Friday, December 18, 2009

Hawaii Photos

Here are the photos from our recent trip to Hawaii. You can click on any of the photos to get to the entire photo album and there is the full slideshow at the bottom.  Enjoy!

Kim Entering the Water

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Nudibranch

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Moorish Idols

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Whitemouth Moray

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Mating Octopus

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Mantas

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009


From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Kim with Mantas

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009


From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Diver Silhoutte

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Diver Ascent

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Spinner Dolphin with Sunset

From Hawaii (Big Island) 2009

Photo Slideshow

Sunday, August 02, 2009

2009 Little Cayman Underwater Photos

Below are some of the best photos from our July trip to Little Cayman. You can click on any of the photos to get to the entire photo album.


Ellen with Octopus
From 2009 Little Cayman


Kim petting Octopus
From 2009 Little Cayman

Octopus
From 2009 Little Cayman


Bethany
From 2009 Little Cayman


Kim
From 2009 Little Cayman


Kim with Turtle Silhouette
From 2009 Little Cayman


Turtle
From 2009 Little Cayman


Matt wearing a Lobster Hat
From 2009 Little Cayman


Owen Island
From 2009 Little Cayman


Turtle Silhouette
From 2009 Little Cayman

Divers Silhouette
From 2009 Little Cayman

Grouper
From 2009 Little Cayman


Kim and Grouper
From 2009 Little Cayman


Kim
From 2009 Little Cayman


Slideshow of all the Little Cayman Underwater photos

Sunday, July 26, 2009

2009 Pikesville 5K Photos

The Pikesville 5K photos are now available.

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Bonaire Photos - Spring 2009

We went on a little trip to Bonaire, March 27-April 4, 2009. Here are some photos:


Arrow Crab:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Batwing Crab:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Hawksbill Turtle:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Spotted Cleaner Shrimp:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Pedersen Shrimp:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Caribbean Reef Squid:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Orange Cup Coral:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized



Longsnout Seahorse:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Orange Frogfish:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Spotted Cleaner Shrimp:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Resized


Here is a slideshow of all of the underwater photos:


And now for Topside:

Tree near Jeff Davis
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized


1000 Steps
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized


La Dania's Leap (we jumped off of that)
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized



Red Slave:
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized


Willhemstoren Lighthouse
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized


Windmill in the sunset
From 2009 Bonaire - Best of Topside Resized


A slideshow of all of the topside photos:

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Funny Story...

I finally have something good to post. This is by far the funniest thing I have ever read in my life.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Belize Photos...

I have finally put all of my photos from Belize together. I separated the underwater photography from the other pictures. You can click on either of the slideshows below to go directly to the album.





As always, your comments are appreciated!

Enjoy!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Gotta love the Airlines...

I am back from Belize (it was wonderful). I am working on putting together a post along with photos from the trip but in the meantime I came across something that I had to share. Seeing as how I have been traveling a lot over the past several years, I have become very aquainted with all of the airlines and their bullshit rules and fees. There are fees for everything now... checked bags, exit row seats, snacks, beverages, etc. It has become such a joke. Recently, I used the USAirways frequent flyer miles that I had accumulated over the years for airline tickets to Grand Cayman and still had to pay over $150 in fees. Even worse, that $150 in fees doesn't even include my checked luggage. Since when does a free ticket cost over $150?? Shame on you USAirways, now you know why I have switched to Southwest! :-)

Anyway, I was doing a bit of light surfing when I came upon this article on The Onion. It is hysterical. For all of you that travel often... enjoy!

Monday, November 17, 2008

Looking forward...

This week the Today Show is reporting from various places in the world that are impacted by global warming and pollution. I was shocked to see Matt Lauer is reporting from The Blue Hole in Belize. I am headed there for my next diving vacation which is very soon approaching and it is making me even more excited (although I am also sad about some of the content on the status of caribbean reefs). I believe they are even staying at the resort I will be visiting... a small island 30 miles offshore (Turneffe Island). :-)













Thursday, November 13, 2008

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

~ Walt Whitman

Tom, you will be missed!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Aquatica A40D...

I purchased an Aquatica A40D underwater housing for my Canon 40D in July. I did not have a lot of time to test the system before heading to Bonaire but I did get to the local pool several times to test the equipment for leaks. The system tested out ok and I had no problems with the integrity of the housing. It was only in Bonaire where I noticed a simple but aggrevating problem with the housing. The control on the housing that is responsible for changing the aperature was not properly connecting with the dial on the back of the camera. I would turn the control only to have it slowly and intermittently change the aperture.



I searched the web upon returning home to realize that other owners of this housing have experienced the same problem. I contacted Aquatica and they immediately recognized the problem and told me to send them the back of the housing so they could fix the problem. If you have the same experiences, contact Aquatica and have your equipment serviced.

If Facebook happened in real life...

If you are a Facebook user, you will completely appreciate this. I find it even more funny that the guys name is Todd in the video.

