Batman Dark Knight Review

Batman Dark Knight Review

Last Thu we went to the midnight showing of the dark night. We got there about an hour early so we would have a good spot in line. However at that time an hour before the movie started the line was already around the side of the building. 20 min later it had made it to furniture warehouse, and by the time they had opened the doors it has come back up the sidewalk and circled around in front of the theater where we were standing. Counting the people who had made it inside the line was easily 400m long. I had guessed about 1500 people.
Once we got in we found out from the staff that all of the screens would be showing the movie so we just picked one. It was late starting (I assume because they were not expecting that ridiculous # of people showing up), and due to a misprint on imdb in ended up being 152min instead of 142. So was it worth staying up till 4am on a weeknight… Abso-fucking-lutly.

Everyone has been talking about how awesome Heath Ledger was, so I am not going to mention it at all (though it is true). If you would like to read more please see one of the 1000 other blogs on the topic. However the depth of all of the characters in this movie was truly astounding. It seems like all of the action movies I have watched lately have had such flat uninteresting characters that I have been bored beyond belief. Batman shows a lineup of characters who each possess the raw humanity that you do not see much.

How about some compare and contrast:

Joker (ok I guess I lied)
Jack Nicholson plays Jack Nicholson as himself (dressed as the Joker). Have you noticed that every character that Jack plays is exactly the same (crazy, neurotic, same voice) I am starting to think that is not so much the character he is playing but just who he is. Even at the Oscars he has that same creepy vibe.
By stark contrast the Current joker is dark, creepy, menacing, and a definite departure for the actor. This is the reason for Coulrophobia. Ledger makes John Wayne Gacey look like Bozo, and makes Bozo look like Nicholson.

Two Face (spoiler alert)
Remember Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face that lovable tramp with the pink makeup and the outlandish hair. No? Neither does anyone else. If they even saw that movie. This was a low point for a Batman franchise that had reached new lows with each iteration. This was the embodiment of a one dimensional character trying to match wits with Jim Carey playing Jim Carey as himself (dressed as the Riddler)

The Dark Knights Two Face again is so complex many may not even see it coming. Plunged from a respected agent of good, by a tragic loss, into a dark vigilante, this character and Batman beg to have a compare and contrast paper written by middle school children.

Rachel Dawes
Katie “sure.” Holms Raw acting talent had only begun to be tapped when she decided to make a sharp career turn into Tom “I’m crazy” Cruise. Still no one expects much from Batman’s Love interest. Whether it is Kim Basinger, Nichole Kidman or someone else Tom Cruise has dated they are mostly there to look pretty and get into some sort of predicament.

Maggie Gyllenhaal has the natural good looks and acting talent that have eluded Batman and Bond girls alike for decades. It is nice to see a woman bring something to Batman that is not just another pair of lifeless eyes reading their equally lifeless lines.
Don’t you agree Katie Holms?
“sure.”
Well, before I start to bore you (toooo late). What I really liked about the film were the themes of life and death, vengeance and protection, chaos and order. All of these were woven together into a story that was less of a comic adaptation and more of a morality play meets explosive gangster film. I think this movie would have been just as good without any makeup and without any gadgets or explosions. Don’t get me wrong I love gadgets and explosions, but in this Batman they were simply there to further the plot of the movie. They were not the movie.

By the time the movie was over at 4am I left a happy camper. It may have just been the sleep deprivation, but this was by far the best Batman of the series and one of the better movies I have seen in the last couple years.

"Because he's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a dark knight. "

I ♥ KitchenAid

I ♥ KitchenAid

Six years ago for our wedding Cara and i got a KitchenAid mixer. It has served us well over the years it has a PTO (Power Take Off) for the many attachments that I bought like the cheese grater and the meat grinder. We had a lot of good times and ground a lot of cheese, but about a month ago it finally gave out. I was making some oatmeal cookies and a small poof of smoke came out and it just stopped.

My best efforts at resucitating it were unsuccessful. There was a large high power transistor that I considered replacing, and [unsurprisingly] they did not have anything suitable at radio shack. I decided that before I started de-soldering and ordering transistors off of the internet I would call to see in the help line coule do anything for me and my 8yo mixer.

They did verify that it was indeed out of warrenty and then asked me several questions about what I was making...

