So, hopefully some of you got your Susan fix for the time being. She enjoyed her visit, as brief as it was, and thanks to Bethany and TJ for providing rides and beds and everyone else for the companionship. Sounds like you guys partied like it's 1999, or 1988, or something, you know what I mean. Once again, Sue is too busy reading papers and pulling her hair out to write anything on this silly blog, but I can offer the following quotes:

"I had a great time! I wish it was longer!" 

"Everyone I hated in High School is now old and ugly, har!" 

That second one may be a miss-quote. Watch for a retraction in a future update. Anyway, in place of words, we have images, because they don't lie, unless you have Photoshop. These are mostly untampered though. Please visit my Flickr page to view

 ALL of the pics Sue took while in NY last weekend! There's a whole series detailing the various objects that can be placed on or around TJ whilst he is unawares, a must see! 

Another thing Sue said, is that she can't wait to see you all again around the Holidays, so keep our schedule in mind and hopefully we can meet up with everyone. We're arriving in Philadelphia  on Dec. 23rd and will be spending Christmas with Sue's Nan & Pop. We should be in New York from around the 27th through Jan. 4th, flying back on the 5th. 

I've posted a couple more songs on my MySpace page: Revolution and Relax, It's a Death Match. I know I know, why am I bothering you about every single song I finish? Why don't I just make an album like a normal person and bug you about it once a year like everyone else? I'm knew to this, I'll calm down, I promise. But check the songs out anyway. If you want. Whateva. 

MySpace is acting kind of glitchy these days, and they only let you post up to six songs at any given time, but all Germanate08 songs can be listened to or downloaded on http://www.garageband.com/artist/germanate08 

This Friday Sue and I accompanied Prof. Bryan Dietrich and the Newman Lit Club to Kansas City to visit haunted houses The Beast & Edge of Hell and I have to say, KC kicks all y'all's asses when it comes to haunted houses. These were

by far the biggest, most well run HHs either of us have seen. The first coolio thing about them is that they are all located in this old industrial district in turn-of-the-century era warehouses which is a creepy place to be at night to begin with. They take over these disused four or five story warehouse buildings and it seems like you wind your way through these places for hours, on every floor, getting the bejeezus scared out of you every five seconds. The sets and effects were the greatest 

we've seen and it's neat how the building itself adds to the creepiness with all these weird rooms built for some forgotten purpose. I swear there were people hurling themselves to the ground out of panic, and by "people", I absolute do not mean "myself", I was a rock. There were huge rooms decked out like fog laden forests that required some work to figure your way out of. Other rooms featured multiple false exits and people or things waiting to jump out of each one before you located the real exit. And both HHs ended with a long tube slide that takes you from the top floor to the bottom. There were apparently others in the area we didn't go to like one that is Edgar Alan Poe themed and another that takes you through scenes from famous horror movies. Unfortunately, all my pics of the place came out so abstract and formless that my blog won't even let me upload them. Damn those fog machines! Oh well.  

I'm not the bravest soul on the planet I'll admit, but after a while of wandering through these places, especially by the second one, I was already starting to suffer from some sort of post traumatic stress disorder. Anyhow, anyone who likes haunted houses needs to experience these at least once. The only downside was that we did it all in one night. KC is three hours away, so we didn't get home until almost five in the morning. Luckily, we weren't driving. 

I think that's all. Oh and thanks to everyone for the feedback regarding my blog reminder e-mails. We feel so loved! 

Talk to you all soon.

Love, Sonny & Sue. 

So, I'm hoping that the Kansas plate our car now sports makes my blatant speeding seem a little less noticeable. I would guess that cops pretty much anywhere have the New York plate committed to memory from a hundred feet. 

Sue and I have had another pretty eventful couple weekends. Well, me more so than Sue, unless you count grading papers to all hours of the night eventful. HEADS UP to all our New York friends and fam, Sue will be in town this coming weekend for the High School Reunion that I'm sure some of you are aware of. Enjoy! 

My musical adventures continued with an eight hour drive to Austin for Austin City Limits!

I was excited to visit one of the definitely cooler cities within a days drive of Wichita, plus I got to see my friends Erika, Alex and Eric who flew in for the weekend also. 

The pic to the right shows the gang in front of "Bat Bridge" which was a very unusual attraction. A giant colony of bats lives under this bridge, which is located right in the middle of the city spanning Town Lake. Every evening at dusk they swarm out for a little bug din-din and it makes for an impressive sight and attracts crowds of onlookers. Standing on the bridge, they form a virtual carpet of surging, flurrying activity just beneath the walkway. It seems like you could reach down and touch them. Cool!

At this time of year, however, it was almost completely dark by the time they came out so it was nearly impossible to get any good pictures of them, they don't like to stand still for photos. 

This is what it looks like when it's lighter out. The website says there are about 750,000 bats at peek season.

So, the festival: Austin City Limits, was a grueling but fun experience. Yes, I almost died from breathing clouds of dust and dead grass particles all Saturday, but there

were eight stages and a gazzilion bands, what was I supposed to do!? A sampling of some of the bands we caught: Gnarls Barkley, MGMT, Tegan & Sara, Man Man & Beck. Man Man would take the prize for band I'd never heard of who ended up being really entertaining. They're an everything and the kitchen sink kind of band with a circus sideshow sound and 

wacky stage show. Erika and Alex had to fly back Sunday but Eric and I went back to the fest again that evening, a little more prepared for the dust, and had a good time. 

Aside from the festival, we enjoyed the cool shops and local restaurants in town and got into a Rolling Stone party Friday night at a club downtown. Local band Voxtrot were one of the acts playing. Austin is a very cool music 

city and I'm sure I'll be back, maybe for SXSW! 

My mom came for a visit this weekend, Hi Mom! She stayed in downtown at the Hyatt, the nicest hotel in town. We took her to some of the good Old Town restaurants, the zoo (which is surprisingly big), the botanical gardens and the art museum. Hopefully she had a nice stay, she heads back tomorrow 

morning. We were happy to have our first guest, WHO'S NEXT!!

 A final word on my own musics stuff. I've been posting my songs on various sites like: Mediafire,

iSound, Lastfm and Myjonesmusic. I've also been throwing together some makeshift videos for

 some of the songs and posting them on YouTube. The vids

are just an excuse to get the songs posted. Check them out sometime. You don't have to watch them, just give me a rating so it looks like somebody gives a crap.  I don't expect anything particular to come from it at this point. I just want to stay creative and see what happens. And finally, I am now sort of officially a

member of Half of Reason. Oh Snap! I'm even listed on their MySpace page! I guess it's officially official. 

Make sure to see Sue when she comes up next week, if you can, but we'll both be back in NY for the holidays, so hopefully we'll see you then! 

Love, Sonny & Sue.