You say either, and I say either?

E-ther, I-ther, NE-ther, NI-ther... actually, the tomato bit's the more famous part, I guess.

Anyways, this topic is brought to you by the lovely issue of whether that Italian city is "Turin" or "Torino", as addressed yesterday by the USA Today's Mike Lopresti. My favorite line from it might be: "Besides, any country that has the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has little room to complain." (I still long for their return to being the "California Angels"--stupid Disney.)


So, if you go for oysters and I go for ersters
I'll order oysters and cancel the ersters
For we know we need each other, so we
Better call the calling off off
Let's call the whole thing off...

[now I've got Ella stuck in my head]

Unimportant are all these things I can do, cause...

"I Can't Get Next to You"... has an interesting history, I've just realized.

I know the song because it's on Annie Lennox's Medusa album (pictured at right). Actually, I've known all the songs on the album for awhile, as I like Medusa quite a bit. The album, itself, is a album of covers, which I've known for a few years, as well. The tricky thing is that I don't actually know most of the original versions of the songs. The original artists of the tracks include the Clash ("Train in Vain"), Bob Marley ("Waiting in Vain"), and Procol Harum ("Whiter Shade of Pale"--Lennox released this as a single); among others.

Now, when the album came out in 1995, I'd not heard any of the songs before, to the point where I initially thought it was all new material by Annie. I've since learned--and tend to remember some of the time--that they're all covers, and have now begun to hear/recognize the originals on the off-chances when I hear them. ("Train in Vain" was a big surprise, given that the Clash's version is downright bouncy compared to the somberness of Lennox's take.)

So I was propelled to address this today, as earlier this week I heard what may be the original version of "I Can't Get Next to You", by the Temptations (from 1969). I say "may" because in my looking-up of the song, a ton of artists have apparently covered it, and while I'm pretty sure that 98 Degrees nor Westlife originally record it, I'm having difficultly determining whether the Rolling Stones didn't (their high number of albums make them pesky like that). Al Green also released it at some point, as well.

Anyways, I always find it interesting when I'm flipping around the radio dial (or rather "buttons"), and I fall on a song that I've never heard before, but yet know all the words to. Just wanted to share that.

And now I say goodnight.


K-C I hope you did well at District.

The human world, it's a mess...

The seaweed is always greener, in somebody's elses lake... or in my case at the moment, the living space is cleaner. But on the plus side, I've managed to unpack enough so that I can see not only part of the floor, but also the sofa. Sea-->

Happy Australia Day (btw)


Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me...

I drove all night...

I was dreaming while I drove the long straight road ahead, uh-huh...

Well, I am back in Fort Lauderdale, and I didn't even drive all night to do it as the title might suggest. Actually, my step-father, Carl, and I had planned on driving straight through, but my mother (his wife) felt we shouldn't... and basically guilt-tripped me into stopping.


Monday, January 16
So what happened? Well, the U-Haul got packed up on Saturday and Sunday, and a little after 9 a.m. on Monday (Jan.16--Martin Luther King Day) we left the house. As we were driving out of San Antonio on I-10, we actually drove over S.A.'s MLK Day parade, which had a lot of people marching down the street named after him there.

Our route was straight east on 10, until we got to I-95 in Jacksonville, Florida , where we'd turn south. Which is what we did, and, thankfully, traffic was light on Monday--most likely because of the holiday--so we actually made it through Houston! Lunch was on the east side of Houston, and after 300 miles we left Texas and went into Louisiana (200 miles less than October's drive).

In Louisiana, we briefly left 10, opting for the I-12 by-pass in Baton Rouge so we would avoid New Orleans--as much as I would've liked to seen its current condition, it was dark by the time we got in the area and we would've just been in the way....

We stopped for dinner in Baton Rouge--which wasn't at anywhere near as cool as it should've been because I didn't ask my friend Court were to go (sorry); and took 12 to Slidell, where it re-joined 10. Oh, and about halfway across 12, I paid the most I've ever paid for a tank of gas... in Covington

Thankfully, that was the costliest fill-up of the trip... I think there were about eight total for the trip, all in the $40-$70 range.

