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What you (we) missed…

This has been an incredibly great trip—productive on the one hand, fun on the other.

Unfortunately it has to come to an end and I am heading back to Weimar today—getting home Monday morning. Home is, of course, a wonderful place and I although I slept in excellent beds at two different Hiltons, there is nothing quite like my own bed. I am eagerly anticipating sleeping under its covers.

There’s been a lot to blog about, but I am behind and given that I am returning home, I might never get around to writing out everything I want to write, so here are some bullet point highlights. Each point is worthy of a blog entry in and of itself, but because I didn’t have unlimited time—my apologies

  • Pittsburgh was fantastic, and I had a nice time at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Their special exhibit, “Life on Mars” fully engaged me for three hours, including a powerful documentary on language as a tool for oppression and racial hatred. By the time I finished wandering the special exhibit, I was mentally exhausted and unable to really absorb the rest of the art museum, and I barely glanced at the natural history museum that shares space with the art museum.
  • The Andy Warhol Museum was quite interesting—it’s hard for me to see all of his work as art, but it is all interesting. The top floor of the museum had a special exhibit on 1958 that focused on “As Seen on TV” products like the pocket fisherman and the veg-o-matic. TV advertising from the 1970s is engaging and I was ready to buy.
  • Breakfast with the Amiexpat was really enjoyable. We travel out to somewhere in suburban Virginia in the vicinity of Dulles Airport. Breakfast was great and the restaurant’s décor was egg-cellentMoist, even.
  • The Washington Capitals played the New Jersey Devils at home on November 18th. They also played them, at home, on October 18th. There’s an amusing (and expensive) story there.
  • I was able to reconnect with an old friend from my University of Wyoming days—somebody I haven’t seen in over a decade. We hung out Saturday morning, wandering briefly through Air & Space. It was really great meeting her fiancé and learning about what’s been going on in her life.
  • Starbucks is evil, but gosh darn it—I adore the Pumpkin Spice Latte at least once a year. I also tried the Gingerbread Latte, which was most awesome.
  • McCain-Palin T-Shirts can be had cheap. Obama merchandise is expensive—but I did break down and buy one Obama T-Shirt—it’s Warhol-esque, so it happens to fit both Pittsburgh and Washington—a two for one souvenir.
  • Finally, my Sony Cybershot DSC-T100 camera officially has epilepsy. It has occasionally had this problem in the past—thus screwing up a day of phototaking on trips, but in the past, I merely had to give it a night’s rest and it was fine the next day.  Didn’t work this trip—and thus I have few decent photos to share. At the camera store the clerk was impressed, remarking “you can’t just feel the vibration, you can hear it!” He thought I wanted to repair it—instead I dropped $150 on a new Nikon Coolpix S52—The optical zoom is only 3x instead of 5x, slightly better Megapixels, and so far epilepsy-free. It’s growing in popularity on Flickr, too!

I might expand on some of these points later, but I wouldn’t bet on it. They shall probably remain tantalizing points of what might have been.

8 comments to What you (we) missed…

  • I would like to hear the story of that hockey game. 🙂

  • Geez, it seems like you’ve killed two cameras in about two years. Is that possible? Am I misremembering?

  • nts

    Well, it’s all right, ’cause you are also sort of missed in the “office”.

  • @ian: I’m sure I could expand on that story, but actually, I think it says everything that needs to be said.

    @disenchanted: I did kill 2 in 2 years. The first was a Casio with water behind the lense, and the second was the Sony. The Sony lasted over 18 months though, so I don’t think it did too badly–I wish it had lasted longer though.

    @nts: I’ll be in the office Wednesday, but probably not before 11 or 12, maybe later. There is stuff in my flat that needs fixin’!

  • nts

    try for 11, 11:30? then i’ll be there too, after that I have to move to the other (not to say real) office… wellcome back in old Europe!

  • @nts: I can’t head down to the Weimar Office until after the repairmen are done fixing the problems in my flat… they show up at 9, and I think that one of the problems might be technically complicated, but I could be wrong.

  • nts

    ah, we will see… if no luck, we might just exchange greetings while “checking the mailbox” 😉

  • Is it just me or do cameras jsut die so soon? My amazing one from last summer now has a battery with its own self eject button, and pops out whenever it feels like it. Life of its own. Promise you will go back and tell the hockey story. And about your meet up with Ami Expat!