Live Free and/or Die Party
The state motto of New Hampshire is "Live Free or Die". Sarah and Josh host a party each year at Windsor Mountain International Summer Camp. Alois and I drove up north on satuday morning to enjoy the beautiful nature of New Hampshire, the hospitality of the camp staff & friends and the great food from Andre.
We started the event with lunch - followed by a long walk to the red pine forrest. After that we took the Kajak's out on the lake. Before we enjoyed Jamaican food for dinner we played "4 squares" - a real simple but enjoyful game. Dinner was followed by music and dancing and later at night we were all sitting around the open fire listening to camp fire songs.
Well - it was a great weekend up in NH. On the way back to Boston I dropped Alois off at the airport as he makes his way further west for another week of business related trips. Its always a great time up in the Camp.
Here are some pictures. Cheers

Alois in the Kajak	Enjoying the late afternoon sun
Looks relaxing - Was relaxing :-)	Paddeling deeper into the swamp
People playing all different types of games	We played 4 squares - really awesome :-)
Handing out Jamaican Food for Dinner	Burma/Myanmar style food for lunch today

Austrians all over the place
Over the past couple of weeks we have been hosting different friends from Austria in our place in Jamaica Plain. Right now it is Alois who enjoys our hospitality. He is here for another 2 days - leaving for the west coast tomorrow night.
Last night we all went out to dinner at Central Kitchen in Central Square. The food was phenomenal. Stephan, Ardy and Alois had Oysters (as you can see from the pictures below) - I passed that dish - I tried them twice so far but it seems that I am just not getting into it.
After dinner I left the guys alone as I had to head out for salsa. I expected Stephan and Alois to make their way home to JP early in order to get some rest after a very busy week. Well - I got home at 2:30 - finding the two guys in the kitchen with a nice glass of Bourbon.
So - whats happening now? Its time for the "Live free or die" party of Josh and Sarah in New Hampshire. They have this party every year in Sarah's summer camp. Should be a great weekend filled with hiking, canoeing, ...
Thats the update. Keep you posted

6 Oysters for the 3 guys	Here we go
Mahlzeit	2:30 AM in our kitchen :-)

U2 - 360 Tour - AMAZING!!
THANKS again to my Sandro, Juergen, Resl and their significant other. They gave me tickets for the U2 Concert this past sunday.
It was a perfect day with perfect weather - tailgating at the parking lot before the concert - Snow Patrol as the opening band - and then U2 with a 2 1/4 hours show. AWESOME!!!
The only thing that was not all that great was the fact that 70000 people had to get home after the show. I dont want to share the frustration we had - so I just give you the facts: The concert ended at 11:15. We got back to the car at 11:30. No movement AT ALL till 2:30 AM (yes - that is 3 hours sitting in the car and waiting). Finally got home at 3:30AM.
Despite the problem on our way home I have to say that this was a fantastic concert. Also great to see that Bono still uses some of his popularity and outreach to let me people all over the world know that there are many problems out there that need to be solved. Well done!
Here are some pictures. Cheers

Everything ready for tailgating	We had a big group - 6 in total
Everything was there for burgers and hot dogs	The U2 Stage in the Gillette Stadium
Stage #1	Bono on the 360 degree video wall
Stage #2	Stage #3

First Attempt -> Failed!!
It was the week of my road test. To explain: The road test is the practical test to obtain a US Driving License. 5 weeks ago I did my written exam which I passed- now it was time for the actual driving. Well - to make it short: I didnt even make it to driving. The whole thing ended after 30 seconds. The guy asked me to show the hand signals. Here is a link for the hand signals. Despite the fact that I cannot make sense for these signals for bicyclists (a biker can extend the right arm to indicate a right turn - at least thats how we do it in Austria and thats I am doing it all the time here in the states) - the hand signals are pretty straight forward. So - I did my left arm for left - left arm up for right and left arm down for stop. He asked me to show it again - so I did. The next response was: "FAILED". WHAT?? - Hm - it seems that I mixed up left and right. He heard me saying right when I pointed left and left when I pointed upwards. Hard to believe that I really mixed up these two words - but - there was just no way to argue with him. Anyway - next attempt in 2 weeks - this time I do it in a different town.
Besides this story we said farewell to Margit and Thom who were here for 3 days and we said hi to Alois who arrived yesterday night and will stay till next weekend. Tonight its time for U2!! With Snow Patrol as opening act.
Friday night - a friend of Stephan invited us to a great restaurant in Jamaica Plain - its called: 10 tables. The reason for that name is obvious - they have 10 tables. As our table wasnt available on time they offered us a welcome drink in the basement (yep - basement - because there was no space in the restaurant). It was really nice and definitely a new experience :-)
Thats the update - more pictures from the U2 concert will follow

In the basement of 10 tables	Awesome food!!!
Inanc and I at Havana Club	Dont know what to comment on this one :-)

Margit in Town
Margit - my former roommate in Linz - and her friend Thomas were in town the last 3 days. They arrived monday night - picked them up at the airport. They spent two days in Boston - getting to see many sights and attractions. Tomorrow they are heading north towards Maine.
At night I always met up with them to enjoy food and drinks. Last night we checked out the Milky Way - our local bar here in Jamaica Plain - tonight it was time for Christophers - our former local bar in Cambridge. Margit - passionate about beer - went on a beer journey with me exploring all available Sam Adams styles they have on tap at the Milky Way and then we had another nice sample at Christophers ranging from Ale's to Porter's.
It was nice having them over. Well - the next visitor is not far away - Alois is coming in on saturday. Here are some pictures. Cheers

Sam Adams and Red Sox - Thats what Boston is about :-)	Tasting beer with Margit

Oktoberfest in Walpole
The Boston Area German Club and School hosted their annual Oktoberfest this weekend. After Stephan went there on saturday it was time for Ardy and I to check out this place today. Ardy - being the owner of traditional Lederhosen - dressed up in his traditional austrian clothes.
Well - what shall I say. It was a great afternoon. Good food - good beer - great people - and a lot of german Volksmusik.
Here are some pictures of today

Ardy in Lederhosen and several bottles of german wheat beer	Leberkaese - not bad - but not as good as at home
Sausages, Sauerkraut and Potato Salad	PROST
The full menu	Ardy in his traditional austrian clothes

Off they go to the Wedding Place
Its been a nice week with Stony and Margarita here in Boston. It was an eventful week with our Labor Day Party on Monday (including the car accident and Stephan's rise as a media star), the Red Sox game on tuesday, two days through New England by car (they drove north and south of Boston) and a final evening at Christophers to enjoy our famous Nachos and Julius Echter.
From here they headed out west to the Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls has two sides - the US and the Canadian side - very different: One is a national park - the other one is filled with Casinos, Hotels and many many wedding chapels. Maybe we will soon see some wedding pictures :-)
Back in Boston we currently deal with lots of rain that came in last night - supposed to be over later today - but right now it is just still pouring down with some local floodings caused by it.
Whats the plan? Salsa of course (wonder why I still keep mentioning that) - and - the next visitors are about to arrive. We actually have friends from Stephan over tonight and tomorrow - then its the next group of my friends coming in monday night.
Now - time for more coffee. Cheers

At Christophers	Beer Sampler for Stony - he only liked one out of four

At the Red Sox Game
Yesterday night a dream came true for Stefan (aka Stony) who is just visiting me in Boston. We went out to see a Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park. Stephan took both of our visitors (Stefan and Margit) on a tour through Cambridge followed by a guided tour through Fenway Stadium. We got into Fenway at 5. Due to Stephan's connections with some of the culinary work staff we got acccess to the Pavilion - awesome few and great food.
Our seats were also almost perfect. Close to the field between 2nd and 3rd base. The game was also almost unreal. 10:0 was the final score with several home runs in the first 3 innings.
Its two more days for our visitors in New England before they take off to the Niagra Falls. The last big event tomorrow night will be a visit to Christohpers - our former local bar when we used to live in Cambridge.
Here are some pictures of last night. Cheers

Fenway Park from the Pavilion	View towards Boston
I forgot to put on my Red Sox shirt	The Pavilion from our regular seats (the row of red seats underneath the press boxes)
Water Girl	I belive this was one of the early home runs in the game

Labor Day Events
Well - what a day. The plan was to have a nice labor day BBQ party. The first people showed up at around 3 - more people to come at around 4. At around 4:30 we heard a fire truck with its sirenes on driving past our house - nothing unusual. Followed by the first truck was a big noise of a car accident - we stormed out to the front of the street to see an odd scene. A blue Audi smashed in the middle of the street just in front of our house - and the car from the fire chief (who followed the first fire truck) smashed into the stone stairs of the church across the street. A guy with his kid tried got out of the car - crawling on the street saying something like "My house is on fire".
It turned out that the fire alarm of this guy's house went off because of some burned food. Somebody called the fire fighters to rush to the scene. The guy itself (the homeowner) also rushed to his house. And - just in front of our house the fire fighters and the guy got into an accident - very odd coincidents. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt and the fire was not a big deal.
The bigger deal was Stephan - who became an "Eyewitness" on 4 different local news channels. He gave one interview after the other to reporters storming the scene. With this event the main topic of the party definitely turned towards the accident and the new "Media Star" :-). They showed his interview on all of the news channels. 3 of the 4 channels returned at 10PM for live coverage of their evening news.
Besides this story the big news is of course having Stefan (aka Stony) and Margit here in town. They came in last night. We had a quick tour through Boston before we came back for the Labor Day Party.
Tomorrow is going to bring another great event. We are going to watch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston. More pictures will follow later this week. Time to go

Stony and Margit carrying some ice for the party	News Car parked in our street
The smashed fire car	Stephan giving interviews
Thanks for the party present - got a Bart PEZ	3 different News Teams with their live coverage at 11PM

Going back to Boston
Its been a fantastic week here in San Francisco - busy - but fantastic. Besides the conference and the beautiful weather (in the end it turned out to be an amazing late summer week) there was quite some salsa for me. Glaskat and Cafe Cocomo - two great places to recommend.
On wednesday night we had a party as part of the conference. Besides food and drink they also had two live bands. The first one was some local band playing great well known songs - the other one was another well known band called Foreigner. If you check out the band's wiki page you may remember some of their songs they had in the charts.
Well - time to say good bye to the west coast now - I am already at the airport ready to board the plane.

That was the motto of wednesday night	His equipment was interesting - a digital record hooked up with his laptop
Foreigner	Foreigner

Its busy on the West Coast
Just a quick update as I have to run to the conference. Arrived here in San Francisco late sunday night. The BART - thats the local subway/train system - brought me almost in record time from Oakland Airport to downtown San Francisco. So many bad things are said about public transportation in the US - but - in some cities it really works like a charm.
Two days of VMWorld are over - 2 more to come. One night of salsa is also over - that was last night at the Glaskat.
The weather here in the city is just interesting. Monday morning - fog was in - it was very very very cold. At noon the fog lifted - the sun came out and it was pleasant. Yesterday we had sun almost all day long with estimated 20 degrees - awesome.
I did the cable car ride on monday night - havent done that since I was here with my days a couple of years ago. Well - as I said - time to go. 2 more days till I fly back to Boston on friday.

Yerba Buena Gardens	Same thing just different view :-)
VMWare's Data Center for VMWorld - lots of hardware	Martin Luther Memorial Site
More from the Memorial Site	Enjoyed a Sam Adams at Union Square
The Streets of San Francisco	Yep - they are steep
View towards the Fishermans Wharf from my hotel	Famous Cable Car on Powell Street