August 11, 2002

Dominica headed back to Ithaca this afternoon. We didn’t do much today either. We did some more shopping getting things that we need for the house down here. John has been working on putting a new roof on the garage and I am working on putting up some new blinds in my bedroom and catching up on homework. We installed a new cat door in the back of the house but the cats are having a hard time figureing out how to use it. Mickey is back in now but I had to bring him in. Nila is still MIA.

More news tomorrow. We have AOL Dial Up AND Verizon ADSL now at the house in Annapolis. Tomorrow I hope to be able to get and install the wireless ethernet system for the house so that this will be really useful. I will try to have a big update tomorrow. It is so nice to finally have high speed access available here. I will now be able to get so much work done and there should be more and bigger updates coming soon. SGL will be my only means of keeping everyone up to date on my goings on now that I am going to be away so much of the time.

August 10, 2002

Today was our day to recover from vacation. Dominica and I drove to Annapolis from Topsail Island last night to keep from having to drive during the heat of the day with all of the vacationer’s traffic. The trip took less than six hours on mostly deserted roads.

Our project today was to sleep late and make a table top water fountain because I have always wanted one. So we spent a large amount of the day driving around to stores everywhere trying to find the parts that we needed to make a small fountain. It ended up taking an astronomic amount of time and effort but we finally had everything that we needed to build a basic starter fountain. Now we know where we are able to get the parts that we need so the next one will be a lot easier to do, I am sure. It was fun, though, and it works. It is right next to my computer now.

Dominica brought my little Aiwa stereo down here so that we would have something to listen to in this house. Until now there has been nothing at all. We don’t have many CD’s here. Mostly what is here is my Ken Burns Jazz Collection that I have just started building so there are only about three discs. Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong. I think the neighbors think that we are pretty weird.

August 9, 2002

Day Six, our last day on Topsail Island. Dominica and I had to run up to Wilmington this morning to Western Union some rent money to Loopy. When we got back, we managed to head out to the beach for the first time since we made it down here. Between the two of us being sick and needing to run errands and going to see the USS North Carolina, we haven’t been able to get out there at all. It was cooler the last two days so the beach was nicer today as well. Everyone went out for dinner tonight for our last night on the island. Everyone else is getting up at 3am or so and heading out in the morning. It sure will be nice to be home at the same time that everyone else is pulling themselves out of bed!

By the time it was all said and done, everyone got the disentary except for Dominica who was on antibiotics that probably saved her. Rob is the only one who is still sick. Even the dog, Dexter, got it a little bit at the end.

Min and I did discover a nice, quaint North Carolina wine while we were down. Duplin Vineyards just north of Topsail Island. The wine is very sweet and is good for beginners but it wasn’t bad and we had two bottles during the vacation. We were hoping that we would have the opportunity to tour the winery before we left but we would have had to stay on Saturday for an extra half a day after everyone else had left to be able to do it so we decided to head back early rather than late since we wouldn’t have had any place to park the car or stay until we were ready to leave.

August 8, 2002

Day Five on Topsail Island. Neither Dominica or I are really sick today. Dominica still has a bit of her hives left but she isn’t so bad. This morning we headed out to Wilmington to tour the USS North Carolina. It is the 1941 battleship that saw itself engaged in every battle of the Pacific Theatre in World War II. The tour was really interesting. I have toured destroyers, missile cruisers and subs before but I think that this was my first time on a full scale battleship.

After touring the ship today, we went out to Gilligan’s just off the island and did some karaoke. No one sang but me but at least I had fun:) We didn’t stay real late but I managed to sing about five songs. I did one that I did for the first time a week ago at the Elk’s Club of Broadneck and I did a few new ones that I have never tried before.

August 7, 2002

Day four on Topsail Island. Dominica is feeling much better today. She still has hives but the swelling has gone down and she thinks that she will be able to do things today. We going to go to Audio Labs in Wilmington, NC to check out what they have.

Last night we watched Shallow Hal. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought that it would be. It was less funny and more cute than I expected. It wasn’t bad. Nothing outrageously exciting, but entertaining. Francesca loves it. She said that it is one of her all time favorite movies.

Tonight, Min and I went out to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was recommended to us by the owners of the Audio Lab in Wilmington. They said that it was really funny and they were right. We laughed so hard right there in the theatre and for an hour afterwards. We thought that it was exceptionally funny because the movie applied so much to us. It is a great family movie too!

Dominica and I took her cousin Rob to the Audio Lab in Wilmington, NC. He got a chance to listen to B+Ws, Innersound and Pinnacle speakers as well as some Conrad-Johnson and Rotel amps and equipment. He was very impressed. We were hoping that we would manage to spark his interest. Obviously we did. He left the Audio Lab with a pair of B+W 602 S3’s and stands. When he gets back to Phoenix he is going to be relistening to his entire CD collection. He is currently using a Yamaha receiver which he will be keeping for now and a mix of Bose and Infinity speakers.

On the way home from the Audio Lab, I got the pangs of the disentary that has been going around. We are pretty sure that we are getting it from the water. I spent the rest of the day being incredibly sick.