Die Russenlampe

We borrowed this lamp from someone after moving into our new place last year. The lender called it a "Russian lamp". But I saw a picture today that blew this right out of the water: a Russian faucet.

Scenes From Home

We visited Dow Gardens in Midland, and in the Children's Garden there are lots of
scarecrows that the kids have put together. I decided to have some fun with the panorama
function on my camera while we were there.



















I caught this slippery little friend at my parents' house and let him swim in some
rainwater for the kids to look at one evening. I'm still a stealthy frog catcher!


















Beans is a neat sign that I've often seen and liked from the highway passing Saginaw, I just never had the chance to take a picture of it. Now to just photograph it at night when it's even more fantastic...






















This old sign has been hanging around since I was little. It's on Beaverton Clare Road, right smack between Beaverton and Clare, go figure. It's outside an abandoned gas station, but the store itself actually looks more like an old house. Someone has put in a trailer on the property and seems to live there now, the old store is just getting more and more dilapidated. I was always sort of mesmerized by that dinosaur. I used to wonder why there had been a store out there in the middle of nowhere, why it had closed, and imagine going in that store to find a sort of wonderland of neat old stuff.
























The horse and buggy parking in Beaverton by the Chemical Bank. I like this, and I like the new sign even more. The horse parking is there for the Amish, they also have some spots at the grocery store where they can hitch their horses.
























This lady and her child were travelling with that buggy. As I continued on my walk to the Beaverton Dairy Bar, they were just exiting as we were entering! Amish eat ice cream too!












A horse and buggy on the road near Clare.








Here's a panorama of Ross Lake in Beaverton. As I was looking at the lake, I noticed that little sign in the middle. Have a closer look:
























I read it and just about started laughing out loud. What crackpot put that up? Well, for a closer look at the text and the people who put these up, go here or here. I'm certainly not making any value judgements on these people or their causes, but still I find the sign pretty funny.

Creature Comforts

I just adore returning to Michigan to go out and find the same old creatures I used to find when I was a kid. For example the snakes that I don't see anywhere but at home always make me feel, well, at home. This little guy reminds me of the baby snake I caught one fall when I was in high school and kept inside through the winter, feeding worms that we dug up and heating him with a warm lamp. I released him in the spring to watch him slither off in the grass toward the pond.


















Maybe I just never noticed the red dragonflies, but I was enthused to see this pretty one by the pond a couple days ago.
















Here's a very hungry caterpillar, spotted on the milkweeds behind my parents' house. He's working hard to get very fat, then...
























he'll hang himself somewhere, like on a plant outside, or at the top of a jar if you catch him and take him into your house in a jar with nice airholes in the lid and delicious leaves to eat...




















...and then he will emerge like so! This picture is a bit shaky since this Monarch was spotted by my parents' garden on a windy, rainy day in a white pine tree.
























This one, however, emerged in the house in a jar, and then flew out of the jar and made a beeline for those flowers. Shortly thereafter the butterfly was herded out of the house and into the great big world.
























I'm glad I didn't notice that crocodile waiting to eat me in the background while I was photographing this little flower, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten such a nice picture! I'm always scared that we'll run into a bear when we go into the woods, but I guess we should be more worried about the crocodiles! Are those pesky retirees who go to Florida in the winter bringing back these large, deadly reptiles with them as stowaways?

Vacation Reading

A father speaking to his son:

"...What would you do, Lukey, if I turned into a woman?"

He looked unsure. "I would...still love you?"

"Would you?" I said.

He thought it over. "Sure," he said. "You'd still be you, wouldn't you?"

"Uh-huh." We sat together on the couch for a while.

"Have you noticed that I've been looking more and more like a girl over the last year?" I said.

"Some of my friends think you are a girl," he said.

"That must be hard for you," I said.

"Not really. I just tell them, 'That's my daddy.'"

"Lukey, I need to talk to you about something. I have a condition, it's like when a person's sick, that makes me feel like a girl on the inside, even though I'm a boy on the outside. Does that make any sense to you, that a person's insides and outsides wouldn't match?"

"Sure," he said. "I know what that's like."

"So I'm taking some medicine that is slowly making my outsides more and more like a girl. After a while, I'm going to totally be a girl. I know that might make you sad, but it's what I need to do."

