Jess and Dave's Space

Where have we been...?

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:59:55 GMT

Wow, we are pretty pathetic at blogging. I'm so sorry! Dave and I have been super busy, and the blog has suffered. Also, we have misplaced our camera battery charger, so neither of us has not taken pictures for MONTHS... basically, I don't think we have ANY pics since we moved here.

So, despite the lack of photographic evidence, I am happy to report that things are going well. We are healthy (Dave is--now!) happy and enjoying being back in the US.

Our house is great, but needs a lot of work. (The photos in the slide show are our house, but were taken during the inspection, so they show the house before we moved in). The yard waste bin is always full as we try to get our yard in some type of order. We currently have eight holes in the ceiling of our formal dining room and are trying to figure out where our plumbing leak is coming from! We got a beautiful Christmas tree (admittedly, it's from Costco and came pre-lit) but our house feels great, and it has been really amazing to be part of a great community again.

In addition to his new job as the family grounds keeper, Dave is plugging away at his new job and burning the midnight oil, trying to learn as much as he can about the new business he works in now.

I have just completed my paralegal certificate and have started looking for a job--wish me luck! It was not easy, but I've learned a lot and look forward to a meaningful career again.

We have met some great new friends, and are trying to reconnect with old friends, too. Honza has a new best friend named Kona, and is completely adjusted to being an "American" dog. He is definitely happy that I'm not working yet.

So, I promise to get back on the blogwagon and hopefully we will be able to take some photos soon!

Back Home

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:21:00 GMT

Well, we made it!!! We have been out of communication for a while, but it is just because we are finally back home and adjusting to the sweet life again. Dave is hard at work in his new job. Jess is hard at work in her paralegal certification program. Honza is having a little difficulty adjusting to the various grasses and pollens in the Puget Sound. He has some serious allergies and is on Benadryl twice daily.

We made an offer on a house in Woodinville at Dave's golf club called Bear Creek. It's a beautiful house and we are really excited. It's not totally ours yet, but it is set to close in May. It needs a bit of work to be just right, but we feel good about it.

When we are not working and/or studying, we are really enjoying getting re-acquainted with our home town.

Moving Day!

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:54:08 GMT

So, here I sit, on the floor of our nearly empty flat typing on a laptop. As I think about it, almost exactly how I started this blog. This is probably the last blog entry I will make from Prague.

The preparation for this move has gone really fast. I have sold nearly all of our electronic items, and all of our Ikea furniture. Last friday, I visited three vets to authorize Honza's flight to the US. I got many stamps in his passport (yes, he has one) and one official, signed, and stamped health certificate. I really hope that I have completed all the necessary paperwork for Honza to fly home with us on our plane.

The movers have been here working hard for two days. The car is loaded with all of our suitcases, and Honza's crate. Dave is finishing his last day at work. Here is our game plan: we drop off the company car tonight, pick up our rental car, and drive about 3.5 hours to Munich and stay the night. Then we get up (have Starbucks!) and drive to Amsterdam, which is about 4 hours or so.

We have approximately 24 hours in Amsterdam, and then we (hopefully all three of us) will board the plane and fly directly to Sea-Tac. The flight will be about 10 hours long and will cut out a lay-over and make things less stressful for Honza.

We will miss it here in Prague, but new adventures await-- And Dave starts his new job on Monday!

Going Away

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:36:16 GMT

This past week has been super hard. We are very excited about moving home, but are saying our goodbyes and that is never easy. We made some nice friends here. We really want to stay in touch with everyone.

Our friend Shanna organized a really nice going-away dinner for us at Dinitz Cafe. It was great to see our friends at least one last time.

Honza said good ye to his best friend Dag the boxer, and his really sweet owner, Filip, and then goodbye to his family of Manchester Terriers, and his mother's owner, Katerina. It was sad. :(

On Monday night, the Microsoft Czech and Slovak finance team threw Dave a great party. There was a really cool slide show of their team events, and it was really meaningful to Dave to see the team come together to give Dave a farewell party.

