Change in Plans?

We're starting to get to the short strokes on the Alaska cruise. With my m-i-l's health, we're also thinking of contingencies. Besides the obvious, what if she gets a lot worse and my wife doesn't think she should go? Should the HB and I go with my parents? All for one and one for all?

This brings back baaaaaaad memories. When my f-i-l was sick (with pancreatic cancer for 3 years, if you can believe that) we made and canceled all kinds of travel plans (I'm most bitter about our trip to Spain falling through). Why do I get the feeling that we're getting back on that roller coaster?

City with Cold Broad Shoulders

Sorry for the posting delay. It's been a crazy week getting the NZS II setup at school, work and traveling. Bad Chat Wrecker!

Chicago's fine. Not too cold and the hotel is surprisingly quiet considering how close it is to Midway airport. I'm doing some work for the waste water treatment agency. In the irony department, they have a sign over the toilet reminding people to flush.

Tonight I'm getting together with a friend of mine from grad school for drinks and dinner. He pulled some minor strings to re-arrange a business trip for when I'm here. He lives about 2.5 hours away, so I'm glad he's making it up here. He grew up in the Chicago 'burbs and he always finds cool places for us to go when we meet up here. Funny, we almost never get together in a city where either of us currently lives.

Tomorrow's a short meeting day, but I'm not sure I'll be able to catch an earlier non-stop back home. It's OK. I've got plenty of work to do and with the HB having Friday afternoon play rehearsal getting home early doesn't buy me any extra family time (the NZS II has a soccer game that I won't be able to catch regardless of my flight schedule). Glad I have those extra Southwest drink coupouns.

Phreezing in Philly

OK, it's not that cold here (probably in the 20s now, getting into the 30s). My flight was early arriving last night, which was good as I got to see most of the second half of the BCS game. Here's what we learned from the college bowl games:

1) The Big-12 was WAY over-rated and they can't play defense. When those high scoring offenses played against good defenses they were very pedestrian.

2) The Big 10 gets worse and worse. You know things are bad when your best bowl game is a moral victory (OSU only losing by 3). At least the one Big 10 win was against Spurrier (heh).

3) 'SC's loss to Oregon St. wasn't so bad afterall.

4) Does Mack Brown thing Texas would have tied Florida?

5) Utah got screwed

I spoke to the wife last night and connected via Facebook with some of the NZS's friends. By all accounts yesterday's final goodbyes were heart-wrenching and full of tears. The HB kept things well in perspective: He was here and it was cool, and I'll see him again. The HB thought it was pretty cool that due to the length of the flight on the time change the NZS won't have a Friday. He plans on sending him an e-mail today to remind him.

I'll be heading off to the funeral in about an hour. I'm getting the sense that since my uncle chose his final path there isn't the same sadness as when his wife (my aunt by blood) died 18 months ago. Of course, that might all change once the proceedings start.

Turns out that I was in error booking my return flight as it's right in the middle of the Eagles game. I told my cousin's husband that I'd change my flight to a bit earlier so he won't have to miss the 1st quarter taking me to the airport.

Back from Vegas, Baby

I got back from Vegas last night. All I had was dial-up in my room (the high speed was, like most everything else there, ridiculously priced), so blogging would have been tough.

The reason for my visit was to present at a conference. I had a less than desirable spot (3-4:30pm), but still had a packed room. I'm thinking all of these folks got their asses handed to them at the tables (hm...sorta like I did). The talk went well. Lots of good questions and I had a lot of energy. I doubt that I got any clients out of it, but who knows.

I really enjoy the people who go to this conference, so a bunch of us got together for a great dinner at Chinois (where we kept an eye on the Rays beating the Sox...heh) on Sunday night and some gambling on Sunday. After the meeting Monday morning, most of my buds headed out of town. So, I pretty much went solo. I played some cards with some fun folks from the midwest and hung out in a dive bar to watch Monday Night Football. The bartender was smokin' hot and guys were crawling over each other to hit on her...very funny stuff. My presentation was on Tuesday and I left town immediately after as I was able to get on an earlier flight.

The NZS wants to see Vegas before he leaves in January. I can see the interest, but there really won't be much for him and the HB to do there. But, it will be cool for him to see it, so we'll make the trip and then probably go see the Grand Canyon as well.

Kansas City, Kansas City Here I Am

Ah, back in Fountain City. Truth be told, I enjoy coming here. I LOVE my client here and I dumbed into a hotel in an old part of the city with plenty of local (e.g., non-chain) places to hang. Being the baseball fan that I am, I went to the Royals-Mariners game tonight.

Usually when I'm here, the Royals are out of town. But, they were home tonight and it was a beautiful night to be outside. Of course, both teams are mired in last place, so it was kind of a glorified AAA game. However, I hopped in the car (a Dodge Charger) picked up a cheap ticket in the parking lot and caught the game.

The first thing you notice at the stadium is the HUGE FUCKING scoreboard in center field. Very bright, great quality and plenty of numbers for the stats/fantasy geeks. The next thing you notice is that Royals management clearly wasn't envisioning making the playoffs this year as they are doing major construction everywhere in the stadium...outfield, seats, everywhere. True to the city's name, the water shows in the outfield were pretty cool and well lit. If you looked hard enough, you could find Boulevard beer on tap. Oh, and the Royals won 5-2.

I actually have a light day tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to get out early enough to check out either the Negro Baseball or American Jazz museums in town. Either way, I've got a non-stop home (ilu, Southwest) so I'll get to tuck the HB into bed.

The Big Trip: Last Stop, ABQ

After the caverns, we drove to Albuquerque to visit my b-i-l and his wife. They have a nice house in the Sandia foothills, just south of the tram. It's great for watching the thunderstorms over the mesa below.

They took two days to play with us. The first day we drove out towards Bandelier National Monument. Before getting there, we drove through some beautiful mountains and went to Jemez State Monument. I think its biggest claim to fame is that it is across the street from where many catholic bishops send their pedophile priests.

The cool thing about Bandelier is that the Native Americans built homes against the lava ash cliffs and they dug caves into the cliffs. There are the remains of the homes that they built over 1,000 years ago. The rooms have many petroglyphs and several of the structures have been restored. Our ranger had been there through the 70s and decided to tell us everything she knew about the place. Even the HB was hoping she would talk less so that we could talk more. Having said that, I forgot to mention that our guide at Carlsbad Caverns was awesome. We had a small group (less than 20) and he clearly had a passion for caves.

After Badelier, we looped around to have an early dinner in Santa Fe. IMHO, Santa Fe is a a 36 hour town. I'm not much of a shopper, and I don't need to look at an entire museum of Georgia O'Keefe paintings to realize that she liked cow skulls and to paint flowers so that they look like vaginas. Since this was the third time I've been there (and have more than extinguished the 36 hours), I'm glad that all we did was grab dinner (awesome spinach enchiladas in red chile sauce) then headed back to ABQ.

Thursday, it was time to get some gambling in. So, after breakfast we went to the Route 66 casino. The big draw there was that they have a great kids area. So, we parked the HB there for a bit (don't feel bad for him--they had arcade and video games, including Rock Band) and hit the tables.

I played blackjack for 30 minutes and didn't lose a hand. My wife and I sat down and played pai-gow poker. This time, I think I lost one hand. So, my winnings covered her losings, the HB's time at the kid center and lunch for the five of us. Woot!

From the casino we went to Acoma. Driving onto the reservation, it's clear that they have reinvested their casino profits well. We saw many new houses, youth centers, schools, and a very fancy visitor center/museum.

These people really know how to market. Everything cost extra, including a permit to take pictures. I guess spirits are for sale. Every step of the way there was someone selling pottery.

Here's what I don't get. Like most of the Indian villages, things were going OK, then the Spaniards got there, said, "Accept our god, or else" and gave the natives the "or else." After being enslaved to build a church on their sacred land they eventally accepted christianity. The Spaniards eventually leave (after killing off 90% of the natives and leaving the rest impovershed), yet they remain catholics (our guide crossed himself with holy water when we entered and left the church). Why in the world would you continue bow to the god that brought you so much misery? However, this gave me the opportunity to talk to the HB about how when people with god and weapons encounter people with neither, it's a bad thing for the latter.

So, since the Acoma's are so strict about pictures (and, believe me, the views from up there are amazing), here are some for you (not taken by me). Though, I did sneak in one of some road runner-coyote rock formations.






Every now and then you'll hear arguments in the sports world about whether teams should have Native American mascots. I noticed that one of the cars on Acoma had a Washington Redskins license plate (our guide hates the Dallas Cowboys, and is a bit of a San Diego Chargers fan since he was stationed there). When I asked him about this he replied, "You know, I don't really care...they're fake Indians."

We got back to my b-i-l's house and watched Obama's speech on TiVo and got packed up. At that moment, I was glad that we flew instead of drove, because after 1600 miles in the car during the last week, an 800 mile drive back to LA would have sucked. We said our goodbyes the next morning and caught the short, if bumpy, flight back home.

It was an awesome trip. I hope that the HB remembers it.

The Big Trip: Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns always struck me as a stereotypical family trip. It's in the middle of fucking nowhere. It's in New Mexico, but it's closer to El Paso than Albuquerque in distance and geography. I can imagine the kids fighting while the family's driving across the desert, the AC barely keeping the temperature below 80.

All the towns around boom and bust with the oil and gas business, but the latest boom didn't seem to have caught up yet. There were lots of trailers in the brush and it looked like ground zero for meth labs.

We pulled into town late, so we missed the bats flying out of he cave. But, we did eat at Chili's, the nicest restaurant in town. While we were there, we had quite the in-depth conversation with the HB about steroids and why they are harmful and make the users cheaters.

A few years ago we had gone to the Crystal Cave at Sequoia National Park. The rooms were pretty big and the marble rock had a stream running through it which led to some stunning colors. Geologically, the Carlsbad caves are very different. This meant no great colors, but the rooms were HUGE--some 200 ft tall. This picture won't do it justice, but will give you an idea. By the way, these two formations don't quite touch. A bit of a frustrated kiss.



Besides missing the bats, there were other trails that we didn't have a chance to hike, so I would definitely go back next time we're in ABQ. The Days Inn in town was relatively new, quiet (despite all of the oil workers drinking beer in the parking lot) and had a warm pool.

The Big Trip: Capulin Volcano

After a good dinner, and a couple of beers, we headed down I-25 to Raton, at the CO-NM border. What this description papers over was that Raton Pass was a big trading route and in the late 1800's, this dude who owned the land there put up a toll booth and charged $1.50 for goods and people to pass. A pretty good business. The city fathers are still at it as they were able to get the last (for a while) casino licence in NM.

Raton was a good stopping place for two reasons. One, is that it is more or less halfway between Boulder and our big destination (Carlsbad Caverns). Second, there's a very cool volcano (no pun intended) nearby.

The Capulin volcano has two main hiking trails. The first is around the top and is roughly 1 mile in circumference. The other is a short, but steep, trail that leads to where the vent was. The great thing about the former is that you can see all across New Mexico, even into Oklahoma. You can also see the ridges in the land where the lava flowed when Capulin blew its top. Apparently, the NM lava fields cover an area the size of Massachusetts (poor HB had to LEARN on his vacation).

After the volcano, we grabbed some lunch and then headed to Carlsbad.

The Big Trip: The Tornado

So, just as the democrats are getting ready for their hoo-rah in Denver, we're driving to the burbs south of the city to have dinner at a micro brewery ('natch) with our vacation buddies and their kids. On the way there, I notice some very dark clouds to the east. No biggie, summer thunder storms are de riguer in these parts. Then I notice a funnel coming out of one of them and point it out to the wife and the HB as we just do not get those in LA.

Slowly, but surely it made its way to the ground.



People were pulling off the road to take pictures, videos. The one above was taken from near our friends' house. Apparently, it did a bunch of damage. No more shit about earthquakes, k?

So, as this bad boy was finishing up, we drove to dinner, first through hail, then through biblical rain. It was great hanging with them for a couple of hours as we really didn't get the chance to at the lake house. The irony being that I'll see the dad this weekend for our fantasy football draft and the UCLA-Tennessee game.

One thing that struck me about this part of CO was the whiteness. Between Boulder and Denver, I don't remember seeing an Asian, African-American or Hispanic. When we split the tab at the restaurant, the waitress couldn't quite get it right, so she apologized for it being so "ghetto", as if she'd been in one. From this and conversations with out friends, I got the sense it was a white christians only kinda place. Obviously, the tornado was taking care of the sinners.

The Big Trip: The Lake House

Ah...back in LA. It's nice to feel the sea breeze after a week.

