Jeff & Kevin

One of the perks of my job is that is occasionally involves travel.  I guess I’m lucky because so many Americans don’t get to visit other countries, and I appreciate that.  And although I would not call myself an exotic tourist, I have been able to visit several countries and meet people from all over the world.  One of the things Jeff and I hope to be able to do in retirement (if that ever comes) is to continue travelling.  As you read this post (if you can make it through the whole thing, don’t forget to have a look at my photographs.

In early February, I had an opportunity to visit the Asian continent for the first time.  While I never really had thought of it as being Asia, technically it is.  My skills in geography aren’t stellar by any means, and so when the trip came up, I had to do some research.  I have to say I was a bit excited about this new destination.

I traveled from Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Istanbul to Antalya, where I had a week of meetings.  The flight connections were good, but it was still a long “day” of travel.  I left the house at noon on Saturday and arrived at the hotel in Antalya at about 6:30pm the next day.  But I did arrive safely and we had planned an extra day for time zone adjustment.  The weather was quite nice, especially compared to the Minnesota winter I had left.  My coworkers and I took advantage of that to tour the Old Town part of the city.  The photos I’ve posted of the harbor with the brilliant blue water are from Antalya.

Our hosts treated us very well during the week of meetings and I must say it was a pleasure to meet some very nice people again.  It was interesting, though, when on our own, how I was often mistaken for German.  Sure, I know I’ve got a significant bit of German heritage, but I also learned that Turkey is a popular destination for German tourists.  Clearly not appearing to be native, it was logical to assume I might be German.

After the week concluded, I was to head to meetings in….you said it…Germany for the next week.  but I couldn’t let a visit to Turkey go by without seeing Istanbul.  Certainly I had been through the airport on the way down, but I wanted to see the city.  So, I flew from Antalya to Istanbul on Friday night.  After a cab ride, flight, and 50km shuttle ride, I found myself in Taksim Square, the center of activity.

Although it was a bit chilly (there was snow on the ground in shady spots) when I arrived, I awoke on Saturday to a gorgeous, sunny day, perfect for striking out on foot.  I bought a 5 lira tourist map and planned my day over breakfast.  By 10:30 I was striking out, camera in hand, to see what there was to see in the city.

I walked down Istiklal street, which is a pedestrian walking mall, lined with shops and restaurants and having a streetcar-like trolley to the Galata Tower.  I didn’t realize when I saw it on the map, but it was possible to go up in the tower.  From it’s exterior observation catwalk, I got some amazing views (and photos) of the very densely packed city.  I could see the famous Bosphorous separating the European and Asian sides of the hilly city.  Not only does Turkey the country sit on two continents, the city of Istanbul itself does!

From the Tower, I meandered further downhill to the Galata bridge crossing the Golden Horn.  The bridge was filled with pedestrians and fisherman, and later I would discover under the bridge there were many shops and restaurants.  I crossed the bridge to the Sultanahmet (or is that Sultan Ahmet) area of the city, where most of the touristy things could be found.  After walking through a pedestrian tunnel under the street, I found myself in front of the famous Spice Market (although I didn’t realize it at the time )

I continued to walk following the light rail tracks toward my intended destination, and instead stumbled first into Gulhane Park before finding myself in front of the Basilica Cistern.  This underground water “tank” was an amazing place to visit, and I spent quite a bit of time and took quite a few photos inside.

After emerging from the Cistern, I crossed the street to enter Hagia Sophia.  Along with the Cistern, this was probably the most amazing place I visited.  Please read the linked Wikipedia article for more details.  But I simply must say that the scale and grandeur of the place were awe-inspiring.  The amazing attention to detail present in every little piece, from the mosaics to the metal work, to the shear immensity of the structure itself.  Simply breathtaking!

I next ventured through a small park over to the Blue Mosque, which although quite large and beautiful itself, didn’t quite compare to Hagia Sophia.  Since it is still an active Mosque, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to linger or make myself too assertive inside.  I quickly and quietly made a few photographs and exited.

Next stop:  The Grand Bazaar.  Just a short walk from the Mosque, I found myself at one of the entrances of the Grand Bazaar.  Had I known what I was going to get myself into, I may have thought twice before entering!  I didn’t even realize until after the fact that I had only snapped one photo of the gate I entered and another of one of the main covered streets inside.  I then quickly became overwhelmed with the number of shops and stalls.  Although it’s pretty well organized, it’s still an intimidating place, and in my opinion, makes the Mall of America look like child’s play.

