Celebrations!!
Not everything in my life is to celebrate right now - but - thanks to my mum we had a great reason to celebrate today: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! She looks much younger than she is (good for my dad) - she also dresses younger and overall she just acts younger - I hope she can keep up with that.
Those of you who met Stephan (my former roommate in Boston) in person know that he can be a really funny guy. The link in my diary entry - that I posted yesterday - was of course from him. And today - to cheer me up a bit - he sent me this great link: Beer Advocate - Respect Beer with a list of beer events in february in the boston area. Additionally to that - he sent me detailed information about the distance between Linz and Cambridge - telling me that the next beer event is only "6372 kilometers or 3959 miles or 3440 nautical miles" away from me :-)
Today I also finally agreed to join some colleagues at a sailing turn in greece - it will take place in may. I hope to find some research material on greek beer on the beer advocate web-site :-)
Well - the remaining week will be busy. Tomorrow - we check out the new indoor soccer arena SoccaFive in Linz - very close to the office. After that - midweek meeting with Sandro.
On thursday we will have the first Bowling Competition between our QA-Department and my team. Our QA Department is know for their bowling skills - but - we have some "secret" weapons - and are pretty confident that we will end up first place.
On friday its time for Gala Nacht des Sports and on saturday its time to check out Holmes Place. They've been calling me for the past 2 months for a test training session - well - we will see.
I think this is enough for the daily update - if I add more text to it I might end up entering the office in the morning - seeing my two early birds still reading my last entry :-). cheers

Driving Discipline saves money!!
The last time I refilled my diesel tank I realized that my car just had a very bad mileage. Its been 50 liters for 630km. I was wondering if its because of the fact that the car is just getting older or whether I changed my driving habbits. So I started a test: driving with patients - slower accelerations - higher gears - not too fast on the autobahn. I saw the result at the gas station today. Again 50 liters - but it lastet for 710km!! So my driving discipline saved me money and was better for our environment!!! YEAH!!
Well - what else is going on? Unforunatelly Alex wont make it to the "Gala Nacht des Sports" this friday - so I am looking for somebody else to join me instead of her - hopefully this person - in case its a girl - is a passionate dancer.
Thats it - cheers
---- (update) ----
May this cheers and open up you mind as well: Mouth Revolution - got it from Stephan - enjoy

Words of the Weekend: Snow and Cars
Its been quite an eventfull weekend. The two words "snow" and "cars" are very descriptive for the past 3 days.
Cars: We drove hundredts of kilometers in the past 3 days. Most of them wanted - some of them unwanted. Unfortunatelly Alex had a car accident - but fortunatelly nothing bad happened.
Snow: Its been snowing a lot - causing most of our car problems :-)
Here is the full story: Visited Alex friday afternoon - after that I went on to Hinterstoder where a group of friends stayed for a skiing weekend. On friday there was no snow at all in Hinterstoder - everything was green. Saturday morning - different picture: about 20 centimeters of new snow and still snowing. So we decided to skip skiing and so wellness instead. We went to Wellnesshotel Dilly in Windischgarsten. Unforunatelly Klemens lost his car keys - either somewhere in the hotel or somewhere on the way from the car to the hotel. A search in the now about 40cm new snow was hopeless and without a positiv end. So - on sunday - while Ulrich and I went skiing - Klemens and Robert drove back to Linz to get the 2nd car key (these where some kilometers that we could have avoided - but of course - worse things could have happened).
On Saturday night we also had a very special "event". We - the boys - presented some fashion that some may thing is no longer really fashionable. But in fact - some of the pieces that we presented (mainly the underwear from the army) - is stuff that we still wear as ski-underwear. Anyway - here are some pictures. Cheers

Challenging Snow Situations with the Car	Digging our way through the snow
Yummie: Chili and Beer on Saturday night	The Fashion-Show
We also played some old stupid games like chocolate cutting	On top of the Hinterstoder Hoess
Just another winter impression	And another one

