The Red Ox: Boiled beef with a side order of shame...

One of the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) things about living right in the Heidelberg "Altstadt" is the plethora of fantastic restaurants. Pretty much any kind of food you like, you can find it in the Altstadt. Over the past couple years we've tried quite a few of them and have seldom been disappointed. Believe it or not, the ones we usually avoid are the German restaurants. I do like German food occasionally but it's so unhealthy that I usually avoid it. Germany is a meat and potatoes country for sure; unfortunately, the preferred meat is usually pork or sausage and the preferred potatoes are usually french fries (pommes). Seriously, it seems like every German restaurant serves pommes as a side dish.

Yesterday we were taking our afternoon walk, looking for a place for lunch. I decided to try someplace new but nothing was seeming all that appealing so we just kept walking and eventually were up near the castle where I spied the "Roten Ochsen" (Red Ox). The Red Ox is a Heidelberg institution, very historic and famous. Several celebrities have eaten there over the years such as Ernest Hemingway and John Wayne. I'd heard all about it but several people have told me that it's gotten so touristy over the years that it's lost its luster. I've looked over the menu a few times and found the usual German fare, so all of these things together have prevented me from ever stepping foot inside...until yesterday that is.

I looked at the menu yesterday and saw a few things that looked appealing so I told the wife we might as well try it once before we leave, if only to say that we've been there. The moment we walked in, I fell in love with the place. As I sat down and took in the ambiance, I immediately felt great shame that I have been living here over two years and had never tried it before. It is about as old-time as any place I've ever eaten, the walls are covered with memorabilia and old photographs. There are ox horns hanging from the ceiling and old style beer steins everywhere. Believe it or not, the place goes back to the year 1703. And the menu! Sure there were the usual suspects - bratwurst and saurkraut, schnitzel, etc. - but there was a good selection of other stuff such as deer steak and sauerbraten. I could not decide between the boiled beef with horseradish sauce and pumpkin or the grilled turkey steak with mushroom gravy so I got the beef, the wife got the turkey and we shared. The bolied beef dish was so amazingly delicious that I started thinking that maybe I didn't want to share after all! But, since sacrifice and compromise are paramount to any marriage, I held true to my word and switched plates with the wife halfway through. And damn if the turkey steak with the mushroom gravy wasn't every bit as tasty as the beef dish. I was just floored at how good the food was, I cannot remember enjoying a meal so much in a long time.

With only a few weeks left here, I am ruing the fact that I have only just now discovered the Red Ox. We'll definitely eat there again at least a couple times before we leave. Here's their website: Roten Ochsen if you'd like to check it out.

And here's a few photos from our lunch yesterday, click on the pic to enlarge...

I love being a Red Sox fan.

I wake up this morning at 0445 and turn on the TV hoping to find my beloved Red Sox ahead in game 5. To my dismay, they were losing 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th inning. I was so disgusted that I changed the channel. A few minutes later I thought to myself "Well, it's the last time I'll get to watch them this year so I might as well torture myself" and put the game back on. Shortly after, the Red Sox scored a run and I thought to myself "Well, at least they didn't get shut out". I got up to go make my morning espresso as Big Papi strolled to the plate with two men on base. I put the mokka on the stove and went back into the living room just in time to hear the announcer saying "and just like that, it's a 3 run game!". I was unimpressed as I figured it was too little, too late. But at least they had made it close. I continued to watch.

One inning later they tied the game on a JD Drew home run and a Coco Crisp single. I was excited.

One inning after that, in the bottom of the 9th, they won the game on a JD Drew single. They were down 7-0 with a mere 7 outs left in their season and somehow, someway, they pulled it out. They now go to Tampa Bay for game 6 and if they win that, they will play game 7. If they win that, they will go to the World Series. Yesterday at this time, they were down 3 games to 1, looking horrible, and my boss (who is from Tampa) was relentlessly rubbing it in. They still have to win two more games on the road against a very good team but at least there is a "Ray" of hope (pun intended)...

I love being a Red Sox fan. And I have developed a severe man-crush on JD Drew.

"Nightmare on Elm Street der Hauptstrasse"

So I met Freddie Krueger at the Herbstfest a few weeks ago...

Some good news for a change...

Just introduced the landlord to a guy who really wants to move in here after we move out and after some extensive grilling, a urinalysis test, and a body cavity search, they finally agreed to allow him in. They wanted him to put down his first born as collateral but as he is 54 years old and single, they were forced to settle on his right pinky finger. He is very excited and I am very relieved as the first hurdle has been successfully navigated. I have to wait until we get the work visas before I know exactly what day we'll be moving out but my guess is somewhere around the first or second week of November. At least that's what I'm shooting for.

In the meantime, I'll try to post some pics of our place in the next day or so...

Update on the Italy move

OK, here's the deal. My tentative start date in Italy is November 9th. It's tentative because it is dependent on us getting the proper documents first and that is no small task. When you work in Italy as a civilian, there are a lot of document/visa issues you have to wade through before you even step foot in the country. I'm not sure if we're going to make the November 9th date or not but it's looking pretty good at this point. The only other trained, experienced guy at work took another job as well and left a couple days ago so my workload just doubled, right at the time that I am trying to start all my outprocessing, making things even more difficult. I have several issues here to deal with before we leave which are making things hard and on top of everything, my drivers license got suspended for two months due to a speeding ticket back in April which is making things nigh impossible to manage. I'm trying to take things one day at a time so I don't get too stressed out. Don't want that aneurysm coming back, lol...

The main thing right now is that I had to agree to a 3 month termination notice when we moved in here. At the time it was the only thing standing between us and the palace we currently live in so it seemed like a small concession to make. Now however, it is extremely problematic because of the Draconian laws in this country. I gave notice yesterday but it doesn't take affect until the end of the month. That means that I am technically on the hook for the rent until the end of January. My LQA (living quarters allowance) will be stopped once we clear the house, which could be by the end of October. If that happens, that means I pay three months rent and utilities out of my own pocket - to the tune of about $3,000 a month. OUCH. The only way the landlord will let me out of the lease early is if I am able to find someone to move in before we leave. I'm hoping this shouldn't be too difficult because anyone who has seen this place knows how amazing it is - it sells itself. Sure enough, I have showed it to one guy so far and within 2 minutes of walking in, he declared that he wants it bad. But, in keeping with my "things are never easy" theme, the landlord has to personally approve of the person(s) first. So I've been coaching the guy on how to talk and act when he meets Herr Klinge.

Anyway, that's pretty much where we are. I'm actually starting to get really sad at the thought of leaving this place, Heidelberg has been very good to us. I can't imagine a better place to live - the only bad thing about it is that, well, it's not Italy!

Steve-O and the X Man at the Herbstfest

The X Man's kung fu is stronger than yours.

The X Man's new favorite movie is Kung Fu Panda and it has inspired him to become a Kung Fu Master. Here, he shows off some of his moves...I think this is Shaolin Style...

Luca and the X Man

I'm back baby...

Well, I am back from my 1 week in the States at Scott AFB, right outside of St. Louis and I gotta tell you - while I still think the US is the best country in the world, I am not missing living in the US at all. It's kind of ironic that just about the time that Michelle Obama is finally proud of her country, I am starting lose my pride in it.

Rude, overweight, ignorant, self-important people seem to be the norm now. It saddens me. What happened to the country I grew up in?

Have I just been in Europe too long?

We interupt this regularly scheduled blog...

I'm leaving in about 3 hours for the airport, flying to beautiful, sunny...St. Louis. I'll be there for one week for work, returning next weekend. With our impending move back to paradise Italy, this stupid conference comes at a bad time as I should be spending my time getting things ready for the move but I'll just have to bite my lower lip and get through it.

See everyone next week...

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? SI!

Some of my hardcore readers may recall how I was unbelievably screwed out of my old job in Italy over two years ago. You may recall how devastated I was and how I have spent the past two and a half years here trying desperately to get back down there somehow, someway, with no luck.

Well it has finally happened. We are going home.

They had posted my old job way back in June, I applied and was notified that I made the referral list in mid July but have been on pins and needles since then waiting to hear if I would get selected or get screwed again. This was my last chance. If I had not gotten selected this time, the dream would be over and I would accept the fact that we would never return to the land that we love so much. In the past few weeks I had heard whispers that I had a good chance of getting selected but I would not allow myself to get my hopes up because I could not take the heartbreak of getting passed over yet again. So imagine my excitement and pure, unadulterated joy when I got the phone call this morning informing me that I have been selected for the position! The impossible dream has come true! I have a ton of paperwork and documents to do before we go back but if all goes well we should be back in paradise sometime in November.

You cannot possibly imagine how excited I am. You think you can imagine but trust me, you can't. In the coming days and weeks I'll be posting more updates on Italy but for now I am celebrating with a silky smooth Barbera d'Alba and some Grana Padano. The wife and the X Man are excited as well as the X Man will be starting in the Italian school when we get there. Giampietro has already told us that he plans on taking the X Man to school each day.

Life is good...and about to get so much better!

Some pics from Luca's first trip to Italy

Luca meets Giampietro, Agnese, Monica, Luca and another Luca...

We're back from Italy.

Yay.

Guess where we're going tomorrow...

We're taking off right after work, staying in the Austrian Alps tomorrow night and should arrive in paradise (aka Italia) sometime Saturday morning. As usual I plan on doing some fly fishing on the Brenta River in Bassano dal Grappa, eating plenty of pizza, pasta and panini, drinking plenty of vino buono, visiting all of nostra amici (our good friends), spending a day in Venezia visiting with our Venetian friends Denise, Theresa and Michelangelo, and of course watching a lot of calcio (soccer). We'll be staying with Giampietro and Agnese's house and you cannot imagine how anxious and excited they are to meet little Luca.

I'm so excited to get there that I'm already dreading having to return to Germany.

Luca is Baptised.

This past Friday we did Luca's baptism at the base chapel. In a strange coincidence, the Chaplain who did the X Man's baptism 4 years ago happens to be stationed here now so we had him do Luca's as well. Virginia's best friend from back home, Bhing, and her husband Toni are Luca's godparents - Toni is a German from the city of Darmstadt which is only about 30 minutes away and they were here with their 2 kids visiting his family so we took advantage of the opportunity to do the ceremony while they were here. Of course, the real party was afterwards, we had a huge reception at our house. Virginia had been really wanting to do a big party with tons of food and man did we ever. Bhing came over the day before and they cooked all day, then they cooked all the next day and were joined by another Filipina friend of Virginia's named Fely and later on by two more Filipina friends of Fely. When we got back from the church, there were two more Filipinas in the kitchen that I didn't even know. I've never seen so much food in one place but it's just as well as we had probably around 50 people over plus a dozen or so kids. Since I knew there would be plenty of kids, I bought a pinata and hung it up on our terrace and it was a huge hit. Overall, it was a fantastic night, one of the best we've had since we came to Germany. Here are some pics (the last picture is Bhing and Toni)...

Sarah Palin

Seriously, I don't care what anybody says...this woman is HAWT.

Couple new pics

I am one in a milliion 108.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 108 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

If they included Canada, this number would probably increase tenfold. And when I use "Rik" instead of my full name (Richard), it says I am the only one in the US!

Rik's Blog, 80's Edition: Sports

I could actually dedicate a month's worth of posts dedicated to sports in the 80's. I grew up an avowed sports junkie and about the only sport I never got into in the 80's was of course car racing. Boston was a great place to be for sports fans in the 80's. It started with the Miracle on Ice in 1980 which had a heavy Boston tilt to it. My mother, for some inexplicable reason, became a huge Celtics fan in the early 80's and I really got spoiled growing up watching the Big 2 (Bird, McHale, Parish) and all the great Celtics teams of the 80's. We got a flicker of success in the mid 80's with the Patriots before it all came crashing down. I cried in 1986 when the ball went through Buckner's legs. Thankfully, the hated Yankees didn't win a World Series title in the 80's either. But I think what I miss most is watching the Bruins teams they had in the 80's. They never won the Stanley Cup but they had some great characters, guys like Rick Middleton, Brad Park, Gord Kluzak, Mike Milbury.

As far as playing, we played everything in the 80's. I played little league baseball, youth league basketball and soccer and spent the winters playing pick up hockey on the frozen ponds around our town, usually with our neighbors the Roys who were from Canada (and yes, the youngest son was named Patrick).

One memory that sticks out in my mind was somewhere around 1981, my father had taken us to Boston for the day and we were having lunch in the North End, which is the Italian section of Boston and has some amazing pizza. So we're in the pizzeria and I look over and in one of the booths is a guy who looks just like Larry Bird. I tell my father and of course, he's not a sports fan so he says "Go over and ask him". At first I was shy but I was such a huge fan that eventually I did go over and ask "Excuse me...are you Larry Bird?" The guy gave me a nervous laugh and said "No, sorry, I'm not". So I was disappointed but when I got home that night I looked in the paper and they did have a home game that day...and the guy was with a woman and young girl and Larry did have a wife and young daughter...so I've always preferred to think that he really was Larry Legend and that he just didn't want to be recognized.

Anyway, I could on forever about being a sports fan in Boston in the 80's but luckily for me, WBZ-TV did it for me. I remember seeing this on TV at the close of the decade and was lucky enough to find it online a while back...



Every clip in that video is a memory...

STEVE-O COMETH!

Steve-O needs no introduction on my blog, but if you need a reminder, read this old post. As I've written before, the thing I look forward to most every year is Steve-O's annual visit. But life is about to get a lot better: Steve-O recently got a job in Karlsruhe, which is only about about 30 minutes away from Heidelberg. He arrives this weekend to begin his new life in Germany and I cannot tell you how excited I am about it. I foresee many road trips, movie and TV quotes, pints of Guinness and an endless supply of quips, stories and laughs in my future...