Its been a sunny day - went home earlier as expected which allowed me to make a small bike tour on the Charles River before I go salsa in the evening. I took some pictures on my tour - with motives that you might have already seen - but I thought that it was worth taking more pictures of it. So - tomorrow morning I am heading for New Hampshire - updates and pictures will follow sunday night. bye

One of the blooming trees here in the area	One of the many old bridges over the Charles - and rowing boats on the river itself	Boston Downtown with sailing boats on the Charles

THE CURSE!!
When Bostonians here about The Curse - the will refer to the curse about the Red Sox - who havent won the World Series in Baseball for more than 80 years till last year. Myself - I would say it is Christophers! I had the plan to go out salsa tonight - to Ryles. Just heading to Christophers for a quick Beer and maybe some nachos - well - as you might guess - I havent made it to salsa. Stephan and I just came home - and I dont wanna start going out now (its past 10PM already). But there is still a tomorrow - and tomorrow is friday - which means Havanna Club. good night

Hi there - it was a good day. Lots of things going on at work - after that we went to a restaurant called Naked Fish in Waltham. Now I got home - walking through Christophers - seeing that Stephan is there - so I guess I will go down again joining him. But there is just a very interesting documentary on TV - its about "Married with Children". Its the TV-Show that we know as "Eine schrecklich nette Familie". Its interesting what things were happening at the time when this TV Show was broadcasted. A woman felt offended by the content and started to battle against the producers to stop the show - well - I guess thats again typical american. Well - thats it for today - I might finish watching this documentary or just go down to join Stephan. bye bye

GOOOOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!
Finally I made it to my first soccer game here in the states. I got my cleats from home today - my austrian lab chief is here and brought it with him. So - after office I took my bike riding around Cambridge in order to find some place where I can play soccer - and I found it - near Central Square. The field was not too good - but it was good enough. The only thing was that more and more people showed up and in the end we were about 25 people although 12 or 15 would have been enough - but anyway - it was fun. I am not sure what to do with the remaining day - I am really hungry as I only had 2 apples today - well - and a small Paulaner so far. But I either go to Christophers again or go shopping (yes - thats possible although it is already 9PM) and buy some pasta as I still have some noodles at home.
Anyway - tomorrow should be fine - we will have our first "Brown Bottle" here in the Lexington Lab. I guess that only the Segue guys are familiar with what a Brown Bottle is - but I encouraged to start this thing here as well - the only draw back is that there wont be a real brown bottle after the brown bottle meeting - but we are going out afterwards - so I guess I will get my real Brown Bottle! Confusing enough for you that are not familiar with it :-)!
I took some random pictures from the appartment so that I can keep you updated - here they are!

My cool bike - without it it would be harder to get around here	My half of the fridge - it looks quite familiar with the fridge from home	A proof that I finally got my wheat beer glass - although stolen from Christophers - but dont tell anybody

Not much going on - getting home from office - waiting for Stephan to show up and up to Christophers for some Nachos and Hefeweizen!

Its been a nice weekend. Friday night - of course - salsa again. On saturday I've been invited to "Passover" at Sarahs aunts house. For those of you that dont know what Passover is. Its a jewish celebration - comparable to our easter.
The celebration was really interesting and new to me - although I've seen some similarities in the way we celebrate our christmas eve at home. Reading the story about the Israelites being tortured by the egypts - being rescued by their god. So - during this ceremony - different kind of food is served which remindes the jews about the time of the slavery.
After this afternoon/evening we went to a place called Milky Way. Its a nice place where you can play pool - do bowling or dancing. Yesterday that had a salsa night.
Today - we went out looking for some shoes - as it turned out that most of my shoes that I brought with are no longer "capable of dealing with new england weather conditions". So - Sarah and I walked around - about 3 hours - checking out Cambridge - looking for shoes. Getting back at 3PM we decided to have some dinner and watch the movie Fever Pitch. This movie is a big deal here in Boston. Its a hollywood movie with Drew Barrymore - and it takes place during last baseball season where the Boston Red Sox won the World Series after a period of 90 years.
If this movie makes it to austrian cinemas - I would recommend to watch it. You might not get the whole fever behind the baseball here in Boston - but its nice seeing all those places in Boston where they shot the movie - and by the way - the movie is not bad!!
Well - good night!

Sarahs's siblings - joining us for Pool, Bowling and Salsa	Here is a picture of the T-Map. For those of you who are going to visit. I am on the Red Line - Porter Square.	After the movies. The nice thing is that we watched the movie at Fenway Park which is where the Red Sox Stadium is.

Back in Boston!
It was an exhausting day - getting on the plane an hour later as expected - having an 5 hour flight and I think I had about 3 hours of sleep (if you consider sleeping on a plane in the middle chair of the row as sleeping). I went directly to the office staying there till 4PM. So - I got home now - relaxing a bit on the couch - checking the weather channel about the weekend - dont look too good. But - here are some pictures from California!

Having some drinks on the bar before we had our dinner	The hotel there was really nice - it was a nice appartment actually	Sidewalks around our office area are really nice there
Just another street near our office in San Mateo	Siebel nearby	Me - teaching our TSE's

Its been a nice evening in an italian restaurant here in San Mateo. Real delicious food and wine. Got to bed at 11 PM (which is 2AM Boston Time). Got up already at 3 as I am used to get up around 6. I somehow managed it to stay in bed till 4:30 - but then I decided to better get up - check emails - short good morning walk and now I am going to take a hot bath before I really start the day.
Tonight I am going to have what is called a "Red-Eye-Flight". Taking the flight here at 10PM (thats 1AM Boston Time) - arriving 5:30 hours later at about 6:30 AM in boston - probably having a Red Eye as I wont get too much sleep.
So - my bath is ready - hope to take some pictures from California - although I doubt as I wont have much time for that. cu later

Greetings from California. To be precise - from San Mateo - which is about 20 minutes away from San Francisco. Weather is nice - not as warm as in Boston (where we had 30C!!! today). I am ready for dinner now - we go out with the segue guys from this area here.
I've just seen some TV commercials about californian political issues - and guess who I saw? Sure - our Arnold!!!!

Hi there - its been a good week so far. Went out to salsa yesterday - 2 hours of nice dancing. Today I will check out Christophers with Stephan. Guess its time again for some nachos. Well - tomorrow is travel day. Destination: California!! But not the real hot california - its San Mateo which is near San Francisco. So pretty much the same weather as here. But I am really looking forward to that. Getting an early flight tomorrow - 2 days california - getting back on friday morning - hope I can sleep on the plane.
Well - I will keep you updated. bye

I guess that I wouldn't have made it through the salsa eveing without Sarahs help. I started Rueda and nearly had to quit as my hand got worse and worse - every move was painful. Then Sarah came and she brought me a special bracelet for my wrist - and that was my rescue. Its a bit of an handicap - but it helps a lot. Anyway - yesterday night was nice - and today - when I just look out of the window - its supposed to be another great day. Sunshine and warm weather.

My new hand decoration

-------------------
Its been a day of ups and downs. The day started really bad - got out of bed - turning on my laptop - hard disk problems. Rebootet - Bluescreen - Safe Mode - Bluescreen - Reboot - Hard Drive Error - .....
Well - it took me 5 hours to finally got a running system - saving all my data to an external drive. The machine works now - but I always have to fear that I get another blue screen after every key stroke our mouse click. So - I hope to get a new one bye tomorrow - otherwise I wont be able to do any work next week - and there wont be a chance of giving the training this week in california. WEll - all it comes down to is that I was really desperate as I thought that all my data is lost. But well - in the end its not as bad as it looked in the beginning.

