Larry Ellison's Multihull ~ Wow ~ Quite the Beam on this Thing!

We are just finding all kinds of interesting stuff on the internet.
Check out what Mr. Ellison wants to get into the America's Cup!
Click on the post title to be taken to the article.

Oh I sure hope we have "real TV" by the next Cup!
Last time it was on we would get up an hour early each morning to watch.
They had it timed just perfectly to end just as I needed to leave for work.
We would make jokes that watching sailboats race is similar to watching paint dry.
However, the paint kept getting wet again...

Ooohhhh - can't wait!
The one televised sport we watch!
Except for the Mexican hell version of The Olympics.

A Sistership for Sale!

This is only the third time we have seen an Ocean 49 for sale, including when our boat was listed.
We pretty much bought our's after viewing photos.
Lousy photos.
Lousy photos via email.
In fact these lousy photos.











Yep, it was that shower pic that sold us.
Makes you want to run right out and buy a boat over the internet, doesn't it?
Actually I am so happy Jim could see "through" these pictures!

Click on the post title to go to the listing of the sistership.
We love the price they have listed!!
Reminds us once again that we got the deal of the century.

An Amazing Bee Photo by Alaskan Dave Who is Now Down Under

Wow - I found this guy's blog awhile back by clicking on "sailing" in my profile.
His bird photos are beautiful!
Click on the post title to go to his post with his incredible photo of a bee with a huge load of pollen.
Check back on his blog often ~ his pictures are worth it!
His sense of humor is not bad either :)

Rain at 9 pm - A Nice Change...

Amazing ~ the sound of raindrops on the deck at night.
Not one we hear often in La Paz.
Usually it is an afternoon thunderstorm.
It's cooling and nice.
Especially since both of our air conditioners have gone on vacation.

However, I cannot imagine the sounds the people in Western Cuba are hearing.
Thundering rain...
Winds stronger than any imagination could have ever prepared them for...

Not Good...

Not good for the 78 people who did not make it through Gustav.
Not good for Cuba.
Not good for Louisiana.
Just not good.

Wasting Time Before I Go Meet the Water Truck...

I'm still on the goldfish theme here...
Snapple Cap #34:
#34 If you keep a goldfish in a dark room it will eventually turn white.
So would we then call it a whitefish?

And where did someone leave this little one to make him red?
The "red light" district?And what about this one ~ did someone leave him at the "Monster Garage" TV show?Ok, let's see how many new hits I get from that one!
Yes I know, I have too much time on my hands... but what else do you do on a cloudy Saturday in La Paz, when your husband has a cold?
I read Snapple cap facts.

Happy 371'st Birthday to Geelizzie!

Wow!
Is my sister, Elizabeth OLD!
Well, in dog years anyway...
Here she is when she was really little and wore matching dresses with our older sister, Linda who is really old in dog years. When she was a cowgirl with our brother, Gary who is pretty old in dog years too - remember I am the youngest!When she was a world jetsetter traveler and needed a new passport.When we (me, Donna and Liz-beth) were yachties boaters in Maryland.I guess they were afraid I was going to drown on land...

When she turned in to an adult.She was kind of a surly teenager, so I don't think she let anyone near her with a camera for several years...

I'm sure my family love the fact that I have 8 billion family pics scanned into my computer... but that's what they get for "allowing" me to sort of be in charge of my dad's memorial!!
Had to scan all these in for a slide show (one of his favorite things to torment do with his kids - watch slides of our lives (actually I loved this as a kid!)

She is a talented craftsperson, with a great sense of humor.
Click on my post title to be taken to her "etsy" shop!

Happy Birthday really old Liz-beth!
(Hey - she is the one that started this dog year thing ~ take a look at her blog!)

The Nice Things I Saw on My Walkabout Town Today!

I came across some beautiful front doors!



And this
loaded down
date palm,
ready to drop
dates on the
people walking
along The Malecon!

Sidewalk Hazard #7,849,589,584,302

When crossing from one sidewalk to another sidewalk in a crosswalk, you should not have to crawl across a parked car.I considered opening the driver door, crawling through and going out the passenger door.
But the twit ~ yes I know, a twit is a pregnant goldfish person who parked it there (and yes it was parked, along with the one behind it) locked it.
Must have planned to be gone awhile.

Boycott Papas & Beer

Their marketing plan was designed by morons.
Every Saturday night some twit ~ oops! I know that a twit is a pregnant goldfish, not someone working for Papas & Beer! someone walks down this street (where I happen to park my car) and they put Papas & Beer bumper stickers on all the cars' back windows.Yep ~ that makes me want to run right over and spend money in their establishment!
Not acceptable.
I have peeled two off of my car so far.I'm keeping them til I can have a little chat with the twit manager El Jefe de Papas & Beer, which by the way, I am boycotting for life not that I would ever set foot in there anyway...

