Her Maiden Voyage























The last time we saw the Sebring, in Newark, New Jersey, before she got put in a container with a Porsche Boxster and a Mercedes and on the ship to the old world. Too bad Porsche and Sebring didn't make any babies, they probably would've been pretty sweet!

Let me just start with this: Never before have I adored a car as I adore my Sebring. She is reliable, looks good, and drives so smoothly! It made me very sad, and pretty mad, when I hit that stupid deer back in April. Never before did I want to kill something like I wanted to kill that deer! I never thought I would become a person who likes driving a 6-cylinder or even care, but it really does make a difference. And for those of you tree-huggers who are thinking "A 6-cylinder! But you're killing the environment!" No, I'm not. This car gets the same or better gas mileage as our old Volvo, and way better than the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which we sold not so much out of our wish to conserve gas, but more out of our wish to conserve our Euros.

Sebring arrived last weekend in Bremerhaven, Germany. All the paperwork was finished pretty quickly, and Sauer Kraut went to get her yesterday. Sebring arrived mostly unscathed, she got a couple little dings on the way, but no paint damage, and who knows, maybe the tiny dents were already there before she left the new world. Fortunately, Sebring did not suffer the fate of a Corvette at the same agents':




















Ouch. Something fell on that car's roof! The owner was circling the car with a VERY sour look on his face...

Customs in Bremerhaven was no problem, we had all of our paperwork in order and since this car was brought as part of a move and we have owned it for nearly a year, we didn't have to pay any import tax. The first thing I heard about Sebring's maiden voyage: "It drives so much better than the BMW!" (S.K. drove a rental car to get the Sebring) The drive went well, Sebring likes the Autobahn. Then, later on, about 59 kilometers from Dresden, I got a call informing me that something metal just flew off the car and whatever it was couldn't be found. Maybe it was the antenna, the antenna broke off because of a crazy wind situation due to things attached to the luggage rack on the roof. Huh. About a half hour later, I got another call that the car quit on the A13 Autobahn. Excuse me? This made me kind of sad, thinking that this may be Sebring's first and last tour in Germany. I had to call ADAC and order a tow truck or a "yellow angel", the guy who comes and helps you when your car dies. So, the yellow angel arrived quickly, and I also received a call pretty soon: The car is running again! And guess what the problem was: the gas tank was empty. That was a pretty expensive fill-up courtesy of ADAC. Apparently, the gas gauge did not show that the gas was nearly out. Maybe it's just confused because the shippers had to pump out the remaining gas to ship the car. Or maybe they filled up the tank with contraband and forgot to take it out before giving us our car back. This really did happen not too long ago in Michigan: a man bought a used car, and the gas gauge always showed a half tank or so. Finally, he got the car checked out, and the gas tank was full of cocaine.

Today we had some things to do in Dresden, and it is just amazing how people stare at our car. For me, she's just a normal car, but for the Dresdner, it's something like a UFO. I think it's because she is lower than most cars, like Passats or even Mini Coopers, and she is long and sleek, so she has the essence of a race car. In the parking garage at the supermarket, some guys were staring at her, and got these goofy smiles on their faces as if they just fell in love with Sebring. Give me €10,000 and in a year, she's yours. Before that we'd have to pay some major tax for selling her. No, not really. I think I'll keep her. She's something special, not only good looking, but practical. You should see her trunk!

Numbers 9 and 10!
























This whole thing is starting to puzzle me. This morning we went out for a walk, and on the sidewalk next to our current undisclosed location in Dresden, I found four leaf clovers numbers 9 and 10. First one, then the other jumped out at me. They are currently in the kitchen in some water, but I will add them to the collection of dry ones in my notebook soon. Why do I need so much luck this summer? Or does it mean we are doing everything right?

Where did Sauer Kraut get his name?
















This is just an informational post so that no one thinks I am being mean or abusive to my husband. There are actually 2 phases that relate to the history of his being dubbed Sauer Kraut.
Phase 1 involved my parents visiting Germany for our wedding. He was preparing some food in our kitchen, and it involved large amounts of sauerkraut, so there was a big bowl of sauerkraut on our counter. He pointed to the bowl and said "See? This is why we are called Krauts!"

