Holiday Road: Day 8

Friday, December 28
Tina attended Arizona State University as a freshman so we joined her in revisiting her original alma mater one afternoon. We shopped at the campus book store and then searched for her old dormitory, which is now in the middle of new construction. We failed to find her favorite Hawaiian shaved ice place and but enjoyed some sushi at an off-campus restaurant.

Holiday Road: Day 4

Monday, December 24

Woke up to a beautiful Southern California morning and drove into an even more beautiful afternoon in Scottsdale, AZ. When we arrived at Tina’s sister, Michelle’s house, Grandpa Tom fell into the pool while playing ball with cousin Xander, but luckily the had the best solar pool heater so the water wasn’t even cold. We spent the next several days with Michelle, her husband Ric and their boys, Xander and Wil. Thomas and Graham loved the time with their cousins and it was good to see Michelle, Ric, Tom and Jan again. We had a wonderful Christmas together and our boys experienced their first-ever Christmas morning gift opening. I got my dad a saw for Christmas. And he loves it. Here are some sliding mitre saw reviews in case you want to buy your dad or yourself one.

Jan and Tom left after a couple of days so that we parents could have a wild night of wine, music and debauchery. We also reveled in the High Definition TV and Uncle Ric gave an impressive demonstration of their excellent home theater system.

Holiday Road: Day 3

Sunday, December 23

When I emerged from the bathroom after my shower wearing shorts, Tina asked why I was so under-dressed for the weather. I exclaimed, “I’m going to Southern California today!”.

After I navigated out of the East Bay to Interstate 5, Tina took over and drove most of the way through the California Central Valley. We had a late lunch at In-n-Out Burger, home to some of the finest fast food in the country. When I asked a young man who was waiting for a seat if he would like mine, he replied, “That would be bitchin’!”

A few hours later we arrived at my sister, Maridee’s house in Moreno Valley, CA. My mother had arrived a few days earlier and my brother-in-law, Steve had spent the afternoon deep frying a couple of turkeys for a pre-Christmas family feast. The boys opened more Christmas presents and then we retired to the Fox RV for a restful night’s sleep.

Holiday Road: Day 2

Saturday, December 22

Left Medford and drove to Aunt Carol and Uncle Ralph’s house in Lafayette, CA. Carol made delicious vegetarian chili and we were joined by Cousins David and Danielle. After dinner, we took the dogs for a walk on a local multi-use path and saw some cool Christmas lights. After talking books vacuum cleaner for pet reviews for a bit, I traded my copy of The Professor and the Madman for Ralph’s copy of My Name Is Red. Before bed we all exchanged gifts and Carol gave everyone a CD for the road.

Holiday Road: Day 1

Friday, December 21

We departed Portland in the afternoon and drove to Medford. Our jump start on the trip proved to be less fruitful than we wanted due to afternoon traffic — it took over an hour just to get out of Portland. In Medford we stayed at a Motel 6 and looked forward to a short driving day on Saturday.

Holiday Road

Friday night our holiday adventure ended when we pulled our little Scion into the garage at 4:00 PM. Two weeks and 3190 miles later, we don’t regret any of the days we were gone but we’re glad to be home. Well, maybe we regret the last day. It really sucked.

The distribution of destination points worked out such that we never had more than a 8-hour day of driving until the end of the trip. Less driving and more visiting and exploring made us all dread getting into the car a little less. Tina brought her portable DVD player and the boys watched the Indiana Jones trilogy when the drive got too long. I brought books but I never did any reading in the car since I was either driving or sleeping.

I started to write a summary of each day in this entry, but it turned into an incredibly long read, so I’ll be breaking it into a series. Watch this space for a day-by-day rehash of our journey to Arizona and back.

Places To Go, People To See

As I mentioned earlier, we are going on a big road trip over Christmas break. Our main destination is Phoenix, Arizona, where Tina’s sister, Michelle, lives. We’ll be traveling through California to get there and come back, so we’re seeking advice on places to visit and sites to see along the way. We may not see all of them, but we’re compiling a long list so we have many choices. Please leave your suggestions in the comments.

Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 2332
Weight lost (in pounds): 35
Hours of sleep last night: 9
Hours billed last week: 44
Aches & pains: sciatic (when I stand too long), right shoulder (when I extend my arm away from my body), left achilles tendon
Current reading: The Book of Totally Useless Information by Don Voorhees, Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein
Recent listening: Velvet Goldmine: Original Soundtrack, Come On Christmas by Dwight Yoakam, Wolfmother by Wolfmother, Kid Rock by Kid Rock
Recent viewing: Countdown, Suns vs. Jazz, Steelers vs. Patriots, Raiders vs. Packers, Ravens vs. Colts, Wired Science
Recent playing: foosball, Guitar Hero III (Wii)
Recently accomplished: hosed off walkways and deck, stored hoses for the winter, groceries, gorilla shelf parts on Freecycle, paid bills, cat box, email to Curt N.
Imperative To Do: Sift through inbox, post office (Sunleafs, Seagate, Kent, Sue), sunglasses, InstantCake, phone calls, vacation planning, packing list

More days to come, new places to go

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted family news here mostly because I do that on Twitter several times a day. For more on that, you can read this and then join here. It’s free and easy and you’ll like it. I promise.

And now, the news:

  • Since the end of October, we’ve been mad for Guitar Hero III. Although playing the game is a blast, equally cool is watching my boys groove and sing to some of my favorite bands. Right now they both like “Even Flow” and “Holiday in Cambodia“. Thomas is the house champion in career mode, but we still only have one guitar so we haven’t settled on a true champion.
  • Thomas’ video game time has been limited, though, due to poor scholastic performance in the first half of this semester. He has been having problems getting his homework done and is easily distracted when he’s supposed to be doing homework. We suspended gaming privileges until he got his grades back up and his computer has been disconnected from the internet. With Tina’s help he’s been able to get his grades up closer to where they should be but he’s still got a lot to learn about managing his time.
  • Graham had a chess tournament yesterday in which he recorded two draws and a win for his team. He’s also become a pretty good Medium-level Guitar Hero player. He’s so fun to watch play because the guitar is a better size for him than the rest of us. He really looks like a rockin’ dude when he plays! He and Rory, our little girl kitten, have become good buddies and she sleeps by his head at night.
  • The kittens are doing great and Ming has grown used to their eager presence. Tina took them to the vet to get them neutered last week. The boys were as rambunctious as ever that night but poor little Rory has been sluggish until today. Because she has stitches, she has to wear one of those funnel collars to keep her from ripping the stitches out. She spent much of the weekend on my lap trying to lick through that damn collar. Funny but sad. We’ll take it off Tuesday morning.
  • Yesterday morning we received our Oregon kicker check in the mail. The kicker law says that the government has to give back money when their income is more than they estimated. This results in a “surprise” tax refund every few years. The average kicker check this year was supposed to be around $600 and we did a little better than average.
  • The boys’ last day of school is on December 21st. Sometime soon after that, we’re hitting the road for Phoenix, Arizona, by way of San Francisco and Moreno Valley. We’re looking forward to the trip since the boys haven’t seen their cousins Wil and Xander in so long. The drive shouldn’t be bad since we’ve broken it up into three days with visits of friends and family on the way.

What dreams are made of

Lately, as I’ve been waiting for sleep to come, I lay in bed and fragments of recent dreams begin to stream through my mind. Each fragment brings to mind another and, before long, I have embarked on a new dream journey. Here’s a few of the disconnected thoughts from some of those dreams:

  • I’m living in Iowa and trying to get my car working. I own several cars and one of them is a muscle car which my dad is helping me fix up, the idea is put this car in the leasing market, I got this obsession after I check a article call  Addicted to Transit Custom Lease? Us Too. 6 Reasons We Just Can’t Stop.
  • My dad and I trespass on a farmer’s land. The cops come and we make a break for the car, but I am shot in the back. My dad gets away. The cops question me for several minutes before I ask them if they want to look at my wound or call an ambulance. They were unaware they had shot me.
  • I’m riding my bike through Cedar Falls trying to find my old apartment. I purposefully cut through the bank parking lot by the ATM but still end up going down a hill by a park. My previous experience (which is fictional in real life) tells me I have overshot my destination and I am bummed I have to pedal back uphill.
  • I am at the Dental Office in NY for family and general dental services office and I remember belatedly that they should check my bottom left molar because it’s sore when I chew (in real life), and them I got a wisdom teeth removal.
  • I’m back in Riceville and there’s something incredible happening in the sky. It could be aliens and it could be atomic bombs. Everyone is outside watching it.
  • The whole family is on a road trip and we decide to go through Kansas which is way out of the way.
  • I’m late getting on an airplane that is taking me home. As we fly in to land, we dive at a terrifying steep angle.
  • I’m back in Charleston and wondering around trying to find a particular place. I have an idea of how the city is laid out but I keep getting confused.
  • I find a pawn shop in a really shady part of town. When I walk out of the shop I find that my car has been stolen from the parking lot.
  • I go to a club where I know that there is a play. The play is self-referential and recursive which makes it cool. But there is something evil in the back of the club that I can never remember.