What rednecks do with their inheritence money...

A while back John and I went to Phoenix to go to a good friend's housewarming party shindig. This particular friend tends to be quite the overachiever when it comes to...well...pretty much anything. As such, he wanted everything to be perfect for the party.

Unfortunately, he also has currently a whole lot on his plate, so when it came time for the party to be about ready to start, he still had a million little things he wanted to finish. Knowing he was likely freaking out about getting things done, I asked if we could do something to help. He asked if we would be kind enough to swing by a store of some kind and grab an X-mas tree stand.

Which leads us to the picture and title of this post. We pulled into the K-mart parking lot and saw this...


Which pretty much made our night! Here was a jacked-up 50's school bus that this colorful pair of rednecks were charging admission to ride around the K-mart parking lot in. Big dorks that we are, we were fascinated by seeing it tear around, burning TONS of fuel and, I'm sure breaking a few noise ordinances.

I think I want one. Even if the guy said it got something like a half mile to the gallon.

LA trippin', part 2: Culture me!

Lest you get to thinking that we're simple-minded rednecks who only get joy from suped-up cars and beer busts, allow me to correct you. We don't drink.

Seriously, though John and I do actually enjoy attending museums that have things of cultural or historic importance in them. After the beer busts and car shows, that is. This time we finally made it to the Getty with our buddy Dan...who is an artsy guy himself. As such, I think we both enjoyed it a little more than John did.

We went to the Getty Villa, which was mostly ancient statues and artifacts. Since I've always been kind of fascinated by Greek statues and art, I was happy to be there. I sometimes wonder if my appreciation for the Greek stuff stems from the blatant homo-eroticism so much of it contains. Which makes me wonder if I should feel so cultured after all if I'm going there for high-brow smut.

I can't remember, but I think the name of the woman who took this picture for us was Ilean.

Me proving that I really don't know what to do with my hands during a picture.

Yes, that IS what you think it is on the front of this odd statue...why is it there? You tell me.

Is it wrong to think that the guys portrayed in a several thousand year old mosaic are hot?

LA trippin', part 1: The Cars!

Vanna bear shows off a cute new glorified golf cart AND his guns at the same time!

Being that John and I are pretty much car nuts, the main reason for our trip to LA was to see the auto show. The weekend we went was the last of it. In fact, we didn't make it there until Sunday, which was the last day of it.

We had alot of fun wandering the various showrooms and looking at some of the new models. My one frustration was that there weren't very many outrageously outlandish concept cars there. I'd been watching coverage of the Tokyo auto show, and had seen some of the neatest stuff Japan's finest could dream up...and didn't really see anything in LA that compared.

Not that there weren't any concept cars to be had, but most of them were kind of a yawn. Models that could very easily see production right now and not make that much of an impact if you saw them driving down the street.

Regardless, fun was had by all...and many pictures were taken. If you want to see more photos, you can see them here.

The new Chevy Volt. As the name might indicate, it's electric! (Boogie-woogie-woogie)

The newest Lambo sled to make you wish you could multiply your salary by about 15.

Something a little more in my price range (but, unfortunately, not size)...the adorable Smart Four Two.

John looking either pensive or famished...I'm not sure which it was at that point.

Billie Jean is NOT my lover.

The thing about flying non-rev (for free, but always standby) is that sometimes you have to make some extremely weird routing to get where you want to go. This past weekend, for example, we wanted to get to LA. But all the flights out of Tucson to LA (and to pretty much everywhere else) were full.

As such, we had to fly to Albuquerque so that we could make it to LA. Which was kind of a pain in the ass...but had we not routed that way, we never would have seen this...



It was plastered right outside the bathrooms in the terminal. You'll have to click on it to better see all the detail...but it was an ad for a gay retirement community in Santa Fe.

Notice the cuddling hot tub guys in the upper right hand corner...and the harsh portrait of Billie Jean King toward the middle.

John and I giggled about that poster for a good half hour.

Just back...

We just got back last night from a trip to LA to see the auto show. It was a good time, and lots of car-related pictures were taken. We also went to the Getty, where lots of statue-related pictures were taken. I still need to go through said pictures and shrink them down for normal consumption, so anticipate a post about all this in the near future complete with photos.

