Well I have cured my addiction to the computer. I have become addicted to reading, playing Xbox, playing tennis, and starting mini projects outside and inside. I think instead of by days(I may wind up using them anyway), I will go by subjects.
Reading:
Well since I got back, I haven't read much until I got Harry Potter. I got it the Wednesday after it came out(on a Saturday). I had to clean my room first. It's a good book. I read for two hours today and got through about 200 pages. It flies by as I read, but its worth it.
Playing Xbox:
Well it's been Oblivion pretty much all the time. I have 90 hours under my belt in that game now. I completed all the faction quests and the main quests. I am doing Daedric and Miscellaneous quests right now and the game keeps on throwing new stuff at me. I also found an old Xbox magazine demo disk whilst cleaning my room and it had 2 free Oblivion downloads on it that were small, but cool downloads.
Davis also came over and we started working on Gears of War Insane mode only to discover that it was a lot easier than Halo 2 on Legendary. In 5 hours of playing, we beat through act three. We only have 4 and 5 left.
Playing Tennis:
I have been doing it every day with the exception of weekends. We had a tournament in Marysville last friday and their coach was Mr. Moreno himself. I got to show off my ability to pwn his students in front of him and I also got to talk to him about my Eagle Project.
Recently, I finally won a challenge match while challenging up the ladder. I hadn't moved up in 2 years. This win made me displace 5 people and I am in the second. I am now number 16 on the ladder, but I think I can move up with this newfound confidence.
Outside stuff:
The neighbors had a water balloon fight against our house today which was quite entertaining. Other things I have done include taking stuff apart, helping redo the garage, working at grandpa's house, etc.
Inside stuff:
Well, actually this is like the reading section. A minor thing. I cleaned my room. Pictures will come. It went from literally no floor to wow that's clean.
Speaking of pictures, I, along with CompUSA have been helping Melissa get the pictures out to everyone. I told her that her current technology wouldn't work for that much stuff and CompUSA told her what to get. Now I have been trying to help her work it through the family website which is hard because it isnt instant messaging and she lives in Florida. Hopefully the pictures will come soon though. I am going to post the pictures of before the reunion before I leave since I think that her pictures will come after I get back.
In other news, my first weekend of 2 of my Eagle project is saturday from 9am to noon. It probably wont last that long, but there is free food anyway. Peace out for now.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: Indisputable Evidence Shows That Gamefaqs Users ARE, In Fact, N00bs.
I am outraged by this obvious display of pure idiocy. Davis has also expressed his anger at this problem. The word "Pwn" is popularly believed to be prounounced (pone) which I admit is the way I used to say it before I was educated properly. The only thing that can still be referred to as poning is the belt of pownage. I can't bring myself to change it. Getting back on topic, not only is pone the most frequently used variation, but what should come in second? Own? Own, the correct way to say it, should have come in second(and it should have been a close second), but no, the users on gamefaqs selected "pawn." THIS IS NOT CHESS PEOPLE. This is pwning someone. Pawns do not Pwn. What can you do to prevent this problem from spreading? When you walk around, simply come up to every person you see and show them the word "Pwn." Ask them how they pronounce it. If they say anything other than Own, hit them.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Bringing back the glory
After seeing Davis' super liberal bumper stickers, I decided I wanted to bring back my truck's super conservative ones.
I am looking for I love Adak(coast guard base in Alaska) and Go to Church, don't wait for the hearse to take you.
Along my search, I have found more good religious ones.
Come the rapture can I have your car?
God gave man 2 heads and only enough blood to use one.
God must love stupid people, he made so many.
I Have The Body Of A God... Buddha!
National Atheist's Day April 1
Reincarnation is making a comeback!
Sorry I missed Church, I've been studying WitchCraft and becoming a Lesbian.
You're the reason God created the middle finger.
You found God? If nobody claims him in 30 days, he's yours!
I am looking for I love Adak(coast guard base in Alaska) and Go to Church, don't wait for the hearse to take you.
Along my search, I have found more good religious ones.
Come the rapture can I have your car?
God gave man 2 heads and only enough blood to use one.
God must love stupid people, he made so many.
I Have The Body Of A God... Buddha!
