Germany Day 3

Got out of bed at noon today...jet lag is fading. Tried to get in contact with AT&T about the data plan for the iPad, but that was fruitless...the international number was disconnected! Chatted with someone from liveperson.net who told me the account was 'invalid' to which I asked what 'account'? The credit card or the AT&T account? Here is the transcript:

(and no this isn't the first time I masqueraded as a woman on-line, geez it's what the InterPipes was made for!)

info: Thank you for choosing AT&T International Care a representative will be with you shortly. Please note: Protecting your personal information is one of our highest priorities; hence, you will be required to provide account related information to ensure whom we are working with. Data encryption is also enabled to protect your personal information during this chat session. For more information please go to http://www.wireless.att.com/privacy/ or http://www.att.com/privacy/. Please wait for a site operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with Amanda Arellano.
Amanda Arellano: Hello! My name is Amanda Arellano and I am an International Care Representative. I’m reading your inquiry and I will be right with you.
Colleen Williams: Ok
Amanda Arellano: How may I assist you today?
Colleen Williams: I would like to know why my iPad won't connect to the local provider
Colleen Williams: But both of our iPhones do just fine
Colleen Williams: The iPad always displays "No Service" and there has been zero data usage since we arrived
Amanda Arellano: Did you add an international data plan before you left on your iPad?
Colleen Williams: Yes
Colleen Williams: 50MB
Amanda Arellano: I'm sorry for the delay. I'll be right with you.
Amanda Arellano: To better assist you may I have you verify your 10 digit mobile number, the name on the account, and the e-mail address associated with this account, please?
Colleen Williams: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Colleen Williams: Colleen Williams
Colleen Williams: email address
Amanda Arellano: Thank you, allow me a moment to retrieve your account.
Amanda Arellano: Currently your iPad shows that there is no international feature active.
Amanda Arellano: In order to add one you will need to go to a WiFi location.
Colleen Williams: I have a confirmation email
Colleen Williams: And the device itself says i have a plan
Colleen Williams: Of course I am not at a wifi location right now
Colleen Williams: I can forward the confirmation email if you give me an address to send it to
Colleen Williams: You have purchased the 50 MB of data for 30 days for $59.99 international rate plan. The plan will become active on 09-20-2010 Midnight Eastern Time. Your credit/debit card has been charged $63.85
Colleen Williams: From: sdc@connect2.wireless.att-mail.com Subject: AT&T International Data Plan Purchased Date: September 18, 2010 11:34:10 AM MDT To:
Colleen Williams: Are you still there?
Amanda Arellano: The notes state that the plan was not added because the account was invalid.
Colleen Williams: What account?
Colleen Williams: The credit card account?
Amanda Arellano: I'll be right with you.
Amanda Arellano: All it states is Invalid Account Type.
Colleen Williams: That is not helpful to me
Colleen Williams: What am I supposed to do?
Colleen Williams: Are you a real person or a bot?
Amanda Arellano: You can try adding it through in a WiFI area.
Colleen Williams: Ok, I will check my credit card to see if the original charge is there first
Colleen Williams: But the confirmation email should never have been sent if it wasn't activated
Amanda Arellano: I apologize for any inconvenience.
info: Your chat transcript will be sent to at the end of your chat.
Colleen Williams: Ok, thank you


Note this 'chat' took 22 minutes! Just added to the frustration. I then 'chatted' with someone from liveperson.net for Bank of America, which took about 3 minutes and 'Zane' directed me to Deutsche Bank to get no fee withdrawals...so AT&T is the fail here, not liveperson.net.

So we head out to the tram, which we only had a €10 and €50...the day pass is just under €20 for two, so we ride it illegally for 3 stops to the central station(Hauptbahnhof) and go buy zwei Becks (Und Beck's!!!) to break the €50 and then realize we don't need to buy the 'entire network' day pass since we are only going to be traveling in one zone. So we could have purchsed that with the €10. Oh well its only €40 if you get caught without a valid fare.

