From Luitpold, VIPs and Wallpaint
This weekend - an extended one because of the free 1st of May is a weekend full of events so far. Friday night started out to be a nice evening at the home of Mr. Prinzregent himself - with Alex, Claudia (her sister), me and Udo. After we got rid of the old Luitpold (check the pictures - you wont believe that udo actually had beer thats due date had already passed. Well - we finished the night in walkers where Alex had a great victory in Dart against us (shame on us for the bad game but congrats to alex). On saturday morning (after 3 hours of sleep) we went out for furniture shopping. I dont really like running around in big shopping malls - especially not when its hard to cencentrate (or lets better say if its hard to fight against the sleep). At night we had free VIP tickets to the Plus City Cart Trophy. Didi was doing a dance performance with his dancing school and therefore we got free tickets to the VIP part of it. Well - and today - sunday - we finally managed to get Alex's new appartment painted. Tomorrow we will do the 2nd layer which should be enough. Thats it - check out the pics. cheers

Udo tried to overwrite the due date - shame on him!!	My Schatzl and me
Claudia at her first wheat beer pouring lesson	Plus City Cart Trophy - this shopping center is really amazing - and its been amazing how professional this event was organized
Sandra and Didi waiting for his dance performance	VIP No One: Thomas Muster - former ATP Tennis Champion
VIP No Two: Michael Konsel - former Austrian Goalkeeper	Matthias, Didi and I: enjoying the benefit of the VIP Ticket (free drinks)
The opening of the dance performance	Alex preparing the paint for her walls)
Just to let you know - I did not just pose for that picture - I really did some work :-)	Mittagsjause: her parents helped us (thank god that they did :-) )

Cheating the 2nd
Thats from my guestbook:
Cheating???
Hey come on now, when you talk about us Americans, or make accusations, you must say "allegedly" first i.e. "allegedly Stephan is opening and closing his browser all the time...."
PS Red Sox lost to Cleveland 3-15

Thanks Stephan for the clarification - and sorry about the Red Sox :-)
Besides cheating there were two other things that happened:
a) the GIS "kindly" asked me whether I want to resume paying the broadcasting taxes
b) Yesterday we've seen one of the worst movies ever: Final Destination 3. Alex left the movie about half way through - I made it till the end

Well - the weekend is here - looks like we are working again in Alex's new appartment - hopefully we finally do some painting. cheers

Cheating for the 10000 contest
Seems that there are people out there that would do everything to become the 10000 visitor of my website. Like Stephan - as he does not have a professional tool to generate lots of hits on my website - he is doing it the "oldfashioned - manual" way: he made my website the default website in his browser and he is opening and closing the browser all the time - thats especially useful when he cannot fall asleep - something like couting sheeps :-)
Not much else is going on - well - we now know that Barcelona and Arsenal are playing the champions league final on the 17th of May. We now know - if we believe the austrian weather forcasts - that winter is coming back again. And I also know that I have to run down to a meeting - we want to start on time! cheers

Its the teeth that trouble me!!
Oh yeah - my dentist story from last week is not over yet. After 5 days of pain with a peak on sunday after the marathon the pain with my teeth went away - but I got another problem. Seems that something got infected in my mouth and my lip (and up to right side of my nose) started swelling. Well - it looked a bit wired yesterday night - when I tried to smile only one side of my upper lip actually went up - must have looked funny. But - I am a real man - and therefore I dont want to go to a doctor :-). Alex tough wants to force me in case there is no significant improve till tonight. Well - in my opinion it got better - and it doesnt hurt at all - but she is right - if there is some problem I better check it out - but definitly not at the same dentist I've been last week. Well - what else is on my mind? Yesterday night was fun - salsa in Remembar - as always. And I was suprised how good it was - havent felt much pain in my sore legs from the marathon.
Tonight may be another night full of european soccer - its champions league time. thats it - have to run (literally) - we (co-workers) go out for a run every tuesday. cheers

Marathon
Oh my god - my legs hurt soo much - but for a good reason. I went out to finish the half-marathon under 2 hours - but - because of good preparation (too much food on saturday night and disgusting energy drinks that have been part of the marathon package) - I finished in 1:42:12. And I can also tell you that the rumor - sex before a sport event is not good - is really just a rumor :-)
After the marathon we also opened the beergarden season with the one or other Luitpold in the Klosterhof. Congrats also to Hubbo (working collegue) - he finished in 1:49:08. Here are some pics.

Opening the BBQ season	Energy drink breakfast - it tasted sooo good :-)
The start - more than 11000 participants	Alex missed me - so I ran back to take this shot
It was done!!	Celebrations in the beergarden

Countdown to the Half-Marathon: 2 days
Only two days left - well - right now as I am writing this entry its not even one more day. But anyway. Yesterday night I went for a final relaxing 10k run - after that we have been invited at Juergen&Babsis place. There we tried to shoot a picture of Juergen that would be acceptible by the new passport picture guidelines that are coming up for our new european passports. The point is: NO SMILING!! - thats no longer allowed.
I also bet with Sandro that my final time will be under 2 hours - the looser buys the beers afterwards. And I also asked Resl that he will wait after the finish line with a wheat beer :-)
Thats it for now - cheers

Juergen praciticing for the new passport picture guidelines	Philip helped us changing the tires on Didis car

Its done - we are Borland

Last day with Segue
Its the last day with Segue - tomorrow we are all Borland. That needs to be celebrated - therefore we will have a Brown Bottle meeting today - and a Day 1 Meeting tomorrow.
Besides that - a very sad thing happened today. As one of my teeth started hurting some weeks ago - and this pain got more and more over time I finally decided to check a dentist. Well - this lady didnt find many nice words for me (at least those words that I understood from her hungarian-german). But it was really my fault - havent been to a dentist in years and now there are lot of things that need to be fixed. Well - but my first session was good and took away my pain.
But now something nice - Stephan sent me this picture from his nephew. He sent it in a mail with a text addressed to my nephew maximilian. See the picture and the text below:

Hi Max, My name is Alexander (friends call me Xander) I’m 2 years old; my Uncle Stephan just introduced me to Wheat Beer. I hear your Uncle Andi has started teaching you about Wheat Beer too. Uncle Stephan tells me that we brew a fair amount of Hefeweizen here in the Northwest, his favorite was from Pyramid ( pyramidbrew.com ) Maybe some day we could get together and share a beer, when were out of diapers and can hold a Hefeweizen glass of course! Prost, Xander

Easter Sunday/Monday
Tradition has it that Easter Sunday and Monday are spent with friends and family. This tradition usually involves more food and drinks that someone would normally consume. We spent sunday evening with Doris&Robert - having a nice Osterjause (Eastersnack) with traditional Eierpecken-Championships (something like egg-crushing). On monday we visited my parents - so did my sister with her family - and of course - the easter bunny brought lots of presents for the small and the big kids. cheers

Vanessa and Raphael (with his new Go-Kart)	Lukas and Julia - Lukas had a winning egg
My nieces - happy after finding their easter nests	Another tradition - a sweet easter lamb

VIPs for 2 hours
Many thanks to the "little" brother of Udo (aka Prinzregent). He got 4 VIP tickets for the friendly ice hockey match Austria vs. France. Being a VIP in the Linzer Ice Hockey Arena means that food and drinks are for free :-)
The match itself was rather boring - but at least it ended with an austrian victory. After the match we went to Walker's - Udo + companions went on to Chelsea where I rejoined them about 2 hours later. Walker's is always a great place for meeting old friends - here are just some names: Xandl, Hutti, Lepsch, Jacky, Dani, ...
Thats it - cheers

For the records: I am not sure when we will be VIPs again	One of the most exciting moments of this game - the national anthem's
We managed our role of being VIPs: plates full of food - and more than one glass of beer per person	Small family reunion for udo. His uncle and niece got VIP tickets as well
Also for the records: the non-smoker udo struggling with the cigarette vending machine	Udo had a creative phase with the two strings of my sweater

Going out on Good Friday
As announced on the previous entry we met at my appartment and then went out - the usual tour - Walkers - then tried to get into Remembar without paying the cover - no chance - so Sandro and I went for a Caipirinha to Joe's Bar. Here are some pics.

Warm Up in my appartment (from left to right: Philip, Mario, Boni, Peda, Sandro)	At Walkers - Irene was "the hen of the walk" (not sure if that is the correct translation)
Seems she knows what boys like - of course - its the beer :-)	Good old friends!!

Work-Vacation - Day 2
Well - that was exhausting - moving furnitures from Alex's new appartment to the dumpster. First - everything needed to be disassembled - then we had to move it down 3 stores - then driving to the Altstoffsammelzentrum - and there - throwing everything in the correct containers. But its been fun - no need for a fitness club or anything related today. Although today is Good Friday - the strictest catholic holiday during the period of Lent - we had some beer after we finished our daily goal - that was soooo good. Tonight - some friends will come over and then we may go out a bit. Tomorrow - breakfast in Walkers - then some shopping - then some running (only 8 days to go to the half-marathon). At night we check out the friendly icehockey match Austria vs. France. Thats it for now - have to run - here are some pics from today:

Getting rid of the current light system	Seems that I am not the only one who drinks beer on Good Friday - my brother is having a party tonight

Work-Vacation
I have two days off - but not for relaxing. Alex got her confirmation that she can move into a new appartment in June. As the appartment is already empty (the prev. person already moved out) we already started the necessary repair works. The original plan was to even do some wall painting this week - but Alex changed her plans. Now we have to move more things out of the appartment than we originally thought - but - as we still have 1.5 months to finish everything - it doesnt mean that we are behind schedule. So - today we did some repair work on the walls, some cleaning and some prep work for painting. Tomorrow we move out different furnitures. For lunch (well - it was already 3:30 PM) Alex prepared a typical Maundy Thursday meal - well - at least the spinach is typical. We got the incredients at an organic shop where we also found some organic beer - yeah.
As easter is pretty close we decided to see "Passion Christi" - the movie from and with Mel Gibson. Thats it - here are some pics.

Just as a reminder for those of you who didnt know!!	Alex doing some prep-work
Organic Austrian Beer - we already tasted the cannabis one - not too bad	Kind of traditional meal for that day

Several things happened yesterday. First - I got my US Tax payment request - I was shocked about the amount. I have to pay US taxes for 2005 because I worked there longer than 186 days and Austria and the US have a tax agreement so that I have to pay taxes in the US for that period of time. Anyway - the company supports me in case I would have to pay more taxes than I would have payed here in Austria. What else happened? Alex got the confirmation that she can move to a new appartment. Its bigger - it has a garage - and its just several euros more per month. That means that we have some work to do this week - checking furniture - painting walls - ...
And of course - there was salsa in the remembar - as every monday. For fans of Salsa - there is a Salsa Ball happening on 5th of April - Salsa Linz.
Today in the morning I was really a bit surprised about the "Comeback of Winter". It has about 2 degrees and it snows - but hopefully its the last comeback as its really enough now with the cold and wet weather.
As for the pictures - unfortunatelly there is not much exciting going on to take pictures of - so its time for another flashback. Last year at this time I checked out the lake at sarahs's summer camp - with the canoe.

Me in the Kanu - trying to break the ice in order to make a round trip on the lake	The frozen lake - it was beautiful

Sunny Weekend
Its been one of the nicest (weatherwise) weekends this year. We started with a nice breakfast in Cafe Traxlmayr in Linz. After that we relaxed on the balcony of Alex's appartment. In the evening we've been invited for dinner by Leo and his wife. Leo always faszinates me with his cooking skills. His heritage is serbian and the south-east europeans just know how to celebrate cooking. As always - when I am invited at Leo's - you can be sure that cooking takes about 3 to 4 hours - with lots of schnaps and beer that needs to be tasted while the food is being prepared and cooked. But - its always worth waiting for it. Our late dinner (started at 10:30PM) was followed by more wine and beer. At 3 AM we finally decided to go to bed. As we could stay over at their place we had another nice breakfast experience in the morning. His wife prepared delicious pancakes.
Because of all this feast I decided to do something good to my body and went out for a run with Irene. In the end I ran more than I anticipated. I gave Irene my appartement key to put it in her pocket - unfortunatelly I recognized that the key is still in her pocket when I was back home. So I had to run another 2 km to get the key back. Getting home I just checked out the track for the Linz Halfmarathon in two weeks - that will be long 21km. Anyway. Tonight should be fun - we plan to watch "Ice Age 2". Unfortunatelly the ticket ordering system of Cineplexx is down today - as is their phone ordering system. So I will probably take my bike to get the tickets in advance. thats it . cheers

