I'd Rather Be Flying

2009-01-10T23:50:00.003-05:00

I woke up New Years Day to my neighbors screaming at each other upstairs at 7am. It made me feel not so bad to be sleeping alone. Sometimes being alone isn’t such a bad thing!

So I spent my first weekend of 2009 in Puerto Rico on back to back layovers. I got to spend one layover by the beach laying alongside the pool working on my tan. The second layover I took a nice long walk along the old fort wall promenade at sunset and took pictures. It was certainly nice being in 75 degree weather, if only for a couple of days.

The ’09 career change plan has been put in place. I had my first informational interview this week with a woman I work with at The Phillips. It was sort of a trial, since I know her, but she did give me plenty to think about, as well as some connections to follow up on. I also have an interview next week with a marketing director at the Smithsonian. I also have sent emails to a few other people. I’m interesting in doing something combining tourism and arts promotion in DC.

I have big vacation plans for next month and its time to start thinking about my itinerary. I’ll be flying to Japan to visit a friend in Tokyo, and then he and I are going to go to Vietnam! I haven’t thought about it much, but its about 6 weeks away now and I just got a book on Tokyo from the library. I figure its time to take one last big “harrah” vacation with my flight benefits before I leave for something else.

The first half of this month I’m flying my behind off, but come the 17th, I am off for most of the month. I’ll be off just in time for the inauguration. I might be go down to the big to-do, but I also have friends that live 2 blocks from the security zone, so we may just sit and watch it on TV with our hot toddies and nearby bathroom. If it is sunny and mild, we may just step out a walk a few blocks over to see what is going on. It will be a pain to get around that day. The city is closing down all the bridges across the Potomac river and driving/parking will be horrible. I’ll be glad when its over!

Then its off to Kansas City to see Dad and Stephanie and see the Australia photos…

Christmas in Germany

2008-12-17T23:35:00.003-05:00

So I recently got back from a trip to Germany to visit the Frankfurt Christmas market. Its not the most gemütlichkeit of markets (plunked right down in the middle of a busy shopping strasse) but hey, beggers can't be choosers. I did get my fill of gluewhein and sausage, tried some honey wine and schnaps and did some Christmas shopping. One of the main things I was on the prowl for was mulling spices for my wine, but apparently I was too early and the stores hadn't put it out yet. Luckily there is a German deli in DC that carries it!

My Christmas party last weekend was indeed as success. I was a little fretful when I woke up in the morning with sinus pain and thought briefly about cancelling. But a nap in the afternoon straightened things out. All in all about 35 people showed up and in the end only 1 bottle (out of 22) of wine was remaining along with a 1/2 liter of vodka. And there were no left overs to clean up!

So now is the run up to Christmas. I mailed all boxes last week and I have foregone cards this year. I just didn't feel like spending the money or time to do them. Maybe next year. If all goes well I'll get a standby seat on the last flight direct to KC on the 24th and then come back to DC on the 27th.

Christmas season is starting

2008-12-02T21:09:00.003-05:00

and I haven't even gotten over Thanksgiving yet!
I woke up on Turkey day to cold but sunny skies. Elsa and I met John and Auggie for a walk around the cemetery and then Scott picked her up to take her up to Pennsylvania with him. I cleaned the bathroom. I spent the afternoon at the house of my friends Steve and Jayson and some of their friends. Had some great turkey and big slice of carrot cake for dessert. I could barely keep my eyes open at 4pm! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the position to just slide down to their basement for a nap. Things broke up around 5pm and I went home, where I promptly realized I was alone on a holiday and that was a bummer... The blues stuck with me all weekend during my trip to Calgary, but I'm perking up this week. Prior to Thanksgiving, I had called in sick with a headcold, and so took 12 days off. When I have too much time on my hands, I tend to over analyse things.
So now its time to look forward to a new month. So far I have 4 holiday parties lined up and decided to throw one of my own - why not! I'm hosting a gleuhwein (hot mulled German wine) party on the 14th. Now I need to figure out how to make it! For Christmas I am going to try and fly home to Kansas City (assuming my dad makes it back from Australia. He's flying on passes, so you never know....). I'll have back up plans in the event that I can't make it home since I don't want to sit around feeling blue all alone (Elsa will be in PA again).
Won't be doing any shopping this year. I'm keeping my $$ for myself! I find it amusing that the powers that be have just decided that we are in a recession... which started last December! I'm working tomorrow and then meeting with my career counselor friend on Friday to get started with a "networking" plan. Hopefully I can start networking at my first Christmas party!

Rami Kashou

2008-11-07T12:42:00.004-05:00

Project Runway fans will be jealous: I was mere feet from Rami Kashou, season 4 runner-up. He was in town to speak at The Phillips Collection. The Phillips has a exhibition on right now from Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the "drapers" who were responsible for The Gates in Central Park two years ago. I had been working on the marketing campaign for the event as was excited to see that it was a full-house.

He spoke a bit about his life story, then took questions for 45 minutes or so. The best questions were asked by a few small children in the audience, including things like, "did you feel cheated when you didn't win"? The kids didn't beat around the bush.

I would have liked to hear him speak about how his work related to that of Christo and Jeanne-Claude (thereby tieing it into the exhibition) but I was pleasently surprised to hear him talk about his work and life in relation to the Palestinian occupation. He chose his words carefully, and steered clear of turning the event into a political discussion, but he did touch on the fact that his purpose in life, as he sees it, is to "exist" in spite of the turmoil in the world.

Yet another trip to Brussels

2008-11-07T12:33:00.003-05:00

Keith, Eric and Britt

Yes, Brussels is getting old. But this trip was actually nice for once.
I flew to Brussels the day after my cruise (for work of course) and had the pleasure of flying with an (almost) all guy crew, several of whom I've known for several years.

