Being Thankful

I am here at Lauren's for the Thanksgiving holiday. We leave tomorrow morning to head back home. School starts on Wednesday. At work we are in the process of raising money for St. Jude. With this fundraiser we are reminded to be thankful for our health, friends, and family. I had a friend die many years ago due to cancer. I have been thinking about him lately and being thankful for every day that is given to me.

Always be thankful.

New Frontier

I am perusing a newer direction in my curriculum. I have been going for a Artificial Intelligence concentration. I am presently finishing a class in Digital Design. I am really enjoying the material, I asked my professor about doing some research. They presently do not have any research spots open for undegrads. Instead he is allowing me to an independent study under his direction. I am going to be building a semi-autonomous intelligent robot. I have pretty much settled on a project and will hopefully present the idea to him on Monday.

I guess I need to get back to studying for finals.

The Update

It has been many months since I have posted an update. School had started and I have been constantly busy between work, school and everything inbetween. I will start updateing much more often once I get everything settled down. This week coming up is finals week for us so I will be busy trying to make the grades I need.

Home

The trip was a great vacation, I really needed it before school started again. I just wish I could have had a longer one. We left North Carolina on Saturday, and arrived on the Montgomery, AL. Sunday morning we left from there to head to Kenner, LA. We got to Kenner that afternoon then went to Lauren's Aunts house. We helped her go through some stuff that she was getting rid of before she moved. Monday morning we got back up and Lauren and I headed back to Ruston, La. I had to work that night, so we were trying to get back a little before I had to go to work.

Right now I am just trying to get back into the swing of life here and work before school starts next month. Hopefully another update will be coming soon.

Leaving North Carolina

A picture of the mountains as we were leaving NC this morning.

Rafting

That is the three of us white water rafting. Lauren's dad (yellow bill on his hat), Lauren (sitting behind her dad), and Me (I am wearing the red billed hat) went rafting a little while ago. It was awesome, I have never done white water rafting before. Actually, I have never done any kind of rafting before. It was a little work trying to paddle the boat. I didn't get too wet, but Lauren almost fell out of the boat. Our guide caught Lauren by her helmet saving her from the water. As Lauren was falling she hit me in the helmet with her paddle. Other than that moment of adventure, we had a great time hitting the rapids. About lunch time we stopped on a beach and ate hamburgers and hot dogs. I only wish it were a longer trip.

Town

Yesterday morning we headed to town for breakfast. It was a little diner that was really good. They were more of a organic restaurant. The organic stone ground grits were a little weird tasting. But the multi grain pancakes were awesome. it was good all around. We all kept trying each others food.

After breakfast we headed to a few shops in downtown Weaverville. At this antique store, there was a lot of glass doorknobs and doors. Lauren and I like the glass doorknobs a lot. We left there and headed to a gift store. They had a lot of different type of gifty things.

Folk Arts Center

We just got back from the Folk Arts Center. It is located along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The center is where many local artist bring there goods and sell them. There weee many impressive pieces there. Everything was hand made. Lauren and I both got mugs made of stoneware.

Pizzeria

We ate at this little pizza place down in Weaverville last night. It is a family owned restaurant. The family is Italian and doesn't speak much English. It was the first Italian pizza place I had eaten at. I had a sub sandwich instead of pizza, it was a really good sandwich. Today i had some of the leftover pizza for lunch. It was really good also, there were alot of toppings on it which made it very filling.

Quiet

Yesterday was a nice quit day in the mountains. We hung out a the house. I needed a break after that busy first week. Lauren has been looking at blogs and reading her book. I have spent most of my time playing Pokemon. I am really far, yet there is still more to do. It is peaceful here. The temperature here is nice, it hasn't got above 80 since we have been here. I wake up and it is 60 degrees outside. I think we are going to a folk arts center later. Until then I am going to enjoy the mountain air.

Headed for North Carolina

We left for North Carolina this morning about 10:00AM. It was about a four hour drive to our destination.We got to Weaverville to Lauren's granfather's house. It was nice drive to the mountains. Our cellphones don't work in the mountians, but there is a town just down the moutanin that they work in.

