We gather again!

Each time I come up to NJ I meet a group of friends that worked at Sea-Land Service during the 70 and 80’s. We are all very good friends that worked in the same department for many years. Many of us travel extensively throughout the world. Our friendship has lasted many ups and downs during the years of upheavals that the company when through during the Reynolds tobacco, CSX. Maersk take overs.
Many of us are already retired from the company and have moved on to other business, consultants. Printing company etc.
We normally get together for drinks and food. We talk about old times, laugh a lot, swap information about our families. Our old company really fermented wonderful relationships that we all treasure to this day. These two pictures will show you our group. I really love each one in this picture.

Arrival Ocean Grove, NJ

We arrived at 11:30 PM from Atlantic City. We took Spirit Air from Fort Lauderdale. The flight was a good one and we arrive early. It has been a very sad day, hearing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As I mentioned earlier we were very lucky with that storm. If it had developed further away in the Caribbean Sea we would have had a higher category. The weather here is a little wet but very nice compare Florida, the evenings are much cooler. It is very nice here in our Condo. Tomorrow we are getting new blinds for all the windows and a new sofa. We are getting the Condo ready for winter rental.

Katrina aftermath

We dodge one big bullet this time with Katrina in Fort Lauderdale. Even though we suffer 3 days without electricity we really did not have too much damage in our home. It took us 5 solid hours to clear all the debris from the yard and clean the pool of some of the leave. We spend one night at a friends home in Boca Raton, second night at another friends condo here in Fort Lauderdale. The first night we stayed home thinking that the lights were returning soon. Well that was pretty horrible, the temperature got to 86 degrees in the room, making pretty uncomfortable for sleeping. It is horrible how spoiled we are. I am originally from Cuban and I bet I have sleep in hotter conditions, but never complaint; here I am now a grown man and can not handle the least bit of discomfort when it comes to heat. One thing about this experience without power has been my tremendous fun for reading that has emerged from this lack of power. I have read two books and can not stop reading the third. I had missed TV but not as bad as I had thought I would. It was also fun to be away from the computer a bit. Gave you guys a rest from all this shit I write. Tuesday we go to New Jersey again for some family stuff. Looking forward to our visit our condo in Ocean Grove. Will report from there later.

After effects of Hurracane Katrina at our home in Fort Lauderdale 

This building is fantastic. If you ever in Bilbao you will not miss it. it is by the river and it shines like crazy when the sun hits it. Guggenheim Museum is managing it there. When we were there a collection of Calder's mobiles were being exposed. They were many and various in size. Exceptional place to show art.
Museum in Bilbao Spain

Window in a little town of Pal in Spain. This little town was completely restored. It is a 12th century town that looks like new. All the electrical wiring is underground

My Nephew Danny. He is going to Africa soon to defend us over there. It appears that many insurgents go there for training. We all wish him good luck and speeding return to us. He is a Marine reserves, and we will miss him a lot.

The real estate bubble burst for us!

Today we cancelled our first contract for purchasing a Condo Conversion in Pompano Beach, Florida. The entire buzz about the real estate bubble has made us scared of plunging into the market. The numbers for this particular unit are not too bad but they have a negative cash flow of $647.00 monthly. It is rented until May 2006 but there are no guarantees that the renter will stay after our closing. We have an LOC that is -1/4% below Prime rate which will allow us to purchase the unit for cash. After all is said and done with a 15% increase in the unit selling price, the net amount earned would be $19,033.00 after 2 years. The questioned that kept coming back to us is why we want to add the stress for 2 years for that little amount of money. We live in a beautiful home see below on this blog, The home was bought in 1991 and it does need some TLC. It was completely renovated in 1990 by the previous owner, but it does need a little of painting, one new Air conditioner for one of the zones, a new roof, and a little of landscaping, and remodel the kitchen cabinets, and bathroom cabinets. The home is paid for so is the stress worth it or remodeling the home that has appreciated 3 times it value is a better place to put the money from the LOC. Sure would love to hear from your readers. We really feel that we are chickens and should plunge into the abyss. One thing is for sure; we both wish we had a much better understanding of LOC and interest payment only loans before now. People like us with income streams from Pensions and large amounts of equity in our homes should have been buying real estate for rent and flip them after two years. It sure would have made some money on that equity sitting with your home not being used. Se la Vie, may be the next wave……keep on the look out!!!

Posting from the Stonewall Library

What a wonderful winter scene in New York Central park. This picture was in the computer at the circulation desk at the Stonewall Library and Archives in Fort lauderdale. The Library will be moving next year to a new location.
I volunteer at the library one day per wekk. it is a very rewarding job. Get to help the effort to save gay life memories and meet new friends and work with really nice people. The library is open daily from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm daily except Saturdayd until 3:00 pm and it is closed on Sunday.

El malecon of Havana 

My beautiful country of Cuba. Here is a very nice picture of the Capitol Builing in Havana.  

