Ich bin ein Berliner - 2

OK, now I've got the t-shirt to prove it. The last couple of days we've ridden in a taxi, on the bus, on the subway and on the elevated train. Plus walked miles, literally.


Monday, walked from the hotel past the park to the Sony Center. What would you find there but a Dunkin' Donuts shop. I did have a donut, but not a jelly. On to the Geography of Terror exhibit, which is also adjacent to a section of The Wall. Then Checkpoint Charlie. Some of the stuff we saw quickly on the bus tour. Then lunch - a really good margherita pizza and a couple of beers. In the former GDR (East Berlin). Bundestag museum, a cathedral, then on to Brandenburg Gate. Back through the park, past the Soviet memorial, the Victory Spire, through the zoo and back to the hotel. Google maps said it was a little over 7 miles. A good part of this was in East Berlin. Amazing to contemplate - the wall came down less than 20 years ago.


Yes, we definitely left the American Sector. In fact, everything past Checkpoint Charlie, and some before (see below) were in East Berlin, until we were past Brandenburg Gate.











This is a section of wall adjacent to the Geography of Terror exhibit. This was taken from the East Berlin side.

More later. Got pipeline business to attend to early in the morning.

Pops

Ich bin ein Berliner

No, I'm not actually claiming to be a jelly donut. I'm quoting JFK's opening comment on visiting West Berlin on June 26, 1963 - his first visit after the construction of the Berlin Wall. My bride and I are in Berlin, approximately 45 years after that speech, which I remember, by the way.

Anyway, yeah, I have a technical meeting here later in the week, so we came a few days early. Arrived early Sunday morning, rested up a bit, had a beer, took a bus tour all over the city, had another beer and dinner, and now collapsing, er, relaxing in the hotel. Dinner was a bacon-wrapped pork filet. Actually two little filets. Pretty good. Nothing like bacon-wrapped pork.

We saw some of the wall and a couple of historic sites. One was Checkpoint Charlie - the old checkpoint between the Russian and American sectors of Berlin. It's where the tanks faced off. The other was the Brandenburg Gate, one of the historic entrances into Berlin. When the wall went up, the Brandenburg Gate was just a few yards inside East Berlin. Today, the wall is long gone, except for some sections preserved for history. And it's very easy to tell which side prevailed in decades-long confrontation. Let me show you.

This photo was taken just outside the Brandenburg Gate, looking into what was once East Berlin. See the circle and arrow in the left center, just above and to the right of the guy wearing the striped t-shirt in the far left foreground? See what's circled? Zoom in if you have to. Yes, it's a Starbucks. East Germany didn't have a chance. Just the thing to go with a good jelly donut, though, don't you think?

Take me out to the ball game

This is our second year to get a 27 game ticket package for the Astros. Two seats. We - various nearby family members - alternate going to the games, on no specific basis. Kinda along the lines of whoever is available and wants to go. Last year, as it turned out, we had tix to some pretty good games - opening day, closing day, the day Biggio announced his retirement, and the big one, the game he got hit number 3,000, plus a few more. So, we got the same seats this year. Third level, first base side, convenient to the ramp, the elevator, the restroom, the nacho stand, and the 24 oz. beer cart (although she may have moved for this year - dang!).

Anyway, my bride and I went tonight - 'Stros vs. Marlins. With 34,000 of our closest friends. Actually, we had a third with us as well - Flat Stanley. I knew absolutely nothing about Stanley until we got him from a grand nephew in Indiana. Third grade class project - "we", and I use the term pretty loosely, 'cause it's not me, get Stanley for his Texas trip. "We" photograph him at various locations, and then send him and the pix back to the kid as a record of all the places Stanley visited - school, happy hour, the library, sitting around the pool, and, of course, the ball game.

We won - saw a 2-run homer, couple of running catches in CF (one running in, one out), and a couple of nice double plays. Hot dogs, peanuts, cotton candy (none for me - it gets in my mouth), a beer, a Coke Zero (they have Coke Classic, Diet Coke AND Coke Zero). All in all, a very nice evening - beautiful spring day in Houston. Had the roof open at Minute Maid (nee Enron Field). Photo above before it got dark. This was Game 3 of our package - 24 to go. Plus we scored some extra single game tix for the Red Sox and Yankees series. A very pleasant and successful evening, from a baseball, culinary and Flat Stanley perspective.

It's 106 miles to Snook . . .

. . . we've got a full tank of gas, a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it.

Well, no cigarettes, and no sunglasses after dark, but it was about 106 miles to Snook and it took almost a full tank of gas, but some colleagues from DC (who are also bacon addicts) were in town for a meeting, so we went to Sodolak's in Snook Monday night for dinner. Started with the Chicken Fried Bacon Strips appetizers. We were expecting about 3 strips per order. It was six or seven. With gravy. Holy cow, was that good! Light, crisp - not soggy at all. Well worth the four hours of driving. Entrees? Bacon-wrapped filets, of course. Baked potatoes - butter, sour cream, shredded cheddar and, what else, bacon bits. I've pretty much decided there's no reason to have any course of any meal without some form of bacon. We skipped dessert.

Good thing I had my annual physical with all the blood tests that morning. Three words of advice - go to Snook.

