2 days to go!!
Its been a day full of meetings - fortunatelly for me - I was not too involved in that. I actually wanted to go out with Stephan tonight - the last time it would have been as he is going down to Florida tomorrow for a cruise. Well - plans turned out a bit different. We had dinner with the company. So - after that was done I met Stephan at the West Side Lounge - getting a final "Farewell" Caipirinha. After that we moved home and had another "Farewell" Julius Echter.
Just started packing a little bit - I have 2 bags where I try to pack everything in that I have - I hope that it will work out.
Tomorrow should be another eventfull day - starting with an early call with a customer and ending with a Brown Bottle meeting in the office. cheers and prost

Thanks Stephan for the year that I've been here!!	Stephan and Rob (bartender) - unfortunatelly his eyes were closed)

Checking out the town with Didi
Didi came to town today. Well - it was not only him - Manfred and Klaus also came to town - but they both were busy. They had some work to do - therefore I just picked up Didi at the hotel in the afternoon. We went into town - checked out Harvard - Park Street - Fanueil Hall and the Aquarium. As its been soooo friggin cold we stopped our tour after about 2 hours and went straight to Christophers were we had Julius Echter and Nachos. And here is the news to Linz - he liked them!!! Although they really look disgusting. After a while - Stephan joined us for some more drinks. Now its about 9PM - we brought didi home to his hotel and I think I am checking out some salsa at hoffas. cheers

The proof: Didi and I with Julius and Nachos	Ben (bartender) made us say "Schere, Stein, Papier" Well - you dont get the joke - but it was fun - therefore we had this bad laugh on our faces

Last Sunday in Town
So - as you can see from yesterdays entry - I stayed over at the Hummer-Silver families house. Just got home. I thought by just reversing the directions that I got from mapquest I would easily find home. Well - it nearly worked out - but I didnt consider that there were some one-way roads on my way to their house. But I figured it out. Todays program is pretty heavy for me: Salsa Workshop from noon till 1:30 AM. Then heading home to do some work for tomorrow. Then I am invited for dinner at my working collegue Thomas - he is preparing Paella. Cheers
---- (update) ----
Its been an incredible evening. I've been invited for dinner by Iris and Thomas Stammberger. Their heritage is Venezuelanian - at least parts of it. Well - as their heritage is somehow spanish its easly to conclude that Paella is one of their favorite dishes - and thats what they prepared tonight. Not only that - we got some Tortilla, cheese and prosciutto (they tried to get the spanish version of it - but its hard to get here). As for dinner we got some good ice cream.
After that we of course had some digestives. As the night was still young when I made my way home I decided to go out for a last salsa at Johnny D's. And now I am home - ready for bed.
As for the next days. Mr. Reindl and Didi are coming to town - they are two collegues from linz. Tomorrow we wanna check out christophers - hope they are fit enough to get some beers at night after their flight to Boston. cheers

Its been an incredible place where the Salsa workshop took place	Appetizers
Thomas preparing the Paella	Yummie - so many things in there: muscles, shrimp, squid, scampi, chicken, rice, beans, pepper, ...
Getting read for the meal: Iris and Thomas	The live salsa band at johnny d's

Last Saturday in Town
It finally started snowing and I hope we got some inches of it. I also got a rental car for the remaining days. I will need it today as I've been invited to Sabine Hummer and her family. Sabine is the sister of a former austrian working collegue. He gave me some stuff for her to deliver and thats what I am going to do tonight. Also - two collegues from Linz are coming over next week and I want them to join me at Christophers on monday. And in order to get them to Cambridge and back to their Hotel a car would be very convenient. Anyway - I have to drive now - I dont want to be late. Maybe I get some pictures. Cheers
---- (update) ----
Its been a wonderful evening with the "Hummer-Silver" family. We went out to dinner to a nice italian restaurant - afterwards went back home - checking out the amazing victory of the austrian ski team in the olympics - having a couple of beers of course. After that we started to watch a DVD - but I have to admit - the beer and the lack of sleep from the previous night made me doze away on the couch. Here are some pictures:

Sabine and Nico	The whole group at the italian restaurant (unfortunatelly Nico is looking down here)
But as you can see - I have some shots from Nico at Breakfast	And one more!!

