We're MLS Listed!

We're selling our house! Want to buy it? Updated link

No time for a real update, too much to clean and huge deadline at work is looming. I've been working my tail off and still feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Vacation will be much appreciated.

Thoughts on antibiotics, hummus, picanha, and sushi

Since my last update:

• I got sick. I had a bladder infection. Hurray for pharmacies that let you walk in and buy antibiotics. The pharmacist was even able to give me a shot so I was feeling better within hours.
• We switched back to day shift. The transition wasn't as rough as I'd feared.
• My first kindle book completed was 20,000 leagues under the sea. Did you know that refers to distance, not depth? Anyway, it's really rather dry, so I wouldn't recommend it for most people. The book's about 1/3 a cataloging of undersea species, 1/3 nautical history lessons, and 1/3 adventure.
• One of the Fins showed us a Lebanese restaurant in Tres Lagoas! Why could we not have found out about that 2 months ago?! Hurray for hummus!
• We went to the churrascaria one last time when Billy had a day off.
• We went to the Picanha Bar one last time - it was absolutely fantastic that night. Glad Alex could come out and share a bottle of wine with us even if no one else came.
• Said goodbye to Titina and Aaron. I do so hope we'll see them again! Not sure if it's more likely to happen by visiting their house in Atlanta or running into each other on the road again.
• We finally left Tres Lagoas. Our maid was so sad to see us leave. (Seriously, she looked like she was going to cry - she's such a sweetie!) I'll miss her too even though we were almost entirely unable to communicate.
• We had a great dinner at the fancy restaurant in the Sao Paulo airport. I highly recommend hitting them up for the dessert buffet! It's in the steak & sushi place at the far left end of the 2nd floor. Yum!
• Flew 'home' to Porto Seguro. Yes, we're back in the Brisa da Praia. No we couldn't get our old room - we had to settle for the one next door :P
• Trying to hit up all our favorite old restaurants is difficult with so few days in town. First night I feasted on sushi at the Japanese place by the ferry. Second night we went out for 'gnocchi on the 29th' at the place we were introduced to it. We had a terrible time finding the restaurant but it was worth it. We'd almost forgotten what it was like to have proper 'service' in a restaurant!

Tonight's our last dinner here. I'm hoping to convince Billy to go out for Italian. But he'll probably want his favorite chicken and catipury pizza one last time.

Tomorrow we leave in the afternoon for Sao Paulo. Our chances of making it are about 50-50. I hear the connect we have to take from Salvador gets canceled a lot (they send you to a hotel if they do). Good thing we don't fly out on Air France until Sunday afternoon!

I've been very busy working - I maxed out at 50 hours last week - in a desperate attempt to stay on track with my big project for oDesk. It's going pretty well (the content is great) but there's just so many pages to write! Apologies for not writing more here because I'm writing so much there...

Time to Get Away

Yes, I have my Kindle. But I'll have to talk about its awesomeness another day.

I think Delta must be hurting for money. I keep getting emails from them (I'm on the newsletter list) with all kinds of crazy deals. And a couple really caught my eye. For example, now until June 15 you can get up to triple medallion qualifying miles just for flying in the higher fair classes. Take a few good long trips, and you'll be at Platinum in no time. These bonus miles only count towards you status level, you can't redeem them for free flights. The other was for up to 50,000 bonus miles for flying round trip to the UK. These bonus miles don't count towards you status level, they can only be used for free flights.

And there's nothing stopping you from taking both deals at once - so we're flying to the UK! We dropped our plans for a big Europe by rail trip in favor of trying to clean up and sell the house. But a 2 week vacation would be awesome. We've got our tickets booked, but no other plans yet.

Even better, we're squeezing some very cool free flights (and more miles) out of Billy's company. Instead of flying Sao Paulo (GRU) to New York (JFK), we flying to London (LHR). It was cheaper, so they don't mind. And that lets us book a round trip LHR-JFK-LHR and then fly home from the vacation Dublin (DUB) to Albany (ALB) (through JFK). The weirdest part is, booking GRU to LHR plus DUB to ALB is cheaper than booking GRU to LHR alone. So we won't have to buy that leg of the journey. Crazy stuff.

