Monday, April 14, 2008

Counting down

We're headed to England and Holland in a few days, so the weekend was spent in a mad scramble to get things done before we leave. We're going to Magdalen's wedding in Yorkshire, at Fountain's Abbey, staying in the Corrister's House in Studley Royal. The bachelor party will be at an amusement park, so probably no strippers, though you never know. At the same time, for the ladies, there will be a tea party. My daughter has her choice between the two, and she says it is a very hard choice. Maybe for you it is, kid, but my decision is made. It's not that the rides and midway games are calling me, but more that I don't really like tea. :-) I can't wait to experience carny shock -- that feeling of knowing you are being completely ripped off as you pay $5 to throw 3 dull darts at Hoppity-Hop-thickness balloons in a vain attempt to win a plastic lei -- except this time, in pounds sterling. I'm not sure my aging heart will be able to handle it, when I multiply everything by 2.

After the wedding, we take a ferry from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne to Amsterdam's ferry terminal, from which we take a bus to Centraal Station. We will stay on a houseboat for a few days -- the price seemed reasonable when expressed in Euros, but yikes! We will be looking at museums and historical places, and taking a side trip to The Hague, where we will visit with the wife of a war crimes tribunal lawyer. I will probably not get to play any PLO against the Europeans while I am there, and that is very likely a good thing for me. Who knows what could happen to my pathetic US dollar-denominated "bancake" if I tried to puff it up to meet the buy-in for a 1/2 Euro game.

I will also miss playing in a bunch of blogger tournaments, such as the Riverchasers on Thursday, Kat's Donkament on Friday, and the Skills game on Tuesday. There is no way I'm bringing a computer with me on this trip -- what would the point be? OK, I suppose to write about my wonderful experiences. But doesn't that detract from the experience sometimes? I think so. We're not even bringing the better camera, because it's too big. I'm still not so sure about that decision, but I guess the little Canon does OK, and it has the wide-angle lens. I looked into posting photos or text from my cell phone, but, I have a lame cell phone, so no dice. In fact, it won't even work over there, so we are renting cell phones from Verizon Wireless for free*. We pay a per-minute charge of $0.99-1.29, but no rental fee, and no shipping charges. Of course, the battery in our doorbell pick this morning to die, so I haven't got my hands on the phones yet...

Well, in any case, no posts until I get back, and then I will have a few up my sleeve.

:wq

2 comments:

BWoP said...

Hey dino!

Nice to see you at the Stud table. I had a ton of fun playing with you.

I hope you didn't mind that I used our table's HH for the Stud strategy post.

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