Heading East

I will be traveling east this week, and as such will not be posting anything until next Monday. What will I post tonight? Just a picture that some smug zoo keeper, who clearly hates it when people confuse tortoises with turtles, put up in the tortoise enclosure:

I'm not one to correct the mistake of a fellow human being (of course I am), but when said individual clearly thinks everyone confuses turtles and tortoises and while correcting them makes TWO mistakes; well, I just can't pass up that opportunity.

Enjoy the week.

It's the End of the World and We Blew It

As I wrote in my last post, I was scheduled to return on Wednesday, the first day of the month of June. Clearly that didn't happen. I almost felt bad about it, but then I remembered that I'm not the only person who has made a prediction that has failed to materialize recently.

Last weekend I went with the in-laws to Table Rock Lake for a couple days of relaxing, fishing, and water sports. First on the agenda (and first in the previous list) was relaxing; which was a complete success. I managed to catch an average of 1.4 naps per day - some in the hammock, some in a recliner. As for the second item of the to-do list:

Despite the poor quality of that picture (of which I take no responsibility), you can see that the one fish I caught was about two inches long. This wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't fishing in a river stocked with trout that every other fisher was pulling fish out of almost by the minute.

Relaxing - check. Fishing - half check. Water sports - no check whatsoever. And what is that? A combination of dam management and rain conspired to flood the lake and cut power to the boat dock. Here you can see some of the flood's work as Murphy takes a swim in the neighbor's backyard:

So, in retrospect the weekend should have been solely focused on relaxing and it would have been a huge success. Perhaps I could have gotten in over two naps per day. As it is, I enjoyed the weekend and the much needed break from the hustle and bustle of doing nothing. In order to get back into the daily grind, I am taking a float trip this weekend. It should again be a relaxing weekend (though I'm not sure I can squeeze in any naps while canoeing down the river, but I'll try) filled with good food (a friend who is a chef will be preparing dinner), wizardry, and decent (according to the reviews) beer.

I'll be back on Monday, unless once again my math is off, in which case just crack open a beer and wait for me.

They Don't Drink Amstel in the South

It seems like I spend more time apologizing for not having posting than actually posting. So from this point forward I will not apologize anymore; you'll just have to deal with the fact that you have an additional ten minutes in your day that you'll have to fill since you were unable to waste it reading this desecration of the English language.

If I was going to apologize, I would apologize and then use the fact that I spent the last five days on the road as an excuse. I made my way out to Kentucky for a promotion ceremony for an old colleague. Save for the fact that it was in Kentucky, it was a good time. I was able to catch up with some old friends, one of which I was able to thank in person for writing me a letter of recommendation for law school.

On the way back east I drove through St. Louis:



That second picture is the Arch from the side. I also apparently drove through the north pole, because I thought that is where Santa Claus lived:

I guess I was lied to my parents about the true residence of Ole' Saint Nick - it would appear to be Indiana Route 162.

After the promotion, I departed and headed southeast to Knoxville, TN to visit my college roommate. Knoxville is most definitely a college town, but due to the poor weather they were having I did not see a lot of bicycles in use, though I did see the gamut from fixed-gear bikes to Next mountain bikes chained up in front of coffee shops, college buildings, and of course bars - one would never want to drive drunk. What I also saw a lot of were Mustangs. Knoxville must be the Mustang capital of the world - ah, the South. It actually made me miss the Midwest.

On the drive back home I once again drove through St. Louis:

All things being equal it was a great weekend that allowed me to catch up with old friends and see a couple parts of the country that I hadn't seen before. The only real bummer was that I was in the car for 13 hours yesterday instead of watching the Belgian Bullet (I don't know if he's been called that before, but if not I claim full credit for coining that nickname) Philippe Gilbert win the Amstel Gold Race for a second time in a row. There are a few good videos over at Drunk Cyclist.

Being the road warrior that I am, I will once again depart and head south for some more flying. So if somehow posts show up on Wednesday and Friday think yourself lucky. If not, add those ten minutes each day to your ride.

Return from the Void

As I mentioned last post, I have been in and out of town. While my travels aren't yet over, I have managed to find some time to resume posting.

