Christmas time in "The Town"

Christmas time in "The Town"
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

I'm settling back into "normalcy" after Christmas today. Work was busy but very quiet today, and I was actually quite productive. I even risked my personal freedom for art today, snapping this picture outside our office building just as a security guard came around to hassle me about taking pictures here. Apparently they have some sort of post 9-11 no photography policy that nobody really knows about. I actually intended to go back and retake this picture in a portrait orientation, but I guess after the stern warning I got today I'll not be showing up with a tripod tomorrow. What did I do for Christmas you ask? Well lets start with the weekend, Where W and I got some work done on our cars, new tires for the Mitsubishi, and a rotation for the jeep, plus the semi-annual smog check for the Mitsubishi. Next it was off to W's co-worker Morly's house for an open house. The invite said 5:30 to 8:00, and sure enough everyone bailed promptly at the prescribed time. We sat around and chatted and laughed for much longer than that. Sunday I worked, and you can imagine how crazy it was 2 days before Christmas. For Christmas eve I spent way too long hanging out at a Boston Market picking up the food for W's work party. I arrived at 1:00 just like I was supposed to, only to discover they couldn't find our order. I reordered, and they said they'd have it ready in 10 minutes. 60 minutes later a bag of food comes out that does not include everything I had paid for. I stroll up say its not all their and the cashier promises me they're making it up now. 30 minutes later when I decided I'd just take a refund and leave, the cashier disappears into the kitchen and comes out with my mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cornbread. I found out later I was still one cornbread and 2 gravys short of Christmas dinner. The lesson here? Pick up your food from Boston Market a day early, otherwise you can expect to get completely screwed. Its just going to sit in your fridge anyway, so pick it up early. Or just don't give those jerks your money at all. I went home and whipped up some braised short ribs for dinner and W and I cooked up more mashed potatoes and gravy when she got home. I actually spent Christmas day at the airport on purpose, enjoying a nice dinner that I'd worked way to hard for with W and her coworkers.

Getting Myself Straightened Out

So life is boring again with no pictures to take and no trips to plan. The highlight of the week is the arrival of Big Brain academy; Wii degree at the house. It's a game for the Wii that you're supposed to play a little bit of each day so you'll be smarter. It is to your brain what Wii sports is to your body. See that, I'm already smarter, throwing in an old school SAT analogy for your reading pleasure. Wendy and I stayed up way too late the night after her last final drinking gin and tonics and competing in brain tests. Work was not fun the next day after that. Last week was also the office Christmas party, and we played my second ever mystery game. This time I was the lawyer of a wealthy man who had recently been murdered. It was a fun role because it had a big speaking (reading) part, and I got to dress up. I rocked a bow tie for the occasion and won the prize for best dressed. I wanted to enjoy a few more drinks, but since only snacks were served I had to stop when I noticed I slurred a word or two. (Company party + drinks + empty stomach + reading a fake will in front of everyone= potential embarrassment)The weekend went by way too fast. I put in an extra 2 hours at the BRO since they're desperate for help this time of year and I have lots of little things to pay for. Which brings us to today when I began my invisalign orthodontic treatment. I have to wear the mouth pieces as much as possible and remove them when I eat, then I'm supposed to brush my teeth and floss and then shove them right back in. I can assure you I'm going to starve. Choosing between another snack or not having to brush my teeth for the seventh time for the day starts to be an easier and easier call. They're squeezing my teeth fairly hard too, and its occasionally uncomfortable. They're also not quite as invisible as I hoped, but that may be my own perception, not that of others who don't really seem to notice. In 18 months I should have a movie star smile. Things around the office are awfully quiet, I'm one of the few people not taking any extra days off. I really do wish I was going home for Christmas. Its been 3 years since the last time I was home for Christmas, and I'd really just like my yearly egg nog with mom after late night service and too wake up to a big plate of sticky buns and sour cream kuchen, and a cup of Barney's Santa's White Christmas coffee.

tschüs

Our second day in Munich began as we ate our typical German breakfast of bread, cheese and salami in our room. We needed to fuel ourselves for a busy day if we were
going to see anything in Munich at all. Our first stop would be the Enlishcer Garten. Its on the list of the must sees, so being good tourists we decided we'd start our day there. In order to get there we had to pass through the Hofgarten of the Residenz, where we snapped lots of pictures and explored. Then we got to the Englisher Garten and were nearly overrun by marauding ducks. Actually they were quite friendly and turned right around when they figured out we weren't going to feed them.

