Ever Wonder What the Big Blogs Make Blogging?

BusinessWeek exposes some of the blogging success stories out there. It is proof positive that our mutual obsession with blogging can actually turn into decent income if we are so inclined.

Eric Nakagawa, a software developer in Hawaii, posted a single photo of a fat, smiling cat he found on the Internet, with the caption, "I can has cheezburger?" in January, 2007, at a Web site he created. It was supposed to be a joke. Soon after he posted a few more images in the same vein: cute cats with funny captions written in a silly, invented hybrid of Internet shorthand and baby-talk. Then he turned the site into a blog, so that visitors could comment on the postings. What happened after that would have been hard for anyone to predict.

"We just thought, O.K., they're funny,"Nakagawa says. "Suddenly we started getting hits. I was like, where are these coming from?"

I had no idea that blog just started in January! Their hits doubled each month and at this point is getting 500,000 hits per day! Those hits translate into income, if from nothing else than the ads on the site.

Like pretty much the rest of us, the 'big money blogs' started their blogs as a hobby and saw them grow into big income. BusinessWeek refers to them as accidental entrepreneurs. Here are some examples of what the 'big money blogs' are making ...

BoingBoing is the big boy of blogs (no surprise there), with 22 million page views from 2.6 million unique visitors PER DAY! (I have a way to go to reach those numbers! LOL) Income is estimated at over $1 million per year.

I Can Has Cheezburger? (mentioned above) averages $5,600 in monthly income.

ShoeMoney can buy a lot of shoes with the money he's making on his blog. Actually, ShoeMoney is the brainchild of Jeremy Schoemaker and brings in 20,000 unique visitors per day translating into a $12,000 per month income. Schoemaker has other internet businesses such as auctionads. He says he works online about 30 minutes a day. I want me one of those checks he's holding up!!

Overheard in New York has 6 million page views per month and an estimated $8,100 monthly revenue.

Kottke.org limits ads on his site intentionally preferring to focus on good service to a smaller group of readers. He earns $5,300 per month with one ad on his site.

TalkingPointsMemo gets $45,000 per month.

Perez Hilton gets $110,000 per month.

Gothamist generates about 7 million page views per month with an income of between $50,000 and $60,000 per month.

TechCrunch earns $200,000 per month.

Go Fug Yourself was a site started by two friends for the sole purpose of mocking celebrity fashion. They are now mocking the celebs full time with $6,420 in monthly income.

Mashable has 4 million page views per month and generates $116,000 per month.

Problogger doesn't disclose details of his income, but claims over 6 figures per year. So we know its over $100,000 per year. I'm betting that's an extremely low estimate.

Michelle Malkin and Hot Air has over 220,000 hits per day. She claims her blog and vblog (Hot Air) operate at a slight loss due to the necessity for high end servers to handle traffic surges. She says her income is primarily through her print media articles. Hmmm ...... Okay. Although, I admit I've only recently been seeing more ads on her blog.

Well, if that doesn't give you some encouragement to keep doing what your doing, I don't know what will. I do believe that the main factor in having a successful blog (however you define success) is that you enjoy it and you write about what you are interested in and know.

Happy blogging!

Joan Van Ark’s HOLY COW Plastic Surgery

Joan Van Ark of Knots Landing fame has made a mess of trying to look 20 when she is, in fact, 64 years old. This is proof positive that any benefits from cosmetic surgery can be taken too far. Aside from the fact she looks like a skeleton, she also looks like a cadaver. Her painted on eyebrows, too heavy eye make-up and caked-on make-up is off-set by a complete lack of lipstick. Did they bring her to this event straight from the morgue?

Hey, none of us LIKE getting older, but we do. Having some wrinkles and sagging can't look any worse than THIS!

Elvis Quote

How Was Your Cereal This Morning?

Enjoy :)

How to Make a Celebrity

Created by Aviary. I don't think she's that gorgeous - but its cool to watch it being done .....

Doll Face

Videos by Andrew Huang | More VMIX videos
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Doll Face by Andrew Huang.

