Trick or Treat!

Ok, I understand it is hard to know what areas are safe to take kids trick
or treating. But going to an oasis on the interstate? There were a few kids
hitting this little plaza! Of course my question here is why do the parents
feel the freeway stop is a safe lace to let your kids roam!? Not sure where
the parents were. Maybe she drove herself in her little princess mobile?

HHRrrrockin!

Well I managed to get another cool car. Although this one so far has many
negatives to go along with the positives. We will see how it plays out!

High Over Smoggy ATL

A Journey of a Thousand Cities Starts with a Single 6:45 am Flight!

OK, maybe not a thousand cities, but it feels like it here at the starting
line. Chicago, South Bend, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Madrid. All
over the next 14 days! And this coming off my 1 day 'layover' in the OC as
I got back from Las Vegas in time to unpack, do laundry, and repack - all
while getting caught up from being out AND getting ready for the trip
ahead. Man, I am tired already and e haven't even taken off yet!

So Endeth the Fun

From Earth, Wind & Fire to boredom, tedium & drowsiness of the following
morning's keynote address. The future of 'Information on Demand' woo hoo!
If we are lucky they'll turn this into the next big stage hit, a la Mama
Mia!

Shining Star for you to see...

What your life can truly be! Oh yea, Earth Wind & Fire! Playing the IBM
conference! We bad!

IBM? No, We B Jammin'!

We have Ricky Martin wanna be and a Jessica Simpson clone with their band
'rockin' the house. Oh yea! I am feelin' "Hot Hot, Hot" now, now, now!

IOD Day 1

Day one and my feet already hurt! This is my 'fun' & 'exciting' trip to Las
Vegas. I am sitting in the Mandalay Bay events hall listening to an exec
prattle on about managing your enterprise database. He keeps talking about
System Z, but it feels more like System zzzzzzzzz

Minnesota Layover

Oh yeah, you betcha. Spendin' time in that great northern state of
Minnesooota. I actually saw a very scary sight here during my layover.
Minnesota airport sushi. If there were ever 3 words that did not belong
together! Yeesh! I shiver at the thought!

As you can see I am flying Northwest - or NWA as they now like to call
themselves. Gee, I wonder if they ever heard of the militant rap group from
the eighties? They had a different take on life that I am not sure the good
white-bread folks of Minnesoooota would be in tune with (no pun intended).
There abbreviation stood for N____ With Attitude. Hard not to chuckle when
the skinny little blonde white chick from the land of Nordic descent
welcomes us to NWA!

Irish Do it Again!!

ND is 4-1 on the year! And unlike last year I am undefeated for the season
in games I attend! Go Irish!

Beautiful Day for Football!

Crowd gathers for the ban's pre-game concert on the steps of Bond Hall.

Somethings Should Never be Combined

I love ND. I love sushi. Don't know which I would give up first. But
combining them? These are sushi rolls you can by in the ND student union.
Let me just say NO Friggin Way! I will leave sushi for places I can see
and talk to the chef as he makes my sushi AT THAT MOMENT.

I wonder if the ND sushi is bad if you'd end up hurling blue & gold with
highlights of green?

OK and of course my mind is churning with bad puns. I'll spare you any
further pain though!

You've Got to Be Kidding!

Time to go hit a movie! I thought 'Choke' looked like it might be interesting.So, I find a theater showing it late and off I go. Little did I know that is what the theater would do!

It was a way cool theater. As you can see it has the old movie house design and feel. Inside there was actually a bar and restaurant! Way cool! While I thought that was really fun, I was more interested in discovering the answer to question number one about any movie theater I go to ... "Do they serve Coke or Pepsi?" Well, it was NOT a good answer as they serve Pepsi products. So, at this point I will not ever go back to another Muvico theater - OK, I wouldn't even if they had theaters in OC!

But while that wouldn't sway the normal person (after all who else is so ridiculously adamant about "Coke" not Pepsi!?) the rest of the experience might make you pause. Certainly the movie paused! Literally! The start time was 10:35. I made my way into the theater and was literally the ONLY person in the theater. I had my own private showing! But as I sat there I realized that a lot of time had passed and the movie had not started. It was odd as there was no pre-preview thing - just a slide that kept refreshing every 15 seconds like it was a brand new one and a looping 'soundtrack' that restarted right along with every 'new' slide. I looked at my watch and saw it was 10:45 - 10 minutes past the show time. At 10:48, I thought maybe I'd go check to see if they were actually going to show anything this evening.

As I got to the counter and asked, one of the THREE employees hanging out chatting, suddenly realized what it was he had apparently forgotten. You guessed it, he ran to the back to 'start the movie'! OK, that was weird. Never had that before! Well the trailers started and the lights went down - well most of them did. The movie theater was still pretty light as half the lights were still on! After about 1o minutes of the lights being on it was obvious they were going to stay on for the movie! So, out I go again. "Um, are they going to turn off the lights in the theater? Like all of them?" The manager rolled his eyes that his employee was apparently falling down so magnificently! Got him on the walkie talkie and got the matter resolved.

As I headed back into the theater to see if they might actually be able to get the movie finished without further issue, I saw the ad poster for the theater. And it was definitely a case of truth in advertising! Although I am not sure they intended it the way it came across to me at that moment! "You've got to be kidding" is right!!

Actually, the pre-movie excitement turned out to be the best part! I am still not sure what the hell 'Choke' was about! Oh well. It was yet another crazy night!!