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Showing posts from January 10, 2010

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
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I am having a good Friday so far. It has been very refreshing talking technical publications and technical information strategy details with some large companies. There sure are a lot of NYS forms and agencies to fill out for the bakery. It would be unwise to consider that she has it all figured out at this point. It is hard to imagine what a "non-free country" is like compared to these bureaucratic side-steps and barriers to entry. Here is a current pic of the orange tree I started from an orange from my lunch in about 1998. I started eating the orange and discovered an enormous amount of seeds in it. I took some seeds from my mouth, placed the seeds in a coffee cup with paper towels and germinated them. I have lost count how many transplants and prunings it has gone through at this point. It needs another session. Behind the plant you can see Artemis hanging out in this delightfully warm weather (for a llama).