Adventures in Gastronomy

This cold has kicked in hardcore. I’m actually home sick…the first sick day I’ve taken in over 19 months (a record for me). I can’t seem to lick this cold (which started with minor scratchy throat while still in Mexico last Friday). I think it’s also giving me some strange dreams. Well, either that or the mix of Sudafed, Mucinex, Afrin, and alternating doses of ibuprofin and aspirin.

Anyway, in last night’s dream I befriended an RV dwelling redneck. Randy was unavailable so I agreed to go on a road trip with this guy. We were playing some sort of game that was a combination of cricket and mini-golf, except that the balls were actually some sort of rodent with a hard shell. The assumption was always that they didn’t feel pain as a result of the shell. Unfortunately, that wasn’t actually true and I was actually stuck playing with the rodent that decided to fight back.

Be warned: cricket ball rodents have sharp claws.

I’m not sure what happened next, but I was driving the RV down the road alone when my redneck travel companion was involved in a road side explosion. His charred body crashed into the windshield and splattered blood everywhere.

Hmmm – it seemed much more logical in my dream.

April 15th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

I’m home! We should have arrived back in Boston on Thursday. But as a result of the American Airlines fiasco we ended up not arriving until Sunday. In between, we just continued enjoying our trip.

And what a trip it was. Prior to the news that we were stranded, life was so relaxed. It sounds rather lazy, but we really did absolutely nothing of substance. There were no nature excursions, there were no cultural attractions visited. We woke up, we went to the pool. We had lunch, we went to the beach. We went back to the pool, we floated down the lazy river in inner tubes. We went in the pool. Then we’d do “something” for dinner; whether that was cook something in the kitchen, going into the Zona Romantica of Puerto Vallarta or taking a cab up to Bucerias.

Life was stress free…until Wednesday when we discovered we had no way of getting home. I suppose we took it in stride (there are worse places to be stranded). Plus, our friend who owns the time-share was already staying longer than us so we would still have a place to stay. After an hour or so of phone calls, Randy got us on a Delta flight to Los Angeles on Friday night (the earliest available flight….giving us nearly two more days to lounge by the pool), and a connecting red-eye flight on American back to Boston.

The unfortunate thing was that my original seat home was an exit row aisle seat (the most leg room available in couch). Our new flight had me in the back of the plane in a middle seat on a flight twice as long (since we were returning via Los Angeles instead of Dallas). Since I had friends in the Los Angeles area who offered to let us stay with them, Randy had our return flight changed to the following night so see if I could get better seats. Somehow, he managed to get me upgraded to first class with him! WOO HOO!

This definitely made up for the previous inconveniences. So, on Saturday, we drove around southern California where it was obscenely hot (in the low/mid 90’s). We played some games with my friends Jeff and Paul, then caught the red-eye to Boston – arriving yesterday at 6:30AM.

Oh, and I returned with a fierce cold. The symptoms technically started Friday (by the pool). But by last night I had a 100+ fever and couldn’t sleep. Yay me.

April 14th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

I suppose there are worse places to be stranded, but American Airlines has canceled our flights home so we’re “stuck” in Mexico for two more days.

At least the weather is flawless and I still have clean clothing left.

We have limited internet access so this will likely be my sole blog post from vacation (and I’m letting you down even more by including no photos).

But we’re having a great time and I’ll update you when we get home…hopefully Saturday!

April 10th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 3 Comments

I can’t believe that within 24 hours I’ll be on a plane heading to Puerto Vallarta. Well, technically, I’ll be heading to Chicago to switch flights to Puerto Vallarta…but you know what I mean.

My flight arrives tomorrow at 2:15PM. Randy doesn’t arrive until nearly 24 hours later. I’m on my own for about 8 hours until our friend arrives. I’ve already decided what I’m doing….sitting on the beach. Yep, I’ll grab a towel, sit under a thatched umbrella and listem to the waves (before popping on the iPod).

I even know where I’m going to get dinner: There’s this little pizza place down the street run by ex-pat Canadians. I recall they have a mean salami pizza. MMMMMMM

Last night I did a bit of research about other things to do in the area and something called a canopy tour has caught my interest. Basically, you go into the jungle, climb trees (or go to the top of mountains) and hang from a cable as you go from peak to peak. One such canopy tour goes 550 above the ground from one mountain to another. The cable is 1/4 mile long and you end up going 30+ miles per hour…just hanging there. COOL!

I brought up the idea to Randy who kind of cringed. He says he doesn’t want to do anything during the trip. He just wants to lay by the pool or beach, or float in an inner tube along the lazy river that runs around property. Of course, my goal is to do those things, too. But I’m also up for a little bit of adventure. We’ll see if I can sway him. Here’s a link to this particular tour (there are others…but this one is higher and longer! http://nuevovallartatours.com/river-cual…

*I grabbed the above photo from van_glass’s flickr.com account.

