Here on the final day of March, my family enjoyed an evening at the movie theater watching Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. It was a pleasant end to a busy month. Here are some of the highlights:

I started the month with my shoulder still hurting after my low-speed accident. Thankfully, it is doing much better now even if I don't yet have 100% mobility. Mera's reconstruction (even though we have received our insurance money) will be longer as the body shop didn't have an opening until mid May.

Our Starlink connection has gotten both better and worse. The satellite holes are definitely shorter as more satellites are getting into position. Unfortunately, their rotation has put one of them squarely into the time slot that we tend to use to watch our streaming shows. I'm looking forward to the service continuing to improve.

Our security cameras got enough light for their solar panels to fully charge them. It got a little close this winter, but it looks like this system will work year round without needing me to take them inside to charge. At least, that should be the case for a few years.

Daylight Saving Time has shown its ugly head yet again.

I finally got to see (and extremely enjoy) the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once just before I won seven awards at the Oscars. 

I became oddly dependent on my new PopSocket to hold my phone. 

Most of this month was focused on the preparation before, execution of, and recovery from the fantastic trip to Rome and Athens. None of the hiccups (not even the one that stranded me in France for a day) diminished this trip in any way. I don't even have a favorite part as all of it was so wonderful. To my knowledge, everyone on the trip felt that it went even better than they had expected it could possibly go.

The travel home really wiped me out (my left ear has still not fully recovered), but I did enjoy watching three movies on the plane: Ticket to Paradise, Strange World, and Bullet Train.

I already started planning my next group trip to take place in Japan during Spring Break of 2025. 

We had to dig out the cabin and dog yard again as the weather has warmed up enough for break up to begin.

My DDF team had a blast performing their Readers Theater to a receptive audience at the Talent Show. I stepped in for one member of the cast who could not attend and was clearly told that I did fine, but not as good as the student who normally has the role. 

Finally, I have been sucked into--much to Janelle's consternation--The Lands Between in the video game Elden Ring. While I am starting to enjoy the game more and understand the appeal, I'm still not fully a fan of this type of punishing game experience--however, I am clearly a glutton for punishment as I keep wanting to delve back in.

Former President Trump has had a number of firsts in relationship to his presidency that have certainly awarded him a place in the history books. Most notably, he was the first president to be impeached twice (not to mention in his first--and, God willing, only, term in office). He is the first President to incite a riot on the Capitol Building. Also, he was the first President to refuse to acknowledge the validity of a Presidential election. 

Today, he became the first former President to be indicted of a crime. This indictment is a long time in coming. It relates to the misuse of campaign funds (which he used to hush up an affair he had with a porn star) during the 2016 election year. During his time as President, he actively suppressed the investigation which picked up again after he was voted out of office. Despite his protestations, this is not a "witch hunt." This is a criminal investigation that led to a grand jury unanimously voting for his indictment based on the evidence presented to them.

It will only be the first of the indictments that he is likely to face in the near future. In fact, this is probably the crime which holds the lowest (but still quite significant) penalty of the trials that he will see. This will likely be a bad year for him, as there is a good chance that he will also gain a new first, as the first President convicted for a crime.

I was not enthusiastic when I first heard that another Dungeons and Dragons movie was coming out. I have to say that their advertising department has done an excellent job promoting it. Not only am I now looking forward to seeing the movie, not only do I plan to see it in the theater, and not only do I want to see it opening weekend, but I have already tried to entice other people to come see it as well.

Quite frankly, it looks like the movie will be a fun experience with the proper combination of action and humor that have come to look for in a movie. There is a rumor (and only a rumor) that the theater might even have D20 inspired popcorn containers. In short, I'm ready to get my geek going this Friday evening.

I've already purchased my tickets and selected my family's seats at the 6:30 showing at the Orca.

Our driveway has become a bit difficult to navigate once again. The hard-packed snow that has been in place since November is softening up, but not entirely giving way. These layers of slush on top of ice make it difficult to get up the slight hill that leads to the circular part of our driveway. In fact, it's harder to drive through than when we have inches of snow.

