Dawn and John

Now Where Was I?

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Oh Yes. My Birthday, part III.

Not only do most people's birthday only last one day, and two celebrations are rare, but somehow we managed to make a third trip part of my birthday celebrations. A second trip to Vegas. We had been planning a trip to Vegas kind of half-heatedly, then I signed up for emails from the Bally's Casino group. They sent a me an offer of $37 for a Friday and a Saturday night. $74 for a weekend, tax included. How could we not go?

This trip was much less stressful then our first, which we took on as part of our trip west to move out here. This time we took our time strolling through the casinos seeing what each had to offer, and getting tips from my sister on what to do.

One of the things we did do was go to the discount tickets window, there are a number of them on the strip and one on Freemont street. We scored tickets for The Blue Man Group and Madam Tussaud's (sp?) wax museum. The dummies are a little shocking to see in real life, to see the work they've put into them. In real life, you wouldn't be fooled by them, but in the right light, the right picture does make it look as if you are standing there. There was only one instance where there was a "pro" photographer insisting he take our picture (with Barack Obama.) They wanted to charge so much for the picture though, mostly to spite them, we snuck back in through the exit, and took our own picture.

If you've not seen he Blue Man Group, you really should. It's parts rock and roll, experimental theater, stage magic and audience participation. It's tough to describe it otherwise, but while Dawn, Sara and I walked out of the theater excited and elated, other were feeling like they'd been hoodwinked.

We also went out to the Red Rocks Canyon just outside of Vegas. The rocks a wonderful shade of earthy red, and are great for rock climbing. But, it was cool and windy on the day we went, a day that turned into overcast, windy, and with hail falling from the sky. That did not stop us from getting out to see the seasonal waterfall.

The rest of the trip? Stays in Vegas.

My Birthday Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:01:00 +0000

So most people's birthdays only last one day, but somehow my birthday became the excuse for three weekend worth of fun. Weekend one was Disneyland, weekend two: Sea World, San Diego.

Sea World is not one of the theme parks I'd been to before this. I had some idea what I was in for, I figured I'd see some a killer whale named Shamu, for example, but other then that, I didn't know what I'd get.

Sea World is a mix of amusement park, animal shows, zoo, aquarium, and celebration of things Budwiser.

The first animal show we went to didn't even involve any sea life. The have a show where they rescue animals from the pound, and have trained them to do tricks. Dogs and cats, running around in all sorts of zany ways, hopping, jumping ropes, running obstacle courses. The most amusing animal for me running the course was the pig though. Rather then jump over the brick wall, he went through it, with a crash sound effect.

Of course we saw Shamu. I did learn that Shamu is the stage name of the whales used in the show. There once was a Shamu, and the name is too recognizable to not keep it going, so each park has a Shamu. The show we saw, called Believe, had a story line, and encouraged us to protect the ocean. Also, the whale jumps way up out of the water, flips around, and occasionally splashes the audience.

We also saw the Budwiser Clydesdales. I'm guessing they are a big park sponsor, because a team of them is kept there, and I think they occasionally pull the cart around, but we didn't wait for that, just tried to get a little face time with the horses.

There's many opportunities for interaction with animals. You can have a swimming experience with dolphins, feed various animals, take time to pet them too. We got to pet rays, and feed seals, or sea lions or both, but didn't wait around the time it would've taken to pet or feed dolphins.

We did also see a dolphin show. I'll admit it, I was a sucker for the gimmicks used in the show. It was no Shamu Slam, but it was fun in a different way.

If you do go, protect your food and small children from the birds around the park. The aves are not shy about stealing stuff.

I thought we lived in San Diego...

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 06:33:00 +0000

Well that's the theory anyway. We might be living in Seattle based on the weather lately. Apparently John and I brought the cold, wet nastiness to San Diego this year. Everyone keeps telling us that the weather we currently experiencing is the strangest its been in years. I'm not so sure. Now highs in the 50s aren't bad for February and are downright fantastic in some parts of the country but here where the beach is just moments away and where they kept telling me it was warm, sunny and beautiful all year long, it's just downright odd. Weather complain now over.

Work is going ok. We now have a technician to fill the gap until the other technician from Texas arrives. Since handing over my ordering duties I've been able to focus on getting some science done which has been fabulous. As always, there is more that needs to be done and I should be working more, but I think things are going well for now. The meetings every week with the big bosses are a little frightening. I am use to trying to please just one boss. Having never been very successful at that in the past 7 or so years, I now have the added anxiety of trying to please 4-5 people.

On the home front, the place is quite cleaned up and starting to look like we actually live here. I don't think I'll ever think of it as my home but it now has John and Dawn touches on it. I've been a little crafty lately so I think in my next post I'll show some of my craftiness. Nothing really that great but not putting in 10 hour days at work 7 days a week, makes me need something to do :)

My extra time has also giving me an opportunity to start reading again. I am currently obsessed with mystery novels. I'm not sure where this is coming from but I seem drawn to them especially the ones that are in a series so that I can follow the character through their unlikely lives as amateur sleuths. Right now I'm really enjoying the Goldy Culinary Mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson, The Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle, and Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper by Elaine Viets. I've read most of the Hannah Swenson Mysteries by Joanne Fluke but their is a love triangle with the main character, Hannah, and the two men, Norman and Mike, that she seemingly has hanging on her every word. Now I realize that the idea that one woman could live in a town where there has been multiple murders in less than two years and apparently law enforcement is so bad that the local cookie shop owner is the only one able to figure out whodunit is pretty unrealistic, however, the idea that two men would propose and be "ok" with the fact that this woman is dating both of them and refuses to marry either one because she just can't choose is beyond impossible. I will probably finish the series because I'm a completist but I'll shake my head through the whole thing.

Also in our free time we've been all over the place it seems. I'll leave John to do the details of our recent voyages because he does a much better job with it than I do but I can give the reader's digest version. We went to Vegas to visit Sara again. This time we stayed on the Strip at Harrah's and had a great time. John was lucky and won back all the money I lost :) We also got a little outdoors scenery in as well with a visit to Red Rock's Canyon where it proceeded to hail as we went on a hike. It was definitely a memorable visit :)

Last weekend we went sea kayaking in La Jolla Shores. Now for those of you who might not know, I am a Southern Atlantic Ocean girl. The Pacific is not the Atlantic. It is cold. So sea kayaking involved wet suits. Which the deal I made with John and Rachelle was that noone was allowed to laugh or make fun of me in the wetsuit, but overall we all looked rather silly so we all ended up laughing at ourselves. Wetsuits don't do much for the overall physique but add on helmets and life jackets and let's just say the outfit is something to behold :) We had a great time with our quite cute guide checking out the famous 7 caves of La Jolla Shores.

For this weekend as you may know, I am not the hugest fan of Valentine's Day so John and I had our traditionally boycott of Valentine's Day by having Beer and Pizza with TV. This year with my joy of Weight Watchers we made our own pizza instead of Domino's but it was pretty darn good anyway. I've also gotten it into my head that I need to run a 5K and 10K before I turn 31 this September so I tortured John this weekend by going out running with me. The Wii Fit says that I can run 6 miles in 30 minutes. However, in the real world it takes me 20 minutes to run/walk 1.5 miles. So I've got some work to do. Also this weekend we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. It is a nice aquarium but it is hard to not compare it to the GA Aquarium. We had a nice time though getting out and about. We're determined to explore San Diego as much as we can and I think we are making some major headway :)

Maybe if I blogged more often my posts wouldn't go on forever. Hmmm...have to think about that for awhile :)

Let's Jump To My Birthday Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:20:00 +0000

My birthday this year got spread over three weekends. This post is about the actual day of my birthday, January 10th.

On my birthday, We Went To Disneyland! It wasn't the real original plan, I was thinking we were going to go to the zoo. Turns of Disneyland offers free admission on your birthday. But only on the day of your birthday. No rain checks. So, instead we got out of bed and drove to Anaheim to go to Disneyland. I had been to Walt Disney World before, as had Dawn, but this was our first trip to Disneyland. I think I spent most of the day in wide-eyed amazement, just surprised by that mere fact that I was in Disneyland. I know, it seems stupid to some, but growing up in WI before air travel was $200 a ticket. you know not like it is now, going to Disney was a once in a life time experience. Just getting to go to the park twice in my life time was what I thought was pretty cool. Now knowing that Disneyland is only 90 minutes from where I live. Well, it feels like nothing can stop me now.

So, yea, on this trip, rather then focus on the rides, I did spend most of the time just looking at things and thinking about how much time and effort has been put into these things. Like walking around an elaborate movie set, because you know it's not "real" but there it is in front of you.

Not that we completely ignored the rides, we did go on the safari boat ride, and splash mountain, (among others,) but really, I think our favorite was the teacups. We took many pictures, I think these are our favorites.

We spent nearly all day there, visiting each of the major park sections, I don't think we left until near closing time.

We also learned that we like churros and even tried to re-create favorite movie scenes with them. Here we are doing our impersonation of "Lady and the Tramp."
Yes. We are wearing mouse ears. They'll even stitch your name on your hat.

I also think if you were making a noir disney movie, this would be a great closing shot.

Christmas, here there and everywhere.

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:12:00 +0000

Christmas present opening is done with my family on Christmas eve. Also in our house we take turns opening presents. There's an orderly process. First, the ages of everyone in the room are determined. Then the youngest person in the room picks a gift, (not their own,) and presents it to the recipient. The recipient opens it, and we all ooh and ah. Then the next youngest picks a gift, and so on and so on. The advantages of this system is no-one's gift, either as a recipient or as a giver is overlooked. The disadvantage of this system is it can take an long time to get through all the gifts (depending on the number of people, and number of gifts per people. You do the math.) But it also leads to a number of running in-jokes, referring to monkey paws, pictures of Dave or the "or you can have box number 2" tradition.

We all received a number of very cool gifts this year, but the best part was the gift seen multiple times in the evening. Let me show you:

That's right it was a Merry Wii Chirstmas.

The biggest disadvantage of for us on this night is the dreaded get up before you even get to sleep to catch a plane to see the other half of the family. But, this is our tradition and we love and build on our tradition every year.

In previous years, we got to go Atlanta, and drive to Chapin, SC. This year, we got to fly all the way to Columbia, SC, and had chauffeur service (Thanks Claude!) pick us up and get us back to their house. Where, in also a growing tradition, they let us sleep before going for the gifts.

The tradition there is Christmas Day opening of presents, with a distribution of presents by Claude, and everyone getting a little pile of presents in front of them and the chaos of opening everything all at once, with some oohing and aahing over particularily good gifts. There are traditions here as well, including Dawn, Tanya and Rosie getting pajamas. All in all, a good time.

So, Let's Jump to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 06:32:00 +0000

So, having been in San Diego just a few weeks, we head back east for Christmas. The trip itinerary this time includes Milwaukee, Chapin, and Dayton. We also had stopovers in Phoenix and Charlotte. We left on a very nice San Diego day. Notice the lack of jackets in this photograph. I was warm in the sweater I was wearing. But, it is family we must see, so onto Milwaukee we go. Through Phoenix. In Phoenix, we saw Rapper and Actor Ice-T passing though, with his wife. It didn't really hit me who it was until he was about even with me. So, no photographs, no autographs. Besides I wouldn't know what to say to him if I saw him. I'm no big fan of his rapping, or acting, so we'll just add him to the list of famous people I've seen in airports. The list now includes two: Ice-T and Emmanuelle Lewis.

The holidays at my family's house includes the cookie day tradition. The day when we gather to make cookies and don the cooking articles of clothing my mom prepares. We've had aprons, hats, and this year, oven mitts. Some cookies get made every year, others are experiments that sometimes become traditions. This year was the first year in Peg and Dave's new house, and one of the biggest cookie days we've had. We greatly missed the presence of my sister, but my sister in law's sister and her husband came this year. We were also joined by Dave's niece and fiancé.

Other things that go along with cookie day includes sugar highs, silliness,

cookies poorly decorated by John. (One year I was mixing colors and managed to make grey frosting.)

We also had lots of snow, and that gave me and Dawn opportunity to play in the snow. We did try sledding, but the snow, the day we decided to go out was too wet. We did manage to snap a few cute pictures though.

Three posts in two days? Must be a Record....

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Having enjoyed a night in Las Vegas, we woke as on time as we ever did the next day to meet Sara, who provided breakfast for us and introduced us to all of her co-workers. Apparently she set up a game where the had to guess when I came in. I think one person said they guessed right, everyone else, not so good. (Though I'd think the game wouldn't be that hard. I imagine there place, for breakfast has mostly regulars, so spotting the guy who's never been there before should've been clue number one.) Admittedly, Sara and I do not look much a like, so that would've been the biggest challenge.

Honestly, there's not much to the pictures to see on this day. The only one really worth looking at is the arrival in California picture, which also serves as the last self portrait in the serise.

So, we made it to California, even made it into our apartment. The first thing we did is go to the beach right? Nay! There was unpacking to do, things to get arranged. we hardly got any free time until well after we got here, a story I might save for another time, because it's boring. And if there's one thing you don't want to detract from one boring story, it's another. (I know, I've got a boring story about a broken down Mazda in Mississippi that bores the pants off 'em.) So really there was a lot of running around before we finally came to the real completion of our Westward journey, putting our feet in the Pacific.

So, let's all pretend that these pictures were taken on November 1st, though really it was December 14th. This though, really did mark what we considered the symbolic end of our westward journey.

By the way, the water was freezing. Our feet went numb after taking these pictures. But we had done it. We had gone all the way across the country, from Fernandina Beach, Fl, to San Diego CA. Dawn also managed to snap these amazing photos from the cliffs near UCSD and the Torrey Pines beach.

Where have I been?

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:24:00 +0000

Alright John is right (that's right I said it). I haven't blogged in forever. I guess the mess of moving, settling in, getting work going, Thanksgiving, Christmas and John's birthday have sorta of overwhelmed me. And I'm not one to want to talk about messes until they are hopefully far behind me. So here goes the update since the last time we chatted:

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving which was great and sad all at the same time. It was nice to go somewhere that felt familiar but it was harder to leave it behind then ever before. I mean before it was 2.5 hours away and now we're a really long plane ride away. After Thanksgiving sales were only so-so this year, but with the economy stinking it up, there was not the huge crowds as usual which was much appreciable albeit sad for the survival of the stores.