The WOW factor!

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:03:47 GMT

Microsoft CZ launched the new Windows Vista recently. We have had the pleasure of driving around advertising the new operating system to the citizens of Central Europe. It says "The Wow Starts Now!"

Slovakia: Oravsky biely potok

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:46:16 GMT

Dave's colleague Tibor, recently completed a weekend house in his home region of Orava, in Slovakia. He and his fiancé, Hanka, invited us to stay with them in their new house for the weekend.

We drove for over six hours to the Tatra Mountains, and finally Arrived at Tibor and Hanka's village called Oravsky biely potok. It is a small village, with a beautiful river running right along the back of their house.

Tibor arranged for us to tour the largest dam in the country, and we even went inside the dam, all the way to the bottom. Yikes! We also visited a cool museum that contained original buildings from typical Oravian villages. It was very interesting. We also went to a thermal bath (along with about 1000 other tourists) and we really enjoyed Hanka's cooking, and hospitality. All in all, it was a nice, relaxing weekend there. It was all well and good until Dave got a speeding ticket on the way home! Darn cops!! :-)

In other news: We're moving home!

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:24:00 GMT

Well, it's all final! Dave worked really hard to find a new job back home. After many, many, long phone interviews, and some really hard decisions, Dave has accepted a job in Redmond. His new title is: Finance Director - Microsoft Online Services International Regions.

Dave will be working with the sales and marketing teams in the Microsoft Online Services business. This group is responsible for MSN and a variety of other online properties (e.g. Hotmail, Windows Live). Dave will lead a team of 23 financial analysts located around the world. He is really excited about the opportunity to work in a challenging new business, and to come back home. Jess' new job is TBD! Stay tuned.

We have made our travel plans, and we will arrive at SEATAC on March 22!!! (In case you are wondering, Honza is coming with. :) We have a lot to do before then, including traveling to Hungary this weekend, and selling all of our Ikea furniture, and European electronics and then BIG packing to do!!

We are so excited to move back home, and can't wait to see everyone!

Maldives

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 11:14:56 GMT

We just got home from the Maldives--a fantastic vacation to be remembered forever. About a year ago, I heard about the Maldives for the first time when one of my business English students showed me his vacation pictures. It looked like an amazing place; unlike anywhere I had ever seen.

Our friends Cindy and Mike suggested that we make a trip there before we both moved back home. So, we planned the trip for the week of Valentine's Day.

We all drove to Munich, and flew directly from there to Male' which is the capital of the Maldives. The flight was on Condor Air; a charter flight for people who used the same travel agency as we did. When we arrived in Male' the weather was hot and it was gorgeous. We hopped on a DeHavilland Twin Otter (sea plane) called the Maldivian Air Taxi. It was awesome-- the pilots were wearing a pilot uniform shirt, shorts and no shoes or socks!

On the way to our hotel, we flew over about half of the Maldives. From overhead, the islands look like a string of pearls. It is made up of a little over 1200 islands, separated by of small volcanically formed, white sand and coral atolls. About 30 minutes later, we arrived at our hotel, the White Sands Resort and Spa.

Our hotel was really unique. The resort used to be two different hotels. The hotel lobby was totally open and had beautiful views. From the hotel, you can walk along a long boardwalk or dock, I guess, that starts out over the sand, where you can turn toward a cafe, or toward the spa and boutique, or continue straight on and over the water in the lagoon. If you walk about 4 minutes from the lobby, you get to the bungalows. We chose to stay in over-the-water bungalows. It was a totally amazing setting. Each bungalow is built up on stilts and there is a long row of them. The room itself was very rustic, and was all wood inside. You could see the ocean between the floorboards of the bathroom. We had our own sun deck, which has steps down to the water. Each time we walked along the walkway, we saw lots of sea life, including sting rays, puffer fish, lion fish, even little sharks.

