Getting back to normal

Finally have internet service for more than two days in a row.  Well, sort of.  Logged on this morning and halfway through my e-mails, it dropped the signal (several cuss words ensued).  After 15-20 minutes, it came back on only to drop it again 30 minutes later (whole new round of cussing).  Called into my friends at Comcast to chew some internet ass.  Sorry, but my patience has been worn down to a nub at this point.  I even told the woman that I was expecting a discount for this month's bill since I have been without the net for most of a week.  Foolishly, she tried to defend the outage by indicating that it was due to equipment on my end (the splitter was bad), but I gently informed her that this was the same freaking hardware that THEY installed 10 years ago and, if it was having problems with the all digital conversion, then perhaps they shouldn't have made the conversion.  Not really a conversation I wanted to have at 0500 in the morning.

Despite that, I am on line and able to do stuff again.  

Trying to catch up with all my blog friends, newsletters, e-mails.  

To answer everyone's question from a few days ago, yes this is a Hummel.  Actually, that should have been easy since the MI Hummel name is stamped on the side (I didn't see it when I posted it).  This one is one of a "few" we collected while stationed over in Germany and it is called "Ride into Christmas".   

For those who are not into these figurines, these are ceramic figurines that were made in Germany.  Some of the earlier versions are considered collectibles and very valuable.  Our collection is more middle of the road.  When we were stationed over in Germany in the 80s, we would spend the weekends exploring the local towns and countrysides.  Back then, we were regular DINKS (dual income, no kids).  With all that disposable income and free time and, since we were so far from home and family, we engaged in various activities.  Hiking, volksmarches, cooking, wine tasting, traveling, photography, etc.  Whenever we were out traveling, we would collect souvenirs of our journeys.  My wife would pick up the occasional Hummel or LLadro figurines and, over the years, we amassed a small army. 

Of course, I never had any interest in collecting figurines.  I acquired more functional memorabilia.   

My division 

 BTW - these aren't mugs, they are called Steins.   

My division 

The last one is probably my favorite and the most interesting.  It is a genuine German Hunter's stein that has an interesting twist to it.  Can anyone spot what might be wrong with this stein?

And, of course, being genuine German, the story is that there are two versions of the mug - one for the bachelor and one for the married hunter.  Each one has a translucent figure stamped at the bottom of the mug that can be seen if held up to the light as the stein is drained.  Of course, I wound up getting the bachelor's version.