World Tour 08-09: January 2-3, 2009

The "Poo On You" Edition:

We woke on January 2 and decided to take the Blue Line again and visit the World of Birds and Houts Bay – only this time with sunscreen on my knees. After walking, again, to the Waterfront, we boarded the bus and were on our way.

Our first stop of the day was the World of Birds. This is somewhat misleading as they have every animal you can imagine there. They had walk-through aviaries so that you could get up-close to the birds (but be careful, they bite!) and so that you can get poo on your shoe – hey that rhymes! We also saw tiny monkeys (that Chris tried to get to hop on his shoulder with a stick – not the best idea), penguins, alpacas, guinea pigs and tons else. I didn’t take many photos of this place as Chris pulled his Annie Lebowitz all over the park (“hey, my camera can take up to 1000 photos!”). I’ll have those as soon as he burns them to CD for me. One thing I did take a photo of was this wonderful sign that I, personally, think should be posted at restaurants, theme parks, zoos, malls, or anywhere else that I frequent.


After our visit to the World of Birds, we made our way over to Houts Bay. Houts Bay is a cute little town on an inlet of the Atlantic full of fish markets, antique and souvenir shops, restaurants and meal carts, and sightseeing boats that offer to take you to Seal Island and a shipwreck. After a quick burger from one of the vendors on the beach, we made our way over to a charter boat going to the island and to the shipwreck. The wind was in my hair (yes, both of them on my head) and the scenery was beautiful.

We eventually made it to Seal Island, which isn’t really an island at all, but more of a couple of rocks off the coast where a bunch of seals sit in the sun. And I mean a bunch of seals! And it smelled really, really bad. Poo everywhere!


After sitting just off Seal Island so the hundreds of European tourists could take 5 million photos of seals, we traveled another 15 min or so to the shipwreck of the American. Evidently in a storm in 1994, this boat ran aground and could not be saved. It eventually came to shore in the remote area between Cape Town and Houts Bay and due to the cost associated with salvaging it, it was abandoned for tourists to gawk at. A photo is below and prepare yourself for the “Metaphor for the Bush Years” jokes!


After the boat ride, we boarded the bus and headed back to the Waterfront and the guest house to get ready for dinner out with Chris at a Wok-style restaurant down the street.

The next day, we were told that we had to go downtown to see the festival. The name of the festival would be seen as fairly racially-insensitive (read: offensive) in the States, so I’ll just call it the festival. From the description we were given, it seemed to be a mixture of a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans and the Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. We made our way downtown around 11:00 AM. Upon arriving, we made our way to the parade route right as a group was marching by to an odd arrangement of Malaguena (although Chris doesn’t think that was – but I’m sure of it). We promptly took our place on the sidewalk and waited… and waited… and waited for the next group to walk by. Unbeknownst to us, there was some sort of disagreement between the organizers and the members of a local mosque. About 12:45 we decided to leave and head to the top of Table Mountain.

Table Mountain is the signature “skyline” of Cape Town. It is a large flat mountain that is the backdrop of the city and they have constructed a cable/gondola contraption that took you to the top. I was a bit leery to go to the top, as I could see clouds encompassing the peak, but Chris talked me into it and I’m glad we did.


We took the gondola to the top and saw the clouds passing beneath us as we looked down on the city from about 3200 feet. It was a beautiful view and the clouds rolling over the top of the mountain was just icing on the cake. Once we gathered our composure, we went for a short hike around the top of the peak and take some photos.


After we descended the mountain we went back to the guest house to get ready for dinner at what turned out to be a horrible Italian restaurant near our hotel. It was horribly cliched with writing all over the walls from tourists claiming it was the best Italian resturant in the world. I should have seen the writing on the wall (although most of it was from 1971 and it had evidently gone downhill from there).

