DC Tango Marathon Day 1, Thursday 13th

Been a while again...

Tonight was the (un-)official opening night of the annual DC Tango Marathon. It was at the Eastern Market in SE DC, not far from the Capitol. There was a lot of strange energy in the air this night and I was not the only one to notice it. I think it had something to do with people not quite knowing their places yet, and so there wasn't an established "clique" crowd yet. I'm sure that by the end of the first alternative milonga tomorrow, clear and definite classes will have borne out of the masses; you'll have your A and B class citizens.

The floor at the Eastern Market was it's typical late fall/winter/early spring quality; it was covered in red dust that made the floor very slippery. But by 12:30am the dust had been absorbed into peoples shoes and it even began to shine in places and got to be super sticky - kind of like in the humidity of the summertime.
Another downfall was the lack of bathrooms. In fact, I believe it to be illegal to put on a public event for which you are charging a covercharge, and then not provide lavatories for all.

I wasn't feeling very energetic nor inspired and ended up sitting quite a few sets down. The clear lack of cabeceo also throws me on a loop. We'll see how this weekend progresses, etc.

Ciao

Airport, Deja Vu

Okey, then. Here I am again, at the Springs airport waiting to fly out. The was a last minute urgent development with a job that I did in Delaware in October of 2006. Some very expensive highly custom low-voltage lighting burnt out and has to be replaced at the cost of me and that of the manufacturers. Honestly majority of the cost is and should be absorbed by me vs. the lighting manufacturer, as I had apparently failed to relay to him how high the ambient temperatures were going to be where the lights where going to be installed. The 5W bulbs laid flat over the electrical wire and had an aluminum "heat sink" shield plate between the socket and the bulbs to protect the wire from the heat of the bulbs. What that shield ended up doing, though, was to concentrate the ambient temperature from the room to the spot where the socket was soldered to the electrical wire and managed to burn themselves off the wire. The new lighting has the sockets standing upright without heat sinks, so I should be safe now. The problem is, the system is now one inch taller than before and is no longer hidden behind the custom wood valance I had created to hide it. I will have to take all the valances off (8- 8foot runs) and create a 5/8" wide groove by one inch deep so make the lighting sit in the material so it doesn't stick past the valance. I got the airline tickets using up 25,000 frequent flier miles out of my 54,000 mile balance. I am now 25,000 short to gualify for an ticket to Finland or Buenos Aires next summer. Taxes to the ticket came to $60, +$50 for over-weight luggage, +1-2 nights in Delaware, $500 for the Xenon light bulbs (old ones were incandescent), rental car, and replacement lumber of $100-200 and the shipping of it $250. In essence, this warranty trip is going to cost exactly whatever profit I managed to make on the project year and a half ago. Oh well.. oh well oh well. Live and learn. Any low-voltage lighting I use from henceforth, though, is sure to work fine and not to fail, as we know what to look out for.

The one bonus to this trip is that I get to go hang out with Ms.Spain for the long MLK weekend before hitting the road to DE. We had somewhat considered meeting-in-the-middle in Houston next weekeend during the Tango Festival there, but honestly, the DJ list for the festival didn't look very exciting. There is a festival in Ann Arbor this weekend with pretty good DJ's, but it was too close to Ms.Spain's trip to see me over New Year's, and now this extra trip came about. Next time I'll travel will be for the DC Tango Marathon in March.

With all the hastle I had at the ticketing desk with my big, overweight, bags, messing with name tags on the new bag I had to buy for this trip, etc, she selected me to go through additional security measures - probably as an payback for the time and effort I made her go through to check me in. Although I do have to say they did a poor job with the additional check, which was mainly to check for bomb residue. Because my second bag also got to be a little over #50 lbs, I transferred a Home Depot bag full of various junk and tool to my carry-on that has the low-voltage lighting, bulbs, and breakers. The bag also included a brand new 1" wide chisel that they didn't notice during the x-ray. Not that I will or would no anything funky with it, but that's beside the point. Last June they found a utility knife inside one of my shoes in my carry-on. I had last minute transferred some items from checked to carry-on to keep the second checked bag under #50 lbs.

I also had the written (LEAB) test for the CSPD this morning. I went through it in record speed because I was tight on time, spending only 45 minutes out of my allowed 2:30. I felt and thought that I did very well though.. I had no problematic questions.. but regardless I only got an 6 out of 10. 5 is a passing grade, but anything below 8 is wasting time to continue in the process..
My section is boarding.. got to go..

Ta.

Last flight of the year?

Here I sit, at the airport again, on my way home after - a total of - 2 weeks with Ms.Spain. Quite possibly the last trip I'm undertaking this year as I've no other trips planned and/or paid for at the moment.

I'm 99.90% certain that I won't be going to Portland this Valentine's for Valentango, so I don't have any clue when my next trip will be. I have a trip coming up for 2-3 weeks to Houston, but that won't occur until the later part of next year. I might go to Seattle again once there is adequate cashflow to support it. I liked Seattle.. maybe I should wait until the weather there gets a bit better, though.

I (bought and) downloaded an unabridged audio book copy of Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat. 20 CD's worth of book.. 23-25 hours.. lol. It's hard to type this and to concentrate on the audio book at the same time so I just had to pause the book.
I like working (design work) to audio books and earlier in the year went through all of David Sedaris' work and 6 years worth of This American Life from NPR. I can't, however, type or write while listening to an audio book. For that, only music works, as long as the music isn't intellectually demanding; i.e. require listening to the lyrics.

We went to a milonga last night and it was an ok one. Unfortunately, the music for over half the night sucked. Lots of nice dancers, but because of the music I only danced with 4: Ms.Spain, Ms.Belgium (who was recuperating from a serious allergic reaction), Ms.Ruskie#1, and Ms.Ruskie#2.

This will be my first time flying on Frontier. I was able to find a very decently priced 1-way ticket to DEN.. it's even a true non-stop flight. Even if it's the same plane that takes you from A to C through B, but you have to de-plane at B, it isn't a non-stop flight in my book. Too bad there isn't a non-stop flight from here to my hometown... would make it so much easier to visit Ms.Spain and to get her to come visit me. She's talked about coming around New Year's after spending Yule with her parents.

Anyway... it had been awhile since the last post so I thought to drop a line..

Ta

Sunday morning soreness

Ms.Spain's mattress seems to be the cause for both our sore backs.. more so on me than her.

Last night I DJ'd my second time in this town and the first milonga here that I would classify as very conservative. Now mind you, a couple did come ask for Pugliese, but that was a fluke.
I let Ms.Spain help me choose some of the sets I played so that I could utilize her Spanish skills: I wanted to make sure I didn't have sets where 3 songs sing about a broken heart and the 4th is about losing money at the horse track. With the exception of one Di Sarli set, and a few sets that I should have played much earlier in the evening because they were so fast and energetic, I think it went alright. I was swimming in my suit, though. I had forgotten to bring a tie with me, and then the black shirt I had chosen to bring was clearly faded against the black suit so I swapped shirts last minute.The new shirt didn't work with my perspiration-fighting Potomac Field Gear-undershirt so I used a regular undershirt and was soaked.
My new suit is also one size larger than my regular size. I, mistakenly, listened to the suit salesman.. or rather trusted him... I clearly can not see what I look like behind and asked him if there were problems and he said no. Last night there were alot of mirrors, and it became clear to me that the jacket was and looks to be 1 size too big. Shoulder line doesn't stay straight and crisp, and with my arm up the jacket doesn't taper one bit *sigh*

I've got work to do and I don't feel like doing it. People, before I came here, kept telling me: Have a nice vacation, and I kept saying that it wasn't since I was bringing work with me, but I sure feel like it's a vacation.. sleeping in late.. not getting naught done.. lol.
Ms.Spain will go to work tomorrow so I'll be forced to be productive being by myself.

Ta

Travel Day on the Turkey Day

Wow.. DIA has moved into the 21st century and has started providing free WiFi; WiFi that is ad-laden, that is. Top of the screen has advertisements and crap - Not free-free like it is at the COS airport and Helsinki-Vantaa in Finland. I also wouldn't be surprised, if the free zone only extended to this end of the C-terminal, where the SouthWest Airlines gates are. Since they moved to Denver a year ago, they've added tables that provide free power; even in the form of USB ports for juicing your gear. No other airline or other spot in the airport has such good access to electrical plugs.

