End of Week One

Today is the last day of my first week at my new job.

The is going by so fast. I will have two more weeks of training in a class environment and then we get three more month "on the floor" to learn the the rest of trades of the job.

Yesterday, we a funny moment, when we talked about tornado shelters in the building.
The building was designed and planned by our headquarters in California, so the building is 100% EARTHQUAKE PROOF.....but let's not hope for a tornado...(lot's of glass and such)
But they have a plan for every scenario, so I am not too worried.

Other then that, I can say it is still all pretty new and I can't say much.
Next week, we will start with our specialized training and that should be interesting.

Well, I gotta go for right now, so I can get ready for work.

I am an employee!

After a looooooong search for a job and a long wait for this job, did finally start working yesterday and signed my contract...yeah!!! So now it is official:)
For the next four weeks, I will have classes, and after that, I will work in the Fraud Department of the Company. That's exciting, because it will hopefully put my legal background to work.
The Company is also working worldwide and I hope to use my languages in the future...


Yesterday, I also received a package that I had mailed to myself from Germany on Tuesday (last week). This one contained mainly books.
I have been living in the US for a little bit over four years now and a couple of years back, did I realize, that I needed to start reading German stuff again.
So, every time I go to Germany, I buy around 10 books and mail them back.
I make sure that they are either from German authors or other non-English authors. I mean with that, I don't buy a book that is originally in English and has been translated to German, because I would rather read it in English then. Makes sense?
The only exception is the BRITISH edition of the latest Harry Potter book. That one, I bought as well, but in English.
The British edition is different to the American. It uses different words and such. Don't ask me why but it does.
Anyway. I have all the other Harry Potter books and I had bought them in Europe (=British edition), so this made the set complete.

The good thing is that there is an Army base near by and I can mail from there and only pay US postage, so all those heavy books went on book rate for only $10.

I am waiting for two more packages with goodies and Christmas presents:)

5 AM and I am getting ready for WORK!!!

YES, today is my first day at my new job.

I am excited and a bit anxious and I have to get into a routine first.....

So I better get going:)

Germabraskan

I didn't take as many pictures as I hoped to in Germany. One reason was the weather and then I just didn't think about taking pictures.
I was back and it felt all so normal, because it was all the places where I grew up; why take pictures?
Now I am back in Omaha and I am kicking myself for not having taken more pictures.
Does that make sense? Do you have pictures of the house you live in? Your parents live in? You grew up in? That is all so familiar because you know every corner, every room, ...

I went to visit my parents for two weeks and I wanted to take pictures of all the things I miss, but once I was back there, those things where so close and I didn't think of my camera.

Well, I guess, my memories are anyway so strong that I don't need pictures to remind me.

I did take some, and one of my favorites is the one above.
I found this sculpture in a town that I used to live in.
I think it is perfect reflection of myself: half German, half American.

Though Germany is my place of origin.

My home is here, my friends are here and my love is here.

I am back

I am back from my trip to Germany. I had a great time, but it is good to be home.

I will write some more later. Right now, I need some sleep....

Trail Day at Swanson 17 November

Folks,

Feel free to forward to other interested riders.

On 17 November from 8:30 ? 12:00 THOR will be hosting a trail day at Swanson Park to:

- Reroute the downhill section vicinity of the Fire Department Training Area

- Correct water drainage problems on Tetanus Ridge

- Add a new trail extension

Volunteers are requested to bring gloves a shovel, pick-axe, brush saw, loppers/clippers or commercial type rake to help cut in the two new trail sections and to help fix some erosion problems. Tools will be provided by THOR if you don?t have any of your own.

The current down hill trail will be closed and replaced with a new down hill trail that follows the current IMBA guidance on building maintainable and sustainable trails. The current downhill trail is not within IMBA standards and remains in constant state of rain damage. Nearly 25% of all volunteer THOR trail day work for 2007 went into maintaining this 400+ foot section where we have to support over 5 miles of total trail.

Look forward to seeing you there!

--
Swanson Trailleader

My room is getting greener...

The building inspector came by and tested my new desk for its stability...


Not bad for a $9 Goodwill find and some "sweat equity" from Martin and myself:)



Walls and shelves are painted and the room is move in ready... yeah!!
I even got out my old office chair. Not a good color match, but a status symbol, because it is made by IKEA Sweden:)

Now I have to find some storage for office supplies and such and get my books back on the shelves and I am back in business.

ERGON GP1 W -- TRANSALP TESTED!

TRANSALP TESTED these are. And they got a design award!


And they are GREEN

Transalp is a race that I have been dreaming about for a while. It crosses the European Alps from Germany to Italy and by doing that you ride e.g. 630km and 20,000 vertical meters.
ONE FINE DAY....


GP1 Women specific: My latest addition to will go on my Cannondale to race a few cross races.
You can race cyclo cross on a MTB, but you aren't to have bar ends on your bike, so here is the answer:


Thanks to Jeff and ERGON, I will have comfy hands while riding my hardtail in the future":)

And here is a little bit of ART:


Do you know that logo?

Modern Art or How to Choose a Paint Color

Do you like this modern art??

It's up on my wall right now....

But only temporarily to help me decide on a paint color for my room.

I knew I wanted green. But what kind of green? There are soooo many out there, so picked four different ones to see how they would look on the wall.
narrowed them down pretty quickly to these two:



The other ones where either too yellow or too bright.
Then I sat there for a while and looked at them......
I got all item together that I have that I really like the colors. Mainly pottery pieces and then there is also my desk that is already painted and finally my decision was made:

KIWI KISSED it is:) That is at least the name of the paint color. I am excited. We went and bought it and tomorrow, I will paint the room. Then, once it is dry, I can start putting it together and make it my own:)

NoBloPoMo!!

You probably wonder what that is NoBloPoMo.

It stands for National Blog posting Month and you can sign up for it, better sign your blog up for it and commit to writing a blog entry for every day in November.

I did that a few weeks back because I thought it would give my writing a little push and I liked the idea in general.

Now, I am having a problem! Martin, my husband surprised me with an early Christmas present and bought me an airplane ticket to visit my parents in Germany.

And I am SUPER EXCITED about that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am actually flying next Wednesday, the 7th and will be gone for two weeks.
The problem is that my parents don't have internet and so I won't be able to post...

But the chance to go home and see my parents is to nice to miss!

Maybe I can find a figure out a way to get access to a computer from over there.

The pictures are taken by me and show the little church and my home town where I grew up.

A Tale of Two Wolves

The Two Wolves

A Cherokee elder was teaching his grandchildren about life.

He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me… it is a terrible fight between two wolves.

One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, hatefulness, and lies.

The other stands for joy, peace, love, hope, humbleness, kindness, friendship, generosity, faith, and truth.

This same fight is going on inside of you, and inside every other person, too."

The children thought about it for a minute. Then one child asked his grandfather,

"Which wolf will win?"

The Cherokee elder replied…

"The one you feed."

I hear today about this tale and it fascinates me. A found the story written here.
The person, who told me about it said, that you not only can feed the "good" wold, but STARVE the other one, until it is GONE.....

I think, that is something I want to work on:)