Karen: How many cups of flour did it have.
John: I don't know about 4... I could look it up if you want the exact number
Karen: Could you
John: (clickety click) [recipe] 4 and a half (double recipe)
Karen: What speed were you using
John: [Shrug] 5?
Karen: Hold on let me talk to some people...
...
...
...
Karen: Well because that is out of warrenty we cannot replace the mixer with a new one.
John: Ok
Karen: But, we can send you a refurbeshed model if that will work
John: OK...
Karen: We don't carry the Epicurean model any more.
John: OK?
Karen: So we will have to give you the Professional 600 model. It is similar, but it has a 600W motor (instead of 475W) and it has a bigger bowl and a better drive train.
John: OK!

Karen went on to explain the shipping details, at which point I did not really care how much it would be to ship. And how much was it to ship? $0 both ways. I was somewhat amazed. She also said that they were backordered (whatever) and that it would probably be a couple weeks and to call after 3.

The 3 weeks went by and called to see how much longer it would be. They said that they were still backordered for the refurbished models, but to give it another week. Two days later I got a brand new Pro600. I am not sure how or why.

Long story... (ok still kind of long). I made some whipped butter topping for an apple crisp and the new mixer is great. Although Cara did mention that is sounded like a jet engine was about to take off on our counter. So the moral of the story is when you get married you should register for a kitchenaid mixer.

RIP Mixy 2000 - 2008

Tree Planting Tips and Ginko Facts

Tree Planting Tips and Ginko Facts

We got a new ginkgo tree to replace our dead dogwood that we planted last year. After some research (me walking around our house with a compass), I finally figured out that the problem was that our house sits about 5 º and that was why it was only getting a couple hours of sun a day. So after I stopped by Prairie Gardens and impulse bought a tree I realized that I still had to get it home.

I did get a lot of looks and even some honking and waving, and then I remembered some MacBeth

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Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where
conspirers are:
MacGutzmer shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam
wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.

Well now I guess I also have that to worry about.

Here is my guide to planting trees (gleaned from several uncited websites, sorry Brett) mixed in with interesting facts about Ginkgos.

1) Choose a good location
This was obviously a problem for me last time so this time I turned to science/“the internet”.
I spent way too much time on this site and scoping out my yard with a compass ( I am sure the neighbors think I am crazy now), and eventually figured out that if I moved it over 3 ft that it would get full sun except a couple hours in the morning during June and July.

Ginkgo trees are dioecious (They have male and female trees)
The male trees are relatively odorless, while the female trees produce a fruit that smells like rancid butter. This is a stark contrast to the Gutzmer house where if anyone smells like rancid butter it is the male.

2) Dig a BIG Hole
The whole should be about 3 times the total diameter of the root ball (at least twice) and about twice as deep (at least 1.5 times). This will give the roots some loosened soil to spread out into and help with drainage and watering. Oh and save the top soil separately from the clay especially in if you are in a new development like me where there is only 4-6 in of topsoil. I got a little carried away on the digging

Ginkgo’s are one of the oldest living species.
The date back more than 270,000,000 years, well before the dinosaurs who did not even make it around until somewhere around 50M years later.

3) Backfill the hole with the topsoil
Remember all that topsoil that you dug out and kept separate?
Throw that into the hole. Fill it up so that it is about the depth of the root ball (plastic pot). Tamp it down so it is not too loose. If there is excess air caught in there it could cause mold.

Ginkgos are on the endangered species list.
It’s true. I know it seems odd that I could purchase them so easily within a mile of my house, yet it is fairly well documented. So in a way I am helping to preserve a species at the brink of extinction. I guess that gives me more incentive not to kill this one.

4) Set the tree and fill around with more topsoil
Pull the root ball out of the pot. Set the tree firmly in the center of the hole and get it pointed in the direction you want it to be. Make sure it is vertical and facing the direction you want it to face. Now loosen up the root ball a little with your fingers or if it has especially tight roots around the outside use a fork some may tear it is ok it will get bound up if it is too tight. Now fill around it with more topsoil. If it looks like you are going to run short mix bagged topsoil with what you got out of the hole. This will be likely if you dug out much clay form the hole.

Ginkgo Trees are the only living member of their: Genus, Family, Order, Class, and Division.
For this reason they are often referred to as living fossils. Almost all Ginkgo relatives died more than 150 Million Years ago. They are noted by their fan shaped leaves with bifurcating veins and growth shoots.