But if I wait until all that is done, I'll let posting slip by for another few days...and I need to get out of that habit.

Now it's time to head to the gym and make up for a week's worth of playing hookie. Being sick can take the motivation out of ya, you know.

Just a coincidence?

I hadn't really thought about it, until I read a post on Moby's blog the other day...about how he gets all emotional when he's ill...I think I'm the same way to a certain degree. I've always been one of those people who tends to get a little grumpy and short when I'm sick, but I always just chalked that up to being angry about not operating at maximum capacity. There's nothing more frustrating than wanting to go on about your daily life (working out, working, the simple act of talking and not sounding like an emphysema patient) while you feel weak as a kitten and are coughing up parts of your respiratory system.

But I got to thinking about it yesterday. I think it's more than just being being angry that I'm ill and feel like an invalid. I think there's something about being ill that knockes me down to a lower spot on Maslow's pyramid. (Thank you Glenn....your post contributed to this too) Feeling like I'm gonna die if I cough one more time tends to put me somewhere between the "Basic Needs (Survival) " level and the "Safety Needs (Comfort)" level. I don't know about you, but I tend to feel like I need some base-level reassurances when I'm in that kind of state.

Which is kinda unfortunate when your husbear is outta town on business. I say all this as a set up for yesterday. I was missing him, as he's been gone since Wednesday. And, because of maybe being in a more-needy-than-usual mental state, I was feeling a little blue about it.

So, cut to me shopping at the Sunflower grocery store. I was shopping for some hummus and chips to take to our friend Scott's, as he was having a get-caught-up-on-Heroes gathering with a few friends. I thought it might distract me and give me something else to think about.

So, I walk into the store, and the first thing I hear is a song I know only from knowing John..."Fooled Around and Fell in Love". (Though, admittedly, it was the lame Rod Stewart remake, and not the original Elvin Bishop version John had introduced me to.)

Thinking that a little odd, I tried to tune it out of my mind. Only to have another song I know of only from John come across the PA. (I can't for the life of me remember right now which one, though).

Thinking again how strange it all was, I rounded the corner and saw a guy walking towards me wearing one of John's all time favorite shirts. It's a gray ringer-T that has a picture of an 80's conversion van on it and the text "Waiting Room of the Love Doctor!" in a decidedly retro style encircling the van. Except it was practically hanging off of this guy, not skin-tight like it is when John wears it. I think it might even have been the same size as John's...but the guy was just really skinny and didn't fill it out nearly as well.

This just took the absurdity to a new level, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes and laugh out loud. Unfortunately, the guy in John's shirt saw this, and looked VERY puzzled as did his girlfirend. He grabbed her hand and sort of did one of those "get behind me, honey...this guy's freakin' me out" maneuvers, and they hurriedly strutted past. I almost thought about speaking up to explain, but I knew it would have made me sounds ten times as crazy as they probably already thought I was.

I laughed again (this time on the inside) and headed off to find the right chips.

Like I need an excuse, right?

Well, I'm starting to feel a little better in terms of the cold thing. Maybe the fact that I've taken enough vitamin C, zinc, elderberry, and echinacea to take down an elephant-sized virus is helping. Regardless, I've so far taken today as my bump-on-a-log day. I'm totally using it as an excuse to sit about in my underwear and play on the web. :)

One of the few nice things about waking up hella early....

ahh-ahh-ahh-CHOOOO!

What is it with this time of year? Why is it that with the change in the seasons and the weather everyone always gets sick? It sometimes amazes me that we've been able to not only survive, but actually prosper, on this planet given how fragile of creatures we can sometimes be. Even the biggest and strongest among us can be taken down by some microscopic little thing.

So yeah...here I sit with my zinc lozenges, box of tissues, and vitamin C. I sound like the love child of Greta Garbo and Jack Nicholson, and look (as John would so eloquently put it) like hammered shit. It's times like these that I wish I had a means of fast forwarding to the stage when I'm over all this. Cause absolutely NOTHING is fun when you're sick...least of all, work!

