Back from Dentist

Mouth is very numb. Interestingly, it seems to affect this side of my mouth differrently. I felt the numbness more on the other side, but this side seems to be more affected. And tight, for some reason.

I wanna go crawl in a corner & read for an hour until it wears off & then go get something to eat.

Wow....this is slowing my reaction speed (noticing spelling errors) and my concentration. Sigh.

Dentist, Part 2

About to go get the rest of my Scaling and Planing down on my mouth. Yippee! More numb mouth fun-ness this afternoon! :)

Die Bahn, Die Bahn

Bill mentions on his blog how he's experienced most of the Deutsche Bahn experience in the last few months (he commutes about two hours one way on the train daily). What he fails to mention, is the truly inspiring experience we had last night on the train.

I told him that I'd like to catch the 7pm-ish train back to Frankfurt because even though the entire trip normally takes two hours, for some reason on Sunday evenings, it takes four to five hours. And since he's got to get up early, I didn't want to get in at midnight or 1am. So, we did it. Got on the train, no problems. Only, there's a spot on the track between his house and Mannheim where they're working on the track. No trains can go over it at all. We have to get off one big town before Mannheim, get on a bus, and go to Mannheim there. No problem, it just adds a half hour to an hour to the trip. We finally get on the train at Mannheim (having run to make the connection or we'd have to wait another hour for the next train!). The only problem with this train is the VERY loud, VERY upset Romanian woman with child yelling at her boyfriend/husband for the ENTIRE hour, hour and a half. He did something to piss her off and she was giving him what for the entire time. Insulting his age (he was about 10 years older than her), his race (he was black), and the fact that he wouldn't talk back to her. She just wouldn't stop! Some kids behind us kept laughing at her which probably just inflamed the situation. The conductor asked, then YELLED at her to be quiet or get off the train three times. I thought for sure we'd have Police people waiting for them at every stop, but they never appearred. Finally, at the end he DID talk back to her (a lot quieter than she was talking) and what does she say?? SHUT UP! My freeaking gawd. No wonder some men hate women! I finally had to mutter (very loudly) "THEN SHUT THE F*** UP!!" after she said something about how everybody was watching and listening to them. She actually did shut up for about a minute after that.

German blog entries

I've been thinking that I want to start writing some blog entries in German. If I do, I'll provide English translations. :) I think it'll improve my German skills a lot. A week an a half ago I was reading a lot in this German book I've got [I put it down, because it's not getting to the point too quickly & the author has this annoying habit of skipping several hours between paragraphs without warning. Also, as a commenter said, there aren't any chapters! I'll pick it back up soon.], and while I was reading it, my German was GREAT! I thought. Not so great this last week.

So, I figure writing auf Deutsch will improve my skills. Like I said, if I do, I'll provide a translation. :)

Translation

Here's the translation of the German message below:

Do you think a personal blog entry would work for extra credit from Frau Blanner?

I'm doing okay today, but I didn't want to wake up this morning - went to bed to late and drank to much wine at dinner with friends. :) Hmm, what else can I write in German? Oh....you didn't explain too much about your Germany trip last summer....what did you do? See?

Do you understand this?

Hi Brett!

Glaubst du das ein persoenlish blog Eintrag werden funktioniert fuer bonus Punkte von Frau Blanner? ;)

Mir gehst gut heute, aber ich moechte nicht heute morgen aufwachen - zu spaet ins Bett gegangen und zu viel Wein getrunken beim Abendessen mit Freunden. :) Hmm, was noch konnte ich auf Deutsch schreiben? Oh....du hast nicht so viel erzaelt ueber deine Deutschland Reise diese letzte Sommer....was hast du gemacht? Gesehen?

Verstehst du dass?

Heh heh heh. I'll post a translation of this message when Brett tells me she's read it. I want her to excercise her German lessons. And maybe, if she translates it, she'll get extra credit from her German teacher. And if you're reading this too Frau Blanner - Viele Gruess aus Frankfurt! :)

No more numbness

All gone! Just a little soreness in the back where she injected the pain killer. I was actually surprised it didn't hurt more when she injected me. I remember getting that injection - what 10, 15...crap, maybe 20 years ago? - and it hurting a lot more. Okay, I was much younger then.

I never thought I'd see the day when I described something as being 20 years ago! But then, we first moved to Germany 21 years ago. Crap.

My mouth is numb

I got half of my "Deep Cleaning" - otherwise known as Root Scaling and something (help Janine!) - done today. Went okay and pretty fast. I was out of there in about 45 minutes. That was an hour and a half ago. And my mouth is still numb. It's starting to itch though, so I guess the pain killer is wearing off.