National Atheist's Day April 1
Reincarnation is making a comeback!
Sorry I missed Church, I've been studying WitchCraft and becoming a Lesbian.
You're the reason God created the middle finger.
You found God? If nobody claims him in 30 days, he's yours!
The first week back.
Well this week has had it ups and downs, but mostly it has had its Oblivions. The days have kind of jumbled into a blur from Oblivion and I would tend to do a day post, but each day would consist of "Well I woke up, ate, played tennis, played Oblivion, ate, went to the bathroom, played Oblivion, ate, slept, then it repeats. Tennis has been fun as usual.
My tennis schedule is as follows:
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am) and Team Practice(3:00-4:15pm)
Tuesday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am)
Wednesday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am) and possibly matches in the afternoons.
Thursday: Possible lesson makeup in the morning if it rained earlier in the week and Team Practice(3:00-4:15pm)
Friday: Generally open all day with the possible exception of an afternoon match. I can miss them usually if anyone has a solid plan. I am done around 4ish anyway.
Saturday: Nothing
Oblivion:
Yes this game is so good. In the past 7 days, I have only spent 5 and 1/2 days doing something other than playing Oblivion. 36 hours on the game in the first week. What awesome level have I aspired to? Level 3. I would have leveled up faster, but I have been doing guild quests that work on minor skills, which make me level up slower. I am the leader of the Dark Brotherhood(fun quests) and the leader of the Thieves Guild(good loot). I am halfway up the Mages Guild right now. I'm probably the only mage that doesn't use magic as I am a Redguard Knight(uber melee fighter). After the Mages Guild, I will do the Fighters Guild, then the Arena to level up fast, then I will get back on the Main Questline again. The game is so fun that I have not really been on the computer at all. When I have, its because the rest of the family forced me off the TV.
Pictures are coming soon. If Melissa takes too much longer, I am just going to post pictures of everything but the reunion, then post reunion pictures when they are finally up.
My tennis schedule is as follows:
Sunday: Nothing
Monday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am) and Team Practice(3:00-4:15pm)
Tuesday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am)
Wednesday: Lesson(10:15-11:00am) and possibly matches in the afternoons.
Thursday: Possible lesson makeup in the morning if it rained earlier in the week and Team Practice(3:00-4:15pm)
Friday: Generally open all day with the possible exception of an afternoon match. I can miss them usually if anyone has a solid plan. I am done around 4ish anyway.
Saturday: Nothing
Oblivion:
Yes this game is so good. In the past 7 days, I have only spent 5 and 1/2 days doing something other than playing Oblivion. 36 hours on the game in the first week. What awesome level have I aspired to? Level 3. I would have leveled up faster, but I have been doing guild quests that work on minor skills, which make me level up slower. I am the leader of the Dark Brotherhood(fun quests) and the leader of the Thieves Guild(good loot). I am halfway up the Mages Guild right now. I'm probably the only mage that doesn't use magic as I am a Redguard Knight(uber melee fighter). After the Mages Guild, I will do the Fighters Guild, then the Arena to level up fast, then I will get back on the Main Questline again. The game is so fun that I have not really been on the computer at all. When I have, its because the rest of the family forced me off the TV.
Pictures are coming soon. If Melissa takes too much longer, I am just going to post pictures of everything but the reunion, then post reunion pictures when they are finally up.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Here it is, forks.
Well this is it. The big play by play. Yes, I know it can be intimidating, but I suggest you read it. The description of the days will probably get shorter as I go on. What better things do you have to do? Hang out with your girlfriend? Ha, unlikely. The only person that has something else to do is Zack(has to go see the pink elephant and the flowers in make believe land). Pictures from my family are on my computer. Pictures from the professional group photos are up on the internet as well. I am waiting on Melissa to post her pictures. I expect to start putting up my pictures very soon, as soon as she puts them online. I am going to do it in the style of Europe last year, where I put up the pictures in backwards order so that you see them progressing through as you scroll down.
