Mmmm.. Minibar beer!

I'm on dialup this evening, from the beautiful Wienecke hotel. OK, beautiful, but cold. Last night when I got here, the heat wasn't on, and didn't come on until about 3am when I went & jiggled the handle of the window to get it all the way closed. Damn German efficiency... invisible switches not turning on the heat until the window is all the way closed. In addition, there's a little switch by the door that's activated by a card being shoved in it to prove that you're there: the switch turns on the electricity to the room, and it seems to also turn on the heat. This evening when I went to swim, I left a library card in the slot, and tonight the room is almost warm. Not quite, but almost. I've defeated their ingenious little system. MUAWAHAHAHAH!

Workday was uneventful while onsite at Deutsche Telekom. Met two guys that work with our software, but we didn't talk much about work. Rest of the time was up in our little office connected to the world via a linksys that would drop the signal every hour or so. At 4:30, after the second time it dropped signal as I tried to push content out to a server, I headed to the hotel. THERE I had a reliable T-mobile hotspot signal that hadn't gone down at all. The shoemaker's children are the ones that are running around barefoot all the time, donchya know.

Finally the highlight of the day was getting a workout with the "Leinebagger" swim team or club as it were. Its a gay/lesbian team that meets at the "Stadionbad" about 30 minutes by tram & bus from the hotel. I left at 7:30, got there about 8, around 8:10 the members were gathering, and we were in the water by 8:30pm. We swam 1750 meters (bit more than a mile) and I was in the 2nd fastest lane, which totally took me by surprise. There were some fit, skinny guys & girls that couldn't keep up with me, the fat American. A couple of the guys were pretty flirtatious as well, which made it all the more interesting. We'll see if I run into them Wednesday night out and about as well. We swam till 9:30, I caught the 9:46 bus back toward my tram, and made it to the hotel around 10:10. The kitchen in the restaurant was closed already, so here I am with a couple of mini-bar beers for dinner. Its good beer mind you, but I could really go for a plate of nachos or some chicken wings.