FROM BRUSSELS TO BARCELONA

Must first begin with a comment on the so-called hush money jury selection in New York City, first time a U.S. president has ever gone on trial for a criminal action. 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, and all 12 jurors will need to agree for a guilty verdict. If this occurs, Donald Trump could be sentenced for up to 4 years, or fined. Much of the trial will be covered by news channels, but there will be no video camera in the courtroom. Should last into the month of June, a month before the Republican Convention to confirm Trump as their presidential nominee.

Of course, there is that other more serious matter of immunity from being prosecuted from Trump's attempted coup on 6January2021. The Supreme Court will hear final oral arguments on April 25. When the body makes a judgement will determine whether Trump goes to trial on this more serious matter. My sense is that the Supreme Court will determine that he is NOT immune before the July Republican convention. If this occurs, a trial could begin as early as September. Here is a nice Bloomberg graphic of all the trials facing Trump. The one most juicy will the Georgia trials, for they will all be televised, live.

So, anyway, we left the MS Espirit in Brussels and flew to Barcelona.

Polka dot tails are those Brussels Air.

One of the better airline lounges we've experienced.

Bread, Penne Bolognese and Tomato Soup, with scotch and beer.

Plane took off and near our ship.

Lunch.

Over a snowy mountain range.

Arrived close by the Barcelona cruise terminal.

Taxi to the Cotton Club, which is one of more than 200 Autograph Collection hotels in the Marriott chain. Some others include the Mauna Beach Hotel on the Big Island and Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Each is unique, and I suspect most of them don't have a club lounge for free drinks, like the Cotton Club.

Almost decided to stay at the W Barcelona with 473 rooms, but the location was away from everything. The Cotton Club has only 83, but is in the middle of town, and in walking distance of the Sagrada Familia.

Nice room, but the view wasn't much.

We decided to walk around the block to find a tapas restaurant. Of course, greeted in the park by a host of Blue-Bar Pigeons.

We couldn't find a decent restaurant, and decided that we didn't want tapas anyway. However, we saw a Popeye's Chicken, so we brought our dinner back to our room.

What a long day with a lot of walking. 9496 steps.

Saturday Night Live cold opened another Close Encounter experience, featuring Ryan Ghosling, Kate Mckinnon and Sarah Sherman. Surely looked familiar, and it turned out there was another Close Encounter 8 years ago with Kate and Ryan, but instead of Sherman, with Cecily Strong. Here is Gosling's monologue this weekend.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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