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Happy New Year

December 31st 2011 18:34

2011 seemed like a long year for me until Thanksgiving, then there was a whirlwind of activity and the rest of the year flew by like a weekend. I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season.

Now I am looking forward to 2012 as a year of challenges to overcome and positive changes to make, but no New Years Resolutions because those don't seem to have a lasting impact on one's life. For one, I want to write more blogs this year. I kond of got lazy there. And more light hearted blogs too. I kind of got bitchy there for a while.

Atlanta IS an ok place to live and a gret place to visit until you realize that there is not much you can do without a car. You know Atlanta was burned in 1865! Not just torched a little. Burned to the ground. Atlanta had to rebuild. Those inner city townhomes you see in most cities, you know, those big brownstones and such, they got burned. So Atlanta didn't have many downtown residents until recently.

For years, downtown Atlanta had hotels and homeless shelters. Weird, huh? Now, developers have finally realized there are thousands of people who work in the city but live in the "country" and a lot of them want to move into town but there are no quality places to move to. So, condos are springing up everywhere and life is good here.

Alright, my time is up. The wife just got home from the Chic Fil-A Bowl parade just down the street. And my daughter has to be picked up from Kung Fu so I got to go. Guess What? I am working tonight!

Well we will start the New Years off right with some cash money and champagne.

Happy New Year!

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Travel To Atlanta

October 23rd 2011 11:18

This is not just a travel piece, this is to get back into the blogging thing. It's been 147 days since my last post about Destination: Florida. It was a wonderful trip, but we had to go back. So, on Columbus day all the schools were out for holiday and teacher work day the next day and we took off for that whole weekend. We got to Sarasota on Friday and stayed till Tuesday. It was a true vacation. No sight seeing. No running around. No souvineer shopping. Just beach for six hours in the morning. A little work around the in-laws house in the afternoon, then sit back, have some wine and read or watch TV.

That was relaxing. Now about Traveling to Atlanta. Well I must say that Atlanta is pretty but there is not a whole lot to do in one place like downtown. No, you have to be willing to drive to several different areas to see museums or other exhibits. You know I got to thinking why that is that downtown Atlanta doesn't have more to do or more historic features, then I realized that Atlanta was burned to the ground in 1865 so we had to rebuild.

We do have, however, a world class aquarium and business museum at Centennial Park. That is the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium. I you want a museum of natural history, go to Fernbank off of Ponce de Leon on Clifton Road. It is awesome and well worth the effort. The High Museum of Art is located on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta. And in Grant Park is the Atlanta Zoo and a Civil War Museum called the Cyclorama.

OK. Gotta run. One thing I did in these 147 days was to make a new website. So if you feel like it, check out the link. Thanks for reading.
Jorge

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Destination: Florida

May 28th 2011 15:53

New Headlines in Travel show Siesta Beach, in Sarasota, FLA is the number one beach in the US. I whole heartedly agree. Siesta Beach boasts the world's finest quartz crystal sand, making it the whitest, most sugary soft sands you can imagine. It is a wide beach, 100 yards, at least, in most locations and the dunes, and seagrass are carefully protected by residents, park rangers, and beach staff. Siesta Beach is also breeding grounds for hundreds of sea turtles, so their eggs are guarded as best as people can guard them.

This area of south western Florida, is teeming with wildlife, and wildlife refuges. On Siesta Key, just south of Siesta Beach, is a large wildlife refuge for birds. Siesta Beach has numerous amenities like a state run visitors center complete with refreshment stands, emergency help, restrooms, and showers. This is REAl Florida. The island, Siesta Key, and the beach are natural, real Florida places not heavily landscped, over dramatized developers concepts of what a "key" or "beach" should be. If that is what you want, stick to the Florida panhandle where developers have branded their South Pacific Island image unto Florida beaches and islands.

You will encounter wildlife here. Life guards say that schools of five foot long hammerhead sharks swim past the beach several times a day. Hammerheads are not dangerous until they get six feet or longer. You might see a manatee or two. Dolphins frolick out about 100 yards or so, huge schools of small fish and schools of fish eating on them abound. Sting rays and manta rays can be seen also. Shore life is abundant too. Clams, crabs, coquina, conchs, and many more are at your fingertips.

Siesta Beach is on Siesta Key, which has woderful, natural, indigenous plants kept intact from developers bulldozers theough building codes and restrictions. Like I said, this is real Florida at it's finest. Fine homes and townhouses make up most of the islands land use. On the beach, you will find a collection of beach environment friendly hotels, condominiums, cabanas, homes, and townhomes. The "set back" rules keep the hotels from building right on the water so the beach is completely walkable from the north end to the south end.

The beach isn't the only attraction either. To the north is Longboat Key, which has restaurants, a nice shopping village, and Anna Maria at the northermost end. There is Lido Key, home of St. Armands Circle, a high end collections of boutiques and restaurants, also the Mote Aquarium which studies sharks, rescues sea turtles and houses injured manatees and dolphins for later release to the ocean. Sarasota downtown has gone through a renaissance, resurrecting the downtown shopping and dining areas and there is Marina Jacks, marina on the bay for food and shopping. The Ringling Mansion is an attraction in Sarasota which showcases the house belonging to the Ringling family of circus fame. It is gorgeous and a must see.

