A typical night at Christophers!!
Check out the pictures - I am too drunk to say anything more :-)
---- (update) ----
Well - of course I'vent been too drunk to write - but I was too tired and working on a glass of bourbon. Just a sumary of yesterdays activities:
First of all - I checked out the gym in our office building. Really nice - two treadmills, 3 spin bikes, 2 normal bikes, weights, banks, ... As I gained too much weight since I moved here I finally decided to check out the gym every day to at least run for half an hour.
Well - back to the evening. I got home and Sharon (a friend of stephan) joined us in Schnapstasting. After that Stephan and I went down to Christophers where we had our discussion about guns - as you can see from the picture below - stephan had some real good arguments - no - just kidding. Firearms in the united states - especially in some parts of the country - are a real problem and stephan gave me more insight on that - thanks!
Well - after christophers we made our way down to the "West Side Lounge" where Rob is bartending. He made us some nice caipirinhas and I've been explained what the difference between Martini, Dry Martini, Wet Martini and Dirty Martini is.
Getting home around 9:30 PM we started on a glass of bourbon. thats the story. cheers

The private cup of Ben (the waiter in christophers) - check it out	Stephan explaining Gun Control!!

Corrections to the last entry!!
Seems I made a huge mistake in my last diary entry. It seems I got the story about the guns totally wrong - to be in stephans words: Its all bullshit what andi wrote!! Here is his guestbook entry with corrections to my story. Also - we will have a discussion tomorrow night!
Stephans Entry:
-----
Hi All, Stephan here, Andis roommate in Cambridge. I have just read the most resent entry on Andis web site 29-Jan-06. I feel I have to say something about guns and Americans. I will try to keep this short and without profanity, until I speak with Andreas in person. One of the most misunderstood parts of the US Bill of Rights is the second Amendment. Many Americans know it as “The right to bear arms” ,or we can own a gun, law to protect your self. What the Amendment says is that a civilian may keep a gun so that, in an emergency, that person may supplement (join) the regular military/army in the event they are called to do so. Now days this is covered by our "on-call" military, the National Guard and Reserves. The information Andi was given and passed along on his web site is nothing more than Bullshit, or maybe in this case Buffalo shit. We will never get guns away from the "bad guys" unless we stop having such a casual attitude towards firearms. Thanks Stephan
-----
So - I admit that I had a totally wrong perception about this topic when I discussed it down in Phoenix. Either is has been told wrong or I just got it wrong - stephan might find out as he will be down in Phoenix over the weekend and may meet Mark. Thats it for today - cheers
---- (update) ----
Tonight I finally managed to do some salsa - it was a quite but nice event. Here are some pics.

Dancing Couple numero uno	Jeff (he organizes all those salsa nights) with however her name is
Willy (you cannot see him right here) - he is an amazing dancer	There he is - also dont know her name

Weekend Resumee
Hi. The weekend is nearly over. Just got up - sunday morning - waiting for Mark and his girlfriend to get up as well - but I guess they will sleep a bit longer. They went out to Rosies again where I had to stay home because I was just too tired. We checked out the pool and hot tub again at night - till about 10 PM. Then got dressed and went to a mexican restaurant - a "real" mexican restaurant. That means no burritos, tacos, nachos, ... - as these are all american inventions. So - I had the hottest chilli that I have ever had in my whole life. Mark tried to warn me when I was thinking about ordering it - but I didnt get the hint. But it was good!!!!!
Some more words on yesterdays afternoon activity. As I got a guestbook entry about the shooting event I thought I should shed some more light on this. Its not that I glorify shooting - not at all. Nor do the people that I went with yesterday. They go out there about 3 or 4 times a year - basically when mark brings some friends. We talked a bit about private guns and why they have it. The deal is that those guns are in family possession for a long long time. Nearly every household seems to have one - and it was necessary in order to protect each other in times that have been rougher than the current times. The problem now is that those guns are still out there although no longer needed. But nobody wants to hand them in unless all guns are collected - as it would mean that some "bad" people would have an easy time to comit crimes and the "good" ones would not be able to protect themselves.
But I also think that not everybody here thinks the same way. I've been told that there are lots of "Cowboys", "RedNecks", ... out there who still think that the old times are not over yet.