So I also buy a Cuban cigar...(damn U.S. embargo!) and then over to Duetsche Post to buy some stamps for the postcards we bought the day before. The machine only takes coins or their brand of MasterCard, so Colleen waits outside with our Beck's(yea, you can drink in public...I am having a hard time justifying not moving here.)

Und back to the hotel because we forgot the camera.

Und back to Marienplatz to Deutsche Bank which is right by Alter Peter (St. Peter's church ) which we wanted to go back to during the day and get some pictures. This is the same area with the Apple store and Hofbräuhaus we were at the day before. We arrived at 5PM local time and the bells were going off and the 'figurines' were moving.



We are just kind of wandering around taking tons of random pics and check it out...we see a black Jeep Grand Cherokee....from a distance it looks like the SRT-8, but its apparently a European version. Jeeps are pretty rare here, but I think this is the 4th one we have seen, so not too rare. You know what is rare? Excursions and Hummers and the like. And almost all the taxis are Benz...we saw one 300M and one Prius taxi, but the vast majority are Benz. We also saw a G320 convertable...didn't even know that existed. And some funky little Ford thing, I should have snapped a pic. Either way mostly VW, BMWs and Benz around Munich. Its cool too...in the states if you drive one of these cars its probably because you are a prick or have a little one(or most likely both) but here it is because they are built here and are just fine automobiles.


The tags say S Limited and CRD...also note the marker lights in the bumper. Very cool. I don't think it has a Hemi though. And I don't see the back up camera.
So we find ourselves back at the corner of Hofbräuhaus and Hard Rock Cafe(yuck!) Note the cream Benz taxis in the background. Its about 3PM and we are starving and sober-ish.
And we also needed to get a stein for Tom, so I text him to find out which kind and how much does he want to spend? Because there are glass, ceramic, pewter...lids, no lids, mugs...€10-€800.

But really...it's all about the beer! Lets get to drinking! So we stopped at the Augustiner am Platzl.

Oh yeah, I guess some food is in order as well. Colleen got the cheese spätzle, which was good, just not as good as Hofbräuhaus.
And I got the boiled beef with potato salad. And after eating here for 3 days, I have to say I feel totally ripped off by the 'German food' I have had back in the states! I am not kidding, this potato salad was so good, I don't ever want to eat it at the Red Lion again!
We stopped at Hofbräuhaus to pick up some souvenirs since the little souvenir shop was closed when we left last night.

I love these cool open air markets that are everywhere here.
Und back to the hotel to drop off the souvenirs und we also go to the little grocery store to buy some stuff for breakfast and munchies...Colleen is craving German chocolate. And some Underberg and Spaten of course.

And then back to Oktoberfest Jå! Again, we opt to not go inside the main 'tent' because its after 8PM and everyone is hammered and its too crowded. So we grab a spot outside. Btw, I keep typing 'tent' because these are not tents, but huge wooden structures built to resemble tents. I was wondering how they could erect a tent to hold 20,000 people and now I know ;-)


Besides, I want to smoke this sweet Cuban and this is the first year you are not allowed to smoke inside the 'tents.'



And here is my Popeye impression apparently.

And our table friends last night...I think they were from the UK, but after drinking 5 litres, one 20 oz Becks and a bottle of Spaten at home...I am not sure. I remember the one blonde girl that was with them was from Australia or New Zealand...I think. Und Beck's!

And then we hopped on the subway, got lost and then grabbed a taxi who proceeded to take a very long route back to our hotel. Oh well, the price you pay for being a drunken foreigner I guess.

Deutschland am nächsten Tag

Finally got out of bed at 3PMish local time. Front desk called and said Lufthansa delivered our luggage, that is a good start! After fetching the bags and emptying them, we shower and walk to the Hauptbahnhof, not realizing we could pay for the tickets on the tram...oh well, nice day for a walk its 70F/21C and clear. Bank for more Euros, some postcards and then back to the hotel because I forgot to put on deodorant...don't want people to think I am French ;-)

The iPad isn't connecting to the cellular network, so its useless beyond a WiFi connection, so we hop on the tram to go to the Apple store. Get off on the wrong station, and then because its after sundown, we head the wrong way and walk to just a block from our hotel! Why the hell doesn't Google maps have a compass? Now I wish I had my marching compass! Oh well, walking around Munich lost is still pretty cool.

