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Kristen found this place the other day, and talk about a find! Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse is a fantastic Cajun place just down the street from us.

Where to begin…

Appetizers, or the closes thing we had was the cornbread smothered in Tasso Gravy.

Think of it as Louisiana’s answer to biscuits and gravy. Sweet Cornbread covered with sweet, creamy tasso gravy. I could literally eat pans of this stuff.

And the mains, starting with the Po-Boy…

Now, Po-Boys I’ve had before are usually served on some rinky-dink hamburger bun with leftover seafood…..not here. This thing came out on a colossal, fresh sub roll, with some of the plumpest, juiciest oysters we’ve ever had. We made short work of this thing, and were looking for seconds!

Now Cajun just wouldn’t be Cajun without the staples: Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice, and Crawfish Etouffee. Kristen got the sampler of these three, and we were fighting each other for leftovers by the end of it. To be honest the Red-beans and rice was a bit vinegary, but the rest, simply amazing.

Safe to say, I think we’ve found a new regular spot…

A good friend of mine has been working over at Aviator Tap room for months now, and has been trying to get me to come check out the tap room ever since. Well, as the weather grew warm again, and I’m always up for a good beer with a good friend I finally decided to pay him a visit…..

Aviator (named so because the owner has an obsession with airplanes and brews his beers in an old airplane hanger), is tucked away on Main St., America in Fuquay-Varina (have a pint or two and try to say that).

They don’t serve food, except endless bowls of popcorn as the empty pints grow, so don’t come hungry. But do come thirsty as there is a wide selection of fresh brewed beers. From a Chocolate Cask Stout to a Belgian Tripel. Most are stapels, such as the Hot Rod Red, but there are seasonal brews that make appearances from time to time as well as international “guests”. On my visit, Paulaner Hefeweizen was the special guest, I knew there was a reason I liked this place….

So if you’re looking for a way to spend a lazy weekend afternoon, head on down to Aviator and soak in the sun on there large back porch, or stay late-night as the band warms up. Either way, you’re in for a treat.

Kristen and I stumbled upon a great little sandwich shop in downtown Durham. Ok, sandwich shop is a disservice, I guess the correct term in paninoteca, as it’s modeled after an Italian shop, but talk about a great find. Panini’s made on fresh, homemade bread. Excellent cuts of meat and cheese, mostly imported from Italy. We’ve been there a few times now, and haven’t been let down, and it serves as a great “old world” fix for us…sniff….sniff.

Along with the sandwiches, are fresh soups that change daily. The cauliflower cream soup with hazelnuts and truffles is highly recommended along with the soppressata panini.

Big thumbs up for a change of pace away from the chains that plague the area for a quick lunch stop. Toast serves only local brews, and coffee along with a find selection of wine and small batch sodas.

If you find yourself in downtown Durham, check out Toast, you won’t be dissappointed…

Toast

Hilarious, for all the Metalli-infants

Rockabye Metallica

Kristen and I spent last weekend in Schladming, Austria.  Our friends Martin and Jacqui had a going away party there since it was their last weekend Munich, and will spend the next year traveling around the world on vacation.  Not a bad way to do it! Anyway, as Kevin is leaving Munich on Friday, it was his last hurrah for snowboarding in the Alps, and a good time for time for us to spend some time together outside Munich before our stressfull, and unfortunately somewhat seperate move back to the States (we’re realizing now, this was a very bad idea, and we should have just moved together).  Unfortunately, Schaldming proved nowhere near as relaxing as Reit Im Winkl, and Kristen couldn’t get out to do any of the hiking she hoped for.

One of the highlights of the trip was the 60’s fancy dress party, which also happened to be the only pics we took all weekend.

60’s Party, Schladming28 picturesMar 7, 2009

Here are a few pics from my friend Nick’s Bachelor party weekend in Villach, Austria.  I’ve only put the snowboarding pics up since most of the others show Nick in a dress, and I wouldn’t want to embarrass him further.  Long story, short.  For the bachelor’s prank, we stole all of his clothes while he was in the shower, and left him only a dress, nylons, and woman’s underwear, which he had to wear the entire night.  It was classic.

As far as snowboarding was concerned, we went to the resort of Gerlitzen.  The snow was fantastic, and the powder came up to at least my waist in most places!

Snowboarding in Gerlitzen11 pictures Villach, AustriaFeb 6, 2009

Last weekended I headed south to Austria with some friends and enjoyed a day of snowboarding in the fantastic resort of Obertauern.  Obertauern is about 2.5 hours from Munich, and the resort is a u-shaped group of mountain and is huge.  One of the first I’ve been to here where you could actually get away from people at some point.  We went down with the Munich Ski Club, so there was a bus load of us.

The day was terrific.  We had sunny skies for the most part, and even when there were clouds, they were usually below us.  The snow was perfect, both on piste and off.  Some off-piste routes were well traveled, making boarding a bit difficult, but some weren’t and there was an unbelievable amount of good deep powder, that only swallowed me a couple times.  Check out the pics below.   I’ve also been playing with some different tools for displaying photos, so feel free to let me know what you think.

This weekend I’m off to a friends bachelor party in Villach.  It’s been snowing a lot, so should be some great powder runs.  Not to mention the normal bachelor party madness

Obertauern21 pictures Obertauern, AustriaJan 30, 2009

As one can guess from the last post, things aren’t going well for Kevin’s company, Qimonda.  They’ve just closed the fab in Richmond, the EU isn’t giving any help, and well, things are generally going to pot.  But, for a bit of good news, Kevin has just accepted a job in Durham, NC as a Hardware architect/board designer.  So that’s right, we are on our way back to the states!  Kevin will leave in the middle of March, and Kristen will follow 3 months later in June.  She has some projects to wrap up at work, so it’s going to take her a little longer to leave Germany.  We’re both sad at the thought of being apart for so long.  But in the end, it’s the right choice for us.

It was a very tough decision to leave Germany.  We absolutely love our life, and our friends here.  Although we had talked about leaving in 2 years, so Qimonda’s insolvency really just accelerated things for us.   We’re looking forward to coming back to the states, and starting this new chapter of our lives.

We just wanted to give everyone a little update.  For those who haven’t heard, Kevin’s company, Qimonda, filed for Insolvency last Friday.  Currently, this is like Chapter 11, Bankruptcy protection in the states.  The German government has appointed an administrator to take charge of the situation.  In three months a decision will be made to either:  a. close the doors for good, or b. Continue operations.  For the later to happen Qimonda will have to perform some massive restructuring, and either liquidate some goods or find some investors.  They are obviously pushing to stay in operation,  so we’ll see what happens.  But I think it will be very hard to keep a DRAM operation  in Europe.

But we are doing well!  The German government has taken over Kevin’s salary, so he is at least still getting paid.  He has also picked up his job search to find something new, and we are hopeful something will work out there.  He’s been in touch with contacts and sending out resumes, so we may find ourselves back in the states sooner than expected.  Something we are both excited and nervous about.   We have really enjoyed our time in Germany, and the thought of leaving is a difficult one, but whatever will come, will come.

Right, so as you can see, I’ve gotten bored and completely changed our blog around.  So tell us what you think!  Let us know if there are any problems, or if you’d like to see something different.  There’s a couple details I’m still not happy with, so some things will still chage a bit, but I have had enough coding for one weekend.

On another note, we have some travel coming up in the next couple months (Mayrhofen, Schladming, Obertauern, and Prague) so as long as I don’t get to lazy we should have quite a lot of updates!