Traveling Styles

I usually travel solo. I do what I want when I want.

I’m planning a cruise with a friend in January. She’s a very detail-oriented planner. That’s fine. But I’m learning I have a very different traveling style from her, and it’s likely different from most people.

She sent me her flight plans and asked me what flight I was taking.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I might catch a flight from MSP to Miami, but I might hop through Atlanta or Detroit, depending on how it looks at the time.”

Obviously my friend was kind of stressed by this. My traveling style of completely easy going and skewed by non-rev flying.

I went through the list of flights. Detroit was not even an option. The direct flights were pretty full, so it looks like I’ll be going through Atlanta.

Some people probably don’t understand how someone can plan a trip and not know on which flights they’re flying.

For me, it’s the only way to travel.

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S’mores Search

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S’mores Chips Ahoy Taste: 3/5        S’mores Authenticity: 3/5
S'mores cappuccino at Midway SA. Taste 3/5 S'mores Authenticity 4/5 (Graham flavor was present, unique for a drink)
S’mores cappuccino at Midway SA.
Taste: 3/5
S’mores Authenticity: 4/5 (Graham flavor was present, unique for a drink)
T-Rex Giant S'mores Cookies found in Capella on Thursdays Taste: 4/5 S'mores Authenticity: 2/5
T-Rex Giant S’mores Cookies found in Capella on Thursdays
Taste: 4/5
S’mores Authenticity: 2/5
Starbucks
Starbucks Taste: 4/5 S’mores Authenticity: 2/5

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My undying addiction to S’mores:

Of course, I love S’mores from a bonfire, but I’m not talking about just those succulent summer sweets. I’m talking about a weakness for S’mores anything.

I’m not kidding, when I’m driving by Culver’s, and the flavor of the day is S’mores, I always stop in to buy some. I buy pretty much anything S’mores.

So when I was in Cub and  saw these on the endcap, I had to buy it:

Smores oreos
S’mores Oreo’s Taste: 4/5 S’mores Authenticity: 4/5

Event Mastermind

Until I decided it wasn’t cool, my title in my meetup group was “Event Mastermind.”

The truth is, I design my events exactly as I design my dates. They are fun, have variety, and have the ability to talk to people yet provide distraction. Obviously, I developed this because when on a date, I need a distraction (show, traveling, or something else), because Justin focusing on a lady is overwhelming and he says too much.

So tonight I had my second date with a very intelligent woman. We decided that Saturday night would work.

I called her this morning to talk about options. I live in the Twin Cities, so naturally there werected a ton of options.

She is newer to the TC. I mean, she’s lived here before, but that was before medical school.

So naturally, she asked me about what to do. I mentioned the Fringe, but not in a great way.

I proposed a pub crawl with just her and me based around the Green Line.

I’ll leave or details of smiles, etc., and I’ll tell you where we went.

We met on the Green Line, and we continued to Lowertown Saint Paul. To make it faster, here’s the stops and bars:

Union Depot Station: Axle Ox Cart rooftop

Central Station: Vieux Carre Cocktail Bar and Grill

Also at Central Station: Amsterdam Bar

Stadium Village: Stub & Herbs

Walked to East Bank Station

There was live music at two places.

Night ended. There may have been another bar in there too, but I doubt it. We arrived in North Loop at 1:00. It was a nice night.

Beating the Rain

Crash!

Flash!

GRUMBLE!

I already knew what needed to happen.

It’s been far too long, and being a man of efficiency, I try not to spend time fixing high maintenance situations when they’re just going to get bad again. But it’s something every property owner does unless they’re a posh city-dweller.

So I ran to the garage, filled up the tank with fuel, opened the garage, and went as fast as I could.

I knew I had to mow the lawn quickly if I was going to beat the rain. I also knew it was long because I find it more efficient to not mow it too often (when I apologized to y neighbor for letting it get so long, George replied, “that’s okay. I like grass.” Best neighbor ever!)

Needless to say, this wasn’t my first time mowing long grass quickly (did I mention efficient earlier? Why take time mowing when you can take less time?). So I thought I’d share the secret with you.

