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 |    Not for the faint of art. |
| As expected, my sleep schedule is all screwed up now, and it might take me a few days to get back to my normally-screwed-up Eastern Time schedule. Fortunately, I don't have a lot of requirements for being at certain places at certain times, so I'll take as long as I need to recover. I do have a role-playing game scheduled for tomorrow evening, as is the case for most Saturdays when I'm not traveling, but that's about it. One of my cats remembered me right away. The other remembered me after I gave her some food. "Oh, yeah, you're that human." The true miracle of the trip, though: When I did the Bosteels tour, as part of it, they gave me a Tripel Karmeliet boxed set—a bottle of that delicious beer, packed with two glasses (remember, most Belgian beers have dedicated glassware). There's nothing extra-special about the TK glasses; they're fairly normal tulip chalices, but with the beer logo printed on them. The problem is, they're somewhat fragile. My suitcases were already stuffed, so I spent the rest of the trip wondering how I was gong to get this boxed set home without everything breaking. Maybe I could mail back some clothes, so I'd have room? Mailing the beer to myself was right out, because of stupid laws. US Customs allows up to one liter of alcoholic beverage in checked luggage, and this bottle is under that limit, though of course you can't bring that quantity of any liquid in a carrion bag. Well, I spent some time over there creatively rearranging stuff in my bags, and trying to ensure that the box containing the fragile, precious cargo was well-padded with dirty clothes on all sides (look, I wasn't about to waste time in Belgium looking for a laundromat). Still, I've done similar things before, a bottle of beer from England several years ago, and it came back all shattered. The beer soaked into the clothes, but I'm used to that and I was going to have to wash them upon returning, anyway. So I wasn't holding out much hope. Between the rough handling of the bags, and the pressure and temperature differentials at flight altitude, I mentally prepared myself for returning home with a box of shattered glass and beer-soaked clothing. But, somehow, the beer, and even the glasses, survived intact. I should make a holiday of this, like how Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of the lamp oil lasting longer than it should have. October 10 will be Beersday for me from now on. It's even easy to remember, since it's 10/10 in both US and Euro formats, and it's also the birthday of one of my best friends. Really, it's not even that big a deal, except that this was my only physical souvenir of the trip (like I said, suitcases were already stuffed, so no room for plastic Eiffel Towers or Manneken Pisses). Tripel Karmeliet is generally available in my area, albeit at exorbitant import pricing, and the glassware can be ordered online. I'm just glad my luck held out. |
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