Speaking of Heim’s, a few weeks ago I ordered Kevin a “Newton’s Cradle” from Amazon.  He had been asking for one for a long time, and Heim’s said they had them but they were out of stock.  They took our number and said they’d call us when they came in.  After several weeks with no calls from them, I gave up and ordered one for him as a surprise.  It came this week, and he likes it.  Well, when we were at Heim’s yesterday, we window-shopped, and noticed that they have a whole shelf full of Newton’s Cradles–even two different models!  So where’s our phone call?!  Not that we’re interested any more, since we already bought one elsewhere, but that’s not the point.  Oh well.  I guess they don’t need sales as much as we thought they did.

Another thing we just have to do when we go to Heim’s is stop and see the cats.  There’s a cat adoption agency right around the corner from Heim’s and they have a large bay window.  The cats lounge all throughout the place, including on all their cat furniture located in the window.  So we just go by and say hi, and see what antics they’re up to.  Yesterday, however, another couple was there…using a laser pointer!  Cats and laser pointers work well together, apparently.  This was really funny to watch.  Sandy, who stopped to pick us up when we were done, decided to join in on the fun, and pulled out the laser pointer she has on her keychain.  Try TWO laser pointers on a dozen cats in a single room!  Then hold up a chihuahua for them to see…  Ah, good times.

Oh yeah, ice cream and ants.  We stopped at Scoops next to Heim’s and had two scoops each.  It kinda reverses the reason for the walk, but it was fun.  I had a scoop of bubble gum and a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough.  Kevin had two scoops of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  Sandy had a scoop of peach and a scoop of strawberry, I think.  And between Heim’s and the cat house, we ran across this.  Yeek!  I’m not sure what was under there, but the ants sure love it, whatever it is!

On another note, Kevin also now calls squirrels by looking around whispering “tic-tac! tic-tac!”  He seems to think squirrels like these things now.  Thanks, Pat!

I found it after browsing around on mycolorscreen.com and looking at other users’ homescreens.  Several of them were using something called “Apex Launcher Pro”, and that intrigued me.  The next thing I know I’m installing it on my tablet and digging in deep.  This one isn’t for everyone though–it’s only for ICS (a.k.a Ice Cream Sandwich, or Android 4).  So it won’t run on my phone, only my tablet.  That is, until US Cellular finally releases an Android 4 phone… then I’ll be all over THAT.

Anyway, since it’s designed specifically for Android 4, it looks and feels a LOT like the stock Android 4 launcher–everything is there, the very smooth-scrolling screens outlined in their box containers (only seen when scrolling your homescreens), the smooth page-by-page app drawer icons and widget pages… everything is still there, except there’s tons MORE you can now do and change.   Every feature seems to have added abilities.  Everything from Folders (which can now have square outlines, circle outlines, custom outlines, or even take on “iPad-like” grid qualities) to what happens when you press the Home button, to how you want your app drawer to look and act… and yes, you can even adjust your “grid size”, having more or less icons and widgets on each homescreen, whetever you prefer.  You can cram them full with a grid of 10×10 (100 icons per screen!) if you like, or even bring it down to 4×4 to make it look just like a phone display on your tablet!

Apex’s settings screens even look exactly like Android 4′s settings pages, so it all blends together perfectly, making it just feel right.  I think this is really the first launcher I’ve used where, after a week of use, I really have no complaints at all.  I haven’t found a single one of those little “gotchas” yet that spoil the whole experience.

There’s a free version of Apex Launcher, so you can try it out and see if it looks like it’ll work ok for you.  Then there’s the full “Pro” version, which is actually just a key that unlocks all of the free version’s features, for $3.99.  The Pro version includes a bunch more transitions and many additional features that make it a truly great experience way beyond the stock launcher.  Give it a shot if you’re running Android 4… go ahead, add some sprinkles to your Ice Cream Sandwich!  Hey… aren’t those called “Jimmies”?  Ha!

Here’s a few shots of the “nippliest” mountain peak I think we saw… I think these turned out great, considering they were taken in a moving car though the front windshield.  You can see a bit of dashboard reflection and a few slaughtered bugs on the widshield if you look real close, but I think even that adds a little something interesting to the shots.  Shot 1, Shot 2, Shot 3.

I meant to ask Jay this when we got to Arizona, but completely forgot about it until I found these tonight: What the heck do you call these “retarded punk-ass cacti” we saw on the way down, in New Mexico?!  I expected to see more of them during the trip, but I only saw them on the way there, just after we passed White Sands.  They look like cactus that don’t know how to cut their hair or even look decent and respectful…they’re just “punks”.  It was very amusing to me (and apparently ONLY me, as I was the only one laughing–hysterically–in the car) when we kept driving past more and more of them.  After I calmed down a little I was able to snap this and this.