Havann Club
Friday is always the day where the big salsa party is going on at Havanna Club. After I nearly missed this event - I fell asleep on the couch after I got home from work - it was a nice night meeting some of my friends that I got to know over the past year. The only not so good thing about this party is that - in the last months - it got more and more popular. That means that in the beginning there are just too many people to actually dance. But at around midnight its good to dance - till 2 AM. Here are some pictures. Cheers

Raj from India	Verena from Germany
She told me her name multiple times but I never remember it - something russian i think	Finally - after midnight - there was enough place to dance

Living Healthy
As you know already - I try to go down to our gym room in the office every day. It doesnt work out all the time but most of the time. So - running my usual 4 miles on the treadmil will hopefully bring me closer to my goal to participate in the Linz Halfmarathon this year. Wolfram (aka Hubbo) - a collegue from austria - reminded me today that this event is coming up.
As you can also see from the picture below - my health focus also made me order water instead of beer at christophers (well I had one beer - but the second was replaced by water!!).
Every day that passes by now reminds me even more that my time in Boston is nearly over. 1 week is left and I again started with all the "Last Timers" Like yesterday - last time Salsa at An Tua Nua. Today it will be the last time at Ryles - and tomorrow at the Havanna Club.
Oh yeah - news from the Cingular (cell phone company) front: I just called and immediatelly hung up as the voice mail told me that: "We are currently experiencing unusal long wait times ..." - maybe tomorrow.
So - here is another story from Florida (its actually one that doesnt make me look good):
We sat at an outside restaurant on the beach. A one-man-band was playing salsa/reaggae on the beach and people were dancing. I saw two girls in the distance dancing together and I thought - well - lets step in and show them some salsa. Unfortunatelly they sat down to have their desert - I saw that there were actually 4 people on the table - 3 girls and one other person with the back to me (I assumed its another girl). After they finished their meal I approached on of the girls - the more closer I got starting realizing that she might be a bit younger than I had expected. I asked her if she wanted to dance - she changed her line of sight towards the 4th person with an uneasy expression on her face. Then her dad answered: "I DONT THINK SO!!".

Well - another day - another story - maybe I can come up with more tomorrow. cheers

Our company gym room	Its really water (not Vodka on the rocks)

Response to Guestbook Entry
Udo requested to see some more pictures from Florida that may show something that I didnt want to put on there - for whatever reason. Well - of course there are some nice things to show. But - to not get everybody too excited I wont publish them here - you have to click on Florida Extras.
So - I just tried to finally cancel my cell phone contract. But - when you are already greeted with "we currently experience unusual long waiting times" and you havent gotten anywhere after 10 minutes - then its very likely that you just hang up. Thats what I've done - maybe later at night!
So - I promised you some more stories about Florida. One for each day - I dont want to spoil you:
Thursday - 4 AM in the morning - Miami Beach. After checking out Mangos and Clevelander we tried to find another open bar. We found a hotelbar near our hotel. We stayed longer than the bartender did. He gave us each two coronas and told us that he is going home now. So he left and we stayed for another while finishing our drinks.

That was the first - more to come

Florida - 2nd Part!
So - now there is a little bit more time to tell you about our weekend trip to Florida. On our way down we had a 1.5 hours delay on the flight from Boston to Atlanta. Arriving in Atlanta we had 10 minutes to change planes. So we ran from one terminal to the other - got on the plane - 2 minutes later the plane took off - pretty close!! Arriving in Miami at 12:30AM we got the rental car and lost our way. Instead of taking about 20 minutes we cruised around Miami Beach for an hour - but we finally arrived at the hotel. So - we started going out at around 2AM - finally getting home at 5AM after checking out some nice bars. 3 hours or so later we got up - checking out the beach and driving along Ocean Drive with our PT Cruiser Convertable. Then we started our tour down south to the Florida Keys. We had not booked any hotels - which turned out to be pretty stupid on one of the busiest holiday weekends in high season. So - we drove as long as we finally found a hotel with a free room - that was in Islamorada. There we started calling to Key West to get a room for the next two days - an hour later we had a room - a bit expensive but it was worth every dollar!
On saturday we drove on to Key West - checking out the southernmost point in the US - checking out Ernest Hemmingway's house - checking out the Beach and of course - checking out the night life.
Besides what I've seen in New Orleans - Key West was the most "open" place in the states. We could take out drinks on the street. And we found this 21+ bar - called Whistle Bar - they had free body painting on the top of the building. In order to get free body painting people were running around naked - waiting for the free paint job. Well - it would have been nice if those people would have been nice to look at - but most of them were 40+ (sorry stephan - I know you are 40+ too - but you know what I mean) and I think the only reason for them getting naked up there was to get some attention!
Anyway - paint job - brings me to another story. On our way to Key West we drove behind a pick up truck from a paint company with the number: 1-800-PAINT-JOB. We though it is funny and discussed whether there would be a number like 1-800-BL*W-JOB. Well - there is - we checked it out :-)
So - check out the pictures. There are some more funny stories about the trip - maybe I reveal some of them in the next days.

A decorating car in front of the Parrotise Bar & Grill where we had lunch	Buidings are built on stilts (even more necessary now after a terrible hurrican season)
Mile 0 on Route 1 in Key West	People waiting in Key West for the SunSet
Sailing Boat cutting through the setting sun	The two boys on the peer after the sunset
A bar with a lifeband in the backyard. We couldnt find it the second night - but we have proof that it exists with this pictures	Great art. "The Last Martini"
We definitly tried to do our best to save water	Ernest Hemmingways house
From the Hemmingways balcony towards the light tower	Only 90 miles to cuba from here
Stupid add: check out the line on the board (its for people that dont like taste in their beer)	Thats fun!! This T-Shirt would have been very good when walking around in Florida
A talking parrot - he was very energetic in argueing with this guy	Huge cruise ship docked on the peer
Cool driving. The cap moved in a way that my ear was not burned too much from the sun	Flying out of Miami - a view down to South Beach

Florida - 1st Part!
Greetings. We just came back from an incredible trip to Florida. Time is short today so I will just put some pictures up. Also - this will be the first part showing pictures of our first part of the weekend trip. We started out in Miami Beach (South Beach) spending thursday night and friday morning there. On friday afternoon we drove down to Islamorada - thats one part of the Florida Keys.
The story about all this will follow tomorrow when I have more time - but it was just a blast!!! cheers

Mangos in South Beach - kind of a Salsa Club!	Another outside bar in South Beach
Friday morning on the Beach in Miami	Sunset in Islamorada - with a Corona
Sitting on the Beach watching the Sunset	Nice lighted Palm Tree
We got lots of incredible sea food down there - stone crabs	The morning sun touching the palms of our hotel beach
The 7 mile bridge	Me at the 7 mile bridge

Ready to go home!
Last day in Kentucky. Will be a long day. My flight leaves at 6:30PM bringin me into boston at 11PM - so I will be home shortly before midnight. Tomorrow will be a shorter workday as Stephan and I start our trip down to Miami in late afternoon. So - there wont be many updates till monday night when we get back. Cheers
---- (update 17:49) ----
Another happy (maybe future) customer in Kentucky. Sitting at the airport right now - my flight is boarding in about 5-10 minutes. Short hop to Cincinneti - 2 hours waiting - then finally back to Boston. Kentucky treated me well - unfortunatelly I had no time to see some of the famous sights here, e.g.: a kentucky derby, burbon muesums, ...
---- (update 19:44) ----
Greetings from Cincinneti International Airport. Its really cool - doesnt matter where you are - there is always a wireless network available. Either one that you have to pay for - or - in my case right now - an open/unsecure/default installation WiFi Router somewhere in the terminal. Thanks to this technology I am able to tell you now that there is actually nothing of interest to tell you. 1 hour to go to my flight home to boston. PROST!!
---- (update 20:03) ----

