I had brunch with my friend Hannah last week at the delectable buffet provided by The Blue Room in Cambridge (http://theblueroom.net/main.html). "You know", Hannah said, "I need a new hobby. How about world domination?" "Hmmmh", I responded, "how about I teach you knitting instead?" Maybe a hobby was not exactly what we were looking for at the time either, more something that would add a little balance to our lives, which for no apparent reason seem to spin out of control on occasion. "Maybe I should take up meditation" Hannah mumbled in between taking bites out of a plate-size egg-white omelet. Now, if there is one truth in the world at large, it is that Hannah and I are not the meditating kind. No sir. There are meditators, and then there is us. We need to move, think, do. The thought of sitting quietly somewhere, doing the "om", it won't work. I have tried, and while my body might be negotiated into sitting still for a reasonable amount of time (say 3 minutes), my mind would be going in six million directions at the same time, like a slinky on steroids.
That's why I miss running so much, perfect for non-meditators like Hannah and myself. You run a few miles, exhaust your body and clear your mind. A whopping six months of being injured and giving in to a certain amount of sloth is not good for the mind either. Enter New Year's Resolution, the Vegetable with Vegetable Diet and a solid promise to go and work out. I did make it to the gym once this week, spending one hour on the exercise bike, not because I was motivated, but because I got sucked into watching a special episode of MTV Cribs featuring the most expensive "pads" money can buy. First place went to billionaire Richard Branson, who lives on an island and hides Maria Carey in his guest house (where else would you keep her?), and second place to my old favorite Wayne Newton. I have to say though I was appalled how messy the playboy mansion was (the man is a pack rat)!!!, even though there is a certain outmoded charm to Hugh Heffner.
This weekend I squeezed most of my plans in one day, and pulled myself out of bed at 5 AM yesterday morning in order to go skiing in New Hampshire. Since there was no one on the road but myself and a few other crazies, I made it up there in 2 hours flat, and was on the slopes before 9 AM. It was a beautiful day to ski - moderately cold, the sun came out for a little while, and only on the quad lift did it get a little nippy. Skiers were out in full force, and by the afternoon the slopes were filled to the brim. My friend Rick, his sister Sally and I skied up a storm, had lunch at the Sunnyside Lodge, and later on retreated to the Simmons condo in Waterville, where the rest of the family slowly trudged in after their day of fun in the snow. Rick's nieces Emily, Michaela, Caroline, Lucy and Clara, and his nephew Henry were also on the slopes with us, and let me tell you, those youngsters can ski!! I would not dare to go anywhere near the trails they hang out on. I did decent in the morning except for one incident where one of those little ski camp brats nailed me and send me flying into the snow ("Very graceful", Rick said). By early afternoon though my legs were sore and tired, and I tumbled all over the place. Time to pack it up.
After a little social time with the Simmonses in Waterville, I headed back to Boston in order to attend Burns Night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_Night) at my Scottish friends and running mates Mike and Vivienne's place. Their place was hoppin' with Scots and Scottish wannabes, whisky aficionados and other hangers-on. You may know Robbie Burns, as he is affectionately called by his countrymen and women, from our favorite New Year's eve song "Auld Lang Syne" and of course his stellar poetry. There are certain traditions that need to be upheld during a Burns supper - In our case we started with a good old party, mix and mingle, during which the hosts served the strangely named but most stellar tasting smoked fish chowder Cullen Skink (Mike, this soup rocked!) (http://littlefancies.blogspot.com/2006/01/cullen-skink-or-smoked-fish-chowder.html) . This was followed by a musical interlude featuring first two Scottish lasses named Lindsay playing Jazz music and then Vivienne, hostess extraordinaire, who played a rousing round of the bag pipes. The traditional part started off with the official blessing poem (also known as the Selkirk grace) "Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it; But we hae meat, and we can eat, Sae let the Lord be thankit. " Now, in comes the Haggis, the centerpiece of the night. Haggis, how to describe it - tastes much better than it sounds for starters. A cornucopia of a sheep's inner organs (heart, liver. lungs, whatever else they can find) is minced with spices, onions, oatmeal, fat and boiled in either a sheep's stomach or some kind of a casing for three hours. Traditionally it is served with "neeps and tatties" (turnips and potatoes, mashed separately).
Next step is to put the Haggis on the center table, and the host (Mike) reads the Burns Poem "Ode Tae a Haggis" - a ten verse homage to the blessed food. In verse one the Haggis is adored ("Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!, Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace As lang's my arm."), in verse 3, it is cut ("His knife see rustic Labour dicht, An' cut you up wi' ready slicht, Trenching your gushing entrails bricht, Like ony ditch; And then, O what a glorious sicht, Warm-reekin, rich!"), and verse 4 describes how everyone rushes to the table to eat it. Mike bravely read 4 verses in both Scottish and English, and segued nicely to the traditional whisky toast. I did like the Haggis very much and actually went for seconds. I am not going to tell you it tastes like chicken, because that is definitely not the case. Find our yourself, will ya?
What else happened this week? Monday night I volunteered at the running club for track bingo (nice to be the person with the stop watch) and Thursday night I joined fellow Community Runners Brian, Hillary, Joao, and new friend Elena for Trivia Night at the Newtowne Grille at Porter Square. This is pretty cool (http://www.trailsideentertainment.com/stump_howtoplay.asp). Dozens of teams sit around tables, and answer questions posed by the hostess with the annoying voice. Who knew that Grandmaster Flash was born on Barbados, the Island of Flying Fish? My life is so much richer for knowing just that. We did have a good time, and came in better than average. Life was good.
It is Sunday, I just finished my citizenship application, which I will send off this week, and now it is time to go load up some photos. Tomorrow is a holiday here in the US of A and I will meet up with some girl friends to do girly things. There you have it.
Ciao for now,
pet:)
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
#32 Boston - The Aftermath of Gluttony- January 13th 08
Back in Boston and dealing with the aftermath of my gluttonous behavior over the month of December into the New Year. I have not touched a drink of alcohol since New Year’s Eve, and really don’t feel like it, and like so many others have embarked on a healthy eating spree, the so-called “Vegetable with Vegetable Sauce” diet. My good friend Stephanie actually came up with that one - and I for a moment may have considered it, but somehow “broccoli with broccoli sauce” is just not the world’s most enticing menu option.
