On the ship, the previous owner, Holland America Line, had already planned on upgrading the systems. So, I got to assist in racking all of the new equipment (new servers and a SAN) to prep it for the new software being installed soon. Each of the three Windstar vessels as well as 6 of our other (Majestic America Line) vessels are getting the software.

With the work done, and no flights home until my scheduled flight on Monday, I spent the day photographing the sights. When I say I spent the day, I really mean the whole day. At 8AM I was in downtown Setubal shooting, and then went into Lisbon and spend 4 hours there, then back down to the docks of Setubal. I got back to my hotel at 8PM, so that’s a solid 12 hours of photography… oh yeah, and lots and lots of walking. I’m guessing I clocked in a good 12-14 miles of walking today. My legs can testify to that, they’re aching. And I’m guessing that excluding work-related photos of the systems on board the ship, I have about 350-375 photos to sift through when I return home.

So, I fly back tomorrow morning… and I can’t wait. I really miss Melanie, especially when I was walking through Lisbon constantly amazed at how beautiful everything is. Whenever I saw something spectacular, I thought to myself … “I wish Melanie was here with me to see this.”

And, Lauren’s soccer team “Black Magic” had their 3rd win of the season. I missed the game since I’m traveling, but Melanie and her mom went to the game to support the team.

Stay tuned for links to the photos that I deem fit for keeping. Just give me a few days or so to process them… I can’t just take photos and upload them, I have some special processing I do to them to make them super special.

Lauren started her spring soccer season with her new team: Black Magic. They tied their first game last week 1-1. They played really well in the last 3 quarters and the team looks promising if the continue to practice their skills.

Melanie and I are getting close to starting escrow on our new home that’s currently being built. It’s a two-story townhome in Chino, CA. It’s our first home and we’re super excited to get moved in. We are dreading the commute, but it’s the closest we’d be able to get to Orange County and still “afford” it.

More news to come soon…

I normally shrug off poor service at restaurants, but I recently had an experience that deserves a bad review.

On a recent camping trip to South Carlsbad State Beach, our group wanted to go out to eat a meal instead of cooking at our campsite. Melanie’s uncle Dale had a friend recommend Cabo Grill which is at the top of a hill overlooking the Ponto Lagoon in Encinitas, just south of Carlsbad. We got everyone together and headed down there.

The parking lot looked about half full, so it seemed to be a popular place. A gentleman greeted us and said the wait would be about 15 minutes for our party of 8 people. The host returned in 20 minutes to bring us to our table. He explained that he was waiting for a bigger table to clear out, but the current customers just ordered another round of drinks. I’m not sure why he wanted to wait for them to leave, because there were plenty of tables right next to this area that could have been pulled together for us. In fact, that just what we did… Rhonda asked if we could get a couple of tables pulled together… the waiter said “sure, go ahead”. That was our first real sign of the lack of concern for us as customers.

After 10 minutes of waiting at our table, our chips and salsa were gone, and no one came out to take our drink order. Now, from experiences at other Mexican restaurants, it’s not too much to expect the waiter to bring more chips and salsa to the table. Not here at Cabo Grill… we had to wait for the waiter to take our orders to ask him to bring more out for us. So, expecting more chips and salsa to arrive any second… we waited. And we continued to wait for at least another 10 minutes. This was the point of no return for us. The place was barely at 30% capacity, and it was taking this long for any kind of service.

At this point, Melanie got up to go find a supervisor or manager to speak to. The bartender said that she would inform the manager. Did a manager come out? Nope… and I’m sitting there thinking that any restaurant manager would be out there within 30 seconds if a customer were unhappy. Nothing. Dale took the waiter aside and asked him if he would be upset if he were at a restaurant and had to wait for a refill of salsa, after asking for it twice. The waiter agreed that he would not be happy. Shortly after this, we were brought some more salsa, in larger bowls even.

We were all pretty steaming right about now. Anything we asked for took forever, and anytime we wanted the waiter, he was nowhere to be found. The manager had still not shown up, and it had been a good 15 minutes since Melanie asked. This time I got up to talk to the bartender. She was the only employee there that we knew how to find. There was no one else around. I told her that we’d asked for the manager to come out and see us a while ago and no one has been out there. She replied and said “I did let her know, but she is really busy tonight.” Busy… “too busy for her customers?”, I responded. The bartender shrugged her shoulders and did not have an answer for that.

I went back to our table and said “let’s go”. We gathered everyone up and went down the street to another Mexican restaurant in downtown Encinitas called El Callejon. This other place was great. Promptly seated even though they were crowded. Drink order taken and served quickly. The food was very good, and the service was fantastic. And it wasn’t just because we left a place with sub-sub-par service.

So, if you’re near Encinitas and looking for a good Mexican meal… forget about the pathetic service at Cabo Grill and head a few miles south to El Callejon. You will not regret it.

