["Satellite" by Lena, obviously. Alas, it doesn't seem to be available on iTunes in the US as it is here in Germany, but you can see a replay on Eurovision's site]
A year or so ago, I heard through a US podcast (Rachel Maddow Show) about some crazy European singing contest. I had not head about it over here, so I figured it was some one-off thing. Au contraire. The Eurovision Song Contest is a big deal and has been going on for over 50 years! It has featured (spawned?) such acts as ABBA, Celine Dion (one must assume for France?) and Julio Iglesias. And this year I was invited to a viewing party at my neighbor's place last night. Awesome.
This year's contest was held in Oslo. It apparently started with 39 countries, but there were only 25 artists/acts remaining in the finals that were shown last night. One of which was, naturally, Germany. "Our" contestant from Germany is a girl named Lena. She just turned 19 and is in the midst of completing her finals in high school. Apparently she had limited experience with music and no formal vocal lessons, though she had taken dance lessons. And even before the finals, her song was one of the top downloads in Germany. I had heard it several times on the radio, but didn't realize the history behind it all.
The way the show progresses is each of the final acts performs in a pre-determined order and with no commercial breaks. There was slight variation last night because while Spain was performing, a spectator apparently got up on stage during their song, so they got to do a do-over at the end (without the spectator). Anyway, as each act performs, their number is flashed on the screen and viewers can then send text messages to vote for their favorite candidate. At the same time, there are professional judges in each o the 39 participating countries who also vote.
After all acts are done, there is a live report-in from each of the 39 countries in which they give 12, 10 and 8 points for, respectively, their first, second and third place picks. This is apparently a combination of both the popular vote and the votes of the professional judges. The countries cannot, however, give any points to their own country's act, if applicable. It was interesting to see some of te political dimension, though, with neighboring countries tending to vote for each other, the countries from the former Soviet Union tending to stick together, et cetera.
Some of the acts were pretty good, but some were seriously awful. It was fun watching them with a group of about 15 Germans to see how/whether my perceptions aligned with theirs. (For example, we all agreed that the dresses of the act from Iceland were wretched and, in particular, the red hue clashed quite horridly with the hair color of their singer.) As the countries started reporting in, I got this big sense of national pride each time a country assigned points to Germany. And what was particularly charming was someone at the party had brought a kind of grease pencil with the three colors of the German flag combined and she applied the German flag my face just like everyone else. I was honored.
In the end, Germany won!! We had 246 points, followed by Turkey with 170 and Romania with 162. I thought Spain might get higher ratings since they played twice, but they came in 15th with 68 points. See www.eurovision.tv for full results and more coverage. I thought Lena did a really great job of representing Germany and was very humble and normal in her comments both before and after winning. Though I admit I was a bit horrified that she let the German flag touch the ground, but apparently there are different flag-handling rules here than in the U.S.!
Great and fun experience. And a great warm-up to World Cup Soccer!!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
22 May 2010 - Visiting the Doctor
One of the things that I have successfully avoided in my time here so far was being sick enough to actually have to find a doctor here. As discussed in the posting on the pharmacy, the idea of trying to explain symptoms is not exactly something that is covered in a basic German language course. So I continue to seek online counsel from my doc in the US.
But about six weeks ago, I was feeling really dizzy for a couple of days, one day it was bad enough and getting worse that I left work while it still seemed safe to drive. The next morning was bad, but I figured I must have some kind of inner ear issue and should get in to see a doctor. I recalled that my assistant had found a walk-in clinic for a Polish colleague, so I figured wherever that was must speak English. Alas, she could not recall where she had sent him, but she did note that it was Friday and the doctor came to our office a few hours that day.
