theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for March 2005

Go, Kings, Go!

filed under: sports, this and that

Yeah, I know… I am annoying. Talking about Basketball a lot lately. But hey, you neither have to understand the game, nor understand my babbling just cheer for the Kings
They have to make it to the Play Offs.
Last night they played the Detroit Pistons and it was a drama – they just couldn’t make any points. Three throws missed the basket, hit the ring or whatever… I think that had 13 turnovers, that’s way too much! I couldn’t believe that was happening after that great game on Monday, but Brian Skinner was out with a stomach virus and he had like 18 rebounds during the last game – outstanding!! So he was definitely missing!

Anyways, I spent the rest of the night sorting out my pile of stuff in the computer room. Since we only have a desk, the computer and a tiny little shelf in there (ok, regardless of the huge closet in which it is still difficult to keep stuff in order), most of my stationary stuff, letters, official mail collects in one corner of the room and it just looked like a mess! So, without thinking about it for too long, I put my new Lifehouse CD in the computer and started cleaning up! Took me two whole hours, but it was totally worth it.

J is so funny because he likes to send me to the room by saying “go and do stationary stuff” :) hilarious!

Tuesday night was totally SATC-driven- I think we watched three episodes in a row (and finished the first DVD of the 3rd season) and I was tempted to watch one more on TBS, but since they are in Season 5 already, I’ve missed a couple of the new episodes and they are censored on TBS anyways, I decided to wait and watch it on DVD

Oh yeah, and then a friend of mine had a baby girl on Easter (Congrats!) and another friend had a baby in January and another friend is pregnant or wants to get pregnant. Hello? Am I missing something? Where do all these babies and pregnant women come from all of a sudden? You’re freaking me out, girls ;)

The Kings

filed under: sports, this and that

OMG… did anyone watch the Kings game last night? No? NO? It was soooo exciting. J and I went for a long walk beforehand and then were home in time to prepare dinner before the game started. So there we were with our plates on the couch in front of the TV and the game started… the Kings played the Philadelphia 76ers (where they had just traded Chris Webber to!), so it was? an emotional game anyways… C-Webb being back in Sacramento! The game was pretty darn close… at least up to the third quarter. The Kings had a 13 point-lead, then they fell back behind… the 76ers have this really fast player -I call?him “self-centered”- Allen Iverson who never passes the ball, but ALWAYS tries to get through the defense and make the points himself. Yes, he’s fast and he made a lot of points this way, but it’s like… “hey guy, you gotta team to play with… it’s not just YOU!” Mike Bibby didn’t play too well in the first half but towards the end he got better and he made some good shots… and the Kings won in the end with 118:109

During half-time we watched some “7th heaven” and J and I created our own nicknames for the characters… has anyone of you ever seen the little twin boys? J and I only call them “the retards”, because they talk as if they are totally stupid. Yeah, who knew that the babies that they casted for the show would turn out as complete morons! It’s so funny every time they talk!!

After the game, I watched “Summerland’… it’s so exciting right now, too. Ava was about to marry Simon (and nobody wants it… all the kids think that she and Johnny are the perfect match, and everybody else thinks that, too)…so it was totally exciting, because you didn’t know what was going to happen… of course, they were already having the wedding ceremony when finally someone steps in… and it’s not Johnny! OMG Sorry for babbling on about that, but if you watched the show, you would be as excited as me *lol*

Oh yeah, and then I had a lot of mail yesterday… two letters and a huge package from my sweet friend Cathy (thank you so much, sista ). I was bouncing up and down, because she sent me all this cute stationary stuff…I love it.

HAPPY EASTER!

filed under: holidays, this and that

This is coming a little late, I know… I just hope you all had a wonderful weekend with lots of sunshine and many, many chocolate eggs!
My Easter was pretty unspectacular this year. No colored eggs, no chocolate eggs, no easter egg hunt, but at least some really nice Easter-E-mails. Thanks to all of you!

We had a pretty laid-back weekend – no big plans. Friday night we just hung out at home. After the long week I was just looking forward to a lazy evening on the couch. We watched some SATC and then started a movie, “Dr. Strangelove”, but I didn’t even make the first 15 minutes, then I fell asleep.

I slept in really late Saturday and then dedicated half of the afternoon to catching up on my correspondence. I also had two packages in the mail :) a CD from my dear friend Kim (thanks, hon!) and a package from my dear friend Ilka ( thanks, also!). That made my day :) Then I went grocery shopping and in the evening Stoyan and Claudia came over. Claudia also gave me a CD as a belated birthday present – the Singles by A-ha! So cool! :)
We went out for a drink to the “Hoppy Brewing Company”. I was kinda surprised that there weren’t more people there on a Saturday night. I ordered a Cherry Cider, hoping that it would be something like a sweet whine spritzer but it wasn’t :( oh well. We had good time and watched some TV at our place later.

