Rainbows, Clouds, Rains and Planes

We tried to go for a run before it started to rain, but we were too slow. Barely though, we were booking it. It was a short run, as it was poring so hard it hurt, but man, we were were hustling. Of course as soon as we got back, the rain stopped, and the next couple of hours were some of the prettiest skies I've seen in awhile.

Yeah, it's a rainbow.

Suspicious Jules


I had to get Ben's kite out of a tree (I was the one who got it up there, in fairness to Ben)

I took off six feet off the top of the tree on the way down. Sweet victory!



A low flying plane. We got our hopes up, thinking we we'd see a plane crash. We aren't the best of people.


We did witness a kite crash. Less destruction, and consequently less satisfaction.

Ironman, resisting his own watery demise.

I'm too lazy to sort the rest of the pictures, but enjoy nevertheless. And do yourself a favor and get outside.

Justice Is Served

A while back, I got a ticket for "Failure To Stop At A Stop Sign"

I was coming back to my parents after work one day, and at the stop sign at the entrance to their development, I slowed down, made sure there were were no cars or kids I was in danger of hitting, and rolled on through, as I always do. However, because of an inconveniently parked van, I failed to notice the pig parked a little ways down the block.

It didn't even occur to me until after I had driven past him and pulled out and followed me that what I had done was indeed illegal.

Needless to say, it wasn't fun. I got a $90 fine a couple hundred feet from my parents house, my guard was done, and that stupid cop was out there, not only for the rest of the day, but the next day too, cleaning up. Clearly in Mount Airy, the cops have nothing better to do than sit in neighborhoods, giving tickets to people doing the ol' California Roll.

I still haven't decided if I want to go to court in a couple of days and hope he doesn't show. My dad says he should, because anything could happen, like his wife could be having a baby that day. I don't know, a guy like that would probably let his wife have her baby in a ditch to make court, but then again, a guy like that probably doesn't have a wife. I'm a little bitter.

Another thing my dad said, when he was giving me grief, even though I pointed out that he had just failed to stop at the same stop sign, was that while stopping at stop signs is unnecessary, he always stops when there's a cop present.

Now imagine my joy when my parents get home, and, well, first of, my father warns me that my mother has a story, but it's not very good, and I probably don't want to hear it. I guess this isn't the part when i want you to imagine my joy, because there was none, and sure enough, my mom comes up, insistent on telling me a story I believed I didn't want to hear.

Turns out I did. You can imagine my joy again. Apparently, my father had been driving, and right as he was about to roll through a stop sign, my mother pointed out the cop parked, waint for idiots like me and my father to fail to stop at stop sign. SO my father, already pulling out, slmas on his brakes and hastily puts on his seat belt. At least I had my seat belt on.

So, not only does my father not stop at stop signs even when there are cops present, he also failed to "Be Aware Of His Surrounding", another thing my father used to tell us kids to do constantly. To be fair, all of us teneded to have our heads in the clouds, so he was justified, but still, the irony of this story was wonderful.

The only way it could have been better is if he had actually gotten a ticket.

Justice is served.

This Is Why We Were Hot

Due to some sweet technology you can now experience all the fun of running, right from your chair. In fact I daresay I would have more fun in your position. Point being Taylor and I are running pretty much on a daily basis. I'm thinking maybe we can put our route up on the side or something, but today and when we have nothing else to post, or have done a particularly cool run there is some cool stuff I can do.

Sweet Technology

This is a graph of our elevation.

If you click on these graphs you can see them nice and big.

This is a graph of the grade of hills in the route.


View Larger Map
This is a google map of today's run. You can put it in google earth, which is pretty cool.

I had to make that map based on the one the GPS made for me, so it's a little bit off. Anyway point being I ran about 5.5 miles of that route and Taylor probably did about 6.25 miles. But, I am perfectly willing to add in the 1.5 miles I had done earlier, meaning I totally win the day. Plus I got some sweet blisters from my new shoes, which have crazy arch support. In a bad way. Oh, and the title is in reference to how it was a little warm today, and we are not looking forward to summer runs.

Watership Down!

