Tom and Michelle in Cologne

Summer Trip to Asia (......by Michelle)

2008-10-05T03:37:00.000-07:00

As we head out to the Far East, Tom is wishing he could fly us there himself. Maybe next time!

First stop- Taipei, Taiwan; a beautiful and extremely organized city, as you can see by this intersection. Traffic stops in all 4 directions and then the pedestrians have at it, heading out on the diag. It’s usually much more crowded since this is, after all, China. I think they were at the Olympics.

Thumbs Up!

It’s a jungle out there. This was blocking my way along the sidewalk, as I made my way to the Mall. I was undaunted.

Taipei 101

Still the tallest building in the world, until Dubai finishes their venture. What is cool about this building is that it is full of Chinese symbolism. Each cube in the tower represents a gold ingot, there are 8 of these ingots, and 8 floors within each ingot. 8 = success. A rise in success means rising to a higher floor in the building; there are 4 coins on each side of the building at floor 40; and on and on. This building not only symbolizes the success of a city transitioning into the 21^st century, it symbolizes their culture.

Onto Hong Kong….our first view of Hong Kong- this is not from the airplane; it’s from our hotel room! Best room ever. We would have had great memories if we had never left this room! Plus, we are pretty hooked on the “LOST” TV series and we were working our way through Season 1 at that time. Some tourists we are…

Okay, we finally left our room….just so we could have some sushi and wow, was it every cheap, like a sixth of the normal cost. So Tom was feeling adventurous and even tried the green tea. The hot water came out of spigots plumbed into every table alongside bottomless canisters of powdered green tea. So now, we are energized and ready to explore.

Thankfully, the Chinese work hard to keep the American tourists alive.

And welcome us....

Bruce Lee was even giving lessons near Kowloon Bay. For free.

Hong Kong is a city of lights and laser shows.

and awesomely huge Rubik’s cubes......

The market bazaars were bizarre and an intriguing cultural phenomenon:

The Bird Garden is in actuality an outdoor bird warehouse selling vast quantities of beautiful song birds. The quality of the song from a man's bird distinguishes the man himself.

And the goldfish Markets. Too bad we weren’t able to get photos of some of the fish that looked human, complete with eyes, nose and mouth. The shop keeper practically pounced on us. Those little guys just have to have been the inspiration for Finding Nemo.

and I guess this is where you go when the heat gets unbearable and you need a midday rest?

Let the RENO Begin!

2008-08-02T17:44:00.000-07:00

Our builder in Chicago sent us these pictures and told us he is successfully destroying a good condo. But we're excited about how it is going to turn out. We will end up with 3 bedrooms plus a library which can also be used as a 4th bedroom. Here's some pictures...

Summer vacation in Europe

2008-08-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well we managed to take two weeks off and travel in Europe. We really had a good time, saw a lot of churches, visited 3 cities, and experienced first hand the effect of the dollar being really weak. Here are some pictures:

First stop: PragueMichelle...getting ready to back-pack thru Europe

A shot from the Charles Bridge.
The Prague castle at night.

Next stop....Vienna

I think Michelle found it easy to fit in with her surroundings........
Michelle said this picture reminder her of me..

Inside the churches was really amazing

Next stop...ROME!

Inside the colliseum...
This is one of the most famous statues in Rome. It was carved in the early AD perious, burried, and found in the 1500s during Michaelangelo's time.

This is a picture from the oldest Christian Church...from approximately 100AD. The image is actually mosaic tile.

The famous Trevi Fountain

Even simple things like bridges are amazing in Rome.

And the food was really good....
Michelle got really good at speaking Italiano!

Here's Looking at You......VAMPIRE!!!!

2008-07-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

My new job has taken me to a lot of new places. I recently visited a new plant that Moeller has in a very interesting place.....Transylvania! We employ 2,800 people in this plant. In addition to this plant, we have one in CASABLANCA. So I feel like I am in the middle of two classic movies.

So I visited the Transylvania plant during the day. I didn't see any outward signs of vampires, but I must admit I was very happy to be leaving there before dark. Seriously, at the end of the plant tour, they took us to a corner of the building with some curtains. They pulled back the curtains and about 50 people who had the best voices I've ever heard started signing acapelic stye to some classic songs including the theme song from the European Union. It was really touching that these people, who make very little money, would care enough to do that.

Our Apartment in Cologne

2008-07-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

We got into our Cologne apartment in early May. It's a small place but we like it a lot. The building is very old and it was bought and renovated by the owner of the hotel across the street. He did a nice job keeping it 'vintage' and at the same time updating it with some cool stuff like lighting, appliances, etc. He went kind of crazy with the furniture though. It's only a one bedroom place, but we have a deal with the hotel across the street for anyone who visits us. And it is a really cool hotel....a converted monastary.

I like everything about the place except that I'm too big for any of the chairs in the living room (Tom is obviously writing this). But I plan on fixing that with a trip this weekend to our neighborhood IKEA store.

Here's a few pictures of the place. First the view from the small porch outside our bedroom:

We like to sit outside once in a while and enjoy a glass of wine from anywhere except Germany.

And look who is starting to like beer!!!!

He used a lot of cool lighting....

This disco ball in our living room has been a source of much enterntainment for us.....I crank up the ITUNES music from the 80's and we feel like we are back in Flint, Michigan watching Saturday Night Fever.

But we do like our hallway lighting a lot. It's really cool at night.

So that's a brief look at our place....hope to see you there some time.