In the afternoon we went through Boston - having a look at the Holocaust Memorial and Haymarket (thats a public fish and fruit market). Sarah played treasure hunting (Schnitzeljagd) with me. She gave me two envelops. I opened the first with an address in little italy.
She told me that we have to be there by 7:45 - it turned out to be a nice italian restaurant. Well - it was nice - but we experienced some special american things - like - although we had a reserveration - we had to wait in line - outside - for 45 minutes. Then - Sarah and Joachim (we is one of our german TSE's) had wine - getting it in a very unusal glass. As it was an italian restaurant we would have expected to get red wine in nice glasses - but it seems that they are in the states for too long - no real italian atmosphere.
Then it was time for the 2nd envelope - another address in Boston's Theatre District - we had to be there by 9:45. As we lost 45 minutes because of the waiting -we had to rush. We approached the street and then I saw the sign - "The Blue Group". And that was really great. We 3 enjoyed it very much. We were not allowed to take pictures but when exiting - I managed to get a nice picture of one of the blue mans.
Taking the T at midnight - we made a final stop at Christophers for a Julius Echter. Here are the pictures

Spent 5 hours fixing my computer!!!!!!!	Holocaust memorial near Faneuil Hall	Fish and Fruit Market in Boston
Funny street sign on Hannover Street - Little Italy	Thats how american think - a red wine glass should look like	Me an one guy of the Blue Man Group

Its been one of my most craziest days at work. I thought that it will be a relaxed day - thought that I get in the office - doing some bugfixing and then my presentation in the afternoon. Well - sometimes there are days where everything is going a bit different than expected. It started about 20 mins after I arrived - urgent call from support - dealing with it till 1 PM - another urgent one waiting - but I had to do the presentation at 1:30. So - finally - at 4PM - I started my bugfixing - which I was supposed to do the whole day. I fear I have to do some additional work on the weekend - but hopefully not too much - the weather suppossed to be very nice this weekend - so I wanna get out a bit. And right now - I am on my way to salsa. ole ole

It seems that I am getting old. Additionally to my right knee that keeps hurting - my right hand starts making problems. First I thought its a muscle ache because of the kajaking. But now its getting serious. Every move with my hand is painful and it starts swelling - I hope it is nothing with my bones - but I need to check out a doctor if it is not getting better on weekend. My worst fears are that I have to skip salsa - well - no way - no matter how painful it is - it cant be too painful for salsa.
So - I am waiting for a call from Raul, Mieke or Joachim. They are still in town and we will do something tonight. bye bye

Sorry for the short update yesterday - but I left my laptop in the office - and actually - there was not much going on yesterday. I went home waiting for a call from our training people (there are 2 irish, one german, .... TSE's in Boston this week). So - I went home - finish my current book and fall asleep. Nobody called - and when I woke up again it was alread past midnight where I decided to finally go to bed.
Today should be different. I join those training people for dinner and afterwards we will go out having some drinks. I hope to get some pictures that I will upload somewhen tomorrow as I will leavy my laptop in office again.
But here are some exciting news: I got some travel information for the next weeks - I added a new section on my main site - containing travel information about private and business trips.
bye
Here are the pictures from yesterday night:

We went out for thai dinner - the guys from the training - the trainer and me (I cheated myself into this group)	The dishes looked fabulous - they made those rice cones for most of the meals	Our Irish Tech-Support guys - figuring out how this damn camera works
Michelle and Joachim - enjoying a good beer at Christophers	A funny tap - good branding actually	My assorted nachos - looks gross - but tastes good

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!
Well - that must be the real new england weather. Just looking out the office window and it is snowing - and I have no jacket - nice!!!

Last week I tought Stephan what the german word "Sturmfrei" means - now he knows and now I am the one having Sturmfrei for this week. He is out on a conference in Dallas. So - no nights spending at Christophers this week - more time for Salsa!!
It became really cold today - although the sun was shining - but we are expacting some snow showers tomorrow - brrrrrr! Well - thats New England - but as far as I've seen on ORF Weather - its not much better in austria.

As last weekend was really extraordinary good - I thought that I upload some more pictures:

Breaking the ice - I can tell you - it was lots of fun	Sarah had some company in her kanu	A biber making its way through an ice hole!

