Life in Germ, Beer and Pretzels, oh whatever!?!

Ain't this a major annoyance

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:20:00 +0000

Well from this point on this blog is officially moving to this address:
http://clearblogs.com/lifeingerm

NEW BLOGGER is a pain if you happen to have more than one blog. This blog will only display the profile from my other blog, and I can't rectify this after hours of trying....so be warned fellow blogspot bloggers. I think the new blogger is not a problem if you just have one blog, but if you have more than one with different profiles you are hosed if you switch to access them via one gmail account. If you have multiple blogs with different profiles you can access them via more than one gmail account and you also won't encounter problems. Oh if I had known this morning.

New Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:30:00 +0000

I've just switched both of my blogs to new blogger, and after reading miles of help files it looks like I'm stuck with the profile for my "dog blog" on this blog...which is not how I want things. I'm putting up this post to see if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this....I don't see a solution other than quickly becoming proficient with html, and I don't have time for this because my house is a mess and I have 3 dogs here who would rather go for a walk than watch me pull out my hair.
Anyway, suggestions anyone? One thing I would strongly suggest is that if you have multiple blogs, don't switch over to New Blogger. This is a seriously painful bug and may cause me to have to delete this one and start over....which I hate to do because of links on my website and on the sites of my friends....HELP!

In the meantime I'm going to turn off all computers, take a walk, think this over while I hand out dog treats, and try to stop freaking out!

die Oma aka Omi

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:42:00 +0000

This is a picture of my famous in these here parts mother-in-law. Everyone knows her, but I guess this is what happens when you stay put for 88 years. She's feisty, sometimes tempermental, but goes like the energizer bunny especially in weather suitable for gardening. She's a gardening fool and will wear herself out on her hands and knees all day in the sun. But she grows beautiful flowers and a lot of them, healthy bio vegetables, does a lot of complaining about it but also will tell you after she's rested that she loves the garden. It seems to be keeping her young.
This morning I was soaking in the tub and thinking about her and how much German I've learned from her. She's patient with my questions and is proud of the way she effectively can guess at my meaning when my German is not quite right. I am really kind of interested in the development of foreign languages, and as such sometimes we have had discussions about the most basic of problems in German....gender. Now coming from a world where things like table, sky, tree, etc. are all genderless, I have constant problems getting it right in German as do my friends (thankfully) since we all are learning this language a bit late in life. Omi really can't relate to this, and it blows her away when I ask things like why is a skirt masculine, why is a girl neutral, and why are spoons, forks and knives masculine, feminine, and neutral respectively. She looks at an object and it just IS the gender that it IS. Period. It does not matter if it makes no sense like if most of the rivers IN German are feminine but OUTSIDE Germany they are mostly masculine. In her mind THIS IS JUST CORRECT, and she cannot grasp why I don't see it this way. But she gets it slightly that my world is pretty neutral and she is nice about it when I get the gender wrong. It makes her chuckle, but I must say that NOTHING makes her laugh as hard as watching me knit. I knit via the American method....stick the needle in, wrap the yarn and finish your stitch. This almost knocks her to her knees. She has what I must admit is a much more effective method of holding the yarn so that it feeds through her fingers and she does each stitch in one swift motion. Since she's been knitting now for more than 60 years she's not only proficient at her method but knits at warp speed. I told her she can make a pair of socks in 10 minutes with 5 needles, no problem.
I could go on about her forever because I spend a lot of time with her every week. I'm her chauffeur for all things shopping and appointment related. I've really come to love her even though she's a kind of crazy little German devil woman!

I'm a lazy blogger but here's what I'm reading

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:30:00 +0000

I just read what I think might be the best book of my life. It is called Hannah's Gift and I don't have enough superlatives in my vocabulary to adequately describe it. If I have already not gotten it for you, get a copy as fast as you can. It is painful for sure, but also about the joy and fullness of living. I cried (correction, sobbed) and laughed and felt like I'd been given a wonderful gift when I closed the back cover. Just trust me.

Now I'm halfway through Peter Mayle's new book which is called Provence A-Z. It is better than it seemed when I cracked the book open, and I've learned a lot about Provence. As we are headed there tomorrow, I'll be reading it surrounded by lavender fields, although they've been chopped back for the year. But Provence is always good no matter how you slice it. Rent our houses there at www.flertwig.de
We are going down to open them up for the season....a bit early but we otherwise have packed schedules so February it is.

And I also just read 1000 Days in Tuscany and before that 1000 Days in Venice both by Marlena de Blasi. I liked Venice better, but thought they were both lovely tales. She's a good writer and includes recipes so you can't beat that.

And on the occasion of the hanging of Saddam Hussein....

