Proof that Dr. HokieKev and I can take a non cracked out picture!

This is from Bob and Laura's wedding. Both of us even have our eyes open. Click on it to see the rest of the pictures from the wedding and a few from our trip to NYC including a top secret shot from deep inside The Food Network!

And if those are not enough NYC pictures for you, you can check out some vintage pictures by clicking the one below. These are from our December 2005 trip when things were a little more crowded and a lot more cold! Go ahead and click on Dr. HokieKev doing his best Donald Trump impersonation. "You're Fired!"

Fun with Hotel Employees- Take Two

So the culmination of the I slept with David Copperfield night was Newark Airport in lovely New Jersey. We spent four days there in celebration of Bob's wedding. Bob and Kevin have been friends since they were like six and he was the best man at our wedding- so it seemed only fitting that we trek cross country to see him tie the knot. It was a great time. I went to the second largest mall in America and once again coveted the Swavorski champagne glasses which I have to admit serve no real purpose other than being insanely pretty. I also spent the better part of an hour looking for a snack. What kind of snack food vendors in a mall don't take plastic these days- seriously. And 15 minutes from NYC- SHEESH!

The rehearsal dinner was fabulous, as was the hotel bar afterwards. Drunk Kevin even made an appearance. For those of you who are unaware- spotting Drunk Kevin is like seeing a yeti. Even though the crotchety bar tender tried his best to put a damper on the evening, I think a good time was had by all. This man was convinced that a hundred people were going to show up any minute to the Hilton Bar and therefore refused to charge anything to the room, a credit card, or let anyone order food.

The wedding was also pretty cool. The appetizers alone were enough to feed an army and were followed by a four course meal and five desserts. I even ate the Jordan almonds. Wine may have been involved. Anyway, Sunday morning we left and headed to Connecticut to meet Chris- one of Kevin's friends from college. We had lunch on a marina and hung out for a while before heading to NYC.

This was the first time I had been to NYC when it was above 40 degrees. It was also the first time I had been to NYC that I stayed in a hotel room not booked by a travel company who stuck us in Acrosstheriver, NJ. So anyway, we had a room at the Marriott Marquis right in Times Square. Seriously, I could have thrown something out the window and hit the Phantom of the Opera. Dr. HokieKev read online that in certain cities, NYC and Vegas being two of them, it is fairly easy to get upgraded hotel rooms by slipping the check in person a $20. All you have to do is slip it between your credit card and driver's license. Supposedly, if they aren't able to upgrade you they give you the money back. He gave this a trial run at this fancy hotel and it worked! The girl looked at the money, looked at Dr. HokieKev, and started typing away culminating in us being upgraded to a 44th floor executive suite. It was pretty fancy (and nice to have two rooms since we had spent the better part of two weeks in tiny hotel rooms 24/7)!

After settling in, we headed to John's Pizza with Anna and Russ (Kevin's high school friend and her fiance). Even though it took us a few wrong turns to find it- and the discovery that you could literally see it from our hotel room window- we made it. If you are ever in NYC go there. The sauce on the pizza is delicious and for $25 bucks for two people to eat dinner in NYC, it really can't be beat. After dinner, we headed to the bar on top of the hotel for drinks and the dessert buffet. The top of the hotel rotates so we got a pretty good view. Of course, you pay for that view by being sucked into the $17 dessert buffet- well worth it for the chocolate covered strawberries and marshmellows! Needless to say drinks and dessert were way more than dinner but it gave us a chance to catch up with Anna and Russ which was cool.

We spent Monday doing semitouristy things like taking the tour of NBC studios and taking pictures of a non snow covered Rockefeller Center. We also met Kevin's friend Lisa for lunch. We went to a little diner across from Chelsea Market and had the best diner food I have ever had. Halfway through our lunch who should walk in but noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker from America's Next Top Model. Apparently, he lives in the neighborhood. We spent a while at lunch and then headed back to Lisa's office for a tour of The Food Network studios. Apparently, this tour is only available to contest winners and VIPS like us because again, that's how we roll! It was pretty cool seeing the test kitchens and TV sets. This particular day it was set up to tape "Guy's Big Bite" and it looked like he was making meatball subs! You would be really surprised at how small that studio is for some of the things they tape. I may never watch Iron Chef America the same way again. Funny thing about The Food Network- aside from the small candy bar- there is no food. Seriously, all they have for craft services is candy. Lisa said most people figure that there is a ton of food around all the time and that just isn't the case.

We concluded our day by visiting Crumbs! and ordering some fabulous cupcakes. I highly recommend the Artie Lang- named after Howard Stern's sidekick- it taste like a black and white cookie filled with chocolate cream. Yum! Then it was back to the hotel to tip the bell guy, the valet, the guy who helped with our luggage, and every other human within 10 feet of our car. Nice hotels are great but you better have a cache of $5's ready to go. After the tipping was completed it was off to....VEGAS!!!

Pictures Only!

