House of Pain

Boy did I have fun today. Two hours at the dentist: one hour cleaning and one hour of wisdom tooth extraction. The pain hasn't set in yet but when it does I have a gallon of Margarita next to the bed that I hope will do the job.

Raw & Private

My last post gave birth to a thought of mine that I regard as the highest luxury: disappearance. In a world where fame and fortune is worth more than gold; disappearance, privacy and anonymity (greek for name-less) has to be the ultimate raw material.

[Tom Sawyer by Rush from Moving Pictures is playing.]

Glamorama

The clock is ticking. 13 days until takeoff. The much anticipated 'pièce de résistance' of our world tour is within reach. The restlessness-ocity is felt like a warm, wet towel over our adventurous souls. William Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' is packed, the one-day contacts picked up and the unanimous desire to just disappear for a while building up like a forgotten vulcano.

'You can check out but you can never leave.'

Cayman S

The first time I heard about the Cayman S, I reacted the same way as when I heard about the Cayenne S - in doubt. How could Wendelin Wiedeking, who had done such a great job so far, come up with first a SUV and then a coupe based on the Boxster? I was flabbergasted.

I'm still not a big fan of SUV's in general but if I was forced to get one, it would be a Cayenne S. The Cayman S on the other hand rocks but it took time for me to realize that. I guess it's an aquired taste.

Wendelin Wiedeking, the CEO of Porsche, has done everything right since he took the helm at Porsche in 1993-94. He started with discontinuing the 944 and the 928 (which has become a somewhat cult car these days). Then he created the 993 (aircooled) which is considered the best Porsche ever made. The Boxster S quickly followed and the rest is history. He is now heading the most profitable car company in the world.

Anywho, the other day I had the opportunity to test drive the new Cayman S and what a drive it was. The car has the best of the Boxster and the 911 (997): a 3.4ltr mid-size engine w/ about 300bhp. It's tight, well-balanced with a torque you can only dream off.

The shape reminds me off the 550 Spyder, the Ferrari Dino and the 993. It's a beauty and will soon be iconic.

¡Vamos a Buenos Aires!

Just two weeks until we are heading off to Buenos Aires for a while and neither of us can wait. I'm getting anxious to go, to enjoy the great food, wine and the first month of fall.

Buenos Aires is like London, Paris and Barcelona used to be in the 80's and 90's - adventurous, inexpensive and fun. The country hit rock bottom with the 'corralito' financial crisis in 2002 but is now on it's way back, giving people encouragement and hope. 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention' and it couldn't be more true than in BA. The design, music and bar scene is hopping and the lust to experiment is in every breath.

We are also going to visit Mendoza for the fantastic Malbec's and Uruguay for the beaches. It's always been a dream of mine to reside down there and that might happen sooner than later. I can smell the sweet scent of sunny beaches, wine grapes and grass-fed beef when I close my eyes.

It's going to be lazy days and tango-infested nights. The latin rythm have started to pump through my veins and thanks to a lot of workout I think the hip will hold up well. And if it doesn't, there are always crutches. I should know!

Snow on Mt. Tam

For the first time in decades, Mt. Tamelpais got a thin layer of snow yesterday. It's surreal especially after 10 days of +70 degrees. Today it's 40-50 degrees, rainy and with thunderstorms on the way. Reminds you that, yes, it's still winter eventhough we were flapping along in flip flops and shorts last week. Just one thing to do: watch movies.

PS. Check out MovieBeam. Might be something!

The Thicker The Better

One of my recent passions are thick graduate finance books. I've always liked sucking my teeth into academic books and thick piles of papers but lately it has become a passion. McMillan's thousand pages about Options Strategy is currently my favorite but might be knocked down by my recent purchase: Financial Accounting by Stickney and Weil - an MBA Wharton classic.

I read accounting in college but I've gotten an increased interest in how to in detail analyze financial statements. I think it was triggered by the book about Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room. It's sad how they could get so greedy that they cooked the books. Even worse that they might get away with it.

$13 Billion Reasons

The Valentine's spending will top $13 billion according to The Press Democrat, a newspaper I have never read or heard about before I did a search on Yahoo!. I gotta say that it's a little out of my budget.

But the tradition of celebrating the loved one is a great reminder of the important things in life. And as most things in life it's the journey and not the destination that matters.

The Spring Has Sprung

While the Northeast is pounded with dumps of snow the Southwest is enjoying the warmest winter in history. Our current weather (mid-70's) would be considered full-sprung spring anywhere in the world. The Cherry Blossoms are blooming and one can hear the gentle flapper of flip-flops across the neighborhood.

Turtle Driving

A few years ago, a buddy of mine and I invented turtle walking while participating in the weekly Sunday walk. The Sunday walk is big all over Europe, especially in the bigger cities of Paris, Stockholm, London and Barcelona. It's usually carried out adjacent to lunch to either build up your appetite or to burn off the festive meal. The Sunday walk is one of the reasons, I think, why Europeans are much more fit than their fellow Americans.

