The summer that i worked in New Mexico at Philmont was the first for the OA trail crew. I had a lot to learn about trail building, Philmont traditions, and the importance of stealing the “Ranger Sign”. The camp has different departments. Probably the department that is largest, oldest, and most steeped in traditions is the crew of Rangers. The “Ranger Sign” is a sign that was stolen (i assume) from the community of Ranger, Texas. Late one night, Zaq, PJ!, Chris and i grabbed a ladder and stole the Ranger Sign. We hid it in a Philmont truck that happened to be taking a load of food to our worksite the next day. OUr driver never knew that he was hauling pilfered goods and we managed to distract him long enough to stash the sign in the bushes. We hung the sign over the trail we were working on and it hung there for a few days until one of our advisor’s made a visit and he insisted that we take it down and humbly return it. We did but were discouraged to be excluded from the long tradition of stealing the sign and having Rangers scour the camp looking for their treasured icon.

A few pictures from Las Vegas…

The first is from the observation deck on the Stratosphere. This building is the tallest in the U.S. on the west side of the Mississippi. I rode the three most exciting rides up there. The Big Shot really is a thriller.

Here’s the group shot of the Petersburg folks that were there… from the bottom right: Dylan, Brita, Matte, Karna, Jen, Cena, and I.

Our last evening there was Matte’s birthday so we went to Margaritaville for dinner. Admittedly, i would have rather eaten at McDonald’s (again) rather than go to that tourist trap and have to listen to 20 Jimmy Buffett songs on repeat. But the entertainment actually picked up and eventually an employee climbed up the 25 foot tall volcano and jumped in. She popped out later in a bikini and slid down the water slide into a giant blender while balloon artists on stilts blew whistles and got the crowd to clap and sing. Then the volcano lady danced on the banister nearby and i was able to make her blurry in this shot by not usng the flash and just holding my camera on the table.

We had to check out of our room by 11am but our flight wasn’t until 10pm so Matte and Karna let us store our stuff in their room. We left Margaritaville to go grab our stuff and head to the airport and i decided to play a prank on them. We bought a Milkyway candy bar, softened it in my hands, shaped a big turd and left it in their toilet. I also left a note in the toilet paper that they didn’t have to worry – that we hadn’t messed around with anything else. Sadly, Karna didn’t get to see it. Happily, we took pictures of it.

The first night we were there i was up $250 at one point. That felt pretty good. I didn’t leave there ahead at all. But we had a good time or few.

It isn’t often that I write long blog posts but when I do I tend to get more comments. Too often I just post a picture or a link and I actually say nothing about myself. I shouldn’t be scared – you all have invites and are friends or strangers that were nice to me. And to me that’s the equivalent of a good friend. Some things I have been thinking about lately: I hate the misuse of the word “terrorist” by the current administration. Someone attacks US troops in a war zone and Bush calls them a terrorist. Hello. That’s called war. A terrorist should cause you and I to be afraid. You know, stuff like hijackers, random bombings, and inexplicable destruction. But are you or I actually terrorized by a roadside bomb in Iraq? No. I am typing this in Word so it is correcting my capitalization errors just in case you were wondering why it is I felt so self important today. The weather is cold and dry and that means every time I touch my office doorknob I get shocked. It is just like that scene in Office Space. My car computer drains my car battery when I don’t start the car for a week so when I leave town I have to disconnect the system at the battery. I still have not reconnected the setup so I’m listening to the same 146 song mp3 cd. There are about 15 songs on it that I want to constantly listen to. My beardlet is a little long and in 2009 the world mustache and beard championships will be in Anchorage. I think I might enter my flame beard in the freestyle goatee category. That contest is coinciding with the Iditarod race. I put moose meat in the crock pot before leaving the house today. This past Saturday I worked with a prospective Eagle Scout on his project – clearing a lot on Ira II for a new playground the City received a grant for. Later this week or early next week I’ll be leading the review of another Scout’s application to become and Eagle Scout. I just got a call from Herb asking if I could do a climbing class tonight. Cena and I started watching season one of Lost on dvd last night.

I didn’t buy or carve a pumpkin this year. But next year i will with these for inspiration… cannibal, burger, and my favorite – territorial. I really like pumpkin seeds. Mmmm.

Here’s a link to a neat website where you upload a wav file and they send you the sound back reversed. Just add that snippet to your music and you can have backwards subliminal messages in your songs just like all the Satanic rock stars do!

Last night i was able to try out my new speakers for djing. They cost me about $1,100 each plus shipping from NY (another $300) and two months of waiting. They are pre-amped (meaning the amp is in the speaker) with three amplifiers – one for each of the speaker cones. They sounded really great. When I don’t have a dj gig going there will be some great movie watching done at home.

See how fast you can spank the monkey. I just hit 407.