As I believe I've already mentioned, jet lag is really kicking my ass this time around. I don't think it helps that, for the time being, I don't have a job to wake up for in the morning and, ergo, no real rush to get out of bed. I'd gotten my schedule turned around a bit and woke up pat 9:30am yesterday. However, I had a 10:45 hockey game (we won against our nemesis) and I proceeded to go to Denny's with some of the guys after the game (it was the only place open with food) where we hung out bullshitting until 2am. I didn't get to bed until after 3am, and of course, didn't wake up until very late today. Sigh! I will need to turn this around in the next few days as I start back up at HGTV at 8am Friday.

Sorry for the extremely late post, but I've been waiting until I could finish getting up the rest of my photos to the web. You can go to this page to see them. I took over 600 photos. I believe I posted about 260. Click on the city links at the top of the page to view the photos from that portion of the trip. It's easiest if you use the Slideshow setting.

I watched the movie Deja Vu with a friend this evening. If you're unfamiliar with the film (as I was), it stars Denzel Washington as an ATF agent trying to solve the case of who blew up a ferry in New Orleans, killing over 500 civilians. The movie, also starring Val Kilmer and Jim Caviezel, follows his journey as he interacts with a group of scientists on the same case as they attempt to utilize new techno,logy to solve the crime. The film has very noble intentions, but the technology is just...well...quite unbelievable. You should watch it for yourself and look for all the story holes. Nevertheless, relatively entertaining and fun to watch, if only to tear the story to shreds.

Also finished this week, Carl Hiassen's "Nature Girl." I bought it in Australia and just finished reading it. I've long been a fan of Hiassen and his amazing ability to weave together numerous stories and characters into a single, coherent tale. This book is no different, and if you like this author, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It follows several seemingly unrelated stories. One is that of a single mother with unmedicated bi-polar disorder as she tries to teach a rude telemarketer a lesson. Another is of a young Seminole trying to hide from the authorities for a death he wasn't responsible for because he doesn't trust white men - even though he himself was known as "Chad McQueen" for the first 16 years of his life. These stories and others come together in an amusing and entertaining way, as is always the case with Hiassen. Highly recommended for easy and enjoyable reading.

The song of the day is "Kids In America" by Kim Wilde off her 1981 self-titled debut album. The song was actually penned by Wilde's brother and father (both recording artists in their own right) for Kim to record. It sparked a successful career for her, and she went on to become the highest-selling and most charted British female soloist of the 1980s. The song was a summer song, and I always remember it as such. This is a classic 1980s song that everyone knows.