Happy New Year!

December 31/10

Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,   

and never thought upon;

The flames of Love extinguished,

and fully past and gone:

Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,

that loving Breast of thine;

That thou canst never once reflect

on Old long syne.



CHORUS:

On Old long syne my Jo,

in Old long syne,

That thou canst never once reflect,

on Old long syne.

My Heart is ravisht with delight,

when thee I think upon;

All Grief and Sorrow takes the flight,

and speedily is gone;

The bright resemblance of thy Face,

so fills this, Heart of mine;

That Force nor Fate can me displease,

for Old long syne.



CHORUS

Since thoughts of thee doth banish grief,

when from thee I am gone;

will not thy presence yield relief,

to this sad Heart of mine:

Why doth thy presence me defeat,

with excellence divine?

Especially when I reflect

on Old long syne

TO ALL MY FRIENDS!

December 24/10

TODAY IS THE DAY TO WISH YOU ALL

..and Herr Hund, who just adored X-mas and his plate under the tree is sending you  a little piece of memory!

               

Baking X-mas Cookies

December 14/10......7:05 p.m.

To begin with, I hate baking X-mas cookies and above all those work intensive ones, I think I can not stop talking about in a post around X-mas time. Fortunately I am done with for this year and I vividly remember one time, when like in those cute tv series, mom bakes cookies together with the kids, oh, how darling! Daugther no.2, about 10 at that time, invited a friend and after they started to mess around terribly they decided that they rather would like to watch tv and guest kid out of no reason bit my ass and out of reflex (that really hurt, you know) I slapped her face. Fortunately her mother had been in agreement with me. Well, that had been the end of the baking session.
 And another year we had a refugee (the time there had been the war trouble in the Balkan countries) business friend from Montenegro of Herr Husband as a guest around  X-mas time and since that guy was bored sitting around our place, Herr Husband being off to work, he trailed me about everywhere I went - except the bathroom - and he got me so confused talking me up while I had been mixing the dough, that only after the cookies sat in the oven, I noticed that I had forgotten to put in the ground almonds.
There are other stories if I dig around in my memory. Never mind, this year miracolously my Vanille Kipferl turned into flat cookies in the oven, I watched them facinated though the window. That never happened before and, thief's honour, I stuck to the recipe like a siamese twin.

Simply Enjoy!

And, by the Way...

December 8/10.....6:10 p.m.

The above header scene  you should look at with regret, it is a thing of the past. Where this peaceful country view had been, now sits the big,fat ugly new levee and we hope that it keeps its promise of keeping our feet dry.

Come on Leg!

December 7/10......7:05 p.m.

I am getting impatient! Every morning I inspect my effn leg and I think, yipee...improvement but as soon as I start walking around there it goes again, remembering that it should rather stick to the elephant look. The dilema is, that for the knee I should do a lot of walking around, to build up the muscles, but for the ankle it is rest and icepads. I have not yet found the proper way to combine both.
 At least our water leak in the kitchen,which according to our plumber had been a broken pipe, and he only could look after earliest next year, and till then, don't use the water in the kitchen, turned out to be simply a loose sealing gaiter, found out by the second plumber we called. - Climbing on ladders and/or chairs is still out, so no trimming of the X-mas tree. We have to look at the one at daughter's place. Have not baked a single cookie yet and since I can not drive a car, have not gotten one misely X-mas present. There are still two more weeks left, so no panic,or?
I am trying to think positive, the emphasis is on trying.

Not a Must before X-mas......

November 24/10......12:13 p.m.

....nor at any other time. Landfrau is talking about hitting a lamppost with the pedal of her bike and turning a summersault - achievement: sprained ligaments - right knee. Have been supplied with two crutches  by the emergency ward located in the hospital at our nextdoor little town.
Now, thinking herself a toughie Landfrau visited a small X-mas- market nearby next day(sunday) with daughter. Everything went fine, till daugther opened car and smart Landfrau put in crutches first and then tried to get into car with healthy leg first and whoom...there I was again - flat on my back next to the car and this time it had been the ankle which sat at an obviously not right angle and startet to swell up in a jiffy. So I begged daughter to take off my boot, in case it might be stuck later on , did not want my beloved Durangos to be cut open! And then we tested the emercency ward at the Helios Clinics in Krefeld , well known from Herr Husband's visits, since they have more facilities, like CT etc.  So there we sat for hours among other unfortunates and finaly X-ray showed, that nothing had been broken - fortunately. 
So this had been a hell of a weekend and now I am stuck with two crutches and a gadget called Orthese. My household and everything else is going down the drain and above all things I can not drive a car.  So it will get a bit thight for X-mas preparations and shopping, but the planned goose cooking on weekend I will not forgo - darn! Will try to manage whirling around with my rolling kitchen chair.
There  is a first time to everything!

A Cat's Point of View ?

November 15/10....6:59 p.m.

Landfrau stayed overnite at daugther' s  place to keep company of grandson, who dislikes staying all by himself , since both parents had been absent . It is also the home of mad Max, buddy from Herr Hund who now watches over us from dog's heaven and a cat named Maunz. Maunz and Herr Hund always had been fascinated by each other und this time had been the first time I had been visiting without Herr Hund. Maunz is a roamer and when  I came back from the morning walk with Max, the cat appeared coming home from his nightly adventures. So he came into the house with us, seated himself in the hallway and kept staring at me as if he tried to figure out if Herr Hund also was around, since he must have placed him belonging to me. And when I bent down to stroke his head, he raised himself on his hind legs, as if to say that without my dog I could be his friend. Up to this day he had been ignoring me. - Smart little fellow! 

