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Goo Goo Dolls

Framing the situation

The word on the truck is that they're replacing the FRAME. The frame was bent and so you heard me right, they're replacing the FRAME. They're lifting the entire truck up off the old one and putting it on the newER one. Apparently there was an F-150 in a wreck that damaged the rest of the truck so badly it was totalled but didn't bend the frame. How the hell does that happen?! That makes me REALLY suspicious.

I told the shop owner to give the frame a good twice over before even thinking about putting it in my truck. Also, I am having them call me when it comes in so I can go look at it too. It kinda pisses me off they wouldn't use a new frame since my truck is fairly new (2004). The claims adjuster says it is a common practice. Even if its common, I've never heard of it before. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose.

Wreck =/

Some of you may have heard, some of you haven't. I was in a wreck today. My truck isn't driveable. I'm okay. I'm a bit sore (yes, a pain in the neck, ha ha) but otherwise alright. I'm quite sad about my truck though. I love that vehicle. Its the best one I've ever had.

I was turning left on a yellow light and I thought the other car was going to turn from the angle they were heading. They went straight,.. slammed on the brakes, and skid into me, head-on. If they hadn't slammed on the brakes we wouldn't have hit each other. They were going at least 50 MPH, perhaps 60+ since their skid marks were longer than 15 feet.

The driver of the car was slightly hurt, as the back of her head was lightly bleeding, the paramedics say because of her head slamming back into the headrest which has a metal bar in it. The passenger wasn't hurt. The police debated over who would be at fault since their skid marks were so long and from the look of things they would've missed me had they gone straight (I stopped quickly as I wasn't going that fast). But they finally decided upon me being at fault due to "not yielding the right of way" but they didn't give me a ticket, only a case number, and said the judge would decide.

Their car (an older model toyota) was totalled from the looks of it. My truck's front grille was broken, front fender pushed underneath, and pushed into the driver's side tire, and oddly enough,.. the tailgate hinge was broken due to the impact.

It really pisses me off I'll be held accountable when they were the ones speeding and had they not slammed on the brakes we wouldn't have crashed. I hate to think of what will happen to my insurance (not to mention my big deductible). Not only that but I wonder about that lady's head and if they'll cause trouble, milking it for all its worth. Yes, I am concerned for her safety, but they reacted in such a weird manner and very quickly left their car and went somewhere once the police were done with them, it makes me wonder if in this overly-letigious society if they're the sort of people that would be happy about crashing their old vehicle and the kind that would try to get more money than what they require for genuine medical recovery.

I guess I'm sore in several ways, huh? =/

Old Vehicles

Isn't it funny how random things bring back memories long forgotten? I was driving down the road today and I saw an old Ford Bronco, much like the one my friend Elvis used to have. It made me think of all the vehicles he used to drive, the ones I used to drive, and the ones all my friends USED TO drive. I know Elvis has a newer vehicle now, I've ridden in it. I know what car he had before the Bronco (a little blue car we called the rice-burner). But seeing this today made me think of all the things that happened in the Bronco,.. particular jokes as we were riding in it, adventures we went on in it, etc.

Then I thought of my old car that I had during many of the same years Elvis had the Bronco,... my old Chevrolet Impala. We always called it "The Walrus" because according to the crayola crayon box, its color was "walrus brown." Mine wasn't a stationwagon like the one pictured here but that IS the color. Don't ask me how the hell I found a picture with the right color. LOL That car was the center of some very interesting times in my life. Many things happened in the Walrus from a cruise down Cherry Street to peeing in the middle of a highway.

But both of these memories brought back an unexpected reminiscence. DaGetAwayCa. That's right, you heard me right,... "DaGetAwayCa." This is a car Elvis and I saw driving though the town of Albany, Georgia, many many years ago. It was an old, beaten-up, bondo'd car with no visible paint job,.. mostly rusty brown,.. with a label painted in black spray paint down its side,... "DaGetAwayCa." I still wonder if the police ever connected them to a crime, if they really did committ a crime, and if someone who knew they had been bad decided it'd be funny to point them out. Ah, good times.

Grass & Weeds

Like every stage of life we have both grass and weeds. Sometimes the weeds flourish so much they take over everything and begin to look beautiful. Sometimes the grass takes over and really creates a 'lawn'. As the proverb says, the grass is always greener on the other side. Well in this case, it isn't a lie. The grass really is greener on the other side because well,... my grass sucks.

I have so many weeds in my yard its crazy. I know the developer just put in the cheapest grass he could find and obviously that cheapass grass was full of weeds. Now the challenge is getting rid of all those weeds, trying to cultivate a healthy yard, and making it look like it ought to look - like grass instead of a hodgepodge of various green plantlife posing as grass.

Any tips? I've used disease control granules, fertilizer, weed killers of various sorts, and still have a mixed variety. I've been contemplating hiring one of those chemical lawn treatment companies, but I'd like some advice from those that have done so already. Anyone used these companies before? Any tips for dealing with them? Advice and/or commentary is appreciated!

Lions, Tigers, and Conferences, Oh My!

This past weekend I attended a conference for the Georgia Communication Association. I also stayed for the business meetings and I, among others, submitted a bid to host the conference at my institution in the coming years.

It was a good conference, but it was only one of many things I did this last weekend. I got to visit with my friend Taylor, that I don't see that often. Taylor and I are friends from my undergraduate years at Georgia State University. Back then Taylor and I both drank quite a lot. See, I had several German roommates back then and Germans, well,... Germans like to drink,... a LOT. We sortof drank just to keep up with them and hang out with them. That was a good bunch of guys, but admittedly, I don't like drinking as much as I did back then. I like being more in control. It turns out that Taylor doesn't drink nearly as much as he did back then either. We had a good time. Thanks for hanging out with me, bud!

Also, I spent some time with my buddy Chang, who lives in Atlanta. We did everything from playing pool to beating the crap out of each other in a game called Magic: The Gathering (MTG). Chang and I usually have some lively games of Magic, as we're both pretty bright and pride ourselves on coming up with new combinations and ways to do things in the game. I spent the night at Chang's one night before I headed back up. Thanks for the good times, pal!

Most everything went well this weekend. All in all, it was fantastic. One thing that didn't go well for me though was reeking of smoke due to the pool hall. I can't stand the smell of cigarette smoke in my clothes. I guess it reminds me a lot of mom's house and how I hate that she smoked even when she had cancer. But really, its not even that that makes me hate the smell. It just,.... stinks! Nasty stink!!! I went and bought a new pair of jeans because I only had one pair on me and I couldn't stand the smell anymore. Eh, I needed a new pair anyway, and these were on sale too. Yay! I actually don't mind shopping, but sometimes it is frustrating to find a pair that fits me well. My body is shaped weird, so I have to try jeans on. This is the first time I've bought a pair of Chaps jeans. I didn't even know they made them. They fit pretty well. :) I guess I'll tackle buying a few new shirts another day. That's a whole different story.

Frantic February

Its mid-February and I'm going ninety miles a minute. At least staying busy is keeping me out of trouble, but right now I feel like I'm barely hanging on with all the work I've taken on.

I recently moved offices, I'm on a few task forces & committees at work, I dedicated some time to write more on my future research project, I've been researching stuff for work, and I've been researching graduate school again. Yeah, I considered going on for the doctoral degree, but I still haven't made up my mind yet about that. I'm also considering a side-job to make some more money. So right now it is somewhat a toss-up as to what extra activity I'll be involved in, whether its a new job or new schooling.

I do feel somewhat stretched financially right now, as you've read in past posts, so I really want to do something about that. The thing is though,... I have a BRILLIANT idea to make money using my current education and specialty. The only problem is, I don't know how to start it, and I wish I did. I KNOW it'd make some excellent cash. I do mean EXCELLENT. But getting started is the major battle. I think I need to just stop freaking out and sit down and construct a business plan. Maybe that will help.

Even though I feel stretched and a bit frenzied momentarily, don't get me wrong. I am happy right now overall. There's always room for improvement, but currently I am in a good place so-to-speak. I've dealt with more stress than this when I worked in engineering, that's for sure. Thanks to some "fantastic" friends I'm coping quite nicely with all my new duties. It does make one wonder though, why do I volunteer to do so much?!? LOL Maybe I should volunteer less where I don't get paid much and put that energy into my side projects that have the possibility of paying me a lot. Hmmmm.... something to ponder.

Hope everything is well with you all. Thanks for staying tuned! :)

New Year

Well, I'm officially over the Christmas Blues. Yay! Thank God that's over, eh? ;) So, what's going on with me lately? Here are a few things:

I recently applied for a promotion at work and it was between myself and one other person. The other person got the promotion. Even though the other person has been there a lot longer and had a higher degree than I do, I feel I've done more for the specific group this promotion was to deal with and think I'd be better in that particular position. I also think if I'd gotten the promotion the other person would've left to go work elsewhere. I can't say as I blame the boss, as I very well might do what he did, figuring on this way as a way to keep both employees - for now. Overall, I'm okay with it, although it does make me consider my perceived worth at this institution. As it stands, my salary is extremely low. I understand we've been under some serious budget cuts in the past several years, and I understand higher education pays "a dime a dozen" instructors crap for pay. I also LOVE my job of teaching, but it does irk me knowing many jobs for uneducated workers earn MUCH more pay than I get for a job that requires a Master's degree.

Also, as a late Christmas present, I ordered a Roomba - you know, those robotic vaccuums? Roomba is awesome so far! I've only had it 2 days now but wow, he sure picks up a lot of stuff from the carpet.

The semester has started and so far it seems like I have a decent batch of students. I hope all goes well with them and I hope they make excellent grades by giving me good, quality work. :)

The weather outside is really turning colder and I've been slowly working on raking up the remains of what was a forest in my backyard. The decaying leaves and roots are about 4-5 inches thick and it takes a lot of energy just to rake up a little bit into a pile. I have a feeling the backyard MIGHT get done by springtime. =/ Maybe I'll hire a few day laborers to come rake when it gets closer to spring. I want to plant grass so one day it will look like a nice green yard instead of a brown disaster area.

In gaming news, I've been raiding a lot again. My main character is now able to go to a place called "Naxxramas" which is a higher and more difficult area than we've ever attempted before. Tonight we tried a boss we've never killed before and got it down to 41% as our best try. I'm confident we'll get him dead soon, as I believe we've figured out the strategy to defeat him already.

On a personal note, I really want to lose some weight. I am uncomfortable with myself again. I tend to go in cycles that are several years long. I build up slowly to a weight that makes me uncomfortable, then I lose weight over a year or two, then the cycle repeats. Here's looking ahead to a slimming new year. This isn't a resolution, as I don't formally make those, but it is a hope. ;)

I also wish YOU all the best in this new year. Thanks for sticking with me. :D

Okay then...

Since people have been telling I'm a slacker and not writing a lot,... I'll post. ;) The only thing is though, I haven't been writing a lot because, well,.. there hasn't been a whole lot good to write about. One great thing's been happening but it is somewhat unrelated to what else has been happening. So here goes,.... (since you asked for it and all).

Christmas this year SUCKED. Yes, I put up outside lights and a tree and all that was great. Those things made me happy. But I don't know what's going on this Christmas,... it seems like I've just been in a funky mood and depression. I thought a lot about mom today and that made it really rough. I know last year we didn't have her, but this year, I gave presents to people, I put up a tree, and I wasn't proccupied with moving into a new house. So I had time to think,.... about her. It rained a lot this week, drizzling all Christmas Day. That sucked. It just felt gloomy.

My wife didn't get me anything for Christmas. I know we talked beforehand and said we wouldn't, but hell, when does she EVER listen to me anyway? I seriously thought she'd get me at least something small. I played Santa and were it not for the 2 DvDs I put in my own stocking I'd have not been able to unwrap anything on Christmas Day. It seems like I had to argue about everything with her today. Stupid petty stuff too,... like the dishwasher.

My job is to fill it and clean the kithen. Her job is to empty it so I can fill it. Dishes have been piling up all week and I've been asking her to empty it ---- so that I wouldn't have to do a lot of work on Christmas day when it came time to cook and use dishes. She emptied it after much nagging on Christmas Day. I know I could've done it days earlier, but that's not the point. We had a deal and she promised me she'd do it. Sure, she had to work a couple of days this week but I did clean the house, grocery shopped, did 5 loads of clothes, went Christmas shopping in the CROWDS for relatives, I went to work a little bit too, and I cooked her really nice meals each night, including steak (which she loves and I tolerate). After cleaning the kitchen after all that mess today, I didn't feel like cooking, so no Christmas Day supper for me. That sortof ruined it too. I bought all kinds of yummy stuff to make too.

Add to all this the fact that I was down and blue about mom, and it made things worse,.. like Mom wouldn't have let all these mini-disasters happen, or if they did, she would've plowed through them and still pulled off a fantastic Christmas. She was amazing at that. She really was a Superwoman. I guess I sortof felt like she would've disapproved of the way today turned out. Yet I know even after all that she would've said to me with caring and love, "Awww, honey, it'll be alright." and she'd give me the biggest warmest hug this planet had ever seen.

Yep, Christmas Sucked.
So there,... I posted something new. =P
I do hope your Christmas was better than mine....

Sorry it was a sad one, and sorry for the self-pity. Maybe next time I'll post a happy one to counterbalance it. I sure hope so. Hang with me. I know everything will be alright. ;) Here's looking forward to a NEW year!

Its the weekend!

The weekend is here!
I bet you're wondering what I do on the weekends, eh?
Okay, probably not. But since this is my blog, I'm going to tell you anyway.

I game. I relax. I work.

I game.
I often play a game called WoW. WoW stands for World of Warcraft. I play this 3D game with a bunch of friends, most of whom I've never met in person. Yes, I've met some of them in person - some before I played the game, some I met after I already knew them in-game. About 60 of us all get together in the game and do things almost nightly. What's better than spending time with friends, right? :)

So what do we DO? We group up together and go accomplish in-game goals. We chat both through text and through a voice-chat program. We joke around. We exchange recipes. We talk about sports and news and love and life and sex and kids and just about anything you'd talk about with your best friends. We wish each other happy birthday. We congratulate each other on special events like getting jobs and having babies. We post pictures of ourselves and our loved ones so we know what each other looks like.

Some people ask me, isn't it just a bunch of teenage boys that play? NO! In fact, the average target audiences for these type of games are:
#1 White Males ages 25-45
#2 White Females ages 25-45
#3 White Males ages 15-24

From there the numbers convolute a bit between several different groups depending on which study you look at. Most of the people I converse with are in my "guild." A guild is simply an in-game mechanism where you evaluate players and then if you like them you join them into your group. Guilds have their own chat channel and often guilds complete in-game objectives only with their guildmates as opposed to people not in the guild. I've been in guilds that have 500 members. The one I'm in now has on average about 20 - 50 people online at any given time of the day or night. Remember, people all over the world play this game and therefore are in different time zones. If I had to guess at the AVERAGE age of the guild, I'd say it is somewhere in the range of 35-39.

I relax.
Yeah, its the weekend and I deserve to relax some. I watch some television on rare occasion. I sit outside and look at the trees. I play my game to relax. I play with my dog (He's an AWEsome dog!!). I play cards with friends. Every now and then I'll go out of town for a day-trip, or eat at a restaurant, or I'll watch a movie. I love movies - both on the big screen and on DVD. On rare occasion I might even drink a few beers with my neighbor.

I work.
Sometimes on weekends I do work like mowing the grass or planting a bush or some flowers. Often I do work from, yes,... sad to say,... work. I can't help it. Its a necessity pretty often. But I don't let it get me down that I have to work on weekends unless it isn't my own fault I'm doing it. If students cause me extra work because they were dumb or they procrastinated then it pisses me off. But if I do work because I assigned something then I'm okay with it. Either way I temper my work with a lot of the above relaxation and gaming and everything seems to turn out alright. :)

Halloween Tricks

For a long time people have been inviting me to Halloween parties. For most parties people always seem to want all their guests to dress-up. I hardly ever go unless I'm sorta 'forced' to by loved ones.

Let me be clear on something. I don't really like dressing up in a costume. I think its stupid and silly to do it as adults. I know the point is to be silly. That doesn't change the fact that I don't like it.

Why the hell doesn't someone throw a Halloween party that just has a theme and lots of fun stuff to do without making all their guests dress-up?!? I'd throw one myself like that but I'm not really the type that throws a lot of parties. There could be all kinds of cool stuff there with no pressure to dress in costumes. I'm jealous of my friend and coworker Geekalicious. She got invited to one like that. The guys play pool, the women play cards and gossip, they have hayrides and apple-bobbing, and all kinds of stuff like that. But that seems to be a rare occasion in the Halloween party-throwing population.

Want me to dress up and come to your fucking party? Fine. Just expect me to bite someone hard with my fake vampire teeth until it hurts. That way maybe I can take out some of this anger and frustration. Maybe I'll spike your damn punch too. Hmm... I need to go to the liquor store. Yeah, that's it... before this post I didn't know what I was going as. Now I know. I'm going to go as a trouble-making vampire. Here I come with my Halloween Tricks. Get ready. If I've got to wear a fucking costume I'm going to get revenge.

So anyway...

I wound up not getting the green comforter set after all. I got a red one.

Last year my dad and mom gave me money to buy a new bed. I'd just bought a house and I used the money for other stuff,... like part of the closing costs etc. Understandable, right? Right. Friday my cousin Kristina got married. This meant that Thursday, my dad, mom, and grandma (Dot Dot) came up from central Florida to spend the night prior to going over Friday for the wedding. I had a queen bed in the Master bedroom and a full bed in one of the guest bedrooms. See the problem?

So last week I ordered a new bed. $1200 of goodness, which my back is still getting accustomed to, but that's a different story. It arrived Thursday. Yes, the same day as my company arrived. I moved the existing queen into the third room and the new queen off my truck into my room by myself, trying to rush and set them up, make the beds, and have everything ready for their arrival. I heard them pulling in as I was putting the sheets on the last bed.

I'm not sure if my back hurt more from moving the beds alone (that new queen is pretty dang heavy - its one with a box-top so its 15" thick) or if my back hurt from adjusting to the new bed. The new one is quite different than the old one.

In either case, at least now I have plenty of bed-space for guests. Want to come visit? :)

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Phone mix-up

I hate incompetence.

My phone had some problems the last few days. I couldn't send text messages. It told me I had voice mail when I did not. I took it to Cingular and explained the situation. They tried several things and wound up putting in a new "cim card" (sp?). After 45 minutes of my time, supposedly that fixed the problem. To be safe I asked the lady to send me a text message and I'd reply with one to be certain it was working. She sent one from her phone to mine and since she had my phone in her hand she replied to her own phone with mine. She said, "Its working fine now. And nothing is different than before."

Except my phone number, you stupid bitch.

How the hell could she not notice that my phone number was different when SHE had to type it in to send me a text message?!? How could she fail to mention my number had changed?!? The answer? Incompetence! Good God, woman, go rent a fucking brain cell.

Last night I received many phone calls for some other person. Apparently the idiot had put in a cim card that was already registered to someone else and didn't notice. Additionally, I probably missed several important phone calls I was expecting last night. I should have called Japan for a few hours and told all his friends that called in the middle of the night to fuck off, but I didn't.

Today I went in to Cingular again and the lady there knew what she was doing - unlike the moronic twit from last night. So now I'm back up and running - hopefully. Yay. I do think I lost some messages though, so if you called and left one last night and I didn't respond, now you know why.

Not Dead

Well, I'm not! Nor am I in a coma... just incredibly busy. Grading papers. Sound like fun? Ugh. Be back when I can breathe.

Busy Bee

Holy crap I've been busy these past few weeks. And right now (as Roger Watkins used to say) "there are no signs this blistering pace will let up."

I've definitely been a busy little bee though, seriously. The new semester started last week and for several weeks prior to that I was going nonstop many hours a day, even on weekends, trying to get a new class ready.

Man, designing a new course takes a TON of work - especially when the course is to be 65% online!!! I worked on creating this class all summer but it wasn't until about 3 weeks before school started back that I realized the magnanimosity of this project for which I'd *gulp* volunteered. I'm still nowhere near done. I have yet to create PowerPoint presentations with voice accompaniment, which I plan to do for about eight chapters worth of material. I have yet to write chapter guides for 12 chapters. I have yet to write 5 class assignments out.