Exercising is the key factor here, and for the past few days my wretched right heel has been feeling somewhat better following the purchase of some new sneakers and inserts, and maybe we - I are finally on the way to complete recovery. My friend Joo in New Zealand has invited me to run a Half Marathon later this year with her, and since it was my plan to visit New Zealand in the fall, this may just be the right goal to have in sight. For the near future a couple of skiing day trips will do the trick as I plan to head to New Hampshire next weekend for some downhill action.
So yes, I am back in the US, with a good dose of jet lag. I had spent a wonderful and relaxing two weeks in Germany and the weekend before my departure, Martin, Marion, Andrea and I decided to go for a little excursion. Our first stop was the Vitra Museum of Design in the city of Weil - http://www.design-museum.de/index.php. Sponsored by Swiss company Vitra, the museum was established in 1989 to host traveling exhibits showcasing major design and architectural trends. Pretty cool place, and on the day of our visit, the Vitra featured an extensive exhibit on Le Corbusier, the world-famous Swiss-born-turned French architect (http://www.fondationlecorbusier.asso.fr/) . His real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, his face now graces the Swiss 10 Franc note - so we can safely assume that he did do well. He was quite the talent, aside from being a pioneer of modern architecture; he also was a painter with a noticeable love of Cubism, sculptor, and furniture designer. I first learned about Le Corbusier at my college friend Birgit’s home, where I had the pleasure to rest in his most famous furniture piece, the Chaise Longue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LeCorbusierChaise.jpg). When it comes to my personal taste of décor, I am not that into modern design, but let me tell you that is the most comfortable piece of furniture ever. Ask my friend Birgit and her family – I did not want to leave the chair, and for several moments seriously contemplated asking them to bring the meals to me there. Le Corbusier was also a big shot urban planner with the goal of creating efficient housing for crowded cities; with the Unite d”Habitation in Marseille being the most recognizable example of his work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_d%27Habitation
Next on our tour for the day was the charming town of Bad Saeckingen at the Swiss border (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/) – founded in the 6th century it has several claims to fame. First, it features the longest covered wooden bridge in Europe (200 meters) (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/index.php?o=bad-saeckingen&n=5) - walking along it one crosses from Germany into Stein, Switzerland. Second is the famous story of the “Trumpeter of Saeckingen”, written in 1854 by Joseph Victor von Scheffel. A dramatic love story,of course, depicting the true tale of the romance between noble Maria Ursula von Schoenau and the castle trumpeter Franz Werner Kirchhofer. They married for love, and with their commitment broke the taboo of marrying only “within your station”. Trailblazers they were! As a result, the city is littered with references to trumpets, statues of trumpeters, trumpet repair shops, you name it.
The city itself is just wonderful – a spa town (hence the “Bad” aka “Bath” as the fist part of the name, only designated spa towns are allowed to carry this prefix)., located on the edge of the so-called Hotzenwald, it was once just a small island amidst the then-mightier Rhine River. It was first settled in the 5th century, but with the foundation of a church by Irish saint Fridolin started taking shape. Its name stems from the convent “Seckinga” established in the 9th century. The town dazzles with historic building after historic building, among them the St Fridolin’s Muenster (Dome of St Fridolin), a stunning example of gothic architecture (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Fridolingsmuenster_Saeckingen.jpg ) and Schoenau Caslte (Schloss Schoenau - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Schloss_Schoenau_Bad_Saeckingen.jpg).
The trip back to the US was uneventful, no 11 hour-layovers or other such nonsense this time. The week has gone by mercifully swift, and jet lag seems to have disappeared thanks to a few 9-hour sleep sessions. Monday night, I picked up that little housemate of mine, a yellow bird named Oscar, aka Banana Boy or Mr Meyer, and after an initial period to get reacquainted (it was pretty much him yelling at me all the way home), we are now comfortably back to our old habits (Oscar demanding food, me giving it to him just to shut him up, that sort of thing).
Tuesday night Steph and I went for a lovely dinner at Ma Soba on Cambridge Street (http://www.masobaboston.com/) for some tasty Bi Bim Bap. Wednesday, ha, following a hair cut I embarked on an involuntary two-hour odyssey hunting for my house keys all over Boston. This was Petra at her best – searching for the darn keys, making many friends along the way, including the owner of a lovely Japanese store on Charles Street. Eventually, but not before walking myself tired and almost jumping at the cabbie’s throat when he asked me “And how was your day?”, I learned of their location in the MGH Photolab, where I had deposited them mid-day for reasons yet to be explored.
I was rewarded for this obscure and tiresome experience with a lovely evening on Thursday – ushering at the Lyric State company for the off-Broadway premiere of the musical “Adrift in Macao” – written by funny man Christopher Durang, this was an absolutely histerical spoof on the Film Noir Genre (https://lyricstage.com/main_stage/adrift_in_macao/) – funny and spirited, and if you happen to have some time on you before the 3rd of February, go see it. Tons of fun!
Aside from that, I have been cooped up at home, watching episode after episode of the British spy series MI-5 (Season 2), interrupting this newfound addiction only to head out for a nice cup of hot cocoa with my good friend Elaine at Charlestown’s newest café, Zumes Coffee House on Main Street – a wonderful and cozy spot for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I am now about to head out for brunch with my dynamic and gorgeous friend Hannah – to one of my favorite places in the Boston Area - The Blue Room (http://www.theblueroom.net/main.html). Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!
Pet:)
Exercising is the key factor here, and for the past few days my wretched right heel has been feeling somewhat better following the purchase of some new sneakers and inserts, and maybe we - I are finally on the way to complete recovery. My friend Joo in New Zealand has invited me to run a Half Marathon later this year with her, and since it was my plan to visit New Zealand in the fall, this may just be the right goal to have in sight. For the near future a couple of skiing day trips will do the trick as I plan to head to New Hampshire next weekend for some downhill action.