Actually haven't read that book, but I know it's about rabbits. Which brings me to my point, rather quickly.

I was walking out of my film class at FCC tonight at 10:30, and as I was walking down the sidewalk to my car, I saw a small black shape moving in front on me. I stopped, and the guy walking behind me asked what was up.

It was difficult to come up with an answer. That black shape multiplied to two, and I realized they were rabbits, and one had come out from behind the other. Seeing two rabbits, a little, weird, but then, I noticed, between me and the two rabbits, was another rabbit, sitting there just a few feet from where I was standing.

"It's herd of bunnies," I told him.

"A herd of what?"

"A heard of bunnies."

"Wha- Oh, jeeze, that's a lot of rabbits!"

I guess three isn't a lot, but it was weird to see three of them just chillaxing on the sidewalk at 10:30 p.m. on the FCC campus.

We Need an Intern

So it has come to our attention that our awesome plans have exceeded our capabilities. This was of course, fully expected, but fortunately, this isn't something we cannot fix. We just need more people, or an unpaid intern.

Ideally, John Lithgow. Unfortunately, we still have to see many, many more of his movies in order to become big enough fans to attract his attention. We just saw "Harry and the Hendersons", after seeing it referenced on "30 Rock". Eventually though, once we have seen everything he's in, we're pretty sure he will gladly be our unpaid intern, but until then, we're willing to set the bar a little lower. Basically, can you operate a camera, take obscure orders, and a sense of humor would be nice.

Basically, our plans have grown, or "ambitified" - well, I got real excited there, because Blogger did not tell me that is not a real word when I thought I had very clearly made it up, but a bit more research proved that no one has made this word up before I have, and it's just so awesome that Blogger chose to accept it. Point being, we have become more ambitious with our Blog, and are being held back by the fact that we are only two people.

I saw on the news that, due to the current unemployment rate, many people are choosing to take positions as unpaid interns, just so they have something on their resume and to learn new skills. I can't guarantee you'll learn anything, in fact, I can almost guarantee you won't unless you, like us, have little to no common sense. And also, working as an intern for us might not be the best thing to put on your resume. It just might cost you a potential job. It could also get you that potential job, but the odds are not in your favor.

Still though, if you just happen to be near Mount Airy and are looking for something to do, let us know.

Makin' Steak

This is "Cooking with Ben: Act II"

It was pretty nice out yesterday, so after our run I busted out some mad steak grilling skillz. Now there is not much advice I can give on grilling, you either know what you are doing or you don't. If the directions are written out, it just looks like I am being a dick: You throw some meat on the grill, then you flip it, and pour tasty junk onto it.

I'm not sure if that second shot looks the way it does due to my mad skills or Taylors apparent lack of skills with food photography.

That is what steak looks like. I am being a little facetious, but honestly I can't imagine how I could give a tutorial on steak like I could with an omelette.

The one piece of advice I can give you, should you endeavor to make steak: Apparently you should be dancing or something. I don't really remember dancing, or being photographed while doing so, but I guess it happened. It was probably while we were talking about "This is Why I'm Hot" by MIMS. Or more accurately, my version with the same melody "This is How I Steak."

Anyway, I am pretty sure Talyor enjoyed it. He can attest to my ability to steak. And in case you were wondering what that red drink is, it's the watered down blood of my fallen enimies. Or as you might know it, Hawiian Punch.

What're You Gonna Do?

Ben went running with me today. He's in decent shape, or so I was told. Truth be told, I was worried at first; he was gunning it up the first hill, and I was having trouble keeping up. And I couldn't let him put me to shame.

Not to worry folks, I'm awesome, and as per use, I prevailed in the face of utter defeat. That first hill that had me worried nearly killed him.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but we did end up doing more walking than running.

Still, there were perks to walking. First off, it was good to run with someone else. It was easier to stay in reality, and, biggest bonus of all, Ben's lack of stamina forced us to take a shortcut that revealed something we wouldn't have found otherwise.

The other day, I said I saw what looked like a kite tail about a mile away. Well, today, we found a whole kite, one of the ones I lost when the fishing line ran out, a fully intact Ironman, with fishing line attached! Total score right there.

We did some other stuff later, but more on that later, as I am tired. So I leave you with this, one of the smaller of the many new things coming to Remaking Memories.

Worst Case Scenario

You are stuck in a dumpster with Big Foot, and he's got your gun. What're you gonna do?

Any responses are appreciated. Bonus points if you know what this is from. The winner as judged by Ben and myself could win anything from nothing at all to something awesome, including but not limited to guest authorship on the Blog for a given amount of time, or perhaps a an epic poem dedicated to the winner. I just might do it to, I'm bored, and I want some audience participation here.

Fortress Of Solitude

I figured out, with a sudden epiphany, that staying with the folks and not getting my own place was indeed a mistake.

I guess part of me has known that all along. I mean, I've been back in Maryland since Christmas, so what now, almost three months, and I haven't even unpacked my suitcase. Each load of laundry just goes back in, so I'm ready to bolt again.

And man am I ever. I let people convince me that it wasn't such a bad idea, not paying for rent, and when Ben failed as a prospective roommate, I just kind of settled back a little and waited for the situation to change. And when I got home from my run today, that change hit me. There was a felling of excitement I haven't felt in a long, long time. I had the house to myself. No one for me to have to a force a conversation with, no one to ask me questions I don't want to answer, no one ask me how my day was. Most importantly, there was just no one. The only sound was the occasional conversation between Jo and Jules, not something I mind in the least. And it's not like I did anything different, I just in near perfect solitude.

It's more than solitude. I like people, I like my job where I worked surrounded by people, even if for the most part I want them to leave me alone. But when I'm at home, I just want to be, not alone, because Jo's company is more than welcome, but I guess lonely is as close to what I'm thinking of as I'm going to get. And Loneliness has such a bad connotative meaning, but I love it. That's not to say I want to be lonely for the rest of my life, but, right now, there are more important people to me than the real one's I have to interact with. The people who's stories I have to tell.

Maybe I'm doomed to be a hermit, or maybe it's just my family. I don't know, I suppose I'll have to live with someone else to test that theory.

And it's also just the relapse that's occurring, and this place, those people, they only hasten it. While I'm still making good progress, and my spontaneous lying is at a minimum, though not nonexistent as it was in Pittsburgh, I'm quickly finding that before, I had wanted to kind of heal the relationship with my parents. Now, I got nothing. I really don't care, and that apathy scares me more than a little, but that's just the thing. I don't care enough to do anything about it.

Well, now I suppose I do, or at least in moving out, the by product of that might be the reversal of the relapse I feared so much.

So, on to Craigslist to look for apartments. I'm in the unfortunate position of having very little intention of sticking around here, at least in Frederick and Mount Airy, for a year, so this will be difficult, but now that I've felt this again, this solitude, I can make something work. Because now, I need to make something work. This, this just isn't working.

I'm sorry that I had to miss your Birthday, Jack, but I'm so glad I stayed home for this. Otherwise, I might not have realized it until it was too late.

Side note, Twilight came out on DVD today, and despite the mad rush of people waiting outside the Frederick Target at 8 a.m., I didn't care. I was a little perplexed at the sheer number of people who had to be there when the doors opened, and the fact that more of them were middle aged women rather than teenage girls, as I had suspected, but whatever. I suppose at least in that aspect, I'm doing ok.

Teaching a Dumb Cat Dog tricks

It occurred to me that Jo isn't a very "fun" cat. I mean, she runs from me, and attacks me, but she doesn't really do anything cute like play with string. I'm not saying I'm not grateful for what she is, a great companion, but still, I was at my old neighbors for pizza tonight, and Kim showed us that her car, Nala, will play fetch.

Nala, or Bast, as i want to call her because of her Egyptian-cat ears and demon tail.

Nala, an adorable cat with a forked tail, will, time and time again chase after and retrieve a ball when thrown like a dog. Unlike a dog, she won't bring the ball back to you. If you're lucky, she'll deposit it next to your outstretched hand, or if you're unlucky, she will leave it halfway down the hall for you to retrieve. She's nobody's fool she knows that she's doing all the work and she's having none of it.

