Home Again

I made it back home safely yesterday. Alvin and I got up early and managed to fly standby on an earlier flight so that I could get back in time to make Abbie's softball game.

I'm glad that I was able to do that since we won the game and had a couple of outstanding plays. It was really great, and the girls were jazzed because they've now won two in a row.

Anyway, I'm here safe, and I'll try to get some pics posted this weekend. My next trip is to Seattle in a couple of weeks, and for those of you that couldn't detect the humor in my post a couple of weeks ago, I'm not really mad a Caci.

Driving in Traffic

I still can't upload pictures, and truthfully, I don't have that many new ones. We spent most of the day today on the road to and from Connecticut. Our business meeting was in Shelton, so we headed out pretty early this morning to rent a car for the drive and then tested our skills on the streets of the city.

The plan was for Alvin to drive while I navigated. Shortly after entering traffic, Alvin decided that "when in Rome" was a good idea, and he moved one hand to the horn and started driving like a NYC cabbie. My plan changed to navigate while hiding my eyes and puckering every part of my body that could pucker. I swear I got six inches thinner and pulled the driver's side door in at least a foot when he decided that there was enough room between the car and truck driving side-by-side in front of us. I really thought that Mitsubishi Galant was wider than the dividing line between lanes, but I was obviously incorrect in that assessment.

Kudos to Alvin, though. We got to CT and back to Manhattan alive and without any new dents or dings in the car. There were already several when we picked it up, and the guy at Avis said that they don't even worry about minor stuff like that in NYC. He said, "As long as it has four wheels and runs when you return it, we're good."

Since that took up most of our day, we didn't get to do much more sightseeing. We did take a cab down to Ground Zero, though. It wasn't really what I expected. I was thinking more of something like the Vietnam War Memorial. A somber garden with a plaque of names or something. In fact, it was just a big hole in the ground. It looks like they are really in the process of building a nice memorial there, though.

After that, we walked to the end of State St. and considered taking a ride on that Staten Island Ferry. Given the time to get across and back, the fact that were both starved, and the fact that we could see the Statue of Liberty from where we were (the whole point of going to the ferry in the first place), we opted to pass on that adventure. Instead we bought subway passes and rode back up to Times Square.

Having ridden on metro trains in Paris, DC, Rome, Chicago, and Dallas (if you can even count that), I think I can safely say now that they are all pretty much the same. It did take me a couple of minutes to figure out how the subway lines were marked on the map, but after that we were on our way. I think Alvin asked me about three times if we were on the right train when the conductor said that we were on the train to Queens, but it all turned out good when I told him to get off at the 42^nd St. stop.

Back to where our adventure started, we were on the hunt for a Cadillac windshield. Based on the advice of another coworker, there is supposed to be a huge window that looks like a Cadillac windshield and behind that window is a great restaurant with a view. We never found the windshield and we never found the restaurant.

The backup plan was to go to a steak house in the W hotel on Times Square that my dad recommended. We went to the W hotel in Times Square and they informed us that the W with that restaurant is actually eight blocks away. No dice there. We were hungry.

We ended up at a local chophouse about a block off of Times Square and had a pretty good meal. Of course, by that time, the McDonald's was sounding like fine dining to my stomach. Regardless the food was good and the waiter was sufficiently rude to make me feel like it was authentic New York.

By the way, if you ordered an appetizer that was chips with a cheese and spinach dip, would you expect it to be basically queso? And if you asked the waiter if that's what you were going to get would you expect him to know what you were talking about? I would. This guy maybe had never heard the word queso before because he just kept looking at me funny when I said it and then repeating to me (complete with hand motions of him dipping a chip) that it was "chips and cheese that you can dip in." Alvin thought it was pretty funny.

Anyway, we are planning to get breakfast around 8am tomorrow and then head out to airport to see if we can fly standby on an earlier flight. I'm coaching Abbie's softball team and we've got a game tomorrow evening that I'd like to be there for. I'm definitely going to have to budget for a return trip with Leah, though, so we can do all of the touristy stuff.

Oh, one last thing. Alvin and I decided that we've already done all of the important things in life in just the past two days. We've hailed a New York cab. We've ridden in several New York cabs. We've driven in New York traffic. And we've ridden on the New York subway. Our lives are virtually complete.

The Big Apple

Well, I forgot the cable for my camera, so you're going to have to do without pictures for now. My trip is off to a great start, though.

I left my office about noon today to head out to DFW for my flight. When I got there everything was cool. We had about thirty minutes before we were supposed to board. Right at the time that we are supposed to start boarding, though, they informed us that there were delays in NY, so we would need to wait another twenty minutes or so before boarding. No big deal; almost every flight that I've been on lately has been cancelled or delayed. At least I wouldn't have to wait on the plane. Or so I thought.

We finally boarded the plane, and we sat at the gate for an extraordinarily long amount of time before starting to taxi. Once we were sufficiently far from the gate so that no one could hear us scream or rescue us, the pilot came over the intercom and told us that he was sorry for not speaking to us sooner. He explained that normally he would inform his passengers of delays the minute that he knew of them, but in this case he was a little embarrassed. It turns out that when he heard there was a thirteen minute delay, he missed the part about the hour. In other words, there was actually an hour and thirteen minute delay on our flight.

So here we are, out in the middle of nowhere at DFW airport, between two busy runways with the engines shut off and an hour or so left to wait before we can even get in line to takeoff. No one was happy, least of all the baby two rows in front of me.

An hour later or so, we got in line to takeoff, and about twenty minutes after that we were in the air. My arrival at 6:30pm EDT was blown. We were actually on the ground a little before 8pm EDT. On the descent, though, I got to see NYC lit up with a good view of the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, Shea Stadium, and many of the famous bridges. It was very cool.

Once I was off the plane, I hopped in a cab to get to my hotel. My first NYC cab ride, and it was just another adventure. I'm glad I didn't try to drive because you just think the drivers on I-20 are prepping for NASCAR, these guys are in a whole different league. We were driving on the shoulder, cutting people off, making pedestrians dodge on the sidewalk. It was nuts, but we got to the hotel in one piece and in a hurry.

Safely there, I put my stuff down and met up with Alvin (business associate) to grab some dinner. We headed out to Times Square since it's just a few blocks from the hotel figuring that there would be food and sights there. It was very cool. As cool as it looks on TV and then some if you ask me. We ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co. which was kind of touristy but still good food, and we got them to give us a window seat on the second floor so we could get a good look at Times Square while we ate.

Overall, I really like this city so far, and I'm definitely going to plan a return visit with Leah.

My Buns are Burning

Toto Ltd., the leading toilet maker in Japan, is offering free repairs for bidet toilets that apparently catch fire. I think they are missing a great marketing opportunity, personally. Here's the full article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18131541/

In a surprising statement by the company spokeswoman, it was revealed that "The fire would have been just under your buttocks." That really assumes that you were using the bidet correctly, though, doesn't it. Crocodile Dundee was about half convinced that a bidet was some fancy water fountain, so I imagine it could have singed his goatee. That really misses the marketing opportunity, though.

Right now the company is so focused on their pulsating massage spray, power dryer, "Tornado Wash" flush, and automatic lids that they are thinking that this is a problem to be fixed. They are so focused on avoiding any fires near customers' buttocks that they are closing their eyes to a whole new marketplace: Frat Houses.

