Sinks, weeds and a "kanibal"???

Today was the most dreariest, rainiest day. I am becoming resolved to the idea that summer was over in Prague before it ever began. Looks like we're leaping right into fall. Lydia did not fare well cooped up indoors all day, and we were all quite happy to see daddy at the end of the day.

Our landlord, Mrs. Korcova, and her entourage arrived to fix our kitchen sink. I guess it was a minor problem since it only took 10-15 minutes to repair. Then Mr. Blaum felt the need to demonstrate that the leak was fixed by filling the sink, draining it and wiping his hands on the pipes below the sink before showing me that his hands were still dry. He repeated this demonstration two or three times to ease my fears.

Now on to the story of my neighbors and my weeds. After arriving home the other day, the English-speaking construction worker, George, (remember the one who pointed out to me that Nellie was outside too long on a "hot" day?) approached my gate with another Czech homeowner in the neighborhood. After asking if I "have a minute" and proceeds to ask me for "my help". The area between our fence and the street is not landscaped because the entire neighborhood is still under construction. In fact, for the time being the area in question is used on a regular basis as a parking spot for random construction vehicles. Over the course of the 6 months we have been here, some pretty tall weeds have grown in that area. George and his buddy were appalled at the appearance of this area and requested that I help them by threatening my landlord that we are not happy with the weeds and that we will not pay rent if he does not do something about it. "After all," George reasoned "You have guests come to visit, and certainly you care what it looks like to them. And I am certain that in America neighbors would be very unhappy if their neighbor's house looked like this." He continued, "Actually, I am quite surprised you have not already complained to your landlord." Oh Boy. Doesn't George know that the weeds are the least of my worries and that as we speak the locks on my front gate and my front door are not functioning and my kitchen sink is leaking?!? Actually I am in quite a state of bliss with my functional, 99% complete terrace!

To wrap things up, if any Czechs are reading, I'd like some input on a rendevous I had with some beef this week. I needed some ground beef, but all that the store had looked a bit fatty. That is, except this one lone package off to the side. It had the words I'm used to reading on the packages of beef, but they were followed by the word "kanibal". This has me quite concerned since I am reasonably confident they are not selling human meat in the grocery store -- but what else could this mean?!? The meat has already been consumed and we are suffering no ill effects. Hmmmmmm.....