David Dundas - Jeans On

We heard this on the radio in Germany, and it ended up in our heads the rest of the week. We misheard the lyrics a little though. We thought he put his other jeans on, so that lead to a fair amount of fodder.

Chrismas Day (Weinachten)

We got up on Christmas and attended mass again. This time it was in the church that Mike's Dad went to growing up. It has been rebuilt since the war and it is more contemporary. While we were in Germany, we constantly would hear church bells (I suppose for Christmas). We all decided to go on a drive since it was really cold and see the surrounding areas.

The area is mostly farms and rolling hills with vineyards. As I mentioned before, the area is also known for having a certain shape to the bottle. It was very cold, and everything was closed. People were out for brisk walks in the middle of fields.

The next day was a party for Mike's Tanta and a mini-reunion. Mike was able to see cousins that he has not seen for about 30 years. His cousin's kids were there, and everyone was really friendly.

Scofflaw

A few months ago while waiting for a flight in Laguardia, Mike whipped out a can of Coke. I asked him where is was from, and he said, "home". We soon realized that he got it though security. Flash forward to 10 minutes ago. Mike was emptying his carry-on bag from our flight yesterday, and he pullled out a bottle of wine. The hotel owner in Germany had given us a little (about 12 oz) bottle of wine from the region (they come in a bottle in a special shape only used in the area). When we went through security in Paris, Mike noticed that he brought a huge container of juice with him by mistake. He told the security officers, and they told him it would be taken on the other side. Everyone kept telling him he could drink some if he wanted. The screeners spotted the bottle, and Mike gave them the juice. He did not know the wine was in his bag. So let's see where Mike is able to sneak in more drinks in the future by mistake!

Autobahn Wonderland

Driving from Frankfurt with the scene ready for Christmas!

mystery solved

Have you ever wondered how Santa could afford to keep his toy factory running for the children of the world?
He apparently has taken a life of crime in Europe.

Happy New Year! or Bon Annee!

We made it back in one piece today, and we are chilling out now and trying to remember what we were doing before vacation. It was an amazing trip for many different reasons.
I suppose I will start from the beginning.

We landed in Frankfurt after flying all night on Sat. I did not sleep very much, but what can you do? So Mike and I in our jet lagged state headed out to see his family. His father is from a town called Schweinfurt which is about 2 hours east of Frankfurt. We hit the Autobahn in our car upgrade which was the world's smallest Mercedes. His aunt still lives there, so that is where we were headed. When we landed and looked out the window, all of the trees were white with snow. It is the effect that all of those fake white Christmas trees are trying to get. We headed to Wurzburg which is nearby to check out the Christkindelmarkt. There are many of these markets leading up to the holiday. I split a Gluwine with Mike (traditional hot spiced Christmas wine) since it was so cold, but we did not want to drink much due to our jet lag. Wurzburg is a cool little town with forts, old churches, and old world ambiance. We ate dinner with his family after checking into our little hotel, and crashed for about 13 hours by mistake. We slept a solid 5, both woke up and puttered for 2 hours and crashed until 11 AM.

We missed breakfast, so we had to hustle in order to get something before all of the stores closed (it was Dec 24). We constantly were hearing different church bells sounding throughout the city. My father in law showed us the city wall and other sights in town. We hung out with Mike's Tanta, and then we attended midnight mass. The church was old and cavernous, and it was totally dark when we entered (and silent). The music was really beautiful, but the church was really cold. Mike said the pastor referred to the cold by saying that "you are not meant to sweat here". The people doing readings and the choir were all in ski jackets. They are into saving energy there for sure. I liked hearing the Christmas hymns in German too, and there are slight variations on the notes for the verses. Here are some pics. The random shots are 1. My favorite TV program in Deutchland. 2. Nice street sign with a huge compound word. 3. Schweinfurt at night.

Wo Ist Yanet?

Janet ist in Deutchland! Frohe Weihnachten!

Smoothing Bumps for Boomers - New York Times

Smoothing Bumps for Boomers - New York Times
I am ready for this class now.

On my way

I am getting ready, tying up loose ends, doing a lot of work, and making lists. There is so much to get done, and I am glad we are not leaving tonight. I mastered how to say "Merry Christmas" in German this week. I will just repeat it over and over.

A funny thing is when I discuss Paris with people who have been there, they tend to all advise me to eat a chocolate croissant. At least 3 people on seperate occasions have gone out of their way to tell me that. So I shall have a chocolate croisssant. I am prepared for its lifechanging effect!

