Albuquerque and Walsenburg

October 13 – 24, 2022

One last trip before all of our focus is on the house.

We spent the evening Thursday, October 13, packing up and getting the house ready for our return in over a week. I packed up everything I could that night, leaving out stuff i didn’t want to leave in the car overnight, including our work computers, expensive alcohol, my CPAP, and the like.

Departure

Brandy woke me up at 4:30 Friday morning, much earlier than I was hoping to get up. She needed help finishing up her packing so after I got ready, I helped her to the best of my ability then finished loading the car with the rest of the stuff I didn’t pack the night before.

Once the car was sufficiently packed, and I do mean packed, Brandy, Ash and I piled into the little bit of space that was left and we headed out, noting the time at 7:01 am, an hour earlier than we’d planned on leaving.

First stop was the Hy-Vee gas station a block from the house. Sixty dollars later, we hit the road, heading west on I-80 through Des Moines.

We continued west through Iowa, then south into Missouri, finding ourselves in Kansas City, then into Kansas. Once we got to Gardner, KS, just outside of Kansas City, we had to stop for gas. We pulled into a Phillips 66, filled the tank for just over $50, took Ash out for a bio break then got back onto the road.

We passed through Wichita, made one more pit stop at Braum’s, an ice cream parlor chain with over 300 locations in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and more. Brandy wanted a “large twist”, a huge waffle cone filled with vanilla/chocolate swirl soft serve ice cream. The total was $1.94. Once we pulled out of the Braum’s parking lot, it was a quick hour before we got to our location, 7 Boutique Hotel.

I’d booked the hotel on Hotels.com Thursday night finding a super price of $47 before taxes and fees. I read some pretty good reviews of the place so we decided to give it a whirl.

Check-in was quick and easy. They gave us a room on the second floor, which was fine. We’d both packed smaller bags to bring in to the hotel so we each had a backpack, Brandy had her hygiene stuff and computer, I had my CPAP and Ash, and we headed up to our room.

It wasn’t really a bad little room. It had a hotel fridge, a microwave, a small TV, two queen beds, it was clean and it was well stocked. For $51 all-in, it was really a great deal. Plus, this stay got me my 10th stay at Hotels.com so I get a credit toward a stay on a future visit. Once I redeem that, we’ll be closing my account down and exclusively use Brandy’s.

Anyway, Brandy said she wanted a big chef’s salad for dinner so we looked up dining options around us. We decided on Uptown Cafe & Club D’est. I ordered the salad for Brandy, nachos for myself and an order of buffalo wings to split.

The cafe was four minutes from the hotel, so I took Ash out for a bio break and headed out, getting there just as my order was getting finished up. Good – nice and fresh then. I went back to the hotel, grabbed some drinks from the cooler and headed up.

Brandy’s salad was HUGE, but just a standard chef’s salad.

My nachos were piled in a Styrofoam take-out container. There was a ton of cheese, meat, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, and sides of sour cream and salsa, but no chips. Further investigation revealed they’d packaged the chips separately in a brown paper bag. Brilliant! Prevented the chips from getting soggy during transportation back to the hotel.

They were actually really good. I managed to eat the whole order, then instantly regretted it. So full!

I answered a handful of e-mails, signed some documents, and made some phone calls in regards to the house, took Ash out once again, and made room to put a dent in the wings we’d gotten. And again, instantly regretted it.

Shortly after, we called it a night.

Saturday

Ash woke up pretty early, at 4:00, having to go out. I threw my shoes on and took him out. While we were out, I decided to take the car for a windshield bath and to fill her with gas. There was a Kwik Shop just down the road that’s open 24 hours. I headed down, filled the tank and scrubbed the bug guts off the windshield, and grime from the rest of the windows.

We got back to the hotel and Brandy was awake. We sat up for a bit before we both went back to sleep for a few more hours, behavior that’s so not me. Usually, when I’m up, I’m up. Come to find out, this will be a recurring theme on this trip.

We got back up at about 6:30 and packed up, getting back on the road at 8:00 on the dot.

Drive to Albuquerque

The remaining drive in to Albuqueruqe was reported to be about 8.5 hours, getting us in at about 3:30 or so, MST (oh yeah, there’s that time change on this journey.)

