Brace yourselves! I don't want the shock of seeing a new post from me to cause any cardiac events. Honestly, steady yourselves because with healthcare insurance in a flux, you may or may not be covered.
After a non-stop deluge of activity around here (and none of it particularly exciting) I have a bit of time to chat.
Just to catch you up a bit....we have been on a never ending "remodel" of our house. What started out with the intention of remodeling one bathroom but that quickly morphed into multiple rooms getting a major "redo". Clearly, we are insane.
If my mind and house weren't in enough chaos, we had out-of-town guests for a few days last week. Now...don't misunderstand me! I love having guests. Truly, I do! Just come and visit me and I will prove it to you. BUT...and this is a fairly hefty BUT....it is often hard to entertain people that are very different in their interests and/or tastes than you are. No criticism, you understand. It's just a case of different strokes for different folks.
This became painfully clear last week while trying to entertain people that live very differently in every aspect than we do. That is not to say that their life is any better or worse than ours... but just different than ours. Living in a large metropolitan city of over 3 million people is not everyone's lifestyle choice. I get it!! Traffic, congestion, lack of personal space seems to make people crazy if they are used to rural living. I totally understand that. I have lived in rural areas and small towns and find the peaceful, wide-open spaces wonderful. Unfortunately, if you are staying in my guest room, I can't remove it from the geographical area of Kansas City.
Which is leading me to today's subject. If you were in a new location (even if it was for a few days) aren't you even a least bit curious about "what's things are interesting?", "what is there to do?" or "what is there to eat?" Are you a curious person????
Hubby and I are both major players on team "curiosity". We are the type of people that drive the back roads to wherever we go, pull off the road to read historical markers, and visit museums that no one would actually consider to be a "real" museum. In cities that we are unfamiliar with, we seek out the local points of interest with the same fervor that the FBI tracks down one of the most wanted.
The subject of how different people's level of participation in "things to do and see" became evident recently when we were visiting a local museum here in KC in the River Market part of town. There is a museum here that houses a pre-Civil War steamboat, paddle wheeler (Steamboat Arabia) that was dug up from 45 foot under the Missouri River. It sunk in 1856 while hauling 222 TONS of pre-Civil War goods to towns along the Missouri River. Thanks to the glorious mud that sealed off all manner of air and light, the cargo came up not showing a bit of wear and tear. Well...except for a mule that went down with the ship....he doesn't look quite as good as he did when the boat sank.
Anyhow...as I was saying about people with regards to their level of curiosity...there were a couple of people from New York in the tour that were totally fascinated by the artifacts and asked a lot of questions. (LOVED THEM!) and they mentioned that they had dragged their Kansas City relatives whom they were visiting to see the museum. The Kansas kin folk had never visited the museum and it was apparent to me and anyone that saw them there was a definite lack of enthusiasm on their part for the sight of an enormous paddlewheel that was hauled out of the muck of the Missouri River.
Two days later while we continued to force-feed our guests more KC tourist attractions, we signed up for the Boulevard Brewery tour. AGAIN... I see different levels of enthusiasm among the crowd for drinking free beer. OK...even if Boulevard Wheat or Pale Ale isn't your alcoholic cup of tea...IT's FREE!!! Let's show some enthusiasm, folks.
I realize this need to see all that is to be seen stems from a long line of curious kin folk. You might remember in long ago written posts, that even as a small child riding around on the rear deck of my dad's old car (safety be damned in the 50's and 60's) we stopped to see every Civil War site, haunted house, cave, or "odd" museum that was in the continental U.S. If there was a point of interest to be seen off of some random state highway, it beckoned us to stop and savor it's greatness. There hardly exists a state that I haven't traveled the back roads to see some funky and unusual "claim to fame".
So, my blogger friends...I invite you to come to visit any ole time you want but beware that you will be wrangled into eating at old dive barbecue joints, visit random museums, traipse around Country Club Plaza and you may possibly be forced to drink free beer. Don't say I haven't warned you. I hope you like adventures.
On my last post, I left off with our traveling south from Koblenz...appropriately named Going South. Clever, huh?