She wanted to re-do my fillings today too, but we hadn't talked about that for today. And that's going to cost me 320 out of pocket to do. Maybe in December.

I have a headache. From the the pain killer, I think. Sigh.

Work today

Was really off. The day started with me turning off my alarm because I thought it was the weekend. Therefore, I woke up later than usual and got to work about 10 minutes later than usual. But that was okay because the network was down. And didn't come back up until about 10:45. So we couldn't work. We talked a bit about things we need to work on, and then I played around some more with Perl. I had a specific task in mind, and eventually figured it out.

Later in the day, the internet went....but this time it was a planned outage to upgrade something.

And I found out the new guy has been asked to leave the company. He's a little odd, but he and I get along. We do have a couple of common elements to draw us together though - Americans living in Germany, and hailing from New Jersey. Okay, I don't hail from there (I don't hail from ANYwhere - maybe Michigan, if being born there counts for anything), but I did live there for five years. And apparently I'm a cool intelligent chick because I "get" Perl. :) Back to the leaving the company bit: details are still hazy, but I've heard he's staying around until Christmas time. Work laws in Germany don't let companies just up and fire you. Not only do you have to give three months notice, but THEY have to give YOU three months notice. Sometimes this comes in the form of "You're fired, stay home, we'll pay you the three months to stay home", but still, you're not just shut out in the cold. He's back in work tomorrow, so I guess I'll hear the full story then.

Google

Hey! I show up in a google search for jinglelady -> link.

Hmm...it seems jinglelady.com is taken. But I knew that (I'd just never actually gone to the site before). I'm considering registering jinglelady.net and putting this blog there. I just need to get my butt in gear and find a cheap domain registration and hosting services. Maybe that'll be my Christmas present to myself. :)

Update: I'm the first link in a google search for jingle_lady! link.

MMmm Mmmm!!

Hottie alert. Wow.

English Word of the Day - EWOD

Today I taught Stefan the word procrastinate - aufschieben.

Heh - so I guess it's also a GWOD. Since I should learn this word in German too. :)

A couple of days ago he got two EWOD's - barf and whatchamacallit. :)

I only teach the best words. Hehe.

No Questions??!

Geez - either I'm an open book and everybody already knows all they want to know about me or I'm really boring. And since people are always telling me that they find my blog amusing and they enjoy reading it.....I have to assume the former.

Sigh. Okay.

Cul-de-Sac

I was surfing today at work, and somehow ended up at this link: Cul-de-Sac by Suburban Blight. She compiles a weekly list of interesting blog entries from the week before. I found so many interesting tidbits here, I can't list them all. Just click on the link and go look.

It's official

I'm an angel. :) Bill says so. Hee hee.

The colleseum in Rome

Here at fotolog. I tried linking the image here, but either I've completely forgotten how to do an img tag, or Blogger has some mechanism for not allowing img tags to appear, because all I get when I do the img tag is a line.

That, or Fotolog has some mechanism for blocking images from being shown on webpages other than it's own.

Whatever, click on the link above or at the top of the sidebar column on the right (it's a little box at the very top).

Questions from the audience

There is a blog site that hosts what it calls the Carnival of the Vanities - wait, let me search for the link, ah, here. It's a weekly event full of links to other blogs with interesting posts from the last week or two. The Carnival travels each week to a different blog host, and I haven't figured out that mechanism quite yet. I just know that Instapundit links to the correct host each week.

Anyway - this last week, one of the posts was the answers to questions that the blogger solicited from his readership. And I thought, well....that's a really good idea.

So, here's your chance folks: between now and Wednesday evening, email me or post a comment with a question (about me) that you would like me to answer. Something about me you'd like me expound on; a detail of German life you'd like to know more about; something weird, wacky & off the wall; etc. Please keep the questions PG - my mom, dad, and youngest brother's girlfriend (hi Brett!) read this! :) I'll post the answers by Friday evening. I promise. I would say Thursday, but I'm going to dinner at a friend's house then. :)

Family Dynamics

I've just gotten off the phone with my middle brother. He was involved in a car accident last weekend, only he didn't bother to tell anybody in the family until they found out through other channels. It was a serious enough accident that he was airlifted to a regional medical hospital because of head injuries. He seems to be okay, but he has fractures in his facial bones that go up through his sinus and forehead. He has an appointment with a plastic surgeon on Monday to look at his face.

Why didn't he contact anybody in the family? Because he was afraid of my parents' reaction. My brother & his wife are going through a tough time right now as a family and all kinds of emotions, accusations, and legal things (not related to my parents) are happening because of this. Because of this, relations are strained on all sides. Also, my middle brother has a history of strained relations with my mother.

My feeling on this : Regardless how strained your relationship is with your parents, if you are involved in a serious accident that requires you to be hospitalized, you should at least notify them. Because no matter what they DO love you. And care what happens to you. Be decent and contact them. Don't wait for them to hear an exaggerated story from a friend of a friend of a friend.

And while I'm on the topic of family dynamics, I have a story to tell about my oldest brother's son Johnathan. The one who has just turned six and I treat and love as nearly being my own son.

See, Johnathan's daddy and mom are going through a rough patch financially too. And they're working it out. For awhile though, it looked like things were getting really hairy. So, in a birthday card to my brother, I offered to let Johnathan come and live with me if things got really bad. Now, I know I live across an ocean from them and it would be difficult to implement this offer. However, it was completely sincere. I haven't heard one word from my brother about the birthday card, small gift that came with it, or my offer since then.

Then, this week, as I was on the phone wishing Johnathan a Happy Birthday, HE mentions my offer. "Aunt Anna? You know how you wrote Daddy in his card how I could come live with you? Well, mommy says that I can't. Sorry."

Wha? Huh? Who mentions things like this with a five year old? In what context could this POSSIBLY come up? I'm baffled.

Going Out

I went out last night with a colleague & his girlfriend. We went to a couple of bars & a couple of discos. I had a good time just going out and talking and being me among new friends. I haven't felt like that in a year or so since I left Munich. It was great just being able to speak freely in English and about interesting topics.

Roswell

I have missed this show!

I woke up late (got in at 4am, woke up at noon), and I've just been watching TV since then. I didn't realize so many of the sitcoms & shows that I used to watch and love in the states were shown on Saturday afternoons. Cool! I have to watch TV on Saturday afternoons more often. :)

New photo

Click on right.

It's Fall

So, the colors have changed. If the changes turn out horrendous on my monitor at work, or any of your monitors, they will continue to change until the right combination is found.

Birthdays

I need to get some Happy Birthday announcements out. So....

Johnathan - Happy (belated) Birthday! Woo hoo! Now you're six and can stop telling everybody you are five and a half. Instead, in about a month, you'll start telling everyone you are six and a half. :)

Janine - I wish I was there to go out and celebrate your birthday with you this weekend. Have a drink (or two) on me!

Erik - Happy Birthday old man! Whew....the big four oh. Get sloshed, it's all downhill from here. :) Just messing with ya....have a happy birthday. Let me know if you get some. ;) For the record: I know a few very sexy virile 40+ year olds, so it really isn't all down hill.

CNN reporting the future

I just heard the female anchor announce that Sweden held a memorial service for it's slain public official (ambassador?, I forget) on Friday. Yes, tomorrow. I realize she's probably reporting from Atlanta and therefore is (at least) six hours behind Swedish time. However, I'm six hours ahead of Atlanta time, and it's still 10:30 pm on Thursday here.

What's even funnier is she hesitated before saying it. Which means she read it and knew it couldn't be true, but she said it anyway!

Nothing exciting today

Read some blogs, did some work. Figured out how to better use Perl to handle a highly repetitive copy, paste, delete edit I was having to do. Made the job soo much easier!

I've gotten used to not seeing the news and being extremely out of touch. I've been reading some of Bill's Newsweeks lately, and it doesn't seem like I've missed much. I've picked up the highlights from the few blogs I read. However, the other filler stuff is really interesting. I should get myself a subscription to a weekly news magazine. I really miss reading my Scientific American on a monthly basis. However, it's 10Euro per edition here! Ack. I can get a yearly subscription for 55Euro though, so I'll probably eventually do that. Or I could read it online. Hmmm. I can't seem to keep my attention on longish pieces on the internet though - that's what reading print material on the Sbahn to work is for. :)

Ducky!

Click the photolog link to see Ducky!

It was a toss up between him and the picture of the American Diner. However, Ducky's cuter! :) Sorry about the size - still getting used to editing stuff in Photoshop. I thought the size would be okay, but it's a little larger than expected. Ah, oh well.

Missing my family

Yesterday at work we had to tentatively say what days we wanted for Christmas/New Year's, so that we can assure that somebody will be in the company each day over the holiday's. Since my finances are still a bit strained from the last two years (moving & moving & moving again, German taxes, student loans, etc), I've told Mom & Dad that I probably won't be there for Christmas this year. I might try to make it a little earlier or in January, but I'm not sure.

