Big Dreams, Little Budget, and How We Are Making It Happen

I am a dreamer. A head-in-the-clouds-walker. My mom has thrown up her hands in exasperation more than once, proclaiming, "You just want it all!"


And, yeah, I guess I do. 


I want to be loved and in love. I want my family to be happy and peaceful. I want to be understood, and if not, then left alone to be me and not criticized for it. I want the practical things, too, like being financial solvent, and not constantly worrying about each month's bills. I want my boy back in my life, most of all.


I can want all day, all life long, but how to make all these things happen?

Research. Action. Risk. Reward.

That is what I am going with. For now, shelved are the big vacation plans, the purchase of acreage in the sierras, a vacation home on the Russian River or Northern California coast; gone are the plans for a personal trainer and private Pilates instructor, for buying the old church in town and turning it into a brewery; put on hold are the motorcycles and boats and weekend convertibles.


Shelved are the wants and things that I have no control over.

Enter Excel spreadsheets, and Quicken budgeting. Enter negotiating old debts with creditors and finalizing payoffs. We go back to the drawing board, and try different avenues for finding sustainable income. We do our research, make smarter investments of our time, energy and money.


All of these things have led me to doing something I thought I would never do: buy investment real estate. I have struggled with the idea of buying foreclosed properties because I feel bad for the people who have lost their homes. Although I have some good business skills, a killer instinct isn't one of them. I keep picturing little Janie on the street, dolly held in one hand, big eyes glistening with tears. I am a melodramatic sap, I know, but I still can't seem to get the image out of my head.


So, I committed myself to finding a property (or properties) that were for sale in markets with a high demand for rentals. This, done correctly, could provide a source of income now, and be a financial asset later in life.


Step 1. Research


Some of the most depressed markets home-wise are becoming or have become markets with a higher demand for rental properties. It is not hard to see why; times are tight and people need a place to live, and renting becomes a cheaper alternative than their mortgage, if they haven't foreclosed already.


Cities with low house prices and high demand include Stockton (no surprise there), Detroit (or there), Las Vegas, Orlando, Bakersfield, Phoenix, and Ft Lauderdale. Atlanta and San Francisco are also notable due to their stagnate house prices, yet ever-increasing rents. But the creme de la creme and biggest surprise: Chicago.
Condos, lofts, and flats in the downtown and highly sought-after North Side are at an all time low, while the demand for rental properties continues to surge. When looking at price per square foot coupled with potential ROI, there is no better city than Chicago to buy in right now.


Step 2. Action


We have started making the calls, contacting potential properties and their agents. We have started the preliminary financial discussions, and are meeting with our broker this weekend. (Yes, our money guy works weekends and even comes to our house, even though we don't have much of it.)


Step 3. Risk


This is scary. We have never been landlords. Chicago is thousands of miles away. We are using our savings and tapping some retirement funds for this. All of these things are definite risks. But without CALCULATED risk, there can be no....


Step 4. Reward


What will this do for us? It provides us with a second source of income. We will actually be able to pay the mortgage, insurance, and taxes with the rental income AND put money in the bank each month. It will build equity, providing us with a measure of financial security in the future. 


It will make it possible to re-launch a legal assault on my ex, and bring my family back together. It may provide for college tuition for him, retirement for ourselves, or the ability to help our parents as they age.


Eventually, in the not too distant future, we will even be able to start pulling some of those fun things back off of that shelf, and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

By the dawn's early light

"Oh-o, say can you see, by the dawn's early light..."

The opening lines of our National anthem, although not the most descriptive of the poem by Francis Scott Key, have always painted such beautiful colors in my mind.

This morning, after nights of interrupted, restless sleep, I awoke with the very start of the dawn, when the sky is just slightly bluer than the black outline of the trees outside my window. I watched the sky lighten and brighten for over an hour, feeling a mixture of contentedness and inflamed inspiration, so fortunate to have witnessed the magic of an uncontrived beauty in our often over-processed and manufactured world.

At one point the thought to grab my camera flitted by, but I made no move to retrieve it. I suppose I knew subconsciously that any attempt to capture the colors, the mood would be nearly impossible; it was as if the dawn had been painted for me in that moment, only those moments, exactly as it was supposed to be seen.

I suppose I could attempt to describe the colors to you, Reader, the darkest of navy, the richest of cobalts, the truest cerulean, the lightest blue-butter-cotton sky, but such injustice I would do to you and the glory witnessed. My truest and best advice: see the dawn on a clear Spring morn, and hope to be as inspired as I.

