Doctor Who Time!

Not responsible for the bad poetry... okay, so I am. I'm just so excited! I was overcome with verse!


Doctor Who is Coming!
I've been shouting all week.
Weenie roast Saturday
with adult drinks?
I think not, 
Must decline
My plans are set in stone


Call me a Dork
Call me a Nerd
Just don't call me after 9 PM 
(eastern daylight savings time)
I'm engaged
I'll be busy
My TV and a Fez
Watching "Let's Kill Hitler"
Before dashing off to bed.

Top of the Mountain

Top of the chair lift

My trip to Ober Gatlinburg was very fun, but I only have pictures from the top of the chair lift. I could have sworn I took more pictures than that, but apparently not. It's okay though, because some of my best memories of the trip happened at the top of the mountain. First, the view is gorgeous, gentle and majestic at the same time. This is a mountain I wanted to hike up. I'm like as not to see a hill and climb it. Second, all the boys loved it. It was strange because there was nothing to do but look and listen, when the band was playing. Third, there was a band. 

Future stars and cowboys

When they started to play, the twins, Robert and Owen, started dancing, just like they were at a hoe-down. And when the band asked the boys to come on stage and put on a cowboy hat and sing, the twins were gone before you could blink. Jeremiah needed some extra encouragement. When Owen was handed a microphone I thought he was going to swoon! He and Robert went to town on She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain. I couldn't stop laughing, I wish I'd recorded it. 

View from the top

We were fortunate that it only sprinkled a little and the sun didn't come out from behind the clouds until nearly 4. I think Ober will be a place will will want to revisit next summer and perhaps this winter; the twins want to learn to ski, heaven help us.

Hike-atastrope!

I haven't been on the trails in too long. I like long, lonely trail runs or hikes. Just me and nature, alone, relaxing, enjoying aloneness.

Not that you could tell it by my attitude yesterday.

I do not want to run,
I do not want to hike,
I do not like moving
and healthy stuff and whatnot.
Lazy I am and lazy I'll be,
until I reach that vaunted age of 30. 

And that ain't never gonna happen. I stopped aging at 29.

Making myself tie my shoes was a challenge. It got easier as I started walking, until I nearly stepped in horse crap. There aren't supposed to be horses on this trail. WTF! I should have taken it as a sign. After 14 minutes of hard hiking, I was ready to turn around, but if I was doing this I was making it to the Pinnacle. Two miles straight up the side of a mountain. Until I nearly stepped on a snake.

It was just a brown rat snake. I'm pretty sure it was a brown rat snake. I even managed to take a picture of it as it would not move! It just raised it's snaky little head and stared at me. I tried shooing it. It just raised it's head higher. I tried going over it. My feet had a different idea. And then what my feet were thinking made it to my brain. The trail to the Pinnacle narrows to a single track, with brush hanging over the side... where snakes can hide.

It was silly. I could have picked the snake up and moved him; I probably would have if anyone had been with me. Alone and snakes does not a brave soul make, at least for me.

So I turned back down the mountain. But I hadn't gone far enough, so I turned down the Tennessee Road to hike around the Iron Furnace. There I met my next obstacle. A herd of deer!

Deer, you ask? Bambis? Yes. Bambis. Have you ever been mowed down by a herd of deer? Well, I haven't either! But I was almost this one time... (I might be exaggerating, but only by a little). The deer must have sensed my complete cowardice, because they looked at me with contempt when I tried to shoo them. Two of them even followed me when I again turned back.


At this point, I was thinking I'd next run into a bear. There was no bear. And I'm a shameless coward, at least that's the excuse I'm using today.

Ober 2011

Nothing really captures our trip like this picture. Actually, anything else would be a better representation. I saw this and nearly rolled on the ground with laughter. The guy says, "Smile for the cameras," and teenagers give you this...

Had to pay for this one, but I'll post some I took later along with a review of Ober Gatlinburg. It's a pretty fun place.