I Got Some More Pictures From My Son's Wedding

I've managed to get my hands on a few more pictures from my son's wedding last December. The pictures I posted before are here. The photographer is my daughter-in-law's sister's boyfriend (there has to be an easier way of saying that!). His website is CB_PIC_ART. I think he did a fantastic job with the photos. He took over 400 (if I didn't misunderstood them since they were talking in German combined with broken English). I want to see them all, but I'm so far away I'm having to take them as I can get them!

They were married at the Schloss Thiergarten. It was built in 1725 as the hunting lodge for Margrave Friedrich. When we took a tour of the Plassenburg castle, which was built in 1135 for Bishop Otto of Bamberg, we learned that at some point the line of the Hohenzollern family that had inhabited the castle for generations ended. Therefore, another branch of the family that had control the area around Berlin sent a cousin down to take control of Plassenburg castle and all the surrounding fiefdom. That was Margrave Friedrich and his wife Wilhelmine who was a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

Well, Friedrich and Wilhelmine thought they'd come to the end of the earth in this, what was then, remote 'country' place. Even though its one of the largest, if not the largest, castles in Germany (I can't remember), they didn't like staying there. They were city people after all. To make matters worse, they didn't particularly like each other. So Wilhelmine spent a lot of time in nearby Bayreuth and spent an enormous amount of money building some of the most ornate and beautiful buildings in the Franconia (now Bavaria). She had the Bayreuth Opera House built. We were allowed to spend about $20 per person to spend about five minutes in the opera house while we were there. It is spectacular, even though very expensive for a walk through. Wagner played there but thought it was too small for his music.

Another of the properties Wilhelmine built was the Schloss Thiergarten (Schloss is German for Castle. I *think* Thiergarten is 'the garden' - so that would be the Castle of the Garden (or since they word things backward from us it would be 'The Garden Castle') - if you speak German please don't make fun of me!). We were told in our tour of Schloss Plassenburg that Schloss Thiergarten was built as a hunting lodge for Wilhelmine's husband, the Margrave Friedrich. I imagine she liked having him busy doing his thing there so she could do her thing in some of the residences she had built in Bayreuth.

Now. That HAS to be more than you wanted to know about that little hunting lodge castle. So on with the pictures ....

Michi was having a good time .....

Fingerpaint

How cool is this photo? I have a whole set of finger painting art similar to this. I'll upload them from time to time just because they are cool.

Darling Daughter and Her New Dog

My Darling Daughter has gotten herself a new dog. AS IF she needs another thing to worry about. I admit though, she seems to really be enjoying it and the dog certainly seems happier than its probably ever been in its entire life! She has spoiled this dog. Its pathetic ....

See what I mean? That's the little creature sleeping on my daughters bed as though she's human. My daughter sends me these pictures via her cell phone and pretty much insist that I oohhh and ahhh over the dog. I'm surprised she doesn't have it in a car seat! LOL

Celtic Woman - Mo Ghile Mear

Celtic Woman performing Mo Ghile Mear (A New Journey) live at Slane Castle, Ireland 2006.

The singers are: Hayley Westenra, Chloë Agnew, Órla Fallon, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Lisa Kelly and Mairead Nesbi.

Enjoy .....

Random Thoughts on Marital Bliss

My Beloved Curmudgeon and I have a reasonably happy marriage. Most of the time we get along well, enjoy the same things, have basically the same views (I'm not quite as hard-core as he is), think the same things are funny and have the same cynical outlook on life.

In between those times we tolerate each other as best we can.

The content times last longer now than the 'why am I putting up with this?' times. There have been times, over the years, that it was the other way around. Maybe as time has gone by we've both mellowed out a little and gotten a little more accepting of each other's eccentricities.

I have learned a few things along the way about marriage. So I'll pass along a few of my little pearls of wisdom ... (Lucky whoever is reading this!)

From the beginning I noticed that he and I are at approximately the same level of sloppiness. We are pretty much equals in the amount of messiness we can stand.

As I was piddlin' around the house this weekend, straightening and cleaning I was struck with that reality once again.

