The Thanksgiving Turkey

And one more thing sent from Indianapolis in the last Patrick shipment was the Thanksgiving Turkey, which arrived safely and was carried to the chalet. I always remember it as being around for Thanksgiving, but didn't realize it was from 1972 and the last Thanksgiving with my grandfather. Thanks Mom.

And yes, it's still in one piece.

Joe makes stuffing

In an ever increasing attempt to domesticate Joe, we taught him how to make stuffing for Thanksgiving. Granted we didn't let him near the knife to cut the bread, but he did do a good job in sauteeing the vegetables and mixing the final ingredients.

We also gained a better understanding of why he eats so much Skyline Chili for dinner.

Hilary - Find this Tree

Here's a picture of a cool tree that we found in Reims when visiting Pommery. Not sure if it's a good enough picture, but can anyone identify it ?

Happy Thanksgiving !!!

Alas, we could not fly home for Thanksgiving, so we decided to drive down to Switzerland with friends from work (Andrea, Tim, Joe, Jim, Theresa, Gaby, and Irma). In this picture you can kind of see our chalet in the upper left corner. The connection to the Chalet is that when Andrea and Tim worked in Geneva last year, Tim's boss had a chalet that he let friends stay over the weekends - it reminded me a lot of the cabin in Owen County, quite frankly. The place was pretty huge - the only problem was that it had some low ceilings and beams - so my head is banged up a bit.

Probably the biggest memory of the weekend was lugging all our crap up the hill. We were told that if it had snowed, then it would be diffuclt to drive the car up the "hill". Of course it snowed, and we had a 20 minute hike up - probably didn't help that our tires had about as much tread as a figure skate. Needless to say, we made three trips in one night - including one especially memorable one with a 75 pound piece of luggage (they really don't roll in a foot snow that well). I told Tim (Andrea's husband) that we probably broke every rule of hiking that I learned in Boy Scouts.

The food was great. Although we had two turkeys, we cooked the first one and had meat left over (we cooked the other one later in the day). We also had a corn souffle; brie/spinach/artichoke dressing; regular dressing; a fruit cranberry compote; a 'unknown' french squash soup, mashed potatoes, gravy - the usual American meal, but difficult than usual to get the ingredients.

For dessert Tim and Andrea made a pumpkin pie (one of the better ones I've had), and Gaby and Irma made a flan. We also got a recipe from Joe's mother for a banana creme pie (which Joe probably had 80% of it).

Not sure if I remember all the alcohol we had - had a nice magnum of Cremant from Alsace, several whites and reds, and a bottle of Jack Daniels.

It was a totally different Thanksgiving than I've had in the past, and I think it probably helped that we worked on Thursday, and didn't have our dinner until Saturday.

The other thing we realized is that we're really excited about our ski weekend before Xmas (which is going to be about an hour south of where we were, but in France. We went with the catered option so we don't have to worry about food - and after planning, transporting, cooking, and cleaning up for basically one meal - we're glad we put up the little extra.

Learning from Mistakes

After experiencing transportation hell in bringing all that stuff up the hill, we did manage to find a sled, and jerry rig something together to get stuff back down the hill. Granted the comforter did not really make it down in the same condition that it started, and it wasn't like it was a smooth ride all the way down, but we did manage to save a couple trips in the end.

The other fun part was that we were able to actually use the sled (granted it was for a 8 year old) on the way back up - I'll have to get those pictures.

The Thanksgiving Fox

Seems one of the regular visitors to the Chalet is this fox, who stopped by about an hour after we arrived to see what was cooking. Seems the fox has been around for sometime, since we later found some pictures of him/her a younger fox. I suppose it's not a bad idea to hang around some humans and look cute.

Hanging out in Switzerland

Don't know why, but I love this picture. Here's Andrea (Whittaker) and Patrick.

And this was before much alcohol was consumed.

Also not sure if you can see, but Patrick's head barely gets through the doorway.

Thanksgiving on the Move

OK, note to self - when Tim Whittaker says that there's a 50% chance that we might have to hike up the mountain to the chalet because of the snow - assume the worst and pack accordingly.

And you should also probably assume that if he describes it as a hike (instead a stroll or a walk or a promenade), that it will be a bit arduous, you should assume the worst and pack accordingly.

And one more thing . . . if you pack a piece of luggage that has wheels with all your crap because you think it will be easier to transport - you need to remember that it's not like your going through an airport on the way to the chalet, and the wheels may not be very effective in 12 inches (25cm) of snow. Again, assume the worst and pack accordingly.

