Up and At Em

Tell me your town is this serious about asparagus!
(And, no, I am not sure why it has a whistle tied to the stalks)

The Black Forest Phoenix

RIP Spellbound, Long Live Black Forest Games!  Today David and about 20-30 of his co-workers went in to their old place of employment and were hired by a brand new company.  I can only imagine the logistical organization that must have been involved in managing all of this so quickly.  There were huge stacks of contracts, The Friendly Lawyer was on hand, and everyone did lunch at a rather bemused Burger King nearby.  The only significant change in our new contract is that David will get the German Standard 28 days of yearly vacation instead of his previous 24.  I think we can live with that.  He starts officially on the 1st, so we have a couple weeks of partially-paid vacation to play with right off the bat, too.  David says that he plans to use it much as a teenager uses those final years at home- convincing me that I will be Really Glad when he is Out Of the House and Back at Work ;-)   Mostly, right now, I think he will spend his time playing Diablo III and driving kids to and from school while I write. 

A couple of days ago all those who were to be hired by the new company went in to be seen and interviewed by the local publisher who will be hiring them for their biggest project.  That went quite well.  So, at the end of the day they all had a meeting and voted on the new name for the company.  David's suggestion of Angry Hamster made it far into the voting and had passionate support, but lost out when a few folks with different aesthetics dinged it.  Black Forest had the nice local feel and the advantage of not offending anyone's sensibilities. So, Black Forest it is.  Interestingly, the German version of the same name, Schwarzwald, did not garner much support.  The gaming industry is apparently anglo-centric!  We actually knew this, though since one of the recruiters David talked to when things were up in the air mentioned that almost all the European Gaming Houses spoke English internally.

Errata- Thanks to Florian for letting us know: Your employer must give you 4 weeks notice when you lose your job in Germany, so our 3 month Visa clock would not have started running until a month after David's lay off notice.  And, there are other agencies and back-up unemployment claims you can make to acquire more money to support your family should you need it.  Also, Spellbound in its last incarnation was not yet the number two game maker in Germany, it was working on attaining this title.


Other Random Stuff

Both kids have a 4-day weekend for Ascension (AKA Flying Jesus Day).  We don't currently have plans, but I really suppose we ought to make some!

The Berry Lady's New Booth.  She is on lunch break here-
she just moves the berries out of the sun and leaves all the other
merchandise sitting on the counter.  No one bothers it.
I do love that aspect of this area!

Durmstrong seems to be undergoing a rash of practical jokes lately.  Earlier this week the entire senior class showed up to school in jammies and conducted a sleep-in-flash-mob.  Then, today we discovered this car in the parking lot.

"La Voiture Capturé"  The Captured Car-- in French, oddly enough!

The best translation I can find indicates this says
"So to speak, Well-wrapped"

The school is also having roofing work done.  I rather wonder what the
pranksters might do with the scaffolding over the 4 day weekend!

Next week we meet with Durmstrong Staff to discuss DS's progress.  DD has a performance coming up next month.  And, we REALLY ought to get out and about at some point while David is home- but I have a couple more books due over the next few weeks, so we will see what we can see!

Sound Evidence
I have been meaning to get a sample of this for ages.  Here is a (bad) recording of the school bell at Hogwarts.  Am I wrong?  That is the Westminster bells followed by the theme to The Exorcist, isn't it?  (warning, the video clip is for listening not viewing, but I don't have a good film editor right now, so the best I could do was white and wavy for effects)

Bashing and Flashing

I told them to "pose like Americans" ;-)

Festivities for All

Well, after all the stress of last week, it was about time to break loose and have some fun!  Granted, Fun is not always stress-free.  But, it does have the advantage of being... er... FUN!  So, without further ado, here are

Three Point Five Fun Things that Happened This Week!

First Up- DS's 12 Birthday!

In Germany, the tradition is for the birthday celebrant
to provide small candies for his class.  So, DS here
is all ready to celebrate with a bag full of gummies!

DS receiving his presents in the morning

Dinner Guest!  

DS's German tutor, Kerstin, happens to be an American from the Bay Area!  Too cool!  We had been meaning to have her to dinner for-evah, but one thing or another kept getting in the way.  We finally got all the pieces to fall in place this week.  Since she misses Mexican food, we did our best to accommodate her with Do It Yourself Burrito Bar dinner.

