Working with photography

Figured I should start learning how to properly setup a photograph now that we have a cool camera - and all this picture proves is that I still have no idea how to do it.

But here's a little pic of a truck near Turkheim.

GBIP is moving right along

Let's see . . . we've finished Model Office and the initial collection of data (which went very well). Now we're getting test scripts ready for Informal Integration Testing, which will begin in Indianapolis the middle of March (yes, we will be home for five weeks.)

Actually, I didn't really care about our status at work - I just took this really bizarre picture of Weber, and I wanted to put it on the blog.

Dinner with Damien, Mindy, and Joe

After dinner with Laurence and Richard, we had leftovers, so we invited Damien, Mindy, and Joe over for dinner. It wasn't a proper dinner thing, since it was basically the same stuff that we served the night before - but no one was complaining.

Anne-Catherine loses keyboard

No Anne-Catherine is not sleeping.

I don't know if it's because she's in QC or if she's just Anne-Catherine, but I think Phillipe enjoys tormenting her too much (see Heidi meets Santa pictures).

Regardless here is a picture of Anne-Catherine with her keyboard. It's been simplified in order to limit data entry errors. And the second picture is what Anne-Catherine did when she no longer had it.

Walking through the Woods

A couple of weekends ago, Patrick and I did I hike through the woods south of Strasbourg. Again, when it warms up, we'll probably do more of these things - but this was a really nice Sunday afternoon thing.

Turkheim

OK, not even sure if I spelled the town right. If there's a reason to go back to an Alsatian city in the Spring, it would be Turkheim. It came highly recommended, but when we went through there a couple of Saturdays ago, it was absolutely deserted. They do seem to make my favorite Reisling as well - so we'll go back when things more up more.

Weber wears a sweater

No one can really understand the pressures of dressing well, while in France - and no one can illustrate that pressure more than Mr. James Weber. Form the first days some 15 years ago, when he no longer had to wear a suit to work, the standard uniform for him was blue oxford and khaki pants. Believe me, there was NO deviation from his look whatsoever. In fact, it has become a tradition that on his birthday and his going away to France, we had everyone at the office dress up as Jim Weber.

So imagine our surprise when he comes to work wearing a sweater. Granted the office is cold, but not that cold that Weber would wear something other than the blue oxford and khaki pants. Granted you can see the blue oxford underneath the sweater, but I don't think we're that far away from seeing Weber in a non-blue outfit.

Roxie

Roxie, our friend Kelly's Beagle from Alaska, passed away this month. Like Samantha, she lived a long and fruitful life. She may have giving new meaning to the words 'small bladder' and 'it's all about me', but she was full of love and affection - plus she reminded Patrick that I wasn't really that high maintenance, and it could be so much worse.

Personally, I don't care what you say, next to mom, Roxie loved me the most. And yes, the name, Roxie . . . from a drag queen.

Patrick comes home !!!

After a short visit to the US for a conference, Patrick is back in town.

He brought back all kinds of cool stuff, but probably the best was Mom's poundcake, and Julie's brownies.

Castle Andlau

One Sunday, Patrick, Mindy, and I went hiking through the woods - hiking trails are really big in Alsace. We took a short little trail and headed for Castle Andlau - basically they're out in the middle of nowhere - hence the need to go hiking to get there. You can click here for a history of Castle Andlau.

Unfortunately we really couldn't go in, because the ruins are in disrepair and unsafe, but it was pretty cool to just walk in the woods and then come upon this huge castle in the middle of the forest.

Mindy is in town !!!

Mindy Beigle, who came to Fegersheim as our Supply Chain Coordinator, is now going to be our Inventory Management Application Engineer. Unfortunately, she's going to fly back and forth between Indy and Fegersheim for the release.

Dinner and Tim and Andrea Whittaker

Last week we were all (Webers, Gaby, Hagans, Damien, Joe, I'm sure I forgot someone) at Tim and Andrea's for a true Italian meal. Tim and Andrea were in Italy with Lilly between assignments in Geneva and Fegersheim, so they're basically Italian snobs.

