It seems that there are lots of nice people out there in the world. Like the girl that just gave me a ride home. Some background: I went out salsa dancing to An Tua Nua. Its a great place - nice lessons - cool people - good music - good dancing. As I was ready to take the subway home I've been offered a ride home which saved me about 30 minutes - thanks again!!!!!!!!
Thats it for the last entry of the month - hope december will be a good month and a good end of 2005 - happy advent - bye

2 weeks to go - isnt that amazing? As for today - its been a nice busy day in the office - not as busy as for some of the folks at home in the austrian office - I really hope that they will soon get some relief when all our products are released. But - it was a good day. And as for tonight - it was time for some christophers - nachos - beer - ...

I poured my own beer while the bartender was not watching :-)	A typical meal at christophers - well - we already finished the nachos

The online skiing season just started - check out Ski Challenge 06. So - I guess I spent about an hour yesterday and today to master the first downhill track of the game. And - after uncountable crashes and missed gates I can announce that I am about 2 seconds faster than The Prinzregent after his first attempts. So - for all of you that also take the challenge - try to beat 2:02,600 - cheers

The remaining Thanks Giving Weekend ended as relaxing as it started. On Saturday morning - stephan gave sarah some knife sharping lessons followed by some lessons ins how to prepare a good brunch with italien sausage, omlette, cake, ...
Driving back to boston was easier than expected - only took us 2 hours. We dined with sarahs relatives and did some salsa dancing in a new place that we discovered. Today we did some christmas shopping - at least we tried it - check out the pictures.

Knife sharping lessons	Yummie - good brunch - enough to last for the whole day
Cambridge Galeria - nice shopping mall	On our way home from Park Street to Porter Square

SHOPPING DAY
Today was supposed to be shopping day - in fact - its supposed to be the biggest shopping day of the year in the USA. Well - so we went shopping - I got two pairs of pants for 50% off - yeah!!
But we did not just go shopping - we also went out for a nice walk through the dunes along the cape cod bay. After that we finally went to the movies to watch - guess what - HARRY POTTER - I can just tell you - GO THERE!!!!! Its really good!!
After that we went out for a nice dinner (stephan had some struggles with the waiter) and finally went home (walking, driving and riding on the hood of stephans car). good night

On the bike trail through the dunes	Interesing scene - sand dunes and frozen water
At the restaurant - it was delicous - and yeah - we had austrian wine!!!! THANKS STEPHAN!!!	Sarah on the hood of stephans car

TURKEY DAY
Just a quick one. Had a good day - lots of cooking - lots of eating - lots of new experiences, e.g.: oysters, american pie, turkey, ...

We made some punsch with austrian ingredients	Put the bird in the sauna :-)
Oysters - interesting experience - its been the first time for me	It was also the first time for Sarah - we both did good - each of us had 2
Our dining table	And the finished turkey with add-ons :-)

TRAVEL DAY
So - wednesday is the so called TRAVEL DAY. Its the bussiest travel day in the year when everybody is traveling home to their families for thanks giving holiday. Sarah and I already went down to PTOwn on tuesday night to avoid traffic!
Several things happend today:
1) we worked from stephans house as both sarah and I had a normal business day.
2) we watched another sunset.
3) we watched the lighting of the monument
4) we had spaetzle and schnitzel for dinner
5) stephan started preparing for the turkey meal
Here are some pictures

Sunset over the Cape Cod Bay	The lighted monument
Preparing Spaetzle	Getting the schnitzels out of the pan
Schnitzel with Spaetzle and Salad	The turkey - needs to be put in salt water for some time

Just a short one! Not much exciting happened today - well - I've been sent to a customer where there was nothing to do as they had a problem with their servers - so I had to go home again and I will give it a try tomorrow - hopefully with more luck. And as for tonight - I've just been out for a nice dinner with thomas - and guess where - christophers!!! I might check out some salsa tonight - but I am not really sure if I am really up to it tonight - too tired - still from last friday!!
Just a small preview of the next days: tomorrow night we (sarah and I) will already drive down to the Cape as we want to avoid the bad traffic on wednesday - it is suppossed to be the worst traffic day in the year. Well - maybe you folks at home in austria start thinking - what is he talking about? Well - Thanks Giving is on thursday - therefore - its the busiest travel day on wednesday and the biggest shopping day on friday - so they say!!
So - we are going down to the Cape tomorrow night - having a remote working day on wednesday and then a nice thanks giving weekend in PTown. Hope I will be able to present you with some nice pics!

What a cool weekend. It started on friday night with some salsa - well - not just some salsa - salsa till they closed the place at 2AM. Got to bed a 3AM - got up at 6AM to get to the bus up to NH. Sarah and I drove towards Hanover where her sister lives - we were expected for a birthday meal and a collegue hockey game. It was the birthday of one of sarahs nephews. We took the back roads from Concord to Hanover - seeing a different site of New England - it was beautiful - lots of beautiful houses - well - i would call them mansions!! We also stopped at a hill where we did some hiking.
The hockey game - although it "only" was collegue hockey - was really good - nearly as good as our professional hockey in austria. The game was Dartmouth vs. Yale. As I've learned - the big collegues in the state, e.g.: Yale, Harvard, Princeton, ... have their own league - and this was one of the games.
Today we spent the time with relaxing, canoing and hiking before I took the bus back to Boston. check out the pictures.

