Athens and London

What a whirlwind of a week. Four days in Greece and one day in London plus lots of flying time. I'm just now sorting though the photos I took and these four are some of the best. This is a photo of me in front of the Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens. We visited this site the first day because it was the closest to our hotel.

The next day we toured the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was also very near our hotel. This was the only day it almost rained, and once again, we got there early and beat the winter-time crowds.

On Thanksgiving, we took a hydrofoil to the island of Aegina. This is us in front of the Temple of Aphaea. This was the sunniest day of the trip, making for great photograph opportunities.

No trip to London is complete without a picture of Big Ben. Of all the people in the area, I'd say 90% were tourists and they were taking photos of everything, despite the extremely cold temperatures.

London in 8 hours

That is how much time I had to see all the sites in London. Big Ben, Parliament, British Museum, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Square and more. Now I'm home. Photos to come soon.

Island of Aegia

We took a hydofoil to the Greek island of Aegia and after spending time at a our second site, we waited 90 minutes for the next bus. Then we had our Thanksgiving dinner on the island and headed back to Athens. Time for one more Muesum then it is off to London tomorrow.

Day 3 in Athens

We visited the National Archaeological Museum today and saw more than enough pots, sculptures of human heads and artifacts to last a lifetime. Then we took the Metro down to the port city and looked into taking a ship to an island tomorrow. Then back to Athens to see a museum that wasn't there, so Internet Cafe it was.

More Walking in Athens

During our second day of non-stop walking around Athens we have seen almost all the top sites, all of which were included with our original ticket to the Acropolis. What a deal! We have also been making friends with local cats and dogs which roam the steets everwhere. It was very cold today but did not rain. Tomorrow should be a nicer day, but might also be a museum day.

Athens, Greece

We made it to Greece! Lost two days due to traveling, but we are making the most of today (Monday) by walking all around the local historical sites. Our hotel is within walking distance of almost everything, with the Acropolis just across the street. More walking tomorrow or we'll take the Metro, which got us from the airport to our hotel.

Traveling Fool

I don't know what a traveling fool is, but it sounded like a good title. I just got back from a work trip in the Keys, hence no photos or blog updates. Now I'm frantically getting ready for my trip to Greece. I have plenty of time to get ready this afternoon, after working only four hours this morning, but I won't be able to relax until all my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. The forecast for Athens is rain at the beginning of next week, but weather forecasts are usually wrong, and I expect mild, sunny temperatures. I will try to blog when I can, but I'll be taking lots of photos to post upon my return.

ASU @ UCLA

Another disappointing loss by the Bruins. This is my last game this year. I will not be at the Oregon games because I'll be flying home from Greece/London that day.

More Cornhole at the UCLA tailgate

It was a great day for BBQ, beer and Cornhole. We found out that the bags are filled with actual corn, as one exploded when it hit the board. Bad stitching, I guess. The final game was one by the Defeaters, who beat the Undefeatables!

9600 kbps

That is the download speed my Internet connection was clocked at recently by this site. 9600 kilobits per second, or 9.6 Megabits per second (Mbps). Time Warner just upped the speed at no extra cost to 10 Mbps. It wasn't that long ago they changed it from 4 Mbps to 6 Mbps. I feel this is to compete with the ever-expanding fiber optic connections being offered by competitors, such as AT&T. 10 Mbps = 1.2 Megabytes/second, if my math is correct. I remember in the dial-up AOL days, it took me 30 minutes to download a 1 MB video file. How times have changed. The upload speed, from the same site listed above, was measured at 960 kbps, which is faster than before, but still relatively slow. I plan to test the new upload speed with the arrival of the new "Keith Cam"! Yes, that is correct. I will soon buy a new camera and the Keith Cam will be back up and even better, with the ability to control the camera from any computer in the world that is connected to the Internet.

Zero

That is the number of trick-or-treaters that came to my home on Halloween for the second year in a row. I heard a few children outside, but none rang my doorbell. Well, my tradition is to take half the candy I bought to work, where it gets eaten very fast, and keep the rest at home for an after dinner dessert. In fact, at work, I only saw one person dressed-up whereas I usually see about a dozen. I attribute it to the fires and all the chaos of the past week. So, now it's time to regroup and get ready for Thanksgiving in Athens, Greece!

After The Fire Stone Brew

A small group of us got together at the Stone Brewery on Sunday to let off a little steam after a tough week of fires and evacuations. As you can see, were are all as happy as can be in the well-lit dinning room. We got our waitress to ask the cook if he could make the Macaroni and Cheese, as it was not on the Sunday brunch menu. She was successful and the food and beer were excellent.


Stone Smoked Porter is always a good choice. Two of these plus the Macaroni put me to sleep afterwards for a good two hour nap. I was up until midnight on Sunday.


I don't even remember this photo being taken! It had been a stressful week, and I'm still getting over a cold or some reaction to all the smoke in the air.

I did enjoy having house guests the past few days. It made the weekend more fun and I needed a break in my normal routine, also known as a "rut".

More Halloween Photos

Somehow I ended up in all sorts of photos. Pictured here is John McClane (Die Hard), Springsteen, an 80s Flashdance-like girl, Barbara (dead woman from BeetleJuice) and me.

Giving the perfect cheer, I was told. Now that was scarry!

Rockin' Homer

I don't know what look I was trying for here, but it isn't good.


A Homer and Marge showed up to the party and later when I saw the Homer mask laying around, I decided it would look better on me as a rockin' Homer with hair thanks to Dimoxinil.

Halloween Party 2007

Last night's Halloween party was adjusted for the fires and evacuations. No costume contest and costumes were optional. I was a "generic" 80s, big-hair rocker, NOT Howard Stern.

Fire Proof Container

Contents of fire proof container are fine. I don't know the brand - I'll get that information.

Shifting Though the Ashes

This is what is left of my friend's home in R.B. The fire destroyed everything. The house next door had no damage at all. They were able to recover some items, such as the contents of their fire-proof safe. So they do work. News crews were everywhere wanting interview everyone.

After two days of digging though the ruins of the house, Mark and Jayne are off to dinner to forget about the disaster.

A Strange Week it has Been

I thought life was returning to normal when I found out I could go back to work on Wednesday. However, shortly after lunch we were told that there were rolling blackouts in San Diego, and the Navy wanted to conserve power, so we were told to go home after turning off our computers. Well, I had to turn off 20 computers before going home due to several people being gone. I had time to go home and take a short nap, and get ready for my friend and his wife who are staying with me for a few days. His sister's house was destroyed by the fire and he came down to help out his family. Turns out the reverse 911 didn't work for everyone. His sister and nephew barely got out in time. They had to drive though falling embers and had no time to take anything. If it weren't for a phone call from a concerned friend, they would have not known about the early morning fire.

I'm Back at Home!

I got the news that they were allowing residents of my neighborhood back home, so I packed up and left my sister's house. I took the long route home so I could check on my brother's house, but I could only get with 1/4 mile. However, there was no evidence of homes near by being damaged by fire. Back on the freeway, there was still some brush smoldering, and I saw some the homes in the Westwood area, which was hardest hit by the fire, destroyed by the fire. Very sad, because I have friends that lost their home there. I'm hoping for normalcy tomorrow, as in returning to work.

Note: I did have a reverse 911 call on my answering machine. That is a first for me. It looks like the call came at 6:21PM, but the news stations were saying to evacuate before 2PM.

Evacuation Party

I wouldn't call it a party, but once we decided we'd be spending the night here, I asked my sister to get some beer at the store, along with the pizza and, yes, no bananas. However, I guess I was the most stressed, as I drank the most beer.