The
Ferrer / Echols Tacky Holiday Newsletter 2005The
Ferrer / Echols Tacky Holiday Newsletter 2005
And Black-Eyed Pea Party Invitation
Our journey continues
This is your invitation to our annual Black-eyed Pea Party on January 1, 2006. We are doing two seatings again at 1:00pm and 3:00pm on Sunday, January 1, 2006. Friends, fun, Black-eyed Peas, and Cornbread, please join us for this annual tradition.
If you can’t join us, please write or call. We know that we tend to share too much information about ourselves, but we really want to hear from you. Brag to us. We want to hear of all the joys and events that made your year. Our email and phone numbers are at the end of this newsletter.
John and I are on journey to become “Less” this year, less of us. In July, John and I joined Weight Watchers together. As of this writing, I’m down to a size 14, and John dropped 36 pounds.
I
continued my yoga journey really stepping up the benefits by making
the Tibetan Longevity Rites, a series of 5 exercises, a daily routine.
I’ve done these rites everyday this year and I’m amazed
with the results. With Weight Watchers, the daily “rites”, a
weekly routine of yoga classes, and weekend water aerobics and hiking. I dropped 25 pounds since July.
We love the home we purchased in 2002. We are so comfortable here. I use the great room as my own personal yoga studio every morning, with my own Jacuzzi tub to relax afterwards. The pool in the summer is the best way to enjoy the Texas heat.
Scruffy
continued to torture chameleons and chase squirrels. White Fang at 19
years old occasionally likes to go lie on the warm concrete or roll in
the dirt. Mostly she
prefers the comfort of the house. Yes, WhiteFang is still with us,
everyday with her is a blessing.
Last year she dropped weight and we thought we’d lose her.
Thankfully we discovered that diet of baby food, and diced
chicken keeps her eating. She’s
put weight back on. However,
she is the loudest, most persistent whiner about feeding.
John continued to rebuild his business this year. It’s looking good for 2006. He continues to sell concrete supplies, everything but concrete. He also completed a 5,200 sq.ft. basement for a 22,000 sq.ft. house in McKinney as a prelude other development that he plans.
I continued working at Verizon as a Project Manager. My co-workers are great and I love working at Verizon. My projects continue to be nationwide in scope with functional breadth, and high tech, related to Verizon’s Fiber roll. I love the work. In addition, I work two to three days a week from home.
For our big trip this year, we traveled to the April 8, 2005 Solar Eclipse in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 1000 km from landfall. We went via the Galapagos Islands instead of Tahiti and Easter Island like we planned.
In January, we signed up for a raffle benefiting Star Garden Foundation, which promotes astronomy in the US and abroad. First place; a free trip to the 2005 solar eclipse cruise via the Galapagos Islands, we won 2nd place: a two for one or 50% discount on the Galapagos Eclipse cruise, which previously had been out of our reach. Yes, we scrambled, and with a little luck we rearranged our plans, flights, and hotels and still saved money over the Tahiti based tour we’d planned.
Our trip started in Ecuador. We took a little side trip to an equator tourist display of several “equator” experiments, including the “fabled” sink experiment. You've heard of this, water rotates counter clockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of the equator. Now I say "fabled", as the learned scientists on the cruise later explained to me that it is a “fake”, that the shape of the sink matters more than the location of the sink north or south of the equator. I don’t know, if it’s a fake, I wonder how they fake the experiment. Our guide used the same sink and a bucket and the water went clockwise north of the equator and counterclockwise south of the equator. If you want to see the “faked” experiment go to my website to see video of the experience. If anyone can explain how to fake it, I’d love to know. Click on the photos below to see the video
From
Ecuador we traveled to the Galapagos Islands where we boarded the M/V
Galapagos Legend. These
islands are where Darwin formulated the Theory of Evolution.
Today it exists as protected national park.
you can see many species of animals.
My favorite, the blue footed
boobies.
We viewed these birds in there natural habitat during mating
season. Very touching,
all the males do a dance to capture the attention of the females.