Back at work things were coming along with the setup. It seems like we keep hitting plateaus in the unpacking. There is still so much to get done and every time I turn around there is something that we need or are missing. It is enough to drive anyone insane. One crappy part of the event was my project that I was working with was a sponsored research project sponsored by a company. Due to the worsening economy, the company decided our project would be part of their downsizing. Well that just sucked to say it as politely as possible. Luckily my bosses are founders of another start-up company that is being incubated inside UCSD. Me and my other now jobless cohorts (all of which just moved to San Diego) lost our jobs on 12/17 and had an interview on the 18th with the other company. What a great start to the Christmas holiday, huh?

Christmas was a crazy time as always. We continue to do the travel everywhere trip which is great and crappy at the same time. We love seeing both sides of the family but the traveling does wear us out and we always wish we could spend more time with everyone. It was a great holiday though. It was a hard holiday with my side of the family with my Aunt Alma's passing. Christmas was always the time that we visited with her and it was hard not getting to see her this holiday. We were able to visit with some of my extended family that I don't get to see much of and that was just great.

We returned to the Cali with a little nervousness of what was going to happen with my future employment. Our New Year's we celebrated at home watching the ball drop on CNN because they delay the NY celebration out here. So we celebrated New Year's at 9pm instead of midnight. I guess I'm still stuck a little bit in the east coast :)

On Jan 2nd I had a second interview for the other company and luckily I am now gainfully employed again (YEA!). I never thought I would be taking the risks that I am with working for a start-up company. I mean, I'm always the one who takes the safe route and tries not to rock the boat but here I am always thinking of what is going to happen if the company doesn't make it because in the current state we're in you never know. Hopefully I'll have this job longer than 4 months :)

John's birthday arrived on Jan 10th and we took off for Disneyland. The deal is you get in free on your birthday and so being that neither of us had ventured there before we thought it would be fun. To our great luck, someone was selling their 3rd day of a 3-day pass for $20 so we went to Disneyland for $20 total. It was great fun even though we didn't get a chance to see everything. I guess that just means we have to go again (my birthday maybe?). John got a button that said it was his birthday so everyone at the park and even some other people just walking around would say "Happy Birthday John! Are you having a good time?" It was just so cool. I do have to say that Disneyland was quite different than Disney World. Not bad, just different. Also we got to try out churros for the first time which is apparently the big thing to eat there. It is basically a fried doughnut stick dipped in a cinnamon-sugar mix. I have to say that now I would like to be a connoisseur of these delicious delicacies although I don't know if my current Weight Watchers points will be able to include them on a regular basis.

So then this week we've been trying to get in the swing of labwork. Things are starting to get going and we tried out the new fancy schmancy new microscope in lab that is AWESOME (totally cool nerd toy). I will hopefully post a picture of the cool pictures you can get from it. It is just way cool.

On Saturday (1/17) we headed to Sea World with Rachelle and Anne. Getting the yearly pass (which is the same price as getting a one day pass for So Cal residents) was so worth it because we leisurely took in the park. There was aquariums that we missed but hey we'll just come back some other day and check those out. The churros at San Diego are not as good as the churros at Disneyland (my taste testing continues). Also the funnel cakes are not nearly as good as those you can get at the NE FL county fair from the CMS band. I have high standards for my Weight Watchers points and I was disappointed. I'm guessing my weigh-in this week is not going to go so well :(

Well that brings us up to today which has been a lot of still trying to get the house in order. The apartment is livable but could be better organized and we still need to get things off our patio (we have gotten 2 notices to get the amp and chinchilla supplies off of it-I'm thinking the next notice will have a fine inside). We're off to Target to try and find some organization inspiration where I am sure that I will spend more than $100 since apparently I am unable to leave that store without spending a small fortune. Off to spend the little bit of money we have :)

Slowest developing still active blog?

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 06:37:00 +0000

Anyway, Now, what seems like a long time ago, Dawn and I went to Vegas on our Cross country adventure. It was Halloween night, and I was excited. Halloween is one of my favorite hollidays, and I like to dress up for it. I expected Vegas to go all out for Halloween, and honestly, I was a little disappointed. Not that many of the tourists there didn't dress up, it's more about how there was not much imagination to their costume choices. I one point I thought if I see another slutty Nurse/Dorothy/Alice, I may just lose it.

Anyway, on to the picture part of the blog:

Please note, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, so that will severely limit the photos I'm going to show you.

Me and my sister.

Me and Dawn.

The Chihuly ceiling at the Belagio. I think everyone takes this picture.

The Old New Frontier. It's not lit and this is the dead of night. It took the steady hand of Dawn to capture the picture, and a little editing in iPhoto to bring out the image. I like this photo because it really shows the Frontier's vintage. Look at the "cowboy" style in the Frontier name, the diamonds leading up the sign. The peculiar "r" at the top. At one point this was the height of cool. Or maybe not. Vegas isn't really on the forefront of design, but does an excellent job of copying others. (The New York, New York, Paris, Venetian, MGM Grand. Not new ideas just scaled down cut and pastes of others.) Anyway, it stands in front of an empty lot now. We'll see what fills it in.
I'll let you guess what lead to this photo,

Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon more 66 and Las Vegas.

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Flagstaff, seems to be a cool little hip town up there in Arizona, a little historic downtown with an Amtrak station, and some roadside attractions, such as the giant Muffler Man Lumberjack.It seems like a cool place to spend a weekend, a week, or a few years. But for us, on our westward journey, it’s only a one night stop over. It also is our access point to the Grandcanyon. Because we were again pressed for time after another late start, a decision was made to only do the south rim, and approach it from the east and head west along the park road.
The canyon itself can only be described in hyperbole, and has been done a million times better by someone else. It is an unbelievable natural feature, as Dawn kept saying, you can take as many pictures as you want, try and describe it to everyone you meet, compare it to your local ditches. (You listening Tallulah?) The only way to really experience it is to actually go there. See it yourself.
The rest of the trip was punctuated with stretches of 66 nostalgia and includes one of the longest continuous stretches of the road from just outside Flagstaff to Kingman.
We saw old steel bridges, Burma Shave signs, (although these replicas were fun to see, apparently the real Burma Shave signs were never placed along 66.)

We also saw a lot of burnt out towns that have seem better days. Dawn also took one of my favorite pictures of the trip. At least of the road trip style pictures.

We did intended to see some other roadside sights in Arizona, but we were in the Dark by Kingman, and had yet to get to Vegas.

Holy Cow how did I forget this?

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:10:00 +0000

Welcome to HolBrook! I don't know what it is either.

We went to Holbrook and Winslow, AZ. Two more stops, along Route 66 famous for different things.

First, was Holbrook. Now, what Holbrook, is famous for is the famous Wigwam Motel with it's Tee-pee motor court rooms.