So yes, I am back in the US, with a good dose of jet lag. I had spent a wonderful and relaxing two weeks in Germany and the weekend before my departure, Martin, Marion, Andrea and I decided to go for a little excursion. Our first stop was the Vitra Museum of Design in the city of Weil - http://www.design-museum.de/index.php. Sponsored by Swiss company Vitra, the museum was established in 1989 to host traveling exhibits showcasing major design and architectural trends. Pretty cool place, and on the day of our visit, the Vitra featured an extensive exhibit on Le Corbusier, the world-famous Swiss-born-turned French architect (http://www.fondationlecorbusier.asso.fr/) . His real name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, his face now graces the Swiss 10 Franc note - so we can safely assume that he did do well. He was quite the talent, aside from being a pioneer of modern architecture; he also was a painter with a noticeable love of Cubism, sculptor, and furniture designer. I first learned about Le Corbusier at my college friend Birgit’s home, where I had the pleasure to rest in his most famous furniture piece, the Chaise Longue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:LeCorbusierChaise.jpg). When it comes to my personal taste of décor, I am not that into modern design, but let me tell you that is the most comfortable piece of furniture ever. Ask my friend Birgit and her family – I did not want to leave the chair, and for several moments seriously contemplated asking them to bring the meals to me there. Le Corbusier was also a big shot urban planner with the goal of creating efficient housing for crowded cities; with the Unite d”Habitation in Marseille being the most recognizable example of his work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit%C3%A9_d%27Habitation
Next on our tour for the day was the charming town of Bad Saeckingen at the Swiss border (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/) – founded in the 6th century it has several claims to fame. First, it features the longest covered wooden bridge in Europe (200 meters) (http://www.badische-seiten.de/bilder/bad-saeckingen/index.php?o=bad-saeckingen&n=5) - walking along it one crosses from Germany into Stein, Switzerland. Second is the famous story of the “Trumpeter of Saeckingen”, written in 1854 by Joseph Victor von Scheffel. A dramatic love story,of course, depicting the true tale of the romance between noble Maria Ursula von Schoenau and the castle trumpeter Franz Werner Kirchhofer. They married for love, and with their commitment broke the taboo of marrying only “within your station”. Trailblazers they were! As a result, the city is littered with references to trumpets, statues of trumpeters, trumpet repair shops, you name it.
The city itself is just wonderful – a spa town (hence the “Bad” aka “Bath” as the fist part of the name, only designated spa towns are allowed to carry this prefix)., located on the edge of the so-called Hotzenwald, it was once just a small island amidst the then-mightier Rhine River. It was first settled in the 5th century, but with the foundation of a church by Irish saint Fridolin started taking shape. Its name stems from the convent “Seckinga” established in the 9th century. The town dazzles with historic building after historic building, among them the St Fridolin’s Muenster (Dome of St Fridolin), a stunning example of gothic architecture (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Fridolingsmuenster_Saeckingen.jpg ) and Schoenau Caslte (Schloss Schoenau - http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Schloss_Schoenau_Bad_Saeckingen.jpg).
The trip back to the US was uneventful, no 11 hour-layovers or other such nonsense this time. The week has gone by mercifully swift, and jet lag seems to have disappeared thanks to a few 9-hour sleep sessions. Monday night, I picked up that little housemate of mine, a yellow bird named Oscar, aka Banana Boy or Mr Meyer, and after an initial period to get reacquainted (it was pretty much him yelling at me all the way home), we are now comfortably back to our old habits (Oscar demanding food, me giving it to him just to shut him up, that sort of thing).
Tuesday night Steph and I went for a lovely dinner at Ma Soba on Cambridge Street (http://www.masobaboston.com/) for some tasty Bi Bim Bap. Wednesday, ha, following a hair cut I embarked on an involuntary two-hour odyssey hunting for my house keys all over Boston. This was Petra at her best – searching for the darn keys, making many friends along the way, including the owner of a lovely Japanese store on Charles Street. Eventually, but not before walking myself tired and almost jumping at the cabbie’s throat when he asked me “And how was your day?”, I learned of their location in the MGH Photolab, where I had deposited them mid-day for reasons yet to be explored.
I was rewarded for this obscure and tiresome experience with a lovely evening on Thursday – ushering at the Lyric State company for the off-Broadway premiere of the musical “Adrift in Macao” – written by funny man Christopher Durang, this was an absolutely histerical spoof on the Film Noir Genre (https://lyricstage.com/main_stage/adrift_in_macao/) – funny and spirited, and if you happen to have some time on you before the 3rd of February, go see it. Tons of fun!
Aside from that, I have been cooped up at home, watching episode after episode of the British spy series MI-5 (Season 2), interrupting this newfound addiction only to head out for a nice cup of hot cocoa with my good friend Elaine at Charlestown’s newest café, Zumes Coffee House on Main Street – a wonderful and cozy spot for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I am now about to head out for brunch with my dynamic and gorgeous friend Hannah – to one of my favorite places in the Boston Area - The Blue Room (http://www.theblueroom.net/main.html). Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!
Pet:)
#31 Boston - German for Beginners, January 3, 2008
Greetings Earthlings from chilly Germany! First up, a lesson in that native tongue of mine. This may be slightly different lesson than you may be used to. This one may apply mostly to the Loesch household, and may not be used in Germany in public.
Satan (pronounce "suddun") has nothing to do with the dude with the horns and the red cape, but in my brother's house is a intentional mispronounciation of "Southern" as in "Southern Comfort", known as SoCo in my circle of friends. After my brother and his entourage discovered a somewhat abandoned bottle of the tasty stuff in my place in October, this has become one of their favorite libations to sample.
Seckel, again an intentional mispronounciation, this time deriving from "Sekt" or "Prosecco", the bubbly stuff consumed in liberal quantities around the holidays. Seckel (also Seggel) in that undecipherable Southern German dialect of mine means Idiot or bonehead and is only used to insult males. (No need to worry, we do have words for the other gender as well, no shortage here).
This could go on quite a bit - to call the Southern German dialect colorful would be an understatement, and some of the phrases even my 72-year old aunt spits out over lunch are definitely not fit to be printed. Of course, every time that very social family of mine gets together, we create our own language (no matter if there is alcohol involved or not, and new words and phrases in the Loesch Dictionary now include "pasan" (parmesan cheese), the "five-course course", "tastewise it is tasty" and my favorite "I paid for it, I'll eat it." One phrase you might find useful, in particular if you do plan to drive on our suicidal roadway known as the Autobahn, is "Gib Gas!", which is the equivalent for "Step on It!" The Autobahn, contrary to everyone's notion, does have speed limits in quite a few areas, but where there is not, things get quite scary. There are only two options- in the right lane with all the other slowpokes and the trucks (they have a speed limit wherever they go) or in the left lane with the UFOs. I try to avoid driving on the Autobahn if possible, no need to get an ulcer now.