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 21:06:00 +0000

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1959051.ece

In my opinion, way worth the time it will take you to read these few paragraphs.

A little on Christmas in Germ

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:48:00 +0000

The traditions here for the holidays are different to say the least. The dude in the photo is Nikolaus who shows up in these here parts on December 6th. Depending on where you live in Germ there are different traditions on exactly how he leaves you a gift or two. And then on Christmas Eve the Christkind comes and leaves gifts under the tree, at least around here while you are at the children's church service.

Bernd shocked me this year by suggesting that we go to downtown Munich on Saturday the 23rd for breakfast and for just a bit of poking around. OK by me! We ran across this guy in our new Karstadt Oberpollinger store (quite mahvelous, go check it out!)...he was handing out candy to kids who were not afraid to approach him, and he tried to reassure those who were terrified that they should not be afraid of him. I thought he was rather impressive and I like the expression on the girl behind him as well.

A belated Merry Christmas and Happy 2007. Another year closer to the end of the Bush reign!

TOC's

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:54:00 +0000

We just happily had company for the last 8 days, two of the five peeps we were supposed to visit in Vermont last month but missed due to scheduling problems because of that pneumonia thing and being stuck in the hospital. The blow was softened by the fact that we knew these two friends were coming to Munich to see the Christmas markets. These two women, Liz and Flo come from upstate New York, and we originally found them one year when they rented our house in France (www.flertwig.de Sorry, gotta throw that plug in there). We took to this group right away but I think our friendship was cemented in the moment that they announced that they also hated George Bush.

These women are the kind of guests you can only dream about. Even though they were in a foreign country and basically don't speak German, they are well traveled, friendly and outgoing, so they get by just fine wherever they are. And most importantly for me, they do not need a babysitter. They would strike out on their own with no hesitation, shop until they couldn't carry anything more, come back, drop it all off, and strike out again. They basically took Europe home with them this week. It was something to watch. I was able in the meantime to get the laundry done and the floors mopped.

So earlier this week we went to Milan and stayed with my pal Donna who moved there this year. We toured Milan quickly one day and went to see the original of DaVinci's Last Supper. We pretty much agreed that even this alone made the trip worthwhile. If you happen to be in Milan, try not to miss it. Huge, incredible, and hard to quit staring at.

Here is a shot of Christmas in Milan taken by Donna that I especially liked. This is the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuelle near the Duomo in Milan. She was gone a long time working on this photo and now I see it was worth the wait! The tree is covered in Swarovski crystals...ahhh.

But back to my company. At one point while Liz and Flo were zooming around in Italy, Donna made the comment that they were kind of like her mother-in-law on crack. We enjoyed watching them zoom around, but just could not believe it. They earned the new moniker "Travelers on Crack" since they are the least likely two people on earth to ever use illicit drugs, and actually would never need them. Liz especially can go go go with minimal sleep. They are the first people I've ever had visit who went from the airport straight to downtown Munich for shopping and Christmas marketing. So they are now officially the TOC's. Never have I seen two people who thought they could manage to do and see just about all of Europe in a day or two or three. Experience tells me that they also somehow pull it off. I loved having them and we named them TOC's in the most loving of ways!

Liz and Flo, come back any old time the shopping bug hits again. It was great fun for us all having you here.

Our "summer" vacation, aka the 2006 P-neumonia tour

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:20:00 +0000

Bernd and I have not been to the states together in 3 years, and it was just time to go. The last 2 years when I have gone in the fall, I have ended up sick, usually with something bronchial. This year I went to the doctor at the beginning of October to talk this situation over, and he prescribed some antihistamines to take a few days before leaving, and also gave me some super “boost your immune system” vitamins and minerals. Right after seeing the doctor Bernd got sick and then I got sick, of course with the yearly fall bronchitis, but this year I was doing the happy dance since it would be over with by the time we went to the states. So we were both sick for awhile, but got better, packed, and headed out for Boston via Amsterdam on October 30th. I was really happy to be going, was feeling fine, and could hardly wait to see New England for the first time. We were headed for Maine to see friends (Owen, Jeannie, and Neola from Sacramento), and then to Vermont to see more friends (Liz, Cathy, Flo, Bob Jim and Jer). Then the plan was to go back to Boston for a couple of nights, make a tour of Boston, and then fly on to Chicago, meet Liz from Wisconsin at O’Hare, then drive on to Indianapolis to see my family at my brother’s house. Best laid plans.

