Friday Freedom

Took care of some official business today. Visited the Tax Office (Finanzamt), officially announcing my freelancer status. Went to the Unemployment Office (Agentur für Arbeit) and got an appointment for next week.
Finished the content of the four Tick-Its, I'm taking with me to San Diego. Now they need a nice graphic design and there is somebody on it, I hope. There's a fifth card I want to implement, too, but that has to wait until tomorrow. A condensed keyword-based list of the "Tick-The-Code" inspection method will make for a nice reminder for all the participants.

Our insurance expert, Mr. Pester, visited us with a few offers on the professional disability insurance (Berufsunfähigkeitsversicherung) and the legal protection insurance (?) (Rechtsschutzversicherung). We also fixed the sickness daily allowance (Krankentagegeld), which needed to be changed because I'm not employed anymore.

The first thing I noticed this morning when I switched on my mobile phone (YES, you can switch the mobile phone OFF for the night so it doesn't bother you!) was that Kaj had called me 7:52AM. This was strange as he doesn't normally call me and that is either very early for a Friday or very late for a Thursday even for him. The mystery was revealed later, when he let me know per text message that his phone had been calling other people too in his pocket all by itself. He said that "maybe it was feeling lonely..." Nicely put.

Yesterday, we bought Deadwood, the complete first season on DVD. We found a DVD in Germany with Finnish subtitles! The miracles never cease! We watched the first episode in the evening and it was fast-paced and a bit confusing. Virpi said that all the men had moustaches and hats and you couldn't tell them apart and that she couldn't really know what was going on. I like to think that she was just too tired and that the series will grab her too, eventually. I liked it, Lovejoy as a grim saloon owner in a "camp" with no law!

Oh, yeah, the TV shows no picture anymore. The storm must have broken our antenna. And the terrace is flooding with water because the drainage is just a small hole with no piping in the middle of the terrace. Or it would be flooding if we hadn't put the marquee down. Now that it is down, it is breaking in the wind. What should we do? The guy who built the terrace and forgot the piping promised to come and see it on Monday or Tuesday. Well, it is Friday and we haven't seen or heard from him yet. Shows that he's a good promiser. Unfortunately, he's not at all good at keeping promises.