Sheep Guarding Llama

What a busy day today was. This morning I got up and went to Empire State College downtown Ithaca to discuss starting back at college in a few weeks during the summer semester. That, in addition to packing and getting ready to fly out this afternoon made for a very busy morning. At 1:30 I headed out for Rochester and met Josh at his office in Victor. Josh drove me out to the airport where I met up with Eric. All during my driving, today, I have been listening to Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets on CD. It really makes the time pass easier. It is eight hours long. The worst thing is that I managed to listen to seven hours and thirty minutes of it before I had to get out at the airport. So, now I am on my way south for the week and don’t get to hear the last thirty minutes to see what happens until I get back.

The flight went well. Eric and I got to the airport in Rochester with plenty of time. Security has gotten pretty efficient at the smaller airports and it really takes no time at all to get your tickets and get into the terminal. We had enough time to grab some quicke at Phillips European and read a little while waiting for the plane. We flew AirTran (the only cheap way to fly that I know of) on a Boeing 717.

We were unable to get a direct flight to New Orleans so we ended up having to fly from Rochester to BWI in Baltimore but did not have to get off of the plane there. We sat on the ground for about thirty minutes and then were off to Atlanta. Atlanta is the main hub of AirTran and BWI is slowly becoming a secondary one. In Atlanta, we had to switch planes and had an hour and a half lay-over. After a security search (that every male under the age of thirty goes through everytime he gets on a new plane) we were on our way again. We have gotten so used to being profiled and searched every time that we just walked up and went into the security line – it is easier that way.

We arrived in New Orleans at 11:00 at night (midnight to us EST people) and had to rent a car. Avis was the only place open and we were lucky enough to be able to get something. We got a Buick Century. What a piece of junk. This car had to power, was ugly and uncomfortable. But at least it was a little better than the Lincoln Town Car that Josh, Loopy and I got last year. That thing was even worse. Both cars handled terribly, though. We talked to the girls working the rental car booth and asked where we could find good, authentic New Orleans cuisine late at night. We were directed to Gene’s Po-Boys. So we set out on our adventure in NO. The first thing that we did was get ourselves good and lost and ended up driving along the industrialized side of the Mississippi. That was kind of cool for me since I had never seen the Mississippi before. What a huge river that is. Eventually we figured out how to get back to the city and managed to eventually find our way to the French Quarter. What a dump. We thought that we might stop there but the quality of the crowd and of the establishments directed us to go elsewhere. NO is one of the poorest cities in the US and it really shows when you are in the French Quarter. The term French Quarter is a clever bit of NO marketing meaning – Shantytown. If I was French, I imagine that I would be pretty offended by the use of the term. Maybe it is some reference to the slums of Paris or maybe French Equitorial West Africa.

After exploring Bourbon Street for as little time as we could get away with and still say that we got to see it, Eric and I managed to find out way to Gene’s Po-Boys. This was supposed to be the best example of real NO food. None of the tourist stuff. This is where the locals ate. It was in a really bad section of town (come to think of it, I am not sure that we found a good section of town) and we had to watch the car the whole time we were there. We were told that it was a pretty rough neighborhood. When we spoke later with people who had lived in NO and explained where Gene’s was (take Claiborne off of i10 and turn right onto Elysian Fields and it is on the right) they were surprised that we had gone to such a bad area. The best way to explain this place is “Tahou’s” to all of you from Rochester. Just like Tahou’s downtown. Only instead of Garbage Plates, they had Po-Boys. Now, in the north, Po-Boys are a cajun sandwich made with crawfish or crab, etc. In NO, they are just subs. Cheeseburger, sausage and cheese, etc. Basically, Tahou’s in a sandwich. It was 1:00 in the morning and we weren’t about to drive around looking for more food so I had my first meal with meat in over six months. It wasn’t too bad but I would have been better without the meat. I wanted to try local cuisine so it was worth getting a little sick from it. Eric got a little sick as well. There wasn’t much getting around that, let me tell you. There was gambling going on in the back room too. How exciting.

After having driven around NO for the last couple hours, Eric and I decided that we were completely disgusted by everything New Orleans and so we hit the road and drove north towards Mississippi. It only took two hours for us to reach Hattiesburg, MS – a nice and clean small town where we felt comfortable getting a hotel room. We managed to find a room at the Baymount (the Comfort Suites was booked due to a race.) The place was fine. We where very relieved to be able to get to bed and not have to travel anymore. It was also nice to know that we would not have to wake up in NO in the morning with a long drive to Hattiesburg in rush hour ahead of us.

