Home...cough...Sweet...cough...Home

Rob and I successfully made it back to the States late Friday night after another great flight on Virgin Atlantic. I actually had fun on both 10 hour flights and that's saying something given my moderate aversion to flying. The upgrade to Premium Economy was (in my opinion) totally worth it.

Our bags popped off in the first couple minutes (another perk of Premium Economy) and we took the train to the rental car stop. We made it out of SFO at about 3pm and arrived in Folsom a little more than four hours later thanks to a stop at In-n-Out and rush hour traffic.

The In-n-Out was fantastic. I didn't miss burgers while in Europe (especially since we ate at McDonald's a couple times in Italy -- don't chastise us for that, btw...it was the only place open until 4am), but once I bit into that sweet double-double I wondered why I hadn't.

After picking up Rob's car and dropping off the rental we met up with Mike, Mark, Mika, and Aiden for a couple drinks and some conversation. It was great to be hanging out with "our peeps" in Folsom.

I woke up early Saturday feeling much more awake than expected. The sore throat that I had had since the day in the Schottenhamel tent was fading...things seemed great! I wasn't exactly productive, but we did manage to make it out to watch some college football games that afternoon (was that Stanford win UNREAL or what?!) and we hit the new Bistro 33 in El Dorado Hills for a late evening snack and some drinks (awesome place - go check it out if you get a chance). This is when the twinge in my throat started to perk up a bit and the congestion in my head that seemed like typical post flying pressure kicked it up a notch as well. Add those fun elements together and throw in a little jet lag and you get one cranky Kipp. Mike, Rob, Mark (and probably our waitress) will vouch for me (sorry guys).

I woke up Sunday morning to a chest and head cold in full throttle. I think America is trying to reject me. To be fair, I probably caught it in Europe, but this was not how I was hoping to spend my first few days back in the U.S. and last few days of sabbatical. I had actually hoped to get back to some regular running and working out. I was looking forward to a little cooking too... I can still do the cooking, but thanks to the cold everything tastes a little bland...unless you do what I did to my chicken soup and just dump in some chili powder. :)

In any case, we're back... I was actually planning to post on how six weeks in Europe had made me think of things a bit differently, but seeing as I've already gone on for so long, I'll save that for another post.

I really hope you all have had some fun reading the blogs. I've actually really enjoyed blogging and I think I will try to keep it up (don't worry, there's no obligation to continue reading it :)). Speaking of reading this blog, thanks to all of you who have read and commented on the posts here - it was nice to stay connected with everyone.

Cheers for now...

Oktoberfest (4)!

Well, we all survived with flying colors! Hell, I was up before 9am drinking coffee and reading the paper in the lobby! My final beer count was either 7 or 8 liters (verified that with several sources). Eric, Jeff, and I set the pace early (and late) - in fact, I was consistantly taking the [lead :)] (also independently verified). :) All in all it was an incredibly fun, zangy night! We've got a couple new German friends and a lot of sore throats from all the drinking, singing, and snorting we did...oh yeah, did I mention we were introduced to a white powdered substance referred to as snuff? It's sold by the equivalent of peanut vendors cruising through the tent floor. It's a mixture of menthol powder and sugar and you inhale it. We have a bunch of pictures documenting the event and we all look like very bad cocaine addicts - me especially, as I took the majority of it on my cheeks. :) Sadly, this is the end of a long, fun trip. I'll do a formal farewell to Europe when I return tomorrow, but I will say a few things now. First, thanks to Dave, Erik, Jeff, Kerry, John, Shaun, and, of course, Rob. I had a great time with all of you - I hope we get to do something like this together again. And I know, I owe all of you some unknown lump of money (my atm card expired Oct. 1) - please send me the bills. :) Thanks again all, next time we "talk", I'll be on US soil (let's hope)! Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Oktoberfest (3)!

Ummmm, I totally just spit my beer all over a local German. He reacted like it happened all the time. Hell, maybe in Germany it does! In any case, Rob bought the guy a beer ( I was out of money) and things seem ok. Now we're singing the Stones with the Germans and I'm trying to avoid beer! I love this place!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Oktoberfest (2)!

We're all currently singing "Sweet Home Alabama" with around 6000 Germans! Yay Deutschland!!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Oktoberfest!

Holy crap. It's official, the Germans know how to freaking party!! It's 3:20pm, we've been here in Spaten-Schottenhamel since 10am and wow, it's great!!! The beers are large and fantastic, our German table neighbors are fantastic, and well, so is the freaking day. Kerry Brown is here and she just can't stop saying, "Best...day...ever!" I think she's drunk. Can't blame her, we're about 4 liters...yes, liters...into the day. Ok, I might be drunk...but I carry it well. In any case, we're having a great time! Hope you guys all drink a liter for all of us!!! My German table mate says I have to stop...go everyone...drink...be merry!!! Yay!!!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

On the positive side, Rome's train station uses Intel graphics...

...on the not so positive side, they probably hate Intel graphics. I'm basing this on the giant blue screen we found in the middle of the terminal. Bugcheck code: 0xEA, device: ialmrnt5.dll. I'll be submitting the bug when I get a legit internet connection. :)
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The day the pictures died...

Yesterday we headed back to Rome to see Jeff and Kerry and to get in a couple more sites, namely the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel.

The day started off a bit on the wrong foot for me though when I realized as the train pulled into Rome that I left my camera in the men's restroom in the Florence. I spent about the next hour (or two) cursing my stupidity, which, while it sounds bad, is actually not terribly different than any other morning. Yesterday I just went at it with a little more vigor.

The good news is that I had just cleeared the camera of pics and that it was almost a year old, so it was technologically obsolete anyway...right? ...I hate myself... :)

In any case, the Colosseum was really impressive. I kept looking at it and thinking, "Man, and I thought building my deck was tough!" The Colosseum has stood for almost 2000 years now and it's remarkable how similar it is to current stadiums (it sat around 80,000).

After the Colosseum we wandered through the Palitines which are adjacent to the Colosseum and the forum. I don't know much about it other than it was the center of two Roman eras which is a rough quote from a book. Like I said, we just wandered in so I didn't really do my homework.

Next we went back to Vatican City where Rob and I finally got to see the Sistine Chapel. I have to be honest, it was very different than I had imagined. It was beautiful and on an immense scale to be sure, but I had expected something different in my head. Hard to describe...

We met back up with Jeff and Kerry afterwards since they had already hit the Sistine Chapel the day before and opted to go to the Basilica's cupola which we had hit a couple days earlier. The timing worked out pretty well and we were soon at a nearby ristorante chowing down and drinking a beer which we followed up with a looooong walk back toward the train station and a couple more beers at an Irish pub. :)

Minus the first couple hours of the day, things couldn't have gone too much better. I'm really looking forward to Jeff and Kerry's time in Florence - I think Rob and I will really show them a good time.

I'm going to try to buy my same camera if I can find it somewhere around here. If I do, expect the pics to start back up... Until then, hit Rob's post up for some pictures of yesterday (we should get to the wifi spot tonight or tomorrow night).

Cheers!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T