It’s official that summer is over and this one went quick. In June we a beloved friend from Germany come and visit. Only one week though. :’(
We were hoping on doing more, but time limits us all. Then we had another dear German visit us in July. Not the same German, but apparently we’ve made rounds and met people in Germany. Then came August where we had childhood friend from Seattle come visit. That was a good time too. Let’s just say people from Seattle don’t hold their beer as well as a German. So now that our hostel is closed for the fall, we move on to new things.

Also as a side note, the blog updates of 2011 have been few and far apart. Not for the lack of trying, but for the busy schedule. It’s some what depressing when I think of how busy I’ve been, but I don’t have much to show in accomplishment.

Storms in the spring resulted in some hail damage on our roof. After dealing with insurance companies and quotes from roofers, we’ve got new roofs. The roofs were covered, but there were some additional changes that we had done that created out of pocket expense.  We had solar attic fans put in for our solarium room and our attic.

Yeah, it looks small in the picture, but it moves a lot of air. On a sunny day as high as 1550 CFM. It will even run a bit on a cloudy day. It just depends on how bright it is outside. It’s also very silent. It makes about as much sound as our DVR player. So that’s not bad. It has a thermostat that turns on around 60 deg. I am planning on modifying that when I have a chance so that I can turn it off or set my own thermostat to adjust the temperature I want it to turn on at. At least in the sun room. So far I am happy with it. It also has a tax rebate up to 30% so that is nice.

So the Halloween time has come and passed. I tried to get this post in before that time period, but I am having issues with centralizing my photos. I have them, just on different memory cards and devices. It’s making thing a bit more difficult. Not to mention the latest bugs with bluetooth in Ubuntu 11.10 make it difficult to get photos off my phone.

Here is my costume construction.

It took about 4 hours to mold the mask using shape lock plastic. It took 4 hours to shape the mold, another 1 1/2 hours to paint.  The fabric is from “Joanne Fabrics”, three yards for $18.18.

Here is some side shots of the mask close up.

The hat took another 3 hours. What can I say, I’ve never stitched a hat before. I also created a coif to attach to the mask and cover the face and head completely. That entailed cutting three separate pieces of two dimensional fabric and fabric in the correct patterns to fit my 3D head. This took me another 2 hours to make. Again, I’ve never sewn a coif before.

The finished product.

Here is a close up from the side.

The robe I made four hours before heading out to the bars for a Halloween drink. I sewed the arms to fit first, then attached them to the torso of the costume. The seams were all folded in on the stitch and double stitched. I was going out drinking in this puppy and I was worried about snagging it on something. I had to make it heavy duty to survive the beer-a-thon that was coming. Mmmmm Czechvar!

Addition to this I also sewed two more costumes for my wife and daughter. They were Heat Miser and Snow Miser from “The year without a Santa Claus”. I have photos of that, but I don’t know if they want them on the “Internets” so I will leave them out for now. I totaled the time for my costume and it was around 22 hours in the making. My wife’s and daughter’s costume, I don’t know, but I’m sure it took longer then mine.

Then came Halloween which means having to decorate for the trick or treaters. This typically takes 3 hours to get everything setup, but this year we did it in two. Here is one side of the drive way.

It looks better at night with the lights. I don’t have a tripod so it’s almost impossible to get a good shot of this at night.

Other happenings as of recent. I had to travel to Boston for work. I got some nice photos of the occupy Boston.

I saw many, many tents, but not a lot of people. Either they were hanging out in the tents or most of them were on a pee break when I happen to walk by. Happy Camping.

Working in Boston is ok. This last trip was some what of a break since there were less then 10 people in an office. It was nice to still do work and take a break from the daily chaos. The last day must have been a dog day. I say this because I was being following around the office all day.

This is a 3 year old bulldog named Tyson. I was listening to my MP3 player and I keep smelling something stinky. I looked under my desk and there was a very panting bulldog slobbering on my shoe. I made the mistake of scratching the puppy behind the ears. This guaranteed me an escort everywhere I walked in the office.

This bulldog charms you with its pathetic look on it’s face. I am not a dog person and I can go as far as to say that I can’t stand dogs, but this dog definitely had me laughing with it’s breathing noise and waddling.

Another favorite of mine while in Boston is Jacob Wirth and Company. The German food is not exactly German, but the beer can be. It’s the only place other than NYC where I can find Radeberger on draft. Mmmmm Lecker!

I was in Boston till last Friday. I got most of my work done, but found that I still need to fix a few more issues. So I will probably have to head back in February. Brrrrrrrrrr! We shall see how occupy Boston is holding together by then.

Upon my return, a wonderful German delivered me a bottle of something special from the Czech Republic.

This is the 1 liter bottle from the Czech republic too. Not the .75 liter. Needless to say I’ve had it 4 days and I am half way through the bottle. WHY DO THEY HAVE TO MAKE IT SOOO TASTY?
UPDATE: After a 2 year email and phone call campaign to the state of Pennsylvannia, I can now get Becherovka here as well. Ohh happy days.

 

I’ve got to admit that I’ve been rather lax in my blog posts. Shame on me, SHAME! On the other hand, I’ve been fairly disciplined on my weekly gym visits. So I don’t feel that bad about not updating the blog.

I finally found the time to update the page now that it is a balmy 97 degrees Fahrenheit. A simple thing like wanting to stay cool with air conditioning afford moments to sit on the computer inside the house.

Here are some of the happenings that have transpired since March. I’ve been going to the gym during lunch about 3 times a week. I’ve lost no weight and I believe that I might have put some one. I can say that I do feel healthier. If healthy is defined as almost falling down the stairs in the morning because you legs are so sore and do not want to move because of running 4 miles the previous day. The pace is 4 miles in 29mins. It is a bit fast, but I want to get faster. It was a bit hard at first because I’ve been running in the Vibram Five Fingers KOS shoes.

This is what these puppies look like. I really like them, regardless of my wife saying I look like I have frog feet. The other one I get from people is, “Your feet have toes!” and my response is, “Your feet don’t?” Of course I know what they mean, but being a smart ass if always better then being a dumb ass. Now typically this is where the rant would start about the benefits of barefoot running and how natural it is. I can’t really say that there is a benefit for everyone. It takes a lot of time to build up the muscles in the feet, calves and shins to really notice the different. It’s there, but if your not an avid runner, it’s probably not for you. I would prefer that you don’t because the price on these shoes have doubled since 2008 and now because everyone is buying them, it cost so much more. So stop it. I want my shoe cheap damn it!

In the beginning of June, I had my friend Bjoern visit from Deutschland. Bjoern is a Koeln resident, IT nerd, and bass player. Please note that is bass guitar, not the fish. They might do things differently in Deutschland but they stopped playing fish as interments in the 1880s*. Look it, you’ll see.
He flew into Newark Airport in New Jersey and we took a road trip to pick him up. I thought the state of Pennsylvania had nasty pot hole, and it does, but Newark had a pot hole getting on the the airport ramp that resembled the famous photo of the Guatemalan sink hole.

Surprisingly the Kia Soul alloy wheels didn’t A SPLODE! when they hit it. So those heading to Newark, you’ve been warned.

The next day we played a game of golf. The first time Bjoern has ever played. It might also be the last time Bjoern every plays. I am not sure if he like the game or not. He didn’t seem happy about it. Other local adventures consisted BBQing, kayaking, hiking in the Appalachians and shopping.

Apparently petrol, clothing and leatherman multi-tools are the only thing we have cheaper then Germany.  We then caught a train and headed to Philadelphia for 3 days. The wife and I have been through Philly airport enough times and we frequently watch “Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, so you think we would have see it by now, but no. This was the first time I’ve been to the City. It turns out, we both like it a lot. Much better then I thought it was going to be. I blame Bruce Springsteen for that one. His music video made it look more depressing than reality. Oh yeah, we never left the down town area. So I am positive there are scary areas. I saw them coming in when I was on the train.
Things I enjoyed there:
Terminal Market – Excellent eats
Boat House row – It was a very nice walk
Rocky statue – It’s like from the movies and stuff
The architecture – There are some beautiful building there
Shops on South Street – Very lively shopping district
The History – There are many historical sites that are just part of the city
The People – The people were very friendly

Things I didn’t enjoy there:
The heat – It was like walking outside with a hair dryer pointing at you.
Hotel Prices – The hotel was very nice, but the costs were kind of high.

Over all, a very good time.

In May we went to Ikea to purchase a small bed for Bjoern’s visit. We had a day bed that was too small for a tall German man. So we needed something new. Of course like 90% of all Ikea purchases I saw something I liked while there and purchased it. I couldn’t help myself. I had no self restraint or control. It was a the “Dyke” Hammock. I had to put word in quotes because that’s what it is called. It’s not a slurry for lesbians or if it is, Ikea is making the slur not me. Though I have to admit my first thought was, “It’s a politically incorrect hammock just for lesbians?” The twisted comedic side always dominates the brain. I can’t get it to shut up sometimes.
I have to admit. I enjoy a good hammock. It brings be back to my childhood. We would lay in a hammock in the summers. That is  until someone flipped you out when you were sleeping. What can I say, we were all dicks when we were kids. So I took the hammock. It then occurred to me, I don’t have anything to tie this to. The typical result of an impulse purchase. I felt like a paralysed man who just received their first $19.95 three instalment payment on their thigh master. WTF was I going to tie this hammock to? AHHHHGGG FRUSTRATION!!!!!!

So I spend an afternoon digging a hole, centering a eight foot post and mixing up concrete. I wasn’t going to let reality get in the way of my summer hammock time. So after some hours and summer heat, it’s in. I’ve had several naps, sun burned feet and several bug bites, but I am happy.

As of late I’ve been distracted and I blame it entirely on Steampowered.com July4th summer sale. I really enjoyed the heat wave with a blistering 95 degrees and 90% humidity. Siting like a bump on a log in a climate controlled room with Portal2 made it easy not to sweat. I was looking forward to the cake, yet there was none. You will have to play Portal to understand that one.

As for this week, relief has been in site, I guess. It’s been in the form of tercentennial down pours. I took these photos from my office window.

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What’s everyone else been up too? Any excitement out there?
Wow the Internet is quiet.

Hello again,

This is my last post for New Zealand. It’s taken me sometime to get around to posting my final days from New Zealand. I would have to attribute this to the weather and my job. Since I’ve gotten back, I’ve been entirely too busy and the last thing I’ve been wanting to do is get on the computer when I get home.

With the recent earthquake in Christchurch, I am really saddened. Emotions such as empathy are hard for me to come by as I tend to be more logical then emotional. In the recent events of Christchurch, I truly feel grief for the people of New Zealand. The people I met there were genuinely friendly, thoughtful and caring. Seeing the loss and sorrow they’re experiencing causes a pain in my heart that isn’t finding rest. This isn’t as devastating as Haiti, I know. This is something that is personal for me because I was there.

Now that I’ve gotten my emotional commentary out of the way, I will continue with the trip.

The bay at Queenstown has a large Kiwi bird on the dock.

After some posing for pictures with the statue, we went for lunch and beers in Queenstown. Everyone said that Queenstown was the most expensive place for beer in New Zealand, but it was the contrary. The Speights Ale House in Queenstown have very nice prices compared to every place we’ve been too. It’s also my favorite New Zealand beer. Delicious!

The world seems like a bigger planet when you see everything in kilometers.

Queenstown is the “extreme sport” capital of the world, or so they say.

Here is another overlook from the “Ben Lomond Scenic Reserve”. This was at 900 meters approximately. That’s 2952 feet for us Americans. Notice the para-gliding on the left top of the photo.

This photo is from the “Queenstown Hill Recreation Reserve”, or I like to call it, the hill that crushed my wifes knees. After the trek up here, she had to limp down with a stick. Though I believe this hill just irritated her previous Halloween injury where she dressed up like dead Michael Jackson and kept shaking her leg back and forth screaming, “Eeee heee heeee” in the standard Michael Jackson way.

Here is another one from the “Queenstown Hill Recreation Reserve”. We ended up climbing (no gondola ride this time) up to about 800 meters -  850 meters. The view was amazing. We have many other photos from in town and I would love to post them. Unfortunately, I try to avoid being in them and I’m finding it hard enough to pick what photos to upload because I have 8 gigs of photos. So I will keep it short.

On to Milford Sound, which is actually not a sound at all but a fjord (pronounced Fyord), not to be confused with Björk from the Sugar Cubes.

Here is the bay where we caught the “Real Journeys” tour boat for Milford sound. It was kind of a let down when I found out they didn’t play “Don’t stop believing” on the boat.

To give a perspective of how high the mountains are, notice the white three story large tour boat on the bottom left. Some peaks in Milford sound go as high as 2200 meters.

Since there are about 40 sunny days in Milford sound it was nice to see the sun break through the clouds. Even if it only hit the mountain side. With the rainy weather we did get to see an abundance of waterfalls. We didn’t chase them either.

Milford and Queenstown were the best part of the trip. Queenstown was very friendly and many things to do and see there. There is also a decent nightlife there which is good. Most places in New Zealand seem to close shop after 6pm, but Queenstown stayed open for business.

The last surprise we got on the trip back, double rainbow.

A double rainbow! Oh my! What does it mean. I think I am starting to cry now.

Thanks for reading and sorry it took so long to it all up here. The down side of taking a vacations is catching up on the work that didn’t get done when you were gone.