I am SO done with that

It's a tough call, especially after the flood of mails and comments requiring about the state of these matters and begging me to continue, but I will officially end our most popular regular features on here. Number one, and this one has been dead for a long time now, is the sing-song sing-along contest. I know, it was brilliantly conceived, and when I actually used song snippets it was a slice of paradise pizza, but let's face it, there were just way too many responses and I couldn't keep up. And no, laziness on my part has nothing to do with it. What a ridiculous idea. Number 2 (which reminds me) is even harder to part with, but Neighbor^© of the^™ Month^® had it's day. I will start using a regular blogroll instead, but it might take a while until I actually put it up. Again, no laziness involved here. Of course most neighbors will be included on that blogroll, to remind us all of the fleeting beauty of that feature, and I will add other blogs I read more or less regularly and which are written by people I never met.

Maybe the contest will be back at some point, but we're going to New Zealand soon and it's not gonna be back before then. I also wanna set up a Flickr account to share photos of our time there and to eliminate the hassle of handling them a second time through Blogger's interface. That way we only have to upload photos once, and can incorporate them easily, while people can also check out photos in a gallery. But to be honest, that's the least of our worries. Well, worries sounds too negative, cause everything is going great so far, and we also just found people to move into our apartment after us who will buy a bunch of our furniture. Anyway, can anyone recommend any free service besides Flickr? Thanks for your cooperation.

Okay, where was I? Yes, regular features. Well I just killed the only two we had and haven't been using them for a while now anyway. But I decided that this is the kind of blog that needs at least one regular feature. And this regular feature will be called "Note to self". Under that heading I will remind myself not to engage in certain behavior that I noticed is unwise by either seeing other people engage in it or having engaged in it myself and thus having also experienced its embarrassing consequences. Just stuff that I don't wanna be seen doing. Like standing at a street light at 11 or so in the morning, with an open bottle of beer in hand. Or walking into a bank with said bottle after crossing the street. Classy stuff. I can already tell it's gonna be a complete disaster. Because as an attentive reader you have already noticed that this feature will be much less about reminding myself how not to behave than it will be about pointing out other people's funny behavior as I see it every day. But remember, that reality is far more bizarre than any fiction could ever be. And now you know why sometimes this blog is the postmodernist blog. Well, I wish I could ramble on, but it's dinnertime.

Double prices.

If you look at our Thailand pictures from the relevant posts, you may notice that some of them are a little blurry. We thought this had to do with us using a wrong setting on accident. We have since come to the conclusion that this wasn't so. First of all, we are awesome picture-takers (I believe this is the technical term for it) and second of all, we only make mistakes once every 10 years. I made mine a week ago, and I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Suffice it to say I am short one pair of socks and that I will NOT go near that harmless-looking hamster again, that hangs out in front of our building on Mondays and Thursdays between 20 and 20.15 (that's 8 and 8.15 in the pm). Anyway, since we realized that it wasn't our legendary picture-taking skills that negatively impacted the recorded visual memories of our trips and adventures in this great big world, we decided we should make use of the warranty and have it checked out. Pretty smart if I may say so myself. And since we did this yesterday, and it takes about 2 weeks until it returns, I am not able to take any pictures of some of the contents of the packages we received in the mail today.

Would I have done so if the camera was here and working? Of course. Are you implying this is just some lame excuse? I thought you knew me better than that. I guess if there's one thing I can rely on, it's you letting me down. When will I learn? Anyway, you read right, we received packagesssss in the mail today. Pluralific! One was from Christina's mom, and included a much-needed battery-free flashlight (you know the ones that work with induction and that you have to shake), some pictures, classified legal papers, and a copy of the Weekly World News! I'm gonna read that tonight under the blanket, with the flashlight on.

The second was from our friends Brandi and Nathan, who just got married, and sent us some stuff from their wedding reception which we were unable to attend. It had a CD with it, and I know and like almost all the songs on it. That is to say, all the ones I know, I also like, and I know most of them. Congratulations again!

There's still 2010...

I shared the great triumphs of the German team on here, at least some of them, so I guess I should also share the loss Italy has dealt us on Tuesday. It was very sad indeed.

Miro Klose Fußballgott!

Let me tell ya people, it was a real heartstopper, but in the end Germany beat Argentina 5:3 after a penalty shootout. I still can't believe it. We beat frigging A-R-G-E-N-T-I-N-A!!! Doubtlessly one of the strongest teams in the world. It was the first time in the tournament that Germany was behind after a goal from Ayala shortly after the break. The whole game was very close and I think both teams were equal, with Argentina's brilliance showing in the midfield. But towards the end, David Odonkor came in to mix things up. And even though he wasn't directly involved in Klose's goal, he did win the ball in the midfield and initiated the offensive play which eventually ended on the left side and in Ballack's pass on Klose via Borowski. If I remember correctly. The overtime was nervewrecking. Especially the second half of it had Argentina coming too close for comfort. But then the penalty shooting. We did not miss a single shot. And Jens Lehmann, after that whole ordeal of getting picked over Kahn, chooses the right corner every time, and saves two. He even caught the first one. Truly amazing.

It's the first time Germany has won against a 'big' team in a long time (6 years I think?) and now we're facing Italy in the semifinals. Who beat us 1:4 in the World Cup preparation, so there is definitely something to be settled there. The statistics are against us, as Germany has never beat Italy in a World Cup tournament before. Still, this World Cup is already a bigger triumph than the last one, even though we reached the final back then. But we played poorly and had the luck of playing against lesser teams all the way up until the final.

Anyway, what an amazing victory. We went downtown after the game for some cheering, and it was utter chaos. And that's after most people had already went home. It's so good to see all these people being so happy though. Isn't it time you started supporting the German team? Thank you.