My most recent trip took me to New Hampshire (via Connecticut) for a friend's wedding. I arrived in town Thursday afternoon and went out to dinner with my brother and his family. On the way we noticed this New England super hero:

Our collective amazement was summed up when my nephew said something along the lines of, "He's riding naked". His lack of clothing aside, he was also riding on a very busy street. I'm not one to argue that as a cyclist he doesn't have a claim to the road as well, but I know that I wouldn't ride there. Maybe by not putting myself in a situation where I'm surrounded by crazy drivers on their way home from work makes me less of a champion of cyclists' rights, but I'd rather take up that battle with something other than my life.

The following morning after picking another out-of-town guest up at the airport, we headed north to NH. I've been to Vermont a good amount and I always just assumed NH was the same (I went to NH as a young buck and don't remember much about it except smacking my shin against the family mini-van's doorway). In the end my assumption held true for the geography, but not so much the people. Ok, it held true for them as well - dirty hippies. The scenery was beautiful:

And the businesses were creative:

The wedding was nice, though I had to struggle through it with what I thought was food poisoning. Turns out the constant departures from my bed to the bathroom were caused by some bug that hit my brother's family and coworkers. In my weakened state I must have picked up another bug because I was down for about four days versus the 8-12 hours everyone else was affected.

Upon my return to Kansas, preparations were made for my 'Dirty Thirty' celebration:

I gathered from my in-laws that the 'Dirty Thirty' was supposed to be a night of drunken abandon. Unfortunately, the sickness I endured was still messing with my stomach and as soon as I drank one beer I felt full and bloated. That did not bode well for the Saturday evening beer-tasting at the Carnegie Arts Center we attended. There were some really good beers there, but again each sip filled me up and I was unable to take full advantage of the offerings. To round out the birfday weekend, a few friends took Penny and me to the new IHOP for breakfast. We were deflated to learn that the grand opening was set for this morning; we were a day early.

So to sum it up the last few weeks started with sickness and ended with sadness, but I guess it could have been worse.

Wednesday Extravaganza

Monday's post was rushed, poorly thought out, and as one who is not good with words would say - craptastic. Unbelievably though, I think it may have been better than these master pieces. I stumbled upon that link as I was stumbling through Stevil's post over at AHTBM. Speaking of AHTBM, I should have my new kit here in the next couple of weeks. That is a good thing, since it is so humid here in Kansas that I can't simply rinse off my gear and dry it over night like I could in Germany. Having a third set will allow me to ride more often with clean clothes.

But I digress, back to music:



I just finished reading Year of the Black Rainbow, a novel that accompanies the new album of the same name by Coheed and Cambria. The book lays out the story of Coheed and Cambria's beginning (the characters, not the band). It is interesting and there are definite ties to their music, since in the end their music is the same story. The concept of telling a continuous story throughout their albums was at first foreign to me. Now it seems like such a logical way to create music that I find it amazing other artists are able to compose songs that are distinct from each other (though for some artists it could be said their songs really aren't that distinct). If you like science fiction/fantasy, you should definitely read Year of the Black Rainbow as well as The Amory Wars comics.

Penny and I went out and bought a new TV yesterday so that we could compete with the Jones'. We already beat them in volleyball and cars (Penny has a nice Mercedes), but they got us bested in sheet thread counts and 2-on-2 basketball. While shopping for said TV, this little price tag (on a fake book) caught my eye:

I know a deal when I see one, and this is a deal!

Had to step away for a bit. While posting about purchasing our new TV, the delivery guys dropped it off. Setting it up wasn't so hard, of course all I did was plug in the cable box and tune it to ESPN HD.

Speaking of deals, in Israel they have one-way crypts (which in the end isn't that great of a deal):

Of course in Israel they also have multi-purpose bikes in case you want to hit up a pool session on your way to the grocery store to pick up some kosher falafel for dinner:

Ok, time to end on a high note. What will I do for the next month while waiting for the Vuelta to start:

Cold Fashioned Refreshment - Sleeveless Shirts Prohibited

Reviewing older posts I noticed that my tour of the wonderful world of Bamberg beer stagnated after Keesman - leaving two more breweries to highlight. I shall begin today's journey with Brauerei Greifenklau. Located at the top of the Kaulberg, Greifenklau has a wonderful view from its garden. It serves up some mean Franconian food stuffs as well as some extremely tasty lager. Served in a krug (known as a stein or tankard in the US), Greifenklau lager possesses a golden color and a smooth-as-butter (but not tasting like butter) flavor that has a punchy aftertaste.


