Aww. Poor sick Em. Poor head-splodey Aimee.

And, I got enough money to go volunteer in Israel! And this also gives me some motivation to get in better shape -- if the pioneers could work the land and dig ditches and build buildings and all of that without air conditioning or, really, anything, (I've even heard stories of some who walked to Israel from Europe), then I can get into good enough shape to plant trees and paint bomb shelters and set up park benches and stuff without getting too tired.

That's great, Hil! And good idea for motivation.

I think I have successfully dyed my hair. I need to wash it and see how much colour stays, but once I do that I will take pictures.

I'm glad Burrell skimmed, because I can add that my Hubby uses "bitte" as "excuse me, what was that you just said, could you repeat that?"

The full German phrase that comes from is "wie, bitte?", which translates literally to "how, please?" and pretty much means what Connie said.

In my house, "bitte" has become reflex for that usage.

Heh. Cincinnatians have a verbal quirk of saying "Please?" when they mean "Can you repeat yourself?" (Or, as I like to snark, instead of "Huh?") Because Cincinnati is so heavily German in origin, a few things hung around, and "Please?" is one of them.

I got soundly mocked by my friends in college for saying "please?" instead of "huh?" -- almost as much as I got mocked for saying "pop" instead of "soda."

Scary stuff, Raq. Glad you're all safe.

Congratulations on your escape, brenda, and on your co-optedness, Jessica and Fone!

Windsparrow, I feel for you with the demon cough. What's the otc cough suppressant you found, bitte?

Vortex, sorry about your perfume!

Too much caffeine sometimes triggers anxiety attacks in me, but I'm prone anyway. No caffeine after noon for me.

Spent 3 months living in Germany, and about all I remember of the language is danke and bitte, and some random words not useful alone. My sister was pregnant with her first child when we were there, and we took to calling the baby "Kinder". When she was born, they were so used to the nickname they named her the closest they get: Kimberly. She doesn't believe that's the story of how she was named, but it is.

Poor Em. Hope she sleeps soundly the whole trip.

The whole "please" thing freaked me out when I lived there.

The whole "please" thing freaked me out when I lived there.

They didn't know you were a bottom, ND.

I talk to my cats in German, so the only parts of 3 years classes that have stayed in my head are things like "hurry up" and "eat" and "it's only Walter, you can walk past him". Highly specialized.

Flops into thread.

They are gone. The boss and the trainee. I have NO IDEA how it went. Truly. Trainee was nice enough, but she didn't ask questions. I get nervous when people don't ask questions. Or make those mental connections of "Oh, you do this cause you need that" type stuff.

Whatever. I'm too tired to care. We will see what happens when I start shifting work.

Flop

I don't tend to ask a lot of questions- I try to get the logic and flow so that when a detail comes up that I don't understand I can ask a quick question. I hope your trainee thinks like me.

WindSparrow - there are a couple of bugs out there right now that are causing long lingering coughs. Asthma is a possibility, but some sort of broncial dialater can help ease the cough durring the day

ION, I am coughing. Not a lot, but it hurts every time. ( my rib cage is killing me, bu tit is better than it was this morning) I have decide it is the wind and cold are making my asthma worse - but when the wind drops and the temperature goes up ( monday?) I will be better. Or I have to go to the doctor on Tuesday for a stronger formulation of advair.

German in my house was mostly stuff like refering to us as "the kinder," like "Are the kinder ready to go?" or "Tell the kinder to come in for dinner." Or our parents would address one of us as "fraulein" when we were getting overly snotty or annoying. Kind of like "young lady," as a sign to back off. I find myself sometimes referring to a group of little kids as "the kinder" -- usually when it's sort of referring to them in the aggregate, like "I can't concentrate, the kinder are being too loud."