I’m leaving Bonn/Koblenz for Hamburg tomorrow morning, and I’m happy for the change. Two months in less than ideal living quarters hasn’t been so bad–I’ve really enjoyed uninterrupted miles of trail along the Rhine for runs–but I’ll be glad to do something else for a week, and even happier to get back to Berlin.

It didn’t help that some drama regarding my room cropped up today. Apparently, there’s a discrepency between how much I’ve been giving the owner of the place, and how much the person I’m subletting from thought I was giving the owner of the place. It’s all very complicated, and not worth getting in to. Suffice to say, I paid the price listed in the advertisement for the room, and never heard anything about a higher price until today, so I don’t feel bad at all. Plus, I never signed anything, anyway. (Yes, I realize that if this issue had come up six weeks ago not having signed anything could have been as much a negative as a positive.

So here’s to change! In honor I’ve posted my favorite photo I’ve taken in a while, taken on my last day in Koblenz yesterday.

Knowing this, I bought muesli but no milk yesterday, only to find this morning when I went to the refrigerator that the milk was half gone. And what was left did not smell very good. So I had to walk down the block to get some milk when I was already starving (ran 25km).

Stupid roommate. I’ll be so glad to go back to Berlin.

No turkey for me, or pie. But that’s ok. I’m still thankful–for my wife, my family, my friends, my animals, and more.

I wish I were thankful to be finished with my research, but that’ll be a while yet. Got some good stuff from Braunschweig, though.

• 6 x 1.5L bottles of water
• 1L bottle of organce juice
• 1L of milk
• loaf of bread
• big box of generic frosted flakes
• 2 x 500gm bags of pasta
• 1 jar of spaghetti sauce (enough for 1 bag of pasta)

How much did I pay (in Euros)? Closest guess without going over wins!

Ok, whatever. I’ve been up to a bit since I last really sat down to write something. Went to Wittenberg (no, not that Wittenberg) on Wednesday, which was fun. Went out last night with some friends from the archive. Been running–did 11 miles today, and 10km has become my “normal” run once again, which is nice. And of course I’ve been working in the archives.

From some reason I’ve got it in my head that I should be doing something more meaningful. Like becoming a doctor. Or joining the Peace Corps (with Deb, of course), or adopting African children, or something. Just doing history doesn’t seem to contribute much to society, or the world, or anything.

I’ve also got it in my head that my research, though interesting, isn’t necessarily contributing to my dissertation to the extent that it should. I’m stuck in a rut of East German foreign policy, but my dissertation isn’t supposed to be about East German foreign policy. It’s a component, to be sure, but not the whole (or even the biggest chunk of) the story.

Tomorrow will be a day of work, including some cleaning up around the apartment, finishing of applications for funding for next year (funding which I hope to have no need for), and perhaps even some reading (I have SO many books to read.) Then it’s back to the archives on Monday.

Sometime soon, however, I might just do another video, or something with audio, or who knows what. So stay tuned.

Anyway, now my wedding band won’t just fall off my hand anymore. It was bad enough last summer in Mombasa (when it fell into the Indian Ocean and I was ridiculously lucky finding it at low tide), but recently it would fall off just getting out of bed. Literally. One morning I came back upstairs from letting the dogs out  and saw it on the floor, next to the bed.

New clothes and resizing jewelry are the expensive part. Otherwise eating healthier has actually been less expensive for us. I know that studies show that poorer Americans have less access to and ability to buy nutritious food, but cooking at home instead of going out has saved us a bunch of money, and the types of meals we have are relatively inexpensive.  We eat a lot of rice, and every other day or so we have chicken, or hamburgers, or hot dogs. Breakfast rotates between cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, and French toast. Skim milk, egg substitute, low-calorie bread, and no-calorie maple syrup keep those breakfasts from getting out of hand.

I might start posting a few recipes here, since I’m doing so much cooking but I always forget to bookmark the sites where I find recipes I like.

Now if only I could do something about the size of my head.

It also doesn’t seem to fit with the vision of Ireland I have in my head (Wheatens are an Irish breed), which includes lovable old men gliding through quaint villages on their trusty old bikes. Dogs yelping in fear would spoil the scene.

Or maybe that’s my vision of Wales. Which is, of course, based almost entirely on two screenings of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. So if there are any bicycles in the film, then yes, I’m thinking of Wales.

I’m not sure what it is about bikes that has Penny spooked. She’s not a total Luddite: she likes cars just fine. Maybe it’s the closer cooperation of man and machine that does it; she fears cybernetics and the mechanization of body, mind, and soul.

Or the extra height it gives people freaks her out. (That’s probably it, since she’s not scared of kids on bikes.)

Today I handed in my last assignment of the semester for my coursework, and by doing so actually finished up the last of my required coursework. Though I’ll accumulate more credits, and maybe even take another real course or two after I do my research, there’s nothing I need to take. Which is nice.

It marks the beginning of a turning point in my grad school career, I think; a corner I won’t finish turning until August, when–if all goes well–I take and pass my comprehensive exams and defend my dissertation prospectus. And then I’m off to do research for ten months.

This semester has also brought other changes. Near the beginning of the semester I started running. I’d planned on running a marathon, but that fell through. I’ve kept at it anyway–20 miles is my longest run so far–and that combined with some changes in eating habits has resulted in me losing about 40 pounds.

More recently, I joined a softball team. Or rather, two teams with the same name and same core group of people, one for a co-rec league and the other for a men’s league. Just today, Deb and I finished working on some landscaping with the generous help of her parents, the fruits of which include a small shed (as opposed to a big shed–I’m looking at you, Feeny!), the replacement of a pathetic garden with some bushes, and sod in a few areas we’ve had trouble getting grass to grow. It all looks great.

Things aren’t only coming together in the yard. I’ve figured out my apartment situation for next year–I’ll be staying in the same place I did two summers ago, which will be nice because I know the landlords and the area.

I’m in good shape as I look past this last batch of grading left to do towards finishing my comps reading and starting the by now even more daunting task of studying: going through and organizing all the notes I took, determining which books are important, why they’re important, how they fit together with other books, keeping names and titles and ideas straight, etc. And of course revising my prospectus with the help of my adviser. That sounds like a lot of work, because it is. But that’ll change…

Anyway, to tide everyone over here’s a picture of Lucy taken by Deb about a week ago or so. We really aren’t taking enough pictures, and she’s growing so quickly. Hopefully we’ll get better about that.