While Kathy and I were staying at our apartment in Cincinnati, I made a discovery: there was a penny in the toilet!

Now, this was not a big deal. After all, it was just a penny. But, where did it come from?

I believed that it came from Kathy. She, in turn, said that it came from me.

How could it come from me? After all, I just run my zipper up and down but she runs her pants up and down.

She said the she didn’t do it and I knew that I didn’t do it so, maybe there is another explanation. Maybe, a gnome put it there. After all, that Travelocity guy gets around. Maybe he thought it was a wishing well.

Kathy handed me the toilet brush. I told her that I didn’t think the penny needed to be polished. Instead, I just pushed the handle on the toilet and voilah, the penny disappeared.

I wonder if the gnome got his wish?

After returning from Kings Island, an amusement park in Cincinnati, we ordered out for pizza. When the pizza arrived, the delivery person handed us four tubes of sour cream.

Apparently, the fine people of Cincinnati like sour cream on their pizza. I guess that’s just in case you didn’t get enough fat from the cheese, the pepperoni and the olive oil, you can supplement your diet with some sour cream.

Kathy and I passed on the sour cream since we are trying to reduce the fat in our diet. On the other hand, we encouraged daughter Rachel to eat all of the sour cream as she could stand to gain some weight.

Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park, has an old fashioned train ride. It looks and sounds like an old fashioned steam locomotive but it is all electric.

Like a modern locomotive, this replica is powered by batteries. But, unlike modern locomotives, there is no diesel generator to charge the batteries. Instead, the engine is driven into a special barn where it is charged. Since a charge won’t last for a full day, there are two engines and they alternate between charging and running.

Along with the electric motor are electric steam engine sounds. The engine makes chug chug sounds as it goes down the track and even has an electric whistle.

The train is not as fun as the one that Cedar Point, another Ohio amusement park, used to have. But, it is more environmentally friendly since it doesn’t use real coal.

While we were visiting Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park, our roller coaster ride was held up as we waited for a fat couple to get seated.

Now, I shouldn’t use the term fat when referring to these people. They were both over 400 pounds so I guess the word “obese” would be a better choice.

Either one of them could have occupied the coaster car by themselves, but, they wanted to sit together. So, we got entertained watching them try to squeeze into the car.

First, the attendants tried strapping in the woman and then the man. When that didn’t work, the attendants strapped in the man and then tried the woman.

Finally, after about 10 minutes, they were both strapped in, if you can call it that. They were both strapped in and seated in the car, but they had so much fat oozing over the edges of the car, I had to wonder how safe they would be.

In fact, I had to urge to take a broom handle over to them and poke some of that fat back into the car. There was almost as much of them hanging out of the car than was in the car.

While most rides have a minimum height restriction, they should also have a maximum size restriction. FWIW.

One of the newer roller coasters at Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park, is the Italian Job.  The theme of this coaster is that you are a movie stunt driver doing a chase scene.

Unlike most roller coasters where you slowly go “click click” to the top of the highest hill, this roller coaster accelerates you quickly out of the loading area and on to the course.  You rapidly go through a series of twists and turns and then come to a stop.

At the stop, a mock helicopter shoots at you and some oil drums blow up.  After a few seconds, you are then sent through a tunnel and on to your final drop.

All and all, it was a fun ride and since it was last years new roller coaster, there was hardly a line.  On a scale of 1-10 I give it an 8.

The Beast is the signature roller coaster for Kings Island, a Cincinnati amusement park. It is a wooden roller coaster and has been around since the park first opened. It’s five minute ride is one of the longest of most amusement parks and features a second lift along with several enclosed turns.

When it comes to roller coasters, I bench mark them against the Gemini, a twin track wooden roller coaster at Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio. I consider the Gemini to be a premium ride which features a lot of thrills with a smooth delivery.

The Beast has a lot of thrills and is an overall fun ride. But, it tends to beat you up a little with the jerkiness of the ride, much like the Mean Streak at Cedar Point. But all and all, it is a ride worth doing over and over again.

On a scale of one to ten, I would have to give the Beast a nine.

