Water, water everywhere

Back in November, I found out that my thesis was accepted and that I will indeed be getting my M.A. (more on that soon). To celebrate, and because he had been jonesing for it, John took us to a little restaurant up the hill from us for dinner. On the way home in the car, I noticed that the floorboard was wet.

"What do you mean 'wet'?" demanded John.

I splashed my feet in the puddle under my seat. "Wet!"

At that point, it was late and dark and cold, so we scooped out as much water as we could manage with a dust pan we keep in the trunk and called it a night. The next day, and on many subsequent days, I went out with a stack of towels and sopped water out of the front and back floorboards on the passenger side. Judging by the many sprouts I pulled out of the carpets and floor mats and the moldy items I scraped out of the door pocket, I'd say we'd had the problem for a while.

I can't tell that there is a leak around the seals on the doors, and a little googling brings me to the conclusion that the water could be getting in through a couple of different places in the ventilation system (blocked pollen filter or blocked a/c drain), which are located behind the dashboard on the passenger side.

When we first discovered the problem, it was a busy time of year, approaching the holidays and all, so we put off taking the car into the shop. I tried to buy a tarp to put over it, but let's just say that it wasn't a successfull maneuver. After the holidays, it finally turned cold and snowed. Frozen floorboards are preferable to soggy. But yesterday it rained all.day.long. Buckets and buckets of rain. At some point, I am going to have to go outside and bail out the car. If we don't get it into the shop soon, I am going to buy us all galoshes to wear in the car.

Crawling out from under my rock

So, you may be asking yourself, what is up with Nee?

Why, absolutely nothing, which would explain the lack of new posts.

Twice a week I drag myself into town to listen to student presentations and give feedback, and the rest of the time... I don't even know. I must be doing something, but I'll be damned if I can say exactly what. But we are all fed, clothed, and not dead, so I am obviously doing something adequately.

My thrilling part-time job will be over the first week of February, so my thoughts have moved ahead to life afterwards. I found an ad for a job I want to apply for, so now I am in the middle of whipping my cv into shape, a somewhat different experience here in Germany from in the U.S. For one thing, a photo is required. That seems very odd to me, but I guess it saves the human resources people some time by getting a first impression of you from afar (also, less germy). So I dutifully made my way to a department store in town that advertises its while-you-wait photo service. I was afraid it might be a photomat booth, but it turns out that they have an actual person taking the photos, and I put myself completely in her hands. I had read on a job-search advice site that a big smile makes a good impression, so when she told me to smile bigger, I did it, even though I felt very strange doing it. At the time, I was pretty sure those pictures would come out looking like I was getting ready to suck the viewer's blood, or go for his liver, but once I saw them, I realized I look like a deranged muppet:



So sad. Luckily, one photo came out okay, or at least not like a sketch of an escaped mental patient, so I have something to put on my cv.



Wish me luck!

‘This the Season to Blow Up Like a Dirigible

I may have gone a little overboard with the xmas baking. In the last week, I have made, from scratch, 3 loaves of bread, lemon shortbread, fudge, 2 batches of rice crispie treats, banana bread, butter caramels, and popcorn balls. I am sad to report that the majority of the items didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped. Even though I managed (or rather, I sent John to a particular store and he managed) to find marshmallows for my never-before-failed fudge, it failed. Well, maybe not failed, but it was definitely not up to my normal fudge standards.

Then I made rice crispie treats for Hannah’s class on their last day of school, and the German kids turned up their noses at them. Hannah brought about half of them back home. She claims that a lot of her classmates were dieting in the run-up to the holidays, but I suspect marshmallows are not a big part of holiday items here like they are in Texas. More for us!

The recipe I had for butter caramels wasn’t very precise, so I don’t think I boiled everything long enough. It turned out grainy. I didn’t want to waste *5 cups of sugar*, so I tried to use the caramels as the basis for some caramel balls, but they wouldn’t stick together, so I got Hannah to pour in some peanuts, and now we have fiddle faddle.

