Old...white....car. i dont know what it is.

An old bike. I know it looks strange, but the bike is small, the guy is normal size. not the other way around.

You will be mine. oh yes, you will be mine.

Nothin but the basics.

Buuugatti. The french got these right.

Nice Healey 100

The Big 27

No one can embarrass a child quite like their parents. Whether it's a little spit in the hand to fix that wayward lock of hair, the pants jiggle while school shopping or the jacket with your name inside it, parents seem to find endless ammunition to supply a child's friends with. Luckily as we grow up these things tend to become less embarrassing and much easier to ignore. Every once in a while though, parents still seem to come up with something to remind their children that they're out there, especially on Birthday's.

Today is my Birthday....

NOTE: this pause is to allow you time to click on over and write me a mail saying happy birthday or better yet..send me a gift. I like my corvette's in velocity red please. Black is a suitable alternative too.

Back so soon? Anyway, today is my birthday and I'm reminded of a birthday a few years back in which my Mom managed to embarrass me from over 500 miles away, truly an impressive feat for any parent. I was working in Memphis at the time and as usual i was doing my best to forget the fact that it was indeed my birthday. Another year older with nothing of substance to show for it...my cynical side showing there.

So I'm sitting at my desk and from out of nowhere one of the dudes who worked up on the phone lines comes back and says “Is it your birthday?”

Me “Um, Yeah. How did you know?”

Dude “well your mom just sent a mail to the company inbox telling everyone up front that its your birthday and we should all come back and wish you happy birthday”

Me “Great. Thanks” don't shoot the messenger...don't shoot the messenger.

Looking back now i realize that it was not meant to embarrass me, but at the time i was embarrassed as hell. Ahh but time passes and we get older. Nowadays i get the option of embarrassing myself for my birthday.

I bring this up only to highlight an interesting tradition here in Europe. Here, whenever anyone has a birthday they bring all sorts of food and eats into work and send an announcement to the company list. “come on over and eat my food, help me celebrate my birthday”....something to that extent anyway. I just couldn't bring myself to do that though. It feels a bit pretentious to me. When i told the people here that the tradition in America is the opposite...people buy YOU things for your Birthday, they thought it was just as odd. It probably didn't help when i told them a Rolex was a typical gift.

For everyone that sent me Birthday wishes, thanks! For everyone that didn't and were only going to send after reading this and being reminded...well, i know who you are and i have a long memory.

What was i talking about again? Ahh yes, to drink or not to drink, that, my friends, is the question. It's September and that means Oktoberfest is upon us. I know, doesn't make sense to me either but the Germans don't seem to notice a problem so why bring it up.

Oktoberfest is underway and although i didn't reserve a seat anywhere i got invited to go up this weekend for a few days of, well, drinking. The only problem is there's also a classic rally going on here in Switzerland. It's actually a pretty tough decision. Sure i can drink anytime, but not in 1 liter quantities in a tent with 500 other drunk people. And sure i can see races any time, but this one is only run every four years.

http://www.klausenrennen.com/en/Geschichte/geschichte2.htm

My plan of action is basically to procrastinate until as late as possible and then make a decision.

Will i go to the race?

Will i go to Oktoberfest?

Tune in next week to see the exciting conclusion of “The Weekend of Sept. 23”.

Cant think if a witty title.

...and i'm back. There's nothing like returning home to a nice surprise or in my case, 2.
I've said it before and i'll say it again, Paris De Gaulle airport sucks. Despite flying through there 5 or so times i've managed to avoid running into any real problems beyond it annoying the hell out of me with the general atmosphere and attitude. However coming through Paris this past time was by far the worst time yet....the bus rides were longer, the people ruder and to top it all off, they lost one of my bags. It wasnt a particularly important bag, it had an inflatable bed some along with some books and DVD's, but its the principal of the matter. Murphy's law got me this time.

The other surprise though was a bit better. Normally my company leaves me a little sh*tbox at the airport but this time i arrived to find myself the new destroyer, i mean driver of an Audi A3 Sportwagon. As cool as that sounds it sounds even better when you say it like the Germans.
Shportvagen

Say it with me...Shportvagen.

Ja

Its much faster, handles better and has significantly less plastic than my previous ride, the venerable VW Polo, always a favorite of the ladies. I need to figure out how to keep this Audi...Fast.

