Just so everyone knows, it's really bad when I'm sad in every language I know. Earlier this year, Jami and I got the pleasure of joining Hillside to a mission trip to our sister church in Frankfurt, Germany. It was an excellent trip in which we got to know several people very well, both from Germany and also from our own family. It was a great time. Two of those people that Jami and I got to know very well were our German hosts Speedy and Fema. It was very interesting to stay with people who were pretty much a German version of Dave and Jami. We fell in love with this couple right off the bat. They gave us a few gifts at the end of our trip and we didn't open them till we got home. It just so happened that it was the best gift a beer lover could get. Five different genuine German Hefe-Weisen's and a genuine German beer glass, which is something I wanted since I saw one in Germany. The picture above is the exact duplicate of the one gifted to me. It was my favorite beer mug. What made it so special was the story that goes behind it. Not only did our hosts look far and wide for such beer glass, but they couldn't find anything like it anywhere. So they had to go to a local bar, and Speedy had to put on his puppy dog face that no one could ever resist and scored one from the bar.
Between 6:50 am and 7:15 am, the morning of Monday, December 10, 2007. The beer glass, that was my favorite, and only genuine (it even had the 0.5L "German engineering" precise line on the back) German beer mug, was murdered. The previous night I had enjoyed a smooth Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout in said glass and had washed the glass and it was in our drying rack on our counter. This morning, I found it in a thousand pieces in our sink. After interrogating Bunson and Beaker, I am most certain that Beaker is to blame. The guilt behind his cute kitty face was not one to ignore. Not only does he know that he is not allowed on the counter top (as he will get a swift moving airsoft pellet in his rear) but he knows that he destroyed something special to me. I'm sure it was an accident and that he is sorry, and thus no punishment will be handed out (like a swift moving airsoft pellet to his rear).
It's a sad day in the Harder home.
I couldn't help but go back my childhood in this situation. I remember my big brother and I playing volleyball in the living room (it was winter, like we're going to play outside!). It was just after Christmas and my mom had gotten a beautiful glass vase from a friend at church. Low and behold the volleyball game got pretty competitive and a super-spike got astray and knocked the glass vase over. My older brother tried for a diving catch to no avail. My mom cried a lot after that. Yes, these are all things that can be replaced, but the path in which they came can not. I didn't cry for my loss, but I felt like it. It wasn't just a simple beer glass, it was a gift, from special friends.
It's a sad day in the Harder home.
On the plus side, I did find a website that has these mugs. Check it out. http://www.straubs.net/index.htm
I just might have to replace it, and maybe add one more just because it just might make up for the loss. And plus, I'm pretty sure there is beer in heaven, and you can't drink beer without a glass...I'm pretty sure the glass and I will meet again. Until that day I will lift up other beer glasses in memory of a special gift, from special people and say "Prost!"
9 comments:
I've awakened to worse at the hands of a pet. One morning, a dog I had ate some of its own poop and then horked up bloody, poopy puke that I stepped in.
Merry Christmas.
I would have to agree with both of you...waking up to a nice surprise from one of your pets is a real treat...try having two cats and one dog as well as two kids...in one day I had stepped in my dogs puke, then went out side to clean her poop on the lawn, then inside to clean out the litter box, only to find that one of my cats threw up in her food bowl, then have a day filled with diaper changes, as well as my son pooping in the bath tub before bed time...oh the joys of motherhood!
Maybe you should velcro your cats to the wall at night. That way you could totally avoid this type of mishap.
Or something.
On another topic: I bet that our glasses/cups/mugs will be provided for us, as it will most definitely not be a BYOB or BYOM(bring your own mug) to heaven...
I'm aiming for a nice frosty stein... do you remember the German word for "stein" (the drinking glass, not the rock?)
David and Nicole: Those are both really bad. I stepped in cat throw-up once after I got out of the shower...needless to say I cleaned it up, then took another shower.
Sco: I thought "stein" was the German word. Velcro would be a good solution, and kind of a fun game for when guests come over.
I think my cats know that something is up, like we are having a baby soon. They are really being destructive latley. This morning they figured out how to play with the toilet paper. Savages!
Okay, that was some of the funniest comments I've read in awhile. On the destruction from pets, I remember one of our dogs, I think it was Amber chewed up Nicole's Barbie and Ken and part of the family--Midge or Skipper or whatever their names where. Nicole was mortified, but ended up still playing with a Barbie with only one hand and part of a foot. Ken I believe was earless or something. I think Skipper was dust. It was tragic. I'm sure Ambers poop the next day looked like something from CSI. Merry Christmas!!!!
Actually the German word for what we call a stein is "Humpin". Some things are too good to be made up.
That is all.
I would cut off there tails. They would be ashamed.
I cried (metaphorically of course)...that is SO sad :(
Sometimes I wonder why we even have pets...except for the pure joy and unabashed love they bring us on some days. Sorry about the mug.
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