NeghvarNews

The Hangover - Part 2

2012-01-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

Finally watched 'The Hangover - Part 2'. For more info on that movie check out the IMDB Page of 'The Hangover - Part 2'.
Here are my thoughts on that movie: The movie opens exactly the same way as the Part 1. This is a recurring theme throughout the entire movie. By the time the movie is over you've watched Part 1 of 'The Hangover' again. There are 2 things that have changed: The location is different and the picture reel during the credits is different. All in all I would say this movie is quite a disappointment!
The dialogue is by far not as good as during Part 1. The jokes aren't either that funny or a remake of the ones in Part 1. The wedding rehearsal dinner stands out as a scene of social awkwardness. While we watch an copy of Part 1 we meet a slew of characters, that actually don't do anything to the story. We meed Mr. Chow from Part 1 again. Their former nemesis has suddenly become Alan's BFF. No real explanation is given for that. That probably is one if the main reasons why that doesn't work for me. It's just way over the top to be even remotely convincing. Besides that the character of Mr. Chow does very little to propel the story.
There is something about the main characters in 'The Hangover - Part 2' that just doesn't work. Stu is freaking out every 5 minutes for no real reason. Phil on the other hand is just there. He doesn't seem to have much of a character definition. And then of course there is Alan. He just seems way too outrageous and crazy compared to the outer main characters.
After several hits and misses the movie follows the exact same path as Part 1. They find the missing Ted again and barely manage to make it to the wedding in time. We have another appearance of Mike Tyson, that didn't seem to have much of a purpose, except the fact that he had an appearance in Part 1.
All in all an funny movie. On a scale of 1 to 10, I probably would give it a 4.5!!

X-Men First Class

2012-01-01T23:30:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to watching 'X-Men First Class'. If you have no idea what movie I'm talking about it, just check out the IMDB Page on 'X-Men First Class'.
It was a really fun action movie and I did enjoy it a lot. I've to admit it's not your typical comic book movie, like Spiderman 2. But it is very well thought through action movie. Some of the SFX like the rockets changing direction in midair were very well done and I enjoyed them a lot.
In general this movie lives a lot from the dialogue. It explains how it all started. In my opinion this movie is way more dialogue driven than many other action movies. There are not many odd jumps within the plot. The actors portray their roll very well, but don't do much on their own with the character. They keep pretty much to the script. If they had done a little more with their character and added some more humor to the character it would have made the movie even more enjoyable.
The movie is set during the Cuban Missile Crises and that works very well. In the movie the setup for the standoff between USA and USSR is done a little too quick to be really convincing. If the producer had spent here a little more time setting things up, that would have been a significant improvement. Although I love the SFX with the rockets changing direction a midair, it also adds an almost comical element to the movie. Not sure how that could have been done differently, but this scene should have been serious.
The scene were Magneto starts moving into the direction he's going to play in the other X-Men movies, is not what I would call a happy fit. It's done too quickly. The producer didn't take enough time to set up things right. There is just too little explanation given to really explain it, so that the viewer would be convinced. And of course I just loved Wolverine's great line!
All in all a very good action movie. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 8!!

What's new in 2012 ??

2012-01-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

Well, 2011 was the year of changes on a personal level: I broke up with my partner of 8 years, planned a transcontinental move and finally moved in August back to Austria.
2012 will be a year of big changes on a professional level. Let me explain that a little more in detail. The break-up in 2011 was way more than just the end of a long term relationship. For me it was a time to completely reevaluate my life on a personal and professional level. It was a time to figure out how and in which way do I want to tackle future relationships. For me that was way easier to figure out than the changes on a professional level. I had to ask myself if I really wanted to do what I had been doing the past 20 years. The answer to that question was: No. So I spent several month to figure out what direction I wanted to go. The thing I would love to do, just doesn't pay the bills. So I had to find a more workable solution.
It occurred to me that it is not to line of work that I had been doing during the past 20 years that was bothering me, but the actual job position I was able to get. Furthermore I realized that the right way to go would be to change the job parameters and that can only work by adding to an existing job qualification. Yes, guys you heard right. I'm 40 years old in and in January I will be going back to school! At least for 6 weeks I'll be attending the Financial Academy in Vienna!
In January I will start to go after my Certification as Public Accountant after UGB and IFRC and the certification as EMA (European Accounts Manager). It's a currently well sought diploma and not that easy to get and certainly not what I would call cheap. All in all it will cost me about 2.800 bucks.
First up will be an intensive 6-week course in Advanced Accounting. After that I might take 2 additional classes to refresh my knowledge of Electronic Accounting and Accounting on SAP. That by itself will open up an entirely new 'job pool'.
After that I will be taking evening and weekend courses pretty much for the rest of 2012 and 2013 including the following topics:

Economical Mathematics
Human Resource Management & Salary Calculation
Tax Law
Value Added Tax Law
Advanced Tax Law
Income Tax Law
Advanced Economical Tax Law
Cost Calculation
Commerce Law
Advance Accounting Rules and Regulations
Advanced Salary Calculation

After I've passed each of these exams I have to pass the final exam in front of a commission. Once I've passed that final exam I can call myself Certified Public Accountant and European Accounts Manager!!
So there will be lots of going to school in the next 2 years!

New Years Eve

2011-12-31T23:55:00.000-08:00

I was invited to 2 parties for this New Years Eve. I was only interested in going to one of these parties. Daisy would have to stay home from the party, since there would be too many "crazy" people and too much noise to be fun for her. This would also be the first New Years Eve in 2 years with fireworks going off left and right, so I decided to spend New Years Eve with Daisy at my parents.
My parents had invited a former co-worker of theirs, whom I hadn't seen in almost 20 years. So catching up and chatting with them was actually quite fun. For the most part of the evening Daisy was doing just fine. She slept to most of the fireworks that were going off periodically throughout the entire evening. At midnight when all the fireworks were going off at the same time, well that was a little too much for her. First she hid right under my chair. Since that didn't seem to do the trick, she sat right next to me looking for protection. Of course I paid attention to her and it calmed her right down. She still wasn't happy about the fireworks and luckily the worst part was over after about 20 minutes. After that Daisy just chilled out for the rest of the evening. I had to wait till about 2 am to take Daisy for her last walk of the day, since she doesn't do her business with fireworks going off. At that time it was already fairly quiet and everything went off without any problems. So all in all a fairly easy New Years Eve and I'm glad, that I chose to stay home with Daisy!!

The Hangover - Part 1

2011-12-29T23:30:00.000-08:00

Well today I finally watched the 'The Hangover - Part 1'. It's one of those movies I never got around to watching when it was out at the movies. For a synopsis and more info check out the IMDB Page of "The Hangover".
Well the movie starts pretty conventional: A few guys going to Vegas for a bachelor party. Yes there are a couple of funny scenes in that: A teacher that steals from his kids and another guy obviously violating his restraining order. Up to the drinking party on the roof of Caesar's Palace, there's not much of the ordinary. Then the fun part starts.
The guys find themselves in a pretty messed up $ 4.200 suite with a tiger, a baby, a chicken and missing a tooth and the groom. The reason for the existence of the chicken in the room is never being questioned and so we never find out where it came from or what happened to it in the end. Then the search for their missing memory begins. It has almost the making of a criminal investigation conducted few entirely inept guys. This part is absolutely hilarious. Their search leads them to a wedding chapel, a sweet hooker, a chinese Mobster, a emergency room doctor and finally to Mike Tyson. The absurdity of the situations keep on increasing. It's one of those movies, where you think you've seen it all...well, but you haven't. The thing about this movie is that you almost find yourself caring about the characters and the fact that you realize that you almost do, makes this movie even funnier.
Zach Galifianakis performance of Alan is truly outstanding! Ken Jeong plays the chinese mobster very well. Of course he plays it completely over the top, but that's what makes it funny. The fact that he finds anything what a fat man does funny adds to his role. Of course we have an added twist, that they get the wrong Doug. That really didn't come as a big surprise. Finally a mattress impaled on one of the statues of Caesar's Palace gives the final clue and they find the missing groom and head back to LA.
The end of the movie is both: A little too over the top and a little too conventional. Well I've lived 8 years in LA and I've never ever seen a mobile tux rental service throw the clothes into their customers car on the freeway. Btw. I've never ever seen anyone change into a tux on a freeway either. Yes it makes a good visual effect, but it's just too over the top, especially when you're already winding the movie down back the the conventional layer. They had to end the movie conventional, since the movie started out that way. But the transition between hilarious part and the conventional part is not what I would call a happy solution. It's just too abrupt and seems to come out of nowhere.
All in all a very funny movie and I definitely was quite entertained all the way through. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 6.5!!

Source Code

2011-12-29T21:00:00.000-08:00

Well I finally got around to watching 'Source Code'. Not entirely sure why I never got around to watching when it was out at the moves, but for some reason it never happened. If you have no idea what movie I am talking about, check out the IMDB Page of 'Source Code'.
Well 'Source Code' starts out great. Loved the SFX and loved the fact that the viewer is kept quite confused at the beginning. That's definitely great storytelling. After Colter Stevens goes through the first 2 rotations, it reminded me about watching TNG episode 'Cause and Effect'. As a Star Trek enthusiast I loved that idea. Well, that love was certainly short lived. As they did way too many rotations and gaining way too much information.
That's the exact point where the story becomes actually quite slow. All the rotations and all the special effects can't mask that. Although Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan do an excellent acting job, the entire story just doesn't seem to make much progress. While I do like the fact that the actor becomes self aware of his surroundings, the lack of explanation how that came to happen is definitely a major disappointment.
What happens next is something that has become typical for American Main-Stream Cinema. Instead of playing off on all the drama that surrounds this story, we get another clone made in Hollywood: Evil terrorist tries to blow up city. Terrorist is dumb enough to warn everyone. Army starts a most questionable experiment to stop the terrorist. We had that concept way too often before, it's brainless and boring! This part of the movie is absolutely awful!!
The could have played off the drama of the morality of the entire experiment. They could have used the inner fight of Colter Stevens between his personal choice and his duty. The could played off the drama that Goodwinn goes through during the experiment. They even could have played off the entire Frankenstein theme. But no, they only scratch the surface. If they had cut out the entire Terrorist vs Army plot and used all the drama, that is contained within the experiment itself, it would have been an amazing movie.
The end of the movie has an interesting twist. Apparently they created an alternate timeline after all. Really love that twist. The fact that Goodwinn finally listens to her conscience is a really great touch. I really would have loved to be given a further explanation for the alternate timeline, but that of course never happens.
All in all a good movie, except for the middle part of course. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would probably give it a 6!!

Jack and Jill

2011-12-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

Watching 'Jack and Jill' was certainly an experience of the special kind. If you have no clue what movie I'm talking about check out the IMDB Page of 'Jack and Jill'.
Well there's only 1 way to describe this movie: It's absolutely awful!! It's definitely one of the 2 worst movie I've seen in 2011 and shares that top spot with Apollo 18. If i could say that I was entertained, well that would be something. The sad truth is, that I wasn't.
The movie doesn't start out that bad, but it goes downhill from there. It lines up situation after situation, that are supposed to be funny...but they ain't. They're going way over they top with the allegedly funny situations, that they just don't come of as funny at all. It's just one truly dumb situation after another. If I haven't miscounted, then there are 3 funny situation in there, that actually make you laugh.
With that being said, Sandler really tries to safe this move and his craft shows while he's making an complete fool out of himself. It is sad that they choose to have Sandler portray his sister as a drag queen character, but this situation is actually quite funny.
Of course the real reason to see this movie is to see Al Pacino as a horror -show version of himself. That part of the movie is quite entertaining.
If they had kept the beginning, the 'drag queen' scene and Al Pacino's scene...well it would have been a short movie, but at least it would have been funny.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 1.5!!

Friends with Benefits

2011-12-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to watching 'Friends with Benefits'. If you don't have a clue what movie I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Page of 'Friends with Benefits'.
Here are my thoughts on the movie:
It's a romantic comedy and I did enjoy it. For most part it was funny and the chemistry between Kunis and Timberlake really helps the movie quite a bit. Luckily the script is good enough that we don't have to solely rely and Kunis' and Timberlake's charm. The story itself is hardly new or creative: Hollywood hot shot meets NY headhunter and a physical 'relationship' ensues.
I like the fact that this romantic comedy is a little more on spicy/raunchy side and comparable movies. This truly gives it a pep to stand out. The intimate scenes are tastefully done and definitely way more as we usually get to see, but not quite 'Sex in the City' style. Personally I think they could have even spiced it up a little more, but all in all it's a good compromise.
The purely physical relationship undergoes an interesting journey, since both main actors seem to start caring for each other. But we don't see enough of that, and that's the main reason why the big fight just seems way too artificial. It just doesn't work for me. As visually pleasing and as funny as the make up scene at the end is, it just doesn't work for me. It's just too artificial. I know they try to explain it, but even with that explanation it just feels like a big pink elephant, that absolutely doesn't belong into that movie.
I know that with romantic comedies we expect to see an happy ending. And the movie becomes predictable. We get to see exactly that. At least the producers didn't get for a 'Happily Ever After' style and stopped with the 2 main characters going on a first date.
I really would have hoped that the producers would have had the courage to take it one step further and write a romantic comedy that doesn't go down the way we expect it to. Not necessarily a break up, but the relationship staying purely physical. That would have been something outstanding and something we've never seen before!
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 6!!

The XMAS-Day Disaster

2011-12-25T23:00:00.000-08:00

Well that title pretty much says it all and there is just no way to make that anything else but an entire disaster. On the other hand it's not that unusual. Thinking back it has always been that way, as long as I can think. Christmas in this family has always been a very stressful time and on one of the XMAS holidays it always ends in a yelling and screaming match. The dynamic is always the same. It's an argument about something (it really doesn't matter what it is), no compromise to my Dad's liking can be found right away, and once 1 party runs out of arguments the underhanded, personal attacks and the yelling match starts...and usually my Dad is the one who starts with the personal attacks and with the yelling.
So far that's nothing really new and it pretty much has always been that way. But something just felt different this time, things just seem to get worse. And then there of course is Daisy and she's a very good indicator for negative energy...as she can't stand it. I was watching her she was pacing from one place to the next and made sure to avoid my Dad at all costs. As soon there were only 2 or 3 steps between him and her, she tried to find a new spot further away from him. In case that wasn't possible she pressed her butt against my legs and looked to me for protection. I guess seeing my dog that uncomfortable made a huge impact on me.
Later that day I was talking to one of my friends online and I answered his question how was your Christmas with: "Let me put it that way, I don't think that the Spanish Inquisition could have been much more painful than this Christmas". That sentence is exactly what got a lot of things rolling.
It suddenly occurred to me, that this is a terrible thing to say. Furthermore it is a terrible place to spend your holidays and free time. On top of that I really don't want to have to wake up my dog 7 times during one night, because she's having nightmares. I haven't had to deal with a negative family dynamic like that for the past 8 years, and that's one of the reason why it felt so terrible. In those 8 years I've learned that there is another way to treat each other during family events.
There is something positive about that entire incident as well: It really forced me to make a decision. I made a clear cut decision on Christmas Day. I am not going to play that game anymore. I made it quite clear, that I won't be attending any family events if my Dad is part of the group as well. I refuse to deal with that negativity.
Being a gay man is here quite helpful. From the time of my Coming Out I've learned that we gay man choose our families. Some of those people we're related to, others are our friends and we come to think of them as family. Some come temporarily into our life as family and fade away later on, while others come to stay. And of course there are those parts of our families who we choose to exclude from m our lives, because they're just too exhausting and draining. Apparently my Dad belongs to the latest category!
I'm not quite sure where I will be spending Christmas 2012. Spending XMAS with my dog on long distance hiking trail in southern Europe, where the weather is way more comfy than in Austria, sounds like a fun thing to do. Another idea would be renting a remote cabin in the mountains and spending XMAS there. Just me and the dog!! I might consider letting a few people come along as long as they bring lots of positive energy, are laid back and fun to be around with!

XMAS-Eve

2011-12-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

It has been tradition in my family to celebrate Christmas on XMAS-Eve. This year was no different. This is the first time in 8 years that I was a part of this celebration again. Joining us were my brother, my sister, my 2 nephews, my brother-in-law and his grandmother.
The entire celebration started around 6 pm. There was some singing on Christmas songs...my sis, brother-in-law and one of my nephews were playing on the guitar...and then of course there was the unpacking of the XMAS presents. It's always lots of fun to watch the kids unwrap their presents and they're so excited!!
After that we got the Fondue started. It was delicious as always. My brother had done an amazing job with all the sauces. Around midnight we called it a night.
All in all a good XMAS-Eve celebration!!

Dating Game

2011-12-22T20:00:00.000-08:00

Having to go back into the Dating Game after more than 8 years can be both... frightening and fun. For me personally it has actually been quite fun. I've been on several dates and I can only say that I did enjoy myself. Maybe the difference is the focus. Currently my focus is not so much of finding a new husband, mate or whatever you want to call it, but go on dates, hangout with guys that are laid back and fun to be around with and of course enjoy myself.
Of course I do have fun along the way and some dates are better than others. That's just the way this game is played. There is definitely a benefit to being 40. You know exactly what you want, and you know exactly what you don't want. You know how much compromises you're willing to make and you know the things that you're not willing to compromise on. That makes dating much more easy and actually a fun experience.
With that being said there is also some quite different nowadays. It seems as if the gay "community" has become as crazy as the "Hetero's". "Hetero's" always used to be kinda obsessed with finding the right mate/partner/husband. And they were always in a crazy rush. When I was dating the first time I thought, that this was incredible funny. Nowadays a large part of the gay "community" has become that way as well. It's like they've all become crazy. And it seems as they've completely forgotten, that there are certain dating rules:
Don't ask me on a second date, if I want to date exclusively. The answer will always be No! At that time of the dating game I want to enjoy myself, have fun and see where things are going.
Expecting from me, that I only date 1 person at a time is pretty ridiculous. It's a date and not a marriage!
If the Tag-Line reads: "Must Love Dogs", going on a date with me and telling me, that you "tolerate dogs", well it's not really helping your case.
In general I've found that people nowadays read less and less of the text on an online dating ad. If they did read dating ads properly, many bad dates could be avoided. On the other hand I would have never experienced a lot of very funny situations!

At the current stage of my life I'm not necessarily looking for a husband. I'm looking for guys that are laid back, bring lots of positive energy and are fun to be around with. If someone who is husband material comes along...Great!...if not I'm certainly not going to worry about that.
Right now it's all about living life to the fullest, enjoying myself and doing the things that make me happy. It's not a time where career advances and increase in salary are the main-focus, but a time where it is all about quality of life!!

Other than that, the dating game has been quite a lot of fun so far!!

First Snow Dusting

2011-12-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight we got our first snow dusting of the season. I certainly wasn't much, but the first snow is always fun!!

Hall Pass

2011-12-19T23:00:00.000-08:00

Today I finally watched the movie 'Hall Pass'. If you don't know what movie I am talking about, just check out the IMDB Site of 'Hall Pass".
Here are my thoughts on that movie:
Yep it's funny, no question about it. It's a lot of situation and slapstick comedy. There are situations where there is way too much slapstick and very little action. In these parts I would have liked to see a little more story.
The movie deals with an interesting story, that men and women are apparently from different planets. Nothing really new about that. Men are hunters and they just help themselves, regardless if they're married or not. Some of them make it a little more obvious that other ones. That's the basic story, that they could have used a little more in a very funny way, but for some reason the writers chose to completely ignore that angle.
The chose the show the guys as clumsy wannabe lovers, who make a few inapt attempts to get a girl and of course they don't get anywhere. They show their wives having a good time. Both is way too far from reality, for me to actually care. If they hadn't tried to make men and women so likable it would have significantly improved the movie. For a successful comedy you need a couple of shady characters and 1 or 2 quite bad ones. Without those you get a movie like 'Hall Pass'. You get quite a good laugh here and there but that movie could have been an awesome comedy.
The character of Brent is the only actual bad guy in the entire movie. In the beginning he's a great addition to the plot. But then, for no apparent reason, someone thought it would be beneficial to have Brent go berserk. While there are some comedy elements in that, the entire thing is way over the top and does almost more harm to the movie then it does good.
All in all a funny movie and I did enjoy it. On a scale of 1 to 10 I probably would give it a 4.5!!

Our Idiot Brother

2011-12-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to watching the movie 'Our Idiot Brother'. If you don't have the slightest idea what movie I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Site of 'Our Idiot Brother'.
Here are my thoughts: I absolutely loved that movie. It's one of those fun & feel good movies, that come along every now and then. This movie does what very few do: It deals with family values, acceptance and tolerance.
Paul Rudd plays the naive, idealistic 'simpleton' perfectly. The term simpleton is here not used in a negative way, i just couldn't come up with a better analogy. The character feels always real, there is nothing artificial about him. He understands things literally and that leads to a lot of absolutely hilarious situations. Of course there are several situation, where you think: "Come on, nobody can be that naive". But that is a very minor issue, that I can overlook very easily. What I really liked about the movie, is that the character stays the same. It's not like so many of the Hollywood movies, who force the character of the naive simpleton to grow up in the end. The end of the movie is fun, since we're left with a little of a guessing game about the sexuality of Paul Rudd's character: Is he straight, is he gay or is he bisexual ? We don't find out for sure.
The dynamic between Ned and his sisters is an interesting one. Of course he's an inconvenience for them and therefore he moves from sister to sister. But in the end he changes the behavior of his sisters to the better. The anger scene was pure entertainment to watch! Even a easy going, naive 'Hippie' can blow up. You don't see many Hollywood movies that deal with family values and use the F-word that much. Absolutely loved it!!
The character of Janet is an interesting one: It shows that there actually is such a thing as a really evil "Hippie" woman...and Kathryn Hahn portrays that character perfectly. It's one of those characters that you just love to hate.
The outtake and bloopers reel during the credits is just fun to watch.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give this movie a 9.5!!