My main goal this week is avoiding illness from the stinkers I see. This is a major challenge. One of my parents called to say her child had a fever, but she could give him motrin and come out (into the pool nonetheless). Wow, am I glad she asked instead of showing up. I have developed OCD this week (more than usual), and I have been treating kids at arms length.

It will be interesting to travel somewhere more expensive than NY. I am accustomed to feeling like food, etc are bargains elsewhere. I will be rooting for the lowly dollar for the next week. We do have some Euros here, but we have to figure out how we are going to do money out there.

So, I will have a blue Christmas without all of you! Here are some scenes from past celebrations.

Snow Miser - Heat Miser

I ended up watching the best claymation (OK, maybe a tie with Rudolf) tonight. It is such a non-sequitor that I associate the heat and cold miser with Christmas in the first place. The stories in claymation are strange, but they are so familiar that it is OK somehow. My new favorite part is when all of the manipulative little girls in the world sing "Blue Christmas" and draw sad Christmas scenes to make Santa get up while ill to deliver the greedy little beotches some toys. So sing along and enjoy.

Detroit Revival Vies with Auto Industry's Decline - New York Times

Detroit Revival Vies with Auto Industry's Decline - New York Times

OK, Here is one of Mike's pictures. I just could not resist. To be fair, I included one of mine. Mike commented that if you block my upper half out, it looks like a pair of adult legs standing next to Pat. I suppose nobody would believe our age spread at that time.

Why we need a house

As you all know, we are house hunting. My desperation always rises when it is laundry night, or some house problem is occuring that my landlady will freak out about. We bought a new range, because the idea of her dealing with it and her stress level was too much for us. All of the little things are just getting to me.

She just got back to town last week after being at her second home for a month. I immediately realized when she parked her car in the garage that her month-long repair to her fuel system failed. Diesel fumes filled the garage. I enter our apartment through the garage. Our kitchen opens up into the garage, and our room is about 10 feet away. Needless to say, I do not want to be breathing diesel fumes all night. She did not believe me when I told her about the car (I suppose after all of that time and money you want to believe they fixed it), but it was easy to prove. After about a week of the car being in and out of the garage, I think she brought it in to the dealer. After work, the garage had a new funk, like diesel mixed with a bouquet or urine. The floor had white looking powder. Mike discovered an empty jug of...drum roll please.... AMMONIA!!!!. I can not comprehend why you think that would help matters. I guess she never took any chemistry in school. So at 10 PM, Mike was out pouring kitty litter on the mess and praying he could adequately clean it up.
So that 5-7,000 a month mortgage is looking so attractive now.

Time's running out.....

I have been insanely productive the last few weeks. Crossing things off my list, paying bills, paying taxes (on time), doing my paperwork, vacation planning, Christmas shopping, and so on. I watched part of all of the Lord of the Rings this weekend, but I burned out on sword fighting after watching Gladiator too. That is Mike's fantasy weekend. I just do not want to spend a ton of money before we go to Europe and suffer the lowly value of the dollar over there.

Mike's family pics scanned nicely and easily were downloaded into the digital picture frame we are giving his aunt for her birthday. We had to get an adapter too, and that took some thought. It worked out really well. I told Mike that I did not post any pictures, but I was dying to do it. Maybe he will let me post a cool old picture anyways. I love going through people's pictures. It is funny how pictures look the same from our childhoods due to the fashions and type of cameras used.

I was stressed out first about the lodging (it appears our hotel is open) and transportation. The transportation ended up being quite time-consuming and complicated. We are renting a car from Frankfurt and returning it to Paris (we will get rid of the car the day we arrive to France to make things less complicated) For a while, we considered renting a car and then taking the train. I got so many prices quoted for either option, and finally got a reasonable offer on Friday just to rent. I have not really driven a manual much, so Mike thinks I should learn on the rental car so I am ready to test drive my Maserati (I got a second invitation in the mail a couple of days ago). So an manual eurobox on the Autobahn! Yahoo!

Our French ability sucks! I hope I get to hang out with Mike Castle at least one day there. We went through my French cookbook last night and wrote down what sounded good. I am just going to buy a beret, wear a knotted red scarf around my neck, and say, "Oolay Voolay Voooo". People keep giving us recommendations, but Mike and I just hear "Ooolay vooolay vooooooooo". It is annoying, because I usually deal with Spanish (I have some background there) or now German (which is not too bad, really) reasonably well. I get to speak my crappy Spanish on the job at times, and it really can get me through things pretty well. I just can not understand drunk people in Spanish or those who talk really fast. So we grabbed a phrasebook tonight and hopefully it will help. I am getting more comfortable not being able to communicate. I treated a little girl for 2 years who was Japanese. Her mother spoke barely any English, and the girl went to a Japanese language school. It was fine suprisingly, and the little girl started picking up English from me during sessions. She would speak Japanese, I would respond in English, but it was amazingly appropriate. She was really cute, because she would sing her little kid songs in Japanese (usually about butterflies and dragonflies).

