Great pictures

I saw in the news yesterday that it snowed in (and around) Athens. This is a very rare thing in that area. I've been there before (in warmer weather obviously) and I thought the pictures were fascinating so I thought I'd share a couple of them here:

(I'm loving the speedo here)

Bizarro Nicole

I know I keep talking about bus stuff - that's partially because I cannot divulge details of my work and nor will I because a few people from my work actually know about this blog. So that leaves my commute and my life outside of work to talk about here and since I'm not traveling or doing anything exciting right now - the bus is all I have. (So sorry about that!)

Anyway, back to my point... There is a new girl that has started riding my bus. She looks just like my SIL Nicole except she's got dark hair. So Nicole, you have an evil twin (or maybe you are the evil twin, I'm not sure) in Albuquerque NM. Lucky you. There's also a Bizarro Nicole that lives in Strasbourg, France. As of November of 06 she was working as a crepe maker in a little booth on the street. Since she was pretty bad at it I am hoping that she's moved on to something better suited to her skill set...or that she's vastly improved her mad crepe-making skilz. But she truly did look similar because both Mr X and I both had to do a double-take.

It may sound like I'm slightly obsessed with my SIL - I swear I'm not. I've seen some Bizaro Kevins, Bizarro Mr Ts, Bizarro Vickys and even a Bizarro Mindy before. Have you seen some of these people running around?

A lovely weekend

My weekend flew by way too quickly. Mr X and I were avidly watching the weather reports in the hopes that there would be fresh snow on which to go snowboarding. The reports kept saying snow while the actually weather kept saying sun. I admit I was torn because on one hand I wanted to go snowboarding in nice powdery conditions but on the other hand - I am so ready for warm weather again. We had decided to only go up if it snowed and by the time we went to bed friday night there wasn't a flake and it was way too warm for it. But we woke up at 6:30 saturday morning to a lovely (but light) blanket of snow on the ground. We excitedly got our gear ready and threw it into the car and went snowboarding. When we got up to Santa Fe, it became clear that the only snow to be had was in ABQ. Oh well, since we were all the way up to the mountain with nothing else to do, we went anyway. It turned out to be great 'spring snowboarding' conditions and we had a great time. Hopefully we can get another time or two in before the winter really is gone. Oh and what else made the weekend superb? I didn't have to work a bit. (I'm knocking on wood here so that last statement doesn't come back to bite me in the weekends to come.)

Financially smart or just too greedy?

I'm sure all my well-informed readers (yes, all 3 of you, bless your hearts) already heard about this and this. How do you feel about it? I'm less than thrilled about it. A ticket already costs enough as it is. Plus you can't get a meal on domestic flights anymore without shelling out your hard earned cash for that either. You only get one beverage service in general on most flights so hopefully that doesn't leave you too parched and if it does, you better bring some sort of needlessly expensive beverage purchased from the shops in the airports because you can't even bring one with you from outside of the airport (convenient for the airport, no?). On airlines such as RyanAir you actually get no free beverage whatsoever - you have to pay for everything with that airline, including luggage pound for pound. The airlines are forcing frugal air travel into extinction. I realize that gas is expensive, and it’s only going to get pricier, but still - from what I've read the airlines are actually seeing profits again these days. That's nice for them. Maybe they are thinking about their future and are just looking for ways to see to it that, despite rising gas prices, they will always be in the green. Good for them but bad for us.

I can't help but wonder if eventually air travel will be so incredibly inconvenient, frustrating and expensive that more and more people will simply choose to stay home.

What do you think?

Review: Bizzarre Foods

So last weekend Mr X and I watched a Food TV show...at least I think that was the network it was one. We don't get any television channels (by choice) so we just order them from Netflix. Last weekend we tried out Bizarre Foods. We selected this program because we've seen that other show with Anthony Bourdain where he travels around to exotic places and tries unusual (for us at least) foods - but I have a hard time focusing while watching it because Anthony's scrawny little arms and his 'too-cool' attitude command all my attention and annoyance. So I thought someone a little more down-to-earth might be more appealing to me - like the guy in Bizarre Foods. However, after seeing this show, I'm not so sure that he's more down to earth. But there's something about his rotund belly (as it should be for a food critic, right?) and his obvious I'm-an-American-tourist look that sits well with me, so I find him a bit more believable. Which is not to say that he doens't have plenty of goofy quirks himself...

