Gingerbread Men

There is a part in Shrek that really makes Robin and I laugh.  It involves a Gingerbread Man.

I told Robin we could make Gingerbread Men this year.  This was the first batch.  I really went to town with the frosting… they tasted good, but weren’t anything nice to look at.

Some detail pictures.  Let me explain, from left to right, top to bottom.
Gingerbread man in one-piece red pajamas, gingerbread girl in swimsuit with flip-flops, this gingerbread man was supposed to be tie-die but something went very wrong, a gingerbread girl in a ruffle skirt with high-heels, gingerbread man with heart, this gingerbread man is like the symbol that says “don’t walk” at the cross walk

Robin liked the gingerbread men so much, that he wanted more. He even made them this time. I kept the frosting simple – just the outline. Last night we took some of them to some friends but this recipe makes a lot of Gingerbread men, so we still have a whole army of Gingerbread men sitting in our kitchen.

Gesundheit

Yes, gesundheit is something you say when someone sneezes. It means health.  This past month has probably been our “least healthy” month since we got married.

I have had a cold since before Thanksgiving that just will not die. For two weeks, I was sick with it, but now it isn’t bad enough for me to think I am sick, but it is annoying. In the middle of having a cold, my back went out.  That was cool… or not.  It is really quite surprising to bend over to pick something up and suddenly have such an intense pain and not be able to stand back up again. I would say it wasn’t severe – I was able to bend over (slowly) two days later and within 4 days I was lifting things again.  It was quite shocking and quite painful. Robin was very nice through the whole thing. 

Robin has also been fighting something (a cold/cough) for a few weeks.  He was doing pretty well, but this past weekend, it caught up with him and he spend quite a bit of time on Friday in bed. He is back at work today, but isn’t sure he will make it though the week.  Again, nothing severe, but just enough make things not so pleasant…

Between the two of us there has been more coughing, sneezing, and staying in bed than we have ever had. Here is hoping for a healthy holiday and new year.

Humor

Robin and I usually speak English with each other.  His English is really good but every once in a while there is a word that doesn’t get pronounced quite right.  One word in particular makes me giggle every time.  Button.  The other day Robin asked me if I had pressed the button to close the garage door. It didn’t sound like button though… it sounded like bottom. Of course I was confused… ummm, Robin, what ‘bottom’? I did figure it out. We laughed. Since then, a similar dialog has happened more than once, with plenty of laughing from both of us.

For every word Robin has a problem with, there are about 10 I struggle with. Two examples:
Cake – Kuchen: the ‘hen’ part comes from the back of the throat and I can only say it if I way it very slow and over pronounced (kuc—HEN)… it never sounds normal (and just to make things confusing: Kuchen is cake, Küche is kitchen, and kochen is to cook…they all sound similar)
Bundt Pan – Gugelhupf: if I have to say it, it is usually followed by a giggle – google-HUP-f
Apple – Apfel: should be pretty easy, but somehow when I say it, it sounds more like Abfall, which means trash

There are plenty of other words in English and German that Robin and I laugh about… we mix the languages frequently and sometimes forget words in our native language.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is coming!  We set up our Christmas tree a bit early this year (a few days before Thanksgiving).  It actually worked out quite well for us because the day after we put up our tree, I got sick and spent a few days in bed.  I am doing much better now.

During my trip to the US this year, I was able to bring back more of my Christmas ornaments.  I think they all look quite nice.  If you couldn’t tell by the colors on the tree, I like blue.  Very much.  Our tree also has a new neighbor. However, this neighbor is a much more permanent resident and will be staying around long after the tree gets put away for the year.  A lovely electric fireplace. It looks a bit bare and lonely at the moment, but we will work on that.

The candles on top are our advent “wreath”.  The four Sundays before Christmas we light one candle.  The next Sunday we light two and so on until Christmas.  This Sunday is the first Advent (Nov. 27th)

We like Christmas time at our house :)

Autumn Leaves

Just a few pictures of the leaves here this fall.  These pictures were taken out in the fields near our apartment.

Happy Autumn!

Home Improvement

Now that we have 97.5% of the boxes unpacked and the walls all painted, we are able to do other things around our apartment that need to be done. Here are some of the projects we have been working on.

Nightstand for Erin

We bought this dresser at Ikea.  I saw online that several people painted it and made other changes to make it a cute little nightstand.  Now, many of you may already know that I am not really the one you want working with tools. Have any of you seen me working with a screwdriver? I think it is safe to say I have an “interesting” technique when it comes to tools. I did this piece (and all the other ones I will show you) all by myself.  I used a power screwdriver and power sander (normally it is not a good idea to give someone  who is a tool-idiot power tools, just if you were wondering). The change isn’t dramatic; it isn’t perfect, but it is still pretty good.

There it is, right next to my bed.  You can’t tell very well, but the knobs are blue with a silver piece in the middle. I just finished it today, so I haven’t filled it with stuff yet.  That will come very soon.

Coat hangers

We needed a few hooks to hang our coats on in the entry way.  Robin had some old wooden ones (see color example).  Bare wood = not my favorite color.  Presto-chango, let’s make them white. They may not be the cutest thing in our house but they are very functional.  They will hold both a coat and a scarf… and more.  You may ask what that grey box above my coat is.  It is the door bell “speaker”. Why is it covered with a grey tape? I have not idea.  It was that way when we moved it.

 

Re-Painting Chairs

Remember these chairs from last year?  Well, they don’t match anymore.  So, they will all be painted white.  See the example below.  That chair has wet paint on it.  White is the only color of furniture paint we have, so any furniture that needs to be painted will probably end up white.

New Silicone in the bathroom

Some of the silicone caulking in the bathroom wasn’t looking very good.  It needed to be replaced (it was stained with tobacco smoke).  I removed the old caulking and put in the new.  Not bad for someone who doesn’t usually do that sort of thing.  The caulking isn’t perfect, but the only thing I know about putting on new caulking I learned from watching my dad do it and two YouTube videos.

Not quite perfect, but not bad.

It looks better than it did before, so I can’t complain.

While I was putting on the new caulking, I got silicone everywhere… EVERYWHERE! Have you ever tried to do things with silicone all over your hands?  Considering the mess I had while I was doing it, I think it came out wonderfully.

A few craft projects

I didn’t get around to decorating for Halloween. It isn’t a huge holiday here anyway.  I did make a banner for Thanksgiving though.  It looks good in my entryway. 

I am a bit ahead of schedule, but I also made a wreath for Christmas.  I saw a cute wreath online and decided I would make it for my door this year.  I started it last week and finished today.  I like it.  I can’t wait to put it up for Christmas!

Those are all my projects… for now….

We have moved!

Robin and I found a new apartment and moved in on October 1st.  Since then we have been quite busy will making our apartment a nice place to live.  The previous tenant had interesting decoration ideas.  We have quite different taste than she did so we have been painting up a storm.  Here are a few pictures to show  what we have been up to.

Living Room

Lovely red with grey stripes has been replaced with “bamboo white”.  The walls are white with a hint of yellow.  We still need to put pictures on the wall and maybe a rug in front of the couches. We are quite pleased with the results here.

Entry way

For some reason, I didn’t take pictures of the entry way. You can see a small bit of the color in the doorway in the picture on the top left.  The picture next to it shows the mirror designs that were in the hallway. We painted it a crisp white.  Ignore the laundry basket in the picture… and the light hanging from a wire.

Bedroom

The yellow and brown in the bedroom was also replaced with white.  It looks great with my bedspread.  There are still a few things to be done in the bedroom, but at the moment it works.

Bathroom

Just in time for Halloween we replaced the old toilet seat with a boring white one.  The old one had real razor blades, barbed wire, and for those times when you want to use the restroom at night and don’t want to turn on the lights – LED lights (although, I am not sure how you would find the switch in the dark… it is quite small and hard to see even with the lights on). Call me strange, but I will take a boring white toilet seat any day of the week over the old one.

The kitchen is still being worked on, but here is one thing I did in there. When it is done, we will post more pictures.

400 Years old

There is a church here in our town that celebrated its 400th birthday this past weekend. For the past several months it has been being restored.  It looks pretty good now.  400 years is a long time ago that would have been 1611…. Wow… it is old!

¡Me gusta mueve mueve!

We’ve been busy… we are moving! Our new apartment is about 4 km from where we are living now and about a 10 minute walk to Robin’s work. The apartment is a bit bigger too.  It will need quite a bit of cleaning and painting once we get there.  The walls are currently dark red and grey (nice, but not really my colors). We will be moving at the end of the month, so we are packing and packing.  I have packed over 14 boxes this week and things are just starting to look a bit emptier. Here is my stack of boxes.

Country life

Cue the banjo….

I don’t feel like a country bumpkin… but sometimes it seems that I live deep in the country.  We live about 15 minutes away from ‘the city’.  It isn’t a huge city, but large enough.  When we go to the city (or come back) we drive past several corn/wheat fields, a cow farm, and a horse farm (I think…).  It isn’t unusual for tractors to cause traffic problems.  In our town we have 6 grocery stores within a 5 minute drive, a few clothing stores,  5+ bakeries, restaurants, florists, swimming pool, gas stations, etc. so it isn’t like we live in the middle of no where.  However, when I see something like the picture below, I begin to wonder… are we really country bumpkins….?

