Train travel in Europe should be easier than this

European countries are well known for their efficient train networks, which zip you from point to point comfortably and easily. Everything about the process, from buying tickets to finding your track to getting your seat is designed to be a breeze.

Except, apparently, in Spain. Today, after making my fourth attempt at purchasing train tickets, I gave up.

I tried twice to buy using my Visa card and received errors each time. Interestingly, the errors were different. Unhelpfully, the errors were in Spanish, and error text somehow never came up in any of my Spanish classes.

I tried again using B's American Express card. This time, I didn't receive an error--after I clicked Comprar (the "English" version of the site throws in the occasional Spanish, just in case you forget and think you are buying tickets for, say, Germany), I simply returned to their home page. No confirmation, no email--I assumed the transaction didn't go through. B called AmEx, which said it probably didn't, but maybe check back tomorrow.

Eh-heh.

Today I called the train company in Spain and used legitimate Spanish (Buenos dias--se habla ingles?), only to find out that I had called the customer assistance line, which could not sell me tickets. They did say that American-based credit cards simply don't work, and I might have to buy the tickets from the station when I get to Spain.

Did I mention that there are discounts if you buy early? There are 3 classes of fares--web, which comes in at 44 euros/person; estrella, which is 65 euros; and standard, which is well over 100 euros per person. If I waited till we arrived in Spain, all of the discount fares would be gone, and we'd be paying nearly $300 to take a three-hour train ride.

In fact, since the tickets for our travel date went on sale (just this week, the date of my first attempt), the web fares were gone. So even if I were able to successfully buy tickets, we'd be paying 130 euros, which is around $170--and that's a lot of money.

It's an especially large amount when you consider how cheap budget airlines are. On a whim, I checked the prices for our date, and we could both fly for under 70 euros--and a plane ride is 1/3 the time of a train ride.

I love the romantic idea of a train ride through the Spanish countryside, but not at those outrageous prices, and not for the hassle that comes with them. Today I booked us on a plane instead.

I am slightly concerned about the baggage allowance, but I booked on the airline that is part of the Star Alliance, so we should be given some sort of extra allowance thanks to B's status. And anyway, knowing that we are under a weight constraint should inspire us to pack (and shop) lightly.

So not a guitar heroine

After no one bought him his favorite toy for Christmas, B took matters into his own hands and bought Guitar Hero himself.

We were nearly the oldest people in the video game store at the local mall the evening we picked it up. Being there brought back memories from my childhood, when I would spend ages agonizing over the next Nintendo game to ask for for my birthday or Christmas.

Not that I was any good at Nintendo games, or any video games, really. My natural athletic grace (har, har) just doesn't translate into the video game world--except for Tetris.

I'm awesome at Tetris. I can play for hours--at a single game. I love the idea of fitting all of the pieces together nicely with no gaps. It's how life would be, if I were the architect of life...

But I'm not the architect of life, and therefore, I am bad at Mario Bros. and their newer counterparts, whoever they might be. I didn't know how I'd be at Guitar Hero, but I had a pretty good idea.

I did not disappoint. Or rather, I did, but in delivering a disappointing performance, I lived up to my expectations. After one round of Michael Jackson's Beat It, I realized that I would never rise up in the ranks of Guitar Hero, and I'm ok with that. I'll add it to the list of life accomplishments that will never be achieved, along with appreciating anime, hugging trees, and saving the princess.

Get with it, princess--get off your throne and plan your own escape.

The weekend without any football

All the boys cried tears of sadness today.
While ladies were happier than since fall.
Pigskins rested for no team would be bested.
Twas the weekend without any football.

Men looked for a football replacement.
They tried to make due watching basketball.
It wasn’t the same; it just wouldn’t do.
Twas the weekend without any football.

They tried looking ahead to the next weekend.
The Super Bowl would end this long, hard haul.
But then, nothing, it would all be over!
Twas the weekend without any football.

Ladies look forward to new adventures.
Day trips to the museum, the park, the mall.
Men think of Sundays outside fitting rooms.
Twas the weekend without any football.

Another step closer to plastic free

It's possible that I'm paranoid about certain health matters.

For instance, take plastic. I've read lots of reports lately about how certain types of plastic are potentially bad for you--really bad. If you heat some plastics to high temperatures (a side effect of microwaving them or putting them in the dishwasher), they leach chemicals into your food.

Last year, I replaced my plastic water bottle with a metal bottle. I don't feel any healthier, but maybe I am.

There was still plastic in my life, though, in the form of easily disposable lightweight food containers. They're cheap and convenient, and when your leftovers have been sitting in the fridge for several weeks and you're terrified of cleaning them out, you can just throw them away and move on.

Every time I pop one of those containers into the microwave at work, I worry about what else I'm eating with my leftovers. I decided it was time for a change.

Today, we bought glass containers, which we will use for storing all of our food going forward. They have plastic tops, but I think we'll be ok as long as we don't microwave them or put them in the dishwasher. We're going to either recycle or donate our plastic containers. There's a part of me that feels bad about donating potentially dangerous plastic containers, but they're safe enough as long as they're not used for storing food.

We rewarded ourselves for our healthy decision with a dinner at, of all places, Burger King. The only other options were seafood restaurants--and BK beats fish any day.

Imelda Marcos, eat your heart out

Some women really like handbags. Others get down with shoes. As for me, I go ga-ga over coats.

Long coats, short coats, warm coats, stylish coats--I love them all. During nearly every movie we watch, I notice a stylish number and lean over to B and whisper, "I like that coat!" Some movies feature multiple gold strikes. For instance, next time you watch The Holiday, be sure you pay attention to Cameron Diaz's coat collection--divine.

My coat collection, while not quite as fabulous as Cameron's, is perfect for my needs, and I think it might be time to branch out into other accessories--namely, shoes.

You might recall that last year I vowed to buy only clothing that I love, and my resolution has been a resounding success--for my clothing. My feet are somewhat less well attired.

My shoe collection is ok, but it could use some improvement. For instance, why do I still own plastic flip flops... And those black patent-leather kitten heels that I scratched the first time I wore them (casualties of a company holiday party)--even if an occasion involves a darkened room in which people are less likely to notice the damage, scratched shoes do not belong on my feet. I have higher standards than that. Or ought to, anyway.

It's time to cull the shoe herd and start buying shoes that I love. Maybe in the other order, though--it'd be a shame to throw out shoes and have nothing to wear. Wearing damaged goods is better than going barefoot.

I started improving my shoe collection last week when I had a shoe emergency. I needed shoes to go with a navy dress for--you guessed it--a company party. The winner, a pair of reddish/purplish (depending on the light) 2" patent-leather pumps, comfortable and unlike any shoe I've ever owned, came home with me.

And so did a pair of knee-high black suede/patent leather boots that called out to me from the clearance rack. I spent a week in Germany watching stylish European women walk around with their knee-high boots on the outside of their skinny jeans--I had to get in on that trend. I skipped the skinny jeans, of course--heroin chic isn't a great look on me.

To a mouse...

What's on my mind lately? The economy. Rather, the recession. Each day the news gets worse--today, it was from Microsoft, and they're planning their first-ever layoff. The software industry might be more insulated than others but we're not completely protected. Companies everywhere are freezing budgets and salaries.

B and I are both still employed, which is more than one can say for 7.2% of the country. That number is probably higher now. The rate for our state is lower than the national rate but not significantly so--we're all in this one together.

B and I are as prepared as we thought was reasonable. Our financial planner recommended building an emergency fund that covers 6 months of expenses. Until last September, it felt a little wasteful to have that capital sitting in a bank account earning a piddly 2.5%. Now I'd gladly take a 2.5% return on my 401k. I'd settle for breaking even...

We have an emergency fund in case we both lose our jobs, but we're protected as long as one of us is employed. Before we bought our condo, we planned our expenses carefully. We could have extended ourselves by buying more, bigger, better--a house, maybe, or a condo that is a little closer to our jobs. Instead, we found a mortgage that, when combined with all of our other expenses, we can manage with one of our salaries.

I hope you're prepared for this storm and whatever it brings. If you don't have an emergency fund, it's never too late to start one, and even small contributions make you feel prepared. Meet with a financial planner, even if you think there isn't any flexibility in your budget. If you want a local recommendation, let me know.

I can also say from experience that paying the correct amount in taxes is also key to maintaining a balanced budget. I feel a Robert Burns moment coming over me...let's hope that the rest of the best laid schemes of this mouse don't go agley.

Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez

Our trip to Spain is not for a couple months, but we're already looking ahead to our next trip.

I was--and still am--considering London and Dublin. Visiting countries that speak English would be a nice break (even though non-English speakers speaking English are frequently easier for me to understand than English people speaking English).

There are other considerations. B and I were wondering if we ought instead to spend our tourist dollars in the US. It's a difficult situation--the United States is in a recession, but much of the rest of the world isn't in better shape, and some countries are in worse shape. Also to be considered is that we don't leave behind too many of our dollars while on vacation, so our ability to impact the economies of the places that we visit is questionable.

But assuming that spending our dollars stateside could do some good, we've identified a couple of destinations that we might want to visit.

First off is Washington, D.C. We considered going a few years ago but instead ended up going to Quebec and Montreal. I've actually been to DC twice, but both times were for work, and I didn't have much time for sightseeing (and one time brought no shoes other than heels, not ideal for trekking through the Smithsonian). Watching the inauguration today made me want to reconsider my decision to postpone the DC vacation indefinitely, especially since it's relatively close to us. It's cheap to fly to and easy to drive to--definitely a vacation to consider.

Next on the list is New Orleans. New Orleans needs tourist dollars more than most cities in the US to continue with its recovery. A New Orleans vacation would also allow us to continue an interesting vacation trend--we visited Montreal and Quebec in 2005 and France in 2007, and another French-speaking area in 2009 might make for a fun tradition.

No decisions yet, I keep reminding myself, but the list of options continues to grow.