Just imagine how fast drunken frat boys would be buying up flaming bidets. No more accidental eyebrow burning. No more funky smelling hands and cigarette lighters. They were going to be trying to set farts on fire anyway, why not have an automated fart lighting system installed right there on the ground floor? It would be perfect for those late night beer guzzling bashes, and it's so much classier when the Sorority girls come over to say you regularly use a bidet than to say that you regularly light your farts. You've just got to hope that when she returns from the restroom and says, "There was a slight burning sensation," that she's talking about the bidet and not something you're going to have to live with the rest of your life.

Leaving Tomorrow

It seems that I touched a nerve with some girl named Caci in my last post. Apparently, she thinks I should call her to get advice when I go to Seattle, but I'm not sure I want to go outside the family to get information related to my travel. There's really no telling where someone like that would send me. I'd probably end up swimming to Japan for Sushi or something. I really think I should get advice from family members just so that I know it's reliable.

I used to have a sister that lived in Washington for a while and may have gone to Seattle once or twice. It would be cool if she was still around to ask. Too bad she posted a questionable picture of me on her blog site and got herself disowned. At least I still have my brothers and cousins.

Anyway, I'll be headed out to New York tomorrow afternoon, and I hope to be able to get a few pics and sights in while I am there. The forecast if for it be rainy and cold the whole time that I am there, so I hope that that doesn't ruin any chance that I have of seeing the city.

Upcoming Travel Plans

I missed posting anything creative on Jeffrey's birthday, but let me go ahead and remind everyone that yesterday Jeffrey had a birthday. I won't say how old he is now because I've always got to be four years older than that, and I'm trying to keep myself stuck at 30 for a while. Anyway, happy b-day, bro!

I've got a good bit of travel coming up, and it's not to the normal, back-country, USA towns that I usually head to. For example, who wants to see picture of Des Moines, IA? Sure, it's the state capitol and all, but trust me, there's really nothing photogenic about the place. They didn't even have postcards of Des Moines for sale when I was there.

Anyway, I'm not going to Des Moines. I am going to New York City on Tuesday. I'll be staying somewhere in Manhattan Tuesday and Wednesday night returning to DFW on Thursday. I've actually got a meeting in Shelton, Connecticut on Wednesday, so I won't be in the Big Apple the whole time, but I hope to have the opportunity to see a few things while I am there.

Following that trip, I will be headed to Seattle early in May for nearly a week to attend a conference. I don't what there is to do or see in Seattle, but I'll have about four nights with nothing to do but drive around looking for trouble. Any advice?

Then finally, I have a trip set for June to Washington, DC with the family. We're taking the kids on vacation for nearly a week, and they are all very excited about their first chance to ride on an airliner. I was last there about a week before 9-11, so I'm sure things are a little different now, but we are really looking forward to giving the kids an up close look at American history. I've even got a tour of the capitol lined up for them through a friend of mine whose fiancée works for Senator Martinez. I think it's going to be blast.

I'll be sure to take the camera on all of my trips, and I'll do my best to get as many pics as possible.

Wrestle With This

Do we have free will or not. Of course, this question comes up from time to time in churches as a question of theology. Do we choose God or does He choose us? Are all of those that are going to heaven predetermined or is it still an unknown quantity? I don't want to get into all of that. I want to wrestle with a scientific article on the subject:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/81bc32e4-d5e3-11db-99b7-000b5df10621.html

You really will want to read this article, I think, but I'll do my best to accurately reflect the meat of it in this discussion. According to this article, an American neuroscientist has demonstrated that there is a distinctive build-up of electrical activity in the brain before your conscious "decision" to move your arm, for example. Basically, by the time you think that you want to move your arm, your body is already most of the way there. It seems to make the "decision" part of it a last-second add-on to the process. The example in the article is that it's like driving a car and then finding out that the steering wheel is not attached to anything and that the car has been driving itself.

Some neuroscientists in Australia, though, took the experiment one step further. They electronically stimulated the brains of their subjects to influence the decision. Basically, they would ask the subject to raise an arm then they would stimulate the brain to raise the subject's left arm. Amazingly, the subject reported that they chose to raise their left arm in spite of the fact that it was going to happen regardless. So not only is the steering wheel not attached to anything, but someone else is driving the car and anytime it turns right or left you think that's where you want to go.

Now, if all of these experiments are being interpreted correctly, the implications to our society are huge. Did that man choose to kill his neighbor or was it predetermined? Can he be held responsible for something that he couldn't control? The article talks about some of this, and I don't want to get into that. I just want to wrestle with the experiment itself and what does it really mean.

Is it possible that our free will is an illusion that just makes happy? We feel better when we think we are in control, so we tell ourselves that it was our choice.

Welcome Home Prank

While I was at work on Friday, I thought that it would be nice to play a joke on a coworker who was returning from Las Vegas. I wanted to be sure that she had something nice to welcome her back after a few days out of the office, and it just so happened that there were thunderstorms coming into the area.

I called her up on her cell phone and told her that we needed to get all the machines in the building shut down in case of lightning. Before I even had the statement out of my mouth, she was trying to give me her password. Sometimes it’s just too easy. Armed with her password, I logged in as her.

After logging in, I closed all of the open applications on her machine, moved the mouse pointer down to the bottom left corner (so it was all but invisible) and took a screen shot of her computer at rest. Then I hid all of the desktop icons (pretty easy in Windows XP – you just right click on the desktop and uncheck the “show desktop icons” option under “arrange icons”) and I set the taskbar to auto-hide. Finally, I changed her desktop wallpaper to the screenshot that I had taken of what her desktop looked like before I messed with it.

If you’re following all of those steps then you realize that at this point her screen looks just like her normal desktop complete with icons and a taskbar, but it’s just a picture of that stuff. It’s not actually icons and a taskbar. Nothing is really going to work unless she happens to pull the mouse all the way to bottom of the screen and bring up the real taskbar.

You should have been here this morning. It was really great! She was having a time trying to figure out why her application icons didn’t work. Why the right click menus didn’t work. When she finally did something running, why it kept disappearing from the taskbar. It was classic.

Now my only fear is what she might think up when I’m gone to Connecticut in a couple of weeks.

Health Screening

Yesterday we had a group come in to the office and do health screenings for everyone. You'll be happy to know that I am still alive.

The past couple of times that I've seen Mom, she's commented on how tall I seem. She's been insistent that I've grown an inch or two in the last year or so. Unfortunately for Mom, part of the screening yesterday was measuring my height, and I am still the same five foot ten that I've been since high school. I guess that means that she's shrinking. Caci should run over real quick and measure herself; she might finally have the chance to be taller than Mom.

Other than height, they also checked my weight, flexibility, cholesterol (good, bad, and total), triglycerides, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, and whether or not I wear a seat belt when driving. Apparently, wearing a seat belt when driving is right up there with eating healthy when looking at a comprehensive health plan. Anyway, everything was in the normal ranges, so they rated me at having a 2% chance of having a heart attack in the next 10 years. I wonder what the odds would be if I didn't wear a seat belt?

Regardless, I figure that makes it okay for me to get a cheeseburger, coke, and chili cheese fries for lunch today, don't you?

Survival of the Fittest?

