Today I am in Erlanger, KY. I flew out this morning from Madison, WI at 6:00am. That meant a 4:00am wake up call. I had the hotel alarm clock and the alarm on my phone. I was up in time, I got very little sleep because I just couldn’t fall asleep. I ended up sleeping for a while on the plane and still managed to read quite a bit of the Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic book. The story is fascinating. I still have a good chunk to finish but I should be done before the weekend.

When I got to Erlanger I was able to check into my hotel early, so that was cool. I checked the blog, my e-mail and all the web comics I enjoy reading. Then I headed out for lunch. I went to Max and Erma’s. If you have never been there then you should go just for the fresh baked cookies and a tall glass of milk. Ever since Allison made a delicious batch of “Better than Sex” cookies I have been craving cookies and ice cold milk. For some reason milk tastes infinitely better when accompanying some tasty cookies.

After lunch I wanted to go catch a movie but couldn’t find a good one to spend any money on. So I went to Hobby Lobby to check around and get some sort of travel item to do sketches. I picked up a leatherbound sketchpad and case with 12 colored pencils, a pencil sharpener all within a nice portfolio. I also got a set of graphite pencils with an eraser. I was looking for one set that had it all and was portable and compact and couldn’t take up much room in my backpack. So now I can sketch while I’m waiting in the airports. Trying to stimulate my brain in ways other than through the use of the computer.

I also discovered iTunes today. I downloaded it last night so that I could subscribe and download episodes of RockStartup. I also discovered the podcasts for VH-1’s Best Week Ever (they have daily ones called Best Night Ever) I’m downloading about 100 of them right now. I like the subscription option so I can get those new podcasts delivered to me without having to do anything. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to get onto this bandwagon. It must be because I am getting an itch for an iPod. I’d really like to get one now. I’m going to wait a while till I have saved up the money.

I got some more things taken care of on the blog and got the Flatwater Bookstore blog approved for PayPerPost so I posted a bit over there. The same rules apply there where the PPP stuff is in green.

I had dinner at the place above called The Pub. It was similar to the British Beer Company. What really sucked about the place and the state of Kentucky is that Kentucky doesn’t relegate smokers outside where they belong. I’m sorry but keep your filthy stank nasty habit outside. We constantly got bombarded with both cigarette and cigar smoke from the bar area, which is designated smoking but where we were eating was considered non smoking. Let me tell you there is no such thing as a non-smoking area when there is smoking allowed in a restaurant. Nope doesn’t exist, it is like having a non-peeing area in a pool that allows peeing. Eventually you are going to get some pee on you, it is inevitable. So I was trying to breathe and enjoy my meal but I kept getting big wafts of cigar smoke. It didn’t help that the only thing separating the bar and our table was a small railing. Yep, great way to separate smoking and non-smoking. I have to take a shower before I go to bed because I reak now.

After dinner I checked on my downloads from iTunes, I’ve got about 35 left to go from Best Week Ever (I set up to download all that were available because they are free and I love pop culture). I also watched Bones and it was a great episode. Zach got his doctorate and a makeover so he now looks like a professional. Brennan found her father only to lose him and her brother again. Russ called Brennan Tempe which is what people call her in the Kathy Reichs Books. This was one of my favorite episodes so far. The character development was fantastic and the conspiracy with Brennan’s father is getting deeper and deeper. Well, that is all for tonight. Oh, here is a weird looking light fixture that was above our table.