Now, if you're like me, you did a double-take at that. A doctor? In OUR offices? Recall that I work for a professional services firm, not someplace with dangerous machinery (though sometimes our paper jam prone copier becomes a danger when I want to kick it), so the idea of a doctor around is, well, odd. But then I realize I am in Germany and somethings things are a bit different here. So she got an appointment and I went down to see him. Nutshell, no inner ear issue, but I had high blood pressure at the time, which was news to me. He asked if I had experienced much stress lately. Ha!! Anyway, he suggested that I go to his regular office the following Monday morning. At that time, they would outfit me with a blood pressure monitor that I would wear for 24 hours, it would record my information and they could then download that at their office and determine if there was a persistent issue or if they had just caught me at a particularly stressful time that Friday. And his office was conveniently located in Sachsenhausen, my neighborhood. Perfect!
So Monday morning came and I set Hudson's GPS to the task of finding the office. As I approached it, I was a bit confused, because it looked like an apartment building. Yep, pretty much. But there was a listing for him and another doctor, so up the stairs I walked, passing apartments listing the family names of the occupants. Not exactly what I am used to.
When I arrived at the right floor, the door to the office was slightly ajar. Okay.... I walked in and found a guy sitting at a desk wearing a sweater, not exactly what I expected of a receptionist or nurse or whatever. But he showed me to the waiting room, which, this being an apartment and all, had a balcony outside of a sliding glass door. I have not encountered that in a doctor's office before. All of the magazines were in neat little matchings covers. Interesting.
The doctor finally came out himself and took me to an office. He was wearing a blood-red cashmere v-neck sweater and some corduroy pants. No lab coat. No stethoscope. No trappings of doctor power. Interesting. He took me to what seemed like a regular office and we sat across the desk from each other and he asked if I was ready for the blood work. Um, blood work? I thought perhaps something had been lost in our conversation the previous Friday and reminded him that I thought I was just there to get the blood pressure monitor. Oh, ja, ja!
So he took me to a different room that also featured a desk and seem more like an exam room, except not really. The other sweater-wearing guy came in and tried to outfit me with the device. Couldn't get it to work. It's like a really ugly black sportswatch and it has to be calibrated twice in order for it to work. For whatever reason, it refused. We tried various combinations and permutations. We tried the other arm. The doctor attempted to assist. 90 minutes later still no deal. I swear, all jokes about accountants and lawyers being heartless aside, I DO have a pulse! But as I was watching all of this and having my wrists yanked this way and that, I continued to examine the examining room. What strikes me the most is that the entire office is carpeted. I don't think I have ever been in a carpeted exam room for, I assume, the obvious risk that some messy things can happen in exam rooms that might be difficult to clean up on carpet.
They never did get the blood pressure monitor to work. I ended up buying an automated blood pressure cuff and took some hourly readings for a few days. Not surprisingly, I experience pre-hypertensive readings primarily when I am in the office, particularly when I am talking about budgeting and capital expenditures. Go figure. I keep the cuff in my office and every once in a while take my blood pressure just to see where I am. I do, of course, track all of this on an Excel spreadsheet and have made some graphs that I find both fascinating and horrifying. But it has become something of a joke, now. When my guys see I am getting worked up about something, they ask if I'd like to take some time out to check my blood pressure. All in good fun, of course. Makes me laugh. Which I suppose probably brings my blood pressure down. Love my peeps!
But about six weeks ago, I was feeling really dizzy for a couple of days, one day it was bad enough and getting worse that I left work while it still seemed safe to drive. The next morning was bad, but I figured I must have some kind of inner ear issue and should get in to see a doctor. I recalled that my assistant had found a walk-in clinic for a Polish colleague, so I figured wherever that was must speak English. Alas, she could not recall where she had sent him, but she did note that it was Friday and the doctor came to our office a few hours that day.
