04/27/2008
Dinner at Eddie Merlot's
Today we used the $100 gift card that came with my Team Spirit Award and went to dine out at Eddie Merlot's. 
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03/23/2008
Easter walk in the woods
My daughter spent twelve days in Fort Wayne, visiting for the first time since her move back to Munich. The weather wasn't really cooperating, but we still followed our family tradition and went for a walk in the woods on Easter Sunday. 
The Bicentennial Woods nature preserve, where we like to go for walks, must have been partially flooded. The place was very muddy, one of the bridges over the creek was broken and unusable.
Tom was the only one equipped with appropriate footwear for this kind of trail - so we had to make it a short walk.
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03/12/2008
Batman is back
I've been working at Indiana Tech for over a year now - long enough that you would think I should have seen this before. But I haven't. Today a colleague entered our office saying *Batman is back*. When I asked *who is Batman?*, he took me out into the hallway.
And there he was - you can only see Batman on a sunny day, in spring, for a few hours in the afternoon. That is when the sunlight and the cardboard display in the window paint Batman's shadow onto the floor of our hallway.
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01/25/2008
Big Butter Jesus
On my way to work in the mornings I usually listen to the *Bob & Tom show* on 92.3 'The Fort', Fort Wayne's self-proclaimed *number 1 classic rock station*. One of their frequent guests on the show is Heywood Banks, a local comedian, whom I saw on stage at the Snickerz Comedy Club once.
Today they played one of his songs, which is the kind that you can easily sing along with, and then keep spinning it around in your head for the rest of the day. It's called *big butter Jesus* and was inspired by a statue in Southern Ohio.
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01/20/2008
Mozart at the Embassy Theater
Last night Tom had to work third shift, and my friend's husband had some business to tend to in Indianapolis. So she invited me to go to the Embassy Theater with her to enjoy an evening of Mozart's music, played by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.
The historic (movie)theater had been badly worn, and was in imminent danger of being torn down a few years ago. I'm glad they didn't do that! Instead it was remodeled in the original style, leaving everything as close as possible to what it once looked like.
After the concert my friend and I went for a late night snack, drink and chat to Henry's - an old family owned and managed bar and restaurant on Main Street.
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01/06/2008
vanity plates
Indiana is a *one plate* State. That means you may decorate the front of your car with anything you like. I like to show off, have something *rare*. So I ordered a custom made authentic German license plate and frame of ebay, and a set of very real looking replica seals to go with it. 
It's featuring Tom's and my initials and the year we first met online. I chose December of '08 for the month our *inspection* is due, which is displayed on the top seal.
Looks awesome!
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12/31/2007
....the same procedure as every year, James
Don't ask me why....... but since 1972 on New Year's Eve you will find all of Germany (or at least the vast majority of people) watching a ten minute sketch on TV.
It is the work of the late Freddie Frinton, a British comedian who died in 1968. The funny little piece was first shown on TV in 1963 as a *filler* between shows. Obviously ads weren't that prevalent between (or even right in the middle of) TV shows back then.
A year just wouldn't end properly without watching *Dinner for One* and, thanks to the internet, no matter where I am in the world, I can still do that.
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08/23/2007
count-down for the world's biggest party
Exactly one month from today, on September 23rd 2007, Munich's Mayor (still Christian Ude) will tap into the first beer keg. The world will be watching as he uses a wooden hammer to open a 200-liter barrel. The barrel, made out of aged oak wood, sealed on the inside with black pitch, is ready and was presented to the public today.
All eyes will be on Ude, standing there in the *Schottenhamel* beer tent. Bets will be placed on how many times he will have to hit the tap with his sledge, before we hear the magic words *O'zapft is !*. The record is at two hits, but in 1950 somebody hat to whack the thing 19 times.
The Prime Minister will be served the first liter of beer, and after that the Munich Oktoberfest is officially started.
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06/19/2007
a pool table for our basement
Penny found out about an estate auction somewhere in the south-western part of town. Tom and I went along, mainly because of the pool table they had. I have never been at an auction. It took me a while to understand how that works.
The auctioneer starts shouting out a relatively high price for the item, then, if he doesn't get any interest from the crowd, he drops the price really fast. Until somebody makes a signal. Scratching your ear is enough - so watch what you're doing, or you could be stuck with something you don't want. If you want to bid, you'll have to pay very close attention. They talk so fast, it's almost impossible to follow.
When they finally got to the pool table, I was so excited, I could hardly contain myself. It's a beautiful 7 foot custom made table. With real Italian slate, an inch thick, and dark oak wood from Germany. It was made by a company in St. Louis, Missouri. And it cost $4,000 in 1997.
