9-25-08

Amsterdam
Tasty lunch on the plane (served a hot roll for gosh sakes) +1
Bumped up to Business Class +3
Trip to Haarlem from airport (1 stop from Airport) +1
Internet in hotel +1
Leisure stroll around Haarlem +4
Stempels Hotel (breakfast included) +4
View of the Grote Kerk from hotel window +3
Indonesian dinner +6
Band-aid burn –3
Printed Toilet Paper throughout the city – dolphins/clouds/dogs +2
Train from Haarlem to Amsterdam (two stops, first stop was to get to the airport) +1
Central Station +1
Candy (chocolate/gummy pigs) at Central Station +3
Rain during the day -2
No umbrella, did not buy one, we’re tough) +1
Rick Steve’s Guided Walk
Stock Exchange building (Benis) +1
Dam Square, main center of the city +3
Royal Palace +1
Creepy Wax Museum –1
Nieuve Kerk +1
Sinterklass (Santa Claus) (plaque) +1
National Monument (obelisk) +2
Kalverstraat – pedestrian street with shops +2
Too many American shops –3
Hidden Catholic Church – De Papegaai +2
Orphanage – old lockers and old water pumps +3
Bogijnhof – women in need living space, quiet, serene +5
Rokin - Queen Wilhelmina statue –1
Squi Square – said like cow square. +1
Flower Market – buy some bulbs and seeds +1
Red Herring vendor, but it was closed –2
Smartshop – want to buy drugs? – even
360 degree spins +3
Roman Columns -+1
Stone with “Don’t Piss in the Wind” engraved on it. +2
Large chess board +1
Vondelpark – entrance to a park. Steve was a little high. –1
Van Gogh Museum +5
Finding the entrance to the Van Gogh Museum –2
Weird Security Guy shouting “Obama” –2
Train from Amsterdam to Haarlem (2 stops remember this it’ll make sense down the road) +1
Dinner at Pasta Pasta - +2
Learning what that bowl of water with lemon was for, and by accident used it correctly +1
Had a Misty +3
Bubbles/Foam floating throughout the city at night +4
Grote Kerk Gothic Cathedral
Measurement of giant and a dwarf in the church +3
Cannonball in wall +1
Pendulum unable to find –1
Tombs as the floor of the cathedral +3
Three Little Ships –1
Dog Whipper Statue +1
Huge Organ +2
Clothing Market in Square – liked the idea, but really only fabric was sold there (there is a food market on a different day) +1
According to Kelly, cute guy selling fabric +1
Two stops from Haarlem to Amsterdam (really it’ll make sense why I’m doing this) +1
Jordan Walk
Cheery Cheese lady FREE SAMPLES +5
Skinniest House in Amsterdam +1
Rick Steve explains about Gabels – Bell (duh), Point, Neck, Cornise, Spout +2
DUH +1
Mail Boxes Nee (no) Ja (yes) saying how much junk mail you want +1
Public Urinals on the street +1
Bike ramp down stairs – no caring your bike down/up stairs (for the lazy) +1
Anne Frank’s House – the steep stairs is when it gets you +8
St Andrew’s Hoff – women of need. +3
Creepy woman taking picture of someone’s house at St. Andrew Hoff –2
Red Light District
Went the wrong way and got back to Central Station (train station) before we figured it out (30 minutes or so) –2
Rick Steve warned us of anyone asking “Do you speak English?” As soon as we heard it someone comes up to us and asks if we speak English and if he could have any money. Way to go Rick Steve! +1
Sex Shops – not that crazy –1
Chruch Oude Kerk – has bronzed boobs in the sidewalk +2
Red Light District (alley) – sort of creepy, very narrow, Kelly was the only lady (minus the workers). +1
Cheaper “workers” around the corner (possible race issues?) –4
1580 House – Houses right on the water +2
Locks – in the canals, opens and closes throughout the day to flush the water out of the canal +1
Oudezijds Achterburgual – Dirty Sex St.
There are more than one way to serve a banana by a naked woman.
Elephant statue holing itself +1
No large ejaculating penis –1 or maybe +1 I’m not quite sure.
One woman shaking her thing asking if I was interested, but she was not interested in who I really was –1
Train back from Amsterdam to Haarlem (two stops, the stop in-between is the stop to the airport, trust me I’m paying attention to this) +1
Vincent’s eethus – True Dutch food, which is meat and potatoes. Mashed potatoes with “vegetable”. +2
Gelato +2
Went to bed early for a 7am flight to Barcelona via London. Woke up 3:30 (hour earlier than planned) to catch the first train out. Trouble checking out of hotel (1st sign of trouble (rattle snake noise)). Ran to the train station and caught first train.
First stop, every single time we’ve taken this train the first stop is always the stop to the airport. We get off, don’t recognize anything, Man/Woman on train tells us to take a train back to Haarlem and take a bus, train door closes, train leaves.
No taxis, no buses, we are stranded for 40 minutes. Missed our flight, had to wait about three hours. –7
Three hours in Gathway Airport. Reminded me of a small mall. Bad lighting. –4
Nice attendant on the plane who kept telling us “Well done” after we did any little thing +2