I was thinking this morning on the way to work about evolution and the survival of the fittest and all of those theories, and I've run across something that I just can't figure out. In my understanding of the situation, the theory of evolution says that one species will give way to a better species through a series of mutations and mating encounters create entirely new species, and that the strongest of the population survive to mate and pass along their superior genes. If I don't have at least the general concept right, then stop me here and let me know, but I'm pretty sure that's the gist of it.

I can't even begin to get my brain around how a dog could give birth to something that's not a dog. Maybe they would have to mate with a cat or something, but I'm not sure that a dog could get a cat pregnant. So, I really have a hard time grasping how one day a monkey gave birth to a human (I know it wasn't that direct, but work with me). Or more specifically, two monkeys gave birth to two humans and those two humans just happened to find each other and mate to give birth to more humans.

On the other hand, we watch the Discovery channel and see that natural selection allows the fast zebras to escape the cheetah, while the weak and slow ones are devoured. At the same time, it allows the fastest cheetah to catch its prey and eat while the slowest goes hungry. Two sides of the same coin, and it makes good logical sense….at first.

Now, let's try to reconcile the two. Monkeys have animal instincts. They can hunt, forage for food, eat the right plants, make nests, climb trees, and so on all by themselves. Humans cannot. Humans are basically idiots compared to most other animals when they are born. A human baby will put his hand in a fire, eat poisonous foods, play with snakes, and walk off the side of a cliff if not attended to by their parents. Pretty much no other animal has offspring that stupid. Yet, we are the pinnacle of evolution. How exactly did the first baby humans survive without human parents to raise them? And how did the second generation survive without grandparents to babysit? Seriously, how did we pop out of the oven with no hair and survive the winter; with no claws and find our dinner; with no sharp eyesight and survive the night? It doesn't make good sense. Wouldn't we have been the weakest link when the cheetah came along? Wouldn't we have been the weakest hunter, forced to starve because we couldn't feed ourselves?

You would think so when you take natural selection at face value, but assuming that we did somehow survive. Maybe there was a compassionate gorilla somewhere, like in Tarzon, that took care of us. How did we end up with so many dorky nerds in the world? Think about it. How are there any slow cheetahs left? How are there any slow zebra left? Wouldn't all of those genes have been bred out by now through natural selection? Only the strongest and fastest survived to mate and they mated with another strongest and fastest so how did they have slow, stupid kids?

Back in the day, the strongest humans could hunt and fight and keep the Roman hordes from invading their city. No one wanted to be married to a sissy that couldn't put meat on the table, so how come we didn't breed all of the ugly nerds out of the human race back around the time of cave paintings? It must be something else. It seems obvious to me that natural selection doesn't tell the whole story and evolution still just doesn't make sense.

And this dorky nerd is definitely thankful for that.

Animal Rights

Two great articles for you today, and they both involve animals.

First up, a mouse that just won't give up: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17773580/

Apparently, Bill Exner and his wife have issues with killing mice. I only say that because they claim to have caught the same mouse in their house three different times. I am making the assumption here, though, that when they say they "caught the mouse in their house" that they mean caged, boxed, trapped, etc. not found, walked in on, surprised, etc. It could go either way though. Mrs. Exner is quoted as saying, "He's [the mouse] taunting him [Mr. Exner] – I swear he's taunting him."

I hope I got that right. Honestly, in the context of the story it could easily have been Mr. Exner that was taunting the mouse. What else could you call it when you catch the same mouse three times? Why else would you let it go???? There's only one explanation. You want to taunt the mouse. Mr. Exner just wants to make sure that that furry little rodent knows who's the master of his domain and it ain't no little buck toothed rodent.

Of course, the rodent ain't all stupid. As long as these guys keep catching him and letting him go, he's going to have to some fun. Apparently, he took Mr. Exner's dentures and hid them behind the wall and under the floorboards. Now, I would normally ask why go through all the trouble to cut a hole in your wall, pry up the baseboard, and chop through some lumber to get back a set of dentures that no sane person would ever put in their mouth again, but I'm going to skip that on the assumption that anyone that catches a mouse and lets it go three times might actually rather spend the extra money to repair the damage they did to their own home while sucking on the dentures that they retrieved during their treasure hunt. Besides, once you get started, the curiosity of what else you might find just keeps you going.

Second, not even the crocs want to be in the Gaza Strip anymore. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17797967/

With all of the fighting over the Gaza Strip, things have heated to a level where the animals are paying to get out of there in any way they can. Unfortunately, the only crossing is for people and it's constantly monitored, so they've taken to piggybacking on brave humans that have little to no sense.

Case in point: just last a week a woman was stopped and found to be carrying three crocodiles under her robe. She said she "was asked" to carry them across. Obviously she was trying to avoid telling the authorities that she hears animals talking to her, but the good news is that everyone around "was admiring a woman who is able to tie crocodiles to her body."

That's what I'm looking for in a woman. Someone that's covered up from head to toe and when I finally get to take that robe off I find snapping jaws of death crawling out of her armpits. Sign me up!

She's not alone, though. Based on this report, another woman tried to bring a monkey across (that could be code for her husband, I'm not entirely sure) tied to her chest, and other travelers tried to bring exotic birds and a tiger cub (where'd they hide that?). Obviously, the animals in Gaza have stooped to a new low in this conflict and we must call in the Discovery channel and National Geographic immediately to help improve conditions in Gaza for the animals. If not for them, at least do it for the unsuspecting husbands on the other side of that border crossing. Snap! Snap!

Over Your Dead Body

Have you ever seen Weekend at Bernie's and wondered if you could really pull something like that off? Or worse yet, what if you were the one interacting with a corpse and you didn't realize it? What could be worse than that? Well…..how about waking up during your flight from Delhi to London and discovering a corpse seated next to you?

Read the full article here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17683917/?GT1=9145

So, apparently, Paul Trinder, woke up from a brief, in-flight nap to discover that the vacant seat next to him had been filled and another nearby seat was now occupied by a weeping woman. "What the heck?" he thought, "When I checked-in, I was the only person in this part of first class, how did these people get in here?" As he reached to ring for the flight attendant to ask for some assistance with the noise from all that wailing, he accidentally bumped the elderly lady sitting next to him. He quickly apologized, but she didn't even budge.

"Snob!" he thought to himself, but quickly decided that that was no way to treat a lady and he decided to make small talk. "So, where are you from?" he asked. No response. "Are you flying home or going for a vacation?" No response. "CAN….YOU….HEAR….ME?" No response.

Just then the plane hit turbulence, and the nice old lady slipped out of her seat. Not slipped like she was sneaking away to the restroom. Slipped like slid through the seat belt onto the floor. Slipped like a limp rag doll. And she still didn't say a word. Paul's freaking out now, and the flight attendant finally appears. Obviously, the woman is in need of assistance, and the two of them reposition her in the seat after which the flight attendant explains that since the lady died shortly after takeoff, they decided it would only be proper to upgrade her to first class.

"And you didn't think it would be good idea to wake me and ask if I wanted to babysit a corpse on the way home?" Paul asked. More turbulence. Body slides to the floor again. They reposition her again.

"Well, sir, it's just so crowded in the back, and we didn't want the passengers to feel uncomfortable flying next to a corpse," replied the flight attendant. More turbulence. Body slides to the floor again. More wailing in the background.