We both work more than full time in demanding, stressful jobs. Neither of us feel like cleaning and scrubbing when we get home. So I do most of my cleaning on the weekend. But I can't avoid the fact that in the last few years that my housekeeping has definitely gone downhill.

I should hire someone, but I have to get the house clean enough to hire someone to clean (g). So I still do it myself.

Whenever I start cleaning, he gets up and empties the trashcans. It doesn't matter how much is in the trashcans, it can be one single piece of paper. But he'll go around the house emptying all the trash cans. Equal labor???

I think he feels he should be doing something since I'm cleaning.

So for today's little pearl of wisdom:One of the keys to marital bliss is compatibility in the amount of slovenliness that is acceptable to both parties in the relationship.

goede nacht

My Life and Feminism

I've spent my entire adult professional life competing with men in the work place. I've had a lot of successes and a few disappointments. Over the years I learned the truth and adjusted myself to the business world accordingly as best I could.

Women's liberation was pretty well entrenched in our workplace psyche when I started my professional career. I remember starting out with the naive assumption that it was a level playing field. I thought if I worked hard I would succeed. I thought hard competent work equaled success in the business world.

Even back then it bothered me that the women's lib movement made the assertion that in order to be taken seriously we had to dress, look and act like a man. Remember the styles of the 1980s? The broad shoulders, the short masculine hair styles, jackets and scarves that looked like neckties? I wore those things to my job. It didn't make any difference. I was still paid less than my male counterparts. I was still hit on by the men at work. Men still patronized me as a cute little thing rather than as a serious colleague. I still had to be twice as tough as a man to be taken seriously and that only succeeded in getting me called a bitch.

The parts that really bothered me were the pay and the fact that men would work games on me, as a female, that they would never consider even trying with a male colleague. It also bothered me that women's lib didn't seem to value femininity. I thought, and still think, that the feminine has a lot to offer and should be valued equally. I don't believe it's necessary that we are all the same in order to be of value to society.

Another thing that feminists did was increase a woman's work load. I've been accused of being a workaholic. When I've heard people say that about me I wonder where that comes from. I never wanted to work as hard as I worked. I thought I had to. I felt guilty if I didn't. Think about it for a minute. If your house is a mess who is blamed for that? The woman. It doesn't matter if she works 60 hours a week and the man in the house works 40 hours a week. It is still her responsibility, in most people's minds, to keep the house and feed the family. In the past, the man was the provider for the family. He still mostly is, but it has changed so that if the family is struggling financially more and more people blame both the man and the woman. If we are honest with ourselves we do see it that way.

The result is that most of us are chronically exhausted and not much good to anyone.

In an odd sort of way, women's lib devalued both the feminine and the masculine. We were supposed to all morph into some kind of androgynous being that none of us really found attractive or wanted to be. Remember Prince? I never have understood what was wrong with appreciating and celebrating the differences. We both bring important characteristics to the table. Ying and Yang, the perfect circle of completion and all that.

When I look at the feminist blogs in the blogosphere I see self-hate and man-hate. I'd be willing to bet the women who write those blogs have not had to compete with men for jobs and respect in the business world. They couldn't make it with that kind of skewed thinking and complete lack of appreciation for the masculine and the feminine.

After all this time it hasn't changed. Human nature is what it is. You can not make a woman into a man or a man into a woman (most of the time!). The question is whether or not we can learn to appreciate what each brings to the table.

A few weeks ago I had a life changing experience. It was one of those things that happens that leaves you feeling like you've been kicked in the stomach and you're not quite sure where the lick came from. This followed on the heels of another experience that already had me thinking about how I had been living my life.

I learned early in my adult life that life is neither easy nor fair. I don't mean that I learned that intellectually, I learned it at a level that I understood it and quit expecting fairness or an easy road. Once I understood that, my life became easier. I quit being so angry when things did not go my way. I was able to look at events in my life more philosophically and objectively which helped me make more rational decisions about the direction I would take things. I was better able to forgive myself for my shortcomings.

