monde*intact

lebensfreid

2011-12-22T10:54:00.000-08:00

at times i am so happy, the sun actually does shine where it doesn't.

a happy happy 2012 to tha whooooole world!

[yes, it is actually that bad.]

butterfingers and figjam

2011-09-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

we've all known it. but it never hurts to name some jam after it.

fuck i'm good just ask me.

mad props to the australian band butterfingers for that clever title. please listen now. if you like country music and don't mind the occasional choice word, that is. in other words, if your taste in music somewhat hits mine.

cum to mommy.

sorry. i've been listening to this song while typing. and while making figjam. and eating it. and working. and sleeping. and brushing my teeth. and, i mean . . . just ask me.

spoon courtesy of an old roommate who moved out and left it, painting courtesy of gustav klimt via ikea. grandma-colored brown-pink on the wall courtesy of former homeowner. moving on.

my brother's here. we started making more jam.

then realized that this is not sea-buckthorn but firethorn. here as well, moving on.

eating salad.

and bagel.

and going for a walk.

that's right . . .

. . . one walk.

with the hubby. and the dogs. to uphold the family honor, the hubs finished the seven-mile walk for everyone. altruistic as we are, my brother and i turned around with the dogs after one mile. the dogs having such short legs. and it being such a warm day. and all.

today it's cool. and cloudy. unfortunately, we had other things to do again, and again couldn't do the whole seven-mile walk. again, the hubs upheld the family honor.

come to think of it . . . that walking honor rests entirely on his shoulders.

crab apple jelly party

2011-08-21T06:55:00.000-07:00

i made my own friggin' jelly!
such a feeling of power overcame me this morning. breakfast. 6:30. man and dogs asleep. woman with first spoonful of homemade jelly at the breakfast table. i can make my own brotaufstrich.
second best thing to this whole jammin' [jelly... not an attractive english word.] affair: the crab apples were free. grow around here. turns out you can eat them. make gelee. never made it before. but what the heck. there was a day in my life when i had never eaten solid food before and i conquered that, too. so yesterday, i set out the collect fallen crab apples, wood apples in german, and pick some more from low branches.

bounty.

carried home in my shopping basket, seven pounds of apples. 'at's right, i'm bad. watched a cooking show while i sorted them into three piles and cut out what worm might have slipped past my eagle eyes when i picked them.

let's not forget, i'm vegetarian.

first i made the juice. from water. nearly free, out of the faucet. the color, people! [imagine good quality photo here]

showcased on a 100 percent cotton ikea kitchen towel.

then i took out the dogs to help me pick a bit of russian sage. because it looks like lavender. because it grows around here, too, and is, hence, free. [setting aside that 'nothing is free in a free world' and the HOA pays for watering the flower and paid for the plant in the first place but, whatevah, peeps, i am homesteading here!]

showcased on the ikea solid wood table.

[newsflash: god does not hate sweden.]

then i added almost a kilogram of sugar, brown and white mixed [because i didn't have enough white anymore and i'm all about improv if it means i don't have to go to the store] to the juice and simmered. until the gelee passed the gelierprobe. poured it into reused glasses, previously sterilized in boiling water. dipped the sage into said water. pushed the sage into the gelee, watched it bob up, screwed the lid on. et voilà.

reused glass, free fruit, 50 cents of sugar.

come to moooom-eeeee!

i apologize…

2011-05-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

i have turned into that person. the kind who posts dog photos. at least i have no children. and it's not like i have a readership i could alienate.
so actually… my life's a movie and you're just tivo. *evilcackle*

naturally, wills and kate.

2011-04-29T10:28:00.000-07:00

Despite the last impression, I stayed awake until they reached Buckingham Palace. The kiss, I caught up on today. Now recovering while slowly starting to brainstorm about the best way to celebrate Prince Albert and Charlene's wedding this summer.
A fan's got to do what a fan's got to do, eh?

yahoo!

2011-03-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

i never liked yahoo much.
and it's quite possible that i just can't get over that 90's font, purple, and logo altogether.

but there might be more to yahoo than i thought.
it appears... they know me.

they know who i am.

ehrenWORT

2011-03-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

for the first time, this week i am participating in a fantastic, previously only admired-from-afar collaborative creative act on the ehrenWORT [word of honor] blog, a marvelous german invention.
all right, i think that's it with the adjectives for today.
every week, a word is chosen and whoever wants to participate sends in artwork or a photo that bear association.
the word this week is LICHTERLOH, a beautifully old-fashioned [sorry, i suppose i wasn't done quite yet] word for 'ablaze' [says dict.leo.org].
and here's my humble [THAT's it!] contribution:

entertainment + funeral

2011-03-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

the power of the alphabet.
what can you do?

the world must know

2011-03-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

several things.
for one, i have a blister from doing yardwork. actually, a blister. actually actually, one and a half. i don't think that's happened before, and i have done some good share of yardwork. gone are the days when i'd willfully toss out a flower, pretending it might have been weed, so i wouldn't have to water it come summer.
i have evolved.
so has my mac. visible to the naked human eye, it has grown a new keyboard. thank you, thomas. i am so determined not to spill coffee over this one, i have the coffee cup sitting on a chair next to my chair. and the water on the table an arm's length away.
although, in my defense, the last keyboard lasted five years.

what i wanted to do here was type down a plan for the evening so i don't waste it surfing online. i was going to give myself a little time not wasted surfing online, and then start to put together a yoga class. a few minutes ago, i stared at this tab seemingly unable to remember what i wanted to type and moved on to the next tab.
and now i came back to me. chop chop, finish the coffee and get to work.
'tis all easier with coffee.
except for falling asleep when you overdo it.

yes, i remember! this new white keyboard, was the leading thought, makes me conscious of washing my hands before i get to the computer. i wash my hands plenty [thanks mama] but not too much [thanks me] but these here, viginially transparent and white, remind me of the following thighslapper from my early days.
"fritz, did you wash your hands before practicing playing the piano?"
"i don't have to, mom, i'm only using the black keys today."
so no more that excuse for me.

what i could also do tonight is darn. i have an actual darning basket, mending basket? is there anyone who is the english language mighty [a little german grammar humor], knows of such archaic things and could provide me with a little guidance here?

on to more fundamental things.
i am german.
i like things to feel orderly.
today is a day when everything feels orderly.
this makes my little german heart very happy.
things feel orderly when the kitchen is cleaned and dishes done right after dinner. the table is clean. i don't wipe it after every meal [don't people come to this blog such martha stewardy information? no?], i'd like to add, lest i leave an anal impression with anyone.
in the most... PG-way, i mean this.
circumstances that contributed to this day becoming an orderly day:
after getting up, before leaving the house, i took the sheets off and washed them. this happens on mondays. i am german.
i went to see my friend, got some tb substance, presumably, shot under my skin for the yearly test, and then went grocery shopping. i entered the grocery store a little after 9:58 a.m. and was through the register at 10:36. i know this because i checked the time to figure if i had time to return the jumbo avocado, at $2.28 apiece, since i had only wanted to get a regular one for $1.78. even this price, i debated half a minute if i'd spend that much.
fist rule [and more german linguistic humor]: a buck for an avocado, or christine spends the week avocado-free.
i digress.
i had time.
returned a jumbo a in exchange for 228 cents [thankfully not in 228 cent coins for my brother doesn't work there, but another story for another time that is..] and drove home.
i brought in the groceries, made lunch for hubby, had lunch with him, made him coffee, and had lunch whence he drove off to school.
then i did yardwork. i chopped and dug and watered and hopped into the green trash can to compress. fashionably outfitted in slimegreen rubber boots, a crocodile dundee hat and pigtails. then i pulled the trash can to the street since it'll be emptied tomorrow morning.
that is orderly. i fill it the day before it will be collected.
that was no coincidence, people.
i plan things like this.
then i came inside.
i made dinner.
i showered.
i dined with hubby, i made him coffee [which i am finishing now], i brought the remaining two trash cans to the street as he left, came inside and cleaned the kitchen.

time to get a little productive here.

funny you'd ask...

2011-03-07T11:52:00.000-08:00

... but thank you. yes, i did wake up satisfied. certainly because there was still plenty of caffeine in my blood and i already got things done today.
now on the list: gardening. first, cleaning up lunch and eating something myself.
i knew you'd want to know, so here it is: i shall never buy fatfree yogurt again.
even, and this comes as a surprise, if it's cheaper than the fat yogurt.
tillamook, here i come!

1,000 words that are worth a picture

2011-03-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

i simply had to get up and type this entry in order to awaken satisfied tomorrow morning. plus, i had a hard time falling asleep. coffee while making dinner. there could have been wine, but then i chose the coffee. more things get done that way.
i don't need photos in my blog anymore. if 'thappens, nice. but it's just an inconvenience to convenience-happy me that deters from writing.
what also deters: i'm not anonymous here. i am sharing with the world, people! people who know me, more specifically. but that brings me back to a revolutionary theory springing from my brain on the way out of the teenage haze of 'i can't tell xy i like him because if he doesn't like me it's embarrassing': there is no reason to be ashamed of my feelings. or embarrassed by them. so peeps, deal with it.
second conundrum, though: a prospective employer might find me here. but since in the near future i will be my only employer and if things go as planned, i.e. my empire takes shape, i won't have to worry about employers in the farther future, either. furthermore, this can always be deleted.
or maybe not. but here we revert to the feelings, employerschmoyer.

where was i?
genau an derr sellben s-telle! wutz, urmel. must-see. simply. is anyone interested in buying an ibook that has the complete adobe cs3 on it? before i left the bed tonight [nope, not a nightly occurrence], i thought of listing it on ebay. what a fantastic computer, with actually expanded RAM [now 1 GB] and the full adobe cs3, as mentioned. then i thought of a few other features:
bottom shell has a long crack.
microphone doesn't work anymore.
those little feet are gone, but for one. or maybe now, all are gone.
plus! the battery is new.
another feature: the harddrive expands over a quaint 37 GB, a euphemist might call it 40. that's the size of usb sticks these days. spell check, something i shall eternally feel superior to, doesn't know the word euphemist. i think it's different than an optimist. don't know a better word for someone prone to using euphemisms than a euphemist. let me email webster.

so, on another note, that of being a nostalgist [jesus, spellcheck, not this one either? how about a little neologistic (?...) spirit here?], i had to write this post so long as i'm still on the external keyboard. quaint, attached to my ibook. makes folding it shut a little more of an act, with pulling out the keyboard first and all, but then there's the benefit of that if [beautiful..] my ibook falls, i might be able to catch it by the cable before it hits the ground.
regarding the aforementioned auction of this here superfast 100110101 machine, there would be a new keyboard in it by the time it's sold. however, that keyboard comes courtesy of my brother so now it's kind of like he donated a kidney for my computer and i couldn't possibly ever sell that, could i?
also, before i even thought of that brilliant analogy, another one came up. the one of my trusty 1990 Tbird [it was built in 1989 which i'd rather call it since that sounds yet older, but then it was a 1990 model and i am nothing of not factually accurate here]. that tbird, the mechanic said, would cost $1,500 to fix. some time in late 2006. naturally, i wasn't going to put that money into the car but didn't think there's be any trouble getting someone to pay me $1,500 for such a stellar automobile with no cupholders but automatic seatbelts in the front, a stickshift, and one of those rare SC tbirds, not an LX. really, all it needed was all new radiatorhosing [?] and some oil leaks fixed and it would have been fine. and maybe once again the spots where paint came off and revealed yellow plastic bumpers, maybe those spots polished over with sharpie again.
in the end, i sold it for $500. of course, that was one violent incident and one realization of 'what's money' and several months later.
doesn't mean it doesn't still hold a special space in my heart, that tbird, and doesn't mean my heart chambers aren't still sent aflutter when i see its cousin. any. cousin.
accompanied by a slight turning up of my nose, wrinkling of said facial protrusion and the sweet feeling of superiority that comes with seeing a clearly botched sharpie paint job.
manche dinge kann man einfach.

i'm afraid of translating whole eloquent posts into german here, because it might read as if it's my second language. und so behalte ich mir das recht vor to just use a german expression when i don't know a better english one. take that, duden. and you, webster.

feeneeesh'd! fäddisch!

2011-02-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

project number one is completed.

das erste projekt ist fertig.

i decapitated the chairs, sandpaper, primered and painted.

ich habe die stühle enthauptet [grade deshalb wird jetzt auch auf deutsch geschrieben, um den rost abzukratzen], geschmirgelt, grundiert und gestrichen.

and without doubt, my brother will soon inform me that the chair now look like children's chairs.
but let me say this. i received no help during the project whatsoever.
please find evidence below.

und zweifelsohne wird mich mein bruder bald informieren dass die stühle nu wie kinderstühle aussehen. aber ich möchte bemerken dass ich bei dem projekt keinerlei hilfe hatte.
indiz hier.

project!

2011-02-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

i have a project! two actually!
after an inspiration-free day full of the unsatisfied need to create, toward evening two things have finally sprung out of where they were hiding.
one for the chairs in my room, which shall become whiter. first, make the room white, white. then, do things with the white, maybe.
and the second one will get me modular shelving, to stay with me for the rest of my life through wherever the family might move. as a pyramid, a step bookshelf, a straight bookshelf or a sideboard. sss.
i am almost too excited to sleep.
what would be more exciting to me than having a building project? a recrafting -purposing -using project?
i can think of little.
it's like getting a new computer.
like getting a tattoo.
like… i can not think of anything quite like it.
a new idea, and planning it, getting ready to make it happen.
i know nothing better.

how exciting!
no, wait. i will need to buy a drill. ours is in denver.
will it be pink?
will it?
one shall see.
will it be wireless?

does apple make drills?

of paintings and pineapples

2011-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

i shall henceforth not apologize for the quality of photos on my blog any more.
let me say once and for all: if you click on any image for a closer look, you do so at your own peril.

here is a before picture. these last few days have been devoid of any transcribing work for me, leading me to focus my energies [so long as they're not being economized, see last post] on the inside of the house and the garden. garden pictures will follow soon. i shall henceforth also not say 'yard' anymore since it's so american and commoner-speak. i am feeling fancy. a garden it is, and more than a yard from the time it takes me to mow the lawn, so garden it shall be called. no, better. 'the gardens'. stop the veering right here, back to the topic. although i can change the topic at any time since i am my own boss here, you do realize that?
i have finally figured out what makes it hard to get a cozy feeling into a room. 'tis when said room has no corner. when each corner is taken up by doors, so that no corner can be occupied by a sitting area since doors need space to be opened.
asinine planning. let me talk to the architect, please.
speaking of architect, please take an hour to meditate over this house beauty here.
so, although i am all about white wall space or maybe exactly because of that, i have decided to camouflage the doors with golden handles [shake it off, wimp.] by turning them into part of a picture wall, thus also finally giving my ocean painting collection, in its current form, a place to live.

it's not so much that i am generally against hanging an ocean horizontally, i just like to show who's boss on the wall by subjecting gravity to the space available. fachoo.

and before i leave to sew a zipper on my brother's jacket, a little decorating tip:

a pineapple spreads tropical vibes in a kitchen. let me tell you.
but the pineapple can't cost more than $3.98.

and i came up with all this all alone since my assistants were indispensable elsewhere.

the power of organic gardening magazine

2011-02-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

(illustrated by photographs in customarily bad quality)

without fail whenever i read an issue of organic gardening (thank hubby for the subscription), it makes me want to garden. more than just the biweekly (or so) lawn mowing and edge trimming.
as happened yesterday, the reading.
so out i went, to pick some broccoli leaves for lunch. the leaf-blossom ratio on our plants is about 20:1, so working with what we have here. it's bad enough that i, unaware of the possibility of eating broccoli leaves, threw some out that were cluttering the walkway.
here are some of the leaves that had not been munched on by other things before, things that leave holes in the leaves and things which i don't want to mingle saliva with.

i washed them, then skipped the drying, just shook them off [i like to shake things off, at least i try] and into the hot olive oil with sizzling garlic.
i read that if you don't dry them, the added steam helps wilt the leaves faster.
it always delighted me to learn scientific justifications for my modi operandi born from laziness.

tasted good. a little chew-intense, but i can't be bothered to cut off stems, or waste them. the hard boiled eggs were hardly boiled at lunch time so i only ate this green stuff and supplemented it with ice cream later.
next on the active agenda: sow things posthaste instead of thinking two weeks on, 'had i sewn that lettuce back when i thought of it, i could be eating it now.' a new vegetable bed, weeded and... turned over now lies beneath the kitchen window. much more accessible than the strip between our house and the fence where the broccoli grows. what grows there, grows. what doesn't won't be resown or receive any special care. i'm that kind of gardener. enthusiastic but... economic with my energy. i wouldn't quite say lazy. others might. to my face? i hope not.
economic energy-wise and öcken-wise. i sewed in front of the kitchen window spinach and lettuce since i still had those seeds. i'd have liked to get some tomato plants started indoors, but no seeds. well, well.
look what was still on the surviving tomato plant, outside, in february.

seeds! the only tomatoes i picked from those plants all last year. animals must have beaten me to it. this year, in a sunnier spot, in front of that sink window, maybe there will be more.
i dissected them to extricate what i hope will be the seeds of this year's (what i hope will be a) crop.

here you see clumps that contain what looks like seeds. if they are ready to procreate, i don't know. but with another thrifty, fantastic tip from organic gardening, 'twas no cost nor inconvenience but crafting fun to roll some seedling cups from newspaper around a glass, steal some of the soil out of the weeded weeds' roots, and plant what i had.

plus a sweet pea seed.
had an extra cup.

kindle cover tutorial

2011-02-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

i'm not so sure if this does qualify as a tutorial since i did omit a few pictures in the middle. since i neglected to take them. my first tutorial, forgive me, crafting peeps.

first, take an assistant.

have that assistant check the quality of the material.

lay double the fabric you're using and find the width that will fit your kindle snugly, leaving one seam allowance on the folded side and two on the other. [boy, this is a seriously detailed tutorial.]

make sure the sleeve that shall become the cover is long enough to cover the kindle length twice and still leave a closing flap at the top.

then cut your fabric to the folded size. imagine pictures here. [does that work for you? yeah yeah, i know. better next time.] sew around one end creating a thinner, angled part [see below], and down the long side that's not folded. leave bottom open. turn inside out.

cut a strap of quilt batting roughly in the shape of the sleeve, about half an inch shorter and thinner on each side. no, make that a quarter inch. here you can see the batting, uncut. carefully fumble that into the sleeve, nice and flat, fold the open edges in and sew shut.

now fold the blunt end up one-kindle-length and lay a piece of rubber band [i think in sewing it might be called something else. anyone? bueller?] in between, about an inch from the edge, cut ends poking out. pull the band a little so it's not loose on the inside that shall become the outside. sew one seam on the left, one seam on the right.

now turn it inside-is-the-new-outside out and voila!

happy birthday, hubby!

then and now

2011-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

back in the day, as a bachelor...

and as a stark contrast, now:

he made me do it

2010-12-31T21:40:00.000-08:00

happy new year!

stick it to the man

2010-11-18T14:50:00.000-08:00

did y'all know that at least where i live [fresno, california], you pay 45 cents more for a sub at subway if you have your bread toasted? because there's a tax on heated food.

i shall henceforth enjoy my subs untoasted.

no work today, so my profession of the day is knitting a certain girl's christening gown.
and listening to book on cd, army wives.
oh, the sheltered life of a civilian.

[due to a recent expansion of my horizon, i am not mocking nor joking. but thank goodness i fell in love with a mobster instead of a soldier.]

my current joy

2010-10-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

one of the many, that is.

i'm knitting! the longest row in my personal knitting history, 412 stitches. once around the world.
another joy, my huthband. another one, my family. sounds cheesy, but is so.
klingt komisch, is aber so. in german, for emphasis.
another joy: tomorrow i'm leaving to go to my first weekend of yoga teacher training. initial social anxiety is already waning, aided by the anticipation of greeeeeen all around me. which reminds me, this fall, nursery sales, green for our garden. makes me happy, gardening. and cooking. and knitting. and painting, see last post. and typing. at the current rate of personal fulfillment, we're getting dangerously close to even vacuuming making me happy.
stop there.
back to reality.
what better to do that with than a photo of myself, taken in the vacuum of the night, for my brother, to see my "phat schulterlang" hair.

a week's work

2010-10-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

it has been a sufficiently valid excuse for me not to exercise, sanding, priming and painting many squarefeet over the past week. and i am quite satisfied with the result.
thank you, home depot paint guy, to lightly push the primer under paint on me without being patronizing.

an educational video

2010-09-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

i would like to share today a little nugget of intellectual stimulation i kindly request every one of my four to six readers watch.
for your convenience, i have posted it right here.

i marvel at the videocreating ability that went into this, and the acting, or as it might be, just being, and the ideeeeeas! and the star wars text!

genius from start to finish. that's what i say.

and i am proud to say: i know those people!

on my sheetlist: betty crocker

2010-08-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

lest i be flagged as a blog with 'adult' content, i amended the title of this post. but let it be known that i mean ess aitch ay tee - list. that's what betty crocker is on.
and what, the unsuspecting citizen might ask, did she do?
i'll tell you what she did. she wrote, in her 'chicken cookbook' which we, ashamed i am to admit, have in our kitchen [i swear, i had NAH-thing to do with it!], she wrote in it:

'break the linguine in half'

the very idea of such blasphemy fries my hair and sprouts zits.

now, dear fellow cultivated europeans. i have little to say to defend the wild westerners here. they don't know any better, is all i can come up with.
should i make it known that my stepdad threatened to throw an ex-boyfriend out of the house when the boy cut the spaghetti on his plate?
should i invent fictitious stories of most cruel punishments inflicted upon people who tarnish the sanctity of pasta, and broadcast those stories to anyone who won't listen?

i'll work out the details on how to defend the high culture of eating pasta while i hang the laundry.

squeakingly happy

2010-08-05T08:21:00.000-07:00

i am so happy!
i shall return to blogging, and to catching up with reading bb's [beloved bloggers, now that was a pretty obvious one, no?] like meep.
but first, visit sue, coffee with victoria, and then the blogging will be braided with editing and gardening.
so nice to be back :)

shitweather-tea

2010-03-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

that's what i'm drinking. shitweather-tea.
alas, i have been smitten with a cold. but i don't mind the sneezing. not even the husband following me around the house with a spraying can full of disinfectant. because the cold is the occasion to open the schietwettertee pack and have a pot. mmmh, herby. as far as i can taste.

our japanese maple has grown leaves. looks just like the two little ones we have in the backyard. those grew all by themselves, from fallen seeds. already a foot and a half tall, each. very exciting! also exciting, for those squinting through a monocle: the japanese maple blooms! i never knew. i never questioned where the seeds came from. but here they are, tiny blossoms.

namasteeee.

für die lieblingstante

2010-03-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

bitte hier klicken für viele tolle strickteile, die ich soeben gefunden haben. hab versucht, das muster einer männerjacke für mich umzurechnen. da aber erstens die maschenprobe umrechnung erforderte und zweitens die männerjacke nicht in meiner grösse gestrickt war, hab ich aufgegeben bevor rauch aus meinen ohren kam und einfach was neues gesucht.
eins von den beiden hier unten fange ich nu an zu stricken, sobald ich mich entschieden habe.

please click on the above link for german knitting instructions. a very cool new-to-me website i just found. i was trying to do the necessary calculations to turn a men's jacket knitting instructions into one for my size. but since my yarn has a different size, and the jacket size from the instructions wouldn't fit me, there was too much calculating involved. i quit before smoke came out of my ears and found me a new project.

now it's between these two here.

short sleeves
long sleeves

the visual expansion of the patio

2010-03-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

and then...

this is not a photography blog.

2010-03-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

that being said, let me document this beautiful day, one before 27.
to commemorate this important step toward saying farewell to my 20s forever [unless i make it to 120], i have, today, plucked out three of my five grey hairs.
it's true.
and, as i said, to commemorate, and celebrate, and since this is not a photography blog but whatever-she-beep-well-pleases blog, i am not showing photos of said grey hairs, which, since last seen publicly on this here platform, have grown to about two inches length, no, i will instead...
... giveaway those three hairs!
please leave a note in the comment section, a note containing the reason why you should receive the first grey hairs to ever grow on my young head, and what shenanigans you might do with the dna to be gathered from those hairs.

comments close on sunday evening, i will pick a winner monday morning. unless i have a case of the mondays. in which case i shall watch office space all day long and pause only to pee and gather all the swingline staplers we have in the house.

ja, well. i did pluck those hairs, but i flushed them down the toilet. so, sorry. i'm taking orders for the next ones.
try again.

let me document this beeeeauuuutiful day *makesweepinghandgesture* with amateurish photos.
nevertheless photos of a grand idea come to life, a masterplan from the mind of my husband having come to fruition through the minion hands of minion me. because that's what i was in this project, but a hireling, paid with the permission to make dinner afterwards. my fingers, worked to the bone.

what really happened: hubby had the idea to move furniture around in his office, my heart jumped at such an opportunity, for moving furniture and switching things around is what most my brain cells wait for most of their lives. so, this morning he gave me the permission to carry out his plan while he was at work. i pulled up my shoulders, opened my eyes as wide and grotesque as possible, and started rubbing my hands together, looking only one chromosome away from rumpelstilzchen. as expected, my husband fled the house before i was able to release my facial muscles and returned from work only much later than usual on wednesdays.

here's the room before:

here's the big help:

and this is halfway through the lovely afternoon:

looking at it now, it seems to be a lot to clean up. but when i'm in the zone, in the inflicting order and interior beauty zone, organizing what i have taken apart while thinking about how to put it back together, then i don't notice chaos. all i notice is free space that will be filled in a more organized fashion than it was before, hence looking like i visited.
haha.
no, really, i do find that funny. humor me, people. it's my birthday.
and here is the room now:

this is not a photography blog.

for the lieblingstante

2010-02-27T15:10:00.001-08:00

bitteschön hier klicken:

hunde mit pullis fliegen nach kanada

"now can come what want" [i.e. spring]

2010-02-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

in my first year of serious gardening, that is, with a whole garden at my mercy -instead of a few seeds and tomato plants-, i have learned that i better do the heavy rose pruning right before spring instead of before winter. at least, that's my personal preference for one. the leaves have fallen, so it's easier to see the structure of the bush and find where i want to cut. also, the fallen leaves have dried on last year's mulch, will turn into the ground, and are now covered with new mulch. fresh bark. i put it down last week, and the first day it rained after the garden smelled divine. not that i was outside much.

the roses are already starting to grow again, like crazy. takes one to know one. it looks like there are five leaves ready to unfold, next to one another, and do so as soon as they see light. all at once.

it's a day for big pictures, i have decided.to celebrate that after all, i can take a non-grainy photo.

like this here:

the dress was a gift from my dear roommate denise. the broche we know, and the jacket, rather "jäcksche," i found at a thrift store for about four dollars. that's almost a bit pricey judging by thrifty prices, but i have none like it. took off the stitched flowers at the collar, washed it, and voila.

the red orchid in the front is of course not real, and from a flea market for $5. the flea market at the drive-in theatre in san luis obispo. better than any i have found in fresno. all i hear here is the cherry auction place, and that's more like a vietnamese market in the czech republic than my idea of a flea market. i mean, they don't even sell actual fleas there!

inspired by my many new outfits, earl had me knit him eleven [!] new sweaters and make three blankets. he saw me change the sheets on our bed weekly, whereas he always sleeps on the same blanket and said, "NO MORE! i want blankets, i want sweaters."

not really. the sweaters are for small dogs moving to canada on friday. and it's cold there. i just hope they find good homes there.

today's outfit [i'm gonna have to get more creative here]

2010-01-24T15:39:00.000-08:00

jacket, goodwill, $3.

vellllllllvet.

dress, goodwill, $3.75.

broche, goodwill, $1.50.

except for this last pictures, please help. i firmly believe i use the focus function of my camera, but it's all grainy and terrible. hay-ulp!

today's outfit

2010-01-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

dress, goodwill $2.95.

belt, goodwill $2.

hole in tights, courtesy of my clumsiness.

today's outfit

2010-01-21T16:16:00.000-08:00

dress from the fresno rescue mission thrift store,

genuinely old, $3.

belt, hubby.

ivy, 99cent store.

table in back, yardsale $1.

painting above, yardsale $1.

keen sense of fashion, priceless.

:-D

style blogs and their effect

2010-01-20T10:42:00.000-08:00

i've been looking at a lot of style blogs in the last two days. it started with anders anziehen [in english, too, so please go over there].

did you look?
are you STILL here?

and from there i followed links in a pattern of creative chaos, or chaotic creativity. i traveled to what katie wore and street style london and added those and some more to my blogroll on the right. i saw all these people, all so well dressed, with admirably eclectic style, i thought: MUST return to some of this myself.
i remember a very furry coat i once had, and white lacy gloves. i remember wearing that outfit, with other things, when driving over a german freeway in the winter, with snow on the sides of the road and more coming down. and my windshield wiper started picketing the window, so i pulled over to fix it. i only had to push it back into the arm that holds it [forgive me, kfz-experts among my readers]. but i was standing there, in snow, with thick furry long coat and white lace gloves [not warm, but who wants to be pretty must suffer, as we say]. i have no photo of that outfit, and neither the gloves nor the coat still, but i remember the feeling i had.

it was glorious!

so, out i pulled today the most eclectic, or oldest? thrift store dress i have. the time has come, i decide, for more eclectic fashion to enter my life again. today, i shall go to the salvation army, where it all started eleven years ago with two terribly extravagant dresses, to that very same store.

in proper attire, of course.

[cardigan $8 from ross,

dress about the same price,

from a thrift store in reno, nv]

indulging one last time before monday

2009-12-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

loyal reader appreciation:
thank you, meep :)

thank you, hubby.
thank you, lieblingstante.
thank you, brother number 2 [chronologically].

i put the fabric up on the wall with nails. makes it easier to remove but mostly, i had many little black nails at home from the bergere chairs reupholstering. and since i'm lazy, and thrift, i prefer to work with what i have and walk as few times as possible. might i drop a few things? sure. might my having to go back and pick them up thwart any energy + time savings i was aiming for? certainly. will i learn?
NO!
also, wallpaper glue + me could get messy. and this wasn't a serious remodeling thing with covering the floor, but low key + me. i'm saying this because i don't want hubby to lose faith in my ability to put up wallpaper. because i can do that!
i imagine. i am very confident. because, what can't i do? today i signed up for a home depot do-it-herself workshop on how to installing bath faucets and toilets. happening in january. i'm excited!

things to do before mom+oma get here:
- stop using the following words: *rap, *uck, *hit, *amn, *oddamn
- use instead: ship, craft,

"himmelherrgottsakramentzefixhallelujamilecktsamoarschscheissglumpverreckts"

about 16 years ago i found a long sticker with nutt'n but this word on it in our driveway. it was the worst bad word i had heard in all my ten years of life, and, quite likely, to this day, so i hesitated not to pick up the sticker, however it might have gotten there, bring it into the house, peel off the back paper and stick it onto the bedroom door. 'twas a very durable sticker and never peeled of altogether until the door was sanded and painted years later. brown, too. color of *hit.
lovely story, isn't it?
my, that rhymed!

so this is where it goes. a blogpost with no photos and reason. i had always wondered.

here it sit

with nutt'n to do

but type away

and write about poo.

my system now

must get it out

when mother is here

i can't say it loud.

*bowtoapplause*

shalom, wallpaper + my private secretary

2009-12-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

looks like i forgot about the grateful3 the day after.
no wonder i have no discipline. i can't, if i forget what i wanted myself to do.
will that count as an excuse?
swell.

i'll use that for not blogging then, too.

recently, today, yesterday? i was reminded that i do have at least two loyal readers. no, three. my husband, my brother thomas, and my favorite aunt. juhu, lieblingstante! *winkinsnetz*
just today i finished knitting my shalom cardigan and for everyone's viewing pleasure i have taken a lousy picture of it. well, rather, lieblingstante is a bigtime knitter, too, and i thought it would be nice to show her a photo instead of just telling her about it.
so, lieblingstante, hier ein foto, unscharf. zwei, genauer gesagt.

and smooth typistine that i am, let me segue into the next topic:

these pictures were taken in our bathroom. our bathroom, which my husband was so kind and daring to allow me to change a little bit.

i put up fabric to mimic wallpaper. first in the bathtub corner. it looked as i imagined it. i really like it. luckily, so does hubby. then today i put some up next to the sink i use. and was genuinely surprised at how much it looks like i imagined it. absolutely does. i have a gift.

let me try to imagine smoked salmon on the kitchen table and then go see if it worked.

*concentrate*

*wrinkleforeheard*

*holdbreath*

this wallpaper in the bathroom used to be a curtain. bought for cheap [my three favorite words] at burlington. burlington's? i don't know. i only need to know where the store is, anyway. total fabric cost bathrom: $24 plus tax.
the photos might not be impressive, but i does look faaaaan-taaaastic. i am not exaggerating, either. it looks:
- old-fashioned
- outdated yet back-in-fashion
- like wallpaper i expect to find in an old house or hotel
- just right with the golden appliances. no, that's not what they're called. water spigot and things. doesn't seem to be the right word, either. all the gold, i'm trying to say.
and i have refound out that dark walls make me feel safe. those bathroom walls make me feel sheltered and protected, as did the blue wall in san luis obispo. dark walls appear thicker and stronger than white ones, to me they do. also, the bathroom is at the end of the house, behind the bedroom. and i thus feel extrasafe, knowing that the end of the house is now defined and strong, not blending into the garden and neighbor's house. not that it was before. although that would make it easier to spy on them. it's hard in the front yard, since they have a camera there. who has a camera here, i ask you? in this cozy + safe area?
i digress.

what else do we have today? a few weeks ago, i bought a secretary for $20, brought down from $50. i was terribly proud of myself - this would not have been possible without my husband, my tough-negotiator-relentless-away-walker-from-unpleasing-counteroffers husband. i would like to thank all my fans, my mother, my husband. not in that order.
the secretary is beautiful, with spidery legs. not old-fashioned but not modern, either. timeless. that's right, it doesn't wear a watch.
the secretary was stained, awful reddish brown, and i, upon sighting, had decided to paint it white. when i started doing so at home, with wall-paint and the only brush i found in the garage, the stain kept seeping through. as googling revealed, this was not due to my indiscriminate tool and material choices, but stain needs to be covered with primer.
so, i bought white primer. painted the secretary only with the primer then.
found out that for furniture, i will only use spray paint in the future. has worked better than the non-spray in the past. note to self. christine, write this down!

and now, a little practice for monday:
"christine, mach die kiste aus!"
"ja mama, gleich."
"net gleich, soFORT!"
"ja, okee."
20 minutes pass.
"bist du immer noch net im bett!"
"ja, aber fast."
"morgen frueh kommste wieder net raus!"
"doooch, kommich."
"ja, dann... schlaf jetz."
"jaa! gut nacht!"
"aber wirklich! ich sag's net nochma."
---> schön wär's!

**
[turn off the box!]
[yes, soon.]
[not soon, immediately!]
[okay.]
20 minutes pass.
[you're still not in bed!]
[yes, almost though.]
[you won't be able to get up tomorrow morning!]
[yes, i will.]
[well, then... sleep now.]
[yeees. good night!]
[really, though! i won't tell you again!]
--> that'll be the day!
**

just kidding, mom. i have fond memories of the olden times, when you would ring the doorbell at 7a.m. because curiosity was more likely to get us up than the alarm.
i'm so excited you're coming to visit!

good night, and good luck.
[with the holidays and relatives. and both combined.]
[and with the telepathy because there's no salmon in our kitchen.]

3 things i'm grateful for

2009-12-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

and i do not mean that as in, 'thank you fantasy-boss for giving me this'.
i mean it as in, 'day-um, i'm lucky.'

1. would be my hubby, and that he's so generous to weekly offer to take me out to dinner so i get a cooking reprieve. and then tells me that the restaurant food isn't so good anymore because he's now used to my delectable cooking. [i might have put those words in his mouth, but he didn't object.]

2. i have all my limbs, they're all working well, and i'm in very good health. but since i could be grateful for this every day, let me be a bit more specific: today, for the first time i managed to open a door with a doorknob with my right foot and toes.
this is big! because, as ye may not all know, i don't have an opposable toe.

3. i'm happy. translucent ears n all.

today

2009-11-21T22:13:00.000-08:00

today i did not exercise and instead make a chocolate pie, then ate all the filling that didn't fit into the regular*depth pie shell.
now i don't feel like moving but surprisingly better than i thought. actually, i did exercise, for about two minutes. since my hubby gave me valuable $1,000 advice for which i have yet to receive the bill.
that's why i made the chocolate pie. i hope it's worth a thousand stones to him.

what i did do today: take nine photos of the japanese maple in front of the kitchen window. from the inside. through the window. i only left the house this morning to send off two letters. i walked to the mailbox at the end of our short suburban driveway. and that's how i like it because i'm a house fairy.

i took this about a minute after i saw the morning sun [a rare sight for me] shine through the leaves. that's because it took me a minute to find my camera. 'twas in the bathroom. and why? see last photo of this post.

isn't that a pretty tree? i like the geäst. branches. on the bottom right of the photo you can see our neighbor's lawn with its lack of leaves adornment. realistically, at this time of year, we need not give anyone a description of how to get to our house, were we to have visitors, we'd just say, "the house with leaves in the front." because no one else here does. 't puzzles me. it's so desperate housewives, california [i don't think they live here], appearances, keep up the facade and hide the secrets. it's a shame i don't have a photo of our front yard in germany to show here. would be quite the contrast. on the upside, there are no deep secrets our family harbors that they neighbors don't know about.

that's what it's like in a small town.

unless they're so deep that i don't even know them.

good thing my mom's coming to visit. i'll ask. i'll ease into it with the leaves*story.

"*clearthroat* mama? i'm looking for things to write about on my blog. do we have any family secrets you didn't tell me yet?"

just joking, mom! i wouldn't tell anyone.

and another one. i wondered today, is it possible to spray the whole tree with the painter's equivalent of hairspray so that it will keep those red leaves on all year long?
like what i did to this rose in the backyard?

no, i didn't. back to the tree.

here with a little more sun. a little more orange. and the camelia in the front.

this is where i'm getting close to the perfect picture. i saw the tree, and it looked better than it had all day, and i knew my quest, my day's work, would soon be done. [except for the chocolate pie.]

fee-nee-shd! here, the leaf shadow on the branches, and the red from the picture before, that's it. and as soon as i saw the leaves in this sort of light, i saw pumuckl's hair.

[linked from stuttgart university]

speaking of pumuckl's hair, here's a question i have about my hair.

is there really grey hair or is it the white paint from a recent project? is it both? neither? the first one to comment the right answer will receive a freshly plucked white hair from my head. real or painted, that's the question.

whatever works

2009-11-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

i have a big announcement to make.
it's very important, and something i have yet to discuss with anyone at length, except for my hubby. he knows, of course.

of course he knows.
because he's with me every day, sees me all the time, and i have felt the urge to tell him.
wouldn't it be

a hoot

if i, instead of telling people in person, announced it on my this here blog if i were pregnant?

well, i'm not. [thank god.]

my announcement is this:

i am happy.

and i'm not ashamed of it, either. so happy am i, without taking any sort of drugs but coffee, that in the evening, i am happy when i fall asleep. next to my hubby. and i look forward to waking up in the morning.

i am happy when i then wake up in the morning, and look forward to the day. i am happy when i make lunch. when i do laundry. when i cook dinner. i am happy when i buy groceries. i am happy when i knit and sew and paint things. i am happy living with my husband. i am happy that i get to see him every day.

i don't have to leave after two days, we don't live apart anymore. there is no day on the horizon on which i won't be with him.

and that makes me very happy.

of course, there are other contributing factors. there's no war where we live [lucky] and we live in a homey home. furthermore, i don't have to pick up pennies on the sidewalk to afford groceries.

ye who know me also know, of course, that i still do pick up any penny i see.

i also, by the way, pick up paper clips. you never know when you need a paper clip, or have to build a macguyveresque detonation device where a paper clip might come in handy.

so, since the fascinating theme didn't stick [since i just remembered it], i might make the theme of this here blog how wonderful things are. actually, that already is the theme. 'cultivating a happy world around me.'

anything to drive away my many many readers. my entourage. my following. the plebs. commoners, simpletons. [watch whatever works and you won't be offended.] those who don't know the first thing about string theory.

and the most curious thing is: i have been happy like this for months. of course, there might be a day when i don't sing the ode to joy [possibly a happier day for my hubby], but since i stopped popping hormones, those have become less frequent.

in closing, i just have to say:

happy seems to be the default mood.

p.s.: i don't read the news. it's what works for me. da capo.

the biggest household help

2009-11-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

[1.49 p.m.]

... that would be coffee.
there i am, sitting at the breakfastnooktable. just finished painting almost the whole $20 secretary from the 'hope for humanity' thrift store, and now i'm ready for a cup of lukewarm coffee. and do... nothing? really? do i find myself in a void of household-tasks-to-do? indeed, it looks that way. floors still look new, in the kitchen and hallway. dishwasher is doing the dishes, meat thawing for my carnivorous husband's dinner [no offense intended, hubby].
but as i have the coffee, as it kicks in, i get up. scrub the sink and wash all the screws and shenanigans that came with the secretary. swipe the countertops and even contemplate finding some laundry to do.
because, that's what coffee does to me.
in german, they call it blind activism. but if you're running a household, activism does not ever need to be blind.

now i sit. look at the screen of my mac -model that comes adorned with white, oil-based primer- and my eyes unfocus. it appears it's time for more coffee. and an apple with almond butter. excuse me while i fill the coffee machine.

[9.52 p.m.]

't looks like we won't put up the christmas tree today after all, since my dear one is already, or still, asleep. and very much deserves some good sleep. yesterday was our second immigration interview, and it just might all have worked out now, after paying $355 and $1090 for a second time each. going in for a second interview and being much more nervous for that. increased-bowel-movement-frequency nervous. because by the time the second interview came, i had been thoroughly scared of the united states citizenship immigration service. so scared that i didn't even, at all, want to write about it here. because i feel that if i do, they will find what i write, and they know me, and i'm never gonna get that greencard.
which i don't even want to take up a scarce for americans-job. i just want to be allowed to stay here with my hubby. without having my status pending. living in some confidence that i'm not in danger to receive a letter with the nice closing words:

"... you are now in this country in violation of the law."

[pack your shit and get the eff out of here]

all that appears to be done. so i can write about it.
but i can only take so much of said topic at a time.
and this much has been exhausted.

what has not been exhausted:

christmas! merry! only 37 days left. and i am barely starting to get in the mood. i don't know what it is this year. i might have used up my most*wonderful*time*of*the*year energy for the decade last year. christmas started in september 2008. as i think it does, though, start in september. because christmas is my favorite time of year, even more so than my birthday [only because it's not being celebrated for 1+ month], and i think 't deserves more than one month out of twelve.

what you see above is my christmas tree in 2007. picked up from the salvation army. at the start of the season. excuse me, the goodwill. what i saved there, i spent on ornaments. exclusively from crate & barrel. go ahead, zoom in.

of course, i am kidding. exclusively from the dollar tree! that's how i like it. still have them, too. might not have the garlands anymore, i'm not sure. no, i think i do. tomorrow will tell. or this weekend. by thanksgiving, the tree shall be up. not the tree you see up there, though. what happened to it, ye might wonder? let me share.

after christmas, when the ornaments were already taken off but the tree still standing, i decided to paint one wall in my room blue. 'twas a small room, so i moved my bed to the center. no, i think i did that because i stenciled the wall next to the blue one after i was done painting. and then i painted the lampshade, see left. because i still had lots of blue paint. and i really liked the blue. so i decided to paint my bed blue, too. [i'm blue, dabadeedabaday]

unfortunately, in the process of moving around my little room with many things away from the wall, painting, the tree tripped and fell, breaking one leg.

[what impression does the above used grammar give you?]

i donated it back to the goodwill. that's what happened to it.

my blue wall was eventually repainted, green. by the girl who moved in there when i left.

here's another tree. also 2007. i couldn't get enough of christmas then. what happened this year? i assume we're just having a late onset. 'twill happen, though. ho, ho, ho.

i could probably speed it up by starting to wear this jacket. or the red christmas shirt i bought at old navy in july for three dollars. forward-thinking as i am. christmas never surprises me. did i mention i only need about two more presents, and have half of the bounty already wrapped?

to bring us up to the present, christmas*wise, i give the world this here photograph. taken last year. with two people i miss veeeeeery much.

maybe if i just have this printed life-sized, cut them out and put them up next to the tree, like this?
could be like a wall with a hole in it, for your head, where you then fake-pose for a photograph. i could cut out my head and charge people for having their christmas photograph taken with my aunt and cousin.

excuse me while i draft the business proposal.

surprise interview

2009-11-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

seeing as i have no readers to alienate, i'm not above answering questions that thousands before me have answered. instead of pondering christine's curious conundrums, such as...
nevermind. i started answering that set of questions. yaawn. must not be so unoriginal, note to self.

let's get cracking on those conundrums. cliches. get cracking might be a cliche. i am deathly allergic to cliches. but then, since i am still sitting here, typing, i suppose 'tis not one.
i do mean deathly allergic.
cliches are symptoms of a bankrupt mind. mark my words. and please, if you find me using a cliche in any post, hold me accountable. for penance i shall post photos of the ensuing allergic shock.

bright idea. i'll answer my own questions. interview myself, if you wish. if i wish. the only other vote in the house at the moment would be the dog's.
give me a moment.
"earl? should i interview myself?"
he gets up, off the couch [the display of interest!], stands there, looking at me.
asks if there's a treat in it for him. i pretend not to have heard. he scratches himself and leaves the stage.
excuse me while i go give him that treat. don't leave! questions you never knew you needed answered shall be.

what do you drink all day, christine?
water. at least half a gallon, often more. recently, coffee. makes me pee even more. dehydrates, so i need more water. a vicious cycle. but no cat biting its tail for i fear my allergy.

what time do you get up?
once at night. the water. then, at seven. recently. i might be establishing a routine. i like routine. i like order. i like to have a system, so long as i'm not at the receiving end of arbitrary decisions made by paragraph riders.

what just beeped?
the macaroons. will go into the oven in five minutes.

isn't it nice to get scientific validation of your own behavior?
why, yes it is! i assume you're referring to what we just heard on the radio the last time we were in the car. that was... saturday. we, the pluralis majestatis, heard that it helps your body in the morning when you drink water. [please ponder the meaning irregardless of grammar.] now, i have always had a strong desire for water in the morning. precisely because i felt dehydrated. and this not after a night of even modestly excessive drinking and/or smoking. nothing of that.
the point, yes, scientifically validated, that's what my behavior is.
as for behaviors of mine the benefit of which is as of yet unknown to human kind, it's just a matter of time before science... for now, of course, ye may ask me.

does it happen frequently, this veering away from the answer to the original question?
it most certainly does. with a mind like mine [in third grade i had one of the biggest head circumferences of my communion class], there is no telling where thoughts may lead. even as far as germany, and back here. this likely because in germany, i suspect a large readership likely to show interest in my life back here, on account of our being related. 'tis one of life's curiosities that at least a handful of people whose blogs -were i aware of their existence- i would read daily, do not so much as type the address of mine into their browser windows. why not, i don't know.
possibly a throwback to highschool, when i knew other people but they didn't know me. is each one of these turkey feathers so busy, so much busier than i, too busy to care?
it baffles me.
and now, the oven is ringing. macaroons demand to melt on my tongue.

i, unposed.

2009-11-15T22:19:00.000-08:00

according to my friend victoria, i use the word fascinating a lot.
i find that fascinating. i wasn't aware of it. i think i might just use it a lot when she's around.

i was just reminded of this when i saw the soap with a mole, a piece of artwork i like to keep in the shower. white soap, green mole. which was once its own piece of soap. of course, no piece of soap is wasted with me around.
fascinating. since this blog has no direction other than "it's me", i thought i'd point it to fascinating for a little while.

henceforth i will blog what i find fascinating around here. and even though i don't get out a lot because that's the way i like it, there are many fascinating things around me. paradoxically, i am starting the era of fascinating with photos taken outside of the house.
we were in colorado, one october weekend, looking at houses. i had taken the camera and both hubby and i took photos of what we saw. hubby more so than i did.

now, i shall preface this by saying that normally, photos with me in them are taken by me. often, those photos show me and nothing else. i have folders titled me in 2004, 2005, and so on. i think it ended in 2007. quite possibly because now, i photograph nothing else but me so there's no need to specifically inscribe folders that way.
not quite true.
what i'm saying here: normally i know when my photo is being taken. if i don't, or even if i do, and look different than the self-image i have, i think, "i look like that, too?"

and now before i try out the updated blogger post editor - which might have lurked unseen by me for a while - i shall have an apple with almond butter.
and while i enjoy that apple with ab, let me entertain you with examples of my sometimes-slow-to-catch-on-ness such as the updated editor, above.
i always knew that the benelux states were those between germany and france. but not until a year or two ago did i find out (and not even through thinking on my own) that it's because of their names. BElgium, NEtherlands, LUXembourg. my brother thomas likes to make fun of me because of this.
and it was not until i endeavored to find out what the "curry plant" looks like that i found out: curry is a mix of spices. and i always thought the fruit, or bark, or any other part of the curry plant was ground up and filled into little containers.
a bit of consolation here: my brother thomas hasn't always known that, either.
still. we're both passionate better-knowers, so when one knows more than the other, big personal triumph. the german species of the better-knower, by the way, is not quite the same thing as the american know-it-all. better-knowers don't know it all. they just know that which you know, better.

apple eaten. with almond butter. worth about 600 kcal, the label tells me. good thing i did find the energy to work out today after all. thank you, coffee.

so here i am. as i accidentally showed up in house photos my hubby took. unposed. uncomposed. uncomposted.

walking innocently. up straight. must have been between one of the many sneezes on that day.

right before i blew my nose.

and then looked at a picture. standing like the a bipedal horse, one leg angewinkelt. my cousin told me that meant the horse was relaxed. to me, it seemed more like it was getting ready to kick me. i do not know how i ever enjoyed horsebackriding, and being around horses. now i find them pretty, but too large to be comfortable around. good thing i live in a suburban area. no animal larger than 160 pounds in our house. it's an unwritten rule. isn't it, hubby?

can you find me in that picture?

no?

good. just monitoring your mental capacities as applied reading this post.

and that's me pulling up my pants. one for the family album. of which i am the keeper, i suppose, so here it is.

here i am, blowing my nose. mama, can you see this? i did not inward-suction it up. what's the english word for that, anyone?

i remember once when i was little, i did not blow my nose but instead did the inward-suction thing. my stepdad said, "so long as the elevator works, everything's ok." mom disagreed.

i have always found that be a convenient solution, too. but in the past... 10 years, i'd like to think, i have become a disciple of the blowing-it-out method. i am now contemplating changing faith to the neti-pot religion.

my cold included puffy eyes.

the good news: i like myself. so much that i don't mind showing unflattering photos of me to my 1.4 readers.

and now excuse me for i must grate potatoes to fix my husband some latkes.

hours later. latkes made. eaten. with ketchup/applesauce, respectively. comedian harmonists watched. let's return to me, uncomposed.

pensive.

all i see here is the hat.

[credit to Zipfelmützen Film & Entertainment]

and i feel a strong connection to these guys.

we all wear caps. maybe that's it.
but no making fun of our fashion choices.
or else.

ten grey hairs and a pumpkin

2009-10-31T16:48:00.000-07:00

in my world, there is love...

[see the heart shape in the middle?]

... and beauty...

