Lea's Visit to the Zoo

Eva and I took Eva's cousin, Lea, to the Duisburg Zoo one weekend when we were visiting the Ruhrgebeit.

Below is Lea posing with the elephant.

No trip to the zoo is complete without ice cream. That is a real Rhino in the background (he didn't get any ice cream).

The 2005 Biergarten Season is Opened

One of the very important rituals of spring is the first visit to a biergarten. Here we are in Aztelsberger Biergarten for this very important day. In this picture, Eva's sister, Nina, is with us along with Keith and Manu. Later, more of the 'Erlangen Gang' joined us for a few beverages.

I'm the lucky guy in the picture below...

Almost Ready to Move In

Here's our living room as taken from our kitchen. We've survived our arguments with the hardwood floor guy, suffered through all the mistakes that the painter made (in general, when our general contractor did something wrong, and we tried to get them to fix something, they always blamed the painter...which was me...)


At the end of the day, the floors looked great. We just need to get the kitchen put in, get the yard seeded, and wait for the final inspecetions before we can move in. We're getting excited.

Würzburg Half Marathon

Somewhat spontaneously, I decided to do a half marathon with a friend of ours. So, the four of us (Tanja and Rene) went up to Würzburg together to see the city and run the half (with Tanja).

I was in pretty good shape, but hadn't really been training specifically for a half. I think I finished around 1:35.

Here's me hugging one of my favorite brands of wheat beer - Erdinger. Unfortunately, this is the alcohol free version.

Even though I've been running for over half of my life and have participated in numerous such events, I made a rookie mistake: I didn't protect my nipples on this cold day. At the end of the race, I bled through my shirt and it looked pretty bad.

Even worse was going to the ambulance with my bloodie nipples and asking for Band-Aids.

Easter Egg Hunt

OK...so for Easter 2005, there was no Easter Egg Hunt. Actually, Eva, I, and Eva's parents worked on the house.

Even crazier, Eva and I took a week of vacation in order to lay tile and to paint the walls.

Even crazier, Eva's parents also took some vacation and drove almost 400 miles to do this with us.

Here I am looking cool in my bibs. I love these things. I've had them since my first house restoration in KC. Put a cold Bud in my hand to complete my Redneck look.

At numerous times during the construction of our condo, I would work on various stuff on the house - mostly painting and tile. You wouldn't believe how many of our new neighbors, that we had met many times previously, didn't recognize me in my bibs.

Even better was the time that the architect came in to inspect the place and asked me to tell the owner a few things when the owner came, and I got to tell him that I was 'the owner'. He was confused...
Eva doing the grout in the kitchen.

Eva's dad did the hard work laying the tile. I would measure the tile and cut all the pieces for him. Eva and her mom did the grout and all around stuff. I had some kneepads from my first house and renovation. I offered the kneepads numerous times, he was too stubborn to take them.

Stubborn men get really sore knees.

Thankfully, all was forgotten after the first liter of beer.

This pic is a few weeks later when the tile in the kitchen and the hardwoods were finished.

The hardwoods were a story in and of itself. I'll spare you the burden of our fun with the 'tile guy'. However, I will say that the floors look great.

Self portrait.

Don't Mess with Texas

After Peru, I had to take a night flight to Houston for work for a few days. Thankfully, I could visit home on the weekend and see my parents in the house I grew up in.

This is my baby: my Mustang. Many of you have already seen the pictures and the stories. I won't go into all of the gory details. However, in short, my dad and I spend three years restoring this car, and it was finished just in time for my 16th birthday.

It was truly a one of a kind bonding experience with my father that I will never forget. I'm truly grateful that my dad took the chance to restore a car with me. Can't believe we took the whole thing apart - no two nuts and bolts were left spared.

...still wish we knew what those two boxes of leftover parts were for...

...still don't know how to hold a light...

Here's my folks in front of their new bookcase.

Roughin' it in Peru

Once a year, my Siemens Group has a NAFTA meeting somewhere in, well, NAFTA. In 2005, Peru was chosen as the spot. I got to go on the trip and make sure the region that I support (USA) was well represented and well taken care of.

Fortunately, the colleagues in Peru took wonderful care of all of our needs and made us feel very welcome.

As with many developing countries, Peru is extremely beautiful and has both extremes of living conditions. Below is the view from my hotel window. I ran along the beach every morning.

