Monday, March 24, 2008

The Long Awaited Germania Trip

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Germany for work for a week, and took an extra day or two to check out what I’d been missing by not living there.

Here's a list of my observations: Lets do it by the numbers this time:

18 - Times I joked about US currency being worthless (1.5 dollars – 1 euro)

18 - Times that german people laughed at that joke.

1 –Total number of times people from the US laughed at said joke.

5 - Germans who yelled at me for some reason or another - usually for making them late for something. They seem obsessed with being on time!

13 – Germans who seemed suspicious when I told them I didn’t speak German


2.5 – Number of kilometers walked while dragging my suitcase around Garmisch looking for my hotel
1 – number of giant lego men I found to hold hands with while searching for my hotel


92 – number of minutes spent looking at the mountains from the patio of my hotel room. I really miss the mountains.


800 - average millisecond delay between housekeeping knocking on the door and housekeeping kicking the door in

2 - number of times this happened while I was in a towel

23 – Number of trains ridden

5 - Kick-butt EuroMullets(tm) spotted on the train

64 - Minutes I slept in incredibly awkward positions on said trains

200 – Number of wrinkles in my dress shirt for sales visits – No irons in German hotels ☹.

3 – Number of castles visited


27 - Number of David Hasselhoff jokes made by me and B-Mac - for some reason Germans actually like his music!

22 - Meals consumed that centered on the theme of "Pork, Dumpling and Gravy"


1 – Number of times I had pork chops garnished with bacon slices

0 – Number of times I regretted eating bacon covered pork chops

11 – Hours spent watching co-workers
consume large amounts of German beer in bier gartens


6 – Average number of coworkers per day I mocked for having a “tough time” after said hours

5 – The cost in dollars for .2 liters of "Coke Lite" (that's 6.7 fluid ounces for you US types).

6 – Average number of coworkers per day that mocked me for paying 10x more for Coke than they paid for beer

2000 – Number of square miles of fields that would be perfect for playing croquet or frizbee


1 – Days spent skiing on the Austrian/German border

8 - Number of "Schlepp Lifts" (Translated "Hauling Lifts") at the Zugspitz Ski resort, which operated by slipping behind one's butt and schlepping you up the hill.

2 - Number of times I failed epically at the Schlep lift by falling off

300 – Average number of feet I was dragged up the mountain on my stomach after falling from the lift - I refused to let go!


0 – Number of trees at the ski resort


9 - Seconds that I rode on a pig statue for a picture before being asked by a stranger "Are you from Texas?" and begrudgingly admitting "yes". I think it was the triumphant "yee-haw" that gave me away!

80 – Percentage of buildings in Munich that were destroyed in the war

1 – Rebuilt and most amazing town hall – complete with clock and glockenspiel


11 –
My shoe size

11 – Apparent size of the “devil’s foot print” in the Munich Frauenkirche– draw your own conclusions

9 - Times a member of our party was clipped, hit, or yelled at by a bicyclist. It’s tough when you are only used to dodging cars to avoid trains and bicycles – it’s like frogger on steroids.

6 - Average number of TV channels that turn into porn channels after midnight.

9 - Number of movies I watched o
n my laptop between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM

19% - Sales Tax rate in Germany. No lie.

18 - Number of billboards spotted that wouldn't go over well in the US. Yes, that's a blue condom on a lemon.

38 - Hours spent traveling home from Munich. Thank you, Delta, for losing our pilots.

8 – Krystals (bite sized burgers) consumed in the Atlanta airport while waiting for pilots.

1 - bird hit by our airplane on the approach into Austin



9.5 -
On a scale of 1 to Awesome, the rating of my trip in its entirety – Thanks Germany!


Friday, February 29, 2008

Marathon-athon


What started as a fun summer project in 2004 with a book called "The non-runners marathon trainer" has now become part of my life and every year when it gets close to marathon time I feel like I have to train for it!

This February I finished my 3rd marathon! I looove running. This year though I felt like something was missing; I blame it on the fact that Arves was in Germany and I couldn't share it with him. The race was still very fun with a temperature to dream for throughout the whole thing.
Even though Arves has been "retired" from running after our first marathon together (Top of Utah 04) I've managed to convince him that running is good and we're now working for a 1/2 marathon this summer with a 7.5 mph goal. Stay tuned for more details once it gets closer.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

To Sosua and Beyond . . .

We arrived in the DR in good time and as usual Mechi had a nice meal prepared for us on the patio when we arrived. I think that's the think I like the most about coming here - the food that is 1. made for me 2. delicious and 3. healthy. Here's Tica and Mechi on the patio with lunch.




These past few days I've been in Sosua - a city with beautiful beaches and a little less than appealing ambiance otherwise.  Let's just say that it's a little less than clean, and has "special" women for male tourists everywhere.  

Anyway,  we stayed at an apartment of a friend that was great except for the lack of running water - seems we have a lot of bad luck with the water in borrowed houses. But it was within walking distance from the beach, and as I'm fond of saying, "Free is always in the budget." We walked along a few beaches, but after some investigation we ended up at my favorite (and Rafelo's favorite to boot) beach and spent the day in complete tranquility. This image I like to call Happy Feet - because they and I spent many a fond hour there and were oh so happy in the sand.

Here's Tica and Rafelo at the "home base." Note the perfect amount of shade provided by the fig tree as well as the ubiquitous sponsorship of Brugal.
For lunch we had some fresh fish which they brought to us (once it was cooked of course)
with fried plantains and ice cold soda. Yes, Rafelo loved the fish too.
We only spent one day at Sosua; one perfect day. On the way home we passed by La Laguna Gri Gri, which provided me with my first mangrove experience. Very cool trees, and check out my dream house which we boated past . . .
The plan is to spend the next day or so in La Vega at Tica's parents' house (I'm hoping we'll take the motorcycles up to the mountain), then we're off to Tia Fanti's house for Christmas dinner and to visit my cute little niece who can scream like no child I have ever heard - it's really amazing.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Guess That Makes Me an "Expert"

One of my articles was recently chosen to be the featured piece in an embedded design publication and is available for the world to either enjoy, or fall asleep to. It's pretty cool to see something you wrote on-line and it was kind-of weird to read through it again.

I once had a professor who told me that getting published on a topic makes you an expert - because now you're quotable. Not sure if I agree with the whole expert thing as I think that will take a life time, but if anybody wants to quote me . . . feel free ;)

You can find my article here if you're interested.