Spammed

I guess it was only a matter of time but due to some automated spam comments on the blog, I turned on the word verification setting...hopefully that helps the problem. Sorry to all of the regular contributors about the hassle :-) .

Hannibal

We watched Hannibal Rising last night, a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs. It was quite enjoyable but was different from what I had expected, covering his childhood and early years before commiting the crimes for which he was eventally arrested. I guess the door is open for yet another book and movie covering this period in his life, hopefully Thomas Harris agrees.

Mad Dogs Win

Saturday marked my return to the cricket field after our trip to Germany. It was insanely humid but fortunately the other captain saw fit to field first in the heat of the day. Prasanna, our gun Indian bat scored a century and the rest of us chipped in...my contribution was a painful-to-watch 11...and also was involved in two runouts! The total was probably never going to be chased down and a steady flow of wickets saw us to a comfortable victory. I got a couple with the ball as well so overall, quite a nice day. The kids loved running around at the field and Mindy I am sure was happy to experience the joy of her 3 kids playing games in the sun.

A notable event was the appearance of an old mate Phil for the game. We were looking to be one short and so he came up from NJ to help us make up the numbers. It was good to catch up again...perhaps another Mad Dog recruit for the future?

Blueberries

With time running out, Friday was seen as one of our last chances to go blueberry picking. There is a farm in southern Jersey where you can pick your own organic blueberries and it is well worth the drive. First stop is the farm store where home made blueberry muffins were devoured for breakfast. Actually, I made out as I got 1/2 of Mindy's and also 1/2 of the kids' muffins as well!

Then just as we plan to start picking the cloud cover lifts and we are exposed to baking sun for the hour or so in the field. The kids were a really big help - Naomi picked about 60 berries and Fiona about 20 (although she then dumped hers out for no apparent reason). However this, added to Mindy and my contribution led to us having about 10 lbs worth to take home. Most of them have been frozen and the rest are being quickly eaten before going bad.

Summer Hours!

My local project is working out quite well at this stage. The work is interesting, the people are nice and the client has summer hours, until the end of August. What this means is that I will only be working 4 days per week through August 31. This, combined with a 30 minute commute each way most days makes for a lot less stress. It certainly beats getting stuck in Chicago airport every week.

We are taking advantage of our first free Friday by planning to take the kids blueberry picking tomorrow. Then, on Saturday, playing cricket again after a long break...so it is shaping up to be a good weekend.

Back Home

We are now back home in New Jersey. The flight was relatively uneventful but it was tough for Mindy as she was sitting in a group of 3 seats with the kids while I was across the aisle. Due to it being a daytime flight the kids were quite energetic and it was very draining for Mindy having to deal with that. It was also tough for me - on several occasions I had to pause the "Space Invaders" console game I was playing on the plane's entertainment system to assist.

The dogs were very glad to see us and the kids were also excited to get back home. I was quite suprised by how much growth weeds can have if left unattended for a month. Sunday was devoted to washing clothes, cleaning up the dog room and starting to get the yard straight.

I am now back at work. Fortunately I have a local project for the forseeable future so I am looking forward to getting home every night. It will be tough to get used to working a regular job again after the holiday and a few weeks of relaxed work in the head office. Also, the calorie restrictions will have to begin to shake off the effects of 4 weeks of schnitzels, beer and junk food.

One final thing about Germany...the toilet paper was horrible. It was like using a paper towel. It was nice to get back to something with a little more consideration given to comfort.

Last Day

Today was our last day in Germany. It began very well with a nice, long sleep in...well, at least for Naomi and me - Mindy and Fiona got the usual 5 hours of thrashing around they normally get! After breakfast we spent a couple of hours in Karlsruhe near the hotel. There was a castle which was essentially a museum with some nice gardens around it but it became clear that the kids have had enough of museums for a while.

Next was the drive up to Frankfurt to be ready to depart tomorrow. We decided to walk to a local beer garden for dinner and we were glad we did. Basically, surrounding the main building were several small cottages with gardens. We kind of figured it was kind of like a mobile home village. We found out later that the plots and cottages are rented by city dwellers who grow their gardens out here. The food in the beer garden was the best we have had on our trip. One more schnitzel for each of us, while the kids continued their enjoyment of German sausages. Some nice wheat beer to wash it all down and then back to the hotel to relax before the flight.