Luke gave me a big hug. "I won't be sad. You said you'd still be you."

A passage from She's Not There by Jennifer Finney Boylan. I hadn't planned on reading this book, but it sort of crashed into my reading list like a freight train. It is a moving account of one man's transition into womanhood and is giving me a look into what kind of identity struggles and difficulties one can have with gender issues. If you're interested in or somehow touched by this topic, I think this book is a good one to read. The above passage made me tear up, and I really, really hope it's true.

And now on to my original vacation reading list!

The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. I love the Talking Heads, so what's not to love about the frontman's accounts of travels with his bicycle and urban cycling? I can't wait to pick this up, or have it delivered by Amazon, I haven't decided which. Amazon is probably the more convenient and affordable choice, even though I love perusing the shelves of bookstores. But I have to say, that is not much fun with 2 kids.

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison. Autism is a topic that has fascinated me since I was art director at a summer camp for kids with special needs. This book is Augusten Burrough's brother's account of his experiences with Asperger's since childhood. The neat thing about Asperger’s is that the people who have it are high functioning, so they know they are processing the world in a way that is different from how most people do and can describe what’s going on in their minds.

Fixing my Gaze: A Scientist’s Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions by Sue Barry. This is a personal account from a scientist who had crossed eyes her whole life, and at 48 went through vision therapy and learned to see using both eyes in stereo, therefore learning to see in 3D, which you can’t when your eyes are crossed. This may not seem so fascinating, but when your kid has crossed eyes, believe me, it is thrilling.

More Adventures in Food

After my foray into delicious tofu spread, I have ventured into the world of cream cheese spread. Basically only for the reason that I am too lazy to go to the organic supermarket and buy silken tofu, not only because it's farther from my house than the regular supermarket, but also because a certain four-year-old I know absolutely loses all control when we go into that place. I don't know if it's that organic earthy smell, or all the natural products, but something about that place makes him go crazy and touch everything and scare me that he's going to smash some Earth-friendly glass packaging. So I've taken to buying my raw materials at the supermarket: regular old cream cheese and delicious discs of goat's milk cream cheese. What I do then is smash and mix together about equal amounts of the two different kinds of cream cheese, then add all kinds of tasty nuts and bolts. So far I've come up with 3 variations:

Green Onion Cream Cheese
For this you start with your cream cheese mixture of equal parts of the two cream cheeses, then thinly slice two or three green onions, depending on how much cream cheese you want to make. You can also throw in a little finely chopped regular onion and some chives. Smash this all up and mix it (I find a fork works nicely) and add in just a bit of milk to make the mixture nice and spreadable. Throw in some salt and pepper to taste, and voila! Super yummy and easy spread #1!

Chipotle Cream Cheese
If you like things hot, then this is the one for you. Mix up your cream cheeses, then chop up about one chipotle pepper (a smoked jalapeno in spicy marinade) and some chili if you want it even hotter. Here I also tossed in some finely chopped onion, salt and pepper and stirred in a little milk. This one tastes great with the smoky chipotle flavor and has a nice slow burn from the hot peppers!

Tomato Basil Cream Cheese
This is a variation on one of my favorite themes: insalata caprese. For this I added two chopped sun dried tomatoes (from a jar, the kind in oil), a handful of fresh chopped basil from my window sill, a little milk for consistency, just a bit of finely chopped onion, salt and pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Yum yum yum.

For some reason I've been on a whole grain bread kick for about the last week or so, and every one of these spreads tastes absolutely fabulous on a slice of toasted whole grain bread (right now I've got sunflower seed bread).

Shameless Self Promotion

Here are the results of my latest foray into the art world: an exhibit of photos at a language school. I was approached about doing an exhibit there shortly before they moved to their new office, and quickly agreed with many an idea in my head...landscapes? cities? some of my crazy bird photographs from all over the place? We settled on American cityscapes, and I think it turned out all right. I didn't get all wild and use different colors for the mats around the photos this time around, I was lacking energy this time around. On Friday after 3 trips to the school to get everything organized and put together, everything was finally finished and some clients even came in and gave some positive feedback. And I used the photos as part of a conversation lesson this evening, putting sticky notes over the locations and trying to figure out where the photos were taken, talking about who's visited those places, etc, and by the end I think the students were ready to hop on a plane and head across the ocean!

