Well I said I'd let ya all know when I decided what I want to do with my life and what was happening...

Today I accepted a job cleaning up Elephant and Rhino dung in a town called Hluhluwe. Hluhluwe is in the Zululand area of South Africa and is home to the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi Game Reserves. You'll find 1/5th of the entire population of Rhinos here. As one would expect with this many Rhino's and Elephants that's a lot of dung. Due to an unexpected decline in the dung beetle population dung is pilling up, with some areas covered in 2 to 3 feet of the stuff. My job is to collect it and ship it to California where it will be dried and used to make adobe homes for homeless people. Sure they'll stink a little but it's better then a box.

The closeness of the all these animals in a relatively small area has also caused the animals to express some emotional problems. Since I'll be around all these animals day and night an additional job responsibilities will be emotional counseling. Fortunately this is limited to Elephants and Rhinos. I hear the leopards have very deep emotional scars.

So Tricia and I have sold the house here and bought ourselves a beautiful 10x10 grass roof, dirt floor, hut in Hluhluwe. Tricia is looking forward to hanging out with the native women crushing grain and making corn meal. Watch for us on an upcoming National Geographic special entitled "Dung Hoe's".

Wish us luck and promise to come visit. We'll save you a warm spot on the floor.

Tricia and I went down to Florida for 13 days. It was suppose to only be 11 days but a snow storm here in the North East prevented us from coming back on time. Yep, that's it and I'm sticking to it.

We spent 4 days in Orlando then drove over to Tampa to visit my parents for a day. They have a beautiful place there. Tricia and I had never been on the west coast of Florida so we spent the next few days driving down through Ft. Myers, Naples, and eventually onto Everglade City. We had originally planned on spending a day in Port Charlotte but we were shocked to find it still in ruins from the hurricane. We then drove over to Ft Lauderdale and picked up Sue and Darren and drove down to Key West. We had a great time and you can check out some pictures here..

In other news OHYC finally opened the new club. I'll try and get some more pictures now that we have stuff in it (furniture, people, etc)

I figured I'd add a ittle update. As you can see above the boat is covered and safely nestled in at Admirals Hill Marina. We go down once a week and check in on it.

The club is coming along nicely and although we haven't officially opened it yet we have started moving some stuff over from the trailer. I took a few new pictures and you can check them out here. (new ones start on the bottom of page 8)

Beyond that we've traveled a little bit more. We went to Vegas again for the Consumer Electronics Show in Jan. Didn't win much but we had our usual great time. Didn't take any pictures at all. Tomorrow we're heading for Florida for 11 days. We'll be covering a lot of it. Orlando for a convention for Tricia's work, Tampa to visit my folks, Ft Myers/Port Charlote/naples because we've never seen that area, Then over to Ft lauderdale to pick up Sue and Darren. The 4 of us are then heading to Key West for a few days. I'll be sure to get some pictures.

I added the last 5 posts from Al's Forums on the left hand side of this page.

The boat is put away for the winter and the winter blues are setting in. Tricia and I cope with the winter by traveling a lot. At the end of October we went down to the boat show in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We didn't buy anything but enjoyed the weather and company/hospitality of Jimmy and Jeri Maggs. Unfortuantly we didn't get any pictures.

On November 18th, along with Jeff, Nicole, Elaine, Ray, Kerrie, and Jason we took a trip tp Vegas for 5 days to celebrate Jeff and Elaines Birthdays. We had a great time and managed to cram a lot into our stay there. Hopefully we'll be able to make this a yearly trek with our friends. You can check out the pictures here..

The old forum I was using is nearing the end of it's ability. I never expected it to grow to over 1,000 posts. I have put up a brand new forum with much better capabilities (image uploading, database backend, email support, etc) My original intention was to port the old forum into the new but it's just going to be way to much work. So, I decided to start over and leave the old forums up for historical value. There's still a lot of great stuff on the old forums and I don't want to loose it. Thanks to everyone that contributed to the old forum and I hope you will all continue to contribute to the new forum!