So we leave around noon from Munich to fly to Amsterdam. I noticed a bit of a backache on the flight, but no huge deal as I figured I had just tweaked something with my heavy backpack or purse. We got to Amsterdam without problems but had to change terminals which takes awhile. I was suddenly dying of thirst and HAD to get something to drink. Our flight was leaving earlier than our tickets said, but in spite of this I had to run for a Coke. I slammed down the coke and noticed that I was feeling a little under the weather, but thought it was just the backache. So we climbed on the flight to Boston, and within the first hour I would estimate that I had the highest fever of my adult life. On fire type of fever. We piled the blankets on since I started out chilling, took some Ibuprofen and waited. Nothing happened except I got hotter and hotter. I was actually thinking that I might start to convulse or hallucinate and maybe I should tell Bernd to get ready. I hurt from head to toe from the fever, and by some miracle actually had 2 Tylenol 3’s in my purse. Thank you my Canadian friends who can score this stuff over the counter. I took these additional 2 pills and lo and behold my fever seemed to break, BUT the pain in my back seemed to get worse and worse and now was radiating around to my front and it hurt like hell to breathe. I was sitting there worried about Bernd having to carry everything off the plane because I could not imagine lifting a thing. A flight attendant (KLM/Northwest, all really nice flight attendants) came by and we asked if there was maybe a doctor at the airport in Boston. She said they could call for one but suggested in the meantime that she ask if a doctor was on board and see if there was a response. A doctor and an ER nurse showed up in the back of the plane, talked it all over with me, decided I was still hot from the fever (though I was feeling cooler) and said that I should really get to a doctor as soon as we got to Boston. We landed shortly thereafter and thank goodness because I was feeling worse and worse. The airline peeps came with a wheelchair, which normally would have been hideously embarrassing, but I felt too rotten to even care. At this point I was shaking all over from head to toe, could not figure out why, and made it through immigration and customs in record time. The immigration guy asked if he should call for help. I was so bad at this point that we said ok go ahead. Paramedics showed up within what seemed to be about 5 minutes, and they whisked me off to Massachusetts General Hospital ER. Now my poor German husband who thank GOD is super fluent in English at this point arranged with customs to hold our luggage while we went to the hospital. After a chest X-ray and blood work they determined I had pneumonia, and would have to spend the night there. Not good, but I had to agree that moving to anywhere else would be next to impossible since I was in serious pain whenever I had to breathe (which was pretty much constant). Bernd took a taxi back to the airport, got our luggage, got a rental car, came back to the hospital, dropped off my luggage and went on a hunt for a hotel. There was a Holiday in right next door, but the rooms were $250/night, so he drove way out of Boston in order to find something more reasonable. Nurses later told us that the Holiday Inn is totally taking advantage of their proximity to the hospital. Baah to you Holiday Inn.

So I sit up all night in the hospital in the observation unit, unable to breathe very well, or sleep because alarms were going off all night long because there was not enough oxygen in my blood and my pulse was racing. The ER doctor had told me that they would do whatever was needed to manage the pain because it was important that I cough. After 2 shots of morphine and 1 shot of Dilauded (sp?) I was still in too much pain to sleep, and I never did cough then or since.

Next morning we tried to convince the doctors that we had to go. Ha Ha Ha. No chance unless we went to Maine by ambulance, and then to another hospital. My 2nd chest X-ray showed that the pneumonia was bigger and my white count was higher, and there was no way they were going to set me free. I was moved to a regular room and out of the observation unit. They observed that I was really sick and that’s about all I can say.

At this point I must say that even though I will never know who these people were, a couple stepped up to help us starting in the ER when they got the idea that we had just flown in from Europe, had no idea what to do, etc….they offered help and their cell phone, and helped Bernd find a hotel. Then the lady turned up on the observation unit as they had admitted her mom with a stroke, and offered more help as we went along. So kind. The doctors were also kind to a fault and the nurses were also terrific. I have never really experienced nurses who seemed to think independently….they would come in my room, check the monitors and when they realized I was failing everything they would actually stand there together and try to come up with solutions to help me. A very pretty and kind doctor came at one point to draw arterial blood, was honest about how much it was going to hurt, and then thankfully it was not nearly as bad as she said it would be. I appreciated that they talked to me as if I had some sense and kept me informed as we went along. Everyone was kind and friendly and informative.

So in my new room I’m laying next to Marge, an ex-jazz singer with a blood clot. She was old and hard of hearing and at times was so hard on the nurses that it just made me chuckle. She fired one while I was there. As sick and drugged as I was I did not seem to miss much. My nurses on this unit were nice beyond belief and everyone seemed to have some connection to Germany in one-way or another. Kind of amazing. I learned the following day that I had landed in the hospital which is the teaching hospital for Harvard. A girl could do worse. The doctors (and I saw LOTS of them since all the students wanted to hear my pneumonia) were unbelievable. I think they must be successfully teaching bedside manner at Harvard these days. And the guys were all handsome and the girls were all cute. But my favorite person of all was my nurse Michele. So cute, a newlywed, and had time to talk since she only had me and one other guy for a patient for the 10 hours she was there. She printed pictures of my dog that my friend Mia had posted for me on my dog blog, along with letters from the dog. It really made me feel better to see his cute face and to read that he was having a better vacation than I was.

