Coming home - at least for a bit

After a bit of swapping schedules around, I'm going to go back to Austin on this Sunday (after the wedding in El Paso). I'll stay there for a couple weeks and help with this first bringup, then probably come back to Germany for another month (9/5-10/3). I know, kinda crazy... Anyway, its 10pm here and I'm still at work, so I'm getting outa here. I'm attempting to hit up the Ritter-Sport factory on my way to the airport...

Good, but SUCK...

8/18 - I'm flying to El Paso tomorrow for my buddy Victor Garibay's wedding and the plan was for me to fly back to Germany on Monday, and stay until 9/16. Well, things are moving ahead so fast here that they're ready to bring the card we're working on to Austin to attach to a real system... and this is the part that I was supposed to be ready to help with! So we're stuck between whether I've learned enough to go with this one German guy Fritz to Austin to attempt this, or if I'd be better off coming back to Germany to learn more... Argh. I guess one possibility is to just postpone my return trip to Germany for a week or so - who knows - we're waiting to talk to the Austin Program management guys to see what we want to do... more to come later...

No Show...

8/17 - Well, we got stood up by the Italian bartender :( ... or maybe it was because we showed up 15 minutes late? Who knows - maybe we'll have enough balls to go back there and ask her why she bailed on us. Anyway, after work we went to Kevin's manager's house warming party (actually not warming, more like building - they throw a party when the roof is put on the frame, or in this case, the walls installed in the gutted apartment). We took the train there, since we'd be drinking a good bit (had quite a few Erdinger Weissbier's ). We ate some schnitzel, stayed a bit too long talking and drinking, and then had to wait for the next train, which caused us to be late to meet the ladies. So we're not sure if we stood them up or they stood us up. Either way, we were a little relieved because we were exhausted. We went back to the hotel, had "Schnappi Time", then went up on the hotel's balcony and had a beer since tonight was Kevin's last night here. I added a few pics to my Germany Album here.

One other thing - I've been getting a bar of this chocolate at the little store outside the cafeteria every day after lunch. The factory is close by, so I'm taking orders - who wants what kind? :)

Long Work Day

8/16 - Long day at work today - and the work that the one German guy tried to offload to me since he was going on vacation turned out to be very important. So now, the lead guy who I came here to learn from has now been given the task, so I'll be helping do this after all... Met the guys around 9pm at the resturant Lago, in enough time to have a glass of red wine and desert. We stopped by the Italian Cafe' to have a beer (Weizen Hefeweizen) and make sure we were still on for our date at the disco tomorrow night. I ran home after lunch to finally get around to doing some laundry - the hotel washer and dryer can only be used one at a time - some weird power switch - so doing 2 loads of clothes took 7 hours! I'm thinking I'm just going to send my clothes out to be cleaned next time, even though it costs 10 times as much...

Brats, Czechs, Thai, and Italians

8/15 - Finally had me a bratwurst today for lunch - yum - and the mayonnaise with the potato wedges is starting to grow on me. Got out of work late - had a meeting with Austin guys to review some designs - learned a bit, so it was worth it. On my way back to my hotel room, I was accosted in the hallway by two drunk Czech guys who wanted me to come party and drink with them. Turns out they were from IBM too and had just arrived earlier that day. I was only able to get past them and make it to my room after taking a shot from the bottle they had of this spiced rum type alcohol and assuring them we'd party at some point. I ended up meeting up with Kevin and Yuen at a Thai restaurant for dinner - had a Hefeweizen Crystal (a clear hefeweizen - weird!) and some Thai noodles, then wandering the streets and stopping at a "Italian style" cafe'/bar for a glass of wine. We were sitting outside for a while and the cute Italian bartender came outside to bring us a free digestif shot. She didn't speak English, so with the help of one of her friends inside, she asked us to go out to a "disco" in Stuttgart with her (akin to clubbing in the US, I presume). We were exhausted, but after many hand gestures and a few drawings on her notepad, we made plans to meet up with her and some of her friends Wednesday night to go out - this should be interesting!

Switzerland and Racing

8/12 - Worked picked up today, only because one of the German guys I went to talk to decided to offload a HUGE amount of work to me because he's going on vacation next week, and its not really what I'm here to learn about - nice of him, eh? So, while I've learned alot starting on this exercise, I also realized it would take me 3 weeks to do, so I'll be unloading this soon! :) After work we (my new friends Yuen and Kevin), went to a nearby town called Tuebingen to wander around. We had a nice dinner there, then went to the local brauhaus and shared a 2 Liter pitcher of their Neckarmuller Hefeweizen.