If you want to make the trip across the river to Friedrichstadt, here's where the pictures are: Fremdspracheninstitut Dresden
Angelika Trautmann
Schäferstr. 42-44
01067 Dresden

Of if you have some naked walls you'd like me to dress up, just let me know. Give me frames and something to hang them on, I'll do the rest!

Obligatory Photos of the High Water in Dresden

That photo was taken on Tuesday, I'm a bit late putting these up since there have been other things on my plate. As you can see, the water from the Prießnitz was right up to the bottom of the little pedestrian bridge by the hospital, and the water from the place where the Prießnitz flows into the Elbe was up on the bike and pedestrian path. People had stripped down their kids and were letting them play in the water on the path. While it's a fun idea (and W was begging to go in the water) it really creeped me out, because one other time when there was high water on the Prießnitz, there was some very unsavory stuff floating in there. For those of you who can't imagine what, it was anything and everything you might flush down the toilet or put in the trash in your bathroom. Not pretty.
























The ferry between the Neustadt and Johannstadt sides was closed, because the docking area was under water. I think that's running again, though, since the water has receded.






You can't see the humongous and humongously ugly Waldschlößchen bridge on here so well, but maybe the planners were onto something when they made it so big. Maybe they knew something more about high water in the future than we know! But that's still no reason for it to be so ugly. Bridges do connect, it's true what the CDU says, but couldn't they have made this connection a bit nicer? Maybe they really wanted to stick it to the protesters with an extra ugly bridge at what is otherwise a very beautiful location.























Newsflash from my terrace! It too is flooded! Every time we have a torrential downpour like we did twice today, my stupid terrace gets flooded. I too am in on the adventure! Fortunately we don't have a basement as we did in our old place, there the basement was flooded every time we had rain, which was super annoying. We had some stuff ruined, and other stuff just stank to high heaven.

We love Love LOVE the new Kinderhaus!

After probably one of the worst experiences of my life (sending my poor defenseless kid off to an awful throwback of a preschool where they were convinced that he was disabled and kept trying to convince me of the same, where they went so far as to try to organize a doctor's appointment --as if we don't take him to the doctor ourselves and didn't inform them of every last "?*"*)§/ appointment-- without our permission to "put pressure on the doctor" to put him in a special needs preschool), we have started him in a new preschool that just opened and he is a superstar there. The teachers there actually seem to like their job and like kids, which is completely different from the old place. At the new Kinderhaus the teachers have tons of ideas and already this week started building puppet theaters and houses out of giant cardboard boxes with the kids. They actually let the kids use paint! Real, wet, smeary finger paint! W's group at the old preschool never once used paint with a brush, let alone FINGER paint. Good God, someone could have gotten dirty! And then the teachers maybe would have had to work to help clean up! The most artistic thing I saw there were some colored pencil drawings, and one time one other group used Play Doh. The Kinderhaus has a huge supply of finger paint and real, messy, brown clay. I want to go back to being 3 years old so I can go there and play!

Anyway, our new Kinderhaus is a fantastic place. I say "our" because it's a parents' initiative, meaning that parental work there is required. This could be anything from helping wash hand towels to fixing curtains to bookkeeping, planning parties, organizing photo archives...In our case, I will be providing English lessons for the kids. I like this, because in a way it is a kind of self selection: who is willing to do 4 hours of work per month for their kid to go there? And I can also have a look on the inside and see just what goes on inside this place. At the old preschool I really had the feeling that parents were unwanted. Please just drop your kid off, pick them up as late as possible before closing time please so you don't disturb our day, and we will fix everything you have done wrong with this child in the meantime.

I haven't even touched on the pedagogical concept. They are picking and choosing different aspects (what they consider the best) from various pedagogical approaches, including Montessori, Waldorf and others. The Kinderhaus is also free of mass-produced plastic toys--they only have things like wooden building blocks, dress up clothes, paints, boxes, beads, glue, marbles, tubes, blankets, buttons, musical instruments, books, paper, pencils, scissors, cloths, beanbags...you get the picture. The first day W asked for a car, but soon after, forgot all about cars and was really free to start exploring. This Kinderhaus is also conceived as a place that is colorful, varied, open, international, welcoming and where everyone is equal.

