OH MY WOOKIE!!!

AAAA!!!! I want to put this on my MP3 player!
This might possibly be even better than the Weird Al Star Wars tribute!

Country Living

Usually I hate getting stuck behind a tractor on our winding country road.
But I love getting stuck behind a tractor when there's a doggie bouncing along in the cab with the driver.
And this time I had my camera!

CUTE!!

Right after I took this picture, the tractor started to pull to the side, and I though he was letting me pass. BUT NO!!! Another tractor, just as wide, was coming from the other direction!!! Piko de Gallo and I screamed!!!!!

More proof

I know I keep going on and on about how I'm turning Piko de Gallo into a mad geek.

Well, the Halloween season was ripe with opportunities for her true (unprompted) geek-ness to shine through.

Here are the cakes I made this year for the school's cakewalk.

Piko deG sees them. "Ooooh!! The eyeball cakes! One normal, and the other one THE GREAT EYE!!!! But Mama, the Great Eye is all red!"

Geek.

My Girl

So this morning, Piko deGallo tells me to vote for John McCain.

"Because he's handsome."

Yeah, that's my girl.

Well...

It's been a busy month. And not busy-funny, or busy-interesting. Just busy.
And it's my own damn fault for saying I'll do stuff, so I'll just shut up about it.

And I'll tell a sort of funny story.

Our landlord had to come over the other day to fix something. We have not seen him in about 5 months. It's a good thing really, we wait on the little things until something big needs fixing, then we add on all the little jobs.

Anyhoodle.

We were talking a bit about the property he owns around our house (which is quite extensive), and he tells us his dad used to have honey bees here.

"I likes the honeys" he says.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Me too, Mr. Landlord, me too.

Piko Want Big Boom!

So.

The lovely Mrs. S stood in line for me, not once, but possibly THREE TIMES!!
You can read how much she loves lines here, and here. So you get the picture of what a big deal this is.

Anyway, when she went to this tech-convention last month she got signed t-shirts for Piko de Gallo and myself. Big deal? You bet. Because of who was there!!


Naturally we had to officially "break it in".

Piko de Gallo's "Cola Cascade"

Of course we did not deploy our Mentos very well, so our cascade was not that great. The second one we did was as tall as Piko deGallo, but of course I missed that picture.

And then to add pressure to my life (as if). Look at what else she sent!

A rainbow pyramid of HFC!! I feel the pressure to make something nice. Nice and yummy!

I'm feeling the bloggy love people, feeling it!

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

So today was the Star Wars convention on base.

Piko de Gallo made a new friend.

Practiced her saber technique.

Defeated an old enemy.

WON FIRST PLACE IN THE COSTUME CONTEST!!!!!!

Scooped some swag.

And went grocery shopping.

Busy Jedi day.

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

...dun-dun-dun-DUN-da-DUN-dun-da-DUN!!!!



She's so spoiled, this is not even her Halloween costume. This is for the Star Wars convention we are going to on base next weekend.

I used the patterns from The Padawan's Guide. The over tunic and obi are muslin, the inner shirt is a thrifted sheet, the tabard is a thrifted pair of men's pants, and a couple of old belts for the utility belt. The robe is made from a dark brown sheet. I wish I could have found a flannel sheet for that though.

Oh, we have the best ammunition for when she gets older.

Still kicking

The rash has worn off, and we've found a Lyme disease treating antibiotic that won't potentially kill me, so all's good on that front. If you consider good to be having to wake up at 12am to take the antibiotic good. At least there's no rash...yet.

However, not to be outdone by deadly antibiotics, I have found new and exciting ways to injure myself.

Did you know that people are crazy about apple butter? Me neither, I had no idea until I took my first batch to the school and handed it out.

"OH MY GOD!!!!! APPLE BUTTER!!!!! I LOOOOVE APPLE BUTTER!!!! NOMNOMNOM!!!!"

That was pretty much the reaction I got.

Anyhoodles, back to the hurting of myself.

Hot apple butter is freaking hot. And it splatters. Lots. I'm going to have apple butter burn scars on my hands and wrists. Sexy I know.

Then there is "Popcorn Thursday" at the elementary school. For those of you not fortunate to have ever experienced popcorn day at your school, we popped a bag of popcorn for every child in the school. That was about 450 bags. For the most part, I did very well dealing with the hot bowl, and oil and those obvious dangers. Until the very end, when I was cleaning the machine I managed to burn the heck out of my forearm on the edge of the bowl. Sizzle and burn baby.

