Roy Refuted??

In a previous post, we read of yet another rant by Ol' Roy, concerning apparent contradictions in the Bible, as seen in The Paris News. Now it seems someone has written in to refute Roy's assertions - here is the text of the letter:

(from the Paris News December 27th edition)

The Thursday, Dec. 14, "Letters" column included a letter called "can't prove" in which the writer endeavored to prove the Bible wrong. He sites Ezra 2:64 and another account of the same event in Nehemiah 7:66. The Bible totals for an assembly of priests who could not find their ancestral history in the genealogy of the nation of Israel and were considered unclean, therefore being found unworthy of priestly service, they were being omitted from the priesthood.

Both Biblical accounts of the story give the same number of priests being excluded. The writer listed a "correct" total from Ezra as 29,818 and a "correct" total for Nehemiah as 31,089. The writer does not say where he obtained his "correct" totals, or what source he could be using that is more reliable than the Holy Bible. Maybe he can explain why his two totals, for the same event, are not the same.

Then, in an effort to prove the Bible wrong, the writer simply quotes from Number 31:17-18. This passage is where Moses tells the men of Israel to kill all of the women and boy children of the Midianites. Many of the men of Israel had been in adultery with these women. The Law of Moses called for all adulterers and adulteresses to be put to death. The guilty men of Israel had already died of a plague and the women were to be killed. The boy children were to be killed to keep them from growing up and trying to destroy Israel to honor their fathers. The little girls were to be kept alive and when the girls grew up they would be made wives of the Israelite boys. They were not child molesters or cold-blooded killers, if that is what was implied.

Finally, the writer references 1 Peter 4:7, "The end of the world is coming soon (said 2000 years ago)." The verse reads, "But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers." NKJV For an understanding of that verse, one must also read many other passages including, 2 Peter 3:8 "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" NKJV. So, with the Lord, there has only been two days since Peter said, "The end of the world is coming soon."

When we look at the facts and consider the scripture in proper context it seems we still can't prove the Bible wrong.

Kary Prince

Thank you Kary Prince for addressing Roy's somewhat misguided ;) view of Biblical texts.

I Pity The Fool....

...who has waited until now to do his or her shopping - thankfully, mine is complete (other than a trip to the grocery store later on this afternoon to get stuff for Christmas Eve goodies). Yesterday's Christmas Party at work went well - waaaay too much food as usual. On the agenda for today: Wrap all the presents that aren't wrapped yet, go to the store for groceries and perhaps a few stocking stuffers, pre-stuff the stuffed mushrooms so they can just cook tomorrow, and perhaps later this evening, drive around and take pics of Christmas lights.
Speaking of pictures, I borrowed Mallory's Santa hat that says "Precious" on it for a photo shoot with Snickers.


Awwww......

The Final Stretch

Well, it seems we've all recovered from Roy's stunningly pointless observations - until next time. In other news, this weekend represents the last non-Christmas Eveish chance to wrap up (pun most definitely intended) your shopping, making way for the final thrust this week into the holiday weekend coming up. I was planning on doing just that today - then going out to take pics of Christmas lights this evening (not too late, though - the magic hour for Christmas light pics is right after sunset, about 30 minutes, no more. Any later and you have to overexpose the lights to get any sky light, or expose the lights correctly and get a pitch black sky). Unfortunately, I suffered an extreme case of Saturday Laziness and I have done absolutely nothing all day long, other than mess around on the computer, download some MORE Christmas music to annoy my coworkers with all week long, and....uh....and....well, I guess that's about it.