After wandering around for a while, I found myself lingering near a shop selling inlaid backgammon sets.  Now it was time to practice my negotiating skills!  I don’t think I did too badly, and I did find a board that I just had to have.  The only problem was that I didn’t have the cash in my pocket.  So the shopkeeper wrapped up the board and walked me to the nearest ATM.  Isn’t technology convenient?  Once settled up, I let him talk me into taking a look at one of his other shops…carpets.

He dropped me off and before I knew it, I was invited inside, behind the facade and asked if I wanted any tea.  I thought I made it clear right off that I would be happy to look, but had no plans to purchase.  But before I knew it, the hard sell was on.  I played ball a little bit, but tried not to be too leading.  I knew the one big no-no was to settle on a price and then walk away.  So when I agreed to look at a kilim made of silk for possible use of a table runner, it seemed as though the real bargaining began.  For me, the special price of $850 US, not the normal price of $1,350 US.  Sure it was beautiful, but I didn’t really want to buy anything, and certainly had not budgeted for that amount.  I wasn’t even sure what I had spent (in US Dollars) on the backgammon board!  So I said again that I wasn’t planning to make a purchase and I certainly hadn’t budgeted for that amount.  And here’s where I made my fatal mistake.

“Well what can you spend today?” he said.  I came out with a number that I thought to be much to low for that piece.  He hemmed and he hawed, and asked me to come up to around $500.  He offered some other possibilities, but I kept saying No.  He started to talk in stories about the “luck” of getting the first sale of the day and how it’s better to make the first sale to set the tone for the rest of the day.

By now, it was nearing about 4:00pm, and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  I’m feeling a little trapped on my own behind the closed doors of this shop, I don’t want to make a purchase and I’m running dangerously low on blood sugar.  It was time to stand up and start to leave.  And that’s when it happened…he actually came down on that $13,500 kilim to my absurdly low $300!  As I continued to walk to the door, I could see the anger on his face.  He couldn’t believe that I said no.  After all, I had told him I would spend $300.  And now that’s what he offered.  He was incredulous, and I was nauseous!  I walked out the door as quickly as I could and walked around the next corner I could find.  Fortunately, I found myself near a small restaurant, so I found a table and sat down for some late lunch.

I don’t now if it was the excitement of the experience, or my low blood sugar, but I was shaking.  I calmed down while I waited for my food and by the time it was finished, I felt much better.  But then it was time to leave the market.  I didn’t track myself that well on my way to the backgammon shop, but was then lead through the narrow streets to the ATM and then directly to the carpet shop, form where I fled also not paying attention.  Suffice it to say, I had a bit of trouble finding my way out of the market!

Fortunately, however, I emerged and although unsure at first, headed in the right direction to return to the light rail line for a ride back to the Spice Market.  Sometimes I’m very thankful that I have a reasonable set of skills and intuition for navigation!  While I was eating I had taken another look at my map, and that’s when I realized that I had already been near the Spice Bazaar.  So now it was easy to return.  I entered and headed for the first shop that looked like it had a good selection of quality spices, and that vacuum packed them to order.  I was helped by a very nice employee (not high pressure at all) and ended up with 5 grams of Iranian Saffron threads and 100grams each of ground cumin and coriander.

My to-do’s were complete!  I decided to cross the Galata bridge on foot, and then picked up the light rail line again, then the underground funicular back to Taksim Square.  I returned to my hotel about 6:30 pm after a long but wonderful day!  The only remaining challenge was to figure out how to pack the backgammon board in my luggage.  And THAT is a tale for another day.

Sunday morning I rose early to check out and catch the 7:30am shuttle back to the airport on the Asia side for my flight to Germany.  My meetings continued for another three days before I got to return home.

Here it is already the 13th day of the year 2010!  I suppose it’s a little late to make New Year’s resolutions, but as I looked at our blog and realized how long it’s been since I’ve written any post at all, well, I think I can sneak in a late-breaking one!

There are always so many things to do, and time seems to play Houdini regularly.  I always say that if I won the lottery and didn’t have to work another day, I’d be plenty busy with things I want to do.  So many interests and so many options.  Kick the voice-over business into gear.  Get some regular exercise.  Set up a house-cleaning routine and try to win the dust battle.  Get out my camera again.  Finish the trim on the hardwood floors.  Replace the doors.  Go flying.  Some people would be motivated by a long list of things to do.  I get overwhelmed!  I can’t help it.  I have just enough of an obsessive-compulsion to start 1,000,000 new things, but plenty of ADD to keep me from finishing any of it!

But there is one project I did both start and finish in the same weekend!  For quite some time now, I’ve been complaining about our laundry/utility tub.  It’s kind of gunky and the faucet was getting so corroded that for quite some time I’ve been unable to turn on the Hot water at all.  So just like with the year only one week prior, it was time for out with the old, in with the new!

