Made my day

February 23/09.....12:41 p.m.

Just came in from my walk with Herr Hund, have to take this down before it slips my mind: Landfrau met neighbour with grandson( 5) outside. So we chatted for a bit. Suddenly grandson,who kind of acted already annoyed because I kept grandpa from walking on, said to me: in former times you looked younger. I asked him a little flabbergasted in which way - his reply: you had less wrinkles.
Fits perfectly in with my usual flippant remark around Karneval-season: - you should stop celebrating,when you look worse after taking off your witch mask. -
I am still giggling!

Can not win

Landfrau and Mom

February21/09

Talking about that winter, which really this season has managed to please and annoy us. But if you ask me, around here it is kickin' up the heels in a feeble way. During my today's walk with Herr Hund I noticed light dashes of green on so far dark brown twigs and branches. Also the snowdrops start to show, must have helped that Landfrau bought that wine with the name of perce neige, which by the way tastes delicious. Opened the first bottle tonite with our salmon dinner ,might have to go for an addional supply pretty soon. Otherwise have been busy again with the fabolous X-mas gift from my grandson, the book where I figuratively dish out my life from birth. The pre-given questions are a hairraiser, most of them, so I found a way to pepp up the oevre with some ideas of my own, which meant also digging into old photobooks. Ran across some pictures of my mother in her days, when I had been a toddler. My, has she been attractive! She died at a , for today, early age of 76, Alzheimer, and strange enough in the end of her sickness days, her beauty kind of reappeared, there were no marks of sorrow and age anymore in her face.

But with the book I see light at the end of the tunnel, so to say ,and for finishing it a few more drab winter days are not so bad. You see, there are two sides to everything.

It's the Time of Year!

February 21/09 8:44 p.m.

Can not skip that, too cute!

KARNEVAL Contribution!

February 19/09 2:00 p.m.

My contribution for the "Altweiberfastnacht"
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Springfever

February 18/09....6:50 p.m.

Honestly, must be springfever,which pushes me into snap decisions to jump into my car and drive downtown and on top of that must have been a catalogue in the mail by a downtown clothing store. And Landfrau knows beforehand that she will never fit into those barbiedoll-sized garments, but knowing is not believing and my Waterloo comes latest when I am in one of those overlit cabins, already sweaty from undressing, hair, which is too long right now anyway (hated hairdresser appointment coming up) pointing in every direction trying to squeeze into pieces which outside of the cabin looked by far big enough. As I said: Waterloo... Grinding my teeth I then roll up to the next level, where the "fat" ladies shop and there I am usually lucky. Today I picked one of the good days where there had been an adequate choice and once I discover that I fit into a chosen piece I go haywire and buy the same one in different editions,might not be available anymore at some other time. Today's captured goods: 1 pair jeans dark blue, same ones light blue, long sleeved T-shirt white, long sleeved T-shirt yellow, same one mint and a short sleeved polo shirt yellow. Saleslady treated me like roalty and admired my cap. In former times I have been admired for my looks! - Well, you can't have everything.

Once again......

February 17/09......6:02 p.m.

....a quiz, just love them, but do you think seriously I would publish it here if it was bad?

YOU ARE FEARLESS

You Are Fearless

You have great dreams and unrelenting ambition. You go for what you want, and it's hard to deter you. You are incredibly competent and intelligent. You've had a very high success rate in your life. You tend to dominate people. You have a very strong personality, and others tend to heed to your demands. You're confident enough to be considered arrogant. You tend to think of other people in terms of what they can do for you.

Are You Flirtatious, Fearless, Factual, or Friendly?

Valentine's Day

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February 14/09....9:07 a.m.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN!

Winetasting Galore!

February 11/09 ...8:38 p.m.