"My profession is to always find God in nature." - Henry David Thoreau

"This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." - George Bernard Shaw

Friday the 13th Party...of 3.

We had planned a fun night of pizza, cupcakes, and drinking games centered around this past Friday the 13th, complete with a viewing of both classics "Friday the 13th" (1980) and "Friday the 13th II" (1982).  Sadly, only ONE PERSON actually showed up.  Wish I had known that before the three Family-size pizzas and 18 cupcakes were made.  ARRRRGGGG!

Not to be completely defeated, we rallied on, played the game (all 3 of us), gorged on pizza, and enjoyed my "Killer KupKakes", which turned out to be AWESOME!  By the end of the night our sides and faces hurt from laughing so hard; maybe it was meant to be just the three of us.

For a very decent recipe, try Alton Brown's Devil's Food recipe (although I HATE his frosting).  You can either make your own cherry pie filling (one of my faves by mybakingaddiction.com), or buy it in the can (I won't judge).  Bake the cupcakes, allow to cool five minutes, hollow out the middles, spoon in filling, top with cake you have hollowed out, and cover with a dollop of frosting once completely cooled.  


These little cakes look delightfully bloody, have a gooey gore center, and, of course, taste delicious! If prepared in a slightly "cleaner" way, these make for romantic Valentine's Day treats, too.

FUBAR

So, without working laptop loaded with the correct photo editing software, my blog has fallen sadly behind.  I will be trying to get everything uploaded from Poland, Mexico, Jerusalem, and in between in the next two weeks.  Unfortunately, it won't be chronologically accurate, but deal with it, okay?

Unplanned and Perfect: Our First Day in Jerusalem

Today is our first full day in Jerusalem.  We left CA Thursday at 10:30 am and landed (an hour late) at 2pm in Tel Aviv, Israel.  After clearing immigration, gathering baggage, passing through customs, and picking up our rental car, it was already 3:30. The drive to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv was surprisingly pretty, through green rolling hills dotted with homes, and we were even graced with a rainbow during a break in the light rain. Thank goodness for GPS; the road signs are mostly in Hebrew, but we found our hotel fairly easily, and by 4:30 we were parked, checked-in, and settled into our room.


Barely able to keep our eyes open, we were passed out by 5, awake again at 7:30 and ordered room service from the Shabbat (Sabbath) menu, which is all cold foods like salads, smoked salmon, cold cuts, etc. A Unisom each and we were out by 11.


Morning dawned clear and bright, and we woke refreshed and ready to get our Holy Land on.  Breakfast is provided as part of the room rate, and was quite good; several choices of cold cereals, smoked and pickled fish, fruits, yogurt, cold salads, and cheese, along with juices, coffee, tea, and assorted pastries. Our meal was healthy and delicious and a great way to refuel after airplane and airport food.

Old City walls, including Mount Zion (to the right)

Following a very rough idea of where we were going, we headed towards the Old City planning on visiting Mount Zion outside the Old City walls before venturing inside.

After only minor confusion, we stumbled upon the gravesite of Oskar Schindler made famous by Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List. It was quiet, and except for a small tour group, the graveyard was empty.

Oskar Schindler's grave. (Left: side view of grave with stones. Right: top of gravestone with inscription)

View of Jerusalem from Mount Zion cemetery.

We also visited the site of King David's tomb which is as unimpressive as all the websites and guidebooks say it was going to be.  Within the same complex is the Coenaculum (Latin for "dining room"), the hall that is the supposed place of the actual Last Supper.  The first time we walked through, it was thronged with tour groups, one of which was holding a loud prayer service in half of the smallish room.  The next time we passed through, two groups were leaving and another was on it's way in and we happened to get this shot between them.

The hall of the Last Supper

Adjacent to this site is the Church of the Dormition, the site where Mary, mother of Jesus, lived the rest of her life after Jesus' crucifixion and fell into a deep sleep (the "dormition") and died.


We entered the Old City through the Zion Gate on the south side and strolled through the Armenian Quarter to the Jaffa gate.  Just passed the gate is the entrance to the southern ramparts.  For 16 shekles ($4.26) each we gained admittance to the walls and some of the best views of both the old and new Jerusalem.

The ramparts dropped us just outside the security entrance for the Western Wall, the holiest spot in Judaism. Pictures of the Wall and the surrounding plaza are forbidden during Shabbat. There are separate sections for men and women at the Wall, so we split, had our private moments each, and met back in the center of the plaza.  As is tradition, I left a prayer on a slip of paper in the Wall itself.