Again we tried the “set me FREE” theme and again it did no good at all. Michele said that to even get on the unit that I was on that you had to be pretty darned sick. I felt honored but still wanted out despite the fact that I still felt like I’d been hit by a truck. They said there was no chance until my white count was trending downward toward normal. They told me normal is 4-11 and mine was 25 the first day then 26 the second. So I was still trapped. Bernd was trapped too and it took us a long time to figure out to ask for a social worker to help with the hotel situation. It finally hit us and she was also a lot of help.

In the meantime we were of course in touch with our friends in Maine and Vermont, and since we had been set back 2 days already, the trip to Vermont was looking bad. We HAD to get to Maine as a priority since my best friend in America was there waiting for us. She had also taken a little trip to an Emergency Room in Maine with bronchitis and the inability to stop coughing. They said she was having bronchial spasms. We later agreed that traveling in October and November is a bad idea for us as she was also eventually sick with me last year as well when I came to the states. Sheesh. The friends we were meeting in Vermont were SO kind about our canceling, but this was in the end maybe not such a bad idea as one of the men was in horrible pain himself from a new case of shingles, and the other man was having skin coming off problems from a medication he was on, so 2 out of the 5 of these people were also not doing that well. The person who was renting us her house in Vermont actually allowed the cancellation without penalty. Miracle.

After 3 nights in Mass General my white count finally started to cooperate, and though they were enjoying our company a bit much for our taste, they agreed to let me go. I promised to do nothing but sit on the sofa in Maine. So we were off.

We arrived in Maine without problems, and stayed a few days longer than was originally planned. Our hosts Owen and Jeannie were kind to put up with all the illness that showed up on their doorstep, and basically let me do nothing for our time there. I ventured out a time or two for short periods, but found that pneumonia gives all new meaning to tired. Hit by a truck tired would be the best description. At least Bernd got to see a little of Maine, and we happily discovered what must be one of the best stores in all of America…a place called Reny’s. Discount everything. Columbia, LL Bean tote bags without the LL Bean tags on them, shoes, boots, snowshoes, etc….and despite my tiredness I managed to make a dent such that after Maine our luggage was already bursting. Thank you Neola for dragging me out. I had no appetite and everything tasted like metal thanks to the antibiotics, but thank you God, lobster tasted just fine. And in Maine you can order it sautéed so you don’t even have to bother tearing the lobster apart. I would not have had the energy. Jeannie and Neola cooked an early Thanksgiving dinner which was fantastic. Sadly, the number one thing that tasted horrible to me was poultry, but I liked seeing the turkey anyway and it was nice that everyone else enjoyed it. The part of Maine I saw looked terrific and I see why people want to live there…coastal Maine is the bomb.

We eventually made our way back to Boston via LL Bean in Freeport. I had been vibrating for LL Bean for literally months, had poured over the catalog also for months. I had orders for friends in Germany to fetch, and managed to do this with help from a salesman, but found that NOTHING compares to Reny’s in Camden, Maine. LL Bean was pretty much on the expensive side, did not have sizes and colors that I wanted, and in the end I would suggest using the LL. Bean catalog or go to Reny’s instead.

In Boston we had a good hotel and shuttle service to the train system. We made our way out one day for a little bit of a tour, saw some of downtown Boston, a corner of Harvard and a corner of MIT, scored some stuff in the bookstores, and headed back for naps. Ah well. Boston looked way interesting from my window on the train.

On to Indianapolis via Chicago. Cancelled the meeting with Liz due to being pretty much under the weather and agreed she needs to come to Europe. We drove to Indy and had a fun few days with my family. My parents came from Tennessee for a few days, and we had a great time with my nieces. They are adorable and fun to be with. Highlights in Indy were that Bernd went to his first football game, the Colts vs. the Buffalo Bills. The Colts thankfully won but barely and it was apparently an exciting game. Then for me we just by accident had seen right before we left Germany that James Taylor would be playing in Indy the night before we went home. Scored tickets…very expensive tickets because they were almost sold out. Our seats turned out to be just about directly in his face, and it was just a great big deal for me to have seen and heard the music that has run through the fabric of my life. I was moved to tears a couple of times. It also made me miss my country pretty badly. What really made us laugh was the advanced age of the crowd. Bernd’s comment was “the next time we want to go to a concert, why don’t we just go visit a nursing home?” Uggh, so true. It was a baby boomer crowd all the way and how we all got so old suddenly is a mystery! There were some younger people there, but they appeared to be with their grandparents! Painful. Anyway, great show, great music, great storytelling, and you should never miss an opportunity to see James Taylor. I had seen him once before around age 19 in the 1970’s and we both really looked significantly different as did the crowd in general.

