Return to the Motherland

Marci and I will be traveling to South Africa this summer.
YAAAAY for us!
It's been a good 15 years since my family left, and I decided that it was now or never.
(The other motivating factor was that I found airfares really cheap)
The best part is that I get to plan the whole trip. Marci told me last week that she just wants to go, and have it all organized.
This is awesome!
And so I have planned a week long trip across the Karoo desert on camelback.
(Don't tell her it is going to be a big surprise.)
Yeah right. Can you imagine? "We are doing what?" Followed by the look of death.
You know, the one all wives give their husbands when what they are trying to say is - "Have you lost your mind"
I used to get that look a lot when we first got married. Now I know when it is coming and I just start to laugh nervously, or do what all guys do and say "ha, ha, just joking" in the nick of time.

I have discovered that ladies like traveling away from home only on the following conditions:
1: Proximity to a working electrical outlet must be maintained.
2: Proximity to a working toilet, must also be maintained
3: An entire country must ensure that their electrical system will function with the grooming tools of choice - namely hairdryer, and curling iron. (Works in conjunction with rule #1)
4: A much larger then necessary suitcase is required, and non-negotiable.
5: Any overflow of luggage will require additional space in your luggage, also non-negotiable (see section a/addendum B "using sex as a bargaining tool")
6: Proximity to running water must be maintained at all times
7: Running water MUST be available in a heated configuration.

Men have few rules for travel. In fact, these are some of Sean's rules and tips.
1: Always carry on luggage. They cant lose it that way, and no checking baggage!!
2: Travel light - underwear can be turned inside out if necessary
3: If I forget it here, I can buy it there.
4: I don't want to talk to anyone on the plane, even pleasant old ladies. I just want to sit and be quiet and miserable like everyone else
5: Don't take shampoo or soap, the hotel will have plenty of that stuff. Then you don't have to put it in those little bags for security.
6: Always get the aisle seat, that way you can get up when you need to.
7: Check in online at home, print your boarding pass, and go right to security. No checking in. This has saved my butt from missing a flight countless times.
8: Always travel with earplugs. You never know when that broken old A/C in your hotel room is going to go click, click, click all night.
9: Essentials for any trip - your most comfy jeans, and an I-pod
10: Leave your parking stub in your car, under the visor. Once you get into the airport put your car keys in a secure place - for me usually in a pocket in my suitcase.
11: Remember your parking spot!! A handy trick I use is to send myself a text message with the space number. Nothing is worse than getting into a dark parking lot after a long flight and not remembering where you parked the car. I did this once on a cold, snowy night, and walked the lot for 45 mins in my business shoes and dress pants. Never again. This way you store the number on your cell phone and voila.

There you go.
I am looking forward to spending time just with my wife. Once we see all our family, Marci and I are going to head out in to the eastern cape for 3 days, just us.
We are going up the garden route (google it if you want) after we spend some treasured time with my grandparents, and my family.

I will be sure to post a very informative blog after our trip!

Sean.

Some info on Cape Town
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town

Go green

Marci and I have been on this kick recently, that we need to do our part to help "be good stewards of the environment"

What does this mean? Are we suddenly joining Greenpeace? Are we going to support community screenings of Al Gore's movie? Are we going to grow our own family of trees, and start hugging them at least once a week? No.
None of that nonsense.
For a while now, I've secretly been feeling that I need to be more conscious of the things I do on a daily basis that affect the environment around me. We in America are so used to living in a disposable society, we use stuff and then just throw it away. Its easy, its guiltless, its convenient.
Use, dispose. Use, dispose. Do you ever stop to wonder what happens to the things we just discard?
It has to go somewhere, it doesn't just cease to exist when you dont see it anymore in the bottom of the trash can. The space it occupies isn't just voided out underneath the garbage pile.

There used to be a lady at my old job who brought a big box into work every week. Her goal in life was to collect the used soda bottles from the lunchroom. She would take the box down to her local recycling center, and make sure that all that plastic was recycled, and re-used.
She never said anything, she just did it. No-one paid her for the extra gas she used in her car, or for her time. Why did she do it? I would often asked myself. What did she care? If I wanted to throw my used bottle in the trash and choose not to recycle that was my right! We didn't even get along, she used to call me "Mr big stuff" and she would sing that annoying song around me - probably because I thought I actually was "Mr big stuff" in my youthful arrogance.
I finally realized one day after I offered to help her carry the full box out to her car why she did this.
Every time she drove down to the recycling center, it gave her a good feeling inside to know that she was not being part of the common mentality that is used to simply wasting, and discarding. It didn't make her a better person. It just felt good.

Marci bought this book recently by Ed Begley Jr. He is passionate about energy efficiency, conservation, and going green. I must admit at first I thought it was another book by a tree hugger, bashing the Bush administration about global warming blah, blah, blah.
Well after I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.
Not a word about any of that stuff. Just really great ideas on how to be more environmentally friendly and frankly, save money. (I like that part!!!)
Save money? Huh?
Yes.
So, in the past few weeks I have installed a programmable thermostat, changed most of our light bulbs to the new CFL (compact fluorescent light) and paid much more attention to what we throw into the trash, and what we recycle.
And to be honest, it feels good. Not only do I feel less like and all consuming, disposing, human being - we are actually saving money.
The effort required is minimal, and yes the new light bulbs were a little more expensive. But 1 regular light bulb uses the same energy as 5 CFL bulbs. And they last up to 12 years. 12 YEARS!!! Do you know how much it irritates me when I have to change a light bulb and we don't have any left? But lighting 5 bulbs for one? And I get the same amount of light?
Hello - no brainer.

