Thursday, May 11, 2006

Travelling in St. Pete Florida - Day One

We're travelling in St. Pete Beach, Florida right now and I thought I'd try out blogging from my Treo.

The trip has been perfect. We're staying in the Sirata Hotel right on the beach. It's probably one of the nicest resorts on the strip.

We've been checking out the different neighborhoods to see where we'd eventually like to move and asking the locals about their opinions.

We decided we wanted to take Gulf Blvd north, head up towards Tarpan Springs, and make stops along the way to see the towns. Our 1st reaction is "wow there is a real spotty mix of estates, condos, and trailers right on top of each other. What a strange mix. This isn't going to be easy.

First we drove through St Pete Beach into Treasure Island. Ok, it's nice but a little touristy (if that's a word). So we pushed on.

Then we went through Indian Rock Beach and crossed over to Alt 19 before getting into Downtown Clearwater. This was the 1st sign that there were places we might be able to find work outside of Tampa, but it didn't look like the right place to live. We didn't have a chance to head into Clearwater Beach that day, but we wanted to come back and see more of that area as well.

Next along the route was Dunedin. Before we'd even been there, we had an idea of what it might be like and were hopeful it might be a prospective destination for us based on some previous googling. We walk around the main village area and had some Mexican food. We had talked to Wendy's dad on the phone while we were there and he expressed how much he liked it there, so we went exploring some more. From what we'd seen so far, it was really quaint, so we drove around town some more, but it wasn't very impressive as far as housing was concerned. I don't think it's the place for us. We were getting discouraged at this point and feared we were going to see more of the same everywhere else. Leaving town and being stuck for several miles behind this barnacle encrusted gheto bucket in-toe that someone calls their boat only made matters worse. But we would not let this sway us off coarse to finding our future home.

Next on the hit-list was Tarpan Springs. As we enterred town we knew that this place was different. We saw a really nice shopping area near the Pinellis County Trail and decided to head towards the water into an area known as Spongeorama. Weird name, huh. It's called that after the sea sponge beds that are found in abundance there. This is, by far, the nicest area we've seen. The properties and houses were spectacular, lots of lush green-space, nice shopping... Where do I sign up.

Friday, April 28, 2006

CoolHomePages.com Design Award Winner

After years of browsing coolhomepages.com checking out the best websites on the internet for inspiration and examples of great design, my site has been added to their list. It can be found in Newest Sites, Services, Personal, Non-Flash, and CSS&DHTML. I am blown away right now with all of the accolades this sites is getting.


Saturday, April 15, 2006

Rally New York

I took the drive up with my daughter and friend Jeff. We all had a blast. I'm hoping to get back there in the fall as well Click here to find out the results and more. And don't forget to check out my pictures here.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

DT&G April Web Site of the Month

My website was the featured "Web Site of the Month" on the Design & Publishing (DT&G) website Graphic-Design.com. It was also included in the monthly newsletter that goes out to all of it's subscribers. I hope to get a profile page up on their site in shortly.

Click here to read the review.

Monday, March 06, 2006

CreativePublic.com Designer of the Month

My website ChrisArella.com received the "Designer of the Month" award from CreativePublic.com. Ten winners from around the world are given this recognition and I am humbly honored to be considered among the world's top designers.

creativepublic.com

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Visiting Our Florida Friends

We just got back from visiting Mike and Carla in Palm Coast , Florida . It was quite an emotional rollercoaster for Wendy and me. The weather was absolutely perfect. The drive from Orlando to their house in the PT Cruiser convertible was sweet, and we loved getting to spend time with our friends. We also had an unexpected surprise when we arrived — Seth, Jen, Harper, and Jules were still there, as well as Mike's Family. It was so nice having all of us together again. I really miss spending time with all of them. It feels weird being home.

It was also a heart-wrenching trip, seeing Mike in so much discomfort. He's always been a guy with so much life and passion, and with him being sick it seems so unfair. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Hang in there Mike. We love you.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Up And Running

Finally
I've finally gotten around to checking out the cool settings and features here on blogger dot com. I just thought I'd get some BS up and gain some momentum. I've been working hard on getting my website redesigned and built for a few weeks now. I work a lot and have two beautiful, but small children. They're a ton of work, and it's been a real challenge to make any headway. As you can see, it's now after midnight and here I am, instead of in bed. My wife is pressuring me to go to sleep now. Gotta run. Feel free to check back again later for more here, and the progress I'm making on my new site at ChrisArella.com =)