Oh, How I Miss TV Commercials

One of the "perks" of being stationed at a military establishment overseas is the availability of U.S. television programming via AFN, which stands for "Armed Forces Network." The network provides a reasonable variety of current American programming, albeit with perhaps a tad too many crime dramas and a selection of movies that, as one of my friends put it, might have been found in the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart.

While I greatly appreciate the efforts of AFN to provide us with this excuse to retain our American couch-potato habits while living in a foreign country, I absolutely despise what AFN has chosen to do during the brief intervals where TV commercials would normally appear. I understand that our use of said programming is contingent upon AFN not airing advertisements; however, I maintain that there are scores of better ways to fill dead space than with, well, what follows. Judge for yourself - I present a sampling of the torture I am subjected to on a daily basis (more can be found by searching for "AFN commercials" on YouTube):

Vlad the Vizsla Goes to Weltenburg

Went to Weltenburg yesterday, which is the site of the oldest still-operating brewery in the world. The monastery is located on a bend in the Danube, and the surrounding nature parks afforded Vlad ample opportunity for reckless romping.

We rode this tiny ferry across the Danube:

From the opposite side we enjoyed incredible views of the monastery:

We also enjoyed, of course, plenty of romping through the woods.