Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

Just thought I’d share a great photo of Ann. Doesn’t she look awesome here?!

I saw this ad by Dove on TV when I was in Germany last week. I thought it was an awesome celebration of womanhood. I wondered how/if they would try to play it in the US. After the whole Janet Jackson thing, advertisers are a bit gun shy about showing flesh. What really frustrates me about the reaction to Janet Jackson’s breast and similar types of outcries is that the people who are offended imply that if a breast, for instance, is exposed, it is sexual - no matter what the circumstances. I for one know this to not be true having used my own for mostly non-sexual tasks most of my adult life

But I digress. I figured there would be controversy about the ad over here, and when I finally saw what Dove was doing, I was intrigued. They showed clips and teases about the ad on TV and sent viewers to the website where they can see the ad. It shows older women, nude, but in tasteful positions and looking fabulous.

Dove also has some interviews with a few women linked to the site discussing the debate around the ad. What blew me away is not that there is controversy about it, that was to be expected here, but the tone of the controversy. One woman says something to the effect of “no one wants to see that.” Basically, the debate over nudity on TV is shifted for older women. Instead of people saying, “we need to protect the children from sex!” they are saying, “no one wants to see that!” I’m not sure what’s more offensive. As a woman does you body only fall into two categories - totally sexual or disgusting?

Anyway, it looks like this country needs a “pro-age” movement if the only arguments against the ad is that naked older women are gross…. really, people.

Last week, Matthias and I took a little walk on a lovely spring-like day in Weltenburg. It was beautiful and sunny. The air was a bit crisp, but when one was in the sun, it was refreshing and comforting. There were a lot of other people out enjoying the beauty of the day on the land belonging to the Cloister (you might remember the post about the monks who have brewed really good beer for over 1,000 years or so).

During that time, DC was a mess! They started that week with an ice storm which left a few inches of solid ice on top of everything. Schools were closed for days and the government even shut down for a few hours. I even caught the tail end of the effects of that storm when I returned on Monday as my plane drove over a piece of runway that had not been cleared and nearly got stuck. I would have thought it impossible for a place to get caught in a foot or so of ice, but it actually happened to a couple of planes that night.

The weather got a bit better this week. The temperature went above freezing again, and it was sunny for several days. Yesterday was a nice day. I got up early to a sunny morning and talked with Matthias for about 3 hours or so on Skype (that’s becoming a weekend morning-thing). It was just 0-1 degree (Celsius), but I figured that the strong sun would still make it a nice day for a long bike ride. I think I was right. If I had worn thicker gloves, I would have been more right.

I ended up taking a nice bike path, which goes along one of the big highways here (sounds worse than it is). The path lead down to the Potomac, which was fabulous in the sun. I stopped off at Arlington National Cemetery because I could no longer feel my fingers, and I have been wanting to stop by that place for a long time. I was the only person who actually biked to the cemetery, apparently, but they had a bike rack for people like me :-). You aren’t allowed to bike (or jog) in the cemetery, so I needed to rack it. I immediately went to the visitors center to thaw out my fingers and take in the history.

After warming up a it and seeing some of the touching images from JFK’s funeral (there is a beautiful one of Jackie’O speaking with the priest near the coffin; you can see the pain in her eyes), I headed out to the cemetery. It is a peaceful place, disturbed only by people like me talking on her cell phone - mom and dad needed some tech support :-). I went to the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, which was powerful. It was, however, over shadowed by a new exhibition in the same building called “Faces of the Fallen,” which is a huge collections of portraits of the recently killed soldiers from the Afghanistan/Iraq conflicts.

I planned on taking the solitude left from that tour up to the burial place of JFK, but I was too cold and needed to go back to the visitors center. After warming up there with a few tangerines for lunch, I headed back in the direction of home. The bike path was mostly up hill on the way back so I wasn’t as cold as coming down there. I even discovered some new ways to get around my area on teh bike path (to avoid sharing the road with the crazy drivers around here).

It was good that I got out yesterday because this is what it looks like outside of my window right now. Matthias, on the other hand, went for a long run today. I think there is some kind of anti-correlation between Regensburg and DC weather developing. I think it’s part of the larger phenomenon known as the “Matthias and Tammy Uncertainty Principle” - it’s took a while before we realized such a principle existed, but it explains so much! For example, we can both have jobs, but ONLY if we are not in the same place! We can be in the same place, but ONLY if one of us doesn’t have a job. It’s like magic

I am off to putter about before heading out to a free showing of “Jesus Camp”. The National Archives has been showing Oscar nominated movies this week, and I am trying to get in on the action. I am usually so lazy about creating a social life for myself, so it’s about time that I take advantage of some of the benefits of living in this area.

