A vist from the Doris

Last week we enjoyed a visit from the Doris on her way to Augsburg. Liam is alway thrilled when there is someone other than mummy and daddy to give him attention. Aunt Doris, Oma, Opa, Uncle Bernhard are all huge hits with the little man when they are around. It is pretty much like we do not exist once one of these folks comes into the room. That is actually fine, we can normally use a little break from the energy ball. One of the first things Doris did (that I saw when I got in from work anyway,) was read some books with Liam while he shoved pretzel in his face.

This of course resulted in getting his shirt so messy that it had to be cleaned. It was about a nice and warm last week, so it was no problem to let him run around in his little undershirt. Tragedy struck when Liam threw the tiny pooping chicken on the floor and knocked a wing off, but Doris was able to save the day by performing an emergency wing-reattachment.
After that near catastrophe, he had a cuddle. He also took this chance to point at me and yell "PAPA" a bunch of times as he is wont to do. Oh, Liam can almost say his name now "Miam" and he also has picked up saying "OK" over and over again. He says it in a long drawn out fashion which I find funny. "OOOOOOOOOOOOKAAAAAAAY"

Interesting Arrangements

Just down the road from my place in Entringen are an interesting arrangement of buildings.

The first one on the corner is a nice little kindergarten, a fairly nice one with a decent lookging playground outside:
Right next door to that we have an retirement home. A very modern building of glass and steel that always looks like a pretty nice place... until you see a bunch of residents looking sort of miserable sitting around. At first, I was not sure if the residents all looking so glum because they are old, because they are German, or because they are old and German.Then you look at what is directly across the street from the retirement home:


That is correct, a large cemetery is the view that these elderly folks are presented with all day. I have to wonder what the town planners were thinking when arranging this:

1) How convenient, when the old people die, we can just walk across the street.
2) How nice, the folks in the home can have a short walk to visit their friends.
3) If the Graveyard depresses them, look the other way and see kindergarten kids playing...

I am not so convinced about the wisdom of this layout.

Backwards Germany

There are a lot of things I like about living in Germany, but one of the things I don't like is the prevalence of smoking. The other day on the radio, they were talking about two studies, one is that Germany is now the fattest country in Europe (stealing the title from the long time holders, the UK) and that they have the most smokers.

Other parts of the EU like Ireland, Sweden and more have already adopted progressive smoking laws, barring it from public places and essentially stopping you from smoking anywhere that you may be polluting common air. You can not even smoke in a pub in Ireland! That seems extreme to me.

Germany still has smoking cars on trains, smoking rooms in our office, and smoking "areas" at the airport that are not enclosed in any way. You just stand under the sign and smoke. Most restaurants do not have non-smoking areas and this is one of the things that bugs me a lot. I cannot think of much else that ruins a nice meal than smokers nearby. I don't even like going out much here because every place you go is so packed with smoke that your clothes and hair will reek of it when you leave.

By and large, German smokers are pigs. Cigarette butts litter the ground in any central area and this concerns me greatly as the parent of a curious two year old. We have to be pretty careful that Liam is not picking up cigarette butts when we are out walking around.

The final straw for me is that Germany still has cigarette vending machines. This is something that we had in Canada in the late 1970s. Rather than remove the machines, Germany is actively upgrading them! They have machines by the train here where you can buy the smokes with a debit card! I cannot believe they have this kind of thing and then wonder how on earth the 12 year olds are getting their cigarettes.

Here is the machine next to the train inthe morning for me. Like stepping into a time machine or?

Hockey Tournament - Huge post.

So this past weekend was the Stuttgart annual hockey tournament, as the host team, of course we hoped to do well. We do have quite a good team at the moment, so our expectations were pretty high. Here is a run down of what happened.

Game 1 - Stuttgart Broncos vs Adelberg Eisbuaba

First game was against Adelberg, the team with the ugliest unifroms and most stupid name in the tournament. Eisbuaba basically translates to "Ice-boys." We have played them before and done pretty well in general. In fact, I don't think Adelberg has ever managed to beat us, but I cannot be certain on that fact.

This time, they had no chance, we were the host team and pretty keen on making a good start to the tournament.

Final Score:

Stuttgart Broncos - 9
Adelberg Eisbuaba - 0

Yay for my shutout! Adelberg went on to finish 4th.
Game 2 - Stuttgart Broncos vs Bad Liebenzell outlaws.

