Sprung forward... and then some

Wow, what a great sunny Sunday. Not a tad of work (which can be seen as good or bad, if you depend on work for income) and perfect sunny weather. We sprung forward an hour this morning. Isa didn't seem to have adjusted he clock beforehand... she was still up at 6 a.m. (I can't complain: it was 7 a.m. new time) and got us all going for the day.

Still didn't manage to leave the village which was just fine. Took lots of pictures in the "Schlossgarten" and a few in the village which were automatically posted to friendfeed on upload to the various sites where they belong.

Writing a blog (regardless of whether anybody reads it) makes me aware of how little I have to write about in my life right now. I'll take that as a good thing and enjoy the peacefulness of an evening at home... (spitting is big on Katharina's agenda right now, so my patience and skills as a parent are being tried well right now).

Scotty, we need more power!

Today's paper (last time I'll be getting it is coming Monday... after that it's net only for me!) had a supplement from the local nuclear power plant in it.

Apparently I could win a digital camera, a coffee maker and some other highly useful item I can't live without and don't yet have... if I answer three multiple choice questions correctly whose answers are - of course - found somewhere in the text.

Questions are all about "educating" us about how great nuclear power is... along the lines of
how many Germans approve of nuclear power plants? 28%, 38% or 48% (it's obvious where that is going) and something about how we can save the earth if we keep the plants running for another 60 years (as opposed to other, lesser rates).

Still considering, whether I should send it in... I could win the coffee maker but I'll probably get mail from the ATOM lobby about once a quarter.

Getting old

Photo by dusdin

Upcoming birthday and never really knowing anymore how old I am (is it 37 or 38? Kati corrects me when I get it wrong) makes me ponder on waypoints and locations... I've been back to Germany now for almost exactly ten years. That's more than I have ever spent in one country, let alone one place...

Still seem to be seeing more of the world through the net... beets being deployed to some crappy place and living in a tent or container for months on end.

I still wouldn't mind a change of place at some point, a hiatus of sorts... not so easy with the whole kit and kaboodle - latter being "home" and "work" more than family, who are probably as mobile as me. I'll have to think about that in the next few years...

Waiting on a day off

photo by jurvetson

There's nothing like waiting for hotel guests to arrive - on your one day off a week! Especially if only one room is booked and you don't know whether the guests will be arriving early in the day or late at night.

Hanging around the office without a real mission is a perfect excuse for doing stuff just for fun - listening to music on the iPod, surfing blogs and sites of - at least professionally speaking - questionable worth. It's funny how surfing isn't as much fun when you're just trying to kill time. I guess it's better to work after all, day off or not.

Guess I might as well start paying some bills...

hello, this is the fraud department

photo by Guillermo Esteves

I had a surprisingly pleasant phone conversation with a nice lady (a couple of years ago I would have said "girl" but that seems sexist at my age) of the fraud department of my credit card company. I called them toll free from Germany as they had asked me to do so (a letter I received in the mail today).

They wanted to confirm my contact data since it seems someone has been trying to use my credit card from abroad! Well, yes, of course, that was ME!

I've been trying to throw some business at apple using my credit card that has worked fine for everything else over here in Europe - including buying a ipod through the store before. iTunes doesn't like it though and it seems that my bank is careful of purchases through apple overseas. Good thing for customers whose card has been stolen - bad thing for expats who just want to buy their stuff and take the foreign fees for granted just so they can have whatever might be "shiny new gotta have" at apple (no, can't really afford the macbook air...).

Anyway... seems everything is squared away again and I can start spending my money - even at the apple online store - from here. Good to know my bank is careul and reacts quickly and courteously.

Easter is a done deal

Photo by tanakawho

Easter is a done deal but I could use some serenity now.

The kids do react differently to having more people around and as good an experience it is for all of us to have famiuliy visiting, it takes a bit more strength and patience... just because of how the kids react to the additional input.

Just shows how important it is to keep family ties and to renew them whenever you can.

Still found a little time to play around with "what's hot" around the net which seemsto be friendfeed and quotably.

Watching streams of text and content in different languages pop up from around the globe puts things in perspective and opens you up to the prospect of participating in the truly world wide... web... Is it the web anymore? At any rate: it's good to really catch up with frieds in different parts of the world live and up front. Still wondering how long this twitter (and related) craze will last. For now it's fun.

Where to begin?

I guess the first post of any new blog is always the most boring one... all about: here I am, I'm going to do this and that and never get around to it anyway.

I'm not sure what exactly it is I want to do with this blog. There is the schlossblog, of course. Its aim is pretty straight forward: to report on what is going on in and around Schloss Zeilitzheim and its inhabitants - in German.

I Suppose that's why it is a good idea to have an outlet for (even) more benign and personal rantings and observations. In English. We shall see...


Schlossblog:

http://web.mac.com/barockschloss/Website/Blog/Blog.html