IN ANY CASE, I told my boss I didn't have a preference for days. He said that if I'm not going home, I should pay for Mom to come here. Which kind of hurt because I would LOVE to do just that. But he doesn't know that or that I can't afford it and neither can she. Rough economy, Dad working three jobs (none of which have health insurance) just to keep them in the house & paying the bills, etc.

And see, Bill has a son. They're talking about what to do for Halloween. And I know he'll want to spend a lot of time with his son (who wouldn't??) over Christmas. Which is leaving me 1) wondering what I'll be doing for Christmas, 2) REALLY missing my family, esp. my nieces & nephews. Particulary the nephew I'm closest with because we know each other the best. We have a real bond. When I'm home, he's the son I don't have yet. And I feel it slipping away.....he's growing older, going to school, making friends. Aunt Anna isn't so special or so important anymore. Then there's his oldest sister who seems like she's finally chilling to me -- at least she speaks to me on the phone and know's my name now. And their smallest sister who turns one at Christmas. She sounds really cute and precious. Finally, there's the three kids of my middle brother who I still don't know (two step-kids and his just turned one) and because of various family dynamics I don't see much when I am there.

Sigh - just feeling a little sorry for myself. And I'm over the worst right now. That was yesterday's & early today's depression.

New photo(s)

Click on the link to the right.

Note to Self

Do not eat spinach quiche and broccoli together ever again.

Janine: Thank you for the Maalox! :)

Blog-iversary!

I missed my Blog anniversary. As of last Saturday, this little experiment is a year old. Woo hoo! :)

Moody

I'm finding that I'm a little moody lately. Combination of that time of the month, work (boss being an insensitive prick), and weather change. That, and this time of the year has been a time of big changes the last two years. This time last year I was interviewing at this company & planning to move here.

New photo

There's a new photo (finally!) up at fotolog. Click to go see a sappy picture of Bill and me.

Tomorrow: cool pictures of the fest at night time.

Wine Fest

Today Bill and I are heading out to a wine festival a little north of his place. They have rides and sell wine by the half liter glass. Should be interesting. :)

If we take his digital camera, I'll post a picture or two of the fest this evening.

Frankfurt Car Show

Bill and I went to the Frankfurt Car show yesterday. First of all, it's huge! I've heard it said that Frankfurt's car show is bigger than any other, even Detroit's. Very possibly, this is the only car show I've been to.

Saw lots of new cars, a couple of concept cars, and lots of parts of cars. The only really exciting thing I saw was the new Chrysler Crossfire. That is one sweet car. On the cute and neat scale was the SMART roadster - a really hot looking two seater sporty car from SMART. Also, on the neat scale was the new Ford StreetKa, a convertable version of the little Ford Ka. It looks cute & sporty. Not very practical or well made or probably safe. But very cute. Oh, also on the "how interesting" scale was a Diahatsu (sp?) Ai. It's a little boxy cute looking car. Looks like it would be an electric car, but the sign said it was a gas car. It must be a concept car because the show floor lady said they didn't have brochures on it, there is only information available in the internet.

Enough morbidity

Sorry everyone. Just felt I needed to commemorate 9/11 in my own way. Back to the regular day to day stuff.

9/11 footage

Wow. I've been watching CNN special footage (non-stop, no commercials) for the last hour. Oh my frickin God. I have never seen all the live footage together. As I wrote below, I just saw bits of it while on vacation in Jamacia. The speed with with those airplanes slammed into the towers....my goodness. I've just been amazed, heartbroken and weeping.

And I've never seen footage of the people jumping. I've heard of it, and seen a couple pictures, but witnessing it.

Sigh.

THERE WILL BE NO PEACE

A poem I found at this site. I agree that it is completely applicable to American post 9/11.

9/11 - Did it change me?

I've been reading a lot about how 9/11 changed peoples lives. And I've thought about if it changed MINE. On the whole, I think no. True, my life today is very different today that two years ago - I live in a different country and I've held two different jobs here. In December 2001, I uprooted myself and moved to Germany. For the most part, I can say that 9/11 had nothing to do with that. Well, in a way it did. That event depressed an already depressed IT market in Florida right at the time I was looking for an IT job. Which is to say, there were NO jobs available. I was working part-time at Target to pay my bills.

