Blog-Vacation Time!

Yup! It's that time for our annual drive to the Hart Family Cottage in Michigan for the Fourth of July holiday reunion. Yaaaay!

Donica, Amy, Nicholas and I (sans Mark, who had to change plans at the last minute) will leave in a rented mini-van around 6p this evening, driving through the night the 850 miles from Atlanta to Horseshoe Lake.

We always stop outside of Chattanooga, TN, to pick up the prerequisite fireworks for our Big Bang night (probably Sunday this year). We always switch off drivers (and sleeping). We always stop at the cemetery to honor Mom and Dad. And we always stop at the roadside fish shop near the lake to pick up smoked whiting. Even Nicholas knows this is a Tradition.

Once there, we'll be totally in R&R mode. No Internet connection (except minimally on Donica's laptop for work--no rest for the weary!). No blogging. No e-mailing. Just lots of gabbing, resting, watching, absorbing, eating, laughing, reading, swimming, playing, taking pics...and BEING.

Anyway, happy holiday wishes to everyone who celebrates July 4th or any other such event this weekend. God willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be back on the 4th.

And The Point Is?

Like mother, like daughter, Amy and I can both make a meal out of an artichoke, as I did today for lunch. For me, pure, unadulterated artichoke is all I need! I eat it with nothing to dip in, scraping each leaf clean with my bottom teeth.

Then I get to the heart of the matter! Each and every time I ask myself the same question: what's the point of all this fuzz?! What's it there for?

So, of course, I had to do my research! Did you know that this globe variety is one of 3 types of artichokes in the daisy family Asteraceae (which is our first clue) and is a species of thistle (our second clue). That layer of "delicate feathery growth crowning the heart" is the thistle--the immature florets--fibrous and inedible and, if you're not careful, can get everywhere, making quite a mess.

But ahhhh. When you get to that feathery mess, YOU know what comes next: THE HEART OF THE MATTER. So I've decided that THAT is definitely the point of the thistle! To let you know, after all the effort, that you have finally arrived.

I'm guessing there's a Life Lesson there somewhere!

Who's Gonna Win?

The last 2 times I've been with almost-six Nicholas (his birthday is July 12th!), he has wanted me to play Yu-Gi-Oh with him. First of all, he got all his cards from friends at school and they're VERY worn. Secondly, he only has 20 or so of them (out of how many?). Thirdly, I haven't a clue about how to play that game!

So, both times I have asked Nicholas to explain the rules to me. Amy doesn't know them either, let alone the object of the game, so we're really at his mercy. You start getting suspect when he can always take ALL of your cards! Every time! In other words, no question about it, he's gonna win.

Now I realize why in soccer and T-ball seasons thus far there's no scoring for his age group. These kids can't handle losing yet. It's supposed to be about PLAYING, of course. Learning and finessing the game. Everybody wins/loses when there's no score (have you noticed?).

So when do athletes "get over" losing? Do they ever? What about these World Cup games right now. We hoot and holler when "our" team wins; what a let-down when they lose. You should see me when it comes to Michigan football, though I've actually become much more blasé about it by now. This is BIG STUFF if you're fanatical about sports.

BTW, Nicholas is not usually shirtless, so you'll appreciate this sidebar. He had just tried on a black Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt from Oslo that Donica had brought home for him. His first question once he saw it (with some cool, crazy guitar player on it) was, "Mommy, when does school start?" Amy needed him to take it off right away so she could wash it and have it ready for our trip to Michigan on Thursday. He was then shirtless the rest of the evening!

Some things you just can't top. I guess winning is one of them. Hmm. At what age do we learn about Win-Win situations? Or does that ever happen in sports, just by the nature of the game!

Redux: Stockholm, Sweden

At this point, if you're counting, we're halfway through the cruise albums, since this is the 3rd of our 6 ports. Technically, we're not halfway because I plan to do a separate album of the Great Dame all by herself: Miss "Jewel of the Seas!" Later.

But for now, here's Stockholm. Besides the coming-and-going shots as we sailed in and out, this Stockholm album is divided into two main parts: Gamla Stan (the Old Town) and the City Hall, which hosts the Nobel Prize banquet every December 10.

