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Chinese restaurant called TRANSLATE SERVER ERROR

I'm not sure what Chinese string this restaurateur fed to the translation software used to to generate the giant sign hanging over the entrance, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't: TRANSLATE SERVER ERROR. Ah, the special problems of translations into other alphabets.

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I really didn't think it was possible for folks out here in the West to be worse at anything than those great people in Greater Blufflestank. But I found one.

Here's Morgan's blow by blow report from his trip to the beach. Yes, he apparently twittered every couple of minutes. Please join me in making fun of him. Read from the bottom up.

morganbonner: This is your beach reporter Morgan signing off. I have survived another battle with the elements, though only by sheer luck.... about 1 hour ago from web

morganbonner: Yep, she's packing up to leave. Wouldn't you know it, an attractive woman just arrived in front of me. Figures. about 1 hour ago from web

If only our proud nation's Commander in Chief and his minions had picked up a copy of The Art of War, wisdom from a man that lived 500 years B.C. (or B.C.E. if you're so inclined), before setting off to war on foreign soil.

Just two pages in, Chapter 1, Line 2-3:

"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, the men's weapons will grow dull and their ardour will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.

Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain."

This is a scene from the four foot obelisk in our back yard, illuminated by the morning sun:

What the hell is going on here?

And before you ask, it came with the house.

Our friend Phil is visiting for the weekend as a stop on his tour of the American West. Next stop will be a tent in Utah, apparently.

We drove up to Scottsdale to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's compound, Taliesin West [Flickr].

So the wife had the 'big' ultrasound on Monday. You know, the one where they zoom in on your unborn child's junk in an effort to determine the gender. Assuming they're not "hiding" it, as one nurse said they do sometimes.

Well, it looks like we'll be having a son. Or a three legged daughter. The former, I'd imagine, would get picked on a lot less on the playground, so we're hoping that's how it's worked out.

Today Betsy and I:

• Got Arizona driver's licenses
• Opened a bank account
• Made several doctor's appointments
• Visited my employer's HR department
• Turned on water, gas and electric utilities
• Visited our new home (moving in Saturday)
• Drove randomly around Tempe and Scottsdale

We managed all of this between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, and everyone we dealt with was friendly, helpful and courteous.

We made it. That's about all I got.

Day two concludes in Amarillo, in the great state of Texas. We travelled from Little Rock, making it the shortest of our three days on the road. The weather through Arkansas and the better part (is there such a thing?) of Oklahoma! was torrential downpours separated by periods of blinding rain blowing sideways. We decided the most scenic thing on the drive today was the windmill farms by the side of the interstate in OK, and the fancy rest stops near the TX border.