... everywhere.
and sunshine.

as it shines through our front door.
of course, as anyone who knows me knows, where there is sunshine, i am not far. ;)

and what does this picture show you?
that in my world, there is also a well-maintained coif during my year of not cutting my hair. that's right! still haven't cut it and yet, don't i look like fresh from the set of a pantene ad?
the only questions is, would that be an ad for shampoo, or cover-your-roots? today, i have counted nine grey hairs altogether. when i thought there were three. but, i welcome them.
just as much as i welcome my high forehead up there. come to think of it, i don't find it very high. which might be because i'm used to it.

now, i was going to post photos here of my freshly SELFselfself-upholstered [what i mean is, BY MEEEE] chairs. as you can see, read, i am very proud of my accomplishment. and so happy with the chairs. to sit in them is soothing. comforting. safe, happy, comfortable.
what i was saying, i was going to post a photo. i have before and during photos. and i just tried to take a few after photos, for this post, but with the sun leaving us [don't worry, it will be back tomorrow] no light, photo, shows the color of the new fabric as i see it. so, i shall try again in the morning.

for now i shall leave you, my dear readership, the few, with a wish.

happy halloweeeeen!

and whenever i think, type, say this, i think of one of my favorite scenes from ugly betty.
enjoy.

meet the octo-chin

2009-10-21T20:17:00.001-07:00

for so many days, i have not posted here. and the world is still turning.
how that happened, i don't know.

a flower in the front yard.

and a little bark.

a tree across the street. worthy of having its shaky picture taken at sundown.

just like the neighbor's palm tree and our backyard. roses on the side, and a cozy golden girls sunset.

but, creeping around the neighborhood dressed up as a shrub to take photos of magic moments wasn't all i did.
i also -after both my hubby and i scraped our legs at the sharp edge of the bed several times- smoothed the edge of our bed. i bought a pocket plane for the occasion. however. once, at home, i remembered the un-handy, big, paint-splattered plane i bought at the drive-in flea market in san luis obispo with brad months ago for five dollars. that's right. that's what i call it, the un-handy, big, paint-splattered plane i bought at the drive-in flea market in san luis obispo with brad months ago for five dollars. in short: tubppibatdfmislowbmaffd. i will refer to it as 'tubppi' from here on.
even though tubppi is missing one handle, and i had to work a little harder at maneuvering him, her, it, not that i know how to correctly maneuver a plane to begin with [thank god there's usually a pilot on the flight], my enthusiasm and excitement at using something i had bought for its looks made up for it.
and it worked!

above you see tubppi and the smoothed edge. i painted the bed black after, so i am very glad of having taken photos of the board's side. isn't it pret-tyy?

please pay no attention to the chipped corner. it's not tubppi's fault.

one of the photos i found on my camera is of a top i sewed:

'twas taken a few months ago. even though lovely, the top is now with the salvation army. or possibly already with a new owneress. the brown part at the top wasn't as stretchy as i thought, or as elastic, or too elastic, so i frequently had to pull it back up when wearing it. adding a strap or two wasn't an option, since it's a strapless top. now someone else's strapless top. i don't have to keep everything i make since i create to learn, too. and there's a photo. what else do i want?
nothing.
i like answering rhetorical questions.
never shall i forget the time i first encountered a rhetorical question. and how clueless i was.
'twas a family reunion. i must have been ten or younger. i would like to flatter myself by telling you that the fine nuances of language, such as rhetorical questions, were part of my conversation skills from age four on, but let's try to stay closer to reality here. i might also have been twelve.
all i remember is that i was sitting at a table, next to my dad. in a room in this big house in lamprecht, with dozens of people present. in comes aunt therese, my great-aunt, and asks into our direction,
"wouldn't christine rather sit with the other children?"
"no, thank you. i like sitting here."
as she left the room, my dad said, "that was a rhetorical question."
ever the advocate for children, my dad didn't even suggest i leave my spot at the adult table. he always took me places with him and never dropped me off at a children's table, or sent me to bed alone because i was a child and "supposed to be in bed." instead, i remember that i once fell asleep at a table in a restaurant, with my arms on the table and my head in my arms. it made me feel safe to always be with my dad.

how do i segue from rhetorical questions to my visit with brad and denise? i don't know.
and that wasn't one.
i spent a lovely weekend in san luis obispo, about three weeks ago. one morning, we went to have breakfast at the madonna inn. something neither of us had done before, despite all having lived there for years. it looks like a casino inside. fantasy world. exceptionally fancy red velvet damask wallpaper.
when we left, we took a photo. were this the year 1989, we would have taken a photo and left.
but, 'tis the year 2009, so of course, we used a digital camera. and of course, we had to look at the photo after we took it. of course, we found things wrong with it. three people in the picture, three opinions on what didn't look right. let me take you on this little journey i shall call "three faces, five photos":

"nah."

"no."

"nnnno."

"getting there."

"this is it!"

if you are now asking yourself the rhetorical question, why would she post a photo of herself with a double chin, for all the world to see?, then worry not, i will answer this rhetorical question for you.
it's because to me, two chins are nothing. no one has said it to my face, but i have heard the phrase "more chins than the chinese phone book."

or is this what they call a turtle neck?
a turkey neck?
excuse me!
i'm a vegetarian!

how i read

2009-09-14T20:03:00.001-07:00

for the last week, i have been in most serious reading mode again. sparked by deb, who handed me a bag with about ten books, all picked out for me by her, a wide selection of genres [crime, romance, and, i believe, fantasy]. i started with john dunning's booked to die, and read it within three days. it's set in colorado, i've just recently been there for the first time, and much liked it.
the next day i started nora roberts' conspiracy in death, written under pseudonym j.d. robb. this, too, i read within three days yet only during daylight. my nerves, by their natural condition, are not quite in a shape to read it at night, home alone. i read some in the dark when hubby was home. the first night, though, i had a nightmare. that left me up for an hour, i read a harmless enough magazine, between 5 and 6 a.m. i fell asleep again, had another nightmare, worse this time. got up at eight, went straight back to the book. no nightmare the second night.
today then, after dinner, i started jonathan kellerman, over the edge. there's a knife on the cover [depicted more realistically than it might be on a sidney sheldon novel], but, you see, i needed another crime novel.
the reason i am now on a reading break and able to blog is that the sun went down. i read 45 pages of kellerman, then i became too dark and since i don't want to strain my purposely-unacquainted-with-murder and occasionally chickenshit-when-home-alone-in-the-dark nerves, i stopped reading.

now, how i read. when i'm really into a book, as happened with the last three, reading can climb up the priority ladder to the spot between 'breathing' and 'drinking water'. i noticed this in the last hour. twice, i went into the kitchen to get coffee and chocolate dessert.
i read while the chocolate dessert was warmed by the microwave.
i read while i took the coffee pitcher out of the machine and positioned it by the edge of my cup, but then did avert my eyes to watch the coffee flow into the cup. this is only due to my, ahem, record of clumsiness even when i look.
i read while i ate the chocolate dessert outside and a piece fell off the spoon onto my shirt. i'm still wearing the shirt now because i was reading, so i didn't have time to change it.
i also kept reading while i drank coffee, taking sips without my eyes letting go of the lines.
i read when i walk into the kitchen, although not when i walk out, carrying things.
i read while walking to the bathroom and while i sit and pee. [if that's too much information, you might want to stop reading now.]
i read while tearing toilet paper off the roll which is why i have gotten quite good at tearing it off one-handed.
i read while pulling down my pants before i pee, and while i pull them up, after, even though that takes longer because i have to pull a few inches on the right, then a few inches on the left, with the same hand, then the right again, and so on.
i can't read while i wash my hands, so i just don't do that anymore.

just kidding on the last one.

can you see the christine-on-the-ceramic-throne-with-book visual yet?
doesn't "Christine On the Ceramic Throne With Book" sound like the title for a painting from the biedermeier period?
i just opened the folder with photos the webcam in our bathroom takes every 60 seconds and, because i have no shame, would like to share this here picture with you.

are you ready?

ok, that's not really me.
i suppose you knew because
1. i didn't iron my ruffled blouse so i'm not wearing it today, and
2. my hair is not that long yet.

now here's one from the realism period.
i'm calling it:

"Eyes With No Makeup Under Hair With No 'Do"

Once Upon a Time in Central City, Colorado

2009-09-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

looks like you have to click on the above map to see where central city is. just a bit west of denver, colorado. my hubby took me there when we were in colorado a few weeks ago, and 'twas so extraordinarily charming, i thought i'd dedicate a post to it.

central city is a bit up the hill [is that german?]. but first, in the valley, there are casinos. it appears there used to be only one, and now there are many, and a newshinybig one on the rise.

but up the hill from there, it was less artificially old, more old because old, and pretty, and colorful, happy, taken care of; in other words, my kind of place.
and with a couple that is worthy of being featured on this one of the best sites on the web.

central city also has its very own opera. and this here lady was asked if she was with the opera.

was it the hat, you might ask? no. it was the voice.
"hubbyyyyy," the lady shrieked.

"what, woman! what is it?"
"they said i have a shrill voice!"
"well. see what it says on the church over yonder?"

"wheeere? i can not seeeee!"
"there, woman! on that sign!"

and thus he had spoken.
and since the lady would never be able to resist a husband who poses with the family dog...

she fluted, "whatever you say, dear."

and they lived happily ever after, in this here house in central city, colorado.

frisur natur

2009-09-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

because all the comments yesterday (...) were asking whether i will use a styling product, here's what i just commented to meep:

"oh lord, thank you for reading my blog!
i will use styling products, definitely. else it will look like it did when i was growing up, just hanging down, slave to cowlicks and turns as they come. on one side of my head, my hair always turns outward as if a wind is blowing through my head. not that it's hollow :) i think i forget these things and then imagine i will have commercial perfect hair without work once it's long again.
i'm gonna use garnier fructis surfstyle. i first used it 5 years ago when i cut my hair, and it's fabulous. makes my hair look unshiny and a little felty. i love it. looks unkempt. great madwoman-look. by the way, i have noticed that your bangs are always in nice place and shape in photos. so you do have a secret. i now know."

and here's what it looks like on my head today.

freshly washed and brushed and airdried. i went to the dollar tree with earl the dog for the sole purpose of getting some shampoo and a hairbrush. since my brother accidentally took home my hair brush this summer, july, i haven't brushed my hair anymore. but it's barely long enough to do that now. and since i ran out of shampoo, hmmm.. some time in may, or april, i have washed my hair with water or water and soap only. today i felt like it's long enough to earn itself a shiny bottle of one-dollar shampoo and a very similar hairbrush.
so there you have it. washed with 2 pennies of shampoo, brushed, and air dried.
no madwoman-look stuff in it. yet.
i have to keep some suspense in here to keep my readership from dwindling.
not that it's big enough to even dwindle.

frisur natur

2009-09-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

i have mentioned before, and since people sometimes don't listen, i will say it again: i plan not to cut my hair into any shape for about a year. i will keep washing it, though, for those who wonder. and for my husband, who sleeps next to me. don't worry.
i lack the discipline and/or mental wherewithal to take a picture every morning, every day, but i shall do so occasionally, when i remember, or when my cousin tobi reminds me of it. here's the first one.
and, i'm calling this project 'frisur natur'. 'frisur' means hairdo in german.

it has been at least three months since i cut my hair. and then, it was all down to a few millimeters.
i like this project.
i'm gonna look like the madwoman i am!

the dollartree loves me

2009-08-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

ever since i first stepped into a dollartree, it must have been my favorite store. second only to thrift stores, but 'thrift store' is a genre, not a company/store, so dollartree's position is uncontested.
and for a while, i have felt like dollartree feels the same way, toward me.
it was merely a suspicion, though, until i stepped into the dt next to winco today, unsuspecting. i had already walked past the door, when i turned, looked into the store, and was drawn in.
after a few seconds, i saw it. dollartree's proof of love for me.

christmas decorations! *shriek*

dollartree loves me, too! of course, we're not getting ahead of ourselves here. both dollartree and i know that it's still 116 before christmas. but, it was a strong symbolic gesture to show me those fake conifer garlands on the last day of august. neither dollartree nor i are ashamed to show that we love christmas. and that for us, the season starts in september. and that means: mentally preparing in august.

and preparing for christmas means many things, of course. as to not overwhelm my audience today, let me mention only one: giving earl the dog a bath. not that he wanted to.

but since i am 138 lb. heavier than he is, there was little he could do. i would have taken more photos, but i didn't want to prolong the great inconvenience i thus bestowed upon him.

"there are places to see, bushes to pee."
you see, earl the dog leads a very busy life. for one, he's an icon in the world of meditation/relaxation. and for at least one house each day, he hones his famous surveillance skills.

but pestering earl wasn't the only thing i did in the last few weeks. i also crafted hexagons, folding squares over cardboard hexagons and ironing them to keep their shape.

i also made this seriously most delicious chocolate dessert. and then i made it again. and then, today, again. i need no food but coffee and this dessert.

but where's the dessert in this photo, you might ask? certainly a valid question. and here's the answer:

red silk wrap pants + grape nuts

2009-08-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

i'm back at the sewing machine!
uncharacteristic for my usual 'clean everything right up' endeavors, my sewing machine has been lounging at the paris room desk for, ahem, a few weeks. since... may 20th around, when my brother came. lord, that's two months! the thing is, i was ready to start sewing again any day. that's what i told myself, and about a week ago i spent a few days sitting there, by the machine, pulled out fabric, laid it out on the floor, for planned projects, but i just didn't feel like sewing and the fabric stayed there for a few days, like an impromptu persian rug. made from linen and cotton.
but yesterday, finally, leadfoot got back to the pedal and i finished my red silk pants. i started them about three months ago, during the start of my clown pants phase. let's briefly revisit that, shall we?

i believe i have worn these pants twice only, so far, once the day i finished them, and once when we drove to the airport to pick up my brother. i had to stage my entrance, you see, being ever the eccentric sister. i have a reputation to uphold, after all.
i have since figured out that pants with fabric gathered all around makes you behind look a little, well, puffed. reminiscent of obelix.

he's the fella on the right, wearing pants from the same collection as mine.
with this image in mind, my motivation to finish the red silk pants -second generation to the above butterfly pants- was very slim.
so it took weeks, but i returned to the sewing machine, finished the pants, test-wore them, found i had to add some beltloops, did that, and now i really like the result! let me introduce you to my red silk wrap pants:

and newly found dimples in my cheeks, they must have snuck up on me the same night my grey hair came.

and a look at the former obelix patootie:

what do you know? it's not obelix anymore, it's christine! yes, i took the photo in the bathroom, with the big mirror. i have found that this sort of photography by way of self timer or mirror is common among the garment sewing population.

what else do i have to share? for now, my current favorite breakfast.

it's been grapenuts for almost a week now. except for the chocolate dessert spell, which was under control once the dessert was gone.
the best way - for me, personally - to eat grape nuts, i have found, is what you see above. i pour some into my clean hand and then munch out of it like a horse. has worked very well, except for once, yesterday, when i must have accidentally inhaled some grape nuts. i don't think snorting any kinds of drugs would ever be an option for me.

and now excuse me, i must get back to sewing. i promised earl the dog i would sew him a tutu.
he has been displaying a newly found passion for classical ballet recently.

p.s.: as my brother pointed out, he came june 29th, and that was a two months time frame. may would have been three. i formally apologize to those being born in june for having temporarily omitted the month of june from my personal calendar.
p.p.s.: now would be the right time to mention that my brother's GPA at graduation was .5 higher than mine.

WANTED: copy editor at 'taste of home'

2009-08-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

say hello to the ivories of the day!

that's what the dentist said this morning. all right, he didn't use the word 'ivories'. but he did use the word 'fabulous' and said mine are probably the best teeth he will see all day. in all their normal-teeth color.
thank you, mom, for taking a persistent approach to dental hygiene when we were little.
was hänschen nicht lernt, lernt hans nimmermehr.
what mikey won't learn, michael isn't going to learn.
a little german wisdon never harmed anyone, did it?
so, thank you mama, and new dentist, for making my day. today, there is not a mirror i can walk by without snarling into it. as opposed to all the other days in my life, of course.

for anyone living in the fresno area and looking for a superbly qualified dentist with very very nice staff:
robert smith, dds
559-438-4031

here's a photo for my brother, thomas:

it's not even a stretch to post wheatgrass in a post about my teeth, because cows eat wheatgrass [exclusively, before it became en vogue for humans, i'm sure, but i'm not claiming any cows/ diet expertise here], and they chew a lot, so there's the connection. but then, they digest and re-chew, so maybe they didn't chew well enough the first time, and doesn't sound like an ad for my teeth. not that they're for sale.
let's move on to the next photo.

this is what all the rage here has been about. The Chocolate Dessert. although i must say, it tastes best fresh and still warm. so i suggest, if you make it, to eat it all on the same day.
if you warm it up later, you might burn your mouth because the chocolate inside gets very hot and the outside doesn't. so you would never know how palate-burning hot it is before you taste it. i hear.

the recipe came from taste of home magazine, and since it's only available to subscribers on the website, lemme share it here.

* in bowl, beat 1 cup butter until fluffy, add 1/2 c sugar, 2 c whwh flour, 1/4 t salt; until crumbly. set aside i cup. press remaining mix into a greased 9x13 in pan [pan really should be that big], bake at 350º f [175ºc] for ten minutes.
* meanwhile, in a small pot, combine 1 can [14 oz] sweetened condensed milk, making sure to taste the quality before you do. that's what it did. ah yes, combine, with 1 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips. i used cheap sweet ones, worked out well. not that the milk isn't sweet enough. heat and stir until chips are melted. stir in 1t vanilla, i didn't, have to make it again to taste the difference. spread over crust
* combine chopped nuts, flax seeds, or oats with the cup of crust from above and crumble over the whole shebang. bake 15 more minutes.
* let cool barely and then eat. all in one day, if possible

back to taste of home. when i closed the window, another one popped up with an important message. for me.

let's zoom in.

instead of spending time on 'what's wrong with this society' [what with knowing how to spell, myself, and not feeling entitled to most everything], i will now fetch me another piece of chocolate dessert and send my resume to taste of home. i think they need me there.

as a proofreader.

as a taster.

how i lose things

2009-08-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

i'm not really talking about losing things in the never-to-be-found way. i'm talking about the i-just-had-it-now-where-did-it-go way. this happens to me, about once a week. as it did today. i wanted to get my camera, which i had just had somewhere, to take some photos of the flower bud on the squash plant that came from a seed.

