April 2004 Archives

Martin got me a couple of posters for my office for my birthday. It's actually a really nice gift since before then all I had to look at was bare white walls or the occasional scribblings on the whiteboard (conveniently located 180 degrees behind me). One of them is a nice little seascape of Tahiti and I figured it would be nice to look at so I placed it right next to my monitor, low to the surface of the desk (you can see it in the picture). Only problem is that I see it all the time now. ALL THE TIME.

I'm sitting here and any time I'm working on something that isn't completly riveting I glance over and see a little sailboat bobbing in the water in a secluded cove on some tropical island. It's not real helpful for making me want to stay at work, I think the poster is going to have to move :)

But adventures await. I'm a little over a grand poorer now but well outfitted (mostly) for my impending climb in Equador. And I mean really, every needs their own ice axe, right?

The problem with travelling is Fanta. Everyone seems to like Fanta abroad so you drink it (or it's far superious cousin Orangina). You grow to like Fanta. Then you come home.

Home you can still get Fanta but it's not quite the same. Still you drink it because you're hooked on the damn stuff. Happily consuming Fanta - you're officially a freak. Then you go to work.

Work has orange soda - Slice specifically - you grab a can and you know it's Slice but your brain sends a signal to your tongue saying "expect some Fanta flavor real soon now" and you drink it and it tastes like burning. vile, acidic, artificial in all the wrong ways. Fanta has completely ruined Slice for you.

Beware of Fanta.

If pictures are worth a thousands words than this is by far my longest post ever :) Click for larger versions.

My weekend.

Attended Martin's birthday party after waking up at 4:30am - I finally went to sleep around 2:00am. at least it helped kick the jetlag. Someone counted, peak attendance was 78 people. Happy birthday bro!

Martin gets a gift	Ed says hello
General party	The kitchen
The hottub opens	The girls taunt me
Everyone loves the hottub!	Except martin :)
I'm on fire	Bill says hello
Ed controls the camera...	while martin drinks.
Martin gets his mac on.	and again.
and again!	he just keeps going.
The party gets strange	but even stranger later
The aftermath. we all left martin to clean it up :)

I also got to go paintballing! My first time out, mercifully the welts and bruises were confined to my arms. I was shot dead in the face about 50% of the time. Paintball paint does not taste good - even after being filtered through the airslits in your mask.

Bill joins us after a long night.	Miles in camo.
Me wearily eating pizza	Karstin shows off his battle scars
So is yellow a good color on me?	Justyn happily consumes a powerbar.

And now I'm pleasently tired and cleaned. Unforunately I missed some calls I'd rather not have - and there's the whole work tomorrow thing - such is life.

I met with Tony, Matt and Patrick for dinner last night while waiting for my film to be developed - we had Ram burgers, mmm. Tony asked me about my trip and when I mentioned the lucky positioning on the dias during the Easter celebrations he said, "man, if you'd had a flask of water on you it would now be considered holy water - they sometimes search people not for weapons but for flasks when they visit the pope.".

I said that I did have my bottle of mineral water with me.

"Wow, do you still have it?"

"Nope, drank it, didn't realize".

To which Matt immediately chimes in with, "Well at least now we know you're not a vampire".

Good old Matt. Patrick just groaned. Ahh my friends.

I got to use my german this morning (or yesterday evening depending on your time zone). I had to schedule a taxi for the horrid hour of 5:00am and after frantic morning packing rushed out to find my italian cab driver struggling to talk to genial old woman. He called out to me to ask if I was his fare and asked if I might help with the woman. She looks upset and says, "bitte, sprechts du Deutch?". I finally got to use my underdeveloped language skills! So she spoke in hastey german which I translated to simple english and italian for the cab driver, after a little confusion we got things sorted and were off to the airport. Problem was - not really a problem I suppose - that this woman had been in italy for two weeks and hadn't really been able to speak to anyone so my continuing caveat that I only spoke a little german was lost on her. She started off telling me about all of her children (understood most of that) then about the town she was from (got that) then about something called S.K.A.T which I initially thought was the local mafia but turns out to be a play (I don't even want to guess what about). She then went off into something about the 30 years war and I was left to just nod along politely. Still a pretty cool afair.

