Memorial Day Weekend

Ali came to visit over the memorial day weekend. It was great to see her and hang out. We tried to be true Montanians, Montanans, whatever we're called, anyway, we went hiking. Like a bunch of idiots we all wore shorts and t-shirts and looked ridiculous tramping through the snow in our tennis shoes. I didn't realize there would still be snow up there! Luckily it was a short hike to these water falls and it was actually pretty warm out. I'm sure the veteran hikers got a good laugh out of watching us.

Late Pass Wednesday: Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em

It's amazing what you'll learn watching VH1 soul. Apparently MC Hammer is back with a new album, and a new single, "Bring Our Brothers Home", which is a political commentary on the war in Iraq, and a new music video.



I don't know what is more confusing/astonishing/flabbergasting, that MC Hammer is still alive or that he actually put together a recording with something socially relevant to say. THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMM.

After seeing the video, I was intrigued, all it took was a little bit of googling and I found that I'm not the only one with a blog, MC Hammer has one too. Check it out, and you can enjoy such things as MC Hammer reminicing on his music and dance career...and I quote...

While my dance and visual arts have always brought joy to millions (by the grace of God), songs like,"Help The Children, Pray, Do Not Pass Me By, Going Up Yonder, Keep On, and other socially inspired songs that I made have brought me my greatest joy.

Joy to millions indeed. That's just a little teaser for you, but there are pleanty of other gems on there, and this discovery is what has inspired me to start a new feature on the blog. It will be called:
Congratulations! You Did It! World's Best Link! (notice the "Elf" reference) and it will be found on the top right hand side of the blog from now on. I will change it whenever I feel appropriate. I was going to name it "Link of the Week", but then I became concerned that I would not be able to come up with an equally delightful link on such a frequent basis.

Enjoy the MC Hammer stuff, and let me know if it strikes you as hilarious as it struck me!?

Stewardess on Crack

On the flight out of the Bahamas and into Atlanta we were witness to quite possibly the most aggravating stewardess in the history of flying. Here is a brief example of her shinanagans:

Before Take-Off:

Hey Everybody, this is your flight crew and we have been on the road for 3 days and are ready to get headed back to our hometown of HOTlanta, GA! We are raring to go. So ANYWAYS, we are going to do everything we can to make this flight the best flight of your life. We are going to make this flight like it was the best and live it like it was the last day of your life. why would you say this on an airplane?!?! So ANYWAYS, we can't wait to get back home and the pilot can not wait to get rid of me, he says I talk too much, he is right. But we here on the flight crew are going to do everything we can for you, to entertain you. So, ANYWAYS, have a great flight and I will be talking to you all again soon.

After Take-Off:

Hey Everybody! Good News! The captain says that we can turn off the seat belt sign and you are now free to move about the cabin. We are going to serve a snack and there are some new drinks that we are introducing from Delta, you can look those up in the magazine in your seatback on page 87, or if you want a more personal explaination you can ask one of us and we will be glad to tell you all about it. So, ANYWAYS! Sit back and relax and enjoy the flight.

Before landing:

Hey Everybody, good news! The Captain says that we are on time to land in HOTlanta, GA (otherwise known as Atlanta, Georgia.) We will be coming through the cabin to collect any trash that you may want to get rid of, please no babies, husbands or boyfriends.

After Landing:

Good news everybody! Another flight arriving early! Fabulous. We hope you have enjoyed your time on this flight and we hope that you will fly delta again soon. So ANYWAYS! On a more personal note all those tall model looking girls on the plane are the Montana State University Women's Basketball Team and they just came back from winning 4 games against the Bahamian National Team, which is an amazing accomplishment and we should all give them a big hand....yada yada, she kept going on, but it hurt my brain too much, so i quit listening.

As we are walking off the plane, talking to no person in particular she is blabbering about Montana:

Montana! I've been through Montana! I used to live in Seattle and I drove through Montana once when i was driving to, ooh, MICHIGAN! and that is one long state....blah blah blah...she again, kept going, but I was walking too quickly to get away from her so I don't know what the rest of the story was.

Basically take each excerpt that I have been able recreate and add at least a few more minutes of meaningless blabber and the words "So Anyways" and "Hotlanta, GA" repeated over and over to the front and back end of each quote provided and you will have a pretty accurate understanding of the world's most annoying stewardess ever. EVER.

Random Other Bahamas Pictures

Check out a bunch of other randomness for which I haven't summoned the energy necessary to create separate organized posts. Above is a pic of Zeb and I after swimming with the Sharks! What's that look in our eyes you ask? I'd say...THANKFULNESS TO BE ALIVE!