Well - I am a bit bored - just waiting for the plane - so I thought I will give you some background information about the weekend trip that Stephan and I have planed. Check the map. We fly down to Miami Beach tomorrow night. Our hotel for the first night is somewhere here Miami Beach. We have a rental car - a convertable - harhar!!! We will drive down to the keys - actually till the end - to Key West. On the way down we will probably stop in Key Largo and Marathon. We have time till monday noon - thats when we have to catch our return flight from Miami Beach back to Boston. Sidenote: Monday is a holiday in the states - its presidents day. I hope to shoot lots of cool pictures that I can upload probably monday night or tuesday morning. cheers

A story from Kentucky
Here is an interesting story for you: after finishing work I decided to walk around the city of Louisville. I tried to find this "Salsa Club" near my hotel. Found it - went in - realized that it is just a mexican place and therefore has Salsa in its name - but it was already too late to get back out as the hostess already approached me and asked me whether I wanna have a seat. Well - I could have still escaped - but I was hungry anyway - and also thristy.
So I got a table - sat down - and then the mexican waiter came and asked me what I would like to drink: I saw the Blue Moon (its an american wheat beer - not bad!) sign and ordered it. He answered something like "Sir! ??xzz??* xyz Beer ??*zxyz?? No". Hm - so - his english was not really good. After asking him again and whether he means that there is no beer today he noded and I ordered water. After a while the neighbour table tried to order a beer as well - same thing. They asked him a bit longer and it turned out that they cannot serve beer before 6 PM - not knowing the reason for that. So - at 6PM I finally got my beer - drank it - felt good - finished and went out. I told stephan the story and he checked back with a friend of his. And his friend finally lifted the secret: In Kentucky - bars are usually open 22 hours a day - and you can get drinks. But - if there is an election going on you wont get any alcohol till the polls are closed. It seems that there is some minor election going on today - and the polls close at 6PM. Another strange american law - funny though!!
The city of Louisville was pretty deserted when I walked around - so I decided to go home and maybe check out the pool of the hotel - because - what else would there be to do in a city far far away. cheers

The Ohio River runs through Louisville	From the river bank towards downtown
The main attraction place on 4th street

Happy Valentines Day!!
Well - I am just wondering if my surprise package was delivered on time - waiting for the response from Alex!!
Whats the updat? Well - after a total of 5 hours of sleep I got up pretty early as I thought I have a conference call with one of our customers - but - nobody showed up. A bit disappointed about that I got the message from Udo that the next ski event is currently going on in Turino - of course another event that I miss because they dont broadcast it here :-(
So - to make the best out of the situation I enjoy all the good things that my hotel room has to offer:
a) a coffee machine with instant coffee and creamer :-)
b) a nice sunrise over Louisville
Have to get going now - the customer is waiting - cheers

The american way to brew coffee - with detailed instructions!!	The secret ingredient - coffee creamer!!
Sunset - isnt it nice?

Going to Kentucky!!
Greetings from Cincinnati International Airport - thats where I am right now - waiting for my connection flight to Louisville, Kentucky. Boarding hopefully starts soon as I am a bit bored of waiting. But - I just figured out that T-Mobile has a small hole in their WLAN offers on the airport. So - without paying for the service its possible to send emails as port 25 seems not to be blocked. Well - doesnt help me much - but I thought that it is funny. On our descending into Cincinnati I realized how big this city is - didnt know that. But what I also realized is that my cell phone doesnt work here - for whatever reason I do have 2 Cingular networks available but none of them lets me sign in. Maybe this lady from the cingular phone service really canceled my contracdt by today - that would be funny - well - not really - anyway - lets see if it works in Louisville. cheers
---- update (22:45) ----
Arriving at Louisville International Airport I learned one thing: its the 16th largest city in the states!!
So far everything is as usual - exiting the airport - catching a taxi (there I found a wallet from the previous guest - gave it to the cab driver) - then to the hotel - checkin - getting to the room - going online - checking mail. But - there is something different - I think I only got about every 3rd word that the taxi driver spoke - very very strange accent.
I got a map from the area (downtown - thats where the hotel and the customer that I am going to visit are located) - and guess what - two block down there is a "Salsa Club". I hope to have time to check it out tomorrow. Good night