This one was interesting because we had never played, nor even seen this team play before. Bad Liebenzell does play in a hobby league, so we expected they would be a little tougher. Luckily for us, our team continued to dominate both offensively and defensively.

Final Score

Stuttgart Broncos - 6
Bad Liebenzell Outlaws - 1

This put us at the top of our group on points and goals, so we moved on to the semi-final:

Game 3 - Stuttgart Broncos vs Wernau Eisritter

Wernau is a team we know very well, four or five of their players actually practice with us every Wednesday. We were calling this team "the Russian's" since it seems that all but 3-4 players were in fact Russian. The big worry with this team was their #44 player, he had just joined the team some weeks ago after leaving the Russia junior league. There was quite some debate if he was going to be allowed to play, since we are not allowed to have any professionals on the ice... Anyway, we let him play and it was pretty much the goal of our players to have two guys on top of him for the whole game. When he did manage to get a shot off, it was so fast I could barely even see the puck, never mind stop it. We did manage to struggle through and everyone did their jobs though...

Final Score:

Stuttgart Broncos - 5
Wernau Eisritter - 1


We move on to the FINAL

Game 4 - Stuttgart Broncos vs Esslingen Eisbrecher

OK, so we have played Esslingen lots and lots of times in the past, games, tournaments, friendly practices. It was really no surprise that they were in the final, they are in a league and their goalkeeper actually played as a back up goalie in the German league a couple of years ago. They are a very strong team... I like their goalie, he is a friendly guy and before the game he walked over to me and asked if we could agree to make the game a 0-0 tie. I told him I would see what I could do.

Both teams started out strong, and it was a pretty tight game, staying 0-0 until the 8th minute and then.... Esslingen got one past me. This did not last too long though, we managed to equalize a minute later. The game was getting a bit tense, this was the fourth hockey game in one day for both teams, so I think people were just getting a little tired and sloppy, and this resulted in a penalty to our team. Not good.... on the power play, Esslingen scored again, 2-1 for the Eisbrecher. Things got even worse as just before the half, they got yet another goal. We headed to the break down 3-1.
So heading back out onto the ice I bumped into the Esslingen goalie and I apologized for missing the 0-0 score, but checked how he felt about 3-3? He seemed ok with it.

When we stepped out on the ice, our bad luck continued... another penalty, followed by another power play goal for Esslingen. 4-1 and things were looking bleak. The game went on, and about 3 minutes later, we managed to get another goal, hitting the 4-2 mark. Amazingly less than one minute after that, Rasso from our team notched another, getting us within one goal at 4-3. A few more minutes went by and we scored yet again! tying it up at 4, three unanswered goals and things were looking less and less horrible. Esslingen pressed hard, trying to push ahead, but our defensive line of "the Swedish guys" were outstanding, and on the few occasions when Esslingen squeezed by, I somehow managed to stop them.

Then with 30 seconds less in the game, our big Bavarian star, Holzmann, scored his 8th goal of the tournament and won us the title with a final score:

Stuttgart Broncos - 5
Esslingen Eisbrecher - 4

So at the end of the day, we had another tournament success, I was lucky enough to have a great team standing in front of me. I finished with the best defensive record of the day, GAA of 1.5 over 4 games and the only shutout game of the tournament. So, personal success was a good feeling to accompany the tournament win.

Here is the victorious team. I am the handsome fellow in the front row #1.

New Hat

OK, so I will plan future posts about my WoW excursion and also about my games collection. I need to get some photographic evidence of both though.

Today I was off in a training all day about how to talk to journalists, which was pretty interesting. I had to be filmed giving interviews on the topics "In House Marketing for Small Business" and "The Cost of HP Ink." It was a very new experience for me as I have never had to deal with external media before. It can be pretty tough to be in the spotlight and having to answer tricky questions. I did manage to get through it, so we will see how I do the first time I actually have to talk to journalists. I think this will possibly happen in May when I may go to a press event in Portugal.

Anyway, the photo of the day is Liam in the new hat that Claudia bought for him. The boy loves to go outside and he loves to ride his little "Bobby-car" and this was his subtle way of indicating to me that now was the time when he should be out there. The jean jacket was the new clothing item of last week and Claudia thought he needed a cool hat to go with it. Not quite a baseball hat, more of a painters cap. Or one of those hats Fidel Castro wears.

Another Look Back to York

I don't really have all that many photos of my days at York when you compare it to what I have taken pictures of since then... Mostly due to the rise of the digital camera.

I do have a reasonable number of pictures from Vanier Formal dinners though. That was the camera occasion.

When I started writing this, I planned to put up a photo or two from formals... Now I don't think I will bother. I don't really have any that include the people who read this, any with Dave and Ponter have already been posted previously...

So.... I have no idea what to post today. I will take any requests in comments. Tell me what you want to see and I will add it to the blog.

A taste of Canada

While we were on the walk near Munich, there happened to be a couple of Canada Geese strolling around. I thought this was kind of fun and it reminded me of home. How nice the Canada goose looks as it walks around the grass. As I recall, they are much less nice when they are living in a bush in your office parking lot, making a big nest and then chasing away anyone who walks to close, honking and hissing wildly. Ahh the majestic goose.

Another thing that has caught my attention now is a casual game called "Peggle" It is from Popcap Games and you can get the demo there or from a few other online places like Steam. Anyway, Peggle is sort of like a hybrid of Pachinko, Arkanoid, Breakout kind of games. You drop balls on a screen and hit pegs. You have to hit all the orange pegs to clear the level.

You have a limited number of balls to do this, and of course there are special combos and things to do for more points and to win more balls. You may be thinking "is that all?" which is what I thought at first, but give it a try, you will find it eats up a bunch more time than planned.

A well made, fun game to play for 5 min or much more when you have nothing else on the go.

Grandfather Shirt

Claudia just bought this shirt for Liam and it is called a "Grandfather Shirt"

Personally, I think it looks like one of those Indian shirts I have seen on TV and film, my only source of Indian culture. Anurag what do you think? Otherwise it is a fairly quiet day. I am making some of my first exciting Product Management decisions in my new job... I get to approve/change the packaging on a new product coming our soon which is cool, and I just killed a product that I have always disliked. I cannot say what they are since the info is not public, and I feel like a super spy.

Of course, not that anyone reading this could really care less about the world of Business Paper, but you never know what could fall into the wrong hands and get me into HP trouble.

Cake with Oma

Liam is a difficult eater, but one of the things he never ever turns down is cake. What a shock. Here he is stealing all of poor Oma's cake. She thought she was giving him a bite, but of course that quickly turned into the whole cake. I think he may have allowed her one bite of her own.

This is another situation that never happens to me since I don't really like cake that much, so I am never eating it. I am a cookie guy, Liam steals them too though. Oh, he steals my chips as well.For some reason, I always like photos of Liam opening his mouth big and wide to shove food in it. I think it makes him look funny. I did not quite get the perfect moment of cake stuffing here, but it is not bad.

Back from Easter Fun

We have returned home from our weekend with the extended family in Augsburg for Easter. We had a nice time visiting with Oma and Opa, Uncle Bernhard and then also seeing great Grandma and Great Uncle Hans and Aunt Helga. Liam is spoiled with all the attention and I hope he can re-adjust to not having 24-hour play partners lined up to enjoy his company.

On Sunday we went down to Munich for a walk around the castle Nymphanburg which I have almost certainly spelled wrong.

Then we returned to the house where there was plenty of Easter treats, including the traditional lamb cake. I think I did not even eat any of the cake this year, but I had more than my fill of chocolate rabbits and eggs. I also like that people eat a lot of hard boiled eggs at this time of year. I think that back home people mostly just blew out raw eggs and painted them for decoration, but here it is pretty standard to paint the eggs after they are cooked and then just eat them after a while. They even sell painted hard boiled eggs in our office coffee shop. They cost 0.35 Euro.One of the things that Liam really likes about visiting Gersthofen is that he gets to play with all of Uncle Bernhard's old trucks. There are many giant construction vehicles there to keep him busy for a long long time. He also really discovered Bernhard's room with its wonderous fishtank and model crane. He pretty much dragged everyone upstairs several times a day so he could look at them. Then he grabbed the fish food and poured it all over the floor.

Happy Easter

I thought that this image would put everyone in that egg hunting mood for the next few days. It is a four day weekend here since we get both Good Friday and Easter Monday off as public holidays. I think that I will be spending Good Friday drilling some holes and hanging up pictures and stuff around the house. We will then head over to Augsburg to visit Claudia's Parents, we have not been over there for a while, so it should be a nice time.

I hope that we have room in the car for the ever growing pile of toys that Liam needs to go to sleep at night. Since the discovery of the wonderful backhoe, he has gone to bed without crying every night, which is great. The main problem is that it is pretty crowded in there, three big bears and a backhoe are needed in the bed to have a peaceful quiet evening. His visiting bed in Augsburg is smaller, so I hope all that stuff fits in there. I will have to try and get a picture of the whole napping crowd one time. We always peek in on him a few hours after he has gone to sleep and remove some of the mayhem.

The New Kitchen

First, I apologize to Nader and Rina for leaving Singapore off my list yesterday, I know they are among the most dedicated followers to the legacy that is "Fraser's News." It is unforgivable that I did not call them out at the top of the list. Everyone should click on the link to their blog to see how wonderful Singapore is.

Well, for all the many requests, I finally have some pictures of the new kitchen.

Here is how it looks from the outside. It is all open, but we put in the gate to keep out the tiny engine of destruction.
on the left hand side is the big cupboard, one of these doors is the refrigerator, and the other two are cupboards where the dishes and stuff are stored. The spot on the counter at the right may eventually hold a microwave if we ever decide to buy one, but for now it has cookbooks.

Moving along the rear wall, this is all the big counter work area, and the dishwasher and sink are on this side. Turning the corner after the sink is the left wall, where all the high cupboards with food are located, and below them the stove and oven.
I am not going to put up photos showing how each cupboard is filled. It would probably just make everyone feel bad about how their own cupboards are organized. You see, Claudia is totally insane when it comes to organizing things, and our cabinets are stocked and arranged with a precision that is seen no other place in the universe.

Ausenputz

Yesterday they finished the "Ausenputz" of the house, that is covering all the raw red brick with concrete, in preparation for the painting. Now the house will have to dry out for about three weeks, followed by some days of painting. Then the house structure will be complete, leaving only the lot to worry about. I think it will be a few months until the back yard and front driveway are all done, just while we sort through the final bills and see how it is all looking..

Part of the fun of doing this blog for me is seeing where the readers are coming from. Upon my last check, I have people reading this in:

Canada
Germany
Switzerland
United States
Scotland
England
Japan
Korea
China
Australia
India
Portugal

I think that is fun. I don't even know people in some of these countries, so it is kind of neat to think random people could care less about my house being built and my opinion of the new office floor plan (which is garbage by the way.)

I just wish that more people would leave comments from time to time. I enjoy the delightful discussions about Dave that Ponter and Gord frequently have, but it would be very nice to hear anyone else chime in, even if it is just to tell me how great the house looks.

Claudia takes all credit for how good the house looks, any decorating/colour choices/furniture placement is decided on by her. There is no question that she is the one with taste in the household. If it was left to me, Liam and I would probably be sitting in cardboard boxes and wearing burlap sacks.

I need to take some new photos....

Sad to say that I have been really camera lazy the past little while, I really don't have anything new to share with the web world. I should take a few photos of the finished kitchen, but I have just not been bothered. So sad when I have that little drive.

All I want to do these days is sit on the couch and look out the window. I think it is just the blahs of post moving hub bub and the long illness I just recovered from.

I am now getting ready for a move at work. We are moving from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor and our work environment will become that of the "mobile office." The company has decided to save on real estate space by cramming even more people into this building, allowing them to close some other buildings. This brings up the theoretical question "how do you fit 100 employees into 70 desks??? "

The answer was of course "mobile" or "hot" desks. You no longer have your own desk, your department has a pool of desks, and you have a little cabinet with your personal effects. When you come to the office, you get your stuff out of the locker and claim an available desk. This is only possible because so many people travel or are in all day meetings and don't require a permanent desk.

Personally, I think this is a terrible policy, imagine having no personal space at all? You are not allowed to have any pictures up on the wall and it is a "clean desk" policy, so at the end of each day, anything you left on your desk gets taken to lost and found by the evening desk police. Crazy.

You are even supposed to "sign out" that is clear all your stuff away if you plan to be away from your desk for more than 2 hours. Insanity.

I think any savings in real estate will be lost over time to lower productivity. Not having your own space means you need extra time to set up your computer, phone, pens, pencils, etc every day and evening. This will be at LEAST 30 min a day per employee totally productivity free, and it is on company time. But, I am sure that they will just expect everyone to come in 30 in earlier and contribute the same amount of work as before.

I am actually one of the lucky few who do get a permanent desk, but that is because I am not traveling so much and most of my meetings are via phone or less than 2 hours.

I will do my best to work in this environment, but I really don't see any benefit at all to employees, it is another cost savings for the company that makes this office a less pleasant place to work.

Complaint is over now.