...Except for Bunnies

So, I pretty much watch everything Alton Brown does.  I even watch Iron Chef America from time to time for his commentary -- which, I know, is probably not his and is probably fed to him, but whatever.

Last year, he did a four part travelogue called Feasting on Asphalt, where he and a small crew traveled for a month from his home near Atlanta to Los Angeles, using back roads whenever possible.  He stopped at "road food" places along the way and was generally insane (especially when he tried to make coffee at the top of a mountain).  It was fun, but too short.

Fun was, seemingly, had by all -- though of course turning a month-long trip into a 4 hour (minus commercials) show leaves a lot out.

However, in the fourth episode, near Las Vegas, Alton loses control of his motorcycle and smashes his shoulder.  He claims to have swerved to avoid a bunny rabbit.

But the best part is a classic example of the weird things people focus on while injured.  Alton is laying in the gravel with a bottle of what looks like Gatorade under one side and his motorcycle on top of him.

He mutters about being in pain, then exclaims, "That's my mirror!"  He tries to reach for it.

One of his crew says, "Alton, don't worry about your stinkin' mirror."

He hands it to someone.  "Aww, my mirror broke off.  Here, someone take care of it."

Heh.

So, Anya was right -- it was the bunnies.  :-)

(Actually, given the nerd Alton clearly is (he's done takeoffs of everything from Gollum to calling...something "edible tribbles), I'm surprised he didn't make that reference himself.)

Anyhow, Feasting on Asphalt 2 starts tomorrow; this time, Alton is tracing his way up the Mississippi.  He claims to have suffered no injuries except an expanding waistline (heh heh); no bunnies this time.  And -- it's six parts long instead of four!  Yay.  :-)

Meanwhile, I am currently transferring all the contents of my mother's PC (the subject of my CAPSLOCK OF RAGE that got deleted last week) so that I can reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows.  I have never done that before.  Wish me luck.

Oh -- and, in another entirely unrelated note, a few weeks ago, on a whim, I bought Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising -- a fairly famous piece of young adult science fiction.  I was halfway through it when I saw Order of the Phoenix, which had a preview for the movie they recently made of the cycle (I guess it's a 5-book thing which I -- predictably -- read volume 2 of).  

The book was...meh...all right.  I liked the hints of Arthurian legend in it, and it might have made more sense if I'd read volume 1, but it was...meh.

The preview for the movie?

Well, it bears about as much relationship with the book I read as your average Disney movie has with...well, whatever story it's trying to retell (can we say Zeus and Hera as tragically doting parents?).

Patrick packed up all his technology (laptop -- my faithful, 6-year-old ibook -- cell phone, shuffle, headphones, iPod, digital camera, etc.) for Disney World tonight -- he's finally beginning to get excited.  I think the flight still freaks him out, but that's why I'm buying a bottle of Unisom. :-)

And, in one last bit of news, I went to get my hair trimmed today.  They did a much better job this time making the back the way I wanted it, but they continue to refuse to cut the top the way I'd like.  Oh well.  We'll get there eventually.