Chestertown

Yesterday (Sat.) I got up @ 6:15 and threw two changes of clothes in a duffel bag and hit the road for Chestertown and Alvin and Doretta's wedding about 7:30. I drove. Things went well during the first part of the trip except for the Grandma that tried pretty hard to bash in my rear end with her gold SUV. Notice I said first part of the trip. I had printed MapQuest directions. They stunk! They told me to turn left onto 290 instead of right. (They changed the exit recently that instead of being as shown, you went past 290 and then curved back.) I had already turned right (North), 'cause I instinctively knew that that was correct. But Mom said, "Stop!" The directions say left. So I screeched a U-ey and headed South 'till it T-ed. Then we decided the only thing to do was to go the other way that we had heard about, but was longer. So we went back to 301 and went back South (we had just come North on it) for about 20 mi. and then turned North onto 213. We took this thru multiple small towns. It took us about an extra hour. 213 merged with 290!! We were about 4 mi. from where we were an hour ago!! GRRR!!! Oh well... I was a car parker at the wedding. Ray (Doretta's nephew) was my fellow car parker. I hadn't brought my sunglasses, but Glen gave me his Oakleys. While I was parking, who should drive in but Louisa Schmucker (from KS)! She is Alvin's (groom) 1st cuz. I got a $10 gift certificate to WMart for helping. The preacher was great! He also had a pretty daughter. These two facts are easily explainable by this fact: The preacher is my 1st cuz once removed and the daughter is my second cuz. The preacher told the story of the time that some newlyweds were at his house and they were leaving after spending the time at his house with entwined hands. He had a pile of thorny brush in his lawn. The preacher and family left first. The newlyweds followed. The bumber hooked the brush pile. They dragged that brush pile 7-8 mi. before the last piece fell off. They never noticed it! He said their heads were together the whole time. He said it was the funniest thing looking in the rearview mirror and seeing this brushpile coming behind this car. When they met cars, the other cars would swing waaaayyy over to the shoulder to avoid the brush pile! The tables had goldfish in vases. Glen took a live goldfish and put it in Alvin's mashed potatoes's gravy. Alvin ate his mashed potatoes and gravy! Alvin did not notice the goldfish. Alvin got the hiccups. At open mic, Glen told his cuz Doretta (bride) that she shouldn't worry too much about cooking for Alvin. She could put a goldfish in his mashed potatoes and he wouldn't notice! I almost busted a gut trying to keep from roaring when at open mic two people said something about "I think they'll make out fine." or "see how they'll make out."!! Louisa caught it too and whispered, "Don't say that!" (btw, after lunch Lousia came over to my table and we talked a while. Dave Nisly's family and I were the only ones at that table.) Alvin's dad gave a long speech, and did a good job. His wife said these words, "My husband pretty much said it all, but I want to welcome you into the family." This was such a stark and funny contrast to her husband that everyone laughed. When Alvin came up to talk, he said, "My Mom isn't famous for her public speaking, but Dad and I more than make up for that." He continued with this anecdote: "I used to have this Crown Victoria. A guy's dream car. Big, strong, powerful. It had tinted windows and it looked just like a cop car. I never had trouble with people not giving me respect on the road. It was starting to get old, so I was looking to get another car. I thought about getting another Crown Victoria, but finally, reluctantly decided against it, because I needed something more economical; that didn't guzzle the gas, and that wasn't so expensive in the first place. When I told Doretta she breathed a sigh of relief and said, 'Boy am I glad! When you came to pick me up, I felt like I was in custody or something!' I kinda liked that idea!" If you know Alvin, you can imagine his chuckle as he said that last sentence! Glen, Darrell, 'drew, and I went over to some guy's house and played bball for about 1.5 hours and then went to the gym and played vball. The bball was awesome! The vball was awesomer! I had my best vball night EVER! I was doing spikes I had never done before. Bonerattling dives! (toward the end, I was leaving Hans shaped sweat marks on the floor! btw, the floor was concrete) It was hilarious: one time the best spiker went up to spike, swung, and totally missed the ball! The ball landed on his head! Everyone cracked up!! There was a cooler of soda. I had three Mt. Dews and a caffinated root beer. The Schrock boys had similiar levels of caffination. The ride home was overcaffinatedly silly. I had a caffeine hangover this morning! Amazingly I went right to sleep. I feel like an old granny with triple arthiritis, rheumatism, and osterperosis thrown into the mix as well! I am sore as a, as a... as something sore!

Happenings

First, some interesting parts from the Pilgrim Christian High-School (KS school where my cuz goes) Student's diaries from their Mexico trip:

"Friday, May 14 (Marilyn Miller): For breakfast we had a real feast of cow brain, intestine, tongue, etc. We instructed our bellies to say please and thank you, to not mumble and rumble, and to not say no thanks! Some of us had become sick overnight and we waited inside the church while the others ate. Later, Bro. Nisly and Jeanene brought our doses of liquid Pepto Dismal, and Sprite and pan (bread). We finally set out for Tula, ancient Indian ruins. Most memorable about them is their games and human sacrifices afterwards. They played a game similar to basketball. Strangely, whoever won (or lost--reports varied) was afterwards sacrificed! "

Awesome Op-Ed Pieces

Wow! I have just come across some very well-written, right on target op-ed pieces. My favorite is Appeasment:   "There are two approaches to terrorists. One is to fight them with every weapon you can -- the military, intelligence services, interdiction of money flows, diplomacy. That is what George W. Bush is doing against the Islamist terrorists who struck Sept. 11. The other way is appeasement. Give the terrorists some of what they want, and hope that they will stop being terrorists any more. That was the approach Bill Clinton took in the 1990s to terrorists in Colombia, Israel and Northern Ireland. "   "George W. Bush has backed Ariel Sharon's refusal to deal with Arafat and his fence separating Israelis and Palestinians. Most Israelis support the fence, and suicide bombings are way down. The bottom line: Appeasement failed. "   "In the short run, appeasement seems the more conciliatory, thoughtful, nuanced way to deal with terrorists. But in the long run, it tends not to work."   Of course the most famous incident of failed appeasement is Chamberlain and Hitler in 1938 with the Munich Accords. Supposed peace. A year later: WWII.   Another op-ed, Additional Views by Stephen F. Hayes, handily and wittily exposes the utter hypocrisy and total lack honesty of Sen. Jay Rockefeller in condemning Bush in a report on prewar Iraq intelligence. A final op-ed piece, Of 'Lies' and WMD, debunks the whole "Bush lied about WMD" theory.   Man, if only the general public could hear this stuff. The liberals' stranglehold on the media really grates. We were just talking about it the other night: Take a look at Europe. Liberal, Liberal, Liberal. Look at their economies. Pathetic, Pathetic, Pathetic. Their liberal economic policies have trashed their economies. Germany and France's unemployment rate is close to double ours. I just hope voters sit up and take notice this November at the poor results of liberal policies around the globe. I came across a funny blog post: Techdirt: How To Sell The Same Startup Twice

Pics from Miller Reunion

General Reunion Picture

From left to right: myself, Sara's brother, Shane, Medori, Ben, Sara

From left to right: Sara, Louisa, Marilyn, Joel, Darren

Ben Sharla - My second cousin, Sharla, is getting married

Left to right: Myself, Joel (back turned), Shane, Medori, Sara

Left to right: Uncle Anthony, Brother Dietrich, Uncle Lowell

Left foreground in blue dress: Grandma; Sitting at end of table: Storyteller, Leroy Hershberger; Right foreground in dark blue dress: Aunt Judy

Sitting at far end of table: Dad; Sitting on his left: Mom

All of the first generation siblings; these are all brothers and sisters; my Grandpa is on the far left

The first generation and their spouses

Ellis Miller: Married my second cousin, he is a computer programmer in Visual C++, he is holding their kid

Myself with a red face (combo of three factors: sunburn, just got done laughing really hard, the air conditioner was overburdened) and my first cousin Shane