But at least I got a ton of course documents created, all the articles scanned and uploaded, and the course website made with blank spaces for the missing parts. I have a plan. And having a fully drawn-out plan when creating a class is a great deal of work. :)

For those of you I've neglected this past month, you have my sincerest apologies. I've been busy with work and haven't called or written many of you. Sadly, don't expect me to be a better friend for another month. =/ (lol) I've still got a ton of work ahead of me. Just know that I'm dealing with it though and only stressing out a little bit as opposed to how I used to deal with work. No wonder I had a minor heart attack at the age of 25. I used to stress out WAY too much about work. Now, I take my time even though I rush a little bit, and I afford myself breaks throughout the day when I know my brain hurts or I can feel my blood pressure rising.

You forgive me though, don't you? Great! I knew you'd understand. ;)

Garden Surprise

As you know, I play World of Warcraft. One of the races you can choose in this game is a gnome. Create a gnome, get a portal to Darnassus (the Night Elf land, lush with vegetation), hide in a garden, and voila, fun times! Be sure to click on the picture and read the text at the bottom. :D

In case you can't quite make out the text, it reads;
Frankel (the gnome): Boo!
Frankel (the gnome): Did a gnome hiding in the garden scare you?
Frankel (the gnome): Boo!
Cyrida (a nearby night elf): Yes, I think I peed a little.

Is that great stuff or what?!? :)

Can you tell I'm having a constructive day?

Photos of Japan!

Here it is! An album of some of my photos of Japan! I hope you enjoy the photos. I sure had a blast over there. :) I took over 100 shots, but just selected some of my favorites to put up on the net. Click HERE to take a look!

The 3 places with long names were temples we saw in Kyoto. Beautiful!

Sanjusangendo - I couldn't take a picture inside but this is the place with 1001 Buddha statues. Incredible!

Kiyomizudera - Awesome temple with a big Buddha, protector statues to ward off evil spirits, and a bell to ring in reverence of the dead. I lit a candle for mom.

Ginkakuji - Amazing nature and some incredible architecture! Also, this place has some "VIP moss" as they call it, that holds a lot of the soil together and provides nutrients. This place also had an amazing view since it was up high. You can see Kyoto Tower in the distance from the upper path.

The inside restaurant shot includes our friend Mie and her boyfriend Yashka in a place we ate at in Osaka. The neon sign place was one of the streets I took a photo of outside the Osaka restaurant. Too bad I think I deleted the night-time shot of a better one. Oh well.

The Udon shop is in the train station where Mamotaro's statue is located. See the write-up on Mamotaro in my previous post for an explanation.

The man and woman outside the family style restaurant in front of the bonsai tree are Nattsu's parents. They're awesome!

Oh, and the shot of the mountains out the plane window is over Alaska near Mt. McKinley.

All in all, I had an awesome time! From eating raw sea snail and vinegar cooked octopus, to realizing how enormous their major cities are, I was blown away. I hope to go back. :)

I'm BACK!

I made it safely back from Japan, alive and well. I'll post details and pictures soon. Stay tuned!

Arrival in JAPAN !!!

The line in Atlanta to check in and to check baggage was horrible! We spent an hour and a half just in line to check baggage! We made it in time for the plane though, just barely.

The flight to Chicago went well. The layover wasn't that bad (3.5 hours). The flight from Chicago to Osaka, Japan was a bizarre experience to say the least. 14 Hours on a plane, 3 meals, and many stretches, a few chapters, 2 movies, and a few new friends later, we arrived.
It took an hour limo bus ride to get from the airport (that's built on a manmade island composed of trash) to the hotel. A shower and a late supper of $45 noodles later, and I crashed for the night. Now it is 4:30 am, and I'm wide awake. I'm to get up and get to the train station by 9 am to meet my friend to join me on a ride to and a tour of Kyoto, the old capitol of Japan. I'm looking forward to it.

