Heute habe ich 2 Lampen und einen Bildrahmen aufgehängt.

Today I hung 2 lamps and a picture frame.

I know it isn’t exciting but I got a lot on my mind now that I don’t feel like getting into here.

Addendum: Although I will say this. Today it became very apparent that one of the most prevalent and versatile of American tools is almost nowhere to be found in Germany. I am referring to the wire coat hanger. Without this marvel of American ingenuity and engineering, simple and mundane tasks often become cumbersome and complicated and require such esoteric forms of higher mathematics, like algebra. Kidding aside, hanging that big picture frame yesterday would have been a lot easier if I had hung the picture on the stretched-out coat hanger and held it up against the wall so I would know where to put the nail. Quite a few times I’ve had to run cable through walls and ceilings. With a wire coat hanger, this is a not a big deal. Additionally, Wire coat hangers with an old pair of panty-hose make great pop filter. More uses for coat hangers.

As a consolation prize, here is a funny video…

Nichts los heute…abgesehen davon, dass ich bei der Arbeit einen coolen PHP-Skript geschrieben habe.

Not much going on today, other than that I wrote a cool PHP script at work.

…habe ich ein paar Neuigkeiten.
Before the day is done…I have some news.

Ich habe einen neuen MacBook Pro gekriegt. Mit dem Program “Photo Booth” kann man eine Menge Zeit verschwinden.

I got a MacBook Pro. You can easily waste a lot of time with “Photo Booth”.

Aber noch cooler, meine Schwester Betsy und ihr Mann Jorge haben heute ihr zweites Kind bekommen. Der heisst Lucas. Das heisst auch, dass ich zum Zweiten Mal Onkel geworden bin. Geil.

But even more cool, my sister Betsy and her husband Jorge got there second child today. His name is Lucas. That also means I am an uncle for the second time. Sweet.

Der Wein ist ausgetrunken
Die Sonne ist abgesunken
Ich bin leicht betrunken
Und dieser Reim hat echt gestunken

My apologies to whoever understands that.

Diese Woche ist Language Week. Das heisst ich soll auf eine Sprache bloggen, die nicht meine Muttersprache ist. Das mache ich allerdings ein bisschen ungern, weil ich eher unsicher bin wenn es um die deutsche Rechtschreibung geht. Irgendwo fehlt ein Komma. Irgendwo kommt eins zu viel.

Mal sehen wie das weiter geht.

There, that wasn’t too hard.

Hosenschlitz Blasenplatz!
Ich finde, wenn man die beiden oben geschriebenen Worte sehr aggressiv sagt, klingt es sehr deutsch.

Edinburg firefighters inhale too much pot smoke during blaze

Snider said the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite the air packs they wore to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.

In a related news story, Edinburg Fire Department officials have approved a proposal to send Jones, the new guy, down to 7-11 to get 3 bags of Sun-Chips, 2 bags of Cool Ranch Doritos, a can of Pringles and a 2-liter bottle of Moutain Dew. Jones was also authorized to get some slim-jims and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough Ice Cream if they were available. Questioned about being selected for the task, Jones, 24, replied, “Dude, what?”

Just in case you live under a rock and haven’t seen it yet….

Yeah, I know it’s a groundhog.

It has been a couple of wild weeks. Mostly good, and some not so good.

Last weekend we had a mini grill party on the sidewalk in front of our house. Although we have enough room for the Weber grill outside, it’s a bit inconvenient to clean the whole thing up and take it back down to the cellar when we are done. To remedy this problem we used what we call the Grilleimer (grill-bucket). M picked it up at the grocer’s. It is a metal bucket with holes in the bottom. about 5cm from the bottom there is a metal layer with holes. You put the coals there and light them. A small grill is placed on top. Very practical.

This past weekend Jens, M and I went down to Mainz to visit Steffi. This was a planned escape from the annual Lüneburger Stadtfest. While in Mainz we had some delicious traditional German food. I had the stuffed Saumagen, hmmmmm. Along with that we had copious amounts of white wine. It’s the drink of choice in the Rhine Valley. On Saturday night Jens and I took the S-Bahn into Wiesbaden to see Sonic Youth at the Schlachthof. The show was loud and rocking. They played mostly songs from Rather Ripped, but they also served up some of that sonic goodness from Daydream Nation, Washing Machine, Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star, Dirty, and Goo. They played for about 2 hours with 2 encores. It was the 3rd time I had seen them and the best concert of the 3.

Yesterday we went to Rüdesheim am Rhein. We walked around and took some pictures and saw the Drosselgasse. If you like drinking wine and listening to oompa-oompa music with the blue-haired set, than it should be your thing.

Click here for a few pictures from the trip.