• The brand new AL's Forums!
• The OLD Al's Forums (For historical purposes)

On August 14th, 2004 OHYC put on an Italian Night party on the new deck of the club. About 200 people attended and we had a great time. You can check out the pictures here..

On August 28th, 2004 Orient Heights Yacht Club and Jeffries Yacht Club got together for the yearly Rainsford Island BBQ. You can check out the pictures here..

I took some time to put up a map showing our Long Island trip route and wrote a short log about the trip. You can Check it out here. Make sure you mouse over the ports on the picture.

I also got all the pictures that Jeff and Nicole took and have added some of them to the Long Island Photo Gallery. There's also another album with pictures of local flare/light houses/and just random shots of nobody.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I updated this but looking at the dates apparently it's been a couple of months. Here's what's been happening in those two months. It's gonna be long.

Believe it or not Adam turned 21. I can finally send him to the liquor store to get me beer :-). For at least the last 10 years we have asked Adam what he wants to do for his Birthday. Typically he wants to go to the lake house, or to Kennebunkport ME. For this Birthday he wanted to go to Vegas. So Tricia booked tickets and Tricia, Adam, Libbie, and myself were off to Vegas for his Birthday. We stayed at the Excalibur hotel and ran Libbie and Adam ragged. Us old folks were still up and about at 4am while the kids pretty much collapsed after midnight. Adam got to see and try a lot of things Tricia and I have been talking about for years. We went indoor sky diving, we did the Star Trek experience, walked through all the gorgeous hotels, and basically crammed as much in as we could. Oh yeah, we gambled and drank a little. We didn't take any pictures but fortunately Libbie did. You can check out the pictures on Libbies gallery here.

The summer weather hasn't been that great but we're still getting in some time out on the boat.

We went on an invasion with Pleasent Park Yacht Club over to Port Norfolk Yacht Club. An invasion is when one yacht club invites another yacht club over for the weekend and puts on a huge party. What a blast we had. Port Norfolk Yacht Club greeted 26 boats from PPYC and OHYC with a BBQ and open bar at noon. 4 pm we ate again and dinner was served at 8pm along with a DJ, dancing, and some games. Sunday morning they served us breakfast. I did manage to get some pictures and you can check them out here.

On the 4th of July Sue, Darren, and their kids (Missy and Dylan) came down to the boat and we headed out into Winthrop Harbor, grabbed a mooring, and watched some awesome fire works.

The next weekend Elaine, Ray, and their kids (Kayla and Steven) came out and after playing around at the yacht club we took the boat out to a mooring off Gallops Island in Boston Harbor. We took the dingy over to, and explored, Lovell Island. Some pictures here.

From July 23rd through the 31st we went with 5 other boats on a trip to Long Island. Jeff and Nicole joined us as we went to Cutty Hunk, Montauk, Sag Harbor, Green Port, Mystic Sea Port (CT), and Onset. I'll write up a separate page of the adventure. We took a few pictures, but I'm waiting for the 250 something pictures that Jeff and Nicole took. In the mean time you can check out a few pictures here.

The boat is in the water and safetly nestled in a slip at OYHC. We still don't have a permenant home for her there but we are hopeful we will get one on 'slip pick' night at the end of June. Tricia's OHYC membership was accepted and she is now a card carrying member of OHYC. (she can work the bar LOL) As promised I grabbed some pictures of the yacht club and it's progress. You can see them here. New pictures start on about page 5.

In other news Adam turns 21 this month. When asked what he wanted for his Birthday he said "To go to Vegas". So we're off to Disney World for Adults (Las Vegas) at the end of the month. If you want to go let me know and I'll give you the details.

We are back from Jamaica and had an excellent time with Ray and Elaine. We stayed at Hedo III and would probably go back if we weren't the type of people that like to go somewhere new every time. Like every resort Hedo III had it's pluses and minuses. You can check out our Hedo III pictures here. If you're considering Hedo III feel free to email me any questions you might have.

