The entertainer

On Sunday I am fixing my first official meal for my in-laws (hmm, at least I didn’t mistakenly type “of” instead of “for”). It seems like a long time – five years – to invite them over for dinner, but I’ve had pretty good excuses until now, including not living in Thessaloniki and not having a proper eating area. Finally, we have dining and living room furniture, so I can actually play hostess again.

What was my mother-in-law’s initial response to the invitation? “I don’t want to have you cooking for so many people, let’s just go out somewhere” (the number of people will be 8 if my brother-in-law and his wife come). Yes, of course, after we’ve spent some money on an eight seater dining room table our intent is to invite people over to go out to dinner. I like cooking, and I think I’m relatively good at it (as long as I pay attention and don’t use twice as much butter as a recipe calls for), so I’m thrilled to finally be able to fix a good meal for my in-laws, especially after countless delicious dinners at their house. It will be a bit more challenging to come up with an interesting menu, since we are all fasting, but I figure you can’t go wrong with tofu lasagna.

As for the house, all we really need now is a couple of rugs for the living and dining room floors (ok, that dark African wood is gorgeous, but even the cleanest foot leaves a print and drives me crazy) and curtains (the rods are being installed this week). We haven’t gotten furniture for the guest bedroom yet, but that is something that can be accomplished relatively quickly at IKEA. After that, it is all cosmetic, putting up pictures, combing through boxes, organizing storage closets, etc.

I’m finally home. And I’m loving it (crap, I hope McDonald’s doesn’t sue me for stealing their slogan there).

One week down, six more to go

see more crazy cat pics

Got blackmail? Apparently, it works!

I don’t pretend to know as much about strike action as Europeans do because, let’s face it, I’m American. However, I do have some concept about what constitutes mistreatment of labor and what is right. Yes, the pension system in Greece is all kinds of effed up. Yes, a big part of the blame is on the government, but in my mind it is because they didn’t adopt a single system of benefits for pensions years ago. But striking for weeks, causing consistent power outages throughout the country, letting trash pile up on the streets – not because you want the government to do what is right, but because you just don’t want them to mess with YOUR stash - is pretty messed up. To add to it, striking workers are throwing trash at police, making filthy streets even filthier, and I have to wonder if the human race isn’t devolving a bit here. Greeks have a wonderful propensity for giving when tragedies occur, but when it comes to working rights and pensions (and the workings of the government in general), they seem to be very egocentric.

And so, in the thick of this political quagmire, the government is caving and looking at reforms. Hey, people might be able to retire after 37 years on the job even if they haven’t yet reached the ripe, entirely useless to society age of 57. Fifty-seven. If only hard working Americans could retire at such a young age. When people can retire so young, no wonder money is running out in some pension accounts! God forbid workers strike for golden toilets, feather beds, and houses made of cheese, they might just get it. When you hold the country hostage, the government has to comply to your demands.

I do think people should have the right to strike, but holding out on crucial services, putting your country at risk of a blackout, or a public health hazard – basically keeping other hard working people from living and enjoying their lives – is nothing but cold hard blackmail. These unions won’t even offer an alternative solution to the pension reforms the government is proposing. That is because these unions want what they want with no compromises. Greece is never going to get anywhere when people have this kind of attitude. If your pay is below poverty level and you haven’t had a raise in two years – then strike. If you aren’t allowed any breaks in an eight hour shift – then strike. If you are forced to work overtime with no extra pay – then strike.

God bless Greece. I hope she comes out of this alive.

One time only

My husband actually changed the bag in the bathroom trash can.

Life is good.

Bye, bye cheese

Today is “Clean Monday”, which means everyone in Greece goes out and flies kites into power lines. Unfortunately, it also means the start of the 48 day very strict fasting period before Easter. We’ll be going vegan again, and the first day is always the hardest. I’m grumpy, I’m sad, and I’m going to miss my beloved cheese. In honor of my depression, I’m stealing EllasDevil’s monthly meme, since I’m too sore to talk about anything else.

Have You Ever…(everything in bold is something I have done)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped.
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (ok, I do this ALL THE TIME)
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa (the damn thing was being worked on when I was there! Not that I would have climbed the stairs anyway)
17. Grown and eaten my own vegetables (ok, well, my parents were the official growers)
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than I could afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as I possibly could
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about my life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for my computer (um, I do now…)
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip.
48. Gone rock climbing.
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach.
50. Gone sky diving.
51. Visited Ireland.
52. Been heartbroken longer then I was actually in love with the person.
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them.
54. Visited Japan.
55. Milked a cow.
56. Alphabetized my CDs.
57. Pretended to be a superhero.
58. Sung karaoke.
59. Lounged around in bed all day.
60. Posed nude in front of strangers.
61. Gone scuba diving.
62. Kissed in the rain.
63. Played in the mud.
64. Played in the rain.
65. Gone to a drive-in theater.
66. Visited the Great Wall of China.
67. Started a business.
68. Fallen in love with someone and not had my heart broken.
69. Toured ancient sites.
70. Taken a martial arts class.
71. Played D&D for more than six hours straight.
72. Gotten married.
73. Been in a movie.
74. Crashed a party.
75. Gotten divorced.
76. Gone without food for 5 days.
77. Made cookies from scratch.
78. Won first prize in a costume contest.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
80. Gotten a tattoo.
81. Rafted the Snake River.
82. Been on a television news program.
83. Received flowers for no reason.
84. Performed on stage.
85. Been to Las Vegas.
86. Recorded music.
87. Eaten shark.
88. Had a one-night stand.
89. Gone to Thailand.
90. Bought a house.
91. Been in a combat zone.
92. Buried one of my parents.
93. Been on a cruise ship.
94. Spoken more than one language fluently.
95. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show.
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour. (well, they didn’t really have a tour, per se, and I went more for moral support than anything else)
98. Created and named my own constellation of stars.
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country.
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over.
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge.
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when I knew someone was looking.
103. Had plastic surgery.
104. Survived an illness that I shouldn't have survived.
105. Written articles for a large publication.
106. Lost over 100 pounds.
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback.
108. Piloted an airplane.
109. Petted a stingray.
110. Broken someone's heart.
111. Helped an animal give birth.
112. Won money on a T.V. game show.
113. Broken a bone.
114. Gone on an African photo safari.
115. Had a body part of mine below the neck pierced.
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol.
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild.
118. Ridden a horse.
119. Had major surgery.
120. Had a snake as a pet.
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours.
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states.
124. Visited all 7 continents.
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days.
126. Eaten kangaroo meat.
127. Eaten sushi.
128. Had my picture in the newspaper.
129. Changed someone's mind about something I care deeply about.
130. Gone back to school.
131. Parasailed.
132. Petted a cockroach.
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes.
134. Read The Iliad.
135. Selected one "important" author who I missed in school, and read.
136. Killed and prepared and animal for eating.
137. Skipped all my school reunions.
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language.
139. Been elected to public office.
140. Written my own computer language.
141. Thought to myself that I'm living my dream.
142. Had to put someone I love into hospice care.
143. Built my own PC from parts. (ok, well sort of, in that the actual building was done by whatever man happened to be in my life at the time)
144. Sold my own artwork to someone who didn't know me.
145. Had a booth at a street fair.
146: Dyed my hair.
147: Been a DJ.
148: Shaved my head. (Not quite shaved, but as short as it could possibly be without shaving, since I was losing my hair)
149: Caused a car accident.
150: Saved someone's life.

Always after I'm gone

Anyone who lives anywhere remotely close to Tennessee who doesn't attend Bonnaroo on June 14th just to hear Sigur Rós live doesn't know what they are missing. Why does everything good happen in a place after I leave?

Have a stamp?

Barney's stories are frequently told on Pitcherlady's blog. His health is failing, but he always loves to get a postcard. Check the details, and make his day.

Morning coffee

The view I enjoy with my morning coffee.

Dogs in the 'hood

Villages in Greece tend to be either dog villages or cat villages. While that doesn’t mean that you won’t find a cat or two in a dog village (or vice versa), it does mean that one or the other is obviously the dominant animal of that particular hamlet.

When we lived on Kos, our little village of Pyli belonged to the felines. Cats were the queens of the tavernas, where they were always assured a few treats. Up here, dogs rule – and there are several different factions of doggy gangs constantly at war with one another. On our street there are four or five dogs that take up guard duties. The dogs around here are basically good dogs, they obey people, don’t get in too much trouble, and are very grateful for any scraps you can send their way. You get attached quite easily, and I’ve even named our neighborhood dogs: Jack, Joe, Fat Boy, Scruffy, and Barcley. Jack and Joe appear to be brothers - mostly black with some white patches, Labrador-esque dogs –and they are the rulers of the ‘hood, taking turns sitting at strategic points along the road watching out for their main rivals, the shepherd dogs.