Just a quick update today. We are about to head out to brunch. I am heading out of town tomorrow afternoon to fly to New Orleans with Eric. We are working in Hattiesburg, MS on Tuesday morning so we only get a little time in the Big Easy. One day in Mississippi. Then on to Anderson, SC for Eric and Atlanta, GA for me. Then we will be working in Anderson and Washington for the rest of the week. We have a lot of work to do down there. We will be very busy. It should be fun, though. We are looking forward to the trip. We each have laptops that we are taking (PIII 1GHz and Athlon4 1.3 GHz.) and I am bringing my GameBoy Advance with me as well. So we should be able to entertain ourselves.

I will be doing a much larger update tomorrow. I am not going to be able to update during the week, I would imagine, so if I am not updating for a few days – just hold on. I will attempt to write on the laptop while we are in the south and post all of the updates when I get back. Then you can hear about all of my adventures.

This month may be the busiest ever for the site. Both in people reading it and in overall postings. Normally we have three months or so on the first page but April alone is a bit long! And our loyal readers have been active this month as well. Joe told me that he was really reading the site even when he was in Tenessee.

Dominica is busy playing the Sims today. She is so happy to have her computer back. Now, Loopy, Josh and I are getting anxious to get our up and running. Too bad that it costs so much to do. I have almost everything that I need for mine. Josh and Loopy each have just a little bit. I hope to do mine as soon as I am back from the south.

Dominica’s computer is up and running and it is awesome. John was the first one to get his machine all together and mostly working. Dominica’s is the first one to be completely working – sound and all. The ASUS A7V333 main board really rocks. We loaded up all kinds of video games for her and she has been playing the Sims since she has been in withdrawal for the last week while her computer has been apart.

Josh and Joanna managed to come down to Ithaca today. Josh is looking at house options with us as we consider buying or building somewhere in the area. We met at the Bistro Q for dinner and drinks. Everything was wonderful, we had a great time. That is one of the best restaurants to take people to to just hang out. We were lucky that we got seated in the private dining room because they were so busy because it is a lot quieter in there.

Tomorrow, we are planning on going wine tasting on the west side of Cayuga Lake and having brunch at either Rogue’s Harbor or Banfi’s at the Statler Hotel. They both have incredible brunches.

What a day it has been. This has to be short as I am about to run out the door to head down to Owego to work at Lockheed – Martin. I am there all week. This is my second day. It isn’t very exciting but it is okay. Nothing stressful, at least. All I am doing is backing up computer and installing new ones, really. Monkey work. But, whatever. It is all good.

Today is Josh’s 26th so everyone be sure to wish him a happy birthday!!

It was hot here today. Almost 90 degrees (or, very hot, to you Canadians.) Last night Loopy and I decided that we had to have the air conditioner on because even with all of the windows open, it was just unbearable being in the house. So, we turned that on and put fans sucking air up from the upstairs vents to help pull cold air to the upper floor. The house did not cool down, however, and in fact was over 81 degrees by the time that I returned home from work. So, Loopy and I set off to find the air conditioner and see if we could clean it out or something since no cold air seemed to be coming from the vents. We were unable to locate the air conditioner. A little later, Nate and Bob got home. We told Bob that the a/c unit must be located in the closet in his room but he said that he only had the furnace. So then the question was, where is the a/c? The answer? They forgot to install it. Originally, they had forgotten the furnace. They also forgot the front walkway which has been just a frame since we moved in six months ago. So, this is going to be interesting.

Well, kids, I am out of time and have to hit the road. Have a good one.

Well, it has been a long week but it is finally over, TGIF!! Nate and Bob have been gone all week. Bob informs me, however, that when he and Nate were out of town that they checked the web site to see what was happening back here at home. So, this site is useful. Loopy has Dominica’s car today as his is in the shop.

So here is a funny story to come out of working at Lockheed – Martin / DoD this week… One of the guys that I worked with was Mike. Mike was staying in Ithaca with his girlfriend and driving down to Owego the same as me. Today he mentioned that he actually was from Norwich. (Yes, Norwich!) So, I asked him if he knew Kate Stillman (since Mike is about two years younger than me, I thought that there was a chance.) “Kate” he said, “Of course I know her, she was my next door neighbor.” For those of you who don’t know who Kate is, she is now Kate Ayers, Phil’s wife. So, I thought that that was a pretty big coincidence. Anyway, Phil and Kate never actually read this page so I will see how long it takes for them to get back to me about this.

Other than that, not much good came out of working all this week. The new parts for Dominica’s computer are in and I am trying them out right now. She has been without a computer for at least a week now and my second machine is gone as well. So we don’t know what to do with outselves. At least my laptop is here and working now. Loopy is thinking about getting the parts to put his computer together later on tonight.

Somehow we managed to get Eric reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Philosopher’s Stone for our Canadians.) I never imagined Eric reading that but he is doing it right now and is over half way through the book. I haven’t had a chance to read the Chamber of Secrets yet so I bought it on CD last night and have been listening to it in the car. Last night I had to drive out to Eric’s and my parent’s houses to pick up some things that were waiting for me out there. So, I had quite a bit of time to kill while I was in the car.