New Axe-deo ads were introduced at the movie
theater Friday night. This should have happened Thursday night without the stinky deo.It's been a busy time these past days. This is a ramble, recap post, detailing earlier moments during our long weekend, consisting of a trip to Regensburg and the blight of our favorite Indisches restaurant. We took our minds off of the crazy curry service brush, with a late-showing of the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. Johnny Depp was just what I needed although I could have done with a mute Elizabeth Swann. She's pretty to look at but that's about it.

This past Saturday, we welcomed Martin and Lydia for the first time to our home and had a grill party for their arrival. It also happened to be Lydia's bday. They brought us a beautiful tree with purple flowers for our balcony. How sweet. Saturday also welcomed a rain spell that still wants to trump my immune system. I've been tired for three days straight. But I refuse to be sick so close to our trip to Rome. So here's the rest of the beginning of the story. It's a touch of rant..

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Endlich. My music video with my MiniDV files is finished. YEAH! I'm so proud of it. I had to get a clue and clean the old Dell and use the iRiver as an extra hard drive to create the .avi file. It took 35 minutes to produce, and 15 minutes to compress. I love the Vegas Movie Studio and Virtual Dub. Now if I just had the time to compile the other old video clips..

Now every time we walk or drive by a construction site, I beam inside knowing I can operate the excavator. The day before my appointment though, I was filled with nervous thoughts. What if I miss understood the German instructor? too complicated? What if I break it? or worse flip the damn thing over with me inside? The only screw up I made that day was that I misread the driving directions and navigated us to the owner's house in Bad Tölz instead of the Kiesgrube. I had to annoy a village lady mowing her lawn for directions. We were almost late for my appointment!

As soon as we arrived at the gravel pit, the nerves melted away in my brain and I picked up the instructions quickly. Yet the nerves manifested themselves through jittery legs, sweaty palms and excessive lip licking. Still, I loved every minute of it. You can here the instructor in the beginning say Super! and I knew I would be alright. I started off on the smaller excavator for the first 30 minutes to get the feel and basically wait until the other person was finished. My task was to fill the hole the guy made before me. Kein Problem.

The last half hour, I got to use the 20 ton excavator. The right-hand controller at 3 and 9 o'clock swings the cabin and arm left and right. At 6 and 12 o'clock, it curls the shovel out and in. The left-hand controller moves the arm out and in at 3 and 9 o'clock and up and down at 6 and 12 o'clock. To pull the dirt into the shovel you have to use a smooth passing combination between left-hand back and right-hand back toward 7-8 o'clock. In the end, you can see in the video I filled the shovel with so much dirt and extended the arm so far that I tipped the Caterpillar about a foot off the ground. Whohoo! Awesome.

Sandor, the instructor, asked how much dirt did I think I was carrying in the shovel. I answered about a car's worth in weight. He estimated it was about 3 to 4 cars worth. Whoa, I was filling the shovel with 3-4 tons of dirt. Brown dirt.

So if you're in Bavaria and you get a wild hair to dig holes or fill them. Gives the ladies a call at www.Baggerpass.de Thanks, Love, for a wonderful time and once in a life time experience.

Just call me bikerbabe. I'm thinking this former runnerchick is going to hang up her jogging shoes for a mud bucket on wheels for good. (?) Alex and I wanted to cranked things up above our Englisher Garten trip and made a hardcore cycling adventure along the Isar river. How shall I say it, I was spoked stoked!

I recently bought a Isarradweg Radwanderkarte (Isar River Bike Path Map) at our local bike shop. The map, I had been eying for some time, follows the Isar river from Scarnitz to Deggendorf. Even though the bike trails are well marked, the map is still extremely useful for planning ahead or keeping tabs where the nearest biergarten or train station is in case body exhaustion takes over. The only annoyance is that the map is littered with advertisements. Perhaps that was a way to keep the cost around 6 Euros for its laminated and tearproof construction.

Sunday we oiled up the gears and starting just shy of the Wittelsbacher Brücke. Our handlebars veered south to Kloster Schätflarn, a Benedictine monastery on the Isar. The path was familiar to me up until Grünwalder Brücke, until then, the path was pretty comfortable, nice and shady and a rolling mix of up and downhill fun. But Grünwalder Brücke revealed a nice twist to our adventure -I have no endurance for uphill cycling battles. Hey, at least I didn't have to get off my bike and push it, but even on the lowest gears I was huffing.

