Friday, September 30, 2005

Part IV of the Trip . . . 4thAnniversary

It's very weird to think that it's been four years, but it has been. Enjoy the last part of the epic saga!

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SEPTEMBER 30 - rest stop, Idaho (mileage unknown)

I drove all morning, determined to make it all the way across the panhandle of Idaho before I turn the wheel over to Jon. But nature calls, and high in the mountains I pull over into a rest stop to make use of the facilities.

I say without reservation that western Montana and northern Idaho are some of the most beautiful territory it's ever been my privilege to pass through. But it's also completely isolated. Those snow gates that can be dropped across the interstate ("Road blocked ahead. Go back to Missoula.") are there for a reason, and you'd have to be pretty hardy to live out here. The price of beauty, I suppose. We'll see if I can't afford it.

Coming out of the bathroom I see that a man walking his dog is wearing a baseball cap with Bucky Badger embroidered on it. We talk for a minute and it turns out he's from Madison, out here visiting relatives. Strange to find a piece of home about as far away from it as you can get.


SEPTEMBER 30 -- Couer D'Lane, Idaho (1,705 miles)

A quick stop for lunch in the late afternoon. Jon's cel phone is finally back in range of the system, and he checks his messages while I try to call home and wish my mom a happy birthday on a nearby payphone. Couer D'Lane is the Wisconsin Dells of Idaho, with a population that seems fifty percent tourist and a waterslide on every block. It also increases the number of people we've seen in Idaho by about a bazillion percent, unless you count the other moving trucks. Maybe its just because we're traveling in a U-Haul, but everyone and their brother seems to be moving-usually in the opposite direction, but that's probably because anyone behind us can't catch up to us and we can't catch anyone ahead. As the days have passed I've found a strange feeling of brotherhood with these other travelers; if our horn worked I would beep it when I saw them, but have to settle for a jaunty wave they probably never see. Oh well.

For all the 'friends', we've also found our nemesis. First spotted in South Dakota, a couple times each day we've been passed by what I've named the Luxury RV, a glossy black bus-like RV pulling a high-priced black SUV, like Puff Daddy going on walkabout. Ostentatious, faster than us-the reasons to be annoyed go on and on. But though I've been watching, the LRV's shiny prow has yet to glide past our port windows. I decide to remain vigilant as Jon takes the wheel.


SEPTEMBER 30 - MOFN, Washington (1,786 miles)

I gave this town its name, as it is in the middle of nowhere and didn't even have the dignity to give itself a name for its highway exit. Though we didn't have time to stop in Spokane and see my grandparents (although we did see a giant inflatable gorilla, prompting Jon to properly bemoan the trip's lack of monkeys), we had to stop here for gas-and that's nearly all this place has to offer. That, an RV park (despite the "Don't park RV signs here" signs that seem to be tacked to every post), a collection of construction equipment working and otherwise, and a concrete pipe capped with a metal plate jutting out of the ground. My theory is that it's the entrance to a secret underground government base, but that woman back in Montana probably didn't shoot anyone, either.


SEPTEMBER 30 - Roslyn, Washington (1,932 miles)

We're almost there, but fannish interest (you can take the geeks out of Wisconsin, but...you know the rest) made us get off the interstate and make our way up a county highway to Roslyn, where they filmed the exteriors for the TV series Northern Exposure. All the shops are closed this late on a Sunday evening, so no T-shirts for us. But the KBHR radio station is still there and we get to peek into the now-dusty interior. We also see Roslyn's Café, the building that was supposed to be Dr. Fleischman's office, and the Brick, where we stop to grab dinner.While waiting for dinner, I wander back across the street and finally get ahold of my mom. While eating dinner, I watch a gorgeous nearby woman, who eventually notices me and subtly flashes her wedding ring. As of this writing, the jury is still out on whether I'm happy or sad to have been caught being potentially prurient.Then it's back to the road, with only Snoqualimie Pass between us and Seattle.


SEPTEMBER 30 - Bellevue, Washington (2,015 miles)

It's not Seattle, but it's close enough. We make our way through the dark streets and eventually find the house Jon will be staying at. We have some problems finding the key that supposed to be hidden outside, but luckily one of the other roomers is home-and turns out to also be a WizKids employee named Dave. Dave shows us Jon's (surprisingly tiny!) room, and we unload what we can from the truck. It's almost ten, and too late to find a storage space; Jon will have to do that tomorrow after I leave. Dave does help us move the U-Haul and trailer to the WizKids parking lot (including taking the wheel for the particularly tricky job of turning the truck around in the narrow parking lot), and takes us over to the nearby mall and an all-night grocery store so I can get some cash for the trip back.Then bedtime and up in time to run to the airport in the morning.

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There's the whole tale. I hope you've had as much fun re-reading it as I did re-posting it.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Part III of the Trip . . . 4th AnniversaryPart III

I'll get you tomorrow's tomorrow!

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SEPTEMBER 29 - Sundance, Wyoming (911 miles)

Another gas stop, this time in the town where the Sundance Kid got his name. A pretty small place, and my stay is marked mainly by the three guys in the gas station buying hunting licenses-and swearing that the rifle on the wall being raffled off is the same one that was there last year. They're putting together the pieces of the conspiracy as I wander back out to the truck.


SEPTEMBER 29 - Sheridan, Wyoming (1058 miles)

We've made it over the thousand-mile mark, so we celebrate by stopping for food and gas. Again. Jon also needs to pick up a new address book, so we make our way downtown and find a Wal-Mart Plus-a Wal-Mart with a grocery store. Jon quickly finds the address book and we make our way across the parking lot for a quick lunch at Taco Bell. (For those keeping score at home--number of days on the road: 3; stops at a Taco Bell: 3. Make your investments appropriately.)

Our quick lunch turns out to be anything but. It takes ten minutes to even order, and when we sit down to wait we realize that the dining room is full not of people eating but of people waiting. Oh yeah, and they're out of chicken. The situation is so absurd that Jon and I begin making fun of the restaurant and its employees-apparently in an increasingly vocal manner, as Jon later reports that a cute girl ten feet away was laughing. (Sadly, she was probably of high-school age, so no missed opportunity there, faithful reader. But thank you for thinking of Jon and I.)


SEPTEMBER 29 - Big Timber, Montana (1,273 miles)

After a morning of climbing the foothills of the Rockies and blasting through Billings (a competitor with Toledo for Ugliest City in America), the Little U-Haul That Could has to pull off in western Montana for gas. As we come out from paying, there's a woman hanging around near the corner of the building smoking and leaving one hand suspiciously inside her purse. Our schedule demands that we get back on the road, but let's pretend that she was waiting to shoot someone, okay?


SEPTEMBER 29 - Missoula, Montana (1,541 miles)

Jon handles late night driving up into the mountains and across the Continental Divide, and around 11:30 we pull into Missoula. Less prepared than previous days, we haven't picked out a specific hotel from the AAA guidebook. But I see a billboard for one I remember. Unfortunately, I direct Jon off the highway an exit too early and we wander through town a bit before getting to the right area.

Of further surprise is that the hotel we stop at is full. Not just that, but so are the next two. Luckily, we find a Best Western with a room and crash. Our wake-up call comes right on time, and we make our way downstairs just in time to enjoy the continental breakfast-which actually is pretty continental, reminding me of the breakfast buffet at the hotel I stayed at in London (which itself is not Continental, but you get my Ugly American point, right?)

Then it's time to gas up, and get back on the road.

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Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Spam Alert

Glenn mentioned yesterday that his blog comments were struck by a spam program and now mine have been as well. I've deleted the offenders I found, but since I've fallen victim it may be following through some of my links -- so, if you're lucky enough to be on my links over to the right you may want to check your comments for spam. Sorry.

Like Glenn, I too have enabled the comment authentication.

That's all for now.

Part II of the Trip . . . 4th Anniversary

'Nuff said.

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SEPTEMBER 28 - Blue Earth, Minnesota (333 miles)

I'd like to say that it was the fifty-foot tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant that made us get off the highway, but we just decided to stop for gas and snacks.

The gas station used to have a Taco Bell Express, but it has gone out of business-recently, apparently. As I stand waiting to get into the restroom, two couples who are part of Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation enter. The woman in the lead walks up to the darkened corner and says, "What? No tacos?" For some reason it strikes me as odd; I guess I'm just accustomed to the preteens overrunning the Taco Bells in Madison.


SEPTEMBER 28 - Mitchell, South Dakota (521 miles)

Stopping for gas again, we also stop for lunch, grabbing sandwiches at Subway and then making our way through a maze of surface-street construction to the world famous Mitchell Corn Palace. The last time I was here was a quarter-century ago, and while the Palace is pretty neat, my picture-augmented memory held it up as much neater. I don't remember it being in the middle of downtown, for one thing; I guess I always thought it was a building out in the middle of the fields. And the colors are much more subdued-the pictures I've seen were taken in 1976, and I guess they fancied it up for the Bicentennial. This year's themes are pretty straight-forward nature themes done in straight-forward corn colors. Jon and I do find a display across the street showing how the decoration is done, and I do have to respect the process. It seems like an awful lot of work, beginning with laying out the design on the building and cutting a whole hell of a lot of corn cobs in half in preparation for mounting them.

Though downtown Mitchell seems to get a lot of its income from tourists, most of the other tourist shops are closed down for the season and there's not much else to see. So after a quick picture of Jon in front of the Corn Palace, and a seemingly interminable wait at a train crossing, we're back on I-90 and headed west.


SEPTEMBER 28 - Kadoka, South Dakota (705 miles)

Only two things are amusing about our stop in Kadoka. One: Jon makes a series of funny jokes about people who were too dumb to spell the name of their own state right, and end up naming their town Kadoka. Two: At the gas station, I wait in line to buy my Diet Coke behind a group of guys loudly planning that evening's visit to a strip club. I'm not quite certain they ever caught on that I was laughing at them and not with them. (Okay, now that time has passed, I'm not certain that either of those items are amusing in retrospect. But then, we were back on the road within fifteen minutes-it didn't leave much time to be amused, and I have to take my amusement where I can get it.)


SEPTEMBER 28 - Wall, South Dakota (758 miles)

Sadly, we arrive in Wall too late to partake of the joys of Wall Drug. But we settle for eating dinner across the street in the Cactus Café, the very restaurant where I had dinner with folks from work on the way back from E3 in May. If you had told me then that I would be eating in that restaurant again just four months later, I don't think I would have believed you. But there we are. The menu isn't quite as cosmopolitan as Burlington's famous White Fox Den, but it goes a little bit beyond bar food, so I enjoy a good French Dip sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder.

On the way out of town, we stop at a gas station-not for gas, but so that I can prove after much frustration at lunch that Sobe Wisdom is unavailable in the state of South Dakota. Like many things in life, I am quickly proven utterly incorrect and come out with a Sobe and a box of Whoppers. Jon is laughing when I come back and points out a truck-driving future redneck who has hung up his truck on the concrete and steel base of an enormous sign, hooking his bumper over the five-inch lug nuts that hold the whole thing upright. We're tempted to stay and watch, but we're behind schedule... so we press on.


SEPTEMBER 28 - Spearfish, South Dakota (856 miles)

With 700 miles under our belt for the day, we stop just short of the Wyoming border. Happily, the hotel we stay at has a pool, so while Jon deals with some unfinished paperwork I go for a swim and read in the hot tub for a while. I have some weird flashes back to a family trip 25 years ago (the same one that took me to Mitchell) and wonder if we stayed here.

Our 8:30 AM wakeup call never comes, and we wake up just past 9:00. Still, even with a trip to a nearby grocery store for water, fruit and road snacks we manage to get back on I-90 by ten, and I pop yet another CD into the Rio as we turn west.

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End Part II. Part III comes next.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Four Times the Fun!

Here we go again! You should all be used to this by now, but it's time for my annual re-posting of Seth's write up of our trip cross country when I moved here.

I'm sure it's just as exciting this time around, but mostly it's weird to think it's been four years and I can likely remember with a fair amount of accuracy what I was doing right now four years ago (unpacking my overloaded U-Haul and storing boxes in my old apartment in Madison).

Thanks again for writing up all those years ago Seth!


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SEPTEMBER 27 - Madison, Wisconsin (0 miles)

We haven't left town yet, and we're already running late. It's nobody's fault, really: packing up the truck took a bit longer than planned, but we still could have made it out of town with time for plenty of progress . . . until it came time to go back to U-Haul to hook up a trailer for Jon's car.

"Looks kinda heavy," says the guy at the shop, and suggests we go across the street to the recycling center and use the truck scale. Driving the 17-foot truck directly across four busy lanes of traffic is a bit daunting, but I brave the task while Jon starts to deal with the trailer.

Pulling up onto the truck scale just as the recycling center just as they prepare to close the gates, I jump out and read the label on the side of truck: 'LIMIT 11,000 LBS. GROSS'. Then I look over at the digital readout on the side of the building: 14568.

I take the truck back across the street and deliver the bad news. The garage is closing, so there's no time to come back for the trailer. Instead we hook up the car and trailer, then return to Jon's house and spend a couple hours unloading two tons of books and comics that will have to go down to Jon's parents in Burlington for storage.


SEPTEMBER 27 - La Crosse, Wisconsin (161 miles)

We made a quick stop at a gas station and a Taco Bell in Tomah, but it's here that we decide to stop for the night. It's 11:30, and there's no point in burning ourselves out on the first leg of the trip. The AAA guidebook lists a Hampton Inn that offers a discount, so that's where we crash. Uh, sleep.

We're up by 8:30, pack up, partake of the free breakfast, stop by a nearby Woodman's grocery store so I can mail off a birthday card to my mom, and then we hit the road.


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Four freakin' years. Wow.

More tomorrow!

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Something

I feel like I should write something, but at the same time I feel like I don't have anything that I really want to talk about. That's not to say this hasn't been a fun weekend, it has. I actually had a great weekend. I just feel kind of blah. Some things are bubbling around in my head and they're making me feel kinda odd. Maybe I'll come back around to that later in the post. First I'll do the obligatory recap of the last few days.

Friday I left work and went to the gym. I'm really, honestly trying to do things right again. I've changed what I'm eating (yes, again) and getting more exercise -- even if it means I can't be as social or play as many games. After the gym I went to Shane and Cathy's for an evening of chatting with them, Seth, Shana, Jen, and Hays, oh, and Shana's dog, Bing. It was great. Very relaxing and fun.

Saturday I had brunch with Kevin, Kim, Matt, and Seth, then went for comics, hit the gym, and did things around the house. In the evening I picked up a friend from work to go play poker. It was a good time, but it was very hard to play the game, because many of the guys there weren't too familiar with Hold'Em, so they were crazy-random (and not in a good poker playing sort of way, but rather in the I'm going to play this Ace high until the very end, no matter what it costs kind of way). Anyway, it was fun and they were a great bunch of guys.

Sunday I hod my car's oil changed, washed the car, and met Shana, Jen, and Hays for brunch at a place called May's on (or Mae's?) on Phinney Ridge. It turns out May (Mae?) moved here from Madison 25 years ago, so we chatted about some places around town. Nice lady.

We finished lunch and Shane and Cathy showed up (with some gifts from their trip), then we drove to Woodinville for a winery tour and wine tasting. Yeah, crazy, eh? We tried one winery, but there was a Robery Plant concert going on in the evening, so the place was overrun with overage Led Zepplin fans, so we went across the street to a different winery. Apparently wineries are the industry in Woodinville, so there's plenty there. Anyway, we had a tour of the facility, then tried some wine.

Here's the thing; I've always wanted to like wine more. To be able to appreciate it more. But it's never quite lived up to it's hype for me. I don't like the dry, acidic aftertaste is leaves in my mouth. Maybe I drink cheap wine? Nope. One of the glasses I tried at the winery was actually decently priced, but it was drier and more acidic than some of the less expensive wines. So, I tried (and even purchased) some of the sweeter wines. They're much more to my liking. Overall, it was a good day and I managed to develop a bit more of an appreciation for wine. Heck, I'd even enjoy doing another wine tasting thingy sometime. Oh, and 2005 Washington state wines are supposed to be very good vintages, so mark your calendar to pick some up in, say, three to five years. (The reason for this is because the "cold" weather didn't start until later this year so the grapes were able to be left on the vine longer which allowed them to absorb lots more sun -- a very good thing for ripening grapes -- so there you go.)

I went to the gym around seven o'clock. And since then I've been working on researching some stories and noting more ideas for them.

That's all very good (and this has to do with the things bubbling around in my head that I mentioned earlier), but doing this is making me feel like I've let myself down somehow. I have all these great ideas and I haven't done anything with them. In some cases I have ideas that have been floating around for 15 years, but I've never executed on them. I don't have kids, I don't have a wife, I don't have a girlfriend, I don't have a house to take care of, I don't have a lot of things that suck up time from all the people out there in the world, but I still haven't managed to sit down and write -- which is really what I've always wanted to do; be a writer. How easy is that? I know I can do it, I've just let all this other crap fill my life -- maybe to distract me from that long list of things I don't have? The thing is, I have some great stuff that I want to get on paper.

I'll get it done. No excuses.

All that aside, I'm also feeling weird because I'm feeling a bit lonely. Yep, I have some great friends, but...

I don't know what to do about it. There's no point in "settling" just to have someone, there's no point in becoming bitter, there's no point in wallowing, but lemme tell ya, it really sucks to have to think about this every day. I know people say "when you finally give up on looking you'll find someone." Personally, I call bull on that. I didn't look for years and years. Nothing. And now that I've been looking -- pretty damn actively despite the fact that I haven't written about it here -- I keep running into the same thing, "you're a great guy, just not my type." Nothing I can do about that, so it's just frustrating. Maybe this whole gym thing will help. Even so, it feels like one of those deep, dark hole things that you can't get out of even though you know other people have done it. Grrrr and blah, blah, blah. (Hey, that's not a bad paraphrasing of "...sound and fury signifying nothing.")

So, yeah, that's where my head is right now. Fun, eh?

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Whoops

I went for lunch today with some people and on the way back managed to rear-end someone who stopped too quickly in front of me. Whoops. I saw it happen and stepped on the brake and knew we'd hit them -- at only a couple of mph, so that was good. We pulled over, chatted, and left. I don't even think I mentioned it to anyone when I went back to work as I was immediately on to other things.

Other than that bit of excitement, I ran my Star Wars game again on Tuesday. That was okay, but we didn't have eveyrone there again, so it's still in the formative stages.

Wednesday I picked up We Love Katamari at the mall and spent the evening watching the commentary track on Dawn of the Dead (which was actually pretty good) and played some of Katamari Damacy.

Thursday I met up with Shana, Seth, Scott M, and a couple others for a free chicken dinner and some drinks at Wonder Bar in Wallingford. That was a good time. Then I came home and worked up some ideas for some stories...mostly it was time to think, but I made a bunch of notes, so that's good.

Oh, and Shane and Cathy returned from their trip to Hawaii today and let some of us know they were engaged while they were there. Woohoo! Finally!

Time to sleep.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

It's a Funny Thing

I managed to be in a better mood for most of the week, but then I fell back into it on Saturday and I've been in a bad mood all weekend. No reason. Nothing I can do to fix it, so there you go.

I had a good time this weekend, despite my foul mood. Satuday I picked up Shana and we went for comics (Seth, Shane, and Cathy were all out of town) then grabbed a great lunch at Lola on 4th. I was home just long enough to clean up, then I drove to Queen Anne to see Katie perform at the Mirabeau Room. It was a very nice venue and I'm enjoying watching her move to better and better places. When she was done there a bunch of us drove south of Seattle to Georgetown (an area of town new to me) and had a late dinner at Smarty Pants. Interesting place.

Sunday I had to be down to Madison Park for Liz and Madalyn's 4th anniversary brunch at Cafe Flora, a vegetarian restaurant. The place is very attractive and serves some great food. Afterward I stopped home to change some laundry, then drove to Wonderworld to kill a few minutes before picking Seth up from the airport. Home for a few minutes again, then I hopped in the car with Seth to meet Kevin, Kim and a number of others for a birthday dinner for Kim over in Factoria at Torrero's.

And that's about it. I guess I did some work on some writing as well, not as much as I'd like, but enough that it merits mentioning.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Better Now

As of my last post I was in a bad mood, but I'm much better now.

I decided to drop my Thursday night game in favor of getting some writing done. I want to do more, but Thursdays will be my writing night. Good for me, sacrificing one fun activity for another. Even so, it's kind of a bummer because I really enjoy the Thursday game and the guys I game with there -- and since that's the only place I see them, I'm going to have to make ways to see them more often. That's okay, they're all good guys.

Tuesday night I started my new Star Wars game for a bunch of the guys from work. I haven't run that for a while, so I'll have to plan out some stories and see what I can come up with. It should be fun and now that convention season is (mostly) over, the games should happen pretty regularly.

Tomorrow I have an all-day, off-site meeting which should prove interesting. It's the first I've been to in my new role at the company, so I may sit back and observe for most of it just to get the lay of the land. Who knows if I'll actually be able to do that.

I'll write more later. I have to get to bed, so I can get up and get to the meeting place on time in the morning.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Jaw Firmly Set

I'm in one of those inexplicably black moods. I was fine all day, but I got home, sat down, and was immediately in a totally fould mood. Why does that happen sometimes? Very weird.

Today was good otherwise. I had a nice lunch with Shana. She just returned from about a month of travel to one thing or another, so we had plenty to catch up on. She's good people.

I'm excited about the stuff I'm working on right now, but I'm having a hard time concentrating and actually executing on any of it. I seem to be doing everything in fits and starts. I'm getting things done, but not as much as I'd like. I'll figure out what's up, but until then it's kind of annoying because I'm aware of it and not able to work my way through it. I'd say I need a vacation, but I just had one.

Oh, and for those of you who are into such things, follow this link to get a free roleplaying game written by Jeff Grubb and he'll donate a dollar to the hurricane Katrina relief fund. I have mine already!

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Another Week Passes By

Jim came back to town on Tuesday afternoon, so I ended up spending most of my free evenings hanging out with him and visiting or playing City of Heroes, which was pretty cool, admittedly.

High points of the week were having dinner at Matt's with Jim, Seth, and Isaac on Wednesday. Dinner Thursday with another friend and staying at work late on Friday to play games with Jim before he took the red eye back to Missourah. Saturday I picked up some cleaning supplies and set to doing some actual cleaning around my apartment versus the usual "picking up" that I normally do. That was definitely a good thing to get done.

Saturday evening I went to Liz's for her and Tom's birthday party. That was much lower-key than I thought it might be, but I couldn't stay too long because I was due to see Katie perform at Hattie's Hat in Ballard. There ended up being a very large number of people there -- about 15 of her friends plus at least that many walk-ins from the bar. The performance space isn't particuarly large, so it seemed like quite a crowd, and I'm sure Katie felt like she was being applauded by a large audience. She surprised everyone by playing electric guitar for the first time, too. Normally she uses an acoustic and the change-up sounded great coupled with the electric bass that accompanied her.

Sunday I slept much too late for some reason, but I got everything I needed to done over the course of the day, so I can't complain. I continued cleaning, picked up Destroy All Humans and reserved a copy of We Love Katamari, went to work for a bit, came up with some ideas there, had dinner, went shopping, and now I'm going to work on some ideas for the first session of my new Star Wars game which starts Tuesday.

Oh, and I finally read all the back issues of Usagi Yojimbo that I had piling up. From issue 40 to issue 86. That was quite a stack of reading to catch up on. To give you an idea, issue 40 was from the fall of 2000, so I haven't read the book since a year before I left Madison and now I'm up-to-date. It's a darn good book, too. I don't regret buying them at all -- in fact, they hold together better than most comics when read in a clump.

Later.

Monday, September 05, 2005

Back and Settled

The trip back to Seattle was fine. I was worried for a bit that my iPod might run out of power, but turning the backlight off seemed to conserve a heck of a lot of juice, so I wasn't without music for the whole trip. It was a long trip, too, like ten hours with the layover in beautiful downtown Detroit.

Thursday and Friday I managed to dive right back into work and get caught up. I sort of ran out of steam Friday afternoon, but hey, it was Friday afternoon, right?

That evening I played poker with the regular crew, plus Kian showed up. It was nice to see him. He left the company while I was away on vacation, so it was good to chat and see how things are going. Happily, his new wife will be returning on a visitor's visa very soon -- then they can figure out how to get her here full-time. Speaking of immigrating, Cathy finally received her green card, which is pretty cool. That also happened while I was gone.

Shane and Cathy were at the Magic clothing show (that's what it's called, it has nothing to do with magicians or the Magic: The Gathering game). They were there with edoc, which is what's been sucking up most of Shane's time since her left the company. It looks like some very cool designs, but the story aspect makes it extra cool. Hopefully you'll be hearing and seeing (and wearing?) more of this in the next year.

The weekend, I'm a little dissapointed to say, kind of got away from me. City of Heroes had a new update that included some new power sets, so I was sucked back in by them. I just had to check them out. So, lots of hours on the computer. Except for comics, the gym, laundry, drinks with a friend, and a few hours at work.

I haven't been watching much of the news surrounding the coverage of hurricane Katrina, but talk about FUBAR. I remember thinking, "How can they think cramming people into the Superdome is a good idea?" and it turns out that it was an even worse idea than I thought.

Seth, Chris, and I talked briefly about what happened there and how unprepared we are for disasters (which only makes them worse). We're a society of convenience, so we don't need to stock up, I mean, all the supplies I could ever need are right down the street at the store, right? I may have to stock up a bit. I mean, it can't hurt to have some water and canned goods around, just in case. We are in earthquakeland after all.

Talk to you later in the week. Jim gets in tomorrow and will be around until Friday, so I'm sure we'll hang out a bit. Oh, and dentist Wednesday morning, mustn't forget that. Later.