Year: 2012

Mauch Chunk

Both of us tire of the interstate travel, either as driver or as passenger, just sometimes it doesn’t make sense. Today was one of those days, but we still managed to get in a few back road miles. While traveling up I-81 in Pennsylvania on our way to I-84 Donna directed me to a road that appeared to be a shortcut, and it was a more direct route, but it probably didn’t save any time, still it was well worth the diversion.

We passed through Hometown, PA which is not to say my hometown, but just a town called Hometown. It did serendipitously take us through a small town that had been renamed for the man King Gustav V of Sweden called the greatest athlete in the world, Jim Thorpe. If you are wondering how the town got his name, even though Jim never set foot in while he was alive, read the explanation on Wikipedia.

We made a brief stop in Sparrow Hill, NY to visit with an older “cousin” of Donna’s, they share related grandmothers or something, who she has only exchanged cards with. She and her husband live in an awesome little place back in the woods that the cousin’s father built that overlooks the Delaware River (which can only be seen in the winter for all the trees.)

After a brief visit with them we headed back down to I-84 to continue our drive to the ex-Hardware Capital City of the World and my real hometown, New Britain, CT. Boy are we glad we don’t live around here, the traffic on I-84 not long after we entered Connecticut came to a grinding halt, all 3 lanes. It took about 30 minutes to creep 5 miles and then as magically as it appeared, it disappeared.

Back In Time

On our run to The Great Meadow near the city of The Plains to go to the Virginia Scottish Games we had to slow down and make a small detour into the parking lot of Dinosaur Land because the Purple Whale just loves dinosaurs and wanted his picture taken with one.

We spent the entire day listening to solo bagpipes and bands of bagpipes with drums and my ears are still buzzing. Even though I took it off a couple of hours ago, I still feel like I have my ball cap on. We were met at the games by Donna’s cousins Laurie and Susie (daughters of Donna’s father’s brother.) We all came here to see her cousins Duncan and Jimmy (sons of Donna’s father’s sister) who are pipers extraordinaire, they both play in the solo competition and judge the band competition.

While Duncan & Jimmy played and judged we (Susie, Laurie, Howard, Laurie’s beau, Donna and I) watched big guys throw big rocks and big telephone poles, watched dogs herd sheep, kids play games, ate fish and chips and meat pies, drank copious amounts of water and shopped for kilts. When we all went our separate ways at the end of the day, the six cousins were scheming to do this again and to try and get more of their kinfolk to join them.

Guid cheerio the nou! See ye efter!

21,000 Pieces of History Ignored

Somewhere between Columbia, SC and Charlotte, NC the Purple Whale surpassed the 21,000 mile plateau. We are on our way to the State of Maine, but first we have a stop in The Plains, VA to watch some of Donna’s cousins play bagpipes in a Scottish games there. When I was driving and we were not near any large cities in Virginia I would opt to drive on US11 which parallels I-81. It is a lot slower, but much easier on the eyes and senses. Along this back road we must have past by over 21,000 Civil War roadside plaques without so much as a sideways glance.

We stopped in our favorite little town in Virginia, Lexington, and took the Lewis Loop walk along the Woods Creek Trail and back through VMI and Washington & Lee, passing by right by the burial place of Stonewall Jackson which we have never visited. We even parked across the street from 318 South Jefferson to start the walk.

We had dinner at the Southern Kitchen in New Market. It has been open since the middle 1950’s and the only thing that has changed is the prices. The booths along the wall have those personal jukebox things, the is a soda fountain counter on the other side. The menu choices are probably the same and judging by the age of the clientele they are probably the same people who ate here then too.

After dinner as we continued north on US11 I spotted a sign that said Covered Bridge, so I turned off to investigate. I drove the Sonata through one way and then back the other before we pulled into a little parking area nearby. We walked down to the river beneath looking for a vantage point to get a photo, but they were few and far between. I did manage to get this one of Meems Bottom Covered Bridge.

I walked to the other side to see about another vantage point and when I looked down, this one is for you Mark, I saw a dead cow! I didn’t go down there, I’m not that much of a diehard photographer (groan.)

Cake Wars

This is a photo of the second “cake” the folks at work had for Donna today. Her Department commissioned this one from a co-worker who does cakes on the side. It is a white cake with raspberry flavor and iced with lemon frosting. Mmmmmm. There was even vanilla ice cream to go with it. Her Supervisor sent out a 10:30 AM meeting request for everyone in the department, there was no agenda, so most were not really sure what the meeting was about and were as surprised as Donna. I got an invite to attend as well even though I am not in her department. The supervisor was covered in case anyone, even Donna, noticed my name on the attendee list as folks are forever sending us things meant for the other.

I said second cake, because about 30 minutes before her department had the birthday meeting, the Shipping Department threw an impromptu party for Donna that included cup cakes and ice cream. Donna works with them closely and she often volunteers to bring something when ever they have throw a shindig (which is quite often.) If the Princeton Review did a survey of which of the Valve Store’s departments was the Partyingest, Shipping would definitely come out on top.

To finish things off, we went out tonight to eat at Chili’s where if it is your birthday and you have joined their email club, you get a free brownie with ice cream dessert. Thanks Joan for taking us out and for helping us eat the brownie…

Sunday in Aiken

A short bike 10 mile ride. Breakfast at DD. Grocery shopping at Kroger.

Lunch. Wash the Purple Whale.

Afternoon spent watching the Weather Channel and listening to the FRS on the internet. Which is more related than you think in that they are both like rubbernecking at a car accident on the Interstate, horrible to see, but you just can’t turn away.*

Evening spent blogging and surfing the web.

Try and reel in your jealousy.

*On a related note, I just got an email that offered MLB.TV on my Roku for the rest of the season for a measly $10, so that if I actually wanted to see that wreck…

Busy 2 Nights

Last night was our Fantasy Football League draft. I made a suggestion to last years Commissioner about how it would be more fun if we could play everyone in our division twice. Because we all work in the same department it would be better for smack talk pre and post Sundays, so he made me Commissioner for this year.

Anyway, allow me to introduce the 2012 Purple Whales: Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer are my QBs, with LeSean McCoy, Ahmad Bradshaw, Willis McGahee, James Starks and Robert Turbin as Running Backs. Wide Outs are going to be Andre Johnson, Pierre Garcon, Malcom Floyd, Nate Burleson and Randy Moss. I also drafted Brandon Pettigrew & Jared Cook for Tight End with Kicker Rob Bironas and the San Francisco 49ers Defense/Special Teams.


Tonight was the Annual MMC Bug Splat Rally. For the second year in a row the squashed insects were few and far between. The Biggest Bug Trophy was awarded to a small flattened bug in the middle of a pop up headlight. Closest to the Target was awarded to a small smudge of a bug 1/2″ away from the green Avery dot. Three cars were tied for Cleanest Car, but I gave it to the newest members because one couple had won the last three years in a row and the third couple got the Most Bugs award because they showed up with cat paw prints on their hood.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1170

Looks Like I’m Not Going To Be A Winner (But I Won’t Be Alone)

When I entered the Win/Loss Contest over on a The Joy of Sox blog I was feeling a bit pessimistic about the Red Sox Chances this year and picked 89 Wins & 73 Losses. The site owner chided me for my dim view, but boy it is looking like those totals are now pie in the sky optimistic.

Their current record is 59W & 65L (not counting tonight’s in progress game), so for my prediction to be correct the FRS will have to finish the season out by winning 30 and only losing 8 more games. I’m betting the the odds of that happening are less than 1%!

The worst record picked by anyone was 85 & 77 and if the Sox play the rest of the way at the same winning percentage as they have until now, their record will be the inverse of that worst pick and be 77-85.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Tran?si?tions since 10/24/08: 1169