Release the River!

"Fair thee well" or "Where thee fell", which one?

Greetings from Phoenix! Man, what a drive. We drove from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, then down the 17 to Phoenix. Weather ranged from sparkly-sunny to torrential downpours, blue skies to lightning/thunder, 40 degrees (outside Flagstaff) to 92 degrees (here in Phoenix). Crazy. But we made it before sundown, so the Wagner Women are all down at the pool, while I chill in the room, catching up on email/web surfin' and updating the blog. I'll hop over to Dave-O's blog and Shannon's after this and see what up with them, then check Smurf's and Marky's to see if they've updated.

All things considered, it was a beautiful drive. On the final, interminable leg of the journey, coming into Phoenix, I think I got flashed by a photo-speed trap thing... believe it or not, I had the cruise control on 62mph, and it was a 55mph construction zone... it was a cop SUV parked on the right shoulder with a roof-mounted camera unit. Will that guy flash cars in every lane, or just the right lane, does anyone know? Everyone else was passing me... I was angry, to say the least. My bladder was at maximum capacity, and I just wanted to get to the hotel and do my part to make the lobby restroom urinal puck shrink... 

Anyway, enough of that nonsense. It's good to be chillin' in the room.

When we were at Brother-In-Law's house last night (eating pizza and watching B-Ball), I saw something in his garage I had to get a picture of... some of you may remember this pic of me from Oct '05 (when I had long hair - what was I thinking?) sitting in front of approximately half of my wifey's shoe collection...

That was when we moved into our current house - the same week our baby Mags was born - again, what was I thinking? Moving and having a baby the same week?! Man...

Anyway, I thought she was a shoe fiend (she is, actually), but check out this pic of (again) about 50% of her brother's shoe stash.

I thought being a shoe fiend was a chick thing, but I guess not. Again, those are the "tier 2" shoes that can't fit in his bedroom closet... I didn't get a pic of that, sorry... Granted, Brother-In-Law is manager of a Foot Locker store in Albuquerque, so he can get dibs on the best stuff for a beefy discount, but still, I feel that is insane. 

I guess we all collect stuff, eh? I collect spores, molds and fungus. Over the years, I've collected baseball cards, Peanuts paperbacks, other comic books (Bloom County, Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, Dilbert), and now I guess it's 'computer games I don't play'...

And I'm collecting blog "followers" too! I got my 8th "follower" the other day (Hi Paula!), to add to my gaggle of unofficial followers. Not sure what the benefit is of being an "official" follower, other than a notification on your "blog dashboard" that the blog has updated. But you all know I update daily, so that's not surprise, I'm sure. It's not like I only update twice a month like SOME people I know (*ahem* Marky! *ahem*)... I love you all equally in any case! Well, some more equally than others, I suppose... I mean, my mom reads every day, and so I love her more than anyone, but still... you all rock.

In fact, I added a "Followers" gadget on the right margin... I guess that will be the sole benefit granted those that chose to "follow"... I guess I could also record myself burping your name, and send you an mp3 of the recording, so you can use it as a ring-tone for your cellphone... ah, membership has it's benefits...

Todayve In History: May 24th

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- May 24, 1830: Mary Had A Little Lamb was first published. (The sequel "Mary Had A Little Howler Monkey" was not quite as popular...)

- May 24, 1844: Samuel Morse sends the first message via telegraph, which was "What hath God wrought?" (The reply: "Umm... everything? Duh!")

- May 24, 1883: The Brooklyn Bridge is opened for traffic after 14 years of construction. (Finally, people could easily get to Long Island to get some decent pizza...)

- May 24, 2001: 15 year old Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to climb Mt. Everest. (His quote from the summit: "Cool.")

In honor of Duke Ellington's passing on May 24, 1974, here's a six-minute version of Duke playing his famous Take the A Train:

It'll be nice to get back home. I have a couple small emergency projects waiting for me, which I shall attend to immediately tomorrow afternoon. Then I'll go to the evening service so I can tell Jesus "hello" and get the DVD duping done... And then, who knows! You wanna know the secret to surviving travel? After you get where you're going, take off your shoes and socks, then walk around the rug barefoot and make fists with your toes. Yes sir, better than a shower and a hot cup of coffee...

Well, I guess I'll call it a night. I'll catch up with you tomorrow, hopefully having arrived home safe and sound. Until tomorrow, remember, the last time Longshanks spoke of peace, I was a boy.