Heading down the Kaulberg and back into town leads us to our last Bamberg brewery, Kaiserdom. Kaiserdom brews what is probably the most universally known German style of beer: the Hefeweizen. Thick, heavy, and a bit sweet, Kaiserdom's signature beer goes well with food or as a meal by itself.


On our way to St. Louis from the lake house, Penny and I noticed a cyclists who was talking on his cell phone and was not wearing a helmet. If you've read any of my previous posts you understand how I think helmets are a wonderful idea and should be worn any time you are on a bike and how much I hate that people feel they can operate a vehicle (motorized or otherwise) while talking/texting/apping (I have the license to verbalize application as the author of this blog). Worst of all though, the cyclists was wearing a jersey like this:

After driving around northwestern Arkansas/southwestern Missouri I can only imagine that the cyclist was from the area. The roads are extremely curvy with many hills (good for cycling) and the drivers speed on them as if they were one large F1 track (bad for cycling). This combination is enough for me to doubt the safety of any cyclist down there.

Speaking of roads, I failed to mention earlier that I was able to check off one of my "things to do before I die" list. In Pennsylvania I drove over the highest elevation on I-80W east of the Mississippi River. No lie. My life is one more puzzle piece closer to being complete.

One of the two most interesting people I saw while in Israel was this man:

Hawking baby wares in the Muslim Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem could or could not be a lucrative business, but as you can see in the picture the possible buyers were perhaps not the target audience. On the other hand, Mr. T. had his gold chains trained on the target audience with military like precision.

When Mr. T. was shown the fat that drained off the food cooked in the Flavorwave Oven, he responded with the quote of the trip, "who want to put that in they body?!"

In the bike realm, check out the new impec from BMC. Quite sexy.

Without putting anything in my body I'll end this week with a flattened DB Podium:

2 July DB Podium Field:
1. Anyone who talks/texts/apps while operating a vehicle

I Love U Bandit Queen

A lot has happened since my last post - here I will condense all happenings to those that are essential (in addition to shortening the time I spend typing this post, not covering the last few weeks in detail allows me blog fodder for weeks to come).

Israel was quite amazing. Here are a few pictures that I have specially selected for today's post:





For those of you who are observant, you can see that I'm perusing a copy of Men's Journal with Lance Armstrong on the cover. I don't read a ton and being over in Europe for the last five years has me a little behind on my knowledge of American magazine literature, but in what I've read over the last few months it appears that the American media is in love with Lance. Don't get me wrong, on my best day after training for years I wouldn't be able to finish a TdF stage within the time limit, let alone win seven Tours in a row (after recovering from cancer), but in the eyes (and words) of many a media outlet Lance can do no wrong. I'm not sure if this has trickled down to American cycling fans or if it has trickled up to the media (it makes business sense to print articles praising athletes fans love and want to read positive articles about).

On a more broad cycling theme let's discuss social contract theory (heretofore known as theory). At its very basic, the theory states that individuals give up certain liberties to reap the benefits of being a part of a society, namely convenience. While many don't want to believe it, this theory pertains to cyclists as well. For the convenience of not having to create roads or maintain said roads, cyclists have to give up certain liberties - namely the ability to pick and choose which laws to follow. If you want to be taken seriously as a vehicle, which many cycling blog authors claim, then you should be subject to the rules and regulations that govern other vehicles. Of course there are idiots who don't think so, like a San Francisco native in this article who thinks that it's ok to cycle and text (though of course it is too dangerous for pedestrians to text while walking). Then there is this wonder from across the pond in dear ole England that claims they ran into a child at full speed with their bike and caused no harm. It makes one wonder what "full speed" means. I sure hope that if I were riding at full speed a child would at least fear being hit by me. Here you'll find a blogger who understands the idea that laws apply to everyone, though his smugness in his description as a "part-time driver" makes me wish he were struck by a cyclist at "full speed." These are only three examples of the many takes on the theory when it comes to cycling and driving. I can't give you any facts or statistics to back up my next statement, but I have a feeling (unfortunately) that most cyclists are in the "I don't have to follow the rules of the road" camp.

A while back I had Floyd occupying all spots on the DB podium. I want to clear up that he earned those spots for doping and then lying about it for four years, not for accusing other riders of doping. Sure, you don't tell on your buddy at school when he illegally parks in a teachers only spot, but knowingly letting professional riders earn money for cheating is far worse than being called a rat or breaking any imaginery "code of silence" between riders. So, big ups to Floyd (though I doubt his motives were purely altruistic) and here's to hoping that USA Cycling takes his accusations seriously and conducts a thorough investigation. We don't need a witch hunt, but professional cyclists should understand that doping won't be tolerated and that accusations will be handled appropriately.

