Another One Bites The Dust....

Well the wavering economy has now effected me drastically. After I got back from my trip to Germany I received a call from my boss and his boss. I was told that the plant I work at was closing in 9 weeks. My last day is tentatively June 19. This could be extended slightly based on circumstances between now and then but at the soonest it it will be June 19. You can read a nice brief article here:
http://www.journal-news.com/news/hamilton-news/milford-company-to-layoff-58-93492.html?printArticle=y

They told us that everyone that was currently with the company would have a position available at the 'mothership' in St. Louis. They went under the assumption that nobody would be interested in that so they didn't really have anything prepared to show you that as an option when you had your one-on-one with HR. I'll be getting a severance, but it would be really nice if I somehow managed to last until august because that would give me 10 years and therefore I would receive 1 more weeks severance pay.
Our baby is due in mid-October so in a way I guess this is sort of okay because then I can stay home with my wife and the baby for a few weeks. What I'll probably do is try to find one or two part time jobs and work 20-30 hours a week while I am getting my severance pay and throw it all into the bank. I will also use that time to do projects around the house, such as building a new fence, getting the nursery and playrooms ready among other things. In the mean time I will look for a good permanent job to start after the baby is home for a few weeks.

Last month I made the decision to stop buying comics to get finances prepared since our wages were slightly reduced (but at least our severance is based on pre-reduced wages). I was collecting a ridiculous amount of books (if you have checked out some of my earlier posts you'll see what I mean) but I think I may be able to convince my wife we can afford 5-11titles a month without it hurting us. I have my list narrowed down to the following:

Dynamo 5
Amazing Spidey (I am cheating since this is a thrice a month book..yay!)
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
X-Factor
Incognito
Hercules
Immortal Iron Fist (which I read somewhere was ending soon)
Deadpool
New Avengers
Dark Avengers
Captain America
Mighty Avengers (maybe)
Iredeemable
There are also a couple miniseries I am looking to finish such as:
Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
Flash Rebirth
as well as a couple one-shots.

I think my best shot is to go to one of two local shops that are very close to my house instead of mail ordering so I can save money by shipping. Both of my local shops offer a pull/hold system with a 15% discount and one of them also offers free bag and boards which is a plus. I am not sure if the other shop does that or not, I didn't ask.

On top of everything else my wife and I have a nasty respiratory infection. I have been on antibiotics for a few days now. Yesterday was the worst of it as I had a fever of 100.2 so I didn't leave my house. Luckily I didn't miss any work. I just hope I feel well enough tomorrow to go into work. I need to save up my vacation days so I get paid for them all when the layoff takes effect. Good times!

Last of the pics for now (whew!)

More pictures!

These pictures are of a car made of recycled materials called a Trabant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Pictures (bored yet?)

More pictures!

and more pictures!

These pictures are of an incredible memorial for the millions of Jewish that were murdered. It is impossiblt to put into words when you stand there and look at it, remembering what happened.

More pictures!

Picture time!

I wonder how many pictures I can upload here. Hhmm. We'll find out! Well it looks like 5 at a time... The top picture is of the hotel we stayed at. The next picture is the grocery across the street from the hotel. The third, well, I don't know what the building was, but I thought it was a cool building with a clock. LOL. Not sure who the statue is of, there wasn't any info for it. The last picture is of the tv tower that broadcasts in Berlin. You can take a tour to the top of the tower. We didn't have time to do that though.

There's No Place Like Home!

We got in about 7:30pm EST last night. It was really nice sleeping in our own bed. Now, about the trip....

