A quick note to say Herr has an interview on Tuesday. We’re both excited because it is with a German company as an English teacher! Herr has expressed great interest in teaching, especially in a foreign country. This is a big opportunity for him, even with the odds against him. German companies must hire natives unless for good reason, so let’s wish him good luck!!
Between the two conferences I have attended (the first being Internet Librarian), An Event Apart was much more relevant and useful for me. The speakers and content conjured creativity and provided insight to practical issues I am facing. My job is isolating (I am the only one who understands this stuff), but I met some fantastic people I can relate to in New Orleans. The event should be An Event Together. 
Among the people I met is Jeffrey Zeldman, one of the co-presenters (the other being Eric Meyer). I had the opportunity to share my
The conference was worth the trip. The timing was really good for the Library Web site redesign I have started, and I got some great ideas (many I am sure are years from possible, sadly). I really enjoyed Jason Santa Maria‘s Good Design Ain’t Easy and Cameron Moll‘s Good vs. Great Design. Stephanie Sullivan gave some very practical and useful tips; I almost wish she had a double session. 
I also liked Andy Clarke‘s presentation using comic book layout to solve content layout issues. what a character. My former co-worker, Goblin Cartoons, would have really enjoyed talking with him. After seeing Andy’s presentation, I should have taken Goblin’s comic book design idea to heart. It would have been awesome.
Once back in Germany, I’ll review my photos and might submit a few to the Flickr group. 
On Thursday, February 7, about 10:45 p.m. here in Germany, we heard the cries of a new born baby girl over a speaker phone. Earlier that evening we stopped by to pick people up for Trivia Night (with a chance to win a trip to Paris!) to find out that my brother Oz’s girlfriend was in labor. I was torn about leaving, but my other brother stayed behind so we went for some trivia goodness. We were unsuccessful in winning the trip, but it was a lot of fun. We returned just in time. At the hospital back in the States, everyone had been cleared out of the room and the head was visible.
I wish I could be there to give our support. It’s very hard to be so incapable of doing anything right now. No Internet so no phone or instant messaging. Just unanswered emails. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more cut off and useless. Despite my own hardships, my new neice is in perfect health with all toes and fingers accounted for. I wish I could have been there.
Please help me welcome R.L. to the family!
We had a hard time deciding what to do for our first anniversary. On Friday, we moved into our new place. Our first shipment arrived, undamaged, in boxes. Herr was able to set up our air mattress and install light fixtures I had to buy while I worked very hard on cleaning the kitchen to put away some of our dishes.
The other major issue around our anniversary was a lack of money. I was supposed to receive an advance to pay the rent and make the move more seamless. I still have not received that advance, and so my rent and the deposit (which is an additional two months’ rent) still go unpaid as I wait for payroll to do their job.
We had picked out several beautiful places to go for our brief weekend anniversary. We were lucky to have a Saturday for our first anniversary to plan this. Some ideas we had were Stockholm with its many islands and bridges, Dublin, Leipzig (Bach’s museum), Fusson (a bed and breakfast with the Alps and Neuschweinstein castle in the background), and Salzburg (Mozart’s home town that was running a Mozart Festival).
Here’s what we actually did. We unpacked a bit before we joined my brother and Tamtam on a trip up to Ramstein. We had a large lunch at Chilis (the only one in Germany) and went to Landstuhl to shop at a large air force base for furniture. We saw a lot of nice pieces, and in the end I picked up two large rugs to cover some of the hardwood floors. In commemoration of our anniversary, one rug is green and the other is orange. Our wedding colors. Fitting them in a BMW with four people took some strategic planning.
We watched Groundhog Day while trying Caramel Sutra (it’s a Ben and Jerry’s flavor that is hard to come by) and tried out our new bath before crashing. The baths here are very deep, which is so much better. We’ll have to try the sauna soon too.
What we decided was to postpone the actual celebration of our anniversary like we did with our honeymoon. Once we’ve settled and the paperwork is taken care of, we’ll consider a place to visit to truly celebrate.