Sleeping and Working

That's all I do since I got here to Munich: sleep and work. By "sleep" I mean no more than 6 hours of the stuff and by "work" I mean crack it up with my coworker Eugene (Herr Schwanbecker if you want to get right down to it) for 10 hours, starting at 2am when our shift starts. I guess some eating is thrown in there, if you consider mawing down on meat and cheese snacks, plus some fruit, instant soup and chocolate, "eating". Maybe I'll come home a few pounds lighter? Maybe I'll just come home fat on some breakfast cheese.

Our meals at work here are 'catered' once a shift - our catering consists of meat and cheese and fruit and bread. Not bad, but as my cohort here says, "That's what I eat at home." Today when I got to work, there was some leftover hot soup with weiners in it. "The wein". It was a fine alternative to the coldcut scene, but still I ask for more. How ungrateful I must seem to all of those in need in this world.

After working 10 hours, Herr Schwanbecker and I went to get some S-Bahn Thai food (S-bahn is the local metro system). It was a crap shoot that this teensy place by the metro would be open on a Saturday (and that it would be tasty), but it was delish. I think we had some kind of cashew chicken food. The place only serves one dish per day, so you just get what they're serving. They even had these cute little soy sauce plastic fish containers that I think Eugene stole 17 of. They were cute though, worth fencing (sp?) for sure. Today the ride home from work was uneventful, since Eug and I were both fricking tired. Yesterday was hilarious riding home because we busted out in song the whole ride home. Speaking of songs, we sang a lovely duet today when we got to work - Pictures with Sheryl Crow and Kid Rock. Dang, we're good.

...but now I sit in my room, waiting for 3 or 4 o'clock to roll around so that I can go to bed. Only 2 more hours to go! I think I'll pop in a movie (the last one made me cry my eyes out and snivel like a child - "Away From Her" (2006)) and then hit the hay.

Favorite Words of the Day: Magnum P.I., McSteamy, D-bag

Made It!

After an uneventful flight, I made it to Munich. I'm all set up in my hotel room, checking email and getting ready for a small nap. I did not sleep at all on any of my travels - still not sure if that's a good or bad thing. I also forgot it is Fat Tuesday today and tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, so I think everything is closed here. Awesome. I just want to go to the Hit (grocery store) and get some noodle soup and clementines. At least I brought oatmeal. I can survive on that, right?

On the way over I also did not do much homework. I tried to, gave it a Grade C effort, but so far only 2 of 4 problems have any progress. Only 1 of those 2 is complete...or at least turn-in worthy. *SIGH* Instead, I watched Beowolf (disturbing), Dan In Real Life (Steve Carrell - I liked it!) and The Invaders (Nicole Kidman and new James Bond guy - it was fine). Oh, and I had the whole 2 seats to myself - my flight was really quite empty.*

Weather is great here so far, I can see the mountains from my balcony again! ...wish I had found my point-and-shoot camera before I left. Didn't want to lug around the ol' SLR this time around since I know I'll really be working only this trip, so I left without a lens in hand. Man, is that a weird feeling.

Anyhoo, I'm here and life is good.
Tschuss!

ps: I also have a BMW 3-series for my car. Built in GPS and she drives great. Thank you National Car Rental for the vehicle!
*pps: I am thinking of using some of my per diem (if any is left over) to offset the carbon footprint my half-empty 9:10 hr flight across the Atlantic Ocean contributed to. Gotta find a valid way of doing that - I wonder how much it costs?

To Germany...Again

Today is Superbowl Sunday and I am busy doing laundry, packing clothes, eating leftover porkchops with curry couscous and delaying the inevitable, dreaded homework that awaits me.

Tomorrow I head to Munich for work for about 2 weeks. "Ooooh, Munich!" they say. Yes, Munich was great back in December with all of the Christmas Markets and fun times to be had - of that, there is no doubt. This time around, however, I know we are going to launch that darned space shuttle and it will be all work, no play. Especially since I will be working the 2am-11am shift (that's the ~7p-4a CT shift) :(

...yeah, yeah, yeah - poor Jaime gets to travel to Europe, again.
Don't get me wrong, I love to go to different places across this great planet and experience things. It is my favorite thing to dream about. But I do not consider my work trips to be "travel", necessarily. I always consider the word "travel" to mean exploration, adventure, history, culture. A life-enriching experience. Going someplace to sit in a room for 10 hours and then go home to crash out on a hotel bed isn't necessarily life-changing.

I will say that I definitely DO appreciate the opportunities given to me through my job - getting to travel at all, even better internationally, is nothing to snuff at. I enjoy it, and working abroad is an adventure all on its own. I am happy to be going abroad and Munich is a great city to be able to work in the vicinity of. As far as the "excitement" part, we'll see if I can drum some up. Now if I can only find some time in there to "travel"...it would be almost ideal :)

In any case, I plan on making the best of being somewhere special and out-of-the-ordinary. That's what life is for. Making the most out of each day we are allowed to gaze upon the beautiful blue sky, breathe in a crisp February breeze and soak in the sunshine as it kisses the apple of our cheek.

My Dad & My Marathon

As Jaime has alluded to, I owe two subjects to this blog, so here goes...

First, the bad: I recieved a call on January 5th from my sister saying that my dad had a stroke, though it didn't seem too bad. He was talking and alert, and everything seemed to be not so bad. Later that night, my brother called me saying that things got worse, and so Jaime and I flew up to MN first thing in the morning. When we got there, my dad was no longer responsive, and all indications said his brain was gone, though he was still on life support. Fortunately for us, he had a living will specifying he did not want to be kept alive in this way, so we did not have to make any extremely difficult decisions. He now lies at the Camp Ripley military cemetary. And I'm getting too sad to write anymore about this...

http://www.legacy.com/startribune/obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=100883019

So Jaime and I were up there for the week supporting and getting support from family and friends. Although the circumstances sucked, it was nice to reconnect with the family, both immediate and extended.

So we ended up flying back on Friday, which was two days before the Houston Marathon, which I had decided to try for my first marathon. Because of the prior week's circumstances, I missed out on some of the training I should have been doing, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I was pretty impressed with myself for the first 10 miles or so, keeping pace to qualify for the Boston Marathon (which is 3 hours 10 minutes for my age, and is a great accomplishment in the running biz). But soon after that, at about mile 12, my legs started stiffening up. This has never happened to me before on my training runs, so I'm not sure if it was because I started out too fast or because I hadn't done anything physically active for the past week and a half. So anyway, by this time, I was really wishing that I'd signed up for the half marathon instead, but it was too late for that. I pressed through, stopping every mile or so to stretch my legs and walking through the water stations (which I should've probably done the whole race). Along the way, I was very moved by the amount of support people were willing to give complete strangers running the race (like me).

Finally, at about 3 hours 47 minutes I finished. By this time, I was just extremely happy to be done, but I think my time was decent as well, so I'm very happy with it. The rest of the day and the next couple days were pretty painful in my leg muscles. A couple guys I know who also ran ended up taking the next Monday off of work, which I was seriously considering.

Here's a nifty little thing the race organizers set up regarding my individual performance:

http://www.runpix.info/hou08/42/finord.php?LastName=marshik&lan=&aset=1

Scones

We were recently in Minnesota (see blog entry on that later) and one of the good things I came away from that trip with was an amazing scone recipe from Charlie's wonderful Godparent and renowned spitfire, Jeanne.

These scones were the most delicious, mouth-watering baked goods I had eaten in ages - not to mention they were scones! If you've never had a scone, they are almost always ill-fated to be dry, tasteless, flour-packed little wedges of sadness. But THESE, these were magnificent. Moist, taste-filled, delectable little tidbits of happiness. A much-needed happiness indeed.

Charlie's sisters and I debated about who would get to take the scones home to eat and who would get the last morsel. I did not win out, but now I am the owner of the recipe and let me tell you: ...my scones do NOT taste the same as Jeanne's.

Sure, I've never made scones and after having tasted my fair share of chalky ones, I should expect that mine would be less-than perfect on the first go. The batch I made was relatively moist and they certainly were tasty, but I've got some practice to do. There must be some secret to whipping them up.

So, H-Town, get ready for some scones.

ps: Thanks to Jeanne for a great recipe for delumptuous scone snacks!

The Houston Marthon - A Retrospective

We still owe you all words on the Chevron Houston Marathon that Charlie ran on 1/13 (and EP5K for Jaime). Pix to come as well - we're a little behind on the times.

Bottom line: Charlie finished 26.2 miles in an amazing and jaw-dropping 3:47 hours after a week of no training.

I am so proud of him I could spit! Well, maybe not spit, maybe cry instead, but still - P.R.O.U.D spells Jaime!

ps: I finished my 5K without stopping (main goal of the run) in about 28 mins or so. Yippee!

The Foo

It was a Tuesday night, January 22, 2008; chilly, dreary. The terrain was treacherous: downtown Houston during post-work rush hour. Behind the wheel was the infamous Beth Wilke, the other occupants: The Marshiks and John Wilke. After a few near-misses with other vehicles for the first attempt at a parking spot, we found ourselves secure in an "event" lot - thieves. Off in the distance was the Flying Saucer pub, a sight for sore eyes. Thank goodness for Ace Pear Cider on tap. Much beer and a jaegar shot later (gross), we drove again toward the Toyota Center to park for the Foo Fighters concert. $20 for event parking?!? No way jose. How dare they! Parking in the adjacent ramp for $5? Absolutely.


We took a couple silly pix (seen below...soon) before heading in to the general admission, floor area. The arena had a good amount of people in it, but was by no means packed. This meant Beth and Jaime could run free amongst the other onlookers and shout "Dave Grohl! Dave Grohl!" (seen below at the concert, pic from the Foo website) like giddy schoolgirls...

...which reminds me of how John Wilke (and Charles) wanted Beth and Jaime to don a "Flying Saucer waitress" outfit ala super-short plaid miniskirts and skimpy tops. Good luck with that boys. Somehow the mixture of Flying Saucer beer, jaegar shot, Smirnoff Ice and "arena" wine didn't kill Jaime until the very end, so she enjoyed the concert immensely. It was only after the concert when she decided to sprint up the parking ramp to the car that she realized the trouble she was in. Needless to say, she slept the entire way home and was very happy she didn't have to work until late the next day. Beth felt some of the same pain...

It was a great night, even if it was "fun on a schoolnight". Party on.

Actively Composting

Hey all! We received our comost bin in the mail about a week ago and we've been slopping in our table scraps, etc ever since. Mmmm, scraps. It's kind of fun, I have to admit, and so far it's been quite easy. Let's see how well the bin turns our scraps into good soil...stay tuned for that one. I think Charlie bought some worms too for the bin so they churn that goodness up even faster - start munchin' and poopin' wormies!

That is all.

Saving the Earf

In case you weren't aware, Charlie is on a quest to save the planet, little by little. He's dragging me along for the ride - not kicking and screaming, mind you, but I do have a hard time breaking bad habits. It's because of him, however, that I eat healthier (we're into Organic foods these days), exercise (still working hardest on getting that one to stick), recycle everything and even now we've started composting.

Sure, composting isn't a new idea by any means but we are new to it. The compost bin is on it's way to our house as I sit at my desk and write this. Last night the practice of scraping all of our leftover food & scraps into a ziplock bag commenced. A few stinky onions, a pomegranate rind and a mango peel later, let the decomposition begin! I'm kind-of excited to start making some good compost/soil/gardening material on our own. With so much of our food, etc that we waste it only makes sense to use it for something good - so we'll see how this endeavor suits us.

To recap, these are the things we're doing to be more "eco-friendly"; you can do them too!:
1. Replace most of our lightbulbs with the more efficient kind, compact fluorescents! They come in flattering color tones to suit your tastes. Don't worry, your house won't look like a garage!
2. Compost our miscellaneous waste (can include hair-like from the vacuum cleaner with all of your dog sheddings, food scraps) .
3. RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE (cardboard from those frozen meals and pizza boxes, plastic bags and wrapping materials/styrofoam, yogurt cups). Just make sure your recycling company takes the materials you wish to recycle - we can't get glass recycled here in Houston, it's verboten due to lack of demand for glass. C'mon H-town, get with it!!
4. Fuel efficient cars - both of our clown cars get at least 28-30 mpg on the city street, mid 30s on the highway. Not bad.
5. Conserve energy - Turn off the lights, computers, TVs etc at the power strip or unplug them when they're not in use. Our new TV and dish network system takes 5 minutes to boot up if you shut it off and that's annoying, but killing the planet is even more annoying, so we do it.
6. Keep your thermostat low in the winter, high in the summer. Use a programmable thermostat people! Luckily for us we're frugal with our A/C and keep our house at a toasty 80 degrees in the summer and ...well, cold in the winter. A couple of degrees can save oodles of CO2 emissions and also save money on those energy bills! We are fans of blankets for warmth and sweat for a cooling mechanism - embarrassing but true.

Please be kind to the earth and help us do our part to save the poor lady from our badness.
Peace out.

This message brought to you in part by:
The Marshiks
"The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills To Stop Climate Change" (David de Rothschild) http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Global-Warming-Survival-Handbook/dp/159486781X

2008

Happy New Year!!
Last night Charlie and I brought in 2008 with some good friends (John, Nujoud, Beth, John, Toby, Tanner and various others) at the Wilke Winter Wonderland new year celebration. Party hats, poppers, champagne drinks all flowed throughout the evening as we ate snacks and played Rock Band on their new PS3 gaming system. Yep, you heard me correctly: Rock Band. It's this game where a bunch of people can play different instruments in a band together - Guitar, Lead Singer, Drums and Bass Guitar (if you have a 2nd guitar). So we jammed out on what is now my new favorite instrument - the drums - and sang terribly. It was so much fun!

We didn't forget to kick it old school with MTV Jams '99 and a little O.P.P. (Yeah John Wil-ke!), so don't you fret :) Dance Party Wilke house was also in full effect - even if it meant just Beth, John and I were throwing our hands in the sky, romping around their living room. Charlie did join in for a little dance action, which was key. At 3:30 am we finally headed home (since Beth said "F-you all, I'm going to bed"...no, just kidding - but she did go to bed.) - Jaime was DD and Charlie was his usual Chatty Cathy self after he'd been boozin' it up all night. I think Wilke found a new favorite drinking partner in Charlie...and who could blame him?

Anyhoo, 2008 started out great. So don't hate.

We hope you all had a safe and happy New Year celebration - see you soon!