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.