We continued our journey south to see some of the 40 castles and fortresses that still exists along the Middle Rhine. The Middle Rhine is one of four sections of the river. Actually there are more than 40 castles and fortresses in this section according to some sources....those say correct number is 48. ("po-tate-o... po-tah-to",... it's still a lot of castles and fortresses) The Middle Rhine runs the length of the river between Bonn, Germany and Bingen, Germany. One of the most expedient ways to see a lot of these, would be to take one of the Rhine cruises. However, if you are there in December, you have to check to see what cruises are available. Many of the tourist cruises end on October 31st. We chose to drive the distance so we had the luxury of stopping where and when we wanted. Today, I am going to talk about just two stops. I fear that I am already past the point of boring you with our itinerary.
Thought Number One: Stolzenfels Castle
No sooner had we left the city of Koblenz heading south...thinking our next stop would be in Boppert when we saw the prettiest castle sitting up on the bluff...which of course meant we needed to scope it out.
According to Europedia, the Stolzenfels Castle is open to the public everyday of the year for tours. What I quickly determined is that Europedia is as accurate at Wikipedia...which means that I wasn't horribly shocked to see:
We, however, weren't deterred from walking around. While my photography skills don't do justice to how pretty the setting actually is...it truly is no less than spectacular. (My husband's camera does a bit better job capturing the richness of the colors but neither can capture the true beauty of the place.) There is a winding trail that goes up to the castle past a chapel and a gate house.
A little background about the castle:
The castle was built in 1259 as a toll station on the Rhine until 1412.
It was occupied by several countries including Sweden in 1632 and France in 1634 and 1646.
The French destroyed much of it in 1689 during the Palatinate Succession War.
After the defeat of Napoleon, the town of Koblenz demanded ownership and gave the ruins to the Prussian Prince Royal, Friedrich Wilhelm.
In 1836 the castle was restored to it's original glory.
Thought Number Two: Bacharach, Germany
After making stops in several towns along the way, each being more charming than the last, we pulled into Bacharach and parked next to one of the old fortress towers.
My husband had been to Bacharach a couple of other times prior to my arrival, so you will notice some differences in the pictures. The day, I arrived, the town had Christmas markets in the streets.
Bacharach has two very prominent tourist draws. One of them being the ruins of an ancient chapel. The Werner Chapel, unfortunately, has a tragic story attached to it. The chapel was first built in 1289 to honor a 16 year old named Werner ofOberwesel who was murdered. The murder was blamed on the Jewish community and the accusations brought with it a number of crimes against the Jewish population.
The chapel remained uncompleted and was further damaged by the French when they destroyed Stahleck Castle that was located just up the hill.
What remains of Werner Chapel, however, is the architectural skeleton of what is some of the most enduring examples of Gothic art used in design of buildings.
The real attraction to the area is the Stahleck Castle that sits further up onto the hillside.
Background of the castle:
There is no clear evidence when the castle was built but it is believed to be around 1135 AD.
The castle was sacked 8 times over the course of its history leaving it in various states of ruin.
It was finally beyond repair when the French destroyed it in 1689. The French not only decisively destroyed the castle but also, destroyed Werner Chapel as well.
In 1909, the castle footings and remaining walls were stabilized so work could begin to rebuild it.
By 1925 it was rebuilt incorporating the remains of the original structure, with the help of Erst Stahl. His intent was to rebuild it in it's original "spirit". The newly rebuilt castle was intended to be a hostel.
During the First and Second World Wars, the buildings were taken over and used by the Third Reich for various reasons including an indoctrination camp for the young men of Germany.
It returned to a youth hostel in 1947.
Today it houses over 42,000 overnight stays a year. The 168 beds are nearly always reserved.
So...that is where, I will leave off for today.
Next week, I will show you Amsterdam.
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To pick up the tour from where we left off...Day One was spent in Andernach, Germany just getting a peek at the many of the historical remnants left in a town that was founded by the Romans on the site of a Celtic settlement before 12 BC.
Careful planning helps get everything accomplished
While we weren't finished seeing the sights in Andernach, our plan was to circle back later in the week to meet up with friends and finish our "sight seeing." We had created an itinerary for the week and the following morning we were preparing to drive to Köln....or if you prefer the English name that is Cologne.
