I was waiting to check in to my hotel when two army guys walked in.

"Hey. Are you driving that Tele Atlas vehicle."

"Yes I am."

"Can you do something about closing military bases? Ever since 911 they've been open and need to be blocked off."

Being in charge of Colorado's military bases, I worried that I hadn't closed off a couple of gates. "Where are these bases located?"

"Fort Sam Houston."

"Hey! My dad is buried there!"

"*****"

I love this question. I think it is better to do something than not and always wonder. My regret was when my Dad took me to a Harlem Globetrotter's game. I went to sit near the court (because they let you) and one of the globetrotters pointed at me to come out onto the court to shoot a basket and I said no. They picked another kid and gave him a pennant and basketball.
I've regretted that ever since if only to say I shot some hoops with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Apparently there's an 8 year old on the terrorist watch list. Watch out! He might make a lanyard!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/nyregion/14watchlist.html?no_interstitial

After seeing a few Djs play--from KiloWatts to Pitch Black to OTT, and watching what they do on stage with various gizmos, I've began to wonder what it takes to make Electronic music and what are the basic and various devices one uses. Anyone?

We spent most of our weekend in Boulder, going to a concert of Emancipator (surprisingly good since we never heard of him before), Pitch Black, and OTT. We stayed up way too late (past 4:30am), got up to go to the Boulder Farmer's Market where Deana and I found an Italian guy selling olive oil from Tuscany.

Once I figure out he was Italian and usually eager to try to remember something from my days of learning Italian, we started speaking in the afore mentioned language. I asked where he was from, could he speak slowly for us, what was he selling, etc. We ended up buying a bottle from him, but since he couldn't take credit cards I had to go find an ATM. On the way there Deana and I remarked it'd be fun to have him over for dinner since he's Italian and from Florence. But we didn't think anymore of it since we are in America and that's just downright weird to invite someone you just met over for dinner. So when we returned to purchase the olive oil and he ended up inviting us to dinner! I just emailed him to see if a date in November would work.

So tonight, we made our dinner from our purchased from the Farmer's market: Roasted potatoes, Arugula, and goat kebabs with a homemade Malbec. It was really tasty. I could get used to a farmer's market like Boulder's.

I try to do it all. If I'm driving I'll get books on tape (my record was 80 books in one year (yes, I drive a lot)). If there is more than just me in the car, we'll bring a book to read aloud. Music is always a must--I'm so glad we have MP3 players. I once took a Walkman and Discman across Europe because I couldn't decide on what music to bring.

On airplanes--especially international flights--I'll have books, games, and really bad in flight movies. The best bad in-flight movie I saw was Kung Fu Dunk. It's about a shoalin monk who plays basketball. Brilliant.

at 6:30 am I woke to a pounding on my door, a key car inserted and reinserted in the lock and an exasperated women saying, "Doug, it's me, open the door."

So I opened the door and said, "I'm not Doug, but for $50 I can be."*

She rolled her eyes, apologized and went away. I never made it back to sleep, and I hoped that she would put the do not disturb sign back in the door and the newspaper back on floor for my perusal in the morning.

As I went back to bed, I did hear Doug answer her somewhere near my door (Hotel acoustics are interesting in that I can't hear anyone else's room from my room, but I can hear things from out in the hall).

I think this is Karma coming around to wake me up for practicing my violin in the morning and evening.




*I didn't really say this as I was still quite sleepy and wasn't thinking that fast.

Thanks to the smartitudeness of 6opou, I joined up with Vimeo to bring my faithful follower this video. Enjoy.

So I worked and worked on my Last Train to Lhasa video for youtube, added in close to a million photos and my stop action shots from the train, and found out 11:44 secs is too long for the Youtubes. D'oh. I'll start working on cutting it short to fit the 10 minute limit they require and post it here sometime. If I can post it elsewhere, I will, but so far, you'll have to wait.

In other news I flew to Dallas on Southwest yesterday. After having a bad day, I broke down and actually bought a gin and tonic. The attendant mentioned they were now a "cashless cabin" and a flier in the backseat pocket mentioned the same thing. Being quite astute, I got it: use a credit card.

So when I ordered she still asked how I would like to pay. I stifled saying, "I'd like to use the credit card of the gentleman sitting next to me please."

We got the idea of doing a self portrait of our trip to China based on someone else's trip to China (sadly I can't remember the guy who did it or where his video is)and is the first of one or two more that I have planned.
(found the info on the inspiration video: The longest way 1.0. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ky6vgQfU24)