It's also not easy to shovel. I can scrape a bit off the top layer, but that is just barely covering layer of ice that refuses to move. I just have to wait for it all to melt even more before I try shoveling or plowing what I can. This is assuming that more snow isn't going to come down and gum up everything even more--as has happened before at this time of year.

I'm still a fan of snow, but it's about time for this slush to melt away.

I'm still not fully recovered from my trip to Rome and Athens, but I'm already in the early planning stages for my next trip--which will be Spring Break of 2025 (a little over two years away). I want to keep up the trend of examining the history of a region, and I want to alternate between Europe (which is a focus for Western Civ) and other locations--especially Asia. With travel still a little iffy in China, I figure that my next trip will be to Japan.

I've already looked at a possible itinerary (to which I have requested to make a change) and have an idea about the rather hefty price tag--which looks like it will be over $5,000 per person. I'm aiming for a 10 day trip. The standard trip package I'm interested in starts by spending two full days in Tokyo (not counting the first arrival day and a partial day which also includes time in Kamakura). I want to reduce that by a day as one of the days is technology focused, and I would prefer to use the extra time to add on an additional 2 day excursion.

The trip then spends a day in the Fuji-Hakone-Izu region before heading to Kyoto for a day and a half, and then Osaka. This is where I want an excursion to Hiroshima which also includes a visit to Himeji Castle and then more time in Osaka before flying home. All told, this would have eight days in Japan and two travel days, which would largely fit into a Spring Break schedule (well, one day over). 

As I looked at reviews about the trip, most of the negative comments centered on the idea that too much time was spent at temples and shrines, and not enough time was spent shopping. To me, that sounds like exactly the type of trip that I want. I still need to talk with our Travel Consultant to see if the trip changes that I'm requesting are possible and what the final price will be. I also need to find out what the actual dates for 2025's spring break are likely to be.

One of the reasons I want to start planning this early is due to the increased cost. I want to give people (including my own family) more time to budget payments for the trip. Again, I'm hoping to fill a bus, so hopefully the excitement and buzz about the last trip will get people interested in this next one. I know that I already am.

Only two more weeks until Easter. My Lenten sacrifice has been gnawing at me a bit, so I certainly will appreciate Easter even more this year. Meanwhile, this was the last Sunday that I wear purple until Advent as I tend to go with red as the vestment color on Palm Sunday. In short, I will be happy once Lent is over. Still, I shouldn't try to rush things.

In today's Gospel, Jesus took His time despite everyone around Him wanting Him to move more quickly. He deliberately took an additional two days once He received word that Lazarus was sick, making it so that He arrived four days after Lazarus died. Everyone talked about how Lazarus could have been saved had Jesus just arrived earlier, but Jesus brings Lazarus back to life and health, demonstrating that God is not bound by human limitations on time.

So often, we want what we want right now. We lament opportunities that have passed and make a lot of noise about being in the right place at the right time. However, God does not see place or time the way that we do. Perhaps that missed opportunity allowed for a better one to make itself known. Perhaps it's not so much about finding the perfect place or time as it is up to us to make now and here the best time and place to be.

I recently wrote about games that I was interested in playing in the near future. Already, three more games have jumped on my radar--all of them releasing soon (or just released). We already know that the real countdown is for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and that everyone in my household will be scrambling for time on the Switch after it drops on May 12th. However, these other three games could also compete for screen time.

The first is a redesign of a favorite game of mine, Resident Evil 4. The original is one of the only Resident Evil games that I truly enjoyed. In fact, I liked it so much that I not only played through it multiple times on the PlayStation 2, but I even purchased and played through the motion control version for the Wii more than once (my favorite version). This remake is supposed to not only bring the graphics up to the current generation of consoles and make quality of life improvements, it's supposed to change up the story beats, areas, and encounters so that even people who have played the original several times (such as myself) will find plenty of surprises. It was released for sale yesterday.

The second isn't a full game, but a DLC for the amazing Horizon Forbidden West. Called, Horizon Burning Shores, this new content can only be played after beating the main game (which I have). Considering the story of its parent game, I can only assume that this DLC provides a new chapter in Aloy's story. I am also hoping that it gives a solid conclusion to Sylen's story as Lance Reddick (who recently passed away) did an amazing job playing that complex character. I've already preordered the DLC for its release on April 19th.

