Toronto

An uneventful Sunday in Toronto...

'twas an action packed weekend though.

After an early happy hour on Friday, I woke up Saturday morning and was out the door at 8am on my bike. At one point in the not too distant past, I was riding quite a bit on the biketrails throughout the area, but last year I didn't get much riding done, and for most of this year the bike has been in storage.
I took the WO & D Trail (www.wodfriends.org) out to downtown Vienna and back.



The trail starts a few miles from the Potomac (accessed by the Custus trail) and extends way out past the airport. On an energetic ride, the Whole Foods in Vienna is a turning-back point, and marks a 35-40 mile round trip (I'll have to drive it one of these days to figure out exactly). The Whole Foods as a nice bathroom, drinking foundtain (to refill bottles) and a smoothie counter. At least they did. Imagine my consternation when I walked in, and there was no smoothie counter! I was very upset to have to settle for some bottled, smoothie-like drink. At least the way home is all downhill. It took me 30 min longer to get to Vienna than it did to get back.

But at least I know my legs can still pedal that far, and so I hope to do more riding this summer so that my legs don't feel like jelly every time I ride for 3 hours.

I spent the afternoon at a cookout with Steve and Jayson, and some of their other friends. They had a couple over who used to live directly behind them in Harrison Square (13th and V nw) who I hadn't seen in probably 6 years. We reminisced about the "hood" and how things have changed.. Sort of like in my neck of the woods.

I spent the evening putting together an Ikea dresser.

I was perturbed at the fact that 2 pieces were missing, so I drove out to the Ikea for new pieces, only to have the assistant explain to me that the wood slats I thought were supposed to be black are indeed supposed to be plain wood. Well, gee, I guess I had the pieces after all! So it was back home to finish the project. I've gotten as far as the outer frame and will finish the shelf tomorrow when I get home.

The week ahead sees two more visits to the chiropractor and then its off to the beach on Wednesday for the holiday!

Hello all.

After 12 years, I have another "first" today in the world of air transportation.
It's my first layover in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (I can hear your shrieks of delight).
We arrived in Sioux Falls, SD via Chicago and Denver. We almost missed the flight here (after an hour delay in Chicago) but our inbound plane was delayed as well, so we still made it, though about 30 minutes late. Sharon (my jumpseat mate for the day) and I were pretty whipped by the end of the day. Sharon is about a month senior to me, and I've known her since I have started flying.



We got in and immediately went out for BBQ. The place claimed to have the "best BBQ outside of Kansas City", which of course made me curious. We all had something different and got to try a variety of meats (all good), but what I liked best were the wings. We expected hot wings, but they came out smoked and tasting of hickory - yum.






Sharon (and I) learned something new today. Sioux Falls is named after a series of waterfalls in the Sioux river (who knew? Apparently alot of people). We took a stroll along the walkways by the river and of course I had to stop for a photo op. Oh, and I also learned that Mt. Rushmore is on the opposite side of the state. I tend to get my geography of the northern Midwest backwards occassionally.





There is a big park here and a visitor center with a 5 story viewing tower. Of course I had to climb... Here is a view of the entire falls from the tower:






No tour would be complete without stopping in the gift shop. I bought a really nice green ballcap to add to my collection.


And now I've been able to add South Dakota to my list of states I've been to. I found a nice map feature on Google to mark where I have been.


View Larger Map

New Furniture

Hello all.
The first pieces of new furniture finally arrived last yesterday, and this time the sectional was actually the one that I wanted!



I had a bit of a dilemma when they bought the bed in. It came in three boxes, and they plopped them down on the bedroom floor and then left. I had thought that delivery included the set up of the bed. Apparently not. I had planned to have some friends over and my friend Jimmy came over a bit early to help me put it together. I slept like a baby on my new mattress last night!



After putting the bed together, we drank champagne and ate pizza. Yum!




Comcast was a no-show today. I called and they had no record of me in their system - urg!!!

So they are set up to come and install me now next Tuesday.

Hope everyone is well today. I'm off to the chiropractor!