Saturday, 6/30:
So on Saturday, our flight left at 7:50 in the morning. I got up really early to get the last single player achievement in COD3. Vetran mode FTW! We were trying to leave at 6:30, but dad kept us until 6:45. When we all got up to the airport, the lines were humongous. It was surprising for that early in the day. When it was time to start boarding the flight, we started into the security line. At 7:45, 5 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, we got to the front of the line. Of course, luck would have it that we got stuck behind a handicapped lady that didn't care if we were rushing, she wanted to climb out of her wheelchair and hobble around. So we got through the security checkpoint with 2 minutes to spare, so I let my family take my bags and I booked it down the A gate. Now for those of you that don't know, I sure didn't, but the A gate is like a large straight run. It went down very very far until gate A6 at the end, then it turned. It was about a half mile run from the security checkpoint to the gate A16. When I got there, the lady recognized me as part of the group the flight was waiting on. I told her I was with a handicapped person (mom's back was hurting so I figured why not). That bought some time. Then we got on the plane and the announcer said "Those people held up at security finally got here."
So the flight was 2 hours and the plane reeked of jet fuel. When we touched down in Saint Louis, the first thing that I noticed was the quality of the air(low), then the humidity(high). We got to the rental place and they didn't have the car we requested, but they gave us a Jeep Liberty. The window controls were in the middle of the car and the back had no shocks. I rode in the front a lot though luckily.
So we went straight to Anheuser Busch Brewery to meet Dad's old boss from US bank and his family for a tour of the Brewery. It was pretty cool, but not as cool as the Guinness tour. After that, we went to the Italian part of town and ate at this restaurant with good pizza. Milo's or something like that. After that, Greg(dad's boss) took us to show us this great frozen custard place. Ted Drewes. It looks crowded, but it moves you through within 3 minutes. Don't be put off by the crowd outside. It's always there. It doesn't slow it down at all. After that, we went back to the hotel and got some rest.
Sunday, 7/1:
We got up around 9 and headed out in search of food. We didn't find any. Since we were in a Red State, the city was literally deserted in the morning because everyone was at church. We got to the Gateway Arch and had virtually no line to get in. It was pretty cool. So after that, we went on this stupid steamboat ride up the Misissippi. There was a fat lady with her underwear and crack haning out on different levels, so I couldn't take pictures for the first half. On the way back in, our announcer was Dave from the parks department. Now my mom is very easily amused and she almost fell asleep. He pause in the most..........inappropriate times in.........his sentences, and he spoke in montone. He was so boring I almost jumped out into the river, but the river was brown, and I did not want to get a disease. Later in the day, we waited around for the Parry's to arrive. The Parry's conist of Dave, the dad; Melissa, mom's cousin; and her kids(my first cousins once removed) Kelsey(my age) and the triplets(Kathryn's age) Anna, Abagail, and Will. All of the kids are adopted, although I don't know why. More on that subject later. We hung out with them for a while, Will hung out with me and the girls clicked. Kelsey didn't really talk at all or seem interested in the least. After a while with them, we went to the train station to get Sue, who had taken the train from Syracuse to St. Louis. She is a very interesting person.
That night, more relatives came and we had a party of 15 at The Old Spaghetti factory. The area it was in looked similar to the area the one in Seattle is in. Another interesting thing about Missourri is that children are allowed in the bar. After the dinner, everyone went their own ways.
Monday, 7/2:
We had breakfast with the Parrys (minus Dave(dad) and Kelsey) and Sue. After that, we got on the highway to Memphis. The highways in the midwest have very few curves. They seem to go on forever at one point. Also, there are tons of billboards along the highways. Many are funny for different reasons, but unfortunately, I didn't figure out to take pictures for a while and lots of funny ones are behind trees until its too late to snap a picture of them. The best billboard said "Pray to end abortion." and had a baby praying next to it. We arrived in Memphis in the mid afternoon, just in time to check into our hotel(the peabody) and to see this tradition they have where they march some ducks around. We went and saw the Civil Rights museum as well where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. After that, we went to this restaurant called Rum Boogie Cafe for dinner. It was really cool because many famous guitarists including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top have eaten there and signed a guitar to hang from the ceiling. It was cool to walk around and look at them, but unfortunately I couldn't take pictures because it was so poorly lit and the flash only made it a giant glare.