Total = 88

9-23-08

A lot has happened while I’ve been gone. I was going to put up a long post about my trip to Tokyo, but my notes were ruined before I could type it up, and I have no idea how to spell anything I looked at. Just so you know Japan scored quite high, since it was my first time out of the U.S (minus Canada).
Just earlier this month I did go on a trip to a few other countries. Here’s another installment of The Points!

London
Day off for evening flight +2
Bus ride to train station -1
El Ride -1
Kelly's wound opening up -3
Flight to London good food +2
Flight to London slept 3 hours resulting in no jet lag +3
Figuring out the Tube fairly quickly +4 (the amount of stress I put on myself navigating around a foreign city is ridiculous!)
Staying in Camden Town +2
The Diner -1
London Walk 1000 Year Old in broken down style!
Big Ben/Houses of Parliament +4
Westminster Abbey +4
Sign for an underground bunker from WW II +5
Lunch/Dinner Shepard’s Pie -3
Churchill's Underground Bunker +8
Cranky American woman asking for directions, kept saying her husband always yells at her, saying how far away is something around the corner, saying the amount of time the kind ticket woman was saying it would take to walk there was too long, but not to worry because she's a fast walker, and why oh why did she have to be at a place to take a picture at 7:30 exactly. -4 but +6 because of the jokes she allowed me to make.
Bar in Camden Town +3
Bartender from Austin +1
Guy from London being creepy and sat down at our table and chatted with us and then gave us his card -2
Closer look at Westminster Abbey +2
Shakespeare Globe (actors, set) +5
The play itself Timon of Athens -1
Tower Bridge +1
Tower of London +3
Queens Jewelry +3
Hamburger -2
Rick Steve did sign the wall though at the Hamburger place +5
Canadian Bellboy went the extra mile +2
Ghost Walk -Walk around London’s West End and heard ghost stories. +3
No problem getting to the airport onward to Amsterdam +3
Total 53

I'll do more later on Amsterdam and Barcelona.

11-26-07

It’s been a while. I’m still alive.

Back on 11/9/07 I went to Columbus, OH. Now some of you remember from previous vacations that Ohio has not always treated me with great respect. I felt it was time to give it another try, and that I get to see my friend Scott which is always a good time.

The highlight of the weekend was that we were going to go see an Ohio St college football game. They were playing Illinois, and you may remember that is the college I attended. Scott went to Iowa St. and just really likes college football so off we went. He decided to join me in my orange and blue pride so that I wouldn’t be the only one beat up. I assumed my team would lose by 21 points. They were playing the number one team in the country and after watching many games the last few years Illinois didn’t surprise me all that much, but low and behold an upset started forming. The first couple of touchdowns Scott and I cheered knowing that it couldn’t keep up, but the I-L-L kept scoring. There was nothing quite like when 100,000+ people went silent when Illinois went up 2 touchdowns late in the game. Ohio St fans, they lose graciously. Mostly because they didn’t lose to Michigan.