I have to say it went relatively well.  I thank my parents, uncles, grandparents, etc. for raising me to be somewhat handy. (No…not handsy )  The vanity kit came complete with sink and plumbing parts from Lowes.  I only needed two compression shut-off valves and one drain pipe coupler and I was in business!  Sometime over a delightful beverage I can fill you in on the adventure of trying to get it home in my BMW, or the acrobatics involved in trying to cut a hot water pipe that was still somewhat pressurized (remember, I couldn’t open the faucet valve…), or of the battle between [sink] legs and [my] toes.  But for now I’ll just post the Before & After photos.

Forgot to take the photo before I started the project.  So here’s the old sink, legs and faucet inside:

And a closeup of the old faucet…yuck!

And finally, the new vanity and faucet:

…and another bit of progress on the floor trim!  Yes, I managed to get some more done on those pesky steps, and although not perfect, I think it looks quite a bit better.  You can see for yourself below.  Also included is a photo of the trim I put in along the sliding glass door.

New floor trim along the sliding glass door

Close up of the quarter-round trim lining the step edges

The steps all trimmed out

Today was equally as pleasant.  After a pancake breakfast  (yum) I had a nice time mowing the lawn (this weather rocks for that) before we joined our friends Mitzi and Marion for a nice dinner by Lake Calhoun at Tin Fish.  The special was halibut and my sandwich and waffle-cut fries were amazing!

Okay, so I’m on a roll.  And this isn’t necessarily “in chronological order”, but I thought I’d just make a short post here to let you know where our summer has gone.  The end of August is less than a week away and students and parents all around us are all preparing to return to school.  The big Get Together (Minnesota State Fair) is about to begin.  It’s hard to believe it isn’t June anymore!

As I think back, most of the summer seemed to revolve around our big summer vacation.  I spent the majority of May and June researching and planning for our R Family Vacations Alaska Cruise in July.  We had an amazing time on board, and would love to tell you all about it if you’re interested.  Just ask!  By the time we got home, though, it was near the end of July already!

Other summer highlights included seeing several shows at the Guthrie Theater.  We’ve been season ticket holders for several years now, and have seen some amazing shows.  In May/June alone we saw 4 shows, including 3 by Tony Kushner for the Kushner Celebration.  The facility and shows have been great, and in fact, this past weekend we saw Ella, the first show of the new season.  It was a pretty amazing concert/play chronicling the life and music of Ella Fitzgerald.  It’s still playing, and I’d highly recommend it.

Jeff did some running too, including the TC1-mile and the Minneapolis Half Marathon.  He’s now getting ready for the Twin Cities 10-mile race in early October.

Other than that, we’ve just been keeping busy around the house.  We hope you’ve had a great summer too and look forward to seeing or hearing from you soon!

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working on getting web sites and blogs updated for my business and I realized that I haven’t really been posting on the personal site.  Why is that?  Well, most probably because I’m a bit ADD and I tend to like to start 1,000 projects and am not really too good about sticking with or finishing any of them…

Case in point:  Our hardwood floors!  In October of 2005 (yes, nearly 4 years ago) we embarked on the task of some home improvements that involved removal of some horrific old carpet in the living and dining room areas of the house in favor of some solid oak hardwood flooring.  The following spring, we had another go of it and put the same hardwood in our bedroom and the upstairs hallway.  Finally, I don’t even remember when, we finished off the den.  But I use the term finished loosely!

Yes, the flooring is in, and for the most part seems to be doing fine (knock on wood).  And most of the baseboard trim has been put back up.  But… only some of the newly-required quarter-round has been mitered and nailed in place, and the transition from the kitchen/entry tile still hasn’t been done!

Excuses?  Well, several.  But mostly I was having difficulty envisioning how to properly get those last bits done.  And I know it’s trim, and sloppy trim is just as bad (or worse) than having no trim at all.  And there’s always a distraction!

This past weekend, however, the weather outside was gorgeous and was perfect for having windows open and tackling the project again.  I decided I could remove a pesky stair riser, get a new toy (er, ah, tool) to flush-cut the pesky subfloor, and replace it with a better fitting one and that would resolve my trim dilemma there.  Then, that same flush-cutting tool could be used to even up the ends of the boards by the sliding glass door so I could at last actually place the transition piece that has been sitting on the floor for years.

I went to the friendly neighborhood Home Depot where the friendly staff pointed me in the direction of a new oscillating tool from Dremel…the Multi-Max!  I was able to use the tool for a few flush-cutting jobs enabling me to solve both problems.

