Always An Adventure With That Susie

We've been seeing a lot of Susie lately. I gotta say, they never disappoint. Always come home with a story when those two are involved.

This was the night that we accidentally had dinner at a Mexican biker bar and all had diarrhea the next day.

Yuula going buck crazy on a balloon while the girls take 5 hours to buy 3 pairs of pants.

Learning to eat lo mein like a lady.

Hey! Exciting Yes (Not Boring) WooHoo!!

Yesterday started out as a normal day. We had a few errands to run and really didn't expect anything adventurous.

Laura & I left the house with some recycling to drop off. The recycling station lies in the middle of a large cornfield. We never thought anything of it. We dragged some plastic bottles to one dumpster. A bundle or two of broken down cardboard to another. We were about ready to hop back in our car when we heard the faint buzzing of a single engine cessna and it was coming right at us! We took off into the cornfield, narrowly escaping its machine gun fire. Weird huh?



Then we went off to Laura's ultrasound. Just a quick checkup but we could never be prepared for what we found out. The nurse was just starting the checkup when she suddenly shrieked and ran out of the room. She locked the door behind her and we were stuck. We looked up at the screen and this is what we saw...



Then we started to smell smoke and sure enough moments later some grey smoke started to seep under the door of our exam room. The nurse had lit the offices on fire! We had to escape to save ourselves and our little alien. But how?! I used my brute force to break down the door and Laura I just barely avoided the inferno that was climbing up the walls. The heat was unbearable and the building was coming down around us. Another too close for comfort. I sure hope they refund our copayment.



We got back on 33 and headed back towards home knowing we had to make one more stop at the grocer. The highway was pretty open considering it was around 3 in the afternoon, but all of the sudden we spotted a little green sportscar flying up from behind us. I mean this guy was trucking! Then all of the the sudden BANG! BANG! gunfire! At us. We floored it. Weaving in and out of traffic, taking the shoulder on occasion, and topping out around 120mph. Don't worry Dad we had our seatbelts on. After jumping a few curbs and a little off-roading, we managed to run him into the embankment and get away without any scars. Phew.



We finally got to the grocer and we started filling our shopping carts with all sort of goodies. We got to the cereal aisle when all of the sudden the power went out in the building and it was dark. Some faint emergency lighting flickered on and off and we thought after the day we had we should just get out of here and head home, but we'd come so far and didn't want to leave this beautifully stocked cart behind so decided to stay. But that's when we heard the rumbling. We looked down the aisle and there it was. A giant boulder barreling down on us! We grabbed what food we could and ran down the aisle, Lucky Charms flying everywhere! We crashed out the front window of the store and jumped in the car. As we drove away we saw the building go up in a humongous explosion. Just in the nick of time.



We got home, thinking our adventure was over, exhausted and ready for some rest. We saw the cats gathered in the backyard all staring in the same direction. Odd behavior for these guys who are usually asleep or eating. We thought they must've caught a mole or a bird or something. We thought there could be no harm in checking it out...

Trans World Expedition

A "year of living dangerously" his website calls it. A little pretentious but he is referring to his attempt at driving around the world in a Toyota Land Cruiser and when I say "he" I mean French born Associated Press arts director Nicolas Rapp. It's an admirable feat, one I myself, if circumstances were different and I could walk away from my life for a year with no repercussions and had an extra $50 grand laying around to blow, would consider seriously. I'd love to see the world and all it has in it. Don't know if I'd make such a big deal out of it, making myself out to be a pioneer on the "last true adventure left on Earth". Yeah, he said that one too.

Ok, so he'll be leaving NYC sometime between Nov. 2 when he quits his job and Nov. 15. He'll be heading down thru the southeastern US and into Central America, where he'll ship his car and catch a plane to Colombia. Then drive down western South America and then catch another boat to South Africa. Up thru Angola & Nigeria then across into Spain, hugging the Mediterranean into Turkey. From there he hopes to be able to avoid issues crossing the border into Iran and use military escorts thru Pakistan. Next comes India, Bangladesh & Myanmar, which he'll probably fly over, and then comes friendly Thailand, after which he'll skirt between Malaysia & Indonesia onto the west coast of the US, arguable the most dangerous place he'll visit.

If you ask me he's missing ALOT. If I were to take myself across the world in a car I sure as hell would miss ALL of northern Europe, not to mention Japan, Alaska and most of Canada, some of the prettiest places to drive. He is driving after all and not just collecting frequent flier miles.

I guess you can call it living dangerously. I mean, he will be traveling thru areas heavy with violent crimes, the yellow fever, religious tension, political kidnapping, cholera, not to mention how most everyone outside of the US doesn't have Americans at the top of their cute & cuddly list.

But all his fame & glory-hounding aside it is a very cool thing to be doing. He'll probably die somewhere along the way, which will be sad but it is an "adventure" now isn't it. I wish for a simpler time when trips around the world actually meant something and weren't a commercial or a reality show waiting to happen. But don't get me wrong, if anyone were to ever hand me $50 grand to send myself on a trip around the world, I'd do it. I probably wouldn't contact the world media before I did so, but I'd go.

I'm In With Deer

Had lunch with Fran on a break yesterday. Headed back to the school past a big vacant soccer field. Light rain fell. Four young deer fed on the grass. I sensed a photo opportunity. I headed out towards the back of the fields. The deer were busy. I got closer and they snapped their heads. I squatted and tried a few shots. Blurry and wet. I too was wet. I turned to head for the car and spotted a fifth deer. Between me and my vehicle. I was between him and the other deer. We were close. Maybe 20 feet. He moved toward me. He was big. Just a few steps. So I took a step toward him. He didn't flinch. Another slow step, each. And another. I was a little nervous. But he stood straight and took another step. We went back and forth, trading strides til we were about five feet away. Then he grew tired of me and continued to gnaw on grass. I readied my camera.

This is an undoctored, un-zoomed photo of my deer experience.