From there we briefly entered the Muslim Quarter, were turned away by the nicest, politest, heavily-armed Israeli police officer at the entrance to Temple Mount, which is closed to non-Muslims during Shabbat. Feeling munchily, we opted for street-food as is our custom in foreign countries, and were delighted with the yummy chicken shawarma we shared.

Chicken shawarma & Pepsi, 25 shekles ($6.65)

The quieter streets of the Armenian Quarter

Without a map and no real inclination to visit any sites in particular, we happily wandered the ancient streets and inadvertently found ourselves on the Via Dolorosa, the path that Christ took from death sentence to crucifixion. Thronged with pilgrims, tourists, and locals alike, it was difficult to distinguish the stations that we passed or find much reverence in the experience since the streets are so different from the time of Jesus and are now lined with every kind of tourist shop imaginable.

"Hey, I think this is kind of important..."

Realizing that we had been on our feet non-stop for the last 6 hours and over 8 miles, we decided to take our aching feet back to the hotel, digest what we saw today, and maybe actually have a game plan for tomorrow and the rest of our time here in Israel.

For two jetlagged travelers just out for a leisurely stroll, we sure did find ourselves at several major tourist destinations and accomplished many things on our Israeli "to-do" list. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (one of the alleged burial and resurrection sites), the Dome of the Rock, and the Mount of Olives, perhaps a drive back to Tel Aviv if the weather is nice.

I want a teapot that big.

The Taco Lady

"Señoras y señores, estamos comenzando nuestro descenso final en la Ciudad de México. El capitán y la tripulación le gustaría darle las gracias por volar con nosotros esta noche, y bienvenidos a México! "

 “Ladies and gentlemen, we are starting our final descent into Mexico City. The Captain and crew would like to thank you for flying with us this evening, and welcome to Mexico!”

For weeks I have dreamed of these words, knowing that within the hour of landing, my lust for REAL tacos would finally be satiated. For the uninitiated, Mexican street tacos bear almost no resemblance to the tacos found in the U.S., although in certain neighborhoods of the state’s capitol where we live a resurgence towards the traditional style is gamely feeding the migrant population, and turning gringo hearts like mine away from deep-fried crunchy shells and “smeat” found in drive-thus and chain restaurants to the marinated and seasoned meats chopped fine and served in small corn tortillas topped with salsa, cilantro, onions, and a squeeze of lime.

Upon arrival to Mexico, after passing immigration, jostling around the baggage carousel, and clearing customs, after being welcomed by family where everyone, male and female alike, hug and kiss with every hello and goodbye, after threading and bumping our way through Distrito Federal to the suburb of Tlalnepantla, I make my long-awaited request: bypass the house and take me straight to the Taco Lady.

On the corner of Calle Colima off the highway to Queretaro, under a tarp serviced by two propane tanks and electricity borrowed from one of her family member’s small tienda, the Taco Lady to me, also called Doña Guille by the family, serves up some of the best street tacos in all of Mexico. For the last 40 years my husband’s family has made Doña Guille’s tacos the stop for the common late-night snack or 4^th meal. The original owner of the store’s wife is Guillermina, and as a child, my husband’s cousin (primo Juan) simply latched on to the only other adult name he knew outside of the family: Guillermina, and so the Taco Lady became “Doña Guille”, although that is not her real name. To this day, no one in the family has ever called her anything else.

Doña Guille’s specialty is suadero, beef cut from the breast or brisket, chosen specifically for its tender, less muscle-grained texture, marinated and cooked in hot oil and then chopped fine, served in warm corn tortillas topped with onions, cilantro, and spicy salsa verde. Much to the chagrin of my hubby’s tender taste buds, Doña Guille always tops my tacos with extra salsa.

What makes tacos de Doña Guille so good is not just the suadero, which is the most delicious I have ever had, but the experience itself; the camaraderie of standing on the street corner in the glow and glare of sulfer streetlamps and clamped floodlights, the chatter and laughter of friends and family, and the knowledge that tomorrow, without fail, the Taco Lady will be back, slinging tacos 
and pombasos from when the sun goes down until the early morning hours, feeding neighbors and weary travelers alike.

Mmmm, Bacon (almost)!

I have been in a deeply committed love affair with pork products most of my life. I know, I know; we all love bacon, the golden child of pork, but I love the lesser heralded cuts, too. Some are pretty obvious: ribs, ham, and more bacon. But what about sausages and pancetta and even the maligned and lowly pork chop?