I guess that means I'll have to finish the rest of my shopping this week - not that there's much left, not after last weekend's mad dash to Arlington and other Metroplexian destinations. One thing left to do is for me to decide what I'm bringing to our Christmas party at work - I was thinking of a kind of stuffed mushroom recipe, but closer to a pizza - take some whole shrooms, remove the stems (and chop them up to add to the stuffing), baste the shrooms in olive oil, or sautee some miced garlic in olive oil and use the garlic in the stuffing and use the garlic-infused olive oil to baste the shrooms. Then I might add some pizza sauce (just a bit) inside the shrooms, then stuff with a mixture of sausage, mozzarella, parmesan, green onion, those sauteed bits of garlic, bread crumbs, and anything else that sounds good. Then broil the shrooms until the cheese melts and browns - it sounds good in my head but I better try it first before the party Friday, just in case it doesn't taste as good in real life as it doesn in my head, ha ha.

Then Sunday is our annual Christmas Eve party thing - not really a party (well, it didn't use to be, but it kinda evolved over the years). Mom is even now fretting about having to cook all the food (its not that much, just time consuming), even though she knows we will all do some of it (although I admit Mom does most of it). Gotta remember to have extra shrimp for Kathy - she really dogged the shrimp last year, ha ha - just kidding Kathy, we all love you -- just hope there's enough for everyone! Anyway, that's all the posting I'm doing today - more to come later!

Bible Math...Explained!

(thanks to Dee for the title)

Seems our good friend Roy has spoken (or rather, written) yet another bit of profound wisdom. From the Paris News:

Letters to the Editor
December 14, 2006

To the Editor:

A recent letter to the Editor said, “They can’t prove the Bible wrong.”

In Ezra 2:64 the Bible total is 42,360. The correct total is 29,818.

In the same story in Nehemiah 7:66 the Bible total is 42,360. The correct total is 31,089.

Numbers 31:17-18. “Now kill all the boys and women who have had sexual intercourse. Only little girls you may keep alive for yourselves.”

I Peter 4:7. The end of the world is coming soon. (Said 2000 years ago).

Some of the wording may vary slightly in different Bible translations.

Roy Bunch

Now we've seen some of Roy's...uh....'special' nuggets of wisdom before, such as his plan to give North Dakota to the Jews to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Or his pontifications about how silly it was for God to choose the Hebrews as his chosen people. However much we might disagree with his reasoning, at least those previous letters of Roy's had some form of reasoning present. His latest letter to the editor....well, it took me awhile to figure out what Roy was aiming at in his Biblical criticism. Apparently, he's referring to an 'apparent' contradiction in the Bible regarding the census of the Hebrews given in both Ezra and Nehemiah. Without resorting to a lengthy (and copied and pasted) explanation, here is a link to a site that does a fairly good job of presenting a possible theory without resorting to the 'scribe errors' often cited by critics as proof of the fallacy of the Bible.

http://www.geocities.com/brandplucked/Ezra2.html

As for the other passages cited, well, I have to get up early, and there's no time to go into detail on them tonight - perhaps Roy might care to elaborate at some point.

Christmas Shopping Begins!

Saturday I went to Arlington (well, I went several places in the Metroplex but most of my shopping was at the mall there in Arlington), braving the traffic and crowds (ugh). Actually it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be - I bet if I went back the last weekend before Christmas, then it might be a tad worse, ha ha.

Anyway, I got most of my shopping done, with a few exceptions which will be taken care of this week most likely. So I'm getting all my shopping done waaay earlier than usual - kinda cool.

Anyway, I kept noticing something all the while at the mall (and at Fry's, and at PetsMart, and everywhere else): even thought Christmas is supposed to be a happy, joyous time, most if not nearly all of the peeps out shopping were glum, rude, and certainly not full of the "Christmas Spirit". Kinda ironic, dontcha think?

The strange thing about all my shopping is that the easiest 'person' to buy for was Snickers - and she almost had the most spent on her - I got her a ramp so she can easily get in and out of the car when we go for a walk at the track. I also got her a giant bed/pillow so she won't have to lay on the hard flat floor. I also got her something from Sharper Image - an ionic grooming brush that conditions the coat and gets rid of dog smell! Shhhh! Don't tell her I got this stuff (I hope Snickers doesn't read my blog.....)

Not Another Christmas Post!!!

Since I mentioned the Christmas light thing in Oklahoma in the previous post, I thought I should give it its own entry here.

Go north from Paris on US 271 to Hugo - take the big road in front of Hugo and go right. Drive for a little bit, then turn on the Fishtale's Road (95? 93?) and go north until it ends at a T intersection with another road. Turn right and drive forever (you'll think you've gone too far). When you see the beauty shop, turn around in the parking lot and go back, you missed the turn. Its a left (well, a right coming from the beauty shop) - go north until you see the blaze of glory. The company that does all this is called Allen's Monuments - it's a tombstone maker!

Here are some pics:

Now I Can Finally Listen to Christmas Music Legitimately

It's that time of year - now that Thanksgiving is past, the Christmas holiday season officially begins. Now I can legally annoy my coworkers by playing all my Christmas music I loaded on my Zune I got this week to replace my dead mp3 player. I only loaded Christmas music on it - nothing else until January 2. Jim Parker loves this time of year, especially when I play the Jingle Bell Dog song on repeat, over and over again - its so easy to get a rise out of him, ha ha.

Of course, Christmas now is very different from Christmas past. Back in the day, the holiday season included many different 'traditions'. We'd usually put up the lights either right after Thanksgiving or early December. This involved climbing up into the attic and finding all the old boxes with Christmas decorations in them - usually took awhile to do this. When we first lived in Arlington, we had some cool blue lights, but Dad didn't like them :) so we replaced them with red ones to outline the house. One year we got some lights to place in the shrubs in the front yard, red white and green. I would always try to mix the green and red ones so the shrubs would look like a holly plant with berries at night - well, that was the theory at least. Dad would always put the lights up on the house - one year he fell off the stool while Robin and I were inside and hurt his ankle or something. From the way he tells it, you would have thought we could hear his cries for help and deliberately left him outside to freeze in the cold weather. It didn't happen that way, of course.

There was a giant plastic light-up Santa I always liked - we'd put it on the front porch in front of the bedroom window. I wonder whatever happened to it? In later years, I would put lights around the front two windows to outline them, which looked cool. One year we decided to make a Christmas tree near the curb by hanging a strand of green lights in a tree - with mixed results.

Finally, the time came when Dad let me put ALL the lights up myself, the way I wanted to. The large red lights went up on the house just like always, but the smaller red, green and white lights got arranged differently in the shrubs - I tried to keep all the colors separate for some reason. One night Karyn came over and remarked that as she pulled in the driveway she thought she'd come to the Mexican Embassy (red white green).

Don't get me wrong - it sounds like I was doing all the work. Robin helped out too, as did Dad when I hit a few snags. So it was more of a joint effort than you'd think by reading this - just wanted to put that disclaimer in before I get some nasty comments, lol.

After the lights were done, the time to do the tree would be upon us. First, that meant a trip to Kennedale or Mansfield, somewhere in that area, to the Christmas Tree farm. Now, in early years, we had a fake tree - not aluminum, a regular fake tree. And that was cool, but the real trees were so much better. First, after arriving at the tree farm, we'd get a hayride out to the field of trees, with saw in hand and a cup of hot apple cider. After roaming around for hours ;) we'd find the perfect tree (ala Clark Griswold). Usually at that point Robin and I would become bored and wander off, leaving Dad to cut the tree down himself. Then we'd take the tree back to the farm house, where they would put it on a shaker to get any needles off, then bag it up. Mom would look at the craft section, I'd get another cup of cider, and then we'd leave for home to set up the tree.

Bringing the tree inside and placing it in the tree stand always meant getting sap on you - and that sap didn't just go away with a little soap and water, no sir. But at least it smelled pine fresh. Mom would spray some water and baby oil mixture on the tree to keep it from drying out, and making it smell so very good (pine baby oil doesn't sound that great, but it is - wish they made an air freshener with that smell). Then it was time to decorate the tree. First I would put on the old Christmas records (in early early years - later on it would be the Christmas CDs). I can still recall many of the ornaments: the astronaut Santa, some of those make-it-yourself-in-the-oven sparkly plastic stained glass looking ones, and a whole lot more than I feel like describing. There was a small nativity scene - a 3d manger and baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph that I always hung on the tree and stuck a blue light inside, so it glowed like the moon was shining, or so I thought.

And then the decorating would be over - and as the days went by, the presents would pile up. Robin and I would gather the presents around us on several occasions and examine them one by one, trying to figure out what they were (or just see how many we had!) One year I was falling waaay behind Robin - I thought it was going to be the Worst Christmas Ever, but it turned out somewhat differently - more on that later.

One year, for some reason, Robin and decided one tree just wasn't enough, so we decorated a ficus tree in my room (or was it Robin's? I forget) with lights and red balls. Oh well, it looked cool, for a ficus Christmas tree.

So then the great Day would approach - finally it would be Christmas Eve! Now, originally, so I'm told, Mom and Dad and whoever else got together one C.E. long long ago (before I was around, and way before Robin was) and had some sandwiches and finger foods for CE dinner instead of a meal, because the next day would mean a huge dinner. And then it became a tradition - and THEN I came around and it turned into a major ordeal for Mom, ha ha. Christmas Eve would go something like this: we (meaning Mom mostly) would cook all morning and afternoon - just appetizer stuff, mind you, but ALOT of it - and we'd finally be ready to eat (officially) around 3 PM. I would make the sweet and sour hot dogs in a mustard/plum jelly sauce, Robin would make the fruit and dip, and Mom would make everything else. Some peeps would come over, but it was mostly just us. After the 6:00 news (which gave a Santa update, showing his position in Northern Europe, making his way to America), we'd all pile in the car and go looking at lights, and I'd bring a cup of Mom's hot spiced cranberry punch along. We'd drive all over Arlington - past the neighborhood which decorated as the 12 Days of Christmas (each house was a different day, pretty cool), past Santaland near Young junior high, past the house in Tiffany Woods that looked like the house from Christmas Vacation, and alot of other places. Then we'd come back, feast some more on the delicious food, and tune in to the 10 PM news on channel 5 (KXAS) to watch Harold Taft (unti he died - Robin probably won't remember him, but I do) give the weather forecast. And at the end, Harold Taft would break in with the latest Santa report - he'd go to the radar, and Santa would be shown flying into DFW. As a little kid, it was so cool - that meant I had to go to bed quickly before Santa came! And that was the awful part - I never could go to sleep, I would be so excited.

One year, I woke up around 2:30 AM - and couldn't go back to sleep. So I crept into Robin's room, woke her up, and we both got Mom and Dad up - Christmas at 3 AM!!! We had all the presents open and breakfast eaten, and it was STILL DARK outside. Dad was ready for a nap by 9 AM. I was told never to do that again. Now, the only way I'd be up that early for anything is if I just stayed up all night - my how the times change!

Of course, the holidays mean very different things to me now. We still do the C.E. party-like thing, still go see lights after eating, and I still take some of Mom's punch with me if there's any left. Okay, so maybe everything hasn't changed! But now, instead of driving around town to look at lights, I go to Oklahoma, near Rattan, where this monument company (for graves!) decorates with over a million lights - that's where I took the photo above. It's pretty cool, and free! (See pic to the right, also - nothing says Merry Christmas like a festive tombstone!) And I go caroling with friends all over town - that's always fun. One year, we were headed to an elderly lady's house (she was too disabled to go to church much) and Dennis got lost and we went to the wrong home - this strange woman opened the door and we burst out singing like we meant to go there. Good times. And then another year, we were at a VERY old man's house (I'll call him J.R. to protect his name, but some of you loyal Readers out there will know of whom I speak), and right before we started singing, Colby remarks to me that J.R. looks alot like Yoda - all old, wrinkled, and maybe a little green. Now it wasn't a nice thing to say, but it was kinda true - and I couldn't help but laugh and laugh and laugh, because he DID look like Yoda.