5) Stake and stabilize the tree
Pat all of the soil down around the tree so that it is nice and firm without any voids. I like to get the longest plastic stake I can find and send it down adjacent to the trunk and as far as it will go. Then a little further into the hard clay. Then tie to the tree with some string twine or something that will not harm the trunk. If it will be in a windy area put stakes around the perimeter of the hole outside of where you were digging and tie those to the stake that is stabilizing the trunk.

Ginkgo trees can live for 1000s of years.
There are some monks in China that have some that are over 1500 years old. They are kept as a symbol of Buddhism and Confucianism.

6) Mulch and Fertilizer
Now that everything is set the tree is going to want some food. You can put some slow release fertilizer on top of the soil. If you want you can mix some in with the soil while you are filling in around the root ball. Fertilizer usually causes a rapid spurt of new growth. The new growth will not be as tolerant of harsh winter weather so it is better to fertilize in the spring/early summer not in the late summer or fall. In addition to fertilizer mulch will very slowly deteriorate and release nutrients into the soil. As an added bonus it will help to hold moisture in and keep the tree area from being a big mud hole.

Ginkgo Trees can loose all of there leaves in a single day.
Unlike other trees that may take weeks or months to loose all of their leaves, typical Ginkgo trees loose all of their fan like leaves over the course of 1-3 days. Before they start to fall they turn a bright golden yellow.

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7) Water Water Water
Now you have everything planted and you are done right?
Not remotely. The first year watering is key especially if you are planting late in the season (hello.)
I like to really hose the soil down after the planting and tamp it down some more with my foot just to make sure it is all nice and compacted. After that trees like deep watering that promotes deep root growth. You can get one of those fancy bags they sell at the store or just drill a couple of 1/16 – 1/8” holes in a 5 gallon bucket, the smaller the better. Now you can fill that and set it over the tree. Move the hole closer to the trunk earlier to make sure the tree is happy during the transplant and further away after some time to promote root growth. Do that a couple of times a week for 2 years and you should be good.

Ginkgo Trees are especially tolerant of different types of soils, weather conditions, pollution, disease, and insects.
They thrive in urban areas (though they are still endangered), and can grow into very large shade trees (growing to 20-30m). They are so robust that 4 Ginkgo trees actually survived within 1-2km of the Hiroshima Blast. They were the only living things that survived that close to the blast and are still alive in the city today.

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Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm MacGutzmer.

I'm watching you Elliot

The Spike

The Spike

Last week Cara and I got a new tandem Tonino Lamborghini and after several missed deleveries and going to the scary FedEx Ground terminal to pick it up I finally got it home and put it together. The first test ride @ 1am was a little sketchy, and unstable. After I figured out that I had the front fork on backward it was substantially easier to get around on. also as an added bonus it was not hitting my shoe whenever I turned.

We took it on a 30 tour of the neighborhood on Tue (I did not want to get too far away from the house until after the test ride. Everything seemed good, but the back brakes were still pretty soft. I tightened those some more and hopefully everything will be fine.

I ordered some accessories on Thu off of "the internet". Including a computer so we will know what incredible speeds we reach and som lights for night biking. Hopefully they will be here next week. We rode the bike to church this morning and made pretty decent time. so you might see us more around town. If you do honk and wave. We will try not to swerve off the road or into your car.

Oh... the nickname... When we were discussing it I told Cara that I was going to order "this bike" (the one we had been discussing). She retorted with The Spike? This went on for some time.

Highlights from Oregon

Highlights from Oregon

After the incredibly timely and incredibly long Las Vegas live blog, I figured that I would just summarize the Oregon trip in 4 brief highlights inter mingled with 4 interesting facts about Oregon.

Day 1
Highlight:
Well Day1 pretty much consisted of traveling. We flew out of ORD and arrived in Portland at around midnight just a short 3 hour drive through the mountains and we were there. I guess the highlight would be our new GPS that we got. When you are exhausted and on a road you are not familiar with it is very nice to have an overly helpful navigator always barking out directions. Also fun you can mount to the inside of your airplane window and see where you are and get all sorts of fun info about how fast you are going

Fun Fact:
Montana is huge… Seriously it is ridiculous. It took half of our trip just to fly over Montana.
Also Oregon is cougar country, so watch out young men.