We got there at 5:30pm, and all the rooms were booked up for the night. Well, if you do want to stay there, I'd make recommend you book your room in advance. There are many classic cars parked in the parking lot, not that they take up too much room, but your stuff in the room might take up all the free space in the room. One nice couple was nice enough to let us peak inside their room. Tiny! I mean really small. There is a bathroom attached, but again, tiny! So, it may be fun for the novelty of it, but it does not seem like it has all the comforts of a modern hotel. The owner seemed like a nice guy too. We overheard him talking to a couple checking in, and he had some stories to tell.

Also: Dinosaurs:

Finally, there's this song by The Eagles, "Take it Easy." One of the lines is "Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...." Well, Winslow has taken advantage of this and created a "Standing on the corner" park. There's even a statue of skinny guy and an acoustic guitar, (the song was written by Jackson Browne) and a flat bed Ford. Though, for picture taking purposes, there's a girl (My Lord!) in a flat bed ford painted in reflection in the mural. Otherwise, Winslow as well looks as if it's seen better days. A few souvenir shops, a few gas stations, and Historic 66. Not much to it.

Then we went to Flagstaff.

Albuquerque to Flagstaff

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:14:00 +0000

This was a day where the pictures tell a lot of the story. I mean, how much can words add to a day when you see a Chevy on Stilts:

Paul Bunyan outside of a Vietnamese restaurant:

Cool roadside signage:

The continental divide:

(Honestly, not that impressive. If not for the sign, we might not have known. But it is a milepost in the journey. I leave the river the basin I've spent most of my life for the west coast.)

Some new to me geology:

A giant Indian, and arrows:

Since Route 66 was decommissioned, there have been various efforts to preserve it in sections. And since the route itself was altered a number of times in it's history, efforts to drive much of 66 can be met with much frustration. Sometimes I-40 is where 66 used to be. Sometimes 66 is a frontage road for I-40, even being marked with Historical 66 signs. Follow that frontage road to long though, and you might get into a road closed/dead end, but see a decaying pavent reeling out in front of you. Other times, a look at a map shows a road branching off from the interstate, and winding away from it, only to intersect it again later, leaving one to wonder, was that 66? The myth of 66, what it means to some in this country, is longer and wider then the road ever was itself. Part of the mystery of the road is compounded in the Historic 66 designation. Historic by who? The last years of 66? 66 itself was re-routed in small and big ways throughout it's history. Trying to drive it today would be impossible, even with the aid of a library of maps and reference points. There is some "americana" sights to see on it, including the "Tee-pee" on the border of NM and AZ.

Keep going westard, and you come to another national landmark. A pair of them really. The Painted Desert:

And the Petrified Forest:

There used to be a lot more petrified wood in the petrified forest. People use to take it away by the cart load full. Train car load full. Can you imagine how much was lost?

These are two places, that like other grand national monuments, do not translate well into photos. I would say though, like Carlsbad this is something worth seeing in a life time. I know it may be hard, the era of family car vacations may be over. Honestly, if we had not moved to California, I would not have taken the time so see these things either. But honestly, they are worth seeing.

One more comment about 66 here:

This photo depicts where 66 used to run through the Petrified Forest national monument. Notice what's missing? All the road. It might seem weird to some that I'll decry the lack of a man made structure in a natural monument, but I think it's weird that the decommissioning of 66 in this area meant completely obliterating any trace of the trail rather than saving what some consider a historical landmark.

Carlsbad to Albuquerque

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0000

In the morning after pushing through the west Texas dessert in the middle of the night, we awoke in Calrsbad, NM. (It smells like a fart. Who farted? Carlsbad, NM.) And made our way to Carlsbad Caverns. and it was another trip where we spent way longer in the caverns then we expected to but it's very nice. And easy to do with pets, they have a kennel service, and we kenneled Vicki while we were there.

Carlsbad is definitely a place to see how nature tourism has changed in the last 50 years in America. You can walk down into the caves through the "natural" entrance, or you can do it the "modern" way and take one of the longest singe shaft elevators in the world to get to the bottom. When you exit, you're in the main "lobby" of the caves, with a small souvenir stand, the bathrooms, (they have rock formations inside of them,) and the now defunct cafeteria in the cave.

The cave itself is amazing. Bigger then you can describe. I took a number of pictures, all useing low-light settings to capture some of the scale, but even when you're in side the cave, the size of various rock formations, or spaces between them is difficult to describe, because of the lack of normal things to compare to in your vision.

We were told by a ranger in the 60's and 70's the lighting the cave was much brighter and included many more colored lights. We imagine it must've looked like a SPECTRE headquarters (probably on purpose.) The ranger was also nice enough to use her flash light to point out some unlit formations. The path around the cave was paved, though there were some parts that were not wheelchair accessible, due to steepness of the path angles. Also, if you want to go, I'd say mid-week, off-season in the morning is the time to go. We didn't see more than 20 people in the three hours we were there, so we had plenty of time to photograph the formations on our 2 mile walk.

Leaving Carlsbad, we got stuck in construction traffic, so we decided it was time for the self portrait.

We then drove north toward Albuquerque, and though we stopped in Roswell, the UFO stuff there is was overblown. First, the UFO tourist attractions only take up one side of the street on one block, second, and I thought this was odd, the UFO museum posted, and described various photos and stated that they were fakes and how they were done. Only the most unknown stuff was presented with an air of mystery. Even evidence of the "Roswell Incident" was shown with things to demonstrate the case that it was a weather ballon. Overall, not really worth the stop.

There's not a lot between Roswell and Albuquerque. I knew we'd have to stop for gas, but the map showed three small towns between here and there. Two of them apparently don't exist except on the map and the third's only gas station closed. So, we were white-knuckling it trying to get to I-40 for gas. It was the closest we came to running out of gas on the trip, and though it was evening, and not particularly hot outside, there was no-one else on the road. We turned off all the electronics we could, slowed down some, and watched the odometer turn, and the Garmin tell us how far we were from gas. Thankfully, we made it into Clines Corners. Apparently pushing it it was people do around there, we met three travelers at the stop who did the same thing. After filling up, we made it into Albuquerque without incident. Having had enough adventure for the day, we ordered a pizza, and went to be.

Starting to look like a home

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:05:00 +0000

John and I kicked ourselves in gear and finished almost with setting up the apartment. Mainly the kick in the pants came from wanting some people (Elle and Anna) to come over and have some Wii time and that meant boxes in front of the TV was out of the question. But now it's worth it. Waking up this morning to only 2 boxes in the house (books to sale to local used book store and frames to hang up) was amazing. There is still lots to organize but things are really starting to look up. I've become a huge fan of Ikea. We bought their Billy bookcases to organize all our books and cds. Neither one of us had any idea how many cds we had but after having to go back to buy more shelves to put them on we are now thinking it is a little excessive. We still need to get another shelf to finish out the look but all of the cds, records, and books are displayed. I think this is the first time we've ever been able to do that!

