I guess I started down this path in the last year. As part of my continual paring down of the material things in my life, I sat down with a box of old cassette tapes (oh horrors) and copied them to MP3. Most of them, some had degraded too much to save. I didn’t have…
Last night we had our final full group dinner. Sam, the guide, will be at another hotel tonight getting ready for his next trip out. So, it was easier to do it the night before than tonight. Not sure what dinner will be and who it will be with if anyone. But last night’s was…
Where to begin after days of no internet access. Yes, the withdrawal pains were hell at first. Actually, I barely noticed if not for the piles of e-mail to wade through just now. Last night in Luxor, we did the sound and light show at Karnac’s Temple. It was… cheesy… cheesier than expected… didn’t cost…
Not so bright but early start to the morning. Went with Sam and a few others for late dinner last night. Neat place, not so touristy. Had Koshary again. So, got in aroun 11pm which wasn’t so bright for an early start. Had to be in the lobby at 5:15am. First rode a tourist bus…
Let’s see, catching up from my last post… That evening, we took a little boat trip as a group across the nile to this little restaurant on the edge of the Western Desert. Great fun, but for me, so so food. The novelty of it more than made up for that. It was an early…
Time is passing quickly here, but it’s passing on Egypt time, which turns out to be very similar to Mexican time. Nothing is quite on time, but no one seems to care so I’m gradually getting used to it again. It does take a shift in mind set, though. We’re not talking a few minutes…
Excuse me if I’ve written this before. It’s entirely possible. Because every time I travel, there’s this surreal feeling of my life unraveling. Maybe it’s just symbolic, but from the point I bundle up whatever possessions are going with me and lock the front door, it starts. I close the door on all but approx…
FÃ ilte! Time is just flying by day by day, here. Thanksgiving came and went. I felt like I spent a chunk of it back and forth between here and home. The photo show was Friday night. I would have loved to have been there, but it was fun to meet some new people and catch…
I had grand plans today to get an early start and ride up to the mountains and catch the sunrise on what I hoped would be some good fall color. What actually happened was waking up to see the sun already having risen. Hmm… change of plans… I had a leisurely morning and headed up….
I’m not sure what today got me into this journey down memory lane. But it began with hunting down this old commercial… And the memories came rushing back.. I moved from commercial to commercial and the odd cartoon of those days such as But in the end I came to a skittering halt here… The…
Well, I’ve been debating this one for quite awhile. I kept waffling. I discovered that I had built up a pile of points with my American Express card over the past few years. It helps that up until this month, I could charge work travel to my own card. Once I figured out I could…
Almost two weeks ago, I was having my pre-op for the surgery.  The hospital is down the street in Duluth, but the opposite direction I usually go to shop and all. That morning, I stopped by the Kroger coming from that direction instead. It’s a slightly older and less remodeled Kroger than the mammoth…
In honor of what would have been my 10th consecutive DragonCon. I’m not heart broken at having missed it. If I had wanted to go bad enough, I would have delayed surgery on my foot. I wasn’t excited about going this year and had yet to even purchase tickets when the surgery was planned two…
Surgery yesterday was both earlier than expected and longer than expected. I had gone home to pick up my Mom the day before and the phone rang at their house and I saw it was the hospital. I answered expecting they wanted to speak to me, but they asked for Mom. I gather they hadn’t…
It’s interesting, this year I just had not managed to drum up any excitement that DragonCon was on its way. This would be my 10th straight DragonCon. I’ve never missed one since moving into the Atlanta area. And every year has also been an opportunity to see Brandy and share some geeky times together. I’ve…
Thursday I flew up to Boston for a Friday meeting for work. Seeing as the airfare was the same Friday afternoon or Monday morning, I was lucky to be able to take advantage of the opportunity to stay through the weekend on my own dime and take a half day off work today. Accommodations It…
Today was back to find out the results of the MRI. Has anyone ever gotten a concrete answer from these things or is just me? Well, I’ve got good news anyway. I have not torn or broken anything. Tendons all intact. Bones mostly intact. It appears, and the x-ray showed this, that I did chip…
A few weeks ago, I sat in a theater and watched a trailer for a film called Stardust, and I resolved to see it for a very silly reason. Granted much that is good has stood on nonsensical ground, my grounds were that much of the on location photography was filmed in beautiful Scotland. Much…
