What a difference a year makes...

As the fall is widing down, I wanted to take a look back at the progress my lawn has made over the past year. It has certainly been a struggle, but with some love and attention (and some fertilizer and water), the lawn has really progressed in the last year.

Below are some before and after pics...the left pictures were taken in July 05 the the pictures on the right were taken today.


The weather has certainly played a part, especially the Indian Summer we've had to date. This week, it has been extraordinarily warm - almost in the 70's with lots of sunshine and enough rain to keep the grass happy.


Next weekend I've got to plant the 200+ tulips that I bought a few weeks ago. Tulips will always remind me of the Pearl Street Mall in April, and I'm hoping to have a mini version soon. 

Midnight Mountainbiking

On Thursday night, Eva had a girl's night out...so I took the opportunity to do something that I'm not allowed to do: ride at night.

Well, it's not that I'm not allowed to, it's just that Eva thinks that it is a bit dangerous.



Rene's got a super special bike light that is as bright as a car light. So, armed with our Camelbacks and Rene's light, we headed into the forest for a nice ride of about an hour. It was really cool, quite, and peaceful. We stayed on the main paths and didn't get into any hairy, technical stuff. There were no accidents.

As irony would have it, when I was coming home from a mtb ride tonight, I had a great endo (caused partially by the speed I was riding and the blowout my rear tire had) while riding on a sidewalk...oh...how the bones hurt. I ended up running the last 5km home. 

And the stork came by and delivered ...

... a happy and healthy baby...

bike! A bike from Storck, that is.

After gawking for almost hours at various bikes, Eva got tired of me talking about a new bike, and convinced me to quit talking and to buy the damn thing.

I'll definitely use it more than a new TV - I've already logged in over 150 hours on my bike this year, and I love riding in the area. It is very peaceful, beautiful, with little traffic.


In a similar fashion as my first bike, I had this one made. I got to spec all the parts that I wanted and the bike shop was very reasonable and helpful. For me, the important part was 3 cranks up front for the mountains for our trips in the Alps.

The biggest difference is that it is an aluminum frame compared to my steel frame Torelli. The Torelli was a great bike, and steel offers many advantages, but it is definitely heavier. I'm not a gram freak. After all, if I wanted to reduce a few grams from my bike, I could just give up drinking beer for a while.

The new bike is a lot more responsive and extremely stiff as compared to steel. But, she has been a blast to ride.

Here are the specs:
Storck vision light frame
Storck Stiletto Race carbon fork
Campy Veloce 3x10 components
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels 

Turnin' 30

As if it wasn't bad enough for Andre that he was turning 30.

It all started out easy enough...throw a party with 50 of your best friends. Have plenty of great food and beer. Then your friends want to celebrate in their own special way - with a few games.

Then you find yourself wearing a white t-shirt and an adult diaper.


... then they stick you in a wheelchair...


... and put up an obstacle course for you to navigate through...making you drink each time you touch an obstacle...


... and the obstacles are 'people bridges' that seem to constantly move.

Happy Birthday Andre.


Here's Eva and the Ischen (without Babsi). This was Eva's first time back in Hattingen being 'obviously pregnant', and everyone wanted to know how she was doing, and all of the ins and outs of being pregnant. 

1:36 and 100,000

This is how the crazy idea starts: it's for a good cause.

On the day of German Reunification, the 3rd of October, I entered a half marathon whose proceeds would go to charity. While I was in good shape, mostly to all of the riding I had been doing, it had been months since I had put in a run over 10 miles.

What the hell, I thought. If I can run 8-10 without any issue and if I can ride for 2-3 hours, the half marathon would be easy...

...plus the T-Shirt was really cool. Definitely worth the price of admission.

Unfortunately, the weather was really rainy. It rained the whole day...not exactly optimal marathon weather.


I'm a bit hard to spot, but I'm the one wearing the orange shirt.

Here I am close to the finish. Naively, I was thinking that I'd jut put in the 13.1 miles and get in a good, solid training run. But, after that starting gun went off, my competitiveness really got the better of me. I felt great the first 7 or so miles, and I was pacing relatively well.

...then the rain, cold, wind kicked in...

... and let's not forget to mention that I hadn't really trained to run sub 7 minute miles for that long...

Let's just say that I was happy to be finished. My right knee and foot are still pretty pissed at me.
I finished in 1:36. Considering that I didn't really train for this distance and considering that it was cool and wet (excuses, excuses), I'm really stoked about the time. It is still about 18 minutes slower than I could do out of high school...but for an old man, I'm stoked...

... here's to weekend warriors...where's my beer?

During the 1/2 marathon, I also passed a milestone in my training: I also burned my 100,000th calorie while running. At the risk of getting laughed at, I actually keep a pretty detailed training spreadsheet (shall I put it on Google Spreadsheet or make a database?), and year to date, I've ran over 150 hours and burned over 100,000 calories. The numbers are similar for riding. Stupid, huh? I need another hobby.

