Mercurial Moose

I was planning to blog yesterday. Yesterday was good. Yesterday was great. It was like the story of the man who asked why he was banging his head against a wall replied, "Because it feels so good when I stop." Well, yesterday, I got to stop for a whole 26 hours, and it felt so good.

On a wave of euphoria - tomorrow is a holiday after all - I returned to the office. The cleaning folks had been in during my one day absence (yes, I worked Sat. again), another good thing. Discussed the project with the boss and settled in to make the last graphs for our 1 o'clock, only to discover a mistake I had made which invalidates everything I spent Saturday doing. Fixing it produces a system from which I can no longer get results, so now I am fiddling again with the meeting getting ever closer.

But back to lovely yesterday . . .
I was bound and determined to get out and about before the never-ending rain that I am quite convinced is coming sets in. So we biked 20 km through the woods to the in-laws instead of taking the train. We made the trip in a little over an hour and fifteen, down 45 minutes from our trip last year. A chance to revel in biking skills regained, to earn the pile of divine potato salad to which I greedily helped myself at lunch. Forty km later, I had a little pain in my knee and rear and a very sleepy husband. Not a bad day's work, that.

Whiplash to the present moment. . .
Well our appointment dude is coming 2 hours late and after that, I am supposed to aquaint myself with a new piece of software, so that I can fix "the problem".

There go my plans of getting out of here in time to buy food, and activity that didn't make it onto the schedule on Saturday and of which there is no chance tomorrow. Also visions of disappearing Workers holiday.

Not to worry; the software is lost. It must be sent from an office in another city. Whew! No way it can get here before Wednesday.

Horrors! The software can be sent via email!

So it's Saturday . . .

and I am at work, but that is OK, 'cause I knew in advance I would be here and made sure that D. and I went out for dinner last night (and got a little tipsy on a Spanish wine I like). Other reasons, it's not so bad to be working:
1) One roadblock in my insane mini-project got cleared last night - and I found one of the solutions myself (yey me!)
2) Glorious weather and my office window overlooks the garden of the next building.
3) No one else here. No phones, no construction noise.
4) I slept a whole two hours late today.
5) D. is working today anyway (It's training, not school, but attendance is mandatory.)
6) I don't have to be here tomorrow. (A huge relief.)

My commute - bike 15 min, switch to train 5 min, train 23 min, switch to bike 10 min, bike 10-15 min is so pleasant - invigourating, relaxing - when the weather is fabulous.

Random -"I won't ever fit in here entirely" (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) thoughts of the day :

1) I will not be putting one of those little triangular neckerchiefs that scream "I am a German" on any future child of mine.

2) Germans go jogging in soccer sneakers - ow!

And I discovered something amazing this morning -


The folks over at Hope is Emo are geniouses. I only listened to the audio today in the train (new ipod, love it love it, love it).

Becuase I can't leave that ugly post sitting there. . .

A Photo

Farmers market in Freiburg some months ago. The olives were awesome.

Something in the water

We knew it was coming; my sister-in-law is expecting. I am surprised how much of a loop we've been thrown for. So many little monsters rearing their heads - my job, moving, etc. stand in the way for us and the clock ticks away in the background. I considered not having kids for the first time today - I honestly don't know how we would manage it. In all likelihood, it's just a bad reaction to other people appearing to have their lives in order (well paying permanent jobs from which they will not get fired and at which they are entitled to part-time work).

And the loud, demanding, and somehow endearing cat of Christmas planning fame has was euthanized after animal medicine ran out of answers for him while we were on vacation. I cried and felt silly for crying about an animal I barely knew and didn't much like, but perhaps I was lucky that there was an acceptable outlet for tears in light of all the unacceptable reasons for tears (see paragraph 1).

Things are a wee bit out of whack here at chez Moose and I am too down in the dumps to critically assess what I would have to do to be happy. Everything on my "what i need to do to be happy" list is impossible because of work, and because all my other applications resulted in rejection letters, I am not feeling fired up to go find another job - it would also further delay other things (see paragraph 1). So ends another weekend spent, largely in bed, recovering from or dreading the return to work.

My guy is great, but even saints have their limits plus he's not without his own paragraph 1 issues himself.

On a lighter note, we watched a French movie "Tanguy" last night - what a giggle! Two hoofs up!

shout-outs (shouts-out?) to Micah, who will always be my Lord of the Peeps.

I would explain, but how do you explain a peep torture contest that culminates in an iron maiden designed for peeps and consisting of the core of a toilet paper roll, industrial staples and electrical tape? It would seem that there are others with this unhealthy obsession with Easter candy -
the evidence (Hat tip - Ironic Catholic).

And from Micah -



Sorry there's not German "translation".

Ack! ack! . . . ack!

How can we be back? How can I have to get up for work in 4 hours .. . . for a job that pays me less than what a scholarship student gets after taxes?



But do I deserve your sympathy? The photos to the left would seem to indicate that a "no" is in order. (In fairness, we spent only 45 minutes at that pool.) CR was beautiful, but not without its prickles. More on that later. Much more, much later.

Give me 1 hour in the office tomorrow and I will be planning what I want to pack for a return to the States. Not making my stopover in New York into my final destination was extremely difficult. My city of residence in Germany has always made me so happy until now, but today - despite sun and a nearly empty streetcar, there was nothin.

I only have to do this for a year - and that must be managable.