We went down to Middletown for Caitlyn's birthday. She had a party at Libby Lu in the mall. This is totally a girly store. They had lots of sparkly things, and the staff there will do makeovers and dress up with the girls. What a great place for a little girl to have a birthday party. It was very cute. Afterwards, they had pizza and cake in the food court. Ali and I had cake but passed on pizza so we could go to Johnny Rockets for lunch.

Happy birthday, Caitlyn!

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The rest of the time in Alabama we just hung out with everyone we could in the time that we had. Jeromy and I really wanted to go sky diving, but we just couldn't make it work out -- Maybe next time. We did make it to Cheeha to fly kites. That was mostly fun, though we seemed to have quite a few kites this time that didn't want to fly. On our last night there, Jeromy took us all to Fuji's (a Japanese steakhouse) for dinner. This was also Cameron's birthday dinner. After dinner we said sorrowful goodbyes to everyone.

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After Fiddler's we had set it up so that we would spend the week in Anniston visiting family. We hadn't been down since Nana passed away last November. It was much too long to be away.

On Monday Dad, Nancy, Ali and I went to Noccalula Fall, another Alabama attraction I had been telling Ali I would take her to but never delivered on. It is located in Gasden, AL, and it's the site of a not so magnificent waterfall, at least this year away, due to a drought over the summer. Noccalula was an Indian (maybe princess) who killed herself by jumping over the falls the night before she was to wed.

The grounds here are nice to walk around on. They've recently added a pioneer village which is made of up old homesteads taken from around the state. The village itself is nice at a distance, but not very much effort has gone into restoration so up close it is a little disappointing.

We rode the children's train around the park, and went to the petting zoo. As for the coolest animal in the zoo, I'd say it's a toss up between the lion and the largest turtle. While we were aggravating the lion she rolled over on her back just like kitties do when they want their belly rubbed. However, we weren't fooled, we saw how she kept eying all the little kids like they would make for a good meal.

Afterwards we ate lunch at the Cracker Barrel and kicked around Gasden for a little while.

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On Sunday we went to visit with Mandy, Cameron, Buck, and Judy. Cameron's birthday was about a week away so we went ahead and gave him his birthday present. One of them was the Play-Doh Doggy Doctor; Cameron and I had a good time playing with it. It was good to see them again, and I was sure glad we made time to get by there.

Afterwards we went to Ave Maria Grotto. I have been telling Ali about it ever since I've known her, but we never made time to go by and check it out. It is located on the grounds of Alabama's only Benedictine abbey. There are over 100 miniatures of places from all over the world. They were created by Brother Joseph Zoettl throughout the time he spent at the abbey.

View the photo album with pictures of our visit with Mandy, Cameron, Buck, and Judy.

View the photo album of Ave Maria Grotto.

Fiddler's was a blast as always.

Ali and I arrived in Birmingham around 11am and we drove over to Anniston. We told Granby and Aunt Leigh that we'd give them a ride up to Athens. It was Leigh's first time; I hope she enjoyed herself. Since we were in Anniston around lunch time there was only one thing to do -- Go to Mata's for lunch. This is hands down the best pizza known to man, so if you find yourself in Atlanta, Birmingham, or within a few hours of Anniston and you don't make a trip to Mata's, your are really doing yourself a disservice.

In Athens all the usual suspects show. We were even graced with the presence of Will, Meghan, and Liam. They hadn't been in quite a while. I usually try not to let things outside of my control affect my emotional state, but I must confess I take their absence hard every time it happens.

Kathy, Joe, and Will all entered Old Time Singing. Joe took 4th place; he sang Railroad Bill with Will backing him up on the guitar. Will has a very nice picking arrangement for that song. I backed Will up on guitar during his performance, and though we did not place, it is always a joy to be on the stage of Founders Hall.

Joey and Patrick came from Clarksville and only stayed for the Friday night activities. Joey picked up a very sweet Taylor Acoustic/Electric since last year. Playing it was like butter, there is nothing else to say except, I want one.

We did our usual jam session behind the house on Saturday, and capped Saturday off with a long enjoyable dinner at Logan's. Maybe one of these years we'll convince Joe and his lady to come with.

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Ali gave me a hot air balloon ride for my birthday. I had no idea what I was getting even though she had been giving little hints all week.

• You'll need to wear old pants and shoes that can get dirty
• We may be walking through fields or tall grass
• We have to leave the house by 4:45 am
• It involves going up

You get the picture. The closest guess I made was a bi-plane ride, though I really didn't think too hard on it. Ali said, "If you guess it, I won't be able to lie about it, so don't guess it."

Early Saturday morning (two days before my birthday) I roll out of bed at 4:15. We arrived at the place by 6:15, and we're the only ones there. "Are you sure we got the right place," I asked. At this point, I knew what we were doing because a sign a block up the road said, "Hot Air Balloon launch site ahead." Ali said, "We saw the sign this has to be the place." Turns out we're just punctual, unlike almost every other person in the world. Eventually other riders show up, and the balloon people show up, and things start happening.

There were enough people for two groups, and the company typically flies two balloons, but they were short staffed, and so only one was flying. This however was cool because we got to ride around in the van and chase the first group in the balloon until their ride was over. After a daring customer swap in a Holiday Inn parking lot -- daring because there was barely any room to land. Trees on one side, a Holiday Inn on the other. The pilot dropped a line out of the balloon and all us on the ground grabbed and pulled. It was like having a tug of war with a hot air balloon, and instead of mud, or goal was to keep it from crashing into the Holiday Inn. How exciting, but I digress.

Now it was our turn! I got a bit of a rush as we ascending into the ski. It was only when we were close to the ground and there were reference points near by that you could actually tell the balloon was moving. It was so smooth, that when you didn't have anything to use as a gauge, you couldn't even tell it was moving. As we went over the roof of the Holiday Inn we saw ice where water had pooled from rain the previous day -- it's the end of September for crikey's sake.

At one point I believe we went just over 2500 feet. To the South we could see the New York City sky line; and to the North Hunter mountain. We had the most beautiful morning for ballooning. Fog was hugging the ground everywhere, and in one place it looked like a river flowing through the mountains -- Gorgeous!

If you've never done this, I would highly recommend it!

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I am hugely against DRM (digital rights management). I have been meaning to write a editorial on this for some time, but I just haven't made it a priority. The bottom line is that I refuse to buy ANY music that contains DRM. This means I mostly buy physical CDs, and only occasionally buy songs online. For instance, when I found out that Dave Matthews Band released Weekend on the Rocks in a DRM free lossless format I happily shelled out $57.99 for the 8 CD collection. I really hope initiatives like these will show the music industry DRM is not where it is at.

Anyway the catalyst for this post: Apparently I was asleep at the wheel yesterday because October 3 was "Day Against DRM," at least according to Defective By Design. I stumbled across this You Tube video, which led me to the Defective By Design site.

And a friend sent me this link. Knowing how hardcore anti-DRM he thought I would find it amusing, but I think I find it more encouraging than anything.