It's All About...A Little Me & A Lot of TV

Hi friends. Still Reading? I feel like writing about every night lately, but then exhaustion hits, and I end up making a cup of tea, finishing up e-mail business, crawling under the covers, and zonking out. I haven't knit or crocheted in a week, and this is not the time of year for me to NOT be finishing Christmas presents. Oy. Thing is, life got crazy again. Partially, I let it. Partially, I had no control of the insanity.

The insanity defined? Went to a theater board meeting, walked out as president. Some stuff at work that I hope to be able to write about in the next week or two. Got asked to become a member of the board of the Chamber of Commerce (but had to say no, because of big upheaval at theater which will take too much time this year). My mother-in-law fell and broke her elbow and as of this writing has some mysterious crippling pain that makes it nearly impossible for her to move, yet they can't find a drug to stop the pain. My heart is breaking for her. My mom's husband had a small stroke yesterday morning and was in the hospital overnight, but he came home earlier tonight and other than mixing up a few words here and there, he's doing well. (I told him that I wished it would have taken away only his propensity to watch Fox News 24/7. He laughed.) My niece has bronchial pneumonia. I am running a silent auction to raise $ for American Cancer Society that was supposed to start Monday but will now begin tomorrow because I am so behind on stuff. Ugh.

So, since we spoke last, what's up? I started running on the treadmill in the mornings instead of outside after work. This has been lovely on two counts -- I'm not so wound up from walking at 5PM that I can't sleep at 11PM; also, the treadmill is so easy on my legs that I can run without any shin pain whatsoever. (A friend at work assured me today that as this weight continues to come off, the shin pain will go away too...or at least it did for him.) I am still loving it. My old iPod is skipping songs and doing weird stuff so, though I still use it in my car, I bought a new Nano. I have that thing on full blast when I'm running on the treadmill and it is AWESOME. (Someday I really do need to get decent speakers for this computer...)

Um. TV. Since pretty much everyone who reads this knows me personally, you might know that I have a geeky, addictive personality. And I generally love stuff that is big on the pop culture map. For example, I came late to watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but bought or rented every DVD until I'd seen the whole series. Same with Gilmore Girls. Same with Battlestar Galactica. TiVo (and the related digital video recording device I own) was invented for people like me, I think. You can set your machine to tape every episode of a series, no matter when it airs. When you're ready, you can watch seven or eight of them in a row in one sitting on a weekend. Or late at night when you can't sleep and have had way too much coffee. Or when you're trying to forget that you really ought to be doing laundry and vacuuming. And mine has the added benefit that I can burn the shows to DVD.

So what am I recording these days? I'm feeling chatty tonight. I give you my own TV guide:

Chuck. Chuck is my number one. I want Chuck to be my friend. I want to date Chuck. I want to eat a turkey sandwich and play Halo with Chuck. (This is saying a lot, because I do not like Halo or related shoot-em-up video games in the least, nor do I have the least amount of skill in playing them.) OK. Maybe we could just play Guitar Hero III. Anyway. I really enjoy this show. The premise is that the government created a supercomputer whose data got encrypted into an e-mail and all the data got transposed into Chuck's head when he read the e-mail. Now he has a hottie CIA agent posing as his girlfriend to protect him, and a psychopath NSA agent protecting him too. Chuck lives with his sister, her boyfriend (who they call Captain Awesome, which is dumb but it makes me laugh every time because it really is the perfect name for the guy), hangs out with his best friend Morgan, and works at a Best Buy clone called BuyMore as a computer tech in the "Nerd Herd." While the situations are over the top, the relationships are very, very real. OK. And I suppose I like it because I have always been attracted to dorky smart guys with unruly hair. [Chuck is on NBC at 8 on Mondays. Watch it. I dare you. You will love Chuck. You. Must. Love. Chuck.]

