A horrible thing happend today in the early morning - check out this link Beer Truck Crash!!
Besides that - its been the last day of the quarter - so I hope our sales guys are more quite now with their urgent requests and escalated customer issues!!
Went for soccer again - but it wasnt really satisfactory. Too many people on a not easy to play field - but it was good to do some excercise. Now I have a beertschi and then I will go to Ryles for some dancing - havent done the thursday dancing in a while.
And tomorrow - the last day of the week before an extended weekend - its Independance Day on monday - lets hope that no Aliens will try to kill us :-)!! bye

Well - didnt make it home early enough for the oil change - but tomorrow is another day - another attempt - but I doubt I will make it - too much work to do. But here is a really cool story that happened yesterday. You might know how americans think about football and the super bowl. So - yesterday - some former New England Patriots (the local boston team) players met Vladimir Putin. One of them wanted to show Putin his Super Bowl Ring (every player on the winning team gets a ring). Putin took it - tried it - and kept it - he thought it is a present!! :-). Isnt that fun??!!!
My collegues back home in good old austria had their TM Release Party today - sorry that I missed that - but I have a beer right now - so - thats my way to celebrate our great new product.

Thats it for today - greetings!

Puhh - that was another 12 hours day in the office - and another hour spend at home for solving support problems. But - to be honest - support at home was after having at least two bottles of beer - so - that was ok.
So - I am looking forward to the day this week where I can actually make it home before 6PM in order to bring the car to the oil change that need to be done. Right now - I think - I will just have another Hefeweizen. good night - andi

I left office in the afternoon - going up to Hampton Beach again - meeting Joe. He is there on vacation for the next 3 days with his family and he invited me for a nice evening with them. It was amazing. When I left Boston here around 3 we had 90 degrees - up there - it was only 70 because of the see breeze. So - we drove along the shore - stopped at a nice bar - had a drink - drove back to their appartment - had dinner - and after that we threw some balls (american football). It took me a while to figure out how to throw the ball correctly as I am not really used to it. Here are some pictures!

A beautiful sight - isnt it? I mean the ocean - not the bear :-)	Another beautiful sight. No I mean the two gentleman.	Looks professional!! NFL is waiting for me!

Its been the hottest weekend since I am here. Saturday morning I tried to get up at 6 and drive up to New Hampshire. But after I got up I realized that I am far too tired to drive for almost 2 hours. So I went back to bed. Getting up at around 9 - doing laundry - bying thread and needle to fix my buttons on my pants and getting some breakfast.
Took my bike after that and I tried to find a lake in the area. Actually - there is one - very close by - but its for public water supply and therefore nobody is allowed to swim in. So I just relaxed under the trees next to the lake.
Riding back at around 4 via Harvard Square - getting a nice Paulaner and a Salad in the bar I've been friday night - so - sitting outside in the hot sun - yeah!!!
Driving up to New Hampshire in the evening - spending the evening/night and the morning in the summer camp. Its the first weekend with kids - actually - the moved in yesterday - so it was different this time. In the morning I participated in their first "Morning Meeting" - where all kids and stuff members come together to discuss whats going on during the day. After that I left and drove to the beach - to be precise - to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. Its a really long sand beach along the city of Hampton - and soooo many people there. And I have to admit that I broke the law. I had a bottle of beer with me and consumed it in public (check the sign - it could have cost me $100).
Stayed there till 3PM making my way home to boston. Took me about 1.5 hours because of the traffic - cannot imagine the traffic if I would have drove down when everybody is leaving.
So - now I am just relaxing - waiting for the thunderstorms comming in (they have been predicted for the late afternoon). Maybe doing some salsa tonight - or just having a quick bite and go to bed early. cu

Very unusual beer glass - and very poor poured in - guess I need some more training on this	Morning Meeting in the Summer Camp	I felt like being in the middle of "Baywatch"
Sand sculptures - they seemed to have a kind of competition	People at the beach - backing up as the tide came	Didn't really stop me from drinking my beer on the beach