The trip was better than expected. I kept my expectations low given the amount of car time, packing and unpacking, etc. But most everything went great. The HB's always been a good traveler, and he was quite the trooper this go around.

I had plenty of wifi, but not much time to post, so here's what happened (in multiple installments).

LA to Denver was no problem. It's just that DIA is so huge that everything takes for fucking ever. And the wife insisted on checking our bags. But, we got our car (and upgraded to a Sebring with satellite radio) and got to our friends' place in Boulder at 10pm.

I've known Louis since junior high school. He and Reggie have been married for, oh, probably 20 years now and have lived in CO for the last 15. They have a boy who's a year younger than the HB and a girl who's about 18 months older. We've gotten together with them in CA before, so there were no problems with the kids. Louis is a physical therapist by training, eventually got an MBA and now runs an orthopedict surgery practice. Reggie was a middle manager for a big hardware company, took a huge buyout and now works for a middle sized consulting company. They live the full-on Boulder lifestyle in that they bike, ski, play tennis, etc. They'd been asking us to come to CO forever, so I finally convinced the wife that we should do it.

They have a house near Lake Granby. And when I say a house, I don't mean some dusty two bedroom shack they visit twice a year. It's a 5 bedroom, 5 bath place that they lived in for a year while Louis was finishing up his distance MBA. It's a good thing it was so big because two other sets of friends came. One was our vacation buddies and their kids. The other was a recently divorced buddy (another guy I've known since high school) and his kids. Despite loving to party when she was younger, his ex-decided that god was more important than her husband. Both of his boys have varying degrees of Asberger's syndrome. The older one who is going into high school seems to either have a better handle on it or fewer obvious symptoms. The younger one, who is 12 seems to have a heavy dose in that he's socially immature, ruminates about everything and seems to be missing the editor between his brain and his mouth. He's a good kid, but, sheesh, can he talk.

So, we all got out to the lake house around lunch time on Saturday. We went horseback riding (I think I was on Valium, the wife was on Xanax, etc.) and hiking around. Reggie made a great dinner, the kids had a good time and the adults put away the booze. Good times.

Sunday morning a batch of us when fishing (no luck) while the first crew went on the boat for some skiing/tubing. They had quite the tubing contraption in that it was a mini inflatable sofa that sat 3. You could not wipe the smiles off of the kids' faces when they were on it (I'm sure that I was the same way). The HB managed to get flung out of it, but got right back on.

After getting back fromthe water, we ate some lunch and went up to Grand Lake. The highest elevation natural lake in the US (woohoo). Since our vacation buddies headed out early, we wanted to get an early start to have dinner with them before the first of our big drives.

Bunking Down in ABQ

After another 300 mile driving day, we're at my b-i-l's in ABQ. We had a great day at the Carlsbad Caverns (I'll post pics when I get home). What a fucking amazing place.

It'll be nice to sleep in the same place for 3 nights in a row.

More travel notes when I have the chance.

Mid-Travel Update

Just have a couple of minutes, but here's the update:

Granby Lake was awesome. The kids had a great time and being with so many great friends was awesome.

We barely dodged the tornadoes outside of Denver. Did get hailed on. The HB was suitably impressed by the hole thing.

Northwest New Mexico is FAR prettier than Southwest NM (where we are now). If this isn't the meth capital of the country, we're not far from it.

Off to the Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow, then ABQ.

Touch Down

The travel gods were with me today in that I hit the BART train/airport shuttle right on time. Due to the storms in the midwest some flights were delayed, including my scheduled one, which allowed Southwest to put me on an earlier one without paying any extra $$. On top of it all, I got home just in time to watch the Lakers beat the Celtics. Woot!

It was good day at the conference. I got my call done in the am and got packed up. Lunch with my web developer was awesome. We (including her bf) went to the cool brewpub and sat outside. It was a great day to be out and we talked like we'd been friends forever.

Back at the conference I heard some good talks and gave out an award (and got a new computer briefcase). Even made a good new business contact. Of course, everything couldn't go well. The old gf had to cancel due to a impending deadline...sigh...we were both looking forward to getting caught up.

Tomorrow should be good. I have the HB for the day and I'll take him to Rotary (where he'll get a gigantic PB&J). We'll definitely have some fun after that.

