Frog and Goat

Wow, nothing since last Friday and that entry wasn’t much on original content. Oops.

We had dinner last night at Bouchon. I indulged in sweetbreads and mussels. The better-half had country pate and leg of lamb. Our friend got the steak. We ate like kings. I also had a martini with Lillet. I’m going to have to pick some up next time I’m in a sweet booze store. Quite tasty.

I also think we’re going to attempt to make a country pate. The better-half has ordered it twice recently and both times it’s been damn fine. It always makes me happy to see cornichons on a plate, but the pate has been very nice too.

I’ve been working on a course at work–turning it from instructor-led to elearning and I’ve been highly unmotivated about it. Some days it feels like I’d rather have my finger nails pulled out then to write more than 50 words. I finished it today and did the fist pump at about 3:45 this afternoon. Tomorrow I need to read it through, fix any errors and then send it off to be read by the subject matter expert. Then, I’m off to the next course.

A funny thing happened today when a co-worker was helping me come up with things that were wrong answers to an interaction I was working on and she kept mentioning that I should ask so-and-so if that was what such and such policy said. Every time I said, yep, that’s still correct. Because so-and-so hasn’t done dick with policy in years. I’ve been the one keeping up with it. Nice that people still don’t trust me to know the policy surrounding the work they love. I’m still a square peg in a round hole.

Whatever. I made a batch of cookies when I got home and that put things right.

I happen to be wearing corduroy today.

Yes, there’s a corduroy day.

I was in college when the Berlin Wall fell. I remember watching it on teevee in the common room of my dorm.

I had been in Berlin 3 years prior to the fall. After traveling there and going through to East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie and experiencing having to wait to eat lunch–3 people come out of the cafe, 3 people are allowed in. No exceptions for American teenagers. It was hard to believe that the wall had fallen. I didn’t think it was ever possible.

I remember riding the train into Berlin and looking over the fence at people who lived in East Germany as the train chugged alongside. Concrete block buildings abounded. The food in East Berlin was horrible, especially after the bureaucratic wait. In our broken German, we asked the guard why we couldn’t go into the cafe, there were seats available. That’s just how it was done and so we waited.

After eating chocolate that was made by German and Swiss angels for several weeks, we were appalled at how craptastic it was in the East. We had to exchange 25 Marks when we crossed and we were expected to spend it all while in East Berlin. I don’t think anyone in our group could. We ended up giving our leftover coins to some kids who were thrilled and chased after us for more; their mothers silent. I kept one coin. A 2 Mark piece that is so incredibly light. Like the government couldn’t even take pride in its money.

I remember my friends and I sat around in the sun, that peaked out of the clouds, at a public park after seeing a few sites, buying a few things. We waited until it was time to meet up with the rest of our group to cross back into Berlin. It was a sobering trip. It’s appropriate that it was mostly overcast that day.

I wrote on the wall and chipped a piece off (on the West side, of course). It looks just like a piece of concrete from anywhere. I still have that piece wrapped in plastic lingering in a drawer.

We upgraded my computer to Windows 7 and saw this during the process. Way to go Dell: