I'm on permanent leave...

We landed a little late, so Franklin was actually there and waiting (Italians are always late. You'll notice the theme). We dropped his stuff in his SUV and went back into the airport to grab our first Italian coffee. It was just over 2 euro for 4.. not bad to me. And pretty darn good. It was just what we needed to perk us all up from the day of vicious travel (you did see the previous post, right? remember how I didn't mention sleeping?).

By the time we all got to Villa-de-Franklin, we were exhausted, but in total awe. His house was amazing, as was Villa Franka (his town). It has a castle. Just on the edge of town. No biggie. But we were so tired that we all just went to bed on reaching his house. Oh - and late night Italian TV is all porn. Mikey was magnetized to the stuff.

[Friday] The first day was the tour of Verona. What a lovely city. We started out by walking under a roman arch, then through various squares to a more medieval section, ending up at what is claimed to be Juliet's house. We all got pictures touching her bare boob (which is the tourist thing to do ... supposedly brings good "luck"). And I got a picture of her balcony.. because... why not? We stoled by the arena next .. a mini-coliseum. And the walking trip ended by heading north through the medieval part of town, over the river and past the old roman amphitheater. On top of the hill, there was a great overview of the city where we stayed while the sun set.

That night was pizza night. Pizza is totally different in italy. The crust is better and the cheese is better -- which makes the sauce completely optional. Fewer toppings, too, but it all works. It was some amazing stuff. And yes, they do have pizzas with sauce - they were great, too.

[Saturday] On the next day, we drove to an overlook in the east side of Garda Lake. I can't explain how magnificent of a view it was; you'll just have to look at the pictures. And the caves we walked through to get up there were a ton of fun. Between my camera's flash and kien's flashlight-phone, we had quite the interesting spelunking adventure. Franklin was not amused (being far too tall for caves).

We drove through the town below the lookout in the pictures and at a sandwich. Unfortunately, everything was closed due to it being off-peak season. But even so you could tell the place was pretty much the German hot-spot. Some of the signs were only in german -- not italian. And after a bit of scenery driving, we stopped at Lazise -- an old walled medieval town. Being in a castle just never feels right. Finally - a gelato. That stuff is money. Oh - and Kien slept at Marchi's in Verona that night. Along the way, was stopped to see one of the coolest churches in Verona. It was huge & lovely. And the inside ain't to shabby either.

[Sunday] The daytrip to Venice. I never thought I'd go to that city -- far too exotic. Too special. Too much of a photographer's dream. Let me tell you, I had PLENTY of space on my memory cards that day.

Last time I was going through O'Hare, I had about a 3 hour layover that got stretched out. I was aiming for a bit more pleasant trip this time. So I only booked an hour and a half layover. Oops. Apparently, the windy city couldn't handle a little bit of wind. Chicago got delayed by exactly 1.5 hours, making it absolutely impossible for me to make the connection. This would have actually been really cool, if I'd had Amanda's american phone number. But I explicitly thinking, "I'll never need that. I have her Irish number." Well, for the record, Verizon won't allow me to even try an international call. So I opted to go out a bit earlier on the next day since my brother had to be at the airport. I had them rebook me and pull my bags from the plane.

I show up the next day to the airport in a good mood to greet the ticket agent, whom I have to again convince that I cannot use the teller machines (international flight and all). Then, I learn that flight 92 out of Chicago doesn't fly that day. So basically, I'm not booked on a flight. Wonderful... The lady was good though; she booked me on a flight and sent me on my way.

And then I show up in Chicago. I have an hour until the gate opens, so I sit down with my computer and start some programming (the previously mentioned gnomad2 fixes). I'll tell you right now that if you're on a computer, people just expect you to be on the internet nowadays. I was asked about my signal SO many times. 100% of them were dumbfounded (amazing faces) to find out that I wasn't online.

I finally get to check-in... to find out I'm not booked on the plane. I really think my saving grace was the fact that US Air booked my luggage all the way through to Dublin. After a small debate with the ticket lady, she took my itinerary, luggage tag, and passport to her manager. A few keystrokes later and I was booked and on my way home (to Dublin).

Somehow, I ended up on the edge of a center row completely to myself. 4 seats! So I spread out. I had my laptop and mp3 player on 1 (finishing my fixes), and my dinner on the other. Even had the headphones in and was listening to movie. I do it up real big-style. The end of the flight was pretty rough, though. A good many people on the plane were "sick" -- including the poor girl across the aisle from me. The real tragedy was that she was about to start at UCD from DePaul (Chicago area), but hadn't been able to get on-campus housing.