Saturday at the movies

What a good bunch of pictures I saw today. First one was the 40 years old virgin. That was very funny and it deserves a good run. The march of the Penguins was very moving, it is amazing what a struggle it is to be a penguin in the south pole. After that I enter the Red Eye movie. Very well acted but a much tiered story, glad I saw it but not very memorable. Finally I saw the Skeleton Key, excellent acting by Kate Hudson but not very interesting subject matter. I enjoyed my hours at the theater this Saturday, the weather here in South Florida is so hot that the dark and cool place is really welcome.

Found the Sandals

Finally went to the outlet stores and found the sandals that I need it. As you can see I found a pair of Clarks and Black Cole Haan’s. Both half price and really comfortable.
We were amazed at the number of people in the stores at 10:00 pm on Friday night. It is still very warm at that time in the evening; the young people were hanging around having fun talking on their cell phones. The restaurants in the Oasis area of the outlet stores were full. Our home is 12 miles east of the stores and it took us 45 minutes travel time back home. It was a very nice surprise to see how fixed up that area of Oakland Park in Sunrise has become. The city has erected a wall on either side of Oakland Park Blvd. making all of those neighborhoods look like Gated Estates.

Sam's birthday lunch

We had lunch today at the Season 52 restaurant in Fort Lauderdale Galleria Shopping mall. This is a new restaurant owned by Red lobster and Olive Garden. It is a new concept restaurant that we believe is really making a difference in this town. The low calories meals and the wonderful deserts in little glasses are just right and priced very nicely. We have visited the place several times and each time has been a good experience.
On my way to the restaurant I hit my watch with a car side mirror. This made a scratch on the glass and really made me mad. I just had the watch overhauled. Well since I was at the galleria I was able to take it to the store and they buffed the crystal for me, at no charge, and it looks like new again.
Then I went looking for sandals. God it is hard to find good sandals here in Florida at this time of the year. I guess they have all been sold and the ones left are pretty horrible looking. It looks like the only avenue left is to go to the Saw Grass outlet stores and hope for the best.
I am working better with MS word and updating my blog. It really makes it much easier and by saving them to edit later I can then in blogger add pictures in I have them for the entry.

Draft for blogger

This is a draft.
Hope I can save it and see it in blogger.
What I was able to do is to type in MS Word upload it as a draft. Edit the draft in Blogger which lets me upload pictures and then publish the blog with pictures.

August 18th Thursday

August 18th Thursday.
Went to the gym early, today was a cardio day.  Got ready for Lunch with my friend Joe.
Simply Delish is a nice restaurant here in Fort Lauderdale Wilton manors area, they always do a good lunch there, the staff is also very nice.  Then we went to the Galleria to check the new stuff out at the Pottery Barn.  Saw a very nice Bar Stool that could be the one we need for our kitchen counter.  They are expensive but very nicely made and good quality leather.  Not much for the rest of the day , Dinner at home and TV.

David 

Caravagio David and Goliath 

Testing Pictures

Testing Word with Blogger.
I am going to try to attached a picture and see how does the program works(image placeholder) with it.

Just downloaded Blog

Just downloaded Blogger for word in my computer.  I hope this works since it would be so much easier to write this way.  I am going to try and see if it works.

A new add that was placed in the Home magazine in Fort Lauderdale. 

Updating Bill's and Peter's web site

I had a hard time trying to update their web site. WWW.cowanandcaruso.com
Using Front page makes it esaier but still not something that comes naturaly. Really will need a lot of help from my freind Jeff. Part of the fun is to see if the clients are starting to use the web site and business start to generate from it. Not sure the real value of those site yet? May be they will produce something for them.

Last week we went to Cathy and Marks wedding

The wedding was fabulous, cousins patty the mother of the bride did a wonderful job with all the details. I have never had so much food and drinks in my life. The band was wonderful and the whole affair was very memorable. The bride and groom went to Hawaii for the honeymoon and we all had a great time. I will include a picture of the wedding party at the church before the affair. The wedding was in New Jersey, the weather was fine and we loved staying at our Condo by the ocean in Ocean Grove, NJ.

Jose and Bill's Journey in life

Jose and Bill's Journey in life
Today I worked at the Stonewall Library for 3 hours. I volunteer in the circulation desk every Tuesday. I really like working there. The library will be closing in 6 months, because we have to change buildings. It will be fun to go to a new location and better space for the books and the members to read.

Our home in Fort Lauderdale. WE were very lucky in being able to buy thishome in 1991 

The beginning of our Blog

Today I finally started our log. I will try to make a posting 4 to 5 times per week and start getting used to writing a journal of our life. This is pretty important in partneship lives since it records activities in our journey on this life that we make for ourselves. We live in Fort Lauderdale Florida. A wonderful city in South Florida. I was relocated here by my company in 1991. One year before Andrew the devastating hurricane that hit in 1992. Our home was spared and it has also been spared in all the other hurricanes that have passed south Florida in the resent years. Insurance has gotten expensive but luck has a lot to do with it. We just keep hoping that luck will keep us safe.