God Save the Queen

So we're moving. I don't think this will come as a surprise to anyone who reads this blog (if anyone even bothers to stop by anymore - hi mom!), but I'm making an official expatty announcement. As of February 2010, I'll be drinking tea, wearing wellies, and attempting to speak the Queen's English. To be fair, I already drink a lot of tea and wear wellies almost daily...

I also want to apologize to a new blog reader (welcome!) for anything I say about your home country that may offend you along the road, should you decide to come back. I'm sure I'll love it. But I guarantee you there will be days when it pisses me off.

Stay tuned for the story of the house-hunting trip, folks.

everybody was facebook fighting...

so it turns out all you have to do to get me to blog is piss me off. please, someone read this and tell me that not everyone is so intolerant of different religions and so quick to pass judgement. because evidently, in the forum in which the conversation is taking place, i'm the only one that is disgusted by this. and i'm so mad i could scream.

are YOU salvatore's daughter?

wanna know what an idiot i am?  read on...  i'm posting this because at least four of you who read this blog (or who are forced into reading particular posts by your spouses - hey dad, hey ryan) actually know salvatore.

so one day we are sitting outside, drinking some wine, when salvatore, the owner of the place where we stay, comes over and starts speaking to us.  as usual, with his italian and my english, we're not getting anywhere.  so he says, in italian, that georgia speaks english, and calls georgia over.  this young woman in her 20's walks over, and having had english conversations over the phone in previous years with salvatore's grown daughter, i said "oh, are you salvatore's daughter?!"  she didn't understand me, i repeated myself, and she said "no, i'm his wife!"  

so i just kept going with the conversation and played the whole awkward thing off.  okay, lesson learned.  right?  you would think.

the next day sean comes in and wakes me up and tells me that salvatore's daughter is outside...  i laughed and told him it was his wife.  he said unless his wife was 17, it was his daughter.  i went outside to investigate, and sure enough, this girl looked younger, had darker hair in a different style, and was much cuter than the girl i had seen yesterday.  so what did i say?  you guessed it.  "are you salvatore's daughter?"  once again, she didn't understand me, so i repeated myself AGAIN, to which she replied as she took off her sunglasses and revealed her familiar face, "no, i'm his WIFE!"  

wife.  got it.

so i'm updating my list of questions never to ask a woman.

1.  never ask a woman if she's pregnant unless you can actually see a baby making an exit.

2.  never, ever, ever make the assumption that someone is the daughter of the older man standing next to them.  

which reminds me to buy those "who's my daddy??!!/eeeew, she's my DAUGHTER you freak!" t-shirts for my next solo outing with my own dad.

i dreamed a dream...

i actaully had a dream about a burrito last night.  i woke up before i got to taste it, thanks to DHL's speedy delivery of Sunday's order from Amazon.de.  

i promise to write more about my trip soon and post a few more photos (yes, the burrito above was actaully consumed in it's entirety, by me, in austin)...  it was an amazing trip, i can still hardly believe i was able to cram so much into two weeks.  i had a hard time when i came home, and for some reason it took me about two weeks to get back on a decent schedule and feel like myself again.  perhaps it was two weeks of stuffing as much mexican food into my face as was humanly possible, dozens of margaritas, and trying to convince my body that shopping IS exercise?

It's not my birthday...

So today is my birthday, but I don't turn 33 until tomorrow, May 5th.  Here's how. 

 

I was born on May 4th, 33 years ago, at 8:35PM CST.  Making my exact birth time here in Germany (GMT +1) 3:35am on May 5th.

the eagle has landed

so i arrived in colorado yesterday after a brutal 10 hour flight direct from frankfurt. it's great to be home, and i'm looking forward to running around today up here in silverthorne and giving myself some reverse culture shock! i head to austin in a week, and then dc for two nights on the tail end of my trip... my mom's been giving me a hard time about updating my blog, which i told her would be updated when she made a donation to sean's bike ride. she has promised to do it as soon as i update, and i'll be holding her to that promise.

so here's a list of everything (well, everything i can remember at 6 in the morning) i'm looking forward to this trip back - all the things that i've missed since i was last here 342 days ago.