Farewell Sarah - Welcome Snow!!
Sarah was in town and we went out for a final night of salsa and wheat beer before I am going back to Austria. We first went out to Hoffas as we thought there might be some good salsa going on. There we had some Paulaner (thats the wheat beer part). We've been told by Jeff (who organizes most of the salsa in town) that the live band quit the gig as the snow was coming in. He told us that we should go to MIT - they had a free salsa night in one of their dorms. So we went there - first time in an MIT dorm - really nice - lots of computer freeks there :-).
Today in the morning I had some bad experiences. I got up at 5:30 because I wanted to see the mens downhill race. So - I woke up - feeling that I am not 100% healthy - then - zapping through my 60 channels for 45 minutes realizing that they dont broadcast the race - then - trying to go back to sleep - but its been a bit hard as the snow storm was causing all snow plow mobiles to hit the streets - making lots of noise. Then - finally falling back to sleep - getting up at 9 I realized that we (the austrian skination) havent managed to get gold :-) - but the americans didnt either :-) :-)- viva la france
Back to the snow - it seems that this snow storm hit as expected. The predict about 15 inches (about 50cm) of snow and wind gusts up to 60 miles (100 km/h). The storm will go on the whole day - maybe I will take some more pictures during the day.
cheers
---- (update 15:15) ----
Still snowing - the storm seems to be here another 4 hours. Its a perfect day to just stay inside and watching whats going on outside. This might be my last entry till tuesday. As I mentioned some days ago I have to fly to Louisville, Kentucky. I will fly out tomorrow evening staying till wednesday night. Hope to get some pictures from there but I guess no update tomorrow as I will arrive late. Cheers

Jeff - he organizes most of the salsa in town. He told us about the MIT event - its been really nice	The last salsa - kind of closing the loop - as we first met during salsa - hopefully remaining friends
Show on my way to get breakfast at Bruggers	More snow at the front door of Bruggers
On my way back - more snow :-)	And guess what - even more :-)

Barber Shop!!
As you can see from the pictures below - I went to a very original Barber Shop - right down on Massachusetts Avenue - shortly before Harvard Square. The second picture shows the Barber Shop from the outside. If you look close you see the Barber Shop sign which is a rotating round cube with red and blue stripes on it. If the cube rotates the shop is open - otherwise its closed.
The other story for the day so far is that I tried to cancel my cell phone contract. About 2 weeks ago I called cingular and asked them about changing my current plan to a pre paid one - or - if thats not possible - cancel it. They told me that I have to go to a cingular shop in order to do that. So I walked all the way from here to Central Square - went into the store and asked them whether I can change my plan to a pre-paid one. Without getting a new number its not possible - so I thought lets just cancel it. Good thought from my side - but - they told me that I can only do this by calling cingular. Strange thing though because two weeks ago they told me I have to do all those things in the shop. But at least it was a nice walk in the sunshine (although its really really cold right now).
One more thing about today: seems we are getting some snow tonight - all news channels have their "storm watch troops" out on the streets - waiting for what seems to be "the event of the month". They expect about 12+ inches of snow for boston - will be fun. cheers
---- (update) ----
Ridiculous!! Thats all what I can say about canceling my cell phone. So - I just called them to cancel my contract. After 10 minutes in the loop I finally got through a help desk person. My montly payment period starts on the 12th. So I asked this lady to cancel it on march 12th. She told me that she is only able to to cancel it for the next period which ends at february 12th but she is not able to enter a future date. So - I have to call back in 2 days to cancel it for march 12th. I am not sure who designed the software that they are using - but I assume that havent really thought about simple things like that. bye
---- (update 19:28) ----
Another movie tip from me - in case you are interested: Firewall - the new thriller with Harrison Ford. Just came home from the theatre - really liked it. The news from the weather: no snow yet!!