Downgrading to a one bedroom has made us much more aware of what we actually use and what we need. There are some things we won't get rid of but other stuff especially my huge closet of clothes is now significantly less considering John and I now share a space. I won't say I've been the most pleasant about having to get rid of so much but I'm now definitely down to a more livable amount of crap. They always say on all those organization shows on HGTV how if you really love stuff (like collectibles) that you need to pick the ones you really love and display them and not just store them in the attic. So the Piglet collection is now hopefully being enjoyed by someone else out there. I kept a few but I have no room for it and I felt bad about them just sitting in a garbage bag. Maybe this will teach me to be less of a pack rat. I definitely have gone through the toss it, donate it, keep with a fine tooth comb.

The lab is coming along pretty well. Everything is pretty much unpacked and we get balances this coming week. Still need to get the hood hooked up to gas so we can actually get some work done but it's coming along.

So far we haven't gotten to the beach yet but this weekend will be our time. Also the car, driver's licenses and the such to become California residents will be next week. It still feels pretty surreal to be living out here but it should hopefully feel more like home soon.

San Antonio Part II, and Points West

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:31:00 +0000

As we left the Alamo (remember that?) I placed a call to Barney Smith, the proprietor of the toilet lid art museum. Toilet Lids? Yea, it's his folk art medium of choice. Barney was a plumber by trade who one day mounted two pair of deer antlers on a toilet seat, thought that looked pretty good, and his passion (obsession?) was born. Originally, he told his wife he was going to stop at 500, when we were there he was in the 850's. We became part of the collection when we signed the Georgia seat, and put the approximate location of Athens on the map. Each seat has a theme, often dealing with Barney's work, travels, or family, others have sporting event or military themes. Most mark something personally important to Barney,and he can give the story behind any seat you ask about. If you are in San Antonio, and have some time to spend on some funky attractions, the toilet seat museum can't be beat. If you want to see it though, it's open by appointment only, and you need to call Barney Smith at 210-824-7791, because the museum is in his garage.

On the way out of San Antonio we did stop at purportedly the Worlds Largest Boots. We have nothing to compare it too, but we stopped to take some pictures anyway.

We also blew past another muffler man along the freeway.

To get to the next stop, Enchanted Rock, we passed through the town of Fredricksburg, TX, a quaint little town with some interesting architecture.

Enchanted Rock is the largest batholith in Texas. That is, it's a big granite stone, out of place with the rest of the terrain. It's like Stone Mountain in Georgia, only smaller, and without anything carved into it (yet.) Dawn and I were enchanted.

Past enchanted Rock, Dawn had to dodge cows on the road. We stopped to take a picture, but Dawn would not let me pet it.

We passed the afternoon in the plains of west Texas. Arriving at Midland/Odessa for dinner. We pushed on through the night with the guide of the Garmin GPS and the gas fires from the oil pumps crossing into New Mexico and onto Carlsbad.

One more for Barney:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP8wMhrC8WU

San Antonio Part I

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:16:00 +0000

So, with heavy hearts, we head out from Bryan, Texas. Our route plan is to avoid extra long days, with stops to see things across the country that we might not get to see otherwise. So, with some help from some online guides, including roadsideamerica.com, we start our trip heading southwest to San Antonio. We knew about the river walk, but didn't know how cute it would be. Guys, take a tip, a walk along the San Antonio river walk can be very romantic.We very quickly dubbed it the Venice of Texas, though others have called it that as well. We ate diner at one of the oldest river walk establishments, a mexican place, with a mariachi band, and ducks that begged for food. Little motorized tour boats would come by, tour guides calling out various sights. Some of the boats were dinner cruises, some were full, others contained a singular tourist. A slow walk up and down the river walk seeing all the nooks and crannies, and a quick shopping trip for souvenirs, and observance of the variety of birds bedding down along the river bank. Well, good except for the bird that pooped on my head.

A good night of rest and on to the Alamo. The Alamo is a little bit of a let down. The building you see in all the pictures is the Alamo mission. Frankly, the the mission building is quite small, like a good sized house. Not much had been done to preserve it though the years, it was used as a storehouse for a long time. Though there is some effort to restore some of the original paintings on the wall, many of the artifacts are if not replicas, articles that were not items from the battle of the Alamo. There's also a lot of rah rah Texas stuff, which is funny because the independent Republic of Texas only for 10 years. But there is a very cool deco style monument to the "Heros of the Alamo" outside the Mission. And let's not forget across the street, the wax museum and Ripley's believe it or not attracts blasting eurodisco music at nine am.

But there was more the San Antonio then the Alamo...

Leaving Bryan

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:37:00 +0000

Yea, I know we have a new President Elect, and we've livid in San Diego for four days now, but still I feel the need to talk about Bryan and College Station some.

It truly is a special place. Different and unique from many places. First off, we found most people there to be friendly. I think that's a by-product of the TAMU. The students and faculty are encouraged to be friendly. Encouraged to say Howdy to each other. Be polite, and helpful. Dawn and I were impressed by the amount of respect the students seemed to have for each other and the school traditions. The 70 days we were there, on campus we saw less then 20 articles of clothing representing other schedules and schools. Not that everyone wore something with TAMU on it, but there was a lot of school spirit.

Now, not everything about the place is wonderful. There isn't a lot to do in terms of nightlife there. But so many things are a drive away, see our posts about the ACL fest for example. The gulf shore was accessible, Houston, and Dallas were close too. Cost of living in town is very good, and we are going to miss the HEB food selection and torillaria. On campus the buildings are not that pretty, but there are some great details on some of the buildings, this being one of my favorites.

In the larger photo, seen on my facebook page, you can see all sorts of animals in the details.

Is it conservative? Oh, yea. But if you work at TAMU, you get a good dose of liberalism too. It's also good to get a reality check every now and then, and remember that not everyone thinks like you. They also had some cool signage around town, including this giant cow.

So, it's not as bad some people might say it is. If you get a chance, you should give the town a shot. It might just be what you're looking for.

In the end Dawn and I are looking forward to our time in California, but will miss the town of B/CS, and the people we leave behind.

WienerFest!

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:59:00 +0000

So, yea, I know I'm already in California, and Dawn's talked about this some, but I want to take a few minutes and talk about the great time we had at Wienerfest in B/CS just before we left. We did not get there in time for the parade, but we did get there in time to see some of the costume contest. I'm going to point out my favorite costumes, though I've long since forgot who the actual winner were.

In no particular order, I got a big kick out of little Bo-Peep and her "Sheep" Dog. I'm amazed the dog puts up with this.

My favorite wiener dog costume is a tie between the Hot Dog that Dawn talks about, and another dog dressed as a horse, with a tiny cowboy attached to his back. I don't have a great shot of it, but when the dog would trot forward, the "cowboy" would rock back and forth like he was riding a bronco. It made me chuckle every time I saw it.
The next best thing at the festival were the wiener dog races. It was so cute to see the little dogs come darting out of the chute, and perhaps even cuter to see the dogs who didn't quite know what was going on kind of tentatively emerge from the chute, and maybe trot to their owners. Of course there were qualifications of dachshund, something about a ratio of leg length to body length, and a maximum hight requirement, I guess to stop people from entering greyhounds or something. There were also different divisions, including seniors, puppies less than one year (perhaps the cutest race ever) and handicapped. Three dogs, one blind, one deaf, and one with a little dog wheelchair, because it could not use it's back legs. People came from all around southeastern Texas to participate, so I hope the shelter had a great fundraiser. (I did put in a bid on an iPod in a silent auction, but lost.)