So if you haven't gotten the trend of this post, we had three HUGE bags of food - nicely organized into refrigerated, frozen (as in turkeys), and dry goods. The last one was about 75 pounds in a suitcase that really didn't roll too well in the snow. The distance from the car to the chalet took about 30 minutes (Jim says it was an hour) and was a bit of an incline. See attached photo to get some sort of idea . . . the chalet is the highest one on the hill just over my right shoulder - I'm not surprised if you can't find it.

Thanksgiving Preparation

OK, we got the two turkeys and they're sitting in Gaby's freezer.

Patrick brought back a ton of stuff from Indy with Mom's indispensible help - including a can of pumpkin (beats buying the whole pumpkin and processing), cranberries (fresh and dried), corn muffin mix (going to use that for the Happy Thursday next week), gravy stuff, spices, etc. - basically everything you need to make Thanksgiving - just add Turkey.

Patrick also ran off to the grocery Thursday night, so I could do all the prep in Strasbourg before heading down to the chalet. So I basically made the soup, pre-measured the dressing stuff, made the cranberry sauce, etc. I've decided that Thanksgiving is really pretty much a pain in the cul - but it's even worse when you have to be mobile. We'll see how easy it is to get the stuff to the chalet.

Knowledge Transfer

I'm currently in a PowerPoint presentation nightmare. In trying to bring the local team up to speed on SAP in a relatively short time before testing begins, I did a whole bunch of presentations in PowerPoint, which is currently giving me bad dreams. Now the only thing I see when I go to bed is flying animations of SAP screens - not really a pretty sight.

Searching for a Turkey

Surprisingly as it may seem in the gourmet food capital of the World, finding a turkey for Thanksgiving (probably the only holiday that the French do not celebrate) is a bit of a challenge. Apparently, turkeys are eaten in this country, but they are usually eaten only during the Xmas time, so basically the turkeys are relatively small right now.

Laurence and I were able to finally order two turkeys from the market on Saturday, which we need to find someone to pickup on Tuesday. We had to get two, because we weren't sure if their size (5 kilos or 11 pounds) would be enough for 9 people - we'll see.

Brenda, Bart, and Chris in Town

Alas, I don't think I ever got a picture of Brenda, Bart, or Chris - but they did come into town - honest. They were here for a week to represent a part of a related project, so we were able to take them around town on the weekend.

We went down to St. Odile and then over to Frieburg. Not a whole lot going on in Frieburg, but at least Bart and Chris accidentally bought scarves from the local soccer team, which made everyone around us think that they were German. We even ended up having a 15 minute conversation with a complete stranger in the Cathedral about the soccer team and why Frieburg loves them - who would have thought?

Joe in a Camel Jacket

Who's says that old dogs can't learn new tricks?

The guy who was unimpressed by the Hugo Boss outlet not but 2 months ago has now seen the light and the value of a camel top coat. Look at the flexibility of wearing it with a pair of jeans or a suit . He's still on schedule to comfortably wear a scarf by the beginning of the new year . . . which if you didn't know Joe before (and his Miami sweatshirts) is a MAJOR accomplishment.

Patrick's Back

OK, it wasn't the best trip back to Indianapolis, but Patrick is finally back in town. He flew into Frankfurt, and ended up taking the bus down to Strasbourg. He got back in enough time to go to Baden-Baden for the afternoon.

I don't know how he got all the stuff he brought home in two bags.

Lunch in Champagne

On Saturday when we were driving through Champagne, we stopped at this amazing place for lunch. It definitely beat the crappy place we went for dinner the night before (and I'm still writing the Pudlo to have them pull your star, you pathetic shams!!!).

Probably the only issue was that it was a three 'forker' in the Pudlo - which means it was a bit snooty. Suffice it to say that we would definitely have been underdressed if it was for dinner - but we snuck by with our khakis since it was lunch. I think there were five waiters serving us, and the food was obviously very good. However, after stopping at five champagne houses in the morning, I almost freaked when they offered another glass before lunch.

They also did a little better with the vegetarian thing (unlike those charlatans the night before who couldn't cook an eggplant even if they had a microwave - you're so losing your star, you HACKS !!!!)

Probably the only thing that bummed me out about the lunch was that I was done with dessert and coffee, and then they rolled out the cheese cart (more like a large carriage) to another table.

OK, I've gotten that out of my system.