As far as my vacation itself, it was great. I know what you're thinking, “Corrigan, isn't two and a half weeks is rather short for a vacation?”. Yes yes, but i managed to fill the time. During the first week I spent a few days in NY getting my haircut, doing some shopping, working on my cars, catching up with Family...all the usual stuff.

The second week brought a few more hours of flights and 7 days of diving in the Caymans. The Cayman islands, for anyone that doesn't know, are basically a pinnacle of coral surrounded by 6000ft of deep, dark water. Needless to say the wall dives are phenomenal and provide ample opportunity to see some big wildlife in some deep water. But despite having 6000ft of water underneath me, I was not able to get the deepest dive of the trip. My 131 footer was 1 foot short. Thanks Doran. Asshole.

I didn't have an underwater camera this trip because 2 other people i was diving with both had housing for their cameras, well, at least for the first half anyway. Who would've thought underwater camera housings were so sensitive to pressure. The dive yielded some good pics but as usual the sharks were the most exciting to see, for me anyway. We did see some stingrays on the trip. I'm not sure what the hell Irwin was doing but i was able to grab on and ride them like a jet ski without any problems. Maybe he forgot his name was the crocodile hunter and not the stingray hunter. Too early? Below are some pics. As soon as i get some of the underwater ones I'll post them too.

And now it's back to the grindstone at work. I've got over 350 mails to delete, i mean read, so i should be able to spend at least the next 2 or 3 days avoiding work. This will be a busy fall with some trips to Italy, Birmingham, Detroit and Koln coming up, but luckily there's a classic Rally in there as well.

View from the dive boat.

Storm at night...thank you long exposure.

Storm damaged mansion. Million dollar view on a (formerly) million dollar house.

Sunset before a night dive.

Home for the week pic 1

Any Stingray's in there? I hear they're friendly.

Home for the week pic 2

Storm Damaged house. fixxer upper??

Crab. They run sideways and bury themselves in the sand. Kind of like the french.

The dive boats.

Sunset before a night dive. Even without the sun the water was still in the 80's.

Europe has nice view...but so does home. Or as brian called it, the "hellhole in northville". Brownie points for kevin.

I think i put more miles on my cars in 1 week than my dad has all summer. Probably didnt help that the brakes hardly work(ed).

Hindsight is...anyone? anyone?

I'd like to personally thank the terrorists for f'in up my vacation.

Thanks

Sarcasm doesnt come through well in writing, but if it did, it'd be dripping off this page. Last wed. I booked a last minute trip to London for the weekend. The weather was looking so bad here for the weekend that i decided to bail on the street parade. Zurich to Heathrow for 4 days of London fun. Yeah well, that was the plan anyway. No sooner had i booked it than the fuzz anounced on thursday that they had foiled a terrorist plot at..anyone? Bueller? London Heathrow of all places.

Again...Thanks

So with the prospect of being out a bunch of money i sucked it up, thought up the best BS story i could and called travelocity. After an hour of arguing with some Indian guy they agreed to refund all my money. Somehow i had them convinced that their website had an error in it which resulted in the wrong hotel booking. Damn i'm good. Well, that or he was just sick of arguing with me.

Equipped with my refund i sucked it up and headed to the street parade despite the forecasted rain. It was actually allot of fun....the rain actually may have helped. White shirts..rain...hey, i'm just saying. One of my friends got some good pics but i need to sensor them before posting.

I do consider myself a nice person though and i'll give you terrorists a second chance. Next Wed. i'm heading to the states for about 3 weeks of well deserved vacation.

Don't 'f it up Osama!

NOTE:if any travelocity representatives are reading this, this is a work of pure fiction. I'm not even a real person.

So..its hot then?

I hear that the east coast is in the midst of quite a heat wave. Well, i'd like to tell you that i feel your pain but frankly, i dont. It's been cold and cloudy for the last 10 days or so with no end in sight. Given the option of hot or cold...i'll take cold.

Not much else going on, next weekend is a 4 day weekend and up in Zurich they have the "Street Parade". http://www.streetparade.ch/ Hopefully the weather is better for saturday.

Here's some random pics of Europe during vacation season.

Brown Swiss...that must be where chocolate milk comes from.

What are you looking at?

See you in September

Friday officially marked the beginning of vacation season ( yes, season ) at my company and in Europe as a whole. Here in Europe there's Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall and Vacation season. Thats five for anyone who doesn't care to go back and count.