Here's one of the parks alongside the beach near our hotel in Lima. While everything is manicured, much of the work is done with little or no machinery. The wall in the background is actually a mosaic.

We always have a 'fun' event to break up the meetings (as if going to Peru wasn't fun enough). This year, we went four wheeling in the desert. The green valley is Lima. The three rows of houses are chicken houses...which literally spotted the desert.
On the sand dunes...

The most powerful of the whole trip and the 'fun' event was getting to the sand dunes. In order to do so, we had to drive in our huge, new SUV's through many of the 'ghettos' of Peru. You never really felt in danger, but you really got a chance to take a step back and realize what you have got.

In many of the ghettos, there is no running water and power. The city trucks in fresh water to the people in these areas. I've heard and read of many places without water and power, but it never really hits home until you see it.

While most of the time was stuck in meetings and in the hotel, the parts of Peru that we did see were wonderful, and the people were lively, proud, and very friendly. I hope that I will be able to go back one day.

German Anniversary

If you've been on the blog, you know I'm trying to catch up a bit for the last few years and that I'm trying to not post stuff out of order...yes, I know...very anal.

However, today is my 3 year anniversary of me being in Germany. To celebrate, Eva and I got to go to the USA v. Ghana World Cup game in Nürnberg, just a few miles from where we live. I'll post pics when I catch up.

It has been a great and wild ride. No pictures on this post...but you can be sure that I'm smiling.

:-)

Valentines Day on Ice (Feb 2005)

For Valentine's Day, Eva gave me tickets to a hockey game - the Nürnberger Ice Tigers - very cool gift. I think I gave Eva something lame like flowers or candy. Actually, knowing my track record of giving Eva flowers, I probably gave her candy.

The game was a blast and we felt really close to the ice.

Normally folks say that the average German woman is not skinny, but also not fat. Well, the exception to the rule is at hockey games. There were a lot of horizontally challenged (read: very large) women at the game.

Dresden in February

In February 2005, we took a long weekend to historic Dresden with Tanja and Rene. While the weather was still pretty cold, we had clear skies and little wind. The hotel was nice with an amazing breakfast buffet to fill up on in the morning.
You know by now that I'm fascinated with signs. Here's an 'in your face' version for a skateshop.
The far reaches of the University of Colorado at Boulder... or just a climbing shop. Regardless, it was nice to see 'Boulder' in Dresden.
There were a few very artsy, bohemian areas of town (near this Boulder sign, actually). Above, this very complicated and ornate piping is actually the downspouts for the house.
Eva and I on the town, with one of the many Dresden bridges in the background.
The mosaic on the left is actually ceramic wall depicting the historical leaders of the city. Throughout the centuries, Dresden has been known for its fine ceramic and ceramic art. When Dresden was bombed and when the entire city was literally in flames, this wall, due to its ceramic properties, survived where literally everything else around melted.

Can you say 'concrete'?

Let's just say that the building style is a bit different in Germany compared to the US. The building materials are largely solid cinderblocks. Our walls are 12" thick, with another couple of inches of styrofoam insulation. Our floors and ceilings are 6" steel reinforced concrete with an additional couple inches of concrete poured on top to prepare the flooring.

Here you see the remains of the wiring coming from the junction box. The electricians have to chip out holes in the steel reinforced concrete ceilings to allow for the tubes for the Romex to be placed.

From the various junctions in the ceilings, the electricians split the cable and cut a channel in the walls for the outlets. When the walls are finished, they are plastered.

Let's just say that we won't be adding outlets anytime soon...

Oma's 80th Geburtstag

We travelled back to Hattingen to celebrate Eva's Grandmother's 80th birthday. The party was filled with great food, funny stories, and honorary poems. Eva's Grandmother is in the middle with Eva's Grandfather being on the far right.

The Gould's in party attire.
Eva and her mother.

Justin's Business Trip - Jan 05

Justin ended up getting asked to fly to Nürnberg for business, which allowed us to visit and play tourists together in Germany. It is always great to have our friends visit us so we can share some of the things that make Erlangen and Germany, for us, home.

Statues are fun, impersonating statues are hilarious. Here is Justin in Würzburg doing statue impersonation.
Eva and I under the protection of a cool tree in one of the gardens in Würzburg. The Würzburg castle.