They had a huge bottle of Chianti that they had been waited to share (even with all of us, it took awhile to finish). Dinner was absolutely amazing: minestrone soup, ravioli, eggplant parmesan, cheese, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting (this is the problem with trying to do a blog entry too long after the fact).

It was a wonderful evening.

Tim did share his Italian cookbook, but that's a secret and can't be shared on the blog. Sorry.

Patrick is Gone

Patrick left Sunday for the States for a conference. Fortunately, he's only gone for a week (should be back on Saturday). As usual he has dinners scheduled with as many people as possible in five nights, but we'll all be back in March for a longer period of time, so we can see everyone longer.

Thanks Cheryl for the Skating Party Pictures

Thanks to Cheryl for sending pictures of the skating party. This one is of my sister, Julie, just before everyone arrived.

And yes, the table of cookies was probably a small fraction of the total number.

Wade and Patrick's Anniversary

Patrick and I had our anniversary dinner at La Maison Kammerzell, which is a nice restaurant right next to the Cathedral in Strasbourg (thought taking a picture out the window of the spire would be a bit tacky). Pudlo gives the restaurant three forks and no plates, which roughly translates to four waiters per table, and good (but not great or spiritual) french food.

I had a nice Onion Tart and a Mushroom Risotto, while Patrick had some prawns and guinea fowl (he said that was spiritual). Desserts were fantastic, wine was very nice, and the service was really really good (so by french standards - absolutely amazing).

And yes, it has been 6 years, which is a really long time to put up with me.

Patrick Emanuel's Passport Story

Here's an interesting story of how one man's attempt to get a french passport.

07:45 - Patrick Emanuel arrives at the plant in Fegersheim, and
realizes
that he left some important papers at home.
08:15 - Patrick realizes that he left some important papers at home and
needs to retrieve them . . . Patrick leaves plant
09:00 - Patrick arrives at house, picks up documents, and leaves for
the
Alsace Prefecture in Strasbourg
09:50 - Patrick arrives at Alsace Prefecture, picks up number #31.
10:00 - Patrick receives call from Mark Lauwick, who tells him that he
really needs to go to another Prefecture closer to his house, Patrick
leaves for plant
10:30 - Patrick arrives at plant in order to pick up additional
documents
(besides it was on the way)
11:15 - Patrick arrives at his local City Hall, who tells him that it
will
take 10 days to get the paperwork he needs in order to go to the other
Prefecture. When he complains they say, "OK, come back at 2"
14:00 - Patrick returns to local City Hall (no doubt after a nice
relaxing
lunch at home) and picks up documents
14:10 - Patrick arrives at Sous Prefecture, who tell him to wait 3 days
before he can pick up his passport.

Total distance travelled so far - 250 kilometers.

Patrick finally did return to get his passport, and it took 30 minutes
of
searching before she found his passport that had been sitting on top of
her
desk all along.

Stay tuned because this was just for his french passport. He now needs
to
travel to Paris on February 16th to get his US visa (new requirement
for
all tourists and business trips to the US). And no pressure, but this
is
two weeks before they need to be in the US to start testing.

Typical Dinner

Not sure if it's the highly efficient kitchen (otherwise known as terribly small), the good markets, or the lack of Taco Bell, but Patrick and I are eating more at home than we did in the US.

Patrick was so impressed that he took a picture of dinner one night. We were kind of in a hurry (meaning we wanted to finish dinner in under an hour), so we ate all at once - the dinner (for Patrick) was duck breast, potato dauphinoise (creamed potatoes), and a cool kind of layered thing with roasted vegetables and puff pastry.

Smith Skating Party

Well I delayed the posting of this entry, because I thought that someone from my family would actually send a picture or something of the Smith Skating Party. Granted it's the sixth year and all, but I thought at least someone would take a camera. Ahem.