Through the years I learned that I had a lot more gumption and courage that I would have ever known I had. I learned I could go toe to toe with pretty much anyone. It's been a long time since I have felt intimidated by anyone in the business world. I learned I was competent, capable and efficient. I learned I could do it. I could compete, even on an uneven playing field.

I learned that life is still not fair or easy. But that's okay.

And now I know that it's okay not to do that anymore. I don't need to. I don't want to. I've spent a certain amount of time immersed in self-pity and anger. But the bouts of self-pity are starting to be further between and of shorter duration. I have spent a lot of time exploring ways to free myself from the brutally political world of business.

I'm starting off in a new direction, a new venture. I don't have to prove anything to women's lib or anyone else anymore.

After all this time, I'm still standing.

My Little Darling's Last Halloween

I'm trying to organize my photos and ran across these photos of my daughter. My li'l darlin' thinks she was scary at a Halloween party she attended. She sent me these photos and I don't think she's scary looking at all!!! Sadly, its gotten to where I only see either of my kids through photos. They both live so far away. She doesn't seem to mind helping decapitate some poor soul with a guillotine! But then, she's nobody to mess with that's for sure. She may look like a sweet little something and she is, but she's also a power to reckon with. Neither of my kids are wimpy. The pictures below are of her and her boyfriend. He was dressed like a nerd! lol

The Wedding

I finally got some pictures of THE WEDDING. That would be my son's wedding we went to in December in Germany. German weddings are interesting in that they go on all day and all night. They start in the morning when the bride and groom have to go to the local court house and get married by the State. I thought that would be just a small official signing of papers and swearing oaths and that would be that. No ... I would have been wrong if I'd thought that. The ceremony at the court house was every bit as long as the religious ceremony they had later in the day. On top of that, EVERYONE came to the court house ceremony as well.

The bride and groom sat at the front of the office and the official sat behind his desk. Everyone else sat in the room and spilled over into the hallway. We waited while the bride and groom signed papers - a lot of papers. When the ceremony started the official gave a very long talk on the meaning of marriage, etc. They had hired a translator for our benefit, which was very thoughtful of them, so everything was said in German and in English.


After that ceremony there was a gathering in the landing at the bottom of the stairs and then it was off in their chauffeured, decorated car with all of us following them in our respective cars, honking the horns and in general calling attention to them. We drove all over Beyreuth honking. Even in the cold weather, people came out on their balconies to wave and other cars honked as they passed us. It was actually fun.

After the ride through all the streets in town, it was off to the castle for the wedding. This was actually the hunting lodge of the woman in the painting above the fireplace in the photos. We had toured their castle a few days before. That's how I knew that. They didn't like it out at their castle so their built a bunch of places in Beyreuth so they could be in the city. They also built the Beyreuth Opera House where Wagner sometimes performed. But that's off the subject. It looked like a castle to this American girl. We don't have castles like that here.


Before they got into the castle, they had to cut through this heart. There were several of these hearts that stopped them along the way and each time they had to cut out the heart to go on. Josh apparently cut faster than Michi. By the time they were at the second heart, he just cut all the way around before she had cut her half very far.

One of the funniest events they did was to have a doll that Josh had to diaper before they could go into the castle. Michi tried to help him, but they wouldn't let her. Being a good Southern boy, after some failed attempts to figure it out, he took out some duck tape and taped the diaper on. I was so proud!!!

After the diapering and heart cutting and other very cold activities, we headed into the castle. We had a brunch. Then socialized. Then had another ceremony that was very similar to the first one only there was music and it was conducted by a minister. Then we had cake - and I don't mean a little cake - there was a table with about a dozen cakes. Then we ate a zillion course meal. Then the 'music man' showed up and there was music and dancing into the wee hours of the morning. A fantastic time was had by all. It really was wonderful.


Here are a few more pictures from the day ....

American Marines at the Grand Canyon

from Blue Star Chronicles

Problems in France

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is in love and its causing quite a stir over there.


Here's the thing. His wife of 12 years decided to up and leave him just weeks after he took office. Apparently, she went back to a former lover. He was so upset about her leaving that he had to be hospitalized briefly - but that was a state secret at the time. Well, no sooner did she move on to her former lover than he met a look-alike younger version of her and now he's 'besotted' as they say over there.


