Germany - in a nutshell

I have so many pictures to share that I can’t do it all here – but here are a few highlights from the past few weeks!

From May 2 -11, I was in Germany with Suffolk on an International Marketing class trip. It was an amazing group, terrific experience at the companies we visited and the sights, sounds and tastes of Germany still linger on my mind (and hips!). We started in Frankfurt, where I got to visit with my cousin’s family. We found an adorable statue in the park marked with “ICH” – German for “ME.” The sign beside it said to stand atop the pedestal and just be you! So I did – and then I did so with Cecelia and Ben. It was a gorgeous day in the park.


The group went out to dinner and dancing at a restaurant/club called – no lie – Living XXL. It was so fun! Here is a before shot of us in front of the giant Euro – and then after a few drinks and dances. Too fun!

Sunday was a most surreal day – a tour of the quaint town of Rudesheim with its many Riesling vineyards and a boat tour of the castles along the Rhine river. My favorite shot is of our picnic lunch – yes, this was lunch (white sausage, a pretzel, veggies and of course, wine).

Also, a shot of my favorite castle – it was positioned in the middle of the river so that the owners could collect the tolls on the river more easily! Coming down the hill to the left was just too much work...better to sit in the middle of the river to catch people as they come by. Clever landlords...

In town, we heard the bells ringing at the music museum, which are very amateur-ly captured on this film (click the arrow to play).

On Monday, we visited Lufthansa Cargo at the Frankfurt Airport where we got to tour the cargo planes and figure out how the planes are loaded and staffing is arranged. A challenging exercise, but we held our own! I like this funny shot of me in the belly of an empty MD-11.

Tuesday we went to Adidas to work on a marketing challenge for the Beijing Olympics. More of an exercise than an actual consulting problem, but it was terrific nonetheless. We toured their brand center and I was able to successfully answer the question, “Which shoe has not changed in 27 years.” It was easy given my background! I’ve seen them for years!

After Adidas we had an authentic Bavarian dinner at the Barfuser (Barefoot) tavern in old town Nuremberg. A few beers were had, and with this size mugs, you can imagine the craziness that ensued afterward. This shot is of me and my roommate for the trip, Kerin.

Wednesday was a tour of Old Nuremberg and the Nazi Documentation Center. We were exhausted after a late night of big beers, but managed to wander around the city successfully. Our guide, however, thought we were worse than a bunch of senior citizens. (an actual quote!) Many amazing sites were a part of the sightseeing, but I call attention to the giant white asparagus, which was so delicious! It was a bit sweeter than the green stuff but still has the same effect in the bathroom if you know what I mean! LOL

Thursday was our trip to Volkswagen – a long and hard day with challenging corporate culture to cut through. No good pics there, but we did find (ironically) a lot of rabbits in town. The animal, people, not the car. ;)

Friday we arrived in Berlin – that city is so huge there’s no way I could have seen it all in 2.5 days. I saw parts of the wall, the Jewish Museum, the Holocaust Memorial (which happened to be celebrating an anniversary so we saw a cool concert within the memorial at night), Checkpoint Charlie and some of the more modern structures being built around the city. The capstone was the farewell dinner atop the Reichstag (German Parliament). The line out the door was for regular people trying to get in to tour the inside. We got a VIP pass through the side entrance. Good to have connections!

A photos of the glass dome atop the Reichstag and the gorgeous sunset over the old castle in West Berlin.

On the homefront, things are moving along too! The furniture from Indiana is arranged in the “kids room” and ready for neice sleepovers.

The wall of mirrors has come down (halleluiah!) to reveal a very disturbing looking wall. It looks like a nasty checkerboard from all that doublestick tape and black liquid nail. We're figuring out exactly what the next step on this wall will be. The ugly wallpaper will be coming down soon too...soon enough it will be a room worth spending time in (and not just laughing at!)

Mikey has been working hard at Subaru and at home is busy trying to grow grass and making the yard look fantastic. The rain has finally cooperated and little shoots of grass are starting to show on the side lawn. He’s been a super help in the muscle category helping move furniture and keep Soxie from getting too board. Unfortunately, I haven't got any new shots of Sox at play so you'll have to go a post without a shot (shocker!). Happy Spring everyone - and fantastic adventures to all!

too funny - sox and a log

I just had to post this hysterical picture of our dog. He has always loved sticks of all shapes but now he's branched out (pun intended) to whole LOGS! We found this one in the yard and unfortunately it was past fireplace season so we left it beside a tree. He just picked it up, started running with it and then was looking at me like, "What? It's just a big stick!" He is goofy, but in an adorable puppy way.

pictorial update!

