Christmas hath come and gone, and with it The Band's winter break -- not to mention blogger's stability, apparently......{a big ~sheesh~ with a capital "S" to that...}.... So, I'm gonna post this and get out -- alive, hopefully. Happy New Year, and welcome back to --

The Grind That is Daily

TBH spent it's break in the manner most befitting A Band of This Magnitude -- touring! Topping The Band's agenda this year-end was a road trip to this beautiful place, which is supposedly home, at least part-time, to both Colin Powell (not Quinn) and Lynda Carter (not Barry), though TBH's attempts to arrange a group luncheon to discuss the electoral college, campaign finance reform and, of course, Whitewater, were unsuccessful, leading us to question the veracity of this intelligence, which as things turned out was delivered to us by a young country gentleman who toured us around the resort in his circa-1990 Honda Accord in a gentle albeit ineffective attempt to sell us a time-share paradise resort vacation property. It just wasn't our thing, I guess.

While in the area, though, TBH left its mark in many places. We:

• Visited Dream Lake and the Saracen's Tent, home to the World's Largest Naturally Occurring Organ;
  
• Bought a 6-pack and a couple bottles of Virginia merlot (the Muse's treat!) at a Food Lion, as much because we could as because we wanted it;
  
• Ate Mexican food at a restaurant called El Charro in Harrisonburg, VA (no relation to this Queen of Kitsch);
  
• Drove across the top of some of the Shenandoah Mountain range, where we would love to go spend some time hiking, though you have to be careful out there, as one Happy Camper describes;
  
• Stopped in a neat little antique store called Foothills, where Our Muse purchased a modest selection of treasures;
  
• And tooled around a cold, empty and windy battlefield in Gettysburg before returning home. (Incidentally, for those Historical Purists in the audience, of whom I'm sure there are many, the battle took place in July, not at the tail-end of December.)

Update:I stopped with the happy happy joy joy pills. I read a bit more about them, and -- though nothing of great concern -- it turns out they contain a substance that is known to cause photosensitivity. I'd also read that the herb's proponent, Pete McWilliams, commented that he takes the herb in the evening (Pete apparently uses Effexor during the day -- such a drug fiend!), and I'd noticed that after having taken the pills for about 3 days (at a level of about 900 mg/d PO) my face was feeling slightly irritated -- be it from exposure to dry forced heat, my recent bout with a cold, or use of the forementioned herb while driving with my sunroof slid open, I don't know -- but it seemed that two and two were adding up, on some level at least, so I decided to give it a rest. As it turned out, not having to work over the break put me in fine enough spirits, as did the Shenandoah Valley junket. But, as stated below/before/previously/whatever, further experimentation really is needed before any solid conclusions are drawn. Later.