Heidelberg - Blogged by JME

N8 went with the 'Wounded Warriors' to Heidelberg and saw the castle there a few weeks ago on October 10th. The castle was huge. The wine cellar had a 250,000 gallon capacity. The following are some of the pictures N8 took while there:






Below is the hillside behind the castle. It looks like the trees are changing there. It is really pretty. N8 looks pretty good too!



In this picture below, the holes you see were put there by the French. They tended to destroy things whenever they were made to leave Germany. Kind of reminds N8 and I of angry people that are getting kicked out of their homes because of foreclosure and they wreck the place.



When the tour guide brought them over to this part of the tour, one of the chaplains was standing underneath that overhang. It was pretty funny when the tour guide explained that the overhanging that you see is actually a toilet. That is where people would just 'let it all out.' I guess people back then had to watch where they were standing. The chaplain most likely moved out from under there pretty fast.

The other day on my way into work, I felt a drop on my arm and thought it was starting to sprinkle. When I got inside, I looked down at my arm and shirt and saw that I had been a target of a fly-by bird-pooper. I'm sure that back in those days people didn't mistake getting pooped on with rain.

These next pictures are pretty interesting. The statue that N8 is standing by on the inside of the castle used to be on the outside of the castle where the other statue is now standing. They brought all the statues inside because they were getting so old and worn down. The statues on the outside of the castle are fairly new. They are about 50 years old. Notice how both statues are holding a sword and a compass. The statues are supposed to be of the same person and literally standing back to back where the new one is on the outside and directly inside behind him is the old one.




This is another picture of the castle from the city below. Looks like it was kind of a stormy day there.

TRICKING PEOPLE TO EXERCISE -Blogged by N8



Thought this was a neat idea! Wish we could do this with every stairway.

1980's version of Harry Potter - Blogged by JME

I don't know how many people remember this movie or even watched it, but this was one of my favorite Halloween movies growing up. We watched it over and over. I especially loved this scene when Mildred Hubble turns Ethel Hallow into a pig.



Mildred is one of the young girls at a prestigious witch academy. She can't seem to do anything right and is picked on by Ethel.

Tim Curry also makes an appearance as the Grand Wizard. I watched some of this recently and just laughed and laughed. It is awful and the special effects are even worse. Oh, well. It was fun to watch.

N8's Farewell to Patrick Swayze - Blogged by . . . I'll give you three guesses

R.I.P. JED ECKERT As some of you know, one of my favorite movies of all time is Red Dawn. It was originally released in 1984 when I was three years old. I remember watching it with my father as a very small child and can remember his excitement when a small group of teenage American freedom fighters managed to exterminate all of the "Commies" that took over their small Colorado town. Their leader was a young adult by the name of Jed Eckert (played very well by Patrick Swayze). Jed took the young teenagers and taught them very important lessons such as: how to drink the blood of a freshly killed deer to keep a piece of its soul with you forever, how to hold back your tears and turn them into hatred for the enemy, how to perform a proper firing squad, how to bravely rush into your high school parking lot in the midst of enemy fire to save your friends, and, my personal favorite, how to pee in a radiator if you've run out of water. As a child I wanted nothing more than to be Jed. I idolized him. I even named our beef steer after him. Jed was delicious. I used to embarass my sisters by running around in the snow with my bath robe on the outside of my snow clothes with a compass tied to the belt loop of it. That was my way of being Jed. Mr. Swayze, I look forward to the day when I get to shake your hand warmly and thank you for providing me with such wonderful childhood memories. May you rest in peace with the rest of the fighting WOLVERINES!!!

KILLERS!!! - Blogged by JME

So. . . .way back in May, after I learned that N8 would be gone for a whole year, I invited my lil bro to go with me to a Killers concert that was about 5 months away. I thought it would be nice to have something to look forward to that would make the time go by faster. Well, time goes by very fast because the concert was just about 2 weeks ago. It was a really nice time. First, we went and had a bite to eat at the Olive Garden. . . . MMMM . . . So good! I had the Steak Gorgonzola-Alfredo (totally recommend that one) and my lil bro had a pizza! We shared a Torta di Chocolate. It was to die for. Then we headed out to the concert. N8 and I are big people watchers, and to my delight, I learned my lil bro was too.



I'm used to going to hard core concerts with N8, like Shinedown, Social Distortion, Caroline Spine, and Cold, just to name a few. I don't normally like concerts like that. There are a lot of people packed into a tiny space and then everyone starts moshing (spelling???). You get everyone else's sweat and beer all over you and get pushed around and grabbed. People fighting and vulgar language flying. Not my idea of a fun night out. This concert was my type of concert, however. People even brought their kids. There was a general admission section on the floor, but we had seats. Not that it mattered that much. The people on the floor didn't even mosh. It was a pretty calm crowd. I don't think I got pushed once. It was a little embarrassing, however, because hardly anyone up in the seats where we were danced or jumped or really got into it. They just stood and watched. I couldn't help myself and was all by myself dancing and having a good time.









The only bummer about the whole night was that way back in May when I bought the tickets, I didn't realize that Women's Conference was the same night. I felt bad that I missed it. Thank goodness for the internet and the church website so I can go back and watch it!!!

This was so fun to see them perform this live. This is one of my favorite songs. It was the second song they played at their concert. At the concert, the singer wore the shoulder things he is wearing in the video and even saluted like he does in the video. It was really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I just have to think of something else to look forward to in the coming months that might make the time go by faster. Thanks, lil bro, for going with me. It was his first concert and he was so fun to hang out with.