Thursday, July 1, 2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Testing Out Posterous

Testing out Posterous because I think it may work out better for me
and get me to update my blogs more regularly. We'll see, though,
because I don't take the time to blog all that often.

Posted via email from Mumblings and Musings

Monday, February 8, 2010

Bucket List

Self explanatory. In no particular order.

  1. Do a full Ironman.
  2. Learn to swim so I can do the Ironman
  3. Run with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain
  4. Get an advanced degree
  5. Learn to do latte art
  6. Visit all 7 continents
  7. More to come...

Friday, January 22, 2010

Friday, June 19, 2009

Blog from Lufthansa flight 4250 6-17-09

It is now Wednesday, and I'm on my flight back to Paris. This morning, Dan and I went to a French restaurant for breakfast. Then he put me on a train to Domodedovo airport and I was on my way. At the airport, I stepped into a passport control line manned by a guy who didn't seem to know what he was doing. The other guy was going at apace three times faster, but, of course, I didn't realize this until it was too late. Cest la vie.

Now, on my connecting flight, there is a group of high school students from Cincinnati. Anyone could tell they were American by how loud they were. Also, they had a gait that clearly wasn't European.

I think I'm going to be spending the night in CDG airport because I don't want to pay 130€ for a hotel room. Hopefully, I can check-in to my flight really early and get rid of my backpack.

Blog from Moscow 6-15-09

I'm in Moscow with Dan now for the final stop in my trip. It's been a lot of fun seeing him and Ruth again. Moscow has a very distinctive look especially at night. The way they light up their buildings feels very...imperial...or something.

We went to Nizhniy Novgorod over the weekend where I saw their Kremlin and we walked around. I also met Natasha and Andre, some of Dan and Ruth's friends. We had dinner at their place and had a good time. The night went late, however, as things usually do.

Last night, back in Moscow, we met up with another one of Dan's friends named Alex who has a car. We went to the river to go on a boat ride around the center of Moscow. We were planning on going on the last one for the day. However, our plans were foiled when we found out that they didn't go out unless there were at least 10 people. They didn't tell us this at the ticket window. Apparently, they used to have a sign with that information, but management came by and told them to take it down. With a brilliant verbal thrashing by Alex, we somehow got our money back. He solidly berated the lady at the ticket counter telling her this was no way to welcome visitors to Russia. She proceeded to say that she did not have any money, which was, I guess, sort of true, but not missing a beat, Alex jumps in saying, "We are in Moscow, one of the largest cities in the world. How can you not have any money?" The whole situation was quite amusing.

Since we couldn't go on the boat ride, Alex took us to a park that he found last week, and we walked and talked for a while. Then we went into the center and saw some interesting sights. At the Kremlin, Alex pointed out a spot in the wall where it didn't quite line up. I took a picture of it the following day. The basilica was beautiful. I think it might be one of the architectural wonders of the world; I'm not sure, though.

Today, we just took it easy. We just walked around and hung out. After Dan's night class, however, Alex called again and invited us to dinner. It was a traditional Ukrainian restaurant where we had Kavas, borsch, and some sort of beef dish with mushrooms and potatoes. It was really good, but it was a lot of food as well.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Blog from Lufthansa Flight 3198 6-9-09

I just ate, probably, the best in-flight meal I've ever had. The choice was chicken or pasta so I was thinking chicken over a rice pilaf or a penne-type pasta with marinara or bolognese sauce; I chose the pasta. The pasta ended up being an Asian style noodle dish, and the chicken was over linguini with red sauce. Seeing that my pasta was actually noodles, I asked for the white wine to go with it. This ended up being a great choice. I am almost certain the white was a kabinet riesling. The nose had a nice green apple and orange/lemon zest aroma with the slightest hint of petrol. It was well balanced on the palate and had a fresh sweetness; the apple came through from the nose as well. This was the best in-flight wine I've ever had as well, and paired perfectly with the main course. Then there was a small vegetable side with green beans, peppers, tomatoes, and goat cheese which was good. A wedge of camembert and a piece of cake finished off the meal with a cup of coffee. Camembert is, of course, very tasty, and the cake had cherries and, I think, plums on top. The cake was good even for me who doesn't really like desserts. The coffee was delicious, too. I tasted like an African/South American blend to me.

Overall, this Lufthansa flight has been fantastic. The seats are comfortable, the food is good, and they even serve good beer (Warsteiner, of which I'm a fan) which can be expected of a German company ;-)

Also, I'll post something about Venice soon.