How I earned 300 points As every guy knows, earning points with your partner is critical to your short-term happiness! However, there may not be sufficient opportunities to earn those points. That's why I was so happy for the opportunity to travel with Chris to Germany to meet her family.
A little background, Chris was born in Germany and emigrated to Canada with her parents when she was 5. The family was from a small town near Frankfurt called Winkles. The family still lives in the surrounding area. Her aunt and uncle own a small inn and we would be staying there.
First, the good news. The room was nice, the food was good, and only Chris was expected to help in the kitchen. Chris also considered it good news that nobody spoke English - relieving me of the responsibility to make conversation. Unfortunately, that meant that I would have to get by by smiling a lot. It would probably have been easier to learn German.
We carefully visited each relative in their home for a meal. Unfortunately, since they couldn't talk to me (and I couldn't smile enough) they judged my "happiness" by how much food I ate. Coming from a Jewish and Italian family you wouldn't think that that would have been a problem but each family we visited had a specialty that had to be consumed - in abundance and with beer. By the way, there are four meals a day:
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Breakfast (eggs, cheese, salami and bread)
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Lunch (meat, potatoes, bread and beer)
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Coffee (coffee and much cake)
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Dinner (meat, potatoes, bread and beer)
That probably explains why all her relatives were short and round (stumpy!).
As I smiled my way through each day, Chris would tell me I was being so good I was earning a LOT of points. We eventually agreed to 100 points a day - total 300 points. We are now negotiating how many points it will cost me for each of my potential transgressions. For example,
As of today, I'm sitting home planning how to stretch 300 points out over the next 6 weeks. I know I'm not likely to earn any additional points.
11:59:16 AM 
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