@Dina:
Yes, keeping the sidewalk free of snow and ice is in the responsibility of the owner of the estate. One doesn't have to do it oneself, but one has to make sure it is done. Some of our neighbours don't have any sidewalk at all and some have a lot. Theoretically, if someone slips on my sidewalk and hurt themselves, because I didn't clean it, they could sue me, but I have never experienced this and never did it myself.

I get what you mean about the book. I like it a lot, but sometimes it is hard to keep the flow, because of the often changing viewpoints.

Today I visited my mother. To see her again after covid and to help her with her phone. I also helped her find a good and cheap tablet online, because she wants to read the newspaper with a bigger screen she can take with her in her purse.
She is well again.

Hello!
I've been down with covid, too, but I'm a bit better now, though my head hurts more than yesterday. I guess I exaggerated with showeling snow for 2 hours. Technically I would have showered for 1½ hors but then the guys with the municipal snowplough came through and I had to do the sidewalk again, this time including the heavy ice plates from the street. Yay. In my street the sidewalk is on the same level as the street,  which us not usual, but only because the street is so narrow. So this happens a lot. I am grateful they are making the streets safer to drive, and I tried not to get angry at them, but I only managed because I didn't have the energy to get angry, lol.

There is a lot of snow now, and I hope I can send Micro sleighing with her friends. It is good heavy snow for building snowmen and other stuff. And she is the only one without symptoms.

I hope the snow stays for a while now.


The kitten have grown a lot. The tomcat has very big paws and thick fur. I guess he'll become a tall one.

@DC
Napping is always good.
I am at chapter 25 or so in the audio book. Almost half the book. I am alternating between reading and listening. Though these last sick days I preferred listening, because I could lie down with closed eyes and still go on with the book.

@Dina:
We have watched both Dr Who specials yesterday. Very cool. I wonder if they will do a season with Tennant and Tate after that. Apparently Jodie Whittaker reincarnated to become David Tennant again. I didn't see this. Looking forward to the third special.
Hope your foot gets better soon

@Dina
Oh dear. I'm feeling with you. I don't have hallux valgus myself, but I know some who do, including my mom. So I guess it'll come to me too, some day. Because it runs in families and I also have the kind of foot form which results to that some day.
But I do have the inflammation. It is annoying and it hurts. It is annoying because it hurts. But I have had good results by wearing the right shoes with extra soft soles and doing some of the things you mentioned. Also sometimes cooling the foot helps and sometimes warmth is better.
I'd like to not have to take ibuprofen for a longer period, because it does funny things with my blood pressure. So I try to get by without medication until it gets so bad that I have to take it again. Then I alternate between those causing low and high blood pressure, damaging my liver and damaging my kidneys, in the hope to give everything time to heal in between.

The Olympian Affair: I'm still just in chapter 3. The book is big and I can't take it with me everywhere as I would my kindle. My good friend made a crocheted bookmark for me. It's the form of a black and white cat and I made a picture of it while it was between the pages. And I told her how fitting it is especially for this book. She should definitely read it, too.

Next week we will have a concert with our choir. It's the 30th anniversary.  I am a member for 22 years now.

The kittens are still cute and fun to play with. Yesterday Mini's best friend was visiting and she was very shy and seemed a bit afraid of the cats, though she was looking forward to playing with them. They have a dog. She would like to have cats of her own, but her father is allergic, so we told her she could be godmother of our cats, lol. She's very proud of that. personally I think young dogs can hurt you more when playing with you. Also depending on how strong they are and how tall you are, they can run you over. Ok, technically a cat can run you over too and they have very pointy teeth and claws, but it never happened to me. And they are usually much smaller than dogs. The rug rat races excluded.

There are some not so nice names for small dog races.

Like Trethupe:
If you step on the dog, there will be a honking sound.

Halbe Leberwurst: a half liver sausage (not sure if this one is official though, my dad used to say it)

Wadenbeißer: bites you into the calves, meaning the dog is so small, it can't reach further up.

There are no such names for cats though. At least I don't know any.

But imo there are less weird looking cat races than weird looking dog races. Except those without hair and those almost without noses. Poor things.


So maybe I'll read some more today. My favourite characters are Grimm, Benedict and Rowl. But I am generally not so addicted to books that constantly change between different characters. Just when I have adjusted to one, suddenly everything is from another's point of view. Makes it hard for me to stay in the flow of the story.

And...kittens! How are they doing? How is your family adjusting to them? At least they are already cuddling with your husband, so it seems that they feel at home already.

The kittens are fine. They have adjusted to living with us. 2 days ago, they have started to sleep on our laps or directly beside us on the sofa. They play a lot, like kitten do and are fun to watch and play with. We are still practising to tell them apart, lol. They are all black, but with different white spots, you can't see all the time. By now there are differences in behaviour and I started to recognize them by touch. Leonardo is quite talkative and the biggest, Mona always seems very busy. Lisa is the smallest and does elegant jumps. I think Leonardo might have longer fur, when he is older. Lisa feels similar, but her fur will be shorter. Mona has short shiny fur.


I think I will have to stay away from the Cinder Spires spoiler section for a while. But I will read the book as soon as I have it.

Yes, Long Past Dues is the second book of James Butcher's series. The first was Dead Man's Hand. And as I write this, I notice that both book titles are three words with 4 letters for each word, if you count "man's" as a whole word. I wonder if it was on purpose and if he continues this in future books.

I can't remember any Percy Jackson book having an unsatisfying ending. Or even a cliffhanger. But I can be wrong with the cliffhanger. If there was, it wasn't so bad, because I always was ok waiting for the next book.
This one had a nice ending, too. And one knows that the series is not finished yet. I did not even miss the lack of an overall evil threat. Probably there is one, I just don't know it yet.

Yay for kittens! 
Please tell us about them getting home. I am super happy they will be together.

Your future trip sounds great.

You made me laugh so much with your stories about the big secret. And I hope your daughter enjoys the book when she got it. Also, Butcher Sr. next book is about to arrive too!

I definitely will tell you about the kittens. 
At work, I always have to show the pictures. Aaawww cute! 😆

Yes, the new book by Butcher Sr.! Soon. But I will finish Percy Jackson tomorrow. I need something in between.

Funny, there are so many months without new books and then they all seem to pop up at around the same time.
I still have not started the new series by Benedict Jacka. But of course there is no rush. It just always feels that way, when there are new books I've been waiting for. 

I have not informed myself, but it seems that there will be at least 2 more Percy Jackson books, though usually they come in bundles of 5. He needs to do 3 quests and this book is only about the first. It is situated between the Heroes of Olympus and the Trials of Apollo, so after the first 10 books with mainly Percy as main character. And it is called book number 6. Confusing, isn't it?
I like Percy. Sometimes he behaves a bit like a teenage Harry Dresden, lol. Only without all the attraction to good looking girls. And he has a cool mother who is still around.

Well, I don't know. I think I will start with Long Past Dues and see, if I can finish it before The Olympian Affair is published. And if I am still reading it: will I be able to continue or will I choose to start the OA? I'm not sure. It's no DF book, so there's no addiction, lol. I do not prefer the one or the other, but looking forward to both of them equally.

Mini is trying to read the secret book in English. I don't think she'll get far. She's 13 now and only learning English for 4 years, but she seems very motivated. Who knows. I know that it took me a long time to be able to understand most of what I'm reading. And I still can't always understand some of the details. Or I interpret them in a different way from the context. I think she will still be happy to have it in German. She has read all the other books several times, so I am sure she'll do that with this one as well.

Ah, I can imagine it looking so beautiful.
I am curious about the concept of Autumn holidays. How is the school year in Germany? I mean, when it begins, when it ends, when are the Holidays? Inquiring minds want to know.

Hi, Dina. This looks like a simple question, but I'm afraid there is no simple answer, lol.

Because there is no answer for all of Germany.  As you might know, Germany has 16 federal states. And each state has it's own rules regarding political decisions for it's own state. While there is a government for the whole of Germany with a constitution for the whole country, there are little intern governments representing and caring for each federal state, elected by the people of that state for that state alone. It would be too complicated to explain here in detail.

So, the school system can be slightly different in each federal state. The kind of schools there are, at what age school starts, how stuff is taught and so on.

Also the holidays are not at the same time. But what they all have in common: there are long summer holidays after which the new school year starts. In Bavaria they are six weeks usually the whole of August, beginning in the last week of July, sometimes on the last day of July and ending at the second Tuesday of September. 

In other states they start in the middle of July , end at the end of August. Or start at the beginning of July and end in the middle of August.

I think all of them have autumn holidays, but some one week, some two weeks. We have one week, my friend from Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate) has two weeks.
Then there are the Christmas holidays.
We have 14 days starting at the 23rd, they have 10 days starting at the 27th.

I did some research, but I won't go into detail for the other holidays:
So there are summer, autumn (around All Saints Day), Christmas, Easter and Pentecost holidays, which vary in length and starting date (except for summer, all the other holidays are either one or two weeks, depending on the federal state), some have additional winter holidays (in February, varying between 2 and 5 days), some don't.

Also, today was Mother's Day here, so congratulations Regen! And congratulations to any mother reading this, and to the mothers of every forumite 

Thank you.  Here, Mother's Day is on the second sunday in May.

I wish you luck and may the painless toe soon be with you.


My PT will last till the end of the month. But I think I know now how to go on. They showed me a lot of exercises. I just have to remember doing them.
And also a lot of cycling is good for the arthrosis.
Maybe I'm going to decide to have surgery on the left knee as well. But not until next year. Perhaps it won't be necessary, if I continue my exercises and stretching.


I am still reading the secret book. Mini has not noticed yet, but she told me that she found a new book online (this book), but there is no translation yet. Aaaaww, what a pity, lol. I know the translation will be out soon, because I have already preordered it. Muahaha!

The book is nice, but a little bit too focused on the romantic side for my taste. But I know for a fact that Mini is very fond of said romantic side. So definitely the right book for her.
For me, I like the ones with focus on the adventure, a little character development and if the protagonist finds love in between, I'm ok with it, but it is not a necessity.