When i was working in the states for my current company i found it rather annoying. For 4-6 weeks every summer our European office became a ghost town. Need some cost info, need some quotes, need some prototypes?..forget it. Tell your customer to wait. After all, shouldn't he have vacation season too??? It wouldn't be so bad if it was spread out over a bigger portion of the year, one person taking vacation here, one person there. But no, it's all grouped together between June and September. There are a few people at work who literally walked out last Friday and said “Bis September”....”Until September”.

Wow.

To be fair this vacation season is pretty common throughout Europe. That is one reason they are able to get away with it. When your customers and suppliers are also taking time off then its much easier for you. But don't forget, its not just B2B businesses, it's consumer businesses as well. The bike shop down the street is closed till August 11th and the Kebop place next door is closed nearly as long! In my mind this would be the best time to be a shop owner, but try telling that to the shop owners. Actually I think that the vacation season here is an excellent illustration of the overall mentality towards work here. The world can wait, we've got vacation.

Is it really any wonder that most European economies cannot match the US for growth or output? When you add up all the time off they have allot of catching up to do. I'm an engineer by degree so lets do some math. Take 4 weeks and multiply over 100 years, thats 400 weeks. Now subtract out the average 2 week vacation in the states and that means that Europe's economy is ~2 yrs behind ours!! Rest easily my fellow Americans, our position at the top of the economic food chain is secure. Well, assuming China or our own government doesn't screw it up.

But now I'm on the other side of the fence and i can hear you asking “but corrigan, has my view changed?” But of course, from this side of the pond i can honestly say that it's great! I'm working the next few weeks because i cant afford the time off from my projects, but it should be nice and quiet around work. Come in at 10, 3 hr lunch, leave at 3...and i bet i still get more done than i normally due because of the lack of distractions. I've already taken about 8 days off this year and in September I'm taking about another 10 days. I suppose I'm a hypocrite, but I'm comfortable with that.

I sleep better.

Particularly knowing i have so much vacation.

Now get back to work you lazy Americans!


Oh, one more thing...so the BBQ went well, except for the Margaritas. First, i had trouble finding the Margarita mix. Tequila wasnt a problem, but the mix was nowhere to be found. After a few calls i got a line on a store that might have them but before going i thought it prudent to make sure i could find ice. Believe it or not, this is a huge challenge. When i was at LeMans there was no ice to be found. If i go next year, I'm renting a truck and a generator and carting along an ice maker. I'm telling you, that idea is pure gold!

Anyway, back to the margarita issue, so i called a few people asking where i can find ice. The best answer i got was “try McDonald's, i think they have an ice machine”. Well, i decided that Corona would have to do.

EuroBQ's

One constant with the arrival of summer is mankind's desire to get out in the sun, drink cheap beer and cook meat over an open flame. Europe is no exception, they may have a slightly different take on it, but luckily the fundamentals are the same. Over the last few weeks I've been to quite a few BBQ's over here and it's been quite allot of fun. My standard BBQ greeting was “anyone tap the keg yet? I'll pump...” but unfortunately that doesn't work here. It's generally greeted with blank stares or questions along the lines of “whats a tap”, or worse yet “whats a keg?”.

Although i haven't been asked (yet), overall i would give Europe a B+ for their BBQ's. They've got sun, beer, bikini's, fire, and meat. All the essentials are here but to get their marks up they do need some improvement in a few key areas.

One area where Europeans have not mastered the art of BBQ is in timing. No, it seems that weekdays and weekends are equally popular for BBQ's which any BBQ veteran such as myself would tell you is a bad idea. To properly hold a BBQ you need an open time table, and more importantly you need nothing planned for the following day, least of all work. We all know what a lethal concoction cheap beer, the sun, food and volleyball (or in the case if Europe, soccer) can be. It saps your desire to do anything the following day. Word to the wise, for any aspiring BBQ'ers out there this is your first rule, all BBQ's should be open ended. Typically its best to not send a formal invite as that defeats the purpose but if one is needed a simple start-? will suffice. The key is the “?”. That ? has found me sleeping in many a backyard lawn chair.