Birthday

I worked on my birthday this year to earn some extra $$. At UA, we get paid holiday pay to work on our birthday.

I picked up a trip to San Francisco on the 17th and had a lovely dinner with cousin Brownyn after she got off work. We hit the food court at the Westfield Center on Market Street downtown. It has the nicest food court I have ever seen!

I flew home on my birthday and had planned just to go to the gym and then the grocery store for some take out, but several friends insisted I go out for margaritas instead. And little did I know that La Loma has a "birthday sombrero" that the birthday boy/girl gets to wear. Luckily, tequila shots were on the house, so I was too tipsy to really care.....

Kuwait

I had my first trip to the Middle East two weeks ago in the form of a military charter to Kuwait and Germany. We didn't spend any time in Germany, but I did get to spend 28 hours in Kuwait and made the most of it.

We left DC at 10pm on a Monday night and landed in Kuwait at 6pm the next day. We hit the hotel, changed clothes and had the hotel bus drive us to the night market. Kuwait was actually fairly Western (for a Muslim country anyway). Many of the men wore western dress, and most of the women were not in a burka (although they did cover their heads). No one paid any attention to a half dozen American's wandering through the market. In fact, we got free tea!

We had a big dinner of grilled meat and hummus, then hit the hooka bar, which apparently is their equivalent of a sports bar. It was a huge outdoor patio with lots of groupings of couches (think conversation nooks) complete with hooka pipes. For about 3 dollars, one could buy fruit-flavored tobacco that seemed to last about 30 minutes or so. As they say, when in Rome..

It actually doesn't taste like a cigarette. Its very mild and while I don't think the tobacco contained anything narcotic, it did make one feel like propping one's feet up on the couch and lounge languidly, which was what all the men around us were doing, while watching soccer on the large screen TVs. The only women in the place were with our group, but no one seemed to really mind.

Off to bed and the next day several of us met at noon to be driven around town by the hotel van. The van driver actually served as translator for us as well, and his services were complimentary! This hotel really rocked!!

Our first stop was the Occupation museum which chronicled Desert Storm. The displays themselves looked like something that High School history students would put together for class, but we did get a kick out of listening to the English soundtrack and its continual discussion of the "barbarians to the North"

Our next stop was the water towers at the edge of downtown. As most of you know, if I see something tall, I must climb or elevator to the top (I simply must!) and of course we did that here. Unfortunately, between the dust in the air (very very fine sand) and the dirty windows on the observation floor, the view wasn't the best. Still you get the idea.

And then it was back to the hotel for a nap and off to work. I'm looking forward to visiting again!

Welcome to my Blog

Hello all. Welcome to my blog. I realized that I was spending lots of time reading family emails, and wasn't always good about replying. I also have wanted to start posting more photos and musings of what is going on every day.

So why not start a (free) blog, where everyone can check in when they wish!

Tonight I am in Portland, OR. I thought of all my MO relatives as we flew over the Mississippi and could look out the plane windows and see the flooding. One could see large swaths of the river over its banks. I guess we'll all be paying more for corn soon!

I spent Saturday afternoon buying kitchenware, pots/pans and dishware. Found some fun Danish-inspired plates at the Crate and Barrel Outlet (thanks Dad and Steph for the gift card) and now all I need are salad plates to round out my dishware.

I get home tomorrow (the 23rd) and furniture finally comes on Tuesday the 24th. The sofa sectional and bed arrive in the afternoon, and the mattress will hopefully arrive the same day. Here is a link to the sectional that is coming (and which you might be sleeping on if/when you visit):

http://www.cb2.com/popup/zoom.aspx?url=%2fpopup%2fzoom.aspx&c=112&f=4325&&fi=4325&t=room&n=cabana+sectional&cn

Everything so far is coming from CB2 in Chicago. The barstools on order are from West Elm and believe it or not, I have found two different entertainment/storage solutions from Ikea. So things are starting to come together.

On Wednesday, Comcast is coming in the morning, and so I will have internet and cable by noon (assuming I can figure out how to make a wireless network in my condo. How hard can it be???) and I can put in another post. Fun fun fun!