World Tour 08-09: Dec 30, '08 - Jan 1, '09

The "Boy Are My Knees Sunburned" Edition

When last I left you, I was in the Johannesburg Airport on a 3 hour layover to Cape Town. When we had made the transfer from Emirates to South African Airways, we had asked the gate agents about getting on an earlier flight. She responded in a put off way, “I’m sorry, all of the flights are full.” For the record there were 3 additional flights between the time of check-in and the time we were to depart. Somehow, I think she lied. We arrived at our gate about 45 minutes before we were to take off to be met with only 2-3 people. Once it became time to board, there were approximately 10 people (including us) on the flight. This would have seemed appropriate if we were not on a plane with a capacity of over 130. We skipped going back to Row 31 and plopped ourselves in the Exit Rows for our 1 hour and 45 min flight to Cape Town. The thing that stands out about the flight was the fact that on a 1 hour and 45 min flight, they served us a full meal (chicken curry). When was the last time that you had a domestic flight (in economy) less than 5 hours and they gave you anything more than a bag of Chex mix?

We arrived in Cape Town and was met by a very nice driver from the guest house. As we made our way to the trendy Greenpointe neighborhood, the driver pointed out and explained a lot of what we were seeing: The townships of shacks along the highway that the government is trying to replace before the 2010 World Cup, the largest hospital in South Africa, the new Greenpointe Stadium where many matches will be held in the 2010 World Cup… I wish I had paid more attention because he seemed very excited and the talk seemed interesting. However, I had been on a plane or in the airport for nearly 14 hours and it was 1AM in Dubai (where we had flown in from) and I was just looking forward to a nice long rest.

When in Cape Town, we stayed at a lovely place called David’s Guest House. Ok, it doesn’t sound too exciting from its name, but it was 2 really cute row-houses just up the hill from Main Road in Cape Town. It was easily walkable to many of the touristy areas of Cape Town, and cabs were available to everywhere else. We started New Year’s Eve having breakfast with some of our fellow guests and our hosts, Hannes and David. During breakfast, it was suggested that we take the City Sightseeing Blue Line bus that would allow us to go around Table Mountain and get a better idea of what we could do in the city. So we walked down to the V&A Waterfront and boarded the bus.


The bus trip was beautiful. It is an off/on bus, meaning you can get off anywhere you like and then you can hop on another one when you want and that they come every 45 minutes or so. The Blue Line took us to downtown Cape Town, then around to Kirstenbosh Botanical Gardens, then to a place called the World of Birds. It then went around to the coast at Houts Bay, back along the coast to Camps Bay and then to the Waterfront again. Chris decided to depart at the Botanical Gardens and I continued on, taking in the scenery all the way back to the Waterfront. Lesson to be learned: the African sun is very unforgiving and while I put sunscreen on my neck, arms, face, ears, and everywhere else above my waist with exposed flesh, I missed the very top of my knees – which were burned badly from the ride in the open top bus.


After departing the bus, I spent some time walking around the Waterfront and did some souvenir shopping, watched an 80’s cover band perform in the amphitheatre and returned to the guest house to prepare for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Hannes and David threw a small party in the main area of the Guest House for the guests and neighbors. It was a very nice party where you could meet your fellow travelers and folks from the neighborhood. I spoke at great length with an elderly couple that lived down the street. “I was a loose woman when I lived in Western Africa, before I met my husband, of course,” the woman said. And it seemed that everyone we came into contact with asked our opinion of Obama. One thing that really shocked me was the lack of the Americans. The only American that I met in Cape Town was a gentleman who was raised in Atlanta, but was working in Western Africa.

