Monday, December 19, 2011

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.

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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
GingerBreadDetail

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.

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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.