So that first night in Istanbul ...

... I didn't stick around until things got real crazy, but my hosts took me to a bachelor party. That's the groom's father standing on the chair.

... and here's the dulcimer player jamming when he heard I liked jazz.

Istanbul & Athens

A little too busy to post and I don't have the pics uploaded yet but ...

Istanbul: fantastic hosts, noisy hotel, good class in a spectacular setting by a huge suspension bridge spanning Europe and Asia ... pretty cool.

Athens: much better hotel and neighborhood than my last visit full class, not much happening besides work but you have to love a cold beer beside a rooftop pool with a sweeping view of the city and the Parthenon, don't ya?

SkyNet's slaves develop new weapon

Scary little robot bug ....

My Kindle 3 is here

I bought the wi-fi version for $139 ... great contrast on the new screen, seems more readable than ever. Looking forward to my train commute home from The Hague today!

Update -- here it is at home.

Belgium has corn

Broodje Bert

You want a great sandwich in Amsterdam ... Broodje Bert.  They must need to kill a pig for every BLT!

NFL got this one right

NFL Gamepass ... if you are outside the U.S., every game available in H.D. as a stream over the Internet with DVR rewind/forward features and split-screen options for multiple games.  Archived games are commercial free (so far) and much faster to watch.

I may have a new option for when the hotel in the middle of nowhere has nothing on TV!

Hey, fellow Americans ...

Hold off on the freakin' Koran burning while I'm in Turkey and Egypt, m'kay?  Otherwise ...

See, this is not good.

Hey, KingCo METRO

You'd be surprised at how much easier this makes it for visitors to know where to get off the freakin' bus!  Props to the Belgians on this one:

Massachusetts?

That'd be nice ...

La Defense

Paris again

Video from my 15-minute walk to work at Arrow ECS, near La Defense in Paris ... view of the river, the Isle de Grand Jatte (definitely an "If you have to ask you can't afford it" neighborhood) and some luxury houseboats:

On the bike

Here I'm following the "if you're not sure where you're going, follow traffic until you find something" tactic.

Finally!

The sun came out solidly today and it was a great time to go check out the Westerpark near me ...

Over the hedge to the right is the dog park section, great idea to keep dogs from bugging other people.

Antwerp Central

Had an hour to wait switching trains in Antwerp ... nice little station with platforms on 3 levels and a mall in the middle ...

 What kind of mall, you ask?  It's Antwerp, so ...

Time to kill in Lille

Missed one train and had to wait a couple hours for the next one to Antwerp (and on to Amsterdam) ... fortunately there are about half a dozen bars across the street from the train station and I could sit outside and enjoy the wait.

Lille

Nice opera house!

Lille

How could you not have a beer at La Liberte?  Quiet little neighborhood place, I don't think anyone spoke a word of English ... nice cold Amstel, though!