Clarktoberfest

Sadie: Weeeee!

2011-03-06T20:44:00.002+01:00

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: The Dam Ride

2010-08-21T19:04:00.012+02:00

Jemez Dam route = 9 fig bars + 1 muscle milk lite + 1/2 bottle of water.

Much easier than last week's Roller's Loop (finished 65miles in 4.5 hours vs 6), and a super confidence booster. The ride took us north of ABQ to the Jemez Dam, which oddly contained zero water. Guess last year's monsoon season (insanely heavy rain for short periods) was, well, so last year. No major developments this ride, except to say that I've rechristened my bike from FRANKenstein (boring) to DIRKenstein (freshly european, as Dirk was my adopted German namesake complete with matching coffee cup). No more confusion about whether I was mounting, remounting, or washing my teammate who really is named Frank.

A few pics from our trip today:

A great southeasterly view of the Sandia Mountains.

Insert water here.

The REAL Frank, and Capt Snookums

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: Uphill Lunch Ride, 10 miles?

2010-08-20T06:15:00.003+02:00

David called. Lunch ride Friday. Sweet!

So we headed east and crashed the Four Hills fancypants subdivision. It's a pretty calm place, actually, except for the road that just keeps climbing. Turn, climb. Dip, climb. Guy that keeps yelling "KEVIN" to you, climb. I am a phoenix.

I do most things at 90%, and cycling is no different. Ignore that it's about 95 degrees in 100% clear sky (=sun is pounding). As much as I try to stick with David, I have to pull ahead occasionally because my legs .. just.. move. Let me reiterate that I'll win no awards for speed, but don't tell my legs. So I shoot ahead after David says something like "run, Forrest, run". And Run I do.

We reach the end of the line, and dehydration encourages a repeat ride. We circle back to the start and begin the ascent again (it's not really THAT significant of a climb; perhaps ascent is a bit dramatic). After peaking a second time, we head back towards the office.

That was a good ride.

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: The Rollers Loop

2010-08-15T20:00:00.001+02:00

Rollers Loop: 30 figgies + 2 muscle milk + 2 water bottles

65 miles round trip sounds great.. and chances are you're thinking of your car. Add a change of 2500ft elevation, and replace your car with a bicycle. Now you've got one great Sunday ride. I can't thank Capt Snookums enough for showing me this route. Absolutely Beautiful. Just because the first 20 miles are uphill (honest), don't turn this route down. Turn it down because the highway (212), undoubtedly the "Roller" of this loop, is a pain in your ass after that 20mi/2500ft climb. Up down up down, wash, rinse, repeat. These are the rides that build confidence in new riders, pushing limits and expectations, redefining your sense of personal reward. Take it from me: you've earned your victory shower after returning home from this route.This ride starts with several miles along Route 66, then the slow 20mi climb into the Tijeras canyon (where we saw some badass dude on a motorcycle being filmed for what I assume is a don't-speed-in-nm commercial), a turn into the Ciabola National Forest, then a long ride north along 212 (aka, "the Roller"). After that, nothing matters since your legs are burned out and your tush is pretty sore, but basically you head west, then take a route back to Route 66 and head home. It was worth it, and I'd be glad to show anyone else this route for the many aforementioned reasons.

Looking forward to this ride again. How about after the upcoming 150mi BikeMS 2010 fundraiser ride??

A few pix:

A very long northbound road packed with big ups and downs.

This is the Breakfast of Champions.

Capt Snookums and I pushing along the East Mountains

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: City Round 1 for 50 miles

2010-08-09T05:12:00.001+02:00

Tramway Loop = 12 figgies, 2 muscle milks, and two water bottles

Sunday, August 08, 2010. 50 miles. DIRKenstein holds up.

Aside from abfab weather, Albuquerque is crossed with excellent bike paths. Well, they're actually roads, but who's counting. It doesn't give me warm fuzzies always biking along high traffic commute paths, but you do what you can to stay safe: ride as far to the right as safe (keeping three feet or so in case I need to bail), wear bright colors, and learn to avert your eyes from the frequent staredowns (fsck that!). On to the show.

I set the meeting time that morning: collectively leave at 5:45AM. It makes sense that I wake up at 0600. Up, throw on my spandex (shut it) and on the road in less than 10. I whip past the fancy townhomes, see the gang, and .. dump. Still getting used to these shoes that clip into my pedals. Magical.

The main training route whips around the city for a total of appx. 50 miles. We head west along Route 66 to Tramway. Tramway runs north/south along the Sandia Mountain range, and it's a pretty ride (minus the traffic, of course). BTW, Tramway is a slow incline northbound. We head north along Tramway and stop several miles into the ride for a team picture. It's magical.
The Tramway incline isn't tough enough, so we head east on the add'l 15 degree incline to the Sandia Tramway. Just my luck: Lupo and the gang are behind me (except for the energizer bunny far ahead) and I hear "this isn't the tour de france" as my chain derails and locks between my frame and sprocket. No idea. Flip DIRK, wiggle it out, and remount. Stop again at the Tramway clubhouse for potty and another picture. And to top it off, the parking lot is still in the shade, which means we're making good time. Oh, here's the gang:

We're the Penultimates!

Let me take a moment to explain we're not in this for speed, trophies, or prom queens. We're just recreational. Making good time brings smiles to our faces. It's not that we're the team of fat kids, but, well, we're their slightly thinner cousins. Our team name is The Penultimates... and you have to represent.

Got back onto Tramway, headed west for a very nice reprieve on a long, fast downhill route past the Sandia Casino. Honked at by an old fart nickel pumper who attempts to turn in front of me and Energizer Jaymes. I hold out my hand, he flails and honks. I call him bad name. I have a love for our aging historians.

The rest of the ride was pretty eventless. Hit the Bosque Trail along the Rio Grande, dodged some crazy fast runners, then some other cyclists, then headed east south of the city past many, many junkyards because the southwest is an old mechanic's garage - and full of great finds. Passed the zoo and botanic gardens, then headed north under the I40 bridges, up a slow climb to University, where we have another climb. Hills at ride's end warm my feet, and we raced to the top. Basically from here we make our ways back home and plan to meet for celebratory excessive lunch. Alas, this doesn't happen as we're either pooped or overbooked. I walk into the house for my victory cold shower. My body boils the cold water, then I make my wife breakfast. How awesome am I?

ttfn

Tickle Time!

2010-08-06T05:23:00.004+02:00

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-10T15:35:00.002+02:00

We have literally hours of footage of SMC...most of which only a parent would be entertained watching! However, we've started going through and paring the vids down to some choice moments. Here's our first attempt: a video of SMC in the first three months of life. :)

2009 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

2009-10-04T01:07:00.008+02:00

Mass ascension: Albuquerque 2009 International Balloon Fiesta

It's 600 balloons rising from balloon fiesta park and drifting in this morning's calm blue skies. At least 5,000 people showed up this morning to pay homage to Albuquerque's biggest event - one that attracts balloons from around the world. The park is a lightly marked grid for the ballooning crews to assemble their gear, but completely open to visitors to drift themselves amongst the giants - no backstage passes required. Regular Joe's have free access to converse with the crews, and occasionally you're asked to grab an anchor line - but quickly, to keep the balloon under control during the morning rise. It's a beautiful sight and fantastic to be able look up at any moment and see 20 balloons rising into the cloud of hundreds already gathered. This was the final straw.. I will move back to my roots next year with a suitable dSLR.

Rise and shine! A new interpretation.

An early start, with more early risers behind.

Fantastic: Free walkabouts with no press-pass required.

Anybody bring marshmallows?

Hello, Mr Happy.

This cow has an anatomically-correct ending

Really amazing: two independently-controlled balloons holding hands

YES! PROSIT! Needless to say this is my favorite balloon.

My fav, cropped for your enjoyment.

Deutschland versus the US

2009-09-14T21:00:00.001+02:00

I don't know if it's the pregnancy hormones working overtime, but lately I am really missing Deutschland. I'm constantly wrapped up in nostalgia, thinking about all the little things that made life in Germany so different from the US. To indulge in this, I've decide to make a list of the stuff I miss, and just so I can keep a balanced perspective, I'm also going to list the things that I like better here.

Things that I miss about Germany:
- Bakeries on every corner. I think I anticipated this one a bit, but good bread and pastries in the US are not easy to come by. Good bread I think just doesn't exist here, and good pastries require great effort to hunt down. In Germany, even the regular supermarket had an amazing bakery as part of the package deal.
- Public transportation. I find myself missing the bus and bahn system in Germany. It was so easy to get around without worrying about driving and traffic and who was going to stay sober (although in my current state, this last worry is non-existent).
- Nice cars. I had conveniently forgotten how many junkers there are in the US. The fact that it's legal to drive a car that spews smoke from the engine, fumes from the tailpipe, is missing its tail lights on one side, and has a bumper held on with duct tape is truly amazing.
- Speaking German. I can't really fault the US here, but I do miss speaking German. After being immersed in a second language for 2 years, speaking English with other English speakers just doesn't seem challenging enough.
- Wasen/Oktoberfest. As my German friends know, I am a sucker for Wasen. Those beer festivals in Germany are so fun. I miss singing silly songs at the top of my lungs and dancing on the table benches. I miss getting served beer in ridiculously large and heavy steins, and I miss eating giant soft pretzels. Sigh.
- Beer. There's no contest when it comes to German vs. American beer. German beer is better tasting, cheaper, has higher alcohol content, and comes in bigger bottles. What's not to love?
- Restaurants in the forest. The whole culture of taking a hike on a Sunday and eating a delicious meal at a tiny restaurant nestled in the woods is entirely missing here.
- Kaffee und Kuchen. The cafes in Europe have us seriously beat in the categories of coffee and cakes. Their desserts are so intricate and amazing, and even compared with the most admirable American joints, the coffee there is simply better.
- Proximity of borders. We were definitely spoiled when driving a couple hours west, south, or east took us to another country entirely. Now we have very few things in short driving distance, and driving to big cities in neighboring states is at least a 10 hour drive.
- Doner Kebab. Possibly the best fast food every invented. The Turkish version of a Gyro. There are doner kebab stands all over Germany, and intense debates can ensue over which ones have the best ones. For a hangover, there is no better cure.
- Ritter Sport. Delicious chocolate bars. Although you can get some flavors here, pretty much all my favorites aren't exported to the US. Guess I can't blame the Germans for keeping the best to themselves.

Things I like better in the US:
- Mexican food. There were so many times that we ate "Mexican" food while in Germany, and it was just never the same. They would get the concept kind of right, but then do things like use kidney beans instead of pinto beans, gouda cheese instead of queso fresco, and ground pepper instead of jalapenos. It was basically a mess. Not to mention that avocados in Germany are nothing to write home about, and salsa there is more sweet than spicy. Here, mexican restaurants are more abundant than stoplights, and pretty much everywhere you go is good. And, things like pan dulce and horchata are easy to come by thanks to the Mexican grocery stores.
- Thai/Sushi/Korean/Vietnamese/Chinese/Indian food. Actually, save for German food and Italian food, the US has Germany beat in almost every ethnic food category. We particularly out-do them when it comes to Asian cuisine.
- Slang. Even though I miss speaking German, it's so nice to be back in the world of slang. In Germany, I hardly ever used English slang words and stuck to a reduced vocabularly to be more easily understood.
- 24/7. It is so nice to not have to worry about the grocery store closing before you can get there after work, or needing eggs on a Sunday when everything is closed. Shopping is so much easier when you don't have to meticulously schedule your shopping trips within skimpy store hours.
- International sections at grocery stores. One great thing about America is that you can get almost any ingredient for any dish of any ethnicity pretty easily. Even Wal-Mart has a decent international section, and if you can't find what you're looking for in a big supermarket, you can almost always find a small specialty market that carries what you need. In Germany, it was really hard to find authentic ingredients for so many things. Although, it was always funny to see what they had in the America aisle....is our cuisine really defined by Pop Tarts, marshmallow creme, and Kraft mac anc cheese?
- Late night food. Hungry for a pizza/burrito/burger at midnight? No problem! America has the late night food thing down pat. In Germany, when the bars close and everyone spills into the streets tired and hungry, there's almost no where to go. We often wondered if we'd be overnight millionaires by selling pizza on street corners at 2am.
- Cookies. Although the Germans are good at making meticulously decorated Christmas cookies, simple drop cookies like oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodles are non-existent. And when things like chocolate chips and brown sugar aren't sold on the economy, it makes it hard to whip them up at home.

Wow, I guess I should've guessed that most of my comparisons would be food based. Especially now that snacking is becoming as involuntary as breathing. :)

Oktoberfest Leftovers

2009-09-07T23:28:00.003+02:00

Welcome (back) to the monkey house, I always say. We're planning our fifth annual Clarktoberfest party here on US soil, and in reminiscent fashion I ran across a few nicely forgotten pictures I determined important to share with you all. No apologies, no embarrassing look-aways. Just enjoy and remember that pictures never lie....

Allowing Will to drink Hefeweisen Beer is akin to feeding Mogwai's after midnight.

And when kids are curious...

Voyeurism is alive and well.. in Europe.. because of dirty, dirty Americans.

What started out as a funny joke: "So, I met this chick at Oktoberfest who was really into biting..."

EB photobombed by a video-screen Geico caveman pirate. And no, "I'm on a BOAT" doesn't compute here, either. But nice try.

The Nürburgring

2008-06-11T20:40:00.012+02:00

Only months after my racing introduction at the Porsche Leipzig factory, I found myself once again behind the wheel of a race-ready torpedo blastpheming the environmental conscience I try so hard to achieve. Reducing my virtual water quota or using natural power was left in a cloud of carbon smoke and tire bits. Please evereyone raise their glass to the Earth; I promise to continue crusading tomorrow. Prosit!

The Nürburgring is a 22.8km / 12.9m racetrack that was carved thru forest paths. Those of you not from the Midwest should understand that the German terrain here has "elevation", and by that I mean the dips, bumps, drops and other general unevenness that remains when a glacier doesn't void the creativity Bob Ross loved to portray. Changing elevation sprinkled with 73 turns and topped with speed results in one gigantic roller coaster. Multiplying that by you as the passenger almost resulted in aborting what little I ate today. And to you Grand Turismo victors: of course you understand how being spanked feels when reading about it on wikipedia. Try the real thing.. I promise you won't forget it.

To top it off, today was more special than usual: a company named RTS reserved the entire Nürburgring. I'm told a normal race day sees 100 or so cars on the track. Today I don't recall seeing more than 20 cars on the track at any given time. A 13 mile track with maybe 20 cars produces few meet and greets amongst those 73 turns. But nothing felt better than being bitch-slapped by the Porsche GT2 and club Aston Martin Vanquish pushing an extra 30km/h thru those turns you're sliding thru. Try following either of those... I dare ya.

Pictures are on their way, as they are spread amongst variouos equipment - none of which is in my posession at the moment. Also, we have video! Take Dramamine before you watch it tho. With any luck, you'll not just see

our adventure but HEAR the beautiful sound of my patented Nürburgring slide.. followed by Victor's "NICE".

I don't usually dedicate things, but this one goes out to my racing Hardy Boy:

Jim, because I somehow channeled Jim's 16 year old insane driving persona, albeit on a world-famous race track, regained consciousness, and then started driving like a responsible adult..

America Day

2008-05-27T10:23:00.009+02:00

Maybe this shouldn't be as amusing as it is....I mean, in America we take it for granted that even Wal-Mart sells specialties from all over the world. But over here in Germany, while European delicacies are abundant, those amazing American inventions like Pop Tarts and Velveeta are hard to come by.

In an effort to compensate, each year ALDI has an America Day where they sell everything worthy of putting an American flag on the package. Things like pancake mix, jelly beans, donut makers, hot dogs, and 2-buck-chuck from California. Nevermind the fact that I don't know anyone in the US with a donut making appliance, or that hot dogs aren't normally packed in a jar. It's still nice to know that those little things we took for granted are again at our fingertips once each year.

Here is the flyer from ALDI showcasing all that makes America great. Particularly funny to me are the tubes of swirled condiments; you can choose between ketchup & mustard, or ketchup & mayo. Why didn't we think of that first?

Børk! Børk! Børk!

2008-04-30T11:55:00.015+02:00

We finally see what the Swedish Chef was babbling about all those years. Sweden is awesome!

Thanks to another cheap flight deal on TUIfly, Andy and I were able to hop on a plane to the Land of Vikings for a weekend trip to see our long-lost friend Therese. Let me tell you, it was a super fun to have a Swedish friend as a tour guide. She totally hooked us up and introduced us to all the best Swedish stuff....from Viking Museums to cheeses to the ever classic Swedish meatballs (which she made for us herself!).

The trip started with a yummy dinner at a very nice Swedish restaurant. I had some delicious, super-fresh fish, and Andy and Therese both got a kind of giant veal meatball served with berry sauce. Sooooo good. I still can't decide though if dinner or dessert was better....but maybe that's my sweet tooth talking.

The amazing dessert. Oh, and some crazy tourists that jumped into the picture...

The next day we let Therese catch up on sleep (she's a wild-and-crazy world traveling consultant) while we headed to see The Vasa. It's a super cool ship, all made out of beautifully carved black walnut and, with its size and grandeur, dwarfing all the tiny humans there to gaze upon it. Too bad The Vasa had a tragic fate; it sunk after just 20 minutes at sea. As our guide said, "In fact, this tour will last longer than The Vasa's maiden voyage." Indeed. After resting at sea for 333 years, the Vasa was resurfaced in the 60s, masterfully restored for the next 25 years or so, and then made into a museum. Apparently, the reason it sunk was simply that it didn't have a sufficient ballast (the rocks in the bottom of the ship used as a counterweight). So, it was top heavy and when a gust of wind caught its sails, it tipped over enough that the gun ports filled with water and....well....that was that.

Ships along the canal near Therese's place

Huge sunken treasure: The Vasa

After getting our fill of the giant war ship, we met up with Therese for a stroll through the city center and Stockholm's old town. Very nice. The city's buildings are really very pretty.

We decided to forego another restaurant meal for dinner, and instead opted to have a feast at Therese's place. Good choice! She picked out all sorts of wonderful things for us to sample...cheeses, meats, cured salmon with dill honey mustard, fruits, it was heaven. She even shared with us a very nice bottle of champagne that had been a birthday gift from her mom. It was seriously delicious.

Awesome Swedish feast at Therese's place

And the goodies continued, as the next morning Therese made us some Swedish waffles (yum!) and let us sample some cloudberry jam. Fat and happy, we headed over to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit, followed by a visit that afternoon to the History Museum. I tell you what, those vikings knew how to pillage. There is a huge gold collection there! We even got to see the 9,000-year-old skeleton of a 40-year-old woman who had given birth to 12 children! If that doesn't give insight into the strength of the vikings, I don't know what does.

Cool window at the Viking Museum....kind of looks like a Viking muppet

We're eager to have a chance to visit Sweden again, to explore the countryside, enjoy some more delicious foods, and sail along the coast in the bright sunshine, but until then, we'll just have to cook homemade meatballs as a memento. Børk! Børk! Børk!

Sprachen Espanien and Unravellin'

2008-04-28T20:05:00.014+02:00

I break for spicy Spaniards.. Sorry kid.

Take life up a notch. Why set a rendezvous at the seedy diner on the other side of town when a weekend double-date in Barcelona is within your reach? That was our thought when close friends of ours were taking some time away from their studies to visit Scotland. Combined with the allure of the Sea (not to mention the sea-FOOD), the imaginative architectures of Antoni Gaudi, and possibly the largest open market in Europe, and I'd call that a pretty damn good date weekend. :)

Four days brought us to five Antoni Gaudi creations (La Padrera, the Segrada Familia yet-unfinished House of God, the school house, Park Guell, and a wicked-cool townhouse), a visit to the Port of Barcelona along the water front, Tapas galore, possibly 20 miles of good ole' walkin, four visits to that monster market called La Bocqueria, and just one afternoonish relaxing to catch our breaths. That break was nestled between a long city & garden walk, stumbling across a ginormous cultural market (not just stands.. we're talking tents with handmade textiles and diverse foods), but before heading out again for an evening Flamenco show at the local culture house. Actually "community" is more in order here, as it was a walled city converted into an artists community. Visiting these places with Rob and Jen made it all the more worthwhile, and we're secretly awaiting our next visit with them as it can only get better.

Together on the roof of Gaudi's La Padrera.. Camera thiefs can't run far on a roof..

I leave you with some pictures to give an idea of this adventure, but neither my writing nor pictures can give you a real idea of how awesome that weekend was.

Sure, sure, take all that fruit for granted.. wait.. are those gigantic freaking artichokes? Holy Jesus.

By the way, if you find yourself at an open market choosing between a fresh Blackberry drink and a coconut one, take my hint and avoid the one more likely to contain seeds.. and I do mean seeds.. possibly 10 tablespoons worth!

Port of Barcelona: We came, we saw, we were pooped on by seagulls (just kidding)

Not kidding about those seeds, kids. Reach for the Kiwi, at least the seeds are chewable.

From the Park Guell Lizard: See kids, Crayons ARE toxic.

Friendly Neighborhood

2008-03-05T11:37:00.005+01:00

Is there really something soooooo out of the ordinary about having a guillotine in your garden? I mean, maybe it comes in handy. "Oh, you don't wanna help with the laundry? Well then, why don't we take a little walk outside..."

Charming Garden Guillotine spotted on a recent trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia

Quick! Follow that Gondola!

2008-03-01T21:38:00.012+01:00

Tail that guy over there.. but don't be too ovious about it. Paddle! Faster!

Venice is less an island than a labrynth. Veer off the main "route" thru the island, and you're likely to find a nestled cafe or another arm of a minor canal - a Venitian's version of off-street gondolas parking. You'll find more doll-house bridges than imaginable pizza toppings (so, a lot). Adventure incarnate, with plenty of paths leading to gondola piers, empty squares, or church realty. This is my idea of a Spaghetti Island, the various alleys and roads criss-crossing and just about as thick as a noodle. And to boot, Gelato at every intersection. [Thanks to the large population of Italian immigrants in Germany, B's blessed with the possibility of Gelato almost everywhere in Stuttgart, too.] What, never heard of Spaghetti Ice Cream? Life doesn't get any better.

Bridge Number 77a. Notice its symmetric arch and 15th century wrought iron made from the shackles of various Guiseppis.

Most of our adventures are lightly vailed fronts for splurging on great food. This trip cost us a whopping 44 euro round trip (total; taxes incl.), which left a welcome remainder in our budget for incidentals. B does a great job of locating friendly and waaaaaaaay helpful places to stay each place we visit. Combined with online reviews and a general consideration of guide books, we've a killer Trifecta for sniffing out the right places to go. One of high esteem is a restaurant named BANCOGIRO, located on Piaza San Marco. We grabbed a few plates of Ciccheti (Italy's version of Tapas), a glass of local vino, and relaxed at a quiet table along the major Canal. It was awesome.

No Wireless, No Blackberry, No One Nearby (Literally), No Problem

If it's not on Piaza San Marco, your guidebook probably won't help you much here, which gives you the green for poking about at your own pace. Don't follow the crowds (there weren't any for us), and take the time to walk the spaghetti trail of Venice to sights like Rialto Bridge and the ecclectic area of Accademia. It's imperative that you carve out time to tour the Doge's Palace and certainly Basilica San Marco. Seeing the gold ceiling mosaic of Judas hanging from the tree brought me one step closer to God, even if I was motivated out of fear. Since moving to Europe I thought my palace cum museum quotient was about to explode, but both of these were oustanding. Print out RS' self-tour for a surprisingly interesting history lesson.

Cameras exist to take pictures of people taking pictures of themselves.

By roaming around we discovered a tiny church displaying an artist's small-scale reproduction of 30 or so of Leonardo da Vinci mechanical and wartime inventions. A bicycle with a wooden "chain", an automatron suit of armor, and an integrated mechanical system for pushing offensive ladders from the walls of cities / castles. I'm a huge fan of s'odraneoL imagination and creations, so it was surprising when B was essentially dragging *me* into the church. For the record I didn't want to pay the 12 euro entrance fee for something I'm already an expert on.. having a wild imagination and a knack for natural systems. heh, heh. We couldn't get enough of the attack ship with mammoth scythe mounted on the front, btw. Just classic. It deserves both captions.

Whether it's a Steamboat or a Schooner, adding a Scythe makes everything nice.
It's all fun and games until someone pulls out a Scythe. And cuts a hole into your ship.

Warning: south park reference. Awesom-O never had a chance.

Break from the big sights and use any remaining energy to dip into the many local shops. We visited just after the close of Carnival, and mask shops were still packed with warez galore. In typical fashion I picked out the most under-rated item in the shop, a sexy circa-20's veiled ladyface framed by feathers, which B quickly decided was her best find ever. :) After an artful bargain with the maker it found its way back to our home. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that this mask will scare the living hell out of any child, which is either the real reason I bought it or a very solid plus. I'm looking forward to mounting it in my future quiet place.

Elegance + Moderate Creepiness = Monster Under My Bed

Last but not least, we were lucky to spend one night around town with our friends Marilee and Adam, soon to be Legislative Masters of the Universe. The fact that we both found ourselves in Venice at the same time completely by chance just proves how small this rock really is. Until next time.....

I Heart German Design

2008-01-24T14:02:00.000+01:00

Surely you are all aware that Germany prides itself in creating beautiful design. One look at a Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, or BMW should tell you that. The really great thing, for me, is that this design is not just limited to big companies and industrial applications. No, this design overflows into the public sector, infusing kitchen gadgets, office supplies, and home furnishings with fun features and cool colors. Furnishing a home in Germany (or really anywhere in Europe) is fulfilling a childhood dream of surrounding yourself with "gadgets".

I thought I would show you some of my recent purchases, to inspire you in your quest for fun things. A lot of these items were found at local shops or online at design3000.de, my new favorite site for internet browsing. I'm not sure if they ship to the US, but for those of you that know me well, I can always be persuaded to "import" something for you on my next visit home. :)

The Clarktoberfest Gallery of Fun Design, Volume 1

"Lucky" Monitor Cleaner by Koziol

I gave this monitor cleaner, aptly called "Lucky", to my cousin for Christmas. Isn't it so fun? First of all, monitor cleaners are useful because your monitor always gets dusty, and no one ever cleans them because it's boring to do, right? Well, this little guy lovingly licks your monitor clean with his microfiber tongue. Plus, his tongue is shaped such that it can "hook" onto the top of a flap panel or laptop monitor. Genius.

"Emma" Orange Peeler by Koziol

This is another Koziol product that is adorable (I really like Koziol stuff). It's an orange peeler shaped like a snail. You loop your finger through its "shell", use the little triangular piece to pierce the rind of the orange, and then glide it across the fruit until you've got it ready for easy peelin'. In addition to the advantage of avoiding turning your fingernails yellow, you get the added bonus of feeling like a kid when using it.

Bandit Letter Opener by Indigo Design Group

This was also a Christmas gift to one of my cousins. Sure to amuse your clients and brighten up your work space. Everyone should have a lawless rebel slashing open their bank statements. The world would be a better place.

Kitchen Scale by Tchibo

Maybe not everyone will appreciate this, because the US uses mostly volume for measurements in cooking, but here in Deutschland everything is by weight. Having a kitchen scale is very important. And if it's not cute, is it really worth buying? This one I love, because it's cute and red, and because of the well-designed bowl...right-side-up it's a bowl, upside-down it fits over the scale to minimize space. Looooove it.

And finally, our most recent and prized purchase, the "Ray!" nutcracker (as in HooRay!):

Ray! Nutcracker by Troika

How great is this? You place a nut inside, pull it back inside the balloon, let go...the nut flies into a steel plate with such impact that it explodes the shell (with a satisfying bang!, I might add) and leaves you with a ready-to-eat nut. When has eating nuts ever been this much fun?

Happy New Year!

2008-01-12T12:36:00.000+01:00

I trust you all had a nice, relaxing, fun-filled holiday as we did. :)

In the spirit of the new year, I am going to help you all with what I'm sure is a new year's resolution: improving your geography skills. I must admit, my prowess in this area is nonexistent. In the past, I've been known to require three guesses to pinpoint Connecticut on a map. It's not my fault! Those wooden puzzles of the states always just lumped the NE into one puzzle piece!

Anyway, all of that will soon be behind me, now that I've found the most addictive, infuriating, self-deprecating geography quiz out there. Did I mention addictive? We play it all the time! Just to have it show us over and over again how little we really know about the world. Ah, but each time I'm learning and am convinced that someday I'll be able to get through all 12 levels, instead of just the first 7.

You've got to try it. It's my gift to you. Enjoy!

O Night Divine

2007-12-14T10:23:00.000+01:00

Just a little greeting to wish you all Happy Holidays. As our little present to you, here's a clip of the greatest "O Holy Night" recording of all time. Even if you've heard this before, I promise it'll make you laugh again. For those curious Georges out there, here's an article about the true identity of the singer. I hope this song raises everyone's self-confidence in their singing ability! Enjoy!

O Holy Night (off-key)

Those French people know how to cook!

2007-12-04T12:42:00.000+01:00

As you may know, we took at trip to the Alsace region of France back in August. We were completely charmed by the cities we visited, so when we found out that they all have Christmas markets in December, we knew we had to go. So, last weekend we took a day trip to the region, along with our friends Rebecca & Victor, and set off to visit the markets in Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, and Colmar.

Wrapped into our Alsatian Christmas market visit, was a dining experience never to be forgotten. We had lunch in Zellenberg at Le Maximilien, a one-star rated Michelin restaurant. Not to spoil the suspense, but---it was amazing. Delicious food, local wine, rustic breads, fresh ingredients, and impeccable presentation. I was too embarrassed to take pictures of each course, so I'm relying on descriptive prose to relay our fancy schmancy French meal.

The restaurant is set on the slope of a vineyard, with lovely views of nearby grape vines and the town of Riquewihr off in the distance. We took our time pondering the menu, which required some translation from Rebecca since none of the rest of us speak French. :)

During this time of pondering, we were served miniature Tarte Flambée. For those who aren't familiar with it, it's similar in idea to a pizza. They consist of a paper thin crust topped with seasoned cream, sliced onion, and chunks of ham. Mmmmm. We finally decided to go with the set 4-course "Gourmand" menu, as it seemed to be the best way to taste their specialties without spending a fortune. We ordered a bottle of Riesling called "Prestige" from a local vineyard and awaited the never-ending flow of food that was soon to follow.

It was a little awkward being a regular Joe in a restaurant like this. I couldn't help but wonder if they somehow knew that we'd all changed in the car from jeans & sneakers to slacks & dress shoes just before walking the steps up to the restaurant. I think we always feel a little bit like small children when we go to nice restaurants. Like we wanna be loud and silly and giggly, just because it's so unbelievably quiet in those places. It's hard to act grown-up sometimes, ya know?

Anyway, after ordering they brought out a tray with choice of three bread rolls (white, tomato and olive, or a rustic farm bread) to go along with our second mini-course: a salmon sushi roll (tasted French, not Japanese, even though it looked like normal sushi), and a dish with crab meat, celery, tomato gel, and a whipped foam on top. As Rebecca commented, and as we've noticed before, nice French restaurants have some strange fascination with foam. It was good though. The crab part was very nice.

After all the "starters", it was on the main event. The first course was undoubtedly my favorite. It consisted of three layers: the bottom was chopped lobster tail with cream and red onions, the middle was slices of fresh sea mussels, and the top was caviar. This was then garnished with a curly pile of fried mashed potato strings. Beautiful and wonderfully tasty.

We then moved on to the second course, which was Andy's favorite. This was a Parmesan risotto, with two each of large sea scallops and jumbo shrimp, garnished with flash-fried spinach and more grated Parmesan. I have to say that those scallops were the best I've ever tasted, and that Parmesan cheese was amazing. Wish we knew where to buy more of that!

Next up was roasted pigeon (yes, pigeon...it's a specialty in the region), served with sautéed truffle mushrooms, steamed asparagus, and a pumpkin/sweet potato-pistachio sauce. Although it seemed a bit strange to be eating something that most people associate with dirtiness and disease, the pigeon was actually tasty. It was like a cross between chicken and duck; darker than chicken, but not too oily. And the sauce that went with it was verrrry nice.

While feeling a bit full and wondering how we were going to be able to finish our last course, we were served a surprise pre-dessert (apparently this is normal, but it was a surprise for us since we don't usually eat at fancy places!). Arranged on a silver tray were 4 mini-desserts for each of us: a small glass of passion fruit mousse, a small fried doughnut coated in caramelized sugar, a macaroon cookie, and a light cake soaked in schnapps and topped with a dollop of fresh cream. They were all good, but the passion fruit mousse was the hands down winner. Incredible.

Renewed by the sweet goodies, were eagerly awaited our real dessert: a mixture of fresh berries, vanilla sauce, and cubed pieces of gingerbread, topped with a spiced ice cream that tasted like ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Very nice. However, as good as it was, I have to say that Rebecca's dessert put ours to shame. She's vegetarian, and so ordered a la carte, and had selected a warm, chocolaty, lava cake for dessert, served with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. I could eat one of those every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It was that good! :)

Finally, after all that delicious food, we decided to have a cup of cappuccino as the finale to our meal. Those were excellent too! I guess when you're paying big bucks for a meal they go all out on everything. We even got home-made, melon flavored marshmallows to go with the coffees. Reminded me of the time I got gourmet cotton candy with fresh blueberries for dessert at a fancy restaurant in Houston. I guess it just goes to show that even rich people crave the food found at girl scout sleepovers and state fairs from time to time. :)

Bears on a Mission

2007-11-24T12:46:00.000+01:00

Better than Tickle Me Elmo anyday...

I was just going through the pics on my computer and ran across this forgotten gem. It was taken in a Build-a-Bear store in Salt Lake City. You know, the ones with dozens of kids running around, gleefully constructing their next best friend teddy bear? Kind of like a Frankenstein laboratory, but with cuter outfits. Anyway, in Salt Lake City there is a special outfit for those bears with a higher calling: the missionary outfit. Gotta have a good bear role model for the Mormon kiddies, right?

Sending a shout out to the Stormin' Mormon! Miss ya!

I like traffic lights

2007-11-22T13:46:00.000+01:00

The famous Ampelmann walk sign of Eastern Berlin

I gotta say, I wasn't really sure what to expect when we visited Berlin. I mean, people told us it was great, but I just didn't really know much about it. Most of my knowledge came from its recent history: it was divvied up between four countries after WWII, a wall was built by the Soviets that divided the city, and when the wall finally came down it made my mom happy enough that she cried. In truth, much of Berlin is still defined by these parts of its history, but the city's character goes much deeper than that. After spending the weekend in Germany's capital, I've gotta say that I see why so many people love this city.

For me, Berlin seemed to give off a energetic vibe. The city is full of youth in so many ways, and just being there and walking through its streets somehow made me feel more alive. The city itself is a living contradiction: every bit as new as it is old. Its history runs so deep. The Brandenburg gate, the last remaining of several entrances to the former Prussian capital, still stands proudly a reminder of Berlin's triumphs. Just as the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church, heavily bombed during WWII, its damaged steeple a reminder of the destruction of war, rises above the stores on the Ku'Dam. And just as segments of the Berlin wall, covered in graffiti and weathered with age, remain as a reminder of the once divided city. Somehow the history of the city felt tangible as we walked the streets, and by the end of our two days we were already planning a trip to come back.

Andy in front of the TV tower in East Berlin, also known as "The Pope's Revenge." During the days of the DDR, the Soviets had all of the crosses removed from the churches of East Berlin. In the meantime, they had been working on constructing this TV tower, designed to be a display to the West of East Berlin's prosperity. When it was unveiled upon completion, the sunlight reflected off the faceted sphere in the shape of a cross, and thus the tower received its nickname.

Fountain south of Alexandar Platz, with the Berlin Dom in the background

Front of the Berlin Dome

Pretty city library near Humboldt University

The inside view of the Sony Center's dome in Potsdamer Platz

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church: damaged ruins of the bombed cathedral alongside the newly built memorial church.

View from inside the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Trabants. Once the main car of East Berlin, people were on 10 year waiting lists to get one. Now you can rent them and drive around the city on a tour, but be forewarned...they stink!

This parking lot was the location of Hitler's bunker in Berlin, where he committed suicide here, along with his wife, shortly before Soviet troops arrived at the end of the war.

Surviving section of the Berlin wall. Note the ceramic pipe along the top; this was used in lieu of barbed wire, since its circumference makes it impossible to grip.

Picture of the dome that Hitler planned to build in Berlin, which he wanted to rename "Germania". Ridiculously grandiose in scale (see comparison with the Berlin Dom), the laws of physics would make it impossible to build. It was to be so big, that it could fit 200,000 people at once. It would've rained inside just from the moisture produced by when everyone breathed!

Moving war memorial sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz, who herself lost two sons to war

Us in front of the Bradenburg Gate

My One Hour of Glory

2007-11-15T22:09:00.000+01:00

"Drive as fast as you can around this curve, and when I signal I want you to brake as hard as you can. "

Them are fightin words if I ever heard any, and the first time I tried this I braked like an old Lady. Actually I did it the second time, too, only moreso like an Accountable Adult - gently turning the wheel to avoid the wall of cones. But the third time I nailed it in a way that would make Will smile with glee. I crushed that brake pad so hard that I thought I'd break the damn lever. But my Stuttgart Stallion took it in stride, and brought me from 90 km / h to 0 in less than 15 feet. Holy Geez that was awesome. And I was just gettin' started.

My birthday present this year was extremely unique and a sexy way of kicking and screaming into The 30-somethings. For one whole hour, I commandeered (legally) an atomic-bomb red 2006 Porsche Carrera S and careened it around a specially-designed racing track the way you're not supposed to drive: hard and fast. Sure, I took it easy around the curves that scared the bejeezus outta me, but as soon as I had a clear shot ahead I punched the gas and didn't look back. The track is wet? It's 36 degrees F outside? I'm driving an 80,000+ Euro car with ZERO insurance on a track that was designed to mimic five of the most challenging curves of modern tracks? Exhilaration vandalizing every stone in my head, each twist leaving another spatter of paint obscuring .. well, whatever was there before.

No better than to learn the track from Sebastian, my Porsche Racing Instructor, who I fondly remember leading me out of a tight corner and saying "now go as fast as you can." God I love this guy. The first moment of sadness that day was watching him crouch down into his midnight-blue 911 Turbo huddled adjacent to our 911 Carreras. The second moment came when I realized there was no way in Hell I was going to keep up with that guy! Hey, I never said I stopped trying. He introduced me to the Bus Stop, the slalom thru the row of cones, the tight curves, The Hill and subsequent down-right-sharp curve, the tight s curve that I may have fishtailed out of (and recovered nicely I might add) when I asked for a little too much torque. The last moment of sadness arrived as I realized I waited 30 years to do this. All that sadness washed away remembering that my wife gave me this opportunity. And I Prost!'d this best I knew how: I ate it all up and left nothing behind but an awful smell Sebastian called "a Porsche Driver's Chanel No 5".

That tour may have been only one hour by your standards, but in my head it was hours of analysis reading the Carrera's responses to all of my questions. I ripped through that track testing the steering's range, the suspension's forgiveness, the strength of my hands holding that steering wheel, and also a fellow student's patience as I kept urging him to drive faster. At the end I walked away with electricity in my feet and the re-aquaintenace with an AMA-acceptable heart rate. But in usual form I thanked Sebastian properly and reminded him that we'll be seeing each other again. Soon.

Since we never received the official "ticket" for the Porsche Experience, there's still a second chance..

http://www.porsche-leipzig.com/en/leipzigangebote/leipzigpilot/default.aspx

Electric Youth

2007-11-13T21:08:00.001+01:00

I couldn't wait to get this photo online after our kick-ass weekend in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany. The Porsche Leipzig campus has a building called the "Diamond" which houses the museum, conference centers, restaurant, etc. One of the automobiles, a 1997 Porsche GT1 race car, is an amazing auto that is currently on display at the Leipzig Diamond. It's a wicked car in all respects, and during our tour I heard a tip about special paint used on the body of this GT1. I took a picture with and without flash as a comparison:

How cool is that? It's sick cool, for sure. Or did I just date myself by showing excitement over neon-colors oh-so reminiscent of the early 90s.. Schade.. this car is 10 years old and I'm still crazy about it. I wonder how this car handles on the Porsche Leipzig test track..

PS: it's shaped like a diamond, if you're still wondering from where the moniker arose.

Even better than the real thing

2007-11-01T11:17:00.000+01:00

You all may or may not know this, but Stuttgart has an Oktoberfest of its own. It's called the Canstatter Volksfest, and takes place at roughly the same time as Oktoberfest. Even though it's not quite as grandiose in size, it's still the second biggest beer festival in Germany, and many Germans prefer it to the "real" Oktoberfest. Probably because there are fewer tourists...

We were fortunate enough this year to attend both festivals: Oktoberfest (see below) and the Volksfest. I still think Oktoberfest is awesome for a number of reasons, but in some ways I liked the Volksfest better. For one, I didn't feel like a tourist because it was local, and second, I liked the band a lot better. They played a nice mix of traditional German festival songs and cover songs that any sorority girl would love, like "I Will Survive". The other difference was that we had a big group of people that we crammed into our one reserved table. The more the merrier is right. :)

Actually, Melissa and Vicky were also able to experience both festivals, having taken a trip to Italy after the Oktoberfest trip and stopping into Stuttgart for one night before heading home. What better way to spend your last night in Europe than at a German beer fest?

Me, Melissa, and Andy "Prosting"

Melissa, me, and our friend Rebecca
(stole this pic and the one below from Rebecca's
husbands webpage...nice pictures, Victor!)

Our friends Mike and Kathleen.
Note Mike's Lederhosen...totally upstaged us! :)

Certainly there are some things that Volksfest doesn't have, like not as many rides and not as friendly waiters (ours was a real jerk...oh well). It also doesn't have nearly the selection of beer tents. Stuttgart has 3 large tents and 6 smaller tents, while Oktoberfest has 14 large tents and 19 smaller tents. Plus some would also argue that Bavarian beer tastes better than Schwabisch beer (and I'd be inclined to agree), but I don't know how much it really matters. Most people don't come to savor the beer....they just come to drink it. :)

Clarktoberfest 2007

2007-10-26T11:20:00.000+02:00

Ah, yes. Our annual Clarktoberfest celebration has come and gone. We are now both one year older, and one year wiser....Er, I guess that last point is debatable. At least we know more about Germany than we did one year ago--that's something!

As many of you know, we spent our birthdays this year with Andy's family on a grand German adventure known around the world as Oktoberfest. What a rush. That place is crowded! And crazy! You've all got to promise to come next year.

We started our adventure in the humbler city of Stuttgart. We mostly took it easy, taking strolls downtown, shopping, visiting the Ludwigsburg palace, going to the top of the Fernsehturm, and visiting Schwabisch restuarants for the family's mandatory introduction to Maultauschen.

The Schlossplatz in downtown Stuttgart

Andy and Melissa in front of a Schlossplatz fountainStuttgart's opera houseDuck that was fascinated with Colin's camera
Night out for Schwabisch cuisine

After a few days in Stuttgart, we hopped in a rental car, drove to Munich, found our rented apartment, dropped of our bags, and raced to our reservation in the Hippodrom tent at Oktoberfest. Phew. Once there, we had €144 in vouchers that we needed to spend (you are required to buy these to get the table reservation), so we promptly ordered a round of beers.

Round of beers at the Hippodrom

Inside the Hippodrom Tent... Big, huh?

2 1/2 hours and €100 in vouchers later, our reservation was up. Vicky and Colin wandered the fest, Andy went home (he was sick with the stomach flu our first day or so in Munich...), and Melissa and I went to the Spatenbräu tent to have some beers, sing songs, and dance.

The next morning, we came right back to the Hippodrom to use up our remaining vouchers on some traditional Oktoberfest roasted chickens and some Weisswurst, all washed down with...you guessed it, beer. We then walked around and soaked in the fest a bit.

Horses outside the Hofbräuhaus tent

Inside the Hacker-Pschorr tent

Looking out on the crowd

We went back the next night to hang out some more. We hung out in Lowenbrau's beer garden for a while before trying to get into the tent. Unfortunately, Friday night entrance without a reservation proved a bit difficult. Andy and I ended up wandering around, playing carnival games, and people watching.

Showing off the bear and rose that Andy won for me. :)

Popular Lebkuchen hearts native to every German festival
You buy them for your sweetheart, and they wear it around their neck.
Mine said: "Suße Maus"

Although we were there for some portion of every day of the trip, we didn't spend all of our time at Oktoberfest. We also went to the Deutsches Museum (largest technological museum in the world), saw the Glockenspiel clock in front of Munich's Rathaus, visited a typical German cafe for breakfast, and spent an evening at the oh-so-festive Hofbräuhaus. That place is like Oktoberfest every single day of the year: meat & potatoes, pretzels, Maß of Bier, and traditional music.

A Munich favorite: Pork Knuckle with Potato Dumplings

We also took a side trip on our last day there to Neuschwanstein, the castle of Crazy King Ludwig. It's the one that the Disney castle is based on. Very over the top and, I thought, wonderful. We actually visited two castles: Hohenschwangau, where Ludwig grew up, and Neuschwanstein, the castle Ludwig built for himself just up the hill from his childhood home. The story goes that one day, before the castle was finished, King Ludwig went to see a doctor for a check-up and was declared "unfit to rule" due to insanity (if you saw this crazy castle, you might understand why). The next day, he and the doctor were both found dead in the lake. Supposedly no one knows exactly how they died. The castle was never completed after that, but several of the rooms were finished and they are all magnificent. Gilded, and mosaic'ed, with intricate carvings and elaborate paintings. Ludwig definitely had a vivid imagination.

If you'd indulge me, I'll tell you one of my favorite parts... In Hohenschwangau, there was a bedroom that was Ludwig's father's. This father had the ceiling painted with a bright blue sky with clouds. Ludwig, upon becoming king and taking the bedroom for himself, had the sky repainted to be a night sky. He then had holes drilled from select stars all the way up to the floor above, where those holes were connected with oil lamps, so that he would see twinkles of light across the ceiling as if he was sleeping outdoors every night. I thought that was neat.

Ludwig's childhood home: Hohenschwangau

Ludwig's creative masterpiece: Neuschwanstein

So, that was our trip, in a nutshell. A very good Clarktoberfest indeed. I'll leave you with my favorite pic from the trip...something you'd only see in Germany!

Girl in a Dirndl aiming a pellet gun

Beer and pretzels for everyone!

2007-10-03T08:48:00.000+02:00

Although we've been planning the trip for months, it seems hard to believe that we're leaving today to celebrate our annual Clarktoberfest birthday bash at the mecca of beer and pretzels: Oktoberfest in Munich. We will be thinking of all of you as we eat roasted chickens, nibble on pretzels, sing & dance, and, of course, swig liters of beer. Prost!

Ein Mass Bier:

Help! I need a Porsche! It's an emergency!

2007-09-17T10:45:00.000+02:00

So we've known for a long time that the number for emergencies in Europe is not 911, like in the US. Over here you dial 112 if you need help. What I didn't realize until now, is that in Stuttgart "911" is actually the direct extension to call Porsche Headquarters. Hilarious. Can't you just see a confused American with a flesh wound calling 911 for help, only to be talked into buying the new Carrera? I guess in a way a new Porsche would be therapeutic.

