A few pics from Rome

This may be my last post from this side of the pond....too much to see and do. I will definitely put up pics and stories once we get home, though....

We are off to the Vatican today. On the docket: The Vatican museum/Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica, and Castel St Angelo.

Yesterday was spent at the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine hill (awesome tour--we were the only ones with the guide!), Capitoline Museum, VE monument, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Travestine area for dinner


The Baths of Diocleten (now a church), and The Trevi fountain at night

The cats of Rome

We decided to go to the Largo Argentina cat sanctuary when we were in the neighborhood...and are so glad we did. They have been squatting in an underground area located directly in some Roman ruins for several decades. There are currently over 200 cats there, with an upswing expected come kitten season, to bring them up to around 350. They vaccinate and neuter each cat that comes in, treat abscesses, fractures and other injuries. They dock half of one ear on a cat once they have completed the vaccination/neutering, so that they can easily identify a new cat that shows up/is dumped there. They have a hospice area with sick/infectious cats that are separated from the others. There is also an indoor area with a few dozen cats who cannot go outside for various reasons--either they are waiting for their vaccines to be completed, or healing from surgeries, or they are a danger to themselves. One cat, Barack Obama; was kept inside because he had an extensive history of running in the streets and getting hit by cars, so they now confine him indoors. He is not terribly excited about that idea.
There were several cats with three legs--they are kept indoors until they seem to be getting around allright, then they are allowed to come and go as they please. The area of ruins is set down 15-20 feet below street level, so they can run amongst the ruins without fear of vehicles or people or dogs (it is fenced off). They can stay in the sanctuary area in open cages with bedding, or roam about and only come in when they are hungry. These are well-fed animals. Many happy, healthy cats, and some injured ones. A siamese cat in the indoor area was recovering from two broken front legs (car accident). He had been adopted by someone in Switzerland who visited, and will make his trek there next week, once his adoption papers are completed. He sort of hopped around with both front legs landing at the same time. We felt so sorry for him....but then another cat came into his personal space and he whapped him and sent him on his way--so this cat can certainly take care of himself.

There were a few blind cats--either with no eyes, or just no vision. They are allowed to come and go as they please, but have nice open cages that are their own, and tend to stay there. Such sweet kitties!! Ethan and I fell in love with a little teeny black kitty who so much reminds us of the Boo Kitty--so skittish and nervous and frantic that they just must be related.

This was truly an amazing place to see, and they are run solely on donations. They have no running water, but recently got electricity from the city, which allows them to sort of permanently squat there.

Yes, Mom; we had some gelato

Per Mom's explicit request....here is a pic of our gelato. I had pink grapefruit and strawberry, and Ethan had dark chocolate and coconut. Delicioso!

Roma

We flew to Rome this morning. Early--flight left at 710am. Got here bright and early....but some sort of food poisoning or something intervened whilst on the plane (I will spare you the details), so we were not up to much when we got here.

A slow lunch while we waited for our room to be ready, then over to the Baths of Diocleten, which is also a church whose name escapes me for the moment. Huge awesomeness. I am the queen of balancing my camera on something, then taking time delayed pictures in areas where flash is not allowed. I rock. You will eventually see....there was a man playing a massive like 30 foot tall organ that made haunting music. Awesome. Ethan took video, which I will upload once we get home.

After that church, we were finally able to get into our room, where we took a 1.5 hour power nap. Then over to the Nat'l Museum of Rome....which was no longer renting audioguide headsets (they stop at 5pm, were were there literally at 502. Whatever), so we went to the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Holy huge church, Batman!! Pretty on the outside, with a mass taking place in one of the side chapels. We could hear the chanting and singing. So beautiful to hear in such a pretty place.

After this, it was a long trek up towards the Spanish Steps area for dinner. We accidentaly wandered upon the top of the steps and walked down them. Beautiful!! Purple flowers and foliage among the people.

We found a restaurant tucket into a niche nearby, and had a delicious Italian dinner. Then walked to the Trevi fountain (more delayed timer pics), then the long walk home. And here I am, typing just for you. Now I am handing the computer over to Ethan, and I am off to put my PJs on. We are headed to the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine hill in the am (tour guide), so we've gotta get up bright and early.

Maybe pics tomorrow??