Her creepy forked tail. It's really awkward when you're petting her under the table and the tail slips between her fingers. *shudder*

Also, unlike a dog, she's not an idiot. I tried the pretending to throw the ball trick, the one where any dog will go running off after nothing, but she was not fooled; her eyes never left that ball.

I was having a great time with this (she actually got bored with it before I did, but that says more about me than the cat, doesn't it? Conveniently, she got bored as soon as I got my camera out too. Unfortunate), and thought to myself, why doesn't Jo, or even Julius do something this cool. That's not to say they have their own tricks. Jules has to get up, no matter what, if you whistle at the right pitch, and Jo, well, she knows every possible way to get under my skin, and also, she can open the handles on my parents old fashioned ice box, where we used to keep her food.

As unimpressive as that is after seeing it a few hundred times, it still proves something. She can be motivated by food. So, starting tomorrow, I shall begin trying to teach Jo to play fetch.

Against the Wind

Sorry about the silence of late. I've been, well busy isn't the right word, but it's close enough.

Anyways, I was right about running the other day, and how sore I'd be. But I've been keeping at it. More progress than I've made in almost two years now. I think I might do at least the Frederick half marathon. So what if I can't do a full marathon, if I can crush a half, what's to stop me from pumping out two back to back later. Something to strive fort anyways, and a reason to continue, to not quit. Something to commit to besides myself.

Today was mildly annoying though. I ran in a big loop near my parents' place, and while I usually enjoy the wind (kiting is my favorite activity ever) it was rather chilly, and the wind was less than pleasant. Also, thee real frustrating part was, when running in a glorified circle as I was, you expect full well to be running against the wind for some of the time, but at the same time, you expect there to be a roughly equal amount of time spent running with the wind.

Not the case today. There were a few brief moments when I was shielded from the wind altogether, but the wind was not once at my back, and probably three quarters of the way, I was running against the wind, thinking of good ol' Bob Seger, and thinking about how awesome it would be to have a windsurfer. Seems the wind gods wanted me to by flying kites today, but that would require either buying new kites or repairing the mess of busted ones in my trunk. Not likely to happen today.

Also, speaking of kites, I saw a long piece of red plastic that looked suspiciously like a kite tail, stuck in a tree a mile or so away from where we were flying kites.

Also also, it is my nephew Jack's second birthday today. Unfortunately, I had agreed to work for my boss this weekend, so I won't be going to Pittsburgh to see him. Jo and I will have to give him our regards via webcam later, a lame substitute, but what are you going to do?

Despite this, Ben and will have to try and do something interesting this weekend. It's been a while, and the blog has suffered this week.

Without Limits

I know I had started running earlier, like, almost a month ago, but of course, I promptly got sick, and then just stopped, as is the usual trend with me; find an excuse to stop and never continue.

Despite this, I started running again, partly because I saw that my sister Kellie ended up having to sign up for the Frederick Marathon instead of the Pittsburgh, and while it is still too late for me to get in shape for that marathon, there is also a half marathon and all that jazz. I don't know, God hates a coward, and while I'm not opposed to running thirteen miles, it seems kind of wrong when I could easily train to do a marathon, and on the same day that a bunch of people are dropping down 26.2 or so odd miles, I'm doing a leisurely thirteen. Also, I'm running again because I do some great thinking while running.

There are no distractions while running. It's not like when I'm driving, or at work, or home doing other things. When the only things I really have to worry about are staying on the road and not getting hit by cars, and even that, most of them are kind enough to do my job for me. So it's easiest while running for me to not just let my mind wander, but to lose my mind to those who do a better job of telling my stories than I. After all, they're their stories.

It's truly wonderful, with a few exceptions. The first of which is when I'm out of shape. When I let my characters run wild, that's generally what they do, and my own physical limitations are left where I started.

That's what happened today. I ran way too far, way too fast, and I'm already hurting. It's a fair guess to say that I will have some serious issues with just getting up tomorrow morning, let alone going to work and class, and of course, running again.

