Brother Bob in Germany

Do take time in your busy schedule to remember Brother Bob who is currently over seas. You may want to print out his schedule so that you can think about what he and his Rotary buddies are doing at any given time of the day:

Oktoberfest Trip Summary

September 21, Tuesday:

Afternoon: Leave for MUC.

September 22, Wednesday

9:00 Arrive into Munich, leave for Nuremberg

11:45 Arrive in Nuremberg, lunch at the oldest Bratwurst house

13:00 Visit the old Castle and Church in the old city

15:00 Leave for Streitberg (about 30 miles north)

16:00 Arrive in Streitberg, check-in, nap, shower, etc.

18:30 Dinner at Altes Kurhaus, followed by Schnapps at Kuespert

22:30 Lights out, night in Streitberg

September 23, Thursday

8:30 Breakfast at Altes Kurhaus

9:30 Leave for Bamberg Airport for flights in small airplanes over the region

10:00 Arrive at the airport, flying for about 2 hours

12:00 Light lunch at the airport, leave for the breweries

12:30 Arrive in Bamberg, guided tours of the breweries

15:30 Head back to Streitberg

16:00 Nap time!

18:00 Leave for dinner at an historic hunt house, 20 miles north of Streitberg

18:30 Dinner

22:30 lights out, night in Streitberg

September 24, Friday

8:30 Breakfast at Altes Kurhaus

9:30 Leave for Nuremberg Courthouse Visit

10:30 Arrive at the Courthouse

11:30 Leave for lunch at a Biergarten on the way to Munich Airport Marriott

14:30 Check-in at Marriott, nap time

15:30 Leave for Minister Huber’s Reception at the Bavarian Ministry

17:00 Reception by Minister Huber

18:00 Leave for tour of the oldest Brewery in the world

18:45 Arrive at the brewery, dinner at the brewery’s restaurant

22:30 Lights out, night at the Munich Airport Marriott

September 25, Saturday

8:30 Breakfast at the Marriott

9:30 Leave for Chiem See

10:30 Arrive at Chiem See, visit the Schloss Herren

12:30 Lunch at Schloss Herren

16:00 Leave for Aschau

17:00 Go to Bavarian shop for Oktoberfest cloths, they’ll specially open for us

18:30 Dinner at the World famous Residenz Winkler

20:00 Leave for Village where we are sleeping near Aschau

22:30 lights out

September 26, Sunday

8:30 Breakfast

9:30 Leave for Munich

10:30 Sight-seeing in the city

12:30 Lunch at the Chinese restaurant in English Garden

14:30 Check in at the Grand Hotel Arabella Sheraton, nap time!

16:30 Leave for Oktoberfest grounds

17:00 Arrive at the grounds, check out other places before heading to Kaefer tent

18:00 Dinner, Beer at Kaefer Tent

1:30 a.m. (the next day) leave for the hotel, spend night at the Grand Hotel

September 27, Monday

9:30 Breakfast

10:30 Leave for Salzburg

12:00 Visit Mond See

13:00 Lunch at Mond See

15:00 Visit Eagle’s Nest

16:00 Visit Mozart’s house

17:00 Visit Salzburg, Monastery Brewery

20:00 Dinner at Sacher

22:30 Night at NH Hotel

September 28, Tuesday

8:30 Breakfast

9:30 Leave for Schloss Neu Schwanstein

11:00 Arrive at Neu Schanstein

11:30 Visit Neu Schwanstein

1:00 Lunch around there

14:30 Leave for Tegern See

15:30 Sight Seeing in Tegern See, visit Brewery

19:00 Dinner at Tegern See

22:30 Lights out, night at a hotel near Tegern See

September 29, Wednesday

6:45 Breakfast

7:45 Leave for Munich Airport

9:15 Arrive at MUC to head back home.

Jabba and Greedo Shoots First

A link for Greg’s Dad:

Jabba and Greedo

I enjoyed the addition of Jabba in the first Star Wars Movie. It was a scene George Lucas wanted to have, but could not afford. He had a goal of more interaction between strange aliens and humans that were limited without the yet created computer animation that would allow it.

I agree with the “Greedo Shoots First” complaint. Nasty guy, Greedo. Shootin’ him first was ok with me.

Here’s a link for Greg himself… and anyone else interested in the Box DVD set of Star Wars being released today.

Rosary Army on Bloglines

ra-on-bloglines.jpgSince Greg moved Rosary Army off of mac.fiveforks.com, I have not had the visibility of new postings on RA as I used to have. Greg added an “RSS” feed on Rosary Army that can be used by a feed-reader like Bloglines.com. So I’m happy to now have Rosary Army in my blog watch list. The feed is: http://www.rosaryarmy.com/ra.xml.

Fish’s Bloglines Blog

I have three bookmarks that I use every day: My Yahoo, Bloglines, and mac.fiveforks.com. My Yahoo is for news, stocks, and some e-mail, like receiving Clark Howard’s e-mail newsletter.

Bloglines is a web-based “Feed Reader” that keeps tabs on several different blogs I read. It’s kind of like a My Yahoo for your favorite blogs. It can also receive e-mail newsletters like Motley Fool’s News. (I should really move my Clark Howard subscription to it… hmmm…) Bloglines is much more efficient than visiting blogs directly, because it keeps track of new postings and puts them all in one place. Very useful for blogs where new posts appear every now and then. It is better than software-based feed-readers in many ways, but mainly because I can access it from any computer at any time (Home or work, IBM or Mac.)

I went ahead and put Ted, Kelly, Carol, Claire’s and other mac.five blogs in Bloglines. So I often don’t make it to mac.fiveforks.com because I read new postings via bloglines first. (Although I like the comments summary on mac.five.)

Bloglines has other features, including the ability to share your bloglines and you can even have your own blog. I don’t use the blog feature, since I use MovableType, but for fun, I tested it and it works.

This is a link to my Bloglines blog:

www.bloglines.com/blog/fishback

This is a link to the public view of my Bloglines feed reader:

www.bloglines.com/public/fishback

If you keep up with more than 5 blogs or other “RSS” feeds (like SlashDot) then I recommend Blogines.

B.C. Bathing

Betty Claire is interested in setting up a family blog like this one. Without a resident web person or two, I don’t think our set up can work. So I looked at using Blogger (acquired by Google) which can integrate with photo-websites like Flickr.

I set up this test site to show her. It includes a photo of BC on the beach.

Stonegate on Blogspot.

Don’t Use Debit (Check) Cards

Clark Howard has a collection of tips, most of them against using debit cards (Wachovia called them check cards.) With credti cards there are all kinds of rules and regulations that protect you in case of fraud or merchant error. A simple phone call will typically clear up any problem.

Debit cards do not have the same level of protection. And because they can be used without a PIN number, you can have a lot more hassle with a stolen debit card than a stolen credit card.

Wachovia keeps sending us “Visa Check Cards.” I call them and tell them we do not want them. We just want an ATM card. Clarke’s June 4 post suggest I may not be able to get away with this much longer.

Clark Howard: Tips on Debit cards