Everybody is worried.


His supporters are worried because he's not acting like himself. He's been a workaholic, but now he's daydreaming and canceling appointments and jetting off to exotic vacations with his model girlfriend, Carla Bruni. They are also concerned because its affecting his official duties. For instance, the Vatican wouldn't receive him because they don't receive the girlfriend of a world leader. They say he really needs a First Lady, but many question whether she's the right First Lady. You see, she's got quite the past.


Carla Bruni's nickname is 'maneater' if that gives you a clue. She's been known to break up marriages and date men like Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger and Donald Trump. Plus, she's pretty high maintenance and seems to be leading the President around on a leash. The general consensus is that she will be the end of his career. Many seem to think its her resemblance to his former wife that has him so obsessed with her.


Its not that the French mind affairs.


What they mind is that they are so public. Sarkozy has stated he just won't hide his life from the public. The French find that appalling. They say its just not done. Affairs should be carried on in secret!

It is not at all what the French expect from their head of state. As one Paris-based friend of mine remarked, Sarkozy has "betrayed the national code of honour".


Despite its sybaritic image, France is a fundamentally provincial country which respects social order and prefers affairs to be secret - a situation helped by draconian privacy laws.


"Sarkozy has opened the curtains on a country which was happily eating cheese and climbing up the backstairs to visit mistresses," says my friend gloomily. "France likes hypocrisy. It does not like sexual openness. We are not Italy."


Sarkozy, of course, has a different interpretation. "I broke with a deplorable tradition in our country, that of hypocrisy and lies," he said yesterday.


"With Carla, we decided not to lie. We don't want to hide."

So are we witnessing an enormous cultural shift in France or a president who has taken leave of his senses?

To make matters even worse his former wife, Cecilia Sarkozy, has written a biography that is very damaging to Sarkozy. This is the third book about Sarkozy's love life in the less than a year that he's been France's president. Not good. Cecilia is now claiming that she didn't intend for her conversations with French journalist Anna Bitton to be published. Bitton says that's just not true and says this about Cecilia: "ice-cold, blue-blooded empress' and a 'poor little rich girl who is addicted to shopping". Ouch!


Some of Cecilia's assertions ....

Sarkozy is "ridiculous, badly behaved and not fit to be president" Cecilia Sarkozy says in a new book, adding for good measure that the women in his life are just a 'bunch of slappers' (or des petasses fardees, as the French would have it).


Even the president's female political colleagues do not escape her barbed tongue: they are just "boring wallflowers, and now that there is no First Lady, he needs to surround himself with pretty young things dressed in Dior".

Hmmm .... nasty, nasty. Pass the milk! Stay tuned ... I'll keep you updated when I find out what the next chapter of this soap opera is. C'est la vie!

They Also Serve

Tribute to military families. The magic for me in making this video was featuring real military families. They are the true stars of this video. Produced & Directed by John Donegan Productions.


I developed and wrote the treatment (the script) and cast, directed, shot and edited the video. My script received Pentagon approval to shoot with the 101st Airborne at Ft. Campbell and the music video actually premiered in a theater there for the troops before being broadcast on TV. It now can be viewed in almost 200 countries on Armed Forces TV.

Al-Qaeda Threatens Mavis Leno

In the video that was recently released by the American Al-Qaeda Member Adam Yahiye Gadahn, he lashed out against Jay Leno's wife, Mavis Leno and First Lady Laura Bush. He called them hypocrites and warns that they, along with other Americans, will be punished.


Mavis Leno's wrongdoing? She has worked to help the women of Afghanistan who have suffered under the Taliban. He threatens the First Lady for the same reason.


He says we are in a fight to the death with islam. Once again, the islamist tell us what their intentions are. Once again they tell us that they intend to kill us all and that they view this as a global war with their ideology. Once again, we don't listen.


WorldNetDaily

The American leader of al-Qaida lashed out at the wife of late-night talk show host Jay Leno in a newly released video-taped message warning fellow Americans of coming "punishment."


