It's Almost Over...

...Summer, that is.

I must confess that just about the only things I like about Summer are the family trips and the coleslaw. (Mix 1/2 cup mayo, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons white vinegar, 1 teaspoon granulated onion powder, 2 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Pour over 16 ounces of shredded cabbage. Mix well and refrigerate for at least an hour. Voila! Yum.)

The heat of Summer feels like an assault on my soul. Every year, I feel like I'm just holding my breath until the end of September. It's almost here... :)

DEUTSCH:

I've been spending a lot of time at livemocha.com. Maybe a little too much. It seems that my English is suffering as a result of my quest for learning German. Yesterday, I was reading an article in Newsweek while at the gym and I stumbled on the word "only".

"On-lee?" I thought for an instant. "What's that? Oh, ah yes...own-lee as in 'singularly'."

Not only is my English suffering, but my German is about that of a 1 year old Berliner. I thought I had learned a lot, but Jeff had a co-worker who is a native German call me on the phone. She asked me, "Wie heisst du?" (What's your name?)

My brain totally seized. I asked, "Uh, can you say that again, but verrrrrry sloooooowly?" Yeah, I'm lame.

I love German because it seems like an amusing, trumpt up version of English. A lot of the words are the same or at least similar and they have a bunch of fabulous words that we can only tilt our heads at. This week's picks are:

Radiergummi = eraser
Zimmerschlussel = roomkey
Lebensmittelgeschaft = supermarket

Technically, there are supposed to be some umlauts thrown in there, but my keyboard is ill-equipt.

Jeff's New Experience:

Jeff's off on an overnight "extraction" for work. He and two partners will remove a couple of minors from the places they're in and bring them back to Juvenile Hall. The minors aren't expecting this turn of events and apparently it can sometimes get a bit scrappy since they aren't necessarily happy about going back to the Hall. One of the minors they're extracting this time is a big football player. Jeff says I shouldn't be worried about anything because one of Jeff's partners looks like he could be Djimon Hounsou's fraternal twin:Okay, that's cool.