The largest museum in the world.......

I took my parents and my grandpa over to wander through the Smithsonian Institute. We drove down the 30 or so miles to the edge of Washington D.C. and then took the subway from the beltway down to the Smithsonian Institute. Grandpa had never been on a subway before. In addition, we were heading down to DC on a Saturday, so it would be very difficult to find a parking spot anywhere in the city, so the train is always a great alternative in that case.

We exited the subway and headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Found some really cool stuff over there. Upon entering the museum's main entrance, you immediately see a large flag in front of you. After reading the information, we figured out that the flag was the same flag that was hung from the Pentagon for several months following the 9/11 attack. Large flags with some obvious black marks from when it hung over damaged portions of the Pentagon.



Next, we moved on and saw a few more exhibits related to the 9/11 attacks. They had a couple of large steel girders from the World Trade Center.......





Also, there was a box where an actual airphone from Flight 93 (the flight that crashed in Pennslyvania) was displayed. In addition, there was a photo ID from someone at the Pentagon that was found in the clean-up afterwards......



The museum also had a lot of presidential exhibits. Some really neat stuff from all of the presidents. Here's a picture of an outfit actually worn by George Washington.....



My personal favorite was an exhibit of some Lincoln artifacts. In the picture below, you can see the top hat that Abraham Lincoln was wearing the night he went to Ford Theater in 1865. He was assassinated that night. Next to the hat, you can see the actual death mask of Abraham Lincoln that was made following his death. It's amazing to see exactly what he looked like upon his death......



They also have some exhibits from the modern era. Below is a familiar face.....



After we finished up at the American History museum, we walked over to the Air & Space museum. Lots of things to see there. In the next picture, you can see Spaceship One. It was the first commercial aircraft to reach space. It did that early last year.



Next is a couple of the old rockets used by early Russian cosmonauts.......



Finally, what many consider the crown jewel of the Air and Space Museum, the Spirit of St. Louis. It's the airplane that Charles Lindbergh used for many of his historic, record-setting flights.



The sad part of this whole situation? We only saw roughly 15-20% of the museums at the Smithsonian Institute. For those that decide to come out, you could take an entire week just to tour all of the museums. Amazing stuff.

A reason to go to the Lake of the Ozarks.......

It appears that my sister and her hubby have decided to make a small investment in the lake area. Here's a hint......

"Powered by twin 502 Crusader engines (390 hp each) with 650 hours. (3) separate sleeping areas in this midcabin layout. Boat is built on a 13'6" beam which offers a tremendous amount of room. Fully loaded with extras including generator, reverse cycle heat & a/c, electric windlass, spotlight, trim tabs, and much more."

Yeah, that's no ordinary aluminum fishing boat we're talking about here. It's a 37 foot boat with a full living quarters under the front end of the boat. That's just insane. I believe my sister should just sell the house and move onto the boat. Cheap living with instant transportation to any boat dock that the Lake of the Ozarks offers.

In case the description doesn't help you out, here's some photos to bring it all into focus.

Here's a picture of the exterior of the boat......




A couple of views of the captain's seat (likely to be occupied by my favorite brother-in-law)........





Here's 3 pictures of the kitchen area. Seriously, if I had a dime for every time I was out on the lake and thought "Man, I could really use a microwave oven right now!", I'd be a rich man by now! Thank God that I won't have that unfulfilled dream anymore when I boat with my sister!







A couple of shots of the engines (as you saw before, enough horsepower on just one of these engines to run most boats).......



And of course, everyone needs a nice couch to sit on when hanging out on the lake.....



A couple of benches outside for general sunbathing and public displays of affection.........





It also appears that in an effort to slow the lake from turning any more yellow than it already is (especially in the 'Party Cove' area), they are now installing toilets on boats. How environmentally friendly of them!!!!



Also, everyone needs a boat with a good shower on it to wash off after swimming in 'Party Cove'........



And for those who need to relax a bit, we have the master bedroom in the front of the bow.........

Never fear. I'm sure we'll find a fault with this boat at some point in time. Right now, I can't seem to find any faults.

The great underwear mystery.....

I'm the one that does the laundry in this relationship. I had a few rough spots early in the marriage where I shrunk a few of Mrs. Lime's clothes down to a kid's size, but we've worked out the kinks in the system now to the point where I haven't ruined clothes for quite some time now. Seems to work out well for both of us.