Paris

Where was I...

Okay, so we took the train into Paris on Saturday, dropped our things off at our hotel, then headed out to the Montmarte area to see the church of Sacre Coeur. Ethan was not too impressed......until we got close and he saw how massive it was. Then we were both impressed. In our audioguide, it said that the church was paid for through a sort of fundraiser, where you could donate X money for a non-visible stone, X more money for a visible stone, even MORE money for a visible stone with initials or something written on it. You could even sponsor a column or a beam or something. All paid for by the people. It is in desperate need of cleaning (the pollution gets sucked up by that white stone), but gorgeous.

After Sacre Coeur, we had our first French meal (sorry...no pictures), then headed back towards the Eiffel Tower to meet our bicycle tour group. We walked back to their office, then spent the next ~3 1/2 hours riding around town, seeing the sights. It was cool to take over the streets and/or bike lanes in our big pack, all in reflective vests. The cars are very respectful of bikes, and it felt very safe. We even stopped at Berthillians for some ice cream/gelato. I had apricot, and it was divine. Near the end of our trip, we stopped for an hour-long cruise up and down the Seine River, to see the sites lit up from the water. Ooh, la la! Paris is a beautiful city.

We are three for three in cities we must return to and explore further.

One quick look at the massive Sacre Coeur before I turn off the computer and head out for the day....

Queen's Day in Amsterdam

The thing about Queens Day, is that it is a massive carnival, complete with rides; it is also a massive flea market and yard sale (city wide. Literally--the entire sidewalks over the entire city. Entire), as well as a sort of mix between New Years Eve and Seafair in Seattle. Tons and tons of booze (but everyone is behaving responsibly, and there are families and kids everywhere), music booming out of boats on the canals, bars on the streets, and massive stages set up in all the open squares. Utterly overwhelming. There was one point, while trying to pass a bar blaring music in a narrow street, where Ethan and I were totally squashed. I couldn't move at all--forward or back. I ended up losing my lens cap, because it popped off my camera (I know, what idiot has their camera out in this situation--but in my defense, this was the first we had seen where the crowd was utterly packed like this), and there was no way I was going to bend down to try to pick it back up. I would have been totally crushed.

Anyway...mostly we were in awe of all the celebrations. The police here are called Politie. And they are polite. Very polite. The let people do what they wish, just make sure they are being safe. With all the massive drunkenness here, you would think there would be arrests galore and lots of boorish behavior, but I saw none of that. Definitely couldn't do this in the US!!

There was a massive mess after all of this, but when we got up Saturday morning to walk to the train station, most of it was already cleaned up. The city was back to normal

Catch up

So much has happened since that last blog post....

Ethan and I went on a 30km bike ride through the canals and windmills outside of Amsterdam with picture perfect weather; we got bitten by what must be super-sized mosquitos, since the welts left behind are bigger than a quarter and massively itchy; we wandered through Queen's Day celebrations across Amsterdam, and were absolutely blown away by the sheer size of the celebrations....then we took a high-speed train to Paris yesterday (Saturday), where we visited the church of Sacre Coeur (massive) and took a bike ride through the city, followed by a cruise up and down the Seine river.

On the docket for today? Lots of museums, the Arc de Triomphe, and tonight will cap off with the Eiffel Tower (8pm our time, 11am your time--we got reservations to skip that massive line)

Flowers in Amsterdam

Having upload issues with pics, so there may not be so many while we are in Amsterdam...very slow connection here at our hotel.



So....we left Germany by train on Tuesday, and got into Amsterdam around 330pm. This city is beautiful, but very crowded right now, because of the upcoming Queens Day celebrations. They have a massive carnival, complete with ferris wheel and other rides set righ in Dam Square, one of the main open squares in the city. The whole city is being decorated in orange, and crowns are showing up everywhere--even on the steeple of Westerkirk church.

Our hotel has the steepest stairs I have ever seen. Feels like climbing a ladder. We are going to get a video climbing up them to show how very steep they are. Our room is teeny, but the bed is comfortable and the location is awesome.

Our first day, we went to a Rick Steves recommended Italian restaurant, and had AWESOME food. No pictures, but it was delicious. Then we wandered around a bit, and eventually headed to Leidesplein; a great area with lots of bars and restaurants and a big courtyard with all sorts of street artists and people wandering about. We had a few adult beverages, then headed back to our room to call it a night.