On my last post I stated that we got on the plane Sunday morning April 5. It was a long flight with a 4-5 hour layover in Newark. When we arrived in Berlin it was 8am Berlin time. That was fun, since they are 6 hours ahead of us. We stayed at the Holiday Inn East Berlin. Our hotel room wasn't ready yet so we rested in my in-laws room while they were out. They called a few hours later to let us know our rooms were ready. We went and rested for awhile. Monday was pretty uneventful until we went to dinner at the oldest restaurant in Berlin, the 'Letzte Instantz'. It was a very traditional German fare, my meal was comprised pretty much of pot roast and veggies with a side of potato puffs, which were like fried mashed potato balls. For desert they brought out these little cakes that were quite tasty. After that we walked around for a little bit and then went back to the hotel and to bed. The beds were very firm but the pillows were extremely flimsy (?). It is difficult to come up with a word to describe them. We had to ask the front desk for extra pillows. Tuesday we got up and had breakfast at the hotel buffet, which was extremely overpriced. they had alot of different things, but not much that appealed to me or my wife. I really don't remember if we had lunch or not. At 2pm all the women went to one of the women's flats for a bachelorette party, and all the guys went bowling. One of the guys asked me how I was at bowling and I said I tend to average 120-140. I found out that things were vastly different in Germany. First off, a size 11.5 shoe in Germany is a size 46. I thought that was really funny. Well, there were about 7-8 of us bowling. The first game I bowled a 70. Now, unlike the shoe sizes, bowling scores are the same. So, yeah, my first game sucked. the second game I got 166. By the 3rd game I was getting my groove on and bowled 188. I was doing awesome until the 9th frame and I blew it. Still, 188 isn't bad. Game 4 I was back to normal with a score of 119. My scores of 166 and 188 were the highest of the night so that was nice. :-)

After bowling we went to a bar and sat and drank (well, everyone else drank, I had Coke Light). It wasn't the best time at the bar for me, A. because I don't really drink, and B. EVERYONE else smoked. I think 98% of the population of Berlin smoked. I have never seen anything like it. I was starving and the bar had no food menu. I think we sat at that bar for 5 hours, at least, that is what it felt like. After we left we decided to stop and get some food for myself and brother-in-law. I think everyone else filled up on "liquid bread", AKA beer. We went to Burger King. Luckily quite a bit, but not all, of the people in Berlin spoke English so it was nice when we were ordering. I also ordered dinner for my wife, since I wasn't sure if they ate and I had no way of reaching her. I got us each a Whopper and fries. I also ordered chicken wings. yes. I said I ordered chicken wings at Burger King. How cool is that? They were quite delicious. They had alot of different things on the menu there in Berlin BK that we do not have here in the States. I tell you, that burger and fries were better than any Whopper I have had here in the states. That was a VERY long day. A decent one, but just long.

Wednesday was the wedding. I got up and walked down to the bakery and got some bread, donuts and stuff for breakfast. We learned our lesson the day before and passed on the buffet at the hotel. The bread there is just incredible. We got dressed and got our ride to the courthouse. I got the impression that weddings are done very different in Germany than here. It was neat to see. There was a lady who officiated the wedding. It was not a traditional wedding. The best way I can describe it was as if the couple who went to the court house to get married. Now, the reception, on the other hand, was one heck of a party. There was a nice sit down dinner, which consisted of a small beef steak, potatoes and some veggies. Then the newlyweds cut the wedding cake, which was very beautiful. Then they handed out the cake. One of the grandmothers made some traditional German cakes that were quite good. Then they danced, and did the garter and bouquet tossing. After all this, the restaurant set up a buffet for a dinner for us. That was an incredible meal. German spatzle, cheeses, goulash, soups, deviled eggs and some other stuff I am sure I am forgetting. Again, that was another long day but it was fun.

Thursday was the one day my wife and I had free. Nothing planned, no agenda. So we got breakfast (bread and donuts) and then we took the tram to some touristy type stuff. I really wanted to find some German comic books, but it wasn't looking very promising. Then we looked up on a street sign and there was a green hand written sign that said 'Comics, posters, toys- 220 meters) So we walked awhile and didn't see it. We turned around since my in-laws were waiting for us. My father-in-law said lets go look again so we started the trek again. We found it, about 20 yards from where my wife and I stopped looking. There weren't any German comics that were anything like American. No thriller, action, horror, or super-hero stuff. They had biography type things. Sure they had translated American comics, so I grabbed a couple things.

We had lunch at a little pizza place. It was really good, but again quite different than what i was used to.

My in-laws went back to the hotel and my wife and I went to alot more places. We bought a few little things as souvenirs.

For dinner we went to a place called Andy's American Grill or something similar to that. We had cheeseburgers and fries. It was really good. We walked around a market near a section of town called Alexanderplatz. It was really neat. We bought a potato pancake, a currywurst, and a waffle. After the market we headed back to the hotel. We were beat. I bet we walked 25 miles that day.