Herr Hund, mad Max and Maunz

Another Kind of St. Martin's Day

November 11/10....11:21 a.m.

This really had been a scream! Now, friends, to learn something about the proper procedure, you have to trouble yourselves to look into my  p o s t  of a previous year. otherwise the following makes little sense.
The other day we had a phonecall from a cousin, whom we had not been seeing for quite some time. They live on the other side of the Rhein (rhine) so we do not run across each other so often. We decided to have a panacake feast in a restraurant in an old part of Düsseldorf, our (left) rhineside and since parking space is very rare in that district, we took my small car, so I could drop off Herr Husband,who is not able to walk distances any more. We were quite surprised that at 6 p.m. the streets were parked tight already, lots of traffic too, cars circling to find parking space, anyway, dropped Herr Husband off at the restaurant, not after a little quibble from Herr Husband's side, that it was the wrong place (it was not) and circling around to find a lot. After surrounding the block about 3 times I was lucky, could squeeze my car into a little spot and when I got out it dawned on me seeing out of the dark three guys leading a white horse without saddle and St. Martin - there had been the parade just finished and now the kids were swarming out to get their treats, and there they were dozens and dozens, all equipped with their little lanterns and singing. Pretty nice to see. I had quite a ways to walk to the restaurant, and from afar I spotted Herr H., cousin and wife, standing in front of the place. Of course, on account of the festivity in the quarter all restaurants had been  booked out for private parties and us four were in a jam. So, while walking to cousin's car, the nearest one, we passed a little place a bit off the side and I had the brilliant idea to walk in and ask if they would happen to have a table for us. It is an italien place and had opened up new fairly recently. And imagine, we were lucky and had excellent food and good wine. But we felt so sorry for the poor owner , sporadically the door opened and crowds of kids with their lanterns walked in and started singing and obviously no one had told the man that there was this custom of handing out treats. He had been so embarrassed, first he gave them money, but then he must have run out of change so he obviously wanted to sink into the ground. We then informed him about this kind of festivity and at least now he knows for the next year. He had been so grateful he filled us up with grappa and limocello after the meal for free. So I told HerrH. that I could not drive any more on accout of my alcohol level.  He drove home  (actually he hates driving my car, always claiming it is for midgets) . Being safely in the house, we reconstructed, that he had been drinking just as much as Landfrau, and he normally never drinks, except for a beer once a while. 
Ouch...and it had been my car - but his driver's licence!

Living out Grimm's Fairytales

October 30/10.....5:07 p.m.

About 4 kms from our home we have that dependance of a farm, dealing in produce like apples, pumpkins, potatoes, marmelades - well, all that kind of goodies.  They also have a special brand of apples(Berlepsch) we both, Herr Husband and myself,  like very much. So I decided to take the bike (no more dog to walk, no more horse to ride) excercise, excercise! and, on the way to the place I got lost in the little forrest I had to cross. Felt like "Hänsel und Gretel" out of Grimm's Fairytales  but did not meet the witch, fortunately.  Anyway, when I arrived at the place, the very friendly sales girl told me, that they had closed up since an hour ago and that they were about to leave. When she saw my sad face she asked if I happened to have change, then she could provide me with the wanted apples, otherwise no deal, she had already balanced the cash. Shit, I only had bills.  Then smart Landfrau remembered,that there was a gasoline station nearby and asked the girl if she could hold it for a few minutes for me to get change. So I whirled to the station , changed money and rushed back and got my apples - lucky me!  On the way home I took another turn, not through the forrest, passing the gas station and decided to give them an apple as "thank you". So I told them that I am not the bad stepmother from "Schneewittchen und die 7 Zwerge" and the apple is not poisened but a "´thanks" for changing my money. They had a good laugh, those guys!
But cycling home I did not find a frog to kiss (Der Froschkönig), who then would have turned into a prince - what a shame.

Kickin' the Habit

October 26/10.....5:45 p.m.

Landfrau should stop...

looking for dog's bowl in the morning

grabbing the leash when going out

throwing food  treats on the floor while preparing meals

looking at the clock around five p.m. and getting dressed because it's walkie time

turning around while on the bike why Herr Hund is slowpokin' around

looking for dog treat before bedtime......etc, etc

and since we had houseguest "mad Max" (daughter's dog) over the weekend, it did not help getting back to the life of an old couple with two goldfish.

This is Good Bye

October 17/10

They called me Herr Hund very often, but actually my name is Shaylor and often my folks had to spell it out for a bit ignorant people. Friends, now I am in dog's heaven and the vet lady and my family were just terrific to help me get there, ate some honey cookies till to the end and went to sleep with my head in my "Frauchen's"  lap and when I woke up, imagine, there had been old Lander the horse and he is now very eager to show me around in my new grounds. Still miss my folks but there is so much here to see and discover, I am very busy sniffing around.! Don't think I am ungrateful, I still cherrish my memories from the time when I picked my family (up to today they think they choose me ) but I had been very cunning, when they inspected us, me and my siblings, I stayed in the background and only after my flock lost interest, I showed up and presented myself and of course my family regognized right away, what a smart dog I am. So I left with them in that big car and did I ever love to travel in cars till to the end, only then I could not manage to climb in any more, so for the last trip they had been taking I could not go along anymore and had to stay with mad Max, my friend and rival and I can tell you, being not so well off anymore, he could be a pain in the neck. Imagine, he ate my medication, the rascal!
Nevertheless, he is a good dog too and I wish him still a long and happy life and should he show up one day around here I for sure will show him around.

