Philly Round 2, I Battle the Amish

Wow, I am so bad. In my last post I was sure that I was gonna keep up with more entries, but man I was wrong. The Holidays hit, we moved to a new house( at least new to us), I had a few weeks of work, and Jake got a Wii for Christmas so we have been playing that like crazy, my Wii bowling skill is the stuff legends are made of.


First thing first, I have found the world's perfect cereal. Yes that would be Marshmallow Froot Loops. Being the son of a dentist I did not have much experience with " Sugar Cereal " when I was a kid, so now I have been on a quest to see all the tasty things I have been missing. My quest is over, this is the best thing ever made. Imagine you took the time to pick out all the delicous marshmallows out of lucky charms, throw away the non-marshmallow charms, and add that to a box of Froot Loops, and you have a match made in heaven. I can't get enough of this stuff, I have it for breakfast and then after dinner I have a night cap bowl, I love it.

I was in Philly this week, actually I was in Lancaster, which I guess is the Amish capitol of the world. Now usually before I go to a city I try and do a little research and see what there is to do and cool places I can go see i.e. the Corn Palace, but in this trip I didn't do that, and it almost was a huge mistake. I flew into Philly and took the 1-2 hour drive to Lancaster on a cloudy rainy night. I am in a rental car, I can't see very well and I am on a very dark road. I am just driving along and all of the sudden a black blob flashes in front of me and I notice it has some orange reflector on the back. I slam on the brakes and now that I am so close I see that I just barely missed what look like wagon wheels, in actuality I just missed an Amish Buggy. Apparently I was in the Amish Capitol of the world, and apparently they have the right of way no matter what on the roads. I told this story to my friend Jensen just after it happened, and he laughed and asked how I could almost get into an accident with a 1 horse power buggy going 3 mph. I tell you they came out of nowhere, I almost died, well maybe not but the headline MAN HITS BUGGY ran through my mind all night. So if you ever drive through PA watch out for Amish Buggy's they are everywhere, and they are potentially deadly.

Alamogordo , NM

Hey I have been super lazy about keeping up on this so I am gonna try to do better. I went to New Mexico last week, and it was so lame. Not only did I have to fly into El Paso ( Jake is under the impression that everyone who lives in Texas rides horses all the time, to work, to school, to Wal-Mart, he thinks they have no cars), then I had to drive 2 hours into the depths of New Mexico desert to a town named Alamogordo, ( it means fat cottonwood) and there was not a whole lot there, I went to see a "Space Museum" and I use the word Museum very loosly, since it was more like NASA's junk yard than anything else, it was really sad. That is about it, I am off to Miami so it will be nice to go to a big city for a change.

PS. Go Cardinals, they are in first place and I couldn't be happier

Movies: "Get Smart" - was a huge dissapointment, I loved the TV show as a kid, ( Sara didn't even know that it was a classic TV show, I know seriously) but it was just so bad, not worth the rental. * 1 star

"The Visitor"- really good, worth renting. **** 4 Stars

Music: "Oasis" ( Dig Out Your Soul) has a new album that really is pretty good, I am a huge fan so take this at face value, but I really like a bunch of tracks on it( Falling Down, The Shock of Lightning) . Check it out, also we are going to see them in December, so I can't wait for that.
**** 4 stars

Also if you have'nt heard the "Flobots" go check them out asap, they are sooo good. ***** 5 Star

Halloween Pics of the Kids

Here are the kids on Halloween. Jake was Jango Fett, and Lily was a Pink Leopard. It was great times, we decorated the house super scary and Jake got all kinds of great candy.

Mike Rowe

Well just as I turned off my laptop in Klmamath Falls, thinking of what to do next since my plane was delayed, I hear a voice that I could recognize anywhere. That's right, Mike Rowe, from such shows as Dirty Jobs, Narrator for countless Discovery channel programs, was walking into the little airport. Now remember I am stuck in the middle of Oregon in a tiny airport about to board a prop plane with 12 other people and 1 of those people is Mr. Rowe. Now I have to admit I have a little man crush on him, I always used to tell Sara that it would be so cool to meet him and hang out with him.

Well he was as nice as could be. I went over told him that my wife loves him, ( which is true) and that my mom really liked him too. He said that he gets that alot. Then we talked for a bit, about Oregon, he was there goose hunting, on his way home to San Fransisco, and it just so happened that we sat next to each other on the plane, is was really cool, he was so nice I think that my crush got a little bigger.

Oregon

Well I am stuck in the worlds smallest airport, there are no gates, there is a room that is technically baggage claim, and a rental car fleet of about 6 cars. I am flying from here, Klamath Falls, to San Fransisco, and then onto Denver, but apparently there is " weather" and we cannot take off. I really won't complain, since the only planes that fly out of here are F-15's and propeller commercial planes, so i will gladly wait for better weather so my prop plane can make it.

I worked at the Air Force Base here, and unlike in Tennessee, the guy's here didn't let me hang out in a F-15, something about a security concern having a civilian at the controls of a 45 million dollar jet loaded with munitions. But I got to see a few of the F-15's that had " Cracked". Apparently about 1 year ago a F-15 broke in half and the pilot ejected out safely but there was a mandatory shut down of all F-15's in the entire world, well 8 were found out to have these "cracks" in the whole world, and 4 of the 8 were here in Oregon, and I saw 2 of them in a hangar that were in about 10 million pieces that they were trying to fix and put back together.

I guess that there was a forest fire sort of nearby so my stay here was very smoky and hazy, which has kind of a bummer.

That is about all for now, no real crazy adventures or interesting town folk, maybe there was but I was just so tired that I probably missed it.

The Phoenix Trip

So we got back from PHX on Sunday. Had a great time, I love it there. Not only do my brother and new sister in law live there, but it is where I grew up, have great friends ( they probably think that I am a horrible friend since I never see them), and it is a place full of memories.

I worked a little bit on Friday, so that kinda sucked but then the rest of the weekend was so fun. Sara flew in on Friday afternoon, and man is it really great to finally do some traveling with my wife, that was so nice.

The wedding went great, a very small ceremony for friends and family, great food ( there were these shrimp appetizers that were so freaking good), and just an overall great visit, although I could have spent about a week, not just a few days.

I am in Oregon now so we will see how this trip goes and I will fill you in. I am just really tired lately maybe it is this flurry of travel as of late but man I need a vacation, a real one with sandy beaches and margaritas, I guess I can dream, instead I am in Klamath Falls, Oregon staying in a hotel that shares a parking lot with a Sizzler, I didn't even know Sizzler still exsisted but they still do, hoping that my next trip is to a city more civilized, but with my luck it will probably be in a desert somewhere.

Phoenix

I am going to be in phoenix next week for work and a wedding, o yeah. So I will give you all the details when I get back.