Wallowing

So how did I manage to fuck away the last week? Huh? Really. I can't think of anything in particular that required a whole lot of my time, and yet I have very little to show for it. (Don't worry—I always get this foul-mouthed and foul-tempered right before school starts, and I never think I accomplished enough during the break. Which I didn't, but too late to cry over spilled milk now.)

John's back is doing much better, thanks. I knew he was feeling better when he started asking me to do things for him while giving me that woe-is-me look. When he was actually in pain, he didn't have enough extra energy to actually ask for help, so I had to practice John-omancy. I guess that's where part of my time went, since he's been out of commission for chores and such. But I've got a rain check to cash in for during my exams. Woo hoo!

Hannah has said some funny things lately. First, she was explaining something (I don't remember what, now) to us while we were walking around Eberbach, and when one of us expressed some doubt about how true it was, she shut us down by saying she had learned it at school, therefore it must be true. She's obviously well-indoctrinated.

Then tonight at dinner she was explaining the difference between speech bubbles and thought bubbles, because I said it wrong.

There was something else, but I can't seem to dig it out of my brain. That means it's time for more photo-blogging!

Happy Easter! Grrr!

Happy Easter! Grrr!
Originally uploaded by NeeS.

We've hardly seen Hannah this week. During the day, she's been at the play program I mentioned before, magic stuff and scary stuff and whatnot; in the afternoons and on into the evening, including one sleepover, she's been at the house of the friend she's been going with to the play program. Pretty soon they'll be Siamese best friends. I was able to snap this photo in the 2 minutes she ran home to get a change of clothes yesterday. (I like the sense of ennui you get from it: ah, the endless sameness of being a monster.) So far, all we've been able to get out of her about the day camp is that her group is called the Magic Wands, and that they took turns wrapping each other up like mummies one day. This would explain why Halloween hasn't been imported wholesale into Germany; they already have it at Easter.

Retraction

John has asked me to rescind my claim from yesterday that he farted. He categorically denies farting, yesterday or ever, and would further like to take this chance to quash any rumors of his having any bodily functions at all.

Thank you.

(Plus, he claims I am a dooce wannabe with all the fart-talk. What-ever.)

John's Doctor is a Quack

I took John to the orthopedic doctor this morning, and he gave him a small shot, and told him that it was all probably psychosomatic (John corrected me: stress-induced). He didn't even take an x-ray or try any wrenching, like John was hoping for. Quackery!

We would have gone back to the original doctor, bu his office was closed this week. John will probably try to see him next week about physical therapy. And if he doesn't...

John is finally starting to feel a little better tonight. He's managed to stand up a couple of times without his left leg wobbling dangerously, and I swear I heard him fart for the first time in two days, so you know it had to have been bad before if it hurt too much to pass gas.

Bumming Around

It's really hard to work for some reason, so I am trying to find things to do that seem at least as important to me, like blogging and washing laundry. yippee

John's back has gone out on him again. He has an appointment with the orthopedist tomorrow, so today I talked him into staying on the couch with a hot wattle bottle and some Aleve and the Dan Brown novel he's been reading. The last time this happened was just days before we flew to the States at Xmas 2004, but at least this time we have some idea what to do for it until he can get in to see the doctor. And he doesn't have to start teaching until Monday, so that gives us a couple of days to get him back on his feet. Poor baby. He couldn't even tie his shoes this morning when I took him to the GP for the referral. And if he has to stand up, he has to hold onto something for support until his spine can handle being vertical. I've already told him, repeatedly, that there is no way he is skipping out on physical therapy this time. There are at least 3 physical therapists in our village, so there's no excuse for not going.

Hannah is at the play program; she was a bit concerned this morning that it would be like school, but I reassured her that no learning is required there. Whew! John was quite disturbed by our conversation, I think.

I finished novel number 2, Toni Morrison's Paradise. It was an excellent read. The only other work of hers I have read was Beloved, and it is also wonderful. I must make an effort to get my mitts on more of her work, but I still have Philip Roth's American Pastoral to get through, plus a butt-load of school stuff. So no pleasure reading until summer.

We have reserved a cabin in Sweden for a week-long vacation in August, and we have decided that it will strictly be off-the-clock time for all of us. I already told John that my suitcase will be half full of the Terry Pratchett collection I still haven't read from Xmas. We're planning on taking plenty of rowboat rides, bike rides, and maybe a little walking around, but otherwise plenty of not-doing-anything-in-particular time. I can't wait!

This yellow is what I think of when I think "Spring in Germany." It makes up a little for the *very frequent* rain. 

