It's Not How Well the Dog Dances

I just learned a Czech saying that I love:

“Co sis navařil, to si taky sněz”

Which means, roughly, “What you have cooked, you also must eat.”

I learned this when I asked a friend of mine, Jaromir Coufal, if the phrase he had used in passing, “They are eating the soup we cooked,” was a Czech phrase.

I have begun calling Jaromir “Djarda” because everyone outside of Europe mispronounces his nickname “Jarda” (“Yarda” in English) as “dŽarda” (“Jarda” in English). This is a running joke in our office in Brno.

We also have multiple Jans and Jirkas. You can imagine.

Kim and I are wrapping up our whirlwind tour of America today, waiting to board our flight back to Vienna and then the train to our lovely Brno. Hopefully the fog will have lifted…

Here is the obelisk that stands behind the Brno cathedral Petrov. This photo makes me sad because it is going to encourage my friends and relatives to think that Brno is like Transylvania or something, which it most certainly is not. At least I assume it is not, never having been to Transylvania myself. The point is that Frankenstein’s Monster is not about to lurch hungrily out of the fog at you, despite appearances to the contrary…

Everyone says the fog, is pretty unusual for Brno. Hopefully it ends soon.

While in California, we visited my family, which resulted in this:

Mom, in the middle front, was recently diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a kind of bone marrow cancer. Fortunately she has been responding well to the treatment and everyone seems optimistic about her prognosis, which is a real relief. My grandfather — Dad’s father — died of the same disease back in 1985. Anyway we thought it would be a good idea to try to get all of us together for Christmas, which was made possible by many many pounds of jet fuel and (on Kim and my part) many thousands of Air Miles. It was a really good visit, and exactly the right length (6 days).

We stopped in Philadelphia on the way home and saw a few folks and fixed a few things at our house there. It is always nice to see all our old friends. Kim and I are both surprised I think that, as much as we love the city, we don’t really miss it. I guess 20 years in one place may be long enough, or at least long enough that it is time to take a break.

Also, I really like not having to fix anything in our Brno apartment. Having a landlord is great!