sorry answering you so late.   it's no real excuse, but since i'am back at home my workload was getting bigger and bigger and i had not the time to answer you.

so far, so good, let me tell from my trip to the western u.s.

from dallas i drove as quick as possible to new mexico, because dring throug texas was verry boring, because the landscape is always flat and not mutch to see.   at new mexico i stayed in santa fee(i'd noticed it from old wild west movies).   there ived took a rafting tour on the rio grande.   weve'd had small zodiacs for about 5 persons and paddled them by our own.   it was a lot of fun going down all the rappids by high speed, and it was fun too getting as wet as you could imagine.   after crossing new mexico i visited all these marvelous canyons.   i started with grand canyon where i'd first booked a small plane to see it from above, and after that i was rafting the colorado from the middle to the end of g.c.   after g.c ived hikked bryce c. and zion.   i by myself liked bryce and zion more than the gigantic g.c., they are a bit smaller, but as nice as the g.c.   the thing i'd disliked during hikking was the enormus temperature, wich normally was about 100 up to 110 f.   after all this wilderness ived reached las vegas (but i saved my money and didn't play), but i was totally impressed of this illminated town by night, i n ever seen somthing like this before.   after travelling around arizona i entered california where i headed san francisco to visit some friends.   on my way to it i drove throug yosemite n.p., but there it was raining and a bit chilly (the only time on my whole trip), so i didn't spend mutch time in this park.   while staying in s.f. of course i'ved visited the bridge and took a ride on these unique cable cars.   after 4 days i left to see los angeles.   i'ved visted universal studios, hollywood and disneyland.   all these spots are worth to see.   after l.a. i drove down the pacific cost until san diego.   my last week of travelling i needed to go back to dallas.   while going back i stayed at some drop zones, but i didnt jump, because the rent for the equipment was verry high and the wether extremelyhot.   another exiting spot is located close to phoenix and called "biosphereii".   its an impressive, huge building where 5 people live totally isolated and locked in for 3 years and live only from the things they produce inside there instant world.   almost back to dallas i went underground visiting carlbad caverns, nice to see and after all normal temperatures.   friday afternoon i was back in dallas and on sunday i flow back to germany.

thats about my trip, now some words about my work as a phase iii.   it was planed that pierre and i had to work on a own project dealing whit old programms written in alc (i was happy to hear this) but then everything changed and now i'am in a project team implement a new stock status system for opel in europe.   remember, when we finished a programm, they were tested, written =using the eds conventions, there where only r0000 in the compile listing (almost) and so on.   but implementing this new system allways new error occured, the customer asked for changes the whole day long.   to control the system while working i had to do some nightshifts, so that i sometimes feeled like beeing back to dallas.   now these system is moved into production and we only have to do maintenanance (thats allways difficult enough), but now i hope that my working time per day will be reduced to a normal amount.

you see, working as a phase iii in germany will be hard sometimes (maybe thats the reason germans get more vacation tha americans).

looking foreward to hear some news from you.

erik