About 10:30PM, Chris and I decided to go to the Waterfront for the festivities and decided to share a cab and get a couple of drinks with 2 girls from Ireland who were working in the UAE. They had come to South Africa for the holidays and from the moment they left Dubai, their trip had been a nightmare – missed connections, cancelled tours, spending an unplanned night in Nairobi and Johannesburg en route to Cape Town. As they told us their stories, I became more and more horrified. To top it all off, Kathleen, Chris’s “date” for the evening had purchased a new camera for the trip and it was stolen out of her purse as we sat at the bar. As we sat talking at an outside table at an Irish Pub at the waterfront, the fireworks went off as Midnight brought in 2009. We all looked at each other and I kissed Adelle and Chris kissed Kathleen. I don’t think that would be foreshadowing any major life changes in 2009, however. *grin*


Zach and his “date” Adelle from Ireland/UAE

After talking at the bar until 1:30AM, I decided to walk back to the Guest House and let Chris and the girls have another drink. After a quick shower in what I will call our bathroom in the Guest House, I went to bed.

The bathroom itself had most everything you could want: a giant bathtub, toilet, sink, mirror. The only things missing were a door, a shower curtain and a shower head. Now, I’ve been to Europe and I know many of the bathrooms there are a bit “different” from those in the States, but come on – a door? Every time one of us wanted to shower, we had to send the other one out to have breakfast or check our email.

New Years Day was rather uneventful, from my perspective. I decided to lounge around the guest house, nap, read my book (A Thousand Splendid Suns – I highly recommend it) and generally be a couch potato – I am on vacation for goodness sakes. Chris, however, couldn’t let the day get by him and he raced off to do some touristy stuff. The only thing productive that I did this day was go to a late dinner with Chris at a tapas place and then made my way to the bars for a bit.

And that brings us to January 2.

World Tour 08-09: December 29-30, 2008

The Sand In My Shoes Edition:

Monday, December 29, 2008, was quite the long and eventful day. We started by going to the Madinat Jumeirah complex to do a little shopping and take some photos of the Burj al Arab Hotel (the most famous building in Dubai and probably one of the most famous in the world)


After a couple of hours there, we went back to our hotel to get ready for our Desert Safari that left at 3PM. When the 4x4 arrived to pick us up (along with a nice couple from west-central Illinois and a couple from Pakistan) we were off to the races, literally! Our driver drove like a maniac as we crossed the streets of Dubai. I think we were on 2 wheels on a few of the corners. We all just hung-on and prayed that we’d make it alive. Little did we know that this would be good practice for the crazy driving we would face once we got to the dunes.


Once at the dunes we took a quick break and returned to the 4x4 (reluctantly) and began our four-wheeling adventure. Up the sand dunes, down the sand dunes, along the side of the sand dunes. Every time one of the other vehicles in our caravan spun out or slid down the side of the dunes, our driver (who spoke very little English) would shake his head and say, “tsk tsk tsk”. At one point he even said something to the effect that we were lucky, “those other drivers are from India and Bangladesh, what do they know about sand!?!” I have to say he was right. The boy who was 2-wheeling while talking on his cell phone didn’t do us wrong. (video of part of the ride is embedded in the blog, and linked to Facebook friends – and note that while this part of the ride didn’t look too bad, this was the part that I felt comfortable taking my hand off of the “oh crap” bars).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUCJr7ZZFuM

Once we were finished with the dunes, we went to a desert camp where they fed us some wonderful BBQ, Chris smoked the hookah (or however it is spelled) and gave us a belly dancer show. Walking around in the sand dunes put a great deal of sand in my Pumas (UGH!). And, finally, no trip to the desert would be complete without a nice camel ride.


We made it back to the hotel around 9PM and we crashed as we had to be up early this morning (Tuesday, December 30, 2008) in order to catch our flight to South Africa. The flight was long and uneventful (about 8 hours) and I had a window seat in economy – yep, no Business Class Upgrade for this leg. Hopefully we can make it back. At the time of this writing, I am in the Johannesburg, South Africa airport awaiting our transfer to Cape Town, where we will spend the New Year’s Holiday.

