nkped

I recently attended a lunch time presentation by the Lithuanian ambassador to the U.S. In 1991, he had seen Soviet tanks on the street in Lithuania and has no doubt that Putin is cause of great concern to his country. In a line I suspect he had used before, he said something like "Putin being a good KGB agent, I guess it should be bad KGB agent, no, actually Putin was a mediocre KGB agent." One of his proposed solutions was the permanent stationing of a NATO brigade in the Baltic states, a battalion each in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

84F/29C in Anchorage and 19+ hours of daylight. Life is good.

You might ask the Georgians as well about Putin.

And who were you flying with at 6am, if it wasn't Delta?

Good catch, although properly a 747-8. http://747-8.lufthansa.com

I was thinking it was an A340. I have to admit that was by process of elimination--not 747 or A380 so what was left with 4 engines?

That may not be a positive recommendation.

If you use the reservation form on their site, they can be a bit spotty in responding. They seem to do better with "from scratch" emails. Last trip was close to two months ago, so things may have changed.

Apparently, the folks at Bell Travel are unaware that "are in sercive" is Kiwi for suspended. Or perhaps, it is just the Don Maung service which is suspended. For more detail on this route, drill down to http://www.belltravelservice.com/pages/PageAboutSharedTransfer.aspx.

AFAIK=As far as I know. I doubt you are going to get a lower rate. I stayed there last October for the same reason. I paid about $213 through Agoda because I am leary of non refundable reservations. Not really a recommendation, but another late stay site is wotif.com.

Sorry, but the Humpty Dumpty poem keeps coming to mind.

According to this writer, a little aging is needed but more is not better. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/07/is-aged-beef-overrated/60577/

In Ohio and much of the rest of the US, grass feeding beef cattle wouldn't really be practical due to lack of real estate. I wonder if we may have developed the taste for grain fed beef because that was what was available. It may also make economic sense if you grow your own grain.

I would not describe that as a consensus! Front desk safes always struck me as one stop shopping for thieves. I'm glad I have not encountered a hotel which had them in several years. I use in room safes as it beats most of the alternatives. A few years back, I checked into the Residence Garden and found the safe was locked. I told the front desk. A young woman came to the room with a hand held electronic device. She had the safe open in a couple of minutes.

Been away from the farm for a long time, but I don't recall any subsidy for beef production.

We never named them. I do remember being told not to scratch the bull's ears. This was after my dad caught himself doing just that. His concern was that the bull might return the favor, which could have had unfortunate consequences with a 1,200 lb animal.

There is an old line that goes something like "Men who raise beef cattle want their steak done." That certainly described my dad. EP may or may not have heard that line. At any rate, I grew up eating thin cut, pan fried, tender steak which we had raised. My personal theory is the chefs are all food snobs who take it as a personal affront if you order a steak well done and, as a result, intentionally leave it on the grill until it achieves shoe leather status. As a result, I order my steak medium well. As to Idefix's query, until I left home, dinner, and steak, was eaten at noon. The

This is one of the great theological debates which does not have a right answer. With the outfit I book with, finding the driver has not been an issue. YMMV. Also, I have some assurance the driver will know how to get to my destination in Pattaya. After a 20 hour trip, I do well to remember my own name. Getting to the taxi stand, getting a taxi and communicating my destination is more than I what I want to deal with. Not criticizing your preference, just explaining why some of us might not share it.

You forgot to, too and two.

You may have it already. I did when I got my current AIS 1-2 GO SIM. Even with my old, cheap Nokia, I could check my two email accounts (actually easier than I can now with a smart phone). If, by chance, you don't, I'm sure the good folks at the AIS shop in Central Festival could set you up. You have the idea. Unless you know you want to access the Internet someplace where you don't have wifi, leave the mobile data off.

I'm not going to assert any expertise on the Pattaya market, but I'm one of those who bought a condo in the U.S. in 2007. I've been a landlord for almost three years now and the rent comes close to covering my monthly costs. In a couple of years, I may be above water. My $40K down payment? For get about it! From where I stay in Jomtien, I can see around 15 highrises under construction. I have trouble imagining the market can support all of that construction.

The burrito looks good but I would need to invite one of the priests from St Nikolaus church to come along to administer the last rites when I stroked out.

Not difficult with Kasikorn either. If you are in a big hurry, a 200 baht top up can be done without the OTP step.

I find an increasing number of booking rates on Agoda to be nonrefundable, but always with notice on their site. If they say it is refundable, never an issue if I provided the required not ice.

Probably a good idea. Having one of Pastrami on Rye's sandwiches the same day you had the full English breakfast at the Pig 'n Whistle would be taking things a bit far.