Heroes. This probably comes as no surprise. While I didn't really get into "Lost," I do -- by nature of some innate personality flaw -- tend to watch the one big show in the country. Heroes is it, but I haven't liked this season much so far. Last year was really incredible, but I have watched every show since September and barely cared who did what or why. They introduced a bunch of new characters and did very little development of them and now I could care less if they live or die. The exception? Veronica Mars herself, the lovely Kristin Bell, who plays Elle. Elle is a selfish, naive little bitch of a villainess, except that she wasn't really evil last night, so I don't know where that leaves her when we start "Volume 3" after the new year. I hope they give Peter (who I loved last year, and loved in Gilmore Girls too, though he was never right for Rory) more things to do next month, because he was pretty much boring as boring could be for the last few months. I was so excited to see the evil guy from Alias play the evil Kensei/Adam in Heroes...until he was boring and I didn't care about him. I was thrilled that he is buried alive in Japan somewhere after last night's episode just because it was the most interesting thing he'd done so far.

Bionic Woman. Oh. I loved the first episode. It was everything I'd hoped for. It was slick, it updated a show that I'd watched as a kid, it made everything new and technologically wild, the storyline was intriguing, the special effects rocked, the cinematography was slick. I love the lead actress, I love Gabriel Ferrer (who is Rosemary Clooney's son, btw), and I love the geeky computer tech who has a mini crush on the lead. The 2nd episode was okay. As was the 3rd. And the 4th. I really perked up when they brought in the love interest CIA guy. And then the next episode was okay. Which would all be okay, except that I was really hoping this show would Rock. My. Socks. And it's just okay. I still watch every week. I keep hoping I'm going to care. Please, Bionic Woman, make me care just a little.

Journeyman and Life. Meh. They're fun. Lead actors are quirky and caring and easy to like. Storylines have plenty of pop culture reference to keep me happy. Journeyman is a modern "Quantum Leap" (minus Al), and Life is a cop show that needs to stop with the underlying "where-the-conspiracy-theory" subplot. But fun to watch if you're feeling like killing a few hours.

Pushing Daisies: Perhaps it's just my state of mind, but I want to date this show's lead too. (But not if I've died once first, because then I couldn't touch him...you have to really see the show to get this part.) Anyway. The story is weird and fairytale-ish: Boy has the power to bring dead things back to life with his touch. But if he touches them again, they are dead forever. And if he doesn't touch them again within a minute (to make them dead again), someone else dies. Therein lies the plot. Boy falls in love when he is little. Boy's mom dies. Boy brings mom back to life, and his little love's father dies. He never tells her. Many years later, when boy becomes the PieMan, he sees his old true love has been killed and runs to the morgue and touches her and brings her back to life. (The morgue guy dies.) They are in love, but they cannot touch. OK. I could go on an on about this plot, as it is complicated, but it is very fun to watch, very comedic. The visuals are rich and comic to watch. And it's narrated by Jim Dale, who narrated all the Harry Potter books on audio and whose voice I adore. Even better, Kristen Chenoweth (who is most famously from the musical Wicked) is in the show and they even had her sing a few weeks back. Delightful. Highly recommend this show.

Bones: I love this show. It has my murder mysteries (which I listen to on audio all the time), and in fact, is even based on a series that I've been reading for years. It has forensics, which I have been creepily interested in since high school. It has David Boreanaz, who was in Buffy and Angel and reminds me of my brother, Drew. It has geeky people working in a lab who are all okay with being geeky. It is mind candy and I love, love, love it.

House: Oh, it's a trend, but I adore Hugh Laurie too. Not House necessarily, but the actor? Mm Hmm. I am also House in my mind. Most people would not ever have a clue how negative and cynical and bitchy I can be on a regular basis, but if they could see into my mind? I am a mini House. People Lie. This is the basis of the show. And I agree, wholeheartedly. I have loved this season with his picking a new team. I didn't like his old team. I especially liked the episode with DAVE FRICKING MATTHEWS, who was INSANELY GREAT as a savant piano player. And of course that's the episode I accidentally deleted before burning. So I bought it on iTunes. Heh. Now I can watch Hugh AND Dave Fricking Matthews on my Nano. I know you're jealous.

I am having too much fun typing and before I embarrass myself with telling you how I watch CSI and Forensic Files late at night when I wake up afraid that I have crashed the network server at work, I am going to make some peppermint tea and climb in bed. And watch Chuck again. I love Chuck.
Next Time: Why Karaoke Should Be A Mandatory Weekend Activity

It's All About...The Cheese

And amid the belated Happy Thanksgivings I wish to each of you, I wish you a little cheese. This entry will end up being a little cheezy, no matter how you "slice" it. (Warning: The bad jokes will not improve from here on out. Turn back now.)