The pilot finally put the plane down and we got the news that we wouldn't be using a jet-way... we were going old-school. Stairs and walking across the tarmac. And when I got near the door, I realized I might need a coat. It was so rainy and windy that water was pummeling me 1/2 across the jet from the door. Welcome home.

I got through immigration quickly enough (~5 seconds ... thank you Guarda card). Got my bags and ended up on the bus back to campus with Mikey. And all with 5 hours to spare before I needed to get on the bus back to the airport again!

The flight home was uneventful. And home was, well, home. What more can you ask for, home cooking, family, and a few friends. Christmas, then New Year's.

New years was great. Quarters and beer all night with some old S&M buddies and champagne with the ball drop. It was a PJ party, so I sported my new Guinness PJ's that my mom got me for Christmas, and even went to breakfast the next day in them. I met few new people (including 1 person that seems esp. cool) and gained some confidence in what I'll call "drunk reflexes." But new years was only 1/2 the reason I was in Raleigh.

I knew I would have a hard time keeping my contacts while overseas for a year. But surprisingly, conversation with my former boss(es) and biz-like friends was pretty easy. I might have found a job offer or two, a potential place or two to live, and caught a pint of Guinness with Alison again (I mention this because a girl liking Guinness is just novel to me). Unfortunately, I may no longer be able (consistently) to drink Guinness in the US. It is terrible (and isn't much better in Italy). It tastes like poorly brewed, overly roasted coffee. Top two pints so far: #1 O'Neil's of Suffolk Street and #2 Gravity Bar in the Guinness Storehouse.

Oh - and I got to play PS3 on 61" of 720p (for non-geeks, that's a mega-awesome-huge screen with outstanding quality). Mad props to Jason & roommates to putting me up for the better part of the week. I really wish I could have stayed another day, but I had to head home to pack up and fly out. Just my luck.

And the the 2.5 day journey to Italy began...

I don't have your email address. Email me or leave a comment. And Toni, since you get everything by proxy, you can just give me yours, too, if you want to cut out the middle man.

I'm supposed to be on an airplane somewhere around New York, right now. But no, I'm in my brother's apartment in Charlotte, NC. This should catching my flight to Milan very enjoyable. The deal was that it was "windy" in Chicago, and that prevented a lot of planes from landing. Ground-stop. That put me on a 1.5 hour delay, just enough to make me miss my connection by 5 minutes. Chicago doesn't delay international flights. Lovely. So one more day in the US. Lovely.

**WARNING** Severe geek-talk. If you're not into computers, you won't appreciate this. Stop reading now.

First, DVD's in linux. Thanks VLC + libdvdcss. My on-board wireless card is still hosed, but I've got a 3Com to do the job (Ubuntu picks it up and uses it automagically). My USB key works. I haven't tried my cameras or picture holder, but I rarely hook those up to the laptop anyway. 2 of the 3 appear as mass storage anyway (so, like the key, they should just appear). And here is the kicker:

My creative Zen Vision: M now works with gnomad2 w/ libmtp to transfer music! If you look online, basically, it doesn't work with this player. Gnomad2-2..8.9 doesn't work with libmtp-0.1.1+ because changes to the API cause compile errors. And libmtp-0.1.0 sucks and doesn't work (just never really talks to my Zen correctly).

You ready? Cause right here is why I love linux: I was able to track down the compile error in gnomad2, pull the old code out of libmtp-0.1.0 to export the missing symbol in the 0.1.2 (complete with the code to support the function) and adapt the code to work in the 0.1.2 framework. A few recompiles and ldconfig's later, everything works. The player came straight up and I was able to transfer MC Chris' Fett's Vet over. Sound quality is good too. And this was all in C++, too. So my confidence in my upcoming job search has been bolstered by huge amounts.

Now, to go finish watching Florida DESTROY THE Ohio State University in one of the more exciting bowl games I've seen.

Motivated by dying wireless drivers, I'm once again off windows. And I couldn't be happier. I had a little trouble getting the wireless to work, but an hour later, and that problem is solved. Now on to more pressing issues like making it look the way I want it. Wonderful. Updates on my trip to Raleigh upcoming.