Friday I got up and went to the bakery and bought a couple sandwiches for breakfast. They eat alot of breads, cheeses, and meats for breakfast. I had a turkey sandwich with egg, cheese and a spread. It was really good. My wife had an egg sandwich with cheese and spread. At 10am we were meeting up with everyone to go on a boat tour through Berlin. It was a 3 hour tour. It was really nice. We really didn't have lunch that day but I went to the grocery across the street from the hotel and got some things. I actually made several trips to the store through out the week for stuff like snacks and drinks. That night my wife and I watched her brother so her parents could go to the pub with everyone else. He put on a show for us and I recorded him. It was pretty entertaining. We went down the street and got donors (pronounced duna) and fries for dinner. Her parents got back around 12:30am and got her brother.

Saturday morning I got up and went to the bakery for more sandwiches for breakfast. I also got a couple baguettes as snacks for the trip home on Sunday. We had to meet everyone at 11am to drive to lunch, which was at the Reichstag, which is the Parliament building. there is a really fancy restaurant on the top floor. Normally there is a huge waiting line and you could wait 4-5 hours to get inside the building. They made reservations for us so we got to go right in. The restaurant was called Kaefer Dachgarten. We had beef cheeks, vegetables, soup, bread, and a strudel with ice cream. It was a decent meal. The building was exquisite though. After lunch my wife and I did more sight seeing and had dinner at a place called The Block House which was a terrific steakhouse. the price seemed a little high, but it included a salad, a good sized steak, baked potato and garlic bread. It was the best meal we had all week. After dinner we went back to the hotel and began packing.

Sunday morning we had to get up and check out at 7am as our flight was at 9:30. The flight was about 8 hours from Berlin to Newark. When we got to Newark it was about 1:15pm EST. We had about 2-3 hours to wait for our flight. As I mentioned way up above our flight time from Newark to Cincinnati kept changing. Good times.

Things I wasn't particularly fond of in Berlin:

1. No Mountain Dew. I later found out that it is illegal in Germany. Not sure if that is true or not.

2. No refills on drinks at restaurants.

3. No ice in drinks at restaurants.

4. All the smoking.

5. It seemed like there was litter everywhere.

Things that I thoroughly enjoyed:

1. The transportation systems. There were so many options to get where you needed to go: The tram, the train, bus, taxi, subway, and you could even rent bikes around the city.

People rode bicycles everywhere. It was really neat to see that. Now I know why there were so many thin people around!

2. The diversity of restaurants. There were all types of restaurants. German (duh), Thai, Chinese, Italian, American, Irish, etc. Lots of options.

3. Convenience of location. On the street where our hotel was, there were 2 grocery stores, 4 bakeries, and several other handy shops. I walked to most of these places throughout the trip in the mornings.

4. The architecture. Most of the city had to be rebuilt after the war, and some of the buildings are just incredible. There is also a huge memorial for the murdered Jewish that is quite a sight to see.

5. The styles. The style was really interesting. My wife kept using a term to describe it but right now neither of us can think of that term. LOL! It reminded me of seeing things on TV of New York or LA.

6. The weather. The weather there was perfect. It may have been just the time we were there but every day was beautiful.

7. The food. The bread and meats and cheeses were delicious. I love bread, meat and cheese, so I was set!

I'll be posting some videos and pictures off and on. Overall I did enjoy the trip and I would like to go back one day.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto...

Last Sunday my wife and I boarded a plane and headed to Berlin for her brother's wedding. It was a long flight with a 5 hour layover in New Jersey. Berlin is 6 hours ahead of us so it was rough once we got here. The itinerary has been insane. Today is the first day there hasn't been an all day event planned. I am hoping to get to see alot today and do some shopping. I am hoping to find a couple German comic books. I have spent most of the morning wandering the streets today. I'll be posting alot more later on and once I get home. It is very different here. Later!

I got a new toy!

My wife and I had an agreement that once we got pregnant I could buy a camcorder. I bought one 2 weeks ago. It is a Sony DCR-DVD650. It is really cool. I have recorded a few things. I really want to post the first video but my wife will not let me because she is in it and will not let me, so i am posting a video of Puddles and Boo. I am gonna have loads of fun with the camera. Yes, I am a dork. :-)

I'm Gonna Be a Daddy!

I have been dying to post this, but I just got permission from my wife to do so. We are 12 weeks pregnant tomorrow. The baby is due mid-October. We have chosen names for a boy and a girl. We are not 100% sure yet if we are going to find out the sex of the baby. There is alot to this story, but I am not 100% comfortable posting everything just yet. Who knows. I just wanted to share this awesome news! :-)