We swung by Scooter’s Coffee before heading off. That was my first time ever having Scooter’s, and I gotta say, the PSL was far and away superior to Starbucks’. I’m glad we made that detour.

The drive through the remainder of Kansas and through the panhandle of Oklahoma was as uneventful as you’d expect it to be. Flat land, farms and an occasional train keeping pace with us as we flew down the highway at 80 MPH.

Things got slightly more interesting as we entered Texas.

Not long after crossing the state line, I noticed that familiar pressure on my bladder. I decided I’d hold it until we got to Dalhart where we’d top off the gas tank and let Ash out for a bio break.

As we passed through the small town of Stratford, I briefly entertained the idea of stopping. There were four gas stations in a row, so plenty of options, but I opted to continue on.

Just as we passed the train tracks as we headed out of town, I noticed electronic message signs warning of upcoming road work. Indeed, the two lane road was later reduced to one lane that was flagged by a flag man allowing each direction to pass, then stopping and letting the other direction go.

We got caught in this mess and sat at a dead stop for twenty minutes. We were stuck behind an 18 wheeler with another directly behind us. At points, the drivers of these trucks got out and did stretches on the road.

This whole time, my bladder kept filling and filling and filling. I was in agony. There were moments when I thought about emptying into one of the empty water bottles we had in the car with us but figured there was too much risk of making a mess. Finally, the traffic heading northbound starting flowing past us, indicating we would soon start moving. As the last of the cars passed heading north, we started inching forward. Finally, we got to moving, finding ourselves moving at about 55 MPH. A far cry from the 80 I was expecting to be going but still moving.

The single lane configuration lasted a few miles. Once it ended, a second southbound lane opened up and I absolutely flew by the semis cruising at 70 in the right lane.

Soon enough, nature got the best of me. There was a small turnout to be used as a rest stop for truckers. No amenities; just a dirt parking area with a couple of dumpsters. I pulled up next to one of these dumpsters and opened up. I peed for what felt like an eternity. I was swarmed by flies attracted to the garbage piled in the blue trash containers, but I didn’t care.

I finally finished doing what needed to be done, got back in the car and headed into Dalhart, satisfied.

As we pulled into town, we stopped at a Toot’n Totem, which also happens to be the exact same station where we filled up the 26 foot U-Haul on day two of our move to Iowa.

We once more filled the Ford (a LOT less expensive to fill that than the U-Haul), leashed Ash up for a bio break and we headed out for the last leg of the drive. Shortly after Dalhart, we crossed into New Mexico, found ourselves in Tucumcari, caught I-40 west and before we knew it, 8 and a half hours had passed and we were at Alan’s.

Along the way, we passed by McCall’s Pumpkin Patch in Moriarty, a popular destination for the greater Albuquerque metropolitan area. I had been to their haunted attractions several years in a row while living in Albuquerque. As we passed, we noted lines of cars miles long waiting to get into the parking lot. In the many times I’d been, I’d never sat in a line like that just to get into the lot.

When we approached “The Big I”, the interchange of interstates 40 and 25, there was a huge slowdown on I-40 west, which typically isn’t noteworthy, but it was 3:00 on a Saturday. I wasn’t expecting that kind of traffic. Once we got on I-25, it was jam packed there as well. It just seemed like a lot of cars everywhere we went in Albuquerque.

We finally made it to Alan’s. We pulled into his back yard and unloaded all we had packed into his guest house, poured ourselves some drinks and relaxed.

After leaving the midwest, where the highs were in the mid-50s, and arriving in Albuquerque, where it was in the mid-70s, I realized wearing jeans into New Mexico may have been a mistake. I was very warm as I sat in the warm southwestern air.

We ordered some Dion’s pizza, which was absolutely bomb-licious, and soon after, Brandy hit the sack. She was very tired as it was, and after putting a couple of drinks in her, she was done for.

I sat up with Alan for a while longer, noting the lightning illuminating the sky at regular intervals, and finally called it a night at about 8:00 (remember, my body thought it was 9:00) and as I headed toward the guest house, I felt the first few drops of rain.

As I got into the guest house, I checked the freezer, and sure enough, there was a 40 pound pile of roasted and bagged green chile waiting for me.

I went to sleep satisfied and happy, ready for the sandman to take me away.