What's that you want me to make some double entendres of wienerfest? Like it's a sausage party? Well, you were out of luck, as the organizers took most of the best away from me, including tee-shirts saying , "I stroke my wiener every day," and "Ask me to show you my wiener." What more could I do?

Holy cow we're in Cali

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 04:27:00 +0000

We made it to California! This whole thing is still pretty surreal. I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that we are now living here. It's just nuts. We've already found Starbucks (there really is one of every corner it seems and one with walking distance from our place) and have spent an exorbent amount of money at Target twice. Whenever I move form some reason I have to go for the Target/Walmart run to get things. The POD doesn't arrive for another few days so we needed some stuff to keep us going until then. We found two grocery stores, one being Ralph's which is essentially west coast Kroger so that is comforting. Today we went to the building where we are going to be working and wondered around trying to find the loading dock. We have to meet the building manager there tomorrow and then the movers to get stuff into the lab. We think we sorta kinda know where it is but aren't super sure. Crossing my fingers that things will work out tomorrow.

The rest of the trip went well. I'll include pics some other time but we went from Albuquerque

to Flagstaff passing through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest Park. The Painted Desert was just great. The Petrified Forest was somewhat sad since there isn't a lot of "forest" left but it was still really cool to see rocks that look like trees :) We then took some time driving on Route 66. It is kind of sad the amount of towns that are just disappearing because Route 66 is not being used. It is especially sad that parts of Route 66 aren't even there anymore because it is now fused with I-40. There are even parts of the route that have been torn up which makes no sense to me whatsoever. I mean if the road isn't good enough for cars/trucks/rvs/etc then have sections of it remain for bicyclists or hikers. I can see interest in people being able to just go down the Mother Road in some way even if it isn't in car. We stopped in Gallup for lunch which if you stop and you think "hey I want to eat on Route 66. Well look there, its a Mexican restaurant named El Sombrero maybe that will be good" run away. The place was recommended by the AAA book but it was highly overpriced and I started my how many national parks can Dawn throw up in list. Not good by any level. Anyway, we made it to Flagstaff being extremely weary and cranky (and somewhat queasy). We went out and I had a fantastic black bean burger at the Flagstaff Brewery and then we crashed into uneasy rest.

Day 4 led us to the Grand Canyon. There is no way to explain how big it is or awe-inspiring. It is a really, really, really big ditch. Go see it yourself to completely understand how massive it is. BTW, if you are from the Georgia area and have only been to the Grand Canyon of the east coast ie Tallulah Gorge, it doesn't even come close to the one on the west coast :)

After seeing all of the beauty and wonder of the natural greatness on our trip, we slipped off to Sin City to see Sara. This was John's first venture to Vegas and it was just as jaw dropping as it was for me. We walked up and down the strip without gambling because there is just so much to look at. Oh we were there on Halloween so there were quite a few more semi-naked people then on your normal Vegas night (or at least I would think). It was great to hang out with Sara and see Vegas. We thought we would be tired and end early but we ended up staying out until past 2 am. We were on the Vegas high :)

Day 6 and final day of the road trip-we headed out of Vegas after stopping off at Einstein's Bagels to see Sara. Then it was a straight, don't stop for the potty drive through the Mojave Desert, LA and finally ended up in San Diego. It is still amazing to me that we made it here without one of us killing the other. I think the whole adventure was fun and tiring and exciting all at the same time. Our place in San Diego is smaller than I thought it would be (I know I had the measurements but when seeing for real makes it so much smaller). I think we're going to have to downsize our stuff a little more but we'll make it work.

So now I'm tired and tomorrow is going to be an early, busy and crazy day. Pictures and more later.

PS Vicky the chinchilla made it through the trip great. We've even had her running around the apartment a few times. She typed this on my keyboard as I was trying to blog "gt 3te623". She might be smart but I won't get any shakespeare out of her yet :)

Oh the places you will go...

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:23:00 +0000

It seems pretty surreal that we are making this trip to San Diego from Bryan, TX. When we left Bryan on the 27th, I was pretty
surprised how sad I was to leave. In my 70 days there I grew to like the place pretty well. Now it isn't the greatest place in the world and I'm sure that I would find things wrong with it the longer that I lived there but the twin cities of Bryan/College Station are pretty cool. I mean it is a typical college town but the student's at least seem more respectful and it does have some interesting stuff to see. For instance we went to the WeinerFest on the Saturday before we left which was AWESOME in a weird sort of way. Imagine taking a bunch of dogs and dressing them up for a costume contest and then pitting them against each other in a race to end all races. Craziness ensues.

The campus itself has quite a few interesting things. For instance how many places can you find a monument dedicated to roughnecking, a oil drilling rig and a monument to the past mascots where there is their own scoreboard so they can keep track of whether the Aggies are going to run out of time or not. My favorite was the sign for the local Hillel group though. This place IS amazingly friendly and I am sad that we have left.

So we are now on the second leg of our cross country tour. This route is a little more wandering then the one to TX. We actually started going south to San Antonio because I wanted to see the Alamo. The Alamo is pretty small for the surrounding area. It is kind of like seeing the Arch in Athens. You are expecting something just a little smaller than St. Louis and what you get is something MUCH smaller than St. Louis. Same here with the Alamo. There is also not much of it left after all it was a fort and it was kind of beat up and abused. We also visited the Riverwalk while there eating at the oldest restaurant there. I started calling it the Venice of Texas and John said the canals reminded him of the Small World ride at Disney World.

After we paid our respects to the Alamo, we stopped by Barney Smith's garage to look at his toilet seat cover artwork. Now I know you are thinking we must be crazy but this guy is awesome. We found his museum by going to www.roadsideamerica.com which has to be one of the coolest places to find random and interesting places to stop by on your next road trip. Back to Mr. Smith. He is 87 years old and has been making his folk art toilet seat covers for over 40 years. He is up to 858 and is aiming to complete 1000. Some are funny, odd, and amazingly creative. John and I signed the Georgia toilet seat to mark our visit (we decided that one made the most sense right now) and then toured his collection. He does not sell or loan his collection out but we did get a souvenir for our Christmas tree of one of his fired ceramic toilet seat ornaments. He is an incredible man and so humble taking all his "fame" in stride. If you are in the area, give him a call. The museum is only open if you call him and he will meet you with so much enthusiasm so that you can see and share in his "little" hobby.

After spending an extended time with Mr. Smith, we headed to Carlsbad, NM. We stopped by Enchanted Rock which is a giant hunk of pinkish rock sticking out of the ground. It is kind of like Stone Mountain in GA except nothing is covered on the side of it. I took over driving and the Garmin decided we should take a more back roads route after visiting the Rock so we headed to middle of nowhere TX where there were a few loose livestock roaming the roads :)

The scenery in West TX was as we were told - nothing too remarkable. The scenery changed subtly but it was not too dull; however, there is a problem with roadkill especially the amount of skunks that are apparently killed. It seemed the whole drive was sprinkled with eau de skunk or the smell of gas/propane/yuck. We made it to Midlands, TX for dinner (hometown of First Lady Laura Bush and childhood home of "W" Bush). We decided to go ahead and make the push to get to Carlsbad. It was a crappy drive in the middle of the dark. The road was rough and it was super dark. No moon or anything. We kept our eyes open for alien encounters but we saw nothing (at least nothing we remember). Finally we made it to Carlsbad at 11pm and were completely exhausted.