The path up to the hill on saturday was partially covered with ice	The tricky walk up was rewarded with a great view
The birthday boy blowing out the candles	And the complete birthday family
Dartmouth vs. Yale	The flags of some of the big collegues
Canoing trip on the partly frozen pond	Looking up in the red pine forrest

Weekend - ole ole!!!
Good that the weekend is here. Its been an exhausting week - in work and going out with Mark Hughes. So - tomorrow its time again to go up to NH where sarahs nephew's birthday is celebrated - we are going to watch a hockey game. The rest will hopefully be a very relaxing weekend.
One thing that I have to admit: I lost a bet with udo. We had the company bowling this week and we made a deal. The one that has the least overall score needs to fill his big luitpold glass - guess it will be me :-) PROST!!

Mark Hughes is in town!!
That statement alone should be good enough for those that know that there is trouble around if Mark is in town. He is a collegue of mine and we two met 4 years ago here in Boston when we had a good time at different bars in Waltham and Boston - well - we also did some work :-)
Anyway - we went out yesterday. First we checked out the West Side Lounge and then Christophers - of course. Tonight we had our Segue Bowling event and after that we checked out an Irish Bar on Davis Square - called The Burren. As yesterday was a long night we decided to make it short tonight to be able to go out some more tomorrow :-)
Here are some pictures

Hmm - I guess we had some beers	Bowling
Mr. Mark (I am english and wanna have a guiness) Hughes	Mark and JudyO (she is our travel agent)

Easy days like this should happen more often. But - the downside of today is that I found out that christmas sale seems to have already started. I went out tonight for some shopping. So - I went to the Cambridge Galleria Mall where I found X-MAS everywhere. Starting from decoration to music and X-MAS stuff that they sell. Well - I guess that thats the way it is and it also indicates that there are just some more weeks to go till I will be back home - 4 weeks actually.
Oh yeah - one more thing to mention - only 4 days to go till the new Harry Potter movie will be published. bye bye

A weekend in Provincetown!!
That was a nice weekend with lots of cool things going on. Lets start on friday. Stephan and I drove down from Boston arriving there just on time for the sunset. At night we went out to grab a bite and we found the ingredients for Caipirinha!!!!
On saturday we cleaned out his garage and basement - and as you can see in the pictures below - we award ourself with beer on the porch. We also went up to the Pilgrims Monument which has been built because Provincetown was the town of the first pilgrims. But - it seems that the pilgirms moved on after a couple of months to Plymouth. Stephans well-founded historical knowledge indicates that the only reason why they moved from PTown to Plymouth was that it was november and no bars had been open at that time :-)
On saturday night we first checked out the sunset again and then we went out to this place - a former hotel - where they play free movies and give out free pop corn. They showed Star Wars Episode III and I had to explain stephan how the characters in the Star Wars movie relate to the characters in Store Wars
Today - sunday - I took advantage of the beautiful landscape of Cape Cod and went for a run. A run for about an hour between sand dunes and between the atlantic ocean and the cape cod bay.
The commute home was also a new experience - I took the airplane from PTown to Boston. So - instead of a 3 hours drive it is a 20 minutes flight. So - I think thats it - enjoy the pictures.

Sunset over the Cape Cod Bay - near the marshland	Caipirinha's
Pilgrims Monument at night - taken from Stephans house	PTown with the Monument in the morning
Some coastline in PTown	A Map of the Cape - PTown is on the very end of the land tongue - Boston is in the big bay on the east coast
A well deserved beer after we finished the garage	I also deserved one :-)
Walking up to the monument - in the staircase - towns from Massachusetts pledged plates with the year where those cities have been founded	From top of the monument down to PTown peer
Waiting for another sunset on the Cape Cod Bay side	We named this bird George - because he was the dumbest bird on the beach :-)
Just beautiful	What you can not see here is the beer in our hands - so - a nice way to break the law :-)
More sunset - 4:30PM	Good morning!! Cought him with a funny expression on his face
Cape Cod Air - the easiest way to get to PTown	The pilot thanked me for blinding him with the flash! But he told us that the autopilot usually works very good :-)

Just a short entry before the weekend starts. We had a "Social austrian evening" in the office. So - several people brought beer and snacks. Check out the pictures.
As for this weekend - Stephan and I am going down to the Cape - doing some work at his house that he is going to sell. I hope I can make some nice pictures from the atlantic ocean (maybe some sunrise pictures). cheers

Social "Beer" event numbero uno	And number two
Half frozen beer - we kept it too long in the fridge	Alan with Peroni
Job well done!!!	So - what is Julius Echter?

