It's a year of great birthdays. Today, Chloe turns 10!!!Alles alles Gute zum Geburtstag. Love you! And miss you all!!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHLOE!
It's a year of great birthdays. Today, Chloe turns 10!!!Alles alles Gute zum Geburtstag. Love you! And miss you all!!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL!
My brother turned 30 yesterday!!!
Now he can drink and vote and rent a car.
Congratulations, Bro, and I hope you had a fantastic day. Love you!
(Here is a little celebratory dance...)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Speaking of blogs...
I think I'm going to clean up the link list on the right, and remove the links to blogs that haven't been updated in a year or more. It's just too sad to keep clicking and hoping -- in vain, in vain!
Home cookin'
Check out our new family recipe blog, Scrambled Eggers! Thanks to Shauna for the lovely surprise (and the cute name, haha!). It's like hanging out with everyone in the kitchen.
Miss you guys!
Miss you guys!
Monday, November 09, 2009
Happy Wall Fall Day, everyone!
Twenty years ago today, determined masses of citizens took to the streets to declare that they'd had enough of the Berlin Wall.
Aside from the fact that the thing desperately needed tearing down and the GDR badly needed to let its people go -- without this day, I wouldn't have found a Berti. (Or his lovely family. Or many of my lovely friends.)
My heartfelt thanks to all you brave folks!
Aside from the fact that the thing desperately needed tearing down and the GDR badly needed to let its people go -- without this day, I wouldn't have found a Berti. (Or his lovely family. Or many of my lovely friends.)
My heartfelt thanks to all you brave folks!
Monday, November 02, 2009
Nicht in Ordnung
So I bought some flowers today, and waited in line while the folks ahead of me had their plants elaborately wrapped in cellophane, tied closed with floofy bunches of ribbon, and held together with various stickers.
When it was my turn, I gave the lady exact change for the bouquet and tried to leave. "Wait," she said, reaching for my flowers. Thinking there must have been a bar code on the sleeve or something, I handed them over. But she didn't scan them; she started to roll them up in paper. "Oh, it's okay," I said quickly, trying to take the flowers back. "I don't need them all wrapped up."
She stopped dead and stared at me as if I had just addressed her in Spanish. After a moment's perplexed, slightly miffed staring, she demanded, "Why not?"
Huh? What did she mean, why not? "Because I'm just going to take them home and put them in a vase," I replied, attempting to sound reasonable, rather than surprised and annoyed. "I don't need it gift-wrapped, it'd be a waste of paper."
Her firm, brilliantly-reasoned explanation (as she continued to roll and wrap): "But you must."
Me: "I must? The thing is already in a plastic sleeve, does everything have to be double- and triple-wrapped in this world? We're creating garbage by the ton every day, why must we make even more?"
She didn't respond, she simply added tape to close the top of the huge paper cone that had now enveloped my "fair-trade" flowers (irony, anyone?) and shoved it unceremoniously back at me. I shoved my Euros unceremoniously back at her and left the shop, tearing off the paper as I went.
Okay, so to be fair, she probably wasn't prepared for the question and didn't have the presence of mind to explain to me whatever Official Flower Shop Code dictates that all flowers be smothered in a non-permeable wrapping before leaving the premises. Maybe it's to avoid aggravating other people's allergies or something. But if that's the case, then how come the bouquet I bought was selected from a huge display of plants erupting several square meters over the street in front of the shop? I just can't think why I "must" accept my flowers rolled up in paper and taped closed -- over both sides, mind you, including the top -- before I can leave with them. They already had a plastic sleeve and rubber bands to keep them together and from any potential shedding.
All I can think is that this is one of those employees who is obsessed with "the way things are done" for the sheer sake of "the way things are done." I can understand Ordnung and all that, but when people become automatons instead of thinking, rational creatures, it frustrates me a little.
When I told all this to Bert after he got home, he sighed, exasperated. "You mean like the lady at our post office?"
Haha! Yeah, I guess we know a few of these. :)
When it was my turn, I gave the lady exact change for the bouquet and tried to leave. "Wait," she said, reaching for my flowers. Thinking there must have been a bar code on the sleeve or something, I handed them over. But she didn't scan them; she started to roll them up in paper. "Oh, it's okay," I said quickly, trying to take the flowers back. "I don't need them all wrapped up."
She stopped dead and stared at me as if I had just addressed her in Spanish. After a moment's perplexed, slightly miffed staring, she demanded, "Why not?"
Huh? What did she mean, why not? "Because I'm just going to take them home and put them in a vase," I replied, attempting to sound reasonable, rather than surprised and annoyed. "I don't need it gift-wrapped, it'd be a waste of paper."
Her firm, brilliantly-reasoned explanation (as she continued to roll and wrap): "But you must."
Me: "I must? The thing is already in a plastic sleeve, does everything have to be double- and triple-wrapped in this world? We're creating garbage by the ton every day, why must we make even more?"
She didn't respond, she simply added tape to close the top of the huge paper cone that had now enveloped my "fair-trade" flowers (irony, anyone?) and shoved it unceremoniously back at me. I shoved my Euros unceremoniously back at her and left the shop, tearing off the paper as I went.
Okay, so to be fair, she probably wasn't prepared for the question and didn't have the presence of mind to explain to me whatever Official Flower Shop Code dictates that all flowers be smothered in a non-permeable wrapping before leaving the premises. Maybe it's to avoid aggravating other people's allergies or something. But if that's the case, then how come the bouquet I bought was selected from a huge display of plants erupting several square meters over the street in front of the shop? I just can't think why I "must" accept my flowers rolled up in paper and taped closed -- over both sides, mind you, including the top -- before I can leave with them. They already had a plastic sleeve and rubber bands to keep them together and from any potential shedding.
All I can think is that this is one of those employees who is obsessed with "the way things are done" for the sheer sake of "the way things are done." I can understand Ordnung and all that, but when people become automatons instead of thinking, rational creatures, it frustrates me a little.
When I told all this to Bert after he got home, he sighed, exasperated. "You mean like the lady at our post office?"
Haha! Yeah, I guess we know a few of these. :)
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Happy Halloween!
Hope everyone had a great time. (We did!)
Graaaaah!
The best part of any Halloween gathering. Doesn't Andreas' pirate ship look cool?? The bat was Na; the aquarium, Katrin; the tree, me; the "boo" face, Anja; the spider, Bert; the classic jack, me
Check out Nadja's pumpkin cake!
My nose had sort of rubbed off by this point... I was supposed to be "Bert's Kater"!
Graaaaah!
The best part of any Halloween gathering. Doesn't Andreas' pirate ship look cool?? The bat was Na; the aquarium, Katrin; the tree, me; the "boo" face, Anja; the spider, Bert; the classic jack, me
Check out Nadja's pumpkin cake!
My nose had sort of rubbed off by this point... I was supposed to be "Bert's Kater"!
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