How’s this possible? Well, I was in the good ole U.S. of A for 2.5 weeks and just got back!
I went for business, pleasure, and something strangely in between called “3 day road trip with my Mom and her dog across 7 states”. We traveled for 27 hours, slept two nights in bizarre sheds and broke 12 laws (see map above). Am I lying? Perhaps. Probably.
But you just NEVER WILL KNOW until you click on the following incredible VIDEO ADVENTURE TAGALONG! 8 blindingly fun minutes of watchabilly good times!
If video doesn’t show above in the box please let me know! It’s supposed ta’!
I also saw my brothers, their kids, and more! My brother Mike and his wife just got back from Ethiopia where they adopted a cutie little baby girl named Frances.You can read their adventures in Ethiopia HERE!
We spent 5 nights in Paris this past week to celebrate the New Year, see the city and to visit friends. Paris is of course a grand, beautiful city, with lots and lots to see. We’d visited once before–just 3 days back in 1998. At that time we hit some of the main tourist attractions, so we didn’t feel the need to do the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre this time.
We did, however, walk around Montmartre to Sacre Coeur:
We also visited the Musee d’Orsay, which houses lots of works by the Impressionist painters (and Pre- and Post Impressionism). The building itself is very cool, because it used to be a train station and hotel.
The best part of the trip was the fact that we were welcomed to Paris by actual Parisians, Lee and Lauren Sullivan, with whom we shared a few lovely meals, including New Year’s Eve. Merci beaucoup!
All in all, we had a lovely time. A couple things did make a appreciate Lisbon a little more, though: Paris is very, very expensive, and this time of year it is cold!
“So a special effects artist, a professional photographer and a nun walk into this bar…
The photographer goes up to the counter and orders a gin and tonic. The VFX gal strips naked and says…”
(Comment and I’ll tell you the rest)
So my beautiful friend Jen is getting married TOMORROW: Saturday!
The Squid would like to make them honorary Heroes of the Expedition (TM) for their willingness to do the truly heroic: commit to a life together.
(Your Squid Logo briefs are in the mail).
Mark is not only easy on the eyes but can grill a serious mushroom! (he’s handy with bleu cheese too but that story’s not appropriate for a family blog like this)
I’m finishing my 10-day business trip to Boston tomorrow as I head back to Lisbon via Philly.
We took the weekend off and I got a nice intro to the Boston music scene via my old friend Dave Thomas (aka Chumfee) who was my best friend throughout my teenage years. He’s been hangin’ around the Boston area’s music scene for a while and has a nifty band called “Pony”. Here’s a shot of them in mid-gig that I took two nights ago at “P.A’s Bar” (Portuguese American’s):
We also found ourselves ‘trailing’ another band called Paper Moon that Dave is friends with (bands can make friends in an institutional way not unlike painters attending one anothers gallery openings). We saw two of their live shows. Here’s them just before Pony at P.A’s:
Dave (another Dave), the singer of Paper Moon, scored a major coup just a couple days ago when he pushed his song on a news station when they were going to do a Red Sox montage. They decided to use 30 seconds of one of his songs, “Last Laugh”, during the TV montage.
Before the broadcast he sent the main TV programmers flowers and CDs pleading with them to mention his “struggling local band’s” name during the clip. They did and within three hours he got over 900 hits on his web site and they sold lots of songs on iTunes.
Both Pony and Paper Moon songs are on the iTunes Music Store if you do a search.
I took a quick trip to Coimbra, which is a university town about an hour and 45 minutes ride on the fast train from Lisbon. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that nice—pretty rainy much of the time, but the town was quite cute and I took a bunch of pictures!
