"Transmission service - urgent"

How annoying. As if things were not complicated enough, the transmission of our car blew up while driving home from the Salmon festival this saturday. Two hours of waiting for the tow truck and then the suspense of wether the warranty will cover the repair or not. Mind you, those trannies are expensive. Very.

As if that were not enough, our container is nowhere in sight. So the moving company did some sloppy business. Three boxes they just labeled "odds". So US customs were not happy with that. So our stuff is in limbo while they sort it out. How utmost annoying !!! Meanwhile, we are basically still camping in our new home. I have not sat in a sofa or anything comfortable for six weeks. I am starting to question wether this was the right move :-(

Almost there.

OK, last stop enroute to Portland is San Jose. So I learned two new airport codes, PDX and SJC. Many more to come, I am sure.

I kind of indulged myself a bit. Boys need toys, so my new toy is the Motorola Q. One of the nice things, if not the nicest, is EVDO connectivity. In Deutschland, we call it UMTS. Elsewhere, 3G. At any rate, it's the answer to my prayers. Well, not quite, but short of. It gives me my Internet dialtone on the road. But the story is complicated. First of all, my provider Verizon does not want you to use the phone as normal techies would, which is to "tether" it to your PC. So new word learned, "tethering" mean to hook up your phone to your laptop as a dial-up modem. So that is disappointing news. But, 35 bucks later, PDAnet to the rescue, I have a dial-up connection wherevever I have a signal on the phone. We'll see how it performs. So far, I get the promised 700-800 kbit.

For voice, I gotta say it is really bad. You get hilarious voice quality. I'd chuck it right away for that, but I can't. The other reason why I'd like to thrust the Q into the orbit is battery life. Blimey, this thing sucks out a battery pack faster than you can say "charger". It comes with a battery that last, well, not quite a day. The extended battery lasts, well, almost 24 hours. What is up with that?! Can you guys at Microsoft and Motorola please figure this out? My Blackberry 7290 ran FOR A WEEK without charging. Get with the program, guys. This is horrible. At least the phone charges on the USB while connected.

So anyway, this phone hooks me up while we get our life sorted. Which brings me to the next point, a nice home we found. This brings to an end three weeks of living in and out of hotels. So here it is.

What else. Well, half an hour to kill while waiting for my flight. I figure this is going to be a regular occurence. I am back in the field. "Field Consulting Engineer" it says on my new business card. Alright, off to collect frequent flyer miles.

So my boss told me today we have a new customer in Germany with offices in the US and Germany. Guess what I need to do. Yep, go to Germany for the install. Why did I migrate to the US? Only to fly back to Germany to work? I don't know, but it will be fun.

P.S.: Notice the wet concrete in the picture? ;-) Oregon is supposedly rainy. I'll see.

Leaving England

The Siekmann bunch is hanging out at the Marriot hotel at the airport for one night only. We thought it is much better to catch a plane from Heathrow at 6:30 in the morning if you hang out at a hotel close to the airport instead of vacating the corporate housing apartment in a rush. Notwithstanding the potential excitement of a taxi may or may not showing up.

Homelessness is only fun with money. And even then, I prefer having my own home anytime over having a hotel room or two. Anyway, the curtain is closing. We will be leaving England for good tomorrow morning. I wish I could say I am exhilarated, but I am mostly worn out. I bet when I smell that San Francisco air I'll be in better shape soon.

Thanks for being nice to me, England. And thanks for not burglarizing my place. Thanks for clotted cream. Ale. Fish and chips. Thanks for Hatch Ride, my colleagues and the nice people we met. Thanks for an outstanding experience that none of us will ever forget.

Good bye, England.

Standing guard for the Queen

Windsor castle in August. 

Das Haus ist leer.

Drei Monate Vorbereitung kulminierten diese Woche an zwei Umzugstagen. Als Resultat der Arbeit ist der Haushalt verpackt und in einem 20ft Seecontainer verstaut. Alles, wirklich alles, was nicht in Kisten ist, ist in Luftpolsterfolie eingewickelt. Und der Container ist absolut voll. Bis zu den Türen.

Dann ist der Container verplombt worden. Den sehen wir frühestens in sechs Wochen wieder.

http://www.sailwx.info/shiptrack/shipposition.phtml?call=DGTX

Da ist unser Zeug drauf. Hoffentlich geht das Schiff nicht unter.

... und er ist weg...

Viele Menschen werden ja recht sentimental, wenn es um ihre Autos geht und ich werde den Verdacht nicht los, ich bin genau so einer. Ich hab den Volvo jetzt sechs Jahre gefahren und er ist mir schon mit seinem Character ans Herz gewachsen. Nichtsdesdotrotz, er musste weg. Er passt schlicht nicht in den Container, braucht US-emissions, neues dies und neues das und das ist es alles nicht wert. Also bin ich aller Voraussicht nach ab September wieder VW-Fahrer.

Wie verkauft man heutzutage ein Auto, dass zuviel Sprit verbraucht? Auf ebay. Anders geht es nicht, vor allem nicht, wenn man fuer den Verkauf weniger als eine Woche Zeit hat. Also habe ich eine Auktion auf ebay gestartet, bin mit dem Auto nach Wuppertal gefahren und was soll ich sagen, am naechsten Tag kam jemand mit einem kleinen Sack voll Geld und nahm das Auto mit. Kein Aerger, kein Theater, hier ist das Geld, hier sind die Schluessel und Papiere, Danke, Wiedersehen. Wenn das ein Zeichen ist, dass jetzt alles einfacher wird, ich nehms gerne als solches.

SIX!!!

For a good half a year we got one question : "When is my birthday, how many days?!". Today was her sixth and she thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Happy birthday, darlin'. 

T-30

Soviel Tage noch, dann sitzen wir im Flugzeug nach SFO. Der Monat wird spannend.

 

Unsere ersten Erdbeeren

Selbst gepflanzt, zum ersten Mal. Keine überragende Ausbeute. Hat mich an Asterix und Obelix erinnert. "Der Kelch" war es glaube ich, Miraculix ließ sich Erdbeeren für den Zaubertrank bringen und dann ... :-D