78 days and counting

78 days to liftoff

Kid # 2 finally done with college.
Got $XXK to refi (not counting the $XXK he owes the feds)
Total cost of College about XXXK over 4 years. Ouch.

Deep breaths...

Looks like the plan to have everyone together for Thanksgiving/graduation is a fail.
Girl child has no days off until Dec. Looks like Xmas in Mexico.

I'm looking forward to being able to plan more than 2 days in advance.
Flights are a lot cheaper that way, Shijus.

New New New Itinereary?

As you can see we are having some trouble making up our minds.
Some of these are booked already, others are more fluid.

Dec: Mexico (Sayulita, & San Miguel de Allende side trips to Guadalajara & Guanajuato,)
Jan (1st half): Fiji,
Jan (2nd half) New Zealand (Auckland, Taupo, Wellington, & Nelson)
Feb: Australia (Sydney) & Bali + Gilis & other?
Mar: Thailand (Chiang Mai, Bankok, Koh Lanta)
April: 1st half: Japan (Nagoya, Kyoto, Mt Fuji, Tokyo)
April 2nd half: Jakarta & Singapore
May-June: Turkey (Istanbul & Bodrum) & Greece (Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, etc)

Proposition #1
July: Scandanavia (Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm & Copenhagen)
Aug: UK (Edinburgh Scotland & Cork Ireland)
Sept: Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Germany (The Rhine bet Koblenz & Frankfurt)
Oct: Portugal (Lisbon & The Algarve)
Nov: Ecuador (Quito & Cuenca)
Dec: Mexico again? Possible visits to Philly, DC, Virgina & Austin TX
To follow: Africa? Namibia, South Africa & Tanzania? Or Italy?

Proposition #2
July: UK (Edinburgh Scotland & Cork Ireland)
Aug: Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Germany (The Rhine bet Koblenz & Frankfurt)
Sept: Portugal (Lisbon & The Algarve)
Oct: Ecuador (Quito & Cuenca, Manta & Guayaqil)
Nov: Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Dec: Mexico again? Possible visits to Philly, DC, Virgina & Austin TX
To follow: Africa? Namibia, South Africa & Tanzania? Or Italy?

yikes

Holy s#!t, 100 days.
CDs and DVDs ripped and sold
Many tools and boating items given away
Books pared down and donated to the library
Takers found for furniture and our few boxes

HOLY COW HOLY COW HOLY COW!

114 days and counting

So.
Nov 15th.
I hope we can.
Depart NJ with a Uhaul truck and drive to Philly to drop off stuff for Alexa.
Then on to DC to drop the rest of the stuff with Rose.
Possibly fly on to Asheville NC to visit Emily?
Or just on to Savannah?
Graduation on the 22nd
And hit the road?
114 days.
Still have a ton of shit to get rid of

Happy July 2nd! 148 days to liftoff & Counting!

Well we are spending this weekend dancing and watching fireworks in NYC, hurricane whoever be damned. Got a wedding Saturday so hopefully that won't be a factor. Another wedding in Boston next week is making this a short month work wise and in general.

Big news on the trip (I think?) is I am pushing it forward. Our son finishes SCAD in Sept (I hope) but fall graduation isn't until Nov 22nd. So hopefully we can have both kids in Savannah for graduation & combination Thanksgiving/Christmas and leave from there! 148 days and counting!

That means getting everything out of our place and getting the landlord to rent it out starting Dec 1st so we don't blow the last month's rent on an empty apartment. Hopefully that will work.

Updated Itinerary:
Dec: Mexico (Guantajuato, Valladolid & San Miguel de Allende)
Jan (1st half): New Zealand (Auckland, Taupo, Wellington, & Nelson)
Jan (2nd half) Australian (Sydney, Canberra & The Gold Coast/Barrier Reef)
Feb-April: Indonesia (Bali & Jakarta) Philipines & Thailand (Chiang Mai, Bankok, Koh Lanta)
April: Japan (Nagoya, Kyoto, Mt Fuji, Tokyo)
May-June: Turkey (Istanbul & Bodrum) & Greece (Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, etc)
July: Scandanavia (Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Stockholm & Copenhagen)
Aug: UK (Edinburgh Scotland & Cork Ireland)
Sept: Netherlands (Amsterdam) and Germany (The Rhine bet Koblenz & Frankfurt)
Oct: Portugal (Lisbon & The Algarve)
Nov: Ecuador (Quito & Cuenca)
Dec: Africa? Namibia, South Africa & Tanzania? Or Italy?
Or maybe back the the US for Thanksgiving/Xmas?

More dancing, food, art and nature. A trend perhaps?

184 days to our mental departure date of Christmas 2014. Another busy week here.

Highlights include:

Drumming for rockabilly band The Hudson Hornets at a block party on 15th street NYC

More salsa dancing at West Gate Lounge Nyack NY

An art show opening for Joel Popadics at Latour in Ridgewood NJ

A lovely day walking at The New Jersey Botanical Garden 

Listening to ZAZ !

More continuing adventures in NYC

I digitized my entire music collection (well, almost done) which came in at about 40 GB (yes gigabytes) of data. Guess I’ll need two 20 GB players to fit it all. Gonna get rid of the CDs with www.decluttr.com

I finished my book (soon to be a phone app) of 365 daily quotes on the art and craft of music. More on that to come. Still have to have a CD release party to get rid of the 1000 CDs I had made. If you want one shoot me an email.

Bought some more clothes and got rid of a ton of old stuff.

We went on several long walks at www.NYBG.org (including seeing the Rose Garden party), www.CentralParkNYC.org and http://www.njpalisades.org/

And of course more salsa dancing!

This week we’re going to the www.jazzagelawnparty.com on Governor’s Island

And seeing www.johnbutlertrio.com in central park.

Lots to do!