[ech. i just took a sip of coffee and felt what seemed to be a coffee ground on my lip. so i carefully open my lips a little -not too much since i had a sip of coffee in my mouth that was yet to be swallowed- to fumble away the ground, and guess what it is? an ant! still kicking, too. i dropped it off on my pantleg and may it go from there. these ant are just everywhere. last night two traveled with me to a house seven miles away. how can this be? what do ants normally eat? do i have a lot of that on my skin? i shower.]

back to the camera. i remember, i took it from my electric-gadgets-box in the paris room. from there, my hubby called me into his office, so i took the iPod, too, to hand it over to him. from the office i went back to my computer in the kitchen because i wanted to email him a link. then i got caught up doing important things on the internet, as i always do. [today: cook this here or this?]
then i poured me some coffee with milk and thought, let's go water the plants on the patio and look how the second generation arugula is doing. i pulled some weeds and stacked them up on the edge of the patio, the went to the veggie garden. i harvested a tomato and a bell pepper and pulled all the weeds but dandelion. i hope it will procreate and we'll get some lettuce after all. on the way back i turned off the watering system since the ground was very wet and appears to get enough water from our neighbor's system. saw the squash bud, thought: get the camera and take a photo.
camera wasn't where i thought it was. but found it in the office, retracing my steps. 'twas easy this time!

now let me go take photos.
pff. done. lots of caterpillars there. marigold, meep says. i think i will have to get some this week. it's getting out of hand.

chomping away at the last leaf left of the plant. but i can't kill them. don't have it in me, and also.. i don't want to touch them. being a girl here. as i am.

a little research on the organic gardening website reveals that those are cabbage loopers. the flowers of parsley, dill, or fennel attract insects that will eat the loopers. i'm writing a shopping list.

but, there are plenty good news in the garden. a very pretty lantana plant [that's all i know].

and a 132-days-til-christmas plant.

we bought one plant in spring, and it's been growing quite well, i split it into three a few months ago, and now those are all growing well. warms my heart to save money with patience. especially since i'm still working at 'patience'. but the saving money helps, of course. and the conscious "kiss my patootie, instant-gratification culture".

and here's the aforementioned arugula.

second generation. this is where it came from:

if you were a seed, i'd be a pod. if you were a wink, i'd be a nod. let's add a little soundtrack to this post, shall we?

and here, the hopeful.
a zucchini flower.
with more little buds already waiting.

feliz navidad!

2009-08-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

oh, christmas. my heart frolics as i listen to the first christmas song of this very young season: winter wonderland.
i wanted to find me a new desktop background on better homes and gardens, and then was shown to a 'winter wonder' category, so of course, i had to click on those words over any other. contemplated fall images, but nothing beats winter/christmas. and once the words winter+wonder had entered my brain, my grey matter -conditioned as it is- started singing .. walking in a winter wonderland. so, i give in, open iTunes, and here we have it, and jose feliciano, too. and 135 days left until christmas.
i recommend: any bing crosby christmas movie and 'christmas in connecticut'.
christmas flakes start falling on my sun-drenched-and-tired heart in september. tenderly, i admit. christmas is my favorite season. not for a religious reason, but for the lights. the winter, the cozy inside and cold outside. did i mention the lights? the mulled wine. the decoration. make that decorationS.
starting my personal christmas celebratory behavior in due time [i.e. september] is harder here than in germany. in germany, christmas items start showing up in stores around october, i'd say. early enough to work with me, too soon for others in my family - such as my lieblingstante. hallo uschi! :-D
here, however, in california, in the US, halloween and thanksgiving happen before christmas. it pains me to see halloween stuff at stores because i find halloween to be absolutely unnecessary. not only that, it actively fights christmas by sucking attention that should [in october!] be turned to christmas, solely, absolutely.
i can take thanksgiving. it's almost christmas, there is food and coziness inside, so thanksgiving may stay. so long as we can please substitute the fall decorations for christmas lights.

ha! please excuse me while i get a christmas scent candle to light.

sniffsniff. aaah, yes. there is not much of the 21 oz candle left, but christmas is right around the corner. and there are more christmastimescented candles in the pantry. oh, the scent. sigh. i wonder what would go well with that? might there still be christmas tea in my stash?

of course there is! i'm a pro, after all. naturally, i have the cup to go with this tea.

you know what that is? just my cup of tea, that's what.
thank you for this cup, judy. it brings me joy throughout the year, did you know that?
the only thing missing are christmas cookies. since this today's episode of the christmas heart crept up on me, i didn't have the opportunity to bake any. but, as luck would have it...

there was still a box in the pantry containing one and a half christmas cookie! thank you, marlies. my aunt marlies baked these last year, and a tin full of them found its way across the ocean. and brings me joy throughout the year. what you see here is half a fruit star and a whole vanilla hörnchen. despite its age i can still taste christmas. and i generally think christmas cookies are good a year later, too. if there are any left. maybe i will bake vanillekipferl this week. i do have my grandma's recipe.

before my christmas spirit prematurely awoke from its summer slumber, i wanted to start this post with my brother thomas' comment to my last post. freely translated, he said,

"aaaah, do you know how crappy it will look if you just let your hair grow for a year? it won't have any sort of cut, thanks to gravity everything will be hanging. you really DO HAVE TO go to a coiffeur [ok, my word] after half a year and say, "i'd like to have a layer cut, please."

since this comment came from my brother, adhering to my principles i have to disagree. i am well aware that my hairnoncut will pose styling challenges. this experiment will show how much my self image is connected to my haircut. and how i will feel about myself when i, as anticipated, will look roughly like this plant on our patio:

furthermore, come christmas [in a month], my hair will be hidden beneath a santa-style hat most of the time. unless i can dye it white and drape it around my chin. moment, i might not even have to dye it.

i look forward to going to farmer's market later today with deb. more fresh food to be bought, so there can be more delicious dishes like last night's.

it also made a good lunch today. with leftover meat from yesterday, for notme.

in tune with the activity already displayed today by me [i had the dishwasher do the dishes, and i had the washing machine wash two loads of laundry], i have also packaged napkins i sewed a while ago, fumbled unstamped stamps off small envelopes and onto a bigger one for the napkins [i like to trick the post office this way, especially after they told me that no, i cannot take a stamp off one letter and use it for another, even if it was erroneously stuck onto the first envelope]. and i walked those napkins to the mailbox [in our driveway] before the postal service brought our mail and picked up the big letter. with the crafty stamps.
so, these napkins are on their way to a hopefully lucky [delighted] recipient.

and of course, i won't say who the recipient is because the recipient is known to read this my blog. hehe. this should tell everyone: read my blog, good things might come your way. since having people actually read what i write here flatters me. and whoever said flattery gets you nowhere?

thanks to my friend victoria, yesterday i received an in-depth introduction to the american high school locker. and its culture. i learned that bottom lockers suck [again, my word, and: i agree], but that the lockers off the floor are reserved for older students, higher up in social hierarchy. as sanctioned by the locker gods. who knew? i didn't and i am very glad i'm done with high school. hang in there, victoria! at least now you have a very different and happy locker.

with tres chic interior fabric...

... picked by victoria, as all the other design elements you see. i merely helped attach them and listened to the talk between victoria and her friend, and was reminded of two personal highlights of being done with high school:

1. no one can force me to do PE again!
2. i can pick the books I WANT TO READ, MYSELF!

and we had a lot of fun. thank you for letting me help you with your locker!

and for being as excited about my hands-free device as i am.

1-2-3-4 döleddnbabbia

2009-08-10T18:03:00.000-07:00

to first address my friend tom's office-plants-watering-worker conundrum: i think deposit bottles will work fine, too. for a birthday gift i suggest poking three holes into the screw top of the bottle, that will make it a for-real watering can. and do the same for the closet, so the hamsters get some light. or else they might never sleep.

it's high time for a post again. i have been thinking about it much, but wanted to post colorado-travel photos, and that kept me. because there are so many, i wouldn't know where to start, or how, and i didn't want to post anything else before.
and here's what turned this into a problem: i like things neat. so, i wasn't going to take the photos off the camera and onto the computer until i blogged them. because once in the pictures > 2009 > colorado folder, i wouldn't look at them for a long time, much less blog them.
so every time i opened my camera to possibly post a photo, there were still all those colorado photos mingling with the others.
creating a separate folder on my camera for colorado wouldn't work. once they're in a folder..
so to relieve myself, in a megapixulous way, i decided to forgo the colorado post for now. dragged all the photos into their folder. phew. done.

now, before dinner, on to what's going on here. events of the day. the week.

twitter! move your glubscherle to the right, you will see the latest in my day. if you're reading my livejournal blog, move over to mondeintact.blogspot.com. because that's where the updates, minutiös, are to be had. so the scant readership of my blog won't have to wait for posts only, and can hear highlights of my life in real time, such as: my credit card bill was $333.33! exciting. also, that once the grocery bill was $74.44 and the week after, $75.55.

i have decided to not cut my hair anymore. last time i cut it was with one of those haircutter things, in evolution ranking only one step beneath the flowbee:

i cut my hair to about 3 mm in length. my theory is, hair doesn't grow with the same speed everywhere on my head. yours, too? my plan now is, i won't cut my hair for about a year. we'll see what kind of haircut this brings. should look very natural. unkempt, to some. reminds me, i need to buy a hairbrush. when my hair's about an inch long.
right now it's at a length that yields an effortless 1999-berlin-loveparade hairdo in the morning:

if it stood like that all around my head, maybe a little higher. gives away my not having showered after getting up. i don't apologize. although, hubby, if you -living with me and all- want to leave an anonymous comment about that, go ahead ;)
while at it, let's see how my grey hair is doing:

growing along nicely. i'm sure it will multiply with the new task i have found for myself: getting the ladder out of the garage every week, to water the plants in the living room.

but they do look very nicely up there, i think. maybe they can take watering twice a month. probieren geht über studieren. and if not, then dem ingenieur ist nichts zu schwör. and those are not german clichees.
aphorisms, i maintain.

living in fresno

2009-08-05T12:02:00.000-07:00

it's hot here. sometimes. luckily, we have a nice patio to enjoy the warmth when it's not so baking. right now it is, but that's what we have air conditioning for. or, the ceiling fan. if you position yourself right, it can be comfortably cool, even with 100 outside and no a/c inside. unfortunately, these last few days i have taken a liking to sitting at the red table in the kitchen, and there's no fan. so i try to move as little as possible.
it works surprisingly well.
today, that is. yesterday was a more active day for me. but now the lawn is moved, the leaves are raked [why do leaves fall in the summer at all? thomas?], the dishwasher is emptied, and the marble cake is made.

was made, that is. and has been eaten. i took my time beating the eggs [certified humane raised and handled, mind you] in one by one, and the result was really noticeable. in the batter, that is. i didn't eat much of the cake. but i always taste the batter. one great thing about baking by yourself, without mom, as when i was little. i get to eat as much of the batter as i like! and no cake later because i feel like i have to lie down on the couch. but it's well worth it.
this marble cake was left unmarbled. i made one two days before, marbling didn't turn out well in the form i used. but i wanted to use this form, because i had just bought it for a buck or so at a thrift store. i also used another form yesterday. for a second cake. didn't work out so well. it's a pipe with a lid. lid at the bottom, but the batter in, klappe zu, affe tot. it starts smelling, i open the oven door, and the dough had come out at the bottom, squeezed through, onto the bottom heating thing. i skillfully ^^ cleaned up the mess and filled what was left into a mini loaf form.
i suppose this is why the form was at the thrift store to begin with? to keep this tragic cake fate from happening to another apronista, i put it into the recycling bin.

speaking of thrift stores. i had yet to find someone who is quite as passionate about themostbeautifulintheworld 50ct cups and the like as i am, when i met deb. before we went on separate trips, we were able to squeeze in a very short excursion [we only had 2 hours]. there were treasures aplenty to be found at the hindes hospice thrift store. for example, two cups for 50 cents each. and little pour thingy that i have already eaten breakfast out of, since i have no use for it but had to have it. at fifty cents, i splurged.
back to the coffee cups. the most perfeitu green color, no handle, curvaceous shape.

this is one cup with coffee in it. traveling in the car, the sun was shining through the window into the cup, onto the coffee, and mirrored at the wall of the cup. sigh. the beauty.

and here, same cup. nescafe instant coffee with soymilk. mmmmh.
the soymilk even foamed itself. happens when i finish a pack. i always shake before. i'm a shaker.

whereas earl the dog is a sniffer.

earl the dog always knows what's going on his empire because he never ceases to observe.

and he's very stealth.

what makes me happy sipsip

2009-08-04T07:58:00.001-07:00

ugly betty makes me happy. and feel safe.
just like nescafe instant coffee, the red one.
there's no harm in my world. my days are peaceful and stress is absent.

nice, eh?

also making me happy: spending time with my brother.

i think it makes him happy, too, because he can make me look like a nitwit and take photos for all the world to see.

since i am his sister, i then stand by with my camera until he has a fancy hair moment, and post that on this here blog. and just like that, we're even :-D

did i mention that thomas makes some mean desserts?
when i make baisers, they turn out flat. when thomas makes them, this is what they look like:

i don't think they saw the sunset. this is even more remarkable considering he made banana tiramisu the same day:

the exorbitantly delicious taste is paralleled only by the amount of calories. but oh, worth it. and anyway, thank god, i'm not one to count calories.

just one post, with photos, for anke.

2009-07-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

[even those not named 'anke' may look. go ahead.]

part of the preparation for this trip: peppermint tea from debs garden. the leaves, that is. water: tap. taste: delicious.

we drove about 500 miles today. from fresno to st. george, utah. what am i saying, we. these two did most of the driving:

i was but the humble shasta-can-opener.
driving through, or over, las vegas, i was delighted to see THEhotel. this one's for cooper.

and this one here, for my brother. the seattle space needle [am i right?] in las vegas, with rides at the top. absolute insanity. dömmos, can you zoom in to see that? there was an arm that had a cart sliding back and forth on it, as it tipped left and right.

i probably wouldn't even sit in that if it was at ground level.
then, NY in LV.

and an orange building. pretty.

and the wynn. and new, encore.

had i not seen the 60 minutes interview with steve wynn this spring, i would not have known what 'wynn' stands for, and probably looked it up in the french dictionary. what with encore and all. i liked steve wynn in the doc, but i think that was mostly due to his eye illness. he also said he can be rather... upset/mad quickly, and i really don't like that. but, i'm not married to him, and his buildings were the prettiest ones i saw.
that's gotta count for something.
encore!
the style, too. even better than THEhotel.

this was after LV, and after the subway my sweetheart found. unfortunately, there was no free cookie since they didn't take the subway rewards card there. bah.

i see. doesn't look so exciting on the screen. and neither does this so artfully framed by me photo:

a little arizona...

.. and a little utah, and i really don't know which is which here anymore..

... because we really did drive a lot, and it was very hot, which was especially hard on our rusty-but-trusty old car.

or should i say trusty but rusty?

the pilots are asleep now. catchin' some zzs, and i will join the mattress-harking-duty in a few minutes.

the dollhouse

2009-07-23T14:04:00.001-07:00

since i don't have enough hobbies yet (...), i just found out that i neeeed a dollhouse.
i was inspired.
since i don't know anyone who has a spare dollhouse, and i want to save my bucks these days [spent a lot of dough on doughnuts when my brother was here], i decided:
i'm gonna build it myself!
incidentally, i still have this big, flat piece of wood i bought from the scrap cart at home depot a few months ago. for about a dollar, taller than i am, and i never used it for raised veggie beds. but it's perfect for a doll house. i hope it will make three rooms, two at least. don't know about the proportions or... stories yet.
and i don't think there will be dolls.
people i imagine will live in the house. dolls would be the same, but without dolls, there will be lots of fancy, interesting, plain, mysterious, complacent, happy, content, quietly desperate characters in there.

åmoaree

2009-07-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

i could now play city-country-river and win.
i could play that wooden board game with the stones and win.
i could make up 16 german states and pretend that they're all for real, and not made up because i didn't know all the actual 16 states.

but since the only reason i could do that is that my brother has left, it doesn't make me happy.
and as he predicted, i miss his burping. i can't burp like he can. i don't drink enough shasta. and i can't burp without, either.

i also miss katia saalfrank and peter zwegat. a year's worth of their shows watched in three weeks. we're disciplined. determined. dangerous.
i'm drinking soymilk, he's chewing his smelly gum. i offer him soymilk, he wrinkles his nose, he offers me chewing gum, i wrinkle my nose. crinkle? what's done with noses?

when i came home from the airport, i saw his bed, and he wasn't there anymore, and i went to the bathroom, and his stuff wasn't there anymore. he even took his hair gel. without teaching me his skills.

i knew i'd miss him, but i am surprised how sad it made me that he isn't here anymore. mind you, he's not dead. just traveling back to germany. i'm distracted now, i read, i'm online, blogging, reading, i'll live.

but we had a fantabulous time here.
and i wish everyone who has siblings a relationship like the one we have.

and i wish my metal brother a magic potion that will make him un-sceptical of flying, so he will come visit us, too, and see how long he can stand kicking it with his sister :-P

fraternal copyright issues?

2009-07-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

this is my brother's photo. he might become a lawyer, so he might sue me for copyright issues here.
but it's a pretty photo, and i didn't know how to start this post, and if he doesn't mention it, i know he's not reading my blog and i will have to... put some extra red pepper flakes into his spaghetti sauce tonight.
hehe.
my brother is here and we are having a wonderful time. i would say that. would he? i think so. we watch 'interesting' tv shows and then imitate people features. our favorite character is herr peter zwegat. the king of facial and verbal expression. until yesterday, i didn't know that the person giving away the shirt on his back is often left naked.

i am wearing red earrings today and purple wooden bead bracelets. this color combination makes me happy. purple and read, the colors of my tattoed flowers on the left arm. the bead bracelets were a gift from my friend melanie, to my birthday. incidentally, today is hers. herzlischn glückwunsch, schnetzelsche! *dischdrigg*

i hope i can convince my brother to make cheese with my today. mozzarella. i think it will we fun, and i hope he's game. right now he's asleep. even though i stood in the door of his room and made "tootootootoooo! tytytytytyyyy!"
i'll just go and try again.

26 years, 3 months, 25 days

2009-06-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

a compassionate world begins with you.