The third game is the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. Titled Jedi: Survivor, this story takes place 5 years after the last game's entertaining events. While not perfect, the first game was a solid Metroidvania game that gave the player the feel of being a Jedi. I look forward to following the adventures of Cal Kestis once again. I will be able to do so after it releases on April 28th.

​For now, I am toughening myself by playing through Elden Ring.

My children have long extolled the virtues of a PopSocket. However, I have avoided using them due to issues with them connecting with my phone case since I have used magnets to help connect my phones to in-car phone holders. Later, they seemed even more trouble than they were worth when I owned phones that could charge just by placing them on charging stations. Connor had tried to convince me to get one that gripped to the outside of the phone case, but I just didn't care for the hassle.

Then, just before the Rome and Athens trip, we found that there were new PopSockets that could connect to the new universal magnet system. I decided to get one and try it out for the trip, and I am so glad that I did. It has made holding my phone (which is a bit oversized as well) significantly easier. In particular, it helped me keep my grip when I was taking pictures, particularly selfies. Meanwhile, when I want to charge the phone or connect it to my in-car holder, I can just quickly pop it off and then just as easily pop it back on again when done. 

I now understand why my children have liked using them so much. 

Yesterday, I kept falling asleep while writing my post about the movies I watched on the planes. On at least four separate occasions, I was literally in the middle of a sentence only to jerk my head and wake up. Today, after working on clearing the roof snow that had created a path for our dogs to escape their dog yard again, I laid down in bed for what was going to be just a moment and had to force myself awake an hour and a half later. Even now, my eyes are heavy-lidded.

While this is certainly jet-lag from readjusting to my home time zone, I also have simply not been getting enough sleep. According to my Fitbit, I've only logged 18 hours of sleep for the past 4 nights. This has certainly cut into my productivity the past two days.

My plan? To go to bed right after finishing this post and also get caught up on sleep this weekend. It's simple and hopefully effective. I'm tired of sleepwalking through my days.

I try to sleep my way through flights, but on occasion, I will try to watch a movie or a show to pass the time. I don't like doing this because the sound usually isn't good and the screens are sometimes hard to see. However, there were several movies that caught my attention over the seven planes that we traveled in.

Ticket to Paradise--Frankly, I like rom-coms, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts and that was enough for me to want to watch this movie. The basic premise is that a divorced couple decide to join forces to stop their daughter's sudden wedding. As over-the-top the entire movie was, there was enough heart to make me like the characters and enough humor to make me genuinely laugh out loud at several points.

Strange World--The title to this movie is terrible and doesn't capture its essence, but the title Fern Gully has already been taken. While there were cute moments, this movie was quite ham-fisted (yet also sometimes inconsistent) with its message. I can see why I hadn't heard much about it.

Bullet Train--I did not expect to enjoy this movie as much as I did. The over-the-top violence was a bit too much at times, but the convoluted plot line was an absolute joy to follow. There was also a surprising amount of blink-and-you-miss-them cameos. which made the movie even more enjoyable for me. Sure, it stole a couple of parts almost directly from Deadpool, but I like Deadpool, so the humor and action hit me perfectly.

​There wasn’t supposed to be a day nine, but here we are. Thankfully, the travel has gone much more smoothly today; although, I am a bit concerned about the blizzard warning for the pass that starts after our arrival. I hope that it holds off. 

As I don’t really have pictures to share today, I thought that I would share some of reflections on the best and worst of the trip. 

Best country: Greece
As Ioannis promised, everything was generally better in Greece: the food, our hotel, the prices, and especially the friendlier people. 

Worst: France
Aside from the situation that led me to be there, France had worse food options with higher costs, but it was the outright contempt that so many of the people I came across treated me for using English that really irked me—especially in the airport. 

Best meal: This award goes to the gyro I had for lunch on our first full day in Greece. Our lunch the following day comes in a close second, but parts of my Mousaka were not quite warm. However, every meal in Greece outclassed any meal in the other countries. 