I'm spending pretty much the entire day, 11 hrs on planes and in airports plus 2.5hrs of driving, getting out east to be with Ms.Spain for at least a few days. Original plan was for 12 continuous days, but problems with the current contract may force me to fly back next week and then return to Ms.Spain, and ultimately return almost a week later than now planned. If the building owners or their representative wants me to return to finish the job before the end of the month, they're going to pay for 3 flights to accomplish that.

I'm going to DJ once during my stay and the pay is actually pretty good. Twice what I got for last weekends gig in-town, and 35% more than the typical milonga in Denver. In fact, it is exactly 1-half of my airline ticket price, before tax. I need to create more tandas before Sat, though. The event is super conservative. It will, in fact, be the first time I've ever DJ'd whilst wearing a suit. I foresee heavy d'Agostino and Fresedo presence at the milonga - my two current favorites. It is interesting how ones music taste changes over the years. I used to much dislike both of them - I was more of a de Angelis/Pugliese-kind-of-guy. I feel that the next orquesta I might "re"-discover is Di Sarli.

Anyways.. they've got a football game blaring in the area I'm sitting in, and it's quite distracting. I don't follow football, though. I stopped caring for it when I stopped playing it myself.

Ta!

Portland Part 1

Ok.. lot's of bithing about things Pacific, as usual.
It's Sunday right now and Ms.Spain and I just got done eating breakfast and are waiting in the lobby for her room to get cleaned. We've got one more milonga to go: We're skipping the 4 to 7 "maestros" milonga and the all-nighters at Alex's: Ramu is DJ - no thanks. Besides, Ms.Spain has a 7:30am flight to catch and the milonga doesn't end until around 8 am, anyway, and she needs to pack and we need more quality time together.

Miles has been posting, as far as I know, in his typical manner so I will keep my whining to what bothers me.

Clique-crowd. The Portland scene is by far the worst - maybe because it is the youngest? Seattle certainly has a good deal of the same going, but it seems so much more and visible in Portland. They only dance with each others and look down upon anyone else not in their midst. They also avoid talking to, making eye contact, and otherwise relating to us mere mortals out of the risk of possibly having to feel obligated to dance with someone not at their (IMAGINED) level. Location: Always as near or behind the DJ as possible.. typically a stage of sorts. PPAA, Norse Hall, Oaks Park.

DJ's. Why are they letting Ramu play twice? Why was the best alternative tango DJ in the country not utilized at all? Vijay is playing twice too, but at least as a traditional DJ he knocks Ramu's socks out.
DJ Dan B. was absolutely wonderful at the Oaks Park all-nighter, but both Ms.Spain and I were suffering from lack of sleep and had to retire at 4 am.

Floor. There has at best only been one line of dance. A lot of people seem to dance kind of on two lanes where you can't pass them on either side as to the left of them begins the whirlwind of the center chaos. I, myself, typically dance always so close to the outside that I touch furniture etc. They also haven't been doing a very good at setting up tables so that the chairs stay off the dance floor and you have walk ways around the dance floor: ONLY Oaks Park was like that, but the floor was stickier than a June Bugs arse.

Other complaints include the typical ones: people not asking for permission to enter the dance floor and cut someone off; more than 1 couple squeeze in-between someone getting on the floor; chatting on the floor past the 1st measure (intro) of music; not clearing the floor promptly during the cortina; taking backward steps (biggest offenders this year have been 'well-known' teachers and dancers who dance alternative on a very crowded floor), etc, etc, etc.

I might go more into detail later but I didn't make any posts after each night so I can't remember in too good detail.

Ta.

Thursday night blues

I've a bad headache.. it's likely from my neck.. I watched "We were soldiers" last night and whenever I watch movies in bed (which is the only place where I can) it cranes my neck.. I guess last night was too much being 3rd or 4th consecutive night watching some movie late. I also took to using an older cervical pillow I haven't used in aged.. could be that too.

I had a CVSA today with a Police Department as part of the application process. CVSA stands for Computerized Voice Stress Analysis, ie lie detector test. It was a bit stressing and I did fail a few questions but once I explained them and re-answered them I passed. So for now I'm still in the running but I'm still only at Step 2 out of 12.