Phase 2 came shortly before our departure from Michigan. We were not so happy with our situation right then, and some even came to believe we were somewhat soured by the whole experience. My brother informed my mom one day that he had had my husband on his sandwich. She didn't understand, and asked for clarification. He explained that he had had a Reuben sandwich for lunch, this consists of rye bread, corned beef, swiss cheese, sauce, and, you guessed it, sauerkraut. And hence, the title, "Sauer Kraut".

The most beautiful dairy in the world
















This is an interior view of Pfunds Molkerei, also known as the "Most beautiful milk shop in the world" according to the Guiness Book of World Records. It is located right in my neighborhood, tucked in a little place on Bautzner Str. It's easiest to locate by following all the tourist busses on Bautzner Str., they are certainly headed there. Or to the brewery. Anyway, what's so special about this place is that it is completely tiled in gorgeous hand painted porcellain tiles. And they sell all kinds of delicious cheese! One disadvantage of this place: it doesn't smell very good in the summer.

Anyway, my Sauer Kraut had a little run in with the milk shop today. He was headed to the butcher shop with little Kraut in our latest undisclosed location, in the same neighborhood as the most beautiful milk shop in the world. On our current street, which is a pedestrian zone, he was stopped by an unsuspecting non-native English-speaking tourist. Sauer Kraut was in an especially fun-loving mood today.

Non-native English speaker: "Excuse me, where is the milk shop?"
Sauer Kraut: "Well, there are lots of places to buy milk around here, but it's 6 p.m. on a Saturday, so most of them are closed."
Non-native English speaker walks away with an annoyed look on her face.

S.K. was pleased with these results, and glowing upon his fruitless return from the butcher shop. You see, it was 6 p.m. on Saturday, so the butchers were all closed.

What a lucky day!
























My new bunny looks something like this, only a much lighter gray, almost white. We stopped by a friend's house today after looking at an apartment (where I just so happened to find four leaf clover number 8 in the garden) to visit and see his bunnies, since I had heard there had been great bunny changes at his house. Wow, have they got bunnies! 2 litters to be exact, and at least 2 pairs of adult buns. One litter is 6 weeks old, the other litter is a little older. The precious creamy gray bunny is currently 6 weeks and will be available in 2 weeks! She was spoken for, but since the person who wanted her has gone bankrupt and left behind a really nice apartment on the top floor of my friend's house, she won't be able to take the precious bun. We would also love to take the apartment, but it is currently a bit expensive for us. But we will see if we can work something out. Precious bun is ours!

Did you know...

that in Germany if you find an empty parking spot on the street and your passenger jumps out to stand in the spot while you turn around to drive to the spot, it is legal for another car to come and slowly drive into the parking spot, making contact with the human standing in the spot and pushing him/her out of the way with the car? There have been court cases regarding exactly this, and the person pushing the other person out of the way in the car won.

We're baaa-aaack!

After nearly 24 hours of being in transit, from our hotel in New York to our temporary place in an undisclosed location just outside Dresden, then a couple days of lots of sleep, we have arrived.
Being away for ten months now just seems like a blurry memory, or a half forgotten dream. In our undisclosed location, our gracious hosts even unpacked some of our old furniture and Wilhelm's toys, so we really feel at home. And yesterday afternoon and evening, there was even a big surprise party for us, with a large number of the colorful characters who were a part of our daily life before and the whole family. Not to mention large amounts of very delicious foods.

Wow. It's kind of overwhelming, and neat to be back in this home away from home. It's different from when I came here before, it's not this prickly exciting new adventure anymore, it's a place I know better and feel far more comfortable in than my original home in many ways.

On another note, I found my 6th four leaf clover this summer yesterday in our undisclosed location. Number five was found at my parents' house the day we set off on our drive to New York. We must have used the luck of that one either for not having to unpack all of our belongings from the car at the Canadian border or for not getting shot in East Orange, NJ, while searching for our hotel, then deciding we'd better just look for something in a better neighborhood.

New York City























That's the truth! We have been deprived of city life for too long. We drank in New York today like water for people who are dying of thirst. New York City is incredible. For whatever reason, it has the reputation of being fast, cold, harsh and unfriendly, but both times I have been here, my impression and experience has been exactly the opposite. If someone sees you looking at a map they ask nicely if they can help or if you're lost, if you've got a kid who needs a toilet, they will let you in wherever and comment "I can't blame you for not using the Burger King restrooms, they're pretty skeevy." Maybe the bad reputation is just a way of keeping people from absolutely overrunning this fantastic metropolis.



















We took a great walk from Battery Park around the southern tip of Manhattan via the Esplanade, winding up in Tribeca. This frog was spotted in Rockefeller Park, just one sculpture from a jam packed little area of sculptures by Tom Otterness. For more, go here. All of the little guys around the bigger figures remind me of scenes from the animated film Fantastic Planet, in a way creepy, yet endearing.



















We also went to Central Park, since I hadn't been there yet and really wanted to see it. It was way more than I expected. The landscape is just beautiful, it's full of rocks, trees, water and people people everywhere!

We also saw the Trump Tower, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (from a distance), and were in Greenwich Village, Soho, the Financial District, and the future site of the "Freedom is not free" monument, or whatever they are currently calling the former site of the World Trade Center. This trip has resulted in the decision to definitely take at least a week vacation in New York City sometime soon. Like our cab driver said tonight: "You could stay here for a month and still want to see more."

Our cab driver was full of wisdom. We mentioned that we were leaving Michigan to move back to Germany, and were just on vacation here for a couple of days, and he said "Michigan is like a ghost town. All they do there is build cars." To which I couldn't resist replying: "Not any more! Now it's just a ghost town!" This resulted in roaring laughter and 100% agreement. He also agreed that "Chicago sucks", confirming what I've heard before about New Yorkers disliking Chicago and Chicagoans disliking New York. This guy got a good tip, unlike the guy yesterday from New Jersey who was a total d!$% and did not even help lift suitcases into the trunk, just stood there with crossed arms smoking his Parliaments. Like I said when he called back wanting detailed directions to the place where he was to pick us up: "The address is XYZ, I see an exit called Fish House Road, there are no special landmarks, that's all I know. That's why I call a service to come pick me up." Why don't you have a GPS that works? And why are you driving a 300C and not a Lincoln Town Car like we ordered? You can get more luggage in a Chrysler Sebring than a 300C, that big, ugly, boxy car is a joke.

Taking leave of this place

We are on the road again, and, well, just about off the road. We dropped off the car to be shipped to a far away place and will be boarding our plane for a far away place soon. But first, here are some sights from our trip through MI, ON, NY, PA, NJ and back to NY.


















This is a sight from somewhere in New York or Pennsylvania. There are just too many things about this scene that I love.
























Fries Poutine. An eastern Ontario delicacy best eaten after drinking large amounts of alcohol, at least according to insiders. It consists of fresh cut french fries, warm cheese curds and beef gravy. Mmmm. I actually tried it, and in my hungry state, didn't mind it, though skeptical at first glance.


















Big Turk, Canadian candy bar. Highly innappropriate by PC German standards. Very delicious by my standards. Inside German sources say it tastes like Gelee Bananen. We'll see about that when we arrive. My description: chocolate covered gummy bear in bar form. Mmmm.



















Insert "don't" here. Sorry Michigan, but it's true. Some people have been known to say, and I quote: "The only good thing about Michigan is that when you leave, you know you can't be going anywhere worse."



















Turtle crossing in Kingston, Ontario. On first glance, I thought: "How nice of them to think of the turtles!" Upon commenting on how I like their turtle crossing to a Kingstonian, I was told: "You don't want to hit one of those with your car! They're huge! They can do some major damage!" So I guess it's more to protect the motorists than the turtles, unlike Germany's frog crossings.

Sauer Kraut at Harley Davidson gang run junkyard today: "I need a loud horn for my car. I'm taking it back to Germany and there people just walk out in front of you, and I need something that will make them jump out of the way."

