And even more random observations

Emilie got points taken off a test last week because she wrote "The function of the Queen Bee is laying eggs," instead of "The function of the Queen Bee is to lay eggs." She also lost points for writing "Me and Micaela went to the store," (not grammatically correct, I grant you) instead of what the teacher thought was more correct -- "Myself and Micaela went to the store." I've learned from experience that it's not worth complaining about. I tried once when James lost several points for perfectly good English on a composition. The school re-instated those points and then proceeded to go through his composition again with a fine-toothed comb and took off that exact same number of points for silly things they missed the first time around. Not worth it.

One of the kids at Rebecca's preschool rides this bike. The brand name made me chuckle and feel slightly sick to my stomach.

The wonderful grandmotherly director of our preschool wore a nice blouse last week. As she turned to lead the children to the chapel for religious instruction, across her back, emblazoned in huge letters, was the phrase "Cold Drinks and Hot Girls!"

The electronics store at the mall sells turntables and music on vinyl. And you do see new releases, not just old albums.

It's a German tradition that you provide a treat for your colleagues to enjoy on your birthday. Last February, David stopped by our bakery on the way to work and said he wanted to buy a bunch of rolls and an entire apple cake. The bakery lady sputtered, "But, but, if I sell you the entire cake, I won't have any for my other customers!" She reluctantly boxed up the cake for David and reprimanded him with a "Next time, order it in advance!" David wanted to say, "I thought the whole point of this was for you to sell stuff and for me to purchase it." He has also learned from experience that it wouldn't have been worth it.

There was a man's shirt for sale at our little grocery store that said "I take mine shaked, not stirred."

I let James change the channel of the car radio from a station "for grownups" to a top 40 one. During the 8-minute drive to the mall the other day and the 8-minute drive back, I listened to four songs, three of which incorporated the f-word. One was the Pink song Funhouse, the second was the Lily Allen song F**ck You (very much) during which she says the f-word about 25 times (I tried counting, but it's a catchy tune and hard not to sing along to), and the third song included not only the f-word, but also the sublime lyrics "Shush, girl, shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips." For the record, Helen Keller did learn to speak vocally.

The children's show "Make Way for Noddy," a program about a bobble-head doll, is shown here in Germany and we also caught it on TV one day in France. Micaela reminded me recently of the title character's name in French: Oui-Oui. My kids thought that was hilarious. Bathroom humor is big in our house.

That long thin bundle of meat I saw at the supermarket last week didn't look familiar. I check the label and discovered it was a rabbit.

You often see bikers and scooter riders pulling a trailer behind them loaded with their groceries or crates of mineral water. Many are much smaller than the one pictured here and look homemade.