Alas for those of you who do not know, we (my family in Indy) throw a skating party each year. Usually it's the first Saturday after the New Year. We rent out a skating rink that's downtown, bake an ungodly amount of cookies, and invite everyone we know (friends, neighbors, co-workers, you get the idea). We usually get about 250 people each year, and it's a hoot.

I did call during the party and was able to talk to a lot of old friends which was really nice. If only there was a picture of someone talking to me on the phone, that I could post of the blog. Ahem.

Cool new map

OK, this is pretty cool.

Chris Hagan sent us this link to communitywalk.com. It basically uses the mapping technology of Google (heck, it may even be owned by Google) that allows you to enter places that you've been, photos, comments, etc. With the GPS it's really easy to put in specifics, but you can also just put in a city by latitude and longitude.

Right now we just have the places that Patrick and I have been together, but eventually we'll put in some other places.

Castle Andlau

Here's a quick pic of Castle Andlau that we went to visit when we were hiking through the woods one Sunday.

Indianapolis Colts

You know it's a big game, when even I go down to the local bar to see the football game.

Yes, thanks to the Sky network, we were able to see the Indianapolis Colts play Pittsburgh. Granted they first half was bad - but not as bad as Joe and Patrick trying to explain the rules of football in french to the locals, apparently. In all fairness to them, it is kind of difficult to explain the game when you don't know the words for 'field goal', 'score', and 'downs'.

Patrick's Big Present Finally arrives

After President Bush no doubt inspected every single Xmas present coming to and from France, Patrick's Xmas present finally arrived two days ago. Considering that Samantha shipped it about 3 weeks before Xmas, that was perhaps one of the longest deliveries we've seen between the US and France.

No wait, presents back home to the US still haven't arrived yet, so they're going to win (I really did ship them).

As you can see from the photo Patrick got a digital Canon Rebel. Although our little Canon Elph is really tiny and convenient - there have been a lot of times where we wish we had a better camera. Also Patrick had the non-digital Rebel, so he can just use his old lens.

Wade's Shoulder

After a little fall in the French Alps (actually I think I was in Switzerland at the time), I had a bit of a sore shoulder . . . OK, it was swollen, couldn't sleep on it, and didn't get any better after three weeks. So I braved the french health care system (don't think there was an english speaking person in a 10 kilometer radius) to get it checked out.

Basically I had to go to a general care doctor first, but that was easy since my Doctor at the plant fulfilled that requirement. He ended up sending me to the Trauma Center between Strasbourg and Fegersheim - think emergency room kind of situation.

Fortunately I went early in the day so there was absolutely no one there, and the service was really quite extraordinary. In total I spent about two hours there between Admissions, initial examination, first X-Ray, consultation, wrapping of said shoulder, and then second X-Ray to make sure everything was in the right place.

Final diagnosis is a badly pulled ligament and a clavicle that is a centimeter higher on the right side than the left. Considering this is AFTER three weeks of healing, they really didn't understand why I waited so long. So they applied some heavy duty wraps (8 in all, I think) to push the clavicle down. It wasn't really the most enjoyable experience, but it beats having a shoulder that is a centimeter higher on one side than the other. The 'bandages' have to stay on for about three weeks, and then my regular doctor can take them off to make sure everything is OK.

Final cost (I had to pay, since I'm not a French citizen) was 85 euros (about $100) - most of that gets reimbursed from my insurance plan after I submit it. I figure the bill from a US doctor who would read the X-Rays a day later after they had dried would have been at least that much - so I got the diagnosis, X-Rays, bandages, prescription, and an improved medical french vocabulary for free. Not bad for a healthcare system that costs half than the US ($2077 vs $4178) per capita.

Bourgogne

More wine!!!

This time Patrick Emanuel hooked us up with one of his friends of Bourgogne. Picked up 18 bottles of wine in all that came well recommended. Unfortunately, I'm suppose to not drink them for a couple of years, so I think I might start sending some of them home with Patrick on his next trip.

RSS Feed

I just figured out a way to make my blog an RSS feed.