Sunday I chatted with my cousin and aunt for a while (which always is fun!) and the rest of the day was pretty much hanging out, watching TV and stuff. We made yummy burritos for dinner :) and I watched “Crazy/Beautiful” on TV.

And now it’s back to work – you lucky guys in Germany have a long weekend, but over here Easter is not a holiday – too bad. Enjoy your day off! At least I have something to look forward to, only 24 days until we go to Boston!

P.S. Have I mentioned that the new Lifehouse album is just awesome? I really think that they have matured a lot and that you can hear that in their music – Jason’s voice is amazing as always. You should seriously consider checking it out!

P.P.S. We are now 10 hours behind German time for the coming week… Daylight Saving Time begins next weekend over there!!

Short update

filed under: this and that

A little note for the people on my “protected list”…

seems as if things with the visa are moving forward. I’ve had a short talk with my boss today and I forwarded him some information about the application process. I’ll keep you updated.

A party

filed under: friends, fun!, this and that

It’ almost weekend again – YAY! This week really flew by somehow. I like that! Tuesday night we were invited to a party – only College students on Spring Break can come up with that. A party in the middle of the week. Does anyone think about us working people?

Anyways, we decided to go since we don’t have too many opportunities to go to parties and it really was fun. The hosts, Julian and Judith, celebrated their birthday and it was another guy’s farewell party as well. It turned out that Julian and Judith, a couple, both have their birthday on March, 10 and when I told them that this is my birthday, too, we were all like surprised . What a funny coincidence!
There were a lot of international students (why am I not surprised) and we really had a good time. Tatjana was there, too (I hadn’t seen here in months!) and it was really great to talk to her again. I also talked to a guy from Mexico called “Jesus” (how can parents name their son “Jesus”?) and another guy, Rodrigo, from Guatemala. Of course, there were a bunch of German people and I actually met some from near my town in Germany. What a small world! The funniest thing again was that nobody didn’t want to believe that I am 29 *lol* it’s so funny to see their baffled faces when they find out that I am not a student anymore.
Silke was there as well – it was her last night. She flew home Wednesday. I was kind of surprised, because she was like superfriendly and before we left she actually thanked me and J again for letting her stay with us last August when she came to Davis and she got us a gift certificate for the Austrian Bakery in Davis. I was really surprised, because I didn’t expect such a nice gesture.

We had a great time and actually ended up staying until 2 a.m – what was I thinking? I had to work the next day!

Well, it was worth it, even though I was kind of tired on Wednesday and took a 2 hour-nap when I came home

We didn’t do much that night-we had a really German dinner (bread, cheese and cold cuts, pickles and tomatoes) and then watched some basketball and SATC

Yesterday I had plenty of work – did I mention that I am the new trainer for the software that I am using right now? I had another guy come in and do some training. Jim, Gerald and I went out for lunch (guess what – Mexican Food!!!) and Gerald really complimented my work. I was flattered :)

The good news: J and I booked flights to Boston!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) We’re going there for a week at the end of April! I am soooo excited! I haven’t been there in almost 4,5 years and I just can’t wait to be back! I love that city- plus, we’re probably going to see a Redsox Game at Fenway Park. I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do that! So that ‘s going to be an awesome week!

Enough of good news for today??
One more thing- spring is back. It had been raining the last couple of days, but it looks like it’s going to be a nice weekend! Have a good one!!!

The weekend

filed under: fun!, this and that

Hey guys… how is everything? I am so tired today. The weekend was too short… as always… but we had fun!!

Friday night J took me out for dinner, because it was Friday night and we had to get out of the house. We went to “Mimi’s Café” again and I just love it there. It’s one of these chain-restaurants, but really really good. We had Vegetable Quesadilla as an appetizer and then I had Caesar Salad *yummy* and Pasta with Asagio Cream (something like Pasta Alfredo… along these lines). It was delicious.

Saturday I went shopping again… this time for J and for our apartment. I also wanted to look for this cute combination of hoodies and pants that I talked about in one of my last posts, but unfortunately the one at Old Navy just looked terrible on me (which was definitely the way the pants and hoody were tailored… I tried another one of these pants somewhere else and they looked just great, but there was no hoody to go with it, so I didn’t buy them). I got some shirts for J and some new towels, as well as a new set of sheets for our bed. It had this nice blue-squared look and I just love it :)

In the evening I wanted to go to Silke’s Farewell Party with Rachel, but when I came home and checked my emails, I found out the Party was canceled, because Robin, Scott and Antonia couldn’t come and Silke assumed that I didn’t have time either (don’t know where she got that from), so she canceled the party. I was kind of surprised, because I didn’t know it was only for the Bookclub people… so I called Rachel and told her that we’re not going which meant that I had a nice evening with J at home.
I made some tomatoes with mozzarella for dinner *yummy* and then we watched the movie “Bloody Sunday”. It’s about the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the early 70’s (I am sure you’ve all heard about “Bloody Sunday” before… at least the same-titled song by U2). It was a good movie, but really disturbing.