World Tour 08-09: December 27-28, 2008

On our first full day in Dubai, Saturday, December 27, we were both a little jet-lagged but decided to get out and explore a bit. We made our way to the Mall of the Emirates and wondered around. After walking around and finding it to be just about like every mall we have ever been to (complete with a quick lunch at Chili’s) we made our way to Ski Dubai.

Bucket List:
Learn to Snowboard – Check
Visit Ski Dubai – Check

For those of you who do not know, Ski Dubai is a massive (and I mean MASSIVE) indoor ski slope at the Mall of the Emirates. There is a small snow park in the facility where people can play in the snow and ride little bob-sled routes. But that is not what Chris wanted to do. He decided that we should take an hour-long snowboarding lesson. I must have been feeling adventurous – or maybe I was just suffering temporary insanity – but I agreed. After getting on our boots, snow-suit and our snowboard, we made our way over to ski-school to meet our Bulgarian snowboard instructor Emile.


Chris and I were the only takers in the 3PM snowboard class so we had a lot of hands-on instruction, unlike those individuals in the ski-class (which had like 10 people) and it turned out to actually be a good thing - we needed all the help we could get. We learned the basics of snowboarding, like we need to wear gloves (oops, how did we miss that one?), which foot is our strong foot (I’m a “goofy”, Chris is “regular”), and how to ride the little conveyer belt to the top of the bunny hill (which was not fluffy or even a hill – more like the edge of a gigantic gorge!).


This photo actually makes Chris look like he knows what he was doing, but he was really screaming like a little girl and fell down very shortly after

Surprisingly, I realized I’m a bit better of a snowboarder than I expected – but then again, next to Chris I looked like I was ready for the Olympics. We went down the bunny-hill three times with a flat board (meaning not skate-board style, but with our feet straight ahead) and I only fell the final time at the very bottom. By the time our hour was over, I was exhausted but very happy I had the experience. And even have my little certificate of accomplishment. We then went to the grocery store in the mall so that Chris could find some Middle-Eastern Ben-Gay to recover from his many (and I mean MANY) falls on the bunny-hill. Back at the hotel, we made our way to the Club Lounge to have complimentary drinks and appetizers in lieu of dinner and I went back to our room to hit the sack, while Chris went for a short swim. Not a bad way to start the trip.

On Sunday, December 28, we spoke with the receptionist at the hotel who directed us to the new Dubai Mall to look around. The mall is quite extensive and contains a very large aquarium at the entrance. After watching the fish for a few moments, we wandered around for a bit before deciding to visit the Camel Races near the horse track. Unfortunately for us, Sunday was the first day of the Islamic New Year and there were no Camel Races today, so we went to the Gold Souk to look for gifts for friends and family back home.

After spending too much money at the Souk, we came back to the hotel before venturing out for a nice dinner of Shrimp and kabobs at a restaurant called Automatic near our hotel. While walking back to the hotel, we both commented that it was a beautiful evening for a walk (low 70's, slightly breezy), stopped at a gas station for some snacks, and even got propositioned by an Asian hooker (talk about someone who needed to work on her client identification skills). Day 2 also seemed to be a winner!

World Tour 08-09: The Trip Begins

My world tour started with conversations in late 2007 with my friend Chris. We had originally discussed doing a full around-the-world trip, Amazing Race-style, hitting every continent. While this sounds great in theory, it proved to be quite expensive in reality, so we began searching for alternatives. We then decided to fly to Southeast Asia and purchase an Airpass that would allow us a limited number of flights throughout the region to hit as many locales as possible, but this, too, proved to be cost-prohibitive.

Then one day over the summer, my friends Shawn and Verne suggested we just join them for a trip to South Africa over the New Year’s holiday. I honestly did not suspect that Chris would go for the option as he seemed to have his heart set on Asia, but much to my surprise he loved the idea. Unfortunately, Shawn and Verne were unable to take the trip due to schedule and job issues.

The idea for a stop-over happened in the late-summer when Emirates Airlines launched their Airbus 380 service between Dubai and New York. Knowing that they also flew to Johannesburg, I decided to price the trip that would allow us to fly on this new and exciting airliner. Surprisingly, with the layover in Dubai (a location we had planned in the very first version of the trip), the flight was quite a bit less expensive than a direct flight from Washington to Cape Town. With all of these positives, we booked the flight in early-October and waited for the trip to begin.


The official journey began for me at approximately 2:30PM on Christmas Day. I hailed a taxi to take me to Metro Center in order to catch the Bolt Bus to New York. The Bolt Bus is a wonderful way to travel between DC and NYC. The trip took approximately 3 hours and 45 minutes and cost around $20, which is only slightly longer than the Amtrak regional rail and about $50 cheaper. Then I hailed a cab which took me to JFK airport to meet up with Chris.


Upon arriving at JFK Terminal 4, it finally hit me that I was starting my journey into the unknown. As I waited for about 45 minutes on Chris to arrive, I watched as countless people checked-in at the Emirates counter – people from all over the world. I started to get nervous wondering about what I was about to see, what I was about to encounter and thinking of all the potential problems I could face. Chris eventually arrived and we proceeded to the check-in desk.

We were motioned to the empty Business Class check-in line and we gave the nice Emirates employee our passports. Chris began to joke with the gentleman asking, “did our Business Class upgrade come through?” The guy seemed confused for a moment and I explained that he was just joking. A few moments later, Chris’s bag was tagged with a Business Class tag and the Emirates guys said something to the effect of, “Congratulations, you’ve been upgraded.” We looked at our tickets and like a bunch of giggly school girls made our way to the gate thinking we just hit the jackpot.

Because we were complimentary upgraded, we were not allowed access to the Emirates Lounge so we hung around at the gate and I snapped a few photos of the plane from the boarding area (see below) and waited to board. When boarding began, the 450 or so passengers with us began to board and we quickly made our way to our seats on the upper-deck.


Being a coach jockey on American and Delta, with the seldom first-class upgrade, I have never flown in such comfort. First, I was greeted with my own personal complimentary mini-bar filled with water and sodas. I also had complimentary socks, an eye-mask, and a nice toilet kit. Additionally, I had a blanket and Sony noise-canceling headset to use during my trip. Upon take-off, I began to play with my seat that allowed me to recline and, when the time was right, fully lay down flat. I was in heaven!


After a brief delay, we took-off around midnight and the very attentive flight attendants quickly gave me a dinner menu. Per the menu, dinner started with “a selection of cold canapés which included mini goat cheese wrapped in grilled zucchini, California crabmeat roll and smoked duck toast.” As an appetizer, I had marinated prawns served on a crabmeat and avocado tower and for my main course I had a pan-seared filet of beef served on potato mezzaluna and Mediterranean style spinach, accompanied with a rich morel sauce and oven-roasted cherry tomatoes. I ended dinner with a Macadamia nut soufflé with chocolate sauce. Yeah, try finding all that on a flight within the US! After dinner, I took my Ambien and went to sleep watching re-runs of 30Rock on my personal 21 inch HD TV.

I awoke with approximately 2 hours left in the flight as breakfast orders were being taken. Breakfast was just as elegant and began with a beautiful fruit plate and I chose a cheese omelette served with roesti potatoes, sautéed chicken and apple sausages and grilled zucchini. After breakfast, I made my way to the restroom where terrycloth washcloths and complimentary toothbrush/toothpaste allowed me to freshen up for our arrival in Dubai.

We landed at around 9PM local time (12 noon EST) and went through passport control very easily. Upon fetching our bags we grabbed a cab and made our way to the Renaissance Hotel in the Diera neighborhood of Dubai. We had a slight problem upon check-in as they did not have a non-smoking room with 2 beds, so they put us in a room with a King bed for one night and brought me in a roller-bed for the night. While we were checking-in, Chris decided that he wanted to upgrade us to Club Level privileges, which also proved to be a very smart move as it allowed us access to the Club Lounge which serves breakfast, drinks in the evening and gives us complimentary internet there allowing us to easily (and cheaply) email and post to silly blogs.

