2010 ...

2010 got off to a slow start. I spent five weeks of December & January hospitalized with heart & other issues -- basically I was over-medicated with a pair of alpha/beta blockers that they already knew I was hypersensitive to, driving my vital signs almost down to zilch.

But while I was sedated for 2 weeks over Christmas & New Years, my mind was off on a couple wild road trips to Mexico & San Diego. When I woke up sometime around Jan. 3, I couldn't sit up on the edge of the bed without falling over and I was convinced I was in a hospital in San Diego. It took almost 2 weeks to convince me otherwise. My hospital chart contained a note that I'd probably need counseling to overcome my delusions. Heck, I've always needed counseling. What's new?

After couple months of physical therapy & kidney dialysis & exercise, I've mostly recovered, and I've resumed traveling:

• April 24, 2010, walking tour of lower Manhattan & Brooklyn with other frequent flyers. Spent Friday night in the Hilton Millenium upgraded to a 26th floor room with a great view of the hole in the ground that used to be the World Trade Center.
• May 8-11, 2010, Mike only, "weekend" trip to Melbourne, VIC, Oz. Spent Monday afternoon walking around the park in Williamstown communing with the spirits of my criminal ancestors.
• May 14-18, 2010, another "weekend" trip, this time to Sydney, NSW, Oz, communed with living relatives & did my 2nd climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge just to show that I'm still alive enough to do it:

2009 Update

• Continental Airlines / Flyertalk DO IV, Houston, TX, Feb 6-8, 2009
• Berlin, Germany, Feb 28 - Mar 3, 2009 (just Mike), weekend funded mostly by bump voucher snared on way home from CO DO IV
  
• Berlin, Germany, Apr 11-13, 2009, weekend on cheap tickets
  
• Hamburg, Germany, May 9-11, 2009, weekend on cheap tickets
• Atlanta, GA, Greasy Spoon DO, May 16, 2009
  
• Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 22-24, 2009, weekend on cheap tickets
• New York City, NY, Soup DO & Brooklyn Reality Tour IX, June 12-14, 2009
  
• Atlanta, GA, Atlanta Road Warrior Training DO (Delta Air Lines), June 25-28, 2009
• Oshkosh (WI) Air Show aka Air Venture 2009, July 31, 2009
• Chicago (IL) Air & Water Show, Aug 15, 2009
• Offutt AFB Air Show, Omaha, NE, Aug 29, 2009
• Geneva, Switzerland, Sept 6-10, 2009 (just Mike)
• Four-city vacation (Istanbul, Turkey; Warsaw, Poland; Vienna, Austria; Berlin, Germany), Oct 3-20, 2009
• Palm Beach, FL, frequent flyer gathering, Oct 24, 2009
• Mike works in Linköping, Sweden, Nov 28 - Dec 4; meets up with Kathy in Stockholm Oct 5-6, 2009; both in Linköping Nov 7-10; back to Stockholm to return home Nov 11

... plus the customary trips to visit my mother near St. Louis every 2-3 weeks.

2008 Update

Was screwing around with some other Blogger issues this evening. Basically, I have two Google accounts -- the one I used for the blogs predates Googles acquisition of Blogger, and another for Google business (ads, alerts, etc.). So after much dorking around, everything of any minor importance is now is now associated with my (currently) more active Google account.

Except that I can't seem to get my kindergarten mug shot to show up everywhere.

Travel update:

• Annual pilgramage to the air show at Oshkosh, WI (July-Aug, 2008).
  
• Munich, Germany & Salzbug, Austria (frequent flyer gathering) & Vienna, Austria, Sept., 2008.
• Palm Beach, Florida, Dec., 2008 (frequent flyer gathering).
• Dresden, Germany, & Prague, Czech Republic, Dec. 2008 (basic mundane vacation).

The last trip was especially amazing for me. I grew up with a father who at various times worked in a mountain command bunker (Kolsås) or carried a missile-launching key around his neck (odds were 1:4 it would be his voice broadcasting the Go Code for Armageddon). I never dreamed I'd ever be traveling on the other side of the former Iron Curtain, and so freely.

Sic erraverunt Mike atque Kathy

I created this blog so we'd have a record of our travels. Since the inception of the blog, we've been to:

2005:

• Athens, Greece, Dec., 2005 (basic mundane vacation)

2006:

• Houston, TX, (just Mike) frequent flyer gathering hosted by Continental, Jan., 2006
  
• El Paso, TX, frequent flyer gathering, Feb., 2006.
• Singapore, Singapore, and Sydney, Australia, March, 2006.
• Moscow, ID, for a memorial service, May, 2006.
  
• Sweden (Mike to work, Kathy to play) in Sept., 2006
• Ljubljana, Slovenia, frequent flyer gathering, Oct., 2006
• Frankfurt, Germany, mileage run for Kathy, Nov., 2006
• Frankfurt, Germany, frequent flyer gathering to pig out at the Sheraton Advents brunch, Dec., 2006

2007:

• Honolulu, HI, Northwest Airline's DC-10 retirement run, Jan., 2007
  
• El Paso, TX, frequent flyer gathering, Feb., 2007
• Oslo, Norway, March, 2007 (basic mundane vacation)
• Cincinnati, OH, frequent flyer gathering hosted by Delta, May, 2007
• On the high plateau east of Mountain Home, ID, 4th of July, 2007
  
• Zurich, Switzerland, frequent flyer gathering, plus a side trip to Luzern, Sept., 2007
  
• Fort Lauderdale & Palm Beach, FL, frequent flyer gathering, plus a side trip to Key West, Oct., 2007
• Frankfurt, Germany, pig out at the Sheraton Advents brunch again, Dec., 2007
• Richmond, VA, Mike got food poisoning & spent the weekend barfing in the hotel room, Dec., 2007

2008:

• Plant City, FL, Strawberry Festival, Feb., 2008
• San Antonio, TX, March, 2008
• Chicago, IL, frequent flyer gathering & master stone carving demo, May, 2008.
• Sydney, Hobart & Melbourne, Australia, & Honolulu, HI, May, 2008.
  

... plus countless trips (every 2-3 weeks) to St. Louis to visit my mother.

Obviously, I am not a contemporaneous blogger. :(

Salve!

Ave atque vale!