Best Friends

The sisters are getting along very well.  There was only about 3 days of growling before chasing gave way to playful wrestlingand sleeping together. I did decide to change the kittens name to Domino in keeping with the Bond theme.

Meet the Baroness Liat

Meet The Baroness Liat.  Born on September 5, 2011, the Baroness is a direct sister to the Viscountess von Vesper.  Born of championship stock, the royal bloodline is pure.  Daughter of Queen Molly and King Tut II, both the Baroness and the Viscountess carry themselves with the highest royalty.

HRH Liat will come home the weekend after Thanksgiving to meet here sister for the first time in their new palace in the kingdom of Dover.

Latest on the Vicountess

I had a nice visit with her today.  She slept most of the visit but came out to play in the second half.  Her tail is getting some color.  The mark on her forehead is a battle scar from roughhousing with her siblings.

Viscountess Von Vesper

For all those who do not know I will be soon adopting a Siamese kitten. Here she is; The Viscountess Von Vesper.  A fantastic cat.

BIG and TALL

I would like to take a moment and convey to all you "normal sized" people out there, that this is something you should not take for granted. 

Everyone tells me that they wish they were my size; oh the advantages.  The things they could reach.  The strength they would posses.  The time they would spend in the gym.

Not to complain but in a contrasting view there are indeed some disadvantages.  Bumping your head on things; movie theaters are interesting (thank God for the handicap seats); or being comfortable in any mode of transportation public or private.

Today's gripe is the result of coming up empty while searching for a new jacket.  Having been an above average size for many years now I am accustom to having to seek out the big and tall sections.  With normal sizes ending in XL one would think that the Big and Tall section would include something other than XXL.  One mall, two stores and an outlet center produced only one garment brandishing the 3X size.

I guess there is no choice but to shop on line and roll the dice when it comes to the perfect fit.

Extraction

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. As many of you may know I had to have my 3rd molars removed last Tuesday.  Although the process its self was painless the recovery is, of course, less than enjoyable.  The drugs have gone a long way at easing the pain but I am trying to wean myself off of them.  I go fo a follow-up next Tuesday to see how the sockets are healing.  I am hoping for no complications that would cause further recovery time.  Hopefully this mouth injury will be mostly behind me by the time March 1st rolls around.  For those of you who do not know I am going in for a surgery involving my urinary tract.  If my mouth is still in pain by then I may very well feel like the MIDDLE PIECE in the Human Centipede (where the healing pains are TWICE as intense).

New Year's at 37,000 feet.

 

 Well, if you ever sat back and tried to think of an interesting place to spend New Year's, how's this for an idea; high above the earth.  Although a series of unusual circumstances conspired to disrupt my travel plans this holiday season; it did result is a story I will be able to tell for years to come.  As you may have guessed, I rang in 2011 from a very unusual place; 37,000 feet above Wilmington, North Carolina.  True I would have rather have been with my friends or family, but if plans are to be foiled there are less interesting ways for this to happen.

Indeed the holiday blizzard of 2010 sent shock-waves through many a travel plan.  My personal expierence is this; original scheduled flight for December 27 - canceled; first available flight set for December 30 at 1:45pm - canceled; third flight scheduled for December 31 at 8:55pm - Delayed until 10:25pm thus making an arrival at Logan for 1:35am.  But it gets better.  With a 1:35 arrival time I missed the last bus out of Logan and I sit here blogging, watching the clock tick, waiting for the 5:15 bus out of Logan.  Logan is way to far and it is way too late to consider calling anyone (not that there is a sober sole at this particular time on this particular day).

Believe it or not I am not the slightest bit miffed about any of this.  I had a great vacation in Florida.  I got to see my parents and my brother.  I got to touch base with some fantastic friends that I had not seen in quite awhile.  As for the travel blues; I have done a pretty good job in recent years not getting angry over that which is out of my control.  Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and smile.

The other arm

Sorry I have been away awhile.  Just getting a few things straight before the holidays.

We have come to our second installment of Tattoo You.  I am looking for concepts for the other arm.  I have spoken with my brother and we agree it may be time to modify or cover-up the bar-code which I have had on my other arm for over 13 years.  Some early thoughts I have are; a tribal rat from the Chinese zodiac, the other is Lono (the Hawaiian Tiki).  The best rat I can find on line does not look like it would cover the bar-code.  If we find the right Lono it could easily cover this.  I should probably employ my brother to come up with creative design in either case.  The jury is out on the design in general so feel free to comment.  My preliminary ideas are here.

The winner

Congrats Jen!  Your entry won out for implementation; I just couldn't say no to this in the end.  A combination of tribal art mixed with ancient eastern concepts was the right mixture for me.  I have always liked dragons but never had a fascination or obsession with them so it does not speak to one era or time in my life thus making it something that will last and I will never get tired of.

The winner for concept goes to Surf for her entry.  Not only is this as bad-ass as it gets but the story that goes along with this is a winner in its self.  A long story short; an honorable soldier stands up for what is right after doing the honorable thing, then proceeds to get shit on by less honorable people.  Very definately the hero.  His tattoo is below.  I may end up doing a variation on this in the future but not to this size.  Good work on finding this one Surf!!!

Tattoos

Well, I was on line looking for some interesting tattoo designs and came across this; too interesting not to post.  Now this is a guy with a sense of humor.

