Elise Sereni Patkotak

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but my post is anything but a Thanksgiving post. It’s about my trip in Germany to a concentration camp. It’s about things we need to remember so that we never allow them to be repeated. It’s about the fact that once we are dead and our flesh has rotted, what’s left behind is indistinguishable based on race, religion or skin color.

We must never let the racists and haters win. Orangeman is surrounding himself with them. Oppose him every chance you get in every forum you can find.

His failure will be America’s success. Continue reading →

I know I’m lucky enough to be able to travel and see the world. But oh how I miss my babies! I know Snowy and Carm and CB and Sassy and Wilson and Baby are being cared for by some wonderfully loving people. But there is a little hole in my heart that they fill every day and that hole has now been empty way too long. Continue reading →

Our guide here in Prague was quite honest about his president and his feelings about him. His description of the president drunk off his ass trying to participate in a ceremony where he held one of seven keys needed to open the vault where the crown jewels are kept was priceless.

Made me realize that no matter how bad Orangeman and his racist buddies are, as long as we can laugh at them, they can’t win.  Want proof? Try to watch (Jewish) Mel Brook’s Springtime for Hitler and Germany without laughing hysterically.

In that moment, the Jews won. Mocking is Continue reading →

So you all know by now that I’m a bird fanatic. So you should have seen my face when I saw the swans today in Prague. Thirty, forty, maybe even fifty, swimming in the river and going to the bank to fight with the gulls for their share of whatever food people were tossing in. My sister took a picture and when I return I will post it and challenge my birder friends to identify the type of swans they are.

For me, the only thing that mattered was how white and beautiful and graceful they were… even as they Continue reading →

Ok, I’ve given it as much effort as I can and it’s not working. So… no, I don’t want to pretend I can forgive or forget anyone who voted for the bloated orange horror that will sadly become our president. I cannot forgive them for voting for someone who mocked the disabled, said hateful things about other races and religions, sneered at women who did not meet his definition of beauty and gave racist hate the ok to rear it’s ugly head in America with relative impunity. Feel free to unfriend me on Facebook or stop following me on my Continue reading →

In any given month I do not eat as much food as is offered on this cruise every day. But given that I may be adopting another senior dog when I get home, I guess I do need to work on building up my lap so all three can sit in it comfortably Continue reading →

A lot of people on this ship came here to escape our recent election and its attendant turmoil. They are from every point of the political spectrum. Each meal as you sit down with different people, the first few minutes are awkwardly spent trying to find topics that are not going to cause a problem. Every once in a while, you end up at a table with people who share your viewpoint and then things are easier. But the best is the people from Australia and England who try to avoid all mention of our current election as if they Continue reading →

You eat more than you should. You drink more than you should. But given the average outdoor temp has been about 30 degrees, a little booze never hurts.

Viking Cruise ship is beautiful even if Judy and I have to practically crawl over each other to move around. We thought getting a cabin with an outside balcony to sit on would be the saving grace until the temps fell below freezing the first night and have’t really gone up that much since then.

But… did I mention the bar was about to open. Think I’ll go warm my innards. Continue reading →