As promised I'm back even if it's three weeks later. My goal is to try to remember to post at least once a week but I'll be glad if I can remember to post once a month. ha ha
So on with the show.
P.S. My spell check isn't working so forgive me for not spelling certain words correctly :-)
NO PICTURES
All our new pictures are either on the camera or Chris' computer. I'll make it my goal this weekend to get some up here for your viewing pleasure.
NEW ADDRESS
The Hays/Macgowan clan moved from Niedstr. 19 to Wielandstr. 12 in November 2009. We initially started looking at the end of August for a cheaper place to live. This would help in our quest to stay in Berlin a little longer.
We spent about three weeks looking around Friedenau (the area we've been living in) and a few areas close by. We found two great places; one in Friedenau and one in Steigliz. It was a tough decision as both places were really great. There were three exceptions. The place in "S" was on the 5th floor (no elevator) and was smaller than "F". "F" didn't have a balcony. Both had many many pluses but in the end we decided on "F" specifically Wielandstr. our current home. We all love our new place a lot and am glad we moved.
We have three huge rooms; two are bedrooms and one is our living/family room. We have a smaller room that is our office. It fits four desks nicely. We have a new bathroom that is just HUGE. We have a stand up shower, tub and lots and lots of space. We are able to fit our washer and dryer in there too. This is without a doubt my favorite room in the house. I missed taking showers. It's nice to have one again. We also have a new kitchen. It's pretty nice.
We have really nice neighbors and the house itself way nicer by like a 1000% from our last place. A few of the neighbors will gather this spring to do some gardening in the yard. I'm excited for this as I haven't done any gardening since moving to Berlin. I miss my yard in MN.
We are truly blessed to have such wonderful digs.
TOM TURNS 15
Our kitty Tom turned 15 in 2009 on December 5th. We celebrated with a can of tuna and various other treats. He was happy. We are looking forward to bringing him outside in the spring. He's comfortable in the flat and enjoys walking the halls as long as no one else is around. I'm hoping in a few more months he'll want to venture out. A neighbor in the next house over has a kitty and hopefully Tom can make a new friend. He misses his brother Ted. It will be a year in March that he died. We miss him. Love you Ted.
WEB CONSULTING
Chris and I have taken matters into our own hands and have started doing some web site development. We currently have a few clients and are hoping to get more. I'm working on getting business cards made as well as a web site up. The consulting company is called PBC Consulting which is short for Pretty Black Cat Consulting. Our new web site is at http://www.prettyblackcat.com/. There is nothing there at the moment. I just got it all set up in the last couple of days.
We are pretty excited about this opportunity. If you know of anyone that needs a web site built tell them to give us a call or shoot us an email. Until I get our site set up our resumes are online at http://www.macgowan.com/SoftwareConsulting.php.
KIDS
Connor started nursery school (Kita) in September and has been doing well. He got a nasty eye infection just before Thanksgiving and was in and out of Kita until winter break (around Christmas). He just went back this week after being home for 4 weeks. His English language skills have grown but his German not so much. One of his teachers mentioned that he doesn't understand anything but I think in time it will come back. He was so happy to see his teachers and his friends at school. It was great to see.
Connor is just as feisty as ever and is always getting into trouble or beating up on poor Logan. He says the funniest things and is making sentences out of the English and German words he does know. I finally had to cut Connor's hair as it was so long that it was unmanageable for him. I only had the guts to cut it straight across the back and shorten his bangs. He looks cute and the curls stayed. YEAH!
Logan started the 2nd half of 4th grade after the winter break. He was happy to go back and see his friends. Hey don't get me wrong he really liked having two weeks off for Christmas and New Year's but he missed his buddies. Logan really enjoys most of his classes. His favorites are Math and Science. He likes German too and is really doing well. His pronunciation is just great. Almost as good as a native speaker. He's talking more and more without help and can pretty much understand most Germans. We are very proud of our eldest son.
Logan is still gaga over anything Star Wars and Pokemon. I think I remember him telling me that he has something like 500 Pokemon cards. He does a lot of trading with kids at school. Logan and I like to play the game the cards were intended for and he usually beats me everytime. Logan's other new favorite pastime is playing his DSi. He loves it! My brother Sean and his wife Paula gifted one to Logan. He just can't seem to get enough of it. Sean, Paula and my Mom have supplied him with a nice mix of games. He seems to conquer them quite quickly. I'm hoping some day soon he'll let me play it.
