I touched down at approximately 2:45pm yesterday and was surprised to see Meredith at the airport to pick me up. She extended her Christmas vacation til Monday so that we could see each other. This would make her a contender for being the sweet one (uh oh Jen). However, she expressed an interest in going to WF to see mother. So, I called her at 6AM this morning(she is staying at Danny's) and told her I think mother would love it if we surprized her at church. She very sleepily agreed. I called her again as I pulled out of my drive. It is about a 25 minute trip to Danny's. She, again, very sleepily said ok. When I arrived and rang the doorbell. A pajama clad Meredith answered it. This is costing her points in the sweet one category. She is showering now, which is why I am able to make this entry. I hope we make it for the gospel.
Here are a few highlights from my trip:
1. Moritz completely enjoying the Lasagna that Jen and I made to a point that Martina had to hide the pan after his 4th helping.
2. Sledding with Jen, Step and Vladimir.
3. Lucerne and seeing it with Jen, Step and Dominick.
4. Seeing my name on the door at the Riha's, making Dominick's room mine during my stay in Switzerland.
5. Hiking through the hills behind the Riha's in Speicher for 5 hours the day before I left Switzerland.
6. Seeing Martina and Urs's concert.
7. Aline and Rafael
8. The wonderful home cooked food provided by Helena and Martina.
There is so much more, but it seems as Meredith is almost ready to go. Here is a link to some pictures I posted on my webshots. It will allow some of you to put faces with the names.
Todaz I went sledding. This was a first for me. It involved a long walk up a hugelz inclined road, for a verz short, but fun filled sled trip down. Stepanīs father had the unluckz responsibilitz of me as a sledmate. The daz was beautiful. We could see over Lake Constance into Germanz. The Germans seemed to be preparing for a Christmas celebration as well.
Zesterdaz, Dominick, Stepan, Jennifer and I went to Lucerne. We visited a glacier museum that had a mirror maye which was alot of fun. We took bunches of pictures there. Jennifer has linked to some of the places we have been to. Zou can visit her site and check out the links she has posted.
Presentlz, Rafael is bz mz side. He is assisting me with some of the placements of the characters on his kezboard. It is an adventure in itself since he does not speak English. He did find a site via google and we can tzpe questions and such and translate to german and back to english. It is verz cool. Well, I gotto go
A few instructions about reading this entrz. The computer in which I am tzping it has switched the z and y. So please adjust zour reading accordinglz. It is kinda fun, isnt it.
We went to Santis mountain one daz and visited a cheese factorz.
Right now Jennz and I are making dinner for everzone. We are making lasagna. It dawned on me earlier that a mexian, irish german and a german irish will be making dinner for chechs in swityerland and we are making an italian dish. Gotto go...Jennz is complaining about doing all the work
Meredith has summitted an ad that she wrote and produced for this site. The campaign is called Bushin30seconds. There are 1017 (30 second) ads that are vying for top prize, which is to have their ad aired during the Republican National Convention. When I voted for Meredith she was ad #337. Here is the link to her ad. Gotto go! flying to Switzerland today!
Last night several of the Karl clan met at Elizabeth's house for a pre-Christmas celebration. In attendance were: Kathleen, Courtney, Matthew S. Felicia, Tim, Catherine, Stepan, Jennifer, Mother and I. Oh! and of course Elizabeth, Dale, and Jonathan. Since Jennifer, Stepan and I will be out of the country for Christmas, Elizabeth came up with the idea. Jennifer tells me that originally it was just suppose to be the two of them and it blossomed into a full fledge bona fide gathering. Additionally, since the date fell on Matthew and Courtney's 19th birthday, we celebrated that as well. I am telling you all this because this event included a gift exchange. I want to share with all the items that I received. Jennifer and Stepan got me a breathalizer. It measure the alcohol content in your body. After 2 glasses of wine and 2 bourban balls, my reading was .03. Matthew Scott measured 1.2, but he used it immediately after sipping from Grandma's beer. I can't wait for the next COEI gathering at OTB. I think it will be alot of fun to see how inebriated each of us are. Elizabeth, Dale and Jonathan got me an oil aromatherapy set. It is very unusual in it's design. Kathleen and John got me a hobbit lotion bar. Tim, Catherine and Felicia got me a really large covered candy dish, with candy inside it in the shape of a huge Christmas tree ornament. Then toward the end of the evening, Kathleen, Matthew and Courtney presented me with a birthday gift. Mother had already opened her Lamp Berger and we all admired it. Remember I linked to the Lamp in a previous entry. Inside my gift from K,J,M,C was my very own Lamp Berger. Today, the morning after, we (Mother, Jennifer, Homer and I) are gathered around Jen's dining room table, burning mother's Lamp with her gardenia fragranced oil in it. Jen is gift wrapping more gifts and Mother and I are drinking coffee. Life is good!
We had such a wonderful time last night. Elizabeth is such an accomplish hostess. We are so lucky to be from such a fun family.
I posted a recipe for my famous orange jello salad in the recipe section of the Karlhub. I thought it was already there and I was trying to find it to print for some co-workers who absolutely loved it. The copy of the recipe that I have was posted on one of the previous hub homes and I could not find it.
I got up today at around 6AM. I made coffee, ate breakfast, worked the crossword puzzles and todays jumble, came in here and got on the computer and realized that mother was yet to awaken. So, at about 8:45AM I peeked in at her to be sure she was ok. She was sleeping like a babe. She arose a few moments ago and asked the time. When I told her it was 9AM she was astounded and said she nevers sleeps that late. Anyway, she is up now and we are going to get ready to head for Austin. I have to cut her hair, but I have to find my hair snips first.
One last thing; some co-workers told me about this group from San Antonio. They play these really interesting looking flutes. Here is the link to their website. Listen to some of the music selections and see what you think of them. They are called Wayanay Inka.
This season has me way too busy to write anything here. I am going to attempt the Reader's Digest version of my recent comings and goings.
First of all, before I do something to screw it up, I want to include a link for the Christmas gift that Kathleen, Margaret and I are giving our Mother. It is this Lamp Bergere, except the one we got her is blue. We also got her Gardenia lamp oil. She likes this scent and her sense of smell is still as keen as ever so she should really enjoy the gift.
I am readying myself for the trip to Switzerland. Two things have me a bit apprehensive: 1. Flying across the great expanse in this terroristic climate, 2. Having strangers rifle through my luggage both coming and going. I resent item 2 most of all. There has to be a better way to protect us than this. Anyway, other than these two items I am really looking forward to spending Christmas with Stepan's family. It is very gracious of them to include me in their holiday plans. I do hope that Stepan has told them I am going to be a guest. Uh oh! I think I may have just added apprehension number 3.
At work, we are adding a steel rack in the central office where I park my car. This is the first time I have done any real work at this office. It is within 4 miles of my house. In addidion to adding the rack, we are adding a fuse panel. We also had to extend the light fixtures an additional 10' both front and back of the relay rack alignment. Rudy, a co-worker, wired the lights for the back side of the aisle. When it came time to wire the lights for the front he made me do it. So I did and guess what? They actually lit up when we flipped the switch after all the wiring work was completed.
I am looking forward to my pre Christmas gathering at Elizabeth's house. Mom is due to arrive here on Thursday. We will arise early Friday and hopefully, without snow covered highways, will make our trek to Austin.
Tomorrow, we (my work group) are having a gathering at the Dallas office. I am taking my famous jello salad and iced tea and ice. I am in the midst of making the salad. The timer is ticking away the time til I need to add the final ingredients, which have yet to be grated and chopped. So I must say good night for now.