Hilarious Commercial - Air Action Vigorsol

I have no idea what this commerical is for, but it cracks me up, evenif it is gross.

Flashbacks of SEMO Days

I'm surviving week two of classes, but it's getting harder. Two of my classes are sticking to their respective syllabi very well. My technology class, not so much. Along with the lengthy articles assigned each week, our professor keeps adding readings to each week. I know all professors, and teachers for that matter, always have the little "This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor's discretion..." statement and I'm okay with that if they add something relative. I just was forced to read the transcripts (not well written ones at that) from a tv show from 1997. Many of the things mentioned in the program have already happened and are no longer "cutting edge" or the predictions of doom and gloom (Apple won't make it another 5 years) have definitely not come to pass. I was reading this as I was watching a student, yes a student, play with their new Iphone today in class. While I realize that this class is important, I wish the professor would remember that none of us are full-time grad students. Everyone in the class has a regular job, plus we're all taking multiple classes in addition to his. I guess I'm just getting a little worried since I feel like if I devote time to my other class, this one slides and if I give this class all the time it seems like I'm going to have to devote to it, the other class will struggle. At least I finished the 1 hour class last week and it's out of the way. I'm having several flashbacks from SEMO, or Southeast as it is commonly known now, from classes where the professors thought their class was the most important class you'd ever take and in order to do well, you had to let other equally important classes slide a little bit. I survived those classes and I'll survive this one as well. Unfortunately, I'm not finding it as easy to do this now as I did 10-15 years ago!

What Would You Like To Be When You Grow Up?

How about a "jobber"? That's right, when you grow up, you can be a jobber. In learning vocabulary for one of my Library Science classes, I found out that jobbers fill orders for libraries by stocking them with materials they have purchased directly from the publishers, getting huge discounts which they then pass onto the libraries. I just think the word is funny: jobber, jobber, jobber. Now I know I've lost my mind!

In a related note, I have to come up with a topic to do a major paper on in my technology class. It has to be related in some way to technology, so if anyone has any possible ideas, feel free to pass them along.

Pressure

Okay, so school has once again started up for me, both as a teacher and a student. Once again, I find myself succombing to pressure and I keep hearing the Queen/David Bowie song playing over and over in my head. To say that I'm a little stressed is an understatement!

School - teaching, is always busy and hectic at this time of the year. There is just so much paperwork to get together along with testing and screening. Luckily for me, my partner in crime (the lady I co-teach with) is back this year after a scary bout with cancer last year at the beginning of school. As a result, I am definitely further along than I was at this time last year! I keep reminding myself of this fact and counting my blessings. I just hate all of the meetings and paperwork.

School - student: OH MY LORD!!!! Okay, I was stupid enough to take three classes this semester. The first one is a one hour, do it on your own agenda, just get it done by December 8th, web-class. At first this appeared to be no problem. Then I found out about my other classes. One is a Reference and Resources class, and while it appears to be okay, I'm waiting for the hammer to fall. The other class is Intro. to Technology Services. The key word for me was "INTRO". Apparently, at Mizzou, this really means "Advanced". I have to build a webpage from scratch!!! OH MY LORD!!!! I have no idea what I'm doing, no I can't use Dreamweaver, yet I have to pass this class. After our little quiz Monday night, I did feel a little bit better because I realized that I was light years ahead of the lady sitting next to me who didn't know what a cell or spreadsheet was. However, victory is somehow not as satisfying when your victory boils down to not being the most retarded individual in the class. But hey, I'll take what I get. I think they should offer this class as one "for Dummies" and count me in!

If you don't hear from me for a while, I've been buried under a pile of books and papers in some unnamed library in the St. Louis area. Send help or at least let my parents know of my demise!

The Funniest Sign from the Vacation

Just so you know, the priests at the cathedral in Atlanta have decided that we humans have given the Lord too many responsibilites. When we saw this sign, it cracked all of us up and we decided that it was definitely the funniest sign of the trip.

Day 5,6, and 7 Atlanta and Home

After Andersonville, we returned to Atlanta late Thursday afternoon. Kenny's mom had travelled with us to Atlanta to visit with his brother while we were in Savannah and we all went to dinner that night at the Louisiana Kitchen, which is an expanded version of Popeye's. It was really good, but by this point, I had eaten so much fried chicken I told Kenny I thought I was about to start clucking and laying eggs.

On Friday, we all got up and went to the new and improved World of Coca-Cola. It was really neat, especially the tasting room. If you go, stay away from the European drink called "Beverly". It is the nastiest soda I have ever tasted. I can't even begin to describe the flavor. However, make sure you visit the Asian dispensing area. There is a green apple soda from China that is fantastic. I really think they should sell it here in the U.S. I could probably make it worthwhile to bottle it here. After touring the World of Coca-Cola, we found the Cathederal for the Atlanta Diocese. Being used to St. Louis and the Basilica, it was kind of weird to realize that their cathedral was smaller than St. Francis Borgia, the church we attend here in Washington. That evening, we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner. Yes, this is a restaurant with a Jimmy Buffet theme, much like Margaritaville. It does have excellent hamburgers and if you get near one, and you love a good burger, I would recommend this restaurant as well.

On Saturday, we all went to play a round of mini-golf, a favorite Etter family pasttime. Kenny's mom has won several gold medals in the Senior Olympics for her golfing skills in St. Louis. Needless to say, no one in my family plays golf, mini or regular, and I felt a little inept, but I did beat Greg, which made me feel better.

On Sunday, we started the long drive home. We made it in late on Sunday, where all of us crashed until late Monday morning. Last week was spent recuperating and getting ready for school to start this week. Summer is officially over, and it seemed too short for me. I started school today, I start college Monday, and the students come in on Tuesday. I guess we're off and running!

Day 4 Andersonville Prison Site and National Cemetery

The vacation wasn't all mindless fun. My cousin Sarah has started researching our family tree and found out that we had a grandfather, Nathaniel Green Henderson, who was a POW during the Civil War at Andersonville. Since we were so close to Andersonville, Kenny and I thought it would be a shame if we didn't go get some pictures of the tombstone and do some rubbings. Having been to Andersonville before, I was prepared for the eeriness of a Civil War Battlefield/Prison site. Knowing that you have a relative who was there and who died from a totally treatable disease today lends the place a whole new level of sadness. I did a little bit of research before we went to find out more about how our ancestor landed in Andersonville. He was from Tennessee, but fought with a Union Calvary Regiment. He was captured by General Forrest, the founder and first grand wizard of the KKK, at the Battle of Ft. Pillow, TN. Apparently, Gen. Forrest captured Ft. Pillow and took all of the Union soldiers there as POWs, except the Union regiments made up of African Americans. These he ordered his troops to slaughter, while the other POWs watched, by running them through with bayonets. From the accounts I read about this battle, it became a pivotal battle because it spurred the African American soldiers to fight even harder during battle. Apparently one of their rallying cries became "Remember Ft. Pillow". After reading about the battle and conditions at Andersonville, it was sobering to see how close the headstones were and realize just how many men of all ages lost their lives during the Civil War. It also made us reflect on how we humans never seem to learn, what with the headlines from today. On the day we visited, there was a funeral going on for a soldier. Unfortunately, the more things change, the more some things remain the same.

Historic Savannah - a photoset on Flickr

Historic Savannah - a photoset on Flickr

Here is a set of pictures from Savannah with some descriptions of what we saw while we were there. Enjoy!

Savannah Day 3

We devoted our entire third day in Savannah to touring a couple of houses that I definitely wanted to see. First, we made our way to the Mercer-Williams House, the scene of the "incident" in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. While I was unable to take any pictures inside the house, I was able to get a pretty decent picture from across the street. It was really cool to see the inside of this house. In a little bit of movie trivia, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil wasn't the only movie shot in this house. The parlor of the Mercer-Williams House was used as the study of Matthew Broderick's character in Glory. They say that if you pay careful attention in several scenes from Glory, you can see a palm tree growing outside in the yard. Palm trees would definitely not survive in Boston! We continued on with our touring of historic houses by touring the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. It was neat to see where she grew up, and I was a bit surprised that her family was considered "middle class". To me, it seemed that they were pretty wealthy. After that, we went to the Telfair Museum of Art, where we were lucky enough to get up close and personal with the statue of Bird Girl, the famous statue from Midnight in the Garden. Originally, this statue was in a family plot in Bonaventure Cemetery, but idiots in search of the statue started disrupting burial services and destroying and damaging graves by tromping through them to see the statue, so the family donated the statue to the Telfair for safe keeping. In a related note, we did go to Bonaventure Cemetery just to see it. There were some pretty amazing tombstones and statues in the older plots of the cemetery. I'll be sure to link pictures that we took in Savannah. After a long day of touring around Savannah, Kenny and I headed back toward Central Georgia where we spent the night just south of Macon. All in all, Savannah was a pretty amazing place. It kind of reminded me of New Orleans before Katrina, although much less wild and bawdy. Much to my disappointment, I didn't get to see the Lady Chablis. She wasn't performing again until August 11th, and Kenny had to be back to work by August 6th. Oh well, I guess I'll save that for my next visity.

Tybee Island - a photoset on Flickr

Tybee Island - a photoset on Flickr

Savannah Day 2

The first thing I need to say about Day 2 is Paula Deen, baby!!! We arrived at The Lady and Sons Restaurant at approximately 9:30 AM and were able to put our reservations in for 11:00 AM. There's a tip for you if you go, get there early and put in your name. The young ladies working taking reservations told us to make sure that we were back by 10:45. At 10:45, the head cook comes out and rings the dinner bell and yells, "Are Ya'll Hungry?". Of course the crowd has to yell back that they are. Keep in mind that people are lined up on both sides of the street and she's in the middle, so all traffic stops on this street for about 5-10 minutes. After this, they begin calling names and directing people to which floor you're going to eat on. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for our name to be called and be heading up to our table. When you go, you can order from a menu or you can eat from a buffet. Figuring that we'd get to sample more from the buffet, we chose that route. Also, if you go during lunch, it costs less than if you go at night; again, another helpful tip. The waiters were all very friendly and helpful, so they definitely get a big thumbs up for service. As we were waiting for our waiter to return and bring our drinks and take our order, there were other waiters who came around offering fresh hoecakes and cheese garlic biscuits. I'm still dreaming about those biscuits! The hoecakes weren't bad either. As soon as our waiter took our order, he invited us to head toward the buffet. When we got up there, we couldn't believe the amount of food! Just for lunch, there was fried chicken, Jerk pork chops, collard greens, grits, mashed potatoes, lima beans, baked beans, green beans, squash, and macaroni and cheese. There was also a salad bar, but I decided to live dangerously and forgo the salad. I was saving room for important stuff, like dessert! Trying not to be a complete pig, I made my way down the buffet until I reached my prime destination, the mac and cheese. I had heard while walking around downtown before the restaurant opened that the locals thought Paula Deen makes the best mac and cheese in Savannah. Just as I was about to reach for the spoon, this lady whips around from the other side and grabs it, taking most of the little-remaining mac and cheese. Following her is this older lady who also takes the spoon. While I love my mac and cheese, my momma taught me better than to take out a senior citizen for the last spoonful of mac and cheese. Kenny, who had returned to the table by this time and had a full view of the goings on with the mac and cheese said I looked like someone had killed my cat. Even I have to admit I was pretty distraught about missing out on Paula Deen's mac and cheese. Irrationally, I thought what if they don't put any more out, what if they serve dishes on a rotating basis during lunch on the buffet. While standing there about to leave, I see a young waiter heading my way with a covered dish. He walks up to the buffet and places a gleaming, steaming, fresh batch of mac and cheese on the buffet. As he places the spoon in the dish, Kenny compared me to Mr. Burns on The Simpsons. He said he could just see me almost tapping my fingers together, mentally of course, and saying "Excellent". The lady behind me said to me, "You got rewarded for being so nice and letting those other people have what was left, but you got fresh!" All I can say is that I ate the BEST mac and cheese and fried chicken that I have ever had in my life at The Lady and Sons. I want to go back just for the mac and cheese alone. If you ever get the chance to go, I definitely recommend going to eat there, whether or not you love Paula. After sufficiently stuffing ourselves, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to eat dessert, but then our waiter brought around the dessert tray. Kenny and I selected banana pudding and gooey butter cake, thinking that we could each take bites of the other's dessert and get to enjoy two desserts instead of one. The bananna pudding was good, but once I took a bite of the gooey butter cake, I realized that just by watching her shows I had no idea how much Paula Deen loves butter. After eating that gooey butter cake, I can assure you that she doesn't just love butter, I'm pretty sure she has a shrine to butter somewhere in the restaurant kitchens! This was by far one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. Unfortunately, she was doing a book tour and neither Jamie or Bobby were there either. Kenny said he's glad Jamie wasn't there, since he's pretty sure I'd run off with him, or Duff from Ace of Cakes, and leave Kenny high and dry. If he'd guarantee me a steady supply of Paula Deen mac and cheese or bake me outrageous cakes that explode, I might reconsider leaving him for one of these guys! Seriously, I left with a full stomach and a new funny t-shirt from the Paula Deen store that says "Our Hoes are Complimentary!" While I can't wear it out in public, I can wear it to sleep in while dreaming of fried chicken, mac and cheese, and garlic cheese biscuits!

The rest of the day was spent walking around Savannah and kind of picking out which sites we definitely wanted to tour on Day Three. There are so many places to see that you have to be kind of selective on what you want to pay to tour. Savannah is a great city to visit and the historic district is relatively compact so walking around is no problem. However, it was REALLY hot and HUMID. If that kind of bothers you, I would suggest going in the fall or winter seasons. But it is a great place to visit.

Savannah/Tybee Island Day 1

Okay, it's taken me about one week to process all that we say on vacation. On our first day in Savannah, we headed straight to Tybee Island and the ocean. I absolutely love the ocean and spent so much time swimming in the water that I looked like a prune by the time we left the beach. The lighthouse can be toured and you can climb all the way up to the top. I unfortunately didn't make it up to the top. I made it about half of the way up when my absolute fear of heights got the best of me. I was doing pretty well until they tour guide had to help a man who jumps out of planes in the Army down because he got woozy at the top of the lighthouse. I figured if it made him woozy, I'd probably get frozen at the top and either fall off or be stuck until someone tranquilized me and carried me down. In any case, I didn't make it to the top, but at least I climbed farther than I thought I could.

While we were at the beach, we got to watch a huge cargo ship come in. Savannah is one of the busiest ports in America, and it was really neat to experience the waves this ship created close to shore even though it was several miles away from us. Hopefully, here are the pictures from Tybee now!

On the way to Savannah

Okay, for those of you from Southeast Missouri, you are very familiar with the towns of Dexter and Dudley. Guess what, they are also apparently close to each other in Georgia as well. As we headed to Savannah, via I-16, we came across this road sign and I thought, how ironic that I'm all the way in Georgia and come across a parallel universe from where I grew up. Even stranger, if you take away the spanish moss, the crops and the land look almost identical to the area back home. How weird