Countin down

I suppose i should post some content here other than pics. Bloggings tough though..to begin with i always feel like I'm talking to myself. Not that i don't do that normally, but when posting it there's a record of it and of course, other people can read it. I suppose that's the point though. Secondly, it's pretty difficult to write something that's not completely boring. I always seem to come up with subjects when I'm in the car or on the toilet, but they are inevitably forgotten when i sit down at my computer. The last few sentences, for example, would be an example of the boring content i just mentioned. But that's what I'm thinking right now..so that's what I'm writing. Thank god for pics, right?

To followup on my Lemans post a few weeks ago...... i went, i saw, and i conquered. Well, more accurately, i went, i slept, i watched, i slept some more, it rained, i watched some more, and then i came back. A buddy of mine from the states came over with some friends and family of his and during his European vacation we met up at Lemans to watch the race. It was nice to avoid Genglish for a few days.

As far as the race goes, i think that this year's race was better than last years primarily due to the weather. Why is rain better for racing you might ask? Well, i suppose for the driver's its not, but the rain made the race much more interesting (read: risk of crashing) and the cooler weather accompanying the rain made things all that more enjoyable. Last year it was unbearably hot and when you're trapped in within a race course with 250,000 other people and only a few dozen showers..well, you get the picture. The vette's did not followup their wins of the last two year with another this year but the if they're gonna get beat then at least it's by an Aston Martin. Even more interesting though was the addition of a diesel challenger to Audi. Peugeot brought 2 cars to race and put up a good showing finishing 2nd in their class. Could diesel be the future of racing? I don't see a diesel Chevy in Nascar next year but in endurance racing it certainly appears that diesels are the next evolutionary step.

But Corrigan, How did the audiobooks work out? Glad that you asked..i'm a convert. I didn't think i'd like listening to someone else read a book but it was actually a pretty good alternative to music. One of the books i got, “I hope they serve beer in hell” kept me laughing out loud for the entire trip. Literally. The book about the supreme court was also good but naturally wasn't as good at keeping me awake as the first one. The other two I'm still working on.

Following Lemans and a few days back at work i headed off for another vacation to tour Austria with my parents, brother and sister in law. This was the second trip over for my rent's but the first for Brian and Maureen. We spent a few days around my town in Switzerland followed by a few days in Vienna then a few days in Salzburg. I won't bore anyone with too many details except to say that it was a great trip and everyone went away smiling. We ate allot of swiss cheese, saw allot of mountains, a former nazi mountiantop retreat, saltmines and various other interesting cultural things of interest. Great english right? Well piss off
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Anyway, one of the funniest events of the week involved my mom, a liter of beer and a stone mug. Over the past 2 years I've built up a nice collection of glasses and mugs from pubs all over Europe, for free. I suppose i could say that its a more interesting way to get some glassware for my unfurnished apartment but truthfully i just wanted them. While in Vienna we stumbled across the Auginstiner Brauhaus (brewhaus) that was formerly run by a bunch of monks. Today its a huge indoor/outdoor drinking parlor. They sell beer, that's it and it comes in these really cool liter or half liter mugs. If you want food you can either bring your own or buy munchies from one of the few outside vendors that maintain booths. Basically, its the perfect bar.

But back to the mugs....so my brother and i were determined to get a few of these 1 liter beer mugs and hatched a plan. I say plan....basically planned to spirit a few away in our bags while others weren't looking. Brilliant! This wasn't the first time on this trip that we'd done this and my mother was being a typical mom and laying the guilt on pretty thick for stealing mugs and giving Americans a bad name. I've been giving Americans a bad name here for nearly two years, whats one more time? But when we announced we were going to steel mugs from a monestary, from Monks!, well it was clear to her where we'd be going..straight to hell!

The plan was enacted and upon leaving the brewhaus and arriving at the bus station we were both pretty happy with ourselves. We had escaped without incident. Naturally we expected some flak from our mom but when we looked over she smiled, reached into her bag and pulled out one of her own. But as she explained, it was for our other brother mike so it was ok.

Right ma. See you in hell.

Anyway, i've given up on posting individual pics and decided to post albums direct to google. With that in mind, i think the whole album is up so enjoy!

One more thing..time for in informal pole. If you had to choose between living in Vista, California, Detroit, Mi or Danville, Illinois...where would you live?

Cheers!

KC