Super Fun

Yesterday was the husband's birthday.

It has got to be one of my favorite days of the year. It's way better than Christmas.

Why?

Because my husband, who is the most laid-back/up-for-anything/ultimate-trooper who I have ever met: hates his birthday.

Hates it.

There's no good rationale for it. He just hates it. He likes other people's birthdays but can't stand even the mere thought of his own. When you bring it up he instantly gets all mouthy about it.

So of course, it's SUPER FUN for me and the people he works with who have caught on to this anomaly.

And inspite of all his threats and tantrus we drug him out to our favorite local Irish Pub and celerated.

I had a ball. I think everyone else did too. Rob has a good time- but he'll never ever admit it.

Pictures are posted. Enjoy.

Drinking

WTF

"Thanks to some text message-savvy grandchildren, North Carolina drivers whose license plates have the potentially offensive "WTF" letter combination can replace the tags for free."

Seriously? Of all the shit we have to worry about here in this state, we are worried about potentially offending someone because random letters on licenses plates could offend someone?

Not the economy?
Not the lousy conditions of the roads?
Not the decrease in public school funding?
Not even the lack of infrastructure in counties where the growth is exponential?
The drought? No?

Nope.

I wouldn't want anyone in NC or anyone who happens to be passing through NC to take offense from a state issued non-vanity license plate.

Well shit. Since we are on the subject, all NC plates have three random letters, a dash, and then 4 numbers. So we better go ahead and pay to replace any license plate that has an F in the prefix.
Cause you know what? I don't care what the combination of letters are, I am pretty confident I can make up an offensive acronym to go with it.

Matter of fact, throw out all the C's and M's too, leaving them it would be just asking for trouble.

Nice Job North Carolina. Another excellent allocation of my tax dollars.

Fuck The Fucking Fuckers

I knew nothing good could come of today right off the bat. The first thing I saw this morning was the article that Comedian George Carlin died.

George Carlin has always been my favorite comic. He never offended me. He rang true. He made you think. The guy was brilliant. Yeah, the shit he said was damn funny, but it was also true.

He taught me (and plently of the people I am sure) a lot about humor. It's all about paying attention. Humor is all around us. The world is damn funny. You just have to see it. And then you have to call it like you see it.

I still to this day think that his role as the cardinal on Dogma was the single most genius movie role casting I have ever seen.

What a tragic loss.

Here's to you George Carlin.

Customer Service

We have no TV.

I don't know what happened, but we woke up Sunday morning with the satellite connection out. Maybe it was one of the storms, I dunno.

Rob pissed around with it trying to fix it and when that didn't work, he called Dish. He spent another 2 hours online with Dish trying to figure out how to fix it. No love.

So it looks like Dish is going to have to come out here and fix it. Their next available appointment is a week from today.

Perfect.

Fuck Dish.

This is still less crap than our last dealings with DirecTV, so I guess that is something.

I think that all the people who've been laid off from Delta Customer Service over the years have apparently gotten hired at DirecTV and Dish TV. Good to know.

20 Jun 08

19 Jun 08

18 Jun 08

This pretty much sums up our energy policy attitude

17 Jun 08

16 Jun 08

15 Jun 08

Cheap Entertainment

The cuckoo clock that we bought in Rothenburg, Germany arrived this week.

It was my anniversary gift. It's all handmade with a music box, dancing figures, and beautifully carved. It's spectacular.

I've always loved cuckoo clocks. My grandparents have a few of them at their house in Cleveland and I have always associated the sound of them to being there.

So earlier this afternoon Rob decided to tackle the job of hanging it. We chose a location on the wall of the foyer where it joins the living room just to the right of the stairs. I don't know how long he jacked with it, probably more than an hour, but it's up and it looks great. We love it.

So we go about our normal business...

It hits the quarter hour and goes off: Cuckoo! Cuckoo!.. and the dogs wake up, run over there and start furiously barking at it.......Great guard dogs.

Yep. It's a cuckoo clock. Yep, it's on the wall. Yep. We know it's there, thanks guys.

15 minutes later, clock goes off and the cycle repeats.

Nails furiously clicking on the hardwoods, BARK! BARK! BARK! BARK!

15 minutes later. Same thing.

I've been upstairs for the last couple hours working on class stuff. I can hear it continuing.