Day 2
Highlight:
After sleeping in everyone finally made it up and went to the bouncy house. Basically just a bunch of those inflatable carnival games in a big carpeted warehouse. The Entry is $5 for children, but then adults can bounce for free… FOR FREE. Apparently they thought that the adults would be more interested in watching their children. FOOLS. Anyway after a couple of hours of running through the obstacle course and throwing young children around the bouncy things with reckless abandon for their safety I was kind of tired. Also I got sent to a time out by my niece. The time out consisted of bouncing with them in the bouncy castle the concept may be lost on them.

Fun Fact:
When you move to Oregon you are given a choice of 2 vehicles. 1) Any kind of Subaru 2) Pickup truck (a big one probably 4x4). There are still some stragglers out there, but it is only a matter of time before the overwhelming peer pressure catches up with them. Volvo’s may be substituted for Subaru’s with a written justification.

Day 3
Highlight:
In the morning we hiked to the top of pilot butte. It was a good hike and a great view. While we were up there the kids ran around aimlessly and then we hiked back down for nap time... sweet nap time. That night we went to an 80s party. Outfits ranged from elaborate Crocket and Tubs to 80 prom dresses to numerous 80s rock T-shirts Extra Credit was given OEM 80s wear. As a bonus my tight rolling skills were still as honed as ever, even on Caras bellbottom jeans(not meant to be tight rolled).

Fun Fact:
Oregon does not have any sales tax. So when you got to buy something that is $19.95 at Target your bill is 19.95. It is kind of weird buying stuff.

Day 4
Highlight :





We went to the park with the nieces and played on all of the playground equipment, and learned to count our way across the monkey bars in several different languages. I think I may have led the children astray on the German counting, but who really needs 11 of anything. Then there was a Sly and the Family Stone cover band in the park. We laid on blankets in the sun and took it all in while a woman on the stage in a white wig twirled and marched around to the music. I think she was with the band, but who knows. We ended the day with a cookout with Cara’s cousin who also lives in bend and her daughter and played “ladderball” “hillbilly golf” “boloball” that we had spent a ridiculous amount of time driving around trying to find earlier that day.

Fun Fact:
You are not allowed to pump your own gas in Oregon. It is all full serve by law. I don’t really know what the point is and it is kind of frustrating when you do not know what is going on and you just want to get some gas. Maybe it is some sort of job creation thing or maybe it is a safety thing, either way it was all kindof weird. Also do you tip the gas fillers? Should you get out of your car and talk to them? Do you get out of your car at all?
Excerpt:
Gas Guy (GG): What do you need?
Me: Gas?
GG: How much?
Me: All of it… Fill’ er up (I knew that phrase would come in handy eventually)
Me: (giving the gas guy a wad of bills) thanks.
GG: Uhh you have to take this inside with this ticket
I took the ticket inside with the same wad of bills. There was a group of about 4 people standing in the vicinity of the cash register. I asked them if they were in line and they said they were waiting to pay for gas (yet they were not doing anything). A couple of seconds later the cahier said #7. I looked at my ticket and there was a large 7 on it. I exclaimed “That’s me”, probably a little too loudly and w/ more excitement than anyone was used to. I paid and gave them the ticket, and then as I was walking away was informed that I needed to take the now stamped ticket back to the Gas Guy. [sigh] I had already moved my car, so I drove around the station lot a couple of times looking for the guy. All in all I would have rather just gotten my own gas.

The real question is what to the Oregon people do when they come to Illinois. Do they need some special instruction on how to pump gas when they get here. Well at least if I looked marginally retarded trying to deal with their gas system they will look equally retarded when they get here.

Day 5
Highlight:
We went out to breakfast in the morning and then drove back across the mountains to some wineries. We stumbled on a nice free one right at the beginning with an awesome view of the valley. Then we tried a few more that were not as good or closed. The GPS we got nuvi200w performed admirably for the entire trip, then as we were trying to get to one of the wineries it took us through the parking lot of another winery and then into the vineyard. The roads got smaller and smaller till eventually we were just driving through a field. I am sure that if we kept following it we would have gotten out eventually, but we opted to turn around. We ended up going to a different winery where there was a rather inebriated group from Boston. Nothing like a bunch of drunk asses to make you look like a responsible wine coinsurer.

Fun Fact:
The Portland airport has FREE wireless, and happy hour specials $2.50 microbrew pints, and $3 gourmet burgers… and happy hour goes from 5 – midnight. It is weird not to be screwed in the airport. But bottled water was still $3 so I guess it is all relative. Also note that if you are trying to check luggage with wine in it United will make you buy some stupid box to put it in.