Harley gang: "Why don't you just run them over?"

Sauer Kraut: "Well, I can't do that. I don't want any legal problems."

Harley gang: "We just put loud pipes on our bikes so people get out of the way."

Sauer Kraut: "I had loud pipes on my bike in Germany and lost my license for two years."

Harley gang: "Go out back, there are some old Cadillacs out there, you can take a horn from one of those."

Sign on the wall in Harley gang's office: "Wanted: old motorcycles. No Japs." Good think S.K. didn't mention what kind of bike he had those loud pipes on, they would've kicked him out. Or run him over.

What question could I have asked this 8 Ball one year ago during the planning of my move from Dresden to Michigan?

a. Will this move make me lose my mind?

b. Am I ever going to have more children?

c. Will we ever move back to Dresden?

d. All of the above.

Sorry to get all hocus-pocus on you and start writing about silly things like four leaf clovers and 8 balls lately, but I am feeling kind of hocus-pocusy. I guess being nearly six months pregnant will do that to you. Oh! That gives away one answer: b. could have been a correct question for that 8 ball answer. It's true, there is a baby on the way, and in honor of that, a baby joke I heard today:

Two babies were lying in the nursery of a hospital. One looks at the other and says, "I'm a girl!" The other says, "I'm a boy!" The girl asks, "How do you know that?" The boy says, "Come here, take a look" as he pulls down his blanket. "See! I have blue booties on!"

Ha ha ha. That one is from the Danish mother of a wife of a colleague, imported straight from Denmark.

Anyway, back to the hocus pocus. Along with all the four leaf clovers (see previous posts about my finding of 4 of them in the past week), all fortunes from fortune cookies at every delicious Chinese restaurant I go to have been telling me that prosperity is near, and soon you will be sitting on top of the world and stuff like this. Huh, well, we'll see. I quit my job today, so that won't be making me prosperous any time soon. It may be a surprise to some that I quit my job, but it really is for the best. You see, I feel like I am losing my mind once again planning yet another intercontinental move...so answer a. above was also correct. I probably did lose my mind last year during intercontinental move #1. Big news for those not yet in on it! We are returning to Dresden! And now, a little Westernhagen (or is it Nena?) in honor of this:

"Ich bin wieder hier

in meinem Revier

war nie wirklich weg

hab mich nur versteckt

ich rieche den Dreck

ich atme tief ein

und dann bin ich mir sicher

wieder zu Hause zu sein"

I know my readers could probably all qualify as members of Mensa, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this, so you've probably figured out that answer c. from above would have also been correct last year had I asked the 8 ball that particular question. And from the Dreck part of the song, you probably also figured out that we are returning to the Neustadt! Hooray! We're not there yet, so I can't smell the Dreck (dirt) just quite yet...but soon enough. July 9th, I will officially be smelling the smell of Dresden again!

Soooo, in all truth, the 8 ball could have just said "All of the above."

Things I can't wait for:

-delicious German baked goods

-going to the Plus Markt and having the cashier throw my purchases for me to bag them myself (I'll tell you what, that's a lot more efficient than the slloooooooww cashiers here, and I can deal with my thrown purchases much better when tired and hungry than with some friendly cashier chatting with me)

-giving people dirty looks for anything and everything (I've already been practicing, I am sick of all the niceness around here!)

-letting Wilhelm scream in the store and getting dirty looks

-did I mention sunflower seed rolls? Quarkkuchen? Roggenbrötchen? Kuchen? Any kind of Kuchen? Schokoladenbrötchen? Oh yeah, baked goods!

-my bike

-Panama

-the tram

-delicious milk products

-Kartoffeln und Quark

-Rahmspinat

-the smell of the bakery in the morning, oh my god

-the lack of fast food restaurants

-Neustädter Diechl!

-Bagel's!

-Frank's!

-the playgrounds and all the über-moms there

-Softeis!

-being sent to the butcher to buy some meat products I know nothing about and will not eat, looking and pointing at the totally wrong thing when placing my order

-mmm, the cheese! All the wonderful cheese!

-people outside walking, biking, running and skating everywhere, even in the rain!

-all of the sounds, the angry tram drivers and their angry bells, car horns honking, dogs barking, people talking, church bells, the music in the cafes...

I could go on and on, but it's getting late and we have a big day of packing the car and dealing with the debacle that that is sure to develop into tomorrow.

Good Luck

I walked out the door today, and what was staring up at me from the lawn? Another four-leaf clover! The fourth one in a week. We must be heading for some luck, or needing some major luck soon...

What's going on?

We must be doing something right, because today I found my third four leaf clover this week. How can that be? Are these things really lucky? Do I need all of this luck, or is it a sign that we are just doing everything right? Some very big decisions were made and finalized this week, then I started finding these! One on the 17th, one on the 18th and one today. And it's just when I am walking along, looking down at the grass, they jump out at me, I don't sit and search for them like I did when I was a child (when I also found several). On the 17th and 18th, I was walking from the car to the house, and there they were. Today I was walking over from my neighbor's garage, and there was one. Huh. The really funny thing is that I haven't found one for years, and now 3 in one week.

C'mon Dresden...










The whole world cultural heritage site thing is getting old. For those not in the know, Dresden's Elbe Valley, a nearly 20 kilometer long part of the Elbe River Valley (it's the red outlined part on the map of Dresden above), was declared a UNESCO world cultural heritage site a few years ago. Now the title is in danger because the citizens of Dresden voted to build a bridge at one point within this area. Indeed, the planned (and currently under construction) bridge is not a pretty one (see below), and its planning has some flaws, but how can this bridge lead to the removal of the title of world cultural heritage site?










By definition, a world cultural heritage site is a cultural landscape in a large city that has been used and formed by humans. I know, I know, the UNESCO has 6 criteria all written out in pretty language describing how this cultural landscape is to be, but basically, what I wrote above is what it boils down to. The criteria are written in such a way that one could understand them to mean that the new bridge in Dresden, just as an example, is acceptable or unacceptable (the architecture in the area unifies one or more significant cultural epochs) . It all depends on how you want to understand and view the whole thing.

How can one ugly bridge ruin 20 kilometers of an incredibly beautiful landscape full of architectural and natural treasures? There are other existing ugly bridges in the 20 km stretch of cultural heritage. Everyone claims how these incredible meadows that are so nice for picnicking, etc. are being destroyed. But do you know what? I rarely saw people picnicking or playing sports where this bridge is being built. You know where the people are picnicking? By the other bridges! People put cows out on these meadows to chow on the grass, and bale it up when the time is right, but that is still doable when a bridge is there. You can still go for a walk down there by the Waldschlößschen where they are building the bridge, it will just be a bit louder, but guess what everyone, you're in the city, and it's loud in the city. Should they close the Königsbrücker Straße in the Neustadt because it's loud and it stinks? NO! I live on a quiet road in the country right now, and I am losing my mind. Bring on the noise!

My main beef with the Waldschlößchen bridge is that I hear it has no opportunity for pedestrians or cyclists to cross. Also no trams. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this point, but I find this unacceptable and silly. Of course, that is just in my own personal interest, as a pedestrian and cyclist. In my current life I am forced to drive a car, but at heart, I am a pure pedestrian and cyclist, and would love to bike across this bridge to work or wherever I might need to go on that other side of the river. It would be much more convenient than biking over one of the other bridges and then rattling my brains out on some of those cobblestone streets they've got over there. Why not build big with space for pedestrians, cyclists and a tram that could be added later should the need arise (though the need is probably already there)?

Maybe the whole thing is just a set up, maybe someone in Dresden paid off the UNESCO to give them the title then threaten to take it away (even though they knew upon awarding the title that this bridge was planned) for publicity. I've got to say, if nothing else, this whole debacle is spectacular publicity for Dresden. No one would have even known that the Elbe River Valley in Dresden was a world cultural heritage site if it weren't for the title being endangered by the bridge. A lot of people never would have even heard of Dresden or thought about Dresden had this not happened. The only problem is that a lot of people are probably shaking their heads and saying "Those silly Dresdner!" about the bridge trouble.