Houston, we have a sunburn.

While we were in Florida, I was lucky enough to get to see the shuttle launch as well. From what I understand, there are only a limited number of launches left that are scheduled to take place. Beyond that, their program has a bit of a murky future.

I guess I can understand that people nowadays have different priorities when it comes to how our tax dollars are spent. It seems to me, however, that blasting a few lucky folks into space to learn more about the universe we live in is alot more productive use of my money than shipping thousands of un-lucky young Americans off to get injured or killed in a foreign land that just so happens to have oil resources. But I suppose that's a topic for another type of blog entry.

In the meanwhile, look at the pretty pictures of the launch!

The crowd forming in anticipation of the launch...later they'd form a line at Walgreens looking for Aloe Vera gel.

A picture of someone taking a picture of the initial blastoff.

Someone in the crowd said they could see the boosters separating. I could barely see that there was something in front of all that smoke.

Look! Up in the sky! It's a...um...smoke plume.

Looks kinda pretty, don't it?

Johnny bear and the giant biker sausage!

I can't be the only person who finds that just a little bit suggestive.


Awww...don't he look cute?

One of the main things that John and I were planning on during our trip to Florida was the "Biketoberfest" that happens every year in Daytona. In fact, it was sort of what we'd planned our trip around. Not that we're huge bikers, mind you, but we do enjoy a good ride from time to time (on motorcycles...keep your mind out of the gutter). And we enjoy, almost as much, the people-watching opportunities that these type of events can provide (read: sometimes there can be hot biker dudes to ogle...and sometimes they ogle back!)


A good view of how busy the street was (and of the fairly hot guy in the forefront of the pic).

One of the cool things about visiting Florida is that John's dad lives only an hour or so away from Daytona, and has several Harleys for us to ride up to the festivities. Which is good, cause I don't think any airline would be accommodating enough to let us check our motorcycles for the flight there.


This is what happens when you let rednecks with too much time on their hands get ahold of a 12-pack and an arc-welder.

We'd been to Bike Week in Daytona in the early part of this year, and came to realize that the Biketoberfest was just pretty much a scaled-down version of it...sort of marking the end of good riding weather for many northern visitors. But there were still choppers aplenty, rednecks in enough tacky leather to make an IML competitor blush, lots of places to buy beer, and more this-makes-me-look-tough-dammnit facial hair growth than you could shake that proverbial stick at. In fact, the only thing that reminded me that we were at a bike-fest and not some big gay street fair was the occasional nearly naked biker-tart slinging drinks to the already stumbling masses.


I'm still trying to figure out what theme he was going for...but at least he carried it through to his helmet!

Poor, neglected blog...

Well, I think it's official, I've now set a new record for longest time between posts! Where do I pick up my trophy and sash?

Suffice it to say that life's been more than a little hectic lately, which has made blogging not nearly the priority that it used to be. Several potentially life-changing events have occurred recently that have been at the fore-front of my focus. Not the least of which is the possibility of John and I needing to move. (No, we're not bad tenants, or getting evicted for the loud moans coming from our make-shift dungeon...just the management where we live have come up with a few new rules that would make staying where we are very inconvenient).

So, sadly, posting to my poor little neglected blog has been lower on the priority totem-pole. But, that's not to say that I'm giving up on it at all. I fully intend to get caught up on posting about several things that've happened over the past few weeks, and staying a tiny bit more up to date in the future.

Regardless, thanks to those of you who have the patience to keep coming back to check in on the goings-on in my world. You guys make it worthwhile to keep posting!

Is that 'lobster' red?

Welcome to sunny Florida! Next time remember your sunscreen.

Totally awesome 80s night! (with a little gay pride thrown in for good measure)

Anyone who has ever lived in a smaller city knows that pride events in said cities can often times be a little lacking. It seems like you pay whatever the ridiculous cover charge is, (this year it was $15!) simply so you can be forced to buy over-priced carnival food and stand in line for a half hour to buy a 12 oz beer that costs $5, while perusing the overpriced niche-market goods. (Need a rainbow beach towel? Or an outfit for your chihuahua with a pink triangle somehow stitched onto it?) Essentially it always ends up turning into mostly an all-day beer-bust that just so happens to be in a park instead of a bar.



