Tati’s Page

While everyone else in this country was out celebrating “Fat Tuesday” by dressing weird and dancing drunk in the streets, I went out to shoot pictures of the alps.

This is the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest peak (2.962 metres).

Notice the lack of snow.

*waves to Mark* Thanks for stopping in! Actually, I think in Dallas it is colder than in Bavaria. Our daytimes have been around 50°F with our night times a bit frosty. No snow to speak of, everything is wintergreen (yellow).

This has become the world’s most boring, most neglected blog.

I must admit, the last few weeks I have been relatively busy with myself. Still not smoking any cigs but fighting the weight battle big time. I have, with a few holiday exceptions, stuck to my müsli and salad and more salad diet, and was very proud to have managed to maintain my weight over the holidays. Since the holidays, however, I have managed to lose 2 kilos (that’s about 4 lbs) and I am very pleased and surprised at my perseverance.

I joined Weight Watchers to get rid of the rest of my weight. It isn’t that bad actually, another 5 kilos (10 lbs) and I am happy; however, my thought was that WW might be of help in getting rid of it without having to starve to death while doing so. So far, so good. I manage to spread my 19 allowed daily points so that I can really eat something decent at lunch, leave breakfast at 30grams of müsli and have a salad in the evening. Will keep posted on that – however, I must admit, losing the weight has, up to now, been easier than I imagined. It just takes one hell of a lot of self-discipline, and a firm resolve to avoid all bakeries and go through the grocery store with blinds on.

Work has slowed, at last, allowing me to settle into my old routine (which was getting up, having some coffee and checking the blogs before I hit the shower). That routine was replaced mid-last year by getting up at six, getting some coffee and starting work. I hope that things continue as relaxed as they have become and that I am allowed to have a life this year. (And to get that dusty old bike out of the garage).

And to be here more often and check in with you folks more often.

Gotta go hit the salad. Yum.

I didn’t write that post (below) – it was out of the archive, but strangely enough, it posted itself as a normal post.
Don’t ask me, I just write here now and then.

I guess I got glad too soon about all of the madness of work being over; it isn’t quite yet. However, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are holidays and that is something I have been looking soooo forward to. A two week break from work, telephone – peace on earth, if you will.

Yesterday was a day which seemed taken from a poor comedy; it started with me doing a partial water change on the aquarium and forgetting at some point that I was pumping water into the aquarium and going to the basement to look for something and coming back into the house to see the aquarium just, well, overflowing all over the place. The rest of the day? It got worse.

I am still not smoking – is that amazing or what? The weight battle, however, has kept me busy. I have managed to not gain too much; the pants are tight, but they still fit. That has cost sacrifice, however. No more Wurstsemmeln for breakfast, instead, Müsli. Lots of salad. Salad for lunch, salad for dinner, snacks consisting of fruit only. Sigh………

Melissa recently wrote a post about photo recognition/evaluation software which can be found here. You upload a photo of yourself and it compares the facial features with those of a database of 2.400 celebrities. I had a good chuckle about my results (above) because I do not feel I resemble any of the above, let alone Valery Giscard D’Estaing or Kofi Annan, both of whom were in the results when I submitted a second picture.

Having finished “playing” with the Internet this morning, I took a full-service shower (intense hair conditioner, leg-shaving and treating foot soles) and will now head into the winter wonderland that got dumped on us last night to go grocery shopping.

Thanks to everyone who hung in there to see where I’ve been. Now I just need to get back into the habit of posting here.

Today, however, it’s more about getting rid of habits.

I have been smoke free since Monday, November 12, at 10:30 p.m.

I am now taking on week 2 and things are looking good

Back in August in the midst of my vacation time, my major client started a major project which has lasted the past two months and has kept me rotating. My normal schedule has been 5.30 a.m. at the computer weekdays, often until 8 p.m. and sacrificing the one or another Saturday or Sunday just to keep on schedule with things.

The project has been completed, however, so things are beginning to return a bit to normal and I cannot tell you how thankful I am for that. The last 2 1/2 months are a blur, nothing more, nothing less.

Me, I am fine but need to find back into a regular pace that is just a tad more relaxed. Will try relaxing in the next few weeks by doing more “home” stuff than “work” or “computer” stuff, let’s see how that suits me for a change. Soon, it will be time to begin baking Christmas Cookies and I am looking forward to that.