And since I didn’t have any whole lemons, I used lemon extract in the shortbread. Bad idea.

Next year, I am just going to buy all my goodies from the bakery and find something else to do with the time I’ll save.

Speaking of cards...

We got our first xmas card right around Thanksgiving. Complete with Chick Tract.

::chirping::

Riiiight.

You get 2 points and some virtual divinity if you can guess who it was from. :)

'Tis the Season to Miss Hallmark

Germans don't seem to require greeting cards that have pre-printed sentiments inside, so I have to buy blank xmas cards and come up with my own text. I miss the old days, when I could buy cards that said something seasonally appropriate and I only had to jot off a quick personal remark a line long or so and sign. With this new system, I have to think up the whole thing on my own. Except when I run it past John, he always criticizes it. So now I have come up with 2 possibilities, neither of which I will actually use:

This holiday season, I was *going* to wish you
snowballs,
gift wrap,
warm cookies,
good friends,
and family,
but John thinks it's crap.

OR

Merry Xmas, Bitches!

Maybe I will just draw a picture.

Wah wah wah

To the guy with the rainbow fish on his car who almost crashed into my bus yesterday morning:
I'm glad you are proud to be a gay Christian, but you still drive like an asshole!


I know, I go AWOL for ages, and when I show up again, it is just to bitch and complain. Such is life.

quote of the day

Man can be the most affectionate and altruistic of creatures, yet he's potentially more vicious than any other. He is the only one who can be persuaded to hate millions of his own kind whom he has never seen and to kill as many as he can lay his hands on in the name of his tribe or his God.
-Benjamin Spock, pediatrician and author (1903-1998)

from the A.Word.A.Day newsletter dated Dec. 1, 2009

quote of the day

Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.
-Abraham Flexner, educator (1866-1959)

from the A.Word.A.Day newsletter dated Nov. 25, 2009

No comment

Is it wrong that this video cheered me up a little when I was in an existential funk? If so, I don't want to be right.


Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck

Barbies, Barbies everywhere

Hannah got out of school early on the last day before the fall break started, but I had to teach until 2, so she hung out at home with her dad. When I got there, she had taken every single Barbie item out of her room and set up a Barbie world in the living room. Our apartment is “compact”, as a friend so tactfully put it recently, so the colonization of our living space by all the sexy chunks of plastic is a real imposition.

Starting from where I am sitting in the recliner in one corner and moving clockwise around the room, I can see:

• A Loving Family House filled with Barbie squatters, who have also set up extra, Barbie-brand dining room and bathroom sets out front


• A camper, opened up so the living space and bed are extended


• A Kelly treehouse


• A classroom


• A pink, plastic rolling tub, about 20 inches on a side, chock full of Barbies

That has brought us to the television in the other corner. Taking a bend and following the wall:

• A Barbie boutique, complete with mannequins and customers, which can be a little hard to tell apart


• A grocery store, including plastic fruits, a register and cashier, and a Kelly pushing a kid cart shaped like a race car


• A bakery full of plastic cakes


• A purple carriage pulled by a white-pink-purple horse


• A pink throne holding a king, queen, and tiny princess

From there, the sectional couch acts as a barrier to further Barbie encroachments.

Hannah basically emptied out the 3-drawer storage tower in order to ensure that every detail was perfect, like the tiny stuffed animals on the bed or the globe on the teacher’s desk. She spent hours beyond that Friday, as well, dressing the Barbies in scene-appropriate clothing—one has the perfect “grocery shopping” outfit—and combing out their ratty hair, which then had to be trimmed, colored, gelled, etc. No stylist could have done a more thorough job.

Unfortunately, she freaks out every time we bump something (see “compact”, above) and some tiny object is moved. We are currently fighting about her Barbie house blocking the door to the balcony, where the dryer lives. Since I can’t get through that way, I have to go through her room, but she pulls down the industrial-strength blinds to block out the light from the nearby street lamp at night, so I have to pull them back up to get out. And then she has a little conniption about the blinds being up. Anyone need a 12-year-old?

