In San Francisco

First cuddling

2012-02-03T20:08:00.001-08:00

Albino hedgehog

2012-01-31T13:03:00.001-08:00

awww.

Pumpkin & Buttercup moved in

2012-01-30T20:03:00.001-08:00

I miss you

2012-01-30T20:02:00.001-08:00

Russell had to take a bath

2011-10-16T17:04:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

I don't think I can ever do this again. Everything ended up being soaked, but the least water got on Russell

Dog

2011-09-22T19:58:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

I really want a Bernese Mountain dog, I wonder if Russell would mind :D

Santa Cruz

2011-09-22T19:57:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Lunch in Palo Alto

2011-09-22T19:56:00.001-07:00

...

2011-09-12T17:20:00.001-07:00

One last thing, I love how I can just post new stuff and especially pictures within minutes from my iPhone :)

Wohoo I got new curtains

2011-09-12T17:19:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Pretty :)

Namu

2011-09-12T17:18:00.001-07:00

I don't think i really enjoyed Namu. While I love their thursday farmers market food I was disappointed when I went to the restaurant. The chicken pieces were unmanageable big and the breading was too thick.

Laziest cat ever

2011-09-12T17:17:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

I guess he deserves a break after being sick and all

Passion flower

2011-09-12T17:16:00.001-07:00

Found this right by sinas door :)

Stinson beach

2011-09-12T17:15:00.005-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Parents visit

2011-09-12T17:15:00.003-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

Tahoe

Yosemite etc with Sina

2011-09-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

See the full gallery on Posterous

I've been lazy, but trying to catch up now :) here are some pictures of my June Vacation with Sina.

View from my hotel room

2011-02-14T07:59:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Sleepy

2011-02-05T18:48:00.003-08:00

At the vet

2011-02-05T18:48:00.001-08:00

Russell (again)

2011-01-27T20:04:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Eine Uhr für Opa

2011-01-27T19:48:00.003-08:00

Winter in SF

2011-01-27T19:48:00.001-08:00

And another

2011-01-26T20:40:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

This happens like every morning

2011-01-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

Black boots II

2010-12-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Sadly those really nice black ankle high boots didn't work out, but I finally found a pair of knee high ones, i really like!
And they're made by Puma and named Berlin!

Man, he's so cute

2010-12-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

Man, rainboots with wedge heel... Ugh

2010-12-09T08:57:00.001-08:00

Okay...

2010-12-01T11:19:00.000-08:00

I couldn't pass these adorably ankle high ruffle boots from BCBG!

I ordered them yesterday and I can't wait until they arrive! :) Even though I probably need these instead...

Maybe next month...?

View from work

2010-11-17T18:26:00.003-08:00

Noe valley, this is where I live

2010-11-17T18:26:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

I made cake!

2010-11-17T18:21:00.001-08:00

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Russell

2010-11-17T18:19:00.001-08:00

Happy Russell

2010-01-10T16:31:00.000-08:00

Brunch - Thommy decided to document my coffee addiction

2010-01-06T04:32:00.000-08:00

Dinner on the first

2010-01-02T03:09:00.000-08:00

Food was kinda bad, service too, and the waiter spilled my coke on Martin's back... :-D

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T03:04:00.000-08:00

My sister's new apartment

2009-12-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

Saw my sis's new apartment today for the first time. Impressive what they painted on the kitchen wall!

Ice Art

2009-12-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Went to this ice sculptures exhibition with my family today. :)

Christmas Eve with the family

2009-12-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

I got this awesome hair towel from my sis. :-D

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

My friends are bizarre. In a really good way. I definitely missed this.

Some changes around the apartment

2009-09-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

The last 2 weeks Mario and I spent some time getting picture frames and decorating our place. Here're some pictures.

Bedroom

Hallway

Living Room (I also moved the furniture, the arm chair is now where the TV used to be)

A new pic for the kitchen ;-)

And finally the office. I hung my first project i did in Grad School. It's the self portrait poster we had to do in Studio I for Dan Boyarski.

Mario and Russell working

2009-09-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

WFH on Monday

2009-09-22T16:19:00.001-07:00

Russell not so much... He was having a pretty lazy day next to me on the couch. :)

Visiting Casey in San Luis Obispo

2009-09-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend i drove down to see Casey at her new place in SLO (or how Sebastian calls it: SLOB). It's sooo pretty down there, I had no idea it's just a 10-minute drive to Pismo Beach. :-) We enjoyed a weekend at the beach and exploring SLO's downtown. Did you know SLO has a wall plastered with gum?

And the new armchair...

2009-08-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

We're getting it in coffee brown. :-)

New sofa

2009-08-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Mario and I bought this sofa recently in a slightly different color.
Now we're waiting for the delivery. :-)

Russell enjoying the patio.

