forgot to mention emma in my blog. it's funny because over the weekend uncle rob asked me if any of your older relatives were still alive, dad, and I could only really think of emma for sure. and now she is gone. kind of ironic.
the business with the ashes does sound a little weird. what's the deal with that?
back in philly. cold here, but not too cold.
love,
H
PS. JP really rips this blog up, doesn't he?

- posted by H @ 1/25/2005 09:09:00 PM

 
Dad -
That's too bad about Tante Emma.
My two favorite stories about her are:
- the time you and I were watching TV in Grossmutter's house in Manhasset and Emma changed the channel before our show was over, so she wouldn't miss the beginning of Wheel of Fortune! She was so used to doing that kind of thing when she ran the show (at an old folks' home, right?) that she was surprised when we protested & changed the channel back.
- when you and I drove Grossmutter up to Emma's in Bielefeld and we went to the Chinese restaurant with the two sisters. Emma finished her Spargel meal and said to Grossmutter, "Ich bin schon fertig!" Whereupon Grossmutter turned back to her meal and quickly ate the rest. Sibling rivalry when you are in your eighties!
Also, I remember the little gold bars she gave us...
I don't quite understand the anonymous ashes - will they be scattered at an undisclosed location? Or is it something else?
Stay warm, Dad! I'll give you a call later this week. I do want to make a trip out your way, but it'll probably won't be right away, but in a bit when the weather eases a bit.
It's good to hear that all are well!
C

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 1/25/2005 02:17:00 PM

 
hello all,
am getting ready to leave sunny and warm florida, with the snow and ice of philly waiting for me. can't wait. had a good trip overall, saw Geoff, Sean, Uncle Rob and his new wife and her daughters. I have pictures I will post on the blog, or send via email.
Yesterday Gavin and I went out "alligator alley" to the seminole indian reservation (their high school sports teams are the 'unconquered seminoles') and went on an airboat ride through the swamp. saw some gators. it was good to finally see some real florida countryside. the fort lauderdale area is just strip malls and apartment complexes. A friend of mine defined it as soulless. I agree. the swamps are actually pretty cool. Didn't make it to the real everglades this trip - maybe next time. we only went to the beach one day - a little too cold for beach, mostly upper 60s, low 70s here.
good times. will let you all now when I get back ot philly.
go eagles. I really kind of mean that, too.
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/25/2005 09:38:00 AM

 
We got hit by the snow storm all day Saturday, and a little Sunday morning. Good old New York City! Sweltering heat in the summer, snow storms in the winter!
Meanwhile, JP is in Vegas, and H is in Florida! It's only Dad and I who are riding this one out.
I'm watching the Pittsburgh-New England game now, and the Steelers have been struggling. But I still have hope!
H - congrats to Philly, for getting to the Super Bowl for the first time since the year you were born! The last time Philly won a football championship was 1960, years before the first Super Bowl. Philly is due.
Well, sorry for being out of touch... Not much new or newsworthy here - work is good, I'm losing some weight - Siobhan says hi.
We all need to add to the blog!
C

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 1/23/2005 09:05:00 PM

 
Hi everyone,
well, I am in sunny florida, and it's in the low 70's here, everyone's complaining that it's cold. silly old people. gavin just tells me "when in rome, do as the old people do," smart words in my opinion. I just got off the phone with Geoffrey, and we are going to meet up with him tomorrow night at some Greek restaurant that has belly dancing and whatnot. I talked to Uncle Rob and am hoping to see him this weekend as well, along with Sean.
Gavin's grandma is really great, 89 but still walks 30 minutes a day (at least), has very good posture, seems generally resilient. She wants me to call her grandma, but only because she likes me. she's been telling all sorts of stories from the old days. cool lady though.
all from me - the internet connection is slow (dail-up).
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/21/2005 04:09:00 PM

 
hey everyone!
hope all are well. some quick texting last night with the bro dogs confirmed this.
It is COLD here. 11 F this morning.
am going to florida tomorrow until tuesday to visit with gavin's grandmother. Am also planning on seeing Uncle Rob, Geoff and Sean, as the live very close to where gavin's grandma lives.
good times. going to be 70 F there this weekend. booyah.
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/19/2005 08:16:00 AM