Inside the barber shop - thats something I only knew from the movies	From the outside - you will see the barber sign on the left side of the store

Important Link!!
As you all are well aware that there is one place (besides my office and my appartment) where I spend most of my time (and money) - its Christophers - the bar down the road on Massachusetts Avenue. Stephan just sent me the link to their new website - maybe you wanna check it out: Christopher's Restaurant and Bar.
Seems like europe is currently struggling with tons of snow that already cause buildings to collapse. Boston has been untroubled with heavy snow this year so far - but it seems that there is a snow storm coming through this weekend.
Tonight is Salsa time again - and a special one: Its at the Greek Club - with 300 to 400 people enjoying the fun of salsa, merengue, bachata and rueda. cheers
---- (update) ----
Seems that snow is really becoming a big problem in austria. Here are two pictures that I received from Didi and one that I "stole" from Udos Homepage.

Udo cleaning the roof of his parents house	New snow on didis car

Kentucky is calling
Seems that I might visit another state next week: Kentucky. So far the only thing I know is that there is Kentucky Fried Chicken - but it seems there is more than that :-)
I am just watching my favorite show here in TV - its Seinfeld - just funny - and thinking about what else there is to tell you about whats going on. Well - I am still on track with my "personal health plan" - going to the gym as often as I can running between 3 and 5 miles.
Hm - before I just start writing rubbish just to fill me website I better stop and say good bye. cheers
---- (update) ----
Well - seems that I got some update - although its something that is not really new. Instead of going out for salsa - stephan and I went out to christophers (what else?). After that we went home figuring out a route for our trip to miami next week. And - as you can see from the pictures below - we had some struggels with the schnaps bottle.

Using a cork screw to open a schnaps bottle - unfortunatelly we destroyed the cork	All Austrian - Schnaps and Mozartkugeln

A Wind of Change
Seems that my company will face some changes in the next months - for more on that - check the following segue.com.
After work we (Thomas, his wife and myself) went out to Christophers to discuss the recent news at work.
Now to something else: Stephan and I finally managed to get flights down to Miami. We are going down there over presidents weekend (17.-20. February). I've just been on the phone for nearly 20 minutes to make hotel reservations - thats like being in a maze - but finally I got a nice and decent hotel in South Beach Miami.
Now I am heading out to An Tua Nua for some salse - cheers

Well - if you are wondering about the first picture. Stephan brought it home from the food conference that he recently attended. Seems that walnuts are good for our health - therefore - have a hand full every day.

Walnuts - you should have a handful every day!!	At Christophers!!

Brokeback Mountain
I hope you have the chance to see that movie. I just came back from the theatre. Brokeback Mountain - based on the short story of Annie Proloux is about 2 rangers back in the 60s that fell in love with each other while horting sheeps on Brokeback Mountain. The time and place where the movie takes place makes the story even more challenging.
But back to "non hollywood" life. Got another 4 miles on the treadmil - same as I did yesterday. After getting home I hoped to have the time for a haircut - but the barber just closed when I was on my way to Harvard Square - hopefully I get a cut on Saturday. Thats already about it - cheers and good night

The day after the Superbowl
I decided to put some pictures up that I took yesterday during the superbowl. As you can see - the quality is not too good as i took them from the tv screen. You can also see that those pictures are actually not from the superbowl itself. Its more about the commercials and about the other channels that I watched as I was so excited about the game :-)
Tonight we had our usual program: Christophers - and then I went for Salsa at Harvard Square and Stephan went on to the West Side Lounge. Its been interesting. There have been about 10 guys and only 2 girls during the lessons - after the lessons where over - everybody left the scence - but - after about 20 minutes lots of people came in - and all of them were pretty good dancers. I had to chance to dance with a dance instructor from Israel - pretty cool!!
Anyway - I went home at around 11:30 and thought that I will find Stephan already at home. As I just tried to open the door to the appartment building he emerges out of the door - looking at me a bit surprised but happy. He had forgotten his keys and phone in the appartment and couldnt get in. So he left me a message on the door to get him from christophers where he was just about to go.
Before I say good night I have to paste some links: Windsor Mountain Summer Camp - check out the video - sarah is a movie star (minute 4:30) - Summer Camp DVD Online.
Good night

Jessica Simpson in her new spot for Pizza Hut	The Beauty in "The Beauty and the Geek"
Guess what: He was the Geek	The note left by stephan: I have no keys or phone. I am at Christophers. Please find me!!