Well - I hope I could shed some light on that story. Now - its about 9 AM - my flight back to boston (via chicacgo) departs at noon-time. No more pictures for today. Cheers
---- (update) ----
Back in Bean-Town. Got back after two troublefree flights - even on-time!!! The weather here is a bit different to Phoenix. Rain and rather cold - but not really cold. We have about 3 or 4 degrees - so nothing like at home in austria - but at least it feels a bit like winter. Thats it - I will enjoy my Julius Echter and then head to bed. greetings!

Greetings from the pool and hot tub
Just got out of the hot tub. its an amazing building complex where mark lives right now.
---- update -----
Wow - that was some new experience. we went out to the dessert. not like the sahara desert - although that was what i have expected. it was different. no sand - but rocks - hills - cactuse - ...
So - we went out of phoenix - about 30 miles north - found a place where we could place our empty beer cans and we tried to shoot them with a pistol, shot gun and a rifle. It was a cool experience - and a loud one as well!!
Right now we are sitting in Marks appartment - in about an hour or so we will be back at Rosie's where we've been just right now before we came back. cheers

Me in the hot tub and the rest of the pool area in the background	Mark watching the FA Cup on his amazing home entertainment system
Arizona Breakfast: Steak with Eggs - very delicious!!	Out in the arizona dessert.
Me on top of Marks truck with the pistol and a beer in my hand - nearly like a cowboy	Keith - he showed us the place and brought the guns

Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona
Hi there!! I cant say that too loud as my head still feels the 2 beers from yesterday :-). Its been a fun night - but I already knew that before it even started. Its always a fun night when I go out with Mark. We started at his place in Phoenix - on the balcony - belief it or not - its warm enough here to sit outside at night!! Then we went to Rosies - its a very nice neighborhood bar - irish!! Around midnight we changed to a club - going back to rosies shortly before 2 AM to get the last drink before they closed. On our way home we stopped at a burrito place - yummie - I can still taste it as I forgot to brush my teeth before going to bed - not so yummie!!
So - Mark and his girlfiend are still asleep - not sure when they are getting up. But - we have a cool program today - we go out to the desert - doing some kind of shooting - new experience for me - a bit redneck maybe - or cowboyish - but should be fun. cheers

A band playing at rosies!!	Mark and his girlfriend
Mark and me	Unfortunatelly - those two girls are not into men!
Unfortunatelly - those two girls are into men! :-)	Getting our good night burritos

Greetings from San Francisco Airport!!
Sitting here - waiting for my flight to phoenix. WLAN on the airport is just great. Updating my website and talking with Juergen on skype. In the morning we checked out San Francisco. We made a very quick sightseeing tour - guided by chris thompson. Here are some pictures.

Going up to Twin Peaks	From Twin Peaks down to Downtown SanFran
Golden Gate	And from the other side
Isnt that cool - thats one of the bars in town	Same bar :-)
The company of Francis Ford Coppola	More cool stuff!!

Just a short update before we head out to San Francisco for a nice dinner. We had a good day at work - some very productive meetings and presentations. Now we are getting ready to drive into San Francisco. I hope to take some pics and upload them later.

The good morning sun into our office	The american way of waste management!!

Welcome to California!!
After getting up at 5 AM - going to the airport - being afraid of having a long delay because of snow showers in boston - we arrived safely and on-time in San Francicso - around noon time (local time). We went out for lunch and later on for dinner where the whole west, asia and pacific group of segue came together. The sad thing about yesterday was that my laptop is making troubles. Bluescreen as soon as i activate wireless lan - but - there is a workaround that i figured out after 2 hours of pain - disabling all WLAN related services - starting up - deinstalling the drivers - reinstalling them - and then you can work till the next reboot :-)
Today should be a fine day. I have my training in the morning. AT night we are going to check out San Francisco - yeah!! Here are some pictures of yesterday

Claire and Paul	Trophies for our best sales guys - some kind of "selbstbeweihraeucherung"
Our big sales boss John S.	Kieran and Min
Jeff and Paul	Becoming friends with our sales force (thats always good so that they dont give you a hard time)

Sales Kick Off!!
Its been the first day of our Sales KickOff sessions. The past two day it was on the east coast - tomorrow we are moving to the west coast - yeah - california - I am coming!!
Its been a good session today - tried to teach my collegues about how good our products are!! In the evening - some of us went to a nice italian restaurant. Now I am just updating the website - packing for tomorrow - and then going to bed - I have an early flight to catch. bye bye

A group of Segue employees at the italian restaurant

The snow is back in boston!
Seems that snow is finally back in boston. It started snowing somewhen early in the morning - not really much so far - but the first alerts have been given out on the news channels. Some schoools have also already been closed. Its funny to watch the news now - everything is about the snow - similar to what they did when the first real snow came in in december. Its funny because actually its not even 5cm of snow so fare - but it seems to become the story of the day :-)
Anyway - salsa yesterday was nice - live music at Johnny D's. Thanks to emily who had to deal with my extensive sweating yesterday :-)
Today we start a series of sales kick off meetings in the company. Starting here in Boston - then on the west coast and finishing in Hamburg, Germany. I wont be at the one in germany but I am looking forward to the one on the west coast. Thats the update so far. cheers
----- (update) -----
Monday night - tired - not interested of going out tonight because of the fact that I am tired and because of the weather. It snowed half of the day - very wet and heavy snow. I guess I just do some prep work for tomorrow and then I will focus again on my current Patricia Cornwell novel.
but there is also something cool to report. Stephan and I are discussing a weekend trip to florida - somewhen in february - maybe disneyland - we will say high to mickey, donald and the rest of the family :-)

Sunday - Sunny Sunday!!
Oh what a sunny day. Freeking cold (at least compared to the last days) - but blue sky and sunshine. Just came back from a very nice visit to the local book stores coffee shop. The offer very good fair trade coffee. And - you can sit at the window - reading books. So thats what I did - took my book and ordered a SUMO (that means large :-)) caffee latte.
Just some words to yesterday. Seems I finally managed my jetlag. I managed to stay up till 1:30 AM. Took the last subway home (which took forever as they waited several minutes in every station to wait for the last passengers). And today - I slept till 9 o'clock - ole ole!!
Movie Tip: If you have the chance - check out Fun with Dick and Jane. I loved it!!
As for the remaining day I hope I realize my plan to out for a run. Maybe I need to buy some running pants first as I am not sure if running with shorts with a temperature below 0 is fun. Stephan is coming back from the Cape tonight - we already have dinner plans at Christophers. And tonight I will hopefully be motivated for some salsa at Johnny D's where they have a live salsa band every sunday.
Cheers!

Porter Square shopping center with the bookstore left to the TAG hardware store	My current book and the SUMO coffee

What a beautiful day!!
Its saturday - early in the morning - and its soo warm outside - like in spring. Well - after falling asleep at around 8PM yesterday - and waking up again at 9PM - I decided to not go salsa dancing but stay at home and stay in bed. I woke up at 2AM (damn jetlag) - stayin in bed till 5AM - then deciding to read - till 7AM. After a quick shower I went to Bruggers for a nice breakfast - stayin there for 1.5 hours finishing my current book: "Blow Fly" from Patricia Cornwell. Its amazing - the 5 weeks I've been home I only made it through about 20 pages - in the past two days I read about 400 pages. Seems I have lots of free time when I am here :-)
The plan for today is:
* going into town
* maybe go up to the observation platform on the prudential center
* maybe check the movie "fun with dick and jane"
* probably going out tonight
Thats it. Cheers
--------- (update) --------- So - the day has been great - did nearly everything that i mentioned above. just exchanged the aquarium with the museum of fine arts and i have been invited for dinner tonight. Its a bit late already - therefore I just add the pictures without a glooming story.

View from Prodential Center towards Boston Financial District and towards Hancock tower	Charles River and the Longfellow Bridge
Typical houses in the Back Bay of Boston	The Prodential Tower - I've been up at the 50th floor
Steve preparing a great meal	A shot of the bar where we went afterwards

Good Morning America!!
Its something like 5 in the morning - special thanks to my jetlag - it allows me to get up that early :-)
Well - yesterday when updating my website I promised Stephan to not put the picture of the nachos on the site. He said: "come on - you already posted them a couple of times". But now he is asleep and here we are - the best nachos in the world (at least the part of the world that I know).
Looks like it will be an eventfull day in the office - lots of meetings - lots of greetings - lots of stuff to do. The cool think is - its friday - friday means weekend - and it means that there is salsa in the havanna club - yeah - 300 salseros dancing till 2 AM.
There are only 2 negative things so far:
a) I forgot my long sleeve running outfit - but - as it is pretty warm here - i might not need long sleeve
b) Cingular locked my cell phone and the first attempts to reactivate it failed
Thats it - I guess I will make an earlier start today - getting a good coffee from Bruggers - then heading to Alewife (Subwaystation) where I will take the 7 AM bus to the office. cheers

Looks disgusting - tastes greate!!