"Am I not a passenger, too? Do I not get an opinion on this? And how did you get her up here in the first place?" More turbulence. Body slides to the floor again.

"I do apologize sir, but we don't have anywhere else for her to be so that she doesn't really disturb anyone." More turbulence. They catch the body before it slides away this time.

"It's disturbing me. Can't you put her in one of those special flight attendant seats?" More turbulence. They start stuffing pillows around the body to hold it in place.

"Sir. We can't put her in one of the jump seats. Those are for flight attendants only, and it just wouldn't be right to give preferential treatment to a passenger simply because she died." More turbulence. More pillows.

"Preferential treatment? Are you kidding me? You're going to have to buy me some liquor if you want me to stay in this seat next to the human Slip 'n' Slide."

Okay, so maybe that's not exactly the way it went down. I don't know Paul Trinder and there's not much to go on in the story, but I can just imagine a couple of members of the flight crew with an old lady hanging on to their shoulders while they move slowly down the aisle explaining that she had a little too much vodka tonic before boarding. Apparently, you can fool almost an entire airplane with that Weekend at Bernie's gag. Who knew?

New Orleans

I'm back on the ground again after a quick trip to the Big Easy. It was a last minute deal that came up last week:

Cade: "I need you to get a ticket to New Orleans for Sunday afternoon returning Monday afternoon….Can you do that?"

Michael: "Do you still sign my checks?"

Anyway, we were supposed to leave on Sunday to have dinner with a prospective client Sunday evening in Covington, LA. So, both I and our office manager looked for flights on Sunday and the best we could both come up with was an American Airlines flight on Sunday morning at 9am arriving at 10:30am. Since I didn't have to meet anyone until 8pm for dinner, I wasn't really keen on that option, but we saw no alternatives.

Cade was also flying out with me, and we reported our findings to him in preparation for booking the flight. About thirty minutes later, he sent me confirmation that I was booked, with him, on a flight leaving DFW at 2:10pm. Hmmm….. Maybe I missed something the first time around. I searched American's web site again and it again only returned the 9am flight. When I searched for the specific flight number that I was booked on, it returned that flight, though. Perhaps I was booked on a flight reserved only for those with an insane amount of airline miles. Regardless, I was happy that I would still be able to attend church and teach my 4^th-5^th class before we left.

After we arrived at the airport, they announced that our flight was delayed until 2:40pm. Apparently, the plane that we were going to fly on was being taken out of service. I wasn't too thrilled about having to wait longer at the airport, but I was glad that they took the plane out of service before I got on it. Next, though, they announced that the plane that we would be flying on was scheduled to arrive on time at 2:15pm. Let's do some quick airport math here: assuming that the plane is actually at the gate at 2:15pm, how many workers does it take to get everyone de-planed, clean up after them, remove the luggage, load the new luggage, give the crew a chance to catch their breath, load new passengers, get all carry-on items crammed into the bins, pull away from the gate, taxi, wait in line for a runway, and get in the air. I don't have a calculator handy, but I can promise you it's longer than 25 minutes. As it turned out, we were getting on the plane at 2:40pm which was much faster than I expected.

Once in New Orleans, we had to trek to the one exit from the airport through the longest airline terminal with no moving sidewalk known to exist. I think there might be a mathematical equation where bean counters figure the maximum number of steps that a passenger carrying luggage is willing to go before they are driven stark raving mad and start slaughtering innocents with the wire hangers from their garment bag. At the New Orleans airport, it would only take one more step for them to have crossed the line and installed a moving sidewalk or tram system.

All we were looking forward to was resting for a second at the rental car counter before the final dash to our car and the long drive over the Pontchartrain. Hiking through the airport, we identified elusive, small signs directing us forward toward the rental car counters until we finally arrived at the counter itself. Wouldn't you know it? The sign at the counter says, "Go back three spaces." What kind of messed up game is this anyway? Really, it says that we need to go back the way we came, ignore the posted signs, go a different direction, and catch a shuttle bus. Okay.

Finally on the shuttle bus, we were able to rest our legs for a while and catch our breath. Who says travelling messes with your ability to get a good workout? Anyway, the driver kindly asked if we needed directions to wherever we were headed, and Cade said that we did. Immediately, she started spouting off directions in a quick, rapid fire manner. Hands were flying, her head was turning, it was like a history lesson, foreign language class, interrogation, and modern dance recital all rolled into one. And the best part is that we were on a mostly empty bus that rattled every time we hit a bump in the road.

For those that are not familiar with the state of Louisiana, let me assure you that there are more bumps than smooth spots on the roads in my home state. Basically, what I heard of the directions was: "hoo boy! Nawh, you gonna go 'bout……..miles, and you gonna turn………and then you gonna head on through……stop lights. Den you gonna look to your……and you see a big ol'……Den after dat, you gonna go 'nother……miles and you gonna turn…….at the …….. red light. Got it??"

Cade looked at me and said, "I hope you got that, 'cause I'm getting old, and I could barely tell she was talking."

After we arrived, and the bus was quiet, I looked her right in the eye and got the directions again. We were set.

Now, have you ever driven or ridden across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway? It's actually two bridges that run parallel (one northbound and one southbound) and they are each about 24 miles long across Lake Pontchartrain. It's reportedly the longest bridge in the world, and there is a section in the center from which you literally cannot see land at all. It's a neat deal, but it's also stressful to drive. You know that it's not really any different than any other road, but being completely surrounded by water for so long can mess with your head, so you're nothing but excited to see land at the other end.

Once on the other side, we drove right past the hotel. Finally, we stopped to ask directions at a service station, and the girl behind the counter told me that she wasn't sure there was a Courtyard by Marriott in Covington. Great! The customer behind me, though, said that he knew where it was, and he was surprised that we missed the big sign. Well, we followed his directions back and found that "big sign." It stood about 3 feet off the ground, behind a row of hedges, behind two trees, and 30 feet off the road. I can't believe we missed it either.

Now, before we left, I asked Cade what kind of attire to bring. At the time he was wearing a polo shirt and some khaki pants, and he said that he would probably wear something like that to dinner on Sunday night and then a suit and tie to the meeting Monday morning. I decided to go a step further and wear a long-sleeve dress shirt to dinner Sunday night and a suit and tie to the meeting Monday morning. You can imagine my surprise when Cade arrived in the lobby of the hotel as we waited to go to dinner wearing a suit and no tie. Crap! I was under-dressed compared to him, but maybe the guys we were meeting had dressed more casually. Nope. Both of the guys we were meeting were wearing sport coats, Cade was in a coat, and our other salesperson was in a coat. I'm the only guy at dinner who's simply wearing a dress shirt. I made light of the situation claiming that since I work in IT, I can play the socially inept nerd card and get away with being a little underdressed. They laughed and we had a great dinner.

We ate at Copelands and had a great visit. Our waitress, on the other hand, was having a bit of a rough night. She had a very difficult table of about 12 that were apparently visiting from Israel. She kept coming over to our table, apologizing for having to spend so much time with them, and telling us what was going on. She said that they were grilling her over the details of how the food was prepared, to which she said she replied, "I prepare by punching some buttons on that computer screen over there and then a few minutes later food comes out that little window over there and I bring it to your table." I'm guessing that they didn't like that response because they next asked to "yell" at the manager. Yes, she said that they literally said "yell."

