My cat is bored

Colfax enjoyed the first month or so in the apartment but now he wants out. He waits by the door and peers out into the hallway when its open. I've let him out a few times. He runs up our building's spiral staircase until he gets to the top and then pathetically lets me pick him up. Shannon bought him a new harness, despite my warnings that its a waste of time. She wants to take him on walks around the block. Right. We live in the major tourist area of Vienna. The sidewalks are almost always busy. He wouldn't have it. Although once in Paris I saw a man with a cat sitting on Boulevard Saint Michel (which for you uncultured peasants is a busy tourist street in Paris) and the cat was fine -- he seemed happy. I've been thinking about pushing harder for another cat. Colfax would be a great older brother. I really think he needs something to abuse. It would bring him great peace. Now I miss my sister.

Shannon is off on a business trip to...places most people have no business going to. She called me last night while I was at a bar with two of my buddies from German class. Claudio's girlfriend was out of town so he was feeling adventurous. He wanted to talk to girls, he wasn't going to touch them, he said, just talk to them. Michel from Quebec how is married to an Austrian apparently does this all the time. I usually never talk to girls at bars unless I'm apologizing for spilling on them. So we went to a bar near my house, and there was a group of hot blonde girls. We looked at them for a good hour or so spent the evening drinking fosters and tequila shots and discussing how much weed costs in different places.

Work has been a tad grueling. I had to laugh this evening. I left at 9:00 and there were a bunch of associates sitting in the kitchen eating take-out. I'm sure they were staying well past 10:00. I don't get it. What on earth would make you want to sit in a chair and stare at a computer that long. Money, I know. The firm gave me a blackberry but the phone function doesn't work on our blackberries because they're from London (I don't get it) -- so they issued me a separate cell phone. So even with all this advanced technology available I carried the following to work: Blackberry, business cell phone, private cell phone, I-pod.

I ate lentil soup for dinner. That's what I ate when Shannon is away because she doesn't like. I have to go to bed now so that I can get up early and go to the gym before work. It's going to be tough. Shannon paid for an expensive membership to this really upscale gym near our house so I have to start going. I'm so cheap that the guilt I feel about wasting money is actually a very effective way to motivate me to exercise. I need to exercise. I sit on my ass a lot.

Random note: Pavement's "Here" is so good.

Balls

One of the big things out here are the Balls. You know tuxedos and floor length dresses, waltzing, blah blah blah. But the best part about balls is that people have to say "balls." For example I was at my firm's happy hour this evening having a very intelligent conversation with a young associate from the corporations division about how much she "enjoys balls." According to her, "balls are really fun."

Ach Scheize

So I started my job. Get this, the "core" hours are from 9 to 7. That's right, I can't leave work before 7. Shannon called me at work the first day at around 5:45 to ask where I was. I told her about the core hours and started giggling uncontrollably. Then I felt like crying. Last week I was playing ping-pong and drinking beer in the afternoons.

Photos

I always intended this blog to have more photos but I've never gotten into the habit of carrying the camera around with me everywhere I go like I did with whichechoes. But I intend to make good so here are some photos of our first season in Vienna:

These are my German classmates. The students in this picture left to right are from Iran, Taiwan, Serbia, Brazil, Quebec, Turkey and Italy. It's interesting hanging out with people from all over but at the same time none of these people speak English very well and I've come to realize I am much more clever in my mother tongue. Did you know the butt in German is Popo. That's pretty funny.
Here I am in Bratislava, Slovakia with two of our new friends...and this jolly metal man. Bratislava was on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain and you can still feel it. There's less commerce, fewer people out an about, and outside of the city center the buildings are boring and sad. Communists don't care much for decoration.

These are painted eggs that were sold at the Eater markets around town. They also had stalls with hot sausages and beer.

This is in the Alps south of Salzburg. The mountains aren't nearly a tall as the Rockies but the terrain was good and the snow wasn't bad for March.

How do I look?

