September 2004 Archives
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.
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.
Since 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.
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.
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.
After researching and taking Clark Howard's advice to buy Vanguard's Total Stock Index fund, I noticed an add from Fidelity advertising lower expense ratios.
This note from Clark confirms it. The minimum investment is $10,000, though.
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.
This is a good article on investing mistakes. He mentions the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) fund we just bought into based on Clarke Howard's advice.