2009-08-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Lazy cat

2009-08-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

He loves to be carried around and petted on the belly at the same time
by Mario.

Russell on mario's desk

2009-08-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

When I came home the other day, Russell was sitting (and apparently
had been sleeping most of the day) on mario's desk, which is right by
the window where he can see us coming home.

Mario with all our new stuff

2009-08-10T09:06:00.001-07:00

Ikea

2009-08-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

Graduation & Vacation

2009-06-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty lazy lately regarding the blogging. Graduation has happened about 1.5 months ago (time flies by), the great road trip with my family is long over, and I have another 2 weeks of vacation left until work starts. Right now I am hanging out on the swing in Mario's patio and keep an eye out on Russell who's enjoying his new freedom. I am really happy to have these days to relax before a new part in my life starts, even though I am confident that work will be great. :) Additionally Mario and I have started to look at places, and we found a pretty cool duplex and just put in our application! We should know by the end of the week, so keep your fingers crossed!
Here's a picture of the diploma ceremony, I am a Master of Design in Interaction Design, now. Yay! ;-)

Pittsburgh weather...

2009-04-25T19:11:00.000-07:00

is gorgeous right now. It's unbelievable warm, and sunny, and simply nice outside! Not that this would help anything, I have to sit inside all day and work. :-( russell's been sitting next to the open window all day too, I guess he'd like to go outside too...

Oh well, 3 more weeks and I graduate, yay, can't wait!

Yoghurt for Dogs

2009-04-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

I just found this on ecofabulous.com, great ad:

Working on the couch with russell

2009-04-14T11:28:00.001-07:00

Ilja spielt in Berlin

2009-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

Too many?

2009-02-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

Santa Barbara

2009-01-01T17:22:00.001-08:00

Mario and I went on a 4-day vacation, sun, sun, sun. :-)
(All pictures taken by Mario)

Christmas Eve

2009-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Mario and I spent Christmas Eve at our place with Ines and Sebastian. We had stuffed duck with red cabbage and potato dumplings for dinner. Typical German Christmas food. ;-) After dinner we all had a lot of fun unwrapping our presents. :-)

Russell helps with my Branding assignment

2008-12-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

Russell started sleeping in his (too small) donut

2008-11-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

Russell

2008-11-04T09:44:00.000-08:00

Some more cat pictures (sorry pple if that gets boring.) ;-)

Russell - my cat :-)

2008-08-27T11:39:00.000-07:00

27th Birthday

2008-08-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Mario had some great surprises for me and we had a good day hanging out in the city. :-)

I almost got this cat

2008-08-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

His name is Garfield...

With my parents in Sanssouci

2008-08-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

Sebastian's and Ines' Wedding

2008-08-11T22:20:00.001-07:00

Leipzig

2008-08-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

Katrin's and Richard's Wedding

2008-08-09T22:18:00.000-07:00

Love it - Keepon

2008-04-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

The robot Keepon (developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski (CMU)) dancing to the song "I Turn My Camera On" by the band Spoon.

More info:

Elephant, drawing!

2008-04-01T19:53:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate

2008-03-28T17:16:00.000-07:00

On my last day in Cali we went to the Sausalito side of the Golden Gate. Mario took some beautiful pictures.

Spring Break

2008-03-28T17:14:00.000-07:00

During my spring break Mario and I redid the backyard at his place. So far it had been a rather sad place, with only 3 bushes. We bought a lot of flowers and plants, and now it's inviting and cozy.

I promise I post Christmas Pictures soon

2008-02-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

...as soon as Steini gives me his pics!!!

Valentines Day

2008-02-16T15:30:00.001-08:00

Studio Group

2008-02-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

This is my studio group. We are working on a project called "Learning in Context" for the spring semester. This is us this Saturday at school.

Christmas

2007-12-21T17:13:00.000-08:00

Steinis Birthday

2007-12-15T17:13:00.000-08:00

Mario's Birthday

2007-11-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

Labor Day Weekend in Pittsburgh

2007-09-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Now, the first pictures of Pittsburgh. Mario was visiting last weekend and we had a real good time! We spent the Saturday with shopping for some furniture at Ikea, and in the evening we met Martina and Daniel!

This is me in front of the house I live in.

Somewow the rental car company decided to rent us a convertible. :-) :-)

Lunch at IKEA

Mario in our car

We went to Mount Washington at night and enjoyed the skyline of Pittsburgh with Martina and Daniel.

Sunday

First we visited the Carnegie Mellon Campus and then we went to the Chihuly at Phipps exhibition:

Houses in Shadyside, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh. Houses like that are very typical for Pittsburgh.

That is the "School of Design" building of CMU. This is were I am going to spend the most time of the next two years.