It actually astounded me, as I saw the photos again, how colorful this city is. The colors you see on the outside walls, here in Old Town, are true. Even on a mostly rainy/overcast day, they were bright and often quite surreal. This particular photo (above) reminded me of a painting. And the narrow, cobble-stoned streets were my idea of old Europe!

The City Hall is one of Stockholm's greatest treasures, not only because it is visible from the harbor, an architectural masterpiece of Ragnar Östberg, and decorated with scenes from the city and the country as a whole, but because it is renown for its banquet of the Nobel prize winners and their guests. Each winner is allowed to bring 16 guests, which, along with Sweden's Royal Family, totals around 1300 people. So when you see the Blue Hall in the pics, imagine it full of tables!

Upstairs from the Blue Hall (which is not in fact blue, but was originally planned to be painted so), along one side of the wall (the Blue Hall is high-ceilinged and has nothing above it), is the Golden Hall, pictured above. It's adorned by more than 18 million crystal and gold mosaic pieces featuring motifs alluding to the history of Sweden. It's also where the dance is held after the banquet! The date of the banquet, BTW, is always held on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

All of the above took place on a 3-hour morning tour, to be followed in the afternoon by a canal boat tour. You don't want to know how it happened that we totally messed up and missed that excursion (so don't ask!). But because it was raining and we were already tired, it was probably for the best. The Stockholm album already has 190 pics. Thank God we didn't make the canal tour, right?!

Once again, enjoy! (Remember that you can just look at the thumbnails and then pick-n-choose any you might want to enlarge.)

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Happy birthday, Mom! Just think: you'd be 90 today (speaking of a Great Dame!).

What We're Obsessed With

Most of you know by now that I'm obsessed with clocks on the outside of buildings, especially old ones from Europe. I can't help myself. The camera just points and shoots! (The same is true of spires and steeples, but that's another story.)

(The first person who can tell me what city this clock is from gets a Gold Star :)

Interestingly, I read an article yesterday from the Associated Press that lists the top 25 nouns used most often in the English language. Guess what heads the list? TIME. We are most "obsessed" with Time.

Here's the list of the top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact [emphasis mine].

Notice that 4 words related to time are in that top-25 list.

Hmm. So now the question I ask myself: is it TIME I'm obsessed with when I take these pics or is it the "structure" of time?

Redux: Copenhagen, Denmark

Here we go again: #2 of our 6 ports-of-call on our Scandinavia and Russia cruise! I'll get this done yet. (Steady as she goes! :)

The day was divided into two parts and all with the same tour guide. We started with a 3-hour walking tour of the city from Copenhagen's harbor, right where our ship docked. If you squint (or click to enlarge), you can see the standing bear in the bottom-center of the above photo. I actually took that pic from the ship and that's where we started the walk. You'll see bullet holes in its head from WWII.

The pics in the Copenhagen album ("only" 148 this time--better than 225!) are essentially in the order of the walk. We bought a book of the city and I've been able to label almost everything except the one big-steepled church that has no name (in the album, that is). I couldn't for the life of me find anything on the Internet that helped. Maybe Gustav knows?? [6/28 Yay! Gustav figured it out: it's the Nikolaj Kirke. This particular link will show you how huge it is!]

After the walk, we all climbed into one of the sight-seeing boats for a one-hour canal tour. You'll see some of the same walking-tour sights but just from a different vantage point. Again, I've kept the pics mostly in the order in which we saw the sights.

As you see, the entire day was overcast and rainy--the only day of the cruise with that much needed camera protection. I actually love skies with attitude. I even love the rain except for when it comes to taking pics. I did my best and rolled with the punches.

At the beginning of the album, you'll see ship employees giving the Great Dame a bath--the only day we observed this. You'll even see guys outside our balcony on a pulley system, doing their cleaning thing. How fun.

At the end of our canal tour, our little boat sailed alongside our ship and gave us a great vantage point for taking pics of our "home away from home." She's one pretty lady, I'll have to say! And here she is is, docked and holding steady till we left a few hours later.

Enjoy!

The Love Birds

This week's Tuesdays Photos theme is DUCKS. And I had to drive 20 miles to find these! I had asked my hairdresser on Tuesday where I could find ducks and she told me of a little lake where they supposedly have hundreds of them--"all the different kinds that are so pretty," she said.