CUCKOO, CUCKOO! ... clack, clack, clack, clack, clack......BARK! BARK! BARK!

Rob has started yelling back at them.. Now I hear:

CUCKOO, CUCKOO! ... clack, clack, clack, clack, clack......BARK! BARK! BARK!
SHUT UP DAMN IT!!

Never really a dull moment. Never.

And this is entertaining as hell.

Go Bulls!

Slack Ass

Wow.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25258388/

This women had sextuplets by c-section and then trained and ran a marathon a year later.

Sometimes its all I can do to get to the gym - this women make feel like a complete slack ass.

Note to self: No Excuses.

14 Jun 08

Snoring by the pool.

Pictures From Birthday Happy Hour

Violated

You might be able to tell from yesterday's picture, that the evening got a bit away from me.

The husband had decided to plan a Happy Hour as a belated birthday celebration for me, since we were in Europe for my birthday. I am a big fan of any excuse for a happy hour, so fine.

I had absolutely no expectations for this, I assumed my belated birthday was an excuse for a Friday Happy Hour and I am fine with that. The plan was to head to Los Taquitos; drink some sangria have some food. I figured we'd probably make it an early night because Rob and I were supposed to run a 5K this morning, but it would be really nice to see everyone, because we hadn't seen a lot of people since we've been back.

More people showed up than I thought would, the party swelled. I think we assumed 8 and ended up with like 14. The more the merrier, right.

There were shots. This is about the time I started to realize it was going to take a turn. What I didn't realize was that I was being set up.

About 20 minutes after the shots come, the entire wait staff showed up at the table clapping and singing. Now, this isn't like the normal Applebees clapping and singing bullshit. Oh no.

They drag me out of the booth, put a sombrero on me, throw me on a stuffed donkey, toss a shot of what I think may have been Windex down my throat, put a paper towel over my mouth, grab my head, shake me for like 5 seconds and the "poof" they were gone.

And I am left completely dazed sitting on a donkey with a sombrero on while everyone at our table roared with laughter. I am sure it was quite the spectacle. Anyone who knows me would have really enjoyed it, I am sure.

So I posted the pic Rob got. Jason & Leigh got some really good pictures too- when I get them I will throw them up here too for the amusement of all.

Rob had a cake brought out later, rounding out the whole experience. I expected none of this. I thought it was just another excuse for a happy hour.

If it has been a regular normal happy hour, it would have been fine. After I don't know how many pitchers of sangria, at least a total of 4 shots, riding the donkey and I think 2 beers-- I didn't even bother attempting to get up for the run.

13 Jun 08

12 Jun 08

11 Jun 08

10 Jun 08

09 Jun 08

08 Jun 08

This is what the deer left me of my hostas & lillies when we got back from vacation.

Outfuckingrageous

"A senior Justice Department official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America."

"The Justice Department, in a decision by Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program, even though Justice Department staffers had rated the program 47th on a list of 104 applicants."

Not only that, this idiot continues to actually defend it saying: "I don't know why people insist on denigrating it, it's a sound program."

What a coincidence that the honorary chairman of the First Tee program is former President George Bush?

"A program to help troubled teens in San Diego, Vista, was ranked number two by the staff out of 202 applicants in its category of prevention and intervention but was turned down for a grant to help deal with inner city teen violence in San Diego. Another program, designed to train adult guards to deal with teens in custody, also was denied federal money even though it was ranked by the staff number 2 out of 104 in its category."

"Instead, said Peterson, Flores favors programs that promote sexual abstinence. A Washington, D.C. program, Best Friends, that promotes abstinence was awarded $1.1 million by Flores even though it ranked 53rd on a list of 104 applicants."

Seriously? Not only does the justice department waste our money specifically marked to help prevent juvenile crime on political connected groups and then they continue to actually rationale and defend these actions?

Where is the religious right here? Stand up! Speak up! Tell us what Jesus would do? Would Jesus give money to golf and absence over the other programs because of political doctrine?

This has got to stop.

Silver Lining

So I found something today that is actually good about it being a heat index of 104 degrees:

I didn't have to dodge all the freaking cyclists on the back roads on my way home from the gym.

No Beer

Today sucked. I knew it would.

First day back from a long vacation always does. I am always a little more testy after I get back. It's like having ice water thrown on you in January while you are sleeping in your nice warm bed.

Fuck.

