Ah, the Company Christmas Party

On Monday, our department celebrated Christmas in the usual fashion: with a company party. Everyone brought food to share, we helped to lay out some lovely decorations, some tasteful holiday music was played in the background, and then we all sat around nibbling cookies and drinking spiced wine. The event started out somber and quiet...maybe because the spiced wine didn't have enough rum, or because the Christmas tunes were more like opera music than party music. In either case, this portion of the party was happily short-lived, and soon the party developed into an event with memorable highlights....

Once everyone had relaxed into the party, it was time for the annual secret Santa (Weihnachtsmann) gift exchange. To everyone's surprise, Professor Arzt decided to dress as Santa himself to hand out the gifts this year. Very funny. Kids at UIUC...just try to imagine Ian doing this...impossible, right?.Of course, no company Christmas party is complete without a healthy dose of embarrassment, so Shravanthi and I decided to perform a holiday line dance to show 'em how we do things in the south. The song we chose was "Santa Claus is Coming on a Boogie Woogie Choo Choo Train", which you can sample here. It actually turned out to be a success, and by the end we had half of the department on the dance floor trying to learn the dance along side us. Sorry, no video, but you can get the gist from the pics. Check out our amazing coordination!
So, until the next embarrassing moment, I bid you adieu!

Jack is BACK

In my glory days, I was 17, worked at Worst Buy, and occassionally received free copies of various computer programs from software company representatives. Among the top of the list were games like 7th Level's Monty Python and the Holy Grail - funny, totally new, and with HUGE replayability (ie, you could play it over and over without getting bored). Believe it or not, I'd never known Monty Python and this started a burgeoning love with British humor and Monty Python's interesting directions. But I digress.

One freebie in particular started an all-points-bulletin revolution. I'm talkin about neverending night parties, with both friends and families. This badboy even included stickers you put on your keyboard as an eternal brand signifying to visitors that you're both part of the elite YDKJ clan. This may be the most popular game that everybody never heard about. And it goes something like this:

YOU DONT KNOW JACK!

It slipped away once, don't let it happen again. Go home and plug this address in your browser window:

www.youdontknowjack.com

You can play some, you can buy them, just don't complain about how much they cost because you can't put a price on history, baby.

T minus 7 days...

With just a week to go until the big day, Andy and I have successfully put up a Christmas tree in our apartment. Our friend Petra drove us to the market to pick one out (and helped us barter in German by the way...26 Euros down to 22, not too shabby). The tree is a Nordman-Tanne, very popular here. We bought the star topper at the Weihnachtsmarkt downtown...isn't it pretty?

Too much Christmas? No such thing.

As though visiting three previous Christmas markets wasn't enough, we headed last Sunday to Nürnberg for the most famous Christmas market in Germany. The trip on the train was 3 hours, and only 20 Euros a couple thanks to the Schönes Wochenende (Happy-Weekend) ticket. We went with our friends Katie and Carl, and their friends, Kathleen and Mike.

Just across the street from the train station in Nürnberg is the "old city" section. This part is the original castle part of the city, and is surrounded by a wall and a long-since-drained moat. Inside the wall the buildings are filled with cute, touristy shops like the Old Tin Toy Shop and the Lebkuchen Bakery. Very charming.

Meanwhile, in the city center, the streets are full of pedestrians, strolling through and enjoying the 160+ booths at the Christkindlmart. The architecture is so nice, and such a contrast to modern Stuttgart. Nürnberg was more or less leveled during WWII, but was rebuilt to look just as it did before the war. It's really very pretty. While walking through the market, we got roasted chestnuts (new experience, pretty tasty), candied almonds, mini-bratwurst sandwiches, glühwein (mulled wine), and fresh lebkuchen (soooooo good). We also saw some fun performers, such as the one-man band, with a tin bandmate playing the drums:


....and found out that Nürnberg is famous for "prune people"... semi-scary figurines made with prunes and figs:

To see the rest of the pics from our grand day out, click here.

Beer by the mile!

.....or the meter actually. We went last night to a quirky, playfully-decorated local bar in Vaihingen. They're apparently famous for their "beer by the meter", so of course we decided to partake. Pretty cool, huh?

Oh, the humanity!

I thought I should tell you that tragedy struck Gingerbread Land last Thursday. That unusually sunny day, my pretty gingerbread house was proudly perched on our dining room table, right in front of a large window. While Andy and I were unknowingly enjoying a regular day at work, the little gingerbread people were staring in horror as their chocolate roof melted into a pile of chocolate mud.

So sad. But kind of funny too. :)

























Oh no!

Before and After Pics

Since Sparker requested them, here are before and after pics of Andy's haircut:

Ritter Sport Factory Visit

Sweet! I found a good chocolate back in the states called Ritter Sport. At Cost Plus World Market you could find boxes with unique fillings including marzipan, cornflakes, etc. Ritter Sport is EVERYWHERE here - and for great reason; it's made here! Instead of being shaped like a bar, this chocolate comes in SQUARES of one, four, or sixteen (and larger.. achey tummy and I've never even eated the large large one). We learned that the factory is very, very close, so of course we went to visit!

Along with the factory, which rumor has it we can't enter unless we're under 18 (that's a new one), there is an art museum of Square-like art (which we didn't enter) and a history of chocolate museum (which was concise). Heading up the stairs I snapped a quick pic of a square art installation.

By far the coolest history item was a miniature factory where kids (or, ahem, adults) could push a button and have a packaged sample delivered to them by truck! Below is a picture of Tad (not shown) requesting one of 22 samples. :) Don't worry, he gave them to all the bystanders also marveling about the miniature factory:



Press button, truck gets candy, truck leaves "factory," truck drives to you, and finally truck drops chocolate - hopefully in the right spot.









Unfortunately some unlucky kid had to wait for another sample, but not TAD! Here's his Jogurt sample comin'!








The factory also includes a chocolate store where you can purchase items at cost. We barely made it out of there with money in our pockets.... No comments! Worth noting is that you can purchase TEST flavors that aren't even available to the public. Also worth noting is that Ritter has chocolate with alcohol flavors that aren't available in the States. Some of these include Amaretto, Jamaican Rum, Vanilla Liquor.. There are more, but I can't HIC think of HIC any more of them.. HIC. Just kidding. The museum says a person of 70kg would have to eat over 500 bars to = 2cl of alcohol. You'd have a bit more to worry about than the alcohol at that point... Tata for now. We've got to get crackin.. on the chocolate.. that we didn't buy...

I Lost Many Hairs

Before turning into Cousin IT I decided it was best to get my hairs cut. Svelt Guillaume suggested a local Stuttgart salon that he's had good luck with so I gave it a shot. Appointment set, check. Waited for the day and hopped on the train, check. Arrived to learn the stylist doesn't speak a word of English.. .. umm.. no check. Well, life is a big adventure, right? Check.

Waiting for my turn I picked out a picture in the German Men's Health and brought it to Ulvi (the stylist). The wife confirmed the picture (seriously, who wouldn't like to have David Beckham's hair?), so I felt right on track, and when Ulvi called me back to the chair I was in for quite a treat. Ulvi is an artist, which drastically sets him apart from other people to have cut my hair in the past. He took his time and did a fantastic job. Interestingly though were the advanced techniques yet unknown to the sister industry in America...

(a) Ulvi cut my hair dry.. No wash before, just a few spritz' from the water bottle.

(b) Next, a long gentle wash which included a head massage.. .awesome!

(c) Patting my hair somewhat dry, Ulvi massaged in some masculine hair tonic. Didn't see that one comin..

Then it happened.. Through our translator I mentioned the "eyebrow job" that Guillaume talked about (you cry, he said). You see, some guys get their eyebrows plucked to be less wooly-mammoth and more Pierce Brosnan. I figured what the hell, go for it.

Ulvi's eyes widened and what he said was translated to: are you sure? this isn't your grandma's eyebrow plucking you know..

Heck yes I'm in.. Let's do it! and off he went. No tweezers at first, only two pieces of string with one end between his teeth and the other in his hand. Somehow he zipped the second string along the first and it plucked out the general form of his artistic intention. After pruning the bulk he resorted to plucking with tweezers to finish the job. I have to say the individual plucking was worse, because it was so slow. Maybe some of you fellow men have experienced this style before.. I for one am happy to still have eyebrows..

but hey, we're not done!

