Musings on Meat and the Internet

We live in the economic powerhouse of Europe. But when it comes to inefficiency, I'm afraid the other dirty secret in the closet (I'm sure you can guess the first one) is getting the phone and internet installed. Normally, this can take 2-4 weeks. We thought we were going to be living the high life on broadband with the first company in Germany to introduce the concept. BUT, nein. So we must say goodbye to the great progress we have made in waiting (I am understanding now what Waiting for Godot was all about really..) and succumb to the great monopoly known as Deustche Telekom. Wunderbar! At least now we can count on it only taking two weeks. I really like Germany, but I am so tired of trekking into old town to search for the internet all the time. Sigh...

Let me put a disclaimer if you are one of the few people who are reading this thing who don`t know me personally: I have a very sarcastic sense of humor. We like Germany so much we may never come back (that and the fact we want to get our investment back on how much effort it takes to learn the language).

Having said that....I nearly lost it in the meat department at the grocery store yesterday. There are aisles upon aisles of meat (and I mean meat you wouldn`t have thought to be something you would eat, or at the very least, eat that way). It doesn`t help me that I don`t know half of what the words are. I have to go down there (this is where the frozen pizzas are), and just when I think I can`t deal anymore I have the serenity of sliced cheese (ahhh). But then I turn and the blutwurst is looking right at me. Blutwurst is a sausage made out of all the coddled blood of what they have already made into other sausages (gives new light to waste not, want not). It is a black-purplish color and I can`t take it--I nearly run to the wine aisle, Mr. Left clearly understanding what is going on. I don`t think the undoing of my vegetarianism is going to work, at least for a good while. But I am getting good practice on controlling the gag reflex.