Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Andy Poe's LiveJournal:

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Monday, July 28th, 2008
9:05 pm	Road Trip As some of you know, Diane and I like to take road trips.  This is our third and, to date, our most ambitious.   Day 1:  Saturday 19 July 2008   We hit the road about 5:00 A.M., and took MI-28 W to US-2 W at Wakefield, entering the Central Time Zone just past Merriweather.  We took US-2 W to and through Wisconsin and into Minnesota, meeting I-35 S at Duluth.   Now, as you approach the Twin Cities on I-35 S, the highway splits into two branches at Lino Lakes:  I-35W S through Minneapolis and I-35E S through Saint Paul.  From past experience, we know not to take I-35W S, since earlier this year a bridge went out and there are massive detours.  So, we took I-35E S and got a glimpse of the downtown area of the state capital of Minnesota, crossed the Mississippi River, and reentered I-35 S just south of the Twin Cities at Apple Valley.   We changed to I-90 W at Albert Lea and took this highway right into South Dakota.  On the way, we hit a massive storm.  I mean massive.  A lot of cars pulled to the shoulder, but Diane recommended we drive slowly forward to move out of the storm, which turned out to be good advice.  The radio reported a tornado and hail, neither of which really occurred; we just had massive driving rain.  We stayed the night at Sioux Falls, which is just at the eastern end of South Dakota.  We really didn't do much sightseeing on this day.  This was just a road burning day to make it to South Dakota.    Day 2:  Sunday 20 July 2008   After a long sleep, we continued on I-90 W.  We stopped at Mitchell to see the Corn Palace.  This is a tourist trap featuring large intricate murals made entirely from corn.  It was a good place to take a breather.   We crossed the Missouri River just past Chamberlain.  Diane was very impressed.  She was unaware that until the Missouri and the Mississippi come together near Saint Louis to form the “Mighty Mississippi” that the Missouri is the more impressive of the two.  The South Dakota view of the Missouri is incredible, just a simple but long bridge that you must cross.   We continued on and made another stop at Murdo to visit the Historic 1880 Town, another tourist trap where they have taken old buildings from all over and constructed a fictional old west town at that location.  You can have your picture taken in the jail or ringing the church bell, etc.  Diane suggested she take a picture of me lying down in front of the train, and that seemed like a good idea.   We entered the Mountain Time Zone a little bit past Okaton, and changed to SD-240 W at Cactus Flat.  This highway took us through the Badlands National Park.  The Badlands is a collection of rocky hills that proved to be a serious impediment to pioneers traveling west in the old days.  But in 2008, we had an air-conditioned car, a cooler full of Coke, and an era free of combat with the Lakota.  It was approaching dusk as we drove through the Badlands, so it was pleasantly cool, and we stopped the car several times to take pictures and to crawl around on the rocks.   It was fully night when we made it to Wall.  Wall is a tiny little town in South Dakota that is famous for having the largest drug store in the United States, called, appropriately, Wall Drug.  However, that fact is a bit misleading.  The actual drug store portion of Wall Drug is rather small.  It's a huge tourist trap now and is essentially a shopping mall.  And it's hardly the largest shopping mall in the United States.  I was somewhat underwhelmed, but the highlight was singing “Aj, Luča, Luča,” a Czech marching song to the two college student clerks from the Czech Republic.  They had never heard the song, but they understood it and said my pronunciation was pretty good; pretty amazing, I thought, since I haven't even thought about that song since I learned it in The Cornell University Glee Club some twenty years ago, and, even then, I didn't learn it from a Czech speaker.   Anyway, back on SD-240 E to I-90 W at Wall, and into Rapid City, for some much needed sleep!   Day 3:  Monday 21 July 2008   This was one of our primary cities on the road trip and the only place we stayed for two nights.   We took I-90 W to US-16 S to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  This highway takes you to both Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore and there are plenty of tourist traps along the way.  Diane's boss wanted us to stop at Reptile Gardens, but we did not.  We did stop at Bear Country USA, however.  You take a road through a park to see all sorts of animals—not just bears—living in the wild.  We saw mountain goats and bison and a mountain lion among other animals.  There's also a zoo you can visit after the drive.  This tourist trap was the most pricey of anything that we saw that week, including the national parks, but it was a lot of fun.  It was an exceedingly hot day, I should add.   Anyway, US-16 S to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  This is a rock carving in the Black Hills inspired by Mount Rushmore.  However, while Mount Rushmore was completed over fifty years ago, this monument was started sixty years ago and they still have only completed the face.  The tour guide was a big fan of Crazy Horse and said that this was way better than Mount Rushmore; it's built on better rock and doesn't require nearly as much maintenance.  I remarked to Diane that it didn't seem terribly remarkable to me that a small portion of an incomplete sculpture would require less maintenance than a large complete one.  Crazy Horse may turn out to be the best sculpture ever, but not in my lifetime at the rate the work is proceeding.   We didn't stay too long at Crazy Horse.  We then hopped onto US-16 N to SD-244 E to Mount Rushmore.  I wanted to do Mount Rushmore at the end of the day because they have a very nice program at dusk where they illuminate the faces of the Presidents.  They have several educational displays as well on the lives of the four Presidents represented, and, to a lesser extent, the thirty-eight other Presidents.  We hiked the trails and checked out the museums and had dinner at the cafeteria.  (I had buffalo stew which grossed out Diane.)  We also checked out the hall of flags, where they have displayed the fifty-six flags of the states, districts, territories, and commonwealths that make up the United States.  I made Diane take a picture of the Michigan flag, but she was far more interested in the Puerto Rico flag.   At dusk, the presentation began.  It was conducted by Ranger Sommar Chaffee.  If the name means nothing to you, that's OK; it didn't mean anything to me.  However, it meant a lot to Diane because Ranger Chaffee was a music major at Northern Michigan University at the same time that Diane was!  After the presentation, we went down front to say hi, and once I was close enough to make out her face, I recognized her, too.  I had interacted with her before at several musical events in Marquette, but I don't think I ever knew her name.  Ranger Chaffee was impressed by the coincidence as well, and spent so much time catching up with Diane that we irritated the other visitors to Mount Rushmore who wanted to have their picture taken with her and with the American flag she was holding.   And then, it was US-16A N to US-16 N to I-90 E to Rapid City and our hotel.   