We have been trying to get ready for the summer. I've put in over 40 hours at the yacht club building lockers, building a deck, repairing docks, and putting out the main docks. The new building is weather tight, all the wiring, plumbing, and duct work is in. It looks great and we can't wait to be able to use it, although neither Tricia or I believe it will be done for this summer. I'll try and get some pictures next time I'm there. Speaking of Tricia, she applied for membership to the club this past weekend. Being a spouse of a member has it's limits and Tricia wants to be more involved. I'll update you if she gets accepted.

We've also put a lot of hours into getting the boat ready. We had to uncover it then compound below the rub rail. Then two more coats of wax, paint the bottom, change the zincs, and change some hoses in the engine room. Thanks a ton to Elaine, Ray, and Jeff for helping us out it was a lot of work but the boat looks better then it ever has. We also had Oakum Bay Canvas out to measure for new canvas. We are going to totally enclose the fly bridge. Not only do we think it will look really nice, it will be much more functional then it is now.

Tricia and I went to the 2004 Miami Boat Show. We went a week early and spent a few days at the Marriott in Miami before jumping on a Carnival Cruise ship for 4 days. The cruise ship visited Key West and Cozumel. Back in Miami we stayed at the Hyatt and spent 3 days attending the boat show. We didn't buy a new boat... Yet! We also took a trip up to West Palm beach to visit our good friend Vikki. Vikki took us out for a boat ride were we encountered a large pod of dolphins.

We had a great time and I miss the weather already. Sunday I head back to Scotland for a few weeks. You can check out a few pictures of our time in Miami and on the cruise in the Photo Gallery.

Aam aff tae scootlund. tha lain ay kilts an' pubs.
Translation: "I'm off to Scotland. The land of kilts and pubs."

As most of you know work has been fairly slow for me so I took an assignment over in Edinburgh Scotland for a few months. It's a pretty good opportunity for us as neither Tricia or I have ever been there. Tricia will come over and visit off and on as time permits. It's also a pretty interesting project. I will be helping design an Intranet that will be a secure online IP environment to deliver a range of critical services, applications and content to teachers, pupils and education managers across the country. You can find out more here, if you're interested.

I'm taking my digital camera and a web cam and I'll have online access so you'll still see me about and I'll also be updating my web site (probably the Forum and Photo Gallery) with any new adventures.

Hopefully ye will aw still kin me when Ah gie back an' ye willnae huv tae translate as Ah am daein' haur fur ye.
Translation: "Hopefully you will all still understand me when I get back and you won't have to translate as I am doing here for you."

Today is a very sad day for us. One of our cats (Dave) passed away this morning. Dave had been a part of our lives for 18 years. I got him for Tricia from a friend I worked with at Wang. I remember bringing him home and standing around with Tricia trying to pick a name for him. After a few different names I jokingly said "Why don't we give him a normal name like, ummmm, errrrr, Dave" - Although we didn't want it to, it stuck. Unlike the dog, Dave took to Adam and you could frequently find him sleeping with him. He had a distinctive personality and depending on his behavior you could hear us yelling David!!! when he was mischievous or Davey when he was being cute. Dave will sorely be missed in this household. Davey, we'll see you on the other side.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

My Mom and Dad (Orvin and Ginger) recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. A pretty major accomplishment. For their anniversary we took them to the Mt Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods NH for the weekend where they renewed their vows and got to spend time with their entire family (Even Eric who couldn't get the time off and showed up at the last second). The hotel was very nice, although not as elegant as I expected it to be. We had a great time. Congratulations Mom and Dad.

We all had cameras and grabbed a number of pictures. I posted some of them here in my photo album.

I know it's been a while since I updated this but I'm constantly yapping on my forums. Feel free to jump in there. Tricia and I are a little depressed. The boat is out of the water and sitting high and dry. November is here and between the fact that it gets dark at 5pm, everything looks dead, and it's starting to get cold, it's not our favorite time of year. We have booked a 4 day cruise when we go down to Miami in Feburary for the Miami boat show. We're also looking at a Vegas trip next month. So at least we have something to look forward to.

I grabbed a few more pictures of the building progresses at OHYC. It's coming along slow but sure. Check em out here!.