A few days ago a flyer from our favourite wine shop came by mail. Among others they were praising a French wine namened Perce-Neige, which in German is "Schneeglöckchen " (snowdrops). Now, mind you, with our not so supra weather around this time of the year I had been so intrigued by that name, I had to have that wine, simply had to have it. I could taste it in my mouth, even never having tasted it. So yesterday afternoon in a slushy snowstorm Landfrau drove to the wine store. Thought I might be the only customer, since the shop is located off road in a leftover building of an old monastry. Totally wrong, shop had been filled with quite some people about my age. Seems we are the age group comforted by buying wine in drab weather times. The store also offers other goodies, like jams, olive, oil, pasta sauces etc. So I took my time looking around ,eavesdropping on two ladies, who could not make up their minds if buying the cheaper wine,which one of them claimed, was more to her liking, or the more expensive one. I really had to giggle, whom did they want to impress? The sales clerk, by choosing the expensive one? Really, some people. Then Ihad a taste of "Schneeglöckchen" and another brand, but snowdrops it was, it turned out excactly they way I had expected. Got a lesson on top from another customer,who told me that tasting wine has to be noisy, you have to slurp, and I told him that I know that you never say that a wine is lecker, now that's a sacrileg, wine is fruity, round ,full, heavy, but never lecker ( yummy), and then I said that this wine was very "lecker" and him and the sales clerk laughed their heads off. - So you see, even at an ugly,rainy day you can make friends with the help of wine.

A Beautiful Song

February 9/09 7:09 p.m.
.....and a beautiful singer. -
Take the time and listen, it's like the caress of a breeze.

Yes, I am

February 8/09........ 3:14 p.m.

....writing a post. That's what I promised myself today, have to stop waisting all my resources on twitter, even if I have nothing to say - so to say. Now, seriously, twitter is insofar intriguing as you are sitting there reading all the stuff other brains, who also have nothing to say, evaporate. Some things might be amusing, but serious information you only get from the news tweets. Sigh, to make a long story short, shit- I am hooked. Still, there are days, like today, I slap more or less successfully my fingers to stay away. -
And now down to serious business, my life. Not such a hype right now, but I am getting modest, happy if I am spared catastrophies of which we have had plenty last year. Last week Landfrau had been Herr Husband's driver, he had a dentist appointment to have quite some teeth removed. The problem is, that he starts gagging, as soon as he looks at his "new" teeth, sitting there grinning at him. Either he gets the hang of putting them in or it will be toothless time till he can be fitted for some implants, but that takes time - talking from experience. At least my implants were necessary way back in my mouth, so I could still grin at people with missing teeth. Herr Husband can not, at least I told him he better not. He is considering joining the crew of homeless people selling their special paper downtown, he would fit in mouthappearance wise. Gosh, it is easy to be sarcastic if one is not affected. Well, in a way I am so too, have to think of cooking soft, chewable food for the time beeing. That nice, juicy steak is out at the moment.
Isn't it great, when missing teeth are the momentarily highlite of life?

Model -Me

February 3/09 9:45

Had to drive "downtown" yesterday, Landfrau had a meeting with an old friend, he is a producer of radio plays -section criminal stories. We met at a very picturesque - and for the old part of town unique Bistro cafe. He lives in Berlin but knew the place, unknown to me, shame on Landfrau. Story is, that he has produced a play and for the cover image of the CD he wanted me as a model. I represent one of the main characters, of course I can not talk about the plot here. But friends so much - beware of me, I am a villain! -
Asked my friend if he could not find an adequate person in Berlin but he thought that I would be just the fitting character, whatever that tells us. I shall get a copy in due time, let's wait an see.

Reminiscence of a Day

January 30/09...10:56 p.m.



Will roll it backwards: watched a very nice play on TV right now , no, friends, will not talk about it, it is enough I enjoyed it, let it sit at that. Had a nice late afternoon bike run with Herr Hund, a lonely goose ,Nil I think, had been harvesting a field, i. e. the freshly growing seeds. And that is why the local farmers hate them and there is the battle between conserving nature and profit. - To make it real up to date, Herr Husband, descending from the tower (attic room) switched out the upper level light and a bulb exploded, blew the main fuse and there we were, groping around in the dark. Blown bulb had exploded with pieces even down into the basement area. Great. Have to look into that tomorrow morning. Anyway, pieces, most of them, cleaned away. Amazing, so much debris caused by a small light bulb. - Now, back to my day. Went shopping for the forgrotten items, mind you ,it is not walking around the corner, have to take the car for every pint of milk. Had been fixing lunch ,delicious trouts, but I did not catch them beforehand, that should have happened some other time, when hippie daugther No. 1 invited us for dinner, but that is another story and occured ages ago, daugther is now a very successful business woman and those are our shared memories of the past. And to start the day with it had been the usual run with Herr Hund, who is very unpatient watching me sit down at the computer after getting out of bed, unbrushed teeth and unshowered. Of course prepared breakfast, diligent little Landfrau, like every day and days to come and now I am sitting here with my glass of red wine, thinking in some ways I must be a natural nut. And please, do not agree, we will not be friends any more.