Day 4:  Tuesday 22 July 2008   Throughout western South Dakota, I-90 W coincides with US-14 W, but I still thought of it as “the interstate.”  Diane wanted to see the sights of Wyoming, however, and not just the interstate, so we decided to stay on US-14 W whenever it split from I-90 W, which it did several times only to merge with it again later.   So, we took US-14 W from Rapid City and into Wyoming.  We made a brief stop in Sundance (though for the sake of accuracy I will add that there are two exits into Sundance; if we had followed US-14 W as we promised, we would have taken the first exit into Sundance, but the directions we had to the cemetery were relative to the second exit, and we didn't want to get confused, so we stayed on I-90 W this one time).  Earl Hilton was an English professor at Northern Michigan University for a long time.  He and his wife Miriam were the first people to invite me over for a meal after I moved to Marquette.  Miriam, incidentally, is Diane's landlady at present (though she was not when I moved to Marquette; Diane was still married at that time and was living with her husband!).  They are both wonderful people.  Anyway, Earl passed away several years ago and when Miriam learned that we would be driving through Sundance anyway, she asked if we could visit Earl's grave.  He had been born there and wanted to be buried there, with his family, even though his Wyoming days were long behind him.  Neither Miriam nor their children spend much time in Wyoming these days, and no one had visited Earl's grave for two years or so.  So, we visited his grave and took pictures.  Miriam's headstone was there, too, indicating her plans to be buried next to Earl when her time comes.   We continued on US-14 W to WY-24 E to Devil's Tower, an incredibly breathtaking natural tower of volcanic rock.  There was a mile-long hiking trail we took so that we could see the sights from every side.  The trail was one way, but we missed the designation and went around the trail in the opposite way, amusing everybody we ran into.  After we completed the trail, I tried to find the one-way sign but I still never did find it.  However, every trail sign was facing away from us as we walked, so I know we were doing it wrong!   We took WY-24 W back to US-14 W and proceeded to Spotted Horse.  Spotted Horse, Wyoming has a population of 2 (literally) and we met both of them while we were there.  They operate a bar (with a public restroom which is why we stopped).  I asked which of them was the mayor, and the wife said that they switch off as the mood fits.  We told her our plans to continue on to Lovell where we had a hotel reservation.  She said we'd never make it before dark and we have to go over the mountain yet.  She recommended we stay at the lodge on top of the mountain instead.   But we decided to be troopers.  US-14 W proceeds almost to the Montana state line, and then goes up a mountain in the Bighorn range, hitting about 9430 ft. in elevation.  The sun was low in the sky when we started up the mountain, and there was some breathtaking scenery.  As dusk hit though, we started seeing flashes of lightning in the mountains ahead of us.  Diane was worried but I tried to calm her, pointing out that since we can't hear the thunder, the storm is too far away to bother us.  And I was quite right at the time I said it.  However, we were moving west and the storm was moving east.  By the time the storm hit us, it was already too dark to see the majestic scenery anyway, and when the driving rain came, visibility was very limited, but we took it slow and made it to the top.  We took US-14A W down the mountain.  On the way down the storm passed, but it was still dark and cloudy and so we still took it slow and made it to the hotel in Lovell safe and sound.  This and the aforementioned storm in Minnesota were the only two instances of bad weather on the trip.  Missing most of the mountain scenery due to the darkness and to the rain was disappointing, but before we hit the storm, the distant flashes of lightning, illuminating portions of the mountains, were spectacular.   I had booked Motel 6's for our travels because they are clean, comfortable and inexpensive, but there were no Motel 6's in this part of Wyoming, so Diane had found the Western Motel online.  It turned out not only to be the least expensive stay of our trip but also the roomiest lodgings.  Their wireless signal was weak and I kept losing it, and there wasn't enough hot water to satisfy us, but other than that, it was fantastic!   Day 5:  Wednesday 23 July 2008   We continued on US-14A W to US-14 W at Cody and proceeded down the highway until we entered Yellowstone National Park.  Yellowstone is huge and driving through it is slow-going because the roads have a maximum speed limit of 45 MPH and Diane wanted to stop every two minutes to take pictures, can you believe it?  The scenery is fantastic and there is plenty of wildlife roaming the park, deer, bison, etc.  US-14 W becomes the Eastern Entrance Road within the park and we proceeded west on that road (very slowly as described above) until we came to the Grand Loop.  We proceeded clockwise on the Grand Loop until we got to the Old Faithful geyser.  The geyser was erupting just as we got there, so we had to wait another hour for it to go off again.  I suggested we forego visiting the museum and instead just get a seat right down front because it will get really crowded as the eruption time approaches.  I turned out to be exactly right, and it was fantastic, and four minutes ahead of schedule.  (They “guarantee” that the eruption will be within ten minutes of the posted time.  There are many geysers in Yellowstone, some much more powerful than Old Faithful, but Old Faithful's eruptions are frequent (some of the others can go years between eruptions) and predictable, hence the name.)   It was late in the day and there were still things we wanted to see, so we headed counter-clockwise on the Grand Loop and then headed south on the Southern Entrance Road, which became US-191 S upon leaving the park.  The Grand Teton National Park borders Yellowstone to the south so we immediately got to see the Grand Tetons, which are part of the Rocky Mountains.  The road was very drivable and did not actually go up and down a mountain!  We saw more wildlife and took more pictures and watched the sun set over the Grand Tetons which was really nice!   It was quite dark when we got to our hotel in Jackson.  Jackson had a very active night life although it was a very tiny town.  Bars, restaurants, people carousing in the streets late at night on a Wednesday.  However, Jackson is essentially a highway town.  There weren't that many side roads and the entire commerce is conducted along the highway.  Even though it was quite dark when we got there, we could appreciate the view, surrounded on all sides by mountains.  Diane and I decided to forego the active night life and just ordered a pizza to the motel.  It had been a long day!   Day 6:  Thursday 24 July 2008   This was the shortest driving day of the entire trip.  So, we slept in and had a very leisurely breakfast and didn't leave Jackson until about noon, when they would have kicked us out of our room anyway.   We took US-191 N through town and turned onto WY-22 W which became ID-33 W when we crossed the state line into Idaho.  We switched to ID-31 W at Victor and to US-26 W at Swan Valley and from there into Idaho Falls.  The Motel 6 guide book has directions to the motel from the interstate, but not from the smaller highway we were taking, but it turns out I'm really smart and we got there without any difficulty at all.   