Now I realize that the shepherd dogs are working stiffs, and messing with our dogs is probably the only fun they get to have, but these dogs are the biggest assholes. The herd is rather large, so there are a lot of dogs, maybe a dozen or so, and they come up here even when the flock is way down the road and start aggravating our gang. Thankfully it is usually just a barking match and almost never devolves into fisticuffs, but it seems to cause some major stress among the local boys, and the incessant noise irritates our cats to no end, causing them to turn to me with a look as if to say “are those Neanderthals ever going to shut up?” It usually doesn’t take too long before the shepherd dogs have to go back to work, but if those jerks ever injure one of our ‘hood dogs, I’ll have to have a few words with the shepherd.

Further down in the village there are a variety of Very Weird Dogs™. There is one who barks at headlights – he gets in front of cars and goes mad with rage at the devil rays, to the point that you have to turn your headlights off if you actually want to get anywhere without running over the freak. Then there are a couple of dogs who seem to think lying in the middle of the road is the best place to be, and stubbornly refuse to move even when a car is bearing down on them. I’ve seen people actually get out of their cars and physically pick up the dogs and move them out of the way, and the dogs don’t really seem to mind this, as long as they don’t have to move themselves. Of course, five seconds later they always decide they want to go somewhere else, but for those few moments it is dog’s will against man.

Despite the extreme distaste our cats have for dogs, I like living in a dog village. I’ve always wanted a dog but the responsibility seems too much, so having such friendly dogs around the house now and then is a pleasure. I can’t pet them or let them too close though, because if the cats were to smell dog on me I can’t imagine the consequences. But to say hello and get a happily wagging tail in response puts a smile on my face.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am

Reality is just strange as fiction - even Dr. Seuss' fiction. Who knew there was some truth to the popular Green Eggs and Ham?

From Kathimerini:

A veterinarian in Trikala, central Greece, became the talk of the town yesterday when he put on display two green eggs laid by the hen of a friend. Animal doctor Nikos Pallas said that the eggs were probably green because of something that the hen ate.

Absolutely fabulous

I'm sure a sunset so beautiful is the result of some deadly toxins in the air, but such things still take my breath away.

Eclipsed

I’m probably the only dorkus in this part of the world who stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse (it peaked at 5:01 am our time), but this is the first time in a really long while that I’ve had such spectacular views of the sky from my own place of residence, and I couldn’t resist it. I was hoping to get some halfway decent pictures and video of it, but our camera is not really eclipse quality, so the moon, which was as big as life to my naked eye, looked like a tiny little dot through the camera, and once the eclipse peaked all you could see through the camera was darkness. Of course I had to drag my husband out of bed once I realized the pictures wouldn’t be so good, because honestly, how often in life do circumstances come together so perfectly for you to view such an event? He actually didn’t mind, and came out to the balcony with me quite willingly.

Normally the moon lights up our balcony quite brightly, so much so that the street lights are rather inconsequential, but when I went out a few minutes before the peak of the eclipse the darkness took me a bit by surprise. I had a few minutes of unnecessary panic early on when I wondered if it was indeed ok to look at a lunar eclipse directly (because if it wasn’t surely I would be blind any second), but then I thought to myself, “you can look at the moon, dummy, why can’t you look at a lunar eclipse?” That is just one example of the mindless drama that goes through my head on an hourly basis.

For what it’s worth, I did take a couple of pictures and here is the video I took of different stages of the eclipse. Just don’t expect anything spectacular.

The devil wears mithril

Remind me never to bitch about anything here on the blog again, because it seems as soon as I do, things just get worse. We just had the coldest weekend yet - I don’t think it ever got above freezing. Somehow we managed to miss all the snow the rest of the country endured, which is a miracle, because it seems we always have snow up here when no one else does. But the cold was bad enough, and the one time we ventured out every swear word known to man involuntarily poured out of my mouth as some kind of defense against the sub-freezing wind (it didn't work).

Just as well, though, because it gave us the perfect excuse to stay inside all weekend and finally try Lord of the Rings Online, which we got for Christmas but couldn’t play because dialup and MMORPGs just don’t mix. My husband and I are both quite fond of computer games of all types, but we have a weakness for the role playing variety. We both beta-tested Everquest way back in the day, and continued to play for quite a few years, until World of Warcraft took all its players away. We eventually caved in and played WoW ourselves, but it didn’t last, and so we continued our search for the perfect MMORPG. We beta-tested Everquest 2 and Vanguard, and while both had some strong points, they just didn’t have that lasting quality we were looking for. So we finally decided that, as fans of Tolkien and MMORPGs, we should try out LOTRO.

