Western Arab

Busy weekend of hanging out, dinner out and a little helping out here and there. And tonight is another dinner invitation, which I will have to leave earlier to head to the airport to pick up dad.

I spent a few hours at the Oakland Park Flea Market on Sunday. I had a good time remembering how it was to work like that, constantly interacting with people and being known by so many of the locals and visitors. I didn’t work in a flea market selling before but I did work selling music tapes back in the days outside two stores. It is nice to get to interact with people, make friends and enemies . But now with this work I do, I sit on the computer all day long, I don’t interact with anyone. So it was nice to be in that environment again. Working at home has some advantages but the little interaction with people, traffic jams, idiots and everything else is the price. It is nice to get away from all that, but not completely removing it. I think a split with 3 days working home and 2 days out of home is the how to get the best of both worlds!

Canon Rebel XSi

Other than that, I want to buy the Canon Rebel XSi digital SLR camera. I missed out on an instant rebate by a day or two for getting a 55-250mm telephoto lens with the purchase of the camera and since then I have been hesitant to purchase the camera since I missed that deal, but I will still grab the camera I think. The price of it has gone up and down the past week since I have started monitoring it and right now it is $13 more than the lowest it was, and I am waiting for it to go back to the lowest price I saw or less! 

Me at Nickelodeon Hotel Pool

I went to Orlando for some business and some pleasure this weekend. I left Friday evening and returned today in the evening.

So business is just business. Nothing really to discuss.

The pleasure part. I went to Nickelodeon Hotel and being that I have been to Disney World, Universal Studios, Typhoon Lagoon and River Country before, Nick Hotel was awesome. It was the first time I went there and it is a water park inside the hotel. Now there is so much you can do but for a 3 day weekend, it was perfect. The water slides are fun, they are not crazy but rather simple half pipe loops. One of them starts as a closed pipe so you start off in the dark. There is also a bucket of slime they pour on people at specific times and of course a pool. There is in fact another side of the hotel with another set of slides and pool. That side, the slides drop you in the pool instead. I liked the first side better. I also got to use my face mask in the pool, but still managed to lose a contact and a group of young teenage girls were attempting to talk to me.

Now Orlando, specifically route 192 or what they call highway 192 feels very much like New Jersey’s Route 1. Just has that feel and look but with great weather and a lot of parks and places to visit.

Orlando seems to have a large Arab population as well. I went to Soq al Qahera or Cairo Market for lunch. Saw a sign in Arabic and it said halal food, great so why not drop in for lunch. Ordered some sandwiches and browsed the store. The store was full of Islamic books, frames and clothing as well as all the Arab food store usual. So I grabbed up a few types of teas to purchase after the sandwiches. I was being picky on what I wanted to drink and maybe there was a reason for that, as eventually I found a can of something, I didn’t pay attention to what was in it. The can was made by an Israeli company. This can was so out of place, why was it here between all this Islamic and Arab stuff? I decide to just ignore it, pretend it wasn’t there. Only the owner of this store just doesn’t know to keep his mouth shut and opens up a political conversation shredding him of any honor. No need for the details here, but I no longer was willing to purchase anything and the boxes of tea bags stayed in the store. The food was also not good and I lost my appetite. Thanks for nothing, this store is on my list of never to go to again.

2009 White Honda Accord LX

It looks like I am going with a Honda Accord lease option. After much consideration of buying new, buying used, or leasing, I decided I will be going with another lease. It is the cheapest upfront, in this crappy economy while I am looking for more work as the current project is not enough to cover the bills. I also may consider buying it after the lease is up, but I do like the idea of a new car so I don’t know if I will do that and I hear Honda is releasing a bio-diesel accord in 2010 that is supposed to do almost 63 mpg on highway. And who knows what else they may have in the next 3 years. I was considering keeping the Passat when I first leased it, but the last year, I had decided for sure I wasn’t.

I considered the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Hyundai Sonata, Ford Fusion and many others. I always ended back with the Japanese cars. They hold their value much better than the rest. The Accord and Camry are very popular and reliable. And other than feeling that the Camry is a geezer car, the Accord is also cheaper on the lease. So I am looking at paying first month payment down only so least upfront, maybe even sign and drive. It will be an Accord LX basic as much I can be basic on that, I know I will want various options but I am looking for best price right now, which means lowest if you didn’t know. And the color should be white as this is Florida and the heat is killer.

In another money spending news, I had to replace the AC unit at the other property after I had spend that $290 replacing the capacitor. Yeah I know, total rip off to start but I was hoping it would get me by through the summer without a problem. It didn’t last 1 month. Not even going to say how much the new AC unit cost, I don’t want to think about it. The old AC unit was 14 years old anyway so it did need replacing. Now if I can find a rental for this property, at least that can pay back the cost of the AC unit and help pay for the property’s mortgage. And yes I did use an Arab to buy and install the AC from, but surprisingly he was good. He was on time, was informative on what he was selling and simply knew his stuff. So THUMBS UP for an Arab providing service.

Well it is that time again. Time to look for new work again and in this crappy economy. Who isn’t looking for work? Everyone is looking, and there are less jobs. So who is hired? Those willing to take much less pay. With less jobs and so many looking, you either have to have some unique skills or you are willing to take the lesser pay. And even worse, it seems IT positions are much less in demand at this time. So maybe another field is needed, another kind of job. Who knows? But I need something new, or maybe a good side business or two. Even the one side business I had came to a screeching halt with this economy. MEH!

In other news, I just had some chocolate milk. Mmmmm. I haven’t had chocolate milk in a long time. Very exciting I know!