Carolina on my mind...

The highlights:

• cool cross-country flight where I got to watch Crazy Heart and It's Complicated- which was crazy good and not that complicated (or good), respectively
• long delay in Atlanta due to underwater-like levels of humidity
• ripped off by Cabbie from airport, $27 for 2 miles, cause you can't get a car at 2 a.m.
• gross Sheraton, luckily only spent 6 hours there
• Poogan's Porch for breakfast in Charleston - good biscuits & gravy and she-crab soup
• walked around town before becoming totally soaking wet
• drove through scenic hillbilly country (do I hear banjo's?) to get to Myrtle Beach, traffic not too bad
• Sheraton was very nice...2 bedroom, screened in porch (not that you could go out there).  ghost person on the window, lol
• Carolina Roadhouse for dinner - decent.  Walked Broadway at the Beach, took kids on rides.
• Met the Jareds at their condo.  Beach (soft sand & warm, gentle rollers), pool and lunch in the condo.
• The Jareds came to our condo, beach and pool.
• good dinner at Liberty's at B at the B with Jareds
• MB Pelican's minor league baseball game
• Took SeaThunder boat ride out to NC shore to see dolphins
• Mini-golf with Jareds at Hawaiian Rumble - they won, good ice cream, saw birds
• crappy dinner at House of Blues with Jareds (update:  j&j actually liked their hob meal), after shortest parade ever at Barefoot Landing, saw turtles
• Murrell Inlet for beach and ok lunch at scenic Drunken' Jacks
• more beach (lots o' boogie boardin'), more mini-golf, Crabby Mike's seafood buffet (lots o' crab)
• back to Charleston, stayed at Aloft (cool), and had awesome meal at Buccaneer
• caught in a hurricane (not really), trapped at Chik-fil-a
• did I mention the ridiculous humidity...
• great time hangin' with the Jareds
• home to our beach...

A day at the beach

Today I renewed my job search with a higher sense of urgency (plus, the kids went back to school today -- freedom, at last).  I am a former stock options market maker, so basically, I am qualified at yelling and waving my arms like a banshee.  Actually, I have an mba, a varied career in commercial banking, trading, and most recently, a stint at helping people with their financial needs while working for Vanguard mutual funds.  Quite frankly, I'm a catch.

Despite this fact, I've already been rejected by the Apple store-after an interview, turned down for a Chik-fil-A franchise, and have not received a single response from PIMCO, a large southern California mutual fund company to which I have applied for multiple jobs.

My only promising lead remaining is at the local Wells Fargo branch, as a personal banker.  So today I sent apps to Chase and Citi.  I sent inquiries to a dessert franchise and to a chicken finger restaurant, which I was rejected from before my email was sent.  Chuck Schwab didn't like me either.

So to celebrate my prospects, I took my wife back to yesterday's beach for a picnic of cold fast food.  It's my new happy place.

And now, a short story by Jillian:  Once upon a time, there was an ugly barnacle.  The end.

Winter break recap

It has been a fun-filled Winter break, over way too quickly.  We took the kids, and Cubby, skiing and sledding for the first time.  Jilly took to it like a fish out of snow - a real natural ski bunny.  There's some mixed metaphors.  Josh didn't like hitting the bumps while sledding.  Both realized sledding is only cool until you have climb back up the hill.  And that's a real life metaphor.  Cubby had his Ugg boots on.

We took a trip to Vegas to visit some AZ friends and my old friend...The Strip.  It was surprisingly cold and windy, which hindered our pre-scheduled outdoor activities.  Circus Circus had a cool indoor amusement park for the kiddies.  Missed seeing City Center.  But the craps table was so money.  Oh, and never, ever stay at the Luxor.  As they said in Up in the Air, "Luxor.  That place is a piece of crap.  Nobody stays there."  Funny but true.

We also traveled back to AZ.  Stayed with my folks (nice hanging with the p's)  and the Westin Kierland, also so money.  Saw some old friends, visited some old haunts:  Over Easy, the new LoLo's Chicken & Waffles, North, and Chik-fil-A.  Was weird seeing our old house with renters living there.

Took Jilly to see Alvin and the Chipmunks today.  She gave it a 10.  Her laugh is priceless, but that's 2 hours of my life I won't get back.  Took Josh to the beach today.  Found my new, new favorite SC beach haunt, subject to change.  The Riv.  Easy access, nice neighborhood, clean, remote, not crowded, free parking, nice little break.