Richy the Kid Rides Again

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN!!!!!!

2009-08-06T18:13:18Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN!!!!!!!!

KAREN IS MY SWEET HEART AND ITS HER BIRTHDAY!!!!

DROP WHAT YOUR DOING RIGHT NOW AND DO SOMETHING TO WISH HER A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

ecard, email, phone call, phone message, phone text, mail card, go, go, go!!!!

Wolverine Sighting

2009-06-10T05:12:21Z

Yesterday (June 8th, 2009) Karen and I had a close encounter with a Wolverine!!! No, seriously, I'm not kidding. We're in Yellowstone national park. We went to old faithful and got sick and tired of all of the crowds, so we decided to go on a off shoot trail that looked like no one much went on. We saw a small little geyser that went off every 5-7 minutes called Solitary Geyser. After sitting there a while, we followed a sign that said "senic lookout" or something like that, that was supposed to be 0.4 miles away. So, we followed the trail and came upon a spot with a big rocky cliff to the side of it. We looked up at the cliff and Karen saw a furry creature up at the top. We had no idea what it was. So, we stood there for a long while staring up at it, talking about what it was. Is it a groundhog? No, too big. It looked kinda like a weasel so we thought it must be some kind of badger. Karen was going to try and take a picture of it or video it, but I made the mistake of telling her that it was probably nothing special and not worth our time. But, we still didn't know what it was so we kept staring up at it. Before long, it noticed us. We thought it was kinda cute that it seemed to be staring right back at us. Then, it seemed a little menacing, a little creepy, staring down at as with an intense energy about it. It started climbing down the cliff toward us, with each jump down the boulder pausing to look right at us. We said, "Hey it's comming toward us... That's weird, I figured as soon as it saw us it'd get scared and run away." As it started getting closer to us I said, "Um... I think we should leave... I don't have a good feeling about this.... Even if it's just a badger, it's gotta have rabies or something to be running toward us." Well, it kept comming, Karen started to run up the trail away from it. I ran a little, looked back, and saw that it was still comming after us, and was almost down the cliff were it could hit the trail. I ran too until we were pretty sure it was no longer following us. Then I picked up a bunch of rocks so that if it came after us again we could throw rocks at it.

It had a black face, black legs, and black tail with a brown body. We couldn't see it's back that well, but we think it was brown. It was about the size of a dog. The body was 3 to 4 feet long (not sure). Shaped like a weasel only much more muscular. The next day (today) we looked online to identify what it was we saw. It was certainly not a badger, looked nothing like it. Then Karen saw pictures of wolverines. THAT WAS IT!. They are apparently some of the rarest predators out there, and can travel 20 miles a day. Supposedly only about 1,000 of them left in the wild.

We made an official sighting with the rangers. They seemed excited.

Something like this is totally amazing, assuming you live through it. =)

IN SWITZERLAND

2008-12-08T21:03:30Z

Howdy LJ,

I am in Switzerland for the first time now.

So strange.

It's Monday, and I return to the US on Sunday.

Richard

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KAREN (Silentyrs)

2008-08-06T04:30:24Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KAREN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KAREN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO KAREN

I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART!!!
AND YOU BETTER HAVE A HAPPY BIRTHDAY OR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!

Thesis Defense today

2008-07-31T14:09:47Z

Thesis Defense today...... wish me luck (in 50 min).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MANDY-LO

2008-06-11T19:37:31Z

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MANDYLO
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MANDYLO
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MANDYLO
and mannnyyyy mooooorreeeeeeeee.

Mandy-Lo = bajolapiel (go wish her happy B-Day!!!)

Karen's cat beat her up

2008-04-19T01:43:48Z

FYI: Karen's in the hospital right now. Her cat beat her up. No... seriously... I'm telling the truth. The cat got it's head stuck in a bucket. When Karen tried to free it, it clawed and ripped her hand up real bad. Now it's infected (with 1 pustuel), and she's in the hospital with an anti-biotic IV in her. Not allowed to go home tonight. Hopefully will be let out tomorrow. The Cat is going to have to be quarenteened for 10 days (the filthy little beasty).

Please send her well wishes.

ANNOUNCEMENT

2008-03-31T21:42:58Z

HELLO ALL!!!

Just to announce.... I AM ENGAGED!!!!! Wow... yep, you heard it, ENGAGED!!!... Karen and I got engaged at approximately 3:40pm on Saturday Mar 29, 2008.

We went to the zoo lvzoo.org where we had our first official date.

At the end of that first official date, ( or rather, when the zoo was closing) we had to go through this winding forest road, cross through a stream, up though hills inhabited by herds of buffalo and Carabu to leave. On this road Karen spotted a nice little spot on one of the hills looking down on the zoo and facing the horizon where we could see the sun set. We both wrapped up in my brown hoody (sp?) and watched the sun set together.

little less than 3 years later, we stopped at that same spot on the way out of the zoo. It was a little different than the first time we were there. The zoo had cut a few of the trees down. Rather than the brightly colored autumn leaves of our first date, spring was just barely begnning and the leaves had yet to start growing on the bare branches. But, none the less, it was still beautiful, and even more beautiful to us now than it was then.

I brought out a green bag I had *slyly* brought with me and stuck in the trunk before we left for the zoo. In the bag I had a scrap book that I had attempted to make of all of our dates. But, as it turns out, I've had no time with my thesis and, actually, I suck at making scrap books. So, after showing her the few pages I had, I brought out a box filled with little souveniers from our date. I had a map of rehoboth (sp?) beach (it was still a little sandy and salty from when we got it wet from the ocean water), rocks and money from Niagara Falls, little rocks washed up from the ocean, reciepts and movie stubs from our first movie together, ticket stubs from when I took her to see "The Lion King" off broadway production in Philly, ect.

After I had shown her my little treasures, and remembered our time together, I got down on the soft ground on one knee, and I told her she was my best friend and I wanted her to be my wife.

SHE SAID YES. =)

And I stuck a delicate little ring on her beautiful little finger.

F%CKING M*THER F$CK$R

2008-02-24T19:56:07Z

Who the hell gave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints my phone number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not been to church since I was 8 years old and living in Utah (except for rare occasions, usually Christmas and family things), why in the f*cking hell do I want a home teacher!!!!!! HOW DID THEY FIND ME IN ITHACA!!!!!

I'M GOING TO HAVE TO KILL SOMEONE IN MY FAMILY IN UTAH!!!!!!!!

SHT FCK D*MN

2007-12-30T23:31:39Z

FUCK,

I was planning on spending new years eve with my sweetie, but alas it looks like my new years eve is going to suck rocks. Sick, again. It seems like I can't fly without getting sick. Or, maybe it's that I can't visit my family (esp in the winter) without getting sick. Not sure which one it is. Anyway, caught a cold from my brother in-law. Was okay on Christmas day, but the time I had set aside to visit friends in Utah (after christmas) I was sick. The worst part is flying when you're sick. UHGGGGG.... And now, I was going to drive down to Delaware today, but alas, the flight left me sicker than I was before. I feel really weak. Flew back to Ithaca with my nose running like a faucet and intense pain in my nostril and in back of my throat. Then, Up all last night with stomach pain and diarhea. Bah! Bah!

=(

Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until I'm better to see my love.

Richard

Travel woes

2007-12-18T21:18:19Z

Well, recently I've been experimenting trying to make low sugar, low fat, high protien, no chocolate brownies using whole grain brown rice syrup and soy protien. The reason for this is that my nephew is daibetic (needs low carb and high protien) and my Dad is a heart patient who is allergic to chocolate (so using Carob instead). I wanted to make something they could both eat. Well I've had 3 batches of funky brownies going into the garbage, and a week of stomach issues from eating them before the bizarre after taste forced me to stop. Uhhggggg....

I think my experimenting with the super brownies is done for now.