Back on the tram and this time we get off on the right station, but because the 3G coverage is pretty lame, we think we are not at the right location. So a little wandering around and we finally head in the right direction. We find the Apple store and are completely amazed at how useless the Genius Bar people are...cute, but useless. Like many of Apple products ;-)

JesusPhone, help me!

Nevertheless, we carried on to our final destination, Hofbräuhaus!


We find a seat and order a couple of litres...

...and the waiter brings us menus in English, nice but not necessary since this is day two of our total immersion and we are completely fluent...ha!

After the biers arrive, a South African couple sit down at our table and regale us with their whirlwind travel stories. They just arrived from Amsterdam after Greece and several other European stops and are only here for two days and then on to Italy, London and then back home...only staying two days in each location. Too much travel for me...I can't get enough after a week or two in one spot, let alone just a couple of days.



And we were talking politics here...he doesn't hate Americans or me despite the stern look. I think?

A little Facebooking and Yelping...




On to dinner!

Salad, yeah, yeah...
Bread, yeah, yeah....
Pork! Ahhh Yes! "Roast pork from Bavarian production with crackling in natural gravy,
served with a grated potato dumpling" Menu pdf. No, I have never heard of 'crackling' but somehow I knew what it was...its a piece of skin with about 10mm of pork fat still attached, skin side fried. Yes, this is like a pork rind, but the real deal. I could hear my Dr. grumbling as I savored every last bite of that deliciousness. Yes Emeril, pork fat does rule!
And Colleen's cheese Spätzle was awesome...if I hadn't just gorged myself on pork and dumplings, I would have ordered my own! We also got a tureen of "Bavarian onion soup with marjoram", but I guess we forgot to take a picture of that. You can see it in the bread photo.

After our meal, we asked if they had Underberg, and they were out. So we ordered Jägermeister at the behest of our South African friends. But they also wanted to know where we got our "Emergency Underberg" tin, so we told them Smallflower.com and gave them the tin. We have a bunch at home and the missus really seemed to like it. Fortunately, we are in Germany so all the local stores have Underberg on the shelves. In Los Angeles you can get it at the Red Lion and bulk at BevMo.

A couple more litres...

And now for a little drunken vandalism...it's time to leave our mark...Und Beck's!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMTYn9ycm3o

Oktoberfest 2010

Day 1

Woke up hung over from pre-Oktoberfest celebration...err, training ;-) Cab showed up 10 minutes late even though I called 30 minutes prior to pick up. United is having some glitch in the system, so check-in takes about 20 minutes. We check two bags and are on our way. 1PM MST.

3+ hours later and we are in Chicago. We make our way to our gate to catch the next flight to Brussels, and are bumped to a direct flight to Munich. Thats cool. While on the Boeing 777, the captain announces that those of us that were originally on the flight to Brussels don't have to worry...our luggage will be waiting for us there. What? Wait, so we ask one of the flight attendants if our luggage is going to be in Brussels and she assures us that it will make it's way to our final destination in Munich. Und Beck's!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMTYn9ycm3o

9 hours later and we touch down in Munich at 9AM local time, 1AM MST. We got about 2 hours of sleep on the flight. iPad rocks for watching movies on the plane. Way better than the laptop as far as battery consumption is concerned.

So we head down to baggage claim. No luck. We head over to the Lufthansa baggage tracing kiosk and ask about our luggage and she informs us that they are not in the system. So we hang out for 2+ hours waiting for our original flight from Brussels to land and see if our luggage is on that flight. No luck. Back to file a claim...she is confident they will have it to our hotel by the next day. No big deal, all our important stuff was in our carry-on...except our emergency Underberg, Jå!

