Rocky Mountain High

Road Trip day 4, Wednesday: The word of the day seemed to be "wow," as both Amy and I said it a lot. I couldn't possibly do justice to everything I saw today in words, and quite frankly, even when the pictures are finally posted, even they won't really be able to do it justice. But a quick overview of everything I did today...

• Woke up in Denver
  
• Visited Buffalo Bill's grave
  
• Hiked a mile from the aforementioned grave to the top of Lookout Mountain
  
• Ate a picnic on the shores of Lake Dillon while surrounded by snow capped mountains
  
• Had a one-sided snowball fight
  
• Drove through Glenwood Canyon
  
• Swam in the World's Largest Hot Springs Pool and went down the water slides
  
• Took a detour in Utah on highway 128
  
• Waded in the Colorado River while on said detour
  
• Visited Arches National Park
  
• Watched the sunset over the arches and canyons
  
• Saw a shooting star over the mountains
  
• Finally crashed in Provo, UT
  

All in all, a pretty amazing day.

Things to do in Denver when it rains

Road trip day 3, Tuesday, 11:30 pm (Mountain time): You all said there'd be nothing to do in Kansas. You weren't necessarily wrong, but we did try to test that. We consulted the Roadside America and decided to visit Prairie Dog Town and The World's Largest Easel. Prairie Dog Town was moderately fun, though it was a little depressing to see all the caged animals -- the foxes in particular did not look healthy. According to Larry, the owner, a buffalo calf had been born the day before, but the buffalo were in a large fenced in area and they were smart enough to stay far away from the fences were we couldn't see them (or the calf). The easel was... big. That's about all that's worth saying about that. Before leaving Kansas, we decided to have lunch at a steak house, where I had buffalo steak. Then it was on to Colorado.

Just over the border, we visited the Kit Carson Carousel in Burlington. For 25¢, we rode on the oldest carousel in the world which still has its original paint. (Follow what that means?) For $1, we toured the carousel museum. Honestly, the museum wasn't really worth it, but the ride was worth $1.25. Apparently, since it predated "jumper carousels" (where the animals go up and down), it was designed to spin faster than most modern carousels.

Once we were done spinning in circles, we got back on the freeway and shortly thereafter hit a thunderstorm on our way into Denver. The wind was crazy and according to the radio, they had had massive amounts of hail earlier in the afternoon. I was a little worried about our plans to see a baseball game and the radio was only talking about the weather that had happened earlier, and not giving us a forecast, so I called my dad and had him give us a report. The report was promising, and even better, it held true. We got to the stadium about an hour before game time, paid more for parking than for the total of our two tickets, and watched the home team win.

Once again, there are pictures, but they'll have to wait...

Rockies 8, Cardinals 3

My prediction that I would see lots of homeruns at this game came true, with a total of four, two for each team. Yorvit Torrealba's 4th inning grand slam for the Rockies and Jim Edmonds's 7th inning solo shot for St. Louis were both caught by the same family, sitting a few rows ahead of us. In fact, I briefly thought that I might have a chance at Torrealba's ball. The dad caught the first and one of the sons caught the second. Problem is, the family had three kids total, so I'm betting they still found a way to fight over them. (And the kid who caught the ball was definitely being possessive over it when his little sister tried to look at it.) The final homerun of the night was a two run shot by one of my fantasy players, Brad Hawpe, so I was happy.

But enough about the game and on to the stadium review... Coors Field has the cheapest tickets I've seen at any major league ballpark (at least on non-$1 student nights) -- $4 to sit in the "Rockpile," a set of bleachers in deep centerfield. Because I had to agree to buy Amy's ticket to get her to agree to the game, those are the tickets we bought. However, thanks to some friendly Coors Field attendants and the small crowd, we moved up to the "Pavilion" where the tickets are $17. Not a bad deal at all -- thanks Marna and John.

