Hurray! I am writing a few words from Athens where I landed a few hours ago. I wasn’t sure I would make it this far today when Logan announced a delay on the Boston-Paris flight. I thought an hour connection with a change of terminal in De Gaulle was unrealistic to begin with, so any delay on the flight would most likely mean no connection at all. I want to believe this is where luck and magic come into play but I think it’s really airline revenue. If you have 15 passengers in my situation for the exact same flight to Athens, Air France can make the flight wait most likely because it would have been a logistical nightmare to re-book us all on later overbooked flights. So they had vans ready for us at the side of the plane ready to zoom us off to the right terminal, rush us through customs, security (again) and onto the gate where passengers were still boarding!

Is Greece a hot summer vacation spot? Well, having been here a couple hours, I can feel the heat and hear more English, French and Italian in the streets than Greek, so maybe hot is the right word.

Anyhow, my time is almost up at this cyber cafe so Athena and I bid you good day.

I am leaving tomorrow morning to go back to Texas for another wedding. It seems that this has been the only reason for me to go to Texas so far. After Dallas, Houston here I come. Actually, it’s not quite Houston so: College Station here I come.

This whole trip is really exciting because …

… I love weddings! In particular traditional weddings from cultures foreign to me.
… This is a family wedding so my significant other and his entire family will be there. I haven’t seen his siblings in … forever (at least since X’Mas).
… It will be my first Indian wedding.
… I will get to wear some traditional Indian and Nepalese clothing, in particular the fancy outfits my significant other brought back for me some 3 years ago and a brand new shiny Indian dress.
… I can’t wait to get hennae tattoos on my hands.
… I have no idea what all the ceremonies are about and I really want to find out.
… I may even get to wear my cowboy hat (it doesn’t work too well with the snow in Boston or the rain in Paris) for the first (second?) time. Obviously not during the wedding, but maybe before and after?
… And of course, I am just happy to see them getting married: they are such a cute couple!

So long!

Deuxième week-end pluvieux de suite, il me fallait bien faire quelque chose samedi pendant que mon pauvre cher et tendre passait la journée dans son labo à préparer sa prochaine excursion sous-marine en Grèce. J’ai donc mis un peu d’ordre dans mes photos de famille, en particulier les photos de Noël et Nouvel An.

En cliquant ici, grâce au mot de passe, il est possible de voir des photos de tous les Noëls en famille depuis l’an 2000. J’ai dû scanner pas mal de photos pour les premières années, mais grâce au numérique, les dernières années étaient bien plus simples. Lors d’un prochain séjour sur Paris, si j’ai le courage, peut-être que je remonterai un peu plus loin dans le temps.

En fouinant un peu sur le reste du site, dans la section famille, il y a aussi des photos d’anniversaire et autres réunions. A bientôt pour plus de photos!

A quick background to me and my habits: I don’t have a car, I’ve actually never owned a car, but I own bicycles, the most popular of which are my commuter and my road bike. The commuter is a 30-40-(50?)-year-old 3-speed Raleigh with original matching fenders, bike rack and rust! I ride it everywhere in Boston: to work, to the gym, shopping … as it has the best storage: the rack is mounted with an all-fancy milk crate; and rain protection device (a Whole Foods plastic bag tied on the seat); and is probably the least desirable bike in town. So here comes the million dollar question: what is the resale value of that milk-crate, and plastic bag?

Originally, I didn’t think much of it, I locked up the bike and thought the rest was safe. Except that one morning a few months ago, I walked out to go to work to find the milkcrate gone. Someone had actually been through the pain of cutting every one of six zip-ties and taken off with the crate, leaving the bike behind. I suppose this says more about the resale value of my bike but I wondered for a while why somebody would steal something that is basically free. I had forgotten all about it when it happened again a few weeks ago. I walk out and 6 of the 7 zipties are cut off and the crate is dangling off this single one for its life. Could there be a black market for milkcrates?

The best part of this whole thing was when I arrived to the bus station last Monday morning, fresh off an early bus back from the Cape, and somebody had taken off with my fancy seat cover! And it wasn’t the wind, because I had tied it down carefully to the bike… Would there also be a black market for plastic bags?

So, what is a milkcrate worth to me when I walk out a store with my hands full of heavy groceries? What is a plastic bag worth to me when I walk out in the rain and have to ride my bike on a wet seat? Probably a lot in terms of utility, but would I pay for it? Possibly, but would anybody else? And if so, what is the resale value to the general market? Should I put a lock on the milkcrate and plastic bag too?