A dog's life in a way is short, but believe me, I enjoyed every minute of it, the seaside, the snow in the mountains and my beautiful home. But most of all I enjoyed my family and I am happy that I choose them.

Another Replacement

October 14/10 ....4:01 p.m.

It should have been the isle of Jersey in September, but the die had been cast and our trip had to be cancelled. So we decided on some quite different kind of journey.  Since we had not seen our young family for a while (they live in Hessen)  Landfrau had the bright idea to look for a comfy place in Hessen where we could meet and decided on Göbel's Schlosshotel   - good choice!

It is amazing, how ignorant we are about this region of Germany which is so full of history, not only the recent one of border region to the former DDR but history dating back much,much further. We learned that the region had been an important tradesroute connecting Leipzig/Sa and Frankfurt/Main among other things and that in Bad Hersfeld every year there is the oldest German country fair , celebrated since 852  - it has religious origin. The event took place while we had been there and the grounds are set up in the middle of town and we saw so many stoned people that they would have put the Munich Oktoberfest numbers of  boozed up crowds to shame.

Now back to our castle which is breathing history and offering the comforts of today.

We had a great time and the only regret has been that our little family could only join us for one night.  The weather played along too, it deserved its name of golden October.

Now we are back home with our memories!

A Replacement

October 6/10.....4:30 p.m.

The VIDEO  replacement for the one which did not work anymore!

And what's next?

September 25/10......4:15 p.m.

It used to be my horse and my dog, then it has been my dog and my bike now what is left  is  my bike, old Herr Hund told me he only likes slowpoke walks nowadays. Next step will be my rollator - life is shit, or?

 Well lets cherish the little things, a leaf , found

yesterday which is pure indian summer, blue sky reflecting in

puddles and a delicious prune cake I baked today.

Landfrau is trying to see the brighter side of life - most of the time

anyway.

The Monkey

September 22/10......7:56 p.m.

Gee, do we ever have a great September time right now,  temperatures,which one could wish for summer and also mild nights. Great for having a leisurely glass of wine outside , looking into our little garden and missing the "wilderness". Yes, friends, every other year we have to have our gardener trimm and cut our trees and hedges and one of his helpers, they call him the monkey, is very good at cutting everything into shape again. Nevertheless Landfrau has tears in her eyes every time. Like I said, I miss the wilderness. I know by now that everything will grow back, but for me right now it looks very neat and...naked. But nothing against the monkey, he has a feeling for cutting and trimming into shape and it will look very nice next summer. But this guy gives me the willies when he is up in the trees, in no way secured. Fortunately this year again we did not have to scrape him from the ground.
So now we have two more seasons to go - thank heavens!

Another Tale from the Past

September 18/10.......9:05 a.m.

Sometimes long forgotten incidents from the past pop up in my mind, funny or not so funny. Anyway, here is a funny one I want to share.
The time of our lifes, when we lived in Vancouver B.C. my job had been to distribute goods arriving per vessel from Far East for our customers all over Canada. One of them, the real name does not matter, called himself in his correspondence"Abraham, the chicken thief"  and addressed his enveloppes to "Freddie Mills and his bowlegged cuties" . Herr Husband favoured Freddie so much that he decided to take the name as his second first name - and it sticks to him still nowadays.
One time, I can not remmember why, the chicken  thief  got steaming mad at me (the man seemed to run quite a temper) and he sent me a message, saying: Mrs. S. , you are unadultary stupid. - I could have wrung his neck,but...he had been the customer, so I ground my teeth and kept my mouth shut.
I never met the guy face to face, still up to today I wish I had.

Herr Husband and McCafé

August 25/10.....8:56 p.m.

Monday our daughter - home from their family sailing trip at the dutch seaside, came for a short visit to show us her holiday pictures. Since Landfrau had been very busy housecleaning, she asked Herr Husband to drive and pick up some pastries . We like the take-outs from McCafé they are good, fresh and fast to get. Up to now, anyway. Daughter arrived and was eager to start her slide show, but no daddy had arrived yet with the goodies. It took him quite a while, but when he arrived, fortunately with cake, he told us a story, which had us rolling over with laughter.

The girl at the counter asked him for his order and it developped the following conversation:

Husband: 3 pieces of cheesecake and 3 slices of apple pie

girl: you want to eat them here?

Husband (somewhat annoyed) : do I look as if I would devour 6 pieces of cake?

girl: (silent for a moment) then: you want a paper bag?

Husband: what the heck do you think the pieces of cake would look like, if I carried them in a paper bag? Please put them into a box.

Girl left and after quite a while returned with a stack of boxes, unfolded, took one out and started to fold. When she had set up the bottom, she went, got a pair of green rubber gloves and put in the pieces of cake, the started to fold up the sides of the box and promply tore one side.

Husband: how do you suppose I should carry a broken box?

girl: balance from the bottom

Husband: (still keeping his temper) get some tape and fix it

Off she went and it took her quite a while, before she returned with some tape to fix the damage.

Fortunatey Herr Husband had the brilliant idea with the tape, because otherwise he would  still be there watching the girl folding and tearing boxes.

But the cake had been good!

Letter to our Guestdog

August 10/10....6:42 p.m.

Dear mad Max,

I know that it is not your fault! It is not your fault that , being a Labrador-Hovawart-Collie mix, the Labrador has taken the upper hand, in looks and in behavour. You are sweet and affectionate and you can not help it that you love the water. And I do NOT love a dirty smelly dog in the car and neither does Herr Hund, who growls and dislikes it more and more when you join him in the back of the car wet like a cat.  So we are now into the business of outsmarting each other, up to now you have won every time, I must shamefacedly admit.  First time it has been the river, lucky you,  second time I decided to take a walk on a path next to a fenced off meadow. You found a hole and the river.  Third time a big,  muddy puddle had been welcome and Herr Hund and Landfrau watched in amazement, how you lowered yourself into the mixture, like a camel lowering itself in the desert. But today I thought I had outwitted you, drove with the car to a path far away from the river, dry as death valley but you found a tiny muddy hole nevertheless and managed to put all 4 feet into it. Max , you are a genius and we have 7 more days to go and I am sure you will me show so much more muddy holes and water where I would have never have guessed that it excists. But aside from that I love you....Your  foster mother

Spoiled no more

August 5/ 10.....9:35 a.m.

Am I insane, or what? Did I mention in my previous post that an eternal holiday would be boring? hey, I wanna be spoiled and I wanna be lazy! And that is a fact!

SEASIDE

August 2nd/10.......8:56 a.m.

One thing is for sure, Landfrau has been very much more of an early bird during our week of vacation at the seaside. We have been the usual crew, Herr Husband, grandson, daughter (delivering and picking up grandson) Herr Hund and myself.  We frequent this place in the Netherlands for several years and how time changes you notice, when you think about the "add-ons" which had to be carried along, like games, beach ball rackets and all that stuff to keep a kid busy. Now suddenly the kid is a teenie and the most important gadget is his laptop. And take Herr Hund - he loved to run next to the bike and we made extensive tours - nowadays all he is interested in is to trail my heels , to sniff around and to "tell" other dogs "look, I am harmless". But nevertheless - on account of him I have to get up early enough to walk him before breakfast and I am telling you - nothing beats a brilliant morning at the beach. A few other dog owners, a few horsebackriders  and aside from that you have the feeling you own that wide open space where the surf beats the sand.

So, it has been a nice time once again, but I also like it to be back home - I miss being spoiled but an eternal holiday would be boring too in a while, I suppose.

An Almost Perfect Party

July 20/10......10:45 p.m.

When our girls had been small and they had their birthday parties, somehow the birthday child, being so wound up maybe, found a reason to cry. Never one of the guest kids, always the birthday child who started bawling,  grown - ups are different, they do not cry any more, even if they have reason too. Herr Husband really had been in party mood for his special birthday, first the "small" celebration on his real birthday and then the big party on saturday, where he had to produce one of his  famous stunts. Due to his polyneuropathic feet he stumbled on strange terrain - daughter's house, where we had the party  - and  fell flat on his face, bit his lip, which of course started bleeding like hell and knocked a tooth loose. He did not have to be hospitalized, insofar we are one ahead of our very good friends from Luxembourg, where after the party at the hotel in the morning the host told all guests matter of factly that his wife had been taken to the hospital due to a heart attack during the night.  She survived and had been one of our guests at our party,which shows you that even at ripe old age you can fight the mishaps. - But enough of catastrophies. -  Our big party really had been a sucess, due to the help in setting up and organizing of our offspring. They not only supplied the facilities but had been very busy beforehand in different ways, preparing a presentation and organizing the tent, food and drinks. The speech, our son-in-law delivered in honour of the jubilee had been one of the finest and the prepared presentation of daughter No. 1 and son-in-law a gem. In short, everyone pitched in and we made the birthday child very happy. Also the weather played along, after the infernal heat we even had a somewhat chilly night where you could dig out a sweater. We had a Dixieland band, which had been a surprise for the jubilee and a collective present from quite a few of our guests and a french cook -  gift from daughter no.1 - who prepared the food on the spot. The tent, drinks and decorations had been organized by daughter no. 2 and family and Landfrau did her little share. -

It is great to have positive feedback from the guest after a party, which had involved so much organizing and work beforehand.

But we think that it had been worth it, well, we could have forgone the above mentioned stunt!

Herr Hund contemplating....

July 03/10.....8:25 a.m.

I am telling you, my people must be nuts. Almost every day they sit in front of that box they call "teevee "  and normally in that box there are people and sometimes even dogs and cats...oh, I love that! But nowadays all they are staring at are lots of little men running around with only one ball they fight about - they call that FUSSBALL - soccer for my english speaking friends - And there is that terrible noise coming out of the box, they say it is made by what sounds like "uwe seelers"(vuvuzela).  I try to tell them that I can not stand that terrible noise, my little ,flopping ears are sensitive - but no, they tell me to go and play someplace else.  I hope for sure, that the whole shenanigan will be over soon and my people go back to watching dogs and cats. I do not mind if they watch people, but without "uwe seelers" please.

