Here, There, and Yonder

It’s me here, still with the hobbling. On flat terrain I’m fine. Going up the stairs I’m fine. Going down the stairs, I may as well be 80 years old. I sort of started analyzing what is giving me problems this morning and determined that if I reach my foot down to the next step, the motion itself doesn’t bother my ankle, it’s putting weight behind it. Maybe this is the norm, but I’ve had many sprained ankles before in my life and I’m pushing two weeks now and this feels a bit behind schedule for my tastes. Maybe I’m impatient. Just in case, I called the doctor and set up an appointment. The first I could get with a doctor I knew in the practice was Monday, so I decided no Doctor bingo for me.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking a lot about Egypt at the end of the year. I’ve been accumulating American express points for around 5 years now. And I checeked in with that. If I book my travel through American express, I can get a flight to Egypt for around $600 after using up all of my points to date. What are they for if not redeeming for something fun, though? The only un-fun part is that I have to take a connecting flight. That’s not unique to this deal, just a matter of fact. The problem is the Amex solution at that price has me in Amsterdam for 14 hours between flights… wow…. I’ve checked and the airport is apparently a 15 minute train ride from the city center. The question is how long will I stand in immigration?? This wouldn’t be an issue if my final destination was a European city, but it’s not, so I’ll have to go through immigration, what, in both directions. Has anyone done this or know anyone who has??

If I do this, I’ve totally picked out the tour I’m taking, It’s the Discover Egypt tour through Intrepid Travel. It sounds totally up my alley and just an incredible trip and everything I’ve heard about the company has been good. Okay, it’s not so much an if as when. I think this is the next big trip, and I think again, it will be New Years. There is a tour leaving on the 30th of December. Rock! I just have to get up the gumption to chunk all this money down the rat hole of Mark having wonderful memories one day.

But the next trip is sooner than that. I found out this week that I have to go to a meeting in Boston in two weeks. And darn it all, it’s on a Friday. How awful is that?? I mean, what could be worse? It costs the company no more for my airfare if I come back Friday night or Monday morning. So, I talked to my boss, and I’m taking a half day off on Monday. Our meeting ends Friday afternoon, so I have three nights and two days to see a little of Boston. I’m booked at the HI Boston Hostel for those three nights. So, I’m sorted out except of course for knowing zip about Boston.

So, if anyone has suggestions for things to see or do, particularly with a photographic bent, let me know!

And speaking of bent photography, I ordered a new lens for my camera yesterday. I had hovered over the idea for days. I found a neat little fisheye lens from Tokina that goes from 10mm to 17mm. That fits perfectly below my Canon 17-40 2.8L, overlaps it a little even. I hadn’t planned on getting any lenses I couldn’t use on a full frame camera, but I can’t get a fisheye for my 20D that will give the appropriately distorted lines that fisheyes give because of the crop factor. A few people have used the tokina on full frame, but it has questionable results on the low end of the scale… oh well, if I get that far, I can always sell it off one day.

Anyway, all the news fit to print for now.