Ok.. things have changed with the next weeks Portland Tangofestival.
Ms.Spain found the time in her busy schedule to fly across the country and to come for 2.5 days. This means I will, after all, be attending the Saturday night "Elegant" milonga I in a previous post cursed and thanked not having to attend. But this year it will actually be really nice 'cos I'll be going with a "date".

I stopped by K&G men's superstore today and bought two new suits. My old black suits have all been through the drycleaning a few too many times. One suit has the inner lining held together by 20 safety pins, another has shoulder and armpit seams tearing open, and one suit is discolored and dishaped from accidentally having gotten washed. Rest of my suits are either a horrendous style that I've (maybe) never worn or they're now too small considering how fat I've gotten. I'll probably take 3-4 suits to the Salvation Army end of the year to receive a bit of a tax credit.

I purchased the ticket already too to go back to the East Coast to Ms.Spain's for Thanksgiving for a week and a half. Although neither of us wants or needs to "celebrate" the mass murder of Native Americans, it's the perfect time to visit.
In fact, I don't arrive until after 10 pm on that Thursday having to spend the evening on a 4 hour layover in Atlanta.

I've been working and learning a new architectural design program the last week. It's been quite frustrating and I've cursed more than a few times. But the nice thing about this one is that it's 3D, and some of my current clients have cubes for eyes and can not visualize anything on paper in 2D *sigh*.

I'm DJ'ng tomorrow night and turns out that the band isn't playing after all! Last time I had checked the schedule it had said the band is playing but now the schedule says no band. Yay! They always play 2 one-hour sets of the same crappy stuff.
I'll have to spend a great deal of tomorrow creating the playlist because now I suddenly went from having to play 3 hours to 5 hours of music.

Ta!

Reflections

sheesh.. I just wrote the post but hit side mouse button which acts as a back button on browser.. and for some reason the auto-save draft is no where to be found.

So.. I DJ'd last Friday. In my usual way I send an e-mail out asking for requests and opening myself for feedback if someone doesn't like what I play. Getting 20 people to come to me saying how much they like what I play does little for me. I don't decide when I play; I play when requested.

So one fella wrote asking me to play stuff not often heard, and not to play in tandas. He wanted to hear music played all mixed up like a mix-cd or a live band. Sheesh.

Another fella came to me during the night to say that he didn't like my d'Arienzo/Echague set that had Pensalo Bien as the anchor. I split Pensalo Bien, La Bruja, and No Mientas into separate tandas, because having all three in the same set is like an never-ending orgasm; too much stimulation. Well of all the music I was able to play that night, because the band came, unexpectedly, to play 2 sets of 12 songs (hour long sets), that particular set was, IMHO, the best I played all night. Double sheesh.

Some people...

I'm playing again on the 12th and the following Wednesday I embark to Portland for the 6th year running. This year, though, I will finally not attend the Saturday "elegant", $20 milonga, with shitty live music, shittier line of dance, and no air-flow or air-conditioning. It will also be the first time I've gone to PDX that I've managed to get a room mate to save on expenses.

I miss good dancing.

Ta.

Escape from Michigan

Ok.. back home. The tiny A2 anniversary festival behind us.
Attendance was low.. 150-200-ish. I haven't heard any official numbers, though.

We stayed outside AA in Whitmore Lake, 20 minutes north. All the hotels in the area, even in Whitmore Lake, were sold out Fri-Sat because of the Penn State-Michigan football game.

Weather was pretty nice.. mid 70's to low 80's during the peaks and 60's at night. Not a single cloud on the sky any of the days we were there.

Ok.. dancing.. a lot less people came for this than I had expected. A handful of good dancers, only. There was a pretty distinct outer lane at all the milongas but there were about a half a dozen leaders that zig-zagged and when they saw a gap rushed for it, or danced half on the outer lane and half on the inner lane effectively blocking both as they slowly moved along doing their pirouettes and boleos and ganchos. Bastards.