 
hey everyone,
hope you liked the photos. today gavin and I are driving down to DC to go to his friend's birthday party. good people: Gordy (the friend) has a PhD in chemistry and his job is to measure tiny tiny things of which we aren't even certain that they exist. he's really fun to talk to. his wife, janice, is into yoga so we have lots to talk about.
on a side note, do you guys remember the big white car that I pointed out to you on the corner next to my house? the one which I said had the homeless guy sleeping in it? well today, finally, the cops came and banged on the windows, roof and doors for a while to get him out of there. you can't see inside because there's cardboard on all the windows. he played possum though, so they fell back and watched him, and then the second he came out, they pounced. he claimed he had just come BACK to the car, contradicting the statements from a lot of people in the neighborhood that he came out of the car every morning. plus, there was condensation on the windows, for christ's sake. so he argued with them for about 1/2 an hour, saying who knows what. he was kind of mangy and had the end of a bungee cord hanging out of the waistband of his pants. he told the cops it was his belt and so they pulled his shirt up to check (while they were checking him for weapons and stuff) and there was no bungee cord around his waist, just coming out of his pants. hmmm.
finally they cuffed him and took him away, and hopefully the car will be towed soon. it's about time too.
so that's hopefully the end of that.
ahh, city life.
work is fine, had kind a rough week being sick and stuff. monday off though, and then thursday gavin and I are flying down to visit his grandmother in Florida, coming back tuesday. will hopefully catch up with Uncle Rob while I am there, since gavin's grandma lives pretty close to UR.
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/15/2005 09:52:00 AM

 

he's a fine gentleman
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:48:00 PM

 

I have no idea what I am doing
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:47:00 PM

 

energy
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:47:00 PM

 

squirrely
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:46:00 PM

 

hehe
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:46:00 PM

 

action
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:45:00 PM

 

hehe
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:44:00 PM

 

jp and lana
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:44:00 PM

 

superbad
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:43:00 PM

 

good times
- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:42:00 PM

 
hi everyone.
I am attempting to post my pics from New Year's on the blog. do not know if this is possibe. messed around with some stuff and hopefully figured it out.
love,
H


- posted by H @ 1/13/2005 09:30:00 PM

 
Dad - if you can get the file transfer program to work, then go ahead and use it! My suggestion about putting the old HD in the new computer comes from past bad experience with that kind of file transfer. I like the 'brute force' approach - just pop the old HD in and copy away!

Regarding jumpers - it's actually pretty likely that the jumpers on both your HDs are set to "Cable Select" (a.k.a. "CS"). That way, you just connect the HD to the data cable, and the computer recognizes which is master and which is slave. Make sure you connect the old HD to the middle of the data cable (the slave) because the computer boots from the HD at the end of the cable (the master). And, when in doubt, don't try anything crazy...

Let us know what it is like in a different role in the hospital! No collar on, huh? Just volunteer uniform...

JP - the bit of strategy regarding late-game field goals is whether to kick the field goal before the 4th down. If you only need the points, I think you should kick ASAP. If you play the ball, you risk fumbles or interceptions. Plus, in situations that are not 4th down, if you line up for the field goal, hike the ball to the holder, and don't actually kick the ball (bad snap or bad placement by the holder), the holder can spike the ball and you get another chance (with maybe a 5 yard penalty). Once the kicker connects with the ball, though, it's a change in possession no matter what happens.
In the SD - Jets game, I think they should have not run that little 3rd down play which gained nothing and moved the ball to the right hash mark. They should have kicked on 3rd, and if that newbie kicker had had a bad feeling, he could have told the holder to spike the ball, then call a time-out, settle his nerves, and try again.
Go Steelers! Go Colts!

How's the weather now? We've had weird weather here - fog, big changes in temperature, etc.

Alright everyone!

C

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 1/13/2005 02:14:00 PM

 
J, will get gavin right on the job search.glad to hear that you are okay.
I got the pictures developed from New Year's, the ones I took with the disposable camera. Extremely silly. will scan them into the computer and send them out or post them on the blog.
Took off work yesterday because I was sick. am back now, hoping that the energy holds.
Love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/12/2005 09:11:00 AM

 
was just on cnn.com, looking at footage of the landslides and avalanches out west. crazy because it's like upper 40's, low 50's here and we haven't seen any real snow yet. JP, how are you holding up in San Diego? anything hit you?
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/10/2005 09:09:00 PM

 
Sorry everyone - I haven't checked the blog the last few days.

First off, I guess you guys (espec. JP) didn't watch the New York Jets / San Diego Chargers game, on Saturday? Crazy ending- the Chargers were losing by a touchdown with seconds left in the game. The Jets would have won right there, but on a 4th down desperation pass by the Chargers QB (which didn't connect), the Jets defender roughed up the QB after the ball was thrown and was penalized - he gave the Chargers 1st down on the 1 yard line. Chargers score and it goes into overtime. OT is sudden death - first team to score wins. Chargers win the coin toss and get the ball first. They can't do much and punt it away. Same for the Jets. Chargers then have the ball around the 20 yard line, kick the field goal - AND MISS! Rookie kicker - he looks about 14 years old. He'll remember that kick! Jets get the ball back and nail the FG to win the game! What a nail-biter! Jets will play the Steelers next week in Pittsburgh - I'm rooting for a Pittsburgh - Philadelphia Superbowl so GO STEELERS!