As if that all isn't fantastic enough, the building itself is a low-energy building with solar cells on the roof and they collect rainwater for watering the garden. In the back they will have gardens where the kids can grow vegetables and herbs, and the food on offer is organic and fresh. When I first walked into the building, I wanted to move in. It has gorgeous wood floors, cool windows and colorful rooms.

How do I know that W likes it? On Wednesday when we rounded the corner and the Kinderhaus came into view, he took off running and called out "Woohoo! The Kinderhaus!!!". On the second day he already told me that he wanted to stay there alone. Today he was practically begging me to be able to stay all alone next week. On the first day he took off with his teacher as if I wasn't even there to get water to water the plants and take some banana peels and stuff downstairs to the compost. Today he was playing and singing one of the songs he composed himself. And he talks to people there. He never spoke in the old preschool. I would like to thank Frau G and the others at the old preschool for showing me how absolutely horrible and damaging a preschool can be so I can really appreciate what a wonderful one we have found now! Sorry, Frau G, that I almost always freeze up and start swearing like a sailor as if I had Tourette's syndrome when I see you on the street or at the store, it's sort of like an allergic reaction. Maybe if someone treated the kid you love more than anything else in the world like trash and spoke to you as if you are an idiot just because you are a foreigner (who speaks the local language at least okay and can understand everything), you just might see where I'm coming from.

Hold onto your hats!

I didn't take that picture, but stole it from here.

I found 27 four leaf clovers in about 5 minutes today, and 2 five leafers. I don't know if this counts as real luck, though, because I asked the current inhabitant of the place where I found these, and he said his parents had planted a four leaf clover plant many, many years ago near the spot where I was finding these.

Anyway, if this is real luck, what in the world am I going to do with so much of it? Will we need it for the trip the United States? That will be a long flight with just me and the two little guys. Will we need it to deal with W's new preschool that starts tomorrow? I think we've already been very lucky to get a place there and it seems like he will have very nice teachers (2 people, a man and a woman) and a very small group (5 kids!!!) for the beginning. What in the world else could I/we use so much luck for? I can think of a few of my silly dreams, which I won't even write here because they are so mundane (and I don't want to jinx them), but c'mon, that's not all going to happen just because of a few silly leaves...But I have to say, everything last year worked out pretty darn well, and I started finding four leaf clovers just after we really decided that we were 100% sure about coming back to Dresden. That fateful day last year, I walked out of the door of the house at 1083 McKimmy Drive and saw that first clover staring up at me, waiting for me to milk all the luck out of it I could. Then I found ten more at various other locations in Michigan and Saxony, at very interesting times. And everything worked out better than I could have imagined! What's next?

New British-American Shop in the Neustadt

http://beyondtheponddresden.de/

How about that? There is a new shop on Rothenburger Str. 26, run by an American married to a German who's been in Germany for almost twice as long as me! I saw the sign in the window of the still-empty shop a couple weeks ago, and thought, "Hmm, what's this all about?" and happened past yesterday only because the tram stop by my house is not in use right now, so I had to walk two stops. Good thing! It's a neat little shop, with a nice selection of foods and books. It's always funny to stand in front of shelves of American products here, it's like being transported to an American grocery store for a few minutes. She even has a wish list, so if you and a couple other people want something, she'll try to get it. Come on everybody, go sign up for Grape Nuts! I was the first person to ask. I didn't sign up on the list, though, because I will be buying my own in just a few short weeks... We wound up having a nice chat and W scored a new Dr. Seuss book out of the deal. A good stop for all.

Found

I love finding stuff, and days where I find neat stuff seem to come in clusters. Either I'm finding four leaf clovers left and right, or I find kids' clothes by the donation container or at the free store a few days in a row, or I just find stuff on the street that people put out because they don't want it any more. That is the case with yesterday and today. Yesterday I found some dishes that will be useful because a certain four-year-old in my house helps to put away the dishes and sometimes drops them. And today I found a memory card from a camera, and voyeuristic me was pretty excited to see just what was on there. I had hoped for some documents full of spelling errors or some pornographic photos, but got some pretty normal stuff, like photos and vacation videos in the mountains from 2002. Entertaining nonetheless.


































































If you're a little bit creepy like me and like to get a glimpse into other people's heads by looking at their junk, then you might also enjoy Found Magazine.