Champagne

Patty and I had the chance to go to the Champagne region of France - a pretty cool place, but also pretty confusing.

It seems that there are two Worlds of Champagne - the heavily marketed one with huge Champagne houses, and then the small Mom and Pop garages (literally) that are making better champagne. Patrick and I went to the Pommery Estate which was located in Reims, where we saw huge cavs and great theatre. The champagne was OK. The next day we went south of Reims and stopped at various houses along the champagne route (very similar to the Alsatian wine route). Not only was the selection better and cheaper, it was also simply better. And like I said, probably the best place we went was someone's converted garage.

Patrick's Gone

A last minute training class for Patrick had him leaving Strasbourg with about 1 week notice in order to go back to Indianapolis. Flights were a little hard to come by, and he didn't want to fly through Paris (no way he could have made the flight change in one hour) - so we drove him up to Frankfurt on a Sunday night for his Monday morning flight.

He was able to pack a couple bottles of wine and champagne that we had just gotten the weekend before, and he also took along an extra bag to bring back stuff. I hope he just remembers that we live in a 70 square meter apartment, and there's really not a lot of room for more stuff - unless it can be consumed.

"Riots" in France

OK, we've been getting so many emails from friends and family about what's going on in France with the riots, that I thought I should add this little post.

Basically, it's a non-event right now - we're not seeing anything - and if we didn't have people sending us emails from the US, we probably wouldn't even have known about it. It's not a major topic of conversation at lunch, and it doesn't have everyone on edge or missing work. I think when we use the word 'riot' we have images of Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict, when in fact it's more like a bunch of bad teenagers with too much free time on their hands.

I think the biggest problem now is that it's really hard to have police on every single street corner, so once the teenagers realized they could make spontaneous attacks by lighting a trash can on fire, etc., it has become kind of hard to control. Although there have been images of fires and burning cars in the news, there is not a car burning on every street corner.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of disenfranchised youth in France, who basically have nothing better to do than spar with police at night - but I think we're a long way from the country descending into flames and all US citizens being asked to return home.

Cory in Town

Cory Manship arrived in Strasbourg this week - he's here for data mapping.

Took him down south for the ubiquitous Alsace wine road, but it's not like you're hurting for new things to do down there. On Sunday we tried to go to the Distillery, but it had just closed for lunch, and we weren't in the mood to hang around until it re-opened TWO HOURS LATER !!!

We were able to go to Baden-Baden again for the spa. Cory really did enjoy it, but he did confess that there were several times before we arrived that he was about to chicken out. I think he knew that I would give him crap for at least 2 years if he did.

Issue Resolution Time

Well, now that Model Office is over, it's now time to resolve issues. Probably not a lot of time to post blog updates, but I'll try.

Looks like my group got off easy with the issues, so we should hopefully have the majority of them closed in a short period of time - quality and planning weren't as lucky.

Happy Morning Time

Fun little thing happened on the way to work.

Starting a new tradition now that Model Office is over, Christine and company have declared the first Thursday of every month 'Happy Thursday Month'. Basically we all get together as one big team, there's a theme (like Halloween was this time), have a couple cups of coffee, and eat a little breakfast.

They also started a tradition of rewarding a treasure chest of little goodies (CDs, stuffed animals, cheese, etc.) to a winning team. Fortunately we won the first time around, the bad part is that now we have to host the next month's Happy Thursday. Not quite sure what we'll be doing, but I might need a little help from my mother.

Prague, Czech Republic

We had our first french holiday (more are expected to follow) this past weekend, so we all decided to pile into a car and head off to Prague. I had been to Prague 18 years ago as a student, so I was interested to see how much it has changed since it was under Communist control and behind the iron curtain.

As expected it had changed a lot. It's still a great place to visit, but it's definitely more of a tourist town. Obviously there are not the deals that they once had, and it appears from talking to others that each year the prices seem to go up enough to notice.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a place to visit when you're in Europe, so here are the details.

The People

OK, I'm talking about all the Czech people we met here. Unfortunately, with a limited command of the Czech language (as in none), we didn't have a huge chance to meet the native in the short couple of days we were there. As Patrick said he heard more english during the weekend, than all the english he's heard in Strasbourg.

So the 'people' here refers to the people that went with us: Gaby (not pictured), Irma (Gaby's Mom), Patrick, me, and Joe.

