Ankers weg, Matrose

The title of my post says "Anchor's away, Sailor", just in case you don't speak German.

Since before I was born, my dad has been involved with the Navy as a reservist. It has always been a fun thing for him to be a part of, allowing him the opportunity to keep fit and travel the world, without interfering with his career. In fact his position as a Naval Reservist has been quite conducive with his career as a Pharmacist. Foreign countries are always in need of more Medical personal, so he has been very fortunate.

Tomorrow will be a sad day. My dad is being deployed to Germany for 18 months (that's almost a full mission). We are not what you would call a Sentimental family, so tonight to wish him goodbye we got him some going away gifts and took him to dinner to his favorite restaurant, Outback Steakhouse. We all had a great time and as usual, my dad was his quiet self, but I could see in his eyes that he was in low spirits and is going to miss us terribly. After dinner, I asked a nice man to take our photo, so that my dad could take it with. (I secretly decided that he would maybe use it as a desktop background for the new lap top we got him).

The good smaratin accidentally hit the "self timer" button, so as the

camera blinked away, I ran to turn it off... It snapped a shot anyway, this is what we got.

This guy gave my camera one shot, and... (drum roll please...) We came out blurry. However the Outback Steakhouse sign is beautifully illuminated in the evening sun, just as clear as day. Oh well, he only took the one, and I figure I'll give it to Dad anyway, and now he'll have a story to go along with it. We also got my dad a calling card with a ton of minutes already loaded on it, and installed Skype on his new computer!

Blurry Family Photo. At least I know that IF it had

turned out, it would have been a great pic!

On the ride home, we were trying to help my dad familiarize himself with the Beautiful German language, telling him the words/phrases we know, and their meaning. Here's what we came up with:

Quick lesson on some German letters and their sounds
äa = (Ahh)
öo = (Oh)
ü = (Ooo)
ß = (Ss)I'm quite certain that Dear ol' Dad is eternally grateful for this profound vocabulary list, and will more than likely just throw away his English/German dictionary.

Wiener Schnitzel (Vee-ner-snit-zel) - Yes, the hot dog place. We're so glad Dad has already grown accustomed to German food. This will relieve a large part of his culture shock.

Häagen Dazs - (Ha-gin Daz) - This one is obvious, and again very important.

Haßelhoff (as in David Hasselhoff) - If he's going to live in Germany for 18 months, we thought he may as well know who runs the country.

Vat es Mine Prognösin? Translates to (TT): "What is my prognosis". Very important in the medical field, and I assure the translation is extremely accurate, Evan heard it on an episode of Scrubs.

Dachshünd This on is not so much important, as we thought he may as well know where all of our dogs in the past have come from.

Schlittenfahrt (TT: sleigh ride) My brothers just thought this was funny because it phonetically it sounds like $#!+ and fart.

Lecken ze Dicken (TT: Lickin' the Dick-en) - Colby came up with this one

Fartenshtincken Poopenschmellen (TT: farts stink, poop smells)

Büttenitchen Fingenstinkin (TT: Butt itching, finger stinking)

Hümpenbümpen Vöopienmäaken (TT: Humpin, bumpin, woopie makin)

In true Green boy fashion all of our vocabulary words have to do with sex, farts, or butts. Oh well, the important lesson here is how easily the German language can be learned. Apparently you just take an English phrase, and add an -en to the end of every word! Who knew?
I'll have to practice so I'll fit right in and not be pegged as a tourist when we go to visit. Did I mention that family of deployed officers get to fly to visit them for free?!?!? That's right, paid for by the Government, err, your tax dollars. Thanks all! I'll be sure to send you a postcard when I go!

Bye dad, we love you and will miss you tons!