Anyway, was about to go out the door to drive to the airport (1hr 20min drive) to catch my plane to Utah. I was running a little bit late, but still had plenty of time. Then, when I was about to leave, those damn super brownies decided to come back for more. Sudden stomach pains, and a rush to the toilet. 40 minutes later I'm pealing my butt off the toilet and hoplessly late for the airport. CRAP! (lietrally and figuratively). I get caught behind really slow people on roads where I can't pass them, then speed like crazy as soon as I can. I arrive at the kiosk at the airport 29 minutes before it's schedueled to take off. They stop allowing you to check in 30 minutes before the plane is supposed to take off. CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP. Oh well, it could be worse. $50 later they've reschedueled me for a 3:20 flight and to get into SLC at 11:30pm instead of 7pm. Oh well, could be worse.

Well, still waiting for my plane at syracuse. It was an hour late coming out of Atlanta, and now it's grounded because it apparently slammed into a bird on the way up (or down). Supposedly the plane is fine, just needs some minor repair, but alas I'll be probably we waiting here a while longer. And this marks the end of my super brownie experiments.

Surgery Seems to have gone okay

2007-09-08T12:30:36Z

The surgery seems to have gone okay. So far so good.

The only complication so far was side effects of the anasthesia (sp?). When I came out of it, it too me about 5 minutes to remember going into the operating room. I still had a bit of a cold when I went in, my glands were a little swollen and my sinuses were a bit swollen too. When I woke up it felt like he had drained out my sinuses while he was in there.

Anyway, so I had this big huge gauze thing under my nose to catch all the blood. And I noticed that I could actually breath about as well through my nose then as I ever could. Then, just to test, I moved the gauze away and I could breath MUCH better through my nose than I've ever remember being able to do. Well, now things have swollen up and are filled with crusty dried blood and mucus, so the breathing through the nose thing aint so hot at the moment. But, I know that when the swelling goes down and the scabs fall away, and the dried blood gradually rinses away, and the plastic and metal stints now in my nose get removed next friday, I should be able to breath really really well. Yay!

So, yeah, so far the only real problem is that apparently asisthesia (sp?) makes me nautious and dizzy to the extreme. I think I was the first person to get surgery on Friday, and of the roughly 6 people who had surgery that morning I was the last to go home. Felt like I was going to puke. I started sweating like crazy and had to strip off all of my covers and pull off the hospital gown down to just a fig-leaf to cool off (I don't think Karen minded this too much though, ;) ). Then I was sooo dizzy and pukey. Everytime I closed my eyes and got too close to sleep I'd start having these vomit inducing psychodelic dreams. The room ahead of mine would turn into a neon colored drawing or something and then start to spin all over the place and I'd want to hurl. Bwa...... Also, the anti-biotics and pain meds I'm on can make me a little woozy sometimes. But, other than some pukiness in the begining and occasional wooziness now from the meds, I think I'm doing okay.

PLUS... My beautiful sweetie Karen is down here to help take care of me. =) Right now the beautiful lady is still sleeping. I can look over and see her. She's like an angel she is.

richykid @ 2007-08-30T17:39:00

2007-08-30T21:40:06Z

This youtube video goes out to the Shakira Fan(s) on my Friends list (you know who you are, bock bock bock).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s5R2c23XYs

I thought it was funny. =)

Cody Dances with The Little Mermaid

2007-08-16T04:50:27Z

I couldn't resist. Here is Cody (ninja_kitsune) dancing with his fantasy girl, Disney's The little mermaid.

http://www.ican.ie/campaigns/universalmusic/dancesisterdance/myvid/index.php?v=a27804f1281c0

I feel like Dancing

2007-08-13T18:42:11Z

Wow, Karen and I have been working on our dance moves for a while now. I think we're getting pretty good too. But don't just take my word for it. Check us out getting down:

http://www.ican.ie/campaigns/universalmusic/dancesisterdance/myvid/index.php?v=9726050b2482d

richard

edit:

If you want to see us without our wigs, look here:

http://www.ican.ie/campaigns/universalmusic/dancesisterdance/myvid/index.php?v=bca63b6f24f1e

Happy Birthday to Karen

2007-08-06T17:36:43Z

Happy Birthday to Karen,
(today on august 6)
Happy Birthday to my Karen,
(today on august 6)
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to Karen (silentyrs)
today on august 6.

