Money, money... and... beerpong?

Something what is really popular over here is themed party's. Maybe I never was on such fancy party's in Europe or I simply didn't get invited. But this weekend Nicki and Dustin organized a great 'money' themed party... and I was invited :-) Here you see me with my roommate Justin, asking him for a few billions bailout money for a poor CEO stuck on the Bahamas.

Well needless to say that he wasn't falling for it and didn't even had one buck for me. Which wasn't too bad as I had plenty of my own money with me. Following the general trend of our times I printed it myself... please note the one-million-Dollar bill with me happily cheering... or the one-Dollar-bill with me looking truly presidential. Also there is a 10 Deutsch-Mark bill and an Iraqi bill featuring... yes... I guess you get the idea... me as well ;-)


Well you might ask what beerpong had to do with it or even what it is ;-) I never saw this game in Europe so I assume that is an American things as well... or again, I never got invited to those party's back home ;-)
Main idea is that you try to throw ping-pong balls in the cups of your opponents who have to drink them in return. Good fun I have to admit! And the winner of this tournament got one million dollar... Ekki-Dollar that is ;-)

Beavercreek

This weekend I was invited once again to a ski trip... well that's what you are doing at that time of the year here in Colorado, with some of the world bests ski resorts right next door. This time Justin's parents invited me to their brand new mountain house right of the ski slope! And as you can see... we were not only there for the skiing... also for the food and the beer. At least one discipline where I could impress my hosts ;-)

Here is the view right of the balcony at their Beavercreek's house. Is there anything more marvelous then simply relaxing in a hot tub after a long day of skiing, sipping beer and watching the sun set? If so... I don't want to hear or know about it because this is the real deal! :-)

Thanks again for having me up there and for your patience skiing with me! I really had a great time!

Germans, Germans... everywhere

A good friend of mine is always worried that I am loosing my German while staying over here in the new world. But don't you worry... there is no reason for that... I am still surprised how many Germans (and German speakers) are living in the US... especially in and around Denver.
Funny though that Denver has at least 5 different German speaking groups, also called Stammtisch which is basically like the English tea time just replace English with German chitchat and tea with beer. You decide which is more fun. I might be biased... towards the beer of course ;-)


But not everywhere you have signs like the one I found in Dallas leading the way to the different hideouts of 'zte' Germans. I was really tempted though to park my car in front of that hairdresser shop which had this sign in the showcase ;-)
A save bet are all the different German restaurants and bars (or should I call them Kneipe) around Denver. Even when Hans-Peter and Mike were visiting and we were looking for a breakfast place along the highway we were running coincidentally into a German restaurant I didn't know of.

So as you can see... don't you worry. My funny German accent will stay with me for quite a while now :-P

Ski trip to Keystones

This weekend I was on a field trip with my favorite group: European's The Real Deal... a party loving crowd of people who enjoys a good drink as much as I do... and also skiing. So why not combining both things by renting a place at Keystones up in the mountains, having a few drinks and do also some skiing? That's exactly what we did for that field trip.

This year I was even up for doing a bit of skiing myself after having a bit of a hangover preventing me from doing that at Breckenridge last year. And I even had a ski buddy with me. Thanks Sabine for all your patients! I had a great time... and a good few drinks as well ;-)

Happy 25th

Twenty five years... quite an age for a high tech company like the one I am working for. Time to contemplate about the last six years, about the fun, about the friends I made, the countries I have seen, the ups ans downs, and all the rest... and of course having some cake at the anniversary party we had on Monday.

First of all here you can see me with my current team... the Design Solution Verification team at our Longmont office in Colorado.

Even though this is a quite easy going and cool team (we even took our team picture in front of a Forsters beer truck!) there are many geeks around this place... and where there are geeks there are also geeky presents our company gave away in the past, like this awesome license plate frame... sweet :o)

But at least we are staying in a fancy office building which is often referred as the 'ski resort' by our headquarters. And it is not that far fetched... we have meeting rooms with sofas, fireplaces and balconies here. Really a nice place next door to the Rockies.

Well... Happy 25th! Thanks for the great time we had so far :-)

Superbowl

Empty streets, deserted highways, sold out beer sections in liquor stores and potato chip shortages in the local super market... oh yes... these are the best indicators for the Superbowl, the biggest sport event in the world. Well that's at least what people over here think. Let's settle on the biggest American Football tournament in the world ;-)
I was invited to a Superbowl party at my friend Thomas's house and had a great time watching a very exciting match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals which was literally decided in the last minute.
But it is not all about the match... it's the whole show which keeps you entertained for more then three hours... like the half-time show (Bruce Springsteen) and even the commercials. Those are as much entertaining as the match itself and they have even polls voting for the most popular one after the show. Even O' Reilly was discussing the television add and if they would have a bad influence on the youth... speaking about which... in Arizona they had a new Nipplegate when a local 'adult entertainment channel' was sending their content on the same frequency for a couple of seconds... the FCC is investigating...

But altogether a great show even if you normally don't like American Football!