Profi in the Neighborhood

At the end of my ride today, I took a picture of this, which is about 300 meters and just around the block from where I live. This HTC vehicle has shown up periodically over the past year. I keep waiting for Tony Martin, Bert Grabsch, or Bernhard Eisel to join me on a 5:00am pre-ride, but I haven't seen them yet. :-)

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Karneval 2011

The ladies ruled once again, and took great pleasure at snipping tie off once again (what would Freud say). This year, I thought I would be smart and just buy a 3 EUR tie at the local Karneval shop ahead of time. So I did, but then upon arriving at the office I soon was informed that I was likely commiting a cultural Faux Pas. My tie was covered with Köln / Kölle symbols. So by cutting it, it was akin cutting an American flag or a Steeler's Terrible Towel - ie, BLASPHEMY to true Kölners. Oh well, they took pitty on me and know I am an Auslander. :-)

Here are some additional pics from the local festivities.




This is what Karneval is all about.






Example of German efficiency. The minute the last float in the parade had passed, the local sanitation crew was diligently cleaning up the streets.

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Past Blogs Revisited and Updated

Remember my last pics of the Rhein? Well, the water levels have receded back to normal level and here is what this area usually looks like.


Washer & Dryer Part II. Last year about this time I commented on the struggles we were having with our new German Washer & Dryer. Well the washer still revs-up like a 747, but after replacing half of my wardrobe due to extreme shrinkage, we have since learned how not to destroy our clothes. Nonetheless, our dryer has become our latest challenge. As you can see in the picture, it is now plastered with ducttape. This is because I had to drill new screws into the handle from which my extremely strong spouse (tongue-in-cheek) managed to pull off. The tape is now covering the protuding screws. Mind you, this dryer is only one-year old now. However, German engineering sometimes gets a little carried away, which often results in additional opportunities for something to fail. :-) Evidently, there is a systemic QA issue with this line of Bosch dryers, as another ex-pat I know had this exact same handle failure only after 4 months of being here.

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