My usually thing is to save up the dirty laundry until I have at least 4-5 loads of dirty clothes. I wash and dry the clothes in the machines and then take the clothes and dump them on the bed for eventual folding. We start working our way through the piles, folding our own clothes and tossing the other person's clothes to the other side of the bed. The other night, we were folding up clothes before going to bed. At one point, Mrs. Lime got this puzzled look on her face.

"That's weird", she said.

"What's weird?", I asked her, hoping to get involved with this great mystery that was unfolding (pun intended).

"These aren't my underwear", she stated and held up a black women's underwear. I could see the tag and could easily see the size.

I said, "Don't you wear that size?".

She replied, "Yes, but these aren't my underwear. I don't buy this style of panties".

Well, alarm bells immediately go off in my head. She's giving me a one-time chance to bail the water out of my boat in a big hurry before she puts three more holes in the boat. I obviously would never cheat on my wife ever, but I can certainly understand why a pair of women's underwear that shows up in our laundry that doesn't belong to her might make here at least inquire as to where they came from.

Never fear, I had an excellent response to quell any fears she might have. I quickly replied, "Well, honey. I don't wear that kind of underwear either!".

Thank God I was able to think of a such an airtight response. Alas, she has no fears concerning any relationship issues, but we still didn't figure out where the underwear came from.

If anyone is missing black women's underwear, please let us know. We threw it away but are still trying to connect the dots. Thanks.

The happiest dessert joint you'll ever visit.......

Mrs. Lime and I headed out to Little Italy in Baltimore. It's just like any other Little 'insert country here' in every town across the U.S.A. It's an area about 4 blocks square where there are a ton of Italian restaurants. I'm sure there is some basis regarding immigration as to why this area is 'Little Italy', but I don't know the full story.

Anyway, there's a place called Vaccarro's that serves desserts that are very well known. Every form of dessert you could think of is served in this place. Obviously, they also serve enormous portions of the dessert, so it's not a good idea to go to this place on a full stomach. I had some lemon Italian ice and Mrs. Lime had some form of Italian pastry (I'm not real good at remember what shape of bread is called what) which she obviously enjoyed as it disappeared quite quickly.

There were approximately 30 people in the upstairs dining room with us. Everything was relatively quiet other than the occasional noise from a kid when a new group of 6 people showed up. I believe they were 3 couples out for a night together. Very quickly, we started hearing this noise that was evidently a laugh of some sort. It started like a siren sound going upward in tone, then followed by a few hiccup or 'ha' sounds and then another siren sound going down in tone. I started chuckling because it sounded so goofy. Mrs. Lime chastised me for laughing, saying she thought that the woman may be mentally disabled and that I shouldn't laugh at that. After a couple more minutes of the same sound except increasing in volume and tone, it was pretty evident to both of us that it was a drunk rather than a disabled person. She had evidently got some form of the giggles while being drunk resulting in a crazy sounding laugh that ended up more like a tornado siren with several "ha's" stuck in between.

The funniest part of the situation was that as you looked around, it became quite evident that all the other tables were having the same conversations and revalations concerning the laughing. Lots of confusions as to what was happening followed by chuckles when they realized that she was simply drunk with the giggles. At some point, she couldn't control her laughter and was making her siren sound in full effect. Everyone in the room began to laugh hysterically. I saw two waitresses who were literally bent over at the waist laughing. Mrs. Lime and I were looking at each other and both of us were crying heavily because we were laughing so hard. Another family with two parents and several kids were all laughing and a couple of the kids had their head buried in their hands trying to cover their laughter. The guy who was seating people came over to ask the lady if everything was OK. This only started a new round of 'tornado siren' laughter. Everyone in the room literally laughed out loud for 2+ minutes without stopping. The people in the downstairs room I'm sure must have wondered what in the hell was going on upstairs.

We managed to calm ourselves to the point where we could finish our desserts. As we left, the man who was seating people apologized to us for the laughter situation. Mrs. Lime simply replied that she didn't mind and actually enjoyed it. We laughed one more time over her comment and headed home.

Temporary home.......

As I was driving back from Washington D.C. after attending a basketball all-star game, I headed down Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway in Baltimore. The streets were still relatively busy.