Now, I know none of this is good for me. I know I should limit not just my pork intake, but try and make more of my meals vegetarian in general. Oh, but I do so love the puerco!

This morning I had a hankering for one of my favorite sandwiches, a FEBLT: Fried Egg, Bacon, Lettuce, & Tomato. It indeed makes me "feebled" (get it?) in the knees just thinking about it. I prefer topping the over-easy eggs and oven-baked bacon with micro greens or a so-called spring mix, and summer-ripe heirloom tomatoes, lightly dressed with a just a teensy bit of EVOO and fresh cracked sea salt and pepper, all on toasted sourdough or a ciabatta roll.

So, I dug into the depths of the freezer and found a package of Morningstar faux bacon, normally reserved for when we have veg-head guests or our annual Lenten "no-meat" sacrifice. Baked in the oven at 400 degrees, I now have a tidy stash of perfectly crisp almost-bacon to use over the next couple of weeks AND I satisfied my hankering for a FEBLT.

Happy tummy, happy body. Talk about a win-win.

Scales of Injustice

If you have been following my C25k progress, or if you saw my Facebook post early last week, you probably saw that I thought I had lost 16.8 pounds since starting the running program.   THOUGHT.


Unfortunately, when I went to weigh myself this morning, I discovered a major malfunction with our scale.  It said I weighed 287 pounds.  I stepped off, and stepped back on. 68 pounds.  What the heck?


So I swapped out the batteries, grabbed an unopened sack of rice flour and tried again. 5.2 pounds. Now we're getting somewhere.


Except that when I stepped up, I hadn't lost nearly as much as I thought, only about 10.7 pounds. Instead of  feeling let down, I reminded myself that 10.7 pounds is nothing to shake a stick at, a point driven home much faster as I hefted the 5 pound sack of flour back into the cupboard. Wow, two sacks of flour lighter than when I started.


I am proud of that small accomplishment, and remain motivated.  Maybe even more so now.


I guess that is what I get for being prideful.

Thomi's Cafe

Breakfast always tastes better when you don't have to cook it.  Well, almost always.


On a mission to eat out and try one of the local restaurants at least once a week, this Sunday we really wanted breakfast.  Breakfast out is usually predictable and easy on the pocketbook, so I figured it would also be an easy entry into the local reviews as well.


Up at 4:45 this morning, by 7:30, I was starving and ready for brekkies. I trolled the internet for breakfast places, and other than the standard chains, Denny's and Perko's, the two stand-outs appeared to be Mel & Faye's Diner and Thomi's Cafe. Can you believe that Mel & Faye's doesn't list their hours on their website (or at least somewhere I could find it)?  So, by default, we chose to try Thomi's.

Photo courtesy of Thomi's website.

The building has a charming exterior on the corner of a little strip mall on highway 49. We arrived about 8:10, the first and only customers of the day.  The reception was cordial, but hardly warm and friendly.  Maybe because it was early on a Sunday and the young girl really didn't want to be there.  Really, I can't say I blame her all that much...




The interior is cute, almost cozy.  I really liked the bar/hostess station with the brick-red wall.  The wooden chairs were a nice touch compared to the faux-wood ugly tables, but they were FILTHY.  I mean, really gross.  Every chair-back in the restaurant was covered in a film of sticky fingerprints and spilled food, made glaringly obvious by the high-gloss finish of the chairs. It skeeved me out quite a bit. 


We started with coffee as we perused the breakfast menu.  Sadly, it is an over-sized laminated menu, the exact same as on the website.  For such a cute little place, you would think that the menu would be something just slightly more...classy. The hubby and I usually pick standard fair for our first visit to any restaurant, eggs being a pretty good litmus for the rest of the food; if you can cook a good egg, chances are the rest will follow suit.

We loved the large, friendly cobalt-blue mugs.

Rick ordered the Pancake Griddle Combo: two pancakes, two eggs, and four strips of bacon or sausage, $5.99. I ordered the Eggs Benedict, served with hashbrowns; I added avocado, which brought the total to $9.88. Sadly, as yummy as these pictures may look, I found breakfast to be more than a little lacking.




My breakfast arrived cold, not warm; stone-cold and starting to congeal.  As the first, and still only, customers, I could not understand how my whole plate could be so cold.  