We are well into our first snow, I need to get my butt in gear and get my begonias and geraniums into their winter quarters before they freeze to death (if they haven’t died of thirst by now).

I will check in and get up to date with everyone in the next few days.

My fish, that is. I have had the aquarium for about 8 months now and boy, have they grown. There have been some new additions as well, so I thought I would reintroduce my boys to you.

While getting it up and running properly was loads of work back in the winter, it is now practically running itself. The only thing I do is feed them and give them 360 liters of fresh water weekly.

Here a group photograph:

For reference, the tank is 1.60 meters x 60 centimeters x 60 centimeters (576 liters). For those metric haters, that is:

5.24 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet, containing 152 US gallons.

For the rest of the pictures, click for larger views if you like.

	The “Chef” or Boss. He was one of my first three discus that I got back in October. He has paired up with “Red 2″ and they tend to spawn about every ten days. Since they are not yet fully grown and more or less in the “teenage” stage, nothing much has come of the spawning efforts. They lay eggs, fan them and defend them for three days, and then eat them.
	This is the “Chefin” (Mrs. Boss). Also one of my three originals. Not sure if she is a he or a she yet, actually. Time will tell. Though the “black/blue” sprinkling is not desired at all in this type of discus (pigeon), I find her to be quite lovely.
	The Snake aka “Wannabe Boss”. Quite sure that he is a male, though I am not sure yet. This one was given to my for my birthday by my father and stepmom. Snake likes to boss everyone around.
	Der Hochgewachsene (The Tall One) This is the larger of two which I received at Christmas – they were both quite small at the time and this guy just had a growing sprint and grew about three inches in what seemed like a two-week span. Hence, the name.
	Der, der im Sterben lag (He who lay dying). The third of my first discus. Quite the food hog, he managed to eat too much once (actually I should have fed less or soaked the discus granules before feeding). I got up one morning and found him floating about, waving his fins and desperately trying to keep his balance. His belly was huge and swollen. A half an hour later, he began to rotate and went upside down, no longer being able to hold his balance (or control his swim bladder – take your pick). I immediately placed him in a hospital tank where I raised the temperature slightly. When I checked up on him a few hours later, he was laying on the top of the filter in the tank, and looked like he was not going to make it. Four hours later, he had pooped more than I thought a fish could hold and the next day, he was back to his bully old self.
	Die, die sich hingelegt hat (She who’d lied down). Not long after the above mentioned drama, this one decided to lay down sideways under a plant – scaring me because I thought she was sick. It turned out she was just trying to get the last morsels of food which had collected underneath a plant.
	Der 40€ Fisch (the 40 € fish). Because of his price tag. At first, quite the bully, now relatively serene.
	Der Rote (Red 1). There is a Red 2 which looks almost identical (the one doing the naughty-you-know-what with the Boss). Got these two in November and they weren’t much larger than a silver dollar at the time.

Gorgeous, aren’t they? I love these guys.

IT’S SO HOT IN TENNESSEE……

…..the birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.

…..the trees are whistling for the dogs.

…..the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

…..hot water now comes out of both taps.

…..you can make sun tea instantly.

…..you learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.

…..the temperature dro ps below 95 F (35 C) and you feel a little chilly.

…..you discover that in July it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.

…..you discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.

…..you actually burn your hand opening the car door.

…..you break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m.

…..your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, “What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?”

…..you realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

…..the potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter.

…..the cows are giving evaporated milk.

…..farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs

(contributed by Jennifer)
(unwillingly)

I think I have, yes. Never used to be.
(May contain spoilers).

Friday night finally brought us the season finale of the 3rd season of “Lost”. For some odd reason (perhaps also the Aliens) my receiver did not record it, though I had set it to do so. Lucky for me, there was a pay per view repeat of it per VOD, so I sat down to watch it Saturday afternoon.

What a show. Just non-stop action, it seemed. Lots of WTF moments and stuff that accelerated my heart rate to gym speed. And some stuff that I just could not believe I was seeing. Like Jack’s flash-forwards – what is all THAT about? Where are they taking this?

By the time I finished watching I was flabbergasted, just shy of hyperventilating and my head was spinning.

Hurley was great though, wasn’t he? Way to go

Can’t believe I will have to wait until February 2008 for the next season… (