I pulled up to a stop light and stopped to wait for the light to change. I must admit that I have a general personal rule that I don't look at other people in cars around me. Not sure why that is, but I just never get anything out of gawking at other people around me. If anything, you end up getting a stare back from someone you don't know wondering why in the world you're staring at them.

For some reason, I looked over at the car to my left while sitting at the stop light. The people in the car were not looking back, so they didn't notice my brief look. When I looked over, I saw the passenger in the car holding a .44 Magnum. He was clicking the trigger over and over, so it obviously wasn't loaded. He was pointing it out of his front windshield at the car in front of him. I didn't bother to look for more than a split second for quite obvious reasons. I also left in a big hurry as soon as the light turned green. No need to wait to see if he knew how to load it.

A few thoughts:

1) That will most definitely be the last time I violate my personal rule of not looking at people in the cars around me at a stop light.

2) I'm really glad that the people in the car in front of him didn't look in their rear-view mirror at the time he was pointing the empty gun at them. It could have got messy in a real hurry.

3) The vast majority of people living in that area and Baltimore in general are good people. It's a shame that a few idiots make it such a tough town.

4) While there are certainly some bad apples in Kansas City, I believe that I'll take my chances back in Missouri or Kansas over Maryland any day. There are some wonderful people in this area and some wonderful things to see, but high levels of drug use and poverty are a recipe for disaster.

Off to see the Cherry Blossoms......

I drove down with my parents and my grandfather to see the cherry blossom trees down in Washington D.C. I decided to add in a brief history link for those that might be interested in the origins of the Cherry Blossom Trees.

http://www.nps.gov/nacc/cherry/history.htm

We parked near the Jefferson monument and walked over towards some of the cherry blossom trees. Here's a sample of some of the trees that we saw........





We walked around the tidal pool and checked out lots of cherry blossom trees (and the tourists that were viewing the trees. I caught a funny moment in this picture. These parents were doing everything they could to get their kid to pay attention to the camera. Notice mom with the ball in her hand trying to get the kid's attention.



Next, we headed down the edge of the tidal pool to see some of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. It was just opened within the past few years. The memorial is actually divided into 4 separate sections, one section for each of his terms in office. There's some really neat bronze sculptures in the memorial.










After we finished up at the FDR memorial, we continued around the tidal pool to the Jefferson Memorial. I've been there before. It's a really well done memorial. It has 4 different writings of Jefferson on each of the 4 walls. In between each of the walls are openings to the outside that are bordered by white columns. In the middle, a large statue of Jefferson stands holding a manuscript. The roof is a large, white domed ceiling.








From the Jefferson Memorial area, there's an excellent view of the Washington Monument across the tidal pool. The tidal pool becomes a reflecting pool from this viewpoint.




As we were headed back to the car, I noticed a memorial off to the side. We looked down to see that it was a memorial to George Mason! Here's a picture of the memorial.....



Oh, wait. It appears I've made a mistake. It wasn't a memorial commemorating George Mason University and their 2006 run to the Final Four. It appears that George Mason was an important leader in the development of our country. Here's a brief write-up of his contributions (George Mason) and here's a picture of his statue in the garden.





A nice sunset to finish the day just as we headed off to the car. Note that the waterway in the foreground of these pictures is the Potomic River.

Another new link added.......

I've added another link that's listed as 'Michael Yon's War Blog'. The blog is done by a well-respected journalist who has stayed in Iraq twice for months at a time. He has just started reposting on a regular basis because he just arrived in Afghanistan. It's quite intriguing because he is actually going into some of the northern regions of Afghanistan where tribal warlords still run the show. He's risking his life to go in these areas and report about the current status of some of these areas.

Click on the link to his dispatches to read about his current trip. Amazing stuff.

Really busy right now......

Man, I haven't been able to write much at all over the past week. I probably won't get to do so today either. I've got a ton of pictures from a trip down to Washington D.C., but those probably won't get put up for a day or two. I took yesterday as a sick day and just got a bunch of stuff done.