I managed to get through all my emails in an hour (anything from corporate, site management, or IT I tend to delete unopened anyway, so that was helpful).

It took almost 45 min after I sat down for my standard headache to come back and less than that for me to refer to someone as a fuckwit out loud.

At that point, I almost shut down my computer and left thinking "This was a bad idea."

The worst part I think was walking into the company cafeteria. Yep, all the food still sucks and there's still no beer.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Economics

I am by no means an expert on the economy.

I was however forced in college to take some economic classes. Admittedly, it's been a while.

I am quite sure that the decade or so of booze consumption that has elapsed since that time probably soaked up a lot of what we covered in those classes, but I do remember the basics of supply and demand.

What I do not remember is why the supply & demand model does not apply to oil/gas.

Gas prices have gone up and up. Consumption has gone down. And then the price spikes $11 over night. Why? No fucking "additional unrest in the middle east" or "hurricanes in the gulf" or "political unrest" or any of those other bullshit reasons.

So I figure its one of two things or possibly a combination of both.

1) The prices in the US have been artificially low since the get go (currently gas is about $9 a gallon in Germany) and now, for whatever reason, they are catching up to the international standard.

2) we (the international community included) are getting fucking gouged by the fucking oil companies and traders.

Either way, I am guessing the reason doesn't fucking matter. When things do level out here in the U.S. I am betting the chances of us seeing a national average for gas less than $5 gallon is about nill.

07 Jun 08

06 Jun 08

View from Castle Rheinfels above the Rhine River, Germany

04 Jun 08

Beer Garden at the Chinese Pavillion, Munich



I love this one. We were sitting at the Beer Garden and it started raining. Everyone just popped open their umbrellas or moved to tables under trees and just kept on without missing a beat.

I love Germany.

03 Jun 08

Drinking beer by the liter at the Hofbräuhaus München

02 Jun 08

01 Jun 08

St. Nicholas Church



St. Thomas Church



Another day, I can't pic one. These were both taken in Leipzig, Germany.

31 May 08

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin

30 May 08

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin



Bust of Nefertiti at the Berlin Egyptian Museum









This is the hardest day to pick from. We walked all over Berlin and toured two different world-class museums. I could post 50 great pictures from today.

29 May 08

Parking in Berlin

28 May 08

St. Jakob's Church, Rothenburg, Germany

So I don't know what the hell this is, but I had to take a picture. Saw it in the window of a store in Rothenburg.

27 May 08

26 May 08

Luzern, Switzerland

25 May 08

Uncle Carl & I drinking beer at the Rathaus Brewery in downtown Lucern, Switzerland

24 May 08

Zurich, Switzerland

23 May 08

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany

22 May 08

21 May 08

Kicking and Screaming

Well. I am back.

Kicking and screaming.

I miss Germany already. We had such a great time, it's hard to describe. I saw so much and did so much, it's overload. I expect that I am going to have a really tough time readjusting. I am so not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.

I've got my pics downloaded so I am going to try to get the album posted in the next day or so. I am obviously behind on my picture of the day so I am going to post the ones from May 21 through June 7 after this post, so stay tuned.

Berlin

We just got back from a three day stay in Berlin yesterday. I really enjoyed Berlin, what a city. I am not sure what I was expecting exactly but it some ways it was what I expected and in some ways it was not.

Since it was bombed to dust at the end of the Second World War the city today is largely brand new or mostly reconstructed, but what a city. The museums, churches, and the monuments are incredible.

I walked through the Brandenburg Gate, saw the remains of Checkpoint Charlie (which is simply a marker underneath a Hertz sign), viewed remains of the wall, toured the Charlottenburg Castle, visited 2 of the 5 museums at museum island (Altes and Perganon), walked miles along the Spree River, shopped at the KaDeWe and around downtown Berlin.

You know what I found really shocking about Berlin?

You cannot get drunk in Berlin.
Seriously. It's impossible.
It simply cannot be done.

The service at every single place we went to (beer gardens included) was awful. It took almost a half hour to get a beer or longer (which usually arrived wrong) and then never ever ever came back. Never! By the time you'd get pissed and try to get the check that would be another 20 minutes.

We are heading to Ansbach for the day here shortly.

Tomorrow Rob and I are heading to Munich for a couple days on our own. We found a Beer Garden tour (I am so in) and outside of Munich is the world's oldest brewery (established like 1054).