I was recently talking to another blogger about how we prepare for trips. Here's how we approach travel...When our time is unlimited and flexible, there is something to be said for just "flying by the seat of your pants." That is taking each day as it comes. However, when there are time constraints and we are only in a country for a limited amount of time, there is something to be said for planning very carefully on the front side of the trip so we can make the most of our time limitations. That was the case for this trip. I had 10 days to work in as much as I could, knowing that even with the most careful, preemptive planning, I wouldn't get everything seen. With that being said, hubby had already made hotel reservations, purchased train tickets, routed day trips etc. prior to my arrival.
There are meats, cheese, yogurt, and soft boiled eggs.
Luckily for me, my husband had the luxury of knowing the area very well as he had been living in Weissenthurm at that point for 85 days. Unlike prior trips we have taken from the vantage point of being totally unfamiliar with an area, it was quite helpful that he had already visited all the places that I wanted to visit. In fact, he had been to some of the locations several times and had a working knowledge of how to get around.
After spending my first night at the guesthouse, the Rhein Hotel, we got up for our breakfast. As hubby has been living there, Mama makes his breakfast every morning at 9 AM. The breakfast is typical German fare....meat, cheese, yogurt, bread, and soft boiled egg. The breakfasts don't vary much from hotel to hotel. You might get a few extra choices if you pick an American chain hotel.(Notice: I said "you might" so don't get your hopes up.) At one restaurant we went to, there was some scrambled eggs and we were the only people in the place that recognized their "deliciousness.". The fact that my husband ran to them with the same eagerness as a crack addict scoring crack, might of scared the other patrons off...but to be fair he has gone nearly 3 months eating a singular soft boiled egg and sliced meat for breakfast. I gave him points for not physically maiming someone over the little pan of bacon that was on the same buffet table as the eggs.
Driving into the city center
While I am taking a momentary detour to talk about German breakfasts....In most cases, the eggs are served soft boiled. The "container' next to the egg cup keeps the egg hot until you eat it. For those of you living outside of the U.S. that might think this is so obvious that it is not worthy of being mentioned. You would be wrong. It is very unusual to have eggs served soft boiled in most parts of the U.S. I would bet money on the fact, if you handed most people here in the states an egg spoon, they would be looking around the room trying to get a clue how to use it. I might go so far as to say most men would be crackin' the shell of that bad boy on the table.
In honor of my first morning at The Rhein Hotel, Mama served us apple strudel fresh out of the oven. It really is a shame that smells and sounds can't be incorporated into blogs. While strudel isn't normal breakfast food there...it really should be.
After breakfast, we packed an overnight bag and set out for Koln. We chose to drive to Koln as it is just 57 miles. Considering the highway speeds are over 100 MPH, it doesn't take very long to get from point A to Point B.
Arriving into Koln has a similar feel of other large cities or at least at first glance...lots of commercial buildings and a lot of traffic. However, as we got closer to the city center, we started seeing some of the charm of the city.
Our first order of business, was to find our hotel. Again, we had chosen a small local hotel over one of the larger chain hotels because we were hopeful to experience a little more of the local flavor than previous trips when we stayed in recognizable chain hotels. As I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, we booked rooms off of bookings.com (the European equivalent to hotels.com) The Cerano Hotel had excellent customer reviews and a lot of pictures that looked as most European hotels do...very contemporary in decor.
Husband is usually walking ahead because I tend to pause to look at things.
Many of the smaller hotels in the city center are tucked in on unassuming side streets that have a bit of an "ally" quality about them. One-way alleys with no apparent place to park. We knew that there was to be a private parking garage with our room. (FYI...we knew this because if one wants to park a car one gets to pay for the pleasure....we happily paid for a space.)
The hotel turned out to be a lovely place to stay. The group of owners, that refer to themselves as "like family" were gracious and welcoming. The breakfast the following morning, was not only tasty but the presentation was beautiful. The young girl that makes the breakfasts made each dish a work of art. I wish I could of brought myself to be the consummate tourist and take pictures of all her little "tapas style" plates so you could appreciate how pretty everything was. Alas, I couldn't reduce myself to that level and it didn't help that the next table over the people were all speaking French. Eavesdropping on their conversation, I figured out they were from Switzerland. Anyway, I concluded they were the type of people that would NOT take pictures of their breakfast.