Birthday Party without Birthday Girl!!
Its not often that you join a birthday party and the birthday girl/boy is not there. Well - today it happened to me. But the explaination was rather simple and straight forward. My sister-in-law struggles with the flu - thats the reason why I only enjoyed the good food and drinks without even saying any best wishes.
Besides this new birthday experience I took the chance to check out thursday salsa. Joe (the guy who is leading the salsa club linz and is also doing the monday salsa night @ Remembar) is doing a weekly workshop on thursdays. It was good evening that ended with an interesting offer from Joe: "If you want to get rid of your disco fox salsa dancing and learn REAL salsa instead - just ask me and I will help you :-)!"
Well - thanks for the offer - but I just keep my own style and interpretation of this latin dance :-)
Thats it. An interesting weekend is coming up:
a) visiting Alex in Bad Aussee
b) skiing in Hinterstoder
cheers

Rocky Balboa!!
Some of you may remember Rocky Balboa!! The "greatest" boxer in Hollywood Movie history. And guess what - I just saw the next (and hopefully last) - of the "Rocky" movies. HERE is the link to the movie information.
You may ask yourself: how is it possible that Andi checks out this movie? Well - it was a coincidence. I went to the Sneak Preview in a local cinema and that was the movie that they played. My resumee: Not as bad as expected - Sylvester Stallone in pretty good shape for his 60!! years - and of course - the famous rocky song while he is doing his fight excercises :-)
Thats it - good night

Rosenball 2007 - a resumee
Its been a long saturday. We started at 6PM at night with our bar duties. Before we started we had some final tasks to do to ensure a great event. We had a lot of work - but of course - we made good business (also because of some regular guests who always bring us good revenue).
We closed the bar at around 3 AM - did most of the cleanup till 4AM. Till 5 AM I did the accounting which was good - as I slept much better with the financial results in mind :-)
After 4 hours of sleep it was time for the final cleanup. Now its sunday afternoon - I do have lots of sore body parts - therefore I am looking forward to a hot and relaxing bath. Here are some pictures.

Didi at the final bar preparations	Our Bar-Team
Our two Cocktail-Mixers: Sammy and Didi	Cocktail and a Palm Tree
Traditionally - Dancing School Reisenberger performed the opening cermony (Christian and Andi in the front row)	The core team that worked the whole night
Mixing - Mixing - Mixing	Didi's Special
Resl (just came home from Australia) joined us	The Gallneukirchner FireFighters

Drahdiwaberl, Uni-Ball and other things!!
Havent had the time to tell you the story about thursday night - we have been watching DRAHDIWABERL. Well - the story is rather short. I left a bit earlier when I realized that I am not open for this kind of art - actually this was after about 2.5 half "songs" - well - not songs - lets call it "performances".
My lesson: There are people that are more open minded (or wrecked) that I am :-)
Friday night was fun. We went to the Uni-Ball in the Brucknerhaus. Unfortunately Alex couldnt join us - therefore I had to find some victims to dance with. The first girl I asked for a dance has never danced before and repeated her apology every 10 seconds. But in the end we manged a Waltz and a Disco Fox (although the band didnt play that kind of song).
The second girl was easier. She was "more experienced" (in dancing of course). The third (and last one) - was interesting. She was german and it has been her first time on a ball. She has been told its Ball-Season and its a MUST DO to go out to dance. In the end I can say that I did my part of Austrian-German cultural exchange. She will remember that it is OK to sweat like hell after dancing. She will also remember that its possible to leave the dance floor with bruises. She will also remember that the austrian (especially muehlviertler) accent is different to her "proper" german :-)
Today - saturday - after 3 or 4 hours of sleep I had to challenge my next task. Preparation for tonights Cocktail-Bar at a Ball in Gallneukrichen. It took us about 3 to 4 hours to get everything ready - now its time to relax - and starting with 6PM we will hopefully prepare lots of cocktails for our customers. Here are some pictures from the last days. Cheers

Udo - preparation for the concert	Sebastian was also part of our concert group
An overdimensional joint	Nice shot of the drums
One Drahdiwaberl scenes that started nice - but ended in a way that made me leave earlier	Great Hall in the Brucknerhaus (Friday night: Uni-Ball)
Fixing up the Cocktail Bar	Wiener Schnitzel while watching the Ski-Race

