Moving to Germany I did not think missing a part of the colllege football season was going to be that tough, but after yesterday I must say that I was wrong. I think I had in the back of my mind that I would be able to find the games somewhere, if not at my own house via satellite. However, as another person from America put it…I am S.O.L. College football does not exist in this world…but at least the NFL does…a little. Supposedly the Marriott shows NFL games, but not college football…which is good, but not great. There have been plenty of times where I had to do something on any given saturday and couldn’t watch games, but never on the opening weekend. Plus, I knew that the games were close by if I could ever sneak away from what I was doing. Here I feel as if the games are thousands of miles away (which they are), but that I have no hope of next weekend or the following or the entire year of getting a good steady diet of college football. Hopefully I can find a place to watch some of the main games…but who knows.
With FSU being on another rebound season it’s as if you think every game might be close, so I wake up and cross my fingers while I read the scores (by the way, I would have done pretty well in betting this weekend if I so desired). Reading Final scores is like reading only the last page of a book. There is no excitement involved, just a conclusion. As true fans around the world can attest, you like to feel as if your screaming, hollering, yelling, etc. during the game, even the ones you watch on TV, are somehow helping. Reading just the final score doesn’t give anywhere near the emotional high I look forward to each and every year. FSU won yesterday 37-0, and as great as that is, there was no real excitement b/c I didn’t get to watch them. This is going to be a long season.

–The disgruntled Deutschland football fan

So I finished the “Tale of Two Cities” the other day, and I must say that I was not that impressed. I had actually started this book in Junior High, and decided back then, after about 1 chapter, that it wasn’t for me…to bad I didn’t stick with that opinion. Well, to start off, I was told that the Tale of Two Cities was not actually about two different cities, but about the same city…just the poor side and the rich side. So I ended up reading the first 3/4 of this book thinking that the Defarge’s Wine shop (Paris) was actually in the same town as the house of the Manettes (London). Yes, I know I should have paid attention to details…but I missed it…probably b/c I wasn’t enjoying the first chapter again.
Anyways, the book was pretty boring until the last 50 pages or so…then it gets exciting, only to end instantaneously with no sort of conclusion. For goodness sakes, I just spent the past 350 pages struggling with the old style English, expecting a final conclusion, and all I get is “Tis a far, far better thing that I do…”?? So needless to say “tis a far greater disappointment” that I read this book, rather than a history book on the French Bastille.
And for those that are interested in, I am reading “The Genesis Question” by Hugh Ross, and am thoroughly enjoying it so far. It deals with using scientific facts to validate the Bible’s story of creation, rather than blind faith.

I figure most of you have been asking that same question to yourself the past couple of weeks since I haven’t posted anything on the site. Well I am back, so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Ok, now that you are ready to read the story of my adventures the past couple of weeks, I am simply going to point you over to Barbie’s site since she did an excellent job of describing the past two weeks events…which included visiting Lago di Como (Lake Como for you non Italian speakers) and Venice in Italy, finishing “A Tale of Two Cities” (more on that later), and an adventurous tour around Munich on the infamous Mike’s Bike Tour. So here are the links….enjoy.

# Lago di Como
# Venice
# Munich and the Bike Tour
First read the above post, then read the rest of this otherwise you will be lost. Regarding the poor girl who dislocated her fibula (lower bone of the leg), I must say that she handled it pretty well. If you can imagine how much pain would be caused by taking the lower half of your leg and completely removing it from your knee and tibula…we are talking some serious pain. Since I was the one who pulled her out of the water she yells at me to help her, and I feel so bad that I can do nothing for her but to tell her to calm down until we find a doctor. I have no idea how I got her out with one arm, but I somehow pulled this entire girl out of the river [which has a huge current] in about a second…must be adrenaline, b/c I sure as heck haven’t been working out lately. Anyways, don’t ask me where this lady came from, but there just happened to be a Doctor in the House (actually Englisch Garten) and she promptly determined the leg was dislocated and not broken…which is good, but still painful. Luckily we were able to get the girl calm until her boyfriend and the ambulances came…but since I am not good with seeing dis-figurements, I must say I got a little woozy afterwards…geez I’m a wimp, but there are just some people who can be doctors and others who can’t, and smart people know which category they fit in.

So, I will post more on the “Tale of Two Cities” in my next post, just got to keep my readers wanting more…the secret of success.

I’m sure most of you remember me slightly bragging about Kymba being the teacher’s pet in obedience school, but you cannot throw that train of thought out the window. She has become the worst behaved dog there and has even been asked to have an additional class for a private lesson. The only good news about this is that although she is no longer behaved at class, she is now much more behaved at home. It’s as if she decided to switch roles since she used to be good at class and the devil at home, now she is good at home and the devil at class. The main problem at class is that she doesn’t care about getting treats, hence she has no reason to do any of her tricks…she just wants to play. I personally put the blame on Barbie since there are a bazillion doggy toys and treats at home, so she has no reason to want them anywhere else, but don’t tell her I said that.

Despite all of this she is still a pretty good dog, and we like her. She has come a long ways, and when she wants to do a trick she does it perfectly. Kind of reminds of Timber…smart but independent, although Timber was never really playful with other dogs.

Anyways, the in-laws are in town this week, so depending on how they behave is how they will get written about on the site. The big test comes on Thursday when we all head to Italy…wahoo!

So this post is specifically for my parents and Barbie’s parents, and whomever else may have so graciously put us as a benefactor. First you need to read the article:
“Meet the Surprisingly Rich“.

Now, if any of you fit into this category I would suggest you not give over all your money to a charity, but to myself and Barbie. I am sure that we could do great things with it (new house, cars, vacations). So, if you are not going to spend the money, at least pass it on to those who will like myself.

Well I finally was able to convince myself to workout after dinner…which is good b/c it meant I didn’t have to get up at 5 am to workout. Anyways, I did 8.25 miles with an average of about 8:30 minutes per mile…which seems a lot slower than I felt. So…what made the run good is that I was able to do the last half mile at aboutt a 7:15 min/mile pace…which meant I still had some energy left over. Now it’s time to work on speed…since my next race is only requires a 6.2 mile run. Ideally I want to average 8min/mile during the race…that is the goal. Wish me luck.

So I went and worked out with weights Friday morning with Lars (friend who owns Schirkan), and now I am paying the pied piper. We ended up doing chest, bi’s and tri’s, and it felt really good at the time since it had been a year or so since I last did some good weight training. I actually tried to do a few push ups yesterday and I could only manage the pain through 5 of them, then I had to stop. It feels good and bad all at the same time, but I am having a really hard time getting the car into reverse since moving the stick shift to that particular position causes me some serious pain. But as they say…no pain no gain!

Anyways, the weekend was filled with watching two dogs go absolutely nuts playing with each other, then crashing hard asleep. Schirkan’s owners went to Italy for the weekend, so we took care of him, and Kymba just loved every minute of it. They would play for hours on end, then sleep like the dead. Barbie has posted a bunch of pictures of Schirkan and Kymba, so check ‘em out.