The trip I want to take

The wife and I have been kicking around the idea of dropping off the baby and the dogs with some poor unsuspecting soul and taking a short trip somewhere for maybe about two or three nights.  Nothing too expensive or extravagent but nice enough that we can just relax and enjoy ourselves.

That is what we will probably end up doing.  However, that’s not the trip I want to take.

Here’s the trip I would love to be able to take some day… preferably in the fall.  I’d fly to Maine, maybe Bangor since that is where a lot of Stephen King books took place, and rent a nice comfortable car.  Then head north to Quebec and see that just because.  Then head south down through Vermont and New Hampshire to get to Boston and have some Clam Chowder.  That would rock.

We’d head west then and in to Pennsylvania to see a true national landmark: Hershey!  Tour the facilities and ride the rides at the park.  Then drive through Pittsburgh just to mark it off the map on our way to Sandusky, OH to visit Cedar Point where more roller coasters and other various rides would be ridden till I was hoarse from screaming like a little girl.  We would head west again towards Chicago and stay with our friends there for a night.  Off again after breakfast we’d head north through Madison, WI and stop in at the Mall of America near Minneapolis.  I’ve been there but Michelle hasn’t.

We could then head southwest a little towards Sioux Falls and head to the Badlands via Hwy 90.  That place is very cool but I haven’t been there since I was little.  After a few pictures we would continue on 90 to Billings, Montana and then through the skinny part of Idaho and into Spokane, WA.  Since we are that close we would probably spend a night in Seattle and then stop in Olympia to see Yoshi and Meesh.  We could then take Hwy 5 south to Portland and visit Katie and then continue on to California  probably splitting off to 199 at Grants Pass to get to the coastal highway.

All the way to San Francisco to spend a night or two sightseeing and then back on the 101 to go through Los Angeles and then stop in San Diego.  For fun we could go an hour out of our way to cross the border into Tiajuana for a beer and trinkets and then find our way back across to Hwy 8 and take that to Tucson, AZ.  Off again and into Texas we would pass through El Paso and head southeast to San Antonio and then Houston on our way to New Orleans in Louisiana.

We would pass through Gulfport, Mississippi and Mobile, Alabama and travel the length of the Florida pan-handle to get to Jacksonville where we would steer that poor mistreated rental due north.  We could take Hwy 95 to Savannah, GA and then continue on… maybe go to Charleston… maybe not.  It looks kind of out of the way.  Probably just stay on 95 to Raleigh in North Carolina and then off to the coast again.  I’m thinking Virginia Beach.

Then based on the map it looks like there is a bridge that will take you on to this strange island or maybe it’s a peninsula called Delaware.  I’m not even sure that is part of the United States.  May need to have our passports there too.  Hehe.  Then up to Philadelphia as we re-enter Pennsylvania because the alternative is New Jersey and no one needs to see that.

If we had to return the car to Maine where we rented it then I suppose we would travel past New York City and maybe drive through Rhode Island because seriously… how long could that possibly take?  Perhaps stop in somwhere else for some clam chowder to wrap up the trip and back to the rental place and then to the airport.

I wonder how many miles that would be?

Back again

Just got back to St. Louis late last night after spending six days in New York City busting my ass working with two of my colleagues.  We clocked in over 80 hours to integrate in a newly aquired office.  I am beat.  The only reason I even came in to work today is because there was a meeting that I wanted (not required) to attend.

The only time I got to see anything in the city was when we left the office a little after 10 or 10:30pm on Saturday and walked to Times Square and ate at Planet Hollywood.  I used to think NYC looked crowded but after spending a few years in Hong Kong the busy streets of Times Square seemed barely crowded at all.  Not everyone shared my opinion, hehe.

I’m heading home in a few minutes.  I miss my family and I need a serious baby fix.

Friday Mussings

Yes, I did mean that.

Finally – its Friday!  Yesterday I thought it was Friday all day.  Imagine my disappointment when I was leaving for the day and people were saying “See you tomorrow!”  And I’m thinking to myself “pshaw… I’m not coming in on Saturd… dammit!”  And you’d think I’d know what day it was since it was a comic posting day.  Sheesh.

