Back in Civilization...sort of...

We've landed back in Genoa for a night following a pretty informative set of lectures on our Geek Cruise.

Given the foreign difficulty in posting pictures, and my general irritation with the unfriendliness of blogspot, I'll have to look to update the blog in the upcoming week to share adventures at sea.

And get ready to move the blog over to my own domain.

More on that later.

Ciao!

Pompeii

  

Well, the days here have finally started to blur one into another, and we'd been cruising less than 24 hours.  Of course, travel to Chicago, layover 36 hours, travel to Italy, layover for 48 hours, then get onboard ship while 11 time zones away makes me a tired bunny (don't ask!).

Wayne and I fell asleep very quickly our first night onboard, and to our great amazement, we slept until 7 a.m.  That NEVER happens!  So, breakfast in the suite, 3.5 miles walking on deck (you would not believe the number of people just standing and talking on the jogging/running track), followed by a quick shower and a trip down to the MacMania conference.  The session revolved around the basics of taking and editing good digital photographs, and was a good basic class.  The best part; however, was the review of Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac.  The things you can do with that program!!!

Lunch was a slice of pizza, and then we headed off to Pompeii with our tour guide.  Our first stop was in Herculenium at the cameo factory.  We got to see how they were made, see one being made, and then were afforded the opportunity to shop for 20 minutes.  I would have loved to have purchased one bracelet in particular, but it cost about 2000 Euro.  That's a big no-go!

      

Then on to Pompeii.  Our tour guide was a retired archeologist who had been part of the many excavations of Pompeii, covered by ash and lava since the most famous eruption in August 79 A.D. (at 1 pm, mind you, as our guide told us).

  

The people in the town were caught unaware, and were largely killed by poisonous gases.  Then ash fell, lava flowed, and a town was covered.  The excavation of the town revealed a very modern area, supposedly guarded by Venus (apparently the goddess of love inspired many sex shops -- of the literal, brothel type), where there was an arena, a town shopping area, public baths, what would have been lovely homes.  

   

  

And, in the general merchant sales areas, there were three bodies and a chained dog shown.  The excavators came up with a methodology of injecting areas with a solution to dissolve the ash around the dead, and allowed forms to be made of those cavities.  In one aspect, it is horrifying to think of pregnant women, chained dogs and children dying through inhaling the pre-eruption gases; however, at least it was quick and without feeling molten lava...

It was an amazing journey back in time, and one that I really appreciated.  

 

Then it was back to the ship to hear David Pogue’s discussion on the iPhone.  I was a little disappointed, as all of his tricks, tips and favorite applications were things that I either already knew, used or had stopped using.

:(

Then to dinner with Ivan and Sue again.  Very funny side note -- for the past two nights, Ivan and I have ordered the same dinner, and had the same lunch (although lunches not spent together).  I laughed as he ordered the same dinner last night, and again as he pawned his vegetables off on his wife (I do the same to Wayne).  I pointed it out to him, Sue and Wayne.  Then the discussion turned to pizza -- turns out that Ivan grew up and went to school on Long Island!  How funny and small the world is.  Of course, he was in Nassau county, not Suffolk.

Anyway, good day, leaving us looking forward to the next.

Ciao!

p.s.  Promise to edit and add photos later -- bandwidth challenges abound here

At sea

Yesterday after finishing the blog, I looked out the window of our hotel in Genoa -- sunshine!  Doesn't it figure.  =]

At around 8 am, we headed out to see Joe "the Shoe" to pick up my formerly destroyed shoes.  He did a wonderful job fixing them, and they were fantastic!  So I paid my six Euro, and headed back to the hotel.

We all gathered downstairs to get on the bus(es) to Savona Port.  We were briefed by the Costa guide that there were four ships in port, so there might be some difficulty.  That was ok by us, we were on a new adventure.  We wound around the Italian countryside for about an hour, arrived at the port, and saw that the other 3 ships were also Costa!  And each was in its own slip, so how hard could it be to manage?

Turned out, pretty hard.

