Everglades? What's that?

I spilled some orange juice this morning. The nearest things available to wipe it up included a roll of paper towels, a pile of napkins, a dry-vac, 3 dogs, a portable particle accelerator, and a map of Florida. Of course, I chose the map of Florida to wipe it up, and as I did so I accidentally took notice of the southern part of the state. I consulted Gina, and we were both surprised to learn that the state does extended further south than the fair city of Ft. Lauderdale. Oh sure. There's a lot more down there including a little thing called "the everglades".

We made a point of going to the everglades to explore this strange new land, and perhaps stake a flag to claim the land as our own. Unfortunately, some ohter civilization had found it before us, so territorial conquests are not forthcoming.

We went to a place called "The Shark Valley Loop". We didn't see any sharks, and "valley" is only accurate in the strictest definition of the term: lowland between two high lands. In this case, the highlands are still very low, but they are above sea level and they're above the lowland, so the term is technically appropriate... but barely.

Shark Valley consists of a 15 mile one lane road that you can travel on by foot, bike or tram. Gina's pregnant, and I'm lazy, so we went with the tram.

Unlike the "Diva Duck Non-Tour" that we participated in yesterday, this was actually educational. There weren't any duck puns, which was refreshing. The tour guide was named Jose. He spoke very good english, but with a strong accent. He kept pluralizing some words that are already pluralized. "Watch your childrens", etc. He had a bunch of jokes, most of which were mildly entertaining.

About 1/2 way through the loop, there's an observation tower. They say its 50 feet high, which didn't sound very impressive, but it actually is when you get there. Everything is so flat that 50 feet goes along way.

We saw a lot of alligators, all at a safe distance. On the ramp up to the observation tower, you can look down and see at least a dozen of them. Of all the alligators we saw, though, not a single one was moving. It was mid-day. They were all just chilling out. I wanted to poke them with a stick, but apparently that's ill-advised. Besides, I wouldn't have been able to pick up a stick without getting arrest for disrupting a national preserve or something. It wasn't worth the risk.

The weather was perfect for the outing. It was hot, but there was a great cool breeze.

Right outside the park, there's a restaraunt. God, it was awful. The next time we're in the neighborhood, I'm going to make a point of not going there again. In fact, I may plan a day trip back to the everglades that's built around not going to that restaraunt again. Just awful. I was afraid to get an iced-tree refill. The wetlands should definitely be allowed to reclaim that property.

Diva Duck

Today, in an effort to get out of the house, Gina and I did the "Diva Duck" tour of West Palm Beach. The Diva Duck is a truck and a boat all in one. Boston has them too. So does Alaska.

The tour is based at City Place in West Palm Beach. We've seen it a bunch of times, but never did the tour before. It turns out that "tour" is a pretty inaccurate term. Its fun, but its really just a ride. They point out the houses of rich people and make up some numbers as they go. "5 or 10 years ago, they rebuilt that boat." Which was it? 5 years ago or 10 years ago?

The fact that they had no idea didn't really detract from the fun. There were a bunch of kids on board, most of which got a kick out of it. The non-tour guide was friendly enough. There were a lot of duck puns. The funniest part was the blaring war music as we went from land to sea.

As usual, I got a little motion sick on the boat. It wasn't too bad... just enough to remind me that I'm a big wuss when it comes to unstable motion.

I went on a whale watch with my company probably 10 years ago. I spent most of the time keeled over until my boss found some dramamine for me. I went sky diving twice. I didn't get phsyically sick either time, but boy... it was close (especially the first time). I can do roller coasters fine, but I keep away from most other rides.

Then, of course, there's the world famouse "Great Helicopter Hurl of 2002". That's actually a funny story, in my humble opinion. I shall elborate if demand requests it.

Anyway, we finsihed the Diva Duck Non-Tour, then went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. Then we went home. Good times.

There were a bunch of "red had ladies" on the tour. I don't know if that's their actual name or not, but they are all female and they were all wearing distinct red hats. I've never seen that before, other than on the Simpsons. The simpsons had pink had ladies, I think. They turned out to be a bunch of thieves incognito. Now I see that they were probably basing that on the Red Hat Ladies, though I had no idea that such a thing existed when I saw the episode.

How terribly exciting.

It's a boy! - New blog

For those of you that know me personally, you probably already know that our baby is a boy. For baby related news, please jump over to: http://babyallard.blogspot.com

Lots of 5s lately

RE: http://www.dvdfriend.us

I saw two movies this weekend: Speed Racer and RedBelt. I gave them both 5's.
I finished reading ENDER'S SHADOW this week, and I also gave that a 5.
That means that there's been a lot of consecutive excellence.

My original thought was to give Speed Racer a 4, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. With one exception, I can't really find anything wrong with it. Its a sensory blast. I don't see what people don't like.

And RedBelt is good solid story telling and character development.

The point is to express that I'm not tossing around the 5s as if I love everything I see. Its just been an unusally good week.

Slingbox Videos

The website videos on http://www.slingbox.com are all pretty funny. We have a slingbox pro, and I was taking a look to see what's new. The videos have changed since the last time I went there.

When you first go to the site, it shows you a video. If you browse around a bit, then go back to the home page, it shows a different video.

Funny stuff. Cool site.