me talking out loud

Finally got all the photos from the Cairne, Australia trip up. We have pictures covering the City, the Great Barrier Reef as well as the Rainforest outside the city. Take a look at them and let us know what you think.

From the 20th to the 25th we were in Cairns, Australia. For those that don’t know, Jason won us the foundation of this trip in a raffle. The original trip he won was for 3 days, including round trip airfare for 2 people as well as a hotel room. We added 2 days, 1 round trip ticket, upgraded the hotel room to a one bedroom apartment, and included a 2 tank dive trip and a 4X4 eco trip through the rain forest for all for and additional ~$2000USD. How is that for a deal!

We got there late on the 20th with me forgetting to bring my sneakers (no one was really surprised by that for some reason ).. so we just went to sleep. On the 21st we went sightseeing of the tourist area eating our way up and down the streets (excellant backeries and pastry shops along the way). Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best - rainy and kinda cool but since we were just shopping it was no big deal. We then walked to a large shopping mall on the edge of the tourist section where Jason and I both bought some new sneakers as well as a few other things. Basically we shopped until we dropped.

On the 22nd we dove the great barrier reef. Again the weather wasn’t the best - but it was warmer and drier then the day before. We rode the boat (there were ~15 people on the boat) for about 2 hours to get to Hastings Reef. I had problems sinking - probably because of the wetsuit’s extra bouyency (we normally dive in just our swim suits and a rash guard shirt). I added 6 more pounds and still had to swim down and control my breathing to stay down. We unfortunately didn’t stay down as long as we would have liked… I was sucking air hard and my tank seemed to be a short fill - Kayla did way better then me. After that the boat took us to our second dive site (Turtle haven) . There we had lunch and our second dive. I forgot to grab another weight so I again had to swim down and control my breathing but I did much better with my air consumption - so we stayed down quite a bit longer then the last one. We have plenty of pictures from the dives and I will be posting them later. Anyway - after the dive we rode the boat back in to Cairns, ate dinner and passed out. It was a good day.

On the 23rd we originally were scheduled to go on the 4X4 Eco tour of the rain forest. Unfortunately the tour guide became sick and rescheduled the trip for the 24th. So since we found ourselves with a free day we explored some more of the area. It was cool since we managed to find a number of smaller shopping areas tucked away that we missed the first time as well as a farmer’s market that was really cool to walk through. Jason found a wonderful bakery in it. Wondering and exploring took up the morning and early afternoon and we all managed to find souveniors for ourselves. The later afternoon was spent in the hotel swimming pool and taking a nap. Nice and relaxing.

The 24th we spent the whole day on the 4X4 tour of the rain forest. We went up and down and all around in the rain forest. Our tour included driving on restricted access roads that the tour company is the only one to have access to. It was really cool seeing the white cockatoos in the wild, climbing around a creek worrying about leaches, seeing how big the termite mounds really are, checking out animal tracks on the road and trails, and seeing the shear cliffs and overlooks on the side of the road. Kayla saw a kangaroo but was so overwhelmed by it - it took her a while to articulate it… and by then it was gone for the rest of us. Again we have lots of pictures that will be posted later - though our battery started yelling at us 3/4 of the way through and ran out before we made it all the way back. Got back to the hotel room ~6PM. Which was nice since our flight was scheduled to leave at ten after midnight. So we had time for dinner and organization of our stuff.

We go back to Guam at ~5AM on the 25th, went out to grab some breakfast since we were starving, and then back home. And just to make sure we never forget our trip - we came home to find that someone had stolen the tailgate from Jason’s Jeep while we were gone. So we spent our first hours home making a police report for it.

All I can say is that it was well worth it. The whole trip was incredable and allowed us to take off a couple of items in our “life’s TODO list”.

Well just in case you missed it - the site had been down for over a week. To make a long story short - I accidentally let my domain name expire (my old hosting service was the one who notified me - but since I moved their email went straight to the trash.) Anyway - I managed to renew the domain name for 5 more years. I also now have the khankennels.net and khankennels.org just incase

I have got to be one of the worlds biggest dummies. Went diving this past weekend and almost manage to get myself and my husband killed. And no - that isn’t exagerating it.