Two ships operate out of the same gangway simultaneously.  It looked to be more pleasant than NCL, though.  We got a group number assigned, moved into the waiting area, and were surprised with an internet station, a bar, snack area, duty free, children's playroom, and sofas upstairs and downstairs.

We were due to board beginning at one, and Costa started calling groups at about 1:20.  People with the wrong numbers began crowding the entryway, and the crew of two was overwhelmed turning them away.  Those who were there at the right time either hadn't torn the paperwork as required, or hadn't filled it out!  It just took forever.  I thought to myself that we needed to have Germans running the entry point!  About 3 hours later, we surrendered our passports and headed up to our suite.

Initial impression of the cabin is that it was wonderful!  Very efficiently laid out, nice size bathroom, and a whirlpool tub.  Two closets!  Really, just nicer than any hotel you can get in a big city.  The suite comes with a personal butler!  How the heck did that happen???

Anyway, we had a welcome package, and after we unpacked we opened the wine and had a few glasses while waiting for our mandatory emergency drill.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, the ship started moving (in the midst of a thunderstorm that we appreciated, and rolling seas that made walking difficult).  About 15 minutes into the ride, the ship's captain and crew got on, welcomed us all, went over the drill, and in every language except English, asked that no one bring any cameras or video equipment to the drill.  We were scheduled for area B, on the 3rd deck, port side near the shuttleboats.

About 3 seconds into the drill, the captain came on the loudspeaker and changed all our locations to inside the casinos and lounges because of inclement weather.  What good did that do?  Oh well.  Drill accomplished.  Time to get ready for the Geek reception.

"Smart casual" was listed as the dress code for the dinner seating, so we dressed east coast smart casual.  First thing I noticed going in to the welcome was that we were WAY overdressed.  Jeans and t-shirts appeared to be the dress of the day.  We sat in a corner and listened to the welcome speeches.  Not a great sale for Geek Cruises (The ship staff is terrible, nothing is on time, the food is ok most of the time, blah, blah, blah).  Tell you what, I was underwhelmed.

Then we went to dinner, and our assigned seats.  Tables were not laid out sequentially, but the dining room is gorgeous.  It's two stories tall, with two levels of seating.  The windows and lighting are ornate, extravagant even, and the service was very nice.  And, the food was about twelve times better than advertised by the Geek Brief crew.  We sat with a very nice couple from Atlanta, Ivan and Sue, who run designer eyeglass shops all through Georgia and Florida.  Recent switchers to Mac, very intelligent and business savvy, really enjoyed dining with them.

Back to the room, Wayne and I settled down to our first full night of sleep in over a week.  The CPAP machine setup in the room is hysterical, an extension cord is winding its way out of the bathroom to my side of the bed, the dining table is over at my side, and the machine pumping away from there.  Anyone looking at this who didn't understand would be highly amused.  I'll put in photos at a later time.  

Breakfast in the room, followed by 3 miles walking the deck, and heading down for the MacMania conferences commenced after we slept in until 7 am!  A nice side benefit of upgrading the room was getting that for free.  =]

And now I'm sitting in a lecture about basic digital photography tips and software editing tips, a lot of which are really basic, but I never actually knew the rule existed.  The section on the actual editing software is pretty decent, but the newest program from Adobe seems complicated.

Anyway, we are headed towards Naples, and our first excursion to Pompeii.  Will blog more tomorrow!  And if you're on flickr, keep your eyes open for a few photos.

Ciao!

Genoa, rainy Genoa

First and foremost, out to Annie -- I soooooo totally now understand your frustration with this forum!  Posting in the US is simple to do, I can move pictures, put quotes under them easily, but from overseas?? Blech!

Now, back to business.

For those of you who know me, I travel on two things -- my stomach and photo ops.  Not for me, I tend to avoid being in my own shots, but for things that catch my eye.  Tuesday in Genoa was pretty good for that.  The day started out far, far too early with a spouse that was suffering jet lag.  After several hours up, I finally went back to sleep, and he eventually did as well.  He woke me up at 8:00 a.m., imitating Simon's cat in "Feed Me," (check it out on YouTube), giving our universal sign for hunger.  So I staggered into the toilette, got ready, and went to our breakfast.  