Festive Table- It was as Mexican as I could
manage given the circumstances....

Kerstin and DS

There was much silliness, dancing and loud laughing. 

We decided the entire event was decidedly Un-German in its conspicuous exuberance. 
Definitely nice to let loose a little from time to time!

Birthday Resumed....

Our Birthday tradition is that the Birthday Boy or Girl gets to pick the meals for the entire day.  Since DS had school on his actual birthday, we agreed to postpone his meal-picking until the weekend.  So, when Saturday came around he got us to take a trip to Strasbourg for sandwiches and croissants for lunch, then for dinner we tried out the American Tex-Mex restaurant in town called Coyote Cafe.  We had been warned that their Mexican fare may be a little less than authentic (thus the burrito bar at home!).  But, we figured the Texas BBQ was worth a shot.  And, it wasn't bad!  It is certainly not going to be convincing any true Southerners that the chef has made a trip to the States.  But, it was passably pleasantly edible.

DS in the Coyote Cafe

Mexican decorations?  Interestingly, most of the
place seemed to festooned with black and white
photos of French people!

I was amused to note that this water is "naturally mild".... As opposed to
all that spicy water you usually get in these parts!!

BBQ Spare ribs... with lots and lots of parsley... And a butter knife.
The fries were excellent!

Job Recruitment ad on the
bathroom door.

FRENCH FLASHMOB

Quick Anecdote- DS's school was going to participate in a Flash Mob to celebrate Europe Day- sort of a European Union togetherness sort of deal.  Makes sense since Hogwarts is a European school dedicated to the ideology that Europeans ought to respect each other and get along. 
But, lets face it, when it comes right down to it, our particular branch of Hogwarts is run by French People.  And French People, as we have learned through experience, have some interesting concepts about organization.  One of them was that for this entire school field-trip, each student must individually procure his or her own Tram Pass for the day ('NO MONEY!' read the email).  Additionally, after the flash mob, they must somehow find their way home... on their own.... from the center of the Big City...  Boggle!

Thus, Tuesday morning, David and DD set off to France to locate and acquire the pass that would be needed.  After some effort, they successfully purchased it and headed back around lunch time.  As it happens, Tuesday is the day for the Kehl outdoor market.  So, they stopped to grab some food and revisit our old town center.  While there, they noticed the lady running one of the food trucks had stepped out to get something from her car.  As she returned to the truck with a bundle in her arms she was loudly startled by a swarm of pigeons that had sneaked into her booth while she had been gone!  She screamed, the pigeons flaps and feathers flew. 

Eventually she calmed down and settled back in to work and the pigeons scatters.  David and DD got their food further in the market and headed back.  On their return trip, David snapped this photo.

Prepping for another sneak attack!

Locals wondered why DD and DH were cackling gleefully as they walked....


Flash Mob Day

Alright, so, since this Flashmob sounded like fun and since DD needed to get home somehow anyways, we decided to go check it out.  DS was feeling a bit under the weather, too, so we went ahead and kept him home and decided to make a Family Event of the whole thing.  Unfortunately, we had never been to the Place Kléber, but we knew it was the main town square for the city of Strasbourg.  How tough to find could it be?  Right?

Wellll.... You can probably guess where this is going. 

Now, David is a control freak who hates it when other people drive.  But, he hates driving in France even more.  So, we agreed that I would take the wheel on this journey.  But, we got off to a bad start.  We couldn't figure out how to tell Garmin where we wanted to go, and I accidentally left the map in the house.  After several minutes of struggle, I finally gave up on the electronic navigator and dashed back into the house to grab the map- and an umbrella.  Yes.  Springtime in this area means rain!

So, we were already feeling a bit keyed-up when we headed out of the driveway- which was partially blocked by a little green car.  Still, I was convinced I could pass safely.  And, I was almost right.... Only, my side mirror barely clipped their side mirror on the way by.  Since ours is designed to fold down and it was still in place, I had a pretty good sense that no harm had been done, but I glance at the other car just to make sure.  Seeing no damage and no other humans immediately around and wishing to avoid an unnecessary scene, I made an executive decision.  I kept going.

