Werewolves, Vampires and Uncle Sam

Three days off are a splendid thing! Friday was spent doing all those things I don’t normally have time for, like almost re-registering my husband’s Jeep and soaking in the sun while the dogs splash in the river. Saturday was glorious, so the pigs and I kept the doors and windows open all day and enjoyed the warm summer winds while I frivolously whiled away the hours on the laptop, fighting and killing my way through one of two incredibly boring levels of Vampire Wars. I want my missions back!! On the slightly more bright side, I found a new way of killing time with pointless pursuits. Hatchlings is the name of the game, and all you need to do is click around and find Easter eggs hidden in Facebook pages. I really don’t care about ranking so much, but I love all the special edition eggs!

Sunday was gloomy and wet, so I got caught up on my reading and spent relatively little time online. I discovered, however, that whilst collecting eggs, I’ve also earned shells, which in turn can be spent at the Warehouse to purchase retired special edition eggs. After incubating my 4th-of-July egg, I now call a tiny Uncle Sam my pet, and I have to feed him eggs to keep him happy…

I rented my first movie from iTunes. It was really easy and didn’t take nearly as long to download as I had feared, considering a 45-minute episode of 24 once took me nearly two hours. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans completed the trilogy for me, but I have to say, this could have been a straight to video release without losing anything, mostly because there’s nothing to lose. The story is so predictable, I could have written the script for this film. An underchallenged Bill Nighy is stylishly menacing, although his most memorable feature is that he wears those creepy contacts all through the flick. Michael Sheen, although reprising his role as Lucian, was woefully miscast as the Lycan leader. Not that he didn’t act well, he’s just had too much exposure in other stuff in the past few years, in my opinion. I’m not even going to talk about all those rapid changes from day- to nighttime; it certainly is convenient that Sonya (the incredibly sexy Rhona Mitra) and Lucian get caught at night, she gets executed in full sun a short while later, and only a few seeming minutes after that, Lucian gets to try his luck fighting Victor in the full moon.

Fortunately, it turns out that this is something like a prequel to the other two, so we don’t really have to fear any more sequels…

After the Fires

Were I to find only one word to describe the weekend, it would have to be… barbecue! Saturday afternoon took me to Stuttgart and the backyard of friends who were firing up the grill for some homemade cevapce and don’t ask me what those burger-thingies were called. As always, the food was plentiful, and a great time was had by all (although Max and Rufus had to go home early because Rufi decided he wasn’t getting enough grilled food).

On Sunday, I was invited to a surprise birthday party in Wiesloch: more great food, more good company, and the end result was one very tired Party Queen. Good thing I have a week to rest…

TGIF Once Again

Honestly, I don’t know if I will have any time to post at all this weekend. After all, life beckons. Tomorrow, I have to get ready for my sister’s visit, do some shopping and go to a barbecue (possibly featuring the visit of a friend I haven’t seen in a few months). On Sunday, I expect to spend the morning with my sister, visit another friend in the afternoon, and watch that video my colleague thinks I need to get scared by. And after that, it’ll be Monday.

But I have confidence that you all will survive for a couple of days without me. Just in case you miss me too much, you can help me review some music for our Celtic dinner in August. Tell me what you think of The Rough Guide to Celtic Music and the Chieftains’ Celtic Wedding.

More than I Bargained For

Do you ever get the feeling you got into something a bit deeper than expected, but it’s actually a good thing? After exchanging some friendly banter with the admin of my Welsh Language site, I asked him yesterday if he’d let me add him to my friendlist on Facebook. My reasoning was, if I saw him on there, I’d feel guilty if I started slacking off with the lessons. Well, he did let me, and the first update I got was a whole paragraph – in Welsh! It’s still making me laugh, because of course, just like Radio Cymru, this is WAY over my little head. I’m thrilled to recognize the grammatical structures, though, so I guess there’s hope after all…

Too much can be a good thing.

Knock-knock. Who’s there? It’s me, Friday!

