>free video poker how to play backgammon no deposit bonus online casino 888 no download casino play roulette craps game black jack download american roulette play video poker baccarat free casino game no download online casino free money on line casino wagering roulette online online casino betting free online casino slots free craps best casino roulette gamblingdistributed raman amplifier internet casino gambling uk best casino online full pay video poker no deposit casino code best craps game black jack tournament best online casino site craps online game newest online casino free slots no download play blackjack online free dueces wild video poker black jack gambling online video poker game free casino cash no deposit video poker tutorial play free video poker диваниhow to win at black jack casino roulette casino guide how to win at roulette rules of craps casino game online real money backgammon baccarat casino online free video poker game play free video poker video poker odds video poker tournaments мебелиrds the middle of January I renewed my MA registration online. I’ve done this every other year (since the registration is good for 2 years) ever since I can remember with no issues. The registration came in the mail, but with no plate decal to prove that the vehicle is registered through 2010. I actually didn’t notice this right away until my cousin mentioned that she got a parking ticket for not having her decal. She had also gotten only the registration card and no decal. I called the RMV on February 4th and they said they would send me the decal out right away. Today, February 19th, I got a letter in the mail from the RMV. I opened it up and there was one blank piece of paper with my address on it to show through the window and a form letter saying, basically, that the decal is enclosed. Nothing else was in the envelope..which means, no decal. It was actually pretty funny, but annoying too. One time forgetting to put the decal in the envelope is one thing, but when I call up and ask specifically for the decal and it still doesn’t come? It’s crazy…and they rub it in my face by sending me that letter. Now I have to drive to the local RMV, probably wait in a long line, and hopefully come away with a decal…AND hopefully not get pulled over on the way there for not having a decal.

Voting today reminded me that I forgot to post when I went to the presidential primary rallies. I went to see all three top democratic nominees – Obama, Clinton and Edwards. Obama’s was a large rally where he gave a prepared speech and then took a couple of questions. Clinton’s was a bit nicer since she only spoke for a few minutes on her own and then took a couple hours’ worth of questions from the audience. We were sitting right behind her (and could actually be seen in the pictures that were taken by the media) so it was a bit more personal than being one of the 1300+ that were at Obama’s. At Obama’s, we were so far back I had to crane my neck to see him and the security personnel kept yelling at us to move away from the roped off area, but there was nowhere to go – it was so packed. Standing for that long was annoying. Edwards’ rally was the only one I brought my camera to, which was cool since we were only one row of folding chairs back from him and Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were in attendance (Tim gave the opening speech, actually, which was pretty cool). This was a more comfortable, personal and exciting rally, albeit obviously cheaper than the other two, and it’s too bad he had to drop out of the race. He was definitely a long shot, but I liked him. Anyway, here are some pics of that rally:

A few more can be found here.

So, it’s been a while since I posted anything, but I don’t think there’s anyone reading it anyway.

The Pats lost, that was upsetting… but before that game, we completed the endless setlist on Rock Band. That’s 58 songs in a row, no breaks. Well, technically…but it was my brother’s birthday so my parents stopped by with cake to surprise him (he’s our guitarist) and that gave us a bit of a break towards the beginning of the set. By that time, though, we had finished almost 12 songs when my controller’s battery died…the drummer was rocking out so hard he didn’t notice and ended up killing the set by selecting cancel or something with one of his hits. That sucked – we had to redo the 12 songs we had already done, and then continue on and finish the rest of the set…all in all, we did 70 songs for the endless setlist. I was the singer and my voice was not the same at the end of it. I was hoping that by completing that set I would feel a sense of accomplishment…no such luck. Instead, I felt like I had wasted an entire Sunday and had nothing to show for it. It was fun, though, but I’m glad it’s over.

I saw Fast Food Nation last night. It started out as if there were two separate movies crunched into one until somewhere in the middle they met up and made sense.. I liked it, mostly, except for the ending…it really just ended, with no satisfaction or anything. But it makes you think twice about eating certain foods…it’s gross to think what might actually be in the food you’re eating – it’s almost enough to make one turn vegetarian, if only meat didn’t taste so yummy.

I also saw Cloverfield and National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Both were good in their own way. Cloverfield I thought was excellent – very well done, great filming, great acting, etc. It didn’t give me motion sickness as I had heard so many people complain, it was very early on that I got used to the shaky-cam and it was fine. Any concerns I had about it not being realistic (as realistic as a monster attacking NYC can be) were dealt with and answered on the imdb FAQ page, so that satisfied me. As for National Treasure, it was a fun movie…suspend your disbelief enough and it was really enjoyable. It left itself open for a third in the series, which I welcome. It’s nice to watch a fun movie with no basis in reality.

