Category: Friends

Weddings and the West Coast – USA summer 2015 – Week 1

2015-06-17 20.24.19(this is the first of three parts and very long – just giving you fair warning)

Last January, 2014, I was visiting the US for my niece Riley’s bat mitzvah. This was my second time returning to the motherland since I’d left and as with the time before, I took the opportunity to visit friends in LA and San Francisco. While I was in LA I met up with my good friend, brilliant actor and former roommate JR. A few weeks earlier, JR had gotten engaged to the beautiful and charming Natasha, whom I’d heard about but this trip was my first time meeting her. It was great! Then at one point, JR and I were just shooting the breeze and he said “Listen… If you say ‘no,’ I’m screwed because I don’t know who else fits so will you be my Best Man.” I man enough to admit there were tears and hugging and of course I said “yes!” Continue reading “Weddings and the West Coast – USA summer 2015 – Week 1” →

DAVID • Speak: Pet Sounds

David Feb 15DAVID • Speak: Pet Sounds

It’s February, so this month’s issue of David is all about relationships. And while I tend to be fairly private about my relationships in general, there is one I have absolutely no problem talking about.

And that’s just what I’ve done this month for the magazine. So here’s a story about me and my best four-legged friend, Laika Wonderdog!

Love that pain-in-the-ass pup!

Thanksgiving 2014

IMG_0255.JPG[Just a little personal post here, feel free to ignore it in favor of more socially apt or politically savvy posts about current world situations.]

Last week was Thanksgiving in the US (fourth Thursday after the first Monday), traditionally a day to spend with family. Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2014” →

Holidays in the Cloud

IMG_0266.JPGKaunas, where I live, has a reputation as being artsy and clever. We’re home to 6 different universities and are considered the “most Lithuanian of Lithuanian cities.” Now, nationalist pride aside, one of the things this means is that while Vilnius, the country’s capital, gets the pressure of being the proper and sophisticated “big brother” we get a little more freedom to be wild and crazy. We get to indulge ideas.

One of those ideas has found form in our annual Christmas Tree design for the big, official city tree in Rotuse Aikste (City Hall Square). A few years ago, our tree was made of the recycled bottoms of green, two litre coke bottles. The year after that was a gold, angel festooned spectacle followed last year by a tree “knitted” from recycled plastic bags. Continue reading “Holidays in the Cloud” →

A Palace, a Castle and Some Lights… What’s involved with a day trip to Riga?

DSC_0207When Monika says “There’s a bus tour going to Riga to see the light festival,” your first response should be “I wanna go.” At least that’s my response. Going with Monika on a day trip is always fun, especially to another country, so I was in! Rasa was game as well so we told Monika to book it for us. See, this wasn’t just a “let’s go” trip, this was actually a bus tour operated by the company she works for, Guliverio Kelionės. Continue reading “A Palace, a Castle and Some Lights… What’s involved with a day trip to Riga?” →

London 2014: Day Seven & Eight – Cars and Cards

2014-08-20 12.17.31Tuesday was our last full day in the Big City and we still had a full day’s use of the CityPass to take advantage of so naturally, we were once again up and out early in the day. This time, our destination was a bit outside the city center and was looking like it would take close to an hour to get there: The London Motor Museum.

Continue reading “London 2014: Day Seven & Eight – Cars and Cards” →

London 2014: Day Three & Four – LonCon3

2014-08-15 21.30.37Ostensibly, the reason we were in London in the first place was to attend LonCon3, the World Science Fiction Convention for 2014. As reasons go, it’s not a bad one. Especially since I’m a dues paying active member of the Science Fiction Writer’s of America (SFWA) and make such little use of that it barely registers as more than a line on my CV. So, knowing I was going to the con (that’s what we in the “know” call conventions) I volunteered to be on a panel when they had an opening and got an invite to the SFWA reception and had decided to attend the SFWA informational meeting. I figure if I’m gonna get back into this writing thing, I need to start hanging out with people again.  Continue reading “London 2014: Day Three & Four – LonCon3” →

London 2014: Day One – Getting there is half the fun

2014-08-13 21.57.59This trip actually started a few months ago when AAron and family couldn’t make it to LonCon3, the World Science Fiction convention, this year held in London. Since they couldn’t go, but had already gotten memberships, Rasa and I took them over and planned a tourist trip around the con.

