Archives for July 2010

Project 365

July 30, 2010 filed under: 365 project, photography

I think, I will go on a new adventure. A photographic adventure, that is.

I’ve once – more or less successfully – (almost) completed the 365 self-portraits project (narcissist much?) and it was fun, but I started it when I had way more free time on my hands and much more leisure to explore views and angles and perspectives.

Time is rare these days, but I figure that taking 365 photos of anything (without me having to be part of every single shot) seems much more doable. And it could be fun. And I would have the opportunity to get re-acquainted with my camera, which is something I have hoped to do for quite a while.

Have I mentioned before that I’ll be heading to Hawaii on Sunday (probably more times than you care to acknowledge ;))?
Well, what could be a better place to start the project, right? Hawaii should provide some of the greatest photogenic subjects that exist, so I plan on making August first my Day 1/365.

If you would like to follow along, I’ll upload all of my photos to my Flickr account.
If you are interested to see which other lovely ladies are currently doing the 365 project, or who have successfully completed a full year already, take a peek over here. (Make sure to also check out the Other 365’ers in the sidebar.)

Things I Love Thursday

July 29, 2010 filed under: about me, good things, love, TILT

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I’ve seen Things I Love Thursdays pop up on other blogs before, so I thought I’d rise up to the occasion and share some things I love with you.

Right now, I’m loving …

… the fact that I’ve mistaken the State Fair fireworks for rumbling thunder a few days in a row, until I realized that the “thunder” always happened right at 10 o’clock. Oopsies.

… Groupon, LivingSocial, and such for the fantastic deals they provide. I got tickets for a baseball game tonight (including access to the sportsbar and a souvenir baseball cap) for $16. YES!

… Nan Lawson‘s art. It’s been popping up all over the place (I’ve seen it being mentioned on a couple of websites now and I can’t even remember where I’ve seen it first), but it’s definitely worth taking a peek: check out those awesome prints.

… my first hot cup of (creamy milk-) coffee in the morning. Makes my day!

… my new little blender that I bought off Amazon this week. I am looking forward to making smoothies, blended coffees and all other kinds of blended drinks.

… Sudoku puzzles. I swear, it’s addicting. It totally appeals to my nerdy side and it helps me wind down before I go to bed. Some people read before they sleep, I do Sudoku puzzles. Go figure!

… Justine’s Secret Pal project. I think it’s an awesome idea to connect with other bloggers other than through their blogs.

… the opportunity to take a gazillion (hopefully) breath-taking photos when I go to Hawaii next week.

What are you loving right now?

On that note, I have a little announcement to make, so stop by here tomorrow!

What I’ve been up to…

July 28, 2010 filed under: about me, good things, my so-called life, nuisance

I’ve been quite busy the last few weeks. Busy with all kinds of exciting – and not so exciting – things.

The non-exciting things:

– trying to stay on top of the household chores. I really don’t know how our tiny apartment can accumulate that much dirt/dust over the course of a week. I guess, living downtown comes with a a price, but I swear, I feel like we’re living next to a coal mine (and believe me, I know what that’s like, because my hometown in Germany lies right in the middle of an open-pit mining area.) I really am trying to immediately clean up every mess that I make, but regardless, chores keep piling up towards the end of the week.

– dealing with some health insurance stuff. Frankly, this matter would easily justify its own separate blog post, but since I don’t want to bore you with excruciating details and I don’t want to get more riled up than I already am, I leave you just with one plain and simple: The US health care system makes no sense whatsoever!

The exciting things (including, but not being limited to):

– getting ready for my trip to Hawaii. I feel like I am going on a vacation, although I am damn sure the week is not going to be a walk in the park. We’ll probably work long hours and my boss is not really someone who can turn off his brain when the work day is done. I can already see the three of us bending over our respective laptops processing data at night. Then again, my boss also knows how to have a good time, so there will likely be a lot of exploring of the island, photo-taking and exquisite dining while we’re there. I can’t wait for the nice change of pace from my usual office routine.

– hoping to start some new crafts projects soon. As I blogged here, I am currently working on a baby quilt for my sister, but I am also planning to get back into card-making/stamping and crocheting in the weeks to come.

– planning a belated anniversary trip with J for October. We haven’t decided yet where we want to go, but we’ve been throwing ideas around like San Diego or the Northern Californian Coast. We’re definitely still open to any other suggestions that involve short flights or moderately long car drives. Have at it!

– – – – –

What have you been up to?

Crafts: a work in progress

July 26, 2010 filed under: crafts, family, photography

I don’t think I ever reported back to you, but the cross-stitching project went over really well with my sister. She couldn’t believe I really made it myself. Here’s a photo of the finished project:

It took me 83 hours to finish this (I wrote down every minute I worked on it, just to get an idea of how long it would take me) and I ended up putting it in a black wooden frame. It’s now hung up in my niece’s and nephew’s bedroom and it ties in wonderfully with the rest of the room.

A short while after finishing it, I decided (maybe against better judgment?) that I was going to try and also complete the matching baby quilt. The project above was a counted cross-stitch, in which one usually uses easily countable evenweave fabric called aida cloth and counts the threads in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. The quilt, however, is a stamped cross-stitch, meaning that one simply stitches over the printed pattern on the piece of fabric.

Stamped cross-stitching may sound like a much easier way to work (especially if you’re a beginner), but in all honesty, the counted cross-stitching is much more rewarding. The aida cloth is MUCH easier to work with than trying to stitch evenly on fabric, even with the help of the stamped pattern. Just trust me.

So this is what I am working on right now.

This is going to be the finished project:

And this is the fabric that I picked out for the back of the baby quilt. Cute, yes?

Hopefully I can finish all of this by December. I am contemplating on buying a sewing machine to finish up the back side of the quilt, once I am done with the stitching part. I cannot imagine sewing on the back by hand (sounds insane, right?).

Recipe: A Summer Snack

July 20, 2010 filed under: food, Germany, recipe

This weekend, I didn’t really want to cook and I, having a sweet tooth, had a craving for one of my Mom’s sweet treats. I don’t know if you were already able to figure out what it is from the picture or if you remember it from earlier posts, because I have talked about it before.

It’s semolina pudding.

It’s super-easy to make and so tasty, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you today. You can pour some raspberry sauce over it, eat it with fresh strawberries or just enjoy it plain.

If you haven’t had it, give it a try. I think you might like it!

—

Semolina Pudding

1 liter (34 oz) milk
30g (1 oz) butter
salt

125g (4.4 oz) semolina (flour)
100g (3.5 oz) sugar

2 egg yolks

Bring milk, butter and salt to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in the semolina and sugar until it thickens.

Stir in 2 whisked egg yolks and pour in a bowl that was rinsed out with cold water. Sprinkle some sugar on the top. Cool over night and enjoy :)

Ending the week on a high note

July 16, 2010 filed under: excitement, FYI, news, yes!

So. I just booked a flight to Hawaii. Remember how a few weeks ago, I told you about a possible, work-related trip to… and then I didn’t want to jinx it and didn’t tell you? Yep. Now I can. Hawaii, it is.

I am so excited!

I’ve never been to Hawaii and always wanted to go. You need to know that Hawaii is one of the dream vacation spots for every European. It doesn’t seem like a big deal for any West Coaster, who can hop on a plane and go their in 5,5 hours, but for me, coming all the way from Europe to California, and now making the final jump over to Hawaii is pretty marvelous, to say the least.

Of course, it would have been much nicer to go there for a beach (and hiking/kayaking) trip with my husband, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. And right now that is a whole week on one of the smaller islands (where we’ll do some a whole lot of work) and possibly one day and night in Honolulu/Waikiki Beach before heading back. Can you say EXCITING?!?! :)

I know, I know, I won’t have very much time, but if you have any recommendations for Waikiki Beach, please share! I can easily spend the whole day at the beach and just soak up sun and enjoy the waves, but if there is any must-see in the area, I’d like to know about it. Also, I haven’t booked a hotel yet, so any recommendations in that regard would be highly appreciated as well.

With that said, I am ready for the weekend!