Simple things like running the dishwasher after 8pm (after peak demand) help save energy.
When we bought our new washer and dryer, the salesman convinced us to buy the fancy new (and much more expensive) Bosch models. His claim was that the washer only used 10 gallons of water per cycle instead of 40 gallons per cycle like a regular washer. His other claim that we only need "a tablespoon of detergent per load" seemed like a good sales pitch to me, but its true. Since we moved here in August last year, we are literally still on the same container of detergent, and yes, our clothes are clean and fresh every time. Our water consumption is very low as well.
The dryer has a moisture sensor in it that shuts the machine off when the clothes are dry.
Brilliant!!! No more just setting the timer to 60 mins, when you only need 25 mins to dry your jeans. That is wasteful, and we pay the electric bill.

Naysayers will say, "So what, there is plenty of fresh water, who cares?"
Sure there is. But it takes energy and more petrochemicals to clean every extra gallon of dirty water. So who does care - well at the moment everyone does, since a barrel of oil hit $100, up from 30 only 3 years ago.
Like paying over $3.00 for a gallon of gas?

I was watching a documentary on the Exxon Valdez oil spill last night. I remember the absolute outrage, and anger this created about the affect this would have on the environment. How many Americans watched the news that night with utter disgust at the negligence of the "evil oil company" and then threw away their plastic tv dinner tray without even thinking about what affect that would have on the environment. The sad truth, is that all that oil was actually on its way to America to power our SUV's and cars, and make little plastic tv dinner trays.
So we are all part of the process. Now I know, we need cars, we need dinner, we all watch TV's.
But still - it made me think. Oil companies exist because we all use oil, and energy.
There would be no Exxon Valdez without the need we have created for oil, and all of the useful things it produces. I'm not condoning their actions, what happened was an accident, and a subsequent investigation blamed the spill on the inexperienced sailor who ran the ship aground and the captain who left the bridge unsupervised.
Oil is in everything. Like your new cell-phone? Plastic made from Crude oil. Like that new carpet in your house? Yep, from crude oil. Like that new salon shampoo you just bought for $14 bucks - you guessed it the container ultimately comes from crude oil. And it is very likely many of the chemicals in the shampoo are an oil by product.
So there are many factors as to why the price of oil is so high, but that is another discussion.
We can all still contribute to saving it, by recycling, driving a little slower, and choosing what products we buy.

Anyway, I digress.

We discovered that Lancaster County has a fantastic program just for recycling. I won't bore you with the details, but they take everything from old paint, to old TV's and computers, old household chemicals. My Dad recently recycled and old TV that he had for years (and was partially in love with) Way to go Dad!!
I also read that Lancaster burns 80% of the household trash they collect to create electricity.
This means that only 20% goes into a landfill. (And yes, they do treat the emissions this creates before releasing it into the atmosphere)
At the local Giant that we shop at, they offer these neat reusable fabric shopping bags.
You can use them as much as you want. 1 Bag hold up to $30 in groceries. We love them.
No more old plastic bags clogging up our trash and laundry closet, no more cereal boxes tearing through the side. No more multiple bagging for the gallon of milk, or big cans. No more of the handles stretching and cutting a line in your hand. When we are done shopping, they go back into the trunk.

So here are some helpful links that you can check out to help reduce your energy consumption.
You don't need to join the Sierra club, or Greenpeace. If you feel like hugging a tree then go ahead. You dont need to become a hippie, or a crazy environmentalist - but if the thought of saving money, and feeling better about the impact you have on the environment appeals to you than check these out.

Energy Star - Great for tips on saving electricity
http://www.energystar.gov/

Lancaster County recycling
http://www.lcswma.org/recyclingInfo.asp

Vegas, Baby!!

I spent a few days last week in Las Vegas. A group of us from work attended Conexpo 2008 Basically the largest construction equipment convention in the galaxy. We flew out last wednesday, and I came home on saturday. To say that the convention was rather large would be a complete understatement. Massive, gargantuan, completely impressive would be words better suited to describe the show, it was awesome. It took 2 days of solid walking to see everything I needed to see, and I still didn't see everything.
Needles to say that by the end of it, I was pretty tired.

We also had an opportunity to spend some time walking around 'Vegas.
What an experience that was, so here are my observations.

1: Las Vegas was built by an alien civilization, determined to extract as much money as possible from the human race. They needed this money to help re-finance the unfolding sub-prime mortgage disaster on their own planet.
2: The aliens have also constructed some kind of time altering mechanisim flux capacitor thingy that makes time, well, irrelevant. (That way you spend more money)
3: Elvis apparently has many brethren that look just like him. My opinion is that they are undercover alien FBI agents, keeping an eye on us humans.
4: The alien logistics, and zoning committee that picked the site for Las Vegas construction did a lousy job. Somehow, they picked the middle of the desert. Don't they know we humans require large amounts of water for survival?
5: After the Chief of the zoning committee was fired for this mistake, they just built Hoover dam, and solved that problem. Ah - free electricity too!!! Brilliant!!!
6: During the test and market research phase of their project, they also discovered that as long as you have cocktail waitresses feeding the humans free alcohol, they tend to keep putting more and more money into their slot machine-money collection systems.
7: Make it big and shiny, with lots of sparkly lights and neon, and the humans just keep coming back!!! Moohahahah.....

Well, it seems to be working - quite well actually.
I was almost suckered in, until I hit a 777 on the 25c slot machine, and took them for $12.50.
HAHAHAHA.
I got my money out before they could get any more of it. Take that you freaks.

So, also thanks to my company for putting us up in a very swanky hotel. I have vowed to return someday, I just find those big neon lights strangely attractive.....

Sean.

The Venetian, outside




Caesars Palace (E.T. HQ)