Manic Monday

One Monday morning a few weeks ago it was just a blur trying to get everything done before heading to work: change Pig's bedsheets, give Monchi her bottle, shower and throw something on for work. I somehow made it in time to catch my usual train and just as I was settling down to my magazine I caught sight of my right foot and thought, hmm, I could have sworn I decided to put on another pair of shoes.

I got to work and went straight into my usual morning routine of answering emails, eating breakfast and scanning the press clippings when again, I thought to myself, really, I forgot I chose this pair instead.

This strange feeling kept nagging me until I took a proper look at both my feet.


Panic call home. Jochen was just on his way to drop the kids off at the kindergarten so I asked him to bring either of the two black shoes that must be laying out somewhere. Jochen tried to convince me if I didn't notice until now probably no one will. It took a lot of grovelling before he agreed to swing by. The price was allowing him document my flakiness.

Aside from conceding to be a blind woman, I also had to swallow his crowing that probably one pair of black loafers will do me just fine. Grrr!

We are Fascinated

For the past half year Pig has been absolutely taken with big cats. He grasps their strength, speed and beauty and would magic himself into a tiger tomorrow, if he could. Today we got to view its fearful symmetry up close.


After the zoo (and 2 hrs in the rain) the sun finally came out and we proceeded to the nearby sculpture park. Although it's also within a mile of our place we haven't been there in ages, and loved the new installations on the grounds.


This shuddering piece is called "Reaktion". It reminds me of all near misses in my life...



Back on safe ground. This Anish Kapoor piece serves to show how ambitious the Bean is...and I can't wait to see the new Art Institute wing - the pictures I've seen so far are amazing.

aka Ponchi

I hate to complicate things, but this just won't go away: for the last few months Jochen has started calling Monchichi "Ponchi". I don't know why except it stuck, and now in addition to Monchi we also call her Ponchi Maus. I share this because we're heading home soon and I don't want the Chicago folks all confused by this unexpected new name. You can call her cutie.


In any case the hiking season has started and she is so wonderfully LIGHT in the backpack. My last memories of this thing was using it to hoist a 14kg Pig on my back - that was not fun.

Just for Hope

Hope will rue the day she ever sent any bath/hygiene products to this household. Yesterday night while brushing teeth Pig was pulling his usual stall routine when he idly asked, "Mommy, what do you like better? The lollypop flavor,"

"or the toilet flavor?"

Obviously the coconut custard scent the good folks at Avon were aiming for fell short! More importantly the graphics department may want to rework the coconuts...

Yucky Rainy Weekend

The weather this weekend was really the pits. The reason why I'm all worked up is this tends to be the way it goes in Cologne - gorgeous spring weather in April and May, lulling you into thinking, gee, so much nicer than in Chicago, and is that the Biergarten calling my name when SLAM, the rain starts nonstop in June, JUNE. One year I caught myself still thinking summer will be just around the corner - when it was already end of August. Pathetic! Jochen seriously objects to this view of life and he claims Cologne gets 950 hours of sun a year vs 1000 hours in Chicago...see how a man pulls do-doo out of his ears...

On Saturday we went on the bi-annual kindergarten woods outing. This was scheduled long before the municipal daycare employees went on strike, and surprisingly they decided to go ahead with it anyway (the strike is currently on hold for one week next week). Naturally in addition to the overcast weather the conversations were pretty much along the lines of "I had to ask my neighbor's dog to watch little Britta because I couldn't miss work on Tuesday." When will the strike end? Dunno, but the union is saying they can last until August. AUGUST. Who's the HR person in charge around here??!


Then again, bad weather never stopped this family from heading out. Today we went to a local community fest where Pig honed his circus skills.

Thank goodness part of the event was indoors, because twice this afternoon we had to duck inside to avoid the serious downpours.


It was still a lot of fun and Pig picked up a tip or two.


And if you don't believe how windy and shivery it was - just check out the most accurate weather forecasting instrument around.