I'm back. Again.

I've been back from Brazil for a few weeks and I've created a new blog. It'll be a new home for random photos, video and music that I want to share. It's called Scruffins Multimedia.

Back from Brazil

We've been back for a week and it's taken me that long to create this final post. I think you'll enjoy this video from our culinary adventure at Fogo de Chao in Sao Paulo. Warning: Content is not suitable for vegetarians.

Stay tuned

We arrived home last night around 11:30 p.m. That was 45 minutes later than scheduled but they had some maintenance issues to deal with which delayed our flight. Fortunately, we knew a few people on the same plane (Don and Shirly Beggs and my former neighbors) and we passed the time chatting them up. Here's a picture I shot at the Atlanta airport to pass the time.

Y'all come on back to this site in the next few days. I plan to post a video or two from our trip to the awesome market and/or the river of meat. Also, I have a coupon good for one free drink on any Delta flight up for grabs to the first person who responds. Good luck!

We're coming home. I miss my CRG.

River of Meat

That's a lot of meat! We survived our evening at Fogo De Chao. The only unfortunate thing to happen was when I ate what I thought were several meaty mushrooms and later found out that they were chicken hearts. There are three FDCs in SaoPaulo and eight in the states. It's definitely worth a visit once in your life. I've now met my meat quota for the year.

I'm not going to give up on Caipirinhas (the drinks we're hoisting in the photo) anytime soon, you'll be glad to hear. Molly bought the required Brazilian sugarcane liquor and plans to serve the drinks at Brazilian-themed party. She's going to wear a green sundress she bought on the beach and she'll be the perfect blonde Brazilian beauty.

Food, glorious food

We hired a driver/tourist guide named Ernesto (I don't think he's a Celine Dion fan) to show us around. We went to the beach, a cathedral, and the best stop of all was the Mercado Municipal - the biggest food market I've ever seen. They had seafood, fruit, nuts, coffee, tobacco, candy, olives, spices and much more. Ernesto is a foodie and he knew a lot of the vendors. He gave us a great tour and then we had lunch on the second level overlooking the market in what was the coolest food court I've ever seen. We could've spent days in this place.

Here are a few pics of our adventures including our stop at the roadside banana stand on the way to the beach and Ernesto salting our fried root dish at the beach.

More toilet talk

I hate to push down the pretty pictures on the page with more toilet photos, but it must be done. Our hotel toilet is the most frightening thing I’ve ever encountered. I’m afraid I’m gonna fall in. And the outer edge is so tiny and sharp. It hurts! Thankfully, little potty-training Lexi doesn’t have to try and tackle this throne. There’s been a lot of hovering here in room 509. I’ve taken a few photos to show you what I mean (of the toilet, not the hovering). I put the phone near the black hole to give you a sense of scale. That circa 1987 phone isn’t small, either.

Missed the calling this morning

Didn't make it to the churrascaria (River of Meat) last night because work got in the way. I hate it when that happens! We worked until 10 p.m. and ate a club sandwich at the hotel bar. We also had a Brazilian drink called caipirinha (more about those delightful drinks later) that put us to bed shortly after. We had planned to go to a 7 a.m. mass with Gregorian chanting but we missed God's call.

We're gonna do some work this morning and then some site-seeing this afternoon before heading home tomorrow. Tonight, we're headed to the river to feast on the meat. (Must go vegetarian for at least one month.)

Plane and colorful

We had a really long day at LABACE. For those of you not in the aviation know, it's the Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition. When I wasn't shooting planes, planes and then some more planes, I found some other colorful things.

Brazilian breakfasts are delish. Lots of fresh bread and fruit. I had fresh figs this morning. This is all I'm going to eat until tonight since we are planning on going to a churrascaria steakhouse (or the "River of Meat" as Molly likes to call it).

Brazilian toilets come with a bonus

Where's Joe Stumpe?

I took this raw (unedited) video on Monday night at a restaurant in Sao Jose Dos Campos. It was kinda like Oeno in Wichita without Joe on the mic. Joe could become an instant star in Brazil if he learns a few Celine Dion tunes. She knows how to rock.

Cram course in Portugese

It took us awhile but we finally made it into Sao Paulo. It's the third largest city in the world and, as you probably would expect, the streets are extremely congested. They're pretty unsafe, too. Molly just read a passage in our tour guide that said carjackings and red-light robberies are common after dark. It's now legal and recommended to just slow down at red lights. Things that make you go hmm.

Molly is in bed right now doing a little light reading.

Back to school

I spent most of the day at a high school working on our story. Those kids have to be in class from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Here's a pic of Gabriela and Geisa. They were really helpful and showed me around the place. I promised them I'd post this on the blog and they could check it out tonight.

Our school cafeteria lunch wasn't as pretty as the one we had the day before, but it was pretty tasty.

In the afternoon I carjacked the car driver while Molly listened to a lengthy presentation on engineers (Molly didn't take it personally that I left). I photographed some kids playing in the street and some other random things. Pedro and I drove around the city of Sao Jose Dos Campos while listening to his favorite musician, Celine Dion. He thinks she is a better singer now that she is a mother. I asked him to explain but that got really lost in translation. He's driving us to Sao Paulo tonight, so I guess I have one more shot at understanding his theory.

Caesar Business Hotel – I hardly knew ye

I just got to this hotel yesterday and we’re already movin’ on. We’re going back to Sao Paulo to attend an aviation convention in the morning.

Denise always asks me to see pictures of hotel rooms when I return from trips and I never have them. So, these pictures are for her.

Here’s our beautiful blue Brazilian pool. Too bad we’re too busy to actually get in it. Even though it’s supposedly winter here, it’s eighty degrees and the pool looks rather inviting but as you can see by the picture of me fully clothed, I am not playing hookie. Here are a few more photos of our surroundings. I’m a little confused by the building with the menorah and the Christ reference. It’s seems like an oxymoron.

Sweet!

Sex sells a lot of stuff here. Everywhere I look I see billboards of gorgeous young models all over each other selling something. If my Portugese was better I could tell you what exactly it is that is being marketed to the masses. These pictures would be covered up with black boards if they were in a Dillons and they’d never be seen on those new fancypants LED billboards on Kellogg.

I noticed a rather interesting bottle of artificial sweetener at Embraer yesterday so I took a picture of it. One of the executives looked at me and wondered what the heck I was doing. I told him that you’d never see a sexy bottle like that in a grocery store in the U.S. He smirked and said, “Well, it probably has Viagra in it.”

Reunited and it feels so good.

I finally caught up with Molly in Brazil and we've been moving every moment since. In my absence she took lots of photographs on Monday and did a pretty darn good job (I should stop bragging on her now if I want to keep this traveling aviation gig I've got going). Last night she ate at a Brazilian steakhouse where the meat flowed like a rushing river and she nicknamed it "The River of Meat."

We had a great lunch today at Embraer. Here is the salad and it's plated to perfection.

I'm exhausted even though I've had a lot of coffee today. Well, not really a large quantity since they insist on serving it these teenie tiny baby cups. It's yummy but I'm fading fast. Must. Go. To. Bed. BUTMAYBEISHOULDSHOWERFIRST!!! (I think the caffeine is kicking in again.)

Delayed - Part Deux

I'm back at ICT and my flight to Atlanta has been delayed for two hours. The Delta dude is fairly certain I'll make my connecting flight. Oy!

I've been productive with my delay and I've created a music video using audio from the woman stuck in the box at the short term parking lot. She politely advises everyone to "please take the ticket." Denise does a great impersonation of the friendly woman and I think she's gonna love this.

Meal vouchers do NOT cover alcohol

Delta gave me $14 in meal vouchers to compensate for delaying my trip one entire day (doesn't seem entirely fair). Carter, my lovely Sherpa who helped me shlep stuff to the airport, and I decided to have a snack and a beverage at the airport bar before heading home. We should've read the fine print because the vouchers don't cover the cost of libations. I guess the airport folks don't want you to enjoy your travel delay.

Delayed!

I was hoping to post my first entry from the ATL but I'm stuck in the ICT. My flight to Atlanta was delayed due to maintenance issues. Unfortunately, Delta only offers one flight to Sao Paulo each day and I never would've made my connection. (I sware, the Travel Gods hate me.)

Long story short, I'm gonna have to try this again tomorrow. Same time. Same station. Molly is flying from Florida where she was vacationing last week and I think our plan to meet tomorrow morning at the coffee shop by the baggage claim in Brazil is now a bust!

Here's a pic of me about to repack the car and head on home for the evening.