The second area where Europeans have not mastered the art of BBQ is in their meat selection. Pork is good, but not for BBQ'ing. The other white meat should always be reserved for indoor dining. Red meat is a rarity here and you might be surprised to hear this, but i received more than one blank stare when i asked where the 'Brats were. This place invented the f'in thing but i should have remembered that they have a strange aversion to shortening names here. (Word to the wise..this applies to people's names as well. Thomas is never Tom, Bernadette is never Berny and Peter is never Pete etc. I did meet a Wolfgang that was a Wolfy, but that ones definitely questionable). Back to Brats, apparently they are too low class for a European BBQ, reserved more for fast train station cuisine. By contrast, in the states you cant have a proper BBQ without Brats. The spicier the better and in true American fashion we even put cheese in some of them. Now thats a heart stopping good time. Actually, as a general statement i think you could confidently say that Europe seems to have a strange aversion to any portable food.

Now I know what you're thinking though, “Corrigan, why not throw your own BBQ and show these neutral Swiss how we do it in the states!”. Well, I'm way ahead of you...mostly. After making so many comments about the differences in the BBQ methodology next weekend I'm doing just that. So far here's the shopping list...

-Charcoal...lots of it. No BBQ'in over wood.

-Steaks. Lots of them.

-Cheap beer. They don't have Natty Lite here..nor Natty Lite Ice. Unfortunately you'd be hard pressed to find 30 beers for 9.99 here (man i miss good old Farmer Jack), how they've survived this long is beyond me. But i think i can scrounge up some Corona or Coors, maybe even some Margaritas.

-Brats. Lots of them.

-BBQ sauce. Too bad i didn't think of this when i was in the states last, but along with Ipods and blue jeans you could make a fortune importing proper BBQ sauce. (Ketchup is not BBQ sauce, despite what many people here think).

-Lastly, a V-Ball court. This ones a bit tough, but I've got a line on a court over in Austria..that's the target location. If not there then we'll head to one of the many open BBQ pits near Feldkirk.

Thats the plan. Simple, yet effective. Results? TBD I feel as though i am an ambassador of good will, spreading the best parts of America throughout the world. I really should be getting paid for this.

Some Random Funny Videos

Nothing like a little humor to cure a hangover. Well, that and gatorade. This week brought the 200 year anniversary of Liechtensteins soverienty as well as the Feldkirk Wine festival. Sorry, but i dont have the patience to google the correct spelling of soverienty. I'm not sure i can handle another night of homemade wine and umpa lumpa music. But i'll take one for the team and represent america well.

So hear's a few videos and fun links for you in case you're sitting around today nursing a hangover. I particularly like Urkel quest.

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/video-elaborate-video-game-hoax

http://www.collegehumor.com/urkelquest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1N2PgopbJw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7_7_TE_kVk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6y7AgfMPv8

My kind of football!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pU52Xs7ljM

Thanks for trying USA

Despite a respectable showing, the USA is no longer in World Cup, or rather the WeltMeister Cup. As you can imagine this gave ample opportunity to my colleagues and friends to bust my bal..i mean chops.

Random coworker #1 “Hey, good job American. I thought you guys were supposed to be good at
everything?”

Me, “Give us 4 more years.”

Random coworker #1 “Didnt Ghana beat you guys”

Random coworker #2 “And the czech republic too?”

Me “Yeah.“

Laughing ensues.

Me “laugh it up, but we aren't the ones who started WW deuce”.

Laughing stops.

I've watched quite a few of the games and people take this stuff SERIOUSLY here. Rarely does a company allow jerseys to be worn at work but the last four weeks all rules were off. Swiss jerseys, German jerseys, Brazil jerseys, New Jerseys (nyuck nyuck) and of course Italian jerseys. It was pretty colorful around the office. I had a very special Tshirt made up that said “Real football requires padding”. No i didn't,but maybe i will next year. I must admit though that i took a small amount of pleasure when Germany lost the other day taking them out of the running for first place. The ego's were getting a bit out of control around here.

Its 4 more years till the US has another chance to play in the world cup. If we're lucky maybe Ghana will be having a civil war or something. Seriously, where the hell even is Ghana? How does a third world country outplay us? We've got to step it up for the next World Cup. If the US really wants to “win” respect back in the world, how about kickin some arse in the world cup. Nothing fosters good relations more than going to another country and beating them at their own game.

