Finally, here she is! Both, baby and mama are fine.

Happy 0th Birthday, Vanessa!

Yesterday night, the building we lived in burned down. We escaped with just luck and what we were wearing at the time.

Main point is nobody got hurt. Now we are piecing things back together. SNAFU.

UPDATE 2009-05-07: Back on Track...

It was a dirty job, but it had to be done… Today, I scraped probably half a kilogram of mud off my bicycle, mostly accumulated during the winter months. It was about a year ago that I bought the bike, and I made around 2300 km with it so far. Nothing to write home about, I think I can do better this year.

A couple of things still need to be done:

• Chain, guides and sprockets suffered quite a bit. I'd have to take them apart to clean them thoroughly. Which is not so much fun when having to do it outside with near-freezing temperatures. Perhaps the employer-sponsored bike inspection will cover it.
  In any case, they work much better again.
• Rims of front and rear wheels need to be swapped.
• The rear disc brake works, but not that well anymore. I hope it was just due to the wetness after the cleaning, and not oil or anything. In the latter case, I'd be in for a new rotor and pads… In any case, I am mostly using the front brake anyway, which is snappy as ever.

In other news, I installed the new clipless SPD pedals today and made a test ride. I am still a little clumsy clipping into them, but getting out again worked suprisingly well. I wonder how it will be when I have to get out of them unexpectedly (which is not unlikely considering the usual road rage around here). I adjusted the clips to be really loose, and I guess I'll keep it like that until I got used to them. The downside is that it makes them a little wobbly to the sides when riding. Perhaps I should buy a helmet…

Then again, my commute to work is not nearly as interesting as the one from these guys:

After last year's foggy New Year's Eve we decided to play it safe this time and escape into the more favorable climate of Florida. We even managed to squeeze a cruise on the Norwegian Sky into the schedule!

I will probably settle a couple of bets with finally putting these pictures online, but here's about 3 % of the photos I have taken while visiting Volker in Macau SAR earlier this year.