I paid $300 a night for my two night stay in the hotel here but I have a nice room on the 22nd floor, where when I look out the window, I see city lights and buildings as far as I can see. If you're familiar with Atlanta's downtown, imagine that as far as you can see, travelling on a highway at 50mph for an hour, on both sides of the raised highway. I've been through Manhattan when I was younger, and even that doesn't compare to the size of this city.

As for the look of it all, of course I can't read any of the signs, but they sure look spectacular all lit up at night. The view is absolutely stunning. I'll update again if I have more internet access. I may not until I get back, but I'll just have to cross my fingers and see.

Until my return, regards from JAPAN !!!:)

VACATION !!!!

For those of you that don't know yet, Nattsu and I are going to JAPAN! This will be my first time out of the States and I'm both anxious and excited to go. I'm a bit nervous going on a 14 hour flight to a country where most of the people won't understand me and I sure as heck won't understand them! But I am looking forward to it nonetheless.

We're first taking a 3 1/2 hour flight to Chicago then a short layover and then the 14 hour flight to Osaka, Japan. Osaka is where our friend Mie lives and she took off work a day to hang out with us and show us around. Wasn't that sweet of her? :) Thanks Mie! We're also going to go sightseeing a day or two in Kyoto, the old capitol of Japan. I hear there're tons of cool things to see there. Shrines, castles, zen gardens, etc. I think its going to be fun!


Once we're done sightseeing there, we're going to take the train out of the Kansai region where Osaka and Kyoto are and head over (yes, on the bullet train! Choo! Choo!) toward Nattsu's parents' house which is on Shikoku island. Curious to know where these places are? Just check out this map!

On the way we'll make a train stop to see the Peach Boy monument. Yes, I just said Peach Boy. I'm not sure if its because Georgia is the Peach State or if its because I'm silly and like kids' stories from around the world and hearing how they're different than the ones I heard as a kid, but I like Peach Boy. Getting to see his monument is kinda cool and I'm excited about that as well. If you'd like to read all about Peach Boy, you can find his story here. Note that his name is Momotaro in the story. There's a great song that goes in the story too, but I couldn't find a sound clip of it.

Wish us safe travels! :) I'll post to let you know we made it back safely when we return.

Ok, so I'm a slacker...

I should've posted this up a few weeks ago, sorry! Anyway, a few weekends ago I went down to the Georgia Rennaisance Festival. I met a ton of friends there from all around the state and we had a blast! Here is a pic of our wandering group. :)

HELL YEAH!

This is an absolute MUST VISIT !!!

Do you have a 710?

Are you missing a 710?

Yesterday I was having some work done at the car dealer.
A blonde woman came in and asked for a seven-hundred-ten.
They all looked at each other, and the Mechanic asked,
"What is a seven-hundred-ten?"

She replied, "You know, the little piece in the middle of the engine. I lost it and need a new one. It had always been there."

The mechanic gave the woman a piece of paper and a pen and asked her to draw what the piece looked like.

She drew a circle and in the middle of it wrote 710.
He then took her over to another car which had the hood up
and asked, "Is there a 710 on this car?"
She pointed and said, "Of course, it's right there."

Click here to learn the identity of the mysterious 710:
http://www.mademelaugh.com/gfx/710.jpg

Money, Native Americans, Nature, & My Brother

So, I need to catch you up-to-date but I'm tired as it is late at night.

Here goes:

• I took a trip to Cherokee North Carolina for Memorial weekend.
• I lost $300 in Harrah's Casino
  
  
• I bought jewelry made by the Navajo Indians, and yes, I was in Cherokee, North Carolina, not Navajo, North Carolina. I got a cool ring!
• I drove up to the Smoky Mountain National Park and hiked up to Clingman's Dome.
  

• My brother Ken and his wife Sherry came to visit me on my 35th birthday! We had fun. We grilled Fillet Mignon with a mushroom rub wrapped in bacon, grilled corn-on-the-cob, had some garlic mashed potatos, side salad, and fresh green beans. We played Outbreak and watched Chronicles of Riddick. They saw my new house and they said they really liked it. I'm extremely glad about that. :)

So now you're all caught up. Tomorrow I go to the Georgia Rennaissance Festival where several friends are meeting. I'm excited!