Did I finish?  Well, no, I ran out of both time and steam.  But I did make some good progress and I think I may actually finish this coming weekend.  You’ll have to stay tuned to find out! 

So this morning I’m listening to a pre-recorded bit of the Derek & Romaine (Sirius 109 / XM 98) show from last night when I hear probably the funniest statement I’ve heard all day.

I’m listening to a lengthy discussion about why a lesbian may or may not want to date another lesbian that has kids.  Romaine, Derek and several of the bitches (um, er, listeners) express their various points of view and the general consensus was that, while not always a problem, having kids around can make dating or having alone time a bit challenging.  While people in their teens and twenties probably can’t be bothered with their other half having to divide her attention between the relationship and the kids, it is something more of an adult should be willing to do.  But even while willing, there can still be challenges…after all…

…a car seat doesn’t fit so well on the back of a Harley!

For over three years now I’ve been listening to a show called Derek & Romaine on Sirius Satellite Radio’s OutQ channel.  The four-hour show airing from 5-9pm in the Central time zone (6-10pm on the East Coast, 3-7pm on the West) features content ranging from political opinion, to pop culture, to advice on sex and sex toys.  I have found myself addicted to hearing what  hosts Derek and Romaine, producer Sam, associate producer Greg and their guests have to say.  Their regular segments such as What’s Your Gay Problem?, Desperately F#@!@ng Angry! and The Dildo Whisperer are some of my favorites, almost always both entertaining and informational!  And thanks to my Stiletto portable radio, I can satisfy my addiction by listening live on my evening bus commute, then record the rest of the show so I can listen to it the next day.

I’ve mentioned the show before in this blog, and talk incessantly about it to everyone I know, but until last week, only Sirius subscribers could hear the show by tuning into Channel 109.   Now, however, a whole new group of people can enjoy the zany antics of Derek & Romaine, because OutQ is now also available on XM Radio Channel 98!

Now there’s no excuse!  Tune into Derek & Romaine on Sirius 109 and/or XM 98 today!  You may be shocked by what you hear at first, but soon you too will find yourself addicted!

Can’t believe the year is almost over - the last entry I posted was to recap the 1/2 marathon in June and now the Twin Cities 10-miler has come and gone. I did very well in the 10-mile this year despite the rainy weather, so I’m looking forward to the next race in the spring of ‘09 when I can do another 1/2 marathon. It helps to have the great trails in Elm Creek park so close to the house to do my training runs.

Thanskgiving was great as usual, now we’re ready for Christmas, and then my favorite time of year – snowboarding season!

Doesn’t it seem like you can go for weeks or even months with nothing specific to have to do, and then bam..you’ve got several places to be in at the same time.  So it was this weekend!  I didn’t really want to leave town anyway, because we were about to leave for a week and a half on a trip to San Francisco and I had preparations to make.  But it was the weekend of my nephew’s 13th birthday and also my 25-year class reunion…both in Wisconsin, but not in the same spot.  After talking to my Mom and uncle, who happened to run into a classmate of mine, I decided maybe I would try to go.  After all, this was the quarter-century reunion, and I hadn’t been to one since the 10-year.

I talked to Jeff about it.  It was nice of him to offer to go along, but I knew he’d be pretty miserable at the reunion, so we agreed I should just zip off on the trip alone.  I was able to take Friday afternoon off and drive from work around 1:00, putting me in Brookfield right around 6:30.  It turned out to be a pretty easy drive, thanks to my Sirius Satellite Radio and the Big 80’s channel   After all, it’s almost all interstate, and I was heading south on a Friday afternoon.

I arrived to find my nephews playing outside with friends that were over to celebrate Russell’s birthday.  They played for a while while I caught up with Ken and Ellen.  Later in the evening I made a trip to Best Buy in hopes of finding a present for Russell (procrastinate much???).  No luck there, but I did find a wireless router as a belated birthday present for Ken.  We got that set up so he now has wireless, and even managed to get the Nintendo Wii hooked up to the Internet.  Now maybe I can try playing online with them.  I brought my Wii-mote along, so Ken and I enjoyed playing games for a good chunk of the evening.  We had a fun time (and the vodka didn’t hurt either).

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This weekend our friend George once again hosted a gathering at his photography studio to coincide with the Target fireworks show that concludes the local Aquatennial festival.  We had a great time visiting with Mitzi, Barb, George, Bill and Julie, among others.  We had a little fun teasing Bill’s friend (just ask who’s cuter) and then of course, had a great view of the fireworks show.