This next one is a little blurry, but we had troubles with the lighting in the gym. It wasn't conducive to photography. This one is the MSU WBB staff before our final game.

Here is a pic of the entire crew, both teams and all the staff.
Here we are all dressed up on the final night of the trip. The girls were severely overdressed for the "Fish Fry" (a strip of shacks that sell different types of seafood) We wandered over to a cricket game that was going on across the street and I personally had no idea what was going on, apparently I have lost a step in my cricket knowledge game since high school PE. Zeb enjoyed watching it though.
Lastly, here are Katie, David, Zeb and I outside of the Atlantis Hotel.

Atlantis Aquarium

Check out these pictures from the aquarium at the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas. This Sting Ray was huge!

Snorkeling with SHARKS!

On our last day in the Bahamas we got the chance to go snorkeling around the local reefs. It was awesome, and my first time ever snorkeling. We stopped at 3 different sites and got to see a great variety of fish and other....sea creatures. The first few sites were harmless enough, we got to feed the fish and swim around with them. It was my first time using fins like that also, and it was hard to get used to at first. Once I got the hang of it though it was awesome, you can really move with those things on. Here's a picture Zeb took from the top of the boat, you can even see the swarms of fish under the water.
That's me checking out what's under the water. It looks pretty boring from this view, but it is a completely different world with those goggles on.
The guide dove to the bottom and brought up a starfish for us to check out. It could only be out of the water for a few minutes and we could see it breathing through it's mouth on the underside.
Uh oh....but thats where all the relaxing and fun stopped! This next picture shows us all in the water clinging to the rope, with about a dozen reef sharks swarming right beneath us! NO JOKE.
They lowered a small box with food inside under the boat about 20 feet or so. Then they sent out the rope and strung us all out , peering down at the sharks! We were only going to be allowed to stay in the water with the sharks for 15 mins. but I don't think we even lasted that long. We were supposed to get into the water gently, as spashing attracts the sharks to the surface. We were also told to avoid any big gestures with our arms, because that is the motion that the sharks associate with feeding. It was pretty difficult, because we were still getting used to our fins and it was kind of the natural reaction to paddle with your arms to tread the water. So we clung to the rope with little dinosaur arms trying to maintain our position! The guides explained that the longer we are in the water and the more action that happens at the surface the closer the sharks will come. One shark came up so close underneath me that I'm sure I could have reached out to touch it, and by the time the last few people were coming out of the water, the sharks were right there circling on the surface! One even brushed up against one of the girls, good thing she was brave. Lucky for all of us, Zeb didn't have to poke any of the sharks in the eye.
After we got out of the water the guides fed the sharks food off the back of the boat and put on a pretty good show, getting them to jump up and thrash around and even get up onto the back of the boat. This is the routine and I figure they have about 10 boats doing 2 trips everyday. The sharks pretty much know how its going to go, but I did have to wonder if one day some shark would just get sick of the routine and skip straight to feeding time? This was one crazy experience!!

Zeb took a great video on his camera of feeding time, I'll post up here shortly for you all to see.

Feeding the Sharks

This is what they did AFTER we got out of the water.

The Maid, Zeb, The Change, The Lost Key, The Crumb - THE CONTROVERSY

Everywhere you go, whenever you stay in a hotel, what do they tell you? Don't leave valuables out in plain view just in case one rouge maid might catch the klepto bug. Well it's no different in the Bahamas, the only difference is that some people (COUGH *Zeb* COUGH) get a little extra paranoid.

We can thank David, one of the assistant coach's husbands for getting Zeb riled up on this one. David had left 2 quarters out on his nightstand just to test and see if the maid would take it. Well she did, and David reported the outcome to Zeb and myself. We headed up to our room and what do you know? The maid was there cleaning our room at that very time. Zeb stormed into the room and announced that he had one dollar in quarters and 14 cents on his night stand when we left the room (allegedly - I still don't believe that Zeb knows exactly how much was there - if any!) and now all that remained were the 14 cents. quarters gone! He proceeded to confront the maid, who denied it OBVIOUSLY, and then left. After she left, the wild accusations didn't slow down. First of all, we had a bunch of food in our room that was bought from the grocery store for the team to have snacks. Zeb claimed that he saw a crumb on the maid's face, and that she must have been snacking on our food as well. He noticed that the room safe was open and jumped to the conclusion that the maid must have had a secret way to get the safes open without knowing our code. It couldn't possibly have been that HE accidentally left the safe open when we left could it? Lastly, I had temporarily misplaced my room key and now it was no where to be found. He claimed that the maid must have taken it to sell on the Bahamas black market (this is one of those plastic slide keys mind you!) As anyone who knows Zeb very well can imagine, by this point he was really riled up, storming around the hotel room and complaining about this horrible country and how unsafe it was. Thankfully David and his wife the assistant coach, Katie, showed up to talk him out of his rage. It made for a good joke the rest of the trip about the maid with the crumb on her face, and the room key on the black market. Sheesh Zeb!

