Well, we here at Myrtle Beach Website Designer have gotten busier and busier, which is great.  But it means more sitting on the computer, and less…not sitting on the computer.

Also, I’ve been reading a lot about probiotics, and how they regulate your digestive system.  And I’m not a big fan of cottage cheese.

So I’ve been looking for ways to stay healthy, without having to eat more healthy.  While that, of course, is impossible, I DID stumble upon something called XoCai, the Healthy Chocolate.

You heard right, the HEALTHY CHOCOLATE!

Here’s some more info I found online about the XoBiotic Squares:

What are the XoBiotic Squares™?

There are many natural functional foods in virtually every food group. As we all know, chocolate itself is a functional food if it contains sufficient antioxidants and flavonoids. However, it is now possible for manufacturers to create functional foods by fortifying and enhancing their products to give them added health benefits never before possible. A new growing segment of functional food is called “probiotics.”

Probiotic means “fit for life”, or “pro life.” Probiotics are living microorganisms which when administered effectively in adequate amounts confer health benefits. The adult intestinal tract is home to approximately 100 trillion microorganisms. More than 400 different bacterial species have already been identified in the intestinal tract.

First, in order to be effective Probiotics must contain bacteria which are resistant to stomach acids and bile salts. Secondly, the bacteria must have the capacity to compete successfully with the indigenous intestinal bacteria. So, either the bacteria must be protected by the use of encapsulation techniques, or new types of foods must be developed which offer increased protection for the bacteria. The key to the effectiveness of probiotic treatment is for the bacteria to be able to pass through the stomach and the small intestines reaching the large intestines with sufficient strength to colonize and flourish.

SHIME stands for “The Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem.” This in vitro system was created to simulate the activities and conditions found in the stomach, small intestines, and large intestines. This enables scientists to monitor the quantity of bacteria that survive the journey to the large intestines. And, it also enables them to monitor the development of the bacterial colonies in the large intestines.

According to the American College of Gastroenterology, 95 million Americans suffer from digestive problems. Some 60 million have heartburn, 50 million have irritable bowel syndrome, and 20 million suffer from stomach ulcers.

Many, many new probiotic products have been launched in North America and Europe. But, we have a distinct advantage. Chocolate appears to be the ideal delivery system for probiotics. Chocolate has been shown to be far superior to milk as a delivery system for Probiotics.

The Xoçai™ XoBiotic™ chocolate will be in the form of an 11-gram square and will deliver 1 billion microorganisms of two types— Lactobacillus Helveticus R0052 and Bifido Bacterium Longum R0175. These probiotics have been selected for our probiotic chocolate because of their stability in chocolate and their guaranteed shelf life equal to the shelf life of the chocolate itself, if properly stored as recommended for all Xoçai™ products (40*F – 75*F). By marrying the health benefits of dark chocolate with those of these two probiotic cultures, which have a positive influence on immune and gut health, we gain new opportunities with health-conscious consumers. Presently there are no approved health claims on probiotics in the US, until now!

Click Here for a Video about XoCai.

Since taking XoBiotic chocolate squares, both I and Bingles have noticed much better digestive health.  And these things taste great; much better than that chalky digestive yogurt.

For those who are spending lots of money on probiotics, antioxidants and vitamins, you may want to consider taking these instead.  Or if you just like dark chocolate, which is diabetic-friendly by the way, then this is the chocolate for you!

Click Here to Buy XoCai products

Note: I am not selling this product.  I am not compensated for the sale of this product.  I just like this product.  Plus I want the hits to my blog for talking about it.

I know what you’re thinking: “More pictures of the dog?”  Well, yes.  You may also be thinking, “Oh, come ON!  Yes, he’s a very cute dog, but enough already!”  My answer to that is “this is my blog, so nah nah-nah nah nah!”

 Anyway, a few days ago, Axl and the Myrtle Beach Website Designer, aka Axl’s daddy, aka me, went to the courtyard inside my condo building and played around while Bingles took pictures.

So without further ado:

 Here, I’m trying to get Axl to jump at me by moving my arms around and going “bwaaaaah!!!” at him.  Without going into much detail, it worked.

I love when he just looks up and stares at me.  He’s learned that when he sits, he gets treats or I put his leash on to take him out.  So now, he just constantly sits to try to get rewards.  I guess that’s a good thing; at least he’s not running the streets and smoking the pot. 

Daddy and Axl, sittin’ in a tree…. 

“Daddy, when’s she going to stop taking pictures?” 

“As soon as I take my glasses off for one last shot, buddy.”

I want to end this post by encouraging people to get a pet before having any children.  Simply put, if you don’t do well with the pet, you shouldn’t have any kids.

In our last episode of the Axl Chronicles, Axl and Bingles went to the marina.  On the way back home, they stopped at the lake and marsh.

Axl loooooves water.  He’s mesmerized by it.  Seriously, he’ll just stare at it until you pull him away, or his attention is grabbed by something shiny.

This means that he is either mentally retarded special-needs, or he’s just a creature of the water.  I’m not sure.  I haven’t taken him swimming yet, mostly because I’m not completely convinced that he won’t pee in the pool.

Here are the pics:

When Axl sniffs things, he makes a little piggy snorting noise.  It sounds like he’s searching for truffles.  So far, nothing.  But I have faith…

“Water….water….water….water….something shiny?…..oh, no shiny…..water…..”

“One day, this will all be mine.”

“One day, this will….well, they can keep this.  But that one on the other side…”

The following 3 pictures are a stop-motion sequence of Axl finding something stinky and rolling around in it.  You see this is one of his favorite things, that and staring at shiny things.  The special-needs evidence keeps piling up… 

Shortly after getting to the lake, Axl spots a Crane (or a Heron).  He decides to run after it, in order to protect Bingles.

He runs off into the brush, while Bingles takes pictures.  If anyone has seen my dog, please call me at (843) 902-7256.  Actually, we tracked him down about 20 minutes later.   We never saw the crane again though… 

In the next episode, Axl spends some time in the Courtyard with his daddy (me).  Same dog-time, same dog-channel!

A few days ago, Bingles took Axl to the Marina next to my condo, and he loved it.  It had all his favorite things: sunny weather, shaky ground and low-tide smells.

Of course, we have pictures.  Plenty of them:

As you can see, Axl is a very stoic dog.  Here he is, apparently meditating.

It looks like he’s eyeing up whether or not he can jump over to that marsh barrier.  He has an amazing long jump.  Thankfully for all of us, he declined to take the leap.

Next, Axl gets on the raised observatory next to the Marina, because that’s where all the birds poop the best views are.

Back down at the edge of the Harbor, Axl scares off the birds for Bingles.  She’s not a fan of birds, and apparently neither is he.  Either that, or he could sense her fear and decided to play the hero.  Either way, it works out real well.

We are learning that Axl is a big fan of water.  This marina is on the Intracoastal Waterway, and he just can’t get enough of it.

Before going home, Axl spends some time checking out the boats.  He seemed to fancy the one on the right.  He has good taste.

For those who want to see more pictures of Axl Cohen, stay tuned.  There are PLENTLY more to come.

Those who follow our blog will remember the site we made for Salsa Queen Productions, who does Latin Dance Classes and Events in the Myrtle Beach area!

Well, Bingles and I can hardly resist an opportunity to break loose and dance all night long!So we’ve been swept up in Salsa fever (and Merengue fever, and also Bachata….um, bronchitis).

On the Salsa Queen site, they list upcoming Latin Dance Events in the Myrtle Beach area. The most recent was the Latin Dance Bootcamp, followed later that night by the Salsa Party at the Caribbean Bar & Grill in Myrtle Beach.

Because we were busy, well, dancing, we didn’t get a lot of pictures, but here’s one that Adalia, the Salsa Queen herself, took of us during the bootcamp:

I believe we are doing the Bachata in this one.  Bachata is Bingles’ favorite dance.

The Salsa bootcamp is basically a 5-hour salsa class, where you are taught everything from the basics all the way to some higher-level intermediate stuff. It’s really a great way to learn how to salsa quickly!

We’ve been taking her classes on a somewhat-regular basis, so we weren’t exactly starting from scratch, but it’s always good to get a solid refresher course.

Then later on that same night, we went over to the Caribbean Bar & Grill and got down at the Salsa Party!

Here’s a picture I took of Bingles dancing with Ernie, one of the other dance students:

Unfortunately, the batteries died after taking one picture (don’t buy a camera that uses AA’s) so this is the only one I got.