I thought we could have some fun coming up with my next tattoo.  Send entries to my e-mail.  I will be happy to post the winner.  Just poking around I have found some radical examples (see below).

Now, this is not what I am looking to do, all the same, too strange not to post.   I am probably going to go for something on the shoulder again.  Something has to compliment the bar code.

The number that keeps popping up.

New adventures on 2 wheels.

The weekend after I returned from the trip west I took a motorcycle training course which lasted two and a half days.  This was a beginner course and taught me all the basics of riding.  I did say basics.  The one thing I walked away with from the course is that you have to be hyper aware at all times.  In fact it left me wondering how anyone could enjoy the ride if they had to concentrate on all these riding factors perpetually.

Not being swayed I calculate that although you do have to be much more aware than when in a car, many of these factors must become second nature over time.  Practice along with a positive, safe attitude will go a long way to making the ride an enjoyable event.

I have been looking for a bike since I got my motorcycle license (automatic endorsement from the DMV upon completing the state approved course).  As big as I am it was not easy finding a bike I was comfortable on that allowed for comfortable use of the foot controls.  In the end I did find one and the price is amazing.  The picture above is the bike I plan to get next week.  It is a 2009 Yamaha V-Star 1300 in pearl white.  here is still a lot of practice to be done but I think I will have fun doing it.

AAnother little tid-bit.

Just before the parents picked me up they reported that western Texas had a new speed limit.  Thoughts?

Back home - I had to do it.

Well, this was just too cool not to do.  I am coming to you live from the C&J Trailways bus.  This is the bus that I take when I need to go from Dover/Portsmouth to Boston Logan airport.  Taking the bus savews an enormous amount of money in parking.  A round-trip on the bus costs about $42 as opposed to the $24 per DAY you would spend parking at Logan.

I had seen that the bus offers free wi-fi but I had never tried it until now.  As this blog is partially about blogging from strange and interesting locations, what better way to begin a blogging tour than to do so from the bus its self.  Very cool!

Goodnight Seattle!

Well folks, it's the end of the road.  Tonight I am coming to you live from SEA-TAC airport, terminal S (free WI-FI by the way - sweet!).

It has been fun.  I have managed to see some of the best areas the western US has to offer; and, of course, at break-neck speed.  The journey started in a desert and ended in a patch of fog.  I squeezed off just a shade over 2000 pictures; a best of CD will be coming soon to those who want one.  It was great to see the parents again and we made the journey without any serious injury (incidental or to each other).

The remaining question is...what's next?  Feel free to post suggestions; all ideas are good ones and nothing is taboo.

I hope everyone following the blog enjoyed the journey as much as I did.  Let me know what you thought.

Though this journey is over I will attempt to keep up the blog by posting from new and interesting sites.  See you there.

Day 10 & 11 - Glacier N.P.

Nearly 3000 feet straight down and only one mistake away from the bottom of Glacier National Park.  This is the going to the sun highway which was fun but a little nerve-racking.  The ride was beautiful but the light was not the best for picture-taking.  We did see a bear inside the park yesterday (see recent picture at the top of the blog).

Day 8 & 9 - Grand Teton & Yellowstone

Well, the weather was great this morning leaving Grand Teton but it rained when we hit Yellowstone.  We did get to see Old Faithful erupt but several roads were under construction and we did not get to see any other areas.  We did see many bison and elk.  I ate elk night before last; not bad.  I crossed over the border into Montana this evening thus completing my mission to visit all 50 states.  Tomorrow we are off to Glacier NP.

Day 7 - Salt Lake City.

Today we took it easy.  We began our trek to the north and will stay over in Salt Lake City.  We checked into the hotel early and took a walk around town.  Our hotel is right on Temple Square downtown.  The architecture is astounding inside Temple Square.  The rest of Salt Lake City is equally nice and...clean!

On our way in, on the approach to Provo, we saw a huge windmill farm.  It is nice to see clean energy at work.

Day 6 - Arches National Park

Great fun today!  This park was amazing!!!  Each arch required some level of hiking to get to it.  This worked out well considering the amount of time we have spent in the car.  We spent so much time in Arches N.P. that we did not get a chance to go into Canyon-lands N.P.  I highly recommend this site to anyone who has some time in the area.

Day 5 - Bryce Canyon & Natural Bridges

Well, I will not drone on about how beautiful the parks are, this goes without saying.  I will say that the formations of all these rocks are simply amazing.  Further, you can go from red rock in Hoodoo formation to wavy white sandstone in just a few miles.  There was a stretch of rocks just east of Capitol Reef  that had formations I had never seen before, even in picture-books; formations that looked like aliens had left behind some ruins (see FB pictures).  We saw wild turkeys today along with antelope and deer.  We finished the day in Natural Bridges NP.  This small park featured 3 natural bridges all in close proximity.  I did take a small hike down to get a better shot of the one above.

We had tio drive through the mountains today.  We passed through a 2.5 mile stretch of road known as "Hell's Backbone".  Try to imagine a road, on top of a mountain with a shear drop off on either side for  2.5 miles at 9600 feet.  Well, this sucked!  I am not much afraid of heights but I have to admit this one had me a little tense.  Much of the car ride today did consist of winding, high altitude mountain driving with up to 10 degree grades.  Fun!