Glücklich Putentag

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Or as we are saying over here Glücklich (happy) Putentag (turkey day)
Hope you enjoy your food!
Did you know:
Average person consumes 4500 calories on Thanksgiving
20% of cranberries for the year are consumed on Thanksgiving
There was no pumpkin pie at the first thanksgiving
FDR tried to move Thanksgiving up a week, but failed
Benjamin Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national bird of the U.S.

Tough Week

Last week was a tough week for out team. We played 2 games, against Graz and Gussing, and lost both of them.

Games that, on paper, we were supposed to win. The good thing is that it is early in the season and we will get more chances to play these teams. Hopefully we can get back on track this weekend.
For me, my leg is doing pretty well, tomorrow (Friday) will be three weeks after surgery, and I can start rehab. I am really looking forward to being able to start doing something with my leg again. Rehab will be 3 times a week for me and not just for 1/2 hour or an hour a day, I will be there for a couple hours or more each day. It will be a big program but I know it will help.

Opener

Just want to send a message to those headin out for deer the hunting opener this weekend. Hope to hear lots of stories (that involve getting a deer).
If anybody from Austria is reading this and goes deer hunting or knows someone that goes hunting here, I would love to go. Even though I cant really walk I could sit somewhere and I think it could work.
Some people have asked me about deer hunting back home and these are 2 pictures of friends back home with some really nice deer they got.








And since "its getting to time of year....eh?" I thought I would put a song on here
Hope you enjoy!

Game in Gmunden

We played in Gmunden the other night for our 2nd cup game. After a not so good game on the weekend we were looking to get back on track with a win. The game started out very similar to the game we played with them 1.5 weeks ago where we were down by 2 points in the 1st quarter. But after that the game really didnt go the way we had hoped. Gmunden didnt score a lot - only 62 points but we didnt score much either - only 38 points. It wasnt the best game for us. I didnt see it, as I was at home resting my knee, but I guess we had some turnovers that hurt us. But, I am confident we will get back on track. Its better to have a rough patch early in the season rather than late in the season.

Last taste of Summer

This past weekend we had temperatures here that hit the low 20's (degrees celcius)
°C ---- °F
5 ----- 41
10 ---- 50
15 ---- 59
20 ---- 68
25 ---- 77
I told somebody here that back home when it starts getting cold and you have a period of a few warm days we call it an indian summer. He told me that here they call it an old woman's summer.
So I did some looking and its called different things in many countries.
Old Womans Summer - Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary
Gypsy Summer - Bulgaria
Brittsommar - Sweden
St Martins Summer - France
Summer of Old Ladys - Lithuania
Re-summer - Latvia
Pastrami Summer - Turkey

Weekend Game

This weekend we played against Graz.
Last year Graz was one of the bottom teams in the league. However this year they are doing much better. Coming into this game they had the same record as us. The game started off pretty good, I think we went up by about 8. But, then it started to go the other way. The other team was able to get easy lay-ups and slowly pulled away. We made a couple pushes where it looked like we were going to come back, but in the end they were just too much for us and beat us 90-76. Graz played pretty well but I think we contibuted a little to it - where we beat ourselves. But the good thing is that there is another game tonight (Wednesday night), Austrian cup game against Gmunden, and we dont have to wait a whole week to have a shot at getting back on track.
We played them 1.5 weeks ago and lost by 1 at the end of the game. I think they outscored us 10-0 in the last 3 or 4 minutes. So I know we will be hungry to get a win against them, and if we play well I know we will win. For me unfortuantley I wont be going to the game - instead staying home to rest my knee. But thank goodness for live stats so I can follow along online.

Friends

Here in Wels we have been blessed to meet a lot of great people and make some great friends. I wont mention any names but we had many people come to visit us in the hospital and said they would be willing to help us if we needed anything.
While I was in the hospital some friends even let Katy stay at their place as their place is only a couple minutes walk from the hospital and it was easier for Katy not to have to find a ride every day. They also picked us up when we needed a ride to and from the hospital and were there no matter what time. Being in the hospital can be a hard thing but it was made a lot easier by people more than willing to help out. We cant say thanks enough and really appreciate it!!!!