I think I might need some new hobbies.

The Horror!!! The Horror!!

It continues.

Yep, I'm allergic to damn antibiotics. I have to flush my system, so they gave me the 'Roids!

I have to take a big dose of Prednisone once a day for 4 days, and hope that works a trick. I'm doubtful at this point because last night I couldn't sleep for the itching. I even took Benadryl to no effect.

This morning I woke up to find that the rash on my chest has merged into one HUGE hive that covers my neck, chest and shoulders. And yesterday when I said I was covered about 70%? Well, today, make that 95%, and that includes the tops of my hands, feet, my throat, and other...places...

Check it.

This is just my legs, so you can imagine.

Poor Piko deGallo, we were supposed to go swimming on Friday....I'm thinking not so much.

OMG!!

What. The. HELL!!??!!

Seriously, is it because I'm getting older?

Guess what I found out this week. Not only am I allergic to Amoxacillin (rash), only the most commonly used antibiotic out there. I'm also allergic to Septra (chills, nausea, difficulty breathing, persistent headache, achy joints), and freaking Doxycycline Hyclate(severe rash and swelling)!!!

Ok, so I already knew that I was allergic to Amoxacillin, but I had no idea until this week that I was allergic to anything else! I woke up this morning after one day on the Doxycycline to discover about 70% of my body covered with an itchy rash, and my lips, eyes, and ears are swollen. At least now I know what I would look like if I decided to get collagen implants in my lips.

NOT HAPPY.

This all started out with what I thought was a spider bite on my back that would not get better. Guess what? It's not a spider bite after all. The wound has taken on a decidedly more BULLSEYE shape!!

WTFBBQ?!?! People!!!

Dog Damn WebMD, how do you treat freaking Lyme disease if you're allergic to all freaking antibiotics out there?!? Not that I know for sure I have Lyme disease. But I might!! AGH!!!

Tree to Pie

In just afew (sorta) easy steps.

1) Apples in the tree. Very crisp and tart, perfect for future apple pies.

Too many apples!

Don't mind my laundry there, it was the first sunny day in a while. Add that to the fact that we got our first electricity bill. OUCH!

2) Apples waiting to be washed, peeled, cored, and sliced.

3) A couple of hours later (I have a small range, it took a bit to get the water boiling).

Step 4 to come in a couple of months.
I think I'll use at least one as topping for some vanilla ice cream, maybe make some fried dough.....NOM-NOM-NOM-NOM-nom-nom!!!!

Dumb things I have heard

This is my version of Overheard in Germany.

In the video store:

Customer: Is this a good movie?
Clerk: Yes, it's excellent! You know it's in Spanish though, so it's subtitled.
Customer: Really? Why? Did it come out in the theatre that way?
Clerk: Uh. I guess?
Customer: In Spanish, huh. I wonder why.
Clerk: It's really good, and worth it to watch.
Customer: But was it originally in Spanish or just on this DVD?
Clerk: ......
Cutomer: I guess I'll look for something else.

The movie was Pan's Labyrinth. Besides wouldn't the DVD have a language option?

At the Medieval festival:

Guy: Hey, check out those guys in the armor!
Lady: That's pretty cool.
Guy: They must be so hot! I bet they're sweating alot.
Lady: Yeah, don't get too close, you know there wasn't deodorant back in Medieval times.
Guy: (Laughing) You're right.
Lady:...or soap.

Um, WHAT?!? I'm pretty sure there was soap in Medieval times. Weather or not they used it, or that bathing was in fashion, is another thing entirely.

Things like this hurt my brain.

Tourists

We live in an area that is fairly well known for it's wine. Much of the wine region is along a wide and long river called the Mosel. This past weekend we attended a wine festival in Bernkastle-Keus called “Weinfest der Mittelmosel”(wine festival of the Mosel river). It was lovely, and enjoyable even though Sarge and I are not big wine drinkers. We started out at the midway, where Piko deGallo got to jump on this jumpy...thing. She was having a great time, and the rest of the "jumpy things" were not busy, so the guy let her jump a little while extra, and even slingshotted her high up in the air once.

We then walked along the hand crafters market to the bridge that spans the Mosel, and got a great view of the castle ruins.

