I'll add more to this post later, but I have posted a few pics from the trip to NYC Jenn and I went on. You can see them here. Camera equipment as follows:

Canon Digital Rebel XTi
Canon EF-S 10-22mm lens

I've actually been back from Cali since Sunday night. I didn't win the turbo kit, but I did get a free case of NOS energy drink for the drive, and Jesse from turbokits.com gave me a fre ZPI lightweight crank pully for drivnig so far. Very cool.

After 2200 miles of driving up and down the west coast, I have gotten the chance to observe the overall driving skill exhibited from each of the 3 west coast states. And thank God, Washington isn't the worst. Oregonians take the cake as THE worst drivers on the west coast. Here are a couple of observations:

1. Oregonians don't know the meaning of keep right except to pass, to the point where it is posted almost every 20 miles up and down I5.
2. For living in the PNW, they sure don't know how to drive in the rain.
3. They are not even allowed to pump thier own gas!

Seriously though, what is up with that last one? Anyways, the next worst would have to be Washingtonians, and the best drivers on the west coast being the Californians. Now of course there are exceptions, but I bet all the good drivers in Oregon and Washington weren't natives of the state.

I'm off work until this coming Saturday night. Haven't really got much planned but relaxin. Might have to hit up Sakura-Con this Friday. Not sure yet. Anyone going? I know of one friend who might be.

I am on vacation until the 25th of this month. I am going to be out of town for a few days, starting today, as I am heading to an event in Simi Valley, CA:

Should be back at the latest on Monday. If you have my cell number hit me up, keep me company on the 1100 mile drive I'm doing solo!

Wow, someone had way too much time on their hands. The music is by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. They have a few shows coming up in the Northwest, but the night of the Seattle and Spokane shows I am working. So, I decided to get tickets to the Portland show on the 30th. I'll be taking an Amtrak train roundtrip, and staying one night at The Benson hotel in Portland. I've always wanted to ride a train, and it will be nice getting to relax instead of driving down after a 10 hour shift at work.

The hotel has those Tempur-Pedic mattresses too, so I'll get to see what all the hype is about. I have recently tried one of those Sleep Number beds by Select Comfort, so I'll be able to compare the two. I'd love to get one of the two, depending on which is more comforfable.

Ok, now I'm leaving for Utah. Be back Sunday night. If I happen to find an open AP on the road I'll think about posting from the road. heh

Looks like it will have to wait. The hospital doesn't do testing on Saturdays anyways. Melissa is going to call her Medicade worker to find out if they will cover the dna test and if so, then I go down there next weekend. If not, I will order the court accredited kit from gtldna.com.

Talked to Melissa tonight and see seems to be in great spirits. Its always nice to hear her like that. I hate to hear it when she is down. I guess most times I can't help but feel guilty in some way shape or form.

So I had originally planned to go down there after the 31st of this month so I could get all moved and stuff first, and not have to worry about doing that. But if Lillian is mine, I would have to get my name on the birth certificates before then. If not I would then have to go through the process of adopting my own child. Which seems silly, I guess it isn't that big a deal, just a pain. I do get adoption assistance through work, so it wouldn't be that bad. So anywho, here's the plan. After work tomorrow, I leave for Utah. Driving non-stop I should get there a little after 8AM. This accounts for stopping every 4 hours for a 15 minute break, and gas stops, etc. I have been feeling like a road trip for a while. I haven't really taken my truck on a long trip like this yet. Should be fun. :) After I get there Lillian has an appointment to see the doctor at around 11AMish, so I should be able to get a small nap in if I'm tired. Go to the hospital, get the paternaty test, come back to her parents house, sleep, then leave Sunday morning to come back. Gonna be a loooooong Weekend! heh

So yea, Amber and I went out to see the meteor shower Sunday night / Monday morning. On our way back we stopped at one of the rest stops before you start going back over the mountains. Oh yea, didn't I mention it? We went all the way out to the gorge. We actually stopped by the iron horse thing across the river for a bit to watch the shooting stars. It was so beautiful. It makes me sad that I can't go out my door right now and see the milkyway like I did that night. So yea anyways, we stopped at this rest stop and this guy started asking me questions, and I noticed he had an accent. Well, he asked if I was going to California. Nope, sorry. I told him we were on our way to Seattle. I went to the bathroom and came back and he was looking at his map and asked if we could take him to Seattle. I conversed with Amber and we decided to just head all the way back home at this point, instead of stopping again. So I said I could take him to Tacoma. He crammed himself in the back of the cab of my truck after putting his backpack and guitar in the bed. He proceeded to fall asleep and we continued on. He was nice enough, saying how much he liked Americans and all. He is from Slovakia(sp?), and had made it all the way to where we found him from New York. He was on his way to San Francisco and then back to New York where I guess he was going to catch his flight home. We got to Fife where I dropped him off at a truck stop thinking that would be a good place for him to hitch a ride to Cali. This was just around 5AM Monday morn, and then we went home.

Ok, finnaly back from the desert, must say I had a blast. Though, next year, definatly going to have to plan ahead, reserve a room in Palm Springs, and fly down. The day we got down there Tali checked her cell phone and had a message from Ticket Master saying that there was a problem with her order and that the tickets had been canceled. This threw me practically into a panic. Luckily, I did take a laptop down with me and we hopped online to find a local Ticket Bastard outlet to go by tickets from. With that taken care of we chilled the rest of Friday night and had Little Ceazars pizza. I was wondering what had happened to them! Guess its just here in Washington that they don't exist anymore.

Next day we got up and left for the venue, which was a large Polo field, something we don't have up here in Washington to my knowledge. They had the lines split up into alternating Guy/Girl lines. I got in fairly quickly, I'd say less then half an hour, but it was probably another 30 to 45 minutes before Tali got in. After reading the rules I was thinking I would have to empty my pockets and all before I could get in but that was not the case. My pockets were full of stuff, cell phone, wallet, disposable camera, etc and they didn't ask me to empty out anything. I didn't take my digital camera because the rules said only to bring disposable ones. The next day I wised up and brought it, and that's why right now I only have pictures from the second day online. I still need to get the pictures from the first day developed.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Go to the Photography section, and click Coachella 2002. I will be posting more and more pictures in there as I get them developed.

The trip was great, I got to meet BT, get away from work for a while, and see a bit of sun. It's nice to be back home though, green is a much better color then brown...

OK, Tali and I are back from Cali. We left Yucca Valley(near Palm Springs) on Monday morning, stayed at a relatives of hers that night in Bakersville, then left the next morning and drove all the way here. Time to go pass out, will post about the trip and put up pictures later. Its nice to be home...