It's been a great weekend - all from friday through sunday. I left work early on friday - going to Boston for a nice walk taking some pictures in Boston Common Park as well as on other nice places.
I met Sarah for dinner - we had Indian (that was tough - it was really hot and I had to struggle with the food on friday and half of saturday - I was always happy having a toilet nearby :-) ).
So - we went out for Salsa dancing - Havanna Club - not too many people as the 2nd Boston Salsa Congress took place at Logan Airport. But it was really nice - lots of space for dancing.
We went to New Hampshire on Saturday noon - and of course stopping at the liquor store right after the state border. Its funny - they built those stores right on the Interstate for people from Massachusetts in order to get cheap alcohol. Massachussetts has high taxes on alcohol - whereas New Hamsphire does not. So - lot of people from MA just drive up the highway to the liquor store to buy cheap stuff there.
We spent the weekend at the Summer Camp that Sarahs father owns - its really nice. Right on a lake - which is still frozen. We took the kanu's and tried to fight our way along the shores - it was my duty breaking the ice in order for us to make some progress.
We spent saturday night at one of Sarahs friends - where I had a nice experience - the first american beer that I really liked - it is Shipyard Export Ale

On Sunday we kanue'd again - and finally made it all the way to the swamp. After some hours on the lake we came back - with a light sun burn on our face and hands. I got back to Boston by bus and made it right to Christophers where Stephan was already waiting. I had my beloved Julius Echter and a plate of Assorted Nachos. And now its time to go to bed - another week is waiting for me - I guess an enjoyable one as 2 guys from Belfast are visting our office this week.bye

Builing in Boston - my eyes have been fooled when I walked by it as I expected a 90 degrees edge	Squirel in Boston Common Park	Me in the Kanu - trying to break the ice in order to make a round trip on the lake
Climbing trees - haven't done that for ages	The frozen lake - it was beautifule	Just nice - I will miss that when I have to face the city life this week again

Should be the last day dealing with those COM issues - hopefully. Well - its friday - hope I wont be in for too long today - maybe 5 or so.
Stephan asked me to fix his notebook and after that I will be going out to Havanna Club. I wont be able to update my website over the weekend as my first trip outside boston is on the doorstep. I will spend my weekend somewhere in New Hampshire. Hope to take lots of pictures. So - you will probably see an update on monday morning!

Hi there - yesterday was an OK day. Problems with COM have been smoothed out a bit. Went home rather early - grabbing a good chicken sub - and after that going for a short bike ride. Went out to Ryles for some salsa again - learned two new moves - hope that I can still remember them tomorrow at the Havanna Club.bye

"Always look on the bright side of life"
This line from a famous song explained what I was just telling myself. So - after this strange day again - I came from at 7:45 - going to the Liquior store (the one that is a but further away). I got there getting the stuff I wanted to buy - and then off course - being asked for my ID. I only had my driver license - and guess what: NOT ACCEPTED! So - all the way back home. And here comes the bright side of the story. I decided to take my bike this time - giving me some type of exercise!!

Well - now I am sitting here - facing my old friend COM again. Why that? Because this customer having the issues wants a solution by tomorrow - and my customer visit today took too long - so - a night shift at home hopefully solving those strange problems. And here is the next bright side - I will do it with some good drinks. Bye Bye
------- (update 23:21)
So - I spent the past 3 hours in solving strange COM issues - and I am not sure if the stuff that I just developed really works. This kind of work is somehow disappointing - but thats the way it works - there can not only be sunshine in our working life. Good Night!!

I thought this was a nice view - sunset shining through the trees on my way home	Opposite to this - sunrise in the morning when I waited for Thomas to pick me up

Those of you who know me are familiar that I do not often curse - and if - not loud. Well - if you would have been here 10 minutes ago you would have heard me. Sitting here in my appartment - watching out of the window - nice weather - fixing COM problems for a customer. I will request to make COM an offical swear-word - as I get a bit upset each time I have to deal with out.
Well - but thats the way life goes. I've decided to just leave the work for today - well - not really - I still have to prepare for a customer visit tomorrow - but I think I will go out now for a short bike ride - getting rid of my lousy mood.
---------
Update: Just came home from an hour of a bike ride. And I learnt one thing: Never forget your lights when you go out and you dont really know how long the tour is. The reason: People where yelling at me because I had no light as it was already dark :-)
So - I am just waiting for Stephan now and then we head out for Christophers. bye bye

