For most of our time in Venice, I felt trapped. I felt like a caged animal. For the previous couple of months, I’d become accustomed to an intense workout at 6:30 every morning, and remaining active through most of the day. Despite claims to the contrary, I felt like our tour wasn’t very active. It …

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Because I’m a geek, I track lots of stats about my physical state. I track the number of calories I consume, the number of calories I burn, the amount of exercise I do, and, yes, the amount of sleep I get. During the first few days of our vacation, I had nights of five hours, …

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After another breakfast consisting of yogurt, a hard roll, and orange juice, the Rick Steves group met Elisabetta, a native Venetian and our guide for a tour through the heart of the city. We headed south from our hotel (Pensione Guerrato), making our way slowly through the crowded streets to the Accademia Bridge (so named …

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After nearly twelve hours of much-needed sleep, Kris and I both woke at 4:30 a.m. We read and wrote in our journals. I was famished, so I ate some of my stash of airline snacks. (On the flight to Venice, I’d carefully avoided the peanuts and pretzels — I wanted to stick to my diet!) …

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Note: I apologize for the delay in posting the story of our trip to Europe. As in 2007, we found it was actually tricky to find internet access abroad. And though we’ve been home a week, now is the first time I’ve had to write about our adventures. I plan to post day-by-day updates for …

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Perfectly Content

Photos, videos, and narrative of our trip to Europe are coming soon. We had a great time. Today, though, I want to say that I can’t imagine anything better than a rainy afternoon spent upstairs with my cats, sorting comic books while sipping a scotch and soda, listening to classic country music, waiting for my …

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When Kris and I traveled to England and Ireland with her parents in 2007, I came home with a financial epiphany. Actually, the trip highlighted a concept that I’d only vaguely understood before: I was a slave to the tyranny of Stuff. I had accumulated way too many things in my life, and this was …

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Last month, I mentioned that I got my entrepreneurial start as a kid by selling stuff door to door. This “stuff” generally comprised products advertised on the back of of comic books: seeds, greeting cards, and so on. For more than thirty years, companies recruited armies of salesboys and salesgirls through comics. I was one …

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