So Sue Me

I am a few posts behind because we haven't had reliable internet in a while. It seems that nice hotels want to charge you for it and we like to stay at them because of their fluffy beds. Luckily, Dr. HokieKev got our internet working this evening so that I can get back to retelling our journey. But for now, here are some pictures from Seattle. Click on it to see the rest!!!

Guess who I slept with last week...

Wednesday we had the pleasure of taking the red eye from Las Vegas to New Jersey. At least we were upgraded to first class because that is how we roll...or because Dr. HokieKev flies alot... but we were not sitting together. I guess it is better to be in first class and apart then scrunched up next to each other. Anyhow. So we get on the plane and I go to take my seat and I look over and see this odd looking character being VERY fidgety. I thought he was hopped up on meth or something. He goes on to have a freakout because there will be no food on the plane and no movie shown. The flight attendant tries her best to explain to him that people like to sleep on these red eyes and I worry for my arm as I think I am sitting next to a hungry meth addict who may try to use my arm as his dinner.

So a few minutes go by and the flight attendant leans in and asks crazy guy "Are you that magician guy?" Crazy guy responds "Yeah, I am that magician guy." Whatever, I think to myself, we are in Vegas where magicians and other odd characters are a dime a dozen. I put my feet up and try to go to sleep. Meanwhile, tons of passengers are coming in including one pregnant woman who was unfortunate to be stuck in a middle seat. She looked like she was at the point in her pregnancy where the baby was beginning to think her bladder was a trampoline. She was also trying to get her seat switched so she wouldn't have to climb over the guy next to her every 20 minutes. The flight attendant would have none of that and told her she would just have to wait and see if someone should switch. Clearly, the flight attendant had other things on her mind.

So she comes over, practically knocking into me and says to crazy guy "David, may I call you David- we have a pilots meal available I can pull aside for you if you want." Crazy guy loves that idea and I am now sure I am sitting next to that magician dude named David. Again, whatever, lots of magicians, lots of guys names David. We get off the ground and crazy magician guy is brought his meal which looked a way lot better than any plane food I have ever had. Dr. HokieKev was a bit disgruntled and asks me how he got the sandwich. I replied "well, he is famous and you aren't." Kevin wanted to know who it was but at this point I was still unsure.

Fast forward an hour and crazy guy pulls out his iphone and begins to watch some magics acts. Then it is Family Guy- the Family Guy where he was the guest star. When that was over, he pulled up Conan and this is when I was convinced crazy guy was I was relevant in 1994 magician David Copperfield because guess who the guest on Conan that episode was.....David Copperfield. Dude spent THREE HOURS watching himself on TV. Weirdo.

He then went through the skymall magazine and ripped out pages of stuff I am assuming he wanted to buy and then folded them up into really tiny pieces. I guess no one told him that he can take the magazine with him. It is free and no one really needs any of the crap in there anyway. But never the less, he spent at least an hour going though and picking stuff out. When we got off the plane, he pushed me out ofthe way to get out. He proceeded through the terminal completely unnoticed....again, he was once relative...in 1994. The flight attendant spent the rest of the flight fawning all over crazy dude. "So you need water....coffee....orange juice....my first born..." Totally nuts.

And seriously, dude has millions- if not billions- of dollars (I looked on Wikipedia, he made $54 million last year, and we all know that if it is on Wikipedia it must be true) why in the world is he flying on the US Scareways complaining about the lack of video entertainment? He owns his own island for crying out loud! Maybe Sigfried and Roy had the private plane that weekend or maybe he likes to go through major airports hoping to be recognized- who knows.

All I know is that I slept with David Copperfield Wednesday night and he was really weird.

<3 I left my heart in San Francisco <3

We spent my birthday and the day after in San Francisco. It was cold. Seriously, 62 and cloudy is not fun. This is California for crying out loud. So anyway, we woke up early in Seattle and took a cab to the airport. Our flight was delayed- something about fog. When we finally landed, we retrieved our bags and proceeded to lug three giant suitcases on an airport train, a subway train, and a historic streetcar. The streetcar part was really annoying as it was completely packed and the other people on it were not too amused by our luggage situation. I was also a bit disappointed that these weren't the fancy red trolley cars rather actual used streetcars from all over the world. We arrived at the hotel around 2:30- tired and STARVING. Our room at the Fisherman's Wharf Hyatt was not ready so we ditched our bags with the bellman and went in search of birthday food. I really wanted cake but seeings as how most restaurants do not have birthday cake on the menu, we opted instead for some seafood at Neptune's Palace. The west coast is apparently the land of dungeness crabs so, for the third time this trip, I got something crabby for lunch and it was delicious!!! This was also the point in our trip that we realized we were staying in a HUGE tourist trap.

So Fisherman's Wharf is basically a carnival geared towards cruise ships- there is a carousel and a million street performers adding to the smell of carnival food wafting through the air. Tons of t-shirt shops and discount jewelers also line the streets. I was once again attacked by a bird- this time more The Birds style- divebombing towards my face. These birds seriously do not mess around. It probably has something to do with the abundance of street vendors and all the food that makes it onto the street. After lunch, we tried to take an Alcatraz tour but they were booked up for the next five days. You could sail to the island, around the island, and maybe even under the island but not actually go onto the island until Sunday which was kind of disappointing. So we forwent that tour and instead went back to the hotel to take a nap figuring we would wake up in time to have Ghiradelli sundaes for dinner. (That is, after procuring a chocolate covered caramel apple which I spent the whole way back to the hotel trying to convince Dr. HokieKev of its healthfulness. Whatever- it was my birthday.)

Not so fast my friend! You see, Ghiradelli chocolate started in San Fran and, even though production has moved across the bay, there is still a store in the famous Ghiradelli Square- 4 blocks from our hotel. So we wake up and Dr. HokieKev takes to the internet to see when the place closes- 8:00pm...WTF!!! Are you telling me that fancy ice cream place in tourist trap town closes before most people have finished their dinner? A call to the ice cream parlor confirmed Dr. HokieKev's worst nightmare. Instead, we headed back to the overgrown carnival to find that most of the things there we closed too. We settled on funnel cake for me and a Ben and Jerry's shake for him. Not the same.

We ended up back at the hotel pretty early and pretty disappointed that the city closed at 10. Come to find out, we were just in the wrong part of the city. Next time we will know this and probably stay downtown instead of in tourist land. The next morning, we dumped our bags with the bellman and headed for Ghiradelli square- nothing like a giant ice cream sundae for breakfast- although by this point it was 11:30 so it was more like lunch. When we got to the ice cream place we saw CLEARLY marked on the door- STORE HOURS: 9:00am-11:30pm. Ummm...last night you told us you closed at eight. What's up with that? Although the sundae was a delightful breakfast, it would have tasted oh so much more tasty at 10 the previous night. I concluded that they get so busy at night from foot traffic that they tell people they close at eight to keep them away. Whatever, don't take my money. We then tried to kill time before our DUCK tour. Yes, we were the losers taking the DUCK tour to see as much of the city as we could on our one and a half day visit. At least in San Fran you get quackers....in Boston you actually have to quack at people.

We visited the exteriors of some old ships and the interior of an old arcade that had working games going back as far as 1880. Crazy some of the things that used to amuse people. We also took another look at the California Sea Lions. Some of which were still chillaxin in the marina by the carnival pier. The DUCK tour was pretty good- we saw the parts of the city that stay open past 10. Next time we will know. The water part of the tour was FREEZING!!!! Next time I will also know to bring a jacket. After the tour, I managed to convince Dr. HokieKev that a Strawberry Hazelnut crepe was a healthy dinner because it had strawberries in it- so we got one and headed back to the hotel to wait for the airport shuttle. Thus concludes our whirlwind stay in the land of Rice-A-Roni!!!

Tune in tomorrow when I reveal who I slept with the other night...that wasn't Dr. HokieKev!

The Snozberries taste like Snozberries!

Saturday morning we woke up BEFORE the sun. If you know me, you know I don't do well waking up before the sun. Anyway, it was 45 degrees. In July. Farking Utah! So we make it to the airport with three bags. I actually managed to convince Dr. HokieKev that going to a wedding in the middle of a three week vacation required checking a bag. He gave in and we agreed to mail the bag back to Utah from New Jersey. Fast forward a few hours and we arrive in Seattle to visit our friends Nilu and Rob. Nilu works in travel and had prepared a lovely schedule for us so that we would see as many sites as possible. We visited a few farmer's markets and I had my first cherry. I had always assumed I didn't like cherries because the ones that come with ice cream are an unnatural shade of red and overall not something I want to put in my mouth. Regular cherries are great!!! We also sampled cheeses, breads, honeys, and some amazingly wonderful chocolate sauce. Like nutella but WAY better and organic because apparently that matters to some people.

Saturday night we hit up a housewarming party and shennanighans ensued as they always do when you mix Rob, Dr. HokieKev, and beer. We also got some natural cheetos....they were missing a certain orange flavor but were otherwise pretty tasty. Sunday we went to a chocolate festival- well, it was more of a trade show for choclatiers- and was a little too much for all of us. They had TONS of different kinds of chocolate- truffles, chocolate covered nuts, chocolate covered fruits, habenero chocolate, mint chocolate, dutch chocolate, toffee chocolate, and even blue cheese chocolate. Blue cheese chocolate tastes, as Rob described so wonderfully, "Like Toe!" It was the only one all day that I spit out. Once we were significantly sick to our otherwise empty stomachs we headed to lunch. I think the person that enjoyed it the most was Rob and Nilu's inside baby. He/She was apparently kicking around the whole time.

When we got back, Nilu and I walked down to the farmer's market again to get some picnic supplies. I don't really know why we thought we wanted a picnic after our overindulgent morning but nevertheless. We picked up some bread and cheese to go with the cherries. Then- the best part- sampled and bought GOOSEBERRIES!!!! They are these little green not really a grape, not really a kiwi, kinda tastes like a sour plum kind of fruits. AMAZING!!!! So anyway, picnic, nap, dinner....oy! I left dinner with a food baby. Not so good.

Monday Dr. HokieKev and I headed to the touristy things. We went to the top of the space needle, walked all over downtown- seriously, ALL OVER- and then....wait for it....wait for it...went to the library!!! Yes, that is the life of a dude trying to get some papers into a conference by the July 31st deadline while on vacation. It was a trial and involved phone calls to several individuals with more reliable internet connections. I think my sister finally got the thing to upload and all was right with the world again. After that sidetracking, we headed to Pike Place Market...AKA tourist trap farmer's market. This is the place that they show people throwing fish around on the Real World Seattle from a zillion years ago- yeah, not so cool in person. We were expecting actual throwing of actual fish. Instead, they put the fish in a bag and throw the bag. Lame!

The last part of our touristy adventure took us on a tour of Seattle Underground. You see, there was this giant fire in 1849 and the place burnt to the ground. This was apparently good because the city's sanitation situation was- lacking. When they rebuilt, they built the buildings first and then raised the streets- so tons of the historic building have unused underground basementy type rooms. You can even walk under the streets on the old, underground sidewalks. It was SUPPOSED to include stories of prohibition, prostitutes, and other unsavory tales but there were too many kids so we got none of that. ARG! And to top it off...I got attacked by a fricking pigeon. And not just any pigeon, apparently a pigeon that had just eaten its weight in green goo. It was gross and I was not amused. I proceeded to yell at a homeless women while running into the tour place to rid myself of pigeon goo. Seriously, I am COVERED in pigeon good and you are going to ask me to buy you Subway.....Um, NO! GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! Overall, I would say take that tour at night when the kiddos are in bed and the pigeons have left for the night.

We ended our night with some fancy cupcakes featured on the Martha Stewart show....Trophy Cupcakes I think it was called. I had Snickerdoodle. It was yummy! We have a ton of pictures that will eventually be published but not tonight. I think that is all for now as further information may incriminate those one day hoping to run for public office!

No Modern Convienences!

We don't have internet in the house yet. Well, I take that back- Kevin has a Verizon card that only works on his computer because my computer refuses to recognize it. The neighbors all have secured their wireless so jerks like me don't try to steal it. One neighbor somewhere has unsecured wireless which is what I am using right now but here is the problem- to connect to it I have to sit on the stairs by the front door, wrap my left toe in tin foil, stick my right leg exactly 1.4 feet from the nearest large metal object, and cross my fingers that this actually works. Seriously, how am I supposed to know when Angelina Jolie pops out those babies if I don't have a reliable internet connection.

We also don't have working TV on all the televisions. See, we moved into "man house." The problem with "man house" is that there are a lot of wires and boxes and connecty things. It was also wired for Non-HD Dish Network, Kevin wants HD DirectTV. To achieve this we have to have several groups of men with tools and some knowledge of wires to come over and rehook things up. We also have to buy a new HD box because for some reason dude who used to live here put HD TVs up but refused to use the HD feature. Dude who used to live here also didn't run cables to the basement- which I still don't get as he did have a television down there, I saw it. As of right now, we can watch TV on our old television in the corner of the living room. The rest won't be fixed until we get back from our trip.

Our trip has also changed. We will no longer be driving down the west coast. Something about million dollar gas and more long hours in a car. Instead we will be flying to Seattle tomorrow, San Fran on Tuesday, New York on Wednesday, and back to San Fran the following Monday. Except the last part- well we will be jumping off the plane in Vegas, well, not literally jumping- just purposefully missing our connection. From there, we will drive to LA or the Grand Canyon I really don't know if Kevin has decided yet. We will also be mailing a suitcase back from New York- damn airlines and their stupid "you can only bring 3 ounces of anything on a plane" and "you have to pay extra for checking your bags" rules. Maybe while we are gone the unpacking gnomes will sneak in and everything will be put away. But I doubt it.

Bulk Food Shopping and Drunk Guys at Grocery Stores

You think it would be easy. Go to Sam's Club. Buy unnecessary amounts of food. Come home and put unnecessary amounts of food in newly acquired apocalypse pantry. Sounds easy enough, right? Unfortunatly this is not so. I went to Sam's yesterday- apparently with every family in the greater Logan metroplex- to stock up on supplies but ended up walking out very dazed and confused. You see, they sell 10 lb bags of sugar. Okay, that will last forever and its only five bucks. But wait, it isn't reclosable- by the time I can use all of that the bugs will have invaded and we all know how much I love bugs. The same thing went for the flour and salt. I guess I need to stock up on some bug proof, non paper storage devices. Maybe they have a special apocalypse pantry class I can take. Maybe there is a special store to buy all the necessary devices to store your bulk food.

Ok- so bulk baking products are going to work right now...let's try something else. The problem with all the something elses is much the same. Dr. HokieKev and I can't eat 40 ozs. of Prego at once- we can't even eat one normal sized jar at once. Yes, I could freeze the leftovers but when I do that I always forget they are in there. When we left Florida I defrosted 3 frozen containers of unused Prego. I also don't need four 30 oz bottles of ketchup or 10 cans of chicken. Maybe I could buy bulk protein bars- that has to be cheaper than the grocery store. Nope, won't work. You see, it seems that things like puddings, protein bars, and other boxed goods are packaged so that you get 16 yummy things and 16 gross things. I don't want 16 butterscotch puddings of peanut butter parfait protein bars. Gross! So I walked out of Sam's with somce Cheerios, lightbulbs, and lotion.

I then decided to **shudder** go to WalMart. As many of you know, I HATE WalMart. I think I would rather eat all 16 of the peanut butter parfait protein bars than go to WalMart. For those who do not understand my deep seeded hatred for WalMart, let's recap. To start with there is never any parking. Nevermind the fact that the parking lot is the size of Rhode Island, it is always half full with semis, busses, used cars for sale, lost shopping carts, lost children, etc.... If you can manage to find a parking spot and make your way inside without getting run over, you are welcome by filth. I honestly think you could scrub the place down with bleach and it would still be dirty. The greeter people are somewhat friendly but everyone else is in a perpetual mood. It is also really hard to find things, except for the useless items that grace the endcaps. Seriously, who needs a pen that folds to the size of a penny and fits in your pocket? But I braved it because there is no Target in this town and the stuff I needed was WAY more expensive at the Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The Logan WalMart is only half as bad as the Gainesville one. It was at least tolerable- well, except for the MILLIONS of screaming children running around asking for treats. Apparently, Mormons are sugar fiends. Probably because they don't drink soda, coffee, or alcohol. So all these sugar high children run around WalMart trying to get their parents to give them more sugar. Seriously people, give your kids a bunch of grapes and call it a day. After navigating aisles and aisles full of roaming children, I finally found most of the stuff I needed and headed home with a full cart of kitchen organization supplies, floor cleaning devices, and one fancy lightbulb changer.

On the way home, it hit me that Dr. HokieKev would probably want dinner that night and, since the only thing we had eaten that day was some Aggie Ice Cream (which, although wonderfully delicious, is made will milk fat and probably should not be eaten on a regular basis), I should probably pick up something that wasn't deep fried. I tried the second grocery store in town- Albertson's. The previous day, I went and got a turkey breast from this place called Smith's Marketplace- yeah, won't be going back there. The prices were pretty good but they had zero selection. Four for $9 Breyer's Ice Cream is great, if you stock more than four flavors. So, I went to Albertson's and was not too surprised that they had very little selection as well. Where is my Ukrops when you need it!!! Anyway, I forwent the $6 American Cheese and grabbed some 2/$5 Stoffers Lasagne and a bag of salad and proceeded to checkout. In line for checkout, I overhear this conversation between the bag boy and checkout kid.

Bag boy: Yeah, there is a drunk guy over there.
Checkout kid: Where?
BB: Over there, and he is causing a scene and bleeding.
COK: He is bleeding?
BB: Yeah, I think they called the cops.

After they finished bagging my groceries, they ran over to check it out. As I was leaving, the cops were in fact pulling in. Guess drunk guy got to spend a night in jail. And I was wondering why this town needed a 24 hour bail bondsman in the center of town. Hopefully, the third grocerystore in this town will be surprisingly wonderful or I will be stuck going to three grocery stores and various specialty places to get all the foods Dr. HokieKev and I eat. And honestly, who has time for that!

On one final note, I think I will be doing all my shopping on Sunday. No one is out on Sundays. Even Sam's Club was deserted on Sunday. Yesterday, not so much. So, Sunday it is!!!

The Cool Kids on the Block

Our stuff got here yesterday. If you were a fan of the first season of Survivor- imagine Sue Hawk but manlier and you will have a pretty good picture of the truck driver who brought our stuff. She brought with her a couple of recently graduated high school kids who she picked up in Salt Lake City. I just have imagine of a bunch of teenagers standing on a street corner waiting to be picked up by burly truck drivers. I felt kind of bad for them all when her giant truck wouldn't turn onto our street so they had to park at the end and walk all our junk up to the house.

Anyway, the kids did a fantastic job of loading and setting up everything. They were infinitely better than the guys on the other end. They apologized profusely for nicks and dings that weren't even there fault. They were also pretty funny. I walked into this conversation:

Dude 1: Do you drink?
Dude 2: No
1: Are you Mormon?
2: No
1: Then why don't you drink?
2: I don't know...
(I walk in)
2: Your husband is so cool.
Me: Why is that?
1: He drinks beer.
Me: LOL, yeah sometimes.
2: You don't see alot of that around here especially on the front porch.
Me: Yeah, I tell him all the time we are going to get kicked out of Utah.
1: No you won't but you don't see that alot.
2: By the way, you aren't like most of the women we move. You aren't a bitch...I mean, sorry....
Me: LOL...thanks?!

So I guess we are the cool kids now since we drink. Basically, Kevin had walked over to talk to the neighbors- we have already talked to our neighbors more in the last two days than we did in over a year in Florida- and the guy handed him a beer so he drank it. Apparently, that makes him cool. He laughed and was happy that that is all it takes to make him cool in Utah.