This guy can eat like nothing I've seen before. Somehow that's always interesting to me. Another amusing thing about Bizarre Foods Man is that he'll eat the most disgusting looking things I've seen (larva and rotten meat and bugs, etc) and then he'll try some good old horchata and exclaim how vile and disgusting it is. ? I would imagine that the rotted meat preserved (I use this term loosely) in some sort of grainy fat goop would taste infinitely worse than Spanish horchata. But that's just me... He also seems to be obsessed with meat dishes in general, I guess the guy likes to get his protein. Oh and he really loves to describe foods as 'nutty' ...

All in all, this show was highly enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone that finds unusual foods and exotic places fascinating. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Grand Theft Auto: An Accidental Attempt

Yesterday evening I got off the bus (Mr Bogey was nowhere near me) at the Park N Ride and headed for my car. As I got close I clicked the unlock button on my keys and failed to notice that the car didn't unlock. I reached for the door handle and tried to open it with no luck. So I tried the unlock button again and stupidly continued yanking on the handle (Because if the door isn't opening just pull harder, right?) Confused, I turned around - only to see the slightly agitated owner of this car glaring at me. A second look at the car told me that while it was indeed a Subaru just like mine (mine which appeared to be situated 2 cars away), it was a year or two newer. I think the familiar gold color must have blinded me to this slight difference... Anyway, I akwardly complimented Glaring Subaru Man on his obviously superb taste in vehicles and clumsily assured him that I didn't need to steal his car because I had one just like it right over there. Then I hastily retreated (along with my flaming red face) to the comfort of my totally sweet gold Subaru.

The Joys of Public Transportation: Mr Bogey

My commute to and from work is horribly long. In fact, if I drove, it would cost me roughly $20/day in gas to get to and from work. If I ride the bus, it only costs me $9/day. So if I take the bus every (week) day to work instead, I save rought $2800 a year. (This is all very general as gas prices obviously affect this number as do the number of sick/vacation days I use in a year.) I must also add that it probably saves us in costly wear and tear on our only car.

There are some really nice things about taking the bus:

1) I can fall back asleep during that 1 hour drive to and from work, if I wish or can.
2) I can do other things like legally talk on my cell phone, make grocery lists, knit, or read.
3) If there is bad traffic I don't have to deal with it directly.
4) As specified above, the money I save makes me happy.

BUT sometimes public transportation makes me long for the comfort of my own car:

1) The stinkiness of others can be stomach-churning at times.
2) When the bus is completely full (which is usually is) the quarters can be a little too tight for proper comfort.
3) The commute is longer due to extra stops and waiting in line for said bus.
4) Some people have really disgusting habits.

Now I feel I must vent about #4.

There is a man that rides my particular bus that I have dubbed "Mr Bogey." He makes me want to vomit. The man cannot leave his nose alone. He is constantly digging around up there. What's strange is that he's a typical nose picker - he uses his thumb instead of a finger. Now I've had plenty of time (unfortunately) to watch his technique and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why the thumb would be a better option for nose picking. But enough of that because I'm grossing myself out by talking about it.

The other problem with Mr Bogey is that when he sits next to a person he's that guy that falls asleep very solidly and then proceeds to slump to one side, inevitably using the person as a pillow. Need I mention that when doing this his hands and nose are all boogery? I have had the misfortune of being his seatmate twice. At first I was trying hard to be polite, patient and tolerable - you know, Christ-like. But then I decided to embrace my flaws and now I elbow Mr Bogey everytime he slumps my way. When he snorts and wakes up I just smile pretty at him and act like I didn't do anything. Very mature of me, I know... but in my defense thumb-picking one's boogers isn't very adult either.