Trip to Egypt - or not

Katy and I had a trip scheduled to Egypt this week. Since we have the weekend off next weekend and I cant practice or play I we were going to take a little trip to Egypt. We were going to see the Valley of the Kings where many of the old pharaohs were buried, the big city of Cairo and the pyramids. If you have seen the news at all you know that Cairo has some serious protests going on right now. The people are trying to get their president/dictator out, but he seems reluctant to go. At night there is looting and burning going on. Many government building have been burned as well as many police stations. We have been watching the news on this a lot and they say that the police are no where to be found.
Our flight was supposed to take off on Sunday morning but we were able to get out money back and cancel our flight on Saturday afternoon. On Friday night I had called and tried to get our money back. I told the airline that the U.S. and Austria had issued travel alerts that advised their citizens from traveling to Egypt. The airline told me that the German government had not issued a warning (the airline was a German airline - air berlin) and so it they were still going to fly and if we wanted to cancel our trip we would have to forgo the cost of the tickets.
So we decided to try again on Saturday morning. On TV it seemed like the situation had gotten worse, so we thought maybe we would be in luck. Nope. Same story, no warning from the German government so it must be safe to go and we couldn't get out money back. Before our game on Saturday night I tried again and this time they said the German government had issued a travel warning to Cairo and since part of journey included Cairo we were able to get the whole price back. Its a good thing we had our flight going out on Sunday and not Saturday otherwise we either would have been out the whole cost of the tickets or would have gone and would be sitting in Egypt right now wondering how the heck to get out.
We are hoping things will get better for the people there and it will calm down in the next couple of weeks, where we could make our trip in a couple of months. I guess we will have to see what time brings.
In the meantime we wish the best for the people in Egypt - both the citizens who want change and the tourists trying to get out.

Super Bowl

Last Sunday my team had a game in Graz (a couple hours away by bus) Our game was at 5:00 and the Packer vs. Bears football game started at 9:00pm our time. Needless to say we weren't back yet. So, our trainer let me borrow her computer and I was able to watch the game on the bus ride back over the internet. (she had an internet stick which enabled her to connect to the internet through a cell phone company and their signal).
The bus ride took just long enough that we got home right at halftime. For the first half though I watched the game with some of my teammates - one of who happens to be a Bears fan. I know, too bad. When we were getting the computer going we missed the first 5 minutes of the game, but he was able to get updates through his phone. Every update he gave keep getting worse and worse for him as we scored right away and were able to march down the field with what seemed like ease. Then once we got the game up it was much of the same.
Even thought the second half was a bit of a nail-biter it was a great game and awesome to know we will be in the Super Bowl this coming weekend!

1/2 good 1/2 bad

This past weekend was half good and half bad. The only bad thing is that basketball was the bad half. This weekend we played against our rival Gmunden at home. We played pretty decent for 3 quarters - even though we missed a lot of free throws in the 1st half - it was a close game after 3 quarters. Then it sort of went downhill. They went on a little run and we couldn't make up the difference. We had a lot of people in our gym to see the game and it was a bummer that we lost but if we see them again this year we will have to make up for this game and get a win.
Katy's team also had a loss this weekend. Her team played one of the best teams in the league. She said a couple of the quarters went pretty well but they ended up getting beat 75 to 43. Katy had 17 points.
If you want to see some of the pictures from the game, put this link up into the browser:
http://fotos.dbba.at/gallery/main.php/v/SAISON_2010-11/20110116_awbl_sk_kam/?g2_page=3
The good pictures of Katy and her team are on page 3 and 4 of the website (you can change the page by going to the bottom of the website and clicking on one of the numbers at the bottom left).
The good news of the weekend was that the Packers won and now have a chance to make it to the SuperBowl with a win this weekend against the Bears. The game this past weekend started at 2:00am here. You can bet we stayed up to watch the whole thing even though it was late. We were happy we did!
This weekend the game is on at 9:00pm here. We have a game at 5:00pm a couple hours away. So I am hoping to make it back for the whole thing, otherwise I am hoping one of the guys will have an internet stick that will work on the bus.
Go Pack!

Big game this weekend

This weekend we have a very big game against our biggest rival in the league, Gmunden. Gmunden is only 25 minutes away from Wels and there are always a lot of fans at the games between the two teams. This weekend the game is a national TV game and since it is on a Sunday I would imagine that there will be quite a few people watching the game at home as well. We have just over 2 weeks left of the 1st half of the season, and have 3 very big games that we need to play well in. The game on Sunday will be a good game as the other team is one of the best in the league and have played very well so far this year. If we play well and together we will be able to beat them, and hopefully the crowd in our home gym will really help make it a home court advantage. Even though I cant play I am looking forward to the game on Sunday. Before losing last week we had a 5-game win streak and it felt good to get 5 in a row. With 3 games remaining in the first part of the season we hope to going on another little win streak of 3 in a row.
Katy's team is also playing this weekend on Sunday. They have just over 2 weeks left as well and play 2 of the best teams in that time. Her games will definitely be tough ones but I think she is looking forward to playing against these teams. And hopefully they will be able to get a win or two before these 2 weeks are up.

Who has spring in January?

We do! Today it got up past 50 degrees. When I was driving home from rehab I saw a thermometer (from a bank) and it said it was 10 degrees. In degrees F that would be 50. The thermometer wasn't in the sun so I can imagine where the sun was it was probably even warmer than that. When I left rehab it was about 1:20pm so I can imagine it probably got a little bit warmer yet. I just check ed the weather (8:40pm) and it says the temperature is still 10 degrees (50 degrees F).
Its pretty safe to say that almost all of the snow is gone, and you would be lucky to see any if it wasn't from where a big pile used to be. Cant say I was complaining driving home with the window down, as it feels more like April than January. I did check the weather report from Florida and at 2:00pm (Florida time) some place weren't even in the 50's (northern Florida and in the panhandle). Crazy to think that Austria is warmer than Florida right now.
I have a feeling though that we are in for it, and in another month we will be back to cold temps and more snow. Guess we'll just have to what to see what happens and enjoy the warmth while we can.

Skiing (Tauplitz - in the alps)

Last week Katy had the chance to go skiing again with some of our friends. She went 1.5 hours away to Bad Mitterndorf. The day that she went was a great day for skiing. It was cold enough where it was perfectly clear outside but not bitterly cold where it was uncomfortable. She went with 4 other people and she said that they had a very nice day, extremely fun. The ski hill goes up to 2000 meters and has 42 kilometers 26 miles) of ski runs. One of our friends taught her how to ski pretty well and she said toward the end of the day she started to pick it up and had a really good time. She said from the mountain you could see so far in every direction and skiing this part of the alps was so cool, and something should would definitely like to do again if she can.
Here is the link to the Live Camera on the Tauplitz ski mountain:

http://www.dietauplitz.com/index.php?id=40

Remember though that there is a 7 hour time difference from Wisconsin to Austria, so if you try to look after 11:00 am Wisconsin time it will probably be dark here and you wont be able to see anything.

Here is a link to a video that shows what Tauplitz is like. It is in German but you can see what the skiing is like and what the surrounding area is like:

http://www.bergfex.com/video/7/

(For the links you might have to copy the web address and paste it up in the address bar)

New Years

This year Katy and I had a good New Years. We went over to some friends house and celebrated with them.
For New Years over here they have some different traditions and where able to take part in them as well.
For New Years we had Raclette. Everybody sits around a grill in the middle of the table and cooks cut-up meat on the top of the grill/hot plate and cut-up
veggies with cheese on top in little pans in the middle of the grill underneath the hot plate. It is great because you sit around the table and dinner can take up to a couple of hours. This way you just a chance to talk and have a good time while having a good meal.
After dinner we sat around and played cards at the table - Katy taught our Austrian friends

some new card games and we got to try some real champagne - Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin (one of the Champagne houses that we briefly visited when we were in Reims last year).

Around midnight we went outside and lit off fireworks. Like it was in Germany last year, there were lots and lots of people outside and you could see and hear fireworks going off in every direction. New Years for fireworks here, is like the 4th of July is back home. Although they dont have the big fireworks show in a lot of cities like they do back home.
I think kids like New Years becuase they are allowed to stay up and go outside to see the fireworks instead of having to go to bed early. For Christmas Katy got me a pack of fireworks and I had a good time shooting them off, along with fireworks of our friends.
Then right at midnight we shared in the world-wide tradition of a kiss at midnight and then tried to dance to the Blue Danube Waltz which is broadcasted on the radio throughout Austria at 12:00am.
After some more fireworks it was back inside for another New Years tradition - some gulash soup and we sat around the table again and took part in another custom - Bleigießen (Lead Pouring).
I found this on the internet and think it explains it pretty well:
Bleigießen literally means “lead pouring.” Each person takes a turn putting a small amount of lead in a metal spoon. They hold the spoon over a candle’s flame until the lead melts and then pour it quickly into a bowl of water. The water immediately cools the lead into pieces, no two of which are alike.

The melter then retrieves the cooled lead pieces from the water for inspection. He figures out what they remind him of, much like the way people see shapes in clouds. Sometimes they hold the pieces up to a light to see if the shadow helps them determine what shape the lead piece is. Whatever shape the lead is helps predict what will happen to that person in the coming year.
Katy and I thought we kept getting what looked like fish and fish mean you will have luck in the lottery so the next time powerball is high look out - you will know the winners :)
Then when we woke up on the 1st we watched the Vienna Philharmonic New Year's concert, which has been a long tradition,
and is broadcasted all over world. The last song that is played, the Radeztky March, the people in the audience can clap along to the beat and the conductor actually turns around and directs them. It was pretty interesting to see.

Sleigh Ride

For Christmas, Katy got me the gift of a sleigh ride through the alps.
Our sleigh ride was in front of one of the biggest alps in the area - the Dachstein and we did the ride through a place just at the base of this mountain, Ramsau. We took a bus from Salzburg and got on our sleigh just before noon. The ride was amazing. It was about 1.5 hours and we had a little stop in the middle where we could get something to drink at a restaurant to warm up a little bit. Let me tell you the hot chocolate was nice.

We got very lucky for the day we chose to do our sleigh ride. The weather was cold enough where there was no fog in the air and you could blue sky every where you looked. There was quite a bit of snow and the ride at the base of the mountains was so cool. Dachstein is so big and every other direction you looked you could see more mountains - almost all of them with ski runs on them. For our sleigh ride we were one of 4 carriages that went and it was really pretty to see our horses and the other horses pull us through the woods, on top of fields and along the base of the mountain. These horses weren't just the average horses you ride, but rather huge work horses. They made it look so easy, like they were pulling nothing at all. Even though they were very large animals they were quite graceful when they ran and pulled us behind. We passed some people on our trip and we felt pretty special being in the sleigh.

I would love to put all the pictures on here of our ride so you could see how beautiful it actually was, with the white of the snow and the bright blue ski, but when I went to take out the camera and snap a few pictures, there was no memory card. I had taken it out the night before to load pictures onto the computer and then delete them off the card so we would have space to take as many pictures as we wanted to. I was really dissapointed, but we still had a really good time and will never forget it!

So the pictures on here arent ours, but hopefully you can get a feeling of what it was like.