Home Alone

Having a day off when the family isn't home is kind of weird. So I spent about an hour at the office this morning preparing / planning for the market on Sunday and getting a press release out.

I then went on a 2-hour walk along the outskirts of Zeilitzheim (there's a stretch of photos at the end of this flickr set). It was perfect weather with a nice cool breeze going. I guess I must have hit the perfect day for the fruit trees to be in full blossom, the pastures a full and saturated green. That walk was great for sharpening the saw and letting my thoughts wander.

Last night's council meeting - the last of my 6-year "tenure" as a councilman - was pretty short (for me). I had made arrangements to skedaddle on out of there shortly after the obligatory group photo because an old army buddy of mine (we served as officers together in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment) visited for a few hours yesterday. That was the first time we saw each other in ten years so I wasn't about to sit through a whole evening of debating on whether or not we were going to allow so and so to build a new car port. I did stick through the first 5 or 6 motions though.

It's VERY quiet around the house without the kids. It helps you hear what's going on in your head more and is relaxing at first, but the attraction of that wears off after a few hours. I'd much rather have the family back here now... Another 8 days to go.

Last Lecture

I read about Randy Pausch's Last Lecture today. That is some moving and potentially highly motivating stuff. Got me choking a little with sentiment. I have yet to watch the video on YouTube but the book just came out.

Didn't I ramble on about carpe diem just the other day? This is the kind of real-life coming-to-grips-with-reality-in-an-inspiring-way story that shows you how small your own (perceived) problems are and how important it is to just live with every fibre of your body while you can.

Okay. Enough sentiment or corny crap.

I did find time for my wonderful family today and it is a special treat that the kids' aunt Anita and uncle Feri are visiting from Hungary (they actually live in Switzerland, currently). It is Isa's first birthday tomorrow and Kati is wrapping the presents while I write these sentences to the tunes of the Wailin' Jennys.

Kids in the Wild

Our trip to the wildlife park near Bad Mergentheim was a hit with the kids today. Katharina was fascinated with the deer and Isa just about freaked out when she saw the bears (her most favorite animals).

Days off show how important it is to do some funky, unexpected stuff every once in a while. It's good for us "adults" as well, to get out of the office and away from the grind.

Oh yeah: we found a new toy store near Kitzingen today. Managed to more or less secretely buy b'day presents for Isa's upcoming 1st b'day.

Time to skype with the grandparents and aunts / sisters... if online.

Magic flute. Mozart!

Too bad I had to leave the concert just as Papageno was about to besing his love for Papagena... but they were making too much noise in the kitchen. That had to stop. It did. But by the time I could rejoin with everyone else the aria was over.

Reliving the experience now on headphones.

Always love the word "Mutterschwund" when I listen to this opera.

Bathed children are dry again and now asleep.

Black Six Out.

Kids

Time flies when you're having fun. I've been back to Germany now for almost ten years, I've been married for close to 5 years, Katharina turns 3 in August and Isa is about to turn 1. So what.

So what? It means that carpe diem stuff really has to take effect something soon. ASAP, as we used to say in the army.

Applied above-named rule today and went for a long walk through the countryside, just by my lonesome. Okay, the digicam was with me to document squirrel sightings and the like for the kids who were at kids' gym class with their mom.

Speak of the devil: I was just handed a freshly-bathed child.

Gotta run.

The Emperor's New Pants

Day off. Morning in the big city. Finally got around to buying those pants I've been meaning to buy for the past 6 months. It never seemed to work out - shopping for clothes is NOT one of my favorite things, not to speak of shopping with two small children in tow... Okay: so I manage to pick out two jeans within record time AND: they aren't too bad and only 12 Euros a piece!

Okay, so I didn't notice until I got home that they are sort of bell-bottomy. I can just hope that bell bottoms are back in style or that it doesn't look too goofy worn with a sports jacket. I guess I can always just compensate what must look a little silly as professional clothing with a firm stance and sheer self confidence.

Kids are back from a very short walk. Something must have gone wrong. Aaah: it is freezing cold outside. So much for a quiet few moments for blogging. At least I got the super-important jeans story out.

Back to Shaun the Sheep or a game of naming (guessing) colors.

Another Pentax Optio

I splurged for a new digital camera today (Pentax Optio V10), specifically to take good macros and shots for print / publishing. Evening flash pics weren't too good yet, but I have still to really play with the settings (which isn't easy when you have two small children crawling all over you). So I guess I'll just have to be patient until I can play with my new toy!

Picture above (and the ones uploaded to flickr) was still made with my Pentax Optio S5i.

Focaccia? Focaccia you too!

Cooking today was a lot of fun. Of course eating what we cooked in the course and tasting the appropriate wines was even more fun.

I missed one of the blocks of instruction because I had to give a TV interview on why the heck we were doing this asparagus cooking course in the first place. I'm tired of regurgitating that story for the 6 p.m. news so I won't recap it here. If you missed it: you're out of luck. (Hint: there is a little more information on the German Schlossblog).

Cooking, eating and drinking good wine pretty much filled up the day, apart from a short evening with the kids (in turn, before and after bathing) and three quarters of an hour in front of the iMac sorting through the day's pictures, uploading 24 of them to flickr, writing blog posts...

Enough of all that now.

Just one more note to add: you do know what asparagus does to the smell of your urine, don't you? I guess not everyone is afflicted (although most people are). Just check it out for yourself! There's asparagus from Peru and Bolivia on the market now and our local, German "Spargel" is on its way!

BTW: learned from wikipedia that China produces by far the most asparagus in the world. As an asparagus exporter China is second to Peru. I've made it a habit to google or wiki a few search terms I have been confronted with throughout the day and it never ceases to amaze me what all there is to learn.

Days off are hard work...

Wednesdays are supposed to be our one day off a week. Queen Mother left for Spain today and that meant that Kati made breakfast for our nice guests from the U.S. which, in turn, meant that I stayed at home with the girls. The breakfast scheduled for 09.30 a.m. with our fellow restaurant owners had to happen without us and since we were still busy at 11 that was the end of going anywhere... a nap for Isa, lunch, getting kids dressed... and a great walk in bitter cold wind (pictures at flickr).

Ah... but yesterday we checked out the Kindergarten Katharina will be going to as of September. It is a drive of 5 miles but beats the hell out of our local village Kindergarten. Something about the virgin mother mary being a vital part of pedagogic training has me up in arms... We shall see how it goes in the village 5 miles over, but I am in very good hopes after having met the staff personally and having seen the way they interact with our daughter.

Other than all that: working on a phoneme table for Katharina... plan is to have it hyperlink to pictures we make or choose ourselves. She speaks more Hungarian than German because I spend too much time at the office, so I will try to prep her a little for Kindergarten in a playful way.