Rockafire Explosion

I am sitting at work. Reading other people's blogs. Feeling bad that I haven't posted to mine in forever...and I stumble upon this gold mine!!!

If you grew up in the 80s and ever visited Showbiz pizza and watched the Rockafire Explosion...you have to watch this video!!



There are a group of guys making a movie about the fanboys of this ape-led band. Can't wait!!!

http://www.rockafiremovie.com/

i think i've made a huge mistake

That was for all my fellow Arrested Development fans. Wait, a joke's not funny if you have to explain it...oh well!

So, I'm insane and have decided to ride with Team HP in the MS150 this year. It should be a rewarding and exciting experience...but I am totally scared @&#*less! Wish me luck and hope I don't totally come back scraped and bruised!



As part of this whole thing, we have to raise moolah for the National MS Society research fund. It's great cause, so if you have some spare change, feel free to visit my page! :)



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Gaigespages is back!

It all started when I was uploading pics last week. I was rockin and rollin through my photos and trying to get caught up on gaigespages...my last update was in June...ouch!

All of a sudden, I started getting an "upload failed" message. Ok, weird...but I was upstairs, must just be a bad connection. I schlepped the computer, HDD and power adapter down closer to the access point. And nothing...same issue.

I tried again the next day after work...ready to throw my computer across the room! I finally plugged in the ethernet and it didn't change a thing..."upload failed"...(@&$!!! Nita was even over one night and got to see my crazy OCD self try over and over again!

I googled "ethernet speed" and found this cool tool, but it didn't tell me what I wanted to hear. I had no upload connection. Well, at least I knew the problem now. I IM'd and talked on the phone with Comcast and they pretty much just told me to be patient, they were fixing an issue in my neighborhood. Boo :(

I finally tried again last night, and voila...it worked! Yippee!!

So, gaigespages is up to date with 31 new albums from the last few months!

Turkish fest

The Greek fest was postponed due to Hurricane Ike...so Nita used her google skills and found another culture to celebrate! The Turkish Festival was being held in Jones Plaza...so Nikki, Nita and I went to enjoy the fun. I cracked up when we walked in...the belly dancer was totally the same girl that just performed at a friend's birthday party recently...it had to be her! The little boy and girl in the pic below were totally loving taking a little dancing lesson!

We relaxed there for a while, then decided to go over to check out Discovery Green. Nikki and I snacked on ice cream and we just enjoyed the pretty day at the new, busy downtown park! It's nice to see that Houston finally has a nice outdoor area to relax in town!

dog day at the park

My mom and I took Rocky (who just turned 16!!!), Luna and Gidget to the park to enjoy this wonderful time of year in Houston. The temperature has been absolutely perfect the last few weeks! Here are a few fun shots of my hilarious girls!

Astros game and playing tourist around Houston

My coworker and friend Andre, from our HP office in Germany, was in Houston for meetings...so I got to do my favorite thing...play tour guide and show him around town!

We did a little driving through downtown, the med center and uptown to prove that there is more to Houston than the 2 miles around HP. We also shopped at the Galleria and had great luck that there was an Astros game on Sunday afternoon. I got to teach him a little about the game and the good guys even won their last game of the season!

Ike...a few weeks late

Again, it's been a while, gaigespages is giving me lots of trouble...well really Comcast. They're trying to fix the upload problem...so until I can get it updated, thought I'd post a few blog updates.

When I returned from Germany on Tuesday after Hurricane Ike, this is what I came home to. Here's a little peek at the damage around Memorial Club. This tree was uprooted...these guys were lucky this fell away from the house.

Our place was fine, minus a few food items that had to go after the power outage.

The storm did have an upside...I got to have a few house guests while everyone waited to get their power back. Over the weekend Camille and her sweet little Sadie stayed with me. And during the week, I got Nita for a night before she was able to move into her place and get power back. Here's a pic of the Sadie girl! :)

On Sunday, Camille and I went to George R. Brown to help the evacuees. Right as we pulled up, they were transporting everyone over to a new location...so no help needed. We used our handy iPhones to find somewhere else to help and decided on the Houston Food Bank. This is a shot of the Chase building that had the most damage in downtown...you can see all of the boarded up windows on the bottom floors.