The next day back to Munich via Amsterdam. The KLM 747 was as comfortable a seat as you will ever find in coach, but for a girl trying to get over pneumonia, losing a night’s sleep was not ideal. I could hardly get to bed fast enough but felt better after a 12-hour sleep. It was great to have the dog back and thanks Mia for what seems to have been a wonderful vacation for him. Lots of Uben vacation photos are at http://www.doghotel.blogspot.com/ There are so many photos that you have to click backwards into the archives to see them all. Mia is a good photographer and there are some cool shots.

No time to rest, had to do laundry (thanks to jet lag, a lot got done in the middle of the night), repack and jump back in the car and point it toward the South of France. This sounds more exotic than it really is as this trip is all about closing up our rental houses for the winter, and mostly involves work. We went via Gallarate, Italy (near Milan) to break up the trip, and got to see our friends Donna and Ted who are living there somewhat temporarily. Italy is not agreeing with them as planned. I can see why….I personally think that Italy is the wild, wild west in the middle of Europe. It is just too chaotic and nutty for my taste, but I do understand the appeal of Tuscany, Florence, etc. I would advise to stay off the roads or just prepare for chaos. We had a nice but all too short visit there and arrived in France yesterday. Thankfully it is warm here and so the house heated up quickly. We’ve seen some neighbors and our friend Sascha in less than 24 hours. For those of you reading this who have been here, Didier (from the restaurant in Montagnac) lost his mother recently and we hear is so devastated that he has not been to work in 3 months and is having a terribly hard time with the loss. Very sad.

I”ll post pictures when we get home next week. I stupidly forgot my camera so have no photos yet to go with this story, but eventually….

Things I learned from our “summer” vacation (we actually could not go until fall because Bernd was working waaay too much)

1. Pneumonia hurts like hell and is a lot like being hit by a semi…I get why old people die from it
2. Mass General is a good place to be if you are really sick and it is good to have Mass General nurses and Harvard doctors on your side
3. I’m lucky to have a husband who rolls with the punches (despite some initial crabbiness he was a good sport overall)
4. I'm lucky to have good friends who are willing to help by waiting on me and by letting me just lay on their sofa
5. I’m lucky to have lots of understanding friends, none of whom got one bit mad by cancellations
6. I’m lucky to have a family who immediately offered to help with the medical bills (bound to be huge) if our German insurance will not do a good job of paying
7. I have the two cutest nieces in the world and their mother is the greatest coupon clipper of all time. My brother tolerates a lot of pink in his life.
8. I still love James Taylor
9. I miss my country
10. You can get lucky and get a comfortable seat in coach
11. My dog can survive 2 weeks without us (I’d have never thunk it)
12. My friend and her dog are great dogsitters
13. Things go better politically when I’m back in the homeland. It did my heart good to see the Democrats take back control of the House and Senate, and to see Rummy go. Please rise to the occasion Democrats.
14. It is great to be home, even if home is in a foreign country

And that’s our “summer” vacation. I shook hands with Neola and we agreed to pick another time of year to meet in America from now on. October and November don’t seem to be working all that well for us and our health just can’t take it.

Oktoberfest 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:02:00 +0000

Ya gotta give it to Bavarians when it comes to throwing a big beer bash....no one does it better. Our friends and neighbors, Christel and Norbert, invited us to go with them to Oktoberfest this year on closing night. They were meeting their daughter and her boyfriend and their friends and relatives, and these guys had a table reserved, along with what seemed to be lots of food and beer coupons!
So we hopped on the train with our friends, and rode all the way from our little village since there might later have been drinking and driving issues...well yeah if we went about this all correctly! Here they are on the train on the way in.....
So as we arrived on the train which dumps you right at the fairground, the skies opened up and monsoon hurricane started coming down. We thankfully had an umbrella, but when it is a windy downpour, you might as well just prepare to get wet. We were pretty drenched, but here is the scene when we arrived. This tent (Hacker-Pschorr) holds exactly 6950 people inside, and I'd say the place was pretty danged full. And since it was pouring rain, maybe even some of the 2400 from outside came in and joined us in what turned out to be a big, steamy sauna! BUT, the music is loud, the dirndls are fantastic, the food is actually good, the people seem to like the beer, and the company was great, so I have nothing to add other than it was some rip-roaring fun. And I can't remember ever seeing Bernd quite so wild and jumpy! If you hate crowds, I'd say avoid the place. But if you want to get rowdy once a year, for sure come to Munich. There's no better place. In general I'm not a fan of German beer drinking music, but it is so perfect in this setting that you just really would not want to hear much else.

