Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

Does anyone know about connecting with locals in Regensburg who know a bit about Cocoa programming? Looking for resources and tips on learning the language.

I went to a play ground with my friend Blanca today and her daughter Sarah who is a bit older than Clair. Blanca was one of the the three non-Germans in my birthing class. Interestingly, all three of us gave birth to breech babies; none of the Germans did. I don’t know what was up with that.

Anyway, as she and I were chatting and keeping one eye on the toddlers, Clair started climbing up the ladder to the slide. Since when can Clair climb a ladder? Blanca was impressed, but I tried to assure her that Clair doesn’t know how to climb a ladder (as she is climbing the ladder). Having a toddler is like that. You think you know who they are, and the next second, they are correcting you. She is growing faster than I can keep up. A nice looking slide, apparently, is enough to send her up a ladder without fear.

As I was walking in town today, I kept thinking that there is something I wanted to ask people on the blog again, but I can’t, for the life of me, remember what it was.

I came up with a backup question though. Does anyone have any experience on helping to soften scar tissue? The big scar on my scalp is doing a heck of a job of impeding the growth of new hairs. So much so that when I do standing forward folds in my Yoga practice, that blood flow to my head makes the irritated skin itch like crazy. I need to soften things up to let the hair break through (perhaps a bit TMI). Strangely, the new hair that make it through the scar tend to be wavy. Since when is my hair wavy??

Anyway, Happy Passover, or whatever it is that people say for Passover. I had a bit of Santa Christina wine in celebration tonight, and I spoke with Leah, who has become part of my fondest memory of the holiday. I had that wine on my first celebration of Passover in Rome (on Easter day) in 1999 hosted by my roommate Leah, and I always think of it when I drink that wine. It was a memorable night. We didn’t have Matzah balls so we hid some Kosher bread sticks that we got at the local grocer. There was a lot of wine drinking involved, and I am pretty certain it was the first time I ever said a prayer anything in Hebrew. We ended the evening with my two slightly drunk roommates cutting of my very long hair (upon my request). I’m sure the Easter celebration happening at the Vatican withing a half mile of our apartment that day was also awesome that day, but alas, we were too hung over to get up and walk there in the morning to join the throngs of pilgrims. Oh to be twentythree and living in Rome again!

A bit of a conversation that took place this morning:

Me: I want to lacquer Clair’s stool.
Matthias: You want to lacquer her STOOL?!!?
Me: Yeah, her stool, this afternoon.
Matthias: Her STOOL??!! You want to lacquer her stool? (staring at me with a very confused expression).
Me: (starting to think because he is having a strange reaction to this very simple notion) Not THAT kind of stool, the step stool in the bathroom!

On a developmental note, I think Clair threw a bit of a real tantrum in the book store today. Actually, tantrums aren’t new, but she doesn’t usually blow up in stores. I had to carry the screaming toddler out of the store today because she was really loud, like the ‘oh my God I am dying’ kind of loud. A pretzel put her in a better mood; hungry babies are angry babies.

Dedication

Summoning artists to participate
In the august occasions of the state
Seems something artists ought to celebrate.

Today is for my cause a day of days.
And his be poetry’s old-fashioned praise
Who was the first to think of such a thing.

This verse that in acknowledgment I bring
Goes back to the beginning of the end
Of what had been for centuries the trend;
A turning point in modern history.
Colonial had been the thing to be
As long as the great issue was to see
What country’d be the one to dominate
By character, by tongue, by native trait,
The new world Christopher Columbus found.

The French, the Spanish, and the Dutch were downed
And counted out. Heroic deeds were done.
Elizabeth the First and England won.

Now came on a new order of the ages
That in the Latin of our founding sages
(Is it not written on the dollar bill
We carry in our purse and pocket still?)
God nodded his approval of as good.

So much those heroes knew and understood,
I mean the great four, Washington,
John Adams, Jefferson, and Madison
So much they saw as consecrated seers
They must have seen ahead what not appears,
They would bring empires down about our ears
And by the example of our Declaration
Make everybody want to be a nation.

