Snake Kicker's Reality Check

Ah, the third full day in Maine. No rain. Mist and fog, but no rain. We started the day by venturing down to Hunter's Breakfast and Lunch. This little drop in the bucket of Maine restaurants came highly recommended by Uncle Jim and Aunt Gayle, who claim to belly up there for the morning egg or pancake about once per week. It certainly lived up to its billing, we having arrived hungry and departed sated. Perhaps the only room for improvement is in the area of the cup of coffee, which was typically not of the Starbucks ilk and weak. Nonetheless, I rate the dining experience three pictures (out of four). If ever Emily were in need of a strong cup of the nectar of the gods, this morning was it. She was feeling rather paltry in the A.M. and was loathe to stop clinging to my caffienated being. Noting her weakness, observant parents that we are, we decided to stick close to the home base and let it play out. So we headed to downtown Wiscasset and unloaded. We walked down to the lobster do...

Monday's events consisted of a trip to Freeport and relaxing back at the house. Once again it was rather rainy as we headed up to the home of L.L. Bean. Leigh was on the hunt for shoes and a jacket, so we loaded our shopping weapons and went to the main store (there's your standard L.L. Bean, the L. L. Bean Hunting & Fishing, L.L. Bean Cycle and Ski, L.L. Bean Outlet, and soon to open L.L. Bean Home). Required upon arrival are photos with the giant boot. Then as soon as you go through the door is the fabulous fish tank. Leigh's shoe radar led her to a snappy pair of a blue specimen that she tried out on the fake rocks with Emily. On the way out the door, Leigh exclaimed how super excited she was about her new shoes. I reminded her that she would hate them the next day. We meandered down to the children's section and lost Emily for a heart-thumping moment. Instead of just running the distance of a couple of clothes racks, she high-tailed it to the end of the store. T...

Today was a wonderful day for the Hinkle family in beautiful, rainy, Maine. Things got kicked off pretty early due to Emily hoisting out of bed just before 7:00 AM. Rather than come and see ol' ma and pa, she went to Uncle Jim and Aunt Gayle's room. They claim they were already awake, but I don't believe them. At ten to seven I felt like it was about 4:30 AM--not sure why as we went to bed about 11:00 PM. Lots of coffee made me feel better.Aunt Gayle prepared a wonderful breakfast for us and we had a nice time chatting it up before the final bustle to get U. Jim and A. Gayle to the bus station. We (Jim, Gayle, and I) launched at 10:30 AM for a rainy drive to Portland. Leigh and Emily manned the battle stations until I got back.It was a bit of an effort, but we managed to get Little Miss Wonderful down for a nap. We did a bit of vacation research while she slumbered, and we headed down to Boothbay Harbor at 4:00 PM or so. Once we got in the vicinity, we got off track a bit a...

So after having slaved away for the ol' corp. for over eight years, I finally got a window seat. Not a window office, but a window seat. It's not even a window cube, but a pseudo cube. We have cube walls that outline an area large enough to seat anywhere from four to six nerds, and our work areas face the cube walls for the most part. Fortune having shone down upon me, I landed, during the last reshuffling of departmental humans, in a corner the allows me to face the window. Ah, what a splendid view of the parking lot and three pine trees have I! When things get stressful and I have to handle yet another emergency due to the unending faults of others, I just look out amongst the Hondas, Toyotas, Dodges, and my lowly Saturn, and think to myself, "Wow, I'd really like to have that 4x4 Cummins turbo diesel Dodge Ram pickup over there." But today my view, for the morning, was a bit different due to the white hulk of a BloodMobile having displaced about six perfectly g...