Bonus Fact:
The Oregon flag has two seperate sides. The back side has a picture of a beaver, much to the shagrin of all Oregon middle school boys.

Billboards I Like to Argue With 1

Billboards I Like to Argue With 1

Cara has often pointed out that I like to argue, sometimes just for the sake of arguing. It is a source of some frustration when I try to start a lively debate with her, and she is less interested in exploring the merits of the flat tax, or ground based laser defence systems. sometime I must take my ire out on less articulate opponents. So I present to you "Billboards I Like to Argue With"

This is a prime example of billboards that do not really make any sense and kind of piss me off. I will let the whole circa 1995 Jerry Sienfeld look alike contest thing slid and move on to the content of the ad. This is a guy who is clearly just starting out and wants to get his name out there. That is why his name is 6 times as big as anything else in the ad, with the possible exception of his gigantic head looming over that small town.

Then there is the tagline or Time Hoss's slogan. Real Estate the "Fairway"[sic]. Now I am not the grammar police. In fact they probably have a warrant out for my arrest, but I really have no idea what this means. I can only assume that he is some sort of golfer and this is a "clever" play on words. Perhaps he should have had some sort of golf club to clarify his message.

What he may be unaware of is that many people consider the use of quotation marks to imply sarcasm. In this case I would have to assume that 1) he mistakenly misspelled fairway, and 2) that he is a shady realtor who will do whatever backhanded things it will take to get the job done. He will lie steal and cheat to get you what you want in this fast paced real estate market. Ok, maybe I should give him a second chance. If I am buying something I would kind of like him to be an evil slit your throat Jerry Sienfeld. On the other hand what motivation does he really have to get me the lowest price it it is just going to bring his commission down. I am going to pass on your services for now, Jerry "Fairway" Sienfeld.

While that may have been a leap what I can actually infer from this sign is that this is a guy who is so interested in golf (and puns) that he put that ridiculous slogan on his sign. I can only assume that this will somehow bleed over into his work. Where is my realtor? Out playing golf. What are these open hose decorations? Golf balls and Caddie hats (I am not complaining about the BBQ meatballs on golf tees). Where is the closing? At the pro shop.

Whatever it is he is going for on this sign, he is not getting it across, at least not to me. Then again I am not an avid golfer. I really only make it out once or twice a year. Maybe it is an inside joke that only golfers get. Maybe he was so excited to get his enormous head looking down on the Barr Real Estate office that he hurriedly threw that up there with out really getting any constructive feedback. Either way I am going to go watch Caddyshack and see if I can't figure this whole thing out.

Cloverfield live review

Cloverfield live review

Hey rememeber how crappy blair witch project was...
Well cloverfield is 2 leat 5 times as horrible.
Yes that is right I am exactly 23:36 into the movie and i have almost puked twice.
seriously this is the worst thig I can ever seen. Cut shots of random crap...
That is the best part of the movie.
then there is all of the first person camera evcuation....
I think I am going t puke...
PS we all realized like 20 min ago that HUD the main characters name is the name ofa Japanese movie characers name.... bleh

ok now I am going t throw up... cut shots and rapid camera angles. Yeah, just like Blair witch, excetpt horrible. Dood this it the worst thing have ever seen...
Well it is 34 min in and I am giving up... Ill leave the rest of these suckers watching the movie ... I am going to bed L8R

Vegas Baby... Vegas 3

Vegas Baby... Vegas 3

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Lesson of the night... never pay full price for anything in Vegas. So tonight we decided to take in a couple of shows and dinner. We got a package deal for dinner, some drinks an impersonator show and a trip to the top of the tower (more later). All told it was fairly cheap and a good time. then we had a coupon for another show later in the evening. We got all signed up and got all of our tickets, then Cara signed up for the casino rewards program. All we had to do was lose about $10 and then we got a free admitance to the "romance lounge" and a buy 1 get 1 drink ticket.

The impersonator show was pretty good (Elvis, Some Country guy, Rod Stewart, Agularia and, Michael Jackson). It had its highs and lows (I'll let you guess), but over all it was pretty good, and we got free drinks while we were there. The dinner was about what I expected. Then we went to the second show which had 6 things that John loves: Classic Rock, Magic, Acrobats, Vampires, and Light Show. After that we went up to the top of the tower "the tallest structure W of the mississsippi" It had some awesome views. We went to the romnce lounge which was a bar on the bottom of the wig sphere looking out on the city. the 1/2 price martinis were about as much as normal in champaign, but WTF its vegas, and you are really paying for the view. Well I have to turn off this horrible movie w/ freddie prinz and ving raims. L8R

BTW the wig sphere did not have any wigs but there was a wig store right out side... It is only a matter of time.