Chihuly at Phipps is a exhibition of the artist Dale Chihuly who makes objects of glass, and in this case he created forms that fit to plants. The exhibition was in the Phipps conservatory. It was very interesting to see all these forms and the bright colors contrasted artfully with the shades of green of the plants.

Birthday

2007-08-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of you for coming and enjoying this day with me! I had a lot of fun (and left overs) ;-)

Alameda Beach

2007-08-22T16:47:00.000-07:00

We went to Alameda enjoying the nice weather. And on our way back we came across Pixar Studios!! :-) :-)

SF Beach

2007-08-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Family visit

2007-06-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

May 17th - finally my family (parents and sister) came to visit me!! I was excited weeks before! :) As always time then flew by. We spent one weekend in Yosemite, where we saw a bear!!

And the second weeked we drove all the way down to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. It was really great! We had a lot of fun, nice sunny weather (hey, it's Cali) and all over a great time. I'd just wish they could have stayed longer....

New Car, SDN talks and rainy weekends

2007-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

We've got a new car!! Since Friday Mario and I have a really nice VW Golf, black exterior, stick shift (hmmm, I have to get used to that again) anf as I said, really nice. :-) We sold the Ford, after it had a major break down last week (the engine would have needed to be replaced - $2000), and had luck in finding this nice VW quickly. I gonna post a picture later this week.
Now it's Monday again, after a pretty rainy and rather cold weekend. Mario was off to a Ruby conference on Sat - which wasn't as good as he thought, and I spent the day at home. Thinking about the conference, which was hold by the Software Developer Network (SDN), I just can say that I so far have always been a bit disappointed by the talks hold by SDN. It never was as good as the description, and only once was really interesting, and that was the guy from Linden Labs talking about Second Life. I might not go to another talk by them, it was mostly a waste of time.
Other than that, I am still waiting for the outcome of my application for a loan to finance my studies. Next week I should finally know, so keep your fingers crossed.
And, the really, really good news: Mario has got a job! Mid of May he will start in the CRM team of SAP. I am sooo proud of him. :-) :-)
Everything is a bit stressful for him, because he has to wrap up things, fill out a lot of forms and travel to Germany in 2 weeks.
My life is rather quiet right now, work is not too stressful, we are preparing some things for CHI in May, and the Sapphire stress is survived. ;-)
No exciting plans right now, every planning is on hold until I know about the loan...

Random Thoughts

2007-04-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

Nothing really exiting is going on right now. Work is going as usual - except that my supervisor quit his job at the beginning of this month and is starting his own company now. Good for him, sad for me, because my new "boss" has no idea of design at all and I am basically on my own. I am really gonna miss Eric, and the learning experience with him.
Other than that I am filling out hundreds of forms regarding my masters studies starting in August. Yes, I am going back to school. I will do my masters in Interaction Design at the Carnegie Mellon University. Despite looking forward to it, I am definitely excited and anxious how it will be. :-)
I also decided to change the blog again. When I applied for the masters, I created an online portfolio plus blog plus picture gallery. It doesn't make much sense for me to have to blogs, because I am not really blogging very often. So, I am going to move over to the other page. At the beginning I am going to post most stuff on both blogs, but from summer on I am going to close this one down.

OK everyone, I miss you all, hopefully I see the German guys in summer, I gonna be in Berlin end of July to mid August.

04-07 Monterey Bay Aquarium

2007-04-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

Mario and I went to the Monterey Aquarium on Saturday. Actually we planned to go to Napa Valley but it looked rainy outside so we decided to do this next weekend when the weather is hopefully better. I had been to the Aquarium already, despite the high entrance fee ($24) it is really worth a visit, but please don't go on a weekend. Right now it's also spring break and the aquarium was crowded with (screaming) children. What an experience. But anyways we enjoyed the day. ;-) The most peculiar thing was the Ocean Sunfish. I had never seen anything like this before. What an ugly fish. I didn't even know that something like that exists! It looks pretty prehistoric! Amazing!

03-31-07 Santa Cruz and Highway 1

2007-04-08T15:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Mario and I went to Santa Cruz, together with Katrin. After some hours at the beach (the weather was nice and sunny) we went all the way back on Highway 1, the most beautiful highway. It goes from Halfmoon Bay down to Los Angeles. We went only a small part from Santa Cruz until the 84 junction.

Computer History Museum

2007-02-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

Mario and I went to the Computer History Museum this Sunday! Very interesting!!! I gonna take my Dad there, when he is here - I guess we better drop off my Mom and sister at the Mall, first. :-D
But, really, it was great. They had all the important stuff, you here at school/university from. And, I am reading this book right now, called "Designing Interactions" from Bill Moggridge, where he is talking about the first mouse (Doug Engelbard), the first desktop methaphor, luggable computers and laptops... And some of those I saw there. It's so impressive to see things you have heard of, which mark milestones in the computer technology! We gonna go there again, because time was too short to see everything.