We were there before 3:00, the earliest check-in time we had on the trip, so, for the first time, we got to use the hotel swimming pool and have a nice relaxing dip.  After that, we took a very nice nap before dinner.  Since we weren't stressed on time, Diane suggested we get take out and find a nice place to eat it.  So, we found a Mexican take-out place right on the river walk.  And we sat and watched the falls of the Snake River, from which the town takes its name.  The falls turned out not to be completely natural but were enhanced by a hydroelectric dam.  Still, there was water and rocks and really excellent Mexican food and it was very pleasant.  Afterward, we took a walk on the river walk, and bought postcards from a restaurant along the strip.   We made it back to the room before sunset, so Diane had plenty of time to address her postcards while I had time to handle some computer chores that needed to be done.   If we had had another few days, I would have taken us farther west into Idaho because there are some wonderful things to see, most notably Hell's Canyon, but this was the westernmost point of our trip.   Day 7:  Friday 25 July 2008   This was a large driving day, but there was still plenty to see.  We took I-15 N from the hotel to US-20 E and entered Montana near the Targhee Pass.  From there we proceeded BACK into Yellowstone (surprising Diane since she didn't know I had planned a second day there!) heading east on the Western Entrance Road.  Although Yellowstone is primarily in Wyoming, there are portions in Idaho and Montana as well.  Just before the entrance we passed the Yellowstone IMAX.  I love IMAX movies, but we had a lot of driving to do, so I grudgingly passed it up.  (Diane wasn't as grudging about it as I was.)  We entered Wyoming while driving along the Western Entrance Road.   We again stopped every few minutes to take pictures or to just admire the view.  We hit the Grand Loop and headed clockwise around it to the Mammoth Hot Springs which are breathtaking.  There's a side road you can take to see more of the sights around the Hot Springs, and we took it.  Boiling water is constantly bubbling through the rocks and squirting steam.  It was a hot day even without this extra attraction, but it was worth it!   Continuing clockwise on the Grand Loop, we made to the Petrified Tree which was really kind of lame.  Just one stump of what had been a redwood, but it was something we had both wanted to see.   We continued on, and then turned east onto the Northeastern Entrance Road, entered Montana on that road, and then left the Park.  We saw completely different things on our second trip to Yellowstone, but we still didn't see all of it.  I understand why people stay there for a week at a time.  We didn't have a chance to hit any of the hiking trails, for example, because of our other stops on the road trip.   The Northeastern Entrance Road becomes US-212 E upon leaving Yellowstone.  This portion of US-212 E is also called the Beartooth Pass.  After about nine miles on the highway, we reentered Wyoming, and then started going up a mountain that was a higher and more treacherous drive than Tuesday's mountain drive.  Well, actually not.  Although the elevation reaches 10947 ft. at its highest point and there are a lot of narrow, steep, curvy mountain roads, this drive was done on a sunny day, not a rainy night, so Diane got to see everything.  I did not because I was focused on the road, but I stopped at lookout points whenever I could.  It was a slow drive up the mountain, but it was beautiful!  There were lots of plateaus where one could pull over and admire the scenery, including a frigid lake and a field of snow!  (It snows year-round near of summit of Beartooth Mountain!)  We hit the summit at approximately the Montana state line, so we ascended the mountain in Wyoming and descended in Montana.  Diane is even more afraid of heights than I am, so she was screaming off and on throughout the trip, but when we finally made to the end of the ride at Red Lodge, she agreed with me that it was worth it.   We had to stop for dinner and a breather at Red Lodge, but after that, we had a lot of road to burn.  We continued on US-212 E to Billings and then took I-94 E to Miles City, where we stayed the night.  I had originally planned to detour to the Little Bighorn National Monument, but it was too late in the day, and we were tired and spent from mountain driving and figured the monument was probably already closed anyway, so we went straight to Miles City without regrets.   Day 8:  Saturday 26 July 2008   This was another small driving day, which I wanted because Day 9 was going to be a massive deathride.  We took I-94 E into North Dakota and stopped at the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora.  This is not one of the most famous national parks, but it was really impressive.  There's a 36-mile drive you can take around it where you can see lots of prairie dogs and bison (we saw more bison here than anywhere else on the trip) and the North Dakota Badlands.  These are taller and more impressive than the ones we saw in South Dakota, but they wouldn't let you crawl around on these, so I still prefer the ones in South Dakota.  I don't know what the temperature was, but it was the hottest part of the trip.  The day was so hot and the air conditioner was on high, and we had to do some hill climbing around the badlands, and I was afraid the car might overheat.  However, it did not.  I love the Echo, but one thing I dislike about it is that there is a red light that flashes when the engine is too hot, rather than a needle that indicates engine temperature, so all I know is that the car did not overheat.  I don't know how close it came, or if it even came close at all.   After seeing the park, we stopped in Medora for some much-needed ice cream, and then proceeded farther along I-94 E.  We entered the Central Time Zone just before Hebron and made it to Bismarck where we stayed the night.  Not counting the drive through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, it's about a three to four-hour drive from Miles City to Bismarck, so we reached the hotel well before sunset and had time for another nice swim.  We had a late dinner at a very nice Mexican place across the street and we each had a margarita, the only alcohol we drank on the trip (although I had consumed mega-caffeine for all the driving I was doing!).  Diane only had a few sips of hers but I had all of mine, and, although I'm a big guy, and I'm sure my blood alcohol level wasn't particularly high, when we made it back to the hotel, I collapsed into a coma-like sleep.   Day 9:  Sunday 27 July 2008   Now we had to get home.  The Missouri River passes through Bismarck, and just south of Bismarck it widens impressively.  We had planned to head south to visit the widening point, but instead we just slept in, and didn't leave Bismarck until about 11:00 A.M.  We both knew that this was too late to leave but we were so tired, and so we slept late and had a long breakfast and then took another nap.   We took I-94 E to I-29 N (briefly) to US-10 E at Fargo.  We could have taken interstates all the way to Duluth, but we wanted a more scenic drive, and the local highways would take us home more directly anyway.   Fargo is the largest city in North Dakota, but even so, it still isn't that large.  The highway took us right through downtown Fargo and the driving was quite easy; there was no congestion to speak of.  Just past Fargo, we entered Minnesota.  Moorhead, Minnesota adjoins Fargo so that there is a single commercial area shared by the two cities, so that we passed the state line sign right in the middle of downtown!   We switched to MN-34 E at Detroit Lakes, to MN-200 E at Walker, and to US-2 E just beyond Jacobson.  Jacobson is a tiny little Minnesota town, but the Mississippi River flows right through it, at a point in its path when it is barely more than a creek.  I crossed the bridge too quickly for Diane to get a good picture, and, since we were the only car on the road, I offered to stop and go back, but Diane was as tired as I was, and just wanted to head homeward.''   Duluth, Minnesota is at the western tip of Lake Superior, and when we got close enough to see the Duluth skyline and Lake Superior just beyond it, I felt very comfortable because Lake Superior represents “home” to me, even though we still had a lot of driving left.   Incidentally, it was a beautiful day in Minnesota and northern Minnesota is filled with lakes and lush vegetation and is a very different scene from the plains of the Dakotas or the mountains of Wyoming and Montana.  I saw some wonderful things on my trip, but I was reminded of why I live where I live while driving through northern Minnesota (and Wisconsin and Michigan).   Anyway, we took US-2 E to and through Wisconsin and into Michigan, turned onto MI-28 E at Wakefield, and entered the Eastern Time Zone just before Merriweather.   Day 10:  Monday 28 July 2008   Because of our late start in Bismarck, this was the first time on the trip we experienced midnight awake!  But we still had a lot of driving to do and made it to Marquette about 2:00 A.M.   Although I have not mentioned this until now, Diane had taken great pains to make the driving as comfortable for me as possible.  She had bought a cooler and took care every day to replace the ice and had lots of snacks, fruits, vegetables, crackers, Coke, and so forth available.  I brought a bunch of CD's to listen to, but we never listened even to one of them!  Instead Diane read to me the entire trip unless it was too dark to see or unless we were driving through a scenic area.  She read all of “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea” and made it halfway through “Journey To The Center Of The Earth.”  We both thought Jules Verne was highly appropriate reading material for a road trip!   We never had a lick of car trouble, never had a hint of an accident, never slid off the road, or anything, even during the rainy drive through the Bighorns. This may very well knock my trip to Dublin into Second Place for Best Vacation Ever!   (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
9:51 am	Bline Man's Bluff TROUBLE IN MARQUETTE A Little Miss Awesome Adventure Chapter 4 Blind Man's Bluff   The Pink Porcupine's men didn't move.   “Didn't you hear me?”  screamed the Pink Porcupine.  “I said, GET HER!!”   “But, boss,” said one of the men.  “She's just a girl.”   “Just a girl!?” exclaimed the Pink Porcupine and Little Miss Awesome simultaneously.   “If you want something done,” continued the Pink Porcupine, “you have to do it yourself.”  And, crouching down, he released a pink quill from his back.  The quill headed straight for Little Miss Awesome!   Little Miss Awesome caught the quill with a deft motion of her fingers and let it fall to the ground.     “Awesome reflexes!” gasped one of the thugs in amazement.   “You'll have to do better than that,” said Little Miss Awesome.   “Oh, I shall.  I shall indeed,” uttered the Pink Porcupine, and he let fly twenty-three more pink quills from his back.   The quills were fast, but Little Miss Awesome was faster.  She twisted, dodged, and grabbed and, with seemingly no effort, had evaded, deflected, or caught twenty-two of the deadly quills.   Twenty-two.   The last quill, alas, caught Little Miss Awesome just behind the eye.  With a quick hand motion, Little Miss Awesome plucked out the quill.  So quickly did she remove it, and so briefly was the quill in her skin, that the patrons of the bank remained unaware that she had been hit in the first place.  However, the quill had done its damage.  Its poison had damaged her optic nerve.  Little Miss Awesome was blind!   “There is no need to panic,” thought Little Miss Awesome to herself.  “If no one knows you're blind, it's just as good as not being blind to begin with.”   “She's helpless!” shrieked the Pink Porcupine.  “GET HER!”   Spike ran forward, his fists raised, but Little Miss Awesome caught him in a hammerlock and threw him across the bank.  His head struck the vault door, and he crumpled to the floor, unconscious.   “But...” said the Pink Porcupine, confused.  “You should have been hit.  I could have sworn...”   “Guess again, you pink paragon of peril,” boasted Little Miss Awesome.  “Who's next?”   Needle and Quill dashed out of the bank as fast as they could.  The Pink Porcupine said, “Perhaps a hasty retreat is in order,” and followed them out, leaving Spike in the hands of the plainclothes officers.   “That was easier than I imagined,” thought Little Miss Awesome to herself.  “I certainly didn't need to see to know where that guy was.  Geez, take a shower once in a while!”   Little Miss Awesome could hear the officers talking to themselves and she could smell the doughnuts on their breath, so she walked over to them.  “Make sure you get him to headquarters for questioning.  However, I doubt you'll get much out of him; the Pink Porcupine trains his men well.”   “What about you?”  said one of the officers.   “I have another task to attend to,” said Little Miss Awesome confidently.  “Like capturing the REST OF THE GANG!”   Little Miss Awesome spun around and strolled boldly out of the bank.  Just as she got to the door, she yelled over her shoulder, “Try sprinkles WITH powder sometime!”   The officers blinked in surprise.  “That would be awesome!” said one of them dumbly.   Little Miss Awesome hadn't lied to the officers, not exactly, anyway.  She was indeed intending to capture the rest of the gang, but she had another errand to run first.   “Bike!”  she yelled.  Answering her call, the Awesome Motorbike roared to life and headed straight for Little Miss Awesome.  Timing it perfectly, based on the sound of the engine, she jumped into the air and landed square onto the seat.  She then headed straight for the steam tunnel.   Years ago, Little Miss Awesome had programmed an automatic pilot into the onboard computer of the Awesome Motorbike.  In theory, Little Miss Awesome had only to speak the destination and the Motorbike would take her there automatically, navigating the intricate steam tunnel network flawlessly.  Little Miss Awesome had never actually used it, though, preferring to drive herself.   Today was no exception.  Surprising even herself, Little Miss Awesome knew exactly what turns to make and when—even while blind—to make it back to the Awesome Atrium.   “Open!” she ordered, at just the right moment, and drove the Awesome Motorbike into the far corner of the Awesome Atrium.   Dismounting from the Motorbike, she worked at a table surrounded by rows of chemicals.  All of the chemicals were properly labeled, but her shelving system was so precise that she didn't need to read the labels to locate the exact chemicals she needed.   After ten minutes of heating and combining, Little Miss Awesome had a steaming potion in a flask.  “This should do the trick,” she said confidently, and drained the flask dry.  “Now nothing to do but wait,” she said.   Five minutes later, Little Miss Awesome became puzzled.  “I'm still blind,” she said.  “How could that be?”   “Oh, of course!”  she realized.  “LIGHTS!”   The room instantly became illuminated, and, after letting her eyes adjust for a few seconds, she discovered that her vision had returned to normal.   “Even better than normal, actually,” she thought to herself.  “With a regular dosage, I might not need glasses anymore!  But enough of this!  I must track down the Pink Porcupine!”   And so, Little Miss Awesome roared out of the Awesome Atrium on her Awesome Motorbike, dousing the lights and shutting the door behind her.   However, there was one thing Little Miss Awesome had not noticed.  Usually the first things she did upon entering the Awesome Atrium were to shut the door and to turn on the lights.  But, this time, in her haste to restore her sight, she had neglected to do either, and being blind, had not noticed.  While Little Miss Awesome had been working on her restorative potion, a mouse had wandered into the Awesome Atrium from the steam tunnel outside.  The mouse would normally have stayed away, terrified of bright light, but the lights had been off this time.  The mouse had scurried into a hiding place after Little Miss Awesome had turned on the lights and while her eyes were adjusting, and so she never noticed the mouse's presence.   What troubles lie ahead for Little Miss Awesome in her battle with the Pink Porcupine?  Will the mouse turn out to be friend or foe? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
6:48 am	The Stake-Out TROUBLE IN MARQUETTE A Little Miss Awesome Adventure Chapter 3 The Stake-Out   Six of the Chief's best officers were standing in a semi-circle around the Chief's desk.   “Do you really expect Little Miss Awesome to appear just because of that thing?” asked one officer, a rookie.   “The Awesome Arrow,” corrected the Chief, “and, yes, McCready, I do.  Little Miss Awesome doesn't always come when we summon her, but you can be sure that if she doesn't come, she is already embroiled in another case.  Other than the bank robbery this afternoon, Marquette has been crime-free for almost a week; we haven't needed her on other cases.”   “An excellent deduction,” said a voice across the room.  The officers spun around to see the figure of Little Miss Awesome leaning casually against the far wall.   “Little Miss Awesome, thank you for coming!” gulped the Chief.  “We didn't even hear you enter.”   Little Miss Awesome smiled.  “I know,” she said, simply.   After waiting a moment to allow the officers to recover from the shock of her sudden presence, she continued.  “What can you tell me about the Pink Porcupine?”   The Chief gulped again.  “How did you know that the Pink Porcupine was involved?  That was one detail we withheld from the press!”   “It was rather elementary,” explained Little Miss Awesome.  “It was all over the news three days ago when he broke out of Sing Sing.  Robbing the First National Bank of Marquette would be just his style, and he's been aching to take me on again ever since the last time we tangled.  Finally, you and your men have his trademark pink dust all over your shoes.”   A look of shocked respect appeared on the Chief's face.  “As always, we stand in the shadow of your awesome deductive ability.  What should we do now?”   “Well, normally, I would follow the trail of the pink dust directly to the Pink Porcupine's hideout.  Alas,” she winced, “you and your men have unwittingly tracked that dust all over the city, rendering any tracking impossible.”   The officers looked uncomfortably at the floor.  Eventually, the Chief looked up.   “But surely you're not saying all is lost!” said the Chief.  “You can still apprehend him, can't you?”   “I have every other time he's come to town,” said Little Miss Awesome, honestly.   “And plenty of other crazy characters, too!” piped in another officer.   Little Miss Awesome said, “It seems to me that our best bet is to capture the Pink Porcupine at his next robbery.  He surely will not be satisfied with a single haul.”   “But where?  And when?” wondered the Chief, a small sense of confused panic in his voice.   “Think about it,” said Little Miss Awesome.  “He's a clever customer.  He will attempt to rob the one place we're least likely to suspect.”   “Econo Foods?” asked one officer.   “The Water and Sewage Treatment Plant?” asked another.   “No,” said Little Miss Awesome, patiently.  “You need to think outside the box on this one.  What's coming to town at 3 P.M. today?”   The officers stared dumbly at Little Miss Awesome.   “At 3 P.M.,” continued Little Miss Awesome, “an armored truck is delivering a shipment of gold bullion to...”   “...to the First National Bank of Marquette,” interrupted the Chief excitedly.  “And the Pink Porcupine will think that we won't be expecting him there because he's already robbed that very same bank today!  It's so obvious!"   “What do we do now, Chief?” asked the rookie.   “We call every available unit to surround the bank!” exclaimed the Chief.  “And we arrest the Pink Porcupine as soon as he shows that pointy hide of his!”   “No!” bellowed Little Miss Awesome.  “Do you think the Pink Porcupine will get within 500 feet of the bank if he sees police cars all over the place?  I would suggest that you send one unmarked car with three plainclothes officers.  I'll be there, too, in case things get a little rough.”   “An excellent strategy,” agreed the Chief.  “My men will be there at three.”   At five minutes before three, Little Miss Awesome surreptitiously entered the First National Bank of Marquette and hid in a corner.  All seemed normal.  She was easily able to identify the plainclothes officers.  They were standing in another corner of the bank, dressed sharply in business suits and sharing a box of doughnuts.   At 2:59, an armored truck pulled up to the front of the bank, and a couple of guards starting moving the contents into the bank.  And, one minute later, the Pink Porcupine and his men quietly entered the bank without attracting the attention of either the customers or the officers who were, at that moment, debating the merits of sprinkles over powder.   Little Miss Awesome leapt from the corner.  “You may as well surrender now, Pink Porcupine,” she said, “and save yourself the embarrassment and injury of certain defeat.”   “You?  Defeat me?” said the Pink Porcupine, in a slightly hurt tone.  “I see that your mathematical skills aren't as awesome as they are made out to be.  You see, there are four of us and only one of you.  I rather think that it is you who is likely to be injured.  Why don't you leave now like a good little girl and leave the bank to the big strong men!”   Little Miss Awesome did not move, but stared resolutely into the hard, cold eyes of the Pink Porcupine.   “Well, you can't say I didn't give you a chance,” sighed the Pink Porcupine.  “All right, boys, get her!” Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 3rd, 2007