2008 Year in Review – Part II

April came and went rather quickly. First I made a trek back to Kansas City to see the Mid America Freedom Band perform their spring concert, “In the Mood for that Big Band Sound” which was really good. While I miss the group that I founded, I’m very happy to see them carrying on and being successful without me.

While in Kansas City, I also got to catch up with some old friends, such as Eric and Jay (see below). These are two of the people I miss most about Kansas City – dishing on everything with Eric at breakfast on Saturday mornings at Toto’s, and dishing all the Sprint gossip with Jay. Also, I met up with the old Kansas City Sprint team just in time to attend the “retirement” party for some of folks that were leaving in a voluntary workforce reduction. Poor Sprint… I hear more layoffs are on the horizon.


Upon my return, I had to get ready for the DCDD concert. This concert was a big more involved than our normal concerts due to the fact that Scott, the band’s leader for the previous 10 years, had decided to step aside. The concert was also the event where I was officially named the new Marching Band director for DCDD. With Scott’s departure, the board decided to split the duties of the Artistic Director into a director for Concert Band and one for Marching Band. Little did I know then what trouble lay before me (and yes, Matt Swearman, I’m talking about you!).

Since I was going to be announced during the concert, I went out and bought a new tuxedo for the event. Because I had no clue what to get or where to go, I dragged my good friend Shawn with me. After some half-hearted looking elsewhere, we decided to go with a basic tux from Nordstrom. Throw in buttons, cufflinks, a new shirt, cummerbund and bow tie (that you have to tie yourself), I dropped way too much money – but I look damn good in it! However, it is a bit embarrassing when I had to get daddy-Blake to help me tie it.


In early May, I traveled to Portland, Oregon for the LGBA Board of Director’s Mid-Year meeting. It was a very intense experience and some personality clashes erupted, but it was good to see some of my favorite people and spend some quality time with them. While in Portland, we made a visit up the Columbia River to the falls about 30 miles east of town. I’ve been out there many times, but I loved seeing others enjoy the beauty of the Cascades.


Immediately upon returning from Portland (literally, within hours) we had our first rehearsal of the DCDD Marching Band. I think everyone (including myself) was surprised at the turnout. From what I’m told, it was the largest turnout in many years. Rehearsals continued Monday nights through the end of July and I think my friendships within the band really grew as a result of the activity.


Also in May, I traveled to North Carolina to visit Jinx and Cory and to participate in the North Carolina Pride Band concert. This was the first time I was under the baton of Chris Hankins, the new director there, and could not have been more impressed in her professionalism, kindness to the musicians and organizational skills. Additionally, Kristen Stinnett did a great job as assistant conductor. I’m very happy at the way that band is coming together. And I was even more pleased to spend some quality time with Jinx, Cory, Lisa and Eddie.


June began with the Marching Band getting ready for Capitol Pride 2008. With guests and Band Aides, we marched nearly 40 at the event on Saturday. Even though it rained on our parade, I think everyone had a wonderful time. Then on Sunday we performed at the Arts Stage to great applause. Afterward, we hung out for a while and listened to DC Swing! Play and Lisa Marie and I even shook our tail feathers for a bit.




The rest of June was really devoted to Drum Corps as we got ready for the summer season. More on that in Part III of the 2008 Year in Review!

2008 Year In Review - Part I

I’ve heard what many people have been saying of late, “Why aren’t you updating your blog, Zach?” Well, the truth of the matter is that I’ve been a little busy in 2008. So I thought I’d provide a “year-in-review” for everyone to get up to speed on my goings-on.

