Rissa danke schoen (and I am too lazy at the end of a work week to go umlaut hunting, so my apologies)! I miss my German as well; I used to be able to converse exclusively auf deutsch verbally, imperfectly, but not grossly incorrect most of the time. When I married a non-German-speaker I lost having someone to practice with, and when you don't speak a language, you don't speak the language anymore in a deeper sense. I still miss it. (And he got his revenve; after we divorced and became friends, he began speaking French at me equally fruitlessly!)
Blogger blocked me out yesterday, but I may actually have some observations up soon, and I am thinking I"d like to post an excerpt from my author's note as well. Stay tuned!

"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"
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The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers
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http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor