Off Again

Good heavens, it's been a while. I've even got stuff I want to write, but the paying stuff has to come first, and it's wonderful to even have paying stuff. So I did it, and I'm even getting paid for it.

This should make the next few days a bit more painless. I have a visitor tomorrow, whom I have to pick up at Tegel Airport at a little past 8am, not my accustomed rising-time, to say the least. Then, other friends from Bavaria may or may not show up, depending on whether they could dig out from the snow they just got. In the late afternoon, Heribert Kastell, the great winemaker, is in again, and a few of us are going out to pay our respects to him, and the whole evening ends with the entire cast of characters, plus some, at a restaurant to be named later.

And the next morning, I wake up early again, sling my new suitcase onto the road, and head to Paris, where Carl Stone is involved in a very interesting-looking concert the next evening. I think we're hooking up for lunch the next day, and, since this is all in a corner of the city I've never even seen before, it'll be cool to do some exploration.

Saturday sees me get on a jet and off to Austin for a solid week of SXSW. Also my annual haircut and reunions with people I only get to see once a year. Plus all the Mexican food I can eat.

After that, depending on whether or not the money is around and the airfares are affordable, I just might take some time to go to the West Coast and visit friends in San Francisco.

So I'll be here intermittently laying down the things I've seen and done, but those who come in search of Berlin-based vitriol will have to wait until I return at the end of the month. Given the contrast effect between Paris, Austin, San Francisco, and this place, I'm quite sure that sauerkraut will ensue.