A couple of very positive developments here in good old Germany - first, in my home state of Baden Württemberg and a few other states, smoking has been outlawed in restaurants. How great is that! Eating out has become quite a different experience and I for one am quite happy about it. Secondly more and more stores here take credit cards (they used to take only EU credit cards for a while) - again very positive.
So, let's see. I left you last week Thursday and since then vacationing and visiting friends and family was the main agenda item for my visit. I did have a chance to see an aunt of mine, who has been ill for a while, and we did spent quite a nice afternoon. In the evening, Andrea, Marion and I headed into town for a nice meal at the Restaurant Salmen, a charming place owned by a friend of ours (this used to be a dark and dingy dive and hats off to Volker for restoring it to be a nice and decent place to have a meal and a good time).
Then this past Friday, as promised, it was time to head up into the Blackforest (http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Schwarzwald&gbv=2) for some of the white stuff. "Dashing through the snow with a surgical boot on my foot, o'er the hills we go, Petra's heel still kaputt....". Accompanied by my friends Gitta, her husband Joachim and daughter Lucia, as well as my friends Gisela and Fritz, we headed up to the Wiedener Eck to see some nice snow(http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Wiedener+Eck). While Joachim, Lucia and Fritz hoofed it along the cross-country trails (known as Loipen), the girls trudged alongside the trails, watched the skiers and knuckle draggers (snowboarders) and let the sun shine in our faces. A stylish plastic bag gave the surgical boot and my toes some protection from the snow, and all was well. A brief stop at the Wiedener Eck Restaurant for a "snack" turned into a full-fledged meal which included some decadent apple fritters with vanilla ice cream and everyone was ready for a digestive nap once we got home. (http:/)/www.wiedener-eck.de/
Saturday we stayed close to home, walked around the neighborhood a bit, and then decided to head over to Basel, Switzerland (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Basel), a mere 15-minute drive from home, to check out the Grand Casino (http://www.grandcasinobasel.com/). Pretty snazzy looking from the outside, very colorful, the inside is smoky, and quite a bit more drab than I had expected. Aside from a few others that just like our little posse wanted to just test the waters, this seemed to be the playground for the serious addiction gambler, and more than once we got elbowed away from the tables. While my brother tested his luck near the Roulette tables, Andrea, Marion and I headed for the slot machines, which proved to be quite the challenge. The language on the screens for the one-armed bandits were in both German and English, but did not really explain anything, and the language on the buttons to be pushed were in French. After a more than frustrating experience hopping from machine to machine, and not really accomplishing anything I turned in my jetons and headed to the bar for some wine. Overall one of those "been there, done it" kind of experiences.
Sunday again turned out quite quiet, with a nice walk and an afternoon visit to our friends Ralf and Margit, who live just across the creek, and whose sons Joshua and David provided the entertainment alongside a lovely Kaffeeklatsch. It was my first time meeting young David, who was born in early 2007 and who is quite a little flirt. Following the coffee and Applestrudel affair I got seriously beaten by Joshua in a game of "Apple Tree" - each player had a certain supply of apples, and had to get ten in a basket, however somehow all the other players ended up emptying my basket, and Joshua for one showed no mercy, not even a hint.
The evening was spent in Auggen, a community about 7 minutes south-east of Neuenburg with a visit to my friends Fritz and Gisela. Fritz, if you must know is the Mayor of Auggen - http://www.auggen.de/ .Aside from that, he is also a trained chef and for many years ran a winery, so dinners at the Deutschmanns are always a treat (and of course, Gisela is no distant second when it comes to cooking, I have no idea how she does it all - we even had homemade Bailey's Irish Cream!). We did have Raclette that night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette), a traditional Swiss dish, where cheese is melted and browned in small little pans, and one adds all kinds of goodies such as ham, mushrooms, onions, veggies and of course, pickles. Yummm!!!!!
I thought Boston runners were tough,but the Southern German contingent are no wussies either. Monday, after shopping and first preparations for New Year's Eve (known as Silvester in these parts), Martin, Marion, Andrea and I headed to the tradi tional "Silvesterlauf" in Britzingen. This 10 K roadrace is held evey year; about 400 runners make their way through the foothills of the Blackforest, past vineyard after vineyard, and are welcomed by a very enthusiastic crowd. What I did find interesting was that not only the spectators, but also the runners stood in line to warm up with a glas of two of traditional Gluehwein (mulled wine= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluehwein). Red wine is the last thing I would drink right before a 10 K, but then again, pre-race warm up is different for everyone, eh?
New Year's Eve at my family's home is celebrated with a surprise dinner. Names are pulled out of a hat, three days prior, and each person is assigned either an appetizer, first course, main course or desert. You are not allowed to disclose which meal you are cooking and what you will prepare. This will ensure a pretty interesting combination of dishes, but you know what? We did pretty good. Aside from a snafu in the preparation of the desert (which included a couple of emergency trips to the store, involvement of a desert consultant, several exploding balloons, my brother screaming expletives and maybe a paint job in the kitchen) everything went smoothly. The menu included sesame chicken strip with a green pepper cocktail sauce (Petra), fresh pea soup (Marion), Coq au Vin (Andrea) and a Vanillamousse with Mango Purree in choclate bowls (Martin). There was lots of wine, champagne, a visit to the neighbors around 12:30 AM to ring in the New Year, card games until about 3 AM and other such things. Fireworks at midnight here are always a bit crazy, our street looked like a war zone, and it was a big surprise that the neighbor's mini van did stay intact and did not blow up.
Tuesday, the first day of the year, did start a little slow; all of use experienced some slight malaise on account of the fact that we did go to bed at 4 AM and maybe had just a wee bit too much to drink (and I have not touched anything since - time to take a break). A little fresh air and a nice stroll through the city of Muellheim and a visit to Erika (Marion and Andrea's mom) rounded out the day (http://www.muellheim.de/).
