Wedding Cake

Married: Dec. 26, 2004
One year ago at this time I was planning the wedding...I still have the to-do list I used. We planned it in about 3 weeks and it ended up so lovely. I think the best part about planning something so fast is that you can't change your mind about the details or think too hard about it. So, you make it simple and go for exactly what you want. Making the invitations by hand was the only time consuming part of the planning. The cake with real baby roses and buttercream frosting was the amazing creation of my good friend Cathleen. The top is in our freezer for Dec. 26 and if Markus is lucky, I will share it with him. (it's sooo good) I would love to do all it again. (the wedding part, not the planning part). I do!

post secret

Last night we watched a movie...Me You and Everyone we Know. I think that's what it was called. Super movie...there was this child actor who was brilliant. Anyway, makes me think how we communicate, secrets we keep, about the internet and the effects on real life and how it mingles in our daily lives, exposing our selves in new ways.

I will post a few links:
http://postsecrets.com

http://triptronix.net/ishbadiddle/archives/2005/04/11/22.59.00/
http://www.apologyproject.com/samplecalls.htm
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/default.cfm?cam=LP2


These links are secrets that people have posted for the world to see.

Sled Away

Look at us! We were sledding and biking today in the snow....I hit a jump and something cracked in my neck. My friend Abby is here with me. Don't we look warm? Sledding is all fun and games until someone gets runover at the bottom...we helped a little girl who was totally swept off her feet and hit the ground hard. She got a bloody nose and bruised cheek, but said that she felt OK after a bit. Her parents weren't there. I felt bad for her. Anyway, like I said...sledding is dangerous! Look up and look often!

Sunday mornings...

It's Sunday morning. Woke up to the cat scratching to crawl under the covers and warm up. It has continued to snow a little every day I have been home. The world is white and clean as Joan Baez sings in my kitchen. Markus is shoveling the sidewalk while I make breakfast of Mexican eggs...one of my favorites. Friday night I went out with Jana for a super fun time. We ran into a bunch of new characters and ended up laughing most of the night, I suppose we had a few drinks. We tried out the new bar in town...The Old Fashioned. It's supposed to be classic-ly Wisconsin. We ate cheese curds and drank a local brew. The curds were deliciously cheesy. Overall, the place has some potential, even if it is a bit generic-ly wood. Last night I went to a couple art openings in the neighborhood and sewed a Christmas ornament at my neighbors and then we watched a movie. It was really nice. I have a super sweet life.

HOME!

Oh sweet home! After a full day of flying, I am home at last. My wonderful parents picked me up and I am slowing unloading the rock collection I carried home. I will post a picture of the chocolate. It is unbelievable. I wasn't kidding.
What I noticed:
My house is so bright! I have not seen the sun for a week or so.
My cat has a new winter coat!
My parents cleaned!
My bed will be sooo good!
I am not sure I remember how to drive it's been so long.
My plants are all alive!
All is good here.

Almost home

(Pretending I wrote this yesterday)

Hold the welcome wagon! I am stuck at Schipol again! I think there are a bunch of stoners running the airport here. I will go to a hotel for the night and get up for an 8 o'clock flight. Although I would rather be home, I feel a good sense of humor about it. It's nice to not feel super stressed out. I think the experience on the flight here prepared me for this.

Bis Morgan!!
(see you tomorrow!!)

Warning: Heavy Luggage

Packing is such a drag. Not only does it mean the end of a trip, but is a really bad reminder of all the stuff I own and bought. It's a bit ridiculous how much stuff I will carry home. Just the chocolate alone is an amazing quantity. If the plane goes down and I get stuck on a desert island, I hope I find my suitcase first. I am sure I could survive at least 2 months on German chocolate. Hint hint to all my friends/family back home, if I don't go down in the plane you all will share in the chocolate feast. Jana's mouth is watering as she reads this...I know it.

So, back to the packing dilemma. No matter how I try, I always tend to overpack. For example, I never once wore my workout clothes or a pair of shoes I brought. I just carried them across the ocean to sit in a suitcase for 5 weeks. My vow next time is to underpack. I will wear the same clothes for 5 weeks. I could do it. Just ask my mom--one time I worethe same pair of jeans for 2 weeks until she made me wash them. 5 may be pushing it.

Sweat and Swim

This is the local swimming pool, public and super nice. We go as often as we can. The pool outside (in picture) is super warm and salty, open all year. Because of the high salt content, I can float without hardly trying...it is so beautiful to look up at the sky with the steam pouring off the water, the lights in the pool sparkling blue...tonight it was 34 degrees outside, and the water was 96 degrees. There are also many saunas, both indoor and outdoor. Tonight we were there for the FKK (Frei Korper Kulture--free body culture (full nude)). It is so lovely and civil to swim and sweat and shower in the nude with everyone else. In the warm pool, it is such a luxury to float around with the one you love. So easy to get lost floating around. The saunas are super hot and all smell different, some like vanilla or menthol. There are so many places to lounge around and just do nothing; including a fireplace or a foot bath...How wonderful the world is sometimes.

Great Heights

Great Heights

Fairytale castles and gingerbread houses. From such great heights, these are the places where dreams are made and swirled into the world on wind that spins up the stone walls and carries geese into the sun. Climbing, breathless to the top I am bathed in sun and wind and tiny pieces of land surrounding the stone walls. Playhouses and winding streams mark the land as far as the eye can see. Miniture world below, great big sky above and I am forever in this place-- inbetween, standing at the top of a great castle above the tiny earth.