(d) then, after the shock of eyebrow plucking, he pulled out a lighter, struck a massive flame and whipped past my ears to burn the old man hairs from them! DEFINITELY DIDNT EXPECT THAT ONE.

(e) then he almost topped that by grabbing the tip of my nose, guiding my head upwards, and trimming my NOSE hairs with clippers (fresh from trimming the obvious "you need a haircut" neck hairs).

(f) Finally, the usual styling of hairs and acceptance of money. :)

It was actually a pretty solid experience. I'm planning to go back because they not only did a great job but surprised the hell out of me in a postive way. If any of you are in need of a hair cut when you come to visit............

Good Morning, Sunshine!

Sunrise view from our apartment. :)

Fun with Gingerbread

This week, I decided to have some girl friends over for some creative fun: gingerbread house making. We each picked our own template for our house, then bought LOTS of candy to share for the decorating process. Five hours and two kilograms of powdered sugar icing later, we had finished our works of art. The whole process was so fun, I felt like a kid again. Pics of our houses are shown below. For pics of the whole she-bang, click here.

Katie's Wintery Snow Chalet



































Petra's Whimsical Fairy Tale Cottage































Shravanthi's Stained Glass Palace



































My Cozy Gingerbread Home


































Christmas tree and fireplace inside. :)

Medieval Times, German-style

On Sunday, Andy and I went with a group of friends to one of the most famous Christmas markets in Stuttgart: The Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt. Esslingen is technically a neighboring city, but feels close enough to be a suburb. The city is old and historic, with buildings and a castle dating back to the Middle Ages. As a result of this history, the arrange a Medieval Market to accompany the Weihnachtsmarkt each year....sort of a nod to the heritage of the city. It makes for an interesting vibe though, because while walking through you go from gingerbread hearts and Christmas ornaments to street performers and grog.

All in all though, the trip to Esslingen was well worth it, because the city is just so beautiful. After getting our fill of the markets, we hiked up the hill to the Esslingen castle to take in the sunset and see view the lay of the land. It was really pretty up there.

Pics from our adventure are posted online. Just click here to see.

Der Fernsehturm Adventure

At the suggestion of our American neighbors, Andy and I decided to head to the TV tower (Fernsehturm) on Sunday to get a nice view of the city. Beth and Sean had told us that there's an older train that you can take for a more scenic view as you wind through the hills of Stuttgart to the tower, so we decided to take it. The train is called "The 15" and is sort of like riding in a cable car in San Francisco. It's very narrow, and very loud, but feels quaint and you catch some lovely views of the city as you go along.

A couple of stops from the TV tower stop, Andy looks at me and says, "Did he just announce that this is the last stop?". Of course the announcement was in German, and I thought: "maybe he just told us what that stop was called..." So, we stayed on the train. The train did continue for a little bit, but then turned hard left into a roundabout, and stopped behind another train....facing back down the hill towards downtown. Andy was right. Turns out there is new construction, and The 15 no longer goes all the way to the tower. So, we get off the train and walk over to a couple of conductors to ask them if they know how to get there. To which one of them replies, "Sure. Just climb aboard my train, go downtown, and then catch the U8 to get to the tower." Basically negating all of the progress we had made up the hill. Doh! So, we decided to go the rest of the way by foot. After all, the tower has lights and is 150 meters tall, so you can see it from almost anywhere.

After maybe 10 minutes of walking through the woods in the direction of the tower, night falls. We are now deep in the forest with no flashlight, and have just passed a sign that says "Caution: snakes" (or so we thought...turns out it said, "Caution: gate". Hey, we're learning!). Anyway, 20 minutes later we made it to the tower without any snake encounters.

Once there, we paid €3 each to ride the elevator to the top and walked out to a spectacular view of the city. It was open air up there, but since Sunday was pretty warm it wasn't too cold. We decided to put together a lovely series of pictures all the way around the top (go here to view them...if you speed up the slideshow it's kind of like a video). After we had our fill of the open air, we went into the Panorama Cafe, at the top of the tower, and had a piece of Pflaumenkuche (plum cake) and cappucino. All in all, a successful adventure.

We'll be happy to take any of you to the tower if you come and visit us, but most likely we'll take a different route. :)

Double the Turkey, Double the Fun

Two Thanksgivings in three days equals roughly seventeen single meals and four times that in dessert weight. I love American Holidays, and extending this one "hands-across-the Atlantic-Style" to G-Town gave much reason to be thankful.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our place on Saturday evening for a few neighborhood and lab friends. Our flat has comfortable living, but it's not ideal for hosting large events, so our invitation list was modest. We had a blast, but I always wish we could have invited more people. It's hard to be exclusive when we're surrounded by so many people who are very, very helpful and genuinely nice. Of course, seeing four people try to work in our kitchen preparing food confirms why we could only host 8 (total) last night. Wait until you see our kitchen in person. It has everything you need like cabinets full of random glasses and the standard utilities (oven, micro-fridge, etc), but I think our balcony has more space.

Here's a quick pic of Petra (Pay-truh) and Guillaume (Gee-ohm) preparing some foodstuff in the kitchen. Actually, Guillaume made fantastic mashed potatoes - using a ricer (presumably for potatoes?). Amazing!

Everyone's foods were great. Petra brought a dish of green beans (with magic spices yet to be determined; please be not MSG!) and another of a baked red and yellow bell peppers casserole. Beth, Sean and Tad brought corn casserole, stuffing (yum) and an Apple / Apricot dessert (as well as graciously supplying a unified set of dishes from which we ate), Shravanthi brought a muy tasty salad and pear crisp dessert, and in addition to Guillaume's potatoes he also brought a French Apple Tart (which he made) and a bottle wine from his family's vineyard.






Here's a pic of his fam's wine label; if all French wine even hints at this flavor then bless me a winesnob and know that I'm heading there right after Munich and Prague to tour the Alsacian region from where his family lives. Alsace is to wine what Illinois is to corn. The Alsacian region has a historic identity crisis. German and France have fought over ownership of this region for many years (click on Alsacian region to read more).


Between cooking and hosting, I managed to snap a picture of Tad during a more complacent moment. He's a great kid, and I'm jealous that he's learning English and Deutsch simultaneously. His understanding of "mein" and "nein" are unprecedented. :) Plus, his parents are generous and very supportive. Psst, hey kid. Just remember the good times when your angst fully matures at 16. Besides, your parents were the ones who suggested taking a walk to a nearby lake (Bärensee) between dinner and dessert so we could (in my words) fit more goodness in our bellies. Smart & European (they're Americans). Good Times.

The night's many conversations evolved from holiday tradition to local music to Geocaching Riddles to Guillaume's secret ingredient (marzipan)to a second dessert - and somehow to this re-enactment of a rugby scrum:





















Did I say good times?

We hope you all had a great holiday, and that you had as packed of a dinner table as we did! Hello from Partyland Deutschland:

Nothing says Thanksgiving like sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top

So, our (first) Thanksgiving on Thursday was super. The meal was hosted by Bob and Laura (and their son 4-yr-old Jack) in Denkendorf. We had met Bob's parents, Glenda and Vic, at an event in downtown Stuttgart for a local English magazine....off-track story: the event was at a British pub that hosts team quiz events, and our team, "Hell's Angels", won. We got a big bottle of sparkling champagne, complete with a lit sparkler stuck in the cork. We rock......Aaaaaaaaand, we're back. Anyway, Bob and Laura's place is really nice. They rent a big, old German house that's just beautiful. Also attending the dinner were Simone, a German friend of Laura's from book club, and Manfred & Andrea, a German couple whose son, Danny (also in attendance), goes to Kindergarten with Jack.

The food was great. I brought some Linzer Plätzchen (pic) that I made using my fancy new cookie cutters that Andy bought me at Tchibo, quite possibly the coolest store ever. See how pretty? Jack and Danny certainly liked them. :)


The rest was made by Laura and Glenda. We had Butterball turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, fruit salad, yeast rolls, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, green bean casserole, stuffing, mincemeat pie, pumpkin pie, and ice cream. It was like being in a little American bubble, because Laura was able to get all the traditional goodies by shopping at the Base. She even had Juicy Juice for the young boys.

We had so much fun there, that we stayed for 6 hours, just chatting it up and having a grand time. Manfred and Andrea offered to have us all over to their place next time, for some real Swabian food (Swabia is the region in which Stuttgart resides). We're definitely looking forward to it.

Stay tuned for Andy's picture-filled update of our (second) Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday!

Happy Turkey Day!

You know, today is a good day to reflect on what you're thankful for...like, for example, my 1st place Hop-A-Thon trophy. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, in 1985 I succeeded in hopping on one foot----while dressed as a turkey (newspaper wings on my back and red yarn taped to my chin)--- longer than any of the other kindergartners in my class. What an achievement. That's hard to top. :)

Anyway, these days we're thankful for our family and friends, and for getting to have two Turkey Days this year. This never happened to us in the US, but somehow Germany wants us to feel extra thankful. Last week, we decided to organize a Thankgiving feast at our apartment on Saturday (joining us are an American family from down the street, and an American postdoc and two PhD students from MPI). Then, we got invited by a retired American couple that we met a couple of weeks ago to have Thanksgiving at their son's house in Denkeldorf this afternoon. So, now you can all rest assured that we will have plenty of turkey to eat, and enough friends to share our meals with. Good times.

I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday!

Eurostyle Livin'

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS!

Spending my entire life in one State (.. state of mind?), I always settled on habits and just stuck with them. These weren't always the best habits but once internalized they unfolded into a daily routine. For one, I have a penchant for sitting on my arse. It continues because my career of choice (technology, unspecified) includes a heavy amount of reading and "testing" (ie, Geek Olympics; long, harsh hours of building, breaking, rebuilding, rebreaking all-things-computer) - but let's just refer to it as Golympics (shame on you, Bucky, with your famous marriage of two words into an awesomer, single word [and blast you, John Dorian, for making me explain things in your peculiar and wonderful way..]). That, and like all other kids enjoy the easy answer to our problems of "what now?" - and the Nintendo DS Lite isn't helping anything! Blah, blah, blah

Anyway the point is that my habits are evolving, and it's unquestionably due to our recent lifestyle changes. Jumping right into it:

(a) my new-found ability to actually spend money. Previously I lived under the credit card umbrella (now-now, you know that I generally keep to my frugal (as little as possible!) budget), but now I roll with the EU version of play money. Who'd have thought a country like Germany hardly accepts credit cards? Well, ain't no stoppin me. In fact, why not carry real money as opposed to credit cards? Not only is it a great way to reduce unnecessary spending (can't spend what you don't have), but it's safe, too. Think about it. If someone steals your wallet full of play money, they sure as heck aren't going to snake the 85.62 of EU coins in your pocket! :) Oh, the joy of heavy pockets.. and having to re-learn simple math. Thanks to Brain Age for the DS, I'm once again capable of such complexities as 9 * 7. ;)

But what do I spend my money on? So far, food (but i feel a strong pull to the dark-side of boutique-ish clothing..).

Each day I head to the local grocer and pick up new selections of bread (if I'm out), meat, cheese, and sometimes new drink. I cannot ignore the obligatory chocolate item for me and the Missus, either.

Eating fresh bread is just tops (and kinda expensive at 2+ euros a "loaf"). Making sandwiches with this stuff takes my workin' man food to a whole new level. Pick up some good (ie, everyday) German mustard, a few slices of meat (salami, bierschank, bierwurst, fleischkase, turkey, whatever), and slice tomoato and wash the greens. It's so good (and looks so good) I feel like renaming it my uppa' management food. And don't forget the cheese. I see so many people here just eating cheese and bread, I thought "can't be so bad" and jumped on the wagon. Whether I pick up slices of "the daily" cheese or a slice of the wheel, it's in my lunch almost every day. One day I picked up Havarti, which was very different from the havarti I ate in the States (it was much stinkier, but very nice tasting). The next, brie, followed by a hard(er) cheese that that the butcher sliced for me because he liked it, followed by a wedge of Cambozola which rocked! PS: I still keep "normal" bread on hand for PB&J attacks, etc - otherwise I'd be broke.



(b) Consistently visiting the local Farmer's Market. This goes along with spending money, but I'm set on going each week. Luckily for me (cause SAtuday is Lazyday), there's a mid-week / Wednesday (Mittwoch) market. Just this morning I hopped on the bus with my bad German and bought a monster bag of fresh spinach, as well as other things like fresh walnuts, vine tomatoes, herbed olives and some marinated Feta (I think..). The grocers actually don't offer all of this stuff, so off to the Farmer's Market(s) we go (we also went once to the larger Stuttgart market which was also very nice).

(c) More photos! I know, all this talk of food, markets, stinky cheeses and breads without pictures is like Van Halen without David Lee Roth. I'm within reach of a camera much more regularly these days, and I will continue to pop photos for your eyes more than ever! I'll take it to the grocer tomorrow and drop in some savory pics.

(d) My Own Friends ©. I've lived in a world of Material Scientists over the past five years, and it's been fun - but it's hard sharing *everything* with your wife. Friends are no exception. My friends were always a mix of my wife's friends: MatSci's, their wifes, their hubbies, and of course my local tech buddies and friends from around the globe. Ultimately this meant my wife and I hardly had time apart. Shortly after arrival, we clarified that we needed different groups of friends at the lab (which we could combine for bombtastic parties.. muahhahaha). Now we have our own separat-ish social groups, where we chat about all sorts of goodness.. In German. I'm such a dork. Yeah, we don't always understand each other, but I win because I have great bread every day. ;) Then again, she has that infamous coffee club and the peeps that go with it - who are all pretty nice and Euro themselves. Darn you, coffee club with your million dollar cappuchino machine.

(e) A more relaxed attitude. Currently I have no serious deadlines, no true plans, and the work environment around us is: it can wait until tomorrow. I've never felt better. Ultimately I get my work done, albeit I do feel like I'm not focusing on my real job interests, but I think that will change over the next few weeks as people understand what I'm able to do (and interested in doing; there's a significant benefit with actually having interest). Life here is all-around positive. We walk, we eat, we laugh, we watch half-price movies at the Gloria on Tuesdays. I *just* received our first shipment of books, so I now have stuff to read, but I have time to pick up projects and hobbies. Unfortunately with my career choice comes that heavy reading / Golympics requirement, so I still have a slight internal pressure to continue investigating the newest features and products (Windows Vista, Windows PowerShell, the many books and articles regarding those two, the internal workings of those two, blah blah blah). But in the end I just pick up the DS or head to the closest town or Stuttgart for some relaxation.

Can't wait to see the Goritos in December, and looking forward to communicating with some of you over Skype, IM, etc.

You've been T-Punkt!

Hahahaha. After a month and 7 visits to the T Mobile store (T-Punkt), we finally have our cell phone. We had to wait until my resident permit cleared last Thursday before they would believe me that I live here. They gave us a €5 credit on our bill for the hassle, and generally were very friendly throughout, so we're happy. Plus they have a super-cool coffee machine, so we get free cappuccinos each time we go, which is a bonus. ;)

In other news, we found out today that Germany has a tax for the TV and radio. €20 a month! Dang! That tax is how they support public broadcasting. Still, it sucks, because even if you only use your TV to watch DVDs you have to pay the tax. And if you try to avoid it, they'll hunt you down and make you pay a big fine (so say our German buddies). So, since Andy and I don't even use the TV provided to us by our landlord, we're gonna ask him to store it in the basement. That way when the TV inspectors come we'll be in the clear. Of course, we may still have to pay €7 a month for the radio tax, since my mp3 player came with one. Doh!

Mmm.. Bier: Bier #3

Will owns a bottle opener that features Homer (from the Simpsons) saying "Mmm.. Beer. [pouring beer into a glass] Woohoo!" or something like that. I really like this bottle opener and will purchase it if I can find it - despite my aversion to battery powered items these days.*

And off we go. There are so many more breweries to sample. Be patient, my children. DSL is still on the way.

The Paulaner Hefe-weissen DUNKEL is a *great* beer. It's a Hefe, which I enjoy a lot, and it's a darker beer (but not dark like Guinness). Screaming from the wheaty goodness is a lot of smoothness. Smooth runnings, man. Can you get this in the states? This beer surely won't threaten the likes of Guinness or Delirium Tremens, but I'd pick it as my everyday beer.. if I had a constant selection.. hehe... if..

YMMV (your mileage may vary)

* Old news for some, but I LOVE these toys sans batteries. Check out how cool windup toys can be at Kikkerland.com.

From the "When It Counts" Department

I wrote a friend of mine and said in jest: Living in Germany (as a non-native speaker) is a comedy of errors, and I wish the Germans found it as funny as I do. Now it's your turn!

This isn't mine. In fact, I shouldn't even post this but instead allow my counterpart her moment of fame. But the fact that another American couple we just met also pointed this out and that B's currently not available at the moment persuades me to go ahead and post this.

FUNNY FUNNY

It should yield a video (which you should NOT watch at work.. ahem, you know to whom I'm speaking) with incredible replayability while rarely losing it's humor. Maybe it's funny to me because I live in that sinking world. :)

Enjoy!

Here's to Arbitrary Customs Regulations. Cheers!

First, a little background story. Before leaving the US, Andy and I sent ourselves a package of books. Not anything special, just some random, used textbooks that we thought would be useful to have over here. Well, last Tuesday, we got a letter from Deutsch Post saying that our package had arrived, but was being held by customs. Okee dokee.

So, this morning, we went to the DP customs office (about a 20 minute drive) and picked up our package. This process consisted of us opening the package, the man glancing at it, and us leaving with it. While we were there, we asked him why it was held. To which he replied that he didn't know what was in the package, and it could have been commercial goods (which would be taxable). The funny thing is, we did write that the package was full of books, but Deutsch Post put their sticker over our writing, so that's why the contents were a "mystery".

Anyway, since our package took three weeks to arrive instead of one, and we had to hassle with getting a ride to the post office, we have started doing some research on the best way for family and friends to send us packages from the US. As it turns out, you are allowed to receive gifts from one individual to another, as long as the value is less than 45 Euros. Random. Over that amount, we have to pay taxes on the package when we pick it up from DP. I actually managed to find the German customs website, which lists exactly what the tariff rate is for goods valued at more than that. Here is a selected sampling:

GPS Equipment: 3.7%
Golf Clubs: 2.7%
Tennis Rackets: 4.7%
Leather shoes: 8%
Non-leather shoes: 17%
Ornaments made of
- wood: free
- metal: free
- plastic: 6.5%

Seriously, what's with the excess tariff on the plastic ornaments? I mean, when are plastic ornaments gonna get a break??

It's a hard-knock life...

Just wanted to show you all how tough it is being a cat. You can see here that all of the eating and playing lately has worn out Zulu completely. Pooooooor kitty. :)

Small and Wonderful: The Porsche Museum

Living in Stuttgart had one immediate benefit from my perspective: Porsche. Porsche was started in Stuttgart by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. While they do have several test facilities througout the world, Stuttgart is still their home (and a proud one, too!). We visited the Porsche Museum yesterday (Sunday - some things *ARE* open on Sundays!!), and I had an absolute blast. I love Porsche because they are beautiful cars that are within the reach of everyone, whether new or used. I'm not saying I can afford to buy another FA Porsche vehicle, but maybe someday.. Actually, I'm lucky enough to own one of FA Porsche's originals. My Father and I (well, mostly Dad) restored it to almost 100% over 10 years ago, and it's still stored and driven regularly. The museum gives a nice shout out to these "everyday" Porsche's:









You can't see the split window in the back very well. It's a 1950's Beetle "Split-Window" that is incredibly preserved (or restored). I'll snag a better picture later when I have my tripod.







Here are a few photos of the various cars (in and out) to whet your appetite.

NB: I will not post all photos. If you want to see more, get your butts over here and I'll take you - it's my treat! :)

959 - pearl white. This was the quintessential Porsche SuperCar until the Carrera GT was released in '04:
















Some lucky Porsche Intern got this crazy fun job. This is the new Porsche Cayman, a model designed to sit between the lower-end Boxter (still a great car) and the essential Porsche 911. I bet Thorr would love this job: Here, take this dremel and run! (I know the cutaway was probably performed with a saw or laser, but Thorr does love his Dremel):
















This is the first thing I saw as I entered the museum: Death on Wheels. Not sure why they don't have an actual Porsche 356 in front of the Der Porsche 356 display....
















SECRET PHOTO OP!!



We think this is a Porsche engineering (test) car. Note the different body panels (front and rear quarter) and masking. There were TONS of these... maybe the panels are about to be removed and replaced to sell the car?







Enjoy these until the time you and I go together! :)