That was an eventfull day. First - I dropped of Sarah at the airport around 6:50 AM in the morning. She thought her flight is at 8 but actually it was after 9 - so she had lots of time at the gate :-)
I left work earlier because I went to a Memorial Service with Stephan. The hospital where Stephans partner passed away is doing this kind of service every 6 months for all patients that stayed there and passed away. It was a nice event with a reception after the service.
After that - guess what - christophers - nachos and beer - but not julius echter for me. I tried something else - a Black and Blue - which is Guiness and Blue Moon. But - I made a fool out of myself. I stired the beer because I wanted the black and blue to mix - but - guiness is a strange thing. Well - I ended up with lots of beer floating over the bar as my beer was foaming really hard after stiring.
Now I try to go to a new salsa place - its in Boston - and as I have the car right now it should be easy to get there. Thats it. Tomorrow we have the brown bottle meeting in the office - yeah - I brought a case of beer today! cheers

On my way to the airport in the morning	From the airport back to the office
nice colored trees in our office park	I guess I dont need to tell you what that is!

So - lets see - what is currently going on? Hm - Sarah is coming down in a minute or maybe on hour or so. She is flying to Puerto Rico tomorrow. She got a wedding invitation and decided to extend the stay to do some surfing. So - I will get her car for the next days (yeah!!!). What else is planned - hmm - we have another Brown Bottle meeting in the company on thursday. Well - not the same as in our Linz office. I had to invite everybody and I have to bring the beer - well - I hope others bring something as well - but at least we have a nice come-together and have some beer - at least a little bit of austrian culture flavor.
As for the weekend - it seems I am going down to the Cape to visit stephan - seeing the house again before he is going to sell it. cheers

Briefe description of today: Brunch with Ernst - having some traditional irish breakfast. Then we made contact with a strange american law. We wanted to order beer at 11:55 AM - but - now way - they are not allowed to server beer on sundays before noon - so - we had to wait 5 minutes before the waitress could serve it - imagine a situation where you tell people at our Fruehschoppen that they cannot get their beer on sunday morning :-)
Well - while Sarah had to do some work - ernst and I tried another movie - it was not at all a good pick - it was called Capote. Altough the movie got high rankings on IMDB I cannot at all recommend it!!
At night we visited realtives of sarah and right now we are relaxing in front of the TV and I am trying to convince her that it would be best to have some wheat beer!! good night

I admit - men should sometimes ask for the way before they start navigating. It just happened that Sarah and I walked home from Ryles in Inman Square. Well - normally it would be an easy 35 minutes walk. With my directions it took us about an hour - in a really nice pace!!
Just some words to yesterday night. As you can see in the first two pictures below - we had a Remote Prost with Stephan. He was on the phone and on the Cape!
More words on yesterday night - it seems that we came across a typical problem when you are in a relation. You have really cool plans for the evening (e.g.: salsa) - and then - before heading out - just lie down for a short nap. Our short nap started at 8PM and stopped at midnight. So we decided to stay home.
Today we met Ernst - he is still in town as his stay has been extended. We walked through the city - checked out the aquarium - little Italy and a movie. Here are some pics.

Sarah prosting with Stepan	Me prosting with Stephan
Harvard on a beautiful sunny day	Fog moving between the skyscrapers of Boston
A seal in the aquarium	Sundown over Boston Common Park

Friday - start of the weekend. Sarahs on her way down and I was hungry. Therefore I went to the supermarket and checked out the shelves for some real good food. Check out the pictures below describing the easy steps to make a "Tonys Pizza for One".
Stephan - sorry for that kind of cousine - but I was really really hungry :-)
Thats it for today!!

Step 1 - buy it in the store and bring it home!!	Step 2 - fold the top back and put the still pizza pizza on it
Step 3 - put it in the microwave - for about 5 minutes	Step 4 - yummie - ready - mahlzeit!!

Its been an easy day - lot of things to do - but easy. And at night - besides christophers of course - salsa at Ryles. Just got home - still soaked through. The weekend is nearly here. We will spend the weekend in boston - that means - sarah is coming down tomorrow night - yeah!! thats it - hope i can shoot some pictures over the weekend to show you - cheers!

Today we had another SUG (Segue User Group) Meeting. I did a presentation which took much longer than expected and then we had a long Q&A session that lastet till nearly 9 PM.
Well - and after getting home at about 9:15 there is not really much to do. I actually had in mind to sign up for the nearby fitness club as it seems to be the only option I have to get some excercise during the winter months - I still havent found any place to play indoor soccer :-(.
But - as I got home so late and the gym closes at 10PM I postponed this action and went out for a nice run. Well - thats it - bye bye

Hey - its good if you are the only one who buys one item over and over again. In my case - Julius Echter at my liquor store. So - as we are going to have another brown bottle meeting next week I had to buy some more bottles of it. Well - I bought a box (20 bottles) and I got 20% discount - yeah!!!! Thats it for today - just waiting for Stephan - then we go to Christophers.
Here are some more pictures from the past weekend:

Did you know - there seems to be a Springfield in nearly every state!!	And well - Berlin - didnt know that thats in New England
Stuck in traffic on 5th Avenue	More Trick and Treats
Our masks have not bee too fanzy - but better than nothing	The 2nd band that played on monday night - nicely dressed up - but not too exciting