Yesterday we went to Freiburg, my old college town (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&um=1&hl=de&q=Freiburg), mainly for the purpose of retail therapy, we shopped til we dropped at a nice Italian restaurant, which did come highly recommended. While the food was definitely more than tasty, the wait staff of one was a wee bit overwhelmed, ran through the place like a tractor huffing and puffing, and I believe was pretty much ready to cry at a moment's notice.
My friends, time to go now, hope you rang in the New Year quite nicely! I will head back to Boston this Sunday, and hope to see many of you soon.
pet:)
Satan (pronounce "suddun") has nothing to do with the dude with the horns and the red cape, but in my brother's house is a intentional mispronounciation of "Southern" as in "Southern Comfort", known as SoCo in my circle of friends. After my brother and his entourage discovered a somewhat abandoned bottle of the tasty stuff in my place in October, this has become one of their favorite libations to sample.
Seckel, again an intentional mispronounciation, this time deriving from "Sekt" or "Prosecco", the bubbly stuff consumed in liberal quantities around the holidays. Seckel (also Seggel) in that undecipherable Southern German dialect of mine means Idiot or bonehead and is only used to insult males. (No need to worry, we do have words for the other gender as well, no shortage here).
This could go on quite a bit - to call the Southern German dialect colorful would be an understatement, and some of the phrases even my 72-year old aunt spits out over lunch are definitely not fit to be printed. Of course, every time that very social family of mine gets together, we create our own language (no matter if there is alcohol involved or not, and new words and phrases in the Loesch Dictionary now include "pasan" (parmesan cheese), the "five-course course", "tastewise it is tasty" and my favorite "I paid for it, I'll eat it." One phrase you might find useful, in particular if you do plan to drive on our suicidal roadway known as the Autobahn, is "Gib Gas!", which is the equivalent for "Step on It!" The Autobahn, contrary to everyone's notion, does have speed limits in quite a few areas, but where there is not, things get quite scary. There are only two options- in the right lane with all the other slowpokes and the trucks (they have a speed limit wherever they go) or in the left lane with the UFOs. I try to avoid driving on the Autobahn if possible, no need to get an ulcer now.
A couple of very positive developments here in good old Germany - first, in my home state of Baden Württemberg and a few other states, smoking has been outlawed in restaurants. How great is that! Eating out has become quite a different experience and I for one am quite happy about it. Secondly more and more stores here take credit cards (they used to take only EU credit cards for a while) - again very positive.
So, let's see. I left you last week Thursday and since then vacationing and visiting friends and family was the main agenda item for my visit. I did have a chance to see an aunt of mine, who has been ill for a while, and we did spent quite a nice afternoon. In the evening, Andrea, Marion and I headed into town for a nice meal at the Restaurant Salmen, a charming place owned by a friend of ours (this used to be a dark and dingy dive and hats off to Volker for restoring it to be a nice and decent place to have a meal and a good time).
Then this past Friday, as promised, it was time to head up into the Blackforest (http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Schwarzwald&gbv=2) for some of the white stuff. "Dashing through the snow with a surgical boot on my foot, o'er the hills we go, Petra's heel still kaputt....". Accompanied by my friends Gitta, her husband Joachim and daughter Lucia, as well as my friends Gisela and Fritz, we headed up to the Wiedener Eck to see some nice snow(http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Wiedener+Eck). While Joachim, Lucia and Fritz hoofed it along the cross-country trails (known as Loipen), the girls trudged alongside the trails, watched the skiers and knuckle draggers (snowboarders) and let the sun shine in our faces. A stylish plastic bag gave the surgical boot and my toes some protection from the snow, and all was well. A brief stop at the Wiedener Eck Restaurant for a "snack" turned into a full-fledged meal which included some decadent apple fritters with vanilla ice cream and everyone was ready for a digestive nap once we got home. (http:/)/www.wiedener-eck.de/
Saturday we stayed close to home, walked around the neighborhood a bit, and then decided to head over to Basel, Switzerland (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=de&q=Basel), a mere 15-minute drive from home, to check out the Grand Casino (http://www.grandcasinobasel.com/). Pretty snazzy looking from the outside, very colorful, the inside is smoky, and quite a bit more drab than I had expected. Aside from a few others that just like our little posse wanted to just test the waters, this seemed to be the playground for the serious addiction gambler, and more than once we got elbowed away from the tables. While my brother tested his luck near the Roulette tables, Andrea, Marion and I headed for the slot machines, which proved to be quite the challenge. The language on the screens for the one-armed bandits were in both German and English, but did not really explain anything, and the language on the buttons to be pushed were in French. After a more than frustrating experience hopping from machine to machine, and not really accomplishing anything I turned in my jetons and headed to the bar for some wine. Overall one of those "been there, done it" kind of experiences.
Sunday again turned out quite quiet, with a nice walk and an afternoon visit to our friends Ralf and Margit, who live just across the creek, and whose sons Joshua and David provided the entertainment alongside a lovely Kaffeeklatsch. It was my first time meeting young David, who was born in early 2007 and who is quite a little flirt. Following the coffee and Applestrudel affair I got seriously beaten by Joshua in a game of "Apple Tree" - each player had a certain supply of apples, and had to get ten in a basket, however somehow all the other players ended up emptying my basket, and Joshua for one showed no mercy, not even a hint.
The evening was spent in Auggen, a community about 7 minutes south-east of Neuenburg with a visit to my friends Fritz and Gisela. Fritz, if you must know is the Mayor of Auggen - http://www.auggen.de/ .Aside from that, he is also a trained chef and for many years ran a winery, so dinners at the Deutschmanns are always a treat (and of course, Gisela is no distant second when it comes to cooking, I have no idea how she does it all - we even had homemade Bailey's Irish Cream!). We did have Raclette that night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raclette), a traditional Swiss dish, where cheese is melted and browned in small little pans, and one adds all kinds of goodies such as ham, mushrooms, onions, veggies and of course, pickles. Yummm!!!!!