Computer's Back! Which Means Here are Pam's B-day Pics!

Here is the lovely Spamela Pamelia (yes that is how her name is spelled) and her hubby Timay Timay Timay Timay Tim, celebrating Stan's birthday.If they were here, I would use the same hats and decorations, so we will just pretend this was her birthday.

And when she decorated her hat in Mag Bay.



Playing hopscotch
in Mag Bay.




When I introduced her to micheladas in San Jose del Cabo!And when she was a flower for Easter...So happy birthday again Pam!
Celebrate all week long like we do...
I think they should change birthday to birthweek ~ think of all the fun, prizes and parties!

AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH ! ! ! ! !

The Mexican Immigration has asked that we re-file our working papers starting brand new in mid-September.
A whole new file started.
Which means we need to leave the country and then come back in.
In the next 7 days...Now if the chick (who we paid!) helping us with the paperwork initially, had just simply sent me an email when we were having difficulties the first time, we could have obtained new 180 day visas when we drove in the country in July.
But noooooooooo!
So road trip or fly?
That is the question.

On a lighter note, here's another interesting fact from a Snapple cap.
I think I will stick with the goldfish theme for now, then move on into salt water and ocean facts.
Yes, I have too much time on my hands...
And now I am getting a headache from banging my head against the wall.

Interesting fact #431:
#431 A twit is the technical term for a pregnant goldfish.
And here I always thought a twit was someone that didn't convey important information to you via email when your paperwork needed to be changed so you could get new visas because you were already out of the country and the twit knew it cause she got you papers to leave the country. Twit.

The Reason We Have More Than 5 Readers...

Is due to my post "Watermakers v. Penguins", posted on 06-23-08.
All due to a fact I read on the inside of a Snapple cap...

Click on my post title above to be taken to their list of 675 interesting facts.

I just happened to get #131 on my drink one day:
#131 Penguins have an organ above their eyes that converts seawater to fresh water

#131 must be on a lot of Snapple caps, because I have gotten about 100 hits from that!
All the searches were "penguins organ convert seawater freshwater" or something close.



Gee thanks Snapple!


Hmmmmmmm..... I think I will do a little experiment here.
Post a different fact every so often and see how many people arrive on my blog.
It will show us either how many people are curious, have too much time on their hands or don't believe the Snapple people.

I think I will start with #1:
#1 A Goldfish's attention span is three seconds.

Hmmmmmm... sounds like a lot of people I know.

Here is Why Our Computer Guy Couldn't Get Here This Morning...

Basically, it was too much fun!

And funny.

At least Carol thought it was funny...



Marcos was just happy to finally win a card.





Something about playing "Apples to Apples" in Luche Libre masks would make anyone late for work the next day...Thanks for the pics Carol!
As blurry as the last one may be...
Oh wait, I took that one!

"Hurry Up and Wait" or "Living on Mexico Time"

Still waiting for the computer guy...
Was supposed to be here last night, but we let him off easy and instead of making him work at 8 pm, we had him join us for dinner on "Capricorn Cat".
Then he was supposed to be back on "Cap Cat" at 10 am this morning, then come here.
It's almost 1 pm, and we haven't heard from him.
Gee... hope we didn't give him too much wine last night...

**UPDATE**
Yep, that is what happened.
We gave him too much wine last night...
And he was moving sssllllooooooooooowwwww today.
Poor guy.
He has our hard drive to save all of our stuff, then we will do a recovery.
All this due to an update we received from the lovely computer company.
I wonder how many thousands and thousands and thousands of people this happened to.
Seems like the computer company should be stepping up to the plate here...

Happy Birthday Spamela!

Happy, happy b-day to Pam!
Our good friend and crew member from our trip down Baja.
Now the bummer part... since that power surge, I can't get in to our big computer where I store my photos.
I had several all picked out already for this post :(
But the computer guy is coming this afternoon, so check back later for pictures of Spam Pam!

Wimpy, Wimpy, Wimpy

So who's old enough to remember that commercial?
And what was it for?
I know, I know, I know!
So Julio wimped out and pretty much skirted La Paz.
We never saw any winds over 20 kts ~ which is a good thing!
We had rain, but never any outright downpours.
After all the preparations we almost wanted to see "something" ~ maybe a giant downpour for 10 minutes?
Anything to wash the dirt off of the deck ~ it just keeps dripping down from the rigging and makes mud puddles all over...
It's cloudy today with Julio's leftovers and there is still a chance of rain.
I guess this was good practice in case we get a hurricane this year!

