Archive for July, 2011

MR Cache: On Vacation…

July 31st, 2011

Weekly Thoughts:

I’m on vacation and so far it has been great!  Both of my kids loved swimming with the dolphins and snorkeling at Discovery Cove.  Obviously, SeaWorld was a big hit with them too, especially watching the shows that included the dolphins and killer whales!

Since I’m way busier (and more tired) than I expected, instead of continuing with my thoughts, I’m just going to provide a list of other great posts from other bloggers today!

Interesting Articles From Other Bloggers

Financial Samurai:  The Value Of A Trustworthy Auto Mechanic
Budgeting in the Fun Stuff:  I Use a Dryer for my Clothes
Buy Like Buffett:  Can Apple Give The Federal Government A Bailout?
Wealth Informatics:  Learning to give up the rat race
Everyday Tips and Thoughts:  Sometimes There Just Isn’t A Right Or A Wrong- Just Let Others Be.
First Gen American:  The story that made me save for retirement.
Free From Broke:  How to Make More Money: Stop Watching TV!
My Journey to Millions:  My New Financial Hero
Frugal Confessions:  Frugal Confessions Friday – Frugal Living
Not Made of Money:  At What Age Should You Teach Kids About Money?
Len Penzo:  Black Coffee: Indispensable Job Advice for the Employed & Unemployed
Money Crush:  Dividend Stocks Increase Your Wealth
Money Smart Life:  The Best Resorts for Family Deals

We’re having a great time while in Florida, I hope everybody has a great vacation too!

MR

A Sea World – Orlando Florida Vacation

July 30th, 2011

Instead of driving down to Hilton Head like we usually do, instead my wife and kids are going to go swimming with Dolphins at Discovery Cove and visit Sea World as a free option as part of the Discovery Cove package.  Actually, the Discovery Cove includes 14 free days pass to Sea World.

If I we were to use all 14 days, it would have been a huge bargain, but we are only going to go to Sea World three days at the max instead of the 14 free days that are included.  It was definitely worth it, my kids and wife talked about it all the way home!

I’ll save the Discovery Cove story for another day though, so now onto Sea World…

The primary attraction at Sea World is the Orcas, and they didn’t disappoint!  The primary Killer Whale that did most of the stunts would bent it’s tail into a funnel. and get the entire lower level audience wet.  I’ve never seen Killer Whales do that before, at least not to that range.  All told there seem to be at least 5 Killer Whales in the show, but I expect there are even more than that.

I was mostly amazed by the Dolphins though!  They are incredible intelligent animals, and borderline magical to watch.  The Dolphin Show that we watch was more than just Dolphins jumping though!  The entire act was borderline art!  You could tell that they female trainers had some dancing and ballet skills!  Then the bird show that was mixed in was amazing to watch too!

Dolphins
Dolphins

All in all, it was a great experience that both kids enjoyed, but especially my daughter!

If you ever decide to swim with the Dolphins, my family highly recommends it.

Cheers,

MR

Airport Terminal Restaurants Seems To Never Get It Right

July 29th, 2011

When we’re in the Orlando Airport terminal, we saw a “Macaroni Grill” restaurant and decided to stop in there for lunch.

We made our decision to go to Macaroni Grill because the one in out area burned down and we miss the bread that we use to get there.

So there we are with out 200 tons of luggage (or at least it seemed that way), trying to sit in the small airport terminal space that Macaroni Grill had in the airport terminal.  I’m sure it was a funny sight.

The first thing we noticed that was different was that the menu was somewhat limited.  The prices were normal, but kind of high for lunch.

When we got the food, I noticed that the portion size for my disk “Penney Rustica” was 1/2 the normal size that my local restaurant use to provide.

The bread that we got was cold and while it looked the the stuff we use to get at our local restaurant version, it tasted worse than wonder bread white bread.  This was a huge let down.

Both kids didn’t like their food and so they only ate a little bit.  I finished my plate, but didn’t feel well shortly afterwards.

The moral of the story is to not buy airport terminal food unless absolutely necessary.

I wonder if others have had similar experiences with airport terminal food?

Bests,

MR

Interesting Flight Experience On The Trip To Florida

July 27th, 2011

On my flight to Florida, my seating arrangements was very interesting this item and I thought I’d share my experience.

First, let me explain my seating arrangement.  Since there are four of us, but only 3 connecting seats per side on the plane, I was the one that was voted off of the 3 connected seats side.  So I was the inner aisle seat on the other side, sometimes banishment hurt (lol).

So since the plane was full (unlike my trip to California where I didn’t have anyone beside me), both the seats beside me were filled by other passengers.

Passenger 1: Young  Boy

This kid was probably 8 or 9 and overall wasn’t too bad.  He did play his Nintendo DS without turning down the volume, but even then it wasn’t too loud.

The only problem that he did have was when he went to the bathroom, he came back with pee all over the front of his shorts.  I noticed but didn’t let him know that I did.  He did try to conceal it with the airplane tray but I didn’t even act like I noticed.  Luckily for him the other passenger (see below) was sleeping.

I felt bad for him, but luckily by the time the plane landed it was dry with faint staining, and not quite as noticeable.

 

Passenger 2:  Mr. “I love boobies”.

Yep, that’s what this 20-ish man had on his wrist as a rubber bracket.  Of course this guy had the window seat and even though a young boy would have appreciated looking out the window to see the view, this guy decided to put the blind down on his window and the one a bit in front of him, so the view wast completely black.  Next he blows up a little pillow and put it against the window and immediately falls asleep.

Later when it was time to leave the plane, I notice that he even took both of his shoes off during the flight.  Needless to say, I was glad I wasn’t the boy who was sitting between us, poor kid!

I don’t fly much, so little experiences like these are interesting and sometimes frustrating.

Cheers,

MR

I Have Too Many Vacation Days, So I’m Taking A Blogging Vacation

July 27th, 2011

Oh No, I’m Losing Vacation Hours, Aughhhh!

I have too many vacation days accumulated!  I bet you’re thinking, “What is his problem?  Too many vacation days???”

Unfortunately, were I work once we accumulate over 200 hours, we don’t accumulate any more vacation hours.  So additional hours accumulated would be lost!  That’s like throwing away money, and I’m way, WAY to frugal to throw away money!

So I decided that instead of juggling days off, taking a day or two every other week, I would take two full weeks all at once.  That will definitely tide me over until the end of the year!

Taking A Blogging Vacation

Yep, that’s right!  I’m going to take my old black laptop and blog while I’m on vacation, at least when I can.  Oh sure, the family doesn’t realize this yet, but if I’m quick about it, I should be able to do my blogging during the down times between our adventures that we will be having on vacation.

I’m going to be taking advantage of my son’s camera feature on his iPod touch, I hope he doesn’t mind (lol, like he has a choice)!

I’m sure in some ways I’ll play the role of a journalist checking out a new unexplored territory!  A win for me will be the fact that I now have an excuse to take lots of pictures!

Bringing Out My Inner Tech Nerd!

I’m going to be taking a few tech books I borrowed from the library and even reading some books online at the safaribooksonline website!

Hopefully, I’ll improve my blog site a bit more than I have in the past.  We’ll see…

Cheers,

MR

pfblogs.org logo

Disclaimer: This site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and the content herein should not be mistaken for professional financial advice. It is highly recommended that you seek advice from a professional for serious financial matters. This site and its author may be compensated for expressing personal opinions regarding featured products and services.