Worst: Dinner on our first full day in Rome. It was almost insulting. The main course was noodles with pepper, the hint of a sauce, and nothing else. At least they had the toast with tomatoes and olive oil as an appetizer, but the previous day had more than one slice per person and three different varieties (including one with an interesting olive spread). 

Best flight: Some people might have been turned off by the turbulence on our flight from Rome to Athens, but the slightly larger seats on the Airbus (as opposed to our Boeing flights) made it the most comfortable flight for me. 

Worst: This goes to the infamous Athens to Paris Flight even before the passport issue, as I had stabbing pains in my ears for both the takeoffs and the landings which left me unable to hear well with either ear for an hour and with my left ear until the following day (today). 

Best local guide: Hands down, Penny—who guided us at Delphi—was my favorite local guide. She kept the students’ attention more than any of the others by being truly passionate about the site as well as tying her information to the present day—and even the students’ lives. 

Worst: Philipo at the Vatican was not a bad guide, but he was the most difficult for me to understand. Meanwhile, the other half of the group who had Anna seemed to get more and better information. 

Best gelato: Connor and I had gelato every day we were together. Interestingly, my favorite was at the airport in Rome before our flight to Athens. The chocolate-lined cup was an extra bonus, but the flavors seemed more vibrant and they had the best dark chocolate. 

Worst: This goes back to the worst meal. They capped it with the smallest scoop of gelato I had seen with no offer of choice, ransoming giving people vanilla, chocolate, or some combination of the two. 

Best site: All of them. Seriously, there is not a single place that I would not want to see again—preferably with more time. However, the biggest letdown was the Vatican as we missed getting to St. Peter’s Basilica. 

I’m sending this now, before we board our final flight for Anchorage, but I doubt that anything on the list will change with that last leg.  

I’m not getting back to Alaska today, but most  (over 90%) of my travelers are. 

Due to the general strike in Paris, our flight from Athens was a little late in getting the clearance to leave. This made an already tight connection in Paris tighter still when they could not make a standard attachment to the airport, but instead had to send us multiple buses, further dividing our group. I made sure that I was in the back so that there weren’t stragglers. I caught up to my group at the passport check where one of the adults in the group pointed out that one of my students was on the ground desperately taking apart a carryon. We had already had a near miss at the Athens airport when another student had done something similar but multiple adults giving search were able to find the passport in a different part of the bag. We were not as lucky this second time. I knew we were in trouble when the student told me that they were certain the passport was left in the seat pocket on the plane. The student’s parent had already passed the check point but someone must have gotten word as the parent came running back. 

I told the rest of the group to move on and left my wonderful chaperones in charge. [Note: I have since been told that since the student’s parent was there that I should have stayed with my group and left the parent to deal with it on their own. However, I was stuck on the ideas that I wanted all of them to make it back, that I wanted to help any way that I could, that I would not want to be left alone, and that I trusted my chaperones to help the rest.] We followed the directions of the security officer who sent us to one AirFrance counter. After some miscommunication, they sent us to another counter in another part of the airport. It’s here that someone was able be informed about where the passport was located and go and check. However, they also informed us that there was no way for us to make it back through security and get on our plane to Minneapolis. 

We waited there for a while until we learned that they were able to find the passport, but that we would need to go to yet another counter in yet another part of the airport to get a change in flights. The rebooking counter then mistakenly sent us to another counter who sent us back only to have us wait in an even longer line for them to tell us that we needed to go to the Delta rebooking desk. The Delta desk originally suggested that there was nothing that they could do as the general strike (which delayed our first takeoff) had all of the flights booked. After a discussion with our EF representative (whom I had on the phone) they used a “computer trick” to get us the same flights that we had today for tomorrow. 

EF suggested that we explore Paris, forgetting that there was a general strike that made getting there or back difficult and expensive (not to mention closing down most businesses and tourist areas) AND massive protests which would make it not much fun anyway. They did get us a really nice hotel (with the most comfortable bed that I’ve yet had on this trip). However, it took us an hour an a half of phone haggling (a lot of it spent on hold) and waiting for the hotel to send its shuttle to pick us up. 

