Lots Of Words (Page 3)

Beer and Castles and Meat in Bamberg

Today we spent the day in Bamberg, Germany, a city that is, in its entirety, a UNESCO world heritage site. It deserves it! The section we're staying in is the "new" city, and sure enough it feels like a modern city. BUT just a kilometer or two away lies the old city, and going there is like stepping back in time. This section avoided a lot of the damage that destroyed other German cities during WWII, and it shows. You're walking along city streets and you're like "oh, these must be »

We Explored A Cool Old German Castle

I got up early during our last day in Köln, so I could go for a run. With all the walking we've been doing, I haven't had the energy to run like I should be, but I am trying to do it every other day. Our Airbnb was only a couple of kilometers from the Rhine, so I decided to make my way over there, since I figured it'd be flat, and I'd have room to go at an easy pace. Once I got there, zero regrets. The river was very pretty »

Bruges, Brussels, Aachen, and Köln

On the 5th day of Europe Trip 2017™, I find myself in Köln, in an Airbnb. Everyone else is out drinking and/or eating... somewhere, but after 5 days of being around other people, I needed a little bit of downtime. Perfect opportunity to write about the past couple of days! So that's what I'm doing, while drinking seltzer, and sitting next to a fan. After spending the day in Amsterdam with Kit, we made our way to Bruges on the train. Technically two trains, since we stopped and changed in Antwerp »

Made It To Amsterdam

So, I've finally made it to another (mainland) continent. Flying out Wednesday night at 10 pm, I arrived first in Frankfurt, Germany, after a 6 and a half hour flight. I'd never flown on a wide body jet before, and it was pretty comfortable! I slept probably about 2 hours total, which isn't bad for me, honestly, and read while I wasn't asleep. In Frankfurt, I got a coffee, irritating the German man serving me. Or maybe I just thought we was irritated, since all Germans sound angry all the time. »

A Big, Shiny New Intercooler

All of my new parts came 2 weeks early (thanks Cobb!), so I decided that this weekend I'd get to installing them. I ended up ordering a * Bigger intercooler [https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/cooling/ford-front-mount-intercooler-v2-focus-st-2013-2017] * Cold air intake [https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/air-induction/ford-focus-st-cold-air-intake-1/] * Rear motor mount [https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/drivetrain/ford-mazda-rear-motor-mount-2013-2017-focus-st-2017-focus-rs-20 »

Farm Shares Are A Mixed Bag

Both literally and figuratively. If you don't know what a farm share is, it's a way of prepaying for a whole bunch of vegetables, and then you pick up a box every week of more or less random stuff. It's also called a CSA, which is short for Community Supported Agriculture, because the idea is that you're sourcing all of your food from a local farm. That's kind of nice, and the price point isn't so bad when you consider how expensive food is when you live in »

Hell Yes I Did Those Brakes

After being delayed by having to replace all of the lug nuts, I started the job on Saturday morning. I decided to start with the rear brakes, for two reasons: they're less important on my front-wheel drive car, and they were in worse shape. After getting the thing up on the jack stands, I removed both rear tires, and disassembled one brake. Turns out this is more or less straightforward, though I took a long time because I was both trying to internalize what I was doing, and trying not to break »

So I Actually Did Work On My Car Today

So, as I wrote about a few months ago, I traded my old car for a 2013 Ford Focus ST. Partially this was because I wanted to learn to drive stick (which turns out, is awesome), but it was also because I wanted to teach myself how to fix cars. I'm pretty OK at fixing stuff in general, but my car fixing experiences have so far been limited to: * Changing my oil * Replacing windshield wipers * Putting on a spare tire * Installing a new radio * Changing a battery * Changing an air filter Some »

We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?

Man, it's been two months since I last wrote something here. Two months! But hey, I'm here now, with all the boring news and hot takes you've come to crave from this journal-which-is-also-a-public-facing-website. And so much has happened! I started my new job, I got engaged, I went to the west coast for the first time, civil order and decency has continued to unravel nationwide. But hey, let's ignore that last thing for a bit, and concentrate on the first three. No time for sad sack bullshit t »

Lots Of Words

Pictures too, maybe. By Chris DeFlumeri

That Castle That Fairy Tale Castles Are Based On