Of course, this wasn’t the only way AAron was involved. See, we were flying RyanAir which is notorious for how cut-rate they are. Until very recently, they would only allow one carry on bag, no more than 10kg, and anything else would be charged an exorbitant fee. They’ve since loosened policy a bit, but not much. In any case, we still weren’t checking any bags, but we had the ability to take two onboard. Continue reading “London 2014: Day One – Getting there is half the fun” →

The Stones of Anykščiai

2014-08-03 12.39.23A few days back, my friend Monika asked what my weekend plans were and if I wanted to go to Anykščiai, a village of about 12,000 people in the north midwest area of the country. Now, for those playing at home, Monika is a great friend and in the past we’ve done some great road trips like to Tallin and Finland, just to ride the roller coasters (of course, that trip was before I was blogging so no good record of it exists outside of incriminating photographs). Now, though, Monika has a car so there’s a whole new world open to us. Add in the fact that LAST year for my birthday, she gave me a stuffed creature and a book of 100 sites to see in Lithuania in which I had to take pictures of the creature and I was falling behind due to my lack of independent transport. Continue reading “The Stones of Anykščiai” →

Again with the Zoo

Do what makes you Happy!Landing back in Helsinki I found my way back to Jennica’s place and we decided to go out for dinner and visit her friend Emma. We’d met Emma on Thursday night when I got in and we’d taken Donna, Jennica’s dog, out to the dog park for her late night business. It’s interesting… in a lot of cities, the dog park has become the best place to socialize. Jennica has met several good friends at hers and my friends Al & Teya do the same down in San Diego (and they don’t even have a dog!). So we met Emma, who’s a chef and evidently the restaurant she works at is pretty good. Also, they were changing the menus on Monday so a Sunday night trip for dinner seemed appropriate.  Continue reading “Again with the Zoo” →

A Wedding in Vaasa

2014-07-05 13.31.31“I’ve seen you naked.”

This was the first thing I heard when I stepped into the church for Antti & Tiina’s wedding.  “I’ve seen you naked.” Thing was… he had. This was Vesa, whom long time readers will remember from my first time in a Finnish Sauna almost exactly six years ago.  Continue reading “A Wedding in Vaasa” →

Spring 2014: Day Four – The Magique of Disney

Peter PanThursday morning we had a choice. We had spent two very full days at the parks and seen most of what there was to see. The decision now was whether to forego the parks for a day in Paris or forego Paris and keep the trip Disney. We decided to at least start at Disney since we really wanted to see the Cinemagique show, which would be starting at 11:15 (and had been cancelled yesterday). Of course, since the parks opened at 10, this meant we could sneak in some other stuff before the show and then decide about heading into the City of Lights. Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Four – The Magique of Disney” →

Spring 2014: Day Three – Movies, Moters and Magic Dreams

StudiosWednesday morning we were up bright and early… so early in fact, it made more sense to walk to the parks than wait for the free shuttle, which we did. Today was designated as a Disney Studio day so that’s where we headed, arriving at 9:30, a half hour before the park officially opened. This park is similar to the Studio park in Florida and parts of California Adventure in Anaheim, focused as it were around movie making so when we got in, walking through a Route 66 style road-stop (food and souvenir shops), we stopped at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine to decide what to do first. Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Three – Movies, Moters and Magic Dreams” →

Spring 2014: Day Two – Dragons and Squids and a Dangerous Rain Storm

Welcome to DisneylandTuesday morning arrived early, but not as early as it would have had I been at home with the crazy dog! I got to sleep in to the absurdly late hour of 8am! We both woke up, showered and were able to catch the 9:30 shuttle to the parks (which was good since otherwise we wouldn’t know where to catch it to bring us home, and in light of later events, that would not have been good). Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Two – Dragons and Squids and a Dangerous Rain Storm” →

Spring 2014: Day One – Flying High and Climbing Higher

La Tour EiffelOur trip started fairly easily. I was traveling with my friend Rasa, having decided I was going to go to Disneyland Paris (which is exactly the same as EuroDisney, but not allowed to be called that anymore) and she had decided she wanted to accompany me. It worked out nicely since going to Disneyland by yourself just sucks. So we did a little bit of planning and plotting and had decided that the three full days we were going to be in France (we flew in on Monday afternoon and flew out early in the morning on Friday) would be spent at the two Disney parks (Disneyland and Disney Studios) and so bought three for two day tickets and were ready to go. Of course, since this was going to be Rasa’s first time in France she asked if we could somehow see the Eiffel Tower, so we figured we’d do that on Monday, after we got to town. With all this in mind, we headed out early to catch a train to Vilnius, where our plane left from.

Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day One – Flying High and Climbing Higher” →