New Re-Obsession

I've recently become re-obsessed with my Flickr account.

I've been on Flickr for about 4 years now, but have not really done anything with it since I started my cake blog.

But, since I'm such rubbish with sending pictures to relatives, and the new Hotmail is even more rubbish at uploading photos I recently upgraded my account. Woo!

My Flickr site.

Nothing terribly exciting going on there, but when I signed up for a Pro account I did get a free photo book from SnapFish, which was awesome too.

Just doing my part

Just like Mrs. S over at Snarkolepsy I'm doing my part to ruin the earth.

I ordered this cake pan along with a couple other things from Target.com. Not only did the rest of my order ship completely separately, but I got the pan, which is less than 2 inches thick in this HUGE ASS box.

Of course, 95% of the box was stuffed with those air filled plastic pillows.

WTF is up with that??

But I'm totally excited to try out my new cake pan. Look, it makes CAKESICLES!

Awesome!

Spending time at the German hospital I tend to notice the little changes. No, this is not a picture of a weird European toilet. It is a Dyson Airblade!!
I love most things Dyson, Dyson himself is pretty freaking cool.

Of course I took a video of it drying my hands, but I could not get it to load on Blogger. Boo!

You can actually see the skin on my hands rippling! Crazy!

Just lucky like that

That's me.
I'm in the hospital this week. No worries, just a touch of Penumonia that led to some tests that led to something else.
So here I am.
For a week.
Yay me.

That is not the bit of luck I'm talking about.

What is it about me that compels people to tell me things???
My roomate right now is a 50 something German local who speaks excellent english. We communicate well.
Too well.
I learned over the course of one evening that she is from the local area all her life, she has two grown children, likes to go out dancing, does not love her husband, has a boyfriend in a city 2 hours away. What?!?
Wait, it does not end there.
Boyfriend is also married (he is a sweetheart from her school days), he has three daughters (she showed me pictures), and the youngest (16) is pregnant!
Hell.
I suppose it gives her some relief to talk about it, since she knows I don't know them, will never meet them, and who would I talk about it to?? Well, other than the whole world on my blog, but who the hell reads this? I don't want to know this stuff, but I'm too polite to tell her to shut up. Plus, she translates for me, and got me apple juice when I had to drink that nasty stuff in preparation for my intestinal examination.
It is all very strange. I have spent my week catching up on my reading (3 books so far), and watching old seasons of CSI and House. She has spent it on the phone, IM-img, and sending notes to her sweetie. It's disconcerning, as she is old enough to be my mom, yet acts like my daughter.

Somewhat entertaining, and distracting, obviously nice, but strange.

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!

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!!!!

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.

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.

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.

There is a truth universally acknowledged...

...if there is a tomato that looks like it's growing a penis, I will buy it.
If only to take a picture of it and post it here for some cheap laughs.

Life Without the Internets

Well, say what you like about Germany (that's for you Mrs. S. You can start ragging now), there may be no internets, and phone service is slow to be hooked up. But oh, we have ice cream!

Delicious ice cream. I'm so glad that this shop is not in our town or we would be huge and fat at the end of the summer.

So what does one do without internet service? Well, normally I would be a couch potato, or work on one of my many sewing projects. Unfortunately we have no TV, no service, and no actual TV to hook up. And my BFF is still in route (delivery is scheduled for the 12th!!). So we've been tackling the garden, unfortunately I have no pictures, but imagine 20 years of free growth. And I don't know what's a weed and what's a plant, so I've just been pulling everything that does not look familiar. I have dirt impregnated into the palms of my hands, and that's the way I like it. Hopefully we'll be able to wrestle it into submission soon enough.

Wildlife spotting so far:
A hedgehog, a jackrabbit, and a huge ass buck.

I <3 British TV

I would say that it is pretty well established that I love me some TV.

But I especially love British TV. BBC, in all it's glory, iTV. Yay!!

Where else can you see something as awesome as TJ Wheels!!!


And then there was "Hoop-La-La". Hoop-La-Freakin-Awesome if you ask me. I do have to say that they really benefited from the professional styling that the show gave them. They were on Britain's Got Talent. Even Simon ended up liking them.


Of course this video does not work now, but you can view it on the Hoop-La-La website. I think I just like saying "Hoop-La-La".

Lots of great variety talent shows on, that I enjoy so much more than Crap Idol.

Moving Jitters? And a Gym Rant

This morning I woke up at 4 freaking 30 AM!! 4:30 folks!! And I couldn't go back to sleep.

The movers are coming today. All that was running through my mind was what items I have to put notes on so that they don't pack them. The last time we were moved, a little piece of baseboard from the kitchen was found lovingly wrapped among our belongings. Granted the movers were Belgian, and probably though we were crazy Americans anyway.

So an early morning post for you all to keep me out of the kitchen. I don't think that Totino's Pizza Rolls at 5:00 AM goes along with Sarge's diet plan.