Speaking Swedish

For those of you that have never had the opportunity to experience the IKEA adventure, let me try to summarize it for you:

1) endless traffic and crowds
2) suffering through the maze of products
3) seeing tons of really cool stuff
4) spending hours 'designing' that perfect bookshelf or piece of furniture
5) searching through all of the self service bins to find that 'perfect' bookshelf
6) being amazed as to how they fit all that furniture in that little box
7) figuring out how to fit everything in your car (applies only to Germany where the cars are smaller)
8) ... then the fun begins with putting it all together
9) ... and before you know it, your complete Saturday is shot putting one shelf together

Yes, even though we have said a thousand times that we would never buy IKEA again, we keep on doing it. Namely, because the designs are so cool, because the quality is OK, and because the prices are good.

Putting it all together is the trick. Hilmar helped me out, and it still took over 8 hours to put these few simple items together and get them mounted on the wall.

But, at least the shelves in our foyer is finally finished!

So Süüüüüüß

We had a few folks over for dinner one evening as a sort of 'farewell BBQ' for two coworkers: Tobias and Ivan.

Tobias and his girlfriend gave us this bottle of champagne (good for mother's milk, so we hear) and little baby socks. This was our first 'pregnancy gift' and is all sooooo cute (the rough translation for 'so süß'.

 

Mirja and Thomas finally tie the knot

After our vacation, we had a short stopover at home in Erlangen to drive to 'Sunny Hamburg' (normally known for its 'not so sunny weather') to see Mirja and Thomas finally tie the knot.

I've known Mirja for quite a while. We met over 5 years ago when she landed in Atlanta for her short delegation with Siemens, and she rented a room in my condo. Through Mirja, I met Eva a few weeks later. The rest is history...

... but enough of my history...below are the bride and groom being escorted in a classic Mercedes.



Despite the bad reputation that Hamburg has for bad, rainy weather, the sun always seems to be shining when we visit.

Mirja's dad has been retired for a while, and he picked up gourmet cooking for a hobby...and let me tell you, he can cook!

He undertook quite a feat when he volunteered to make the 'appetizers' for his daughter's wedding. As if the stress wasn't enough preparing for your only daughter to get married, you take on the task to make appetizers, gourmet style, for 60 people.

The spread is below. Simply amazing! The 'appetizers' were quite Italian / Tuscan in nature - to match the pair's honeymoon destination - and were more than enough for a whole meal.

And no wedding is complete with out the wedding cake. The thing I really like about German wedding cakes is that they normally have a lot of marzipan (a sort of thick almond icing / confection). There are probably more people that dislike marzipan than those that like it, so there is always plenty for me ;-)

A few 'keywords' to bring back memories for the four of us: PCB, Motel 6, Stone Mountain and the BBQ thereafter, your 'Playmates', shaved legs, 'Can Thomas stay in your condo', forgetting the engagement ring, road trips, highly busy, Spyder convertibles, Waffle House, Southern Skillet, Starbucks, bagels, Alex in his tighty whities, German lessons, sunny Hamburg, and finally...friendship.

Thank you for the invitation and thank you most of all for the friendship.

P.S. We got the wedding CD in the mail and it is absolutely awesome! Thanks.

Post Vacation Growth

After we got back from vacation (wow, that was the end of August...how time flies), we came back to really long grass and our sunflowers really shot up.

It all started out relatively simple, Eva bought a 2 EUR package of seeds called 'Blooming Fence' (it sounds better in German), thinking it would be mostly small flowers with maybe a sunflower or two.

Turns out that it was mostly sunflowers.



Now our sunflowers have grown to over 3m tall and make the rest of our plants look rather small.

To put it all in perspective, I stood next to the sunflowers...the person in the picture is shorter than he appears.

Ending a Great Vacation in Beautiful Bled

Alas, our vacation was coming to an end, but before we would trek back to Erlangen, we made a three night stop in Bled - arguable one of the more 'touristy' places in Slovenia. Understandably so: it is surrounded by mountains and forests, has a huge lake with picturesque island in the middle, and not a single McDonalds.

After doing some extensive internet searching, we decided to hole up at the Farmhouse Mulej. We were at first a bit skeptical reserving online for our last three nights of vacation, but every expectation presented online was fulfilled upon arrival. Virtually everything you eat or drink at breakfast and dinner is grown and made on the farm by the family.

Our room was newly renovated and had an adequate balcony with a great view. All the meals were simple, yet tasty and satisfying. The room itself was very reasonable at 25 EUR per night per person...and the greatest deal was the extra 5 EUR for dinner, which entailed farmraised meet and homemade applesauce. The homemade jogurt for breakfast was one of my favorites. They even let me try the traditional farmer's breakfast: buckwheat with onions and some pork. The family even lent us bikes to take the short ride into Bled - allowing us to stay in the country and be close to Bled.

If it sounds like I'm recommending the farmhouse...I am. The family was ultra friendly and helpful. Our stay in their home was definitely our best of Slovenia. You won't be disappointed. Email at info.mulej@gmail.com or at www.mulej-bled.com.

You'll find a few pictures of our room in the home of family Mulej below.