On Wednesday, I got up and headed out to see the Keukenhof gardens. Massive flower overload. *I* was sick of flowers when I left there, and it was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing in Holland. I took a billion pictures, and will attempt to upload some eventually. I just get pissy when I upload pics, then after a million hours of waiting, it freezes and times out and I lose it all. Very annoying.

After I got back from my flower escapades, Ethan and I headed out for a late lunch, then windowshopped unil it was time to go to a show--Boom Chicago; an improv show. Very funny. After all that, it was back to the room for the night.

Ethan and I on the Rhine river...

For Sabrina........some of our food (did I mention that we LOVE schnitzels???), and the view from the window in our room.

Off to Amsterdam after breakfast!!

The teeny bed for two in the nobles' bedroom


Ethan helped out by modelling the older version of a knight's helmet. Heavy!!!

View from the Castle


The castle's 'keep'--the very last line of defense



Our tour guide explaining the evolution of cannons

Germany Day 3

Today, we took a train to the nearby town of St Goar, then a 5 minute ferry across to St Goarshausen, where we had lunch...then another train to Braubach, were we went to get a tour of Marksburg castle, the one un-ruined castle on the Rhine river. Never defeated, never conquered. This is where we learned how cool it is to have a tour guide explaining things to you.

Germany-Day 2 (again)

Once we actually got to Boppard, I drug Ethan to the Sesselbahn, which is a sort of chair lift that takes you up a massive hill/cliff overlooking the water and town. Beautiful view, WINDY weather, and a lovely glass of raspberry wine at the top. And sunburn. Did I mention the fact that I am now purple?? The wind blew away the heat, so I didn't notice the sun, and am now purple. Enough that I now know the German word for sunscreen. Sonnenschlotz. Maybe spelled differently....but I did have to go to the pharmacy (apotheke) to get some sunscreen. And aloe. Lots of aloe. Anyway, I digress...

We saw the lovely view, then returned to the town and caught a 2.5 hour river cruise back to our hometown of Bacharach. Lovely castles everywhere, Mister Rogers' neighborhood houses, just picture perfect. Feels like a storybook.

Germany Day 2

Today, we took a train to the nearby town of Boppard. We got off on wrong stop (due to the entirely forgivable fact that there were TWO Boppard-slash town names before the actual Boppard town--we got off at Boppard-Bad Salzig)

Bad Salzig is not a tourist town. Here is the main church. It was Sunday, so everyone in town was here. We assume. We saw no one in the hour we spent wandering the town before our next train came to take us on to Boppard....

A few pictures from day 1 in Bacharach, Germany

Ethan in front of the high-water marks for Bacharach, during Rhine flooding in the past.

And, our hotel, Pension im Malerwinkel

After check in, we headed to the nearby town of St Goar, where we visited the Rhienfels castle ruins. Lesson learned: ruins are much more interesting when you know what you are looking at. Lesson two: Rick Steves is not the best at giving directions. We did wander around and see some cool things, but really feel that we would have gotten a lot more out of it if there had been a tour guide pointing things out for us.

There were sort of Boy Scouts camping out at the camp, which must have been awesome for them....but took away somewhat from our visit. Oh, well. Still an awesome view from the castle, and pretty extensive ruins to wander through.

Germany

We just figured out this morning that we could get internet in our room here (actually, last night, but the front desk closes at 6pm)...

So here is our update for Germany.

Good times.

Our hotel, Pension im Malerwinkel, is awesome. See the picture taken from our window?? Malwerinkel means 'painters corner', because the area where our hotel is is.....gorgeous, and people want to paint it. Check in was easy, and we were on our way.

We made it!

Flight took off and landed just as it should have. We are here and we are having a blast. A couple pics to tide you over....will update again with an actual post this evening (it is currently 1130am here)

Pics taken during our river cruise down the Rhine. Not edited because I am on vacation.

A final post from stateside

My bags are (partially) packed, and we are (fairly) ready to go. A little more running around tonight (gotta purchase Avatar and bring it with us to watch on the plane or in our hotel the first night if we totally crap out), and we are all good. I have my carry-on bag all set, just need to pack my actual backpack.