My main achievement was to do my taxes. I put them off until now because I knew that we wouldn't get a refund, so why bother to complete it any sooner than you have to do so. This year's tax returns were quite complicated from the standpoint that I had to actually file the federal tax return plus 3 state returns. Thankfully, I had TaxSlayer (http://www.taxslayer.com) to assist me in my tax filing. All automated and easy to use. I've found that it's very good at helping you identify anything that might be a deduction. I managed to squeak out $19,000 in deductions. It didn't earn me a refund, but it certainly limited the amount of taxes that I owed by quite a bit. Only $10 to e-File your return on TaxSlayer. Definitely a good deal.

I'm heading off to the 33rd anual Capital Classic at George Washington University tonight. It's a big time high school all-star basketball game. Lots of NBA scouts and college coaches will be at this game. Recruits playing in the game are going to places like Florida, Georgetown, North Carolina, Villanova, etc. I've got VIP passes, so I'll be pretty close to the action. Hope to have some good pictures of some stars of the future along with some faces you college fans might recognize. Should be fun.

Took the family to Camden Yards.........

Let's make one thing perfectly clear about the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. These people do not like each other. 40,000 people at the game. It was roughly a 50/50 split amongst the fans.

I sat with my family in the LF seats about 5 rows up. Fair warning to all: Do not try to eat food in the LF bleachers at Camden Yards during batting practice. It's kind of like a 1 hour snowball fight where only one side is throwing snowballs. We sat 5 rows back from the outfield fence. We had to keep our heads up the entire time. My grandfather actually had one ball headed directly for him. Thankfully, the guy standing in the row in front of us got his hands on the ball and deflected the ball to the side.

One very large Boston fan (375+ lbs.) started running some smack after the Red Sox took the lead. That wasn't taken well by the Baltimore fans. One guy fired off 'The buffet's behind section 70, buddy!'. Another guy said, 'I'm surprised you could even stand to talk that smack!'. A third guy said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, the 2006 Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Champion!'. I'm ashamed that I chuckled at the last one. The fans did unite together in an occasional 'Yankees suck!' chant when the proceedings got a bit slow.

If you get a chance to come to Camden Yards, be sure to go see the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum and the Sports Legends Museum (combo ticket runs about $13.00). Well worth it. A lot of great stuff. My favorite part was a display where you could actually handle bats used by Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken and compare the bats from the different eras.

Back to the grind........

Monday morning. Back to the daily grind. My parents were in town for an extended weekend, so I didn't get to post much while they were in town. I have lots of pictures from the weekend to put up along with a couple of blogs. Should be doing that sometime today.

Accidental humor.........

So my parents are coming into town and staying for the weekend. I set up a rental car reservation for my parents.

I called my dad to give him the reservation number. I told him to get pen and paper to write down the car confirmation number. He gets pen and paper and I read off the reservation number.

"It's D1234567", I said. "I got you the standard model and you can adjust as you see fit when you get there".

"OK", says Dad.

I then said, "Alright Dad, and here's the address. It's at the Marriott Inner Harbor, 110 Eutaw Street."

Dad replies, "And what was this for again?"

At this point, I realize that the thought has creeped into my father's head that I might be dumping my parents at a hotel instead of them staying with us at the house or something to that effect. I quickly rake my brain for something good to say at the time like, 'That's the hotel we're making you stay at while you're out here'. Instead, I simply say, "That's the place where you pick up the rental car. It's located at a hotel."

I believe I'll be going to hell in gasoline underpants for finding this unintended moment amusing.

FYI.....I added a new link to my favorites......

I added a link to the Cassini space probe website in my favorites. Every day, they update the site with new pictures and new findings.

They have already made a couple of major findings. They have found geothermal activity on one of Saturn's moons that actually produces enormous geysers of water that obviously quickly freeze (you can see the geysers actually spraying out in the photo I've added above). They believe that some of the ring material surrounding Saturn is replenished by the ice produced by this moon.

Also, in just the past few days, they have found evidence that a lot of the ring material may actually be a former moon that was smashed to pieces by a comet or meteorite. The resulting material, ranging in size from less than an inch to the size of a car, remained in orbit around Saturn and is still there to this day. Really cool stuff.

Endless entertainment.......

Last night, I was on the tredmill just starting a workout. Casanova was inside with me and Jenny, the other dog, was outside running around the frontyard. Over the noise of the tredmill, I thought I heard a noise but didn't think much of it. I noticed that Casanova began to run around the house in circles. That's a big indicator that something's up. I stopped the tredmill to see what Casanova needed. Immediately after that, I heard a large thunder clap. Casanova absolutely dreads thunder, so he was pretty wound up at the time. I then remembered that Jenny was still outside.