Me and two of my co-workers travelled into the deepest darkest depths of North Africa for lunch yesterday to get take-out from Crown Candy Kitchen.  I’d never been there before so I figured what the hell, why not?  Let me tell you… we couldn’t have looked more lost if we had a neon sign flashing above us with the word LOST written in 20 foot tall glowing letters.  Imagine this: Three white guys in button down shirts driving down the side streets of North St. Louis in a shiny silver BMW.  Me in the passenger sheet holding three pages of Google Maps trying to figure out which way to go when the route we are taking is inexplicably cut off by a street closure.  Yeah.

But we found it and made it inside without hearing a single gunshot (although to be fair there was a lot of road construction happening nearby so we might have missed it) and I have to admit its a pretty neat place.  A throw-back to the 50’s or 60’s in style, decor, seating… everything.  OK not everything.  The prices are insane.  It cost me almost $12 for a ham & cheese sandwich with some potato chips and a marshmallow malt.  What the hell?  Up here?  Who can afford that in this area?  Sadly, the candy prices were even higher.  Have they never heard of Wal-Mart?  It was good, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think I’ll be taking that particular safari again any time soon.

On the way back to the office my friend was showing off and punched the accelerator on the BMW.  We rocketed back and then he slowed down abruptly.  I asked him what that was for, thinking maybe he saw a cop.  He said we were doing 95 MPH and he didn’t want to take the Broadway exit ramp.  I called him a pussy.  There’s no other response possible at that point really.  If he’d have floored it and got another 20 or 30 MPH on it we could have taken that ramp, hit the apex, and flown right over the parking garage – through the side of our building and into his parking spot in the garage.  But no.  He slowed down and took another exit.  Pussy.

I brought my lunch today….

An update

A long holiday weekend.  Time to relax and sleep in and generally enjoy yourself.  Yeah right.

Thursday night, the power went out and didn’t come back on until almost the afternoon on Friday.  We went to bed with the window open and no breeze and sweated.  I barely slept and I’m sure Muse didn’t sleep well either.  I woke up the next morning and took a shower by flashlight and skipped breakfast because we couldn’t open the fridge.

Friday I was exhausted at work and luckily it was only moderately busy.  But then I get home and we have to get packed up and drive 100 miles down to the country to visit with Muse’s family.  Highway 55 was completely stopped in Barnhart for some unknown reason so we had to fight a parking lot of cars to get off the highway and take some backroads to get out of the mess.  Needless to say that 100 mile trip became much longer than normal.

Of course we had to go visit people who are up drinking (unlike us) instead of going to sleep.  We didn’t get to crash until around 1:30am Saturday.  I’m pretty sure I’d only been asleep for 15 minutes when Muse woke me up with hallucinations of a large spider crawling on me.  Which wouldn’t be completely out of the question considering no one had been in the house we were staying at for a while.  But no.  No spider.  OK back to bed.  Another restless night on an ancient and uncomfortable bed only gives us marginally more sleep than the night before.  At least there is some air-conditioning.

Saturday was spent visiting various family members who all live near each other but can’t really stand one another.   It wasn’t horrible, but it would be so much nicer if Muse’s family could just quit worrying about who is screwing over who for what and just get together so we could see them all at once.  I get so sick of telling and hearing the same stories five times because each visit is like another day of Groundhog Day forever doomed to repeat.

Of course being tired and sleep deprived, I really wanted to get out of the country and back to St. Louis while there was still some daylight.  And of course that didn’t happen.  At least we got some dinner out of the deal before we stayed even longer.  Dinner which didn’t sit well with me unfortunately.  But finally we got on the road and Muse layed back in the seat and proceeded to sleep the next hour of the trip home.  Good thing the new car has satellite radio to keep me entertained.  So we got back in around 11:30pm and had to take care of the dogs and probably didn’t get to bed till around 12:30am or so.  And then I set the alarm for 6:45am.