Assorted stuff of late

Not a whole lot has been going on around here, but that's probably just the calm before the storm. We had some visitors, a couple of birthday parties, and lots of asking ourselves "What's next?"























I love this sign, it is posted near Beaverton on Dundas Road. Someone really wants to scare people off of their property. But, if you look closely at the lower right hand corner, you notice that this sign was ripped off from the city of San Diego, where, unlike in Michigan, they must actually have rattlesnakes.
























My sailor friend pointed this out to me on a stop in Traverse City, MI. "Oh my God! Come look at this! You've got to put it on your blog!" All I can say is: shame on you, Mother Nature!



















Wilhelm is only 3 years old, and on two of his birthdays, he has had hail storms. What are the odds of that with a late May birthday? On his first birthday in Dresden there was a sudden hail storm, and this year on his third birthday in Beaverton, there was a sudden hail storm. Weird.



















Wilhelm's birthday wishes? Balloons and bunny cake. He got both, and the excitement was immense.

Herding feral cats in heat

Never before in my life have I had to deal with more blatantly disrespectful, nasty, mean comments than as a teacher of middle and high school kids. It is as if these children have no upbringing or have never been held accountable for the horrible things they say. And I don't want to say "well, maybe I'm just taking this all to personally", because is it really acceptable to tell someone to their face (a person who should be a person of respect, haha) that they are "being dumb"? Is it okay to tell a teacher (a teacher of an elective course that these kids are in purely by choice) that "no one cares"? Is it acceptable to constantly interrupt someone who is speaking to you or simply turn your back on them and start having a social conversation? Is it acceptable to blurt out "This class sucks cock"? That one warranted a call home and contact with the office, and things have straightened out, because at least there is some parental support in this instance. Throughout all of these stupid instances and more there have been messages home, contact with superiors, and searches for help and support, but little has helped. Some days I am left after my last class just shaking my head. One very nice student I have said one day, "You know, they are like they are because of how they've been raised". I was tempted to add, "No, it's how they haven't been raised at all." Most of the kids in my classes are like wild animals who just do what they want. A stark minority of them have parents who are really there for them, teaching them things and holding them accountable for their actions. Those ones are great kids, good students, and an absolute pleasure to teach. Teaching the rest of them is like herding feral cats in heat.

And the thing that makes my blood boil is that I know my class isn't lame. As a language nerd, I have been in a number of extremely lame, boring language classes, where you don't do any communicative activities, any projects, anything hands-on. I have all glowing reviews from my three bosses who have been in observing me this year. These kids in my classes are constantly doing projects and hands-on stuff, games, stories, and still they bitch and complain. Probably because they are being forced to think and do something. I was tempted a number of times to go in this year and say, "Well, if you don't like how I'm teaching you, let me show you for a week how I was taught German in school." I could have pursed my lips and turned red every time a kid talked out of turn, sent them to the office for any minor infraction, and had them doing book work and worksheets the whole hour with a strict no talking policy. They would've loved it.

Tales from the front

As the weather gets nicer, the kids are getting more colorful.

Quotes from today:

One student asks another student for a cookie. Student with cookie replies, "The last time I gave you something you tried to smoke it." Student who wanted cookie then states, "No, I tried to snort it." (it was a pack of Smarties) Student wanting cookie then got cookie, ate it, and snorted the crumbs from his paper. This is a true story that really happened today at about 12:40 pm.

Out of the blue, someone blurts out, "If you eat your own leg, would you gain or lose weight?"

Today they called me the "fun Gestapo" because I "suck the fun right out of everything."

