Nerdgasm (w/ a sneaky Dylan reference... bonus points if you find it)

OK
Here's the thing...
Over the last few months, I've been rewatching Lost w/ Solstice & Aiden. We're on Season 3 @ the moment. I've since restarted Season 1 w/ Sara as she has never seen it before. Watching her watch it for the first time reminds me of that scene in Freaks & Geeks when Lindsey is carrying American Beauty through the cafeteria & the Dead Head says, "I wish I'd never heard it before so I could here it again for the first time." Lost is sooooo good!

To make matters worse, I'm waiting for the Dish Network dude/dudette to come and fix the connection in the bedroom. At the moment, the TV screen is snowy. It spent the last day and a half showing just the "Starting Up..." screen, & I spent an hour on Saturday talking through the problems w/ a rather unhelpful Dish Network Help Desk person. I honestly don't watch a lot of TV in bed so it would normally be no big deal, but I wanted to watch the new Kevin Smith show, Comic Book Men in there last night. Seeing as I couldn't do that, I recorded it & in its stead, I read a new Batman trade paperback... it's a collection of Grant Morrison comics about Bruce Wayne finding his way back to the 21st century after being hurled back in time by Darkside.

While waiting, I've spent the last hour catching up on recent episodes of The Office, How I Met Your Mother, & The Big Bang Theory instead of reading 1984 for my Science Fiction class tomorrow. I've also been battling w/ my Internet connection so as to be able to blog about the whole situation. None of this bodes well for my status as a Schwartzernegerian manly man.

Following this train of thought all the way down its nasty spiral, my real concern is that all of this is really just killing time before I see Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D this afternoon. In fact, like, the Dead Head on Freaks & Geeks (& like the trailer for the Episodes 4-6 Special Edition releases in 1998, I get to see The Phantom Menace again... for the first time! (I'd like to take a moment to appologize for the fact that I've always been been a George Lucas appologist. Some people have The Lord of the Rings, others, have Harry Potter, still others have Star Trek... I have Star Wars... deal w/ it.)

Deal w/ it? Right! Easier said than done. I'm not dealing w/ it very well @ the moment. I feel like I may need to come to terms w/ an aspect of my life that I have been keeping hidden for lo these many years. I feel that perhaps I'm not the muscle-bound jock I see myself as, but rather something else entirely. I've spent all this time, since middle school in fact, trying to convince myself that this isn't the case. I look at boobs (although I kind of giggle), I've never read a young adult book (but then again even geekdom has its limits), I watch sports (albeit, soccer), & I have what I think is a a decent sense of humor (but who can really judge ones own sense of humor?).

I fear that after all this time, it's time to admit the truth. This is my coming-out narrative so you best enjoy it. The truth is that I may be a nerd. I'd write more, but I need to check on the chickens & look into getting ducks. There's nothing nerdy there... not at all. The only saving grace is that most of you can completely relate. We're all nerds, babe, it's a wonder we can even feed ourselves.

Superman?

I used to read Superman comics when I was a kid, but I never dug them the way I dug Batman or the other ones which were darker & stranger. Taht said, he's never gotten the respect on here that other characters have gotten so I thought it'd be nice to show Supes the love for a change. Here are some cool tunes which show that self-same love to the Man of Steel.



The Spin Doctors: "Jimmy Olsen's Blues"

Big Head Todd & the Monsters: "Resignation Superman"

R.E.M.: "Superman"

The Kinks: "(I Wish I could Fly Like) Superman"

Willie Nelson & Snoop Dogg: "Superman"

Arsenal: Reflections on a Mediocre Season

It's been a while since we talked about Arsenal. I guess the reason is that there hasn't been a whole lot to say. They've been pretty poor of late (today's 7-1 drubbing of Blackburn not withstanding). Over the last month, Wenger has taken a lot of stick from fans & pundits alike & much of it has been deserved. He's made some bad decisions, particularly in his unwillingness to buy in January. That said, much of the criticism has been harsh. Obviously, they need to win more, but I still don't see them missing out on The Champions League next year & they're still in it now (not to mention the fact that they're still in The FA Cup w/ a strong possibility of winning it... of course, I said that last year about the Carling Cup & they lost to Birmingham in the finals so who knows?). The main problems people seem to have w/ Wenger right now though involve his squad choice & his purchases. I think we need to look a bit more deeply @ that though.