Until 1:00, when Ash decided he wanted to go out…

I got up, took him out and went back to bed, expecting to get up for the day when Brandy fell back asleep. Surprisingly, I went back to sleep for a few more hours, waking up for the day at 4:30 (or 5:30 CDT), ready to face Sunday. After showering and getting dressed, I took Ash out again. It was still raining. I checked the forecast and saw that it was supposed to rain all day Sunday. My word, I was in heaven. I absolutely LOVE rain; being back ‘home’ in Albuquerque in the rain? Who could ask for anything better?

Sunday

As we woke up, the moderate mid-70s that we had arrived to had given way to temperatures in the 50s, wind and rain. We got ready and made our way to Weck’s to meet Jarrod for brunch. The location we chose has a tiny parking lot in front of the restaurant but we were lucky enough to snag a spot on the second go-round. We were told it would be a 20 minute wait.

Before long, Jarrod showed up and shortly after, we were seated. We spent about an hour and half there just catching up with him. I am so super proud of the growth I saw in him since the last time I saw him. He’s such an adult now, and I don’t like it… (of course, I jest…)

I ordered the Carne Adovada papas plate – a mountain of crispy hash browns, smothered in delicious carne adovada, cheese and two eggs, over medium. It was super delicious and made me want to make carne adovada. With the weather behaving the way it is, it’s the perfect time for it. I’ll have to break out my Best of New Mexico Cookbook before long.

After some more catching up, we wandered out to the parking lot where Jarrod gave me an early birthday gift: a Stephen King FYE Exclusive Funko Pop.

We said our good-byes and we went our separate ways.

Brandy and I headed off to Target to try to find a monitor that she could plug into her laptop. The one we brought was a VGA only job so that did not work. Target did not have any monitors so we picked up a couple of other items we were in need of and headed to Best Buy where we found a cheap, 21 inch HP monitor for $100. Perfect. Came with a box to make traveling with it much easier. I’m going to have to get one for myself too. Working on just my tiny laptop was the pits. I’ll also have to bring my wireless keyboard and mouse, too. Easy enough to pack.

We headed back to Alan’s and just as we arrived, he was heading out for a previously scheduled engagement. With nothing else pressing, we went into the casita and took a nap.

Alan showed back up later and we headed into the main house to hang out, chit-chat and plan for dinner.

We settled on Little Anita’s (yes, taking full advantage of the New Mexican cuisine while I was there.) I ordered the chiles rellenos plate, with beans and rice, and a sopapilla on the side.

We got our fill and Brandy went back to the casita to process her food and call it a night, and Alan and I sat out drinking and emptying our minds on each other. He cracked open his Johnnie Walker Blue Label that I’d given him and we had a few glasses before finally calling it a night.

Monday

I got up the next morning in time to log on to work. I didn’t really have a lot to do Monday so I just got to work on one of the two outstanding issues I had from the week prior, and for some reason, just could not get my act together. I fumbled through it, even knowing with 100% certainty what I needed to do but I just fouled things up left and right. I finally got things situated after about 90 minutes of working on it. By way of comparison, it was a task that should have taken me maybe 5 minutes, if I took my time.

Once that was settled, I took care of the other issue I had lingering and was pretty much done for the day. With time to kill, I headed back to the hospital where I worked before moving to Iowa and got caught up with those that were there that day. It was nice seeing them.

Old Town

When I left Alan’s, I was tasked with heading into Old Town to try to find a replacement pitcher that Brandy had purchased and subsequently given away. I left the hospital and headed in to Old Town, parking right in front of the store where I was hoping to find said pitcher. I did not find the particular ewer she wanted but I was able to get a small jar of prickly pear jam and some candy from The Candy Lady. The Candy Lady made the blue candy that was used a stand-in for the meth featured in Breaking Bad.

Among the various flavors I procured was a small sampling of red chile truffles. The combination of spicy and chocolatey sweet is out of this world.

As I walked through Old Town to get back to the car, the clouds broke and the sun came out, warming me as I walked in my black hoodie. I got back to the car and drove back to Alan’s where I finished checking my e-mails and called it a day.

Last Of My Time With Alan

The perils of the last minute switch with our trip is the fact that Alan already had plans for the majority of the week of October 17-21. He was in the air out of the country early Tuesday morning. As a result, the last of my time with him was Monday evening. He got home from work and went to get Chinese food for the four of us. We all sat and ate, enjoying the time together. Alan’s wife took their daughter for a bath, Brandy went to sleep and Alan and I spent a last hour or so on his porch, having a couple drinks and BS’ing.

