So this has been the easy part of the leg so far. I would say that the beginning was pretty easy in California because we were also staying with family but because we had a pending cross country road trip at that point we were antsy to get started. In Louisiana, we were visiting with my brother-in-law, Cameron’s sister, Courtney. She lives in Mandeville, across the Causeway from N’awlins.

We got in at a relatively early hour on Wednesday. Probably about 8 at night. Cameron definitely had an agenda in Louisiana though, he wanted to eat and see as many things “Swamp People” related.

The food has definitely been a treat. I’ve tried beignets, po’boys, gumbo, jambalaya, lots of oysters-both fried and grilled, and some apple-flavored moonshine. I also tried some sushi and ahi, both of which didn’t compare to what I can find in Hawaii, but not bad at all.

I never watched “Swamp People” before but saw a few episodes while we’ve been here. It is fun and the people are very interesting and impressive. We also got to go to Kleibert’s Alligator and Turtle Farm. That was neat because we got to meet the Kleiberts that were on the first season of Swamp People. They were fun and definitely helped dispell some myths.

I was able to add to my animal petting list; snakes, tigers, alligators, elephants, and monkeys. I think I may be missing something but that’s okay. I’m still working on it.

Hi, All.

Okay, this is not working at all. Trying to write and road trip at the same time just doesn’t work. We have been traveling non-stop and have not had much time to rest. It’s been great though, don’t get me wrong. But I’ve obviously been very bad at blogging and the things that we’ve done in between time have started to mush in my mind. I really haven’t had time to take it all in or organize my thoughts.

But I guess I should start with letting you all know why this road trip has happened in the first place. Squire and I are trying to get a non-profit that we’ve gotten off the ground. A lot of the grants were due right before my sister, nephew and her husband were to set off to his new assignment in Georgia. They were going to road trip it from CA and my sister asked if we could go as well. Since I didn’t have the time to spare before they left it seemed the best opportunity to spend some time with them and frankly, add to our list of new experiences.

To begin, I was hesitant. Road trips have such a bad connotation, especially when done with family. I admit there have been moments where I’ve gotten a little worked up but what I said to myself in the beginning and what I’ve had to remind myself of a few times, is that this is something that I’ve never done before, I’m very lucky to have this opportunity for myself and with Squire and it really is awesome. So even now I can still smile.

So this is going to be brief and really not well done. I’m going to try to write about AZ, NM, and TX in very little time. Knowing that I won’t be doing any of them justice.

Arizona – AZ

The first state we traveled into on this journey and a lot of road trip lessons were learned there. I know in my mind I realized how long the trip was going to take in hours but every little thing takes up a huge amount of time. And even though we cross the border, it doesn’t mean we are anywhere close to where we need to be. Once in Arizona, we stopped to sleep in Eloy and Flagstaff. We got to see Sedona, Flinstones Bedrock, and The Grand Canyon. Although this only slightly counts we did also stop at the meteor crater a mile long as we were leaving the state. That was awesome to see from far off. The admission was a little steep though so we just drove up to it and drove back out. Oh and by steep I mean that it was just one more expense in the grand scheme of things. The admission for adults was $16 and children were $8.

New Mexico – NM

Once we came into the state we went to visit Billy the Kid’s grave site. We found the museum first and spent a good deal of time checking that out and reading about the history of Billy the Kid, the lore, and see some very cool memorabilia. I loved the grave site, mostly because it also had some tombstones of other people from the area and that was nice to see as well. I do like grave yards, I think they have a lot of history in them through the historical timeline they represent through us.

After Billy the Kid we stayed in Roswell and visited the Roswell Museum. I was in heaven. It probably is the most geeky thing I like to do. I like alien lore and enjoy seeing all of it. Part of me blames the movie Paul for my renewed interest in it.

Texas – TX

This state is huge. It was a long drive the first day we entered and the second. We stayed in San Antonio and didn’t get into the hotel till 3 in the morning. We then woke up late and made our way to The Alamo. I realized here that I really like the history you can find and what makes a place unique has to do a lot with what they hold onto of that history. The Alamo is a wonderful place that does just this and celebrates an important part of it what makes Texas so special. After Texas we tried to get through Texas but that didn’t happen and we didn’t end up at a hotel until after 12 at night in Houston. It had a lot to do with the fact that the google map we were using had a tough time getting the direction right and we had two messed up directions and the three phone calls that we made to the hotel also proved useless.

Side note:

We were using a site that Squire actually created to do the bookings for the hotels that we have been staying at during this venture. It’s called bestravelsiteonline.com. It is a site comparison site to search hotels and flights at cheaper rates through all those other sites that are out there, kayak, priceline, hotel.de, travelocity, expedia, etc. So it’s a funnel for over 30 different sites to get you the best prices. We’ve been able to find places that are decent for as low as $37 and we’ve booked with less than an hour to get there. Although we realized that an hour is the best amount of time to give the hotel to make sure that they get our reservation. Most of them have average $50 a night. Sometimes it’s user error though, the google maps being an example and we totally booked for the wrong date (but it was easy enough to cancel because it was far in advance).

This brings us to Louisiana. And more on that later. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up soon.

Well it’s been a busy year and a half. A lot of changes. So many in fact, I don’t know what to talk about. So instead I think I’m going to focus on the future. We’ve been busy with Improv Hobby, Inc. The non-profit we received the IRS designation for in the summer of last year. Now I’m in the middle of writing grants and avoiding writing grants.