The Last of the Mohicans

January 22/09 ...7:00 p.m.





Creepers, here I am again with my neverending fish stories. One misely 5-incher left, Moritz, the fat goldfish ,followed his brother Max into the enternal hunting grounds and he took along vailtail, the funny guy. I am telling you , fish will not be gifted with names any more, they will get numbers from now on at the rate we loose them. And always in such a funny way!- First one had been Philipp, a little white coi, looked like a tiny dolphin and used to swim in circles, like mad. . After that for quite a while we had Harold and Maude, 2 cois, along with Max and Moritz, the goldfish . Maude comitted suicide, living up to her name, she jumped out of the pond. Harold followed her, but him we saved. We gave him fat Wanda, a coi , as a companion and they both decided to be goners the same day. Now for quite a while it had been Max and
Moritz, the goldfish, then Max beat it to fish heaven and we felt sorry for the lone rider and got him the 5-incher and veiltail as companions. Think they have been frozen fish when we had the cold spell lately and only the 5-incher survived, maybe beeing so small, who knows. -

I think from now on we should have fish only on our plates, nicely prepared, but that of course would deprive you of furthermore fish stories unless one of us suffocates from a fishbone.

I need some Flowers

January 20/09 3:40 p.m.

Landfrau does not want to look at snow anymore, flowers "happy me up".

Zilch out of 10

January 19/09 ..... 7.14 p.m.

I simply hate mondays and I know why I hate them. Waking up in the morning with the task in mind to have to clean the house is not so prickly as such. I detest then additional distractions, o.k., I know I have to walk the dog, a daily necessity or pleasure, depends... but aside from that no more other stuff. This morning daughter no.2. called, poor girl is down with the flu, so of course mom asked if she needed some help, and yes, she wanted me to cook a soup for her and grandkid. No more beef in the freezer I had to drive to the supermarket and there I developped my first wave of hatred, No parking place to start with and the shop full of people with shopping carts loaded as if they were stocking up till doomsday. A line at the butcher's counter, grrr...another line at the bakery counter, double grrr.. after having bought my baguette remembered that I needed some fresh bread for us too, mind you, that someone might have taken note that I had lined up already, no sir, had to wait again in line. Tripple grrr... rushed then home , cooked the soup and kind of figuered that Herr Husband would be the delivery service, no deal, he had to write a letter. And that's now where the scoring sets in. Rushed to the car in the garage to load the basket into the trunk, car locked, key still inside, score of 5 out of ten, fetched the key, jumped into the car and drove like speedy Gonzales to daugther's place, since grandson had to be fed before leaving for hockey training, opened the trunk and stared like a dumb nut into the empty trunk, no basket. That stupid thing sat happily in the back of the garage. Score 0 out of 10. Phoned Herr Husband that he now for sure had to get moving, drove home and startet my housecleaning job, which is not finished by far, so tomorrow I am in for another appointment with broom and wiping cloth.

For today I am absolutely thrilled.

The Mini Teen

January 18/o9 .....3:01 p.m.