Did they make my breakfast, put it in the window, and THEN start Rick's? Although my eggs were almost perfectly poached, they forgot the avocado (which was later brought to the table as a side), the ham was not the thick slice of grilled ham as pictured on the menu, but shaved, overly-salty lunch meat, and the hollandaise sauce was the completely bland packet variety. Had it been hot, it would have tasted a whole lot better. As it was, I ate because I was super-hungry, not necessarily because it was good.

Side of avocado, browner than in the photo.

Rick's meal was huge and fairly average; scrambled eggs were too dry, but pretty fluffy, bacon salty, but a little flaccid, pancakes okay, but fork-tough (needed a knife to cut).

My side of avocado, when it arrived, was pretty brown and looked old. (The picture looks better than it did in person) It would have been fine if it was covered by the hollandaise, or in a burger or omelette, but not very pretty served as is.  I would have re-thought bringing it to the table.


Our total, without tip ended up at $20.87. The waitress was much friendlier by the time we left (maybe she just need some coffee, too), but I don't think it was enough to make the experience worthwhile for a second visit.


Perhaps we should have trusted our instincts and stopped at Mel & Faye's; at 8 am their parking lot was full.


Rating (1-10):
Ambience: 7
Service: 6
Food: 4
Value: 7
Overall: 6


The Particulars:
Thomi's Cafe
627 S. Highway 49,
Jackson, CA 95642
(209) 257-0800
Open 7 days, 8 am - 9 pm (8 pm Sundays)

A Roya-l Lunch

I am always hunting for new ideas to jazz up the lunch hour standards: a tuna sandwich, a garden salad, leftovers... Blah, blah, blah.


And then I saw this post from a friend and fellow blogger Roya (Dirt Don't Hurt) and have been dying to try it: Curried Chicken Salad.  Why haven't I thought of this before?!

Roya's Pic. YUM!

Here is her recipe as she posted a week or so ago:


"This recipe can be eaten right away, but it is better if it's refrigerated for a few hours.
This can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled!
I used leftovers from a roasted chicken, and wish I had made more.


1 cup chicken, chopped up small
1/2 apple, chopped finely
¼ bulb fennel, finely chopped (or 1 stalk celery, but the fennel makes this amazing)
1 handful of dried cranberries 
Handful of chopped nuts (totally optional)


1 T mayo
Splash of apple cider vinegar (to taste)
Salt and pepper
Dash of celery salt
Curry powder (optional)


Mix all together, then add the curry powder to make it as yellow as you like it.


I start with just a dab of mayo (I don’t like it to be too “wet”, just a little coating, and add more as needed. I’ve made it with greek yogurt, and it’s just not the same. You could probably go 50/50 yogurt/mayo though. It’s really not that much mayonnaise ;)
I added about ¼ cup of leftover faro which added some good chewiness to it, but that is totally not necessary. I can see quinoa or brown rice being good too.


Served in lettuce wraps, or over a TON of cabbage, this is the most delicious thing ever. Eaten by the spoonful out of the Tupperware in your fridge it is also delicious ;) "

How could I NOT want to eat this?!  Having just returned from Poland, I realized this morning that there is almost NOTHING in our fridge that is still edible. And then I found this in the back of the fridge:

And this:

Oh, heck yeah, it is ON!  Although I didn't have the exact ingredients specified by Roya (I would have LOVED fennel in this), I whipped up a close approximation, with a few additions of my own.

Although I normally prefer to use leftover chicken for my chicken salads, in a pinch the Kirkland chicken is pretty yummy.  It's packed in water so no extra fat, calories, or flavor, and has really large chunks of white meat.

Kirkland Chicken

I opted to add a little bit of red onion.  I add onion to almost every recipe, including salads.

Red Onion

I definitely opted to add nuts to my salad.  I love the extra richness and crunch these toasted pecans added to the salad.  If a recipe calls for nuts of any kind, I usually try and buy the biggest bag I can budget for, and keep the remainder for future use, like today!

Toasted Pecans

Even without the dressing and the apples, I was already salivating a little at this point.

Salad pre-dressing (sans apples)

So for the dressing the debate raged: Veganaise or Mayo?

Veganaise: 90 Calories, 9 Grams of Fat

Olive Oil Mayo: 45 Calories, 4 Grams of Fat

Guess who won?  Yep, the mayo.  I always mix my dressings, whether it is for potato salad, cole slaw, or in this case, chicken salad, in a separate bowl.  That way if I screw up the dressing I haven't botched the whole meal.  In my case I added LOTS of curry (very yellow), garlic powder, a squeeze of spicy brown mustard, and a touch of cayenne to my dressing.  I like my curry with some heat!