The Drive

The weekend before, Mark Snider (who was over here for Model Office) said that the drive to Prague was 5-6 hours. I suppose technically that is true given the fact that the drive is mostly on the German autobahn, which does not have a speed limit. But in truth it would probably require someone to go 240 km/hr in order to get to Prague in under 6 hours. And for those of you who don't know km/hr - that's about 145 mph.

We did average about 150 to 160 km/hr, which is more like 90-95 mph, but the cars started to shake if we went much past that.

We took a bit longer, no doubt helped by the various stops along the way, and our getting lost once we got into Prague. Despite rumors to the contrary, Patrick and I did not get divorced for getting lost. We did stop at three gas stations asking for directions, so I don't want to hear about men being unable to ask for them. And the couple of loops around the outskirts of Prague that we took gave us the opportunity to get an overall view of the city.

The City

One thing that has not changed in Prague is that the city is absolutely beautiful. It was the location for the filming of the movie Amadeus, and once you visit there, you know why. Prague has some of the best example of Baroque architecture anywhere in Europe. In fact, there's too many pictures to show on a blog, so I found a web hosting site just for photos - click on the links for Prague's architecture, sculpture, or interesting front doors.

But in the meantime, here's a pretty typical example of a buildings detail that is found pretty much all around the old part of the city.

The Cathedral

You can take a lifetime running through Europe looking at Cathedrals, but if you're vsiting a major city, you have to at least go look.

St. Vitus is on the top of the hill and across the river from the old city. There's even a picture somewhere where we climbed the town tower in the old city and took a picture of St. Vitus from afar, which looks pretty cool.

Anyway, St. Vitus is one of the major Czech saints (don't know exactly what he did - oops, missed that part of the tour). King Wenceslas (yes, he really did exist in more than just a Christmas carol) is buried in the Church, and he overlooks the royal jewels. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them, since they are locked up most of the time. Apparently, 7 of the most important leaders of the Czech Republic each have a key and only during major state events (like the swearing in of a new president) are they on public display.

We did climb to the 280+ steps to the top spire and took some great pictures of the city. And there are several over the top Baroque chapels inside.

The Second Castle

The first castle would be the one found on the top of the hill in Prague, but while that was being redone (it took a couple of centuries), some Charles character built a mini little castle outside Prague. On the way out of town we stopped by the castle and went on a tour. Unfortunately, the major attraction of the castle was the chapel inside, but it's limto 12 visitors and hour, because they are trying to control the environment.

Sorry that we don't have too many pictures of the place, but they also kind of forbid pictures inside the castle. Not that much inside, quite frankly, since when the French and Austrians came in to restore the place about 100 years ago, they also 'took' some of its major treasures, furniture, and middle age weaponary. I think they're still a little bitter about that one.

The Food

Food was interesting. Again, we're coming from France, so it's a little unfair to compare. Also being a veg wasn't helping matters too much, but in general they had some promising food. Definitely recommend going outside the tourist areas to grab something to eat - might require a little knowledge of the Czech language - but someone should be there to help out.

The Shopping

Wow, has the shopping changed in Prague, since I was there. Granted there's not some guy on the corner trying to exchange dollars for czech crowns for 4 times the official exchange rate, but I was hoping for a couple of deals.

Shopping in the tourist areas was pretty comparable to any other place in Europe right now. The crystal was also nice, but not nearly as attractive as I remember. I think Patrick did end up adding to his shoe collection - but he'd do that in pretty much any country he visited.

The Music

Gaby picked us up some tickets for a classical performance in St. Nicholas. I had some pictures, but they're a bit fuzzy. Nothing too heavy as far as classical music, but it was John Williams either.

Lora and Jen in Town

Lora Ramey and Jen Oleksiw came into town at the end of the week to see how Model Office was going and to do those things that Directors and Managers can do. I was going to post Jen's picture from the internal Lilly site, but it's a little too Glamour Shots (Jen, we need to talk about that later). So Jen, if you're reading this, take a picture with you and Lora and send it to me.

Since we were running off to Prague for the long weekend, we didn't have a chance to show them around Strasbourg, but we did get to spend a nice dinner with everyone at the Weber's on Friday. We then ended up at Murphy's around the corner from our place. Considering I crash about 8:30PM on Friday nights, I did pretty well with staying out until 1. Some of us stayed out a little longer, which impacted Shop Floor conformance to Schedule for the Prague operation; but that will have to wait for another posting.

Lora and Jen then left for Speke's Model Office. Apparently Jen's luggage was lost, she almost had a moment, and then it was eventually found. Good thing too, since I don't think any of us could handle her having to dress in Nigel's clothes.