When the original offer of $1,000 had come down to $500 I started bidding. There was one other person interested in the table, and I thought we'd never get it - since we had agreed on our maximum bid to be no more than $700. But we got lucky! The pool table is ours, including all the accessories, for only $600. We'll have it delivered and set up in the basement on Thursday. 
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06/09/2007
14th Annual Wiener Dog Nationals
It's Germanfest in Fort Wayne again, and this time I even made it to the Wiener Dog Race.
The weather was perfect - sunny, dry, not too hot. Headwaters Park was crowded with hundreds of cute little dachshunds.
96 of them participated in the races, and the winner was Noodle
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05/28/2007
get away on Memorial Day
A 4-day weekend due to the holiday was our chance to grab Armani and head out North. The Comfort Inn in Portage, close to the Indiana Dunes State Park, is a pet-friendly hotel. I drove us there, Tom sat in the back with Armani. The dog doesn't like to sit by himself in the car, probably due to that accident he was involved in, when he was little.
Our day on the beach was absolutely gorgeous! Perfect sunshine, but not too hot. The sand was still wet from heavy rainfall all thru the previous night. Lake Michigan was pretty cold, most people didn't dare to swim. And those who did, felt an urge to scream and shout - not me though, I enjoy cold water.
Armani had fun digging holes and rolling in the sand. After some hesitation he even swam a little bit. We had to trick him into doing that, by throwing a stick in the water, just barely beyond his reach.
Later in the afternoon we went for a walk along Cowles Bog trail, and we had a very filling supper at a Mexican restaurant. Tom didn't trust the beer garden at the Junkyard Bar & Grill - I thought the joint looked a bit wild, but would have been OK for something different to try.
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05/23/2007
learn to make German bread
Not that it is a vital neccessity, but sometimes I really enjoy having good, healthy, natural bread. The kind that you can't really find in the USA. With a hearty, crispy crust, juicy but not too soft body, and no weird ingredients, like corn starch or soy protein.
So, after I successfully mastered the art of making real German pretzels - where the hardest part was finding a supplier for sodium hydroxide, I decided to learn how to make real sourdough. From nothing but rye flour and water. After doing some extensive research on the internet, I started my project four days ago.
To grow sourdough, you have to be able to provide an environment favourable to the right kind of wild yeast. If it's too cold, you'll just produce some kind of rotten, acid flour-water mix. If it's too hot, you'll kill whatever yeast might have been growing, before you even start to bake bread. I used a food warmer to keep my sourdough culture at around 90°F. Every 12 hours you stir it vigorously, and every 24 hours you add another cup of rye flower and luke warm water.
Last night my sourdough looked and smelled just right for the next step.
I had picked one of the simpler recipes for rye bread from the dozens that I found on the internet. 70% rye flour, 30% wheat flour, some chopped up sunflower seeds, my sourdough and salt. Mix, kneed, let sit for 2 hours to rise and double in size - bake for an hour, then let it cool down over night.
Today I'm enjoying my first home made rye sourdough bread for lunch. It turned out totally perfect, tastes like nothing you can buy in any store here.
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01/27/2007
Circus at the Coliseum
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01/26/2007
Snickerz Comedy Club
Tom had won 10 free tickets for the Snickerz Comedy Club, to be the audience in a TV show called 'Night Shift'. So we took Dan and Sarah, Terry and Artemis, Beth, Josh, Penny and Becky along for a few hours of clean, simple fun. It's going to be aired on Sunday, on channel 33 at midnight.
Stand-up comedy is one of the few occasions I truely feel *alien*. I'd say 70% of the jokes are beyond me, I just don't get it. Wether it's politics, sports, TV shows, celebrities - I just notice a severe lack of general knowledge in these areas of every-day life.
Nevertheless I found it very entertaining, educating, relaxing - we don't go out with a bunch of people that often.
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12/13/2006
get the Christmas tree set up
This is America, and it would be perfectly legal to have a fake plastic pre-decorated Christmas tree sitting in the family room. I don't think I could ever do that though. I'd rather not have a tree at all.
So we drove to Menards and bought a scottish pine, 7 feet tall, with thick branches and long needles. All the ornaments we brought from Germany work just fine on it, except the real wax candles and the red glass top piece.
Now the living room is filled with pine scent. At night we have a fire on in the fireplace and the glowing twinkle of 70 little LED lights on our tree. To make it perfect all we'd need would be some cold and snow outside.
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11/27/2006
visit Christkindlmarket in Chicago
Towards the end of November we have many reasons to celebrate. There is Tom's and my Wedding Anniversary, then there is Thanksgiving, 
and then my birthday - which was my 50th this year.
On our wedding anniversary we drank that bottle of 10-year-old Rioja, which we had brought from Germany.
For Thanksgiving Becky hosted the traditional family turkey feast for roughly 20 people. And for my 50th birthday Tom and I drove to Chicago.
