Watch out

So's I'm driving to work this morning, and what to I see on the opposite side of the fourlane? A buck deer in all his velvety splendor running down the middle of the highway. Of course, I got up on the wheel, because I figured he would jump the barrier into my lane, causing him to get hurt and my car to get damaged. I went on by and was thankful he didn't get me. He was headed toward the middle and going the wrong way, so the odds of him making it to the woods are pretty low. I hate when a deer is killed by a car. It may seem odd, because I hunt and it's ok if they get killed by a bullet or an arrow, as long as they get eaten.

Give till it hurts

I don't think there's anyone who reads my blog that isn't already aware of this, however, I'd like to post a link to a friend's fundraiser for the Hole in the Wall Gang camp. Details are at the link.
Support Clare

Smooth!

Last night we tried the new smoothy shop in town Inta Juice. It was pretty good. I thought it was a little expensive, until I compared it to a Blizzard. It was a lot bigger and a little more expensive. Plus, it had fresh fruit and was "healthy" I had a Tahiti Delight and Juanita had a Caribbean Blend. We plan to sample more flavors, too.

Word of warning

I noticed that I wasn't receiving that many comments to my threads. Of course, once I realized that I seldom comment on other people's blogs, I got the beam out of my eye and I'm now going to make an effort to comment on your blogs, oh citizens of Nuggie Land. Sometimes, that might mean a cogent thought, and sometimes that might be "Me, too!" but I will try to make them useful.

Day late and a bottle cap short

I finally saved up enough my coke rewards points to get a hat, and they sold out of NASCAR hats. Not that a big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I wanted me a free Edwards or Biffle hat. So feel free to go to My Coke Rewards and give me suggestions on what I should get with 120 or so points.

Shot (put) down in a blaze of glory

Congratulations to my baby for winning the Shot Put championship of the Charleston YMCA Corporate Cup!

Vacation Pictures

And wedding pictures are now posted at
Flickr

I got tagged

My homey Tiny tagged me with the following meme So here goes:

5 things in my fridge
Fat Free Oscar Mayer Wieners
Diet Dr. K pop
Fat Free Oscar Mayer Bologna
Barbeque Sauce
Yogurt

5 things in my closet
Tom Criuse (bwahahah.. ok not really)
Laundry Basket
Terry Labonte Long Sleeve Twill Oxford
Bobby Labonte Polo
Elliot Sadler 21 Long Sleeve Twill Oxford
Wood Brothers Long Sleeve Twill Oxford (I heart a clearance sale)

5 things in my laptop case
Power cord
Id badge holder
Wireless mouse
Phone cord
Ethernet cable

Five things in my car
CD's
Jacket
Sunscreen
Empty Pop Bottle
Blanket

5 people to tag:
I think all the people I know who blog have already gotten tagged save 1
Juanita

More Vacation notes

Tuesday:
Got a late start and headed to a Tex-Mex place called Maritza's II for lunch. They opened at 11, so we drove around the beautiful countryside waiting for 11 to come. It finally did, but when we walked in, there was no one to be found. So we went to a place called Jubilee and had lunch, It was ok. Then we headed off to the Crossings Premium Outlet Malls in Tannersville. Along the way we stopped and got a cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory (not a Cheesecake Factory restaurant, but a factory where they make cheesecakes) The we went to a candle shop. Then we were off the outlet mall. We go a CD of Superman Lives for the ride back. We looked for wedding rings at Ultra Diamonds, but Juanita's engagement ring is 18 caret gold with pretty nice diamonds, and she's having a hard time finding a band to match it. Looks like it will be special ordered. Then we hit Maritza's II on the way back for dinner. The portions were generous, but the beans had a funny taste and the shredded beef tasted like hormel chili. Then we went back to the resort. There's a movie theatre there, so we went and saw Over the Hedge. It was pretty funny.

Wednesday:
This was the day we planned to stay on the resort. There was a quarter toll on the road into the resort, so we wanted to save that. First crack out of the box, we rented a paddle boat and went out onto the lake. Then we played a game of putt putt. After that we went back to the room. Juanita took a nap and I went to watch another movie at the theatre at the resort. It was actually a DVD, but it was projected onto the same big screen as before. It was "Rumor Has It." I'm kind of glad Juanita didn't go, because it dealt with some girls who were questioning there decisions to get married. Somewhere between Monday and Wednesday, we watch 4 episodes of Star Trek TNG as rented from Netflix
After that, we hit the resort Sports Center, to hit the hottub and play some ping pong and got some ice cream at the ice cream shop.