Some various photos:

The tent started leaking due to the downpour. No big deal, just pop open the umbrella.

Christel collecting chicken bones for her cats. I think it was not that much fun carrying that bag around, but it made us all laugh. We tried to sell them on the way out, but no takers.

Me and a Bavarian guy who has had a liter or two of beer. He's been working way too much and too many hours and I'd say he really needed this buzz...until the next morning when the dogs wanted to take a big walk and work called again......

This is Yvi, Christel and Norbert's oh so cute daugher, and her equally cute boyfriend Stefan. We love Yvi around here. She is also our veterinarian. She's gentle and sweet and smart and speaks really good English. These two are getting married (and I think this is a good thing...they will have very cute, very blonde children), but I told Stefan that our dog Uben is still Yvi's best friend. Stefan wants to be her best friend, but Uben slid in there already. So ist das.

At the end of the evening since this was the closing night of Oktoberfest, sob, they passed out sparklers, dimmed the lights, and the whole tent fired up. It was dramatic and something to see. My photo does not do a good job of capturing it, but I also have a movie so if you want to come by and see it, complete with music, come on over. I had the thought that this would never happen inside in North America due to potential fire. I wondered for a millisecond if it was really safe, but decided it would be a good way to go if it was time.

Christel, Norbert and Yvi, thanks so much for taking us along for the ride. It was a great night even though we couldn't unload those bones. Let's go again next year with bigger umbrellas and raingear!

Scammers, scammers everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 12:47:00 +0000

Earlier this year we were in Munich for some reason, and when we arrived home there was a ton of commotion in our driveway. There were 2 strangers with a big hose, my mother-in-law, and our nephew and niece from next door all standing around talking. Turns out that the 2 strangers came to the door of my mother-in-law and made an offer to power clean the driveway for a mere 800 Euros. Our nephew and niece were trying to stop it when they realized what was going on. The scammers not only were robbing my mother-in-law, but had taken her to the bank to get the money, and she had told the guy her PIN number. Now I tell this only as a warning to the elderly and vulnerable...be wary of those who come to the door.

Set number 2 of driveway powerwashers showed up at the door today. I took awhile getting to the door and by the time I got there they were already talking to my mother-in-law. Flashback. As there is a line in our driveway where the first set of washers stopped, I thought ok maybe I would surprise the husband and get the rest done to match the part that is clean. So I asked about how much. The guy at the door calls his sidekick over who proceeds to tell me what a bad job the previous washers did, how it all needs to be redone, and that THEY would coat the driveway with something (no clue what that was in German) so that this would just in every way be better. Never did get a price for just the 1/4 that I wanted done, but they made the equally astounding offer of 300 Euros. As this might have taken them an hour to do (the driveway is not that big) I politely said no, it was too much money, and turned to go. Sidekick man wanted to debate my decision. Less politely I said (in German) "Was I not clear, I just said NO." He STILL wanted to debate this but the original guy convinced him to leave as it was a sure thing that I was not going to part with the 300 Euros. I guess cleaning the 1/4 that I wanted done was just not worth their time or effort. Funny how they seemed to be less nice upon leaving then when they were trying to get me to open up my Geldbeutel.

Pumpkin soup

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 20:05:00 +0000

I've never been any kind of great cook. My mom is a great cook but (sorry mom) was not all that patient with me in the kitchen.....in all fairness I also had little to no interest in anything in there except for the insides of turkeys. Early childhood weirdness. But then I came here and got a new life where I'm home during the day, and so now I cook. People seemed to serve a lot of pumpkin soup around here in the fall, and I became an immediate fan. I got a general idea of how this was made, and started experimenting. I now crown myself the best pumpkin soup maker in all of Bavaria. I use a pressure cooker for speed and also because I don't want to boil the ingredients. And there is nothing fancy in this soup, just natural, fresh ingredients (well ok Mia, there are chemicals in the bruehe) and it seems to taste better to us if herbs and spices are left out completely. My basic method is to make a puree of pumpkin and other vegetables, so you just put in however much you want and go from there. One nice thing about this time of year in Germany is that you can go to the vegetable market and have them cut you a hunk of pumpkin so you don't have to waste a lot or use up all your freezer space. My friend Donna got a monster from her neighbor last year and was begging to give away pumpkin. (Actually, I just made some soup from that guy from last year and it was delish so thanks DJ!)

