73 No Time to Relax

It seems I'm getting busier and busier once I get out of work. I've been doing a real lot of work for our car club, with our cruise nights starting this Saturday night, and our big Street Festival & Auto Show coming on May 31.

I've been working also on jackets for the club members (embroidered), trophies and plaques for the cruise nights and car shows, and all kinds of other things.

Right now, I'm looking for some clip art of 3 or 4 cars together kind of like our club logo here except that the cars need to be a bit more defined.

Then, the picture has to be digitized for the embroidering machine (at a cost to us), then tested on a jacket to see how it'll look. No problem right! *chuckling*

Other than that, the Momma bird is still sitting on the eggs, awaiting the day when her babies peck through the thin, blue shell to see daylight for the first time.

If anything changes, I'll be sure to post it here.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but this Saturday, my wife, mom and I are heading to Rhode Island to my Godmother's 90th birthday party. It should be nice as I haven't seen her in years (or her sons or daughters). It'll be the first time I've been to the city where my dad was born and raised since I was a kid.

Lastly, I'm going to post something I got in my email:

What is a 'billion'?  Now here's a reality check!

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its releases.

A billion seconds ago it was 1959.

A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.

A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans.  It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division. 

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu , is presently asking the Congress for $250 BILLION to rebuild New Orleans .  Interesting number, what does it mean?

A. Well, if you are one of 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, child), you each get $516,528.

B. Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans , your home gets $1,329,787.

C. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012.  Washington , D.C ., HELLO!!! ... Are all your calculators broken??

That's it for today... have a wonderful Hump-Day!

72 You Can Tell it's Spring...

By the nest that a robin has made in a bush in front of our bow window in the front of our house!

 

(Click on the picture to 'embiggen')

The picture was taken through our bay window, so don't mind the reflections please!

The momma bird went to get some food as she'd been sitting there all day, and I got a snapshot of her "children to be".

 

There you can see the 3 beautiful blue eggs from this momma robin!

I'll try to keep you up to date on how they're doing as they hatch (I hope I can get pictures of the little ones in the nest!)

 

 

Let's see, what else is new....

Well, my son, was at work last Wednesday night with my wife's car (he works for a large supermarket chain while in college), and my wife's car was vandalized pretty good. The front passenger fender was pushed in pretty badly, and will need replacement. The police were called, and supposedly there were other vandalism's in the parking lot that night so he asked the manager to see the security videos (the whole parking lot has video cameras in them). For days, they kept saying the security people weren't in. Tonight, he finally got to talk to someone and they said that the tapes are automatically overwritten every 48 hours!!! I'm pretty ticked off. I have to call the supermarket manager tomorrow and see what he'll do, because he should be responsible at some point.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a picture of our tulips that came to bloom on Friday.

Here's a couple of links for you to enjoy today!

How long do you think this toy would last today? 

Or maybe this one? (recognise the kid?)

And this one is hilarious!

Have a great Monday all!

71 Europe Finale

Well, after our ride on the River Seine,
we searched for lunch. We went down a nice narrow street/alley and there were a bunch of great little bistro's like the one pictured here. (that's my wife in the foreground).

We walked and walked for quite some time, down all these great little streets like the one below, poking our heads in and marveling at the wonders that are Paris.

 

We rounded one corner, and found the incredible church in the next picture. It's Saint Helena's, where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.

We didn't have a lot of time to explore, but once again, just looking at the architecture took our breaths away.

We then decided to head back to Montmartre for lunch. Now, there's a few different ways to get there, one being driving up the back side to about 1/4 mile from the top and walk the rest of the way, the second is something akin to a tram shown in this link.

The best way however, is "the stairs to Montmartre". The stairs are also shown here in my absolute favorite photograph ever, by Brassai, called Les Escaliers de Montmartre (I have this poster in my office at work). We finally arrived at the top, and after getting my wife her first French Crepe ever (with chocolate inside),

we met another friend of mine from Germany named Klaus Young for some refreshment.

My wife was taking the picture. Again, that's Hubert, Jean-Philippe, Klaus and me. At some point, maybe on Monday, I'll explain how I met and became friends with Klaus. He also worked for the same company as the rest of us, but he was working in the Stuttgart office in Germany. I had met him there a year or two before.