On Sunday morning we got up early and met our real estate agent to view a bunch of houses in the South County area.  No luck.  We finished up and headed home.  Muse took a nap and I joined her.  Unfortunately my lingering cough that I’ve had since I returned from Hong Kong cropped up and gave me coughing fits.  OK no nap for me.  The rest of Sunday was fairly uneventful and we started a big jigsaw puzzle with my Mom and Step-Dad for lack of anything better to do.  Besides, when was the last time I did one of those?  Who knows.

We stayed up late again and set the alarm for 6:30am.  More house viewings on Monday morning.  Needless to say, we were one of the only cars on the road at 7:45am on Labor Day.    We went on a marathon run of house viewings and only found one maybe and another possibly-maybe.  Muse took another nap in the afternoon and I helped finish up the jigsaw puzzle.

Party on dudes.  Party on.

They are alive

I’ve talked and chatted with Muse.  Her and all the animals are alive and well after their grueling trip halfway around the world.  It seems that no one messed their cages this time through which is very surprising.  Two of the three we sent to Hong Kong were disgusting messes when we received them.  Muse got lucky on that one.  So did the importer I suppose.

Muse is suffering from some jetlag as she chatted with me at what would have been 1:30am back in the States.  The dogs are crashed and the cats are off exploring the new environment.  If that’s the worst of it all then we couldn’t ask for more.

I imagine she will be updating her site pretty soon to tell everyone all about it.

Gone

I dropped Muse off with her luggage and waited for her at the bus stop to the airport. I put her bags on the bus when it arrived. I asked her for the fifth time if she had her passport and drivers license. I waited by the bus and watched as it pulled away.

Now I’m sitting here with the pets waiting for the exporter to arrive. They are late. Soon though, they will all be gone.

I’m very sad.

EDIT——

I’m back from taking the dogs and cats to the airport. I don’t know how Muse did it before. They were so scared and pitiful I actually was crying when they put their cages in the air-conditioned live animal room. There were two small white dogs in crates in the room already. They were excited to see people. Our animals looked and acted like they were being sentenced to their deaths. They were that pitiful.

Now I’m even more sad….

Less than a week

In less than a week Muse and our two dogs and two cats will be flying back to the States.  In less than a week I’m going to be quite lonely.

This morning I stayed home to help Muse get all four of the fuzzy kids to the vet for their final health inspection and certification.  Because of her flaky friend we had to wait for a hire car to get us to and from the plaza where the vet office is located.  Her friend was supposed to help her take the pets to the vet in her golf cart.  Knowing how flaky she is, I knew she would cancel so I let work know that I would need to stay and help.  Sure enough, two days ago her friend calls and says that she can’t go but we can borrow the golf cart.  OK we planned for that so no problem.

Yesterday she called Muse all pissy and gave her this lame-ass excuse about how she had to give up her golf cart for four days starting on the day we needed it.  Yeah… right.  Like this woman could possibly stand using the standard buses for four days.  That would be beneath her.  So we had to get a local hire car to come get us and take us to the vet.  It’s way to far to walk with them all.

Of course her “friends” golf cart has been sitting in front of her building across from ours all day.  It hasn’t moved and it was available the entire time we would have needed it.  But oh well.  That’s one good thing about consistently flaky people is that you can safely ignore them and plan alternatives in advance.

Whatever.  At least its done now.  One more thing crossed off the lists.

A Sort of Homecoming

I believe Muse has already let the kitteh out of the bag, so to speak, but we will be coming home to St. Louis this year.  Muse will be leaving Hong Kong before me to get the pets all sorted and safe.  I was the first to arrive between us and I’ll be the last to leave.  I suppose I should take some comfort in that I’ll get to live here in Hong Kong for just a bit longer but I also remember the loneliness of my first month here.  But that was a long time ago now and I’m no longer a stranger in a strange land with no idea of what to do/where to go/what to eat.  I no longer need to subsist on ham sandwiches and cans of soup.  Although I may just because.

Now, when the time comes, I’ll probably spend my free time leisurely walking the street markets and shopping malls without the worry of wasting Muse’s time or needing to feed or walk the dogs.  Maybe I’ll go directly from the office to a local bar with people from work and see what the night life is like before I leave.  Maybe I’ll go for a hike without worrying about time constraints or anything but my own ability.  Or maybe I’ll just sit in front of the computer and play World of Warcraft all night.   It’s hard to say.