We crossed over the river to the opposite bank where all of the wine booths were. The town is beautiful. The streets are cobbled, and the houses and buildings all look like they just had a fresh coat of paint. There were many examples of what I would consider to be German architecture. I don't know the exact term for it, but they are those kind of stucco houses with the wood beam inlays, it might be called "half timbered". I know, I'm a real expert. Winding narrow streets, and the occasional traditional band playing were awesome, we're planning another trip back there just to view the town. Unfortunately it was also filled with hoards of obnoxious drunken Americans.

Since we are lame, and don't drink wine, we got some ice cream and headed back over to the other side of the river. We got there pretty early, and wanted to wait for the fireworks. So we bought some fantastic antipasto from a vendor, and spread out our blanket on the bank directly across from the castle. Piko deGallo of course was only interested in the swans. Really, looking back on it, I suppose I'm not the best person to give advice on the whole Wine portion of the festival. But it was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and the fireworks were spectacular!
Gotta love fireworks set to the Star Wars theme.

Geeky Movie Madness!!

Though we still have not had our TV service hooked up yet, we are enjoying our lovely new TV. We watch alot of movies. Alot.

Luckily the video place on base has a great rental deal, and the library has a pretty decent collection as well. A couple of weeks ago was "early 80's movie week" for us.

We got Krull(1983), which is surprisingly still pretty awesome after all this time. The special effects are pretty impressive considering the age of the film. The story is pretty good, and the acting decent. And did you know that Liam Neeson was in that movie?!? I had no idea. I wish I could find a good picture of him from this movie. I didn't recognize his face at first, but I was thinking "That really sounds like Lian Neeson!"
I did find this picture, that's him on the left.

Krull got the thumbs up from both Piko deGallo and myself.

Then we rented another childhood favorite.

I'm sad to say that this movie did not stand to the test of time, or adult taste. The acting was pretty mid-range, and the effects were laughable. But to be fair, this movie was made in the early 80's, 1981 to be exact, and I remember absolutely loving it when I was a kid. Sarge and I were only amazed by Harry Hamlin's super large lips, and crazy hair, and then he fell asleep as soon as Perseus chopped off Medusa's head. And so Sarge missed the best part of the movie. The Kraken!

Which, looks surprisingly like Paul Sr. from American Chopper!

How could I not find a picture of him yelling at his kids?

Clash of the Titans got thumbs down from me and Sarge, and a thumb's medium from Piko deG (mostly because she didn't understand what was going on, but liked the owl and Pegasus).

Piko deG seems to like treasure hunting movies (she loved Sahara, and enjoyed Fools Gold...maybe she just likes Matthew McConaughey..shudder...), so I picked up Romancing the Stone(1984). Unfortunately I forgot that there was very little actual treasure hunting, and several references to drugs, alcohol, and a scene where Kathleen Turner, and Michael Douglas are obviously naked in bed together. Oops!! Piko de Gallo had it all figured out though. She knew that they were getting married at the end of the movie since they kissed THREE times. Obviously!!! Still a great movie though, and I enjoyed seeing it again.
Romancing the Stone gets a thumbs up from me, and a ?? from Piko deG.

Unfortunately neither the library or the video store has the true best of 80's movie geekdom.
TRON!!!Oh, this is such a truly good and geeky movie of the 80's. I'm dying to see it again. Maybe we should get a NetFlix subscription.

Tasty...

So I know that kids are picky eaters, that's normal. But I swear my kid is not normal.

She does not enjoy anything that is made from potatoes. That means no mashed, scalloped, or baked potatoes, not even potato salad. And possibly most surprising no french fries! No french fries. Can you imagine that? She does not even care much for potato chips, and would rather eat some kind of corn chip, even plain Tostitos. Weird.

And then this is what she brings me to have as a snack yesterday.

Yeah, that's DRIED SQUID.

She better brush her teeth before Sarge comes home from work.

Now to people brought up in Hawaii this is really not an unusual snack. Someone sent this bag of Ika to me from home. I was even surprised when she started eating this stuff, because it smells exactly like what you would imagine, and has a very unusual texture. I'm pretty sure it is a case of monkey see, monkey do, because my dad always has this stuff at his house, and on our last visit Piko deG always wanted to do whatever G-Pa was doing.

Back to School

WOOO!!

I actually feel kind of bad that I'm so happy that school is starting again.

But I am.

I think that Piko de Gallo is just as happy to be seeing her friends again, and having something new to do.