Our room for the night
BUT...on the day of our arrival, after getting checked in and getting the car into the garage, we set off for the Cologne Cathedral. From the hotel it was a quick five minute walk.
The Cathedral is the most visited tourist site in Germany averaging more than 20,000 people visiting per DAY. No matter what faith a person might have, the Cathedral is jaw-dropping in it's scale and majesty. While we aren't Roman Catholic, I had to respect the fact that at least a portion of the people in the church weren't tourists. I suspect a rather small portion judging by the obvious "touristy" look of the swarms that were milling around the church. Plus...call me crazy, but most worshippers don't bring their cameras to Mass.
[Side Note.....Actually, I found this rather odd that all the towns we visited had historical churches that were wide open for tourists to come into. In fact, I found that a bit unsettling. The people that were actually in the churches lighting candles or praying seemed oblivious to the crowds of gawkers.]
A little bit of history concerning the cathedral....The construction of the cathedral commenced in 1248 and after several stops and starts was finally completed in 1880.
It is 144.5 metres (474 ft) long, 86.5 m (284 ft) wide and its towers are approximately 157 m (515 ft) tall.[3] The cathedral is the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe. Its two huge spires give it the largest facade of any church in the world. The choir has the largest height to width ratio, 3.6:1, of any medieval church.
The church houses a number of valuable art and historical treasures but one of the most noted is the Shrine of the Magi. The Shrine is a large gilded and decorated triple sarcophagus that is believe to hold the bones of the Three Wise Men.
The exterior of the Shrine is covered in a total of seven feet of gilded silver and jewels. Images of Old Testament prophets line the bottom while the twelve apostles decorate the top. It is considered the high point of Mosan art. In 1864 the shrine was opened and three skeletons were found inside; one of a young man, another of a middle aged man, and the third of an older man
A few additional facts about the Cathedral....
The cathedral suffered fourteen hits by aerial bombs during World War II. It did not collapse, but stood tall in an otherwise flattened city. The great twin spires are said to have been used as an easily recognizable navigational landmark by Allied aircraft raiding deeper into Germany in the later years of the war, which may be a reason that the cathedral was not destroyed. The stained glass windows were removed during the war to keep them from being damaged and were later reinstalled.
(the picture above that shows the church standing in the midst of WWII's devastation of the city. The photo came from a Flickr account of Kevin Trotman
Some repair and maintenance work is constantly being carried out in some section of the building, which is almost never completely free of scaffolding, since wind, rain, and pollution slowly eat away at the stones. The Dombauhütte, which was established to build the cathedral and repair the cathedral, is said to employ the best stonemasons of the Rhineland. It is said that once a person is hired to work on the church, the job is theirs for life.
The Cathedral has 11 bells...four of which are medieval. The largest of the bells is the Bell of St. Peter which weighs 24 ton. It is the largest free swinging bell in the world.
Perhaps being the only lay person entombed in the Cathedral isn't without it's down side
There are a number of tombs in the Cathedral. However, Count Gottfried of Arnsberg was the only layperson to be buried in the choir of the Gothic cathedral along side archbishops and saints in the Middle Ages. During his lifetime he transferred his entire estate to the archiepiscopal state of Cologne. The sandstone tomb chest is decorated with mourning figures, coats of arms, and helmets. The gisant of the count, which is protected by an arched iron grid, shows him in full armour. Legend has it that the grid was put in place to protect the recumbent effigy of the deceased from being vandalised by disappointed relations.
Next time we will be going to the Christmas Markets...stay tuned.
I know some of you purists out there that feel the need to think in a systematic, organized way are wondering why I am posting "Day ONE" when I already posted a post named Day Two. [Day Two link] Well...because it's my blog and I can play fast and loose with the timeline...but in reality that post was referring to the day, I posted it...not what we did on day two. The REAL Day Two post will be coming soon.