Tuesday, 7/3:
We got up around 9 and went to the Gibson Guitar factory tour. It was interesting, despite the tourguide, who was boring. After lunch, we hit the road again to go off to Little Rock, Arkansas to see the city where our friends who now live in California grew up. In Little Rock, we saw the capitol building and the school where the 9 went(anti-segregation thing in the 60's). For dinner, we ate at the Purple Cow, a favorite restaurant of our friends. I was angry because it was a '50's diner, which I usually hate, but this one was good. They food color milkshakes purple if you so desire, so I desired. It was good food.
Wednesday, 7/4:
Happy fourth of july everyone. We celebrated by driving through the Ozark Mountains(more like hills). There were lots of rednecks there. I am serious, it was actually funny how stereotypically accurate they are. We got to Branson at around 2:00 to find that Dad and I were the only men there since the rest had gone golfing and the women were doing Karaoke in Cabin 18(Melissa's cabin, the headquarters.(other than the pavillion). After being there for a little bit, we decided to all saddle out to the pavillion, which was a covered area by the pool. It was reserved for us each night, so we all met there for dinner every day.
Eventually, everyone showed up and there was much reunioning. I saw lots of people I never knew before and some of the kids didn't get along and Kelsey sat off to the side again(no surprise there). The kid a year younger than me with the 4 handicap(extremely good) in golf came as well. He was nice, but he isn't a very loud person, which I guess was okay. So later in the night, it cut loose on us. We stayed out an extra hour and a half for the rain to pass. After everyone split up, a bunch of older people went to do Karaoke and wound up staying up until breakfast, getting hangovers, and missing most of the next day.
Note: In the future, when I say we without first putting people in that group, I am referring to my family and The Parrys.
Thursday, 7/5:
We didn't really get to do anything until in the afternoon, when we decided to go to Silver Dollar City, this tacky, yet fun amusement park nearby. We all went and got tickets. The first ride we went to was Thunderation, a roller coaster where you have the option to ride backwards or forwards. It got closed after we had been in line for a bit due to "someone mistreating the gates." Someone pushed against those little things that open for you to get on the ride and the whole ride had to close. After that, we went to another section. We got hit by the cutoff on this one ride, but when it finished, the whole park closed for lightning in the area. Evidently parks do that often over there. We left since we had been there for about half an hour and we got rain delay passes to come back sometime.
We all just went back to the pavillion and swam around in the pool there until dinner. Everyone showed up for dinner and then there was some Karaoke indoors. Maya(3 or 4 year old) sang some who let the dogs out and YMCA. Some of the kids showed her dance moves and she would imitate them. I showed her how to do the Saturday Night Fever(John Travolta finger joust disco).
Friday, 7/6:
We went on my idea and had our two families get going on the road at 9 to get to Silver Dollar City when it opened. We got there half an hour after it opened and immediately did Wildfire. Very short rollercoaster(1-1.5 minutes), but it has a huge drop at the start where you can't really breathe at all and it has lots of loops and corkscrews and the likes. It was awesome. Then we did Powder Keg. It does an electromagnetic start where you go 0-max speed in about 2 seconds. It was a little scary because all you had holding you in was this little waist strap. Like a thick foam seatbelt. It was a very fun one anyway though. Our party got separated unfortunately, so I was with Anna behind Kelsey and Melissa. After those rides, we did this "black diamond scary" ride called fire in the hole. It was basically a cart running around in the dark going past scenes of fire and some guy climbing into a hotel second story window yelling that he had no pants. At the end you get sprayed with water. It was a stupid ride. Stupid to the macks. So after lunch, Dad, Anna, Abagail, Kelsey, and I went to do "the giant swings." Dad finally got Kelsey to open up and talk, which she started doing more of. He gets the award there for his persistent talking. I guess I have just learned how to get him to stop. So the swings were fun. After that, Will and Dad went to go on the river ride there. The rest of us went to the small rides that we missed. Anna, Abagail, Kelsey, and I went on the ride we got cheated out of at the lightning the other day. It was pretty fun. In line in front of us, there were some ho girls around Kelsey and my age talking about how the cops "killed their fun when they tried to smuggle beer onto a beach back home." They were stupid. After that ride, Kelsey sat with mom and Melissa. Kathryn and Abagail went to do the swing rides. Anna and I went over to our favorite ride, the swinging pirate ship. We were mistaken though, because it did not go around all the way, it just got high up. The nazi instructor lady said no hands in the air, so we decided to be rebels. After that, we went on this other ride where it spins you around really fast and it shoved us to the outside, so my arm was a little sore for a while after I endured Anna being pushed against it for the duration of the ride. That night, there was more partyage at the pavillion. That night at the pavillion, there was an ant show with Uncle Tom and Dick in which they drowned ants then poured salt on them to bring them back to life. It was a cool show.
