Summer solstice
Susan about the solstice:
Although Solstice is a time, a day of the year, I also picture it as a place, a spot along that ellipse that this planet traces year after year as we wind around the sun. We’ve been hurtling toward this place for a while now, and today, some cosmic marker is waving the checkered flag as we go on by. (Insert doppler effect sound: eeeeeeerrrrroooooom) Now we’re heading to that equinox place, and from there, to the shortest day place.
The way she puts it, it makes me kind of sad. Sounds like summer is almost over – before it even has officially started! On the other hand, it’s so damn hot in Germany at the moment, I don’t want to find out what the real summer is going to be like…
Harry Potter
Oliver has finished reading “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He says he’s hooked, and so am I. I’ve read the first two books so far, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and the one Oliver mentioned, both in one afternoon, I think. They’re great books for children and grown-up children as well! 
Ego surfing
I just searched for “Andrea” on Search.EditThisPage.Com. The search engines found 310 matches, more than half of them on my own site, of course. But I also discovered two links to my site on ETP sites I didn’t know yet:
Do you remember I posted a question for a Mohnkuchen recipe on June 7? It was posed by Roland Tanglao (DreadNet):
“Quest for Mohnkuchen continues!
I’m (almost) famous! Andrea put my quest for a Dornier Kantine-like Mohnkuchne recipe on her website today. To be continued on my next web site!”
And I found another birthday wish on Blivet. Sorry I didn’t notice earlier, and thanks a lot! Hal uses the little icons with links to other weblogs; I like that idea!
Here’s my icon: 
10 Books
Sean has posted a Top Ten Book List, too!
The meaning of grades at school
The Curmudgeon has two links to interesting articles:
In Schools, ‘A’ Is for Arm-Twisting
We’ve lost that learnin’ feeling
And Sheila, this might be interesting for you as well. John asked yesterday: “What’s the chance of that happening?”, “that” meaning the coincidence of our birthdays. I remembered I once took a statistics course and calculated it, and John added some thoughts to that.
Survey – Do you read my site in English and/or German?
Vote here! (You have to be a member.)
Results.
Umfrage – Wer liest mein Weblog auf Englisch und/oder Deutsch?
Bitte hier abstimmen! (Dazu muß man Mitglied sein oder werden. Nährere Infos über die Mitgliedschaft gibt’s hier.)
Ergebnis.
Heiß, heißer, zu heiß!
Wir haben momentan so um die 35°C. In Andrés Arbeitszimmer, wo die Computer laufen, kann man es kaum aushalten. Im Garten auch nicht. Vielleicht sollte ich nachts was für die Uni tun und dafür tagsüber schlafen?!
Auf jeden Fall werde ich jetzt hitzefrei machen und nicht darauf warten, daß mir hier das Keyboard unter den Fingern wegschmilzt!
It’s the birthday paradox. In a group of 27 people, the chances are greater than 50 percent that two of them have the same birthday. It may not be 27, my memory isn’t so good, it’s been 20+ years since I took that stats course!
It’s easier to seach for your URL, “andrea.editthispage.com”, then your name if you’re looking for links to yourself.
Please don’t ask why I know that. :-)
Curiously, my copy of “HP and the Sourcerer´s Stone” is called “HP and the Philosopher´s Stone”. Maybe because my copy was released in Great Britain, the publisher needed to avoid copyright issues.
I will start on the third one tonight. “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” I bet its ol´ Voldemor again. ;-)
Cheers,
Oliver.
Lucky you! André brought me the first and second book when he was in the US the last two times. So I guess I’ll have to wait for book three (and four) until he’s going there again!
I just looked up the titles of the other books. It seems the others have the same title in Great Britain and the USA. Strange…
Cheers,
Andrea