Christmas in Columbia, SC

I went home with Amy for christmas and got to enjoy the holidays with her family in Columbia, SC. Everyone was very, very nice and made me feel very much at home.
Below are a few pics of the christmas activities. :-)

The christmas tree at the house of Amy's mom



Amy's mom and grandmom with Amy at christmas day brunch



Me before the unwrapping/unveiling of the gifts



Amy looked like Santa has been very good to her



The christmas tree at Amy's dad's house



Santa knew how to find Amy no matter where she was



Amy's grandmom is awesome and has the greatest sense of humor and energy

We do want a green Apple

Apple is a very cool and nifty company but according to Greenpeace not very friendly to the environment. :-(

Read on and support the cause.


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Urban Counterfeiters

This weekend I stumbled on a website called UrbanCounterfeiters that deals with a designer problem. Apparently several designers had their ideas /designs used by large companies such as Urban Outfitters, but never seen any reimbursement for it. Sometimes the issue is just blatant design /idea theft.

This sucks for sure, and I will not buy another Urban Outfitters t-shirt. :-(


Example (from UrbanCounterfeiters site):

CrownFarmers 2003 design:



Urban Outfitters 2006 "design."

Nice shakers

Check out these Litespeed titanium salt and pepper shakers for 75 bucks. Litespeed, better known for their unique bicycles recycled material which is too short for frame elements and crafted these salt and pepper shakers and engraved them with nice details. Very cool.

Don't do that

This new warning sign in Berlin, Germany doesn't really need a translation.

My Litespeed Ghisallo is awesome

I love my Litespeed Ghisallo and it is my favorite bike ever.
It climbs like a mountain goat and I am confident that I can challenge most everybody on descends, yet it weighs barely 14 pounds. :-)

Great watch blog

Watchismo is a very cool site for people who love watches. Check them out.

One fantastic print ad

The ad below was created by the Chattanooga ad agency Johnson Group for Krystal restaurants. It was designed for a franchise magazine and even though I don't like the Krystal hamburgers I think this ad is fantastic. :-)

Dressing up like grownups

I am most comfortable wearing jeans and t-shirts, but every now and then it is very cool and fun to dress up. We have a very nice black tie optional party in town every year before christmas where over 400 folks in Chattanooga try to impress eachother.

I went with Amy and a few other friends to the party after a nice meal out. It was very cool indeed and I of course enjoyed judging all the other outfits at the party. Martin and Janelle unfortunately had to miss the black tie optional event with sick babies at home. Well, hopefully next year.

Anita and Paul at the Tapas restaurant before the party



Martin and Janelle at Terra Nostra



Amy and I at the height of the party :-)



Laura and Amy having a good time

The making of a super model

Very interesting commercial from Dove to help the self esteem of young women. See how a supermodel is made.

Movie suggestion

Just saw this movie recently and liked it very much. Two thumbs up.

Nicely said

To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Don't do this at home

We all know how exciting it is to call a new "friend", but don't duplicate what Mikey in the movie Swingers did. :-)

Monkey business

That little monkey surely does not seem to appreciate that "ride" but I guess very few of us would like it either. Still, I think it is a very cute image.

Bye, bye Donald

We won't miss you at all and are indeed happy that you are going away, but we might miss all the fun the cartoonists and comedians had with you.

Happy

What can I say, sometimes a picture says it all and no additional words are needed.
:-)

Warhol Cowboy

Macintosh photo booth is so much fun. :-)

Thank you for smoking

Just saw it this week and recommend it highly.

Another year and another ART pARTy

I have lost count by now but this wekend I just had either the 5th or 6th ART pARTy at my house. This time though because I was competing with many Halloween parties, the total number of entries was a bit smaller than usual. But the quality of the art works has gone up again like every year. I also unfortunately forgot to take photos of some of the artists and also forgot to ask someone to take a pic of me.

But below is a image gallery of some of the artists and their work.

Kelley created this Sushi plate



George worked with multi media for his artwork



James proved again that he is an amazing photographer



Dean worked with his son Seth on this abstract art piece



Stefanie designed a bracelet and presented it nicely



Laura created a very beautiful picture frame



Mike and Amy showed quite diverse artistic skills



Julie created this beautiful piece of art



Karen painted this very nice butterfly



Paul and Anita each came with a unique piece of art

Beautiful

I saw this image of this stunning fall leaf on the MSNBC.com site and it is beautiful.

A hot bath

There must be quite a few things a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

Sylvia Plath

The big hole

This NASA image shows the ozone hole which is as big as it has ever been. The purple and blue colors show where the least amount of ozone is. I guess we really don't have to worry about what kind of impact we have on the environment. :-(

A positive spin

The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good things for the first time.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Ironman Kona, Hawaii soon

In a few days I'll be leaving for Kona, Hawaii to work at the Ironman World Championships. I am really hoping that my buddies Timo Bracht, Luke McKenzie, Francois Chabaud, Sergio Marques, Matthias Klumpp and Victor Zyemtsev will have amazing races. The same really goes for Chris Gebhardt, Dev Paul and really everybody who is racing there. Personally I have finished Ironman races in Europe and North America, but I have only worked /supported / spectated in Hawaii so far.

PT Looser

I can't believe that at one point I thought a PT Looser was a cool car. What was I thinking? :-)

Wow, I am ranked.

This year I have only competed in Sprint and International triathlons and now I come to find out that I am ranked in the top ten in my age group in the Southeast of the USA. Wow. :-)

Age Group: 40-44
--------------------
1) Christopher Giordanelli 42 M 98.22 12 Ovrl
2) Kevin Richardson 41 M 97.91 13 Ovrl
3) J.t. Byrne 40 M 96.67 19 Ovrl
4) Herbert Krabel 41 M 95.15 32 Ovrl
5) Pete Prichard 43 M 95.12 34 Ovrl
6) Mike Roberts 41 M 94.67 37 Ovrl
7) Hugh Myrick 40 M 94.40 40 Ovrl
8) Robert Hutchison 42 M 93.26 48 Ovrl
9) Doug Ross 42 M 92.69 53 Ovrl
10) Brian Allain 43 M 92.39 56 Ovrl

Is it about that time?

Is Halloween really not that far away?

Very sad

I think most of us get quite sad when we see dead animals, but for some reason it makes me especially sad when I see images of a dead dolphin or whale.

Happyness

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

The new toy brings pure joy

My old laptop died during a recent trip to Europe and I have replaced it with a new black Macbook. This awesome laptop is very cool and fantastically designed.

Chattanooga, oh yes.

Chattanooga has been selected a few times by various outdoor magazines as a cool place to live. It thus appears that these editors seem to be very smart.

Cirque du Soleil

I have seen several different Cirque du Soleil shows now and each time these shows had completely amazed me. Some of them were traveling shows like "Saltimbanco" and "Varekai", and others were fixed installations like "O" and "Mystere."
In a few days I'll get to see the Beatles themed "Love" show in Vegas and I am very excited to see it. Plus in January I get to see a new traveling show in Atlanta. I feel very lucky indeed.
I highly recommend for people who have never seen any Cirque du Soleil show, to seek out one of these shows.

My new watch dog rooster

I saw this very cool artsy rooster at the World Longest Yard Sale and had to have it. Now he sits in my yard like a watch dog and makes sure no one comes to my house who is not ok with me. :-)
I still have not named him yet, but for some reason Fritz seems to stick with me.

Back at HOME

After almost 18 days in Germany and Switzerland I am finally back at home here in the USA. I certainly enjoyed my time visiting family and friends in the place where I grew up (Heimat), but home (daheim) is now in Chattanooga. So now I am reunited with all my friends and my "cyber crush." :-)

More images from Europe

Ah, vacation is so relaxing




Mom, dad and the proud son :-)




Mom turned 70 and I got her a few gifts




My friend Eugen and I are about to enjoy a great Swabian meal.




My friends Stefan and Siggi's kids were not equally excited about the photo with Herbert.




The market place in Bad Saulgau is very quaint. :-)




No market goes well without a curry wurst. Mmmm good.




Ravensburg is also a very beautiful town.