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.

Today was a holiday in Germany. For dinner we decided to cook some Spargel that we bought yesterday in Artlenburg. While we were there we saw a pen full of pigs. They were excited to see us. M. took this video to capture the moment.

Jamison, who killed his first deer at age 5, was hunting with father Mike Stone and two guides in east Alabama on May 3 when he bagged Hogzilla II. He said he shot the huge animal eight times with a .50- caliber revolver and chased it for three hours through hilly woods before finishing it off with a point-blank shot.

Jeez, look at the picture of that hog! And he downed it with a fucking revolver and chased it through the woods. What a maniac.

On May 17th I went to see “Full Metal Village” in Lüneburg at the Skala Kino. The director Sung-Hyung Cho (r) was there and answered a bunch of questions after the showing. She’s really cool. I unfortunately don’t know the name of the other equally very nice woman on the left.

Knut the Business-Bear

Knut may not be so cute anymore. But for a five month old baby polar bear, he is quickly turning out to be an accomplished businessman. His new product licensing campaign is rapidly gaining steam, meaning that the baby polar bear may end up being part of the Berlin zoo’s business plan for years to come.

I can’t wait until Knut decides to follow his natural instincts and he rips someone’s fucking arm off. It’s only a matter of time.

Jack Daniel’s (what Americans drink for breakfast)
From Zum Alten Brauhaus in Lüneburg

Hmmm. That must be a new requirement for the Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. That sure would have made summer camp a lot more fun.

Yesterday, M and I went on a day trip to Boizenburg/Elbe^(en) in the former GDR/DDR. We stopped at a flea market along the way.

Here are some of the things we saw.

I don’t know who this guy is but he wrote a perl script that saved my ass.

Thank you, Das nie endende Chaos!, whoever you are.