A New Toy

Well, spent yesterday making various reservations.  For some foolish reason, I keyed everything off of my best deal on airline flights...and I did get a good deal first class on Alaska to Mauii.  Also excellent deals on a car and hotel in PDX.  Then the good deals came to a halt.

With the economy still in a funk, I did not think that Hawaii would be particularly busy.  I was wrong.  Mauii appears to be jammed in February. Tried all the web travel sites and was shocked at what I saw - or perhaps more accurately, what I didn't see - reasonably cheap prices for nice places.  Made a half-dozen condo calls to no avail.   Finally settled on the Westin resort in Kaanapali.  Beautiful place.  And way spendy...but what the hell...I haven't really treated myself to anything extravagant in a good long while.  And I DESPERATELY need some quality relaxation.

In other news, I was at mom's yesterday and my sister gave me a gift.  Actually, she gave me the gift that I had given her for Christmas - a "Flip" video camera.  It's about the size of a smart phone and while it's NOT a sophisticated device I figure it might be useful to be able to add some video to my blog entries.  This morning I fired it up to see how it works and to learn how to download to my computer.  So...here is my first ten second video from the front deck.  THIS IS JUST A TEST.  I will not bore you with deck videos on a regular basis...although I reserve the right to undertake a serious video survey of the pool area from my lanai in Hawaii if the scenery is particularly compelling.

 
The past week was big on the medical front.  I had a small growth removed on my left forearm and am sporting a few stitches.  The nurse called me yesterday and informed me that contrary to expectations it was NOT malignant.  That is a good thing.

Took mom to the hospital for some imaging work.  Took auntie to the dentist for a new bridge.

Did I mention that I REALLY need a vacation?  Hah!

Hmmm.  While the video on my computer is pretty darn good; I am disappointed with the quality of the upload here.  Must be some data limitation inherent to blogspot.  Oh well, it may still prove useful.