Now, if you're like me, you did a double-take at that. A doctor? In OUR offices? Recall that I work for a professional services firm, not someplace with dangerous machinery (though sometimes our paper jam prone copier becomes a danger when I want to kick it), so the idea of a doctor around is, well, odd. But then I realize I am in Germany and somethings things are a bit different here. So she got an appointment and I went down to see him. Nutshell, no inner ear issue, but I had high blood pressure at the time, which was news to me. He asked if I had experienced much stress lately. Ha!! Anyway, he suggested that I go to his regular office the following Monday morning. At that time, they would outfit me with a blood pressure monitor that I would wear for 24 hours, it would record my information and they could then download that at their office and determine if there was a persistent issue or if they had just caught me at a particularly stressful time that Friday. And his office was conveniently located in Sachsenhausen, my neighborhood. Perfect!
So Monday morning came and I set Hudson's GPS to the task of finding the office. As I approached it, I was a bit confused, because it looked like an apartment building. Yep, pretty much. But there was a listing for him and another doctor, so up the stairs I walked, passing apartments listing the family names of the occupants. Not exactly what I am used to.
When I arrived at the right floor, the door to the office was slightly ajar. Okay.... I walked in and found a guy sitting at a desk wearing a sweater, not exactly what I expected of a receptionist or nurse or whatever. But he showed me to the waiting room, which, this being an apartment and all, had a balcony outside of a sliding glass door. I have not encountered that in a doctor's office before. All of the magazines were in neat little matchings covers. Interesting.
The doctor finally came out himself and took me to an office. He was wearing a blood-red cashmere v-neck sweater and some corduroy pants. No lab coat. No stethoscope. No trappings of doctor power. Interesting. He took me to what seemed like a regular office and we sat across the desk from each other and he asked if I was ready for the blood work. Um, blood work? I thought perhaps something had been lost in our conversation the previous Friday and reminded him that I thought I was just there to get the blood pressure monitor. Oh, ja, ja!
So he took me to a different room that also featured a desk and seem more like an exam room, except not really. The other sweater-wearing guy came in and tried to outfit me with the device. Couldn't get it to work. It's like a really ugly black sportswatch and it has to be calibrated twice in order for it to work. For whatever reason, it refused. We tried various combinations and permutations. We tried the other arm. The doctor attempted to assist. 90 minutes later still no deal. I swear, all jokes about accountants and lawyers being heartless aside, I DO have a pulse! But as I was watching all of this and having my wrists yanked this way and that, I continued to examine the examining room. What strikes me the most is that the entire office is carpeted. I don't think I have ever been in a carpeted exam room for, I assume, the obvious risk that some messy things can happen in exam rooms that might be difficult to clean up on carpet.
They never did get the blood pressure monitor to work. I ended up buying an automated blood pressure cuff and took some hourly readings for a few days. Not surprisingly, I experience pre-hypertensive readings primarily when I am in the office, particularly when I am talking about budgeting and capital expenditures. Go figure. I keep the cuff in my office and every once in a while take my blood pressure just to see where I am. I do, of course, track all of this on an Excel spreadsheet and have made some graphs that I find both fascinating and horrifying. But it has become something of a joke, now. When my guys see I am getting worked up about something, they ask if I'd like to take some time out to check my blood pressure. All in good fun, of course. Makes me laugh. Which I suppose probably brings my blood pressure down. Love my peeps!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
7 March 2010 - Leipzig Roadtrip
[Take your pick of Bach's Brandenburg concertos.]
I have 20,000 kilometers per year available under my lease for Hudson. His "birthday" is coming up at the beginning of May, yet I realized that I hadn't even tipped 10,000 kilometers. Miles are a terrible thing to waste.... So I decided it was time to begin taking longer roadtrips. Looking at my map (a colleague gave me a huge one that I have now hung in my hallway, which I love, but is probably not very aesthetically pleasing, as evidenced by said colleague's wife refusing to let him hang the map in their home -- but since I don't have a wife....), I randomly decided that it was time to visit Leipzig. This selection was based primarily on two considerations -- the up-and-back drive seemed doable in an overnight trip and Leipzig happens to have a Luxury Collection property from Starwood that seemed a steal at €125/night. All that, plus a colleague was also up for the adventure and not dissuaded by my disclosure that I have a navigation system and driving tour book, but I might divert course at anytime if something of interest arose.