So...to bring you up to speed,....when I first got into Germany, I landed in Frankfort at 11:45 AM German time...but, of course, that is 4:45 AM Kansas City time. I know some people struggle with jet lag but that has never been the case for me. As a regular member of Club Insomnia, being awake at 4:45 wouldn't be out of the norm anyway.
The Guest House where Hubby was residing is 79 miles down the autobahn (or 127 Km if you prefer the metric system) away so we first had to get back to his place. I might point out to those of you that haven't been to Germany before, you might want to brace yourself for a really fast commute. While there are speed limits, no one ever uses them. Hubby was going over 110 and people were passing us like we were sitting still. I am fairly confident that some of them were calling us "pussies" but as I don't speak German..so I am not entirely certain of that.
After dropping off my bags in his room, I was anxious to go see some Germany. Weissenthurm is a small little town with a couple of notable historical sights but on that first day, we went 6 miles to Andernach where hubby has been working the last three months.
I have been to quite a few German towns but Andernach is one of the most interesting, quaint and charming towns along the Rhein in my opinion. It is, also, one of the oldest towns in Germany having celebrated a "Bimillenary feast" in 1988.
A few other little facts.... First of all, the pronunciation isn't "Ander-nak". It's something akin to "On-der-nuukk"...with the nuk part sounding like you are trying to clear your throat.
Andernach is a town of about 30,000 people. It sits on the left bank of the Rhein River and the people there have there own German dialect. The dialect is considered Low German. One of the local residents that had a working knowledge of English told me that they can't understand the German (High German) spoken in other parts of Germany. I was tempted to say "Welcome to my world...I can't understand any of you" but I thought that might not make the best impression. Their dialect, by the way is called Annenach.
Andernach was settled in 12 BC by the Romans. The town is surrounded by the medieval remnants of the fortifications that surrounded the town. There are also, the remains of a castle, a toll bastion, and a geyser. Yes, you read that correctly...there is the world's highest cold water geyser is in Andernach, Germany.
But back to our tour...One of our first stops was the Round Tower.
The Round Tower is one of the original 5 towers, two gates and wall that acted as a fortress for the city. Construction of the tower began in 1440 and completed in 1443. The French troops of Ludwig XIV tried to blow it up in 1689 but all he managed to do was knock a bit of a dent into it. Currently it is a museum open on weekends allowing visitors to walk up to the top.
Ludwig XIV dented it but didn't destroy it
climbing, climbing, climbing
view from the tippy-top of the tower
After leaving the tower we walked through a historic church and then toward the the downtown area where there was a small Christmas Market and a pageant taking place.
Going through one of the old fortress gates toward the town square
Getting closer
Nearly There
Let's Eat, Drink and Be Merry
This was a tiny little market compared to the ones we went to later in the week. At this point it's time to head back to Weissenthurm but we return to Andernach to see the castle, bastion and geyser. Crabby Pant's Tour bus will pick up where we left off on the next post...
Today is an auspicious day here at TAOBC. This post is #400. Yep, after 400 posts you would think I would have gotten blog writing down down to a science, wouldn't you? You would be wrong.
Case in point, you might of noticed the absence of my Friday Weird news roundup last week. I actually had some things going on that didn't allow me to sit and while away (waste) hours at the computer. I hear you asking "what would be more important than blogging?" Here's what happened.
Thought Number One....Fun (**sarcasm**) Things Happen When Husbands Are Out of Town
Every "wife of a traveling man" will agree with me that if their husband travels extensively, these two things will happen.
1. When they are IN town, life will hum along easy-breezy and hubby will secretly wonder what you do with your time. (Actually there are a few that have been known to actually say out loud, "Don't you ever get bored?" Some of those men learned that question isn't met with a favorable response.)
Hubby is in Paris so I can't blame him.
2. BUT...when husbands are OUT of town, something BIG will break, someone will get sick or a natural disaster will strike. Sometimes all three will happen simultaneously...this is more likely if the traveling husband is not able to be reached by phone.
As far as last week goes and the reason for the missing post is....
