Cant think if a witty title.

...and i'm back. There's nothing like returning home to a nice surprise or in my case, 2.
I've said it before and i'll say it again, Paris De Gaulle airport sucks. Despite flying through there 5 or so times i've managed to avoid running into any real problems beyond it annoying the hell out of me with the general atmosphere and attitude. However coming through Paris this past time was by far the worst time yet....the bus rides were longer, the people ruder and to top it all off, they lost one of my bags. It wasnt a particularly important bag, it had an inflatable bed some along with some books and DVD's, but its the principal of the matter. Murphy's law got me this time.

The other surprise though was a bit better. Normally my company leaves me a little sh*tbox at the airport but this time i arrived to find myself the new destroyer, i mean driver of an Audi A3 Sportwagon. As cool as that sounds it sounds even better when you say it like the Germans.
Shportvagen

Say it with me...Shportvagen.

Ja

Its much faster, handles better and has significantly less plastic than my previous ride, the venerable VW Polo, always a favorite of the ladies. I need to figure out how to keep this Audi...Fast.

As far as my vacation itself, it was great. I know what you're thinking, “Corrigan, isn't two and a half weeks is rather short for a vacation?”. Yes yes, but i managed to fill the time. During the first week I spent a few days in NY getting my haircut, doing some shopping, working on my cars, catching up with Family...all the usual stuff.

The second week brought a few more hours of flights and 7 days of diving in the Caymans. The Cayman islands, for anyone that doesn't know, are basically a pinnacle of coral surrounded by 6000ft of deep, dark water. Needless to say the wall dives are phenomenal and provide ample opportunity to see some big wildlife in some deep water. But despite having 6000ft of water underneath me, I was not able to get the deepest dive of the trip. My 131 footer was 1 foot short. Thanks Doran. Asshole.

I didn't have an underwater camera this trip because 2 other people i was diving with both had housing for their cameras, well, at least for the first half anyway. Who would've thought underwater camera housings were so sensitive to pressure. The dive yielded some good pics but as usual the sharks were the most exciting to see, for me anyway. We did see some stingrays on the trip. I'm not sure what the hell Irwin was doing but i was able to grab on and ride them like a jet ski without any problems. Maybe he forgot his name was the crocodile hunter and not the stingray hunter. Too early? Below are some pics. As soon as i get some of the underwater ones I'll post them too.

And now it's back to the grindstone at work. I've got over 350 mails to delete, i mean read, so i should be able to spend at least the next 2 or 3 days avoiding work. This will be a busy fall with some trips to Italy, Birmingham, Detroit and Koln coming up, but luckily there's a classic Rally in there as well.