(source: cnn) Yesterday the web was abuzz with news that Metallica was suing a Canadian band called Unfaith for trademark infringement over the use of the chords E and F. Problem? The whole thing was bogus! This just goes to show that Metallica has a long ways to go with their sue-happy rep.

Thanks to Southern Gal who was the very first webmaster to jump in and pledge to the Blogathon cause for ASACP and my efforts here at makeyougohmm. Go check out her weblog, post a comment, and share the love. Please take some time and donate to this cause as the donation doesn’t have to be large — it can be as small as a buck or two, so break out those piggy banks for this good cause. Tomorrow’s Script School radio show at 2pm PT / 5pm ET will focus on this cause and what will be happening during the Blogathon.

While on vacation I did some training for staying up into the wee hours and made it until 4:30 am one night, so I’m going to continue the training over the next week and will be reporting on how it’s going as well as give some more insight into what I plan to be doing during this 24 hour Blogathon. I should mention that I stopped drinking coffee a few years ago, so I’m not likely to be using caffeine to get me through it as I imagine others will be. My favorite beverage is chilled water. Will I be one of the few drug-free Blogathon contestants?

Related entry: here

Just a note for all those baseball fans who don’t already have TiVO or the VCR set to record tonight’s mock Pete Rose trial with Alan Dershowitz (prosecution) versus Johnny Cochran (defense) and a 12 person jury to decide whether or not Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. It starts at 4pm PST / 7pm EST.

My personal opinion without seeing this mock trial first is that Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame for his accomplishments on the field. Nobody can argue, including Dershowitz, that there was ever any baseball player (at least in my lifetime) who played the game harder than Pete Rose. Do I think he gambled on the game? Yes. Do I think he gambled against the Reds? No. To me the question is did he ever throw a game and thus jeopordize the integrity of the game and the answer to that is a resounding no. However, with all this said, I’m going to watch this trial with keen interest and will write back if the arguments during the trial sway my opinion. What is your opinion on Pete Rose? Click the comment link and tell me if you think he should be in the Hall of Fame and if you watched the mock trial and what you thought about it.

After trial update (before verdict and during jury deliberation): I’ve just watched the 3 hour trial and Dershowitz did a good job but I don’t think he was successful in convincing the jury. I also could have done without the analyst who kept saying: “and the jury is drinking in their testimony” — I kept expecting to see a funnel somewhere with people being forced to over lubricate their throats. Dershowitz also had a better closing argument, I felt, but I still think the jury will vote in the defense favor — and want Rose to be elligible for induction into the Hall of Fame.

The verdict is in!: 8-4 - Yes, Rose should be elligible. On a secondary poll (that didn’t count) 11 jurors felt Rose did gamble on baseball where only 1 juror said no, he didn’t.

Days 5-7 of our trip had us travelling through Sun Valley, Idaho and into the Shoshone Ice Caves (very interesting tour), and onto Grandma’s house in Missoula, Montana. We took many pictures and I will share some as soon as I get uploaded. I didn’t plug in the computer for the final days of our trip so this is why there were no updates. All in all it was very nice to get away from it all for a week and unwind. BTW, for those who might be curious, I didn’t miss the computer or online at all I have long advocated to others that they should take Away From Keyboard time to refresh the engines. Watch this blog to begin heating up with activity again shortly!

Today we went to the Chocolate Factory where they make their own candy. There was a big prospector guy and a nice lady took a picture of our family, though she turned the camera so it was vertical instead of horizontal, I guess so that she could get in all that nice tumbleweed scenery. It was nice of her to do that. Inside the Chocolate Factory we filled a bag up with homemade salt water taffy.

We also visited Carson City, the state capital and in the evening when we returned we went to see Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (I will review in a separate entry).

Sean got Swimmer’s Ear, so we had to go get him some medicine from Walgreens. We took the kids bowling today. At first I wasn’t going to bowl, but after seeing a few gutterballs I decided to try and help out. Unfortunately, on my first attempt my shoe got stuck in the approach and I went flying head first into the lane (foul). Kids got a nice laugh out of this.

Next we went to Circus Circus where they had lots of games for the kids to play. Sean flipped a quarter inside this red circle and won a stuffed animal. Sean won three little bears by throwing a dart through a balloon. Joel had a little trouble with the tic-tac-toe game getting the ball to make it to the counter.

We took the kids to go do bumper cars and they had fun ramming into each other’s bumper car. In the concierge area we saw that what I called the Bonanza ranch in day 1 really was called the Ponderosa ranch and we made plans to go see it tomorrow in day 4 along with other sights in Tahoe.

Neal kept asking me when we were buying dinner to take to our room “why are you jacking the Tabasco?” He didn’t seem to get the fact that all those tabasco bottles were ok to take up to your room.

We got up at 8am. Apparently Joel, our night owl was having trouble sleeping (he was wanting to be playing the online game: Diablo). Neal went and found us ice for the trip. I unloaded some pix and from Day 1: see the one from the arcade where Neal and I were playing the Simpsons pinball machine. 

I made this journal entry.

As we were coming into Reno, Nevada, a fire had just started on the side of the road and we speculated that it had been from somebody throwing a cigarette out their window. All along on the trip we saw signs saying that the fire warning was: HIGH. Somebody must not have read the signs we saw.

We arrived in Reno, Nevada and stayed at the Peppermill. The kids enjoyed the pool as there were animatronics (a bear, lion, etc) that came out every hour or two and made sounds and moved. We were pretty tired from all our travelling. The kids enjoyed the jacuzzi in our suite, floating underneath the bubbles. We ordered room service for dinner.

Oh, and yes, we lost more $$ while the kids played for a little bit in the arcade.

We ordered the pay-per-view movie: Anger Management which I didn’t think was as bad as many of the reviews I read. It wasn’t Adam Sandler’s best work, the ending was a bit awkward, but I laughed a few times so I’d give it a B-

We left our home at 1pm and drove 370 miles to the town of Canyonville, Oregon. Along the way we stopped in Centralia to try out a new skate park the kids saw. Sean “beefed it” which means, I found out, to fall on your butt off the skateboard (see pic).We had burgers and shakes at Burgerville.

Back on the road, Kara called the Bonanza ranch the “ponderosa ranch” which gave us all a laugh.

(Update: in day 3 we see a pamphlet which indicates that the Bonanza ranch really is the Ponderosa ranch, so we were wrong. We make plans to visit there in day 4)

We went some 339 miles on a full tank of gas before the gas light came on and we started searching for a gas tank. I gave the lady a $50 bill and she tried to give me $60 worth of change. She corrected her mistake though and all was well.

Next stop Canyonville and the Seven Feathers Indian Casino. We got vid of entering our room (vid) but the lights were kind of difficult to find. We took the kids swimming (pix) and we also sat in the jacuzzi. Then we took the kids to the arcade where Neal won a stick radio (pix). Later on kara and I lost a few $$ in the casino. We got dinner around 11pm at a restaurant inside the casino and Joel spilled Sean’s pop.

We are just piling the family into the car and heading out on our 2nd official family vacation. We’re going to be recording various interesting stops along the way and taking pictures to make this blog interactive of our trip, so be sure to stop back and see what we have here. Or you can just use the RSS file and syndicate in your favorite headline viewer. Cya soon!

If I ever get to Louisiana — and my intention is to get there someday — Avery Island will be my very first stop. I will want to tour the place where they make my favorite sauce: Tabasco. I put that on everything that isn’t sweet: burgers, pizza, steak, fries, potatoes, vegetables, etc. I don’t do it on anything gross like ice cream or put it in my drinks or anything. It is not unusual for me to use one of the smallest bottles in a single setting. In the picture you’ll see me holding a Tabasco scratch card that my wife saw and just had to get me. As I was mentioning here that I think collecting is cool, I’m going to start collecting Tabasco-related items. Maybe I’ll start one of the first Tabasco blogs and update it whenever I find something Tabasco-related. I just Googled Tabasco and came up with plenty of sites to check out. I wonder who else that is stopping by has food fetishes. Click the comments link and tell me about it. Don’t forget your blog URL if you have one.