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The current meme-du-jour seems to be this one, so here is my two cents… 25 Random Facts about Drew:

  1. I was born October 23, 1967. Cusp of Scorpio & Libra, and contain positive and negative personality aspects of both of these astrological signs, if you believe in astrology.
  2. I do not believe in astrology.
  3. I was vomited on in elementary school by Kathy Baumgartner. She upchucked on my favorite maroon jacket, which gave its wear-ability to protect me. I still miss that coat.
  4. I only started wearing socks in the last several months. Even in the coldest weather, I rarely used to wear socks. Exceptions: anytime I was dressed up (like in a suit) or when cooking in a professional kitchen.
  5. I am most embarrassed when I forget someone’s name or (even worse!) call them the wrong name. I have a great memory for faces, but not so much for names. This makes for great situations where I’ve met a student when they were a freshman in college and then meet them again once they’re beginning their search for graduate education and I say, “it’s nice to see you again”. The student is impressed that I remember them, when in fact I simply recognized them. I would trade some of the facial recognition for better name retention, though.
  6. My high school time was formative, just like everyone’s. I keep in touch with very few people from high school. I  don’t attend high school reunions. Despite this, I recall those days fondly.
  7. I used to walk through the woods home from school. Those woods are gone now, but I am confident that I could still draw a pretty good map of them.
  8. I love to play Frisbee. I used to play Frisbee for hours with my childhood friend, John.
  9. My childhood friend, John, died in his mid-30′s.
  10. During the summers as a child, I would go for weeks without wearing shoes. Would go everywhere (that allowed it) barefoot. The skin on the bottom of my feet was tough like leather.
  11. I used to enjoy walking through the drainage & creek systems around my neighborhood. These were long creeks, connected by short (and some long) tunnels that we’d walk. If you were careful, you could walk great distances through the creeks without getting your feet wet.
  12. My brother and I walked a REALLY long, narrow tunnel underneath Beechmont Mall (another article with pictures). It went from the north side of the mall, under their large parking lots, under Beechmont Avenue, and under Anderson High School. This solidified (dare I say cemented) an abiding enjoyment of exploring out-of-the-way, abandoned, or derilict places — urban exploration. Unfortunately, I do not get to do as much of this as I would like.
  13. As a kid, I loved to build models from kits. I’d spend hours assembling, sanding, and painting them. Later, I used a Super-8 camera to make short stop-motion animation films with the models.
  14. I have a recurring dream about an underground concrete area accessed through a secret door in an amusement park… This underground area is impossibly large, dark, empty, and should be scary. But in my dream, it’s not scary. This dream is probably informed by MZD’s HOUSE OF LEAVES, though it feels like I’ve been having this dream for a long time. Longer than the book has been out.
  15. I had my ears pierced in college, but let them close up. Otherwise, no body modifications. I’ve been thinking about a tattoo for a while, but still haven’t committed.
  16. Oranges are my favorite fruit. But it is difficult to find a good orange in this area. We had amazing fresh orange juice in Punta Cana that changed forever our perception of how good orange juice can taste.
  17. Dead things freak me out.
  18. I have run some form of communication technology for the last 20 years… From a Commodore 64 BBS to a BBS on PCs (all of these were called “The Cafe’ BBS”) through static HTML pages, PostNuke, Xaraya, and now WordPress… Technology has always fascinated me.
  19. I built my own Personal Video Recorder (PVR). We almost never watch live television at my house any more. This is one of the coolest computer projects I’ve worked on. It has turned into a monster (in a good way) — from one proof-of-concept PC with a decent sized hard drive to a very powerful PC with large hard drives, two tuners (one standard-definition and one high-definition) connected to a NAS array with over 1 terrabyte of storage. When we were in Houston Texas for a friend’s wedding, we met the development team of BeyondTV (www.snapstream.com), the software that ties it all together. That was great fun.
  20. I am very interested in true human interaction & connection, and will drop any book or technology to be with real people. I am the type of person who gets energized in large-crowd situations.
  21. Online social sites (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, InCircle, etc) hold very little allure to me. Some of my colleagues in university development report great success in tracking down lost alumni via those methods.
  22. I am a reader… I love reading, have an enormous book collection (my culinary book collection is nearing 500 titles), and have been a serial reader for as long as I can remember (a serial reader is a person who spends no time “between” books — think chain smoker, but with books instead of cigarettes).
  23. I have never been interested in fashion. I wear clothes simply to avoid being cold.
  24. I have a well-endowed sense of humor and have no trouble poking fun at myself.
  25. I was born hungry and have remained so all of my life.