Two years ago, I rang bells for the Salvation Army, along with Lindsey (Colby's oldest brother). We were assigned to Sears - which faces north - and guess what blew in the day we rang? A fierce blue norther - dang it was freezing!!! Lindsey brought his guitar, thinking he'd play some Christmas songs. Nope - too cold for that. We had no gloves, but Sears was happy to sell us some! Finally our relief came (Selena, pictured here with Lindsey) - we were so cold, we'd taken to ringing the bells with our hands stuffed in our pockets - the bell would barely stick out. It looked goofy, but it kept our hands warm - well, not warm, but not as cold.

Jeez, this post went on forever - all I wanted to say was Christmas time is here, officially. Oh well, I digressed - get over it ;)

Thanksgiving!

The big day is finally here, ha ha. No, not Christmas - it'll be here soon enough. I'm talking about Thanksgiving, of course (also known as 'Turkey Day' to some). In a few minutes, Mom and Dad and the Martins (Dale, Dee, Kinsey, and Jessica) will be here. We'll be eating some old favorites and some new additions from Dee's kitchen - the Maple Pumpkin Pie sounds really good (the secret is maple syrup in the whipped cream). Robin and Jason won't be here this year - it's a bit further to come here from Virginia than it is from Houston, but they will be missed - I think I'll take a group photo and send it to them instead of the traditional e-card or whatever.

'Traditional' ecard??? How the heck did that happen? When did the internet become traditional? How quickly we get used to new things. The first time I actually used the internet was in 1995, at the computer lab in college. It's only been 11 years since then, but it seems like the web has been around for alot longer. Weird, huh?

Anyway, finally we're going to have a normal Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in several years (three, I believe, but don't hold me to that - I'm not Mr. Statistics). Oak Park (meaning Marion) did a community Thanksgiving meal where everyone was invited, and the food was free. We helped out every year they did it, even when I wasn't really going to that church anymore - it was fun. I don't know why they aren't doing one this year, other than Marion not being there anymore (she's moved to another church, among other things) and basically that means we are having a NORMAL holiday today - although it was fun doing the community dinner, it just wasn't the same.

Ah, I hear doors slamming - must be the Martins (I know Mom and Dad won't be here this early, lol). Yes, I hear Kinsey coming down the hall - guess it's time to go. Hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving wherever you are!

Arizona - Now It Can Be Told

I have decided to do a recap of my trip out west earlier this year, as a sort of photoblog entry here, because....well, I've just been meaning to do it. So here's the story of how it all came about, and the journey itself, lol.

Back in late 2005, I was over at Marion's (a friend of mine from my old church) one night - I forget why - oh yeah, she had asked me over to tell me she was going to set me up with a date at some point (which turned out less than stellar, but that's a story for another time). Anyway, we got to talking about places we've been. Marion used to live out in West Texas, and she mentioned Carlsbad Caverns was a cool place to go. I thought it would be as well, but I don't like to take trips by myself. Well, her son Colby (the one who shadows me much of the time, lol) chimed in - "Beej, you and I could go over Spring Break!" My first thought was.....uhh no. But we talked it over, and it started sounding like fun.
Anyway, Shelton, Colby's older brother (who is old enough to drive, muy importante!) also wanted to go, and so he got added to the passenger list. As the weeks went on, we kept adding new destinations: the Davis Mountains, Palo Duro Canyon, Ship Rock, Roswell. At the Superbowl Party over at Dennis', Robert overheard our plans. By that time we were thinking of going as far west as the Four Corners. Robert told us that as long as we were going that far, we might as well go to the Grand Canyon. Suddenly, lights went off in my mind -- visiting the Grand Canyon is one of the items on my List Of Things To Do Someday. Going on the Price Is Right is another, btw. Anyhoo, everything gelled at that moment - a grand journey it would be!
So we began all the planning and stuff for the trip. Colby and I had been going to Bingo on Thursday evenings since January, and we put all our considerable winnings toward the trip (it was probably close to $1000 or so, minus the cost of playing). Colby would think of things we would need on the trip, and we'd go shopping at WalMart on the weekends when they were on sale.
Finally, the big day was here. I took off early from work that Friday, drove out to Marion's, loaded up all their gear and whatnot, and we finally left around 4:30 PM or so. Driving along US 82, we stopped for this pic (looking back east) and a stretch break.