London looks cool in sepia tone

2007-09-16T14:46:00.000+02:00

So I know that Andy already talked about our trip to London, but I was playing around with the pics and thought I would post them. There are all of these nice artistic shots that we took (mostly he took), that just look that much cooler when you make them sepia tone. Like they belong framed and effortlessly arranged on an antique bookcase. Enjoy. :)

Beer taps at the pub near Sandy's place

Big Ben and a double-decker bus

The Tower Bridge

Wheels of cheese at Neal's Dairy

Gardens at the back of Windsor Castle
(that the Queen's room overlooks)The facade of HarrodsOld pub near Victoria SquareThe London Eye

A conference with cow bells, what's not to like?

2007-09-15T10:25:00.000+02:00

As some of you may know, I'm in the middle of a whirlwind of conferences. At the moment, I'm two down with one to go. Just to give you a recap, in the past two weeks I've presented one poster, given two talks, attended upwards of 60 talks, visited 4 poster sessions, met and memorized the names of 30 new networking acquaintances, and eaten 20 restaurant meals. Conference time can be exhausting.

The good news is, that sometimes you get to visit a place that's cool, like Braunwald, Switzerland. This tiny little village is perched some 1300 m (4265 ft) up along the side of a mountain. It's quaint character is increased by the fact that no cars are allowed, and the only transport up there is a cable car from the town of Linthal in the valley below. It was really a beautiful place to be, surrounded by rolling green hills and glistening white mountaintops.

View from the hotel over the Glarus Valley

Cows Grazing

This cow had a particularly loud bell

Riding scooters down the mountain.
A group of us took another cable car 200 meters further up,
then rented these scooters to ride back down. Super fun.
Here I am posing with Dan, a fellow post-doc
who works in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Green hills in contrast with white mountains

I have to say though, one of my favorite things was the cows. As you many know, it's common to tie a cow bell around the neck of each member of your herd, so that you can always locate your flock. Multiply that times dozens of cows spread over dozens of farms, and you've got a continuous little cow bell symphony each day. I took a video to try to demonstrate this effect:

My other favorite things was the fire hydrants, which were painted to look like miniature people:

All in all a very nice conference. I think it's inspired me to look into Switzerland as a weekend getaway option. Either for hiking in the fall, or skiing in the winter. It may be an expensive country, but when you see how pretty it is you really don't mind.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Amsterdam's Daily Life

2007-09-04T22:01:00.001+02:00

Amsterdam.

The word alone elicits a varying collection of ideologies (and, ahem, memories), be it clean or cloudy. Before I left I talked to at least 5 people about my upcoming adventure, and every single one of them had a different perspective. After returning I realized what one omitted was highlighted by the next person, which ended up rounding out my own experience. Not to say that Amsterdam is any one thing, let alone five, but, well, it is what it is - and that's what makes it so damn unique. Even their tagline is "I AMsterdam". Pretty much sums it up.

Our initial plans were to tour the city and lands, visiting cheese manufacturers, sniffing out the iconic windmills, and crawling via boats through their many canals. Ended up traveling by foot or tram most of the time, and didn't get out of the city for any of our previously planned activities. Instead we pedded around with friends of ours who we hadn't seen for a while. The weekend was slow-paced and very enjoyable compared to our action-packed adventures which I recently decided to move away from. I do wish the weather had been nicer to warrant bike rentals, though, as it's a great way to experience a new place - especially in a town that has more bikes and boats compared to cars. You can't throw a stone in that town without either hitting a watery canal or a bicycle (and probably a bicyclist to boot).

This, like all other spaces of available earthen
property, was completely consumed by bicycles.

Top activities: The Dutch Resistance Museum, an awesome Brewery next to the token Windmill, improv Comedy at BoomChicago, the Church in the Attic, the Van Gogh Museum, and visiting the House of Anne Frank. I'd like to note that it was nothing like the house I envisioned Anne Frank and her family living in. In fact, I didn't see any of your typical free-standing "houses" in Amsterdam. They're all what you'd recognize as Town Houses or Row Houses. Apparently the Amsterdam gov't imposed a tax on each house depending on its width. The skinnier the house, the lower the taxes. You'd be amazed how long these houses are from front to back, but also how skinny some of them are. The stairwells of many houses visited were freakishly steep, and I imagined plenty of scenes how my life would play out should I go a'rolling down just one flight. freaky steep.

A tiny example of Amsterdam property fronts.
Packed tightly together and along the water-
front, these houses are unique and interesting.

This trip also rejuvinated my fascination with house boats. Seriously, house boats are cool. So cool, in fact, you suddenly have to worry about pirates mucking about your watery property. Unfortunately I didn't see any of them equipped with canons, which would have been the ultimate accessory, but I did see one with a WWII USSR water mine atop it's cabin. Some were plain-Jane while other boaters had their gardens atop their living quarters. That's a pretty efficient use of space, thought I. Aarrgh.

Click to see more detail of the houseboats. This
photo captures all: Bikes, Boats, and Moats. Sorry,
supposed to rhyme. Of course I meant canals.

Apart from these sights we of course saw Amsterdam's infamous Red Light District and Pot/Shroom shops galore. I recall an article (the Economist?) about Amsterdam's "working" population achieving health care benefits for their profession. They are, after all, a business and I believe somewhat regulated by gov't taxes / standards. This profession is not without its group of slackers. I can't count how many windows I walked by observing a majority attached to their mobile phones, texting or chatting their time away to friends or family while they stood (or sat) around in lingerie. Couldn't believe it. Talk about a lack of motivation! I guess Amsterdam proprietors haven't implemented a rewarding Employee of the Month award program just yet.

In the end we didn't get to a cheesehouse in the country, something that appealed to us both. We managed to sneak away with a nice wheel of fresh Gouda and dill, as well as a local cheese recommended to us by our host Barry. We did, however, finally take our first train ride to a vacation destination. An agreeable time of 5 hours to get to Amsterdam, and spent the entire time reading and watching scenery whip past at 100-200 km/h. I look forward to taking more trips this way, as it worked out best for both of us considering the low-to-zero stress when compared to preparing and taking a flight. And whereas you encounter a formidable security checkpoint including chemical sensors, frustrated passengers / workers, and seventeen ID checks, our experience was much easier: one passport check and one ticket check per direction, and one friendly dog visit on the way home. Don't worry, he didn't want our cheese anyway. He was looking for something much more interesting... :)

The Doktorhut Tradition

2007-08-28T16:36:00.000+02:00

Nothing against the US, but Germany does PhD defenses way cooler. Believe it or not it all boils down to a hat: the Doktorhut. For weeks before the PhD defense, co-workers and fellow students feverishly craft a giant morter board hat to surprise you with after your defense, covered in pictures and symbols of your time in grad school. For instance, if I had had one, it might've had: pictures of friends, something to do with the beerathon, a bar of chocolate, an homage to Panera, and a mini thesis titled "wedding planning."

Since our friend Guillaume just graduated this summer, I can show you what his hat looked like. It had a suitcase because he had a saga with lost luggage last year, the Eiffel tower because he's French, a wine bottle with a label from his family's vineyard, pics of friends, images from his research, etc., etc. It was a masterpiece:

Granted, Guillaume's had to be the most complicated Doktorhut ever to grace this green earth. It had two layers, played music, had LED lights, a steel reinforced cylinder....in other words, this thing weighed a ton! Thus the reason that Guillaume needed help to keep the thing on his head during the obligatory picture:

I think the reason that I like the defenses so much more here, is that they make such a big deal out of it. The whole department gets excited. Families come in town to celebrate. Everyone goes to see them give their talk. When the successful candidate passes and comes back upstairs to greet everyone, they are presented with their hat (with the obligation to determine what everything means), followed by a champagne toast and a big party. Of course, you have to pay for the party yourself, but it's a small price to pay for the fun and excitement of the day.

Sweetness

2007-08-22T12:05:00.000+02:00

Man, it seems like we've been so busy this summer....and I guess we really have. It all started with our trip to Greece in the spring, then led to trips to the US, Paris, Munich, France, London, and (coming up this weekend) Amsterdam. Busy, busy bees.

Speaking of which, I thought I would show off the super cool ice cream treat I got a few weekends ago at the mall here in Stuttgart. *Technically* it's an item from the kids' menu, but the waiter let me order it anyway. It's three scoops of ice cream, made to look like a bumble bee. Pretty sweet, huh?

Andy also got ice cream, in the form of an enormous berry-tastic Sundae. It was super good. Those of you planning to come visit can have these delectable treats to look forward to. The whole Gelato thing is really big here.

In other random news, I remembered another funny word in German. Hummer = lobster. Kind of makes me giggle now when I see one of those giant tanks driving around. Not that I see them that often here in Europe. I don't even know how you'd park one of those things on these narrow little streets! There's a reason those tiny smart cars are so popular here.

Until we meet again, I'll leave you with one final sweet picture: the lemon cake that I brought to a friend's baby shower last weekend. Lemon sponge cake, with lemon curd filling, and lemon cream cheese frosting. I wish I could take credit for the whole thing, but the lemon-slice border was Andy's idea. :)

Fun in the Sun in Lon Don

2007-08-13T18:24:00.000+02:00

Can you believe we returned from London with tans?

So THAT's what you get when you travel somewhere in the high season.. good weather.. whodathunkit. No fear - each day found me with a better tan but much, much poorer. That's a damn expensive place to go, but what you can experience in London beyond makes up for that silly ideology we refer to as fiscal responsibility. I often come back from a trip wishing I had taken more time to learn about the area of visit, but this time I came back interested in learning more about London's history *after* the visiting. This was yet another location where you can't see everything in four long days (which we had at our disposal), and I urge anyone going to London to focus on one or two things a day with time to let it all sink in. If I'm lucky enough to have children some day, they will certainly NOT enjoy going with me on family vacations if it's to historically interesting places. I consider myself more of a Clark Griswold sort of fellow, but I'm destined to be closer to Professor Henry Jones, spending long days observing and learning like your life will someday depend upon it. A fast paced life is for the birds. Or for your reckless, treasure hunting son who calls himself Indiana.

Besides catching up with old and new friends C, J, and S, we sampled a bit of the Bitter Beer which Londoners love more than the Germans love soccer (uh, Fussball for you Deutschers), stared at obscenely decorated wonders such as the Crown Jewels and the Windsor Castle dollhouse, and tooled around the Tower of London (no, it's not really a tower), the Tate Modern art museum, and unsuccessfully tried to spook ourselves by partaking in the Jack the Ripper Night Tour.

Of course, we'd not have this opportunity without S's generosity, providing us company and a comfy bed not even a block away from the London Eye (and thus, across the bridge from Big Ben which was coooooooooooooooooooooool at night). And for those of you who don't know, the London Eye is a massive ferris wheel where each car holds some 16 people and takes 30 minutes from beginning to end! For now I'll leave you with this large London sight, and B's entrance as a great photographer.

Pink boas never fail to draw a crowd

2007-07-31T21:34:00.000+02:00

Who says you can't have an "early" bachelorette party? My friend Shravanthi got engaged over Christmas, and even though the wedding won't be until next year, Petra and I wanted to throw her a bash in Germany before she heads back to the US in a couple of weeks. So, we gathered up the girls, made a list of dares, got on a train to Munich, drank some Martini Bianco, donned some pink boas, and headed out for a fun and crazy night. We didn't really get to do any sightseeing...unless you count drinking beer at the Hofbrauhaus...but we definitely took advantage of Munich's laid-back style and plentiful tourists, which, as it turns out, were crucial to Shravanthi checking off all the dares we had planned for her:

-playing hopscotch on the street and getting a child to join you
-challenging someone to a "wheel barrow" race
-doing your make-up in the men's bathroom
-going up to a guy, pretending like he's famous, and asking for his autograph
-ordering something gross from the bar, like a hefeweissen with milk (yuck!)
-...and many, many more...

What made the bachelorette party even cooler was that we incorporated the German tradition of the bride raising money for drinks for the evening. Early in the evening, we hit the streets with a soccer ball and make-shift goal (large piece of cardboard with a hole cut in it) in tote. Players (usually men trying to show off their machismo) got two chances to kick the ball through the goal for a 2 Euro fee. If they got one in, they got a shot of liquor, if not, we simply kept their money. This turned out to be really fun and fairly lucrative. For about 11 Euros worth of alcohol, Shravanthi scored 50 Euros in sales....enough for a round of Maß (liters of beer) for all 8 of us at the Hofbrauhaus. Not too shabby.

Some pictures from the weekend are included below for your amusement. By the way, let me know if any of you are interested in a pink boa of your own...I've got two left. :)

Melanie, Petra, Shravanthi, and Katie on the train to Munich. We actually were in the same train car as a bachelor party, which added to the festivities.

Here's the gang posing at the Augustiner Keller, where we ate a hearty lunch together. It's important to fill your tummy before a night out in Munich!

We did a little pre-partying in our room a the Pension Wombat before heading out. Here's Shravanthi showing off her outfit along with the Coors Light (nostalgia!) that Katie managed to get from the US army base.
Our first successful soccer game customer, picking out his shot of liquor.
Shravanthi playing hopscotch in the street near Marienplatz. It turned out to be a bit difficult to convince parents to let their child play hopscotch with a crazy stranger wearing a pink boa...but eventually Shravanthi managed it.

Our wheel barrow race in the bar at the Pension. Shravanthi and I totally won. The other guy was too drunk and dropped his friend within 2 seconds.

Putting on make-up in the men's bathroom of the Hofbrauhaus. Definitely surprised a few patrons with that one...

Perhaps my favorite dare of the evening, ordering a Hefeweissen with milk. It was worth it just to see the look on the bartenders face. He carefully explained that in all his years of bartending, he had never had anyone request that drink. When Shravanthi told him, "No, I hear it's really good," he told her he thought someone was "pulling her leg". Still, we convinced him to make the drink, and Shravanthi took one brave, "take that" gulp. What an all-star!

Another French Getaway

2007-07-29T21:13:00.001+02:00

We're back from the coolest weekend adventure I've had so far: The Wiederhirn Western Wine Weekend! We hopped in Petra's car on Friday afternoon and headed West to France, excited for our highly anticipated weekend visit of the Wiederhirn Family vineyard in Riquewihr, part of the Alsace region of France. Alsace is a popular wine producing region of North Eastern France (very close to the German border) with beautiful country towns. The majority of the wines (as far as I know) are whites, examples including Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Blanc. My pictures don't bring deserved justice to the relaxed life and history of the region we visited, nor the natural beauty of the villages and surrounding land. Take a quick peek from my perspective:

A distant shot of Riquewihr, the nicest country
village we visited this weekend. Note the grape
vines in the foreground as well as behind.

And another..

For perspective..LOTs of grapes

A pic of Riquewihr's "Old City". This
was once a double-fortified city, and
had the chance to see part of the wall
still remaining and completely stable
which was built around 1200 AD.

So many details to list makes it hard to focus on anything in particular. I can, however, say that we were honored to spend the weekend with a fabulous local family, the Wiederhirn Family of Riquewihr. Their generosity was outstanding, and we had a great time sampling the wines they've produced for over four centuries. I'm already planning our next trip.. Can't Wait!!

I would encourage any of you traveling through the Alsace region (and specifically Riquewihr) to take a few hours to explore the beauty of the town and local culture, and especially search out the Wiederhirn Cellar. By the way, the local cuisine was very favorable (and meaty!). To be sure, there's plenty of space for hiking (lightly or otherwise) or biking after you sample a bit too much, be it a local Pinot Blanc, some Flammkuchen, or a nice slice of Rhubarb pie. Until next time..

Only took 8 months to get my 15 seconds...

2007-06-28T14:41:00.000+02:00

I guess you may not have heard yet, but I'm totally famous. That's right my friends, I was on the news in Germany. Not like I say anything in the news segment, or even look at the camera, but those phone calls from Hollywood will be coming any day now. I can feel it.

If you wanna check it out, I posted it below. Basically, my boss is leaving MPI to take a job at this Leibniz Institute, and the local news there made a little featurette about him becoming the new director. I happen to be in the background with other co-workers, since we were there taking a tour of the labs when the guy came to film the segment. Oh, I'm special alright. :)

News clip about the Leibniz Institut in Saarbrücken

Another reason to love the Autobahn

2007-06-24T21:39:00.000+02:00

Okay. So everyone can agree that the coolest thing about the Autobahn is the "no speed limit" thing. But the second coolest thing is...drum roll please...the Self-Cleaning Toilet! Yep. That's right. Many of the rest areas along the Autobahn have these nifty little toilets installed in the bathrooms... a clear improvement over the pee-on-the-seat alternative found at most US rest stops. And so cool in fact, that many a toilet-goer has recorded his/her very own video, like this one:

Self-Cleaning Toilet in Germany

Oktoberfest Sneak Preview

2007-06-23T11:27:00.000+02:00

You may or may not know this, but Germany has more than just Oktoberfest in its repertoire of beer festivals. For example, here in Stuttgart there's a pretty big festival each spring in Bad Canstatt, called Fruelingsfest or Canstatter Wasen. Most people here described it to us as a mini-Oktoberfest, and if that's the truth, then I really can't wait for the real deal. It was crazy fun. Or as the Germans say, "Es war der hammer!". :)

Basically the festival is set up like a regular carnival or state fair: carnival rides, roller coasters, food stands, people challenging you to play their game and win giant stuffed animals, etc, but with the added bonus of "tents". In the tents is where potent beer is served in giant liter glasses, where a live band plays music, and where hundreds of happy patrons stand on their bench seats and sing & dance & drink all night. It was actually a little exhausting to sing and dance and drink the whole night, but hey, I guess someone's gotta do it!

The carnival part of the festival

Txema showing off his liter of beer (ein Mass)

Me taking my first swig
(note my rotated hand---it's too heavy to lift the normal way!)

Early in the night, as people started to stand on their benches for the songs

Later in the night, when everyone was standing on the benches!

Svea and Melanie singing along to our beloved "Cowboy" song
(mentioned before in this post)

Marcel, Achim, and Daniel raising their glasses for a "Prost"

Three Amigos...but without the sombreros

2007-06-22T16:14:00.000+02:00

It's been almost two months since we were in Greece (Andy, me and Shravanthi), and I still miss it. That country was full of wonderful food, friendly people, and beautiful scenery. Being the adventure travelers that we are, we opted for a fast-paced, nature-lovin' road trip through Northern Greece, rather than a Mai Tais on the beach vacation to the islands. Nothing against the latter, of course...we fully intend to return to Greece for some island hopping later.

Since the trip is kind of complicated, in the sense that we were in a new city every day, I made a nifty little map on Google so you can see our route. It'll help you visualize our journey.

To avoid boring you with a dense re-count of everything we did, I've decided to post mostly pictures, with captions describing the highlights. Should you decide you want to know everything, let me know, and we can do this grandparent-slide-show style. Or if you want the slide show without the witty commentary, you can see the rest of our pics here.

Day 1: Athens & the Akropolis. Drove to Diakofto.
*We arrived in Athens in the morning, and had enough time to visit the Akropolis before heading to our first overnight destination, Diakofto. We ate the best baklava of our lives at a small cafe called Olga's Sweet in the Plaka.
Her grandfather makes it. :) *

Eating lunch in Plaka
(Athens neighborhood near the Akropolis)

Theater at the Akropolis
(remember Yanni's concert from here? hehe)

Andy and me in front of the Parthenon

Famous Caryatid porch at the Erechtheion

Shravanthi and me eating the best baklava in the world!
(at Olga's Sweet in Plaka)

Shravi and I both got grilled sardines for dinner in Diakofto.
Small, but delicious!

Day 2: Hiked in Diakofto. Drove to Ioannina.
*We chose Diakofto because I'd read that you could take a train from there up to Kalavryta, and that it offered stunning views. The train is historic, and works using a special cog system to help it climb up the mountain. Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs, so we hiked the gorge instead. That night in Ioannina, we went shopping for hiking boots, since I accidentally left mine in Germany. Oops!*

Hiking along the railroad tracks
through the gorge in Diakofto

In the gorge

Scary bridge we had to cross, made by mountain dwellers.

Beautiful bridge we drove across from the Peloponesse up to Northern Greece
(some contrast, huh?!)

Day 3: Drove to Monodendri. Hiked 7 hours in the Vikos Gorge.
Drove to Meteora.

*Vikos Gorge is the deepest gorge in the world (depth:width ratio). This to me was the best day of the trip. It was just beautiful. The gorge is just so virgin and peaceful. We did see some bear and wolf tracks, but luckily didn't encounter any in the flesh! When we ascended at Vikos, we got a ride home from a man that works at the tavern. He drove so fast on the mountain roads, I thought we'd never make it back to Monodendri alive!*

Descending into Vikos Gorge from Monodendri

Hiking along the base of the gorgeGroup picture in the gorge after a lunch break

Monastery in the gorge, near Vikos village
Looking back into the gorge as we ascended

Day 4: Explored Meteora. Drove to Litohoro (Mt. Olympus).
*At its peak, Meteora had 22 active monasteries, all built precariously on top of giant rock formations. Really amazing. We all loved this part of the trip. After we drove to Litohoro that night, we ate fresh octopus, squid, and fish for dinner. Yum.*

View of the Varlaam Monastery as we drove up to Meteora.

Interior garden of the Megalo Meteoro Monastery

Shravanthi and me showing off our skirt-over-jeans look
(skirts are required in the monasteries for women)

Looking down on Roussanou Monastery
Andy and me at the base of the "James Bond" monastery
(used in the filming of For Your Eyes Only)

Day 4: Hiked Mt. Olympus. Drove to Vergina.
*After a delicious breakfast in Litohoro and a nice trip to the market, we hiked about half way up Mt. Olympus (home of the Gods) to Refuge A. The peak was impassible due to snow and ice...of course, we probably wouldn't have attempted it anyway!*

View of Mt. Olympus from our hotel

Olives at the open market - delicious!
We also bought fresh feta cheese, pistachios,
bread, and fruit to take on our hike.

Eating lunch at Refuge A
View of the mountain during the hike

Spring at the base of the mountain
(where we drank "Zeus water")

Dinner in Vergina. The wine is Retsina, a white wine with a hint of pine.

Day 5: Left Vergina, drove to Thessaloniki.
*We originally stopped in Vergina to see the ruins there and Philip II's tomb, but it was all closed for a holiday. So, we just went to Thessaloniki early.*

Chicken farm next to our pension in Vergina.
The one on the roof on the left cockadoodledoo'd from 5am onwards.
No wonder we got the room for such a good price!
Thessaloniki is a bizarre mix of industrial-looking apartment buildings,
and gorgeous old Greek Orthodox basilicas, like this one.
The basilica of Agia Sofia. My favorite of the ones we visited.
Inside Agia Sofia.

Day 6: Last day of the trip. Flew home to Stuttgart.
*We had just enough time to visit the Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki before we left. It was sad to leave Greece, but we look forward to going back someday!*

The museum is known for its collection of Macedonian gold, like this burial wreath.

What in a Box?

2007-06-16T16:46:00.000+02:00

It's taken some effort to get back into recording our adventures for yall, so I'll start this one off sweetly.

Stop me if you've heard this one:

In Deutschland, Milk comes in a box

Thank you everbody, I'll be here all week.

No, I'm serious. Milk really does come in a box here. It's also pretty tasty; some say it's sweeter.. One visitor schemed ways to smuggle a box of it home. Actually I don't think it's an item restricted from international travel, although safely transferring it in luggage would require careful planning. Wimpy packaging be damned; it would be just my luck that my toothbrush would be driven through it given the gentile nature of gravity upon a thrown piece of luggage. Top that with airline neighbor friendliness when they discover their luggage is more moist than usual, and you've got one hell of a party. A party in everyone's pants, interestingly enough.

This is dedicated to Glamorous Em, who opened our eyes to more things that can be put in a box:

Athens vs. "The Athens of the South"

2007-05-24T10:05:00.000+02:00

For those that weren't aware, Andy and I just got back from a whirlwind of travel. We spent a week in Greece at the end of April, followed immediately by a two week trip to the US. A little hectic, but not enough to scare us away! We're leaving for Paris tonight for our anniversary weekend.

Anyway, one of the more interesting comparisons between Europe and the US was visiting the "real" Parthenon in Athens, and then seeing Nashville's Parthenon two weeks later. Basically, Nashville (the Athens of the South) built a 1:1 replica of the Parthenon for the World's Fair back in the 20's and decided to make it a permanent fixture of the city. I've included a side-by-side comparison for y'all below. Kind of cool. Besides being in better shape, the Nashville Parthenon is also air-conditioned inside, has an art gallery, and a giant statue of Athena.

I still like the original better. :)

One of these things is not like the other...

At last, I bring you Munich

2007-04-23T15:08:00.000+02:00

The biggest trip that Em and I took was to Munich. We rented a car (first time on the Autobahn for me!) and drove as fast as our little 4-cylinder rental car could take us....we made it up over 100 mph at one point, but quickly dropped back to 85 when our car started shaking.

The afternoon we arrived we went to Dachau, just outside of the city center. For those that don't know, Dachau was a concentration camp during WWII. It's now a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, and much of what was originally there is now gone. The museum at the site though is very good. On the train on the way back to Munich, we met a man whose parents were both Holocaust survivors...his mom was in hiding, and his dad was in a concentration camp. After the war, Germany apparently turned much of Hitler's land into shelters for refugees, so this man was actually born in Hitler's airplane hangar. Very interesting person to talk to.

That night we made the quintessential visit to the Hofbrauhaus. It's a little intimidating at first, because it's huge and full of people and you have to seat yourself. Of course, it's not like you get a table to yourself. You just have to walk up and ask if you can squeeze in at a table with other people. This concept is actually pretty typical in Germany. Anyway, we wanted a table that was locals, not tourists, and that looked like nice people to chat with. We ended up choosing a table of 4 German men who work for BMW. They were really nice, and let us practice our German all night....mostly because they didn't speak very good English. Later another couple of guys joined our table who were in Munich for a big soccer game the next day. It was a fun night, drinking Maß (liters of beer) and eating Wurst and Bretzeln.

Em and me inside the Hofbrauhaus with Maß in hand!

Our group of German buddies...minus one of the soccer fan guys

That night we actually met up with the soccer fan guys, who took us to a bunch of fun bars and dance clubs in a part of town we never would've found on our own. It was a lot of fun. The only bad part was when we decided to head back to our hotel. Turns out at 2am the trains don't come all that frequently. So we had to wait on the train platform, in the cold, for 47 minutes. Luckily the guys were nice enough to wait with us and make sure we made it home okay.

The next morning, we forced ourselves out of bed and headed downtown to do some more sightseeing. We saw the famous Glockenspiel clock in Marienplatz, climbed up St. Peter's Cathedral to get a view of the city, ate Bratwurst and Weisswurst for lunch, went to Odeonplatz, saw the Munich palace, and then headed to the Chinesisch Turm beer garden in the beautiful English Gardens. It was a whirlwind trip, but super, super fun. I can't wait to go back to Munich for Oktoberfest this fall!

Glockenspiel clock in Marienplatz

View from the top of St. Peter's Cathedral

Our lunch: Weisswurst und Brezeln & Bratwurst und Saurkraut

Movie star Em in Odeonplatz

Something special that lots of tour groups stopped to look at. :)

Cool yellow church

Lion outside the Munich palace entrance

Courtyard in the palace

Cool "Walking Man" we passed near the English Gardens

The Chinesisch Turm (Chinese Tower)

Em enjoying one last Bier und Brezeln before leaving town

And then there was Strassburg

2007-04-23T14:26:00.000+02:00

As I said before, Emily and I took a trip to Strassburg, France. The town is just a short jump across the German-French border, and easily accessible by train. So, we got a group ticket and organized a group of five girls: Em, me, Shravanthi, Katie, and Kathleen. Mostly we just wandered around the city. It's very quaint and beautiful, situated on a little island and surrounded by a narrow channel of water. The buildings are all lovely and medieval in style. Just a really pretty place to visit. The highlights of the trip included our charming lunch at a small French cafe, our strolls through the neighborhoods, the Strassburg cathedral, and a boat tour around the channel (actually, that part was kind of boring...). There is also a lot of nice wine in that region, so I brought back a nice bottle of Pinot Noir that Andy, Em, and split the next night. I'm hoping that Andy and I can go back soon for a weekend sometime this summer.

Houses along the water

Lunch at the French cafe

Walking along the streets near the cafe

Interesting house near the cathedral

Strassburg Cathedral

The boat tour was so fascinating, that all of the
teenagers there on school trips fell asleep! :)

Gute Fahrt!

2007-04-23T10:07:00.000+02:00

So this post is probably long overdue, but I thought I would tell you about the "false friends" of the German language. By this I mean phrases that sound or look similar to ones in English, but mean something totally different.

For example, "Gute Fahrt!" does not mean "Wow. You are awesome at cuttin' the cheese!" It means: "Have a good trip!". Other favorite confusing German words include:

- bald = soon
- Chef = boss
- Gymnasium = high school
- Pickel = pimple
- Gift = poison
- Beamer = a projector
- Schmuck = jewelry
- Handy = cell phone
- Fahrt = drive or way
- Gummi = condom

Of course, in normal conversation it's usually pretty easy to distinguish the meanings, but we still giggle whenever we see an entrance with a "Fahrt" sign.

Cheesy, but Awesome

2007-04-20T11:42:00.000+02:00

As we've mentioned several times, there's a store here called Tchibo, that has all of these wonderful, fun, themed items that change every week. Their slogan is "Each week, a new world." Since I'm on their mailing list (of course! they're awesome!), I get little magazines every now and then with a preview of what'll be sold in the coming weeks.

Well, the ads are always a bit cheesy, but this latest one takes the cake. The theme for next week is "Miami Weiss"...pronounced "Miami Vice", but translated as "Miami White". Very clever. It's all kitchen wares with a clean, white theme. So they have these two men dressed Miami Vice-style modeling all of the new kitchen wares. My favorite page of the ad layout is shown below...note that the "gun" the guy on the left is holding are really salad tongs. :) Just hilarious. Gotta love it.

I've got tongs and I'm not afraid to use them!

Can't get you out of my head

2007-04-17T11:56:00.000+02:00

I don't know if this song is a hit in the US too, but the Scissor Sisters are pretty big over here. I think I first heard this song at the end of last summer, and now that I have the album I listen to it a lot. It's just so darn catchy! And now that I found this (kind of ridiculous) video, I love it even more!

Baby Steps...

2007-04-15T21:44:00.000+02:00

I am the first to admit that I love to travel, and I love taking pictures, but man is it a crazy task to sort through all of those pics when you get back! I've been dragging my feet to get all of the pics from our escapades with Emily posted, because, well, there are just so darned many of them! :) So, I thought I would start small and post the pics one escapade at a time....

First on the list is Tubingen. Emily's cousin, John, lives there with his girlfriend Kat. So, Andy, Em, and I hopped on a train, and an hour later we were there. John met us at the train station and happily gave us a detailed tour of the city.

Rows of houses along the Neckar River

Wood-frame, marshmallow-y house we walked by

Entrance to the Tubingen Castle
(note the statue pointing a gun at intruders, upper left)Em and me at an overlook by the castle
Poseiden statue in front of the Tubingen Rathaus

Although it's true that Tubingen is a lovely town, with colorful houses stretched along the river that runs through the city, it's also true that it's a town full of history. Back in the day, Tubingen attracted such famous writers as Herman Hesse and Goethe. John and Kat took us to the bookstore where Herman Hesse used to work, and to the window from which Goethe once puked onto the street below (some claim to fame, huh?).

"Here Puked Goethe"

After finishing our tour of the city center, John and Kat decided to take us for a scenic drive. We got to see all sorts of lovely views and neighborhoods. It was really nice. Unfortunately (or rather comically?) we had some trouble doing a U-turn in the snow, so Andy and John had to rescue Kat's car from the mud... We were lucky to have such industrious men along with us!!

Beautiful old cloister outside of town

Our heroes in action!

Finally, at the end of our day of fun and adventure, we headed to the French Quarter, a charming part of town with lots of little cafes and bars. What better way to end the day than with frothy cappuccinos and delicious chocolate & cherry cake?

The whole gang at a French Quarter cafe

So, now that you've all seen Tubingen, there're just pics of Strassburg and Munich left to share. Hopefully I can get those up before we leave for Greece in 10 days. I tell you what... being world-travelers is hard work! :)

Identity Crisis

2007-04-04T18:34:00.000+02:00

How Ironic; right now I'm living the life of an American in Deutchland. I was doing really well assimilating into Deutchkulture for the past five months, and then the inevitable happened - I got a job related to the US Government. One week I'm walking in Deutchland and talking German, the next week I find myself in Little America walking the walk and talking the talk you know oh-so-well.

At least the word Dude reentered my vernacular.. oh how I missed you, Dude.

Although, I'm not exactly American. I work in Little America, but as far as my access is concerned, I am not able to purchase goods (food, clothes, gas, etc) like other Americans. That's because I'm an Amerikaner, or an American working as a German. The German Gov't says so, because they want my tax dollars to pay for the services I use. Okay, I can respect that for now, but I hope someday that I can legally purchase goods in the many Little Americas dimpled throughout these knobby hills. If I weren't an Amerikaner, but a true American, I wouldn't be required to pay any taxes whatsoever. How cool is that? Well, cool for those of you who qualify. I'm just happy to be here.. and have a job that's challenging.

As usual, I'm working too much. It's just a habit. I love solving problems! And blogging isn't problem-solving.. not usually anyway.

And just as our C-Town friend Em returned to the Windy, WAW should be on the way here after a romantic stint in .. Rainy London. ;) Get your arse over here, WAW. It's my turn to show someone around!!

And for the rest of you, Pony Up, yah? I may not have any more vacation time left, but thanks to friends, family and the semi-weekly wanderings, we know of a LOT to do around here. Besides, I just bought all this beer not remembering when Em was leaving.. and, well, we just need some help with it all.. y'know?

April Fish!

2007-04-04T14:03:00.000+02:00

So, last Monday I was in Strassburg, France for the day. It's only a couple of hours by train, and since we got a group together (Emily, me, Shravanthi, Katie, and Kathleen), it was only 10 Euros a person, round-trip. Not too shabby, considering a ticket from Chicago to France would be at least 50 times that!

Anyway, we kept seeing these beautiful "fish" chocolates in all of the bakeries. They were shaped like Chinese goldfish, and the chocolate used to make them was swirled with red and orange. Since it's close to Easter, I figured they had something to do with the "loaf of bread and fish" story from the Bible.

Chinese Goldfish

Well, as Guillaume later clarified, it's actually because of April Fish Day (aka April Fool's Day). In France, the traditional prank is to tape a picture of a fish on someone's back and see how long it takes them to figure it out.....with bonus points for successfully putting an April Fish (Poisson d'Avril) on a teacher's back. You learn somethin' new every day. :)

Mohawk Duckies

2007-03-27T13:31:00.000+02:00

Wow. Things have been busy lately. Andy started a new job two weeks ago, and has been acclimating to his new position. I've been working on an application for a fellowship and other work stuff. With all of our real life responsibilities, it's been kinda hard to find the time to do random fun things...

Well, all of that humdrum vanished when my friend Emily from high school arrived last Thursday. We've been doing all kinds of fun stuff since she got here: a trip to the opera, visiting Tubingen, hiking on trails, eating Wiener Schnitzel, drinking German beer, experiencing Strassburg, you name it. I'm sure that soon I will get some pictures up of our various adventures, but until then I will post a picture of these cool duckies that we saw at Barensee on Sunday. They almost look like the have little duckie Mohawks on the backs of their necks. Very cool. Turns out they're Mandarin Ducks...at least according to Wikipedia. :)

Mohawk Duckies

I Can Drive (one)Sixty-Five!

2007-03-17T21:13:00.000+01:00

Life is full of twists. Long twists, really curvy twists, and the twists that turn you 180 deg. Not the Autobahn; it lacks the latter option (so far as I can tell). I now work roughly 10 miles away from our Wohnung (apartment aus Deutsch) as the crow flies. On Monday I received a temporary vehicle for my job - temporary until I can acquire one for myself. It's a common European brand named Opel, it's diesel, and it's actually peppy. I'm not winning any races of course, but it certainly does the job admirably. Naturally I choose to commute using the Autobahn - who the Hell wouldn't? Besides, when you drive 160 - according to my speedometer - every lane is the Fast Lane.

Back to those twists I was talkin about. I've only experienced two caveats thus far, but they're somewhat important.

(1) If you miss your exit, GOOD LUCK finding a way to turn around.

We don't have "easy exits" where you can just turn around (I think in the US it's roughly 10 miles to the next exit), or those famous "Authorized Vehicles Only" turnaround points. Seriously. If you miss an exit, just give up. Pull over and kick your car tires. It's about as helpful as continuing along the same path, hoping for a turnaround or exit. The solution: You take the next exit and hope you find a gas station that understands English (or you understand Deutsch) - they will explain directions for you to drive through the next twelve towns in order to get to your destination via the backcountry roads... Alas, I'm still learning the details, but that's the skinny. Obviously I try not to miss any more exits. :)

(2) Forget your desire for "buffers" between you and the next car.

Yes, we drive at 160 (or 100+ MPH), but why can't you .. I dunno .. give me a car's length ahead so I don't rub up against ya? Seriously.. I was driving on Thursday and some Benz station wagon clipped right in front of me. He didn't actually touch me, and it's a freaking miracle that he didn't. The action was like a video game. No blinker, no warning, just JOOP! I'm right in front of you. He just kept on happily accelerating, so it wasn't like a Swoop and Squat where he gets in front of me and slams his brakes so that I pay his insurance company a chunk of moolah. All I ask for is a bit of understanding.. Don't pull in front of me without warning; that's all. If I wanted a jerk driver in front of me I'd go back to Chicago.

Das ist alles fur jetzt. Tune in later at the same Bat time, same Bat channel, for more riveting stories about the Autobahn.

Barensee

2007-03-15T15:24:00.000+01:00

Andy and I have spent the last couple of Sundays being active in the great outdoors. It's great because there are some really nice trails right by our house. Two Sundays ago we just walked the trails (and took the pictures below), but last Sunday we actually rode bikes. That was really fun. We bought the bikes from another American couple that's going back to the US soon. It was awesome, because we got to go a lot deeper into the trails by bike and realized that these trails are actually infinite! I get the feeling we could bike to Budapest on these trails if we wanted to. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share the pics.... and maybe entice you all to come visit and go for a walk together. :)

These pics were taken at Barensee, very close to our house in Büsnau

He could probably tell it better, but...

2007-03-13T08:33:00.000+01:00

...I'm gonna tell it anyway, because it's so unbelievable.

We went on Sunday night to have cake and coffee with a group of German friends. We met this group through our American friends, Bob and Laura. The group consisted of Simone (the host), Sonia, Dirk, Mats, and Aletta. Mats and Aletta (and their adorable 6 mos. old daughter) were new acquaintances for us, and we really enjoyed meeting them.

Anyway, Mats was telling us about how he recently started a new job. The company is American, but the office is just across the German border in France. As part of the new job, Mats was given a beautiful, brand new BMW to drive as a company car. So, on his way back from work one day, driving along the Neckar River, he sees a grouping of birds that are absolutely picturesque. Being a bit of a photography buff, he pulls the car over, hops out with his camera, and walks down the slope to the river bank. After snapping a few pics, he hears a noise. Slowly turning around, he sees his BMW rolling down the hill towards him! He jumps out of the way in time to see this gorgeous new car leap straight into the river. In shock, he watches helplessly as it floats gently downstream, and slowly sinks out of sight.

Can you believe that? I just can't imagine what that would feel like to watch a brand new car sink to the bottom of the river. Apparently the company didn't have insurance on it, so they just had to eat the $40,000 loss. And then a week later he had his first company evaluation meeting! Just crazy. Despite everything, the company decided to buy him another car, but this time they got an automatic one to avoid the possibility of it being left in neutral! :)

The Power of Voodoo.

2007-03-09T17:06:00.000+01:00

Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe.

Sorry. A little David Bowie flashback there. I just wanted to show off the cool Voodoo doll toothpick holder that my mom got Andy for Christmas. We took it over to a friend's house recently, and it got rave reviews. Certainly makes cocktail party appetizers more entertaining, don't cha think?

Soccer: The New Fertility Drug

2007-03-05T14:54:00.000+01:00

So, I recently heard that Germany is in the middle of a baby boom right now thanks to the World Cup, hosted here 9 months ago. The theory is that the beautiful weather and exciting performance of the German team led to a euphoria that increased fertility across the board. Just goes to show that all of that money poured into professional sports is good for something. :)

That's one high-tech boombox

2007-03-03T21:01:00.000+01:00

Seriously. Since the 1980's have you seen anyone who feels the need to carry a "personal soundtrack" with them wherever they go? I thought the days of perching a boombox on your shoulder, blasting music, and strutting down the street were gone, but today I was proven wrong. Apparently, this is still completely normal to do, just a little more high-tech. Instead of lugging around a bulky boombox, you can just cradle a cell phone in the palm of your hand. Such was the case this morning at the bus stop, where we ran across a young kid coolly listening to music on his cell phone with the speakers at full volume. The '80s are back, my friends. The '80s are back.

Makes me laugh, every time.

2007-02-27T09:40:00.000+01:00

I'm pretty sure I forwarded this to some of you before (maybe even posted it before...), but I just thought about it again today and decided to post it. It's just so darn funny! I think it gets funnier the longer I live here, too. :)

Clowns and Candy = Rosenmontag

2007-02-25T11:47:00.000+01:00

Our gang as we headed to the parade
(L to R): Melanie, Claudia, Petra, Me, Constantine, Achim

The Rosenmontag parade was awesome! Every single spectator was in costume, as well as every person involved in the parade. In addition to smiling at the funny floats and dancing along with the marching bands, we spent most of the parade yelling out "Karamelle!!" at the top of our lungs to entice the paraders to throw candy and flowers our way. It worked, too, because we ended up with Halloween-worthy quantities by the end!

What really surprised me about Rosenmontag was how family-friendly the whole thing was. In spite of the craziness and the drunken masses, it still felt orderly, in that only-the-Germans-could-do-it way. We saw lots of kids lined up along the parade route, gleefully catching candy as it was tossed their way.

After four hours of parade watching, singing, and shouting, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a tiny fast food Chinese joint. With our bellies happily full of fried Chinese goodness, we started to head towards the Hauptbahnhof to catch our train home. Boy did we get lucky on that one. We totally underestimated the amount of time it would take to get back due to the crowds. We ended up making it there with 2 minutes to spare....and that was only because the train was 5 minutes late! Good to know for next time, I guess. :)

Anyway, the whole experience was fantastically fun, and definitely makes me want to go to Karnival again next year. Although our pics are online here, I've posted some highlight pics from Rosenmontag below.

One of the adorable kids at the parade

Pirate ship float

Fun lion/dragon thingyAnother cool floatClown marching band
Birkenstock gummies that Andy caught - only in Germany! :)

Parade candy - most with special Karnival wrappers

Wow. A soft waffle...that's a new one.

Komplete Kraziness

2007-02-21T09:06:00.000+01:00

Oh my gosh, I am in love with Köln!

We had such a great time in Köln for Karnival last weekend. That town is super fun. Everyone was friendly and happy, and there were so many fun things to do. It's a bit hard to condense all of the craziness into one post, but I'll try to give a good recap...albeit a long one!

We left Stuttgart for Köln on Friday with Shravanthi, Marjetka, and Marjetka's friend, Maya, who had driven up to Stuttgart from Slovenia the day before. We hopped on the Autobahn, and arrived in Köln 4 hours later. After checking in at the Fremdenzimmer Helga (great place to stay, by the way), we headed downtown for dinner. Since *everyone* wears costumes during Karnival, we decided to wear part of our full costume downtown...basically wigs and hats. This was a good idea, because if we hadn't we definitely would've stuck out as misfits!
As you can see, we had a bit of a theme to our costumes. Shravanthi, Marjetka, and I were "leopard girls", and Andy was our official "manager". This came in handy to have a manager when we were out dancing because he could scare off any weirdos that approached us.

Anyway, wandering the streets downtown, we came across a nice brewery, called Sünner im Walfisch, and stopped in for dinner and Kölsch. Kölsch is the official beer of Köln. It's served in small, 0,2 liter glasses, is easy to drink, and is very tasty. The Sünner brewery serves it in giant cylinders with a personal tap, like so:
At the brewery, it was so cool because it was obvious that Karnival is really all ages. The table next to us was a table of retirees, who had been there drinking Kölsch together all afternoon; they went through two 5 liter "columns" of beer while we were there. I feel like you would never see that in the US. They were so fun - singing along to songs and chatting it up. Loved it. After dinner we spent the rest of the night hopping from bar to bar and shaking our groove things on the dance floor. Super fun. On the way home, our train ride was full of tipsy, costumed people, who were happily leading the train in song. Although there were many impressive costumes, I think Broccoli Man was our favorite:
The next morning, we headed downtown, sans costumes, for some shopping (Köln is one of the fashion centers in Deutschland). Once again, it was clear that one should never leave home without a costume during Karnival. That day there was a huge party in the Neumarkt Platz, with tons of families and groups of friends all in costume. Check out this panorama to see the size of the thing!We stayed and sang a few songs at the party, and got a bit of a Karnival history run-down (auf Deutsch) from a friendly dad next to us. From there we walked to the Dom: the huge, beautiful, famous Gothic cathedral of Köln. All I can say about that is "Wow." That cathedral is too amazing to describe in words. It is so tall you can barely focus your eyes on the tips of the spires.

Standing in front of the Dom in Köln

That night we went out in "full" costume. Dressed all crazy from head-to-toe. We saw lots of funny people in costume, and of course took many pics (included in our Costume Hall of Fame, below). We danced, sang songs, people-watched, and listened to a marching band playing in the street. Another great night.

The red pouches around our necks are specially
designed to hold glasses of Kölsch. Cooooool.

The next day, Shravanthi, Marjetka, and Maya left to return to Stuttgart, and Andy and I stayed to await the arrival of Rosenmontag (Rose Monday), supposedly the biggest day of Karnival. In fact, so big, thatI think I'll have to put it in a separate post! Until that second post, feel free to browse our catalog of pics from the weekend here.

"Karnival Costume Hall of Fame"

What's with the Pom-Pom hats?

2007-02-14T11:15:00.000+01:00

Fun Fact : The Bollenhut, traditional in the Black Forest,
can weigh up to 2 kg (4.4 lbs)!

A couple of weekends ago we took a trip to the Black Forest with our neighbors, Beth and Sean, and their son, Tad. We drove for about 1.5 hours to a town called Triburg, south of Stuttgart. The town is famous for its waterfall and handmade cuckoo clocks. Beth and Sean wanted to go both to show us the town and to buy one of the beautiful cuckoo clocks as a gift to themselves for their 15th wedding anniversary.

Although we had originally planned to hike the waterfall *before* looking at cuckoo clocks, Tad insisted that the cuckoo clocks were much too important to delay. So, we went The House of 1000 Clocks right away. :) And man, they're not kidding about the 1000 clocks -- there were a lot!

Inside the cuckoo clock store

Although it was a tough decision, Beth and Sean successfully picked out the perfect clock. When the hour strikes, the cuckoo bird cuckoos, after which the clock plays Edelweiss while pairs of dancers rotate and twirl, a water wheel spins, and Bavarian men tap their beer glasses on the table in rhythm. Cooooool.

Beth and Sean's Clock

Tad doing his impression of a Hummel figurin e
while modeling a grey cap from the store's gift shop

After the cuckoo clock selection was complete, we headed for the waterfall. Since there was some ice and snow on the trails, we were only allowed to hike up to the base. It was still really pretty though. Maybe in the spring we can go back and hike all the way to the top. We also drove over to a bell tower we saw in the distance and hiked up to it. That was nice because there were some pretty views of the town below.