I say "supposedly" because you can't prove it by me! I did go but, in her defense, probably went at the wrong time. Ducks were nowhere to be found at 5p on that little lake. But I did finally find these two love birds who were hanging out in the shade by a dock. Made the whole trip worth it!

Speaking of love birds, I pick Donica up at the airport today, back from Germany! Yaaaay! While we "put up" with our times apart, we hate when we're on different time zones. Arrgh.

In the meantime, who's gonna win the USA-Ghana soccer/football game in the next couple hours? You know how I feel about that Ghana team! I just may have to be a traitor for a day....

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Addendum: I remembered a little ditty my brother Nelson used to repeat often. Here it is:

C D E D B D ducks?

M R not ducks!

O S A R! C D E D B D wings?

O I C M – M R ducks!

Redux: Oslo, Norway

Okay! This wasn't my initial plan for the retelling, pictorially, of our recent cruise, but I've decided to do this piecemeal as each photo album is finished. It'll be easier for you, if you want to take a look, rather than having all 6 albums at once. And it'll give a break in-between albums. I do NOT expect anyone to go through all the photos because there are too many. This Oslo album alone is 225 pics! My suggestion is to open each album as it comes and just scan the thumbnails or pick-n-choose what you want to see. This is really more for Donica and me, as a memory of our trip.


We first went to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump (on our shore excursion) and got a panoramic view of the city. But from there we immediately went to Vigeland Park, the culprit for so many of my photos. I've chosen this one scupture to give you a taste of what this incredible artist (Gustav Vigeland,1869-1943) did in his lifetime. One section of the park is in granite sculptures and the other in bronze, depicting the cycle of life. On the 80 acres, there are 192 sculptures with more than 600 figures, all modeled in full size and all nude. I would go back to Oslo for this park alone. It absolutely stunned my Soul!


From the Vigeland Park we went to the Viking Museum, where you'll see a few pics of the 2 ships. Literally next door (we could have walked there!) was the Open-air Folk Museum where you'll see a whole set of buildings from various districts around the country, depicting what life was like hundreds of years ago. The Gol stave church,orginally built in 1200 AD, is the museum's greatest national treasure. The house pictured here, with grass on the roof, is a typical dwelling.


After our excursion, and while Donica headed off to the Hard Rock Cafe, I went back to the pier and did my own tour of the City Hall area at the neck of the port as well as of this Akershus Fortress across the street from where our ship was docked. It's the fortress that has never been conquered and was built circa 1300 AD. I actually took this photo from the balcony of our room on the 10th deck of the ship shortly after we docked in the morning. It made sense, then, to take pics of the ship from the fortress, which was just as fun, later in the afternoon.

One of my favorite photos of the time in Oslo was this one of these two girls at the fountain. I don't know if they're school girls or sisters but I like what they symbolize: standing side-by-side, both looking in the same direction, viewing the same thing. Whether it's all of us around the world watching the same soccer/football games, or the same world news, or the same full moon, I like that we are brought together by common threads that show how similar we are than different.

One last thing: I heard on the news last night that Norway has created a "doomsday vault" that will hold 3 million of the world's crop seeds, carved into a frozen mountainside. "Its purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters or climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may have been wiped out."

I knew I loved Norway the second I laid my eyes on her! Enough reasons to last a lifetime!

The TRANSPORTATION Passport (Duh)

Duh! Duh! Duh! Sometimes I amaze myself over what I DON'T notice.

Remember when I said we had to go through passport control in St. Petersburg, Russia, the minute we stepped off our ship? We got stamped the first time and then again when we came back from our shore excursion. At some point in between, since we had to admire the stamp (!), Donica and I both noticed the ship icon.

So then we looked back at our other stamps and sure enough! See the airplane and the trains?!

AHA! Duh! So, putting two and two together, it appears that some countries indicate your mode of transportaion upon arriving. We rode the train from Germany into the Czech Republic last year when we visited Prague. And yes, I noticed the trains (for both countries) but still didn't put two and two together.

All our stamps coming back into the USA do NOT have a mode of transportation. Nor do our stamps into the UK. But France and Germany have the plane icons.