April 3rd, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 2 Comments

Many years ago I had some issues. Yeah, fine, I still have issues. But believe it or not they were much worse in years past. This is going to sound pretty far-fetched, but hear me out.

I used to think that bad things happened to those around me when good things happened to me. It wasn’t a superstitious thing. Deep down, I think I really knew that it wasn’t the case. But subconsciously, I know I felt that way.

For example, whenever I would plan a trip (or come back from a trip), I’d find out that a friend or family member was in the hospital. It was inevitable. I went to Chicago, my niece got sick. I went to Minneapolis, my sister-in-law got sick, I went to Washington, DC, my friend Regina died. I booked tickets to Paris, my niece died. I came back from Paris, my mom collapsed and was hospitalized for a week. Notice a pattern?

Back then, I was going to therapy and I brought it up with my therapist. His response was somewhat light-hearted, but to the point. Basically, that I need to get over myself for thinking I had such power.

Hell, if I had such abilities, imagine the good I could do in the world if I could harness those powers and focus that energy on ridding the world of evil people: Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il, you get the picture.

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of travel over the past few years and have been fortunate enough to have loads of good things come my way…and the prevalence of people falling ill around me has disappeared.

So, why am I blogging about this today? Because I’m off to Mexico in less than 48 hours and my mother notified me that my aunt is in the hospital. You may recall me blogging last week about my uncle going into the hospital. He was released on Thursday, but his wife (my aunt) went into the hospital within hours of him coming home.

Well, she’s still in the hospital and apparently has cancer…throughout her entire body. I’m still waiting for more details (did they just disover this now? has she had it for a long time but just kept it a secret?).

Ugh

April 2nd, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 1 Comment

It’s funny. Back in the day, my blog would get lots of comments. But over the past year or so, readership has dwindled (it probably doesn’t help that I’m not exactly reading other people’s blogs as much as I used to). Anyway, since I keep thinking I have no readers, I felt no guilt in skipping a day (or four) of blogging.

But I’m pleased to say that I’ve had three people email me to find out why I’ve not been blogging. WOO HOO! There are still readers our there (they apparently just refuse to comment on my blog).

It makes me think this blog entry should be fantastic; Filled with hilarious stories, riveting political commentary, and engrossing details.

Alas, there isn’t much to say (which brings me right back to assuming I have no readers anymore).

I’m pissed. Does that help? Does that make things more interesting? You see, the plane ticket to Europe I’ve been tracking (flying into London, out of Paris) jumped from $601 on Sunday to $1,100 on Monday. Hello? It’s the same flight yet it nearly doubled in price in a matter of hours?

Fugedaboutit.

Oh, and you know my uncle who was in the hospital last week? He was releaed on Thursday. But within hours of him getting home, his wife was admitted to the hospital (pneumonia). It never ends in my family. At least my sister-in-law seems to be doing well these days.

Gee, I guess I did have a few things to write about.

April 1st, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 9 Comments

Last night was our first night back to normal after what seems like a week of entertaining. My parents left yesterday while Randy and I were at work. So I got home last night to no dog, not parents. Just a quiet house screaming “enjoy me.”

And I really did just that. I bailed out of going to the gym (so did Randy). I played on the computer, I caught up on my stories on the DVR (Will & Grace, Big Brother, Match Game). I even sketched a bit (floor plan for a condo that Randy and I owned in a dream the other night).

Though, to be honest, my parents aren’t even a storm to deal with. They’re fairly low-key – just as happy to sit on the sofa watching TV as they would be going on. However, they only like certain TV shows (none that I like), they only eat certain things (no Italian, chinese, thai, spicey, pasta, rice, broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower).

To be honest, I think that makes it harder for me than for them. They’re perfectly content to eat around the food items they don’t like. The Martha Stewart in me just feels horrible that I can’t find a way to accomodate them. I’m that way with all houseguests, though. I want to woo them. I want to show them a good time. Yet more times than not, they’re perfectly happy just hanging out and catching up.

Long story short, I may houseguests more exhausting for me than it needs to be. I could learn a lot from Randy.

March 28th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 1 Comment

Last weekend my parents came up to visit for the first time in years. We celebrated Easter at Randy’s and my house and my parents returned home on Sunday afternoon. Three days later my parents (and Dusty) were back again. This time, they came up so I could take them to a local hospital to visit my uncle.

Apparently, my mother’s brother was found on the floor, disoriented, last week. He’s 83 years old (his wife is 84 and continued working full-time until just last year). Anyway, he was brought to a hospital by ambulance but they neglected to tell anybody (“why make you worry”). The whole episode was caused by low blood sugar, and he’s doing well and should be returning home today.

I have to say, there is an element of the elderly mindset that I envy. We were visiting with my uncle when a student nurse came in to check his vitals. She said she’d need him to move from a chair to the bed so she could take his blood pressure.

