The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again

We went to the State Fair. The perfect day for it, as it was 75 degrees and sunny. I had the day off so me and the wife and the brother all headed over there about noon. It was the first few hours of the first day, so it was not very busy yet. Kids still in school. parents still at work. Cool.

At first we thought we had made a wrong turn somewhere. I was pretty sure I knew where the fairgounds were. Still in Tampa which is still in Hillsborough County which is still in Florida, a place with a long, long tradition of smiling and telling you how much they've got your back as they reach deeper and deeper into your pocket. A place that'll raise the "fees" on everything by triple digit percentages and crow about how they have cut or not raised taxes in (__fill in the blank___) number of years. Yeah, that place.

So when we cleared the barricades and police cruiser, complete with a cop who I am sure was not napping, despite the appearance of nappage, and saw the sign at the gate booth that read: DO NOT STOP. NO CHARGE FOR PARKING I was... well, frankly, I was confused. It was un-Tampa/Hillsborough/Florida-like. And the tickets were only half what I was expecting them to be. It was all very disconcerting.

Luckily the rides and food were grossly overpriced. At last. Some normalcy returning to my world.

The day the Saints play in the Super Bowl, that's this Sunday for those of you who are uninformed heathens, I get on a plane for Boston. I am flying early in the morning. But let me re-cap real quick for you.

1. I am flying to Boston

2. In the winter.

3. I am changing planes.

4. I arrive 4 1/2 hours befor kickoff and my hotel is on the airport property.

5. This Super Bowl is particularly important to me.

Conclusion: For those of you unfamiliar with air travel, not to mention the natural orneriness of things, just taking item numbers 1,2, and 5 in to account almost guarantees massive weather related delays, cancelled flights, and me getting to my hotel room long after the Super Bowl has been decided. And since it is the Super Bowl, there will be no way to not know who won it before I can get to my DVR to watch it. Dang!

I had more to write about. I always do. But I get winded when I type too much. And I get so into describing things (there's quite a lot of verbal twists and turns involved in me writing down something, even something simple) that I forget what it was I was going to tell you next. But that's 50 years of hard living for you. Well, maybe not hard living. But semi-hard living for sure. Which could, I suppose, also be referred to as 50 years of semi-soft living, too. Anyway, there are 13 pictures below, which as you know, equates to 13,000 additional words. So I'm calling it all good.

A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents, out

Ramblin' Ed

Yo ho ho. It's a pirate's nap for me.

Step 1: Find the Doughnut Burger joint

Step 2: Buy a doughnut burger. Step 2 1/2: Get all mouth watery in anticipation. I mean, we all like burgers. And we all like doughnuts. D'ya see where I'm going with this.....

Step 3: Devour. Mmmmmm.... sweet empty calories. (The sign on the joint in the background actually advertises Deep Fried Pepsi [tried it], and Deep Fried Butter [eeewwww!] although all you will be able to make out is UTTER)

Pork Chop on a Stick = Hog on a Log.

If you are recording a game at home, but want to watch a different game in a hotel room in Louisiana, what can you do? I mean about that crawler along the bottom of ESPN channels that is always there, even during commercials, giving you up to the milli-second score updates? It grabs your eyes like a tractor beam and resistance is f-f-futile! My fix? Use the guest services book (and a bottle of free water) to perform the guest service of CRAWLER BLOCKING. There are no problems, only ridiculous soloutions.

Noah getting a picture of the RC car that had been alternately chasing him and being chased by him. Noah took about 3 really good pictures. Out of 27 or so.

That's a mighty big tire. I used the munchkin to give it scale. I know, how professional.

Grave Digger from the front.

Mighty Mutt crossing the street from the stadium over to the pit area. These trucks were pretty loud.

Not a fan of loud, by the way.

Took the wife to a hotel in St. Pete for a night. This is the view out of our window, over looking Progress Energy Field and Tampa Bay. Too bad there was no game that night.

As you can see, Pepe like to sleep. Anywhere he pleases. "Yo, pillow girl, SIT STILL!!"

---------------- Random --------------------

When You're Drinking 3 July,2006

How're you doing?

What brings you here tonight

You don't come around much

It seems like for such a long, long time

I've been wondering if I might miss you

Or if I even have the right

That's why it crossed my mind to wonder

What brings you here tonight

So, how's the new guy

Things all working like you planned?

I'm happy for you

Don't laugh, I think I really am

For a while there, you know it hurt me

When you said I would never be your man

If I might ask you, how's it going?

Is it all working out as planned?

How've you been feeling

Just loose? Or fancy free?

No, it don't matter

But that question always gets the best of me

I know I was never what you wanted

But I was still just who I had to be

Like an ache, and, a sad mistake, and

When you're drinking, think of me

How're you doing, baby

And what brings you here tonight

You don't come around here much

Seems like for such a long, long time

And I was wonderin', if I might miss you

Or do I even got that right?

It crossed my mind, so yeah, I wonder

Who you doing here tonight?

It crossed my mind, so yeah, I wonder

Who are you doing here tonight?

Ed

Brandon Blvd.

<<<<>>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>>

Way Down Low 12 October 2000

Calm was so easy like yesterday

That's when I had nothin'.

A man with a plan with it gone astray

Damn, ain't it always something.

I got twisted 'round a neon sign

Buzzin' down to the crossroads.

Fighting that old Mississippi moon's

Like fighting the way the wind blows.

I'm gonna cry when I say goodbye

But baby, I'll still be leaving

A hole in my soul got me way down low

But it ain't getting filled by grieving

I love the way that the cotton blows

Seems almost like it's dancing

Not like the dreams that was teasing me

'fore they burned up and turned to ashes

I'm gonna cry when I say goodbye

But it ain't gonna change me leaving

A hole in my soul knocks me way down low

But it ain't getting filled by grieving

Smile when you wave and I'll blow a kiss

You done lost another lover

You were a moment who's time had come

A moment I reckon's over

I'm gonna cry when I say goodbye

But baby, I'll still be leaving

A hole in my soul got me way down low

But it ain't getting filled by grieving

Ed

Otaru, Japan