Speaking of the DB podium, a story I read on one of the websites I frequent had a link to D. Dowd Muska's website with this gem of an article. This guy makes the competition for this week's podium a race for second. It's like Usain Bolt, Kevin James, and Rush Limbaugh in a foot race, the only real unknown is which of the two (James or Limbaugh) will have a heart attack first. For this week's DB race though, the race for second was narrowly won by an Israeli security guard employed by the US State Department. Stacy, as Penny and I referred to her as, amassed a trio of DB victories: she yelled at me for sitting on a metal barrier, unplugged the fan that was being used to cool Americans waiting to enter the embassy (it was easily 98 degrees around 10:45 am and there was about three feet of shade), and denied American citizens access to American soil. Of course all of this could be explained by the fact that her training most likely consisted of multiple PowerPoint presentations that totaled roughly two hours but were reported as taking 40. Her transgressions easily outdistanced the Customs and Border Protection Agency's Officer Siggs at the Wichita Airport. Her major offense was telling us that we (Penny and me) had failed to do our job and understand Kansas law as it pertains to importing wine for personal use. She lectured us on how her job was to enforce federal and state laws and that we had to provide her with a "permission slip" from the state of Kansas allowing us to bring in the wine we shipped from Germany. She quoted Kansas law saying we were authorized one gallon of wine. Penny did some research to discover that we could bring in as much wine as we wanted, we would just have to pay taxes on all of it above one gallon. So we spent a whopping $11.30 on taxes and picked up our wine. In numerical order, here's this week's podium:

25 June DB Podium:
1. D. Dowd Muska
2. "Stacy"
3. Officer Siggs

Here's to hoping your weekend is sunny and that all of your rides are at "full speed."

Situationally Prescribed Break

Due to the amount of travel I have done the last few days, I have decided to wait until I am good and settled until I post again. That could mean in about a week or two weeks, we'll see how things go. In the meantime, enjoy the summer, ride your bike, and don't smoke crack.

(Ro)Mania II: Summer Slackdown

Ivan Basso is victorious in Italy, Valverde is banned world-wide, and I am resting up between my trip to Bucharest, Romania and my trip to Israel. Word.

The title of my last post had feral dog in it, but in the post I talked about a feral cat - minor oversight on the part of the management. Feral dogs really are a problem in Bucharest, I just hadn't gotten a picture of one before Friday evening. The city apparently rounds up the dogs and tags them:

I'm unsure why the government in Bucharest goes through all the trouble to capture the dogs and tag them. It has to cost a large amount of both time and money to run such a program. One would have to reason if the feral dogs really were such a problem, the logical step after rounding them up wouldn't be tagging them, but putting the dogs down (also know as 'euphenasia').

Since this is Summer Slackdown, I'm going to stop typing words and simply dump a bunch of pictures from the weekend. I'm even going to be so lazy as to not rotate pictures so they are upright. I will place captions on each one that you can scroll over and read if you are using IE. I know it doesn't work with Google Chrome, but I'm not positive about Firefox or any other browser. Enjoy.

(Ro)Mania: (Pea)Cock Fights, Feral Dogs, and Probably More

First off I feel that I owe an apology to André Greipel for dogging him so hard a few posts ago. Herr Greipel won stage 18 of the Giro (the last sprinter's stage) to make up for some of his earlier lack-luster performances. Perhaps I should be giving him a big thumbs up and proverbial pat on the back since he stayed in the race as a sprinter even after the roads turned upwards. Cav, Renshaw, and Boonen can't say that and they were racing in the ATOC, a race that I claimed was inferior to the Giro. Then again, perhaps I should save a spot on the DB Podium for André 'Cold Duck' Greipel because he couldn't win a stage until the best sprinter of the race (Tyler Farrar) had dropped out.

Penny and I have had a very interesting day. When we left the airport outside Bucharest, we were dropped off at this "bus stop":

Which had a paved path to this "train station":

As the train approached, a feral cat thumbed its nose at Romania's public transportation by walking on to the tracks and enjoying its mid-afternoon constitutional. While I don't have any photographic evidence of the cat-train encounter, I can only imagine it would look something like this if the cat was domesticated:

Once into the city, Penny and I walked around a park which contained a small zoo. One of exhibits was a cage of peacocks. No sooner had we walked up, two of the giant birds started a no-holds-barred demonstration that would make GSP crap his tiny shorts.

