ESPN2 is showing dog jumping. The dog handler stands at the end of a dock, calls the dog, the dog runs, the handler throws a fish-shaped object, the dog jumps as far as he can and the judges measure the jump. The really weird thing is hearing the commentators discussing the jumps….and the fact that they are showing it on national television.

Speed tree climbing is up now. Oh boy!

So I’ve been in Baltimore now for a little more than a day. God it’s humid here. Growing up in North Carolina you’d think I’d not have such a problem with it but after 6 years of living in Berlin, with it’s low humidity, this is crap. True, I’ve visited the US twice in the last 6 years but not in the middle of summer.

Sam and Katie were nice enough to pick me up from the airport at 1am. After such a terrible flight with Iberia, it was really nice to see them and knowing that I was only a short way from a nice comfy bed.

As mentioned before, I flew with Iberia. That was the worst flight over the Atlantic that I’ve ever had. I don’t want to fly with them ever again. There planes are old and rickety, telephone staff poorly trained, in-flight staff impolite, and food bad.

The flight from Berlin to Madrid was actually alright. My check-in bags were just under the allowed 32 Kilo. I arrived at the airport with 2 60×60x60cm boxes, one weighing 38 and the other 42. I found out the day before that the allowed size for check-in luggage is 158cm after being told be one of the Iberia telephone staff that the size doesn’t matter; it just needs to be under 32 kilos. I wanted to reconfirmed because Annika thought that that couldn’t be right; she was right. My boxes were 180cm. They did say however that it’s possible that the staff in Berlin may let it through. “May” is not something one is able to plan on.

Anyway, when I got to the airport I was all paranoid when I noticed that my boxes would not even fit on the luggage belt. With this in mind, I went to a spare scale to weigh my boxes and sure enough they were over. The next 30 minuted were spent taking stuff out, cutting the boxes down to the allowed size, repacking and then sealing the boxes for the journey. After that everything was fine. If I had had the correct information from the start then I wouldn’t have had to go through all this trouble. That was the first annoyance.

As I said the first flight was alright. The flight from Madrid, however, was horrid. To start with, there was a short delay. That didn’t really bother me. Upon entering the plane my first thought was, “Hello 1975.” The plane interior was ancient compared with other airlines, the entertainment system was crap and the movies were Hollywood flops.

For the first 15 minutes of the flight the plane was creaking with every little bump. I don’t like creaky planes. The entertainment system consisted of a monitor in the front made of that light tan-colored plastic that old computer equipment is made of. The movies that they played were equally as bad; something with Woody Harrelson, Selma Hayek and Pierce Brosnan called “After the Sunset” (or similar), and the newer “Phantom of the Opera.” I think the food they served was dumped out of a can, partly reheated then left out for a day. The margarine was okay, though. When we were being served the stewardess walked beside my seat and while looking forward said, “Put down your table! Put down you table.”; not exactly a polite way to say it. I didn’t think she was addressing me until she had the food hovered above my lap. It was, however, theoretically cool that we were served 2 full meal.

Although we left Madrid late, we actually arrived at JFK 10 minutes before planned. That was nice. But almost 2 hours of sitting in the plane on the runway we finally got the notice that we had a parking place and would be able to leave the plane. The only real announcements about what was happening was at the beginning of the wait saying that we would have to wait 20 minutes and then at about an hour in saying that they were waiting for a parking space. This did not make the passengers happy. The passengers were doing all kind of things that aren’t allowed in a plane on the tarmac; using phones, standing up, going to the toilette. The stewardess kept telling everyone to sit over the PA. Of course, many travelers missed there other flighs due to the delay. This was a bad flight.

After that flight, I was happy to get into the terminal. I got through customs without problems and found the gate for the next flight. This was an American Eagle flight from JFK to Washington National (Sorry, I can’t call it Reagen.). The flight was delayed an hour. The flight itself was the nicest of the day. It was the first time I’d been in such a small plan; only 3 seats wide. We arrived at shortly before 1am.

The good part about the flighst were that on each leg I had likable neighbors. I think that was the only good part.

In preperation for my move back to the states my brother, Matt, has been caring for my 1979 P200E Vespa. In a shortly thought out decision I decided to have it painted Lamborghini Green (some people call it Lime Green).

Not the perfect color but it will look alright when all the parts are on it and break up the blinding greenness that it is now. I ordered white wall tires for it today. I think it’s the first time the tires have been changed since 1979. I’ll be able to see it for the first time when I arrive back home next week. But it’s off to Baltimore in 35 hours.

Hopefully once I get my Vespa on the road it will stay on the road a little longer this time. Last time after getting it ridable and legal it lasted a full 36 hours on the road before a nice lady decided to take a left turn into her drive despite me riding in the opposite direction. I ran right into the side of the driver side door. That’s why I had to have it painted; the replacement parts were matte black while the rest was red.

Now I just have to get it out to San Diego. Either I pay 350 to have it shipped or get luck and find someone who is going over and has space. I’ve posted on CraigsList so we’ll see.

In other news…….I got some heavy-duty card board boxes for the flight today. They are about 20cm to big but if I don’t go over the weight restrictions I’m hoping they don’t pull out the meter stick. If they do I’m going to have a big head ache and Annika is going to have to take some stuff back for me. I’m crossing my fingers.

And no, I don’t have proper luggage.

I went to Live8 yesterday. Basically there was a lot of standing around and waiting and a bit of music. The acts played between 1 and 5 songs and between acts there was at least a 15 minute break; usually more like 30. Me and co. were standing about 200m from the stage, which was ideal because we were standing right in front of one of the monitors. When I arrived the weather was overcast but that quickly changed to stick hot and didn’t let up until the sun went behinf the trees. The layout was far from optimal being that it was located in a street that simply went straight back, not allowing people to spread out to the sides.

The highlights of the event for me was Green Day’s set. They really know how to work the crowd. They played “We are the Champions” as their last song, which sent memories of Freddy Mercury’s performance with Queen from 20 years ago at Live Aid into one’s mind and of course also gave the crowd of 200,000 something to sing along to. They opened with “American Idiot” which reminds me of a certian someone who will be at the Summit this Wednesday.

Another hightlight was Audioslave playing the Rage Against The Machine song “Killing In The Name Of”. Having a couple hundred thousand yelling “Fuck you! I won’t do what you told me!” is just down-right fun. They also played 2 of their songs and “Black Hole Sun.”

Faithless also played two songs as the penultimate act; one of which, “Weapons Of Mass Destruction”, was really good.

The other bands were alright but no others really stand out. Some of the German acts like Wir Sind Helden and Die Toten Hosen were alright, as well as Roxy Music and A-ha. We spent a lot of time watching what was going in London. We even watched London watching footage of Green Day’s performance in Berlin, wuppie! I missed a couple acts in the middle because I had to find an ATM so that I could buy a shirt.

Overall it was a fun if not strenuous Saturday. I stood without a pause from 13:45 until about 22:00. I then allowed myself to sit through a couple of the breaks. It ended at around 0:30.

Well, see you in 20 years. Hopefully, for a different cause. The whole point, of course, is to Make Poverty History.