Saturday, 7/7:
On saturday, we went go-karting with Uncle John and his daughter Nicole. The carting was fun. There was a huge wooden structure on which to race. Anna, Kathryn and I formed an alliance to win all the races. It worked well. Bumping was not allowed, but everyone bumped a ton and nobody cared. On one of the rides, Abagail got T-boned and got whiplash and had to stop for the day. She recovered by the end of the day. After carting, I went to Uncle John's hotel to play tennis with him. I didn't have my camera, but what it was was the building where the pool was. The court was on the roof, up by the American flag. Very nice views and a unique experience, but it was 90 degrees in the shade, plus humidity, plus the roof of a building, plus tennis court meant it was over 100, maybe up to 110 degrees on the court. It was fun to play on though, even if our occasional spectators had to leave after they got too hot. That night at the pavillion, there was a scavenger hunt for the kids. Anna and I teamed up because we had been hanging out a lot. We won of course, being the only ones to get more than 15,000 points(we got 30,000). We almost got the whole list filled up. We used good finding methods, such as when looking for the rope, we went into the hotel and stole a rope from them. Anna still has it. It is her scavenging sash. Mine is this broken tape measurer. We dominated and that's all I can say. After that, everyone went to bed.
Sunday, 7/8:
We hung around the pavillion most of the day. In the middle of the day we hung around with different people and it wasn't too exciting. Lunch at Steak and Shake because I really had my mind set on going there. It was pretty much God's restaurant. If you ever see one, go into it without question. Dinner at the pavillion again was fun and everyone said goodbye because everyone left the following morning.
Monday, 7/9:
We decided to use our last day in the passes at Silver Dollar City to ride the rides one more times since we are never going back to the Midwest, God willing. We rode Wildfire again as well as Powder Keg. After that, dad went to get Will's glasses at the river ride, where I failed to mention he lost them back when they last went on them. We found them and called the Parry's who had left for Florida. We mailed them back later. We tried to get on Thunderation, but before we could get on, lightning in the area, everything closed. That ride is cursed. We decided to go to the car to hit the road. We barely made it before the rain just shot down in a wall. We dove into the car and no sooner did we, than we couldn't see out the windshield because it was so wet. Dad got the wipers going and we set off. We ate lunch at The Cracker Barrel, which had good food and random stuff. We made our flight in plenty of time and got home around midnight.
That's it for the trip. Pictures soon. A post about the week soon as well.
Saturday, 6/30:
So on Saturday, our flight left at 7:50 in the morning. I got up really early to get the last single player achievement in COD3. Vetran mode FTW! We were trying to leave at 6:30, but dad kept us until 6:45. When we all got up to the airport, the lines were humongous. It was surprising for that early in the day. When it was time to start boarding the flight, we started into the security line. At 7:45, 5 minutes before the flight was supposed to leave, we got to the front of the line. Of course, luck would have it that we got stuck behind a handicapped lady that didn't care if we were rushing, she wanted to climb out of her wheelchair and hobble around. So we got through the security checkpoint with 2 minutes to spare, so I let my family take my bags and I booked it down the A gate. Now for those of you that don't know, I sure didn't, but the A gate is like a large straight run. It went down very very far until gate A6 at the end, then it turned. It was about a half mile run from the security checkpoint to the gate A16. When I got there, the lady recognized me as part of the group the flight was waiting on. I told her I was with a handicapped person (mom's back was hurting so I figured why not). That bought some time. Then we got on the plane and the announcer said "Those people held up at security finally got here."