He is so refreshing to have around the house- eh,once a while - and such a funny guy. Landfrau is talking about our 11 year old grandson, son of our younger daughter. We had him as a houseguest overnite and as soon as he arrives our lives are changed. Sports news have to be watched, and commented and certainly we have to listen to all the latest stories of his field hockey games. The biggest laugh we had last night, when he dropped an invoice out of his wallet. Turned out it had been from a local DIY superstore, dated December 24th, shortly before closing time. The smart kid had bought his X-mas presents for the family at double reduced rates and this way got a lot for little. Quite the business freak he will be one day. - In the morning he proudly anounced that he had changed his shower habits, he is taking a shower now -mind you - every day at least for 6 min. and then he flashed his own bottle of deo, AXE -Bom Chicka Wah Wah - and Landfrau stated that she regreted it very much, not to have that puma cage smell to sniff any more - haha.
Before he had to leave -hockey game - he looked with me into my twitter and asked me if I would have given myself the twittername "grossstadttussi" (big city brat - free translation) if I would be living in the city. Glad that I was allowed to stick to Landfrau since I live in the countryside.

No Blinky Palermo

January 14/09 ....7:44 p.m.
My sister-in-law, who lives in Paris, had been in her twenties friends with a painter artist, who gave her as a present some of his water colour sketches. The pics had been hanging in forgotten corners framed in Ikea frames for ages. As it turned out, they are worth a fortune and by now have been bought by a Museum and sis-in-law's family came by quite a considerable amount of money. -
Now this Landfrau family here is sitting on some old coins for ages and Herr Husband decided today to have them evaluated. As it turned out, they are not even worth the price of the gasolin he used to go downtown. So no Blinky Palermo deal for us ,have been dealt the asshole card once more.

V.I.P.s

January 11/09 9:20 p.m.

Yeah, that' s what we felt like tonite, Herr Husband and Landfrau. The only time in my life I felt more important, as a matter of fact like a celebrity, has been in Dubai, when we had been invited for a harbour cruise aboard a Yacht owned by an East Indian business man, us boarding on a red carpet and people looking on, wow, once in a lifetime! But that's another story.- Now for tonite - Herr Husband has his favoured spot, a floating restaurant at the riverside, and the owner, a very nice,young turkish guy, born already in Germany, so to say 2nd generation, has taken a liking to him - father image? So we always get the special treatment and tonite we have been the only guests. Now, mind you, only guest in a reataurant are a horror in my opinion, but not at this place, you have this great view at the city skyline and the river traffic to watch, nice chill out music and excellent food and efficient service. So, to make a long story short, it had been a wonderful evening and Landfrau emptied almost a whole bottle of wine. Iknow who will have a good night's rest - or maybe I shall be unconcious? - Tomorrow will tell.

Can't get enough!

January 9/09 7:30 p.m.

Would have never thought that I one day would and could enjoy X-country skiing around my own home. Just like the times we vaccationed in Austria I put on my skies right in front of the door. It is a bit harder without tracks, but the ground has been flattened enough that I have no difficulties gliding. And I have all that wonderful country side all to myself together with Herr Hund, who still beats me speedwise. Have discovered spots where I have my own personal downhill runs, the levee is great for that. It is a funny feeling to be running along the riverside, up to now I always had been surrounded by terrific mountains in Austria. - But one more advantage around here, its cheaper folks ;-) ! Of course Landfrau misses to be waited on coming home, there you can't beat a hotel stay. Well, one can not have everything.

Bloody Monday

January 5/09 9:53 p.m.

...is actually every monday for Landfrau, housecleaning day, a task accomplished every week more or less successful. Today it had been bloody monday the real mcCoy, cut my finger and decided to skip the hated cleaning, figuered it won't be said "she cleaned well" at my grave and dug out my cross country ski out of the basement, not used for the last three seasons. Since it happens about every 10 years that we have such masses of snow around here, might as well take advantage. Had a slight temper fit about my sport suit, which must have shrunk,sitting in the closet and made late New Year's decisions "loose weight,loose weight,loose weight...and I am very good for a start,sitting here feeling so hungry I could devour a scewered ox.
Well, I had a terrific run, it was hard, without a trail, and Herr Hund had been by far faster than me. For a while I glided along the riverbanks and there were wild geese flying so low over my head that I could hear the swishing of their wings.
So, for the night I expect a crowd of brownies to clean my house , then I can repeat my todays run tomorrow.