Chicago Connection

It’s what we have all been waiting for. My first niece has finally arrived and I am so excited! I have been looking on my sister in laws (Missy’s) blog four times a day for the past two weeks “just in case” something were to happen. So imagine my surprise when I leave for Sulzburg for two days come back home and the first thing Danny says is “it happened.” I knew right away that Devin and Missy had their baby. She is beautiful and I would post a photo, but my internet won’t let me so I will ask the parents to help me with that when they get time. Here are the stats:

Born: 04/06/06 1:40am.
7lbs. 2oz.
19 3/4″

Welcome to the world Avery. We are so excited you are here.
Finally a girl for me to buy princess dresses for!

A million thanks to Rachel and Aaron, Devin, and Mom for your help with my project. You guys all gave me different ‘creatives’ (that’s ad speak for the stuff you sent me) that will work perfectly for our project. My group is amazed at all of the good stuff we have to work with! Rachel and Aaron really went above and beyond scanning over 30 different things for me! Mom showed off her high-tech prowess and devotion to her favorite son by finding ads, scanning them, e-mailing them, and then skyping me to make sure I got them. And Devin, on th eve of becoming a new father, scored me a perfect promotional piece. Now I call that blog power, and a great family! Thanks guys.

Andrea and Connor jumped a train early this morning on their way to Salsberg, where the Sound of Music was filmed. I am pretty sure they have snow covered hills awaiting them instead of grass covered hills, but hopefully Andrea will sing a little anyway!

Hi guys,

I’m working on a major marketing project and my group has decided on Disney. Does anybody have any Disney magazine ads or even a picture of a billboard you could e-mail me? (I realize this might take a scan or a quick picture…) I really need one and they don’t seem to do a lot of print advertising in the Czech Republic! Fallbrook may not have a whole lot to offer either…

Thanks!

This is Danny, writing what Andrea tells me to!

This was a solid weekend of knocking out some homework, with the right amount of play time added. As very few people will be interested in my progress with Economic Value Added and my research about Telecom regulation in the European Union, I will focus on the lighter sides of the weekend! Saturday we took the train to the subway to get to a big mall in Cerny Most. If you drive, it would only take about 10 mintues, but there really isn’t a direct public transportation solution. Anyway, we took Connor to see The Pink Panther with Steve Martin (Steve was in the movie, he didn’t come with us) because it was the only movie playing that was suitable for a five-year old. Slapstick humor, Connor loved it. The theaters are really nice and most of the movies are played in English with Czech subtitles. By the way, popcorn does not have melted butter on it, but kind of a powdery butter stuff.

After the movie, we went over to IKEA and checked Connor into the play area while we went upstairs and I had swedish meatballs, Andrea the Salmon. Gotta love those meatballs! We really should have been doing this more often as it is a free babysitter and we get a little break/date! While we were checking Connor back out, I heard a mother speaking to her daughter and Spanish so I asked them where they were from. They are from Mexico City and the husband is in Medical school at Charles University. They spoke perfect English as well, so Andrea is going to meet up with Claudia this week to let the kids play. It is just cool how many neat people we have met and there seems to be an instant connection when you have kids and are living in another country.

Sunday morning I did some more homework and then we went on a walk down by the river. (They were broadcasting delayed General Conference at Church, so we decided to catch it online instead of going into Prague.) The river is flooding its banks and a lot of the houses that border the river are under water. It was seriously the thing to do in town, as there were about 250 other people walking down to check it out. People were taking pictures of other people sandbagging their homes. That is one thing about the Czechs, they don’t seem very willing to jump in and lend a hand when they don’t have to. (i.e. The subway full of people who watched me have my pocket picked without saying a word.)

Then tonight we were invited to dinner with 4 people living here in the CMC from India. They are really nice and dinner was terrific. I’m not sure how to explain this, but the relation is brother and sister and then another brother and his sister. We wish we would have gotten to know them sooner as Joseph gave Andrea seasons 1 -10 of Friends and invited Connor to come back and watch Muppets and Tom and Jerry. Joseph is a fan of cartoons from the seventies. Three of them work at DHL in Prague and have just finished MBAs. It is quite possible that we have made more friends living in Prague for 4 monhs then 4 years of living in Utah! Now, back to the grind; finals are just 3 weeks away!

Danny writing again:

Friday’s are the days that the students don’t have any scheduled classes and we pretty much try to digest what has been thrown at us from the previous few days. So I was in the room all day catching up on projects and Connor and Andrea were getting ready to go into Prague and see Connor’s friends.

Before lunch, I was putting some lotion on my arms that really didn’t smell very good. So about a half hour later Connor and I went down to the cafeteria and we were having lunch with Geo, Chrissy, Oscar, John, and the Petr, the hotel director. Connor, wanting to participate in the conversation declared, “So, my Dad was stinky this morning….” Everybody erupted and I just sat there with a befuddled look on my face. Eventually I was able to explain that it was the ointment, but I don’t think anybody believed me!

Connor had been excited all week about going to see his friends in Prague 6 (the areas of the city are divided up by numbers). The wives from Church get the kids together and they have a nice social afternoon. Connor drew all the kids Easter eggs on paper.

Most of Andrea and my date nights have revolved around watching The West Wing. The Towners loaned us seasons 1, 2, and 4 and we love it! Several other students have gotten hooked on it as well as we are all starving for anthing to watch in English.