Germany 2013 - Day 20

Today was Friday and was a full on day of progress. Bob and I worked diligently to get a prototype working on this project that we're doing, so we had our hands on the keyboard all morning. Around noon, he and I walked down to the corner and ordered pizza which we ate out on the sidewalk on a busy street. It was really neat to see all the traffic whiz by while we sat and talked.

Busy Corner Restaurant

Alt Eisenbahn

When we got back to the office, I was able to find my girls on Skype before they got on the bus. Today was "western day" for the kindergarten so Daizi was in her element.

Jazzy, Daizi, Lizzie, and Me

Bob and I continued to work through the evening and for dinner we had to man up and cook our own food... Well, actually Michelle cooked it, but we had to heat it up. :) We had sloppy joe sandwiches with french fries and Mezzo Mix (mmm). We almost had too much sloppy joe mix, but we felt obligated to eat it since there were (oddly) two buns left. As it turns out, Michelle had left enough for her too. When she returned from town, she opened the refrigerator and saw nothing... Oops. We are mere men trying to live in a womans world sometimes. Sorry Michelle... If it helps, they were delicious. (?)

Bob and I continued to work into 11 pm. We were both very excited to have something working before the end of the word day in Chicago (7 hours behind). We got it working pretty well and enjoyed a few glasses of some really good Lofroaig Scotch before I headed back to the hotel for the night. When I got home, I tinkered around on a few things (VMWare SNAFU) and then I passed out.

A day at the office. :)

Today was a great geek-out day! I love my job.

Germany 2013 - Day 19

I arrived at work around 10 am and worked a full day with Bob. He and I are getting a ton of work done. I wish I could talk about it, but I simply can't at this time. Just know that we are buliding some next level web stuff over here. :) For lunch, I enjoyed the second half of my Subway sub from yesterday and we stayed busy here in the flat.

After work, Me, Bob, and Michelle all headed to Koln to spend the evening with Dariush and Rita. We arrived around 7 pm and I got to see my little friend, Nouchine. She was shy at first, but started to open up after a bit. Jonathan made a cameo appearance at one point when we arrived, but he was pretty sleepy (ie. grumpy) and went to bed. We all sat out on the back patio area and enjoyed the weather. Dariush and Rita prepared a really amazing meal tonight. We had salad, lemon flavored chicken, rice cake, and a delicious Iranian dish with egs, chicken, and eggplant. Nouchine hung out with us for a while and then had to go to sleep eventually as well.

Nouchine ready for dinner. :)

Where's Nouchine? Anybody?...

Dessert

Beautiful night to be outside.

Michelle, Bob, Me, Dariush, and Rita

After dinner we sat around and enjoyed coffee, drinks, and conversation. It really was a great visit and I hated to see it end. Thank you, Ghobad's for a wonderful evening!

Germany 2013 - Day 18

Today was a good day. After an overtime day at work followed by a scotch-fest with my friend Herbert, then an all-night blogathon, I decided to let Bob know I'd be an hour late. I arrived at his flat at 10 am sharp and we began our day. Today was a pretty beautiful day outside, so we worked with the doors and windows open.

At one point my old friend, "Nuts" came to visit me on the back deck. This year he had a big acorn and buried it in Bob and Michelle's flower pot. We watched him bury it, and then he left for a few minutes to do something only to return and make sure that Bob and I hadn't stole his buried treasure. When he realized we weren't going to do anything with it, he scurried up a tree branch never to be seen again.

Making sure we didn't steal his nut.

For lunch, the family all went to Subway and ordered foot long subs. Matt and Michael are on exam week this week and the next couple of weeks, so their school schedule is very sporadic the entire time I'm here during their exams. After lunch, Me, Bob, Michelle, all came back to the house. Bob and I worked until around 7 or so. The entire time we worked, we had an amazing aroma filling the air... That of a delicious dinner.

Michelle had made a decadent dinner tender fish with rice and vegetables. The fish had a honey mustard glaze sauce drizzled over it which added some crazy flavor to the meal. I really can't say enough about all of the amazing foods that Michelle has prepared while I've been here visiting. She's quite an amazing cook. I always see her cook books open, and I'll admit that from time to time I peak at the pictures of what she's cooking and get excited. :) Thank you for all the amazing dinners, Michelle!

Around 9 pm, I came home pretty well spent. I called Jennifer and we talked for over an hour. She caught me up on all the latest news around the farm. I'm pretty anxious to get home and help her around the property.The yard is out of whack, and a lot of spring cleaning needs done. I don't expect her to do all these things by herself, and it is hard being over here knowing they are piling up back there. I think an Enrique Iglasias song goes here. :) I fell asleep at 11 pm after one long day...

Germany 2013 - Day 17

Today was a fairly long work day which ended with an amazing conversation with a new friend.

I arrived at Bob's around 9 am and we worked until noon. At that time, he had a lunch meeting with someone, so I came back to my hotel room to work for a few hours. For lunch, I didn't know what else to do, so I walked down to (where else, but) the Altstadt for a pizza and pop.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped and bought a 1.5 liter of water and worked at my desk for 2 more hours before heading back to the Bob's flat to work with him at the table. He and I worked diligently til about 7 pm, when it was time for dinner.

I screwed up today and embarrassed myself at the dinner table beyond belief. Michelle announced that it was time to eat, and at our house that means "Drop what you're doing. Come-and-get-it!". Doh! Everybody seemed slow to the table, so I hobbled up to the bar (still sore from the run) and was the first to arrive. I don't think I rushed to fill my plate, but once I filled it up, I began tasting the food that she had prepared and telling her how good it was... Shortly thereafter, Matt came to the table with his plate full of food, but didn't begin eating yet... I quickly realized that I had jumped the gun! Eventually Bob came and prepared his plate, then Michelle prepared hers. Once everybody had their plates ready we said "Grace" and then everybody began eating.

Wow, I wanted to crawl in a hole and die. I was extremely embarrassed and was pretty quiet the rest of the meal... I still am embarrassed by it, but learned my lesson good and well tonight. :( My parents raised me better than this...

After dinner, Bob and I went back to the work for another hour or so, and then I headed back down to the hotel room to catch up on somethings that I've been putting off. I had to catch up on my blog, email some people that had been waiting on me and tie a few more loose ends. At one point, I went down to the bar to but a bottle of water at the bar. There I met a very nice man by the name of Herbert who was in charge of the hotel.

Herbert is 75 years young and was an absolute joy to talk to and get to know! Our introduction started by him asking me what country I was from. He then told me to pick a drink and sit and talk with him for a while. I told him I'd take a scotch on the rocks, so he poured it for me and we sat. He and I sat at the bar and talked for over 2 hours!! We could have easily talked for 2 more hours, but he was starting to drink me under the table. After my first glass, we were so deep in great conversation, that I bought myself a second glass of scotch and we continued with our conversation. As I finished that glass, we found ourselves even deeper into our conversation that he interrupted it by offering me yet another glass of scotch "on the house".

Needless-to-say, Herbert and I became pretty good friends in a very short period of time. As people would come in the front door, he'd pause our conversation, tend to their needs, and then come right back to the bar and pick up right where we left off. I can't explain how much I enjoyed this night with my new friend!

Herbert and Me @ 2 AM after a few (or more) drinks

We talked about politics, women, sports, history, family, religion, you name it... I will never forget my 2 short hours with Herbert at the Hotel Berial! He (personally) made my stay here at this hotel so very memorable. Thanks for a great night Herbert! I look forward to seeing you next year at the bar around 11 pm! :)

Germany 2013 - Day 16

Today was painful. Walking became a challenge, sitting was relief, and steps were "the devil". I crawled out of bed and had to laugh at how bad my legs hurt. It was mostly my calves. Quads were OK. Hips were fine. Pride was through the roof. But the calves...

Our commute from Dusseldorf to Dortumd, Germany

Bob and I were scheduled to be on site all day at one of our partner companies in Dortmund, Germany. I arrived at Bob's house a bit early so that we could get a head start on the traffic. The drive was just under 100K from Dusseldorf, so it would take us about 1 hour to get there.

We arrived and had a full day of meetings. Around noon we went to nice restaurant and I ordered some delicious chicken and rice dish. I took a photo with Bob's iPhone, but don't have it handy to share the visual of this delicacy with the world yet... When I get it, I'll update this post and remove all these filler words. :P

The work day ended around 7 pm and we made our way back home to Dusseldorf where Michelle had a delicious meal waiting for us at the dinner table. She had made chicken with a variety of potatoes and steamed broccoli. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this either, so you'll have to take my word for it that it looked as well as it tasted.

Lizzie, Daizi, and Jazzy (ie. My Bay-bays)

I came back to my hotel room around 9 pm and talked with Jennifer for about 1.5 hours on Skype. We had a lot to catch up on. She told me about the latest "farming news" and I told her all about my weekend with Nick and the Marathon. It was great to catch up with one another and just talk about everything that's been going on. I hadn't really talked to her since Thursday evening, so we had quite a bit to talk about. Of course, we injected a few "nothing" conversations as well. :)

Of course, I got to see the girls as well and they told me all about their new goats and pigs. We got new goats for the farm: Pete, Meech, and Oreo (?) are the goat's names. The pigs names are still yet to be determined. I think Lizzie named hers "Haas", but that is all I know at this time...

I eventually fell asleep around 1 am.