Hi, my name is Rick.

One of my favorite pics from our family Bahamas trip.

Abaco, Bahamas, Denny, Erin, Eva, George, Julie, Rick

This is my mother.  Julie.  She had had enough of “the point” at this particular time.  It was near midnight.  Pitch dark.  We had taken our rental golf carts in the Bahamas to the point of the island on which we were all staying: Abaco.  The stars there are brighter than you can imagine.  We were having a great time.  Julie was ready to go.  We left.

Abaco, Bahamas, Julie

Eva and I ran an 8K yesterday.  It was hosted by the German military representatives working on Ft. Bliss.  They did native German dances.  One of the dances had the German men chopping and cutting a large log which served as the impetus for the following classic exchange:

Me: “Only Germans would incorporate work into their dance.”
Unnamed Friend: “Haven’t you heard?  Arbeit macht frei.”

The photos today are of a feral dog which Eva named Rufugus, and of a house next door to my mother-in-law’s beach house in Norfolk.

Abaco, Bahamas, Norfolk, VA

It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated this thing.  For those of you that still come to the site, thanks.  I’ll try and update more frequently but I’ve been really, really busy.  For those of you that don’t know, I’m currently the S3 for my unit.  For those of you that don’t know what that means, suffice it to say that it keeps me quite busy.  When I get done with work, I don’t feel like doing anything except hanging out with Eva and Sydney and going to sleep.

This last weekend, Eva and I went to Nashville for my friend Mike’s wedding.  It was an absolute blast.  We saw a lot of our friends from school who, for the most part, we haven’t seen in 4+ years.  That first night at dinner it was as if we’d all seen each other the week before.  Everything was the same and it was great.  We snagged a lot of great pictures at the reception and I’ll post some of them here after we filter through them in the next couple days.

In the mean time, here are some more shots from the Bahamas.

Abaco, Bahamas, Erin, Eva, George, Laura

Cancel Christmas.  The world is officially ending.  Two days ago I heard a correspondent on the Today Show refer to the cast of Jersey Shore as “American Icons.”  I’ve never seen the show.  In the Today Show’s attempt to certify their assertion, they showed clips of the show and interviewed the cast.  It was the most embarrassing display of American humanity imaginable.  These people are the epitome of untalented, arguably bordering on mentally disabled and, though the least substantive, given the fact that it’s a television show, unattractive to boot.  I would rather break my pinkie fingers than watch that show.  And I’d rather move to Juarez than live in a place where these parasites are considered icons.

Speaking of embarrassing.  It would seem as though the two biggest news stories this last week were Lindsay Lohan going to jail and Chelsea Clinton getting married.  I couldn’t care less about Lindsay Lohan.  It would be ironic if Ms. Clinton’s husband-to-be has braces; that’s the extent of my interest.

The shot today is of the point just down the road from where we stay in the Bahamas.  I took it at about 11pm or so.  That bright light is the moon.  Look closely and you can see the stars.

Abaco, Bahamas

I’ve written before about how credit scores are crap and how the American fixation on credit scores is a symptom of our infatuation with credit based purchases and our proclivity to buy that which we can’t afford and to “need” something we want immediately.  However, I recently learned something even more telling about the disgusting American credit craze.  I learned what the FICO score (the fabled “credit score”) is actually comprised of.  35% of the score is based on your payment history, or the timeliness of your active debt ”reduction” such as mortgage, car and credit card payments.  30% of the score is based on the actual amount of debt you possess.  15% of the score is based on how far back your credit history goes, or rather how far back you’ve possessed debt.  10% of the score is based on what kind of debt you have and the final 10% is based on how many recent new credit accounts you have established.  What does this all mean?  It means to have a GREAT credit score, you need to have a lot of different kinds of debt.  If you have no credit card debt, a paid off mortgage, no car payments and a million dollars liquid in savings you’ll have a TERRIBLE credit score.  Also, if you don’t interact with debt for 2 years your credit score goes to zero.  What kind of ridiculous system is that?  Oh that’s right, it’s an American system.

The photo today is one of my favorite shots from our recent trip to the Bahamas.  It’s of a signpost outside the restaurant Cracker P’s which shows how far you are from a bunch of different cities around the world.

Abaco, Bahamas

I learned on a BP commercial that there are 900 people answering phones and filing claims on behalf of people financially impacted by their oil disaster in the Gulf Region.  It would appear to me that BP is the only group in this country that has actually created any jobs.

Why is it that I walk up to a urinal full of urine in a public bathroom, and as soon as I stop in front it flushes, thereby spraying pee/water mist toward/on me?  And why am I always wearing flip flops?

Eva and I just returned from an incredible vacation in the Bahamas.  We were there for my grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary.  Our entire family on my mom’s side was there: 24 people in total.  It was a blast.  I didn’t have one drink on the 4th of July because I needed to detox from a week with my family.  In celebration of this event, I’m posting a standard Bahamian photo.  This was taken from a restaurant named Cracker P’s where we had lunch.

Abaco, Bahamas