We got a late start again but was optimistic about the day. The truck was handling much better. I started off the driving and later in the morning Craig and I swapped.

We finally made it to Indiana and trying to make as good of time as possible. Indiana greeted us with a massive metal cross on the border, and then fields and fields of corn. The biggest cross I’ve ever seen was still to come. Craig and I couldn’t remember which state it was in when we drove through in 2004. It’s certainly unforgettable.

We made it through Indianapolis and with the time crunch I was only able to send a virtual beep beep to my friend Kevin who lives there.

Next up was Illinois; more corn. Lots and lots of corn. Based on the amount of corn being produced in just the I-80 corridor all I can think is America has a serious problem with high fructose corn syrup. There’s no way all that corn was going to items like corn on the cob, corn meal, corn flour, canned corn.

Our goal was to get to St. Louis to sleep for the evening. I really wanted to get a picture of the arches. We decided to stop for dinner before St. Louis to avoid the rush hour traffic. Wishful thinking.

Back on the road at 6:30pm with still an hour to go before getting into St. Louis we started down the road and I noticed something coming off the side of the moving truck. Initially I thought they had blown a tire, but then Craig smelled it. They hit a bump again and gasoline was spraying out the side. We pulled over right away. The gas cap was not placed back on after the last fill up.

We finally made it to St. Louis around 7:45pm at night only to get stuck in gridlocked traffic. All day my friend Kevin from Indianapolis had been warning us that the interchange from 55 to 44 was very hairy. Not only was the corner very sharp, but the lane changes and what you think is the exit is not, but rather for another interstate. To add insult to injury the construction had a whole interstate area closed. On ramps to get back on were closed.

As much prep work with the detailed directions Kevin gave us, Craig and I took the right route but my Mom and Dan got off the wrong one because they listened to their GPS. Worse more was their GPS took them off the highway that would have just been a detour and dumped them on to the streets of St. Louis to be rerouted.

Meanwhile Craig and I made it to the hotel to realize it was no where near what was described. Abandoned buildings all around it. Large parties of people with lots and lots of kids who were running around checking in. Super 8 had booked smoking rooms because of the pets. Eww! The front desk clerk was frustrated and offered to cancel our reservations. We gladly accepted.

All the while my Mom and Dan were still lost in St. Louis trying to make it this way. I started calling area hotels trying to get rooms that did non-smoking, cats and a truck with trailer. Holiday Inn saved the day. We made the reservation and drove straight over. When I walked in the woman was so nice, she said, “oh my, you look really frazzled.” She gave us complimentary breakfast.

We got to our rooms and tensions were quite high. Misunderstandings combined with crankiness ended up having tensions explode and everyone decided to just call it a night.

The positive to the day is I got some nice photos of the St. Louis Arch with a sunset backdrop.

More photos on Flickr.

Well it’s that time again, not exactly our plan but we’re going along for the ride. My Mom is relocating from Connecticut to Arizona. I admire her for deciding to move across the country to an area that has always intrigued her. Politics with standing I hope she has a wonderful new life in Arizona. We are helping them move their items, in particular their Honda Civic and 2 cats.

Below is the itinerary per say in Google Maps form.

Wish us luck please!

Happy Father’s Day, originally uploaded by criana.

Happy Father’s Day Dad. I miss you greatly. I know you’d be amazed at how technology has advanced. SpaceX and Virgin Galactic would make you so happy. MAKE magazine would be in our house and the advent of arduino kits would make you giddy. Love you.

Incredibly cool. I could certainly go for his life path.

A real-life Robinson Crusoe:

86-year-old Brendon Grimshaw has lived alone on a tiny island in the Seychelles since 1962. He bought it for £8000 and has spent those years introducing trees and 120 giant tortoises back to the island.

(via ?interesting-links)

Tags: video

(Via kottke.org)

Making pancakes for brunch, originally uploaded by criana.

We ran out of pancake mix and from bed, I searched on my iPad for “pancake mix from scratch” and came back with this recipe.

I made it this morning and Craig said they were some of the best pancakes he’s had.

Love the internet.

Warm weather snacks, originally uploaded by criana.

I’ve come to memorize the recipe for this guacamole. I found it on AllRecipes.com and it’s the one with the highest rating. I chose it not only for the rating but for the simplicity of the recipe and lack of extra crap being added to it. I don’t like guacamole with sour cream or cheese. Those stay in their own dips.

I’m looking forward to warm weather, guacamole and a beer on lazy afternoons.

Finally got around to making lemon slice ice cubes., originally uploaded by criana.

I enjoy lemon in my water and saw someone post about this months ago. I finally got around to trying to make these and it’s incredibly easy.

You take a lemon, slice into slices roughly a 1/4-1/3 of an inch thick. Take a muffin tin and put the lemon slices in each spot. Fill with water and then place in the freezer. When they’re all frozen take it out and pop them out. I found using a hot sponge along the bottom of the pan loosened them up enough to fall out. Then I placed them in a freezer bag.

The past few months have been quite hectic. We decided we’d had enough of living in the middle of the state and moved back to the western side. I’m able to have a highway free commute which I love. We’re now closer to the parks we like to hike and bike at. All in all it was a good decision. The implementation should have been smooth but it got crazy with stitches for Craig, a few car related incidents, 3 loaner cars and getting to know a collision repair center very well. At some point I’ll post pics of our new place, preferably after the snow has receded.

I’ve been sorely neglecting my design work in favor of sleep and brain candy. Which I might add, I love Dexter. I’ve been focused on being re-inspired and making a point to get out and visit with others in the field. I’ve been attending the Hartford Build Guild meet-ups, as well as attending Drupal Camp Western Massachusetts in January. Along with all of that fun, Stephanie and I have been meeting up for coffee to give support and share knowledge. Steph has been a great source of books. Borders and Amazon have been enjoying my ordering. I picked up copies of CSS Mastery, Head First PHP & MySQL, Drupal’s Building Blocks, and lastly Objective C for Dummies. Of course I need to find a few spare weeks of my life to read these and implement what I learned.

I also checked out Lullabot’s, Drupalize.me site with training videos. I highly recommend their tutorials if you’re new to Drupal. I should be pro at this point, but I have yet to truly focus on a Drupal project without being distracted onto another project. Currently my primary focus is building a Lemonstand App eCommerce site for a client. It’s taking a bit of wrapping my head around their API, but it is going well. I’m looking forward to posting the link to the site in a week or so.

I’m hoping with the return of warmer weather to exercise more as well as get back to shooting photos. Is anyone living this hectic of a life the past few months?

Black Point Beach

We spent the weekend, courtesy of friends at a beach rental in East Lyme/Niantic. It was a nice break from life and great times with friends. Our friend’s kids kept Craig busy wanting to play games and go exploring. While at the beach Dunkin Donuts flew their banner over head several times.

It was really peaceful to be in a private community where you can walk around, leave the house unlocked, everyone waves and says Hi, and people follow the speed limit. There was also something rejuvenating being near the water and having the expectations lowered significantly for two days. More photos on Flickr.