Karin's Adventures

Mother's Day - second edition

2008-05-11T16:03:34-05:00

Tom's family is a lot bigger than mine, with six mothers (two of them grand-mothers and one great-grand-mother) living in and around Fort Wayne. Becky has the biggest house, so she hosted the family's Mother's Day brunch again.

We enjoyed delicious food, exchanged presents and flowers - and planned our next family get-together for Father's Day. My contribution to the buffet was homemade German bread and Bavarian cheese spread.

Mother's Day - first edition

2008-05-09T11:39:57-05:00

Germans in general aren't as actively practicing religion, as people in the Midwest. But Catholic and Lutheran Holidays are strictly observed. This year Whitsunday (the first day of Catholic Pentecost in Germany) would be on the same day as Mother's Day (which is always the second Sunday in May).

Since Catholic Holidays were scheduled long before Mother's Day was even invented, whenever Pentecost falls on the second Sunday in May, Mother's Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in May - at least in Germany.

So I ordered a pretty bouquet of flowers, and a heart-shaped box of chocolate to go with it, for my mom.

Dinner at Eddie Merlot's

2008-04-29T13:45:53-05:00

Today we used the $100 gift card that came with my Team Spirit Award and went to dine out at Eddie Merlot's.

We ordered *Steak Diane for Two*. Tom had a glass of Rioja with it -since I volunteered to be the designated driver. We enjoyed excellent service, a delicious meal, a stylish atmosphere - and bought a dozen lemon filled doughnuts at Krispy Kreme, right next door, on our way home.

Steak Diane for Two
Filet Mignon prepared to your request, flamed tableside with Cognac, mushrooms and herbed mustard demi-glace served with Eddie's potatoes.

Team Spirit Award 2008

2008-04-30T09:49:55-05:00

One very nice detail of American workplace culture, something I haven't seen in over 27 years of employment in Germany, is the recognition that you get for working hard.

Today Indiana Tech celebrated the annual employee awards ceremony, where individuals and teams are honored for their outstanding contributions to the success of our institution.

The surprise at the very end of this ceremony was this year's winner of our *Team Spirit Award* - the Information Technology department. We each received a nice plaque and a $100 gift certificate for Eddie Merlot's - a fancy local restaurant.

Smart makes it to the Midwest

2008-04-18T16:23:11-05:00

Now, when you tell people here you bought a Mercedes, this is probably not what they have in mind.

The *Smart for 2* has been available in Germany since 1998, and officially made it to the USA in November 2007.

With gas priced at about $3.50 a gallon, people are likely to smarten up more around here too.

When I went for my lunch-break walk today, I saw the first one cruising down the road in Fort Wayne.

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T12:19:45-05:00

Today from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. (in your local time zone) you are invited to participate in the annual Earth Hour event by turning off all lights that you have control over. It might not save a whole lot of energy, but it shows your personal awareness. Plus it's *cool* to sit in the dark, only candlelight on, and talk or not even talk.

getting a new car

2008-03-30T10:51:40-05:00

Our old 1990 Geo Tracker, with 207,000 miles on it's first engine, had been very convenient and fun to drive for two years. We bought it cheap, did only minimal maintenance on it, and got a lot of use out of it.

But the water pump was showing signs of imminent failure: random squeaks and anti-freeze on the ground underneath the car.

We had been thinking about replacing the old junker anyways - so now was the perfect time to actually go do that. Tom had seen a 2005 Ford Taurus at the same car dealership where we bought our van two years ago.

They took the Tracker for a trade and gave us a good deal on the Taurus. It cost us $7,000 - almost $2,000 below the Kelly Bluebook value. We are now the proud owners of a flexible fuel car, it runs on E85 (or regular unleaded). I like the idea of burning Indiana's corn instead of OPEC's fossil fuel.

Easter walk in the woods

2008-03-31T10:01:12-05:00

My daughter spent twelve days in Fort Wayne, visiting for the first time since her move back to Munich. The weather wasn't really cooperating, but we still followed our family tradition and went for a walk in the woods on Easter Sunday.

The Bicentennial Woods nature preserve, where we like to go for walks, must have been partially flooded. The place was very muddy, one of the bridges over the creek was broken and unusable.

Tom was the only one equipped with appropriate footwear for this kind of trail - so we had to make it a short walk.

Batman is back

2008-03-12T14:46:18-05:00

I've been working at Indiana Tech for over a year now - long enough that you would think I should have seen this before. But I haven't. Today a colleague entered our office saying *Batman is back*. When I asked *who is Batman?*, he took me out into the hallway.

And there he was - you can only see Batman on a sunny day, in spring, for a few hours in the afternoon. That is when the sunlight and the cardboard display in the window paint Batman's shadow onto the floor of our hallway.

extreme marketing?

2008-02-22T17:00:37-05:00

OK, I agree, you need to advertise to make people aware of the products or services you offer - but this new advertising service seems a bit getting carried away.....

On my way home from work today I spotted a strange vehicle in my rear view mirror. A tiny orange Hyundai car, with a huge rotating billboard sticking out from the top. Somebody had drilled a hole thru the car's roof, about five inches in diameter, and stuck a hydraulic pole into the front passenger cabin, right by the driver's seat.

When stopped in traffic, for whatever reason, the driver would manually raise the billboard up to approximately 10 feet above the car and rotate the triangular billboard carrier back and forth. I admit the contraption was rather eye-catching - but I can't remember what it was advertising for.

I was too fascinated by the peculiar looks of this *object*, and also wondering, if it would just tip over with strong side winds.