And here and here is proof positive that not everything is brown in Arizona… regardless of what everyone thinks… It is, however, much more expensive to maintain this color of lawn…

And lastly, to close out today’s posting, Achmed and Walter watch the sun rise over Lake Pleasant.  G’night.

When I hit the first snow storm in the mountains, I think Pat was asleep.  It went from crystal clear sky and road, to ice-covered road and blizzard conditions in a matter of seconds.  Then, about a quarter of a mile into it we came upon an overturned car in the ditch.  There were four other cars stopped along the side of the road helping, so I kept going, though I did slow down much more after that.

It sure was a quick, activity-packed, whirlwind ten-day vacation, that’s for sure!  Everyone had a great time, and we brought back a lot of great memories–and a lot of extra gifts and keepsakes.  We’ll definitely be doing it again, but next time we’ll stay longer.  Not necessarily to do more–we did plenty, believe me–but just to take in everything that much more, get a better feel for things, and perhaps do some serious decision-making.  Sandy will be coming next time for sure.  Even if I have to drag her.

This was our drive from Wisconsin to Arizona.  Then I tracked our Grand Canyon visit on Everytrail. Most of the photos from the Grand Canyon are attached to the Everytrail trip, but for the COMPLETE Grand Canyon collection, click here.  I also took two panoramas, which are here and here.

I also tracked our drive up to the top of South Mountain on Everytrail.

Here are a couple of Panoramas from the top of South Mountain.  You can rotate them 360 degrees, and view them fullscreen:

http://www.photaf.com/index.php?PanoramaId=79400
http://www.photaf.com/index.php?PanoramaId=79399

Here’s a few of my favorite shots from the trip.  And here’s our collection of photos from the Gateway Arch.

Here’s our photos from Jerome, Arizona – a tiny town located at the top, and on the side of, a mountain.  What a scary drive this was, but the food at The Haunted Hamburger was great!  It was featured on the Food Network.  And this is the complete photo set from our trek to the top of South Mountain.

And last, but not least, this is a collection of Achmed and Walter’s antics on the trip.

So next week is looking to be pretty neat, beginning Tuesday, when The Hunger Games soundtrack is released, followed by the movie in theaters on Friday.  There’s also another event happening on Thursday I’m looking forward too–the release of Angry Birds Space!

Should be a fun week.  After that… who knows… maybe a big road trip in April!?!

And lastly, one that really stumps me, the “iPad”.  As I understand it, it’s not the iPad 3.  It’s the iPad.  First there was the iPad, then the iPad 2.  Now, in it’s third generation, it’s called the “iPad” again.  I guess Apple must have had a few million pre-branded shipping boxes they still needed to move, so this is their solution…?  Just make sure when you’re buying an iPad, you really get the one you want.  It’s the one with the state-of-yesterday’s -art 5MP camera on it.  Sheesh, my Android PHONE, which is two major OS versions from the latest Android version, even has an 8MP camera…  But, as they always say Apple’s slogan should be “Apple: Yesterday’s technology at tomorrow’s prices!”  Seriously though, take another drink of the kool-aid, you’ll love it.  <insert rim-shot here>

In other media, I finished Stephen King’s “Duma Key” audiobook recently, and I just started The Hunger Games, at Kevin’s request.  Kevin has the real book (yup, the old tree-killing paper type) and asked me to get the audiobook so he can read along with it.  He’s reading it in school too, for one of his classes.  They’re going to compare the movie to the book, once the movie comes out, which should be very interesting–and enlightening for Kevin.  It’s amazing how so much gets dropped and rearranged when books become movies.  I hope he goes to see the movie with his class though–I’d hate to have to take him to see it myself before finishing the audiobook.  It takes me awhile to read a complete audiobook, and seeing the movie tends to deflate my interest in completing the same titled audiobook, since it kinda spoils the story and totally changes the self-imagined images you create in your head when you read a book, once you see the movie.  I’d rather completely finish the audiobook, then see the movie….even if that means missing the theatrical release and waiting for the Blu-Ray release.

I took pictures at Kevin’s birthday party as well, so I’ll be uploading those next.  Matt made an awesome giant ice-cream-filled Oreo cookie cake for his birthday!  Sandy also made a Cherry Chip cake for the party to give everyone some options.  We had Pizza, then the cakes, watched a Jeff Dunham video, then Kevin opened his gifts.

Oh, and US National Snow Sculpting now has a Facebook page, which is where I found out who the winners are.  I have re-named and re-ordered the photos, so the first three sculptures are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners, and the People’s Choice winner is further down the set, in alphabetical order.

Here’s the Snow Sculpting photos, here’s the Birthday photos, and here’s the Snow Sculpting Facebook page.