you're welcome

you're welcome [vroom]
So thanks to, (or in spite of), BD...
I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.....

rest in peace, dark horse

rest in peace, dark horse [ap]
LOS ANGELES -- George Harrison, the Beatles' quiet lead guitarist and spiritual explorer who added both rock 'n' roll flash and a touch of the mystic to the band's timeless magic, has died. He was 58.

My sweet lord | Hm, my lord | Hm, my lord
I really want to see you | Really want to be with you | Really want to see you lord | But it takes so long, my lord
My sweet lord | Hm, my lord | Hm, my lord
I really want to know you | Really want to go with you | Really want to show you lord | That it won't take long, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah) | Hm, my lord (hallelujah) | My sweet lord (hallelujah)
I really want to see you | Really want to see you | Really want to see you, lord | Really want to see you, lord | But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)
My sweet lord (hallelujah) | Hm, my lord (hallelujah) | My sweet lord (hallelujah)
I really want to know you (hallelujah) | Really want to go with you (hallelujah) | Really want to show you lord (aaah) | That it won't take long, my lord (hallelujah)
Hmm (hallelujah) | My sweet lord (hallelujah) | My, my, lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hare krishna) | My, my, my lord (hare krishna) | Oh hm, my sweet lord (krishna, krishna) | Oh-uuh-uh (hare hare)
Now, I really want to see you (hare rama) | Really want to be with you (hare rama) | Really want to see you lord (aaah) | But it takes so long, my lord (hallelujah)
Hm, my lord (hallelujah) | My, my, my lord (hare krishna) | My sweet lord (hare krishna) | My sweet lord (krishna krishna) | My lord (hare hare)
Hm, hm (Gurur Brahma) | Hm, hm (Gurur Vishnu) | Hm, hm (Gurur Devo) | Hm, hm (Maheshwara)
My sweet lord (Gurur Sakshaat) | My sweet lord (Parabrahma) | My, my, my lord (Tasmayi Shree) | My, my, my, my lord (Guruve Namah) | My sweet lord (Hare Rama)
(hare krishna) | My sweet lord (hare krishna) | My sweet lord (krishna krishna) | My lord (hare hare)

a quarterly dose of dustyjen

a quarterly dose of dustyjen

Nick: She's a damn good writer, it's too bad that getting something printed is so difficult.

Me: One just has to take the initiative... self-publish a 'zine. I'd pay shipping & handling to receive a quarterly dose of dustyjen. Heck, give me the submission guidelines and I'll contribute to a quarterly dose of dustyjen. (Sorry, I just like the way that rolls... "a quarterly dose of dustyjen") ;-)

Nick: Heh. It's just not the same as seeing your words on heavy paper, hard bound.

Me: You're right. I've only been published once, but it was way cool. Very impressive to a dude in high school.

It was a class assignment that got passed from the class, to the school lit magazine, to the county board of acheivement (or something like that) where it won an award and got published with the rest of the year's winners. I had bunches of other assignments get reccomended for the lit magazine, but I had to pull those because they were plaigerized. :-) It helped immensely to be on the lit mag's editorial board. "Oh, um, well, there isn't enough column inches for this one. Next?"

There were a couple of pieces that went through that office that I really wish I'd kept, though. We used to sponsor a monthly contest as well as the annual zine (which was really a subsection of the yearbook, but they gave us 16 pages to do whatever the hell we wanted).

One month the contest topic was: write something from the point of view of a piece of food. I submitted a diary from one of a pair of backpackers lost in the woods... The best part about that submission was not what I wrote, but sitting around during the judging process watching people read it with this confused look on their faces: "What is this? Why is this here? This isn't from the perspective of food? I don't underst... OH MY GOD."

Nick: Took them a couple minutes, huh?

Me: It took most of them until the last entry, which wasn't from the guy writing. It was a news clipping about finding one surviving backpacker while the second remained missing.

Nick: You've got a little streak of Stephen King inside your noggin, don't you? Or, maybe some Twilight Zone. That's one thing I've never been able to write: scary stuff.

Me: My second piece for that contest, which people were much more comfortable with, was a bunch of fruits & veggies in a refrigerator with a meticulous "Great Escape" plan of action. The whole thing hinged on jumping off the shelf when the door was next opened, and then making their way through the kitchen... but when it came time to jump... they realized they had no legs...

Nick: Haha. Foiled by mother nature.

Me: But the one that should've won, the one that everybody loved, we had to disqualify because it was merely about food and not from the perspective of. Not to mention it was pretty hardcore and we never could've published it. Not in a high school rag, anyway.

Nick: It was hardcore? It was about fruit, no?

Me: It was about a young lady who was applying lavish oral attention to a Twinkie. It was the kind of thing that found it's way into permanent residence in the gentlemen's locker room. And Kate will be forever remember as that girl who wrote about the Twinkie. She came back to homecoming 2-3 years after gradutation, and people were: "Hey, I know you. You're that girl who..."

Nick: Every club, team, and activity had "one of those girls" in my high school.

Me: I led a sheltered high school existence. Do you remember the movie "Sixteen Candles"?

Nick: Sure.

Me: I was 'Farmer Ted'.

Nick: Wow.

Me: I was a geek. But I was the geek closest to normal. I was on the fringe. I was the cross-over kid, just on the outside of every clique we had: accepted, but never acknowledged. Everybody knew of me, but nobody really knew me.

It really blew my mind one year. October 23rd comes around and I get to school and people I had never met -- never talked to, heck never even seen before -- were passing me in the halls and wishing me a happy birthday. It freaked me out until I get to my 6th period English class and I find that it had been posted on the chalkboard. I figured cool, so that's how people knew "Today's Birthdays: Brian Hampel"... but then it slowly dawned on me. How the fuck did all these people know who "Brian Hampel" is?

Nick: Hehe. It looks like the trend of "the man behind the scenes that everybody knows" started early on.

Me: I think I've always had a strong cult of personality, I just never figured out what to do with it.

Hrm. I think I'm going to blog this transcript. It doesn't seem fair to the rest of the ring that I open myself up like this and there's no one else around to appreciate it.

Besides, I'm in dire need of content.

like no vacation on earth

like no vacation on earth
I have some pictures from the cruise, but they all suck, so you won't be seeing any of them. Sorry.

i feel like job

i feel like job
Dayna let me into puck you! and now I am faced with great temptation. Nah. Not really. I need another site to tinker with like I need another hole in my head.

request for comments

request for comments
I've tossed back and forth on this issue a couple of times, and I really can't decide...

You all see that column on the left where I link to all those friends of mine who reside in Dusty's ring, and some others who do not but bear reading up on anyway? Well, if you've been In the Doghouse for any period of time, you may have noticed that the list gets shuffled around from time to time as well as people's names jumping back and forth from realnames to nicknames to screennames to various other aliases.

I can't decide what's appropriate. Do I go with the formal, the informal, the informative, or the elusive? Does anybody even use those links besides me? Personally, I use the list for twofold reasons: it's a failsafe for when crickrock goes flukey, and it's bookmarks for those outside the ring. For me, I could just as easily label them as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. and hover when I get forgetful as to who's who.

Opinions? Suggestions? Alternatives? RSVP.

those darn canadians

those darn canadians
Sometime over the weekend, around 1pm est on Friday actually, this page clicked it's 1,000th hit. The surrounding hits came from sympatico and xtra, while the one thousandth proper was a mere IP address. It was referred by Little John's blog and, since that hasn't been widely propogated yet, I'm going to assume it was the man himself. He's an honorary Canadian by way of a betrothed proxy. Anyway...

Thanks for bothering with me, people. All of you, not just the northern neighbors I've become so fond of.

since when did we hire catbert?

since when did we hire catbert?
In our drive to deliver high performance, we are preparing to launch a new Performance Management System on January 1, 2002. This new program will allow every employee to track yearly performance, growth and career progression, and will provide a clear line of sight to corporate goals and objectives.

We will be providing open training sessions for all employees on the Performance Management System, the Incentive Plan and information on the rollout and transition to this new program. This is very important information that will help you with your career [here], so please try to attend a session.

I've been complaining for ages that I need to find a new job. But, despite that, I've always been content to stay with the status quo. My life here has been pleasing for the most part. It's even been exciting at times, as I was in a growth industry doing lots of things that just don't happen in the established corporations.

The growth is over. The industry is at a lull, and likely to remain here for some time. We are the only one of our kind to survive, and thrive, in the dot com bust. But in doing so, we sold our soul. The inanities of corporate culture are taking over, and I can no longer look on from a far and chuckle. It's time to move.

hallucinogenic acrylics

hallucinogenic acrylics [string]
The conversation with Tom ended when I asked - so ok - how do you make a painting do that?
...
When you hear sound/music whatever - you are encompassed by that sound. When you see a painting you are floating on the surface of experience.
...
An immediate, raw and unfiltered experience. How does one make one's paintings sound like Mozart or machine gun. A puzzle that I most likely wont crack until I am much older and have learned to paint in the first place.

1) Mun, find a damn commenting system. ;-)
2) I'm gonna take a quick, uninformed crack at your dilema: paint large. I mean, really large. The thing that takes you out of the moment when viewing a painting is your peripheral vision. At some level, no matter how intense of an emotional experience the art can produce, the respondent places it in the context of it's surroundings. The same thing can and will happen with an auditory piece of art: no matter how beautifully encompassing mozart and hendrix may be, tape hiss or an overplayed groove will take you out of the moment and place the body of work into a different context.

Two cents from an uncultured slob.

valsmith does not suck

valsmith does not [suck]
Well I am in socal at the moment. I am greatly enjoying my time here. Ventura county is beaufiul and the ocean is amazing. its not very cold. almost shorts weather during the day and sometimes sweater weather at night. Malibu is one of the most beautiful places.

You have no idea how envious I am. No idea.

jes'ikah's journals

jes'ikah's journals
Jes'ikah had an uneventful childhood -- tending the fields and doing what children do -- in a hamlet somewhere to the southwest. It was a village of ordinary humans with ordinary skills performing ordinary work and living ordinary lives.

Birth. School. Work. Death.

That's the way it had always been, or at least the way it had always seemed. No one ever talked about strange happenings or odd occurances. And, when they started happening to Jes'ikah, no one ever talked to her. Slowly but surely she had become ostrecized. Not publicly, of course, because it wouldn't be proper to make accusations. But one could feel the tension when she was around. Eventually, her parents felt it best all around that she wasn't around; and so, Jes'ikah was bartered into an apprenticeship and sent away to The City.

Furbish he was called. A master craftsman. Craftsgnome? He'd made a name for himself long ago. 'Furbish Goods' were always in demand, for the quality of his work was often unequalled. Items taken to him to be mended or repaired came to be known as 'Refurbiushed Goods', for they were just as valuable. Jes'ikah worked hard in his shop, learning a trade. She worked hard outside the shop as well, for Furbish often sent her as courier to pick-up and deliver his masterworks.

Jes'ikah soon discovered, however, that Furbish was more than a craftsman. Furbish did business with more than the upper class who could afford his services. Furbish was also a pawn broker, and a fence. It was through this side trade that Jes'ikah developed her pragmatic philosophies of life. She discovered that moral debate was more or less silly posturing; and that ethical dilemas were more often decided by needs, wants, and the value of coin.

What was best, though, was that Furbish was a gnome. A humanoid. A creature familliar with the oddities that abound outside of human circles. Strange happenings and odd occurances didn't bother Furbish, for they were the way of the world. Perhaps someday Jes'ikah will try to discover what it is that is different about herself. Why strange things happen to her. Perhaps not. Perhaps someday Jes'ikah will return to her hamlet and show her friends and family what has become of her. Perhaps not.

In the meantime, she enjoys her life with Furbish. It is productive, and oft times exciting. She meets new and interesting people from all walks of life. She travels on occassion, though hardly ever more than two days journey, in the course of her duties.

---

Encountered in The City, Jes'ikah will likely be on an errand for Furbish. She'd be lightly encumbered with the necessary tools of her trade and a dagger or two for protection. Encountered outside of The City, Jes'ikah will most definitely be on an errand for Furbish. In these cases, she would also have necessary travelling gear including food for an evening meal (bread, cheese and meat) as well as trail rations in the event she should become lost or waylaid.

Jes'ikah would also be better protected in the wilds, having in her possesion a light crossbow and a rapier which she, um, 'acquired' from an inattentive guardsmen on some past journey. She has learned to use these, as well as other valuable skills, from some of those more interesting people she's met.

Jes'ikah possesses 25 gold pieces which she has been stashing away, and carries a handful of silvers and coppers when going out.

forty days and forty nights

forty days and forty nights [vroom]
When will the flood waters receed? When will the Rev return?

a complete waste of your time online

a complete waste of your time online [fuali]

I am 73% NET ADDICT.		I am pretty addicted, but there is hope. I think I'm just well connected to the internet and technology, but it's really a start of a drug-like addiction. I must act now! Unplug this computer!
I am 57% GEEK.		Nerd, Freak, Geek, Dweeb. Sound familiar? That's okay, cause I will be the richest person at my 15th year high-school reunion. If a "con" isn't happening that weekend.
I am 49% GOTH.		Oh My Goth! You Goth, Girl. There is a good chance I am bi. Freakiness pumps through my viens, but I can still laugh at myself.
I am 34% GRUNGE.		What's this? The longest I've been without a shower is three days? Not even close, man. I should go sit out in the rain for a week.
I am 27% METAL-HEAD.		Most other metal-heads acknowledge my presence, but they laugh at me behind my back. Maybe I need to stop spending all that money on haircuts and invest in a few Pantera T-shirts.
I am 21% EMO.		Anti-Emo Okay... so I'm not emo at all.. I am probably not even goth, because goths are just messed up emo kids... I am probably a metal head... or into boy bands...
I am 19% RAVER.		Have I even been to a rave? I'll go home. Loser. I suck. Actually, I am probably just a normal person taking this test and don't know why.
I am 11% PUNK.		It's not a fashion craze, or even a cool thing to do. I should just swallow it, get Lost, and take my friends with me.

I thought I'd just get them all out of the way at once. There was a hey-day when I wouldacouldashoulda scored in top percentages for each of these. Nowadays, I'm merely uninteresting across the board.

oh, what an overcast morning

oh, what an overcast morning [string]
It's 4:36am and I just came in. Ive spent the wee hours watching one of the most beautiful specticles i've witnessed in a very long time. The meteor shower was no let down.

I envy you, Mun. I was up that early myself though for much different reasons. I had hoped to catch glimpses of the leonid shower, but the fog and overcast was extremely thick here. In fact, it didn't burn off until close to 11:00am. Ah well, there's still plenty of years ahead of me for viewing astronomical phenomena. I'll catch it the next time.

what's in your referrer logs?

what's in your referrer logs? [link]
This website serves the purpose to reflect upon the process of finding web sites by using search machines. If you write a weblog on a regular basis, chances are you're going to post quotes from other sites, opinions from other people etc. But since weblogs are highly linked to and from, they get indexed very well by search engines. So, even if you only once wrote about your hamster, and on the same day mentioned you were wearing a three piece suit, google just might list you as No.1 for 'hamster suit'. Now just imagine that you check your referrer logs and you find a query from a search engine, looking for 'hamster suit'. This is where this site kicks in.

This one earns a place below, along with blogdex and the other metas. Hrm. I think I need to contact the producer of PopStars. Blogdex & the Metas ? Nah...

what part of 'small black coffee' do you not understand?

what part of 'small black coffee' do you not understand?

I was running late this morning; I had to take my wife to drop her car off at the dealer. Anyway, I get to the office late and I'm felling hungry so I decide to stop at Wendy's and see what they have to offer on the brand spankin new breakfast menu. Ideally, I'm looking for an Egg McMuffin but of course that's another frnachise and costs too damn much anyway unless they're on sale. But that's beside the point.

My breakfast orders are always the same, it doesn't matter where I go. There's always a combo with a sandwich, a potato thing, and a choice of beverage. This morning was no different:

"Good morning, would you like to try a combo?"
"Yes. I'd like Combo #1, with a small black coffee."
"Would you like orange juice with that?"
"No. I would like a small black coffee."
"Okay. Cream and Sugar?"
"No. A small, black coffee."
"That will be $2.41 at window two, please drive thru. Thank you."

Now, I realize Wendy's has not been serving breakfast for very long. They probably don't really understand what coffee is, or how it's served, so maybe just maybe "black" is not an appropriate adjective. When the girl at the window handed me the bag of food stuffs, I was only mildly surprised to find that it contained four freezing cold half-and-half shots that were lowering the temperature of my breakfast sandwich. It also contained not five, not six, but seven packets of sugar. For a small coffee.

I give her some credit though, she tried to make my morning meal convenient. The bag also contained a spoon (so that I could stir my small black coffee -- because I am just so damn likely to remove the lid from my steaming hot joe while driving away from the window)...

...and a straw?

train to end stroke

train to end stroke [ttes]

The bellringers are out and about, reminding us that the winter holidays are approaching and the season of giving is upon us. Since September's tragic events many have channeled their efforts into the noble and worthwhile relief funds, but in the wake of this catastrophe it is important to remember that everyday life continues: AIDS still happens, cancer still happens, and stroke... stroke still happens.

Please sponsor me as a TRAIN TO END STROKE participant.

TRAIN TO END STROKE is the premier fundraiser dedicated to fueling the American Stroke Association (ASA), a Division of the American Heart Association. The money it generates goes to stroke-related research, professional education, community education and support, and advocacy. This is an especially urgent health issue in our community because we live in an area known as "the stroke belt."

