You think these things never happen

Thursday, I was whisked back to the home of one of my teachers. She lives in a neighboring village called Altheim, which roughly translates as Old Home. Bianca, the teacher, has two lovely daughters about 8 and 12 years old. They call me 'Big Sister', 'Good boy', and 'Little one'. With those two, I kind of get to see what life would have been like with younger siblings - dang, I feel old and big! It's great fun, though. We played Mario Kart on Nintendo DS, wailed out ABBA tunes on Singstar (Karaoke), and played with their two dogs:

The one on the left is a bundle of energy. You can just see the heartshaped "spot" on her back.

Anyway, I think that Singstar game is rigged. The girls don't speak or read English very well but they rock at that game! They shout the lyrics incoherently and wrack up the points!

It's all over the news here and I'm sure you've heard of it in America: the school shooting in southern Germany. I never expected it to happen in Europe, seeing as how they have strict gun control laws here but happen it did. And it isn't the first time. Apparently there was a similar incident in 2001. What isn't different is how people react. Here, as in America, somebody has to take the blame: teachers, parents, friends, neighbors. "Should've, would've, could've..." I guess you could say, "if your kid is undergoing psychiatric treatment, put a lock on the gun cabinet." But that wouldn't do much good for the now - only the then.