We got to Cancun at 11:45 am (CST), on a beautiful sunny day (of course–it’s Cancun), and headed to our condo at the Coral Mar. After checking in, and having a few drinks at the bar, we headed downtown for our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Parilla.

Orientation Sunday morning, then to the beach at Coco Bongo. Rented an umbrella and table for $200. Had nachos and drinks at the table. Then took the bus to Market 28, and ate ceviche at Cejas.

We were picked up at 8:45 for Boca del Puma. KK’s birthday, and she started off by having a wreck on her bike, but then got rejuvenated and joined John and Megan for zip lining through the treetops from a 72 foot tower. Got back to Coral Mar around 4, and took a nap. Fiesta at the pool at 7:00. Dancing, food, and games. It was actually great fun–John and Megan really enjoyed the games and dancing.

We also got contact information from our driver, Jose Sanchez, for a trip to Chichen Itza. We decided to use him for the trip, as it was a little cheaper than the condo’s agency, and it would be customized for us. We ended up saving $40 US over the $300 we would have spent with the agency. But, we were able to control the time of departure and where we stopped on the way.

Slept in Tuesday morning, read and napped by the water. Headed back to Market 28. Ate Yucutan cuisine at Labna downtown. The lime soup was fabulous, and the marinated steak (Arrachera) was good, but the rest was so-so. They did have an awesome guitarist that wandered around the table and played romantic background music.

One of the funniest events was on a cab trip when one of the cab drivers had a working TV on his dash (the antenna was duct taped to the roof), and showed us a Lucha Libre match), with his favorite wrestler, La Parka (The Death). Hilarious.

We used Jose for the trip to Chichen Itza. We left at 7 am, and got there at 11. Just in time for a downpour. We made it all the way through the entrance and were at the base of El Castillo, when the skies opened up. We didn’t even have time for a quick picture. I was very concerned that we would not get out to see anything for the rest of the day, but about an hour later, the rain was reduced to light sprinkles. The day was saved.

Wednesday was recuperation day. Slept late, then decided to head to the local grocery for a cookout. Kind of surprised that these local stores don’t carry hamburger meat, so we settled for hot dogs. We did get the on-site grill functioning though, but by the time we tallied up the price of the taxi to the store, I think we could have had burgers at the palapa for about the same price.

Slept late again Thursday, and then headed downtown for more Market 28 shopping. Then, we decided to try a new restaurant for dinner–La Placita, in the far south hotel zone. Surprise–it was closed. So, we settled (John really, really wanted Hooters) for a small place called El Sombrero. Had burgers, wings, and calamari (so-so).

We decided to finish off the week by snorkeling on Friday. But first, we just had to have a genuine Mexican breakfast. Barbara, one of the front desk ladies (originally from Wisconsin), recommended La Cafe de la Nader, downtown. We tried it, and it was very good–incredible pastries to start off the meal, followed by omelets, enchiladas, and sopas. It was somewhat guesswork on ordering, since the menu was all Spanish, but the waiter was very helpful.

Snorkeling was in the afternoon, with a guided tour to Puerto Moreles, about 30 miles south of Cancun. KK and I did this once before, when Bill and Deanne were in Playa del Carmen. We met them there for snorkeling. It was interesting to see how that same beach have been built up in the years since. KK, John, and Megan saw many fish, and said it was definitely worth going on. I, on the other hand, relaxed on the patio, and read Vince Flynn’s Act of Treason.

We took our last meal at La Parilla, everybody’s favorite Cancun restaurant. We weren’t so hungry, since we were fed on the snorkeling trip, but the food was as good as ever, and we got a table right next to another great folk dance show. It was a great evening for our last taste of Mexico.

So far, so good, but the trip home was a disaster. Our plane was late leaving Cancun, and we got into Detroit too late to catch our connection. Delta couldn’t fly us out until 5:30 pm Sunday, but they could get us to DC early in the morning, so we opted to try that route. Delta was nice enough to put us up in a hotel, and gave us meal vouchers, so it didn’t cost us anything extra. The plane to DC left at 7:35 am, so (groan), we had to get up at 4:45 to make the shuttle.

It should have been easy to get to Richmond from DC, but our first surprise was finding out that Dollar and Thrift wanted $400 for a rental–they said it was hard to get cars back to DC. I finally tried Hertz, figuring they had a bigger fleet, and shouldn’t have this problem. It worked, and we got a car for $150. However, the car was not on site, and we had to take the Metro to a Hilton near Dupont Circle. We finally got on the road about 1:00 pm. Then, just as I had 395 practically in sight, and was breathing a sigh of relief, we were rudely blocked by a parade on 14th St. Foiled again. We had to head west out of town via I-66, to I-495. We finally got on I-95, and thought our problems were over. Ha. Gridlock on 95, most of the way home. It took 4 hours to go 100 miles.