It occurs to me that I could probably do a marathon like this. I might die afterwards, but while I'm running, I feel nothing, at least nothing that's happening to me anyways.

Still, I'd have to say, as I massage my aching legs (I was surprised to see my calf muscles are already back, in all their former glory), that it was totally worth it.

Mr. Linganore

I went to the Mr. Linganore Pageant at my old high school last night. I had nothing better to do, and my mother was going, so I figured why not. It wasn't until I was already in the car that my mother reminded me that i haven't been to the new school.

"Turn the car around."

I almost had her do it to. I had seen the new building from the parking lot once, and had seen the wreckage that was my high school on more than a few occasions, but something about actually going in, doing something that I had done before in the old building, it seemed like admitting defeat.

Not that I wasn't defeated, or could have done anything besides refuse to acknowledge it. I don't even know why I cared so much. It's not like I really liked high school.

That's not true, nor is it fair. I didn't like learning, so much that it created a rather bad atmosphere, but it's where I saw and met most of my friends, and while the building itself was in bad, bad shape, despite this, I have a lot of good memories, both real and fake, that happened in that school.

The new building, well, it looks all efficient and modern. I was surprised to see they already had portables behind the school, seems they wanted a repeat of the problem they had at the old school, but then again, I had forgotten that they are still building another school to shove the kids in.

I'm told there is no way to get in the tower. Why?!

Still, I wanted to go, as as this years group of seniors was the class that were Freshmen when I was a Junior, probably my best year, and the year I "adopted" many, many freshmen. Three of these were in the pageant, and another one was working behind the scenes, so I figured i might as well. Maybe I could take credit for their awesomeness, my influence got them where they are.

It didn't, but it was nice to see them, and remember some people I was almost entirely nice to.

Another thing about those Freshmen that I adopted, I nicknamed them all. Well, actually, for whatever reason, I never nicknamed Danny French, but he was in it, and he should have one, and I didn't personally give Bobby Rankin the name "Sweet Pea", but he was also in it. I did give Bobby Martin the name "Sweet Cheeks" (a long story, for another day). Also, Kevin Cole, dubbed "Studmuffin", was in the background, with his awesome voice, befitting a guy called "Studmuffin" working lights. I also managed to see Ryan Barron, aka "Rydog", Adam Eisenstadt, given the name "Munch", but not by me, Rusty Martin, named "Cap'n Abilicious" (he made me attest to his abs in front of his girlfriend, it was to say the least, awkward), and Eva Creswell, who was, due to creative inhibitations on my part, named aptly "Minion Number Two" (Minion Number One was not there, sadly).

Also, it is necessary to mention, should you be in some sort of talent contest, aand are able to do a Rubiks cube while blindfolded, don't waste everyone's time doing it once first with you're eyes open. It was too long, we were already impressed before the blindfold, and then were dissappointed that you couldn't do it with the same stellar speed whilst blind. And should you fail, which he didn't, we would remember your failure over your success. Also, I'd like to ask the question, how is that possible.

I shouldn't complain about that kid, as there were a few who actually had no talent. I'm sure they did, they just failed to display it. One kid, who I believe was wearing crutches to both get out of the awful, awful square dancing competition, and to get some sympathy votes. He needed them. FOr his talent portion, he had some other kid (who had apparently just become a father, having knocked up a girl who my mother tried hard to hook me up with) act like a vantriliquist dummy for the worst comedy act I've ever seen.

Then, to top this kid, some other kid I didn't know got up on the stage with a guitar, giving us fair warning that he had just learned guitar two weeks ago, and then proceeded to render a second of the night, and also the worst, Star Spangled Banner, I have ever heard. I was ticked when I realized what he was doing as it meant I had to stand again (I didn't come to this thing to stand, for my country or not), and then it was just awful. I could tell he tried to do it Jimmy Hendrix style, but he got nowhere fast.

Also, I should close saying that I have now seen six dudes in person doing the Beyonce's "Single Ladies". I was less thn impressed.

Happy One Month Blogiversary

Yeah, I've been at this whole Blog thing for a month now. Not really that long, I suppose. Some days anyways. Time's funny. My year in Pittsburgh seemed at least twice as long as my four years in high school. So I've had my long months. This one though, well, today it seems pretty short.