David was not pleased.  Stress in the car was high.  And, to make things worse, we still couldn't figure out where we were headed.  Eventually, David managed to punch in what he thought was the right location on the Garmin and it started giving directions.  Once in Strasbourg, the directions got familiarly fuzzy.  The satellites do not like parts of the city.  French drivers were predictably French drivers.  And one truck in particular thought that my brake lights were illuminating an alternate roadway for his personal use.  On one turn, trying to avoid the truck's dangerous pressure, while simultaneously dodging another car that seemed determined to turn from their lane into ours, I managed to catch one wheel on the 1 inch tall center island separating the narrow street from the tramway.  David looked like he would happily have leaped in my lap and driven from there if the design for the car had permitted it.

Perhaps this would be a good place to mention that ordinarily I really *am* a pretty good driver,  Knock wood!  I have never gotten a moving violation, nor have I been involved in a crash (though some guy did lightly rear-end me at a stop light once).  But, I will fully admit that this was Not My Best Driving Day.

Further complications arose. Unmarked one-way roads suddenly became unmarked two-way streets.  Other hazards, like trams and pedestrians and cyclists, started appearing at a dizzying pace.  Then, without warning, our directions stopped.  Actually, it is good that they did because at the time they were telling us to turn the wrong way down a one-way street!  DOH

So, here we were in the middle of Strasbourg, late for the performance, and having no clue whatsoever how to get to DD's location.  I concentrated on driving and David took another whack at the Garmin.  This time we were able to compare the directions it gave with a sanity check on the map I had printed.  It looked good.  So, I Drove!  Feeling a bit looser, I even pulled out the camera to record a couple highlights of the city....
 

David nearly exploded when I pulled out my camera at a
long stop light to take a photo of the church under renovation.

Getting close to where I was pretty sure the square was located, we spotted a regulation Mall with its own parking structure.  Being unsure where else we might park, I went for it.  Yes indeedy, there were plenty of open spaces.  But... well, let us just say they were... narrow.  After three flubbed attempts, I finally managed to maneuver safely into a tiny spot against a pillar that David was sure I would hit.  I was sure I would not, so I was pleased to be proven right for once today!

From there we hoofed it.  Luckily, my direction-sense is usually pretty good and I had a fairly decent idea where the Square must be hidden given the layout of the surrounding buildings.  Relying on a couple vague street signs and my maternal-homing instincts, we maneuvered the correct three blocks to emerge at the Place Kléber- only about 45 minutes later than we had intended to arrive!  The rain had let up and we didn't have too much trouble finding DD- even though she was now dressed in the identical T-shirt as all her classmates from the school!  That is not what she was wearing when she left this morning!

Apparently, we had missed the first run through of the Flash Mob- the one where they all pretended to just be hanging out in the square and just happened to get the urge to stand up and dance when this Hip-hop version of the EU Anthem just happened to play over a loudspeaker on a day that just happened to have EU information booths lining the square.  Ah well.  We *were*, though, in time for the encore performance, in which the students dropped the pretense and grimaced their way through 83 verses of some hipster singing about how we are all part of one big European Family to the tune of Ode to Joy.  I really wished someone had mentioned to the kids (who were being filmed by every parent and local TV station in town) that perhaps smiling would be a more convincing way to project European Unity.  But, maybe the message is more clear this way- "yeah, we just grit our teeth and bear it, but we each move our own way and hug at the end- and no one gets hurt.  We are all in it together, for better or worse!'' 

Caught DD mid-jump!

Perhaps synchronicity wasn't their strongest feature, but
they DID all show up and the DID dance!

So, all in all, I think it was a memorable event!  We stopped for ham and cheese sandwiches at a patisserie on the way out (French folks put butter on these, which makes all the difference as far as the kids are concerned!)  Then, letting David take the wheel this time, we headed home.  

A few Strasbourg sites that I didn't include above:

Blurry, but apparently this is
"The Library of the Entire World"
ROCK ON Strasbourg!!!

This guy adorns one of the bridges- along with 3
similar statues

His other side- I think he is throwing a net

One of his friends....  Don't these guys
just seem like they ought to be in Moscow?

If you are REALLY curious about the flash mob, I have included a couple of brief video clips.  The first one shows part of their second run through of the dance- this time with their T-Shirts.

