Thursday, November 29, 2007

John Talbott

On Thanksgivings day I ran with John Talbott, the brother of the famous Paul Talbott also known as Paul Jones, husband of Anita Jones. :-)

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Nice airline safety video

The design and execution of this Virgin America airline safety video is so nifty that I am willing to watch it without actually being on board of a plane. Usually I try my best to sleep through these.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Ouch

I usually shave my head with an electric razor but tried the Headblade today and wow what a mistake that was. Well, maybe I am just retarded, but I pretty much worked over my scalp like an Apache looking for a trophy. :-(

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving day today and I want to give thanks for my family, my friends and my health. Most of all I am thankful though that I met my future wife and that we match up so well. :-)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

WE won

My buddy John Cavett was nice enough to take me to Knoxville yesterday for my first big college football game. So I got to be in Neyland Stadium with about 105,000 orange clad fans and see the Vols stomp the Vanderbilt Commodores. Well, maybe not stomp, but a win is a win and WE won. :-)

You got to be prepared when you go into battle with Vanderbilt



The march of the penguins



Fans are still streaming in as the pre-game activities take place



WE are about to put the nail in the coffin



No 1 VOLS fan :-)



Just kidding.

Friday, November 16, 2007

What a happy looking family

This is a great shot of Simon Whitfield with his wife Jennie and the oh so cute Pippa.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Monday, November 12, 2007

Happy together

On Saturday Amy and I went to the Chattanooga marathon to cheer on some friends and Tom shot this very nice photo of us and sent it to me. Thank you very much.

I am a very old man

Since Saturday my back has been very sore and I feel like I am 90 years old. Yikes.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

No hassle?

Capitol One promotes their No Hassle credit card with various silly commercials. But they apparently are not living by their mantra and I get hassled each week by multiple mailings from Capitol One to my personal and business address. What does it take for them to understand that I am not interested in their services? Surely they ought to realize after hundreds of wasted letters that maybe I am not the right customer for them. I actually hate that they are hassling me with their mailings and it really is a waste of paper and resources. Plus come to think of it, their silly TV commercials really annoy / hassle me too.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

What a great stove

During our trip to Europe, Amy and I noticed this very cool wood burning stove at the house of a friend of mine. The brand of the stove is Bullerjan and my friend Helmut thought it was Canadian. But I think it is actually a German product that was inspired by old Canadian stoves. Either way, it is very cool no matter where it is made and if we move further north, we are getting one of them.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Europe, Fall 2007, the final days

The view from the war memorial (Denkmal) onto Ostrach



Posing in front of the war memorial of 1799



We went for a walk just outside town



With my friends Joerg and Uschi and their beautiful house



Amy with my mom and dad



We grabbed lunch in Sigmaringen at the Theater Cafe



Amy is checking out a German newspaper



We also got to catch up with the internet



On our way to Reutlingen we drove past castle Lichtenstein



We had coffee with my friends Matthias and Jutta in Reutlingen

Europe, Fall 2007, Gaggenau and Freiburg

En route to go visit my brother in Gaggenau, Germany



Along the way of course we saw more castles



My brother Manfred, his wife Bettina and their daughter



We went for a little walk in the park



To be young again



We then moved on to Freiburg. This is where we ate dinner on Thursday eve and where I fell in the ditch



Our hotel in Freiburg was small and cozy



This was the view from our hotel room. The beautiful Muenster in Freiburg and the market surrounding it.



Amy and I got a tour of the university hospital in Freiburg so she could compare



We also checked out the Freiburg train station as Amy has an interest in trains



Bicycles are everywhere in Freiburg

Europe, Fall 2007, the next days

We visited the beautiful and very large baroque Basilika in Weingarten, Germany on Monday



I realized that my friend Eric Buck has satellite offices all over the world



This part of Germany is well known for the storks



The storks are everywhere



On Tuesday we we tried to see all kinds of touristy things. Here Amy is feeding popcorn to one of the 200 Barbary Macaques at the Affenberg in Salem



These Barbary Macaques like apples too



The castle in Salem, Germany



In the courtyard of the Salem castle, Amy got friendly with a local



The church in Salem is in the center of the castle



That afternoon we visited the beautiful castle in Sigmaringen



I made a new friend at the castle in Sigmaringen



On Wednesday we went to see my relatives in Rottweil, Germany and for dinner we had a traditional Swabian meal in a traditional Wirtshaus



Since it was Halloween we went out to a Halloween party where we saw former Pogues guitarist Jamie Clarke with his new band



Jamie Clarke and his band Perfekt in action