So, since I was looking anyway, and seemed to be a bit at loose ends (having just broken up with my long-time boyfriend, moved to Florida, having no kids, no property, etc), I decided to broaden my horizons to include Germany. I'd lived there before as a child and re-visited it a couple years before with my boyfriend. I really liked what I saw on that visit. I started thinking of getting a job in Germany then. However, my boyfriend at the time didn't seem keen on the idea of moving (he likes NJ a lot), especially to a foreign country. So I tabled the idea back then. In Sept. 2001 though, I didn't really have any connections, except my family and friends. And while I was sure that I'd miss them & miss seeing the nieces & nephew grow up, I thought I should at least try.

The trying led to a couple phone interviews and one video conference interview. And in December, within one week, I received two offers - one for a German company and one for a company in Orlando. Both about equal in pay, benefits & work. So I took Germany. How could I pass up the opportunity to live & work in Europe?? I'd kick myself later if I didn't. And on the whole, I'm very glad I did. Even though that company declared bankruptcy two months later and I've since had to find a new employer and move cities.

In conclusion, if Sept. 11 changed me in anyway, it made me reach for an opportunity I wanted and take it. Life is too short to be afraid to move to new places. (Not that I've ever been afraid of that since the first time - co-incidently being our first move to Germany.) Or said in another way - life is too short not to live it. To be afraid to get on an airplane again just because four of them crashed under the control of terrorists. To not go out and experience living in a different culture and all the misunderstandings and enlightenments that occur because of that. I firmly believe we would have less racism and bigotry if more people simply got out and travelled more outside their comfort zone.

Work permit con't.

Go to Auslandersamt (Foreigner's Department). Wait 40 minutes in line. Talk to the nice patient lady and explain what I need. She asks if I've registered in my town yet. No, I haven't because I know (or have heard) that this is difficult with out a valid working permit (which expired about the same time I moved here). So, she fills out a form, asks me if I have my work contract (yes), and sends me to the Town Hall to get registered in their system first. Three days after I'm registered, I'll be in their system, I can come back. Cool.

Go to Town Hall. Hand the nice patient man the form and explain I want to register. He asks if I've de-registered in Bavaria where I used to live. Ummm, no. (I was lazy & didn't want to figure out how to do that). I explain that I thought I would be automatically de-registered when I registered (which several people have said would probably happen). No. Doesn't work that way. Well, it does within the states (Bavaria, Hessen, etc), but between states, it doesn't. So first I need to de-register, and once I have this official de-registered letter, I can register here. He gives me an de-registering form from here and says it will probably work if I just cross out this town's name & put the old town's name in place of it, and send it off.

Go home. Find phone number for old town's Town Hall. Call & explain I need a de-registering form.

Her: "Oh, just come on by."
Me: "I can't, I live in Hessen now."
Her: "Oh. You don't live here anymore. Hmm. That's bad. How long?"
Me: "Eight months." (It's longer, but ....anyway).
Her: "OH. You need to de-register right away!"
Me: "Yes, that's why I need the de-registering form." DUH!
Her: "Well, get a form from your new town, fill it out, & send it." Exactly what the other guy said.
Me: "About how long with this take?"
Her: "Oh, I have no idea. Send it and it should go pretty fast. Bye."

Bang head on desk.

I have to say though, everybody was pretty friendly so far.

Where I was - 9/11

September 11, 2001. Janine and I had arrived the day before to sunny beautiful Jamacia to begin our five days of all-inclusive resort fun in the sun. We met a few people the night before and this morning we were eating breakfast with them, making plans for the day. Janine and I decided on doing the boat ride around the bay, so I got up to go book the reservations for the afternoon.

I get to the reservation desk, and the lady behind the counter says something about a bomb went off in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and maybe the White House. What??? Naw, she's joking, right (what a horrible joke)?!? No, she's dead serious, and if I don't believe her, I can go watch the TV. So, I go back to the table and tell everyone what she's said, and we all head off to the TV room (only one TV in the whole resort - you don't go there to watch TV). Sure enough, when we get to the TV room, CNN is on, and both towers are burning. The second plane had hit just a few minutes before.

Wow.....watch can you say? What can you do? There were about forty people crammed into this little TV room, and we were all silent. Then, as we're absorbing what's going on and watching the replays of the second plane hitting, the first tower falls. OMG!! The tower fell. You just can't imagine it. They were the tallest buildings in NYC. My ex-boyfriend stood atop that tower to repair pager antennae. Oh no! Becky's husband Duane works for the Port Authority! Shit....he goes to the office in that tower often. In fact, he had just pulled into the parking deck there a few years before when the bomb went off there. F*ck.....is he okay? I hope he wasn't there. I hope that the other guys I know in his circle of friends who work there also weren't there.