The finale- Big Hug!

Plunging- Or, Not the Tourist Life

The Adventure Continues....

You know how when you first heard about the concept of open heart surgery someone told you that they had to stop the heart in order to work on it?  And then they would get it started again once they had it fixed and everything would be OK!  You may have thought "wow, that sounds super-dangerous and like a terrible idea!  But, maybe it makes sense, and it is probably better than the alternative... Hmmmmm..."

That was this week.

Today Spellbound Entertainment GmbH shut its doors- soon, we hope, to morph into some slightly streamlined version of its old self with a new name, new owners, but basically the same raison d' etre.  The heart is not currently beating, but we are watching the doctors unclog the arteries and waiting for them to use the paddles to get things going again....

So What Happened?

Basically, many months ago, they had a big contract blow up in a messy fashion.  They were getting things stabilized after that and had financing all set up to fund them over the gap. But, they had their bridge financing fall through at the last minute.  That triggered the insolvency that I reported earlier, which meant that the company came under control of the German Government.  The last couple months have been spent trying to work out a plan that would be acceptable to the team from the German Government- i.e. some plan that would show stable financing for at least one year of operations.  They came close, and are still working on it.  But at press time, they only had some of the deals finalized that would cover the entire one year period with their current expenses. 

So, on to Plan B. 

They shut down the old company.  They create a new company.  Then they rehire only enough staff to cover the projects that they have firmly in hand and signed for at present.  As more work gets nailed down (and there are deals in process), they hire back as many more as they can.  But, for a couple of weeks while the new company is being legally established, everyone is out of work.

So, What Does That Mean For Us?

The Scary: today David got official lay off paperwork.  Unfortunately, this is getting to be rather old hat with us!  What the heck is with this industry?!?  But, for goodness sakes, who would have expected the second largest gaming company in Germany to go belly up all of a sudden?  In any case, yeah, I had a couple hours today where I was sort of a zombie while I processed all this.  We had to do a quick run to the market and David kept having to drag me and face me in the right direction because I would sort of.... wander.  After the instability caused by his last lay off, I think it triggered a bit of a minor panic-attack.  But, I am feeling a bit better now.  Technically, if David is not rehired, we could get thrown out of the country in about 4 months, but that isn't going to happen.

The Comforting: the entire company got the same paperwork, and the folks from the unemployment offices came down to Spellbound to give them a little talk.  Then they all walked over together to fill out paperwork as one big group!  Well, actually, as two big groups- they separated them into German and English speakers and handled them that way.  The poor French guys were in with the English speakers and got no special assistance at all.  The most fluent folks helped translate for everyone else. 

David has worked here just long enough to qualify for German Unemployment benefits- which amount to 60% of your normal salary.  So, you see, we are definitely not experiencing Germany as tourists!  We are right in there with everyone else.  In fact, perhaps we are even being Euro-fashionable!  Sigh....  His paperwork was, surprisingly, not among the most complicated for the very international group- the French folks again got the fuzzy end of the lollipop and are going to have a heck of a time, it seems.  And, anyone who was only hired recently is SOL.

The Good:  Since they already do have a couple of contracts signed and just need a company established with which to fulfill them, that means that his actual Unemployed time ought to be (knock wood) very short.  The current estimate David was given for his particular job was about 2 weeks.  Of course, we have heard similar things before.  But I am REALLY hoping it is true this time around!  

Other Good Things: we have had kind folks offer to help us should things get tight.  A very comforting thought, indeed!  Also, hey, it looks like David gets a short vacay!  It will even overlap with a couple days worth of DD's, and the weather is getting quite pretty!  Luckily, we knew it was a good time to have a little padding, so we have a little bit of money set aside to handle the deficit.

Also, on the Good List- you have to admit that having the entire company go through something like this is a bit of a long-term team-building experience!  David says it was probably the most social day he has had in ages, with everyone sitting around chatting and gossiping and joking and consoling while they went through the process.  The folks who wind up in the new company will have been in the trenches together.  It will be interesting to see their interactions as they rebuild. In the mean time, people were exchanging emails and contact info that hadn't been handed over the entire time he had worked there.  So, that was also a nice development.

