SUPRISE!!!!!

Hehehehehe!

Little does my Phoenix know, but tonight we have a surprise party planned for her birthday! We have no power at home, so she can’t see this! Hooohahahahaha!

Well, yesterday we went out to Kobe Japanese Steakhouse and did the whole hibachi thing with the drinks in little statues and such. She had never been to one, and it was a blast. We stuffed ourselves silly, and then they came out with a small birthday cake and sang the Japanese version of happy birthday and hit their gongs a lot, then took a picture. It was quite a lot of fun, which was good because she was feeling blue about no one remembering her birthday. Wow wait till tonight.

So tonight I am going to blindfold her when we get into the car, and take her to Martin and Elizabeth’s house, where we are going to have a big birthday party for her! Woo hoo!
I can’t wait! She is going to be soooo surprised!


Now if the Orlando Utility Commission would just surprise me and get our power fixed, I would be happy too!

I did not take this one, but here is the leading storm band coming into Orlando 

Still whistling in the dark

Still no power and it really stinks. Really it does. Despite cleaning out the freezer with Clorox, it smells terrible.

Still many communities around Orlando are without power, and some now are getting water alerts, where the residents need to start boiling their water. The trend I have noticed is that it’s the less affluent parts of town that are not getting the help as fast, as compared to the richer side of town. Go fig.

I must admit, the lack of sleep, and the annoyance of not having power has frazzled my nerves. I know there are people out there who are much worse off, but I’m tired and cranky.

Well this weekends plan really depends on what happens with the electricity. If there is none, we can’t leave the birds to broil, so it will be hanging around the house, or short trips out to local sites. Maybe if I can get Phoenix her bike this week, we will go out riding.

I really want to put the pictures up, but I need power! Oy!

Whistling in the dark, whistling in the dark

Yet another day without power. I can’t put up the storm pictures without power!

Yesterday, Phoenix and I discovered a new video game… Quest for Ice.

And we sucked at it. The penalty- everything in our freezer is now spoiled and in the trash, and we now live on fruits and canned food… and ramen…*sigh* Its depressing!
But today Phoenix has proved her skill and got us three bags of ice today. I guess we’ll put the canned drinks and fruit in the cooler.
Thanks to Martin and Elizabeth for letting me come and take a nice warm shower. It was way spiff.

I like storms, but I am discovering I really don’t like not having power in Florida. A fan would be a wonderful thing. I think I will be more prepared next time. Maybe get me a generator.

On another note, Happy Birthday Dad! I hope you have many more!

A Maze of Streets

The next day, we awoke and decided at some point that we needed to drive out to see if Phoenix’s work (the bird store) was still there. We went outside to find many trees down in the neighborhood, our neighbors back porch ripped to shreds, roofs stripped bare of their shingles in patches. But this was not to be the worst. When we saw the main streets of our powerless city (no traffic lights which made going slow) it was amazing. Besides the normal trees and telephone poles being either damaged, or laying on the road, huge billboards (you know, the one being held up by huge thick steel girders) were bent or snapped and completely collapsed. I saw one of these that had collapsed on a delivery truck. Most businesses had some sort of minor damage, such as awnings ripped and such, but occasionally one would see a business that was half collapsed. We went on our merry way to the bird store, and took our traditional route, which goes down various back ways to get there, as it is the fastest. We found that we had entered a maze. Almost every road we went down was blocked by fallen trees. We got completely turned around at one point, but we managed to find a main road and got to the store, to meet some of Phoenix’s co-workers who were doing the same thing. The one positive aspect of this is that there is an avocado tree in the back of the store, and we collected about 12 avocados that had been blown off the tree, so at least we got something out of the trip.

At some point Sat. we also decided to go visit Martin, as that we could not seem to dial out, on the cell, and when we got there, a thunderstorm came through. Talk about adding insult to injury! On top of that it wasn’t your average thunderstorm, it was one of those blowing, crashing, step outside and it feels like a waterfall type storm. We got there, and they weren’t home! Oy!

So, we decided to go see a movie (all the malls were fine and open, go fig) and saw alien vs. predator. Nice effects well worth seeing for that, but don’t bother with the plot.

Got home, lit up candles and enjoyed the rest of the night relaxing with my Phoenix.

Charley comes to visit

Sorry about the no updates. The power went out, and is still out as we speak at my house.

Wow what a storm. We got the bird room all sealed up, and hunkered down on the living room couch and watched the storm. The winds started to pick up gradually as the center of the storm got closer and closer. At one point we started to see green flashes of light, which at first I thought was lightning, but could not hear the thunder associated with them. Then I realized, as it happened at the edge of our street, it was transformer fuses blowing. After three flashes came from the end of the street (each have three fuses as far as I know) out went the power.
The wind continued to increase in the darkness, only going from east to west thankfully (the stuff in the carport would have been blown everywhere otherwise) and the huge live oak tree across the street began falling apart. The wind was fairly constant, but a huge gust would come that was frightening to watch. Each gust you could hear coming before it hit like a roar. The wind almost seemed desperate. You could hear the POP! CRACK! of branches falling off the trees that ended up being as large as 2-3 foot in diameter. One of them fell on the neighbor’s car and crushed its rear end and rear window. This went on for quite some time and the rain came down in sheets. Suddenly announcing itself before hand with the sound of a freight train about to crash on us, one final gust blew that seemed to want to rip everything from its foundations and the world strained to stay in place.

Then it was over.

We were in the eye of the storm.

The rain and wind came back after that, but it seemed paltry. A mere 30 mph wind that paled to what turned out to be 100 mph gusts we were getting.

We shined the flashlight to the road to see what we could see, but, outside of debris in the road, it was too dark to see much. And we went to bed…

And another 

Here are a couple of pics of the second band of storms... 

The first wave hits

Well, the first wave of storms came through rather quicky, becoming very dark and raining hard. There was thunder in the distance that was a continual rumble for about 15 minutes. Very cool... Charlie's track has moved and is now heading right for us.

Look at the glass, you can see that it has fell!

So we wish that you would hurry up and strike! Strike the bell!

All hands on deck! Baton down the hatches! Pull in the mainsail!

Ok, not that bad, but in preparation for Charlie, I have tried to move all the stuff in the carport so it wont blow away. Friends from Tampa are staying here in Orlando (at Martin's), and I hope to get some good pictures, but I doubt it will be any more spectacular then a good thunder storm when it gets here, but we will see.
The event scheduled for this weekend is still going... And good luck to them because I don't think they will have many attendees. All the 2 million folks who left Tampa are going to want to come back tomorrow, and the site is low lying on top of it all. I have a better idea, why not hold the event in Lake Eola...
Otherwise, I have been sick since yesterday and fairly miserable taking doses of nightquil, making me spaced out and miserable.So I took advantage of the time and re formatted my computer (Its an HP and it sucks ass, the generic next to it has 1/2 the processing speed and is 2x as fast)
Well, I will post Hurricane pictures as it happens!
N

Attack of the Corporate Clones

It's hard writing for the past few days because of the ramp up for the peak this semester.

But the big news is:

I cut my hair!

Yes, I now look the part of the corporate clone that I am. But thus far everyone seems to like it. I now look like I’m 20 and still wet behind the ears. *sigh*

At least it’s easier to wash my hair now.

Fighter Practice at Martin’s tonight. I can’t wait!

More soon

Quantum Sleeper

Quantum Sleeper

Some morning wierdness and paranoia for you...

MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq: AL QAEDA

MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq: AL QAEDA

More follow up on that attack from yesterday.

What confuses me is why this has gotten almost no coverage in the news?

One of my co-workers is convinced that its becuase the media thinks this wouldn't make Bush look bad, so they have ignored it.
But if you follow that logic, this would be a great story to put on spin. The media could take the tack that our troops are fighting the good fight, and that Bush's incompetancy let Al-Qaeda attack
them.

I dont know... Just Crazy...

New Bush Quote

"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

-Bush at signing ceremony for the new 417 BILLION dollar defense budget

MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq: Men In Black

MY WAR - Fear And Loathing In Iraq: Men In Black

You know, I know there is a lot of negativity told about Iraq, and there is a lot of good going on there, but read this account, and you will know we dont get the full story about the bad stuff either.

Quote of the day:

John McCain: "Presidential ambition is a disease which can only be cured by embalming fluid."

4...3...2...1... Earth Below us, drifting, falling...

Woke up this morning at 2am to see the messenger launch, and I think it was well worth it. The alarm went off and I bounced out of bed, much to Phoenix’s chagrin, who did not react with as much excitement from being forced out of her slumber in the middle of the night. I looked outside and saw the moon, so it was clear, and went to the launch website just to make sure nothing else had happened to cancel the launch. Much to my relief, it was on! I dragged poor Phoenix outside to the street, and was somewhat bummed because there was some cloud cover. After a couple of minutes, when I was sure that it should have gone off, I thought that there were too many clouds in the way. To my surprise, right when I was turning to go, there it was, like a bright flare going off in the distance burning though the slight haze that was in the sky. Phoenix and I watched as it got smaller and smaller and finally died away. Then went back to bed.

I love launches. Even from 40 miles away they inspire me.

Seaworld!

Not much time to write today, so I will be quick…

Friday Phoenix and I watched the Manchurian Candidate and it was a good movie… made me feel really creeped out at the end. Sea World was a lot of fun on Saturday. Watched Shamu (or whatever the whale is really called) go through the typical show stuff, which I have to say is very entertaining if you are in the splash zone (which we were) The dolphin show was the same way. Much more interesting being in the splash zone. Finally got to go on the Atlantis ride, and got wet on that one too. The funny part was the fact I forgot to mention to Phoenix that the big plunge into the water was not the end of the ride. She smacked me after we rocketed around the end part of the ride. To tell the truth, I forgot that there was more. By that time we were too tired to do much anything else and went home and zonked.
Sunday, well we cleaned the bird cages and had a pleasant day just laying around the house and talking and getting some good alone time in with my favorite bird.

Woke up at 2am this morning to see if the launch (messenger) was going to happen, looked out the window and saw clouds and said screw it (and it was canceled). Maybe it will launch tonight, but I doubt it. It’s supposed to rain all day because of T.S. Alex drawing moisture from the gulf, so I suspect it will not be clear to either see from Orlando, or it might not go because of weather.

*sigh* pictures later