At the base of the waterfall in Triburg

Bell Tower

View of the town below

Finally, after our busy day we headed to a local restaurant for their famous Black Forest cake...yum. The decor was that of a hunting lodge with stuffed deer, ferrets, you name it adorning the walls. By far the funniest decoration was the group of stuffed squirrels playing poker. Those crazy Germans.

The Headlights Rock!

2007-02-13T09:56:00.000+01:00

Back in Champaign-Urbana we were introduced to a band called The Headlights. Andy heard about them originally because the lead singer, Erin, is the daughter of a man he worked with, and they had just had one of their songs featured on Grey's Anatomy ("Everybody Needs a Fence to Lean on", Episode 18).

Since The Headlights are on a European tour right now, we gathered up a posse and went to see them in Remseck am Neckar, a subburb of Stuttgart, last Friday night. We got there early and spent some time talking with Erin before the show started and met the other band members, Brent and Tristen. They played at this place called Haus der Jugend, which is a community center of some kind. Although the venue was tiny - literally the size of a living room - it was packed with 40 people by the time the show started. It was a really fun show. Hopefully their European tour will be a big success and they'll headline in Stuttgart again soon. :)

If you'd like to hear some of their songs (including the one from Grey's Anatomy) click here. You're totally gonna want their CD now...

Well, at least my cupcakes scored big...

2007-02-07T21:01:00.000+01:00

Really, how cute are these cupcakes? I got the idea online, and happily was able to recreate them. We took them, along with some Chex mix (a la Bryan) and Buffalo Wings, over to our Super Bowl party on Sunday night. Of course, normally we wouldn't be able to make such awesome American treats, but a friend of a friend was able to hook us up with some American ingredients from the nearby Army base. Those lucky base-pass holders!

The party was really fun, but man was it hard watching the game. Not only was it sad to see the Bears lose (although I'm kind of happy for Peyton Manning, since he's a UT boy), but here in Deutschland the game aired from 12:30am to 4am (with only British commercials. sucky). That's dedication, I tell ya. We went over to Katie and Carl's at 10pm and joined a group of 5 other Americans, and proceeded to munch on all sorts of American goodies. Shravanthi made a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream pie with Oreo crust, and Katie made all kinds of awesome chip-n-dip combos. Even though the Bears lost, the game was fun to watch and we all felt a little bit like kids at a slumber party, staying up all night and pigging out on junk food. Too bad no one fell asleep, cause we would've totally done that shaving-cream-in-the-hand-and-tickle-the-nose thing. :)

Even bigger than I thought!

2007-02-07T13:58:00.000+01:00

So, as I mentioned before, we're going with some friends to Karnival in Köln next weekend. We've heard a lot about Karnival, since it's a big deal to a lot of people here. The festivities start next Thursday, and culminate with a HUGE parade on Monday morning, referred to as Rosenmontag. While looking for more information this morning, I discovered that this parade is way bigger than I thought. Check out these crazy statistics:

Rosenmontag Parade facts:
- 1.5 million people in the streets
- 7 km long route (4.3 miles)
- 4 hours long
- 10,000 participants
- 124 bands
- 440 horses
- 74 decorated floats
- 57 tractors
- 50 trucks (to carry the stuff thrown into the crowd)

Thrown into the crowd:
- 150 tons of sweets
- 700,000 chocolate bars
- 220,000 boxes of chocolates
- 300,000 bouquets
- thousands of small toys and gifts

Materials used to build the floats:
- 4,000 meters of roof slats (13,100 feet)
- 5,000 meters of wire (16,400 feet)
- 6,500 sq. meters of wire mesh (70,000 sq. feet)
- 320 sq. meters of wood (3,450 sq. feet)
- 2,000 sq. meters of fiber board (21,500 sq. feet)
- 1,800 kg of nails and screws (4,000 lbs.)
- 3,600 kg of paint (8,000 lbs.)
- 10 kg of adhesive (22 lbs.)
- 120 sq. meters of fabric (1,300 sq. feet)
- 40 cubic meters of styrofoam (1,400 cubic feet)
- 720 kg of paper (1,590 lbs.)

Costs:
- For the parade materials: 650,000 Euros (850,000 dollars)
- Total: 2.3 million Euros (3 million dollars)

Totally insane, right? I can't wait! :)

99 Luftballons!

2007-02-06T10:59:00.001+01:00

This past Saturday night, I was invited out for a night of dancing with "the girls". We had a group of seven: me, Petra, Shravanthi, Shravanthi's friend Marietka, Melanie (who works in our group at MPI), Petra's friend Violetta, and Svea (former MPI-er).

We started the evening by meeting up at Petra's apartment, which is close to downtown Stuttgart. Melanie brought this awesome Dutch liquor called Nobeltje. It's produced by a hotel located on an island in the Netherlands, and is only sold there and at 4 other licensed locations in the Netherlands. No where else in the world is it possible to purchase it. Melanie knows about it because she grew up 5 km from the Dutch border, and so she picked up a bottle on a recent trip home. The liquor is very sweet, tastes a bit like vanilla and almonds, and is completely deceptive at 32% alcohol. If I ever acquire my own bottle, I'll be happy to share. :)

Anyway, after our little cocktail hour, we headed downtown at the ripe hour of midnight. The bar we went to is this funny mix of American and German culture. They had four different parts, each with their own DJ and vibe. (1) a Coyote Ugly bar, complete with skanky girls dancing on the bar and American flags and license plates on the walls. When we walked in, they were playing "Devil went down to Georgia"... (2) a Hip Hop bar ... (3) a new age music bar ... and finally (4) an American/German bar. We chose the latter since it was the least crowded and had some good dance music.

The music at our chosen bar was definitely a bit nostalgic. Songs that I remember were: "99 Luftballons", "Grease Megamix", "Surfin' USA", "I've Had the Time of my Life", and "Highway to Hell". Believe me, you've never lived until you've heard a guy with a thick German accent sing "I've Had the Time of my Life" to you. Then there were tons of other German pop songs, which just cracked me up. Petra, Melanie, and Svea would instantly burst into song, while the rest of us danced along, completely confused.

My favorite was a German song called "Cowboy und Indianer", that was complete with matching motions, like throwing your lasso and riding a horse (Listen to it here). We also learned some typical Karnival songs (German Mardi Gras), and since we're going to Karnival in Köln next weekend it was good preparation! That trip will certainly generate some new postings; Karnival is supposed to be wild. Hopefully we'll have some "appropriate" pictures to post! :)

I'm becoming a real German

2007-02-03T17:19:00.000+01:00

So, maybe we haven't mentioned this yet, but there are a couple of stores here that have weekly Angebote (offers) that drive the masses wild. Aldi and Lidl, both mainly just regular grocery stores, have special, super-cheap offers twice a week, which they announce with flyers the week before. These offers are not groceries. They're things like computers, roller blades, costumes, paint sets, flower pots...pretty much anything goes. These offers are notorious for drawing large crowds that huddle outside the store early in the morning and then rush inside once the doors open at 8am. Since stuff can sell out fast, it's the only way to guarantee you'll get what you want. Especially hectic days are women's workout clothes days and laptop days. Sometimes people throw-down to determine who's gonna get the last medium white t-shirt.

Anyway, last Thursday I joined the ranks as one of these crazy people. Lidl's flyer advertised cat toys, and so I thought it would be fun to race over and get Zulu a cool cat tree...you know those things with the scratching post and levels for them to climb. They were only 40 Euros, and in the US they're easily $150 or more. My friend Petra agreed to drive me and then guided me in the ways of the Lidl-craziness. Sure enough, when we arrived at 7:50am there was already a line forming at the doors. It was really funny to see what people bee-lined for. One woman bought two Singer sewing machines, while another guy bought all 24 shoe racks out for sale. Meanwhile, I carefully picked out a red cat tree for Zulu.

I can't wait to go back for the next Angebote day and just watch the crowds. Our friend Guillaume likes to do his regular grocery shopping on Angebote days, just to see all of the people in action. From his stories of mayhem, it sounds like these Angebote days are people-watching at its best. And you thought Germans only cared about beer.

Which Gender is your Toothbrush?

2007-02-02T22:24:00.000+01:00

I read just the other day a headline that [sic] "Bilingualism offsets dementia." I sure hope that's true, because I'm starting to recall why I shied away from learning languages a decade ago (which, by the way, I never really learned beyond "hola!" "Que Tal!" or "Quieres?" which I use for pretty much every response irregardless of it's true value).

Here are a few quick thoughts about learning languages in a classroom (again). And incase you're wondering, I've just taken a moment from my studies to procra.. err write my loyal readers.. And yes, I know it's Friday night.

(1) Every time the teacher calls on me to answer a question, I have no idea whatsoever what I'm supposed to say. BUT, I can answer EVERYONE else's questions. Is there a psychologist in the house? I think I need to talk to someone about this.

(2) Languages are incredibly fun to learn. It's the only time you can "accidentally" say "Good afternoon, I speak with your fruits" and actually get away with it. And no, it doesn't make any more sense in German although it may make sense to Borat. (Guten Tag, ich spreche mit deine Obst) :)

(3) Finally, learning a new language makes you realise how little you know of your Mother Tongue. Seriously.. do any of you understand the Accusative vs Genative vs Dative cases? If you do, I'm hiring.. five bucks an hour, plus I'll send fun German candies. :) I took Latin for a stint in College, but I don't remember getting into that stuff nearly as quickly. Which is why I probably only remember how to say, Salve, Magister (Hello, Teacher). So much for the good stuff. But I now understand (remember?) exactly where I put the modal verb versus the infinitive verb versus the time / location / why in a sentence. At least in German, anyway. Woohoo!

Ta Ta for Now, my lovelies. I have to go figure out what gefaehrlich means.

/a

You know we're just struttin' for fun!

2007-01-30T15:46:00.000+01:00

'85 Bears doin' the Super Bowl Shuffle

How exciting is it that the Bears are in the Super Bowl this year?? I remember loving the Bears when I was a kid, mostly because they were my big brother's favorite team, but also because they had the coolest song ever....The Super Bowl Shuffle! If you don't believe me, check out this awesome video of Da Bears performing their signature song. Then go here to read the lyrics.

GO BEARS!!!

Who doesn't love Sunday brunch?

2007-01-29T09:22:00.001+01:00

A couple of weekends ago, we were invited, along with some other friends, over to Petra's apartment for a Sunday brunch. Petra had told us not to worry about bringing anything, that it would mostly be cold things, like fruit, cheese, and bread, and that she would have no trouble putting it together on her own. So, we were expecting something simple.

Well, here's what we saw when we arrived...

...Amazing, huh? I mean, her presentation was just so gorgeous. I totally felt inspired to do more with my presentation the next time we host something. Petra made for us: fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange juice, scrambled eggs, sweet potato and ginger soup, chilled roasted duck slices, beef and ham rolls with seasoned cream cheese, tomato and mozarella skewers, and additionally served us all sorts of fresh breads, cheeses, and meats. Plus, for dessert she made us red wine cake (her specialty) and tiramisu--by far the best we've ever tasted! I managed to convince her to share the recipe, so if you want it just send me an e-mail. :)

And just like that, winter was here...

2007-01-27T09:51:00.000+01:00

After months of crisp, fall weather, winter has finally arrived here in Stuttgart. Last Wednesday we got a big dose of snow overnight, and then it continued to snow all day long. I think in the end we got 8-10 inches. It definitely took everyone by surprise; the streets remained unplowed most of the day, cars were turned over everywhere due to sliding, 15 minute commutes turned into 2 hour ones, and most of the public transit system was shut down. Everything's more or less recovered now, but there's still plenty of white, fluffy powder on the ground. We even got 2 more inches this morning!

Our backyard in October...

...and our backyard now!

In Germany, the new year comes in with a bang!

2007-01-25T13:09:00.000+01:00

Now that I have finished posting about our Christmastime here in Germany, it's high time I told you all about how cool New Year's Eve is here. In my opinion, in the US there's not a whole lot to look forward to on NYE. Maybe you have a party to go to, but as far as the hours leading up to a grand event, the "ball-drop" just doesn't do a whole lot for me. Not the case here!

In Germany, NYE is mass chaos, and it's well worth waiting up for the big show: children and drunken adults, with little-to-no safety training in the use of pyrotechnics, setting off fireworks they purchased at the dollar store the day before, on, no joke, every single street corner of the entire city. It's mayhem, and it's great!

I put a video of what this craziness looks like from a high vantage point. You can see explosions of color and light going off all over the city, all at once. Be sure to watch it with the sound on to get the "war zone" feel of the whole thing. The video is only a couple of minutes long, but the actual event went on for at least 2 hours. Man, you get a couple of beers in people, and they just go wild! :)

Cool enough to deserve its own post!

2007-01-23T13:39:00.000+01:00

**A note to the squeamish: This posting has pictures of bones!**

The Ossuary Chapel in Kutná Hora

So even though I successfully posted the Prague stories, I did leave out one little side trip we took: from Prague to Kutná Hora. Coolest tiny little town ever. Back in the day, Kutná Hora was famous for its silver mine, and was one of the wealthiest cities in all of Europe. Now its main attraction is a chapel, decorated by monks in the 14th century with the bones of 40,000 people, transforming it into an elaborate ossuary. Many of the bones are from crusaders killed during battles between the Catholics and the Hussites. Among the coolest things made out of those bones are a giant chandelier, a cross, a chalice, and a coat-of-arms. The monks hoped that the ossuary would remind visitors that life is transient and that death is the gateway into the afterlife. In addition to the artistic bone decor, there are also four large piles of bones with golden crowns at their peak to symbolize the journey towards heaven. I thought the whole place rocked! See for yourself below, or click here for the whole enchilda. ;)

Cross overhead, just after you enter the ossuary

Bone chalices decorate the entranceway

Inside, a huge chandlier hangs from the ceiling,

which includes every bone in the human body!Large coat-of-arms

Outside, the ossuary was surrounded by a cemetery (to go with the "death" theme, of course), which had some interesting tombstones, including one with a steering wheel attached. It was kind of neat too, because so many of the tombstones had black-and-white photographs on them, which made it more personal. And pretty much every single grave had flowers, or in one case even a miniature Christmas tree.

Cool tombstone with a steering wheel!

In addition to checking out the ossuary, we also enjoyed very much our visit to a local brewery, where we had a very nice lunch and some more excellent Czech beer. The beer was called Dačický, and seriously rivals my previously mentioned favorite, Velkopopovický Kozel. Unfortunately, the Kutná Hora beer is only available in Kutná Hora, so you'll just have to hop on over to the Czech Republic and taste for yourself how good it is.

The Dačický Brewery

On the way back to Prague with our driver, Vladmir

The Big "P"

2007-01-22T13:21:00.000+01:00

Wow. It is a big relief to finally post these pics from Prague! We did so many things that I had hundreds of pictures to filter through. For all of you out there that don't feel like going through the entire slide show (found here), I'll give a brief recap here of Prague adventures. :)

We stayed at the Hotel U Pava, which translates to the hotel "at the peacock.". The hotel used to be a seminary, and was complete with winding staircases, religious paintings, and lively frescoes on the ceiling of the hotel restaurant.

U Pava Peacock

Ceiling Frescoes in U Pava's Restaurant

The location was great because we were right by the Charles Bridge, which is one of the biggest attractions in Prague. It's a long bridge over the River Vltava, commissioned by Holy Roman Emporer Charles IV in 1357, with scenic views and bronze statues up and down the sides. Very pretty.

Walking Along the Charles Bridge

View from the Charles Bridge

On our first day in Prague, we headed to the Jewish quarter. Probably the most famous thing in this part of town is the Old Jewish Cemetery. Since the Jews weren't allowed to bury their dead outside of their district, this cemetery was used for more than 400 years. When it became full, they would add a new layer of dirt to accommodate the bodies, then shift the previously laid tombstones up to the top of the new layer. The end result is a cemetery 12 layers deep, containing an estimated 20,000 bodies and 12,000 tombstones. Really incredible to see. The most famous tomb is of Rabbi Loew, who, according to legend, created a monster called Golem to protect the Jews and help keep them safe.

Tombstones at the Old Jewish Cemetery

That night we went to see a marionette puppet show, since Prague is known for their puppet craftsmen and puppetmasters. The show was at the National Marionette Theater, and the performance was Mozart's opera 'Don Giovanni' acted out by three-and-a-half foot tall marionette puppets. It was really clever and very fun to watch.

Scene from the Marionette Puppet Show

Throughout the trip we saw lots of marionette puppet stores, and some of the puppets were just so incredible. Andy and I ended up buying a Jester puppet as a souvenir. Here were some of our other favorites:

Our Super-Cool Jester Puppet

My favorite: The Dragon Puppet
Andy's favorite: The Eskimo Puppet

In the town square of Prague's "Old Town" there was a Christmas market (are you seeing a theme here? Europe loves these things!). We bought a Prague pastry called a Trdlo, that was delicious. It's basically yeast dough, wrapped around a cylinder, rolled in sugar and cinnamon, and roasted over an open flame. Sooooo good. Also in the square we saw the Astronomical Clock which displays the current zodiac sign, the phase of the moon, the patron saint for that day, and the time. It also puts on a show at the top of every hour: two windows open to reveal statues of the 12 disciples parading past and a skeleton representing death pulls a cord to ring the bell. It was neat.

Old Town Square with Christmas Market

Astronomical Clock

The Clock during "The Show"

Our last big excursion was to the Prague Castle. The castle is pretty cool because it has been home to the leader of Prague since it was completed in 850 AD; the current president resides there now. The most famous site there is the St. Vitus cathedral. Inside it is filled with beautiful stained glass windows, one of which was designed by the famous Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha. It also has a tower with spectacular views of Prague, as long as you're willing to climb a spiral staircase with 287 steps! Well worth it though. :) After all that exercise, we treated ourselves to a relaxing lunch (excellent goulash!) at a nearby restaurant.

Mucha Stained Glass Window

View of Prague from the TowerPosing with the St. Vitus Spires behind us
Fun Times at Lunch after our Castle Excursion

All in all, it was a great trip. I would highly recommend Prague to those looking for an exciting European adventure. The architecture there is just beautiful, so just walking through the city streets was a treat. Plus they had gorgeous art glass and cut crystal boutiques, and some of the best beer in the world!! If you ever see Velkopopovický Kozel on a menu somewhere, you have to try it!

Silly Christmas Pics

2007-01-19T23:30:00.000+01:00

Before I post the Prague pics that I just finished organizing, I thought I would put up some of the pics from our family Christmas celebration. Since we travelled to Prague on Christmas Day, we decided to celebrate "German-style" and open up presents on Christmas Eve. I roasted a Christmas goose, stuffed with wild rice and green apples. It was very good. And of course, we ate lots of Christmas cookies, since I went a little overboard with the cookie baking this year. :)

The goose before...

...and after! (pay no attention to the silly antlers on my head :))
My two Christmas gingergread houses (on display before consumption)Pretty carved wooden creche Mom bought at the Weihnachtsmarkt
Showing off our Christmas hats
The traditional Christmas Canasta game
Pretty gingerbread men :)

King for a Day

2007-01-09T20:47:00.000+01:00

Since the Christmas markets are such a big attraction here, we decided that the ones in Stuttgart and Esslingen weren't enough, and headed to another locally famous one: Ludwigsburg. This town is known for its beauty, especially the large, Baroque-style palace just north of the town square. Since I didn't know exactly where it was, I asked a nice lady at a drug store we walked past, who told me to take a right at the McDonalds and then a left at "The Snake"....huh? Since we'd had issues in the past with recognizing the German word for snake, I was skeptical that I had translated her directions properly. But, she wasn't kidding about the snake:

Once at the palace, it was immediately obvious that this place was HUGE! We found out later during our tour that there are nearly 300 rooms in the palace, of which we only saw 70 during our 90 minute tour. Unbelieveable. Apparently the palace was originally built by a Duke who wanted a small hunting lodge, but due to demands from his mistress it was expanded into an enormous, ornate, far-from-humble dwelling.

Our tour guide, Laura, was super. She was fun and told us lots of interesting facts and stories along the way. I'll try to hit all of the highlights... The first room we saw was a large open space that was used as an entranceway, and sometimes a dining hall. The ceiling had large crystal chandeliers and a natural-looking, open sky painted on it, complete with flying ducks. The room was designed with one unusual feature: If you clap your hands loudly, the sound bounces of the walls and echoes so rapidly that it sounds like the ducks are flapping their wings. Cool.

The next cool, albeit random, item we saw was a "lunch cannon". The King of Baden-Wurtemburg (who moved in after the Duke) was a large man -- like 400 lbs large -- who took his meals seriously. He had a device that was kept in the garden to signal lunchtime on the palace grounds. When noon-time arrived, the strong sunlight would be focused via a magnifying glass, which would then ignite a small amount of gun powder in a mini-cannon, giving off an explosion so loud that everyone at the palace would know it's chow time!

The last fun pictorial highlight goes to "The Mirror Room". This room was all gold and mirrors, all over the walls and ceiling. Really neat. Apparently only very special guests were allowed to experience it. Back in the day, mirrors were really expensive, so it was a real show of money to have a whole room decorated with them. Laura told us that the room used to also have a mirrored floor, but it was taken out because the ladies of the court complained that you could see up their skirts...hmm, that might've been intentional. ;)

There were lots of other neat stories, like how it was a privledge to watch the king get undressed at night, and how if you were too low on the totem pole the king would make you wait 6 hours in the foyer before he would come to greet you, and how the king had a private balcony in the palace church complete with a day bed in case the sermon was too boring and he wanted a nap...stuff like that. The rest of our pics from the Ludwigsburg outing can be found here.

I hope to get the pics from our trip to Prague posted soon. Until then, I'll leave you with my Mom's super cool, artistic photo of the smoked fish booth at the Christmas market in downtown Stuttgart.

The fun doesn't stop there!

2007-01-07T15:15:00.000+01:00

After retrieving my brother, and eating some quality fast food for lunch (DonerKebobs and Bratwurst...the two most popular fast food meals in Germany), we mostly spent the rest of the first day chilling. A small attempt at activity was made when Andy and I took my parents downtown to get a glimpse of the Weihnachtsmarkt, where we spent a short time admiring the decorations and sipping some lovely Glühwein.

We also saw one the biggest attractions: a miniature choo-choo train that parents and kids can ride together:

And an organ grinder too. :)

The next morning, day two arrived, and brought with it it's own adventure. You see, just before coming to the US, my poor Mommy had to have an emergency root canal, and was put on antibiotics. Well, as she found out after flying across the Atlantic, she's allergic to that antibiotic. Which leads us to the next "first-time-for-everyone" experience: visiting a German doctor. Luckily, the doctor in Busnau is very nice and speaks pretty good English, so it was pretty painless. She even let Mom take a picture with her to document it. Sweet.

With our newly purchased prescription in hand (5 drug stores later...), the whole family was ready for a trip to Esslingen to check out the Christmas market there. You may remember that Andy and I previously visited this market with friends earlier in December. Anyway, it's a really cool market with one part traditional and one part medieval. Purely by luck we discovered a really cool new place on this trip. Apparently, Esslingen is home to the oldest Sekt cellar in Germany, called Kessler Sektkellerei. Sekt is the German word for sparkling wine or Champagne. Jesse bought a bottle of their Jägergrün, and it was freakin' awesome. Turns out we can also get it at our local grocery store, so come on over if you wanna sample it!

Anyway, to prove that it was cool, here are some pics of the city and the market.

I thought I'd lost you, boy

2007-01-04T22:14:00.000+01:00

Before we begin, take a moment to mark "one" for the AWAY Team.

ME: I bet you're glad to finally be in Germany, I said to him. Just hang on a sec.. I'll be right back.

Him: Is everything cool?

ME: Everything's cool. Be right back.

It started out innocently enough - really it did. You see, Germany has this "on your honor" policy with regards to using their public transit which I try to take very seriously. In my pocket were two unstamped "mehrfahrtkartes" err, transit tickets that you can use whenever you want. It's good to keep one or two in your wallet incase you find yourself without money to purchase a fare home. You're supposed to stamp them before you get on the train, bus, whatever, and I realized after Jesse and I sat down in the train that I hadn't validated our tickets yet. Do we ride as misfits who don't pay their own way, or do I get these suckers stamped and be a shining, glimmering, positive reflection of Good Society?

No worries; on the buses the validation boxes are located near the doors. Makes sense: you stamp them when you get on. But for some reason I couldn't find them on the train. I asked a guy next to us: "Verstehen Sie Englisch?" "Yah," he says, "I'm from Indiana." Sweet! Where can I stamp these mehrfahrtkartes? "Uhh, I'm sure the box is on the train somewhere." Well, we weren't going anywhere, so I walked down to the front of the train. No box. I swear I didn't see one. So I walked towards the rear of the train where Jesse awaits my return.

On my way back I see that the boxes are actually fixed to the station where you buy the train ticket. It's just a big rectangle blob, somewhat resembling a big steel door with an LCD touch-screen. Go or stay, go or stay. I'm weighing my options.

The train is still not going anywhere, and besides, I'm always notified by the conductor or pre-recorded voice when the train is about to go, stop, open the doors, which way to exit the open doors, yahdda yahdda yahdda. So off I go, maybe 10 feet away from the train to pop in my ticket. One ticket stamped. On to the next one!

Whew, that was close! I almost tempted fate with the SSB guys in the black coats. IF they stop you and you're without a paid fare, they pop you with a 50 euro fine. (less, I'm told, if you play dead about how the transit system works.. besides, isn't transit free in the States?).

As the second ticket is slid into the machine, I'm gripped with a new kind of fear. It's a fear of silence, because I hear nothing as the train's doors slam shut. I withdraw the ticket, and no matter how fast I ran to the door to open it they weren't coming open. The train starts movin, and hey, there goes Jesse - sitting happily in the back of the train near some random guy from Indiana. I try waiving at him as a signal to exit at the next stop, but somehow my wildly flailing arms go unnoticed.

Lucky me. I just lost my jet-lagged brother-in-law. To my knowledge he's without a local currency, our address, phone number, you name it.

If I continue this story in the same manner, you'll be here all day. Suffice it to say that after four hours, we finally caught up with Jesse at the main train station. After two hours of visiting different train stations, I gave up and returned home empty handed and curious what storms awaited my return. When I saw my wife I simply said, "Hi Honey!" and she said "What the hell happened?!" Great! He made it home before I did and I worried for no reason at all!

Well, not so fast. She received an anonymous phone call on her mobile. Something like "Meet me at the McDonalds at the Hauptbahnhof in one hour." It was very Cloak-and-Dagger. Actually the conversation was more "Hi, this is the Missing American Hotline, and we've found your brother. Please come get him at the Hauptbahnhof McDonalds before he consumes too many burgers and beers."

Our gracious neighbors Katie and Carl brought us into the city where we eventually located Jesse at McDonalds. We grabbed lunch for everyone back at the ranch, and I offered Katie my only 10 Euros as a small sign for a HUGE THANK YOU for her assistance, flexibility, kindness, altruism. We headed back to calm the travellin Parentals' hearts - and ate.

But hey, I learned a ton about the differences between trains and buses that day! For example, the next time I get on a train with someone, I'll be damned if I get off that train to validate my ticket. When the SSB black coat guys come by and demand my ticket, they're going to get a big smile and someone who just can't seem to explain himself very well. :)

First things first...

2007-01-04T22:12:00.000+01:00

So, there have been a few e-mail and phone call queries, with inquiring minds wanting to know more about the lost family member thing. Well, as luck would have it, it's chronologically the first story on the list. I'll start with Part 1 of the story here, and let Andy take Part 2 to the finish line. Here goes:

The day of my family's arrival started off normal enough. We got to the airport early, to be on the safe side, and with our extra time purchased items essential to a proper German greeting....Nothing says "Welcome to Deutschland" like a beer and a pretzel. :)

Since there were so many suitcases to transport (thanks mostly to our special requests from the US and Christmas presents), we couldn't all fit in one cab. So, we decided that I would take Mom and Dad in a taxi to Busnau, and Andy and Jesse would take the train and meet us there. Super.

After an hour of being in Busnau, Mom and I were starting to wonder what was taking the boys so long. Maybe they stopped at the store on the way in, or maybe Andy's giving Jesse a tour of the neighborhood. No worries. Then, in the midst of showing my parents the cool features of our new cell phone, I notice that I have a voicemail: "Um, hi. This is the American rescue service calling. I'm here with your brother...uh...I think he got separated from your husband on the train. Anyway, he's safe and I've seated him at the McDonald's at the main train station. He'll be waiting here for you to come and rescue him."

It's blo-og, blo-og. It's better than bad, it's good!

2007-01-03T13:28:00.000+01:00

Friends, family, devoted Clarktoberfest-followers: we are back. Over the last two weeks while my parents and brother were here, we toured a kingly palace, visited four Christmas markets, consumed many cookies and many glasses of beer, visited the Czech republic, and temporarily lost a family member in a mass transport shenanigan. Too many stories to tell now, but rest assured we will be sorting through our photos soon and promise to give updates on all of our (mis)adventures. :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Ah, the Company Christmas Party

2006-12-20T10:53:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-20T10:27:00.000+01:00

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...

2006-12-18T10:35:00.000+01:00

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.

2006-12-15T09:59:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-12-14T09:50:00.000+01:00

.....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!

2006-12-13T15:11:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-12T13:31:00.000+01:00

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

Ritter Sport Factory Visit

2006-12-09T10:47:00.000+01:00

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

2006-12-09T10:13:00.000+01:00

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!

2006-12-08T10:20:00.000+01:00

Sunrise view from our apartment. :)

Clarktoberfest

Sadie: Weeeee!

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: The Dam Ride

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: Uphill Lunch Ride, 10 miles?

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: The Rollers Loop

Pedal Los Pueblos Ride Log: City Round 1 for 50 miles

Tickle Time!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Deutschland versus the US

Oktoberfest Leftovers

The Nürburgring

America Day

Børk! Børk! Børk!

Sprachen Espanien and Unravellin'

Friendly Neighborhood

Quick! Follow that Gondola!

I Heart German Design

Happy New Year!

O Night Divine

Those French people know how to cook!

Bears on a Mission

I like traffic lights

My One Hour of Glory

Electric Youth

Even better than the real thing

Clarktoberfest 2007

Beer and pretzels for everyone!

Help! I need a Porsche! It's an emergency!

London looks cool in sepia tone

A conference with cow bells, what's not to like?

Hidden in Plain Sight: Amsterdam's Daily Life

The Doktorhut Tradition

Sweetness

Fun in the Sun in Lon Don

Pink boas never fail to draw a crowd

Another French Getaway

Only took 8 months to get my 15 seconds...

Another reason to love the Autobahn

Oktoberfest Sneak Preview

Three Amigos...but without the sombreros

What in a Box?

Athens vs. "The Athens of the South"

At last, I bring you Munich

And then there was Strassburg

Gute Fahrt!

Cheesy, but Awesome

Can't get you out of my head

Baby Steps...

Identity Crisis

April Fish!

Mohawk Duckies

I Can Drive (one)Sixty-Five!

Barensee

He could probably tell it better, but...

The Power of Voodoo.

Soccer: The New Fertility Drug

That's one high-tech boombox

Makes me laugh, every time.

Clowns and Candy = Rosenmontag

Komplete Kraziness

What's with the Pom-Pom hats?

The Headlights Rock!

Well, at least my cupcakes scored big...

Even bigger than I thought!

99 Luftballons!

I'm becoming a *real* German

Which Gender is your Toothbrush?

You know we're just struttin' for fun!

Who doesn't love Sunday brunch?

And just like that, winter was here...

In Germany, the new year comes in with a bang!

Cool enough to deserve its own post!

The Big "P"

Silly Christmas Pics

King for a Day

The fun doesn't stop there!

I thought I'd lost you, boy

First things first...

It's blo-og, blo-og. It's better than bad, it's good!

I'm becoming a real German