Enjoy!


Sunday, October 19, 2008

New Blogger Look and Feel...

I am happy to announce that my blog has an all new custom look!!! Using one of the underwater photos that I took in Bonaire, Kim customized my blogger template to give it a much more professional appearance. Now I just need to promise myself that I will blog more often (and of good content).

Saturday, October 18, 2008

New Guiness Record, Uh...well sorta...

Those crazy folks in Iran cooked up a good one for the record books. They decided they were going for the world record for the largest sandwich. Unfortunately though, some of the crowd got hungry and couldn't wait for the sandwich to be measured before they started to chow down. I'm not sure the record should really count if it wasn't properly measured. Better luck next time Iran... all I can say is next time maybe you should try adding a little pork or bacon to that sandwich.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081017/od_nm/us_guinness_sandwich

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Rachel Ray Corn Porn...

Ok, I had to blog this because it is one of the funniest things I have seen in quite a while.

Rachel Ray Corn Porn http://tinyurl.com/52gx4u

(This is best with sound!)

Enjoy!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Guy's Worst NIGHTMARE!!!!

Interesting article on the Consumerist... guys beware!

http://consumerist.com/5054482/man-sues-doctors-for-amputating-penis

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Bonaire Photos...

Ok, so it has been forever since I posted something. At least I waited until I had something good to share...



Here are the latest photos from Bonaire.

Enjoy!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Hot Water Heater...

A couple of weeks ago I started to notice that occasionally the hot water that came out of the tap was not as hot as it usually was. I didn't think much of it at first but as the problem persisted and eventually got worse, I started to notice a pattern. Usually, when we do something that uses enough hot water, you will hear the hot water heater come on to create more hot water. While I was hearing the hot water heater blower start, it would only last for a short period of time and then stop (not long enough to heat enough water to replenish what was used). When I went downstairs, I noticed the green light on the water heater was blinking a series of six blinks. I read the instruction manual for the A. O. Smith FPSH 50 Series 260 and found several reasons that it might be blinking like this. The six flashes meant the system was in lockout mode - meaning that it had a problem during normal operation and shutdown to the lockout mode. Once in lockout mode, the system would wait a long period of time before attempting to light the burner again to create hot water.

Looking on the internet I found several discussions that suggested the problem was due to a corroded flame sensing wire. This wire is responsible for making sure the gas hot water heater is indeed burning gas as opposed to dangerously leaking gas into the environment. I turned off the power and gas to the hot water heater, removed the bottom access panels, and investigated the components located at the bottom of the tank. I saw the flame sensing wire had some brown rust like corrosion on it. I took a small bit of steel wool and lightly removed the corrosion, replaced the access panels, and tested the system. It has now been several weeks and the hot water heater has been operating perfectly.

A BIG 'Thank You' to the numerous people that posted their similar experiences, your advice saved me from having to purchase a new hot water heater or call a service technician. :-)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Lionfish...

Before going to Turks and Caicos in June, I read the captain logs for the Turks and Caicos Aggressor. They reported seeing lionfish in multiple locations. I thought it was strange as the lionfish is known to be a Pacific fish but recently there have been reports of lionfish in the caribbean. I was excited at the chance to see them and they are magnificient to see in person but more recently I am starting to become concerned about their effect on the caribbean environment. This article is just one of the many articles that has recently spotlighted the problems that these fish can cause.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Bizarro World...

Everything was perfect for our run on Saturday morning. Friday night we'd eaten big plates of pasta as usual. We had gotten up right on time at 3:45am in order to make it to the trail by 5:00. I ate two pieces of toast, Kim ate her usual PB&J, and we were all dressed and ready to go. That is when Kim noticed the rain, and then that it wasn't just raining, it was storming.



We headed down to the trail anyway (had to, we are group leaders), and as we headed down it proceeded to pour and huge streaks of lightning went across the sky. We listened to the weather report and it certainly did sound like this was going to last all day.



The trail was chaotic and disorganized. We ran around to everyone's cars in the dark and pouring rain, trying to figure out which people were members of our group and which people were not. Each group ended up making our own decision about what to do - some groups chose to wait. Kim and I ended up postponing the run due to weather for the first time in the 2 1/2 years we've been in the program.



We're fairly used to getting up that early to run, so the time was not a big deal. What we are not used to is getting up that early and then not running. We tried to sleep, and we did fall asleep for an hour or so. We ended up discovering that we need those endorphins from running to keep us sane. Saturday was a bizarro world of feeling jet-lagged, bickering with each other, and just plain feeling miserable. We were not the same Todd and Kim that people are used to.



Fast forward to Sunday. Again, we were awake at 3:45am, went down to the trail and this time ran. It was beautiful weather, cooler than it had been on Saturday, clear and beautiful. I ran an easy 20 miles. After the run, we were totally normal, feeling great, and had a wonderful day. It's amazing what a change a little endorphins will make.