Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

I went to the chiropractor yesterday to have him take a look at my sternum, which has not been behaving itself lately. He told me “you are too…, I mean, much more flexible than most people.” Later, while pushing n my ribs, he said, “Like rubber, really.” Well, DUH.

What’s really cute is the reference to ‘Young Ones” in the intro to the Video. Dad got to see him live in concert when he looked like this - I suspect he smoked a ittle something right before this performance though.
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Cliff showed me a few web-tricks today, so I need to test them out.

Webpage coding drives me nuts! I don’t want the little snap-shot icons on EVERY link! Stupid blog…….

We have gotten a couple of nice toys lately. First, last week, Matthias had the spontaneous, overwhelming urge to get a remote control glider! He spent last Saturday afternoon putting it together, and we went out to a field to test it out. It crashed and broke on the first run! Matthias was completely disheartened, so, being the good woman that I am, I put it back together for him, and we tried again. We crashed it again, and did so a few more times, but we got good a fixing it! We decided to try to find a better flying location for the next round.

On Monday, we found a place that is rented out by a club that does the thing where they jump off hills with big parachutes and glide around (have no idea that that’s called). It was a much better place to learn how to fly the plain because it was the top of a hill, which meant a lot more vertical space for making navigational errors. Matthias only crashed it a few more times, and the tall grass in the area helped protect the plane. Yesterday, he finally flew it for a long time! He can even cut the engine and just glide it for while. He even let me take the controls for a while - so far, I have just been the launcher. I want to get a little plane to practice with before trying this one. My hand-eye coordination needs more practice.

This morning, the coolest toy arrived! Check out my new work station! After much research, Matthias decided on a Samsung monitor. He had been drooling over the Apple cinema display recently, but then he started reading the reviews, and the Samsung had the best. He did get the cute little apple keyboard though. We set it up this morning, and I couldn’t get it to work with my Vaio! I was so annoyed. What god is a big toy if I can’t play with it? After some Googling, I found out the issue, and now, I am completely distracted with setting up the display! I can’t get the dual screen configuration working yet, but it is nice! The screen is anti-glare and really bright, which means that I can actually work with the windows open (something I couldn’t do on my laptop).

I’m not a femist, but…

Originally uploaded by JillNic83

Ok, maybe I am a feminist, but still, I like this…

It was actually sunny today! In case you haven’t been following the weather in Regensburg, it has been cold and cloudy/rainy since I arrived. It was actually sunny most of the day today, and it almost hit 70 degrees! As it is Germany, it is now cloudy again, so the world is as it should be. It was nice while it lasted.

On another note, I finally met Christina, my former virtual friend, in the flesh! We had lunch in town, and I got to meet her 7 week old baby Oliver as well. She is the first person I ever met online before meeting them in person. I ‘discovered’ her after she commented on my blog once, and I found out that she also an American who had recently moved to Regensburg. It was nice to actually sit down and talk to her. I think we have a bit in common; she is a mathematician married to a German mathematician - I suspect we can relate on a lot of dorky levels. We had a few people approach us and speaking English to ask about Oliver. That usually doesn’t happen, so we were both surprised. I guess babies are a great way to make friends anywhere. I hope to see more of Christina and her family again soon - She makes some rockin’ Tai food, from what I hear!

I had another great lunch today. As part of our on going struggle to be grown-ups and organize our lives (I can write more about this later), we decided to go to lunch today and do a bit of grocery shopping before getting back to work. It was so nice! Matthias got a Donar in the mall, and I ate at subway (reminded me of the good-old-days in Irvine and DC when I ate at subway almost every day). Then we picked up a few groceries to get us to the weekend. We need to go shopping about twice a week (at least). We aren’t usually organized enough to sort out a week of food on a Saturday, and even when we are organized, we usually eat a lot of fresh stuff, which requires us to get it a day or two before we use it. Vegetables don’t stay fresh here as much as they do in the U.S. Angelo says that is because they pick things too early in the U.S., which is also why the fruits and veggies seem to have less flavor there. I’m don’t know if that’s true, but it could explain the difference in flavor and freshness.

