In the wash...

Ok, ok. So we’ve slacked a bit on the whole blog thing. But I’m taking a step towards being better about updating it. Only problem is, I’ve not nothing.

My brain is mush, I’m getting very little sleep thanks to my newfound fascination with Red Sox baseball, and Chris doesn’t even have any good stories from traveling. And thus begins the demise of the Miller blog.



I’m hoping to be inspired by the completion of the World Series tonight (fingers crossed) but until then, I’ll leave you with this: I challenge each of you, over the course of the next week, to keep a running record of how many loads of laundry you do. At the end of the week, multiply that number by the three dollars and fifty cents that it would cost you to do aforementioned laundry if you were living in Boston...

And I thought the lack of Duke’s Mayonnaise here was my biggest issue.

Seriously?

I get run over by a girl on a bicycle, and Chris gets to be in Interpol. Where's the justice...

Don't let his modesty fool you. He's been "involved" in this kind of work for a while now. That whole SITA thing is just a cover.

The Man....

Ok, so I am on my way to the airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil in a car the hotel arranged for. First, if anyone has been to Sao Paulo then they know that this place has the worst traffic of any place in the world. I am not kidding either; this place beats Mexico City, London, Atlanta, L.A., or any other place I have ever been.

So back to the story. The Man who is driving me is swinging in and out of traffic like a mad man, but kindly, he is doing it very smoothly, as not to make me sick. We come along a highway that is moving pretty good and he says "we go there". As we approach the on-ramp there are cops that have the entrance blocked off. My driver heads for one of the barracades and yells something to a cop and flashes some type of badge and the cop lets us pass.
The driver pulls through the opening and gets on the highway and then proceeds to tell me that he flashed a Federal Police badge and told them that I was from "The International Criminal Police Organization", better known by its telegraphic address as Interpol, and that I needed to get to the airport.
For those not in the know, Interpol is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Lyon, France. Interpol is the worlds fifth-largest international organization in terms of the number of member countries, after the Universal Postal Union, FIBA (the International Basketball Federation), the United Nations, and FIFA (football's international governing body). Interpol's current President and Secretary-General are, respectively, Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, and Ronald Noble, formerly of the United States Treasury. Noble is the first non-European to hold the position of Secretary-General.

Again, back to the story.....The driver said he used to be in the Federal Police as a security instructor (at least I am with a pretty safe person, right...Or so you would think were it not for his driving...).

We then run into more traffic and he just pulls into the emergency lane and kicks it. We go like that for several miles passing the bumper to bumper traffic (think all lanes of I-285 stopped and you pull in to the emergency lane and gun it to like 70mph). Crazy, I tell you, Crazy.

The other crazy thing is that all the while you have vending carts on the side of the road with people darting across the road at any given time.

If I don't post again you will know why.....At least I now work for Interpol.

Just don't tell anyone.

Overrated...

Well, while Chris is off in Argentina hunting for birds, I am here in Boston getting an education. If you've been reading this blog, you know that I got my first paper back last week, and that I did pretty well.

I just want to go ahead and say, for the record, that it was a fluke.

Case in point: I'm sitting in class today trying to keep up with a conversation about Emergent and Conventional Literacy Development, and I raise my hand to comment on the topic. What comes next is both disturbing, and completely embarrassing.

I will say that I did actually think the comment out before I said it. In fact, I even prefaced my comment with the remark, "you're probably all going to be less intelligent after I tell you this".

And that should have been the end of it.

No such luck. I'm not sure what reaction I thought my comment/practical everyday connection would evoke, but I'm pretty sure that after the words, "when I was watching 'The Biggest Loser' on TV last night" came out of my mouth, I lost my target audience.

I'm just going to let you think about that for a little bit. And trust me, there was no mind-blowing comment after that.

Oh well. One A at Harvard is nothing to scoff at...

**Did I mention that I got run over by a girl on a bike yesterday? Clearly I'm suffering from some sort of mental block as a result of the collision. OK, so she just ran over my feet, but I've definitely been traumatized...

Don't Cry for me.........

"Don't cry for me...
..Argentina"

Ok, that was dumb, but it is a connection to Argentina that everyone should know. This picture is the view from my hotel looking down Avenida 9 de Julio which is in Buenos Aires. Its name honors Argentina's Independence Day which was July 9, 1816. It is also the widest avenue in the world (at least that is what Wikipedia said), which is a tidbit you can now use when playing Trivial Pursuit.

I am here for work/pleasure and will be returning to Boston on the 18th of October. I am heading to Cordoba, Argentina for the weekend with Allison’s Uncle and my friend David Malin to go hunting for Dove (or as they say in Spanish “caza de la paloma”).

This will be my first hunting trip for anything other than cars or electronics.

I'm pretty sure that hunting for cars or electronics doesn't count, as you normally don't use a gun in either of those endeavors. It should be a lot of fun. Hopefully I will be able to hit at least 1 of the 25 million dove in the Cordoba region.

Just an update for you if you are playing “Where in the world is Chris Miller”…..

Now I'm off to think/sing about other dumb connections to places I am visiting...

What did you get?

I guess Allison is a little modest. Not only did she get her “VERY FIRST GRADE from Harvard” and it made her “One Happy Cookie” BUT the girl got an A.

That is right. An A at Harvard. I guess she did not want to jinx any future grades, but since I posted the actual grade then that cannot happen. Especially since I jinxed myself long ago never to get an A or a B for that matter.

Smart Cookie

I bought this shirt with the hope that it woud make me smarter through osmosis.

It seems to be working...

I got my VERY FIRST GRADE from Harvard today, and I am now One Happy Cookie...

Thanks for all of the prayers, and keep 'em coming!

More of Boston

More pictures from Brad's trip up to Boston last weekend. I must say, rubbing John Harvard's foot for luck was no match for the excitement we experienced at the Sox game the night before...

I haven’t yet mastered my own personal “Boston Walking Tour”, but I think we did pretty well. Chris, Brad, and I got to see a lot of new things, take a lot of pictures, and even eat at two “World Famous” restaurants in one day! From the church where Paul Revere warned of incoming troops to a house made out of paper (not a typo...) we pretty much covered all of the bases. Next on my list of things to do: Duck Tour, Boston style!

Sweet Caroline...

I’ve never claimed to be a huge baseball fan, but my attitude is quickly changing towards the sport.

One word- Sox.

For those of you that need some clarification, that’s Sox as in “Red Sox” (Brad generously pointed out that none of the “locals” refer to the team by it’s full name...)

So, as luck would have it, Brad came into town last weekend, bringing with him (figuratively speaking) none other than, you guessed it, tickets to a Sox game. I was excited to see Fenway, and happy to be going out in Boston, but I really could not have prepared myself for the whole Sox experience.

If you’ve ever been to a MLB game, you understand the gist of how a baseball game works. You go watch the game, eat some food, pay way too much for drinks, cheer on the team, and then go home. In most cases, I’ve never been too affected by whether or not the team won, as I usually just go to the games for the fun of it.

Friday, September 28, 2008. Red Sox vs. Twins.

I don’t know enough about baseball to write up a play-by-play of the night, but I will tell you this. The Sox needed a win, the Yankee’s needed to lose, and everyone in Boston would be happy. Guess what. Boston is a happy place. It was an amazing game followed by an amazing show of fan support as over 1000 people stayed at Fenway in the hour following the game to see if the Yankees would win or lose. So, they lost, the Sox did some crazy celebratory champagne/snorkeling on the field, and everyone, and I do mean everyone was happy.

What a night!