What a day! Its been extremly busy in work - lots of customers that had lots of problems - but in the end we solved all the problems - so its been a good day. Right now I am about to decide what to do on the weekend. To be honest - I have no idea. I will keep you updated for sure!!
----------- (update 01:20)
Well - it was a really nice evening. Startet by calling around to get somebody to hang out with me here in cambridge. And lucky as I am - Brenda "volutneered"! So - we went to Harvard Square and went to a pub where we could actually sit outside and - now it comes - the also had Paulaner!!!! We left at midnight - she went home and I went on to Central Square for some Salsa. Havent danced for a couple of weeks - so it was really good to do it again. But it was hotter than I had expected. After 2 dances I looked like I was just coming out from a pool!!!
Now I am sitting at home - updating my website with a good wheat beer next to me. bye

The boys are back in town
Stephan is back in town. He spent the last 1.5 weeks on Cape Cod. I never mentioned it on my website before - but John - his partner - died 2 weeks ago. The funeral service took place last friday. Unfortunately I couldnt make it as I was on transit back from Europe - but I heard some stories today from Tony and Stephan about it - and I think they had a good time. I will keep this topic short as I've never met John in person - just when he was in hospital - but he was unconscious at this time. I only know him based on the stories that Stephan, Tony and all the others are telling me about him - and based on that it seems that I missed to meet a good person.
So - today was a good day. The sun was out - I went home rather early - took my bike - riding down to the Charles river - laying down in the grass and reading my book. At the time when Stephan came home from the Cape I came back and shortly after that we all met at Christophers.
Right now we are back - having a nice good night drink. Here are two pictures that I took today!

My newly discovered beer brand - 4 different flavors!!	Tony, Stephan, myself and Tony's leg :-)

Today is not yet over - its only 6:30 PM - but I want to share the things that happend today. Well - first of all I experienced a nice tradition here. It seems that in summer time every 2nd or 3rd wednesday - an ice cream truck stops at the office building with free ice cream for everybody. The next thing that happened was that I planed to drive up to New Hampshire - visiting Sarah - but it seems that 4PM is a bad time to go north on I-95. As the traffic was really bad I decided to turn around - get my bike - and maybe find somebody for soccer. The idea was brilliant - went to Central Square - found people there - and at this moment it started raining really bad! I went home with some stops - hiding under trees. When I finally arrived home the sun came out again and now it seems as it has never rained today. Here are some impressions:

People in line - waiting for free ice!!	At this time I thought it will be over soon - still on Central Square	Next stop at Harvard Square - really bad rain!!

It was a pretty successful day at AOL. We had a big presentation - 8 people from our side - about 25 from AOL there and other people from AOL via WebEx. So - I hope that this was my last flight for a while - as I wanna get back to a rather "Normal" working life.
Thats all for today - I am going to bed now. cu

Pictures from home
Didi sent me some pictures from last weekends "Gusenraeumung" in Gallneukirchen. Our local political youth club in Gallneukirchen is cleaning the river Gusen that runs through our nice little town every year. Its the first time in years that I could not wade through the water - cleaning it from gargabe that people dump into it. So - see some pics down there.

On my side - nothing exciting happened today. After work I hopped on my bike - riding down to the charles - reading in the summer sun. Well - actually - there is something really terrible that happened. My beer stock was empty so I went out to buy some new Julius Echter. And it stroke me really hard - the store was out of stock!!!! So - I had to go with something new - german off course.
Tomorrow I have to fly to Dulles, Virginia - its next to Washington DC. Yahoo - another day on the airplane!! bye bye

After their work was done - they enjoyed beer in the summer sun	Didi, Boby and Andi robbing up the small waterfall	Christian - putting his life on stake - helped Didi with the garbage

I spent the weekend at Sarahs Summer Camp. And I can tell you - it was quite a nice experience. Their summer camp is currently filled with all the staff members that will start dealing with the kids next week. Currently they are in their prepration (orientation) phase. The cool thing about this weekend was that this counselor's are from all over the world. I havent spoken to everybody - but I had some chatting with people from Scottland, England, Australia, Slovakia, Sibiria, Jamaica, Germany and from all over the US. They were in the range from 18 till 30 - so - a pretty cool group of people. Yesterday night - they had a special evening where they performed some music - and its been incredible to experience their musical skills.
Today was a bit different - spent the time before lunch with work for segue - in the afternoon partly work and some fun - playing basketball with the instructors.
Well - here is something new - I have a car now. Sarah doesnt need her car in the next months - so she was so kind to give it to me in the remaining time that I am here. The ride home from New Hampshire was a bit frustrating though - there was a big motorcycle festival in New Hampshire - and on sunday afternoon when I went back to boston - it seemed that everybody from this festival was going south to boston as well. So - slow traffic.
Anyway - came home - bought some food at the store - went to christophers for a small meal - and now I am here getting some work done and hopefully be able to go to bed soon - still exhausted from last week!!
Some pictures from New Hampshire - and 2 additionals:

This warning in the bathroom of my hotel in London - I thought that its funny	Sarahs Dad - a friend of their family and Rachel - performing a song	Greg - the crazy Australien - he is a cool guy
Nice combination - Drums and Guitarr	They performed a cool song together - all with drums	Currently sitting here with this canadian beer

Home in Boston again
Stayin at the customer till about 4 - back to the hotel to grab the luggage - hopping on the subway towards Heathrow - and getting on the plane at around 7. Arrived here in my appartment at 11. Checking emails for the past hour. So - now I am tired as I still miss lot of sleep - but I need to get up 6:30 as I try to catch the bus up to new hampshire. Well - as I wanna go to bed I wont put anything additional to this entry. good night

Good old Europe
Nice day in london. Arrived in the hotel around 11:30. Got some work done in the hotelbar (thanks to wireless lan) and after that Martin and I went to the customer. In the evening we went out a little bit. Our hotel is very well located - in the center of london. 10 mins walk to picadilly circus and trafalgar square. We had dinner in a nice mexican bar on leicester square and some german wheatbeers in another bar before we already went home at 10 pm. i am still extremly tired from yesterday as I am still missing lots of sleep. Here are some pictures:

Picadilly Circus with the famous advertising	A typical london sight - the underground signs	Wheatbeer on tap - yummie
Martin and I - sitting outside - with a beer - without showing an Id - without any problems - aaahhh - thats europe!!	Another typical scene - red phone booths in london	Well - some statue with a strange austrian in front of it

Exhausting Day
Arrived in Belfast at 8 in the morning - could not sleep on the plane - so I was already tired when I arrived. The day was really cool - a short sight seeing tour through Belfast - training session in the afternoon - going out for dinner&drinks at night. After 38 hours I finally got my 6 hours sleep!!! Headed to the airport and right now Martin and I are in London - just checked in at the hotel - ready for our first of two customer visits.

I managed to get into a hot bath - and I even got company	One of the shopping streets in Belfast	Belfast City Hall
Very british: typical cabs	Segue at Dinner - its been a nice evening/night	Can you imagine that - its been past 10PM and it was still bright outside!
I have no idea what this building is all about - but i liked it	We've been in this cool bar - where we were actually sitting in a cube!	Thats europe: SPAR and those messages on the cigarette boxes

Going to Europe
Its been a short night and the day turned out to be different that I had in mind. I thought I will work from home today as I have to go to the airport in the afternoon and it is easier from my appartment as I can take the subway. Anyway - it seems that because of all the constructions that are going on in the area - the cable of our internet/tv provider has been hit. So - when I got up in the morning there was no chance of checking mails or doing any kind of work. So I went to the office for a couple of hours - came back just a few minutes ago - getting everything ready for europe. I hope the flight will be as nice as the one last night - on schedule would be perfect.
Bye bye

A short trip to houston
The original plan was to stay in hoston till tuesday morning but I made good progress on monday so I am currently sitting on the plane from Houston to Boston - and we should be there ON-TIME!!! which means shortly before midnight!
Houston was as hot and humid as Boston has been over the last weekend - but as everything is air conditioned - it was not really hard to take.
I know that most of you have already seen such pictures as below - but as I've never taken them by myself I thought it is time for it - so - some impressions out of the left side window of the plane!

Belief it or not - I did not need to show my ID in order to sit in the exit row :-)	Ueber den Wolken
	Very delicous - if you get a chance - try it!!