7:31 am	A Dash to Headquarters TROUBLE IN MARQUETTE A Little Miss Awesome Adventure Chapter 2 A Dash to Headquarters   Amy was swinging.   She was on a swing in the Marquette Playground, just swinging back and forth, going quite high at times.  Sitting in a circle around the swing set were Cory, Brian, Ben, Andy, James, Mike, Scottie, Katie, Kezzy, Ryan, Ryan, Ryan, Al, Jen, Dave, and five or six other people.   “You're so awesome!” said Scottie.   “We love watching you swing!” said Al.   Suddenly there was a flash of bright red light in the sky.   “What was that?” asked Kezzy, startled.   Cory managed to remove his eyes from Amy long enough to look at the sky.  “It's the Awesome Arrow!”   “The Awesome Arrow!?” said somebody.  “Does that mean what I think it means?”   “Yes,” said Cory.  “There must have been a recent crime that has baffled the police.  They probably fired the Awesome Arrow into the air to attract the attention of Little Miss Awesome.  Very soon, Little Miss Awesome will dash to Police Headquarters to assist in the apprehension of the perpetrators.”   “I wonder who Little Miss Awesome really is,” said Ryan.  “Marquette isn't that large a town.  Maybe we actually know Little Miss Awesome.”   “Don't be ridiculous,” said Ben.  “Whoever Little Miss Awesome is is far too awesome to hang out with us.  No, we'll never be cool enough to know Little Miss Awesome.”   While everyone was talking about the Awesome Arrow, Amy was slowly bringing her swing to a halt.  Once it had stopped safely, Amy dropped lightly to the ground.   “Well, that's enough swinging for today,” said Amy, brightly.  “I've got to get home.”   “Can we come?” said Brian.   “I'm afraid not,” said Amy.  “I just need to be by myself for a while.”   “But that's not fair,” said Katie.  “You've only been swinging for two hours.”   “I'm really sorry,” said Amy, “but I've got to get home.  It's really important.”   Amy ran off as fast as she could.  Everyone watched her quizzically.   “I wonder why she had to dash off so quickly,” said Scottie.   “No doubt it's for a really awesome reason,” said Mike.  “She's just that awesome.”   “Do you think we'll ever be as awesome as Amy?” wondered Jen.   Everyone looked at each other for a moment.  Then they all burst out laughing.   Amy's friends would have been very surprised to see what Amy did next.  After she arrived at her dorm room, Amy went straight to her closet and pressed a hidden switch.  The rear wall of the closet slid away to reveal a costume of yellow and blue.  Amy quickly changed into the costume, which sported a black domino mask and large red A on the chest.  Amy opened a trap door on the floor of the closet, obscured by typical college student dust and grime.  The trap door revealed a long ladder descending into the darkness.  Without even using the rungs, Amy grabbed both sides of the ladder and slid down.   Landing at the bottom a few moments later, Amy said the single word “Lights” into the waiting blackness.  Immediately, bright overhead lights clicked on, revealing a large room filled with an assortment of high-tech equipment and gadgetry.  Most scientists and engineers would have given everything they owned for the privilege of spending five minutes with the things in this room, but Amy scarcely paid notice.  She had been here many times before and was familiar with everything here.  In fact, she had built all of it herself.  For this place was the Awesome Atrium, and, unbeknownst to her friends, Amy was Little Miss Awesome.   Little Miss Awesome walked to a round door at the far end of the Awesome Atrium.  “Open,” she said, and the door complied.  Mounting the Awesome Motorbike next to the door, Amy drove out of the Awesome Atrium into the steam tunnels outside.  The steam tunnels formed a complex network beneath the University and, indeed, all of Marquette.  The network was so intricate that no map had ever been made of them, but Little Miss Awesome knew exactly where every tunnel went.   Little Miss Awesome reached a point where five tunnels came together, and, without a moment's hesitation, she steered the Awesome Motorbike into the second tunnel from the left.  She knew exactly which tunnels to take to make it to Police Headquarters and, by taking the tunnels, she could avoid the downtown Marquette traffic.  Even beneath the domino mask, her eyes glinted with a fierce determination, for there was trouble in Marquette, and Little Miss Awesome was on the case. Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 6th, 2007
12:28 am	Trouble in Marquette TROUBLE IN MARQUETTE A Little Miss Awesome Adventure Chapter 1 The Hold-Up   It was a beautiful summer day in Marquette, a comfortable 75°, not a cloud in the sky.  No one expected anything unusual to happen on that day, certainly not the manager and employees of The First National Bank of Marquette who went about their business, completely oblivious to what was about to happen.   At precisely 12:15, a yellow and pink convertible came to a screeching halt in front of the bank, and four strangely garbed figures jumped out.  One man, obviously the leader, was dressed in a completely pink outfit.  The parts of his costume covering his torso, arms, midsection, and legs were covered with pink spikes, leaving only his head, gloves, and boots free of the pointed projections.  He wore a pink domino mask which exactly matched the color of his thick, curly hair.   “Quill, Spike, Needle, make haste!” he bellowed.   The other three men in the car wore uniform black outfits complete with black bowler hats.  On the front of each man's shirt was embossed his name (Quill, Spike, and Needle) in large, white block print.   The four men dashed into the bank.  So engrossed were the customers and the employees in the transactions of the day that they scarcely noticed these intruders upon the no longer ordinary scene.   “All right, everyone!” bellowed the leader in pink.  “If you do exactly as I say, no one will get hurt!  Tellers, stack all of the money in your tills in neat piles in front of your stations.  I'll be around shortly.  No one else move a muscle.”   “Hold it right there!” bellowed an overweight security guard.  He was brandishing a police-issue revolver.  “Put your hands up slowly.”   The pink man frowned.  “Tsk.  Tsk.  It's clear your inability to follow simple directions is what kept you from graduating from the police academy.  I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this.”   “Masks, boys!” he yelled, while a pink spike erupted from his costume to land in the middle of the bank.  Upon landing, the spike emitted a thick pink smoke.   In only a few seconds, all but the four thieves, wearing large black gas masks, were in a deep sleep.  “Pity,” said the man in pink, “my accoutrements aren't free; don't they realize this?”   The four men looted the bank and returned to the pink convertible, still idling outside.  “Step on it,” bellowed the gangleader, and Needle pressed hard on the accelerator, leaving the astonished passersby to gape as the convertible sped off into the distance, leaving pink dust in its wake.   Half an hour later, the Chief of Police arrived with his men.   “What do you make of it, Chief?” asked one young officer after the policemen had finished interrogating the witnesses.   “Based on the descriptions, it can only be one man,” said the Chief, grimly.  “This must be the work of the Pink Porcupine.”   “You can't be serious, Chief,” said the officer.  “I thought he was still in Sing Sing.”   “It would be a brighter day in Marquette were that the case,” said the Chief, sadly.  “But he escaped from Sing Sing three days ago.”   “Should we organize a manhunt?  They can't have gone too far,” said the officer.   “No, the Pink Porcupine is clever enough to elude any trap we may lay for him.  Although I hate to admit it, our best hope is to call in our best crimefighter.”   “Who?  Sergeant Gilhooly?”   “No, and I hate to do it.  We've relied on her so many times before...”   “Who, Chief, who?”   “None but the Queen of Quests, the Princess of Princoxes.  We need to contact ....”  The Chief paused to clear his throat.  “... Little Miss Awesome,” he finished, reverently.  “Contact Headquarters.  Tell them to ready the Awesome Arrow for my return!” Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, August 4th, 2007
12:15 pm	Alice in Wonderland Nice work to everyone involved in Alice in Wonderland at the Vista Theater last night.  What follows is not a review of the show but my own meandering recollections of the books.   Many of the cast, crew, and audience were quite familiar with the Alice books by Lewis Carroll, but many were not, so here is my brief lecture.  The play at the Vista was based upon two distinct but related books by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, under the pen name of Lewis Carroll.  He wrote them as a gift for a young friend of his, Alice Pleasance Liddell.   Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) is the more surreal of the two.  Alice follows a rabbit down a hole, meets a lot of strange characters, and follows a plot based loosely around a deck of cards.  The humor is based around of parodies of mathematics (Dodgson was a mathematician), the French language, popular songs and poetry of the day, and Dodgson's own acquaintances.   Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is more rigidly based upon a specific game of chess.  Alice is the White Queen's Pawn, moving forward across the chessboard ultimately to reach the eighth rank and become a queen herself.  Many of the characters she meets in this book are also chess pieces involved in the game, but not all.  The greater structural rigidity of this book is why I have always preferred it to the first (and more famous) one; every time Alice moves, she is making another play in the game.  The most famous characters from this book are Tweedledum and Tweedledee, famous because they appeared (inappropriately in my view) in the Disney movie adaptation of the first book.  The other really well-known part of this book is the poem Jabberwocky.   The version performed at the Vista was the truest to the books of any adaptation I have ever seen.  They used verbatim a lot of Carroll's wonderful turns of expression.  For the most part, the first book was featured in the first half of the play and the second book was featured in the second half of the play.  There was a little bit of criss-crossing, though.  They read Jabberwocky at the beginning of the show (rather than the beginning of the second act).  Looking-Glass characters Haigha and Hatta are mentioned in the first act, while Wonderland characters, the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon appear in the second act.  The Chesire Cat (from Wonderland) was omnipresent throughout both acts, and there was one especially surreal scene in which the King and Queen of Hearts (playing cards) were onstage with the Red Queen and the White Queen (chess pieces).   Although they did a lot of the poetry and songs from the books (such as Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter), they did not do the one that was my favorite as a boy (though it's not so much my favorite as an adult):  'Tis the Voice of the Lobster.  So, here it is:   ’Tis the voice of the Lobster: I heard him declare ’You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair.’ As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes. When the sands are all dry, he is gay as a lark, And will talk in contemptuous tones of the shark; But, when the tide rises and sharks are around, His voice has a timid and tremulous sound. I passed by his garden and marked, with one eye, How the Owl and the Panther were sharing a pie: The Panther took pie-crust, and gravy, and meat, While the Owl had the dish as its share of the treat. When the pie was all finished, the Owl, as a boon, Was kindly permitted to pocket the spoon: While the Panther received knife and fork with a growl, And concluded the banquet by—   The reason this was my favorite as a boy is that the last rhyme of the poem is omitted, yet the last line is obvious.  I thought that was terribly clever. Current Music: a cappella, as always (Comment on this)
Friday, August 3rd, 2007
10:51 am	Vegan No More So, veganism is a complete bust.   I tried to become a vegan earlier this summer but it didn't work.  I'm done with it.  It may work if you do it correctly, but I don't know how to do it correctly.  I would be vegan for a few days, but not get enough calories to keep myself going, so I would binge and negate the effect of going vegan in the first place.  Ultimately, I gained weight.  Not as bad as I was a year or two ago, of course, but I'm moving in the wrong direction.   The lesson to be learned, of course, is “don't fix it if it ain't broke.”  My non-vegan, non-vegetarian, salad-centered diet was working.  It was working well.  Not only was I losing weight, I had plenty of energy, I wasn't getting sick (I used to get the flu once or twice a year!), and everything just felt great.  Why was I in such a rush to change this?   So, it's back to the salads with the turkey and the cheese.  Please don't hate me. Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007
8:26 am	The Ballad of Harry Potter I debuted this on Tuesday 31 July 2007 at The Iron Inn in Negunee (karaoke night).  Inasmuch as that was also Harry Potter's birthday, it seemed appropriate.     The Ballad of Harry Potter by Andy Poe     Lost both his parents in the Wizard War. Started using magic at the age of four. Then he went to Hogwarts, trained with Dumbledore To fight the final battle 'gainst Lord Voldemort. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! The boy who had no peer.   His first year at Hogwarts, it was kinda swell Played Seeker at Quidditch and he played it well. To save the Sorceror's Stone, he cast many a spell To find the villain wasn't Snape; it was really Quirrell! HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! The Dark Lord was getting near.   His second year at Hogwarts was quite a hook With giant snakes and spiders everywhere you look. To clear Hagrid's name, a flying car he took And he rescued Ginny Weasley from a cursed book. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! Saved by a phoenix tear.   His third year at Hogwarts, well, it wasn't slow Even though to Hogsmeade he was forbidden to go, But a bunch of new people he got to know Like his god-dog, a rat-fink, and a Seeker named Cho. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! The hippogriff makes us cheer.   His fourth year at Hogwarts, he couldn't hide From his duties as a Champion and he had to confide In Myrtle and in Dobby, and though he really tried To vanquish the Dark Lord, still Cedric died. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! The Yule Ball's his greatest fear.   His fifth year at Hogwarts, couldn't find his niche. Kicked off the team, couldn't catch the Snitch. And though writing lines made his right hand twitch, He still saved Hogwarts Castle from an evil witch. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! That prophecy was mighty queer.   His sixth year at Hogwarts, how could it be? Draco fixed the Cabinet, set the Death Eaters free. He watched Dumbledore die and his murderer flee. He vowed to take a year off with Ron and Hermione. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! His quest was hardly mere.   And in his seventh year, he was really pissed. His NEWT examinations, he certainly missed. “Horcruxes, not Hallows,” his friends did insist. And Voldemort died; one more corpse on the list. HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! The end is finally here.   And so the Harry Potter series comes to a head. Good triumphed over evil, just as Dumbledore said. Now it's time to relax, put the children to bed. There can't be no more books—'cause everyone's dead! HARRY!  HARRY POTTER! Enjoy your last butterbeer! Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
8:11 am	I'm Back It's been a long time since I've posted anything here.   Let's see, my house rocks.  I'm enjoying summer vacation. Iolanthe had a good run.  My trip to Tulsa was great.  I talked Batman with Adam and taught Sophie to dance.   Getting pinkeye repeatedly (four times over a month and a half) has convinced me not to wear my contact lenses for a while to make sure that my eyes completely heal properly.  But I've got nifty new eyeglasses that romeokid and Scottie picked out for me which make me look supercool.   I really should start posting more.  I'll try to make that a resolution this summer.   Current Music: a cappella, as always (Comment on this)
Friday, February 16th, 2007
6:16 am	My New Outfit Now that I'm rich, I need to dress better.  So, I went into Kohl's and said, “What have you got in dead animals?”  I now have alligator shoes, a snakeskin belt, a mink coat (but a manly mink coat). elephant pants, and a fedora made from potpourri of endangered creatures.   It turns out that “Hey, baby, I'm rich” isn't as effective a pickup line as I would have thought.  Even with my awesome outfit! Current Music: a cappella, as always (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 12th, 2007
5:59 am	Golf I decided to take up golfing as it is a weekend activity befitting a man of my station.   So, I went to Kohl's and picked up some plaid pants that didn't quite fit.   I shopped at several sporting goods stores and found some good clubs.   I also picked up a book of official rules and went through it very carefully.   So, dressed to kill, and with a great set of left-handed clubs, I went out to play golf.  And you know what?  Golf courses are covered with snow in the wintertime!   It's harder than I realized being rich. Current Music: a cappella, as always (Comment on this)
Sunday, February 11th, 2007
6:13 am	My First Massage So, now that I'm rich, I decided to treat myself.  I went in for a massage today.  The masseuse was strikingly pretty—olive skin, dark hair, and eyes, seemed vaguely Hispanic (and maybe she was, I don't really know) but spoke impeccable English with a nondescript Midwestern accent.  I couldn't tell how old she was. Anywhere between 25 and 40, just one of those faces.   “So, what kind of massage do you want?  A good one or a really good one?”  She paused and smiled a bit just before saying “really.”  I said, “I'm in the mood to splurge.  Give me the best one you can.  Don't hold back anything.  I'll pay double.”  She said, “For what I'm going to give you right now, I wouldn't charge you a cent,” and winked.  I was wondering how on Earth she could stay in business with that kind of attitude, and I was thinking of shoving money into her hands, but it dawned on me that now that I'm bloody rich, I've got to think more like a shrewd capitalist and less like a hippie graduate student.  So, I got up on the table.   So, even though I asked for the best massage she could give me, she only rubbed my back for like five minutes, and then asked me to roll over.  “Why?”  “So I can service you properly.”  “By front isn't sore!  I didn't throw out my front!”  The masseuse got teary-eyed at that point and just asked me to leave.  She didn't want any money at all.   I just don't understand this whole rich thing.  I have no idea what's going on here.  Maybe it was some sort of cool electrical auto-massage table, or something.  Anyway, I'm back to rubbing my own back, which is kind of sucky, but oh well. Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 10th, 2007
6:34 am	My Conversation With George Today I called up George W. Bush.  “You're a loser, George,” I said.  “Your Iraq policy will result in nothing more than death.  Your global warming policy will burn this planet to a crisp.  And the only reason no one is wiretapping you is that you are monumentally boring.”   George said, “What!  Who is this?  How dare you!” I said, “I'm a filthy rich guy.”  George said, “Oh, I'm sorry, sir.  I'll make things better right away, sir.” Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 9th, 2007
6:06 am	Winner I can't believe it!   I've played the Lotto every day since I turned 18.  After twenty years, I finally won!  Fifteen million dollars paid in installments over the next twenty years.   It seems a bit pointless to keep my job now, though I will need to finish out the rest of the semester.  Since I haven't signed the final paperwork on my house, I can probably get out of that, although I haven't decided to move out of the area.  I could just buy the land on either side and erect a new home suitable to my station.   Ha, this rocks!  I'll keep you all apprised, although I may hire someone to do the typing for me to protect my very rich digits from carpal tunnel syndrome. Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
7:39 am	Not Yet Well, today is racquetball day with romeokid!   Also, I should point out that I am not yet ready to be a superhero.  Tuesday night, I witnessed a bar fight at Karaoke.  Although I attempted to break it up, breaking up a fight is a lot harder than I realized.  There were half a dozen of us trying to break it up, but they had latched onto each other with such strength, it was nearly impossible!  What I realized later is that although it was darn hard to separate the two, they couldn't really slug each other with all of us in the way, so at least we lessened the potential injury. Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 2nd, 2007
6:08 am	Rock Solid Well, the inspector said the house was ROCK SOLID!  This is awesome!  There are some relatively minor things I should take care of at my convenience.  So, my bank is going in for an appraisal. Current Music: a cappella, as always (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 1st, 2007
6:18 am	Mortgage I met with my banker today.  He made a good deal on the loan.  My closing costs are quite small and my monthly payments are quite reasonable.  I ordered an inspection done and that will happen tomorrow.  I am quite nervous.   I guess that's about it... Current Music: a cappella, as always (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
6:16 am	My Offer I made an offer...we'll see what happens... Current Music: a cappella as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, January 29th, 2007
6:08 am	The Rocky Horror Picture Show Hey, romeokid is a bigwig in local cinema!  I went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show on campus, and she was one of the pre-show hosts!  I haven't seen the actual movie in a while, so that was cool.  I dislike, though, how some of the songs aren't done in the movie! Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
8:00 am	Not A Terribly Exciting Day Yesterday Not a terribly exciting day.  Did some AAA interviews and taught!  I completely caught up with all my grading!  I've been listening to my latest album:  Get In.  Rock.  Get Out. by the SoCal VoCals at The University of Southern California.  It's an excellent album! Current Music: a cappella, as always (1 Comment |Comment on this)