We continued on, through Wichita Falls (where we ate at the historic Carl's Jr, the same CJ I ate at on the band ski trip to Colorado many moons ago) all the way to Amarillo. Along the way, we listened to Johnny Cash - not much else at all. Actually it was Johnny Cash and music from Walk The Line, too. However, at one point (and I have it on video for proof), someone started playing My Humps (ugh, I can't stand that song) and we did the singalong music video thing. Funny to watch myself, horrible to think of someone else watching it.
We made Amarillo that night, found a cheap hotel (Econolodge, I think), and stayed up singing along with Shelton playing his guitar. He and I do a pretty good I Walk The Line, complete with harmony, ha ha.
Somewhat early the next morning (Saturday 3/11) we head out again. Just outside Amarillo, right off I-40, is the Cadillac Ranch.

(Shelton walks in front of the Cadillacs, while Colby is perched on top)

The story behind this (or so the legends go) is that Stanley Marsh was getting a divorce. Being a rich man, he had a collection of Cadillacs his soon to be ex wife had her eye on. To keep her from getting them, he had them buried like so, and turned it into a roadside attraction. You're even expected to bring spraypaint and graffiti the cars! We didn't have any, but fortunately other people let us borrow a can.

We left the Cadillac Ranch and headed for New Mexico. At the border, there was an interesting sign at the Visitor Center.

Watch for snakes???

Leaving the Visitors Center (where we loaded up on plenty of free maps and such) we continued along I-40 through Albuquerque, then northwest towards Farmington, where Shelton was born. We spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express, by far the nicest place we stayed at the whole trip.
From Farmington, we set out the next morning for Ship Rock.

It's very isolated, well off the beaten path, and we finally made it. As I parked the car, we noticed the car rocking back and forth - the wind was so strong, it felt like it would lift off the ground and fly (or roll over, ouch!). We got out and immediately discovered what wind chill really means. Oh man it was cold and GUSTING!!

Anyway, here is Ship Rock - I had to literally brace myself against the car to take this shot, what with the hurricane force winds (well, maybe I exaggerate, but they sure were strong!)


And here is a scene looking to the left of the previous photo - you can kinda spot Shelton on the right, center.


After quickly returning to the vehicle and turning the butt warmers to full power (i.e., heated seats, but Colby calls them butt warmers, which is a fitting description too), we got out of there, since we were on private property (see the fence above - we went inside it). Set course for Colorado!


The plan was to get a room in Cortez, CO, then go to Mesa Verde and spend the day there seeing the old indian ruins. Nature had something else in mind. The moment we crossed into Colorado from New Mexico, a snowstorm appeared out of nowhere. Apparently, CO had already gotten LOTS of snow. Anyway, as we travelled down the highway, the snow got so bad I had to pull over at this little trading post.

You know the winter storm is bad when the icicles are horizontal. Yikes!! Anyway, it was fortuitous that we stopped there - this was the only place we found pinion nuts for Dale.

After leaving the trading post, we drove on to Cortez and found a nice (!) place called the Aneth Lodge. From there we went straight for Mesa Verde. You drive up this mountain highway, fairly steep for this Texas boy, lol, and then we saw this sign:

Not good. It turns out they were shutting the park down for the day - too much snow or something, the ranger lady told us. So scrap Mesa Verde - we went back to the motel room for a bit (meaning nap time for some of us, ha ha), then went to dinner at a little italian place which had the best italian food I have ever eaten - and our waitress was a double for Dicie Rue - I mean they could be sisters at least, if not identical twins!! But she was nice, so they aren't identical (rimshot!) Seriously, though, we've talked about a quickie weekend trip back to Cortez to see Mesa Verde AND to get some more of that italian food, if we can find the place again! Anyway, after dinner, we went back to the motel room and spent the rest of the evening playing poker, listening to Shelton play Johhny Cash on his guitar, and having a good time. The police showed up around 1 AM - something was going on at another room. Never did get a good look at what was happening, but it was exciting - like watching COPS but live!