Feeling hungry and wired due to all the excitement, Penny and I headed to dinner where I sampled some Romanian-brewed beer:

Judging from this label it would seem that the Romanians are a humble people. The beer was kind of what I expected; it smelled like a Heineken and tasted like a Pilsner Urquell.

28 May DB Podium
1. Idiot German Cyclists
2. LA and his gang (take a lesson from Vaughters)
3. Greipel (though I guess he could be included in #1)

The End of an Era (in Bamberg)

It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Bamberg and, like good Europeans, the Germans took to the bike paths en masse. Today was the last day I was able to ride since all of our stuff will be shipped tomorrow. I was looking forward to a great ride (which it turned out to be despite some difficulties). It seemed that the route was full of idiots today though: people walking two abreast and taking up the eight foot wide path, single roller bladers doing the same, older riders performing the obligatory weave to-and-fro for no reason, and a douche on a mountain bike who hopped on my wheel - twice. I dropped him once and he had the nut sack to invite himself to my draft again. I was hoping he would have done it a third time; I was prepared to slow way down, get behind him, and use his draft for a while.

I saw a one-legged man riding a recumbent bike and was thoroughly impressed. Of the impressive things I saw today he made the third step of the podium. The top two steps - two one-legged ladies riding regular mountain bikes.

Speaking of being impressed, Manuel Belletti's win in stage 13 of the Giro was great to see. It's good for his team Colnago-CSF, it's great for him since he won right around the corner from home, and it's amazing for cycling. His outpouring of emotions afterwards captured all of the beauty and suffering that is cycling:

Of course, I'm not totally convinced that he wasn't upset about the race organizer's decision to use 'The Final Countdown' as the awards presentation music. I was hoping to see this guy come out and perform a little:

Over on the worst coast, the ATOC has wrapped up with Michael Rogers surviving numerous attacks during the last climb of stage 8 to win the overall yellow jersey. For his efforts he was rewarded with a little bonus of $21,000 that he will proceed to give to the rest of his team:

Have we seen the end of an era with Levi finishing in third behind Rogers and Dave Z? Um, I'm not sure that three wins by a pro tour rider in a non-pro tour race really defines an era. I'll leave that for the reporters to discuss, but I think that this season has seen the possible beginning of an era of dominance for Liquigas and their young rider Peter Sagan. In addition to his two wins in the ATOC (yeah, I know what I wrote about Levi, I wrote it), he won three stages in Europe earlier in the season. Here he is collecting his large check for winning the points competition at the ATOC:

And here is him collecting another large check for winning the best young rider competition:

On Saturday Penny and I walked over to Mahr's Bräu and spent some time soaking in the sun and sipping one of Mahr's signature "U" beers (pronounced "oo"). "U" is short for Ungespundet-Hefetrüb (which means yeasty or cloudy). The "U" has a smooth flavor that is a bit malty and goes down quickly. The brewery was actually named the best brewery in the world by Men's Journal in 2005.

As I mentioned earlier, Penny and I are shipping our things tomorrow and moving out of the apartment. For the last couple weeks we're in Europe we are traveling to Bucharest, Romania and Israel. Should be exciting and interesting, though the trip to Romania will unfortunately put the kabbash on my watching of the Giro. It happens.

Lastly, to recap my score from BSNYC's May 21st quiz: six out of eight plus the bonus question. I think it's about time to look up Mensa's phone number.

More Free Time = Maybe More Posts?

Yo, back in Germany for a couple months. I’ve been riding a decent amount (days that is; not miles since I’m out of shape) as well as playing mad amounts of Super Mario Bros Wii.

The new bike is sweet. It is stiff, light, and fast. Once the issue of my extremely low physical fitness level goes away, I’m sure that I’ll be able to fully enjoy riding the new Bianchi.

Penny and I will be heading back the States around the beginning of June and will spend about a year in northern Kansas. During that year I’ll study for and take the LSAT as well as apply to law schools. Not sure where we’ll end up in 2011, so the list of possible schools is too big to even discuss.

I figure with all the extra time I have each day that was previously consumed with a steady job, I should be able to post more often. We see if my slackerdom doesn’t flow into that endeavor as well.