Mad Max, Wine Tasting and Festivities

June 18/10.....10:07 p.m.

We have some festvities coming up, the "Konfirmation" (google it s.v.p. , I am too lazy to explain) and a special birthday - not mine, thank heavens-  so some planning is looming ahead.  Daughter No. 2 (the most involved one) and me, also involved,  decided to start off with the wine tasting. So I offered to supply the bread and cheese for the stricly and family size event, unfortunately son-in-law could not be present - what a shame - but we had fun and I think we made a choice of the right wines, one red ,one white. But when I arrived with my "supplies"  bread and cheese ,mad Max(and faithful readers konw whom  I am talking about, the not soo well educated Lab-mix of our daughter) who is used that I bring him a goodie, but sometimes I forget, snatched the whole baguette out of the paper bag in my basket and had been in the starting hole to run away with it, we saved the baguette just in time. Which shows you, never get into the routine of things and then break the routine. So it has been...mea culpa!  We ate the baguette, nevertheless.

PUBLIC VIEWING

June 12/10....9:33 p.m.

Tonite we had the spontanious idea to have dinner outside. We went to one of our favoured spots, a riverboat, moored at the riverside quite near to downtown, Herr Husband is accepted by the young owner as "big daddy"  since he has been one of his first customers. Because the soccer world championships  are going on, Germany as a whole is in soccer fever. Tonite it is GB against USA and up to now the score is 1:1. So, we have been lucky, the place not too crowded, they have a big tv screen, very convinient, you watch and eat.  Tomorrow Germany is playing, fat chance to get a place without reservation, and it is then young crowds anyway. But the two oldies got an armband tontite from the restaurant owner and it says "I've got a little CAPTAIN  in me" in black- red - gold. Tomorrow grandson (13) will kiss our feet.
And, by the way, the inscription suits me!

Spider Woman

June 1/10.........6:23 p.m.

So mean Herr Husband wanted to give Landfrau a fright. While leaving the house,he discovered a big spider  right in front of our entrance door. He called me to have a look and I decided to take it away, did not necessarily want to have it in the house. Till then Herr Husband still had been laughing, but then I got a fly squatter, not to kill the little monster, mind you, just to take it away , and I flipped it, only Herr Husband had been in the way and the spider was gone and he started jumping around claiming that it must be on him now.  We kept looking, no spider, but when he started to shake himself like a dog, suddenly Mr. spider fell to the ground, and where has it been running to? - right!  -  smack to the entrance door. I caught it in time and this time I made sure to carry it far enough away to safety.

Now I am spider woman - I feel great!

I hate DROPINNERS

May 24/10 ....11:34 a.m.

Do not get me wrong, Landfrau loves visitors but I simply, totally hate dropinners. - There I am, still in my bathrobe, my hair hasn't seen a comb yet and my eyes no makeup (makes me feel I look like an albino, and who wants to look like an albino,I guess not even an albino) and the doorbell rings, and there they are, the dropinners. Oh, sorry, you are not dressed yet? Oh, no, we do not want to come in (tranferring, we have been on our bikes for about 20 kms and at least you could offer us a drink of water) and you mumble that you have been up for hours, just did not have the time inbetween feeding the dog, preparing breakfast, setting up the outside areas with sunumbrellas,tablecloths,cushions etc to look yet after yourself, but please...do com in, - Oh, no, we do not want to bother you - no, you do not bother me (FATHEADS, you do!) and then they sit there and sit there, sure, they are dressed and have all the time in the world. - Or, it is my housecleaning day and I look like right out of the slums, with my old sorted out t-shirt and slacks, all the furniture is upside down, the carpets are turned over and you fall over the vacuum cleaner and the doorbell rings and there...see above.

So, friends, in our times there are phones, there are cell phones -use them! You are always welcome in my home but give me notice before you DROP IN on me and a chance to say "no" if it is really not convenient from my side. - This way we always will be friends!

The Windmaker

May 19/10.....3:16 p.m.

Usually there are rainmakers, me , I am special, I am a windmaker. You can have a day, not a breeze around, as soon as I decide to clean our driveway, there...it starts. And not only a little bit of wind, no - real whirlwinds, which take my heaps of dried leaves, and we have plenty, I only say - ivy ! - apart before I can bend down to sweep them up. So, if you are in need, like you own a windmill or so,call me, I come with my broom ,shovel and basket and the wind will start out of nowhere. - Besides the driveway slavery I had hoped it would rain, because then I could have skipped mowing the lawn. Tough luck, blue sky, sunshine and that nasty wind of course, which does not bother me mowing. So there I was, in the chaingang and besides from cleaning Herrn Hund's puked up basket, fixing lunch, walking the dog all what now is left to do is changing the bedclothes. Well, as we say in Germany: wer rastet, rostet (he who rests, rusts) - Landfrau is a rustfree species, or maybe I am like rust, always active.