Here's the beautiful of Bled Island. We have about 100 pictures from every angle possible...this angle is actually taken from the castle that is on a steep hill on the other side of the lake. The church on the island goes back many, many centuries, and Bled itself turned 1000 in 2004.

Here's us with the island and castle in the background.


We took one sunny afternoon, and I rowed Eva to the island. I got to get a bit of exercise during this romantic excursion. I can't say that I've ever rowed Eva anywhere, and it was a great way to spend time with Eva in a natural city. It sort of brought out the Alpha male in me.

After we landed, I took this B&W of the steps leading up to the church. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of tourists in the church (unfortunately, most of them were Americans) that were quite loud and (in my opinion) disrespectful. It took a bit of the peacefulness and solitude out of this great island church. Nonetheless, it was worth the trip.

On another day, we took a hike in the 'backcountry' of Bled, and we got to cross over this river full of trout many times over similar wooden bridges.


The full hike took a few hours and didn't have too many peaks and valleys, and it gave a great view of the countryside. When I was playing with one of my camera settings, I lucked into taking this picture of a flower (looks like a poppy) and a bee.

On our final evening, we headed into town for a last nice meal before heading back home, ending our vacation. The dinner was pretty good, but the highlight of the meal were the British couple next too us. They were definitely trying really hard to be regal. After ordering open table wine, they sent it back because it was corked...or maybe because it had been sitting out too long (so they said). I'm no wine expert, but I can tell a corked bottle...and I've never had a corked bottle. Let alone a corked carafe of table wine. And, by definition, open table wine does sit out too long.

Anyway, the guy tried to make up by complementing the cheese they had for their appetizer. He said it was 'lovely'. I can't say that I've ever called cheese 'lovely'...If I were the cheese, I'd be pissed ('I ain't no lovely cheese').

After dinner, we took a stroll and took some final pics of the island and lake. So, can you pick who is pregnant in the collage below?. I think the lighting and the camera angle is making me look fatter than I am (I am really leaning into it).

Here's the last picture of our vacation: Rob imitating a frog shaped trash can. Ribbit. And, no, neither the frog nor I am trying to take a dump.

Camping on Lake Bohinj

After the big city life of Ljubljana, we headed back to nature to finish our vacation in 'peace and quiet'. About an hour from the capital city was Lake Bohinj, where we spent the next day and a half.

It is quite a long lake, with a nice, scenic hiking trail around the complete perimeter, which kept us busy on our second day.

The westernmost part of the lake presents a few small farmhouses and has the huge Julian Alps in the background. We took a short hike westward to a small waterfall that is the source of the lake.
As in the Soca Valley, the water was crystal clear.
Here's Eva with our breakfast at the campground, frowning at the cold. It got a bit cold that night, and neither of us slept particularly well. While camping doesn't always present the best night's sleep, it would also be difficult to imagine staying in a hotel in such a spotlight of nature.
Us with Lake Bohinj in the background during our perimeter hike. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't particularly sunny, but thankfully, it didn't rain much either.

Big City Life in Slovenia's Capital City

After over a week in small cities, beaches, and mountains, we wandered into Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital.

Funny name, cool city. (You'd pronounce it as if the j's weren't there). About 250,000 people. It is very European in look and feel. It doesn't have the chaos, stress, and traffic of Rome, and it doesn't have the masses of tourists of Florence.

Even still, there were quite a few tourists - even Americans - but most of them used Ljubljana as their entry/exit point of the vacation. Many were backpackers.

The city center was alive in the evening with many live bands performing outside near cool restaurants with large, outside decks.



The city underwent a Renaissance of sorts in the late 1890's after a devastating earthquake. Much of the city center was rebuilt, the river was built into a canal, and the famous 'three bridges' was constructed.

Below is one of the dragons on the posts of a bridge.

One of the other advantages of Ljubljana is the cuisine. Not that we had eaten poorly before, but we had a much greater selection of 'fancy' restaurants to try out. Not that we are the gourmet experts, but it is nice to take a stab at something nicer while on vacation.

Below is our 'stab' at nice Slovenian cuisine. The restaurant was really cute, with a nice outside patio. The inside decor was very quaint, and instead of a large window separating the inside from the outside wall, the space was left open, providing us the opportunity to eat inside where it was a bit warmer, yet allowing us the feel and peoplewatching of being outside.

The food was excellent! Very artisitic (read: not much on the plate). Normally, when you get these artistic meals, you are left with a bit of an empty stomach, and a large bill. We were comfortably full, partially aided by an appetizer and desert, and the bill was only 30 EUR.

Yes, I had a beer with my meal.

When we first arrived in Ljubljana, we were a bit hungry, and we wanted to try one of the many small, local food shops. The one below looked rather inviting. There were lots of people (always a good sign), and it looked very clean. We though the name was a bit funny, but didn't think much about it. After all, hot dogs don't have any dog meat.

We gather enough courage to go in. We then look at the menu, and the guy behind the counter goes '...and all of our menu items are made with horse meat...'

Apparently, horse meat is a specialty in Slovenia. Eva and I just couldn't bring ourselves to eat horse meat.