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Tonight was a whirlwind night before leaving las Vegas. We went to see the fountians at the Belagio which were pretty cool and free :). Cara found some tickets to a free magic show that we were intrested in. I was skeptical ♫Nothing gets you nothing♫. As we approached the hotel which was off of the strip the density of people deccreased exponentially. When we got there the place seemed kindof shady.

We sat in the lounge and had a beer while we contimplated our next move. while we were there there was an older couple fiddiling with some sound equiptment on the other side. Behind us some woman one a small amount of money on a slot machine. Unfortunatly these machines did not actually pay out directly. She went to get someone to open the machine and give her the money. At this point the elderly gentelman got up and introduced himself his wife and his friend, and informed us that they would be starting the keroke now.

Exerpt:
Old man (yelling to the bar): "Hey can you turn that music off"
no response
Old man (louder): "HEY! would you turn that music off"
Old mans wife: "Honey I think it is the TV"
Old man: "HEY! would you turn that TV off"
Old friend: "I actually think it is one of those slot machines" (it was)
(Old man begins singing)
Epilogue: The woman who was playing the twight zone slot machine, after she realized that she was inadvertantly causing all of this comotion slowly packs up her things a cashes out. The bartender came over to give retrieve her winnings from the machine, or at least the remainder of her losings. The old man never realized what had transpired, but seemed happy that the noise was gone. Cara and I mad a hasty exit.

The whole experiance was kindof sureal, like we had some how entered some alternate retirement home version of vegas.

After that we went back to the strip for a delightful dinner at a parisian cafe in the Paris casino. It was probably the best meal we had the entire time and was very reasonably priced for Vegas. We waxed extatic about our time in actual paris and enjoyed the short respit from the hectic rush of the strip. Then we hectically rushed next door to a varity show we had gotten half priced tickets for. There were some pretty awesome jugglers, gymnasts, and some awesome short shows with some fantastic special effects, at one point I was slightly concerned the theater might burn down. After that we made a slow retreat to our hotel past the throngs of day labourers handing out prostituse playing cards (they may have been advertisments, i did not ask), and tried to get some shut eye for our long day of travel.

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This morning we made a 30 min trek to get some free Starbucks that Cara had a coupon for. I tried to point out that, while we were on vacation our time did still have some value, but it was nice to get some fresh air and excercise before being confined (not unlike the gymnasts) to a very small space for the next 10 hours. On the way back in I still had $10 in chips that I figured I could either lose or win big. I played couple rolls of craps, and a couple hands of blackjack and lost it in no time. I did not win a single hand in blackjack.

We tried to make one more trip to the lazy river, but alas it was closed. So we splashed around in the wave pool for a bit and then went to pack up. Caught our shuttle and hurried off to the airport. At one point going through the security area there were no slot machines around. The people in front of us commented on how quiet it seemed. I guess you get used to the constant clang of 1000 slot machines all clamouring for your attention.

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We made our flight with a few minutes to spare, and then on the connecting flight we had to run down an entire concorse get on a tram and then run down another entire concorse to jump on our plane just before it left. They closed up everything and pushed away from the gate...stopped... pulled back in... opened the luggage compartment... threw in our bag... and pulled away. We pulled into bloominton @ around 10 and our bag had indead made it. It took us some time to find the car. We had parked in the Itchy lot. We got to our car, and realized that someone had left the dome light on [sigh]. A nice gentelman helped us jump our car. Yeah Bloomington again.

So this concludes the vacation blog. I hope this has been as exciting for the 3 people who read it as it has been for us to write. OK lets hope it has been more exciting.

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Vegas Baby... Vegas 2

Vegas Baby... Vegas 2

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We made it! After getting in to Vegas about midnight (2am to those on Central time) we partied till dawn...ok, we checked out a brew pub, then gambled away $3 at the nickel slots and went to bed. Looking out our window we can see a castle (Excalibur), several sky scrapers, and a roller coaster! John was excited that our hotel has a magic shop (sigh). John says the lazy river isn't in today's plans, but we'll see. The weather for Vegas for the next week will be 83-85 for highs and 65-67 for lows. The weather forcast had a big banner across it that said NO CHANGE. You don't see that much in IL! We'll come back with more adventures!