British Airways was as always very accomodating - they gave me a seat exactly where I wanted even though my travel agent hadn't been able to book it months ago. Both flights were fairly nice though the second one had me sitting next to an infant. That was the quietest, most well behaved child I've ever seen on a plane! didn't even cry when the pressure rose as we descended. The 5 hours in london was fairly uneventful save for a woman constantly peppering people with questions about their airport shopping experience and the revelation that brittons are pretty well screwed over pricewise when it comes to, well, anything. Example, my digital camera was 100 "currency units" more there than here and their currency is valued at nearly twice ours. I like my camera and all, but it isn't worth $900.

Got home, found out my credit card had been shut off so had to pay for parking with cash (thankfully had some on hand) and came home to fine not a bit of interesting mail. Oh well.

The trip itself was fantastic. I got to see my favorite places again, got to see Chrissy again, got to see the pope, slept in what could generously be called a large tupperware container, and discovered my new favorite gellato flavor combination. Now I just need to find the cable for my digital camera so I can see how the pictures turned out.

Now what day is it again?

Saturday was fraught with misadventure. the "dead people" I referred to before was the catacombs to the south east of rome. Slept in a little bit, missed the early train, then missed the early bus, then finally got off two stops too late for the catacombs. We got out, hiked the mile up the hill - it was actually quite a nice view and hike - to find that the catacombs had closed about 20 minutes ago. I wasn't exactly looking forward to more piles of bones so I wasn't too upset (though I did learn later they're more like the coffins from indian jones than just heaps of bones). A hike and a bus ride down later and we made our way to St Paulos.

St Paulos was an interesting cathedral - dedicated to very early popes - and it had a nice courtyard where I laid out on a marble slab and proceeded to sunburn my forehead pretty well. We moved on to see Circus Maximus - which is just a rough oval of grass now - and made our way to a semi-residential district south of the vatican - called Challaes or something. It had excellent gellato (mmm, pineapple) and a nice little restaurant for dinner. I had pasta with peas and bacon (odd but good) and Chrissy had soup and Octopus-kababs - I liked the kraken theme. Some quick souvineer looking and we headed back to our plastic box, sorry bungalow, to make sure to to get to St Peters early enough for easter.

We didn't. Easter started at 10:30 and we got there with about 10 minutes to spare. All of the areas for ticket holders were packed full and the surrounding mass was fairly dense. In vain hope we stood by a roped off enterence with a very nice swiss guard. about 10 minutes into things an actual guard comes up, whispers something, and they wave us in. It appears they've found extra room by placing chairs up on the stage with the Pope. So we arrive late and end up getting some of the best seats in the house - I was instantly reminded of martin. The service was nice enough but the most enjoyable part for me was the Papal blessing at the end. The pope basically blesses every nation in their native language which is pretty cool, but every time a country was mentioned the people in the croud from the country would stand up and cheer wildly. Including the priests. Nothing is quite so odd as to see a block of 20 or so priests in full frocks jumping around wildly behind in the choral section whenever the pope mentions croatia. I had a good time.

The day after easter was a bit less exciting. Everything was closed. I mean everything. Even some of the normal street vendors hauking knock-off gucci bags were gone. We had intended to see the sistene but it was closed, I did get to see St. Peter's a little better and Chrissy played an excellent tour guide. We wandered around and managed to find a souvineer or two and some gellato - it is a daily requirement - the made our way back to watch some strange french game show that involved lots of people dressing up in drag. I didn't understand a word but was assured it was funny.

Today saw Chrissy packed and off to barcelona and me finally able to find a working net connection. Most were closed for the last three days and the bungalow's cafe closes for lunch from 11am to 6pm (long lunch). I'm going to go order another pizza and pack myself, I've got a 5:00am taxi to the airport tomorrow so I can hurry up and spend 4 hours in london.