Ok, well, that is pretty much what we know right now on that front.  What else is up?

The Hair

Well, let's see.  I was feeling so good and Springy and Adventuresome earlier this week, that I dyed my hair again!  This time I went with the German purple color (that comes out coppery red in the light, and a more berry color in the shadows on me) and then dyed over it with some Blue that I got in the States on the underside.  That turned out sort of blackish on first rinse, but I think it will fade to a deep velvety blue-violet.  I figure everyone is looking at the weird American anyways, no point in hiding :-)  Though, to be fair, Germans dye their hair all sorts of weird colors- not Blue, though.  I am not sure why.  I have even seen green, but never blue dye here in Germany.

The basic look, lighter graduating down to dark

The stripes, the top color is a bit more
purple than it looks here.

Closer to the coloring as it looks indoors- outdoors it turns
much brighter and more coppery.  The unfortunate side effect of
German dyes on my hair.

The Plunge

Last Friday when I went in to see Tom, my physical therapist, he was holding an object that looked very much like a cross between a bathroom plunger and something that would be inappropriate to discuss in a family-friendly blog!  This, he said, was going to be much less painful that one of the previous techniques he had used.

Actually, it looked just like the things above, but without the IPA branding
(Institute of Physical Art, apparently). 

Ummm.. What?

At first I thought he was joking, but he was totally serious.  Apparently this is a newish therapy for releasing the layers of skin/muscle from one another so they can move/drain/function properly.  After injury, they can tend to adhere to one another and make things stiff, so the therapist needs to break the bonds that are keeping them from moving apart.

It works pretty much like you might expect... if you ever expected your PT to pull out a slightly obscene blue and crystalline plunger and attach it to your person.  He had me lay on my stomach then attached the plunger to my injured shoulder... then he, er, wiggled it!  It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it didn't really hurt either.  It just felt... weird.  I guess it did what is was supposed to.  I am pretty sure I was able to move better after the treatment than before.  But... yeah.  VERY bizarre, and perhaps not my most dignified moment of all time!

Next Up: DS Turns 12, Our First Local Dinner Guest, and more on the Spellbound Saga when I have it!

One Year Here, Officially

Ancient-looking wood beams, happy cows,
kids getting swarmed and gnawed on by calves...
This is definitely a German farm!

Anniversary 
Yep!  Hard to believe, but we have been here a whole year... Or maybe it is hard to believe we have only been here a year!  I am honestly not sure which.  We arrived in Germany on DD's birthday, April 23rd, 2011.  Well, DD, DS and I did.  David had been here several weeks already at that point. I have recently discussed our observations, so I won't dwell on that right now.  Though, I will say that there is something truly gratifying about living the adventure and rising to the challenge!  Yeah, my German still sucks and my French isn't all that much better.  But, every day I learn *something* that I couldn't have learned anywhere else in the world.  And, each day we (must!) use our brains, our creativity, and sometimes just our gumption to get through situations that we couldn't even envision only a year and a half ago.  So, I am still richly appreciative of the opportunities that we have here! 

Now, on to the present.  This week was actually a pretty full one.  And, thankfully after last week, pretty good!

The Farm Fieldtrip
DS's school class took a field trip to a local farm.  It was a walking trip- uphill all the way.  So, DD was quite proud to show off his Cub Scout skill of walking-stick manufacture.  He made sticks for himself and his best school friend and showed the rest of his class how to make their own.

Now, I must admit, from what I can tell German teachers are both smart and practical.  About 1/2 up, they stopped in an open field for a "rest".  This consisted of letting the kids loose to work off energy and engage in a hearty game of tag!

DS took a photo of all the backpacks on a bench as the played.

When they approached the farm, this is what they found.  Like most things in our area, the place was a hearty healthy mix of Old and New.  You can see this new structure being built to augment the rather ancient looking one next to it.

DS tells me there are two geese here, but they lined up just right for
the picture that you can't really tell.  And, yes, my Southern California
Friends and Family- most of Germany is this green.

After their arrival, the kids were brought into a large room where they were introduced to the farm animals.  There were 5 cats and a farm collie, that made DS homesick.  But, the rest of the creatures were larger and, well, more farmy.  Lots of cows, of course- it is a dairy farm- but also horses and mules and rabbits.  I am not sure if the geese are wild or residents, as well.