I'll post a few pictures here of the area around the top of Montmartre, and explain below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top left right and bottom left are artists working magic on a piece of paper with pencils, colored pencils and other various artist instruments, and at bottom right is a view of the people walking around and browsing the shops and artists/artisans. By the way, if you wonder why none of my pictures show 100% of the picture, the artists frown upon full pictures of their work, so I respected their wishes.

After dinner, we had another drink with our friends, then went back to the hotel to pack to head back to the US. It was a whirlwind 12 day trip, and we made some incredible memories there.

Thanks to all who've shared, enjoyed and commented on this trip (in my blog).

Oh, one more link for you all:

So, you think a Hybrid will pay quickly for the difference in price over a gas engined car?

Enjoy your weekend all!

70 Europe Part X (more Paris)

I'm going to shorten this post a bit, as they've been pretty long in the past and maybe people don't get a chance to read them thoroughly.

We left off at Montmartre, where we had a fantastic dinner at Chez Eugene. The next morning, we met up with Hubert as Jean-Philippe had to work. Hubert took us to the Champs-Élysées,  for a nice walk down this incredibly long street (about 1.25 miles long) with sidewalks about 30 feet wide! The street is lined with many high-end stores as the rent here is astronomical! At one end of this beautiful street, is the Arc de Triomphe

That's my wife and I standing in front of the Arc. It's an amazing monument to everyone who's fought for France, especially during the Napoleonic Wars.

At the arc, just in front of it, is their Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with an eternal flame. People leave fresh flowers there every day.  An interesting note about the eternal flame here:

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy of the United States paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by French President de Gaulle. After the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, Mrs. Kennedy remembered the eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe and requested that an eternal flame be placed next to her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. President de Gaulle went to Washington to attend the state funeral, and he was able to witness Jacqueline Kennedy lighting the eternal flame that was inspired by her visit to France.

The workmanship on this monument is off the char as you can see from the next picture, taken from beneath looking straight up (I didn't resize it, so it's quite big).

Zoom in or view full size to get the idea of the incredible work that went into the Arc.

 

 

In the next picture, you get an idea of some of the other special parts of the Arc.

From here, we started walking down the Champs-Élysées, stopping every now and then to poke our heads in shops and restaurants. There are even car dealers with no lots, just a car showroom inside with large glass windows.

Now, in the next picture, see if you can tell what restaurant's menu we're looking at, and notice where Hubert's finger is pointing.

 

 

If you haven't guessed already, it's a McDonalds, and he's pointing at Beer, served at McDonalds in Paris! *laughing* I got a kick out of that for sure.

Oh, did I mention, just like when we went to Ireland, the French McDonalds has the old style apple pies, with the crispy crust!

Next, we took a ride on the river Seine, in a tourist boat that explained a lot along the way.

We're about to pass under a beautiful bridge, and the glass building in the background is the Centre Georges Pompidou, which is a library, an art museum, and much much more!

The river ride was beautiful, and we learned a lot about Paris on the way.

I'm going to stop at this point and will finish up on Friday or Monday.

Before I go, I haven't given out any fun links in a while, so I'm going to leave this one that I know at least one of you will like! *chuckling*

The Entertainment Weekly list of the 22 Goofiest Movie Monsters of all time!

Enjoy your Hump-Day all!

69 Europe Part IX, Paris

First, let me say welcome to the new readers here *S*.

Before I get to Paris, I just wanted to let you all know that my baby is out of storage and home!

This picture was taken Friday afternoon (I took Friday off as it was going to be over 80 F and I just had to take her out). My wife and I took a ride, and this picture is taken at Satan's Kingdom, which I had posted about last November 13 and 14 of 2007. The day was perfect, and we took about a 25 mile drive in the Northwest corner of Connecticut.

Just thinking about it Mark.. I could have used this for your "yellow" theme! *LOL*

On to Paris:

The next morning after going out to dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower.

The picture at right, was taken from the second level (I think there's 4) and it was so cloudy, that they weren't even letting people up to the top level. At the level we were at, there was a restaurant and gift shop though I wish the weather had cooperated more. Either way, it's a huge structure, and very impressive.

 

At left is a picture of the lovely Mrs. Dave under the Eiffel tower.

After leaving the tower, we traveled by bus throughout the city, finally being dropped off at an historical area, right near the photo below, which is one of the legs of The Louvre.