When I first saw the incursion by the Mattel corporation into my living room, I felt a little nostalgia, thinking that this was maybe a last gasp of Hannah’s childhood. But the more I think about it, I think it was just an extension of her still-active love of the Sims and all Sims-like games (like Animal Crossing). If there is ever a need for a social architect, I think Hannah has had more than enough training in order to get the job.

Crazy

I just read in a German source online (Handelsblatt via yahoo) that McDonald's is closing in Iceland. Apparently, the chain's headquarters required the 3 restaurants in Iceland to import basically all of their supplies and ingredients from Germany, but with their economy tanking last year, costs of the imports have doubled. So now the company that has the franchise is pulling the plug on the 3 restaurants.

I like to eat at McDonald's as much as the next fat-and-sugar-addicted person, but I think it is kind of cool that Iceland is going to be a McDonald's-free country after this. Not many places can say that. In addition, the company that has run the franchise in Iceland says that they will probably reopen the restaurants, but as local affairs using local supplies. And it all comes down to money--the company will do whatever it takes to make money, and if that will hurt/help the local economy doesn't even make it into their equation. In this case, though, I hope it will help.

Of “Frying Pans and Bunsen Burners”

That is the title of the course Hannah is taking during the fall school vacation. She just got home and said there was “too much chemicals” and not enough cooking. But they are supposed to spend all afternoon on Thursday cooking, so that should make her happy. Right now she is rotting her brain with some tv, which I told her she was allowed to do after such a long day.

Well, that was a short month

So I obviously did not manage the full month of blogging as planned, but to tell you the truth, I am not too upset about it. It takes a while to form a new habit, and half a month is not a bad start. Besides, a lot of my posts were drivel. Which is better, post every day but every post is crap, or post less frequently and hope the posts are more substantive.

The first day I missed, I had been watching a movie about Gandhi when I realized it was the end of the day and no post. But really, compared to the life of Gandhi, what does it matter if I blog or not. I am trying to be philosophical about it. Maybe I'll do the NaBloPoMo again next month, give it another try.

In the meanwhile, I have been all Betty Crocker. I made turtles from scratch, and they turned out perfect. I took a photo of the halfway point, where the pecans were covered in caramel, so I could post it. Ha ha ha. I forgot that John's Palm doesn't play well with my laptop because my laptop doesn't have an infrared port and the USB connection for his Palm doesn't work properly, so I can't get the photos off his Palm. *sigh* We've got to send in the camera for repair soon.

I also finally denuded my basil plants for the winter. The leaves filled our stand mixer, and after chopping them up with a little water, salt, and olive oil, it was enough to completely fill an ice tray. I hope we remember to use the cubes of basil in the freezer before they get freezer burn.

I am also trying to force my poinsettia to bloom. I know the odds aren't in my favor, but it doesn't take too much effort, as long as I remember to cover it at night. (Only forgot once! Better than my blog this month.)

My pink Thanksgiving cactus is in full bloom and the white one is covered in buds. Yay for color on a rainy day!

Hannah starts a week of Fall Break tomorrow. We signed her up for a cooking class, so she will be occupied from 9 to 4 every day. At the end, the parents are invited to come taste the fruits of the kids' labor. I can't wait to see what Hannah comes up with.

Thoughtful Article

I don't think it is a secret that I lean left-ward, but that doesn't mean that I am close-minded (I hope). I just read an article in the Associated Baptist Press--not a source I regularly read, but I followed a link from Jay Lake's livejournal page--that I found to be a thoughtful look at the psychology of chain emails:
Fear Not: What does virtual rumor-mongering say about Christians? by Robert Marus & Ken Camp.