Anywho - the turtle walk, as it's name indicates, is about walking extra slow to embrace every detail of your surrounding, to really feel the splendor of life. The hypothesis is that if you slow down, your mind and soul gets a wider view of the present. The downside is that the future gets fuzzier. But letting the future go for the present once in a while is healthy. I think.

So yesterday, when the weather forecast indicated foggy San Francisco weather, we decided to head off on a classic roadtrip. It was either south, towards Santa Cruz and Carmel along Pacific Highway or north, to Tomales Bay or Alexander River Valley. When the weather is foggy in the city it's usually a little foggy along the Pacific Highway, especially around Half Moon Bay but clear and warm up north so that's where we headed.

We headed off early to beat most of the traffic and drove up to St. Helena via the Silverado Trail. I made sure to drive just under the speed limit to get back to the older days, when people took their sportscar for a nice Sunday drive. I was painfully remined off that those days are long gone when I saw the caravan of SUV's, Mini-Vans and Trucks that was building up behind us.

Once up in St. Helena we decided to head to Healdsburg via the Alexander Valley River Highway, a classic European sportscar road with sharp curves and wonderful alleys. It felt like the real winecountry with barns and vines without flashy estate signs and '$10 tastings here' signs. The rented limos were gone and we were practically alone on a 15-to-35-miles an hour road that followed the countryside like a secret shadow. The only few cars we saw were other sportscar (Porsches, Ferraris and MGs) drivers who happily waved in salute to the perfect day.

I couldn't believe that we actually had found this treasure in the midst of the winecountry, on a weekend preceding Valentine's day and with the best weather this year. I cannot wait to head up there again, but next time in the middle of the weak, at dusk or dawn to enjoy the solitude and hear the humming of my flat six 3.2 liter boxer engine. It hums like a colibri but have a roar second to a lion's.

We ended the day by watching the sunset at the Culinary Institute of America, planning the future whilst smoking a Cohiba. And since Napa looked more like a SUV convention than a winecountry we decided to have dinner at Tierra to explore their latest delights (Braised Short Ribs) while letting the traffic die down a bit. It was a fabolous decision. The food was fantastic and the road clear and open once we had finished dinner. I even got to do some speed driving at the traffic light on the 37 - zero to 80 in just a few seconds but don't tell anyone.

Getting the Fog Season On

I was on my way down to Crissy Fields after a great workout and an even better lunch when I realized that the first fog for the year was slowly embracing the Golden Gate Bridge with it's cold, fluffy arms. And yet I continued to check out the few courageous kite surfers. And yes, it was very kewl to see them come in and out of the fog.

The moment I saw them I remembered the days when I used to get my windsurfing gear together and get down to the beach after work. Man, what an adrenaline kick that was. Beach life is happy life and I should get my kite surfing on - soon.

Record Heat

The missus and I have been thinking of exploring other parts of the world as our domicile, but days like these really questions the sanity of that perticular thought. Today we had record heat in San Francisco, reaching unbelievable 75 degrees in the middle of winter.

Imagine taking that early evening walk in shorts, t-shirt and a pair of flip-flops. It's nothing short of being magic and always reminds me of the days in Los Angeles; carefree living by the ocean; eat, drink and be happy.

Wheelchair Adventure

Our flight from Tucson landed softly at SFO at 9.28am this morning - two minutes ahead of schedule - and as the plane taxied into the gate I was looking forward to a lazy Sunday at home. I had spent most of the flight reading 'The Smartest Guys in The Room' and nodding off a few times for a few minutes.

Once we were at the gate and the fasten seat belt sign was turned off, I realized that something was wrong. The cramped seats had refuted me to stretch my legs as appropriate and my good ol' Perthes kicked in.

I stood up, got my jacket and stumpled out of the plane like a drunk German. The only Trollie Dolly on the plane asked if I needed a wheelchair and I declined politely. I entered the bridge between plane and gate and held on to the sidebars with all my upper body strength.

It was painfully clear that my hip just had given in and there was no way in hell or heaven that I was going to successfully get through the terminal, to the shuttle and further to the car. I finally let my stubborness subside and agreed to use a wheelchair the second time offered.

Once in the wheelchair I felt extremely stupid. People looked, no, they glared, since there was nothing visible wrong with me - neither old nor wrapped in bandaid or cast. I didn't feel much sympathy from my fellow travellers, but the United Airline and airport crews were awesome.

I just wished I could have enjoyed getting pushed around the airport a little more, being demanding, bossing people around and letting out screams of pain once in a while. You know, basic wheelcahir resident sympathy.

Yet nothing bad without any good; the missus has been pampering me the whole day and I've seen five new movies - so far. Not all of them great but one cannot be to picky.

A New Chapter

Eventhough it's easier to play it safe, we are no more alive than when we feel the brisk wind of uncertainty enfuse new energy in our soul. In the end, the only regrets will be the chances we never took, the people we never met and the places we never saw.