A weekend in New Hamsphire and Vermont!
What a nice weekend. I took the bus up to New Hampshire on friday night - bringing me up to Concord where Sarah picked me up. We havent seen each other since early december - so its been nice meeting her again. Before we went back to her place we went out to a nice mexican restaurant where she made a terrible mistake: she drank corona out of a glass :-) (I teased her about that)!
The original plan for the saturday was to go skiing in Killington, VT and afterwards having lunch with friends of her family. The weather forcast though told us that its going to rain - so we changed plans and went cross country/lake skiing around the campsite and went up to Vermont in the afternoon for the scheduled lunch. As you can see from the pictures below - we cross countried over the frozen lake. We also saw some guys doing ice fishing.
As we arrived to early in Vermont we decided to get a beer before lunch - and there we again experienced the freedom that you get in this country "where everything is possible". Sarah forgot her ID :-) - I guess you can imagine the consiquences :-)
Dinner was lovely - her friends are an older couple (78 and 82) - but both still very agile and funny.
Today I took the 1 AM Bus down to Boston and now I am waiting for the SuperBowl XL. Its the final match between the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Seattle Seahawks. As the local team here - the New England Patriots - are not playing the final I am kind of neutral. Although - as Stephan grew up in Washington State I am more likely to cheer for Seattle!!
Thats it for today. cheers
---- (update 18:08) ----
I thought I will give you some update on the superbowl. Whats happened so far? Well - its still 20 minutes to go till the game begins. But so far we had the pre-game show with stars like marvin gaye, steve wonder, ...
They also already showed some of the tv commercials that are produced just for the superbowl - like jessica simpson advertising for a pizza company (i dont remember which company - i just looked at her :-) ). But - I just saw a cool comercial. There is a new american energy drink. The ad shows a truck of this energy drink driving along the street and everybody that sees the truck follows it - till the whole town is behind it. Then there is this Red Bull Beetle (you know - the Red Bull VB Beetle cars with the red bull can on the back) - quickly emerging to a side street to let the new oponent pass - funny - maybe not from my explaination - but if you see the ad its really funny.
---- (update 18:22) ----
Its Coin Toss Time!!! Tom Brady from the New England Patriots is going to flip the coin. Seattle wins the toss!! oh yeah - just saw the jessica simpson add again - now i actually focused on the company - its pizza hut!! but if i would be her - i would be really pissed. They have the exact same comercial but instead of her its miss piggy that is doing jessicas role :-)
---- (update 18:30) ----
kickoff!!
---- (update 19:22) ----
I switched to a different channel - I have to admit. There is this strange show where about 10 girls (not unattractive) with their bikinis sitting in the backyard. And there are 10 guys (geeks, nerds, whatever you wanna call them). So - every girl picks one of them and tries to make him "more cool" than he currently is. Strange but somehow fun. the show is called "Beauty and the Geek"
---- (update 19:26) ----
Switching back to the Superbowl. Seems we are in the 2nd quarter - 3:0 for the SeaHawks - yeah :-)
---- (update 19:37) ----
The drawback when you run a comercial during superbowl and your website has not been tested! They just ran an ad for www.godaddy.com. After accessing the website I got the message "php: too many connections opened" :-) They should have used segue tools before releasing that ad
---- (update 19:59) ----
Halftime: 7:3 for pittsburgh - waiting for the halftime show!!
---- (update 20:10) ----
Grandpa Mick Jagger sings "Start me up".
---- (update 20:32) ----
Touchdown for the Steelers after a 75 yards run - not bad!! Now its 14:3!
---- (update 20:54) ----
Touchdown for the Seahawks - we are in the 3rd - 6:45 to go. Not its 14:10 for the Steelers!
---- (update 21:27) ----
Touchdown for the Steelers after a 45 yards pass. Now its 21:10! 9 minutes to go in the last quarter!
---- (update 21:37) ----
Got that link from a commercial - very interesting herestobeer.com
---- (update 22:05) ----
Its over - with the final score of 21:10! Good night