Later, as we were getting ready to order desserts, Cade asked what was the absolute best thing on the dessert menu:

Server: "Bananas Foster Cheesecake."

Cade: "Great! I'll have that."

Server: "Well…..we don't have Bananas Foster right now."

Cade: "Okay. Then I'll have the Bananas Cream right below it."

Server: "Well….See….The reason that we don't have Bananas Foster is that we don't have any bananas."

Cade: "Alright. I guess I'll just have bread pudding."

She was a little spicy, but she was funny. Poor thing, though, after she brought our desserts and we noticed that her problem table had been cleared, we asked how it all turned out. She started crying right there on the spot. Apparently they had left her absolutely nothing for all the work she had put into trying to help them enjoy their meal. Jerks! We left a bit extra on our tip to try and make up for it, but I'm sure it wasn't quite the same to her as if they had left something.

The next morning, our meetings went really well. So well, in fact, that Cade and I had to move our return back to a later flight. After we finished up there, we started the drive back to New Orleans and back across the Pontchartrain Causeway. On the southbound side, we noticed something different, though: a toll booth. You can drive north across the lake for free, but you have to pay to drive south. It's not too bad of a price: $3.00. Try driving 24 miles on the Dallas Tollway, and I promise you'll spend a lot more than $3.00, but why do they only charge to go south?

We asked, and the lady in the tollbooth informed us that they used to charge both directions. Once they realized, though, that basically everyone who went north across the lake had to turn around drive back south across the lake, they just upped the toll on the southbound side and started collecting the toll only on that end. I wonder if that has helped the residents on the north side of the lake feel any better about where they live: everyone that comes here and takes a look around just wants to get back across that lake to New Orleans.

Anyway, we made it back to the airport without incident, had some lunch, and our plane left on time. Amazingly. Of course, we did still have to contend with a power hungry, intercom junkie of a flight attendant. I kid you not, out of the entire hour and a half flight, she was probably on the intercom for an hour of the time. She even, at one point, told people to tap their neighbor on the shoulder if they had headphones on so that they wouldn't miss out on her important announcements. And when we landed, she asked everyone to refrain from using their cellphones, even though American allows it while you're taxiing, because it would be rude for passengers to try and talk while she's doing announcements. When we finally got to the gate, we still couldn't get off the plane because she was still yakking on the intercom telling us all to come back and fly with her again. Not if I can help it!

All-in-all, it was a good trip, and in a crazy twist of fate, we actually managed to leave DFW from gate C27 and arrive back at DFW at gate C27. Now, if you haven't flown much, that might not surprise you, but at DFW, you consider yourself lucky to land at the same terminal you left from; it's absolutely unheard of to arrive at the same gate you left from.

Sex Ed

I got a letter from the school just a day or so ago informing me that the fifth graders at Reagan's school will be shown some films related to "their changing bodies" and they will be separated by gender for the viewing. I don't really have an issue with this, but I do have a concern about how things will be approached after reading a news article this morning. I'm really more of a factual, straightforward, scientific kind of guy that would prefer for my children to know the correct names for the different parts of their anatomy and for my children to be comfortable using the correct names for the different parts of their body. It really helps to be able to speak clearly.

If I say that I have a bump on my skull, then everyone knows exactly what I'm talking about. On the other hand, if I said that I had a bump on my noggin', then you might wonder if I meant my thinking noggin' or my sitting noggin'. On the other hand, if you don't push the proper terminology, then it can cause confusion when someone uses it. For example, little Timmy tells his buddy, Jake, that he broke his ulna and Frank freaks out because he always thought Timmy was a boy. Or Susy asks her boyfriend if he'll check to see if her uvula is swollen and he starts thinking he's going to make it to third base. We've got to be educated on the correct terms for our body parts to avoid confusion. So, maybe you can understand why I'm a little concerned about the girls in New York state that have been suspended for using the word vagina in a presentation (full article here).

If you can't use the correct term for a part of your anatomy, then what are they going to be saying in these films that Reagan is supposed to watch? Surely, they won't say "See You Next Tuesday" (think about it, and if you still don't get it, call me) or anything that might be mistaken for a reference to cats. At least I hope they won't. I'm just not sure anymore. If we can't use the proper terms, then what other options are left to us? Would these girls have been suspended for using any term that referred in any way to that part of their anatomy? What if they had decided to not say anything at all and just showed everyone what they were talking about? Would that have been okay?

It just seems absurd to me that you can suspend someone for using the correct name for a part of your anatomy. I suppose that you could use a term in a context that would make it bad, like if I called someone a pain in my ulna. Maybe that's worth punishing, but my understanding is that their usage was nowhere near that line. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what kind of terminology Reagan learns for the different parts of her anatomy.

Please note:

The girls in the article were reading from the feminist play "The Vagina Monologues" written by Eve Ensler. The play itself has been the source of much controversy in many different venues, and I cannot take sides in any of those controversies. I do not know anything about the play, so I cannot say that I agree or disagree with the content.

Parasite

Nearly two months until the next episode?? Aaargghhh!!! It's just starting to get really good. You know the drill. Highlight below to read more.

I really thought that Claire was going to try to run when they pulled over to use the payphone, but I'm glad that she made the smarter move to ditch the Haitian at the airport. I use the term "smarter" loosely. It was smarter if she really needed to get away from him, but it was pretty stupid when he's the only guy that's actually trying to protect her right now. Of course, we knew that she would try to make her way to New York to meet up with Peter again, and I totally loved it when she met her grandmother. All of us watching together said, "I wonder if she's knows that's her granddaughter?" When Peter's mom opened the door, and we were all relieved when she identified herself as such to Claire. What a great scene.

So, now we know who in Claire's family is giving the Haitian orders that supersede HRG's. So, what does she know of the company? Is she allied with the Haitian to bring them down? How long as she known about Claire? What does she really know? You would think from the fact that she's working with the Haitian and that she's obviously aware that Claire is on the run that she would know something about the company. Does that also mean that she knows something about the abilities? Does she know about the secret that Peter, Nathan, Claire, and the others share? And what language were she and the Haitian speaking?

Speaking of Nathan, I was very happy to see that he's been working to bring Linderman down. If you recall, I was concerned several episodes back that Peter and Nathan seemed to drop their focus on stopping Linderman when their dad died. I wondered why it seemed like they were giving in and Nathan was taking money from him for his campaign. It was a relief to find out from last night's episode that he is actually working with the FBI to bring Linderman down.

Of course, the FBI was pretty stupid setting up surveillance inside of Linderman's own hotel. It's no wonder that Jessica was able to find and dispatch them. It's interesting, though, that Niki was able to come out briefly to leave a picture for D.L. to find and she was able to come out for an extended period to save Nathan, but where was she when the FBI guys were getting gunned down? Why couldn't she save them? I really don't understand how she works, and truthfully, I still don't much care.

It was awesome when Hiro met up with Nathan again and did the hush, hush, "flying man!" Pretty funny. And I think that he really hit the nail on the head in describing Nathan. He pretends like he doesn't care because he cares too much. What a great way to describe him. It showed through, too, in the way that Nathan gave Hiro access to the curator so that he could steal the sword. Then Ando showed up to save him. Another great moment. And Hiro has his power back. Did anyone else notice the change in Hiro's demeanor simply from holding the sword? It was pretty cool. He's getting much closer to the Hiro that met Peter in the subway.