This building is absolutely gorgeous, and massive. My only regret was we never made it inside, as we had so much to do and so little time.

 

 

 

Of course, no trip to the Louvre is complete without seeing the glass pyramids (the ones mentioned in The DaVinci Code).

Not long after this, the sun was going down and we went back to the hotel for dinner and relaxing. Quite a few of us just walked around during the evening, popping in and out of little shops, just marveling at Paris at night.

 

The next morning we were on our own, and visited The Catacombs of Paris.

First, let me tell you that just finding the entrance was a task, though the concierge at the front desk of our hotel told us to take the tube, get off at a specific stop, and it was right there. Only thing was, we got off, looked around and couldn't find it. The building is very tiny, and the sign was so small you couldn't read it unless you were within about 50 feet of it. Once inside, I was wary of what we'd find, but we paid our fee and they told us to head down a spiral staircase.

Ok, this is one of those times in my life when I was completely taken aback. My wife and I began our downward spiral, me in front of her. Each step seemed to be carved out of stone and it just seemed like it kept going on forever. After 20 minutes of going down, I was beginning to wonder if I could make it back UP all these stairs! I'm telling you, I was really getting worried. After about 30 minutes, we reached the bottom, my fear still there.

Oh, don't think as soon as you get to the bottom of the "endless stairs to hell", no.. we had to walk what seemed like a half mile of twisty turny tunnels. Did I mention, that by this time, I was wondering if we should have waited for a tour guide? (there was actually 4 of us as a lady and her young son came with us). After about 3o more minutes, we saw the scene at right. (sorry for the blurry photos here)

Bones as far as the eye could see, both sides of the room.

To the left, is a small shrine to some of the people buried there. The bones are packed so tightly, it's hard to comprehend just how many people are down there.

Here's a link to a PDF file that has a map of the catecombs.
Once you see page 2, you'll see how far you have to walk to get from the entrance to the exit (Sortie).

It's estimated there are the bones of 6 million people down there.

After walking for a long, long time, we came to the exit and I was amazed that we only had to walk up about 20 steps to get out. The person at the exit told us that there was a very slight uphill to the whole thing, and we were actually at a lower elevation than the beginning.

That evening, my wife and I met up with my two friends from Paris on Montmartre, on the Northern part of Paris, up on a hill overlooking the city.

In the picture from left to right are my friends Hubert, Jean-Phillippe, me and my wife. We were eating outdoors at Chez Eugene's, my favorite restaurant in Paris (I've been there 3 times now). We had a fantastic dinner, and made plans to meet up the next day. Surrounding the outdoor square where we ate, were all kinds of portrait artists working. I have some pictures of them I'll post later after we visited again a few days later.

The last photo for today is of Sacre Coeur Basilica, which is on top of Montmartre. We had taken the tour before meeting up with our friends and it's just breathtaking.

I'm actually especially proud of this picture, as I  believe it's one of the finest pictures I've ever taken. The extremely funny thing is, about 5 seconds after I took this picture, they turned off the lights illuminating the outside!

Well, that's it for today.. I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

68 Europe Part VIII (Goodbye Switzerland, Hello France)

Please bear with me with a few more pictures and stories of Switzerland.

The morning after our adventure on Mt. Rigi, we strolled through Lucerne, such a beautiful city with a gorgeous farmers market right up against the lake, just about in front of our hotel.

As you can see, the vegetables were very fresh, and the people were very friendly. We strolled hand in hand through busy, mid-day streets looking at gorgeous buildings like the one below.

 

If you look closely, the people on the building are actually painted on. We did a double take on it ourselves, as it was so well done. It seems the Swiss love painting things on buildings that we never see here. Check this next picture out!

 

 

The next morning, we left for Paris.

Now, we were going to spend a couple of extra days in Paris, as I have some friends that live there that I know from my 2 other trips there on business. They had planned to take a couple of days off to spend with my wife and I.

Paris:

 

Now, the picture at left is a large one when expanded (1600X1200), but I did that so you could see the "Acadamie Nationale de Musique", or the National Academy of Music. I'm sorry about the poor lighting, but I took it from a moving bus, and that's the best I could do.

 

 

The photo at right, was after we settled into our hotel, and had a dinner with all the people on the tour we were on. That's my wife and I on the right (hey Mark, another "looking through" picture!).