Actually when I say we will be coming home this year that makes it sound like something that will be happening at some far point in the future.  But really it’s nothing like that.  Muse may be leaving in a month or less.  I won’t be here any longer than mid-August.  It’s scary close to those dates already.  By the end of August we will be back in the United States of America and trying to figure out life once more.  This time with a baby on the way.

When we moved we did so on short notice and also threw in our wedding because it wasn’t a stressful enough experience.  Now with a baby coming, I see now that we just really like to complicate things.  I can offer no other explanation.  We sold our house and our cars and most of the rest of the stuff we didn’t ship to Hong Kong.  So add in another layer of sphincter-clenching in that we have a baby coming and we need to buy a house and at least one car but really we need two and baby stuff and furniture and Oh My Gawd what are we insane?

Yes.  Yes we are.  Nice to meet you.

For those with time

For those of you with the time and inclination, Lifehacker has a fun Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks to use on your unsuspecting users, friends and family. Of course, if you plan on doing any of these at your place of work, please keep in mind the mentality and patience of your co-workers and your management. No point in getting fired over a dumb prank.

I’m a big fan of pranks myself and would love to try some of these out. But like I said, I just don’t have the time. I got a call from my boss in St. Louis and was told that they were cutting my contract here in Hong Kong a bit short. It seems I’ve done such a good job here that they now want me to take over the IT for the European region and do for it the same as I have for the Asia-Pacific region. That’s a great thing of course and I’m glad they have such faith in me but I have my doubts of course. Europeans are a much different breed of people than Asians.

So needless to say things are going to be a bit crazy for the next few months. We need to figure out how to arrange getting our things moved from Hong Kong to London and make sure the pets are all taken care of. Finding a place to live should be even more difficult than it was in Hong Kong I imagine. Hopefully we can find a place near a pub. With good internet access of course.

Not only that but I’ll have to interview for my replacement here and do training and everything else that’s involved. The guy who’s leaving the lead position in London now seems to have stopped caring for how things were done quite a while ago, so it sounds like it may be in even worse shape their than it was here when I first moved. All in all, a good challenge of course but I don’t imagine it will be easy by any means. Add to this that I’m an American and I imagine that some of the existing staff will probably rebel a bit as well.

So more news to come as I have it and hopefully it will be a smooth transition (yeah right). I’m trying to get a trip there to check things out in person before hand to see what I’ve gotten myself into. They’ll probably agree to that since they did the same before I came to Hong Kong. Oh well, at least London is a bit close to the States as far as time difference goes! Wish me luck….

The Peak, Hong Kong

This past Saturday, Muse and I went to The Peak which is the small tourist area at the top of the mountain that makes up Hong Kong island. Muse had been there once before on a tour but I’d never been. Which everyone here thinks is weird because that is one of the major tourist places to visit here in Hong Kong. Well… whatever.

The weather has been beautiful here in Hong Kong lately and since I know it will be miserably hot and humid soon, I’m glad we’re getting out and about outside while we can. The Peak isn’t all that much to see actually. It’s basically two small multi-story shopping malls side by side, one with a funky shape and a roof-top viewing deck that you have to pay to go on. There’s lots of restaurants and tourist gifts and a Madame Tussauds wax museum (which we didn’t visit) and a nice path that is generally crowded with people taking pictures of the hazy but nice city skyline.

Above: A picture of the Central district skyline at night from The Peak. Kowloon can be seen across the harbor.

We ate at a Bubba Gump restaurant which had a nice view overlooking the path and a portion of the city. I’d never been to one of these restaurants before and we thought that it was funny that my first time at one was in Hong Kong. It was a bit expensive, but considering how expensive everything else on The Peak is, it was actually a hell of a bargain. I would definitely recommend it if you go to The Peak. Considerig Muse and I shared the same meals and drinks, I don’t think the severe diarrhea I had later that night had anything to do with that place.

We waited till night time so we could get some night shots of the city skyline and then we took a taxi back to Central. We had taken a bus up the mountain so we kind of skipped the main attraction of the famous Peak Tram. It’s always too long of a queue to wait in. I don’t like waiting.