8/13 - Kevin, Yuen, and I went to Switzerland - yeah, that's right - I hadn't been out of the country for the first 27 years of my life, now I've hit 3 European countries within 6 months! It was about a 4 hour drive to the town of Interlaken, which, ask you might guess, is between mountain lakes. The Swiss Alps were amazing and the water of the lakes were this translucent tourquise - just amazing. We had lunch at a resturant in town and I had this Swiss cheese,bacon, and potatoe skillet deal - yummy. I also bought a Swiss Army knife - I just had to. Anyway, we were planning on taking a train to the top of Jungfraujoch (one of the tallest mountains in the Alps) but it was very foggy, getting late, and would have been 120 Euro each, so we decided to take a ski lift to a lower peak. Here's my Switzerland pics and a few other pics. One is of a Mardi Gras like crowd in Zurich (some kind of festival going on) - we were planning on stopping there for dinner, but it was insanely crowded, so we just came back to Boeblingen, where I had a WurstSalad (basically a pile of sausage meat put through some kind of press with shredded cheese - man was that dense- but yummy).

8/14 - Exhilirating - one of the best experiences of my life - today, I drove the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Amazing. And this was even just driving the rental Ford Focus hatchback I have! Kevin and I took two laps each, and Yuen took one, but all three of us were in the car for each lap. I'm really at a loss for words to describe - I was giddy as ... as a... I don't know what, but damn that was an adrenaline rush. Here are a few pictures, and I have a good bit of video, if anyone wants it via email. Kevin does autocrossing on the weekend, so being a pretty good driver, he was pushing the car to its limit. And yes, Chad, I did go off the road in the same spot as the damn License test in Gran Tourismo 4 - trying to carry speed through multiple s-curves in a real Focus is a bit trickier than than on the Playstation2! :) Oh, and we basically forgot to eat we were on such a high, so on our way back, we stopped at a Burger King, then headed back - I know I know, BK when there's all kinds of schnitzel and wurst to be had, but we were HUNGRY! To end the day of high speed driving, as we got back to Boeblingen and had just gotten off the autobahn, I saw a bright flash of red light - it was the automated speeding ticket machine taking my picture! A day of going 160+kmph (100+mph, fo those who need the conversion) and I get cought going 65kmph in a 50 - GRRR! Still, awesome day!

Germany Take 2

8/11 - Another slow day at work - I'm realizing I really don't learn well by reading - its not as much of a comprehension thing as it is a short attention span and the inability to ask a document a question that I want the answer to right now. Its frustrating because the guys with the answers are right next to me, but they're very busy until next week, so I guess I'll just keep plowing through documentation and presentations until then.

I forgot to mention this about last night - we learned that its quite uncommon for a guy to buy a girl or girls some drinks from afar... One of the guys I was with tried this and there was quite a bit of confusion, some funny looks, but it did end with a very happy "Thank You" from both of them girls as they were leaving... Much funnier in person - guess ya had to be there.

Had some more Schnitzel for dinner - Cordon Bleu Schnitzel - a joining of cultures, I guess, with a glass of riesling wine. On a related note, I still can't get used to this "water with gas" - if I wanted something carbonated, I'd get a coke, people!

Swabian Life

8/8 - Well, the trip didn't start out the greatest... I left Austin at 1:30pm and arrived to Stuttgart at 9am (2am Austin time) and got little or no sleep because of this 10 year old girl behind me who kept kicking my seat every time I was about to doze off. I got so frustrated, I couldn't even come up with a polite way to ask her to stop, so out of fear of causing a scene, I just sucked it up.

8/9 - One thing I noticed as we were landing at Stuttgart - ALL of the buildings in these little German towns have red tile roofs - crazy! Anyway, I didn't end up springing for the nicer car (think BMW 3 Series), so I'll just have to see what this Ford Focus can really do - man I love driving stick shifts! I made it to the Hotel Boehler (pronounced much like Ferris's last name) without incident. Its a very cool little European style hotel in the middle of downtown Boeblingen, and they give you a shot of a schnapps of your choice when you come in after work - hmmm, isn't Goldschlager a schapps? :D So once I brought my bags up to my room and unpacked a bit, I began the adventure of finding the IBM plant. The lady at the hotel desk gave me a little map and drew the route I needed to take, but she also drew over the street names, which led to the adventure... I also learned that "bear left" in German means make a U-turn into oncoming traffic - oh God! An hour and a half later, I finally broke down and asked where I was, got my bearings, then some 30 minutes later made it to the IBM plant. Work went well, got to meet the team I'll be working with here - they all seem friendly and more importantly, all speak English well! I left work a bit late, and had to go back to the hotel to call into a meeting back in Austin, which lasted for 3 hours, which meant I was awake for about 33 hours straight, without the Vegas lights and girls to keep me going!