Not a typical continental breakfast, but not bad!  Sweet pastries, hard rolls, swiss cheese, ham, salami on the cold side; runny cheesy eggs, cut up vienna sausages, and bacon on the hot side; and cold cereals.  Not bad for a continental breakfast.  So Wayne, his iPhone and I settled down and had a good breakfast before figuring out what to do for the day.

Linus had his blanket, Wayne has his iPhone.  =]

     

The day was gray and rainy, so we held of heading out until around noon, when we headed to Da Genio, a "must eat here" establishment listed in Fodor's, and recommended by the NY Times.  The restaurant is in the Piazza Dante, about 3/4 mile down the road from our hotel.  It was sort of the way on to the aquarium, so we headed for lunch.  The local specialty here is linguini with pesto sauce, so I had that as the first course, Wayne had acorn fusilli noodles with pesto.  Second course was stuffed squid.  The portions are just small enough that the first and second course were filling without fearing that one wafer thin mint at the end.

After that, to the Aquarium!  The Genoa Aquarium is the 2nd largest in Europe, and is designed inside to mimic the feel 

of a ship.  The exhibits range from Mediterranean to Caribbean to Micronesian, with a few land creatures thrown in for good measure.  It was fantastic!  Plus we

 got nice views of the surrounding city from within the facility.

Then we started back to the hotel, using a Google map on Wayne's iPhone.  It gave directions in minutes rather than distances since he chose the walking option, and it was just screwy.  Walk to the left for 1 minute, then turn right.  Walk for three minutes and then bear right to stay on same road.  In the rain, which began again as soon as we began walking home, which probably made me walk more quickly.

I failed in following it in the very first minute, going too far.  Wonder what length stride it is calibrated for...certainly not mine!

Back to the hotel we went, going the very long way, making our way around the old city in the general direction of the hotel until we reached the Best Western, and the official taxi stand.  Wayne pulled out the iPhone again, and kept looking it over as the rain began to pour harder and harder.  We were about to get a taxi, but decided to walk up to the palazzo.  Lo and behold, it was the Palazzo de Ferari, which was our target from the beginning.  From there, a left turn onto Ave. 25 Settembre, and a walk back to the hotel, where we got ready for the pre-cruise ice-breaker.

Boy, was THAT an event...there was wine (red/white/sparkling), some hors d'oeuvres, and about 65 people, to include our cruise organizer.  Looking around, I saw that we reduced the average age of those in the room by 10 years!  

Wayne and I got some plates, sparkling wine, and made our way over to the bar where we met a retired couple (the gentleman had just retired a few months ago from Apple and is traveling the US with his wife in an RV with a Mac setup).  Nice couple, good conversation, could see sitting with them at the second seating.

We parted ways after a half an hour of chatting, and met another couple who sort of faded into the woodwork as we were approached by a woman at least 1-2 inches taller than I.  Her name is Janet, and she runs a non-profit organization that brings music to retirement homes and other remote areas.  Great job, great thing to do for people!  She and her husband Bill (and their daughter whom we met at the end) are out of Salt Lake City.  Janet and Bill were...interesting...to say the least.  I think they were more than a little tipsy, and the topic turned from Macs to politics.  Both Bill and Janet are rabid Democrats of the fiercest order.  And scary!  Their daughter had just graduated from Cornell, and has a similar political view to mine.  Registered Republican who votes Democratic when the conscience dictates.

Yes, it dictated on this election.

It turned very scary when a short, very heavy set gentleman (?) with a raspy voice came over and started shouting about "that son-of-a-*&^%$," how there were no good Republicans (excuse me, Colin Powell anyone?), and how Bush will have had no visible impact upon the American political spectrum of the future (Supreme Court appointments, anyone??).  

AUGH!!!  Wayne, take out your iPhone and rescue me!!!!!

Which he did.  He swooped in, made his parting remarks, and whisked me away.

Hopefully, the other 2/3 of the MacMania crew will prove a little more well rounded than the last 3 we met.  If not, this should prove a very comedic blog.

Ciao!

Buon giorno from numero sei undici!

Oh what a circus, oh what a show!  Continental has gone to town over the trip of two Mac geeks flying to Rome....

Poetic license, I know.

So let me say that being in Chicago for my birthday was a very good thing, although the amount of time spent there was near to insignificant.  We will have to go back and spend a week some time in September so that I get to see Navy Pier and go up the Sears Tower like a typical tourist.  

I did get the 2nd gen iPhone out of the trip there, though, a nice, shiny black 16Gig iPhone!

The day after the birthday, we got up at 5 after another night plagued with jet lag, headed out to O'Hare, and checked in.  Naturally, when trying to get boarding passes the night before, my passport information had disappeared from the Continental website, so no early check-in.

When we got there, we were ticketed for the first two legs (Chicago to Newark, Newark to Rome), but the third leg (Rome to Genoa) we had a little slip of paper that said "this is not a boarding ticket," meaning check in at Al Italia in Rome.  

First flight went well, got in to Newark on time, maybe even a little early, but my knee began to act up.  A lot.  We went into the President's Club, put our stuff in lockers, and then headed out through the terminal in search of cash machines, the currency exchange, and lunch.  Lunch was at Gallaghers, yummy!  But the knee kept throbbing, and getting worse.  

Then all heck broke loose.  We went down to the currency exchange machine, and my knee buckled, cracked and was in general unpleasant.  We then got to the ATM that did currency exchange and withdrew 200 Euros each, and walked back to the lounge.  We went on the personal conveyor belt, and were walking slowly, and my left shoe lost its heel.  Wayne picked it up, and we put it back in, but I wasn't confident.  Later, the right heel came off as well, and we never could find it.

We got back to the lounge, and changed seats twice, and I really couldn't tolerate the pain level any more, so I was out in search of Motrin.  Got it finally, popped two dry, and got online.

When the time came, we boarded the plane, and got into their upgraded seats, woo hoo!  (Of course, when you pay both dollars and miles, you are likely to get upgraded when there are empty seats...)  We were approached by the Al Italia liaison, and informed that we would be escorted to the club when we debarked so that we could use the showers and freshen up before our connecting flight.  Nice!  

But then we wound up sitting on the flight line for a very long time, and were significantly delayed.  Visions of my flight to Russia were entering my mind, the time where my flight was delayed, we arrived an hour late, and I was rescheduled onto another flight to Moscow, and my luggage didn't make it.  But it looked like we were only going to land a few minutes late.

Finally, we took off.  

Let me tell you, flying to Europe is quite different than flying to Guam.  The menus came out, and we had choices among osso bucco, halibut with shrimp, chicken with mozzarella di buffalo, just to name a few.  The appetizers were lobster bisque, quiche, Italian pastas.  The whole thing was just amazing.  Took my mind off the delay.

After fitful sleep, we landed, and got off the plane.  No one to meet us and bring us to the club.  We finally headed to the connecting area, went through customs, and headed to the Al Italia desk.  I couldn't find my little slip saying "This is not a boarding pass"!  EEK!!  But I had my passport and baggage tickets, so no worries.  Until we got to the desk and were told that I already was issued a boarding pass.  

What, did my one lost heel miraculously get off the plane with the voucher and sign itself in?

Oh, did I mention she gave me a completely different flight number and time?

Anyway, we checked in, got boarding passes and headed to the gate.  We waited in the middle of a herd of people, and tried to listen to the PA.  It was like PAs of eras gone by, with Europe never upgrading to new speaker systems.  I kept mentally comparing it to Japan and Korea, with Italy losing out big time.

Boarded the plane, headed to Genoa, and finally good luck.  All our baggage arrived!  I could have danced.  Walking through the customs was a breeze, and we got our taxi to our hotel without the usual usurious rates.  Very tired puppies, we checked in and set up shop upstairs.  (Naturally we could not function without setting up internet, etc)

Following showers (Wayne unable to shave thanks to a broken sink stopper that we disabled later in the day), we went downstairs to look for the shoe repairman.  We were given vague directions that there were two in the square behind the hotel.  Gamely, we went out in the rain and spent probably the better part of an hour looking.  No luck.  Went back to the hotel, had lunch, asked the concierge for directions (all of which were very vague -- go to the Tabac and turn left -- and met David Pogue!!!