Kansas

On Thurs. afternoon we flew to KS. We got into Witchita at about 10. We rented a full size car and a PT Cruiser. We then went to Braum's for some excellent ice cream and some mediocre burgers. We got to Iwashige's about 12. Went to bed. Next morning (Fri.), got up early, and went to the office worked all day. Ate lunch at the Dutch Kitchen with Dad. That evening we went to the Miller Reunion and had supper. That night Shane (1st cuz), Joel (1st), Marilyn (2nd), Medori (2nd), Charla (2nd), Ben (Charla's fiance), and myself went mini-golfing. We got home about 1:30. It was a blast! I won! Marilyn scolded me for smirking. The next morning, most of us were late for brunch at 10. We sat around awhile. We played basketball. After supper we had introductions @ the Miller reunion. Then there was some storytelling by Leroy Hershberger, a Yale grad who currently is an auto mechanic, and who sports a half-bald head of bushy gray hair and a great big bushy gray beard. After that we went to a Christian Coffee shop called Common Ground. We had coffee drinks and "To Die For"s (awesome slushy type drinks). Some played Dominoes and some played Scum. There was a black Gospel band of three there. The singer played a keyboard, another guy the drums, and another guy the saxaphone. They were all family. They were pretty good! R.C. (2nd cuz who works at Common Ground, but was never @ the reunion) and I played two games of pool. The record was 1-1. We then ordered Dominoes pizza which was delivered to Common Ground. We took it back to Sara's and watched Shrek. I got to bed about 2:30. On the way to Sara's from CG, Sara was driving and told us that her dad (IT guy at HCC-Hutchinson Community College) had a bootleg of Shrek 2. I was like, "Cool! Would you mind sharing? I could trade 'Passion' for it." Shane then remarked, "Ya'll really shouldn't be 'sharing passion' because ya'll are related." We all busted a gut and Sara said, "It must be late, because I'm not as ticked at you as I should be." Shane then related a time when himself and Jeff (no relation, just a guy I know from KS) were driving in Hutch and a cop stopped them. A lady cop got out and walked up on the drivers side (Shane was driving) and guy cop stayed back about five feet. The lady starts asking if they are on drugs or alcohol or anything. About that time another cop car drives up and two more cops get out and cover the other side of the car. The lady cop sniffed the air and said, "I think I smell alcohol; what are ya'll drinking?" Shane replied that they were just sharing a fruit drink. It was a Strawberry passion drink. Jeff almost said, "Yeah, we're just sharing passion here in the front seat!" Shane and Jeff got clean away with no breath test required of them. On Sun. morning, I dragged myself out of bed and went to church remarkably alert for the late nights. I was probably the most voluble one in SS and paid attention as Grandpa preached the sermon. At 1 we had lunch at the reunion. Louisa Schmucker was there as well (she is not related). Eldo Miller (1st cuz once removed) passed by the door just as Louisa was walking to get more food and he said, "Which Miller are you angling for? You should try one of Gary's boys." At that point Merlin (2nd cuz, one of Gary's boys) leaned out the door and said, "Sorry, I'm already dating and so is Kevin [bro. to Merlin]" Eldo turned around to see what Louisa was going to say to that, but she had made her red-faced escape. (The next day in the office, Myron (uncle) and Eldo were talking about it, and Eldo offered the opinion that: "She should marry Shane!" I told him that they were just "Good buddies." He said, "Yeah, that's what they always say.") That afternoon we went over to Sara's and watched the first part of Shrek 2. That evening there was joint Center-Cedar Crest youth event. We met at Cedar Crest (CC). And waited... and waited... for Louisa, who is on the CC youth committee. Someone called her, and woke her up, and she came as fast as she could. LOL! We piled into a pink bus that had the top and sides removed from the back (a flat-bed bus). We drove a couple of miles over to someone's pond. We threw the football and I jammed my finger. We played vball and I was in a vociferous mood as a result of my extreme tiredness. We had hamburgers and fingerfood for supper. After supper we played more vball and then we sat around the campfire. Josh (fellow Tribes 2 player) and I went to his car and got some firecrackers. I threw a string of 'em in the fire, except it didn't quite go in the fire. It was just at the edge. After about 5 mins. I heard a hissing sound from the fire and then they went. Everyone jumped and one person screamed. It was so long between the throw-in and the explosion no one knew who had done it. They suspected two guys, Tony and Darren, on the opposite side of the fire, 'cause they looked guilty. About 3 mins later another one went off. We went back to CC and talked a while. We rehashed an adventure that my 2nd cuz had once: He and his friend were out with their 4-wheeler ATVs around 1-2 am roaring around Fairview (little shopping center in community). Someone called the cops. The cops came. My cuz and friend left, fast. The cop followed. It was a lady cop (hence lady driver). She called for lots more cops. About 5 more cops came. They chased my cousin and friend who were on their four-wheelers. They guys on the four-wheelers saw that they were going to lose the race unless they changed the strategy of driving on the roads. So they drove in the fields. The lady driver cop decided to drive in the fields, too, to catch them. She was not in a vehicle well suited to driving in a field. She was also a lady driver. She wrecked into a irrigation pipe. She totalled the car. She was drenched with 800 gallons a minute. It should have been called an irritation pipe, because that's what she was. Some people from Cedar Crest were camping at Cedar Crest church. The cops were mad. They wanted to find the four-wheeler drivers that they had lost when the lady hit the pipe. They searched and searched. They came to the Cedar Crest campers a couple of times and asked them where "they were hiding their little friends." They told them they hadn't seen them. The campers got in their car and went cruisin' looking for them, too. They had a police scanner. They heard the police say, "I see a suspicious car over there; I'm going to check it out." They quickly turned off the police scanner and shoved it under the seat. A cop stopped them and asked them a couple of questions. The cops finally figured out who my 2nd cuz was and that he was one of the drivers. They went to his house. His parents indignantly answered the door. They asked them where their son was. They told them, "In bed, of course!" The cops asked to talk with him. The parents came back, very worried, and said he isn't in bed. They went out to the garage and his four-wheeler engine was warm. They found him at this friend's house. They couldn't really prove anything, tho. And they hadn't done anything wrong (the cops never turned on their lights). So there was an interesting police report, but not much more. The next morning I worked all day. It was definitely a Monday. I spilled coffee on my pants. This morning, Tuesday, Joel took me to work with him. He works for a company that develops applications for investors. We talked at length about programming. I then came to the office and worked.

