Basement: Electrical Done

Let there be light. (Sorry, I couldn't resist the cliche).

To Patrick's great surprise, he flipped the switch, and the lights went on. Kind of an amazing feeling after living off of the shop light for the past couple of years down there. Really makes a difference in the room now that it is well light.

The rest of the basement (baseboards, furniture, pictures, etc.) will have to be on hold for awhile until we get back from Ireland.

Chicago: Wicked

I know this will be hard to believe, but as a gay man, I'm not really into musicals. The whole breaking out into song just doesn't make any sense to me. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, just don't get it - kind of like Gene Kelly tap dancing in the rain - couldn't he have been a little bit more low key about it?

Anyway, so when Mike suggested we go see the Sunday performance of 'Wicked', I wasn't 100% like I was going to connect with my people. But of course, I was wrong. Absolutely amazing theatre, the plot was amazing, and the music was less high school thespian and a little more American Idol. Not that I'm a fan of American Idol either.

This is also a high recommend - if nothing else, read the book. Kind of fun to see a story where what you think happened to the Lion, Tin Man, and the Scarecrow could have been a complete fairy tale.

Chicago: Marshall Fields

I think the last time I was in Marshall Field's was when I was 8 years old, and we went to the magic shop they had in there.

Of course, the place reminds me now of a bad Macy's on growth hormones with a realy famous glass ceiling - but you can always see how this place must have rocked in its heyday.

Chicago: Ann Sather's

The problem with being popular...

Wanted to go to Ann Sather's for breakfast on Sunday morning, but the line was out the door. Granted it didn't help that they moved to a new location and cut their available space in half - huh. So we had to settle for grabbing a six pack of cinnamon rolls and eating 4 in the car. Yes, I forwarded the leftovers to my father (after making him work for it a little bit) . . . and yes, he did not share.

Chicago: Saturday Dinner - Boka

OK, the Stained Glass was very good, but dinner on Saturday night was amazing at Boka's.

Apparently the executive chef of Charlie Trotter's opened up this restaurant, and the reviews from the Tribune were very good. Looked at the menu, and Mike and I both realized that there was at least one word that we had no idea what it meant. Basically had to have the server explain everything. Granted the chef was making up words, but still.

Couldn't decide on which sides to get, but that wasn't an issue - when the one side (a risotto made from barley instead of rice) was late, the server went to the kitchen and just brought all of them out. We did have an Alsatian wine (in fact, they had a whole section of Alsatian wine), but it wasn't typical - good, but not typical.

Great place - a recommend for a great night out if you're in Chicago.

Chicago: Bin 36

Before going to dinner on Saturday, we stopped at this amazing place next to the House of Blues called Bin 36. It's called that because it only has 36 brands of wine at any one time, as well as a huge selection of great cheeses.

We went with the basic cheese flight, which was . . .

1. Mozzarella, Fratta Afragola, Camapana, Italy - buffalo milk
2. Cocoa Cardona, Carr Valley Cheese Co., La Valle, Wisconsin - goat milk
3. Pecorino Toscano Grand Cru, Academia Barilia, Tuscany, Italy - sheep milk
4. Green Peppercorn, Coach Farms, Pine Plains, NY - goat milk
5. Bleu du Sassenage, Isere, France - cow milk
6. Traditional Farmhouse Cheddar, Quicke's, Exeter, England - cow milk

The other nice thing is that they take the guesswork out of ordering a wine that goes with the cheese, since each cheese listing has a wine suggestion. So we had:

1. NV Vouvray, Demi-sec, Vigneau-Chevreau, "Petillant", Loire Valley, France2. 2005 Chenin Blanc, Vouvray, Demi-Sec, Yves Breussin, Loire Valley, France3. 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Central Coast, California
4. 2005 Zinfandel, Earth, Zine $ Fire, "Front Row Zine", Lodi, California

Someone did tell me once that picking a wine to go with a cheese is fraught with disaster, but the easiest thing is just pick a wine that comes from the same area. For example, an Alsatian Riesling goes great with a real Munster, or a Comte cheese is perfect with Jura wine. But with American cheeses being made without a complementary wine - it gets to be a bit harder.

Chicago: Dinner at the Stained Glass

Went to a great restaurant in Evanston the first night with Mike and Kristi, called the Stained Glass.

Had some really interesting appetizers and they kind of specialize in flights on wine. It's probably a good thing I don't live in the Chicago area - would become rather fat.

Chicago: IKEA

No trip to Chicago would be complete without a visit to IKEA - even if we are living in another country for six months and have absolutely no use for the majority of their products - you still have to go.

Since this is also something you NEVER do on a weekend, we stopped by IKEA on our way to Mike and Kristi's. Which was a bonus, since they have this barbaric job that expects them to work until 5 o'clock on Fridays.

Same great place, same crazy low prices. Fortunately we didn't walk out with a sofa or something crazy like that.

Chicago

Ran off to Chicago last weekend to visit Mike and Kristi before we started traveling.

Had an awesome time with food, wine, and musicals.

Here are some pics of the things we did...

Anniversary Dinner

Patrick and I finally found the time to take ourselves out to our anniversary dinner. For those of you wondering how long Patrick has put up with me, you need only subtract 2000 from the current year. And yes, that works out to be 56 years in straight years.

Anyway, after checking out the monthly menus for Elements and R'Bistro, we decided to go with Oakley's Bistro. Probably the best Chef in the city, Steven Oakley was the chef of Something Different during its heyday.

So I had the butternut squash soup, served in a nice metal charlotte mold, then the winter vegetables (seven vegetable lasagna, mushroom gateau, spinach feta strudel, and a lentil ratatouille fritter.) Patrick had a pork bacon kind of app followed by lamb 2 ways. Dessert was a pass for me, but Patrick had the creme brulee - although I did have the cheese board.

Overall I think the meal was very good - even though the entree was a bit like a sampler appetizer platter from Trader Joe's and the cheese was a bit uninspiring - come on, show the cheese a little love. The only other annoying thing was that the creativity of the garnish for EVERYTHING was a sprig of pea sprouts. I like pea sprouts, don't get me wrong, but, dude, just because you got a deal on them - doesn't mean they have to be on everything - remember parsley in the 1970's?

Wine selection was very good - lots of wines by the glass selections, so you can explore wines. Service was exceptional, although they're still in a bit of a rush sometimes - but we only had to tell the server once to chill, and things were much slower.

Bottom line: it's a recommended place, especially if you can nab the chef's table with some friends for a special occasion.

We have housing !

The apartment for Ireland came through for our stay in Kinsale (starts March 1st), and it looks pretty fantastic. This picture is looking out from one balcony on our apartment - not bad huh.

Apartment is on the main road the loops around the town of Kinsale. More pictures are here. Parking is underneath the apartment building (beats Strasbourg's 2 km walk), totally in walking distance to a pub, and an extra bedroom for guests.

India: Serious Jetlag

I've become pretty used to flying to Europe - if you pick the right flights, you can pretty much blow through any uncomfortable jetlag. Unfortunately, it's not so easy with India.

After we arrived in India, we woke up at 4AM every morning for at least 4 days, and I'm expecting the way back home to be the same. I had a first at work, when I actually was in the office by 4AM, because I had nothing better to do than lay in bed wide awake.

India: Getting Home, Part III

So we're back at the Delhi airport, and this time we at least have a "confirmed ticket" - no seats, but a ticket - whatever that means.

So we stand in line, do the security questions. Joe goes first, and starts giving me thumbs up and thumbs down signs. We knew there were no seats in coach, and about 13 seats in business and first class. So we thought we might be able to get an upgrade (not too many other Platinum and Gold members fly American out of Delhi).

Turns out we do end up getting upgraded to business class - all in a nice row. Sweet!

Getting through Delhi's international airport was still a challenge (we needed all of those three hours to get through security I, check-in, immigration, security II, and security III - and still have time to get a gin and tonic in the lounge.

Flight was an absolute dream - the flight attendant actually offered some service, if you can believe that one. Like without any promting, she came up to us 4 hours into the flight to see if she could get us anything.

We end up landing in Chicago around 6:00 AM, and arrive in Indianapolis around 12:30 in the afternoon.

India: Best Shopping

After failing to get out to Chicago on stand-by, we had to shop more. This time we found the shop to end all shops in India. No haggling, guaranteed quality and sourcing by the government - think "India Shopping for Dummies" The shop was on several floors, and basically sold all Indian handicrafts. Picked up a couple of last minute presents, since I haven't done a great job with that.

This particular picture is of Joe thinking what he could do on this silk 400 thread count rug (it was lovely, but Gaby wouldn't buy us one). In all I didn't do too well with presents (hate to travel with a shopping list - reminds me too much of going to the grocery store, but we did find some things that were cool.)

india: McDelivery

Apparently drive thrus for McDonalds are not that common in Delhi (maybe drivers would use the drive thru for much needed parking space. So they've adapted with McDelivery. Interesting to see if this would work in the States.

India: The Last Lunch

Need to look up the name for this one, but we ran into a quasi fast food Chennai (southern Indian city) restaurant. It was a third of the price that we've been getting from tourist restaurants, and it was three times as good. Think Indian crepe with the American size (easily 20 inches long and 5 inches wide.

India: Great Advertisement

Running around Delhi on our (hopefully) last day had me come across this ad, which I thought was cool.

It's actually implied that this is the India/Pakistan border, and one boy is Indian, while the other is Pakistani.

There's also a TV version of this ad out there too that we saw that morning.

India: Getting Home, Part II

You know you're in a whole different world, when the passengers waiting to fly out of your airport cheer when they finally see a plane land on your runway.

Granted, it wasn't our plane, but at least it proved that planes could actually land on said runway.

Our plane did finally arrive, and a series of small successes (including: the plane being able to take off and not lose our luggage) got us to the Delhi airport.

So the story with the flight back to Chicago from Delhi . . .

Well, surprisingly enough, there aren't a lot of flights out of Delhi to the US. In fact, American Airlines has one, Continental has one, Air India has a couple and that's about it. Since it would have cost us about $4000 for a one way ticket to fly anything other than American Airlines (if they even had a free seat), we were pretty much stuck trying to get on the next American Airlines flight.

Enter Jason LaPorte, the brains of the American Airlines operation in Delhi - not to mention perfect english without anytime spent in the US or other english speaking country. The flight that night was overbooked by 7 seats, so even though he put us on standby - he wasn't hopeful. However, he was able to bump around people to actually confirm seats for us for tomorrow's flight - which was a huge improvement when we first called, which had us waiting four more days for a flight out of Delhi.

We were REALLY close in getting on that first flight - in fact, they had us go through the initial security questions, and Jason said just to wait one minute, while he confirmed the seats. Of course, Murphy's Law - four incredibly late passengers arrived in those 60 seconds, so we failed.

Back to the hotel

India: Joe and his toilets

Had to throw this one in for a little comic relief.

As we waited in the airport to fly out, you couldn't help but notice that the area was undergoing some restoration - of course, Joe had to act like a child, and I had to take the picture.

India: Making Lemonade

So after the first two options were squashed, we decided to spend the night in Khajuraho and try again with the airline. Big risk obviously, since the next flight can easily be canceled for the same reason.

But since we didn't really have an option out of Delhi yet, we weren't really in a hurry.

So what can you do? Hire a rickshaw and go to downtown Khajuraho for some serious shopping. Ended up doing a better job on some presents (although still pretty bad), and having fun being surrounded by shopkeepers (tourism business ain't great in Khajuraho) - probably because THEY DON'T HAVE RELIABLE TRANSPORTATION TO AND FROM THE TOWN AND EVERYONE (EXCEPT OUR TOUR GUIDE) KNOWS IT !!!

OK, I feel better.

India: Getting Home, Part I

January 4th noon, and the journey home officially begins. We are taking a 2 o'clock afternoon flight from Khajuraho to Delhi, and then a 12:50AM flight on American Airlines from Delhi to Chicago non-stop.

Well, that was plan at least. Turns out the local airport has issues this time of year, when the visibility ceiling gets below 1800 feet. Which it did the day we were suppose to fly home (and which it does several times a week during this time of year). So the flight was eventually canceled.

