21 March, 2010

This is me.

(in 20 years...)

09 March, 2010

Yo Dawg! Wassup?!

So I just rounded out an afternoon full of drama by shutting S's hand in the car door. Luckily I had the common sense to plunge his fingers directly into a snow drift. (Although I can't exactly pat myself on the back, because if I'd been paying attention this wouldn't have been necessary in the first place!)

It turns out we had luck in our bad luck, as the Germans like to say. The door didn't close all the way and caught him square across the middle of his fingers and missed his joints and nails. I filled a bag with snow and he kept it iced for a half an hour.

When I asked him if he was going to be OK he got a twinkle in his eye and said:

Well, I can still do this:


Looks like both his fingers and his sense of humor are still intact, and for that I am grateful.

03 March, 2010

Old nonsense

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could;
some blunders and absurdities have crept in;
forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day;
you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.


- Ralph Waldo Emerson

02 March, 2010

God & Guns

We all went to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert yesterday evening in Karlsruhe. M asked for the tickets for his birthday, and I have to admit I was a little less enthusiastic about attending as he was. I fled Florida trying to escape a certain mentality and the political views that their current music represents. For a Dutchman, however, it's just good, fun music, and is maybe even a little bit exotic!

I have to admit, I spent a lot of time being snide yesterday. I made noisy boasts to friends about shaving the number 3 into the hair on my back, or about pulling on a pair of Daisey Dukes. But you know what?

It was so. much. FUN!

We bought relatively cheap standing-room-only tickets and expected an obstructed view, so we were floored when we got to the concert hall and were able to walk right up to the barrier in front of the stage!

The floor eventually filled up with mild-mannered fans, almost all of them German, dressed up in their own rendition of Southern chic. We saw leather vests, cowboy hats, Abraham Lincoln beards, Metallica t-shirts, and a colorful leather jacket with "Las Vegas Rodeo" printed on it. The people-watching was excellent!

When LS finally came out we all started dancing, and S and B were waving their hands and singing along. The band members obviously enjoyed having their two biggest little fans in the audience and kept coming over and waving and smiling at them. Three different band members gave them the picks they were playing with, and at the end Johnny Van Zant himself came over and shook their hands! They were THRILLED!

In my head I'd already prepared a snarky post, but to tell the truth, these guys put on a really amazing concert. They may be aging, but they're very real, and full of energy, and were especially nice to S and B on top of it! (So much for preconceived notions...)

Greg, I think you might even have enjoyed it!!!