1. spending time with my mom and dad! i haven't seen them in a year. that's way too long. stupid ulcer.

2. food. sunshine cafe here in CO for blueberry mountain cakes, chuy's, hula hut, galaxy, zocolo, schlotsky's, magnolia cafe... the list goes on. obviously i need to make working out a priority while i'm here so sean will recognize me at the airport when i return.

3. spending time with friends, especially the one's who read this blog. you know who you are. ; )

4. in addition to spending time with my old friends, i get to meet a friend i haven't met yet. yeah, you read that right... and hope fervently that we're friends four days later! exciting!

5. shopping. target, borders, candles from pier one, anthro, rei, banana, jcrew... heading to the mall next monday to stimulate the economy... target today!

6. skiing. walking around town lake, the ut campus, and downtown austin. going to the rec center with my dad.

7. margaritas. mexican martinis. ice tea.

8. esther's follies in austin.

9. getting my teeth cleaned by an american dentist. whoo-hoo!

10. going to a movie theatre. movie theatre popcorn. sigh.

i'm really happy to be here for a while...

support sean in the help for heroes bike ride

once again, sean is riding across france for the help for heroes uk charity. last year, he had literally the WORST bike of anyone (a chinese piece of crap that outweighed every other bike there) and did amazingly well. this year he's going to try and find a better bike so he doesn't get teased incessantly by the maintenance/bike storage guys at every stop...

anyway, if anyone is interested in supporting sean, here's a copy of the email he just sent me... one british pound (as of this moment) is equal to one dollar and thirty-nine cents, which is really good considering the last few years...

Greetings,

That time again. I am contacting friends, family, and colleagues to ask for sponsorship of an upcoming fundraiser bike ride for the UK’s Help for Heroes charity. The ride consists of biking over 400 miles during 5 days across the northern France (From Normandy to Paris). The Help for Heroes charity works to provide practical direct support to those UK servicemen and women wounded in the line of duty in the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the fantastic experience of participating in last year’s H4H Battlefield Bike Ride, where we raised over £10,000, we have decided to enter another Dell team in this year’s event.

Dell has already provided assistance to the Help for Heroes Charity in the form of Dell PC's to assist in the running of the Charity and we are now delighted to be involved in the Band of Brothers Bike ride. Our team is made up of Dell staff who are involved in the Defence marketplace in the UK and EMEA and we see this as our chance to offer something back to those UK Military personnel who have served their country so well. The Dell team members are: Sean Berg, Kerion Holyome, Jeff Van Horn, Nigel Leaney and Paul Heath.
Dell will match £1 for £1 the sponsorship we are able to raise as a team so if we meet our fundraising target of £10,000 we will be able to give £20,000 to the Charity.
Here is the donation website:

http://www.justgiving.com/dellteamh4hband_of_brother_bike_ride

Any contribution you can make in support of our effort would be gratefully received.
Many thanks,
Sean

preparing for jordan

in less than one week i'll be riding a camel in the desert...

i've started doing some research on what to expect, how to behave, and most importantly how to dress... though jordan is, of course, much more tolerant of western behaviors than other places in the middle east, i still want to be prepared.

here are a few things i've learned.

1. though it will be warm, it is best to wear long pants and long sleeve shirts. opaque clothing that covers the arms and legs is fine. the neck should be covered with a scarf. sean misled me into thinking anything goes, so i'm glad i read up on this.

2. jordanian women typically don't wear their long hair falling below their shoulders. so i guess i'll be clipping mine up as it is currently pretty long.

3. never point or reveal the sole of your shoes to someone. keep them pointing down. speaking of pointing, don't point. in jordan pointing casts the evil eye.

4. one cannot drink alcohol in public. the few places where alcohol can be consumed are in your hotel room, around private hotel pools, and in restaruants and cafes where you find alcohol on the menu.

