Kinotag, Heimkino and a bump on the Head

Where have I been all week? Sweating with the oldies! It’s HOT in Germany, don’t you know. But you won’t hear me complain, nu-uh. In case all those whiny krauts haven’t checked the calendar lately: it’s August. It’s supposed to be hot.

But moving on…. I don’t feel like a complete post to review Ice Age 3D, because it’s been a week since we went to see it. I will say this, however: for about 90 minutes, it was good entertainment. The story was ok, although I’m sure I’ll forget it as quickly as I did the two predecessors. It was about friendship and family and the fact that we’re all a little patchwork. This was my first 3D flick, and I’m looking forward to the next one. Since you’ve read this blog long enough, you can guess what it’s going to be. Yup. G-Force! Since I can’t seem to catch the 3D versions in OV anywhere, I suppose I’ll have to forego hearing Bill Nighy (big fan, me, in case I hadn’t made that clear previously) and just live with whatever German actors they scrounge up.

On the homefront, I wasted $2.99 on iTunes to rent Paul Blart – Mall Cop. Sadly, this movie marks a return to early Adam Sandler films, all of which can be collectively forgotten, unless you’re very young or immature enough to enjoy fart jokes and being whacked over the head with a stupidity hammer. Watching Paul Blart was a similarly excruciating experience as the one time I made the mistake of paying money to see Dennis Spade in Joe Dirt, although as far as I know, Adam Sandler cannot be blamed on that one (his company produced this thing). Sorry, Clifford, but I have to disagree with you on this one. It’s not a complete catastrophe, however, because Kevin James (Paul) and the adorable Jayma Mays (Amy) actually have chemistry. Next up on the home movie front: The Edge of Love. For the heck of it.

Otherwise, I am dismayed about being stuck at lesson 20 in Welsh. I am attempting to correct minor listening mistakes before they accumulate, while at the same time I can’t seem to muster the concentration to really get through the lesson. I’ve started three times and abandoned it halfway each time. There are only six more after this. So close, and yet so far…

Early Weekend Morn

Actually, my early weekend starts tomorrow, but why haggle over a few hours? I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to my visitor from Wales. I have a sneaking suspicion who it could be, but don’t you live in North Wales? The network showed up as being located in Caerphilly… oh well.

Lest you, my dear readers, fear I’ll be bored tomorrow, ’tis not so. I’ll be up for the early dog walk, as usual, then on to vehicle reg and the giant trash receptacles, where I’ll begin the clearing of my household. And daggone it, I’m going to the hairdresser’s, finally! I am looking forward to two days of not going anywhere for the actual weekend, because my house needs to be put in order, and I believe I promised someone to look for that mp3 player…

I think I’ll have a mini champagne, as well, for finally cracking lesson 12, though as expected, now lesson 13 has me stumped a bit. What’s that I’m saying? I’m talking about my free Welsh language course, of course. If you’re wondering what the heck it actually is I’m doing there, visit Say Something In Welsh and join the fun.

Speaking of joining, if you like traveling to Great Britain or if you’re a Wales fan or a Welsh person lost in Germany, come visit Annette and me on wales.mixxt.de. I hear we might have a celeb writer interested in doing a piece for us. That would be very cool if it worked out!

That’s enough advertising for one morning, I think… I can’t help it, between Vampires and Taffies, there’s not much else but the guinea pigs, and they’ve gotten quite a bit of blogtime already…

Anyway, don’t expect to read from me until Monday, and have a great weekend!!

I Cheated in Welsh

Well, not exactly cheated… I am currently taking the wonderful audio language course in Southern Welsh from Say Something in Welsh. Iestyn and Cat have been my coaches for the past two and a half weeks, and although I’m hardly fluent after only six lessons, I’m starting to recognize patterns (which is cool, if you’re a language nerd like me). The whole point to this course is, however, that there are absolutely no written materials for the entire duration. Nada. Zilch. Nix. Amazingly, it works rather well, except for those instances where I don’t take the time to listen to a lesson over in a more quiet environment (I practice in the car on the way to work). So, for example, for one day I was absolutely sure that Iestyn was telling me ‘why’ was ‘ham’. It’s not really. The correct word is ‘pam’. But you see the problem.

Last weekend in London, I purchased a Welsh dictionary for those sticky moments. After all, what better place to buy a Welsh language aid than in a country where people look upon Welsh speakers with a fair amount of disdain? ( ) Lesson 6b made me VERY glad I did! You see, Iestyn is trying to teach us how to start and control conversations now, but I have to admit that I had a lot more problems unravelling all the new sentences than before. So last night, I did some rustling in the pages, and lo and behold, figured out about half of the stuff within five minutes. Plus a couple of things from previous lessons where I had misheard the endings, like a ‘f’ instead of a ‘th’.

So for me, it is useful to have a bit of written support, as well, even though I won’t use it yet to look up new words, which I wouldn’t remember anyway. But I cannot help but feel that I’m cheating here, just a teensy bit…

P.S. Diolch yn fawr or thanks very much to all those people who’ve come here looking for 4th Street Traffic. Now go find them on Facebook and join the club.

Living a girl’s adventure tale

Never a dull moment for this kid! The day started perfectly: the dogs and I took an early morning walk in the woods and did not run into any wild pigs (after mommy -that’s me- remembered that early in the morning is probably perfect pig meeting time). In fact, they were quite well behaved except when Max started acting like he wanted to run up the ravine to the autobahn and I had to walk him on leash for a small stretch.

I took my time and got the place cleaned up for Claudia and her mom. Anke was going to come to Ludwigsburg with us to the wine fest and dinner, then we were all going to walk the dogs together for the evening. And then, things started to go awry. Anke canceled after getting stung in the foot by a wasp. We went to LB anyway and enjoyed the fest, but the walk to the restaurant took a lot longer than we had expected, and when we got there, the food wasn’t anything to write in a blog about. But the kicker was, when we got back, the ladies wanted to drive home, so I was going to walk the dogs alone.

So… I run in, get the dogs dressed, grab their treats, my license and what I think are the Jeep keys. The second I press the elevator button, I realize that I have a Honda key and a mailbox key! And no phone and no way to get back in the house!! B. wasn’t home, later found out he didn’t have a spare key anyway. Michele has one, but doesn’t answer her phone. My friendly upstairs neighbors are letting me use all of their available resources, and yet, I cannot get a hold of anyone who can help me. Meanwhile, the dogs are hungry and getting nervous because they have to wait outside on the patio. I’m feeling bad. U. has to call his psycho ex-girlfriend to get me Michele’s number who then… see above.

Finally, B. gets me M.’s number in the States and I find out there’s a spare key, thank goodness!! Of course, I just spent an hour and a half fretting, and the dogs still haven’t been fed. Now, I’m looking forward to bed and never having to do this little action again. The pups are in bed already, the cat just threw up on the floor, and things are going back to normal.

Ok, Rufus is grumbling. I gotta go… Y’all behave, you hear!

Funny Things I learned this Past Weekend (1)

My toast is too big for the toaster. Really, I would have to cut each slice in half and toast them as separate pieces.