So the flight was 2 hours and the plane reeked of jet fuel. When we touched down in Saint Louis, the first thing that I noticed was the quality of the air(low), then the humidity(high). We got to the rental place and they didn't have the car we requested, but they gave us a Jeep Liberty. The window controls were in the middle of the car and the back had no shocks. I rode in the front a lot though luckily.
So we went straight to Anheuser Busch Brewery to meet Dad's old boss from US bank and his family for a tour of the Brewery. It was pretty cool, but not as cool as the Guinness tour. After that, we went to the Italian part of town and ate at this restaurant with good pizza. Milo's or something like that. After that, Greg(dad's boss) took us to show us this great frozen custard place. Ted Drewes. It looks crowded, but it moves you through within 3 minutes. Don't be put off by the crowd outside. It's always there. It doesn't slow it down at all. After that, we went back to the hotel and got some rest.
Sunday, 7/1:
We got up around 9 and headed out in search of food. We didn't find any. Since we were in a Red State, the city was literally deserted in the morning because everyone was at church. We got to the Gateway Arch and had virtually no line to get in. It was pretty cool. So after that, we went on this stupid steamboat ride up the Misissippi. There was a fat lady with her underwear and crack haning out on different levels, so I couldn't take pictures for the first half. On the way back in, our announcer was Dave from the parks department. Now my mom is very easily amused and she almost fell asleep. He pause in the most..........inappropriate times in.........his sentences, and he spoke in montone. He was so boring I almost jumped out into the river, but the river was brown, and I did not want to get a disease. Later in the day, we waited around for the Parry's to arrive. The Parry's conist of Dave, the dad; Melissa, mom's cousin; and her kids(my first cousins once removed) Kelsey(my age) and the triplets(Kathryn's age) Anna, Abagail, and Will. All of the kids are adopted, although I don't know why. More on that subject later. We hung out with them for a while, Will hung out with me and the girls clicked. Kelsey didn't really talk at all or seem interested in the least. After a while with them, we went to the train station to get Sue, who had taken the train from Syracuse to St. Louis. She is a very interesting person.
That night, more relatives came and we had a party of 15 at The Old Spaghetti factory. The area it was in looked similar to the area the one in Seattle is in. Another interesting thing about Missourri is that children are allowed in the bar. After the dinner, everyone went their own ways.
Monday, 7/2:
We had breakfast with the Parrys (minus Dave(dad) and Kelsey) and Sue. After that, we got on the highway to Memphis. The highways in the midwest have very few curves. They seem to go on forever at one point. Also, there are tons of billboards along the highways. Many are funny for different reasons, but unfortunately, I didn't figure out to take pictures for a while and lots of funny ones are behind trees until its too late to snap a picture of them. The best billboard said "Pray to end abortion." and had a baby praying next to it. We arrived in Memphis in the mid afternoon, just in time to check into our hotel(the peabody) and to see this tradition they have where they march some ducks around. We went and saw the Civil Rights museum as well where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot. After that, we went to this restaurant called Rum Boogie Cafe for dinner. It was really cool because many famous guitarists including Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top have eaten there and signed a guitar to hang from the ceiling. It was cool to walk around and look at them, but unfortunately I couldn't take pictures because it was so poorly lit and the flash only made it a giant glare.
Tuesday, 7/3:
We got up around 9 and went to the Gibson Guitar factory tour. It was interesting, despite the tourguide, who was boring. After lunch, we hit the road again to go off to Little Rock, Arkansas to see the city where our friends who now live in California grew up. In Little Rock, we saw the capitol building and the school where the 9 went(anti-segregation thing in the 60's). For dinner, we ate at the Purple Cow, a favorite restaurant of our friends. I was angry because it was a '50's diner, which I usually hate, but this one was good. They food color milkshakes purple if you so desire, so I desired. It was good food.
Wednesday, 7/4:
Happy fourth of july everyone. We celebrated by driving through the Ozark Mountains(more like hills). There were lots of rednecks there. I am serious, it was actually funny how stereotypically accurate they are. We got to Branson at around 2:00 to find that Dad and I were the only men there since the rest had gone golfing and the women were doing Karaoke in Cabin 18(Melissa's cabin, the headquarters.(other than the pavillion). After being there for a little bit, we decided to all saddle out to the pavillion, which was a covered area by the pool. It was reserved for us each night, so we all met there for dinner every day.