I know some of you are computer challenged (Dad), so I don't want to get into too much detail. Suffice it to say, if you are constantly checking this blog in order to see if I got around to updating it - there is an easier way.

The address for my RSS feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WadesJournal.

So . . .

If you have Yahoo as your homepage, here's an easy way to add this blog just like it was a news feed from Reuters.

Step 1 - Click from your Yahoo! webpage 'Add Content'
Step 2 - Towards the right of 'Find Content', you'll see a link to 'Add RSS Feed'.
Step 3 - Click on 'Add RSS Feed' (patience people, lowest common denominator is my father)
Step 4 - Type in the URL 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/WadesJournal' (don't put in the quotes)
Step 5 - Click 'Add' (Again, have you met my father and seen him work on a computer?)
Step 6 - Go to your Yahoo! homepage (my.yahoo.com) and refresh the page.
Step 7 - If you did everything correctly, then you should see WadesWorld as a newsfeed (probably at the bottom of your homepage of all your newsgroups)
Step 8 - (Dad) Call Julie, international calls to France are too expensive.
Step 9 - You can move the new Wade World content to the top of your page by clicking on edit and selecting 'Move to top'
Step 10 - Play with the content settings - I would just show the last five articles whenever they were posted, since I usually don't post everyday.

If you have something else other than Yahoo! (I suppose it's possible), you can check their help site, since most of them now accept an RSS feed.

Taking a break from travelling

Having just run around a lot in the last couple of months - we've decided to stay in town for a couple of weeks to just recover. Here we are at a new bar (the Irish Times), which appears to be far superior to the normal hangout Joe insists that we go to . . . Murphy's. Not only does it hold about 10 times more people, they have live music, better Scotch, food, and 'better scenery'.

We're thinking of overriding Joe's decisions to always go to Murphy's, but we know that it's a sensitive subject and he's really not a change agent. We'll keep you posted on the bar revolution.

Damien Mills is in town

Damien Mills from Basingstoke is in town for a couple of weeks in order to help sort out various reporting issues. We went out to the Irish Times Saturday night with him, and we should be seeing a lot of him in the next couple of weeks.

Stay Tuned for a Story from Patrick

Ah, there's a bit of drama in the office as the French try to get visas to the US for testing in March. Turns out the US has now imposed a need for visas for all the French coming to the US, and it means that they need to get things sorted out in a relatively short period of time. It also culminates with a personal trip to the US Embassy in Paris.

Needless to say, we (the Americans) have just come off a wonderful experience in dealing with the french bureaucracy in trying to get our carte de sejour visas (see post below), so it is with a little bit of humor, we find the french going through the same experience.

So far, we think Patrick Emanuel is winning (or losing) the battle of the bureaucracy, so he has asked to make a guest entry into my blog in order to share his experiences with the french and US governments - it should be a hoot.

Big Xmas Present from Patrick

Always the gadget lover, I got this cool present for Xmas from Patrick. It was a little late due to shipping from the US, but then again, his present hasn't arrived yet either - nor have the packages that I sent home three weeks before Xmas.

For those of you who don't know, this is a GPS receiver. I can download maps of Europe and the US to it, and it can basically calculate routes, where is the closest restaurant, even give step by step directions. It's pretty cool.

I do need to get the Europe maps, but that will have to wait until Patty goes home to the US in a couple of weeks.

La galette du roi

January 6th was the Epithany (something about Wise Men arriving in Bethlehem), so the tradition is to eat the King Cake (Galette du Roi). The one who has the piece of cake with the fevre is the King (or Queen) for the day and gets to wear a crown.

Gaby tells us that in Mexico they have the same tradition with a little twist. The fevre is actually a small baby Jesus, and whoever gets it may be the King for the day, but they also have to throw a party.

In typical french fashion the cake is made of relatively simple ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, and some sort of jam filling), but there are competitions throughout France for who makes the best one, and much discussion as to the techniues which are the most successful.

Here's my Mom

OK, everyone in France has been asking about my mom, so since I just got this picture of her, I'd thought I'd put it up.