Fresh pumpkin, peeled and chunked...several pieces
Potatoes...a few....peeled and halved or quartered depending on size
Carrots...peeled and in chunks
Onion....peeled and quartered
Leeks...just the white part, in chunks
Garlic cloves, a couple if the mood hits you
Celery (stalks) if you have some, a few, cut into chunks

Throw all of this in a pressure cooker with a little water in the bottom. Bring it up to pressure on high heat, then turn it down to medium heat for about 10 minutes. Cool under cold water and open. My method is to mash this all up with a hand held whizzer, but a food processor would also work. Process until you have a smooth puree. Put it back into a pan on the stove, and add bruehe or chicken stock that you have made with bullion cubes or I supposed canned would work too...but good old German bruehe has some good flavor involved, so this is what I use and chemicals be damned.
Add the liquid until you have the consistency that you want....probably at least 4 cups, maybe more. Just eyeball it. Heat through and if you want creamy soup, add some cream at the end.
Eat, slurp and be merry because winter is coming!

Bush countdown clock for those of you, like me, who are counting the days, minutes, and seconds......

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:34:00 +0000

September 11th

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:41:00 +0000

I was in Prague of all places on September 11, 2001. I was with 3 friends, and we were starting across the bridge over the Charles River when a young Irish guy with spikes in his face stopped and asked us if we had heard what had happened in New York. The spike in his eyebrow made us not believe a thing he said. My friend called her husband in Munich and we joined with the rest of the world in the horror that was this day. Three out of four of us were in too much shock to even shed a tear, and though we had CNN and could watch it over and over, it just did not seem real. We left Prague via train the next day, and while in the train station a man came over to the 4 of us, and in broken English said that he was very sorry about what had happened to our country. This moment of kindness sent us all over the edge into tears. I did not really fall apart again until my friends flew back to the states....I was ironing and watching the ongoing coverage, and it all came out like a waterfall.
What can one say 5 years later? It is still bone achingly sad watching the observances on CNN, and I still don't and never will understand why my country reacted with a war in Iraq.

Bush and his grip on reality..or in your guts you know he's nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:38:00 +0000

Frau Fasching!? Go figure

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 09:10:00 +0000

One day this week I was headed to town on the train and as I made my way up to the platform I noticed it was suspiciously empty except for 3 elderly people...2 women and 1 dude. The oldest little lady told me the train would not be coming for another hour due to construction somewhere on the tracks...this was apparently in the newspaper, but since I can't make out the imperfect verb forms in the article, I don't read the paper except for the ads with pictures. Sad but true. So I thanked her for the bad news and headed back to my car. She kept standing there looking kind of lost, and since she reminded me of my mom I told her that I was going to drive into town, and asked if she wanted to go with me. I could see the wheels turning in her mind as to whether or not I was an American serial murderer of old German ladies. She asked me if I knew the way and I said of course....then I told her that my German was not that perfect yet and maybe we could talk on the way and I could learn something from her. She hopped right in. We chatted the whole way into town and I'm proud to say that I understood it all because she spoke good old high German instead of the impossible to comprehend Bairish that is more normally spoken around here. She told me on the way that I was a good driver and that I was NOT scaring her! She turned out to the be same age as my mom, and now I have a new little friend in Solln, and her name of all things is Frau Fasching! It was a fun little adventure.

Look at these cute little faces

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:41:00 +0000

This is a group of girls at the Humble Hearts school for the deaf in Nairobi, Kenya where we are now sponsoring a little girl and a teacher. For me they are just too adorable for words so I won't write any.

Mom and Dad

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:37:00 +0000

For those of you who have never gotten a look at my parental units, here they are! Are they cute or what? I feel so fortunate that they are both plodding along in relatively good health, although the one thing I would wish for is that they could bear the flight over here to check out life in Germ for themselves. My mom will see this on her computer at work, and I am DAMNED proud of the fact that she learned to use a computer at her age (84...and still working!!!)
Mom, print this for dad!
xox
s

Bush's visit to Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 19:23:00 +0000

I heard today on the news that George Bush is coming to visit Germany and will see the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. My German husband referred to this as the meeting of "Dumb and Dumber." In honor of Bush's visit, please note my new anti-war link on the left side of the page with a nice message if you run your mouse over it. And feel free to click on it of course.

And life in the South of France too

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:59:00 +0000

My friend Mia and I are in Provence at our house with 3 dogs. We are really having a wonderful time. It is great to see the sun and warm weather, especially after we had snow on Mia's birthday on the 30th of May. Cute dogs pictures are not here, but are on Uben's blog at www.doghotel.blogspot.com

A nice scene in Moustier St. Marie

My favorite pottery...of all time....they are always happy

to see me coming!