Everything hurts!!
I can tell you - I feel every bone and muscle in my body. Its because of yesterdays soccer tournament. I slept like a baby tonight - sooo tired!!
Well - now - I sit here and try to get everything ready for my trip this week. Not only preparation for the trip itself but also other small things that have to be done: laundry, washing up, ...
I got out in the morning to grab some breakfast from Bruegger's - and the heat and humidity struck me really hard. It already had 25 degrees and 85% humidity.
I am not sure if I can update the website in the next days as I will be travelling all week long - but I will take my camera with me to take some pictures from Houston, Belfast and London. bye bye

------ (Update 23:40)
Greetings from Texas. I start disliking traveling by plane. Its the second time this week that I had a delay of more than an hour. And the damn thing about this time was that it was extremly hot in the airplane when we waited on the runway. They had no AC - just very limited fans - but - anyway - thats they way it is here. In winter air traffic is struck by snow storms - and in summer its thunder storms.
Have a nice week back home - hope you get better weather than last week!!

Summer and Soccer in the City!!
Its been a hot day with lots of fun and sweat. I've been invited to participate in a soccer tournament today. The tournament raises money for children in Boston. So - it was fun for a good purpose. The only thing that was a bit hard was the weather. It had about 30 degrees!! I know you guys at home dream about those temperatures right now. Well - we had 3 games - did very well - but didnt make it into the finals. Check out the pictures:

Justin showed us our strategie before the first game - to be honest - it changed a little bit during the games :-)	Good defense - kicking the ball out of the hot area	Technical meeting between the games
During lunch time we tried to get refill our energie tanks	We played at the stadium of Boston University	Beers after the match. So - this was our final round!!

Finally the weekend is here. Didn't have a weekend the week before so I was pretty much looking forward to that. After work today I went straight to Christophers. Stephan and Tony already waited for me and shame on them - they already had a plate of nachos. But - when I arrived there - they had a free seat next to them with a glass of Julius Echter already waiting for me.
We went home after that - and tony tried to hook up the new dishwasher that we got. But unfortunatelly - the pipes that he brought with him didn't match - but lets hope he will be able to do it tomorrow - otherwise I am running out of clean wheatbeer glasses!!
Here are some pictures from Christophers and our actions here in the appartment!

Turbodog beer! The name is strange - but the taste is good - its from New Orleans!!	Tony's left leg and the message they left me on our message board - thats the way we communicate here - we dont need SMS or mail :-)
Tony on the floor trying to hook up the dishwasher and Stephan pretending to superwise	Tony - and his leg that has been converted to a wine cooler!!

It feels like X-MAX!!!
I was heavily gifted today. First - I've seen Wolfram (Hubbo) right in the morning when I got to work. I already had some suspicion when I heard glass clinking as Hubbo lifted one of his bag out of the taxi. And I was right!!! Not even did I got my new laptop and finally my Segue wind-jacket. I also got 3 bottles of the finest beer on earth. Thank you UDO!!!!!
I will go to christophers in a minute - just waiting for Stephan. So - bye for today!!

The official handover of the the Luitpold Beer - not the best shot - but historical!!	My cube today - its getting funny in there - 2 laptops - 2 monitors	My X-MAS presents!!

Travelling turns out to be crazy more often! Like today. Getting up at 4:30 in order to check back with our austrian office. Conference call at 8:30 - to the customer at 9. Skipped lunch in order to get out at 3PM in order to get a flight. Lots of flights have been delayed in the last days because of severe thunderstorms. So - we got a flight that was scheduled 2 hours ahead of the planned one. That would have been good - but we had to wait 1 hour because of thunderstorms. Although that delay I got the earlier connection flight in Atlanta. I ran from one terminal to the other and got on there just 5 minutes before the planned departure. But then we had to wait 2 hours in the plane. So finally - I arrived in boston at midnight - directing the taxi driver to take the fastest way - and this was the next mistake. They had constructions in the tunnel :-) . Well - nothing to complain though - its been a nice time in Nashville - check out the pictures!