We left Saturday afternoon and, despite predictions of rain, it was a beautiful, sunny day and perfect driving weather. Our first stop along the way was Wartburg Castle. If you put on your Christian history cap, you may recall this as the place where Martin Luther hung out after being excommunicated by the pope. I didn't realize that he translated the New Testament into German here as well. It is on the top of a ridge and a nice drive up there, followed by a walk to the to that is both breathtaking and leaves one breathless with the steep climb. Really beautiful views all around. Nice grounds, though part of the castle was under construction and neither the tower nor the baths areas were open. There are also some cannons along the wall, which one of the Sarah Palin action figures could not resist (who DOESN'T want to ride the war machine?)
It was a bit chilly, so we ducked into the little restaurant/coffee shop for some kirschkuchen (cherry coffeecake) and some coffee. It was a quaint place, but quite packed. Anyway, the waiter asked if we were Americans. We confirmed that we were and a short while later he came out and planted a red, white and blue flag/pennant on our table. We were unclear whether it was to mark us clearly as the non-German in the room or as a gesture of welcoming, but chose to believe the latter. Nevertheless, the other patrons looked at us a bit strangely. We decided to milk it for all it was worth and had our picture taken there for the true tourist experience.
Wartburg is located in/next to the town of Eisenach, so we took a quick stroll through the town since we were there. Unbeknownst to us, this is said to be Bach's birthplace. There is both Bach Haus where he was allegedly born (and which is now a museum), next to which has been constructed a new and quite modern-looking Bach museum designed by a student of Frank Gehry. Who knew? Alas, it was getting late in the day and both venues seemed to be closed. But the musical features didn't end there. No-sirree-bob. The big church in town was hosting that night a World Gospel Tour concert and another place was hosting an All-80s party that began at the same time. Such options were just too diffcult for us to choose between, so we choose to continue the still-long roadtrip to Leipzig.
Now, I love Hudson and his/her navigation system. But they are in no way infallible. For example, we were to take the A4 autobahn (not to be confused with the excellent Audi vehicle of the same name) for part of the journey to Leipzig. Except there was construction. And a brand new section of road. For whatever reason, the A4 just seemed to end in construction at one point with no way to proceed and no detour noted. Hmmm.... Fortunately, my driving tour book had some paper maps in the back and I was able to point Hudson in a different direction that linked up with the A4 later. But part of that new section of the A4 was not apparently in Hudson's navigation system. He noted that we were "offroad" and started kind of freaking out, something like Robot on "Lost in Space" when he starts just flailing his arms about saying, "Danger, Will Robinson, danger!" Except Hudson just kept saying in German something in the way of, "Seriously, it is ill-advised for you to be cruising at 180 kph offroad. You should turn aroud and get back on the highway. NOW!" I guess I need to contact the dealer and see what the process is for getting his maps updated.
Leipzig was nice and I really enjoyed the hotel, the Hotel Fürstenhof, which upgraded me to a nice junior suite. I did not have the chance to see their indoor pool, but it really looked nice online and my colleague confirmed that it was also quite nice in person. Instead, I took an exploratory run around the city in the rain the next morning, which was not quite so pleasant as a swim in the pool, I suspect.
You may recall how much I love Mexican food and the difficulty I have had in finding some over here. So imagine my delight when I saw a reputable-looking place called "La Enchilada" across the street. Oddly enough, though, the menu in the window did not include any, um, enchiladas. Such a tease....
