California 2 Puerto Rico

We left Rincon around 6:30pm last night to get to the airport early just in case anything came up. FYI: Don’t try to pick up your dogs at the terminal…they are transported from the terminal to the Continental Cargo Depot which is in Carolina. A not so great area to get lost in…eventually we found the Cargo Depot…waited for Monks and Kuta and saw them as the forklift dropped them off on the loading dock.

Monkey is all the way to the left, Kuta all the way to the right.

Once I signed the paperwork and got them in the back of the truck, we parked on the side of the road and took a little walk. Kuta and monkey both went to the bathroom like it was going out of style (neither of them soiled their crates) and kuta drank about a gallon of water. Monkey had a couple of sips and asked what time room service was coming around….

Popularity: 26% [?]

I just got back from dropping off Kuta and Monkey (our dogs) at the airport. Today they are making their permanent move to Puerto Rico! Their flight left at 9:22am out of San Diego and arrives at 9:30pm in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I’m nervous! Neither of them have flown before, but they seemed to be doing okay in their crates. Monkey was a little whiney, but Kuta was kickin’ it like a pro.

They are flying via Continental’s PetSafe® program, which is supposed to be the best. It cost $641.60 total, for both dogs to fly from San Diego to Puerto Rico. As long as they arrive safe and sound, it will be worth every penny. You can track your pets progress at CoCargo.com (Kuta and Monkey’s tracking number is: 59476373) and there is a 24-hour Live Animal Desk (800.575.3335 or 281.553.5052) that you can call with any concerns of questions.

Status: They’re in Texas! I wonder if they saw Ricky and Lyndsay?!

7/24/2007 3:22 PM Received from Flight CO1606, 2 pieces Houston, TX (IAH)

7/24/2007 9:22 AM Departed on Flight CO1606 San Diego, CA (SAN)

7/24/2007 Shipment Booked on Flight CO1606, 2 pieces San Diego, CA (SAN)

Status 2: Stefan just called (7:35 pm) and he is driving home with the dogs as we speak. YAY! I’m SO relieved!

Popularity: 28% [?]

Stefan and I have been flying back and forth from California to Puerto Rico A LOT lately, so we are becoming quite air saavy. As a matter of fact, Stefan is on a Jet Blue flight back to Puerto Rico right now. We prefer to fly into Aguadilla because it is the closest airport to Rincon, which is where we live. The San Juan airport is the most popular airport to fly into Puerto Rico, but unless you are planning on staying in, or near, San Juan, it sucks to fly in there because the traffic in Puerto Rico SUCKS. Here is a list of airlines that currently fly from San Diego, CA to Aguadilla, PR:

~ Jet Blue (layover in New York)
~ Delta (layover in New Jersey)
~ Continental (layover in New York)
~ Northwest (layover in Minnesota and New Jersey)
~ Spirit Airlines (layover in Ft. Lauderdale)

Jet Blue has the cheapest flights which I have been scoring for $189 each way.

I will update this list as I find more airlines that fly from San Diego, CA to the airport in Aguadilla, PR.

Popularity: 27% [?]

I got home from my travels last night around 10:30pm. Summer was at work service all day and still managed to straighten up the house and have sushi and saki waiting for us when I got home. It was awesome and it is awesome to be hanging with summer again (although she is at work service all day today).

I started sorting and packing this morning after a surf with Conner, the Smythe, Ford and Noah. The waves were small but it was good to get wet. I always have a hard time starting projects, but once I get going and am in motion, it is hard for me to stop until they are done.

I started organizing my surfboards and packing my t-shirts, shorts, jeans etc when I decided I wanted some music. My computer stereo is already at the office in Puerto Rico so I went out to the van, got the RCA plug to hook my iPod into my stereo and opened up my back pack (reminds me of a Dora the Explorer episode, that’s another story though) and started foraging through all the pockets looking for the ipod and guess what i found? My christmas present from shawn…a kershaw lock blade that I have been using on the daily basis in Puerto Rico around the house. It was quite ironic, because I was just thinking, (me thinking) “where did i leave my knife? I don’t want that to get misplaced while the guys are moving the stuff around in the house to finish screwing in the drywall.”

I couldn’t believe it, my big ass knife made it through airport security all the way from Puerto Rico to San Diego. It is ironic that i was held up in san diego by airport security for a box of surf wax on the last trip and this time, I had a (potentially deadly) weapon and it made it through no problem. I am thankful no one found it or i would have had to throw it away…but it is pretty scary that the Airport Security missed that one.

See the knife at the bottom of the bag?

I know you see the knife now

How did security miss this?

Popularity: 6% [?]