I thought Boston runners were tough,but the Southern German contingent are no wussies either. Monday, after shopping and first preparations for New Year's Eve (known as Silvester in these parts), Martin, Marion, Andrea and I headed to the tradi tional "Silvesterlauf" in Britzingen. This 10 K roadrace is held evey year; about 400 runners make their way through the foothills of the Blackforest, past vineyard after vineyard, and are welcomed by a very enthusiastic crowd. What I did find interesting was that not only the spectators, but also the runners stood in line to warm up with a glas of two of traditional Gluehwein (mulled wine= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluehwein). Red wine is the last thing I would drink right before a 10 K, but then again, pre-race warm up is different for everyone, eh?
New Year's Eve at my family's home is celebrated with a surprise dinner. Names are pulled out of a hat, three days prior, and each person is assigned either an appetizer, first course, main course or desert. You are not allowed to disclose which meal you are cooking and what you will prepare. This will ensure a pretty interesting combination of dishes, but you know what? We did pretty good. Aside from a snafu in the preparation of the desert (which included a couple of emergency trips to the store, involvement of a desert consultant, several exploding balloons, my brother screaming expletives and maybe a paint job in the kitchen) everything went smoothly. The menu included sesame chicken strip with a green pepper cocktail sauce (Petra), fresh pea soup (Marion), Coq au Vin (Andrea) and a Vanillamousse with Mango Purree in choclate bowls (Martin). There was lots of wine, champagne, a visit to the neighbors around 12:30 AM to ring in the New Year, card games until about 3 AM and other such things. Fireworks at midnight here are always a bit crazy, our street looked like a war zone, and it was a big surprise that the neighbor's mini van did stay intact and did not blow up.
Tuesday, the first day of the year, did start a little slow; all of use experienced some slight malaise on account of the fact that we did go to bed at 4 AM and maybe had just a wee bit too much to drink (and I have not touched anything since - time to take a break). A little fresh air and a nice stroll through the city of Muellheim and a visit to Erika (Marion and Andrea's mom) rounded out the day (http://www.muellheim.de/).
Yesterday we went to Freiburg, my old college town (http://images.google.de/images?gbv=2&svnum=10&um=1&hl=de&q=Freiburg), mainly for the purpose of retail therapy, we shopped til we dropped at a nice Italian restaurant, which did come highly recommended. While the food was definitely more than tasty, the wait staff of one was a wee bit overwhelmed, ran through the place like a tractor huffing and puffing, and I believe was pretty much ready to cry at a moment's notice.
My friends, time to go now, hope you rang in the New Year quite nicely! I will head back to Boston this Sunday, and hope to see many of you soon.
pet:)
#30 Boston - The Other White Christmas, December 27, 2007
Germany welcomed her long lost daughter (that would be me) this past Sunday with a stunning landscape dipped in white, low-lying fog and frost painted a beautiful picture - as if it had snowed just a bit, but not quite so. The frost highlighted every tree and plant with white outlines. Red, brown and black berries littered the white landscape with their brightness. This amazing winter beauty provided a White Christmas of a different sort, and made you almost forget that it was cold as can be (upper 20s) and that your toes and fingers were just about to fall off. Nevertheless, magical it was and it set the right tone for the Christmas holiday here in Southern Germany.
I arrived this past Sunday at Frankfurt Airport after a travel odysssey that I believe has only been rivaled by Tom Hanks in the movie "Terminal". Mostly this is my own darn fault, since for reasons that cannot be explained rationally I kept postponing and postponing and postponing buying an airplane ticket, and once it was early November replaced this laziness with a masterpiece of a panic attack, which involved several hysterical phone calls to my brother in Germany and involved both of us frantically scanning the internet for last minute deals (for Christmas - hahahahaha). Well, as luck and my own stupidity would have it, I ended up finding a reasonably priced flight, but not without noticing that I would have to fly through Newark and sit there for about 9 hours. I was desperate and afraid I would have to pay more than my monthly mortgage, so decided to go for it. Now comes the really bad part - apparently I am unable to tell time, or time differences for that matter, and once I was at my designated terminal in Newark, and again looked a little closer at my itinerary noticed that it was actually an 11-hour layover. I can tell you one thing - if I am faced with this choice ever again, I will take the more expensive flight - whatever mulah you save on the cheaper flight, you will spend in the terminal in those 11 hours - food, nice things in stores (I should never be allowed near a Brookstone store with a credit card in my hands, ever!), cheesy magazines, more food - you name it.
Just like Tom Hanks, I made many nice friends, including a family with two charming boys who tried to sell me on several of Brookstone's nifty massage tools (they may have been hired by the store for a hefty commission), and who at the end of their stay in the devil's store told me exactly how much their mommy spent there. Mommy did not seem too delighted that her sons shared this kind of information with me and quickly herded the two little brats out the front door.
Another new friend was a very charming. Toronto-based Jordanian gentleman, who was on his way to his girlfriend in Berlin, and who apparently also employed the Petra Method of Travel Planning (again, not to be recommended). We chatted for quite some time, mostly about the fact that this was his first time ever leaving Canada and his first trip anyhwere, but my favorite tidbit of the day centered around the fact that he told me that his father was born on the 25th of December in Bethlehem, and that his mother's name was Mary (their last name was the Jordanian version of Jonas - enough biblical references to go around). He did say it is the family joke that his dad may be Jesus and that maybe after that many years though he (the dad) may have lost his sense of humor about it.
We only left about 1 1/2 hours late (add that to the layover time), but I popped a Benadryl and as soon as I put the spoon down after dinner (which felt like eating in slow motion), I slept almost all the way to Frankfurt. From then it was just a nice two hour train ride (after a one-hour wait in the freezing cold) to Freiburg where my family awaited me (I did have to stand up the last 20 minutes as I was in serious danger to fall asleep and continue on to Switzerland, possibly Italy) .
