Ah, technology. Instead of my usual perch at Brooks Central, I'm sitting in the AutoIndulgence car wash center (The Ultimate Car Care Experience) at 12:45 PM on a Sunday, making the post-vacation blog entry. We just returned from a week in Sanibel Island, Florida. And my, what a week it was.

We took a family vacation to celebrate Karen's parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Last weekend's Tropical Storm Alex churned up a lot of activity down our way, so much so that we often watched as rain blow horizontally outside the windows of our beachfront condos. Not to be deterred, we became regular patrons of Island Bean Coffee, where I sampled my first Caffe Cubano (quite appropriate, seeing as how we were in south Florida and all).

There were several mornings where the weather allowed us to recline on the beach, soaking up the sun and listening to a nice mix of iPod tunes. And after a first failed attempt Wednesday evening at a champagne dolphin watch cruise, we tried again with success the following afternoon and were able to spot quite a number of the docile creatures in the bay which separates Sanibel from the mainland. (See the picture gallery for some samples.)

All in all, a nice time, but it's also good to be home, where the weather is about thirty degrees cooler, and the humidity is off the low end of the scale. Thursday, we move Sarah into her dorm at Georgia Tech, so here's to you, kids!

Manana.

Will Smith calls it "the invention of the century", and I'm inclined to agree.  Since I bought my 15GB iPod in May, I've come to look at and listen to music in a whole new way.  I currently have about 2,300 songs loaded, and there's room for plenty more.  For a music nut like me, this thing is Nirvana.  (Oh yeah...I've got some of their stuff on it, too.)

I have found the best catfish in Atlanta.  It is at Mouth of the South, located in Roswell on Mansell Road at Highway 9.  The owners are originally from Louisiana, but their methods of preparation more than satisfy any Southern-bred catfish lover.  The crawfish tails appetizer makes me yearn for humidity and lagniappe.  The place is wonderful!
 
This comfortable little restaurant has the makings of a Southern Ippolito's.  I say this because, at one point in time, Karen and I visited Ippolito's and felt that the marinara was out of this world.  But back then, Ippolito's was this little unknown place in a Roswell strip shopping center. My, how times have changed!

I have overcome my fear of installing ceiling fans.  This may not sound like much to you, but in the twenty-two years that I've been a homeowner, only two tasks have truly daunted me to the point that I would not pursue them: 1) installing a garage door opener, and 2) installing a ceiling fan.  Having installed three rotating ceiling devices (I hesitate to call them by their real names) in the last two weeks, I feel that I have now been able to meet my problem head on and will not need further therapy.
 
Of course, the garage door opener is now starting to make a grinding noise.

Enough is enough! I have grown tired of eating poorly, feeling tired all the time, and gaining weight. Yesterday, I resumed my workouts at the YMCA, and this morning, I put in 45 minutes on the treadmill while watching "Sunday Morning" on CBS. At about 30 minutes, the endorphins kicked in, and I found myself sporting a smile. The thing is, if I put it down here, I'll keep doing it! =:)