OK, the camera is done charging and I can finally can share all that we've been up to!

A few weeks ago, Mike took some time off so we went on a Family Walk in Ashland State Park. It was an amazing day and Sox did so good walking off-leash. We weren't sure at first so we tried to coax him into the water by throwing a stick...he surprised us and jumped in after it! Our baby took his first swim...

We just kept walking and walking and ended up going around the entire reservoir! Poor puppy was exhausted after walking for 3 whole hours. He even fell in a huge puddle at the end (it was covered by leaves and Momma fell in too!)

Here's a shot of Momma and baby at the end of the day.

The bathroom transformation has finished as well and I finally my ocean themed bathroom! The blue we chose was Blue Lapis from benjimin moore and the ceiling is White - it's a great contrast and works well with all the accessories there. We also decided on the pedestal sink. It fits reall well and makes for a smooth shape in a boxy space. I think it came out great and I actually like hitting the loo downstairs! :)

After the bathroom was finished, we had a great visit from my parents from Indiana. They brought out all of my childhood things, furniture, etc. I feel like we've moved all over again! A great part of the visit was seeing Sunny! She is 12 years old and still the sweet girl she's always been. Sox was much more playful, which was a little annoying for her, but we did get a great shot of the two of them together...

Another great surprise was for Dad to bring out a lawnmower! It's such a treat and we've used it twice already! The neighbors next door just today said how nice our lawn looked...I think it's more because their dogs dig and so their grass is dead. We've got fertilizer and seed to get down and in a few weeks the flowers will be planted. That will be another bunch of perty pictures.

As I write this, Mikey is layering the last layer of paint in the office so hopefully I will be able to put that room back together tomorrow. On Friday, I leave for a week-long class in Germany - we are visiting a few cities and companies: Frankfurt (Lufthansa), Nuremburg (Adidas), and Berlin (Volkswagen). It will be a busy week, but there is time for sightseeing. Hopefully Daddy and Puppy will be good while momma is gone!

After Germany, class is on hiatis until July so hopefully the adventures will be more numerous (and thus the blog a bit more interesting). Thanks to all who visit!!

how time flies

I can't beleive it's already been over a month since my last post - so much has happened since then! We have finished our downstairs bathroom redo project, Mom & Dad visited from Indiana, Amy visited NYC with her college buds and we have cleared out tons of brush from our yard! Sox is still growing, he's over 70 lbs now, and absolutely loving springtime. He's taken up playing soccer (great fun to watch) and is thrilled so find so many sticks around!

The camera is charging so it will be a few hours before pictures are posted... I do have this action shot of Sox playing soccer - it's a new favorite of mine. Particularly adorable are those flying floppy ears. He's finally running, wagging and smiling like he used to at puppy school!


More when the camera's done charging - I promise!

Puppy Graduation!

Well, it's official - our baby has graduated...

from puppy kindergarten!

Here is his class picture: Riley the puggle, Lucy the vizsla, Sox, and Hercules the english mastif and their families

He was the first one to make it through the obstacle course of all the things he learned these past two months - including sit, down, watch me, stay, leave it, and even puppy push ups! (sit-down-sit-down) For that he got a treat of soft serve ice cream and a big cookie. After all that excitement it was hard to get him to sit for his graduation picture - this is the best he could muster:

We're so proud of him - he's growing up so quick (pushing 60 lbs now!) but still playful and curious. He's looking for new friends now that Saturday morning will be free, and with the weather warming up, he just may find them if Momma can find the local dog park or some good walking trails in town!

Press the arrow (play) at the bottom right of this next still to check out his excitement when the announcement was made:

Home Improvement Continued

So a whole month has gone by with no posting. I did wonder if I would have enough to say...and it seems that while things have been busy, the time to write about and reflect on it is never sufficient. Here's the dish:

Project #2: The downstairs 1/2 bath
This "room" was a must fix when we moved in. The vanity and toilet were so terribly small I thought it was made for a little person! I felt like I might fall in every time I used the pot - LOL! And I am not exaggerating when I say that there was wallpaper on the ceiling. Here is proof:

At this point, the wallpaper is off (including the ceiling) and the walls have been scrubbed. It seems that the toilet was too close to the wall so when it "sweats" the moisture just seeps into the wall. That meant mold! Luckily it was just surface and easily removed with some bleach and a scrub brush.


We have prepared the walls for skim coating and priming and are picking out the perfect shade of blue for my ocean themed bathroom. The ceiling will be white...like a ceiling should be! Final results may take the rest of the month since we are replacing the mini toilet and searching desperately for a vanity that is no more than 20 inches front to back (since that's all the room we have). We've considered a pedestal sink, but the pipes come straight out of the concrete floor and are 8" apart from each other, making a pedestal a very tight fit. Add to that the challenge of having a baseboard radiator along the wall where the toilet and vanity is and we've got quite a challenge. I was inspired by a DIY channel show recently where the guy made his own cabinets in the kitchen, but the trick would be to find a sink that would fit. With all these choices, I'm just happy that we have a fully working and comfy bathroom upstairs to use!

Project 3: The office
The walls of the office were in rough shape. They were not level, full of holes and a dirty yellow color. Not the kind of space that inspires innovative thinking - and with 3 classes this semester...I need some inspiration! Mikey has been great at skim coating to get the walls to look even - and I am in the process of debating the perfect color for the space. I'm thinking a blue-grey or natural looking green/tan color. Since the space is in such disarray, I am forgoing before/during pics and opting for just the finished product..again in another good month or so. :)

Sox Update
Well, on one hand, our RED SOX are playing again and that's a happy thing. I invested in a new t-shirt for my new favorite player, second baseman Dustin Pedroia...affectionately known by me as Lil' D. He's about 5'8 on the stats, but I think is more like 5'6. Either way, he's a great prospect and I'm happy to see him out on the field again.

At Home, our Sox is growing big. He's now over 50 lbs and in the past few weeks has lost a lot of his puppy hair. The family room carpet was awash with black fur...the vacuum got a lot of use!

Sox also grew into his big dog collar! He has grown ferocious puppy teeth and is now able to fit a tennis ball full in his mouth (before it was a bit too big!).

He has mastered sit, down and SHAKE (his first trick) and is now working on roll-over and Come when called. He's pretty good at come in the house but out in the neighborhood it's a free-for-all. Overall, he is such a fun and loving pup and we are loving watching him play.

A week's worth of sadness

We are still realing a bit from last weekend's Super Bowl loss. The weather here has been rainy, snowy and snizzly (a new weather term for snow and drizzle I guess) ever since the Pats lost. On the bright side, the Red Sox truck was packed yesterday and is en route to City of Palms Park for Spring Training. Pitchers anc catchers report Thursday so we have something to look forward to.

In other news, we've settled into quite a routine here in the new hood. Sox gets his morning and evening walk and is particularly loving any time he can spend outside with the neighbor's goofy dog, Albus. He loves the snow and is happy the ground is covered again with the white stuff to pounce and play in. We're planning our second "project" which is to fix the office and the downstairs 1/2 bath. The office will require some severe spackle and skim coating before a fresh coat of paint (color still TBD). The bath will be an adventure when we determine just what is hiding beneath the wallpaper on the ceiling (yes, you read that right). I've got all the accessories to have an ocean themed bath, just need to get rid of that fruity/nutty wallpaper!

School is keeping my very busy as classes require a lot of outside attention. I'm getting a bit of a case of senioritis knowing that I'm in my last 10 months, but must keep up the motivation. Gets tough sometimes, but I'm pulling through. Mike has been having some challenges at work with the slowing economy, but in the past 10 days has pulled out more sales that all last month. Maybe this recession isn't as bad as it sounds on tv.

We should be FINALLY getting our wedding album in the mail this week. Just in time for Valentine's (aww). I'm excited to see the images again in all their formality. Just need to find a prominent location to show it off! :)

Make sure to give the one's you love an extra squeeze on Thursday - although Hallmark is in the business of making us feel guilty, it's a good time to outwardly remind people you care about them. In that vein, here's a big hug to our friends/family who check in with us on blogspot!

catching up

It's been a while since our last post which must tell you how busy we've been! To catch you up on what we've been doing, here are our latest adventures.

Earlier this month, on literally the coldest night of the year/season, we decided that we needed to add some insulation to our attic. We had about 6 inches TOTAL which was certainly not enough to keep us warm at night, nor was it keeping our heating costs at a reasonable level. So we took our first DIY challenge and got the blow-in insulation from LOWES (Mikey's new favorite store) with the blowing machine and as I loaded, he blew it in. If any of you are fans of the show Dirty Jobs on Discovery Channel, this was definitely one of them!

Amy's Job: This is the blower I stuffed and the insulation going into it. It was positioned outside our front door with the hose going in through an upstairs window. I'm not exaggerating that it was 5 degrees (above zero) when we did this. BRR!

Mikey's Job - prepare the attic - this involved pulling up old beams and getting the plywood out to make room for the new insulation.

The view from our upstairs hallway as all this was being done. Beautiful, huh? There was a lot of sweeping, shop-vac-ing and swiffering when this was all done!

Ahh, the warm blanket that is our finished product!

We have noticed a marked reduction in our heating costs, but it's still a shock to our systems! For years our heat was included in our rent - such is not the case anymore! We're already planning more energy saving upgrades for the near future - windows, more insulation in our crawl space, etc.

In other news, our baby is growing up and has started puppy kindergarten! He takes classes on Saturday morning with mama at PetSmart. He's one of the top in his class, already knowing "sit" and "watch me" and he loves playing with the 5 other puppies in class with him. He's especially smitten with the English Mastif, Hercules, and the puggle in the class. We've seen smiles when he plays with other pups, but hes all business at home, though he loves his toys - squeeky, tug and any kind of bouncy ball. Here's an updated puppy pic taken a few days ago...he's a full 45 pounds and growing every day! His belly is all white so he looks like a big oreo cookie when he rolls over on his belly (which he does all the time - he loves belly rubs!!!)

Sox's mama also went back to school recently too (hence the limited blogging) but it's not quite puppy kindergarten. With classes on Monday and Thursday, I'm creeping closer and closer to the MBA. Classes include Revenue strategies for Non-profits and International Business - the latter is a great prep for my class/trip to Germany in May. Both will be challenging but well worth it in the end.

We're excited about the Super Bowl this weekend with our beloved Patriots and are hosting our first house party! We got new furniture to finish off our family room and I sit breaking in our new loveseat now. so comfy....... :) We're expecting most of Mike's fam and a number of friends, a solid 16 people to cheer us to victory!

Well that's all for now - we hope to bring another championship trophy to town this weekend! We wish all of you a festive football fiesta!

Happy New Year!

Well after a grueling 10 days without cable TV or Internet, we are now wired back in this century! Verizon spent a total of 8 hours here on New Years Eve getting us connected so now we can share the events of the past week.

The Move

December 21 was not what one would call a fun day. We had 16 inches of snow in the city and the day before, we got 6 fresh inches. Let's see...22 inches of snow + a 26 foot U-haul + Brighton parking = well, here's a photo to give you an idea:

This shot was taken from our little balcony - which means that with the U-haul parked where it was, we had to traverse down our U-shaped stairs from the second floor, to the "lobby," then down the outside stairs, THEN down the sidewalk and up into the truck. Mike's sister and her husband, Jud, were troopers helping us to unload the apt. I have learned that Jud is abnormally strong and a wonderful person to help move. Though after this fiasco, Gentle Giant movers seem a better option. We did find some laughs with the term PIVOT! (Friends episode anyone??) but after 6 hours and a relatively full truck, we headed to Holliston.

Unloading

Why is it that unloading is always so much easier? Perhaps because we had had almost an hours rest (again, the roads were not fun; this is normally not that long a drive), perhaps it was because we had new folks at the other end (namely Mike's parents and older brother Bill), perhaps things didn't need to go up 30 sets of stairs. In any case, we were unloaded in a few short hours. The house was already filled with family, which was such a nice sight to see, even through the boxes and mess. Here are a few of my favorite pics from that point in the day:

the u-haul in our driveway

Bill getting a running start for the next load (also a good shot of our double-door entry)

I'll say, that although we spent a whole day packing/loading and unpacking, we STILL had at least a dozen extra trips to/from the apartment for those random items that don't easily find their way into a box...like the random stuff under the kitchen sink (who knew??) On December 29 we took our last load out and said goodbye to the city!

Christmas Eve
Skip back a few days to Christmas Eve - after unpacking and trying to organize the majority of our 4 room apartment into an 8 room house, we hit the road with Sox to Connecticut to spend the evening with Mike's sister Julie and the family. Sox learned very quickly with the many trips in the car (apartment to house and vice versa...) to quickly pass out in the car. Here's a great shot of him in the backseat. The blue rope was leftover from fastening the snowblower so it wouldn't tip over. :)

He looked so adorable all cuddled up in that rope! He had a very exciting Christmas with presents from cousins Mocha and Zeus and visiting a new home. We enjoyed a delicious fried turkey (way to go, Julie!) and fantastic Cosmos-a-la-Hilary. After gifts, we headed back home - it's so different to say that now! We had set up our tree in our formal living room which basically is the only thing in the room besides boxes. The green walls were a nice background for the tree.