On the way back to the hotel, we passed this thing below that was all lit up, and I just HAD to get a picture of it!

We all called it an early night after this, and started out again in the morning.

 

The next 2 pictures are of Notre Dame de Paris (Notre Dame in English), one of the most beautiful Gothic Catholic Cathedral's in the world. It was one of the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress.

One visit, and your mouth will drop in awe as mine did my first time there, and as my wife's did.

 

                                                  

At the picture on the right, you can see the flying buttresses. The next picture, is another large one, but I did it so you could see the detail in the work on the front of Notre Dame.

Walking through the cathedral, you get the most incredible sense of raw history. It's old.

Construction began on Notre Dame in 1163, and was completed 1345. Yes, it's that old.

Looking up from the outside of the cathedral, you can see the downspouts for the rainwater capture system, are gargoyles, and the water comes out the mouths!

I think that's going to be it for today.. and I'll continue on about Paris on Monday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, as I'll be taking tomorrow off as it'll be in the low 80's, and I plan on taking the Vette out! Till then....

67 Europe Part VII

Well, I'm on top of Mt. Rigi in Switzerland, and looking off and down, I see what you see in these 2 pictures:

                         

Of course at left, you can see we're WELL above the clouds, and the right picture, shows Lake Lucerne.

Of all the pictures I took, this one is the most interesting:

This picture, when clicked on, is fully 1600X1200, so that you could possibly read it. If you can't, the right side says:

"The national survey dating from 1903 (LV03) serves as the official base for all surveying work done in Switzerland. The method used for determining the points is called triangulation, whereby the horizontal and vertigle angles and later on the distances between neighboring points. The pyramide stands centrally over the actual survey marker (center of the stone) and serves as a reference for trigonometric positioning."

Speaking of the 'pyramide', here's a picture of it next to my wonderful wife:

I'm still, today, mesmerized at the incredible views. Just look behind my wife. Wow.

Ok, so remember... I'm so very afraid of heights. Right? The Cog-Wheeled train wasn't so bad! I could handle a ride back down.

Umm.. someone mentions we don't take the train down, we take a tram! I could feel my butt cheeks tighten just thinking of the heights (sorry for the poor visual!)

How bad can it be? We all got on, most people were genuinely excited about this way down. Oh, did I mention, we were seated directly in the very front of the tram, my white knuckles on the steel bar, nose just inches from the front window.

Well, looking at the picture at right, it looked relatively harmless... but

looks can be deceiving.....

 

 

I was ready to breathe into a paper bag at the sight at left. My wife (thank God) was constantly telling me not to worry (she was having a BALL!).

Yes, that's MY white knuckled hand on the bar as I take a picture with my other hand (it kept my mind off of certain death when the cable would break).

 

Just when I thought it was safe.. because I see the next tower, I try to look in front of it to see where the cable goes from there. I'm hoping a little shack right in front of it or something.. but then I see the car in front of us drop like straight down.

I'm hyperventilating now.

We get to the next tower, and see the picture below.

 

 

As we passed over the tower, my hear was beating so hard, I thought it would explode out of my chest. Keep in mind, I'm pointing my camera down. Straight down it seems.

After what seemed like hours (it was more like 15-20 minutes), we were stopped, and I was getting off, ready to kiss the ground (but not).

It was worth every bit of my anxiety to go up there, but I'm glad I didn't know before hand that I'd have to go down that way! *LOL*

Well, enough pictures for today.. Friday, I'll post my last post on Switzerland, then it's off to Paris.

Have a great Hump-Day all...!

66 Europe Part VI

Ok... where was I? Oh yeah, Switzerland!

But... before we get to Switzerland, home of cheese with holes in it, fine watches, neutrality, and cocoa...

This past Thursday, it got up to 70 out, and I was SO wanting to take my Vette out, but when I went and looked at the weather report, it was going to be an awful weekend, with rain all day Saturday and Sunday being cold and cloudy. So.. I decided to hold off putting insurance back on my baby till next week.
Saturday morning, I woke up, and look how horrible it was outside! I do admit, at least it was about 74 degrees out. Same thing Sunday. I could scream at the weatherman!

But I digress.. back to Europe.

The morning after arrival, we got some free time so we decided to do some walking. The town is absolutely gorgeous, with very tall buildings, and beautifully made cobblestone streets.