Tennessee - Before and after

We just got back from TN. We had a ton of fun playing rook, volleyball, mafia, and killer wink. I drove all the way to TN (12 hours) and half the way back (if you don't know how many hours that is, then I'm not going to stunt the educational process by telling you.)

Mom forced Dad to force me to stay exactly at the speed limit the whole way!

One night, late, we (myself, Benj, 1st cuzinz Derek & Renita) were playing rook and Benj was losing. He said, "I am starting to stink..." Renita piped up, "Well I'm finishing to stink!" We all busted out laughing! I told her I was going to write it down on a piece of paper and write it in my blog. She didn't want me to. So she grabbed the paper from me. What a brown-haired blond! I just got another piece of paper and wrote it on there and added her blond action to version 2.

Speaking of blonds, did you hear about the blond... oops, I forgot the joke... I wonder what color hair I have...

I got a hug from a beautiful 16-year old girl while I was in TN!! She is my 1st cuz tho...

We were guessing each other's weights. Same cousin guessed I weighed 175-lb!! Guess how much I weigh in the comments.

Tue. for brunch everyone (about  35-40 people) went to a Mexican restaurant. There were two employees: a cook and a waiter/owner. Ronald and I helped take food out to people. We also had to make and get our own desserts. (I got a milkshake.) I even mopped the floor! It was hilarious!! It was a very unique experience!!

We also had fun swimming and water skiing in TN. We got home at 4:30 this morning.

We are going to KS tomorrow.

I found this really cool website about making sparkler bombs and a documentary (with pictures) of one going off. Both pages are hilariously funny!!

Quotes from above pages:

"You have to have a fuse. If you do not know why you have to have a fuse, please stop reading now and go away, for your own safety."

"Other enhancements, of the "Hey! Let’s build a can of fly spray into the middle of the bomb!" variety, are likely to result in natural selection."

I have been working a lot on the Golden Rule Communications website. It has a bunch of cool new features. You should check it out.

I got an external 160 gb hd to put the GRC database onto and take with me to KS; I'm taking my work with me...

AHQ (Acapella Harmony Quartet) just released their newest CD! They are personal friends of mine...