Ain't this a major annoyance

Well from this point on this blog is officially moving to this address:
http://clearblogs.com/lifeingerm

NEW BLOGGER is a pain if you happen to have more than one blog. This blog will only display the profile from my other blog, and I can't rectify this after hours of trying....so be warned fellow blogspot bloggers. I think the new blogger is not a problem if you just have one blog, but if you have more than one with different profiles you are hosed if you switch to access them via one gmail account. If you have multiple blogs with different profiles you can access them via more than one gmail account and you also won't encounter problems. Oh if I had known this morning.

New Blogger

I've just switched both of my blogs to new blogger, and after reading miles of help files it looks like I'm stuck with the profile for my "dog blog" on this blog...which is not how I want things. I'm putting up this post to see if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this....I don't see a solution other than quickly becoming proficient with html, and I don't have time for this because my house is a mess and I have 3 dogs here who would rather go for a walk than watch me pull out my hair.
Anyway, suggestions anyone? One thing I would strongly suggest is that if you have multiple blogs, don't switch over to New Blogger. This is a seriously painful bug and may cause me to have to delete this one and start over....which I hate to do because of links on my website and on the sites of my friends....HELP!

In the meantime I'm going to turn off all computers, take a walk, think this over while I hand out dog treats, and try to stop freaking out!

die Oma aka Omi

This is a picture of my famous in these here parts mother-in-law. Everyone knows her, but I guess this is what happens when you stay put for 88 years. She's feisty, sometimes tempermental, but goes like the energizer bunny especially in weather suitable for gardening. She's a gardening fool and will wear herself out on her hands and knees all day in the sun. But she grows beautiful flowers and a lot of them, healthy bio vegetables, does a lot of complaining about it but also will tell you after she's rested that she loves the garden. It seems to be keeping her young.
This morning I was soaking in the tub and thinking about her and how much German I've learned from her. She's patient with my questions and is proud of the way she effectively can guess at my meaning when my German is not quite right. I am really kind of interested in the development of foreign languages, and as such sometimes we have had discussions about the most basic of problems in German....gender. Now coming from a world where things like table, sky, tree, etc. are all genderless, I have constant problems getting it right in German as do my friends (thankfully) since we all are learning this language a bit late in life. Omi really can't relate to this, and it blows her away when I ask things like why is a skirt masculine, why is a girl neutral, and why are spoons, forks and knives masculine, feminine, and neutral respectively. She looks at an object and it just IS the gender that it IS. Period. It does not matter if it makes no sense like if most of the rivers IN German are feminine but OUTSIDE Germany they are mostly masculine. In her mind THIS IS JUST CORRECT, and she cannot grasp why I don't see it this way. But she gets it slightly that my world is pretty neutral and she is nice about it when I get the gender wrong. It makes her chuckle, but I must say that NOTHING makes her laugh as hard as watching me knit. I knit via the American method....stick the needle in, wrap the yarn and finish your stitch. This almost knocks her to her knees. She has what I must admit is a much more effective method of holding the yarn so that it feeds through her fingers and she does each stitch in one swift motion. Since she's been knitting now for more than 60 years she's not only proficient at her method but knits at warp speed. I told her she can make a pair of socks in 10 minutes with 5 needles, no problem.
I could go on about her forever because I spend a lot of time with her every week. I'm her chauffeur for all things shopping and appointment related. I've really come to love her even though she's a kind of crazy little German devil woman!

I'm a lazy blogger but here's what I'm reading

I just read what I think might be the best book of my life. It is called Hannah's Gift and I don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to adequately describe it. If I have already not gotten it for you, get a copy as fast as you can. It is painful for sure, but also about the joy and fullness of living. I cried (correction, sobbed) and laughed and felt like I'd been given a wonderful gift when I closed the back cover. Just trust me.

Now I'm halfway through Peter Mayle's new book which is called Provence A-Z. It is better than it seemed when I cracked the book open, and I've learned a lot about Provence. As we are headed there tomorrow, I'll be reading it surrounded by lavender fields, although they've been chopped back for the year. But Provence is always good no matter how you slice it. Rent our houses there at www.flertwig.de
We are going down to open them up for the season....a bit early but we otherwise have packed schedules so February it is.

And I also just read 1000 Days in Tuscany and before that 1000 Days in Venice both by Marlena de Blasi. I liked Venice better, but thought they were both lovely tales. She's a good writer and includes recipes so you can't beat that.