We decided to go diving at a beach we have dived before (Dadi Beach which is normally so calm it is like glass). Looking out at the beach we noticed a little bit of surf - not much but enough so we would have to pay attention. Anyway while snorkelling out the tide started to go out and the surf had came up to 3-4 foot waves and the occasional 6 footer thrown in just for good measure as a result (unnoticed by us at the time - so much for paying attention to it… the first in a series of mistakes). Eventually we came to the edge of the reef. Jason and Kayla snorkel out through the surf with little to no problems. I on the other hand (after almost taking a header into the reef eairler) decide to walk out though the surf. So I take off my fins, mask and snorkel and start walking out, jumping over the waves (BIG MISTAKE).

The real problems started when I reached a channel cut into the reef (about 15 feet wide and only 10 feet from the end of the reef). The water depth suddenly drops to ~6-8 feet (I’m only ~5 foot). Right in the middle of the surf zone. So there I am with no mask, snorkel or fins with 4-6 foot waves crashing over my head sending me head over ass banging into the various columns of coral in the zone. Jason swam back to grab and hopefully pull me out past the surf, but without my fins I couldn’t help him and the currents are too strong for him alone. Luckily neither my husband or myself truly panicked. Granted we weren’t thinking but neither of us truly panicked. Anyway - long story short after being tossed around for a while it’s decided that I would head back to shore and he would go out past the surf again to grab Kayla and make sure she made it back in safely (which they did with no mishaps on their part).

So how did I manage to get myself back to shore in that mess? Well for one I put back on my mask and finally remembered I had a whole tank of air on my back - grabbed the respirator and simply breathed. Then it was simple to let the waves and surf push me back in (with the mask on it’s amazing what one can see and avoid hitting under the water).

Yes - I was Stupidity Incarnate for many reasons, but these pop in my mind immediately
1) Taking off my mask and fins
2) Calling for Jason to come save my happy little ass - thus endangering himself, instead of just turning back to shore at the first sign of trouble.
3) Forgetting I had a full damn tank of air on my back (trying to gulp air betwen waves is kinda hard) and not droping below the surf and swimming through and mostly…
4) Thinking I was smarter then my training

Mother Nature was kind to me this weekend. She could have easily killed me but instead banged me up a bit and left me with some bruises, scratches and cuts - no broken bones and luckily still alive and with a bruised ego. She must have been in a good mood - Thank goodness.

So how did the day end… Well when you get bucked off a horse the first thing you have to do is climb back on. So we went to someplace with a LOT less surf and dove there for about an hour. Now the whole situation can just be a story to remind all of us that the ocean is a dangerous place and we should all be a bit more cautious and respectful to her.

Just found 2 really cool extensions for firefox (first found out about them from Tiffany Brown’s blog).

LiveHTTPHeaders allows me to see the http headers of a page in real time as the page is loading and IE Tab allows me to open a page in a FF tab - then switch the rendering engine to IE and back again. I should never have to open IE again. Woot!

Very cool!

Well my article for the php|a A/R/T has finally been posted. You can check it out here. Be sure though to come back and tell me what you think of it. Feedback will really help for the second part of it.

Kayla (my daughter) has been writing a story over the summer. She recently asked me to post it on the web (even though it isn’t complete) - so here it is. She wants feedback on what people think of it. So let us know what you think.

Man this weekend is sucks. The weather has been absolutely horrible. We have a tropical storm running south of the island and we are catching the outer bands of it. So winds 25 to 30 mph with gusts to 40 mph with some thick rains have been the norm. Kinda hard to godiving in these conditions.

Happy 4th of July to those in the US. Have fun, enjoy the fireworks and stay safe.

Although I personally am not to pleased with the current direction our government is going, I am happy to celebrate it’s birthday.