5. because of the temperatures one must drink upwards of five liters of water a day during the summer months. the bedouin people will typically not drink water in front of tourists. following their lead will quickly leave you dehydrated.

6. i am likely to experience stomach problems.

overall, from what i've read and heard jordan sounds like an easy place to travel, thank goodness. to tell you the truth, it's nice to travel to a place where it IS necessary to make adjustments in dress and behavior for a change. i'm excited to try different foods, drink lots of tea, do a little bargaining, partake of the hubbly-bubbly, and ride the aforementioned camel.

now i just need to go shopping for a few appropriate clothing items. this girl is way too used to stripping down to a tank top and shorts when the temperature rises above 70 degrees...

I miss my fangs already...

The Vampire Ball (Ball der Vampire) 2009 in Heidelberg, Germany. What am amazing night... If you want to see more photos and you're not on Facebook, email me and I'll send you a link.

blueberry soup

if you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you'll know that i have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. i love it because it's great for things like wine and champagne glasses that can be broken without guilt, and simple, temporary storage solutions for german houses without storage. i hate it because i don't think i've ever walked out of that store happy. i end up tired, frustrated, dejected... i'm leaning towards simplifying the relationship and just hating it after this afternoon.

today i had to go pick up a few things. since there's no chance that sean will read this blog before he gets home tonight (or ever, for that matter) i can tell you that i organized his office for him for valentine's day. seriously, we have lived here since may and the man had not unpacked boxes or taken out his trash ONCE. after the splinter of 2003, i stopped cleaning his office, but that's another story... anyway, i needed to use the bathtub in the office bathroom for storage, which is no problem since i don't see sean taking bubble baths while he's on conference calls, so i needed a screen to hide the junk in the tub. that was my number one goal. i also wanted to pick up some simple plastic storage thingys for his papers and business cards, as well as a six-pack of champagne glasses for prosecco drinking. yeah, that's how we roll.

so i get to IKEA, go through the top section and can't find the screen i had previously found online. no worries, i figure i'll just look it up downstairs. i'm prepared, and know the german word - raumteiler. when i get downstairs i grab a cart. but not just any cart. the LOUDEST freaking cart in the world. i put stuff in it before i realized how bad it was, so i didn't want to go back and change it out. so i figure out that if i go very, very slowly and actually pull UP on the cart as we're moving forward, i can keep it to a dull roar. but this means i'm there longer, so i quickly abandon that plan and burn through there like a freight train. of course it's 2pm on a thursday, so the store isn't crowded, and is relatively quiet EXCEPT FOR ME. when i get to the stacks, i look up the screen i need on the computer and they don't have any in stock. i figure i'll try a different furniture store on the way home so i skip that and head to the cashier. when i'm checking out, the cashier first tells me that i've grabbed a display item, and i can't buy it, so there's one thing i need gone. then she gets to the paper trays and notices they are bent, so there are now two things i need that i don't have. there was no way i was going back inside, so i ended up with champagne glasses and a few other things i didn't really need.

i did go back in after i went to the car and loaded my haul. i got a hot dog, which was okay, and some blueberry soup, which i am strangely excited about. so there's my silver lining. and i ended up, two stores later, with everything i need including a shower curtain rod for the bathroom. it looks great, and i am excited to show sean when he gets home.

this WILL be the last nice thing i do for him that involves IKEA.

comments

i figured out why it was so hard for you guys... so if you tried to leave a comment before and had a hard time, try again some day. it should be easier now.

What??? No Olive Oil???

This is a portion of the response I got back from a reservation inquiry at an Italian farmhouse...

The price also includes Baby Cot, Electricity, Gas, Water, Linen, Towels, Weekly Change of Towels and Linen, Final Cleaning, Wi-Fi, Fitness Equipment, Use of Swimming Pool, Parking and excludes Heating, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.

