The pilgrims landed in Scotland

... well ... at least this year they did. Being a busy boy these days, I couldn't find the time (or money) to make it to Minnesota to join the rest of the fam on the farm so I headed off to Aberdeen, Scotland to visit my favorite cousin Trisha and husband John ... who ... contrary to popular belief I think is a great guy, fun to hang out with and NO I did NOT sabotage his computer because he took my favorite pen.


John and Trish picked me up at the airport, after a short quest for the perfect bottle of Scotch we made it home and started playing poker. Not surprising anyone, Trisha won (ooh yeah ... John ... you still owe me the 10 bucks for letting her win) and then we talked the night away. Unfortunately John had to go off-shore and thus missing our belated Thanksgiving feast. Along with helicopters getting struck my lightning and such the dinner party for 8 dwindled down to just Trisha and I. She and I cooked and ate all day Friday followed by a weekend of talking ... trying to catch up on each others lives. We toured the town, checked out the sites, threw a few pints back in a renovated church turned pub (sacrilege or libations … you be the judge). All in all it was such a great weekend. Thank you Trish and John for all
your hospitality !

There and back again AGAIN ... the story of Ingrid

Somethings are meant to be, then again some are not. Ingrid, along with all 160 kg of her stuff made it to Copenhagen only to not have her expectations be met, only to have another opportunity fall on her lap. I swear, that girls twists in fate has more lives than a cat. (Funny seeing she really is a duck; friendly but bites while I'm a frog jumping from lily pad to lily pad. Check out the test to see what animal you are). She came back to Berlin for a few weeks, before starting her new job in Copenhagen, and hung out with the Sonnenallee Gang for some better-than-soap-opera expereinces. Not let least including: buying groceries only to have roommates eat them, roommates buying groceries only to eat her groceries, hairy showers, open washing machines and roommates so bored/lonely that any noise she would make would be cause enough for a knock on the door to start up a conversation. Other highlights of her stay include: Berlin Festival of Lights, Pirate Baby Pooh and his first Halloween, Dinner with a view in the TV Tower of the ICC, Autumn adventure in MuegelSee, as well as your everyday Berliner misadventures.

No matter how fond (if not fun/funny) the experiences were, all good things must come to an end.


Thus Ingrid has returned to Denmark, and has begun making her new life in Copenhagen. My love and best wishes go with her.

The parents and me visit NYC

Ramping up for potential life change (ie move toChicago) I attended the Ad-Tech convention to seewhats new, hot and sexy in the industry. Overall itwas a great experience, but the highlight wasDEFINATELY meeting the parents !!! Living overseashas its perks and although technology continueallymakes it a smaller world with cell phones, email, chatprograms and webcams NOTHING beats seeing your parentsface to face. Especially if you're able to coax themout of their clam shell lifestyle and meet them in the Big Apple ! Highlights include going to the Top ofthe Rock during their opening week, Mom ordering asandwiche bigger than her stomach ... her whole uppertorso for that matter, and Pappy grabbing the WallStreet Bull by the balls.

Your dreams ... just an email away

I came across this website during my daily rummaging around on the internet. Its an email time capsule sponcered by Forbes and Yahoo! We all know about the old version of a time capsule where we fill a box full of stuff and put it somewhere in hopes of finding it years later to walk down memory lane.

One of my influential high school teachers had us write a letter to ourselves and promised to mail it to us a couple years later. In the letter we were suppose to write some of our short and long term goals. Upon receiving it years later I reflected how many of the short term goals I have already accomplished and how close I was to obtaining my long term ones (more the fact of the matter was, how much my long term goals have changed and how different a person I am now).

My original thoughts for this blog was to encourage all 2 of my faithful readers to send an encapsulated email to that special someone so they get a sweet message a few years from now. But half way through this blog I realized SCREW THAT !!! Send that special someone a really deep and heart filled email TODAY. All to often people go through life not realizing the impact they have on others.

Since writing yourself a love letter may be a bit vain, I think it would be a fun idea to write down the dreams and goals of today and email them to your future self. Write down that what is special in your life: like your favorite song, shirt or restaurant … anything sentimental … mail it to yourself a few years from now for a good laugh of ‘life back in the day’. For example, what really lights up my life in the here and now: Berlin, Ingrid BabyPooh and Marcelo, 50 cent movie rentals, Doom the Board Game and Hallo Pizzas newest creation

In short …
save this time capsuled emailer for yourself
write those who are important to you NOW and let them know how richly they have touch your life