Tricia and I decided to hang out this weekend and work on the boat. After all we've been growing the "To Do" list now for 2 months and last weeks adventure significantly added to it. OHYC had BBQ every day this weekend. We had a great time not doing much. I went fishing on Monday and caught a number of Stripers. None big enough to keep though.

I grabbed some old pictures of the yacht club and the fire in 2000 and took some new ones. I'll post some more as the building progresses. Check em out here!.

This weekend we went out to P-Town again. We took Ray and Elaine along for the ride and what a ride it was. To much to put here but if ya want all the details here's the story!. Elaine took some pictures. Check them out here.

In other news we took a lightning hit Friday night. We lost the nic cards in the Photo Gallery web server and Tricia's PC. Adams PC is totally dead. The Photo Gallery is back up, we are still looking at Tricia and Adams PC. Oh and I bought new sunglasses in P-town - Maui Jims.

Saturday we went to Rainsford Island on Ed and Sue's boat. We had a great time as a bunch of other people from the OHYC also came over. We had a BBQ, played some horse shoes. I went undefeated and would of played some more but Ed managed to hit Coco (his dog) with a horse shoe and knock her out. A scary thing but she appears to be okay now. I also had the misfortune of jumping off the bow of the boat with my sunglasses on and they are now part of the sea bottom. You can check out the few pictures I took in the photo album. I also took a few pictures of Orient Height Yacht Club.

For a change of pace this weekend we went camping in the RV. Eight of us (Elaine/Ray/Sue/Darren/Jeff/Nicole/Me/Tricia), plus the 4 kids(Dylan/Missy/Kayla/Steven), headed up to Woodstock, NH and the Broken Branch Camp Ground We had reservations to put us all together but the people that run the camp ground are about as bright as a stump and we ended up separated in two groups. We still managed to have a great time. The weather wasn't suppose to be very good but they were wrong and we got two gorgeous days of sunshine on the Pemigewasset River where we swam and jumped off the rock cliffs. Saturday night the skys did open up and turned the roadways of the campground into canals. You can check out the few pictures I took in the photo album. Hopefully Elaine or Sue will add some more pictures.

As some of you may or may not know we have joined Orient Heights Yacht Club (OHYC). One of the attractions of boating to us is the social aspect of it. Getting to meet other boaters, etc. We looked at a number of yacht clubs and found some to be very snooty. OHYC though is about as non-snooty as it gets. Don (the guy we bought the boat from) took us there back in May. The place is in ruins. Three years ago the club house (which was the oldest private club in Mass - since 1901) burned to the ground. A temporary trailer is in place and they were just starting to break ground to build a new club house. The parking lot is all broken up, debris litters almost every available space, and the trailer looks like it's been there since 1901. To say the least our first impressions weren't good. Don took us in, introduced us to a few people, and offered us a drink from the make shift bar. While he's getting us a drink a small 'lap dog' is hoping around from bar stool to bar stool. Of course Tricia is in heaven, till she went to sit down and saw the 'lap dog' had left a few baby ruths on the stools. No one yelled, no one freaked, they cleaned it up and went on like nothing had happen. I think we knew then we found a place.

Since that time a lot has happen. The new yacht club is being built, the docks are in, and all in all we like the people and the club a lot. Once the building is finished I think people will be lining up to join. Joining a yacht club has more benefits then just the social aspect. The cost of a slip is less then 1/3rd of a marina. The problem is that all yacht clubs have waiting lists to actually get a slip. (ie; there are more members then slips) Because we had the boat and no were to keep it, and we figured we wouldn't get a slip at the yacht club this year, we got a slip at Atlantis Marina. It's fairly close to the yacht club so we can still socialize and hang out there. Last week we got a call from the OHYC "dock master" He had a rental slip for us. Now a rental is different then actually "owning a slip" but it's still cheap. We decided we had to take it. First off it's kind of like "being in". Second off, the yacht club does it's slip pick at the end of June. So this gets us the same slip till at least the end of June next year. At that point we're pretty sure we'll either be able to continue to rent that slip, be able to rent another slip, or ultimately get our own slip. So there ya have it. This weekend, we took the boat out of her Atlantis slip for the last time. We fueled her up for her next adventure and took her over to her new slip at OHYC. It feels good to be there. I'll grab some pictures next time I go.

ps... Anyone need a slip in Winthrop Harbor? I have an extra one.

