Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Friday

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Joel

Our last day in Jamaica.

After breakfast, we began packing our suitcases. We then went back to the beach to get a quick ride on a small sailing boat around the bay one last time.

We grabbed the bus back to Montego Bay, which took about 90 minutes to get to the airport. We bought some last minute souvenirs, and some last minute Jamaican beef patties, then hung around at the airport for a bit. It wasn’t too crowded, and we were pleased to find some free Wi-Fi.

The flight home was on time and uneventful. We got home at 11:22 PM, and the cats were mildly interested in seeing us again.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”131″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Thursday 

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Joel

Thursday was our last full day here in Jamaica. We made the most of it. Nums went to get a massage. The kids tried standing and surfing on that flow boarding thing. The kids also went swimming with dolphins, which they both loved. In the evening, we went back to the teppanyaki restaurant. Had the same cook as Monday! After all the glitz and glamour of dinner, I took the kids out to the arcade one last time, then the three of us played a few games outside in the dark, like capture the flag.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”130″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Wednesday

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Joel

Wednesday was all about the pool, the hot tub, and relaxing. We had reservations to go for a sunset cruise on catamaran, but it was ultimately canceled. Instead we took two aqua cycles (?) out on the water.

20161109 163855 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

20161109 163919 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

In the evening, we ate at the Italian restaurant, then caught a Michael Jackson tribute show. It was okay. After leaving the kids in the room, Nums and I hit the Piano Bar, a cocktail bar onsite. We hung out with a few of the guests and had a few drinks while listening to the piano.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”129″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Tuesday

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Joel

By Day 3, the Ipes are starting to really soak up the sunshine. Vacations. Are. Good.

After breakfast, we got some professional photos done. The resort had a third party photography studio on site, and our photographer Nick was fantastic. We went around the resort taking all sorts of portrait, action, and candid shots. More on this later, including the photos.

After lunch, we used our well-earned excursion tickets to Dunn’s River Falls. The last time we climbed the falls in 2007, Josh was barely two years old. Now we had two older children who could climb ascent along with us. The weather forecast has been threatening heavy rains all week, but we’ve been lucky so far. We thought it was going to rain this afternoon, but we cheated fate once again. The climb went well, and we made it all the way to the top.

The Ipes at Dunn’s River Falls, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, February 2007

The Ipes at Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, November 2016 [same spot as 9 years ago]

The Ipes at Dunn’s River Falls, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, November 2016 [same spot as 9 years ago]

We caught the private bus back to the resort, and spent more time at the pool. I went to the gym, then we all went out to the steakhouse for dinner.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”128″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Monday

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Joel

In the morning, we agreed to endure a 90 minute breakfast and tour of their vacation club / timeshare program. I found it humorous that they tried to snooker us on Sunday’s post check-in by saying we were invited to their “1 year anniversary celebration” which would include breakfast (at the same place everyone has breakfast.) If we saw through their little game, why did we go through with it? For the four free tickets to a Dunn’s River Falls excursion (plus transportation.) So we had breakfast with “Luis Felipe” and got a tour of some very nice (albeit expensive) rooms. They took us back to the offices, plied us with drinks, and they listened to all of our fervent “No thanks!” They tried to bring a “Closer” guy to try to seal the deal, but we weren’t interested. They tried to us a beautiful woman to sell us another package, but we took our tickets and ran.

Free excursion on Wednesday!

We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun. And the pool. And the food. And certainly the drinks. The resort had an entertainment crew stationed by the pool to keep guests… you know, entertained. The had a blast at the body boarding area. We soaked it all up.

In the evening, we made reservations for all of excursions, reservations, and appointments. We went to Momo, their popular Teppanyaki restaurant. Very good food. And the bar can make some mean mojitos.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”127″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Yeh man, the Ipes went to Jamaica – Sunday

Posted on November 6, 2016 by Joel

You know, the days leading up to all of our vacations seem to work out the same way. We make a list of things to do and plan to do them early so we don’t have a mad rush the night before the trip. We always do it, and it is not pretty. NOTHING beats our 2007 early morning Ride of the Valkryies to JFK. We stayed up all night packing, left late, and I drove so fast, we made it to Jamaica Queens in an hour. From our house.

Unfortunately this trip was no different. We were swamped with finishing work before leaving (I was still doing work at 1 AM), but at least we finished the laundry the day before. Nums and I ended up staying awake until 2:30 AM to pack, then we woke the kids, and did a final check. We even had to check to ensure all of the cats were accounted for. Finally, at 2:45 AM, we were out the door.

The roads were somewhat empty. We were worried when we saw signs that the upper level of the Verrazano Bridge would be closed, due to the NYC Marathon starting in a few hours, but the lower level was clear. We made it to off-airport parking lot on time, and same for check-in. The security line was kinda long for 5 AM, but no big deal. Eventually, we were all killing time drinking coffee and eating breakfast at McDonald’s.

