Eric Holen

Earlier this month, Yvette treated me and herself to a 4-day cruise aboard the Carnival Ecstasy for my 40th birthday. Like last year, Yvette let me decide what I wanted to do and I chose the cruise to celebrate. This was our sixth cruise, our fourth time traveling to Cozumel, our third time departing from Galveston, our second 4-day cruise, and our first cruise in December. Except for the weather, I could not have been happier with the cruise.

I brought the idea up the idea of a cruise to Yvette in August and when we found a deal for $269 per person, she was sold. It had been almost 20 months since our previous cruise. I was little nervous about it only being a 4-day cruise, given that our last four cruises had been 7-day affairs. While I won’t give up the longer cruises, one of the great things that Yvette and I agreed about with the shorter cruise is that there was a lot less stress from planning and packing, giving us more time to enjoy ourselves.

The cruise departed on a Thursday. That morning, Yvette and I tucked the “kids” into their cages and drove to Galveston. The drive wasn’t bad, but we had a late start because we were so relaxed. We still made it to Galveston with plenty of time to spare. It was cold that day and we were bundled up in our coats. Yvette made a comment about whether I thought Carnival would have any Christmas directions, which I thought was funny. Since this was our sixth cruise, we received our gold Sail & Sign cards which serve as our access to the ship, onboard charge card, and room key. When we reach our 10th cruise, we’ll graduate to platinum cards. Carnival was taking the H1N1 virus seriously and had short questionnaires for guests to fill out before they boarded. We probably spent an hour working our way through the security checkpoint, registration and on to the ship, but its part of the fun and it only builds the anticipation.

We got on the ship and immediately admired the Christmas decorations in the main lobby. Then we headed off to our room to drop our stuff before exploring. The ship had gone through a refit within the last several months and we were very pleased with how she looked. While the bathroom wasn’t as big as what we had on the Carnival Conquest, they added lighting which opened it up. The room had a flat panel television while the bed had a thick comforter that felt so soft. We couldn’t unpack any luggage because it had not arrived so, after admiring the room, we headed off to explore the ship.

While the ship has the same over design as Carnival’s other Fantasy-class ships, it’s still fun to explore its differences. With the recent refit of the ship, Carnival added large fake palm trees on the Lido deck, giant water slides on the back of the ship, an adult’s only quiet area with a hot tub, and a 9-hole miniature golf course. Yvette and I agreed that the ship looked great.

On the first day, even before the ship leaves port, we had been required to participate in a life boat drill. Each cruise we would take pictures of ourselves in our life jackets during the drill. However, Carnival has replaced the life boat drill with a safety briefing that did not require us to bring our life jackets to our muster station. After the drill, Yvette headed back to the cabin to wait for the luggage and unpack while I continued exploring and taking pictures.

One of the surprises on any cruise is who your dinner mates will be. On this cruise, we ate dinner with Mark, Joey his partner, Nancy who is Mark’s employee, and Lisa who is Nancy’s daughter. This was their first cruise. Nancy was going for her birthday and had brought along her daughter. Mark was going just because Nancy went, and he brought along Joey. This was the best group of dinner mates that Yvette and I have had on any of our previous cruises. We had lots of conversation and laughter each night. It was also the first cruise where we hung out with our dinner mates outside of the dining room.

On our first day at sea, Yvette and I signed up for a spinning class. Our hope was that the physical activity would help offset the good food and drink. I unfortunately had a collision with the bike when my foot flew out of the pedal, which came around and then gouged me in the shin. I finished the class while watching the blood run down my leg into my sneaker. I was able to wash my sneaker in the room and Yvette, who had packed a first aid kit, bandaged me up.

With the cold weather, Yvette and I did not sit out on deck. Instead, we spent time playing in the Casino, shopping, playing games with each other and reading.

Our arrival in Cozumel was uneventful and since we were doing this trip on the “cheap”, we skipped the shore excursions and opted for shopping. Cozumel is one of our favorite destinations. While we were shopping, a storm rolled through so we stopped and ate lunch in port. With shopping complete, we headed back to the ship. The ship’s departure was delayed for almost 30 minutes while waiting for a family of 5 to return. That evening, we and several others, commandeered one of the bars in the back of the ship and watched the Florida/Alabama and then the Texas/Nebraska football games on large flat-screen televisions. The crowd kept growing and getting louder throughout the games, but we all had a great time. In addition, Mark, Nancy and Lisa joined us to watch the Texas game.

