Une lettre à nos amis français

  Mes chers amis, Ici tout va bien et il faut certainement me pardonner le retard en répondant à votre message.  Chez les Koerner il y avait pas mal de choses arrivées pendant la saison de Noël.  D’abord je dois commencer avec les nouvelles que l’entreprise Koerner, Koerner Enterprises n’est plus.  A mon avis, nous

Smokin!

  Everyone knows of the French German thing.  We all know that there is no love lost between the two groups.  Then again, there are numerous groups that don’t always see eye to eye or just don’t get along.  The list is probably endless. I was looking at this “Smoker,” a cute wooden object made

Back to normal

I am sometimes convinced that holidays like Christmas were designed to get people to clean their abodes!  In order to put things up, you have to remove things, often find dirt, and clean.  The same thing happens when you end the holiday and put things back in order.  Is there anything nicer than having your

Day Two of Daddy Boot Camp

Today is the last day I shall sit by the Christmas tree in the morning.  No coffee this morning, I have already finished it and I am wary of adding any more caffeine to my system.  I have been religiously following my doctor’s advice about checking my blood pressure and yesterday was not good.  I

Recycling your Christmas Tree

I open up the Chicago Tribune today and see a huge article on the recycling of Christmas trees.  It amuses me to no end that in our society we can often take something simple and render it complicated.  I find it so interesting that some of the simplest things are totally ignored.  Does no one

Christmas Lights and some more thoughts on Day Six of rehab

   “Christmas night, another fight, tears we cried a flood, Got all kinds of poison in, poison in the blood…” “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay Got to thinking, thinking still, just cannot turn off the flood of things than come into my head. Is anyone like me?   A song that comes into your life at a

Gänseliesel

One of my all time favorite Christmas decorations is Gänseliesel. I just spoke to my wife about the appropriate German spelling. Although my surname is German (actually Austrian), it is nothing more than a made up name my paternal grandfather made up to avoid being made fun of, is this perhaps a Koerner family theme?

A Christmastime Sunday

  It is about eight o’clock in the morning and I am awake with my coffee enjoying the silence in the house.  It is hard to believe I slept this late, it doesn’t happen very often.  I have my coffee in hand and am about to get the Sunday paper.  I always used to really

The Christmas Exchange

  Been a busy day here in Deerfield, Illinois, across the board.  Up early to go and work out and then off to pick up Mikey’s birthday cake.  The best cakes are in Northfield, so it is about a ten mile drive to pick it up.  It is worth it.  The cakes are beautiful, look

Ground Zero and Religion

Politics is a necessary evil, or so I am told.  Nevertheless, I am not a big fan.  I find that although it may well be necessary, that it often clouds vision to the point that some good things just don’t happen. In my high school teaching career, although for the most part, the stars were