HWMBO and I are now on the West Side of The Pond, our flight to the US last week, fortuitously in retrospect, having occurred after the heavy snow had melted but just before new low temperatures and bad weather hit Switzerland once again. We have, for the most part, adjusted to the six-hour time difference. It always does seem easier to adjust to a longer rather than to a shorter day. But the temperatures here are no less chilly! In the meantime, I have made the in-person acquaintance of our tiny grandson, Prince Attani, whom I had previously seen only via the wonders of Skype. There will be more about Prince Attani later.
One thing that HWMBO, the technical wizard half of this couple, has done is to activate the Google translation feature of my laptop toolbar. This makes for some wondrously strange, often unique and occasionally hilarious results, even though it is clear that the translator has some basics at hand. Take my Swiss email account, for instance, where the language offerings for commands and communications are in German, French or Italian only. Without my prompting, the translator converts them to English - of a sort.
My current favorite is the communication I receive when I have successfully logged out of my email account. The message: "The Log has been carried out."
As we are approaching Yuletide, this message fits quite well into the traditions of the season, although probably not by intent. It brings to mind the traditional Yule Log. I cannot resist picturing tiny little internet elves scampering - or more likely, lumbering - off with it.
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