After a relaxing afternoon at the coffeehouse down the street, we headed downtown to the Reserve, a bar just off the Grand Place owned by a UA customer service agent.
Someone was having a birthday. Never did quite figure out who that was, but hey I got some birthday cake, so I was happy. After a multitude of beer rounds, none of which I had to pay for, we looked a bit different than on the plane:

So we headed back to the Place for a light dinner. This is my favorite old-town square in all of Europe, and everytime I am here something is different. I think they are stringing up the lights in anticipation of the Christmas market which will start in a few weeks:

The Cruise

2008-11-07T12:02:00.007-05:00

Yes I know I'm behind....

After a lovely lunch with some facebook acquaintances on the 24th (and an unsuccessful shopping expedition for a new swimsuit) I flew down to Fort Lauderdale on Sat the 25th and immediately ran into Michael from Rhode Island in line, which was an auspicious start to a nice week. The ship, Holland America's Eurodam, was nice (and brand new) but they were short staffed and not on top of their game and it was apparent from day one unfortunately, as my room wasn't cleaned properly when I arrived and I don't think I met my cabin steward, well, ever during the cruise. Most of the time they are there to greet you as you walk in your cabin and point out the amenities. Not that that was necessary for my inside cabin. I found the lightswitch on my own.

This was my third cruise with Aquafest, which does gay group charters on mainstream ships. Rather than chartering the ship (as some groups do), they put together large groups (we were 350, down from last year due to the economy) at prices more economical (for my wallet at least) than whole-ship charters. We had our own private parties every night, plus afternoon t-dances, which I usually skipped because it coincided with my naptime. The fun straight folk are often bummed out the they aren't "allowed" in - its kind of funny...

The day goes something like this: get up, eat stewed prunes (my ship tradition), work out, lay by pool, eat, lay buy pool, nap, get up for cocktail hour, have cocktails, dinner, change for party, attend the evenings party (with cocktails), roll into bed in the morning.

Our dinner/cocktail group: Michael, Michael, Eric, Greg Paul and Scotty.

Me with Michael and Scotty from Houston.

I only got off the ship twice. In San Juan, Michael and I took a day trip to El Yunque, the only rainforest in the National Park Service (a factoid for your next trivia game). We had a nice hike, and believe it or not, it rained on us the moment we got out of the van (I had to remind myself I was in a rainforest after all).

The big party of the week was of course the halloween costume party. I have included some of my favorites below:

All I could think of was a washed-up Whitney Houston

The Andy sisters as Alpine milk maids...

The Twisted sisters, who packed blue knee high plastic go-go boots and managed to find a use for them in each costume night.

There is a big contest with cash prizes. If they had a category for most inexpensive, last-minute costume I would have entered with my toga. As I was neither particularly creative nor outlandish, I watched the parade from the sidelines...

My second venture off the ship was to Holland America's private Caribbean island for some beach time (had to put my foot in sand at some point).

I thought I would be sad to come home, but unlike years past, I felt fairly calm and truth be told I was exhausted! It was nice to come home and sleep in my own bed, if for only one night before I had to go to work again...

Buy one Get one Free

2008-10-11T16:09:00.005-04:00

Greetings from Washington, D.C. on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, where I should be outdoors, but instead am inside blogging.
Elsa was kind enough to let me sleep in until 7:36am this morning before putting her wet nose in my face. My bed is a platform style, so my head is directly at her eye/nose level. My last bed sat up much higher, so she couldn't nose me, but she did have a knack for half-jumping up on the bed, and a wet nose is a more gentle way to wake up.
We had a nice morning at the cemetery and then I had something of a first: using the grocery store circular and using coupons!
Now I know in theory that coupons are a good thing and get you stuff, but I never really paid much attention to them, chiefly because I wasn't the one doing the cooking, nor did I really need to think about watching my money. Well of course that has changed, and so the last couple of weeks I've actually started to pay attention to the ads in the food section of Wednesday's Washington Post. Imagine my excitement when I saw that Harris Teeter was having a buy one, get one free sale and Safeway was having Redskins weekend specials! Conveniently, both stores are only one block apart and both have parking. Highlights of Harris Teeter were the buy one get one free laundry detergent and coffee. Safeway sold me 2 jars of pasta sauce (already on sale for $4) and then threw in two free boxes of pasta. I then used an additional $10 in coupons.All told, I saved over $55 off list prices for things I purchased today, and I am now a confirmed coupon clipper!!!
Spent a couple days in Brussels this week. After running all over in Argentina last week I was in the mood to relax, and I never made it past the cafe on the corner down from the hotel. The evening was spent watching a DVD I checked out from the library (free too - see a theme here??) called The Kingdom with Jamie Fox and Jessica Garner. It started out as a political thriller, segwayed into an action/adventure and ended on a real bleak note that really made me take pause. I actually spent an hour watching the DVD extras and apparently they created a much tamer (tho not happier) ending because they thought audiences couldn't handle the ending as written. I agree!
Sat with some worksheets that my neighbor dogwalker Peter gave me to start thinking about career changes. He works as a career coach and is not cheap, but has agreed to cut me a deal on his hourly rate and work with me ala carte so that I get just the things I want, which are really help with a resume and trying to determine how to package my skills in sussinct language. And he's encouraging me to dream big and not settle for a "stepping stone" job, at least not right away. I've gleaned from my writings that what I really like about my job now is the travel and the freedom I get from not being bound to a desk. But there are quite a few negatives as well and there are all sorts of new career opportunities that would let me travel and not be stuck at a company with its morale in the crapper. I worked on a 747 this week (and will again the day after tomorrow) and we are now feeding business class passengers snack boxes; its totally embarassing when you consider that other airlines, like Continental, are still serving hot meals in coach.. for free!
So that about all the news I have this week. Just lounging on the chaise listening to my tunes thinking the house is starting to feel like home....