We are left with 3 options to get to Delhi:

1. Drive to Delhi
2. Drive to Jinasi and take an express train to Delhi
3. Try to fly to Delhi tomorrow on the same flight

The problem with option 1 is that it takes 12 hours on roads that make an Indiana chuckhole-filled road after the first spring thaw looks positively glacial. In case you don't believe me, the actual distance needed to travel is only 300 kilometers, which could easily be covered on a modern highway (albeit slightly speeding) in a quarter of the time - 2 hours, if you have the autobahn at your disposal.

Oh, and I almost forgot . . . the tour company did NOT recommend this option due to the fact that there are Maoist rebels between us and Delhi. Usually not safe in the daytime, really not safe at night. Add to the fact that you were asking a driver to drive essentially non-stop for 12 hours, we decided to pass on this option.

The problem with option 2 is that no one was willing to pay for it, not sure if we could actually get tickets, and the whole itinerary would get us into Delhi about 90 minutes before we needed to catch our plane - assuming, of course, that the train was on time, which with the fog this time of year was a long shot.

Option 3: Try to fly out of Khajuraho airport again tomorrow. Although the phrase, "First time shame on you, second time shame on me was going through my head". There really weren't any other options. It was the cheapest option, and the one still most likely to get us to Delhi the earliest and in one piece.

Besides, it's not like we had a flight out of Delhi anymore - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

India: Dancing

Since Gaby had to suffer through the search for the Tiger, we thought it only fair that we go to an Indian dancing show. Lots of ethnic dancing, which was fun to see. And this guy balanced those bowls on his head while walking on a plate, nails, and spinning plates.

A bit of Cirque Soleil meets Joe Grabczak, the iron wallet; but it was fun.

India: Temple Restoration

They are in the never-ending process of restoring and maintaining these temples in Khajuraho - this is one of the workers making small reeds brushes, so they can clean the sculptures with a diluted ammonia solution to remove the black fungus that forms on the temples.

India: The Kama Sutra (Khajuraho)

So the truth is out, the reason why we wanted to see these temples in Khajuraho was for the Kama Sutra sculptures. It's not like an entire temple is filled with just the Kama Sutra positions - but they weren't shy about sex, those Hindus - pre-Islamic invasion.

Here we see beastiality which was no condoned (see man behind horse closing his eyes - albeit still peeking). You could tell that they had a sense of humor about the whole thing.

India: Khajuraho Monuments (Khajuraho)

Arriving the afternoon in Khajuraho that afternoon, we were off to the Khajurano Group of Monuments.

First of all, Khajuraho is out in the middle of nowhere. Don't forget that it took about 8 hours by train and car ride of five hours to get there. There is no train station (maybe next year), and the airport has about three flights a day. These Hindu temples were actually built in the Middle Ages, but the forest eventually grew around them and they were forgotten - only recently discovered about 100 years ago.

There are tons of them - originally 85 or so, and they are well-known for their three dimensional sculptures.

India: Train ride to Jhensi

So after a quick visit to Agra, we got up early to catch an express train to Jhensi and then a 5 hour car ride to Khajuraho. The car was a bit tight, my but was a bit sore - but we did get to see a bit of the countryside.

By the way, this is are Tour Guide coordinator for Agra.

Patrick did learn a lesson of hiring porters to carry your luggage on the train - don't pay until the job is done. Not only do you risk them not finishing it when the train finally arrives, but then they want more money if they actually stick around.

India: Patrick Tumbles . . . Again

I think he's just testing me.

So after Patrick's first tumbling and twisting of the ankle, he ends up healing in the next couple of days thanks to an ace bandage, pain killers, and some crazy salve.

All is forgotten and chalked up to another blog moment, when the boy trips on the stone path at the Taj Mahal. I mean, we were 200 feet away from one of the major milestones in our trip.

Took some time to recover and basically carried him through the Taj (he so wasn't going to sit on the bench and wait for us to come back). And this time, it only took a day or so for him to be able to move around again.

India: Taj Mahal (Agra)

Patrick wouldn't let me do the shot, where I try to make it look like I'm holding up the Taj Mahal with my fingertips (a la Leaning Tower of Pisa); so you'll just have to settle for the Taj looking like a Maharjah hat on me.

Seriously though, this structure (mausoleum actually) is as stunning as you would expect. And it falls into the same category as seeing the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Mona Lisa. You've seen so many pictures of it, but when you see it for real it's a whole other experience.

