Wow…  I have been trying to write this blog entry for the past 4 months but after spending 5 hours in the Atlanta airport this weekend, I finally got around to it.

In short, it is a set of lists that Beth Ann and I put together on the back of some napkins as we were sitting in the Bogota airport awaiting our flight back to Seattle.   At the time it was more of a fun recap/re-living of our Colombian experience for the two of us, but after looking back on it now while writing the blog entry, it brought a enormous smile to my face all over again!

Here goes:

Our Colombian Top 12 List (in no particular order)

1. The itinerary that Beth Ann and Torri created – it couldn’t have been more perfect.   Leave me a comment if you want a copy of it. 
2. The Colombian people – enough said.  They were fantastic, accommodating, gracious, and most of all fun!
3. Having two friends living locally and “looking out for us” – this included our own personal drivers, our own VIP boat tour, meeting the Colombia equivalent of Mario Batalli, among many other things
4. The Charleston hotel group – the quality and price of the hotels and importantly their appreciation of the history of each building during the renovation.   In Bogota we stayed at Casa Medina and in Cartagena, we stayed at the Hotel Santa Theresa.
5. The insanity of Andres Carne de Res in Bogota – words can’t do it justice but it is a must-do if you go to Colombia
6. The amazing variety of previously unknown fruits and jugos naturales with names like Maracuya, Guanabana, Lulo, and others 
7. Tayrona and the EcoHabs huts in particular – they were simple thatched huts but with amenities and views that were other-worldly.
8. Our VIP boat trip to Islas Rosario off Cartagena – four people on a 50- foot power cruiser with a captain and first mate???  Seriously?
9. The turquoise blue water at Islas Rosario – the picture speaks for itself
10. Cartagena sunset on the last night of our trip and the colors of the Cartagena buildings during the day 
11. Walking on top of the fortress walls surrounding Cartagena
12. Vitrola restaurant in Cartagena – one of my favorite dining experiences in the last few years

Random other things that were great about Colombia overall

• Safety Checkpoints – everyone was so concerned about our safety when we were planning the trip.   It wasn’t even an issue once.   I felt as safe/safer in Colombia than in any other 3rd world country I had been to
• Local beer – they have a good variety of local beer options to choose from if you like your beer watered down like i do….   BONUS!   Favorite was Club Colombia by far.
• Pancakes – seems like a strange thing to include on the list, but every place we went they served pancakes (breakfast is huge in Colombia culture) and they were fantastic.
• Cheap and plentiful taxis – The taxis were insanely abundant in Colombia and they were dirt cheap.  

Things that could be improved about Colombia

• T-shirt selection – most countries have a set of “traveller shirts” like the local beer shirts, etc…   Colombia had the most limited selection that I have seen in any country and I was even actively searching them out.
• Streetfood – Usually streetfood is my primary source of sustenance when travelling.  In SouthEast Asia, I think I went a few weeks eating only streetfood in Thailand and Vietnam.    In contrast, in Colombia I can count on one hand the number of times that I found good streetfood.  Bummer.
• Spicy Food – We definitely had some fantastic meals in Colombia.   However, we didn’t find any food that had great local spice/kick to it.    We ended up buying hot sauce and carrying it around with us so that we could add it to the food.
• Condiments – they just don’t seem to get the need for condiments in Colombia.   Even basics like ketchup were rarely found…   Given the overall bland nature of the food, this was really surprising to us.
• Pace of service – Slow service is always expected (and mostly cherished) when travelling abroad but Colombia was seriously on a time of its own unlike any other country I have been to.   In some places they were trying to rush us through our meals by taking half-finished plates and drinks away and in other places it took two hours just to get something like chicken and rice.
• The Decameron hotel group – we stayed here by mistake one night and it was the worst decision we made all trip…   It was expensive, poorly located, overrun with tourists, and facilities were not great.   We would have rather stayed at a $2/night hostel than this place for $125/night.   Avoid at all costs…

For our next visit to Colombia

• A little more strenuous activity – we did a lot of beach combing, beach sitting, and walking around Cartagena and Bogota
• Visit the Castillo in Cartagena
• Check out the Hotel Agua Baru on the islands
• More dancing (salsa and other types)
• Hike to Ciudad Perdida (maybe…)
• Hike to Pueblito
• Scuba diving in Santa Marta
• Visit Medellin
• Visit the area between Bogota and Cali

I saw this story yesterday on the NFL network and thought it was a great story about DeSean Jackson’s road to the NFL and the role that his father (who passed away in May) played in it.

Desean seems like a classy guy, and I am happy that he plays for the Philadelphia Eagles!

A friend of mine is one of the Product Managers on the new Project Natal technology that xBox announced at the E3 video game conference.

This is going to be so freaking cool.   Check out how Jimmy Fallon freaks out when he gets to play a race car driving game without a steering wheel or a pedal.

This is going to revolutionize gaming.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/projectnatal/

http://www.hulu.com/watch/77038/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-project-natal-demo

Love the image of the Great Barrier Reef on the Bing homepage today.   Brings back some fantastic scuba diving memories from back in the day.

Although, I do wonder if the water below is from the Coral Sea or not…. 

Recently I posted a message on both my Messenger and Facebook status messages asking people for their favorite “recession wines” defined as < $12.   The response was overwhelming…  I received over 75 messages and comments from people giving me a variety of options and opinions.

They ranged from the very specific -- Domaine Delaye St. Veran "Les Pierres Grises” to the very vague – I hear Chilean wines are good and cheap…

I have compiled the list below for anyone’s reference.   I hope that it helps you in the future to move from just buying a “cheap bottle” and instead “buying a cheap but good” bottle!

Thanks to everyone who submitted their favorites and if I neglected a personal favorite “recession” wine, leave me a comment and let me know.

Enjoy!

Update 6/4:   Here are some other highly recommended wines that come from some very trusted sources!

Columbia Crest  - 2 Vines Vineyard 10 Red Wine
Hogue - Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Bodegas Castano Hecula Monastrell 2005
A to Z - Pinot Gris
Cono Sur  - Pinot Noir
Waterbrook  - Melange
Knick Knack

When we were in Charleston, we spent a bunch of time cruising around the city and it was so much fun to wander in and out of all of the art galleries there.   There are some fantastic spots.

One of the galleries had some photography by Gary Geboy.   Geboy is a photographer who takes pictures in a variety of different locales but one is the “low country” around Charleston.

I particularly liked this one below.

If you are in to photography, definitely check out some of his other work: 
http://garygeboyprints.com/

While bbqing tonight on my deck, I took this 23 second panoramic video.   Seattle summer is the best!

This weekend I was in Charleston, SC for yet another wedding and a friend of mine who lives there introduced to my new favorite drink.

It is called Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka and it is an sweet tea infused vodka created on Wadmalaw Island in South Carolina.     For those of you that don’t know what the sweet tea flavor is, click here for info from Wikipedia.   Their website says that they use real tea grown a few miles from the distillery at the only remaining tea plantation in America (seems crazy but I have to believe them).

After the first sip of my Firefly and Water, it immediately became my go-to drink for the weekend.   So much so that I immediately went to their website to figure out where to buy it in Washington.   Luckily, all of the state stores seem to have it… so I can introduce some Seattle-ites to it this summer (whenever that comes…)

Here is a video that Firefly created to describe their background, their wine (yes they also make wine), and their vodka.   Gotta love the intro music….   8^)

Go check it out yourself!

This ad has been out for a few weeks now, but it is really good so I wanted to give Heineken some credit.   Fantastic song, good personalities, and so right on in terms of message.

Update 5/13:   I just learned that last week, “Just a Friend” by Biz Markie shot up to the #1 most downloaded single on iTunes and outsold current singles by Lily Allen, Kings of Leon, and Kanye West. 

My friend Denis sent out his initial list of specific dishes in Seattle that he and his wife love.   From there, people piled on and we came up with the list below.

What do you think?   Have you tried any of them?   Any that we are missing that you highly recommend?

Leave me a comment and let me know and Ill add it on.   And do yourself a favor and try some of the ones below…

1. Short ribs – Crush
2. Seared sea scallops – Matt’s in the Market
3. Ham and cheese quiche – Le Pichet
4. Pizza Dante (arugula & prosciutto) – Via Tribunali
5. Steamed mussels Pigalle – Place Pigalle
6. Ashak dumplings – Kabul House
7. Heirloom tomato salad (and French fries!) – 35th Street Bistro
8. Amaretto bread pudding – Boat St Café
9. Duck egg raviolo – Spring Hill
10. Hand-shaved noodles with chicken – Jack’s Tapas
11. Laksa soup – Wild Ginger
12. Fish n chips – Pacific Inn Pub
13. Midnight Cuban sandwich – Paseo
14. Al pastor burrito – 45th St Taco Truck
15. Ramen with pork broth – Samurai Noodle
16. Tom Yum soup – Araya
17. Camarones enchipotlados – Senor Moose
18. Pate sandwich – Le Panier
19. Creamy spicy scallop nigiri – Tuna House
20. Broiled eggs with ham and gruyere – Café Presse
21. Vermicelli combo bowl at Green Leaf
22. Creme Brulee at Boka
23. Ensaladas de Remolachas - Harvest Vine
24. Pastalon w/ Beef - La Isla
25. El Diablo - Tango
26. Bahn Xeo (Vietnamese Crepes) - Tamarind Tree
27. Tajarin & Ragu - Spinasse
28. Duck Sliders Burgers - Tilth
29. Pita & Baked Gigante Beans - Panos
30. Sequimbled Eggs - Steelhead Diner
31. Pomme Frites - 35th St Bistro
32. Oeufs en meurette - Cafe Campagne
33. Sweet Potato Gnocchi - Tulio
34. Quesadillas de Camarones - El Camino
35. Almejas (clams) and Patatas Bravas - Ocho
36. Broccoli Blasted - Black Bottle
37. Insalata di Napoli - Tutta Bella
38. Cheese Steak Double Wiz Wit - Tat's Deli
39. Cheeseburger - Palace Kitchen
40. Spicy Fried Chicken - Ezell's
41. Carne Asada Tacos - Malena's Taco Shop
42. Burger - Lunchbox Laboratory
43. Porchetta - Salumi

In the latest version of Wired, there was a great article about some of the hidden codes and secrets for using different consumer products like the iPhone and even In-and-Out burger…

One in particular that I had never heard of was the one below:

Call 267-SLY-DIAL (267-759-3425) Enter recipient's phone number. Leave a message explaining that it's just not working out. *Works only on cell phones

It was another fantastic year for skiing.   With over 425 inches of snow at Snoqualmie Pass and more than 7 days of snow in Seattle, it was an epic year for people that like to ski/snowboard…  Luckily, I’m one of those people.

I also took a few trips to other ski resorts outside of WA and spent a few weeknights night skiing at Alpental – all accounting for 24 ski days this year.   Great stuff.

There are some pictures below.  Now on to golf season!

Seattle, Dec 2008	Aspen – Dec 2008
Tahoe – March 2009	Tahoe – March 2009
Aspen – March 2009	Aspen – March 2009
Crystal Mt. – March 2009	Crystal Mt – March 2009

Just saw this compilation version of Stand by Me on Gizmodo.     As quoted from Gizmodo:

It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley's base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz's added some metal percussion to it.

Then they added a bunch of musicians from around the world and blended them together.   Great stuff.

I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday and I was shocked when he told me that despite the fact that he had just spent 2 weeks on vacation in Florida and Arizona, after one day at work he no longer felt that “vacation feeling”.   

I sympathized with him because after my first few work vacations, I felt the same way.   However, over the last few years I have developed a “plan” to significantly increase the chances that upon returning from vacation I don’t immediately lose the vacation feeling.

Thoughts?   Any other recommendations?

1. Take at least 7 full days off if you want to make it a true restful vacation (I prefer 11 days) – 7 days is long enough that your co-workers have to take on your work while you are gone.  As a result, it won’t pile up while you are away (dont forget though…what comes around goes around!)
2. Go someplace exotic and where there is seemingly no internet access – although ironically I have found that some of the most remote places are the ones that have the most internet cafes, by going to a “remote” place, it wont be assumed that you are checking email daily…  even if you are…
3. Do not send a single work email the entire time that you are on vacation – Once you leave the office for vacation, even one work email reply means that you are checking email.  Once that precedent is set, people will expect that you are online and monitoring work email and they will continue to loop you into things 
4. When you return from vacation, make sure that it is on a Wednesday night or Thursday night – then even if things are insane when you return to work, you only have two days of mayhem.  Plus, you have the weekend to get caught up on email if you choose
5. If you set an out of office message, set it for one extra day after you return – then use that day to work from home and clear through the email that has piled up while you are gone
6. On that extra “out of office day” spend it efficiently by working “offline” – Sleep in and get some breakfast while your email downloads.  Then go offline while you reply to email.  Once your email inbox is in reasonable shape and you have replied to the majority of them, go back online and send your replies.   Otherwise you wont be able to get through your old emails because the replies will start flooding in.

A friend of mine at work sent me these videos and I have to say that they made me die laughing.   Although fart humor (or scat humor as my friend called it) is sort of childish, I thought that this set of videos is just hilarious.

It is even more fun since it was created by Pixar.  Check them out.  They are like the new Tom and Jerry…  8^)

As a result of the fact that I have now been at Microsoft for 2.5 years and the fact that one of the other groups switched offices, I now have a slight view through my co-worker’s office of the Cascades.

Just even that small increase in natural light makes me happy.  Especially on a beautiful day like today.

PS, pic doesn’t do it justice since the window glare blocks out the Cascade beauty

When you book a ski trip, it is always a crap-shoot on whether they will have great snow or not.

This weekend I am headed to Tahoe and specifically Squaw to hang out with some of my good friends from SF.   We got lucky with the snow to say the least….   Check it out below:

Check out this video of the latest soccer prodigy that people are talking about.   This kid is 6 years old and is already being labelled as the next Zidane (primarily due to his Algerian heritage).   

Pretty amazing skills but I feel sort of sorry for him because he is going to have a lot of pressure to succeed – something that a 6 year old shouldn’t have to deal with.

(Note: you might want to turn down/off the volume since it is a loud rap song)

Last night on the Grammys we launched the latest set of commercials for Windows.  The commercial highlights a 4 1/2 year old girl named Kylie and her photography skills using Windows Live Photogallery.

Check out the video below and more information at the URL below  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/rookies/

Ivar’s is a famous clamchowder house in Seattle.   For the Superbowl this year, they bought one half-second ad (yep, .5 seconds) as a local TV buy in Seattle.

I thought it was a pretty interesting idea since it got them some press and definitely spread word of mouth.   Plus, they might have made a “subliminal” impact on potential customers – Clockwork Orange style!

I think it would have been even more interesting if Ivar’s had bought 60 of the .5 second ads as part of a branding campaign…  do you think it would have impacted their business results?   Do you think it would have been more effective than one 30 second ad?

Check out the campaign below: