Sexy Beast

Das Photos

I’ve managed to sneak off a few shots when not battling Germans for the best locations.
Knock yourself out. I’d put more up, were it not that I’m on dialup and I don’t like you that much anyway.
Tomorrow off to Jackson and the Tetons for two days.

Greetings from Yellowstone

Airport Fun

So I’m going through Salt Lake City today and this Wal-mart target demo fam parks it right in the middle of the path, nearly forcing me into their horde of supersized spawn and airport-appropriate rubber flipflops.
“Jesus!” I muttered under my breath, as I turned to circumvent..
Mom does a 180, gets all bug-eyed and snaps, “IS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!”
Not quite the apology I was looking for, but twas fairly witty…
Anyway, my moms and I are parked about 20-odd miles outside of Yeller-stone. Nothing but rain on the drive out here, but at least we’re living large in the Caddy DTS. So eco-friendly.

Nothing says fun like… WYOMING!?

Off to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole for a week.
My itinerary thus far:

• Use new Canon 30D, take many many pictures — since so few of the area exist..
• Hike (like, duh)
• Indulge my disaster fetishism. ‘Resurgent caldera’ sounds hawt, huh? ‘Supervolcano?’ Pfft! Too tarty.
• Avoid being taken as a mate by a moose… there’s been some hanging around SF, I’m told it’s me
• Fashion meself a coon-skin hat… Or perhaps a pashmina
• Be more like local Harrison Ford: get loaded, fly private plane, crash
• Answer: can Old Faithful be used as a bidet?

Home Sweet Home

…and it’s a BEUT-TEE-FUL day in San Francisco.
Guess what I’m gonna do?
Watch TV and sleep. That’s right. And I’m damn excited about it.
Flight was OK, aside from the World’s Worst Indian — verified by the Indian woman traveling with me on my flight. He couldn’t figure out his chair controls, and was crawling around on all fours after all the lights were turned out for at least 20 minutes. That was followed by a loud argument for with his wife, and then a skirmish involving his attempt to steal my blanket.
This after my hotel in Seoul was packed with rude Indian biz guys — again verified by my Indian colleague. (Just trying to avoid any unpleasant labels.)
When I got on the plane, we both agreed we were sick of the Asian lack of respect for personal space but knew we’d get it the second we landed in SF. Sure enough, the first two people to raise my hackles — one ran into me with his luggage cart with no apology, another jammed up the auto-turnstyle by jamming his luggage at the last moment — were Asian. Granted, this is San Francisco.
Perhaps I should try Kansas for some wingnut fundie white people as a relaxer.
Tomorrow: why Amazon can suck my sack and nature’s least respected friend to humanity: the squirrel.
Perhaps I’m making that last part up. But Amazon can suck it. Big time.

Homeward Bound

Away for a month, I’m more than ready to come home. Hotel laundry services don’t leave my clothes Downey fresh, and my wallet is overflowing with 4 types of currency. I have a pile of receipts which I dread making sense of for my expense report. (And those whacky Chinese don’t even give you receipts, only official government notes in the amount of the sale.)
The other day I had to head out to a town called Jeonju, about 2.5 hours outside of Seoul, where we had recently acquired a small company. The driver was at the hotel 7am sharp and whisked us confidently off to our destination… except that he took us to Cheongju, a town in a different providence and about 2 hours in the wrong direction. He showed me the destination on his dispatch sheet, but since it was written in Korean, it could of been a recipe for Kimchi for all I know. After raising someone on the phone that spoke both English and Korean, we were finally headed in the right direction. There’s several other cities that all sound phonetically similar to me in the area, but these people seem to keep it all straight. At least I got to see some of Korea by car — quite pleasant with it’s lush green hills with creepy fog hugging the tops.
I had a “Jeonju lunch” which culminated in a local favorite rice dish. Mr. SomethingOrAnother excitedly explained that I could make it at home by taking the rice left in the rice cooker and mixing it with water.
“So… I see. It’s burnt rice water?” I confirmed.
Yum. Indeed. It sports a lovely rusted-orange hue with chewey chunks of rice cooker scrapings. Note to self: before putting rice cooker in sink to soak, consider as gift to Jeonju.
In about 8 hours I’ll be over the Pacific hopefully fast asleep in Asiana’s sub-standard business class. And nothing could make me happier…
A view from my hotel room in Seoul:

Random Shanghai

In Seoul and finally headed home tomorrow evening.
Much too busy to post much, so here’s a mixed bag from Shanghai:

I Think I got Married

…what’s with the Chinese language Google ads? Me thinks something no workie right.