What a day!!
Here is a short overview: 5 minutes time to get up - tooth brush - getting out to take the ride with thomas - great day at work - at least till 3PM - then trouble started - actually wanted to go home at 5 - but solving more and more customer problems it was 7 PM - realizing that because of the rush in the morning I forgot my wallet - with the money and bus tickets - asking Alan for some money for the bus - walking home the 2 miles from Alwife station as I had no T-Pass and no more money.
So - I hope you got this - it was funny but a bit crazy. Now - sitting at home I thought its time for a bit of relaxing - therefore I am sitting here - watching Friends - drinking Franziskaner Weissbier - having a pot of MicroWave Pop Corn - and actually I am on my way to Salsa at Greek Grill Restaurant. bye bye
--------
Just a short update - Salsa was great. Actually - I've found some nice pictures one the different salsa web sites here:
Me and Sarah at the Havanna Club
I will not admit that I use any deodorant *gg*
Another picture from Ryles
So - its 1:30 AM in the morning - I am not at all tired - but I've to go to bed now - bye bye

So - what to do in Boston when the weather is not too good. I decided to hop on the T and ride to a station where I've never been before. So I hopped on the Red-Line on got off in Quincy Center. The City of Quincy is south of Boston - walked around a little bit and took the T back to boston - walking around there. See the pictures that I took today!

United First Parish Church in Quincy	Impressiv look to one of Bostons Skyscrapers in the Financial District	One of the parks in downtown boston
The view from Boston's Aquarium towards Boston Financial District	Friends of Columbus Park	I've not really figured out what this is all about. Its near Governmental Center

---------
Well - guess what I was doing sunday night - correct - Salsa night at Ryles. It was extremly good today. Not too much people - so there was enough space to dance. And - they had two different groups performing some special salsa dance. See the pictures below!

The group Salsa Y Control performed at Ryles	I dont know the name of them - but it was really amazing	On my way back home I finally took a good shot of the gloves in Porter Square T-Station

Its been a very very very very rainy day here in New England. I managed to do some meaningful work like laundry, ironing, solving some technical issues (e.g.: installing the wireless printer from stephan, fixing some issues in Sandros software, ...). I then went out getting the shoes for wolframs boy. He asked me to order some special shoe from FootLocker and I got it yesterday. Now I anly need one of the Linz-Lab guys comming over here to bring it back to him.
I was then trying to buy some WeissBier glasses - but no chance. There is a big store that sell this stuff for pubs and restaurants - and they've been sold out - so I have to wait for another 2 weeks.
Evening was good - going out to the cinema (Miss Congeniality 2 - the first one was better) - some Pool Billard - and finally a visit to the The Black Rose. An irish band performed there - it was really funny!
I also tried to shoot some pictures but I am still strugling with my camera when making night pictures. I haven't figured out yet about which settings I need to adjust in order to get sharp pictures. But I am getting better. Here are some shots from yesterday!

This should be the escalator down to Porter Square T-Station. Between the escalators - you will find gloves from the workers who built this T-Station	Playing Pool with Sarah. I dont want to be selfish - but she had no chance at all :-)
The Irish Band in the "The Black Rose"	Quincy Market at Night - its a very nice scene and I hope to get some better pictures

April's Fools Day - and I've been fooled a little bit. But actually - a bigger relief for me is the picture of the day. Finally got in this liquor store to buy some good wheat beer. My next problem is that I do not have wheat beer glasses yet. I tried to buy some from Christophers - but they only have a few and cannot sell them. But I've been told that there is a shop nearby that has those kind of glasses. Well - it will be another night of salsa in the havanna club tonight. Weekend supposed to be very rainy - so I am not yet sure what to do - maybe some museums or other sights that can be visited independant of bad weather. Keep you updated

A nice potpurie of wheat beer