Actually, I think these hay sculptures are cute and pretty creative.  The little boy’s hat is made of two umbrellas.  The dad’s hat is made of an inner-tube and I think a bucket.  It took some time and effort to put these things together.  The city really likes them too – their sign says First Place. I suppose the “country life” is ok… but I think it would be better if I had a pickup truck.

Experiment in the Kitchen–Brigadeiros

I usually stick to making things I already know how to make – I might make a different recipe but it is usually something I already know how to make (I know how to make cookies, but I might use a different recipe from time to time).  Today I tried something new – Brigadeiros.  They are a Brazilian treat that often made for birthday parties there (or at least that is what I have heard).  I watched a YouTube video about how to make them and I think they turned out quite well. They are a bit like little balls of fudge.  They are small and easy just to pop in your mouth.  Now that I have made them, I might think about making them again.  Robin liked them too :)

Quick trip to Auerbach Castle

We made a short trip to the ruins of a castle near by.  You can climb up in the towers and have a nice view of the area.  Robin went up the tower before me and took this picture.

Then he took this picture of me down below looking awesome.  Notice something a little strange about my skirt?  It was windy at the castle, but I expected that and planned ahead.  My solution? Hair clip things… I clipped the sides (and eventually the middle) of my skirt to keep it from flying up.  I am quite the trend setter….

Meet Mondeo

It’s a Ford.  It was looking for a new home last week, so we took it in. We are taking good care of it – we have it registered, it got a bath, and was cleaned on the inside. We plan to treat it nicely, we hope it returns the favor.

It is a bit old – 1994, but low on miles (92,000 km or 166,000 miles).  Only had one owner, who was obsessed with keeping it tidy – the whole floor has been covered with at least one layer of protective carpeting (in some places there is more than one layer). So far, it works great.

Biggest Spider EVER

Meet Hans – probably the biggest spider I have ever seen.  He has a small body and skinny legs, but he is about 4 inches across. HUGE! Luckily, he is outside.  We have an agreement, Hans stays outside and we leave him alone.  If Hans comes inside… well… it would be better for him if he just stays outside.

Super Robin

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Super Robin!!! Holding up boulders 6 times his size.

(Robin loves it when I put pictures of him on the blog )

I {heart} Squirrels

I like squirrels.  I think they are cute.  The squirrels here are different than the ones I am used to seeing  in Washington – instead of grey, the squirrels in this area are brown-reddish.  When they sit up and look right at you their ears stick up like horns. The German word for squirrel is Eichhörnchen… most Americans have trouble saying that… but Germans also struggle with the word squirrel. 

Robin and I saw a squirrel while we were out for a walk.  Luckily, I was able to get a picture before he ran away.

Another Mystery Flower

Well, the common consensus on the first mystery flower was that it is a sunflower. Or, was a sunflower. It has since gone the way of other flowers and died (no, I didn’t kill it, it died of natural causes).  Now, there is a new mystery flower blooming in my flower box.

Any guesses?

Flock of Doves

One of the people who live near us has an interesting hobby – they keep doves.  When the weather is nice, the doves are sit out on the roof of the house.  Every so often they take off and fly in circles – round and round and round and round… and round. It is amazingly entertaining to watch the birds fly.  Some times they just fly in circles. Some times they fly in figure 8s.  They fly in unison and land in unison.  It is fun to watch.

Random Summer Photos

Here are some photos I have taken so far this summer. Some of them are funny, some not.  enjoy.

On the left, a car that is typical here in Germany – compact (some with four doors, but this example has just two). On the right, an America behemoth car… The German car could fit inside the American one.  I laughed. Maybe this is one of those things where you just had to be there.

We have been enjoying lovely sunsets from our apartment.  As I have said earlier, Robin things the most beautiful sunsets in the world are here.

This is where the German President lives.  No, not Angela Merkel, she is the Chancellor.  The current president is Christian Wulff.  I think he has a lovely home.

Me at Brandenburger Tor in Berlin

Sewer cover in Hamburg.  Very decorative if you ask me

The city hall in Hamburg

I am not sure what the head of the Statue of Liberty is doing here.  I was just wandering around (in a castle courtyard) and there she was… just sitting there… why? She wasn’t the only strange thing there either.  There were other weird statues of flamingos, polar bears and other things too.

A ship in Bremerhaven.  What you can see very well in the background is on the left, a building that looks like a GIANT jellybean and on the right a building that is a replica of one in the United Arab Emirates.

So what does this look like to you?  I’ll tell you what it is.  There are sand worms that live here.  They only eat sand… can you see where this is going?  The worm only eats sand… that means… yup, you guessed it.  He only poops sand.

Slug.  Icky, orange slug.  The word for slug in German is Nacktschnecke. Translation: naked snail. Cute name. Ugly slug.