A NEW NEICE

2007-07-23T23:20:34Z

Howdy LJ world,

My brother Ken's wife has given birth to a new little baby girl today. Her name is either going to be Megan or Maren, I think they were going to wait until they got a good look at her before they decided. I think it's Megan Gray though.

I'm an uncle all over again, and you know what, I don't know off the top of my head just how many neices and nephews I have. Lemme Think, I have to go in order they were born. (last names abreviated)
1-Aaron Wick. , 2-Ben Wick. , 3-Nathan Wick., 4-Mathew Wa., 5-Sam Gray, 6-Adam wick. 7-Kiersten Gray, 8-Elise Wick, 9-Andrew Gray, 10-Emma Wick..... AND NOW... 11- Megan Gray

So that makes 11 neices/nephews. Holy shit, X-mas is going to be expensive if I give them all presents.

Yay!

Richard

Just finished Harry Potter 7!!!!!

2007-07-22T18:48:52Z

EEEEOOOOOOOOEEEEEOOOOO!!!!

He he he he.

Got my copy of harry potter 7 (the last book) at around 1AM at a Barnes and Nobel and opening night. I got there at 10:30pm to get a number. (Then, on my way to get milk before I go home, I realized that they had been selling stacks of them at the empty 24-hr grocery store accross the street from the book store, 3 dollars less than the book store, for hours, probably before midnight..... crap).

Anyway, I FINISHED THE BOOK. I want to talk to people about it at the moment, but at the same time I don't want to spoil anything for anyone else.

To sum up, very good, very very depressing, but very good, I give 5 our of 5 stars. I didn't really like the 6th one all that much to be honest, actually kinda disliked it, but the 7th one makes up for it. As far as spoilers, I will say only this, no one is safe, anyone, ANYONE, could die at any moment in the book. That's ANY one at ANY time could die in the book.

Richard

Question thingy

2007-06-25T15:34:56Z

1.)Q. Where are you right now?
1.)A.

2.)Q. What was your dream growing up?
2.)A.

3.)Q. What talent do you wish you had?
3.)A.

4.)Q. If I bought you a drink, what would it be?
4.)A.

5.)Q. Favourite food?
5.)A.

6.)Q. What was the last book you read?
6.)A.

7.)Q. What zodiac sign are you?
7.)A.

8.)Q. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?
8.)A.

9.)Q. Worst Habit?
9.)A.

10.)Q. If you saw me walking down the street, would you offer me a ride?
10.)A.

11.)Q. What is your favourite sport?
11.)A.

12.)Q. Negative or Optimistic attitude?
12.)A.

13.)Q. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
13.)A.

14.)Q. What was the worst thing to ever happen to you?
14.)A.

15.)Q. Tell me one weird fact about you:
15.)A

16.)Q. Do you have any pets?
16.)A.

17.)Q. What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?
17.)A. I

18.)Q. What was your first impression of me?
18.)A.

19.)Q. Have you ever been outside the country and where?
19.)A.

20.)Q. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
20.)A.

21.)Q. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
21.)A.

22.)Q. If you could take me anywhere where would it be?
22.)A.

23.)Q. Have you ever been arrested?
23.)A.

24.)Q. Bottle or Draft, and what type of beer?
24.)A.

25.)Q. If you won £10,000 today, what would you do with it?
25.)A.

26.)Q. Would you date me?
26.)A.

27.)Q. What’s your favourite bar to hang at?
27.)A.

28.)Q. Do you believe in karma?
28.)A.

29.)Q. What's your favourite thing to do in your spare time?
29.)A.

30.)Q. Do you swear a lot?
30.)A.

31.)Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
31.)A.

32.)Q. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
32.)A.

33.)Q. What is your occupation?
33.)A.

34.)Q. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same?
34.)A.

Birthday Cake!!!

