New Blog

I've created a new blog and don't intend to update this one any more. My new blog is The Wallace Report.

A Day At The Beach

Today, we spent the majority of the day lounging on the beach at
Virginia Beach. Last night we watched Jaws 2 on television. I didn't
get in the water much. Not because of sharks, but mainly because I
don't like sand in places it doesn't belong. I feel relaxed for the
long drive home tomorrow now.

Busch Gardens

Yesterday, we went to Busch Gardens Europe and stayed until we could
barely walk. I hate getting older--I could have closed the place when
I was younger. It was one of the most scenic parks I've ever been to,
except for maybe Disney. The last major ride we rode was Griffon.
I'd been avoiding/dreading it all day, but I knew I'd regret not
riding it. For the uninitiated, Griffon is 200+ feet tall with two
ninety-degree drops. And on the first drop, you hang there looking
straight down for a few seconds before they let you go. It was
probably the scariest ride I've ever been on. It was great.

Captain George's World Famous Seafood Buffet

My latest buffet trip involved going to Captain George's. The line is
themed to look like a clipper ship. The food was excellent. I
noticed they also had a room in the back reserved for a haunted dinner
theatre. Sounded like fun, but we didn't do it. By the time we
finally got out, I'd eaten so much I thought I was going to need a
stomach pump.

Kids!

I'm so glad I'm not a parent, although I think I'd be a better one
than the majority of parents I see. Tonight, I nearly got run down by
a kid in the same restaurant twice (different kid each time). One
almost sent my fully loaded plate flying across the room. Plus there
was the kid eating the ice cream from the machine in my last post.
I'm convinced that manners are a thing of the past, and most parents
are just lazy.

Colonial Restroom

I love the restroom signs at Colonial Wiiliamsburg.

My Gross Out Moment

So we ate at a buffet the other night. I got a piece of apple pie and
was gonna put ice cream on it, when I discovered a waitress cleaning
the machine. She was also scolding a little boy, telling him what he
did was unsanitary. I think he licked the ice cream nozzle. Needless
to say, I decided to forgo the ice cream.

AT&T & TiVo

Oddly enough, AT&T has surprisingly bad coverage in Williamsburg. I
alternate between no service and 1 bar of signal at the condo we're
staying. The web on my phone is already painfully slow on Edge, but
at 1 bar it's almost unusable.

Switching subjects, here is one of the reasons I love my TiVo: the
ability to program it over the Internet. We saw a show advertised on
TV last night that comes on tonight. So I hopped on the web and told
TiVo to record it. It would have been painless if my signal was
stronger, but as it was it took me a while to get the recording
scheduled. I'm hoping someone will make an iPhone application to make
it even easier.

Dangerous ATM

Money flies outta this machine. Kinda like it does from my wallet.
I'll have to take their word for it. While I stood there, no money
came out.

Virginians Love Their Pets

They even gave them their own rest stop.

West Virginia Is F'd Up

West Virginia is an odd place. First of all, there is not a straight
section of road anywhere. The curves are sharp, and when the signs
say you can take one at 60mph, West Virginians know it really means to
go 80mph. Finally--no joke--we saw a sign for a highway called
"9/9". I wondered why they didn't just call it highway "1". Maybe
they don't teach fraction simplification here.

Corn Fields

In Indiana now. If I never see another cornfield, it'll be too soon.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I'm in Albers, Illinois and I'm thinking these people are all high school drop outs. As you can see in the picture, gasoline prices are somewhat unusual.

Hurricane Bertha, Part II

Well, Hurricane Bertha appears to be turning away from the U.S. Virginia Beach, here I come!

Digital Signatures

I'm all about technology. But one thing that irks me are those digital signature pads stores want you to use when you use a credit card. First of all, they are rarely calibrated correctly. You push down in one area and your digital "ink" shows up halfway across the screen. It makes it very hard to write your name. And then the second thing that bothers me is that you cannot even read the signature after you are done. I'm gonna start putting a big "X" on the signature line and see if anyone notices.

Hurricane Bertha

Okay, so I'm getting ready to go on vacation to Virginia, and there appears to be a hurricane heading toward the east coast on the United States: Bertha. What are the chances that a hurricane would occur on the one week I could get a reservation? This trip could turn out more interesting than originally thought!