Mud Blog

Driving past Lloyd's house on Friday, it seemed that something was in the works, since they had a giant digger in the field, digging the mud pits even deeper. On our way home yesterday, we first heard the roar of engines, then saw the field on the corner full of parked cars, and knew some kind of event was happening. A mud bog. The mud bog is apparently a favorite rural pastime, occurring all around the United States. From what I have observed at our neighbors' house, a lot more preparation seems to go into the thing than the actual bogging itself. The vehicles are constantly propped up on cinder blocks, and the boggers are always working on them, for days and weeks at a time, the bog is constantly being flooded and dug out, and then the actual bogging, the driving of some big, loud truck through the mud, takes a couple of minutes. That is, unless they get stuck or the truck overheats and quits. Then they sit for quite a while, futilely spinning their tires, waiting for something bigger and more powerful to pull them out. We parked on the road, like many other passers-by, to gape at this spectacle of rural entertainment.



















In the left edge of the picture, you can see a Jeep with its hood up. This car had overheated and quit. It sat motionless for quite a while. The orange truck is in the process of pulling the brown truck out of the mud where it got stuck.


















The orange truck was unable to pull out the brown truck, so the big boys had to come out. Big blue was able to get the job done, but only after the overheated Jeep was removed from the scene so it didn't get damaged in the towing process.



















Equal opportunity fun! Even people on crutches can bog.





































Doesn't that look like fun?

Upon leaving our safe parking spot on the road to head for home, we noticed a car turn the corner behind us from the direction of the bog. To be safe, we turned the wrong way and didn't drive to our house, because we were scared we were being followed by Lloyd's friends. They probably didn't like it that so many people in nice cars were stopping on the road, pointing and laughing at them, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were following people to beat them up or do some kind of damage to their vehicles. Also, Lloyd the bogger does not get along well with people who live on our road. It is a different world from Lloyd's, just a half mile away. Well-kept houses and people walking, jogging and riding bikes in clean clothes, not caked with mud. As our neighbor, the man who in hindsight very unfortunately sold Lloyd his property, would say, "Lloyd, the people who live on the river, they have a little bit more money, and they think your mud bog is stupid." This conversation occured after a mud bog years ago, during which Lloyd and his friends drove their big trucks onto property that didn't belong to Lloyd and tore up the land with their big tires.

Viewing this bog and its poorly dressed participants with bad haircuts took me right back to my school days, when people who looked just like them (maybe these same people were there yesterday) used to harass my friends and I, calling us lesbians, breaking and mutilating our things, and committing other forms of abuse. If these people weren't such cruel jerks, maybe I wouldn't laugh at them and how stupid I think they are. Maybe I wouldn't point and take pictures which I plan to broadcast to the world and write sarcastic things about. In the end, I am no better than them, laughing at them and making fun of their silly loud trucks because I just can't understand what they enjoy about doing what they do.



















Haha. What luck. I am stuck stuck stuck.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes, oh my God...





















That's what I had for breakfast this morning.

I'd been planning on making delicious pancakes for breakfast today since yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, I had a hankering for chocolate chip pancakes, because I wanted to use up that bag of chocolate chips that was just lying around and terrorizing me. So I found the easiest recipe I could, and wow...

Here it is:

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup whole, 2 percent fat, or 1 percent fat milk
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, or less to taste
• Butter, for cooking

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine the butter and milk. Place over low heat just until warm and the butter is melted. Let cool slightly. In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix well.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork. Whisk in the milk mixture. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until barely blended. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium heat. Add about 1 teaspoon of butter and melt until bubbly. Ladle 3 tablespoons of batter for each pancake onto the hot surface and cook until bubbly on the top and golden brown on the bottom. Turn and cook until golden brown on the other side, about 30 seconds more. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Serve hot.

from http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_14767_RECIPE-PRINT-FULL-PAGE-FORMATTER,00.html

----------------

While I did melt the butter together with the milk in a sauce pan, and did mix the dry ingredients as instructed, I did not whisk the eggs or whisk things together, I just mixed them with a spoon because I didn't want to dirty another bowl. It all turned out just fine. I also only used about 4 ounces of chocolate chips, because that's all I had, and it was quite enough. Wow, these are good, though my Hauskraut did say, and I quote: "that's typical American food. Way too sweet. Ugh," with a wrinkled nose. But I must add, he did not eat these with syrup, or even plain, but with butter and SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK on top. No wonder they were too sweet.