Updates, get your updates.

Hello world wide web. I haven't not contributed to you since March 15th; let's fix that. Sounds like a general update is in order.

Work:

Work has been rough. The new position, which is not so new anymore, has certainly brought a lot of challenge and stolen more time from me that I imagined.  At least I'm down to working 11 hour days as often. It's getting easier, but there's just so much more responsibility in this role than I had imagined, and I'm not so great at delegating, so I end up working myself to death. I'm learning though. Overall, still happy I took on the challenge. I'm the Director of Quality, for a major player in the rail industry. I'll take a pat on the back for that. Oh, and the travel has been awesome. I love to travel, but I'll write more about that below.

Home life:

Home life is good. Debbie is happy. The two bunnies seem happy; I haven't heard them complain. We got new couches which are pretty awesome. The old couch was a monster that just gobbled you up and forced you to slouch down until your chin touched your chest. I do not miss it. Plus, new couch has foot rests that pop out... and drink holders. Win. Landscape wise, I've been enjoying mowing. It's just satisfying. We've had a couple fires in the backyard this summer which were fun. Not so many rabbits in the yard this summer, but I have seen a lot of coyote poop and my neighbor caught a glimpse of some coyotes early one morning. This would explain the pieces of rabbit and bird we've been finding.

Travel:

Work has taken me to some pretty awesome places: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, France and Spain. Oddly enough, I do not mind sitting on the plane for 10+ hours. It's worth it to get to experience the sights, sounds, food & culture. The Bavarian Alps are beautiful. The Czech Republic strange and has a phony/corrupt feel to it. Paris is amazing, as always and Madrid has the feel of NYC, but with an old world feel. I love how much history this European places have. Our country is so new, by comparison. Still I love living in the US; it's the by far the best! On Tuesday I'm headed back to Munich for a week and a half. Looking forward to it!

Camping/Backpacking:

Debbie and I went camping with her Brother and his family last month at Laurel Hill State Park, and it was awesome. We even cooked crawfish that we ordered from Louisiana. They were delicious. Of course we ate steaks as well. Plenty of relaxing, hammock time, kids getting dirty chasing crawfish (little ones, too small to eat) and swimming.  Debbie's two brothers and I had another super rainy backpacking trip at Ohiopyle State Park as well. Total sog fest. But a blast nonetheless. The weekend I get back from Munich, I'll be driving up to the Adirondacks to spend a week soaking in the lakes, and hiking some of the High Peaks. Gothics is at the top of my list!

Promotion

Wow.  I didn't blog once in the month of February.  Work has consumed my life over the past few months.  Although working 60 hours a week to stay on top of things has paid off; I just got promoted to Director of Quality Assurance last week. I'm proud of myself, and I really do like my job, but I'm afraid that work has left me little time for the things I enjoy most; biking and photography.  I'm hoping that I can find a way to balance my work and personal life this spring, because I really do miss expressing myself creatively and I sure would like to get out on the trails again.  

My office.  Home away from home lately.

Austria & Czech Republic: Fantastic quick trip

I'm back.  Finally.  What a whirlwind of a trip.  I spent about a week in Austria (In Kamaten, about an hour and a half west of Vienna) with one night in the town of Bruno in the Czech Republic.  I'm always stoked to travel, but this trip, was so full of actually traveling (flying & driving) that I hardly had any time to myself.  The only time I had to really explore, was the first day I arrived in Kamaten, but I was so tired, from being awake for 24 hours, that I had to go to sleep.  With that said, I do not have any great photos to share.  Nor any great stories, really.  The purpose of my trip was to meet my overseas contacts within my company and learn about their quality structure and operations.  So, most of my time, was spent in a conference room, reviewing org charts, processes and discussing quality strategy. 

I did stay in a really nice resort:  The Kothmuhle.  The room was excellent, with a nice balcony overlooking the rolling hills.  You could see the snowcapped mountains in the distance.  The restaurant was top notch, and I ate 5 course meals each night (*burp*).  The people I spoke with there, were very friendly, and spoke fluent English.

Driving in Austria was super fun.  I rented a nice BMW and got to open it up on the Autobahn, a few times.  The roads in the backcountry, are stunning.  They're twisty and roll through the hillside.  The fields and pastures through which I zipped, were completely free of any sort of garbage or litter.  Just absolutely beautiful.

 

Hello from Austria

Hello folks. Work has me in Austria and the Czech Republic this week. I'm happy to be here, but wish I had more time to enjoy myself and explore, the way I love to explore. Still, I'm making the most of it, and trying to capture what I can with my camera. The trip over here was hellacious. One debacle after another Including nearly losing my luggage and almost missing flights. But, I made ​​it. I'm extremely jetlagged so I'm just going to toss up some photos from the last days worth of travel from Baltimore to New York to Dusseldorf, Germany to Vienna Austria.

A quick photo through the glass at BWI airport Sunday afternoon at 2:30 pm.

After switching planes in Dusseldorf, Germany, I arrived at Vienna via this weird airline ... www.flyniki.com.

This is just one of the cool scenes inside the Vienna Airport. Although, by the time I got here I had been awake all night and what exhausted. I do not sleep well on international flights. All I wanted to do what find my rental car agency and get to my hotel.

I walked around forever, trying to find the car rental office. I found the cars ... but could not find the office. Probably I spent 45 minutes just wandering around different levels in the parking garages looking for the Hertz office. Holy frustrating.

At last, I was on my way. I rented a BMW and hit the Autobahn (Super fun!). An hour and a half later, I arrived helped in Kematen, Austria, at my hotel.

I'm baaaaack.

Well, I'm back in the US.  I got back on the 15th, but have been too busy to blog.  Life has just been so busy lately.  I never mentioned that I got a promotion a couple of months ago.  So now I'm the Quality Assurance Manager.  I'm happy about it, but its been a hell of a chance.  My scope of work is much larger now, and I have a lot of direct reports to manage.  Hopefully, things will settle down.  It's been 60 hour work weeks since I got the promotion and I feel like I'm drowning.  Ugh.  Anyway, it's good to be back.  Germany was amazing and I'm so thankful that I got the opportunity to go and experience another great part of Europe.  I made a friend over there, that I'm sure will come visit this spring/summer.  I have a lot of photos to process from my trip, namely my Alpine photos I took on the free weekend I had over there.  There's just no time these days!  Here it is, Christmas Eve already!

Manikins in Munich

Happened upon this store while waiting for my laundry to dry this weekend in Munich. Creepy. Cool. Wish I could have gotten inside for some more interesting shots!

Munich Graffiti

Saturday morning, I had to wash my laundry, which was a fun experience in and of Itself. I'm no stranger to the use of laundromats. I used my phone to locate the nearest one, which was only a few kilometers away, and then drove myself there in the car I borrowed from my company. (Have I mentioned that I work for a great company?) While my clothes were washing, I took a walk around the neighborhood, and soon found myself under a main thoroughfare snapping photos of some funky graffiti. I could not stay long. I had to get back to grab my clothes out of the drier, but here are some photos I took, Saturday morning, before I drove up into the Alps ...

Hofbräuhaus

As I write this, I'm sick as a dog.  Not from consuming ungodly amounts of German beer (Don't be silly).  No, I'm ailing from a persistent head cold that launched its attack on Day 1, and has developed into a true source of anguish.  Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep my ailing from ruining my ale-ing; so to speak.  Though I don't believe it's working too well.  My throat is absolutely killing me and although, I'm not a doctor, I believe drinking tall beers may not be the best way to boost my immune system.  I've been so busy lately, that I just haven't had time to get to a pharmacy to find medicine, and like Carly Simon, I simply haven't got time for the pain.

...Sing it Carly.

So, yeah, I'm sick, but I'm still having a great time in Munich.  A couple of nights ago, one of my Munich colleagues took me and another QA Manager (from Knorr's facility in Ankara, Turkey) out to dinner at the infamous Hofbräuhaus.  Goodness, it was a great time!  Perhaps a bit of a tourist trap for the locals of Munich, but a great experience nonetheless.  I ordered the crispy pig knuckle and washed it down with a few blonde beers.  Our appetiser was a soft cheese mixture, spread across homemade bread and pretzels.  Soooo good!  The locals keep their beer steins locked up on-site at the Hofbrauhaus.  Not only do they keep their mugs there, but they have their own tables; marked by signs which read "Stammtisch" meaning something to the effect of "This table belongs to the Jingleheimer-schmidt family" for example.  This is good to know, so as to avoid unknowingly sitting at John Jacob's table.

Poppin' pils (pilsners)

Didn't get too much sleep last night.  Sometimes I have a hell of a time trying to sleep in hotel rooms.  Last night, was one of those times.  I flipped and flopped all night and when the alarm went off at 7:00am, I knew it would be a long day.  Although I have to say, today I met a really awesome person who showed me some tools available to me, that I hadn't known about before.  Hooray for colleagues!  And so I suffered through the day, sleepily, yet attentive and was happy to be out of the office a little after 5:00.  Again, I ditched my work gear, grabbed my camera and took the U-bahn a couple stops down the line to explore what is local to me.  What I found, was an olympic swimming pool, the BMW Museum, and some amazing pizza.  I ordered the quattro fromaggio and washed it down with a few delicious pilsners.  Also; note to self:  Do not order a "raddler", ever again.  These, I found out, are light beers, mixed with grapefruit soda... like a shandy.  Yuck.

I also happened across the Olympic Tower in Olympic Park.  You can't miss it.  Although, due to the crumby weather, I could barely see the top of it.  The weather, here, has been dark and dreary since I arrived.  Tomorrow is day 3 and I still have not seen the sun shine.