I'm using Sarge's laptop, which has a whole other set of bookmarks than mine, and I stumbled across this awesome post from Rob the Doorman over at Clublife. This pretty much sums up my whole attitude about people at the gym. Sarge would agree heartily with #1, and #9. I'm more of a #4, and #5.

While I'm not the most athletically gifted person by any stretch of the imagination, I did dance for quite a few years when I was younger. I would like to think that this gave me a pretty decent ability to mimic movement, or at least to see when my body is not doing what I want it to. Many of the exercises we are doing following the CrossFit plan are totally new to me. Clean and Jerk, Split Jerks, and those other Olympic type weightlifting moves. It took me some time to understand the right way to lift my elbows and thrust them under the bar in the same movement, I'm still not great, but I'm better. But I can definitely tell when I'm not doing it right. Sarge and I always talk about the funny we see at the gym, which is sometimes comically considerable. Sarge says that it's because people have a very hard time mimicking movement that they see. But I wonder, there are mirrors in the gym. Everywhere. Maybe they're looking at their awesome pecks, and are distracted. The worst offenders, squats, walking lunges, and dumbbell shoulder presses. Seriously? Squats and lunges are some of the best exercises for overall strength and fitness. If you do them right!!! Also, what's with doing the same exercises every week, and taking the 10 minute recovery rests between sets? Sarge says that this is the result of not altering the workout since High School, or reading. Look, I'm no exercise guru or anything, but let's just say results speak for themselves. I've been doing CrossFit for about a month with Sarge. I have more muscle definition in my arms and legs, and I have increased my strength by about 25%. Try something new at the gym people! That's what the internets are for, not just porn! What worked for you at 17 is not going to do it at 30. Granted I have the best, most patient workout partner ever, so it makes my voyage to the dark side so much easier.

We're not going to the gym for the rest of the week, mostly because of the move, but also because I'm sick. Moving and sick. Awesome. But I did look at the workout for today anyway. Ha-Freaking-HA! I probably would have barfed.

Henna Party!

Last night we had a Henna/Movie/Pizza night at our neighbor's house.

Awhile ago my neighbor came back from a trip to Florida. She and one of her daughters had visited an amusement park there where they were doing henna tattoos. They didn't have time to stop for one, but brought a kit home. I was over at their house one day and noticed the kit. I love doing henna!!! The librarian can attest to this. When we were roommates after college the whole Madonna/henna thing hit the mainstream, with her Ray of Light album. I spent some time decorating myself and my roommates. It was some fun.

Anyway, that first henna kit she bought from the amusement park was for crap, and didn't take. So, she went to AC Moore and bought this kit. This kit is awesome! The henna powder is very fine and has no clumps or debris. They provide a great applicator bottle, with an awesome fine tip that makes wonderful lines. There's lots of eucalyptus oil, and the mordant liquid they provide is pre mixed and does not stink at all.

And though the amount seems very small, it was enough to do all of these designs.

Plus, my own left arm, and my feet.
I don't have any "after" pictures yet. but just based on Piko, and my results, it came out very well.
Is it bringing back memories Ms. Librarian?

I forgot to add the funniest moment of the night. A couple of us were in the kitchen applying henna, and the rest of the children (3, 1 of mine, 2 of hers) were in the living room "playing". Suddenly there is crying and yelling. It went something like this.
Kid 1: Waaaaaaa!!!! She broke my wand!!!
Kid 2: I did not!!!
Mom: What happened?
Kid 1: She broke my wand! WAAAAAAAA!!!
Mom: Kid 2, did you break her wand?
Kid 2: Well, yeah....
Mom: Why would you do that?!? I think you should apologize.
Kid 2: Yeah, but...
Kid 1: She broke it!!! She didn't even say sorry!
Mom: Tell her you're sorry!
Kid 2: Yeah, but she was hitting me with the wand, and that's why it broke!!
Mom:................You kids are going to make me crazy!!
Me: (in the kitchen, to myself) Too late.

We're off! Yay?

Maine ho!!!!

Woo-freaking-hoo. It's finally starting to get warm here, and we're heading off to the land of 6 foot snow drifts.

It's better than here though I guess. Monday night the PTA imploded, the new board cut funding for almost all of the student activities the previous board was supporting. They blamed the previous board for mismanaging the budget, and for sabotaging the latest fundraiser (whhhaaaa????). I did get my money for the Science Fair refunded though, so there was a plus for me. I'm seriously hoping that the next school we're at has a PTA that can actually work together, and do, you know, work.

So away from here, to the frozen north. It's going to be a great visit, I can already tell. The other night Piko deGallo tells Sarge.

"Do Grandma and Grandpa have more than one TV? I don't want to have to watch CRAP IDOL with them."

I swear, Sarge must have peed his pants from laughing so hard.

I'm looking forward to going to the discount fabric store. Thank goodness we got our tax return!