So, here's the question: if you DRIVE into the Czech Republic or another "icon country," does the stamp have a car? And if you WALK across the border, does it have a person? Ok, some of you who travel a lot, please get out your passport and check.

Inquiring minds want to know!

Gazing Globe Self-Portrait

This week's Tuesdays Photos theme is SELF-PORTRAIT. Alright then. Here you are:

This particular garden ball is in a neighbor's yard that I pass every time I take my daily walk here in Atlanta. When Donica first saw it awhile back, she winced. She said it brought back memories of a certain period of time that, she felt, "dated" the owners. Kinda like polyester suits and avocado-colored appliances.

Actually, gazing globes have been an important part of gardens, spiritually and aesthetically, since the 13th century (if you want to talk about dating something!). Even European kings chose them for their gardens as magical/mystical pieces, believed to "ward off bad things like disease, evil spirits, attackers, and even ghosts" or, in some legends, to keep the witches away from one’s home.

"It has been said that many kings from the regions of France to the Netherlands demanded gazing globes in their palace gardens. They were thought to have brought prosperity and good luck to any who owned one." Once they were a status symbol in America, signifying wealth and success. Now they're in gardens all over the world. So much for history!

Just for the halibut, if you want to see LOTS of "blue balls," click here (but be forewarned, there's noise). My son Mark, who's a computer programmer, sent this to me awhile back. He said, "It's easy to stare at this page for 10 minutes before you realize how much time has passed." (Hint: the pattern repeats itself 3 times vertically, so just stare at one third of the page.)

And then stare at the gazing globe, in case you have something to ward off!

The Duesseldorf Rendezvous

Yes, it really did happen today! Once I dropped my suitcase off in my hotel room, nearby the train station, I went down to the lobby and met James and Matt at 12:30p. Here they are (with their full permission)!

Matt is the tall one on the left, and now I wish I had asked him just HOW tall! It's not that James is short, either. Matt is German but you'd never know it from his English. Impeccable! He and James lived and worked in San Francisco before they both came back to Germany six months ago. They got married here (have all the benefits except taxes!) and are now leaving their options open for future possibilities. How fun to be with a gay couple again :)

From the hotel we walked into Duesseldorf's Old Town where Matt took a shot of James and me with a tower from an old waterfront castle (on the Rhine River!) and the St. Lambertus Basilica in the background. See, James really ISN'T short. Matt is just really tall :)

All in all, we were together, walking around and eating lunch, for 2-1/2 hours. This astonished me because I found out that they, too, will be flying to the States tomorrow--to Miami. So they had miles to go before they sleep tonight. I really felt honored to have so much of their time!

I then walked around on my own for the next 2 hours, just before it started raining. Of all my photos (who, ME?!), I picked these to show you something unique about this lovely city. James says there are maybe 10 of these "statues" in the city that sit/stand atop kiosks. The first one, of the man with the camera, is right outside the train station! He's taking a picture of YOU when you walk out! As you can see, they are so life-like, you do a double-take! Seriously!

Count this as my Friday post early. I'll need to be out the door to the train station by 7a tomorrow in order to get to the airport for my Atlanta flight. Thanks for all your travel wishes. I feel so loved and taken care of every time I make this back-n-forth journey!

Homeward Bound

Christina and I had such a lovely rendezvous yesterday in Hannover's City Center. We really like each other and have committed to a rendezvous each trip I'm in Germany, as often as possible. Unbeknownst to me, we met on the 3rd Annual International Webloggers Day, June 14th. How appropriate!

Today I start another circuitous route back to Atlanta from Hannover, this time via Duesseldorf by train this morning, arriving at noon. I meet up with James and his partner, M, at my Inter-City Hotel next to the train station, and from there will walk into Old Town for lunch together. Another blogger rendezvous! I then plan to spend the afternoon and evening exploring Duesseldorf before I go to bed and wake up tomorrow for my early flight to Atlanta.

In the meantime, World Cup fever is everywhere in Germany! Yesterday, while I waited for Christina outside the Hannover train station, Tunesia and Saudi Arabia fans were heating things up. After a little fan rally, they walked into the train station for their ride to Munich for their 6p match. By now we know it was a 2-2 draw.

This is serious stuff, folks! And we're not even halfway through the tournament! Miles to go before we sleep. After the Tunisia-Saudi Arabia game, Germany beat Poland, 1-0.

Donica stays behind in Hannover, flying home next week. Her original ticket often gets changed for work but also gets paid by work! If I could have changed my ticket to coincide with hers, we'd be out almost $800 because of the World Cup shenaningans, instead of the typical $50-75 change-fee. Needless to say, we left things as they are!

Okay. See you soon from Atlanta, watching the World Cup there at much earlier hours than while in Germany!

World Cup 2006: Hannover, Germany

A time to make friends. Say NO to racism!

That removable slogan, on centerfield at the beginning of every World Cup game, is so meaningful. And believe it or not, that's one of my best impressions of the Italy-Ghana soccer game we were so lucky to attend this past Monday, June 12, 2006. Friends were everywhere opposing each other's teams. And being respectful of each other!

The tickets to get into the game had a silver chip in the top righthand corner that carried all our personal info. Almost scary, if you think about it, except that we got to keep the tickets, which was cool. And after all was said and done, we did NOT need our passports to get in. Nor was there any hassle other than the body-searching every which way but loose.

Ghana, in white, started the game. I was quite amazed at myself because I think I probably saw 95% of all the plays! Usually I prefer watching sports on TV because I get so distracted by everything else in stadiums. But not this time. Our vantage point (in the yellow section--see ticket above) was so perfect at all times. I found myself glued to the ball. And my 12x optical zoom came in handy once again!

Here's my opinion: Ghana appeared to outplay Italy all over the field except at the goal, where it counts (alas!)! I found myself saying, "Come on, Ghana! Come on!" And did you hear the crowd yelling "Ghana! Ghana! Ghana!" more often than for Italy?! Don't know how this showed up on TV, but that's our perspective.

But Italy did in fact win, as you all know by now. I had thought I wanted them to win...then found myself really rooting for Ghana. Hard to explain it. It was just a feeling in the air. Maybe they WILL win one of their next games...maybe against the USA? (Not to be a traitor or anything!)

One of my favorite sights of the entire evening was this little girl having a total blast with her parents, kicking the ball back-n-forth at the FanFest area prior to the game. Like I always say about Nicholas, you have to begin somewhere...and sometime!

Here's a cute story: A little girl like this sat behind us during the game and kept yelling "I-Ghana, I-Ghana!" (pronounced Ee-Ghana). Her father lovingly told her over and over again that it was "I-ta-ly, I-ta-ly!" but the next time she'd say "I-Ghana" again. And we all smiled.

But maybe that was the point! Maybe that's what this is all about. The world coming together and making friends in such a way that we all end up entwined. And no racism!

Here's a little photo album (45 pics) of our most memorable night! Enjoy, if you want more.

And speaking of the world, I'm off now for a morning rendezvous in Hannover's Old Town with Christina. Tomorrow I start my trip home, via Duesseldorf, rendezvousing with James. I'm so lucky!!

Way Back Then

Several of you have totally surprised me by wishing me Happy Birthday (in the comments of my last post) before I even woke up here in Hannover. You are awesome!! I have a big grin on my face. What a way to start my day. Thank you!


June 13, 1945. Yup. Sixty-one (61) smackeroos for moi!

BTW, Cristo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, (of The Gates fame), were also born on June 13, but 10 years earlier. I get pretty giddy about that, since they're so soulful to me.

I also just found out from the ephemeris that I was born on a Wednesday. Never knew that.

Don't know if you've seen these fun magnets for the trivia related to your year of birth but here are both mine and Donica's, 13 years apart. Look at the difference between a gallon of gas AND milk...and between them then and now. Something seems terribly wrong with that picture. Were cows harder to come by than oil back then?? And now??

(Click to enlarge, if necessary)

Age is a funny thing, isn't it! I have never understood why women in particular do not like to tell their age. We always hear the joke that age "extinguishes" women and "distinguishes" men. Is that still true? Do we bring it upon ourselves because we don't own up to our age and respect it? Hmm.