Wait....make that the REASONS for the missing post are:
A. Poor time management
B. Lack of inspiration
C. Preparing for my trip to Europe
D. Leaves plaguing me with their messy and time consuming cleanup
E. Mother Nature is a mother-sumthin-sumthin
F. All of the Above
Some of you might remember a post I did quite awhile ago called Spitting in the Wind [link] in which my darling husband attempted to repair a sprinkler head in our irrigation system which resulted in an emergency call to the company that installed it. (sorry, honey, but those little keys that come with Hunter irrigation systems are Kryptonite to your Superman ...you know it, I know it and the Hunter repair guys know it.)
While my house isn't exactly Tara, the water spout is pretty accurate.
Luckily for him but unluckily for me, the very same sprinkler system, didn't respond favorably to the unseasonably cold temperatures that went from 53 degrees Fahrenheit to 17 degrees in the time span of less than 24 hours. I didn't get "wind" of this until I was picking up my grandson from school and my cell phone rang. A very concerned neighbor wondered if I was home. WELL...let me just say IF I was home, I might of noticed the geyser in the front yard that was shooting higher than the second story gable of my house. What to do? It's past 5 PM so the irrigation company is closed and the city water department is closed and my neighbors are watching the equivalent of Old Faithful. The big difference is my geyser is causing a frozen mess.
Did I happen to mention that just a few days prior to the big break, I had a new patio poured and there was new sod put in? Of course, because trying to figure out how to shut off an irrigation valve isn't stressful enough without adding the component of freezing a yard of freshly laid fescue sod.
Never fear, I made my way home to a crowd of onlookers that were audibly "oohing and ahhing" over how pretty iced trees look and inaudibly thanking their lucky stars it was my house and not theirs.
I paged an emergency number to both the city and the irrigation company and in slightly less than two hours, I got a response. I might mention here that two hours with two little boys watching the pretty water show along with a group of "plumbing-challenged" neighbors feels more like an eternity.
BTW...I don't fault either company for a slow response, as there were irrigation system backflow valves all over town exploding. This freezing temperatures are unheard of for this time of year and no one had winterized their irrigation systems. To enforce the lesson to take care of that earlier next year, the city guy did mention, that I am probably going to be getting a hell of a water bill. Evidently geysers go through a lot of water.
Thought Number Two: Where to Go From Here
So, anyway...those were some of my excuses reasons for the Friday post being MIA.
On the occasion of this 400th post, I just wanted to say to all my readers how appreciative I am of you. I know a lot of you have been here from the beginning and endured the "learning as I go" process that went with TAOBC. You were here with inspiration and support even when the reader count didn't warrant me to continue. I thank you for you readership and comments. Both of those things make me very happy.
Also, a big THANK YOU to the bloggers that have always been supportive of me and have become good friends. (This is especially true of the Blogdumps group that have been here from the very first months of TAOBC.)
AND to some of the newest blog readers and blog writers that have more recently connected with me (or is it Crabby Pants that you are reaching out to?) I am creatively renewed when I see new people visiting.
As for the future of The Art of Being Conflicted...I hate to say it but for the next month or so, my posts may be scattered and irregular. Seems a bit disingenuous on my part to thank you for you loyal readership and then tell you that I am probably going to be sporadic in my writing for awhile...just know that I am terribly conflicted about that.
Fair warning...
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Just in time for summer travel...Google is improving it's maps and gas prices are moving up. If you are under the false impression that one of those things is good and the other is bad...you are sadly mistaken. I for one, love the quirks of Google's map miscalculations. A few years ago they did away with the directions that had us swimming from the U.S. to Europe. That was a real step backward as far as reading Google maps for the sheer entertainment value. Who needs accuracy when you need some comedic relief during travel?
It may be hard to see...but Google wants us to swim 3,462 miles.
Dare, I start this week's round up by uttering a word that is considered by some to be a "dirty" word. Apple..there I said it. Even the Apple loyalists might be a bit miffed this week. Oh...not because of the impending release of the IPhone 5 ...they have been waiting ever so eagerly for that...no..it is the realization that all the gadgets such as alarm clocks, docking stations, and speakers that they have accumulated will no longer work. Apple changed the charger on this model of IPhone.
The reason I am bringing up the "ever so touchy" subject of Apple, is that earlier this week the Temecula, California store was broken into by two bumbling burglars that seemed to be off their game.