Greetings from Frankfurt Airport!!
As always when I am on transit - I stopped in the Business Lounge on the Frankfurt Airport. Its nice here - free drinks and coffee and some snacks. The flight from Linz to Frankfurt was pretty good - I think I slept most of the journey. Now I have a 2 hours waiting period till I have to board at 9:30 AM. Stephan is going to pick me up on the airport - thanks for that!!!!
I guess I will update this page again with some "arrival" pictures. Cheers
----- (update) -----
I arrived safely at Logan Aiport. About 30 minutes later than expected due to bad weather conditions on Frankfurt. I got a bit sweatty when it was my turn to go through customs. I had lots of Schnaps, Cheese and other stuff with me - but nobody checked it!!
Before going home to the appartment we checked out the new place of Stephan at Chandler Street in South Boston. Then we went home - exchanged some presents - tried to reactivate my cell phome (it has been disabled because my bills have not been payed automatically - but we had no luck so far). Then we went to Christophers and now we are back. Here are some pictures.

Second floor of Stephans appartment - before redoing it	The view from the same room out to Boston - looking at the Hancock Tower
The upper floor needs lots of redoing - it will become the kitchen	What an amazing view from the roof deck!!
Stephan got excited when he cut the cheese that I brought from Vorarlberg	Stephan and all the presents that I brought!!
The boys at Christophers - of course with nachos	Ben(jamin) was our host tonight

Last day in Austria before going back to Boston!!
Its been a nice last day in the office. A final beer in the evening to say farewell. Now I sit at home - packing. The open points for tonight: finish packing and maybe salsa in the beluga. Tomorrow - getting up at 4 AM - driving to the airport - taking the flight at 6 AM to Boston. The next entry will be from my second home - cheers!

Did some Schnapstasting with clemens	Winterview from our office

Last salsa in the remembar before flying back to Boston. Its been nice and sweaty again :-). Only 2 days to go - then I will be back in the states. The program for the first week will be pretty intense. Arriving on thursday - hopefully getting some nachos at christophers. Friday will be the first day in the office - friday night - salsa again - it will be a special birthday party for Ivan - one of the instructors. Next week - 2 days Sales Training in Boston - then flying to California to our office in San Mateo where we have another sales training on wednesday and thursday. On Friday I will go on to Phoenix, Arizone - visiting Mark Hughes over the weekend - and finally flying back to Boston on the following sunday.
Tonight I am invited by clemens (well, I've invited myself) - I guess we will have some nice wheat beers :-)
Cheers

Ballroom Season!!!
Oh what a weekend! Friday late afternoon - 2 hours of soccer. Didnt play well - but sweated like hell :-) Seems I lost some of my soccer skills in the past months as I havent played much in the states.
After soccer we drove to Gallneukirchen where we first met Doris, Robert and Klaus for a nice dinner at the new Marktstube - then we went on to the "must go event of the year" - the Gallneukirchner Jugendball. The ball is organized from the local catholic youth club and takes place in the pfarrheim. It was cool - the average age was around 16!!! - But - as every year - the "Veterans" of the youth club go there as well. Its actually a nice event to meet old friends that you only see once a year - at this special event.
So - first we were at the Ball - then - around 1 AM we decided to check out the new Cocktail bar in Gallneukirchen - after that - back to the Ball - till 3:30 AM. On our way home - Alex and I checked out my favorite pub in Gallneukirchen - the Hoppala - for 6 rounds of darts (the final score was 4:2 for me - yeah!!).
Saturday - hard day again - after finally getting to bed at 6AM and about 5 hours of sleep we had the next event coming up - the Prom of Alex little sister in Freistadt. Before that we made a short visit at Didis place - getting a beer and saying farewell (as I leave to the states again on thursday).
The evening event was pretty cool - very nice location in the "Salzstadt" in "Downtown Freistadt". After hours of dancing, cocktails and wines we finally got home around 5AM - so - two heavy nights in a row without much sleep.
Here are some pictures from the weekend - cheers

