Lots of Hot Air

Rochesterfest has come and gone till next year. I did finally participate in an aspect of the festivities on Saturday with the "Hot Air Balloon Race" that happened twice that day - once at 6:30am and once at 7pm. My best friend for the weekend, Oso, and I went to the park to watch 17 hot air balloons go up. Oso was more concerned with who had his tennis ball than the balloons, but he was patient while I watched them unroll the balloons, then inflate (they do about 75% of the inflation using a large fan.... then they pour out the heat to get the balloon to finally rise off the ground), then take off! It was pretty neat to be about 15 yards from the balloons as they were going up. There is about a 5 second window is all when the basket is about a foot off of the ground where if you're going up, you better be in the basket and if you're not going, GET OUT!!! Make sure to take your lotion to keep your skin moisturized so in the span of 5 seconds you better "Put the lotion in the basket". Sorry, I couldn't help myself....

The most impressive part of the experience was the appearance of the Energizer Bunny Hot "Hare" Balloon. It's the largest balloon in the US and makes a regular cycle of visits. The ears on this thing are as big as the other balloons!!! It was seriously one of the more impressive things I've seen in a while. Drew and I always joked about getting the 30 foot inflatable Santa for the front yard around the Holidays.... screw that, get the 166 foot inflatable Energizer Bunny and the whole town will be able to see it!!! It even had it's own crew (about 15 of them) of "Bunny Crew" wearing pink shirts to help hold the thing down. "Up, Up and A-WAAAA-AAAAY... in my beautiful, my beautiful... BA-LOOOOOON!!!" (sing along with me)

An important lesson was learned yesterday in California's NASCAR race.... you need gasoline in order to cross the finish line! Luckily it happened to the right driver and we do not have to listen to Jill brag again. Carl should have just called Drew to come with the gas tank - that's what I do when I run out of gas..... on 37th street.... over the lunch hour.... it happens.

There are some very cheap packages to fly from Rochester to Las Vegas. Only $69 one way and the rooms are cheap as well - Mainly because it's dang hot in Vegas right now!!! But still, very tempting to go out for 4 nights for $350 (including airfare and room)!!! That's at NYNY too!

Haiku of the Day -
Hot Air Required
Tons of that around here
Refocus that air

Entertainment of the Day - I watched a bunch of movies this weekend.... the first was The Messengers which was a respectable "scary" movie about a family who moves to North Dakota (I know - it already sounds "scary" as well as "fictional" just based on the thought of moving to North Dakota) to start a sunflower farm. The teenage girl and 2 year old boy see things in the house that the adults don't see. So the movie was ok, but I'm still not exactly sure why it was called "The Messengers".... seriously.

Weblink of the Day - Die Hard by the 30 second bunnies!! Don't think I've posted this one yet.