I went to a really cool Night Symposium this week. It was sponsored by the International Dark Sky Association. I have some experience with this group from the astronomical perspective (when it’s not dark at night, astronomers have some problems with doing science).

The office was a sponsor as well, so I had a chance to go and ‘represent’, as it were. I expected a lot of talk about the beauty of the sky and things that I find compelling, but they really put together a great selection of talks. They went over some issues with National Parks and how some within that agency are trying to acknowledge that the night sky is part of the scenery of the parks. They also had some ecologists that discussed the impact of artificial night lighting on wildlife and plants. The government is already working on some problems off the coast of Florida, which is helping to make endangered sea turtles just that much more rare.

The part that I found really cool was some medical doctors (of course - I must have been a doctor in a past life). They went through a great set of talks on the Circadian cycle. It’s a hormonal cycle that exists in all animals on the Earth that is triggered by light
exposure (it’s almost like we evolved on Earth or something!). The short story is that screwed up Circadian rhythms (caused by too much light at night or not enough during the day) can be harmful to your health. There are some potential links between Circadian disruption and diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and depression. Coincidentally, a lot of chronic diseases like these have seen a dramatic peak in the past 100 years or so. Anyway, it was cool too see all of the data. I won’t bore you all with it here - I took good notes.

One of the extra added bonuses of the symposium was that I got to see many presentations, which gave me some inspiration for the talk I need to present next week. I was having a bit of a block.

The rest of the week was busy and hectic, but it’s Saturday!! More on that tomorrow. In the mean time, for those of you who like a nice, dark night, some depressing news.

I can’t believe how quickly one week can fly by! It’s Saturday afternoon in Regensburg, and I have already been here over a week. I am heading back on Monday. It has been a great week. We saw Matthias’s family Gerda, Bruno, Sandra, and her new guy Julian (we approve)!

Back in Regensburg, we have been visiting our old hangouts. I have been to Kaminski more than I have been to the gym - not surprising. Last night, Cliff and Sarah joined us at Thurn & Taxis Brauhaus where I have my first beer since coming to Germany. I had my Germany Pommes (AKA French Fries), which I have been craving since I got here.

Today we took a little ride to a local electronics store and got Matthias a new little toy. He’s so excited about his new pet. We haven’t named him yet, but we’ll think of something. He can only fly inside, but he’s kind of cool.

If I can get him to put down his toy, I might get to eat a nice prosecco lunch at Kaminski…

I just go off of the phone with Sara who is my mom’s cousin’s grandaughter (not to be confused with ‘Sarah,’ with an H, in Germany). What that makes Sara to me, I have no idea! However, she is an undergrad physics major at ASU, so when I heard what she was up to, I had to get in touch. She is considering going into physics or astronomy research, so how could I not offer my two cents. I am trying to convince her to beg\seek awards to help support a trip to the meeting in Denver where I’ll be giving a talk. How cool would that be? Can you tell I am excited to have found another physics woman in the family?

Brian and Julian (a couple of guys from work) and I went out on a bit of a shopping excursion today. We went to check out Wegmans, which is this amazing and huge store. It kind of combines Whole foods, Trader Joes and a typical American super market. We went there for lunch (they ave a big cooked foods section), and then we just started going down the isles. I stocked up on a lot of grains and wheat-free items. That may not sound so fun, but it actually was great!

Afterwards we checked out a store recommended by another coworker. It is an Italian store, conveniently called “The Italian Store.” I wasn’t planning on getting anything there unless they had Lavazza creme e gusto coffee. THEN, I saw this! (now is when you look at the photo). It makes two little cups of espresso at the same time! How great is that??!

There are a lot of things going on at the moment, and I won’t go into them all. I am having a good time at keeping busy though. My head was going on super speed after work today, so I did a strong asana (yoga posture) practice to bring my body into the same kind of active state as my mind before winding down. I even practiced hand stands! I haven’t done that in ages, and I was surprised to find that I can actually hold a hand stand for a few breaths! Fun stuff.

Today was one of those days where I am focused on about ten different things, so some things get lost in the shuffle. Take, for example, putting my shirt on in the right way. I walked into the bathroom around 4:30 this afternoon, and realized that I had my shirt on backwards - the whole day. What can I say, I am all class. Luckily it was just a sweater, and no one could really tell, I think Just in case, I turned it around.

One more piece of news from Arlington. My apartment faces an intersection, and they seemed to have installed a saftey feature some time today to help blind pedestrians cross. Every few seconds I now hear a ‘Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.” At least they made it sound like a bird, so when it wakes me up all night I can imagine there is a cute little bird outside of window! It is actually long overdue because there are a few blind people in my building and people around here drive like crazy, but it won’t annoy me any less just because it is necessary!