Is it my imagination...

or are Fussball players way better looking than football, baseball or basketball players? Do they do it on purpose so that, with 2 games a night, women have something to look at?

Germany 1 vs Croatia 2

I thought tonight would be quiet, with Germany losing, but I was wrong.There are still firecrackers and car horns going off.
And still at 20:10. I asked the German if the people honking were the pro-Croations or the anti-Germans and he says there are enough pro-Croatians to do this.

How long could you survive in Space?

It's a pretty depressing number...

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets


credit to Notes from Germany

Die Europamaestershaft

Turkey won (over Switzerland)and I am being deafened. 70 minutes so far of non-stop honking, fireworks, and screaming on Ku'damm. It's not a bad thing to be moving. I took a movie: If I can figure out how to upload it, you can hear several minutes of the honking and screaming, hours apart. Otherwise, take my word for it: it's Loud.

Duesseldorf

Monday, June 9th

Amsterdam and Delft

Friday June 6th-Saturday June 7th


Amsterdam


Delft

Watching MTV...

It seems like it's been 20 years since I've bothered to watch MTV. I have no patience for reality shows or other crap of that kind. But the German came to grab me and we are watching Metallica live at Rock am Ring. I saw them in New York about 15 years ago, taking my best girl friend, and she was so mad at me! She spent the evening shoving napkins into her ears while I was getting neck lash from thrashing my head back and forth. The German is moaning that we didn't meet for another few years so that we could have gone together. I just showed him this post over at Sweet Juniper and it cracks me up t realize that he has been singing along with this song, one of his favorites, for years and only after reading this "children's book" has he acyually understood all the words! He wants me to print it out and put it up in either the children's room, or, more likely, ours.

A rough start to the trip.

Thursday, June 5th:
I mentioned that we had a delay in starting our trip. That would be because the German managed to get stuck in our elevator.

(this is not our elevator. It is a representation of one;))

He was carrying the car seats down to the rental when he let a strap get caught in the doors. Luckily he had his handy with him and called me or I might have fallen asleep on the couch with the girls and left him there all night.

I tried vainly to get the strap through the doors and went back to get a knife to try to cut it, but the strap was too taut and the end was too thick. The German kept pressing the emergency button, but it only produced a shrill audible alarm: it wasn't hooked up to any service notification. Luckily, a woman who works in a business one floor down from the elevator heard the alarms and came up to investigate. She very kindly talked to the German while I went for a knife and tried to persuade the girls to stay and watch a movie rather than stand on the stairs in their nightclothes watching me saw at a strap....

When my knife failed and I went to look for something else, she found a compatriot who had a smaller knife and was able to saw/push the end of the strap through the doors (after 5 minutes). And when that didn't work, she knew where to find the hausverwalterung and sherousted him out and made him come and deal with the fact that the elevator was still stuck between floors (turned out pushing at the doors rythmically made it drop down to the next floor).

After the German explained to the house manager that he didn't get stuck on purpose, we then had to carry all our stuff down 6 flights of stairs in multiple trips. That's a box of food (not to be left to rot, we brought it and ate it at the in-laws), a bag of our clothes, a box of clothes for the girls, bike helmets, cat, two children, 2 car seats,backpack, two cameras,sippy cups, bottles, milk in cooler bag... argh.

We got to the Sauerlands and to bed at 02:30. Tomorrow Amsterdam.

Cabbage Roll Casserole, Chicken and Banana Raspberry Bread

This is the same James Beard recipe with variations that I have used before. This time I had three bananas waiting in the freezer and I wound up with a bit of extra batter, so I made muffins as well as a loaf. S, who was a surprise play date this afternoon, ate two.






This Cabbage Roll Casserole is great. Tastes quite a bit like one of my favorites, stuffed cabbage, but takes no effort to make. The German had picked up bak choy instead of cabbage by accident, so I used that. No sauerkraut, more onions and garlic, I used tomato juice instead of water and tomato paste and at the half hour mark I topped up the pan with a box of Italian pureed tomatoes. It tasted great.
Ingredients
1 kg rind hackfleish
3 diced onions
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 t salt
1 t pepper
1 bottle tomato juice
1 cup uncooked rice
6+cups cabbage (1 head diced)

Brown beef separately, then add to onions, garlic, salt, pepper, tomato juice
Bring to a boil and stir in rice.
Cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
Place 1/2 of the cabbage in a greased baking dish; cover with 1/2 the rice mixture.
Repeat layers.
cover and bake in 350 oven for one l hour.
If desired you can put sauerkraut on top of the layers.
Top with pureed tomatoes as well as adding diced fresh as desired, to keep moist.

Miscellaneous Musings and trivia

We are leaving tonight for NRW, there to leave the kids with F and G and take a day in Amsterdam with a stop over in Delft. Before that I wanted/needed to clean out the fridge so that food wouldn't spoil. I skipped Deutsche kurs today (I had planned on going, but a call about the lease delayed me and I said, "What the hey") and, just now, as it would be ending, I have:

• discussed lease terms with the German for half an hour
• washed three loads of clothes
• dried, folded, and put away two loads of clothes
• made a raspberry banana bread loaf and muffins
• made a cucumber onion salad
• unloaded the dishwasher, washed another sink of dishes, cleaned kitchen
• watched US election coverage
• still watching the season ender of "Men in Trees"- that's just such a charming show.
• prepared a (tiny) chicken to roast(it was thawed and won't last until we are back on Tuesday- I will roast it and then bring the meat with us)
• packed a few boxes for moving
• started to pack bags for the weekend for myself and the girls
• Had a cup of coffee (mmm) and now I am going to stop and have another with a muffin.

It's an hour later and I

• have discussed a lease addenda with the German, he appended it and mailed the lease out
• put a cabbage beef casserole in the oven (I know! but the meat was in the fridge and that and the cabbage/bok choy would go bad by Tuesday).

And in a whole other post for when I get back I'll tell you why leaving for our trip was delayed...