The Mid-Atlantic States has the highest incidence of stroke in the Nation.

For the past several months, my wife and I have been training to participate in a TTES marathon. Our physical goal is fast approaching, as our marathon is happening December 8th. We've never considered ourselves particularly fit or athletic, so this has been a difficult challenge to date and is still daunting in these last few weeks. We accepted this challenge for a number of reasons; in honor of those who have suffered a stroke and are going through the difficult process of rehabilitation; in memorium of those who have passed due to stroke and stroke-complications; and, to increase community awareness about this medical emergency.

Stroke accounts for 1 of every 14.5 deaths. A person dies of stroke every 3.3 minutes.

You can help; TTES needs your contributions. If you are interested in contributing, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know. All donations are tax-deductible and the ASA will send you a receipt for any donation over $10. Checks (made payable to "American Stroke Association") and credit cards are acceptable, and I have forms at hand to ensure that your donations are properly accounted for.

Thank you for your consideration, your generosity, and your support.

Sincerely,
Brian David Hampel

try to figure out what all this is for

try to figure out what all this is for [bnl]
It's the perfect time of year
Somewhere far away from here
I feel fine enough, I guess
Considering everything's a mess
...
On an evening such as this
It's hard to tell if I exist
If I pack the car and leave this town
You'll notice that I'm not around
I could hide out under there
(I just made you say "underwear")
I could leave but I'll just stay
All my stuff's here anyway

No reason, really. I was doing the morning commute thing; and it was taking longer than usual with weird non-standard traffic back-ups that were quickly becoming frustrating. "Pinch Me" started playing and it just seemed appropriate.

Taking a cue from Nick, I give it to you. Do you care? No, probably not. Do I care? No, I probably don't either. In actuality it's probably just filler. Dusty threatened to delete people from the ring if they don't stay current. This is most likely just an attempt to buy her affections and secure my place in the ring. :-)

Okay. Back to work.

take this chat and link it

take this chat and link it [dusty]
As ordered, I created a graphic to use as a link to the Ring o' Fire chat room. Unfortunately, I don't have/know the URL for the room, so it's basically just a pretty picture until someone can forward me a link.

href=aim:gochat?roomname=Burning+Ring+of+Fire&Exchange=5

dan: i give you my monthly 'hi'

dan: i give you my monthly 'hi'
BD: Heh. More than I'm getting from Dayna... so, 'hi'!
dan: I know what is up wit that
BD: Do you? Because her Majestic peeps are in the dark.
BD: She's just... gone...
dan: shes playing that Nordic-Celtic thing
BD: She's that engrossed that she can't even answer her email?
dan: yes.
BD: Damn. We're gonna have to send some knights in after her and stage an intervention by swordpoint.
dan: well, ill write her an email
BD: Tell her there's some people around here who miss her smiling face and charming personality.
BD: Then when she stops laughing, tell her we miss her anyway.

where have all the flowers gone?

where have all the flowers gone?
Macbeth395 (2:22:50 PM): Dude. I found out about this game and it is so eerie it is cooooooool
BDHampel (2:22:56 PM): ?
Macbeth395 (2:23:30 PM): I read a preview for it in PCGamer, it's called Majestic
Macbeth395 (2:23:52 PM): It's an "online" game, but it isn't really
Macbeth395 (2:24:27 PM): The idea is that you sign up for it and then start recieving e-mails, IMs, mail, etc. about stuff going on and how only you can help
BDHampel (2:24:57 PM): The last thing I want is a game that spams me.
Macbeth395 (2:25:19 PM): No, you don't get it... That is the game. There is no .exe file
Macbeth395 (2:25:37 PM): It's twisted

One year ago yesterday. My, how time flies when you're having fun. Okay, so time flies for the first six or seven months when you're having fun but then things don't exactly work out the way you expected them to but you hang on hoping upon hope that things will get better and by this time you're too busy hoping to be having fun but you don't notice yet that you're not having fun and then suddenly you do and time starts to drag on and on and on and it's not flying at all so you think about abandoning the thing that was fun in the first place but then you realize that it wasn't the thing itself that was fun but the people around it that made it fun so you think maybe you can hang on a little longer and recapture the fun but in spite of all that you also think that the only reason the people are around anyway is because of the thing and you think that if you forget about the thing then you won't have anything to hold the people together so you do a bunch of things that you think might substitute for the first thing but by now you're spending so much energy trying to hold things together that it's not so much fun any more even when time is flying by but you're all still together holding out for the next big thing on the horizon that you can transfer all your energies to but it doesn't come and you wait and you wait and you wait and more time passes and then someone else does find the next big thing but doesn't take the rest of you along for the ride and now it just sucks all over becuase on top of feeling like you've wasted a significant amount of time you also feel abandoned and hurt so instead of just being not fun now it's also painful and happy fucking anniversary majestic.

playing with string

playing with [string]
How do we end up in the shoes that we end up in? They looked so nice when I bought them... I had no idea that they would hurt my feet so bad. Maybe its time for a new pair of shoes.

