We’ve been back from the Galapagos for a week. Where could I begin? The trip was amazing, and we’re nearly done organizing our photos and videos from the trip to post.

My Galapagos playlist is on youtube. I’ll be continuing to add videos as I go through them. There’s only a couple there now.

Update: Pictures are now available here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mike.helmick/GalapagosOctober2010#.

Posted in travel | Comments Off

Incase you want to check on our dogs while we’re gone, they’ll be here wreaking havoc.

Posted in day to day | Comments Off

Tonight we head out to the airport for our trip to THE GALAPAGOS!  We are so excited for the opportunity to go, and it should be an amazing trip. We’re staying near the airport tonight for a very very early flight tomorrow. Then we fly through Atlanta and on to Quito for this trip. Here’s the Celebrity marketing video for this trip. A close second to this trip is seeing the BBC Galapagos documentary DVD. If you like wildlife, rent it! See you all when we get back with our thousands of pictures.

Posted in day to day | Comments Off

Happy FOURTH birthday to the Tilly Monster. So monstery… Daddy will be brining home your cheeseburger later. You may or may not eat it. Whatever. It’s your day.

Posted in day to day | Comments Off

Haven’t blogged in a while, but today something somewhat blog-worthy happened.

Today a guy used a pre-made, printed sign in his car to call me a MORON. Yep. He had a sign already in his car.

Here is a man who is already aware that everyone else is going to be so inferior to him that he needs to MAKE signs IN ADVANCE that say derogatory things, and keep them HANDY whilst driving in rush hour on the interstate so he can harass other drivers and insult them via the afore-mentioned signs. (I’m only assuming he had more than one for the sake of argument. This is unconfirmed.)

Are you kidding me? WHO DOES THAT? Is this a thing that people do? The driving conditions that brought on his anger are baffling to me. I’m typically a defensive driver to a fault, and I would have had to do something unheard of for his reaction to seem reasonable. My mere existence merging his lane was that offensive that he had to wear out his horn and pull out his sign as I merged into the next lane 10 seconds later. Even if I had actually cut him off — which I would admit if I did — I can’t imagine any scenario in which his behavior would seem normal!

I suppose if you drive like you’re the only person on the road — as this gentleman was doing — you probably feel like you need to yell at an awful lot of people. Hence, creation of SIGN THAT SAYS MORON… I guess.

Road rage is one thing. Horrible and dangerous, but somewhat spontaneous. But this takes road rage to a whole new level that I never considered! So pre-meditated and organized. He one day decided he needed a more convenient (and offensive) way to yell at all the drivers who pissed him off that he MADE A SIGN.

And to think I gave him a thank-you wave. (I ALWAYS use signal and a thank-you wave in traffic.) Karma is a b*tch, buddy! You enjoy driving like a maniac so that you have an excuse to use your sign.

Posted in frustrations | Comments Off