2007-05-23T04:43:18Z

Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday to me. La de da da de da da. Happy Birthday to me.

Is now 29 years old. I'm an old fart dating a hot 24 year old, so I can't complain too much. =)

Anyway, the older I get, the more of a health nut I get. Especially since I'd been really sick earlier in the year, nutrition and healthful food is important to me. But, unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth (Eeeek!!!). So, for my 29th year I gave myself a Birthday Challenge: MAKE A HEALTHY BIRTHDAY CAKE. And, after some experiments gone disgustingly bad, I think I've come up with a recipie that isn't half bad. The texture is a bit different than a regular cake, but it has HALF the calories, whole grain, anti-oxidants, low fat, low sugar, and no-refined sugar in it and it actually tastes pretty good. It's nutritionally dense, and diabetic safe (if you care about that).

Refined sugars are bad for you because they have no nutrients in them, and in order for your body to digest them it has to pull nutrients out of your organs or bones!!! So, it ends up being FAT FAT FAT. Non-refined sugars have nutrients and enzymes that are naturally occuring with the sugar that help your body digest them. Non-refined sugars can still have a high glycemic index (spikes your blood sugars and burdens your pancreas) but at least they're not depleating your bones.

So, I made a recipie that is low fat, and replaces the refined sugar with Stevia and Agave nectar. Stevia is a leaf fiber that tastes much more sweet than sugar, but has no calories, and provides your intestines with inulin fiber that feeds healthy bacteria and inhibits bad bacteria in your gut. Agave nectar is an unrefined sugar nectar that is grown and harvested in Mexico and used to make tequilla. It comes from a cactus. It has an incredibly low glycemic index (which means it's safe for diabetics and won't turn you into a diabetic) it has it's natural nutrients, AND it is 4x sweeter than regualr white sugar, so to attain the same sweetness you use only 1/4 the Agave nectar and hence reduce the calories from sugar by 75%. The reason I use both Stevia and Agave Nectar, instead of just Stevia which is calorie free, is that Stevia can have a bit of a bitter taste if you get too much of it at once. So I replace half of the sugar with Stevia, and half of it with Agave nectar.

Note that I chose not to use artificial sweetners like Splenda, or Aspartame. Though I think Splenda is probably safe in small quantities (enough to sweeten your morning cofee or tea) it is, in fact, a freaky weird laboratory created, organic abomination that is probably not healthy for you to be sucking down in large quantities. I used to use splenda all the time, but after a while it started to make me kinda sick, then I did some reasearch and found out that the "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" stuff was a bunch of B.S. They make it from sugar, but they could also probably make it from a lump of coal. So, for my purposes, the artificial stuff will be avoided (Stevia is completely natural, and even good for you, try it instead if you use splenda. You'll find stevia with the dietary supplements instead of the sweeteners thanks to political manuvering of the artificial sweetner industry.).

So here is the cake recipie.

Richard’s Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipe
Whole grain, low-fat, no cholesterol, anti-oxidants, low sugar, and no refined sugars.

2 Cups 100% Whole Wheat pastry flour: (880 calories, 4g Fat, 0mg Cholseterol)

¼ Cup Agave Nectar (240 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)

4 Table spoon Stevia “Sweet Leaf, Stevia Plus”, or enough to be equivalent to 1Cup Sugar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)

¾ Cup Unsweetend Dark Cocoa: (240 Calories 0g Fat).

2 teaspoons baking soda (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)

1 teaspoon baking powder (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)

½ teaspoon of salt (0 Calories, 0g Fat).

8 teaspoons “Deb El, ‘Just Whites’” powdered egg whites. (Or use 4 egg whites and remove ½ Cup of fluid from green tea). (48 Calories. 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)

1 ½ Cup Cold lightly brewed Green Tea. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)

1 Cup Skim Milk (90 Calories, 0g Fat, 5mg Cholesterol)

2 Table Spoons “Smart Balance” cooking oil with high Omega-3s’ (240 Calories, 28gFat, 0mg Cholesterol)

¾ Cup of Unsweetened apple sauce (75 Calories, 0g Fat)
¾ Cup of unsweetened Lowfat Yogurt. (90 Calories, 1.5gFat)

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)

Note Dark Chocolate actually has benificial anti-oxidants (chemicals like vitamin C) in it, as does green tea. So, this adds some nutrients to our guilt-free cake.

