Trains, Locomotives, and Railroad Tracks

Lately we been riding the train from Klaipeda to Vilnius, cause during summer they have youth discounts bring the cost down to just 19.20 each, less than 40% of bus costs. Plus a certain special baby I know behaves much better in a train compartment than on a bus. Here's a weird thing about trains in Lithuania (and Russia, maybe all of Europe, I don't freakin' know): no bar car, no food car. What's the deal with that?! It's a five hour "express train" (two and a half hour car ride), don't they realize they could make alot of money selling drinks and sandwiches at double prices?

Drinking alcohol is in fact forbidden on the train, but I assume that's just byobb. What they do do is walk down the train twice per trip selling soft drinks and crackers. Though you may not byob, you may byo sandwiches. But my pocket knife wasn't where it was supposed to be (in my pocket), so I went to the personel compartment to ask about using a knife. I brought the buns and cheese with me (the ham was presliced ham), cause I figured maybe if I ask really nicely they'll cut them for me, cause how the hell could they hand out knives to the passengers? Well, they did; they gave me a big old knife to take back to the compartment. So that was good, anyway, and as long as you manage to byob on the qt, the train saves you coinage on your clownage!

The Most Important Information About Lithuania

Take This Test to find out how much you know about Lithuania.

The scores out of fifteen so far are:

Special Lady: 15!
This guy: 12
Gedas: 8
Darius: 8
Peanut: 6 ("not bad for a swamp yankee!")

Lithuanians are Gentlemen!

Ji man pranese, kad mums truksta pinigu, ir kad as daugiau nebegalesiu gerti alaus.
Po to syki as ja pagavau mokant 65 litus uz makijaza ir paklausiau, kodel as turiu atsisakyti kazko, o ji ne.
Ji pasake, kad jai reikia makijazo, kad ji man butu grazi.
As jai pasakiau, kad tam buvo alus.
.... Man atrodo, kad ji nebegris .....

What an Ingrate!

Over the past year Rastenis has summoned me to help him with various things, each time promising a bottle of vodka as payment. It's taken him a ridiculously long time to square up. When he finally did last week, he showed up with three bottle of black pepper vodka, which is undrinkable. He can't even drink it himself, but he can use it show his gratitude for services rendered. I've never used this word before in real life, but Rasteni, you're an ingrate!

Low and Behold

Hey--rah!
Hey--rah!

Old photos remind me of old things.
New photos remind me of recent things.
Photos of Cedric remind me of Barf.

Hey--rah!
Hey--rah!

Šaltibrščiai is good soup.
Mushrooms are good fungi.
The best fat is ham fat.

Hey--rah!
Hey--rah!

I have so many mugs.
They all remind me of something.
But mostely I don't have to wash them often.

Hey--rah!
Hey--rah!

Oh man! I have to go to work tomorrow!

That's what I said last night after 32 days of vacation. It was plenty of fun, but I did nothing of consequence. My special lady and I were going to travel somewhere in Europe, but instead we went to the dentist at the same cost. Went up to Aukštaitija to visit some gims, who turned out to have prepared a banquest for us, like 40 people showed up, then boat rides and šašlykai and swimming and whiskey. Badminton. Some other grill sessions. Broadway. Jack Daniels and Red Bull makes a good cocktail. Yeah man.

Anything manlier and funner than destruction?

Maybe construction.* There's something very fun and manly about putting things together. Today I bought a bookcase and sand box. The bookcase was predrilled with good instructions, so that was easy, but fun anyway, cause it looks very nice. The sand box was neither predrilled nor with good instructions. And when I asked my uncle to borrow his electric drill he misheard me, he thought I asked for an electric boom box, so I start screwing the thing together by hand. Then he asks me why I don't use an electric one. He gives me a 60 year old drill (no exageration there) with one direction and one speed, so if you make a mistake you have to unscrew it by hand, and if you drill too fast you'll shred the drill bit. Also, if you let up on the trigger, it takes so much fiddling to get it turning again, I just never let go for like 45 minutes, doing everything else with one hand, and my uncle's and special lady's help. To get to the end, though, with so many pitfalls, made it even more fun to fill it with sand, which I brought over in a wheel barrow wearing my wife beater, which made my special lady say I'd make a nice lookin farmer.

Also a good thing to construct is a Burrito. Today with left over chicken I made bbq bacon chicken burritos. We were out of mayonaise, so instead I used gravy! How do you like that?! Gravy!!! It was awesome!!! Gravy and bbq sauce from the states (thanks Tete!)!! Yeah!!

* It took me a while to think of a good antonym for destruction. I was like "Building? Making? Creating? Hmm..."