Chrsitmas Food Marathon is over :-)

Christmas was also a food marathon again. "Default" food on the 24th (north german potato salad and a sausages). On the 25th a dinner made by Dagmar...all by herself besides the desert, made by her sister.
I finally ended the 26th with a BBQ..some self cooked, marinated, BBQed Spareribs.
Enjoy the pics

Main course 

Creme Bruelee

9 hour cooked, 2 days marinated Ribs

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year 2012

2011 is almost over. It was a very emotional year. My dad got a heart attack December 25th 2010 and after being in a coma for two weeks he passed away January 8th 2011. Life can be rough to you...But having a unbelievable great family and friends makes it all easier.
We all want to wish you all the best for 2012 and enjoy Christmas. Life is full of challenges and surprises, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but there is always a path you can walk on and continue.
LOVE - PEACE

It's fall - fog

Fall has arrived, after a wonderful late summer with lots of sun we now have fog and colder temperatures... Time for doing stuff at home :-)

So I did my first Photobook about New York, the city I visited more than 20 times.

Chaotic Snowfall in October, what a flight

Wow, what a mess. Tons of snow in the northeast. Newark had a big amount of snow. So much, that they cancelled all domestic flights, but luckily the international flights were able to leave after long delays, de-icing ...

What a trip. Never had that much snow in October.. I am back :-)

First snow in October

What a surprise...As the weather forecast said, it started to snow today October 29th 2011...Pretty heavy. On the way to the Newark Airport roads were already covered with snow and signs were not possible to read. Now I am waiting at Newark Airport for the flight to Stuttgart. So far all domestic flights have been cancelled, so hopefully international will still be ok. Cross fingers.

Walkway over the Hudson

In the lunchbreak Jose and I took the chance to go to the Walkway over the Hudson http://walkway.org/ . It is a just in 2009 renovated and paved old trainbridge in Poughkeepsie over the Hudson River. In the past it was also opened for public, but it was kind of dangerous. Now it is much safer with a real pavement and rails...

Since the weather was supposed to be rainy for the rest of the week we drove down with his rental Mustang and walked over the bridge. We have not walked all the way across the bridge, but right into the middle of the bridge. With the blue sky and the Indian Summer colours on the trees it was a beautiful view... Enjoy the Pictures

New Jersey - October 22nd/23rd 2011

click on the pic to view the Album

Having friends all over the world is great. Having friends close to where I am right now in New York is fantastic. So I took advantage to visit my New Jersey friends.

Jerome and Charlotte live in North Bergen/West New York. Not far away from a breathtaking view to Manhattan. So they showed me the area a bit and made it possible to have the scenic view on Manhattan.
We had a lot of fun..

So I took the chance to visit my good old friend Axel in Princeton. Wow, I was lucky again with the weather...sun sun sun...See the pictures

Sushi Edited

Team Dinner at the Sushi Village in Poughkeepsie. All you can eat :-)

Hmmmmmm, was delicious. $20 but you need to finish all food. Any single piece that is left will be charged extra. Well, needless to say, we finished it all :-)

Click on the pic to see all pictures

Meeting and eating with friends

Click for moe pictures

I took the advantage to meet again some good old friends during my stay in Poughkeepsie. Was a funny lunch with Thuy, JoEllen, Prach and Gary :-)
In the evening we planned a Team Dinner BBQ at the Hotel.
A Filet Mignon that we bought the day before was cut into pieces and grilled to perfection :-) on the BBQ.
What a great evening. Additional food and drinks from all around the world made this Dinner very interesting (Japan, Portugal, Brazil, Korea, Germany, USA).

NYCity edited

Klick on the small pic to see all pictures !

Once more I had the chance to go to New York City during my current stay upstate NY. We took the car to Manhattan and parked it near Times Square. Then we walked all around from Times Square to Chinatown, Ground Zero and Brooklyn Bridge. Lots of walking, but it was a wonderful, sunny, mild day in Manhattan.
I took more than 500 pictures... but only a few are edited and you can check them out. NY City is always nice.
Enjoy BTW, according to my Geotagging poiints and Googlemaps we walked about 6.5 miles through Manhattan :-)

Lindys Diner

Since 1994 I am driving along this old, closed Diner near Port Ewen,NY on Route 9W. It's called LINDY's Diner and since then I take pictures every time I have the chance come upstate NY.
It is interesting to see the Diner rotting on and on. More and more graffitis on the walls and nothing happens. Nobody seems to take care of that area.
So far I only found out, that in Esopus / Port Ewen since more than 10 years multiple requests have been made to build something new on that property.
A colleague who moved to Port Ewen in 1987 !!! said, the Diner was already closed then and it already looked closed for a while.
I could find no Data of that Diner, when it was opened the last time or find any pictures when it was opened.I wrote an Email to the Esopus Community to ask for some more information. Not sure if I will get some. Anyway, take a look at the Pictures from 2000-2011. I need to scan my old photgraphs for more pics.
Enjoy

Edited Pictures

Edited Pictures

I used the Picasa integrated PICNIK Software to edit some of my current pictures. Pretty powerful. Enjoy

Great, sunny, hot Indian Summer Weekend

2011-10-09 (by Eye-Fi)

It was a fantastic, hot (83F) indian Summer Weekend in Upstate NY and Conneticut.
Two Carshows in one day. Perfect :-)

From 2011-10-09 (by Eye-Fi)

This is José and me in front of a Roush Mustang with IRON MAIDEN Design. Cooooool

Indian Summer is here

Car Show at Squantz Pond in Conneticut and OCC Mustang Car Show

See all Pictures from the Squantz Pond Car Show in Conneticut and from the OCC Ford Mustang Meeting in Newburgh at the OCC Headquarter. https://picasaweb.google.com/bigmek71/20111009ByEyeFi?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCI7BgNmWtq6K0gE&feat=directlink

Dinnertime

Take at the Hyde Park Brewery :-)

Upstate New York

It was time again for a new Project in Poughkeepsie,NY. So I was happy to get a direct flight from Stuttgart to Newark (new connection since a few months with Continental Airlines). No more trouble with connecting flights and so on. Get in, fly for some hours, see movies, land get out and voila welcome Big Apple. Took the rental car (Nissan Altima 2.5S) and drove to Poughkeepsie,NY Spent soooooo many times there. Kind of second home. But things changed a bit in Upstate NY. One of my favorite electronic Stores CIRCUIT CITY is no more there. No more Circuit City Stores. They got rid of all stores and only do Online Shop. Hmmm, ok I can still live with that, there is BEST BUY. But Best Buy also changed a bit. The CD Section (I spent quite a lot of time there usually) shrunk from tons many aisles with CDs to 2 Aisles !!!! Either the online Stores are soooo poweful now, that real CDs are not wanted anymore or I have just bad luck. But at the Residence Inn Hotel they also cut down a bit the specials. Usually there was a Evening Social Dinner Monday thru Thursday. Like Hot Dogs, Tortillas, Burgers, Soup etc. Softdrinks etc. Now they only have it Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday. Times are changing. Jet Lag is kicking in. So good night and let's see what else happens in the next weeks :-)

2011-09-30 (by Eye-Fi)

Hurts Concert Stuttgart

Dagmar and I went to the first Concert of tphe HURTS Tour Fall 2011 at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, was a great concert. Opening acts were The Heartbreaks and Firefox AK.
See more pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/bigmek71/20110930ByEyeFi?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCL-Mu8raqe21WA&feat=directlink

Cougar Meeting and Mercedes Benz Museum Stuttgart

One of the probably last Cougar Meetings this year took place in Stuttgart. 10 Cougars and their proud Owners met at the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. That Museum is a amazing Museum, both from Architectual point of view and from what you can see and touch. The Meeting finally found then end at one of the best Mexican Restaurants in Germany: El Mero Mexicano in Stuttgart-Fellbach.
See the pictures:
Picasa Album

30 Seconds to Mars and Placebo Concert in Stuttgart

Wow, what a blast.

Mercedes Benz celebrates 125 years of Automobile History and made a huge Event in Stuttgart. At the City Center (Schlossplatz) a Concert was made with the great Bands 30 Seconds to Mars and Placebo.
More than 30000 People and we were inbetween them.
See Pictures here:
Picasa Album

Bye Bye Lottie

Lottie - Quentchen von Barnim - 1.06.2000 - 12.7.2011

On July 12th our little, lovely Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lottie ( Quentchen von Barnim )died.
Since April her health was getting worse. She had the typical Cavalier disease, a heart failure. But so far she lived pretty good with it. Since april she had water in the loungs and we had to use lots of medicine. All looked not very good for her, but with he quiet and lovely presence she had, she enjoyed living with us. Since a few days she had more and more problems walking and she was breathing with more and more difficulties.
Yesterday it was so bad, that she somethimes could not walk anymore. So we went to a Veterinary Hospital and the doctor also said, that Lottie has not a good living quality anymore. Of course you could start emergency treatment but that will only delay the death for a few days, weeks.
Since we knew from the former doctor visits, that she was very sick we decided to release her from the pain.
She was born as Quentchen von Barnim on June 1st 2000 and she had some wonderful last 3 1/4 years in our family.
The kids, especially Josefine miss her like we do.
She passed away July 12th 2011...according to the Doctor one of the oldest Cavalier King Charles Spaniels they ever had in the clinic.
THe past months were pretty intense and very time consuming, but Lottie was always lovely and a perfect dog for families with kids.
Right now we won't get another dog, but maybe in a few years a new Cavalier Kings Charles Spaniel will join our family :-)

Bye Bye Lottie ( Quentchen von Barnim )

PS: here a link to the original breeder page with a nice pic from her:
http://www.der-cavalier.de/htm/huendinnen.htm

5. International SchwobaCup Young- and Oldtimer Rallye

On July 3rd the 5th Internatinal Young- and Oldtimer Rallye took place in Ehningen with more than 50 cars from 1930s to 1990s. Beautiful weather and a intersting, scenic route to the swabian mountains. Enjoy the pictures. With the Trabant my son Fabian and I made 6th out of 14 in our class 1981-1991 and in the Team category we made 1st with a Porsche 911 and a Opel Commodore GS/E - yeeeha

5.internationaler SchwobaCup 2011

See a Burnout:

Jul 4, 2011

Delain Pictures - edited

Delain - edited

Delain Concert - Roehre Stuttgart - Aftershowparty

What a cool thursday that was. My friend Jole called me surprisingly and told me he is going to the Delain Concert in Stuttgart. Delain is a Band playing music like Within Temptation. Since I had nothing better to do I joined him :-)
See: Delain Homepage . Opening act was a Austrian Band called Serenity.

My friend also organized a Aftershow Party with the Rocking Chefs in Stuttgart for the Band, especially for Charlotte the amazing singer of the band. Friday 13th is her Birthday, so after the show, right when it turned midnight she got the secret Information that there is a party.

Jole's friend Dave also attended, he is making music as well. Rammstein style. His Band is called:Schwarzer Engel .Pretty cool stuff.

So, the concert itself was great and the little Party with drinks, food and smalltalk with the Crew and the Band Members Charlotte, Otto, Sander, Timo and Martijn (brother and former founder from Within Temptation) was a lot of fun. Was a short night for us, but was worth it :-)

Opening the Birthday presents :-)

See more pictures here on my Picasa Page