BUT, if you go over to the Salsa Queen Productions Picture Gallery, you can see some more pictures of both the Bootcamp and the Party.

We will be doing more of these parties and bootcamps in the future, and hopefully we’ll bring a camera with a full battery next time.

Let's Welcome Axl Cohen to the Myrtle Beach Website Designer Family!

Well, it was bound to happen.   I volunteer at the North Myrtle Beach Humane Society, and what I do when I’m there is walk the dogs.  Besides freeing up the paid staff to do the more crucial work, it also provides sorely-need one-on-one time between the dogs and a human.  This helps keep them from getting the “kennel mentality” and becoming scared of (and aggressive toward) potential adopters.

Anyway, when I started walking the dogs, I promised myself I wouldn’t fall in love and adopt any of them.  After all, I’m an incredibly busy person, and it would be terribly difficult to fit a dog into my life.

And then I met Axl.  And that all went out the window.

Axl Cohen is what is colloquially known as a gator-mouth pit bull.  The official name is American Straffordshire Terrier, but they’re known as pit bulls.  The “gator-mouth” part is apparently a term for pit bulls with wide jaws. 

 He’s somewhere around 4 years old, about 60 lbs. (he’s underweight due to tapeworm and several bacterial infections) and has some really cool coloring. 

He’s mostly black, with a stripe of white in the middle of his face, lots of white on his torso, a little white on his two front paws and a tiny speck of white at the end of his tail.

I’ve had him for just over a week now.  Thankfully, the beautiful Bingles came down to help me get him used to his new home. 

Here are some pics she took of him in bed with Daddy (me).  She actually took about 100 pictures of him in different settings so this is going to be the first in quite a few volumes:

Look at that face.  That’s the face of a doggy who’s taking a lot of medication.

As I said before, he’s getting over several infections and infestations, besides just being underweight from low-grade food.

Rest assured, he’s getting the best treatment, lots of walks (if only because I’m scared of him going to the bathroom in my home) and the finest in dog food.

Axl and his Mommy (Bingles) both know that he’s not supposed to be on the bed.  But he’s sick right now, so rules schmules.

This is the point where Daddy discovers that he’s on the bed.  And wait til you see just how outraged he gets…

That’s right, Daddy’s pissed.  I’m obviously outraged and mortified by this blatant violation of the househould laws.  I’m shocked…SHOCKED that this is happening in my home!

Oh yeah, there’s going to be some severe punishment for this.  Better call Amnesty International, because I know a doggy that’s going to be waterboarded.

Anyway, for those who are wondering, the reason Axl’s middle name is “George” is because I adopted him on the anniversary of my Grandfather George’s death.  This was not intentional, mind you.

Once this was brought to my attention, I decided to change his middle name from “Mobutu” to “George”.

Also, if you are considering getting a dog, PLEASE adopt one from an animal shelter!  These are great dogs, full-breeds as well as mutts, who are there for no fault of their own.  They want nothing but a loving home.

Besides, where else can you get a full-breed pit bull for $80?  And that includes neutering, all the required shots, testing for illness and even micro-chipping.  For $80!

Or you can go to a breeder and spend thousands…

As I mentioned earlier, I just got back from beautiful, sunny cold, miserable Toronto.  And boy, is my throat tired (from coughing).

And no, it wasn’t all fun and lizard games either.  The wonderful thing about being slowly encased in snow is that you have to regularly shovel your way out.  This accomplishes very little, other than making you feel like you have some control, when in reality God is toying with you.

Bitter?  No.  But this is an excellent time to mention that Myrtle Beach is beautiful and sunny right now.  I walked around wearing shorts today.

So in case you are interested in looking at purchasing homes in a beautiful resort town where people wear shorts year-round, go to CohenMyrtleBeach.com!

Anyway, here are the pics:

Here I am, starting off on my trek to clear off the driveway and sidewalk.  I am wearing: 2 jackets, 2 pairs of pants, oversized boots, 2 pairs of socks, gloves and a hat. 

At the beginning, I felt like I was wasting my time.  Oddly enough, I felt the same way two hours later, when I looked outside and saw that everything was covered in snow again.

