Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels

I skimmed Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels (2009) as very early scouting for a trip I'm planning to take in 2015. I mean to be at Waterloo (just south of Brussels) on the bicentennial of the battle, 6/18/2015.

It wasn't that useful for my purposes, because so much of the book is devoted to Amsterdam and so little to the two Belgian cities. Waterloo is a dot on the map, but doesn't even rate a mention, though it seems like an obvious day trip from Brussels to me. Even aside from my personal and admittedly quirky interest, I found myself more interested in the two Belgian cities than Amsterdam.

The Nasty Bits (Book #23)

Normally when someone is brilliant at something I'm mediocre to merely pretty good at, I console myself by saying, "Sure, that's a brilliant chef, or a gifted singer, or whatever, but I bet they can't write as well as I can," and I feel better. Because while it would be nice to be able to create brilliant meals, as opposed to adequate ones, or to be a professional singer-songwriter instead of a decent choral alto, I'd rather be a writer than a chef or a professional musician.

But this doesn't work with Anthony Bourdain. Not only is he far superior to me in front of the stove, I have a sneaking suspicion he's a better writer than I am, too, though at least the gap isn't as large. The Nasty Bits (2006) is a collection of his essays on food, travel, and traveling to eat, and it's snarky and wonderful and often made me hungry.

Greetings from Albany

I'm in Albany, NY for the Historical Novel Society's biennial North American conference. I'll try to post some conference updates and highlights after it starts tonight, but so far I've learned three important lessons:

1. Don't fly through Chicago in the summer if you can help it.

2. Don't fly two airlines on a codeshare unless it's the only way to get to your destination. It only confuses the lost baggage people.

3. If you must do 1 & 2, whatever you do, DON'T switch onto an earlier flight out of your origin city upon seeing all flights to Chicago are badly delayed, in hopes of making your connection because it's the last flight to your destination city that day. You may rejoice at first when you successfully get your body and your carryon to your destination on time, but when your checked bag turns up missing, the change in your itinerary will confuse the lost baggage people into paralysis.

My bag and I were finally reunited about an hour and a half ago (I got in at 9:30 last night), so I have my good clothes and such for the conference. But the process was much more stressful than it should've been thanks to terrible customer service. As Stephen Colbert would put it, American Airlines, you are Dead to Me.