Later that evening, I played a round of laser tag in a large inflatable arena. Out of the five of us who played, I came in second behind a teenage girl.

It was warmer on our second day at sea, and people were lying out by the pools. Yvette and I headed up to play some serious rounds of miniature golf. It was close, but in the end I managed to beat Yvette.

While Yvette and told me that we weren’t going to take any formal portraits on my birthday cruise, which lasted all of a couple minutes. We ended up taking lots of pictures and walked away with a couple or poses that we really liked. The only formal portraits that Yvette and I have of us were taken on cruise ships. This was also the first cruise were we bought the picture that they took of us getting off of the ship in port. Yvette said we looked good in it.

Unfortunately, the cruise had to come to an end; however, we were in for a surprise. I really enjoy watching operational stuff, so I got up early on our last day to watch us arrive in port. However, when I got to the front of the ship, I noticed we were in thick fog and moving very slowly. Later, the cruise director would announce that the Port of Galveston was closed until later that morning. We ended up arriving at the dock just before 1:00 PM, which after getting approval to leave the ship, getting our baggage, and clearing Customs, put us back into Austin at 8:30 PM.

Even with the weather, Yvette and I had a great time and would do a 4-day cruise again, just not in December.

Yvette and I just got back from our first trip to Wendover, Nevada. I had overheard about the trip during a meeting over the summer and, after performing a little research, convinced Yvette to give it a try. For $179 per person, we received round-trip airfare between Austin and Wendover along with 3 night’s hotel accommodations. Before I dive into the review, Wendover is NOT Las Vegas. Las Vegas has large hotel casinos that are just as fun to tour as they are to gamble. In addition, Las Vegas has lots of shopping. Wendover has five smaller casinos with very little shopping. We were a little worried, given some of the reviews that we had read, but figured that if we got bored, we would just relax play games and read the books that we each brought.

Our flight departed on Thursday afternoon. It was charter 737 operated by Xtra Airways and filled to capacity. The flights move all over the states, only coming to Austin every 1 – 2 months. We were probably the second youngest couple on the flight. There was a younger couple that was celebrating a 30^th birthday. While the flight had more senior people, there was a mixture of ages at the casinos. We later found out that most of the business drove or took a bus in from Salt Lake. The flight crew was wonderful and had several giveaways and money draws where people through money into a pot and the crew drew a winner. After a 2 ½ hour flight, the plane landed at Wendover Airfield, an old military base that was also used in the Con Air movie. We deplaned using stairs and walked to the terminal, immediately feeling the difference in climate between Austin and Northern Nevada. In addition, Wendover is located at the base of some mountains. It was much cooler, but we had brought our jackets.

The resorts had buses waiting that took us to our hotels. While Wendover has five casinos, only three of them participate in this program. Out of the three, we chose the Rainbow Resort, because it had an indoor pool. We ended up not using the pool because we had more than enough to do, plus you had to walk through the casino to get to the pool. The bus from the airport dropped us off at the front door of the hotel. The check-in process was extremely efficient. We flashed our identification and the clerk handed us our package with room keys, player cards, coupons and other information. The hotel has four floors and we stayed on the fourth floor, which was non-smoking. There is smoking in the casinos and while it didn’t bother Yvette and me, the smell was noticeable.

Our room had two queen beds and 42″ LCD television. It also had a small table with comfortable chairs that we used to play games late in the evening. Since our luggage would not arrive until later, and we were hungry, we walked next door to the Red Garter Casino for some inexpensive dinner. Out of the five casinos, the Red Garter was the smallest and the most worn looking; however, the food was cheap and they had $2 blackjack. Yvette and I ended up eating their $2.99 breakfast there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After a little dinner and gambling, Yvette and I headed back to our hotel for some more gambling before heading back to the room.

On Friday, after breakfast, we walked down the street to see Wendover Will so that I could take some pictures. Once Yvette had let me have my fun, we walked back to the Rainbow and took the 24 hour shuttle to end of the strip to visit the Wendover Nugget. Out of the five casinos, the interior of the Nugget most reminded us of a Las Vegas casino. The three other casinos, the Montego Bay, Peppermill, and Rainbow had more neon than you can imagine. Look for some pictures later. We probably gambled most at the Nugget, followed by the Rainbow and Red Garter. From the Nugget we walked over to Montego Bay, but since the casino wasn’t much different than ours, we did not stay long. We stopped by the local Subway for lunch and then started walking back down the strip. We stopped in at the Peppermill casino, but again, it was very similar to ours so we didn’t stay long. After a little more gambling, Yvette and I splurged and enjoyed the “seafood extravaganza” buffet at the Rainbow for dinner.

On Saturday morning, Yvette and I awoke to find that we had received snow overnight. It did not stay on the ground very long, but it was cold enough that Yvette and I decided that except for walking next door to the Red Garter, that we would be riding the shuttle. We stopped into the Rainbow’s sport book and sat with some other fellow Texan’s to watch the last 1 ½ quarters of the Texas/Baylor game. On Friday, I had wagered $5 for Texas to win, but the point spread was 23.5, which had me a little worried. Of course, Texas ended up winning and beating the spread. After the game, we headed back to the Nugget where I played some poker, while Yvette hit the slots. While Yvette and I limit our total gambling to no more than $50 each per day, Yvette had a good day a won over $30 playing penny and nickel slots. Later, Yvette and I played some head-to-head slots on a game called Texas Tea. The idea is that we each start with a dollar, playing $0.05 per spin and see who lasts the longest. We ended up playing three rounds, which kept us going for well over an hour. I won two of the rounds; however, in the end Yvette had more winnings having turned over her $1 from one of the rounds into over $4. We finished out the evening with some more slots, dinner at the buffet again (we skipped lunch), followed by packing the suitcases and a card game in the room.

Sunday we ran the bags down to the airline representative, which like everything else during the trip, was a fast and easy process. We headed over to the Red Garter for our last breakfast before walking back to catch the bus to the airport. The flight two and from Wendover was on a 737 that was filled to capacity.

We never encounter a rude staff person at any of the casinos; however, since Yvette and I are so easy going, it would be easy for us to overlook it. Our only minor complaint was that none of the hotels offered very many t-shirts or souvenirs, which usually eats a portion of our money during any trip. We ended up with a few postcards and a refrigerator magnet. When I mentioned that lack of offerings to the hotel manager, he provided me with a brand new t-shirt that was left over from a previous event. I am sure Yvette will confiscate the t-shirt from me.

In all, Yvette and I agreed that we had a wonderful time and would consider doing it again in a year. At $179 per person for the flight and hotel, we could not beat the price for entertainment. We would even consider going with a group of friends next time (hint hint).

My wife bought me a new Gateway DX4300-03 computer a week ago Sunday. I worked on some of the initial setup that day, but did not get around to the major work until this past Friday and Saturday. That’s when I ran into a problem.

The computer came with a TV tuner card, but no matter what I tried, I could not get the computer to recognize a signal from the card. I tested the cable and jack with a regular TV and verified that I had signal and picture. I swapped out the cable with a “monster” cable and tried again. I verified in Windows Device Manager that the device was working properly. Then, on Saturday, I accessed Gateway Support and things got worse.

This is how the interaction went. Mind you, Gateway’s customer service representatives were always pleasant; they were just unable to resolve my problem.

