So I’m once again working to get back in shape . . . This is NOT however a New Years Resolution! I don’t do those, they never work. I wanted to get back in shape and lose some weight last year before the cruise . . . it just never happened.

Before we went on our cruise I ended up joining a new gym. My old one, Bally’s, got bought out by LA Fitness. I wasn’t that impressed, toured some other gyms, and found a local one I really like. It also came with some introductory private training! Most gyms, when you join them, do offer this. I just never did in these in the past . . . . I decided to take the plunge this time.

Well while we were on our cruise, it once again became apparent how out of shape I’ve gotten. We went to a beach one day, and I decided to swim out to one of those floating giant trampolines they had. Then I remembered why I dislike snorkeling . . . I can’t swim that well anymore because I’m so out of shape. On the way back to the beach I seriously began to wonder if I was going to make it. I did, of course. I did not want to be that person that had to be rescued by the lifeguards . . . that was for sure!

So we are taking advantage of those private training sessions, and if they go well maybe I’ll sign up for even more. I already had my first two (of four) and I have to say . . . holy hell did he kick my ass! After the first I was sore all weekend long. I hope after today’s I’ll be a little better. I’m also gunna start swimming too, so that next year I don’t have visions of having to be saved by a lifeguard . . . . unless of course Jake Gyllenhaal or Hugh Jackman is working that day 😉

Just some quick photos from Chichen Itza. These are ones I have so far edited and corrected a bit. In time I’ll add more to my webshots and provide a link.

I really enjoyed seeing the place, but we had very little time there. Most of the day was spent traveling to and from. I told John one year we should do a tour of Mexico/Central America to get to all the places we haven’t seen. We also want to do Machu Picchu too.

I also added in two of the photos of us we had taken on the cruise.

Finally home, and had a blast! The internet on the ship was horrid, which is why I didn’t post here more. I did update my Tumblr as much as I could. So over the next week I’ll upload photos and post some stories. Loved seeing (and meeting!) the cast of “Hairspray.” Made some great new cruise friends. Loved seeing Chichen Itza. We’ve also booked next year’s cruise already.

-Dustin

Royal Caribbean has a private beach in Haiti, a very large one in fact, which they use for their ships while also employing the locals and helping the economy. We have been here a few times. It is nice enough, and I wouldn’t have bothered to get off the boat really. However I was on a quest! To buy some voodoo art for my classes. I had to wade through a lot of tourist art and pushy salesmen before hitting the jack pot. I originally made a video discussing all this, but it takes forever and a day to upload. So here are some photos instead.

I bought two things. One was a nice Skelton carving. The other was where I hit the jackpot as it was the only one I could find. Or the only one for sale that day. It appeared at first to be a little pestle and mortar carved out of wood, with the pestle being a effigy of a man. I thought yes! It was something for grinding herbs and making voodoo potions. That would be cool. But when I inspected closer I realized it was actually a fetish ….

So sorry if you are subscribed to the blog and just got a slew of emails 🙁 I tried setting up a feed syndication to pull in photos from my Tumblr blog. I assumed it would only pull in posts from this day forward, but it started pulling them ALL in and sending multiple emails out! YIKES! I quickly nixed it. Clearly I need to tweak that a little more before using it again!

Again, so sorry!

-Dustin

P.S. I figured out what I did wrong and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again, but have no desire to try it again any time soon! I should have listened to my first instinct and not had fiddled with it at all cause I knew I’d “screw something up!”

I write this post from Ft. Lauderdale, as we are on vacation! We get on the big boat tomorrow, I’m so excited! I need a massage stat. I’ll do my best to put in an update or two, pictures will probably have to wait until we get back as usual. It’s sometimes hard to upload multiple photos and edit them while on the ship, but we shall see. I’ll definitely get one or two up, especially of Chichen Itza!

Definitely keep watching the Tumblr Blog over the next week. It will probably have photo updates posted to it more than here, as I can do so from my phone quickly and from wherever I am. I know tomorrow while we’re still in port and I have 3G I’ll probably post a ton there. During the cruise I can and probably will still do it via wireless internet, just not as much. I really should have set this blog up to pull in the feeds from that blog for this week. I didn’t realize it was as complicated as I originally thought until I just looked at, so I don’t know if I can do it tonight. I really don’t wanna screw something up.

Now let’s talk about “Days” for a second. I know I hadn’t made a video blog since November. One reason was because I got very busy. The other reason was the show got very dull. I had nothing to say! So why why why is it that every time I go away does the good shit happen? I mean they had to have this coming week to be when Will gets outed (or the beginning of his official outing by EJ)? I’m so friggen pissed! I’ve been watching and waiting months for this! When we used to cruise Carnival, they had satellite feeds and we could see real TV when we were in the cabin. Having now switched to Royal Caribbean, they have yet to have that. Maybe this year they will so I can see the show. I doubt it. Good thing there is Tivo and Hulu!

So we didn’t do much for New Years this year. Plans to go out kept falling through, and while we were invited to some parties, we just decided to stay in again (which is what we did last year). We watched the ball drop and some other movies, but that’s about it.

We did go out to dinner and I made John try wonton wrapped ahi tuna. Basically it’s raw tuna. I don’t know why I have gotten into this recently. I blame a friend who introduced me to it. John ate one piece just to try it. I made him after I pointed out that I had tried crab he ate recently. I also told him on our vacation I made reservations at the Asian place on the ship for lunch one day, so he’d be eating it again in some form 🙂

We are getting ready for our cruise and will be leaving shortly. I’m still excited to see Chichen Itza. I’ll do my best to blog as much as I can. Be sure to check my Tumblr Blog too, as it’s easy for me to quickly post photos to it from my phone.

Oh yeah . . . Happy New Year! It’s the year of the Mayan Apocalypse!