beautiful Prague

We had a great trip with excellent travel companions- even the under 3 set was well behaved. Honestly, I probably whined more than they did. Because Prague is so lovely (and because I am so lazy), I'll be doing another picture based travel log. Maybe Bridget will come up with something better. Here's the pictures.

i got rhythm

We are back from Prague, not too much the worse from a second night train voyage. While I prepare a more the in depth travel summary you're no doubt all awaiting, here's some video of Czech dancers followed by a more liberal interpretation:

More stuff on Prague

Since Trey is writing this post, guess what you get to hear about first? Beer. I have had a bunch, some good, some bad. There seems to be a bit of a microbrew tradition here and I have even had a very passable English Ale. It was called "bitter" but was closer to "Pale Ale". The most interesting beer though was Primator Rytirsky. It is about 10% ABV, golden/amber, not too heavily hopped and very malty. The only thing I can think to compare it too is Scotch. It just has that taste that is essential in Scotch, the unifying taste that makes Scotch Scotch, Plato's ideal of Scotch would have this flavor, if you know what I mean. Very strange to taste that flavor in something that didn't spend 15 years in a barrel!

Ok, I promised Rachel only one paragraph about beer before getting on to other things, so...This might be the most beautiful city I have ever visited. After a bit, you get kind of numb and almost fail to notice how beautiful the city is. Our first day here, before the arrival of Bridget and Orrin, we were a little lazy. We saw some of the city and mostly enjoyed a family nap in our apartment with a cool view:That evening, we had a small supper of Ukranian Perogies and Czech pancakes in a nice little place. Altogether it cost about 11 Euros. We took E to a nice little park called Wallenstein Garden:

Then I picked up Bridget and Orrin. Here the boys are enjoying a book with B:
Now, I am getting tired and I am having another Primator, so I will summarize with the intent of a longer post to come. We have had nice lunches out and some good dinners at our apartment. The first day with all of us here we just roamed the city and we hit a cool little restaurant.

Rachel had a skewer of meat which included slices of lard, which were good with some onions. I had half a duck with two kinds of cabbage and two kinds of dumplings for less than 12 Euro. Today, we had another nice lunch. Miraculously, the boys slept like angels through both:
Still to come: Prague Castle, more intense baby cuteness and another overnight train trip. Stay tuned and I will tell you more about the stuff we didn't eat!

Kissin' Cousins

Prague is indeed a very romantic city. This picture was taken by randomly holding the camera up in the air after having had my eyes closed for twenty minutes. The romantic vibe of the city seems to have infected the little cousins:

"Come 'ere beautiful."

"Closer."

"Turn your head more, don't you know anything?"

"Whoa, I am sorry Ellis, I don't know what came over me. Let's just stick to hugs."

midnight express

Okay, it wasn't really an express, but we did take an overnight train from Frankfurt to Prague last night. It was Czech operated car running on a German line. We had our own tiny compartment which contained two bunked beds, a small sink, and a couple luggage racks. It also included the following mind-bending baby puzzle: The beds were fairly comfortable, but only about as wide as a baby crib. This would've been fine, except I had to share mine with Ellis. We had the bottom bunk and he was initially very confused about where Daddy was. But after a reassuring trip up to the top bunk he settled down and slept pretty well.We were awoken for German passport control at 6:30 in the morning and almost got back to sleep, only the be woken for Czech passport control at 6:37. Then we were up for good and Ellis explored the train a bit and we had complimentary breakfast including surprisingly decent coffee. So, overall we rate the night train:
Rachel- One thumb up
Trey- Two thumbs up

Enough blogging for now, must stock kitchen and begin exploring Prague.

brown paper packages tied up with strings

My mother-in-law asked what Ellis's favorite things were these days. So, here, with pictures....

Bouncing and Climbing: Two of his more dangerous hobbies, especially when combined.
Dunking: Ellis has discovered this ubiquitous toddler favorite. French fries in ketchup, obviously, but also grilled cheese sandwiches in tomato soup and apples in peanut butter/ honey. Giving kisses: This is so cute. He is familiar with Eskimo and standard methods, though he lacks accuracy in both. Eskimo kiss=shaking his head rapidly back and forth while 4-6 inches away from your face. Standard kiss= smooshing his lips on your face, removing lips, and only then saying "mmmma".
Showers: As in other houses, the adults here are not allowed to shower alone. Or at least not alone and in peace (i.e., without a toddler banging on the shower door). He enjoys the water, but mostly likes investigating the drain with one of those bit-of-sandpaper-on-a-stick-things for feet.Board books: His passing interest has developed into a full blown obsession, largely centered on the book Dog, a gift from his Aunt Catherine. I can understand though, because it's a really cute book, featuring many breeds of dogs with (unusually sturdy) pull tabs and fuzzy patches. It even features a dog lifting his leg on a tree because, as the text so concisely points out, "All dogs pee."

how many monkey butlers will there be?

Just one at first, but he'll train others....

Bo's Ghost

Everyone seems to be failing to note the most important loss for the Michigan football program in the off season: Bo Schembechler's permanent departure from Michigan football. What if Lloyd and his staff were ineffectual all along, and what kept everything in order was the fear that old Bo lurking around Ann Arbor would show up at practice and tear you a new one?

