Test Drive

OK, so I have this great friend named Tripp Purks. He sent me an email on Tuesday about this promo fundraiser that BMW does to raise money and awareness for breast cancer and to promote their cars. You get to drive any BMW model you want and they donate one dollar for each mile you drive. We arrived at 9am on Thursday, signed the "you break it you buy it" form, and settled into a brand-new BMW 328ci. It was amazing. I drive a Nissan XTerra, which is a cool car with a small engine: about 170 horse power. The 328 has 300hp and is much smaller with a tight sporty suspension. Needless to say, when you tell it to go... It Goes!! For the sake of decency I will refrain from telling you how fast I got that thing up to, or how quickly it arrived at that undisclosed speed, but I will tell you that it was incredibly exhilarating. Now here me when I say that I am not going to buy this car, and I don't even really recommend that anyone else go and buy this car. All I am saying is that it was really fun to drive. Tripp was in the passenger seat, messing around with the hi-tech digital display for navigation, music, etc. We cranked the music on the amazing speakers and rocketed around the back-roads outside of Charlottesville, wishing the rain would go away so we could really push it. We did a 14-mile lope and parked back in the dealership parking lot.

Next, Tripp says, "Is there a Z series available?" The next thing I know we are squeezing into the doors of a Z4, the top-line BMW sports coupe. It was amazing. The speed on that thing was scary. In most cars, you can tell what the limits of the care are, but in this thing, our emotional and physical limit was reached while the actual performance limits were not even within sight. Tripp demonstrated driving skills worthy of a participant in the 24-hour Le Mans race in France.

I guess I don't really have a point other than to say that Driving nice cars is really fun. I'm also considering getting a rocket-engine booster for the back of my XTerra, so I can have batman-like acceleration.

Office Decorations

Well, let me first apologize to all my many many many readers who have wondered where my blogs have gone for the past three weeks. I am back. I further Apologize that I don't have a catchy rhyming saying for being back like some recent presidential candidates.

So here is the new news (whoa) in my Life: Wait a second. Doesn't "news" by definition mean that it is info that is new? So what about the term "old news?" Apparently that is completely meaningless. It's like saying, "the color purple... that's not really purple but instead is orange."

Anyways, I digress. The news in my life is that this morning I finally started decorating my office. My first day of work was August first, so it has been a while. I'm trying to calculate how many days I have been working at Trinity Presbyterian Church, but that is beyond my abilities at the present.

As you can see from the picture above, the first thing to go up on my wall was a huge University of Tennessee (Rocky Top!!) flag. I know what you are thinking. You are thinking, "Hey Lewis. Isn't Tennessee really terrible this year? I Mean aren't they the worst team in the SEC. I mean, didn't they just loose their homecoming game to Wyoming?" To those people I have this to say: SHUT YOUR YAPPER! You know and I know that we'll be back. Then we'll say, "The Rocky Top Attack is Back!" Or something like that. Maybe, "The Vols have undissolved!" Or, "Tennessee is the returnee!" You get the picture. Back to my office.

It sort of feels a little more like home now. I have pictures of my wife, my family and friends, some beautiful places I've been, etc. It reminds me where I've been. It also takes my mind off the color of the paint on my office walls. You probably noticed in the picture that my bright orange flag sort of dissolves into the wall. That's because my walls are painted "papaya." Like the fruit, only an office color, and not a delicious food.