It's So Hard to Leave
The less-than-efficient thieves and/or Apple product enthusiasts had the brilliant idea to drive their BMW through the front windows of the store and help themselves to all the shiny cool must-haves they could grab. (who can blame them, really?...that logo just reels people in)
What the robbers didn't count on was a security gate that kept them from exiting once they were in there. While frantically trying to escape from the store, two of the BMW's tires popped. (guess their next place to rob needs to be a Goodyear store).
As luck (bad) would have it, upon their exit they managed to drop their license plate. This fact was noticed when the driver, Equonne R. Howard, stopped down at the 7-11 and tried to fix the tires with a stolen can of Fix-A-Flat. (Equonne just keeps making wise choices, huh?)
Alas, Equonne made his final mistake of the day when he decided to return to the Apple store to retrieve his license plate. The Riverside Sheriff's Office arrested him. He is being held on a $600,000.00 bond which coincidentally is the estimated damage to the store.
What was Equonne thinking???? The new IPhone isn't available until the week of the 27th. If you are going to go to the trouble to steal at least wait for the newest technology.
It's the Thought That Counts
Isn't it fun to get a greeting card?
A former nursing student in San Diego has pleaded guilty to helping inmates sneak in meth-laced greeting cards into jail.
I think the card that says "hi" meant "high"
Nicoll Koval had already been sentenced and imprisoned for her involvement in a hit-and-run- incident that she was convicted of in 2011 (seems she has a problem with staying out of trouble)
Proving herself to be a good team player, while in prison she conspired with a fellow inmate to smuggle in greeting cards that had been soaked in liquid meth, dried out and sent to other inmates. Inmates that recieved the cards would then heat them up to release the meth. (do jail cells have stoves/microwaves now?)
Gretchen von Helms, Koval's lawyer, said her client was tricked into participating in the scheme.
What's better than a greeting card that plays music? I think we have an answer now. I can't get over the fact that people in jail are cooking up a pot of greeting cards and no one thinks that's odd.
Not Exactly a First Class Seat
This story will end any lingering questions as to what is the worst seat on a plane. If you think it is in the back row next to the bathroom...you would be wrong. The real answer is ...it is the seat that this little monkey had on a trip to India. The monkey in question is a loris It is a small nocturnal species of monkey that is gaining popularity as a pet. The poor little guy was traveling in the pants...yes..as in the underwear of a man attempting to board a flight at New Delhi's international airport. Customs officials arrested an Indian man with a monkey in his underwear.
That was the worst trip ever.
The man was detained with two other travelers that had arrived from Bangkok and were trying to get on their connecting flight to Dubai. The monkey was discovered during a security check.
Customs
authorities in India arrested all three men who were attempting to board the flight and found a second loris in the underwear of the second man and yet another loris they had stashed in a trash bin when they were unable to keep it hidden. The men are accused of smuggling endangered primates. All the animals were turned over to an organization that deals with wildlife and conservation.
There is just so many things wrong with this story!! The security check was prompted because an official noticed an unusual bulge in a traveler's pants. Really? How often can that be said as the reason you get patted down? This monkey had taken a flight from Bangkok to New Delhi and no one noticed anything unusual?
And One More for the Road
Americans do love their bacon and that will be put to the test over the next week or so. A promotion of a new line of bacon called Butcher Thick Cut Bacon by Oscar Mayer has one man traveling across the country without any money, without any charge cards, nothing but 3000 pounds of bacon to use as barter.
Josh Sankey will be traveling from New York City to Los Angeles using nothing but bacon to acquire food, lodging and fuel. He is due to arrive in LA on September 23rd.
Sankey is chronicling his trip on his Twitter Account Account and on a web siteBacon Barter. As of last Wednesday he was in Louisville, KY where he had bartered some bacon for a nights stay in someones basement. His host got a new bacon themed tattoo to support his guest's cause.
Evidently the Ritz isn't taking bacon for their rooms. If you are craving some thick sliced bacon you might want to reach out to Josh and invite him over for the night. I wonder how much bacon it takes to fill up a gas tank these days?
Middle-aged (if I become a centenarian) living a middle-class life in the very middle of the country and continually struggling with the pros and cons of every topic. Seriously, conflicted.
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