Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

That means, "Do you speak German?". And the answer to that is...No, as a matter of fact I don't. But, I would like to.

So if you're wondering why the title of this post is in German, here is the answer. It actually has two parts to it.

1. For my job, I was recently assigned a program to develop an engine for a customer that is located in Austria. My customer is located in Wiener Neustadt, which is 30 miles (0r 48 kilometers for those who use the metric system) South of Vienna, Austria! The native tongue in Austria is of course German. I am pleased to say that my first trip to Europe will be on February 2nd, and the better part is that I don't have to pay for it! The sad news is that Jennifer won't be coming and it is going to be work work work. I am hoping for multiple trips of which one I plan on extending for some personal vacation time and bringing Jennifer!

2. For Christmas Jennifer got me language software from Rosetta Stone. This was a great gift, however the way in which it was acquired is somewhat humbling. Jennifer and I set a limit on how much we would spend on each other for Christmas. This amount was based on how much we budgeted for the Christmas season for giving gifts. The cost of this software far exceeded the budgeted amount, so when I was traveling a lot in the months of November and December for work, Jennifer would go give plasma. Yes, my wife shed blood for me this year for Christmas and made a nice lump of cash in the process. In the end Jennifer did not spend more money that we had in our account for Christmas, yet she gave so much more!