Stay tuned for stories on fancy equipment, gas, and purple mountains majesty!!!

Ogden- The Sin City of Utah

Last night we stayed in Ogden- only 45 minutes away from the new house. As we were driving around looking for dinner I could immediately see that Ogden was the outcast town. Bars, "Adult" stores, pictures of scantily clad girls on posters, dance halls that looked like strip clubs (although I don't think they were but all the windows were painted over), late night entertainment options. Very salacious for these parts!!! So anyway, were tried to go out to a Mongolian BBQ but it was closed- in fact most everything was closed. We ended up driving through a canyon to the number one rated restaurant in Ogden. It was basically an old farmhouse that had been converted into a restaurant and the waitress made fun of Dr. HokieKev for not eating his veggies. Instead of dinner rolls, they gave you cinnamon rolls. Anyplace that gives you cinnamon rolls is alright by me even if they did fry my chicken instead of grilling it as I had ordered. The place even served wine and beer including such microbrews as Polygamy Porter.

Anyhow- on the drive back tot he hotel we saw a motorcycle gang complete with do-ragged women. Dr. HokieKev commented that strange things happen in the west. I mentioned that Logan didn't seem all that strange and he said that was because it was so conservative. I am SO getting kicked out of Utah. Seriously, the first thing I plan to do is put up the wine rack from our first anniversary that still lives in its cozy Pottery Barn box. After a little searching, I have discovered that there are 5 wineries in Utah and one makes Reisling so I will also be able to fill up said wine rack. I have several pieces of clothing and at least one bathing suit that will probably be scoffed at should they ever make it out of the closet. Especially the bathing suit, it may have to wait until trips to Florida to visit Kevin's mom. No one seems to mind it there. Weddings should not be a problem as the debauchery tends to occur after several drinks and drinking is not a real big thing in these parts so I should be okay with that. We probably won't be invited to any anyway because they are usually in the Temple and non-Mormons can't go into Temples. Kevin is happy about that one- weddings really aren't his things.

I will leave you with the last set of pictures from our trip. These are from Kansas and Denver. The Utah sign is in there as well. We missed Wyoming because it was hidden behind a work zone. Damn work zones!



States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah
Work Zones traveled through: 34
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 3
Next Stop: Back to our house, hopefully meeting our stuff

Putting on the Ritz!

We spent last night in Denver at the Ritz Carleton. WAY different from the Courtyard Marriotts we have stayed in most of the trip. The bellboy almost busted his face trying to beat us to the door so that we would not have to open the door for ourselves! The front desk knew Kevin's name before he even got up there to check in and the valet whisked the car away before we had time to blink. Kevin and I decided that we didn't have enough entitlement issues to be staying at this hotel but oh well! We went up to our room- with the BEST bed I have EVER slept in- to change and throw our stuff down before heading to lunch with Marta and her husband.

After a quick stop in Ann Taylor LOFT, where I quickly decided there was nothing I needed which very rarely happens and is a shame because I have a coupon that expires tomorrow, we headed over to the ESPNZone to meet our friends. We ended up going to lunch at a local brewery and chatting for a while before picking up our tickets to the baseball game. It didn't even take much convincing to get Marta and Francesc (which I probably spelled wrong and am sorry) to join us. It was her first baseball game and little did she know what a treat it would be. We were sitting in Center Field in the special seats that allowed you to go onto the field for the fireworks and the very first pitch was a home run right behind where we were. If you see SportsCenter from this game you can clearly see Kevin jump out of his seat. The game would go onto have something like 9 home runs and last over 4 hours. By the end, I was just ready for fireworks and sick of the obligatory people that always seem to be right around you at baseball games. They include: WooHoo girl, Talk about something totally unrelated for the entire time girl, people that come in the middle of the game, and smelly man. Sometimes you also get: Annoying kid, drunk guy/girl, fighting couple. Lucky for us, the last three stayed away.

After the game we were trotted onto the field for the fireworks. On the field we were joined by 11-year-old hoochie girls and several glassy eyed toddlers. The fireworks were pretty neat and my new fancy camera got some good shots which will be posted eventually. It took a while to get out of the stadium but at least we didn't have to wait for a train and instead were able to walk back to the hotel where our bed and been turned down and chocolates had been neatly placed on the pillows. Kevin took full advantage of the 24 hour room service menu and ordered up some post game milk and cookies bringing our junk food count for the day way up. The cookies were incredibly good as they should have been for $16.

If you ever have the opportunity to stay at a Ritz- just do it. The beds there make whatever price you pay completely worth it (and by the way, they just opened and were running an insane special and that is the only reason we stayed there). Seriously, I felt like I was sleeping on a cloud. Between the feather bed, the down comforter, and the smushy pillows there was no reason to ever get out of that bed. And, as Kevin will atest, I tried my best to take the bed with us. I also refused to get out of it until it was almost time to checkout at noon. Best- Bed- Ever!

Today, we spent the whole day driving. I slept through most of Wyoming but was awake long enough to notice that Wyoming is the mountainy version of Kansas. There is NOTHING there! We are in Ogden, UT now which is only 45 minutes away from the new house. Hopefully, our stuff will arrive on time and we will be done with hotels for at least the rest of this week. All other stories from tonight will have to wait as Kevin needs this computer for some football related madness. At least this time, he waited until the car was stopped!


States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah
Work Zones traveled through: 32
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 3
Next Stop: Our new house!!!

We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

We left Kansas yesterday after meeting my friend Mandy for lunch in Junction City. Lunch turned into major catching up and we didn't arrive in Denver until after midnight mountain time. Everyone kept saying Kansas was SO flat- well, I was disappointed in how not SO flat most of it was. Once we got out to the really western part it did become very flat and you could see for tens and tens of miles at a time. As the sun went down, you literally could not tell where the earth ended and the sky began. We missed the Colorado sign because it was too dark and apparently western states have not grasped the concept of lighting their signs. So anyway...here are the pictures we took in St. Louis.


In other news...
Apparently, there is a muscle in between the two halves of the rib cage. Apparently, this muscle is important for doing things such as sitting up from laying down. Apparently, this muscle also has a role in coughing and sneezing. Apparently, I pulled this muscle. I noticed it in St. Louis but still have not figured out how I did it since I hadn't been to the gym for several days. At least now it is only mildly annoying. Before, every time i sat up, sneezed, or coughed it felt like a thousand firey knives were stabbing me between the ribs. I don't recommend pulling this particular muscle as it not too fun.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado
Work Zones traveled through: 21
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 2
Next Stop: Staying in Denver another night

Fun with Hotel Employees

We had an eventful day yesterday. We ended our visit with the Schrock's in Lawrence (It was nice to have a couple of home cooked meals) and headed towards Denver. We then stopped in Junction City, KS to meet Ann's friend Mandy for lunch. It was good to see her as she is one of the nicest people you will ever meet and Ann and her had not seen each other for several years. Needless to say there was a lot of catching up to do and all of a sudden it was 6:30 PM and we had not ventured more then two hours from Lawrence. Unfortunately we had to move on (I think to the relief of Mandy's husband that was patiently awaiting her arrival at home) and head towards Denver. As per tradition with our trip we did not have a hotel reservation or any clue where we were going to stop. My goal was to drive as far as possible as safe as possible (all the while fumbling with the GPS to see where the next town with hotels was). After passing town after town and getting closer and closer to Denver I finally said to myself that I was feeling pretty peppy for that time of night and that we were going for it.

The next step was to find a hotel in the Denver metro area. As a good safe driver I pulled up the browser on my phone and saw that there was a Courtyard for 89.00 near the airport. Then in another safe driving practice picked up the GPS and programmed it into the GPS. Luckily the hotel was 10 miles outside of the city in the right direction so we shaved some time off the long drive. This is where the fun begins.

Ann and I pull up to the Courtyard by Marriott at 12:15 AM mountain time (2:15 AM for people on the east coast) and I tell Ann to stay in the car while I check in. I go up to the counter and this is what ensues:

Guy at Courtyard (GaC): Hello, Are you checking in?
Kevin (K): I am hoping to check in. I don't have a reservation.
GaC: Well all we have are king size beds.
K: Well shucks, My wife and I usually don't like really big and comfortable beds but we will have to make due...
GaC: Well our rate tonight is $159....
K: (smoke starts fuming out of my ears) Your website says its 89 for the night.
GaC: Well I'm not sure about that.
K: I can show you on my phone.
GaC: Let me try to log into the computer... um... um
K: Here it says 89.
GaC: Ohhhh yeah.. here it is... 89... I can honor that for you...
K: Thanks... (smiling as muttering obscenities to myself).. Have a good night...

So we got the room and rested and will be meeting Marta and her husband for lunch and then taking in fireworks and a baseball game a Coors Field tonight. It should be fun and I'll check back in soon.

St. Louis and Serial Killers

Last night Kevin was watching CNN and they were discussing the difference between a serial killer and a killing spree. Apparently, they had just caught some guy that had gone on a weekend long killing spree and AC360 didn't quite understand the difference. So I peaked my head up from the computer and asked Kevin where said killing spree occurred.

Him: Right around here.
Me: No, seriously.
Him: Seriously, he was at Busch stadium last night.
Me: Interesting.

And guess where we were last night.....Busch Stadium. Guess it was good that we didn't go for the mile and a half walk through random streets!!! I did see a picture of the guy and I think I could take him. Most of the targets were people over 80 and kids and he was using some sort of blunt force to the head. We probably would have been okay but I guess it is never good to chance it will a killing spree going on. It is probably also good that we were unaware of said killing spree until AFTER they caught the guy!

So, anyway. Today we made our way to the National Transportation Museum. Basically, a little boys dream as they had TONS of trains and a few old cars. We walked around for a while and took a few pictures. There really wasn't that many exciting things occurring but in this installment of things that make Kevin giggle: a sign on the side of a train saying "DO NOT HUMP." He giggled over that one fore some time.

After the museum, we headed out to Kansas to meet up with Kevin's friend and his family. We got a tour of the University of Kansas in the hot plain state heat. I was trying my best to find Coach Mangino, figuring he would be hard to miss but alas our meeting was not meant to be and I had to settle for pictures in the Basketball Lobby/Shrine. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing the wonder that is the KU football coach, let's just say he is large and in charge.

After a lovely dinner, we hung out with Steve and his family and watched his two boys (4 and 5) run around acting crazy. For some reason I think Kevin and I have some effect on crazying up other peoples kids although we were assured that they "are always like this!" Nevertheless, we had a great time. I think we kept Steve and his wife up a little later then they were used to as we did not head to bed until around 2 in the morning.

Most of today was spent in the car. Most of tomorrow will be spent in the car. The stories from in the car are far less interesting.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri
Work Zones traveled through: 18
Cheapest gas seen: $3.77 in Kansas
Baseball Games attended: 2
Next Stop: Somewhere between Lawrence and Denver

Missouri, The Mississippi, and Two Girls Named Mary

We spent today in St. Louis. Our day began at the Budweiser Brewery. We figured we should get the tour in before Anheuser-Busch is bought out by MBev- not murrbev- and they stop the tours. I have taken many a brewery tour in Williamsburg as the brewery was the only place in Busch Gardens that was air conditioned. This one was actually guided though and ended in a hospitality suite full of free beer. It also happened to be the only one I have taken since I was legally old enough to partake in the festivities at the end. I don't drink beer so I waited for the several dozen children on our tour to vacant the soda machine before I got my Mountain Dew. I haven't drank soda in almost three months- well until the last three days when I have consumed enough to float away. So anyway, the tour was pretty interesting. They take you through the whole process of brewing, bottling, and packaging the beer. Apparently, the fillers can fill 1600 bottles of beer each minute. And they have these giant casks things where they beechwood age the beer that would take you 127 years to drink if you drank a case a day. I also learned that Budweiser was the first company to pasteurize stuff- even before milk- and they survived the depression by making some drink out of cereal called Bevo. But once again, I do not drink beer.

After a rousing rendition of Ice Ice Baby in the brewery parking lot, we headed over to the fancy mall to waste some time before my interview. (Seriously, how can you not bust out signing any song with Word to yo mama in it) I coveted the Swavorski Crystal Champagne Flutes (because they are amazing and I do drink champagne) and got a piece of Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. I love the Cheesecake Factory but barely ever make it to the dessert part so this time I just went straight for it. My interview was at 3:45 and I think it went pretty well. I was kind of thrown for a loop when the guy asked me what my former students would say about me as an advisor but other than that the questions weren't too weird.

After that funfest was over, we changed for the Cardinals game and headed over to the Gateway Arch. The Arch is right next to the Mighty Mississippi which is currently swollen- if not completely flooded. We got some great pictures of signs almost completely underwater. They will be posted tomorrow with the rest of the St. Louis pics. I don't know what it normally looks like but today it was insanely dirty. Tons of logs and trees and other such not indigenous to a river type things were floating down it. I certainly was not ready to go for a swim and I love water. Getting to the top of the arch was interesting. I don't think they have changed the technology since it was built in the 1960s. They even described it as part amusement park ride, part elevator, and part tram but the view from the top was worth it. You could see for miles as it was a very clear day. I managed to take some lovely pictures of the turning movements on the roadway below for Dr. HokieKev. He likes things like that.

After the Arch, we went to another Cardinals game. They lost tonight so people booed. I had CrackerJacks. We trekked forever to find a Metro stop that didn't have a three hour wait and Kevin was scowled at by some women for pushing us both onto the train. Apparently, these women have never tried to ride the T in Boston after a Red Sox game during the Boston Marathon. We could have fit so many more people in that car. We are now back in the hotel and I just finished enjoying my Cheesecake- YUMMY! Kevin is listening to Sen. Robert Byrd's dogfighting speech to noone from a while ago. If you haven't heard it it is definitely worth YouTubing- poor guy is barely alive and screaming at the five people that bothered to show up to the Senate floor that day.

And about the two girls named Mary. Most of you know that my sister's name is Mary. Some of you also know that I have a very good friend named Mary. Both are also Mary H- although, technically I guess one is Mary Bev. but who is hung up on technicalities. So anyway, they both make comments and both show up as Mary. This is confusing to all involved. I don't know who is posting what- although I can kinda figure it out- and it looks like one Mary is posting a way lot and possibly needs a hobby. This isn't the first time this has been confusing so I generally refer to them as Mary the sister and Mary the twin. Sometimes UVAmurr and murrbev- either way! I am now assured at least three people are reading this and maybe mildly amused by our antics as we travel out west. I am also seriously considering heading back to Illinois to drill for oil.

States visited: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri
Work Zones traveled through: 18
Cheapest gas seen: $3.81 in Georgia
Baseball Games attended: 2
Next Stop: Probably Lawrence, KS a day early but only time will tell