So far, I think we’re hooked. Now, we’ll never give as much time to a game as we did in our peak EQ days, but LOTRO is fun, easy to play, and has beautiful graphics. I’m not sure how strong the community is, which was one of the best things about EQ, but we’ll see. The quest storyline seems to lead down a Tolkienesque road, and the world is filled with lots of places in Middle Earth we know and love. What more can a geek ask for?

So if I disappear for long periods of time, it is probably because I am in Middle Earth, doing my best to protect the world from the evil Sauron. Or something like that.

Dog's breath

My life in Greece has included what I consider to be mild winters. Not that it was never cold wherever we happened to be living, but it wasn’t usually sub-freezing, witch’s tittie cold. Sure, we had snow, but it never really felt that cold. In fact, I am almost sure that I never encountered temperatures low enough to make my breath visible – until this winter. It doesn’t help that our little mountain village seems to invite frostier temperatures than the city by the sea – even in the four miles between Panorama and our home the thermometer can drop as much as five degrees Celsius, which can sometimes be the difference between cold and losing feeling in your extremities cold – but I think even Thessaloniki proper has been colder than normal, or at least colder than the two previous winters I’ve spent here. We’ve had honest to goodness, stick to everything snow here four times, which surpasses the one or two crappy snowfalls I’ve seen (ok, we did have a really good snow when we lived in Litochoro, but only one), but when we tell city folk we are snowed in, they inform us it is only raining where they are.

I’ve always been one of those people who is too hot (in fact I think my first words involved a complaint about the heat), but here in our new house I find myself constantly freezing (even with our heat set to an over generous 21 degrees Celsius – sorry environment). Every once in awhile even my husband is cold (and he shares my overheated sensibilities), but usually he is sweating while I am still chilled to the bone. It is getting a bit tiresome, because sometimes even a nice blanket and a couple of cats can’t warm me up fast enough, and honestly, for someone with a rheumatoid illness being cold all the time does not help with joint pain one little bit. But the pain isn’t really the issue – the problem is that I have actually become one of those people I used to mock, those perpetually frozen, shawl bound people that constantly complain about the temperature. This behavior must stop, and so for the first time I find myself longing for the summer when I can swelter miserably in an air conditioner-less house, and the breath of the neighborhood dogs no longer bursts forth in strong foggy puffs when they bark.

Finally...we have ADSL!!!

Apparently we've had it for a few days but our ISP never bothered to notify us. Stupid us, I guess we should have been plugging the stupid modem in daily to check, but we were expecting line noise to tip us off (our old ADSL line had horrible noise without a filter).

In celebration, here is a picture of a sunset as taken from our balcony. Our camera isn't anywhere near as good as our old one that was - ahem - lost when my husband went to Wales, but you get the idea.


Now I get to catch up on blogs and download every stupid viral video that has caught my eye over the past four months. I think I'll be busy for awhile.

Suburban life

Not having ADSL is bad enough, but this week we endured five days of (mostly) no running water. By mostly I mean we had it for brief periods, usually overnight, and without much water pressure. Calls to the water company promised a fix on Wednesday, but the water cut off at nine in the morning Thursday and did not come on again until five this afternoon. Unfortunately, our usage of bottled water shot to all time highs (hey, you gotta wash somehow). Since we can’t flush toilet paper and I’m one of those “if it’s yellow, let it mellow” types, I thought maybe we could survive without flushing, but it seems that too much yellow over too long a time leaves a not so mellow smell. Honestly, I don’t think hell smells so bad.

Sure, I sound like a bit of a princess who can’t deal without steady running water for five days. But there are reasons developed countries no longer have widespread cases of certain diseases, and one of those reasons is running water and the resulting improvement in hygiene. It did make me appreciate the water all the more when it came back on, but it also made me realize how hard it must be for people in third world countries who don’t even have an expectation of running water – people who don’t have the luxury of buying bottle water to do their washing up and cleaning. I guess an argument I’ve heard is “they don’t even know what they are missing since they’ve never had running water” but I don’t really think that matters. What matters is the ignominy of living in a 21^st century world where there are plenty of countries that have the means of providing third world countries with the infrastructure to get water to villages that have none, but because it is an expensive and unprofitable venture, it doesn’t happen.

Anyway, it is good to have the water back again. I’ll try not to take it for granted anymore.