Aside from the ususal Christmas activities - Christmas Eve is the main event a nice meal and presents are being exchanged that night (we made it in under 2 hours, yeah); 1st Christmas Day where we have our traditional deer ragout meal at Andrea's - we explored some of the traditional Christmas faires. The day of my arrival we visited Freiburg, my college town, for the last day of their famous Weihnachtsmarkt (http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-freiburg.de/) and stuffed ourselves with some nice "Flammenkuchen" (tarte flambee fort the Francophiles among you) (http://www.badenremembered.com/flammenkucken.htm) and yesterday on the 2nd Christmas Day (St Stephan's Tag) we headed over to France to the historic town of Colmar (http://www.colmar.de/Colmar/colmar.html) for their version of this tradition. Colmar's event featured four Weihnachtsmarkets all over the center of town, and one had to stroll through the ancient streets with their beautiful Tudor Style architecture (Fachwerk http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Fachwerk&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) to get from one to the other. We ate some Alsacian sausages, drank some Gluehwein (mulled red wine) and I topped it off with some roasted chestnuts. Very Christmas-y indeed.(http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02.htm)
Time to pack it up now, tomorrow I am heading for some snow-related activities in the Blackforest. The Schauinsland Mountain I believe has a good 10 inches of snow, and armed with my new stylish gaiters and an even more fashionable plastic bag around the good old surgical boot, we'll see what we can do.
Sending you all the best wishes and a Happy New Year!
pet:)
I arrived this past Sunday at Frankfurt Airport after a travel odysssey that I believe has only been rivaled by Tom Hanks in the movie "Terminal". Mostly this is my own darn fault, since for reasons that cannot be explained rationally I kept postponing and postponing and postponing buying an airplane ticket, and once it was early November replaced this laziness with a masterpiece of a panic attack, which involved several hysterical phone calls to my brother in Germany and involved both of us frantically scanning the internet for last minute deals (for Christmas - hahahahaha). Well, as luck and my own stupidity would have it, I ended up finding a reasonably priced flight, but not without noticing that I would have to fly through Newark and sit there for about 9 hours. I was desperate and afraid I would have to pay more than my monthly mortgage, so decided to go for it. Now comes the really bad part - apparently I am unable to tell time, or time differences for that matter, and once I was at my designated terminal in Newark, and again looked a little closer at my itinerary noticed that it was actually an 11-hour layover. I can tell you one thing - if I am faced with this choice ever again, I will take the more expensive flight - whatever mulah you save on the cheaper flight, you will spend in the terminal in those 11 hours - food, nice things in stores (I should never be allowed near a Brookstone store with a credit card in my hands, ever!), cheesy magazines, more food - you name it.
Just like Tom Hanks, I made many nice friends, including a family with two charming boys who tried to sell me on several of Brookstone's nifty massage tools (they may have been hired by the store for a hefty commission), and who at the end of their stay in the devil's store told me exactly how much their mommy spent there. Mommy did not seem too delighted that her sons shared this kind of information with me and quickly herded the two little brats out the front door.
Another new friend was a very charming. Toronto-based Jordanian gentleman, who was on his way to his girlfriend in Berlin, and who apparently also employed the Petra Method of Travel Planning (again, not to be recommended). We chatted for quite some time, mostly about the fact that this was his first time ever leaving Canada and his first trip anyhwere, but my favorite tidbit of the day centered around the fact that he told me that his father was born on the 25th of December in Bethlehem, and that his mother's name was Mary (their last name was the Jordanian version of Jonas - enough biblical references to go around). He did say it is the family joke that his dad may be Jesus and that maybe after that many years though he (the dad) may have lost his sense of humor about it.
We only left about 1 1/2 hours late (add that to the layover time), but I popped a Benadryl and as soon as I put the spoon down after dinner (which felt like eating in slow motion), I slept almost all the way to Frankfurt. From then it was just a nice two hour train ride (after a one-hour wait in the freezing cold) to Freiburg where my family awaited me (I did have to stand up the last 20 minutes as I was in serious danger to fall asleep and continue on to Switzerland, possibly Italy) .
Aside from the ususal Christmas activities - Christmas Eve is the main event a nice meal and presents are being exchanged that night (we made it in under 2 hours, yeah); 1st Christmas Day where we have our traditional deer ragout meal at Andrea's - we explored some of the traditional Christmas faires. The day of my arrival we visited Freiburg, my college town, for the last day of their famous Weihnachtsmarkt (http://www.weihnachtsmarkt-freiburg.de/) and stuffed ourselves with some nice "Flammenkuchen" (tarte flambee fort the Francophiles among you) (http://www.badenremembered.com/flammenkucken.htm) and yesterday on the 2nd Christmas Day (St Stephan's Tag) we headed over to France to the historic town of Colmar (http://www.colmar.de/Colmar/colmar.html) for their version of this tradition. Colmar's event featured four Weihnachtsmarkets all over the center of town, and one had to stroll through the ancient streets with their beautiful Tudor Style architecture (Fachwerk http://images.google.de/images?hl=de&q=Fachwerk&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) to get from one to the other. We ate some Alsacian sausages, drank some Gluehwein (mulled red wine) and I topped it off with some roasted chestnuts. Very Christmas-y indeed.(http://german.about.com/library/blrezepte02.htm)
Time to pack it up now, tomorrow I am heading for some snow-related activities in the Blackforest. The Schauinsland Mountain I believe has a good 10 inches of snow, and armed with my new stylish gaiters and an even more fashionable plastic bag around the good old surgical boot, we'll see what we can do.
Sending you all the best wishes and a Happy New Year!
pet:)
#29 Boston - Still Snowing, December 21, 2007
Snow storm number three in one week hit yesterday - we were promised flurries, and we got snow, snow and snow. After the snow storms on Thursday (#1) and Sunday (#2), which left us with another foot or two of snow, Mother Nature calmed down just a wee bit, only to rev it up again today big time. Welcome to winter in Boston! The official calendar start for the winter season was today, but we started about a month or so ago, and I am pretty convinced that this will be one for the record books. Yesterday another six inches piled on in some areas; maneuvering with that fashionable surgical boot of mine has become nearly impossible, and I think it may stay home when I am heading to Germany tomorrow morning. Its rehabilitory effects seem to be minimal, and the darn thing weights a ton, so I may restrict the medical equipment I drag along to the night splint, which does seem to help. I know I am whining and should just suck it up, I saw a guy on Tuesday night at the T stop, barefoot in flip flops.....
The weather over the past ten days has led to total movie mania in my house, I rent them, buy them, and have watched every single movie I own. With the kind of weather we have been experiencing, there are only a few essential survival tools one needs - if the heater works, and there is take out food and hot cocoa, life can be nice and cozy inside, and I for one, could hang out at home for days.