Gnome in the House

Mai 15/10

I have that gnome in the house, who keeps himself busy during the night to tighten my garments and lately he must have had his cotton pickin' fingers busied with my favorite jeans. Somehow they are not so comfortable around the waistline anymore. So I decided for a trip downtown, only I forgot, that Thursday, having been a holiday, the whole of Nordrhein Westfalen, not travelling, decided to go shopping/windowshopping in the city. Finding a parking lot - even in a parking garage - was like winning in a lottery. Same in the department store, finding an empty booth. Well, I had been lucky with both and for about 2 hours "enjoyed "myself wriggling into and out of clothes. And the gnome must have been busy in the department store too, tightening all the clothes of my size, so I had to get the size above. Really thrilling! Landfrau now keeps her fingers crossed that one day she does not have to limit herself to stores called BIG & THIRSTY. Then I will murder the gnome.

Again and still...small World

April 30/10.....3:36 p.m.

Did you marvel about my previous post? Well, friends, there is more not so spectacular, but nevertheless. - When I was a teenagegirl, I had a girlfriend. You know how it mostly is, one takes all and the other is the timid drag-along, that had been me. So my friend made me walk around lunchtime ever so often along famous "Königsallee" in our city. At that time already the avenue was famous for expensive shops, and among others there could be found an antique shop and having his lunchbreak, one of the salesmen used to stroll along the street and my friend, having a terrible crush on the guy, wanted to give him the eye. So they glared at each other, but never spoke. Me, the little dragger-along, of course was not noticed. - Years later,in the meantime I was married and had moved to Vancouver B.C., my husband went to a photoshop and was greeted by another customer, a friend he knew from his former motorbike club in Germany. Turned out this friend was visiting with some other German friends, a couple, also living in Vancouver. Of course they decided to meet the same night at our place and the friend asked, if he could bring along his friends. And...who walked into our place along with his pregnant wife? The guy from the Antique shop, my girlfriend had been so keen on. Of course we talked about those "old " times and he remembered very well my girlfriend, but not me, the drag-along. We had lots of drinks and later on my husband's friend, who had been so drunk that we put him into our conjugal bed to sober up , puked into our bed - the pig! -
We became friends with the couple, they had kids, moved to San Francisco, got divorced and he became a very successful interior designer. We are still friends with his former wife, she lives now in Carmel .We lost touch with the puker and with my former girlfriend I lost touch too, that's the way it goes.

Small World

April 26/10......10:20 a.m.

When a very old friend's befriended daughter of an old, now deceased boyfriend is incidently the sister of two school friends of our younger daughter - and we have been meeting those boys travelling highway No. 1 in the nineties during our Californian trip with our younger daugther by coincidence on and off (and we gave them "shelter ,shower and dinner" in our motel for one night, since they slept in their car) and the family had been neighbours of our son-in-law and that young woman now is the wife of a this year's Oscar winner for songwriting I call this a small world.

Center Parc Fun-----F U N ?

April 5/10......1:44 p.m.

Vaccation cut out for the needs of small fry....forgotten so fast, when small fry has grown up but reliving with small fry of now big offspring is quite an experience. Our young family is taking a short holiday in a Center Parc in the Netherlands, just across the dutch border from us - not such a long drive - and yesterday we decided to pay them a visit. Actually the whole complex is quite nicely situated, in the middle of a forrest, with ponds and playgrounds, and of course those indoor facilities which Center Parcs are famous for. Our granddaughter claims, that four days are the limit to be overrun by the indoor activities and the continious acoustic irradiation and her husband ran, when the parents were summoned to do the "Ententanz" (duck dance) together with their offspring, he claimed he had done his duty during a previous stay last year, and..no never again do I make a fool of myself up there on the stage! (O-ton). Well, the kids are fascinated and love it, and that is, why the parents endure it. Aside from that, the living quarters are not bad, houses scattered in the forrest all over the places and you even have a fair amount of privacy. Before we left, we decided to have dinner together, but rather did not take in one of the "market place" restaurants. So we made a reservation at a restaurant outside- wise choice to have made the reservation, because 80% of the dutch people must have decided to frequent the place, it had been packed, but the service had been efficient and fast and the food very good. Little Miss Sunshine behaved very well too, except for one temperfit, where I had the brilliant idea to take her to look at and "torture" (pet) tiny chicklets jointly with half a dozen other kids. That distracted her and then our food came and eating is one of her favourite pasttimes, so no problem any more.-

When we came home, we were greeted by a rather annoyed Herr Hund, having been left alone for such a long time.To make up with him I took him for a long walk in the dark and now he talks to us again.

EASTER 2010

Wishing everyone a

H A P P Y .... E A S T E R !

Young Boat - Old Passengers

March 30/10.....7:24 p.m.

To be honest - the other way around I would prefer, even better - young boat and young people. Since we are not youngsters anymore ourselves, I prefer to encounter younger folks when I travel, this trip had a bit of a touch of an old age home. We have been travelling the river Rhine from Cologne to Bale, Switzerland and there is nothing to be said about the scenery, enjoyable, even if we have seen it times and times before. We lived at the rhineside in Oberlahnstein for two years and all major errands had to be done at Koblenz, but going ashore in Koblenz for a little sightseeing, it must have been another Koblenz we had been living close to, I did not recognize a damned corner, no deja-vu, and where I walked around it had been the old part of town,which sits there unchanged more or less for centuries. I also took a bustour to Strassburg, unknown to me up to then, I liked it very much and what really amazed me had been the nesting storks by the dozens if not more, our guide told us,they do not migrate south any more, beeing fed with chickens during wintertime,they have adapted to the easier way of life. Easy way of life you have also aboard, lots of good food, and since all servings are buffet style, you have to be careful of the ellbows of the hungry masses, must be an extended pleasure of old age..eating. I took part in one board game, called Jakkolo, a wooden board with little gates at the end, where you have to shoot kind of pucks into. And I won right away, my rivals were pissed off, especially a couple, where the wife had been the champ up to then. I had a laugh and made a big show, throwing up my arms and making the V-sign , that showed them, they took it so badly. -