Another Birthday

As a first quarter boomer, and this being the first quarter and all, sooner or later I had to have another birthday. Turns out it was this weekend. I'm now officially social security age. Woo hoo! However, there are some pluses to all of this. If push comes to shove, I could collect SS now. No plans to do so, however. Next, you get some nifty stuff. My bride got me t-shirt from the Mug-n-Bun drive-in in Indy. It was one of the early drive-ins, a basic root beer stand, kinda a precursor of today's Sonic. My first job was at Mug-n-Bun. Made a whoppin' 75 cents per hour, plus a sandwich and a root beer if you worked about a 4 hour shift or longer. Was a sophomore in HS. Some of you will remember these. I think a large root beer then was maybe a quarter - might have been less. But wait, that's not all. Wore the shirt to a family get together this afternoon with the kids and g'kids - always a good time. Our son had started cooking last night - smoked a pork shoulder and a couple of slabs of ribs. With the potato salad, slaw, beans, etc., it was quite a treat. Some of the best BBQ known to man - and we have pretty good BBQ in Texas. Kids got me a nice little table to put next to my recliner to hold the laptop and all the remotes. Even they think I've got too much stuff just sitting around. Probably right.

Then for dessert, we had the Midnight Delight ice cream cake from Cold Stone. You can read all about it at http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/cakes/signature_cakes.html

It looks kinda like this. I highly recommend getting one. The g'kids ate the little cylindrical chocolate things on top. By the time we finished dessert, they were wearing a significant quantity of the cake, and went directly from dinner to the tub. Also, another nice thing about this time of year here, we were able to have our dinner and dessert out on the deck.

All in all, a terrific day and well worth getting another year older for.

A Couple of Things to Do

Now that the weather has gotten really nice here on the South Coast, you'll be wanting to get out and do some stuff with the family. Here are a couple of suggestions.


Last spring, the bride and I drove up to Texas's linear state park, the Texas State Railroad. It's a neat trip, and the RR has an interesting history. It currently runs between Rusk and Palestine - about a 25 mile trip by rail. Trains run both ways, crossing at a siding in the middle. There's a 90 minute stopover before the return trip, so take a picnic lunch - it's better than just buying a BBQ sandwich at the snack shop. Check before you go - they can tell you whether they will have any of the steam locomotives running. We need to go this year again with the kids and g'kids. They are always in a tight spot financially, so go asap and give 'em a few extra bucks - it's a neat piece of Texas history. Good book from the gift shop (you knew there had to be one) - Steam in the Pines. It's the history of the RR - basically built by prisoners for prison industry. Give it a try. Check it out at http://www.texasstaterailroad.com/. You can get directions, etc. there.



Now for a real Texas culinary treat. We haven't tried this one yet, but I'm pretty anxious. A short (ok, maybe a couple of hours, but it looks worth it) drive up the road to Snook, TX (vicinity of College Station) takes you to Sodolak's, home of chicken fried bacon. Yup, that's right - chicken fried bacon. Served with a side of white cream gravy, although it has been suggested that a side of ranch or honey mustard dressing sounds pretty good, too. Since bacon is one of the best foods ever, this has to be great. Almost any food is improved by the addition of bacon. Well, maybe not ice cream or pumpkin pie, but aside from some desserts . . . Salad - better with bacon bits. Filet - better if bacon wrapped. Cheeseburger vs bacon cheeseburger - no contest. You get the idea. I'll have to learn how to add these directly (oh, that was tough - Edit Html, copy, paste), but here's the link to the Texas Country Cooking segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfbTO0GlONU They should have "frequent eater" punch cards for this. Full card is good for an angioplasty. If you're a vegan, skip this.




And, speaking of things bacon, check out http://www.baconsalt.com/. I got some of this stuff about a week ago. I've tried the regular on popcorn (good), the peppered on eggs (good) and the hickory on a burger (good). Yup, all good.

Mulch & More - I Hate Plumbing!

Weekend update: I think the Scouts were short of delivery crews on Saturday. The mulch finally showed up about 5 pm - too late to actually start - particularly considering that No. 3 son, daughter-in-law and grandkids wanted to get together for fajitas, and the kids have to eat relatively early. So Saturday evening worked out well. Sunday, I drove into Houston to help No. 2 son (starting to sound like Charlie Chan, for those of you who go back that far - who'd you like, Warner Oland or Sydney Toler?) with a dishwasher issue. That went ok. Then he came up and helped me spread mulch. Went really quick - 37 bags, 3 cu. ft. each - in about an hour. Woulda taken me at least 4. Guess who did most of the work? Fixed my bride's bike tire, watched the grandkids a little, pretty good day.

One item left on the honey-do list for the weekend - fix a leaky bathtub faucet. Leaky faucets are pretty easy, right? Just turn off the water, pop off the knob, unscrew the valve from the valve body, replace the gasket, and then reverse the previous steps and you're done. Except the flanges were also all cruddy and splitting, etc., so thought I'd replace them, too. Had to shut off the water in the whole house - no shut-off valves on the bathtub lines. To shorten this up, it's impossible to get all the water out, so it continues to drain down (mostly on the floor) when the valves are out. Unscrewing one of the flanges, twisted and kinked the copper tubing underneath - didn't realize the whole valve body was turning. Back to the h'ware store for tubing and valves. There are now shut-offs in the lines. Good thing, because the connection to the cold water valve has yet another issue - read "leaks profusely." Hardware stores closed, and going out of town tomorrow. I think it's impossible to do a household plumbing job, no matter how simple, without this cascade of leaks and problems and multiple trips to the h'ware store. I truly hate plumbing.