The Terrible Catsafterme

The Sons of the Desert convention was now over on the morning of Sunday, July 13, 2008 –  but there were even bigger fish to fry in Europe. We had spent a wonderful week in Holland, preceded by a day in Germany, and stops in Belgium and Luxembourg – all of which were fabulous (with the sole sore spot being that I never found a magnet in Belgium). We had arranged for a cab to pick us up at 11am that Sunday morning from the Hotel Avifauna. Originally we were going to leave from the train station in Alphen ann den Rijn, but due to some maintenance going on, the station was closed that morning. Read the rest of this entry »

Although William Howard Taft did a respectable job as our nation’s 27th President of the United States, most people today only recall that he was our heaviest President and a special bathtub had to be designed for him in the White House. Mostly that’s because there was very little significant about his term from 1909-1913 – only a capable President maintaining the status quo in domestic and foreign policy. And he also admitted our last two states, New Mexico and Arizona, to the continental United States. Most of the excitement came at the end of his term…and beyond. Read the rest of this entry »

On Saturday morning, August 2, 2008, Bob and I departed Denise and Aaron’s house in Westerville for the final leg (or rather legs) of our road trip journey around Ohio. This was a day trip I had long planned as part of my “website-driven re-visits of places I’ve already been but have to see again because I was too stupid to take photos of myself by the landmarks when I was there the first time” tour. I was mostly interested in the Presidential stops, but Bob added a couple of additional places to visit to round out the full day. Aaron recommended an interesting restaurant at which to dine for lunch…and off we went. Read the rest of this entry »

I began to panic the morning of Saturday, July 12, 2008, when I suddenly realized that I had spent too much time on the computer and in the bathroom – and had nothing in the room to tell me what time it was. Jimmy had already headed to breakfast and our buses, so not knowing if I was going to miss them, I scurried down the hall and outside. Turns out I had about ten minutes to spare before they left at 9am, so I was able to grab some sausages and an apple from the breakfast bar. That was okay though; I had been eating far too much my first week in Europe already. Read the rest of this entry »

Our nation’s 29th President Warren G. Harding is generally ranked as one of the worst of the American Presidents. Although he was immensely popular while serving in the White House for just under two and a half years (at which time he died in office while traveling through San Francisco) from 1921-23, many scandals reverberated from his administration and cabinet, most notably the Teapot Dome scandal. His notorious philandering ways even led to the speculation of some that the first lady Florence Kling Harding may have poisoned him. Other notable aspects of Harding’s administration included the fact that he was the first sitting U.S. Senator to be elected President, and the signing of the peace treaties that formally ended World War I while he was President. Read the rest of this entry »