Al-Qaida propaganda chief Adam Gadahn, aka. "Azzam the American," singled Mavis Leno out for rebuke for her feminist views and criticism of the misogynistic brutality of the Taliban. He also heaped scorn on first lady Laura Bush, suggesting they are both hypocrites.


"Doesn't it seem strange to you that Mrs. Jay Leno and Mrs. George W. Bush ... have failed to express their outrage at this criminal misogynistic behavior which your government and its allies are engaged in and encouraging in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia?" Gadahn said, according to a transcription and translation of the 50-minute screed, spoken in Arabic and English.


Leno has been honored by feminist organizations for working to help the oppressed women of Afghanistan. She was one of the first celebrities to draw attention to their brutal treatment under the ousted Taliban regime.


Gadahn, who is wanted by the FBI for treason, claims U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq are handing over control of parts of the country to Shiite militias who are more brutal than the Taliban, targeting women for gang rape and assassination.


He says they "specialize in sidewalk murders of allegedly immoral women," and their "track record is no better when it comes to their treatment of women." Al-Qaida is comprised of Sunni Muslims.


"Doesn't it seem as though your angry celebrity female activists only spring into action when their campaigns don't conflict with your regime's foreign policies," Gadahn said, "and in fact, serve their colonialist designs?"


Gadahn went on to warn Americans, after tearing up his passport on camera, that "atrocities" against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan "will never be forgotten, nor go unpunished."


"You're now in a battle to the death with the Muslims," he said, adding that only releasing Muslim prisoners, leaving Muslim lands and coverting to Islam will spare Americans from "punishment."


"Don't wait until it's too late," he warned, "until you've seen the punishment with your own eyes."


Gadahn did not make specific threats against Leno or the first lady during the video.


In 2002, Leno told CNN's Larry King that she did not plan to travel to Afghanistan to meet with the women she helped liberate, because she feared for her safety.


"I have not been there because the Taliban are well aware of my campaign," she said. "They know what I look like, they know my name."

Paratrooper Carries the Flag of his Father

Pfc. Alexander Cesario of Somerville, N.J., a forward observer with A Co, Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, displays his father Adam's American flag on a rooftop in Baghdad's Suleikh neighborhood. As a Soldier in Vietnam, the elder Cesario flew the flag every day - including a three day period when he was missing in action - and his son now carries it with him on patrols in Iraq. Photo by Sgt. Michael Pryor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs.

Flag of My Father: Paratrooper Keeps Flag Carried by Dad in Vietnam Story by Staff Sgt. Mike Pryor, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs Baghdad, Iraq


Like any Soldier, Pfc. Alexander Cesario always makes sure he has all his essential equipment before he goes outside the wire. For Cesario, that means his weapon, radio, and night vision goggles, as well as one special, personal item – an American flag his father brought home from Vietnam.


Cesario, a Somerville, N.J., native serving as a forward observer with Company A., Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, has carried his father’s flag with him on every mission since being deployed to Iraq a year ago.


The flag was first acquired by Cesario’s father, Adam, 61, when he was a young paratrooper serving in Vietnam. The elder Cesario never let a day go by without unfurling the flag, no matter where he was or what he was doing.


“(My dad) flew that flag every day, even if he had to put it up on a radio antenna,” Cesario said.


At one point, a mission went wrong and Cesario’s father was cut off from the rest of his platoon. For three days, he had to hack it out of the jungle alone, with the Vietcong in hot pursuit. But even on the run, he still managed to raise the flag each day.


“He didn’t stop moving at all for those three days, except to fly that flag,” Cesario said.


When Cesario’s father returned from the war, he put the flag into safekeeping. He was so protective of it that even family members were rarely allowed to handle it.


“It was like his prized possession,” Cesario said.


Nothing could make the elder Cesario part with the flag until Alexander, 19, was deployed to Iraq this year. After he began patrolling the streets of Baghdad, Cesario decided he wanted to carry on his father’s tradition. After some arm-twisting, he convinced his dad to mail him the flag.


