Shut up and eat your food, old man!

After working a lot of late nights and weekends for the past few months, I took a much-needed vacation for a couple of weeks. And to what exotic locations did I travel, you ask? Italy? The Bahamas?

Nope. I traveled to West Virginia and Florida. Woo hoo! I drove to West Virginia a couple of weeks ago to visit my grandmother and my dad's side of the family. My dad was already up there. I spent a week there going to a cousin's high school football game, sampling the "Taste of Charleston", and watching lots and lots of CSI (Spike TV had a marathon).

After that, I drove to Florida to see my friend Laura's new daughter. I spent several more days watching CSI and generally doing nothing. We did get to go see the musical Mama Mia, which was very good (if you like the music of ABBA). I arrived after Frances and left before Ivan. I guess Florida survived Hurricane Don as well.

So what exciting pictures do I have? Absolutely none. For some reason, I didn't think pictures of me laying on the couch watching TV would be very exciting. Well, I guess that would depend on what I wore.

Here are the trip highlights:

• Number of miles driven: 3447 miles.
• Number of hours driven: approximately 50 hours.
• Number of bugs killed on my windshield: 0. I maintain they committed suicide.
• Number of books "read" on the trip: 4.8. I listened to 5 books on CD while I was driving, but one of them only had 4 out of its 5 CDs in the jewel case.
• Number of repairs needed after the trip: 1. I had to get a new battery. When I tried to leave Florida Friday morning, my car wouldn't start because the battery was dead. I was jumpstarted to get on my way, and I had to get jumpstarted the last time I stopped for gas in Louisiana.
• Number of touchdowns my cousin scored in his football game: 1. I believe it was a 62 yard catch.
• Number of touchdowns my cousin still needs to score to equal my career touchdown totals in high school: Uh, he's already 1 ahead of me.
• "Shut up and eat your food, old man!" When I was in high school, my dad is the only person I've ever witnessed getting a technical foul at a basketball game as a spectator (for yelling too much or for saying things he probably shouldn't). And he got two. In other words, my dad can yell. At my cousin Andrew's football game, a couple of the opposing fans were yelling at the refs because "our" team was taking too long to run plays (they were incorrect, by the way). This went on for several plays. Later in the game, the opposing team lost yardage on a play, and my dad yelled, "Well maybe they should take more time." An older fan for the other team told my dad that "there was no call for that" although he was one of the people yelling at the refs earlier, to which my dad replied, "Shut up and eat your food, old man!" Good to know he hasn't changed. :)
• Best nickname: Nutsy the Clown. My friend Laura's mom is staying with Laura and her husband Ron while the mom works on her 12th divorce (nope, that's not a typo). Nutsy the Clown is the nickname Ron has given his mother-in-law, which I find hilarious for some reason.

So, that was the trip. And what a long, strange trip it's been.