Hittin' the Road

Back in the day (before the HB), I traveled a good bit. Probably about 30% of the time. The reasons for this were a) I was trying build a nationwide business, b) I still had a lot of clients in LA (we were living near Boston at the time) and c) I didn't really like being in Boston any more than I had to be.

The guys I worked with at the time did the kind of consulting where you left town Monday morning and came back Thursday night. What boggled me was that they had young kids when they did that. I cannot imagine trying to be a dad that way. So, when my wife got pregnant I cut way back on the travel. Of course, the ever expanding internet helped me do this without hurting my business much.

However, I still have a bit of wanderlust in me. It's good to get away about once of month for a couple of days. The HB's a bit more self-sufficient now, so it's not as big of deal. Careful readers note that the HB and I have more bachelor nights (like last night) than nights when I'm on the road.

So, today I'm off to the plains to make a client presentation. The data came out as predicted, so I have good news for them (and hopefully me in terms of expanded business). I was hoping to catch a baseball game, but the forecast calls for rain. We'll see what the conditions are on the ground. The hotel where I stay has wifi, so I'll be in touch.

Blowing Through the Windy City

I had a quick (<36 hours) trip to Chicago on Sunday/Monday. It was my intention to blog on Sunday night, but the hotel didn't have reasonably priced internet access (phone line or wireless). Why is it that the cheapie hotels offer free internet and the moderately expensive ones don't. Sheesh.

The reason for the trip was a board meeting of a professional organization to which I belong. I figure if you're a member of a volunteer organization and they ask you to participate/lead it your fist instinct should be "Yes". Unfortunately, this group lacks a unifying purpose for existence (which is not to imply it's a waste of time, because it's not), so it makes the board meetings painful due to endless discussions of mission and strategy instead of getting things done.

One of the "laws" of psychology is that personality is stable. However, this trip reminds me of how I've changed. I used to love going to meetings and conferences to schmooze and network. Now, not so much. I don't know if it's because I learned that a little gets me as much as a lot in terms of making contacts or because I've become more of an introvert (feeling that being in large groups drains rather than energizes me). Regardless, due to the nature of the meeting and my lack of interest in schmoozing, I got on the first flight home yesterday, which had the added benefit of allowing me to go to my Rotary board meeting. At least there we actually get stuff done because we have clear mission.

I'll leave you with a great restaurant recommendation in Chicago: Yoshi's Cafe.

Remembering Merv

I'm sure that you saw that Merv Griffin died the other day. While I'm not a big talk show or game show fan, the guy knew how to make a buck (and then some).

My wife and I have vacation friends, let's call them Jack and Katrina. We started vacationing with them close to 20 years ago, and while we don't go with them as often now that we have kids, we still have a great time traveling with them. Several years ago, we decided to meet them in San Antonio, then drive to Austin, then drive to New Orleans.

I'm not a big fan of San Antonio. The Riverwalk is too tourista and soulless (I prefer St. Mary's Street). We took the obligatory trip to The Alamo. On the way there Jack is needling me a little about Davey Crockett leading all of these Tennesseans to fight with the Texans there. So, we get there and there is a memorial to all of those from the Volunteer state (fighting at the Alamo is one reason it got the nickname)--all 12 of them. I got tons of shit after that (What, a bar closed and the last stage coach was heading west?). Later on we went to the Lone Star brewery (don't be jealous...the beer's just a shitty at the brewery). The tasting room is filled with animals heads and they try to pass it off as some sort of natural history museum. Regardless, we got our free beer, went outside and had what might have been the first discussion of Kandinsky ever held on the premises.

After San Antone, we drove to Austin. That is a great fucking town and highly recommend that you go if you haven't. We made a trip to the LBJ Library. Pretty interesting stuff since he had such a long political career. One document stuck out. It was from McGeorge Bundy. He had just gotten back from Vietnam (this was in 1964) and he basically said, "We can never win this thing, we should just get the fuck out." And, 8 short years later, we did. We also took a short trip to the hill country to do some wine tasting. Yes, wine tasting in Texas (OK, we drank a lot on our vacations with them). We headed to one place that was little more than a shack, tasted some wine and asked the owner/vintner why he was making the stuff there. He said something about the Ph in the soil and felt that he could make a pretty good $5 bottle of wine. He was right. We then meandered up the road to a much more ostentatious place. Big Georgian looking house with a curved driveway. Once inside, we saw all of the awards the wine had (supposedly) won. The employee poured us some tastes and we asked why Mr. Smith had a winery. Well, it turns out that he's a big time Austin lawyer, and a bunch of years ago he and the missus toured France, and boy, if the Bordeaux region didn't look just like their ranch outside of Austin. So, they should be able to grow good grapes there. The wine was piss. Before leaving town, a waiter at a big bar over looking Lake Travis turned us on to Banana Blender Surprise and we checked them out at a club/bar on 6th Street.

