Notes from mainland USandA....
* Wedding reception weekend went just about perfectly. Friday was an open bar happy hour and appetizer situation at a newly remodeled homosexual bar in the Quarter. Saturday was a 4+ hour sit-down northern Spanish cuisine family style meal at one of our favorite restaurants.
* Some hightlights of the reception weekend:
- Andypolleydotcom is the low-key hardest partier of the bunch. Things just get a little more crunk with that guy around.
- Only saw BBdK rap once, but it was worth it.
- drxman kinda took over as the self appointed emcee of the night, which worked perfectly
- Just so good to get the crew together sans kids. You olds/marrieds/parents need it.
* Ray Liotta's most underrated work was the 1994 version of No Escape. You can even watch it for free on YouTube.
* Top 5 Sweetest Joys:
1> getting p
2> revenge
3> n/a
4> n/a
5> n/a
* 2-week Italy trip:
- Rome -- just way too many people, but the history in that city is off the charts, so you have 4-5 absolute must sees (vatican/trevi fountain/st peters/colosseum/etc). Also, a HUGE thanks to WS and anth for making us reservations (and paying for) a Michelin Star restaurant, which is the best meal I've ever had in my life. We got t-u-r-n-t. Lass came home so wasted she face planted, stiff as a board, directly into the bed, like something you'd see in a cartoon.
- Florence -- just an incredibly beautiful and romantic city. Despite the ridiculous crowds, we absolutely loved the area around the Duomo. Coincidentally, the Saturday/Sunday we were there, there was a 100k ultramarathon that started there, and a 10k as well. Went to the final Serie A game of the season, and it was insane. Canon explosions, smoke bombs, arson, etc.
- Verona -- each stop along the way had lesser and lesser crowds, and this stop is a real gem. The views up and down the river were to die for.
- Dolomites -- holy smokes. We stayed in Cortina, which will host the Winter Olympics in '26. Spent 2 days in the mountains hiking, and this was easily our favorite stop of the trip.
- Venice -- if someone can give me a legit explanation on how in the everloving F this place exists, feel free. Wow just wow. Makes no sense how a city can be built like that. It's basically like that palm tree thing in Dubai. No better place to wander around and get lost than that.
* Random things we were not crazy about....
- service in Europe is just different. You really have to flag those waiters down and beg for whatever you need, and they're in no hurry.
- Italians just don't really care for air conditioning
* Random things we like....
- I always appreciate that the rest of the world still drives little diesel 5-speed cars. We rented a 2-door Lancia, whatever that is.
- The conversion rate is basically 1-to-1, and also huge props to the readily available $1 and $2 coin. Seems like every vacay I get a bunch of those and just throw them around like it's nothing.
* Nervous AF about work, as 6/1 ended up being the biggest month of my career (by far). Ended up taking my laptop, a little scanner, and having to make a couple trips to the copy/print store. Just absolutely on fire with work at the moment, and 7/1 and 8/1 should be almost as big.
* Happy Pride Month. Happy Global Running Day. Celebrate both accordingly.
* Breaking Points with Krystal and Sagaar is fantastic. Thanks to Joe Rogan, who I rely on for all most worldly wisdom, for the recco. One is conservative, the other liberal. But instead of being mouthpieces for their own team, they kinda take the opposite approach. It's most like "I believe very strongly in [insert policy], and my party supposedly does too, but I have no faith in these lying idiots to carry it out."
* Germans, in addition to loving David Hasselhoff, sure can speak outstanding English.
* DJ Nosespray Productions > Vern.
* Traveling by train in Europe is 1,000x better than flying. Zero security. $10-20 to go just about anywhere. Unlimited luggage. Get to your terminal about 2 minutes before departure. Free wifi. Bar/beverage car. The tits, imho.
* Pull each worldwide dick out of cole's mouth for a short time period, and insert them all into Sharpe's. F him. Promptly return to cole. All. The. Dicks.