Is it contagious, or just prevalent? Whatever it is I've got it, too.

blah blah blah

blah blah blah
BlogBack on my site has been disabled until further notice. I'm tired of mine and all my friends' pages failing to load timely while the BlogBack scripts try to pull from external source. Frankly, Marcus' server can't keep up with the load (ReBlogger had some of the same issues when I used it) and I'll probably drop commenting all together.

look! it's her!

look! it's her! [blog]
:: Tuesday, November 06, 2001 ::
     Am I working yet?
     :: Stacey Thomas 9:55 AM [+] :: Opinionize [1]
     ...

Welcome to the wonderful world of blogs, eh.

and i thought my referrals were freaky

and i thought my referrals were freaky
A quick look at Dayna's stats, just because she gets so many hits, reveals that she is frequently visited by perverts looking for:

• naked arab girls
• nekkid kiddie pics
• hefty garbage bags

singing of anthrax?

singing of anthrax?
Looks like Google has indexed the Doghouse... recent search strings include:

• "10/31/01" urban legend
• sings and symptoms of anthrax
• reverse chronogical order

blogback v1.2 | locked

blogback v1.2 | locked [doh]
BlogBack version 1.3 is out now. You must update your code to use it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Fix it already, right? Soon...

bah

bah
So, here I am back at my desk at work. I'm trying to get caught up on all my email & voicemail messages. I'm also trying to get caught up with my friends and their blogs... but freeservers has a different plan in mind. Dayna, Nick & Jin are out of reach this morning. Oh well. I guess I'll try again later. S'alright, I really should be working anyway.

mid-week cruise update

mid-week cruise update
First of all, I'm not complaining. I'm enjoying the hell out of my time off, even if it's not at all what I signed up for oh-so-many months ago.

The weather has been overcast and gray for the entire trip so far... that is, when it wasn't raining outright. Day Two on the private island was a waste of time. We did, however, enjoy the emptiness of the ship's pool deck while the rest of the poor souls were trying to enjoy a very wet beach. The morning was torrential, but by god it's warm in the Caribbean.

Ocho Rios was not so much better yesterday. The captain tells us that a cold front blew through and then became stationary in the western carib. I can't confirm that because I'm spending my $0.50/min writing to you schlubs instead. First our sea kayaking tour was bumped from 10:00 to noon because there weren't enough people signed up. So we rushed through a morning shopping trip (instead of the leisurely afternoon we'd planned), and then we stood in the downpour for 25 minutes waiting for our tour guide... and/or anyone else in the tour to arrive. Finally, someone told us that this session, too, had been cancelled (for the bad weather). The good news there is that we were able to book a party boat last minute, which turned out to be fantastic. We climbed Dunns' River Falls, learned to snorkel, and drank infinite amounts of rum punch (they called it rum punch, but by the second round it was "everything in the bar and it's mother" punch).

We got to Grand Cayman this morning and the captain woke us up with more bad news. Congratulations! The tropical depression to the southeast has been christened Michelle, and she is now a tropical storm! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, we're going to be leaving Grand Cayman two hours earlier than planned today so that we can stay ahead of her. By the way, your tour to Stingray City to snorkel with the magnificent beasts of the sea has been cancelled. In fact, all tours to Stingray City have been cancelled. Enjoy your day shopping because there's nothing else to do in Grand Cayman. So, we did. *shrug* It was fun and we bought close to $300 of watches, jewelry, liquor, and whatever else Grand Cayman sells duty-free.

So, we get back to the ship...

And the captain says...

You see where I'm going with this, don't you...

Cozumel, Mexico tomorrow has been cancelled. Not just the tours, but the whole port. The good news is, we're leaving the western caribbean entirely and heading for Nassau, Bahamas as a make-up port. You know why this is good? It gives me another shot at snorkelling with the sting rays...

That's it. At $0.50/min, that's enough. Talk to you all when I get home.