Coconut Shells & Hammocks

This is what we spent the majority of our time in the Bahamas doing, lounging by the beach or pool. Zeb developed a friendly relationship with the Bahama Mama Guy ("You have to taste it to get wasted"was his motto) and got $1 off all of his coconut shell drinks. This came in handy for the husbands who were allowed to drink pretty much whenever they wanted, while the staff had to keep it underwraps until after bed check.

We found a nice spot under some palm trees to hang out most days, and then we would switch off between laying in the sun just outside of the tree's shade, and then retreating back to the shade to cool off.

Late Pass Wednesday: The Office Finale

Yes! Pam & Jim! Finally! Well, sort of. You never know what kind of mean trick this is, getting our hopes up, and then smashing them down in next season's premire? We'll See. Here are some of my revelations from the season 3 finale:

• The Karen/Pam peace agreement is over. CAT FIGHT!


• Angela is really evil deep down, it started with her leaving Andy for dead in the pond, and then plotting to fire Kelly. Come on! She is one cold hearted B.


• It makes me nervous when Dwight gets on one of his power hungry trips. He loses his normal lovability and who knows what he is capable of!


• Michael/Jan relationship is just plain awkward now. She is a nutcase.

Can't wait to see what is to come next season. I'm going to spend the summer slowly making my way through the rest of the seasons again. I read on The Office website that there is some apparently hilarious story of why Michael hates Toby so much that will come out in a future episode, which should be good.

Let me know what you guys thought!

Where to begin?

There are so many stories to tell that I'm having a hard time deciding the logical place to start (i think it's partly because of my OCD.) I guess I could start...at the start? Yeah, that makes sense. I've got a few drafts started on some of the stories that I know I want to tell, and I'll get them up in the next few days. In the meantime, here are some links to the player diaries that our team posted on the athletics website, they have some good stories and pictures and even the occasional mention of ME! ;)

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Day Five

Day Six

Day Seven

Day Eight

Check back for more soon! I really do have some good stuff for you guys!

Back in the Good, Old U.S.A.

We're back! And there is so much to blog about. Don't worry, there are plenty of pictures and stories to come from the Bahamas trip.

It also seems like things have been blowing up around here too. Greg got a blog while we were gone! It's linked on the right side of this page, so you all can check that out in the future.

I'm way behind on my TV programs, but as soon as I catch up look forward to a post on the season finale of The Office.

Check out this old link to Damon's blog and you'll know exactly how I felt to be back in the states. The Bahamas was great but I was definitely ready to get off of "island time" and to get back to the time management, customer service, and cleanliness standards of home.

"The Office" Friday

Great episode, lots of build up for next week's season finale. I can't believe the season is almost over, and now I realize that we are in for one long Officeless summer. Thats upsetting. Zeb and I think that Karen is going to get the corporate job, and she is going to break up with Jim. Then Jim and Pam can get back together. They are keeping things pretty hush/hush about the finale, so we'll just have to wait and see. I hope they get "The Office" in the Bahamas. I think I'm going to try to get Zeb to put this third season on his ipod so we can refresh ourselves about the season while we are traveling. Then we will be really pumped up and ready for it when we get home.

Check out what they have to say about next week's season finale:

THE JOB One-Hour Season Finale 8/7c TV14 05.17.2007
THE FINAL REVIEW - In a special one-hour finale, the office is still buzzing from the events of their day at the beach. A job opening in Corporate pits coworker against coworker as Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell), Jim (John Krasinski) and Karen (Rashida Jones) all head to New York for final interviews. In Scranton, Dwight's (Rainn Wilson) new regime institutes sweeping reforms, Pam (Jenna Fischer) plays an interesting role, and Jan (Melora Hardin) comes in with exciting news. B.J. Novak, Ed Helms, Leslie David Baker, Kate Flannery, Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, Phyllis Smith, Paul Lieberstein and Creed Bratton also star.

Packing Update

Whew! Looks like my medical kit is just about completely packed for the Bahamas. It weighs 43 pounds and is the size of a small horse. Here's hoping I didn't forget anything important!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Late Pass Wednesday has been cancelled this week in observance of my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! To make sure you have a great day I have gathered some of your favorite things right here in this blog. Enjoy!

Yosimite National Park

Avocados Andy Pettite

Murder She Wrote

Cooking
Bernie Williams (This is what he is looking like now days)

Columbo

Bruce Springsteen
Lemons

Packing & Procrastinating

All I can say is that its a really good thing that it's slow this week because of the athlete's having finals, because I have been procrastinating my butt off. I'm trying to get my medical kit packed for the Bahamas a little bit early this week, so that I have time to think about it and don't end up forgeting something simple. Well, this is what my desk has looked like for the past two days as i slowly wade through all the supplied that I might possibly want to take with. People keep walking past my office and laughing at me because I keep working on it, but the pile on my desk isn't getting any smaller. Hmmmm....

Rocket Relaunch

Well, its official. Roger Clemens is going to be a Yankee again. I had finally really convinced myself that there was no chance of this happening. Why would The Rocket want to become one of the walking dead that is the Yankees Starting Rotation? Well, go figure. Sign him up. If he can act as a stabilizing factor in this rotation and get these guys to go past 5 innings per start, then he'll be worth every penny of his 28 million dollar 1 year contract. If not, well, at least he will have pissed off pleanty of Red Sox fans in the process.
See, Roger is exactly what baseball needs. This guy is just a little bit crazy, and not afraid to sling a piece of splintered lumber at an opponent. We need more guys like this in the game. A few brawls here and there are actually GOOD for the game. Seriously. The fact that he almost killed Mike Piazza is only one of the many reasons I love this man.

Can't wait to see his first start back in the pinstripes. I just really hope he doesn't come down with CarlPavanoitis. They better make sure he gets all his vaccines.

In other baseball related news: Ted Williams has been cloned and he is coming back to play for the Red Sox. He is about the same age as Clemens. (c) Damon

"The Office" Friday

Pretty good episode. Liked how Michael got relationship advice from his girls, but then managed to really mess it up. Zeb says that they were "foreshadowing" a Jim/Karen breakup. Did you see Karen's face when Michael was talking about not being happy when he's with Jan. uh huh. Don't get too excited, it will probably happen in the season finale and we'll have to wait for the rest of our lives.

By the way, foreshadowing must have been the one thing that Zeb actually remembers from his high school english classes, because he is always pointing examples of it out to me. Was anyone in his high school english classes that could confirm or deny this? At least he doesn't try to explain irony to me by quoting the Alanis Morrisette song. Because thats REALLY annoying.

Next weeks episode looks pretty interesting:

BEACH GAMES Special Time 8:40/7:40c TV14 05.10.2007
LIFE'S A BEACH - Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell) is being considered for a position in Corporate and has to recommend his replacement. While the group expects a fun outing at Lake Scranton, Michael has planned a day of Survivor-like competitions to find his successor. Meanwhile, Pam (Jenna Fischer) is not asked to join in any of the activities and is forced to watch Jim (John Krasinski) and Karen (Rashida Jones) have fun together. Rainn Wilson, B.J. Novak, Angela Kinsey, Oscar Nunez, Kate Flannery, Phyllis Smith, Ed Helms, Paul Lieberstein, Mindy Kaling, Brian Baumgartner, Leslie David Baker and Creed Bratton also star.

Please note the time change for next week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We're thinking about checking out the new Spiderman movie tonight. I'll let you guys know how it is. Holla!

Baseball Challenge Update and other Miscellaneous Late Pass Information

• This week in baseball challenge Greg drew the attention of M. Ross as he scored over 300 on the week. He was hexed for his efforts. Zeb lead the week, but insists that he is still on the DL (along with all the Yankees starting pitchers) And of course, the Bandwagons keep burning.
• Damon would like to inform everyone that the movie Aviator "sucks".
• We leave for the Bahamas in 11 days. Zeb's passport still isn't here as they spelled his name wrong on their first try. What the hell kind of name is Elkmton anyway?!?! They're saying it should be here on time though. We'll see.
• Papelbon blew his first save of the year. To the A's. enough said.

Post up with YOUR late pass information, because I've been diligently posting all my old news for the last few months, and now I am finally caught up on everything that is going on. Help a girl out.

Have You Seen This Woman?

Name: Allison Julia Martin
Known Alias': Gal
Age: 25
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown

Last Seen: 2/3/2007
Wanted for: Failure to return phone calls

Gal has been missing in action since early February, and has failed to return several phone messages left by one Emily Anne Breslaw. The most recent actual siting of Gal has been by Shateva the hair lady. It is possible that she has been abducted by one of her former clients disgruntled that she left her job in Eugene (Fred maybe?) It is also suspected that she may have gotten lost on the "wrong side of the tracks" in Sweet Home. If you have any information as to the whereabouts of Gal, please contact Emily Breslaw ASAP.


This message brought to you by Heather Elkinton, PI