A Family Love Fest

July 15, 2010 filed under: family, Germany, good times, home, my so-called life, photography, travel

This is the last post about my trip to Germany, I promise. You’re probably so over hearing me swoon over my niece and nephew and the family talk and how much I miss them and how precious our time was, and blegh. Still, I need to get this post out to make my recap complete. This will be long, so be prepared, but to make it easier on you, they’re going to be a lot of photos as well. Photos always help.

So like I said, the last week in Germany was all about spending time with my family.
I didn’t make any plans with anybody for the last week, because I didn’t want to feel like I was hurrying from one appointment to the next (even though I would have loved to see some more people that I didn’t get to see for that reason).
I knew I needed to feel like I really had a week “off”. Visiting back home never feels like a vacation vacation, if you know what I mean. And I needed some time to just relax.

On Saturday , I spent the morning with my parents, running the usual errands and then preparing all kinds of yummy goodness for a BBQ with relatives from my Mom’s family. They came over at around 6 p.m. and since the weather was really nice and warm, we were able to sit outside until midnight. We had Bauchfleisch (pork belly), sausages, steaks and grilled vegetables, baked potatoes with sour cream, salad and baguette with garlic butter.
It was such a nice evening!

Greta and Basti

Sunday was a beautiful day as well and I hung out with my sister and the kids in my parents’ backyard. My parents bought a ” Strandkorb ” (beach chair) last year and it was perfect weather to hang out and watch Greta play in her sandbox and use the slide. Tom slept on my lab the whole time.

In the afternoon, we went walking downtown and had some ice-cream.

In my town

Later that evening, my family met up at our favorite local Italian Restaurant to belatedly celebrate my great-aunt’s 88th birthday. It was a lovely evening with great conversations and delicious food.

My great-aunt and me

My great-aunt’s 88th birthday party

On Monday , my parents had a day off (due to Pentecost Monday) and we all decided to go for a bike ride. My Dad took me over to Nina’s place in the morning, so I could ride her bike (I obviously don’t have a bike in Germany anymore). Nina rode Dirk’s bike and Dirk had borrowed a bike from his Dad. The kids were put in a bike trailer. They could sit next to each other and enjoy the view. Awesome!

On our bike trip

We then rode the bikes back to my parents’ place to pick them up and then started our bike tour. We rode for about 1,5 hours and then took a break at a monastery with an attached “Biergarten”.

We had some yummy food and refreshments and enjoyed the beautiful, beautiful day.

From Tuesday through Friday, we did very, very mundane things. Things we would do if I lived back in Germany, close to my family.
My Mom, my sister and I went shoe-shopping for Greta. My sister, my aunt and I went to the ESPRIT outlet to do some shopping for ourselves. (It’s one of the places that I always like to visit when I am there :) you can always find such good deals. I bought a jacket, capri pants, a zipped hoodie and a blouse.)

My Mom cooked me a lot of very authentic German meals, like – “Dicke Bohnen” (fava beans) with bacon and string bean soup. Yum.

I got to spend some one-on-one time with Greta, when my sister had to take Tom to the pediatrician one morning, and it was just great to have her to myself for a little while. We cuddled on the couch and listened to one of her audio books.

I spent more time with my great-aunt, which really was important to me, and I spend a lot of time with my sister, who tried to convince me to cancel my flight and “just stay” by making me delicious latte macchiatos and feeding me Toffifees :)

On Saturday morning, I picked up Nina, Greta and Tom at 8:30 a.m. and we drove to the “Kastanienhof “, where we had breakfast with my parents, my aunt and some other family friends. It’s a breakfast buffet and they have all kinds of yummy breakfast items… croissants, waffles, müsli , fresh rolls, bread, yogurt,… – you name it.

My Dad and me

When we got home, my sister and I ran some more errands downtown and then we drove over to my great-aunt’s place one last time to spend some more time with her before I had to say goodbye.

In the evening, my parents, my aunt, Nina, Dirk, and Tom went to the Italian restaurant for our traditional farewell dinner.

My Sister, Tom and me

My Aunt and My Mom

We had espresso at my parents place and watched the end of the Grand Prix Song Contest.

