OT - What are you doing right now?

Gulfcoastguy

I bet that trash panda could go to town on some ribs!

Botch

I'd bet he'd fit on a Large quite nicely!  

JohnInCarolina

Nicer day here today.  Some pics from the balcony of the Institute:

fishlessman

all the little cars in the parking lot.........clown convention?

JohnInCarolina

fishlessman said:

all the little cars in the parking lot.........clown convention?

Dangit… my cover has been blown!

JohnInCarolina

A few more pics of the institute itself:

Bellavista52

Nice pictures but where's the snow?

JohnInCarolina

Bellavista52 said:

Nice pictures but where's the snow?

The Germans I’ve talked to indicated that, twenty years ago, this area would have been covered with snow at this time of the year. Climate change has … changed that.

DoubleEgger

I like how the building follows the terrain. 

Ozzie_Isaac

JohnInCarolina said:

A few more pics of the institute itself:

That has zombie apocalypse written all over it.  This is the institute responsible for accidentally unleashing it on the world …. or it is the one being attacked and working on a vaccine to save mankind.  Could go either way.

JohnInCarolina

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

lousubcap

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

JohnInCarolina

lousubcap said:

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

Haha you’ll laugh, Frank. On the drive over from Frankfurt, we stopped in a small village for lunch.  To get to the institute, we took a scenic route over the mountains.

I was doing a pretty good clip up the mountain road when we all saw a red light flash once - bright and quick - on the side of the road.  Likely an automatic speed trap.  

I have no idea how it will work given that it’s a rental.  I suppose I’ll find out when I return the car on Sunday…

HeavyG

Did the "Brazilian test" on tensile strength originally start with studying wax and hair?
Inquiring minds and all...

kl8ton

JohnInCarolina said:

lousubcap said:

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

Haha you’ll laugh, Frank. On the drive over from Frankfurt, we stopped in a small village for lunch.  To get to the institute, we took a scenic route over the mountains.

I was doing a pretty good clip up the mountain road when we all saw a red light flash once - bright and quick - on the side of the road.  Likely an automatic speed trap.  

I have no idea how it will work given that it’s a rental.  I suppose I’ll find out when I return the car on Sunday…

My BIL rented a car in Italy a little while back. His tickets were waiting for him in his mailbox at home. Good luck!

GrateEggspectations

kl8ton said:

JohnInCarolina said:

lousubcap said:

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

Haha you’ll laugh, Frank. On the drive over from Frankfurt, we stopped in a small village for lunch.  To get to the institute, we took a scenic route over the mountains.

I was doing a pretty good clip up the mountain road when we all saw a red light flash once - bright and quick - on the side of the road.  Likely an automatic speed trap.  

I have no idea how it will work given that it’s a rental.  I suppose I’ll find out when I return the car on Sunday…

My BIL rented a car in Italy a little while back. His tickets were waiting for him in his mailbox at home. Good luck!

Same thing happened to me in Italy. Got back to two very hefty tickets (once the out of country surcharge was applied). 🙃

GrateEggspectations

Does anyone have pieces from this set? In need of some new furniture and am strongly considering them. 

https://www.costco.ca/prospera-home-barcelona-3-piece-top-grain-leather-living-room-set.product.100672696.html

DoubleEgger

GrateEggspectations said:

Does anyone have pieces from this set? In need of some new furniture and am strongly considering them. 

https://www.costco.ca/prospera-home-barcelona-3-piece-top-grain-leather-living-room-set.product.100672696.html

You can use it for 8 years and take it back for a refund just like a Christmas tree. 

Ozzie_Isaac

DoubleEgger said:

GrateEggspectations said:

Does anyone have pieces from this set? In need of some new furniture and am strongly considering them. 

https://www.costco.ca/prospera-home-barcelona-3-piece-top-grain-leather-living-room-set.product.100672696.html

You can use it for 8 years and take it back for a refund just like a Christmas tree. 

Only if the lights stop working.

Ozzie_Isaac

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

DoubleEgger

Ozzie_Isaac said:

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

You should see the checks he writes! IYKYK. 

johnmitchell

DoubleEgger said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

You should see the checks he writes! IYKYK. 

😂😂

Botch

kl8ton said:

JohnInCarolina said:

lousubcap said:

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

Haha you’ll laugh, Frank. On the drive over from Frankfurt, we stopped in a small village for lunch.  To get to the institute, we took a scenic route over the mountains.

I was doing a pretty good clip up the mountain road when we all saw a red light flash once - bright and quick - on the side of the road.  Likely an automatic speed trap.  

I have no idea how it will work given that it’s a rental.  I suppose I’ll find out when I return the car on Sunday…

My BIL rented a car in Italy a little while back. His tickets were waiting for him in his mailbox at home. Good luck!