His substitutions of Oxlade-Chamberlin should surprise no one. Ox is a young kid getting used to the Prem. & can't be expected to make it through entire matches yet. Walcott got the same treatmet for a long time. The fact that Ashavin has been coming on for him is rough, but the options haven't been there w/ Gervinho in Africa & Henry hurt. Now that Henry is healthy & w/ Gervinho coming back, I highly doubt we'll see much of Arshavin any time soon.

As for the purchases, it's had to say that Fabregas or Nasri where ever replaced properly, but otherwise, the buying hasn't been nearly as bad as people like to suggest. Considering the fact that the board hasn't been releasing the funds to buy people like the other top clubs, perhaps we need to take a look @ the players who have come in over the last few years.

2011-12
Mertesacker: A bit of a let down, but an experienced defender w/ plenty of international caps including strong runs in The World Cup & Euros. Everyone assumed he'd be fantastic.
Arteta: A great signing. He's been ever present & always reliable. He's not as flashy as most central attacking midfielders, but he rarely makes a mistake.
Park: A top scorer in France last year, & teh Captain of S. Korea. He hasn't had many opportunities yet, but all signs point to yes w/ him.
Santos: Brazilian international left back. He's slower than Clichy & Gibbs, but he's stronger than them too... & maybe better @ actually defending.
Henry: 2 goals since his re-debut less than a month ago... not bad.
Oxlade-Chamberlain: He looks the real deal. We'll see.
Jenkinson: I've been impressed by him when he was healthy, & no one can blame Wenger for an injury to the back-up right back.
Gervinho: Like Park, a huge scorer in France last year. Maybe he could find the back of the net more, but he's great on the wing.
Benayoun: Underwhelming, but everyone knows how good he can be. He had trouble @ Chelsea, but @ Liverpool he was always strong.
Ryo: Looks to be another one for the future. I hope his loan spell goes well for him.

2010-11
Squillaci: He hasn't done well, but when he was signed, everyone was excited. He was an experienced French international. The fact that he's taken a shit couldn't have been for seen.
Koscielny: In 2008 he was in the 2nd division of French football. He was just named Arsenal player of the month for January. He's been getting better & better. No one seems to complain about him anymore.
Chamakh: Like Gervinho & Park, a huge goalscorer before joining Arsenal. He did great when RVP was hurt too. I imagine leave in the summer, but I bet if he had a run in the 1st team he'd be back scoring goals again. He's been a flop this year, but no one complained about the signing last year.

2009-10
Campbell*: Rejoined on a short contract to help get the team through some injuries. He was good & there was even talk about getting back into the English national team.
Vermaelen: Ummm... fantastic signing. One of the best defenders in the league... maybe in the world.

2008-09
Ramsey: He's been good this year, but not quite as great as people hoped. Considering his major injury 2 years ago & his age, he's only going to get better & better.
Silvestre*: He'd won everything w/ Man U & had tons of experience w/ France. He sucked, but everyone assumed he'd be fine, & he brought bags of experience to the locker room.
Arshavin: Wenger signed him to make fans happy after the 2008 Euros. He was fantastic, but has gotten lazy. I think he'll leave after the 2012 Euros, but everyone hollering for more big-name buys needs to remember that spending the money is no guarantee.
Nasri*: Was great if a bit of a dick. I was definitely sad to see him go, but Arteta has been fine & the team made a bag of cash.

2007-08
Sagna: best right back in the league. He's been hurt, but buying another one would have been ridiculous. Besides, he's back now & looking good.
Eduardo*: Like so many of the strikers we've talked about already, he was huge when he joined the team. His massive leg-break sidelined him for a year & he lost a lot of confidence. I still like seeing him do well w/ Croatia & Shakhtar.

2006-07
Gallas*: Was a great center back & even became captain for a while. He went nuts, but he's still pretty good when he plays for Spuds.
Rosicky: Another one w/ some injury problems, but he's always been great for The Czech Republic & when he plays, he looks good. He even kept Ramsey out of the line-up today & looked really good. I don't know why, maybe the injury, but I've always liked him. There has been talk of his impending departure, but I hope he sticks around.
Diarra*: An odd buy. He only stuck around for a few months before he was shipped off to Pompy. From there he made his way to Madrid & got into the France 1st team. I never liked him much, but many people do.