We studied the map and realized we couldn't possibly explore the entire park in the time we had so we wanted to at least go find the waterfall and then head on to the Residenz. The waterfall was gorgeous, and seemed like a really great thing to have in the middle of a city. After a few minutes taking pictures and enjoying the sights and sounds at the waterfall it was time to work our way to the Residenz. We wanted to see a castle while in Germany, and this was the closest that we were going to get.

No Surfing Allowed
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

On our way out we passed the best surfing in Germany, but I thought it was a little chilly for me to jump in. Even the Wikipedia entry describes this as an unenforced sign, it just made us laugh to see this crazy man surfing out in the cold.
When we get to the Residenz we're surprised to see how reasonable a ticket was, and the price includes free use of the self guided tour. We chose to see the treasury first, and realized we were in trouble when the description of the first item in the collection lasted at least three minutes. We had to choose carefully what to listen to or we would have been there all day.
There were some really great items in the collection, but alas no flash photography. So some of my pictures are either dark or shaky or both, You have to check your backpack, and I neglected to take my tripod out before checking my bag. Coolest items include the one pictured here, and the baby's rattle that was attached to a badger claw. I can't hear badger without thinking of the addictive phenomenon that is badgerbadgerbadger.com. After reviewing all the items in the treasury it was off to tour the rooms of the Residenz. It's huge inside and serves as what the tour called a "museum of decoration". The walls and the furniture were very interesting to look at, and we tried to speed through because we still had a lot of day to go.

Antiquarium
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Not to mention the fact we'd already walked around a lot and our German breakfast was starting to wear off. If you make your way to Munich some day the courtyard and the Antiquarium shown here are absolute must sees. They are the oldest rooms in the Residenz and are amazing to look at the detail they contain. We were starving after our two tours, so it was time to grab a pastry and a coffee at the San Francisco Coffee Company. I know it sounds ridiculous, but the coffee was quite good, and we sat at a little table outside and had a nice little rest. Our next mission was to check out the Victualmarkt, a farmers market where your average resident of munich shops for food for the next few days. We detoured to get some lunch and bumped into the Christmas market, so we wandered around downtown menu shopping for the perfect lunch. The last street we turned down before committing to a restaurant led us to the world famous Hofbrauhaus. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the prices were reasonable, and they had the red cabbage that Francie wanted to eat and the Schweinhaxen that I wanted. We pulled up at a table (you seat yourself wherever and with whomever you can and wait patiently? for someone to come wait on you. We had some giant beers and a delicious lunch and overall a pretty fabulous time. By the time we got out it was time to explore the Christmas market, enjoy some more gluhwein and take in the Glockenspiel for its 5:00 performance. We position ourselves nicely with cameras in hand, and waited. Except that for some reason the moment never came. Long after the 5:00 church bells rang the clock stood still and we had to move on. I'd been called a glockenspiel many times in life and was finally about to witness one in action, and it left me more than a little disappointed.