Our United flight was uneventful, and we arrived at the Montego Bay airport right on time. After Immigration, Customs, Baggage Claim, and a 90 minute bus ride to Ocho Rios, we arrived at the Moon Palace Jamaica Grande around mid afternoon. Finally!

We checked in, then made some mental plans on what else to do during the week.

The rest of the day was all about decompressing, especially pulling an all-nighter. We took a breather in the room, then changed and made our way to the pool area. The kids had a good time on the water slide before it got too cold. We checked out the arcade, then freshened up for dinner. We decided to try out Pier 8, their outdoor seafood restaurant.

 

20161106 162602 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

20161106 162429 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

20161106 162325 from Joel Ipe on Vimeo.

That was it for the evening, because frankly we were exhausted.

[simpleviewer gallery_id=”126″]

Posted in Trips | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Joel’s review of Doctor Strange (2016)

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Joel

The day before we left for Jamaica, the kids and I went to go see Doctor Strange, the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mads Mikkelsen,  Tilda Swinton, and Rachel McAdams. Doctor Strange is a major character in Marvel Comics. He’s the Sorcerer Supreme, fighting the magical enemies threats to our world. He’s also been a member of the infamous Illuminati, a secret group of our favorite major superheroes making decisions on behalf of the superhero world. Which isn’t  good, but it’s not important in this conversation.

The film is very similar in tone and key plot points as the original Iron Man (2008) film. (Gosh, I saw that film eight years (and five jobs) ago in Philadelphia.) Anyway, remove the technological elements, and replace them with mystical ones. He’s a rich arrogant playboy who is injured, gets his comeuppance, and has a change of heart. It’s still an entertaining movie, especially if you’re a Doctor Strange fan. It doesn’t have too much to do with all of the prior films, which I think is a good thing. The visuals are good, the villain Kaecilius (played by Mads Mikkelsen) wishes to bring the Earth into the Dark Dimension for his own nefarious ends. Doctor Strange, the Ancient One (played by Tilda Swinton). and the others must stop him.

We saw it in IMAX 3D, and that didn’t disappoint.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Doctor Strange (2016)

Afterwards, the kids messed around at the theater a bit, then we rushed home to get on with our day, get to a church event, and get ready for our Jamaica trip!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted in Entertainment | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Back to work

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Joel

Folks, I gotta be honest, it’s good to be working again.

I’ve been working at Deutsche Bank since May 31 2016 in their audit department, auditing IT risk and controls around vendor management. It’s similar in many ways to the third party risk management work I performed at JPMorgan Chase two years ago. Through connections and old friends, and DB’s process, I was able to complete the entire interview process and had an offer in hand within two weeks.

It was a disconcerting first half of the year for me, which I wrote about in an earlier post. I was out of work for most of March, April, and May. In that time, I spent quality time with the family, did stuff around the house, studied for my June CRISC certification exam, hung out with friends, and enjoyed life for a while. Sometimes it was hard to relax, because I had nothing lined up, and the interview process was admittedly strange at a few organizations I checked out.

It feels good to be back on track. The team is great. Management is approachable. I’m doing work that is much more interesting than QA’ing the work of other auditors. And I get to travel every once in a while.

Posted in Work | Leave a comment

Business trip to Hartford

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Joel

Immediately after returning home from my recent trip to Pittsburgh, I was back on the road (literally.) On a late Sunday night, I was driving up to Hartford CT for another audit. With all of our usual Ipe activities, I didn’t start the drive until 9 pm, but at least I got to enjoy a family dinner. I stopped somewhere south of Hartford for gas tank refill and a coffee break, where they gave me the all of their remaining Munchkins. Gladly, I was able to show restraint by only eating a total of three Munchkins. 😉 Guess they were throwing them away.

Unfortunately I was unable to find a decent hotel in the city of Hartford itself, so I grabbed a room at the Doubletree Hilton –  Hartford – Bradley Airport. On our first night only (Monday), my coworker and I had time to drive into the city of Hartford itself for dinner at the City Steam Brewery. Service was slow on a slow night, food was decent.  The hotel was okay, but the location (near the airport) wasn’t exactly scenic.

On Tuesday evening, we left Hartford and separately drove to northern Westchester, where we would be for more meetings. Once I arrived and checked into the completely underwhelming, dark and dingy, still being renovated room at the Holiday Inn – Mt. Kisco on Tuesday night, I got changed. I got casual, then hit the road to visit my friend Saji for dinner near Peekskill at Bangkok Spice Fine Thai in Shrub Oak NY. It was good to relax and dine with an old friend.

Wednesday was all meetings, then back in the car for the long ride back to NJ.

Posted in Trips, Work | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dinner out at Salt Creek Grille

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Joel

After one of those long days of handling kids activities, don’t you want to relax? A few of us got together for dinner at Salt Creek Grille for a late October Saturday night dinner out.

14572142_10210293906134688_5438809052401724434_n

Posted in Friends | Tagged | Leave a comment