All in all, the signings have been good... or at least they've seemed positive @ the time. Besides, the recent calls for the sacking of AW, need to remember that in order to replace him they'd need to find someone better. Real Madrid have been sniffing around & they don't usually make mistakes. There's been talk of Jose Mourhino, but I can't imagine he'd do well w/ a small budget. All things considered, AW has been great, & while I may be in the minority right now, I still trust him to right the ship.

The Artist et al.

I know that you're really hoping for a Burns Night round-up, but what can one say? It was cool. A small showing, but we had fun. Next time there will be haggis, but as is usually the case (& to quote Phil Lesh), minor technical difficulties became major technical difficulties. We enjoyed Scotch. we enjoyed potatoes, & we enjoyed cheese & smoked salmon. Abby & Annette read poetry. Andy threatened to read poetry. Everyone loved the candlestick collection.

And we enjoyed a viewing of Rob Roy on the new HDTV. Of course, the movie is a bit old to really be in HD, but it is fantastic none-the-less. If anything, the hi-def showed how grainy & piss-poor it looks. We also assumed Revenge of the Sith & Pirates of the Caribbean would look sweet on the new HDTV... we were right!

In other movie news, we watched 2 other films recently... a really good one & a really bad one. One is called The Artist the other is called The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon. I dare you to guess which one is the bad one. Give up? OK, I'll tell.

I can't imagine you'll be surprised to find out that The Artist is really good. We saw it in the screening room @ The Michigan Theater. I kind of wish we'd seen it in the main theater, but it is so good, I kind of don't even care. I'm sure you've heard all about it by now & maybe even seen it. If you haven't seen it yet though, be sure to do so soon. It's a beautiful film w/ lots of fun Frenchesque stuff. It sort of has a Singin' in the Rain meets Mel Brooks' Silent Movie feel to it w/ a bit of Life is Beautiful thrown into the mix for fun. See it if you haven't already.

As for The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon, there are 2 main problems involving a sort of misnomer (plus some basic cultural stereotypes that are a tad offensive). 1) The treasure isn't really lost since the ex-pat Aztecs know right where it is. 2) It's not in The Grand Canyon. It's in a canyon, but calling it "grand" even w/ a lower case "g" is problematic. I can't imagine anyone would watch A Hidden Treasure of a Mediocre Canyon... but then I can't imagine many people watched it as it is either. The only reason I watched was because it was in keeping w/ my "Watch anything that features a cast member from Mallrats" policy; however, I don't think even the Lees (Jason or Stan) could have saved this piece of shit. Shannon Doherty's character's father is lost in the SW in the late 19th Century while looking for a city of gold. As we soon learn, he's been captured by the New Mexico Aztecs who are ruled by some version of Quetzalcoatl & his magical powers. In the end, the white people triumph over the nasty Mexicans (& their goofy religion) & all is right w/ the world. Do yourself a favor & avoid this one. Of course, I will watch it every chance I get!

Star Wars Uncut: The Director's Cut

Thanks to Steve & Annette... the entire film as told in 15 second sections from fan films!

Star Wars Uncut: Director's Cut from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

Nap Time?

I'm sitting here watching a DGQ concert on Netflix when I should clearly be grading. What I'd really like to be doing though is taking a nap. It's been quite a while since I've scheduled a nap as I used to do, but I still get the occasional impromptu doze once in a while. A few years ago, I used to be thinking about naps from the moment I rolled out of bed, scheduling them around my lunch & break opportunities. These days, they happen more or less based on the convenience.

However, I laid down the other morning after taking the kids to school & running a couple errands intending to sleep for a bit. I couldn't fall asleep though because I laid there obsessing over a simple question: "Does going back to bed @ 9:15 actually constitute taking a nap or is it simply continuing the slumber from before?" When is a nap a nap? Clearly, laying down @ 3:00PM when one has been awake for 6 hours & sleeping for a half hour is a nap. Not every afternoon sleep could be called a nap though. People working midnight shifts sleep daily @ 3:00PM but would never see that as a nap. The same could be said for any time's slumber so naps are clearly not determined by the time frame.

What about the length of the slumber? Is a 20 minute rest always a nap? I would have said yes except that many people have trouble sleeping & only get 20 consecutive minutes on a nightly basis. They are not taking 25 naps; they are simply not sleeping soundly. I can relate to this some nights... not as often as others though. On the other hand, 8 hours probably shouldn't be called a nap either, but in "A Visit from St. Nicholas" I think it is. We can presume that the speaker of the poem is planning to sleep through the night when he hears the prancing & pawing on the roof. In this case, "laying down for a long winter's nap" is simply akin to going to bed.