XMAS Cookies

2011-12-18T18:00:00.000-08:00

Usually I bake every XMAS at least one or two batches of cookies. This year I really fell behind on that. Not entirely sure what was the reason for that. Today I finally got around to dealing with the cookies. I set up my KitchenAid Mixer and started preparing the the dough. Didn't expect any issues at all, since I've used that recipe lots of times before. Boy, was I wrong! The dough never got the consistence that it was supposed to have. I knew that I couldn't have screwed up the recipe, since I stuck to it line by line. But then it dawned on me, that this was a recipe for regular flower and the flower I had at my disposal was Whole Wheat Flower. So I ended up adding some more milk to it and finally the dough became a 'workable' thing. It still didn't have the perfect consistency, but it was better than what I had before.
After the dough had rested I hit hurdle number 2. That dough was just really sticking to the rolling pin. No amount of flour did fix that issue. After a couple of failed attempts, I was left with 2 options: I could either throw the dough away or I could become creative. So I chose the latter one. Instead of rolling the dough out I just flattened it by hand and then pounded it out. That actually worked surprisingly well. After that the baking adventure was pretty uneventful.

Just Go With It

2011-12-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

I finally watched the movie 'Just Go With It'. If you want to know more about it check out then 'Just Go With It' IMDB Page.
Well I knew it was a romantic comedy. Do I really didn't expect any insightful dialogues, character development or action sequences. If I wanted those I should better watch a different movie. That's why I don't get all the negative reviews. Yes the material was weak and pretty diluted to begin with. I mean the broadway piece 'Cactus Flower' was already very weak and making that into a movie is not going to help with the material.
There are some things that are a little bothersome. The entire scene that is supposed to be in Beverly Hills,is clearly a movie set. Nothing could be more obvious. The passerby's are clearly extras. I don't recall any movies where that were that apparent.
The scene at the beach...Having lived in SoCal for 8 years myself, I know exactly where that was shot. This particular location has been way overused and they really should think about new and different locations for the future.
The characters are of your average romantic comedy Hollywood boilerplate. So there is not much surprise here. Yes the characters have no depth and neither of the actors really tries to give them any. What I would have loved to see is that someone had tried to put a little conflict into the interaction with the characters. We wait all the way tom the end of the movie to see something like that, but it never happens.
Nicole Kidman could have done something to make a convincing adversary, but even she comes off as a rather sweet wannabe enemy.
If they had tried on the dialogues a little harder they could have made those quite funny and therefore making that a way more enjoyable experience. The writers only managed to do that in a few isolated situations. Other than that the dialogue is pretty flat.
With all that bring said, I still think that it was a entertaining movie. It certainly not one of my favorite ones, but to be fair I've seen worse.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 4!!

Super 8

2011-12-05T22:00:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to watching Super 8. If you don't have a clue what movie I'm talking about check out the IMDB Site of Super 8.
Overall I really enjoyed it. The entire train crash scene was absolutely amazing. Really loved the SFX. The kids are portrayed very well. They feel real and act the way kids are supposed to act. I love the movie in the movie. It's just fun to watch. All the preoccupation with production procedures gave me several laughs.
The adult characters come a little short for my feeling. The lack somewhat in depth. Maybe adding a little more of their background story would have improved their depth.
I really liked all the supernatural elements. And as soon as the Air Force showed up I knew, that they wouldn't be leaving soon. The entire revelation of the alien life form was fun to watch, but I think it went by a little too quick. Up to that point it was fine. The entire 180 degree turnaround in the behavior of the Sheriff and Alice' father is just a little to quick, to come off as even remotely believable. If you want to do something like that you have to come up with a more plausible explanation as the one we were given in the movie.
The entire encounter with the alien life form at the end couldn't have been any more ET.
When I was watching the very last scene of the movie, I couldn't help myself but thinking that someone tried to copy the final scene of the TNG episode 'Encounter at Farpoint', but didn't quite manage to get it right.
All in all a very good action / scifi movie. There are a few minor issue, that have mostly to do with continuity, that I can easily overlook.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 7!!

World Aids Day

2011-12-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Well this is the first year that I didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. Firs I thought it wouldn't matter at all. Turns out that I was actually quite missing it. Never thought that living for 8 years in the States had changed me that much.
That got me thinking, that there are a ton of things that are typical Austrian & European and I think they're entirely ludicrous! Apparently living in the States has changed me way more than I initially thought. Some of those things I can't change...i will just have to learn to live with them. But there are other things that I can change...for example Thanksgiving.
From the year where I will have my new place set up I will be celebrating Thanksgiving as well.

Rio

2011-11-20T23:30:00.000-08:00

Today I finally got around to watching Rio. For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, check out the IMDB Page of Rio.
The story in itself isn't something particularly new. It's a story about friendship, love and courage and does an adequate job to carry the plot along.
In an animated feature I really don't expect sophisticated character development or excellent dialogue. I expect a pretty straight forward story with a few twists and turns. And here the movie delivered all I was expecting. On top of that there are times when the dialogue is quite funny actually. The fact that Blu, one of the main characters, is a bit of a brainiac and nerd leads to lot of slapstick moments. There are times when Blu comes off as a little bit of a coward, but in the end he redeems himself by freeing Jewel and using his 'nerd power' to accomplish that.
The only way to describe the animation is amazing. The effects are crisp, clear and outstanding. Some of the flying scenes are absolutely incredible and very well planned through. The color scheme is vibrant and alive and the music does an awesome job supporting the animation. That taken all together make for a great audio-visual experience.
On a scale of 1 to 10' I would give this movie a 9!!

Pirates of the Caribbean 4

2011-11-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around the watch the fourth installment of the pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about check out the IMDB Page of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 for a synopsis!
It's a typical 'Pirates' movie. Funny, compelling story and lots of great action scenes. Right at the beginning Johnny Depp impersonating a british judgen is definitely quite funny. Shortly after that we learn that someone is trying to recruit a crew by impersonating Captain Jack Sparrow. Turns out this one is Penelope Cruz in disguise. Really thought that this twist was a cool idea.
This time there is no epic sea battle. Blackbeard is an ok character but his role is definitely being outplayed by Depp and Cruz. The fight scenes on board are fun to watch and they're very well planned out. Personally I would have loved to see more great sword fight scenes.
The entire battle is with the mermaids is very well planned and just fun to watch. A hot, shirtless cleric was a bit a surprise and definitely down my alley! That in the end the cleric was going to fall for the mermaid was pretty much a given.
The scene of infiltrating the Spanish camp was quite comical actually. Johnny Depp's quite inventive escape from the camp, was just a fun action scene to watch. The entire scene with the fountain of youth was ok and Johnny Depp gave another great performance as a goofball of a pirate. That Blackbeard dies in the end doesn't come really as a surprise and neither does that Penelope Cruz survives. During the credits we had the setup for the next installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, and everyone who did watch the previous movies did expect exactly that.
So all in all it's a very entertaining 'Pirates' movie. Loved the well planned action scenes. The SFX were outstanding, the story consistent and fairly fast paced. The general plot is exactly what we have gotten used to, when watching a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie. Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz give an outstanding performance. It's your typical fun, action packed popcorn movie.
In a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I would give it a solid 9!!

A Fall Hike to Aggstein Castle

2011-11-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to take Daisy for fall hike. Since it was pretty foggy in the valleys, there was a chance that in the lower foothills you are already out of the fog. So I chose a fairly short hike, about 2 1/2 hours total. We hike from Maria Langegg to Ruine Aggstein (Aggstein Castle).
This is a fairly easy hike and there really isn't much difference in elevation. But it definitely is a great hike through the forest and especially in fall the forest make for beautiful hikes. I just love the fall colors of the forest. Daisy was doing very well during the hike and had a tons of fun with all the different smells and scents.
When we finally made it to Aggstein we could have had a great view of the Danube Valley, but there was still a lot of lingering fog and so the view wasn't that impressive. On the other hand, that really wasn't the main reason for the hike. I chose not to visit the castle, since I didn't feel like paying 5 bucks entrance fee and I've been to that castle several times already.
So Daisy and I just hung out for some time in the sun and then headed back to Maria Langegg. After a fairly late lunch, it was already 3 pm, we headed back to my parents.

A Visit to Sto'Vo'Kor

2011-11-01T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today my parents re going to Styria to visit the graves of some family members on my Mom's side of the family. They had asked me to join them since my Dad didn't want to drive back home at night. I agreed to join them, not because I particularly care about the custom of visiting graves on November 1st, but it also provided the possibility to meet some of my relatives that I haven't seen in about 10 years.
We left at my parents around 10 am and picked up my aunt Erna in Mürzzuschlag at about 11.30 am. After some catching up we continued to pick up my aunt Lisl at Krieglach and headed to the nursing home in Mitterdorf to visit my aunt Mizzi. After that we had lunch at a restaurant. Took quite some time for the food to get ready, but early enough to make it in time to the cemetery. And that bring us to the title of the post. In the Klingon belief system Sto'Vo'Kor is the place of the honored dead. If you were to ask an Austrian kid in Elementary school where the honored dead are, you probably get as answer: on the cemetery.
We went to he grave of my uncle and met up with my uncle Adi and my cousins Resi, Dorli and Stefan. I haven't seen my cousin Stefan in at least 25 years...if not longer. Then the 'fun' thing with the service on the cemetery started. I really had to pay close attention not to start laughing. I haven't heard anyone trying to convince himself with of his faith with pseudo arguments in a very long time. Of course the Vernon was entirely ludicrous, but actually quite entertaining. After the priest had finished we visited the graves of my uncles Willi and Otto, before heading over to my cousins house for some coffee. We spent about 2 hours there catching up.
While hanging out with my relatives it occurred to me how different the guys on my Mom's side of the family are compared to those of the guys on my Dad's side if the family. The first one are laid back, easygoing and fun to be around with...the latter one not so much, they're kinda stuffy and always tend to look for the needle in the haystack. When I look at myself I do realize that I definitely have both traits and I think that I manage to keep a reasonable balance between the 2 sides. So having been away for over 8 years has definitely its benefits, as you get completely new insights into your own family.
Around 6 pm we said our good byes and dropped of my 2 aunts before heading back home. Halfway through the drive home we stopped at a restaurant to have dinner and by about 9.30 pm we were back at my parents.
So all in all it was a quite enjoyable day and catching up with relatives was quite fun.

Road Trip..

2011-10-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today I had to get up early...around 6 am to get ready to head out for a road trip. The entire thing started to shape up on Thursday. My brother-in-law called to ask me if I could do him the favor of picking up his grandparents from their hotel in Filzmoos and drive them with their car back to Vienna. The reason was that his grandparents didn't feel so hot and didn't think they could manage to that themselves. Bernd couldn't do it himself either since he, my sis and her family were leaving for a vacation on Friday morning. So I agreed to the entire thing.
On Saturday I had figured out which train to take and had arranged for the hotel to pick my up at the train station in Bischofshofen. The first part of the train ride, from St. Poelten to Salzburg went by in no time at all. Took only 2 hours. The weather wasn't particularly fun. Fog and nothing but fog...a typical thing in Austria during fall. Once we got the city of Salzburg the fog disappeared and it was a sunny and beautiful fall day. I had a 15 minute layover, then me connecting train arrived. The second part took about 45 minutes for 50 miles...and that's rather slow. I got off the train and found my ride to the hotel and arrived there around 11.45 am.
I met up with Bernd's grandparents and we left right away. I couldn't find an open gas station at their vacation destination, so I chose to fill up the car at a gas station on the freeway. The first option to do that was 1 mile after I had gotten onto the freeway. We then continued on the freeway towards Vienna. There really wasn't much traffic at all. Halfway through the trip we tok a lunch break Nd then continued towards Vienna. We got there around 4 pm. I helped them with their stuff and then we sId our good byes. I headed over to Central Station. When I got there I got my ticket right away and was prepared to wait for 1 hour for the next train. Turns out that the next train was about to leave in 15 minutes. So I got onto the train and headed back to my parents.
After 11 hours and 550 miles this road trip came to an end. The grandparents of my brother-in-law are back at their apartment safe and sound and I had a quite enjoyable road trip.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

2011-10-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to watching Transformers 3. I'm not going to write a synopsis or a plot description. There are people out there that do that for a living. For those of you who don't hive a clue what movie I am talking about, check out the IMDB Page of Transformers 3.
Here are my thoughts about this movie:
Let's start with the good stuff. It's another typical Michael Bay film. The action scenes are well planned through and quite amazing. Love all the great SFX...and there are a ton of those. Those effects satisfy a lot what I expect from a SiFi inspired Action Movie.
Let's move onto the things that just don't work for me. Whoever chose to replace Megan Fox with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley had to be entirely out of his mind. I'm not saying she's a bad actress, but she and Shia LaBeouf have absolutely no chemistry at all. That pretty much kills that part of the plot. There 'love story' comes of as completely artificial, fake and cheesy. Of all the movies I have seen in my entire life, that has to be the worst chemistry between 2 actors!
The next thing that is quite bothersome is the need to anchor the plot by using real historical events in order to kinda rationalize the existence of the movie. That really seems to be a trend lately and it is quite annoying. I don't need to rationally set up the plot of an action movie by using historical events. After all it's a action movie and not and documentary. The Transformers crashed on the moon. Good...let's start from there. There would have been absolutely no need to sprinkle lots of conspiracy theory over it.
The entire subplot with the job search is kinda insulting my intelligence. Michael Bay needs to get a grip of reality. Someone saves the entire planet from destruction, gets awarded a 'hero medal' and has a problem of finding a job? People get back to reality..that's just not the way it works in real life. I do realize that it was just done to set up the coming events...but there had to be a better way to do that.
The dialogue has no particular style or whit except when Malkovich adds his own spin. But other than that I had the feeling with the dialogues throughout the movie, that nobody really took the time to pay close attention to them and actually tried to develop them. A little less SFX and a little more time spent on dialogue would have quite been an improvement.
Beings as technologically advance as the Decepticons not realizing that the Autobots haven't left...well, I'm just not buying it. That they need visual confirmation of the Autobots leaving by Sam, well that's just bad writing.
I did love the battle scenes, as they're well planned out and quite fun to watch. A Transformer cutting a building in half and it's slowly tilting over, while the humans try to escape. Please people get real. Transformers or not, on this planet the laws of physics still apply. A building cut in half doesn't just slowly tilt over on land on another building creating a 'fairly stable' bridge, while allowing the humans to escape fairly easy. In the future Michael Bay would be well advised to not entirely negate the laws of physics. Another very funny thing is the lowering on the bridges. Here Michael Bay really should have done his research. You can't remotely lower the bridges by using the Internet. That's just not the way it works. If it did, every hacker would constantly be doing that.
The entire Optimus 'love story' for America is so fake and so cheesy, that it should have never ever been in the movie to begin with and it doesn't do anything to the plot at all!
Moving on to the final battle scene...Absolutely loved it!! I would have loved to have gotten an explanation why the chose Chicago as their hub to bring Cybertron to Earth. They subplot of Sentinel's exact reasoning for betraying Optimus and how he intends to control the Decepticons isn't being not explored at all. Exploring that subplot would have given the movie way more depth.
Sam's girlfriend has one job in the movie: to look pretty. Here on line towards the end of the last beetle scene comes off as particularly fake and cheesy. Maybe it's just me but for being a superhero Shia certainly doesn't play much of a roll for the first 2/3's of the movie.
In general there was a disconnect between the action parts of the movie and those parts that should set up the action scenes. While the action scenes move along almost at the speed of light, the scenes setting up the action scenes stand out as being particularly slow. In my opinion that was quite annoying throughout the entire movie. A little less speed during the action scenes and a little more speed during the scenes setting up the action sequences would have made this a more enjoyable movie experience.In my personal opinion this the the weakest movie of the Transformer Franchise so far.
With all that being said, I still think it's a great action movie with stunning visual effects. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 6.8!!

Green Lantern

2011-10-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around to watch 'Green Lantern'. I'm not going to write a synopsis about it, since there are people out there that are doing a way better job with that. For the synopsis check out the IMDB Page of the Green Lantern.
Here are my thoughts on that movie:
I really enjoyed it a lot. It was an equally great superhero movie as Thor. The story is easy, straight forward and there ares no surprising twists and turns in the plot. The movie moves along at a quite fast paste. They don't spend too much time trying to explain how e.g. flying in space works. And that's actually a good thing. They explain it exactly as and in easy to understand terms, as it is necessary for the plot. You put a ring on your finger, you imagine what's supposed to happen and Bam...there you have the effect. Very easy but also very effective explained and exactly the way every kid would imagine it. I really did enjoy that explanation.
What maybe is a little too easy is the way people are used to aliens, as if the alien itself and its implications were no big deal at all. Considering that this is a superhero movie and not about humans coming to terms, that there are aliens out there, it does a pretty decent job.
Absolutely loved all the SFX. they were just amazing. It was a fast paced 'lightening show' of effects. Absolutely loved how crisp the colors looked. Especially the hue of the green was very impressive! Parallax is not only very well imagined but also a perfect representation of a pure evil villain. The seven where Parallax chases after people and the people flee in pure panic towards the camera, while skyscrapers are toppling in the background is action movie making at its finest and I really didn't expect seeing anything like that in a US movie that soon.
Peter Sarsgaard plays the scientist Hector Hammond brilliantly. The sub-plot about Hectors mind reading ability is not developed very well and I would have loved to see it explored in more depth.
That in the end good triumphs over evil is not really a big surprise. Neither is the fact that the superhero gets to kiss the girl. There is something here that did bother me a little. It's the fact, that Hal doesn't even remotely try to conceal his true identity. As far as I understand superheroes that should be one of their most important tasks. The scene where Hal gets the girl and is surprised that she immediately realizes who he is, is kinda goofy.
I really liked the scene at the end where they're already setting up a sequel.All in all it is a fun, fast paced action movie and I enjoyed it a lot. It has all what I expect from an action movie: Easy story, great action scenes and amazing special effects. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 8!!

A relaxing Saturday

2011-10-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to have one of those relaxing Saturday's. My parents were gone hiking. Sine my shoulder was hurting I didn't think it would have been a smart move to join them. On the other hand mi enjoy those relaxing Saturdays and having the entire house to myself...that's always a great 'Harry Time'.It also gave me time to catch up and some reading that I had fallen behind on. Next up was Ep. 'Revisited No. 1' of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Once I had finished it was time to get some lunch started. Had Porcini Noodles with Green Beans and Carrots in 'my special' light Veggie Sauce. After lunch I took Daisy for an extended walk.After we got back I watched Ep.'Air Apparent' of CSI New York and then sneak peak of 'Grimm', which will be premiering next Saturday on NBC. Absolutely loved the sneak peak. Definitely looking forward the Ep. 1.Shortly after I finished watching the sneak peak my parents got back from their hike and it was time for dinner. Next up was Ep. 'Luigi's' of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. After that I headed out to the local bar. Since they were having a special event the next day..it wasn't that entertaining. So after 1 had finished with my large beer I headed back home. It was still fairly early in the evening, so I started watching the Green Lantern on my iPad. I'll be talking a little more about this movie in a separate Blog Post.

Moving Abroad ???

2011-10-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

That title and it's implications may come to some as a surprise. Those who really know me, they shouldn't be shocked at all.
When I decided to move back to Austria in March, it certainly wasn't my first choice. I would have much rather moved to the UK or Germany instead. But planning a full-scale move, preparing the move for the dog, having a new version of certain government documents issued, looking for work and a place to live...and all of that at the same time, well that was a task I didn't particularly want to take on. So moving back to Austria just seemed to be the easier and more practical thing to do.
I like my "home country", it's a fun place to spend your vacation...but living there is an entirely different thing. Maybe I've really lived too long abroad, but Austria and I are not exactly what you would call a match made in heaven. You could make it work by forth, but it will never ever be a really good fit. It's almost like putting square tires on a pickup truck! For me this country is just too small and I'm not talking about its size. I'm talking about the points of view of its citizens. They think of things within a framework that is way too small and way too confiningfor my taste. They just can't think outside the box. Many things are way too over regulated for my taste. Too much governmental interference and too little individualism. And things move quite slowly here...that doesn't mean that people are lazy, it's just the mentality of the people...and it drives me crazy at times!! It just doesn't work on so many levels for me! On the other hand it has always been that way. Apparently I've been way too much Americanized, to continue dealing with that!
Of course there is a personal side to that as well. Starting over in a city like Vienna is not exactly what I would call a clean slate and a new beginning. Besides that Vienna has kinda lost it's appeal for me. That city just isn't exciting anymore. It has become rather dull and boring. Trying to make that work doesn't seem like the right decision...after all I'm no longer the same person that left Vienna over 8 years ago.
What I need is a clean slate and a fresh start in a world city. Currently I'm leaning much more towards moving to the UK. London busy and exciting, it's a world city and one major financial center in Europe. This is exactly what makes it interesting to me from a professional point of view. Of course I'm not hang up on London, I use it as a synonym for all larger meteropolean areas. Right now I'm looking mostly for work in the UK and Germany as well. Of course I'm also keeping my eyes out for temp jobs in Austria, since that move might not happen that quickly. My current timeframe is roughly summer 2012 for that to happen. On the other hand it could be that this is going to happen way quicker than anyone expects. You just never know!!It's definitely something that I'm looking forward to. It would be a new beginning, a different culture and a different experience. Nothing is set in stone yet, but stay tuned on how things are going with that endeavor!

iOS5

2011-10-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

This weekend I got the chance to play around with iOS5 on the iPad. Here are my thoughts about it:It's definitely a shiny packaging and a sleek look. Some of the added features I did already have via Thrid-Party Apps. Therefore they're not impressing me that much.

What is a nice plus is the improved Notifications, as the old system of pop-ups was really annoying.
iMessage is overall an improvement, but that it only works on iOS devices is definitely a big disappointment!
The Camera App has been improved, but overall doesn't do too much for my taste.
The Newsstand is an entirely pointless feature for me and I really could live without it!
The Twitter Integration is nice an overall improvement.
The revamp of Safari is OK. They added a couple of nice and quite helpful features. The Tabs in the browser are not one of them. They're absolutely terrible and make the way I work way more difficult!
The News Reminder App is definitely a very helpful, great new feature.
I really couldn't care less about the Mail App, since I don't use it to begin with!
That no longer a PC is required to set up the device is one of the biggest improvements of the entire software update.
The new Game Center doesn't do anything for me, while synchronizing iTunes via wifi is a nice feature.
One of the core issues of iCal still hasn't been addressed. The way you set up recurring events is as ridiculous as in the previous version.