SNOW AND MORE SNOW
Berlin has been blasted with cold weather and snow over the past couple of months. This is not the norm. We think the snow is great (not the cold), so we took the kids sliding a week ago. There is a hill near our flat so we took a few plastic trash bags with us (no sleds) and headed over there. We had a blast. The bags were a hit. They were used by other kids in the park that day. Who knew that a plastic bag would make such a great sled.
BOOKS
I've been reading a lot lately (unfortunately my eyes are getting bad -- old age). I read "The Hobbit", a few novels by Ann Patchett (currently reading "The Patron Saint of Liars"), all 7 of the Narnia books and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. All are great and I highly recommend any of these. I'm also reading "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold and so far I've had force myself to put it down. I could sit and read it all day like I did the Twilight Saga books (read all 4 in a week) but I would never get anything else done. I plan to read all the Harry Potter books after I finish the two I have started. I can't wait. I was hoping I could read them all before the last two movies come out.
MOVIES
I haven't been to as many movies as I would have liked to go to but since I last posted I've seen "New Moon", "Moon" (rented from iTunes), "9" (rented from iTunes) and "Avatar". Eeeek! That's not many at all. Oh well. I'm saving my money for some big ones coming out this summer. If you haven't seen "Avatar" you should go see it. The tech is pretty awesome. The story is average but the tech is just wonderful. Be sure to see it in 3D as it was intended. I liked all the Twiligt books so of course I liked "New Moon". It wasn't as good as the book or the 1st movie but I still liked it. "Moon" and "9" were interesting movies. I had heard about them from my Screen Rant guys http://www.screenrant.com/. Both were really good movies. "9" was a bit scary and Logan didn't want to have anything to do with it. I don't blame him. Not really a kid movie even though it was animated. I really liked "Moon" but it was sad. Great story and I'm a fan of Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey.
THE END
No, I'm not talking about the Black Eyed Peas' new album even though it's pretty good. No, I'm saying goodbye. Hopefully I've given you a fair amount of update since my last postings. I hope everyone is healthy and happy. Please come and visit us or email or call or comment. We'd love to hear from our family and friends. We miss you all and hopefully we'll be back this summer for a visit. That's the plan anyway. XOXO
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!
Hi everyone.
It's been a long time. I thought I better quickly write and say Happy New Year!
Life has been busy so blogging hasn't been a priority but hopefully I can change that in 2010.
Chris has added some new pictures to his web site at http://www.macgowan.com and here is our PDF Christmas card http://www.macgowan.com/christmas_card_1_20091228.pdf.
WOW!!!! I can hear the fireworks going off already. It's a big deal here in Berlin to shoot them off on New Year's Eve.
I've got more to share but will do this when I have my pictures downloaded from the camera.
I wish all of my family and friends a wonderful and blessed New Year!
St. Faustina, Pray for US!
It's been a long time. I thought I better quickly write and say Happy New Year!
Life has been busy so blogging hasn't been a priority but hopefully I can change that in 2010.
Chris has added some new pictures to his web site at http://www.macgowan.com and here is our PDF Christmas card http://www.macgowan.com/christmas_card_1_20091228.pdf.
WOW!!!! I can hear the fireworks going off already. It's a big deal here in Berlin to shoot them off on New Year's Eve.
I've got more to share but will do this when I have my pictures downloaded from the camera.
I wish all of my family and friends a wonderful and blessed New Year!
St. Faustina, Pray for US!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Tropical Islands and Dresden
Chris, Logan, Connor and I had a mini-vacation to Tropical Islands and Dresden from August 5th to the 10th.
Our pictures are located here http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php. Check them out.
TROPICAL ISLANDS
Tropical Islands is an indoor water park/tropical forest/spa. You can read more about them at their web site http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/visitors.html.
Logan and Connor had a blast here. There are several pools including a beach, water slides, and restaurants. They have a fun kid park with go-carts and mini-golf (18 holes).
We didn't get a chance to explore the tropical forest or the spa/sauna. Maybe next time.
Chris and I thought to really experience Tropical Islands in all it's glory would be to stay one or two nights inside the bio-sphere. They have tents or huts to rent.
We stayed in a nearby hotel that was about a 15 minute drive.
Tropical Islands is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Berlin. We had rented a car and the drive went quickly.
AUTOBAHN
I DROVE ON THE AUTOBAHN for the 1st time and let me tell you folks, people DRIVE REALLY REALLY FAST. I stayed to the right most of the time and let everyone fly by me. Eeek! I must say though it was FUN! My top speed was 250 kph which is about 155 mph. More EEEK!
