VROOM VROOM!!!

This is PROBABLY the guy who passed me yesterday on 80 East bound. He'd be the bonehead in the Chevy 2500 Extra Cab with an 8 inch lift kit and giant tires who blew by me at about 80 miles and hour. I can't imagine that guy was getting any better than 10-12 miles per gallon, while I was smugly driving Sarah's Corolla getting a nice 37 mpg. Behind me was a nice little line of Hondas and Toyotas, all with cruise control at 70, enjoying the sunny day and light traffic. Now this MORAN really gets under my skin.

This guy is probably the first one to complain about high gas prices, and how the "government should be doing something" about it. He's probably also convinced Barack Obama is a Muslim. The point being is mental midgets like the dude blowing down the highway at 80 mph in a vehicle getting 10 miles per gallon are either RICH or STUPID (not that they are mutually exclusive....). Lets set the record straight though, I am not an eco-nazi, tree hugging, level 4 vegan (only eating things that don't cast shadows) but I recognize that when a tank of gas costs 50 bucks, its time THINK ABOUT DRIVING LESS and SLOWING THE HELL DOWN when I do.

I, for one, think gas prices soaring is the ONLY thing that will make us stand up and take notice of the huge costs to our environment, health, and economic and political survival in the world that our voracious appetite for gasoline has created. I am not advocating returning to the stone age (HEY EZEKIAL, WANNA RAISE A BARN ON TUESDAY???), but I do think that we can do a lot to improve life on the planet for ALL of us just by doing what the Europeans have been doing for the past 30 years... driving smaller cars, driving them slower, and not expecting gas to be free. Okay... enough already!

WEDDING BELLS!

Well after many months of planning and organizing and fretting, Sarah and I were finally married on May 10th!

This picture here is of my beautiful bride and myself with Sarah's sister Mara and brother-in-law Craig.

We don't have any of our professional shots back yet, and when we do its going to be an act of Congress to get them sorted out. We were fortunate enough to have two photographers for the whole day, as the company we went with assigned us a second one gratis (he needed to have an event under his belt in order to sign on with Bella). At the end of the night as one of them was bidding us adieu, he intimated that he had shot "probably around 3000 picutres." THREE THOUSAND. And thats just ONE of them... If you'd like to see the pictures uploaded by our guests so far, just go to www.photobucket.com and username: JasonandSarah_2008 password: wedding.

After the ceremony we jetted off to beautiful FIJI! The name of the resort is Wananavu and it was GORGEOUS. The staff, the bure (pronounced bur-rey), the food and the area were PERFECT. Here is the view from bed! The sliding doors opened the entire wall out onto the deck with the sea below (lost in the sun washout in this picture).



Here are a few more shots of our accommodations....




The food was fantastic! Of course when you have a view like we did, its hard to imagine how it could be bad! Sarah and I managed to make happy hour all but one night of our trip! I am not a huge froo-froo drink fan, but they did make this fantastic drink called a Sota Tale which was vodka, ice cream, cocunut milk and banana. Also they serve this quick fried coconut concoction that was like crack.




Sarah was lucky enough to dive not once but TWICE whilst we were there! She said that it was simply amazing and I only wish she had been able to take some pictures! We also went snorkeling a few times, once off the jetty at the resort and twice at various reefs around the area that we got to by boat. This first shot is of one of the staff Eboluni, who arranged our boat tours.




When we have wedding pictures, we'll post them! Following hot on the heels of this entry, you'll find our adventures with our new espresso maker! HI-LARITY!

STALKER-AZZI

These days it seems Sarah and I can't go anywhere with out photographers mobbing us... HAHAHA. Actually we had our engagement shots done yesterday. Here a few samples we've been sent so far.

Costa Rica!

Well we had a FANTASTIC time on our recent trip to Costa Rica! Despite a few travel snafus at the end, all went well! We stayed at a wonderful little town called Cahuita, on the Carribean side, about 45km south of Limon. Its a three dirt street town that backs up to the national park. The jungle sweeps right down to the white sand beach and the howler monkeys wake you up in the morning. The weather was perfect and the company grand! Sarah and I were joined by my parents, creepy uncle Lance, Charles Albert, my cousin Michelle and her husband as well as the Anti-Lance and Monty.

We took one day off from sitting on the beach drinking beer to go a bit inland and do a canopy zip line! HOW FUN!!! Below is a picture of all us intrepid zipliners prior to take off.

The second "zip" was the wicked awesome 500m plunge across the Rio Bannano! I shot the video below was I flew across. Talk about super fun!



Most of our days were spent going to the "office" and clocking in for "work". Pictured below is the office, with its contingent of cubicle weary staffers....


Standard office equipment rules WERE not observed. TK, my counsin Michelle's husband, hitherto known as Bumbata, decided he'd buy two very masculine water toys, namely a rainbow colored raft and a quasi-sponge bob boogie board.

It was somewhat of a surprise to all of us, but the raft turned out to be a lot of fun, if some what difficult to master. The waves were rolling pretty hard all week long and had a tendency to fold you in half (in the wrong direction) and send you and the pretty raft bobbing along the bottom. Bumbata was the master at the raft, relishing in his skills as he road the foamy crests of his watery steed hither and tither across the beach, lording over all he could see, proclaiming such ridiculous things as "Thou shalt always put cheese in your shoes for good luck" and "Behold! It is I, BUMBATA, vice-president of the universe!"

Happy Hour on the Deck.... a time not to be missed! Our totally awesome hotel room was RIGHT on top the beach, had grand views in all directions and was the site of two wonderful Happy Hours, featuring the local rum. Below are select photos of the madness.






LOTS MORE PICTURES AND MOVIES TO FOLLOW VERY SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why Captain is Awesome is so awesome!

Went riding with my buddy Toby today up at Sierra, what a gorgeous day! The weather was perfect, there was lots of snow from this past weekends monster storm and it was a ghost town up there! Talk about winning combinations! Toby broke out his digital camera and we decided to shoot a few movies of us making Shaun White look like a weenie. *hahahahaha* First video is the practice, second is a lot bigger air, though admittedly neither looks impressive on video. From where I was standing it was plenty high though!

January Stars

Well actually the name of the song is February Stars (by the Foo Fighters) but since its still January, deal with it. I finally have some time to enter a few more pictures from our Christmas trip to Maine. As usual, with Sarah in my life, things are hectic. Well mostly because we are off doing fun things.... snowboarding mostly. Sarah is doing REALLY well this winter, more impressive for her past couple of years off from the slopes. The last time we went I couldn't tell her apart from the crowd solely based on her tentative turns and slow speed. She actually attempted a few small jumps, most of which were successful, but one resulted in a really great spin out right into the fence. We took some pictures on the top of Sierra which we'll get developed soon.
Sarah took this picture at Our Lady of Professional Help, the Catholic church in North Windham. She went on the Sunday we were there.... checking out the local goods.

For a Christmas gift Amos and Ariana gave us tickets to Bob Marley, a local stand up comedian. It was the perfect addition to Sarah's full on Maine experience. The is WICKED FUNNY,Ayuh!! After the show we walked around down town Portland and took some snapshots.



There used to be a great production called New Years Portland where all of Congress St. businesses, art galleries and churches were open and had music, demonstrations and all sorts of fun things to do culminating in a super fun music show and countdown in Monument Square. Well thats in the toilet now. So we bought tickets to this "gay Paris" themed New Years Party at the Mariott. Turns out, it was TONS of fun! Who'd have guessed?? The food was good, the band (which had HUGE potential to suck) was really pretty good! We ate, we danced, we drank, and were generally merry! Mom and Dad had a heck of a time, even Charlie was dancing. What follows are some select shots!



And finally a lovely shot of my beautiful wife to be...and me!

More Maine Fun!

Sarah had all sorts of fun firsts whilst in Maine over New Years. We were fortunate enough to have a few snowstorms while we were there and Sarah was put to good use plowing!



For the first time in quite a few years the lake was frozen at Christmas time. Whether because of global warming or just normal changes in weather patterns, the past few years have been REALLY warm at Christmas time. As a matter of fact we played golf last year on Christmas Eve. We took the three-wheeler down on the ice and had a heck of a time!