The Euro-Condon Web Log

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

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

This year, I began to enjoy a good single malt scotch whisky. Here are the ones I now have in my collection:

• Macallan 18
• Springbank 15
• Highland Park 18
• Macallan 12
• Glenfiddich 21 year old Gran Reserve
• Glenlivet 18
• Glenfarclas 21
• Macallan Twenties
• Craggenmore 12
• Talisker 10
• Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish
• Glenmorandie Sherry Wood Finish
• Glen morangie Maidera Wood Finish
• Aberlour 15

So far, the Macallan, Sprinkbank, and Highland Park are my favorites.

I also have a single malt Irish Whiskey’s - Bushmills 21 Rare and a bunch of other good Irish Whiskey’s including Middleton and Bushmills 16.

Here’s to you …

Jim

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

So here is a speed version to catch us up to date.

Todd and Donna’s neighbor is French and took a Champagne run to, well, Champagne and we had him buy us some great Champagne at great prices from a less know (outside of Champagne) Champagne House. We have a wine cellar so we have to put something in it.

We put down hardwood floors in our apartment here. The carpet was old and stained and it looks sooo much better and brighter now. And we prefer the hardwood floors for Kostas to crawl around on.

In Feb, the Fasching Parade (kind of Marti Gras) came through Esslingen. We watched with friends and had a great time.

A big crowd of friends went to Vilnius for a long weekend. There was a festival going on. We ate great food. Toured the sights. Everyone seems to enjoy it very much.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend St. Patrick’s Day in Charleston visiting family and friends (and the pub).

Since we got Migle’s tourist visa and since my Brother Chris and his now-wife Pam were getting married, we visited Charleston. That trip was years in the making. It started with an oyster roast at our good friends Mike and Sarah’s house. Migle caught on fast and really liked the oysters. Dale through a party for the Condon side of the family so they could meet Migle and Kostas. It was great and we are very appreciative to Dale for organizing and hosting it all. About 30 people came and that’s about half the Condon family in Charleston. I was able to have lunch and/or some beers with many old friends to do some catching up. We spent a few days out at Mom’s house. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet and spending time with Mom. Our friend from Germany, Verena, visited us then. We had a nice Easter dinner with Dale and Dad at their house. Migle and I then drove to Ft. Lauderdale, met friends at the airport and drove down to Key West for a week of non-parental time. Great food, nightlife, sailboats, sunsets, reading, beaches, sights, condo, shops, pool, grill, and REST. We loved it! I was lucky enough to be able to fly up and attend the retirement of one of my two mentor’s from the USAR, MG Ponder. I look forward to seeing him again on my next trip to DC. The Chris had his bachelor party. We bar-hopped by limo. I think it was just what Chris wanted. We visited the pool at Charleston Place. Kostas loves the water and loved the pool. For Migle’s birthday, we had dinner at the Penninsula Grill and then went to our favorite bar and drank Dirty Martini’s. We went to the BBQ that Dad/Dale threw for Chris and Pam. Caught up with alot of relatives and ate some tasty BBQ. The next day was the wedding and reception. It was beautiful, relaxed, and probably the best wedding I have ever attended. Might be because the bar was open an hour before the wedding started. We then went to our favorite bar for the after-party. The next day was Kostas’ first birthday. In addition to a few presents, he got one big cake to play with and then some time in his own pool. Then we flew back the next day. Neither flight (over or back) was easy but they could have been much worse. It took a week or two for Kostas to get used to the new time zone, once we were back.

I would like to thank Dale and Dad VERY MUCH for their tremendous hospitality while we were in Charleston and for letting us stay with them for a month!!

I would also like to thank my Mom and Verena for watching Kostas while we went to Key West!

The Spring Fest was in Stuttgart. We went a few times but much less than pre-Kostas.

We also arranged a big group to go to the Esslingen Wine Hike. We had about 20 people come to our house and have some Champagne before heading over to the wine hike. It was a blast but the heat slowed everyone down.

The Pictures that go with this post are here.

Take care, Jim

My wife was a performing artist before she moved to Germany to be with me. Her old troupe of dancers was selected to be in a music video by the Latvian Rock Band “Brainstorm“. She’s not in the video but many of our friends are in the video. If she lived in Lithuania, then she would have been in the video.
Play it here …

We’re packing now for our big BIG trip

Jim

We got our first snow here and quite a bit. I flew to Romania for a work trip and it started the day I left. The Stuttgart airport was shut down for a while - which is a big deal. I went to Bucharest and to the Black Sea Coast. It was a good trip. In addition to work and Kostas, I’m busy planning a trip to Vilnius with a bunch of friends in March and then Migle and Kostas’ first trip to the U.S. in April for Chris and Pam’s wedding. Most of the time we’ll be in Charleston but we may go to DC for a week for work and hopefully can spend a few days in Key West also. We have Migle’s toursit visa interview next Friday. I’m still selling the Jeep or, if not too expensive, maybe shipping to Charleston and using it as a Big John’s business vehicle. Kostas is good and just keeps growing. His first two teeth are fully in but no more yet. He is standing up if he can hold on to something. And he started crawling a couple of weeks ago - and that’s a new challenge

Guess what Kostas got for Christmas … his front two teeth! Sorry the picture looks a little strange by itself, but I wanted to make sure you could see his teeth.

Christmas was great! New Years Eve was excellent. As usual, a good time was had by all!

Migle’s parents and Steve are gone now. We enjoyed having them.

Something tragic has happened in Charleston. The Son of my last boss drowned in the Ashley River. I can’t even begin to image the grief they are going through! Please pray for him …