Movie Tip: V for Vendetta!!
Just came home from a nice evening at Sandro's place. After some chatting we watched the movie V for Vendetta. Great movie and definitly to recommend. Well - its late and time to go to bed - waiting for an interesting thursday.
Besides the predicted storms that sweep over europe its finally time for DRAHDIWABERL. Cheers

Whats happening?
The pictures below are actually from sunday. Sunday night I felt for a quick bite and good drink. So I called Udo (aka. Prinzregent) and asked him whether he has time - and of course - he stopped playing his current favorite computer game and joined me Pub "Extrablatt".
Yesterday - Alex and I unfortunatelly skipped Salsa - should not happend again - shame on us :-)
Well - there is no more to say - except that Martin is back home from Australia - he spent 5 weeks there with his girlfriend Sonja - looking forward to his reports.
Thursday - of course - the event that I am anxiously waiting for - DRAHDIWABERL in Posthof.
Thats it - cheers

Fighting with the Ham-Cheese Toast	What a lovely couple :-)

Potter Mania!!
Seems that Alex is really getting into Harry Potter. We are going to finish the 4th movie tonight. The cool thing about tonight is that we do not have to watch it on my small TV - but we can watch on one of my white walls in my bedroom. I borrowed the video projector from my company. I wanted to test if the equipment works in my appartement because we are going to watch the SuperBowl on February 4th - and its definitly better on a big wall rather than my small TV.
What else is going on. Well - as you can read from my last entry - its been the first work week after a great vacation. As always after a vacation - it has taken some time to get the "working vibe" again.
Thats it for now. The upcoming week will be interesting. On thursday we (udo and some other colleagues) are going to watch DRAHDIWABERL. I am not really sure what to expect. Udo announced it and I agreed to join them - I hope his cultural taste fits mine and the evening will be worth its money. On saturday we are going to have our annual Cocktail-Bar at the Gallneukirchner Rosenball. Cheers

Last Vacation Day!
Its been my last day of a 2 week vacation. Lots of things have happened - but as always after a vacation I have to say that it has been too short.
Today I had several victories to celebrate: two austrian victories in alpine ski slalom and in ski jumping. Additionally I can announce a personal victory: I converted another person to a Harry Potter Fan :-)
We - Alex and I - watched the first of the potter movies and she is already looking forward for more witchcraft and wizardry :-)
Now its time to "close the vacation" - probably with a cold beer - prost!!
----- update -----
Well - before I forget. Wednesday night we went out to see a movie. I watched The Departed with Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, ... - the cool thing about this movie is that it takes place in Boston. Its just cool when you see a movie with very familiar locations. Besides my excitement about the location I can also recommend the movie for those out there that are not as Boston fanatic as I am - its a good one - cheers

Wellness in Bad Schallerbach!!
3 days of sweating - thats what it was - and it was fantastic. We stayed at the new Hotel Paradiso that is connected to the thermal bath in Schallerbach. The hotel also offers its own spa area with sauna, pool and relax zones. The food was delicious - so was the wine :-)
Here are some pictures from the "Grabners" short-holiday!

The entrance and bar area of the hotel	My schatzl and me
My parents	My brother and his wife
My sister and her husband	Herbert, Petra and me - checking out the Vinothek

New Years Shopping!!
Today - Alex started complaining about my outfit - well - she already started complaining a couple of weeks ago that I always wear the same shirts. I am not a fan of walking through shopping malls - especially not walking through outfit shops - but - once in a while it is necessary. To make life easier I organized somebody to give me tips about what to buy - lets call him a "consultant". This person was Martin (aka Mole) - and fortunate for all of us he had his camera and took some pictures from our tour through H&M.
Besides shopping I had some other errands to do - most of them were enoying. But - I am really looking forward to tomorrow: we (family grabner) are going to enjoy 3 days in the eurotherme bad schallerbach. Thats the update. Tonight - Alex and I are checking out a movie - well - actually two movies. We do have different tastes in food and beer - the same applies to movies. Therefore I will watch "the departed" and she will watch "wer frueher stirbt ist laenger tot" - cheers

Checking colors	Well - at least they had sale - made shopping easier
How does that look?	Walking through the isle