So, we started our trip in the monterey airport at 4am. Because of the time of year,
and the elevated saftey threat, we were advised to fly 2 hours early. What a bunch of BS, the front desk checker inner people dont even show up until 4:30, and of course our people were late. Oh well, I like getting little sleep the night before I fly, so I can sleep the whole way there. Note to readers: people do not enjoy getting their photographs taken at 4 am. ESPECIALLY people who barely tollerate it at a decent hour.So, we arrived in Nashville in the afternoon, the flight was uneventful, and our luggage arrived on time, as we did. Thats always a bonus. We only stayed a night, but I got to meet Christopher's grandparent who were very sweet.
His grandfather was funny as hell. I also got to meet their family's new dog jack, a rescued shitzu (or how ever you spell it), who has recently undergone some serious surgery from being attacked by the neighbour's dog -- so jack is on his 3rd doggie life. We had a wonderful dinner out, where we saw Reba Macintyre the country singer. She has a house out that way, and looks exactly as she does on TV.So, left to right in this picture are the grandparents, Christopher's mom, his twin, him, and in the front his step dad.
So the next day, we got into
Christopher's truck, and made our way to his dads house in South carolina. Jack decided he should drive.It was about a 9 hour drive to Christopher's dad and step mom's house, and other than a little rain, it was a nice drive. They have these GINORMOUS fireworks stores littered all over the highways out there. I mean, they are bigger than Cosco!
Seriously, can you believe this?
Its a far cry from buying bottle rockets out of the "bad kids" locker in Junior high, like most canadian kids are forced to do.There wasnt a ton to look at along the way, a few rolling hills that the locals probably call mountains, but are nothing but hills if you live near the rockies (as most of my fan bas
e does). I managed to pull off a nice shot of a lake that were zooming past at like 120kms. Its one one of the local "mountains" I was talking about.We made it to his dads house in one piece, and only with a tad of car trouble as we were arriving. Something about the gears, but as I dont know much about cars, and less about stick shifts, I will leave it at "car trouble".
We got in late, so late the furballs were all long asleep under the christmas tree.I snapped a few shots with my camera, but as some of you already know, one of my favorite things about going to Christopher's dads place is that i get to use his camera, so the next day he pulled it out for me, and I didnt use my camera one more time that trip. Very cool... he burned all my pics from his camera onto a disc, and of course now i cant find it anywhere, so all my pics from SC are lost.
I did however get one shot of Paddi's (c's step mom) brother's pugs. They were SO sweet... I wanted to take them home with me.I also got a picture of C and me, in my new shirt that his dad and Paddi got for me

Unfortunetly, thats all the shots i have from his dads place, too bad too cause its a cool house. They have a silo built into part of it, it was a real silo, and they redid the inside of it. We slept at the top of it the first few nights we were there. Its got a winding staircase to get to the top, and has a tin roof. It rained while we were there, and it sounded SO cool on the silo's tin roof. So, we stayed in SC for a few days, had a nice relaxing time, didnt do a whole hell of alot. Ate, shopped, and put a few puzzles together. That was fine with me. We headed back to nashville, where Christopher made me drive my first drive longer than 5 minutes not on a country back road. Yes, i learned how to drive stick on a highway going through what seemed alot more like mountains when IM driving. EEK. I drove for a couple of hours on the highway, then through part of the city, with lights and everything. I found it very stressful, but got us there without stalling. I was overly thankful when C said I could pull over and he would drive the rest of the way. I wouldnt have driven at all, but he pitched such a fit that i felt so bad i had to drive. We were at a gas station, where he announced your driving, and tried to get into the passanger seat. I didnt agree, and fought him for the passenger seat -- the whole while pleading "STOP.. your making a scene.. just DRIVE". Well, he won the wrestle, and beat me into the seat, so i just sat on his lap. He wasnt impressed - got out, and drove in silence for about an hour. Finally, like i said, i felt SO bad, i was forced to tell him i'd drive. And drive i did. SO we made it back to tennesse, stayed another night, had a very nice time. We went to the Opry mills hotel, which is HUGE.
They get all decorated with lights at christmas, and lots of people go. Its hard to see the hotel, but thats the front view of one of the buildings, with all the trees lit outside.
So, thats opry mills hotel. It was pretty. They sure do deck the halls there every year. Im glad I got a chance to see it.
So, we slept at his moms, house, woke up the next day, had a great breakfast prepared by debbie (Cs mom).. and then me, christopher, and his twin brother blake hit the road. Little did i know at that time that that night was the last time id sleep in a bed for 6 states, and like 3000 miles. The boys decided that it would be a good idea to drive straight through to cali. But, I will leave that tale for my next post, a christmas story, part II.


Im not sure this picture turned out well enough for people to be able to tell what it is. I know cause i took it. But, we had the coolest full moon here the other week, and thats a shot of it, comming up between the trees.
Turned out kinda cool i think. I took like a hundred (ok im exagerating) so i was bound to get a good one. He was in here the other day, and didnt like the fact that i was paying attention to the computer instead of him, so he hopped up infront of the monitor. Please note his unimpressed look.
You can really see the fog in that one, when it blows in like that, its like sitting in the clouds -- you can totally just watch them blow by. That day in particular, it was pretty strange.. the fog was rolling in up the hill, then it would receed again, only to slowly crawl back up the hill. It was like the ocean was breathing in cold enough weather to be able to see each breath. 


















As some of you fish experts out there may know, these are called Bettas which are also known as fighting fish. You cant put 2 of em in the same tank, cause theyll kill each other. I didnt really believe that, no you sickos i didnt put em in the same tank to find out... but.. i didnt believe it cause they really dont do anything. These fish are Lazy (note the capital L). Seriously, they dont do a thing, and often i catch them napping on their plants... too lazy to swim even. So, i put their tanks really close together to see if i could get some action out of these two.. and sure enough if they didnt puff up all their fins and what not, and start slamming into the sides of their tanks to try to get to one another. So, now once every few days, i do that to ensure theyre getting their proper excercise (and im getting my proper entertainment). Anyway, i think that there is some market potential for this. I mean, think about all the cash those illegal rooster fights bring in... and you have to spend so much to feed and care for roosters. So, just think, there would be some serious gain in cash just by the small overhead there is in caring for these fuckers. Betta fighting could have some serious economic potential.
I think my cigarette boat could have gone faster if it wasnt for the chain linking it to the coin box. But, i still had fun. 












But, last night i had this dream that i got sooooo wasted that the day after i spent all day trying to figure out how i got a huge wad of cash in my pocket. I had pawned something very important and expensive off to someone, but because i was so drunk i couldnt remember what it was that i had sold. I woke up thankful that i dont have mornings where im trying to remember what i did the night before anymore, even if I do have some bored evenings. Ill take boredom over that shitty "what the hell did i do last night" feeling anytime -- some times it just takes a good nightmare to refresh your memory.