Buenos Aires Part Dos

2008-10-07T21:46:00.012-04:00

After a quick shower it was time for dinner.... A steak... a big steak!~

After a bottle of wine (per person.. it flowed like manna from heaven) we walked dinner off and I went to bed.

Arose Thursday to a sunny day full of action-packed activity. Another coworker and I walked downtown to Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest boulevard in the world, for a quick photo op. It wasn't that exciting, but at least I can say I've been there. We stopped by their "Washington monument" called the Obelisk which sits in the middle of the road..

Next, we hopped the subway to the Recoleta neighborhood to visit the Recoleta cemetery.
It felt a bit like being in a leafy neighborhood in a newer part of Paris, complete with lots of dogs:

It is a far different cemetery than the one I am used to walking in. This cemetery (which is younger than the one I walk Elsa in) is chock full of mausoleums and crypts jammed up next to one another. The oldest ones (from the 1830s) are very grandiose (think columns and cupolas) and as time went on some are sold off and torn down, so that now there are hodgepodge of styles ranging from roman and egyptian temples to art nouveau to quite modern. They are arranged in a maze with lots of rows and rows to get lost in. Here are some fun photos from that tour:

Recoleta is also the home of Eva Peron, and of course I had to have my photo taken there.

Then it was back downtown to watch the march of the "Madres de Plaza de Mayo". Every Thursday at 3:30pm, a human rights group marches in the square to keep the memory of alive of the 30,000 citizens killed during the military regime. During the regime, the mothers began to silently march in hopes of learning the whereabouts of their sons and daughters, and today they keep their memory alive in an attempt to bring the murderers to justice. Today there were no riot police.

Buenos Aires

2008-10-06T22:28:00.004-04:00

I sometimes think that perhaps I should feel a larger sense of amazement when exiting the aircraft in a foreign land. I was talking with a coworker with it on the way down south the other night and here's what we agreed:
1. We step into our office and board passengers.
2. We throw some drinks around (and if you're lucky) some food.
3. We read the paper and do some crosswords.
4. We occasionally walk up and down the aisle.
5. We take a nap.
6. We leave the office 8 hours later.
7. Said office doesn't move (at least it doesn't seem to when you don't look out the window).
9. Voila its all over. Sometimes I think that I haven't moved at all and someone just changed the scenery.

But it was nice to see someplace new. I've figured out that I've been on 4 continents this year alone (well 4 1/2 if you count Kuwait as a semi-continental area unto itself. I'm never really sure if its considered Asia or Europe).

It was cloudy and rainy when we got in. I took a nap for a couple of hours and then popped out to tour the city before meeting up for dinner.

We stay near downtown B.A. in an area of renovated piers. The actual downtown is a mishmash of building styles from the belle epoque to art noveau to, well, gaudy and 1950s ugly.

I stopped first at the Casa Rosada to see the balcony where Madonna sang (the guard says its there on the left, but he was awful young and I don't think was there to actually see her).

I walked along Florida Street, the main shopping thoroughfare (some beautiful buildings that they went and ugly-fied on street level and prices that I thought were not all that much of a bargain) and then came to Plaza San Martin (named after the founder of the country. And right at the bottom of the square was this tower - the British clock tower. The name was changed after the Fawklands war in 1982 but apparently everyone still calls it the clock tower.

I hopped on the subway and headed back towards the main square (a 15 minute walk from the hotel) and found a fun march through the square so I stopped to watch.

And then I started hearing the firecrackers and noticed the SWAT team in formation ready to respond and realized that perhaps this wasn't a "happy" march!
So I moved along and walked by this building , which has something to do with the military (either that or the military just decided to use their front lawn as an outdoor museum). I think this was my favorite building that I saw that day....

A crack in the asphalt

2008-10-06T22:20:00.003-04:00

Well after a few weeks of hectic activity, I am trying to get back in the swing of writing. Dear Aunt Veronica emailed me the other day asking wondering why there wasn’t anything new in my blog. Well here ya go!

I can’t really tell you where September went but off the top of my head I can’t remember going on any really exciting trips. Mostly I seem to sit in the hotel room and watch tv (yawn).

I did have a nice date last weekend. We went to lunch and then to see the new Ocean hall at the Smithsonian Natural History museum. After having been to some really great aquariums across the country (with real, live animals) this place was a disappointment (from my perspective) as it had exactly one (1, uno, eine) tank of fish: everything else was either dead (in formaldehyde) or skeleton. I’m sure that the youngsters were intrigued (I had to push several on the floor and climb over them to see the cases) but for an adult, it was boring. The Hope diamond room hasn’t changed. Had to push the Asian tourists out of the way there so we could see them (I know that sounds harsh, but having been to Asia and seeing how they act in crowds, it wasn’t a big deal).

But the visual highlight had to be the coffee stop at the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t resist:

Was it rude of me not to say anything?

2008-09-28T22:11:00.004-04:00

OMG Can you believe its been almost a month since I've written???? Bad Eric bad Eric!

I don't even know where the month has gone. Its been work work work (and nothing too exciting to share even) and only now at the end of the month does it feel like things are slowing down a bit.

So this week mother came out for a visit to see the new place. I have been forbidden from placing a photo of her on the web (she's a private person after all) so you'll have to make due with some touristy photos. We visited the Air Force Memorial and the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. Both memorials are simple and serene. I especially like the bench design of the Pentagon memorial, as it invites you to sit at the bench of your loved one...

Paris... First Class..... International.....

2008-09-04T19:00:00.003-04:00

I'm much more upbeat than my last post. True to form I went off to work and "got over it". I listened to an old, fat man complain about me not showing the correct inflight movie (September movies were programed into the CD-Rom 3 days early) and that had me laughing. He just sat there in his (first class mind you) seat with a scowl on his face. Life is too short!

