channing avenue : blog

We have returned home from our excellent vacation in continental Europe. The parts that didn't get a blog were the last four days of the trip, since we either had sporadic internet or were just at the hotel infrequently:

• Return to Austria: Bad Gastein

We drove roughly six hours back from Prague, Czech Republic to Bad Gastein, Austria to our next hotel up in the Austrian Alps. Bad Gastein was the perfect destination to finally relax on our vacation. While a large portion of our trip was spent sightseeing and drinking copious amounts of beer, Bad Gastein gave us time to just relax and soak in the beauty of the quiet and quaint alpine region.

Our first morning up, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then took a short walk up the Kaiser-Wilhelm Promenade. Not sure exactly where or how far it would take us, we turned around and decided to take a small drive to Dorfgastein, about two towns down the mountain.

At Dorfgastein, there is a ski lift that runs all times of the year, so we paid to see the top of the mountain and the views that accompany it. It's definitely worth the cost because once at the top, you get to see parts of the valley that you otherwise would not. Furthermore, there is a great restaurant at the top that had great food, cold beer and the servers were very helpful and understanding of our lack of the German language (they even let us try to use a bit of what we had learned... apparently it was right!)

On day 2 in Bad Gastein we went to Alpentherme. Alpentherme is unlike anything we've ever experienced in the US... it's a 'leisure spa' resort, remotely similar to a waterpark as you may see at Disneyland or Six Flags, but instead of a bunch of fun, flashy water effects and attractions, it is focused around health and well-being, as it's based around a thermal spring that serves as the source of the water. There are multiple 'worlds' at Alpentherme, with the main ones being used by us were 'Relax-World' and 'Sauna-World'. It may not sound very exciting, but as a vacation goes, it wouldn't be complete without some decadent down-time. We spent almost the entire day at Alpentherme and if anyone asked me what I considered one of the best portions of the vacation, this would definitely be high on the list... I think Erin would agree as well. Unfortunately, water, steam and cameras do not mix, so there are no photos of Alpentherme (the one to the right is a photo from their website...)

• München, Germany

By Munich, the vacation was starting to wind down and we only had a few things left that we wanted to do before we were ready to go home. When I reserved a hotel in Munich, I had no idea that we were within walking distance to a very large castle, so we added that to our itinerary on our first day in Munich.

Schloß Nymphenburg was the summer residence for the rulers of Bavaria. It has a huge garden that was once laid out in a geometric Italian style (1600s) and later converted to a more English landscape style. The castle itself was part of the tour and interesting in its own right, but better yet were the Marstallmuseum (Museum of stage coaches, sleighs and riding equipment) and Amalienburg, a 'small' hunting villa replete with silver and gold trimming and a full tiled kitchen.

Later in the evening, we walked to the Hirschgarten and had some drinks and dinner. Erin laughed as an old man, assisted by his family, relished at the fact that the waitresses were wearing classic Bavarian outfits that were somewhat revealing. Every time one of the waitresses would walk by, his eyes would be quickly diverted from his food or drink... to little surprise, the male waiters didn't seem to have the same effect on his attention.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and took a trip into the old town section of Munich. We did some shopping and ended up finding a Mexican restaurant called 'Sausalitos' because we were craving some spicy food after eating so much rich and savory dishes in Europe. Unfortunately, the German concept of Mexican food hasn't quite reached the same expectations that one might develop living so close to Mexico proper. While the food was by no means bad, it really didn't seem all that spicy. The nachos were pretty good, and the one take-away from the meal that I may use in the future is to sprinkle chili-powder on the chips before putting them in the oven to bake... they look more appetizing and it adds an extra 'spark' to the plate of otherwise normal chips and cheese.

We also found a store called Dallmayr, which Erin said reminded her of the Ferry Building with its specialized shops of only the finest foods and other culinary goods. It was difficult to refrain from buying little bits of everything, from meats, cheeses, fresh baked breads, fine teas, seafood... anything the gourmet palate desired was on display here. We did our best but gave in and picked up some things and moved on.

In the evening, we made our way to the Hofbräuhaus München -- no trip to Munich would be complete without a visit to the most famous beer hall in Germany. We found a seat and ordered two huge, 1 liter beers, a pretzel (I believe Man can survive on these two items alone but the Hofbräuhaus isn't the time to find out), and Erin had a cheese plate, while I ordered a knee of pork.

After imbibing on a few other beers and becoming cordial with our table-neighbors, we enjoyed the music and finally left. All-in-all, a great night at Hofbräuhaus, and one that I will repeat next time I am in Munich!

... and then we flew home. Yuck! It was so nice to get off that final jet and set foot in San Francisco again. I was explaining to Erin this morning that I felt there are clearly two parts to vacation -- the first is the enjoyable sightseeing and the amazing experiences you encounter or create -- the other is living out of hotels, not having the creature comforts you are so accustomed to at home... by the end of two weeks it almost becomes another vacation to sleep in your own bed after two weeks in hotel beds (and European hotel beds at that!)

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the blog posts about our trip and thank you for reading them. We'll begin planning our next (much smaller) trip to Montreal, Canada in June 2010 for the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in a few months and i'll tell you all about it then. Also, we're looking to 2011 for our next larger trip but haven't decided where to go... we're leaning toward either France (more history), Ireland (more green hills) or Martinique (more beaches)... any recommendations?

This is a video from Prague Castle, where there is a changing of the guard on the hour:

Just as at Buckingham Palace in England, these guards do not smile. I'm assuming that they just think about something that makes them zone out and ignore everything else. They did a really good job... no smiles were detected.

Unfortunately, internet hasn't been as available as we had hoped, so posting to the blog is a bit delayed. Since I last posted, we were just leaving Cesky Krumlov and were heading to Prague. Today, we are in Bad Gastein in the Austrian Alps. Below is a bit about what we did in the past couple of days:

• First off, Prague is an *amazing* city. Erin and I both enjoyed it very much. We spent a great deal of our time in Staré Město, the old town. We went to two cathedrals and found our way to the shopping streets of Na Prikope and Pařížská třída a few times. Most impressive (but probably not most surprising) was the Pražský Hrad (Prague Castle). We went on a tour of the Lobkowicz Palace, which should not be missed. The story of one of the richest families takes you through their history starting in the 16th century, following their lineage to World War II, where they lost all of their possessions, regained them shortly after the war was over, only to lose them yet again as communism took over and turned their property into national property until 1989, when communism fell and the government returned most everything. Important artifacts such as Mozarts' first rearranging/revision of Handel's 'Messiah' and a couple of Beethoven's scores are priceless items that are on display.

• We went into St. Vitus' Cathedral -- this is definitely the biggest cathedral we've seen so far -- the stained glass windows and gothic architecture is both breathtaking and at the same time difficult to absorb -- one wonders how they were able to build such a large structure, and protect it from so many years of conflict.

• We went to U Vejvodu and I ate beer cheese! One may wonder what this tasty (yet stinky) concoction is. First, you are presented a plate with two innocent wedges of cheese, a small pile of minced white onions, and a sizable amount of mustard. You take some of your delicious Pilsner Urquell beer, pour it on everything, and smash the cheese, onions and mustard together. It may smell like a wet dog, but even Erin thought it tasted pretty darn good.

• I went to Absinthe Time and tried Absinthe in French louche style. If you are unfamiliar with absinthe (which isn't surprising, since it was banned from the US from the early 20th century until 2007) it is a liquor made from distilling various herbs and flowers including the root of wormwood. There are two primary methods for drinking absinthe -- one involves louche, which is a slow water drip over a sugar cube into the absinthe. The other is Czech style, which involves dipping the absinthe spoon into the absinthe, igniting the spoon, and then burning/caramelizing the sugar and adding it to the absinthe. The reality of the entire event, regardless of whether you perform Czech or French preparations are done purely to distract you from the flavor of absinthe. I tried to explain it to Erin -- when you open Pine-Sol and smell it direct from the bottle, it's so strong that you almost taste it -- it's like that, but about 20x stronger. Needless to say, drinking absinthe is not for me.

Some other learnings:

• Czech orange juice is not orange juice. We had a free breakfast buffet at our hotel and they served different juices, one of which was called 'orange juice'. After tasting it, I had to read the label to make sure it wasn't spelled differently (Urange Jooce?). It tasted like Tang, but without the nice acidic bite you've come to expect from one of the nation's leading powdered fake orange drinks. What's really surprising is that, I would understand the lack of knowing what orange juice *should* taste like if there were a lack of oranges in the country, but literally next to the juice was a bowl of cut fruit, including real oranges. One would think that someone would notice the difference and question... "do these taste the same? Are we being duped?"

• Don't drive on rail tracks. I watched what was apparently another tourist drive down a road that looked innocent enough... shortly thereafter, we were instructed by Czech 'Policie' to turn the corner and pay the penalty of driving on a train-only road. I didn't relish the idea of getting in an altercation with foreign police, so I politely kept saying "sorry" in English, of which he understood very little. He asked me for my license, car information and that I pay the 500 Czech crowns immediately, of which I had little to none, as I was attempting to leave town and didn't have the need for Czech money any longer. He pointed across the street and said "Bankomat or Change", referring to the various options of either collecting or converting money on the street. I ran over to one, got the 500 Czech crowns, paid him and he came back with a small ticket that showed the amount I paid. Justice in action. Shortly thereafter, I was in fast action to get out of this town -- I did *not* like driving in Prague. Very confusing and streets signs there were very difficult to understand. Goodbye King Wenceslas, back to Austria!

...And that's where we are tonight. We checked in last night to Mondi-Holiday Bellevue, and spent the day just relaxing. This is the pure 'holiday' part of the trip, where we have very little planned... just relaxing and absorbing the nature and beauty of the Austrian Alps. Today, we had a good breakfast, hopped in the car and drove to Dorfgastein and took the ski lift all the way to the top of a mountain... the view was spectacular. We also practiced learning and speaking more German with the restaurant owners at the top of the mountain. I learned how to order another beer (eine noch <enter beer name here> bier, bitte) and Erin learned how to respond to 'Ist gut?' (Is it good?) with 'Sehr Wohl, bitte' (Very good, thanks!).

Tomorrow is another wonderfully relaxing day of doing nothing! We will write when we arrive in Munich if internet becomes available again. Until then, our best from Austria!

Today we packed up our things, cleaned our room and checked out from Schloß Grubhof. We felt a bit peckish so we headed to St. Martin bei Lofer to a local Bäckerei and ordered some coffee and pastries. I got a delicious apricot and Erin picked up a cinnamon roll-type thing with two swirls instead of one. She was pretty happy about this new cinnamon roll, since the last cinnamon roll she bought at an Agip gas station was almost frozen and she had attempted to thaw it in front of the heater in the car.

Once we were on the road, it was pretty much a clear drive all the way to the Czech Republic. European drivers are so much more courteous than in America. You only use the fast lane to pass, then immediately return to the next lane over. I saw little traffic except when there was an Umleitung (detour). The roads are very well maintained and it's truly a pleasure to drive on. I probably discussed this in an earlier blog, but that's how good it is.

The mountainous ranges slowly turned into flatlands and hillsides as we progressed north. Once past Linz, Austria, we were at the Austrian/Czech border. You could immediately tell that, prior to the Schengen agreement (which generally allows free travel between EU countries) there was a heavily fortified border here. Now, there is an empty building and an EU sign welcoming you to the Czech Republic. As we continued, it became apparent the clear wealth disparity between the two countries. The roads immediately were rougher and patched instead of smooth and newly paved. There were vendors with odd trinkets on the side of the road, laid out on a tarpaulin or blanket. As we drove through some smaller towns, you felt the influence that communism had on a country less than 20 years ago with the small, similar homes and the very old cars, yet around the next turn, a new Orange or T-Mobile phone shop looked like it had just opened. Capitalism and democracy are here, but I get the feeling that many of the older folks don't really know what to do with it. It would seem they continue to live their lives, but haven't really found a new purpose yet.

As we continued our drive into Cesky Krumlov, the area entering town slowly became more gentrified. Cesky Krumlov is a UNESCO protected historical zone, and as such, the buildings are prohibited from being torn down so while they look very old indeed, you can also tell that there is more money here due to tourism. It's a good and bad thing -- walking around town, I got the feeling like we were getting a chance to see some history, but at the expense of the tacky shops and museums that have filled them for tourist revenue.

We found our Hotel and got situated. It was located right in the heart of Cesky Krumlov which was very convenient for touring the town and the castle. Once we checked in, I took a couple of photos our our window on the top floor with the camera we purchased; we then made our way onto the cobblestone streets. There is no denying that the town is interesting -- the small winding streets have many different shops, some of which contain interesting artifacts but most which sell either tourist souvenirs or Czech Garnet, which is one of the chief exports of the region.

We found a museum that had two interesting exhibits running -- the first was of an artist named Egon Schiele, whose work was being hosted due to his many paintings of Cesky Krumlov as he had taken residence here in the early 20th century. The other exhibit which I found fascinating was a look at Russian Communist propaganda posters. These posters, which you would only have seen if you were in the country at the time, showcase both an idealistic view of what the USSR were trying to accomplish, yet included the juxtaposition of how poorly run things really were. Statements on the posters similar to "He takes care of the things he owns, yet allows communal property to waste away" were telling people that you need to take good care of the government/public/people owned property as well as your own, showing drawings of a man polishing his car, while the wheat combine is getting old and dusty. Also interesting were the posters that focused on improving education and protecting the environment. I found it enlightening.

Once we had finished roaming through the city, we made our way up to the castle. Unfortunately, for inside tours with English speaking guides, you needed a minimum of 8 people, so we had to relegate ourselves to seeing the outside of the castle. It's really beautiful and looks over the town. I would recommend Cesky Krumlov if only to see this castle.

Later in the evening, we grabbed some food at a local restaurant... Erin had some potato pancakes in a brown gravy and I had a knee of pork. Her food was really great and mine was pretty tasty as well. Afterward, we walked to Cafe Van Gogh for a quick nightcap that ended up being a humorous situation. I ordered a Czech beer, of which the name escapes me at the moment, and Erin ordered a Hoegaarden. We sat down and waited for the beer to arrive -- when they did, we both had a laugh.

Erin's beer was about the size of her head! I have *never* seen a Hoegaarden glass so big! Normally in the US the glass is probably smaller than a pint glass, but this thing had to hold at least over .6 or .7 liter. It was massive. Needless to say, I ended up drinking half of it, since Erin takes sips of beer... nothing wrong with that -- more for me I suppose. :)

Tomorrow we pack up and complete the drive to Prague. We stay there for two days -- one of the days is for the serious touring of museums, castles, other old things, etc. and the second day is the pub crawl, where we are going first to a belgian beer tasting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and then hitting up four different pubs in Prague to try different beers, including the classic Pilsner Urquell, straight from the cask, unfiltered, unpasteurized!

Until tomorrow!

Here is a video of the beautiful cathedral in Innsbruck:

Even this video doesn't capture the spectacle of the cathedral. Below is the bishopric in Brixen:

Both were special in very different ways. Until tomorrow...

Today we got up a little late because the night prior, we had the full effect of jet lag kick in. As I was driving back from Salzburg to our hotel, I was so sleepy that I didn't feel safe driving anymore... once I passed the Germany/Austria border, I pulled over at a gas station that had trucks at it and parked for about 20 minutes to rest, then continued home. Once we got around, we started our drive to Innsbruck. Firstly, the drive through the Tyrolean mountains was spectacular. Small valleys surrounded by the tallest snow-capped mountains I have ever encountered -- unbelievable.

Things got a bit more bland as we drove into Innsbruck -- on first impression, one might think this was just your average town, but it turns out to be deceptive -- the outer limits on the A12 as you enter are covered in big-box and outlet stores. However, as you drive into the 'zentrum' (center) of town, you start to realize that there is more to Innsbruck than initially meets the eye. We started by parking and taking a walk on the Museumstraße to what amounts to an American shopping mall -- it was interesting to see the different stores from what we had, and also to see some that were the same. They had a GameStop, Claire's and H&M (which is a newer store to the Americas, but are very popular in Europe.) We were looking for a smaller camera that we could tote around, so we ended

up buying one at a store called Cosmos... it's similar to a Best Buy. The sales attendant spoke good English and helped us pick one... he also pointed us to where the aldstadt (old town) of Innsbruck was -- luckily it was well within walking distance to where we parked, so we started our trek. Once we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised. I think Erin and I would agree that the old town in Innsbruck was just as quaint or more so than Salzburg -- there were definitely more local crafts here than at aldstadt in Salzburg we were at yesterday.

We also made our way to Domkirche du Sankt Jakob (St. James Church) -- a beautiful Catholic cathedral built in 1717. I have never seen much meticulous detail in any architecture before -- it was almost too much to take in. Pictures cannot describe the vast amount of colors, gold/silver leaf and ornate plaster work used in this beautiful church -- you just sit in the pew and take it all in. We did a bit more shopping in the aldstadt and then had to pack it up to make it before sunset to Bressanone.

We took off toward Italy around 2:00PM, driving on the A12 Autobahn. Unbeknownst to us, there is an €8 tariff/toll imposed to drive on this road! Unfortunately, there is no other way to get there so we begrudgingly paid the toll and drove on.

As we got further into Italy, it was surprising to see the difference in the land use -- open fields of grass quickly turned into worked land full of fruit trees and grapevines. It was somewhat unexpected, as I was under the impression that the Italian alpine area is still very much influenced by its neighboring countries, and it was - yet it was also clearly a different country. Once we arrived in Bressanone/Brixen it became apparent how different and same it was to Austria and Germany. Short, narrow roads lead to the center of town... twisting walkways with tightly packed homes and apartments that were built in the 14th century still stand.

We also found the church courtyard of the Brixen Cathedral that looked like it had been there from when the bishopric Diocese was started in the 1100s -- I couldn't place an exact date on it, but will find out and update this page when/if I do. Below are photos.

Lastly, we found a small cafe and had a beer and a small panini to quell our hunger - we sat and watched the locals come in and chat with the owners -- the old Italian woman would pull a small sip of beer from the tap in between customers. At a point, the phone rang -- no one ran over to answer it... after about 8 rings, an old man finally stopped talking with some folks at a table and picked it up - funny the difference to how things are done back at home... no rush.

This was clearly the best day of the trip so far -- getting over jet lag allowed us to truly enjoy the whole day, and I wasn't tired driving back even though it was getting later in the evening. Tomorrow we pack up from Schloß Grubhof and head north to Cesky Krumlov, our first stop in the Czech Republic.

Here are a couple of videos from the castle:

Enjoy!

Our first stop was at Schloß Hellbrunn. This castle was built in the early 1600s by Markus Sittikus, who was an Archbishop at the time. The highlight of the castle tour is the Wasserspiele or 'Water show'... there were water jets mounted in the seats, floors, walls, everywhere -- you never knew where it was safe to stand where you wouldn't get wet! (It's probably important to note that this was a summer palace for Markus, so getting wet was probably more enjoyable in the warm weather.) These were put in place by Markus himself and were set off by his signal so only guests would get wet. It was interesting to see the humor and whimsy even back in the 17th century.

Later on, we drove down to the Aldstadt Salzburg, or 'old town'. This is where the famous narrow streets like the Getreidegasse are -- all of the good shopping is down here. Erin found a grey jacket she liked and I bought a turtleneck at Esprit which will serve me well since it's pretty cold. Every night we have reached around 3-4°C.

Lastly, we drove to the Augustinerbräu - our first beer hall! What an awesome experience. I don't understand why they don't have these in America... it's a very communal experience. Old people, young people and everyone in between drink and eat and just relax. Erin and I had problems syncing up eating times -- for some reason I haven't been hungry when she has, so she had eaten earlier and I pigged out at the bräustübl. I ordered a knee of pork and sauerkraut. The pork knee tasted like well seasoned ham (so good!) and the sauerkraut was fresh with bits of pork, giving it a rich flavor. The beer was also the best I've tasted here so far -- it comes straight from the cask which makes it less effervescent since there is no added carbonation.

After that, we went to Spar (grocery store chain) to pick up some cream and sugar for our coffee and some hair gel since I forgot to pack some.

Tomorrow we head to Innsbruck and make a small hop across the Italian border to Brixen/Bressanone... until tomorrow, auf wiedersehen!

Today was our first day to explore since arriving at Schloß Grubhof, our hotel. We jumped in the car and drove around trying to find some place to eat -- what we hadn't realized is that Sunday, almost everything is closed in Austria, especially in rural towns! Lofer is a tiny alpine town so it was unlikely that much would be open. Luckily with enough driving around, we found a nice hotel that was open and serving food so we stopped.

Our waiter didn't speak English well, so we hobbled through the few words of German we've learned and was able to order food. He was extremely nice and patient and in the end we both ended up with great food. I ordered the equivalent of a crêpe with apricot jam inside and Erin had a potato scramble with chives and ham and a cooked egg on top.

Since it was raining we knew that there wouldn't be much else to do in the small town, so we took a drive to Salzburg, as it was the biggest town nearby. We ended up at a café where we took in the atmosphere and just enjoyed watching the rain fall from a nice warm spot. The place was busy!

Tomorrow we return for our actual 'planned' day to Salzburg since this was more of a diversion than anything. Sorry for the tiny photos -- internet is slow here, and this saves the time. I will post a photo album later that will have full-sized photos.

Our vacation has started... a little bumpy at first, but much improved after the flight.

Getting out to Munich was a pain! Our flight from JFK to LHR was delayed over 3 hours due to equipment failure. We sat on the 777 for over two hours, then were shuttled out into the terminal again and waited for another plane to arrive. This required us to rebook a flight to Munich, as we missed our connecting flight. Luckily LHR to MUC is a popular route and there was another flight only a few hours after our current flight.

Once in Munich, we grabbed our bags and picked up our rental car... it's called a Seat Leon. Seat is apparently a brand of Volkswagen Group (like Porsche and Audi) and from the general feel of the car, it's their lower end. No matter -- it's a diesel so it gets great gas mileage and it looks acceptable.

Our first task was to drive to Lofer, but we needed to pick up some local currency along the way. We stopped in Rosenheim and took about an hour to find the Citibank that I had planned in advance to go to... the street it was on was a very tiny and somewhat hidden area. Once we found it and got cash we decided to eat in Rosenheim. We found a nice traditional pub that served good classic Bavarian food. I had the schweinbraun (roasted pork) with two different kinds of knödel (dumplings) in a nice broth. It also came with Blaukraut (blue sauerkraut) which I thought had a more mild taste than standard sauerkraut.

We continued our drive to Lofer -- what a hassle! I had a difficult time reading the signs at night time and we overshot our turns twice... luckily we realized it shortly thereafter, but it was clear that we needed to do most of our driving during the day so I could see the signs. Overall, German/Austrian roads are very well kept and are a pleasure to drive on.

'Til tomorrow...

Last evening I was in the parking garage at IL1 and saw the below 'murals' on a couple of the walls. It reminded me that there are fewer and fewer places on campus that use the 'pixel' characters. The first casualty (before my time) was the Apple Icon Garden... since I've been around, I have seen the silverware above the Caffé Macs sign and some building designators disappear or get repainted to very bland grey and white.

Anyway, I thought I'd post these in case they get painted over. I think the first one is supposed to be a race car or a tractor... the second is obviously a guy with a dogcow on a leash.

Enjoy!

Normally I don't just post images that I find amusing but I'm going to make an exception here, because this is really great. Carnivores win.

I can't believe it, but I may finally be able to drink something other than Heineken in my BeerTender. About a month ago,

Heineken announced that Newcastle Brown Ale will be available in select markets in a DraughtKeg format. Unfortunately, I am about 450 miles away from the closest 'select market' of Southern California.

So now I decide whether to a. wait it out until they make it available elsewhere or b. make a road trip and buy some of this stuff.

I actually like Newcastle Brown Ale quite a bit. I get it pretty frequently at the Duke of Edinburgh whenever I don't feel like having an Old Speckled Hen.

