We spent the past two days in Yellowstone National Park, a really amazing American experience.

We saw more buffalo, elk and tourists than we cared to see, but it was a lot of fun to wander around a small part of the 2.2 million acres inside the park. It really is an incredible place; it’s so much bigger than pictures can portray.

While at the Norris Geyser Basin, I met a 14 year old named Chad from Ohmer Park, Ohio. We chatted about blogging and the web, and it turns out Chad is really interested in getting into blogging, so I made him an offer to guest blog here about his thoughts on Yellowstone. Should have a post from him soon.

We did manage to spot some Moose on the way out. Funny, we never spot them inside the park. But I did catch a few good pictures, including this one of some buffalo wrasslin’ with each other.

On the list of things you don’t want to happen on your first day of vacation, aside from landing yourself in a Tijuana prison, is to lose your camera.

Or more accurately, to pull your camera from your bag. Where it was floating in 5 inches of water. Along with your iPod.

Sigh.

How exactly the Lilliputians and Blefuscudians managed to develop a beach resort in my bag while I was on the flight out is a complete mystery. But I’m now sans camera and iPod on my week long trek through the great state of Montana and all of its spectacular views.

The iPhone is taking some surprisingly good pics (now with more finger!), and thankfully my mother-in-law is letting me steal her camera that I’ve managed to take some great shots with. I just can’t get them off of it yet.

More to come as the week goes on.

Um, wow.

My wife went to Targèt last week and had this receipt in her bag. It actually wasn’t hers, which was weird in itself. Someone left it in the cart or something. Anyway.

It was the longest receipt I’ve ever seen. I measured it.

54 inches of paper.

I’m going to try to beat it tonight. I’m going to Blockbuster to rent 4 movies — I’m guessing that should get me somewhere near 5 feet.

Wow. just. wow.

Have you attempted to set a World Record with no luck? Well, now is your chance to change that! Help set a Guinness World Record by pledging to download Firefox 3 today. And, help spread the word!

It would help if any of their sites told you that it starts at 1PM Eastern (10AM Pacific) — but, well, I guess I just did.

I’m assuming their download page will update with version 3 when it’s ready, so go grab yourself a copy!

Update 2:30PM: Apparently writing a browser is the easy part — keeping the website updated with the proper links for downloading is the hard part.

You might want to wait a bit to give Mozilla’s crack web staff time to update their site. Sheesh.

We got ourselves a “code red” air quality today.

Yikes.

[ed. - the sensational pic here is actually from a fire in Montana a few years ago. Not Raleigh]

So I stroll inside the Wal-Mart at 6:45…. and the Vision Center gate is closed.

Right after I got done telling the lady behind the counter that no, they aren’t closed, because they close at 7PM and it’s 6:45 and I’m here and so is she and it’s not 7PM yet — I realized Wal-Mart closed early on me a few years ago:

Their hours said they were open until 6pm. It was 5:53pm. Sweet.

Only that stupid metal gate was pulled down. They were closed. Oh, there was someone behind the counter. But she was just shutting everything down. 7 minutes early.

Now some of you are probably saying, “big deal, seven minutes. They just want to go home.” Well you know what? So did I. But I was there, in that insufferable store. And they should have been too, for at least 7 more minutes.

So in case you were wondering, Wal-Mart Eye Center hours are actually 9am - 5:52pm, not 9am-6pm.

The last time I posted about this, someone emailed me who worked for Wal-Mart and said they would look into it. So hey, if you’re still reading my blog (in which case, you need a hobby), I think you might want to look into it a little more.

Um. This is what.

Ronnie Craven admitted today that he had been using the name of Turner, an unremarkable power forward/center who played ten seasons for the New Jersey Nets and Orlando Magic, in order to get laid.

Hedley Lamarr: Repeat after me: I…
Men: I…
Hedley Lamarr: …your name…
Men: …your name…
Hedley Lamarr: [to himself] Shmucks.
[continues aloud]
Hedley Lamarr: … do pledge allegiance…
Men: …do pledge allegiance…
Hedley Lamarr: …to Hedley Lamarr…
Men: …to Hedy Lamarr…
Hedley Lamarr: That’s *Hedley*!
Men: That’s Hedley.