2nd visit

On Monday I was realesed from the hospital and it was nice to be home in the evening to eat dinner with Katy and watch a movie. The night was a different story. I laid down and tried to go to sleep. However I Could not lay on my back. If I tried this I was not able to take more than 1/2 a breath and everytime I tried to breath it felt like my back muscles would lock up and I wasnt able to take a breath. I was quite scary. We almost decided to go to the hospital but thought we'd give it 20 more minutes. I tried the couch and luckily I was able to find position (legs stretched out on the couch, with me leaning my left shoulder and the left side of my head on the back of the couch) and was able to get a little sleep.
The next day I called the doc who did my surgery and told him what had happened. He said I should go and get it looked at right away (he didnt say at the time but was very worried for a blood clot in the lung). He set everything up for me and when I got to the hospital had some tests done. Blood was drawn (from the vein and from deep in my wrist - from the wrist is no fun) and a CT scan. Then they put me in a room for the night just in case. (and told me I couldnt drink or eat anything - I think it was in case it was a blood clot and I had to have surgery soon). Well the tests came back looking pretty good, but wouldnt you know my back started up just like it did the night before. This night the only thing I could do to relieve the pain was to lay my chest on legs (like I wsa bending over to touch my toes), this is the only way I found some relief. This night was worse and there were sometimes I was scared as I couldnt find a position to be able to catch a breath. I tried sitting up, which had worked the day before and it made it worse. The only way I ws able to relax was after some pain and inflammation medicine. Then finally I was able to get some sleep.
Yesterday doc told me that I have an inflammation on the outer membrane of my lung and once I relax and I breath my body feels this and knows something is wrong. Since the back muscles are sensitive they can tell something is wrong and "lock up" to protect it. Luckily he said that with only 1-2 weeks of anti-inflammatory drugs I would have no more problems.
It was nice that I was able to go back to the hospital to get this taken care of, and to find out that I didnt have a blood clot. But, I dont want make it a habit, or a 2nd home, of having to go to the hospital.

Hospital

The hospital here is a little different than it is back in the States. Here they have public healthcare instead of having to have private insurance. For my procedure in the States it would have been a day proceudre where I would checked into the morning into a clinc had the procedure and gone home again the same night. It was nice to be able to spend a couple days in the hospital afterward. If I needed anything there was either a doctor or a nurse only the push of a button away. And the nurses in the hopsital were very frienldy and kind to me even though I didnt speak any German.
They did speak some english but luckily the person ithe bed next to me was younger and he spoke english - so it was all goodThe Hospital here is a little different from back home, in the sense that in the rooms they are no sheet or curtains that seperate the 3 beds from each other (I was in a room with 2 other people). On the wall of the hospital was a crucifix and a picture of Mary and Jesus. I dont remember what hospitals are like back home, but it was nice to see that on the walls. I think the Hospital was actually a Catholic hospital.
During the day I read a lot and when Katy came to visit (which was a lot - it was greta to have her there!!) we played games. We had a TV in the room but you had to pay 1 euro a day to watch it and I didnt think it was worth it as I couldnt understand it anyway. (if the others would have wanted to watch it they would have gotten a set of headphones - thats what the euro was for. You could have the tv on but the sound was disabled and you could only hear it if you paid the euro and got the headphones). One of the guys tried the TV but no sound.
For meals the food wasnt too bad. It was a little different than what I am used to though as they had their big meal for lunch - and it was pretty good. Breakfast was some slices of bread and either a few slices of turkey or some jam. Then dinner was either a cheese tray or a meat tray with some soup. Katy was nice enough to bring me in some Chinese one night as I was a little hungry at night. .


Even though it was a little different than it would have been in the states I am happy so far with the way the operation/hosptial stay has gone. Now I just have to work hard to rehab my knee and make it as strong or stronger than before the injury.