This software update brought some improvements. On the other hand there are still some core issues that have mot been addressed at all. Considering the hype they built up for the software update and what it actually turned out to be, I would have to say that it is rather a disappointment. On a scale of 1 to 5 - with one being the worst and 5 being the best - I probably would give it a 2.5!

End of an Era...

2011-10-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

This Blog Post is not about the introduction of the IOS5 or the death of Steve Jobs...this here is way mor personal.
I used to be an absolute fan of Apple products. The important words in this sentence are 'used to'. But lately Apple products just seems to loose their appeal. They just don't make me that excited as when I got my first Apple device. It was a used iPod. For me that was the coolest thing ever. In 2005 I got my first iMac and was absolutely in love with that thing. It looked amazing and it's performance was absolutely outstanding. It let me work the way I wanted to work on a computer without having to follow the strict guidelines that some programmer thought I should follow. The working surface and the interface was clean and intuitive. The applications ran fast, without any bugs and were just fun to work with. A system crash was a very rare occasion. Very rarely you had to deal with system updates. That iMac made me the creative guy that I'm today. It let me do what I wanted to do: Create content without having to worry about what the thing was doing in the background. I enjoyed every minute of it. That way I got into creating websites, telling photo-stories and finally editing amateur video of semi-professional quality. Whatever I threw at the iMac and OS Tiger they could handle it all. I never ever had any regrets of having paid 2 Grand for my iMac.
So far that almost sounds like a love letter to Apple. Then came that faithful day in 2007 when all started to change. It was the release of OSX Leopard. At first everything seemed to be cool and awesome. That was my first impression as well. But something in the coding of the OS was definitely wrong. It started with minor system hiccups. I really didn't worry too much about that. The system hiccups continued and Apple started to release system update after system update. Well it didn't really improve the performance. Looking at it in retrospect the iMac running OS Leopard was getting more and more like a computer running Windows: in the beginning a computer running windows is fast and has no issues. But depending on the length of time and intensity you use the computer the OS accumulates lots of 'dead program trash' and that makes the computer sluggish and starts driving you out of your mind.
As long as my iMac was running Tiger I never experienced that. But Leopard was definitely leaning into that direction. I had hoped that OS Snowleopard would address that issue...but it doesn't. I use my computer quite extensively and I throw at it lots of things...and of course I expect from the machine to deal with the requests in a timely fashion and not to drive my out of my mind. So I finally decided to wipe the iMac clean and start from scratch. Well the in the beginning it worked quite nicely with a clean installation of OS Leopard. But very soon the thing became quite sluggish again...and that can drive me crazy. Just for the fun of it I wiped OS Leopard and installed my old OS Tiger and the iMac was again in perfect working condition without ever experiencing the issues I had with Leopard. The easiest thing would have been to runTiger, but my editing software and Tiger are not exactly what you would call BFF's. My editing software runs on Tiger but gets kinda sluggish at times and that's terrible when you're edition video. So back to Leopard I went...and I really wasn't a happy camper.
I talked to friends of mine who were running OS Lion, the predecessor of Leopard. Turns out that the issues of Leopard still exist in Lion. That exactly was the point when I started to change the way I see Apple products. Macs are way more expensive than PC's running windows. I always justified that with the fact, that with a Mac I don't have the aggravation that I have with PC's. Looking at the last few OS releases, that's no longer true. The last 2 OSX cause me almost the same aggrevation, that I get from a PC running Windows, while costing me a lot more money.
When I got my iPad I used to love that thing and I have to say it's a great piece of hardware. It really let's me do a lot of things that came especially in handy during the relocation while my iMac was traveling across the Atlantic in a container-ship. With that being said, there are quite some things that really drive me nuts when it comes to the iPad. That the iPad doesn't support Flash is absolutely laughable! The user really don't gives a rats ass if a few boys in Cupertino are sitting in their 'we hate Flash' Ivory-Tower and have entirely lost any connection with the real world. If I would have to buy a new iPad somewhere down the line and it doesn't support Flash...well then I won't be buying it! The other issues are pretty much minor ones. Like that I can't create albums in my own Photo-App or that I can't mount the iPad as storage device when connected to my computer is entirely ridiculous. After all it's my device and I should be able to do with it whatever I choose to.
I certainly not going to get rid of all my Apple products. They have just become part of my daily life. I'm definitely keeping my iMac as well and just do those things on it where the iMac does a really superb job. As long as Apple doesn't get back to coding and testing their software the way they used to, I really don't see myself buying any Apple Software any time soon. When it comes to hardware the decision is even easier. I just can't justify to spend about 1100 bucks every 2 or 3 years on a new MacBook. That's just too much money. If a buy a laptop of comparable quality it costs me 1/2 of it and I know that it will be so messed up in 3 years at the latest, that I have to toss it out. But that would be happening regardless.
If Apple should return to building outstanding and superb hardware and software again, then I will change my position again. Since I don't see any signs of that happening...well it looks like as if that journey is going to come to an end!

Hiking 'Upper Ötschergräben'

2011-10-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

According to the weather forecast today was going to be the last warm the before a cold front is going to move in. So I decided to take advantage of that beautiful fall day and took Daisy for a hike into the 'Upper Oetschergraeben'.
It took me about 1 hour to get to the trailhead in 'Erlaufklause'. We started along a logging road and I had decided to hike in the entire logging road until it reaches the mountain hut 'SH Vorderoetscher'. What I didn't expect was, that the mountain hut was closed on that day. But that didn't stop me from doing that hike anyway. The hike is pretty easy and it takes you about 2 1/2 hours to reach 'SH Vorderoetscher'. You get some great views of 'Oetscher' and you get to experience the fall colors of the forest.
When we got to the mountain hut, we took a short rest. Daisy got something to drink and to chill out in the shade for about 1/2 hour. It was a nice surprise to find some cans of beer cooled in a kind of a animal trough. I took advantage of the offer and paid gladly the 2€ for the beer. Up till here we had only met 4 other hikers. I really didn't expect many, since this was a weekday and fairly late into the hiking season.
After the relaxing for about 1/2 hour we started with the descend into the 'Upper Oetschergraeben'. You have to hike down for about 1/2 hour through one of the side-canyons. Since there were that few hikers I decided to let Daisy hike off leash. She really enjoyed that quite a lot and it wasn't a problem since I know that Daisy doesn't go running of and she doesn't chase wildlife either. About halfway down the side-canyon we met 2 more hikers, but Daisy didn't pay any attention to them..she was busy drinking out of s creek. We continued down the side-canyon and pretty soon reached to main-canyon.
The main canyon is a quite narrow trail, sometimes high above the river, but absolutely beautiful to hike. I didn't expect Daisy to have any issues, but I did watch her in the beginning, just in case she should be a little unsure about the trail. For her that was no big deal, she acted as if she had done that her entire life. The further downriver you get, the broader the trail gets. We passed 'Mira Fall' that almost had no water at all and about 1/2 later we reached a snack place called 'Oetscherhias'. By the time we got there the snack place had already closed for the day. So we just stopped to have something to drink, before starting to hike out of the canyon. By about 6 pm we were back at the car.
It was s great and beautiful fall hike and it took us about 5 1/2 hours to complete the entire hike. Daisy has been hiking exceptionally well the past few weeks and she definitely had a blast checking out all the different smells and scents. And of course she got to do here new favorite thing: walking through creeks and drinking out of them. That's something she picked up when she got to Austria!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the photo-album 'Upper Ötschergräben' on my FaceBook Page!!

Hiking 'Unterberg'

2011-10-04T23:51:00.000-07:00

Today was another beautiful fall day and I chose to take advantage of it before this high pressure ridge collapses. I decided to take Daisy for a hike to 'Unterberg'. I chose one of the longer hiking trails and started from a place called 'Dürrholzer Kreuz'. You start at an elevation of 2395 feet.
First the trail follows one of the logging roads. The forest was showing its beautiful fall colors and the air was fresh and cool...someone might even call it chilly. I really enjoy the weather in fall for hikes. After probably 15 minutes the trail leaves the logging road and leads slowly uphill in a mountain flank. There are no steep ascends, it's all very moderate. After about 30 minutes the trail starts to get steeper and you hike through a fairly steep wooded mountain flank. Then follows again a more moderate part. The last part is then fairly steep again where the trail goes through the rocky part of the mountain flank.After about 2 hours you reach a place called 'Blochboden'.
From here you could hike over to the 'Unterberg Haus' in about 30 minutes. But I chose to hike over the summit. The trail leads mostly over grassy hills and is mostly very moderate. Only once you reach the top part of the summit it gets steeper. The summit is about 4402 feet. Certainly not the most impressive mountain, but you have a great view of the surrounding foothills. Daisy and I spent about 20 minutes up there before heading down to 'Unterberg Haus'. The trail leads pretty much in an almost straight line down a fairly steep grassy slope. I certainly won't add the trail from the summit to 'Unterberg Haus' to my top 100 favorite trails.
We took a lunch break at 'Unterberg Haus' and Daisy got to socialize with dog of the mountain hut. Those two guys really hit it off!! After about 1 hour we had to leave and made our way back to 'Blochboden'. Daisy didn't have any problems at all in the steep parts. It's like as if she had been doing that her entire life. By about 6 pm we had it made back to the car. The hiking time of 5 1/2 hours were absolutely no problem for my 'cowdog'.
All in all it was a great Fall Hike and Daisy had tons of fun!!
You can check out more pix of this hike in the photo-album 'Unterberg, 2011' on my Facebook Page!!

Hiking 'Treffling Fall'

2011-09-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Today was another beautiful fall day. Since I did have the time I decided to take Daisy for hike to 'Trefflingfall' in the foothills. My parents decided to join me as well.
The trailhead is about a 1 hour drive from my parents and we made it to the trail by 11.30 am. It's a fairly easy trail and a great choice for a fall hike. The trail starts out along the river 'Erlauf' and leads for about 30 minutes through mostly forest. This is just fun to hike and Daisy especially had a blast in the forest. You continue to walk quite close along the river. Suddenly you reach a formation called 'Teufekskirche' (Devils Church), a place of worship for Satanists....LOL, I'm just kidding!! It's just an interesting rock formation. Shortly thereafter we reached a bridge and had to cross to the other side of the river. Daisy didn't have any issues with that. Now you hike continuously along the river. Sometimes the trail is quite narrow and right next to the river and sometimes it leads for a little while Thoth the forest. Suddenly you see a few houses in the middle of the forest. They seem entirely out of place. You continue for quite a while to a rock formation call 'Toreck', where the river hike changes a canyon hike. You continue to walk high above the river and suddenly you reach the beginning of 'Trefflingfall'. Well it might not be the most impressive waterfall, but it's definitely a very beautiful one. I got several great pix of the waterfall and the started to hike up pretty much next to the waterfall. At one spot you can literally stand right next to the waterfall. Daisy didn't seem to impressed by that at all. She was way more interested in the smells of the forest. The trail loops back and forth in a flank next the waterfall and Daisy got a couple of times get a little confused which direction to go.
Shortly after that you have to cross the a bridge to the other side of the valley. You get an impressive view of the waterfall. Again Daisy wasn't particularly impressed by that either. On the other side of the valley you have to hike up in step rock flank. It's not technically difficult since it is secured with a handrail and the steps in the rock, which creates a staircase, are quite helpful as well. It takes you about 1/2 hour to get to the steep part of the flank, followed by another 1/2 hour hike through the upper 'Treffling Valley' until you get to 'Trefflingtaler Haus', where the hike ends. We had lunch there and relaxed for about 1 hour before heading back. Before we left Daisy socialized a little with a small Maltese and they seemed to get along well with each other. We started to hike the same trail that we came and Daisy didn't have any issues with going down the stairs. She seems to be a natural when it comes to that. Never even looked at me for advice, just was doing her thing as if she had been doing that all her life long. By about 6 pm we had made it back go the car.
All in all it was a beautiful and great fall hike and Daisy enjoyed herself a lot!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the Photo-Album 'Trefflingfall, 2011' on my Facebook Page!!

Google Plus iPad App

2011-09-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today I downloaded the App for GooglePlus, that had been added to the App Store on Sept. 23 and supports now iPad's as well. Here are my thoughts about this App:
Once you open the App you're greeted by the sign-in screen. The one thing that did bother my right from the beginning is the fact the change between landscape and portrait orientation doesn't work. It's not a big deal but definitely annoying.
After you have signed in you're greeted by the G+ Overview Screen, that gives you access to your Settings, Stream, Messenger, Photos, Profile and Circles. On the bottom you have a status bar letting you you if you have any notifications. So far this screen looks exactly the same way as the Android App.

Let's take a closer look at the settings tab:

This is the place to go if you want to sign out of the App.

The next tab are Push Notifications. In essence it let's you decide when you what to be notified about mentions, shares & comments. You can also set when you want to be notified if someone added you to their circles, tags and comments on photos of you. It allows you to specify if you want be notified if someone comments on post after you've already commented. The default settings seem to do here a good job...not quite sure if you end up with a notification overload if you were to turn on all notifications. I guess only future will tell.

The next tab are Streams. Circles, Incoming and Nearby are selected by default. Here you can change the views around.

The Messenger tab let's you choose who can IM you. You have the choice between Everyone, Extended Circles and Your Circles.

The last tab gives you access to Help, Feedback, Privacy Policy and TOS.

All in all the Settings Interface is clear, uncluttered and straight forward.

In the Stream you can side swipe through all the Views that you have selected in the Settings. Quite a nice feature. Here you can also check into Places and write your Posts. The Post-Tab is straight forward. It let's you add your current location to the post and gives the choice between taking a pic with your iPad camera or choose one stored on your iPad and of course it let's you choose which of your circles you want to share it with. It doesn't allow you however to record a video status update and post it right away. This is a feature I would love to see in a future release of this App.
The fact that you still don't have a reasonable good way of posting Links besides 'copy and paste' is a big disappointment!! I'm not talking about adding a 'text link', I'm talking about pulling the link feed and adding top Pic, Avatar or Icon with a small excerpt of the Article automatically to the post.

The Messenger tab contains the Instant Messenger. It is pretty straight forward and that's all there is to that tab.

The Photo-Tab is exactly what one expects. It houses all your Photos, all your pix, if you have a Blog with Blogspot, all the photos from your Circles and if you have a Google Phone (like the Nexus S) it also holds all the pix that have automatically been added via instant upload from your phone. The top tab let's you take new pix with your iPad camera and gives you access to the pix stored on your iPad.

The Profile-Tab gives you the option to change your Profile Pic with a pic associated with your G+ Account, take a new one with your iPad camera or choose a pic stored on your iPad. This is a huge improvement compared to the mobile version of G+, that didn't give you that option.
The About-Tab in the bottom status bar contains your personal Info and let's someone send an email to the owner of the Profile. Is the same as in the mobile version of G+.
The next 2 Tabs give access to your Posts and Photos.

Once you open the Circles you find 2 top Tabs. 'People' view shows everyone in your circles in alphabetical order. If you tab on a name you can change which circle this person is associated with and it gives you access to that users profile. The 'Circles' view shows your contacts sorted by circles and gives you access the the same information as in 'People' view. In 'People' view you have an additional tab at the bottom that offers you a list of suggested people.

All in all a great App and a huge improvement over the mobile version of G+!! If I had to rate that App I would give it a 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5. My main complaints are that the Link Sharing needs to be optimized in order to pull the Link Feed automatically and that this App still doesn't give me the option to share certain G+ content with other social networks. Fixing the page orientation issue and integrating the iPad video cam into the App would be nice, but isn't essential for me.

Hiking 'Hegerberg'

2011-09-27T22:21:00.000-07:00

Today was other beautiful fall day and I decided to take Daisy for a hike. My parents chose to join me. I wanted to hike from 'Stollberg' to 'Hegerberg'. The way I remembered it is, that it was about 2 hour hike along a ridge in the foothills.
Well memory is s funny thing. I remembered the hiking time right, but the trail that's an e entirely different story. First of all the trail only follows the ridge line at the end of the hike. You have to hike actually quite far down into the valley and then hike back up to the ridge. Well, that's nothing unusual in the foothills but having to hike the first hour completely on a paved, rural road that's just no fun. It's not the traffic as there was barely any, but hiking on a paved road is just no fun. Once you get of the road it's a fun hike through the forest and along the ridge line and Daisy really enjoyed it. After about 2 hours we reached the 'Johann Enzinger Haus' and had lunch there.
After relaxing for about 1 hour we headed back to the car. All was fine until we hit the paved road again. While hiking down it didn't even realize how far down that was. You do realize that, once you have to hike it all back up again. Having to do that on paved road no fun at all. While hiking back it occurred to me, that I could have parked the car where the trail leaves the road. OK, that reduces the hiking time by a out 1 hour, but it least you don't have to hike the paved road and the forest and ridge line hike are a fun hike.
Once o got home I checked with one of the older trail maps and it turns out that the trail always went that far down. Can't really say that I remember that. The only reason why I thought that you only hike on paved road for about 15 minutes is, that the last time I hiked that trail the road hadn't been paved..and that of course makes a hike feel quite differently.
Besides the paved road it was a fun fall hike!!
You can check out more pix of that hike in the photo-album 'Hiking 'Hegerberg' on my Facebook Page!!

Apollo 18

2011-09-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around to watching Apollo 18. Well I didn't read any of the reviews on purpose. Hadn't heard anything positive or negative either...and that's something that rarely happens. In retrospect I wish I had read those reviews before.
If you have no clue what I'm talking about, here is the synopsis of 'Apollo 18'.
Holy crap...where do I start? Well by the time the movie had ended I was happy about 1 thing...that the movie had finally ended. That was definitely a major relief! It was one of the absolute worst movies that I have seen in a very long time. On the positive side I only wasted 86 minutes!
This is one of the slowest and most boring movies I have ever seen. The characters are dull, boring and lifeless. Nobody found it worthwhile to spend even a little time to develop the characters. I can live with characters that I don't like. I never even got the chance to either like or dislike the characters, I just didn't care for them. If something bad or good happened to them it would have been of no importance.
The story really doesn't go anywhere. It moves around in circles for 86 minutes and by the time the movie ends no story has been told. You could have taken the storyline on so many different directions or shed light on it in so many different angles, but nothing of at kind ever happens. Once the movie is over you're left with the question what the point of the entire story was to begin with.
The dialogue isn't any better than the the storyline. It's dull, boring and uninteresting. Those characters have not a single interesting line. In 86 minutes that's certainly an accomplishment! Even with the the dull dialogue, giving the characters a little personality would have improved this movie immensely.
The only slightly positive feel about the movie is the static camera work and the way the surface of the moon looks like. The wannabe SFX are a bad joke and by saying so I'm trying to be nice. They're trying to do a handy cam style. That's all well and good, but it's way too much. It's too grainy, it's way too jumpy, quite distracting and annoying! Less of the handy cam style would have improved the movie!
If a were to write a recipe for that disastrous movie it probably sound something like that: Take 80 minutes of story that goes nowhere, add some dull and lifeless characters, add boring dialogue really bad SFX, season with a little 'Alien' and 'Paranormal Activity' and in the end sprinkle some Stanley Kubrick over it and hope that something remotely tolerable emerges.
By the time the movie was over I was relieved it had finally ended. I was thinking that I haven't seen anything that bad in a very long time. Even cheesy Saturday SyFy movies are way better than this movie. How anyone could believe that a movie this bad belongs in a movie theatre is beyond my comprehension. I came very close to shut the movie of on several occasions. Luckily I watched it as a torrent. If I had seen that in a movie theatre I would have been pissed that I spent 10+ bucks on a movie like that and I might have even walked out. In order for that to happen a movie has to be exceptionally bad!! On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, I would have to give it a -5!!
Definitely a absolute DISLIKE!!

The Green Hornet

2011-09-25T23:16:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around to watch 'The Green Hornet'. Well being in Austria I have to either endure horrible dubs into friggin' German or to catch a showing of the original version in one of Vienna's very few movie theaters that actually do so. So downloading the movie via a torrent and streaming it to my iPad seemed definitely the better way to go. If it were an movie that I absolutely want to see on the big screen I would have waited for such a screening, but the reviews for 'The Green Hornet' weren't promising at all. So I guess it's a good thing that I don't listen to movie reviews to begin with.
For those of you who have no clue what movie I'm talking about check out the Synopsis of 'The Green Hornet'.
All in all a really enjoyed to movie. It's pretty much what I expect from a Superhero/Action Movie: Simple story, good action scenes and appealing visual effects. This movie delivered it all. It's way better than all the reviews made it sound like. Yes, it is true that sometimes the story moves along a little slow, but considering that they have 2 hours to set the scene, develop the characters, go through the action scenes and come up with an ending...well they did do a good job. The visual effects and car chase scenes were great and I really liked the way the cut the fight scenes.
All in all a good action movie...and it did exactly what a Superhero/Action Movie is supposed to do: It was fun to watch and it entertained me. So the negative reviews really don't do it any justice!!

So the Vacation comes to an End...

2011-09-17T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today the vacation ended. I got up around 7 am and took Daisy for her morning walk. After that I started packing and by 8 am everything was packed. My Dad of course needed still 1 more hour before he was done. That gave me time go check my eMails, Facebook and Twitter. While I was doing that I heard my parents argue and argue about things that are of no real importance. It was pretty much driving me crazy. There was one thing I was thinking about: If 45+ years of marriage/relationship do that to you...well than you're definitely better of staying single.A little after 9 am my Dad was done and we went to have breakfast. By 10.30 all was packed and we were ready to leave. I just felt lucky that I was driving my Mom's old car with Daisy in the back and didn't have to listen to my parents argue about this and that. I turned on my 'Travel Play List' on my iPad and could listen to good music while driving back home. On the freeway there wasn't too much traffic, so we were making good progress. In Mondsee we stopped for a snack and drinks before continuing. A little over 1 hour before I got to my parents I had to stop at a rest area to untangle Daisy's leash. She had the leash partially wrapped around her hind legs...and that definitely couldn't have been comfy at all. As soon as I was done, I jumped back on the freeway again and by about 4 pm I had it made to my parents place. So ends 1 week vacation in the Austrian Mountains. The majority of it was fun..my parents arguing and pickering not so much!