Exausted but well pleased! Deramtologist visit this afternoon in Buckhead area and then loitering about as long as I could before wandering down to Vinyl to catch The Automatic in their last US show before going back to the UK to continue touring. The opening act, Modern Society, was pretty good. I think more of…
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,…
If you didn’t guess from the “soundtrack to life” title – this is all about nostalgia. You see, I’m in another one of my now infamous purge modes. For the uninitiated, I have a tendency to be somewhat of a pack rat, but off and on through my life, as far back as I can…
Okay, getting ready for the show and life in general has had me hopping for weeks, so I’ve had precious little opportunity to get out with the camera. Show behind me, I figured this morning I’d get up early and get out. Of course, I get up and the sky is dark with clouds, but…
The company I work for occasionally offers discount tickets to the odd event or amusement park. But for the first time in 8 years, they gave their employees and family members the opportunity to visit Atlanta’s High Museum for free! Shockers! The moment I saw that I knew I was going. I haven’t been to…
I’m not sure what brought this old parody song to my mind today, but I’m glad I live in a world where I can find anything on the internet. I remember listening to this in high school on the Doctor Demento radio show.
I’m cautiously optimistic about my knee. In the last week, I finally experienced some improvement again. When I first started physical therapy, there was definite improvement. I went from struggling up the stairs to dull yet constant pain. It was better than before, but better is still not well. The stall has lasted quite awhile,…
So, after days of thinking about it I put down my $99 and registered for a SMART. I loved them in Europe and they are coming to America in ’08! So much for that happy place of no car payments. 😉 The one above is the configuration I want, color-wise, and yes, the cabriolet model…
I was just too excited last week to find out that the SMART car I’ve seen in Europe is coming to the USA in 2008! I’m thinking very seriously that this may be my next vehicle. As long as I hang onto the Blazer, I still have something bigger if I really need it for…
Not sure where the “no news is good news” thing comes from. I guess it has it’s good points, but as the continuing knee saga unfolds… I’m not sure I agree… After weeks of physical therapy, I went back to the orthopedist last week. I had improvement in physical therapy, but in the end, I…
Saturday afternoon and evening, I wandered about Merida with my camera. I recorded some good shots of the city bathed in evening light and a lot of scenes that I felt captured the city, some of the beauty, some of that lovely decay, and anything that would sit still long enough for a click. And…
Not a lot of interesting news today. After last evening´s post, I found a bit nicer restaurant, more of a sports bar type place where they were watching “football” – soccer to the US.  I´d done more of fast food type places, even though they were local and serving up local dishes. I had something…
After yesterday´s long dissertation, I meandered out to find sustenance… and it was Burger King. Sorry to one and all, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. You knew it, I knew it. And after my quatro grande, I moved on to see the Trova concert in the park nearby… I´m beginning to…
So, after yesterday´s long post about such thrilling subjects as worn out sandals and death marches, I meandered over and caught the 4pm bus tour of the city. The one Lonely Planet recommends turns out to be this wee little bus leaving from Parque Santa lucia. There were only three of us on the tour…
Ahh, the beach is just beautiful.   The sand is so… uhm… Sandy… and the ocean is… so… uhm… calm… yeh, must be right? It´s funny, if I was a halfway decent writer, most of my posts could have been from my living room.  Just a string of words on a screen, nothing more, nothing less. …
Okay, so after yesterday´s post was some laying about. I tried to find the starting point of the bus tour but failed. Either not the right place or I expect things to be on time, which is not per se the way the world works. I had food I can´t identify. It was good, but…
So, it´s clearly siesta time again. I´m not ready for a nap, but the air con in this internet spot will do the trick. After yesterday´s post, I stepped out into the cooler afternoon when the sun was far enough through its arc through the sky that there were shadows starting to stretch across the…
Well, here I am safely in Merida in the Yucatan state of Mexico. Funny considering a month and a half ago I could not have found it on a map. At this point, I´ve thoroughly read the Merida part of my Lonely Planet Yucatan guidebook and I´ve even retained some of it. Flight down was…