Despite all this, John and I decided to go ahead and head out to the park on Saturday. Part of that decision was based on the fact that Expose (you know...Seasons Change...Point of No Return...etc) was gong to be performing. Which any true 80's nut (ahem...John) would be all about. I won't lie and say I wasn't excited about seeing them too, but given that I was still in elementary school when their music was at it's most popular, I couldn't have quite the same appreciation.









The performance was good, and it was made even more entertaining when our local mother-of-all-drag-queens Aja Simone got up on stage and started doing all of Expose's dance moves with them. There were times when it looked like SHE was the performer...and they were her back-up singers.



So after that it was on to The Loft (Tucson's local art-house theater type place) for what was called The Totally Awesome 80's Sing-along). Essentially what happened was that they showed a series of four 80's music videos by a specific artist after which they'd have a commercial break. The commercial break was filled with all the cheesy, poorly acted schlock-fests that you remember from 80's advertising. (Remember the kiss-a-thon ads from Big Red? Or the Doublemint Twins? My Little Pony?)




After the music videos portion, there was a dance-off/costume contest. Then it was onto singing along to your favorite 80's TV-show themes (Facts of life, Charles in Charge, Golden Girls, etc). Then musical montages from 80's movies like Dirty Dancing, Fame, Flashdance and Footloose. (I think there were some other letters of the alphabet represented too, I just can't remember which).

Oddly enough, the $5 80's sing-along was every bit as gay as, and a little bit more fun than, the $15 pride event. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes it's the little things that go a long way toward making an event enjoyable.

The view from my "office"

Particularly pretty sunset I saw the other day at work.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

So the other day John, while perusing the part of Craigslist that ISN'T filled with random body parts asking to have untoward things done to them, ran across an 80 gig Ipod for $140. I have an Ipod already, but it's a 30 gig...and, believe it or not, I've already filled it beyond maximum capacity. So the idea of trading up for less money than I paid for the old one (which was also found on Craigslist, by the way) certainly appealed.

But, as with any good deal, not everything seemed 100% right. For one, the Ipod wasn't in any stand alone listing, but rather part of a "yard sale" type ad that included alot of other random stuff.

Secondly, we had to drive down to Green Valley (about 40 miles south of Tucson) to check it out. That, in and of itself, wasn't bad, but the guy pretty much blew off the idea of giving us directions, instead giving us the address, and telling us to google map it. I'm all well and good with using technology to it's fullest, but you'd think a person would know how best to get to their own house from the freeway.

Anyway, so we drove down, found the street, and located houses on one side of the street with 1751 and 1753 addresses, but across the street (where his address of 1750 should have been) was an apartment complex. Since we were given no unit number, we called the guy back. He told us to drive into the apartment complex, drive all the way to the back, and we'd find 1750.

We did...and it was the office for said apartment complex. And they looked at us like we were absent a chromosome when we asked about the Ipod for sale. We called back again, and the guy said he didn't like the managers of the complex, and didn't want to do the sale in front of them. He told us to drive up to the sidewalk in front of the last building before you exit the complex, and he'd send someone out with the item.

By now I was not only irritated but flabbergasted. Could anyone actually be THIS incredibly horrible at giving directions? Or was he being intentionally vague and mysterious for a reason? I was actually genuinely worried a little about this being some elaborate robbery scheme, as the "seller" would know that the buyer would be showing up with cash in hand. But by this time, after all that we'd done to get here, I was willing to at least see this through.

So out trots a 15 year old kid with the Ipod and a pair of headphones. This was most certainly NOT who we'd talked to on the phone about the sale. Knowing this had to be the guy's nephew or son, I took a look at the Ipod, saw that it actually WAS what it was supposed to be...and that it played music successfully. Finally, I told the kid we'd take it, but asked about the USB cable that was advertised to come with it. He said it was upstairs in the apartment, and he would have to have the money in hand before he returned with it.