First stop is the bank to get some Euros. There are 4 of them in the airport, so that is pretty convenient. $300 US dollars gets you just under €200. I still call them bucks.

So now we head out to the train to get to our hotel. But first some currywurst and bier! One of the fräuleins didn't speak English, but we were able to order anyway. Then her cow-orkers were giving her scheiße for not being able to speak English. And right behind us was a group of Spanish dudes that ordered in English too.





On to the hotel, Citadines which is about 5 minutes from the central train station, so we walk it. Traffic is getting kind of crazy, but its not quite rush hour. Check-in, nap for about an hour or so, then out to the local grocery store behind a Hostel, where some teens wave at us from the 6th floor.

Oh wait, first I plug a power strip into the power converter, but it was set to adapter mode sending 230v into my 120v power strip. Ahh, the smell of burnt electronics! Fortunately the converter has a built-in surge arrestor, so everything is fine. Its not really necessary since everything we have is dual-voltage, but instead of buying 4 adapters, I bought one converter/adapter and a 4 outlet 120v travel strip. Works just fine.

Post naptime, we head out to Oktoberfest to get a glimpse of the madness. We bought a day pass at the airport, so we are good to travel on all public transpo. The tram stops right in front of our hotel and right in front of the central station(Hauptbahnhof), where we transfer to the U4 to Theresienwiese, otherwise known as Oktoberfest! But its only a 15 minute walk from the hotel, so it would be easy to hoof it.






So we get to the Theresienwiese and its massive! It is about 7:30PM local time, so most everyone is already tanked. The first English we hear is from a Brit yelling "Fuck off you whore" to some dirndl-clad girl.

So we are walking and taking pictures, and I am pretty happy considering I am completely sober and jet-lagged.


Colleen is pretty excited too!

But lets not kid around, I am here to drink! Prosit! After walking through a couple of big 'tents', it is insane! We are too sober and they are too drunk for this to work out, its standing room only and everyone except some of the oldies in reserved sections are standing on the benches singing to horrible cover songs by the Umpapa bands.



Time to withdraw and head to one of the smaller beer halls that are serving food. Out of the Paulaner tent and into the Paulaner beer hall to get one of those roast chickens and a bier!



Colleen got the cheese platter.

But the jet lag was catching up to us. After 4 litres each, it was time to say gute nacht!


So here I am, it's midnight to me, but 8AM local time and the beer tents open at 10AM. We want to get there early today...I want to be one of the pissed ones we passed yesterday on the train, prosit!

Oh and our luggage would be nice too.

So You Want To Be A Writer

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

--Bukowski

Colleen

An old friend used to say "you have a guardian angel" as I would escape injury or pain countless times. I thought I was just lucky until in 1994 I met that angel. I was a freaking mess but she saw something in me and took a chance. I am a gambler and take the long shots against all odds, but even I would have second guessed that.

I have had my ups and downs, wins and losses and just outright bad times. In 1990 I left NY and headed to CA in search of a better life in a warmer climate. After a few years of surfing Santa Barbara down to Los Angeles, I landed in Koreatown. After stumbling around Hollywood for a couple of years, I met a girl...it was quite possibly the most improbable match ever. I was a diehard NYer Yankee and she was most recently from Texas. I was self-destructive and semi-narcissistic and she was the sweetest girl next door.

16 years later and somehow I didn't fuck it up. Somehow my guardian angel stuck around and kept everything working.

Colleen is the sweetest person I have ever met. She calls her mom at least once per day. She never says a bad thing about anyone. She always sees the good in everyone. And she puts up with my shit.

I may die tomorrow. That is fine. I couldn't have asked for a better life. And my life wouldn't have been the same without her.