This morning we woke up after a fitful night sleeping to head out to Carlsbad Caverns. We realized we didn't miss much last night on the drive. There is nothing on the roads except brush and the occasional tree. Also we found that Carlsbad smells a lot like gas of the human variety but once we got out to the Caverns all was better. Incredible vistas getting to the caves. The national park has a boarding area so that Vicky didn't have to stay in the hot car and we were able to take our time in the Caverns. We spent 2 whole hours to walk just the Big Room trail. Crazy big and spooky all at the same time. One of the rangers explained that there used to be more lighting (including red, green and blue-groovy man) in the 70s but is now reduced in lighting (and color). It's pretty amazing and we wished we had more time to hike from the natural entrance, but next time :) By the way I finally figured out what my superhero skill is - humidity girl. You can't tell so much in this photo but as the cave got colder and wetter, my hair got bigger and bigger. Ahhh...I love my hair :)

We headed up to Roswell after chowing down at the park and picking up Vicky (the now very cranky chinchilla). Roswell was less than spectacular. I was expecting Alien central and there is like a block of alien stuff. The shop we went to had this deal that you could get your picture taken in front of a green screen which puts you in a number of alien themed scenes. Unfortunately they closed just as we were getting through the museum of alien contradictions (are there UFOs, are aren't there, you decide). I was seriously disappointed since that was all I really wanted was the stupid photo but we got an alien ornament and headed out for Starbucks (yea coffee). Then came the long, boring, monotonous drive to Albuquerque. Yep we were somewhere between nowhere and BFE. We hit a little scare when the car decided to bring up the empty light somewhere around "holy cow nothing but grass" and we were easily 45 miles from the next gas station. I've never done math so well to realize that we might be pushing to the gas station. Luckily we made it and switched drivers (my heart had enough of the stress). Then off to a sunset worthy of the picture on the NM license plate and our descent into homebase for the night. It is overall been crazy and tomorrow should be even more interesting. Stay tuned!

Austin City Limits Music Festival Epilogue

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 03:20:00 +0000

So what if I'm in Albuquerque on my way to Califonia, I've got more to say about Austin City Limits.

So, Dawn and I called it a day early but I wanted to go to Stubb's BBQ in Austin, if for no other reason, Todd turned me onto the sauce years ago. As an added bonus, the Black Keys were tearing it up on the stage at Stubb's there was no need for any wrist band, they could clearly be heard over anything else in the bar. Anyway, Dawn and I were kicking back, enjoying some appetizers waiting for our main meals to come out. When I see someone coming up the stairs, and I think, that dude looks familiar. Where do I know him, then I realize DJ Dangermouse was coming up some sort of VIP enterance from the basement. I was trying to play it cool, and yet get Dawns attention. You know that kind of closed mouth, through gritted teeth, "hey dawn, look over there...isn't that DJ Dangermouse?" she finally gets the hint and looks up. I decide I want to shake his hands, were both Athenians after all, but he dissapeared into a VIP section before I could. So, feeling I may have missed a chance, I went back to my meal, and then discussed our near brush with fame again, when, who should walk in bigger then life, but Cee-lo, much more outgoing, it was easy to catch his eye, shake his hand and tell him what a good show he put on, and they we we're from athens, but really enjoyed our visit to Austin. Somehow, the Athens talk sparked the interest of one of the entourage, and we talked with him about Athens some, as he was also a native Athenian. He was helpful in getting DJ Dangermouse over, and we got to shake his hand too. He was much more resereved, and although appreciated meeting a few fans and talking about being from Athens, he clearly did not want to be a center of attention, so he was also quick to leave. No matter, we had now met Gnarls Barkley. How cool? Well, the guy from the entourage was busy picking up a actress/model or something. Well, because they were VIP's they got food on the house, and they had a big plate of leftovers from food that they weren't going to eat. Packed in a take out box, the entourage guy I guess on the basis of our conversation, decided to give the food to us, with a little speech about how he didn't want to insult us, but if we wanted it, we could take it. So we did.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Gnarls Barkley('s entourage guy's) leftovers.

The End.

Austin City Limits Music Festival Day 3

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:07:00 +0000

So, yea, I'm writing this on the eve of us starting our trip to California, but so what? I've got more stories to tell about ACL fest.

Day 3: The Short Day.

Short because we got our latest start yet, and we knew we weren't going to stay for the final act, the Foo Fighters, because we'd already seen them. If we saw them, we'd break our streak of seeing bands we'd never seen before.

Did I mention this festivals commitment to mass transit and eco-friendly solutions? Hence the bike racks.

We had a half a mind to see something when we got there, but stumbled over to the Massacoustics, on the basis of a very Paul Mcartney-esque song we heard. We got a real kick out of this duo, note the drummer sings, drums, and plays bass all at the same time. If they come around, I'd suggest you see them.

Close encounter of the famous kind, Part One: Dawn and I headed over the the merchandise tent to get some T-shirts and music. Who do I see wandering around the back of the tent, John Popper of Blues Traveler. It's just before their autograph session, and a few more until their music set. So he even, got closer, but I didn't get a good picture. He gave the guy in line next to me a promotional copy of the upcoming release. So, I was close, but not that close.

Neco Case was a folksy act we decided to see. She has songs about sea animals taking eating each other. Like Patty Griffin on day one, her quieter set had to deal with music bleed from other stages, once again, the Austin Ventures stage in particular. The audience had another factor detracting us from the show, and that was The Racounters. Well, not the band members, as it was their fans. They had the stage after Case, and a break. But they started filtering in, trying to get up to the front of the stage during the Case set. This by itself, was annoying, but it's a festival, so you deal with some boorish behavior. Even worse though, is they'd wedge themselves in in packs of six or what not, then get on their cell phones, and call their freinds to try and triangulate and meet up, in the center of a crowd of people trying to watch the music on stage. Racounters fans? You are assholes. It got to the point where other people were telling them to shut up.If you think there was any less enthusiasm because it was Sunday, you would be wrong. Blues Traveler is playing in the right of this photograph. The crowd stretches out to the left. There was maybe 20000 in front of that stage. Our next show goal was the main stage seen at the center of the photograph.Gnarls Barkley pushed though a energetic music, pushing them selves at the end of their current tour. Straining voices, sun in their eyes, and heat causing them to strip off articles of clothing, the put on a great, profanity laden show. At one point, Cee-low gets the crowd to swear with him, and then sing-songs into the mike how he likes to swear.

So ends our festival experience. Dust covered at dusk, we make our way to the exit before most of the crowd, to head into Austin for some dinner, satisfied with our ACL festival. So many acts, so much fun what else could we want for?