Well, I said earlier that last night I went to some seminar on communications as technology. It was, well there were some interesting points, to say the least. One of the panelists made the mistake of accidentally implying that Bloggers would replace professional journalism. I think was talking about how online media was replacing print media, but he made a poor seguay to talking about Blogs and other forms of non-professional broadcasting. They were quick to try and clarify, but they weren't the most coordinated group of five people I've ever seen, and their audience was less than wonderful. Still, it was interseting, as most of them clearly saw that while Blogging and the like aren't meant to replace professional journalism, many, like many people among me in the audience, would make that very mistake. I don't know. What I blost here is most definitely not news. I've read some Blogs that are news based, or more specifically, opiniated, unobjective people ranting about the news, but what I'm going for here is purely entertainment. SO if you're looking for news, your're in the wrong place. If your're looking for the antics of a couple of guys who are way too easily amused, yeah, this is the place. Please support us.

One of the other panelists, easily the best one, was very supportive of everyone having a Blog, for a multitude of reasons. The practice in writing alone he said was worth it. I'm mostly in it for the commitment. I'm doing things that I might not normally do mostly because I have committed to this Blog. I'm doing som other things to aid in my commitment issues, but more on that at a later date.

Anyways, I thought I'd just give a heads up on some of the things I'm planning on doing.

Build a windsurfer on a skateboard. It should be legendary.

Run a Marathon. If both of my sisters can do it, so should I.

Help Jo find her birth mom. Or at least, a cat I can convince her is her mom. I'm not perfect.

Learn to play the Guitar. It's something I've been meaning to do.

Build the Solar Death Ray. The power of 1,000 suns!

Learn to do Magic. I probably can't. But I'd at least like to give it a shot.

Finish writing one of my stories. I've started dozens, but never finished. After that, comes publishing.

At some point, a road trip. Doesn't matter where.

And there's a few things left up my sleeve, quite literally actually, that I will reveal when the time is right. After all, I can't let you now everything I plan on doing. Then you would have a little less reason to keep reading what I have to write.

So I'll keep blosting, whether or not you keep reading. I guess I'd prefer it people read, but it's not necessary. As always, suggestions are more than welcome. And if you're in town, give me a call. We'll do something stupid and fun, maybe fly a kite.

Where Am I?

Sometimes, it's really frustrating to be me. I mean, despite the fact that I am overflowing with pure, unfiltered awesome, I have flaws. Among them, probably the one that hinders me most on a regular basis, is that I have no concept of space.

Directions, distance, even just the simple concept of right and left, are beyond my grasp. It's pretty much a condition, even a handicap. Today was a bad day. On an average day, when I need to figure out right from left, I just make the L's with my hands, and quickly recognize right from left. In the car while driving, it's even easier. My brain will never be able to instinctively know right from left, I've given up on trying to learn long ago.

Anyways, today was a bad day. On a bad day, when I need to differentiate between right and left, I look at my hands, and then have trouble processing what an L looks like. Then I try to imagine myself drawing an L, but without a pen in my hand, I have idea which is my hand. So I have to get a pen out of my pocket, if I am lucky enough to be carrying one, figure out what hand it feels right in, fortunately, once I've found my right hand, I've figured out which was is right, and drawing the L is pointless. Still, a tedious task, for trying to figure out a simple direction.

Fortunately, routes I normally take are easily committed to memory, and right and left and directions of any sort play no part. However, whenever I have to go somewhere new, or even somewhere old, but going a different route, even the reverse of a route I normally take and know, It's almost guaranteed that I will get at least a little lost.

My GPS helps, but only so much. Especially when, for no good reason, I feel confident enough to go without it. Today was one of those days. Ben and were going over to China Panda this afternoon, and while I can get there from work, I was at my great grandmother, Gigi's, and I had never gone to China Panda from there.

