or if they were just the only ones who remembered to write down all the cool **** they thought of in the shower.

I have a hard time understanding commercials for TVs that try to show how vivid the picture is on their brand of TVs. I'm still watching your commercial on my ****ty one.

When I have to work late, the last thing I do is send a somewhat meaningless email to my boss, just so she knows I was in the office until at least 7:53.

In Home Depot today I saw a product called "Liquid Tape.” That sounds an awful lot like glue....

If I'm supposed to meet you somewhere and you call to see where I am and I respond "I'm on my way" or "I'm almost there," I probably haven't left my house yet. And when I have finally arrived, I will be blaming my tardiness on traffic.

It might look like I'm enjoying the cool music on my iPod with my headphones on, but I'm secretly listening to your conversation.

I think I'm going to start a bar called the gym. Then all of these people who really just want to say they went to the gym without actually working out would have somewhere to go.

The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?

Wine glass? Tumbler? Snifter? Dude, we're getting drunk, not aristocrating on the Titanic. Just pour the booze into those plastic cups over there and the rest will work itself out.

I laugh every time I see a "Slow Children at Play" sign. They should really put a comma in there... I'm going to hell.

Anyone who says working out in the morning "gives them energy throughout the day" is full of ****.

I always wonder how some parts get cast in movies. I can just imagine bulletins that say "Read for the parts of the Hideously Ugly & Overweight Girl and for the Toothless, Senile Old Man who Poops Himself today at 4pm." Someone out there is seeing this & says "Now that sounds like a part for me!"

Whenever my car makes a strange noise the solution is always turning up the radio.

I will definitely not enroll my future daughter in gymnastics seeing as I know she will only use her skills later in life for sexual positions.

If I show up to work an hour before my boss, I am doing whatever I want for that hour.

Hey eyelid twitch - thanks for fulfilling my life long dream of looking like a serial killer about to go on a rampage.

"Don't Stop Believing" is the like "Eye of the Tiger" for drunk people.

Whenever it's below freezing, and you see a girl walking to the bar without a coat on, you should definitely make a move on her. You already know she's into bad decisions.

I think "I don't like [insert rum/vodka/gin/whiskey]" is actually code for "I once puked up a ton of [insert rum/vodka/gin/whiskey] and thought I was going to die."

When asked "Why does no one know how to please a woman?" Anonymous gave this answer: "Because nobody has a penis made out of chocolate that ejaculates money."

I have discovered that my hatred for abbreviations and anal retentiveness for spelling has made me the best drunk texter ever. Sure, I may be squinting out of one eye with my tongue sticking out in complete concentration at my phone, which is one inch from my eyeball, but you're going to understand what I'm saying, goddammit.

If I don't shower within 30 minutes of working out, I'm not showering.

I wish my office directory would also list people's relationship status.

Dear Pringles, Now that I am no longer a child, I can no longer fit my hand inside your tube of deliciousness. Work on that.

You know it's time to do dishes when you're drinking water from a martini glass.

Condoms are for strangers, not girlfriends.

You should get a prize just for showing up at work on crappy weather days.

Beware your drunken inner-entrepreneur. While nursing a hangover, I found my handwriting on a wadded up bar napkin that simply read, New Restaurant Idea: Date Crepe! I can't decide if I should be more worried about the concept, or the fact that I added an exclamation point.

Cops should be able to pull over people who don't turn right on red.

There is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra today than on Alzheimer's research. This means that by 2040, there should be a large elderly population with perky boobs and huge erections and absolutely no recollection of what to do with them.

At the bar last night a guy called his wife to tell her he was on the way home and to warm up the cock garage.

Nothing throws you into a state of panic like getting a phantom vibrate from an empty pocket.

The most glorious ten seconds after you and your date have parted ways is when you finally succumb to your flatulence.

I like to give my friends checks when I owe them money rather than cash, just so I can write stuff like "last night" in the 'For' section.

I need new drinking friends, the type that will be single when I am and in a relationship when I am, not consistently the opposite no matter what.

I’m pretty sure I get 'self beer goggles'. The more beers I drink the hotter I appear in the mirror. Sad downfall to reality when I see those Facebook photos of the previous night and realize how awful I actually look when wasted.

The scariest 10 seconds ever is when you are double checking who you just sent a text message to... just in case.

I have the deepest desire for my turn signal to be perfectly in sync with the person in front of me.

Me? Oh no. I didn't stay here and let my dreams slowly die in the same backwater town I grew up in, like you did. I'm just home for the holidays. Well, it's nice seeing you. Bye.