I went to the front door and looked out. It was pouring down rain with some hail and the wind was at least 40 MPH. I yelled out to Jenny to come inside. She was around on the side of the house which can't be seen from the front door. After a moment, she jogged around the end of the house, acting like nothing was amiss. The funny part was that the wind was blowing perpendicular to her path to the door. So she kept getting blown off-course by the wind to the point where she was struggling to make it to the door. The best way I can describe it is that she looked like she was drunk. But it didn't seem to bother her a bit. She eventually got to the door and laid down for a nap.

I later turned on the TV and realized we were in a tornado watch. She's lucky she didn't pull a Toto and just get sucked right into the clouds.

The vicious dogs strike again.......

Word is going to get around the neighborhood now. I can hear the neighborhood dogs barking and communicating to one another as we speak. We have a second 'small dogs meets large dogs' incident.

I went to the front door to let out our dogs. Between the two of them, they have a net weight in the 165-170 lb. range. I opened the door without looking, but judging from their excitement I should have known something was up. After I opened the door I realized that two poodles were being walked by their owners on the sidewalk. My dogs made a growling and barking run right towards the dogs walking by. There is, of course, a fence that will keep my dogs in the yard. But that was of little matter to the two poodles.

Both of the poodles took off running down the sidewalk like their life depended on it. They pulled the leashes right out of their owners' hands. They didn't stop running until they were one house down the block. Evidently, the poodles felt pretty sure that they couldn't become dinner to a large dog at that point. Both of the owners shot me a glare. I said sorry, but they said nothing. It appears we are becoming the outlaws of the neighborhood in only two days' time.

I'm taking in a NASCAR race today.......

Watching NASCAR today in HDTV. Nothing like seeing a bunch of drivers run each other off the road. I've finally figured out why NASCAR is so popular out here on the east coast. It would appear that the citizens of Baltimore learn how to drive by watching these races. Lots of bumping and cutting people off. I kid you not.....Baltimore must have the highest number of cars per capita that have scratches, dented fenders, dented panels, etc. Rush hour in Baltimore often looks like Daytona. A large, chain-reaction crash is inevitable.

Mrs. Lime and her sister are off to KC for a couple of days, so I will be holding down the fort with the two dogs. Hope to get a bit of cleaning done in the process. Casanova (our 90 lb. dog) scared the hell out of an old lady and her 7 lb. dog today. I let Nova out of the car after taking Mrs. Lime to the airport. Nova immediately turned to walk toward the street. He saw the little dog and the lady and took off to meet his new friends. Of course, the old lady and her dog didn't see a friend heading toward them.....they saw a monstrous dog that would probably eat them both. The old lady screamed out a couple of NO's before she heard me saying that he was friendly. Nonetheless, I don't think either of them were sold, but I did save Nova from getting kicked by a foot or something else. I was laughing inside but sympathizing with her on the outside.

April Fools Day....the best day of the year......

In late August, 1994, my sister set me up on a blind date with a girl that worked with her as a lifeguard at a local water park. We went out on our first date a few days later after talking on the phone. I went over to pick up my date and, as I know now is commonplace, she wasn't quite ready. So, her father sat down with me to introduce himself. He was an alumni of the college that I was currently attending and a member of a rival fraternity to my fraternity. His first question of me was, "So, do you know anything about the reported date rape in a college fraternity house?".

We talked for a few minutes with the questions becoming easier from that point on. Eventually, my date came down and we headed off on a whirlwind of a date. As is so often the case with me, I never seem to figure out one great thing to do on a date, so I tend to just do a lot of things hoping that some of them might be fun. I remember dinner somewhere, a movie and mini-golf. We both had a good time, but it didn't really seem to click from a romantic standpoint.

Thankfully, we stuck with it and let the relationship develop. Nearly 6 years later, we got married on April 1, 2000. Now 6 years later, we're still happily married. Also, because April Fool's Day falls on a Saturday, thousands of people are getting married today on the same day we got married. I hope that all of them were as lucky as me to find the best wife a guy could ever ask for.