You’ll notice that Bingles’ neighbor is selling his house and moving away.  I wonder why….

Here I am, pissing in the wind shoveling more snow.  Bingles had fun telling her neighbors that this was my first time shoveling snow.

As you can see, I had no idea what I was doing.  At all.

At this point, the driveway was “done”, which means that it was safe to drive over for about 30-40 minutes.  Good job, Myrtle Beach Website Designer!

Next comes the salting.  Did you know they use actual salt?  I thought the term “salting” came from how you sprinkled it on the ground.  I had no idea it was real salt.

Amazing.

Bingles felt that I could be trusted with an ice scraper, even though I had never used one before.  I’m glad to report that no one got hurt.  Unfortunately, no ice was scraped either.  Again, I had no idea what I was doing.

So anyway, that was fun.  Once again, any person who is living in Canada, take some time to come down to Myrtle Beach.  Spend a week here, and then seriously tell me you want to leave.

Oh, and our gas is a lot cheaper too…

Normally, we showcase the things that we’ve done in Myrtle Beach (and elsewhere).  But this time, we’re going to showcase what we’re GOING to do!

You may remember the SalsaQueenProductions.com website I made a couple weeks ago.  I’ve also done some flyer and promotional graphic design for Salsa Queen as well, including this flyer:

For those who can’t read it, here’s what it says:

SALSA!  MERENGUE!  BACHATA!

Latin Dance Classes
Mondays and Wednesdays
7:00 – 7:45 Beginners
7:45 – 8:30 Intermediate
Only $5 per Class!

Adalia’s Salsa Social
Every 3rd Saturday
7:00 – 8:30
Light Refreshments Served
Bring Friends & Family
Only $3 Entrance Fee!

At the Pepper Geddings Recreational Center

For more info go to
www.SalsaQueenProductions.com

For those who are interested in Latin Dancing, come check out the Classes and Events that Salsa Queen Productions offers!

I don’t know if any of you have been following the weather in Canada.  If you haven’t, let me sum it up:

It’s freaking cold!  It is freeze-your-ass-off COLD!  It is several degrees below ZERO. 

FAHRENHEIT.

It’s not cold like “oh hey, it’s a bit nippy outside” cold. 

It’s more like “oh hey, my arm just fell off, but thankfully I’m too numb to feel it and I’m too frozen to bleed” cold!

So I did what any smart person would do, and I left beautiful, warm, sunny Myrtle Beach (where people are wearing shorts right now) and flew to Toronto see my beautiful Bingles.

Why, you might ask, would an otherwise smart person fly from a gorgeous resort town to a frozen wasteland?

THIS is why.

Ah yes, the beautiful Bingles.  Gorgeous inside and out.  So beautiful, so loving, so caring, so brilliant, so perfect in every way, that I knowingly flew to Coldtopia to spend a week experiencing what it’s like to freeze internally. 

So anyway, while I was up there, we decided to fulfill our addiction to critters (and pretend we weren’t in the Arctic) by going to Reptilia in Toronto.

Reptilia is a really cool place!  It’s kind of like a smaller version of Ripley’s Aquarium, except with reptiles instead of fishies.

Here are some pics that Bingles took of me cavorting with the swamp monsters.  There were a lot more creatures there, but here are the highlights:

We start off by meeting my new BFF, whom I’ve named Bert.  Bert was the patriarch of this particular clan of iguanas, so he kept a close eye on me at all times.

Here is Bert yawning.  He would also move his head up and down while puffing his little turkey-neck thingy (you gotta appreciate my scientific lingo).  I think this was meant to be some kind of alpha-male “step off my turf” display.  Anyway, I just did it back to him, not to threaten him but because I thought it was funny-looking, and I wanted him to see how silly it looked.

I named this iguana Ernie.  He slept the whole two hours we were there.  Watching him sleep made me tired, so we took a little nap together.

Feeling rested and refreshed, I decided to show my appreciation of nature by poking at angry snakes.  Incidentally, I have a pair of snakeskin shoes that are almost exactly the same color as this guy.  I didn’t tell him though.

Feeling somewhat amorous, I started to kiss every scaly thing in sight, starting with this snake.

This Gila Monster was one of the few things that actually was eager to kiss me  back.

And don’t think I didn’t appreciate it either.  It’s nice to feel loved.