We had lunch at Glünz Bavarian Haus. Delicious Käsespätzle with a small salad, and Hofbräu beer and cranberry-Schorle for drinks. After that we went for a stroll across Daley Plaza and the Christkindlmarket. It was too warm for Glühwein, actually, but we still had to have some - because that's the tradition.
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11/19/2006
go for a walk in the woods
Today was one of the few Sundays which was not filled with all kinds of *work* to do. And the weather was perfect for a walk in the woods. Cool, but not too cold. Damp, but not raining or snowing. We even had a little bit of November sun peaking thru.
So we took Armani out to the Bicentennial Woods Nature Preserve. 200 year old oaks, maples, and sassafras trees - all left to themselves. The only interruption being the river and a 2.3 mile long trail for people. We should have worn orange caps, because hunting season is in full swing. But Tom didn't think about it, and I didn't know about it.
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10/28/2006
get ready for Halloween
Leaves are falling, it's cold and nasty outside, and everybody starts preparations for the holiday season. The stores have their Halloween stuff right next to the Christmas stuff, looks kinda funny.
I wanted Tom to make one of his delicious pumpkin pies, so I had to go get a big pumpkin, scrape the inside out with our icecream scoop, and then carve the face with my pocket knife.
Will be interesting to see how many trick-or-treaters we get - let's hope we don't run out of candy.
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07/23/2006
Iceskating in July
What do you do to cool down, when it's over 90 degrees outside? Well, we decided to go have some cool fun at the McMillen Ice Arena. 
Especially since they had a promotion going on and we paid only $1 per person for skating, plus another $1 to rent skates for Mollie and Tiffany.
I hadn't forgotten how to ice-skate, Tom got back into it rather quickly too. Just Penny seemed to be taking it easy, going real slow around the rink.
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07/15/2006
Watch Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
OK - those of you who know my interest in computer animated special effects would probably expect me to go watch this movie. The rest of you might wonder, what kind of satisfaction such *simple* pleasures can bring.
If you didn't see the first *Pirates of the Caribbean* you will probably feel a bit lost with the second episode. On the other hand, if you did see the first part, be aware of the fact that the second doesn't quite reach the same level. Even though the special effects are nothing but breath-taking, the story itself lacks logic a little.
Plan on going with your friends, or family; consider it good-old-easy-entertainment; and be sure to sit thru to the very end, after the endless list of actors and staff, to see a funny little surprise.
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06/30/2006
Tom bought a motorcycle
Honda Hayden in Kendallville has a special promotion going on: you get a loan for a new motorcycle and pay only $150 monthly for the bike plus $177 per year for insurance. 
So Tom couldn't resist and signed for a very beautiful Honda Shadow Aero, 750ccm.
He was nervous about riding it home, since the last time he rode was over six years ago. But he did just fine. Once we got home I couldn't resist either - had to try it out, even though I don't have a motorcycle license yet. And it has been twenty years for me since I last rode, if you don't count the five minutes in November 1999.
It's a really nice motorcycle! Very well balanced, easy to handle. Just the position of your feet, forward and up, needs some getting used to. You can't ride standing up on this bike.
Now I have to hurry up and get my endorsement, so I can ride it too, and get my own bike soon.
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06/17/2006
Chain-o-Lakes State Park
It was hot and sunny out, so we decided to go on a field trip to the Chain-o-Lakes State Park. That's about 20 miles from our home.
Eight lakes, all connected by a river. Campground, boat ramp, picknick areas with grills, a beach. Just the perfect spot to relax and get tanned. The girls didn't want to use any sun-protection, so they got burned - maybe red is just as pretty as brown?
We rented a boat for an hour and pedaled our way across the lake. I even got to swim outside the area where they wanted you to stay. I had been wondering why everybody was behind that rope, and nobody was swimming out in the lake.
It took the guards a while to notice, and when they got their speakers out to call me back in, I was actually getting ready to swim back anyways.
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06/09/2006
Germanfest
Every year in June the *German Heritage Society* celebrates a week of Germanfest, mainly at Headwaters Park.
Today I went there right after work, to participate in the *Lederhosen-Contest* and to have a beer. They had the Budweiser horses on display and sold Hacker Pschorr Weißbier, Köstritzer Schwarzbier and Bitburger Pils. I also had Bratwurst and Sauerkraut, which tasted almost like home - after I had removed the totally inappropriate hotdog bun that came with the Bratwurst.
The band played *Anton aus Tirol*, among other famous songs, and people were dancing the *Chicken Dance* or polkas with it.
The Lederhosen-Contest had only 10 participants (including myself) - and I didn't win any of the main prizes. $10 worth of food tickets and a lot of fun was enough *payment* though.
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