2009-06-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

we went to costco today.
where the good people in a rich industrial western nation buy everything by the many. a gallon of bleach! that sounds plenty to me. but as costco marketing wires your brain, when you have only a gallon of bleach left at home, you better go to costco. where you can get a convenient four pack. convenient if you have a cart. and of course you won't walk into the store without the cart, because packs of everything are ginormous and you can't carry them. so you bought the four gallons of bleach in case a patty from the 20 pound pack of beef falls on your kitchen floor.
check.
then you pick up a free sample. oh, what do they have today?

chicken breast tenderloins!
chicken breast, we know that. we know where the breast is. oftentimes, there are two breasts.
loins. we know where the loins are. even i know that, although i didn't learn the word in school. where did i learn it then, my reader might ask? as so many words, i learned it in an episode of the golden girls. whenblanche tells a steamy story that includes her own loins.
rose: "i didn't even know people had loins!" now she knows. loins is what blanche rightfully calls the region of her sexual organs.

so, obviously, loins and breasts are not the same, not even in the same region, on any animal.
not only is there no such thing as 'breast tenderloins', but a chicken does not even have a "cut" called loin.

please let's take a minute of silence for the chicken that was killed for this photo.
and for all the other chickens that are tortured, only to be killed and eaten, every day.

if anyone would like to do something for living animals, check out the farm sanctuary.
a compassionate world begins with you.
check.

i assume meat-"producing" corporate shitheads came up with the term 'breast tenderloin' to make more money. because tenderloin sounds fancy. and what do the masses want? fancy stuff for little money. tenderloin is a gourmet term. and now you can buy CHICKEN BREAST TENDERLOINS?! fan-tas-tic!

newsflash: the less you paid for your meat, the more the animal had to suffer.
does anyone think people who "produce" meat are in it for the good of the animals? for compassion? they raise and then kill animals because they like them?
NO!
they want money! and killing a cow because it can't walk into the slaughterhouse anymore doesn't bring money. on the contrary, all the hormones that were pumped into the cow/chicken, and were paid for, will have been wasted. so they drag and kill the animal, anyway.
because it's not really an animal, right?
does it have a soul?
no.
does it feel?
no.
it's just meat!

got a little carried away there. i'd like to post a photo of how animals are squished together, and hurt and killed for the culinary enjoyment of humans, but i'd start crying when i see it. so, coward that i am, i won't.

scratch that. you wanna eat meat, you can look at these photos. and then, enjoy your meat dish.
meet the cow that couldn't walk anymore:

oh look, it happened to another cow. is such treatment possibly common?

and why can't they walk anymore? did they not have enough room in the truck that drove them to be killed?

how did they spend their life before the truck came?

how about the chicken breast tenderloins? where do they come from?

and this all their life, until the truck comes.

would this chicken like to get out and live?
not that it could.

but since you want to eat chicken breast tenderloins, that's ok. who cares about the animals?

a compassionate world begins with you.

homo homini lupus est.

2009-06-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

what's in a bloggy name?

well. monde intact is the french translation of the german 'heile welt'. which means a carefree, happy world, where everything is whole and nothing broken. i am a little more partial to the french translation than the german. maybe because it sounds fancier, since german is my first language.
i am trying to keep the intact world around me. i know the world is far from intact, homo homini lupus est. man is his own wolf. we're working on killing our own species, as i see it. so i just hope that the shit won't hit the fan [any more than it already has] before i die. meanwhile, i avoid the news and try to keep my little world, and where it intersects with the ones of people around me,happy.
of course, shit still happens in a happy little world, too. but precisely because it does, i don't have to keep my eyes and ears open to the stuff outside of my world, too.
there's only so much shit one can take, you know?

caterpillar caviar and an homage to aunt lisbeth

2009-06-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

just one quick post to show that i didn't dissolve into air. because actually, i have bigger plans for tonight. as if a post isn't a plan big enough to ignore ;)
i shall make mozzarella.

now, first photos of the obscure greens that have been growing. here's the green on the left.

and here's the green on the bowl, on the right [window sill alignment titles for my personal orientation. of course, if you're planning on breaking and entering at night to eat these delicious greens, now you know where they are, too.]

a few days passed between the second and third pictures. but all were taken since my last post. and now, on to the spinach.

i am quite aware that there isn't enough room on the sill for all the plants to grow as big as they want to, and as i'd like to encourage them to be. plant parent that i am, i won't say 'as i want them to be', because they may find their own way.
how-ever, dear caterpillar outside, being eaten alive by you is not the way they want to be. i simply know. they want to be eaten by my sweetheart and me.
bedouin tent update: the biggest lettuce plants were all eaten again today. i found lots of little poop balls, and then the sly bugger. a big caterpillar, the same color of the lettuce. no surprise, seeing as he ate all the lettuce! i let him crawl on a little stick and moved him, her, to the other side of the fence. eat something else.
so, it appears caterpillars are the culprits, not a possum or squirrel. but then, maybe some of the poop balls that looked like caviar were caterpillar eggs? do they lay eggs? do only butterflies lay eggs?
we can't put up small greenhouses, that would be much too hot for the plants. i think the spinach outside wilted because it couldn't take the hour of midday sun.
well. i will figure it out. how to not kill caterpillars and still eat the lettuce ourselves.
something funner: i made a top. loosely based on these instructions. i didn't have the elastic thread, and since i had, still have, plenty of elastic band, i didn't want to buy it. so i tried a different version. and it worked!

please tilt your head 90 degrees to the right. when i turn an image and then save it, it won't be turned, says the mac. and i can't be bothered to open photoshop just for this, because i have pizza to make. and cheese for the pizza.
but i have time for a closeup of the coral colored border. i found this fancy stitching pattern on my sewing machine. and it reminds me of the shirts my great-aunt lisbeth used to sew for my mom and her sisters. maybe also for us? they were red or blue, and a little folksy.
so i decided to make that border an "hommage-an-tante-lisbeth" border.

how our kitchen became sophisticated

2009-06-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

and the greens continue to grow!
friday night..

and yet taller saturday night!

i thought i'd remember anyway what i sowed where, no need to mark. turns out, i have only a vague idea what the above pictured is. a green. haha! i thought it was the mixed stuff, renee's garden. but they all look the same, don't they?
this, i know for sure, is spinach:

and for only seven dollars and some red paint i had, the kitchen got some pizzazz:

a few frames are from a fresno yard sale, most of them from an easter seals thrift store in reno. i found them before a retarded man found me, then followed me through the store and questioned me about my haircut. he had his own way of talking, so i didn't quite understand more than, did you cut it this morning? after he uninvitedly copped a feel [of the hair..] i put on my hat. i was not to be deterred from looking at each item on the pottery shelves. i am a serious thrifter, after all. someone working at the store then came and asked him if he didn't have an activity. and off he went.
what's that glass dome, one might ask?
more importantly, what's underneath?
let's take a closer look.

mmm.. cocoa biscotti! dipped in white chocolate. underneath a $20 thrift store find. american cancer society thrift store. a material excess. for a thrift store.

"she thought material excesses were the height of sophistication."

bedouin tent garden

2009-06-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

and i return to the blogosphere!
no spectacular things have happened in my virtual absence. i am, and have been, living domestic bliss and enjoying it.
meanwhile, back in the veggie garden, unindentified beings have been eating the salad. not arugula, maybe it's too spicy. but the ruffled edge salad, the plain green one, and the earthbound farm salad. received the seed packet for free, was hoping to participate in the 'how did your garden grow?' contest, but is not likely to happen. actually, that's because i didn't sow the seeds until about a week or two ago. so, by june [now...], there's barely any growth.
but now said seeds ~and the above mentioned other varieties~ are growing under bedouin tents. the veggie garden is now a bedouin tent garden.

this happened not carefully plotted out, so the fabric i used might not be the best for the job. it's translucent and very thin. i think the sun will get through well, and the watering is happening underground, anyway. since i had two cups of coffee today i found myself with a beep*load of energy. hence, when i looked out the bedroom window, i thought, "all that weed it really is time to pull it. now." so i went outside with the orange home depot bucket and ~since i had two cups of coffee today~ pulled all the weed thoroughly and rather quickly.
until today, i lived in the illusion that the salad would start growing faster than 'they' [birds? snails? one thing's for sure: they're the infamous 'they'] could eat it. but, they are many or very hungry. and seeing all the salad eaten by someone other than my sweet<3>they eat at night.]
since i don't want to kill birds or snails [or bugs and hence find dead bugs in my salad and the poison, too], [and drowning them in beer is killing, too] i thought of the tents. the translucent fabric was the most suitable one i had, i think. we'll see how it goes. since i don't know who's eating my salad, i don't know if the tents will keep them from getting their meal. of course, if bedouins are eating my salad, they will feel right at home now. shucks.

before i was inspired by weeding, i decided to grow some salad indoors. there is one window that gets fabulous afternoon sun, and since the boxes are right behind the window, there might be a greenhouse effect. the good kind. yet the plants will be a/c'd, which plant wouldn't like not sweatingin 100 degrees?

i sowed iceberg lettuce, spinach, and red n green salad. the latter in the round glas bowl, scored at a thrift store, for no more than two dollars. i know, i know. thrift stores are god's gift to me. so, i guess there must be a god after all. the thrift store god.
back to the garden. those seeds in the bowl are renee's garden seeds. and since today i believe that more expensive seeds indeed are better. the seeds package was about three dollars, and today, one day, less than 24 hours! after i sowed them, they're already sprouting.
then, i bought 79 cents basil seeds, sowed them about a month ago, nothing happened. not to mention the dollartree seeds [i am a big fan of the dollar tree; there, i finally said it!]. but in all fairness to the dollar tree, i bought the seeds last year, they were for last year's season, so i'm not surprised that they didn't work so well. and, they came up after about 2 months, there are now tiny pepper plants in the first bed. meanwhile, thought, my sweet<3>them, i imagine. also bit some holes in the leaves, but not enough to bring down the plants. unfortunately, the broccoli is only stems with holes as leaves now. we'll see how the bedouin tactic works out.
first photo of the indoor garden: in the terracotta pot is a pepper plant grown from the seed of a storebought delicious red pepper. i am here experimenting to see how much better the plant grows inside than out. from a seed, that is. but then, this seed was fresh, the ones outside a year old... we'll see which scientific journal will publish my study.

delicious bread

2009-04-17T19:05:00.000-07:00

and buns. wholewheat-oatmeal.

after this delicious recipe. the best bread i have made so far.

and an inspirational quote:

where the intellectual sun is low, even dwarfs cast large shadows.

books by color

2009-04-15T18:29:00.001-07:00

lazy i have been online, but not in real life.
i did things. the secret birthday quilt is nearing completion, i am sewing on the binding right now. it's been so long since i busied my brain with quilting, i'm not even sure anymore if the edge is called binding. but the next quilt is already planned, especially since something else i did turned out so prettily:

books sorted by color = decorating with something that's already there. just changing it around, as easy as it gets! and makes me so happy to look at. the idea, however, is from the latest cover of my favorite magazine: readymade.

i bet you've all been tense as a flitzebogen..

2009-03-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

..to find out how the salad seeds are doing. the wait is over!
here they are, one week ago.

and here, today.

and here's the whole veggie garden, extended just recently.

i think the small tomatoes might be seemingly growing very slowly because they need to grow bigger roots first. and i hope that's what they're doing.
behind the tomatoes, i sowed green onion, arugula [soooorry, meep!], broccoli, more salad, zucchini, and transplanted the spinach and cucumber seedlings outside.

today i'm making brioche, by the way. i am very excited. i read the word yesterday and thought, some brioche would be nice. the dough is now rising for the second time and in about ten minutes already ready for the oven. hm. had i remembered that, i wouldn't be eating ice cream and oranges now.

here's a photo of the secret patio!

now please forget that you ever saw this photo because, as i mentioned, it is a secret patio.
on the bottom left you can see this here:

i built this succulent box, from all free wood. makes me very happy! in the middle there is a succulent that looks like a stone. my latest favorite. i really like succulents.

and now something i made inside the house. a buckwheat pillow for my sweetheart.

that's just the cover. washable. of course :)
the pillow inside has three compartments, so the buckwheat stays evenly distributed.

and now excuse me, there are more things on my list of 'how to make the world a happier place'.

***
people on tv seem to always have a gun hidden somewhere. wrapped in a towel. and when they 'need' it, the just pull it out. and they're apparently comfortable with it, not scared shitless beacuse it's a gun and they're normal people who don't normally shoot.
i am scared shitless of guns, i don't even want to touch one, and i'd like to add to my post one of the things on the above mentioned list:

fuck the nra.

when i googled just this, 'fuck the nra', i found a post in what a blog that seems very readworthy, sister novena's portapulpit. nice title, isn't it?
and in the post i found this map.

i'm sure upon zooming in, you could see a very green spot in the centre of california.
sigh.

paradise.

2009-03-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

i live in paradise, as i see it. lucky me.
this is where i spent the hour or so after dinner today, reading and clandestinely watching the neighborhood from underneath the brim of my large black hat.

i did lots of grocery/garden shopping today. i saw lots of things, felt many things. the cool air in the home depot nursery which, in cooperation with the scent of plants, instantly made me slow down and think, 'i'm not in a hurry.' of course, maybe this is why home depot crafted the nursery as they did and i fell prey. to buying a succulent and a red foliage plant for a few bucks. i was also looking for wood to make more raised beds, but they didn't have what i was looking for. then i saw two big pieces in a cart full of scraps. i asked if i could buy them and got them for free. lucky me! beautiful wood,too.
i went into an unfinished wood work store where i had never been. such a happy, quiet, pretty atmosphere in there. i shall return. hrhr.

one headline i contemplated for today's entry was it's killed, not grown.
i was at costco. and saw that the label on a fosterfarms chicken package sported a seal: california grown.
the chicken were raised, then killed. i don't see how that's grown. you grow vegetables. you kill chicken.
grown, that sounds so emotionally separated. as if they weren't living beings. california grown. i think bigger animals [cows] are at least raised in california. but not chickens. no, they're grown.
[foster farms writes on their website that they were instrumental in helping to advance animal welfare in the industry. that's a fishy claim if i've ever heard one. no specifics to be proud of, besides growing chicken?]

i bought chicken not from costco but from the market close by our home, mary's free range chicken. unfortunately, mary, too, grows the chickens as i gather from the front page. luckily, in a humane, chicken*friendlier way, but i still didn't eat any. at the moment, eating meat comes with the strong notion of me eating a dead animal. i was never aware of that. don't know if it will go away again. likely. but it crept up on me slowly, that hasn't happened before.
whatever anyone says, i do maintain that chicken is not grown.

ha! another thought i contemplated opening this post with is 'the hole in my hand'.

i knew my valued readership was thirsting for a follow-up of the wound. and i certainly didn't want to keep this from you! the photo was taken a couple of days after i cut myself. now there's a good scab on it, one that doesn't honor the initial creepiness anymore. i am glad i took the photo right after i cut myself, it certainly looked the worst then.

now here's a photo someone did ask for. my brother, the wholewheat sourdough bread.

the previous sentence fragment sounds like i want to introduce to you my brother, who is a wholewheat sourdough bread. let me clarify this: my brother asked to see a photo of the sourdough bread.
the bread dough was supposed to rise overnight. i only let it rise three hours, and in a bowl. before i let it rise the mandated four hours in loaf form. i think the overnight rising on a sheet is necessary so that it has ample time to expand into almost all directions. that would probably make it fluffier. i will make more bread tomorrow. that is, make the dough tomorrow and the bread the day after. got it now.

surprisingly, earl the dog is sleeping on the couch, next to me, at the moment. this is surprising because is suggests that my outfitting him with the latest in neckkerchief fashion did not upset him.

and why would it? this is a very nice gift grandma sent. [hehe. i do think my mom reads this.] and very thoughtful. and despite grandpa's concern [i hope my stepdad reads this, too?], earl the dog doesn't find his new kerchief ridiculous. and i am sure he knows that it says 'mommy's darling' on the heart.
kerchief is a wonderful word. not to be brought out of fashion. i shall use it henceforth.
also funny: calling someone a folding chair. in a funny, endearing way. my german humor.
also to be used again henceforth by me is the word saftladen. it is german for 'juice store'. i contemplated the word's origin as i drove out of the garage today. there was something i wanted to get a costco and contemplated saying 'what a saftladen!' at the register if they didn't have it. i could even say 'what a juice store', and no one might be offended.
i think juice stores were perceived to be little, unsophisticated enterprises, hence the use of the word. of course, this phrase likely stems from the pre-jambajuice era. come to think of it, germany is stil in that era.

one more thing before i retreat to bed.
i must boast about the vegetable garden. as of yet it is largely without vegetables, but i hope that will change. i took the photos on sunday so i aspire to, from now on, post new ones every sunday so you, my valued readers, can vicariously grow vegetables through me. if they will grow.

the plants only get about an hour of sun a day. while this might not strike one as much or even enough, i hope the plants will appreciate it when it's 90 degrees or hotter and they will only have to stand direct sunlight for an hour a day. besides, there is lots of indirect sunlight [i tell myself, i don't know if the plants care; what am i saying, if the seeds care] and everywhere else things are already planted. i'm not one for tomato plants between rosebushes, i'm one for a neat vegetable garden.
that's why i built these raised beds.

this one from a long board of dubious origin that i found in the garage. it had velcro all along one side. my sweetheart didn't know what it was for. so, it was for a flower bed. i sawed it into two each 30" and 20" pieces. with a previously unused, sharp*as*shit saw i found in the garage. yes, a saw, see above, i know, i know. but i wore protective fabric gardening gloves. safe, i know. does anyone have a spare pair of
these?

and then there was no other board but i wanted to make another raised bed. so out came the bamboo sticks i found behind a trash can [no, i don't dumpster dive and yes, apparently it is important to me to mention this] a while ago.

crafty, eh? my muscles are still sore from sawing. bamboo is a lot harder than other wood. who knew?
everyone but me, probably. the corner pillars are made from chopsticks. less because we had nothing else at home/in the garage but more because i was going for an asian themed raised bed.
[that's total baloney, of course.]

i better rest my brain now.
good night.

i'm injured

2009-03-11T09:22:00.001-07:00

i cut myself yesterday. through fault of my own. but it looks very cool.

so movielike, somewhat fake. now i walk around [i even contemplated limping], whining "i'm injured", to anyone near who will hear. in reality, that's my swweetheart. so far it has resulted in my being taken out to dinner tonight.
all right, that had been planned before. but i couldn't cook anyway because i'm injured.
:-D

i have been insufferably lazy on the blogfront recently. it's time to catch up. before i injured myself, i planted cucumbers and spinach.

the tomatoes are already outside. i'm not sure if the little ones are really getting enough sun. but soon spring will come and then, i think. up here, in the front is the spinach and in the back the cucumber plants. we have yet to tell them that we will eat their children.

a little while ago i bought some rainboots [with a target gift card i scored free of charge] and other garden stuff.

i have since much used the gloves and boots, and that pokey thing. it works very well to break up dry ground because the middle poker is longer than the rest, thus digs in first and opens the way for the other two.

i also painted the shelf in the backyard [spraypaint].

so, that's all.
i have a pillow to knit.

even though i'm injured.
i'm tough.

;)

happy birthday to me!

2009-03-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

today i the postwoman brought a package from amazon. i didn't remember ordering anything, though that's not necessarily unusual. yesterday i turned 26, and my brother was expecting the mailwoman to bring me something. so i thought, this must be it!

and sure enough, there was a surprise in it.

.. with a card! :)

.. that read:

i was happy about the package,

and even happier about what was inside!

thank you, thomas. there is no book right now that i'm crazy about, or i just haven't been in a reading mood lately. i know that will change now :-D and my sweetheart and others around me [namely earl the dog] will soon be leading a much safer and comfortable life thanks to all the fancy new skills i am about to acquire. :-D

yeahoo!

word lazy, for once

2009-02-23T20:27:00.000-08:00

i'm currently word lazy but must clear my desktop of blog*inspiring photos, so here comes a photo*focused blog*entry.

the lamp! that's where i left off.
i bought a lamp a few weeks ago.
that's although i have a lamp:

and according to my thrifty disposition, there's no need to buy a lamp when i already have one. but, i, too, fell prey to the fangs of consumerism. a more romantic wording: i fell in love with a lamp. a little more realistic wording: this lamp has the potential to continuously delight me, a criteria that must be fulfilled for any purchase, even more so if it is expensive. that's subjective, of course. and here's the lamp i paid 50 dollars for:

oh, the fabric of the shade. and the foot of the lamp, that looks so much like real wood. this lamp does continuously delight me.

a postlude [not the right word, is it?] to my last entry. every time i have since used the FREEMAN face mask i have had the time of my life peeling it off. it looks like i am peeling off a layer of my skin! and afterward, my skin looks clean and good. [not that it doesn't most of the time. i am lucky to have clear skin.]

i have made quite a few things that i haven't really posted about, actually. didn't post a photo of my apron yet, and not of the wire eiffel tower. but we will get there. i will. now i'll just post the recipe card pouch i sewed for chad. i hope he likes the recipes, too, of course. and maybe finds someone to cook them for him :-D

one day i cooked a deeelicious spinach marinara sauce in the slow cooker. this was after we went to olive garden, i inquired about the meat they served [were the animals happy?] and ate spaghetti marinara when even the manager couldn't give a fully informed answer. the marinara sauce was most tasty. then, that very same week, allrecipes.com sent me a recipe for a spinach marinara sauce. quite possibly the best i ever ate, better than olive garden's even.

that was the sauce before it was slow cooked. after, it tasted like it looked now.

i worked in the garden a bit. before i did this strip looked like what you can see far off [oh yeah, far off, about 10 yards far off] in the photo.

i hope there will be vegetables growing between the stones and the schilfgrass some time this spring. but before i could sow them it rained a lot. glad i hadn''t sowed any yet.

maybe i should rather grow rice?

BOO for OLAY!

2009-02-11T21:14:00.000-08:00

that company sucks big time.
just weeks ago i tried a new moisturizer. olay. spf 15. great price-product relationship.

and you know why?

because it was tested on animals!

emotionally stunted, cruel, fancy-face-image-but-ass-underneath company.
i found this out when we today received our drugstore.com order. on the FREEMAN Facial Mask I had ordered it said, "Not tested on animals."
interesting, I thought, I wonder if OLAY tests on animals. so i google and find this wonderful website. for caring consumers.
i'm really pissed that olay tests on animals. pissed also because i fell for the pretty-smooth-face and soft language image.

i could always go back to neutrogena, even though their lotion with spf burnt when it got into my eyes. i guess the animals didn't tell them that? because NEUTROGENA also tests on animals!
see above.
"emotionally stunted, cruel, fancy-face-image-but-ass-underneath company."

for some reason, i found neutrogena to be trustworthy. as i did ROC.
scratch that. they test on animals, too.

apparently, clinique doesn't.
but you can find out who doesn't by going to caringconsumer.com or browsing the 'green and natural' category at drugstore.com. any product labeled 'natural' has not been tested on animals, according to the website. i hope they don't lie. but you can always research once you find a product.

it's not that olay lied to me. they didn't. i simply assumed they didn't test on animals. the thought didn't even occur to me.
that's brand imaging for you.

yuck!

the lamp

2009-01-30T20:39:00.000-08:00

i suppose i will tell things chronologically and keep the best till the end. the lamp.

remember the wind bags i baked last night?
well, my <3 and i have differences in our eating preferences. i like my food hot, he not so hot. he likes soup hot, i like my soup plenty warm. he likes cake and cookies hardened by sitting on the air, i like cake moist and fresh.
so i thought i'd divide up the profiteroles. keep mine in a tupperware and his on the plate in the kitchen.
now look at the situation an hour later.

i took the tupperware into my room with me. i think there are no inhibitions when my part of food is singled out. i wouldn't have eaten all the profiteroles there are, but since they were all mine?
i have been strong and did not eat one of his.
i hope he comes home soon.
else i cannot guarantee for their survival.

when my sweetheart left for school today, i went to search for earl the dog. he usually sits by the window. but today, he had staged a coup d'etat [likely long in the making] and taken over the throne. the seat of the boss in this household.

mind that look! i think we have a new boss around here.

as for feeding the family, i made chicken soup today. two kinds, both delicious, both inexpensive.

this one is a simple chicken soup.
chicken: $1.50 [TJ's, frozen]
carrot: $0.20
celery $0.20
potato $0.30
chicken broth $0.50

that's $2.70 for two meals for two people. dinner and lunch.

i also made the homiest soup known to me. my <3 doesn't so much like thick, stewy chicken soup. but since winter is waning, i decided to make the soup anyway, in addition to the one for him, for me. plenty to freeze for colder nights.
[note that this is my favorite spoon in the household. the biggest wooden spoon we have. i like wooden spoons.]

i got the recipe for 'grandma's chicken dumpling soup' from our friend paula in minnesota. i don't know if the recipe is from paula's or mike's family, but i know that it will always remind me of a safe, cozy week in stacy, minnesota. at minus 18 degrees celsius outside and snow, snow, snow. i haven't seen that much snow since skiing in austria. very beautiful. i felt sick for a day there, spent it in bed dozing and sleeping until i came down into the kitchen. paula had just made this heavenly soup and i sat at the counter and ate a bowl, or two. oh, the dumplings. this is the soup of all soups.

i must eat another bowl before continuing this entry. excuse me.

sou. the soup was followed by bread with chocolate.
the soup, by the way, greatly satisfied the 1958 resourceful housewife within me. the chicken was actually turkey, left over from thanksgiving. i had frozen two wings and a leg. took it out this morning to thaw and the fumbled off all the meat there was. the meat was thus free, the turkey -bought last year- long amortized.
besides turkey, i used for the soup
chicken broth $0.30
carrot + celery $0.40
the potato was already cubed, frozen, i had cut too much a few weeks ago for another dish. also amortized. [yes, i am proud to know this fancy word.] same goes for potato in the chicken soup, actually.
1 can cream of mushroom soup $0.80
1 can cream of chicken soup $1 [these prices are estimated]
i threw in the pepper and bay leaf for free. [hehe. i did actually throw those into the soup kettle, got it?]
as for the dumplings, i used two egg whites [instead of one whole egg] left over from yday's baking. also amortized. (..) half whole wheat flour, half regular flour. $0.60 for the flours. $0.05 for the baking powder, $0.05 for the butter and $0.20 for milk.

that's $3.40 for a lot of chicken dumpling soup. the dumblings [i just caught this spelling mistake in the proof reading. it cracks me up so much i have to leave it in.] are quite big and filling. swell. bring on the recession.
[just kidding, of course. in case the universe is watching and -behold- acting upon curses and wishes i mumble.

now, the lamp! i think i will blog about the lamp tomorrow. it deserves its own blog entry and this one was taken over by chicken soups. they deserve it, too, though. and i deserve to sleep under my down comforter tonight. cozy goodness.

around here

2009-01-29T21:38:00.000-08:00

no kidding! she titles another post 'around here'? is that all she does, hang 'around there', wherever that is?

yes, and she loves it.
i took photos again and shall follow their lead.
two days ago, i think it was, we woke up to a foggy, early morning. my <3 woke me up upon my repeated demand. he says he doesn't like waking me [for various reasons; i am at my crankiest in the morning being one of them] [ha, just kidding], but when he feels like not getting up after waking, he makes coffee and shares a cup with me. that is, we both have our own cups due to different coffee modification preferences and an abundance [2+] of coffee cups in the house. anyway, i don't like to move much, or quickly, in the morning, but had to get the camera to take a photo of the trees in the fog. i heart fog.

does it not look like we live in a countryish area? beautiful deception, no? the phallic chimney in the bottom left corner of the photo tells the truth. but the neighborhood is safe, quiet, and tree*laden, obviously. nicely so.

when i moved in, i brought two birds of paradise with me. either has yet to blossom [is that grammatically correct for 'neither blossomed yet'?] but since we moved here, one quickly grew a new leaf. relatively quickly, seems like it only took three weeks. the other one is growing much more slowly despite same age, same size pot. it stands in a colder corner of the house, as my darling noticed, so i moved it to a warmer area and we'll see if it grows faster there.
the new leaf of the early bloomer [is there such a thing?] unrolled last night or this morning [had to help it along, it ripped in the middle] and is sporting three different greens. pretty, isn't it?

since the last blog, i also painted afresh three kitchen cabinet doors, one drawer, and surroundings. unfortunately i didn't take before pictures. but they look anew now. of course, i unscrewed handles and hinges, then washed and sanded the parts before painting. i learned that from my dad, do it right if you're doing it. actually, that lesson also came from my stepdad. i remember him taking off layers of old wallpaper in a room before putting new wallpaper on. that might have been a room in our house, or the room next to the bathroom in my grandma's house, second floor. it looked like a sh*tload of work, but he said the new wallpaper would just come off later if it wasn't put up correctly, directly onto the wall.

i only washed but didn't sand the little table i sprayed blue a couple of days ago. there was no paint coming off and one clean coat on it, except for the top which i did sand. and i even took before pictures!

and here is the after picture. makes me rather happy.

and, while my sweetheart spent his evening at the college teaching, i spent some time on baking something that just made him [and - who am i kidding - me] rather happy:

the dessert book that i took the recipe from [thanks denise, superb christmas gift! :)] calls these pieces profiteroles. apparently, that seems to be their name, at least if they also have a chocolate glaze. in german, they're called wind bags. i'm still searching for the meaning of the word 'profiterole'. i'd like to find it before they're all eaten ;)
so, am not finding anything. does anyone know where the word derives from? i want to know what it means. not just choux pastry. i want to knooooow. ich will ich will ich will!
maybe it will come to me while i eat a few more.

nope, it came from an ink*and*paper dictionary. the oxford american dictionary and thesaurus. MY oxford american dictionary and thesaurus. with dedication on the first page. by me. to me. anywho, profiterole is a diminuitive of the noun 'profit' which means -surprise, surprise- 'profit'. still not sure how that happened. maybe i am supposed to sell them?
this goes to show that books are much trustier than the world wide web. probably just a fad, anyway, this internet thing.

stupid things people do in movies

2009-01-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

you could also call them 'ununderstandable things', or rather, "unfigureoutable things".

i am watching a german movie right now, in the style of rosamunde pilcher films. i am not sure if anyone but women over forty in england or germany know those movies.
1. cheesy
2. figureoutable
3. happy ending

i can only take such a movie once a month, or less often. the joy lies in my making fun of what i find funny, out aloud, since i am home alone.
for example, the general manager of a fancy hotel in kapstadt, south africa [of course, we are exotic..], charming all women yet a bachelor, and usually wearing a slightly crumpled linen jacket. understands the culture there [of course] and is always very helpful in showing female, single tourists around. of course. yet he isn't a sleezeball, he is a really good guy. lone wolf.

anywho, what inspired this entry is the following: thirty years ago, there were two brothers. jonathan and the other brother. their dad died, they inherit the winery. jonathan has an offer to go to australia and work for a winery there. he wants to see the world, so he leaves and won't have any of his inheritance. jonathan has a girlfriend, though. they split when he leaves and the girlfriend marries the other brother and works the winery with him.
now, thirty years later, jonathan comes back. to make up with his brother. but his brother has died, there remain the brother's wife [jonathan's ex] and her son, trying to keep the winery afloat.
turns out that the son is really jonathan's son [of course!]. and here comes the unfigureoutable:
when the ex found out that she was pregnant 30 years ago, jonathan had just gotten the offer to go to australia. and because he was "so full of life" and excited to go, THE EX DID NOT TELL JONATHAN THAT SHE WAS PREGNANT.
pah!
pah!
because she knew he would have stayed.
samma, such bullshit! such pseudo-heroic altruism.
a martyr, for thirty years, because naturally, the ex never stopped loving jonathan. [and guess who will get back together in about twenty minutes?] not to mention that she didn't even give jonathan the choice to be in his son's life. i'm no man but i imagine that would piss me off.

what else do people do in movies, things that are unfigureoutable?
they don't speak up. imagine the following situation: person b finds out that person a cheated on her/him. that's what it seems like, at least. person b is infuriated to have been cheated on and quits her job, books a flight to an undisclosed location and packs her bags, leaving only a sour note to person a.
person a comes home, reads the note and rushes to the airport in hopes of stopping person b. person a finds person b standing in line to board the plane [nevermind security checks now, i'm going for the dramatic, last-minute moment].
person a: what the fuck is going on?
person b: you know what's going on. you cheated on me. you broke my heart. i will never talk to you again.
person a: but, but...
person b hands the stewardess her boarding pass. she passes the desk and turns around one last time.
person a: i.. i... i can explain..
person b boards the plane, never to be seen again.

why did person a not say, "what are you talking about? i didn't cheat on you! i didn't do anything of that sort! we have to talk about this!"
because it's a movie and there has to be drama. sigh. some people always have to have drama in their lives, too. luckily not around me. which is, i must say, partly thanks to me. thank you, christine, for saving yourself from these people.

now back to the general manager of the hotel. he and a pretty young female vet are trapped in the wilderness, in a little hut. she sprained her ankle. he just came back from looking for the wilderers/trappers? and brought an aloe plant. yes, an aloe plant, which he broke open and smeared onto her ankle to take away the pain. ah, beautiful clichee.

the knife and the hemmer foot

2009-01-25T10:36:00.000-08:00

a pattern has evolved. i take photos of what i want to blog about, and then remember those things when i pull the photo onto my trusty mac.
today i want to finish the world's prettiest apron [the act is on, show me your pretty aprons!] and then cook in the evening. possibly go grocery shopping in between. the meal plan for next week stands.

today: kaesespaetzle. mmmmh! german favorite.
monday: veggie burgers [recipe from the g foreman grill book]
tuesday: lasagna mmmmh! christine favorite
wednesday: grilled vegetable sandwich [also g foreman]
thursday: spaghetti with a new recipe for bolognese sauce
friday: chicken soup [to oil the voice because my swweetheart is singing again in the evening]
saturday: pizza [wholewheat, of course]

later today [once i wear my apron..] i will put together the recipes and compile the master shopping list that will result in my returning from the grocery store with everything we need for the week. excluding must-be-very-fresh [as opposed to somewhat fresh?] ingredients.

so, the photos. a few days ago i made a red wine cake. recipe from chefkoch.de.

no special glaze, just powdered sugar and water. same as the glaze for yesterday's petits fours, also called 'today's breakfast'.

of course, bree vanDeKamp would raise her eyebrows at my not using dessert cups but muffin cups. unfortunately, that was all we had at home. appropriate petits four clothing is already on the shopping list.

yesterday, i believe it was, i went to look for something in the garage [a clamp, is that what it's called?], didn't find it, but sorted a great chaos of screws. oh, the neatness. beautiful. of course, i also cleaned the toolboxes in the process and sorted wrenches and pliers.now, here are the screws.

i went to look for the clamp because i gorillaglued together four left over [from building the partition] pieces of wood to create a spice rack. shelf rather. i even found hanging thingies in a drawer and thus i introduce to you, and our kitchen, the little containers for baking stuff-shelf.

i especially like the imperfection on the left. when i bought the wood at home depot, i purposely took the piece with this part in it. individuality!

and now, the knife. ever since i first thought of it today, i am looking forward to chopping onions with it tonight. oh, they will be in rings for the spaetzle. ah, never you mind, still need to be cut. chopping things, my new hobby.

does anyone need anything chopped? german steel, glass hardened [whatever that means...], made in china. bought at bed bath & beyond for 12.99, discounted from 19.99. preferred that to the rachael ray chopping knife [which i originally wanted to get there] because it was 17.99 and because i have read this one rachael ray everyday magazine issue and cannot live with a knife that might call me 'girlfriend'. i need a serious knife. because chopping is serious business! ask the mob.

now, the hemmer foot. i accidentally found it, a week or so ago. i was searching through the sewing machine stuff i have, and there is was. an odd looking foot with a curl in the front. i looked through the manual and learned it was a hemmer foot.
a hemmer foot! you feed the edge of the fabric into the front and this marvelous gadget rolls it so that when the needle comes, it is neatly [have i meantioned i love neat things?] folded and can be sewn into a grade a hem.

and now, off to sew i go.

garden work and where the craft happens

2009-01-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

gardening is keeping me away from the blog.
for ones who know me, or have known me in the past [most specifically people who have asked me to do yardwork], this might sounds like a lame*brained excuse.
'tisn't!

i have been doing yard work, and thoroughly enjoying it. garden work, that is. i believe i wanted to call it garden instead of yard because it sounds a little more european and castle*ish. so, i have been doing garden work.roses are all pruned now. as in: i cut off branches growing through the middle of the plant and too far out of line; not as in: i dug out the rosebush and put it back in its spot upside down. my brother thomas suggested that's what it looked like. so, to clarify, i haven't done that.

today i, ahem, groomed, a tree that gave me more scratches than all the rosebushes combined. it has a round crown and there was much dead wood inside. my sense of order required that i pull that out. also, i am convinced new sprouting will be fostered by room for air and sun. anyway, i held some topiary scissors for the first time today. i am a bloody beginner. not literally, mind you.
the green trash can is already full fuller fullest and won't be emptied until tuesday. oh well.
today, i went to lowe's and bought cucumber and bell pepper seeds. furthermore a camelia [the one plant whose name i just might be able to remember now] and ten bags of top soil to even out the rosebush beds. of course, i will first have to loosen the existing top soil a bit before i mix the new top soil in there.

long story short [as if], i have no crafty pictures to show. [go visit madeitmyself.com - you can click on the link to the left. speaking of left, obama is president! yeahoooooo!]
so as to not leave you without any photo, here is the window in the paris room, where the craft happens.

curtain: 50 cents, goodwill
green shelf: 3 dollars, goodwill
turtle pot: 2 dollars, yard sale
green pot: 1.50, estate sale
pink pot: a dollar, thrift store
e: 25 cents, thrift store
yellow pot: free, at school
black pots and cacti: 99 cents each at the 99cents*only*store

around here

2009-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

things are peachy around here.
my stomach is filled with vanilla black tea and i have another hour before company arrives. so, a blog entry is in order. i started composing it today while pruning roses, but of course don't remember what i wrote. haha.
here is the rosebush before christine scissorhands..

and after.. don't worry, we anticipate it looking bloomy and happy soon.

when i raked the bed after pruning the rosebush [in my defense, much of what you can see in the before picture was already dead; note: dead rose thorns still poke], i saw two earthworms. the discovery of each was proclaimed by me with an "ohmygod, ihopeididn'thurtyou!" luckily, i hadn't, as closer inspection showed. the worms reminded me of this german commercial:

so darling. our garden is a safe haven for earthworms. they will not be eaten by daring little children or sold to fishing men who spear and then drown them. i think a sign to that effect is in order, so that worms know. they will, anyway, after they read this blog. then migrate to our garden and keep the soil loose and themselves safe and happy.

yesterday, i finished my third quilt. even though it will be a to date undisclosed gift, i shall post photos. i don't assume anyone reads my musing because no one ever leaves a comment! [crystal, thomas, you're not no one. if you're reading this at all and are offended ;)]
so, here it is.

and a pretty singer spool. i am fascinated by its simpleness. looks so promising, comforting, and confident, full of blue thread.

the thread is now part of the quilt.
the cookies are now in my swweetheart's stomach.

actually, not all of them. some are also in my stomach. if earl the dog had had his way, a piece would be in his stomach now, too. but not so if christine is around. i think now earl is eyeing the rest of the cookies on the windowsill, trying to concoct a masterplan to get to them.

it is possible that this plan involves bribing ants to carry the cookies out in pieces, lay them out for earl to put back together and eat. or eat without putting them together. but
1. the ants can't get into the jar because of a rubbery thing around the lid, and
2. i don't know what earl would bribe the ants with.

also safe from ants [and earl] is the zebra cake for tonight's dinner desert.

because it is in my stomach! moooohahaharr!

[no. it's in the oven.]

[this always brings down a criminal. the urge to confess.]

happiness!

2009-01-16T22:39:00.001-08:00

i am having one of the most peaceful afternoons in a while. not that my life isn't usually peaceful, but today is pure bliss. mostly due to the spring weather. it is a springy 19 degrees celsius outside. that's 67 fahrenheit. i opened the window right next to my sewing machine corner, am sewing and watching a movie. happiness!

now it's tenn thirdy-ait pee emm and time to go to bed. nice day this was. be back tomorrow.

2nd finished quilt and chocolate santas

2009-01-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

my brother made a valid point: if i think like i wrote, i should become a vegetarian. for now, though, i stick with meat from happy animals, trusting trader joe's and whole foods. speaking of whole foods, my roommate denise [not roommate anymore now, but she will always be my roommate in my <3] style="text-align: center;">

this time, thanks to amanda jean's tutorial, i was able to sew on the binding on the back without visible stitching.
even though the front colors are snazzy n all, i like the back better right now. might have just seen the front too much.

the back was once a bed sheet i found at the goodwill. pretty, pretty. i could have cut it so that the flowers go through to the right edge, but didn't notice that and have learned to like imperfections because striving for perfections is much too stressful :)

tonight we're eating quiche. i'm already excited. the last time i made quiche was after i returned from student exchange in france, 10 years ago, and made it for my dad. it turned out rather soggy and imperfect but my dad ate it anyway. thanks, dad. but ten years ago, i cooked without a recipe. this time, i have one. from 'real simple', one of my favorite magazines. as opposed to ladies' home journal, much too conservative [read: republican] for me. or everyday, but we just ended that conversation ;)

and now, on to writing down the pattern for the next quilt and cutting fabric. yeahoo! bought two days ago at joann's. fabric for the next quilt and the one after that. pattern already lined up in my head, too. for the first one, and vaguely for the second one. but since they will be surprise quilts, i am not at liberty to show them here. as in, if you went to liberty at this moment, i wouldn't be there.

there was something else i really wanted to write, but forgot. then remembered again and now forgot again. but cutting fabric is more important, anyway.

edit: after blowing an ant off my left hand, i remembered: the batting i used for this quilt! revolutionary! i used batting made from recycled plastic bottles. it feels much better than i imagine polyester batting feels, very soft. i ordered it from quilternatives. it arrived here within four days or so, very fast, just in time so i didn't have to pause my quilting. i debated [with myself, of course] whether i prefer cotton batting or quilter's dream green [that's the one with plastic bottles]. i like natural material, but growing cotton sucks something out of the earth whilst the bottle batting doesn't. then again, melting the bottle chips and turning them into batting surely emits emissions and is bad for the earth, again. but i think it is still the better choice.

a regular renegade

2009-01-10T16:50:00.000-08:00

more from 'rach':
[no, this will not become a habit, after all i only have one issue of the magazine]

"THINGS THAT DON'T COUNT AFTER DARK
- Eating seconds of anything covered in cheese
- Eating seconds of anything"

To think that I sometimes eat cheese PURE!

IN DAYLIGHT!

breeding babies for milk

2009-01-09T18:52:00.000-08:00

there is a woman held captive in a house. with garden, albeit, outdoor privilege, if she's lucky. she is impregnated so that she will lactate once she has a baby. but the baby only gets a little bit of mom's milk. most of it is sold to others.
and the baby won't get old, it will be eaten as a young child, still tender.
or, if it's a little luckier, it will grow up, then be eaten. or be impregnated for milk, like its mom. i don't know which would be worse.

does that not sound barbaric?
would anyone support this?

but where does your milk come from?

i am not about to turn to soymilk exclusively quite yet. but surely sticking with the milk of women who have a happy life. according to foster farms dairy, that is. i hope they're not lying to me.

this is how the blog thing usually works, by the way: christine complains about something, swweetheart says, 'that's a blog', and it becomes a blog.
well, not usually, occasionally.

so happened today at dinner. i had been looking through a complimentary issue of everyday with rachael ray. after the first few pages i contemplated letting this freebie morph into a subscription, but was soon thereafter cured. i don't like the tone. the referring to rachael ray as 'rach' and the writers pretending to be all bosom*buddies with me. any minute now, i expect the magazine to flutter up into the air and call me 'girlfriend'.

furthermore the writers [i'm quite confident 'rach' isn't one of them. understandably, she has more things going on. which means she probably doesn't know, let alone love everyone who reads her magazine. yet she ends her note in the beginning with 'love, rachael ray'.]
what was i saying? the writers, yes, they seem to be part of the female population who is constantly on a diet. who don't eat what they want. might i quote:

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
An excuse to devour every food on our "only in moderation" list and not be judged for it? Touchdown!

people around you judge you for what you eat? really? time to find new friends, i'd say. or become estranged from some family members.

here's a secret uncovered: a diet to lose 5 pounds is total baloney. five pounds! that's nothing. either you look quite good already or it would be healthy to lose more than five pounds. five pounds, that's the difference of having pooped or not.
except for earl the dog, of course. five pounds of earl is half of earl.

and now, off to finish the chocolate ice cream.

love,

christine

what i did yesterday + endangered: the eiffel tower

2009-01-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

besides making a delicious spinach*potato*egg salad from the whole*foods magazine, that is.

it's called 'folded page art' and the idea didn't grow on my manure. but it's mucho fun to do. don't let the bad quality of the picture fool you, it looks mighty cool.

since i cleaned the keyboard on my beloved ibook, the space bar sometimes sticks. or, doesn't let itself be hit easily. so that i have to really hit it. i either have to remember that [fat chance] or go back and hit it again. or adjust all my typing to hit harder. and i cannot stand that! i always feel for keyboards when i see people fingerhammer onto their keys. they're little plastic plates, you brute, tender, tender! so i type rather lightly. i suppose the space bar and i will just have to get used to one another.
rather, i get used to it.

what i also don't like: people not bagging their own stuff at the grocery store when there is only one clerk for scanning and bagging.
what is that? are you too good to bag your own groceries?
1. people in line have to wait much longer because some [male or female] doof stares a hole in the air while the cashier scans her items and they fill up the bagging area.
2. it is very incosiderate to the clerk, too. excuse me, to the associate. heshe has to scan and bag, all whilst the shit*don't*stink customer looks around. and doesn't move until herhis bags have been lifted into the cart.

hello?
i must say that i'm also used to different behavior because you have to bag your own stuff in germany. and you better be quick because the bagging area is not big.
but even if you're used to having someone bag your stuff for you: when you're standing there, staring, does the thought of bagging your own items not even occur to you?

i'm not in a bad mood, according to some1 this was just worthy blogging about. *wink* [i cannot wink any other way than *this* because i cannot wink in real life. sad but true. is it sad, really?]

on to quilting. i have started cutting fabric for a 'real', not ragged quilt. that's no fun! lots to cut, first of all. then, i used a mat and a rotary cutter. that absolutely does not work for me. pushing the cutter into the mat is the same feeling i have when really trying to bite another human [don't ask]. i just cannot do it. there is an inhibition that keeps me from it, like other people cringe when chalk screeches on a board. i cannot hurt the cutting board.

all right, all right, about the human flesh biting. when i was growing up, my dad would practice self defense with me. trying to teach me how to hurt someone else to get away. pinch, hit, bite really hard. needless to say, i couldn't possibly bite my dad. i can rather bite myself [yes, i did just try] but only because i feel when it hurts and when there will be damage. and the cutting mat doesn't tell me.

do, back to cutting with scissors. this is even more fun because with the singer sewing machine from my past roommate selena came these fabulous 'gingher' german scissors. here shown trying to cut off the tip of the eiffel tower.

(staged photo)
[haha.]

tutorial: how to seriously clean your keyboard

2009-01-05T10:19:00.000-08:00

driving back from santa rosa yesterday, a little yogurt cup fell from the dashboard onto my mac' keyboard and popped off the 6 and the 7. no problem, i thought, i'll pop them back on. it was a little too shaky in the car, though, so i waited until we were home again.
at home then, on the clean white kitchen countertop, i saw how dirty my keyboard was under the keys. an insufferable infiltration and perpetration of the mac's keyboard, by hair and fuzzy stuff, that began with an invasion the day i first unpacked the mac, some three years ago. hey, really. congratulations, my little 12-inch, we've been together for three years now.
i feared that i would eventually step on you since you often spent time on my student room's floor. didn't happen. i didn't spill anything on you, either, but you fell from my arms once and off the chair once. now you close a little crookedly, but who am i to talk?
it was about time i cleaned you thoroughly. and here is how that happened:

i carefully popped off the row of numbers to clean. then put it back on. the popped off the top row of letters. started cleaning it, then remembered to make a tutorial out of it.
to take off a key, push down the key over it and pop off the top part of the key you're taking off first. then slide it off the hooks downward. this is not very well worded. drop a cup of yogurt on your keyboard and look at the mechanism that holds the keys to the board, once a key popped off.
since this is america: i am solely chronicling how i cleaned my keyboard, do you not dare to break yours and say it's my fault! this is not even a suggestion, there is no guarantee, i am not liable for anything and whatnot. there you have it.

so, keys popped off. i suggest you take off two rows at a time so you can clean the space between them better, but if you want to take off all the keys at once and puzzle at the end, your choice. i recommend taking a picture of the keyboard first.

here you see fuzzy stuff on the left, cleaned on the right.

take eyebrow tweezers [or pubic hair tweezers, whatever you use/have handy...] and pull out the fuzz/hair between the key nipples and underneath the key holding mechanisms. works better if you lift the plastic a bit with the tweezers.

and there we have it, the three year old fuzz. nyuck.

once the hardware dirt is tweezed out, dip a q*tip into rubbing alcohol and rub the spaces in between the key nipples.

after i did that with all the keys except the cursor keys on the bottom right and the function keys, i had this on the counter:

and now look at the spaces between the keys:

i believe this is the mac equivalent to getting a diamond facial skin abrasion, or whatever fancy shebang it is that they do in spa places these days.

is it time to clean your keyboard, too?
or is it time for you to call me so i can clean your keyboard for $30?
it's your choice.

the first quilt!

2009-01-02T09:35:00.000-08:00

done! finished!
here it is.

50" x 42". i followed the instructions here. thanks to amanda jean for the instructions. my first quilt ever, and made possible without a class or in*person help because of her ragged squares quilt instructions. it was so much fun, i don't see why i should ever make a quilt other than a ragged squares one :)
but i will, since whilst i was sewing together squares, i already started planning the next quilts for dear people, who would like which color, and so on.
i created a new picture folder '2009' today, and the first folder in that folder: 'quilts'. how happy that makes me! the folder, virgin*like almost, to be filled with photos by quilt i will make. the next one will be blue. i think. i am so happy and excited about this new steckenpferd, i am practically in love with making quilts.

here is a photo of the mushroom yesterday, and one taken just a few minutes ago. note the little mushrooms next to it. tragic.

not quite as tragic is that i my sweetheart wasn't here at midnight two days ago. he came home soon after, but the only one available for me to kiss was, much to his dismay, earl the dog.

happy new year, earl!

i believe that's it today. we will start out road trip in about half an hour. that should leave me enough time to eat the minimum amount of crescent rolls before.
i look forward to the drive. i won't be driving and i can look, enjoy, listen, talk, read or cross stitch. i am in heaven. must be.

monde*intact

lebensfreid

butterfingers and figjam

crab apple jelly party

i apologize…

naturally, wills and kate.

yahoo!

ehrenWORT

entertainment + funeral

the world must know

funny you'd ask...

1,000 words that are worth a picture

feeneeesh'd! fäddisch!

project!

of paintings and pineapples

the power of organic gardening magazine

kindle cover tutorial

then and now

he made me do it

stick it to the man

my current joy

a week's work

an educational video

on my sheetlist: betty crocker

squeakingly happy

shitweather-tea

für die lieblingstante

the visual expansion of the patio

this is not a photography blog.

for the lieblingstante

"now can come what want" [i.e. spring]

today's outfit [i'm gonna have to get more creative here]

today's outfit

today's outfit

style blogs and their effect

indulging one last time before monday

shalom, wallpaper + my private secretary

3 things i'm grateful for

today

whatever works

the biggest household help

surprise interview

i, unposed.

ten grey hairs and a pumpkin

meet the octo-chin

how i read

Once Upon a Time in Central City, Colorado

frisur natur

frisur natur

the dollartree loves me

red silk wrap pants + grape nuts

WANTED: copy editor at 'taste of home'

how i lose things

feliz navidad!

1-2-3-4 döleddnbabbia

living in fresno

what makes me happy *sipsip*

just one post, with photos, for anke.

the dollhouse

åmoaree

fraternal copyright issues?

26 years, 3 months, 25 days

a compassionate world begins with you.

homo homini lupus est.

caterpillar caviar and an homage to aunt lisbeth

how our kitchen became sophisticated

bedouin tent garden

delicious bread

books by color

i bet you've all been tense as a flitzebogen..

paradise.

i'm injured

happy birthday to me!

word lazy, for once

BOO for OLAY!

the lamp

around here

stupid things people do in movies

the knife and the hemmer foot

garden work and where the craft happens

what makes me happy sipsip