Yeah, I actually did see a street today called "No Name St." Also another one called "Mad Anthony St." WTF?

During my travels I've been to a ton of Presidential birthplaces - this is something I've never talked about because I've never really pondered it before. Reagan, Nixon, Hayes, Jefferson, Harrison, Madison, Tyler, Grant, Polk, Garfield, McKinley, both Johnsons, T. Roosevelt, Fillmore (naturally), Eisenhower, Truman, Harding, Jackson, Buchanan, Washington, ... Nixon is the only native Left Coaster to have become President. I've yet to visit Hope, AR and to be honest I hope to avoid Arkansas in general.

Tonight I had an interesting and fairly atypical meal - German food! I've never really tried it, and since I am in Pittsburgh with my co-worker we decided to go to the place where he worked while he was in culinary school - Penn Brewery. The food was completely authentic. I had something called the "Butcher's Plate," or if you want to be fancy about it (and the people at Penn love their German language on the menu) its "schlachtplatte." Grilled bratwurst, a smoked 6 oz. porkchop and true weiner schnitzel, with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. It was delicious but way too heavy. I ordered it because I didn't want to try to pronounce "malzmeistersteak mit schwarzbiersosse" or "HÜHNERBRUST mit johannisbiersosse." In any case, it was good but I don't see how anybody could eat that daily without feeling their arteries harden.

The beers there are very high grade and excellent - the Weizen is a former Great American Beer Festival Gold Medalist, as well as a 4-time consecutive Grand Champion at the United States Beer Tasting Championship, so you knows your boy Joshy picked up a 12er to go!

And finally - tech guys, I thought of something kind of cool that I wish I could implement and I want you to tell me level of impossibility with both ideas.

First idea - I thought it would be cool to be able to set up a webcam remotely and set the cam on the dash of my rental car as I drive during my travels. I'd also like to track remotely via GPS tech or something similar my movements real-time on a map on the site. This seems difficult and expensive. The remote live cam has been done before but I have yet to hear of something similar being done remotely all over the USA.

Second idea - I wanted to have a digital map of the USA on a web site and mark each place I've visited, my flight paths for all of my flights, and if possible, trace all the routes I've driven. I kind of like this idea better than the other. I suppose this could be drawn but I'd rather have something more interactive - hover over a place and a little info box pops up with names and dates. Same with the airports - hover over a city and see when and where I've flown in from and to from that airport.

Man, the strangest things happened to me today after I wrote my earlier journal entry.

I have been really stressed out about a ton of things, and since Lynchburg has a ton of green space I thought I'd find a place to just be by myself, maybe meditate in my own amateur way, maybe pray a little.

On the way back to the hotel, I drove by a sign that said, "Don't give up - Moses was once a basket case!" Just now, I found a chain with a cross attached to it on my bed.

Considering the circumstances, this is incredible. The sign thing is easy to understand but that AND the cross... I'm telling you all, I've got somebody looking out for me.

At least I've been relaxed more tonight.

I'm distraught about not being able to watch the Sabres play - none of these hotels spring for OLN. I think I'll have to find a sports bar or something. The other night I was truly without an option, so I sat in the hotel room and listened to Jeanneret and Lorentz do the call through WGR550's streaming audio. We're lucky to have such an electrifying and unique play-by-play guy. I don't give a damn what ANYBODY says... Rick is the best in the biz in any sport.

Now I'm in Lynchburg, VA - home of Jerry Fallwell and Liberty University. I didn't expect so many restaurants and what not.

Cheapest gas I've seen so far - $2.55 Roanoke, VA.

Um not much else. I'm just tired.

Yo guys - my co-worker and his buddies are looking to move to the general strip area. What is the best method to search for a place, and is there a place online that commonly lists pads near or on Elmwood? They are looking for a 3-4 bedroom pad, and the only thing I can think of thus far is the Artvoice classifieds.

I wish I knew more about this apartment search thing - we were lucky and didn't have to really do a search to get the place we live in so I don't really know a lot of this info.

Any help is appreciated guys - and if anybody knows of a 3-4 bedroom, decent spot for rent gimme a heads up... I may have a tennant ready to go for someone out there.

A couple anecdotes for you all -

1) Elizabeth Smart and her father Ed sat 2 rows in front of me on my first flight from LAX. At first I saw this gorgeous blonde girl that was dressed very well, and I was thinking the usual extremely dirty thoughts that guys think when they see a pretty girl. I didn't think much of it. Once we got on the flight I heard Ed speak when someone was in his seat, and I thought "AHA! Thats the Smarts!" Then I immediately felt filthy and extremely guilty over what I was thinking about Elizabeth. For those of you who either don't remember or don't pay much attention, Elizabeth Smart was the Mormon girl who was kidnapped in Utah 3 yeras ago by a couple who had done some handiwork around her father's multimillion dollar suburban Salt Lake City home. Yo Ed - you are a millionaire, you don't need to be flying America West with your daughter. At least she is 18 so I don't feel REALLY dirty.

2) After I returned from California, my co-worker and his friends went to IHOP in Williamsville for breakfast. Ralph Wilson, the venerable Buffalo Bills owner, was sitting by himself eating breakfast there - amazing! They went up to him and chatted him up - apparently he is a really, really nice old fella and even signed some Bills stuff for my co-worker and his friends. Its just kind of strange seeing a damn-near-billionaire octogenarian who practically has deity status here in Buffalo eating at an IHOP by himself.