I know he saw his shadow and we are going to get 6 more weeks of winter, but happy groundhog day anyway! (From Chester and Lokai, who made quick friends with Phil)

I just got my hair cut for the first time in about 8 months and decided it was time for a change. It’s a subtle change, but there are definitely bangs now where there weren’t before. I kept the length pretty much the same because I like long hair (plus I figured, one change at a time). Let me know what you think:

I know Chester liked it – as soon as I came home he jumped onto my shoulders to get a better look:

I found this site, The Golden Jigsaw, the other day and have been addicted ever since. It’s a competition that involves anagrams, a treasure hunt and a jigsaw puzzle. The main site posts a new web site every day that you have to go to to find that day’s puzzle piece(s). The catch is that the clue for the web site is an anagram, so you have to unscramble the letters in order to find the site. Once you figure that out, you go to the site and find the clues that point you to the piece. These clues generally involve more anagrams and some riddles. Once you crack the code and find the piece, you save it and fit it into the appropriate place on the puzzle board (which you have to download from the Golden Jigsaw site in the beginning). All together, there will be 1000 pieces to be found, but so far they have only released 45 of them. The first person to find all the pieces and submit their finished puzzle board wins $1,000,000. It is very difficult, more difficult than I ever expected, but it is so fun. I’m not sure how many pieces they have sold (or, for that matter, will sell), but it is obvious that this will go on around a year or so depending on how many pieces are hidden on each site.

It took me forever to catch up and get the 45 pieces, but it feels good knowing that now I just have to keep up with the one site a day. I recommend it to anyone who likes puzzles and also has some extra time on their hands (and maybe if I know someone else playing, we can share hints??) 🙂

We all decided that the weather didn’t matter, so even though it was supposed to rain all weekend we headed up to the White Mountains anyway. On the drive there it poured for about twenty minutes, so I was worried about how the rest of the weekend might be. Luckily, other than about two minutes of rain, it was clear and sunny (and a bit too hot) all weekend.

We got to Berlin (the town that trees built!) around noon on Friday and started getting all of our gear together for the hike up to our campsite. We knew we had about four miles of trail ahead of us, but we did not know that the trail was not very well maintained. It was a tough hike, especially since I had not gone backpacking before and was not used to walking over uneven terrain with 30 pounds strapped to my back. There were some really deep muddy areas that were not easy to navigate (I fought the mud, and the mud won) and a lot of piles of moose droppings. We took a few breaks and checked over the map to see how far along we were and eventually we made it. We quickly set up our tents in case it rained again. Albert and Nancy bought the same tent as us since it weighed half of what their old tent did. Dan had a different tent and was on the other side of the campsite (he claims he had a family of mice living next to him, but that was never proven). In the middle of the site, Dan and Nancy set up a tarp so we had shelter in case of rain. Darren and Albert set out on one of many trips to the brook to get drinking and cooking water – the brook was about 0.2 miles away, so it was a quick walk but still far enough away that water wasn’t always available. That night, we made chicken and cheese quesadillas using our camp stoves. The cheese had melted together a bit and the chicken was warm, but it was good enough for camp cooking. Darren hung up his shorts on the line for the tarp so that they would dry, and apparently moths really liked his sweat. After dinner, we pretty much just went to bed – we were all pretty exhausted from the hike so we headed to our respective tents. Dan fell asleep very quickly and snored so loudly that I thought a bear was outside our tent (luckily we didn’t actually see any bears during the whole trip, though). The fact that he was snoring so loudly coupled with the discomfort of sleeping on the forest floor made it difficult to fall asleep. All three guys ended up snoring, so that made for a very restless night.

The next morning we were all up by 6am so we decided to take a hike up to Roger’s Ledge which was about 0.5 miles from camp. This trail was even less maintained than the one previously, so we were walking through fern and over fallen trees the whole way up. Up at the top, we enjoyed beautiful views of Vermont and New Hampshire, and we had time to relax and do some yoga before heading back. Once we got back, Nancy and Albert made us all pancakes for breakfast and we discussed our plans for the rest of the day. Originally, we were going to pack everything up and hike to Unknown Pond and set up camp. After that, we were going to hike up to the Horn to catch the views from there. Unknown Pond was 2.1 miles from camp and The Horn was another 2 miles from the pond. We all decided that we were happy with the camp we had and were not really looking forward to another 4+ mile hike. Instead, we decided to pack up our lunch and hike over to Kilback Pond which was only 0.7 miles away. Dan napped while the rest of us visited the pond. On the way there, we stopped at the brook and got more water which Albert and Nancy filtered to get rid of any bacteria living in it.