Jim is Singing "Me and Julio Down by the Boatyard"

Paul Simon would be proud...

This storm fizzled out then built back up!
It's been raining steadily for an hour or so (perfect timing as I drove "Capricorn Cat" to the grocery store and got back an hour ago).
Thanks Julio for waiting to start pouring until we got back to our boats!

The center is a little less than 30 miles South of us, so we figure the brunt of the storm will be here around 9 pm.There is not much wind to it at this point - maybe 35 gusting to 45.
We both made several deposits into the "Karma Bank" today, so we should be fine.
Tied up a panga...
Took the panga's bimini down...
Told the marina what canvas was up on which boats that someone may need to take down...
Can you say "duh"? Why someone would park their boat in a hurricane zone during hurricane season and leave their roller furling, sunshades, biminis, blah, blah, blah up is beyond me, so yes, can you say "duh"?
Took Wayne and Carol to the grocery store...
Rescued a almost floating away almost sinking dinghy...
Good enough for one day!

Tropical Storm Julio

Here it comes!
Our first tropical storm of the season.
Oh yipee.It's been raining off and on since yesterday.
100% gray cloud cover.
And it's moving towards us from Cabo San Pucas, oops I mean Lucas.
I do that all the time...

Interesting computer paths.We will be checking weather all day.
And in between checking weather I am going to work a little this morning, then in the afternoon we have an "Apples to Apples Tournament" scheduled with "Capricorn Cat".
Gee - do we know how to have fun or what?

We also are going to take the sunshade - sunshade? There's no sun out there today! rainshade down, put out a few more docklines and prepare the panga tied next to us...
The panga has two wimpy docklines out and their bimini up.
And the boat on the other side of the panga has it's Conastoga wagon cover up.
Which might mysteriously disappear in 50 kt winds...
And show up on our boat.

Also, consider yourselves lucky.
A power surge caused by lightning took out our big computer the other day.
I haven't figured out how to load pictures from my camera to the laptop yet.
So I can't tantalize you with photos of raindrops...
Everyone say, "Oh yipee" at the same time now.

So here we kept "wishing for rain" and now we have it.

Just a Tad More on The Olympic Games

Yea - Mexico wins a gold medal!
Yea for Guillermo Perez!He won his gold medal in taekwondo.
Yea Guillermo!

Soooooo... now on the Mexican TV stations it's all about Guillermo.
Guillermo watching the other sports.
Guillermo watching diving.
Guillermo talking to the president of Mexico on the phone.
Guillermo talking to a puppet.
Guillermo watching replays of his win.
Guillermo watching replays of replays of his win.
Guillermo talking to the puppet again.
Seriously, 45 minutes of Guillermo last night.

What else did they show during The Olympics on Mexican TV last night?
Sports that included Mexicans.
Only sports that included Mexicans.
The race-walk.
The entire race-walk.
Oh wait, they did a split screen to show two, yes two, BMX races.
The BMX races were pretty darn exciting!
The go fast, they get air, they crash and burn!
Exciting.
Ok, back to the guys walking as fast as they can for 50 kilometers.
Yes, 50 kilometers...
Walk, walk, walk.

And now back to Guillermo!
Guillermo watching the other sports.
Guillermo watching diving.
Guillermo talking to the president of Mexico on the phone.
Guillermo talking to a puppet.
Guillermo watching replays of his win.
Guillermo watching replays of replays of his win.
Guillermo talking to the puppet again.
45 more minutes of Guillermo.

In all real "seriousness", we like Guillermo.
He seems like a really nice guy.
And we are very happy for him.
Congratulations to you Guillermo!

It's just that AGAIN!
There is nothing like watching Mexican TV.
N O T H I N G.

Walk, walk, walk.
Guillermo
Walk, walk, walk.
Guillermo
Walk, walk, walk.
Guillermo

Over and over and over again.

Scenes from Yesterday

No, not the 100 year ago yesterday.
Yesterday.
When we had rain in the middle of the day, not in the late afternoon.
And some beautiful thunderheads all afternoon.As I said before, we love clouds now!
We love rain now!
Jim hated rain when we lived in Alta California.
Now we pray for clouds and rain...
We loved the sun in Alta California.
Now we want shade at all times.

The late afternoon was beautiful as well.
Interesting lighting and colors.