Once upon a time...

Hattingen is so lovely! Look at these old wood frame buildings. Many of them look about to topple over. The cobblestone, the colors, the smells, the unusual angles of the whole place transports you to a time long ago.

Markus the Engineer

Today we visited an interesting place in a kind of industrial park. Markus is learning a lot about renewable energy, especially these panals in the picture. They are called evacuated tube collectors that use sun's energy to heat water that passes through the top of the tubes. From there the possibilities are endless! With these collectors and a few other bits of machinery, it is possible to make hot water to use for showers, to heat a house, to cool a house, or even make ice. The place we visited also had a natural gas turbine that generates power and uses the heat from the exhaust to keep the office building warm (combined heat and power generation). For the next year tri-generation is planed using the process heat for cooling. It is all complicated for me to understand...(How in the world do you make ice from hot water??) but I am slowly beginning to understand. I also understand sometimes it is not so important to understand, but just to know that it can be done. It's OK if I don't know exactly how.

Markus is learning a lot about this process and all the possibilites with these hot water collectors. It is fun to see his brain ticking. The collectors are very popular in Eastern Europe and as the cost of energy goes up in the states, I think they will catch on there too. It is a very efficiant way to heat water without natural gas. There are so many ways to heat and cool without fossil fuels. The magical sun has much to offer.

Parking lots...

This pic is interesting for two reasons.
First and most obvious: the shoes...They are super.
Second, the parking lot I stand on. These blocks are so clever because they are easy to drive and park on, yet grass can grow inbetween, thus making it prettier with less runoff and more environmentally friendly than tar!

Someday this will be our driveway.

Sun!

The sun is out!!

I'll be sure to get a picture to prove it to all of you...

Books I have read on my trip:
*Adrian Mole and Weapons of Mass Destruction
(British and SO annoying, supposed to be funny, OK-maybe a little funny)
*The Feast of Love
(a good narrative of many people's love stories)
*The Inner Circle
(about Kinsey and sex research in the 20-40's super interesting and risk-y)
*Crampton Hodnet
(about New England tea parties and spinsters, cracked me up)
*Bell Canto
(really enjoyed it all around, even if a bit sad)

Now I am nearly out of reading!!

I am curious what you all are reading?? Post a comment and do share! I need some ideas...

Venlo (pronounced Fenlo)

These pics are from yesterday in Venlo. Holland had some really nice veggies, also the flowers were super nice. Check out that bag of leeks...cheap too. I thought of this summer and our week of nothing but leeks...

my two front teeth and a...

All I want for Christmas is a 4500 euro cellphone!! (This is over 5,000 dollars) What a deal!!
This is the Gluhwein shop. I think I should open one on State St. It would be a hit!

Münster ist schön!

Today we visited Münster with the train...it took about an hour; such a civilized way to travel.
The Christmas market was so nice there. They actually had stuff worth buying. I had 2 glasses of Gluhwein and that does wonders to keep warm. Yesterday we must have visited 35 shoe stores looking for a pair of brown boots. We went to Venlo (Holland) shopping and then to Oberhausen to a mall. Venlo was a cute little town with a nice downtown shopping area. Seriously though, it was tough shopping. Between the sales people, Markus' mother, and Markus all watching me....it was one of those trips where no one would stop until we found a pair. I wanted to give up. I may be just extremely picky and it is so terrible shopping with so many choices (hundreds) and none of them suitable. I didn't want to spend too much money, I didn't want a heel, brown not black, fur or not, but real fur not fake fur, preferrably leather but not the kind that scratches, round or square toe but not too square or pointy. See?!!? It is all so trivial when I think too hard about it. I don't really need the boots. Why spend so much energy to get something you don't really need?? Anyway, to cut to the chase, I found a pair. Brown leather, squarish toe, a bit of rabbit fur...only 70 euro. Good for me. That was yesterday. Today, I found some nice gifts. Münster is a super nice place, really beautiful. I would like to go there in the summer for a couple nights...stroll around, sit at little cafes outside...you can only stroll in short bursts in the winter, then you must duck into a shop for warmth...or have another Gluhwein...

Solar Powered

The Ruhr (area in Germany) is very progressive with renewable energy. This is a local solar panal factory. Today we went to an exhibit that explained all the different projects going on in the area....they have a couple biodiesel plants, there are wind farms with turbines, there are numerous offices and homes with solar panals on the roof, and also they have these cool solar collectors that heat water to use in the shower, or even heat the house. The technology is very creative. Markus is super excited about renewable energy. So far we've come up with many ideas about how to use this technology. It's fun stuff.

Call 112 for a Fire

I felt like a schoolgirl yesterday, visiting the local fire station...

The building is entirely concrete, fireproof, new and enormous.

This is the ladder truck, a beautiful shiny red Mercedes.

I thought of my grandpa and two uncles who all are firemen in the states...I used to spent some time there in Minneapolis playing volleyball and eating spaghetti...
These are all containers that can be transported to a fire. I cannot imagine what is in them, but they are each for a special circumstance. For example, one is for a toxic spill, or a chemical fire that cannot be put out with water, another is for decontamination of any kind. One has showers for people to use...it's amazing what people have thought up.

Of course, they have a firepole. This is a no brainer.

7 day countdown

I will fly home in one week...excited in some ways, sad in some ways, nervous in other ways...It went so fast!