I hadn't really thought about it before, but from now on I think I will only stay at hotels where olive oil is included in the cost of the room.

chasing tacos

so sean and i have been chasing mexican food for the past month or so... we have two places near the big air force base in ramstein, but these are about an hour away and aren't that great. we started by driving to stuttgart on a saturday. we had two possible choices, one rated higher by americans than the other. we started there... closed. so we drove over to the other one. again, closed. we ended up eating at subway and wasting about four hours on our mission. then last saturday we decided to try out a mexican's reccomendation. so we drove to karlsruhe. and, you guessed it... closed. luckily the trip wasn't an entire waste, as we were able to catch up with our friends who recently left heidelberg.

so we found ourselves trying to figure out where to eat in geneva, and i suggested we try to find tex-mex. it's very international here, why not? so we find this place...

and then we see this...

of course we have the dogs with us, so our plan seems foiled. then sean convinces me to go in and try and sweet talk them into letting the girls come in... i did, and it worked. i told them i was living in germany, but was from texas, and hadn't had a decent tex-mex meal in ages but had my dogs with me... the bartender asked the owner if it was okay, and he sat us right in the front, just in front of the entertainment. little did he know this would make my night even better.

the food was great, best we've ever had in europe, and the mariachis played 'cielito lindo' for me... success, finally!

books, books, books

i am enjoying a lazy sunday while i wait for sean to wake up so we can go hike the philosophenweg here in heidelberg. while i wait i decided to do some research and figure out which books to order. amazon.de has improved their selection of english books since the last time i was here, and though it is a bit more expensive it's worth it.

anyway, i came across this blog. http://fogtdal.blogspot.com/ if you have 5 minutes, go read the first post. if you're anything like me, you won't be able to stop. i'm going to have to peel myself off this couch in a minute but i can't wait to read more. needless to say, i'm going to order peter fogtdal's book, the tsar's dwarf.

i'm also ordering the following...

the girl with the dragon tattoo by stieg larsson
shark's fin and sichaun pepper: a sweet-sour memoir of eating in china by fuchsia dunlop
a portable identity: a woman's guide to maintaining a sense of self while moving overseas by debra bryson
the widow clicquot: the story of a champagne empire and the woman who ruled it by tilar mazzeo
the magus by john fowles

i'm always open to suggestions if anyone has any. and kimberly, i'm finally ready to start before i die. tonight's the night. do you think i'll finish it in one sitting?

i can't stop making this...

http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001330zucchini_bread.php

since sean and i eat zucchini with almost every meal, i always have extra in the house. this recipe makes two loaves, and when i give half of one to the neighbors and boney sneaks in the kitchen and decimates the second loaf i usually end up only getting about two slices. so it's been okay for my figure as well.

plus, there's just something about home cooked bread with flecks of green that i love...

how to get kicked out of my house

Well, I don't think it's a big secret to some of you that I've had a rough week. I have had the misfortune of having the single most inconsiderate houseguest all week long, and last night it got even worse. I need to get all this off my chest.

So I've developed a list of the top ways to piss me off while staying at my house... I'm not making this stuff up.

1. Don't thank Sean for the free hotel room he got you in Belgium.
2. Sit on my couch, night after night, and take control of the remote control without ONCE asking me what I would like to watch.
4. Don't bother putting your dishes away. I'm here to serve.
5. Leave my guitar laying on the couch where dogs could jump on it and hurt it. And while we're at it, play your annoying guitar music. Whenever you like. Really, don't bother asking if I want to hear it. It's not like my house is so big you could go in another room.
6. Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate in the largest coffee mug I have and leave me no milk for my meager cup of coffee in the morning.
7. The one night Sean is home, grab the remote and don't bother asking him what he's interested in watching. It's okay, it's not like it's HIS television.
8. Be playing my accordion without asking when I return early from a dog walk.
9. Offer to clean the kitchen when I've prepared your meal, then don't even bother to push in your chair and go ahead and start watching TV while I clean up after you. Again, I'm here to serve.
10. Spend an hour trying to get the number one spot on each sport on our Wii Fit. Move on the the next immediately with a comment about your new number one record and having beaten us. Of course I don't want to play, so don't bother even asking.
11. Don't say hi after you've disappeared all day. Just ask me if I have any German chocolate. Preferably with almonds.
12. If we're in another country and it is snowing heavily from there to my house and I ask you to hurry because the roads could be bad and I'm not used to driving in blizzards, take your time. Make me wait 5 minutes for you every 3 minutes so you can take photos... It's okay, I'm probably just joking about the weather anyway.
13. Help yourself to my scalp massager. It's obviously something I would want to share with everyone. Make sure you let me know every time you work one of your tangles out.
14. Throw Vodka in my face when I pour you a shot at the German event organized in your honor. I understand, you want something else. I'm sure I deserve it.
15. Tell me on your 6th night that I can't stay with you in Austin. Because I was counting on that. I don't have two houses and countless friends there... I wanted to stay in your hippie commune...
16. Tell me the reason you are such an ass to me is because I look just like a girl you used to know. Of course that makes a difference!
17. Threaten to turn your girlfriend against me so she'll never speak to me again.

