German Photo Diary - Part 2

This is a shot of Schneeburg- Snow Mountain in German- where Anke grew up and we spend several days.

Oma Renate and Tante Ursel with a napping Corwin.
Corwin's little path.
Water Lillies.
Anouk's Racer.
If you'll look closely you'll notice that the little square bale of hay is flying through the air. That's right, the red thing forms the bale of hay then flings in into the following cart. While we've been fighting a war in Iraq our great country has taken the eye off of the ball and been surpassed in the ever important field of hay-baling technology.
A lake where we spent the afternoon hiking.
Some evil genious devised this pool and placed it along a hiking trail to lure in unsuspecting Americans and tourture them. You see, they place a sign there that says walking through fucking cold water on rocks is somehow good for you. He probally also believed that leaches were good for removing the bad humours from the blood. The only refreshing thing about it was how amazing it felt to no longer be in the torture chamber. I did two circuits of the pool. Crazy Inga did five.

Family.
Punk toddler flies through the air.
I just like this picure. I does a good job of showing the constant motion that Corwin is in.
Samurai Andre duels with Corwin.
This could maybe be Iowa. It isn't.
Touring the church.
Corwins discovers the beauty of puddles.
Mushrooms.
Pond of the Dead. Really that's what it's called.

More photos still to come.

German Photo Diary - Part 1

We made it back from Germany safe and sound. Corwin was really great on the plane. He cried and screamed a couple of times, but not for long and very few times. I'm really proud of how he did traveling. This photo diary of the trip are in mostly chronological order.

Corwin Plays with a toy truck from Anke's childhood. I thought this little wooden truck was the coolest.
Corwin bangs the bongo at Tante Sabina's house.Who can resist a day old lamb.Anke and Corwin walk through the court yard at Tante Sabina's. One of them wishes to chase the kitties some more.Anke's father, Lutz, and I try to teach Corwin to ride a tricycle. His little legs are still a bit short though.These little toads were common every where. Anke kindly rescued a couple that were slow crossing the road, that may have been hit by cars. Slugs were also common. We encourage cars to hit them.Ina, Anke's step mom, pushes Corwin in the off-road buggy that was borrowed by Lutz. Thanks to whom ever it was that Lutz borrowed the stoller from.I read a book and drink a beer in the evening. Life isn't so bad.Corwin freeloading once again.I'm to entertain Corwin by blowing soap bubbles.People are small in the big forest.Corwin has studied all of the dance moves from Pulp Fiction.
Butterflies love me.My niece, Anouk, and her mommy Inga.This picture of Corwin with a flower is for you, Mom.

And with that, I'm going to bed now. Jet lag sucks, more pictures later. Thanks to Anke for taking most of these. She is more diligent taking photos than I, therefore I show up in pictures more than she. Some were also taken by Lutz, Inga, and even me.

Germany

Anke, Corwin and I are leaving for Germany in a few hours. We return on Saturday the 26th. The total commute between Omaha and Dresden should be around 18 hours give or take an hour. The transatlantic flight between Detroit and Frankfurt is around 8 hours, give or take depending on winds. I'm excited to be going, but this is Corwin's first trip in an airplane. I hope all goes smoothly.

On the bright side, I thought I was getting sick on Wednesday with the same thing that knocked Anke down for 4 days last week. But I was feeling much better by yesterday afternoon, and today I feel normal. I feared that I would be flying ill.

Transmission In

Last Saturday I finally got my new transmission installed in the Cutlass. Doing a project on a car is not unlike an IT project. You have management (Anke) asking for a timeline of when said project will be done. And you really have no idea so you make up a number, multiply it by 1.5 and say that is how long it will take. And it still takes longer. This should have been a 4 - 6 hour job if everything had fallen into place. We started around 9:30am Saturday and I left for home around 1:30am Sunday.

The guys who worked on my car were really great guys. And they knew what they were doing. They had to do some custom fabrication for a couple of mounting brackets. The bracket for the kick down cable will be redone, because we aren't really happy with it but at one in the morning you're willing to say we can live with this for now. I also didn't get my Hurst rachet shifter installed. This is the last time I order car parts from Ebay. It was missing a couple of small, yet key, parts that I didn't know were missing until we started taking apart the interior of my car to install the new shifter. So I'll be ordering a new shifter from Summit Racing. Paying full price, but knowing exactly what I'll get.

A happy note is that my old transmission will still have a life post Scotty's Cutlass. Chris- who did most of the work on my car- has a 1968 Pontiac LeMans that only has an old two speed turbo-glide transmission. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Buick all have the same engine/transmission bolt pattern so Chris will be able to bolt my old Turbo-350 transmission right up to his Pontiac motor, giving him three gears now instead of two.

A project that I found infinitely cool that the other Chris (whose shop we used) is in the process of putting a small block 383 Chevy engine into an 89 (I think) BMW 3-series.

Lake of the Ozarks

I went to the Lake of the Ozarks a couple of weeks ago for the Mid Life Crisis tour 2006. I was joined at condo del Fleishman by Flash (a special thanks go out to Flash and his folks for letting us sleep in their condo, use their really nice boat and the jet skis), Tony, Kham Sai, Ben, Billy, and Eric. Special guest appearances were also make by Hobie, Keebler, and Bill's friends Dave and Jen.

It was very much fun and relaxing. The weekend consisted of drinking lots of beer and a little vodka. And a couple of gin & tonics. Lots of boating. I was the only one to ride the big tube like thing. See the pic at left. For the record Flash was unable to shake me off of the tube. I would have liked to have done some water skiing, but we didn't make the time and really I didn't see any coves that would be match the skiing that Rathbun has to offer. Lake of the Ozarks is simply too big and busy for good water skiing. We did a little jet skiing, which was more fun than I anticipated it would be. We took Flash's boat to party cove, which consists of lots of boats tied together, people drinking beer and generally having fun. Oh, yeah. And of course topless girls.

Yesterday

I now have all of the parts for the Cutlass tranny swap, but the guys that are going to do the work for me haven't been available lately. So my trip next week to the Lake of the Ozarks will be made in the more comfort but less style. As I bitched about previously the A/C in the Alero (stock photo of car faithfully trekking Andre, Inga, Anke and I across Utah in 2004 included) quit, so yesterday I took it to the shop to get the oil changed and A/C recharged. While there the shop guys were kind enough to give the car the old once over to find any other little thing that they could replace. The rear brakes needed replacing and the front left pad was wearing oddly. And the power steering fluid could use flushing. I didn't really want to do it, but at the end of the day I rather enjoy stopping and steering. So I said do it all. Total bill came to north of $600. More than I wanted or expected to spend, but the old Olds has been good to me.

Last night we had an impressive storm roll through Omaha and Anke got a couple of nice pre and post storm photos. For the record, these are two seperate pictures, not the same one photoshopped.

The Sign Doesn't Lie

This morning we took a field trip to Fontenelle Forest. It is a nice place with several miles of trails. It has a several mile long boardwalk for those who don't want to dirty their shoes, or perhaps would rather skateboard through the woods. They had signs that said no bicycles (sorry Billy) or horseys (sorry Mom), but I found no signs prohibiting skateboarding. Alas, I haven't skateboarded since my teenage years. Plus we didn't spend much time on the boardwalk.

When we arrived it was still cool, but the humidity was killer. As the morning wore on the temperature rose, yet the humidity stayed very high. When Anke was a young lass, she went hiking in the jungles of Indonesia. Before the Muslim radicals started acting crazy, wanting to blow up all westerner's. It wouldn't be so safe for you and I to go there now. Sad really. But I digress. Back when it was safe, Anke was there. She said the Indonesian jungles got nothing on a Nebraskan forest when it comes to humidity. So it was hot and sweaty and sticky. The little free loader even got sweaty just riding around in a backpack.

We followed one trail that crossed some railroad tracks and led down to the Missouri river. I believe that technically Fontenelle Forest Nature Association lands ends before the tracks. But the trail clearly went down to the river. The mighty mo was as brown as ever. By the river we heard a train coming, so we decided to walk up and watch it. Generally trains slow down for metropolitan areas, so you rarely see them zooming along. But this Amtrak train was officially zooming. I tried to wave at the conductor, but I'm not sure if he actually saw me.

DSM

*Tony's son Kelton along with Jasmine - flower girl from wedding- at Ben's reception

I went to Des Moines Friday night and Saturday to hang with friends who were in the area for Ben's wedding. I was going to drive the Cutlass, but it supposed to be (and was) freaking hot over the weekend. So I took the Alero instead. As it turns out, the A/C in the Alero has taken a vacation since the last time Anke drove the car. So I could have driven my pimp car anyway. I may have still been hot, but at least I would have looked cool. And really what is more important that looking cool. So I met up with the friends at Hooter's as is customary for us. Drank many beers. Fun was had by all.

The next day was Ben's wedding. I had intended on buying a shirt before the ceremony, but we didn't have time so I bummed the shirt Bill wore the previous night. It looked better on me anyway. So after dropping me off at Hooter's Saturday to get my car, getting lost on the way, we arrived at the 2pm wedding at 2:03. Just behind Eric - who left after us and gave shoddy directions. The ceremony was interesting as the priest sounded just like the priest from The Princess Bride. (Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday ... And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva...) Well anyway, the priest utters two syllables and this is the first thing that comes into my mind. I look past Deanna (who was takes weddings way more seriously than us) to Eric and Bill. They are trying very hard to keep a strait face. I'm not the only one who has seen The Princess Bride one too many times. Check that, you can't watch The Princess Bride too many times. But the ceremony was mostly nice and rather short for a Catholic wedding.

Which brings me to my rant. I'm not Catholic. We all know that. It surprises some people that I don't get struck by lightning stepping inside a church. But what I hate about Catholic weddings is that they make the ceremony more about God and the Church, than Ben and Shelby. It is Ben and Shelby's big day! And it seems like all this priest cares about is making sure that the kids will be raised Catholic. He mentions this several times, and before letting Ben kiss the bride makes them promise- again- to raise the kids to be good little Catholics. Drives me nuts. Let's celebrate the union of Ben and Shelby who love each other and are dedicating thier lives together. If I wanted to be preached at, I'd show up on Sunday.

But the reception in Ben and Shelby's back yard was very nice. They had tents and an open bar. A meadow beyond with wild flowers. Really rather nice. There was a pleasant breeze and it wasn't too hot under the tents. A gin and tonic sounded rather good at that point. Unfortunately I had to bail early. I wanted to get back to Omaha in time to put Corwin to bed.

The drive back was freaking hot with no A/C. And I didn't even look cool doing it.

Toddlers and Skeletons

I've decided that Corwin is a toddler now, not a baby. Actually I haven't thought of him as a baby for many months now- like 11. I've always thought of babies as these little personality lacking humans. But Corwin has always had personality, so therefor, he couldn't be baby. Plus he is now capable of taking, like, seven steps in a row now without falling. He'll be shooting hoops before we know it.

This isn't the best picture of Corwin, but it shows off his cool new Social Distortion onesie. Thanks Maurice and Bernie! At this point I think it's a safe assumption that he is the only punk in the tiger room at daycare.

And we also have me and Corwin playing out in front of the apartment last night with his birthday firetruck.

Wet as a drowned Rat

Saturday night after Corwin went to bed, I walked down to Memorial Park to catch the free Bright Eyes show that Omaha was putting on. Most years they have past thier prime rock bands like Three Dog Night or the Beach Boys sans Brian Wilson. But two or three years ago they had 311 with Grasshopper Take Over opening. 311 was good, but I thought GTO was better.

This year Mayor Mike Fahey arranged for Bright Eyes to play. Bright Eyes is basically Omaha native Conor Oberst and whoever is playing with him at the moment. They are nationally known and recognized on the Indie scene. The music isn't really accessible the first time you hear it, but is very good if given a chance. Some of thier music is conteporary rock, while other is really folk or country inspired.

Bright Eyes played from around 8:10 to 9:40. It rained heavy and steady from around 8 to 9:15. Cell phone cameras suck, but here is a picture of soaked Scotty just as the band started. I have to get me a pocketsize digital camera at some point. The show was really great despite the fact that I was cold, wet and blinder than usual for most of it. I should have worn contacts and a rain parka. But the crowd that stuck around was good (but rather young, or I'm getting rather old.) Some people created a mud slide on one of the hills. And who doesn't love girls covered in mud?

Conor Oberst and crew are talented. They sounded great live and have a violin in the band. There is a serious dearth of modern bands taking advantage of the violin/fiddle. If I weren't so lazy- and lacking of any musical skill what-so-ever- I'd learn how to play violin.

1

Corwin celebrated his first birthday this week. His first year has been very good. He has grown and learned and changed so much. The first six to eight weeks were very hard. I don't really remember it now, but I recall thinking at the time, "This is really freaking hard!" But you adjust and he gets better. You learn to survive with less sleep. I still don't get enough sleep, but you adjust. I don't go out as much as I would like to anymore. But when he smiles at you, its special. I can't imagine life with out him. But I have an all new respect for what single mothers do. I am so glad that Corwin has two caring loving parents that want to be parents.

Corwin got many cool things for his birthday, and was even able to help unwrap his presents some, unlike Christmas. Anke and I got him what is surely the worlds coolest rocking horse, Marlo the Pinto. The rocking horse is actually for 18 months and up, but as Mom always said, "He'll grow into it." He likes Marlo and pets him on occasion. But Corwin doesn't like to ride for long stretches yet.

On Saturday we had a small party for Corwin in Maurice's back yard. He and Bernie were there along with Grandma and Grandpa. I still find it weird to think of my parents as grandparents. Of course they don't find it weird in the slightest. I do believe they feel they had to way too long to achieve that status. We had cake and some truly fantastic steaks. (Thanks Russ!) He got a couple of cool toy cars and some nice clothes from the family. Uncle Mo and Aunt Bernie got him the coolest Social Distortion onesie. I'll have to post a pic as soon as he wears it. I'm sure the other parents at day care won't let their kids play with Corwin anymore after seeing him in his new punk gear.

We also got Corwin a little baby pool to splash around in. He really loved it. Although Mommy and Daddy didn't love blowing the bloody thing up so much. But it was worth the breath the I had to expend to see the fun he had with it Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Happy Birthday, Corwin. Thank you for the joy and love you've brought to so many lives.

It's here! It's here!

My transmission has finally arrived. The torque convertor didn't come with it, but that should be arriving within the week. I hope. And I just ordered the cooler- like a tiny radiator- for it. Summit should ship that tomorrow.

It looks good, but it's what is on the inside that really counts. I won't know about that until I get it in the car. Happy Day!

Puzzle

Last week at work we put together a 1000 piece puzzle as a *cough* team building exercise *cough*, that happened to be laying around the office. No one will fess up to whose puzzle it actually was. Anyway, compare the box to the actual puzzle. Yeah, thats right! They aren't the same! But they are both by the same artist and have the same trees at the top. It took us about a day to figure out that the box had the wrong puzzle in it. But we perservered on like fools or perhaps, programmers and analysts looking for anything else to do but actual work. Ok, we actually got some work done. It did take us three days to finish.