Oy

So tonite was all-you-can eat wing nite at the Quaker Steak and Lube. Oh boy, did I have all I could eat. I think its one of those nites where I'll still be feeling it in the morning.

One spectacular idea that came out of the evening though, was a top-ten Simpsons nite. We each vote on our favorite episodes and we watch the top ten. Booya.

Alright, time to waddle over to my bed and try to sleep this off. Good nite all.

An Expensive Weekend

So this past weekend was rather expensive. But, I hope that I'll be able to actually use it all for the next 4 or 5 years at least.

Saturday, I successfully passed the written exam for a temporary Motorcycle License. And let me tell you -- that test was nasty. In the afternoon I went shopping with the Eppleys at Cleveland Scooters in Lakewood and purchased a Kymko Grandvista 250. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait until they get the next shipment, so it will actually be mine in 2 to 3 weeks.

On Sunday, I visited the eye doctor for the first time in about 7 years. Good news is my eyes are still very healthy, and my prescription changed the least amount that it could. And I got a pair of glasses and sun glasses, again the first in about 7 years. Its strange to be able to see through glasses that are so clean and without any scratches. And i've only been able to drive once while wearing the sunglasses, but man o man what a difference.

Thought for the nite

There's something very strange about watching the first few seasons of Battlestar Galactica when you already know who all the cylons are. People are wrong. A lot.

More on the end of my trip to the Dominican Republic tomorrow.

Rain, rain, rain

Well, I guess I picked the wrong week to come down. After a few weeks' dry spell, we're getting nothing but rain.

Monday, the morning seemed to be pretty nice, so I set up to get a tan down by the pool. After about 45 minutes the rain came. For the whole morning it was 40 minutes of sun, 30 minutes of rain, 40 sun, 40 rain; and on and on. Apparently though, it was just enough sun and rain to get me nicely burned on my face and chest (sigh). The rest of Monday was pretty rainy so we ended up staying in and playing Guitar Hero and watching DVDs (note: this is going to be a common theme for the rest of the week)

Tuesday, rain again. With the sun burn in full-effect, I wasn't really even up for doing a whole lot anyway. So again, lots of hanging out, chilling with my bro watching "Wonder Falls" on DVD. In the evening though, I got to sit in and watch my brother's Salsa Dancing lesson, and I must say I was very impressed.

Wednesday, more rain. At least my sun burn was starting to fade. My mom had to fly into Santo Domingo during the day to take care of some things in the city. So I got to sleep in and play some more Guitar Hero. Overcast and rainy afternoon led to more "Wonder Falls" and in the evening we went to a restaurant that was started by my mom's friend Wernie and his husband Daniel. Wow, was that place like a real five-star restaurant. Be sure to check my photo album to see all the pictures, simply beautiful place.

This morning I got up early and went to Yoga again with my mom, followed by lunch with my grandmother. The spot we went to for lunch is this little place right on the beach run by this Italian guy who serves excellent pasta. I believe I had Spaghetti Carvanara (sp?) (which was spaghetti in a white sauce with bits of pork and bacon) mmmm mmm. Finally, a clear day, I thought but as soon as our lunch was over, the clouds rolled in. Even though I tried to salvage a day at the beach the weather was just not having it and we came back to the hill. Took a bit of a nap, and watched the rest of Season 2 of "Weeds" with Scott, had some dinner and watched Once before playing some more Guitar Hero and finally turning in.

I've now got a little less than 2 days left of vacation, and I'm really hoping for at least one more day at the beach. We're running out of DVDs to watch! Well, here's hoping for tomorrow.

Yoga Day

So this morning started off pretty normal. Got up, had a little bit of breakfast, chatted with my Mom and Don; then went down to see my mom's chickens. Yes, there is now a whole chicken roost in the back yard with 7 chickens. The one in the picture with my mom is named Blanco. She's one of the older chickens, most of the others are pretty much still just chicks. I also went around and took a few pictures of new additions to the main house here, for the people who have seen the pictures from before. There's both a completely new dining room which is very nice, and an addition onto a little sitting area facing the mountains.






If you want to see all the pictures you can head over here: http://picasaweb.google.com/gotschallrw/DR08


I'm planning on adding more pictures to this album as the week progresses. I'll proabably wait until I get home to add them to my facebook album as well.