Vacation 2011, Day 7: Steinalm

2011-09-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

Today was the last full day of the vacation. My Dad wanted to get the toll sticker for my Mom's car and fill up both cars before heading home tomorrow. Well, I would have done that either in the evening or tomorrow morning. As far as I'm concerned it was at least a partial waste of a perfect good vacation day. Arguing with my Dad at the age of 73 is pretty much a fruitless endeavor. So I just let him have his way. First we picked up the toll sticker and then headed out to Saalfelden to fill up both cars.
Next up was the Einsiedelei (hermitage) that my Mom wanted to see. It's only a 30 minute hike on a fairly easy trail. Turns out that there is still a so called hermit living up there. The important word in the last sentence is 'so called'. If you want to be a hermit, well that's fine with me...but calling yourself a hermit and just living 30 minutes from civilization is a joke. On top of that the so called hermit lives only up there in summer, what makes the joke even worse as far as I'm concerned. That led to a slight argument with my parents about organized religion. Don't know those people anything about me? It was a bad idea to argue organized religion with me 10 years ago and that absolutely hasn't changed!

After my parent had their time at the hermitage we hiked to Steinalm via Fuchssteig. That's a hike of a little over 1 hour. The first part is quite steep and you better know what you're doing or it could end badly. If you're afraid of heights, well than that's definitely not the trail for you. Daisy didn't have any issues with that trail at all and actually really enjoyed herself. After about 30 minutes we continued on the main trail, since Fuchssteig is s little of a short cut. The last 1/2 hour up to is a fairly easy hike and we made it to Steinalm around 1 pm. When we got there I realized that there were several animals there including a goat. Daisy wasn't interested in the other animals, but showed genuine interest in the goat. So I let her do her thing and waited what was going to happen, but was ready to break things off in case the were to get out of hands. Well, both of them checked each other out without any issues at all. At Steinalm we had a little snack and something to drink and relaxed there for about 1 hour. Then we started to head back down. Again Daisy socialized a little with the goat. Apparently that's something that is hardwired into her DNA. We continued on the main trail and about 1 1/2 hours later we had made it back to car.
All in all a good last day of the vacation!

Vacation 2011, Day 6: Mitterberg Alm

2011-09-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well today the weather was supposed to be more stabile than yesterday. By only looking out if the window you certainly weren't quite able to tell that. Clouds hanging low and fog in the lower parts of the mountain behind the hotel. But my Dad had set his heart to go hiking...and to make a long story short...hiking we went. He wanted to hike from 'Arthur Haus' to 'Mitterfeld Alm'. We got to 'Arthur Haus' around noon and started with the hike. Well the hike has no real technical difficulties, but can be steep at times. It was a fun hike, sometimes hiking in light fog and that gives the trail a little of a mystical ambience. About 50 minutes later we had made it to 'Mitterfeld Alm'. We stopped there to have s quick drink, before heading back to 'Arthur Haus'. From there my Dad wanted to hike a trail, that is featuring several places where you can see the mining history around 'Arthur Haus'. After a rather short time my Mom had enough of hiking for the Day and went back to 'Arthur Haus'...and that's a nice way of putting it! I continued in the trail with my Dad. On the one hand I didn't mind hiking a bit longer and on the other hand I didn't want him to do that on is own, since with the age of 73 he isn't hiking as good as he used to. Of course by doing so I had to endure my Dad's history lesson. Something I'm not particularly fond of. When I'm going for a hike...I do just that and I'm not interested in s history lesson. If at a later point in time I should be interested in the history lesson about that particular trail I will read it then. That's something where my Dad and I don't see eye to eye...and that has been going on for at least the past 30 years...most likely way longer than that!! For the most part it was fine...over the years I've learned to let him talk, while I don't listen anyway and I've become very good at that and most of the time don't register that what he is saying anyways. Well we hiked till a place called 'Windrauchegg Alm', where we turned around and headed back to 'Arthur Haus'. Again Daisy got to socialize with free roaming cattle there. This seems to become Daisy new hobby and passion. It's quite interesting, as that socializing is a one-way street. Daisy likes to sniff and check out cattle, but if a cow does it to her in return, that kinda scares her and she always hides behind me. During many of the hikes in the future Daisy will continue to see free roaming cattle and maybe with the time she will get used to idea that it is OK if a cow checks her out. Guess only future will tell.Well, my Dad and I made it back to 'Arthur Haus' and met up with my Mom to have coffee there before heading back to the hotel.

Vacation 2011, Day 5: Seisenberg Klamm

2011-09-14T20:20:00.000-07:00

From 9/14/11

Today was the weather was supposed to be rather unstable. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to sunshine and blue sky. But dark clouds slowly started to build up in the mountains, so a short hiking trip seemed to be best choice. I choose to take Daisy for a canyon hike to 'Seisenberg Klamm'. It was only about a 1 hour drive by car. My parents decider to join me. We got there around 11 am and the clouds were getting darker and thicker. So it was a good thing that the canyon hike was only a little over 1 mile long. At the beginning it's a nice and wide path, but soon you reach the canyon and the bridges start. Daisy didn't have any issues with that at all. She acted as if she had been doing that all her life. She wasn't even by the people coming back down. What surprised me that the sound of the water rushing by didn't bother her at all. Well that was about to change when we reached the 'Dunkle Klamm' (dark canyon). First of all as them name suggests it's rather dark and narrow in there and that of course makes the noise way louder. Up to that point Daisy was walking in front of me, if I told her to do so. But in the 'Dunkle Klamm' it was at times so loud that she couldn't hear my voice and there is actually 1 spot, where the sound form a waterfall makes one of the bridges shake. That's when Daisy looked to me for guidance and so I walked ahead and Daisy stayed right next to me. Shortly after that we had made kit through the most impressive part of the anyone. We could have hiked to one on the snack places further upstream, but since it was starting to rain it seemed like a good decision to turn around and head back to the car. On the way down Daisy had gotten used to the noise and didn't mind walking in front of me, when I instructed her to do so...but of course she turned occasionally around to make sure that I was still there. Shortly before we made it back to the car we had to encounter of those entirely neurotic 'rat sized' dogs, who just had to throw a temper tantrum and piss everyone off. Of course Daisy didn't stand for that and reacted to the fact that this wannabe 'Napoleon' tried to attack her. I had to break the entire thing off or I would have had a full blown dog fight on my hand...and that's something I can definitely live without. The 'almost' dog fight didn't really frustrate me...that what really pissed me off was the usability of the the other dog's owner to control or redirect his dog.Other than that one fly in the ointment it was a great day and Daisy seemed to have enjoyed it.

Vacation 2011, Day 4: Mandelwände

2011-09-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

From 9/13/11

Today was going to be another very stable day, weather wise speaking. So I thought it would be a great idea to take Daisy for a hike along the 'Mandelwänxe'. The hike from Arthur Haus to Erich Hütte is about 3 hours long and my parents decided to join me. We decided that hiking from Arthur Haus to Erich Hütte would be the better idea, since you don't have to catch a bus at the end of the hike. So we left at about 8.45 am and drove to 'Dientner Sattel' to catch the bus to Arthur Haus. This was also Daisy's first time of ever driving with a bus...at least as far as I know. Everything was cool until the bus arrived. She gave that big yellow thing an odd look. She probably was thinking: "I'm not sure if I'm going to like that thing". But for most part she was fine and waited very patiently. People boarding the bus and a lot of people also leaving the bus at the rear entrance, well that started to freak Daisy a little out. One guy came a little too close for her comfort with his hiking poles and so Daisy barked at him once. As far as I'm concerned she had every right to do so. Other than that there was no issue at all. We boarded the bus and found a spot and for Daisy it was the most natural thing in the world, as if she had been riding busses her whole life long. About 45 minutes we arrived at Arthur Haus and breakfast there. After that we left and started to walk in the direction of Erich Hütte. The trail is quite easy without any technical difficulties. The trail is mostly even, but of course you have to walk out each and every creek. About 1 hour into the hike we got to a place called 'Vierhütten' and had a quick lunch break there. Daisy was chillin' under the table. We continued with the hike and the closer you get to 'Birgkar' the more creeks you have to walk out and the deeper the gullies become. On the way there we passed by lots and lots of free roaming cattle and Daisy got way more confident with the cattle and sniffed and checked out several of them. Apparently that's something that has to be hardwired into the DNA of a cattledog. Once we reached the 'Birgkar' we took a short break and again Daisy was drinking out of a creek. I knew that we had roughly completed 2/3's of the hike. We continued and had to deal with the more muddy part of the trail. Luckily they put logs over the worst parts. For most parts Daisy followed my lead and walked over the logs. But with some parts she just walked through the mud. It amazes me every single time, that in no time a completely muddy dog paw is clean again. If they only could apply that technique to my hiking boots! By about 4.30 pm we had made it to Erich Hütte and stopped there for drinks. Daisy drank a little from her water bowl, was chillin' under the table and then falling asleep. After we had relaxed a little we walked back to the car. On the way down we encountered another herd of cattle. One of the cows tried to give Daisy a sniff...but my cowdog was completely oblivious to that and got spooked. Once she realized that it was only a cow she gave the cow nose a sniff and checked the cow out for a little while.It definitely was a great hike with lots of great and interesting experiences for Daisy!!

Vacation 2011, Day 3: Willi Schwaiger Weg

2011-09-12T23:03:00.000-07:00

From 9/12/11

Today Started out rather slow. It was still cloudy from a passing through cold front and we were supposed to get showers throughout the day. So my parents and I went out to Maria Alm to do some grocery shopping. Hearing my parents argue with each other was not much fun. I just thought that this is something that's going to drive me nuts. After we were done with the shopping my Mom wanted to take a look at the village church of Maria Alm. While my parents took a look at the church Daisy and I waited outside. After that the dark clouds and with that the rain was moving in more and more and so I decided that I just didn't want to take the chances with a hike out there...and so we headed back at the hotel.When we got back to the hotel, the weather looked way better and with a rain jacket in my backpack I went out for a light hike. We had planned to hike along the Urslau River and than cross over to the Willi Schwaiger Weg and hike this trail in it's entire length. The hike along the Urslau River is quite nice and actually very easy. About 1/2 hour later we reached a place called "Trieffen". It's a rain curtain, very similar to the "Weeping Wall" at Glacier National Park...but way smaller. We relaxed there for a little and then continued on the Willi Schwaiger Weg. This trail has changed quite a lot since I hiked it last. Lots of damage from recent storms and some avalanches did considerable damage as well. The trail is still OK, but no longer that great than it used to be. Daisy didn't care about that and had a blast checking out the alpine flora. Again she made use of her new skill of drinking directly out of a creek. Soon after that we reached the highest point of that particular trail. We could have continued up for another 2 hours to a mountain pass, but the weather was a little too unstable for my taste. So we started to hike back down to Hinterthal. On the way down we passed a colony of groundhogs. At first Daisy was entirely oblivious to them, but as we got closer to on of the burrows she got quite interested in the entire thing. I had to stop her from getting too overexcited, since I didn't want her to freak the groundhogs out. Further down we passed several creeks. Where a bridge was available, Daisy followed my lead. The last one didn't have a bridge and Daisy simply walked through the creek as if she had done that her whole life. For those of you don't know Daisy...this dog is quite water shy and for many years she absolutely dislike to walk through water. Why she suddenly started doing that and even seems to enjoy it...well I don't have the slightest clue!!Further down the trail we encountered again a herd of cattle. Well Daisy didn't care to much about the bulls, but she got interested in one cow. The cow was interested in Daisy as well. It was quite interesting seeing those two check each other out. Now my cow dog has checked out her first cow and it was a very positive new experience for Daisy. About 20 minutes later we were back at the hotel.Considering how the day started it turned into a great vacation day!

Vacation 2011, Day 2: A hike to Pichlalm

2011-09-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

From 9/11/11

Today I got up at 7 am to take Daisy for her morning walk. It was just the right time that we could watch the second part of the sunrise up at Selbhorn, a mountain top visible from the hotel. The air was still fresh...chilly you might even say, but that's one of the things I like about going hiking in fall.Around 7.30 my parents and I went to breakfast. Unfortunately since the breakfast was in the rooms of an upscale restaurant, dogs were not allowed there and Daisy had to stay at the room. She wasn't particularly excited about that, but took it quite well. At the restaurant I made myself a Continental Breakfast 'Harry Style'. Bread, Sandwich Meat, Nutella, Egg, Coffee and a Fruit-Cocktail to top the breakfast off. After we returned from breakfast we were greeted by a super excited Daisy and we started to get ready to leave for today's hike to Pichlalm. This hike is about 2 hours long in one direction and has no real technical difficulties, but is certainly quite steep at parts...and you have to climb about 1200 feet between starting point and destination. Well, we started easy and at a fairly slow pace and that gave Daisy tons of times to check out all the scents and smells. After about 40 minutes we passed by Mußbach Alm, a local snack place, but didn't stop there. Considering Daisy's age she does an awesome job hiking. She hikes at the same pace regardless how steep the terrain is, has still tons of time to check out the scents and smells, has obviously fun and a great time and is most of the time still hiking faster then I am. There are lots of free roaming cattle up there and for most of the time Daisy wasn't particularly interested in the cows. By the time we were about 2/3's into the hike,that was about to change. This time a 1-year old bull was interested in her. At first Daisy wasn't too sure what to make of it. But was willing to check that young bull out. But that guy just had to sniff her with that big nose and that did it for Daisy. She thought, that this guy is a little too interested and off she went. Next up was the rather muddy part...but that didn't bother Daisy at all and she even made use of her new skill and drank directly from one of the creeks we passed by. Shortly after that we reached Pichlalm. There Daisy met the local herding dog and after a few rather tense moments they checked each other out and even socialized a little. We sat down and had something to drink and a little snack. From up there you have a great view of the surrounding mountains. After a little over 1/2 hour of relaxing we started getting ready to head back down.A Jack Russell crossed our way and just had to try to socialize with Daisy. Well she didn't want to know anything about that. She warned him twice, but that guy just didn't understand the meaning of the word 'No'. A rather dominant dog on the one side and a overexcited and overconfident dog on the other side...well that's a bad combination. I intervened before something bad could happen. The rest of the hike down was pretty much without any incidents. We stopped at Mußbach Alm and had something to drink. Since it was rather hot there it was only a very short stop and we continued with he hike back down. On the way down we had to pass one of the bigger creeks. In the morning Daisy had walked behind me across the bridge. But this time she walked into the creek and drank out form some time and then walked through the rest of the creek without any problems at all. Apparently she no longer is water shy! Shortly before we reached the hotel we met the dog of a local farmer. Daisy didn't even see him since he didn't move. Once he moved Daisy got startled and after s short tense moment Daisy figured that this dog is actually a boy and might be fun to hang out with. They socialized for a little, what prompted a certain Tweet and Facebook Status Message: "Daisy is like her Daddy...likes to make out with guys".After that we headed back to the hotel to relax there for a couple of hours. For dinner we went to Restaurant Ambiente. This is a very good restaurant and I had a very yummy Zucchini Cream Soup and Pork Loin in Dijon Sauce. All in all it was a great Day 2 of the vacation!

Vacation 2011, Day 1

2011-09-10T20:36:00.000-07:00

From 9/10/11

Today my parents were leaving for a 1 week long vacation into the Austrian Mountains. They had asked me if I wanted to join them and of course I said yes. They were going to the Hochkoenig Mountain Group and it has been at least 12 years since I visited there for the last time. On top of that I thought that it would be a great experience for Daisy.So I got up at about 7 am and took Daisy for her walk. After that I had breakfast and then finished up some last minute packing tasks. Once all that was done I prepped my Mom's old car for Daisy and started to pack up the car. By the time I was done with that, there was enough time to sit down and do my morning check on my eMails, Tweets and Facebook. By the time I was done my Dad finally got to a point where his packing tasks were almost complete. I helped him put the suitcases into his car and by about 10 am we finally left.We headed west and drove till Mondsee where we had a lunch break. After spending there about 1 hour we continued and got off the freeway. Up next was a quite windy mountain road. I had completely forgotten how windy that particular road was, but in no time I was in my mountain driving mode and I actually enjoyed driving that mountain road quite a lot. By about 2 pm we had made it to Dientener Sattel and had coffee at Birgkar Haus. After that we drove the last few miles to Hotel Alpina, the final destination of the entire trip. My iPad worked perfectly as on-board entertainment center, since the car's entertainment center belongs into a museum!!After checking in and unpacking we went for a short walk along the Urslau Rived. Daisy especially needed that walk, since she had spent the majority of the day in the car. Good thing, that she loves going on road trips. After the walk and some short relaxation at the hotel we went to have dinner at Urslauer Hof. Daisy joined us and in Austria it is quite common to bring your dog to a restaurant...especially in a touristy place like that. Well, there was a Maltese there and those 2 dogs really didn't like each other. Of course I intervened and broke the entire thing off right away...and for the rest of the evening Daisy was chillin' under the table. I had a very yummy Onion Roast for dinner. Once we were done with dinner we headed back to the Hotel to chill out there before calling in the night. There is only 1 thing that I don't like about that hotel...there is no WiFi!! This is supposed to be one of the better hotels and no WiFi...are you friggin' kidding me!! Yes there is a Internet Terminal in the lobby, but I have better things to do than to have to go to the lobby every time I want to check something on the internet. Unless of course there is only WiFi in the lobby...well that would be almost as bad as no WiFi at all!! Luckily have my Nexus S that I can use as portable WiFi HotSpot and thanks to my Data Plan from Drei.at with 6 GB Data Bandwidth that's not a problem at all!! All in all a very good beginning of the vacation!Since I have only the iPad and it is very difficult to upload large amounts of pix up to Facebook, Google+, Picasa etc...I will for now just post a couple of pix via my phone. Maybe I will figure out a workable solution for that issue. But I will definitely talk about that particular problem in a separate Blog Post!

A Hike to Rudolfshöhe

2011-09-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

After yesterday's thunderstorm today's temperature was in the low to mid 60's. On top of that it was supposed to be one of the most stable days weather wise speaking, before entering another unstable period. So the decision to take Daisy for a hike was quite an easy one. With temperatures being that moderate, that was the perfect opportunity to take Daisy for a hike in the lower foothills. My parents chose to join me. The trailhead is about a 15 minutes car ride from my parents and we got there around 11 am.
In the beginning the trail is fairly flat and follows one of the logging roads. The forest starts getting more dense and the logging road starts climbing higher and higher. I enjoyed hiking in the forest and temperatures being in the mid 60's quite a lot. You leave the logging road and have one steeper portion of the trail and you"re finally out on the ridge. You follow the mostly flat trail in the ridge. Daisy had a blast with all the different scents and smells. Then the trail switches back and forth between ridge and forest. You step out of the forest and there is the destination of the hike: The Ochsenburger Huette.We had lunch up there and they have quite a good selection up there. From the terrace in front of the hut we enjoyed the view of the surrounding lower and mid-level foothills. After about 1 hour rest we started to hike back to the car.
All in all the entire hike takes about 3 hours to complete and Daisy definitely had a blast up there. You can check out more pix about this hike on my Facebook Page in the photo-album "Ochsenburger Hütte 2011"!!

Hiking Reisalm

2011-09-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to take Daisy for a hike into the local foothills. I chose "Reisalm" since it is a fairly easy hike but gets you up into an elevation where I thought it would be cooler than down at my parents place. I was definitely right in regard to the temperature and my parents chose to join me. Leaving at an early time or at least at a reasonable time, well that would be a first with my Dad....and of course it didn't happen. The trailhead is a little under 1 hour from my parents place and we got there at about 11.30 am.
If you hike all the way to the top it takes you roughly about 2 hours. The first part to a place called 'Hinteralm' quite easy and more of a walk. Usually you have there quite some cattle and I was really interested to see Daisy's reaction. When we got there there was no cattle to be found anywhere...just lots and lots of cow poop. Daisy gave the entire thing a sniff and she wasn't quite sure what to make about the entire thing. We didn't stop at the 'Hintealm' where the also sell beverages and snacks, since we only had hiked for about 1 hour. From there on it starts to climb all continuously all the way to the summit. Some of it is quite steep, while other parts are moderate. One of the things I like snout this trail, is that large parts of it lead trough forest and are threfore way cooler than those trail parts out in the open. Since we were hiking at s fairly slow pace, that gave Daisy enough time to check out the surroundings. About 2/3's through The ascent Daisy figured out can also chill in the cool grass while waiting for my parents to catch up. Finally we made it to the summit plateau and we got our first look at the cattle. Daisy ears where all perky and she was genuinely interested in the cattle. But she wasn't quite sure what to make of the adult cow. The young live stock on the other hand was way more her thing. After a short hike over the summit plateau we finally reached the summit. With an elevation of 4560 feet it's certainly not the most impressive summit, but you have an great panoramic view from up there and the temperature was very nice...not too hot and not to cold either.
After a quick stop for s summit photo we went over to the 'Reisalmhaus'. This is your typical Austrian Mountain Hut and we did have lunch there. I opted to have 'Schweinsbraten', since I haven't had that in ages. The closest thing would probably be a roast pork. Daisy got lots to drink and some goodies. We spent about 1 hour there relaxed before heading back down. For the descend we decided to take a different route. This trail is longer but way less steep and the majority of it leads through the forest...and that's way more comfy than having to hike down all the way in the sun on a south facing slope. We stopped at the 'Hinteralm' for a quick beverage before continuing back to the car.
After we got back to the car my Mom wanted to go for a coffee and so we stopped at a Restaurant nearby. They did have a very relaxed and respectful dog and Daisy and this male dog socialized for z little. In the beginning Daisy didn't think too much of the idea of that guy sniffing her butt...but as th time went on she was cool with and reciprocated by sniffing his butt and his dick. The minute I saw that I knew exactly what the though bubble would have said if that were a comic: "Hello...and who are you??".
All in all a great day and Daisy really had a blast. After the hike she was tired and spent most of the evening chilling on her doggy bed.
You can check out more pix of that hike on my Facebook Page in the photo-album "Reisalm 2011"!!

'Fun' with Government Agencies

2011-09-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well, today was a day of dealing with Government Agencies. First I had to deal with the entire eCard issue. They started that thing back in 2005. It's sort of your Social Security Master Key. Gives you access to health insurance, insurance coverage with accidents, dental benefits, prescription coverage, unemployment benefits and so on. But this eCard can do way more. You can have added more functions to that card and it becomes sort of a citizen card. LIt let's you do a lot deal ins you have with Government Agencies online and you can use this card as an ID card and for your online bank dealings. Well the WebSite for the eCard explains all th functions of the card, what information is encrypted on the card and who has access to that information. It even explains in easy words how your personal information is protected. The only thing this website doesn't tell you is, how you get the card issued in the first place. All searches in their website for that particular question lead to zero results. That's a big, fat Fail in my book. The information from the eCard WebSite, plus additional information from the WebSite of the Unemployment Office, plus some information from the WebSite of the Social Security Administration, plus some deductive reasoning finally gave me the answer I was looking for. You can get the eCard in 2 ways: If you start a new job and you don't have an eCard one will be issued. The second way of getting that card issued is by filing a claim with the Unemployment Office.Well so I called the Unemployment office. Not because I could collect unemployment but just for the reason of getting health insurance. I gut surprisingly quick a hold of them and talked to a very friendly and helpful clerk. That came as quite a surprise to me! I remember those clerks being anything but helpful, grumpy and even rude at times. I asked her right away what the deal was, since I hadn't worked in Austria or the EU for the past 8 years. She told me that the max. period than can be bridged, when it comes to health insurance through the Unemployment Office, is 5 years. The only option I still do have is to file for 'Mindestsicherung'. That are Minimum Security Benefits...and that would give me again health insurance coverage. But to file for 'Mindestsicherung' you have to meet certain criteria. Not quite sure what those are and before talking about that to the Unemployment Office I really wanted to do my research, so that I know what I'm talking about. Since the Unemployment Office is only open till 1 pm on a Friday, I knew that I wouldn't be done in time doing my research. So I guess round 2 of the 'Fun wi Government Agencies' will be played on Monday. I will definitely keep you guys posted!!

Daisy's first 2 Weeks in Austria

2011-09-01T11:50:00.000-07:00

Exactly 2 weeks ago Daisy joined me in Austria. Well, from the get go on Daisy wasn't frightened, scared or in a state of panic. She made it through the relocation without any problems and was just super excited to see me. Since moving to Austria she has gotten used to my parents house. That took her a few days, but now she feels at home in each and every room. She got very quickly reacquainted with my mom, sis and my 2 nephews. She tolerates almost everything what those 2 boys are doing with the grace and patience of a saint. If she had enough she just walks away and finds a more peaceful place. Getting used to Bernd and my Dad took a little longer. I knew it would since there is something about Daisy and getting used to guys. Now she let's my dad take her out for a walk. OK, that has only happened once...but for Daisy that's s big step. Just a couple of days ago she started to let Bernd and my Dad pet her. I really didn't see that coming.
The first 2 or 3 days Daisy wasn't really a happy camper when it comes to eating. She definitely didn't have her usual appetite. She was eating but only a little. I didn't think tha it hsf anything to do with the food itself, since I mzde sure that I got the same brand as in the States. My guess is, that it had something to do with the stress and confusion of the relocation. Putting some 'meat juice' from cooking over her food definitely helped her with the eating issue. After 3 days she was back to her usual appetite. Very about that!!In those 2 weeks Daisy has gone on several hikes and enjoyed each and every one of them. And of course she loves all the new scents and smells. Meanwhile she gotten very well acquainted with the neighborhood my parents live in. Daisy even made a few new doggy friends. I wouldn't say that they're BFF's, but they tolerate and hang out with each other and seem to have fun doing so.
Her being alone is still a kinda touchy subject. If Daisy realizes that I'm gone, than she panics a little, gies looking for me and starts her whiny thingy. This also happens if she can hear me talking but just can't figure out where exactly I went. But in general she gets better with that. I'm just not sure if that whiny thingy is genuine or just show off. The few time where she was by herself she acted the way she always did. Once she new for sure she wasn't coming she circled several rooms once and than found herself a strategic spot and waited for me to return. If I have to run an errand and my family is around she continues to look for throughout the house for quite some time while doing her whiny thingy. And of course she has an audience...and that audience feels kinda sorry for her and tries to put her at ease. I still think that part of it is show off and that it is a actually easier for her when I leave and nobody else is around.
But all in all she has adjusted very well, has gotten used to the new surroundings and seems to like the place.

The Angeleno Girl becomes a Viennese Girl

2011-08-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

Today it was really time that Daisy was going to get her Austrian Dog License. You have a period of 2 weeks in which you're supposed to register your dog. That period was almost over. I had checked on those regulations even before I started the entire relocation process. The rules state that the dog has to be registered where you spend the majority of your time. In my case that was my parents house. So I thought that should be a piece of cake. Well, not so quick!
Yesterday I submitted the online dog registration with the city of St. Poelten. I thought that they were going to process the papeerwork and send the dog tag along with the invoice for the registration. Well, that was a good plan...but didn't quite work out that way. A couple of hours lAter I got a phone call from the city telling me that they can't register the dog, since I'm officially registered in Vienna...therefore the dog needs to be registered there. I checked with the city of Vienna and I wasn't quit sure if I would make it in time. So the entire thing had ti wait till today.
I could have done the entire registration online, but that would have meant the city sends the dog tag and the invoice to my address in Vienn and I ha r to get it from there and then pay the invoice before the entire registration process is complete. On the other hand if I go personally to the 'MA 6', which does the dog licensing I can pay it there cash and take the dog tag with me right away. That just seemed to be the easier way. So I drove to Vienna, pRked in the Pstk & Ride in Wien-Huetteldorf, took the Subway and 1 Tram to 'MA 6' at the 'Magistratische Bezirksamt 6 & 7'. The cashier at the 'MA 6' directed me to the room next door where a clerk wrote down my information. Just my personal information, the dogs breed and the microchip number. I was pleasantly surprised that the city didn't require any import papers, although I had brought them with me just as a precaution. Then she handed me the dog tag and I paid the dog licensing fee of € 43.60 and I was done with the entire thing. Driving back and forth and dealing with the authorities was done in about 2 1/2 hours. The city clerks were friendly, very helpful and easy to deal with. That's definitely a A++ experience in my book!

Hanging out with Lydia

2011-08-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today Lydia and I met in Vienna to hang out for a couple of times. This was also the first time, that we met since my Relocation to Austria. We decided to meet at Vienna's Naschmarkt (the closest US term would be a farmers market). The Naschmarkt was crazy and busy as usual. After walking by all the restaurants we decided to try an Indian Place, called Indian Pavillion. The food was quite yummy and it was great fun chatting with Lydia. Hanging out at Naschmarkt is always fun, but I could have done with out the accordion guy who tried to serenade us.
After lunch we took a walk through the 'MuseumsQuartier' (several meseums mixed together) and then we took a stroll up and down Mariahilfer Strasse, one of Vienna's main shopping streets. Was quite interesting to see that only minor things have changed. There are a couple of stores there, that are certainly worth checking out. I wasn't quite too sure what to make of the remodel of Westbahnhof (one of Vienna's railway stations). While walking back down Mariahilfer Strasse we took a stroll through 'Raimundhof'. It's one of the typical old Vieniese Buildings with several inner courtyards...very quiet and pieceful and it doesn"t feel that you're in the city. It definitely was a fun afternoon with Lydia.
At the subway we said our good bye's. Looking already forward to the next time, when Lydia and I will be hanging out in Vienna. I managed to get back to my parents just in time before today's thunderstorm started....and Daisy was no fan of the thunderstorm at all!!

My Mom's Birthday

2011-08-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Today is my Mom's 73rd Birthday. Initially my brother-in-law had planned to cook for her birthday. My dad didn't want to hear anything about that. He was arguing that cooking in 100 F temps in the evening was a terrible idea. I haven't been part of that family dynamic for the past 8 years (that certainly is one of the major benefits of having lived abroad) and I don't plan on going down that road again. It's just too stressful. After they all had argued back and forth for some time, it was decided that we would have dinner with my Mom at the Bootshaus, a Restaurant a couple of miles from my parents.
We got there around 6.30 pm. It's a nice place to hang out and have dinner...and they do have excellent food. I had a very yummy Porcini Meal (a local mushroom). I haven't had porcini in at least 10+ years. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their meal and my Mom had quite fun at her birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Hanging at Lunzer See

2011-08-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

Today my parents wanted to take my nephew for a trip to Lunzer See. That's a mountain lake that's about 1 hour by car from my parents. I knew that dogs were allowed on the lake and so I figured it might be a fun thing to do with Daisy. We left around 10 am and got there at around 11 am. We walked over to the lake and Leonhard wanted to go for a boat ride. Since the boat rental place allowed dogs in their boats I figured I try it and see how Daisy reacts and from there. She saw the boat swaying back and forth...and that stopped her dead in her tracks. So I grabbed her and put her into the boat...and once she was in there she was perfectly fine with it. She looked around and finally found herself a comfy spot. Leonhard was steering the boat while I was taking pictures. It took about 30 min. to complete 1 trip around the entire like. After that Leonhard got bored and we headed back to the dock. After a couple of failed landing attempts we finally were at the dock. Daisy jumped out of the boat, as if she had been doing that all her life long.
Next my parents wanted to walk to a Inn/Restaurant called Seeblick to have lunch there. That's about 1.5 miles and a very easy walk. Daisy had a blast checking out all the new and differnt scents and smells along the way. Since very few people were on that path I even let Leonhard carry the leash. Under normal circumstances one word from me is enough and Daisy waits for me. That was true for about 90% of that trail. That's when we suddenly encountered that kinda neurotic and way too overexcited Maltese mix. Narrow trail, 2 dogs coming face to face, 1 dog dominant and the other one overexcited and neither dog willing to give an inch...well that's a bad situation. If I have Daisy on the leash I break it up before it even starts. But this time my nephew was having the leash and so the 2 dogs had a minor skirmish. Lasted for about 1 or 2 seconds...than I had broken the entire thing off. Nobody got hurt, nobody was upset...it's just one of those things that happen and we all moved on. We continued with the hike to the Inn/Restaurant and sat down to have lunch. I had my 2nd Wiener Schnitzel in 2 weeks and it was very yummy.
After lunch we hiked back and Daisy learned something new today. At one of the creek crossing she finally figured out that she can drink out of the creek. She also figured out that it is way easier to drink from deeper parts of a creek. I had tried to teach her that years ago with no success. Now she suddenly figures it out all by herself. So far the move to Austria has given Daisy lots of new and interesting experiences.
Once we got back the the starting point of the hike along the lake Leonhard wanted to go for icecream. So we stopped and had some on the terrace of a Cafe, while Daisy was chillin' under the table. On the way back my dad wanted to show Leonhard the Kartause Gaming (a former monastery) to give him more understanding about his cultural heritage. Boy, that turned out to be one big mistake. That kid is argumentative that half of it would be more than plenty. When I was a kid I certainly wasn't that argumentative...at least not at that age. At that age you don't have much of a choice but to listen to what an adult wants to tell you about your cultural heritage. Acting completely offended and upset is certianly not an viable option...at least that's the case when it comes to my dad. Fortunately I will never ever have to deal with that can of worms, since I've come to the realization a long time ago, that the last thing I need in my life are kids!!
You can check out more pix about this trip on my Facebook Page in the Photo-Album 'Lunzer See 2011'!!

BBQ at Danube River

2011-08-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

Today my brother-in-law asked me if I wanted to join them for a BBQ at the Danube River. My sister had already spent the last night camping there with the kids and they needed someone to drive my parents 2nd car back home, since both of them had to attend 2 mandatory events in Vienna the next day. I decided to join them, as it sounded like a fun thing to do. It has been at least 10 years, since I've been to the Danube River Valley and it has been way longer than that, since I last hung out the river itself.
Of course Daisy was going to join as. I figured that could be quite an interesting experience for her. After Bernd and I had picked up some additional supplies we headed out. The Danube Valley is about a 30 min. drive from my parents. After some confusion with the freeways (some of the freeways didn't even exist when I was ther last) we finally made it there. The GPS was only of minor help as the GPS maps and the actual roads didn't entirely match and the GPS wanted to go into a certain direction. Pretty much the same what happened to my GPS while driving trough Yellowstone.
We finally made it to the peninsula Unterloiben and met up with my sister. It's actually a fun and great place to hang out. Quite humid but being a couple of feet from the water the temperatures or more moderate than at my parents. We even met a bunsh of nudists there. Well, this being Europe it's not a big deal at all. With certain people it works perfectly fine, but there were also a couple of people that should be required by law to ware swimming trunks...as this was not a pretty sight!

Daisy got to meet several other dogs and she even socialized with some of them for quite a while. Everyone was happy and relaxed and no issues at all. Later Daisy and I chilled at the beach and watched ships travel up and down the river, while my Sis, Brother-in-law and my 2 Nephews were having fun in the river. Not quite sure how much fun that could have been, since that river is quite chilly.

At 7 pm they started the campfire. I let Bernd and Leonhard do that, since that is a father-son event and they managed to get a pretty decent size fire going. Later I helped them a little out to prevent the fire from going out. Once we were happy with the amount of embers we started roasting Franks over the fire and it worked quite well. The potatoes never fully finished cooking since we couldn't put it into the embers itself, because we forgot to bring foil. But all in all it was a fun evening. Daisy couldn't have cared less about the campfire. She kept her respectful distance from it, but otherwise was way more interested in the sounds of the night.
A little after 9 pm both of my nephews fell asleep. I had planned to leave by about 10 pm. I had to take Leonhard with me, since he was going to spend the next day at a local lake with my parents. Bernd carried him to the car via the shorter route, through the water. I really didn't want to have a wet dog and so I chose the longer way back to the car. Even with the flashlight I wasn't quite sure about the right path and so my Sis led the way. I met up with Bernd at the car and we put Leonhard and the rest of the stuff in the car. When I was getting ready to leave I had to get used that this 'old' car ('99 Mazda 323) needs a ton of accelerator power for to move even an inch. Once I had gotten used to that everything else was a piece of cake. I made it back to my parents in about 30 min. and texted my brother-in-law right away that we made it back.
All in all a great evening at the Danube River and Dasiy seemed to have enjoyed herself!
I did learn something new today. Although this is the 21st century, there are apparently still so called 'family partiachs' in existence. My dad told me that he doesn't approve of such short term changes regarding events. I though that he should talk to my sister about that, since it really doesn't have to do much with me. Besides that even if he doesn't approve, that's not likely going to prevent such an event change nor is it going void the fun of the event. The one thing that came as a complete surprise to me is, that he thinks that such event changes are subject to his approval. Who knew ??

Captain America

2011-08-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

After I got back today from hiking Ötschergräben my brother-in-law asked me if I wanted to join him to watch 'Captain Americ' in a local movie theatre. We got there with enough time to spare to grab a bite to eat. The movie theatre is called 'Hollywood Megaplex'. A place that calls itself 'Megaplex' should have more than 6 or 8 small movie theatres. They definitley should consider renaming the place into 'Microplex', that would be way more appropriate.But that's not even the major beef I have with that place. uck me as particularly odd was the fact that you have to pay for your movie tickets in cash. They don't accept credit cards and if you were to use your ATM card, they make you get the cash from the ATM. WTH is worng with those people ?? The movie theatre is called Hollywood Megaplex...I'vw been to Hollywood lots of times, and that ain't it!! On top of that you can't get a single burger in there. WTF is wrong with the people in my parents town?? The only thing that was open was a miserely sports bar and a pizza place. Well me bing lactose intolerant a pizza would have been a rather bad idea. So we went a couple of blocks over and stoped by at a local McDonald's. There the 'provincial comedy' continued. I ordered my burger explicitly without cheese and I heard the manager tell the 'burger guy' to prep the burger without cheese. What does the burger guy put on the burger ?? You guessed right: Cheese. So much for take number 1. Well take number 2 finally did the trick.
Bernd and I headed back to the movie theatre and just had barely enough time to eat the burger before heading into the theatre. When I go to a movie I expect to see at least 15 minutes worth of previews. Not so in this theatre...they start the movie right away. If I were to be forced to have to live in that town...well that by itself would drive me nuts!!
Now onto the movie itself. I'm not going to write a synopsis about it since there are people who do a way better job than I. Just check out the Synopsis at IMDB.
Here's how I feel about the movie. Well I didn't have too many expectations to begin with. Absolutely hate the 3D and that movie certainly isn't going to change my position on 3D. As far as I'm concerned you would be way better off to watch it in 2D. There is one single effect in the entire movie where the 3D effect is really cool! The rest of the SFX is great and I really enjoyed them. The story itself is a little weak for my taste, and here's a note to Hollywood in general. Please come up with new villains!! Every second Superhero Movie has Nazis as villains. It's predictable, it's boring, it simply is BS!! Hollywood repeat after me: New Villains!!! Other than that it was a fun action movie to watch. Conidering the hyphe they created for that movie I would have expected more.
Now let's get a little into the absolutely terrible part, that I don't hold against the movie, since it doesn't have anything to do with it per se. Being forced to watch a movie dubed into German is absolutely horrible. It almost made me wanna puke!! I know what the actors sound like, and the dubs don't come even remotely close. There are parts in the movie, and not even short ones, where I can see that video and dubed audio don't match. That absolutely drives me crazy!! I hate, I can't stand it it's almost like a piece of art is being raped and nobody gives a shit about it!! People, for the future stop dubbing movies!! A movie that has been shot in English is meant to be seen in it's original language and not in German, French or whatever!!
This was also the first time that Daisy was without me since the Relocation. She definitely wasn't a happy camper. She was a little whiny and tried it with every trick in the book to convince me to take her with me. But at a certain point she knew she wasn't coming with me and just walked away and lay under the dining room table. My mom later told me that she was walking around the house looking for me and that she was whiny for quite some time. She then stayed very close to my mom and didn't let my mom out of her eyes. Later when my mom went to bed Daisy joined my dad while he was watching TV and she was pretty much fine. As soon as she saw me she went nuts and was super excited and super affectionate. OK, that were only 2 hours and she went through the whole relocation ordeal just 1 week ago, but she can handle it and that's quite good to know!

Daisy goes Ötschergräben

2011-08-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to take Daisy for her first Canyon Hike. The main reason was that it was going to be very humid and the temperature was going to be 100+ F. So I chose a easy hike into the Ötschergräben. My parents decided to join us. We left around 10 am and got to the trailhead around 11 am. It was already starting to get hot, but luckily large parts of that hike go through forests and that makes it way more enjoyable. We made goo progress and about 30 minutes later we got to the part where the trail starts to descend into the canyon. The trail is very easy and I was interested to see how Daisy was going to react to the bridges and creek crossings. At the first creek crossing she checked first the right and then the left side. Since there was no getting through there she looked to me for advice. I walked across the bridge and Daisy followed me without hesitation. All the other bridges and creek crossings were no problem at all. Daisy acted as if she had done that her whole life long. We made our way further down and saw for the first time the main canyon. That's always an impressive sight and usually pictures don't do the canyon justice. After about 45 minutes we reached 'Ötscherhias'. The closest US term for the 'Ötscherhias' would proabably a snackbar. We stopped and had a snack and something to drink, while Daisy relaxed under the table. There were quite a number of dogs out there and Daisy was quite curious about them.

She even socialized with 2 of them and ignored all the crazy ones. After we had a snack we continued with the ike upstream. Once we got to the parts where the trail gets quite narrow at times I was interested to see Daisy's reaction to that. For here that was no biggy at all and it looked like as if she had done that here entire life. Of course there were tons of places to check out new scents and smells. We followed the trail for a little over 1 hour to the next trail junction. If I had been by myself I probably would have hiked all the way to 'Vorder Ötscher' roughly 1 more hour. But you're only as strong as your weakest link. It was hot and my parents were kinda tired we decided to turn around and head back. We stopped for a drink at 'Ötscherhias' before hiking back to the car. Considering the heat, the humidity and the fact that Daisy is 14 years old she did an awesome job during the hike and she definitely had a blast.
You can check out more pix from the hike on my Facebook Page in the photo-album 'Ötschergräben 2011'!!

An unexpected Bath...

2011-08-22T23:47:00.000-07:00

Today at 7 pm I was taking Daisy for her usual evening walk. My Sis, Bernd and my nephew Daniel joined me. Well it was kinda getting later than I had initially intened to and so we tried a shortcut over some rocks to not have to walk all the way back to the bridge. Well it worked like a charm, at least in the beginning. We were already about 2/3's across when it literally goes 'Splash', Daisy looses her balance and falls into the water. She only went about to her chest in and that river is at that time of the year barely moving at all. Without even thinking I grabbed her and fished her out of the water and carried her over to the large flat rocks I just did what every good Doggy Dad does! Daisy shook the water out of her coat a couple of times and that pretty much was the end of it. Although that dog is really watershy she didn't panic or get scared. She was more suprised about what just had happened. After we had gotten to my parents place I washed her down with the garden hose to get all the slush out of her coat. Now Daisy is washed and pretty much smells like roses again. Apparently Daisy is quite adventurous these days!

A Hike at Pyhra Wald

2011-08-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

Since it was hot and humid today, I decided to take Daisy for her first Forest Hike in Austria. I chose Pyhra Wald since it is a great forest for moderate and fairly easy hikes and on the other hand it is only 10 minutes by car from my parents place. It was by far not Daisy's first time in a forest, but apparently there were so many different and new scents that she had to check out each and every one of them. I chose to take her for the bigger hike and we ended up with a hike that's almost 2 hours long. All in all Daisy was having a great time, but she was eating lots of grass and that told me, that there was something wrong with her stomach. It could have been the stress from the move itself or it could have to do with the deworming agent. Guess I will never know for sure. But after throwing up 2 times she felt way better, was way more energetic and back to her normal self. Of course I will keep an eye out for additional stomach troubles, but it seems that was the extent of it. All in all a great day and with exception of the throwing up part more great experiences for my girl!!

A Walk at Viehofner Seen

2011-08-19T23:45:00.000-07:00

Today was Daisy's first day of settling into her new environment. Shortly before lunch my friend Sandra stopped by with her German Shepard, Isack. That guy is about 2.5 times Daisy's size. He's a nice and relaxed guz and after a few tense moments at the beginning, they were getting along and socializing with each other. So Daisy has already made 2 doggy friends, with whom she gets along with.
Later I took Daisy for a nice and easy at Viehofner Seen. That are 3 lakes, some of them not much bigger as a pond, that are an quiet and great place to hang out and take your dog for a walk. As always Daisy was super excited to go for a ride in the car. Hanging out at the lakes was tons of fun for her...and checking out the hundreds of new scents for was great as well. Almost gave her sensory overload. But Daisy definitely had tons of run running back and forth...left and right and checking scents almost at every single bush. Was great seeing her that excited. As far as I could tell she was making quite good progress with starting to settle in.
Later in the evening she got to experience her first thunderstorm in Austria. Although the thunder wasn't actually that loud she didn't like it a bit. She pressed her body against my legs and pretty much gave me the look: 'Daddy, please make it go away!' Since that was something I couldn't pull off I did the next best thing to that. I let her lie in the bed with me, that way she felt very secure protected by my body on e left and by the wall on the right. Fortunately the thunderstorm only lasted less than 1 hour and she was doing very well considering how much my girl hates lightning and thunder. All in all it was a great day and she is making good progress settling in.

Daisy's big Travel Day

2011-08-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today was Daisy's big Travel Day...at least from my point of view (Middle-European Standard Time). When I got up this morning the first thing I did was to check on the progress of Daisy's flight. At that time she was halfway across the Atlantic, a little east of Greenland. I still had to go out and run some errands to get everything ready for Daisy's arrival. Since that was not going to happen till the evening, there was no rush. By the time I left to run errands, Daisy's flight was just entering the airspace over Ireland.
I had planed to check 2 stores for Doggy supplies: Dehner and Fressnapf. First up was Fressnapf since they had a very good selection according to their website. I had to get dog food, food bowls, snacks and a doggy bed. Well I found everything I was looking for at Fressnapf. I even got a second 10 foot training leash, that I intend to use for hiking with Daisy. All in all I spent about 150 bucks. I probably could have saved a couple of bucks by getting some of the supplies at Dehner or by buying a no-name items. Considering the gas I use just for the driving back and forth, the savings wouldn't have been that substantial...and I really didn't want to go for no-name dog food and I even managed to find the brand Daisy was eating back in the States. So I was quite OK with the amount I spent. As soon as I got back home I checked on Daisy's flight and got the confirmation, that she had landed in Frankfurt/Germany.
I knew she was going to have a 5 1/2 hour layover so there was enough time to completely set up Daisy's "new" place. I tried to figure out the flight number of Daisy's connecting flight to Vienna, but wasn't quite that successful with that. There were 2 Lufthansa flights, that she could take to Vienna. So I emailed Kenny, but he wasn't sure about the exact flight number either. So I sent an email to my PetRelocation specialist. 30 minutes later I got the flight number also the confirmation, that Daisy was on that flight. About 1 hour later she landed in Viennna/Austria. I knew she had go be picked up by the Austrian partner company of PetRelocation, called Animals First. They have go clear passport control with her and then they need to get clearance from to Austrian Veterinarian Authorities in order to proceed an further. How long that was going to take was anyone's guess at that moment.
That gave me time to hang out with my friend Sandra at the local Inn/Pub, as she was going to leave the next day on her vacation to Turkey. Around 9 pm I walked over to my parents again to wait for Daisy's arrival.
When I set up Daisy's Travel Plans about 4 month ago, PetRelocation estimated that Daisy would be delivered by 10 or 10.30 pm. At 9 pm I mailed my PetRelocation specialist to confirm that the original delivery time was still the right one. 10 minutes later the door bell rang and the guys from Animals First were there to deliver Daisy. I went outside and as soon as Daisy saw me she went nuts. She was totally excited, jumping up on me, giving tons of doggy kisses and was absolutely excited to see me. I chatted with the guys of Animals First for a little while and got also some advice to get a EU-Pet Passport if I intend to travel with Daisy within the EU.
After that Daisy met my parents and she definitely remembered my mom, as she had spent some time with her back in April. Daisy wasn't too sure what to make of my Dad. That has nothing really to do with my dad, has more to do with the fact, that Daisy has a way harder time getting used to guys. With guys it takes her always way longer to warm up to them than with women. Then she had time to eat and drink, since she hadn't eaten all day long...and boy that dog was certainly hungry!
After that my friend Sandra and her husband came over to meet Daisy and Sandra thought that Daisy would be bigger than she actually is. Daisy was fine with Sandra and with her husband Walter, she showed the exact same reaction as with my dad. Several people from the local Inn/Pub wanted to meet Daisy as well and I was willing to give it a try. First she met the innkeepers Dalmatian...and after a few tense moments they pretty much ignored each other. As the evening went on the slowly warmed up to each other. They're not BFF's but they did socialize with each other. Of course several of the women paid close wanted to pet Daisy and she let it happen and of course with petting come goodies...and she definitely loved those. It really didn't take Daisy long to get used go the place, mostly because I was just 1 or 2 feet away. In under one hour she felt so comfy that she actually fell asleep under the table.
Shortly before midnight Sandra, Walter and I said good bye and I took Daisy for a final walk and then showed her my parents place. As soon as she show the doggy bed she laid down on it and chilled out for the rest of the night. This concludes the big Travel Day of Daisy 'the Globetrotter'.

A Hike to Tirolerkogel

2011-08-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

Today my parents wanted to go for a hike. So we settled for a rather easy hike from Annaberg to Tirolerkogel. Annaberg is about a 1 hour drive from my parents and we got there around 10 am. The hike itself is quite easy and actually very moderate and it took us a out 2 hours to reach the top. It still amazes me how much green there is around. From the top you have quite a very nice view of the surrounding mid-level mountains and I really enjoyed my time up there. Also got to see lots of Austrian cattle. This would have definitely been a great and fun hike for Daisy, but she won't get here till tomorrow evening.
One of the benefits of hiking Tirolerkogel is that on top of it is the Annaberger Haus, a mountain hut, and it's always great having a good lunch after a nice hike. I had a traditional Tiroler Groestl...it must have been at least 10 years since I had the last one. A couple of years I made a Tiroler Groestl in the States, but didn't find all the ingredients and so I had to find a substitute for certain thing. It still was very yummy but certainly not the real deal.
After lunch we relaxed a little and then headed back down to the car and by late afternoon we were back at my parents place.
Today was also the day that Daisy would start her long journey across the Atlantic to Europe. Around 6 pm I got word from my ex-husband, that the guys from PetRelocation had picked up Daisy. The guy seemed to be very nice and he seemed care about animals a lot. He also promised to take Daisy for a final walk before she was to board the plane. He was doing fine handling Daisy and she seemed quite excited to go for a ride...of course having to go for that ride inside the travel crate was not quite her idea of fun. But all in all she was doing very well.
Although Daisy was not going to fly before 2 pm they had to pick her up well in advance, since they had to drive to LAX and that's about a 2 hour drive. On top of that they have to get the approval for the travel crate from a TSA agent and get approval from the local USDA agent before Daisy is allowed to even board the plane.
I checked in flight tracker and knew that the plane had taken off. About 30 minutes into the flight I got word from my PetRelocation specialist, that Daisy was on board and en-route to Europe. After that confirmation I finally was able to go to bed.

Hanging out with Family & Friends

2011-08-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of relaxing and hanging out with family. Still haven't quite gotten over the jet lag yet. I got up way too early and checked on emails, tweets and Facebook. Later in the my friend Sandra came over for a quick chat and we went over to e local inn for a little chat with her husband and several people, that I haven't seen in almost 9 years. Was actually quite a fun experience. Later my dad dad called Sandra's phone to tell me, that lunch was ready. So I headed back over to my parents.
Meanwhile my brother had arrived whom I haven't seen in ove 9 years. Was actualy fun hanging out with him and we hac a long chat about several things currently happening in our lives and we talked lots and lots about our animals. He was talking about his cat Artemis and I was talking a out my experience with my dog Daisy, who will be arriving on Thrusday. Funny thing is I never thought of my brother of that much of an animal person, but apparently I was wrong. Although my brother and I own pets of different species, they have one thing in common: our pets certainly have trained us very well!!
All in all it was a great day and I had fun hanging out with family.

Hanging with Family

2011-08-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of relaxing and chilling out and an attempt to start to get over the Jetlag. I was having some interesting and fun conversations with my sister and brother-in-law. Later I went with them and my little nephew for an afternoon walk. Was quite enjoyable actually, although it was kinda humid...at least if you have spent living the past 8 years in a desert. That's definitely going to take time getting used to that.
Later my nephew Daniel had fun playing and shoeing each and every toy off to me and repeatedly invited me to join him and play with him. I've never ever seen him that excited to see me. Was quite fun but also exhausting at the same time.
Still feels a little weird and awkward being back home and it's going to take time getting used to that. Apparently I'm way more americanized than I initially realized to.
Later that day I tried to get a hold of the Vet since there had been slight changes in Daisy's blood work. According to the voice mail if the Vet it was nothing to worry about. I just wanted to know what the deal was and what to look out for. But I couldn't get a hold of the Vet since she had been out of the office today. So I emailed Kenny to ask the Vet about the deal whith the blood work, when he's going to take Daisy to her Final Exit Exam. He said he would do that and also told me that Daisy's USDA endorsed paperwork had been delivered today. Very happy about that, as that means that Daisy's Relocation is going to progress according to plan.

Returning back Home

2011-08-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

I met my sister, my nephew and my brother-in-law at the airport, we said our hello's and drove out to my parents. Apparently the 'gossip network' must be working with perfect efficiency...because as soon we stopped in front of my parents house several people came over to greet me and welcome me back home. It was kinda a nice gesture, but after having been up for over 24 hours the only thing I really wanted to do is to relax and chill out.
My parents had planned an 'returning back home event' with a bottle of champagne. Shortly after taste event had started my friend Sandra joined us and it was quite fun catching up with family and friends and getting to know the latest gossip. Getting up to speed on the gossip of that small town has always some entertainment value.
Around midnight the event ended and I finally got to catch some shut eye. Well that was short lived, since it felt to me like mid- to late afternoon. There's one thing that I dislike about traveling from west to east: The Jetlag!

Relocation Day

2011-08-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today it was finally time to leave the States and start with a new chapter of my life. Well that's both sad and kinda exciting at the same time.
I got up and it it hit me right away that I was feeling entirely different. Today was the day that I was leaving not coming back. Is a weird feeling actually. Daisy knew from the get go that something was up. I started to finish up some last minute packing stuff and Kenny made pancakes for breakfast. They were very yummy. It will be quite a long time until I'll be having pancakes on US soil again.
I finally got all the packing finished, took a shower and we headed out to LAX running 10 minutes late. I decided against bringing any food items for myself or for friends for 2 reasons: On the one hand there was absolutely no place in my suitcase or carry-on for them and the second reason are the strict import rules for food items into the UK for food products from Non-EU countries. I'm sure Jenny is not going to be a happy camper about that.
We got to the airport about 3 1/2 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. Kenny and I went into the Tom Bradley Terminal, but turns out that since I was flying with Air New Zealand I had to walk over to Terminal 2. Who knew? Once we got to the terminal we had to wait for about 1/2 hour for the check-in to open. While waiting for the check-in to open I had my second anxiety attack of the day...apparently it wasn't that bad, as nobody but I seemed to notice it.
The check-in opened and the line slowly started to move. We were about halfway to the check-in when they directed us to the business class check-in in order to speed things up. That was the point when my anxiety level was rising again. I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen in regard with the emergency passport. But there weren't any problems at all. It was all within the weight limits and shortly thereafter we dropped the suitcase off at the TSA X-Ray screener. That's were Kenny and I said our finally good byes and we both agreed that we had 8 great years with each other. We hadn't been talking much all day and gave each other room to deal with our emotions. Kenny left the Terminal and I went in line for passport control and TSA screening. I was a little nervous about what was going to happen since this was a emergency passport. At the passport control the TSA agent just scanned the passport, made a checkmark on ticket and sent me on my way. Next up was the TSA screening. I obeyed with there rules and I walked through the metal detector without any issues. No Body Scan and no pad down. Compared to what we've gotten used to in regard to TSA screenings, well that really wasn't much 'fun' at all. So I'm not quite sure if their database didn't spit out my name or if it did and they automatically banned me from entering the country for the next 10 years. If the database didn't spit out my name, well then there is something seriously wrong. On the other hand if I had been banned from entering the US I would have at least expected to be questioned. So it's not quite sure what's the case. Either way, I'm happy that it was that painless. Next I sat down at the Starbucks and had my last Starbucks coffee on US soil. While sitting there I used the T-Mobile HotSpot to check on emails, tweets and Facebook and finished downloading the entertainment for the flight. Had about 1 1/2 hours to kill. By 4 pm I finally boarded the plane when I read that Kenny was quite very emotional about me leaving. I had to turn off my phone, so I planned to check on that when I got to London.
The plane left on schedule. I completely had forgotten how much I love starts and landings. And actually I do find flying quite enjoyable. The flight was quite uneventful...at least in the beginning. Through the Mid-West the flight was quite bouncy and bumpy. I wouldn't quite call it a rough flight, but way more turbulences than usual. I tried to sleep during the flight, but somehow I was feeling a little emotional myself and so I was watching onboard entertainment during the flight. First I watched Kung Fu Panda 2. It's a very enjoyable movie, but somehow I don't think the story is as good as the one of the first movie. Next up was dinner, some 'beef thingy' with mash potatoes. Next I watched the movie 'The Switch'. Very light entertainment but very enjoyable as well. Up next was the movie 'Thor'. Loved it...especially loved the SFX. In the beginning the story is a little weak, but it picks up and delivers everything what I expect from a superhero/action movie. Then I watched the movie 'You Again'. This is very light entertainment and enjoyable actually. After that I still had about 1/2 hour to kill and so I started watching 'Modern Family'. Then breakfast was served. After breakfast I watched 2 more episodes of 'Modern Family' before we started the descend to London. The plane landed about 10 minutes delayed. Not bad for a transcontinental flight. All in all Air New Zealand has really great service, their crew is very friendly & customer oriented and I would chose them again.
Going through passport control in London was pretty easy and uneventful. First I tried to find free WiFi but no luck with that. But I pretty much knew that already since I had checked on Heathrow airport before I was going to LAX. I put the Austrian Sim Card into my phone and it let's me send text to Austrian numbers, but doesn't like international numbers for some reason. So I sent a text to my friend Sandra, that I'm in London...but not entirely sure if she got it. My Austrian Sim places restrictions on the data roaming and for that reason I couldn't connect to the Internet. So I decided to pay the £ 2.95 to have Internet for 1 hour. I found myself a quite comfy spot in a coffee shop, bought a big bottle of water and took full advantage of the 1 hour Internet. Checked my eMails, Tweets and Facebook. Updated my status and so on...was definitely totally worth it. After my hour of Internet was over I still had a little over 1 hour to kill. So I started writing this Blog Post as an iPad Note. I actually made good progress and by the time I had to leave for my last flight of the day, I had actually finished the Blog Post up till landing at London's Heathrow airport.
When I had walked over to the gate, that my last flight was leaving from, I realized that this was only 2 gates from where I had landed. It than occurred to me that this had to be some secret plot to piss travelers off. They drag you all the way from the gate to the 'central terminal' just to check your friggin' passport and than you've to walk back where you were to begin with. Apparently border protection agencies have problems with simple logic: I just spent 10 hours on a transcontinental flight, my identify has been thoroughly checked, I can't leave and enter the flight transfer area...so why on earth are you asking me for my passport again. It's not like I could have magically changed my identity. Better not to question that or it just might give you a award winning headache.
Well I finally made it to the gate and after some delays with their boarding procedure I made it onto the plane and you get greeted by operetta music. My reaction to that was: You have to be gotta kidding me. That's the last thing I need friggin' operetta music! Almost made me wanna puke! That airbus A321 is really some crummy and uncomfy thing especially having spent a transcontinental flight on a new Boeing 767...that's a 'luxury liner' compared to that antiquated piece of machinery. We left about 10 minutes late and we were supposed to get a warm meal during the 2 hour flight. This warm meal turned out to s tiny "Gugelhupf" and coffee...Cake and Coffee is not exactly what I would call a warm meal. Well there isn't much you can do about it and it just shows you that to customer service of Austrian Airlines is as bad as it used to be 10 years ago!! Doesn't come really as a surprise at all. After flying through some minor turbulences we finally landed in Vienna about 15 minutes early. I made it through security in pretty much record time by going through the EU-Citizen only passport control and that really speeds things up. Buy the time I was at the baggage claim I saw a text message from my brother-in-law and I texted back that I was waiting for my luggage. I my Grabbed my suitcase and went through customs with no delay at all. I met up with my sister, my little nephew and my brother-in-law and we drove out to my parents place. This completes a long day of traveling from the States to Europe.

So it all comes to an End...

2011-08-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

That's certainly a quite sobering title for a Blog Post. But it pretty much describes it very well. When I met Kenny 8+ years ago I would have never ever imagined that it would ever end. It just shows you that you never know what future has in store for you and that 'life' really is a living and breathing thing. Although Kenny and I have been broken up for month's and although I knew the travel date for a couple of month it didn't feel that real. We have still been living together and have been doing many of the things we used to do when we were still a couple...that contributed to the feeling that it didn't feel all that real. The real magnitude of what is going to happen tomorrow hit me when I was packing my suitcase. One the one hand it's kinda sad, but on the other hand it's quite exciting as well to start a new chapter in my life and see what future holds store for me.
Today there were a lot of things going on. First I compiled all the document copies of Daisy's Health Records, because I needed to create a Check-List for Kenny when it comes to the Daisy's Second Exit Exam and to the Travel Day. Next I checked with my Pet-Relocation specialist if the flea/tick treatment Daisy is currently on is the right product for the move. Just as I suspected we're good with that product.
Next I had to run several errands. First I finally sent the confirmation the the Austrian Consulate General, that I had gotten the Emergency Passport. Next I headed out to AHF pick up my Meds. On my way back I stopped at Petsmart to pick up more K9 Advantix II, since we were out. Next up was a stop at Stater Bros. to pick up Shaving Cream and Tooth Paste. After that I had to get gas for the truck before heading back home. It was about 3.30 when I finally had lunch.
Then I started packing the suitcase. Well that took way more time, than I initially thought it would. With certain items I repeatedly changed my mind if I was going to put them into the suitcase or the carry-on. Finally I found a solution for all items that I was happy with. I was positively surprised as everything actually fit into suitcase and carry-on.
Once all that was done I sat down and started working on Daisy's Check-List for Kenny. I was about halfway done with that Check-List when Kenny got home from work. We headed out for dinner to Outback Steakhouse in Palmdale. As always the food was very yummy. Once we were back home I finished locking top and bottom half's of the Travel Crate together, installed the water dishes and refill-funnels. Kenny offered to saw the Crate Pad to Daisy's comforter and that gave me time to finish the Check-List for Daisy. After that we checked on the Fedex shipment of the documents to the USDA. Turns out the documents, that were supposed to be shipped over night and get to the USDA by Thursday, didn't make it there till Friday morning. If that is enough time for the documents to get here for the scheduled Second Exit Exam on Tuesday morning is anyone's guess. I emailed my Pet-Relocation specialist that info to see if he thinks that is enough time or not...but I won't be hearing anything back till Monday.
I will keep you guys posted on that!!

Daisy's First Exit Exam

2011-08-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today I had an appointment with the Vet for her First Exit Exam. My regular Vet was not available for this appointment and I got to know Dr. Franklin, who is very nice and will also conducting Daisy' Second Exit Exam. That entire appointment was quite long...lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Lots of things to do, even more paperwork to fill out and a lot of Health Records need to be pulled. Overall Daisy's physical exam was fine and she is very healthy for her age. She got a clean bill of health and is allowed to fly. There are only 2 things that the physical exam revealed. The knee on her left hind leg is slightly deteriorated, but with Glucosamine and Fish Oil she doesn't have any problems with it. The second thing is a very small Benign Tumor, that has been there for the past 1 1/2 years and hasn't changed at all. Currently it doesn't pose any problem, but both issues are two areas that I have to keep watching.
While the Vet was finishing the International Health Certificate, I filled out my information on the EU-Health Certificate. After I was done the Vet filled out the rest of the EU-Health Certificate, except for the part that has to be filled out during the Second Exit Exam. Next they scanned Daisy's Microchip and the Vet-Tech went to give her the Bordetella Booster Shot. All the other shots are current. Since Daisy is a senior dog, they did do a blood panel as well, not quite sure why she didn't get the blood panel back in February. After that they faxed the health documents to PetRelocation.com
While I was still at the Vet I called my relocation specialist and he told me that the Vet has to sign the Eu-Health Certificate and that I need the Original Rabies In order to get the USDA endorsement. So I had to wait another 10 minutes for the Vet to finish the Rabies Certificate and to sign the EU-Health Certificate. During that time Daisy was socializing with several dogs...I certainly was surprised about that, since Daisy has a hard time getting along with other dogs. On top of that she even let a couple of women pet her, apparently my girl is getting social as a senior.
After I had all the Health Documents I headed back home, made copies of all the documents in case the USDA should loose them. I had a quick bite to eat before heading out again. Had to drive out to Palmdale, since that is the closest Fedex location to us and dropped the documents off. Now Daisy's Health Documents are en-route to Sacramento for USDA endorsement. I should get back the endorsed documents either by the end of this week or by Monday at the latest.

A long Night of Packing...

2011-08-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well this was certainly a long night of packing. By midnight I had created all the encrypted disk images and starting to fill them them with the appropriate files. At the same time I was cloning the Master Volume to the second external hard drive. Having only USB at my disposal it was a long and time consuming process. By about 5 am I had put all the files into the encrypted disk images and was moving them into deep system levels. That way they're out of direct sight and nosy custom officials would really know what to look for. It would certainly take them a long time to locate those Dmg's and than they will be met with heavy duty encryption.
Turns out cloning the Master Volume took way longer than I imagined in my worst nightmares. By 6.30 AM I started to pack all the misc. items into bubble wrap, since those had to go as well into box with the electronics. At 7.30 am the Master Volume had finally been cloned and I shut the iMac down for the last time...at least while living in the States. I wrapped the 2nd monitor and the iMac very well in bubble wrap, to make sure that the electronics were well protected. I managed to fit everything except the folder with the files into the electronic box. I topped the top of the electronic box up with about 1/2 bag of packing noodles and taped the box shut. After that put the folder with the files into a small box and taped I shut tightly. The only thing left to do was to put address labels on all the boxes and by 9 AM I was finally done.
At that time I decided not to go to bed, since the shipping company was supposed to ice up the boxes about 3 hours later. So I relaxed in the recliner instead and started to watch TV. I didn't see much of what was on TV, as I fell asleep and got about 2 hours of sleep. When I woke up I felt so much better and quite well rested actually, considering that I had been up for 25+ hours.
Next up was a call to PetRelocatio.com to check, if the fact that Kenny will be taking Daisy to the Final Exit Exam, has any implication for the EU-Health Certificate. Turns out that this doesn't matter at all, since I'm Consignor and Consignee at the same time anyway. That was quite a relief and I forwarded Kenny's Contact Info to PetRelocation.com.
At 1 PM the guys from the moving company showed up. I filled out the required paperwork and they took over the boxes and they're now en-route to Long Beach. Within the next few days I should receive a electronic bill, that has to be paid before the boxes can go on a Container Ship. How long it will take for the boxes to get to Austria is anyone's guess. That can be somewhere in the ballpark from 6 to 8 weeks, but can take up to 3 month. Depending if the Container Ship goes directly to Germany or if it enters the EU via UK. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.
After lunch I relaxed a little more and even tried to take a nap,as 2 hours sleep really isn't that much...but I'm feeling surprisingly good. Next up was a call to my VET to make sure that they have the form for the International Health Certificate in stock. So it looks like as if everything regarding Daisy's First Exit Exam is ready to go.

Last Day of Packing

2011-08-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

Today was supposed to be the last day of packing. I start with the entire prep-work at 9 am and was sure that would be a piece of cake. Well there's an old German saying that seems to apply here: 'Erstens kommt alles ganz anders, und zweitens als man denkt". Loosely translated it means that things never work out the way the plan them.
I knew before I could even start to pack the box with the electronics I had to create a 'Master Volume' of the combined external hard drives and then clone the 'Master Volume'. It's so so much that it would be difficult to do, but it takes quite a lot of time. By 6 pm the Master Volume was finished and I was ready to clone it. First I had to create encrypted and password protected disk images. Certain files are of a private and personal nature and no nosy customs official has any business looking at them. That was the main reason why I went down that road. Creating all the necessary disk images with a really good encryption takes hours. While that was happening I had planned to pick up additional packing supplies. While I was at the store I got an email that the credit card payment for s previous purchase had been declined. It has to do Chase's Fraud Protection and the way they handle the small amount credit card charges fir iTunes. So I didn't even bother to try and since I didn't have any cash on me, I could only head back home empty handed. It goes without saying that I was anything but happy about that.
So I texted Kenny and he offered to pick up the packing supplies on his way home. During that time I was continuing to create encrypted disk images and was making good progress. At that time I was quite hopeful that I wouldn't have to pull an all nighter. Later Kenny called and told me the office supply store was out of packing noodles / peanuts. The only place I could think of might have some was the Lowe's next door. We decided that, if he couldn't find any packing noodles he would bring home several rolls of bubble wrap. By the time Kenny got home and brought El Pollo for dinner. That's probably the last time I will be having El Pollo in a very long time. After dinner we watched the latest episode of Eureka. It was another great episode. Later we read on Twitter that SyFy had just cancelled Eureka...that's absolutely devastating news.
But I had to go back and deal with the cloning of my external hard drives. Around 11.30 PM I was done creating encrypted disk images and started transferring the files into the appropriate disk image. Transferring files between 2 external hard drives via USB is awfully slow and time consuming. If I could have used FireWire for that I would have been so much faster. But since those 2 hard drives don't offer me that option, well there was no reason bitching about that. You just have to suck it up and deal with it. At that point it was pretty much clear to me that I have no other choice than to pull an all nighter.
To be continued...

Visiting Family

2011-08-07T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today Kenny and I were visiting with his family. I has been 6 or 8 weeks since I've seen them last. With all the relocation preparation and the packing going there wasn't much time for family visits. It is also the last time that I will have the chance to hang out with them.
Kenny's Dad is looking so much better now. Apparently they really got a handle of his cancer and I'm very happy about that. We took Kenny's Dad out for lunch to Hongkong, our favorite Chinese Restaurant. Here we have another last...it is the last time that I will be having Chinese from Hongkong Restaurant...unless of course they should decide to open a branch of Hongkong Restaurant in Europe. As usual the food was delicious.
After lunch we headed back to the house to hang out with Kenny's nephew and sister-in-law. It was fun watching Kenny and Kenobi play with Kenny's new iPad. We hang out for about 2 hours and then started to head back home. On our way home we picked up Burrito's at Miguel Jr. in Corona. And here we have another last...it's the last time that I will be having Miguel Jr. unless they should open a branch in Europe.
The last 2 weeks have been full of doing things for the last time. If that last is absolute or temporarily...only future will tell.
All in all it was a great day and I enjoyed it a lot!!

iPad Goodies

2011-08-06T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today Kenny and I went out to get some accessories for the iPad. First we headed to the Chili's in Santa Clarita to have lunch. This marks also the last time that I will be having Chili's. After lunch we went first to the Best Buys and Santa Clarita and looked at iPad accessories. We finally settled for an Bluetooth Keyboard and something called Camera Connection Kit. This kit lets you transfer media from a SD-Card directly to your iPac. The second plug of the camera connection kit lets you do the same thing with a USB-Connection.
After that we headed over to the new Apple Store in Valencia. We weren't quite sure where the Apple store exactly was but after a couple of failed attempts we finally managed to locate the Apple Store. Lots and lots of Goodies to look at. I finally settled for something called a Smart Cover to protedct the front surface of my iPad. After that we headed back home. I had to test out the goodies right away and the worked perfectly fine. Very happy with the purchase. All evening I was playing around with my new iPad...and so far I can say that I'm pretty much in love with it.

Going Away Party

2011-08-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of 'Going Away Events'. First up was a lunch meeting with my friend Lydia. We had tried to set up an appointment for a lunch meeting all week long and finally settled for today at noon. Original we were considering going to a Islands, but finally decided to go to Umami Burger in Studio City. I had never been there and the food was very yummy. Lydia and I had a great lunch meeting. After that we took down a stroll down Ventura Boulevard. We stopped at a Jaba Juice and Lydia got a Mango Juice. We sat outside and chatted for quite a while. We had a really great time and this will be the last time that Lydia and I get to hang out in the States. There is a possibility that we will be meeting in Vienna in a couple of weeks when she will be for a visit in Vienna. After we had said our good byes I headed back home. Had about 2 hours to kill. I finished backing up my iMac and played a little more around with my new iPad.
Around 6.30 pm I headed to to Burbank to meet with a group of friends for my 'Going Away Party'. I got there actually fairly quick...considering that it was Friday evening. I spent about 1/2 just sitting in my car checking email, tweets and so on. Abuout 10 minutes before 8 I headed over to Gordon Biersch. Kenny was already there and shortly after every one else started to show up. At 8 we went in and sat down for dinner. Luckily Kenny had thought to call in a reservation, as I would have completely forgotten about that. The food was very delicious and it was fun chatting with friends about the upcoming move and the implication of that move. It was also great to catch up with people as I haven't seen some of them in quite a long time. It was definitely a great evening and I had lots of fun. Around 10 pm we decided to call in the night and everyone started to head back home. The 'Going Away Party' was also the first time where the finality of me leaving the States hit me and it made me feel a little sad as well. For most part I'm really looking forward to the move and to the things future holds in store for me.
Thanks Kenny, John & Moises, Chris & Mark, Tom, Ervin and Angie who made this a great evening!!

More packing...

2011-08-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today I had another day of packing. I havinally managed to pack Box #4. First I wrapped the Butcher Block in Bubble Wrap to protect it during the transport and put it at the bottom of the box. Next up were the box, that I,ve chosen to take with me. I wrapped those as well in bubble wrap and protected the outside edges with rolled up T-Shirts. Then I packed layer after layer of cloths, that are not going into suitcase, into the box. By the time the box was full, all the cloths that have to go into a shipping box had been packed away. By the time I taped the box up nice and thigh, I realized that this is definitelynone of the heavier boxes. Now that box #4 is packed I'm very happy with the progress. There's now only 1 box that needs to be packed ANC that's the box with the electronics. I hope to have that box packed by the end of this weekend.
While I was doing all the packing the iPads, Kenny and I had ordered, arrived. I was very excited about that and had I hard time not opening it right away. If I had unpacked it I knew that I wouldn't have gotten anything done and played around with the iPad all afternoon long. Luckily I managed to keep on packing.
In the evening when Kenny got back from work we unpacked the iPads, charged them up and started to play around with them. Well there is definitely s learning curve to that. As the evening went one I got better at it. First I was having the usual issue that have mostly to do wi getting used to a new device, but I very much liking my iPad. Downloaded some very cool Apps and very much loving them.

Running Errands again...

2011-08-02T22:56:00.000-07:00

Well today was supposed to be split between running errands and dealing with documents and paperwork regarding the relocation.
First thing up was driving to Best Buy in Santa Clarita to pick up a second External Hard Drive, since I'm almost ready to clone External Hard Drive #1. I knew I needed at least 1.5 TB, but couldn't find any. I finally found several 2 TB drives and settled for a Western Digital. After I had bought the hard drive I head back home. I continued to sync external hard drive #1 and started to deal with the paperwork.
The originals of my personal documents and the paperwork regarding the relocation will go in my carry-on bag. A copy of all those documents will be placed in the suitcase. I've also created a online version of those documents in case something happens to the first 2 sets.
I had planned on finishing up with all the documents, that way I just have to put them into the right bag on the day of the relocation. Well, apparently nothing ever works out the way you plan it. I had finished the majority of the documents, when I hit a snag...I ran out of paper for the printer. Well, I decided not to drive 15 miles to pick up a new box of paper...instead I called Kenny and asked him to pick up a box of paper on his way home. I guess finishing up the paperwork will have to wait.
I did continue with the syncing of the hard drive and made very good progress...almost managed to finish the entire sync!!

Goodies in the Mail...

2011-08-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Today I received some 'Goodies' in the mail. They didn't come as a complete surprise, after all I had ordered them and knew they were supposed to be arriving between the August 2nd and August 4th. That they arrived right on the 1nd was a very nice surprise.
Package number 1 contained the 2 travel locks for the luggage and the power converters for Europe. Now I should be able to charge all my US electronics without any issues. Very happy about that.
Package number 2 contained my new SmartPhone and having a working smartphone during the move to Europe is absolutely essential for me. Those of you who read my Blog regularly know that my BlackBerry died on me. (If you want to know more about that, check out the Blog Post: RIP BlackBerry Bold). After having done some research I decided to get the Nexus S. I wanted a SmartPhone that is pretty much in the same group as the iPhone, but that doesn't require me to have to sign a 2 year contract. The unlocked version allows me to do just that. On top of that it gives me the option to use my smartphone as mobile wifi hotspot for other devices. Since I'm now longer locked into a contract I can just change the cellphone provider by buying a new prepaid Sim Card...and that's a major plus in my book.
If you want to know more about my new smartphone check out the Nexus S on the web!!

More Packing

2011-08-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Today I had planned to do more packing and intended to pack shipping box #4. First I had to attend to my overflowing email inbox. With all the emailing question about quotes back and forth and finalizing certain details regarding the upcoming relocation, my inbox was quite overflowing and getting quite chaotic. So today I created several sub-labels and moved quite a lot of emails into those sub-labels. That way only the current confirmation are in my inbox and that made my inbox way more manageable.
Before I could even start packing Box #4 I had to do a packing test of how much is going to fit into the suitcase. Well, that was easier said than done. Before I could do the test I had to go through Underwear and Socks and decide what's going into the suitcase and what's going into the box. I finally decided that all the underwear that isn't XL can go into the shipping box.
I finally did the first packing test of the suitcase...and of course it was a little too full for my taste. So I decided to put 9 T-Shirts less into the suitcase and that way there was enough room. I was way happier with that. The weight of the pack suitcase of was a little under 40 lbs and that's way within the weight limits of the flight. That's at least true for the 1st flight from LAX to London. The flight from London to Vienna is a flight with Austrian Airlines and knowing AUA I thought it would be a good idea to check the weight limits on that flight. I thought that should be no problem at all as I had the phone number of their call center. Well, that was a big mistake!! I hardly could believe what I was hearing...the call center only operates between 8 am an 5 pm... WTF!!! Well, I never really liked Austrian Airlines to begin with, but now I really dislike them!! The point of a call center is that you can call there 24 hours a day to get information and not that you have to call there between regular office hours...that idea is just ludicrous!!

Relocation Stuff...

2011-07-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got around to look at the package from Home Depot that I got yesterday. I knew what was in it anyways. Now I finally have to 4 power strips. 3 of them will be shipped with the rest of my stuff to Europe, while 1 power strip will go with into the suitcase.
Today Kenny had 2 friends over, Jeff and Adam. We decided to have lunch with them and headed over to Islands in Valencia. The food was as usual delicious and all of us had a great time hanging out. On our way back we stopped to pick up the mail and I saw a envelope that looked very familiar. It was the prepaid certified mail that I bought back in June. (see Blog Post Attack of the Bureaucrats ). So now I finally got my Emergency Passport. That's one thing less I have to worry about. Normally I would have to sign for the letter, but our mailmen knows me and she just put it into our mailbox with a note to sign the delivery confirmation and put it back into the mailbox. That was very nice of her, that way I don't have to make an extra trip to the post office.

Running Errands continues...

2011-07-28T22:42:00.000-07:00

Today was another day of running errands. There is only very little time left until I'll be flying to Austria...a little over 2 weeks.
So today I had to order a couple of items. I ordered a replacement SmartPhone for my BlackBerry that died on me a couple of days ago. I also ordered luggage locks and power adapters for Europe. I had been doing some research especially regarding the cell phone prices and Amazon had the best price. Turns out buying a SmartPhone in the States is going to be cheaper than in Austria. This phone is a 'free agent' and that way I finally get out of being locked into a 2-year contract. OK, I pay about 150 bucks more for the phone, but by only phone costs as I go I will have saved the difference within the first 8 month.
Once I had sent out that order it had to print out the eTicket and the cover letter and prepare it to be sent to the Consulate General in order for them to prepare the necessary paperwork. Next up was a letter to my friend Sandra. I had that letter for quite some time but never got around to answer it since things always kept popping up and needed my immediate attention. Today finally I found time to answer the letter. Only future will tell if Sandra gets the letter before I fly to Austria or if I will be faster than the letter.
Next up was package #2 with Daisy's stuff. That was done pretty quickly since I knew exactly what was going into it and had already done most of the prep-work.
After I was done prepping the package and preparing the customs paperwork I headed out to the post office in Santa Clarita. To my surprise there was nobody in line. That hardly ever happens. Lately I seem to be very lucky when it comes to lines at the post office. I was even more lucky with CC-Payment, since they were having problems with processing them, but my payment went through without any problems.
So all in all it was quite a productive day and a lot of things regarding my upcoming relocation to Austria are finally starting to come together!

Running Errands

2011-07-25T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. First I checked with my Pet-Relocation specialist that we're certain that we have the right dates for 1st and Final Exit Exam for Daisy. For the past few month we've been going back and forth with the Dates and today I really wanted to to schedule both appointments. Turns out that I had the right dates in mind. So I called our Vet to schedule the 1st Exit Exam for August 10th and Daisy will have her Final Exit Exam on August 16th. That way we're well within the legally required timeframe and it allows for enough time to have the paperwork sent back and forth.
After that I called my parents to let them know that they Austrian Sim Card arrived and I also told them to expect several packages of Daisy's stuff that I'm sending ahead. It also gave me a little time to chat with my Mom. It's great to hear that she's doing OK and of course she already very excited for my upcoming relocation.
Next I had to deal with buying a new suitcase. I wasn't particularly excited to have to go out shopping in 100+ F temps...but I guess that's just one thing that you just have to do. Otherwise I can't continue with the packing. So I went to the Target in Santa Clarita and hoped for the best. Fortunately they had the exact suitcase that I had in mind and that way it was only a fairly short shopping trip in the heat.
Later in the afternoon I oiled the Butcher Block, since that was really something I wanted to have done before packing it up.
All in all a quite productive day!! Didn't get around to continue with the packing, but since the boxes are not going to be picked up for another 2 weeks, that won't be much of an issue.

RIP BlackBerry Bold

2011-07-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, my BlackBerry has been acting up for the past 4 or 5 month. I pretty much had already decided to replace the thing, but since it still was working the majority of the times I just couldn't get myself to buy a new phone. With move to Austria coming up I had either to unlock the BlackBerry or buy a new phone, but the thing I wasn't going to do is to go through the hassle of having a device unlocked that's not working properly.
When all the issues started it was a minor inconvenience, as the BlackBerry was crashing probably 3 to 5 times a day. Over the past few month the system freezes got more and more frequently. But usually a hard restart normally did do the trick. I had noticed that it isn't so much a system crash as a display crash in the beginning and that leads to a full blown system crash. I've also noticed that, if I don't use the BlackBerry for a couple of hours I can do quite a number of actions on the phone without it freezing up. The more often I use the BlackBerry the more frequent the crashes got. Within the last week I had gotten so bad that I can send 1 text message before the thing crashes.
Well today the BlackBerry had the final system crash...and I haven't been able to get it to work since. Luckily I found my old cell phone and after reloading the battery in putting in the Sim card I had at least a working phone. I can't believe how much I've gotten used to a smart phone, as suddenly being without one really sucks!!
Well now I don't have choice and have to get a new phone. Luckily I already know what can of phone I want and it's going to be a 'free agent'. And on top of that it finally gives me the chance to get out of being locked into 2-year contracts.

Packing continues...

2011-07-23T18:10:00.000-07:00

This morning a took a closer look at the 'Welcome Package' for Daisy's relocation. I know roughly what it was supposed to contain and everything seems to be there. Most of it is quite clear. Not entirely sure though if EU- and International Health Certificate are being done together on the First Exit Exam. Guess I've to read it again and maybe email my pet-relocation specialist. I didn't quite have the head to deal with governmental regulations. So I went to continue with the packing fun.
It had occurred to me yesterday that I might not have protected the Rotisserie as well as I would like to. It's probably OK, but I wanted to make sure that it is well protected. Sol I opened up box #2 again. Getting out all the packing noodles is so much fun!! Once that was accomplished I wrapped the Rotisserie nice and tight in Bubble Wrap and made sure it was very well protected. Then I put the Rotisserie back into the box, filled the voids with packing noodles and taped the box back up.
Next up was box #3. First I protected the Bread Maker with a quite generous amount of Bubble Wrap. Once I was satisfied it went into the shipping box.
By that time it was time for coffee...but turns out that I had run out. So I took a quick trip to Sweetwater Farms to pick up coffee. A day without coffee would be quite upsetting indeed!!
After I got back from the store and had started to coffee I continued to work on shipping box #3. I managed to pack all the DVD's into the box. Then I made sure the all the voids were nice and tight filled out with bubble wrap and packing noodles. I had more room in the box, but the box was starting to get heavy and so I decided just to put an empty box as kind of placeholder in. That serves 3 purposes: It fills out the remaining void, it protects to items from moving around in the box and it prevents the box from being crushed.
Next up was lunch and since I was starving and didn't feel like cooking I had left overs from last nights dinner. I relaxed a little after a fairly late dinner. I couldn't start packing shipping box #4 since some of the clothes have to go into the box as well to keep the weight at an acceptable level. In order to do that I need first to figure out what clothes exactly are going into the suitcase. To do that I have first to buy a new suitcase. By the time I could have left for one of the local Target's it was about 5 pm and shopping for a suitcase on Saturday evening is not what I consider fun. So I decided to deal with the entire suitcase fun on Monday. Since the boxes are not going to be picked up for another 2 weeks that shouldn't be a problem at all.

Let the Packing commence...

2011-07-22T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, today it was finally time to let the packing begin. But of courser there were some other things that needed to be taken care off as well. I still hadn't ordered the power strips. Those of you who read my Blog regularly probably know that buying the power strip in the store costs about 5 or 6 bucks more than ordering them online. On top of that Home Depot offered free shipping this week. So I ordered the power strips online and they should be arriving by the end of next week.
Next up was Daisy's nail trimmer. I really like the PetiCure nail trimmer, but for some reason the on we bought a couple of years ago stopped working. I checked it out and now the PetiCure nail trimmers are about 50% of what we paid a couple of years ago. So, that made the decision for me pretty easy. I ordered it online and it should be here by the end of next week.
Well, by the time I was done with all that stuff it was almost 1 pm and I was getting hungry...so I decided it's time to get lunch started. I decided to have Roasted Pecan with Mixed Veggies. It was quite yummy.
After lunch I assembled the first shipping box and I made sure that it was taped nice and tight. In the first Box I put the Mixer, the Ice Cream Maker and lots of misc. smaller stuff. Couldn't put any of the bigger items in that box since the mixer is quite heavy. Once the box was about 2/3's full I filled the rest with packing noodles to protect the mixer and ice cream maker. I taped the box shut and put 4 Address Labels on it and made sure that they're taped a way that they won't come off.
I put the Rotisserie in the box #2. There was enough space to put 2 small boxes of my personal stuff in it as well. After that I filled the the spaces between with packing noodles...and I ran out of them. So I went out and picked up several bags of packing noodles at the local Staples store. Once I got back, I filled the box with packing noodles and made sure that the Rotisserie was well protected. Then I taped the box shut and put several address labels on it.
So I managed to pack two 6 cubic feet boxes so far. I'm far from being done, but all in all it was quite a productive day!!