Calorie Total: 1903 Calories
Fat Total: 33.5 g Fat.

If Serving is 1/12: Per Serving: 159 Calories, 2.8g of Fat.
Compare to regular dark chocolate cake: 321 Calories, 11.2g of Fat.
Half the calories, and almost ¼ the fat.

Mix wet ingredients together. Slowly add Stevia powder while mixing.
In separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix dry and wet. Use mix-master good’ol long time till it’s all whipped up and cake-like.

Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F. Greese 9x13 inch pan, Cook 28-30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, will easily burn as will all low fat cakes.

For two round cake pans, cook about 25-28 minutes in the oven. Again, keep an eye on it.

Now for frosting.

NO FROSTING IS HEALTHY!!! Period. After much experimentation, and failures, I’ve found that it simply isn’t possible to make a low fat, low sugar, no refined sugar frosting that doesn’t end up with an absolutely disgusting texture. So, if you really care, don’t frost it. However, below is a not-too-unhealthy frosting you can make.

Fluffy Honey Frosting. Raw honey actually has enzymes and nutrients in it. Even though it’s sugar, and doesn’t have the best glycemic index, raw honey is not empty calories like granulated white sugar. So, it’s not as bad for you.

1 cup Honey
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Whip the egg whites, salt, and vanilla, with electric beater till you get fluffy egg white stuff…. Or until you have stiff peaks, whatever you call it.

On low to medium heat, boil the honey, stirring so it doesn’t burn, in a small sauce pan. When it’s nice’en boily-goey-bubbly slowly pour the hot honey into the egg white fluff as you continue to beat the egg whites with your electric mixer. The hot honey cooks the egg whites, you end up with a fluffy frosting that you can spread all over your cake. Mmmmm…. Is gooey yummy.

If you use the entire batch of frosting on your cake, you’ll add the following to the cake calorie totals.
Calories: 984, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol.

So one serving (1/12 of this batch) is 82 Calories, 0g Fat, 0g Cholesterol.
Compare to a betty crocker frosting mix with 140 Calories and 8g of Fat.

So, for 1 serving, 1/12 of the Frosted Cake, you have: 241 Calories, and 2.8g of Fat, virtually no Cholesterol.

Compare to regular frosted cake of this kind: 461 Calories, 19.2g of Fat.

Update (Good news)

2007-03-27T13:46:52Z

My father went in for surgery this morning. The doctors waited to do it later, because it was very high risk and they wanted to wait until there was more staff on hand in case anything went wrong. Very high risk surgery due to his heart problems and artificial valve. There was a good chance that he'd have a heart attack and die on the operating table, or that re-attaching the colon wouldn't go well, and he'd have to have an external bag as a colon the rest of his life.

Luckily, the surgery went as well as can possibly be expected. He did not have a heart attack, and he won't have to have an external bag attached to him. Thank God.

However, he is not out of the woods yet. Anesthesia is hard on the heart, so they couldn't put him under for very long and so they didn't have a chance to check and see that they got all of the places he was bleeding, just the ones they knew about. So, there's a chance there could still be other places where he's bleeding. Also, in the next 2 or 3 days he is at incredibly high risk to have a heart attack or to get pneumonia (either would likely be fatal). The surgery gave him a fighting chance, but he still has to fight if he's going to make it.

Thank you to everyone that gave well wishing.

I leave for Utah today, should get in very late tonight.

I really liked this

2007-03-22T18:12:08Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

Help to save the planet

2007-03-17T07:09:44Z

It cost an extra $5 a month, but I am proud to declare to the world that my electricity is comming from a Wind Farm with zero emissions to the atmosphere, and using renewable energy that isn't going to disappear until the sun does.

