1. I really dislike running in the afternoon/evening/at night. It doesn’t fit with my body’s daily cycle. And then I need to shower (for a second time that day), and end up eating dinner late, and then it’s already 8pm. Morning works much better.
2. For somebody who generally dislikes people (except, of course, the people I like), I sure care an awful lot about what people think about me. I’d say it’s too much, but then how could I tell if I think it’s too much or if I’m just saying that cause people don’t like people who care too much about what people think.
3. As of today, I have been alive 9573 days. Deb has been my significant other for 3759 of those days. 3759 is 9573 backwards. (And that’s almost 40% of my life.)
4. Although I don’t like meeting new people, I find I have an easier time of it now than I used to, especially with people my own age. Some might attribute that to being older. I attribute it to being married.
5. My brother deserves more credit than I give him; I’ve probably had more total hours of fun with him than with any other person. (Though Deb could pass him sometime after she gets past the 50% mark.)
6. I’ve been to three continents, and of those I have not been to the only one I really have a desire to visit is South America. I blame all the Nazis in Argentina for that one. And Evita.
7. Somehow I always end up in plays with male characters being played by female actors. Well, notalways, but at least twice, and both times also involved my love life (or lack thereof): in tenth grade, of course, I was in Guys and Dolls, and a young woman who I’d had a crush on played Big Jule. More importantly, I met my wife thanks to my (minor) roll. In middle school, before I moved to Wisconsin, I was the villain in some Snidely Whiplash-type melodrama where the hero, who at one point had to disguise himself as a woman, was in fact played by a girl I had a crush on. Double cross-dressing neither contributed to nor diminished the crush.

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.

On an unrelated note, I inadvertantly have begun to stockpile peanut butter.

That last link will give you the Wikipedia version of what Carnival is all about (the first two will take you to my photos of the festivities), but here’s my run down: it’s like Halloween, but not. Instead of just kids dressing up, almost everybody does. Instead of parading door to door asking for candy, people in the parade throw candy to you. Instead of it being a cool October evening, it’s a cold February day.

At least that’s how it works here in this part of Germany.

Dingle Foot, lawyer and socialist member of the House of Commons in London…

Emphasis mine. ‘Cause how can you not emphasize the name “Dingle Foot”?

So in preparation I’ve already begun to build up mileage. Because–let’s be honest–I don’t only want to finish, I want a decent time. Ideally, 4 hours.

Anyway, with that preparation in mind I ran 18 miles on Saturday morning. Slow, but decent; I was looking for endurance, not speed. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I actually turned around at the border of the next state south, which is amusing because my favorite thing about my run back in Berlin (its own state) is that it takes me into Brandenburg.

But the point of me writing all of this wasn’t to brag about running to another state, or to announce my marathon intentions, but rather to report on the strange sight I witnessed on my way back: swans, standing in line after a few pedestrians, apparently waiting for a ferry to come back across the Rhine. And when I say swans, I mean giant swans.

Though I did not actually see them get on the ferry, I can only assume they thought the water too cold for a swim across. Or perhaps they were hoping to become the stars of a sequel to that instant classic, Snakes on a Plane.

I have three categories of runs: short, medium, and long. I don’t like going on short runs, which these days are anything under four or five miles.  Why bother? Long runs are anything over ten miles; I try to do one of those a week. Yesterday’s was fifteen miles. In running underwear of course. Medium are, as you may have guessed, somewhere in between.

I hope it’s a good one (despite going to work)!

Might have to try this stuff if I can find it when I get home

Well, that’s half true. I plan how far I’m going to run, and how fast I’d like to run, but that’s different. That process is more vague. Today, however, I set a goal for my run: half a marathon (13.1 miles) in under two hours.

And I did it. In fact, I finished in just a little over 1:50. Which gives me hope that when I finally do run a marathon, I might be in a position to do it in around four hours. I’m not there yet, of course, but I think I will be.

Today isn’t the first time I’ve run 13.1 miles: I’ve run that far several times, I’ve even done 20 miles once or twice. But today was the fastest. I think part of the reason is that I’m at a place now where running ten miles (my normal run) at 9 minutes per mile is not that hard a thing to do.

On a related note: found a Chinese restaurant with a buffet for lunch. Worth every euro cent.

This has brought me to a startling conclusion: though I’ve spent plenty of time in Berlin and Magdeburg, maybe I haven’t really spent as much time in Germany as I though I had.

My own personal slice of Bonn has required some adjustment on my part as well. A bare room, a cold bathroom, a microwave and a fridge were here; clothes, an air mattress, bedding and various electronics are what I brought. My own impatience with the internet situation led me to go out and get a 5 gigabyte internet plan for my cell phone that I can use with my laptop, too, but now it turns out that starting tomorrow or Tuesday I will probably be able to share the landlord’s internet. Not the end of the world, the mobile internet will still be handy in the archives I’m visiting, which tend to have limited internet access (no wifi, only certain computers). But it will teach me not to be in such a hurry.

Besides a lack of shelves, drawers, and closets for my clothes, though, I think I have everything situated. Found a laundromat, found the good supermarket–it’s a little further away, but worth it–and so on. Learning the maze of streets that make up downtown will take a little more time, of course, but I’m sure by the time I head back to Berlin I’ll have it down.

The new year has brought a new look not only to Berlin, but this site as well. (Ok, that happened a few days before it was officially 2008, but close enough.) And it brings me to a new city, Bonn, where I’ll be doing research for about two months. We’ll see how that goes.

Unfortunately, the New Year also brought today, January 2, the day Deb flew home. Fortunately, not long after I get back to Berlin, so will she!

Unfortunately, this photo of a polar bear is the only record we have of our visit to the zoo. It was taken on my cell phone. All the photos on Deb’s (rather nice) camera are now in the possession of some enterprising Berliner (or tourist) who took advantage of an opportunity that arose while the camera was on a bench for several minutes at the train station…

At least the new rechargeable batteries we bought for the camera were at home, charging. They didn’t get everything!

When we got to the Sony Center, though, I decided we should instead go to an American-style sports bar/restaurant, where Deb had chicken fingers and I had a burger. After duck, rabbit, and other German food the past few days–which was great, don’t get me wrong (and included grilling on Christmas Eve)–we were ready for something different. Then, after dinner, instead of going to the movie we decided to wander around the still-open Potsdamer Platz Christmas market and to check out a touristy gift shop before heading home. So much for plans.

We will probably still see a movie tonight, but at home instead. And go to a movie tomorrow, but not Elizabeth. Still, all in all it’s been a great birthday! Best present of all: having Deb here!

Stuff to read once I’m done with the novels I’m currently reading.

Then I realized it was actually in my room

Thing is, I’m not good at looking for things. Deb is though. And now she’s here!

That’s not, of course, the only reason I’m excited to see her.

There are a couple of things in this bundle I’d like, in case anybody is looking for something to get me for Christmas.

No, Deb, we can’t steal the dog.

Note: I eat this exact meal probably 5 times a week. Which sounds like a lot until you realize I eat PB&J almost every day, either for lunch or toasted for breakfast/a bedtime snack.

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.

Uh oh. There goes our phone service…