Thursday:
The big day! We drove down to Jim Thorpe. We were running early so we drove out to a place called Penn's Peak. It hadn't opened yet, but just from driving up there, you could tell the view was nice. At the courthouse, we went in to get the license. I told them my name and one lady said "Oh, you must be the NASCAR couple" We had figured that being the honeymoon capital and having 2 NASCAR races, this would be a common occurrence. (note: I think the track is in Monroe county, and this was Carbon. Not sure if it would matter) Then we went up to the court room. The Judge and his staff were very accommodating. It was a simple ceremony in a nice courtroom. He offered to do it in the big stately one, but the small one was fine by us. I almost burst out laughing we he said "For richer and for poorer" because we have the "for poorer" part down pat.
After the ceremony, we went back to Penn's Peak for lunch. It was good and the view was breath taking. Pictures shall be forth coming. The bar (Roadies) and the concert hall are very nice, also. We had then planned on taking a hike down to Hawk Falls. Unfortunately, it looked like rain and Juanita had brought the wrong shoes. We ended up heading back toward the outlet mall. We went to the NASCAR Toy Museum in Sciota. Honestly, it's a touch over priced, but it is something to see. They have a bunch of diecasts and standups and stuff from NASCAR, plus old dolls, lunchboxes and thing like that. It's really interesting. Then we went back to the outlet mall. Juanita had one ring that she kind of liked, but upon review, it was still not what she wanted. Then we had dinner at the nice Italian place at the resort.

Friday:
We had breakfast and the resort and headed back to Hawk Falls. The weather was perfect and the falls and surround forest was peaceful and relaxing. Then we went to Claws and Paws, a zoo outside of Hamlin. Very cool animals. We got some Chinese takeout and headed back to the resort. Then we went to see X-Men 3 at the resort movie theatre.

Saturday:
We got up early and checked out. We picked up some breakfast at Wawa and I filled up with gas. On the trip back we listened to the novelization of Star Trek Nemesis (except when Car Talk was on) The trip took most of the day. When we got home, we watch the Michigan Truck race. Then we caught up on last weeks Truck race and Busch races. (Thank you DVR)

Sunday:
We watched the Kentucky Busch race on DVR and the Michigan Cup race. Juanita also took me out for Chinese then Blizzards for Father's Day (no, I'm not father, yet.)

PS. Last week is starting to get fuzzy, so somethings that I wrote we did on Tuesday may have actually happened on Wednesday, or vice versa.

Vacation Blog, a week later

Here is the word doc I typed up last Monday:

Friday:

We left work at 5:00 or so headed up 79 to Pennsylvania. Our entertainment along the way consisted of Mary Higgins Clark’s “Before I Say Goodbye” on tape. It was 9 hours of tape, so it would last into Monday. We tried to listen to the Craftsman truck race, but we lost the station we were listening to about a quarter of the way through, and never found another. About half way to Pocono, we tuckered out and stayed overnight in Hagerstown, Maryland. No Speed on the cable, so off to bed.

Saturday:

We got up early and checked out of the hotel and set out for Pocono. It didn’t take as long as I thought and we got to the track about 9:30. We went on in, bought our tickets and headed in to watch practice. Then we walked around checking out the haulers. Then we headed back in to watch Happy Hour and the ARCA race. We sat in the Terrace just a little ahead of the start finish line.

The ARCA race was pretty interesting. I expected Nextel Cup driver David Stremme to run away with it, and Pork driver Frank Kimmel to do well. Stremme missed shift or something and broke the first lap. Kimmel had a flat tire that took him out of contention. There were lots of cautions, and different people pitted everytime. The thing was, after the first turn, it was easy to tell the haves from the havenots. Some of the guys up front would drop like rocks, while the others zoomed ahead from the back. Nextel Cup washout Brent Sherman had a strong car, as did up and comers Jeremy Clements and Justin Allgaier. (or Justin Alligator, as my immature self refers to him) They were both friends of the late great Pit Stop comic. They both had troubles, unfortunately. With about 5 laps to go after a caution, someone on the scanner said “The 4 car is gonna win this race. He’s the fastest one out there.” He was about seventh or so, so this was an odd prediction. Brent Sherman was running the 04, so I thought that was who they meant. A few laps later; however, Chase Miller had taken the 4 around the 04 and every one else. There was a Green White Checker finish, but Chase held on to take his first ARCA win.

At this point we were ok with Pocono Raceway. The crowd was light and we could see pretty well. At the Nextel Cup race, all that would change.

Sunday:

Traffic had been really light for the ARCA race, so we didn’t know what to expect for the Cup race. We got up early and headed for the race. Traffic was backed up pretty far, but it didn’t take terribly long to get parked. We sat and listened to a little more of the book, then moseyed on into the track. I don’t normally wear a hat, and had forgotten to put it on our packing list, so I hadn’t brought one. I was faced with the choice of wear Juanita’s Jeff Gordon hat (she wears a visor) or buying one of someone I like. So off I went to buy a hat. Having a few hats back home, and free ones coming soon from mycokerewards.com (just few Coke Zeros away) and John Deere, I was having a hard time talking myself into spending 20-25 bucks on a Mark Martin or Carl Edwards hat. Then I went by the Terry Labonte trailer and they had hats for 5 bucks. I like Terry just fine (since the IROC race where Earnhardt took tires, but that’s a story for another day) so I picked up an olive/brown Kellogg’s hat. I had a pretty good sunburn from the ARCA race. I thought because it was cold and overcast I would be OK. Someday I’ll learn.

The race was… well let’s just get down to brass tacks. You can see a decent amount of the front stretch when everyone is sitting down. You can see the little area right in front of you when everyone stands up. Since people like to stand up, you don’t have a lot of choice in the matter. We were sitting in section SN, about midway between start finish and the end of pit road. We could see the Long Pond straight and the Tunnel turn ok, thought they were a little small. The other two turn we could see a little of. As for the race, it was pretty good. The gaps between two cars could be pretty long, but here was plenty of room to pass if one car caught another. At one point Eli Gold said (off the air) “Jesus, there’s not a close battle anywhere” After that thought, things got pretty good. There were 2 cycles of pit stops, so the lead changed through the green flag as they cycled through. Greg Biffle had brake issues and had to come from the back a couple of times. Denny Hamlin had tire problems and had to do the same. Those two were interesting to watch. We had a good view of several of my favorite driver’s pit area. Ken Schrader was right in front of us, as was Robby Gordon. Was also had a decent view of Carl Edward’s problems, and could see the Biffle’s hood in the air when they were working on him. Jeff Gordon’s wreck was just nasty.

As a race course, I really like Pocono, but as a place to watch, not so much.

After race traffic was a bear. Since the resort we were staying was near the track, I had an idea of where I needed to go. Unfortunately, the first path was blocked off. So after driving a long way out of the way, I was finally headed back to our room. Then, that road was also blocked off. So we went out of the way again. Finally, we got on the right path and back to the room.

Monday:

We got up early and went to a place called Piggy’s for breakfast. The food was passable, but the decor was great. As the name might hint, the joint was adorned with all kinds of pig related items. Then it was off to Jim Thorpe to get the marriage application. That process was simple enough. Construction was the order of the day in Jim Thorpe, so when we left, we didn’t go back the same way we came. We pretty much just headed up the street and went to the next crossroads. We kept looking at the map to try to get back. Just driving around was nice though, because this area is beautiful. We also ended up seeing the Country Junction, the world’s largest General Store. It was neat. We finally ended up back at the room, where we rested and watched “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” After that, we went over to the Lodge, where there is wifi and we checked our email and a little surfing. Not a lot though, since we are on vacation. When we got back, I decided to go ahead and put this into a Word document, because I’d forget by the time I got back home.

Back from Vacation

I thought we had internet in the rooms where we went on vaqcation, but we only had wi-fi in the lodge. I didn't take much time to head to the lodge for surf, so I apologize for the long silence.

I have a word doc on my work lap top of the first few days, and I'll post a follow up blog on the last few days of the vacation after that.

We did end up getting married, though,. Here's a pic.


We have a lot of pictures (most of Claws and Paws) that I have to get uploaded to flickr or something in the next few days. Will let you know.

This can't be good

Juanita has started a blog. Deep thoughts... Now you'll get to hear the other side of my stories.

Oh, By the Way

I mentioned my sweetie in this blog entry. So, we've decided to make it legal and all. We are attending the NASCAR Nextel Cup race this weekend at Pocono, so a wedding in the Poconos may be in order. Or we may wait until later and do it here in the great state of West Virginia.

I love her so much and am lucky to have her.

I'm a prisoner in a Chinese Kitchen!

Just wanted to share a couple of fortune cookies we've gotten. The first
one Juanita got today, and it's just plain funny. The second one I got a
few weeks back. It's sort of funny by itself, but it's terribly funny if
you follow the tradition of adding "in bed" to your fortune.