Cheryl on the Web

I’ve got so much to say today, partly because I’ve been trying to spend less time on the computer in my free time, and more time doing .. anything else .. and that only gives me more to talk about on this blog. So, sorry to those dedicated blog readers for the lack of updates, and here’s hoping you’ll enjoy this one.

First thing to report, is that a cute little bird built her nest in the back corner of our outdoor storage area about two weeks ago, and her chicks hatched last week! For a week now we’ve been watching anxiously to see if she manages to feed the four little heads that we every now and then see sticking out of the nest. The nest is about as wide as Tim’s open hand, so you can imagine how small the chicks in the picture really are. It seems she’s doing her best, but how in the world she feeds herself and all four of them is beyond my comprehension. I imagine she can tell you it’s hard work being a mom. It’s supposed to rain off and on this week, for which we’re glad, since hopefully that will get those worms up out of the ground.

Yesterday Tim and I went on a date to the European World Bowl which was held this year in Frankfurt. It’s effectively a European NFL Super Bowl: the culmination of a football season in which 6 teams participate, 5 teams from Germany and 1 team from Holland. Apparently the participation of two countries makes this count as a “world” bowl! The game was between Frankfurt Galaxy and Hamburg Sea Devils, and fans from both sides made so much noise it was difficult to have a normal conversation even in the nose-bleed seats. It was Tim’s first time to see a football game in person, and he indicated that if he didn’t know anything about the rules or the game itself, he would have been lost in the chaos. The game and the ceremonial stuff around it continually featured America or American things, which I experienced as a quite disturbing sign of American world dominance.

In the train on the way home from the football game, Tim and I noticed again what we have commented on so many times before: how spooky many of the dinky little train stations in Germany can be in the dark! In contrast to Holland, they are generally not well-lit and do not have security cameras. Good material for a hair-raising horror film if you ask me, but I wouldn’t have the guts to watch it!

Call me National Geographic, but in addition to those birds I’ve got to share a picture with you of a huge rainbow that Tim and I witnessed this week from the livingroom window: