The Office Olympics

So this summer I finally had the opportunity to bring the Office Olympics (which were held at SRI) to EEI, complete with synchronized chair dancing. :-) I had been planning this for 4 years!!

Each division competed as its own country (complete with national anthem - ours was BTO's "Taking Care of Business") and sent representatives to participate in a variety of individual and team events such as the Equestrian Event, Wastepaper Basketball, and the Pencil Javelin Throw, to name a few.

The Olympics kicked off with a pizza lunch at the Opening Ceremonies and concluded with an ice cream social for the Closing Ceremonies, and as I said after the Games at SRI - I've never had so much fun at work!!

Somehow I got talked into participating in the Synchronized Chair Dancing with others in my division, which of course was captured on video. (username eeivideo password edison)

http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?pi=0&ps=20&sf=&sa=0&sq=&dm=0&p=B85028082C087A00

The judging was as scandalous as the Olympics Gymnastics judging, but what else would you expect! Our team "BOGolia"wound up with the bronze medal (reasonable) but the team that should have won ("AndTigua" - our Accounting and Technology group) had the misfortune of going first, and thus finished last. Definitely check out their routine if you get a chance. The Marshall Islands (our Communications group) took the silver medal and their performance is entertaining as well. If you can't tell, most of our songs have an electric theme to them (since I work for an electricity organization) and the A&T groups songs all have to do with accounting and technology.

FXCM Summer Party

For the second year in a row, Stan was nice enough to host and Frauke was nice enough to plan the FXCM summer party. It was again tons of fun with great food, great friends, and great music! The house band put on a concert - though with the last night of Olympic swimming on TV, most party goers left in time to get home and see the U.S. men win the gold medal in the 400 free relay. Go USA!

A Deep Creek Wedding

My friends Kyle and Laura got married a couple weeks ago. (I've been consumed by Olympics viewing and am quite behind on my posting!) Set in beautiful Deep Creek Lake, it was a spectacular weekend. The weather was a perfect 70 and sunny and all the festivities were outside. Friday night was barbeque and bluegrass, Saturday was the wedding day bike ride in the morning, followed by the church ceremony and lakeside reception.

Haig rode is penny farthing for the bike ride and did an amazing job navigating the hills despite having a front wheel as tall as Theresa and no brakes!

The Perfect Ending to the Trip

Theresa and I scored unrequested upgrades to business class for the flight home!! Woo hoo!! Shortly after passing through security in Munich to get our connecting flight to DC, we heard our names on the loudspeaker. We go to the desk, where they take our tickets and give us new ones. We looked at them over and over again while standing in the line to board for the economy section. Row 8 and 9, I knew that had to be at the front of the plane, but didn't see anything at first that indicated business class. But the longer I stared at the ticket, growing increasingly impatient with the long line to board, I found the word "business" right at the top of the ticket. SCORE!!! I pointed it out to Theresa and we simultaneously stepped right out of line and high fived as we passed through the business class boarding area (no line). What a difference it makes to spend 8 hours in business class as opposed to economy... if only I could be so lucky on every flight. We think it had something to do with the airlines overloading the United flights because of a Lufthansa strike.

Our Last Day of Vacation....

It had to come eventually, and our last day of our 3 week vacation had arrived (way to soon). Back in Warsaw, Tammy, Theresa and I headed to Wilanow Palace, built for Jan Sobieski in the 1600s. Amazingly, the palace survived WWII, and now showcases a large collection of European art. After touring a couple of palaces in Warsaw now, Theresa and I realized when you tour historic homes in the U.S. such as Monticello or Mt. Vernon, you see the house as it was used by those who lived in it. At Monticello you see Jefferson's study, his bedroom, etc. They try to recreate the house as it would have been when he lived there. In Poland however, the palaces are essentially galleries for Polish and European Art. Warsaw was destroyed in WWII, yet much of the Art was saved. The Poles are very proud of this and the Palaces serve as a location to display the art.


After our palace Tour, we were STARVING!! I'm beginning to think being a tourist burns more calories than swimming, biking and running. Naturally, when we passed a Mexican restaurant, we stopped dead in our tracks and convinced Tammy to join in the international Mexican food adventure. Theresa's assessment: edible, but they use ketchup for salsa. (And there didn't seem to be much alcohol in the drinks either...)


Next, we had to have ice cream. For a week, I'd seen people walking around with these huge tall soft serve ice cream cones. I stupidly tried the gelato the first day in Warsaw. The gelato itself was fine, but there was something clearly lost in translation because I ended up with 3 times as much whip cream in the cup than I did ice cream! This time, at Theresa's suggestion, I got the cone (just like everybody else does), and since the ice cream was so tall, I just ate it down to the cone and then threw the rest away. It was yummy!

After our ice cream, we headed back to the apartment to pick up Heather who worked all day. We went to dinner and then to a lounge for drinks. It was a great ending to a great vacation that resulted in making several new friends, reconnecting with old ones, and cramming as much exploration into 3 weeks as humanly possible!

We saw this poster on the wall in the lounge - apparently the Poles like ketchup!!

Swimming in the Baltic!

Some people keep a track of every country they've visited, I'm thinking maybe I'll keep track of every body of water I've swum in. Gdansk is right on the Baltic Sea, and just a short train ride away is the beach town of Sopot. On our last day in Gdansk, we headed there to soak up the sun (and let our bank accounts recover from the amber damage). It was an absolutely gorgeous day - perfect for relaxing on the beach. After all, being a tourist for 3 weeks is hard work!

(If only I'd brought my goggles...my arms were desperate for a good workout!)

Before heading back to Gdansk, we went to this fish restaurant that was recommended in both Heather's and Theresa's guide books. When we got there, there was an indoor restaurant (with a huge line) or an outdoor stand. We opted for the outdoor stand, since we had limited time before our train.

Heather translated the various fish names for us, and we placed our order. For just fish - that was really all you could get at the outdoor stand, other than cabbage salad which just wasn't high on any of our lists. Anyway, we clearly had no idea what we were doing. It took forever, and when our fish arrived we realized that we were supposed to specify the quantity (in grams) of fish we wanted. They charged something like 7 Zloty (about $3.50) per 100g. Well, since we didn't specify I guess, they just gave us however much they wanted .... as in A LOT! Heather had an entire trout (head and all...) and the rest of us had huge fillets of halibut. But apparently our stomachs were in fact bigger than our eyes because we managed to eat it all. And it was in fact, delicious - easily the best halibut I've ever had.

Amber, Amber, and More Amber

After an overnight train from Krakow that took longer than seemed necessary, Theresa and I finally arrived in Gdansk where we met up with Heather and her friend Tammy.

We were again unsure which train stop to get off at, since Gdansk has several, but a nice guy on the train who was from Gdansk offered to let us know when we arrived at the correct stop and once off the train, even looked up the address of our hotel on his blackberry and walked us there. He also explained to us that a festival was going on in Gdansk for the next 3 weeks and that there would be fireworks to celebrate that night. As I learned (after the fact), it was the St. Dominic Fair, "the largest trade and cultural outdoor event in Poland and one of the largest such events in Europe." http://www.mtgsa.pl/e4u.php/16,en, The festival included street vendors, carnival rides, a parade, music performances, and fireworks. I think half of Poland must of been there and it was fun to see.


Right from the get go, we were on an amber shopping mission. Tammy was the lead shopper/fashion consultant and Heather was the master price negotiator. Theresa and I had managed not to buy much of anything up until Gdansk, but Tammy's shopping fever was contagious and our bank accounts were definitely feeling the pain by the end of the weekend. And Tammy may need a 12 step program to recover from her amber addiction. :-)