In the ten years preceding Bo's arrival in Ann Arbor, the team was coached by Bump Elliot who managed to be above .500, but only barely. Bo, during his career at Michigan, had a winning percentage of .796 despite poor Rose Bowl performances and the two coaches who have followed him have similar winning percentages at Michigan. Bo died on the 17th of November, the eve of the game with Ohio State. From that day on, Michigan has failed to win once. Had they had only two losses to Ohio State and USC, two teams that are no slouches, I would feel downright silly proposing what I am proposing. But, they laid an egg last week against a team that is in I-AA and they were the first ranked I-A team to lose to a I-AA team since Division I was split. Further, this week they were beaten by Oregon, taking their worse loss since 1968, which was the year before-you guessed it-Bo showed up in Ann Arbor. It seems that we have a strong correlation between Bo's presence in Ann Arbor and Michigan football having its shit in a pile.

Also, since Bo left us, Pfizer has left Ann Arbor and the housing bubble burst in a disastrous spray that has hit Ann Arbor especially hard. Ann Arbor was even listed as an "economic zone at risk" in a recent study and the whole state is sinking deeper into something that is beginning to look like a depression. Ann Arbor, a town that used to hop a recession like a whitetail deer over a car hood, is limping.

What I expect to happen is that we will find out that Bo was keeping all sorts of things in order in that program including avoiding signing too many downright criminals to play for the team. Without a disciplinarian above him, Lloyd will probably start competing with the Bowdens for top criminal talent and we will see a team dogged by injuries and NCAA investigations and a general lack of discipline at all levels. Bo won't be there to seal the deal with recruiting, telling single mothers that he is watching their boy all the time and making sure he stays out of trouble.
So, just fire Lloyd right now and get someone in their who can plan for the future. We are a Midwestern people and by nature we know what it is to be disciplined and orderly and we deserve a football coach who does as well. I wouldn't let my son even watch 'em as it stands right now. Bah.

Snow Fort

I have decided that when I write about my own personal day to day life at work, I need to be a bit more euphemistically allegorical in the vein of JennyF. So imagine that instead of doing what I do, I build snow forts: a perishable product with a very limited shelf-life, much like scientific data, which can have almost no impact if it is published a few months late.

When I returned home from the European Congress of Snow Fort Builders, my foreman suggested that we needed to protect our share of the snow available for future projects. A former subcontractor that had previously done finishing work on our snow forts had set out on their own, taking tools and expertise with them and bidding on nearby projects for which he surely plans to use the snow that we consider to be ours. He even went to a big snow fort trade show and showed off new snow fort designs utilizing the type of snow that falls in our area. Many of the prototype model snow forts he showed were actually built and photographed by us. Importantly, the snow we use isn't good packing snow and therefore doesn't easily make good forts. But, with our trade secrets, we transform it into good packing snow and have become the flagship contractor in the snow fort business as a result.

One option would be to try to use up all of that snow very quickly on our current project, but unfortunately we don't have the man power. What we can do, though, is...er...uh...make the snow yellow by, well, ya know. Then the competition can't use it to build as nice a snow fort. And that is what my foreman suggested, figuring that we have all we need for this year's projects. This will keep our competitor from building this year and if we keep them from building for a year, they will go out of business. So I was told to drink a lot of tea and take one for the team.

I originally got into the snow fort business because there was so much snow and so many different ways to build forts that it seemed like competition wouldn't be so much a problem. But, now, all of us snow fort builders are crowded up doing many things the exact same way. Our customers all want the same things and the regulatory agencies only zone designs that fit their narrow idea of "good snow fort construction". Sadly, getting a picture of a magnificent looking snow fort into "Snow" is the best way to build a career. All "Snow" cares about is flashy snow forts often built on shoddy foundations that don't even last until spring. And, "Snow" doesn't bother to publish pictures when a snow fort recently regaled on their pages is a collapsed heap one week later. Further, one has to be able to build a lot of forts. One really good fort that takes a little longer, uses a little more snow and is built to last until spring just won't keep your business going. And when you ask for zoning for a new fort, it helps a lot if you were in "Snow" last year. ("Snow", to date, has never featured a yellow snow fort.)

Currently, I am working on a snow fort similar to one built a year ago, but with a bold new design for its foundation which will turn it into a more comfortable, multi-purpose snow fort. Unfortunately, many, even at my own company, argue that I am wasting my time by making a more functional snow fort that is too similar to one from last year, even if it serves many more functions for those residing and fighting from within. I know we won't get our picture into "Snow" but probably into "Snow Fort Monthly". Of course, one never knows, and we might struggle to get a short write up in "The European Journal of Snow Fort Construction Management". This would indeed be disappointing and might prevent me from getting zoning for my next fort.

Fortunately, being a Snow Fort Engineer rather than a Snow Fort Scientist means I have many options in other fields. I just applied for a job making snowballs and for one with a company that is building sensors to look for razor blades packed in snowballs or see how many snowballs are in someone else's snow fort. I am also looking at companies trying to build better snowmobiles. Other options include companies working on adobe and thatch where I feel my skills adaptable. I might also get lucky and find work in the closely related area of pillow and blanket tents which seems to be making a resurgence.

I will keep you posted.