There were quite a few interesting sites to see, but the most memorable was nowhere to be found on the city map. I was roaming around and thought I heard seeing some people singing. Hmmm... I went to investigate. It was a Cossack Choir. Not joking. Guys dressed up in some interesting uniforms of a sort and singing with much gusto. So much so that I actually bought their CD, which unfortunately contained more Russian Orthodox hymns than the things they were singing live, which were more akin to a soundtrack you might expect for a Russian submarine saga or something.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
21 February 2010 - Michelstadt
A couple weeks ago I got cabin fever and decided I needed to head out on the highway for a Sunday afternoon drive. With the assistance of, "Daytrips in Germany's Rhineland," a gift from a colleague in the U.S., I selected Michelstadt as my destination.
According to the book and some online research, Michelstadt is located in Odenwald, a forest area that straddles several German states, including Hessen, Baden and Bavaria. It seems unclear whether the name means Odin Forest (Odin being a Nordic god) or Forest of Odes (I know, you're wanting to write another ode right now, aren't you?). Anyway, Michelstadt itself is a medieval town dating back to at least 741 AD. There is a castle complex that is part of the town wall, including a tower that was apparently used to house thieves.
One of its Michelstadt's better known features is its town hall which is just beyond the town wall. When I visited it, the town had erected a rather small ice rink in front of it where kids and parents were having a nice winter afternoon. While I didn't try out the ice rink itself, they also had some coffee, bratwurst, and crepe/waffle stands nearby. I highly recommend the fresh waffle with powdered sugar. Yum!
I wandered quite a way out of the city to see the Fürstenau Castle. It is apparently a private residence so it's not open for viewing, but it was still interesting to see from the outside. It was unclear to me whether the building that is directly across from it (which was quite old looking and huge) was part of the castle or if it is just "the neighbors." It is also not far from a little river with a dam and what apparently used to be a mill of some sort.
Anyway, a nice little trip even on a cold winter day. And it finally answered the question for me of what the special Odenwald trains are that pass through the Südbahnhof near my house that are different from the Deutsche Bahn trains. Now I know....
Friday, February 19, 2010
18 February 2010 - Drugs
["I Want a New Drug" - Huey Lewis and the News ]
Germany doesn't have over-the-counter pharmaceutical products as we know them in the U.S. There is literally no such things as Tylenol or NyQuil, for example. And even if there were, you couldn't just pick some up at the grocery store or even the pharmacy based on what you think your needs are. No, for any sort of relief, you must go to the apotheke (pharmacy) and speak to the pharmacist about all your dirty symptoms. Delightful.
When I returned from the U.S. after the holidays, I came down with a truly wretched cold. I stayed at home on Monday and thought I was ready to head in on Tuesday. I lasted half a day. Tried again on Wednesday and made the entire day. When I walked in on Thursday, though, within a half hour, both a Swiss professional and an Austrian professional told me that I looked bad and I should leave. Immediately. Hmmm....
So I went home and decided it was time to get some pharmaceutical assistance for my symptoms (a severe sinus headache with congestion and a rapidly constricting throat). So I walked into the brand new apotheke in my neighborhood, walked up to the counter and asked the pharmacist if he spoke English. Not much. Ruh roh....
I said I had a kopfschmerzen mit sinus drucken, by which I was trying to say I had a headache with sinus pressure. He didn't seem to be following me. I wasn't sure exactly how to say that I needed something to get the nasty mung in my head outta my head. There was some gesturing and he finally pulled out something for a headache and something else that had a picture of head with redness and arrows going from the sinuses to the nose and down into the throat. Close enough, right?
So I took them as directed and settled in for the afternoon. I still had a splitting sinus headache, so was just sitting around with the lights off and all noise sounds off (alas, could not get the Lads to stop their racket at the food station where they keep robbing from their next meal). About an hour later, I was totally zoned out. Not sleepy, exactly, just not exactly all there. I was sitting in my chaise lounge and literally staring out the windows at the snowflakes falling. This is normally not something you could get me to do for more than, say, 30 seconds max. I am, after all, a Preuscher. I was not much better a few hours later when I was scheduled to be on a conference call. It was like being on a 7-second delay or something with my brain taking AGES to register anything coming in, let alone to try and formulate a response of any sort. And with coughing fits in between. Classy.
I had big dreams of being back at the office the following day. Um, no. Worse. Much worse. So the question was whether or not the drugs were actually helping or hurting. I stuck with them, though, despite the drug-induced stupor they elicited. After all, the only other alternative was to actually (gasp!) go and see a doctor. Who may or may not speak English. It's these little things you never think about.
In the end, I was down the entire weekend and barely functional to return to the office on Monday. Longest cold I have had in a long time. Not surprisingly, when a friend visited me in late January, I had a special request -- NyQuil and Tylenold Cold & Flu, please. Oh, and maybe some TheraFlu just in case. And when a colleague from the US came back with a box of Puffs Plus (yes, with lotion), I had to hug her (in a respectful-at-work and non-germ-sharing way).
Germany doesn't have over-the-counter pharmaceutical products as we know them in the U.S. There is literally no such things as Tylenol or NyQuil, for example. And even if there were, you couldn't just pick some up at the grocery store or even the pharmacy based on what you think your needs are. No, for any sort of relief, you must go to the apotheke (pharmacy) and speak to the pharmacist about all your dirty symptoms. Delightful.
When I returned from the U.S. after the holidays, I came down with a truly wretched cold. I stayed at home on Monday and thought I was ready to head in on Tuesday. I lasted half a day. Tried again on Wednesday and made the entire day. When I walked in on Thursday, though, within a half hour, both a Swiss professional and an Austrian professional told me that I looked bad and I should leave. Immediately. Hmmm....
So I went home and decided it was time to get some pharmaceutical assistance for my symptoms (a severe sinus headache with congestion and a rapidly constricting throat). So I walked into the brand new apotheke in my neighborhood, walked up to the counter and asked the pharmacist if he spoke English. Not much. Ruh roh....
I said I had a kopfschmerzen mit sinus drucken, by which I was trying to say I had a headache with sinus pressure. He didn't seem to be following me. I wasn't sure exactly how to say that I needed something to get the nasty mung in my head outta my head. There was some gesturing and he finally pulled out something for a headache and something else that had a picture of head with redness and arrows going from the sinuses to the nose and down into the throat. Close enough, right?
So I took them as directed and settled in for the afternoon. I still had a splitting sinus headache, so was just sitting around with the lights off and all noise sounds off (alas, could not get the Lads to stop their racket at the food station where they keep robbing from their next meal). About an hour later, I was totally zoned out. Not sleepy, exactly, just not exactly all there. I was sitting in my chaise lounge and literally staring out the windows at the snowflakes falling. This is normally not something you could get me to do for more than, say, 30 seconds max. I am, after all, a Preuscher. I was not much better a few hours later when I was scheduled to be on a conference call. It was like being on a 7-second delay or something with my brain taking AGES to register anything coming in, let alone to try and formulate a response of any sort. And with coughing fits in between. Classy.
I had big dreams of being back at the office the following day. Um, no. Worse. Much worse. So the question was whether or not the drugs were actually helping or hurting. I stuck with them, though, despite the drug-induced stupor they elicited. After all, the only other alternative was to actually (gasp!) go and see a doctor. Who may or may not speak English. It's these little things you never think about.
In the end, I was down the entire weekend and barely functional to return to the office on Monday. Longest cold I have had in a long time. Not surprisingly, when a friend visited me in late January, I had a special request -- NyQuil and Tylenold Cold & Flu, please. Oh, and maybe some TheraFlu just in case. And when a colleague from the US came back with a box of Puffs Plus (yes, with lotion), I had to hug her (in a respectful-at-work and non-germ-sharing way).
Sunday, January 31, 2010
5 February 2010 - J-E-L-L-O
[Surely you must remember the J-E-L-L-O jingle and can fill in the tune that accompanies it]
For whatever reason yesterday, I had a "hankerin'" for some flavored gelatin (let's call it what it is - jello). So I thought I could just pick up a package of it at the grocery store. Now, I think most of us would agree that a typical grocery store in the U.S. would have a floor-to-top-of-shelf display on jello and pudding products that would be at least 2-3 feet wide. So it should be pretty easy to stumble on the jello aisle here in Germany, right? Not so much.
I finally found flavored gelatin products near the baking supplies area. And not, as you can see from the picture, because the packaging screamed "gelatin" or "jello" or anything like that. Fortunately, I am relatively fluent in reading pictures. ;-) There were only three colors/flavors - red, yellow and green. No fancy kiwi strawberry flavors, nothing with fizz, no sugar-free options, no fat-free options, none of that kind of consumer choice. And no sign of pudding mixes. I took the red (raspberry) package.
Now, I will confess that it has been probably a decade since I have made jello, but I don't recall ever having had to heat water and then dissolve the sugar and jello mix into that water. In fact, I think most of the time the package already included the sugar. But it seemed to work. And then I read the final step on the package that invited me to wait 5 HOURS until the jello would be set and ready to eat. Um, okay, I have clearly been spoiled by the "instant" culture of the U.S.
I woke up in the middle of the night, as I often do. One of my first thoughts (perhaps due to noticing the red light of my BlackBerry that bore a striking resemblance to the jello color) was, "I wonder whether the jello is ready?!" It was. Perhaps the only thing better than cold pizza at 2 AM is fresh, wobbly red jello. Well worth the wait.
31 January 2010 - My Staubsauger Sucks
["What Do You Do With a B.A. in English? [It Sucks to be You]" from the Avenue Q soundtrack.]
As I may have mentioned before, I have hardwood and tile floors throughout my apartment, similar to what I had in Chicago. For day-to-day dust control, I set the Roombas loose when I leave the apartment and they take care of most of the dust bunnies of cat fur and the like. They do a fair job with the floors, though for some reason they seem to have difficulty getting up on the rugs in the living room and foyer. And, unlike in Chicago, my cleaning lady here does not bring her own vacuum cleaner with her.
So, it became clear that I needed to buy a vacuum cleaner (staubsauger). So I purchased the Dirt Devil Centrino pictured here. It looked like it had a lot of features and additional attachments, it was made by a brand I recognized, it was in a beautiful clearcoat metallic red, has a cool built-in retractable cord/storage and was reasonably priced. My cleaning lady seems to be able to work with it, as demonstrated by the dust and fur-free rugs after she visits. So all is good, right? Or not.
There was a casualty this past week. In a butterfingers moment this past week, I dropped a bottle of perfume in the bathroom one morning. It shattered on the tile floor, sending shards of glass and fragrance everywhere. Ruh roh. I sopped up the liquid as much as possible (for future reference, yes, this does create an instant home air freshener, so consider when buying a fragrance whether you would mind your home smelling like that for several week....) and shuffled around in shoes until things were dry, closing the door to the bathroom so the Lads didn't pick up glass in their little padded feet. It wasn't until this morning that I finally decided to address the potential small glass shards that might be lurking out of sight.
So I hauled out the Centrino and went to work. Or tried. There was pretty much no suction from the floor attachment, no matter how I fritzed around with the settings. I was able to figure out how to just get the hose itself free and suck up glass shards piece by piece, that that assumes that I am, with the naked eye, able to spot all such glass shards. I am not pleased. But I am in awe of how the cleaning lady is able to do anything with this machine that approximates cleanliness on the rugs. In the meantime, I have both Roombas caged in the bathroom circling around trying to address the glass issues. Go Roombas!
Update: There are sometimes when timing is really interesting. The day after I posted this was the day the cleaning lady came to visit. When I returned that evening, there was a handwritten note that read as follows: "Liebe SanDee, Staubsauger ist kaput - kein arbeit." Meaning, the Staubsauger is flat out busted. Nice.
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