Jobie has kindly agreed to feed and water my cats...and is also open to addressing the litter box, which will surely need addressing before we return.

I came home from work the other day to find that Ethan had scrubbed the 3 bathrooms and the kitchen from top to bottom. I am sure the cats will appreciate it while we are gone. They tend to fling litter around in theirs.

Anyway...we are off to the airport tomorrow morning (after I rush down to Enumclaw to retrieve my camera from Jobie). We are going to try out the new light rail from downtown to the airport--supposed to be a 30-minute ride altogether.

I am not sure if we have internet access in Bacharach...but I know we do in Amsterdam, so look for my updates!

The very last planning travel post for Europe

I can do nothing about the volcano. I realize that. So I am finishing up my planning and preparations, and I share my finished results here today.

I drew out some maps for my stay in Paris, to help me figure out the logistics of what to do when; which things I could group together on a certain day because of their proximity. I am not bringing these with me, but they really helped me figure out my itinerary. It is hard to see, but I color coded metro travel, walking travel, etc.

I also have some more examples of my personal travel guide/bible that I put together. Maps copied out of Rick Steves books or google maps; miniaturized train tickets and tour confirmations. I have everything here.

I also put together these little envelopes--one for each country (color coded...except they only had 3 different colors, so Germany gets stuck in a clear ziploc bag. My bad). In them, I put things that are specific to that country, things that I would not need until I am there.

For example, I have the appropriate language translator guides for each (cut apart from a German/Italian/French combo language book), the train or flight tickets to leave that particular country, and sections of the Rick Steves books I had that pertain to specific things we will see in that country (for places that do not have audio guides that we are planning to rent)

We bought two cheapie mp3 players, and I have downloaded a bunch of audioguides to take with us, so we will better understand the things we are seeing (the Pantheon, Notre Dame, St Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel), in areas where we don't have a tour guide or a rented audioguide. Does me no good to be somewhere awesome and see something beautiful if I don't know what it is or the stories behind it. Ethan was not a big fan of being tied to Tobias when they shared audioguides on his last Europe trip, so we got separate players. No short leash to tie us together!

Anyway. I have planned. I have thought carefully. All contingencies were deliberated upon. Except volcanic ash. We shall see. An Atlantic storm on Weds/Thurs may push things northward and save the day.

Europe, here we come!

Hotels and Airfare: Booked

Trains: Booked

€uros: Purchased (well, at least enough to pay for our hotels and Germany portion of the trip. May need to get some more....)

Research: Never ending. But I *love* it, so it is all good...

Planning: Quite possibly the most fun thing of all. See 'Research'

Travel info/map book: Paris and Rome portions are complete, still working on Amsterdam and Germany, but those two areas are much lower key with less actual planning needed. Which stresses me out, to be honest. I don't *know* what I will do...I have options to choose from. Lots of options.

Excitement: Ramping up!!

Getting down to the nitty gritty here! I am still working on my book, which is truly a labor of love. I used to carry it in my bag to work, so I could add to it while here, but now I am worried that something could happen and it could get stolen, and that would so much suck...so I leave it at home. Gotta get over that. It will be awesome and useful and all that. I need to find a large rubberband to help keep it closed, though. Too much paper added inside of it, the magnet can't quite reach to keep it closed very securely.

I am also bringing a phrase book with German/French/Italian in it. I am going to cut it up into sections (by language) and separate it out and bring it. The most important parts are the menu decoders. I am learning how to ask if there is seafood in a dish in three languages. Go, me!!

Other than the phrase book and my own personal travel bible, we are bringing a street map of Paris, and either an iPod touch or cheapo mp3 player. I reallyreallyreally want an iPod touch, but was planning to sell my wedding dress to finance it, and that hasn't happened yet. I dropped the price on the dress by $40 today, so we will see if that sweetens the pot enough. Fingers crossed!!

The mp3 player will be for downloaded podcasts to take with us in areas that we are not paying for a tour guide--(still determining which areas those will be...)the colosseum and Vatican in Rome, etc, etc. Better to have info on what exactly it is you are looking at, rather than just looking and not understanding.

Anyway.

The iPod touch would also download podcasts, but also maps and apps for the Paris transit system (even though I have already looked up which exact trains and which exact stops I need to be using...more info NEVER hurts...), and lots of other useful travel gadgets. And music, stuff like that. We are bringing the laptop with us, both for photo dumping off the memory cards, and also to keep in touch with work (Ethan) and blog (alyca). Ethan has a messenger bag that the laptop fits into for travel, then we will leave it in our hotel rooms and take the messenger bag as a day-bag for our whirlwind touring.

I still need to figure out what exactly we are doing in Germany--definitely a few castles, maybe a chairlift/viewpoint hike, wine and cheese tasting, etc. Gotta sort that out.

Amsterdam, I know WHAT we are doing, but not WHEN. We will do the Dutch Resistance Museum (WWII), Anne Frank House, Van Gogh Museum (Ethan says it was cool), Keukenhof gardens (half-day or more trip for a billion picture opportunities), 22-mile bike ride along canals and windmills (Ethan did it a couple years ago and LOVED it), and random relaxation. Except for April 30, which is Queen's Day, a national holiday and celebration where an additional 1 million people pour into Amsterdam and party like it's 1999 for the day. Old people, young people, etc, etc. Music galore, yard sales by little kids. Craziness. No public transportation available, and nothing will be open...so we will have to see how that day shapes up. Probably not our most awesome, but I am told it is a 'must do' at least once. But we (Ethan) are not crowd people, so I am not sure how fun it will truly be. But, I have my orange shirt all prepared, and I am ready to give it my all!!

Paris, we do the Sacre Coeur church and Opera Garnier the first day, followed by an evening bike tour of all the sites lit up at night, and a boat cruise afterwards. The next day, it is off to the Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb, then the Rodin Museum gardens (to see the Thinker). Then over to the Arc de Triomphe (may go to a nearby hotel with a fabulous 35th floor bar with billion dollar views first...), walk down the Champs Elysees, then view the Petit and Grand Palais', over to l'Orangerrie museum to see Monet's water lilies, then back to the hotel to crash....and up again to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at sunset.

Our last full day in Paris involves Notre Dame, St Chapelle, Cluny Museum (to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries), then the Pantheon, Luxembourg gardens, Church of St Sulpice, and St Germain des Pres for dinner and mimes and street artists.

A very full city.

In Rome the next morning, we tour several churches, the Cappucin crypt, National Museum of Rome, then walk the Spanish steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazzas Colonna and Navona, Campo di Fiori, and the Pantheon. Hopefully at sunset when these are all lit up. I am unsure how this will all work, since I want to see the Pantheon during the day, and the other sites at night. And some nearby churches, too. Amazingly beautifullness is inside.

Next day, we do the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill, then Capitol Hill, Capitoline Museums, and Largo Argentina (cat sanctuary).

Our last full day is reserved for the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St Peter's Basilica and Castel St Angelo.

Then we come home and deal with insomnia and look forward to going back to work. Actually, we come home and I disappear into my scrapbook room until I have photos edited and beautified.


After all this, our next vacation: Heading to Florida in September to watch the last space shuttle launch. A must see, in our opinions. Last chance, too. I just hope weather cooperates and we are actually able to watch!! You better believe we will photograph the heck out of that.

I know it is waaaay early...but

Cooper Kids Coast Christmas


I have an idea. I saw it on a goofy website I peruse on occasion. We need to find an old picture with all of us in it......and recreate it. I mean a picture from when we were little kids. Next get-together we have (be it camping or actual Christmas), we need to figure out ahead of time what picture we want to use, then each of us head to the thrift store to find props/similar clothing to wear, then we take a picture of us posing to match the original picture. Facial expressions and all.

Won't this be awesome????

Davinie will be so proud

When I went to Australia, Davinie encouraged me to take along a blank book, and fill it with receipts and ticket stubs and all sorts of memorabilia and notes about my trip. I took a book along, and filled out maybe 3 pages. Didn't really follow through.

This time, with my Europe trip, I am doing a different variation of this same idea. I bought a lovely blank, lined page book with a magnetically closing flap. Pretty and green (of course). I have it separated into four sections (Germany, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome), and each section is filled with shrunken down hotel confirmation emails, train tickets, flight information, and maps. I got maps both from google and also by copying them out of my Rick Steves books (I have them for Amsterdam, Paris and Rome). He has maps of key areas, suggested walking itineraries, etc, etc.