Cabeceo was practically non-existent, again. There were 3-4 followers I had really wanted to dance with, all of which I knew looked at me when I was dancing, and I knew they saw me looking at them when they were dancing whilst I sat, but at no time did they look toward me when we were both seated - even if practically next to each other (particularly at the small all-night-venue). And I, of course, do not verbally ask a stranger to dance, no matter how badly I want to dance with them. I asked some ladies in NYC this past Spring but only after they were recommended and named by Robin Thomas. If cabeceo doesn't work we won't be dancing.. unless of course she comes to ask me. That happened to me once, that a follow I had wanted to dance with did come ask me verbally... not sure if she knew what cabeceo was, but the two tandas we danced didn't end up being all that great.

So with the exception of 3 follows I danced exclusively with follows I knew personally from previous festivals, etc. From Philly, DC, AA. Sort of sucks, except dancing with Ms.Spain never sucks.
Ms.Spain and I left early from each of the milongas, which is something I almost never do, and we didn't even end up going to the practica the last night. But we were both tired, sore, and had to get up at 3:45 AM the next morning, so not attending the practica was quite justified.

I'm DJ'ng this Friday and after that on the 13th of October, a week before the Tangofest in PDX. I probably won't be dancing at all between those two times.

Ta.

Michigan here we come

Ok.. Ann Arbor Anniversary Tango Club festival is in the books.
I'm staying in a small unincorporated town 20 minutes north of AA alongside a small lake with Ms.Spain, who's joining me at this Festival; kind of a meet-in-the-middle-deal :) If the water temperature and weather permit it we'll go swimming or Skidoo'ing during the day. Personally I haven't been on the water for years.. maybe over a decade.

A2 festival is from Friday the 21st through (unofficially) Monday night's practica. Very small and short compared to Denver or Portland but it's better than nothing, but certainly going to be great because of Ms.Spain. It's just going to be too short of a visit.

Ta.

Not in Kansas anymore, Toto

I finished my job in Wichita, KS over the weekend and got back home last night. Quite boring 8 hour drive and I'm bound to repeat it in a few months for another job there.

It was hot as heck and the humidity took my breath away.. luckily they had the air conditioning running inside the house I worked in or I would have died.

As soon as I hit the city limits of Wichita my Nokia 9500 Communicator went dead... turns out that Wichita uses a frequency not much used and my tri-band "unlocked" GSM phone couldn't detect the towers... figures.. had to buy yet another "back-up", locked, phone so I wouldn't be without service for 4 days.

Of course I just discovered too, that an update for the communicator line is finally hitting the shelves of E-bay and European phone retailers.. it's the E90. Vast improvements have finally been made to the phone and I'm dying to get one now.. a hit of $1400 in full retail price but with only 30% success with E-bay over the last few years I will not entertain buying another phone from there, even if the prices claim to be measly $850-ish. Will have to figure out how to get my hands on one, soon.

Denver Milonguero Festival is 2 days away and Ms.Spain arrives Thursday night! Hooray.

Ta.

Failure

*sigh*

So... here I am.. in Seattle, WA. I flew here to test for the city police department. I was very anxious about the whole process as I had failed (due to lack of sleep night before) my last written exam with the Denver Police Department. I had also left the studying pretty much until the last 1-2 wks as that was when I knew what date the testing was going to be on.
I also knew that the physical agility testing was going to be different from what I'm used to with other departments and at my current physical condition knew it was going to be a challenge.

Since I was not made to sign a confidentiality agreement about the testing process with SPD, I can tell that their test is also entirely different from the other departments I've tested with before. They make you study some material for 2 hours before the actual test and then you are tested on that material during the 1.5 hr written portion, plus some other stuff. About 50-60% of all the questions were directly drawn from the study guide you studied so it's a test on memory retention and recalling specific sentences, policies, reports, and maps.
I became very worried once I learned this because the practice tests and book I have and have taken don't really go too deep into this, as it is something they really can't help you with in that kind of a book. They do recommend other resources that help one improve short-term memory.

Well I got a sneak peak at my score when they were trying to pronounce my name, which they NEVER get right, and saw that I had scored 88.88 out of a 100 maximum. Passing score was 80. Otherwise they just tell you to get in-line. If your name isn't called to stand in-line you did not pass the written and would not be invited to continue on to the PAT portion (physical agility test) half an hour later. Only those that were Lateral (already a police officer somewhere) or from Out-of-State did they score the test for immediately. The rest get their results in the mail in the next 1-2 wks and have their PAT in September.