Robert and myself - "singing" our inofficial national anthem: I am from Austria!	Alex surrounded by Robert and Klaus - (I am not the only one who sweats easily - as we can see from Roberts shirt!)
3 AM in the morning - yummie - beer and a sandwich	Waltraud in Pub Hoppala
The two Dumhart sisters - celebrating at claudias prom	Claudia and her two schoolmates
Midnight special event with a salsa show	Hmmm - somebody was not really leading correctly

As you can see on my initial web site, I finally got my schedule for the next visit to the USA. I will be leaving Linz on the 19th and I will be back in Austria on March 1st.
The weekend is finally here and it will be the first time checking out the ballroom season. On friday night we will be at the Jugendball in Gallneukirchen - on saturday we check out the Schwesternball in Freistadt. And right now - friday afternoon - I am looking forward for 2 hours of soccer in the Koernerschule. Cheers

Tonight I went out with Udo and Stefan. We started in the Kasperkeller for some real good austrian meal as well as some good beer. After that we moved to Los Cabaleiros - I heard that they have Nachos - so I convinced the boys to check out the place as I was really looking for some nachos. We actually got them but not as good at Christophers. After that we went on to Joe's Bar finishing in the Remembar. Good night

Nachos in the mexican restaurant	Stefan, Udo and myself - on our tour through the pubs/restaurants in linz

Just a short entry before I head out for Salsa in the remembar.
Yesterday I got a nice visit - Kerstin and her friend from Korea - we showed him what real austrian jause and good beer is all about. Today in the office we had "Cheese-Bizz" day. Stefan (aka Xi) brought some delicious (but smelling) cheese from his home town. And to celebrate this we had some beers. Prost!

Kerstin and her friend	Cheese Bizz - A Fridge full of cheese from Vorarlberg
My office	And some collegues

What a beautiful day it is! Its cold - snow is everywhere - and the sun is shining - what else do we want?
Yesterday - after getting home somewhen in the afternoon (the birthday party took quite some time) we checked out the Lustig Essen Restaurant. It seems that they close their doors in the next weeks. As it is an amazing restaurant and as sandro wanted to get rid of his gift certificates we dined there. Its been the first time I had kangaroo - it was delicous!! I know that they are nice animals - and some of you might think that they should not be servered for dinner - but again - it was delicious!!!!!!!
What else is going on? Well - I am still waiting for my departure date back to Boston. I hope that there will be a decision this week - but it seems anyway that I will take off around the 20th as I have to be in Boston on 23rd 8AM. Right now I am really looking forward to going back there - I miss nachos at christophers and of course the good julius echter beer.
thats it for today - tomorrow will be salsa in remembar again - yahooo!! Cheers!!

Martins (aka Resl) Birthdayparty
We had a cool birthdayparty in neuhofen an der krems. Martin (aka Resl) turned 28!! We started with some sparkling wine - beer - then some "Feuerzangenbowle" - then some cocktails and so on - ....
Check out the pictures

Birgit with a gigantic pack of pop corn	Outside at the SnowBar
Our very creative gift certificate for Martin	Hi Girls
The Feurzangenbowle. The burning rum soaked sugar cane	Sandro and Claudia
Alois and me	From the rafting camp (sorry - forgot the names)
Yeah yeah - sit down when you pee!!	We changed parts of the living room to a dance floor
Sandro and me	Birgit and Martin
Alex and ? (sorry - still dont remember her name)	The good morning session

January Ralley in Freistadt
As every year - the Ralley in Freistadt takes place in early January. We drove up to Freistadt at night to watch the first part of it. My skills in taking picutres at night are not too good - therfore the pictures are not the best.

Helene and her two boys :-)	Car 1
Car 2	A car at the start
Our whole group that went out to Freistadt to watch the spectacle	Herby was also part of the race :-)

The new year is here!!
Hope that all of you had a good start in 2006. Mine was perfect!!!
Well - 1st of January - nice evening with Alex after a long long sylvester night. Yesterday - Salsa in Remembar - lots of sweating!!! Today - round table meeting in Gallneukirchen with my friends from the JVP. We planned the upcomming cocktail bar at the Rosenball and the visit to the Ralley in Freistadt this weekend. Tomorrow will be salsa again - wednesday is salsa in the beluga bar. Thursday night will be the first part of the ralley - friday will be Martins birthday party - and it goes on and on with different events till I am going back to the states. Bye the way - I still dont know when I am going back but I suppose that it will be in the next two weeks. Cheers and good night