A few of the stadiums I've been to have a local delicacy that you can't get at any other stadium, like Skyline Chili in Cincinnati. However, Coors Field has what is easily the most bizarre food I've ever eaten at a ballgame -- Rocky Mountain oysters. I asked the guy behind the counter what they tasted like before I decided to order them. "A woman asked me that last week and I told her 'They don't taste like your boyfriend's.'" With a response like that, how could I not get them? The honest answer to my question, in case anyone else ever wants to try some, is that it has the slightly rubbery texture of squid and tastes like... salty deep fried beef.

Toto, I think we're in Kansas now

Road trip day 2, Monday, 11:45 pm (central time): We drove 710 miles today and are currently in a Days Inn in Hays, KS. Kansas is as boring as you all told me it would be, but more on that in a bit.

We started out the morning with a quick detour to see the largest waterfalls in Indiana -- Cataract Falls, just outside of Cloverdale. They were all right, but nothing like Tahquamenon in the upper peninsula of Michigan. However, there was a covered bridge spanning the top of the falls, so that bumped up its coolness factor a notch. I took some pictures, but I have to wait until I have a faster internet connection before I post them.

From Indiana, we drove westward through Illinois where we toyed with the idea of seeing Lincoln's log cabin birthplace until we realized it was a 17 mile detour off the freeway and we had too much driving to do, so instead we continued on to St. Louis. This was our major break for the day, as I rode the little tram to the top of the Gateway Arch. I was surprised just how claustrophobic the little tram cars are. The Arch, which I now think of as a giant space age ferris wheel with a stop at the top, looks right over Busch Stadium on one side and the Mississippi on the other... again, pictures forthcoming.

Following St. Louis, we got back on the road and drove... and drove. Brian Wilson's album, Smile, a concept album themed around the history of the United States from East to West accompanied us, followed by a Judy Blume book on CD. We stopped in Kansas City (MO) for some barbecue at Arthur Bryant's, which was recommended by a friend and now I recommend it to you. Have the ribs. I also snapped a shot of Kauffman Stadium from the freeway. We didn't stop for a game, as I've changed my mind and decided to see my allotted-only-one game in Denver tomorrow night.

Then more driving through Kansas, complete with rain and construction -- but no tornadoes to take us to Oz. We did have the BBC radio version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the only thing that made Kansas semi-bearable. Tomorrow... more Kansas! And then the St. Louis Cardinals take on the Colorado Rockies. I expect to see lots of homeruns.

Indiana Wants Me

Road trip day 1, Sunday (Monday) 12:30 AM (or 1:30 AM? Frickin' Indiana with their inconsistent time zones): Had to wait for Amy to get back from North Carolina before we could leave, so we didn't get on the road until 7:30 pm. We planned on stopping in Indianapolis (about 4-5 hours from Ann Arbor), but then a friend reminded us that the Indy 500 is this weekend. Thus, we went a little farther and are now in Cloverdale, IN at an America's Best Value Inn. The "free Internet" is not working, so I'm not sure when I'll post this.

No real highlights to speak of, other than our quick stop outside Fort Wayne to eat at a Waffle House. I haven't been to a Waffle House since spring break junior year, when we ate at something like five different Waffle Houses on our way down and back to Florida. I forgot how cheap it is -- dinner for under $5!

Tomorrow, St. Louis and Kansas City... maybe we'll stop somewhere interesting and I'll have pictures.

More dress pictures

Having enjoyed making the first dress, I went back to JoAnn Fabrics, bought another pattern (Vogue 8381) and made another dress.

I'm not sure I like how this one turned out as much -- it hangs a little too high above my waist and the stitching isn't as even as I'd like it to be. This pattern was a bit trickier than the last one. The bodice has a lining, which means that everything had to be done twice and in exactly the same manner for things to meet up right. I didn't quite succeed at that, hence the slightly uneven waist line.

Also, strangely enough, my camera does not like to pick up the color purple resulting in the bodice looking a lot bluer than it actually is (left image). (I've noticed this before... is there any reason why a lot of cameras don't pick up purple well? Johnston, I'm looking at you.) I adjusted the colors in Paint Shop Pro, but once the top was close to it's actual purple color (right image), the skirt and my skin were too orange. Ah, well... use your imagination to get the idea of what the real dress looks like.

And as an extra bonus, we had a barbecue at my house, and I wore the first dress, along with the pearls Jenn gave me for being in her wedding. To complete the image of the 1950s housewife, I was given a broom while my friend Cailin took a picture. I submit for your mockery, the resulting photograph:

Indians 7, Tigers 4

I finally found baseball fan friends in Michigan! Today, four of us drove to Detroit to catch the battle for the American League Central. Sadly (for me), this battle did not involve the Twins, who are currently floundering in fourth place. But it was still a nice night for a sold out game, even if the home team didn't win.

We missed the top of the first because of traffic. Now that Comerica sells out, the single lane off-ramp to the stadium isn't enough to deal with the 20,000+ cars all trying to get to the game at the same time and we didn't quite make it. Lucky for us, the design of Comerica is such that while standing in the Will Call line, we were able to see the main scoreboard. Thus, I still managed to score the first inning, even though I didn't actually see either of the two Indians homeruns. Unfortunately for the Tigers fans amongst us, this meant that we sat down at our seats with the home team already down by two. Detroit had a few offensive rallies after that, but they never caught up to Cleveland, who had a few more rallies of their own.

The defensive play of the game goes to Jason Michaels of Cleveland, who stole a three run homer from Craig Monroe in the third by leaping up over the left field wall and making the catch. Had he not jumped quite so high, we'd be talking about a different ball game.

The most-overrated player award goes to Gary Sheffield, who went 0-for-4. On at least two occasions, if he had lived up to his $28 million dollar paycheck and gotten a hit, the Tigers would have scored another run. I find it ironic that his at-bat song is "This is Why I'm Hot" -- it should be "Tell Me Why I'm Not." While Sheffield's run-in with Chris House back in 2005 resulted in me getting excellent seats in Fenway for two games, that doesn't mean I like him.

Candidacy

I passed my prelims!

This makes me officially a PhD candidate. And now I'm going to the Tigers/Indians game to celebrate.

Suzy Homemaker

I did my oral quals last Friday, promptly got bored and made a dress. I'm still not exactly sure why I decided to do that.

It was Butterick's pattern 4790 ("Retro '52 Wrap Dress"). I picked it because the pattern claimed it was "very easy" which turned out to be correct as even a novice seamstress such as myself was able to finish it in under two days. Well, not finish... there are two snaps left to be sewn on. But I can fake it without those snaps, especially when I take the picture from the side. It's kind of pretty, though if I had it to do over again, I would have used a solid green fabric for the front instead of the mottled green print.

This may become a new hobby. I haven't decided yet.

Roadtripping

I need advice. Starting next Monday I'll be on a roadtrip from Ann Arbor to San Francisco, where my friend Amy has an internship for the summer. (She wanted her car out there and didn't want to drive out alone, so I agreed to go with her.) We already have plans to stop in Kansas City, where I will complete my tour of AL Central stadiums and catch a baseball game. Other than that, we're pretty much plan-less.

Anyone have ideas of things to do in either Kansas or Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, or Nevada?

Bill Clinton

Last weekend, amongst the hustle and bustle of my parents being here and seeing three baseball games in three days, I also graduated. I am officially a Master of Science now... of course, that means very little to me right now since my prelim paper is due tomorrow and I really shouldn't be wasting time writing this. But I wanted to post a link to the commencement address, given by former President Clinton. The speech exceeded even my high expectations, even as planes flew over the stadium with banners proclaiming anti-Hillary/anti-abortion rhetoric. (He didn't mention Hillary once, for whatever that's worth.) It was infinitely better than the speech given by the head of the NIH, who spoke at MIT in 2004. Plus, at Michigan they don't call all the graduates by name and have them walk on stage -- they have separate graduations by college for that, which I happily skipped. All in all, it was a nice way to spend a morning before heading off to Toledo for a ballgame.

So without further ado: the speech.

Edit: Bill Clinton just got a lot more awesome in my book.