Surgery

On Thursday I checked into the Hospital. Then on Friday I went under and had my surgery. I sort of remember talking to the doctor when I came to adn from what I remember he said the surgery went well. Everybody that I had talked to said that the doctor I had was excellent. He had done this suregery many, many times before and he does it for the Austrian ski team when they tear their ACLs.
I felt very comfotable with how the surgery would go befroe I went under. When the doctor reconstructed my ACL he also looked at the other ligaments and structures in the knee and told me that nothing else was wrong. Which even thouhg it sucks that I tore my ACL is great news for the rest of my knee.

Katys TV game

Katy also had a game on TV on Monday. The team they played was one of the best in their league. Katy said they played hard and the outcome didnt really reflect how the game felt. They ended up losing but Katy had 22 points. She said she even had 2 threes. Sharp shooter.
There is a link on the web that you can watch some of Katys highlights.

Katys team was is off this past weekend and then off again next weekend so they will back on again in 2 weeks.

Last Monday

Last Monday we had a game against Traiskirchen at home.
It was an extremley exciting game and come down to the very end where we hit a game winning shot at the buzzer. It was also a tv game. Since the shot was so close to the end of the game the refs reviewed the shot on replay and saw that our big guy had gotten the shot off with .2 or .3 seconds left. It was a fantastic win for us especially as we were down by 20 points at one time. for the game we shot 29% from 2 and we shot 82% from 3. We had a lot of 3's especially in the 4th quarter and thats how we were able to come back and win.
For me, I didnt have as much luck personally as we had as a team. In one play I went up and grabbed a rebound.
When I had the ball in my hands and was coming down a guy on the other team grabbed my arm and pulled me down. With all of my weight coming down and his weight pulling me down my knee couldnt bear the weight when I came down (must have been at a strange angle) and my knee buckled inward. It was pain right away and I was pretty sure something was wrong as I heard a big pop. The doc looked at it and said he thought maybe it was the ligament and the MRI on Tuesday showed I had torn my ACL. And surgery was scheduled for Friday.

Team Website

Katy is playing with a team (SK-Kammer) in the first league here in Austria this year. Here is the website for Katy's team. I will actually give two. One is the link the League's website where you can see the standings and some info about all the teams.
http://www.awbl-basketball.at/
And the second one is her team's actual website:
http://www.skk-basket.at/

Susses fur alles

Yesterday was Halloween. Here in Austria it is not as big as it is in the U.S. but we still tried to keep the spirit. We went over to one of the local grocery stores and bought two big pumpkins. Katy carved a goofy face in her pumpkin and I carved a scary one in mine. The last couple nights we have the pumpkins in the window and with the candles lighting them up from the inside, it looked pretty cool.

Here Trick or Treating really isnt that big however some kids still do it. I think we had maybe 12 kids come to the door yesterday. We had our pumpkins in the window and so people knew they could come to our place. Instead of saying Trick or Treat though, the kids that came to the door said "susses fur alles" - or sweets for all.
Last night I did have to give somebody a ride to the other side of town and on my way there and back there were some kids (and even some of the parents) that were dressed up with their faces painted or with scary masks on.
And of course for dinner last night we had to have brain and eyeballs in blood sauce - Yummy. (spaghetti and meatballs in a tomato sauce).
Hope you had a good Halloween!

Split

Well, since Tuesday we have had two games. We won one and lost one. On Tuesday we played Furstenfeld and lost by one in double overtime. Then on Saturday we played in Vienna and won by double digits. We didnt play the greatest at times in that game maybe could have won by a little more, but we'll take the win. Tonight we have another game - against Traiskirchen at 7pm. This will be a national TV game here in Austria. Katy also has a game tonight at 4pm. Her game is also a national TV game. Too bad its not possible to get Sky Sports Austria online for free because if it was you would be able to watch both of our games online.
Katy also played this weekend, however her team didnt do the best. She said the other team's defense was pretty good and they had a tough time getting the ball acrosse half court. Hopefully her game today will be better.
Check back soon to see how we did.