The sand was incredibly soft and white, so you could always see the fish in the water. We snorkeled from our bungalows through the lagoon and found a really nice coral reef with quite a lot of fish around it. Cindy found a very big Hawksbill turtle hanging out on the reef eating dinner. We followed him around for about 15 minutes. It was unreal!!

Words really can't express how much fun we had. We went to the spa and had a great massage in a special room where we were side-by-side. There were two different restaurants: one cafe-style restaurant on the beach, and one more formal restaurant built over the water that had a theme buffet dinner each night. Which brings me to the only down-side of our trip. The food was quite tasty, but unfortunately, Mike and I got food poisoning. We were each out of commission for an entire day. Thank God, Cindy and Dave were lucky enough to escape that torture!

Cindy and I visited a neighboring island called Dhigurah Island. It was about a 20 minute boat ride. The island was very rustic. The homes and the yards were small, and the people were friendly but shy. The women were all wearing traditional Muslim dress, and the children were beautiful. We saw two government offices, a mosque and a school (where the kids were learning in English). There were two phone booths on the island. We toured their shopping area, since tourism is their main industry. We each picked up a beautiful carved sea turtle to commemorate our turtle sighting earlier in the week.

On the day I was sick, Dave went on a "Discovery SCUBA" dive. He had the orientation in the hotel's lagoon and then went on a 12m dive with Mike and Cindy. He had a great time and saw lots of fish.

When I was feeling better, Dave and I went on a half-day snorkel safari to three different areas. The water was so clear and warm. There were literally thousands of fish visible. We saw all different kinds of coral. It looked like something out of Finding Nemo under there. We saw too many different fish to mention them all, but the highlights were: pilot fish, a lobster, sweet lips, parrot fish, angel fish, 4 moray eels, trumpet fish, grouper, giant clams, bluespine unicornfish, and many more!

On Valentine's Day, we went on a sunset cruise and then had a "private" dinner on the beach with about 10 other couples! It was really amazing. We were sorry to leave that amazing place. One interesting thing to note: our plane was equipped with one of those GPS maps that told us our exact location. We were slightly nervous to see that we flew right over Baghdad. Needless to say we were happy to land back in Germany safe and sound.

As usual, we ended our trip with an "American Style" dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Munich.

Please enjoy our pictures on the Maldives slide show!

Winter Blast 2007

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:39:27 GMT

Okay, I admit that I copied the title of this blog entry and the corresponding slide show from King5 TV. I thought the sensational titles were fitting! Much like the folks back home in the Pacific NW, we have had some insane weather lately. Last week we had super strong winds and the temperature finally started to feel like winter. We lost quite a few trees in the park across the street.

Just when we thought it might start to turn normal, it started to snow yesterday, and hasn't stopped for about 24 hours. Dave braved the trip to the Metro on foot and Honza and I had some fun in the park. Honza had a total blast. This is really his first big snow. He started running and jumping in the snow. He ran so fast, that I fell down on my face and dropped his leash!

When will it end??? We are looking forward to our vacation in the Maldives with Mike and Cindy: 14 days and counting until we leave for the sun and sand!

Cone Couture

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:52:51 GMT

I just couldn't resist posting this picture of Honza in his cone. He is now 9 months old and it was time for him to get fixed. Poor little guy!!

So how was your Christmas?

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:47:54 GMT

Just like last year, we came home to the US to visit our families for the holiday. We had a very short trip this time--10 days. We spent most of the time in the car and eating!!! As usual we feel like we didn't have enough time.

We saw all four sets of parents and one set of grandparents, drove from Bellevue to Puyallup to Ellensburg to Soap Lake to Vancouver and back to Bellevue before flying back to Prague. Unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures. Sorry!

We spent New Years on the airplane. Dave was asleep and I was watching the wonderful in-flight entertainment on British Airways. Just a little different from the crazy street party we had in Edinburgh last year.

Where ever you were, we hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We had a Christmas Party

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:24:58 GMT

We may have been crazy, but the night before we flew to the U.S. we hosted a Christmas party for about 20 people who work for Dave.