When you mow quickly, you basically run behind the lawn mower and jump to the side to turn it (picture rotating very quickly on the outside of a lever). There’s a problem:
The blades slow down and eventually stop. If it’s warm out, the lawn mower will overheat.
I pay attention to the sound of the blade, and when it slows down, I quickly (because everything is quick) throw up (lift) the handle of the lawn mower to raise the rear wheels off the ground. This releases all the grass clippings out of the mower centrifuge, the high density of which is the reason for its slowing down.

I hope these tips help you waste less of your life doing lawn maintenance.

Cheers!

(Yes, I just wrote 2 pages about how you should lift the back of your mower when mowing fast. But the video before the storm didn’t turn out)

Canton Hong Kong Festin de Chine

Google just sent me an email out of the blue:

Your photos reached a new record on Google Maps!

When I went to a little Chinese restaurant in the Colonel Fabien area in Paris. It was another rainy day (yes, there were many this trip), so I was the only customer in the restaurant.

It was newer, open for less than a year. I noted it when I went for a few days in August, but I didn’t get a chance to eat there.
This time, I took the liberty of adding it on Google Maps, a strange thing I do for many new small businesses.

I also took a couple of snapshots to add to the Google Location.

My photo has received 119 view last week and 1,017 views since mid-June.

I generally like to be useful and helpful, and even on vacation, I love small businesses.

Here’s the thumbnail that was in the Google email:

Canton Hong Kong Festin de Chine

 

 

Winning Randomly

I love smiles.

I love being random.

I went for a run, and during my cool down, there were a couple young ladies, about my age, taking groceries out of their car across the street.

I overheard one of them say, “Put your hands on your hips.” I have no idea about what they were talking.

So, naturally, without even looking at them, I sang, “You put your hand upon your hip,
when I dip you dip we dip.”

I heard them ask “What?” obviously confused because that’s just not expected.

I just explained that it’s a song from the 90’s…..

They were just giggling and laughing because they thought it was just hilarious and silly.

From experience, I can be randomly silly or even be randomly nice, but if I’m with someone or if others are observing, they won’t laugh. You need to have a mature demeanor, be cool, and not expect or even want to talk to them. Otherwise it’d be creepy.

By creating smiles that wouldn’t be there otherwise, I believe I’m putting positivity in the world that otherwise wouldn’t be there.

Drinking Like a Champ as a Lightweight

Anyone who has ever known me, even for a minute, knows on a totally sissy-footed lightweight. Lately, I’ve been doing well drinking with some people I think as, well, able to handle their liquor.

I went out last night with a friend. While I’m sure he was not sotally tober upon my arrival, we had a couple beers at a bar.

We were eating food, because I just like food more than liquor. I was outpacing him.

Today I got the text, “Man, I must’ve been roofied last night because I can’t remember a thing!”

I just told him, “Getting old will do that.”

I mean, a couple people know that for about a week, I’ve been drinking a bit more. It’s not much, but my booze-ridden D Days tolerance comescomes back with 5 consecutive nights of relaxation, apparently.

Really, I’m fairly sure I’m just good at drinking. I have food. I’m terrible at pacing myself, but that doesn’t matter. I know when to stop.

So tonight I was drinking some quality Charles Shaw with a friend. Unfortunately, my friend got too sleepy to make it to the wings that were delivered (side note, Pizza Hut has nearly-adequate wings).

As a result, my friend will have a hangover, and I’m just here feasting on wings and wine.

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And yes, I’ll probably go to SA to get my friend a Powerade. I’m kick as like that and take care of my friends.

The Split and Future

A couple of you may have noticed that I have a new blog. I’m not going to discontinue this one, I don’t think.

My plan is to use this one for random, funny, and unrevealed posts.

The other one will have posts that are better- written and relevant (or so).

I’m in super good shape on vacation. Likely it’s because I don’t have the eating habits of a working man, but there are a few concepts/attitudes/standards  which may help people improve their health.

I’m not talking about a diet. I’m talking about health.

More to come on www.tcgem.com

 

For my Non-Facebndsrieook FriendsS

Believe it or not, I do have some  friends who are not on Facebook.

They may want to see pics from my trip. They’re available here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100645477430252.1073741847.40102582&type=1&l=da76ceafd9