Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Random Photo of the Day
I shot this at Ghost Town in the Sky in Maggie Valley. It's a small clown/jester/person/something on the handle of a popcorn maker. It looked like it hadn't been used for a long time.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Dunkin' Doofuses
(AP Photo/Dunkin' Donuts)
Dunkin' Donuts pulled this online ad featuring Rachel Ray because people were complaining that her scarf looked too much like a kaffiyeh, a traditional Arab headdress that has come to be associated with radical Muslims such as Yasser Arafat and other extremists considered to be terrorists.The critics said the scarf showed symbolic support for these Muslim extremists and terrorists.
Said Ray's stylist who selected the paisley scarf: "I just thought it was pretty."
Just kidding. I don't know what s/he said. But Dunkin' Donuts said they pulled the ad because "the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."
Get a grip people. It's just a scarf.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Off We Go Into the... WHOOPS!
This has got to be one of the most embarassing things I've ever seen.
I only post it here because the cadet (now first lieutenant) is unidentified and shall remain so to the majority of the world unless he (looks to be a he) admits to being this unfortunate firstie. 
President Bush reacts after an unidentified graduate slips on a rain slicked walkway during the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony, Wednesday, May 28, 2008, in Colorado Springs, Colo. The graduate was unhurt. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend with the Peeps
My mom and dad came to visit me from Texas.
They made a two-week road trip, stopping to visit friends and family along the way. They spent Thursday evening through Monday morning here in Waynesville.
It was so good to have them here. We enjoyed walking around doing a little sightseeing. I had hoped to take them to the Biltmore House, but there were no complimentary tickets available for this holiday weekend, and I couldn't see spending over $120 to see it.
But we still had fun.
Thursday evening we had dinner at The Sweet Onion, sort of a disappointing dining experience. The food was a'ight, but the service was sub-par. Then we stretched our legs a little on Main Street.
On Friday, (when I finally got off work) we headed to Asheville to wander around Biltmore Village, read: lots of expensive shops with overpriced stuff. But I did find one little shop that I had been looking for since they moved from the Grove Arcade. It's called Chef Cargo, and it has great stuff for the kitchen. I had to pick up a new coffee press since I broke the last one. Those things don't seem to last very long. That's the third one we've had to buy in probably the last three years and the last one was only a year old.
Anyway, later that evening we went to see an Asheville Tourists game. The game wasn't that great, but it was a beautiful night for a game. The Tourists lost in the 11th inning to the Rome Braves.
On Saturday, we headed to Maggie Valley to check out Vettes in the Valley. I think mom and dad really enjoyed this. There were a ton of cars.
They made a two-week road trip, stopping to visit friends and family along the way. They spent Thursday evening through Monday morning here in Waynesville.
It was so good to have them here. We enjoyed walking around doing a little sightseeing. I had hoped to take them to the Biltmore House, but there were no complimentary tickets available for this holiday weekend, and I couldn't see spending over $120 to see it.
But we still had fun.
Thursday evening we had dinner at The Sweet Onion, sort of a disappointing dining experience. The food was a'ight, but the service was sub-par. Then we stretched our legs a little on Main Street.
On Friday, (when I finally got off work) we headed to Asheville to wander around Biltmore Village, read: lots of expensive shops with overpriced stuff. But I did find one little shop that I had been looking for since they moved from the Grove Arcade. It's called Chef Cargo, and it has great stuff for the kitchen. I had to pick up a new coffee press since I broke the last one. Those things don't seem to last very long. That's the third one we've had to buy in probably the last three years and the last one was only a year old.
Anyway, later that evening we went to see an Asheville Tourists game. The game wasn't that great, but it was a beautiful night for a game. The Tourists lost in the 11th inning to the Rome Braves.
On Saturday, we headed to Maggie Valley to check out Vettes in the Valley. I think mom and dad really enjoyed this. There were a ton of cars.
Here's my dad remembering the one that got away. He once had an opportunity to have a 1958 Corvette and turned it down because there was no way he was going to have a Corvette in New York City. Oh well. 
Here's mom being totally unimpressed with a line of late model Corvette's. She likes the older cars from the 50s and 60s.
After the show, we went for breakfast at James Carver's Maggie Valley Restaurant, where you can have breakfast all day. My kind of place. Then we took the Blue Ridge Parkway from U.S. 19 to U.S. 23/74 and headed to Dillsboro to check out some more shops.
I bought mom one of those tree faces you see people putting on trees. Where else?
That evening we grilled some Deitz & Watson polska kielbasa. We were supposed to grill bratwurst, but that's what happens when you wait until Saturday evening Memorial Day weekend to go grocery shopping. After dinner we sat out by the fire pit and enjoyed a nice citified camp fire.
Sunday, I slept in a little before calling the peeps to come over. We went to Shoney's for breakfast before heading to Asheville to see a matinee of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Great movie. It was good to see Karen Allen to reprise her role as Marion Ravenwood.
After the movie, mom and dad bought us a lovely birdbath at Lowe's and then we went to Dairy Queen for a bit of ice cream.
The folks left early Monday morning for their journey back home and should be getting home about now, if they've not made it home already. I'm glad they came. I don't get to see them enough.
Now it's my sister's turn to visit.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Old and the Stupid
As I see it, Hillary Clinton supporters are primarily old women and dumb white guys.
Do we really want these people deciding who our next president will be? A bunch of old women who won't be around to see changes take place and a group of apathetic morons too stupid to notice?
And all the racists out there (closeted or otherwise) who say they'll vote for McCain if Obama wins his party's nomination just infuriate me. Are they really so ignorant/hateful that they would rather support a candidate who is turning out to be less and less of the maverick senator I once respected? A man who is still trying to figure out how much pandering to his party's ultra right wingers he can get away with without putting off Independent voters?
Ugh. This whole political process is sickening.
Do we really want these people deciding who our next president will be? A bunch of old women who won't be around to see changes take place and a group of apathetic morons too stupid to notice?
And all the racists out there (closeted or otherwise) who say they'll vote for McCain if Obama wins his party's nomination just infuriate me. Are they really so ignorant/hateful that they would rather support a candidate who is turning out to be less and less of the maverick senator I once respected? A man who is still trying to figure out how much pandering to his party's ultra right wingers he can get away with without putting off Independent voters?
Ugh. This whole political process is sickening.