Unlike the obstacles courses I've gotten used to with other departments, the State of Washington's Law Enforcement Academy has set forth the following criteria/testing:
1) 300 yard sprint, timed with a maximum time
2) Push-ups, not timed, minimum being 21.
3) Sit-ups in 1 minute, minimum being 30.
4) 1.5 mile run under specific time.

I've never been one to place too much emphasis on push-ups or bench press and have not worked out at all in years - Dancing Tango has been my only hobby and exercise. I was actually the most afraid of this testing process than anything else but I did manage 25 which was a personal best for me.

With the sprint I blew all that I had and got my time under the limit to get maximum points - that was good but it really drained me.

Sit-ups.... umm.. another thing I really haven't done much.. I did do some for a few days before my week in DC but during the trip I did absolutely nothing. Minimum was 30 in 1-minute.. and I died at 29.5. Failure. One is given an opportunity to retake this portion after the distance run.

1.5 mile run - I died. My legs were like lead and my liver started hurting as it released cool blood; I hadn't warmed up adequately in an attempt to reserve my (what I knew to be) limited energy. I completed almost 7 laps in the maximum allotted time and needed to complete 8. As I failed 2 events, I was out, and there was no point and definitely no energy left to re-attempt the sit-ups.

So.. I'm out.. for now. I'm allowed to re-take just the PAT portion in 2 months if I so choose, but if I don't do it then, I would need to wait at least 6-months and do the entire process all over including written. This could be beneficial, however, as it would give me more time to get in-shape, lose some weight, re-build some of the muscle mass I've lost in the last 12-years, study and improve my memory. Now that I know what kind of test they administer I could hopefully improve.
I need to get something along the lines of 95% to be highly competitive and closer to the top of the list. Veterans get an automatic 10% added to their score so if they score high plus the bonus they're unbeatable.

I can't really slack off now from depression, though, as the Portland written test is coming up on October 20th, right during the TangoFest there... however passing applicant must travel back to PDX at another time for the PAT test. Portland being one of the few large cities that do not accommodate out-of-staters like other departments I've tested for: Anchorage, AK; Colorado Springs, CO; Denver, CO.

I recently learned of a website that allows you to take a test with the company/agency, and they send your results to any agencies you pick from the list - it is intended for smaller towns that do not have the resources to test/train applicants themselves. Some small towns for example only hire Lateral applicants as they can not provide any testing. This website hosts nearly all of the small towns in Idaho, AK, OR, and WA. You can apply to hundreds of places by taking 1 test. A real time AND money saver.

Well.. I'm going to call Delta and see if I couldn't get on a flight 1 day sooner now that I do not have the oral boards and psychological in the next few days - I fear the cost will out-weigh the 1-day saving though.
I want to stay through Monday into Tuesday so that I can attend the China Harbour milonga on Monday night. It is the (one of the) best in the city and most people I know in this area will be there and not at Sunnie's tonight, where I'm going to also go.
Getting home a day early would allow me to better prepare for my Kansas trip, though, that I embark on no later than noon on Thursday (driving - 8hrs). Right now my flight returns home Wednesday night, late.

Oh well. oh well oh well. I'm not used to failing. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

Ta.

At the airport, again

So.. I flew in yesterday from Washington DC where I'd been for 8 days dancing and hanging out with Ms.Spain. Had many good dances despite the oppressive heat and humidity... was even kind of cool when you're both drenched and still you keep at it.. it's a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing to dance with someone when you're the only one soaking wet or vi ca verse.
Ms.Spain was a gracious hostess and then some and I can't wait to see her again in Denver in two weeks. Too bad I had agreed to share a room with someone else before she made up her mind about going to Denver.. I guess I coerced her in the right way during my visit to DC :P
She's become a dear, trusted friend in a very short time, and I'm blessed to be in her graces.
Muchos abrazos y besos!

I screwed up with my schedule a bit... I had thought I had all of today and majority of tomorrow to lounge around, catch up on errands, etc, before having to fly to Seattle for half a week... By chance I went to look for my arrival time to Seattle to co-ordinate my lodging and to my horror I saw the word "Friday" printed atop the "Departure" times... I had 4 hours to scramble to finish some last minute things and to re-pack to come to the airport. Luckily this flight is out of my own airport that's 15-minutes away versus the large one that's 2.5 hrs away. I had also not really unpacked as there had been no reason to do so; I had done 2 loads of laundry in DC and majority of the clothes I had packed were still good to go.. I just had to add a pair of workout pants, sneakers, and a suit.

I got to the airport a bit early again and just finished dinner at Quiznos's. To my great delight WidowPC had preinstalled all the hardware programs and device drivers on the hard drive, that I hadn't noticed before, and I was able to get my WLAN card to work in no time. I had relied on my Sprint PCS card for connection during the previous week and the speed was a measly 600 kbs (pretty fast for Sprint since I was in a major city). So now I'm enjoying the rare delight of free wireless internet. This airport, like I've mentioned in my other blog, is the only airport I've ever been to that has free WiFi and not merely a hot spot.

I also managed to get some dude's pocket knife impounded.. he was trying to sneak it through on his keychain until I pointed to an TSA-employee the knife. Most of the time when you stick yer keys in that little bucket it doesn't go through the X-ray... kind of like that one movie where an assassin had hidden two bullets inside a lucky rabbit's foot-keychain. Rest of the pistol had been a break-down ceramic one that is hard to detect. I forget the name of the movie now but somehow I feel it was John Malkovich who was the assassin/shooter. I walked into the terminal along side this guy and I almost said to him that he'd better return to his truck with that knife.. I just wasn't 100% certain it was a knife until I got much closer to him in the security line. When I flew to DC in June I had, last minute, shuffled some gear from one bag to the other to make sure I was under #50 to avoid 2x over-weight charges... and I had a utility knife with a nice holder and spare blades stuffed into one of my dress shoes that I had transferred to my carry-on from checked luggage.... they threw it away, of course.

I wish that they'd check the size of carry-on pieces like they used to and still do at London Heathrow... a guy just walked past me with a suit luggage and that thing was frigging huge.

Well.. enough for now..

Ta.

Last Day

It's Wednesday.. I'm catching an 6 am flight out of DCA back home for a bit. On Saturday I fly out to Seattle; it'll be my first visit to the city and I'm looking forward to it. Will be able to catch 2 milongas too, one of them China Harbor.

I've been here in DC a week come midnight. I've caught 4 milongas with Ms.Spain thus far, DJ'ng myself one of them, and tonight being the 5th and last milonga for this trip. I had such a good time with Ms.Spain in June that it was worth traveling back just for dancing.. and to see if anything else might work out as well. I'm still trying to coax her to commit to the Denver Milonguero Festival on Labor Day. After that.. in September.. who knows.. next festival after that is the TangoFest in Portland in October.

Finally saw the much praised movie "Cinema Paradiso" last night. Very beautiful film.. with an even stronger soundtrack; been listening to it this morning.

Haven't been paying too much attention to what I've eaten during my visit.. but that's what holidays are for, aren't they? I most certainly have put back on the 5 pounds I lost during the 2 weeks before the trip but oh well. Back on the horse when I get home.

Ta.

Tango Trip #? - Who keeps count?

I flew out to the East Coast last night. I guess it's pointless to be too vague as any cross reference to myspace page of mine would reveal I was in DC last time, so here I am, in Washington DC.

I had such a good time dancing with Ms.Spain here in June that I decided to return for a week. We had talked about maybe meeting in the middle.. like in Houston; somewhere where we both could have taken a single direct commuter flight, but with her just having been out of the country for 10-days and being backlogged at work, we decided it best for me to take a connecting flight and to come all the way to DC. Lodging would be free for both of us as well, as I'm crashing on her futon.

Tonight would be the first milonga, at the Eastern Market. I dread it as the weather is oppressingly hot and humid and that place has no Air Conditioning.. kind of like Ms.Spain's loft, lol. She does.. but the machines either leak freon; are severely undersized; or the filters are clogged. Right now it's 82F and I had to lose my jeans.

I'm quite happy though not working but rather burning the cd's Ms.Spain obtained for me at my request. From artists I care for I only lack a few d'Arienzo and 2 Pugliese now.

Ta.