This picture was taken at her 50th wedding anniversary to my father (yes, he's a Saint), and one of my brothers (Tim) is on the right. The only thing I think of when I see this picture is that I need a tan.

Scotland

For the New Year's Break (basically the 28th to the 2nd of January), Patrick and I went to visit our old friend Linda in Scotland with Tim and Andrea Whittaker.

We took a cheap flight on RyanAir to some airport south of Glasgow, and then we drove to Whitburn, which is halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh and also the hometown of Linda. We stayed at a very nice hotel that Linda's mother works at until we moved to Edinburgh for the Hogmanay (Scottish New Year Celebration) for the remaining three days of our trip.

Turns out New Years is actually bigger in Scotland than Christmas sometimes, and they have a huge celebration downtown - big concert, fireworks off of the castle, lots of events before as well, which turns out to be the largest one in Europe.

This particular picture is of the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, which I think was destoryed during the Scottish reformation.

Afternoon Tea at St. Andrews

In our trip to Scotland we stopped at St. Andrews and had afternoon tea at the big hotel in the area. Actually was the first time that I actually had tea for afternoon snack. It was very nice with scones, little cakes, and sandwiches.

St. Andrews Golf Course

Not the person to actually be into golf (never really played a round), but we were so close to St. Andrews (first golf course in the World), we had to stop by. This is Patrick and I in the middle of the fairway on the first hole. Fortunately, since it was Sunday no one was playing golf that day.

Turns out the golf course is right on the coast - no doubt the land can't gow much because of the salt water, so they decided to just put in really short grass.

We almost got a picture of Tim kissing the fairway (alla ski trip), but it got dark too fast.

Hugo, Leather, and New Years

Here's all of us at the end of New Years. We look a lot more drunk that we actually were (three beers a piece can't make me that silly).

All should notice though the new pants I'm wearing . . . Hugo Boss (yes, they're leather, and I'm still dealing with that).

Drag Queens on Steroids

This was kind of cool...

On January 30th, we were walking around Edinburg, and there was a pre-New Year's Eve party going on on George Street. They had some stages, musicians walking around, and these drag queens. I don't know who they were, and I tried to remember they're website. Basically they were whacking out two guys in major makeup and hair - it sounds pretty weird, but I thought it was cool.

The Pre Party

I guess this is the modern form of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster (which is only a couple of hours away). There's a video I have to figure out a way to post, but essentially . . . think of someone in this huge monster costume on stilts walking around the streets. Picture doesn't do it justice, must post the movie.

Vindaloo and Trash Talking

Ah, so precious.

After two days of Andrea and Tim trash talking about how they needed the hottest Vindaloo Chicken that they could find, they ended up with a little bit more than they bargained for. THink of Indian curry so hot that you basically couldn't taste the chicken - not sure if they were trying to hide the taste of the chicken for some reaosn, or they just slipped with the spice jar.

Needless to say, the beer was downed, Tim was sweating, and Andrea doing some deep breathing exercises in the end.

The Honors of Scotland

I think probably the most interesting part of the tour of Edinburg castle was being able to see the Honors of Scotland, which are Scotland's version of the crown jewels - consisting of a crown, a sceptre, a sword.

After Scotland unified with England (Union Act, I think), they actually locked the honors up, since basically there was no longer a need for them, and would probably just be a reminder to everyone that Scotland used to be its own country.

There is also a stone called the Stone of Scone in the Crown Room, which was used as a throne for the crowning of the earliest Scottish Kings. Funny thing is that it's been under the throne of England until only a couple of years ago.

Scotch Whiskey

OK, Scotch whiskey is a bit different than the stuff we had in Ireland.

First of all they have about 150 different varities than the Irish, and they also have people in the store we went that I think has tried every single one of them. This is the shot of the main board of the Scottish Whiskey Heritage Center, which is just down the road from Edinburgh Castle.

