Google Chrome makes me so damn happy for a variety of reasons. It’s not just that it’s pretty and fast. It also has a couple of developer tools integrated that - without having a lot of experience working with them yet - look like they do about exactly what I want them to do.

Sigh.

I think the whole thing including setting everything up and tidying up after took me about ten to twelve hours. But so worth it.

I have blisters on my hand and am covered in red and green (and a couple of white) sprinkles, but I’m also really proud. Need to paint everything once more tomorrow, but then it should be done. (And hopefully look as good as I hope it will.)

We’re home. The unsecured network apparently was a weekend thing. It disappeared on Monday and returned on Saturday morning, so I couldn’t upload or write anything during the week. Worse things have happened.

I will write more and upload the rest of the pictures on flickr later. Until then enjoy the flying stork pictures and just imagine that I saw storks. And lots of them. Isn’t that something?

Arrived in Colmar. Check.
Got keys to apartment. Check.
Realized that apartment was indeed in the center of the town. Check.
90% IKEA furniture. Check.
Hey, I’ve got the same water pitcher! Check.
Remembered to ask for bed sheets. No check.
Bought bed sheets. Check.
Bought nice enough bed sheets to use at home. Check.
Found unsecured network. Check.
Took pictures from the living room window. Check.
Uploaded picture. Check.
Logged in to Wordpress. Check.

Voilà. Here we are.

I almost forgot… yes, of course there will be a short vacation this year as well. This year the planning more or less fell into my hands (again, I’d say), with a few basic requirements. Not too far away, but nice. The not too far away mostly was a requirement because again we will only be gone for one week and we wanted something that we could easily get to in a few hours. A suggestion was France with an idea of the Netherlands thrown in casually somewhen, but I stuck to France, because it still is what I first think of when you talk vacation. (Due to my parents insistence that France is the country you go to on your vacation, an insistence, I might add that I never found fault with.) Plus, I’m thinking good food.

The first idea then was Burgundy, some apartment in the country, because it’s close enough but also seemed pleasant enough from what I could gather from the catalogue I got for vacation rentals. I dug around on the Internet some more and - I don’t really remember how it happened - I stumbled upon some apartments in Colmar, which is not Burgundy by a long shot, but Alsace. Then I looked at some pictures of the town and my-oh-my does it look pretty. Also, Alsace means wine, Flammkuchen, Spätzle, kugelhoupf and whatnot, so gastronomically it sounded like a gold mine.

So, to make a not-so-long story even shorter I found a place (which I discovered with delight was furnished heavily on the IKEA side of life) right in the center of Colmar for not even that much to pay for. So, from what I could see from the contract and pictures the landlord sent me, I think this is about what we’ll be looking at when we walk out the front door. So if you’re jealous right now… it’s okay, you should be.

I’m usually not a big fan of long books. But recently I found that all the books on my nightstand were over a thousand pages (although I managed to slip some short ones in, Matt Ruff’s Bad Monkeys and Mark Dunn’s Ella Minnow Pea, which I finished in no time). It started with Against the Day which I decided I couldn’t concentrate on long enough to actually make some sense about what the hell was happening, so I switched to Follett’s World Without End, which I liked more than I expected.

That gave me the perfect opportunity to finally read The Pillars of the Earth, one of those books that everybody has read but me (mostly because I usually shy away from books that everybody has read, I figure that these books don’t urgently need another reader).

There’s two things I have to say about The Pillars of the Earth: One, it’s either not as well written as World Without End or I actually have reached that stage where reading English feels more natural to me than reading German (which is a bit scary). Two, it’s basically the same book as World Without End. Or actually the other way round, but since I read World Without End first this is how it feels to me. You basically switch out a few characters and slightly alter some of the storylines and jump a little bit in time and there you are. Same book. I haven’t figured out whether I really care, though. I guess not. It’s still a good enough read.

As seen at Srah’s.

Here are the rules…

1. Put your mp3 player or music player on your computer on random.
2. Post the first four lines from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song (Skip repeat artists).
3. Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

So, let’s get going… leave your guesses in the comments and I will try to keep up with telling you when you were right. (Not sure how hard this will be, but try to stay away from Google.)

1. One and one-half wandering Jews
Free to wander wherever they choose
Are travelling together in the Sangre de Cristo
The Blood of Christ Mountains of New Mexico
Answered by Srah: Hearts and Bones by Paul Simon

2. I’ve got my work cut out with you
You tore bits out of me
Your carpet burns and bruises blue
And there for all to see

3. I’m gonna tell you what you need to hear
And I’m a little too late
By three or four years
And it may not make much sense

4. Lucretia walks into a room.
Because she does it’s not the same room
The one she wanted to be in
She says, “Everywhere I go, damn! There I am.”

5. Nobody inside
Could there be another world?
(I’ve got to) let nobody inside
Could there be another world?

6. Well I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky
Yes I had a dream
I stood beneath an orange sky

7. Well they’re out in the yard
Said it took them all night
Over the hill on a prayer and a pill
To the fifth one down on the right

8. Do you ever think of me
When you’re through thinking of you
Do you ever think of when we met
Do I ever cross your mind

9. I’m just looking for someone
To have a good time with
I’m just looking for someone
To have a good time with

10. Red tail hawk circles the sky
School bus has come and gone and I have waved goodbye
Nothing new in the morning light
Nothing new ‘cept another stop light (on the corner)

11. Johanna drove slowly into the city
The Hudson River all filled with snow
She spied the ring on his honor’s finger
Oh oh oh

12. Hello, tell me you know
Yeah, you figured me out
Something gave it away
And it would be such a beautiful moment

13. Day was dawning
Almost sounded like warning
Wind rushing through the trees almost roaring
Just see what I’ve become

14. You give me that look that’s like laughing
With liquid in your mouth
Like you’re choosing between choking
And spitting it all out
Answered by Caitlin: Falling is Like This by Ani DiFranco

15. He said I’m a lover not a fighter
As he came into the room
The people clap and they laughed
And they handed him a broom

16. It takes a uniquely fucked up man to break his own heart
And the right girl at the wrong time to make him do it.
So if I am the guy and you’re the girl and the time is now,
Then I’m as broke as any man could be.

17. Help me out said the minnow to the trout
I was lost and found myself swimming in your mouth
Help me chief
I’ve got to plans for you and me

18. Didn’t I make you feel like you were the only man?
Didn’t I give you everything a woman possibly can?
But with all the love I give you it’s never enough
I’m gonna show you baby that a woman can be tough
Answered by Srah: Take Another Little Piece of my Heart by Janis Joplin/Dusty Springfield

19. City’s breaking down on a camel’s back,
They just have to go ’cause they don’t know wack,
So all you fill the streets it’s appealing to see,
You wont get undercounted, ‘cos you’re damn as free
(Not sure about the lyrics, and the internet can’t agree on one version.)

20. You can tell me anything
You are a true exception in my life
It sounded like she said she was in love