Maybe that's always the case though. Had I slept @ 9:15, just an hour & a half after waking up initially, I may have been napping even though in my mind I was simply continuing the previous sleep session. See, here's the thing: I clearly feel there should be a duration of time between waking & going back to sleep for the second sleep to be considered a nap. That specific duration is hard to nail down though. Then again, perhaps I napped w/o realizing it. I mean, I know I didn't fall asleep, but maybe the nap is really just the act of laying down w/ the intent to sleep. Napping seems contingent on sleep, but people go all night w/o sleeping yet still claim they "went to bed." The phrases "going to bed" & "taking a nap" seem almost synonymous except that one can nap w/o a bed. If this is the case, & if sleep isn't really necessary for a nap, I guess I took a nap after all. I don't know. I know I could use one right now though, but alas, I'm off to class.

Burns Night... Are You Ready?

So there's been some talk on Facebook about the upcoming holiday, & I think it's finally been decided. We'll host here on the 28th. It's not the actual day, but it's close enough & I have to work late on the the 25th@ Nicola's. We're gonna keep this one a bit smaller & earlier than it's been in previous years... no 50 people until 3:00AM. Sara & I have to work @ 8:30 the next morning so we're gonna call it @ around 10:30 or 11:00, but if we get started around 6:00 w/ dinner & drinks, read some poetry, have some more drinks, & then have a few more drinks, 4 or 5 hours should be fine. This post will be pulling double duty as 1) a blog post announcing the upcoming supper 2) an invite to which you can RSPV in the comments section. (Secretly, it's actually pulling triple duty by coercing y'all to actually post comments.)Pete has already volunteered Daye to bring the haggis. I'll make neeps & tatties, & I think Geo will bring colcannon. I might make some vegan cock a leekie soup too. The rest of you can bring other Scottish stuff... & some Scotch. (Please remember that Sara is GF & vegetarian so if there is an option for what you're bringing, make it happen!) Also, we'll do this sans kids.Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

Finally, The James Bond Post (& Skyfall)

We here @ Drifting Into Deep Water have been threatening a James Bond post for quite some time. Since we're always ready to make good on our threats (don't believe me? Just ask that sandwich I took down a couple hours ago!), we figured it'd be about time to actually go through w/ it, so here it is. I hope you're as excited about this as we are.

Last May (maybe June) Sara & I met for a drink @ The Tap Room. During said drink, we realized we both had an ongoing intrest in watching all of the Bond films in chronological order so I put Dr. No in my queue & promply moved it to the top. Here we are in January, & I can finally say we're finished. We had to take a couple breaks along the way, but the real stumbling block was the fact that we didn't want to take any short-cuts, meaning we had to watch the David Niven/Orsen Wells/Woody Allen/Peter Sellers spoof, Casino Royale from 1967. We put it off as long as we could, but we watched it the other night so coupled w/ the 1954 made for TV version w/ an American Bond, we can now say we've seen them all.

Casino Royale:
As the 1st film bore this name as did 2 other films, we'll start here. The TV version from 1954 is pretty bad, but it's mid-50s TV so we'll let it slide. On the plus side, Peter Lorre plays Le Chiffre. The 2nd one w/ this name is pretty bad too, but in this case, they must have known they were making a shit movie. Not even Clash of the Titans has such a huge collection of great actors dropping a collective duece on the audience. Maybe Flash Gordon is more impressively bad, but not by much. That siad, it's a near miracle that the 2006 film worked @ all much less became one of the absolute best Bond films to date. You've all seen it a million times though so we don't need to say much more.

Thunderball/Never Say Never Again:
Both are based on the same Flemming book, & both star Sean Connery, but only one is actually awesome: Thunderball. For a long time it was my favorite Bond film, now I'd say it has dropped to maybe 5th on my list. I'd still watch it @ any time of any day, but then again, that could be said of all of these movies. I do like Never Say Never Again too though, & after his turn as an evil emporer in Flash Gordon, Max vo Sydow went on to play an evil genious in this Bond film. It's a fun movie w/ Connery doing his best to reprise the role he made famous 20 years earlier. It's not an official Eon film so they were actually competing w/ Octopussy in the summer of 1983. It lost @ the box office & in terms of quality, but it's fun none-the-less.

