The small things

I felt pretty good about myself yesterday. I managed to rip about 10% of my CD collection onto iTunes. Yeah, yeah, big deal..

Sadly this all took alot of research on my part. Seriously.

First I ripped about 4 CDs to the Real Player program on my computer. Then I realized that was not going to work so much. So I actually had to go search the help files. Ok, find the Windows Media Player and start ripping there. Hmmmm...open iTunes and see if I can start transferring stuff there.

WHAT?!?!?

Copy my CD's straight to iTunes? DOH!!!

Yet, it does not end there.

For some reason each song was taking about 3 minutes to copy. This is going to take forever!! What's that? Window's Media Player is still open?

Well, look at that, it's just blazing through now.

So yeah, that took up most of my night.

And crap, a single episode of Mythbusters takes 8 hours to download!! 8 HOURS PEOPLE!!

Like I told my friend Mama Bird, the internets are not the only slow thing in this house.

As we were driving to school yesterday morning Piko de Gallo and I are listening to the one American radio channel we get in the car.

Of course the topic is OMGSWINEFLUOMG!!!!

This is what I hear, and I'm pretty sure I heard it correctly.

"This does not affect mission status travel, however, if you're planning on traveling to Mexico to say, have your baby, you might want to abort that."

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! WUT?

And of course, obilagtory OMGSWINEFLUOMG macro.

Not Perfect

What do you suppose it means when one of your supposed closest friends says:
"Well, we all can't be perfect ALL the time."
Directed at you when you are discussing a funny and fantastic fail of a project.

I wish my "Classic" girfriends were here. Friend "Lite" are just not cutting it.

Just lucky like that

That's me.
I'm in the hospital this week. No worries, just a touch of Penumonia that led to some tests that led to something else.
So here I am.
For a week.
Yay me.

That is not the bit of luck I'm talking about.

What is it about me that compels people to tell me things???
My roomate right now is a 50 something German local who speaks excellent english. We communicate well.
Too well.
I learned over the course of one evening that she is from the local area all her life, she has two grown children, likes to go out dancing, does not love her husband, has a boyfriend in a city 2 hours away. What?!?
Wait, it does not end there.
Boyfriend is also married (he is a sweetheart from her school days), he has three daughters (she showed me pictures), and the youngest (16) is pregnant!
Hell.
I suppose it gives her some relief to talk about it, since she knows I don't know them, will never meet them, and who would I talk about it to?? Well, other than the whole world on my blog, but who the hell reads this? I don't want to know this stuff, but I'm too polite to tell her to shut up. Plus, she translates for me, and got me apple juice when I had to drink that nasty stuff in preparation for my intestinal examination.
It is all very strange. I have spent my week catching up on my reading (3 books so far), and watching old seasons of CSI and House. She has spent it on the phone, IM-img, and sending notes to her sweetie. It's disconcerning, as she is old enough to be my mom, yet acts like my daughter.

Somewhat entertaining, and distracting, obviously nice, but strange.

All Signs Point To: NOT GOOD.

Yeah. Throw me a pitty party.

So far it's not shaping up to a great New Year. Not that there has been catastrophic hapenings in the deGallo household. It's just an abundance of small things that are bringing me down.

First of all, Sarge's health seems to be going. He's getting cold after cold, and never seems to recover. That bacterial infection in '08 seems to have messed with his immune system in a big way. That's more of a bummer for him though.

Second, Girl Scout Cookies. Oh how I hate to love to hate them. Given the smallness of our community everyone knows about 5 or 6 people selling. I hate to be the 10th person to ask someone if they want cookes, but I have 98 boxes to get rid of, and I'm not buying them all. Luckily Sarge is a cop, and we all know cops love their cookies....Just kidding, they love doughnuts.

Third, friend drama. THIS is why I'm normally an Antisocialist. And really, it's not a problem with my friend, it a problem with her husband. See, he takes umbridge with the manner in which my husband does his job. That is that Sarge actually DOES his job and does not let them cheat and slack. And that is my problem how?!? I don't know why Friend's Husband(FH) has to complain to me (EVERY TIME I SEE HIM), I guess we all know I'm actually Sarge's boss at work too?? I can see the end of this as being me no longer being able to be friends with this gal because FH can't separate his work from his wife's friendships. So, are crap friends better or worse than no friends?

I'm a little grouchy today.

Oh yeah, and not a fabric store to be found in my area.

And, why does spell check on this thing never work?

Happy New Year!

Coming out of my cave today.
Something interesting and post worthy finally happened.
Check out the fireworks we bought in the German grocery store!

This was just small spinning things, and sparklers. So I guess I can understand the name. And, as it turns out our kid is kind of a budding pyro. She set most of these off herself.
You can imagine it was a pretty noisy night.
Next time we're geting some of those rockets that were as big as Piko de Gallo.

My Girl

So this morning, Piko deGallo tells me to vote for John McCain.

"Because he's handsome."

Yeah, that's my girl.

OMG!!

What. The. HELL!!??!!

Seriously, is it because I'm getting older?

Guess what I found out this week. Not only am I allergic to Amoxacillin (rash), only the most commonly used antibiotic out there. I'm also allergic to Septra (chills, nausea, difficulty breathing, persistent headache, achy joints), and freaking Doxycycline Hyclate(severe rash and swelling)!!!