Curry-Mayo Dressing

Mix it all together, cover and chill.  Waiting was the hardest part.

Chicken salad dressed, with apples

Finally lunch time arrived!  I dressed my greens with the barest kiss of EVOO and some fresh ground salt and pepper, topped with the chicken salad, and took this quick picture before I dove in.

How pretty is that?

And there it is, sitting on my desk as I type this, except that by now, I have an almost empty plate!

LUNCH!

Recipes like these are so quick, easy, and flexible depending on what you have on hand.  In my case, purple instead of green cabbage, celery instead of fennel, green apples instead of red, raisins instead of cranberries.  It was delicious anyways.


Thanks again to Roya for a great idea and a happy lunch.

Awesome Apps For This Small Business Owner

Starting a business, any business, is difficult for so many reasons: financial capitol and start-up costs, legal and tax concerns, licensing and insurance needs, not to mention having a good idea, a better business plan, and the tenacity and drive to actual see a venture actually launched. On top of all this, there are the sometimes more real pressures of time away from family or friends and the ever-lurking monster of self-doubt.

As I struggle to manage all these issues (and more) with not one, but two start-up ventures, I am finding little tips and tricks to help the process along.

Enter the Smartphone. In this case, my 8 gig iPhone 3. I know, I know, hardly the latest and greatest, but sometimes you just gotta work with what you've got. Besides, it was free (with another two-year cell-phone prison term, but that is a subject of another post later to come).

I now have no less than four email accounts, calendars, address books, and reminders set-up, which may sound like a headache, but has effectively kept my personal info, business contacts, suppliers, clients, and the like separate from each other and neatly organized.

And thanks to handy new apps from Etsy, Paypal, UPS, USPS, my bank and even eBay, I can keep an eye on incoming orders, packages shipped to clients all over the world, and snap photos and create new listings for my Etsy shop, and all from my iPhone. Even more exciting are the coming improvements to existing apps and all the new ones on the horizon, allowing me to do business from my phone virtually anywhere in the world.

Case in point, I am writing this from a 15th century home in Gdansk, Poland via the Blogger app.

Ain't technology grand?

Gdansk Continued: Weekend Adventure

The time zone adjustment, busy days, and long evenings have made it difficult to get here and record our trip, especially since I meant to bring my netbook, but left is behind accidentally; when the Riz goes to work, during my normal blogging hours, he takes the laptop with him.  Stupid me.


Here are some snapshots from our second day in Gdansk.  As you can tell, I am in love with the architecture, and the street we are staying on in particular.  I can't get enough pictures of it!


We spent a long day walking the Old City, stopping in cafes to warm up along the way, and ended our day, surprisingly, at a nightclub. Who would have thought it? We finally meandered home in the wee hours of Sunday and slept most of the rest of the day.


So, that was the weekend, in a quick blurb.  I promise to amend and repost broader thoughts and descriptions of the places we have been and the people we have met and seen.  For now, pictures from Saturday, January 14, 2012:

Breakfast tray

Cheese spreads

Bread basket with two gingerbread clovers

Ham & Cheese

Snow on the gutterspout

St. Mary's Cathedral, the largest brick cathedral in the world

We spooned.

Windy, windy, snowy day.  You would think someone from Chicago would be used to this type of weather and not look so pained.

Granary Island in the Motlawa River. These buildings, as was most of the Old Town, were bombed heavily during WWII. The broken structures are a grim reminder of the past, while the new construction and cranes in the background are a clear sign of Poland's burgeoning economy and modern future.

Rick gets primitive with the natives.

Mariacka (Mary's Street) from the porch of our favorite cafe. 

Mariacka, looking west after a day of light snowfall.

Mariacka, looking east towards the Motlawa River and one of the many gates.

Hit with a snowball. Not amused.

On our way to dinner

Pueblo's Tex-Mex.  We just HAD to try it!

Margarita time

We stopped in a pub after dinner.  Shots are very common in Poland. The bartender made this for us: Kahlua and Absinthe, lit on fire, and drank in one big slurp through a straw.  He was awesome enough to take pictures of us actually drinking the dang things.

Several hours later, Parliament, a nightclub.  Yes, it as bad as every Eastern European dance club I have seen in the movies.

4:45 AM, a thick blanket of snow lays on the quiet streets, kebabs in hand, we  finally arrive home.