Thanks once again George & Barb for including us in your festivities.  Someday soon we’ll have a gathering at our place and hope you can make it!

Thanks Stevie for taking the time to come and visit this weekend for my birthday.  It was great to see you and to just hang out for a while.  I can’t believe you’re headed back to France soon.  I know you’re looking forward to being home.  Please keep in touch!

The 1/2 marathon wet well despite the tough course — Lots of bridges to crosss back and forth over the Mississippi and a lot of steep hills. My finish time wasn’t too shabby, but next year will be better.

Otherwise, we FINALLY got around to staining the deck – I’m sure the neighbors are thrilled. It looks great – we’ll see how long a 5-yr deck stain lasts in MN.

As has become custom with my flying club (Club Cherokee), the Thurdsay nearest the longest day of the year was once again time for the annual Thursday Flyers trip to East Gull Lake airport.  Since I’m bumping up on accruing the maximum vacation I can bank and I haven’t been flying as much as I’d like, I decided to leave work a little early and participate in this year’s trip.  I have gone a couple of times in the past and really enjoyed it.

I took the whole afternoon off.  I wasn’t current to carry passengers and needed to get a couple of take-offs and landings in if I hoped to actually pilot on the trip.  So I got to the airport around 3:00 where I found a couple members already there.  Although it was a bit warm on the ground, I decided I should go ahead and take the plane out for a couple of times around the pattern.

They had already started some construction at the airport, and the winds were moving around enough that I got a little excitement during my practice.  I even got some additional excitement when suddenly the pattern got a little busy, tower changed the landing runways, and another aircraft entering the airport didn’t quite follow their directions.  But it’s always nice to know that I can handle improvising with the tower controllers when something like that happens.

Finally it was time to head back in.  By the time I got back to the hangar, all the other aircraft were out and much of the gang had arrived.  It turned out that the aircraft I was using wasn’t going on the trip…so I turned around and moved it to the back of the line.  After finding another plane and a partner, it was decided that I’d fly out, and he’d fly back.

We couldn’t have asked for a nicer night for flying.  The wind already seemed to be waning and the air was much smoother than it can be during the summer days.  The trip up went fairly quickly.  Although we were the first to taxi out, we were in the Warrior, so we weren’t the first to arrive! (However we weren’t the last!)  And although the approach can be tricky and it had been quite a while since I’d done a soft field landing, things went really smoothly. (And thank goodness, because everyone already there was watching!).

We shuttled over to Cragun’s for a nice dinner and chance to all visit with one another.  We had a new member along and it was great to meet him as well as catch up on some pilot stories from many of the other members.  Then it was time to head back to the strip and get ready to make the trip home.  This time it was my buddy’s turn to fly, so I got to look around.  We were off the ground well before sunset, but it seemed just after a front was passing through.  Off to one side we saw a great rainbow, and to the other, well…it’s views like this that make it all seem worthwhile:

No, I’m not referring to the 1990 movie featuring Molly Ringwald, but rather our very own cousin’s nuptials this past weekend!  Betsy and her husband Nathan already had had an intimate wedding earlier this year, but wanted to share the event with friends and family, so they had another one!  Jeff and I made the journey back home to attend the service as well as to visit with family and friends.

We each took Friday off to make a 4-day weekend, which we each really needed.  The weather on Friday was great and it allowed us to each get some things done around the house before heading out of town for the rest of the weekend.  Jeff got some running in, and I got some outside chores taken care of.  The pressure washer came in handy to rinse the dirt off of the front of the house, and I finally opened the Mr. Clean car-washing gadget I bought last year and never had used.  I used it to wash Jeff’s Jeep and I have to say I was really impressed with it!  The Jeep washed up quickly and dried with no water spots!

The drive on Saturday was fairly easy once we got outside of the metro area.  We took a quick stop for lunch along the way and ended up in Appleton late in the afternoon.  We had arranged to visit with our friends Mike & Jerry, who had offered to let us stay with them.  It was a great treat to catch up with them after a few years, and they were wonderful hosts.  They grilled a dinner and we made a Brazillian drink called a Caipirinha made with a rum-like liquor called cachaça that was quite yummy! We brought the Nintendo Wii along on the trip, and so we enjoyed playing Wii Sports and Mario Kart.

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The weather has been less than summer-like, but a fun wedding and an upcoming race are getting me in the mood. Last weekend we went to Betsy and Nathan’s wedding in WI and had a great time visiting with everyone

This coming weekend I’m running the downtown 1/2 marathon. It’s been tough getting ready during allergy season, but I think it’ll go well, but the ‘post run’ brunch will be the best part.

Here’s a few shots from the wedding–