I went sailing today!

Well, no, I didn't, but "I went to Marga and took some pictures of Art Nouveau architecture!" doesn't sound nearly as exciting and glamorous as sailing. Sailing smacks of having a special striped sailing shirt, boat shoes and a cool anchor tattoo, none of which I have. SK and W were sailing with a friend on Senftenberg Lake, while I took F and walked along the lake about 4 kilometers to Marga, a little suburb built in a circular arrangement in the early 20th century to house the many miners that were needed in the area at the time.










Senftenberg Lake, like the other many lakes in Lower Lusatia, used to be a giant strip mine, but after the mining was all finished, it was decided to flood the mine and make a lake. I like that attitude: take a raped piece of nature and make something nice out of it! Not only is it a lake, but it is all public property surrounding the lake, meaning you can bike on good trails, camp at campgrounds, go for an ice cream, or play at one of the many playgrounds. Or you can sail or do whatever else it is that one does on water (as long as you don’t go to fast, there is a pretty low speed limit).























Back in the early 20^th century is when this all began. At that time, the strip mining was becoming big business, and there just weren’t enough people around to fill all of the jobs. People were brought in from the surrounding states as well as countries to the east of Germany. They all needed a place to live, and so Marga was built. This was built as a suburb of Senftenberg, today it is more or less a part of the town. It was designed by a Dresden architect in a circular formation. When you see it in an aerial view, the town looks like a circle, with a ring of trees surrounding it and the market square and church in the center. The residential houses surround this. Historically it is interesting, because a lot of American suburbs were built following the model of this workers’ neighborhood. It really does feel like a suburb, it has everything one needs for daily life in a central place, and the houses are all on quiet little streets, they all have yards and fences, and the streets are curved so that you lose your orientation pretty easily.







A view across the market square in Marga

The thing that really blew me away about this little suburb, however, is that it was completely unified in style, and that style was my absolute favorite architectural style right now, Art Nouveau. Just for kicks yesterday evening while we were planning our trip for today I was trying to think of what I could do in town while the guys were sailing, so I searched for “Art Nouveau Senftenberg” and my good friend Google pointed me in the direction of Marga. This was more than I could have possibly hoped for!























The bakery. I like the wooden elements, often seen on country style Art Nouveau buildings.
























The post office, clearly marked by the post horn on the roof.



















The restaurant Kaiserkrone, which doesn't look like it's in business.

















There were lots of little mining details worked in to the buildings, like this on a doorframe on the Kaiserkrone: "Glück auf!" is the typical miner's greeting, meaning so much as "May luck be with you and bring you back up safely!"























Also on the Kaiserkrone: fantastic stained glass windows. These may even be original, the window frames themselves certainly looked to be original.



















The parsonage. This was one of my favorite residential houses in Marga. It was next to the church. The outside of the church was pretty reserved, and unfortunately I didn't have a look inside since there was a service starting just as I was walking past.




















Walking back into the center of Senftenberg I also happened past some pretty neat residential houses in the Art Nouveau style. Here in Dresden the Art Nouveau houses have a lot of rounded, smooth, sleek, incredibly graceful decorative elements, and in Senftenberg there were a lot of slightly more boxy elements with more grooves and almost Aztec-looking (at least to me) designs.
























This house made my little Art Nouveau loving heart skip a beat. Look at those window frames!














The intertwined roses!























The details of and around the door!
























And just one more, this was by the market square in Senftenberg. I almost missed this elephant up at the top of the facade of this house, but then I saw him and was just tickled pink. The guys had fun sailing, I had a great time on my little architectural safari, and at the end we all got together and grilled in our garden. All in all, a great day.

The Greenhouse

It may sound like a hairbrained idea to put up a greenhouse in the middle of the city where most people don't even have their own yards, but give us a hairbrained idea and we'll do it! I've been writing so many words lately that I decided to put up some pictures again. These greenhouse pictures are kind of old, so the plants are much smaller than they are now, but since I'm too lazy to transfer my newer pictures from the camera right now because the heat is making my brain melt and ooze out of my pores, you'll just have to live with these ones.

