We left Cortez the next day and headed for the Grand Canyon. We saw some interesting rock formations, such as this one:



Along the way, we stopped at the Four Corners national park (actually I believe its on Navajo land or something like that)

I wasn't too impressed witht the monument itself - yeah yeah, stand in four states at once, I get it. And it didn't take long for the "Hang on a sec, I have to head over to Utah for a bit" jokes to wear thin. Very thin. But the best part of the F.C. is the scenery - here's a sample:


From there we set out again for the Grand Canyon. We got a room in Flagstaff at the 'quaint' motel called the Wonderland.

I need to post the video I have from the Wonderland - too funny to even describe here. That will be my next project, lol

Anyway, the next day, we set out for the Grand Canyon.

Look carefully - you can see the snowball someone (Colby) threw into the Grand Canyon.

Words and pictures can hardly describe the scenery - so I won't really try.There was one funny incident, however. Portions of the lookout we were at had rails, while there were areas with no rails at all - one false step and down you go. Colby was running from Shelton, who had a snowball in his hand (looking like he was going to hit Colby) and he stopped about 4-5 feet from the dropoff (with no rails) and I heard this woman next to me roar in a screeching yet stentorian howl, "Don't do that! That's so stupid!!!!" She scared the you know what out of me. Later on she laughingly apologized, saying she had a fear of heights and thought Colby wasn't going to stop in time - we laughed it up with her

After leaving the canyon, we stopped at Sunset Crater, and also Meteor Crater.

To take this pick, we had to reach the upper observation deck. Colby was alreday up there for some reason, but Shelton and I ran up the stairs to get there quickly. And about halfway up, we both stopped, gulping down air like a thirsty man gulps water - forgot about the high altitude, low oxygen. "I need my puffer" Shelton said in an old man's voice.

At Sunset Crater we got chased out (well, not really) because the normal place where you pay the entry fee was closed - a sign said to go to the Visitors Center to get a pass. We never found the Visitors Center, but I did collect some cool rocks along the way. As we were leaving (still well within the park), one of the park police (or ranger as they are also known) passed us by, then whipped around and followed us. We left quickly without incident, thankfully.


Along the way, we stopped at a trading post with a giant jackrabbit:



We had many many more adventures and funny and just plain weird stuff - too much to go into detail here. You'll just have to watch the videos when I get them posted to Google or Youtube at some point.

The plan for next year is either New York City or Canada - Canda will be cheaper but New York is New York - much cooler, imho. We'll just have to see how it goes!

Christmas Already...

I've visited this website for the past two years to watch and CONTROL this guy's (Alek Komarnitsky) Christmas lights. It's a pretty cool setup - the first year I clicked all the buttons and watched via Alek's three webcams as lights would turn off and on. The only problem was...it was a big hoax. It seems all Alek did was take pictures of various combinations of lights on and off, in different weather (cloudy, sunny, snowy, etc) and at different times (dusk, night), then wrote a script that would deliver the appropriate image depending on the time of day, what you had clicked off or on, and the weather. Pretty complex hoax, and all in fun.
So the next year (2005) Alek decides to try it for real - setting up actual controls so you can truly mess with his lights (and he has a ton of them). Anyway, I happened to check it out today, and I watched him and one of his kids as they put up lights and decorations outside their house. It's kinda strange, watching someone in Denver in real time from here in Paris - the internet sure is cool, isn't it? Anyway, check this site out in a few days when Alek has the lights and controls going - pretty cool, imho.