Right now I still feel like a second-class citizen though... perhaps even third-class. Not only is this unavailable in Northern California, have you seen the list of DraughtKegs available in other countries? Refer to an earlier posting here for a list.

While on the topic, I have noticed the price of the Krups BeerTender has dropped dramatically... will this spur sales of the 3-beer device to the masses? I'm not so sure. The cheaper T-Fal BeerTender model hasn't (as far as I can tell) helped move more units into homes. My main concern at the price drop is a possible decision by Heineken to drop the BeerTender altogether. While disheartening, it wouldn't necessarily mean the end of DraughtKeg here in the states... I have a feeling that the sales of DraughtKeg will keep it on this side of the pond for a long while to come.

It's taken a while, but we're nearing the end of the kitchen remodel. Here are some 'before' pictures:

Definitely the original stove:

This formica countertop was short in depth (21") and was showing major signs of neglect... saggy and generally in bad shape.

Turns out that the cabinets were the originals but with an oak reface done at some point.

...and the somewhat 'after' photos. Still a lot of work to be done, but we're getting there.

Here is the built in refrigerator box (no crown moulding up yet)

The glass faced cabinets were a toss-up... I wasn't totally sure about them, but in retrospect I'm really glad we did them.

...where the microwave hood and oven will go...

We're also doing the laundry area, but I haven't taken any pictures of that yet. I'll post more pictures as we move along. As you can see, we still have tile, a replacement window and some other finishing work to do, but we're a lot closer than we were two weeks ago!

UPDATE 07/31: Hunter sent the wrong part. They sent me the part with the lighting receptacles, even though I clearly mentioned in my email that I needed the black boxes, as they were the failed parts. Unfortunately, they don't have the black boxes in pre-wired form for another 6-8 weeks, but offered to send me the disassembled ones. I'm starting to think that taking the fan down and bringing it back to Home Depot is going to be less of a hassle here.

UPDATE 07/15: Hunter technical support contacted me this morning and say they are sending a new light kit immediately. That's pretty good customer service!

---

I installed a Hunter fan the other night and it was working great. Tonight as I was working, I noticed all the lights in the office dim, and then go back to normal.

From the other room, Erin says, "Uh, Jared... something smells bad in here." Sure enough, the brand new fan I just installed had what is sometimes referred to as a "spectacular event" or in laymen's terms, a safety issue.

Too bad, really. The fan was nice (while it lasted.) I have wrote to the folks at Hunter for assistance -- hopefully they will prove to have customer service that matches their reputation for quality in fan products (with exception to mine of course).

As of today, we are officially homeowners.  It feels good, but I'm also very tired.  It's been a busy day -- I've been trying to sand and refinish the hardwood flooring and we had a contractor come in to estimate the cost on the kitchen remodel.

We move tomorrow and in a week I head off on a business trip so there isn't much time to get things organized and somewhat livable.  I feel like it's going to be a big project, but I think it will be rewarding.

Craig ( colleague and nerd of everything 80s ) and I have determined that during the 80s you were in one of two camps.  Ally or Molly.  Here are screenshots from "The Breakfast Club":

Molly:

Ally:

...and if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you should just go read something else.

I'm a Molly fan.  Craig thought Ally was better.  Meh, what does he know?

While I was waiting to make coffee in the break area at work, I opened up one of the cabinets.  It was a sad sight.  There were a couple of old personal cups from employees long-forgotten and a few boxes of old tea.  The boxes are old anyway.

I wish I could find out how old these actually are.  The packaging would suggest 70's-80's, but maybe Lipton just took a really long time to change the design.  I looked on Google Images for a picture of this tea, but all I could find is the tea picture below.  Since the logo has changed, it reaffirms my belief that this is really old tea (or Lipton is a lazy company and never changes the packaging artwork).

That brings up another question -- does tea go bad?  I mean, it's just dry bits of leaves or herbs...  how bad can it get?  Obviously if any moisture is introduced all bets are off, but if it stays dry will it keep?  Probably.  Here is what Adagio tea has to say.

I would try them since it appears no one else has for the past 30 years, but I don't like orange or apple flavored tea.  Nor do I like non-caffeinated teas.  Seems pointless.

