The Euro-Condon Web Log

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Originally uploaded by condonj.

guess it’s time to catch back up …

I had the best Single Malt Whisky of my life last Friday night. It was a Balvenie Vintage Cask 1971.

“This Rare Whisky was specially selected by The Balvenie Malt Masters from our limited stock of Ancient Reserve Whiskies, and hand-bottled at the Balvenie Distillery on 11 May 2005. Bottled from a Single Vintage Cask No. 8921 which lay undisturbed since 29 June 1971. This bottle No. 105 is one of a limited edition of 189 bottles.”

The bolded text was hand-written. The whisky is a year younger than my wife. The description on the label pretty much says it all …

Jim

We’ve kept our spirits up despite two months of someone in the family being fairly sick. So our holidays were ok but not the best ever. And a last minute project for work took some holiday time away also. I just got back from a quick trip to the States, during which, you guessed it, I got sick. The shivery, achey, feel like hell kind of sick. No fun traveling and alone when that happens. No one to whine to.December was pretty usual. Work, travel, family, work, travel, family … We got a good bit of Esslingen Medieval Christmas Fest in but could always have taken more. We were able to spend Christmas and New Years with Migle’s parents in Vilnius.

Tom, Stephanie, Migle and I had already bought my Mom a ticket to come visit all of us for May, but yesterday I bought her another ticket to come visit us in Stuttgart in March. She was pleasantly suprised.

Nothing else exciting in January yet … more to come …

(the title of the post is a reference to all the various illnesses we have all had over the last few months)

Jim

Migle wanted to try something new and cut her hair short. What do you think?

Happy Holidays, Jim

Thanks Lubo for this picture of me and Kostas at the Esslingen Besen.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Jim

It’s been one month since my last post … and not a lot of blog worthy things have happened.

We are still trying to finish buying a new apartment. We signed the loan and we’re finalizing the contract with the lawyer.

The Besen has opened in Esslingen, in fact, we had lunch there today with Glen and Celine.

More importantly, the Esslingen Medieval Christmas Market and Festival is now going on. This is one of our favorite, perhaps most favorite, festivals in Germany - and its 500 meters from our house.

I posted a few photo’s just now, but nothing major.

We had one of the best Thanksgivings I have had in a while. I have been in a major cooking mood lately and Migle cooked the bird and I cooked everything else. We had two friends over and that made for a enjoyable, relaxing, and fun meal.

Last week was a big week at work. I had a lot of business guests in town.

Next week I’m headed to DC for a few days.

And the week after, we might be going to Garmisch, also for a few days.

And we’ll spend Christmas in Lithuania, like we do each year.

Happy Holidays!

J, M, & K

Well, obviously my new job is going well and therefore keeping me busy. Well, that along with spending time with Migle and Kostas.

Here are a few things of interest that have happened over the last few months …

In July, Migle went to Vilnius to attend the huge and every-four-year Song Festival and Kostas and I hung out alone for the first time. While she was gone, a few of us ran the Esslingen 10k road race that runs through the center of our town.

In August we went to Lithuania and hung out in the Garden in Moletai for a while. We then spent a long weekend at the Baltic Sea and Curonian Lagoon. We stayed in Sturmai and visited Nida. Verena joined us.

On August 23rd, I won (well, my team won) a HUGE contract!!

In September, I took a work trip to Sarajevo Bosnia and Pristina Kosovo. I met some H3 friends in Sarajevo and had a great time.

We all enjoyed the Oktoberfest in Stuttgart and Munich. My 9th in a row.

In October, I took a work trip to Stockholm Sweden and Helsinki Finland. I have never been to either country before. But the cool thing was I took a cruise ship to get between the two. I went to dinner with a good friend of Migle’s while in Stockholm. I will go back again when I have more time.

On the 12th of October, I organized a Pub Crawl for me and 45 of my closest friends.

Just recently my Dad and Dale visited Europe. They landed in Stuttgart and then went with Tom, Stephanie, and Skylar to Brussels while they looked for a house. Then they went to Prague for a few days and then they came and spent four days in Esslingen with us. We had a great time and definitely ate way too much. But their trip was too quick so I hope they come back again soon.

Probably the biggest thing we have going on, besides watching Kostas grow up fast, is that we are tring to buy a Condo here in Esslingen. Dealing with the builder in German is somewhat challenging … but I hope it all works out.

And I changed the design of our site. Please drop me a comment on what you do and don’t like about it.

Ciao … J, M, and K