Butler 4

On a table of tourist trinkets I found the funniest thing. You'll notice refrigerator magnates. You'll notice all the pictures of socialists. Tito, Che, Putin, Yeltsin, Gorbachev.... and Obama.

The graffiti says, "Today Greece, tomorrow the rest of Europe." (You'll notice that the "a" is an anarchy sign. Love it.

This is the communist housing that Rebekah lived in. It's wasn't has dreary as it looks. Just kind of.

There are signs that lead to the Castle.
Slovenia has never had any royalty, but they have had quite a few overlords in their day. This Castle is set on top of the hill in the center of town. It's a great place to over look the city.
Here is the chapel. Currently the castle is being renovated so it's just kind of a walk around aimlessly checking out the grounds with no direction while wondering how it all used to work kind of place.
During the sixties and seventies Hippies took over the castle and lived there in a commune sort of way. It was probably ridiculous. Finally the city kicked them out. Now if you get married in Ljubljana you have to married by the mayor in the castle. It's the law.

I have been to McDonald's multiple times in my life. Sometimes multiple times in one day. I have never seen these items offered.
Rebekah and I went to get some hot chocolate. She said that they have two kinds. One that is thick and one that was a more standard hot chocolate. She asked me which kind I wanted to get. I thought she was pulling my leg. Of course I want the thick version. She got the regular as pictured above.
Mine came out looking like this above. This is a simple case of someone made a good choice and someone made a bad choice. I love making good choices. Especially when they taste like warm chocolate pudding that you are meant to drink.
For kicks we got Mexican food. Very interesting sides. You can have mashed potatoes or you can get potato wedges. I'm not complaining... I love mashed potatoes. It's just interesting.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any "Slovenian" food. It just really wasn't around that I saw.

Slovenia has one famous poet. This is him with his muse above him. When the statue was first made it caused a bit of a stir. His muse really is dressed properly for the cold Slovenian winters.
It turns out that this poet had a love affair with a lady in town. But she was unable to return his love because she was married. It was a bit of a scandal. I few years after this statue was made a statue of his secret love looking out a window towards the poet was installed on an adjacent building. Now everyone knows about it.
Basically Slovenia is small town USA European style. It has a cute little down town that is full of art nouveau buildings. Out side the downtown center it's mostly communist minimalist architecture. Which is interesting in it's own way. I prefer the art nouveau more though.
Love this color combo on this building.
See what I'm talking about. Isn't this just that perfect quaint euro town picture?

My previous apartment in NYC I paid the rent with my American Express card. I got a ton of frequent flier miles this way. Now without a job... I had some time to use some of them. Above is a shot of the sun setting over JFK. As I waited for my Air France flight to board.
After hours of flying I can see Paris over the horizon. Friends... I don't know how this happened but in the last year and a half I've been to Europe 4 times. I hope that I can keep the trend going. Turns out... Europe is a lot of fun to visit.
First sign that your not in JFK anymore? Extremely well-designed restrooms.
Oh Parisians.... must your need to smoke be so bad?
You might think that I was going to Paris. I've been there before... time to get on a smaller plane and head to Slovenia. It's part of the former Yugoslavia. (The really pretty part). I like planes with propellers on them. It makes me feel like I'm in an Indiana Jones film.

While in Indy the back deck was in need off sprucing up. Tracy, Brooke, and myself decided to clean the back yard up and get it ready for winter. Although winter had already been upon us. This included cleaning off the deck. Putting away the deck chair cushions. Taking down the hammock. Cleaning out the shed and reorganizing it. Then there was the small matter of breaking down unwanted chairs to fit in the garbage more efficiently. This was especially enjoying.
The wind up.
There there was the matter of the "frozen trash" As you can see the garbage to the right had filled with water. Then it froze. Encapsulating the trash inside of the ice. We couldn't break the ice even though we gave it our most ferocious war faces.
I thought the lid as a shield was a nice touch.
Our fearless leader... Queen of the trash... Trucker Tracy posses for memories.

I got laid off the second week in December. I know classy... right before Christmas. When the Roddas found out they wouldn't allow me to spend Christmas by myself in NYC so they flew me out to Indianapolis. It was awesome. I sat in the same big chair and watched TV for a week straight. Watching world wildest police chases really helped me to deal with being laid off. It helped me realize that... "hey it could be worse".

Here is a picture of the Rodda women and myself, including Stephen. Tracy, Brooke, Mary-Ann, Myself, Stephen, and Erin. This was before the big Christmas Eve dinner and package opening. Great to be with such good friends after the bummer time of losing my job.
I was a little confused when I landed in Indy. I didn't recognize the airport. Turns out that they built a whole new airport next door to the old one. It's really nice and spacious. These really cool seats were made out of old suitcases. I thought of my friend Jared's art.
Above is what my bags look like on the bag seats. It's like they are haning out with grandpa.
Here is an extended couch version.

and I'll tell you story about the last four months.