Then the other tower fell. Black smoke/debris just rolling all over the lower half of the island. Man....

Then the shots of the Pentagon. Reports of possibly a downed plane in Pennsylvania. This was co-ordinated. This is NOT an accident.

Man, am I ever so glad I moved away from NJ a month beforehand.

Was that cameraman ever lucky (not lucky....) to be filming there right then.

The towers couldn't have just FALLEN...right? The people inside.....

....

And the day went on. We went on our cruise of the bay. Came back, checked the television. Eventually managed to get ahold of our parents and tell them we were okay, nothing bad is happening here.

The next day (or is it later the same day?), we found out no planes can fly into the US. They've grounded all flights and nobody is allowed to come in. Hey, that's okay....we're paid up for a few more days, planes will probably be flying by then. Nothing we can do about it, might as well enjoy our time in Jamacia. Yes, we were saddened & felt a great loss, but ....what can you do? Nothing - enjoy the sand & sun & water. Meet the new people.

A really low point came when Janine's mom told her that her second cousin was the pilot of one of those two planes (I forget which, it's not important). Can you imagine? Somebody you've seen off and on over the years at family get togethers. You've played with his kids. Chit chatted with his wife & siblings. Heck, you didn't even KNOW he was a pilot. And then just like that.....wham. He's gone.

We got back to the States about three or four days later than planned. The resort ended up being okay about the extra nights - only charging us half price. It's not like the room was going to taken over by somebody - a few people trickled in a day later and some Europeans (including two very cute Italians) showed up over the week. However, for the most part, their clientle is Americans, and none of them could leave the country.

There was a lot of angst on the plane ride back to the States. We had to go through two or three security points. And wait in long lines - but nobody really minded. I remember people being mostly really quiet. At the start of the flight, the stewardesses threw a guy & his girlfriend off because he was drunk. Once we figured out what the problem was, everybody cheered. Then again when we landed safely in Orlando. We were so glad to be back in the States & Janine was very anxious to get back to NJ to see her son & family.

Later today - Have I changed since then?

New photo

Click the like on top the sidebar on right to see the newest photo. :)

Work permit con't.

Didn't get it this morning. I thought it was open this morning, but it's not. Only Monday & Tuesday mornings and Thursday afternoons. And I had to walk around a bit to find it, but now I know exactly where it is. Back tomorrow.

Lens Out

At lunch time I went to a Optomitrist and got the lens out of my eye. It was actually just a piece of it. Ah....my eye feels much better. That was a very nice Optomitrist. I might go back there when I need new glasses or contact lenses.

I'm having a wonderful morning

I have a contact lens stuck in my eye. I forgot to take them out last night before going to sleep, and now the left one is somewhere in my eye other than in front. At least it feels like that.

And I didn't turn my alarm on last night. Oh, I set it. But then I promptly turned it off. DOH. Good thing my sweetie SMS's me every morning as he's getting close to work, or I'd wake up around 9am probably.

Now I get to go shift through bureaucratic bs and probably stand in line forever and try to make myself understood in German. UG. I can usually make myself understood in German no problem (I spoke nothing but German to the Hygienist yesterday), but this is probably going to involve a lot of words I don't know. And the people I'm going to be speaking to are probably going to be older. And probably insist they know only German. Which will fluster me and all my German words will go out the window.

Working permit

I'm going to try re-newing my working permit tomorrow morning. It expired a few months ago. My HR-ish boss said he'd take care of it, but he wasn't making progress - always busy. Then I talked with him and my boss (b/c it's been so long) and my boss said he'd take care of it. But he's always busy too. A colleague at work who's also American and has been through this process told me to just take care of it myself. He told me where to go, what to bring, etc. So, I'm collecting all these documents tonight and I'll be there bright and early at 7:30/8am tomorrow morning. Hoping they'll take pity on the poor cute American girl. Sigh.

ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH.

Teeth cleaning

Got my teeth cleaned today. I amused the Hygienist when I told her (and explained the meaning) I was an Army Brat. She'd never heard that before. :) The cleaning itself was just like all other cleanings except that at the end, she put lotion/lip balm on my lips. I was very amused by this, but she thought it was very natural and expected. I guess it makes sense - she'd just stretched and moved my lips all over the place, so it's a professional courtesy to protect them.

My boss on the other hand, was very amused that I was getting a cleaning at all. He thinks that I should brush my teeth everyday and that should be enough. This is the general thinking among (mostly older) Germans because their insurances don't pay for preventative care. So, they have to pay out of pocket for their cleanings, and most won't. They think it's a scam. Which also explains the state of their teeth. Mmmm.