At the food bank, the people were all very nice and well organized. We put together boxes with lots of tuna, chili and some weird items like seasoning packets, BBQ pork rub and sprinkles.

Here's Camille and me with our favorite box of goodies!

Auf Wiedersehen Germany

It was back to work on my last day in Germany. I spent most of the day working on blogs and catching up on work email. I did take a little mid day break to walk around Frankfurt. It was nice to get a little fresh air!

I tried to find the next in the series of my "merde" books...no luck. But, I did find a great place to find all the other English speaking people in Germany. This side of the bookstore was all imports.

And this store was a humoungous shoe store. The Germans seem to love foot fashion. There were smaller version of this all over the place.

And finally, here a shot of my room/office at The Turm. This hotel was really nice and the staff was great!

Baden Baden

Ok, felt a little bad yesterday...but today...UGH! I felt like crap! But again, drug myself up and out of the room and the fresh air helped. I bought my ticket to Baden Baden and I was off!

I arrived at the train station and again, no helpful little tourist sign. I was lost and feeling so bad I considered packing it in and heading back to Frankfurt. My flight had been cancelled that day (due to Ike) and I still needed to go to the airport to chat with Air France about how I was going to get back to Houston.

I sucked it up and started wandering around. I finally found a map of the city and a bus map. My sleepy brain finally figured out how to get to the center of town. I used this photo throughout the day to check the bus routes...it was like a little interactive map that I scrolled all around!

I didn't realize this place was so posh. It was FANCY! There were lots of high end shops and of course the bath houses/spas.

This was a sweet little pair of pigeons. He kept grooming her...how sweet.

And this lady typified the people there. This lady was in a full fur coat and it was maybe 75 degrees! Silly lady!

The pic of this little one captured just how I felt!!! :) This is what I would have looked like trying to bike!

Another little funny site. Check out that metal ball at this playground. Umm, wonder how many kids are injured on that thing each year?!

My stay was pretty short and I would love to return and get a better view from the top of the hills! Here's my inner dork coming out. This is me "napping" on my way home. :)

I grabbed sushi to take back to the hotel and check out the cure little package for the soy sauce. :)

Rothenburg ob der Tauber

I woke up to non-stop coverage of Hurricane Ike...talked to my family to make sure everything was going ok and headed out for the day.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Rothenburg...but people seemed to always have a twinkle in their eye when they talked about it...especially at Christmas time. I woke up feeling a little sick with a terrible sore throat, but wasn't going to let that stop me from running around Germany. I had to take 3 trains to make it to the town and it all went off without a hitch. The last train was a tiny little 2 car shuttle that looked like it was straight out of Disney World and this was the scenery out of the window.
Once I arrived, I had no clue where to go and there was no helpful tourist office. I did see a sign with a person walking, so though ok, what the heck...that must be the way. Luckily, it was. :) There was a beautiful medieval gate that served as entry to the walled town.
I started by scaling the stairs and walking the perimeter, check out the view!
Once the walkway ended, I went down the stairs and walked along a road that opened to an incredible valley. There was one point when I went through this archway and said "whoa" out loud to myself. It was absolutely, perfect.
I walked the town and stopped for a coffee to warm up then took a tour through the Kathe Wolfahrt store. This is the penacle of all Christmas stores. It's crazy! There is a museum dedicated to Christmas and room and rooms of ornaments, decorations, etc. And if all of that's not enough there is another store of hers right across the street!
The chilly air and my cold were really getting to me by this time, so I made my way through a few more streets then back up to the wall to find my way back to the main entrance.
I strolled the wall, enjoying the gorgeous view. Check it out...an actual non-self portrait...I have legs!!!
And on the way to the train passed this beautiful cemetary. Wow.
I made it to the train and picked up a book at one of the stations. It was an absolute hoot! It's called "A Year in the Merde"...about an Englishman's first year in Paris. On the way home, I read and took in the beautiful sunset...what a day. :)