Where Kens Dare

Well, i survived the holiday season. I hope that most of you did, too. Mine turned out to be profitable, as well. Not only did i get a business hammock and the first two seasons of the Simpsons on DVD, but i gave myself the best present of all: i parlayed an extra 4.5 hours of waiting in airports into two Free Ticket Vouchers, first class seats on the flights to and from Chicago, and a $5 Free Meal Voucher for O'Hare, which i cashed in by buying someone else's lunch. This was all earned from using a Free Ticket Voucher i earned last xmas by also agreeing to be bumped to a later flight.

I'm a cheap bastard.

In other, more surprising news, i just received my first passport yesterday, so that i can maybe visit my closest friend in Germany sometime in late January. You know, while the weather's nice. Anyway, this is kind of exciting because, to date, the extent of my international travel has been a few days in Canada when i was 3, a week in Bermuda when i was 8, and an afternoon in Matamoros, Mexico during Spring Break in college. Please share any brilliant ideas on what i need to visit within a few hundred miles of Bonn that don't cost very much (due to the fact that my friend has rather tight finances and my aforementioned cheap bastardness). Keep in mind that i don't drink so suggestions of alcohol-oriented mayhem will not come to fruition.

In final, utterly unsurprising news, maddening is swell.