At 9:00 or so, we decided to call it a night. He’d asked me to prepare the guest house for the person that came right after us to housesit while they were out of town, so he brought us a change of sheets, clean towels, and some cleaning products that we requested, and we said our good-byes.

Tuesday

I got up at my normal time to get online to work for a bit. It was a pretty low-key day. I did whatever lingering work I had left then started packing up and getting ready for the 4-hour drive to Walsenburg that evening.

I headed to the nearby grocery store and stocked up on road snacks, drinks and ice, both the wet and dry varieties. The wet ice of course went into the cooler containing our drinks and perishable travelling food. The dry ice, however, was packed into a Styrofoam cooler (I did not realize that Styrofoam is a trademarked name…), provided by Alan into which my haul of green chile was packed.

Once the car was packed tight once again, we started cleaning the guest house just as the house-sitter, who ironically is named Phil, arrived. We pulled out of Alan’s back yard at about 3:30 and started our four hour journey to Walsenburg.

Walsenburg

We pulled off of I-25 just north of Trinidad at around 7:30. We made a quick pit stop at the Love’s on the offramp, filled with gas, picked up a case of water and headed to Christy’s house.

We’d been to Walsenburg a few times before, but we were headed to a new location. We drove through really what can only be referred to as “downtown” Walsenburg, and found ourselves on Christy’s doorstep in short order.

Christy is in a cute little 2 bedroom bungalow that has definitely seen its fair share of years on the earth. The layout is funky, with the kitchen between the two bedrooms so you have to walk through one of them to get in to it. The only bathroom is an en suite bathroom so any guests will have to walk through her bedrooms to get into the bathroom.

There’s a small laundry room off the kitchen and the whole house is set on a fairly decent sized lot, just enough room for the dogs.

Ash and Christy’s dog, Skye, were reunited after a month apart. Ash also got his first (to my knowledge) interaction with a cat. Let’s just say, that was his primary focus the whole time we were at Christy’s was messing with the cat.

Christy had just traveled to see Lizzo in Kansas City only getting home, I think, the night before we arrived. She seemed very drained and tired and complained of a headache. Figuring it was a case of jet-lag/travel flu, we called it an early night and went to bed.

The next morning, she wasn’t feeling much better. She was experiencing many of the widely reported symptoms of the last 2 and a half years: difficulty breathing, having a cough, fatigue… we all feared the worst.

We worked through the day, me taking a drive to KFC to grab some lunch, then, after work, I drove Christy to the grocery store. We picked up a few things for dinners for our time in Colorado. As we were checking out, there was a small display of COVID home tests, so she grabbed one as we checked out. We made a stop at the local hardware store then made our way to Walsenburg Mercantile. Located in a historic solid brick building, there’s a little deli and an ice cream shop as well as little booths where local vendors to sell their wares. We initially went in for ice cream but we walked out with that, these enormous Rice Krispy treat cakes, and I got myself a tin of beard balm. We check out then headed back to Christy’s house where she performed her home test and it was confirmed – Christy had COVID. She had been vaccinated when the vaccine was initially made available at the beginning of 2021 but hadn’t been boosted since. By contrast, Brandy and I had just gotten our bivalent boosters 2 and a half weeks prior. We were confident that even if we contracted the virus, the symptoms would be mild, if they showed at all.

Christy crashed hard Wednesday night, Brandy’s back was wrecked from sitting in uncomfortable chairs, and I was just getting through a pretty nasty tooth ache so no one was in the mood to cook. Instead,

I headed out to the local Mexican restaurant, Corine’s. I got a Jumbo Combo, which included “Once cheese enchilada, a bean burrito and tamale, smothered with green chile, garnished with lettuce, cheese, tomato, sour cream, guacamole and seasoning [salsa?]. Complete with a bean tostada, a beef taco, Spanish rice and corn [tortilla] chips.”

It wasn’t the worst Mexican food I’ve ever had by a long shot (that honor goes to Los Amigos del Sur in Durango). The only bad part of the meal was the chips were pretty stale. Otherwise, the tamale was actually pretty good. Most tamales I’ve had at restaurants are encased in an old, dried out masa, but this one seemed relatively fresh.