And this is no aristocratic joke
At the expense of negligible folk.

We see how seriously the races swarm
In their attempts at sovereignty and form.

They are our wards we think to some extent
For the time being and with their consent,
To teach them how Democracy is meant.

“New order of the ages” did they say?
If it looks none too orderly today,
‘Tis a confusion it was ours to start
So in it have to take courageous part.

No one of honest feeling would approve
A ruler who pretended not to love
A turbulence he had the better of.

Everyone knows the glory of the twain
Who gave America the aeroplane
To ride the whirlwind and the hurricane.

Some poor fool has been saying in his heart
Glory is out of date in life and art.
Our venture in revolution and outlawry
Has justified itself in freedom’s story
Right down to now in glory upon glory.

Come fresh from an election like the last,
The greatest vote a people ever cast,
So close yet sure to be abided by,
It is no miracle our mood is high.

Courage is in the air in bracing whiffs
Better than all the stalemate an’s and ifs.
There was the book of profile tales declaring
For the emboldened politicians daring
To break with followers when in the wrong,
A healthy independence of the throng,
A democratic form of right devine
To rule first answerable to high design.

There is a call to life a little sterner,
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.

It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength and pride,
Of young amibition eager to be tried,
Firm in our free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.

A golden age of poetry and power
Of which this noonday’s the beginning hour.

Clair is picking up new words at an alarming rate. Two words popped out today. First, when she was talking with grandma on Skype, I called my brother’s dog’s name, Pepper. Clair started calling Pepper too. Then, later in the day, she saw something that looked like Pepper and said the name again (see video). Later in the day as we watched the health care legislation get signed into law, she said ‘woh ma ma’ in her first attempt to say ‘Obama.’ Not a bad first try. She also discovered that there is a moon in the sky! It was a big discovery after having found it in several of her books and on the ceiling of our apartment. All in all, it was a big day for many reasons, most of all because she could go outside for a long time without freezing! Also the first sunscreen of the season.

Here are a few photos from a beautiful sunny afternoon in Regensburg. Spring may actually be here! In case there is anyone reading this who can read Hebrew, the place she is running around is a memorial for the Jewish neighborhood that was destroyed in the 15 hundreds. The meeting place was designed by an artist as a place for people to come together and get to know each other to prevent that kind of tragedy that happened then. The white stone is in the shape of the foot print of the medieval synagogue that they thought had been completely lost until they rediscovered it in the ’90s. On most nice days, you’ll find a lot of little children laughing and enjoying the space.

This last photo is actually from yesterday, but it is the only photo of her where I can see my face in hers. Mostly, I am just looking at a little Matthias. And, yes, she is vacuuming. She seems to be interested and I see no point in getting her a toy one when she can learn to vacuum the house with ours!

The US is good at imposing fees on Americans living abroad (if you actually make a bit of money, that is). I was a bit concerned about the public mandate in the new health insurance legislation because they only mentioned exemptions for people with religious beliefs, prisoners and those who can’t afford it. The articles I’ve read never mentioned expats. Admittedly, it seemed like a silly thing to over look, but I just wanted to be sure, so I found the bit in the bill that addresses this. One of the exemptions is for:

INDIVIDUALS NOT LAWFULLY PRESENT.— Such term shall not include an individual for any month if for the month the individual is not a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully present in the United States.

I went to a workshop for women looking to become self-employed in Regensburg today. It was a full day with an overwhelming amount of information, not to mention a whole heck of a lot of technical German spoken with varying levels of Bayrisch. The first seminar was really basic information on starting a business. The speaker started by listing the typical ways women start businesses, and I pretty much fit each of the items she listed. Most women who start their own businesses are between 35 and 54 years old. More than 70% of these businesses include only the founder initially. Those were just two examples, which I would fit fairly well. Here, I thought I was somehow outstanding

There were a few interesting contradictions, like when the one speaker said that most women’s personal businesses start small and build into something larger (implying that men start larger with more risk, I guess). At the same time, the other speakers seemed to be assuming that the participants should be thinking on a small scale. If workshops geared toward women are discouraging big ideas, are they simply supporting their audiences or perpetuating the idea that women should start small because that’s what they do? Maybe I over think these things. I have been to self-employment seminars in the US, which were for a mixed gender audience, and they had a much different feel and a larger vision for their participants. That may be a cultural difference too between the US and Germany and also between large and small towns (the US seminars were in DC).

I was surprised to see that I recognized some women there, and at least one recognized me, but I had no idea how I knew them. It may just be that I live in a small enough town that I know them from the street. The one woman and I took a few minutes to try to figure out how we know each other and never figured it out. I hope I see her again because it is bugging me.

Anyway, I am a bit overwhelmed with all of the information at the moment and trying to get through the small mountain of reading material. I am pretty sure I haven’t violated any tax laws or anything with my limited self-employment activities, but I can’t be sure. This is a whole other way of seeing the world so I feel like I am starting from scratch. I am used to working inside of a big infrastructure where a smart woman asks me for all of my data, does some magic, and the money magically shows up in my bank account while I focus my energy on doing the job. I need a smart woman to run the business for me, and, frighteningly, I think that smart woman is me - scary (her German is not as good as it could be).

One fun thing that came out of the day is that I learned that Friday, March 26th is Germany’s national Equal Pay Day and the Rote Tasche (Red Purse) Initiative (and by ‘fun’ I mean a nice feeling of speaking with a politically active, interesting woman who told me about the initiative). The idea is to draw attention to the fact that women STILL earn less money than men for the same job. I, for one, should earn about 22% more than an equally qualified man just for being so darn fun to work with, on top of being extremely competent (right Brian?). The pay gap in Germany is about the same as in the US. There is a discussion in Regensburg around noon on Friday - details can be found here. Some of the shops are marking the day with ‘unhappy hour’ and if you show up with a red bag (or a lapel pin of a red purse) they have some gifts/discounts; a list of participating retails can be found here. I personally think the stores could do a better job of supporting the day by simply assuring and publicizing that their female employees are not being shafted in their pay, but what do I know? - Yay for shopping, right?

So, I have a bank account in the US. The IRS sends us a tax refund with BOTH of of our names on it (A check???? Really? I mean, who uses checks?). So, how to get a check for two of us into the bank account in Phoenix in my name, from Germany……..

Thanks to a friendly branch manager back home (with whom I spoke after hitting road blocks from the other employees) and my trusted mom (who I should pay for being my personal assistant by this point), it should be sorted out now. It just took foot work on our part and a couple weeks of time. What a pain!

If H&R Block had just done my taxes properly a few years ago, we would not even have to deal with this. Boo to H&R Block. Though, admittedly, I did learn a lot about filing as self-employed from fixing their mistakes.

(psst, look at the photo sideways - it’s a heart)
I know it is cold out and there is still snow on the ground (and probably more to fall), but darn it, it is time to get ready for spring. When the weather turns, my body starts carving a bit more exercise so I usually start doing some more intense Asana practices (Yoga postures) around this time of year.

This year, I am a bit ahead of the equinox and decided to start today with Matthias. We don’t usually practice together, but he really likes when I lead him through a strong, butt kicking exercise and don’t let him cheat through any of it. We were having a great time, and then, after about an hour, Clair woke up fussing from her nap. Once she joined us, we quickly diverged from the practice I planned as she usually likes to be on my mat while I practice. Matthias could distract her long enough for me to do some inverted postures (until he had to come back and help me out of a rather tricky one I haven’t worked on in a long time). All and all, it was a nice start, and I am sure we will both be sore tomorrow.

The plan is to do this practice 2 to 3 times a week. Thursdays are going to be an open practice, and I am letting my friends know they are welcome to come and learn it (we start at 9:30 sharp). If any of you Regensburgers are interested, just send me an email. It is a practice for people with relatively healthy backs and shoulders (If you want to learn Yoga and have back/shoulder problems, there are better practices I can teach). I can help people adapt for most health issues, but I need a bit of a heads up if you’d like to come. If you a relatively healthy and are looking for a way to get in shape for the spring, come by!