I messed up today in a way I've never managed to do before....I had a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt and managed to doze off in the lounge and miss my connection. (Damn you, free champaign!) I called the airline, dreading to hear how much extra a rerouting was going to cost me. Turns out that to fly directly home to DC wóuld cost $4000, while ( Read more... )

I went to Cape Town this past week by myself. I was really excited to go to Africa although granted, it is the most "white" place in Africa one could possibly go. It was beautiful, at least the harbor and the beaches. The Townships, not so much, to put it mildly. I had an interesting encounter with an Afrikaner in the airport on the way to ( Read more... )

So my grandfather died the morning after my birthday. As my dad said in his notification email, "It was a merciful death." Grandpa had a stroke right before Christmas and I got to see him twice before he died. He was very alert, he knew who I was, and he totally responded to everything people said to him. I reminded him of how we were racing ( Read more... )

7am-ish and all alone. I sat next to a very hypocritical Christian man on the way over. He had his own business importing wood veneers. My flight leaves in 3.5 hours and my phone is not working here. I'd make a call if it were. All I really need to do is buy stroopwaffeln for Ali and some duty free Campari for Aleks ( Read more... )

Evan Dando, you still have it even if your band doesn't ( Read more... )

Flan Napolitano (A recently rediscovered recipe from Arturo Hildago, my friend Tamara's boyfriend, first made on 9/6/98 ( Read more... )

Lately I've had a crazy hope that I will wake up in Hotel Tilicho under a fuzzy tiger bedspread and the past 9 years have all been a dream. No such luck so far. Earlier this month I attended a dreaded family reunion for my grandparents' 65th anniversary. I mentioned to my cousin from California that I'd be in San Francisco this week so we met up ( Read more... )

Ummm, Jeff Tweedy, everyone else may be over you by now but I'm not.
It was a perfect night for an outdoor concert. They started off with 'Late Greats' which is one of my favorites off A Ghost Is Born, and I thought to myself, "I love this, but they should play it toward the end." And lo and behold, they played it again, fourth from the last song ( Read more... )

I just got mistaken for a prostitute. It's around 2:30am Honolulu time and I walked around the block from my hotel to the Burger King because everything else seemed to be closed. Now, granted there are many, many scantily clad working girls patrolling the streets in downtown Waikiki, but come on. I am wearing jeans, a non-revealing Gap t-shirt ( Read more... )

Of the two, I am liking the Chicago W City Center better than the Chicago W Lakeshore. Both have great beds. I stayed at the Lakeshore first and the crowd in the bar/restaurant/lobby was a little (ok, waaay) too glamorous for me, and their business center sucks. The one thing the place really had going for it was a fantastic view of Lake ( Read more... )