Sunday we slept in and then did some laundry and went for a walk. It was raining all weekend, so we were pretty lucky to pick some time between rain showers for our walk.
J took a little nap and I woke him up at 3:30 p.m. because we wanted to go out for an early dinner and then I was going to take him to the Kings game I didn’t want to tell him, but take him for a drive and end up at Arco Arena, but I finally had to tell him where we were going in advance, because otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten up in time :
He was totally excited, so I think it was a nice surprise!
We went to Bakers Square for the early dinner special and then drove over to Arco Arena at 5:30 pm. Considering how hard it is to get tickets for the NBA, I was kinda disappointed that there were quite a few seats empty… I don’t know if these seats are usually taken by people with season tickets, but it’s a shame that other people can’t go, because there are no tickets available, when apparently there are free seats for each game. They really have to work this out better…

Unfortunately the Kings lost the third time in a row against the Golden State Warriors (actually the worst team in their group). The Kings just couldn’t get the points that they needed. It was a close game until the end, but the Warriors won with 104:94. Here are some pics

The color blue

filed under: this and that

Yeah, I am usually a very “blue” person… which just means I LOVE the color blue, but I felt like changing my xanga-style, so I hope you like the beautiful pink flowers :)
Blue reminds me of something… do you guys like these cute sets of hoodies and pants :) I really do like them and I am thinking about getting this one in blue… they just look so comfy!

Last night I watched this movie, “Two Weeks Notice” with Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. I somehow assumed that it’s going to be a romantic comedy and I guess it was…kind of… but I just expected a little more from the movie. I must say that I like Sandra Bullock as an actress though… and I think she’s pretty, but Jon said that most (American) men don’t find her attractive at all would you agree with that? I was a little bit surprised… just because she doesn’t look like every other Hollywood-beauty, doesn’t mean that she’s ugly!

Summerland

filed under: this and that

Hey – does anyone of you watch Summerland on the WB Monday night? I love that show! I know it’s probably not very intellectually stimulating or anything, but it’s just fun to watch after a long work day! :) I totally agree with the kids in the show that Ava shouldn’t get married to Simon, but get back together with Johnny. It just HAS to happen – but of course they’re dragging this thing out over quite a few episodes. It’s one of these shows where you don’t know anything by the end of the episode, but are forced to watch the next one :) *lol* oh well, I think that’s what you call TV-marketing :) Jay (alias Ryan Kwanten) is kinda cute by the way :)

So, I had a nice lazy evening on the couch last night. I was really tired, watched some style shows first, then 7th heaven (the new episodes!) and then Summerland :) how much better can a night get? *lol* Oh wait – Sex and the City would top it all off :)

Meeting people

filed under: friends, fun!, this and that

Hey there – I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was fantastic, even though it was a real busy one this time ;)
Friday night we went to a party in Davis. Regine, another German girl, had a “not-having-a-birthday-party” (because her birthday is the 29th of February :)) I thought I would make it my “having-a-birthday”-party” as well.
Regine lives with my friend Sheila and since I hadn’t seen her in a while, because she’s soooo busy with school, I thought it would be nice to go. We asked Stoyan and Claudia if they wanted to come too.
The party was ok – not really exciting, but at least there were quite a few new people (not only Germans!) and I got to talk to Sheila, which was nice. And there was this cute Turkish girl, Elcin, who was smiling at everyone! It was a real open and genuine smile :-) and I liked it!

I think we left the party around 11 pm and before we left, I went upstairs with Sheila to say “hi” to Tehya, her cute little dog. She’s grown a lot since I last saw her in September, but she’s still so adorable!!

We took Stoyan and Claudia home and then spent a little more time at their place before we drove back to Sac at 1 am.

Saturday we slept in – of course. After a shower and some breakfast, I got to go shopping – my Birthday present!!! :) I left around 1:30 pm, went to Nordstrom’s Rack first (because I had a gift card from there) and then went on to the Arden Fair Mall. God, shopping on Saturdays is just insane! I wish I could have gone during the week, but I just have more time on Saturdays – just like everybody else!! The lines in front of the fitting rooms were long and you are only allowed to take a certain number of pieces in, which means you have to get in line over and over again. Especially if you want to try something in different sizes :( (and I do that all the time!)
After spending a few hours there, I wanted to take on last shot at TARGET (I just like that store!) and then I still needed to go grocery shopping and it was almost already 9 pm.
When I got home, I could at least say that I was a very successful shopper :) I got quite a few things – 5 tops, a skirt, some surf shorts, shoes -see some of them here it was fun :)

Sunday morning I got up at 8:30 am, because I was going to San Francisco to meet with my Online-friend Viviane. I drove to Oakland and took the BART from there into the City. Then I walked over to Hosteling International to pick her up.
We had a really great and fun day. First we went back to Market Street, since there was a “St. Patrick’s Parade” going on -smart decision NOT to take the car into the City, especially if there is a parade or something like that!!

