Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Happy Birthday, Jonah and Cheryl!
The above picture has nothing to do with any of the rest of these, just Logan being cute.
Jonah had a good day with four friends from school. We all went to see "Horton" and came back for cake and presents.
Jonah choose German Chocolate Cake this year which was interesting because no one in Germany has ever heard of this cake, and half of the German kids wouldn't eat it. I wonder how it got its name? Maybe the Chocolate is German and not the cake...

After 2 years of thinking, wishing and asking, we went to Berlin and got "Jack" a 9 week old Yorkshire Terrier. He is pretty cute... but manly, thus the name "Jack" as in Bauer. Caedon says he is the best dog in the world.







Friday, April 25, 2008


I finally have a funny language mix-up. I am sure I have had some in the past but this is the first that I was made aware of. The ironic thing about this conversation is half of it was in English!

I was relaying to my next door neighbor (and giving a little of a warning) that Saturday we were going to get a dog. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Saturday we are going to Berlin to get a dog. (in German)
Her: How are you doing that?
Me: I called the Landlord and asked. He said we could get one if it is small.
Her: Where are you going to keep it?
Me: In the house but when we let it out we will keep it on a leash (we have adjoining yards and wanted to reassure her the dog wouldn't bother her.)
Misc. talk while walking home. Talk turned to meals , what the kids would eat, etc.

It may sound fairly normal although I did wonder a little at the slightly hesitant reaction she had (she is not an animal person) and the unusual questions and statements she used. But the whole time she had misunderstood my pronunciation (maybe it had to do with the wrong article) of dog, "HUND" for chicken "HUHN"!!!

So you can just imagine the conversation she had with her husband later that evening:
"Well, those crazy Americans next door are getting a pet chicken!"
"What?"
"Yeah, they said the landlord was OK with them having it in the house. And get this, they plan on keeping it on a leash when they bring it outside!"

It would explain why she said something about eating our pet at Christmas!