Back from vacation

Well, we are back from vacation. We arrived wednesday evening back into Denver and cleared customs and immigration with no issues. It went quite quickly, which is an oddity for Denver since past trips we have had to wait at least an hour to clear customs and immigration. The trip back went well, and fast. We were happy to go home after a week in the heat. It was a great vacation, and glad to be back. Although not to be too happy to head back to work right away on thursday!!!

I am in the process of going through our pictures, between the two of us we took over 1500 pictures! Wowza!

Blogging from Mexico

You know you are addicted to the internet when you blog and surf while on vacation. I uploaded a few pictures already to my flickr account...check them out! It's hot, humid, and windy. But the wind is nice, makes it less hot. I plan to spend some quality time at the pool now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58938245@N00/sets/72157605193034302/

Dreams Tulum

We are settled in our room. Our flight was late 1/2 an hour so we got in late, and it took us 1 hour to clear customs and immigration. Our private car transfer wasn't there (they thought we arrived 2 hours earlier which it didn't. Anyways, after 1/2 an hour of waiting we got our car and took the 2 hour journey to the hotel. We arrived, and paid to upgrade to an ocean view near the pools and ocean. Ate some dinner and are settling in for the night. It's dark so it;s hard to see the resort, but so far we like what we see!!!

At the Airport

At the Airport
Originally uploaded by grumpysnickles.

We are at the airport and just waiting for our flight to leave. Where we are sitting there is an Air Canada jet preparing to load up people and go back to the native land. That's fun. I have seen a bunch of Canadian passports too. I travel under my CDN passport since I am not a citizen but it's always nice to see other Canucks!

The Denver airport now offers free wi fi access, which is pretty fun. I can easily amuse myself for hours reading blogs and just surfing the internet. We got here earlier than we normally do because Nizar drove us to the airport, but this shouldn't be too bad. Our flight looks pretty full, we couldn't change seats to the exit row.

Mexico here we come!

We leave tomorrow morning for Mexico, and I am SO excited. The only way I could be any more excited about a week away on vacation at an all inclusive resort would be if I could bring my cats with me. But they don't travel all that well.

A funny...

I stole this from another blog I read and I thought it was pretty funny...different people's version about WHY the chicken crossed the road...

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The
chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need
to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other
side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross
the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right
from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it
deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......


DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that
this chicken won't realize that he must
first deal with the problem on
'THIS' side of the road before it goes
after the problem on the 'OTHER
SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is
help him realize how stupid he's
acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT'
problems before adding 'NEW'
problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the
chicken is having problems, which is why he
wants to cross this road so bad.
So instead of having the chicken learn
from his mistakes and take
falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to
give this chicken a car so that
he can just drive across the road and
not live his life like the rest
of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the
chicken crossed the road. We just want to
know if the chicken is on our
side of the road, or not. The chicken is
either against us, or for us.
There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen,
you can clearly see the satellite image
of the chicken crossing the
road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there
is a chicken, but we have not yet been
allowed to have access to the
other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the
chicken cross the road, I am now against it!
It was the wrong road to cross,
and I was misled about the chicken's
intentions. I am not for it now,
and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road
because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his
eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent,
hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me
which way that chicken was going. I had a
standing order at the Farmer's
Market to sell my eggs when the price
dropped to a certain level. No
little bird gave me any insider
information.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road?
Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the
chicken crossed the road, but
why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay!
Can't you people see the plain truth?'
That's why they call it the
'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken
is gay. And if you eat that
chicken, you will become gay too. I say we
boycott all chickens until we
sort out this abomination that the liberal
media white washes with
seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.
That chicken should not be
crossing the road. It's as plain and as
simple as that.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the
chicken crossed the road. Somebody told
us the chicken crossed the road,
and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few
moments, we will be listening to the
chicken tell, for the first
time, the heart warming story of how it
experienced a serious case of
molting, and went on to accomplish its
life long dream of crossing the
road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to
cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the
world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released
eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but
will lay eggs, file your
important documents, and balance your check
book. Internet Explorer is an
integral part of the Chicken. This new
platform is much more stable and
will never cra...#@&&^(C% ........
reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the
road, or did the road move beneath the
chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with
THAT chicken. What is your definition of
chicken?

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?

AL SHARPTON:
Why are all the chickens white?
We need some black chickens.

New Fish Tank

New Fish Tank
Originally uploaded by grumpysnickles.

Our fish tank was starting to leak and was losing it's seal, so we decided to buy a new fish tank, stand and hood. It will likely take a good month before we can transfer the fish from the old tank to the new tank because we have to get the bacterial level right.

Gas

I had to put gas in my car today, and boy was it ever a hit to my bank account. Jeesh. Gas prices keep rising and rising and rising. It's nuts. I live 5 miles away from where I work, so I'm lucky there and only have to put gas in my car every 3 to 4 weeks. But man oh man, it still hurts!

I come from an oil family, meaning my dad worked as an engineer for an oil company in Canada with deep pockets. But I still find it pretty hard to understand how these oil companies are posting RECORD HIGH profits and the gas prices keep rising and rising...

10 days!!!

I can't believe we are 10 days away from vacation! Wow. I've been doing some warm weather clothes shopping for shorts and tank tops etc so get prepared. I also bought two new bathing suits. I'm looking forward to a week away.

We had Austin's entire family over for lunch today. We served hamburgers on the bbq. I'm dead tired since I was cooking and on my feet since 9 am this morning, but we are having a nice relaxing evening at home and watching the Survivor Finale.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day to all of the Mom's out there! Hope you have a wonderful day and your children spoil you and show you they love you. And I hope that someday I will become a mom too!

Forecast!

Forecast for Tulum, Mexico

10-Day Forecast NEW: Larger Radar Maps & No Ads


High /
Low (°F) Precip. %
Today
May 06 Partly Cloudy 89°/72° 20 %
Wed
May 07 Partly Cloudy 92°/75° 20 %
Thu
May 08 Partly Cloudy 91°/75° 20 %
Fri
May 09 Partly Cloudy 92°/76° 10 %
Sat
May 10 Isolated T-Storms 90°/76° 30 %
Sun
May 11 Partly Cloudy 90°/76° 20 %
Mon
May 12 Partly Cloudy 90°/76° 20 %
Tue
May 13 Partly Cloudy 90°/76° 20 %
Wed
May 14 Sunny 91°/76° 20 %
Thu
May 15 Mostly Sunny 90°/76° 20 %
Last Updated May 6 08:31 a.m. Local Time

Work

I'm really burnt out at work. We've been short staffed since October, and two months ago we finally were up to full staff, except the two new staff members had to be trained and are finally getting to a point where they are able to work a bit more independently. It's not that our environment is a hard one to learn, there is just a lot to learn about how the processes work etc. Last week, my boss gave his two weeks notice (which really ends up being one week becuase he is taking days off including a bunch this week....) and we are stupid busy. Morale is really low, and we are all stressed out.

We leave for Mexico in 16 days and I cannot wait. I'm sad about leaving Jones and George behind, but Austin's sister plans to stay at the house and watch over them so I feel a bit better knowing they won't be home alone the whole time. They are very social cats and so they love human contact. And they really like Laura. But still, I absolutely adore my cats, so while I am really looking forward to going away, a bit part of me wishes I could bring them with me (yep, I am a crazy cat lady).

I have beeen officially burnt out for a good one to two months now. Unfortunately it has resulted in me not enjoying my job very much, which is sad because I really liked it before that time. It's hard to talk about it, becuase I haven't enjoyed many of the other jobs I have had in the past, so my fear is that peopel will just say that I just hate all jobs. Which isn't true, I just have gotten myself into situations that were't great for my personaility etc. So we'll see. I think the full week off will do me some good, will do me a LOT of good actually.

It is absolutely beautiful in Denver, it's spring time, everything is blooming, the trees are growing leaves, the flowers are out, and the grass is turning green. I love this time of year. It's a comfortable temperature during the day and it's cool at night so we can leave the windows open to sleep. Love it!