| Update for Fun |
[May. 6th, 2009|11:14 am] |
So K5 and I are in CA and we're showing my mom how to read our journal. But we've been such slackers about posting lately, I need to actually write something! Lots of fun in SF with esti626 and N this week, loved seeing kronemab and K and M!! Off to San Diego today... |
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| Easter Egg Markets |
[Mar. 22nd, 2009|07:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  nostalgic | ] |
Today is was three Ks south of Frankfurt as a friend joined K5 and I for an easter egg hunt of a different sort. Every year when I was a child, my mother would hang our freshly dyed easter eggs on an easter tree, a small collection of branches in a vase. She also had a few precious German eggs, painted with bunnies and chicks or decorated with paper that she always added out of the reach of little fingers. No one else that I knew ever had a easter tree, and I was always sad for them because it was something special and beautiful. When I moved into my first apartment, my mom sent me an egg at easter, white with paper decorations, that I still have. Over the years in Europe, I've been slowly adding to the collection, but it wasn't until we got to Germany that I really got the chance to build my own beautiful Easter tree. Here everyone has a special collection of eggs that come out with the first signs of spring and every florist sells cut cherry, willow, and other switches that somehow always seem to burst into bloom on Easter, so that the eggs and the blossoms fill the center of the table with the promise of spring. And the eggs are amazing, sold at markets in small towns around Germany by artist who chose to work in an impossible medium when they could choose paper or clay or paint. They carve them, they paint them, they coat them in paper, and lacquer, and straw. They range from tiny quail to giant ostrich and everything in between. Emu, goose, grouse... today we bought an pair of pretty etched lavender eggs with traditional patterns and flowers, a pair of amazing eggs dyed dark brown and then with a duckling and a mouse painstakingly carved out with an exacto knife... six to eight hours as she pulls each hair and feather into view. A papercut of one of my favorite fairy tales (Sterntaler) tenderly glued to a white egg and four tiny quail eggs with bunnies and blossoms found their way into our bags as well. We also took a walk through the beautiful Michelstadt old town with its fabulous half timbered houses and then a happy ride home through the rolling German farmland and the woods of the Odenwald. |
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| K8 is feeling crafty |
[Jan. 23rd, 2009|07:52 pm] |
K8 says:
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
* I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
* What I create will be just for you.
* It'll be done this year.
* You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a song. It may be a something costume-y. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
* I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well. We all can make stuff! |
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| Random thoughts by K8 |
[Jan. 10th, 2009|02:51 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | the couch | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | kids on the stairs | ] |
So, we had a great time in MA and CA, seeing lots of family and friends and just generally enjoying our free time. It has been surprisingly easier to settle back into work than I thought it was going to be, although stubborn remnants of jetlag seem to have me a bit out of whack inside my own body. I get hungry and tired (and therefore cranky) at odd times. Hopefully a weekend of lots of sleep will help kick this. But what I am really pondering today is transition, and how it never seems the same. This time around, the fact that we are less than a year away from leaving is waging a guerrilla pillow fight on me. I keep going along, busy and committed, and not at all checked out from life here yet and then tap tap on the shoulder and whamo! A soft and fluffy smack in the face that is full of goose down and happy anticipation comes and hits me... you know, the kind of whack that makes you smile and laugh but kind of hurts too? Yeah, that is how the countdown is starting this time. I'm looking forward to DC and to Bolivia afterwards, and the challenges of Spanish and a move and a new apartment, but I also love our life here. We've been really happy and comfortable and in many ways, for a variety of reasons, this time I feel like I will be leaving more pieces of myself behind than usual, and the pieces I am taking with me don't seem as likely to fill up the holes. Of course this will change a thousand times between now and the fast approaching undefined date in August when we step on that plane and I cry (I can never avoid it that last time). Happy, but sad, but excited and anticipating all jumbled up at once. Welcome to the roller coaster. |
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| Voting Absentee |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|10:35 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
So almost everyone we know is posting about how they helped change the color of a certain state, and how much celebration they are participating in, and how it is so great to be in America right now. All I have to say to that is we helped change the color of that state too and WE DID NOT HAVE TO WAIT IN LINE!!! Celebratory hugs to all! |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 14th, 2008|11:08 pm] |
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So, we drove the Romantic Road this past weekend, overnighting in Rothenberg and then Munich for two nights. The weather was gorgeous and the scenery lovely. We could not have had a more wonderful time, but the really funny part was when we were in the Neue Pinakothek on Monday looking at paintings. BIG paintings. And we saw this giant painting of this guy on a ship and it was Columbus!! I thought about explaining to the guard why we were sniggering, but I was too busy laughing. It was Columbus! Get it? It is really funny! Guess you had to be there. |
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| Remembering a wall... |
[Oct. 3rd, 2008|08:22 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | thoughtful | ] |
Happy German Unity Day everyone. Raise a (good) beer and remember that every now and then democracy wins out and the little guy becomes the hero. |
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| Suggestions anyone? |
[Sep. 12th, 2008|07:23 pm] |
Phew, what a week! For some reason the fall slow down just hasn't come... next week is likely to be another flurry of hectic activity, but on October 3 we have a holiday, huzzah!! Since both of us have not had the time to plan anything, we are now accepting suggestions for places to spend out three-day weekend. Yes, kids, that is right, you may now play "Whither the Wanderers, the European Travel Adventure"! Any suggestions are welcome, but preference will be given based on price and distance. Ideally we are looking for somewhere we can train or drive in four hours or less. The winner will receive a lovely tshotchke or other fabulous souvenir from the place they suggested!! So, whither are we headed this weekend?? |
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| psst |
[Sep. 6th, 2008|09:19 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  silly | ] |
K5's birthday is sunday! |
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