We then drove to New Orleans. On the way, we stopped at the Players Casino off of Lake Charles. It's a shitty riverboat casino on a lake totally polluted by the petrochemical plants that line it. So, we sat down and played. We were all doing well, especially Katrina. By this time, we had also had a few drinks. She was playing with her chips and Jack asked what she was doing. she looked down and said, "Fingering Merv." Hilarity ensued and every time we won a hand we made some joke about fingering, or otherwise abusing Merv. The rest of the trip was OK. It was ungodly hot, even by New Orleans standards, but we drank a lot and heard some good music.

But, when I think of Merv Griffin, I always think of Lake Charles, LA. RIP, Merv.

More Travel

Well, I did get more drinks last night before we landed in LA at about 11:30.

When I first started consulting, and especially when the wife and I lived in the Boston area, I traveled a bunch. I wasn't in the fly out every Sunday, come home Thursday night mode, but I would be gone about 25% to 30% of the time. Part of that was because I was building a national practice, the other part was that I just hated being in Boston.

I enjoyed seeing different cities and the perks and upgrades were nice. Though, I made a point of calling friends at midnight when I was stuck in some airport so I could remind them how glamorous my life was.

When my wife got pregnant with the HB I cut way back on the traveling. I didn't want to be one of those guys who only saw his kids on the weekends and it's not as if my wife doesn't also have a real career. Moving back to CA helped since I was flying back here a lot. Also, and it sounds quaint now, but a lot of data that I used to go and collect I can have sent to me via e-mail or the web. Given all that, I still get a little edgy if I don't head out of town (either for business or pleasure) once a month or so.

When I flew a lot I was better at it. Switching time zones didn't bother me and I could sleep in just about any bed. Now that I don't do it as much (and, let's be honest, I'm older) I'm not as good at it. The trip I went on was a long, but quick one. I left LA Wednesday afternoon and flew to Hartford (btw--Hartford has some cool attractions, like the Mark Twain house). My flight landed at about 1am and I had an hour to drive. I got to the hotel and since it was so late they had given my room away. So, I got the bonus upgrade to a HUGE suite that was handicapped accessible...which means that it had a gigantic shower to boot. My head hit the pillow at about 2:30 and I don't think I slept a wink, even though I was exhausted. I took a sleeping pill, but that just gave me dry mouth. I don't even remember yawning.

So, I got up around 8, did e-mail etc. and took a 10am call. My presentation was at 1, so I had plenty of time to prepare. It went fine (they're interviewing consultants like it's fucking American Idol or something, so I'll know if I get to sing again in about two weeks) and I got my car at about 3 so I could drive the hour to Providence, RI, where I was catching my plane home (with a stop in Phoenix).

When my wife and I were in Boston, we used to love going to Providence. It's not a big city (pop around 250k), but it has great theater, lots of good Portuguese food and plenty of good art and music since with Brown and RISD there. The airport is pretty small and easy to navigate. So, I get on my flight and the number of little kids on there is amazing. Basically, all the kids who had the good sense to get out of RI, since there aren't many jobs there, and move to the southwest had just finished the week with grandma and grandpa and were flying from the heat and humidity back to the dry heat. I hadn't seen this many kids even on flights to Orlando (hell in the US, sorry Lola). This made for a VERY long flight...but at least Mr. Southwest didn't forget the Jack Daniels. And, you've read about the rest of the flight in my previous post.

I'll write more later today.

Travel Blues

I was really going to make a reasonable post...but right now I'm stuck in Phoenix (with their free wifi) while waiting for a flight with people coming from Birmingham to get on my flight to LA (the last one of the night). I haven't slept in about 48hrs and there was nothing but screaming kids on my flight from Providence to Phoenix. I need (another) drink.