It's been rather a while: I passed my yellow belt test. I've been to the U.S. with my daughter. My intern is progressing well. I'm currently planning on moving out of my office into a home office by the end of October, so I can rent the apartment to my recently married friend.

At the yellow belt test: I flubbed things a bit - I had a terrible time remembering the correct start for various things I was supposed to demonstrate. I'm not used to that - I never have test-angst for academic tests, but somehow it was a problem here. I passed anyway, but I'm going to need to work on this.

In the U.S.: We had a blast at the big family reunion, where I had very restricted communication access (no cell phone coverage, no phones or WiFi in the cabins) - I played a lot of guitar, practiced martial arts with my sister and my black belt cousin, went swimming, had some really good food, and generally hung out with people and had a good time. After that I visited my brother and his family. Finally I visited my Sister-in-Law and drove a few hours with her and her son to see Thomas the Tank Engine, life size. I got to go swimming again while I was at it. We also visited the "Goats on the Roof" Cafe.

DW is in Macedonia

Well, my DW is off to Macedonia for a week. I drove her and a friend to a third friend's place about an hour away this afternoon, and they're all in Macedonia now (at least I presume they are - I haven't heard from her yet). They're "travel teaching", mostly meaning that they're giving talks about Baha'i at gatherings and inviting people to such gatherings.

DW bought a small book on the Macedonian language - sort of a "phrase-book plus" - they used to be called "globetrotters", but now they're called something else - I forget what. Unfortunately they're only available in German - they're really good for getting a quick handle on a language.

Update

A friend of mine just got married in Armenia. :-) It was only a church wedding: there were problems with the paperwork, and he's going to have to get an extra registrar's wedding here in Germany.

I've been practicing guitar a lot: I've buffed up a lot of old things, and learned a few new, like "When I'm 64" and "El Condor Pasa". E. wants to do "Hey there, Delilah" and "1 2 3 4" by the "plain white t's", both of which I'm progressing on.

E. is a teacher, and she's also interested the People's Theater and Stop and Act, so I've arranged for N., who did People's Theater for her year of service, to meet her at our Friday evening event (prayers/singing/story telling).

Oh, and my company has started doing "Kurzarbeit" (short work), meaning I should be working less. It's complicated, and has just started, so I'm not going to try and explain it here.

Random Late Update

There's no special reason to update now, just I haven't in a long time. I've been practicing guitar a lot, slacking off on Farsi and Chinese, making steady progress in Jiu Jitsu. I've got a new laptop for work - not at my request, but still cool - I still haven't "broken it in" - I'm still using my old laptop for most things.

I've not been getting enough sleep (so what else is new).

A friend of mine is off in Armenia getting married (hopefully). It kind of depends on some paperwork I sent to him by mail, which is taking its sweet time getting there, despite being sent express. Twice.

My praktikant has been making good progress, though he would like things to be more hardware oriented, and I don't have that much hardware stuff for him to do.

I've reserved tickets for K. and myself to go to the States in July - DW is not going this year. Instead she's off to Macedonia later this month on a Baha'i Teaching Trip with a couple friends of ours.

Fun with Sensei and May Day

This past Thursday at Jiu Jitsu we got to play with rope (hojo?), tying each other up and hitting each other with them. :-)

Afterwards, I broke out the guitar, and Sensei, his GF, DW and I sang songs until past 11:00 pm. Much fun! :-)

Generally I've been steadily improving at guitar playing. I'm thinking of trying to create a video and post it on youtube - as much for learning how to post on youtube as anything else.

My Farsi has been noticeably improving, although my Farsi teacher is going on vacation in a little over a week, so it may slide again.

Our Friday evenings now have a set of regulars. I'm really happy with them, despite some difficulties. This Friday evening was also May Day.

Update

It's near two weeks since I last posted. I need to post more often.

I now have a 'praktikant' at work (whatever that is in English). He's not been able to really help yet, but he's been learning what I've been teaching him very quickly.

Our Friday night event is still going strong. I'm still going to Jiu Jitsu. Ruhi course, book 1, started up again this past Tuesday - DW and I are the tutors.

My participation at allbeliefs.com has been suffering a bit, as full time job, practicing guitar and studying the Writings have been filling my free time.

I'm generally feeling pretty good about life, though I think I need to slow down a bit somehow.

Watchmen & Stuff

Well, DW did want to go to Watchmen after all. It was in German, of course. I think they did a good job of it. They changed the story a bit, but not in any way that I felt detracted from it. Warning: it is rather gory in parts. In general, I enjoyed it and DW thought it was an "OK" movie. :-)

I've been getting on a late night schedule, which is not really good, considering my praktikant starts tomorrow at 9:00 am sharp. I think this may be related to my difficulties with hay fever, which are ongoing - generally there seems to be less pollen at night, and I don't feel so great in the morning.

I've been continuing to practice guitar a lot - I've decided to at least get the basics down of every song in my basic German guitar book. A fairly big project.