Vacation Eats and Electronics

Gulf Shores vacation 2011

The facts:
6 adults
1 teenager
4 boys, 12 and under

6 1/2 days, 7 nights
At least one trip to the grocery store per day, sometimes two or three trips per day.

What we ate: (we did eat out a couple of times)

1 bag pretzels
3 bags tortilla chips
4 bags potato chips
1 bag Cheetos
2 boxes four cheese Cheez its
2 boxes graham crackers
12 granola bars

2 boxes Fiber one raisin bran clusters
2 boxes Fiber One caramel delights
2 boxes Life cereal
1 large container old fashioned oats
I package sliced almonds

12 big cake balls
1 gallon ice cream
2 big ol Hershey chocolate bars
6 regular size Hershey bars
1 large bag marshmallows

1 box brown sugar
1 jar ketchup
1 Italian dressing
1 ranch dressing
2 jars salsa
1 large jar peanut butter
1 small jar peanut butter
1 small mustard
grape jelly
honey
2 little jars olive oil
cinnamon sugar
salt/pepper
blackening seasoning
lemon pepper

24 cans Diet coke
24 cans Diet Pepsi
12 bottles of water
1 gallon orange juice

2 lbs hamburger
4 packages chicken
2 packages steak
1 packages bratwurst
3 pounds shrimp
8 fish filets (trigger, mahi mahi, red snapper)
2 packages deli turkey
1 packages roast beef
2 packages deli ham
2 packages hot dogs

2 dozen eggs
3 pounds butter
1 package shredded cheese
2 24 oz cartons cottage cheese
2 packages cheese
2 packages feta cheese
5 ½ gallons milk
7 containers of yogurt

8 loaves bread
16 hot dog buns
8 hamburger buns

3 limes
2 lemons
1 cucumber
2 red pepper
5 pounds apple
2 heads of lettuce
3 pints grape tomatoes
6 tomatoes on the vine
4 pounds baby carrots
3 packages strawberries
3 packages blueberries
2 pound grapes
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 bunch asparagus
1 red onion
1 yellow onion
12 bananas
7 ears of corn
2 big watermelons
1 cantaloupe

4 frozen pizzas

10 bottles of wine
2 bottles of Scotch
48 bottles of beer

Other items of interest:
3 bottles of sunscreen (in addition to bottles we had brought with us)
1 box gallon freezer bags
1 box press and seal wrap
1 box aluminum foil
1 package wet ones
1 large tub Vaseline
20 AA batteries
48 rolls toilet paper
1 wireless router

And we can’t go to the beach without or electronic devices:
4 iPads
5 laptops
6 iPods/mp3
5 digital cameras
2 video cameras
7 smartphones

Gulf Shores 2011

We did a few other things besides hang out at the beach including riding a ferry to Dauphin Island where we toured the Estuarium, playing mini golf, and visiting an alligator sanctuary...but I think we spent the most time by the waves. Here's the photos to prove it.

(Disclaimer: I did not take all of these photos. In fact, the good ones I probably didn't take. Those were taken by L. Hatteberg and K. Hilger.)

6:45 a.m. The 12 and under crowd couldn't wait. Our spot. Watch for us on the cover of Sports Illustrated. If you look closely, there is a fish jumping in the upper left quarter of the picture. Mom boogie-ing...boogie boarding, that is. A two year old baby alligator. Some of us got to hold it. Not a baby alligator. None of held this one. But it did chomp down some cow ribs or something. Katie taking a picture of Adam...typical. And the picture... Dad being....Dad. Zach. Adam. Steve being...Steve. We know how to party. It was an inside joke. You wouldn't get it.
I am amazed that no one is making a face in this picture.
Ahhh...quiet time. And a brief 30 second video I took with my digital camera.

This is just a sampling...among all of us we have 800+ photos.

"How to Make a Sandwich" by Zachary S. Dyer

The much-anticipated "How to Make a Sandwich" has now been published by popular author Zachary S. Dyer. This how-to manual will revolutionize the sack lunch industry, offering time-saving tips and tricks to your sandwich preparation procedures.

At a mere five pages, this is an easy read, full of great advice from a veteran sandwich maker (and eater). See the end of this post for a sneak peek of the first page.

This book, however, was not published without controversy.

You may notice the name that is scratched off the cover of "How to Make a Sandwich." The rumor is that Zachary's brother, Adam, thought he could add his name to the book, enabling him to be listed as an author.

The younger Dyer fought back. Sources say there was a confrontation at the kitchen table.

"Hey, you wrote your name on my book!" said Zachary.
"So?" replied Adam.
"Well, You didn't write it. I did. I'm scratching it off. Don't write on my stuff ever again!" said Zach.

This is not the first disagreement or confrontation between the Dyer brothers. See the ceiling fan incident and the negative number disagreement.

Below is an insider's view of the first page.

Analog dating, digital marriage

This is a picture of Scott and I around the time we met. That summer, I gave him my phone number, hand-written in pen, on a napkin. And it wasn't my cell phone number. It was my home phone number.

And I didn't tweet "just met the cutest guy!" or friend him on Facebook. There were no "OMG!!" texts to my friends either.

In 1995, texting, Twitter and Facebook did not exist. Email was the "new" form of communication and if you owned a cell phone you were one of just a few. And that cell phone only made phone calls.

We did call each other...long distance. He lived in Colorado, I lived in Kansas. We racked up long distance phone bills...on a landline phone that might have even had a cord. We used pen and paper to write letters, which took about three days to reach each other.

Fast forward 15 years...gone are long distance phone bills and hand-written letters. This is what our conversations look like now:

Me: eta
Scott: 530

Sometimes there are longer conversation. This one is about parent-teacher conferences:
Me: Dont forget PT conf. Z 615. A 645.
Scott: Meet there or home?
Me: home. 6?
Scott: k

I could leave a voice message. But that's a lot of effort. You call the person, wait through the ringing, then the "You have reached..." message, and the beep. Finally you leave your message. The recipient then has to call their voice mail, listen to the message, and call you back. So much easier to just type a few characters. Besides, voicemail is so 2004.

Do we communicate less than we did before? I'd say no, in fact, I think we communicate more. One thing is certain: there's no excuse for not "getting the message" when it was sent via email (to your personal account and work account), voicemail (left on your cell phone, home phone and work phone), text, and Facebook message. I don't leave that many messages, but I could.

Other, wiser couples will tell you that when they first met there were party lines, rotary phones and record players. But look how long it took for technology to change. My parents were married in 1965. Not much changed until maybe 1995. The internet exploded, cell phone technology followed and here we are in 2011. That was 30 years. Scott and I met in 1995. Fast forward only 15 years to social media, smartphones and 3D TVs.

So, what will the world look like in 15 more years? Holograms, smart homes and robots?