Octopussy:
W/ great lines like:
Bond: "We've got company."
Vijay: "That's OK, this is a company car."
we can't overlook the genious of the writing. However, it's clear that Roger Moore's tenure in the franchise was nearing its end. The locations are fantastic & the plot is pretty complex. It's better than many of the Moores, but it's no Live & Let Die.

Live & Let Die/The Man w/ the Golden Gun:
As the 1st 2 Moores, well discuss these together. They're really good. We enjoyed the Blaxplotation stuff in Live & Let Die & the campy psychadelia in The Man w/ the Golden Gun. The switch from Connery to Moore seemed an obvious move after Roger Moore's turns in maverick & The Saint. At the start of his Bond career, he was great. They were already taking it less seriously though w/ the inclusion of characters like Sheriff J. W. Pepper. He turns up in both of these movies & in the 2nd one, he's test-driving an AMC in Thailand in which they do a barrel-roll jump over a river before Christopher lee's character attaches wings to the top of his car & flies away. I did that once... it was pretty sweet.

The rest of the Roger Moores:
As previously explained, I think his last one, A View to a Kill, has the best theme song. It's also got Grace Jones & a robotic dog thing. So that's pretty sweet. Before that, & after his portrayal of Dr. Hans Zarkof in Flash Gordon, Topal played a Greek industrialist in For Your Eyes Only. It's a cool movie w/ a cool ski scene, a cool theme song, a cool chick armed w/ a cool cross-bow, & a cool cliff scene. It's cool. In his late 70s films, we got our favorite long running Bond villian, Jaws. of course, in Moonraker, he actually becomes a hero once he falls in love. Ahhh, love!

The rest of the Connerys:
Since most people haven't seen the 1954 Barry Nelson movie, Connery is consider the original Bond. He's cleary good & set the bar for the rest, but the movies are a bit slow compared to the action parked newer ones. The writing & storylines are awesome though, & of course, there's the volcano hide-out. Never underestimate the volcano hide-out.

The rest of the Lazenbys:
Considering he only made 1, this sub-title might be a bit clunky, but we're going w/ it anyway. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a shit movie, but he was actually good. And he wore a kilt for a bit as he was pretending to be a Scottish Lord. The holes in the plot & the day/night continuity issues were problematic though.

The Rest of the Craigs:
We mentioned his 1st one @ the beginning of this post. His other one isn't quite as good, but we liked it a lot more this time than the 1st time we saw it. It works well & has a darker side than the other films. His next one comes out in October:Skyfall. I'm super excited. It's gonna be cool, I'm sure.

The Brosnans & the Daltons:
After his turn in Flash Gordon, Timothy Dalton went on to make a couple Bond movies: a couple good ones, no less. I dug them a lot more this time than when I'd seen them before. Of course, we're not amused by the dismemberment by a shark of Felix. That was kind of sad.

All in all, the marathon was a fantastic time. 25 movies in 8 months. A good time was had by both of us. And for more on Bond, check out the previous Bond posts from
Visions of Ypsi.

Texas Post #5: 2 Return Trips

January 3:
10:26 Discovered we'd lost the notebook in which we'd been keeping the trip log
10:30 I 35 north to Austin
11:24 Gouged for H2O by some metrosexual Latino thug
11:41 Fake longhorns
12:33 Sign for "Female Oil Wrestling" (I thought it would be a bad idea to stop so we kept going while we were getting turned around looking for a BK)
12:40 Bond style parking lot move
12:42 Found BK
1:22 Cross eyed kid spazzing out in the BK parking lot
1:27 Seat belt debacle & curb issue
1:57 Learned about Waco, TX while researching the Branch Davidians (I had thought they were named after David Koresh, but he in fact named himself after the group)
2:05 Learned about Heaven's Gate (& in turn, Alien Abduction Insurance!)
2:27 Geodesic Dome funeral parlour
2:30 Dee flicked us off
3:26 7/11 stop
3:32 Big dancing frogs
3:43 Saw the Starship Pegasus (a dilapidated flying saucer parked in Italy, TX)
3:56 Hippie geodesic dome church
4:12 City of Dallas w/ a dealership plate cluster
4:20 Sign for Sara's Secret
4:35 Incomprehensible sign about bass & flying saucers
4:37 Roy Huggin's lake
4:45 Lost the pen
4:46 broke out the 2nd string pen
5:02 Ninja grill w/ turtles in cowboy boots
5:39 Andre gave a trucker a taste of Dee's medicine (He gave him the bird... you know, the finger)
6:28 Dee: "I'd like to be unconscious"
7:00 Back in Clarksville w/o stopping @ the one historical marker that we actually wanted to see

January 4
1:33 On the road to Texarkansas
2:00 Coat confusion
2:27 I 30 East
2:45 Texarkansas
2:47 Arkansas State Line
3:05 Debated the Nashville option
3:18 Debated a nap
3:48 Saw a weird thing on a truck
3:49 "Honk if you're rowdy"
3:52 Former cars - current terrariums
4:55 City of Little Rock
4:50 More route debate
5:21 Box of crackers dumped
5:50 Miami Sound Machine interlude w/ gorillas
6:35 Mississippi Riv./Tenn state line/City of Memphis
8:00 Jackson, TN Waffle House
8:45 Days Inn after price debate & a little haggling

January 5
12:15 AM Posted about the trip to San Antonio
8:32 Casey Jones House & Museum
8:38 "The sun is uncool right now"
9:24 Passed a weird tree-picker-upper w/ police protection
9:37 Tenn. Riv/Kentucky Lake
9:45 Loretta Lynn's Country Kitchen Buffet & Store (w/ a light up bison)
10:12 Bucksnort, TN
10:29 Another in a long list of random dudes walking down the highway
10:49 First sighting of ice on roadcuts
10:50 BMW trickster dognoggled us regarding Hawaii
10:52 City of Nashville
10:57 Cumberland Riv.
11:47 Kentucky State Line
1:00 Eastern Time Zone
2:10 Woke up from nap
2:30 Mammoth Cave NP & Dinosaur World
2:47 City of Louisville
4:10 I 75 North
4:14 "Florence Y'All" & a bastard
4:23 Ohio Riv./Ohio State Line/City of Cincinnati
4:29 Traffic Jam
4:45 traffic jam ends
5:29 Awesome sunset
5:55 Simultaneous realization that Wapakenetta needs an "M"
5:58 School bus towing a car
6:11 Decided against mooning the Neil Armstrong Museum in order to save time
7:31 Michigan State Line
8:00 Home again home again jiggety jig

Texas Post #4: More of the Trip Log

28 December 2011 (Continued)
2:25 Picker Stop Antiques w/ wooded ducks
3:02 On the road again
3:17 First flightless wild animal (not sure what it was)
3:27 JESUS billboard
3:29 Little Rock, AR; Occupy Little Rock; Arkansas Riv.; Weird shiny building like a vampire in the sun
4:30 Andre woke up freezing & had missed The Red River
5:25 City of Texarkana
6:15 US 82 West
7:05 Arrived on the prairie

1 January, 2012
We went to Austin & San Antonio. We recorded everything in a brand new notebook because the atlas was falling apart. We then preceded to lose the notebook & all of the notes from that day. That said, I'll sum up since I know you're all anticipating a good overview.
* We saw curious llamas (who lived w/ some ducks) & took some pictures
* We saw a shit-ton of historical markers
* We crossed a really long bridge over a lake
* We decided to take back roads all the way to Austin
* We saw many Donut Palaces
* Andre had a Pimento Cheese sandwich (Kim disapproved)
* Misidentified a fake volcano as a Woolly Mammoth
* We enjoyed the sunset while driving into it & being blinded by it
* We went to Kim & Doug's house in Hutto, TX & assumed they moved there so he could make "Jabba the Hutto" jokes
* Didn't have dinner w/ Kim & Doug @ Chuy's (not the guy from Chelsea Lately, nor Chewie who co-pilots the Millennium Falcon) but saw the nacho car & some weird Elvis stuff!
* Had dinner w/ Kim & Doug @ Mesa Rosa's
* Bid Kim & Doug a fond farewell
* Learned (contrary to Kim's claims) that there are plenty of places to stay between San Marco & san Antonio, but we didn't stay @ any of them because contrary to Kim's other claim, the drive from (Jabba the) Hutto to San Antonio wasn't very long
* We found a fantastic motel room in walking distance from The Alamo & The Riverwalk, but you already knew that because it was discussed in the post about The Alamo & The Riverwalk

Tomorrow I will post the note from the return trip to the prairie & then from the prairie to Jackson, TN this afternoon. Oh, & as it turns out, Jackson, TN is the hometown of Casey Jones!

