We finally returned from our vacation in Illinois. I think the whole experience will need to be documented somewhere other than in the blog due to the non-stop action and excitement of the trip. We took ample pictures, which we'll post with all the other information. Watch for it in the next few days - I'll post an update here.

After returning on Wednesday, Emilie had to be back to work on Thursday. I took an extra day off to recover, but it didn't work out too well. I tried to find a few caches yesterday but the wind was so bad that I think I made myself sick from exposure. I've had a sore throat all day and it doesn't seem to be giving-up. In any case, I found a few caches and then returned to work today. Work was mostly just a bunch of catching-up and I feel like I didn't accomplish all that much.

I'll provide more info when I post the "Chicago" link, but let this be the official announcement of returnage.

It may seem that we really don't have much going on due to the dearth of blog entries lately; however, that isn't the case at all. Because I have not done a very good job of posting anything new, I'm going to have to give a quick and dirty version to get caught up. In no particular order, here are the things I should have blogged about, but didn't:

After renting Winged Migration and watching it, I had to buy it. As Mike mentioned in his blog, it is one of the greatest nature movies ever. I would even go a step further and say it is one of the best movies ever - non-nature movies inclusive.

Richard recently posted about his oral hygiene and brought up the subject of brushing your gums away. I once received that talking-to from my dental hygienist, but after going to the dentist last week I received a different message. I was told that my dental hygiene is so good that I could go a year between visits rather than the traditional semi-annual visits. Since I have insurance they encouraged me to keep coming in every six months, though. Of course.

There seems to be a strange phenomenon occurring in Double Diamond. On Sundays, while traveling from Longley down Double R Blvd., there is a mysterious trail of baked goods. Bagels and rolls can be seen all along the road, but only on Sundays and only on Double R. It's been happening for quite a while and it is very strange. I'll get some photos and post them the next chance I get.

I gave blood on Saturday at the church. They had a blood drive and I did the usual double-donation. For some reason everyone who gave blood that day at that blood drive seemed to bleed for much longer than usual after the donation. The vampires (or whatever you call the people who take your blood) instruct you to leave the bandages on for four hours after the donation. I waited probably seven, but still bled quite a bit after removing the bandage. Emilie and my mom experienced similar problems.

Since the weather has been good I've been trying to bike it everywhere I can. I've been riding into work since it's not too far away. I think it's about four miles each way, which takes me about 20 minutes. The bike is a fairly recent purchase and we're working on getting one for Emilie. Now that I have one she wants one, too, but she made it clear that she would rather have a bedroom set first. I'll post some bike info when we get back from Chicago for those who may care.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, we're going to Chicago (Bloomington, actually). Woohoo! Although I'm excited, I doubt that my level of excitement is anywhere near Emilie's level of excitement. We'll try to keep the page updated while we're gone.

We got together with Mike last night to watch a movie. We rented a few movies, but ended up watching Matchstick Men. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it was an excellent movie. Nicholas Cage is a good actor, but he did exceptionally well in this movie.

I've been good about working-out this week. I either rode my bike to work, went to the gym or both every day since Tuesday (I don't remember what I did Monday). 24 Hour Fitness is blowing smoke, though. They have that commercial where the guy who doesn't work out feels like a wimp but the guy who works-out all the time feels like a lion and the lion women flock to him. Since Emilie flocks to me I'm obviously not concerned about the other lion women, but I feel like a slug. If I don't start feeling like a lion soon I think I'm going to start making a concerted effort to gain as much weight as possible. If I can't be a lion then I at least want to be something cool like a 300-lbs. monkey or a human marmot.

The web page needs a makeover, I think. It doesn't need a whole new style, but it needs some new content. I don't think it needs a shoutbox. Besides, I'm a little wary about shoutboxes ever since my "bra" accident. Maybe I'll spend some time this weekend working on it a little. That's easy to say now...

A co-worker gave me a pack of Testamints gum today. I'm still struggling to understand why anyone would think this is a good idea. Missionary work is very important, to be sure, but how many people have been converted by gum? I would really like to know!

As Mike has already discussed on his blog, the Hannity event last Friday didn't go as well as it could have. It was fun to go see Hannity in person, but the event was a mess. It was a big enough mess that I actually wrote a letter to KOH expressing how frustrated I was with the event. In my letter I basically complained that in addition to the event being a total mess, it was shameful that they charged $10 on top of all the advertising that was forced upon us. The ticket stops acted as advertising for the stops themselves, the event was an advertisement for the casino that held the event and commercials were fed to us regularly at the event itself. This, in addition to KOH's shameful over-selling of tickets, reveals that KOH has become so consumed with money that they have lost all usefulness as a radio station.

I know that KOH is a business, but they've gone too far. I also mentioned in the letter that I have completely replaced them and have no need whatsoever for their station. They have three programs worth listening to: Rush, Hannity and O'Reilly. I can listen to Rush and Hannity on their web pages, and Bill O'Reilly comes on at a ridiculous time, anyway. I love listening to Mike Reagan, but KOH ditched him in favor of Michael Savage, who is not particularly entertaining or educational. I can listen to Reagan on XM Radio, which adds to the satisfaction I feel from switching to XM.

Anyway, here's some pictures from the Hannity book signing. Of particular interest is this picture of Mike actually having his book signed by Sean Hannity (Mike's back with Sean Hannity's hair visible in the upper-right corner of the picture):