What do you think of the new scheme? Easier on the eyes Scatfish?

A rip in the space-time continuum

I apparently missed a meeting between two groups of my old friends, which makes me very happy that they wanted to spend time with each other and sad that I missed out. In my mind it seems like the two groups of friends shouldn't be able to exist in the same place. Like in Star Trek when you meet yourself in a time-loop and risk causing a rip in the space-time continuum. And apparently some ripping did occur. I've gathered that Ande made a semi-ridiculous argument, Tim told her that she was ridiculous one too many times which caused Ande to suffer emotionally, and Tate somehow revealed that he is a bit of an asshole by nature. If someone could provide me with more details I would truly appreciate it. I live for this shit.

and now for news from Vienna:

We had a party for all of our German classmates last weekend. It was fine. One of the guys from my class has a girlfriend who is 18 and speaks five languages, which I have concluded is why Europe is going to own us in the global market for the next century. I felt stupid talking to this teenager and I'm one of the biggest American know-it-alls I know. The ping-pong table was a big hit, and everyone enjoyed Colfax's antics which included attacking people's heads from behind the couch and jumping on the ping-pong table during matches.

We went out with Shannon's colleagues last night for St. Patrick's day. Everyone ate fish and chips which were supposed to be green but looked gray in the dim light but tasted good. I drank many Guinessi. At some point I ordered an Irish Carbomb at the bar and got a strange look from the Irish barmaid. Then I remembered hearing that the term isn't PC in some parts of Ireland, you know because carbombs kill and maim people. I think it might be just an American thing. I've decided not to order the drink until I can discuss this with an Irishman.

I played my weekly game of squash today, and was able to steal one game away from Claudio. Tomorrow I'm playing in the weekly basketball game with the old men from the Embassy. Last week my play was tremendous and lately I've been daydreaming about hitting mid-range jumpers. The key to my basketball success is and always will be my ability to sweat more than everyone else. The impulse of whoever is guarding me to do everything in their power not to come in contact with my slippery surface gives me just enough room to make some decent little moves.

I'm totally excited from the NCAA tournament although I get the feeling I'll actually watch much less of it than I usually do because of the time difference which puts most games on at 3 in the morning. Not to mention the slingbox progam my mother setup for me to watch US TV on my computer hasn't been working lately. Shannon and I are driving five hours out to a German military base on Friday for a shopping trip. Apparently you can buy a bunch of gov't subsidized stuff at the bases. We're on the market for a flat-screen TV and some black beans.

Guiness schmeckt sehr gut

We moved into our new apartment and it's amazing. The location is perfect and the apartment is spacious and we love it. The only problem is the ping-pong table we ordered doesn't quite fit. Oh bother.

I just picked up my Auto from the Embassy. I had heard horror stories about damage caused to cars in transit but mine was fine except the battery was dead. It took two jumper cables to finally jump my car, and then as I was pulling away to take my car to the shop to get some modifications, it died. So we jumped it again and I was off. I revved the engine at stop signals in case it tried to die again. It didn't, and my first driving adventure in Wien went smashingly. It's pretty much like driving in the States except you must yield to the Strassenbahn, which is the trolley, they always have the right of way you see. I left the car with the mechanic and I hopped on the U-Bahn with the cables which I will return tomorrow after Deutsch class.

I'm throwing a party this weekend for my friends from German class. It's called Juan Jo's going away party. Juan Jose is one of my buddies from class and he's returning to Mexico. We play squash once a week with Claudio from Italy and Yi-Chen from Taiwan. Juan Jo will be missed. But Squash will live on. I've invested in my very own raquet as has Claudio. So even when I start working and I don't have my afternoons to enjoy sport, I will have a regular squash appointment. Claudio has beaten me almost everytime. He calls himself the champion.

It's 5:50 hear and Shannon should be off work soon. I'm having a Guiness in a British pub near our new apartment right now. I will have to mask the smell of my breath if I desire to go undetected, or else...