I made lots and lots (read: way too much) of food, and Dave grilled on the balcony. The guests were kind enough to serenaded us with a special Czech Christmas song. It was great!

If this picture looks a bit strange, it is because it was taken during the song.

Christmas in Prague

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:18:49 GMT

Well, we were in Prague for our second holiday season. It was even more beautiful than last year, and we managed to make it one more year without eating any of the Czech Christmas delicacy: carp. Thank God!

The weather his year has been crazy: it snowed once in October, and then it has been mild and spring-like ever since. We have not had any more snow. So as we prepared to travel home for the holidays, it really didn't feel much like Christmas.

To get into the Christmas spirit, we met Mike and Cindy in Vienna and checked out their Christmas Market. It was great, but VERY cold. We walked all over town, going from warm place to warm place, and we took a cab to a Thai restaurant.

Here are some pictures:

The Prague Old Town Square with the beautiful Christmas tree

Christmas market and City Hall in Vienna

in a cab in Vienna.

Framed…

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:04:22 GMT

The Frame family came for a weekend in Prague on the weekend of November 17. Stewart and I became friends more than 12 years ago while I was working for Ernst & Young in Edinburgh. Last time I saw Stewart and Karen, they were in London and Heather was a few months away from being born. It was great to get a chance to meet Heather and amazing to see how much she has grown in such a short period to of time. Jessamyn had also not met the Frames and I was glad she could meet them and spend some time getting to know them.

Despite the distance, we’ve had a great friendship over the years and enjoyed many visits in a few different locations (Edinburgh, London, Seattle, and now Prague). As usual, we picked up quickly and had a really enjoyable weekend sharing the sights of Prague, enjoying some nice Indian food, and playing a few XBOX games. We are looking forward to seeing the Frame’s in another new place – their home in Budapest next February.

The Latest:

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:47:18 GMT

I feel a little guilty that I have not been updating the blog as much as I should. I have a new laptop and we have WiFi in the flat, so I have no excuse for not updating you all on a more regular basis. I realize there are some things that we should share. Where should we start?

Dave is off to a good start on his MBA at Kellogg. The school has a European branch which is based in Germany near Frankfurt. Dave is enjoying the challenging classes and the team atmosphere. I'm not so sure he enjoyes all the homework!
I am working for the International Women's Association of Prague (IWAP) selling advertising for their magazine, The Bridge. So far, I am working on contacting prior advertisers and convincing them to sign new contracts. It is fun and new.
On December 9, Honza will be 8 months old. He is almost full sized now and is still a total delight--nearly all of the time. Unfortunately, he is beginning to hit puberty. We will put a stop to that soon. (don't tell him that!)
We have had very mild weather, and it has only snowed once. We are waiting for the big dump of snow and a major temperature drop!
We have made our travel plans to go home for the Christmas holiday and are very much looking forward to spending time with our families.
If you can believe it, on April 1, we will have been here for 2 years. We would like to make a move and are evaluating our options. We are not sure yet where we will go, but look forward to the next opportunity.

Well, that is all the news that it fit to print. Stay tuned for more updates!

Thanks for Greece

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:24:07 GMT

Hello one and all. We hope that everyone is in good health and good spirits. As you can see from the latest slide show, we went to Greece recently. It was about 1am on November 24 that we were standing in the baggage claim area in the Athens airport, and we realized we had totally missed Thanksgiving!

We met our friends Mike and Cindy in Athens. We spent the first day there, walking around the Acropolis, taking pictures. We had a great time eating Gyros while we walked through Plaka, the oldest neighborhood in Athens.

In the evening, we took a flying dolphin hydrofoil for an hour and a half south to an island called Hydra, or Ydra in Greek. Hydra is a well preserved, rocky island with a small population. They only allow two vehicles on the island and they are garbage trucks. When we got off the boat, we were met by a man who offered to transport our luggage to our hotel... via donkey caravan. I think we laughed so hard we nearly cried.