As a former bouncer at a bar, I don't think that there is anything funnier than turning on the ugly lights at 2am and watching the looks on peoples faces, as they realize what they are about to sleep with.

Yeah I ****ed you. When we make eye contact in a bar the least you could do is nod and lift your beer.

I think I edited most of the bad language. Hope you got a laugh!

Zack Morris is back!!

So, apparently Mark Paul Gosselaar went on the Jimmy Fallon show as "Zack Morris". Fallon is trying to get a Saved by the Bell reunion together. Pretty funny stuff.

Where have all the greenbacks gone?

It's that time of year again. Time for the mid-year family budget review. As Molly and I continue to plan for future events like large purchases and our big planned China vacation next year, it becomes more and more imperative that we track and review our family budget.

The most recent review of the budget, which we updated this week, found that we are spending WAY too much money on eating out. We used to be in the rut where we would rarely go out to eat. To the point that I would often hear complaints about how we "never go anywhere". It seems, though, that in the past 6 months, we have really stepped up the restaraunt trips, to the point where we are spending somewhere between $250-300 per month on eating out. When you add that to typical grocery expenses, it really adds up to a big number in the "Food" line-item.

Also, we found that we really should have more extra money at the end of the month than we currently do. It seems as though every single month, there is always a big, unexpected expenditure. Car repair, a ticket, a trip, an impulse purchase, new furniture... If we would simply stick to the budget we set-forth, we would have plenty of money to boost our savings and save enough to make our China trip amazing.

It's not all bad though. A few months ago we paid off the last of our credit card debt, and have been able to re-allocate the money that we were spending on that to things like savings and IRA. That was a big accomplishment and the result is that we are now much more careful with purchases than we had been before. Instead of just buying something with the credit card, and paying it over a few months, we are saving-up for purchases and buying with cash. It makes the finance side of me a very happy camper.

If any of you haven't done a family budget, or haven't updated yours in a while, I highly advise you to do so today. Here is a great, free little excel workbook which will give you an easy template to follow to put together your yearly budget.

(Click on the picture to go to the page with the free download)

You can also check out Mint.com. It is an excellent online budget/financial planning and tracking website.

I'm blue da ba dee da ba die...

In the funny/weird news of the day category:

The world record for the largest number of people dressed as Smurfs has been smashed in Swansea. The Welsh city was turned blue as a group of 2,510 people, the majority of whom were students from the local university, crammed into the Oceana nightclub to almost double the previous record.

Wow. I thought I had some major time on my hands. How do you find and convince over 2,500 people to color themselves blue and dress up as smurfs? I have to assume that facebook was somehow involved.

Needing a Vacation FROM Vacation

As most of you probably know, Molly and I took a one week vacation to the mother-Island of Puerto Rico with my sister and her boyfriend Steve. The trip was, for my sister and I, to see family and introduce them to our significant others. For Molly and Steve, however, the trip was meant to simply be a relaxing vacation.

Therein lied the problem.

My sister and I were so hell-bent on going from San Juan to Arecibo to Sabana Grande to the Phosphorescent Bay back to Arecibo back to San Juan, etc etc that we never really had any time to truly relax. Nearly every morning we were up by 6AM (1st morning was thanks to Steve for leaving the curtains open in the hotel room) and we immediately were on our way out to the door for one activity or another.

While that lead to us seeing the MOST of Puerto Rico and family as we could in 7 days, it also lead to us being dead tired, and returning to Houston feeling like we hadn't been on vacation at all.

I think in the future, I will leave much more room in the trip-plans for "Nothing". There is much to be gained on vacation from simply laying in the sun, reading a book or listening to music, and just relaxing. THAT is what vacations are for.

Welcome to Vega's Blog

Seeing as how Molly has her own website, and I have grown increasingly tired of facebook status updates and "tweets", I have decided to create my own blog. Now, you may be asking yourself, what the heck is Daniel going to be blogging about exactly? Well, I figure this will be a blog about a few of things.

1) I will tell you about what is going on with Molly and I. Travel, family, work, school, etc.

2) I will give brief opinions about some of today's current events. Some of you know my political views well, and for those who don't, you soon will.

3) I'll let you know some of the funny and interesting news, stories, articles and life-events which are currently going on around the world, and in Houston.

Hopefully, a few people care about what is going on in our lives and can enjoy some of the things that randomly pop into my head.

Cheers to All,

Daniel

Kalidasa

"Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life, and in it's brief course lie all the verities and realities of our existence; the bliss of growth, the joy of action, the splendor of achievement, for yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope, look well therefore to this day."