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I've been trying to get a video produced of last Saturday's adventure. I won't say just what yet but I dropped a hint here about a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, my dinosaur for a computer took 17 hours alone to compile the video clips into an .avi file and in the end, it forgot to add the sound. So I'll have to wait to use Alex's computer to finish the job and send the video to google and publish my post. Very frustrating.

But to counteract this bit of disappointment, we received our balcony furniture and now have our very own piece of outdoor heaven. We were going to have a long balcony-breakfast today but instead I was invited to the Riem Flohmarkt, Bavaria's largest open area flea market, with Mandy, Fabian and Muffin. I scored 3 espresso machiato cups with matching plates and six stemmed glass desert bowls. But I'm really excited about the great bierkrugs with pewter lids. I've been meaning to get some for home and maybe send some to my friends back in the States (just say the word) but they have always been too expensive, 25 to 50+ Euros a pop. At the flea market, there are bierkrugs on practically every table so the prices are around 2 to 4 Euros a piece. Each is slightly imperfect but to me that just ensures that they will be used to keep the beer frothy cold and the bugs/pollen out. It's just so sad when they are put in some souvenir display to collect dust.

One of the perks of living in Germany is the infrequency of fast food chains. It curbs my appetite from taking in a calorie bomb or two. But the billboards are no stranger to Munich city streets and sidewalks. They are a major hindrance to my willpower, especially when walking by a big juicy burger takes at least 15 seconds to accomplish and by then it's too late. The little nanoburger molecules in my bloodstream are activated by the carefully placed tomato, pickles, and special mystery sauce on the towering giant.

Honestly, I want to do my body good. But somewhere in my twisted mind lies the reasoning that a little fast food exposure is good for the immune system. I try to hold off my cravings for those conspicuous moments when I've had a little too much Weißbier and need a quick remedy to send me home without the wobbles. For example, McDreck has the perfect solution for those on a budget, with their "Ein mal Eins" menu.
For those without much German grammar under their belt and are combating a case of the tipsies, here's the simple formula to order at the counter:
  #   x   item  
Example: Ich hätte gern   zwei   mal   Cheeseburger   und   ein   mal   Pommes   .
Literally:  I'd would like two times Cheeseburger and one times French Fries.

You don't need to know the article or the plural form of the fast food item and the name of the item is on the menu. Simple. This works for all the Schnell Imbisse (diners). But if you hit a Subway, I can't help you. You have to learn the names of vegetables in German or cheat and just utter the English words. :huh:

I'm not really keen on vandalism, but some of this stuff is truly art. I hope to post more graffiti pedestrian tunnels along the Isar river.

source: clean-water.uwex.edu This Friday night is Nacht der Umwelt at the Green City office in Munich. I hope to check it out just to gain more awareness with what's going on with the environmental scene in my home town. It's time I find out how things compare to what I know from my Florida roots.

Have you taken your carbon footprint test yet? I require 1.7 planets to live. One point seven planets! And my main source of transportation is powered by me. I got the link from another expat at Letters Home to You in the article documenting another sad example of our capability to be so hypocritical and disgusting. Some speculators are going too far with the, "take advantage before it's too late" gaggle. I wonder how much more human impact are we causing by creating ECO adventures and wonderparks in the name of imminent global catastrophe. Have we finally found a way to make serious blingo off of tree hugging and saving cute baby polar bears?

I'm pleased that there is a renewed interest in our surroundings, perhaps the consequences of our daily actions, and doing something about it (right?). But I wonder if going about it with all this negative energy is such a lasting idea. The earth is in constant motion, in constant change. Who's to argue, that what's happening now was actually determined billions of years ago. It's just as probable as human activity being the major influence. What is the price of environmental awareness through speculation? I think it will still cost us a couple of Earth-like planets.

Wish lists rock. I don't have to guess what my sister wants or buy her something she hates and deep down I wanted for myself. Maybe I'm supposed to know what my close friends and family want, which I'm pretty good at that from a well-being perspective. But I suck at grasping the material desires of others. Even for myself most of the time I'm at a loss. My birthday is in January and I never know what I want and I don't know what to tell people who ask. The primary reason is that everything is gone after December 25th and I'm gifted out, both giving and receiving. But then the ideas seem to flow during the summer months and then ::Poof:: are promptly forgot. Here's my scramble to piece the little sticky notes into a list before they get thrown away. Maybe these will spark some summer time wish listing in you.

