It�s the full worm moon today. I�m not all that sure why they call it that. Oh well. Doctors and scientists have been conducting (many inconclusive) studies for years to see if there�s any truth to the full moon/higher crime rate business. I definitely get a little wacky when there�s a full or new moon. The tides are determined by the moon, and are the very highest and very lowest they can get during the full and new moon. I figure, lackey that I am, that since we humans are made up mostly of water, then the moon must have some effect on us as well. And then sometimes I just point to the sky and say, �but it�s there! It has to do something!� Then I scratch my butt.

My brother is having an Easter egg hunt tomorrow for the kids. I used to love those darn Easter egg hunts.

I have nothing exciting to tell. I�ve been exhausting myself carrying on conversations in my head that I need to be having in real life.

In funny translation news� as you know I LOVE IT� I�ve been finding someone�s guest book even more entertaining than her diary itself. So here�s the backstory: Shannon has a link to this cream of the fashionista crop, an American in Paris (likens herself rightly to a modern day Holly Golightly minus the Huckleberry Friend business) Gentry. Somehow Gentry has become very famous in Germany, as Harald Schmidt, the Kraut Letterman, found her diary site, loved it, and featured it on his talk show. If that weren�t enough, he had her on the show as well. So her site is lovely and fun and entertaining� but the guest book is a hoot. See, Harald Schmidt is �ber-famous, so she�s had all of these Germans signing her guest book, with such pleasantries from your favorite and mine, Jrgen, as, �Hi Gentry, glad to be able to greet you in "american style" right at the beginning, I should rather not continue with "meta-stuff" (what�s probably my biggest hint to build "normal" social relationships, especially to women). Anyway, I�m lost! But pay attention: "Hunde, die bellen, bei�en nicht" says an old german saying (where�s my dictionary? I�m nearly out of words), which means "dogs that bark doesn�t bite". Referring to this - please don�t get me tooooo serious, I�m fucking fine almost half of the time ;-) Although my english is rudimentary - now 30 years visiting planet earth� surface and nearly 11 years out of school - an englishman once told me, our conversation suggests him he�s talking to the Queen (if that makes sense, anyway). Let�s jump to reality. What�s taking place right at the moment? Now still at "work", hangin� up/on (?) in a humor-free office, I enjoyed last two hours (getting payed for that, of course) exploring your ever short-whiled and also brilliant diary. Thank you for that. You�re special, I think! Enough said, enough "slimed". I have to take the bus.�

Isn�t that grand? I mean, I think I�ve found a bottomless well of poor English� and you know how that makes me smile.

Word of the Day for Thursday March 28, 2002:

doula DOO-luh, noun:

A woman who assists during childbirth labor and provides support to the mother, her child and the family after childbirth.

Chris Morley launched Tender Care Doula Service in Valencia, California, seven years ago to provide nonmedical postpartum care workers (or doulas) to frazzled new moms.

--Roy Huffman, "Healthy returns," [1]Entrepreneur Magazine, February 1, 1996

Unlike midwives, who deliver babies and are licensed to perform medical tasks, labor doulas provide emotional and physical support to the laboring parents.

--Stephen L. Richmond, "One Labor-Intensive Job," [2]Time, March 12, 2001

Doula derives from Greek doula, "servant-woman, slave," akin to [3]hierodule.