8/10 - The second day at work was pretty low key, though I did have a tasty Swabian (South-Western Germany) dish of lentils, pasta, and two 9" hot-dog-like sausage links for lunch, which is subsidized by IBM, so it cost $2.40 Euro! After work, I met up with a buddy (Louis) from Austin who's also here for a few days, and we went to the Schonbuch Brauhaus/Bier Garten with some new found buddies from work. Very cool place - and what makes it better - its about 2 blocks from my hotel. We sat outside for about 3 hours and then it got quite cool (mid 50's I'd guess), so we went inside for an hour or so. To attempt to keep track - I had 4 beers - a Pilsner, a Hefeweizen Dunkel, a Polar Weizen, and a Horst Hell - all quite tasty. Also had some some Wiener Schnitzel for dinner - not sure why I thought it was supposed to be sausage, but its actually breaded veal - silly American! During conversation, I found out that one of the guys, who's here from Poughkeepsie, is a car guy too, and he already went to the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife to watch some races, but he's happy to go back with me and actually try to race on the track - for 15 Euro you can race your own car! Now I really wish I had played some Gran Turisimo 4 before I left - we'll see if I kill myself - at least I'll die happy! ;)

I've already started an Imagestation Album for my Germany trip, and I'll try to keep it updated, along with my Blog, so people can follow along as I go, as opposed to my Italy Trip, where I dumped 1300+ pictures for everyone to go through at once...has anyone really made it through them all?

Life Altering?

I decided this deserved its own post, as it was the most significant thing that happened over the past few months - my Paw Paw passed away the week before the 4th of July weekend... The 3rd of July would have actually been his 83rd birthday, which was the main reason I was going back to New Orleans - to see him one last time, since his cancer had been getting worse. Instead it ended up being for his funeral. Funeral's are never fun, but are particularly hard when its someone you were close to and care about very much, so I truly thank Fritz and Chad and Mel for coming to support me - it really meant alot - and thanks to everyone for their kind words and wishes.

The funeral, and all the family and friends that gathered, really got me thinking and missing home alot more than every before. The sense of community and family was very strong - the number of people who's lives my grandparents have touched, and how close of a family we have just made me rethink priorities in life. My career is important, sure, but my family and friends are more so -that's how my grandfather lived his life, and he seemed to have a very happy and very full life.

Jumping a little bit, something that the funeral reminded and frustrated me of was my lack of religious faith. God and the Catholic faith was a huge part of my grandfather's life and he seemed to have a more peaceful and happy existence because of it. Chad even jokingly commented about my grandfather's funeral saying that he had never seen so many priests on an alter at one time. I miss the feeling of having more faith many of us had when we were younger, and I don't really know how to get it back. Just something else that's been bouncing around my head since then.

So I'm not sure where this all really leaves me - I guess just trying to live a better life and figure out what really makes me happy and what's important. But then again, isn't that what everybody strives for?

Long time, no blog

Its been almost 3 months since I posted, and quite a few things have happened... I'll go for the short list below, and will probably get some stuff out of order... or maybe not, since, as Chad likes to point out, I'm anal about which day of the week it was, and what people were wearing, and other pointless details when recounting a story.

My Sister graduated from Mount Carmel High School - oh God, I'm getting old! Congrats Donna!

Republic of Texas (ROT) Biker Rally - my first real Biker Rally - was a good time, except for the fact that my bike died the Thursday night before! The wires that go from the alternator to the battery (for charging) got disconnected when I installed my new foward foot controls(oops) - didn't find that out until a week or so later, so I was riding around on battery power. But I did get to see George Thorogood sing "Bad to the Bone". Anyway, pictures from the rally here.

So Chad has accused me of nesting! I've purchased furniture, flowers, and plants for my patio, bought a few paintings and hung them on the walls, bought a violin and hung it and my trumpets on the wall in my "music room" formerly known as the dining room, and put all my car posters up in the garage. Does that constitute nesting?

A few weekends ago, Diego and Anna came to visit the Riche's and we rented a pontoon boat and spent a few ours out on Lake Travis. We also took them to see the Bats under the Congress Ave. Bridge - good times had by all.

And of course, no blog post is complete without mention of cars somehow. A few weekends ago I went to two car shows - the Corvette Summer Celebration and the Texas Heatwave, which, incidentally, I realized I've gone to for the past 4 years and have never had the same person come to the show with me... was it something I said, or just the rediculous amount of scorching heat? And on the opposite end of things, here are some pics from the Car Museum at the Imperial Palace Casino in Vegas - most of these cars with in the $150k-$1m range - crazy.

So Vegas... This was my second trip there, and a bit of a different experience than the first 10 hours of craziness Chad and I spent there 5 years ago (think 7pm-5am). A group of 13 of us went to Vegas for Victor Garibay's bachelor party - it was actually much tamer than I was expecting, but we still had a good time and got in the necessary debauchery. Also learned how to play craps and won $200, and came out +$100 as far as gambling (would have been more if we hadn't stayed up till 11:30am the last night teaching these three sisters how to play blackjack!), so overall good trip!

I was going to write about another major event in my life, but decided it really deserved its own post, so expect that soon... Along with updates from me in Germany - I'm going to try Taylor and Chad's suggestion and try to blog as I go...