Do what you can.

richykid @ 2006-12-03T19:29:00

2006-12-04T00:29:16Z

Niagara Falls!!! (but it gets back up again)

2006-09-12T05:23:49Z

Yay!!!

Last weekend I got to spend the whole time with my sweetie pie Karen. =) yay! yay! yay!

I was sick the whole week before hand (god I hate sinus infections, ewwww) so, considering that and the fact that I'm male, my apartment wasn't in the best of shape, so I spent the 4 hours before she arrived getting myself and my apartment cleaned up. I bought some nice shirts (I didn't have time to do laundry =) ), and got my apartment cleaner than it's been in months (Note, I didn't say clean, I said cleaner). I've been driving down to Delaware alot, so this was her first time in Ithaca. I wanted my cozy little apartment to look it's best for her. I even bought a table cloth to cover up my ugly card table. Plus, I know she loves the smell of vanilla, so I lit a vanilla candle before she came and put out a bunch of vanilla air fresheners (plug ins). I so wanted her to like my little cave.

My poor cutie got stuck in traffic and it took her 6 hours to drive down (should take about 4 and a half). My poor sweetie was so sleepy. I took her out to get some food, then we curled up together and fell asleep. It was so nice to have her close to me. (I love her so much).

Anyway, so the next day we headed up to go see Niagara Falls. And, guess what, absolutely nothing went as planned. We were going to drive up, see everything, then drive back, but we realized that the drive up was about an hour and a half longer than we thought. (We thought it was 2hrs, was really about 3.5 hours.) So, I had to get a hotel room, otherwise all that driving in one day would have killed the trip. By the time we got up there we were so tired that we just had to take a nap for a while. Personally, I liked just getting to cuddle with her.

Then, when we decided to go see the falls I got us lost (whoops, wrong turn) and we didn't get near the falls until it was almost dark. Nothing was going as planned, but you know what, it didn't matter. I loved being with her. Even when we were lost, or stuck in traffic, or what not, I just loved being with her. So, luck turned up, we had to go to the casino cause we heard from the attendant at the hotel that it was the best place to convert your U.S. bills into canadian. And, guess what, you get to park at the Casino for Free!!! And it's within walking distance of most things. We got our canadian money, and gee it looks weird. This was my first time outside of the United States. It was kind of an odd feeling knowing I was in a different country, and it didn't really hit me until I had that weird money in my wallet. My favorite was the 2dollar coin. It looks like a quarter with a penny inside the middle.

Okay, so we were starving. But, near the bottom of the casino, where you can exit and look off at the falls, was a nice little resturant. We got to be seated outside, where we could hear the falls in the background, and there was romantic music playing softly in speakers tucked inside the bushes. It was so nice just to sit out there, holding her hand, listening to the sounds of the falls.

Then, when we were finished, we went hand in hand down the walkway that extends above and alongside the U.S. and Canadian falls while they did the light show. It was dark, so they projected beautiful colored lights onto the falls, and birds would fly through the lights at night, glowing in the darkness like enchated pixies. After we had seen the falls, we walked up (can't remember street name) where they had a whole bunch of tourist attractions. There were at least 3 or 4 haunted houses, Guiness Book of World records museum, Ripleys believe it or not museum, Marvel comics amusement center (we snagged a shot of me looking terrified of the motorized green goblin). My poor sweeties ears were starting to get cold as the air cooled off, so I got her a "Niagara Falls" knit cap for her pretty head to protect those ears of hers. We got to just wander through the city, looking at all the lights, all the attractions. We wandered through the Guiness book of World records museum to see the freaky stuff (but it was in the Ripleys, woops).

It was just great to be with her, and see the city.... Then I broke out laughing as we heard our first Canadian use the phrase "Aye". He he he he. i'd heard that was just made up, but apparently they really do it. "Does anyone have a light for a cigarrette, Aye?" he he he he he. For some reason I thought it was funny. We both broke out laughing after he was out of earshot.

more to come.... Is very tiered... will finish the saga of the trip to Niagara falls tomorrow.