Pimpin' Our Photo Albums Online

This is mostly a redirect to our online albums. We made a quick outing yesterday to the town of Eberbach; we walked around town and climbed up to the castle ruins.

I put a few pictures with comments up on my Flickr account.

I loaded the whole shebang (without comments) on John's yahoo account.

Enjoy the photos for now. More comment later.

Out of Sight, Out of My Mind

There hasn't been any room construction to report on this week. It's been too cold and wet for them to be outside on the roof. Plus today is Good Friday, so everything is closed anyway, even if it were dry enough to do anything. Then we have Easter Monday (these Germans are almost as good as the Swedes at milking their religious holidays for days off), so I have to make sure to lay in enough groceries on Saturday to get through all the store closings.

I must extend my apologies to Mr. DeLillo. I am afraid we got off on the wrong foot, and I would like to publicly retract that "literary wanking" crack. I guess the bus stop is not the right milieu for starting a new novel. Plus I get really obstinate about not liking a book when the cover and first two pages are covered with accolades from the likes of Salman Rushdie and Michael Ondaatje. But after 650 pages, I must say I'm mostly enjoying his story. It's a sort of six degrees of separation in American history, roughly following ownership of a baseball. Okay, that's so crudely outlined as to be useless, but I have found over the years that I am good on the understanding things, but not so good on the explaining things. So 2 thumbs up so far, Mr. DeLillo.

How Do I Love School? Let Me Count the Ways

I'm starting to equate school with childbirth, and it totally makes sense. Before the semester starts, I'm all eager and thinking how great it's going to be. Yes, there is the potential for disaster, but I won't think about it right now; it doesn't apply to me. During the semester, my level of discomfort increases steadily, but I can still handle it. When it comes time to labor over exams and papers, I think, "God! How did I ever think I could do this? I'll never make it! I am never doing this again!" Then I get my (mostly good) grades back, and I have totally forgotten about all the aggravation and hard work until the next time.

The summer semester starts in a week-and-a-half, and I have to read 3 novels before then. A professor kindly let me into his already-full class, and now I have to be sure to be thoroughly prepared to repay him. I started Don DeLillo's Underworld right after buying it this morning, and all I have to say is that I hope the other 810 pages are not a lot of literary wanking about baseball.

That is all.

Look at the big brain on Hannah!

Hannah has always had this knack of asking weird questions out of the blue. I have tried to answer them straightforward and without commenting on or questioning why she asked, so she'll continue to feel she can ask me stuff. Sometimes the questions are about making babies and other personal topics, but a couple of nights ago, she wanted me to explain 4-D.

Whuuh?

She followed along pretty well while I was describing 3-D (she'll have a head start in geometry, at least), but when I added the dimension of time, I lost her. Oh, well. I don't think a lot of adults get it either (or think about it at all), so she's in good company. Maybe it will make sense when she reaches junior high.

This is what 0C looks like at 8 am on an otherwise fine Spring morning. (See the chimney smoke at bottom right?) 

Someone's in the Kitchen with Hannah

Hannah has been very domestic lately. First she was on an apple sauce-making kick. She made raw apple sauce mostly by herself (I helped a little with peeling and coring the apples, but she did all the chopping) *twice* last weekend, and it made a tasty dessert. But not very much, because she pooped out after chopping 2 apples.

Then she got the idea from a crafts-and-science type magazine (based on a tv show for kids) to make her own soap. John bought her a bar of non-creamy soap (which is surprisingly hard to find, since Germans seem to use only liquid soaps) and a lemon, and she set to work with a grater and some cookie cutters. (I got to take over with the grating when she started to flag, which added an element of danger to the whole process.) Now I know how the Pilgrims and Pioneers felt, cooking and using homemade soap. She also insisted on keeping some of the soapy water from where I was soaking the pot she melted the soap shavings in, so we poured it in a recycled squeeze ketchup bottle. Her bathroom is now littered in bits of homemade soap, either from the bits that made it into the soap water, or from the bits that have broken off the bars.

I just wish she would be half so energetic and helpful when it came time for her to put away her laundry, clear away her toys, or empty the dishwasher.

Brain, Brain, Go Away...

I am having one of those manic days where I am basically on the verge of running around in circles gibbering. I’m pretty sure John thinks I’ve already crossed that boundary, but trust me, there’s still a ways to go before I am in full-fledged freak-out mode. I just. can. not. sit. still. Or quietly.

Gah!

In other news, our landlord says it may take 4 weeks or more to complete the winter garden (it’s not quite a sunroom...), because it will take around three weeks just for the windows to be made to order. Look at us with the special-order windows. La-di-da!