I got back from L.A. on Saturday and then turned around and flew to Paris on Sunday (not before having a nice brunch with my new friend David). The stars were aligned - I got to trade a San Diego trip for Paris -and- had enough seniority on the crew to work First Class!

I love getting to sit up at the front of the plane!

First class is a 6 course affair with appetizers, soup, salad, entree, cheese and ice cream sundaes. Though it isn't as glamorous as it used to be (no caviar.. no carving a roast in the aisle.. no bouquets of roses...) it still beats coach! I worked with a fun gal named Sharon who indulged my photography of food carts.

Doesn't that cheese look good? Yum!

We got to Paris, and after a nap I headed over to BHV, a department store with a huge selection of door knobs, drawer pulls, a lumbershop in the basement (in Paris!) and everything else you could ever want for your kitchen, livingroom, bathroom or closet. After two hours I came out with a new vase for the living room.

After a quick jaunt by Notre Dame

I hopped the Metro back to the hotel

for wine, cheese and pate in the crew lounge (we were put to shame by the Delta crews who had a veritable tapas bar set up in the kitchen).

and then it was off to dinner with about half the crew at a creperie near the hotel.

I've been experimenting with the settings on my camera (in lieu of reading the instructions). It has several night and slow shutter modes to use ambient light to some very interesting results:

We walked up to the Eiffel Tower for the 11pm twinkling light show for more photos. I've included a sampling for your edification.

And then it was off to bed.

If work was always like this maybe I'd want to stick around for awhile.

I hit the gym on the way home and then picked up Elsa. She's going to stay with me for a few days. Right now she's driving me crazy. She is trying to sit in my lap as I type! Its a good thing she's so cute.

Faking It

2008-08-29T13:50:00.003-04:00

You know I spend a fair amount of energy trying to be upbeat and positive, and while I certainly like to present that face to the world sometimes I have to fake it.

I'm faking it today. I was faking it in my last post. I'm really not in the mood to analyze drag queens or coffee. Its a rainy cloudy day and I'm feeling lonely and sad. Even the gym didn't really perk me up like it often does. What it did remind me was that this is just another one of those emotions that I have to just let myself experience and it will pass along.

Still, does the loneliness ever really go away???

A perfect latte

2008-08-29T10:36:00.008-04:00

Why is it so difficult to get a good coffee drink in the States? Why do I have to go to Europe to get something nice and foamy with a little cookie and a napkin??

Okay I can get a a coffee here in the states just like that, as witnessed at Tryst on Sunday, but still... If Starbucks would give me a ginger snap I would be so happy!

Its been an action-packed week - work, work, work! I had a night in Los Angeles on Saturday and a trip Monday-Wednesday to Brussels. And today I'm off to LAX again. Busy, busy, busy.... In between I've managed to some coffee social time whip up a tasty shrimp stir-fry for a friend.

No trip to Brussels would be complete without visiting the Grand Plaza. In the summer there is a "light show" complete with spunky classical music. Unlike a Disney-choreographed laser show, this show is basically colored spotlights that turn on and off more or less in time with the music. Its very hokey, but does have a certain charm to it (especially after several pulls of Jupiler).

My coworker Ethan had never been to Brussels before and so wanted to see the (gay) sights. We did a bit of a pub crawl across downtown and popped into a fun little bar called Le Homo Erectus which is unremarkable except for its ecletic music and fun name. Apparently it was dragtrannie night or however that translates into French 'cause the bartender(resses?) where done UP! Not only was she pulling beers, but she was also serving up a potato gratin in little plastic bowls for those who were hungry - a very proper hostess. And she managed to do it in 12 inch heels! Now see I say trannie 'cause she had herself a very respectable set of boobs, which in my mind is one big step up from a weekend drag queen who just uses TP for cleavage. Perhaps I am incorrect in this assertion, but I daresay I have more experience with drag queens than you, my mostest dearest reader (okay maybe not you Ivan), so lets just run with it okay....?

And can I just say she had the whitest teeth I've ever seen from across the room! Of course when I got up close I could see they were painted on with what I assume was typewriter correction fluid. That shit can't be good for the digestive tract if it chips off your teeth and gets ingested, but you know sometimes you have to really suffer for fashion!

That is all for today. I suppose I could go on about Obama's speech, but what can I do to top last nights fireworks? He was spot on! And while I was intrigued to see that McCain is nominating a women younger than O'bama, she sounds a little too much like Phyllis Stewart Schlafly* for my taste...

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Schafly

The Ghetto Parade

2008-08-23T10:27:00.004-04:00

So today my friend Jim and I loaded up the car with bottles of water (courtesy of the case of water that no one drank at my party since they all drank vodka) and traveled outside the beltway to visit Six Flags of P.G. County. Let me see if I can put PG County in Context for those of you outside the area. Spending time in P.G. county would be akin to visiting Kansas City, KS or spending the afternoon at Bannister Mall (on the KCMO side), or heading south of Chicago to drink in the splendor of Calumet City. I don't know that I have a similar image for California, but maybe if you visited the industrial area of Oakland....? You CA folks will have to get back to me on that one.

The park was only open from 10-6 and I was surprised how dead it was. Although several of the rides were not operating, there were no lines to get on anything, save a 10 minute wait at Superman, which is my favorite coaster in the park. It doesn't go upsidedown or curly-que. It just goes up high. Really high. Then straight down fast. Really really fast.

But the clientele was quite of the ghetto variety. Now I am used to the shouting, accents and gold teeth, but poor Jimmy was taken aback just a bit I think. Which is odd since he lives 2 blocks from me, but he's always flying to Brussels or sits on 8th Street with a wine bottle nearby, and he doesn't spend alot of time hanging out on the stoop of his townhouse.

But I just have to share with ya'll the parade (and I use that term loosely) that came through as we were getting ready to depart.