This Week's WIP

Oofah!!
File last week under "She'll never learn".

There was the Cruise backdrop. First, I bought the wrong kind of paper, it is a bit too thin, and the paint made it wrinkle something awful. It got better as the paint dried though.
Here is a stage one shot. See the wrinkles and the pulling?

And the finished product. I am getting better at remembering that I have to work back to front, and top to bottom to save myself painting over and over the same areas.This was not my favorte project ever, but I have to say that when I would be working in the kitchen I would catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and it was like I was looking out a large window. That was kind of cool.

Valentine's Day projects galore!

Fabric flower corsages for the teachers and staff at Piko deGallo's school. Fabric flower pattern can be found at Wise Craft.

I was a bit worried that the feathers and ribbon might be a bit much for the teachers. But I was reminded by another mom that the teachers are mostly older women women of a more "mature" taste level. Right.

I was also up until 1:30 Saturday night compiling the master list for the PTA's Valentines Day lollipop fundraiser. I would have been done earlier, but Piko and I watched POTC Dead Man's Chest. I was sitting for so long that my butt got sweaty. EW! The PTA sold over 600 lollipops at the school. Something that I noticed while making up the list is that it looks like the people who bought the most pops for their friends received very few pops in return. Hmmmmm....school social politics, I sure don't miss that.

Here is how the flowers are going to be given to the teachers on their sacks of lollipops for their classes.


Piko got some as a hair clips too. She's so spoiled.

These felt flower hair clips are gifts for Piko's female classmates and friends. This pattern is from Betz White.

The action shot.


This is a very crappy picture of it, but I made this "pet carrier" for Piko's favorite stuffed animal. It's a bit of fabric fastened with velcro around the belly of the cat, with a short and long handle to carry her around with. Piko likes to bring this cat along whenever we go out, but worries that she'll lose it somewhere, so this way she can brng it along and keep her hands free without worrying about it getting forgotten.


Another thing for Piko deGallo. When we move she'd getting our guest bed, which is a Queen, so I'm making her a big, big quilt for the bed.

I just love fabric charm squares. These charm squares are Moda "Full Moon Forrest".


And then the funniest thing happened Sunday morning, Piko came out of her room strutting around in this ensemble. The first thing that I thought was "OH NO!! It's LiLo!!" Love the leggings and the scarf there Piko.

My plastic valentine...

I mentioned yesterday that I just realized that next week holds Valentine's day.
Woo-hoo.
So, I was at the commissary this afternoon picking up afew things, and I though I would get some caaaannnndeeeee for Piko deGallo.

Question.

When the hell did Cinderella turn into Dr. 90210 plastic Botox Cinderella?!?

View.

Cinderella circa 1950


Cinderella 2008!!

She looks like she had cheek implants, collagen, Botox, an eye job, and some major veniers put on those teeth! Man, I know she's like 58 or something, but good plastic surgery "freshens you up", not makes you look like a totally different person!

Is she a candidate for Awful Plastic Surgery?!!

And so I find that it is Wednesday.
Looking at my calendar I realize that not only is next week Valentine's day, but I have a mini mural to do for some officer's club. Oh yeah, by tuesday. Oops.
I kind of ranted a bit last time about having to do a last minute mural, but who the heck am I kidding, that's the way I work even when I have a 3 week lead time.

I guess this means that I'm off to the store to pick up my painting supplies. So I'm off, and it's a bit early so Michael's is not open yet, so I hit the Target next door. I need some lightbulbs anyway.

8:30 am in the middle of the week, I figure I'll pretty much have the place to myself. Not so much.

The hell?!?! Target is chock-a-block full of mothers and their young spawn precious angels. Which, hey, I get. They probably have been up since 5 am (which is when Piko used to get up), and need something to do, Target is clean, open, and probably empty. Kids are fine, don't get me wrong, I like kids, have one of my own. What I hate is this:

Mommy: Don't touch!
Mommy's Little Angel (MLA): I'm nawt towching.
Mommy: Don't!
MLA: I'm nawt!!!
Mommy: Don't touch that or I'll put you in the cart!
MLA: OOOOHHH!!! Look Mawmeeeeeee!!!!!!! Can I have some candy?
Mommy: I said don't touch that!
MLA: I'm nawt. Candy Mawmeee!!
Mommy: No!
MLA: Caaaaannnndddeeee!!!!Maaaawwwwmmmmeeeeee!!!
Mommy: Didn't I tell you not to touch?! I'm going to put you in the cart!
MLA: No cart Mawmee!!

I swear to whatever deity is the most powerful!!! Put your damn kid in the damn cart already!! I'm not buying anything from that aisle because I can hear very well that they touch everything in it!!! Can a person not browse the totally cute baking and packaging aisles in peace?!?!

I'm so evil, but when I'm with Piko and we hear that kind of behavior, and if she is behaving herself despite outside influence. I loudly offer to buy her some candy.
Evily.