Well folks, she may never speak to me again, but I certainly hope that's not the case as I do love her dearly (though am obviously SERIOUSLY questioning her judgment). This morning I waited until they came downstairs, asked Brian when he wanted to go the the train station, told him I wanted him out of my house immediately, and dropped the two of them off about 30 minutes later.

I have never been so angry and insulted in all my life.

ODOGGIES

Thanks to Kimberly for the heads up about Obamicons!

I'm back! Sorry Mom...

so my mom gave me a hard time tonight about not blogging lately, so here i am...

i'll give a brief update of what we've been up to.

since mom and dad didn't come for christmas, we decided to get out of town wherever our marriott points would take us. we ended up in monaco for four nights, then switzerlad for two. monaco was lovely. beautiful weather, even more beautiful yachts. we brought the girls of course, and one of the highlights of the trip was the constant search for our fork (used to feed the girls their wet food). the maid took it on day one. it was returned on day two, and the entire hotel (which was practically empty) was in on the search. it was AGAIN taken on day three. completely my fault, as i should have known to HIDE it from the maid, and is still missing to this day... incidentally, the maids there also organized the books on my nightstand by size. it was a bit too much. we had great italian food, spent a fabulous day in nice, and lost and won fifty euros in the monte carlo casino. switzerland was lovely and cold. fondue, skiing, and a little shopping for a fondue pot for mom. a consolation gift, if you will...

my friend (and cousin sarah) arrived on new year's day and we spent a fabulous evening here with a few friends and more than a few bottles of prosecco. we managed to piss off the neighbors shooting off fireworks from our balcony, but she couldn't do anything as this is perfectly legal. fireworks are sold in grocery stores (and other places) for exactly two days, and EVERYONE shoots them off. it's a country of pyromaniacs, and my husband is right at home with that...

went to brussels with sarah and her boyfriend and found the coolest bar ever. seriously. ever. anyone who comes to visit and wants to go to brussels will be taken there. drank about 3 glasses of strawberry wine, which i have to figure out how to make. visited the waterstone's english bookstore and came home with a bag full of books as usual. thank god for waterstone's, as the book selection here is awful.

sunday was our 6 year anniversary, and the start of a new anniversary. next year we'll be marking january 11 with a celebration of 7 years of marriage and 1 year since the first time we went naked in public. yes folks, you heard me right. for a brief period of time on sunday i joined the nudists on the top floor of the thermal baths at baden-baden. it was odd, and i saw a lot of things i could have done without seeing. sadly, i discovered i am a looker. it's hard to avert your eyes, i'm telling you. but i dropped the towel in the sauna and briefly let the freezing cold air outside hit where freezing cold air should never hit. bravo! my mom is very proud of me. not that my mom is a nudist, but we'll say that i didn't inherit my modesty from her!

anyway, that's the latest. mom, i'll try to be better now. here's a photo of me in my badass retro bathing cap that i sadly bought on the way OUT. somehow i think had it been the only thing i had on, being naked would have been easier. a fabulous hat would do that, i think...