The next day, the three of us started work as usual, but after an early meeting, Christy crashed on the couch and slept for the better part of the day. We continued working then as dinner-time approached, I started making chicken and dumplings, which was something Christy was planning on making during our stay. She was down for the count though, so I took the reigns and made it. I found a wonderful recipe on The Novice Chef that, if there’s any problem with it, was a bit short in liquid. The recipe calls for a quart of chicken stock and a 12 oz can of evaporated milk. I think it could have done with a quart and a half of stock. By the time the dumplings were done, the soup was reduced way down. I was able to serve us each a bowl with a decent amount of broth for dinner but leftovers had to be watered down a bit to reconstitute the dish’s soupiness.

Otherwise, it was probably one of the best chicken and dumplings I’ve ever eaten. Chicken and dumplings is my favorite meal ever of all time and I always requested it for my birthdays growing up. Come to find out, there was very little home cooking in the dish I was served as a child, and it was served… well, I hate to use the term “wrong”, but it wasn’t served in a traditional fashion. It was always served on a plate, the chicken still on the bone, the dumplings served as a side and a veggie on the side. Then, to ruin things even further, the dumplings I was served growing up were simple dough balls bade from Bisquick and milk. Imagine my satisfaction when elevating the dish to the proper stew with dumplings made wholly from scratch (flour, baking power, actual seasonings…) Yeah, I’m making that again for sure.

Christy woke up for dinner feeling better once she’d slept most of the day away. Brandy and I decided we’d cut our trip short and leave Friday after work instead of staying until Saturday. Really, it only cut the trip short by, like, 16 hours, but it gave Christy one more much needed night in her own bed (which she had so selflessly given up for the three of us to take while we visited.) We finished out our evening with a few drinks before hitting the sack for our last night in Colorado.

Friday, we went about our day like ever other, getting up and getting to work. Brandy called for lunch earlier than normal so I went to Subway for a quick and easy lunch. We ate, finished working, packed up and headed out at about 4:30.

Leaving Colorado

For the first two and a half hours of the drive, we made note of how little there was to see on the route Google Maps had routed for us. We passed through “blink and you’ll miss it” sized towns, but by and large, the scenery consisted of southwestern scenery in the fall. Lots of shades of browns, hardly passing any cars at all and, most notably, nowhere to eat. We hadn’t eaten anything substantial since our 10:00 lunch and now, it was 6:30. We finally found a quick and easy place to stop for something to grab and go: a gas station in Eads, CO. We stopped at Hometown Gas & Grill. Calling themselves a “restaurant” is a stretch to be sure. Really, it’s a gas station, serving gas station quality food, with a handful of tables in the station. They offered burgers, fried chicken, chicken tenders, fries and the like, all pre-prepared and sitting in a warming cabinet and “served” by the gas station attendant. I grabbed a couple of cheeseburgers and a couple orders of fries. They did serve it all up in to-go boxes so I guess there’s that, but the burgers weren’t dressed at all. There was a condiment station around the corner with standard burger-topping fare – ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles but they were out of onions. I dressed the burgers to our liking, grabbed a handful of ketchup packets for our fries and headed back out to the car. As I ate, noting the similarity in taste to hamburgers I used to get from the 7-eleven near my high school, I booked our hotel, using my reward at the Sleep Inn & Suites in Oakley, KS. At first blush, I thought we were getting a great deal. I booked a king suite with a $101 discount, so the room was like $38, after taxes coming out to about $54.

We continued on our way and I must say, driving the back country roads of Colorado then Kansas in the dark was interesting to say the least. We made the last of this leg of the drive, checking in at almost 9:00.

I did tell them we had a dog then went back out to grab as much as we could grab in one trip, headed up to our third floor room and… well, let’s just say, I would not have considered what we wound up in a “suite”. Sure, there was a separate sitting area with it’s own TV but there was no wall separating this area from the sleep area. The two TVs were only feet apart on the same wall so were functionally, it was useless having two TVs. Having one on a swiveling wall mount that you could point at the sleep area or the sitting area would make more sense, but I’m not a hotel room designer, so what do I know?

There was no bathtub, only a shower stall, so that upset Brandy.