The weather had been nice too, except for Bale, where we checked into a hotel and took part in the christening of the ship in the afternoon. It had been quite a spectacular affair and fortunately by then the rain had stopped. The next day we took a trainride back home and before we could even put down our bags, our daughter No.2, having kept Herr Hund showed up with Herr Hund and mad Max and now I am dogsitter in return, bad bargain, since they are gone for a week and we only had been away for 5 days. -

That's the way, the ball bounces.

Here We Go!

March 22/10 .......4:44 p.m.

About time to have a change of scenery!

Embarrassing Moments

March 16/10....8:17 p.m.

No, folks, I am not talking about grinning at people all day long and then noticing while looking into the mirror in the evening that you have a piece of spinach sitting right between your front teeth, a good one for the ladies is also having the hem of your skirt stuck in the waistband of your panties, ugh - no - I am talking about my own personal embarrassing moments like yesterday, when I had to drive my car to the dealer , where you find besides a plush sales room, where all the employees sit behind desks among nice new cars , also the body shop. So Herr Husband and Landfrau decided to meet at the shop, because I needed a lift back home. Herr Husband takes a route,which in my opinion is longer, I took my shortcut, but missed a right turn and the one I then took looked exactly like the one I should have taken, only I kept on driving wondering when the darn shop would show up and then realizing that I had taken a road which plum took me on the way to downtown.So I had to drive for quite a distance before I could make a U-turn and instead of being first, I was missed already by Herr Husband, my phone ringing when I was about to enter the shop. Once inside I was eyed by everyone, Herr Husband, aggravated " I thought you had an accident!" (gosh, as if I drive around having accidents all the time) being told by a smirking salesman "you have been missed already" me - mumbling redfaced something like "took the wrong turn, had to circle around" and then stumbling over the carpet. - And to top it off, I had to go back in from the parking lot when we wanted to leave, because I noticed my car sitting there with its window halfway down in the rain, so I had to get the keys back,which I had handed over. So, when I left for the second time, I turned around, smiled at all the grinning faces and told them "bye, today you won't see me any more, that's a promise".
And Landfrau kept her promise, there!

My Doubts confirm themselves

March 13/10....11:09 a.m.



The previous post gives me the willies and the one before that...I do not know if slowly but surely my shower turns into my enemy. This morning I grabbed my shampoo, put it on my hair and have been wondering why the darn stuff did not foam. Bingo, reaching for the rinse what did I have in my hands? Three guesses....the shampoo. - Touches of senility start with small things, I have been told. So folks - beware. (Not of me, yet - I hope)

What a Perspective!

March 13/10 ...... 8:36 a.m.

Found this early in the morning and it really made my day:

NOW I REALLY HAVE MY DOUBTS

March 7/10......9:45 p.m.

So Landfrau has been scrubbing shadows, next step is that Landfrau must love to scrub her face. Yesterday morning I went into my daily routine, washing my face and putting on my makeup. Then I went to take my shower, telling myself: do not wash you face, you are finished with that, opened the shower door, grabbed the washcloth and scrubbed my face. When I realized what I had been doing I told myself dumb ass silly woman - and then I had a terrible laughing fit. - So, you see it is hard to beat the old routine, normally face comes last, takes the most time and more so every year.

Hunting Shadows

March 2/10.....7:02 p.m.

I must be a natural nut. Herr Husband often says so, I do not always believe him, but this time... Well, for days I have been annoyed at an ugly spot in our upstairs carpet, right when you enter the door to the little office. Gave Herr Hund already the evil eye, him walking around with dirty paws all over the place. I tried to brush it off, no way, then I went at it with a cloth,water and some liquid soap, no way. I took a knife and tried to flush up the, already a bit worn over the years, carpet, the spot still was there. Then yesterday, leaving the office, I switched off the light, the spot was gone. Darn it... I switched the light on again, the spot was there. It turned out it had been the shadow of the electric cord of my portable radio,which I carry around where ever I want to listen to it. So it has been a fast repair, which can not be said for the damage caused by Landfrau kissing another car while backing out of a parking spot. First it looked like minor damage , only the frame of the licence plate broken, now the complete bumper seems to be a goner. Cars nowadays are not what they have been in former times. Bumpers are there to be hit, that's why they are called bumpers, right?

And in case you miss my weather pixie at the bottom of my page, I miss it too, I will put it back as soon as it reappears in the world wide web.

Well done, Guardian Angel!

February 24/10.....9:35 p.m.

So our little angel had a bad concience after all and really made an effort. Herr Husband does not need another operation and it turned out that his heart is doing fine. The doc said that it is an old heart on the weak side . Well, we all get there, eventually. All those good thoughts of great friends, real and virtual ones, helped too, that I am convinced of. So, thank you all from the bottom of my (hopefully still strong) heart!

Result of Insomnia

February 22/10....1:49 a.m.