Anyway, BTS shopping is not quite as good here as it is back home. I guess I'm just a little surprised that the BX on base does not coordinate with the schools a little better. It seems like they should carry whatever is on our school supply list. But not so much. And it's not very easy to shop locally since it is considerably more expensive, and there are different size/dimension standards. It's not horrible, but they did not bring in any pencil boxes, fat pencils, or plain pink erasers. All of which were on our list. Most people end up having family or friends back in the states send them stuff, but really, what a hassle. Not "I'm so mad about this that I want to kill someone", but more like "What's the deal man."

On a more positive twist, since there were no pencil boxes I did get to try out a new sewing skill.

I sewed my first zipper. I'm sure I did it wrong, but it zips properly and that's all that counts.

I made Piko deGallo a pencil pouch.

Here is a detail of the little bird I embroidered. It's actually chirping her real name, but I decided to block that out.

New neighbors

We have some new neighbors. They're three gals, pretty shy, keep to themselves.

AAAAGGGHHH!!!

Ok, so it should come as no surprise that I'm a tad anal retentive.

But look at this!!


AAAA!!! This is one of the library books that I checked out this week. AAAAAA!!! All of the dates are stamped on AAAAAA!!!! not on the lines!!!! The guy that was checking out the books did this to every single one! Then the kicker. He gets to the last book, and there are no more lines at the bottom to stamp the new due date in. So he heaves a big sigh, AND THEN STAMPS THE NEW DATE IN A SPACE BETWEEN TWO OLDER DUE DATES!!!!!

WHAT?!

I can't believe I forgot this!

A couple of weekends ago our base held a Flugshau for the base members and surrounding local area residents. I guess it was a big hit. We're not allowed to actually have many planes or jets flying, I think that Germany does not allow this because of several disastrous accidents in the past.

I personally do not get the whole airshow thing. I only go because Piko deGallo likes to look at the stuff, and there is usually a funnel cake booth. Andrews AFB where we lived in Maryland has a huge air show every year. We only went twice in the seven years that we lived there. Too crowded for me.

Anyway, since the flugshau is open to the locals as well as the base members there is some local entertainment provided. Guess who was there!!1

GERMAN ELVIS!

Awesome.

The Edge of a Kinfe

It's official.

Tomorrow I will be walking that knife's edge between closer to 30, and closer to 40.

Not that I particularly care. I suppose that it helps that people are surprised to find out my age. I tell them that it's because I'm Aaaaasssian, and I use "Perrrrrr crrrreeeeaam" to keep my face young and soft.

Actually, that's not true, I use Cetaphil, and only when I can be arsed to remember.

Anyhoodles. How must I celebrate? Well, let me tell you, it sure won't be with a honking big cup of steaming coffee!!

That's right, the curse of my family has finally struck me. High blood pressure.

So I get to enjoy my the morning of my 35th year with a nice tall glass of cold water, and a 25MG tab of Hydrochlorothiazide. Oh yes, and don't forget that banana to stave off the potential potassium deficiency.

Damn!! DAMN!!! I miss that coffee. But Sarge says he'll kill me if I die.

Ok, so maybe one thing...

Summer storms are pretty frequent in our neck of the woods, and apparently in our little valley. Every afternoon last week at about 5:30 or so the thunder and clouds started to roll in, and Piko de Gallo and I would go around the house unplugging everything. The storm usually passes in about an hour or two, and we return to our regular Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Lord of the Rings/Walking With Dinosaurs geek fests.

One night we had a particularly lingering storm that would come and go all afternoon and evening. At about 2:30AM Sarge bolts upright in bed and says "Unplug the TV!!", then runs down to the living room to do just that. Shortly after we are rocked by some serious lightning and thunder.

A side note about Sarge and his TV. When we first met, he had a rather large TV that he was in love with. Mostly because he bought it for about $200.00, it was about 36". Whenever we moved it was always the last thing packed, and the first thing unpacked. This was our only TV for 8 years. He finally sold it at our last yard sale since we were moving overseas and didn't want to have a TV on a power converter for 4-6 years. I should have taken a picture of him hugging it goodbye. When we got here and we looked at new TVs he was outrageously apalled, or outraged and apalled by the cost of a TV these days. He ended shelling out "a ridiculous ammount", but in the end I think that he loves his new one just as much as he loved his old one, which kind of explains his lightning premonition at 2AM.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty much the end of it, but we discovered that some areas just up the street were actually hit!

SHAZAM!

I asked Sarge if I should send these pictures to his mom. She hates thunderstorms. Hates them as in yelling in panic whenever one rolls over their house. He thinks no.

I Use Big Words

Summer ennui has enveloped the deGallo household.