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This review was written by Wendy.

I spent 7 nights at the Iberostar Cozumel with my brother in the beginning of September, sandwiching luckily between Gustav and Ike. This is a perfectly nice hotel on a mediocre beach but nearest the best scuba diving reef I’ve seen. Skip to the end if you’re easily bored; stay with me if you want all the details. I have stayed at the Barcelo Beach and Dreams Tulum resorts in the Mayan Riviera and at the Barcelo Palace in Punta Cana for all-inclusive reference.

We booked through our local travel agent Anna at OK Travel, GoGoTours was the group. Flew American Airlines right into Coz, laying over in Miami. The second leg into Coz is on a little turboprop, but it was very smooth. Nice to land right in Coz and not have to deal with the Cancun madness and ferryboat ride. No problems with the flights or airport, van from Olympus Tours was there to bring us to the hotel. It’s about 20 m south of the airport, quite a ways from town. Check in was a breeze and our room was ready. We were in 8114, nearest the beach and the pool on the South side. It was quiet and clean, small as others have noted but perfectly acceptable. The closet does not give you a lot of room to spread out clothing, but how much stuff do you need? It’s not a fancy place. The minibar was full and the safe worked fine. Each room has a nice balcony and hammock out in front. We did find some tiny ants in the bathroom, but they didn’t seem to bite and were nothing more than a minor annoyance (and my Deet skin spray did not deter them at all).

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From this page comes this Tuesday’s question… What are 10 memorable vacation moments? In no particular order…
Please share your comments.
  1. Spending all day building large elaborate sandcastles on the beach, then setting them on fire (with fuel-soaked paper towels) at sunset.
  2. A giant blue heron who appeared at the end of the dock one day, and let us cautiously approach to within 5-6 feet.
  3. Nearly any SCUBA dive I’ve done.
  4. Throwing furniture into the pool (and later, fishing it out and setting it up again) with my brother.
  5. Dinners from Harry’s.
  6. Eating pizza on the beach, sand between my toes, in Punta Cana.
  7. My first (discovery) SCUBA dive with Wendy, on October 23, 2002.
  8. Cabo Roho lighthouse in Puerto Rico.
  9. Bioluminescent bay, also in Puerto Rico.
  10. October, 2007 in Bradenton, Florida.

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Tonight, Wendy & I attended the suprise anniversary party for Bess Arlene and Ossie who are celebrating 25 years of marriage. Their children hosted a lovely party at a clubhouse very near our home, so it was easy to get there and back (a nice change!). They were suitably surprised to see everyone — Bess couldn’t stop smiling the whole night!

The lovebirds were recently back from an anniversary trip to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and were full of stories (and probably some lobster, too!) from their trip.

Dinner was cheese & crackers, chips & salsa, shish-kabobs, salad, and a very nice cake for dessert.

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Drew in 9 Layers
I forget where I found this online, but it’s one of those shared ideas that goes through the Blogosphere like wildfire.

LAYER ONE:
Name: Andrew Phillip Vogel
Birth date: 23 October 1967
Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio
Current Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5’11″
Righty or Lefty: Righty
Zodiac Sign: Cusp of Scorpio & Libra

LAYER TWO:
Your heritage: German, and “a fifth of Scotch”, as my father would say.
The shoes you wore today: Clogs from Klogs.com. White gym socks.
Your weakness: Animals & food, not necessarily in that order
Your fears: Not being needed; Alzheimers; the deaths of those I love; not accomplishing my goals
Your perfect pizza: Margarita pizza eaten on the beach with my toes in the sands of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Goal you’d like to achieve: Expert-level proficiency in the things to which I apply myself

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