Who's David Pogue, do you ask?  He's a technology columnist for the New York Times who also has a video podcast that we watch.  And enjoy.  Yeah, yeah, geeks you say.  Well, it's true! Even the cats have a .Mac account, Rocky_and_Oscar@mac.com.  When I told Wayne who it was, David asked if we were fellow geek cruisers.  And we are.  We're here to be on the Mac Mania 8 cruise set up by Geek Cruises.  After talking for about 10 minutes, we parted ways with David giving us the card to a restaurant that he and his family had visited, and we set out.  

We went along the route the concierge gave us.  No luck.  But there was a seamstress.  We went in her shop, and neither understood the other.  I finally pulled out the shoes, and she rattled out words to me.  I didn't understand.  She then saw Wayne, and fired of the fastest Italian I've ever heard, ending with "capische?"  That, I understood.  "No capische, Inglese

," the response.  She then took us outside, pointed, and said "bar!"  So we took off.

Still no luck, so another 30 minutes of wandering, and we found the restaurant recommended by David Pogue.  

We headed back a different way, saw a shoe store, went in and asked if there was a cobbler nearby.  They nodded and started to talk simultaneously.  I motioned for them to write it down, they did, and we found the place in under 3 minutes!  On Piazza Savonarola, we found the shop operated by Tony Calzolaio.  Tony "Shoe" Calzolaio.  =]  After a few minutes of not understanding one another, we pulled out our relative calendars, and agreed that the shoes would be ready by 8 am Wednesday, 2 1/2 hours before we would be headed out on our cruise.  Hooray!

Funny side note on the shoe store.  As I was asking for directions, I also asked the ladies if they carried shoes in a size 44 (please note that they were 5'1" at the most), and they looked at me aghast -- "For women? Oh, my, no!"  I had to laugh.

Back to the Star President for naps, the Daily Show (the Obama interview), and then out to the Ristorante Galletto al Mattone for dinner.  We arrived at 7:30, and had the place to ourselves for about a half an hour.  We managed antipasti, first course, and then I had some cheese for dessert.  Nice meal, and after chatting with the waiter, we were treated to a complimentary digestive -- also known as limoncello.  Perfect!

Now to sleep, hopefully, this evening, and to go to the Genoa aquarium tomorrow.

Ciao!

Lost in real time...

Ok, ok, I've been silent...to be honest, I had the back to work blues, and have been desperately trying to figure out what it is I really want to do.  And to try to tie it into Wayne's retirement schedule.  And to make a difference.

I was initially going to file paperwork to come back on active duty for 2 years, but thanks to the knee, I'd been on profile for over a year prior to the surgery.  So, until I can take a valid PT test (six months from now), I can't even file.  That one went out the window...for now.

I've finished my CIO certification and am three classes away from the CISO certification.  I get to walk the stage in DC next year, and the year following.  So, that aspect of life is about finished.  But what to do next?

Consulting hasn't been hitting the mark for me lately, although Booz was wonderful giving me the full time and partial disability for 2 months.  I'll stick it out with them for at least the next six months while I rehab.

So what did I do?  I applied to the University of Hawaii Masters of Social Work program!  After 19 years of counseling Soldiers and friends, plus my own therapy time, I feel a special ability in this area.  It's a big change, and one that my therapist thinks is triggered by a mid life crisis (turned 41 yesterday in chilly Chicago), and it makes Wayne extend his retirement by about 6 years (which he is willing to do, after our discussions over the past month).  I'm glad he's going to support it, because I really do need change.

Speaking of change, I should be blogging more as we are headed off to Italy on our MacMania eastern Mediterranean cruise!  Expect pictures from Pompeii, riding camels in Egypt, and lots of touristy schlock in addition to commentary on the seminars.

Ciao!