The Fire Hawk, a metal roller coaster, is one of the newest rides at Kings Island, an amusement park in Cincinnati. Unlike most rides where you either sit or stand, with the Fire Hawk, you traverse the track Superman style. Thats right, Superman style. You are literally hanging horizontally from your gondola.

Since it was a new ride, the line was long. But the fans with atomizing water kept the crowd cool.

When our turn came, we sat down in the car and they strapped us in.  Then, when everyone was set to go, the car reclined backwards until we were all on our backs.  Once we started down the first drop, the car did a 180 degree roll and we were flying along the track Superman style.

The ride was nice but I would have enjoyed it more if my seat belt had been tighter.  As it was, I spent most of my time trying to keep from sliding around in the car.

All and all, it was a smooth ride.  Next time, I’ll make a point in getting my seatbelt tight.

One of the attractions in Cincinnati is Kings Island. Kings Island is an amusement park that has been around since 1972 so for an amusement park, it is rather new. But, it is an amusement park with roller coasters so we felt bound to check it out.

The first thing that you need to know about Kings Island is that it is not on an island. Rather, it is located on some land northeast of Cincinnati. But, even though it is not an island, it still has its share of water rides, all of which are accessible with your admission to the park.

As far as amusement parks go, it is not real large but it is growing. In fact, it has been adding new rides every year for the past few years. And unlike Cedar Point, the other big amusement park in Ohio, Kings Island is not land locked by Lake Erie so it has room to grow.

One of the signs of the times is at the main gate. There is now a metal detector for the security of its visitors.

As with most amusement parks in the area, the park is immaculately clean which is always appreciated. There are an adequate number of restrooms. And since Ohio is a smoke free state, every restroom area has an adjoining smoking area.

One of the distractions of the park is the food selection; Skyline Chili seems to be everywhere. No matter where you look, there is an ad for Skyline Chili or a stand selling it.

For anyone not familiar with Skyline Chili, it is a Cincinnati favorite. It is usually severed on a hot dog with lots of shredded Cheddar cheese or on spaghetti. And while there is nothing wrong with it, there is just too much of it.

Along with the Skyline Chili, there is also La Rosa’s pizza. Again, La Rosa’s pizza claims Cincinnati as it’s home. But as far as pizza goes, it is mediocre.

One redeeming point of the food side is that they have a Bubba Gumps. And while Bubba Gumps is not exactly haute cuisine, it is a step up from Skyline Chili and La Rosa’s pizza, though I expect the prices are quite a step up also.

And lets not forget the rides. Kings Island boasts of 80 ride for both the young and the old. Though we only did about 6 rides, it was more than enough for the day. I’ll post ride details later.

All and all, it was a good time.

While staying in the Montgomery area of Cincinnati, we ate breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Not only was this the Original Pancake House, it was the one and only Original Pancake House. And their claim to fame is, well, pancakes though they also offered a selection of waffles and crepes.

The food was good and reasonably priced. The service was good though they seemed to be lacking on coffee refills which I attribute to the wait staff and not their policy.

Their omelets are made with 4 eggs so they are huge. Plus, they are so big that they are baked in the oven for about 20 minutes. I passed on the omelets as I am barely able to eat a 2 egg omelet.

We ate there twice and both times the place was busy. I wonder if the Original Pancake House has ever thought of opening a second pancake house. Maybe they could call it the Second Original Pancake House.

Here at the office, (State of Michigan) everyone is having their email program converted over from Group Wise to Outlook. Those of us on Group Wise, see this conversion process as a real pain in the rear.

First of all, you have to be present for this conversion as every PC has a user assigned password. Second, we have not been trained on using Outlook, so we will have to learn from trial and error. Third, Outlook does not have the same features as Group Wise, so it is a step backwards for email use.

So, in a effort to put a positive spin on this process, the computer folks have put up bright colored posters. These posters announce that on 09/03/07, they will start converting over our PCs. The only problem is that 09/03/07 is a holiday and no one will be in the office on that day.

I am sure that this is just an oversight on the part of the computer folks but it doesn’t give me warm fuzzy feelings about the process. After all, if they missed something as simple as the start date, what other things have they missed?

I have the urge to write “God help us” on the bottom of the posters.