Then we headed out for my first yoga class. Wow, was that tough. I don't think I've ever stretched my arms and legs out into ways that I've even imagined possible before. It really turned out to be quite a workout. The session ended with my mom and I doing head stands, as you can see. Scott made a solid attempt, but just couldn't quite make it.

After the class, the group headed over to the bungalow in the village for some delicious bagels that I had brought with me. Apparantly, bagels are not something found commonly -- or at all -- here in the Dominican Republic so they had been greatly anticipated.

The plan was for after our bagel breakfast, we'd head to the beach. Of course, things cannot be that simple. On the way to one of the beaches, all of a sudden the car jerks to a stop. We can't go forward or backward. I get out to see what's going on and the muffler of the car had broken in half and each half was sticking into the dirt road. We couldn't move the car without digging one part or the other deeper into the road, and then of course it started downpouring. Eventually a motorbike driver stopped by to help, he managed to get the back part of the muffler off, and the front part tied up enough that it wasn't dragging in the street. Of course, he had a friend just in town that could fix it all up for us in half an hour. An hour and a half -- and lots of soldering -- later we were finally ready to start heading back to the beach.


Finally, I get a chance to just lay out and relax on the beach. And I did. For hours. And it was wonderful. Eventually though, we stopped home, cleaned up, and headed back into town for dinner at Pizza Coco. It felt like it had been forever since i'd had pizza, and boy was I hungry. After dinner came home, watched some episodes of "Wonderfalls" with my brother and brings us to now.

Greetings from the Dominican Republic

So let me recap the last couple days real quick:

Friday: Got up at 3:45a and my dad drove me to the airport at 4
The plane took off right about 6a as planned, and after a quick stop in Pittsburgh we were on our way to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
After landing and going through customs, I found the driver that was waiting to whisk me off to Santo Domingo. A 3 hour car ride later and I was in the city.
My mom had been waiting for weeks for the bank to be ready with this cheque, and of course they claimed to be ready and an appointment was made for almost exactly the same time as I arrived in the city, so she hopped in the cab and we were off to the bank.
5p and after some hassle, the people at the bank are finally ready with the cheque. We finally head back to the apartment and chill for a bit before heading to a nice restaurant called La Bricola for dinner. After some delicious freshly made Chicken Cordon Bleu it was time to head back and call it a night.

Saturday: We get up in the morning, have one of the bagels that I brought for breakfast and head off to the airport to catch our flight from the brand new La Isabella Airport to Portillo.
No problem, we get on the plane, get in the air, but something seems wrong. We're flying really pretty low for the size of the plane we were in (approx 20 passenger two-prop). Then we start to turn around and head back towards the airport. Yeah . . . .
So we land back at the airport and hear something about something was wrong with the plane and they couldn't get it to climb high enough. 5 of the passengers went off in a smaller plane and the rest of us just had to wait another 10 or 15 minutes for them to ready a different one.
After that we were up and off without a hitch. Landed in Portillo 40 minutes later, met up with my bro and headed up to the hill.

Had a little bit of lunch, chatted for a little while before heading into Las Terrenas. The goal was to hit the beach after stopping by what will be my brother's new bungalow in town and running an errand or two. Stopped by the bungalow to put together some of the things that my mom had purchaced while she was in Santo Domingo, met some of the very nice neighbors; and then we were off to the grocery store. By the time we were done at the grocery the weather was kinda gross and rainy, so we decided to skip the beach and head back home.

Scott and I watched some episodes of "Flight of the Conchords" -- hilarious. Then took a quick nap before dinner, after which we played some rummy with mom, followed by the film Juno.

So all in all, a nice little trip so far. Besides the plane having to turn around and land again, not too much excitement at this point. Tomorrow morning the plan is to do some Yoga, then have a bagel party before finally hitting the beach. So we'll see if we have any better luck with that then.

I've taken a number of pictures, but I'm not sure how well they'll upload from the satellite connection we have here on the hill. I'm gonna give it a shot tomorrow, so stay tuned.

One day down, one to go

Alright, one more day before I head off for my big trip to the Caribbean. Yesterday I got a bunch of pairs of shorts, some new $12 sunglasses, and some tshirts. I think I'm all set.

Must remember passport. Must remember passport. Must remember passport.

I'm gonna try my best to keep up the blog challenge while I'm down there. Unfortunately, the internet connection from my mom's place isn't always too reliable.

Every body excited about tomorrow's Lost Finale? I know I am! :)