Back to Nathan again. What made him think that it would be a good idea to try and kill Linderman with a pistol? First off, I never really believed that he would be able to pull the trigger. Second off, if he really was going to try and kill him, why do it so loudly? That's just a good way to get those 574 security guards to kill him, too. What's Nathan going to end up deciding, though? Does he want the "life of meaning" which translates into slave? Or will he realize that his life has meaning as a hero? I'm betting on the latter, but they've written it just so that we're not sure.

I love Malcolm McDowell as Linderman, too. "Now you can't have any of my pot pie." Definitely the best line of the entire episode. He's just such a great nice, bad guy that he's hard not to enjoy. I would have expected more of a godfather type, big office, big chair, self-appointed emperor of the world type of guy for Linderman, but I really like the direction that they went. A confident, but easy-going character with just enough hint of crazy to make you certain that you don't ever want to cross him. I mean, I really wonder if that pot pie doesn't have a few pieces and parts of the last guy that tried to kill Linderman in it.

HRG met up with his new partner, who is totally cool and totally hot all at the same time. You better believe that Leah would not have been uncaring if that girl showed up to take me on a business trip. I might as well not come home. Anyway, I love the way that they introduced her abilities when she came in the door as Simone. I figured from the preview last week that Simone wasn't really coming back, and I was glad to find out that I was right. She was a throwaway character, and I'm glad to be rid of her. Now if we could just get rid of the whole Sanders family, we'd have an amazing show.

Anyway, after they cleared out Simone's stuff, Isaac went back to painting. It seemed like he was looking for a high, but I couldn't really tell from the way the scene was cut whether he shot up or whether he stopped himself and dropped the syringe. Either way, he painted what appeared to be his own death. I couldn't be certain from the stretched out screaming face and the missing piece of his head, but it looked to me like he had painted artwork in the background and we know that Sylar is coming after him soon (probably next) so it seems to fit. Will Hiro show up earlier this time and help stop it? I hope so.

Back on HRG. I can only imagine how confused he must be to not remember what happened to Claire and his house. He's back to thinking that everything is a secret and thinking that he has to protect Claire. I'm sure that he was scared half to death not knowing for sure who has her or where. Last week we all wondered what happened to his wife and Lyle's memories. Did the Haitian have time to erase them or not? How cool to know that he did not. HRG used his wife to pass himself a message, and she knows at least a part of what he does for a living. Of course, the fact that his memory is gone means that he doesn't know for sure how much he told her, and when his new partner posed as his wife, she was able to easily pull him across the line. What's going to happen to him now? Where's his wife? Where's Lyle?

Mohinder, back in New York, is finally catching on to Sylar. Perhaps it was the DNA sample, or perhaps it was just the news article. Either way, at least now he knows, and he tried to stop him. A paralyzing agent to keep his powers at bay but not a powerful enough one apparently. Sylar managed to stop the IV and gave quite the inspirational speech to try and convince Mohinder to work with him. Mohinder has enough bottled rage that he never doubted what he would do to Sylar, though. What a contrast to Nathan's inability to kill the most evil man he knows. Mohinder pulled the trigger. I think it might have surprised Sylar a little, but not as much as it surprised Mohinder to see that bullet hovering in the air. Not to be rooting for the bad guys, but that was a pretty cool moment. Now Mohinder is in trouble and Peter inadvertently steps into the middle of that fight. I'm hoping two things: one, that Peter and Sylar have an awesome fight with them both using their variety of powers, and two, that Peter doesn't grow back that annoying lock of hair that Sylar cut off. And one other thing: it seems that we now know what Hiro was talking about when he told Peter that he looked different without the scar.

Outback Steakhouse Service Decline

I don't know if any of the rest of you like Outback Steakhouse or not, but Leah and I have been fans for quite some time. It's always seemed to us that it's a fun, reasonably priced place to get a pretty decent steak. Then came our last two visits. I'm pretty sure that there must have been some significant changes at a corporate level in the past couple of months because the food quality and service quality have declined significantly. Honestly, we gave them a break after our first bad experience since it was Valentine's Day, but after going through the same thing last night, I've got to say that I probably won't ever go back without some guarantee that things are back to normal. Let me know if you've had a similar disappointing experience at your local Outback, and read the letter that I just posted on their feedback site below:

To Outback Steakhouse:

I have been a longtime fan of Outback Steakhouse. My wife and I have considered the cheese fries to be the best available for at least the last 10 years, and we have always enjoyed the quality of your salads and steaks. Really, it's the little things that matter to us when we visit Outback, like the unique taste of the croutons in the dinner salad, the salt on the baked potato skin, the seasoning on the steak, and the crispness of the cheese fries. As fairly frequent patrons to the Outbacks in Garland, Plano, and Dallas, I can say that we've almost never been disappointed. Almost never.

Our last two visits have been to the Garland location and the Dallas (635 & Greenville) location and while the service and quality were consistent in both visits, it was noticeably lower than in any past visit.

Initially, I excused the service and food quality at the Garland location based on the fact that we were dining on Valentine's Day and the restaurant was very crowded, but after the exact same experience with the exact same order at the Dallas location, I wonder if there are not changes at a corporate level that are pulling down the quality of the chain.

Specifically, my family and I ordered cheese fries that we would normally expect to find hot and crispy. Ours were soggy and covered in rubbery bacon bits. For our meals, we ordered our usual Outback Special which is generally a great value for steak. It might seem nitpicky, but one of the things that I look forward to in the Outback salad that comes with this meal is the unique taste of the croutons and ranch dressing. Neither of those were present in either visit. Sure, there were croutons and ranch dressing, but they were both just plain, not all the way they should taste at Outback. As a matter of fact, I was so disappointed that I didn't even finish mine. Next up, the steaks. First they were delivered incorrectly. Mine to my wife and hers to me. Not normally a big deal, but what are the odds of that happening twice in a row and at two different restaurants? Next, they were cooked incorrectly. Mine was way too overdone and hers was not done enough. In both cases we ordered medium rare for me and well done for her. In both cases we got two medium well steaks. The only way that we knew the orders were placed on the table incorrectly is that we had different condiments on our potato. Speaking of which, what happened to putting cheese on the baked potato? Outback has never been big on loading a potato full of cheese, but I've at least been able to tell that there was some in there. In these past two visits, I've searched and searched to find only the tiniest bit buried under a small dollop of butter in my mini potato. Because one visit was on Valentine's and the other was squeezed between two meetings, we did not send our food back for fear that it would take another 45 minutes before we were able to eat. In the interest of time, we just slathered on the A-1 (a detestable thing to have to do to a steak) and finished our meal as best we could.

Thinking that I may have been alone in noticing these changes, I have asked other family members and friends if they noticed any changes at Outback Steakhouse in recent months and nearly all of them have confirmed the same experiences and disappointments with no prompting from me. Please note that your former customers have noticed the changes and we are not pleased. Honestly, I'm happy to see a Texas Roadhouse being built a few doors down from the Outback in Garland so I'll have a new place to find a reasonably priced steak dinner.