The flag arrived with step-by-step instructions on how to take care of it, Cesario said. He recalled the final step with a laugh: “If you lose it, don’t bother coming home.”


Despite the threat of exile, Cesario takes the flag with him everywhere. It is his way of paying tribute to his father, he said.


“I wanted to honor him,” Cesario said, “It meant a lot to him, and because of that, it means a lot to me.”


Cesario keeps the flag tucked into the front flap of his body armor, close to his heart. He said he’s looking forward to redeploying and returning the flag – now a veteran of two wars – to its rightful owner. Eventually Cesario, who is single, said he would like to pass the flag on to his own son, when he has one. There’s only one problem.


“I’ll have to pry it away from my dad first,” he joked.

I love the fact that we still have wonderful young men in this country who are still willing to stand up and be counted when the country needs them. Generation after generation, the United States produces these awesome young men (and women).

We're Home!!!

We are finally home!!!! We had a sehr Frohliche Weihnachten! (very Merry Christmas!) in Bavaria. I believe it has been one of our best Christmases. The German's certainly don't have the flair for wanton consumer consumption that we have. What would the retail world do without Americans? They'd go under, I believe. We spent Christmas (the 24th) with our new German in-laws. I agonized about what to buy them. I didn't have a clue what to expect. I didn't want to show up with overly extravagant gifts or overly small gifts. I didn't know them. I didn't know what their customs were. I just didn't know what to expect or what to take to give them.


I was pleasantly surprised when we showed up at their home to the freshly decorated (real!) tree trimmed with real lit candles. The slightly English speaking father of the house announced that they spend the evening celebrating the birth of Jesus, singing Carols and eating a traditional meal. The family exchanged simple, relatively inexpensive gifts and the rest of the evening was spent eating a fabulous meal and attempting to communicate in the odd way we found to communicate with none of us speaking the others language. We found common ground in laughter and love for our children who had married just the day before. I received gifts that included a porcelain angel, a metal plate with Bavarian scenes hand carved on it and a long leisurely evening around a dinner table spent with new family and new friends. It was a memorable and wonderful evening.


Now we are back in our own home. I'm looking forward to my own bed and a few days of relaxing rather than jamming across Bavaria. My son has two modes of operations, sleep and full throttle, so we fit a lot in to the two weeks we had there. Not to mention these semi-old bones need a couple of days of time zone recuperation and hopefully warmth seeing as these semi-old bones aren't accustomed to walking around in the snow and cold as if its a summer afternoon stroll. Frozen to the bone pretty much sums it up. But in a good way.


We have been traveling for 24 hours and I can't hardly think straight and I look like I've been rode hard and put up wet. My pen did something funky while I was filing out my declaration forms and leaked ink all over my fingers and hands leaving black stains all over them. I managed to break 5 fingernails during the trip today so my hands look pretty embarrassing at the moment. I spilled Mountain Dew on my sweater. When we were going through customs I dropped my passport and we couldn't find it for about 15 minutes. We only found it (in the fold of one of my suitcases) after a frantic search through the entire customs area with a customs agent holding me at his station while Beloved Curmudgeon retraced our steps looking for it. The customs guys periodically told me that this was not a good thing. I suggested that perhaps I should look instead of Beloved Curmudgeon as he can't find his socks in his sock drawer. The customs agent didn't think that was funny and told me, rather forcibly, that I could not and WOULD NOT leave my bags to go look. When I finally looked down and saw the passport in a nook of the suitcase and gave it to the customs guy he just motioned us through. The irritated look on his face and his exasperation left us laughing that he undoubtedly figured we couldn't possibly be terrorists when we were that incompetent. The whole thing was feeling a little like National Lampoon's Our Family's Christmas Vacation. We were a mess, exhausted, we hated the actual traveling but the overall trip was fantastic.


I hope you all had a special Christmas this year and spent time with the people you love and enjoyed the truly meaningful things in life, like schnitzel and the magical way that a well made bratwurst sandwich and gluhwein warms the body and soul when strolling through a Christmas Market when its 20 degrees. Its a wonderful thang!

Merry Christmas to all!