After all of the shady phone dealings and vagueness, this kid had the nerve to imply he thought that WE were the ones that were untrustworthy in the situation. I also wondered momentarily what possible angle could be worked from this new wrinkle to somehow rob us blind, steal our car, and leave our charred bodies somewhere in the desert. Deciding there weren't too many, and I just wanted to buy the Ipod and get the hell out of there, I forked over the money. Shortly the kid returned with the cord, and we were on our way.

I left the dealings feeling lot more dirty and shady than I really care for (and that's saying something). Buying an electronic entertainment device shouldn't really feel like a drug deal. I was also left wondering "what, exactly, just happened?".

So, dear readers, you tell me...did I just buy some hot merchandise, or am I just misinterpreting due to paranoia? In other words, WHOSE Ipod will I be listening to at the gym later?

I want a Tonka truck!

If anyone was wondering what I'd like for X-mas this year (you know, aside from world peace and all that) this bad-ass little truck from Suzuki (called an X-Head) would work for sure!



The review says: "This Tonka toy-looking concept maximizes versatility by using different beds for different purposes. A camper bed would make it a recreational vehicle, while its Fashion bed lets you cart people around the city. It also has a bed intended for emergency rescue work."

I think I like the idea of the camper bed for...you know...fun time. I mean it has tie down notches under all that somewhere...you know it does.

Not so well traveled after all

I went and did one of those silly "where have you been" websites. (No, you pervs..."what physical locations have you visited", so not BMB) Turns out that I really haven't been that many places after all.




Of our 50 states, I've only visited a mere 27% (14 of them). You'd think a guy with free flight benefits would have seen a little more of the country by now. LOL

And when it comes to the world in general...




I've only seen 3%! (7 countries).

*Sigh*

Looks like I have some traveling to do!


***Update***
So John reminded me of a few that I'd forgotten about...apparently my Alzheimer's is kicking in early. So the new tally is 16 states, 31% (and I don't count anywhere that I've simply driven through...I have to have spent a little time there...other than in a hotel room).



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Fur n' fangs instead of leather and chains

John pretending to be a mountain lion, Kevin pretending not to see him do it.

So is that the otter equivalent to sucking one's thumb while sleeping?

For a number of reasons, John and I didn't end up making it to Folsom this year. Though we had a really good time last year, and would've liked to have hung out with Moby while seeing it, it just wasn't in the cards this time around.

The three amigos...and one tired donkey.

Since we were in town, our buddy Kevin from Atlanta came to visit for the weekend. We wound up taking him to see Nogales, Sonora and the Desert Museum here in Tucson. It was his first time ever in Mexico, and his first time seeing a good number of the desert critters that the museum has to offer.

He even manages to accessorize his sombrero with his facial hair color!

Though I'm not sure that Nogales is anything that one would necessarily be impressed by, fun was still had by all. The Desert Museum, however, Kevin seemed to really like. And I can't say as I blame him. I feel like I learn something new every time I go to that place. And I've been there alot. Maybe that just means I need to pay better attention when I'm there one of these times.

I added the names, cause that's exactly what John does when I'm on the scale at the gym.

Pretty but don't try to pick em.

This looked to me like something you'd see in the concept art for Monsters Inc.

BTW, if you'd like to see any of the other pics I took while we were at the museum, you can see them here.

As an added bonus, here's a picture of John looking high style in his Victoria Beckham shirt and glasses!

So i just set up

So i just set up mobile blogging, and can now blog from my phone....I think. This will act as my test-blog, so we'll see how it goes!

Fall has...uh...fallen?

The weather here in Tucson is finally starting to turn just a bit. We're getting days where our high is in the low 90s, instead of being over 100 every day. And some of the humidity of the monsoon season had left us too (so I don't come home from work nearly as sweat-drenched now). So I guess fall is here.

But what's signaling the arrival of a new season for me is not so much what the outside conditions are like, but more how people's attitudes seem to be shifting a bit. At work, I've been noticing a feeling that I'm just going through the motions. Travel is a little slower, and that means less work for us, generally speaking. I was a little worried that maybe it was just me getting bored at work, but I noticed most of the other guys seem to be feeling the same way.

So what is it about seasonal changes that seems to shift people's attitudes? Is it some sort of post-summer/pre-holiday season funk that we all fall into, knowing this will be the last time we really get to relax until January? Is it just the nicer weather making us all want to be outside, enjoying it? Is it some sort of ion-charge difference brought on by all the wind that usually comes this time of year? Or is it just that we're all driven by some ancient mammalian instinct to start settling down for hibernation?

Or maybe I'm making too much of all this, and you guys have no idea what I'm blathering on about.

I now pronounce you taking extremely small steps toward acceptance

The other night, after my workout (no there weren't any examples of hot beefcake there then, either) John and I decided last minute to go see a movie. I'd looked up the movies prior just in case we made said decision, and knew that the only thing on at that hour was a 9:50 showing of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry". I'd heard relatively unkind things about the movie, and the previews weren't anything that compelled me to rush out and see it, but for $3 I figured we couldn't go too wrong.

It's usually when I go into a movie with that attitude that I end up being pleasantly surprised in one way or another...Children Of Men, as an example. Though I can't say I walked away from last night's Adam Sandler vehicle wanting to necessarily recommend it to anyone, I will say that there were several things I was kind of pleasantly surprised about.

The movie, in case you missed either the previews or someone else's bitchy review of it, is about two straight firemen who pretend to be gay and partnered to utilize benefits for the sake of getting Adam Sandler a desperately needed face lift...or something. Which serves as the perfect platform from which to make a good number of gay jokes while still not necessarily making fun of gay people (since the jokes are about two straight guys that are pretending to be gay, you see). And make the gay jokes they did...everything from Liza-record-buying, to the old dropping-the-soap-in-the-shower gag (which, by the way, makes me wonder...if you're so loose down there that you think someone could slip it in you while you're bent over just long enough to pick up a bar of soap, don't you have bigger things to worry about...like where your colostomy bag is?).

But, refreshingly, the movie also used the whole straight-man-in-a-gay-world scenario as a means to show the protagonists (and the audience) just how despicably cruel and vicious homophobic straight folks can sometimes be towards gays. There's a confrontation scene between a church group and a crowd of AIDS charity goers that actually was slightly moving. There's even a moment at the end of the film where one of the guys tells his friends (and, presumably, the audience) "don't say faggot...it's just hurtful".

Unfortunately, these moments are also balanced out by a good number of frustrating examples of ignorance in the name of humor. All too often, it ends up being the straight-guy-in-gay-clothes that has to end up standing up for the silly queers who cower instead of standing up for themselves. And when a big, burly, scary fireman played by Ving Rhames is inspired to come out himself...he goes from badass motherfucker to silly, prancing queen in about 10 seconds. Who knew that uttering the words "I'm gay" had such power?

So, the moral of the story is this: the straights are finally, maybe, starting to see the light just a teeny-tiny bit...and realizing that they can sometimes be real dicks towards gay people. But, as for the perception of who the average gay guy is...they're still having a hard time letting go of the stereotypes. But I guess any little stumbles of progress can actually seem like giant leaps to those that are making them.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go re-organize my library of musicals while I listen to Judy Garland...and wear a dress.

Who do I have to blow to see some beefcake at the gym?

Ok...not literally.

I go to the gym for a good number of entirely pure and innocent reasons:

-I like to feel like I'm healthy, and like the idea of having a hobby that helps to promote said health.
-I like to feel as though I'm strong, and I actually need said strength for the more physical aspects of my job.
-I like to not be entirely sickened when I look at myself in the mirror naked.

And there's one I'll admit isn't quite as pure or innocent:

-I like to look at the really big beefy guys...for motivation to work harder...ok, and for the occasional masturbatory fantasy later. (I know I'm not the only one...right?)

But lately I'm finding a real lack of "motivation" at the gym. Ever since they opened the new LA Fitness on 1st, the number of big, hot beef monsters has dwindled significantly. Now, keep in mind that I don't need to have nice things to look at to be able to work out...but it does help from time to time!

So, tonight, I headed over to the Gold's Gym on Oracle, thinking there would be at least a little more to look at than Bally's. Since my gym seems to be populated by octogenarians and housewives, I figured how could there NOT be better eye candy?