We were running so late, Megan had to go directly to work in Chester, and she didn’t get to see her mom until after her shift, around 8:30 pm. We couldn’t call because we were stuck in traffic, and my cell phone had died because my charger wouldn’t work in Mexico. After I got home, it worked fine–it must have been something with the difference in AC. My PC though, worked fine in Cancun.

When you install Dropbox, it adds a folder, My Dropbox, to your My Documents folder. Then, you just move your pst file to the Dropbox folder. When you restart Outlook, you will be prompted for the new location. After you’ve done that on one computer, add Dropbox to your 2nd computer. Wait a few minutes, and the pst file will appear. Then rename your pst file for the 2nd computer and start Outlook up. It will also ask for the location, and after you point it to My Dropbox, you’re in businees.

Dropbox takes care of syncing things automatically from that point on. I was dubious at first, but it works great.

Back when podcasting was new, it was easy to find a podcatcher (a site that lets you subscribe to podcasts). I used to use Juice, but it doesn’t work very well with Vista. I’ve tried some others after Juice broke, but they were also-rans. I resurrected my interested after buying a Zune, because it has the built in ability to subscribe to podcasts. Some are video, and since the Zune excels at showing video, that’s nice, but a lot of them just show who’s talking, so it might as well be audio only.

Plus, I needed some filler audio for my car, in between listening to audio books. The search was on for something that would work with Vista. I found it in an unlikely place. I’d had Media Monkey for years, and never knew that it had podcatcher capability. I remembered that I had used it to download podcasts after catching them from Juice, so I checked again, and voila, the capability was there. It works like a charm, and it even recognized my Sansa Clip+, so I don’t have to go back and forth between different software programs. You do have to make sure it’s the newest version, 3.2, as my original didn’t work on Vista.

A really good site to search for podcasts is podcastalley.com. Right now, I have downloaded some podcasts on barbecuing, astronomy, and Dr. Who. Between Media Monkey and Zune, I believe I’m set for a few more years.

It’s all indoor, so it can get pretty hot in the summer, and cool in the winter, but hey, when you’re in the pit, waiting for your turn, all this is immaterial. Both boys got an extra race because it was their birth month, so that made papa happy (less $$).

Grill the wings, but for the last 5-6 minutes, cover them with Masterpiece Marinade–Lemon Pepper. You don’t need to cover both sides, just the top one will do. Yes, the bottle says marinade, but I use these Masterpiece marinades as a glaze. They’re thick, so they don’t run right off the meat. I use the Masterpiece Steak Marinade for… uh, steaks. Again, you don’t need to marinade, just add salt and pepper directly to the meat, and then cover with the sauce. Both sides for steak.

In addition, I had been thinking about the possibilities of transferring my enjoyment of audio books to senior citizens and handicapped people. Mp3 players are pretty cheap nowadays, and very reliable. I like listening to them, even though I’m perfectly capable of reading books, because it gives me another way to “read.” I’m a voracious reader of books, and this lets me read and drive.

So, I’d been tossing these ideas around in the back of my mind, when I started riding the bus and happened to make friends with a coworker, who is also blind. One day, I just asked her, would you be interested in listening to audio books? She said yes, and I jumped at the chance to see how well I could make this work.
And of course, that gave me the excuse to buy a new player. After I gave her my Clip, I needed to have another player to listen to my current book, right? Of course.

I gave her the player about a week ago, and gave her a lesson in the cafeteria. So far, she can get to the songs I had loaded, but she hasn’t been able to figure out how to listen to the book. The music is definitely easier to navigate to–it only takes a couple of button presses, but the audio book is a little more complex. So, the jury is still out on whether this is a good idea or not.

I’d been reading about the Zune–it was a little high priced, at $200, but I’d seen that the price was going down. I only had three requirements for a player–music, video, and audio books. The Zune fulfills all three, and gives me much more. What a wonder for the price–the 16 gig model is now $165 on Amazon.

The extra features are:

• HD radio–it’s the only player on the market that has this capability
• Internet access–it’s pretty cool to go into McDonald’s and be able to browse the Drudge Report
• Wi-fi capability for transferring videos and songs
• YouTube videos–I can transfer anything on YouTube to the Zune
• Applications–including games
• High quality video–you can’t believe how good videos look on a Zune
• Accelerometer–useful for games, and also lets the screen rotate automatically into wide screen format

To say that I’m satisfied is an understatement. I have found though, that even though I can listen to audio books in the car with it, you have to go through a lot more steps to start it up and shut it down. So, I’ve ordered another Clip for the car. With the Clip, I don’t have to physically carry it back and forth–I just leave it hanging from my rear view mirror, and I can turn it on and off with just one button press, without even having to look. The Clip is the perfect tool for driving and listening to audio books. And Amazon is selling the Clip+ (has a micro-SD slot) for $26.95, free shipping). A steal.