The entire structure is essentially white marble with a very delicate inlay, which makes you initially think they just painted some flowers on the white marble (there are absolutely no seams).

Pretty cool.

India: Red Fort (Agra)

After a minor flat tire in the middle of some town (we were an attraction), we arrive in Agra. First visit, the Red Fort of Agra. Huge mother of a thing - also red granite (thank God, it was close by).

Probably most famous for the fact that it was once the home to the Peacock Throne, now the property of Iran.

India: Fatepur Sikri (Agra)

After leaving the National Park and heading towards Agra, we stopped to pick up another guide and had him show us the Fatehpur Sikri group of structures - another UN Heritage Site. Since our guide was on some sort of speed to make it to the Taj Mahal before dinner, it was a bit of a blur.

But what I did get was Indian Mughal Emperor (Akbar the Great) tires of nearby Agra and decides to move 20 miles away, builds new city out of nothing, and then figures out there's no water - everyone back to Agra. And oh yes, he loved red sandstone. It's actually a collection of structures for the royal family, public audience halls, etc.

Quick back in the car, off to Agra.

India: Transportation

After Gaby whining about the fact that she hasn't ridden a Tk-Tk yet (no doubt named after the sound this lawn mower of an engine makes), we took one up the hill to Fatehpur. It was about a 5 minute ride.

What you don't really see in this picture is that six people fit into this thing (driver, guide, Gaby, Joe, Patrick, and myself). The tires are about a foot in diameter, and I thought the guy was going to have to get out and push the thing up the hill with all of us in it.

India: Tourists and Tigers (Ranthambhore)

Even with controls on how many vehicles can enter a particular zone, it doesn't take long for word to get out and you have seven jeeps and trucks surrounding a sighting. Although most vehicles are really respectful of another vehicles range of site - this particular truck kind of got in the way - so Joe just stepped over and climber aboard to get his shots.

India: New Calling

I'm essentially screwed.

Shortly after Patrick went to Ranthambhore, I think he made a list of all the places in the World he wanted to go to next to see wildlife - South Africa, Galapagos, Antartica. No win situation.

This is a picture of Joe and Patrick when we were trying to keep track of all the tigers in the area.

India: Leopard (Ranthambhore)

There are just a handful of sightings that I do want to point out on my own.

On our second safari out, we basically came up short - save for a tiger paw print on the road, and a mongoose sighting. So as we head out of the park, we see a leopard, technically Panthera pardus, moving in the forest about 50 feet away.

They are notoriously skittish, so once it knows we're there (not sure how it didn't hear the Jeep), it stops dead and turns completely invisible. If you didn't see it move at the beginning and know where to look, there was no way you could have seen him. In fact, the driver missed him, and it took us several minutes to explain exactly where he was.

After freezing for less than a minute, he gets up and runs out of the forest and up the mountain. The whole thing lasted about 30 seconds, but we'll never forget it.

The guide says that we were incredibly lucky, since most people can go on 30 safaris and still never see one. I put in the first photo to show how amazing its hiding ability is.

India: So what did we see?

Well, I think I need to have Patrick to an entry on all the animals we saw - lots of birds, crocodiles, spotted deer, mongoose, wild boar - the list goes on.

I know it sounds like just a typical visit to your local museum, but seeing the wildlife in their natural habitat was a totally different experience. You get a sense of how rare they are in a given area, how they are hard to see, and what some of their natural behaviors are.

I think Patrick is absolutely hooked on this sort of travel, and we're probably going to do something in the basement to keep track of all the animals we've seen.

India: So how close were you to the animals?

Pretty darn close - as in closer than a zoo exhibit, even though there wasn't a barrier between me and them.

At one point we were at risk of diaper damage, since one was walking right towards our Jeep and was less than 30 feet away. By this point they know the Jeeps are harmless to them, but at the end of the day, they are still wild animals. And there are enough stories of people getting in lots of trouble with them.

India: Tiger (Ranthambhore)

Hard to explain this photo, since this just looks like an advertisement for National Geographic.