This Just In

I was reading to John from my email:

"Happy anniversary, Bill O'Reilly! Five years ago yesterday, the Fox News Channel host was named in a sexual harassment lawsuit brimming with lurid details about vibrators, phone sex, threesomes, masturbation, Caribbean shower fantasies, a Thai sex show, falafel, stewardess trysts, vehicular coupling, and Al Franken."

His response? "O'Reilly eats falafel?!"

hahahahaha!

(from the Daily Media News Feed email from mediabistro.com)

New Favorite Web Site

Regretsy: "Handmade? It looks like you made it with your feet"

A takedown of some of the "products" for sale on Etsy. Many are not safe for work or children in the room. At least not if you want them to grow up with a healthy sense of sensuality.

My favorite so far is Kitten Head on Amputee. I don't know which is better, the title--I Can Haz Stump--or the last line--"Depends on the frame." I have been laughing so hard I feel sick to my stomach. Yes, it is *that* good.

So tired

Had my first class today in a too-small room with too many extra people. Too many things to complain about, so will stop before I say something libelous.

Had lunch with John and his American colleagues today. Fun was had by all.

Ate popcorn with Hannah, who swears that the sweet microwave popcorn we get here can't hold a candle to kettle corn. Aunt Kee made her kettle corn, and she knows from kettle corn.

Cooked dinner late after the popcorn, but John was later still. At least he got home before we were done eating.

And now I am off to bed, where I am reading a book about widows in Early Modern England remarrying. Fascinating!

Got the blahs

Today's weather: cold, wet, occasional sunshine interspersed with hail. Not the fine fall weather we were enjoying just a couple of days ago.

This afternoon, Hannah and I got flu shots and got new vaccination "passports" for keeping track of our shots. Since she is due for at least one more round of boosters and is out of space on the little card from her Austin pediatrician, this will be very helpful to us, to have space for everything on one record.

Now my shoulder is sore and I don't feel like doing anything. Not a good run-up to my first class tomorrow.

Good night.

Texas, Our Texas: 2009, Part 1.5

Ok, I forgot a few things from our visit to WF, like waking up in the middle of the first night because I didn’t know if the truck got locked after we unloaded it and remembering that Hannah’s portable DVD-player was probably laying out on the back seat and trying to decide how I could get outside to the truck in the dark without killing myself on the stairs or being eaten by the guard dog. And then I remembered that my mother’s truck (loaned to us for the 3 weeks we toured the southern US) had one of those key-fob-thingies, and lo and behold, it worked from the second-floor bedroom, so I avoided death by dog or stairs. It took me so long to figure out because our car here in Germany, the one we are used to, can only be locked or unlocked by putting the key in the door. I know, positively Paleolithic!

I also forgot sending the kids to the pool with John and Mr. Jooge in the air-conditioned car—too bad, no room for Nee and Jooge, so sad (or not)—and taking over the tv remote to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and having a lovely tear-fest while Jooge went crazy in the kitchen and whipped up an apple pie. *Whipped up a pie*, I say! The woman is a master of fruit-filled desserts.

We also drank pot after pot of percolator coffee. These are *my* people.

And we got the grand tour of the chicken ranch. The layers are lovely birds, healthy-looking and active. The fryers were sad hulls of flightless birds. They basically sat there, listless and semi-featherless. There will be no more fryers in future, I have been assured. *shudder* They looked sad.

And we saw the fledgling garden. You know I can’t resist a garden. Sadly, their large tomatoes had fallen victim to the tomato blight, may they rest in peace.

Finally, we tried to avoid injury by pre-schooler, but weren’t always successful, damn those little push-cars.

Late

Once again, I have managed to only get around to blogging when it is basically time to go to bed. In my defense, in reality I only got around to blogging when it was time to make dinner, and then Hannah wanted to use my computer, and now it is bedtime, without any noticeable blogging having taken place. I did manage to do some research for my courses I am teaching, and some laundry, and some sewing, so today wasn't a total wash, but it really wasn't blog-worthy, either. Oh, well. Tomorrow is another day.