I blew off a parking ticket from the Fine City of Seattle on my rental car, 2 or 3 decades ago.  It took them six months, but they caught up with me.  Won't be doing that again.    

lousubcap

@JohnInCarolina - I am sure Duke ( via the expense report) will end up with an extra charge and in short order.  He!! even the toll roads here in TX can hit your rental within 10 days of the charge. 

Now to air it out on the Autobahn and see if there are any cameras. 

Enjoy and safe travels!

Botch

Ozzie_Isaac said:

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

The final years of my career I was always attending useless meetings, scribbling notes furiously.  It has shocked me how much handwriting is a learned skill, requiring regular practice, since retiring four years ago.  
I still bla-bla-bla on many forums, but that's all typing, a totally different skill-set.  When I have to write a check to someone, or even sign a document, it almost scares me how poorly I write in cursive anymore.
I know it doesn't take too long for that skill-set to come back; sometime in the last year or two of my AF Reserve years we had to inventory all the small explosive stores in a rather large warehouse, and both our barcode readers had failed.  So, we had to pick a row, one person would crawl around with a flashlight and read off the NSN, Quantity, Last Inspected date, and a bunch of other data I can't remember; while someone else followed with a clipboard, handwriting the data onto paper.  This took us about a week, and by the end my handwriting was back at its peak (and my knees/back were screaming; not everything comes back so easily).    

lkapigian

Botch said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

The final years of my career I was always attending useless meetings, scribbling notes furiously.  It has shocked me how much handwriting is a learned skill, requiring regular practice, since retiring four years ago.  
I still bla-bla-bla on many forums, but that's all typing, a totally different skill-set.  When I have to write a check to someone, or even sign a document, it almost scares me how poorly I write in cursive anymore.
I know it doesn't take too long for that skill-set to come back; sometime in the last year or two of my AF Reserve years we had to inventory all the small explosive stores in a rather large warehouse, and both our barcode readers had failed.  So, we had to pick a row, one person would crawl around with a flashlight and read off the NSN, Quantity, Last Inspected date, and a bunch of other data I can't remember; while someone else followed with a clipboard, handwriting the data onto paper.  This took us about a week, and by the end my handwriting was back at its peak (and my knees/back were screaming; not everything comes back so easily).    

A Brazilian test, a Brazilian is a lot 

Battleborn

JohnInCarolina said:

lousubcap said:

How are the driving habits on your road-trip?

Haha you’ll laugh, Frank. On the drive over from Frankfurt, we stopped in a small village for lunch.  To get to the institute, we took a scenic route over the mountains.

I was doing a pretty good clip up the mountain road when we all saw a red light flash once - bright and quick - on the side of the road.  Likely an automatic speed trap.  

I have no idea how it will work given that it’s a rental.  I suppose I’ll find out when I return the car on Sunday…

Speaking purely hypothetically, and certainly not as someone that may or may not deal with traffic related tickets, but unless you are a frequent traveler to said country, what are they going to do? Never seen an extraditable warrant from an international country for a traffic offense. 

alaskanassasin

Botch said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

JohnInCarolina said:

They have a pretty cool tradition here, where everyone who gives a talk writes their abstract in a book - by hand.  Here’s mine:

< commence Brazilian wax jokes >

You have absolutely stunning handwriting.  Artistic flourishes, yet read-able.

The final years of my career I was always attending useless meetings, scribbling notes furiously.  It has shocked me how much handwriting is a learned skill, requiring regular practice, since retiring four years ago.  
I still bla-bla-bla on many forums, but that's all typing, a totally different skill-set.  When I have to write a check to someone, or even sign a document, it almost scares me how poorly I write in cursive anymore.
I know it doesn't take too long for that skill-set to come back; sometime in the last year or two of my AF Reserve years we had to inventory all the small explosive stores in a rather large warehouse, and both our barcode readers had failed.  So, we had to pick a row, one person would crawl around with a flashlight and read off the NSN, Quantity, Last Inspected date, and a bunch of other data I can't remember; while someone else followed with a clipboard, handwriting the data onto paper.  This took us about a week, and by the end my handwriting was back at its peak (and my knees/back were screaming; not everything comes back so easily).    

Writing is being replaced by typing.

Battleborn

Just learned that, when trying to parent your 20 year old son, that it might not be the best for marital bliss to tell your wife that you might know how to be a 20 year old man a bit more than she does. 

JohnInCarolina

lousubcap said:

@JohnInCarolina - I am sure Duke ( via the expense report) will end up with an extra charge and in short order.  He!! even the toll roads here in TX can hit your rental within 10 days of the charge. 

Now to air it out on the Autobahn and see if there are any cameras. 

Enjoy and safe travels!

We were on the Autobahn for a bit, no cameras there.  I got our little VW rental SUV up to 160 km/hr, and I’m happy to report that Germans appear to quickly move over when someone is right behind them.  That being said, I was far from the fastest driver on the road.