Colleen's Mac n' Cheese

Ingredients:
1/2 pound penne pasta
1/2 cup butter
3 Tbsp minced fresh onion
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 1/2 cup milk
1 pound grated Gruyere cheese (usually a block)
1 pound grated extra sharp Cheddar cheese (usually a block)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese + 1/2 cup more for topping
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs

Instructions:
Heat oven to 350F
Make pasta per usual on stove top
Melt butter in large pot over medium heat and add onion. cook for 2 minutes, add pepper and flour.
Cook stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes. don't let flour brown.
Add mustard and milk and bring to a simmer.
Simmer for 10-15 minutes. sauce will thicken. if too thick add more milk.
Once the sauce has simmered for at least 10 minutes, add the Cheddar, Gruyere cheese and 1 cup of Parmesan cheese.
Shut off heat and stir them until combined.
Toss pasta into the cheese sauce until pasta is covered.
Place pasta in an 11 x 14 inch glass or ceramic baking dish*.
Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
Sprinkle with panko bread crumbs.
Bake for 40 minutes or until top is golden and toasted.

Notes:
1. I normally cook for 35ish minutes then put on broil until golden brown.
2. I add any other cheese I might have on hand at the time..pecorino romano, manchego, monterey jack, etc.. the more cheese the better, in my opinion
3. You can use any size dish to bake it in as long as it is 2 to 3 inches deep, I have made them in 4" round ramekins and had the same results
4. For a spicy version, julienne 2 jalapeno or other hot peppers and add to mixture before baking

Stray cats and bureaucracy

In late October we started feeding these two stray cats. One is about a year old and obviously had been around people and the other is about 4 months old and is feral. A couple of weeks go by and its starting to get cold so I rig up a way for them to get into our backyard and start luring them to the back room of our house which has a door to the outside. They are pretty trusting as long as there is food, so after a few days they are comfortable going in the house.

Then one evening while we are watching TV and the cats are hanging out in the back, a tomcat comes in and kicks the kitten's butt. She is limping and scared to death, so we try to catch her, but catching a feral is pretty difficult. Unfortunately she climbs a pine tree about 25 feet up and I can't reach her. We trap the older one and hope the best for the little one.

A day passes and we don't see the little one, so we are fearing the worst. Then a day later we see her across the street in the desert brush. She is hungry so we put out food on the front porch and she comes running. Once she is eating, we open the front door and and let her see the older cat who is clearly visible behind the french doors to the back room. She only likes one thing better than food and that is what we later come to figure out is her mom. So in the house she comes and we shut the front door. While we still can't touch her, at least she is now safe from the tomcats outside. Both are now in the back room with plenty of food, water and warmth.

At this point I am researching stray/feral cats and the city of El Paso's regulations about pets in general. On their site I see its law to get all pets microchipped and vaccinated/registered. Ok, so we have one cat already and now we have these two strays we aren't sure what we are going to do with, but we know they all have some visits to the vet to bring them up to regulation.

Its now a day or two before Thanksgiving so we figure we can get all this done after the holiday so we know the offices and vets will be open and maybe we can figure out how to get the two strays into carriers and to the vets. The day after Thanksgiving(Friday), I am using food to socialize them and the older one bites me pretty hard. Deep puncture wounds that bleed pretty good, so I wash and clean with rubbing alcohol. By Sunday I have now read everywhere on the Internet that Rabies is fatal and that once you have signs its too late. The best you can do is go to the doctor right away and have the cat tested or quarantined. So, I go to the emergency room and they give me a band-aid and some anti-biotics and report the bite to Animal Control.

Monday at 8AM Animal Control is at our front door. I let her in and she asks some questions and wants to see the cat. She now informs me that I have two options. One is I surrender the cat and they kill it so they can run tests on its brain, or the second is I 'declare' that it is our cat and they quarantine it. But the catch is, if I declare ownership, they have to cite me for failure to microchip/vaccinate/register and I am on the hook for all the costs associated with that. She tells me that we have 3 days from the time we start feeding a stray cat to get these things done or we can be cited. Sounds ridiculous, but it is the government. And I understand she has a duty as an officer, and she could have cited us for the other two as well, so while I am angry, I am also appreciative of this.

So I declare that its my cat, she writes me a ticket and takes the cat. The little one goes crazy now that she knows she is alone in a strange house without her mom. We can get the cat back in 7 days by paying some fees.