It was really nice to shop in the middle of the day because the place is practically empty. Lately, we have been putting all of the shopping off until the weekend when everybody is packing the stores. We’ll try to make this a weekly thing. It’s a nice way for me to get out of the house, and plus, we actually have some food half way through the week and into the weekend if we need it.

Sorry about the blog-outage. Naerlyfreespeech.com, which hosts our sites, moved its servers the other day. They said it would only be out for 4-8 hours, but it was a bit longer. I’ll post something more interesting soon.

If there was any doubt, this clip from a typical Friday night at the Dult should clear it up.

Matthias and I have noticed a lack of Germans in Germany this weekend. When we drove down to Munich on Saturday, the Autobahn was parctically empty. We noticed the same as we walked through the Alt Stadt on Friday as well.

We think most of them might be on vacation (that’s a big thing to do in Europe this time of year). However, those that aren’t on vacation seem to either be in Ikea (with their babies) or in Kelheim!

Kelheim is a little town not far from the Weltenberg Cloister (where they have been making beer for 1,000 years). We went there today and did a nice little hike along the Donau (the Danube to all you English speakers). There were buses of Germans coming over to Kelheim - sometimes from as far away as Regensburg according to one bus! They would all get out of the bus and get onto to a big ship to go up river for 4 kms and get out at the Cloister, presumably to enjoy that 1,000 year old beer. Then they’d get back on the ship and ride back down to Kelheim. We decided to walk the 4 kms and look over at the Cloister from the cliffs, and we saw many boatloads of Germans go by. That’s my theory as to where they all are.

We made a tentative plan for next weekend. We want to walk back down to the shore across from the Cloister and hail a boat to get over to the Cloister. When ran into a nice local who told us the procedure. There are a bunch of small boats on the river as well, and when people go along the trail that we took, they usually just whistle to call over one of the boats and hitch a lift. After enjoying some beer and good German greasy food, we can take the ship back to Kelheim for the car. The ships, by the way, are popular because it takes you through a narrow part of the river next to some nice cliffs - there aren’t many dramatic cliffs around here, so it’s a thing.

As an side, I’ve also noticed a baby boom in Regensburg since I got back. Apparently, the ones that aren’t at Kelhaim of Ikea are hanging out with their babies. There are loads of them in town! We noticed it at Kaminski on Saturday morning when conversation was halted due to a cranky baby, which seem to make Cliff wince each time it screamed. I know there are more babies than there was before. There are tons under two years old at the moment. I wonder what that is all about. Maybe the Germans are finally breeding again - they kind of stopped for a while there.

PS - it’s 2:30 A.M. and I am wide awake. Matthias is asleep, but I suspect he will be awake soon too. I was doing well with the jetlag until I tried to wake Matthias up this morning and ended up passing out for 6 hours! I can’t claim that I am not getting enough sleep, I am just getting it at the wrong time.

I must be back in Germany - there is not one single Starbucks in this town!

We made it back Friday morning after a rather uneventful flight. Once we got my luggage in the apartment, we spent half the day unconscious. The headed out for pizza at my favorite Italian place in town - then I went for another nap when we got home.

This morning, we went to Kaminski with Cliff and Sarah for breakfast and fabulous coffee! Matthias and I spent the rest of the day doing some errands. We needed to expand our storage space since I have accumulated so much in the past year! The need for a larger apartment is growing! This is a good chance for us to purge he unused stuff though.

It’s about 5:00 AM now. I have a lot more to unpack today, but I may finish! Matthias is still asleep - we are on different jet-lag cycles. We may head over to the Dult today (it’s the local beer festival). It is the place we went after out wedding, which was 2 years ago yesterday! I gave Matthias a cabinet and he made me dinner - we are romantic