My Thanksgiving was not typical, but I sure give thanks for it today. What a BLAST! Scott got me tickets to go see the Packers vs. Lions at Ford Field, and I was ready to deck the halls with green and gold. I woke up early, decorated my face with some GB tattoos...

donned a bit of the green and the gold and the cheese (with water all glamorously down the front of me from applying the tattoos)...

It didn't even take 2 hours to get to Detroit. There was almost no traffic until we got within a mile of the stadium or so. Once we got parked, we found we had to walk right through the middle of the Detroit Thanksgiving Parade to get to the stadium. I have watched that parade since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, and it was really neat to see the huge floats and balloons in person. The Tuskeegee Airmen passed right in front of us and it was very, very moving.

And as the policeman let us across the street in a lull, I risked my cowboy-hat-cheesehead blowing away to snatch a picture of the parade from the middle of the street:

Getting closer to the stadium, we saw as many cheeseheads tailgating as Lions fans!!

Security there was tighter than any airport I've been to since 9/11. We got frisked and wanded and my purse was searched. There's a limit to how nice of a camera you can bring into the stadium, and mine fits the lens limit. I had to convince this nice security man that my camera was a still camera and not a movie camera. Sorry, Mr. Security Guy. I was lying. It does both.

I grabbed a beer -- NOT a common thing for me to do at 11AM, but it was a Packers game, sheesh! -- and bought a program and climbed and climbed and climbed to our seats. I am not complaining. They were nosebleeders, but it was a great view of the field!

Even being there early, my boys showed up on the field with an hour to go:

And the only man who has my heart at the moment, my revered Brett Favre, warmed up. Even from that far away, and even when running drills, that guy just looks like he's having a blast. I do appreciate watching that.

I was seriously ready for some football. When it started out 6-0 Lions, I was a little...um... nervous. You see, I've seen the Pack play live about 7 or 8 times. I'd only ever seen them win ONCE. Even during their '96 Superbowl season, I was only at games they LOST. I had nothing to fear.

These folks shown below were sitting next to us and were a RIOT. There were a ton of like-minded cheeseheads there, so I was in good company. (Scott, though he was wearing Dallas Cowboy gear, did actually root for the Packers. I was impressed...hadn't heard him do that before. I have a feeling next week's game will be a little different story, though...)

As you may or may not know now, my boys pulled through in glorious form, winning the game 37-26. Favre set a Green Bay record with 20 consecutive completed passes, his 7th 300-yard passing game this season, and passed for 381 yards. Jennings caught 2 more touchdown passes, Grant scored again, and Driver had 147 yards. Now I'm thinking that I need to drive to Wisconsin to see if I can buy same-day tickets for the 12/30 Detroit game...but we'll see. I Tivo'ed the game, but haven't had time to watch it yet. I'm saving that for tomorrow night.

As we left the stadium, we noticed yet one more sign that Packer Fans are just the BEST:

And there you have it. My fantastic Thanksgiving Day, 2007. We made it back to Scott's house in time to watch the last quarter of the Dallas game, and then I mosied home. NFL Football Rocks My World.

(More to write about today, but no time. Must. Go. Buy. Sweet Potatoes.)

It's All About...Birthdays and Plans

So, thoughts to begin the weekend:

• I can't believe that K is going to be FIVE YEARS OLD next week!! I can still remember hanging out in the hospital room after she'd been born, not quite believing she had arrived. And five years later? She's my roommate, my little buddy, my foot tickler, my almost-always-waker-upper-at-6AM, a big source of laughter. What a fun kid. Birthday party today is bumper bowling and a Scooby Doo cake and eight other kids and too much sugar.

I am really missing the kids lately and can hardly wait for the holiday season to get underway because it means I'll get to see them all at some point or another. This picture is from this past summer -- I keep a copy at work.

• The Walking/Running endeavor is going really quite well. I've been going almost every day in the late afternoon. With the dark coming earlier, it's getting harder to squeeze in the time outside after work during the week. I'm almost always mid-trail (it's a 2.8 mile trek) when things start to look like this:

I'm hoping to attend my first 5K Walk/Run around midnight on New Year's Eve. I am going to try, but I don't think I'll be able to quite run the whole way by then; however, I need a goal that's closer than springtime. So there it is. Instead of drinking on New Year's, I'll be running. It's actually a HUGE high, all these endorphins I get from being out and working so hard. It takes me hours to calm down afterward. Not that I'm complaining!