There she is, the little greenhouse. To the left you can see the living room window next to which I am sitting right now. The plants were tiny when I took these pictures, the cucumbers are growing out of the window in the roof now.
























Tiny cukes!
























Here things were getting greener and taller.
























Behold! The tomatoes! Some are getting red now.
























Rest in peace, first cucumbers. Shortly after this picture was taken, that little red-headed bane of my existence who runs around like a wild animal now that it is summer vacation ripped our first two cucumbers off. Haha little jerk, they weren't quite ripe yet. After the tragic theft, the greenhouse was fortified with a gate. Following its construction, the red-headed beast was heard standing in front of said greenhouse, rattling the gate and saying, "Boah, krass eh, boah, ist das krass." This isn't the freaking soup kitchen, genius, we don't have any handouts here. As my grandfather may have said in this situation: "Who in the hell is that dirty little red-headed son of a bitch in my yard?" But instead, a certain member of my household tore open the window and yelled "What is your problem?" The little beast seemed shocked, but after the window was closed (and my secret window still open) we heard the little monster call us assholes. Regardless, he hasn't come back. Either he is on vacation, or was scared shitless. A Sauer Kraut* can be intimidating!

*see here for explanation

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

by Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Good times and noodle salad

Mmmm, oh I can't believe it, I just made a pasta salad that tastes like my favorite tomato
mozarella bagel by Thomas! I am thrilled. Today has been quite a day of cooking: for lunch I took the celery I had in the fridge from making a different salad on the weekend (which received massive boos from one member of my household because "the celery is too hard and the leaves get stuck on the roof of your mouth") and whipped up a delicious soup. Call me crazy for cooking soup in this weather, but my kitchen remains amazingly cool even now because it's north facing and shaded by several trees. This soup reminded me of the Chinese Beef Casserole my mom used to make (or maybe still makes, I don't know), which is also heavy on celery, just minus the beef!
Just now I made some italian style pasta salad and can't wait to chow down, because, as I mentioned, it tastes like my absolute favorite food ever made by the bagel man. The tomato mozarella bagel was my main form of sustenance during my first month in Dresden, when I was staying next to Bagel's at the Mondpalast hostel. Even now I live only about a ten minute walk from there, and am so pleased that he is open again during the day, because now if there's crappy weather and we need to get out, I can have a coffee there and W can drink a "mango": he prefers to shorten mango juice to just mango.

Here are the recipes, sorry North Americans for the metric units of measure, but there are lots of good conversion sites online and I am lazy:

Celery Soup

6 oz. finely chopped celery (sticks and leaves, not the root! You can make a good schnitzel out of the root)
1 small onion, finely chopped
6 oz. potato
1/2 oz. unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pints vegetable broth
salt
2 tablespoons heavy cream
chopped parsley

Melt the butter in a large pan together with the olive oil and gently fry the onion and celery until soft, about 10 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth and diced potato.

Boil for about 20 minutes, then blend it with your mixer stick (or immersion blender or Purierstab, whatever you want to call it) leaving some chunks. Salt it, throw in the cream, stir it, chop a little parsley and sprinkle it on top to make it pretty.

I doubled this due to my overabundance of celery, so we will be eating celery soup tomorrow too.

Italian Pasta Salad

250 grams noodles (I used fusilli)
200 grams mozzarella (the fresh kind in ball form)
100 grams dried tomatoes
arugula
1 clove of garlic
70 mL olive oil
balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon each pesto, mustard, honey
parmesan
salt and pepper

Cook the noodles and rinse them with cold water.
Wash the arugula and chop it a bit.
Drain the oil from the dried tomatoes and the water from the mozzarella, chop those into about 1 cm cubes.
Mix all this in a large salad bowl, add salt and pepper to taste.
Mix oil, vinegar, garlic (chopped or pressed), pesto, mustard and honey and pour over salad shortly before eating.
Mix salad and garnish with parmesan.
Mmmmm!

For this salad you can also add some ham and pine nuts, I left off the ham since I don't eat the stuff, and forgot the roasted pine nuts after having gone on an expedition to find some! Another note: the arugula in this salad also got massive boos from that special member of my household who also stated that it was "too hard" and picked out every last bit.

BP

Well, if we can't fix it, we might as well laugh about it.