My sister is moving to Georgia so in a few weeks we will be going on a road-trip with her, her husband, and our nephew, from California to their new home for the next few years. I hope to make it to Disney World.

For other improv news we’re working on a show with Dicks & Jane. It’s a puppet show that I am thoroughly looking forward to. Here’s a pic of my puppet, Stanley (left), and my favorite friend, Todd. 

Okay, I’m going to start by saying that this is a rant of sorts. So it is obviously going to be slightly skewed in one sense or the other. Also, for the sake of ease of argument and not wanting to deal with semantics. When I refer to PC, I am referring to the windows operating system and Apple, the mac operating system and how they function in their counterparts of Microsoft and Apple products.

First of all, I come from a PC and MAC household, my husband is a MAC supporter with his laptop and we both have iPhones. We have a home computer that is an HP Windows 7 and I’m typing on my personal laptop, Toshiba Windows 7.

My major gripe is that I don’t think it makes sense to compare the two in any way anymore. A lot of the problems that have been long-time arguments for the different operating systems are no longer problems. The problems have become out-dated. The main things were that Apple is faster and Microsoft has more software. But Apple has the app store and Microsoft has improved there speed with dual and quad processors.

So stop talking about one being better than the other. I really hate that idea. I’m not someone who believes in an elitist way of thinking and I do think that one company in particular has made a great profit off of this type of advertising campaign that I find mind-boggling in its pretentiousness. But hey, it’s hip.

So to start, I don’t like the mystique around MAC/Apple products. It gives me Tourette’s. The biggest myth is that their products are inherently better. That’s not true. The truth is that pc’s don’t start with a price tag of $1,000-$1,200 dollars (not counting the MAC mini starting at $600 and the MAC pro starting at a whooping $2,500) and if you buy a pc for less than the price that you would purchase a start-up MAC, yeah, it’s going to not be the same or as good as a more expensive computer. I think that this should be a huge deal and it’s not.

There are some things that you can do to make informed decisions though when you look at a PC, because they have so many options, that it just make sense to really shop around before you settle on a computer that you want. These are some of them, from personal experience, not from any real geeky-tech specs:

• I wouldn’t purchase a DELL computer unless you really know how to make it the way you want it and will personalize it. There are so many different things you need to look at it and there out-of-the-box options are cheap but need a lot of work if you want them to have the functionality that will get you further.
• Look for good processor speed (Ghz) and a good amount of RAM (computer data storage). The speed is how fast applications and programs will run on your computer and the data storage is good for a lot of reasons but mainly that there are programs that you may want to install that take up a lot of space so you don’t want to overload your space because you can’t fit anything else on it, and like a suitcase that is full, it also effects how far (the speed) in which you can travel lugging around a huge suitcase versus a neat and well packed suitcase with space for some souvenirs along the way.
• Get rid of the extras that come with a computer out of the box. Trial versions are unnecessary and are programs on your computer that just take up space and may even start-up when you prefer they wouldn’t. Just get rid of them and you don’t have to worry about seeing random pop-ups that are taking up space and speed on your computer. So go to your control panel and uninstall any of the trial versions that they give you and other programs that you aren’t using. If you’re not sure if you need it and are afraid to delete stuff . . . ask someone that has more knowledge of computers to help or go on the internet.

(Extra info about computers that I think are good to keep in mind, especially if you don’t think of these things.

Don’t leave stuff on your starter page and have a lot of applications open at start-up or update. If you notice your computer is slow and taking long to load and you have these starter things going on, there’s probably a correlation. If you like having those documents/pictures and etc. on your starter page though, just make a new folder in your documents folder, call it desktop folder, and create a shortcut that can live on your starter page, it will be as easy to access.

Get to know your computer and how to use it. Play around with and don’t be afraid to try things out, they’re harder to break than you might think. Also, the internet is a great resource and doing different searches can bring up a plethora of information. Some of the links may be harder to read than others but skim and see if anything sticks out and don’t just rely on the first page of links. The main thing is take your time and know that it might take up some time to accomplish.)

Main thing is to know what you want to use your computer for in the first place. If you want to do gaming, design, or just want to look at your email, make presentations, write documents, or store pictures and watch movies. The point is, knowing what you want will make it easier to find the right computer for you. So don’t buy into the hype and pay more for something just because it’s shiny. Like and use whichever one you want and make that the computer of choice. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about computers, it’s not about having one that makes you special, it’s about knowing what you are doing with it that does.

The spin-offs that it has spawned.

Here is a link to the movie info.

If you don’t know it yet, this isn’t a movie for the faint of heart and I know I died a little watching it. I don’t think I would watch it again and even though there remains a masochistic part of me interested in the sequel, I’ve yet to see it and just may never do so. Having said that though, I have to say I love all the people that have seen it and have found a way to infuse humor into a truly stomach-churning experience. Props to South Park’s episode, The Human Centipad, Tosh.0, and Glowpinkstah for making me laugh about a movie that I’ll never be able to erase from my mind. And in no particular order, here are the videos I could embed:

(And in case the Tosh.0 doesn’t work on your device, hopefully this link to the article that I got the embed off of will work instead. http://veryaware.com/2010/08/tosh-0-spoils-the-human-centipede-in-25-minutes/ – sorry to those sans adobe flash player though, it won’t be viewable without it.)

By the way, I know there are tons more probably on the web, but these are the ones that I found enjoyable, complete, and helped relieve the drain. Feel free to mention others if you’d like.

Oh, and yes, did you hear about the musical coming?