DRESDEN
On Friday, August 8th we headed for Dresden. What a great city. It's about a 2 hour drive from Tropical Islands maybe a little less.
We stayed at the Westin Hotel right on the Elbe river. We had a wonderful view of the old city. There is so much history here. Dresden was completely bombed by the allied forces in WWII. Many of the historic buildings and bridges were bombed to their foundations. You can read about it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden.
Again we have lots of pics on Chris' web site at http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php.
Chris, Logan and I (we took shifts hanging out with Connor) took a bus tour which was very good. There was so much to see and we just couldn't get to it all in only a couple of days. We hope we can go back maybe next summer.
Our pictures are located here http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php. Check them out.
TROPICAL ISLANDS
Tropical Islands is an indoor water park/tropical forest/spa. You can read more about them at their web site http://www.tropical-islands.de/en/visitors.html.
Logan and Connor had a blast here. There are several pools including a beach, water slides, and restaurants. They have a fun kid park with go-carts and mini-golf (18 holes).
We didn't get a chance to explore the tropical forest or the spa/sauna. Maybe next time.
Chris and I thought to really experience Tropical Islands in all it's glory would be to stay one or two nights inside the bio-sphere. They have tents or huts to rent.
We stayed in a nearby hotel that was about a 15 minute drive.
Tropical Islands is about 45 minutes to an hour away from Berlin. We had rented a car and the drive went quickly.
AUTOBAHN
I DROVE ON THE AUTOBAHN for the 1st time and let me tell you folks, people DRIVE REALLY REALLY FAST. I stayed to the right most of the time and let everyone fly by me. Eeek! I must say though it was FUN! My top speed was 250 kph which is about 155 mph. More EEEK!
DRESDEN
On Friday, August 8th we headed for Dresden. What a great city. It's about a 2 hour drive from Tropical Islands maybe a little less.
We stayed at the Westin Hotel right on the Elbe river. We had a wonderful view of the old city. There is so much history here. Dresden was completely bombed by the allied forces in WWII. Many of the historic buildings and bridges were bombed to their foundations. You can read about it on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden.
Again we have lots of pics on Chris' web site at http://www.macgowan.com/PhotoIndex.php.
Chris, Logan and I (we took shifts hanging out with Connor) took a bus tour which was very good. There was so much to see and we just couldn't get to it all in only a couple of days. We hope we can go back maybe next summer.
Body Worlds
Last Friday Logan and I went to see the "Body Worlds" exhibit.
All I have to say is WOW!
If you haven't seen it it's pretty amazing.
Check out http://www.bodyworlds.com/.
The big "to-do" at this show is the plasticized couple posed in the "sex" position. It was at the end of the exhibit and to be honest was no big deal. In fact, I had forgotten all about it until I was in the "special" room where it was being exhibited.
Logan was a little freaked out by it all (except the animals) so he didn't look around too much and just focused on the animals being displayed. He would then sit down at the end of each section/room.
The exhibit was about the human life cycle from birth to death. Each life cycle had it's own section and in each section there were topics on the various parts of the body like the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, etc.
What I thought was cool was the transparent slices of a giraffe. It was life size. Logan thought it was neat too.
The other thing that was cool was the 4 reindeer and Santa plastinates. Just amazing. Logan thought this was creepy. He just gave a quick look and moved on to the next section.
I would have stayed longer but Logan was ready to leave.
I'm glad I got to see the exhibit and would highly recommend it to those of you who haven't been yet.
If you've seen this show already let me know what you thought.
All I have to say is WOW!
If you haven't seen it it's pretty amazing.
Check out http://www.bodyworlds.com/.
The big "to-do" at this show is the plasticized couple posed in the "sex" position. It was at the end of the exhibit and to be honest was no big deal. In fact, I had forgotten all about it until I was in the "special" room where it was being exhibited.
Logan was a little freaked out by it all (except the animals) so he didn't look around too much and just focused on the animals being displayed. He would then sit down at the end of each section/room.
The exhibit was about the human life cycle from birth to death. Each life cycle had it's own section and in each section there were topics on the various parts of the body like the heart, lungs, kidneys, nervous system, etc.
What I thought was cool was the transparent slices of a giraffe. It was life size. Logan thought it was neat too.
The other thing that was cool was the 4 reindeer and Santa plastinates. Just amazing. Logan thought this was creepy. He just gave a quick look and moved on to the next section.
I would have stayed longer but Logan was ready to leave.
I'm glad I got to see the exhibit and would highly recommend it to those of you who haven't been yet.