Dad - regarding the computer, I think that you are doing the right thing and logging in as a regular user when you use the computer. The thing is, a regular user has limited rights, so you can't really mess up your programs. I think you need to log in as an administrator in order to make the Money transfer. Once you have done the transfer, log out as administrator and log back in as your normal user. It's good computer management and stops you from making most bad mistakes.
If that doesn't work, let me know.

Regarding your other files, you need to open the old computer, remove its hard drive, and attach the HD on the second spot on the HD cable in your new computer. The jumper settings on both HDs should be OK, but if they're not set correctly, the second HD won't be recognized by your new computer. Remember to attach both the data cable and a power cable (the black-red-yellow cable) to the HD. If you can wait, I can do this the next time I visit, or I could walk you through it over the phone. Once the old HD is in the new computer, turn on the Dell and it should automatically recognize the second HD. You can copy whatever programs you like to the new Dell.

One other thing: I STRONGLY recommend using Firefox as your default browser. Go to firefox.com and download the program. It is much more secure than Internet Explorer, and there are far fewer programs written to exploit any weaknesses in Firefox (as compared to IE). It also automatically stops pop-ups.

Well, if anything is unclear, ask!

C

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 1/10/2005 04:17:00 PM

 
Those problems sound familiar to me, the whole administrator permission thing. it might just be a setting on the program, kind of like a "read only" setting. I could be TOTALLY wrong though. C?
Dad, thanks again for the subaru. it had a big day yesterday, driving to allentown and then grocery shopping later on. I went to borders and redeemed the gift card I got from my bosses. got a hunter s. thompson book (fear and loathing in america, gonzo papers vol.2) a recommended psychology GRE prep book, and America, the book, by Jon Stewart. he didn't really write it himself, just wrote some parts and did editing. it's funny though. strictly funny. will have to read the whole thing to see if there is any factual value to it. good coffee table book.
very busy weekend, and am still getting over illness, now manifesting itself in dryness in the throat and lungs. drinking tea.
love to all,
H


- posted by H @ 1/10/2005 08:56:00 AM

 
I liked the idea of helping out with relief efforts in the morning, and relaxing in teh afternoon. However, I don't know if that's possible. I mean, would you be able to hang out on a beach with all of the clean up going on? and what kind of people will want to clean up that kind of devastation on their vacation? it's definitely a touchy issue.
I have not read the article about the animals, will do that soon.
Talked to USAA today and made a statement (again). the woman I talked to recorded the whole thing, and once we were done she discovered that the recorder had eaten the tape and that we would have to start all over again. ugh. we did a second version in fast forward. kind of funny though, in a sad kind of way. what I found interesting was how little info they had from the first statement I made the night of the accident. looks like the skeleton crew didn't exactly overwhelm them with expertise. anyway, they are still waiting for the accident report to come in, which usually takes a few weeks.
Work is good, am back in the flow and consenting like mad. well, not really mad, but doing well. we are up to 56 families in the NICU study, with 25 dads, making that 81 participants overall. we are over halfway done. we have received Time 2 follow up questionnaires from 24 families, and we need about double that. so things are going well. debra's pretty happy about everything, which is good.
all from me.
Love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/05/2005 04:27:00 PM

 
Happy New Year to everyone!
It's back to the old grind for me - this week is pretty busy.

Here's an interesting ethical question, described in an article in today's Wall Street Journal: should tourists return to the beaches damaged in the tsunami?
On the one hand, it's understandable that people would avoid these areas, to allow grieving and clean-up. On the other hand, it doesn't help the locals when tourists effectively boycott the area - becoming unemployed and having no money because of a lack of business is not helpful to the survivors.
However, it just seems wrong to be relaxing on the beach while people are cleaning up debris.
One group mentioned in the journal has a good approach - they help with the clean-up efforts in the morning, and relax on the beach in the afternoons.
I think that works for me, as long as people are respectful to the survivors.
What do you guys think?

Also, there's an article in the Journal about animals fleeing up hill minutes before the wave hit. There were stampedes in an Indian wildlife park by the ocean, just minutes before the water came in. Weird stuff!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 1/04/2005 01:12:00 PM

 
ahh, yes. the new year's weekend now over, I hope that everyone is recuperating well. I had a nap today, but feel fine otherwise. JP, hope you got on your plane safely. C, hope things are cool with you guys. Dad, I will let you know what USAA says (will call the claims guy again tomorrow).
Happy 2005!
love,
H

- posted by H @ 1/02/2005 05:56:00 PM