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...
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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.

Getting around Germany

Well, we now know where the hospital is.

Sarge has come down with a bacterial infection that has kept him laid up for about a week.

He has the laptop too, so there is very little internets for me.

Other than that, things are pretty great.

There's a fabulous bakery right across the street from the hospital. Yummy seasonal fruit tarts to sooth my worries with.

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.

Bleh!

We are currently without internets.

Hopefully posting will resume soon.

Mrs. S, if you are still reading, I have to post some pictures of all of the awesome tile in our house.

I'm crossing my fingers for internet service.

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.