Janelle told me that I need to walk out of the hotel so that I could at least say that I walked around in France (beyond the airport). I did so for a couple of hours and explored the Disney-esque town of Roissy. I came across a locally historic church and nearby well. I followed the playful sounds of children to find them at recess (I only took a picture of the name of the school as taking a picture of the kids would be a little creepy). I found a patisserie and was able to follow my parents’ advice to eat a croissant while in France (I also purchased a lemon tart). It wasn’t as earth shattering as my other days on tour, but I had a couple of pleasant hours. 

Today could have been so much worse. Still, I desperately hope that tomorrow gets me and my fellow travelers home. 

Oh, and happy Vernal Equinox!

It might have seemed a little strange to some people that I added the Oracle of Delphi as an excursion on this trip as it took away an entire day of exploring Athens (just as the Pompeii trip took away a day from Rome). However, I have long been fascinated with the history and mythology surrounding Delphi (not to mention its connection to literature). Thus, when I saw it as an option, I asked my travel consultant about it, and she told me that many people consider it the perfect highlight for the end of the trip. 

She was right. 

Just the trip there (which I did sleep through more than I intended) was gorgeous. The site and its museum were both worth the effort. Our guide was the best yet of the trip; she not only told the history, but she tied it to the present in such a captivating way that my students were not only attentive, they even peppered her with questions which she answered with aplomb. She then left us to explore on our own. It was quite a hike up to the topmost stadium, but the view and the ruins themselves took my breath away more than the climb itself. Pictures do not do it justice. The museum (named after the Muses whose mother is Memory) was well laid out and easy to find what I was looking for. All in all, it was an amazing experience.

Our Tour Director, Ioannis, took us to a wonderful place for lunch where Connor and I tried and enjoyed the traditional Greek Mousakas (with beef, potato, eggplant, and other things that I don’t remember). He then took us on a side trip to the Greek island (assessable by bridge), Chalcis. There, Connor and I found our daily gelato. We also got to see a Greek area not focused on, and this dominated by, tourism. It was a calming final excursion. 

It’s hard to believe that we are heading home already tomorrow. I’m looking forward to being home, but not to the travel—especially as my sinuses have been giving me trouble today. Tomorrow will be a long day, but I have the memories of this trip and the thoughts of the comfort of home to get me through it.

With so many amazing sites on our itinerary, it’s hard to say which one I was the most excited to see; however, the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis was certainly in the top of the list. Like every place we’ve been, the Acropolis was even granger than I expected. Even seeing it from the bus or at lit up in the evening brought me an intense sense of the history I was seeing, but being right up next to it was beyond compare. 

We did, however, get quite a workout. Not only does the Acropolis require quite a hike (and a LOT of stairs), but we bookended our trip with a Greek dance lesson in the morning and a hike through a historical district (which looks like the villas on the islands and ended with the ancient Agora) in the evening. We also walked for a couple hours through Plaka and then the Acropolis museum (which is built so that the art—especially at the top floor) is laid out where it would have originally been placed. 

Interesting facts that I learned: 
Each side of the Parthenon is dedicated to a separate group whom the Greeks fought. The short sides depict fights against giants in one side and Amazons on the other. The longer sides depict fights against men on horses on one side and literal horsemen (centaurs) on the other. 
The Parthenon’s friezes included exquisite carving on the back side of the statues even though no human was meant to see them (because the gods still could). 
The “door” I spotted underneath the Parthenon actually led to the Sanctuary of Dionysus at the top of a massive amphitheater. 
The statue of Athena (long since completely destroyed) included a human sized statue of Nike (the goddess of victory) in one of her hands. 

Once again, we had amazing food. It turns out that the gyro is named after the process used to cook the meat. In fact, our lunch gyro had the pita bread off to the side and was mostly a pile of that specially roasted pork (lamb is not part of a traditional Greek gyro). We also found another gelato place. 

Tomorrow we have our final excursion to the Oracle at Delphi.