Well.... It's over!

I had my root canal done this morning at 10:30 Am. I was out of there by 12PM. It was pretty painless. Now I get to drive to Manchester, NH tonight and tomorrow... I fly out to Indianapolis to spend Wed and Thurs with Emily for her birthday. 3/1 for those who didn't know.

Em, has many activities planned for the trip and I look forward to them, now that my tooth isn't hurting.

Further updates to follow on Friday.

J

GRUMPY BASTARD!

So, Friday night I started with a toothache. On Saturday it was worse in the morning, so I went to Walmart to get Anbesol and Advil to help with the pain. On Sat evening when I was talking with Emily, the pain started going away and I thought I was over it. Well, I woke up around 6AM on Sunday to find my face all swollen up like in the picture. I hopped in the shower and headed to the hospital. I was prescribed Penicillen and needed to see a dentist.

Well, it's Monday and I just got back from the dentists office. My original root canal has failed and need to have it redone. UGGGHH!!! So, tomorrow at 10:30AM, I am having root canal again! :-( The good news is, I'll be able to travel on Wed and Thurs without pain.

I'll give you guys an update after tomorrows procedure.

J

My Trip to PA and West Virginia - Long Update

I left for PA on Valentine's Day, just after 4 PM. I drove as far as the first rest stop in New York on I-84. It was around 11:30PM when I stopped. I folded the rear seats of my truck down, filled up my therm-a-rest, and rolled out my sleeping bag. Emily made the last 1.5 hours of driving fly by, by keeping me awake on the phone. I woke up around 7:00AM on Wed, and got everything packed up and ready for travel again. My first stop was gas and breakfast in Montgomery, NY. Who know's what's in Montgomery? ooh, ohh! Orange County Choppers. I drove by the shop around 7:30 in the morning, snapped some pictures and saw Paul Jr. on a smoke break. I ended up driving over to him and talked with him for 5 minutes and also got an autograph. See Pics below. From there, I went to the store and bought a t-shirt and scooped out all of the bikes.




I rolled into Reading around 1 PM in the afternoon. The afternoon was relaxing, went and got the car washed and checked out all of the new crap in the area. New strip malls want to make me vomit. I had dinner with Mom around 5 PM and then headed into the city. The old Rajah Theater is now the Sovereign Performing Arts Center. I was there to see INXS perform. I realized that it had been 20 years since I had seen there first concert. I am getting old. JD was an excellent choice for the lead singer. He pulled the old stuff off as good as Michael Hutchens did. I got home from there around 11:30PM. On Thursday, Mom and I drove to NJ to visit my grandparents there. It was a short, but nice visit. Dad, Kyle, and I went out for dinner on Thurday night.

Friday mornning, I started my next adventure towards West Viriginia. Emily and I decided to meet halfway to have a long weekend together. I arrived at the hotel in St. Clairsville, OH around 12 PM. Some past thoughts of this place.... I stayed at that Red Roof Inn, and I learned how to drive stickshift in that Mall parking lot. Em and I had a great weekend away! Some activities included bowling, going to Cabela's, visiting the Artisan Center in Wheeling, The Burial Mound in Moundsville along with the old prison. See pics below...



Yesterday, I made the 15 hour drive home and I'm back at work today.

8th Annual Banff Party Weekend was a complete success!

We had a group of over 20 both nights of the event. Let's go back... Friday night was the annual party at Mike and Lynne's house. It was a blast since most people got into town early evening. We partied well into the late night hours.

On Saturday, Mike got up and cooked breakfast for everyone and at high noon, the poker game started. I wasn't there for this part as I had to be a work most of the day. :-( We left for the festival at 6PM and got good seats. Here is the opener that they used for this year. The music is a rush! LINKY. Saturday night was cultural night. Some of the movies included:

Balancing Point
Becoming a Man in Siberia
Charles, Edouard ou le temps suspendu
Hockey Night… in Ladakh
The Khumbu Mighty-Mites
The Lost People of Mountain Village

Sunday, was another day of breakfast at Mike and Lynne's. From there we went and did our outdoor activity. We hiked around Great Head in Acadia National Park. A good hike with some dangerous stretches, especially in a blizzard. All survived. After that our group went to China Hill for feast before the films. Sunday nights movies were sports related. Some of the movies included:

Middle Kaweah
Person as Projectile
Praszczur (Grandpa)
Solilochairliftquist
The Tangerine Dream [short]

I must say that all of the films were fantastic. Our group is actually going to make a documentary on our annual ritual to submit for next years competition.

Sand dollars at Ames Cove

BLOG UPDATE: I have enabled the comments portion on this site. Feel free to leave any comments.

Well, it's been a fun week so far... Poker was cancelled on Tuesday, I've been fighting a cold, and works been busy.

So the next couple of weeks are going to be fun and busy too. I have to work most of this weekend. Oh, well the time adds up for when I take vacation in 2 weeks.

Next weekend is the 10th annual Banff Mountain Film Festival in Ellsworth. You should check it out! Most of the crowd from New Year's will be here for this show.

On Wednesday, the 15th, Jack and I leave for PA. Jack will need a drive from PA to Baltimore since I will be going to the INXS concert that evening. This will be awesome... INXS is the first band that I ever saw in concert back in 1986. While in PA, I will go to NJ to visit Poppy and Lucille and then on the 17th, I head to Wheeling, WV to have a weekend get-a-way with Emily. I drive home to Reading on the 19th and then drive back to ME on the 20th.

So, that sums up the next couple of weeks... I'll be sure to throw some other updates in there.