Speaking of which, I need to plan a trip to london, I'd really like to go and I know for certain NOW I have enough frequent flier miles to get anywhere on earth :)

Well the first two days have been interesting and eventful if not entirely what I envisioned. The trip got off to a good start when checking in in seattle my bag fell off of the counter and cracked the screen on my digital camera. I think it may be covered by insurance but not sure. Instead I've been pointing the camera in the vague direction of things I want to take pictures of and hoping that it sort of comes out. Moving along to london, there was the extended ride on the bus next to an old woman who smelled strongly of boiled cabbage. It wasn't so bad at that except that she would shreek in astonishment anytime the bus made a slight lurch or turn (which happens a lot when speeding across the tarmac). Once I finally got to Rome, Chrissy met me at the airport, we changed some money at a horrible exchange rate, and booked passage on the taxi of doom. An hour and 80 euros later we arrived at the bungalow (a prefab shack that's actually a lot nicer than most of the places I've stayed recently).

There was also the ATM located conveniently across two freeways (no cross walks) as well the grocery store that sells 7 types of squid in a can but only one jar of peanut butter and the tiny little TV in our hut with 4 channels of german TV (that all show the same thing). The best entertainment though has come from my phone of all places.

About 4 am this morning my phone rings, I answer, and someone hangs up. It rings again, I answer and it's a woman laughing. She asks if Erin Lowe is there. No, I say. She asks if I'm sure (yes) and her buddy in the background shouts to ask if I want to buy some porn. Would I like to buy some porn she asks? Um, not really I groggily reply. The man in the background shouts that masturbation isn't as fun without it, they all laugh and I hang up on them. very strange. Still, if anyone wants to prank call them I have the number in my cell phone history - call 206-363-2622 and say hi for me :)

As to "Roman" things I've done; I've seen the coloseum again, had mass with the Pope, climbed the spanish steps, ate pineapple gellato (which is fantastic) and managed to bruise my shoulder and ribs again somehow.

Tomorrow I'm off to see "Dead people" and continue my hopeless quest to find my brand of film.

I leave for Rome in about 11 hours. This will be an interesting trip - for many reasons - not the least of which is that this is the first time I'll have ever been anywhere twice (excluding ski trips). It won't be like I'll know the city like the back of my hand (since I was only there for two days the last time), but I'll have seen most of the major sites already so it'll give me a chance to visit just my favorites or see some of the lesser known areas. It's a little odd actually, it's altered how I've lead up to this vacation. Usually I spend most of my time wondering what I'll get to see, how I'll fit in any recomendations people have given me, imagining what things I've seen in pictures will be like in real life - things like that. This time, none of that (except St. Marks? Peters? cathedral - missed that the last time and get to see it this time). Not bad, just odd.

Anyway, 7 days, I'm staying in a bungalow, and joy of joys it's supposed to rain about 80% of the time I'm there. At least this time I remembered to pack my jacket :)

I wanted to know if I could bring one of those little travel sewing kits in my carry on luggage and not have the people at the security checkpoint freak out - those needles are like 2 inches long and kinda pointy, they're deadly! So I did some searching and found the official list of prohibited and permitted items (pdf). I'm not sure if it's up to date since it says you can bring knitting needles and nail clippers onboard but they were still confiscating that stuff when I flew in february.

Anyway, I'm reading through the document and they seem to have ordered things from sane to insane in descending insanity.

Corkscrews: Yes
Toy Transformer Robots: Yes
Box Cutters: No
Ice Picks: No
Meat Cleavers, Swords: No
Spear guns: No
Axes and Hatchets: No
Cattle Prods: No (but it's my fancy cattle prod!)
Billy Clubs, black jacks, brass knuckles: No
Nunchakus, throwing stars: No
Plastic Explosives: No
Nitroglicerine in pill form: Yes, but only if accompanied by a note from your doctor.