We took last week off from work and went on a week boating adventure with Jeff/Nicole and 7 other boats from Orient Heights Yacht Club (OHYC). We left Saturday morning and headed south down through the Cape Cod Canal. We entered Red Brook Harbor in Cataumat MA and got a slip at Kingsman Yacht Center for the night. The next day we headed out early for Block Island. We arrived about 11am to a million (sic) boats coming and going. We stayed at Champlins Marina rafted up to our friends sue and Ed's boat "Aqueous". We rushed out early two days later to beat an incoming storm. The ride to Newport was rough (4-5ft seas) but we handled it with minimal problems. We then spent 3 days at Newport Harbor Hotel Marina in Newport RI. We were only suppose to spend 2, but stayed an extra day due to 10ft seas the day we were suppose to leave. We then headed north back to Red Brook Harbor were we anchored up, took out the dingy and spent the afternoon on the beaches there. We had a great time between the bars and shops in Block Island and Newport to the traquility of Red Brook Harbor. I think we like this boating stuff. You can check the pictures out in My Photo Album I didn't take a lot, but some of the other people did. If I get copies I'll try and post some more.

Elaine and Ray came down to the boat this past weekend. We mostly worked on the boat getting ready for our big trip to Block Island/Newport next week. Thanks for helping change that battery Ray! We did go out for a cruise on Boston Harbor and they took a few pictures. You can check the pictures out in Elaine's Photo Album

This weekend we took NET ESCAPE out to Province town with our friends Ed and Sue in Aqueous. We left our slip in Winthrop about 9:30am and rode dead flat seas out to P-Town. We anchored up in the harbor about 500 ft off the Coast Guard Station docks. We took the dingy into town a number of times and also went to the beaches out on the point. Sunday we pulled up anchor and moved over to the point. Janyce and Michael came with us with the intent of going along for the ride and taking the fast ferry back to Boston. However, they loved it so much they stayed the entire weekend. We headed back home about 3:30pm on Sunday, again on dead flat seas. About 5 miles out we encountered a couple of whales. I was below deck and didn't see them but Tricia got a great fluke shot right in front of the boat. We grabbed the camera and stopped the engines hoping they would resurface but they never did. Another awesome weekend. This time I did remember the camera. Check out the pictures here.

Tricia and I have started our adventures with the new boat (NET ESCAPE). We went to Gloucester for the weekend of June 28/29 along with friends Ed and Sue in their boat (Aqueous). It was the Saint Peters Festival and the blessing of the fleet. We anchored about 200 feet off the greasy pole on Pavillion beach fr two nights. There had to be about 500 boats anchored up with us during the festivities. We probably could of jumped from boat to boat for about 1/2 mile. We took the dingy up the Annisquam river through the Blynman Canal all the way through to Ipswich Bay and Wingaersheek Beach. Going through the Blynman Canal was an experience with tons of current and huge boat waves but the river itself was calm and a nice ride. Unfortunately we were dummies and forgot the camera. Sue and Ed did take some pictures and when they get them back I'll post them.

We put up a webcam on the boat, feel free to look in on it.

I think I have all the kinks worked out. If you find something that doesn't work let me know.

The link on the left "Al's Ramblings" doesn't work yet. I'm writting up our adventure about how we came to own the new boat "Net Escape"

Okay if you found this page you're probably wondering what's up. Well, I got sick and tired of trying to deal with my previous hosting company (Interland) and AlnTricia.Net has a new home (iPowerWeb). If ya like gory details you can check out my battle with Interland here.

It takes a few days for the change to fully take effect so some of you will be getting this and some will still see the old page. I figured if I was going through the effort of moving the site I might as well give her a face lift. Let me know what you think.

There will probably be a lot of broken links and I'm working to straighten them out. Once I think I have them fixed I'll ask for anyone who see's a broken link to let me know.