If you've seen this show already let me know what you thought.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The Hurt Locker Review
Hi folks. Just went to see THE HURT LOCKER. Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/ and http://thehurtlocker-movie.com/. Pretty darn great movie. Here is a review from my friends at Screen Rant http://screenrant.com/the-hurt-locker-reviews-pauly-17207/. I would give it a 4.5 too. PLEASE GO SEE IT!!!!
It's one of those movies that makes you think about a lot of things. As I was walking out of the theater at the Sony Center here in Berlin I was thinking WOW this place was bombed out too. Twenty years ago before the wall fell it looked the same as it did after WWII. Pretty crazy if you think about it. Now there are lots of pretty things and happy people around. Will Iraq be like this in 20 years? One has to think........
GO SEE THIS MOVIE and tell me what you think. I'll be looking for comments on this blog!
It's one of those movies that makes you think about a lot of things. As I was walking out of the theater at the Sony Center here in Berlin I was thinking WOW this place was bombed out too. Twenty years ago before the wall fell it looked the same as it did after WWII. Pretty crazy if you think about it. Now there are lots of pretty things and happy people around. Will Iraq be like this in 20 years? One has to think........
GO SEE THIS MOVIE and tell me what you think. I'll be looking for comments on this blog!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Connor's Officially 2 Years Old
So today is the day. August 3rd, 2009 and my little boy is 2 years old. Wow!!! That went fast. It's currently 10:30 a.m. here in Berlin and 2 years ago I was laying in the operating room looking at my newest edition. He was so little. Now what a big boy. Walking, talking, learning all kinds of new and cool things.
We are enjoying Crepes for breakfast. It's a rainy day so not sure what we'll do to celebrate.
On Saturday, August 1st we took two of his friends; Emilia and Lea (and her sister Sarah) to the Berlin Zoo. We've got pics and will post soon. Emilia's Mom and Dad; Annerose and Oliver came with us as well as Lea and Sarah's Mom Olivia. Logan was at hand to help supervise the kiddies. Yeah right :-) Emilia and Lea are from Connor's Montessori class. Our dear friend Jia Hu joined in on the fun.
It was the 165th year celebration of the Berlin Zoo. It's amazing that the zoo has been around that long. Pretty cool. We saw lots of animals, had a little lunch, ate chocolate cake, opened gifts (Connor got 4 trucks, a book, and bath and sand toys--Jia even bought a Lego Star Wars set for Logan--how nice), and played at the zoo park (huge and very cool). We got there around 9 a.m. and left the zoo around 2ish. We were all very tired when we got home. Naps for everyone :-)
We had a very nice celebration and I think everyone had a good time.
Well my banana chocolate crepe is getting cold so I'm going to sign off.
Happy Birthday Connor. Hope your 2nd year of life is filled with wondrous and amazing adventures. May God shine his light upon you!!
We are enjoying Crepes for breakfast. It's a rainy day so not sure what we'll do to celebrate.
On Saturday, August 1st we took two of his friends; Emilia and Lea (and her sister Sarah) to the Berlin Zoo. We've got pics and will post soon. Emilia's Mom and Dad; Annerose and Oliver came with us as well as Lea and Sarah's Mom Olivia. Logan was at hand to help supervise the kiddies. Yeah right :-) Emilia and Lea are from Connor's Montessori class. Our dear friend Jia Hu joined in on the fun.
It was the 165th year celebration of the Berlin Zoo. It's amazing that the zoo has been around that long. Pretty cool. We saw lots of animals, had a little lunch, ate chocolate cake, opened gifts (Connor got 4 trucks, a book, and bath and sand toys--Jia even bought a Lego Star Wars set for Logan--how nice), and played at the zoo park (huge and very cool). We got there around 9 a.m. and left the zoo around 2ish. We were all very tired when we got home. Naps for everyone :-)
We had a very nice celebration and I think everyone had a good time.
Well my banana chocolate crepe is getting cold so I'm going to sign off.
Happy Birthday Connor. Hope your 2nd year of life is filled with wondrous and amazing adventures. May God shine his light upon you!!
Tom Out the Window
Well a week ago my little kitty Tom fell out our 1st floor window. Poor guy. He was okay just a little shaken. Chris took him to the emergency vet clinic at the Frei Universitat and they gave him the A-OK. A week later no problems. Thank GOD!!! I was really worried. I'm sure it's because we are only 1 floor up and that he went tail/butt first and landed in a bunch of weeds and bushes. It cushioned the fall. I haven't let him out on the window ledge again since but I suppose I should. I think I need more than a week to recuperate. :-)
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