the new gourmet came today.....i spent the last 45 minutes perusing the recipes that i won't make anytime soon. and ogling the locales that i won't visit anytime soon, and windered why i take this magazine. because i am mean is the obvious answer, but not the truth. i take this magazine IN CASE i get a batch of lemon grass in my clutches, and IN CASE i find myself on the amalfi coast. somehow, my whims( a rental car loop between barcelona,carcassonne, bordeaux, bilbao, and barcelona) have not made the big time with an article all their own.

i enjoyed reading petra's blog about praha today. i had considered going to praha on my last excursion,. but deemed it too far. i would have like stephan to have seen the fred and ginger house. i would have liked to have heard mozart in a church setting. one of these days i will make it there myself.

i had someone comment recently that ernst must be a particularly tolerant spouse, because i travel so much without him. for thew record, i have traveled extensively with my spouse- to 38 states, and 8 foreign countries- some with our children and some with just ourselves. when i am done traveling wit places that andrew, stephan and cayle would like, i will go with ernst to placs that he will like- the appalachian trail, the trans america bike trail, australia/nz, windjammmer cruises.... big bend.... these days somebody has to stay with cayle, and ernst hasn't seemed to hot on midwinter trips to northern europe.

the last passage has made me nostalgic for my father, who traveled to all the states and 14 foreign countries. i miss him listing them all now that he is completely senile. every ounce of my being that aches for the open road comes from herbert crown- the man born to travel. one of the few things that regret from the life on this earth is that my children do not fully remember my dad as himself. or recall my dad showing slides of his trips. or witnessing my dad planning his next trip. i grew up with a next trip always at hand. the stack of slides that is now in the backroom cabinet is of alaska- i took them out to use the carrosel for my own roots tour to europe.
i really need to look at these slides myself- set up dad's projector and enjoy them for what they are- but i am just not ready for that yet, as a daughter...of a father in the twilight.