Back home

I’m home. I had a great weekend (actually, Saturday through Tuesday) at my parents’. I visited some friends, met the four-week-old son of a friend I know since kindergarten, had a barbecue dinner twice and finally had time to relax. It was also great to see my sister, whom like my parents I hadn’t seen since Easter.

Oh, and while changing trains in Bremen, I met Christopher and his parents. My layover was twelve minutes, so I think Scott is right – this was the shortest blogger meeting ever. Maybe I’ll have time to visit Frauke, Scott and Christopher when I visit my parents again?!

Today, I did some housework and went to the movies with a friend. We saw Bridget Jones’s Diary (Schokolade zum Frühstück)). I’ve heard some people didn’t like the film too much, but I enjoyed myself immensely. Great film, but I think the book was even funnier. I have to read the second book, The edge of reason, as well.

Ten questions

Open up your CD player, what’s inside?

A CD with songs that André recorded for me five years ago. There are songs from Jethro Tull, Marc Cohn, Fish, Marillion and Billy Joel on it.

Look in your VCR, is there a movie?

There’s no movie because I don’t own a VCR.

If there happens to be music playing right now, what is it?

There’s no music, but I can hear some birds because the window is wide open.

What are you wearing?

A dress because we have at least 30°C.

Look down, what’s the first thing that catches your eye?
I got a postcard from my sister today. She’s on vacation in Southern Germany and sent a picture postcard from the Residenz in Würzburg.

Turn on your TV if it’s not on already, what network is it?

We don’t have a TV set. But I can turn on the radio. It’s tuned to SWR 3.

Look out the window, what’s the weather like?

It’s hot. And sunny. Right now, there’s a cloud in front of the sun. Now it’s gone.

If you were to hit redial on your phone right now, where would it call?

A friend I know from the universitsy. Unlike me, she didn’t have an exam today, but she will have one at the beginning of September. Heh.

Say “hello?” out loud, did anyone answer?

No, André is in his office. He can’t hear me.

What are you planning on doing next as soon as you get offline?

I’m going to sleep for an hour. In the garden.

As soon as I have caught up with my favourite weblogs, of course.

Meme via Mollie.

Exams

Yay! I’m free! I had my last written exam today, and it went fairly well. It will at least be a month until the first oral exam (I have to take tree), and I will spend the laziest weekend since – um, yeah, since when? May? Anyway, I will spend a lazy weekend at my parents’ place. My sister is going to be there as well, and I’m also planning to meet a bunch of friends tomorrow. Let’s hope the weather stays warm and sunny!

I’ll be back on Monday or Tuesday. Have a nice weekend, everyone!

And by the way, Garret, I am an individual, not a corporation. And I’m not a dot com or .net either… but I’m the sixth Andrea here.

Bovine Flying Object

Update: Scott informs me that the cow is in fact a bull. He also came up with a website that has more info about the new zeppelins in English and German: http://www.zeppelin-nt.com/.

Thanks, Scott!

Since it’s warm and sunny again, it is the perfect weather for hot-air balloons. Earlier today, I saw three of them.

Hey, doesn’t one of the balloons have legs? – Yes, it’s a flying cow!

Aktie Gelb refers to the stock of the Deutsche Post AG.

Riding (flying?) in a cow balloon might not be quite as spectacular as riding a zeppelin (sorry, I only found a link in German), Garret, but I think it’s cool nonetheless.

Christmas in August?

Yay, Audrey and Hal received our Christmas card yesterday. Because we didn’t find their home address on the web, we sent the card to the Department of Anthropology at the UNLV.

Of all the Christmas cards we sent last year, now only two are still missing…

(Hint: If you want this year’s card in time, let us know your postal address! )

Happy Birthday!

Heute hat mein Papi Geburtstag. Alles Gute und herzlichen Glückwunsch!


Books

Not enough time to read all the books you want? Try Book-A-Minute, a website that has condensed versions of many classics, science fiction/fantasy and bedtime books. For example, try The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams: “Simon: I’m only a kitchen boy. (slays hounds, soldiers, and a dragon) – The End.”

Link via le bleu blog.

Sunsets

Wow, Garret had a beautiful sunset photo yesterday – um, the day before yesterday. It’s past midnight already. I really ought to go to bed…

Sunset at 9 pm today.

Nach dem Sonnenaufgang jetzt wieder einen Sonnenuntergang für Jörg.

Ein paar Kilometer weiter westlich sah das ganze übrigens so aus. Iris hatte in Rheinbach die gleiche Idee wie ich in Bonn.

Geburtstag!

Happy Birthday to you, Hal!

Hope you’re having a great day!

Reading

While I was “downtown” yesterday in order to return all those books, I also paid my favourite bookshop a visit. They have recently redecorated and moved all the sections around. Why do they do that every couple of years? It takes a while to get to know the shop and find your way around, and once you know where to find what you want, they move everything around.

The only section that stayed in place is the section with foreign books. Unfortunately, they shuffled the furniture around there as well and got rid of some large bookcases and replaced them by narrow tables. Of course, they now have a lot less space for books. Again, why? Those bookcases were perfectly okay, and they had the biggest selection of foreign books in Bonn.

Now they only offer about half the books in the French section than they did before (okay, my French is not really good enough to read books in French, but whatever), and the English section is considerably smaller as well. They used to have quite an amount of classical literature that is gone now; you can only find a few stray classic works among the “normal” books.

However, they now have plenty of room to feature new books, among which I found the British paperback edition of The Constant Gardener by John le Carré for only DM 21 (US$ 9.85). Remebering Craig’s review, I bought it. I haven’t read any of le Carré’s novels, so this is my first. I started reading it this morning, and it probably won’t take me long to finish it. Any other books by le Carré you can recommend?

Now, what am I going to do today? It’s too hot outside to ride my bike or do anything else, but I’d hate to “waste” the day and the sunny weather inside…