I just discovered...

... that I am a German football fan. To those who know me, this will come as something as a surprise considering the fact that the last time I was a true fan of a sport was when the Bulls were playing the Jazz in the Finals. Here in Europe the Europäische Meisterschaft is taking place in Austria, and Fußball fanishness is contagious. This evening I pulled all of the limited strings that I have here, and managed to get myself down to the Pferdemarkt (a large parking lot which is downtown and surrounded by official or important buildings) to join several hundered other fans in a standing room only observation of Austria vs. Germany. It was an interesting game. I stayed at Pferdemarkt for the first half but went to my favorite Irish pub for the second so I could sit down. Well, maybe just an entertaining game. One of our star players was banned from this game following a red card that he received during our game against Croatia, and before the first half was up, Coach Löw joined him up in the stands. That's right, not only the Germany national coach, but also the Austrian coach was thrown out of the game for arguing with one of the refs. Then, not too far into the second half, Ballack scored a penalty goal making the score finally look like something other than a pair of badly drawn glasses. Ironically, I missed the penalty kick the first time around because I was looking for a seat, but don't worry; I saw it plenty of times in the replay. So it ended with the German team advancing to the quarterfinals and all of downtown Oldenburg erupting into yells, song, flag-twirling, and a deafening amount of honking. So there I am. Officially a fan of the German National Team. Of course, anything else and I think I would be burned at the steak by everyone I know here. Except for Drew and Lisa. Sorry guys.

Overkill

We all know that I am over-compensating for my extended absence from the blogging world by posting three times in one day, but I thought I'd just say what you're thinking.

Here is a dollop of randomness to close out my day:
1. The great thing about Germany is that you can buy two bottles of Guinness for 1.76 euros.
2. The moon is incredible tonight. If you haven't seen it yet (because it's daytime right now for nearly everyone who reads this), you need to look out your window tonight.
3. I am brewing homemade root beer (thanks mom, for the kit).
4. The government gave me money to stimulate the economy. They intend for me therefore to spend in such a way that it will pour into our economy, but ironically enough, I will be using it to pay my local taxes because I didn't withhold enough last year. So much for that plan.

Oh. There are only four items there. It seems ridiculous to start numbering items unless you have at least five, and I had thought I would have at least that many, but I have fallen short, and I'm not going to go back and take out the numbers because then you wouldn't get to enjoy this mini monologue if I did. Bis spaeter.

The past two weeks...

First of all, Carolin somehow ended up with Scarlet Fever, an illness which I thought had died along with the heroines of countless novels up until the 19th century. The main effects were that she was rather more subdued and not allowed to attend Kindergarten for a week.










Also, on Sunday I saw this incredible car...



...except that it was driving on the street, not through a mountain pass of ice and marble.












And this guy came to my house to clean the chimney and I forgot to shake his hand for luck, but I'm not sure I could have managed because my hand was already occupied with holding Felix (my goodness that kid is getting heavy).