Short update

I know it's been awhile since the last post, so I figured I'd put up a short post to say hello.  Not a whole lot has been going on over the past few weeks.  Shanna & I have been enjoying spending relaxing weekends at home with College Football & the NFL.  We are starting to get used to big time difference when it comes to games.  Now we can have productive days, come home, and watch football that night.  The College games start at 6pm on Saturday, and the NFL games start at 7pm on Sunday.  With the NFL & ESPN ticket we bought, we can watch all the games on demand too, so for the games that start at 1 or 2 in the morning, we can watch the next day when we get up.

Not too much new on the job front...the hiring manager that I spoke with last month has been keeping me posted on the job announcement.  It finally went up last week, and it closes next week.  Since the manager has kept me in the loop on it, I feel good about chances of getting the job, but we'll see.

I've started taking German Level 2 classes.  It's amazing how much you retain when you're surrounded by it all day, every day.  I've learned more German in the past 5 months (WOW, I can't believe it's been that long already) then I did Spanish in the four years I took it in High School.  I decided to go with the same teacher Shanna & I had for our level 1 class...she's funny, patient, and what I like the most is she tailor's her corrections based on each student.  Meaning, if a person is struggling and makes a mistake, she'll correct the major problems and not nit pick on the small stuff.  For the people who are picking it up faster, she'll nitpick on little details.  Wir Lernen, aber wir haben viel mehr lernen.  (We are learning, but we have a lot more to learn).

Finally, plans for the next month.  This weekend a friend of ours from DC who lives in Heidelberg now is coming to town for Stuttgart's Volksfest, their version of Oktoberfest.  Next Thursday Shanna couldn't get off work, but I'm going with some friends to München for Oktoberfest.  I'm REALLY looking forward to that...it's the 200th anniversary of it, so I'm definitely keeping my eye out for some specialty beer glasses / steins.  A week from Saturday we have tickets with some friends for a reserved table at Volksfest.

It's amazing how fast time flies...our Anniversary is in 3 weeks.  We kicked around various ideas, and decided to keep it within driving distance this year.  Salzburg, Austria, is only a 3 1/2 hour drive from Stuttgart, so we're going there from Oct. 16 - 20th.  I'm really looking forward to it...the town is supposed to be beautiful and it'll be nice to get away for a few days with just the two of us (the dogs are staying at the kennel).

So over the next few weeks I'll be posting more & putting pictures of Austria & Oktoberfest.

Hope everyone is doing well...stay tuned!