Bike ride

Bill suggested I go out on a bike ride to enjoy this fall evening and I did. I'm glad too. I was thinking I was too tired to go out, but I convinced myself I'd feel like a lazy butt if I didn't go. I feel much better & more alert now.

24

The series 24 has just arrived in Germany. I understand that the second season is already for sale on DVD in the States, but it's just now on the TV here.

I've never seen it, so I'm watching it. Today is the second episode.

Latest photo

is here. Check it out. Much clearer picture of Janine & me.

Roman soldiers

Okay, the Roman soldier pictures are up at the fotolog site. Go see. :)

Photoshop

Since fotolog only allows me to upload one picture a day, I'm trying to combine three similar photos into one. And even though I've used Photoshop before and I'm reasonably good at getting my way around software programs, this is defying my efforts to quickly combine them. Argghhh! Back to continue trying. :)

Forgotten NY

Forgotten NY looks like a cool site for photos of old(er) NYC. I'll look at it more later. I found this link at Boing Boing.

Fotolog

Okay, I'm still investigating hosting options...BUT, I've found this free service where I can upload a picture a day. It's kind of like a photo blog, hence the name, fotolog. :) I've uploaded my first picture, view it here.

I'll upload another one after work tomorrow. Probably a goofy picture of Janine and I in Rome. With this fake "Roman" soldiers. :)

Finally!

I've finally managed to make good chocolate chip cookies on this first attempt, without seeing how two small batches do in the oven first! Woo hoo!

For some reason, I have to add nearly twice the amount of flour called for in the recipe to get them out the way they are supposed to. German baking flour is MUCH finer than American flour.

I am SOO good. :) So are the cookies. :)

Junk yard PC'd

"Vehicle disposable lot". LOL. Gotta love the Army.

Yes, I'm listening to the Country countdown on AFN.

Country music

Damn it....makes me cry sometimes. I just heard Trace Adkin's song "Then They Do". Powerful.

Latest English phrase to explain

Friday I used the phrase "The job applicant doesn't know what to make of us" with Stefan. And I had to explain it. Hmmm. I explained it as the guy didn't know how he should think about us....something like this.

Then later I used the phrase "jimmy the process". That was a little easier to explain, ie., "fake the process".

Oops

I haven't blogged in a few days. Bad Anna.

This weekend has been a nice quiet Anna weekend. I rented a movie (The Mexican) Friday evening. Pretty good film. It's fun and quirky, and it's Brad Pitt. Perfect for a quiet girls night in. :) Saturday I slept in until noon, and then went out for shopping. I found a couple of pairs of pants that I really like & really fit me well. And they are pretty good quality. I was actually looking for a clubbing shirt because I was supposed to go out that evening with a new girlfriend. She got sick so I couldn't go out with her, but I did end up going out anyway. Went to a club that I've heard about, but I wasn't impressed. Maybe Friday nights at this club are better. I got home relatively early (2:30am).

This morning I woke up late again, and I'm just doing little things around the house.

Five months

As of today, that is how long Bill and I have been seeing each other. Aww.... :)

It doesn't seem like such a long time, but then again it does. The first month it seemed like forever, and then the second month we hardly saw each other because I was in the States. We didn't see each other much either the fourth month because of overlapping vacations. But in between, it's been really really nice. I'm soo comfortable with him and we just have a good time together. It's really obvious how much he loves and adores me. And he accepts me 100% as I am. That is sooo nice.

He's such a sweetie and I love and adore him too. He's poetic at times, intelligent, romantic, thoughtful, loves to clean, does neat things with decorating, and he's sexy too!

Reading in German

Just a couple of things I've noticed so far in reading this German novel. I'm not sure if this is true in general of German novels, or just this author though.

1) Things are described precisely in relationship to other things. "Carmen comes into the apartment, puts the briefcase on the couch, and goes into the bedroom which is the room next to the living room." In an English novel, I would not expect the author to tell me exactly where the sleeping room is. Unless she is specifically describing the person's house.

2) A precise indication is given as to where the character is after switching scenes. "Carmen is now in her car. She puts the cassette in the stereo and drives..... " . In an English novel, I would expect a smoother transisition here. For example: "Carmen gets in the car, turns the stereo on, and drives....."

Small things, but enough to notice them. Mick and I spoke about this a little and he said it's true that Germans have a different time sense. Or expect a different atmosphere. In general, he says German books that are translated from English are 10-20% longer due to the differences in story telling.