Today we have clouds 360 degrees all around us.
But no clouds above.
Yet.
No rain yet either, but there is still time!
The thunderheads are building to the South Southeast.
Come on thunderheads!

Yikes! Where's the Boat?

Oh found it!
That's right ~ I remember now ~ we moved it!Into our "summer slip".
One that has more protection in the event of some windy tropical weather.
It's closer to the heads!
It's closer to the cars!
It's hotter! Oh wait, that's not a good thing...
But it is better protected!

More on The Olympic Games

Where have I been the last several years?

When did jumping on a trampoline become an Olympic sport?
I bet The Man Show had something to do with this one...
You know, "And now girls jumping on trampolines!"

When did synchronized diving become an Olympic sport?
And why two people?
Let's make it harder ~ have eight or ten or even twenty people dive at the same time.

Badminton?
That was always the easy way out of PE class...

Handball?

I get the synchronized swimming thing (sort of ~ Jim just laughs).
But where is the Esther Willams' aspect of this "sport"?
Why only two girls?
I want to see twenty women with noseplugs on trying not to drown.
And why not men?

Why are some sports for one sex and not the other?
I want to see guys doing backflips on the balance beam.
In Junior High the girls always had to do the parallel bars ~ why is this only for men now?

Why only synchronized diving and swimming?
John wants to see synchronized boxing.
I personally want to see synchronized trampolining and synchronized badminton.
And maybe at the same time.
Do a flip and hit the birdie or is that flip the birdie?

Equestrian?
The horse is doing all the work.
And if equestrian is in there, what about all the other cowboy sports?
Bull riding, cattle roping, barrel racing, bronc riding...

Shooting?
Rifles, pistols, skeet.
What about Uzi, semi-automatics and sawed off shotguns?

Table Tennis?
How about a game from my high school days ~ Beer Pong?

And here are some other Olympic Games that I would like to see:


Unicycling ~ no end to this one!
They could have
100 meters,
relays,
a marathon,
tricks...



Yoga ~ who can stay in downward facing dog the longest and with the best form?
Skateboarding ~ wait, is that already in there?
Carol wants to see jump roping.

I want to see hopscotch.





What about bowling?
Darts
Surfing
Roller Skating ~ Inline 1000 meter, roller derby style where they beat the crap out of each other...
Skim boarding
Stilts ~ 100 meter, 400 meter, relays, marathons...


Pogo Sticks ~ 50 yard dash, pogo stick over the pole vault bar...





Hula Hoops!
Who can go the longest?
Who has the best tricks?




Four Square
Caber Toss (hey, they have the hammer throw, why not this?)
Dodge Ball (oops, that might be in there somewhere too)


Pin the Tail on the Donkey
(it's very similar to archery!)



Twister
Monopoly
Chutes and Ladders
Operation
Candyland

The list is endless...

Watching the Olympics on Mexican TV

There is something very strange, interesting, disturbing and somewhat entertaining about watching big events on TV while you are in a foreign country.
I watched America's Bicentennial Celebration on French TV.
And I have watched The Olympics several times while being in countries other than the USA.
But there is nothing like watching The Olympics on Mexican television...
N O T H I N G.

The commentator stage set looks like something from a bad 70's game show.The colors, the flashing lights, the metallic stripes across the center table, the egg chairs - WAIT, EGG CHAIRS??
When is the last time you saw a chair that looked like an egg?I think they have some of these on rides in Disneyland...
Why do they even have a table in the middle when each guy has a tv screen right in front of his face?
And why put them in a circle?
There is something not right about this set...

The choices of sports are pretty funny too.
Interrupting men's gymnastics to show women's judo.
But, hey one of the women doing judo was from Mexico!

Mexico is very proud of their athletes ~ which is a good thing!
Mexico's one medal awarded so far was won by Paola Espinosa ~ a diver from La Paz, and her partner (sorry, can't remember her name) for sychronized diving (another topic to follow).

Then there are the skits they use for filler (because it certainly can't be called humor) in between broadcasting sports.
This one is much newer ~ I believe this is from the 80's instead of the 70's!




It was called "Nancy Aerobics".

What is with the blonde wigs?
Who are they making fun of?
Are they trying to make fun of us (the USA) in the 80's?
That is not necessary.
We make fun of ourselves in the 80's.
All the time.
Who thinks this is entertaining?
It's kind of scary.
But in the long run reminds me of US programs...
The ones that embarrass me.
You know, all the "reality TV".
What is real about a bunch of chicks living in a mansion fighting for "an elegible bachelor"?
Yep, that's real ~ happened all the time in my old neighborhood.