I haven't been to Six Flags for probably 6 or 7 years. In the interim I have been to Disneyland and Walt Disney World. These three little tractor-pulled "floats" drove by and I said to Jimmy, "is this a parade?" We agreed that perhaps that this indeed was their version of a parade. That's Jim standing in the last photo. I told him I needed to document the occasion.

Six Flags also has a water park, which we decided to walk through to look for eye candy and a cocktail. There was no eyecandy (sad) and only expensive beer -- no cocktails (even sadder). But there was this alarming message:

I guess no peeing in the pool just goes unsaid..

We had planned on staying until closing, but four hours turned out to be quite enough, so we headed back to DC (laughing at the exiting commuter traffic jams) and that gave us plenty of time to attend Joyluck, the usual Thursday drinking night. Krystal was in town so it was an extra special night.
Here are myself, Ivan and Jim:

And Jeff and the lovely Krystal, who hails from Branson, MO:

I managed to be home by 9:30pm (which is very early Joyluck time) but still a bit tipsy.

This weekend is a work weekend and I'm off to L.A. Stay tuned for more next week!

Housewarming

2008-08-19T23:17:00.006-04:00

Hello all.

Well I had my housewarming this past weekend and it was a great time!

I got most of my errands (for booze, etc) done during the week so the weekend was fairly free to do things like... go buy more booze (cause you can never have enough vodka - at least for my friends). But the one must-run errand for the day was to Macy's for the one day sale! I had a gift card to use up and figured since I had a party and a (gasp) date with a nice person (who just happens to be single -- read last week's blog) I had better buy 2 new outfits. Macy's was packed with people but I pushed my way through to all the 75% off racks. Its gotten to where I don't even bother with the 25% or 33% off racks. I can't figure how Macy's makes money selling $80 shirts marked down to $10, but maybe there are actually people out there who pay full retail (suckers....).

So with shopping done I went home, took a nap and then went out to dinner with my new friend to La Lomita down the street. Ivan and his friend Melba came shortly after (randomly) and sat right behind us. We had fun texting back and forth to each other about how the evening was going (luckily I suppose, my date just found it amusing...). Then we took a walk. So there you go - two separate activities, one of which involves food.

I woke up Sunday to have the shower curtain bar fall. Off to Fragers for a new shower curtain rod. I swear I go in there everyday! I now have my own account, and just drop my name when I get the register and its all just taken care of. Supposedly a bill will arrive in my mailbox some day.

The caterer arrived with food around 3pm and I had a bit of "to-do" work in setting up food. We had chicken wings, sausages with dipping sauces, asparagus, stuffed cherry tomatoes, gazpacho shooters and fruit skewers with a vanilla sauce. Everything was pretty good, tho' I wasn't impressed with the gazpacho. It tasted more like salsa to me.

So without further ado, lets just throw in lots of photos shall we.....

I had about 50 people over, including several of my new neighbors. Turns out two UA flight attendants moved in upstairs - small world! We wound down around 11pm and then headed over to Trusty's - a bar around the corner that tries to be a dive bar (they serve tap in mason jars) buts its just a bit too hip (the draft is YingLing and IPA). They threw us out at 2am. Glad I had the day off the next day

Orange County Office Park

2008-08-11T23:01:00.007-04:00

For over 12 years we have stayed at the Holiday Inn Costa Mesa, which in itself isn't all that exciting (Japanese grocery emporium 2 blocks away not withstanding), but only a 10 minute walk away (over the 405 on a bridge with limited sidewalks) is South Coast Plaza, the OC's shopping mecca. I think they would rather I didn't mention the Sears on the East end of the mall, but instead focus on Gucci, Fendi, Armani ("i's" et al) on the west side. But truly exciting (for me at least) is the Nordstrom Rack outlet out the back, through the parking lot, cross the 6 lane street and through the next parking lot caddy-corner to Best Buy (how's that for direction). I share this with you because traipsing across the highway to N.R. was always my raison d'etre for working a trip to Orange County.

Sadly, times have changed and we are now staying in a Crown Plaza in the middle of an office park just opposite of the airport. Not only am I surrounded by ugly office buildings, but I can't even see the runway -- absolutely no entertainment here at all! Luckily I have a Netflix movie with me. Unlike Cousin B, I don't have a long list of movies to tell ya about - just one.

Tonight's movie was "Testosterone", about a jilted lover whose boyfriend goes out for cigarettes and never comes home. Jilted lover tracks cigarette absconder to Buenos Aires and enters a twisted love triangle with another ex who may or may not commit suicide, and in the end Jilted lover may or may not hack off cigarette man's (Antonio Sabato Jr. in probably one of his lesser-known roles) head with a machete. The movie kind of leaves things up in the air a bit, but jilted lover returns to LA and gets himself a miniature dachsund, so I was pleased with the outcome.

This movie did fair better than "Saw" (number 1) which I started to watch last night while ironing curtains - just a little light entertainment. I could only stomach 40 minutes of gore before changing to Extreme Home Makeover (what Ty Pennington moved to when he decided to do bigger and better re-mo's). Okay I admit that its pure puff-pastry on the screen, but at least its uplifting and there's no blood.

So with the ironing and stitching of the sheers for the living room windows, I think it is safe to say the living room is basically finished. I had run off to West Elm on Friday and bought a whole bunch of throw pillows. Saturday's errand was Ikea for curtains and a rod, and they had a smorgasbord (thats Swedish for alot) of pillows at a third the price. So I went ape in the pillow department, then went home and took all the pillows back to West Elm. I traded in the pillows for small endtables in a white shell pattern, so now the living room is awash in whiteness. I also hung the curtain rod, substituting rod holders meant for short curtains with a nut/bolt/washer combination of my own devices that I put together all by myself. I even had the drill holes done in less than 5 minutes and used all correct terminology at the hardware store when I asked for washers, nuts, bolts, screws and anchors. I was really impressed with myself for using the word "anchor" and remembing correctly how to insert a drill bit into the end of the drill. My father would be proud.....