Unlike similar trips we have taken in the states, the kids were free to mingle with the animals and interact.  This was mostly wonderful!  Everyone loved petting the young calves (one had been born the night before!) and letting them gnaw/suck on their hands.  DS reports something interesting about calf tongues.  The front is very soft and smooth, but in back, they are rough and almost bristly.  Adult cow tongues are apparently all bristly.  He put forth the idea that as infants they are on a diet of milk, so it is most important for them to not injure their mother's teats.  While when they get older, the rougher surface helps them digest the roughage that makes up a cow's main diet.  It sounds like a great hypothesis to me, but I told him we should do a bit of research to see what we could learn.

This calf was 1 day old, but DS was both letting it suck on his hand
and trying to take the photo, so, er... a little off center!

One of the machines they use to process the milk.

The one drawback to letting the kids romp, of course, is that there is more risk of an occasional problem.  Since Germans value self-sufficiency and don't tend to be so lawsuit-happy as folks in the states, though, German kids tend to get lots of opportunities to stretch themselves- and sometimes opportunities to get hurt.  For instance, the farm dog bit one of the children on the trip!  The adults took care of her and tried to figure out what had happened.  But, as she wasn't badly hurt and the dog is not typically vicious, it was not treated as any huge deal. 

The kids were also allowed to take a short ride on a tall horse.  Mind you, nothing in the paperwork that came home mentioned anything about horseback riding.  Nor did we have to sign any paperwork releasing liability or anything.  They just said "hey kids, here is a horse, want a ride?  DS says this particular horse had a very uneven gait, but all the kids had fun. Then they had another play session, ate some yogurt made from the milk at the farm, packed up and went home.  All in all it really sounded a lot more like the homeschooling field trips we had been on than the ones I had supervised for public school classes.  And, of course, DS learned a ton!

Dead Fire
The one rotten thing that happened this week: when walking out to my car, I discovered that my new Kindle Fire and the cobblestone driveway should not mix.  DOH!

Biskuit und Wiener
Remember how last week I said I was too shy to take a photo of the biskuit in the supermarket?  Well, a couple days later I got brave.  I would have left it at that, except I made an amusing discovery.  They are not all biskuit!  These are all called "boden" or "bottoms".  But there are two main varieties.  We have the biskuit bottoms, and we have the Wiener bottoms!  In this case, from what I can tell "Wiener" means "from Vienna", so it is Viennese pastry.  But, still rather fun from an American point of view :-)

Happy Birthday DD!
Spring is also Birthday Season for the kids.  DD turned 15 on Monday.  She was pleased with her geeky gifts of a DSI that can both play US and German games, one such game, and a motion plus controller from her brother to let her play Zelda on the Wii.  As is our tradition, the Birthday celebrant gets to pick the menu for the day.  So, we had a trip to a German Bakery for brunch, a trip to a different German bakery for lunch (to get her favorite sandwich) and meatloaf, bread and apples for dinner.  I couldn't resist getting at least a little creative, though, and formed the loaf into a 15!

Happy Birthday!

Fünfzehn!

One of the many unexpected hazards in Germany is the possibility that you will purchase something that you THINK is one thing, only to discover that your German wasn't quite good enough to realize that it was, in fact, something else.... Case in point, DD's candles.

Now, first, I should mention DD did not like the idea of candles on her lemon poppyseed cake.  So, her brother gallantly offered to have them on his instead.  And he offered to blow them out, too (after she made her wish).  Only.....

Hmmmm....

Look at all that smoke!

That is right, David had accidentally bought "Magic Sparklers"!  Actually, this photo set is a little staged because I caught the mistake in time.  Otherwise, when the candles started to spark, poor DH might have had a panicked heart attack!  As it was, he wanted to use tongs to rescue them from the cake ;-)  I just grabbed them and dunked them in a little pyrex cup of water.  Voila!

Other good things this week:  Rain! DD got a very good report card from Hogwarts. I got a very nice unsolicited recommendation from one of my editors.  One of the book series I worked on is up for another award.  And one of the favorite series I have worked on this year is getting close to going to press and I can't wait to be able to share it with people!

Next week: DS's 12th birthday and Spargelzeit!