The little one is doing ok with us and is actually starting to warm up since she doesn't have her security blanket and we are after all feeding her.

We actually go to Animal Control on Saturday to make sure 'Socks' is doing fine and to see what we need to do to pick her up on Monday. They take us back to the quarantine area and Socks is friendly as usual and even the officer comments on how good she is, as she is reaching out of the cage with her paw to the officer. We weren't allowed to touch her.

Monday comes and we head to Animal Control and find out that we need to pay the fees before they vaccinate/microchip/register(totally understandable considering they would put her to sleep if we didn't show up to claim her.) Frustrating, but its only one more day. We cough up the $115 for getting Socks out of the hoosegow and pick her up on Tuesday.

A week later after the cats settle down and get comfortable, we start on the 'Three days of Vet visits' starting with our bad cat(she is almost 15 years old and has been an indoor cat her whole life. She was a feral when we took her home at 6 weeks, so I guess we will never learn.) She gets her microchip and booster shots and is done. The next day we take the little one, Leeloo for shots and the 'wellness' exam which has to be done before she gets spayed. She was actually pretty well behaved. Day 3 Socks goes to the vet for shots and wellness exam. The date is set for Socks and Leeloo to get spayed, two weeks away.

At this point, each cat has cost about $150 each at the vet, and $115 for Socks at Animal Control. And the spay will cost another $100+ each for the two new cats. Ok, I guess after all is said and done each cat will cost about $300 each. No big deal.

So on 'Spay Day' we drop the new cats off at the vet for most of the day(arrive at 7:30AM, pick up at 7:00PM.) Coincidentally, this is also my court date for my citation. The total sum for the violations is $290. I bring all the paperwork showing we are now in compliance with Socks and am ready to explain to the judge that it was a stray that we had just managed to get in our house when she bit me when I was feeding her bacon from my hand. Hell, I would have done the same...I LOVE bacon. But the dumbass teen and father before me riled up the judge and he 'reset' my case so that I now have to go downtown where he said "they are known for dismissing the charges sometimes." I figured it was better to see a judge that may be more understanding of a situation with strays and such than to try to explain to an already riled up judge that its not like we have been skirting the law, but just didn't understand the time restrictions. Live to fight another day.

So where are we now and what have we learned? Our original bad cat is 'up to code' and was spayed 14+ years ago, so she is done. The other two survived Spay Day(two days ago) and are glad to be back 'home' with food, warmth and medication. They are now both 'up to code' and are busy growing fur on their bellies. They have a follow-up in two weeks to get the stitches out and a check-up. They will mail me a court date and hopefully they will drop the charges completely considering we adopted these two and did the right thing by getting them spayed, etc. Of course its a bureaucracy, so I am not holding my breath.

A couple of notes, when I 'declared' ownership of Socks the Animal Control officer was shocked. She said she only had seen that one other time in her career. When we went to Animal Control to check up on Socks the officer at the shelter was also shocked that we claimed her and were going to adopt her. I guess I was shocked to find out that more people don't have what I consider basic compassion.

Also, one evening before we got the cats inside, the neighbor rugrats(ages 6-10) were 'playing' with the cats. The next day when I went out to our front yard, there were rocks everywhere. The little beasts were actually throwing rocks at the cats. Leeloo, the smallest one, had a red nose with dried blood on it for almost as long as we have seen her. I guess this partly explains why she has been so skittish. Between Tomcats, kids and cars, its a surprise that this one of Socks litter actually survived. Socks couldn't have been much older than 8 months old when she had her litter.

In the end, the citation and fines are inconsequential. Killing innocent animals when we have the means to prevent that seems cruel. While we have accepted responsibility for these two, there are many more in our neighborhood still. I am not sure if we are going to keep them, but when they curl up together and sleep, I know they should probably stay together. If there is one regret I have about bringing home the bad cat is we should have brought home two. Maybe she wouldn't have turned out so bad.