Ugly Americans

Time. I have been thinking about time a lot lately. I never seem to have enough, and what time I do have occurs in the spaces between tending to other things. All of my productivity pretty much occurs in those spaces. I have four scripts that are being written at what feels like a glacial pace. My bookmark tab is filled with research links, and my phone has become my notepad and sketchbook when it isn't confiscated by a certain toddler. Because it's (in her words) her phone. One, admittedly, she uses to draw with or play minion rush or diamond digger. I would set up my old iPhone so she could use it, but the reality is she would still ignore it for mine, because its not about the phone. It's about having my attention, and spending time with me.   Our time left in Berlin can now be measured in months. The months remaining here have become a countdown of things to complete before we leave. We have to shed weight by getting rid of stuff we haven't used or looked at in th

If you have kids, you are going to hear advice (asked or not), from everyone. Most of the time, it's from people you know. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not. And sometimes, it is rude. Usually, the rude advices comes from strangers. Here in Germany, I have have three (3) encounters with strangers involving 'advice' regarding my kids. Two of those instances were relatively benign. The third was not.   The first encounter was with a German mom at one of the local Kinder Cafes*. I had gone to the kindercafe thinking, "Hey, I can hang out with some other moms and Olivia can play". Then I realized that walls blocked half of the kindercafe off from the front end (where the parents hang out). After a few minutes of Olivia trying to pilfer other people's food items, snagging toys from other kids, and in general being a bit of a bruiser, I was rethinking the decision to go. So you can imagine how mortified I was when a German mom approached me with her little

Ten years ago Mike and I walked into a pet store to 'window shop'. I was looking at a boxer puppy when Mike came over and urged me to take a look at this other puppy in the store. I remember asking him what kid of a  dog it was, and (knowing that this would probably be the best way to get me over there) he told me it was just like the dog in Mad Max. For those of you who do not fall into the geek category, the 'Mad Max' dog, or if you are a gamer the "Fallout' dog is an Australian Cattle Dog. Specifically, a blue heeler. The puppy he showed me looked like a German shepherd that had been dipped in powdered sugar. She was an adorable, big eared puppy that wiggled and yipped.She ended up leaving the store with us that day. She was far from the perfect dog. It took forever to potty train her. She never mastered walking on a lead (always wanting to herd us, or other people and animals that she saw). To this day she is still a very mouthy dog, obsessed w