Company Man

I was sick and in bed all day yesterday, but I dragged myself up the stairs to watch this one show. It took all of my energy to stay up for that one hour, and I am so glad that I did. By far one of the best, if not the best episode yet. This is what Heroes should be like every week. I loved it. Highlight below to read more:

I've said it several times before on this blog, and I'll say it again. I'm not convinced that HRG is evil. I think he really does love Claire, and I think that this episode proves it. He was willing to die to protect his family, and he didn't try to play any games about it. Sure, he tried to bluff early on and pretend like he didn't know Matt and Ted, and then he made one calculated move by leading Matt and Ted to the bookcase so he could grab a pistol, but once he was disarmed, he did everything that he could to protect his family. From that point on, he warned Matt about his actions through his thoughts, brought Ted his file, and told Matt and Claire the truth. I hate to say it, but I could really start to like the guy.

It's funny how being a father changes a man. Mr. Sulu (Mr. Nakamura) said something like that to HRG as he was holding the baby Claire in his arms. I think this episode really showed us how it changed HRG from a straight company man recruited into a shadowy organization into father determined to balance his work against protecting his daughter from his work. At first, HRG didn't even want a kid, then he took her as an assignment, and finally he couldn't give her up. At least now we know why he kept erasing his wife's memories of Claire's ability, why he destroyed the tape that Zach made, why he erased Zach's memory, why he erased the quarterback's memory, why he erased Lyle's memory, and why he tried to erase Claire's. He didn't want the word to get out that Claire had an ability because he didn't want to have to give her to the people that he works for. It was because of his job, but not because she was the job, because he didn't want her to be the job.

Some interesting things showed up in this episode, too.

First off, they found Claire at the Deveaux (I was misspelling it in previous posts as Devereaux) building. Why does that building seem like ground zero for so many of these "heroes"? Claude hides out on the roof taking care of pigeons. Simone's (who may be special based on the preview for next week) dad (who may also be special as we've discussed here in the past) seems to have been the owner given the name of the building, so it there a connection there? Isaac paints it and spent time there with Simone regularly. Claire's birth mother started a fire there to escape HRG and Claude (or so it seemed in this episode, although, I really thought that the fire had been in Texas based on past episodes). Claire was found there. Peter is training there. What's so special about this building?

Second, Mr. Nakamura seems to be ultimately in charge of the organization HRG works with. So, does Mr. Nakamura really know about Hiro's abilities and was just playing dumb when the two of them last met? Does he, like HRG, not want the organization to find out about his child? Heck, is Hiro even really his child? I want to know more about Mr. Nakamura and Nakamura industries.

Next, what's the deal with Claude? He believes that HRG is a good man after working with him and he believes that he should be helping "his people." So, why did he have so much trouble getting around to helping Peter? Why has he been in hiding, growing more and more bitter, all of these years? Was he really that disillusioned when HRG actually pulled the trigger? Which, by the way, it seemed to me like HRG accidentally pulled the trigger the first time based on the way he jumped and the look of surprise on his face, and only once he realized that he had started down the path did he get the resolve to try and finish the job. Of course, another question, there is whether or not Claude was hiding someone. HRG was ordered to kill Claude because he was hiding one of "them." Based on next week's preview, could that be why Claude is always hanging out at the Deveaux building?

And we can't leave out the Haitian. Obviously, HRG has some way to signal him that we don't know based on the fact that he told Matt that he had sent out a signal for help. And apparently, the Haitian is good at not talking since basically everyone thought he was mute, including HRG, right up until this episode. Everyone except Claire, at least. But who is the Haitian really working for. I'm not sure that I got the quote exactly right, but I thought that he told HRG, "I answer to someone who's orders supersede yours….In your daughter's life." What does that mean? Who is he talking about? Finally, when he first showed up to reboot Mrs. Bennet the first time, who really believes that that went off without a call to 911? An upper middle class housewife sees a black teenager walking into her bedroom in Odessa, TX; I'm telling you, she at least tried to dial to 911 as soon as she got a glimpse of his dark skin.

Ted and Matt are now back in custody (so to speak), too, but where was Hana throughout this whole ordeal? She sent them on this fool's errand and then hid in a corner somewhere? She could've downloaded the info off those computers by just thinking about it, so why wasn't she with them? Matt apparently, is going to be let free to partner with HRG. Perhaps he'll be the replacement for Eden. Ted, on the other hand, is going to be kept for observation. What is this organization really up to, though? Why are some kept and some freed while a certain few are recruited to work for them? I think Matt working with HRG will bring out more good in HRG than it will bring out bad in Matt. But what's the deal with the new "hero" that was in the room with Matt when HRG and his supervisor (Eric Roberts) walked in? I wonder what kind of power she has.

Finally, HRG himself has been shot and memory wiped so that the Haitian can hide Claire and give him plausible deniability. That means that they will be after both of them soon, and HRG may not remember that he doesn't want to chase her. How will that change his character? And what is going to happen to Lyle and Mrs. Bennett, they both know the truth about Claire again. Have they been wiped again, too? I think it was a really great moment when HRG finally realized that he couldn't give Claire to the company, but that it would cost him to continue protecting her. I don't think that a little memory loss and a bullet wound are quite all the payments he's going to have to make on this deal, though.

Unexpected

Finally an episode that captured my attention in much the same way as the very first. With almost all of the plot lines intertwined, I'm not even sure how to write this post, but you know I'm going to do my best. Highlight below to read more.

First off, Mohinder and Sylar found another one of the heroes (I hate to call them that since they are obviously not all good, but I don't have a better collective name for them). This one was a woman named Dale which threw Mohinder for a bit of a loop at first. After a few moments of convincing, she finally confided that she had super hearing, and that she didn't want to lose it. Mohinder, the naïve little geek that he is, agreed to return with "Zane" (Sylar) the next day to run a few tests. Interestingly, Dale's blood was identified through the human genome project; I wonder if all of the others on Mohinder's list were identified the same way, and if so, does that imply that there may be more people with powers that did not participate in the project and remain unknown?

Sylar, of course, returned in the middle of the night and murdered Dale to take her power. Who didn't see that coming? That's what I thought. It seemed like Mohinder was getting a little suspicious of "Zane" when they arrived at the hotel, but that seemed to be mostly gone by the next morning. I wonder what will happen next since Mohinder seems determined to call the police and report Dale's murder and Sylar, of course, doesn't want to have anything to do with it. For a smart guy, Mohinder sure doesn't know much about what the police do to the guys that run from the scene.

Along another thread, Hiro and Ando were still separated; each with one half of a crooked gaming commission scheme. I've got to tell you that normally I enjoy the Hiro/Ando subplot, but this week it seemed really stale. I didn't catch any great lines, and I'm really tired of Hiro not having his power. The one great moment in this whole story was the cameo by Stan Lee as the bus driver.

Now for all the stuff that's intertwined. Matt still has the diamonds that he took off of his dead client, and in a brilliant move he gave a ring from that loot to his wife. This guy really used to be a cop? Did he not ever work a burglary? What was he thinking giving his wife stolen goods? Anyway, his wife, of course, innocently took it to the jeweler to get it sized and was informed that it was worth about $40,000 and he wanted to know how she got hold of it. You guessed it, another fight ensued between the husband and wife and resulted in Matt agreeing to take the diamonds to the station.

Before Matt could make his move, he got a call from Ted. Ted had met up with Hana Gitelman back in Nevada and the two of them were planning to invade PrimaTech paper to discover the truth about HRG and the experiments that were done on them. Before they could carry out their plan, though, Hana wanted to bring Matt on board. Matt met them both in the cemetery where Ted's wife was buried, and they obviously agreed to work together. The next scene they are in together is in Texas at HRG's house where they are taking the family hostage and looking for answers. I wonder how HRG will handle this? I wonder what we will find out next week about HRG's employer? I wonder how Matt explained needing to go on another trip? And I wonder what's going to happen to those diamonds?

Earlier, though, Claire had continued to notice issues with her mother's memory. At first, she didn't recognize Claire or Mr. Muggles, and then moments later she knew exactly who everyone was and seemed normal. That didn't last long, though, before she collapsed. In the hospital Claire took a chance on the doctor after the doctor assured her that anything she said would be held in the strictest confidence. Under those terms, Claire confided that the Haitian had been erasing her mom's memories. Naturally, the doctor said she would have to talk to HRG about that. What's the deal there? Didn't the doctor just promise confidentiality?

Of course, that sparked a conversation between Claire and HRG where she was finally able to tell him exactly what she knew and how she felt about it. She's really turned cold toward him, and I like it. The question, though, is what will happen with Ted, Matt, and Hana in the house? Will Claire side with them or with HRG?

But before any of that took place, HRG was in New York talking to Isaac. Poor Isaac has the best intentions of saving the world and winning back his girl, but he's working from a place of ignorance. He doesn't really know that he's being manipulated and he doesn't really understand HRG's game. Of course, neither do we, but at least we know that he's not interested in saving Peter. Anyway, Isaac informed HRG that Peter was invisible which then let HRG know that Claude was also still alive.

HRG found them on the roof of the Deveaux building and managed to take Claude down before attempting to hit Peter. Peter stopped the taser nodes before they could hit him, though. Now, right there, I'm sure that there's going to be some discussion over whether Peter just stopped the nodes or whether he stopped time. Leah, at first, said that he stopped time because he picked that up from Hiro, but I disagree for two reasons. One, if he had just stopped time, he would have had to move out of the way and the nodes would have kept moving toward the spot Peter had been in, and two, if he had stopped time, Claude would not have been breathing in real time while the nodes hovered in the air. I agree that Peter should have the ability to manipulate time since he was with Hiro, but I don't think that he realizes it yet.

Anyway, Peter was finally a pretty cool character. He was pretty much past the whining about his condition and into the using his powers. It was really cool when he broke the staff and even more cool when he flew with Claude. Finally, it was just awesome when he showed up in Isaac's studio to confront him about HRG and Simone. Although I didn't really care for Peter as a bad guy (and I don't think he's going to be bad; I think he was just angry), I really liked seeing him use his powers with confidence. Unfortunately, the one thing that both guys wanted walked in the door during the fight and Isaac ended up killing Simone. Of course, she could come back, the show already has two people that could travel in time, but I'm not sure if I want her to. I think it will be better for the Peter/Isaac dynamic for her to be dead.

Lastly, before Simone could show up at Isaac's apartment she had to stop and speak with Nathan. She encouraged him to go public and Nathan explained that that would not be a good idea. I wonder if he will feel the same way after he learns that she's dead? Or will that galvanize him to actually use his powers and at least admit to himself that they exist?

The Mile High Club

Back to the airlines again. Only this time I'm not interested in bashing security or anything like that. I just want to take a minute and examine that fantasy scene from many a movie where two people end up in the lavatory together and get jiggy while cruising at altitude.

I've flown many different times on many different planes, and the one thing that's been consistent about every one of those trips is that the lavatory is barely large enough to hold me, so I've often wondered how crazy in love (or lust) do you have to be in order to even contemplate trying to put two people in there together? I don't at all understand how they could fit, and even if they did figure out a way to fit, I really don't see how anyone that's not a part of Cirque du Soleil could really get any kind of physical enjoyment out of the experience (trying to keep it G rated here).

I figure it does happen in real life else there wouldn't be so many stories about it, but the couple would have to already be intimate, be wearing disposable shoes (your feet have to go somewhere, and you don't want to walk around with blue shoes the rest of the day), and be extremely flexible. As it turns out, though, my assumptions are incomplete.

If you're a celebrity flying to an STD awareness conference and you have no condoms available, it's magical. At least that's the impression I get from this article about Ralph Fiennes. According to many different news reports, Mr. Fiennes followed a flight attendant into the plane lavatory where they had an unprotected romantic encounter while he was on the way to participate in an STD awareness conference.

What's Mr. Fiennes going to say at the conference? I imagine something like, "All, I would just like to say that you should never have unprotected sex on an airplane, with a flight attendant. It's very risky and dangerous. As a matter of fact, I tried it on the way here just to be sure, and I nearly broke my neck and sprained my ankle just trying to get the job done."

And how did this happen in the first place? Maybe the flight attendant was walking by while Mr. Fiennes was reviewing his notes for the conference. She glanced over his shoulder at his reading material and said, "Hey, I've done that before. It wasn't as bad as they're making it out to be." To which Mr. Fiennes obviously replied, "Really. I'm not sure. Can you show me?"

I just wish I could be there when Mr. Fiennes gets back home and is hanging out with his celebrity buddies telling them about his latest conquest. I wonder how they would try to one-up him on this one.

The Mile High Club

Back to the airlines again. Only this time I'm not interested in bashing security or anything like that. I just want to take a minute and examine that fantasy scene from many a movie where two people end up in the lavatory together and get jiggy while cruising at altitude.

I've flown many different times on many different planes, and the one thing that's been consistent about every one of those trips is that the lavatory is barely large enough to hold me, so I've often wondered how crazy in love (or lust) do you have to be in order to even contemplate trying to put two people in there together? I don't at all understand how they could fit, and even if they did figure out a way to fit, I really don't see how anyone that's not a part of Cirque du Soleil could really get any kind of physical enjoyment out of the experience (trying to keep it G rated here).

I figure it does happen in real life else there wouldn't be so many stories about it, but the couple would have to already be intimate, be wearing disposable shoes (your feet have to go somewhere, and you don't want to walk around with blue shoes the rest of the day), and be extremely flexible. As it turns out, though, my assumptions are incomplete.

If you're a celebrity flying to an STD awareness conference and you have no condoms available, it's magical. At least that's the impression I get from this article about Ralph Fiennes. According to many different news reports, Mr. Fiennes followed a flight attendant into the plane lavatory where they had an unprotected romantic encounter while he was on the way to participate in an STD awareness conference.

What's Mr. Fiennes going to say at the conference? I imagine something like, "All, I would just like to say that you should never have unprotected sex on an airplane, with a flight attendant. It's very risky and dangerous. As a matter of fact, I tried it on the way here just to be sure, and I nearly broke my neck and sprained my ankle just trying to get the job done."

And how did this happen in the first place? Maybe the flight attendant was walking by while Mr. Fiennes was reviewing his notes for the conference. She glanced over his shoulder at his reading material and said, "Hey, I've done that before. It wasn't as bad as they're making it out to be." To which Mr. Fiennes obviously replied, "Really. I'm not sure. Can you show me?"

I just wish I could be there when Mr. Fiennes gets back home and is hanging out with his celebrity buddies telling them about his latest conquest. I wonder how they would try to one-up him on this one.