Texas Post #3: San Antonio (& Graceland)

We left the prairie west of Texarkana around noon heading for The Alamo yesterday. After deciding to take back roads rather than the expressway, we arrived in Hutto around 6:00 to dinner w/ my cousins. A good meal & some nice catching up later, we were back on the road & hit San Antone around 10:00. We found a hotel room in walking distance to The Alamo & The Riverwalk, but the parking situation is pretty weird. We park in a fenced in lot, but there’s no gate, so the fence seems kind of pointless. It’s $5.00 a day, & we just shove 5 bucks in a little slot w/ the # of the parking space on it. I don’t quite know how it works or who collects the money, but it seems to be fine so far. (Check back tomorrow for the continuing saga of the trip log.)

After a good night’s sleep & some acceptable eggs & waffles, we headed across the street to The Alamo. Now, I need to pause here to remind you that I’ve been a Davy Crockett enthusiast since I saw the Fess Parker movie w/ my cousin when I was 3 years old. However, I was given some mixed reviews of The Alamo itself. While some people said it was cool, the general feeling was that it wasn’t worth it. The people who said that were WAY off. It is super cool. I had such a great time. If you get the chance to see it, be sure to do so. The gardens inside the walls are fantastic, the tribute to the people who gave their lives is amazing, & the gift shop has great stuff. I don’t understand why they don’t get state or federal money to operate though. I feel they must have turned it down. It’s run solely on donations & revenue from the gift shop, so I did my part by spending too much money. You should check out the pics on my facebook page too because it’s an awesome place.

Also awesome is The Riverwalk. It’s kind of strange, & a little Venicesque, but it’s cool. Lot’s of bars, restaurants, & little shops down in the river valley but hidden by all the buildings that surround it. We walked around it all afternoon, had lunch & dinner down there, & then enjoyed it @ night all lit up by millions of lights in the trees. We happened upon a few old cathedrals, all of which were oddly locked up, but that didn’t stop us from trying to get in to see the insides. We also happened upon the house of Gen. Cas (the brother-in-law of Santa Anna & the man who may be responsible for making Santa Anna so mad that he marched his men for three months from Mexico to The Alamo in order to kick Texan ass). We even found a dude playing the bagpipes, so that was goo too. Not to mention the Irish pup w/ a real live Irishman singing songs & playing piano. His playing was pretty good, but I didn’t think to request the obvious Elvis tune. Maybe because I can’t decide which one would be the obvious one for him to play. I guess “It’s Alright Mama” would be good, but maybe “A Little Less Conversation” because I really kind of dig that tune. I guess that might not be enough to make it an obvious choice for that guy, but it’s good enough for me.

We got to hear both songs the other day when we stopped @ Graceland on our way to Texas. Like The Alamo, it’s not to be missed. Unlike The Alamo, it’s campy & ridiculous. We took the tour that also allowed us to see the Elvismobile museum & his plane, The Lisa Marie. I really enjoyed the house & the plane, & I was impressed by the gold alligator roof on his Lincoln, but in general, it’s absurd. It was hard to keep a straight face while 2, count them… 2!!! Unrelated people cried @ his grave. One of them, a woman in her late 40s also prayed to the grave. I didn’t get it. I didn’t laugh @ her, but I didn’t get it.

I also didn’t get the fact that the racquetball &gym building had easier access to the bar than the racquetball court, but @ least I can sympathize w/ the thought process that went into designing it.

I also didn’t get the billiard room draped in weird ass fabric. I didn’t get it, but I kind of want to do it to a room in my house.

I also didn’t get the room w/ 3 televisions built into the wall so as to watch all 3 networks @ the same time. Apparently, he heard that Johnson or Nixon or Ford or someone watched all 3 news broadcasts @ the same time & wanted to do the same. I guess I could understand watching soccer, The Soup & Seinfeld @ the same time, so maybe I do get it after all.

I also didn’t get the year-long pass that allows people to visit Graceland as often as they want throughout a calendar year. Who in their right mind would need to go back multiple times in a year? Maybe the crying/praying lady, I suppose.

All in all, The Alamo rules & I would go that repeatedly, so to each his or her own I guess. San Antonio is a great town, but I’m sure if I lived here, I would skip the Riverwalk like Washtenaw County locals skip the art fair. Visiting here is fantastic though… Do it…& maybe check out Graceland on the way.

Texas Post #2: New Years Eve w/ Spaniels

On Friday evening, we went for a nice drive to watch the sunset. After turning down a nice country road, we found an even nicer one. While listening to A Picture of Nectar, we saw an eight point buck silhouetted against the western sky as the sun set in purples & oranges. It was so beautiful, we thought we’d do it again on New Year’s Eve.