We roamed at least 5 or 6 blocks from the hotel before heading back to go on our trip up the mountain. It was at this time that we learned we would be going up Mt. Rigi, not the slightly higher Mt.Pilatus (which was ok with Mr. I'm afraid of heights anyways).

The picture at left was from a bus as we rounded a corner heading for the cog-wheeled train that would take us up this immense mountain. Our bus ended in a tiny town called Vitznau, at the base of Mt. Rigi. The ascent would take us 6000 feet up.
Here's a link to a a great site about Mt. Rigi.

 

 

At right, was a small town about halfway up the mountain. It was about 70 degrees at the bottom when we got on the train, which moves quite slowly I should add up the mountain. The view was breathtaking, and got better by the moment.

The next picture (below)  is what we saw looking out the window of the train. It seems like every time we rounded a corner, there was

more 'ooh's and 'aah's from the people on the train.

The Alps just seemed to go  on forever, and the contrast of the snow, and the brown/green down below.

Then, there's the crisp, clean air. Not a hint of smog, and it seems you can see for miles and miles.

 

Here I am, sitting at (what feels like the top of the world) the top of Mt. Rigi. It was a bit breezy up there as you could imagine, and pretty cold, but there's no words to describe the view.

While sitting there, we heard what sounded like a jet airplane, very close by. We looked, and a guide up there told us to look, and we saw 3 Swiss Jet Fighter planes fly by, BELOW US!

                          

The two pictures above are the view from the top, looking down as best I could, and of the Rigi Hotel, at the top.

Wow, there's so much more.. it'll have to wait till Wednesday (always leave them wanting more I guess!)

Until then.... have a great Monday!

65 Europe Part V

Yeah, I decided to take Friday off, and my brother and I are going out for the day to Cabela's (there's a new one near us).

This has been a good week for me, feeling better, actually sleeping well and relaxing better. Believe me, sleeping well at night is a BIG thing!

On to a continuation of our European Vacation:

After spending the night in Heidelberg, Germany, we boarded the bus to head through the southern, "Black Forest" area of Germany. It truly is a beautiful part of the country, full of water, trees and winding roads. The houses are like farm houses, and it's beginning to look a bit different from the North of Germany.
(Click on any picture to 'embiggen')

 

We stopped in a tiny little town, to shop for Cuckoo Clocks, and other incredible wooden pieces made specifically in Southern Germany.
The place was beautiful, and the moving wooden pieces at top left of that picture dance and chase each other all the while music is playing. I believe my wife and I bought some 'kirsch wine' at this place.

Turning around completely from where I was standing, was the building at right. Such beauty was to be found all over the Black Forest. Every house or building we saw, seemed to be bright, with lots of flowers around.

At this point, we had a bit of a drive south, heading into Switzerland. Everyone on the bus talked about the deals they had gotten and of course, we heard a few cuckoo clocks being tested in the back. *chuckling*

As soon as we rounded one corner, it seems like everyone in the bus saw them at once. The Swiss Alps. Pictures do NOT do them justice. They're just breathtaking. The lake below, is Lake Lucerne, and we would be staying right against the lake, in the City of Lucerne. Every corner we rounded, seemed to give us a new view of these snow-peaked wonders. The lake, full of sailboats in the mid-afternoon sun. It was perfect.

As we wound our way down towards town, we got a better view of the Alps, and I couldn't help but think of the next day, we were going to take a trip up one of these incredible mountains on a cog-wheeled train. I was beginning to wish I had a much better camera, because there's no way I could capture the beauty of what I saw.

Once we reached the bottom, we checked into our hotel. We were the luckiest couple as we got a room in the top of the hotel, looking out at the Alps.

At left, you see the view out of our hotel!

One thing of note, the tallest peak you see just to the left of center, is Mt. Rigi, which we will climb the next day.

And of course, the next 2 pictures are looking straight out, and then in the opposite direction from our room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you imagine this view! We were in heaven. It was hard to tear us away from the window! *LOL*

(PS, in the last picture at right, the tallest mountain peak there is Mt. Pilatus. We were supposed to go up there on a train originally, but it snowed heavily the night before up there, so we went to Mt. Rigi instead)

Well, I've used a lot of pictures here, so I'll continue on this journey next week. Enjoy, and feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

Enjoy your weekend!