On the road again.

It's just about Christmas time and that usually means that I am
blogging from an airport, on my way to Germany.
I am sitting here at Detroit airport, all checked in and waiting for
my flight. I just noticed, that I really didn't do much traveling this year.
Usually, I would fly at least a 3-4 times a year, but this year, the trip to
Mexico was basically it.
I finished my Japanese lunch, Miso soup and Agadashi Tofu, and there
is nothing else to do than wait........ And write a blog entry of course.
The weather looks travelable, light snow and grey skies. Since it is
a direct flight to Frankfurt, I won't have to worry about catching
a connection. CNN is blasting in the background, mostly stuff that
is not newsworthy. I am still thinking that I have forgotten something
or what to do at work. It will probably take a couple of days and some
German beer to forget all that and go into vacation mode.

Back on track.....

I read that the CERN particle collider is back on-line and ready to
create tiny black holes. I found this cool animation to show what is
going to happen, when the earth is consumed by a black hole.
We'll see what will happen. Maybe we all get transformed into a whole
new universe.

Off again - on again - off again

I just read that GM has decided
to keep Opel. Not a real big
surprise. I thought they were close
to call off the deal with Magna
months ago, but they didn't want
to embarrass the German
government close to the election.
The terms of the sale didn't make much sense
for GM in the first place. They'd give up the brand
that actually has a compact car line and they also
would have transferred technology and market share
to a Russian manufacturer.
But, the way this story is going, GM can change their mind again.
It seems the GM board is picking flowers over this:
"Keep Opel - Sell Opel - Keep Opel - Sell Opel - Keep Opel"
I am interested in the story mostly, because I come from an
'Opel' family and I also work with GM here in the States.

Movie Update:
I saw "Law Abiding Citizen". Typical 'Father-is-on-a-revenge-killing-spree-
because-his family-got-killed". Nothing special, really, and the plot and motive
had a bunch of logical errors, so I'll give it 2.5/5 stars.

Class of '09 - Wear Sunscreen

... Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’09
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience…

Anybody remember this little song? I wish I had last Saturday.
We were playing a volleyball tourney starting in the morning and the
weather was great. Sunshine, a bit chilly, but ideal for playing.
We played a bunch of games and the day went by fast. When I left
I could feel the sunburn and when I looked in the mirror at home I
stared at a tomato head. Ouch.
So, PLEASE take the advise: WEAR SUNSCREEN!!


Movie Update:
I saw "The Informant!" last week. I'd give the movie a solid 3.5 stars,
mainly because I liked the story, acting, and dry humor.

It's football time.

That's right. Football is getting close. Finally, a sport I like to watch on
TV. Soccer in Germany started as well, but my team, Bayern Munich,
has an awful start so far, so I am hoping the GB Packers are going to
do better. I also joined a fantasy league at work, so that should be fun
as well. Couple of thoughts on football related issues:
Packers: My favorite team is looking good so far
and I hope they are going to be better than
last year, especially on defense.
Lions: I am surprised the people of Detroit
actually still routing for the team.
It doesn't seem that they have improved greatly.
Bret Favre: I think the Vikings made a
mistake to bring him back, but hopefully the
Packers will profit from that.
So, yeah, let those INTs rolls.
Michael Vick: Let the guy play already. He paid his dues.

So, welcome back NFL. Can't wait for the first kickoff.

Back home

Since I wanted to take the ferry back to Michigan, I decided to take
another boat. The Lake Express is a fast ship going from Milwaukee
to Muskegon in just two hours. Certainly faster than the Badger.
I had booked the last sail of the evening, giving me enough time to
hang out in Milwaukee for a bit. Karl and Kip joined me and we spent
some time at the old stomping grounds. We walked at the
lakefront, wandered through downtown and settled for a nice lunch
at the Rock Bottom. After walking back to the cars I said good bye to
Kip and Karl, who were heading back to Peoria. I still had plenty of
time, before I had to be at the ferry, so I went back to the park, had
a nice coffee at the Art Museum until it was time to make way to the
harbor.
As soon as I hit the parking lot of the ferry terminal, m y cell phone
rang with a prerecorded message from the Lake Express ferry.
They cancelled the trip, due to high waves and winds on Lake
Michigan. Just GREAT! I went inside to ask for my options and it was
either trying to rebook the next day or cancel the ticket and get a refund.
I wasn't really in a mood to wait around, so I decided to drive instead.

After I went back into the car, I programmed the Garmin to take me
home. SUPER... 355miles. Well, what can I do? I really don't like long
drives, especially, when it is late in the day and fatigue is setting in
already. Overall it went pretty smooth. I past Chicago feeling pretty
tired, but as soon as I turned East, I got my second wind.
As soon as I hit Michigan, the speed limit changed to 70 and I made
faster progress. I arrived back in Novi in the early morning.

Overall it was a great Mini-vacation.

Trip to Oshkosh. Part 2

After hitting Wisconsin I made my way down to Iron Ridge and checked
into the Motel. Finally, I could take a rest. Zzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzzz Zzzzzzzz.
Later that night I met with the gang from P-town and we had dinner
before calling it a night.

The next morning we made our way to the air show. I had no idea what
to expect until we were close to the airport and 3 P-51 Mustangs were
taking of right over our heads. Wow, what a start.

This airshow is massive. LOTS of airplane of all shapes, sizes and ages.
Form the small home build experimental to the Airbus 380. I spent
the morning basically just walking around and looking at the vast array
of airplanes. I am not a airplane
buff per se, but I do enjoy the
ingenuity and technology
displayed at these planes.
And the sky was just buzzing with
airplanes. Private planes coming
in for the show, various planes
offering rides, choppers hovering over
the airfield. Amazing.
I also had a chance to say Hi to Charlie Bates who was at the show.
It's always good to see old friends.

After lunch, I made my way to the airfield to watch the airshow. It started
with a flight demo of the White Knight 2. Very odd shape. After that,
as one of the highlights, a demo of
the A380. This HUGE plane took
off, flew a couple of passes, and
then went off back to Europe.
I also saw acrobatics and
stunt flying which was pretty
interesting as well.
To round up the
demonstrations, the WW2 warbirds were giving a display of their
flying capabilities.

I finished the day looking at some more planes and as daylight faded, we
all met at a diner, just of the highway for a late diner and then drove
back to the hotel.

It was a long day, but certainly, cool to take it all in.