Pepper in Riez

Brits

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Sat, 27 May 2006 21:19:00 +0000

I found through much digging, a breeder of Brittany spaniels near us...well about an hour away, but that is closer than going to France. We are not in the market for another dog, and I really don't want to deal with a puppy, but I desperately wanted to just see some baby Brits, and maybe hold them as a big bonus. So I came up with a phone number, dialed it, handed the phone to my husband and asked him to please speak German. He cooperated and we ended up in Rosenheim today to oooh and ahhh over 3 little baby Brits. The mom looks almost exactly like our Brit in the face....her overall color is darker and Uben is more roan, but they could have been brother and sister. In the litter (this dog Mirka's first) there were 3 girls....Blanca, Benedicta, and Brenda, all names that made me giggle. Here are some shots of these girls from Rosenheim. Mirka has a blog at www.mirkarosenheim.blogspot.com if you feel so inclined. The pups are 5 weeks old, as adorable as puppies come, and their mother was sweet and loving toward them. I don't know how I made it out of there without a puppy in my pocket.

More on Sponsorship of Children

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Sat, 27 May 2006 16:17:00 +0000

We got the sad word recently that the little girl (Barbara) we were sponsoring in Kenya had moved away from her home and school. Her father was murdered last year, and this year her sister was killed when hit by a train. Her mother told the Humble Hearts school that Barbara was having a terrible time dealing with the loss of her sister, so she decided to move away with her. Perhaps this is best, or at least I'm trusting that her mother is making the choice that she sees as best for Barbara. We are in the process of regrouping and will either sponsor another child or a teacher at the school.
In the meantime, I got word by snail and e mail about my friend Kathy in Tennessee, and the great success that one of her sponsorships was. Follow this link for the whole story.
http://tinylink.com/?I5eUQxpTfj
Way inspirational.

Snails

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 24 May 2006 19:44:00 +0000

Besides being the worlds biggest Avon freak, I’m also a snail killer. The little slimy fellows have historically been a big problem here in the garden. I planted marigolds last year and overnight they were all gone....same with some of my herbs last year. I do not want to put out snail poison because of the dogs, so I did a little research and found out about beer traps.
Take a yogurt cup or a tall sour cream cup, and make a 2 inch hole about 2/3 of the way up. Bury the cup in the ground by your plants so that the hole is at ground level. Put a couple of inches of beer inside and cover the cups so your dogs don't get drunk. In one night I killed about 60 snails in 3 cups and did not lose a flower. They are not that attractive out there in the garden, but they work like a charm and I'm hoping to be able to eventually wipe out the snails from around here and take the cups out of the ground. So there ya go.

I'm hooked

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Wed, 24 May 2006 19:37:00 +0000

I am a complete freak…or as my friend Donna would say, a freakshow. An Avon freakshow. I never thought I would be saying this, but I'm in love with Avon. I was getting my hair cut about 6 weeks ago, and in bops the Avon lady to bring my hairdresser a bag of something. I thought I saw Avon on the bag, and in shocked German I said, “Sind Sie die Avon Frau” (are you the Avon lady)? She answered me in the most perfect English imaginable. I was shocked and stunned and surprised, and told her that I had actually even looked online for her, and where the heck had she been? She lives only about 1.5 miles from me, teaches English in the next village to adults, is as fluent as I am, has tons of personality, brings the loot to my door (gotta love that!), gives me deals and samples, and I have to have become her best customer in the past few weeks. I have used Avon here and there in my lifetime, but due to these samples, I’m now the biggest fan of all time. This stuff is just fantastic. The moisturizers are as good or better than the stuff I’ve been paying a small fortune for, the cleanser I bought is the best thing ever, and I could go on and on. And it is cheap. Really cheap. And most importantly, it comes right to your door in English!
E me if you want her name or phone number. I’m just thrilled to have an Avon lady and the English is an amazing bonus…I would have done it in German, but this is so much nicer. Note in the photo how she wrote on the box that I MUST try the stuff inside. Makes me laugh but I do obey!

The Red Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:27:00 +0000

Thanks mom and dad. I really love him. My friend named him the Red Devil. He purrs when he runs. For those of you who know about my weekly struggle, I STILL can't get dampfnudeln to come out right. Uggh. So hard, but not the fault of my boy above. The problem is more heat related. Buy this mixer if you can afford it. They allegedly have a sturdy transmission that will out live the owner. And they come in lots of cool colors.

More of France

noreply@blogger.com (Uben Hertwig) — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:28:00 +0000

This morning someone left a rude comment on my blog about me and France, so in an effort to really tick him off, here are some recent photos of my last trip to the South of France, and scenes specifically from St. Tropez. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed every minute of cruising around the harbor and checking out the outrageous ways that people spend their money.