The itinerary:

• May 3 : GRU to LHR (on Air France with a half day layover in Paris)
• May 4 : Visit with our friend Oz in London for a couple days.
• May 6 : LHR to JFK (on Delta, business class)
• May 20 : ALB to HSV (on Delta, but the flight's too cheap for bonus points)
• Go townhouse-hunting in Huntsville. Hoping to put in an offer on something - I'm still working this week
• May 26 : HSV to ALB (on Delta, again too cheap for bonus)
• May 31 : JFK to LHR (on Delta, business class)
• June 14 : DUB to ALB (on Air France operated by Delta - we may or may not get some bonus points for this leg)

Other than trying to hit up as much of the British Isles as possible in two weeks, we have no set plans for the trip. We'll gladly accept suggestions!

Now all I have to do is complete my giant project work before the end of May. A vacation sounds like a good motivator!

What's the point of going to the club anyway?

I'm not sure how going to a club usually works in the US - I've never been to one - but it's sure an elaborate process here in Brazil!

1. Stand in line. At about midnight.
2. Get past bouncer(s) there's usually 1-3 in a cluster at the door.
3. Go to cashier. She will need your phone number and name, and give you a card to used to track your bill.
4. Show card to another bouncer at inner entrance. Guys are often frisked at this point.
5. Hurray, you've made it into the club! Go find your friends.
6. Know a 'regular' or somehow finaggled your way to the VIP section? You'll now need to get past the section gatekeeper.
7. Want a drink? Give VIP waitress your drink card and order, or go up to the bar and wait in line to give them to a bartender.
8. The odds of your card and drink being returned by the same person you gave them to are about 50-50. They may even been given to you by different people.
9. Repeat previous step every time you want a drink. Generally, there's not any food available. It will be very loud and smokey for the remainder of your stay. The later it gets, the louder the music will be.
10. Want to leave? Go find and wait in the check-out line!
11. Give cashier your card and pay up. She will give you back your card.
12. Take card to the outer set of cashiers (where you checked in). They will confirm you paid in the computer, and then give you the back your card.
13. Take card to the cluster of bouncers at the door. One of them will scan your card and mark you as having left the building.
14. Now you can leave. If it's earlier than 4AM, you're obviously completely lame.

Personally, I'm interested in going to a club for one, and only one, reason: to go dancing. I've tried the here club twice so far, and failed in that objective both times.

The first time, the place was packed, but it was 'country night'. So they played techno until the band started (but no one danced), a country band was played for a few hours, and then (I'm told) the DJ came back on and people did dance. I just didn't stick around long enough.

The second time, a more generic band played. Same deal - DJ, Band, DJ. I did stick around long enough (you have to wait until after 2 for the dance party to start)- but the place was dead. It's not very fun to go dancing in a big club that's 3/4 empty. And most of them were just standing around. There were maybe 5-10 people dancing in the whole place. I know that doesn't mean I couldn't dance, but it's just not the same to dance by yourself - maybe if I'd been in a group with those 5-10 other people... but they weren't even in my section. I kinda doubt I'll bother to go again. It's nice to see everybody having a good time, but I hate paying a cover charge just to hang out in a loud, smokey room drinking.

Good news

Good news: I got all of Billy's pictures!
Bad news: I got all of Billy's pictures.

It's going to take a while to figure out which ones are just duplicates I already have (most of the wedding pics, for example), then get them all sorted, tagged, and uploaded. I think most of it might be worth waiting until I get home. Then I'll have the new iPhoto to work with (hurray for facial recognition and Flickr integration) and a faster internet connection. But I'll try to get at least our recent travel stuff up sooner than that.

More good news: Aaron's on a plane to Brazil as I write. I should have my Kindle in hand by dinner tomorrow!

For those who may have assumed I was announcing we got approval to stay here for the duration, alas, but no. No word at all. Billy's pass is still only good until the 30th. He's on nights now, so I hope someone thinks to renew it for him!