Sunset at the Christmas Market
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

Hmm, Guess this just means I have to go back. We took in the rest of the market, visited the frauenkirche, (No pictures inside of course) and then were ready to go back to Tollwood for dinner. We grabbed some brats and some crepes and then sat down in our same tent from the night before and enjoyed a beer. It was a great finish to our day. The next morning it was off to the train, still a nice short walk from our base camp at the courtyard marriot for our 45 minute ride out to the airport. We scored sweet first class seats on our way to Washington DC. I watched one movie and crashed for the next six hours. Customs in D.C. is ridiculous, but we managed to get to the first San Francisco flight just in time. We sat in the back, In 3 of the last six seats, but at least we got home safe. It was bumpy in DC and I felt sick most of the way, but I'd survived another crazy adventure. We barted home and went straight to bed, real life was waiting for me on Tuesday morning

Guten Tag Munchen

Night Time Cathedral
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

This weeks adventure began with my alarm at 4:45 a.m. on Friday, which brought me back to an old familiar place. I jumped in the shower, grabbed my carry on bag and rushed out the door for the 5:45 bus, just like I used to do back in my first days at the MOHP. The Newspaper guy was shocked to see me so early again, it has been at least 2 years since I was on that schedule. Every working day he sells me a Chronicle for 25 cents, and even lets me borrow one on the one day a month or so when I forget to grab a quarter on the way out the door. The same guy was driving the 6:08 BART train too. He always pulls up to the station waving both hands, and sounds just like Bootsy Collins when he makes the station announcements. I crammed out a bunch of work in the morning and grabbed an 11:40 train to the airport to meet up with W and traveling bud/awesome dinner party hostess Francie. We knew there were only 2 first class seats for 3 people, but W graciously offered it to me, knowing that she'd have 3 of the roomier economy seats (trademarked name intentionally omitted) to herself. Just as I was finishing my second glass of preflight champagne, a flight attendant comes by with a new ticket for me and swiftly banishes me back to one of W's 3 magic seats. I was furious, but because someone who had actually paid for a business class seat that was broken wanted it, I had to go to the back. Francie provided us with the occasional first class ration, carting cheese, champagne, port and ice-cream back to us, and the flight attendants felt bad, and kept us equipped with beverages to ease our pain. 9 painful hours and a viewing of Transformers (again...) and Stardust later, we finally arrived in Frankfurt. We had decided that as long as the timing and the financials were right, we'd take a 3 hour train ride through the German countryside to Munich. It seemed like the perfect plan until we were faced with a 3 hour ride costing 100 euro per person, or a 5 hour ride costing 60 euro per person. We took option C, the one hour standby flight on a certain European airline that's a business partner of W's employer. Of course after we made that decision, we found out the flight was delayed. To compound the delay the had a plane change, and a crew change and once we got on the plane lots of seats were double booked including mine, so after shifting us all around we finally got under way. We finally arrived in Munich and grabbed our first German food, and then took the 45 minute train ride into downtown. After all the delays and this train ride we arrived at the downtown station a few minutes after our 5 hour train would have gotten us there. We checked into our hotel which was an extremely convenient walk from the train and made our way to the Aldi. We picked up lots of chocolate and goodies and some food to eat for breakfast, and then dumped it in our room. The front desk said we should visit the Tollwood Festival, it would be open until 10:30 and was easily walkable. They even gave us a real map and circled our starting and finishing point. It was a welcome relief from our Beijing post office incident.

Old and New
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

To get to the festival we had to walk by the Paulskirche, and it was just begging to have it's picture taken. We were hungry so I promised the girls I'd wait until we were on our way home. As we walked past the bells were ringing, and it was an amazingly powerful sight and sound. It seemed to be ringing all the way in to my bones. The festival was huge and crowded, but there was beer and food and gluhwein everywhere. Because it was a cultural festival, German food was actually the hardest to find, but find some brats we did, and then we settled in for some beers too. W's new favorite beer that we buy at the Englander in san leandro was on tap, so it was nice to drink the Franziskaner Weissbier directly from the source.

We settled for a while near some Mexican Tex mex food that included chicken wings? and a few other things that were more than a stretch at Mexican. We sat with a nice young German couple who at first pretended not to understand English but were quite helpful and fluent when I had asked W to try to interpret a sign for me, They snapped a picture for us too. After enjoying some food and drink we headed back to the hotel, I took some pictures along the way and we crashed early, it was going to be a big second day.