The Galapagos Islands are named for the Giant Tortoises found on the islands. Because of evolution, each island had a different species of tortoises. Sadly, some of the species of tortoises are now extinct due to the culinary demands of man. Sailors of the period, including those on the Beagle, the ship Darwin traveled on, found the giant tortoises to be good eating. Lonesome George survived the carnage. Sadly, he lives out his days without a mate, the last of his sub-species.
The
ugliest animals are the iguanas.
These hardy iguanas, adapted in the Galapagos into two species,
one that lives on plant life in the sea, and one that survives in
desert environments. The
marine iguanas… “litter” is a good word for the way they lay out
across the lava rocks in a tangle to sun.
Picking your way through a colony of marine iguana challenges
even the most sure-footed. Imagine
miniature Godzillas, which spit.
The other branch of the family, the land iguanas, are solitary
creatures whose coloration is adopted for life in desert environments. 
After touring some of the islands we headed out to sea for four days to the hit the eclipse path on April 8, 2005. Four days ship board, with rolling seas and nothing to do. I found the best spot on the ship where the rolling seas, rocked gently. There I did nothing very well.
The
morning of the eclipse day dawned with overcast skies, rain, wind and
waves. One passenger, Fred
Bruenjes, sat
in the rain downloading 
weather satellite images, and after
consultation with the trip leader, the captain, turned the ship
directly into a squall. It
worked; on the other side we found beautiful clear skies.
No clouds impeded our view.
A beautiful eclipse, alas, too short, only 30 seconds.
Here is our picture of the diamond ring effect we captured,
with Venus.
After
the eclipse, we headed back to the Galapagos Archipelago,
again 4 days
of nothing that we did well. Actually,
both going out and returning, John and I were treated to a series of
lectures by some of the top astronomers in the field; David Levy, one
of the discoverers of the Shoemaker-Levy comet that hit Jupiter in
1994, Fred Espenak who runs the NASA solar eclipse site and my
favorite, www.mreclipse.com, shared his Antarctica journey, and
lectures by Jay
Pasachoff, astronomy textbook author and veteran of 23
eclipses.
We
went back to the Galapagos archipelago for more exploration. Lots of birds like this hawk and other wildlife abounded.
During a snorkeling 
excursion, I found myself face to face with
a sea lion. Now, sea
lions by nature, keep a harem of “cows”. While snorkeling, in my black bathing suit, a sea lion
aggressively approached me either seeing me as a threat to his
territory or trying to collect me for his harem.
After this incident, I seriously considered this as another
reason to drop some weight. We
did see a lot of sea loins in less threatening circumstances.
Peru
From Lima, John and I
traveled up the coast to Nazca and took a flight over the sight made
famous
by the book “Chariots of the Gods”, the Nazca lines. These drawings in the Nazca Desert include a
hummingbird, monkey, spider and lizard, to name only a few.
Drawn by the Nazca culture between 200 BC and 600 AD.
The most accepted theory and supported by the locals is that the Nazca
drawings are an astronomical calendar used by the Nazca culture
predict when the water would flow from the Andes to irrigate crops.
Machu
Picchu, the “Lost City of the Incas" is a recovered
pre-Columbian Inca ruin located in the mountains of Peru at an
elevation of about 7,700 ft. We
traveled by train and bus to the site, opting not to travel the
traditional Inca Trail by foot, which takes about several days.
The
mountain in the picture is Huayna Picchu. Upon that peak are
additional
ruins and a trail leading to the top.
I hiked up the steep
trail to the top of Huayna Picchu.
With the help of some men I picked up on the trail, I reached
the top safely after about three hours.
The entire hike took about four and a half hours, the time
for an average hiker is about two hours, so I'm a bit slow and I made it!
As I mentioned last year in our newsletter, John and I separated in 2004 and 2005. We’ve reconciled and are living together again. Together we are working on becoming better people, so we can create a better marriage. For those who knew of you who supported us with kind words and blessings, thank you for your good wishes, support and prayers.
Hopefully 2005 brought you much joy and happiness. John and I wish you well for the next year and beyond. If you can, join us for Our Annual Black-Eyed Pea Party, please click link for details. If we don’t see you on the 1st, please email, snail mail or call us. We want to hear from you.
Email: Leticia: Leticia@Ferrer.com
Email John: John@Echols.com
Or
call us at 972-484-1856
Leticia Ferrer and John Echols