I'm not just a talker though, i'm practicing what i preach. My company had our football tournament last weekend and i, Corrigan, Mr Soccer, played on one of the teams. The tourney is a pretty big deal within the company, particularly this year as you might imagine. One might even go so far as to call it our own World Cup. We had teams from divisions in France, Germany, Liechtenstein (i just recently realized i've been spelling that wrong...for the last 8 months), and of course me. I like to think that i showed the Europeans a thing or two about how to play Football, REAL football. But apparently tackling and checking isn't allowed in European Football. Who'd have known, in America tackling and picking up the ball is allowed. That excuse only worked in the beginning though.

Well, the last game is starting shortly and i'm off to the beer tent at the Coop to watch it. Italy vs. France....Italy has Ferrari and Pizza, but France has...Airbus? So i guess its go Italy.

Oh and sorry Ma, but assuming the deal doesnt fall through I'll be the proud new owner of an '83 RZ350 by the end of the week....thats a motorcylce. I promise i'll be safe. Could've been worse Ducati's are pretty affordable over here.

24 Hueres Du Mans

When I think of France, i think of champagne, wine, fries, toast, dressing, napoleon, that creepy robot dude from Europtrip, and a slew of other rather uninteresting things. Now however, i can expand that list to include good racing.

France isn't generally known for racing. When gearheads meet and talk shoop, the talk generally turns to SpA, Hokenheim, Indy, Monaco, Daytona....those are the big well known and well followed races/tracks. But this year, for the 74th time France hosted one of the slightly lesser known but incredibly fun races, namely the 24 Heures Du Mans.

Think back to what you were doing at this time yesterday. Now imagine that you and 2 friends spent the time between then and now driving nearly non stop at breakneck speeds around an 8.5 mile course. That, in essence, is LeMans. (sounds like Les Mawn when the french say it. sounds like lemanz when i say it). The requirements on the cars, drivers, teams (and fans) is pretty intense. By the time the 12th hour rolls around fully half the field is usually out for engine trouble (or failure), crashing, or any number of other problems that can arise during such an excersize. This held true this year as only 27 of 50 teams finished.

Anyway, i took about 250 pics over the course of the week, the night pics being by far the most challenging. Sometime around midnight on Saturday i jumped on one of the continuosly running buses with my camera and a backpack full of beer to take the 5 mile journey to the other end of the track. Nothing like a few beers to make new friends.

Although i had a grandstand pass (directly across from one of ferrari's pits!) and i was camping on the porsche curve (with a bunch of crazy brits!) i really wanted to see "indy corner" and also the "Mulsanne kink" at the end of the Mulsanne straight. Indy corner is famous because its one of the fastest and most challenging portions of the track, and the Mulsanne straight is famous because its just that...a big straight. Mulsanne is the fastest portion of the track while the "kink" at the end forces cars to break from over 250mph to around 65mph to make the turn safely.

I arrived at indy corner first and found that i was not the only one with the desire to check out this corner...It was packed! But i was still able to work my way down pretty close to the track. After a few hrs there i got back on the bus and headed to the infamous Mulsanne kink around 3AM. Mulsanne was incredible at night...the sound of the cars, the glowing turbo's of the Porsches, the red hot brakes of all the cars, the 3 foot flames from the exhaust when they get off the throttle.....intense is the word that comes to mind but does not do the experience justice.

Night pics are tough and most of the ones i took didnt come out that well, but i got a few. Following Mulsanne i headed back to my grandstand seat to watch some of the action in the pits at 4AM. Although it might seem crazy to be up at this hour keep in mind that sleep is nearly impossible due to the noise. Besides, some of the best action is at night! Nothing like a 250mph race car and a groggy driver to make for some interesting racing. Sorry, but its the truth!

Over the course of 24hr race i slept maybe 3 or 4 in total. Luckily the weather held up the entire weekend as i was unprepared for anything other than warm and sunny. The Audi diesels (yes diesels) won the race placing first and third. The first place car bested the next closest car (Pescaralo) by 4 laps. More importantly, in the increasingly popular GT1 class one of the factory backed Corvette's bested the Aston Martins and even some of the supposedly faster "Lemans Prototypes" coming in 4th overall.

Lemans is known as the biggest race in the UK thats not actually held in the UK. There are so many brits that you would think you are at Silverstone. Despite this enormous contingency and the huge presence of the Aston Martin's in the race, nearly everyone i talked to agreed that the three Corvettes were the best sounding cars there. For anyone who cars it was sort of a cross between the thunder of a Nextel Cup car and the whine of an F1 car...but louder than both.