Boy was I wrong. Not only was it not better...it was actually a little worse. So I guess it's down to relying on BMB for my motivation...and that other stuff.

*Sigh*

So my question is this...am I just being a perv with nothing better to do, or do those of you who work out sometimes find yourself doing something extra (going at a specific time of day, going to a different location, going to a different gym) to see nice things around when you're working out?

Or should I just quit bitching and concentrate on my workouts?

The name is actually French for "Big Titties"!

Doing my best to show off my own "grand teton".

No, not my name...the name of the national park from which John and I just returned. The "Grand Tetons"! And to make the sexual reference all that much more over the top...it was named that by fur trappers who were there looking for (what else?) beaver.

Us'ns acting like we're all outdoorsy and stuff.

Pocahontas raccoon! Who knew tacky taxidermy could make two grown men laugh so hard?

Despite those two unfortunate associations, John and I had a good time there. We visited with my parents...who go there every summer RV-ing and work in the park visitors center. We went white-water rafting...and both got wetter than a teenaged girl at a Justin Timberlake concert. We went hiking among the almost vanished glacier tipped peaks. And we saw the cute (but uber-expensive) town of Jackson Hole...just to throw in another dirty name for good measure.

When bears attack...their own!

My parents and a female ranger named...Larry...not kidding.

On the road again...

So here I am packing for another trip...when it seems I just got back from one (ok, so I did...but it was a really short one). I got back just in time for work from an extended layover in San Diego yesterday morning...and tomorrow morning I head out to Las Vegas to meet John. Where I'll spend a few days with him...then we'll try making our way up to Jackson Hole, WY to see my folks.
Is there such a thing as too much travel? Even when I fly for free?

My weekend! (Finally)

Since I work in a union job, my days off are constantly changing. Everything is, as one would expect, based on one's seniority. We bid for shifts, and what we get dictates what days off we have.
So, for this month, my days off are now Wednesday and Thursday. But since the bid just switched, I wound up working for a little more than a week without any days off (I know...poor me). But I also wound up working alot of doubles and odd shifts. As a result I've been really bad about posting (surprise).

But since I'm sitting around in my underwear in front of the computer, I figured it was time to write SOMEthing.

The biggest little sleepy casino town in the world!

Juan looks almost as bored as I look mentally challenged.

On Tuesday of this week, John and I headed up to Reno to hang out with my buddy Juan (who's also a co-worker). A while back he'd won a free two-nights stay in a hotel of his choice, and he was nice enough to invite us to fly up , hang out, and share the room. We stayed at the Peppermill Casino Hotel (which is actually the nicest Casino there...despite, or maybe because of, the millions of dollars in neon and pretty flashing lights they've installed) One of the neater things that they had, pretty much everywhere, were these TV screens inside art frames, which usually had what appeared to be really pretty nature stills cycling on them. But then I'd really look, and realize that the images were actually 15-30 seconds of video of some great landscape or waterfall. Really cool.

I don't know which is more pink...the hat, or John.

Anyway, one of the major draws for John and I in Reno was to see the famous National Automobile Museum. All of the cars there at one time belonged to Bill Harrah (the Harrah's Casino guy) who was also an avid car-nut. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 cars on display there, which supposedly are merely a small portion of his overall collection that get rotated throughout the year. Some of the more famous cars: The Batmobile, Elvis' Thunderbird, Frank Sinatra's Chrysler, and a good number of Ed Roth cars.

Does this make us look provincial, or just like idiots that can't resist an opportunity to play dress up?

The rest of the town was kinda neat to see too...kind of a mini-Vegas on Lithium. Not nearly as much going on, but it's clean and has some pretty portions...like their River Walk. The whole town seemed a little sleepy at times, but after having spent plenty of time in Vegas lately that was actually a welcome change.

You wouldn't see this in Vegas...at least not without a few bodies floating about.

All in all, a good time was had by all...and we learned one very important lesson...never go out on a weeknight following Pride in Reno...unless, of course, you enjoy being one of 5 people in an establishment.

One of the Ed Roth cars...or is it some fancy snow blower?