Austin City Limits Music Festival Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Day 2 offered some of the harder choices for the bands we don't know very well, or had seen one way or another already. So, we got there in time to see a band we had very little information about, but the crowd was thin, so we hung out, waiting for We Go to 11. We noticed that the crowd was kind of younger then most of the other shows we saw, but we thought little of it, and grew more concerned about why they missed their start time. Fifteen minutes later, we figured out why.

We got to Eleven is like 12 years old. Well, definitely not old enough to drive. Can't you see the argument at the security gate. (No really, they're a band!)

We then moved on to see the Fratellis, a hard rockin' band from Scotland. The lead singer apologized for putting on a bad show, and complaining about playing at 1:30 in the morning. We don't know if he was jet lagged, or is so Rock and Roll 1 in the afternoon to us is one in the morning to him, because he's still drunk from the party last night.

The heat got to me and Dawn by the time we go to see Back Door Slam, a group that can be favorably compared to Cream or any of the number of british 60's blues rock combos. They played a good set, but Dawn and I spent most of the set sprawled out on the blanket. It was cool feeling the bass rumble through my chest. We also managed to get the self portrait (seen at the top) was done here too.

From there we went to see Erykah Badu. Great set of soul/funk. She was as out there as ever, comparing presidential elections to the changing of managers at bowling alleys, and talking about the 4th world war. Perhaps he most fun we had at a show to that point.

We then meandered back to see Mason Jennings, no relation to Shooter or Waylon, but music more like Jack Johnson, G. Love, good stuff we liked his clever song writing, and laid back sound. Another nice surprise for us.

Evening fell, and we wanted to see the Black Keys, but never really got close enough to the stage to enjoy the show, and were constantly buffeted by people moving through the crowd, either closer to the stage, or away from the stage to see one of the nights headliners, Beck. We chose to do like wise.

Beck put on a great show, played "Loser," "Where it's at," "Que Onda Guero" and even covered Bob Dylan "Leopard skin pill box hat." Great light show. What was odd, according to the schedule cut his set 15 minutes short. Never having gone to a Beck show before, we were surpirsed by the lack of intersong banter, but whatever, it's Beck. We were way in the back, but still it was cool.

Another dusty day ends, what surprises will day 3 bring? Stay tuned.

Austin City Limits Music Festival Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:46:00 +0000

One cool thing about College Station and Bryan are the proximity to some of the other cities in Texas. One of those other cities is Austin. A town known for many things, one of which, close to me is music. So when Dawn suggested we go the Austin City Limits Music Festival, and was able to find reasonably priced three day passes, we decided to go.

Day 1:

We get to downtown Austin and find a spot to park at a meter at 3:30, and this is cool because we can fill the parking meter to take us to 5:30 which is when they stop checking the meters.

The festival worked with the city's transportation services to run shuttles from a downtown park to the festival grounds, I'll just say the operation of these shuttles was incredibly efficient, and we often spent more time walking to the point to catch shuttles rather then actually waiting for the shuttles. That was very cool, and much better organized then other shuttle services I've seen.

But really, this is not a blog entry about busses, it's about the festival.

Upon getting to the grounds, the first act we have time to see is Del the Funky Homosapien, who I knew from Gorillaz. Dawn and I sat in the back of the crowd to get the lay of the land, and make it easy for us to get to the Patty Griffin Stage.

We also decide to try and document ourselves each day.

We did start far away from Patty Griffin, but we eventually moved ourselves closer to try and block out sound spill over from other stages, most notably the Austin Ventures stage by the food tent. The shows there were routinely too loud all weekend long. I felt Patty put on a good show, and I was excited about the next acts we wanted to see, G. Love and the special sauce, and David Byrne.

After the Patty Griffin show, we started making our way across the park to the other stages. That's when we got our first view of how ow many people would be at the festival over the weekend. It also means that we were too far back from the G. Love stage to enjoy the music. Onto David Byrne.

Now, I had heard that Byrne dosen't do the Talking Heads music any more, so needless to say, I was more than pleasantly surprised to hear Life During War Time, I Zimbra, and Once in a Life Time, among other Byrne and Talking Heads songs. Byrne, being the art school guy he his, had dancers in a number of his songs. Their routines though sparked a debate between Dawn and I. Dawn was not pleased with some of the choreography, I thought the geeky dance moves were of Byrne's creation, and meant to invoke the Stop Making Sense concert movie. Turns out David Byrne address the dancing in his own blog. So, maybe I am a sucker.

I really felt like that was going to be the highlight of the night, but we went to two more shows, the Swell Season, (famous for the song Falling Slowly,) but they experienced multiple sound issues, both from their own equipment and spill over from....Austin Ventures Stage! We decided we would need to see them again sometime.

So, we decided to end the night with Donavon Frankenreiter. That to me was the biggest surprise of the night. I really enjoyed the show, and there was a lot of crowd energy and interactions. Plus, G. Love joined him at the end of his set to play a few songs. So, we got to see G. Love anyway.

A good start for the Weekend.

Packers v. Cowboys

noreply@blogger.com (John Buchner) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:03:00 +0000

So, I just finished watching the Packer Cowboy game in a span of about two hours thanks to TiVo, and I've got a few things to say about it.

The Packers do not look to be a Super bowl bound team. I don't think anyone expected them to be though. On offense, most things look pretty good. Rogers looks like he know the offense backwards and forwards, and has a good command of the passing game. What stinks is the pass blocking. Oi. The Packers would keep 7 to block for Rogers, and the Cowboys would only send four. And they'd still get to Rogers. Good lord. That was terrible. I also question the playing of Ryan Grant. I know he's supposed to be the feature back, but two weeks in a row, he looks slow and easily taken down. I know it's because he's got a bad hamstring, but doesn't anyone else think that might be enough to rest him, maybe just one week? It seems Lumpkin and Jackson can pick up the slack. Why not let him rest a little more. Finally on offense, I'd like to salute Donald Driver. I know some might be mad about that late game lateral, but at least he was out there trying to make something happen. The game was going down fast, and if nothing else, it created a little excitement. It's not as if the Packers were going to win before that play anyway.

The defense on the other hand, that was something terrible. I'll give the Packers brain trust credit, they took away Owens, taking away the early big play, and that kept the game theoretically close into the third quarter, but the Cowboys came out running. And the Packers did nothing to stop it. I hoped to see some adjustments made at the half, maybe sending 5 guys into the line or something, but I didn't see it. It seems to me stopping the run in the second half may have been more important then stopping it in the first. Dallas already had the lead and established that they were going to run. Yet, it seems no adjustments were made. Oh well. I guess I'm no expert on coaching right?

Finally, to pick at scabs, lets talk about could Brett Favre have won that game for the Packers? This time I'm going to say no. Rogers played relatively safe with the ball, did the best he could with the plays as called. I didn't see a play where I thought if Brett Favre was throwing that ball, it would've been a completion. The second level of that question is would Brett have needed the 7 man protection package? I think he would've. Hands down, the Cowboys have the better personnel then Green Bay. Favre would've been sacked, pressured to make bad throws, and fumble it more or less like Rogers. Any other opinion? Feel free to comment.