The pond was beautiful to look at, but unfortunately for Albert it was not good for swimming. He waded into it and realized there was about a foot of water covering five feet of mud. It was nice and refreshing to just put our feet into it and relax for a bit. We then ate our sandwiches and saw another couple of hikers walk by. They had started that morning back at the Berlin Fish Hatchery (where we started) and were going all the way to Unknown Pond. These were obviously seasoned hikers, not out of shape newbies like myself. On our way back to camp, we met another couple who were also going to Unknown Pond. They had a dog with them named buddy who was a lab/blue tick hound mix. He was very sweet. It turned out to have been a good decision to stay where we were, though, because the site near Unknown Pond was going to be busier and we had a campsite to ourselves.

Once we got back to camp, we were all pretty exhausted and ended up napping for a couple hours. Then we got up and made dinner – Albert and Nancy had smoked trout and rice pilaf, while Darren, Dan and I had macaroni and cheese. Pretty much anything that you can just add water to was perfect for eating. After dinner, we made s’mores (yum!) and played a card game. By this time, we were all wearing our headlamps since it was dark out. The mosquitoes were also out and biting so we called it a night and went to bed, figuring we would be up early and head back home.

After yet another restless night, we all awoke to find out that it was almost 8am. We thought we would be on the trail by 8, but apparently we were tired. We took down our tents and packed up, had some oatmeal, and headed back on the 3.9 mile hike home. The hike home took only about 2 hours and was not difficult at all. My body apparently got a bit more acclimated to the situation and did not give me any problems. I did fall in a couple more mud pits, but what’s a hike without getting muddy? We only stopped once on the walk home and that was to get water (and cool off). We were doing so well that we decided not to stop for lunch (I had PB & J sandwiches that were probably pretty warm and soggy in my pack). I looked back from the end of our hike and saw Nancy and Darren. This part of the trail was wide and easy, so it was a tease on the way in since the rest of the trail was rough. It was such a relief to get out of the trail and see some wide open spaces. On the drive home we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and then continued the rest of the 3 hours home. Our camping trip was over.

It was a very tiring weekend and my legs are in pain (not to mention one of my toes which has a blister on it now), but it was definitely fun. We were so stinky and dirty that I could not wait to get in the shower, but it didn’t bother me too much while I was actually out there. I did learn that my pee shyness comes out even worse in the wilderness than in public restrooms – I know it’s difficult for me to start peeing right away unless I am alone, but having to walk into the woods and try to do it was really difficult. It’s hard to relax when you’re squatting half naked outside. There was an outhouse, but it was pretty gross and dirty, so it was actually better to go in the woods. Take a look at some more of the pictures I took during this trip here.

I’m supposed to be going camping this weekend provided the weather cooperates. At this point, it’s supposed to rain heavily all three days with scattered thunderstorms, so it’s still up in the air. Some rain is okay, but a constant downpour whilst backpacking/camping wouldn’t be too fun. The trip will include Albert, Nancy, their friend Dan and us. The three of them have been backpacking before, but I have only done car camping and canoe camping (driving/canoeing to the campsite). This will be different, more work, but also more rewarding because we will have worked hard to get to the campsite.

We’ll be hiking in the White Mountains in the Kilkenny area. It will be about 4-5 miles of hiking a day and camping at two different sites, basically making a loop within the three days to get back to the car. The first site is Rogers Ledge, with a short excursion to The Horn from which we will be able to see views of Quebec. The next day we will make our way to Unknown Pond and camp there. There are tent sites at both of these locations which apparently include outhouses, but we might decide to venture at least a quarter mile off the trail and camp in the wilderness. Honestly, it isn’t really camping unless you’re peeing in the woods. The outhouse may actually ruin the experience!

Since this is my first time backpacking, I had to go to REI to pick up a tent, backpack, sleeping bag, hiking boots, a stove and a headlamp, amongst other necessities. Everything has to be super-light and small in order to make this remain an enjoyable experience. I can’t wait, I hope the weather cooperates. If not, we have the gear so we can go whenever we want now. The drive home is going to be fun – five people who haven’t showered in three days and have been sweating all weekend crammed into a RAV4. I’ll be packing plenty of medication, though, because the chance of getting a headache will be even greater than usual, but I won’t let that ruin anything…I’ll just be miserable when I get home. But still, it’ll be worth it.

Check back here after the weekend for pictures of my trip!

Watch this routine by some of the inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines. This is just a practice run, but it’s very cool. While you’re at it, check out some of their other videos on YouTube. I particularly enjoyed Radio Ga Ga by Queen.