On Sunday , we got up at 7:30 a.m., had breakfast with my Dad (who had to leave for a tennis match) and at 9:15 a.m. my sister came over with the kids and they and my Mom took me to the airport.
It was surreal almost to part with them after what felt like such a long time (compared to previous visits). My Mom kept saying how it feels so normal to have me around (ha, she wouldn’t dare say anything else, I guess ;)).

So, this sums it up… my wonderful visit in Germany with my family back in May. More photos are here (if you’re a friend on Flickr).

I can’t believe it’s been 6 weeks, since I got back.

Coming out of the rabbit hole

July 12, 2010 filed under: FYI, my so-called life

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So, I did fall off the face of the earth again, didn’t I?

I have a good excuse though. Actually, there were two reasons. One: I was religiously following the World Cup, which would be worth a whole blog post itself, but I will spare you the details as a) Germany didn’t win the title (even though they were so close), so never-mind, and b) I know that some of you couldn’t care less. Two: I was sick.

Yeah, I know, right? Who gets sick in the middle of summer when it’s 98°F outside? Apparently, I do. I blame it all on the freezing-cold temperatures at my office and the fact that we actually had to open windows to get some warm air in.
How backwards is that? I mean, having an A/C when most of the days are in the 90’s in the summer feels right, but making you wear long pants and sweaters inside, while it’s boiling hot outside? No, no, there is something wrong with that.

It all started out with a sore throat on July, 1 and just went downhill from there. Needless to say, my greatly anticipated 4-day-weekend pretty much completely fell through. We had planned to escape the Central Valley heat for a day of play and relaxation at the beach, but alas, that didn’t happen. I felt crappy the whole weekend, I was aching in all kinds of different places and one of my lymph nodes had swollen up to the size of a big, fat grape.

The only bright spot of the weekend was Germany’s sublime quarter-final ass-kicking of the full-of-themselves, cocky Argentinians, which I witnessed through the hot steam of five big cups of peppermint tea early on Saturday morning. It made me feel so much better (the tea, yes, and the game). Temporarily.

When I still wasn’t back to my old self last Tuesday morning, I did something I usually never do – call in sick at work! – and decided it was time to see a doctor for the first time since I moved to the US. I know this (argues in favor of my overall good health, and) might sound rather silly, but it’s all kind of scary to go to a doctor in a foreign country for the very first time.
I don’t know. You just don’t know what to expect, if that makes sense.

As it turned out, I was anxious for nothing and had a very nice visit with a very nice (and young) female doctor (is it just me or does anybody else feel it’s wrong when doctors are around the same age as oneself? I usually like my doctors to be old, white-haired guys with LOTS of experience under their belt, but I am guessing that time is against us and the older we get, the younger the doctors who treat us are going to be).
In the end, she was less concerned about my throat infection (though she told me that it would take a few more days for it to go away) than my briefly-mentioned history of iron deficiency-anemia, which had landed me in the hospital a few years ago (blood transfusion and all kinds of tests and procedures, like colonoscopy and gastroscopy, included. Fun times – NOT).

Although I had been contemplating on having my iron levels checked for a while, I had thought it to be silly to see a doctor for just that. Now that I was at the doctor’s anyway, I agreed on having my blood work checked. I didn’t expect a negative outcome per se, but I was not surprised when the doctor called and told me that she’d like me to start taking iron supplements again. Yuck. Do you know how nasty iron supplements are? They make you burp a lot and leave an iron aftertaste in your mouth. Is that TMI? Sorry.

I did stay home from work for two days (which in this country has pretty much the implication that you must be half-dead, or something) and just tried to get better. Besides the fact that I felt like crap for almost an entire week, I must say that staying at home for two days, that I was scheduled to work, was a nice, unexpected change of pace. I actually picked up a book and read a few chapters, which is something I hadn’t had time for in a while. (Note to self: have to make time for this more often!)

I did miss out on Amy‘s Nintendo-party on Friday (which was a bummer!), but at least I think I have fully recovered over the weekend and things will be back to normal around here.