Friday June 30
This morning I wake up to a chocolate croissant. Delish! But guess who wants to have some of it?
We go downtown to walk around, have lunch and do some grocery shopping for the World Cup party tonight. Germany vs. Argentina. Go Germany!
After 2 technical flight delays, two weather delays and a late Metro bus (not in that order), I finally made it to Munich. After being awake and traveling for roughly 24 hours, I was feeling exhausted but pepped right up once I saw Kathrin's shining, smiling face picking me up from the airport. Lots of hugs and kisses once we got to Ziska & Kilian's, and a first meeting with li'l Marlene, who is a treasure. Unfortunately it was almost time for Marlene to lay down for the evening, so she was put to bed while me, Jonathan, Z, Kilian, Paul, Kath and others went out Trachtemvogel, a local bar just across the river. All their tables were full so we took over the bar. Some more friends of Kath's from China showed up so we were a sizable crowd. Would you ever believe that Jagermeister and Red Bull actually tastes not too bad? Since Jonathan and I were pretty snackered from traveling, we decided to make an early night of it. Until Paul said "Let's stop in this little place on the way home for ONE beer." You know how this story is going to end. Frauenhofer Schoppenstuve was the name of the joint, and the proprietor handed us songsheets while she went around and sung to all the tables. We all got our ONE beer, and tried to sing along. Even the locals had never heard of these songs.It was still a lot of fun. One beer > two beer > schnapps > schnapps. The time stamp on the last picture taken of the evening was 3:14.
06/24/2006 :: 4D2G
Four days to go before Munich. (!) Lots of phone conversations today with friends and family to shore up plans for departures, arrivals and post-arrival plans. Ziska sent the first itinerary today: Thursday afternoon in the beergarden, Friday night in-house rooting-for-Germany-World-Cup-Party, then off to the Alps for the a beer und schnapps weekend wedding celebration. I. Can't. Wait.
Today is tinkering. Tonight is dinner and drinks with mcG, Andres, Siri plus new girlfriend (who's last name is HOOKER), which has all the plans for a fabtastic evening. Cheers!
Comments:
I am soooooooo excited for you Ivan. I know you have looking forward to
going to Germany for a very long time. Enjoy EVERY last moment. and
give out lots
of hugs and kisses for me. -kristin(wish i was there)
Ivan, I'm jealous. You'll always be my brother!!!
I went to Vy-enna in the H8ST8 last night for a cocktail party. Tons of the fun. Remember to call your Dads today.
This is John, our host.
And Jason, another host. Jason is one of those guys you can picture having scotch with Dean Martin in Las Vegas while driving a black Cadillac convertible down the Strip circa 1956. Fabulous.
REDRUM!!
...and then the karaoke machine was turned on...
06/17/2006 :: OosVee reunion
JJ from Chi is going to be joining in Munich! This basically means we have a vacation reunion from five years ago. JJ, Zippy and I had some time together in the US Virgin Islands in late 2001. There was a lot of rum, lots of sunning, lots of Pshop Tennis, good times. We learned how to read Zapf Dingbats. Now it seems it's all going to happen again, maybe without as much sun, more beer than rum, but everything else will be the same. Here's JJ and Zip.
06/13/2006 :: Bicycle Update
The bike is back. It seems Foreman Antonio just wanted to go a littie joyriding this weekend. He had it, still chained to the tubular rack, lying on the sidewalk. He said he didn't want to leave it sitting there on Friday for fear that someone would steal it. Could someone really ride it away with a 60-pound bike rack attached to it? Thanks for the concern, Foreman Antonio.
Happy Burfday Goldy! (and Happy Pride to the 'mos)
Comments: grody goldy's bday - nanny nanny boo boo - yippppy!
My
friend Fabio is moving to Savannah next weekend. He's taking his family with
him, too. Wife Summer and children Miles and
Harper. A bunch of us took
him out last night for drinking and dancing. We started at Mila's new pad
and then barhopped to Local 16 and Heaven & Hell. Heaven has not
changed since the last time I was there in 1999.
Can you guess to which song he's dancing?
06/09/2006 :: "Hey, That's My Bike!"
On work mornings, I park my bike at My Own Private Commuter Lot, which is basically the bike hump at the corner of 7th and Penn. By the CVS and Frank's Place. Then I Metro to and from work.
The last couple of weeks the city's contractors have been "upscaling" sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue by ripping up the concrete and placing brick. I certainly hope everyone's property values are getting a kick from this, because I know everyone in the neighborhood is so eager to flip their properties you can almost see it draining into the gutters (which they've also replaced with nice marble Lego-looking slabs. Cha-ching!). So I've been monitoring the progress every morning, trying to predict when they would rip up my parking space and force me to park elsewhere. Seems I was a day late.
This
morning they were about 2/3 of the way down the block; I figured next
week would be the time to park elsewhere. Wrong. When I get off work,
the sidewalk is gone, the bike rack is gone, the bike is gone. Now it's all
dirt wrapped
in orange "Sidewalk Closed" orange. The bike, presumably still
locked to the rack, is nowhere to be found.
Walking to the police station does not turn up any clues. Detective HotCop
informs me that the workers are contractors, not city (read: payrolled)
employees, so the bike (don't forget the rack) could be just about anywhere.
Thanks. They
give me a number to the Mayor's office which of course does not pick
up because it's Friday night at 7:00 and everyone has gone home in their
cars.
Have I
mentioned it's raining?
Luckily, I spot Frank's Place just across the street, as they've been relocated as well because of the removed sidewalk, but it appears they have all of their belongings with them. Frank's Place is a sidewalk vendor that sells Martin Luther King and Malcolm X t-shirts, and inexpensive sunglasses and backpacks, and in the winter, scarves and gloves. I know them on site and they me because I'm always locking up my bike right next to them and always say or mumble a hello. Of course, they saw everything. The contractors tore up the concrete, loosening the bike rack which they placed with bike attached up against a tree. When it started raining, they took all their equipment and placed it into their truck, calling it a day because it was close enough to quitting time and they'd had a long week. They also lifted my bike, with rack still attached, into the truck and drove off. Bye, bike.
I'm going to wait for them on Monday morning, with video camera in hand, but if a stranger takes your possession on a Friday night and gives it back to you on Monday morning, isn't that still stealing?
06/07/2006 :: 1st post
i'm testing too
I'm testes too.
okay, let's clear this out
Yes, clear it out by all means.