Groundhog Day

February 22/10.....7:42 p.m.

In a grotesque way it is like a deja-vu, Herr Husband is in the Krefeld Hospital again, his heart is playing crazy once more. Last year had been a lucky year, no hospital visits, this year we start with a heart catheter and hopefully this will not be followed by another bypass operation. Landfrau told his guardian angel that he ows him!

There They Go Again!

February 13/10.....9:28 a.m.

Yes, friends, the smallest "Karnevals Zug" (mardi- gras parade) is on the go again tomorrow. Just to give your memory a little push and for my new reader friends, here is the link: http://landfrau.blogspot.com/2008/02/somewhat-listeless.html -
They skipped last year, much to the regret of many people, but it needs a lot of work and organizing, and there just had not been the time for that last season. But this year they are going to battle the cold and are inspite of the nasty temperatures hopefully being cheered by a big crowd. It will be cold beer - brrr -and hot spiced wine (the stuff where you have two heads ☺☺ the next day, if you drink too much ) and Landfrau regrets that she can not participate with her Farm Ville float, but the chickens gave their veto, too cold, they said.
And maybe there will be a report about the event within the next few days. So keep tuned!

P.S. ...and here is the weather for today! http://weatherpixie.com/index.php

Monday, Monday....

February 8/10.....12:45 p.m.

Just a song, to show you how I move on mondays!

The Mischievous Guardian Angel

February 2/10.......12:42 p.m.

Last night we got attacked by an angel, Herrn Husband's guardian angel as a matter of fact. How come? Well, let me tell you...

As a present daughter no.1 supplied her parents with guardian angels - well meant! -

Now, Landfrau's is (safely secured) hanging over her bed, Herrn Husband's is sitting on his nightstand. So far, so good. Yesterday Landfrau, while housecleaning, dusted the angels. The nighttable one, from here on called the devil angel, has , as you can see in above pics, a spring in his inside, so he can move back and forth, but he is not supposed to take flights and that is what he did in the middle of last night. Only explanation, the spring must have gotten stuck somehow and then loosened itself later on. We both were awaken by a big bang which made us sit upright in our beds. First thought was that Herr Hund had knocked something over. Then, after switching on the light, Landfrau discovered the angel, with broken off feet, right next to her bed. Now, mind you, the thing is made of sheet metal with a solid stand! Devil angel must have flown with such a force over our beds, that he did not even touch us. That would have made a brilliant headline: Person killed by Guardian Angel! - But maybe devil angel just meant well and wanted to protect its master so strongly ,that he shot over his aim. Whatever, since I fixed him with instant glue and got the stuff onto my fingers inspite of being very careful, I do not trust devil angel any more and I keep checking if he starts to grow little horns.

Holy Smoke!

January 19/10....8:59 p.m.

..is what Herr Hund said and where is the tree ? when he smelled Landfrau baking X-mas cookies. Yes, you have not been misreading. A bit crazy , I know, baking X-mas cookies in January but there is an explantation to everything. There still had been sitting half a box of cookie mix on the shelf, and since these butter cookies are the favoured ones of our grandson, I promised him to bake another batch. - Now, poor Herr Hund, he is in for hard times now-a-days, the construction of our new levee has started with the clearing of all the old trees, orchards, willow trees and meadows. So he lost his roaming grounds and we lost beautiful landscape, which had been growing for ages. Well, safety first, but there are always two sides to a medal and it is a shame to loose all that beauty. - When I went for my shopping drive today, I promised Herr Hund to bring him a goodie, he once a while agrees to open the front door, but he has been lazy lately, but today he could not wait to let me in and he almost crawled into my shopping basket for his treat.

Aside from that there are not so many news, except I finally got my new glasses and you now can call me "eagle eye" - I am thrilled!

P.S. Above pics are before and after, the lonely willow is now also a goner - so sad.

EAT DRINK SWEAT

January 6/10.....7:31 p.m.

That transfers it in short words, how we have been "sliding" into the New Year. We had a terrific Sylvester dinner, after a few drinks at the bar we started dining at 8:30 p.m. and only stopped shortly before midnight. Of course the menu had been accompanied by great wines. And at midnight, everybody started kissing everybody, 3 times, the french way, even the waiters joined in, two of them reminded me strongly of butler James in "Dinner for One", they must have been hiding a bottle in the kitchen. Very funny. Landfrau sneaked out shortly after midnight, wanted to see some fireworks - big dissapointment, I heard some in the valley beneath the hotel but did not see a single one. Hope this is not a bad sign for the year to come, I am a bit superstitious. Otherwise our leasuretime had been like always, except that it was wintertime. I took my daily walks with Herr Hund, somehow the so inviting shadow spending forrest seemed sinister and dismissive, especially at night. A bit spooky. - I finished a whole book in a jiffy, here at home it takes ages, swam in the pool till I almost sank - outside, breathing that terrific clean air, there is nothing like a heated pool to swim in outside in winter, pure luxury. And I treated myself to a massage. I felt spoiled, round about. Besides that, we ate. The food at that place is out of this world. -

We had snow when we arrived, then, overnite, it had been gone and when we looked out of our window the last night, it had started to snow again. But driving home with our 4-wheel drive had been not a problem whatsoever.

Now Landfrau is back in the chaingang - such is life.