• Speaking of running, many time when I'm out there on the path, I see people with dogs. All shapes and sizes of dogs. They all run along. They are cute and fun and...I want one. And then my buddy from across the street comes to see me:

...and I want one even more. So I would imagine, if this enjoyment of running continues through spring, I will be the proud owner of a dog. Stop shaking your heads.

Starting an eBay project this morning, and I'd better get cracking on cleaning my room. Then there's the birthday party, then a karaoke/rehearsal evening. Tomorrow I'm going to K&K's church to hear the little one play handbells, then to a murder-mystery rehearsal in a nearby town, then home to another K Birthday celebration, and sometime in there I have to fit in a Packer football game. Next week, I get to wear my cheesehead at Ford Field. I know you'll love the pictures of that one...

It's All About...Bon Jovi

Gotta say it: I'm a fan of the 80's hair bands. Pretty much always have been. Even in the midst of my moodiest Bob Dylan-Leonard Cohen-Tom Waits lovin' periods, a good power ballad could brighten my day. Bon Jovi was almost always top of my list, and not just because Jon has really awesome dimples. The band just rocks, the melodies are good, and they've been around long enough that a sampling of their catalog is a fairly decent soundtrack for my last 20 years.

While driving for almost 10 hours through Ohio and Pennsylvania (as I did a few weeks ago), a person has time to think. I was thinking a lot about road trips, and all they've come to symbolize to me. Freedom, independence, adventure, spontaneity. And not that I haven't had my fair share of road trips in previous years, but this last year (with all its change and scariness and sadness and upheaval and...change) has really made the road trip a major feature of my life. In a very, very good way.

So, all of that said, I wouldn't say I'd ever been DEEPLY TOUCHED by a Bon Jovi song. Until the last trip. Funny thing is, I'd heard this song and enjoyed it when they played it on SNL during my PREVIOUS road trip, but really hadn't heard the words. While taking a break from the iPod somewhere in PA -- a rare break, I might add -- I heard this song on the radio and really listened to the lyrics. Oof. Hit me in the gut, they did. And no, they're not sentimental or mushy. That's not what touched me. It's just that they are exactly where I am at this moment in my life. I really am not feeling very sentimental or mushy at all lately. I feel like the song is explaining something that I just can't express. So. This morning, I wanted to share a little glimpse into the me that Jon Bon Jovi expresses better than I do. (And if you think THAT doesn't keep me awake nights...)

FYI: Song is "Lost Highway" off the album of the same title.

It's All About...Looking Back, Moving Forward

Miss me? Considering there are about 4 of you who actually read this, probably not. But I missed you. I missed writing! (I would say that I missed taking pictures, but I really haven’t stopped that because my camera is an appendage. Truly.)

So geez. What’s happened? I had a beautiful 4-day vacation during which I drove to Maryland and Pennsylvania. I finished the HTML class from hell. I destroyed my bedroom in a flurry of rearranging to make it more functional. (The piles should be removed by Saturday. At the latest. Or I will go even more insane.) I made a bazillion plans to take place during the next 3 months. And I completed one year fast-food-free, ate some junk, and started on the next year. I ran a half mile non-stop on my treadmill.

The road trip:

The weekend before Halloween, I headed back to Maryland for my semi-annual scrapbooking trip. It might have started with scrapbooking, but it's mainly about the friendship...and the food. One tradition is that we eat at Galaxy 66, a really nice restaurant along the coastal highway. We had quite a crowd with us this trip. As it was last March, the food this night was incredible:

The kids got creme brulee for dessert:

After a long drive, I did very little scrapbooking the first night. I woke up right as the sun was coming up. One of the nice things about staying in a hotel right on the ocean is the view, especially of the sunrise:

There were other views that were pretty good too:

After getting dressed and going to get donuts at The Fractured Prune, I spent a long frickin' time at CVS trying to get some pictures developed. It would have made sense to get this done ahead of time, except that I never know what I want to scrapbook until the mood strikes. And when checking my photos, I wanted to scrapbook about Barefoot. Of course, the CVS I chose had a myriad of printing problems. (And a really adorable guy who helped me a lot, thank you Sihrish.) I think I got back to the hotel in time for lunch. Oy. But I did get a ton of scrapbooking done that afternoon, thank you very much. We attempted to meet J's husband and son and stepkids for dinner, but plans went awry (as they often do with J and me...no biggie!), so it was just she and I who ended up at a crab shack for some serious seafood:

Afterward, we made it back to the scrap room in time for a demo of some really cool Creative Memories scrapbooking software that, of course, I couldn't live without. And I got several more pages done.

The next morning? More scrapbooking, of course:

And then it was time to hit the road. We took a few last pictures on the beach in a LOT of wind:

And north I drove, through Rehoboth, around Philly, and out to Hazleton. (This was a mistake...I should have gone right to see Bree first, but didn't, and it cost me WAY too much time.) Then I took the really weird, convoluted, twisty, climby, LONG route that GoogleMaps had provided to get to Bethlehem to see my lovely stepdaughter. She took me to a really cool brew pub where I blinded her several times with my ubiquitous camera:

And she gave me a nighttime tour of her campus haunts and the town, and a brief trip through her home. It really is the coolest thing to see her so independent and...well, cool. She's pretty cool. I hated to have my visit be so short, but there it is. I had to go. So BACK to Hazleton on a vastly shorter route (thank you, atlas) and I crashed into bed.

HTML Class. Check.

After a brief 10 hour drive home the next day, I did homework. For the Next. Two. Days. Straight. I worked in there too, but free time was almost non-existent. I wrote HTML code like a MANIAC. I finished my final project for my class with about 13 minutes to spare. Sheesh. I have rarely been so pleased to have a class be finished. I got a B in the class, and I don't even care. (That's very weird for someone so attached to her 4.0 GPA until a year or so ago.)

What else?

After completing my year of no-fast-food on Oct 29th, I ate all kinds of it for 6 days. Yuck. Other than Wendy's chocolate frosties, nothing tasted very good, and it all made me kind of perpetually nauseous. I'm back on the wagon for another year (with a scheduled exception for a KFC Famous Bowl...the only thing I really craved consistently the entire year, and that I didn't eat on my "break").

I'm planning a trip to see my brother in San Francisco, hopefully in January.

I have a vague plan to try and run a 5K by January -- still looking for races. (I need a closer goal than spring.) I started a 5 week training regimen yesterday.

I should have my car paid off by January.

I switched dressers and moved stuff around in my room. The room -- still completely trashed. One person just does not need all this CRAP. So it's 3 more days of sort and toss. The goal is a stress-free room by Sunday night.

Bored yet? I'm not. I feel like I'm just getting started. On a lot of things. I hope you'll put up with the erratic entries and stick around to hear about it.

It's All About...The Marilyn Quote

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes. I am out of control, and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe

Oh, though I would love to claim otherwise, this quote is so ME. I can only nod.

It's All About...Last Weekend in Chi-Town

I have always thought that, if I were to want to relocate to a large city, I would pick Chicago. I've always felt comfortable there. Maybe it's just because I've been there several times and it's comfortable. Maybe it's the good times I've had while touring and visiting. Whatever it is, I love that town.

Due to some traffic issues, as well as some miscommunication about scheduling, I got to town late and had to skip YarnCon. This, though a bummer, probably saved me about $200 in yarn purchases, so I wasn't all that upset. I got there about 12:30 Illinois time, and found some parking (bad idea to drive, as it turns out, but super convenient). I walked around on Broadway and finally ducked into a little Thai place. I ordered a cup of hot tea and some Pad Thai. Lovely, quiet, good. Then I walked some more, found a different long term parking spot, moved the car, and went to the theater to see Julia Sweeney.

Allow me this aside: As I think I mentioned in a previous post, I'm a big Julia Sweeney fan. When it was announced that her latest show, "Letting Go of God," was coming to the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago a few months ago, I immediately went online and bought a ticket. The theme of the show is Sweeney's gradual change from Catholicism to Atheism. I've heard the story via a couple of different media: a radio show, the internet, and her CD. It is funny and beautiful and touching and smart and...it's just very, very well written. What I like best about it, and what touches me the most, is her respect for others' belief systems and for the Christian/Catholic community that shaped her.

She talks about becoming friends with one of the nuns who taught at her school and wanting to become a nun, loving "The Flying Nun," watching the movies with nuns and envying them. With Julia, it was Hayley Mills; I, however, aspired to be Maria from "The Sound of Music," before she got sent to take care of the VonTrapps. I think it was that Maria could be such a sisterly screw-up and still have a place at the Abbey that I found so very endearing and something to which I could completely relate.) I also loved the hippie, folky masses that cropped up around the time of my first communion. Hearing John Denver music played at mass in East Lansing when I was about 6 was a revelation for me -- pardon the pun.

As I stood in line to get her autograph and tell her how much I adore this piece, I was surprised (and very, very pleased) to hear both men in front of me, who appeared to be there separately, A) buy a CD; B) tell Julia that they were ministers; C) that they have used parts of her story in their own ministries. It made me happy because it was a conversation, it was a dialogue, it was finding common ground in beliefs that so often are seen to be so diametrically opposed that people KILL because of the differences.

Anyway, then I got to the front of the line and had her assistant take my picture, and she actually took three (how nice!) and after me gushing like a total dweeb (and having totally wrecked my hair while sitting and laughing like a fool during the show), here we are:

After that, the clouds had rolled in heavily and dark was coming fast. I decided to head back to the hotel and just chill and read and do a little homework. I did. I stopped at a Borders, and a Target, and crashed at the hotel. I ate egg rolls and drank part of a bottle of champagne that had been rolling around in my trunk for over a month. I read 2 chapters of "The Four Hour Work Week," wrote an essay for my class, surfed the net for a little while, and watched SNL (where the Andy Samberg video had me shooting champagne out my nose, which hurts, btw). The requisite hotel shots (and I just have to say, Marriott's beds are so FRIGGING comfortable...it's the main reason I stay there):

I got up at a reasonable time Sunday and went downstairs to hop on the treadmill. The place was deserted, which I suppose isn't too unusual for a Sunday morning. Then I got my continental breakfast (Cheerios, yogurt, and two cups of coffee...even though I wanted the danish, it seemed silly when I was still in workout clothes...), went upstairs and ate and showered, packed up, and headed back to Chicago.

Note to Self: The next time you want to go see a rockin' Star Wars Exhibit at the Science & Industry Museum, reserve ahead. Evidently, the exhibit is separate from general admission and "sells out." Which it did. So my big plan was put into the toilet. The rest of the museum, though, was incredible as ever:

The U-505 Exhibit -- completely amazing history here: "Capturing the U-505"

(The videos and audio in the exhibit itself are narrated by the "Cold Case Files" guy, who has the perfect voice for it!!)

The agriculture exhibit was interesting, but this display in the part about dairy cattle cracked me up:

I have to cop to the fact that I am 40 years old and I didn't actually know how a toilet worked until I saw this display and listened to the audio:

The Big Tease: The Star Wars exhibit was sold out, so I couldn't go through it. You can bet I'll be going back in November or December to see it before it's gone in January. Here's the not-so-busy-looking entrance to the exhibit:

Lunch, museum/Starbucks-style:

For Brit, a cyclotron from Univ of MI from the 1930's:

Not the best photo, but this has been one of my favorite displays for years:

My favorite parts of the day were: the genetics laboratory where I saw a mini-lecture on DNA and then wandered around to find some hatching baby chicks:

Talking with my cousin on the phone, even though I found out her plane wasn't going to be to Chicago in time for us to get together...

Playing Star Wars trivia with a really friendly, helpful museum employee who chatted me up for about 10 minute and told me the inside scoop on reserving tickets online, told me about the Star Wars exhibit, and then played a couple of rounds of trivia with me, which is what she was there for:

A huge section on how the brain works that I don't remember seeing before:

A beautifully laid-out display about evolution and how species evolved across the planet (which also gave me an idea about some Christmas gifts I want to make...but that's another story):

I stopped for more Starbucks along the Indiana Toll Road on the way home (which is probably why I was still awake at 2:30 in the morning):

I also stopped for gas and this was the first time I'd ever seen E85 listed on a regular gas-price sign -- how cool is that?!:

The sunset behind me was so unbelievably cool, I kept trying to get a shot of it while driving:

And this one finally came close. It was a great road trip.