The weather was not tropical, but felt pleasant. We walked around the island and saw a lot of beautiful well preserved architecture. There were a lot of cats living on the island. We saw them lounging on chairs, being hand-fed fish from the fishing boats and greeting Japanese tourists coming in on the tour boats.

We walked from the main town to a small fishing village. As we walked through this village, we heard some loud booming Greek folk music. As we got closer, we started to wonder if it was live music, and started picturing a big, fat, Greek wedding reception in some family's back yard. We found the source, and it was just about 5 people sitting around a round table on a deck, with some really large speakers. The family dog came out to greet us, and then escorted us on a very long walk along the shore line. We had a great time!

We decided that we really want to come back to Greece again if we can. And next time, we hope to have some weather good enough for swimming, and relaxing on the beach.

Honza is a RASCAL!!!

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:59:38 GMT

I was sitting around with Honza, watching old reruns of Starsky and Hutch, (he likes to play Starsky and I play Hutch) and I decided to take some pictures of our little angel being so cute. But all he did was act like a total rascal. So here are some pictures of that.

Lucca

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:50:09 GMT

While we were down south, we drove a litle further to Lucca Italy and met Nicola and Graeme and their beautiful daughter Anna. We had a nice time catching up and wandering around town looking at shoes. Honza really liked Anna. Look at the boys with their "children"!!

LIFESTYLES OF THE (not-quite) RICH AND (totally un-)FAMOUS

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 13:56:35 GMT

We are lucky enough to be geographically very close to a lot of cool places in Europe. We are, however, not lucky enough to figure out how to beat the August vacation traffic jams!

After staying the night in Switzerland and logging more than enough time on the Italian and French motorways, we arrived in Monaco for a short holiday with Cindy and Mike. Wow what a place. A tiny little monarchy on the Riviera between France and the Medeterranian Sea.

Monaco is unique: there is no income tax there, it has the highest number of millionaires per capata in the world and there are 35,656 residents living in only .75 square miles. It has a beautiful rocky desert setting and unfortunately, we didn't take many pictures. We were just having too much fun! The weather was fantastic and it was really relaxing.

On our last day we took a day trip to Nice France. It was very busy there, but we found our way to the beach and took a dip! The water was stunning!!!

Where have we been???

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:45:15 GMT

If you have been wondering where we have been lately, the answer is a LOT of places! We took a trip to the US in early July. We really enjoyed visiting with family and friends and had a taste of the sweet life-- went boating, relaxed, went to the zoo, did some shopping, ate some good restaurant food and some good home cooking, enjoyed home-made Cosmopolitans, went to a concert at Marymoore park, and a little bit more. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend as much time with family and friends as we would have liked to.

Now, back to life in the WILD WILD EAST!!!!

Photo Album: Our new house

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 03:10:30 GMT

Our new house

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Photo Album: Berlin with Monika

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:17:30 GMT

Berlin with Monika

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Photo Album: Orava with Tibor and Hanka

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:35:33 GMT

Orava with Tibor and Hanka

At the largest dam in Slovakia

enroute to Orava... nice!

enroute to Orava

Museum of Oravian Villages

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Photo Album: Budapest

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:37:51 GMT

Budapest

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Cheech and Honza meet

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Stew and Heather

The Citadella

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Monument at the Citadella

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Photo Album: Maldives, February 2007

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 11:36:57 GMT

Maldives, February 2007

Maldives from the air

Male, the capital from our air taxi

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Photo Album: Storm Watch 2007

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:30:22 GMT

Storm Watch 2007

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Honza and Shanti

Photo Album: Framed!

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 13:08:29 GMT

Framed!

At Cihelna restaurant

Karen and Heather

Heather & Honza

Stew and Heather at the castle

Karen and Stew

What the...?

Before the shot of Jaegermeister...

...After!

Heather & Honza

Heather and Honza

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Photo Album: Athens and Hydra Greece

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 13:58:52 GMT

Athens and Hydra Greece

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Photo Album: Weekend in Slovakia

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 18:48:05 GMT

Weekend in Slovakia

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