On making an international ass of myself

I suppose it's high time I told you that I'm going out of the country for a while to drink beer with professional beer drinkers.

Because, while I might not be training for any races right now, I *should* be training to drink beer in stein-sized quantities for our trip.

See, last year, while fresh off a 12 mile training run, Bubba and I attended a fabulous and ultimately vacation-changing event at a friend's place.

Is an event that changes the course of your predetermined vacations at all significant?

It is if you're us. Because we take our vacations veryVERY seriously, something I know I've mentioned before. And, usually, we do one beach-type trip in the summer and one snow-type trip in the winter and that is how we roll.

Snow happens. Sand happens. We are both sated in our need for said things and end our year on a happy note.

Except last year, before we even set out to plan this year's vacations (we are those losers that do this planning over the December holidays because we are psychos), we got distracted by an extremely fun and festive party at our friends' place and I think it had something to do with all the beer and meat.

Bubba and I - we like beer and meat. And pretzels and pickles and words with ö in them. And in case you haven't guessed what this life-changing event was, I will tell you.

It was Oktoberfest. 

Our friends, one of them being my favorite Germaness, hosted a great little Fest at their house that, by the end, had us all talking about Did you know that next year is the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest? which later evolved (during a German themed meal at the Germaness's house) into us talking about Wouldn't it be cool if we all went to Oktoberfest in Munich next year? and then later into What hotel are you staying in and how do you like this dirndl for me?

Basically, Bubba and I have discovered a new thing about ourselves - when it comes to beer and meat, we can be convinced to travel to other continents and to do so dressed in costume.

Let the power of beer and meat never be underestimated. EVER.

So, yeah, we've packed our dirndls and lederhosen, girded our livers and have postponed cycling and running training schedules until October - when we'll have hopefully returned from disgracing ourselves in festive garb to reclaim our sobriety and potentially embrace vegetarianism (never).


And, you know, since we'll be all in the neighborhood and such, we're going to visit some friends who live conveniently in an adorable town near (in?) the Black Forest and then take a little run up to Amsterdam to, you know, see the canals and such.


Sure, we didn't do a ski or beach trip this year in any formal fashion, but with all the beer and meat that awaits us, it's almost like we don't notice. Plus - the photos! Can you just imagine the photos, people? I mean, really. 

Coming soon - photographic evidence that I'm a horse's ass.