Friday, September 28, 2018

Sanity - Directions by Lynn

This is how one lass, known to us all, remains sane....

Lynn is in pink in the back...






Goat Yoga.

I Understand Anger, but the Clintons?!? Get A Grip

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Thursday, September 27, 2018

Krka National Park



What can I say - we played in the waterfalls!!!!

On the boat ride to the falls.




From Above


Wednesday, September 26, 2018

MANNERS! For Fuck's Sake!

Much of what is wrong with the world can be summed up in bad manners.

It is bad manners to grab a woman by the pussy.

When you give someone a seat on the subway, it is bad manners to ignore that person completely!  If you can't bother to say thank you, at least nod. If you can't bother to do that, don't take the seat fuckface.

These are simple rules kids!!!!

Tigor

We also took a visit to Trigor. It is a small, but very historic city a few miles from Split.  By far the most interesting thing was the church.

The gate

The bell tower with 3 different styles of windows (it took 100 years to finish and changed with the times)

The Interior courtyard of the Mayor's Palace

This is from a side chapel of the church as are the pictures below.

The cherubs are opening the door to heaven for the old Saint.

This is the roof of that chapel. Above the windows you can see Mary being halo'ed. And in the ceiling, god is popping through upside down!  So cool!


The fort the Venitains built once they conquered the town.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Plitvice Lakes

There is a National Park in Croatia called the Plitvice Lakes. It doesn't show up nearly as beautiful in pictures as it is in real life, but it is fantastic.



The water fall from a high lake via a set of karst / limestone passageways and waterfalls. They go through 16 likes and uncountable waterfalls in between.  And you know I love a good waterfall.








Monday, September 24, 2018

Davis Cup in Zadar

Jane and Ed in front of the Sports Complex - the Tennis was played in a temporary court built there.
On Saturday Eddie and I went to the Davis Cup. The Croatians were up 2 matches to 0 from the Friday set. The way the Davis Cup works is 2 singles on Friday, 1 Doubles on Saturday and 2 singles matches on Sunday (if needed). So, if we lost the doubles, then Sunday would be a day of dead rubbers, even if they were played, which wouldn't be much fun.

The Croats have a great doubles team, and one of the Bryan brothers is sick, so we have Mike Bryan and Ryan Harrison - who wasn't even an alternate (Jack Sock had already pulled out and an alternate was in). But, it was a great match and the US ended up winning - albeit in over 4 1/2 hours - which was a new record.
Mike Bryan (close) during the doubles match - Yes Amazing seats.

So on Sunday, Jane came (she got in Saturday night) and we went. We assumed it would be quick. Marin Cilic was playing Sam Queery, who he has beaten liek the past 9 times. Marin is rated about 4th right now and Querry is about 40something. But Marin was way off so the US won.
Sam Querry reaches at the top

That left the tie breaker between Borna Coric, one the best up and coming players (and a hotty!) verses Franics Tiafoe - a very young American. Who played fantastic. It went all 5 sets and then Borna finally won in front of the home town crowd.  It was a blast.

I know Tiafoe (far court) is America, but I do love watching Borna - they both played great.

Top R- Borna, Top Left - an ornage drink that shows #MeToo haven't quite hit Croatia, Btoom R - Katrina Adams (the USA Tennis Assocation's President and her Croatian Counterpart and Bottom L Jane and Ed in front of the stadium

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Split

We took a day tour of Split (and Tigor - tomorrow), which was fascinating. A little busy because of easy access and the occasional cruise ship, but they said it was nothing like normal summer.



The main old town is built inside the old Roman Emperor's Palace where he retired.  There is a great story of why we don't hear about old Emperor Diocletian.  Apparently he was the first Emperor to retire. He was from the area, and retired back to this Palace which became Split.

This was the basement of the Palace with original columns and stone - because there was 2 century's of trash and sludge in the late 1940s when they excavated it.
He was a very inventive and able Emperor, but we don't hear much about him. That is because he held him up to talk to Jupiter (the Zeus of Rome) and persecuted tons of Christians. But the next Emperor was Constantine who was Christian and made it the religion of the Empire.

See that sphinx just sitting there. It is 3500 YEARS OLD!  Just sitting there for anyone to look at and admire!
But Diocletian was one of the few rulers of the era and of Rome that retired and died of old age




This is actually the inside of a bank, but they have to maintain the original curbs and flooring of the old Palace.

These are interesting. The stick-outs around the windows were for outside draperies in the heat AND to pull furntine up through the windows (doors and steps were narrow).

.


Saturday, September 22, 2018

Whew! That Was Fun!

We had a great time in Croatia this past week. I will spread out my pictures over the next week-end, but I want to say it was great.


This was a single stop of the trip. Eddie and Jane are looking at one of many many many waterfalls around Plitvice Lakes. It was just amazing.

It was also great to see Jane.



Eddie and I attended the Davis Cup tennis for 2 days. The USA came back from 0-2 on Friday, back to 2-2 on Sunday, only to lose in the last match with Tiafoe v. Coric. But Francis Tiafoe did amazing, playing at a super high level. It was a fun trip..

More coming.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Happy to be Away From the Crazy for a Week


As Eddie and I head out to Croatia, I try to figure out how to convince Eddie to retire and move with me to Montenegro or Croatia or even Bosnia Herzegovina, where we could live fine on our savings.

I suppose I should thank Trump - who's particular brand of crazy makes convincing Ed much easier...

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Heading out tomorrow to Zadar

Eddie and I are going to Croatia tomorrow to watch a little Davis cup tennis (US vs. Croatia). While we are there, Jane is joining us and we will see some sites.  These are two we will on one of the days.

Plitvička Lakes - a cool national park.


Petrova Gora - Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija

It is real disrepair, and and I want to see it before it is gone. It was an old Yugoslavian monument to the anti-nazi / anti-fascist resistance fighters in WWII. There are a number of these brutalist style statues and monuments in the old Yugoslavia (now Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia (FYROM) and Kosovo). I have taken pictures of lots of them, but this one is close by where we are traveling and I have never seen it.  We should see it soon because the steel is being stripped.

I saw the plans for this in the Yugoslavian show at Moma. It was a museum as well, although abandoned right after the break up of Yugoslavia (1991).

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

Fun Courts

The US Tennis Association is a non-profit designed to get more people, particularly youth, interested and playing tennis.

One of the ways they have decided to do this is to paint a number of courts that young people use to play on. They have painted courts in Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities. Here are some examples.



Monday, September 10, 2018

Brandon Victor Dixon at the US Open

Brandon Victor Dixon sang America the Beautiful last night at the US Open. He was great.



Eddie and I happened upon him at the bar during the game and we chatted. He was a very nice man. If you didn't see him at the Open, you might have seen him in the live Jesus Christ Superstar as Judas. He rocked it.



He was also in Hamilton taking over the role of Burr from Leslie Odom Jr., but I didn't see him in that. Leslie was in the role both times I saw Hamilton. Oddly, I also saw Mr. Odom once sing the Str Spangled Banner at the US Open á capella and he was fantastic.