Back on Siesta Key we have Siesta Village, a village comprised of restaurants and shops of all kinds, also island businesses. And there is more to see on Midnight Pass Road. So there it is, Siesta Beach exposed. It is more than just a beach, it is a whole lifestyle. Check out the drum circle on Sunday evenings, and don;'t forget that this is a Sun Worshippers Mecca and as such, the SUNSET should play a very important part of every day that you are here. No two sunsets are the same and it puts a nice cherry on top of what was most likely an awesome day.

Have fun and remember, DONT LITTER THE BEACH. Pick up fter yourself and be an adult and recycle what needs to be recycled. Florida Recycles. It is for everyones good.

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American Idol Alive Again

May 27th 2011 04:28

What a season! We watched the whole season from the first episode and this season was spectacular. Jennifer Lopez really is the most beautiful woman in the world. And Steven Tyler...Wow, what a character. It is great to see him and hear him as a person like that. Know what I mean?

Somebody tell me what is so great about Pia? Everybody has gone Pia crazy. Well I think her knees together, semi squat like she is about to sit on a toilet stance, and black haired Barbie Doll demeanor were way too distracting and detracted from a great voice

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Easter 2011

April 22nd 2011 10:29

This year is moving! Yesterday I was writing a post on Safe Dog Food and now today, it's Good Friday, 49 days later. Much has happened since then and Atlanta has greened up substantially. The southern humidity is up and on the rise and the days are getting hotter. No complaints here. I am cold intolerant.

I have got so much on my plate right now that my mind has become mush. Anyway, I wanted to tell the world about the church I've been going to for the last two and a half years. And what is best is I can share it with you because they actually have a live webcast at their 11AM and 6PM services, so there is no excuse for not hearing, and seeing the word on Sundays

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Atlanta Travel: Local Haunts

March 3rd 2011 12:26

Yesterday, at work, I spoke to a conventioneer who wanted to know where to go for a fun evening. Now before I go any further, I work in a "public relations" job of sorts and am exposed to thousands of normal people. This wasn't some "fun" hungry business man asking me about naughty things. This was a legitimate question. My mind kind of went blank, Uhhh.

Finally I said a couple of places, but they had heard of Buckhead, so I kind of agreed, although in my mind I was saying Buckhead? OK, here is my official list. First off, Buckhead was the place to be years ago. The Buckhead downtown area was a huge collection of bars, restaurants, and boutiques. It was a drunken center of adult activity at night. It was the place to be seen! But a group of investors decided that Buckhead needed a premiere Highrise, high end mall, entertainment, and living actraction. They bought all the acreage that was Buckhead, kicked the restaurants and stores out, bulldozed the whole lot, and started construction. Then the recession hit and the hole in the ground has been sitting for years, empty. No work going on there

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Atlanta Travel: I Was Wrong

March 3rd 2011 00:40

Wow! What a difference a week makes. In my ColdLanta post, I claimed that Atlanta was actually cold. What Atlanta actually is is unpredictable. The past two weekends have been in the 70's. This week we have 40 degree mornings followed by 65 degree sunny afternoons. Alright. I am not showing off just showing you what we have known for years down here. Never claim you know Atlanta, and never bet against or for any Atlanta pro team if you live here. It will haunt you.

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Atlanta Travel: BumpLanta

February 23rd 2011 11:43

This is where the Atlanta review gets ugly. I live in Atlanta. Not in some suburb of Atlanta, that's where I grew Up. The burbs are for raising Kids and the City is where the big folk go. Anyhow, I've been here all my life so I can trash talk our town, and it needs it because that is the only way a town that thrives on tourism can make "good" changes.

Here is a word of advice. If you are traveling by car, use a rental. Atlanta will flat out tear your car a "new one". The worst streets in the USA right here. Even a dirt road would be better than the streets of Atlanta. It's not a matter of "IF" you will hit a Grand Canyon deep pot hole, it's a matter of when. My wife and I drive to all our vacation destinations. We've been all over the south and up into the mountains, out west to Texas, and south to Venice, FLA. Atlanta is by far the worst. The side streets every where even the smallest, poorest town are pristine, smooth, comfortable thouroughfares compared to the bumpy, chasm ridden major roads of Pothole Lanta

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Atlanta Travel: Part 1: ColdLanta

February 17th 2011 12:01

HotLanta. People called Atlanta Hot for a number of reasons but the meaning got lost on other people who thought that HotLanta referred to the weather. Well it's time to demystify the "HotLanta" slogan. Indeed, it's time to tell the truth about the south.

The "Hot" meant super fun nights on the town. Super good sports teams - the Braves got Hot, the Falcons got Hot, the Hawks the Thrashers. Certain night clubs around town were "hot". Being in Atlanta on a Friday or Saturday night in the summer was the "hot" thing to do. The "Hot" ticket. Then there is the Heat. Not our soccer team, the weather heat

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Driving 401 - The Final Course

February 3rd 2011 11:33

Good morning! Well this is it. The final chapter of this sorry series on driving in the hood. But this bad driving phenomena is everywhere. Yesterday we covered the "trash" issue, and the right on red issue. All of those are examples of young, stupid, or just plain road ragey people. Today is no different.

"The seal me in" manuever. This is executed on the expressway when a car is trying to enter. A car already on the interstate sees you on the entrance ramp. He speeds up to shadow you then along side you. As your ramp begins to disappear, he speeds up or slows down with you to "seal you in" your ramp. This has nearly cost me my car at times

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December 2011

1 Posts

October 2011

1 Posts

May 2011

2 Posts