Morris Island Lighthouse

Lighthouse Website

That afternoon we headed to the Morris Island Lighthouse. It is sitting on a tiny piece of land. The land all around it is being eroded away by the tides of the Atlantic. The lighthouse will soon fall into the ocean if the land under it can't be stabilized.

The C.S.S Hunley

Hunley Homepage

We headed for the Hunley. It is the first successfully submarine to sink a enemy vessel in wartime. It was in a huge tank while they continue conservation. It is currently locates a private lab until it is finished being conserved. The Hunley will be moved to a museum once conservation is completes.

It was really neat to see a important piece of history from the Civil War.

The Last Potter

Tonight we are at Barnes & Noble. The final Harry Potter book comes out at midnight. Lauren and Katie always go to the premier nights for the books. I tagged along for moral support. It was a long wait, we were at the store for 5 hours. I found a book I had been looking for. I saw on a TV show and have been looking for it. Midnight finally came and they got their books, and we headed back to the house.

Beach Day

After lunch we headed to the beach for a few hours. Again we went back to the house when I started to burn. I burn really fast. We played in the ocean for a good while. We had a tent to block the sun, but the winds became to unpredictable. The winds started to tear the tent apart.

The Market

We went to the Market this morning. It is an open air market where independent vendors sell their goods. It resembles the French Market in New Orleans. I got a metal Coca Cola sign at one of the vendors, and Lauren got a lithograph.

Beach House

This is our beach house we will be staying in until we leave for North Carolina. It is a smaller house on the beach, but I find it nastolgic and cozy. It sits right on the beach and I am writing this entry from the porch, watching the waves of the Atlantic Ocean. We went down to the ocean for a while, I came back up with Lauren when my legs started to burn. It is very relaxing here, it makes me want a house on the beach.

The Citadel

The heat was wearing us down, so we decided to just drive through the campus. But we ended up stopping to look in the gift shop. It was a very pretty campus. It was just a quick side trip.

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is where the Civil War began. It was really neat to go see where the war between the states broke out. It is still in a lot of disrepair from the many battles it has been in. I would highly recommend anyone to see it. If you would like more information on the significance of this monument you can Google it.

Bagels for Breakfast.

Bagels. I haven't had a bagel from a shop in a long time. It was very nice to relive it. It reminded me of the shop we used to have in Shreveport-Bossier. I had the Apple Cinnamon Nut and it was really good.

Wifi Antenna

I have seen this device on a few places along the net. I have been having trouble with the router in Lauren's aunt's house. Also the house we were going to today didn't have Internet.

Basically it is a USB wifi adapter in a fryer strainer. The strainer acts like a parabolic dish to boost a directional wifi signal. I was looking for a bigger strainer for a better dish, but this is all I could find.

It works really well I could pick up ten extra points in the house and one far point at the beach house.

Fancy Pizza.....LOL

Last night we ate at this pizza place. It was called the Mellow Mushroom. Katie really likes it, so we went there to eat. Well I have been making pizza for almost two years and was pretty critical.

Now don't get me wrong I think that overall it was good. I would want anybody to try it if they could. I just have a few griping points.

First they don't do a good crust. There is too much crust. They don't stretch it to a good thickness which creates bubbles in the crust. It makes the pizza look to uneven and not professional.

Second they are cheapskates. Now the pizza was not super cheap by no means. It is part of the crust issue. When you make a bigger crust, you have less middle to put toppings on. Now that isn't a good way to treat your customers.

The place was more aesthetic than for food.

Gelatos

After visiting the house we all went for gelatos. There is a little place downtwon. They had some great ice cream. I really liked the strawberry.

One thing that was interesting was you can look at the store live on the web.

Paolo's Gelato
Live Cam from the Charleston store

Aiken-Rhett House

More info from the Historic Charleston Foundation

This is a very old house we toured after lunch. It was built in the early 1800's. The link gives more information about it. It was really neat, there was a lot of artifacts that had been locked up for years by the different families that lived there. It was like the house had not been touched in 100 years. The walls had remnants of old wall paper and paint. A lot of furniture was left in great shape.

It was a great experience, I recommend seeing it if you are in the area.

USS Yorktown

This morning we headed over to Patriot's Point. We toured the USS Yorktown, I haven't done that tour in almost 10-12 years. It has changed alot from what I can remember. There is alot more exibits, and the Medal of Honor museum is now located on the hanger deck. We went early because it gets hot in that old boat. It was about 2 hours we were there and we were fried from that heat.

From there we went to lunch at this BBQ place in downtown Charleston. It was pretty good, it wasn't the best BBQ I have eaten. But is was better than that tapas place last night.

Fine Dining?

Well for dinner today we went to this fairly nice restaurant. I wouldn't call it a restaurant because all they really served was appetizer stuff. The picture is where we ate and it was a little weird. It was like we were sitting on sofas with a coffee table to eat at. We ate there because Lauren's cousin works there. Anyway, we got these little pieces of food that were not very good. It was called a "tapas" bar. I think tapas means "expensive tiny food" because that is what it was. It wasn't super overpriced, but still overpriced. I got a burger, stick with what you know, it was over spiced so much, that you could not taste the meat. It was so bad and I will never go to a tapas restaurant again.

Just Entered Charleston, SC

Just entered Charleston, SC. We left our hotel at 9:30AM and we got back on the road. It was only a 4 hour journey today instead of a 10 hour like yesterday. We are getting into Charleston where Lauren's aunt live. We will be here for about a week and will be leaving on Sunday.

Ferdinandina Beach, Florida

Just Entered Florida!

Well we just got to Florida. We started this morning at 5:30AM from Kenner, La. It has been a long ride, but were are onl;y about half way to where we will stop for the night.

The Adventure Begins

Our two week vacation has begun. We are on our way to Kenner, LA to meet up Lauren's parents.

Counting

A few days ago I had a funny thing happen. Well...it was more aggravating than funny. This customer came and ordered a couple of pizzas like most people. After more time than I quoted, they came and got the pizzas. I have the quoted time down to an exact quote not an estimate. Anyways, They came and one of my inside help took care of her. They paid for their order and took the pizzas and left. I walk by our hot rack about 20 minutes after they left. I look and see they only got half of their order. Now this wasn't a huge order it was only two pizzas. Now I know that I am a college student, but I assume that most people can count to two. Well apparently not, if you ordered two pizzas would you not check that you got two pizzas in your hand. She didn't count and called a few minutes after my discovery. She drove up and got her pizza then left. What a shame that people can't count to two these days.

Trickery

Many of our customers are devious. They will try any tactic to get their way. The other night we had a group of camp kids staying at one of the universities. Every year they come for this camp and we expect certain things. I had a guy working the inside with me and i warned him about them. Some of the kids will try and pass themselves off as college students in order to get a better deal. Sure enough that night we had a kid try to get a deal. Fred picked up the phone and proceeded to tell the camper that he wasn't a college student. The student turned to his friend and said, "I told you it wasn't going to work". The sneaky kids were thwarted once again.

Regulars

Even though I work in a pizza place sometimes it feels like a diner in the 50's. We have a few customers that you can bet what they will order. One of my regulars ordered today and I knew what he wanted before the phone rang. There is another fellow that when you come into the work, you say hi to him as he sits in the lobby.

Regulars are a special customer group, they are not customers but old friends. You start to have casual conversations with them. Begin to share life experiences with each other, and share ideas. It is a fascinating thing how these customers become these close friends.

Sometimes I go into work asking the other employees if they have seen one of the regulars, because I haven't seen him in a while. You start to miss the regulars if yoou don't see them for awhile.

The Big Question

I asked my girlfriend of two and a half years to marry me on the 5th of july. SHE SAID YES!!!

Time for a Break

It's July 4th and I just finished two long days of work. It wasn't that I had to put alot of physical work into it, it was that it was very stressful. I had alsmost half of my drivers quit or bail out on me in two days. That left my schedule wide open for disaster. On top of that my boss is on vacation, but I am off for a couple days to recoup and get ready for the weekend.