Christmas Morning

What a memorable moment to wake up in your new home and open presents and stockings under the tree. We had to take advantage of a pile of boxes and attempt a family portrait:

Not a totally bad shot - but not next year's Christmas card! :)

Because this was my first Christmas away from my immediate family in Indiana, I decided to host the Donahue's for Christmas dinner. What? You think I'm crazy for hosting a holiday dinner just 5 days post U-haul? Nahh...call it motivation! We found dishes, stemware, tablecloths etc from the wedding and shower (sidenote, so exciting to open gifts for a second time!) and set the table up right. Holiday favorites such as Swedish meatballs, St. Lucia buns and rice pudding were on the menu, along with traditional Christmas ham...it was terrific! Our table was decorated with a lovely arrangement of flowers c/o our friends Steph & Rich from South Africa - a most festive and unexpected arrival.

Note these photos also show the plethora of just gorgeous wallpaper that is found throughout the house. We are full of decorating and home improvement projects!

New Year's

We spent a quiet night at home (ahhhh) for New Year's Eve after a delicious dinner of homemade filet mignon, mashed taters and broccoli. The next day we hit Lowe's (our new favorite outing...gosh we're suburban!) for our first major project - insulating the attic! After getting the material, Mike went to shovel the driveway - Sox loved the fresh flakes and had a blast tormenting Dad with his run and explore. Not so good with the "Come" command just yet, which makes for a lot of exploring on our part as well!

More pics of the house after we clean up a bit more. We're down to about a dozen boxes but still haven't found either of the irons yet (where ARE they??) At this point, unpacking is more of a scavenger hunt, but that's the fun of moving I guess. Hope all our readers are enjoying a happy and healthy 2008! May it last all year long....

Sox's Homecoming

When we adopted our puppy Sox, there was a local NH news crew there doing a story - it is now available on video at http://www.wmur.com/news/14877425/detail.html
How fantastic that the start of our family was captured on tape!

Check out our puppy's homecoming and the wonderful work of the people from the Homeward Bound project!

Home for the Holidays

Well it was a busy weekend but I can say we made it to our new HOME for the holidays! Thanks to Mike's family, we were able to mostly move out of our apartment in Brighton and into the house last Friday. This feat was not without drama! With 6" of fresh snow on top of 18" already, parking in the hood was challenging with a 26' U-Haul! As you can imagine, moving all our stuff down the narrow U-shaped staircase, out onto the snow covered sidewalks, and up into the truck posed challenges too, but after 6 hours of hard labor, it got done. Sox did very well during the move and continues to make us smile with his hound-like behavior (sniffing a lot and howling occasionally) and his adorable lab-like face. He has made new friends in the neighborhood, both human and canine, and loves to explore his new yard.

Internet is still not installed yet at the house, so I'm blogging secretly from my office. Shhh...don't tell! Will have lots of pics of the new place, as well as photos from the holiday shortly. Merry Christmas!

a VERY busy day!

Today was a marathon day - in short, we bought our first house and then rescued a puppy to bring home to it! The new home is in Holliston, MA, which is about 24 miles west of Boston. It is a beautiful and charming town, with some houses dating back to pre-revolutionary times. Luckily, ours is not that old; although it does have its projects! To see a few pictures, you can view this slideshow from our attorneys: http://www.seemynewhome.net/slideshow/110029907/Congratulations.html








And our new addition is an adorable lab mix puppy named SOX. He was so named for his black fur and white "socks" on all four paws, but here in Boston, his name takes on a new meaning since our Red Sox won this year! Our puppy is 3 months old and is very inquisitive and loves his new bed and his christmas tree squeeky toy that Dad bought him today. His coming home story is a very special one. He was born in Mississippi and was rescued by the Mississippi State University Vet school. One of their students began rescuing dogs after the hurricanes and bringing them home to her native New Hampshire for adoption. Sox was going to be put down if a home wasn't found for him quickly, but after one picture of him, we couldn't say no. He's sniffing around in our apartment and waiting for the excitement later in the week when we rent a U-haul to move into the new house. :)





We were especially surprised to see a news crew in NH when we arrived to pick Sox up! We were interviewed by channel 9 (not sure what that is) and we were on camera to show us taking home our new baby boy. We'll have to see if it makes their website, and if so, we'll link our story for you all to see. Will also put up more house pics once we have the hardwood floors refinished. It's also quite a site to see the almost foot of snow brightening up the neighborhood.

It certainly will be a white Christmas here in New England! Love to you all - Amy & Mike

Last weekend in Brighton

Hello all! With all that we've got going on, we thought we'd set up a site where we could tell you all about what we're up to. This weekend is our last weekend in the city; we are packing and organizing in preparation for closing on our new home on MONDAY! We are thrilled to be moving to the burbs and will have photos for sure in a few days.

Please check back as I will try to post notes about all the exciting things we have going on. In the meantime, we're enjoying our last city snowstorm (6-10 inches) and watching the weather for next week's move. More later!

Amy & Mike