• Gateway Support (via chat) – Over 30 minutes, they asked a lot of questions and verified the previous steps that I had taken, but they did not have me test or change anything. Suggested that I reinstall the driver.
• Me – I reinstalled the driver, which rebooted the computer and knocked off chat. This time I called Gateway Support instead of chatting.
• Gateway Support (via telephone) – Over another 10 – 15 minutes, they verified the previous steps that I had taken (again) and suggested that I might not have configured the TV tuner card properly. Directed me to call Gateway Answers for help with configuring the card.
• Me – I called Gateway Answers.
• Gateway Answers (via telephone) – They would help me configure the card at a cost of $59.99 for the first 30 minutes. However, when I explained the situation, they directed me back to Gateway Support because it sounded like a warranty issue.
• Me – I called Gateway Support.
• Gateway Support (via telephone) – Although a shorter process, they verified the previous steps that I taken (again). They suggested that I reinstall the operating system. I tried to convince them that I might need a new TV tuner card, but they declined.
• Me – I wrote an unhappy review on Gateway’s website. It seems that all four reviewers, including me, were unhappy with the computer. I boxed up the computer and returned it to the retailer who verified that the TV tuner card did not work.

This would have been my second Gateway computer, replacing my first computer. I understand that in these days, customer service has become somewhat limited. However, I would have expected better customer service within the first 30 days of purchasing the computer. At the very least, Gateway Support could have offered to ship me the new TV tuner card for self installation. Then they would have likely had a happy customer. Instead, they have an unhappy customer that may not by another Gateway computer.

I did buy myself another computer, from a different manufacture, but the same retailer. As Yvette can attest, I am very happy with my new computer, as she is with the new 20″ monitor that came with it and is now attached to her computer. My new computer doesn’t have a TV tuner card, but it works great!

For Yvette and I, Friday is normally “date night”.  Yesterday, we had plans to go see Cory Morrow at the Buda City Park; however, it had been a long day and week and we were both tired.  So instead, we tried out Mr. Spuds on Center Street in Kyle for dinner.

Yvette and I had been waiting for the restaurant to open.  When it did open, we had to wait another week or two while Yvette’s mouth was recovering from dental work.

We arrived at the restaurant at almost 7:00 PM.  The place was clean and bright, with big windows facing west.  There was one other small group at the restaurant.  Yvette liked the decor, which has some brushed and accented metal on the walls.  Judging from the menu, the restaurant does not appear to be a franchise.

We started at the counter, where one of the four very friendly staff helped us.  Now, with a name like “Mr. Spuds”, we were expecting that potatoes would be big on the menu.  There were only two potato items on the menu, with the remainder covering sub sandwiches, personal pizzas, salads and soups.

Even with the limited potato menu, we were able to customize our large potatoes.  We both had butter, mozzarella cheese, chopped turkey (lunch meat), bacon and sour cream.  I had them add chopped red onions to my potato.  As a bonus, the restaurant as Diet Dr. Pepper, which is always a plus in our eyes.

The potatoes were good, we got free refills on our drinks and had a good time.  This is definitely a place we will try again for lunch or dinner.

Afterwards, we jumped over to Hays City Donuts where Yvette and I split a donut for desert.

Today, Yvette and I celebrated our 12-year anniversary. There are days when I am still surprise by how lucky I am to be married to her. She will be the first to tell you that I was a big jerk the first AND second times we dated. Luckily, when we got back together for the third time, I had my head on straight and knew that she was the one for me.

For this anniversary, we had previously planned to go on a cruise. It would have been our sixth cruise. However, with the economy, we decided to pay off bills and save the vacation for next year.

For breakfast, I made French toast, her favorite. Then . . . we cleaned the house, which is typical for a Sunday. For a late lunch and our celebration, we went to Estancia Churrascaria, a Brazilian steakhouse. It was the first for us, and we were not disappointed.

The food, salad bar and the service were wonderful. The atmosphere and décor of the restaurant was also nice. The best example of the service was that I don’t think my tea glass ever dropped below half before someone was refilling it. The salad bar had HUGE mozzarella balls and asparagus spears. For side dishes, they served fried plantains, mashed potatoes, and fried polenta. The sides were good, but did not keep our attention like the meat. My favorite cut of meat, and I think we tried almost all of them, was the garlic pichana. Yvette had two favorites, the filet mignon and the linguica (pork sausage). In the end, we were two stuffed to stay for desert. With tea and tip, we got out for just under $80.

While driving back home, we decided to stop at Baskin-Robbins for some desert. They had a great “no sugar added” ice cream. Yvette and I each enjoyed a scoop.

Here’s looking forward to this next year with the woman I love.