I am heading back to San Diego for 6 days to help pack, sell or throw away everything Summer and I have left (which is a lot). I am in the JFK airport kicking it on Jet Blues wireless access plugged into a “Samsung” sponsored outlet station.

While I am gone, Mark and Jerry will be working on;
1. Screwing all of the drywall/greenboard in to get ready for the taper/mudder (tray) that will start his first of 3 coats on Monday (including top edging and round bullnose corners on all the open doorways/walls).
2. Hang T-111 around the new master closet along with the “foil insulation”
3. Replacing all the mud rings on the electrical/rj-45 sockets downstairs to accomodate a 1/4 inch of smoothed cement to cover the block
4. Jerry and Papo will start applying a finish coat of cement to the block walls in Summers office (to be) then mine, then the bathroom.

Before I left;
1. I met up with Louis a woodworker in Rincon…he has some amazing old Mahogony french doors that he is going to refinish so we can use them to get to our back porch.
2. Set up an estimate for custom cabinets from him (cheaper than Home Depot particle cabinets)
3. Got the plumber to come and size up where the toilet and 2nd sink holes need to be drilled and the piping
4. Met with Gino who is going to put in our shower pan in the Master (double drain)
5. Paid the parking ticket Summer and I got while we were at the Lawyers office in Rincon

Popularity: 4% [?]

Summer arrived in Aguadilla safe and sound last night. Her flight was scheduled to land around 3:30am but it landed more around 4:00am. The flowers I picked for her were VERY wilted 5 hours later by the time I got to the airport so I was too embarrassed to bring them into the airport. I knew she would appreciate them once we got back to the car and she did. Not to self…if I had electricity I would have put them in the fridge…lol

By the time she got her bags and we made it back to Rincon it was close to 5:00am. I cooked her up some vegetable soup (no restaurants were open in JFK) and we went to sleep about 15 minutes after the VERY hot sun started to rise. Today was a rough one, but we made it all day running errands (got a $50 parking ticket at the attorney’s office) and now we are chillin’ at Marks…Summer is on the final poker table and I have a few minutes to update you guys. Overall, EPIC DAY with my girl.

Popularity: 5% [?]

I have been down here working hard every day on the house all day and on the computer every night. I have been playing poker at a buddies house ($10 buy in) 2 or 3 nights a week and have been driving all over the West Side of Puerto Rico looking for the best prices or simply looking for something that is not readily available in Puerto Rico (for example: Jet Line to pull the wire through the pipe).

It is 88-95 degrees every day and working in the sun is hard and tiring. It is very rewarding working on our house, but I am still exhausted every day. BUT, I still manage to think about Summer all day every day and how great it is going to be when she can move down here permanently.

Summer flies into Aguadilla on Monday at 4:00am. We have a lot to do together this week; pick out bathroom fixtures, decide the shape of our staircase, decide the type of wood (needs to match the wood floors we are going to get upstairs…but not until October..so we need to make a decision this week), pick out designs for our cabinets (color and shape), decide on which type of concrete counter top we are going to get, pick out our kitchen appliances, decide the shape of the back porch, ceiling fans, sconce lighting, track lighting, bathtub, type/color of tile for the bathrooms etc.

I can’t wait to pick up Summer at the airport. 2.5 days to go.

Popularity: 6% [?]

This morning I am returning to Puerto Rico via Newark from San Diego. I have really been packing things up and trying to think about what I need down there, that I have here…so I don’t have to spend any money on unnecessary things (like food). I had quite a long list of things I wanted to bring down, none of which I NEED, but they are all things that I wanted down there. The one thing I didn’t get a chance to do was take out the stereo from the van so I could put it in the Bronco down there. It’s nice to have tunes.

A few of the items that I squeezed into my bags last night are:

• Lantern (no power at the house yet)
• Hand Pump for 5 gallon water containers (tap water is not potable)
• Camping mattress (the Coleman Blowup queen sizers suck)
• Stereo for my new office (see above)
• Pillows
• Blankets (I know it’s 95 degrees every day)
• UPS Battery Back up (to recharge electronics at the house w/out electricity(53lb)
• Box of Tropical Sticky Bumps Surf Wax (17lb)
• Laptop
• Deed, mortgage paperwork
• iPod
• PSP
• All the plugs etc that go along with the above

Well, Continental Airlines only allows 50lbs per bag, 2 bags checked, one carry-on and a purse (aka; personal bag). If you are an “ELITE FIRST CLASS MEMBER” you can have 3 checked bags up to 70lbs each. Upon Shawn’s suggestion (thanks for the UPS), I wrapped up the UPS unit (53.5lbs) in a thick blanket and boxed it…taped it up and checked it as one of my bags. It looks so small; they didn’t even weigh it, although I wrapped it with Fragile and Heavy stickers. When they got to my other bag I ran into some problems. Actual, 16 problems. The bag was sixteen pounds overweight. I tried greasing the curb check guy…but to no avail. He said he was either going to charge me $50 or I had to loose 16 pounds to my carry on.

I don’t know if this was the best idea, but I knew the box of wax weighed 17 pounds. It put my one-pound under the limit. I pulled out the wax, reshuffled my single carry-on to a back pack and a purse (that corny Mortgage company gift bag I got finally paid off) which contained my laptop, paperwork, a couple of books and a 17lb box of Sticky Bumps Surf Wax.



Everything was going just fine (between the curb check and security) until I got to the x-ray machine. First my computer went through, then belt and shoes and then my backpack started and the security person stopped the machine. She looked close at the screen, pushed a button and within 5 seconds there were security guards everywhere and I was pulled out of line and brought to secondary…away from my bag. I watched from a far as the security guards faces turned white with fear. I was questioned in detail about the contents of my bag, which was still on the conveyer belt unmoved. After I gave them the list of contents, they asked me if it was safe to move the bag and was there anything in there that could harm someone.
I told them “No.”



They proceeded to, very carefully, bring my bag over to secondary where I was standing. They swabbed my entire bag before opening it, they didn’t detect anything dangerous…so they made the next move; open the bag. They pulled out all of my stuff, except for the box of sticky bumps and the four airport security people stared at the box…faces blank, aside from the fear.

I was asked again; “Is there anything in that box that could harm others or us?”
I said “NO, it’s just surf wax.”

It didn’t look like they believed me…they very slowly pulled the box out and started swabbing the outside of the box extensively. When they felt it was safe, they opened the box and inspected every single bar of wax separately (96 bars). They were nice enough to re-pack the box for me and help me tape it back up. I hustled on over to the gate, with my wax, and made my plane by about 3 minutes.

I am glad I got to the airport an hour and a half early…the San Diego Airport Security took me over an hour. Maybe I’ll ship the wax next time.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Jet Blue flies right into Aguadilla from JFK and has had pretty cheap rates so Summer and I have been booking most of our travel with them. Summers flight out last week had mechanical problems so she had to wait 3 hours for another plane to be flown in from Ft. Lauderdale. The worst part about it (I was there with her because my continental flight was scheduled for 3 hours after hers) was that the delay caused her to miss her Newark to San Diego connection. The stressful part of all this was that she had court the next morning and could not miss it. Although it added a number of hours to her flight, JetBlue sent her to Washington DC from JFK and then connected her to San Diego. It was a very long day for her, but she made it. They mentioned to her that they are offering Flight Vouchers for the Inconvenience…so we’ll see if she gets a free flight out of it.

I had to cancel a flight with Jet Blue last week because it was too expensive to change my flight (i used points to get a free continental flight) and I thought I was going to loose the ticket and all my money. When I call to cancel, they told me there was a $30 cancellation fee, somewhat annoyed, I gave them my credit card number AGAIN and the operator asked me if I wanted my ticket added to my TrueBlue Membership (JetBlue’s Frequent Flyer Program). I was amazed, I canceled my ticket and they gave me the credit for another trip minus $30…good deal JetBlue.

Popularity: 32% [?]

I got down to Puerto Rico last Monday (5.14.07) and things have been a whirlwind. Stefan has been taking care of business, BIG TIME, and shit has been happening. We have running water, a toilet and an outside shower already!! This is huge, since I was expecting running water to be a month or two down the road. After checking out the house after opening it up (taking the hurricane shutters off, opening up the windows, clearing stuff out, etc.), I’m so stoked at the construction. It’s WAY better then I remember, way better then any Puerto Rican construction (it was build by a gringo that ship in all the materials) and much farther then along then I remember. The house was designed with air flow in mind and that makes all the difference in a hot, tropical climate. Honestly, I could live hear now if business was all taken care of in California (unfortunately, I have 30 or so more days to make sure my new employee(s) are fully trained, packing up the container, tying up loose ends, etc).

My dad came down with me and has helped us a lot with directing us with where to start on this big ol’ project that we stumbled into. He has tons of experience in construction and finishing work, so his advice has been priceless.

Monday morning I am flying back to San Diego since I am going to trial on Tuesday. I will probably be back in SD for 3 weeks and then come back down to PR for a week or two. Then back and forth a couple of times before I’m settled in Pueto Rico for good.

Popularity: 19% [?]