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So since we are still kinda on central time we should be getting an early start right... Maybe it is the getting to bed @ 4am. Anyway our plan is to mosie up the strip take it all in and maybe see a show. Unfortunatly Cara is not going to let me bring the laptop down the strip so I the next update may be late. Unless... I can sneak my laptop in Caras rediculously large purse. We'll see.


Anyway Here is the view from our room, and it looks like they fired up the roller coster... Well I know where I am going to be!

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Well if took us about 4 Hours to puruse the 4 hotels that are adjecent to ours. We previewed some new show on NBC about a tutor to spoiled kids. We were going to put $10 on Colonel John in the Kentucky Derby, but I did not really know what time the race was, which was ok since the finished horribly anyway. This afternoon we are going to take the monorail ♫monorail monorail♫ up north for a show and the stratosphere (wig sphere). So far in the money losing race Cara and john are tied @ $-3.00

BTW we have picts up on picasa

Vegas picts

Vegas Baby... Vegas

Vegas Baby... Vegas

Cara and I are heading to Vegas for a long weekend and to get away after her National board stuff. I thought I would include the 4 people who read my blog by posting frequent updates (live blagging) the trip. Cara is somewhat sad because she will be missing her Scholastic Bowl Teams appearance @ the state finals "GO Jaguars" but not sad enough to rearrange the trip. We have everything planned and we will be staying at the Monte Carlo (I assume it is in the shape of a giant car). We are not planning to gamble much as we each have taken a high school math class, and are aware of probability, but we will probably each get a small gambling stipend so we can at least have a competition. Lets call it $1 a piece I will post updates as to who is winning. We will probably see a show or 2, but have not made any definite plans yet.

Exciting future blogs to look forward to include:

Waiting at the airport

Layovers

more Waiting at the Airport

So check back often and I will keep you updated.

050208 1009

The weather graph looks frightful, but we will see how Bloomington fairs with keeping planes in the air. I happen to know for a fact that the planes that fly our of Willard are made out of some sort of sugar based composite because whenever it rains they cancel all of their flights, but I have high hopes that the planes @ BMI are at least wooden if not Alumnium... We'll see If it does get canceled / postponed @ least we can pop over to the Scol bowl (also in Bloomington).

050208 1242

More awesome transportation news I have been trying to call our pre-reserved trans from the airport to the hotel to confirm, and they have been putting me on hold for ~15 min and then I get dropped. So far I have been on hold for a cumulative 60+ min and have been dropped 5 times. Oh well I am pretty sure if they do not show up that I can figure out a way to get where I am going... It will be just like the amazing race w/out Jeff Probst.

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"Good news everybody"

It looks like all of the weather has mosyied on, and the incredibly professional [sarc] AirTran website says our flight is on time. I got a hold of the shuttle lady and apparently we did not even need to call for an airpot pickup. Also with some help from me and the art teacher Senior Fernslero there are now life size pictures of Cara to go to the scol bowl tournement.

050208 1432

You know how sharks can sense fear. I think my users can sense when i am about to leave the office early or take a day off. I try not to let word get out but they all seem to swarm me 20 min before I am getting ready to leave.

050208 1630

Bloomington airport is Grrrreat!

We got in parked Checked in Checked our bags and got through security all in 30 min. Also I forgot to take my pocket knife out of my pocket.

Security woman "you can't take that on the plane"

Me "I know"

Security woman " but you can put it in this envelope and we will mail it back to you at the airports expense."

Awesome

050208 1903

Apparently our next flight is slightly delayed, but @ least the atl airport has a shit ton of electrical outlets. We went to a seafood resturant in the airport for some overpriced crab cakes and the worst forks ever. Seriously I went through 3 forks. I expect this from fast food, but if you are going to screw me on a pint of beer @ least give me a decent fork.

Cara says:

So I let John choose the restaurant....Cara 1 John 0. I too love Bloomington...free parking and short lines...what more can you want? Got some updates from the state schol bowl tourney. Jefferson won 1 and lost 2...to make us 19-3 for the season. I am super sad that I couldn't be there, but people have little sympathy for me when I tell them I'm heading to Vegas. We'll be in all 4 continental US time zones today, so that's something to look forward to. Tomorrow- Lazy river!