Anyways, once we hit Slidell, Carl and I started looking for a place to spend the night, as it was nearing 10:00 p.m. Unfortunately, arriving at Slidell, also marked the start of our drive directly through Katrina damaged-areas, which consequently meant that any hotel room that did survive was occupied, either by a displaced resident or a relief worker. So, after stopping in Biloxi, Mississippi to check if a room was available, and the reception was not only nice enough to not laugh at my request, so also was kind enough to let me know our best bet would be to try to make Mobile, Alabama.

So, we got back on the freeway, and drove the 70 miles to Daphne, Alabama (just across the bay from "Mo-beal") before getting a room, which wouldn't have been so bad, had it not started at 11:00 p.m. And because we drove through the area at night, we didn't really see much damage. Earlier, in eastern Texas, we'd seen a lot of blue-tarped roofs and other signs of Hurricane Rita during the day. While the moon near-full and bright, and there weren't too many clouds, we couldn't see a whole lot, other than some blown over billboards, still attached to the top of their mounting posts--the metal frame was just bent over.


Tuesday, January 17
Anyways, we spent the night in Daphne, and then finished up the drive on Tuesday... getting to go through probably 20 weight stations in Florida. Carl drove the remaining I-10 portion, which ended up being most of the day and including going over the Suwannee River (far, far away... btw, I'd have a pix of the cool sign the Suwannee has--music bar et al--except I mistakenly took it with an unfamiliar camera and it didn't turn out :( ).

But, I took over driving when we got to 95 (after having reached Jacksonville just in time for rush hour at 5:30 p.m.--and I'm beginning to believe that cities are purposely spaced on interstates so you hit them all right at the worse possible traffic times, if you making a long drive at least).

The drive south on 95 was pretty uneventful, save almost getting lost in Cocoa and ended up at Cape Canaveral--though we would've seen the launch that had been delayed to the next day. We made a mad dash into a SuperTarget about 5 minutes before it closed to pick up an air mattress, grabbed a completely junk-food dinner at a gas station, and drove into Fort Lauderdale right around midnight...

On Wednesday, Carl and I unloaded the truck, and packed all the boxes into where I'm now living. And from then through Carl's departure Saturday afternoon, we got stuff moved into placed and began unpacking. After his departure, I tried to go into the office to catch up on stuff from my week-long absence, however, an alarm had been turned on during the week so I didn't temp fate and stayed out until yesterday...

And now, I'm left with a minor back-logged at work to clear up, and a bunch of boxes to unpack; both of which I'm working on...


Way down upon the Suwannee River
Far, far away
That's where my heart is yearning ever
Home where the old folks stay...

Man I'm gonna get outta this town

Out of this town and out of S.A...

So I'm back in San Antonio this weekend to pack up (most of) my crap, err I mean belongings, and move it to Florida. I left Fort Lauderdale wicked early this morning (i.e. 6 a.m.--not so early, really), along with a whole bunch of JetBlue passengers were leaving as well, and so the line at security was atrocious (my Continental flight was packed, maybe even as much as all the stupidly late JB people, who were in the security line 15 minutes before their flight departed).

But, 15 minutes later, I was through security and went directly onto the plane--not passing go/collecting $200 or anything, as I arrived at the airport a whole whooping 60 minutes before my flight--and slept all the way to U-ston. Then continued onto San Antonio, after changing planes, grabbing a breakfast burrito at Taco Bell, and being delayed on the tarmac because a garbage bin wasn't on the plane. Actually, waiting for the bin--that would balance the plane's weight [what we were told]--made our ground time probably longer than the actual flight time. Ahhhh... the power of trash!

Anyways, I must go to pick up the U-Haul. Hasta...

[FYI--it should take about a week for the drive, so the next posting won't be til maybe next weekend/so.]

p.s. To crewÜ, sorry about not making tonight... family duties prevail.