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It was laundry-day again (as happens weekly in our home) and as a matter of routine, the person who does the laundry typically checks pockets for rogue change or the occasional lip balm.  More on that in a minute.

Earlier in the day, Erin and I were still house-hunting and had to run a few errands.  As we stopped at the bank, I saw a McDonald's across the way and told her that I was going to grab a breakfast sandwich and coffee.  Even though Erin has a fairly strong distaste for the Golden Arches, she is polite enough to look the other way while I enjoy my less-than-healthy grub.

As I was standing in McDonald's and had placed my order for a McGriddles® Breakfast Sandwich (this in and of itself deserves a blog), I saw these packages of McDonald's Pure Honey.  Now normally I'm not one to fall prey to advertising, but the bee on the front of the package, with the flowers and all made me want to pick up a few.  Hey, it's free honey, why not.

Still waiting for my purchased food, I dive my paws into the box of prepackaged honey and placed three individual servings in the front pocket of the white Martin + Osa hoodie I was wearing.  I was with honey and food -- life isn't getting much better.

I returned to the car and scarfed down the sickeningly sweet McGriddles® Breakfast Sandwich (which, by the way, is never singular 'McGriddle'.  It's always McGriddles®.  Always.) and drank my coffee. Erin had some McOrange Juice.  We continued the house hunt.

As the day wore on and night began to fall, we returned home and, as per usual, I took my day-worn hoodie off and threw it in the laundry basket.  Erin, being the efficient wife and caretaker who keeps me from going to work naked in the morning, immediately began sorting the clothes to be washed.

Roughly an hour and a half later (the details at this point become sketchy and blurred), I am sitting at the desk doing some work when I hear, "Why does your sock smell like syrup?"

Now, granted, my socks have smelled like a lot of different things, but syrup was officially a new entry in the book.  As with anyone who has a syrup-smelling sock, one's interest is piqued.  I get up to smell the sweet garment.

"Yep, that's definitely something sweet."  Well that's good.  We've confirmed it.  Shortly thereafter, the panic sets in.

Erin:  "OH....MY....GOD.   It's on EVERYTHING."

Sure enough, we start pulling different articles of clothing.  These little blops of sticky, amber-yellow colored goo is on everything.  While it's obvious that something horrible has occurred, no one has sourced the cause of the problem.  We dig further.

Jared: "I think it's coming from here... there's a lot of it on my favorite hoodie.  What did you do?!?"

In typical "pass the guilt" fashion, I have chosen to blame the only person that could possibly have done this other than myself.  Sometimes this works -- other times, as we're about to find out, it does not -- and in spectacular fashion.

About five minutes have passed and we have now examined the interior of the washer and dryer, and disassembled the wad of sticky clothing, when it finally appears:

That honey package that I just had to pick up has now taken a ride in the washer and most likely could not cope with the intense temperature of the dryer and exploded all over the clothes.  Initially, I considered the possibility that Erin may have been carrying these honey packets.  I devised the possibility that, in some crazy situation, she found herself consuming food at the one place she most refuses to step foot in, let alone eat at, and via some random act, was under compulsion to collect these packets of honey that have a picture of her most-feared creature on the plant.  Ya, that's the ticket!

Luckily, I washed the clothes in small batches in very hot water and all of the honey came out.  We had a laugh.  Had it been something that did not come out of the clothes?  Well let's put it this way -- I once washed a piece of silk apparel that Erin loved.  She still, to this day, brings it up.

Not a good day for me.

Erin and I were at the British Food Centre in Campbell, CA when we ran across this:

She was surprised to find her name on a product.  We bought it.  We'll have to see if her namesake makes a good Traditional Irish Potato soup.  You can find the company's website at www.erinfoods.ie.  

We also ended up buying a bag of HP Skips prawn cocktail-flavored crisps (there's even a YouTube video for this), bangers, a mushroom sauce for steak, Mateer Tikki Masala-in-a-box, Branston Pickle, and some Cadbury cocoa mix.  I wanted to try a pork pie, but it was so expensive (half round, $15.45!)

There's always something interesting available at the British Food Centre.