The weekend was glorious and I had the A/C off from Friday until Sunday night. I had a nice bikeride down the Mount Vernon trail outside the beltway and back Sunday morning before it got too terribly warm.

My housewarming party is set for Sunday. The theme is tapas (aka cheaper than a full buffet dinner) and I think I'm up to 37 attendees. Hopefully I'll have a few more. If anyone has any ideas for a good vodka punch receipe, please send them my way and soon!

Men continue to vex me. Why is it that men who are taken still choose to flirt? I was at the park with Elsa on Saturday taking a nice stroll with Patti (the owner) and Marchello (the dog) when we bump into a nice-looking gentleman who I have seen there occassionally sith two very nice looking golden retievers and is always very smiley smiley, though we've never had any substantive conversation. So this time he only has one dog with him and a short man. I said something like, "oh where is your other dog" and short man pipes in, "oh WE only have one dog but we babysit another alot." Now that I am a single man, I tend to pick up on these (maybe not so subtle) cues, and as I walked away I said, "Patti did you hear that "we") and she says, "I sure did, and I was gonna tell you if you didn't catch it". Now I don't think tall drink of water needs to scowl whenever I walk by, but I don't think he needs to grin from ear to ear and I will certainly give him a cold shoulder. Or how about the cute guy in 20A today flying to SFO who was all friendly and actually came to the galley to strike up a conversation. I'm thinking well isn't that a nice man, when my co-worker (again more observant than I, I suppose) mentions that the man is wearing a ring on his ring finger. Now how do I know what that means? What is proper etiquette for asking a gentleman if the ring on his ring finger means he's shacked up or just in it for the adornment? The answer is not in my big gay handbook that we all got when joined the club. Nor is there any good recovery when you call a gentleman (who mind you, gives you his calling card and not after 6 cocktails) and he doesn't remember meeting you. Or the boys who don't call when you really think they ought to (and of course they know who they are...) I could go on, but then I might be giving my delicate readers the wrong impression. I'll just say its a kind of a f*U&%^ked up dating world. And you know even though its screwy, its still exciting (I say with a sly grin). At the very least its fodder for my blog.

This is post two in a row with no photos. I'll hopefully have some fun ones to post after my party this weekend. I'm praying in advance to the powers that be to spare me from an especially bad hangover. I've made sure that I have the day off the next day!

Freebird

2008-08-03T00:17:00.001-04:00

Its late on a Saturday night in downtown Sacramento and I'm watching reruns of Trading Spaces (or maybe this is the 2008 season -- Paige and Doug haven't changed much. But Ty Pennington is still cutting lumber and I would think he's much too busy now knocking down houses for ABC. No, I think this is officially a rerun) and downloading music on ITunes. I don't know what I/we did before ITunes. I hope that Steve Jobs gave the guy/gal who thought up ITunes a free trip to Hawaii or something for dreamin' this one up. Sometimes I wish I wasn't a Blackberry guy, 'cause those Apple phones look mighty nice. So where was I....

Oh yeah, so I'm lounging and surfing (music.. not porn) my way through to bedtime. As you'll recall, I had a nice time camping a few weekends ago, laying around a pool at 4 in morning listening to 70s rock. I finally got around to tracking some of it down on the 'puter this evening. A few clicks of the mouse and I have me some Lynyrd Skynyrd and Three Dog Night (with some Jill Scott and Grace Jones thrown in. They weren't on the pool playlist, but still have some of the same feeling...) to take me through the evening. Its already Sunday morning on the East Coast and I should be turning in, but I still have Freebird to listen to, followed by Midnight at the Oasis...

Its been a busy week in condo land. I drilled 27 holes in the ceiling on Sunday to and hung curtain wire. It was quite easy once I figured out how to fit the bit into the drill (no snide remarks first). I managed to get that done before I started four days of work Sun-Wed. Now there are drawings hung from the ceiling in front of the curtain wall (all visible on my facebook page). I bought a couple of limited edition prints and took them along with some older photos that I've had in storage to get re-matted and framed; a few days from now the walls are gonna be lookin' pretty good!

The highlights of the week tho' has to be my new George Foreman grill and fresh fruit. I've been hankering a grill for awhile after picking up a bunch of receipe cards at the Harris Teeter meat counter that all required a grill. My first foray into grill usage was beef chimichurri, served with grilled eggplant and sweet potato pancakes. Who knew that I could whip up a 3 course meal in the middle of the week? Dessert was yogurt and fruit parfaits. For those of you in DC, Harris Teeter has blackberries, raspberries and blueberry's on sale - 4 tubs for $6. I am in fruit heaven and bought a bunch to freeze. There's nothin' like big plump raspberries - yum! I'm looking forward to getting home Monday afternoon and havin' me some beef for dinner...

Elsa spent the last couple of days with me and she seems to be getting used to the 2 house arrangment. I think she likes my house better 'cause I let her sleep in bed with me in the morning. We usually have some cuddle time before jumping up and hitting the park. I took her back to Scott's on Friday and then drove on over to happy hour (feeling guilty all the while for not taking the subway and single-handedly stopping global warming) and had a nice evening shooting the breeze. Friday was nice and warm, but with low humidity, and being outside in the sun was quite pleasant. Anyway its getting easier and easier to go out on my own and have a good time!

Tomorrow I'll fly to Philadelphia and then back to D.C. on Monday. Can't wait for 36 hours off!

Another week in July

2008-07-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

Had my first 4 day trip in a few years this week in what seems like a few years. It was nothing to write home about. The highlight was the bacon cheeseburger at the hotel bar in Toronto. Even the burger wasn't as good as I had remembered in the past. The trip did fall apart on day 3 though, when the powers that be stole our airplane and sent it somewhere else. So instead of four flights on Wed and another 4 on Thursday, we only flew 2 flights each day. Its nice when things work out like that!

Its the weekend and I'm enjoying a couple of days off to get things done around the house. I landed Thursday at 4pm and met P.D. for drinks at 5:30

then headed over to a birthday party for my friend Eddy at 7pm. An action packed evening!

We cocktailed on the roof of Jeff's place and I of course ate way too many nachos (and ended up with acid indigestion).

Friday morning I woke up and picked up Elsa for the weekend. We hit the cemetery with Frank and Auggie then stopped for coffee. She seems to enjoy staying with me now!

I spent the day at the Phillips Collection working on a marketing plans. Its a change of pace from serving coffee/tea/me!

Friday night I cooked dinner for my friend Scott - baked cod with curried peas. He was kind enough to help me put my new bar stools together, so now I can sit at the breakfast bar and eat!

Today was spent working on the curtains. I have all the hardware and hopefully I can get it installed tomorrow before I go to work.

I found a great art website this week: www.20x200.com
I ordered a few photos - check it out!

My first nudist weekend

2008-07-20T20:18:00.000-04:00

So 2008 is all about doing new things and pushing boundries, right? So why not visit a nudist camp?
I had friends going for the weekend about 2 hours south of D.C. and decided to tag along, after finding out that I wouldn't have to camp in a tent (there was bedspace for 30 and everyone else popped tents in the yard). It was a very relaxing weekend - so much so that I took off my watch and never paid any attention to the clock. I went to bed Saturday evening at an earlyish hour, but the party at the pool kept me up, so I ended up having a midnight swim to "Midnight at the Oasis" until almost sunrise.
Everything has been wrapped up on the home front, and now I am left with hanging curtains. I'm leaving on a 4 day trip tomorrow to Columbus, Toronto and Minneapolis, so curtain hanging is going to have to wait until next weekend.
I dropped a 2 pound bag of M and M's in the car on the way down and they fell in my cocktail. Who knew that vodka eats the candy coating off of an M and M!

A sick week

2008-07-15T23:16:00.001-04:00

I haven't been feeling well (in the head) and so decided to call in sick this week. Coincidentally, I have plenty of chores to do around the house - imagine that!

Saturday afternoon was spent at the latest Evolve Arts project opening. This show features a local photographer who lo and behold walks his dog Chelsea at the cemetery. I knew the dog's name -- just learned his at the opening. After the "official opening" we lounged around the back pool. Here are some photos from the afternoon.

Sunday - more ironing. But before that had a great walk at the cemetery with Elsa, my friend Scott and his German Shepard Cane. Then the ironing - 7 hours worth. But the curtains for the curtain wall are done!

Monday - Well since I wasn't at work I had time to paint. I woke up at 7am and had one wall coated in primer before the coffee was even ready. I was finished with the whole apartment by 7:30pm. Painting is fairly tedious but since I was painting the walls white (actually a color called winter snow) I didn't have to be as careful as if I were painting the walls green. And whats up with over 200 shades of "white"? It took me 30 minutes to cull through them!

I had planned in my head about 1 1/2 to two days to paint, so when I woke up this morning I was actually ahead of schedule. I went to Ikea to buy a large glass shelf unit. I lug the pieces home (2 boxes, 5 shelves and 3 posts) only to find out the posts are 1/2 inch too tall to fit under the bump-out along the wall that I want to place it. You might ask, did I bother to measure beforehand? Well... um, no.

So my friend Scott drove me out to Ikea in his SUV (horrible gas guzzler but love all the space in back!) to return the shelves and go to plan B. Plan B are 2 shelves, on upright and one on its side. Its not quite as exciting as what I had in mind, but on a bright note it as only 1/3 the price of plan A and much easier to put together.

So my new neighbor Kate has talked me into going to a neighborhood meet-n-great at the park down the block at 7am. Elsa and I are going bright and early to meet the neighbors!

Getting ready for the weekend....

2008-07-11T22:47:00.002-04:00

So I went in for my regular volunteer day at The Phillips Collection this morning. I haven't been to the Phillips in over 2 months. Its just been difficult to deal with buying the condo, moving, decorating, etc., and volunteering at the same time. There are several exhibits going on simultaneously for the summer. My favorite one is "The Migration Series" by Jacob Lawrence, which is comprised of 60 panels that depict the African-American migration to the North at the beginning of the 20th century. The collection is split in 2, with MOMA owning the even number panels, and the Phillips owning the odd numbers. Here are some links to the exhibition:

http://www.youtube.com/v/5Ym3MiWjfp4
http://phillipscollection.org/

Cecilia and I had a "lunch meeting" (I love those!) to discuss what is going on this fall. I'm now going to beworking on of Gay/Lesbian (okay and the Bisexuals too) marketing, and will help with the Facebook page. So of course I had to join Facebook first - an hour later, I had a page done and several friends (and of course no work actually done). I feel very 2008! So if you're on Facebook look me up!

I have quite a to-do list this weekend. Elsa is staying with me tonight through Sunday, so I am putting house painting off until Sunday afternoon. I still have the 24 yards of fabric to stitchwitch, so that is tomorrow's task. I took some of the fabric to work with me this week, but both nights my layovers were cut short due to mechanical problems, so I only had time to sleep. After making the curtain panels and painting, I have shelving to put up. I figure I have enough to do to keep me busy all week!

It has finally become apparent to me that I am ready to change professions. I realized this when a) I found myself actually hating to be at work on Tuesday, and b) almost yelled at a crying four year old who was upset that she wasn't seated next to her mother. It has come to the point that the negatives of the job and industry are outweighing the positives. Lets face it, the airline industry isn't the best place to be right now, and there is no sign that anything will improve in the forseeable future. I am still years away from holding an international schedule, and lets face it, even though I get to go to some nice cities in the US, its not like I actually do anything but sit in the hotel room and sleep. On the positive note, I am employed and so can spend time figuring out what I want to do when I grow up. Any ideas from the audience??

July 4th Weekend, Part Deux

2008-07-07T19:38:00.001-04:00

Fireworks were early this year at the beach thanks to mother nature. While Frank, John and the gang went to a party in Dewey, I was visiting friends from Norfolk who were at the beach for the week. I was sitting in my friends' living room munching on a burger when a call came out to hit the beach (thankfully we were one house off the boardwalk) as the fireworks had started. So off we all trudged to the beach (did I mention a mere 30 second walk) to watch the fireworks in the rain. I am used to the fireworks in DC which are quite grand. Rehoboth's display was quaint, but the added feature of being able to run one's toes through sand was something not possible in DC. Hell, I wouldn't walk around barefoot for that matter anywhere in DC! For a party where I assumed I would only know the hosts, there were actually a few people from Rehoboth who I have met on past trips to the beach.

Saturday was spent lounging about the house on the back porch (wake, eat, nap in that order) and then the 6 of us traipsed up to a pool party being thrown by an aquaintance of mine in DC. The margaritas were flowing and I bumped in to more guys I know from DC (seems like everyone was at the beach this weekend!). The rain rolled in again and we headed back home for yet another nap. Next stop was Aqua for happy hour and then La La Land for dinner. We opted for frozen custard on the boardwalk in lieu of $9 chocolate cake and then headed home.

Woke up Sunday and we took Augie to the beach for his morning romp, had breakfast and then I headed home to my own dog. Elsa was very happy to see me last night. We met up with an aquaintance of mine and his dog Cane and then I used my oven for the first time to make..... frozen pizza. It was a classy evening.

Today I putzed around the house in the morning doing laundry and whatnot, and am trying to decide if I should paint the walls of the apartment or not. The off-white/cream color bugs me a bit, especially since the floorboards, windows and doors are white. I may take some time off this week or next to do it. I feel a sudden "allergy attack" coming on!!!

Beach Weekend Part 1

2008-07-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

Happy July 4th all. Greetings from the boardwalk in Rehoboth.

Had a fairly easy drive out to Rehoboth on Wednesday. I am staying with my friends Frank and John, who rent a house for the "season" every year by the beach. The drive wasn't too bad, except for the traffic on route 404 through a big construction zone. For those of you who don't live here, traffic to the beach all funnels over the Bay bridge (4 miles long and really, really tall) and then two-lane highways through Delaware, and so trying to time your drive is important. We had to ditch 404 and take lesser-known 16, which shaved 30 minutes probably off our trip, but I didn't get to stop at the Sonic in Bridgeville. Still, it made Frank happy, and since I was subjecting Frank to talk radio (The Hannity Show no less!) I figured a compromise was in order.

We went out for happy hour and stop by to see my friends Frank and Spencer, who are up here for the week from Norfolk. Then out to dinner and off to bed.

Didn't do too much on the 3rd, except lounge on the hammock all afternoon. This is the hammock view:

The canals feed into the marsh which feeds into a bay that goes to the ocean, so this marsh does eventually lead to the Atlantic. Its very quiet (you can hear the wind blow) and there are interesting marsh birds flying around. The beach place is a 1950s California - style bungalow. Lots of wood paneling and windows under the pitched roof.

We headed out for happy hour at Aqua around 6. Its amazing all the people from DC that you run into out here, like my friend Jeff

We ended up going to Dos Locos on the strip for margaritas and dinner (so so on both counts but the batter fried green beans were delish!).

Today I think I'm actually going to the movies and out to lunch (had my fill of beach sand over Memorial Day) and to see the fireworks tonight.

Hope everyone has a great 4th!

2008-07-02T08:32:00.001-04:00

/>Gene and I got together yesterday to talk "soft furnishings" over lunch and followed up with a trip to IKEA. I found some curtains I liked at Crate and Barrel, but even on sale, I was looking at spending $400 for the curtain wall, so we decided to see if IKEA had anything similar at a lower price.

For those of you who haven't been to IKEA (is there anyone who hasn't been to IKEA??), they have ready-made curtains at more modest prices, and one section over they have a huge selection fabric by the yard. Its not quite as big as going to a regular fabric store, but you do get quite an eyeful. The fabric patterns tend towards Marrimekko-style patterns and not what Im looking for, but in a flash of inspiration, we found this blue on blue fabric and bought out the entire bolt! I'll let everyone be (hopefully pleasantly) surprised with what we're doing with it, but Gene has given me "homework" ala Trading Spaces and I think the results will look really nice!

Comcast showed up yesterday to hook me up to the rest of the world, and all by myself set up my home wireless network, complete with WPA security and a firewall and it didn't take me all that long. The instructions weren't too clear, but it seems to work okay. Comcast has a channel with nothing but old movies, and Elsa and I watched the original "Airport" last night. Bless her heart she wants to sit on the new couch with me, and as much as I want to curl up with her, I just can't handle all the dog hair on the new couch. She did hop up in bed with me this morning for a half hour (now I have black dog hair on gold sheets). I don't have curtains in the bedroom yet, so at 6am when the sun rises, so does she. I ought to experiment with eye shades for her. They work for me, so maybe they would let her sleep in??

Today's tasks include yet another run to the Salvation Army with things to drop off (books, bags, art and a filing cabinate) and then off to Crate and Barrel for a side table, the car wash and to Best Buy for a new camera. Then its off to the chiropractor and then the beach!

Toronto

2008-06-29T16:51:00.001-04:00

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!

2008-06-26T21:05:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-25T12:13:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-23T01:21:00.001-04:00

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

2008-06-23T00:43:00.000-04:00

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

2008-06-23T00:15:00.001-04:00

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!