Seriously nothing going on, nothing to post about.

For example, the one "exciting" thing that happend last week. I bit my tongue so hard at lunch on Wednesday, that it still hurt when I woke up the next morning.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.............

Note to The Librarian

Dear Librarian,

Did you take a close look at the packaging that that g-damn fabulous High School Musical microphone came in?

If not, here ya go...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

Inadvertant PORN!!!

P.S. Happy Birthday!

Day Trip to Trier

Sunday we drove down to Trier, which is the largest city near us. It is apparently the oldest city in Germany, and is known for it's Christian reliquary collection, wine, and original Roman architecture.

We of course went for the shopping. Though, it was Sunday, so none of the reguar shops were open, but there was a handcraft fair at the Porta Negra.

There were some very beautiful things, and a booth with great Regency/modern style hats, but at 60+ Euro, nothing I could aford.

There were some blacksmithing demos, which was fascinating to Piko de Gallo.

What was truly fascinating to me however was the abundance of "manpris".

This picture, also an example of a German line-up. If you're wondering where the actual line is...that's right!! There is none.
Daddy manpris.
Even the older guys were getting into it. Egads!
I swear I even saw a guy at the bus stop wearing a pair of pris, and Teva style sandals with socks. How do you say "NO!" in German? Nein!!!Nein!!! Nein und abermals nein!!!

Sarge had told me about this "style" when he was deployed. He said that it was very popular among the UK and Australian soldiers. I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. Yikes!

So, Sarge had a hard time getting served at the waffel booth, because he didn't know where the line was. Well, duh, there is not line, hello, German style. I told him that he should buy himself a pair of pris, and the next time his wait will probably be shorter. No f-ing way, he tells me. And actually, I can't imagine it either, gives me chills.

Eddie

This is Eddie
Eddie likes to stand in the middle of the road leading to our house.

And, as Sarge discovered the other day, Eddie likes to take poops on our driveway.

We don't like Eddie very much.

Trouble on Am Schmeideberg

We got trouble, with a capital T that rhymes with P and that stands for

POWER SURGE!!!!

Yes, we've been watching The Music Man, and yes, MdG, make big bang...AGAIN!!!

There was a thunder storm here the other week, and the only thing I forgot to unplug was the telephone. Well, apparently the telephone pole outside is taller than our roof.

SHAZAM!!!

It actually blew the DSL splitter apart, and off the wall!! Fried the modem, and possibly my old computer, which will not turn on now. Old houses, gotta love them.

In other Germany news...

Ikea, why do you not take Visa or Master Card?!?!?
Seriously! We got up to the checkout, and oops, I had to run to the ATM. I suppose it really was my fault since I didn't look for the Visa/Master Card sticker on the entrance. So I was a sucky American, since I was not prepared.

However, Germany, you have the most awesome bicycle stores EVER!! We went to one today that had a little track around the display area where you could try out any bike or other ride on they had in the store.

I of course rode a scooter, but Sarge was too busy looking at padded pants to take our pictures.

Tomorrow is Piko deGallo's 6th birthday!!! And she has her first loose tooth!!

It Should Come As No Surprise

16 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

However, taking Christina G's lead, and taking the test as a "Husband", my results were a little different.

67 As a 1930s husband, I am Superior Take the test!

Similar to what she got, poor wife, good husband. Though I was a much bigger failure as a wife, and a considerably less superior husband. How funny!

Alive and Doing Fine

Sarge comes home from the hospital tomorrow. Hoo-ray! The reason that they were keeping him there for so long was that his white blood cell count was very low due to the bacterial infection. So they were waiting for it to go back to normal, just to avoid a relapse or something like that. He's itching to come home in the worst way.

One good thing:
We have discovered the best walk to take Dog on. It's a loop that goes around the back of our house into the fields, and back down our road. It's easy enough that we can all do it and not be exhausted. This included Dog, because she is way out of shape. It is quick enough that we can complete it in 30 minutes, with one short rest half way through.
And we can lengthen it or shorten it, depending on our stamina and time limitations. We walked it twice the first day, but Dog was not so happy about the second outing. Sarge says she's a "one walk a day dog". She would much rather be upstairs sleeping on my bed.

One bad thing:
"Mysterious blue smoke" Yes, it was released from my less than one year old computer, when I plugged it into the 220V socket. And yet, my older than Piko de Gallo computer seems to be working just fine.

Now to find a computer repair shop where English is spoken.