It was really amazing to walk into the store, tell the guy which kind of Scotch you've liked in the past, and he can suggest 5 varities that we might like. Similar to french cheese, unless you absolutely hate the consistency of all things cheese, you are bound to find a cheese you'll love in France. Same thing in Scotland with Scotch - unless you absolutely hate the taste of alcohol, you'll eventually find a Scotch that you can love.

We love Joan

Alas, I need to have Linda send us a picture of her mother, but I couldn't talk about our trip to Scotland without sending a big thanks to Linda, her sister Susan, and her mother Joan.

The first night we were there we had an amazing Scottish dinner at Joan's house. For the veg, there was a really really good Mac and Cheese (the secret is in the mustard apparently). Joan also helped snag a great hotel for super cheap, which we will n doubt return to on our next visit to Scotland.

Edinburgh Castle

There are probably better pictures of Edinburgh Castle, but I couldn't seem to take any.

The Castle was basically a huge collection of buildings sitting on top of the hill, so it was more than just a simple feudal castle. The audio tour was worth the extra poundage. And this is where they keep the Honors of Scotland (which is another entry).

This is also the place where they launch the fireworks for Hogmanay, so we were basically at the foot of it during the celebrations.

Rosslyn Chapel

For those of you have have read the DaVinci Code, you might be familiar with Rosslyn Chapel (it's the last Chapel in the book, when they search for the Holy Grail). I was one of those things, since we had all read the book that we were too close not to go (it's about 20 minutes from Edinburgh).

The first picture is one taken of the ceiling - the chapel is famous for all its stone carvings.

We couldn't remember the significance from the DaVini Code to go check things out ourselves, but there were tons of carvings and interesting legends. For more information I found this website (but there are tons more): Rosslyn Chapel

William Wallace Memorial

William Wallace, otherwise known as Braveheart/Mel Gibson, has his own memorial in Sterling - site of a famous battle where he defeated the more powerful english army. Turned out to be a losing cause and he lost the war in the end, but it makes a great story. He's also a symbol for Scottish independence.

There's basically a huge tower overlooking the lowlands and the highlands of Scotland, and this is the statue that is at the base of the hill. Yes, it looks like Mel Gibson, but that's basically because the guy who created it was inspired to do it after seeing the movie - it's all kind of weird and caused a bit of controversy.

It was a bit cold after climbing to the top of the tower (really nothing to break the wind). In fact, I don't think I've ever been this cold in my life - taking about another four hours to warm up once we got back to heat.

Thank God for fireplaces

The same day we went to the William Wallace memorial we also went to Stirling castle (post is later, I believe). This is a picture of us sitting in front of the most populat fireplace n the grand hall.

Stirling Castle

Here's a picture of Linda and me in front of Stirling Castle. Mary, Queen of Scots, was baptized here and was the seat of Scottish power for quite some time. I actually liked this castle better than Edinburgh's Castle.

The tour was great, but again, it was a bit cold that day as you can see from my shaking in the picture.

Seeing Linda

Good dear friend Linda and I standing on top of Stirling Castle.

Linda and I first met when she was working in the US on the global design of GBIP (six years ago). She originally is from Whitier?, and then ended up working for Lilly in Speke. After she was done with her US assignment (she milked that bad boy as long as she could), she went to Basingstoke, where she still is today.

Joe wears scarf !!!

Alas, the impossible has happened. Joe Moeddel, the man who couldn't understand why people wore anything but jeans and a sweatshirt outside, has gone over to the dark side and now is the proud owner of a scarf (and a Hugo Boss Cashmere one at that). . . which (as you can see) he proudly wears.

Now with the primary challenge complete, look for Jim Weber to wear a non-oxford blue shirt and khaki pants to work (he promised).

Granted Joe is still not off the hook . . . Jen Oleksiew has some expectation about a Louis Vuitton purchase, but I was just confused by the whole thing. Suffice it to say, we will take a break from harassing the poor man in the month of January, only to pick it up again in February to increase the variety of his wardrobe (and maybe even get him to use product).