The last major piece to the wedding planning puzzle was completed on Saturday. After months and months of going back and forth, my fiance and I finally decided on a honeymoon destination. We knew that we wanted to go somewhere tropic and wanted to stay at an All Inclusive (all food, drinks and activites are included in your rate) resort so we would have no worries once we got there. We officially decided on and booked a week long stay at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian Spa and Beach Resort.

I’ve heard only good things about Sandals Resorts. Neither of us have stayed at one, but by looking at the pictures and reading the reviews you really can’t go wrong. We decided on St. Lucia because of its pure tropical beauty. Not only do you have perfect beaches right outside the room, but there are mountains and rainforest excursions not far from the resort either. The only thing that could have kept us from picking St. Lucia is that it is about 7 hours away from where we live. It’s almost at the equater. We could have gone somewhere closer like the Bahamas or Jamaica, but we really felt St. Lucia offered us everything we could want in a honeymoon destination. And the rates weren’t too expensive. We were able to book a Honeymoon sweet.

So far we have already booked a half day jeep excursion through the rainforest and we booked a trip to one of those adventures where you go on rope lines overy the canopy. I’ve always seen people doing that on TV and it’s looks like so much fun. We’ll also take boat tours around the island and do a sunset cruise. In addition to hanging out at the beach and pool all day we’ll also make it to the spa and I might play a round of golf.

Our honeymoon will be a short one though…only 6 days. We would have liked to have a 10 day honeymoon, but my fiance is an elementary school teacher and she was only able to get off one week of school because of the lack of substitute teachers. To make up for that, we are planning another vacation for the summer of 2008 to California and/or Las Vegas.
We’re really excited about this trip. We went to the Bahamas about a year and a half ago, but this trip will totally blow that one away. Check out the pictures on the Sandals St. Lucian website if you get a minute. There is a ‘photo’ button on the right side just above the 45% off image. It truly looks like paradise.

The night I’ve been waiting for all year is finally here. Monday Night Football. The Indianapolis Colts vs the Jacksonville Jaguars. Peyton Manning and the 5-0 Colts are coming to Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to face the 4-1 division rival Jaguars in a heated battle for first place in the AFC South. Nothing is better then Monday Night Football on a cool October night.

I’ve been a Jaguar fan since the day the first took the field in 1995, and I have to say that this is one of the best, if not the best, teams we’ve ever had. I was hoping Freddy Taylor would break the 10,000 rushing yard barrier tonight, but it looks like he’s about 190 yards away… so barring a miracle, he’ll have to wait another week or two.

It’s going to be an awesome game. The entire city is pumped up. I’m bringing my camera so I can grab some pictures. If I get anything good I’ll be sure to post them. Be sure to turn on your TV to ESPN at 8:30 for kickoff. I’ll be in the stadium on the 42 yard line, so take a look for me!

Today is the 6th anniversary of the al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

It doesn’t feel like 6 years. I can still vividly remember where I was when I heard the news. I was a freshman at UF, living in the dorms. I had just woke up for Calculus 2 class and was flipping the channels for ESPN. However, every channel on the TV was fixated on the attacks, which at this point they just thought a plane accidently flew into the building. As we’re watching, we see the second plane fly into the second tower and all of a sudden the mood changes and Americans realize their being attacked on their own soil.

Today is not a Federal Holiday like. We still go to work and school. Offices aren’t closed. Americans just like to take this day to show their patriotism. You’ll see more American flags flying. You’ll see more red, white, and blue. You’ll hear a lot of people showing their support for our troops. One of my best friends is in Iraq fighting right now. So I’ll take this moment to say how proud I am of him and appreciate him putting his life on the line everyday so people back home don’t have to.

I’m pretty sure I’ve posted this video before, but just in case you missed it, I feel like this is a must watch Youtube video. Viewer Discretion is advised.

 

I only had one Ask David question since the last post. Readers, you do realize that you get a free link back from an authority PR5 website with targetted visitors right? By simply clicking the Ask David button up top, you can fill out the contact form with any question in the world. I’ll answer it in the next Monday’s post, and give you a free link back in return for the question.

Question #1 comes from Danny (who didn’t leave a link). You went on vacation a few weeks ago and talked about pictures. Do you have any?

Of course I have pictures of my trip to Amelia Island Plantation

 

This first picture is a view from our room. The condo was 3 stories, with like one or two rooms on each floor. We were pretty much right on the beach, you just had to walk on a little boardwalk through the dunes to get to the sand. Notice how small the waves are. You’d think I was on the Gulf.

