Sleepless in Lisbon

The inconvenient if not altogether unexpected part of traveling abroad is the jet lag.  This is of course news to no one, and should be regarded as not newsworthy.  But it does happen all the time, and is therefore an integral part of the travel experience.  Right now, for example, I am sitting in a cookie-cutter bar on the first floor of a cookie-cutter Ibis hotel in Lisbon, my beautiful wife looking aimlessly at a bar tv screen, our beer nearly empty, while spicy peanuts fill our cheeks.  Oh, and it is 2:40 AM local time.  We have a 7;30AM wake up call.  Why are we here?

Pre-Portugese Thoughts

In eleven days, I will be flying away.  I do not get to decide when I will take vacations, that choice is made for me.  This is the Winter Break, or the non-denomenational Christmas break.  I will be spending it in Portugal.  My original plans were to see Lisbon and move on up, up to Porto, up to Spain to see Santiago de Campostela, may be hit a few places in between.  That plan has been abandoned.  We will be lucky to get Lisbon and all its sites done in 6 days, but I am still planning side trips to the Roman ruins outside Coimbra and the Marian apparition site of Fatima.  We'll see what actually happens.
Aside from that, work is shitty, all my friends are either moving away or are becoming entangled with marriages, children, or work.  So I am feeling fairly isolated from humanity.  The house is nearing completion, but I seem to be inventing new projects for it all the time.  So I guess it never will be finished.  The few pounds I had lost I have not found once more.
So, life is as usual.

Virgin Outing

So this is my first ever blog.  Not sure why now, why today, as I have seemingly been able to manage nicely without blogging.  Not sure that I am even doing it right, since I have read so few actual personal blogs.  But, I figure, I may as well take this small first step into the blogosphere and see what transpires.