Eventually, everyone showed up and there was much reunioning. I saw lots of people I never knew before and some of the kids didn't get along and Kelsey sat off to the side again(no surprise there). The kid a year younger than me with the 4 handicap(extremely good) in golf came as well. He was nice, but he isn't a very loud person, which I guess was okay. So later in the night, it cut loose on us. We stayed out an extra hour and a half for the rain to pass. After everyone split up, a bunch of older people went to do Karaoke and wound up staying up until breakfast, getting hangovers, and missing most of the next day.
Note: In the future, when I say we without first putting people in that group, I am referring to my family and The Parrys.
Thursday, 7/5:
We didn't really get to do anything until in the afternoon, when we decided to go to Silver Dollar City, this tacky, yet fun amusement park nearby. We all went and got tickets. The first ride we went to was Thunderation, a roller coaster where you have the option to ride backwards or forwards. It got closed after we had been in line for a bit due to "someone mistreating the gates." Someone pushed against those little things that open for you to get on the ride and the whole ride had to close. After that, we went to another section. We got hit by the cutoff on this one ride, but when it finished, the whole park closed for lightning in the area. Evidently parks do that often over there. We left since we had been there for about half an hour and we got rain delay passes to come back sometime.
We all just went back to the pavillion and swam around in the pool there until dinner. Everyone showed up for dinner and then there was some Karaoke indoors. Maya(3 or 4 year old) sang some who let the dogs out and YMCA. Some of the kids showed her dance moves and she would imitate them. I showed her how to do the Saturday Night Fever(John Travolta finger joust disco).
Friday, 7/6:
We went on my idea and had our two families get going on the road at 9 to get to Silver Dollar City when it opened. We got there half an hour after it opened and immediately did Wildfire. Very short rollercoaster(1-1.5 minutes), but it has a huge drop at the start where you can't really breathe at all and it has lots of loops and corkscrews and the likes. It was awesome. Then we did Powder Keg. It does an electromagnetic start where you go 0-max speed in about 2 seconds. It was a little scary because all you had holding you in was this little waist strap. Like a thick foam seatbelt. It was a very fun one anyway though. Our party got separated unfortunately, so I was with Anna behind Kelsey and Melissa. After those rides, we did this "black diamond scary" ride called fire in the hole. It was basically a cart running around in the dark going past scenes of fire and some guy climbing into a hotel second story window yelling that he had no pants. At the end you get sprayed with water. It was a stupid ride. Stupid to the macks. So after lunch, Dad, Anna, Abagail, Kelsey, and I went to do "the giant swings." Dad finally got Kelsey to open up and talk, which she started doing more of. He gets the award there for his persistent talking. I guess I have just learned how to get him to stop. So the swings were fun. After that, Will and Dad went to go on the river ride there. The rest of us went to the small rides that we missed. Anna, Abagail, Kelsey, and I went on the ride we got cheated out of at the lightning the other day. It was pretty fun. In line in front of us, there were some ho girls around Kelsey and my age talking about how the cops "killed their fun when they tried to smuggle beer onto a beach back home." They were stupid. After that ride, Kelsey sat with mom and Melissa. Kathryn and Abagail went to do the swing rides. Anna and I went over to our favorite ride, the swinging pirate ship. We were mistaken though, because it did not go around all the way, it just got high up. The nazi instructor lady said no hands in the air, so we decided to be rebels. After that, we went on this other ride where it spins you around really fast and it shoved us to the outside, so my arm was a little sore for a while after I endured Anna being pushed against it for the duration of the ride. That night, there was more partyage at the pavillion. That night at the pavillion, there was an ant show with Uncle Tom and Dick in which they drowned ants then poured salt on them to bring them back to life. It was a cool show.
