Belize

Headed out to Ambergris Caye. A trip to do my open water certification and spend some "down time" with my younger sister. Looking forward to disconnecting and just living without shoes and with no watch. No agenda sounds good to me. Ambergris is the place Madonna wrote about in the song "La Isla Bonita". I'll lift a bottle to you from a place in the sun.

Just a music box

I have a music box shaped like a piano. It belonged to my grandmother. My mother was also a great lover of music boxes. She died in 2004. Something odd happened last night and I have no explanation. The music box sits on the top of a highboy chest of drawers that was in my parent's home and once belonged to my grandmother. I brought the dresser and chest back to my home when my father died last year. I was reading in bed last night, when the music box began to play. Not like it was wound up fully. Just a half dozen notes and then it went silent. How do you explain that? It hasn't been wound in years. I can't remember the last time I wound it up. I just stared at it as it fell silent. It made me miss my parents all the more.

Enter-diving

On my way to being a certified scuba diver. So much to learn and such a big payoff. I am in class with 2 other women and a guy. I figure he will be my "buddy" for the water section of the class, as we were seated next to each other. We had to read aloud during a quiz portion last night and the guy has a very hard time. Words like "narcosis" became "nausea". I think he may be guessing. That would be scary if you were partnering with him in the open ocean. I wondered last night how people can "fake" reading for an entire life. He's not illiterate. He just has some real deficiencies in vocabulary. The instructor didn't say anything or correct him. I don't think that was because he didn't notice. 

I figured out last night that one reason I may really love this extreme sport is that it's very "gear intensive". Always cool things to dream of adding to your gear. You guessed it: I bought a new mask last night. I told myself the one I have is old. It is. :D

Ahhh....Roku

I admit it. I love this little gadget. If you haven't heard the "Roku" is the Netflix "Apple TV" thingy. It's $99 and it streams instant content from your Netflix queue right to your tv. I am using it with an S-Video cable and the picture is great. It will also do HD. Maybe the best thing about it is that Amazon is about to get onboard with on-demand content for the Roku. Yes, it will carry a cost. I am willing to go there, if the content is worth it. We'll see. As for the box, once you own it, it's yours and the Netflix stuff works as long as you have a dvd "unlimited" plan. So, if you get one DVD at a time "unlimited" you're there. How simple is that? Simple enough for me.

Not snow

Big anticipation here about possible snow or something like it. This morning, it might be a mix of snow and rain=slush. Much ado about nothing and that's how it usually plays out in Richmond. Growing up in western MD I always have to laugh about this. When I first came to R-town I drove a little Nissan Sentra and never had occasion to not be able to make it to work. Remember, I go to work at o-dark-thirty and many times roads are not fully treated when I am out the door. Now that so many people drive suv's you would think the anxiety would be less. Not. After some years of driving a 4 wheel drive jeep, I am back to driving a front wheel drive go-kart (Versa) and figure I will still be able to get to work. That is, unless we get a foot and the Nissan bottoms out!

New toy....

I ended up with an Ipod Touch. I went to Circuit City this week to see the "bargains". Not many of those yet. The discounts are 10%. The secret is when retailers decide to liquidate, they immediately bump prices to the msrp and begin discounting from there. It's not really a deal until about 25 to 30% kicks in. The one exception is Apple products (like my new Touch) which are almost never discounted. I spotted the display Touch (the last one in the store) and got it for an "open box" discounted price. A good deal. I really want it for the video capability, gaming and photo display. It's next to useless as an email gadget, as you need wi-fi for any updated information. I have also packed it with music and the 8 gb is twice the storage of the hand-me-down Nano that once belonged to my Dad. So, the new challenge is to figure out how everything works and see how it's best used. I'll keep you "posted". Pun intended.

Family...

Pretty happy that I will see my only nephew today. He is a great guy and training to be an Army helicopter pilot. His graduation is set now for March. It scares me to death that he will be in "harms way". I know it's what he wants, but can't help but consider "what if". The U.S. will be in Iraq and Afghanistan for some time, no matter the White House occupant. "W" got us into this and it will take time to get out. I say my prayers on this-all the time.