The second picture is me getting ready to go tubing. Tubing gets fun when you get outside of the wake. It takes a lot of strength and body positioning to stay on the tube and ride the wake.

Picture 3 is me tubing in action. It doesn’t look like we’re going very fast. The picture must have been taken right after the boat started going.

Here’s a picture of Katie and I sitting in a couple of rocking chairs at the shops they have on propety. It was isanely hot that day. Man, I look like I’m only 5′4″ in that picture. Guess the rocking chairs were made for Paul Bunyan.

The last picture was taking right after lunch on Saturday. These guys had just caught this bull shark and we were watching them reel it up while eating. So when we finished we went to check it out on the docks and the captain let us get a picture with it. Thank God it was already dead and I might be typing this post with 1 hand.

That’s it for the pictures. I have a lot more, but just wanted to share a few. If I ever sign up for flikr, I’ll be sure to let you guys know.

 

I’m out today (thank you timestamp) and the rest of the weekend. My parents rented a beach house at Amelia Island, FL for a couple days. It’s about 45 minutes North of where I live in Jacksonville, so it’s not to bad of a drive. This part of Florida is absolutely gorgeous. It has an old plantation feel to it surrounded by lush wildlife and untapped beaches.

So I’m going up there with Katie (my fiance), my parents, my older sister and her husband, and my younger sister and her boyfriend. It will be a house-full, but it will be a ton of fun. Today we’re going out on a boat (wakeboarding and fishing) throughout the Intracoastal Waterway. Saturday will likely be a chill day on the beach. Followed by another chill day on Sunday.

Since I’m on vacation, I wanted to take a day off from blogging as well. Sorry to disappoint you. I haven’t been on a real vacation in awhile. Even though I’m only going to be there for 3 nights and 3 days… I’m still looking forward to an awesome, relaxing weekend. We’ll be bringing a laptop with us, but no word on if there will be internet. I’m not going to be checking in on my blog or my sites until Sunday night. When I go on vacation, I like to go on vacation from my online work as well.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Might have some pictures for you on Monday too!

I was tagged again by Khalid and Matt. This is one I think I’ve done before, but I’ll go ahead and post a few more. It’s facts about me.

• Each player must post these rules first.
• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So here we go:

1. I have a miniature pinscher at home. I kind of adopted him when I asked Katie to marry me. We are also soon to be the proud parents of a cat next month.

2. I was born in Houston, thus the reasoning behind my obsession for the Astros and Yao Ming.

3. I’m addicted to Starbucks even though it destroys my stomach.

4. I like to gamble. I enjoy playing poker with my friends and I love playing card games at casinos. Even though you lose money a lot of the time, the entertainment value is well worth it. You can spend $200 going to a Jaguar game and it’s 3 hours long, or you can take $200 to a $5 min. blackjack table and last 3 hours. Gambling is all right as long as you know its just entertainment.

5. In elementary school, we had a contest every year called ‘Invention Convention’. Students just had to invent something and do a huge report on it. I won it for my grade level in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade. Got to go downtown to compete with winners from other schools. My best invention was a pen that had a built in light on it, so you could write in the dark. Keep in mind this was probably 18 years ago. And now you see these pens everywhere!!! If only I had a patent.

6. I like to read. I think it’s funny that growing up I hated to read. Didn’t like reading in school and college. I never read for enjoyment. I only read a book if it was a requirement. Now, I try to a read a book a month. However, most of them are business related, and not fictional.

7. I love playing Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne, specifically Defense of the Ancients (DOTA). I’ve been playing WC3 for about 5 years now. At one point in my junior year in college, my roommate and I were ranked #70 in the world in 2v2. #70 might not sound very higher, but just think about how many people play WC3. I don’t get to play much anymore, but it’s still my favorite game. DOTA is just awesome.

8. I love fantasy football. I spend hours and hours a week researching and reading fantasy articles during the season. I’ve been playing with the same group of guys for about 4 years now, and we’re highly competitive. This will probably be my 7th or 8th year playing fantasy football. I always prepare for the draft. I come with a notebook and spreadsheets. I’ve pretty much made the playoffs every year I’ve played. My best year was 2 years ago when I drafted Shaun Alexander, Tiki Barber, and Larry Johnson (6th round pick because Priest was still their starter until he went down in like week 5). I was unbeatable that year.