I did not have much shopping to do (just money for nephews) and most of it was internet based. I finished Christmas cards tonight. It struck me why I have not been talking to anyone. I just do not have much to say. The last 9 months have consisted of saying, "We are staying out here and looking slowly for a house". Otherwise I go to work, go to the gym, and lie around the house. So I wrote we are staying out here and looking for a house a bunch of times and called it a day. I am sure nobody wants a form letter from me. I suppose you just get the painful day to day version on this forum!

I just pray this week that I stay healthy. I need to get a mask on the way to work tommorrow. Too many kids coughed in my face last week.

Use your noodle

Memory - Aging - Medicine & Health - New York Times
Some suprising findings.

aquaholic

My plant has a serious drinking problem. I picked up this rosemary topiary for the holidays (and to use for some fresh herbs). The instructions said that you need to water it a lot, but you could put it in a bowl of water if you wanted to ensure it got enough water. Every time I would check the bowl, it would be bone dry. So I put it in a serving-sized bowl. It sucks it dry really fast. So today at noon I refilled the thirsty plant's bowl, and I will take another picture tommorrow morning.

A Christmas Carol

Tis the time of year when you hear all of the Christmas music nearly everywhere. Last weekend while out to dinner, they were playing contemporary Christmas music (with artists like Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, and God knows who else). They had the Barbara Streisand "Jingle Bells" in the rotation as well. That has got to be the worst cover of a Christmas song ever! Sue and I like to sing that song to each other the last few years (it inevitably appears on one of our voicemails).

I really do not like contemporary Christmas songs. I have no interest in hearing my favorite artists belt out their own compositions or the classics. I just do not like it. I think I figured out why recently.

Christmas is about tradition and nostalgia. You find yourself looking for the same standard traditions of your childhood. For me it was making sugar cookies with icing and decorations. It is trying to find the elusive thumbprint recipe that we lost. I would love to taste them again! It is getting a live tree with an angel on the top (we never had a star). No flashing lights and plenty of greens on the mantle. Christmas is celebrated on Christmas eve, and Santa was never a big deal.
We always went for a drive to look at the lights after church.

Growing up we listened to the same albums year after year. They were compilation records of various artists of the 50s and 60s. So I expect Bing Crosby to sing White Christmas and Johnny Mathis for Chestnuts. Anyone else singing them seems a little wrong for some reason. Let it Snow was covered by Steve and Edie Gormet. I forget what song Mitch Miller did on the album. Mike's parents broke out their Perry Como Christmas album. It was close to my experience, but just not right. It was right for Mike though! I will rake my memory for a more accurate song line-up. I am sure Pat will remember though!

Mom update

Here is an email I got today in case you have not had time to check.

Hi Everyone! Paris was wonderful; I think it's the most beautiful city I've ever been in. We had a lot of drizzle, but got lucky on our full day there and had sunshine for 4 hours! We wandered into a lovely little church on our way to Notre Dame and attended a Latin high mass with incense and Gregorian Chant. Loved Notre Dame but couldn't see half. Walked the Champs Elysee, etc. It went by too fast....Cairo is an entirely different experience. I've never seen such traffic in my life, and the air pollution is beyond belief. But I love the people - they are so friendly. The pyramids are amazing. We had a private tour guide who is an Egyptologist, so he really gave us an education. We leave tomorrow morning at 3:00 a.m. for Aswan to begin our cruise. They tell us that the air is clear and fresh there. We're tired but still enjoying the sights. No time for more but just to let you know we are safe and having a real adventure! Love, Mom

Let it Snow!!!!!!!!!

The first Nor'easter is coming!! Wish me luck and a ton of snow today!
11:30 Update The sky opened up and it is snowing really hard! Yahoo!

Update: It turned almost immediately to sleet? What? I can not ski on that crap!

What's happenin'

When I hear the phrase above, the theme music starts going with the funky music and thoughts of Shirley, Roj, Re Run, and Dee.

Just been busy and being somewhat responsible for once. I want to get everything done before we leave for Europe. We got together with Mike's family yesterday, and now we have been scanning some pictures from the old days to give to his aunt. I would really love to post some, but I fear in may lead to marital problems. They are all pretty cool, especially the really old pics with people in traditional dress.