It’s true what they say; kissing a bunch of strangers is tiring.  So I went back and napped a bit with Ernie.

Not wanting to do the stereotypical “toad kissing”, I chose to mock them by puffing my face out at them.

Unfortunately, amphibians are well-known for their lack of appreciation for physical comedy.

Reptilia is chock full of gators and crocs.  In fact, they have the largest crocodile in captivity, or the largest crocodile in Canada, or whatever.  Something like that.  They have a very big crocodile, so big that it has the distinction of being the largest something-or-other.

But he/she was hiding in the corner, so I decided to party with this guy, who in my humble opinion is the most friendly crocodile/alligator in all of the Greater Toronto Area.  Friendly, or maybe just hungry.

And yes, I kissed him too.

These guys were *ahem* busy.  I did not kiss them, as Bingles informed me that doing so would be a violation of several Canadian laws.

This angered me very much, and led me to have a temper tantrum, followed of course by another nap.

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the feeding we got to watch up close and personal.  We were about 3 feet away while one of the employees took out some kind of fairly large lizard (a Ruta?  Guta?  something like that) and fed him/her a bunch of dead rats.  Sweet.

We also didn’t get any good pics of their King Cobra.  Apparently, it is Canada’s Largest Venomous Snake, which is amazing because Canada is well-known for their tropical snakes.

Anyway, Reptilia is a great place for critter-lovers in or around Toronto.  Lots of fun, and they keep it nice and warm in there (which was much-appreciated).

And the price is pretty fair too.  It was less than $30 (even after Canada’s consumer-raping sales taxes) and their staff is very courteous and knowledgeable.

So, for any people in Canada who are still thawed enough to read this, head on over to Reptilia, and tell them Myrtle Beach Website Designer sent you!

Even though they don’t know who I am…

On one of our first posts, I showed some pictures of Bingles and I visiting the Silverback Gorillas at the Riverbanks Zoo.  On that post, I said that we would talk more about our visit in a future post.

Well, at Myrtle Beach Website Designer, we keep our promises!  So, without further ado, here they are:

 Whether it’s dogs, giant cats, sea monsters or goats, I love to feed them.  Whenever I go to a zoo, I tend to make a beeline for the petting zoo.

 This is a baboon.  I can’t really come up with anything to add about this.  Other than maybe to say that I wish we hadn’t been separated by a moat, because then I could’ve fed him.

Come to think of it, that’s probably why the moat is there.

 Here is the lovely Bingles posing in front of her favorite creature, the noble Lion.  This particular noble Lion is sleeping with his mouth wide open, which makes him appear all the more noble.

 Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to feed the giraffes.  There were a bunch of schoolkids in front of us, and by the time they were finished, they were wrapping up the giraffe feeding for the day.  Oh well, we’ll be back…

 These zebras look antisocial in the picture, but they were actually pretty friendly.  They liked trotting by the visitors and showing off their coats.

The elephant on the left was quite the diva (or divo).  She (or he) made a point of being in all the pictures. 

 See?  A few minutes after that first pic, Bingles started posing for this one.  All of a sudden, Diva started charging over to be behind her in time for the shot.  As you can see, she made it.

 There’s Joe Cool (who’s actually me) in front of the Flamingos.  These guys were a lot of fun to look at.  Hey kids, here’s an interesting fact: did you know that Flamingos get their pinkish/red coloring from eating shrimp?  Apparently the chemical that makes shrimp pinkish/red also makes anything that eats it pinkish/red.

So, you know…be careful with that.

Beautiful Bingles in front of the Flamingos.  What’s funny is, right after this pic was taken, they started losing their minds and got into this huge Flamingo riot.  I think they were fighting over Bingles, but it could’ve also been shrimp-related. 

 Bingles in front of one of the Bears.  I’ve seen Bears at other zoos before, but these guys were far more animated than I’ve ever seen before.  In fact….

 …once it was my turn to have my pic taken in front of them (and look how great my smile is) they started wrestling.  This, too, could’ve been shrimp-related.

Well, that’s about it for the pics.  We took hundreds of shots, but most of them were blurry, I think because we were shaking with excitement as we took them.

We’re hoping to get back to Riverbanks sometime in January, so we may very well have to re-revisit this topic.