Running Errands continues...

2011-07-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

Around 10 am this morning Kenny left for San Diego to attend ComicCon. I had to run some more errands. First I to finish the first package of Daisy's stuff that I'm sending ahead to Austria. It contains mostly her nutrition supplements and flea protection to get her through the transitional phase. Once that was done I headed out to the post office in Santa Clarita. When I got there there was only 1 person in line in front of me. That was a total surprise, as I've never ever seen that happening. Since I had filled out the customs paperwork at home it was once of the fastest trips to the post office.
Next up was Stater Brothers. I had to pick up some groceries for meals I wanted to prepare while Kenny was at ComicCon. I got most of it. Then I headed back and made a quick stop at Sweetwater Farms (our Grocery store in town) and picked up a Butternut Squash. After that I headed back home.
Once the groceries were put away it was time to prepare lunch. I was going to have Broccoli Cream Soup with Rosemary Olive Bread. It was absolutely yummy. After lunch I really wasn't too much in the mood to start with packing and so I continued to work on consolidation my external hard drives. It's something that needs to be finished within the next 2 weeks as well and I was making quite good progress.
Today I got some good news from my pet-relocation specialist. So far Daisy's paperwork is all in order and everything is progression as planned. They will be sending out the so called 'Welcome Package' containing the form for the Commercial EU Health Certificate and the check list for the paperwork that has to go with Daisy. Now it looks like that she will be having the 1st Exit Exam on August 8th.

Running Errands continues...

2011-07-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, today was day 2 of running errands. I was heading out at around 11 am. First up was the post office in Canyon Country. I had to pick up customs forms for a couple of packages that I plan on sending ahead to Austria. I found the customs forms, but of course there have to be more than 1 form. Form 2976 and Form 2976-A. I wasn't really sure what's the difference anyways and I wasn't about to to wait about 1/2 hour in line to ask one of the employees. So I grabbed a couple of copies of both forms.
Next up was Lowe's. I really wanted to get the entire issue with the power strips done. After some searching around I finally found the power strips. But they go for about 12 bucks and I know that I can order them online for about 4 bucks. So I decided to order them online once I got back home. Next I drove to the Target next door to look at some suitcases. The zipper of my current suitcase isn't really working properly anymore and one of the wheels is broken off...so it isn't quite an optimal solution for an airport. I was looking at suitcases with a width of at least 25". Better would be one with 28" width. They have quite a selection there and they cast between 60 and 130 bucks. When I looked at them they all seemed to be made pretty much the same way and I really couldn't tell any difference in quality. That was quite confusing. So I left it for now, since I have about 3 weeks left until I have to make a final decision. After that I headed over to the local Staples to pick up some packing peanuts, just in case I should start with the packing during this week.
Then I headed back home to have lunch. I really didn't feel like making anything from scratch and so I enjoyed left overs.
After lunch I worked on the final check list of the documents for Daisy's Relocation. I wanted to check with my Pet Relocation Specialist to see where we're at with the paperwork and to make sure that everything is on track. There are still 3 1/2 weeks left, but I really would like to set up the appointment for the First Exit Exam and for the Final Exit Exam. By the time I was done with the check list I knew they weren't at the office anymore, so I emailed him and now waiting to hear back.
After I was done with that I started cross-referencing the items from the Relocation Inventory with the according pix I took when doing the inventory. I wasn't particularly looking forward to that, since it's a lot of work and kinda time consuming. But I couple of hours later I was done with that as well.
So all in all it was quite a productive day!!

Running Errands

2011-07-18T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. Last night I tried to order my pre-paid sim card for Austria online. Well, that didn't quite work out as planned. If you order it online you have to sign for the delivery of the sim card in person. Unless someone perfect transporter technology that's not very likely to happen. So this morning I called my parents and asked them to pick up a pre-paid sim card at the local '3'-Store. I explained to them exactly what I wanted and they promised me to pick the sim card up and mail it to me. So my sim card is in the works. I also got to talk with them for a bit and it was fun to hear how excited they're of me moving back to Austria in less than 1 month. I also heard that my Sis, Bernd and my 2 nephews were staying at my parents for 1 week of their vacation.
After the phone call I had lunch and relaxed for about 1/2 hour before heading out. Boy, running errands in 103 F isn't particularly that much fun. First I drove out to Stater Bros. in Santa Clarita to pick up doggy food, since Daisy was out of food. I looked for Daisy's favorite snack...pig ears...but couldn't find any. So I settled for a kind of beef jerky thingy. Next up was the local home improvement store. Had to pick up Rid-X and was also looking for power strips, but couldn't find any. I didn't spend lots of time looking around for those power strips, since it isn't that urgent that I buy them. I then headed over to the local petsmart to pick up some doggy shampoo that's going to be sent with some doggy meds to Austria to get Daisy over the transitional period.
When I got back home I checked online about Daisy's favorite snack, and it looks like nobody is selling it anymore. Quite a bummer! But Daisy does like the new beef jerky thingy, but she's done with that even quicker than she was with the pig ears.
All in all I managed to get about half of the errands done that I have to do this week.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

2011-07-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

It all ends...that was the tagline for the 8th and final installment of the Harry Potter franchise. I opted to to see it on Friday with a group of friends, with whom I've seen several premieres of the Harry Potter movies.
We met for dinner a Fudruckes and hung out and chatted for about 1 hour or so before heading over to the movie theatre. We went to the Arclight in Sherman Oaks which has reserved seating and therefore no waiting in line...one of the best things ever!! The Arclight has this huge wall of posters, normally it's various movies coming out but this time it was all the different Harry Potter posters over the years and it was BEAUTIFUL!!! We got some drinks and snacks and found our seats inside the theatre.
The movie picks up right where the previous ended. I'm not going to analyze the entire movie play by play, Kenny did an excellent job with that!! Check out his BLOG for that!! I will just write how I feel about the final Harry Potter movie:
It's a great action packed movie and a great way of ending the series. Absolutely loved the action scenes and the special effects. The characters stay pretty much within their established parameters, so there isn't too much surprise there. What was surprising that there are quite humorous portions of the movie. I'm not quite sure what it is with that movie, for me there's some sort of a emotional disconnect. It just didn't emotionally engage me the same way as all the other Harry Potter movies did. Maybe it's that they built up a hype, that the movie could have never ever lived up to. Maybe it's because it's basically a action movie and the emotional connection is never really being established. Maybe it's the fact that you pretty much know how the movie is going to end. All those movies end pretty much the same way, the bad guy always dies. The only question is if the good guy has to die as well or through how much torment the good has to go through in order to defeat the bad guy. Maybe it's a combination of all those factors or maybe I would feel differently if I were to watch movie 7 and 8 together. I do hope that the emotional disconnect is not because I've become bare of any emotions...that would be rather upsetting.
All in all it was a very enjoyable and good ending for the series and maybe in time Deathly Hallows Part 2 will grow on me and I will see it in a different light. Only time will tell.

Customs Paperwork

2011-07-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

Today I was finally able to deal with the customs paperwork. Before I even started I realized, that although Kenny had made me several copies of all the forms that needed to be filled out, that would only partially help me, since I needed to make copies of each and every form. Having worked for many years in business administration I know how important that is, just in case something should go wrong. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but with the printer/copier out of ink that certainly was a problem. So I checked on the internet who sold the in cartridge at a reasonable price. Turns out that Best Buy was the one who had it on sale. So I headed out to the Best Buy in Santa Clarita to get the ink cartridge. I found it without any problem and by noon I was back again.
The I dealt first with the itemized property list for the Maritime Insurance. Good thing that I had prepped that list yesterday with all the replacement cost. But I still manage to screw the form up twice. The third time was finally the charm. After the property list I dealt with the UK Import Paperwork. That are 4 or 5 forms, but they went surprisingly very quickly. I only had to do that particular form once and that was quite a positive surprise. After that I wrote and printed the cover letter for the Schumacher agent, guess the administration guy in me is showing here through. After that I mad copies of all the forms including a copy of the photo page of my passport and put the entire thing in an envelope.
Next I headed out to the post office in Canyon Country to drop the letter off. I had to stand for about 5 minutes in line since I wanted to have a delivery confirmation. By about 4.30 pm I was back home again and I'm very happy that the paperwork for the shipping company is done, as that means it's one less thing I have to worry about.

Customs Paperwork...or at least kinda

2011-07-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well today I really wanted to do get with all customs paperwork done that's required for having my stuff shipped to Austria. I thought would take me probably about 1 or 2 hours and should be a piece of cake. Well, not so fast. I had to print out 4 forms, while I was printing form #2 the printer ran out of ink. I really didn't want to drive out to Santa Clarita just to pick up a ink cartridge, so I emailed Kenny to print it out at work. Couple of minutes later I heard back from him that he was going to do exactly that. When taking a closer look at the customs forms I realized that I had to figure out a replacement value for items listed in the paperwork. I could have just guessed it, but that just doesn't seem like the right way to go. You definitely don't want to have your items underinsured, but you also don't want your items overinsured either, since you're paying a percentage of the shipment value as insurance premium.
So I sat down and figured out the replacement value of each and every item. Good thing that I had finished the detailed Relocation Inventory yesterday. Well with a couple of items I just had to guess a replacement value since I could find it anywhere. But I'm fine with that. It took me pretty much all afternoon to figure out the value of each an every item. I was very happy when I was done with it. I still hope to send the entire paperwork to the shipping company by tomorrow.

Relocation Inventory

2011-07-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

Today I received the paperwork from Schumacher, that I have to fill out in order for them to be able to clear customs. In order to insure the items being shipped you have to do a inventory and I wasn't particularly looking forward to that...as it's a lot of work. First you have to do the overview inventory list. Then you use that list to figure out the replacement value in order to clear customs and to figure out the amount the shipment has to be insured for. Once I was done with that I had to work on the detailed inventory list, since every item has to be listed separately. That's not that important for items of minor value, but with items of higher value it is important. Should the insurance case occur you have to be able to provide a detailed list of items you're filing a claim for, you have to know how much each item is worth and you have to prove with a picture that you really owned that item.
So I spent the better part of the afternoon working on the inventory overview, the detailed item list and took a picture of each item. I was quite happy when I was finally done.
I hope that I can finish tomorrow the paperwork and mail it back to the shipping company.

Star Trek Padd for iPad

2011-07-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

I've been going back and forth over buying an iPad for several month. There are so many reasons to justify that. It makes 40th birthday present. With me moving relocating to Austria it will be one of the last bigger purchases in a long time. I'm substantially below my relocation budget and I have a credit from the dentist for services not rendered. On top of that I need a decent electronic device when going back to Austria... you guessed it I'm an Internet addict. Now CBS (who owns the Star Trek franchise) comes out with a Star Trek Padd app for the iPad. Now you truly have a Padd that lets you access a ton of Star Trek Info. For me as a huge Star Trek fan that's a major incentive to get an iPad!!
Here's the promo video...

Kids Get It!!

2011-07-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

This has to be the cutest video I've seen in a long time. Kids are so innocent when they are not brainwashed by their parents. I always say hate is tough and this is proof. I love how you can see him struggling with the concepts but then putting it together and being so excited and then as kids do.. he just wants to go play ping pong now.
Kids get it right away...so why exactly are adults being such morons ?? Guess we'll never know...

If you want to know the story on how the video came to be... Click HERE...

Dividing Clothes & Wildfires

2011-07-09T12:52:00.000-07:00

After Kenny took a break from podcasting we went into Santa Clarita to get lunch. On our way back we noticed smoke coming from the direction of our house. When we got closer we realized that it was actually burning at the exit to our house from the 14 freeway. When you looked from the porch it looked like as if the fire was burning right over the ridge...and in the sense it was. Luckily they knocked the fire down within 1 hour and everything is well again.

Once we got home we watched some TV and then we went through all of our clothes to separate Kenny's clothes form mine, since I will be leaving in less than 4 1/2 weeks and some of the clothes will be packed up and shipped to Austria.

Running Errands

2011-07-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much a day of running errands. I had planned to look for the shell for the external hard drive, but for some reason things just kept coming up and I never got around to doing it.
I did manage to crush the cans and make a quite decent progress cleaning up parts of the mess after the Indian Jones Marathon. On top of that I finally caught up on online reading stuff and I finished organizing a bunch of info into the appropriate Google Docs.
Today humidity was up to 45% and made the 90 F feel like 105+ F, so I decided not to do any of the yard work stuff that I had planned on doing. Today I got confirmation from Schumacher Logistics, that they have received my holding fee and now I have to wait for info how we are going to precede with the itemized cargo list. Finally the last of Daisy's Meds arrived today in the mail. Now I just have to pack them up and send them to my parents. That way I'm all set for the transitional period regarding Daisy's relocation to Austria.

Independence Day

2011-07-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

For this Independence Day Kenny decided to visit his Dad in Corona. Well, I didn't quite feel like traveling around in 105 F heat and on the other hand I wanted to deal with the 1 external hard drive that I had troubles mounting. After Kenny had left I tried my luck with the hard drive. the existing firewire cable didn't mount the drive. So I figured I try it with several other firewire cables. With pretty much the same success or rather lack of same. But I didn't want to give up that easy. I reset the hard drive and tried my luck again. Still no success. Next I tried to mount the drive via a USB cable. Apparently there is some issue with the ports, as I can hear the drive starting and running. My next idea was to put one 500 GB drives into the drive shell and see if I can get the data off the drive. Well I didn't get the chance to try that, since I couldn't find the drive shell. Guess we must have put the shell out in the garage when my family came for a visit.
So instead I decided to make myself Burgers 'Harry Style' with my special marinade, made of olive oil, mustard, BBQ Sauce, mayo and Balsamico Vinegar. I have to admit, it's not a really healthy choice... but it's sooo yummy!! I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in front of the TV.

Indiana Jones Marathon continues...

2011-07-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

With the help of Jen Kenny prepared breakfast: Bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, hash brown, toast and OJ. While that was happening most of our guests started to watch Galaxy Quest. Once breakfast was ready we paused the movie and everybody got breakfast. Then we all settled down in the TV-Room and continued to watch the movie. About halfway through the movie one of our guests decided to head home. As soon as the movie was over the rest of our guests packed up and headed out.
All in all it was a great event and everyone seemed to have enjoyed it!!
Kenny took some great pix of the Indian Jones Marathon / BBQ Party!! You can check them out HERE...

Indiana Jones Marathon

2011-07-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

Today we were having a Indiana Jones Marathon / BBQ Party. The entire event was supposed to start at noon, but Kenny's friend Chris arrived about 2 hours early. At noon about 7 people had showed up. Within the next hour another 5 people joined the event. The available space in the TV-Room kept getting smaller and smaller and we had to use pillows to provide everyone with something to sit on. At the beginning Daisy wasn't a happy camper, but since everybody left here alone and I was always close by she got used to the crowd.
At 1 pm we started with 'Raiders of the lost Ark'. Kenny started the BBQ and was going back and fort between the movie and the BQQ. About 1 hour into the movie we paused, so that everyone could grab lunch. We all grabbed the food and went back into the TV-Room to continue with the movie. During the second half of the movie the last of the guests arrived, grabbed some food as well and we continued to watch the movie.
Next up was "Temple of Doom". After we had watched the movie in its entire length 3 of our guest departed.
Next up was "Last Crusade". About 1/2 hour into the movie another guest joined us. Halfway through the movie Kenny left to pick up Pizza at our local Pizza place. Although the Pizzeria is only about 10 minutes from our place it took Kenny about 1 hour to get back with the Pizza. By the time Kenny got back the movie was over and everybody was just hanging out and chatting. Daisy was getting more and more comfy with the entire situation and even let a couple of gals pet her. After everybody was done with the Pizza a couple of people chose to have some shots and do some stargazing.
Those who were left at that time went into the TV-Room to watch "The Crystal Skull", the final installment of the series. After the final movie people did more stargazing, chatting, snacking and more shots. Some chose to play Wii. Around 3 am two guest headed back home. The remaining 8 decided to stay and spend the night. Kenny and I made sure that everyone knew where they were sleeping and had pillows and blankets before hitting the bed ourselves.

Google +

2011-06-30T23:35:00.000-07:00

Today Google revealed it's new social network called Google +. I was skeptical as I wasn't sure I wanted to jump into another social network as the few that I'm in seem to take up a lot of my free time, but when the opportunity came up and I could get an invite before many others I jumped at it.
Well it's only been a day but I have been on this site non-stop checking out every nook and cranny. I love this new site. It's like a cross between Facebook and Twitter. It's very clean looking and not cluttered like Facebook. It has a great video chat program "Hangout" and it has these things called Circles which allow you to group your "friends" in various circles and only share what you want with whom you want. Another great feature is "Sparks". It lets you search any search term that you're interested in without ever leaving Google+. On top of that you can pin a search term to your Sparks Menu for quick reference and of course you can quickly share an article with your circles or the web.
The next great feature are Photos. All albums are by default private. You have to choose with whom you want to share an album. Absolutely love it!! But there is way more to Photos than meets the eye. You can do basic photo editing and apply basic photo filters. All of your Photos are uploaded to your Picasa and that gives you the full functionality of Picasa. On thing especially intrigued me was the option of being able to easily move pix between albums, without having to re-upload them. Absolutely love it!!
If you want to read more about Googl+, you can find a very good article HERE....

Choosing a Shipping Company

2011-06-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well today I had to choose a shipping company, since all the rate proposals I had were going to expire tomorrow. I have been going back and fort between shipping company for the past month. I've looked at their rates, the services they provide, their BBB rating and general customer feedback. A quite time consuming process. 5 companies made the final cut.
Today I tossed out IntlMove and Guardian Relocation. The first company has pages after pages of unresolved customer complaints against them and Guardian has a BBB Rating of D-. That left me with Allied Van Lines, Schumacher Cargo and Crown Relocation.
Crown Relocation has a A- BBB Rating, but I didn't go with them as their proposal was for $ 4700. I have to add to that the Maritime Insurance about $ 300, that would bring the total up to $ 5000. That's way more than I'm willing to spend to have 8 to 10 boxes measuring 24x24x18 shipped to Austria.
That left me with Allied Van Lines and Schumacher Cargo. Both have a very similar BBB Rating and they have similar customer complaints. So that didn't help me make the decision either. What it finally was a deciding factor was the price. Including Maritime Insurance going with Schumacher costs me $ 1000 less. And that's quite a nice chunk of spare change. So I filled out online reservation form and gave them the go-ahead. A couple of minutes later I had the preliminary booking reservation. It will take them 24 to 48 to provide me with the final booking confirmation.
After that I went to have the money order for the holding deposit issued. It didn't even occur to me that I can't pay for a money order with the credit card. So I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow. Isn't really a problem since the signed service contract with holding deposit wouldn't have been sent out today anyways.

More Relocation Prep-Work

2011-06-28T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today I had to do some more relocation prep work. Nothing major, but the all the small things need to be done as well.
First up I had to order some of Daisy's Meds for the transition period. Heartworm is no problem, since I have enough of those. Advantix on the other hand is a different story. So I decided to order a box and have it sent to my parents. That way when Daisy gets to Austria the Advantix will already be there and I don't have to look on day 1 for VET to get a replacement for the Advantix. On top of that 1800-Pet-Meds was having sale and I was having a coupon as well. So all in all I saved 17 bucks. Not bad at all.
Next up were the moving boxes. I can't use average boxes since they have to be up to 'code', so to speak. What that means is basically that they have at least to hold a weight of 60 lbs. I looked around online and found a company selling boxes that hold up to 100 lbs at very reasonable prices. So I decided to go with them. Well turns out that the product price is reasonable, but the shipping costs are not. They wanted as much for the shipping than the product is worth. And I wasn't going to do that. After a little more research I found boxes, that are up to 'code', at Staples. I called the local Staples stores right away to check if they had them in stock. Well, they didn't have the size I needed in stock. So I decided to order them online. While I was doing that I ordered Bubble Wrap and Heavy-Duty Tape as well. If all works according to plan I should have the boxes by the end of this week.

Relocation Prep-Work

2011-06-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

Today was pretty much all about 'smaller' items regarding the relocation. The first thing on the agenda were the crate pads for Daisy. I had narrowed it down to 3 choices. 2 with DryFur technology and one regular foam pad. Well they all would have been sufficient for airline regulation. As fur as the airline is concerned it just has to be able to absorb liquid. So if you were just to put shredded newspaper into the crate that would be sufficient. But I wanted something that is absorbent and traps the moisture quickly in the inside of the pad. That way I can be sure, if an accidental spill were to occur, that Daisy is not spending a long parts of the trip in a wet crate. On the other hand the pad shouldn't be too thick either, or it might make the trip uncomfortable for her, since she is traveling in summer. So I finally decided on a rather thin pad that uses DryFur technology. I ordered it online and if everything goes according to plan the pad should be arriving be the end of this week.
Around 11.30 am I was having an appointment with a prospective buyer for my truck. I met him the the Agua Dulce Winery. I figured that is way easier to find then having to explain to the guy how he gets to our house. He showed up around 11.45 looked at the truck and he did like it. He told me that he had to look at several other trucks and would make his decision by Wednesday or Thursday. Guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.
After I got back from the truck appointment I continued to consolidate my hard drives and made quite good progress. If everything goes according to plan I should be done consolidating 2 out or 3 hard drives within the next couple of days.