Change of Scenery

It's been a while. That happens when you're as busy as I am - here is a rough rundown of my last two months:

December 18th-26th: took paid leave from work
December 26th-January 3rd: traveled to Davos, Switzerland for snowboarding and New Years
January 5th and 6th: worked
January 7th-January 14th: took paid leave from work
January 15th-18th: traveled to Florence, Italy
January 18th-January 29th: appointments and whatnot for leaving Bamberg
January 31st-today: I've run a couple times, lifted weights twice, and watched a good amount of TV

So, as one can see (seriously, check January 5th-6th again) I've had precious little time to attend to this here blog.

Besides the driving (should have been a 6-hour trip but with traffic it turned into 9 there and 10 on the way back), Davos was a real fun trip. The first day we snowboarded for the morning and then watched a hockey game between Davos and Karlovy Vary, a Czech team. Then for the next five days we snowboarded. It was extremely tiring, but worth it. The only part I would have improved (save for the driving) was the weather. It was cold and clear the first four days and didn't snow until the end of the week. A good couple inches right when we got there would have been prime.

The trip to Florence was a good break from German winter weather. When we left Bamberg it was around 30 degrees, cloudy, and snowing. When we landed in Florence it was sunny and close to 55 degrees. Penny and I went to a bunch of museums, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Accademia, which houses Michelangelo's David. I never realized how big that statute actually is - 17 feet! Besides those museums, Penny and I climbed the dome of the Duomo and ate a lot of really good food.

Now I'm in a period of transition as I wait for my goods from Germany to arrive here in America (including my car). Then around the beginning of March I'll head north and west with planned stops in Woodstock, VT; Rochester, NY; and Chicago, IL on my way to Winfield, KS where I'll spend about two weeks before heading back to Germany. I'll be in Germany for two months before heading off to who knows where. I hope it is another overseas adventure.

On the cycling front, I haven't ridden in a long time due to the moving process, but my bikes should be here next week. Even if it is cold and snowy, I can at least ride the trainer. I'm excited to try out the new Northwave shoes and Dura-Ace pedals I purchased. I was thinking of getting a set of Look pedals, but with the sale price on the Dura-Ace and the fact that my other pedals are Ultegra, it made sense to go with two pedals with the same cleat so that I can jump on either bike and not have to worry about changing cleats.

Worth at Least 284 Words

With winter setting in and the temperature dropping, I've had less time to ride the bike. But at the same time it's still a little warm for any substantial snow fall. It sucks that we're in this transitional time where the conditions aren't conducive to riding my bike or snowboarding. Tomorrow I head down to Garmisch for three days where I'll hopefully get to snowboard for the first time this year (actually, first time in two years. Unfortunately I'll only have one day to ride). Even if the conditions aren't that great it should be an ample warm-up to the season. I'm planning a trip to Austria for the weekend of 18-21 December and then New Year's in Davos, Switzerland where I plan to ride for an entire week (all dependant on how much effort I put into après ski).

Penny and I spent last weekend in Italy. On Saturday we traveled to Venice and spent the afternoon walking around and sight-seeing. I haven't conducted any formal research, but I'm almost certain the only reason people still live in Venice is to provide workers for the tourist shops/restaurants/churches. Despite the fact that any small Italian village is more authentically "Italian" than Venice, we had a nice time navigating through the small alleys and watching the town slowly sink.

This past weekend Penny's parents came out to visit. An almost obligatory weekend adventure during December in Bavaria is a trip to the Nürnberg Christmas Market. At all Christmas markets there are numerous booths selling various wares from tree ornaments to handmade candles to knit hats. Out-numbering the vendor booths by about two to one are food vendors selling sausage, snacks, and glühwein, which is a spiced, mulled wine that is served warm. A lot of people really like it, though I believe that is only because drinking it is the "in" thing to do around the holiday season. For those that haven't tried it (and those that have and lie to themselves that it tastes good) it tastes like boiled gym socks (with an undertone of apricot and oak and a strong, lingering finish). Oh yeah, there are a crap load of people as well. So in the end you go there full of Christmas cheer, and you leave angry because you've been bumped into all day and you have no money left (with only an extra inch on your waste and the taste of gym socks in your mouth to show for it).

I've put up some pictures, scroll over them for captions.


This little guy is a riot - and not a quiet one I learned the other day. I saw this in Reykjavik and immediately thought that the producer of this product is sitting on a gold mine if he could market it for all children.






Enjoy the show. Nine more working days until I'm not in charge anymore. I can't wait to be responsible for only myself.