Just what Hello Kitty needs

An assault rifle! Usually I'm loathe to load pages with heavy images on it these days, but this one was totally worth the 15 minute wait.

I think the U.S. military should overhaul all their weapons and equipment in a similar manner.

I knew that some day Hello Kitty would rule the world.

Still crazy after all these months

So life continues here without ADSL (for the record, we’ve been waiting four months). Our ISP claims that they have done everything and the ball is in OTE’s court, and for that, we could wait months more. The irony is that if we had chosen an ISDN line we would have had ADSL already, but we kept thinking that since everything was filed already, changing the line to ISDN might have screwed it all up. But ISDN has its own inconveniences (like the ability to only use one phone jack) so I guess it doesn’t matter now.

The good thing about not having ADSL is I can’t use the internet as a means of procrastination. When it was there, always on, always ready, I could say to myself “oh, I just want to look this one thing up…” and then end up spending two or three hours online instead of doing myriad tasks I needed to do. Now I look around futilely for excuses to procrastinate and find none, so things actually get done, which I suppose is a good thing when you’ve moved house and there are a million things to do.

We now have furniture in the living room, all it needs is a nice rug and a coffee table, so our house is slowly coming together. Our next big purchase will be dining room furniture – I’ve seen a few things I like already. The problem is all the boxes that are still in the dining room (ok, I mean, I can still procrastinate, obviously). These boxes contain items that moved to Greece with me that we chose to keep packed and stored up here while we gallivanted around the country for four years. To be completely honest, all these boxes probably could have disappeared and I never would have missed all the crap that is in them, aside from my grandmother’s china. Moving so often has completely cured me of my propensity towards rat packishness, and I keep unpacking boxes thinking “why the hell did I keep that?” Ah well, live and learn.

For fun, my husband and I have been playing a lot of Scrabble lately (English version, he won’t play the Greek version with me because it would take too long). He always beats me, except for once when I got the tiles of my dreams. It is ironic – for someone that loves language, I never could do very well at word scrambles. We also played Stratego – my first time – and I got all pissy when I realized I couldn’t win. I can be a sore loser sometimes.

Despite the lack of high speed internet, life up here on the mountain is pretty damn good. I spend way more time just looking at the view than I probably should, but I’ve never actually lived in a place with a real view before. We can so much of the area around us – the entire bay and all the areas of the Thessaloniki prefecture that surround it. I feel like a giant up here, but I am also greatly humbled by the sheer beauty of it. The Earth has done some good work, I just hope we don’t ruin it.

And so the wait goes on. I must apologize to all my blogging friends for not stopping by, I don’t even bother to log in but maybe once a week, and just to check email. I miss all of you and can’t wait to catch up. Here’s hoping it will be soon.

I'm dreaming of a white New Year's

Here we are toe deep in the new year and we are still without an ADSL connection. Now, I can be a patient person but I don’t have patience in unlimited quantities, and I think my husband is going to drive me insane if we don’t get high speed internet soon (he got Lord of the Rings online for Christmas, big mistake).

Christmas was uneventful but filled with family and good times, as it should be. My in-laws got us living room furniture for Christmas - a couch, loveseat, and two chairs in classic leather style. Finally, a place to sit downstairs! I found a dining room set I liked, so if the hubby likes it too we’ll be well on our way to a fully furnished house (except for the basement rooms and guest bedroom).

New Year’s Day we were greeted with a surprise snowstorm in the evening. Within a couple of hours it snowed at least two inches, maybe more (it looked like two inches on the gate, but seemed a bit deeper than that as we walked through it). Unfortunately, my brother-in-law was planning a name day party, and most of his guests had to turn back well before they reached our mountain compound. At least we live next door, so the party wasn’t a complete bust. Three days later the roads are *almost* fully cleared, but the snow still blankets everything. I guess this is what mountain winters are going to be like.

I hope that everyone had a great holiday season. Here’s to a spectacular 2008 for everyone (and hoping that we get ADSL in 2008!).


Only one picture uploaded this time. I’m not a masochist!

First snow

Friday night we had our first snowfall at the new house. We hunkered down for a Lord of the Rings DVD marathon. It snowed again last night (apparently, this second snowfall was confined to the mountain), but most of it melted during the day.

I suffered with dialup* to upload these pictures of the snow to my Flickr account, so you better enjoy them!

*ADSL update: Our ISP requested the ADSL line from OTE on November 12^th. As we figured, OTE is going to take their sweet time.