Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

29 January 2010

How French is like golf, to me

Filed under: culture,french,mental state — Will @ 14:24

I pray your indulgence as I attempt to articulate my present stage in learning French.

I came to Luxembourg with a dim memory of taking advanced French in high-school, and a few hours of practice during trips to Paris and Nice. It wasn’t long before I was reading signs and speaking easily with shopkeepers. (Lest I forget: There were a few incidents where I asked Anita to ask a question in English due to my fear of stumbling through a conversation in French.)

Now, when I want to express myself in French, I can find most of the words I need without effort. (more…)

19 January 2010

Regarding my unwarranted skepticism

Filed under: administrative,consumer,entertainment,ireland — Anita @ 10:11

To Whom It May Concern:

At several social functions during our recent visit to the US, my spouse Will told a somewhat humorous story involving the shooting of a movie in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. I would like to address my remarks on those occasions. (more…)

15 January 2010

Globe construction progress report

Filed under: entertainment — Anita @ 7:56

The work of building our world continues apace.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the progress after the first evening of solid puzzleball work.

Antarctica came together pretty quickly. (Truth in puzzling – the half-dozen bottom-most pieces came attached to the black circle.)
antarctica (more…)

12 January 2010

European History 101, painlessly

Filed under: culture,entertainment — Will @ 15:17

Was your New Year’s Resolution to become familiar with European history? If so, you’re going to love our recommendation for an entertaining way to survey European history from the French Revolution to the present day. If you have a long commute, you’ll especially like the medium: hour-long audio tracks, produced by a history professor. But it is certainly not a dry lecture series.

At Bethel University, history professor Chris Gehrz produced a podcast called Radio Modern Europe for his course, HIS354 Modern Europe. The format is clever, using multiple means of presenting the material: short lectures, of course, but also breaking news bits, simulated interviews with historical figures, and even recipes. (more…)

7 January 2010

My husband gave me the world for Christmas (twice)

Filed under: consumer,entertainment,ireland,luxembourg,usa — Anita @ 10:55

Two years ago, one of my Christmas presents from Will was a globe. After spending more than a decade with me, he knew better than to actually buy the globe. (I tend to be a bit fussy.) Instead, he gave me an awesome paper globe he hand-constructed to stand in for my real globe. In the next month, I was to shop in Ireland to find the perfect globe.

As it often happens with these things, the actual purchase of the globe was constantly delayed. The globe store had limited hours; I didn’t like the colors that I saw; and so on. Globes are expensive so I wanted my globe to be perfect.

Christmas 2009 arrived and I had not yet gotten around to buying a globe. Will was fed up with my antics and decided to take matters into his own hands. He reached into the interweb and, once again, found something to hold me until I find that perfect globe.

So I am now the proud owner of a Ravensburger Puzzleball. (more…)

5 January 2010

Happy New Year! Now behave yourselves.

Filed under: administrative — Will @ 18:52

Happy New Year from Bugle Enterprises! Our executive staff celebrated the arrival of the new year in a 767, high above the Atlantic Ocean. To be honest, we slept through the whole thing, waking to a smooth landing in a slightly snowy northern Europe.

After much thought, we decided to try a new policy regarding comments. (more…)

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