Saturday, 7/7:
On saturday, we went go-karting with Uncle John and his daughter Nicole. The carting was fun. There was a huge wooden structure on which to race. Anna, Kathryn and I formed an alliance to win all the races. It worked well. Bumping was not allowed, but everyone bumped a ton and nobody cared. On one of the rides, Abagail got T-boned and got whiplash and had to stop for the day. She recovered by the end of the day. After carting, I went to Uncle John's hotel to play tennis with him. I didn't have my camera, but what it was was the building where the pool was. The court was on the roof, up by the American flag. Very nice views and a unique experience, but it was 90 degrees in the shade, plus humidity, plus the roof of a building, plus tennis court meant it was over 100, maybe up to 110 degrees on the court. It was fun to play on though, even if our occasional spectators had to leave after they got too hot. That night at the pavillion, there was a scavenger hunt for the kids. Anna and I teamed up because we had been hanging out a lot. We won of course, being the only ones to get more than 15,000 points(we got 30,000). We almost got the whole list filled up. We used good finding methods, such as when looking for the rope, we went into the hotel and stole a rope from them. Anna still has it. It is her scavenging sash. Mine is this broken tape measurer. We dominated and that's all I can say. After that, everyone went to bed.
Sunday, 7/8:
We hung around the pavillion most of the day. In the middle of the day we hung around with different people and it wasn't too exciting. Lunch at Steak and Shake because I really had my mind set on going there. It was pretty much God's restaurant. If you ever see one, go into it without question. Dinner at the pavillion again was fun and everyone said goodbye because everyone left the following morning.
Monday, 7/9:
We decided to use our last day in the passes at Silver Dollar City to ride the rides one more times since we are never going back to the Midwest, God willing. We rode Wildfire again as well as Powder Keg. After that, dad went to get Will's glasses at the river ride, where I failed to mention he lost them back when they last went on them. We found them and called the Parry's who had left for Florida. We mailed them back later. We tried to get on Thunderation, but before we could get on, lightning in the area, everything closed. That ride is cursed. We decided to go to the car to hit the road. We barely made it before the rain just shot down in a wall. We dove into the car and no sooner did we, than we couldn't see out the windshield because it was so wet. Dad got the wipers going and we set off. We ate lunch at The Cracker Barrel, which had good food and random stuff. We made our flight in plenty of time and got home around midnight.
That's it for the trip. Pictures soon. A post about the week soon as well.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Quick post now so Oblivion can be played.
Well I am back from the Midwest. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was worse. The family reunion was very fun though. Meeting all the cool people was fun, but the midwest itself as a region.....been there, done that. I will give the play by play post sometime soon here, but not now because I really want to start up Oblivion. I will also be posting pictures, but I have no idea when exactly because I am going to be using not only mine, mom's, and Kathryn's, but I will also be using some pictures Melissa took because I liked a lot of them that I saw. It's up to her when she puts them on though, but I expect she will soon, so pictures are coming eventually. The play by play will be within the next couple of days, maybe later today if I feel like it. To tide you over, here are some differences about the midwest.
1. There are a lot of African Americans there. I was a minority about half the time.
2. For some reason or another, it is incredibly humid over there. I do not lie. The humidity adds about 10 degrees to the actual temperature. Memphis had the worst humidity.
3. When it rains it pours. It doesn't rain too often, but when it does, it comes without warning and pwns everything in its path.
4. It is very boring.
5. People smoke everywhere.
6. The highways are very straight.
7. Along the highways, billboards are common. I saw so many funny ones and funny religious ones. I wanted to take pictures of them all, but many caught me off guard, being mostly surrounded by trees until it was too late to realize what it said.
8. People seem to think that the Confederate States of America exist.
9. Rednecks portrayed it movies are not stereotypical. That's how they really are.
10. Did I mention it was unbearably hot and humid already?
1. There are a lot of African Americans there. I was a minority about half the time.
2. For some reason or another, it is incredibly humid over there. I do not lie. The humidity adds about 10 degrees to the actual temperature. Memphis had the worst humidity.
3. When it rains it pours. It doesn't rain too often, but when it does, it comes without warning and pwns everything in its path.
4. It is very boring.
5. People smoke everywhere.
6. The highways are very straight.
7. Along the highways, billboards are common. I saw so many funny ones and funny religious ones. I wanted to take pictures of them all, but many caught me off guard, being mostly surrounded by trees until it was too late to realize what it said.
8. People seem to think that the Confederate States of America exist.
9. Rednecks portrayed it movies are not stereotypical. That's how they really are.
10. Did I mention it was unbearably hot and humid already?
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