Roberts Birthday
Robert turned 27 today - well - the fifth time now - so - somebody may say he turned 31! Anyway - we visited them at home for a nice dinner, beer, wine and desert. Soccer in the afternoon was a blast - lots of running because we were only 6 guys - but lots of fun - and fortunatelly I had a good day with lots of goals that I scored. Check the pictures below - the 4th one is special. Its a writing on the whiteboard in udo's office. We had a short conversation and I thought that it was worth taking it down. And to remember it I also took the picture - because - its never too early to start collecting stories for my biography :-). Cheers

Fuerst-Abt - seems that robert has his own Abt. His last name is also Fuerst	Alex and the two kids of Doris and Robert
Yummie - hungarian chocolate cake	Citing Udo

Troubles with a P4
Well well - my biggest trouble today was a P4 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD. This damn machine just stopped working after I spent the last two days in setting it up correctly. The only good thing about that is that I can go home for today as it will take several hours for our guys in IS to "reanimate" it. Therefore I take the chance - go home - hopefully get a new haircut and maybe go running. At night I will join Doris and Robert for some wine tasting in the Rathaus. thats it - cheers

Champions League Bowling :-)
Yesterday was stamped by our Segue Bowling Event (the last one of its kind) and the quarter final of the European Champions League.
First we went Bowling. We have been the second group (the first was on tuesday) - and we had a new record. Roland (aka Roli, aka Junior) scored 210!! and pulverised the high score from tuesday (by Didi) who "only" had 195!!
After the bowling I visited Udo (the outgoing Prinzregent). Yesterday he found out that the beer that basically is responsible for his name is going to change the name from Prinzregent to Koenig Ludwig. A bit upset about that we fought a mission to get rid of his current Prinzregent stocks. Of course we did not just come together to drink beer - we watched the quarter final of the Champions League: Arsenal London - vs. Juventus Turin. I cheered for Arsenal - he for "The old Lady" Juve. Arsenal made it to the next round! Here are some pics!

We had the first two lanes	I tried to make some nice shots
Hubbo in a tilted position	210!!! check that out!
Udo - cheering for Juve - that was at a time when there was still hope for that team	Getting more anxious as the game progressed

Hybrid
Sandro brought his Toyota to the repair shop and got a Toyota Prius for the time while his car is being repaired. He decided to take the Prius because I asked him to do so. I think that my current car might not be good forever - so I am looking for some alternatives. And - to do something good for our environment - I thought that I wanna check out a Hybrid car. Its been a great experience.
What else happened today? Hubbo (working collegue) and I went for a run. We have the plan to do that every week now to prepare for the half-marathon at the end of the month. After that I went to Gallneukirchen to our monthly JVP Roundtable. Before I got back to my appartment I joined Alexandra at the Posthof where her niece was playing a concert. Thats it. Tomorrow is Bowling Event from the company - lets hope that my practice last friday is doing any good. cheers

The Hybrid Car	Our small round table

Weekend
What a cool weekend. Friday night we went Bowling - it was good a good practice for our company wide bowling event next week - so that I will hopefully score more than 100 per game. On saturday we first checked out Cafe Stern for breakfast. Then we checked out the Open Day at our local radio station: Life Radio.
At night Alex and I went separate ways - she checked out the scene in her home town Gutau and I went to my home town Gallneukirchen where I luckily met lots of old friends at Kultur Cafe Vernissage. Then of course a visit to Hoppala. And here a valueable information for Hoppala (or Picadilly) Veterans. On April 29th they celebrate a "Veteranentreffen".
So - the night was nice but not too long. Got home at around 2 and - as always when I go out at home - I checked the fridge of my parents for a late night snack. I actually thought that I will stay awake to watch the formula one grand prix in australia. But when I woke up on the couch at 7:30 I knew that I missed this event.
Today was a relaxing day in Gutau. We've been invited for lunch, cake and coffee - and we checked the dancing skills of Alex's parents. They - as many austrians right now - have been affected by Dancing Stars. Here are some pictures from the weekend

In the LifeRadio studio	Thomas and me in Vernissage - we two went to the same class in secondary school
One reason why I like this pub so much - because of the beer	Markus (aka Jacky)
Claudia and Roland	Elke and me
Christian	Waltraud and Christian