After firing off a few rounds from Sara’s uncle’s Glock (Sara also took some shots with the rifle before it mysteriously failed to fire), we hit the road again looking for a new sunset spot. It was not to be. And the moral of this story will be “Don’t trust the map on the GPS!” It looked as though the small county road would circle around & come back near the house so all seemed fine. We were able to get a couple nice sunset photos w/ Saturn (I think) in the background & a cool tree in the foreground. It was soon afterwards that things took a turn for the worse.
The road ended as the map showed it would. We took a left as the map suggested we should. We were happy & all was right w/ the world. Then, had we been able to listen, I’m sure we would have heard “Dueling Banjos” from behind a tree. The road was paved for a moment which was a surprise, but after it turned back to dirt, things got weird. The road twisted & turned up the hills & down the hollers through mud & sand in ways the map didn’t suggest. It then became a narrow, 2-track road. Things seemed a bit creepy, & the GPS wasn’t finding us on my phone the way it should have, but we kept going since the map showed that the road looped back to the highway. It was wrong.

I could tell Sara was getting a bit scared, so I kept the GPS situation to myself. I figured that if she thought we had a working map, there wouldn’t be a reason to freak out. So while she was outwardly freaking out, I had to keep my freak out in the inside. I don’t think letting on that we were off the map would have done any good.

After we were chased by a pretty big dog, possibly a Doberman, we came upon another turn, which presented us w/ a couple abandoned cars & a pile of old garbage. On the other side of the road, there was a sign that seemed to have been made by a freaky local, rather than the county road people who are in charge of such things. It seemed to say that the road was a dead end, but that didn’t make sense since the map suggested it wasn’t. The other problem was that over the sign, someone had secured a piece of poster board w/ a strange, rambling paragraph about fur trapping & how God doesn’t want us to use animals that way. I prepared to get a closer look @ the sign, but Sara wouldn’t let me get out of the car. I believe her exact words were, “YOUARENOTGETTINGOUTOFTHISCAR!!!”

By this point, the sun had set, so we were most definitely in the dark.
The darkness shouldn’t have been a problem, but w/o the map, w/o clear visibility, & w/o the certainty of not being approached by some weirdo, we had problems. As we maneuvered around the clutter of rusted out vehicles, we were approached by a pack of mangy spaniels. These spaniels seemed to have perhaps been abandoned out there. They were so creepy. And hungry. And maybe possessed by Satan.

Oh, did I mention, of course, that we needed gas the whole time? I didn’t, but if you’ve ever seen an old horror film, it should be obvious by now that our lack of fuel was also an issue.

She’d never given me such a direct order before, so I figured I better heed the words, as it were. We kept on going through more mud & twisting hills until we came to a fork in the road, or more specifically, a sort of multi-pronged rake. There were no signs, & we were more than uncertain as to which way to go. We chose the center path, but as we skirted around a few more abandoned cars & a couple old RVs which were missing their front-ends, we turned around. Taking a different route seemed rather perilous because we didn’t want to forget from which way we’d come.
From there, we headed back to from whence we came, & presently had to deal w/ all of the previous perils a second time. Of all of our labors, the second coming of those Satanic Spaniels seemed the worst. They were dark in the road so we couldn’t see them but for the head lights reflecting in their eyes. The dogs didn’t seem to want to get out of our way. Maybe they wanted us to play w/ them, but I wasn’t going to find out. In fact, I considered suggesting that she just stepping on it & plow over the dogs. (I should say right now that she didn’t. In fact, as far as I know, all the dogs survived the ordeal.) We finally got around them, & I let on that the GPS hadn’t been working (we had a good laugh). After our little laugh, we headed home.

Home to blow shit up. That’s right folks, after this ridiculous adventure, we were able to light off a shit-ton of fireworks that we’d acquired @ Boomland just east of Sykesville, MO. At Boomland, I also scored a shot glass for my collection & a coon skin cap for Isaiah. A coon skin cap seemed apropos since we’ll be visiting The Alamo this week. Of course, had we met our doom this evening, there would have been no one to remember us the way we remember the Alamo. In fact, there was a moment when I feared a fate worse than the folks @ the Alamo. What I would have given for 188 compatriots volunteering to go down w/ us. They who faced down the guns of Santa Anna have nothing on we who faced down the spaniels of Hell!