Interesting.

photo update

I haven't done anything with the photos. So if you're checking back here often hoping to see photos, don't. The earliest I'll get to doing that is Saturday. Work has been really busy lately (we're almost done with this one project - things MIGHT ease up after that), and I haven't had a lot of time at home to do much other than sleep. Sorry.

Funny lunch time incidents

At lunchtime, as we were returning to the office, two odd things happened. First, somebody tried to take a luggage cart onto the down escalator. The escalators specifically state that they are not meant for this. Also, in case you don't read that little sign, you'd think common sense would dictate that you shouldn't do this, because there is no bar on the end to keep the luggage on if it's not horizontal. So, the obvious happened - a suitcase went careening off the luggage cart and skipped down the stairs. Fortunately the escalator wasn't too full and the people that were on managed to get out of the way of it, so nobody was hurt.

Second, as we're still discussing this and on our way out of the Bahnhof now an older man, possibly homeless or a little off in the head, walks up to Stefan and offers him a McDonald's coke that he's holding. Um, no. And, uh, ewww.

Odd. Just odd.

Finally reading a German novel

I'm reading a German novel now, Suche impotenten Mann fuers Leben by Gaby Hauptmann. Or, auf Englisch, In Search of an Impotent Man.

It's a cute woman's novel, original in German, translated to English. Since I'm a snob about reading things in the original language if it's originally in English - why should I labor through a translation, when I can completely understand the original in English? - I felt obligated to read this book in the original version. Good thing too because the Amazon.com customer review says the translation is bad.

It's going pretty good. I'm about twenty pages in, and understanding 90% of it without difficulty or too much re-reading. I pick up most of the rest from context. I've only had to have Stefan explain one bit so far, and I'm purposely not looking up words that I don't understand. Because if I start that, I'll be looking up every third word to make sure I understand, and then I'll never finish the book!

Voices: Stories From 9/11 And Beyond

Voices: Stories From 9/11 And Beyond

This looks like an interesting blog. I haven't delved too deeply yet (I'm surfing on and off at work), but this woman has put together a site for people to tell their stories about how they experienced 9/11. It seems she has links to photos, news, and other things of note from that day too.

I'll be coming back to this site.

Dog thoughts

This is silly, but.....have you ever thought about dogs on leashes? Those dogs that always seem to be straining on the end of the leash to go somewhere. It seems to me that most of those dogs don't really want to go somewhere else, they just want to have the feeling that their owner isn't letting them go where they want to go. Or maybe they just like that feeling of the leash half choking them. You could walk faster or even run exactly in the direction they indicate, and they would STILL be straining at the leash.

Just silly dog musings. :)

American Diner

Bill and I didn't end up going to the spa. We got on the road too late and didn't feel like riding two hours there and then coming back about three hours after we got there. So we went and had lunch at an American Diner in Kaiserslautern. It's a true diner - shiny chrome, rounded corners, neon lights, and GOOD diner burgers. No root-beer floats, but they do have milk shakes on the menu. The only thing missing was a jukebox on the table. I've got a picture of the diner entrance.

After that we went to a little outlet mall about thirty mins south at an old American airbase. We didn't buy anything, just window shopped and tried some clothes on. On the way back we stopped in a town and walked around the MarktPlatz and had an ice cream and hot chocolate (cappacino for Bill). It's really getting crispy cool now. I had to borrow a sweater from Bill.

Idar-Oberstein

Bill and I went there yesterday. It's a cute little village in a valley about 40 minutes southwest of his house. It's known for it's gemstones and minerals and it has a cool little church that a Duke or something built into the side of a cliff back in the 1400's. I took a really nice picture of it with Bill's digital camera. I'll post it too when I post the Rome pics.

I really need to work out my camera situation. I'll start on it this week.

Rome Vacation pictures

Janine bombed my email box with our Rome vacation pictures! Ag....I was _way_ over limit. :) However, now I have to start investigating hosting options or free photo hosting sites so that I can post them to this blog as promised. I've downloaded them (and my mailbox is now back under it's limit), but I need to look through them now. At a quick glance as I was downloading them, they turned out really really well.

Okay, Bill's cleaning (ack) while waiting for me to get off the computer so we can go to Baden Baden. We're going to a sauna there called Caracalla. Apparently, it's a very regimented two hour spa kind of sauna place. And it's only co-ed in the middle when you get to the jacuzzi and cold water pool. I'll write it up this evening when we get back and Bill is doing his homework. :)