Part I: January through March
I started 2008 with wonderful friends in scenic (and rather chilly that time of year) Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. One of my oldest, closest friends, Scott, had come to DC for the holiday and we were invited to the beach by my friends Verne and Shawn.

We spent the holiday in a charming little B&B called The Sea Witch, and landed in their house themed after the 1960’s TV Sitcom Bewitched (specifically, we stayed in the Darin II room). As midnight approached, we ventured out in the rain to a party hosted by friends of Verne and Shawn. The party was quite tame, and midnight came with me giving Scott a big ole kisss. As everyone became more and more inebriated one of the guys wanted everyone to strip down to their underpants. While I was not about to do this, Scott dropped his pants to reveal some hot-pink briefs with white trim. I knew it was time to head out at this point.

On New Year’s Day, we checked out of the B&B and proceeded back to Virginia, with a stop in Dover so that Scott could visit another state capitol building and we went to Best Buy and purchased brand new digital cameras - you have to love “tax-free” Delaware!


Later in January, I made a trip to North Carolina to see Jinx and Cory, with the intention of attending a Carolina Gold Drum & Bugle Corp rehearsal. I wanted to see what this DCA Corp was all about. I ended up meeting a lot of people, learned a great deal about marching and became very excited to become part of this organization’s rebuilding effort. Little did I know how much this event would steer the rest of my year. I won’t mention every single rehearsal for the season, but I ended up going to Rocky Mount for rehearsals 2 weekends a month through Labor Day.

February approached and I got some mind-blowing news at work. My co-worker had decided to take another job outside of the company and Valentine’s Day would be his last day. To say that I panicked a bit would be an understatement. I had dreams about work where my boss kept asking me why I did not know something, and all I could do was stand there silently. In hindsight, this was a wonderful thing for me professionally. The co-worker had been very territorial on the functions of the office and with him gone, I was able to learn a great deal in a very short amount of time. To help facilitate the transition, my boss asked me to attend a Society for International Affairs conference in Miami at the beginning of March.

As the conference neared, I decided to make a weekend out of my time in South Florida. I contacted my friend Chris, who lives in Ft. Lauderdale, and told him that I was coming to town and to get a party together. On Saturday evening, March 1, I celebrated my 32nd Birthday with Chris, his new boyfriend Ken, Adam & John (other friends from Lauderdale - see below) and Chris’s co-worker Dierdra at a wonderful Brazilian steakhouse in downtown Ft. Lauderdale. I stuffed myself and after dinner we headed back to Chris’s for a good night’s sleep. The next morning, we went to one of the millions of “Original Pancake Houses” and then Chris took me to my hotel in Miami to get ready for the conference – which was very good, by the way. I learned a lot about International Traffic in Arms (ITAR) regulations, Technical Assistance Agreements (TAA) and Export Licenses.


March also included Easter Sunday. Shawn, Verne, Larry and I decided to have a nice Sunday Brunch and celebrate the holiday. We went to a charming little restaurant in NW DC called Chef Geoff’s and had a wonderful conversation along with wonderful food. To keep the spirit of the holiday alive, Larry even brought chocolate bunnies for us!


Finally, I closed out the first quarter of the year by attending the LGBA event, Experience the Music, in Indianapolis. It was a great time to spend with lots of friends from around the country and was documented at length on this blog, so I won’t go into details. But it was a wonderful event and one that I hope can continue for years to come.


Stay tuned for Part II, April through June.

She's Got A Chicken To Ride...

A few years ago, the "Oldies" station in Kansas City ran a series of commercials about misheard lyrics to songs. They were all really funny, but my favorite was one with a little girl in the back seat of her mom's car singing, "She's got a chicken to ride, she's got a chicken to ri-hi-ide" to the tune Ticket to Ride by the Beatles.

This seems to be a phenomona for singers and no one knows what the hell they are saying. Here is an interpretation of a Christina Aguilera song that is spot on.

Why I'm Voting Republican...

Can't wait to hear from "The Bean" about this one!