Halloween in the West End

Halloween came and went and we had a good time. Well, Amy actually was on call and Halloween is seemingly always a bit crazy in terms of work. So I represented alone.

The calm before the storm



As most likely expected, a diverse candy selection at our home



What people saw when they approached the house



The pumpkin really looked pretty good



Up the street from us a Krispy Kreme employee had these great treats to offer

Pumpkin time

It is that time of year again and last night I worked over a pumpkin to create a jack-o-lantern. Notice the interesting separation of top and bottom. :-)

Very focused on the task at hand.



Evan JackO may want eye brows.



Don't mess with a man who might know karate and surely has a knife in his hands.



JackO in action.

Historic West End Holiday Homes Tour

The Historic West End Holiday Homes Tour is coming soon to the beautiful West End area of Winston-Salem. More details can be found here, plus you can become a fan on facebook.

Favorite Kona pic

The picture below I snapped of Linsey Corbin during the bike check-in for the 2010 Ford Ironman World Championships might be my favorite of that trip. It is just kind of artsy and not just another race photo.

Hawaii pics

We didn't really keep a photo diary of our trip to Hawaii this year but below are a couple pics we snapped while on the other side of the Big Island. weather was great of course.

Oktoberfest in Winston-Salem

Most people of course will think about Munich, Germany when they hear the word Oktoberfest, but there are "Oktoberfests" pretty much all over the world. So tonight I went for an hour to the one here in Winston-Salem and they did a pretty nice job with it. But stuff like that always seem a bit strange to me.

Flowers everywhere

During a recent visit to SECCA here in Winston-Salem I came across this very interesting statue / flower vase. From a distance it looks like a real person sitting there.

It is about that time

As the colors are changing, the leaves are falling and the temperatures are getting a bit cooler here, it is pretty much time for the annual pilgrimage to Kona, Hawaii. It'll be nice to see lots of friends there, but we still have a few days to go.

Vegas action

I spent the last week in Las Vegas at Interbike and Patrick from redkiteprayer.com snapped a picture of me before the Tour De Lake Mead on Tuesday morning. I was only there to shoot pictures, thus the not so crash safe helmet on my noggin.

Peanut gallery

At the recent Dextro Energy ITU World Championship Series finals in Budapest I was in a peanut gallery of sorts with a bunch of photographers from around the world. German shooter Frank Wechsel captured this image where we all were attentively awaiting for the top finishers to cross the line. But now where is Waldo?

Good times

It was very nice to spend time with my mom on my recent business trip to Europe and she really enjoys hanging out with me too. So it is win, win for all.

Another visit in Pfullingen

Last time I visited Matze, Jutta and Oscar it was winter and we all went sledding in cold temps. This time the weather was quite a bit nicer and many less layers were needed and it was great to see them all again.

They just came back from a ride when I arrived



There is so much fun to be had in the sand box



That plum pie was delicious



After checking out a woodpecker



That looks so good too



And it is gone



Enough with eating for now



Time to say Auf Wiedersehen

ARTpARTy Augustus 2010

So we had another ARTpARTy at our house and we had a great time indeed. We had quite a few first time ARTpARTy attendees and that makes it always quite interesting. Quite a few friends couldn't make it because of schedule conflicts, but their will be another one in January. Below are some of the artists with their work.

Amy had taken this photos during a snow storm with long exposures and mounted them on black.



I initially planned to add red flower petals to this image but decided to keep it as is.



Ken Otterbourg could go into business with his popular gourd fish art



A great architectural rendering of a building in High Point by Craig Dishner



Bess and Dave Wildman had not yet been to one of our ARTpARTies and Bess pulled of this nice water painting hours before the party started.



The Kuckoo Time art of Mitch Termotto was very popular



Mike and Shannon Chang created candles in bottom wine bottles halfs



These great planters by Luke and Liz Burnett are now in our possession



Laura and Jared Gallaher each brought a nice work of art.



A look at West End details by Leighanne Dorton, as Tim Roan gives his approval



Tim Roan displays the kid's wrapping art of Vicki Latimer Roan's art work



Water buffalo art by Jenn Cannon who just recently moved here



Max was also a first time attendee at the ARTpARTy and it did not show



Nancy Tuohy had a great image that had everyone guessing where it was taken.



Related image galleries:
- ARTpARTy Clover Street January 2010
- August 2009 Clover Street ARTpARTy
- Piedmont Leaf Lofts ARTpARTy
- 2007 Chattanooga ARTpARTy
- Late 2006 ARTpARTy in Chattanooga
- Early 2006 ARTpARTy in Chattanooga

Project Runway Casanova

When Amy and I watch Project Runway this season, I can't help thinking that contestant Casanova (yes, that is seemingly his name) looks remarkably like Brother Salvatore from the movie The Name of the Rose. Put a monk's robe on Casanova and he could step right onto the set if it were filmed today. :-)

Kaba

Kaba is the chocolate milk powder that I grew up with in Germany. In fact as a child I used to Kaba as the term for any chocolate milk or hot chocolate, kind of like Kleenex instead of tissues.

Nice note

Came across this note on the facebook page of a friend of mine. Someone apparently left it in the stairway of an apartment building after a "little" incident on the third floor. This situation would have meant police action in the USA, but in this case in Germany it was "resolved" with an embarrassing note.

Baseball night

This weekend Amy and I went to a baseball game here in Winston-Salem and it is such an easy walk for us to get there. But boy was it hot that night. Plus the game was endless with the pitchers not doing so well that night. We left around 11pm with the game tied 11-11 after the ninth inning and eventually the Dash team won 13-12.

The baseball park here is quite nice



Amy got us a great huge lemon ice



Glad there is no close pic of my sweaty shirt. :-)

No nibbling please

While at Whole Foods the other day I noticed the "no nibbling please" sign at the food bar. It is actually quite sad that people have to be told not to snack on these items. People, not everything in the store is a tasting sample.

The swim changes

Until recently I only swam straight sets in the pool and I don't mean multiple sets. More like get in the pool and swim anywhere from 1000m to about 1500m without stopping, and when I trained for Ironman I just increased the distance. Now I actually do different sets, warm up, do kick sessions, various drills and focus on different speed set sessions ranging from short (25m) to long (400m) and totally ranging from 2000m to 3000m. Plus I now got Posidrive fins, hand paddles and finger paddles.

Separated at birth?

Is it possible that Dutch soccer star Dirk Kuyt and Alfred E Newman of Mad Magazine were somehow accidentally separated at birth? Imagine a slightly blonder mullet on Alfred E Newman and we almost got a perfect match.

Happy 4th of July

Amy and I got engaged 3 years ago on 4th of July and we are celebrating our anniversary of that event in Vail, Colorado where we are attending the wedding of my friend Kevin Burnette.

Vail is stunning and we are having a great time here. Happy 4th of July everybody.