First, by this time, if you've been reading the blog, you'll know that we went to Ranthambhore National Park primarily to see Tigers in the their native habitat - one of the very few places in the World where you can actually do that. The first afternoon was fascinating, but a bust in the sighting of a Tiger. And the next morning's safari as far as tiger sightings resulted in only a couple of emergency calls from spotted deer and monkeys that a Tiger was in the area, and a Tiger track on the road.

So once we finally made it through the traffic jam from hell, we came into this beautiful sanctuary on a lake - and within a few minutes, someone had yelled "tiger". Turns out there were three tigers all hanging out together (they were actually two years old teenagers, believe it or not, who are close to striking out on their own). We first saw them on one side of the lake, then one hunted for a bird, swam across the lake. They then hung out under a old Hindu temple - until they finally moved to the other side of the lake, up the hill, where one gave us this perfect picture pose.

Maybe a better way to explain this - we saw a Leopard for 30 seconds, and it was the talk of conversation for hours - this was just in a whole other league.

India: Best part of the Park

Zone 3 (of 7) in the park is probably the best for just sheer beauty. Since this was the center of the maharajah's property, he built a hunting lodge that's bigger than 3 McMansions - this is just one of the various structures that are in the area.

India: Joe and his monkeys

For those of you who have experienced the ongoing saga of Joe and monkeys, you'll be proud to know that Joe found some (not hard, they're everywhere), and we were able to get this shot of them all together.

Apparently, Joe's reputation has crossed the international dateline, so the monkeys did not allow any inappropriate touching by keeping a relatively safe distance.

India: Slight problem with Zone 3

OK, one slight problem with Zone 3.

On the way up we did run into a bit of a traffic jam - I think, even by Indian standards. Normally this road is pretty quiet, but with the first day of the year, and a Hindu temple close to the entrance of Zone 3, it quickly became a mess.

The road was barely wide enough for two cars to pass - and as you can see, there are cars already parked on both sides. Add a couple hundred pedestrians, scooters, and cars trying to go up and down the hill - it was ugly. Perhaps the worst part was when one of those large safari trucks tried to make it up the hill. It was really each man for himself - so those scooters you see there would have a tendency to literally jam themselves into an opening. In one it took us about 10 minutes to back up and make enough space for a car to come down - only to have it filled with scooters. We were lucky - it only took us 45 minutes to go 300 feet to the entrance of Zone 3.

Another woman we met, who was in one of those larger trucks took 2 and a half hours for the same distance - almost too late to even go in the park at all.

India: Park Politics and Positioning

It takes you awhile to figure out how things work, but apparently in the National Park there are seven zones that you can go. In order to prevent people from all going to the best zones (where they know more Tigers hang out in the open), they basically make each vehicle choose a zone from out of a hat.

We will have three chances to see tigers and pick zones. By the end of our second safari, we learned that Zone 3 is the best area to go to. Not only are tigers relatively easier to see, but there's a more picturesque areas.

With us already in zones 4 and 5 the first two times out, and a conversation with a retired Californian biology teacher who had figured out about zone 3, Joe picked and we got the best zone.

India: Massage

After a morning of freezing to death on a safari Jeep, we went back to the hotel to grab some breakfast and get a massage. The cheap bastard in me couldn't pass up an 800 rupee ($20) hour massage.

This is a picture of the massage mat, where we had the massage done on our hotel room floor. The only major issue was that the room was absolutely freezing (subtropical climates have a tendency not to invest in centralized heating.)

The massages fell into the chocolate cake category - you can't have a bad one. But this was definitely not a Kelly Lowe massage as far as ambiance. The real interesting thing though was the fact that it was a traditional Indian massage - so a lot of chakra massaging, different strokes, different order to the body parts that I'm usually used to.

India: Gaby Freezes to Death

Our one morning safari required that we be ready to go from the hotel lobby at 6:15AM, which is pretty early for us. Fortunately, our body clocks have still not adjusted to the 12 hour time difference, so we're still getting up at 4:00 in the morning.

One thing you don't think about in going to India is that parts of the country can be really cold before the sun comes up. You add to driving down the street a 50 mph without a roof, you have the makings for a really uncomfortable time.

Gaby, the perennial traveler, adapted by wrapping herself in every piece of clothing that she could find - even if it made her look like a devout Muslim woman.