He refused. He told her to do everything she could while he sat in his chair. If he had to move, she’ll just have to skip it that part of vitals check. He was friendly, yet abrupt about it, even added “sweetie” or “doll” some other such comment that would be offensive coming from a younger person, but comes off as somewhat endearing from the elderly.

And as my mom asked questions about whether he checks his blood pressure regularly, or eats right, or does those regular blood tests for diabetes, he just dismissed it all as unnecessary (with a smile). It’s as if he doesn’t care. He’s lived this long, he’s not afraid of death. He just plans to keep on going on as he always as.

I admire that. He doesn’t live in fear of disease or accidents or death. He just lives.

Speaking of lives….I got bored and checked the U.S. Census data for my childhood village. According to the 1970 census (the year before I was born), there was just over 1,200 residents in my hometown. By 2000, there were 4,088. Fortunately, there still isn’t a need for a single stop light in the entire village. And not a single Starbucks.

March 27th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on Fiesty Old Men

Contrary to popular belief, whining can actually get you somewhere. After more-or-less searching independently for airfares to Europe for the past week or two, I kvetched in my blog about my bad luck. With hours of the post, I got text messages, emails, and phonecalls from friends…and even Randy found a possibly flight option.

I’m impressed. From now on, I’m going to ignor that old phrase “Quit your bitching!” Apparently, it helps!

Anyway, it seems there are options to fly from Boston to New York to London to Brussels…and then home direct from Paris. Yeah, it’s not ideal, but it’s nearly $600 cheaper than flying direct to Paris. That’s a start. And Randy has a friend in Brussels (or Bruxelles, as they call it) we can stay with. And I’ve got my friend, Mark, in Paris. So, pretty much the biggest (and only) expense beyond food will be the airfare (and the $40 train ride from Brussels to Paris).

We’ve not purchased any tickets yet. But it’s nice to know there are options. It might make sense to keep waiting until April since now I’ve had TWO people tell me that airlines are expected to drop prices.

In other news, my uncle is in a local hospital. My parents are coming up (again) this afternoon and I’ll be meeting them and taking them to the hospital to visit him. They’ll then stay at our place overnight since my parents are afraid of, well, everything (driving in Boston, driving in traffic, driving at night).

Oh, and our friend, Deano, came over last night for our fairly regular Tuesday night game night. Two games of Scrabble took place (with some chicken wings and salad in between). I did very well in the first game and in last place until the second to last round of the final game. Then I added “verSe” to dozeS” and got 47 points thanks to triple letter (V) and double word scoring. I won managed to win by only 5 points. Phew!

March 26th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: Comments Off on Whining Helps!

I’ve mentioned this before but I’ve seemed to have caught the travel bug. Ever since breaking up with Matt (in 2004), I’ve begun traveling fairly regularly. For the first year, it was mostly domestic (New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Provincetown, Philadelphia, Washington DC). Then I visited Paris in 2005. Since then, it seems I’ve been on the go every two or three months: Paris (a total of 3 times), London (a total of 2 times), Prague, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Puerto Vallarta, Buenos Aires, San Francisco, Mendocino, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Virginia.

And it always seems like I’m planning my next trip even before my current trip occurs. For example, we’re heading to Puerto Vallarta next week and over the past week or two I’ve been trying to plan a trip to Europe for later this spring. Unfortunately, after two weeks of research, I can’t seem to find a reasonable airfare to get us there.

To fly direct to Paris (which would be our homebase) is running around $1,200.00+. I also looked into flying into Frankfurt, Brussels, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Reykavik, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Berlin, Athens, Zurich, Split, Zagreb, Vienna, Budapest, and Bucharest. All similar fares.

I tried combination flights (such as flying into one city and flying home from Paris) and had little luck except for the same route we flew last year: into London, out of Paris. That fare is only $601.00, which is actually quite a steal. The problem is that getting from London to, well, any place else, is going to cost an additional $300 per person…minimum. Mostly, that’s because flights from the U.S. typically land at Heathrow. But the budget flights within europe all depart from Gatwick, Stansted, or worse, Luton. Connecting from one airport to the other costs $40 – $80, and depending on the airport and method of transport (train, bus, subway or a combination) and it takes a minimum of an hour and a half.

And for some reason, the budget airlines don’t seem to fly from London to Paris from any of the convenient airports (they seem to like faraway Luton Airport). And the flights from London to Paris are all 7 or more hours after what would be our arrival at Heathrow so we’d be stuck in travel limbo for a long while and waste a full day of vacation. The other option is Eurail (taking the Chunnel, as I did a few years ago), but one way fares were all coming to $221 (plus the expense/time of getting from Heathrow to St. Pancras/King’s Cross subway station.)

All in all, it’s just not working out. I hate admitting defeat. But I’ve researched every possible airline, route, and method of transportation aside from cruise ship or unicycle. I’m stumped. Randy read somewhere that because of the economy airlines are having trouble filling flights and will be reducing fares in April.

I can hope!

March 25th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: snarl . Comments: 1 Comment