The sweet tooth in me

Nerds Rope AssortedAmerican Candy. God I love American candy only because I'm chemically tricked to like it. I just had my first Nerd Rope experience in Germany and I am hooked. Too bad they don't sell them here. So help a poor addict out. Oh and I promise to brush my teeth right afterward. :eis:

The wimp in me

Therapeutic Heat Wraps Neck To Arm
Ever since junior high, I've had this pain between my left shoulder blade and spine. It's now developed pain at the base of my neck and at forearm. Massage therapists used 30 minutes but still couldn't get the knot out but it felt much better afterwards. This is the second best thing to a massage.

The colorful writer in me

Zebra Sarasa® Gel Retractable Roller Ball Pen
These pens are out of this world. Perfect for note taking. There are no caps to lose and when I'm annoyingly nervous, these pens provide a rhythmic clicking right at my jittery frequency. They flow flawlessly 99.9% of the time, leaving me to curse only myself for my bad penmanship & overall bad writing.

The Swedish chef in me

Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook
Jamie Oliver has all my respect as person and a cook because he's not afraid to show the darker side of the culinary high life and he's also building awareness that we aren't getting the proper nutrients from our fast food lifestyles, especially children. Plus, when Jamie says he can make me a better cook, you bet I'm game. ( ::gulp:: I don't mean, livestock)

The Richard Simons in me

Sissel Balanced Board
My knee rehab is about to end and boy it was great to use all the neat toys to get my muscles back into shape. This disk was my favorite by far because it's light weight and portable.

The Photographer in me

Velbon UP-4000 Photographic Unipod
This is something I've always wanted but would slip my mind when it mattered most. My hands are so unsteady that some great evening shots suffered from the blurs.

source: AcostaRecently I find myself comparing the English and German word equivalents and seeing which I like better. I'll stick with the English word tender over the German version, zart, it's an auditory oxymoron. But sometimes English goes a stray for me and I want to run from my own language. Take the English butchery of gynecology, and you get the short and whiny: Gyno. It's not even a word. What's worse it rhymes with rhino, which is not something I want to visualize during an exam. The voice of Lois Griffin of Family Guy (Hey, I visited the Gyno today.) echoes in my head when I think of this unword. Ugh, it is concussion inducing. To me, the word in German, Frauenarzt, sounds so much better. Neutral. Tender.

Okay, maybe you know where I'm going with this. I had a wellness visit with the Frauenarzt yesterday. My first annual medi-pelvic excursion in Germany. Although, I must confess I cheated. Here's how it happened..

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Yesterday's neighborhood Maibaumfest diddied up the Schlager hits as well as the average age of each party goer. This makes sense because there is a nursing home just across the way. So there wasn't much to report. No one stole the Maypole or tried to randoms it for beer. But apparently this is a tradition in smaller towns. Nope. The white and blue diamonded pole stood proud and tall against a cloudless blue sky backdrop and the tiny crowd sat on the bierbänke, maybe tapping their feet to the oompa band tunes.

Actually, yesterday was a better day for a bike ride toward the Hirschau (deer meadow), where few people go and we could enjoy the sun and listen to the wind rustle the leaves in the trees. I read about Süd Tirol and started plans for our vacation there at the end of Juli. It should be pretty relaxing with lots of biking and hiking.. oh, and eating to do. This got me pretty hungry so we headed to the Hirschau Biergarten for a plate of spareribs and spicy barbecue sauce. Yummy.

I can't believe it's Wednesday already we've had such a happy almost lazy time except for this past Sunday, where we had two couples over for a dinner party. Alex and I are really getting into entertaining at home. We calculated that everything for 6 people costed less than what the two of us alone would have paid to go out to a normal restaurant. This is considering a bottle of wine at a restaurant costs about 40 Euro, we paid only 8 Euro for a excellent wine recommended by the experts at WOW (world of wine). So now, we recommend the dry Riesling from the vineyard called, Weingut Angulus in the Rheingau. Der Wein war prima! And the bottle makes for a beautiful outdoor candle holder.