Fortunes

We've been quite busy for the past few days. Rodi and Renate departed Wednesday morning; that same evening, my parents returned from their trip to Italy. This afternoon, Stefan's mother arrived from Munich.

Because my parents and Helen see each other rarely, we celebrated this evening by having dinner at a Tapas/wine bar in the Altstadt. The food was tasty and the waiter quite charmingly entertaining, but the highlight of the evening was the discovery of a Biorhythm scale in the basement next to the WCs. That fortunes could be printed out either "in English" or "in Deutsch" should have been the first hint that the prognostication service, like so many other services these days, was being farmed out to a crew of southeast Asian telephone operators rather than being handled locally. Adding to the entertainment value, the machine was not properly grounded; touching it and the staircase railing simultaneously generated a painful zap. We mentioned this to the waiter, who shrugged and said, "yes, of course."

Elias's lucky numbers for the day were an asterisk. Emotionally, he will feel happy and open-minded for 11 more days; mentally, he has to be "more concentrated" (like frozen orange juice, perhaps) for 9 more days. Stefan has very lucky numbers and is of a sunny and balanced disposition, but he needs to eat more protein. As for me, I'm 19 pounds underweight, but should mix my drinks with simple mineral water because it has no calories. For better or for worse, I will be mentally quick and sharp for two more days.