Our Move to Germany

I decided to post some pictures taken with our new 500mm lens, but noticed a couple of issue with the gallery. So I logged in and as I was going through the gallery trying to determine why some photo’s were showing and others weren’t, I noticed tons and tons of spam comments. What really annoyed me is the ones in Cyrillic, seriously? Can they not see the site is written in English? Maybe I need to invent an interpretive spammer…….

We discussed what we wanted to do and decided on the captcha instead of completely removing comments. I hope you can see the letters to type, I know it can be a challenge to decipher the letters. If you have problems, please send us an email, we do want to hear from you.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Let the season begin! So far, I’ve managed to get most of my shopping done. What did people do before the internet? We got all the stuff out of storage last night and some of it is out, but today I’ll being setting up the tree. This of course will be after we go to the Esslingen Christmas Market. The city itself dates back to 777 (Medieval times) and is quite impressive. Esslingen is actually quite close to Stuttgart which makes it really convenient for us. All we have to do is jump on the local train and off we go.

I will update this post either later today or tomorrow with the pictures we take. In the meantime, if your curious just google “Esslingen Christmas Market” and check out the photo’s! I think this is one of the times where a picture is worth a thousand words.

We have a new addition to the family, Wyatt James, it’s been a long time coming……but we’re glad he’s here.

Most of you know that we went to Sweden to pick up our new toy……a Volvo C70. What is a C70 you ask? Why, it’s a convertible!

The trip was incredible, we flew from Stuttgart Germany to Gothenburg Sweden and arrived in the late afternoon early evening. We were met by Volvo staff, unfortunately, they were meant for other people picking up their vehicles. They immediately rectified the problem and soon we were on our way to the hotel. Our hotel was pretty nice and located in the downtown area. We dropped our minimal bags and went looking for dinner. There were lots of restaurants but was eventually lured us was the Hard Rock Cafe……yes, I know, why would we eat there when we had our choice of Swedish cuisine? Well, mostly just to say we ate at a Hard Rock in Sweden. Of course, we left with a T-shirt, two shot glasses, and a laniard.

The next morning, we once again waited on the Volvo staff, we aren’t sure whether our sales rep is dyslexic or the Volvo scheduling staff is dyslexic, but we managed to get picked up off we went to the factory. Before I get into the factory experience, let me tell you about the breakfast at the hotel! OMG! It was amazing and one of the times I wish my sister had been with me. Most of the meat, cereals, fruits, eggs, etc were either organic or free range. There was tons of food and it was great.

When we arrived at the factory, we wandered around until it was our turn to receive our car. Let me tell you, when they drove it out, the top was down and it looked INCREDIBLE! I wasn’t sure about the color when we ordered it but now I’m glad we chose it. It’s unique and stands out as most people have either silver, black, or blue cars.

We drove back the entire way stopping periodically for breaks to eat and stopped overnight in Oeversee Germany. It was a quaint hotel with an amazing restaurant. They also had a spa but we didn’t take advantage of it…..this time. We want to go back to that area, it is quite beautiful.

We were hoping to stop and get lots of pictures of Sweden but there wasn’t much to shoot. it’s pretty much farm land with LARGE Red Barns dotted here and there. Even Denmark was similar in geography. We wanted to stop in Denmark but were concerned about parking the new car. It’s fairly good size and we weren’t sure we would get find a place to put it. We’ve decided we’ll fly back to Copenhagen and spend some time there.

We got home Saturday around 6:00 pm. It took us a total of about 13 hours with all the stops we made because we weren’t in a hurry. Bottom line, if you buy a Volvo, pick it up from the factory. It’s well worth the experience.

When I want to relax I do family research in the hopes of finding my distant Irish cousins. Sometimes, luck is with me and I’ll find a nugget of info that opens a door to an entire chest of family data.
What is really great is when I see a “message” in my ancestry account from a fellow member. You never know what it is they have or are going to ask. Usually, it’s questions about Jim’s family line but this time it was a question about my maternal line and was I excited! Imagine my excitement as I have been trying to piece together information on my maternal line for awhile and keep hitting dead ends, mostly because they couldn’t make up their mind on how to spell their surname.
My great-great grandfather had a brother (information I recently found during my research trip to NH), and his brother had several children, who in turn had children. It was one of these descendants that contacted me. They still live in the area and I can’t wait to meet them to talk about their lives and their family members.
I am not a patient person but in this case persistence has paid off. I am getting closer to those Irish cousins, I wonder if they are ready for me to find them……

As most of you know, I do a tremendous amount of traveling with my work and that has helped build up my miles with Delta and other Skyteam members.

So my recent trip to Djibouti got me access to the lounge where I had free internet, food, and a relaxing environment. My colleague who does not have a membership in any of the airline miles program was completely impressed and wants to keep traveling with me.

It got me an automatic upgrade from Stuttgart to Paris on the way to Djibouti but due to the last minute reservation they did not have room for me in business from Paris to Djibouti. My return was completely upgraded all the way without me even asking and that was awesome.

So the upside of going to Djibouti is I am now within 6000 miles of Platinum status, which I’ll attain on my way to San Antonio with the love of my life. That means we should have a nice return home, but meanwhile, we still have the advantage of hanging out in the lounge enjoying free internet, food, and “no screaming children”…..
See you in a Skyteam lounge!

I haven’t posted in quite some time. Mostly it’s because I’ve been really busy with work and travel. For me its mildly frustrating as I’ll be somewhere and think of a really great post but not have the ability to make an entry, and then by the time I am in front of my computer whatever I had in my head is long gone.

So when I returned from a trip to Naples Italy I decided when I got home I would focus on making an entry. I was only there for about a day and a half but it was sufficient for me to see that Naples could be an amazing city if it wasn’t for the corruption of the mafia. The city was very dirty and it surprised me as I had just been in Djibouti where it’s hot, dry, and dusty but not nearly as filthy with garbage as Naples.

When I compare the Naples of Italy to the Naples of the U.S., they are worlds apart. Our Naples doesn’t have the centuries old buildings, our Naples isn’t in the country where the Renaissance was born, and our Naples doesn’t have the history that can be found in the Naples of Italy. So I have to wonder how they could degrade to such a filthy city where courtesy and respect for your fellow man has long since ceased to be a part of their daily life.

When you think that they are overlooked by Mount Vesuvius, reflection on what happened to the inhabitants of Pompeii would have an affect on their outlook on life. How it can be gone in a moments time by the anger of mother nature. Yet they go about their day shouting, honking, and generally being obnoxious because you are impeding their progress.

If you are lucky enough to find those quiet secluded spots they are worth enjoying. My hotel was one of them. It was an old residence of some wealthy Italian and it was beautiful. It had an inner court yard that was really peaceful and you didn’t get any of the city noise. They had a shuttle that took you to one of the old parts of town (I actually find that funny….) but there is a castle you can wander through. I have pictures I took with my iPhone because I’m a dummy and didn’t bring my 35mm digital.

As trips go it really wasn’t too bad. I was there for work and my meetings went really well. If I go back, I know where I’m staying, and I hope to get the chance to take the tour to Vesuvius…..

I took a small vacation this past week (actually, it was in June, I am just now getting around to posting this) and went to New Hampshire. If you haven’t been there I recommend it, the weather is great, the scenery is great, and visiting family is at the top of the list. My main reason for going was to get some down time from work but to also look for clues on my family. I’ve been researching family for several years and kept hitting a dead end with my great grandmothers parents. Most of the info I needed required physically being in Manchester as the info is not online.

I was moderately successful, what I found out is my family couldn’t seem to decide what their surname was and this makes for interesting research. I didn’t find everything, but I got some good leads I hope will open some new doors.

I am planning another trip in the spring, I want to be in Manchester when my great uncle celebrates his 91st birthday. Long live the Irish!

The job title of Father is not one I have worn often. Those who know me well know that my son and I have a ‘long distance’ relationship and it has been a part time job at best. So, as I sit here on this Father’s Day I find myself thinking about some of the people I know who wear the title well and serve as role models for the job.

In first place, there is Beto. I look at his son and daughter and I am constantly amazed at what a wonderful job he and his wife have done. You have only to click on the BetoLab link to the right and look back at some of the stories he has related about them to see that they are growing up to be good solid adults with good heads on their shoulders.

Having seen him interact with the kids in person I can tell you that he works as hard at being a good father as anyone I have known. Where he finds the energy is beyond me. He has instilled a sense of wonder, honesty and curiosity in them which will server them well in life.

My hope is that I can do just a little of the same for my grandchildren, you see, grandfather is a title I think I am wearing pretty well.

To every father out there…have a great day!

We made a day trip to Ramstein yesterday and while we were driving back I was looking at the rolling hills and the fields of vines that make up the German wine region.

That was when it hit me. The view wasn’t as impressive as it was the first time I saw it. It also occurred to me that driving along at 80+ miles per hour on German Autobahns is getting to be normal after two plus years. This concept began to sink in on our trip to Colorado last month. Driving on U.S. highways at 80 felt really awkward. Of course it could be the rather tired rental van we were driving that made the high speed feel off.

I never thought that the sights around Germany would ever become ‘normal’ but they have. And those of you who know my other half know what that means…

Time to move.