Long awaited, suspected missing, but here it is finally, my nearly favorite day of the week! For the last time it’s off to battle rush hour traffic, speedfeed the pigs and decompress by slaying a vampire or two before throwing myself into the bustling nuttiness which is the Fischmarkt downtown. Last night, I ran, and a pretty decent time too, though not as good as I thought. In Welsh, I’ve managed to complete three more lessons this week, which brings me nearly halfway through the course. And in a mere eight days, there’ll be a fab barbecue at Anke’s house.

No major projects are planned for the weekend, although to prepare the room for the two weeks of ferret sitting, the pigs and I will relocate to the Lily Pad for a while. Maybe I’ll finally make it to the hairdresser tomorrow. The only other firm point, or points, really, on the calendar are the Saturday morning walk with Anke and Daisy, and the weekend long run. I can almost hear the leaves rustle along the path already!

In case you don’t find a post here over the next two days, forgive me; I’ll be too busy being in the midst of things.

Dinner with Friends

I nearly wrote this entry yesterday, but then I didn’t. I didn’t feel like it. Maybe I was lacking the energy provided by those crunchy, pecan-flavored carrots I just had for lunch. Quite tasty.

Anyway, on Sunday, there wasn’t an entry because there wasn’t time for one. Ok, I’ll admit it, most of the day I was really bumming around, but the fact is, whatever it was I was engaged in was more important than trying to come up with a post. That’s life, or as Forrest Gump would say: shit happens. The nice thing is, Sunday afternoon turned out to be a wonderfully off-the-cuff event. First, Mark bought the new grill. That thing is as big as Jamie Oliver’s kitchen! Then, Anke and Robi were going to pick up our old one which will now replace their baby Webber. Then I asked if they wanted to stick around for dinner, and they did. So, while the men put together the Barbecue Beast, Anke kindly took turns entertaining me and keeping an eye on Escape Kitty in the yard while I tossed some spaghetti in the pot, nearly successfully finished a nevertheless mighty tasty English orange cake, baked some garlic Texas toast and cut up veggies for the piggies and the salads. Sounds like a lot of work? Really wasn’t. Somehow, the timing just worked out.

I really miss having people around the house! One of the things I very much look forward to come October is cooking at home more often…

About Enjoyment

This past weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy different things. Really enjoy, as in warm belly, many smiles, wishing this won’t end, laughter and good vibes. It was easy to get up. Pigwig and I had breakfast together, and when I left, there he was, munching away with his little pink nose sticking out of his Pigloo. He’s such a little sweetie, he makes me smile all the time.

It wasn’t so bad that my train was canceled, because driving up to Heidelberg in my car gave me the chance to make three people happy who rode up with me. I absolutely admit that helping people out can be a great thing just because it feels so good.

I had an hour to wait before the next train, so I really enjoyed some creamy caramel coffee and a wonderful sweet croissant with plum filling, plus I got to purchase next year’s pocket calendar. All very easy and relaxed. The train was almost empty, giving me quiet to read and listen to music.

I absolutely savored my delicious late lunch while I waited for my friend Jutta, with whom I then discussed the advantages of blogging and microblogging, which was really fun until Steffi joined us and we all talked about something different. I tagged along with them into a jewelry store and oohed and aahed over the goodies with them.

Steffi and I had a fabulous night visiting all the different museums, running into people, listening to the bands, and afterward, I slept well and woke up before the alarm clock. I was really looking forward to meeting Pauli for breakfast, and although the service at the cafe was awful, the food was enjoyable. Afterward, we took a walk together, found a hole-in-the-wall coffee spot and kept chatting even on the trainride back towards the city centre. When I got to the Odeonsplatz where I was meeting Maria, she was already there. We had a drink and some cake together, playfully argued about our XING group and then enjoyed a walk through the city, which is lovely on Sundays and not nearly as overrun as almost any other day of the week.

By the time I climbed aboard my train, I was actually ready to get home to my pigwig again, and although today hasn’t been nearly as wonderful and magical, I am grateful to have been so close to perfection for almost two whole days.