For me, age is a "handle" or a bridge in communication and learning about each other. I noticed that it was important to give you the ages of the special people on our cruise. Why? The only thing I can come up with is that it gives me an important context--of history, maturity, experience, expectation. Does that mean I stereotype people because of their age? I hope not.

Anyway, Happy Birthday again to all us Geminis. Soon it'll be you Cancers (Donica!) taking a bow.

[We dropped into bed at 11:57p last night after Italy's soccer win over Ghana. Yes, I took lots of pics and will save that post till tomorrow since...well, um...since only today's my birthday and soccer will be here forever, right?!]

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Birthday Supper addendum: Donica is sicker than a dog with a bronchitis infection and has missed work both yesterday and today. But she insisted that we go out to eat tonight since "I still have to eat!" My choice was our nearby Tiergarten biergarten (about 4 blocks away) because of the ribs they serve during summer weather. It's all wonderfully shaded and with widescreen TVs, so we were able to see the draw between France and Switzerland's soccer game.

This is MY food (enough for tomorrow night, too!) while Donica is off getting hers (saving the table, you know). I normally have red wine with my dinners but on this hot, humid night, I was up for a German beer. When in Germany, and all that!

It doesn't get better than dry ribs (no sauce) as far as I'm concerned. What a pig! I enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks, Donica.

She's a Regular Show-Off!

Not me, Silly. My camera! Some of you know I got a new camera a week before our cruise and, as I've been working on my photos, I've been reminded again and again of how thrilled I am by this Canon PowerShot S3 IS that gives me 12x optical zoom.

For example, the angel at the top of the Peter and Paul Cathedral's spire is St. Peterburg's tallest landmark (by degree of Peter the Great way back when): 122.5 meters high (402 ft). The angel has a pivotal mechanism that lessens the load on the spire in case of a strong wind (which is likely) and is 3.2 meters high (10.5 ft) with a wingspan of 3.8 meters (12.5 ft)! Standing at ground level, this is what my 12x zoom captured! In the LCD screen, the image was jiggling all around like crazy. But the second I clicked the shutter, there she was, bright and steady. Still unbelievable to me! But that's what the IS (Image Stabilzer) means, I guess!

Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1733, St.Petersburg, Russia

There was no place to stand to get the full height of this church without distorting the spire. (Later, Donica mentioned it would have been a good time to used the panoramic stitching software, vertically, that comes with the camera--but it was too late by then.) But you get the idea, I'm sure.

I had the same experience with weathervanes in Tallin, Estonia, though probably not as tall. If I had zoomed in on them more, I would have lost the entire length of the image details. Plus, it was a hazy day. But what a fun discovery at my finertips!

Like I said, she's a regular show-off! I'm sure she'll do it again and, if she does, I'll just let her go ahead and do her thing. You can't blame her, can you?!

Let the Games Begin!

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I'm sorry, but you just CAN'T be in Europe right now and NOT (yes, that's a double negative!) get into the World Cup 2006 football/fussball games starting today and lasting a month. Soccer by any other name.

When we left the London Stansted airport after our cruise on Wednesday, there were signs and photos and brochures and pamphlets everywhere. One brochure in particular was about Avoiding Penalties: "Nazi salutes are illegal and anyone caught making them will be arrested. Goose-stepping will get the same response. Keep your distance or move away from any fans who appear to be acting in a provocative or violent way."

DUH! I guess it needs to be spelled out!?!

Hannover's first game of the tournament is next Tuesday, June 12th, for which we have tickets (see #2 on map). I actually feel guilty about having them since so many GERMANS would give anything to get them. But it's all by "lottery" and Donica made 3 tries before getting hers. The tickets are actually connected to our passports, which we have to show upon arrival. Apparently there is a transfer process possible to another person and you can find tickets on eBay going for astronomical prices (one ticket for the final game in Berlin on July 9 is already at $3500). Donica and I jokingly said we could have paid for our cruise!

BTW, the DHL courier who brought the tickets to our front door in Atlanta a couple weeks back was so excited to hear about our game. He used to play soccer in college. I told him I'd take a souvenir back to him. Hmmm. Wonder what it'll be! What would YOU want if you were he?

Anyway, assuming the USA doesn't have a chance at winning, who are YOU rooting for (if you care)? Inquiring minds and all.