New Year's Eve

Well, I am home from my vacation and as usual I had a great time but I'm glad to be home. Seven days of non-stop fun included skiing, hiking and visiting friends and family. I took about 100 photos plus several short movies, several of which I will upload in upcoming posts. It will be 2006 in 20 minutes and then I will sleep for an entire day.

Case Grande

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Beer at Loco Lizard Cantina

Me drinking a local beer at the Loco Lizard near Park City

Virgin River

Where I spent Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Eve

For the first time ever I will be spending Christmas away from home, mainly because my "home" no longer exists. I have spent every Christmas I can remember at my parents house, but that house was sold after my Dad passed away earlier this year. So this year I am traveling with my brother and his wife to visit relatives in Utah. We leave via car on Christmas Eve morning, spending the night in Mesquite (at a Casino) and then driving on to SLC Christmas morning. I am look forward to this vacation. I will be spending time with relatives, going skiing, seeing friends and visiting national parks. Many good photo opportunities await me too, so expect more blog posts during the next week.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Willow Exclusive

Just arrived unexpectedly in the mailbox - a gift from Diamond Select Toys.

Added 12/23/05:

Apparently, I am one of the first to receive this figure, judging by the buzz on the Buffy/Angel Figures forum. I plan on keeping this figure, not selling it on Ebay. Next year at Comic-Con in San Diego I will have to thank the staff at the DST booth, and yes, I will continue to buy their figures at their web store.

Go Chargers!

First the Chargers went into New England and stopped their home game winning streak. Now they have traveled to Indy and won BIG, ending the Colts hope for an undefeated season. You know what they say about streaks - they're made to be broken.

More Christmas Cheer

Christmas Cheer!

Catalan Cathedral

Pictured left is the inside of the Catalan Cathedral located in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. When I walked inside the Cathedral I was overcome with emotions. The architecture was breathtaking and at the same time the sound of the pipe organ made me think of my dad and how much he would have enjoyed hearing the music. Even though the organist was just practicing, the sound of a pipe organ is always very powerful. I have many memories of listening to pipe organ music with my dad so I always think of him when I hear a pipe organ.

As the music was playing, I walked around the Cathedral and was amazed by the detail of the small chapels, columns and even benches. (I recorded a short movie with sound that I will post when I can reduce the file size to less than 5 MB.) I would recommend this Cathedral as a must-see for anyone visiting Barcelona.

Nose Emergency

For the first time ever I had to call 911. I resisted, but when I felt like I was going to pass out I figured it was the best thing to do. After putting my new registration sticker on my car, I stood up and "bamm!", I slammed my nose and forehead into my bike rack. This took out a chunk of skin on my nose and a small cut on my forehead. Once I got the bleeding stopped, I rested, but then began to feel faint, dizzy, numb and my heart was racing fast - all signs of shock. So I called 911 and they sent out the usual crew of paramedics and firemen. They took my pulse and blood pressure and said I wasn't going to die, but I might need a skin graft and a tetanus shot. After they left I felt much better and luckily I didn't have to be taken to the hospital. I hope my nose heals without too much of a scar.

Sunday followup:

I went to the urgent care facility at my doctor's office today and after two hours I left with a tetanus shot. They said the paramedics were crazy because I don't need a skin graft - the cut will heal just fine. I think the paramedics were just looking for some business for the hospital.

Hotel 1898

While in Barcelona I stayed at Hotel 1898. I must say that this is the fanciest hotel I've ever been to (compared to Marriotts and Embassy Suites). The staff was very friendly, helpful and best of all they spoke English (except the bartender - more on that later). My room was a quiet, interior room with a courtyard view. At first I had a problem figuring out how to turn on the lights. There were no switches anywhere! Then I saw a place near the door for the room key. When I inserted the key, the lights came on. So I removed the key, and about 30 seconds later the lights turned off. So the key needs to be inserted while I'm in the room. The king sized bed took up most of the floor space, which is fine because most of my time in the room is spent sleeping. The bathroom was very elegant and had a nice large shower. There was a LCD TV (not HDTV) with various Spanish, German and English channels. I ended up mostly watching a German video music channel which tended to replay the same songs, most of which I hadn't seen before including the new Madonna and Green Day videos.

During the stay there were two small problems. One afternoon the power was out, and a bellboy had to open up the room, and one morning there was no hot water, making for a very cold shower! Apparently these things happen with a new hotel (it opened in October).

One evening I decided to have a drink at the bar before going out for dinner. I ordered an apple martini and the bartender didn't understand me. He finally figured out "apple" and proceeded to pour me a glass of apple liqueur on the rocks. I said "No, a martini!". They he realized I wanted Vodka, so he poured Vodka in my glass until I said "good". Then he did the same with a Martini mix and gave me a stirring straw. After mixing this concoction, it wasn't too far off, except it wasn't in the proper glass.

I would recommend this hotel to anyone staying in Barcelona. It is within walking distance of many sites, including the Gothic Quarter, shopping district, and even the Temple de la Sagrada Familia if you don't mind walking farther.

I Can't Figure this out!

If you know how they do it, let me know. The ball is always right!

Traveling to Europe

As you might have read, I just got back from my first European vacation. I was glad I was traveling with someone who had been to Europe before and knew what he was doing. I may have gotten lost had I traveled alone. The first leg of the trip, from home to Chicago, was easy enough. However, we almost had a disaster getting to our connecting flight. The monitor indicated that it was delayed, so we took our time eating dinner. On our way to the gate, we heard, "Last call for ... you have two minutes before the plane leaves." Holly cow! We ran as fast as we could, arriving just as the door was closing. The let us on, but I'm sure everyone was staring at us, thinking that we delayed the flight. After that run, I realize that I was way out of shape. Once we found our seats, which were the last three to be filled, we buckled in for our long cross-Atlantic flight.

We were seated in the center isle, with a bulkhead (the bathrooms) behind us, so our seats didn't recline, plus there was NO leg room for tall people like my brother and I. Anyways, after an hour into the flight, they served food. Having just eaten a large burrito, I wasn't ready to eat, but I never pass on a meal opportunity. Traveling on a foreign airline, Iberia, is like traveling on a domestic airline five years ago. They serve a hot meal with metal forks and knives. The food wasn't very good, second grade chicken, but I got a very small can of beer at no extra cost.

I tried several times to sleep, and just when I was about to doze off, the lights came back on and the airline attendants were out with the carts serving another meal. Was this breakfast? It was only 9PM Pacific time, but 6AM local time. So much for sleep - time to start the next day.

The was rising as we landed in Madrid, where we were in for a three hour layover. After disembarking the plane, we had to go through passport control. I showed the customs agent my passport, and he stamped it without even talking to me or looking at me. This was my first stamp ever, and he used a page in the middle of the book. After killing a few hours by trying to sleep on the airport chairs, it was time to fly to Barcelona. That flight only took one hour, but we had to take a bus from the gate to our plane, and that trip took about five minutes. Apparently, there are not enough gates for all the airplanes.

When we landed in Barcelona, we gathered our checked luggage and headed outside to find the forth member of our crew, Karen.
Never once was my carry-on baggage checked. I was nervous because I had prescription medicine, and I was afraid they might think the pills were some illegal drug. I even brought a copy of my prescription to prove they weren't. From the airport, we took a cab to our hotel and after checking in, the fun began.