We walked over to one of the Malls and went shopping for sunglasses and I finally found some. I really wanted some with bigger frames, but they just don’t fit me (I personally think I look like an idiot with glasses anyways, so YAY I don’t need glasses in real life ;-) ), so I ended up buying some dark-colored glasses which I could somewhat stand.

We decided to walk over to Union Square and catch a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge from there. It really was a beautiful, beautiful day and we took some really nice pictures.

First we got off at Ghiradelli Square and went down to the water – the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and of the Skyline was gorgeous.

When we took another bus down to the Marina District. The Marina District has beautiful, mostly three-floor-apartment buildings with huge windows and nice staircases. Unfortunately, the Marina is geologically speaking- the most dangerous place in all San Francisco. The houses are built on poorly consolidated and/or artificial land fill in this area and the ground is highly subject to liquefaction during earthquakes. What happens is that seismic shaking settles the saturated, loosely packed sand, reducing the pore space, increasing pore pressures, and reducing the effective stress. The ground deforms either moderately (cracking) or catastrophically (flow) before the sand regains stability. I’ve seen pictures of “sunken” houses where the second floor was down on ground level as a result of the Loma Prieta Earthquake (1989)*uargh* nothing I wanted to think about in detail while we were there ;)

We took some pictures of the Palace of Fine Arts Exploratorium (a beautiful huge building with stone pillars – looked somehow greek to me!). There also was a little pond right next to it and we saw some water turtles which seemed to live there.
Then we walked over to the beach (Crissy Field) from where we had a great (and closer) view on the Golden Gate Bridge and quite a few surfers.

On our way back we stopped at Washington Square which is in North Beach, the Italian Quarter of San Francisco. We hopped on another bus up on Telegraph Hill and the Coit Tower and had a great view over the whole city!!
It was starting to get dark and cold and Viviane was freezing and we both were sooo hungry, so we had dinner at a tiny Italian Restaurant called “pasta pomodoro”. It was a really good choice and the food was delicious and they had really reasonable prices!!Back at Market Street, there was an “Old Navy” right there- and Viviane had talked about that store all day (I believe 99% of her clothes are from Old Navy *lol* :-D) and it was like a running gag. Earlier that day, when it was really warm, I thought that I should have worn my Flip Flops, so Viviane said: We could get some Flip Flops for you at Old Navy. Later, when she started freezing, because she had forgotten to take a sweater, I was like “Hey, maybe we can get a sweater for you at Old Navy” and so on :) it was so funny! And guess what, we DID get a sweater for there and I bought some cute light-blue Flip Flops :)

At 8:30 pm we had to say “Good Bye” then and I took the BART back to Oakland. It was a fun day, I must say, and we had really hit it off – we laughed and joked and laughed pretty much the whole day :) Too bad she lives in Oklahoma and we can’t meet more often!

Good times

filed under: fun!, this and that

Wednesday night we decided spontaneously to check out the Hard Rock Café Downtown… we just felt like it and J hadn’t been there. I had the Chicken Club Sandwich – always a good choice (and you’ll always have leftovers to take home ;)) and afterward we walked around a little bit. It’s really getting warm over here, guys!

I had an amazing birthday… the best surprise was a call from my best friend Cathy from Sydney. OMG :) I couldn’t believe she called… that really made my day! We hadn’t talked for …ahm… quite a while, mainly because we thought it’s really expensive to call overseas (as it used to be) and because I was coward and didn’t feel comfortable talking in English on the phone… well, that was quite a while ago and I fortunately managed to overcome my fears and become confident talking in a foreign language ;) It was so awesome to talk to her!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You rock, girl!!! )

J was really sweet… he got up early to get fresh pastries for me for breakfast and he got so many that I could take some to work. When I came home, he had a cute little surprise for me… a gift bag with a lovely card and stationary stuff :) and he got me an apple pie from Bakers Square (because he knows I LOVE it!!!). I also get to go shopping tomorrow which will be FUN!!! We made delicious fajitas for dinner and then spend a cozy evening on the couch watching 4 episodes of SATC and “Legally Blonde” ;) I had some Mike’s Hard Lemonade and some pie later… it was a fun night!!!

Of course, I would have loved to celebrate my birthday with my sister and my family and friends… they all had gathered at Nina’s place and they called me at work and I talked to at least 10 people *lol* :) it was nice though… and tonight we’re invited to a party and I will secretly make it to my “birthday party” *hehe* :) ;)