I made lists of absolutely everything I wanted to do in Rome and Paris, the figured out which things were located close to each other. Then I put together an itinerary for the days that I am there, taking into consideration things like days museums are closed in Paris, busiest days/times of the week at the Vatican, etc. I posted these on tripadvisor.com, and got some good feedback. I tweaked things around after that, then started gluing everything into my book. In order. (actually, I started gluing *before* I went on tripadvisor, so my Rome itinerary is not quite in order). I even have which exact metro line I need to take to each area in Paris, along with the station name and any transfers I need. I *love* planning!!

So I have Rome-Day 1 (Tuesday), with maps and info about what I want to do that day, followed by Rome-Day 2 (Wednesday). I left about 15 empty pages (at least) after each city/area, so I have more space to attach stubs, etc, and also to journal. When I get home, I will find some flat scrappiness to add for embellishment and interestingness, and in the end I will have an awesome keepsake.

While on my journey, this saves me from having to carry around guidebooks (except for info sections that I am going to rip out and take with me to some museums), and has all my info in one place. Can I tell you how excited I am about this?? I am having lots of fun. I know that my Paris and Rome itineraries are vary ambitious, and we will likely have to cut some things out--but I would rather know all my options at a glance, and be able to decide on the day if I am in the mood or have the energy to do something, rather than getting home and realizing that I was a block away from something very cool, and totally missed it because I didn't know it was there. Make sense??

One place I am excited about seeing is the Largo Argentina ruins in Rome. There are cool ruins, but also a cat sanctuary and hospice that takes in sick and injured cats and houses them for life. They also have a robust spay/neuter program, and they foster and adopt out as many cats as they can. Even internationally. We are NOT coming home with a cat, but I am going to try to fit a box or two of gloves into my luggage--they are requesting these, as well as monetary donations. Rome is known for having cats everywhere amongst the ruins, and these people are the only agency actually HELPING these cats. You know we have a soft spot for cats..

We have lots of cool churches on our list as well, and some museums in Paris. We ar not going to the Louvre (shocking, isn't it?), but we will see the Cluny and Orangerie, as well as the Army Museum/Napoleon's tomb and the Rodin Museum. We are getting Museum passes, so we won't feel bad about only stopping in to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries in the Cluny Museum, or other small, quick stops. One price, all the museums we want to see in 2 days. Works for us.

I have absolutely nothing going on in my life, which makes updating a blog a bit tricky. I will try my best...

I did win a victory over American Airlines and got my flight home from Rome in May switched--they rescheduled my flights 3 times and I was looking at a 6 hour layover at JFK airport waiting for a flight home to Seattle, but a little web research showed me that there was a flight leaving Rome around the same time that went through Chicago and would get me home to Seattle arout 7:30pm, rather than 11:30pm. Much better. And, we leave Rome about 90 minutes later than the earlier flight, so we can have a leisurely morning trek out to the airport. Good news all around.

I am also planning to take part in the Big Climb here in Seattle, climbing up the stairs of the Columbia tower (69 floors) to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research. Should be fun. And tiring. Definitely a good workout, at the very least. I am in the 'untimed' division (a climber, not a racer), so my goal is just to avoid the elevators and make it all the way to the observation deck. We shall see. This is in only a few short weeks, so I need to get my butt in gear. I joined a gym a few months ago, so hopefully my blood, sweat and tears there will pay off in my non-death in the stairwells.

Of course, there is a lot of Europe planning going on. I like lists, so I am making lists of all the things I want to do in a particular city, and the cost/days they are closed.
Then I am linking together museums/sights that are physically close together.
Then looking at the Museum/city passes that are available and seeing if those will save me money, or if I should just go to them individually.
Then prioritizing things, since there is absolutely no way I can see *everything*.
Then I will eventually show my conclusions to Ethan, and see what he thinks.... Trying to squeeze a lot of things into a short period of time, but I don't want to rush around and exhaust myself.

So. That is an update. If my life were less boring or my cats looked any different than they did last year or the year before, etc, I would put up pictures of them or of the exciting things we are doing. But there are none. We are boring people, living a boring life. We are living like no one else; so that one day, we can live like no one else.