Franklin 1 - Marcela 0
Marcela has been here for about a week now, and while we both feel she's made great inroads in her relationship with Franklin, after watching this
short video clip, you'll probably agree there's still a fair way to go.
Don't Even Think About Pinching Me
George Lucas - Eat Your Heart Out
This is sadly better than just about anything in the last three
Star Wars movies.
Click here if the video above doesn't play.
Beware The Ides Of March
Sure everyone knows Julius Caesar was perforated on this date back in 44 B.C., but do you know what the "ides" are? Like most things in life, the answer can easily be
found online. You can thank me later.
As sad as that date is, even sadder is the fact that I missed out on celebrating
World Pi Day yesterday. Then again I have a hard time knowing when St Patrick's Day is, much less a holiday celebrating "the mathematical constant that has beguiled and bewildered successive generations of numerate scholars since the days of ancient Babylon. "
On that note: am I supposed to wear green tomorrow? When is St. Patrick's Day?
How does that work?
I'll Have The Usual
May I take your order? - Hilarious Chinese restaurant menu where you can order one of my personal favorites: Ginger Bumping Milk.
Yep, nothing tops off a day like a nice hot cup of Ginger Bumping Milk.
Frosty Fairy Tale Land
The "fairy tale" castle Neuschwanstein in a snow covered landscape in Schwangau, Bavaria last week.
Related link:
Upcoming Office
Microsoft is coming out with a new version of their Office suite. In a
Word, it looks like Microsoft has a new
Outlook on life. While it might not meet everyone's expectations, I'm sure it'll
Excel in the marketplace, offering the user much more flexibility and
Power, pointing the way to the future of desktop office productivity.
You can find out
more here.
Not All In Common Sense
Some people seem to be
coming to their senses.
Others
maybe not.
But for god's sake,
don't blame the children.
Chip In
Ever wonder what you could do to make the world a better place? Ever want to help, but not sure where or how?
Ever ask yourself,
"So what can I do?"Ask no longer.
One Of These Days...
I'm gonna have me
one of these.
As I Was Saying
So
yesterday I wrote about how we had the two-hour delay that got turned into a school cancelation. Today was more interesting.
We had no delay this morning, although the roads around here were treacherous. The bases in this area all closed their schools for the day, but not Baumholder. Nope, the roads up there (thirty minutes north of where I live) were in much better condition early in the morning, and so the go-ahead was given to have school start on time.
Big mistake.
It took me an hour or so to get to school in the morning, mainly because I was crawling along on the backroads from here and the autobahn. Everything was caked in ice, though sure enough, once I got closer to Baumholder, the road conditions improved substantially. So fine. I made it in one piece.
But then the snow came. And came. And came some more. A couple of hours or so into the school day and it was obvious that not only shouldn't school have opened today, but we'd best high tail it out of their quick. Since I'd parked my car a few hours earlier, at least four inches had fallen and it wasn't letting up. The students were sent home at lunch time with the teachers following shortly thereafter.
What followed was an hour and forty-five minute drive home through snow, ice, and cars that weren't going to make it to their houses tonight. I've never been so tense for so long in all my life. I practically had to pry my fingers off the steering wheel when I finally pulled into my driveway and
made it home.
Miesau also had quite a bit of snow while I was at work. I took a ruler out in the backyard and discovered
almost eight inches had fallen since yesterday. I soon got to work shoveling those eight inches away from my driveway and sidewalk figuring it would be easier to deal with eight inches
out in the street today than a foot tomorrow if it keeps snowing.
Now being the guy I am, I couldn't keep all this fun to myself. So I grabbed the camera, picked up Franklin, and took him out into those eight inches of snow in the backyard.
He was not amused.(But I was.)
Related link:
- Maybe my first post about snow in Germany (and Franklin's experiences with it) from two years ago
Back In White
So I got a phone call at about 5:20 a.m. this morning. Normally that's a bad sign in a good way. What I mean is that almost surely indicates that it has snowed overnight and that there's a two-hour delay to the start of school.
Well, it got even better. Got a call a bit later saying school had been canceled for the whole day. Yippie, right? Well, no. Teachers are still expected to show up to work so we can earn our pay minus the students. Basically you are expected to risk life and limb to sit in an empty classroom, though you can wait as long as you need to before heading out if you think it's unsafe. Technically I suppose you could show up at 2:45 p.m., touch base, and then head back home.
So I was going to wait my fair share this morning because, frankly, I enjoy driving on snow about as much as Bush enjoys press conferences. But then I got another call saying that our principal has let it be known that you really don't have to come in today because it is just that bad up around the school. Here in Miesau there's about two inches or so of snow out there (here's
my street this morning and
the backyard), but it is still snowing. Baumholder apparently has six or more inches and
it's still snowing.
Bottom line: I'll be awfully disappointed in myself if my car moves even one foot today.
Under House Arrest
Well, I wasn't letting my cat, Franklin,
out of the house much anyway.
That said, makes me wonder if I'm in one of the "bird flu-affected zones." My German isn't much past counting to ten, much less reading a warning notice stuck in my mailbox.
And for those who know Franklin, doesn't that picture at the top of that bird flu article look just a little like him? Just needs a little more white in the forehead.
Related link:
Here Kitty, Kitty - an old post about Franklin
Sounds Familiar
.