The bed had five tiny, square pillows. Like, imagine softer versions of throw pillows for a couch. That was the pillows provided.

It was fine though. It was comfortable and quiet enough, we weren’t really there long enough to use the sitting area so I didn’t really have any complaints.

I ran back down to the car twice more to get the rest of the stuff we needed: Ash’s food, my CPAP, Brandy’s hygiene stuff, water and went across the road to get gas and clean the windshield as best I could.

I went back to the room and laid down, and before you knew it, I was out.

Almost Home

We took off from the Sleep Inn & Suites at about 8:30 Saturday morning, not looking forward to over 9 hours in the car. We stopped at the gas station across the street, loaded up with water and ice and set out on our way.

The drive through norther Kansas into Nebraska was a much different story than what we encountered on our drive Friday evening. There were tons of trees with beautiful fall colors lining much of the highway. It was a much more pleasant drive to start the day Saturday.

We headed along, crossing into Nebraska around 10:00 or so. We picked up I-80 in Kearney then booked it on home making a stop for gas in Lincoln, then another stop at Love’s in Shelby, IA, which is also where we happened to stop when we went to get Christy from Omaha to kick off our Two Months of Chaos.

By the time we got home, Brandy and I were sick of each other (in an extremely loving way) so she went up to the bedroom and I stayed downstairs to binge watch a couple of series I’d been meaning to catch up on.

All I brought in that night was Ash’s stuff (food and bowls) and my CPAP. I saved everything else for Sunday morning.

As I sit here now, writing this on Sunday morning, the car still needs to be unloaded and bags need to be unpacked. I also have to clean out the fridge and pantry, and the restock them with food I have to shop for. I have to run the car through the car wash, then come home and really wash it, and scrub the interior. It’s been in desperate need of a detailing for a while, I just haven’t had a chance to do it.

With all I have left to do, I’m glad I took Monday off.

Conclusion

While I did feel a bit rushed on this trip, having made plans last minute and trying to cram so much into a week, it was still nice to be able to get out and see Jarrod, Alan, Christy and my friends at my old work. I wish I could have spent a little more time with Jarrod, done a little more sightseeing in Walsenburg, and more importantly, I wish Christy hadn’t gotten sick, but, for what it was, it was still a great trip.

As for what’s next, as I’m sure you’re all aware, we are in the process of buying a house. I’ve been handling every single aspect of this purchase and there have been times I’ve felt a little overwhelmed with it all. Handling scheduling of the inspections, getting all of the documentation to the lender, dealing with our real estate agent, all 100% on my own, on top of making arrangements for the trip we just got back from, and, ya know, working a full time job, has been a bit stressful for me.

But, we only have a couple more weeks until we close and then it will be nothing but working on the house. As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be documenting the work we do on our home once it’s begun (and I’ve started a new category as well as added a sub-menu item for these posts). For the time being, the blog will be focused on what I’m calling the Greenhouse Project.

Get it? Greenhouse? Like… Green house? Cuz our last name is Green…? Ah, geez, I’m sorry about that…

Anyway, I only took a few pictures which can be found on my Photo Diary page.

…..aaaaand we have COVID

I started this post Monday, October 24. I was off that day and wanted to get this posted before the details of the trip slipped my mind. I felt pretty crummy but went grocery shopping anyway. By the time I got home, I was wiped. I was sweating and short of breath. We had a couple of COVID tests so I busted one out, swabbed my nose and dropped the solution on the test strip. Almost immediately the positive result showed up confirming I’d come home with COVID.

I continued to degrade through Tuesday and got the worst of it Wednesday, super fatigued, congested, and that awful brain fog I’d heard about. I crested the worst of it and started feeling better each morning, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I did re-test Thursday and was still clearly positive. Meanwhile, Brandy tested negative Monday, then again Wednesday, but finally tested negative Thursday, when she hit the peak of her illness.

I woke up this morning, Sunday, October 30, feeling right as rain. I still have a runny nose but otherwise I’m feeling back to normal. I decided I might as well hop on and finish this post up. We are slated to close on the house next Friday, November 11, after which, as I mentioned up above, the bulk of our time will be spent on re-doing the living area so we can get moved in. I can’t begin to explain just how excited I am to get going on this project.

But until then, only a couple more weeks of waiting.

-Phil