Me and Cray-1 "the world's most expensive loveseat"

Sunday - Golden Gate Park

2007-02-25T22:12:00.000-08:00

Mario and I went to San Francisco - first for a bit shopping and then to the Golden Gate Park. We planned to visit the Japanese Garden, which was already closed when we came there (remember, don't go there later than 4.45 pm in Winter). :-( I guess we have to go another time. Anyways, the Botanic Garden was pretty nice, too!

Credit to Mario for the great pictures. ;-)

Rainy Sunday - Going for a walk in Shoreline Park

2007-02-19T22:01:00.000-08:00

SAP Open - Semifinals

2007-02-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

I won tickets to the SAP Open Tennis semifinals, which we saw last Saturday. It was really exciting, and good matches. The evening already started funny, with this sign saying: "Mercedes and Disabled in this direction. All others ->"
... I guess that's because Mercedes was a major sponsor. But a weird sign, anyways...

Snow in Germany?!

2007-02-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

I know I am being mean, but I enjoyed that Sunday on our new sun chairs soooo much.... :-) :-)

Wir können alles. Ausser hochdeutsch.

2007-02-12T13:50:00.001-08:00

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-07T09:44:00.001-08:00

New Apartment

2007-02-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

finally some pictures of the new apartment!! :-)

Living Room:

Balcony:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Bedroom:

Bathroom:

New dining table!

2007-01-24T16:42:00.000-08:00

Well, I know most of you expect more exciting stories here (which I hopefully can deliver next time) - but today it's just about our new dining table. After 4 hours second hand and IKEA hunting, we found this great piece at IKEA:
50% reduced (because of a tiny, tiny, tiny scratch at one leg) we are now proud owners of this fancy glass table. Of course, we had to buy two fitting chairs... ;-)

Else, everything is going great, exciting stuff to do at work - I actually learn new things (thanks to Eric). Right now my task is a bit challenging, it includes some icons and visual art work... well, not my strongest side... But however, I hope, I'll do good.

Further, Mario and I are going to move to our new apartment this Saturday!! I can't wait for it!! I hope it's going to be as cool as I am imagining it. ;-)

OK guys, I will post some pictures from the last weekend, soon (we visited Berkeley) - and it would be nice to hear from you from time to time...

New Year's in Berlin

2007-01-05T03:52:00.000-08:00

This year Annelie visited me for 2 days in Berlin, and the New Year's Party we spent at Bine's and Sascha's place. :-) It was really great!! Bine and Sascha prepared delicious food, we did "Bleigiessen", and saw the fireworks from their balcony. :-) I was really happy to see these guys again, after such a long time. Some days later I visited Schalle and Otti, and luckily the other guys came, too. :-) I really miss you all over there!!!!
And here now some New Year's pictures...

About doctors, pharmacies and landlords

2006-12-18T16:20:00.000-08:00

After being ill the whole weekend (arhh too much to do to be ill...) - I decided to go a doctor today. Sina recommended one in Mountain View, which was actually pretty good. Still, I have to get used to leaving a message on the voice mail of a doctor and then being called back for an appointment. But fortunately, the visit was short, friendly and helpful. With my prescription I went immediately to Long Drugs, where I hoped to get the antibiotics. I did - after releasing (again) all my private data, signing an agreement that I don't need consultatio how to take the pills and 40 minutes waiting!! I don't know - some things are just better in Germany. Here, they really check the prescription, than take a little orange pill bottle and fill exactly in the amount of pills you get. The bottle gets a little printed tag with your name, and your doctors and the directions on it... Very personalized... And again, it took 40 minutes! I didn't plan to buy anything else at Long Drugs - but I ended up with a new wallet, peppermint tea and toothpaste (the only thing I really needed, well, except of the pills).

However, after releasing all my personal data to the doctor and the pharmacy, Mario called: The landlord of the apartment complex where we want to move, wants to see our bank statements!! Because we have no credit history (no credit card == no credit history == not trustworthy). Ok again, I gave someone totally unknown my last two bank statements (Bankauszuege), just to learn, that I don't have (in the landlords oppinion) sufficient funds on my account and that I should write a statement, how I am going to pay the rent when I am getting unemployed!!! Dear God! I am so annoyed by now.
Now the question: How can I make clear that I won't get unemployed, because my contract with SAP runs until the end of June next year? How, without having anything in writing except of the training plan?! By now, I am really curious, how Mario and I are going to solve this within the next two days.

... But else, everything is great :-) ...

SAP Holiday Party cont.

2006-12-10T20:08:00.000-08:00