The frozen lake at sarahs summer camp	Ice fishing!!
On the lake!	The terrain was not always perfect :-)
Sarah going downhill	Delicious breakfast
Preparing a delicous dinner for us	Her husband

Weekend!!
The weekend is here - and therefore I only ran 3 miles in the gym - that was enought to end the week! As for the weekend - there wont be any updates till sunday night. I am going up to New Hampshire to visit sarah. We are trying to do some skiing in vermont. but right now it doesnt look too good - it seems that it will be raining. but we will see. Tonight we either check out a bar in Portsmouth (NH) or already drive up to Killington (VT) where we are supposed to ski. On the way up there would be a place where they have "traditional" american contra dance! Thats the update. Just have to do another conference call with my friends from the west coast and then I am outta here - cheers

Run Forrest - Run!!
Thats how I feel right now. 3rd day in a row that I went down to the gym. I started on tuesday with 3 miles on the treadmill - going on to 4 miles yesterday and 5 miles today - 40 minutes - puh - that was tough - but fun. Wondering about how many miles I am going to take tomorrow!
So - hopefully I will be motivated enough tonight to go out to Ryles. Havent been there since I am back. Nothing else of interest is going on - so thats it for todays entry. bye
---- (update) ----
Well - as you can see from the pictures below I made it to Ryles. What a fabolous night. They had a special charity event going on. You could rent so called "Taxi Driver" for $3 a dance. The money goes to a child hospital. One more thing that I can say: cubans really have dancing in their blood!! good night

Taxi Dancer from the front	Taxi Dancer from the back

Blackberries and the State of the Union
Hi there - its a new month - which means - only one more month and then I will be home again. But till that time I wanna share my experiences with you. Today I saw something really weired.
I am not sure if you are aware of those Blackberry's that nearly everybody (at least business people) has. A blackberry is a device where you can read your emails and stuff like that - they get pushed on your device. Its nice for companies that want their employees to be 24x7 - kind of taken away any private life that there is left :-)
Anyway - people get kind of addicted to those things - like having it in meetings and responding to emails while they are in the meeting and while they should actually pay attention what is goind on in the room. Or - the first thing after a plan lands - turning on the device and checking mails. Now - thats still OK. But today - I've been down at the gym again and two other collegues where down with me. One of them with his blackberry answering emails while he was riding the bike. And not just one or two - no - all the time for 30 minutes. Well - thank god that not all of us have such a thing and are required to stay "connected" all the time.
Now to the second topic; The state of the union
The president of the united states had his - I think its annual - speach about the "State of the Union". Unfortunatelly I havent seen it live but I've seen the after speech reports. He of course was talking about terrorism and about social security. But he also mentioned a very interesting topic. Quote: "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.". He basically said that the US want to decrease their oil imports from those unstable countries by 75% till 2025. Read the full speach at The White House.
So - when I heard that in the morning I thought: Good thoughts - seems that finally they are getting it. On my way to work I was sitting in the car with tom and his wife - the have also seen the speech but were not at all as positiv about it than I was. "Just empty promisses - nobody believes it!!" So my good hopes also vanished.
Thats it for my two big topics of today. I just came home from a 2.5 hours segue user group meeting where I could give another presentation to customers in the area. Its been a good audience - the only problem with it is that - after comming home so late - the motivation for doing anything is like 0 - therefore I think I just head to bed - reading in my new book See no evil which is the base for the movie Syriana. I've seen the movie and I am looking forward to read the book as I hope some things will be more clear.
good night