Melanie and I had a fun time at The Greek. We didn’t want to get stuck in the stacked parking, so we parked down the hill and hiked to/from the show. It was only a 15 minute putt up/down the hill so it was worth it to not get jammed in all the cars leaving the show.

Here’s the set list:
Set I:
• Both Sides Of The Gun
• Don’t Take That Attitude To Your Grave
• Steal My Kisses
• Get It Like You Like It
• Ground On Down
• Waiting For You
• Morning Yearning
• Please Me Like You Want To
• Diamonds On The Inside
• Forgiven
• Black Rain
• With My Own Two Hands/War

Encore I:
• Waiting On An Angel
• I Shall Not Walk Alone
• There Will Be A Light
• Lifeline

Encore II:
• Burn One Down
• Better Way

Our next concerts are coming up next month. The Sunsplash Reggae Fest at Irvine Meadows (Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) on 9/2…. and then G. Love & Special Sauce at the House Of Blues in Anaheim on 9/23. Stoked to see G. Love… we’ve not seen him play live before either.

They taped an hour long show for next Friday night 5/5 (airs 1:35AM the next day). BHIC is musical guest for four straight shows.

They played 3 songs:
Get It Like You Like It
Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating
Sweet Nothing Serenade

Bonus: Marc Ford (Black Crowes) played with the house band through the commercial breaks. Jason Yates jammed with the house band for their warm-up song.
And… Ben was the second guest on the show, after Tom Green. Ben jammed a little on the slide that he gave to Carson.

Ben hung around a few minutes on stage after they were done playing, meeting and greeting. we got to say hello… I told him that we were there for “The Sunday El Rey Show” (2/19) and thanked him for such an amazing performance that night. others were waiting to meet him, so we moved along. I wanted to ask if that El Rey show was being released any time soon… but forgot. does anyone know for sure yet?

I’ve actually posted this entry directly from Flock. Very cool!
Read more here…
Download it here… Flock 0.5pre

http://shopper.cnet.com/4002-7409_9-6269179.html

Adam approached me the previous Thursday evening and explained that he was going to be buying the ring that they both looked at just days before. He wanted to get it fast since he was sure that she would not expect anything so soon.

His plan involved me playing the part of “neighbor taking photos” that he wanted to take to send to some family out of state that they have not seen in a while. We devised a “secret code” that I would say while shooting that would give him the signal to do his thing. (The code was me saying “OK guys, let’s move right over… here”, and we decided on that roughly 5 minutes before it happened)

It was fun taking photos of the actual proposal. When Adam pulled out the box containing the ring, the two of them drifted into their own world where nothing around them mattered for that moment. In disbelief, Krista said “You’re doing this right now?”… her shock soon turned into tears of joy.

So, Melanie and I are extremely happy for them and were glad to join them in celebration that night. And, I’m glad that I was able to capture this moment for them.

Check out the photoset here…

Murie told us when we sat down for champagne that she wanted to have a French “toosh”. JB was quick to correct her pronounciation and told her “it’s touch…” “che… che” he made the sound that should be there in place of the “shhhh”. We all had a big laugh and it became the word for the night. On the topic of words, JB mentioned that it is strange for them to hear American couples call each other “honey”… he says… “that’s what I put on my toast… why would I call someone that?”. It’s fun to see the other perspective sometimes.

Two bottles of champagne, and a plate full of caviar-laden toastettes later… it was time to move into the dining room. So much good bread and, of course, French wine was available. For starters, we had a tomato salad with anchovies and olives. This was followed by the main course of roasted leg of lamb with potatoes au gratin (Murie’s special recipe… uses cream instead of milk). After stuffing our faces with this wonderful food and glasses upon glasses of wine, it was time for the cheese course. Three types of cheeses for us to choose from adorned a platter. My favorite was a sweet cheese that had walnuts in it.

More wine… and it’s time for dessert! Melanie and Krista made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake that was so good, it was sure to make my pants button pop from eating it on top of all the other food. Murie insisted on an apertif… her specialty White Russian. Who am I to decline this? No one, that’s who.

Our heads hit our pillow at about midnight… and we were asleep within 17 seconds. The next morning… I was still full. I could not even think of eating breakfast (this is a big deal as I never skip breakfast). I forced myself to eat a Clif bar at 10AM and that was even difficult.

Good times, good times!

In the hour and fifteen minutes I was in the water, I was lucky enough to get 3 waves. One close-out right, one “slow-paddler in your line” shoulder-high right (had to over-stretch the bottom turn to avoid him), and one fun left. Still, it was fun to be out there to watch some amazing rides though.

My buddy said it was “wall-to-wall bodies”… which pretty much described the peak straight out in front of the river. All those big winter storms pushed a lot of sand out there… don’t think I’ve seen the peak that far out in a while.

My arms were hurtin fer certain once I got back to my car. I passed Tom (I think) from NewportSurfShots.com getting his gear out… he should get some good pics today!