I had quite a few firsts this past weekend. First time on a night train, first time camping in europe, first time building a beer mountain, first time at lemans, first time surviving on nothing but beer and sandwiches...well actually that last one wasn't a first, thats pretty much my life. More importantly would i recomend it? Absolutely. Am i goin back next year? hell yeah!

3 Days of hardwork, and this was the result.



I camped with some brits over the weekend. They called themselves a racing team...but i have no idea what they raced, except eachother to the bottom of a beer bottle.

At the start as the cars are lined up. An Aston, a C6R and a Saleen S7.

A Ferrari headlight.

At the Porsche Curves.

Although their uniforms were from BP (British Petroleum), i have a sneaking suspicion they werent here to sell oil.

A GT40. A REAL GT40.

One of the Lemans Prototypes.

Audi Diesel.


The Pits at night. Still bustling with activity.

The corvette pits.

I've got a lot more pics...but i'm out of time now. Ciao for now!

Lichtenstein in Summer

Some Random Pics...Despite summer's arrival, there's still snow up high!




One of my noisy neighbors.

The Day After Yesterday

I've really got nothing to say right now, but i feel like i should post something. So lets just let my brain wander and see what comes out.

Last weekend i was in Vienna with a colleague from America. This was my third attempt to get there since moving here and the third time is indeed a charm. Vienna is fun. I met a crazy old hippy in a bar who tried to convince me to (metaphorically) give away a dollar every day. If everyone (metaphorically) gave away a dollar, he hypothesized, the world could eliminate poverty overnight. I inserted “metaphorically” because he kept saying that.

Crazy Hippie - “Dont you get it, if we all gave away a dollar then we could eliminate poverty”

American - “But what would happen tomorrow?”

Crazy Hippie - “You'd have to give away another dollar”

American - “Wouldn't that just create a giant welfare state?”

Crazy Hippie - “No”

American - “Really, You sure?”

Crazy Hippie - You don't get it man, I'm speaking about a metaphorical dollar”

American - “How does someone buy food with a metaphorical dollar?

Crazy Hippie - “You still don't get it.”

American - “I think your right. Bartender...another beer please. Actually better add a shot of JD
to that order.”

Crazy Hippie - “Lets start over, if everyone gave away a dollar, we could eliminate poverty overnight. Bono says that too.”

American - “But i still don't understand what would happen after tomorrow. If you're not talking about real money, then what the hell are you talking about.”

Crazy Hippie - “I mean all the rich wouldn't be so rich anymore and all the poor would have money”

Americn - “Metaphorically?”

Crazy Hippie - “You still don't get it”

American - “Definetely not. Are you a Nazi?

Crazy Hippie - “What?”

American - “Nothing

Crazy Hippie - “Oh”

American - “And Bono's a tool.

Crazy Hippie - “Hugh?”

I argued with him for a while and then got bored and drank (allot) more beer. I was apparently an ignorant American who didn't understand anything. As soon as i can get this freekin program working right, i'll post some pics.

There's some crazy German TV show on right now I have no freekin clue what this chick is babblin about, but that's nothing new. She's on the “supershow”. I'm not sure whats so damn super about it, it's certainly not the comedy.

What else is going on....Oh, Happy early Birthday to me. That's right folks I bought a new guitar. It made absolutely no sense to buy, but i like it. It's a Gibson LP and I deserve it.
Metaphorically.

This chick is still rambling on in the background, only now she's wearing pink cleaning gloves and doing something with a plate. What the fu...dge.

The exchange rates continue to get better. It's been like getting a 10% raise over the last few weeks. However the markets are in the crapper, so my raise is already gone.

My visit to the states was pretty cool. The weather was good, i got to drive my cars, the boat, see some friends and family including some that i hadn't seen in years. Overall a very good 3 days. I actually came back to fresh snow here. The next few weeks are gonna be busy. Next weekend...France. The week after that, Italy. July might include a trip to Hokenheim and August brings the WRC in Germany. At some point during the summer I'm gonna try to get over to Spain too.

Well, I'm falling asleep on my keyboard. I finally got an assistant at work though so hopefully things ease up a bit and i can start getting out of there before 7 every night. I'm gonna get a drink and read till i fall asleep.

Cheers!