Hickup Cure

I thought this might be useful info next time you get the hickups in a socially unacceptable place. The moment you have your first hickup, immediately take your pulse on your wrist. It has worked the last 5 times for me -my hickups stopped immediately. Thanks to Brian Cameron of Tillamook (now travelling in South America) for this awesome advice.

Spite & Malice

On a past Friday night, I left a message for my friend Tresa inviting her to play cards with Matt & I. Later she told me she got the message while whe was out at the bar with friend and they all had a good laugh. She explained to me that Friday nights are not for playing cards, and that perhaps she'd join us on a Monday or Tuesday.

The last Friday and Saturday night, Matt and I couldn't help ourselves, but found ourselves staying home and playing cards. We've come back from our train trip to LA and San Francisco with a new card game that we can't get enough of - Spite & Malice - that a couple from Seattle taught us on our last leg up the coast. It seemed like every travelling couple we met had a favorite card game - an arty-environmental pair from Tulsa, OK played a specific progressive rummy (they are emailing us the rules), and another couple together 50 years still loved to beat each other playing gin rummy and other games. It's interesting how games such as cards are passed on - and would make a great subject of a book - if it hasn't been done already.

PS. I do believe I beat Matt twice last night in cards, though I'm sure he'd tell you different.

Going on a Train Ride

Tomorrow I'll be on the Coast Starlight train choo chooing my way down to the City of Angels. I can't wait to be stuck on a train for 30 + hours. I've been either super busy or super dead these days. I look forward to staring out the window, reading, playing cards, eating, sleeping. The simple things. Lucky for me I get to go in style this time - not only do I get to travel with my companion, Matt, I also get the luxury of having a 'roomette' and all meals in the dining car.. and access to the parlor car.. and the best part of all is our tickets were pretty much FREE, thanks to Matt's Alaska Airlines creditcard. Amtrak is a partner, so we get our train tickets with a room, and all meals included with our voucher, for the same amount of mile points, we could get just two plain old rountrip airfares. Since Matt is between work and I am self employeed, we have TIME on our side to go the long way.

We'll visit my best friend Emily in LA for 4 days and her family. I've just been told that her 9 year old son Ian, is so excited to see me, he even wrote in his homework planner, that I'll be there on Friday! Ian doesn't know yet that even better than me, he'll get to meet Matt. I'm sure those two will head off to play Nintendo Wii for hours, and Emily and I can reminence about our art class days back in the grungy 90's where we occasionally were caught wearing plaid flannel.

Let me tell you the train is the way to go... even if it's pretty much guaranteed you'll be 1-4 hours late on a long trip because frieght trains have right-away. There's just something nice about taking your time to get to your destination, and the Coast Starlight is especially fun once it hits the southern cali coast, often the train is going right along the coastline, places even cars don't have access. On my trip in coach on the Coast Starlight three years ago, I even saw a dolphin from the train! In Portland, we're lucky to have such a great access to three lines of train travel" Coast Starlight, Cascades, and Empire Builder. And while on a long journey, get on and off. On this trip, We'll be stopping in San Francisco ( my former home) for two nights on our journey back North. Also when you are planning a trip, check for train specials, there are often free companion fares & last minute deals. So what are you waiting for, go far go near, go by train!