Bumper Stickers in Berlin

Just now – on a street in Berlin – I passed a Volvo with a German license plate, but also with an NPR bumper sticker, and an Obama '08 bumper sticker. Which prompted in me a natural reaction of:

Am I back home in Ithaca??

(Germans don't really do bumper stickers, for the most part, so their very presence is a dead giveaway that Americans are involved!)

April Weather

In German,  changeable spring weather is known as "Aprilwetter" ("April weather") and that's what we're having right now, though it's not quite April yet. Yesterday all day: steady rain alternating with big, soft balls of hail. Today: the sun is shining and every single bush and flowering tree seems to have burst forth overnight.

It must be spring!

Benedict Cumberbatch and the Sign of Three, No, Four!

Man, all these years and Sesame Street is still the most awesome, with its clever references and culturally hip cameos.

Here, Benedict Cumberbatch (aka "Counterbatch") meets Muppet arch-nemesis "Murray-arty" and counts to three – no, four!

(This might be even better than when Benedict Cumberbatch recited R. Kelly lyrics... Or when he did that award acceptance speech in surf shorts... Or when he photobombed U2 at the Oscars... Come to think of it, that dude is just made of win, isn't he?)

Anyway:

"You win this time, Sherlock!"
"...Benedict."
"You win this time, Benedict Sherlock!"

Man, on Skateboard, with Dog

There's a guy who often whooshes past our office window on a skateboard, with his dog on a leash out front, pulling him down the sidewalk at quite a clip. Both dog and man are hip and artsy looking, and completely blasé about their unusual transportation arrangement. The sight makes us chuckle in appreciation every time.

Berlin's so awesome sometimes!

Dartmoor, England!

I went to Dartmoor (think Sherlock Holmes in Hound of the Baskervilles, and just generally lovely, wild nature) for a few days of hiking in February (yes, in February) and it was fantastic! Here's an album of pictures that I think captures a little of how dramatic and otherworldly Dartmoor can be – you step onto the moor and you're suddenly a world away from the towns and roads and sheep fields that make up the countryside around it. Plus, being there in February, I caught all kinds of crazy weather, which made the whole trip seem even more dramatic and adventurous. Loved it, would go back in a heartbeat.

Anyway, pictures!

Dartmoor Days

Finland; or, You Know, Whatever

Just for kicks, I took an online quiz called, "Which European Country Do You Actually Belong In?" I figured, well, as a person who lives in Europe, it would be fun to see what an online quiz had to say... My result:

"You got: Finland. You’re extremely liberal and you love being close to nature. You can sometimes seem a bit aloof, but that’s only because you enjoy silence. You’re honest, reliable, and exceptionally loyal."

Huh, that seems pretty reasonable, actually. ...I'd been thinking more along the lines of finding a cabin in the woods in Maine where I could be totally alone and do nothing but write, or a small place somewhere in the English/Scottish countryside where I could go hiking all the time, or going to Iceland and hanging out with all the musicians, but sure, Finland works too!

(I know I've been silent here for ages; my life is going through work-related upheavals and almost definitely headed for a big change of some sort, so I'm actually semi-serious about the whole cabin-in-the-woods-writing-and-hiking thing... Well, we'll see where that takes me in the next months!)

Anyway. Here's the quiz, if you're curious too.