More Construction-Related Stuff

I wanted to sneak a picture of the guys doing the construction work, but Germany (and basically all of Europe under the EU) has pretty strict privacy laws, so I wouldn’t want to get myself in trouble by putting their pictures up on the Internet. So instead I found a photo or two to direct you all to.

There is a long tradition here of the apprentice system, and carpenters (“hand workers” in general, I guess) have their own traditional clothing even. So here’s a photo of their pants, which I find very interesting with all the handy pockets and loops and zippers and things. Not all carpenters wear the full get-up to every job, but they all wear the super-handy pants.

(By the way, click on the earlier photo to biggify it.)

Some Old-School Bitchin' and Moanin'

I am going to be co-teaching a couple of translation/interpreting classes this coming up semester, and so far I have no contract and have not heard from my teaching partner, who is actually in charge of the classes. So I contacted the person who asked me to do the job, and she told me who I needed to see in the department about the contract.

You have to understand the German office system—and this applies to private businesses, public offices, and even doctors—there is no 8-5 availability. The people may be there, but they hold office hours (like university profs in the US), and that is the only time they are open to people who do not work in their direct office environment. (Actually, for my doctor’s office at least, this means that they have “walk-in” office hours in the morning, but to see the doctor in the afternoon you have to have an appointment.) For university employees this can be as little as *1 hour per week*. I shit you not. This person is officially only available on Wednesdays 10:30-11:30. So yesterday when I got the reply from my contact person, I thought, “Hey, good timing, Nee,” and trotted on over this morning.

And the chick is out sick. The secretary in that office is... not very friendly. The secretary’s office is actually open to the public every morning, so I popped my head in to ask a question about the missing person, and you’d think I had interrupted her in the middle of open-heart surgery the way she looked at me. I’m sorry to interrupt your web-surfing, beeyotch, but I’ve got a problem that *falls within the scope of your job duties*. Aaarrgh!

So there was an hour-and-a-half down the toilet when I could have been proofreading (or blogging *g*). But I feel better now for bitching about it, so maybe I can settle down to work.

The Construction Begins!

It's really happening--we're having a "winter garden" put in. Yesterday they started putting up scaffolding in the front of our house so they can go over the roof to access our terrace (instead of barging into the apartment--and hopefully disturbing our turdy little teenaged neighbor "Matthew", heh). But Spring graced them with heavy rain and a little hail, so they had to stop and finish that this morning. Then Spring rained on them a little more today, but they bravely came back in the afternoon and started tearing down the terrace. Woot! Pictures of the construction to follow.

Even though the garbage men are still officially on strike in our state, they took pity on us and came around one day last week to clear out some of the mountains of plastic bags that were threatening to topple over and kill passersby in an avalanche of garbage. I am telling you, that was a stroke of PR genius. To me, it made it seem like the garbage men were totally willing to work, if only the *state* would be reasonable.

The recycling is still there, but tin cans and plastic packaging won't raise the stink that food scraps would.

John and I have been busily translating, just digging ourselves out to accompany Hannah to and from school and to take care of the bare necessities (food and the occasional school supplies for Hannah). But we will have to work to the sounds of construction directly over our heads starting next week, because our landlord is finally getting around to building on a "winter garden" where our terrace currently resides, which he has been talking about since we moved in 2-1/2 years ago. The carpenters came Thursday bright and early to take measurements, and they are supposed to be back early next week to start work. I will photo-blog the work, just for my own amusement. You have been forewarned.

John = Jesus

Run, do not walk, to Sluggo's Flickr site to see John as Jesus. (Sluggo = Sharon's John, for those in the know.) John has finally reached his life's goal!

Snippets

I hope my sucking fixed the computer shutting itself off, because I am sick of hearing Hannah in the computer room, "Shee-ot!"

More signs of spring:
* dry skin that makes my hands look like chicken feet
* allergy nosebleeds for me and John (John hardly ever even gets a cold, so this is a big deal)
* narcissus
* alternating bouts of exhaustion, energy, and insanity
* rain and high winds
* lows above freezing and highs nearing 60

John tricked Hannah into watching the Swedish movie, and then I got pulled into it, too. It's really cute.

Hannah told me this morning, while I was trying to get her out of bed, "You sound awful. And you look like the Devil." I had a picture in my head of a tiny Professor Higgings.

John's final Flickr update

John finally went through the last 2 stages of shaving; check the Foto link on the right.

Hannah didn't finish her homework until almost 9, so I'm too tired to think of anything else to add. Sorry.