I've finally seen Star Wars III. After only 4 hours of sleep I was surprised that i made it so good through the day. Had my first day at the customer - got a hair cut - and finally went to the Star Wars Movie. Well - those of you who have already seen it know that it is not too bad. Although I was a bit shocked in the first minutes when they tried to place lots of small jokes in there - I think that this was just too much. But after that it was not too bad - and finally - the story line has been closed!
So - tomorrow - customer again - getting out at around 4 - catching the flight at 6:30 via Atlanta to Boston - arriving there shortly after midnight. Wont have time to update my website tomorrow - so - you have to wait for the pictures from nashville till wednesday/thursday! cu

I love the New Hampshire license plates - Live free or Die	Joe and I on sunday night - with our treasure that we got from the grocery store	My office in the past two days - working with Bart

Another hot day in Boston and I spent it in an even hotter office at the customer!! But I got paid for it - so there is nothing to complain.
Got to boston airport around 5:00 leaving me 1.5 hours for some dinner before I headed to Nashville via Cincinnati. Joe - one of my segue collegues is here with me the next days. As his flight got delayed I had to wait for him at the airport till a bit after 11PM. We finally got to the hotel around midnight where me made the brilliant decision to go to the super market to get some beer and nachos. So - right now - its 1:30 AM CT which is 2:30 EST - and I currently have my 3rd paulaner hefeweizen - yummie!!
But its time to go to bed - getting up early to go to the customer! cu

The warmest weekend so far - and I spend it in an even warmer office at a customer!
Well - thats the way it goes. But its been nice so far. But I've been tought another strange lesson in american laws yesterday night. First - I picked up the rental car that I need this weekend in order to drive to the customer on saturday and sunday. After that I picked up Sarah at Porter Square we went to Revere Beach again. After we returned we decided to go out trying to find a place where we can sit outside and have some drinks. Well - the thought was perfect as the weather was perfect - but its not that easy to a) find a place where you can sit out and get alcohol and b) a place where you are allowed to drink the alcohol outside. So - we found places that had seats outside but no alcohol - then - on Harvard Square - we found this bar with outside seating - but there you are not allowed to consume alcohol outside (state law!!). But finally - we found a bar near Harvard where we had some overpriced - but very good and intense - cocktails. Tottering towards home somewhen after midnight we made a final stop at Christophers where we got another drink which was definitly too much for us. But it was fun!

So - after getting up at 8 today - driving to Framingham - spending the day in a non airconditioned office - I was ready for some outdoor activity. Got on my bike - tried to find people to play soccer with - but I had no luck! So I ended up with a small bike tour - which was nice though! The happy end though was that I found a place tonight - right on Porter Square (2 mins away from the appartment) where you can sit outside and get beer - thanks god!!

Tomorrow will be another day at the customer - leaving there at 4 to catch the plane at 6. I am again going to Nashville - another customer - spending two days there. cu

A kite-surfer on the atlantic ocean	Nice sundown at Revere beach	A better sundown picture as I do not disturb the beautiful scene
One of the cocktails that broke our neck	If you look close you can see that we already had too much at Christopers	I hope that he (bartender at Christophers) enjoyed our company

Interesting day. Today I got my travel schedule for the first two weeks in June - and it seems that there wont be many days that I spent at home. Starting with this weekend - which I spent at a Customer here in the area. Going to Nashville on Sunday night staying there till tuesday. Next Sunday - heading to Houston (Texas) - leaving tuesday morning to fly to europe. Yeah - good old Europe - but unfortunately not austria. I will be in Belfast on Wednesday - going on to London staying there on thursday and friday - making the flight home at friday night. So - it seems it will be quite interesting.
keep you updated

A new month!
First of the month - not much too exciting going on today. So - work - getting home at 6 - hopping on the bike to ride to Central Square for some soccer. But again - nobody showed up at this place - so I went on to M.I.T and found a park where people played soccer and I joined them. After that - shower - and finally - bringing back 30 bottles of wheat beer - so I now have more place to store more empty bottles.
After that I went to Christophers - with Stephan and Tony. Tony is teaching with Stephan at the Culinary School. Its interesting how the weather turned out now - its been another sunny day and it is supposed to be sunny at the weekend as well - yeah!!!
Well - good night!

Tony and Stephan in Christophers	A BIG plate of Assorted Nachos - yummie