Ok, so I already knew that I was allergic to Amoxacillin, but I had no idea until this week that I was allergic to anything else! I woke up this morning after one day on the Doxycycline to discover about 70% of my body covered with an itchy rash, and my lips, eyes, and ears are swollen. At least now I know what I would look like if I decided to get collagen implants in my lips.

NOT HAPPY.

This all started out with what I thought was a spider bite on my back that would not get better. Guess what? It's not a spider bite after all. The wound has taken on a decidedly more BULLSEYE shape!!

WTFBBQ?!?! People!!!

Dog Damn WebMD, how do you treat freaking Lyme disease if you're allergic to all freaking antibiotics out there?!? Not that I know for sure I have Lyme disease. But I might!! AGH!!!

Dumb things I have heard

This is my version of Overheard in Germany.

In the video store:

Customer: Is this a good movie?
Clerk: Yes, it's excellent! You know it's in Spanish though, so it's subtitled.
Customer: Really? Why? Did it come out in the theatre that way?
Clerk: Uh. I guess?
Customer: In Spanish, huh. I wonder why.
Clerk: It's really good, and worth it to watch.
Customer: But was it originally in Spanish or just on this DVD?
Clerk: ......
Cutomer: I guess I'll look for something else.

The movie was Pan's Labyrinth. Besides wouldn't the DVD have a language option?

At the Medieval festival:

Guy: Hey, check out those guys in the armor!
Lady: That's pretty cool.
Guy: They must be so hot! I bet they're sweating alot.
Lady: Yeah, don't get too close, you know there wasn't deodorant back in Medieval times.
Guy: (Laughing) You're right.
Lady:...or soap.

Um, WHAT?!? I'm pretty sure there was soap in Medieval times. Weather or not they used it, or that bathing was in fashion, is another thing entirely.

Things like this hurt my brain.

AAAAGGGHHH!!!

Ok, so it should come as no surprise that I'm a tad anal retentive.

But look at this!!


AAAA!!! This is one of the library books that I checked out this week. AAAAAA!!! All of the dates are stamped on AAAAAA!!!! not on the lines!!!! The guy that was checking out the books did this to every single one! Then the kicker. He gets to the last book, and there are no more lines at the bottom to stamp the new due date in. So he heaves a big sigh, AND THEN STAMPS THE NEW DATE IN A SPACE BETWEEN TWO OLDER DUE DATES!!!!!

WHAT?!

Day Trip to Trier

Sunday we drove down to Trier, which is the largest city near us. It is apparently the oldest city in Germany, and is known for it's Christian reliquary collection, wine, and original Roman architecture.

We of course went for the shopping. Though, it was Sunday, so none of the reguar shops were open, but there was a handcraft fair at the Porta Negra.

There were some very beautiful things, and a booth with great Regency/modern style hats, but at 60+ Euro, nothing I could aford.

There were some blacksmithing demos, which was fascinating to Piko de Gallo.

What was truly fascinating to me however was the abundance of "manpris".

This picture, also an example of a German line-up. If you're wondering where the actual line is...that's right!! There is none.
Daddy manpris.
Even the older guys were getting into it. Egads!
I swear I even saw a guy at the bus stop wearing a pair of pris, and Teva style sandals with socks. How do you say "NO!" in German? Nein!!!Nein!!! Nein und abermals nein!!!

Sarge had told me about this "style" when he was deployed. He said that it was very popular among the UK and Australian soldiers. I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. Yikes!

So, Sarge had a hard time getting served at the waffel booth, because he didn't know where the line was. Well, duh, there is not line, hello, German style. I told him that he should buy himself a pair of pris, and the next time his wait will probably be shorter. No f-ing way, he tells me. And actually, I can't imagine it either, gives me chills.

It Should Come As No Surprise

16 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

However, taking Christina G's lead, and taking the test as a "Husband", my results were a little different.

67 As a 1930s husband, I am Superior Take the test!

Similar to what she got, poor wife, good husband. Though I was a much bigger failure as a wife, and a considerably less superior husband. How funny!

There is a truth universally acknowledged...

...if there is a tomato that looks like it's growing a penis, I will buy it.
If only to take a picture of it and post it here for some cheap laughs.

Target. WhatTheWhat??!

Oh Target how I love thee. I really will miss walking the halls of the bullseye on a regular basis. However your on-line site is made of win too, so there is some slight relief there.

But what's up with this??

I bought some rain boots for myself, some school shoes for Piko deGallo, a t-shirt, and a solar system mobile. I was taking advantage of their free shipping offer.

I got 4 different "Your order has shipped" confirmation e-mails!!

No, not that they e-mailed me 4 times to tell me that my order has shipped. 4 separate shipments!!

Is that normal? I suppose it could be that each item is coming from a different fufillment warehouse, but still. I guess I should just smile and be happy that I got free shipping on all of the items.

Come on, it's not just me, that's weird.

P.S. Mrs. S. I looked up the word for composting bin. BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA!!
it's Kompostierungssortierfach. Like I'm even going to to be able to say that to my landlord!! 25 letters man!!