Random Tuesday - Fall is in the air

Whoo Hooo! Let's take another magic carpet ride on the Random Tuesday Thoughts trolley. Ding Ding! Everybody on? Let's Roll!

OK, OK, I have decided to "rock" the gray hair. (grey or gray? why do these two words always confuse me?) I'll leave it alone and let it do as it pleases (well, unless it decides to stick straight up, I think I'll draw the line there). As for wrinkles, I haven't noticed any yet. But then I'm a tubby one, real wrinkles will take more time and probably weight loss. (HA! Another reason to not get my panties into a bunch about losing weight!)

"Honey, time marches on and eventually you realize it is marchin' across your face."
Bonus points to the commenter who can name the movie AND the character who uttered this awesome line.

Autumn is coming to Berlin and I'm soooo excited! Give me crisp clean air, leaves flying about underfoot, and generally cooler temperatures. LOVE IT!

Moving still sucks... 'nuff said.

Yesterday as I was walking down the street I spied a semi well-dressed man acting suspicious, looking all over the ground in a weird way then quick looks up to see who might be watching. There is no way I expected what came next. He finally spied what he was looking for, walked 12 steps and picked up a cigarette butt which although long I'm pretty sure was NOT his, put it in his mouth and lit it! THAT is addiction, people!

There is nothing so satisfying as a window cleaning job well done.

Ha HA! The boss's (too many s's there?) puppy has one-upped himself. Two weeks ago he was in the office and left a lovely puddle in one of the divisions. Yesterday he made another "oops" in a different area. The second boss (my actual boss) is not one for animals in the workplace, but hey... the dog is owned by the guy who owns the joint. I don't think that anyone will be complaining any time soon.

Sunday I was tapped to take pictures of an event for work. It was a lot of fun and I could really see myself doing this professionally. The bad part, it is a serious investment in equipment for it to be reasonable. Am I willing to invest like that? I don't know. None the less, it was fun.

Stomp opens tonight here in Berlin. Tix aren't tooo expensive, maybe I could talk Sweet No into taking a night off of "THE MOVE" to enjoy what is supposed to be an awesome performance.

Speaking of Sweet No. She's been a darling about this move. Working her sweet heart out to make things as nice as possible. The worst part of moving in the German bureaucracy is the paperwork and dealing with the handworkers. Since it is her language, she's been stuck with this part, and I really pity her for it. Thanks No (BTW, it is not like she actually reads this rag)

Sunday I managed to break two nails within 15 minutes. I was deep in the middle of cleaning and in a moment of true exasperation I decided to bite the rest off... down to the quick. I don't keep long nails, never did fake nails, but I have always kept at least an 1/8th of an inch above the quick. Let me tell you that now it just feels weird! How long will this last? I want my nails back!

Recently I managed to watch "Julie and Julia". No, it is not cinematic history. No, it isn't a must-see movie. BUT, the premise is cute and I've always loved Julia Child. Having Meryl Streep play her was fantastic. Personally I wish it had just been a movie about Julia, that would have been great. But I am a realist, who would have gone to see it? Yes, Nora Ephron needed the modern-day love story to tie back to Julia's story. The tie-back story was decent, a young woman lost in life decides to start a cooking blog, taking a year to go through Child's book "Mastering French Cooking". It was an OK movie, don't let me put you off, just not Ephron's best work.

The thing that jumped out at me was that HER MOTHER READ HER BLOG! Now technically if my Mother was as negative as her Mother, I would NOT want her reading my blog. But hey, I started this blog for my family so they could keep up with what I am doing on the other side of the pond. As far as I know, I have one cousin who drops in once in a blue moon, and that's it.

Nope, I still haven't read the instruction manual for my camera. I think I need to take a work lunch and sit down with it, dammit.

Been reading:

• Boy, Oh, Boy - Maureen Dowd may very well have a point that the underlying cause of the disrespect which has been recently directed at the POTUS has more to do with color than we would like to think. I don't know if Joe Wilson is a racist... but I can't help but feel that some of this vitrol is race-based stupidity.
• Airliner bomb plotters get life sentences - As far as I'm concerned, these bastards should be put to death for the crap their stupid plot has started with the airlines and liquid restrictions.
• Parents who refused to let their kids see the President's speech are pulling us down a slippery, anti-American slope - Wow, I agree with this woman on so many levels. Where are we going next? Is all respect for your fellow human just gone?
• Hubble 'taste' NASA releases stunning photos taken by refurbished space telescope, a sampling of things to come - Man this is exciting. Not bad for a piece of space hardware which was supposed to last only five years, yet has been in the sky almost 20 years and has orbited the Earth over 100,000 times.
• The Future of Energy - A Power Station in Your Basement -- Double wow! This really looks interesting and is probably the future of how we get our energy. Now I wish I owned a house!

And a final thought on Patrick Swazye's passing. He was a very special man, a talented actor, a wonderful husband and unknown to most people he loved horses. I once had the pleasure of watching him compete while riding one of his prized Arabians. The man looked like a natural extension of the horse, all of that style and grace translated perfectly to those of us in the crowd.

So to Patrick, also known as Johnny Castle. You will dirty dance forever in our memories. Dalton in "Roadhouse", Jed in "Red Dawn", Sam in "Ghost", and Vida Boehme in "To Wong Fu".
I hope you had the time of your life.