Justin felt a bit guilty being on a business trip and playing tourist in Germany - especially since Stacy was home alone with Abby. Here is Justing feeling 'guilty' and 'not having fun', in case Stacy asked.
We had one night in Nürnberg, and I took this B&W of the 'Schöner Brunnen' (Beautiful Fountain), which is one of the pieces of art that makes Nürnberg unique and is the emotional centerpiece of the city for all Nürnbergers, not to mention a destination for many tour busses.

Thousand Year Linden Tree

Not too far from Erlangen, there are a number of small villages with many small old churches or small castles of the feudal lords. In one of these villages, Effeltrich, about 6 miles from Erlangen, is this very impressive linden tree.

Scientists put its age around 800 years old, but it is still called the thousand year linden. I guess when you get that old, you can round up.

As with most old lindens, the shear weight of the branches begins to tear the tree apart from the trunk, causing the destruction of many of the old trees. In this case, the residents put up support structures for the large branches to help it survive. It is a very beautiful tree in summer when it is in bloom.

Birthday Brunch

After we came back from New Year's, we celebrated Eva's birthday belatedly...Here is the Erlangen Gang at the brunch table and the birthday girl with one of her gifts - in preparation for our impending move to our new house.

Ringing in 2005 in the Bavarian Forest

We didn't exactly have plans for New Years 2004. So, after Christmas, we made a spontaneous decision to drive to the Bavarian Forest for a nice New Years in the Mountains.

Appealing in the hotel that we picked was the New Year's buffet, which was simply oppulent.


Below is one of the desert tables, fully decked out with Marzipan figures. I had about 5 marzipan shaped pigs and mushrooms. Speaking of mushrooms...someone in the kitchen had a few too many funny mushrooms to create this stuff.

At New Year's, the hotel staff came out beating cowbells and giving each person a lucky penny.
We kicked off the first day of 2005 by doing some cross country skiing. The weather was great, and the trees looked great decked out with snow. I really love the huge Bavarian pine trees, especially when they are covered with snow. They seem so peaceful, and, to me, it is very relaxing hiking or skiing near them.

To get an idea of their size, on the lower right, you can see a street sign that is about six feet tall.

Christmas 2004

Learning from the previous year, we took our car with us this year when we bought a tree. Much easier, but not as much fun, as carrying a tree for over a mile.

Our Christmas tree...version 2004.


We spent Christmas in Hattingen. Eva gave me a camping lamp for Christmas, which I'm modeling below.
Our Christmas picture at Eva's parent's house.
As mentioned in an earlier blog, Eva's grandfather was quite a hunter...here are the mounted deer in one of the sitting rooms. I especially like the light made of horns.

Luckily for me, Eva and I had already been dating for a while before I saw this room...no need to end up like the other deer...

Weekend in Stuttgart

We took a long weekend to road trip to Stuttgart with Tanja and Rene. We stayed at her parent's place. The pretzels were particularly amazing for breakfast!

While odd street signs can be humorous a times, this picture of a smokestack was one I couldn't pass by. I can't remember how or why it had these four particular letters on the smokestack - I think it was the name of the restaurant - but it comes off a bit different in English as in German.



We took a few hikes in wine country and posed with the grapes.
Tanja and Rene also posing with the grapes.
When we came back, we checked out the house. And, to our surprise, we had creme colored windows with bright white hinges (most German windows are either wooden or white...creme is not normal).

The owners practically revolted. Many thanks to Eva's parents - who listened to our many hours of complaining regarding the windows.

Post Thanksgiving in KC

After the time in Denver, we road-tripped to KC. I lived in KC for about 5 years after college, and had talked to Eva a lot about the city. So, we took the chance due to our 'relative' proximity to Denver to see the city together.

Of the many things to do and see in KC is the Plaza. The Plaza was the first shopping mall in the US and is built in a spanish style. After Thanksgiving, the city puts up lights around the Plaza - which can be very cool and romantic.
By sheer fortune, the Buffs made it to the Big XII championship game, which just happened to be in KC that year. So, we got some tix and went tailgaiting...

Here's us before kickoff.
Interestingly enough, we were chatting with this couple during the tailgate. They noticed Eva's slight accent and asked if she was German. As it turns out, the couple below was stationed in Erlangen in the 50's. It was pretty cool to chat about the landmarks of the city.

The world is very small...

But, with Jägermeister, even a small world is enjoyable.