This week has been filled with holiday dinners, holiday lunches, and I am seriously looking at strict dietary restrictions for the New Year. This cannot continue! Stop the Madness!! Enough with the cookies!! I am going to be one of those sad people armed with New Year's resolutions that involve going to the gym daily and eating Weight Watchers meals. Not looking forward to it.
Here is the social report:
Monday night, dinner with Darrell and Susan from the Translational Research Lab (where I spend my Wednesdays) at the Beacon Hill Bistro (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html) - one of the snazziest restaurants in Beacon Hill. The food there is just phenomenal - my choice was sauteed skate wing with spinach, acorn squash, brown butter noisette in a red wine glaze. Guess what I had for desert? Creme Brulee of course, this one of the maple-ish vanilla-y sort accompanied by roasted/ candied hazelnuts - divine, divine, divine! And I am not just saying that because I had a pomegranate margarita.
Tuesday night - 4 S Wine Group takes a field trip to North Quincy, where the lovely and designated bodacious Holly Drumm hosted us lonely souls in her new pad that overlooks the ocean. Getting there was not too easy, every sidewalk was iced over, I could not find a cab, Hannah was stuck in traffic, I had no money - you get the picture. I actually hobbled down the street, found a bank, Hannah found me and all was well. Holly wined and dined us with real Vermont cheddar cheese, authentic Chinese food, mulled and not-so mulled wines from Santa Barbara, California, and excellent, excellent, excellent German deserts courtesy of the Konditor Meister in Braintree (http://www.konditormeister.com/). Needless to day, Hannah had to roll me to the car! Discussions were spirited and we learned all about GAPs (Greek American Princesses) from our friend Christos. If you need more information, let me know, I'll give you his e-mail.
Wednesday the Cancer Center Pathology Lab Group at MGH went for lunch at the newly remodeled Ristorante Toscano on Charles Street (http://www.weseatyou.com/restaurants/701/toscano/tour.html) - again very nice food, and our hat goes off to John, the lab director, who did not mind being the only guy with 10 women yapping away excitedly. This slightly overextended lunch pretty much segued nicely into Happy Hour, where Georgiana, Susan, Anne and I visited the "Alibi" bar at the Liberty Hotel next door (http://www.alibiboston.com/). Apparently the bar used to be the "Drunk Tank" for the former jail (which now is the hotel) - which makes it a fitting choice. I have chosen to forgive the bartender for not knowing how to mix a Hurricane, and coming up with a reasonable "Dark and Stormy" (my favorite cocktail, just if anyone wants to know); and the truffle-parmesan fries helped ease the disappointment over my original choice of beverage.
My friends - vacation time is officially starting soon. My flight to Germany leaves at 7 AM, with a horrendous layover in Newark, NJ. Not quite sure yet how I am going to handle all the luggage and six million gifts, but we'll just have to give it a go. I'll get to my brother's house somehow.
Wishing all of you a happy holiday season - stay warm, dry, healthy.
pet:)
The weather over the past ten days has led to total movie mania in my house, I rent them, buy them, and have watched every single movie I own. With the kind of weather we have been experiencing, there are only a few essential survival tools one needs - if the heater works, and there is take out food and hot cocoa, life can be nice and cozy inside, and I for one, could hang out at home for days.
This week has been filled with holiday dinners, holiday lunches, and I am seriously looking at strict dietary restrictions for the New Year. This cannot continue! Stop the Madness!! Enough with the cookies!! I am going to be one of those sad people armed with New Year's resolutions that involve going to the gym daily and eating Weight Watchers meals. Not looking forward to it.
Here is the social report:
Monday night, dinner with Darrell and Susan from the Translational Research Lab (where I spend my Wednesdays) at the Beacon Hill Bistro (http://www.beaconhillhotel.com/bistro.html) - one of the snazziest restaurants in Beacon Hill. The food there is just phenomenal - my choice was sauteed skate wing with spinach, acorn squash, brown butter noisette in a red wine glaze. Guess what I had for desert? Creme Brulee of course, this one of the maple-ish vanilla-y sort accompanied by roasted/ candied hazelnuts - divine, divine, divine! And I am not just saying that because I had a pomegranate margarita.
Tuesday night - 4 S Wine Group takes a field trip to North Quincy, where the lovely and designated bodacious Holly Drumm hosted us lonely souls in her new pad that overlooks the ocean. Getting there was not too easy, every sidewalk was iced over, I could not find a cab, Hannah was stuck in traffic, I had no money - you get the picture. I actually hobbled down the street, found a bank, Hannah found me and all was well. Holly wined and dined us with real Vermont cheddar cheese, authentic Chinese food, mulled and not-so mulled wines from Santa Barbara, California, and excellent, excellent, excellent German deserts courtesy of the Konditor Meister in Braintree (http://www.konditormeister.com/). Needless to day, Hannah had to roll me to the car! Discussions were spirited and we learned all about GAPs (Greek American Princesses) from our friend Christos. If you need more information, let me know, I'll give you his e-mail.
Wednesday the Cancer Center Pathology Lab Group at MGH went for lunch at the newly remodeled Ristorante Toscano on Charles Street (http://www.weseatyou.com/restaurants/701/toscano/tour.html) - again very nice food, and our hat goes off to John, the lab director, who did not mind being the only guy with 10 women yapping away excitedly. This slightly overextended lunch pretty much segued nicely into Happy Hour, where Georgiana, Susan, Anne and I visited the "Alibi" bar at the Liberty Hotel next door (http://www.alibiboston.com/). Apparently the bar used to be the "Drunk Tank" for the former jail (which now is the hotel) - which makes it a fitting choice. I have chosen to forgive the bartender for not knowing how to mix a Hurricane, and coming up with a reasonable "Dark and Stormy" (my favorite cocktail, just if anyone wants to know); and the truffle-parmesan fries helped ease the disappointment over my original choice of beverage.
My friends - vacation time is officially starting soon. My flight to Germany leaves at 7 AM, with a horrendous layover in Newark, NJ. Not quite sure yet how I am going to handle all the luggage and six million gifts, but we'll just have to give it a go. I'll get to my brother's house somehow.
Wishing all of you a happy holiday season - stay warm, dry, healthy.
pet:)
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