I would also like to give props, because I have a few extra laying around and they were just collecting dust in my apartment, to the Ohio St. Marching Band. I know, it’s a marching band, but it was pretty impressive. They write Ohio St. out in cursive which is pretty neat that no one runs into each other, and when the lead tuba goes and dots the I of Ohio it was pretty neat to see.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving. For many years (we think 10 but we can’t remember) now my friends and I have been playing tackle football the day after Thanksgiving. I haven’t played the last couple of years because I was having so many problems with my shoulder falling out of its socket. This year I decided to man up. I don’t remember feeling so achy the next day but everything hurt. I’m glad we played. This may be the last year now that we’re getting up there in age. A few years ago we did decide, Tackle Till Thirty, and next year the majority of us, at least the originals will be at that threshold.

7-30-07

My mother is the best. Why you ask? She sewed some buttons on my shirts in the span of 15 min, in a process that would have taken me an hour and a half. I know how to do it. I’m just not good at it, case in point these buttons have fallen off about 3 times now.

Then I went and played castle with my niece. She kept making soup and telling me to take my feet of the chair.

7-27-07

While I was walking to lunch today I passed a retirement home, or at least I believe it’s a retirement home but it’s sometimes confusing. I’m not going to elaborate on that topic, but there is a little courtyard where everyone gathers sometimes during the day. Today there was an elderly woman, some where in her late 70s or 80s. That’s not strange, but what was strange was that she was playing basketball. It was cute. She would shuffle to a spot. Bounce the ball a couple of times and take a shot. From what I saw as I was walking she was 3 for 3. A force to be reckoned with.

6-8-07

Just a simple link...

CAT CAM

5-7-07

Another fabulous Trip Recap!

This year our baseball trip was cut short, or at least made shorter, because of the following reasons: 1. One of my friends is having a baby this summer so we had to bump the schedule to early in the season instead of later. 2. Weddings and other plans have taken a few weekends away this summer. 3. How else are we going to fit Minnesota Twins in a trip anyway?

So the trip –
Day 1 – Chicago Cubs day game, end the game get to the car drive to Milwaukee Brewers for their night game. Double header in two cities! POWERFUL!
Day 2 – Minnesota Twins.
Day 3 – Drive home.

So the points (it may be lower than the normal average because of a shorter trip)–
Spider-man 3 midnight matinee +4
Day off from work +1
Sleeping in b/c I had the day off and saw a midnight matinee +3
Walking to the Cubs game stopping at the Gingerman for a drink before the game +1
Windy and cold at the game –3
Zambrano sucking it up again –1
Ohman walking batters….again –1
D. Lee and A. Soraino on my fantasy team making me happy +2
Cup game getting a triple and a homerun +3
Cubs win +3
Being the designated driver to Milwaukee –1
Traffic getting into the parking lot at the Brewers game –3
Miller Stadium (I like the stadium) +5
Fans who seem to stand at for no reason during the game –1
Know the rules, get food or beer inbetween innings or half innings –1
$ dogs +4
Only eating hot dogs all day –1
Sausage Race, and rooting for the Polish +4
Brewers win –1
Buying beer at the hotel bar because you can’t buy beer after 9 or 10 or whatever. Dumb law –2
Standing in the hotel each holding 4 open beers b/c the bartender wouldn’t sell them to us unopened. +3
Poker in the hotel after the game +2
Not winning poker –1
Sleeping during the drive to Minneapolis +1
Walking the in rain to a closed bar –1
Me, messing up directions to get to a different bar –1
Nice little walk because we were going in the wrong direction +2
Liking the Dome more than I thought I would +3
Seeing Johan Santana pitch +2
Sitting nice good Boston fans +2
Sitting behind jerky Boston fans who thought it would be funny to wear sombreros to a baseball game –5
Dumb Boston fans who wouldn’t take off their sombreros when we offered to buy them a beer –4
Twins win –1
All home teams winning on the baseball trip +2
The Irish bar after the game +2
The whiskey shot that I don’t think we needed +1 and a –1
The Irish band playing at the bar +2
Waking up saying someone threw up in the sink and missed the toilet while “dropping the kids off at the pool” –2
Finding out they weren’t joking –3
Deciding that it was funny +2
Driving the first leg home when we were all a little achy from the night before. –1
Getting home in 6 hours +2
Whiffle ball once we got home +3

Total = 27

So there you go. Not a bad 3 day trip. Out.