Not a huge problem, I figured. I would just get back over near Target to the point where I knew where I was, and then backtrack. Of course, at the time, I didn't realize that while I went from Target to Gigi's a lot, I had only once been from Gigi's too Target, and not the way i was trying to do it, and not during the day. When I realized that I was going to have issues, I whipped out my GPS, knowing I would need Mr. T's aid in getting me where I needed to go. i went under favorites, and told it to take me to Target first, because the last thing I need to be doing while lost is fiddling wiht my GPS. And immediately, of course, TomTom tells me that no route was found.

Needless to say, at somepoint, I found myself on 70 going west, towards Hagerstown. Frustrated, I made it there, and few things aleviate stress like China Panda, and more specifically, building things out of toothpicks and cup lids.

Then later, I had have a class on Thursday nights, but of course, I forgot that this week, before class, we were supposed to go to the communications technology seminar thing, when I got to class, the room was empty. I remembered then and i checked the paper and saw I was supposed to be in the JDK theatre. So I found a map. Maps aren't the most helpful thing in the world to me. If they are laying flat, lined up with whatever they are a map of, I can follow them pretty well, but if they are on a wall, or the orientation isn't right, I can't move it in my mind to where it should be, and then I can't find anything. But this didn't turn out to be a problem, because the JDK theatre was not on the map.

I decided finally to try my luck in the arts and communication building, and after going the wrong direction and into the wrong building and having to turn back and go in the opposite direction, I found the building. It had it's own map of the building itself, where conveniently, the JDK theatre was not listed.

Had I not remembered that I had in fact been here once before, many years ago, to see a firend's dance recital, I probably would have just gone back to the classroom and waited for an hour and a hlaf for the seminar to be over. But I did remember a theatre, and more specifically, having trouble finding it the first time. Armed with that knowledge, I found the theatre, and it was actually a pretty interesting smeinar, and I was glad I was able to find it. Because, I am, after all, a guy, and therefore, cannot ask for directions.

Too Windy For Kites!

So we were kiting again. If it seems like that's all we do, it's probably because it is. At least for now, because it is March, and therefore windy, and we now have kite fishers.

Actually, that windy thing kind of turned out to be a problem. We were having trouble flying kites because it was too windy. I noticed the windy conditions on my way to class today; it was gorgeous, mid seventies, with good strong winds. I almost skipped class to go fly kites, but I decided I might as well go, so I sat through Spanish, staring outside, feeling the wind through all the open windows on my face, wishing I was outside.

finally, I was able to go outside and go back to Mount Airy for some kite flying action. Of course, by then, it had become overcast, and looked like a storm was blowing in. But that of course never stops us.

Well, despite our awesome kite fishers, our kites failed to stand up to the sheer force of the wind. They tend to fly out almost completely horizontally, as opposed to the preferred, you know, vertical flight, and then, they just turn over and take a nose dive into the dirt. It's frustrating. And then, the kite abomination. Owly McBird and Elmo started going at it, and once they got tangled up, there was really nothing to do but watch. Then, Spiderman got sucked in, and things got ugly.

Their tails are a lost cause. Ben even had to amputate Optimus Prime's to prevent him from getting sucked into the ever growing tangled mess that was the kite abomination. Mostly though, it was a beautiful day, and we got some great pictures.

Also, we believe we found evidence of some great bird, or mayhaps a dinosaur. Check these tracks out.

Oh yeah, and we took Roma with us. It was depressing, because I had to teach him how to fly a kite. I thought those were skills everyone was born with, but maybe that's just an american thing. Anyways, I wasn't there when it happened, so I can't fully understand why, but somehow, he managed to get his kite stuck in not one, not two, not three, but at least six trees. It was like a kite eating forest, I guess. It seemed reasonable, well not reasonable, getting a kite stuck in more than one tree is never reasonable, but plausible, as the trees were all in a line in the path of the wind. But after his kite cruised through the trees in a row, it turned around and looped backwards, against the wind, to get stuck in three more trees.

That's him, trying to get it out of the last tree it got stuck in. The string is still up the rest of them, and I found it fitting that a Spiderman kite left webbing everywhere. Man, I wish I had been there, but I was busy almost getting eaten by a small dog. Yeah, it's exactly what it sounds like.