To Frankfurt in a flash…

My sister Kim spent a couple of weeks this month traipsing through Italy with a couple of friends on Vespas. Although one of them almost met an early demise thanks to a less than gracious Italian driver, they had a blast. She managed to lay over for a day in Frankfurt (subject of a recent article on CNN.com) so we buzzed up there on a Sunday to see her.The weather didn’t cooperate so we didn’t spend much time in this great city. We met at the Römerplatz, had a quick lunch and headed back. The restaurant was a bit touristy (to say the least) but wasn’t half bad. I had a pork knuckle covered in pork rinds old school style. The others had various types of schnitzel that garnered no complaints that I heard. Maria da Penha was there too, getting her wine on. I love this picture of her.We walked over the bridge and I snapped this shot of a gaggle of seagulls resting on one of the bridge’s lighting booms.By the way, my parents and some of their friends spent a few days here before and after a week-long excursion in Italy. More on that later. They brought me an interesting contraption, pictured below. Can anyone guess what it is? The only hint I can give you is that I grew up in the Great American Southwest. On a final note, we made another trip to Frankfurt recently to renew the kids’ American passports. Will try to convey a few tips and tricks we learned during this bureaucratic sleigh ride in another post.

In the pits…

There are Formula 3 races going on today in Hockenheim at the world famous Hockenheimring, about 10 kilometers (over 6 miles) from our house in Walldorf. I don’t know this because I am a racing fan; I know it because I can hear the races from our house! This is probably the closest I or most people who read this blog will get to the racetrack today. Enjoy!

Weeee! We have a Wii.

A couple of weeks ago B decided to lug the kids’ stash of coins (stored in a toy treasure chest) to the bank. Who knew that had accumulated over 200 Euros by regularly raiding my coin box? They decided to buy a Wii.

While I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of buying a video game, the Wii really is pretty cool as the games are nonviolent. So far, they haven’t gone overboard as far as playing time is concerned, but we’re keeping an eye on them. However, they do love playing so for now we have a powerful motivator to keep them flying right, as it were.

So far, I’ve only played baseball. Must admit it was pretty fun. By the way, I’ve found a crack on the internet to get the Wii to play DVD’s, something it doesn’t do out of the box. Anyone tried it and gotten it to work? Any tips before I risk bricking their pride and joy?

Scanners…

No exploding heads (yet), just a new scanner and plenty of fodder from the kids. More to come (no doubt). In case you were wondering, this is a guinea pig. Here’s the (gory) clip from the movie (responsible for scarring many a young mind in the 80’s).