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Directories
The Ghost of Halloween’s Past
Officially in Germany, today is Reformation Day (as in Martin Luther), but for me it’s good ole Halloween. I was all prepared. I had a nice carved pumpkin and a boatload of goodies, and not one trick-or-treater stopped by. This was not for lack of trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood, I took Charlie out at one point and they were swarming over the neighboring houses. So what’s so unfriendly about my door? Rainer says the parents here probably only bring their kids to houses of people they are friends with. Normally I would consider Germans to be much less fearful than Americans, but this seems not to be the case on All Hallows Eve. Although, it could also be because Halloween is just catching on in Germany and they aren’t sure who’s gonna know why little kids are in costume and ringing their bell, but I’d think the jack-o-lantern would help out here.
Do American parents still just turn kids loose to wreck havoc in the neighborhood? Ah, blissful childhood reminiscences. I remember one year the cool kids actually invited me along to TP a classmates house (with the misfortune to be named Justin Wimpey). But Justin was hiding in the bushes with the water hose, so it didn’t work out. Then I was berated by the cool kids for dropping the toilet paper as we were running for our lives. Ach! Stupid me! We could’ve TPed another house! Needless to say, that was the last time they invited me along!
Here I am as Tweety-bird with my grandma and dad. I think this was the first Halloween that I got to go trick-or-treating. I remember getting homemade candied apples and cupcakes from the neighbors. Ah, the good old times. Soon thereafter, people got freaked out about someone putting razor blades in Halloween treats, so we didn’t get homemade goodies anymore.
With the upcoming heated presidential election between Bush, Perot and Clinton, my friends and I decided to dress up as the candidates, their wives and the secret service for Halloween 1992. That’s me as Clinton on the right. My little bro Christian is the trench coat wearing agent in the front, Vicky’s little brother is the other secret service agent. Vicky is back center playing Bush and Brian Nenninger is between us dressed as Perot.
And this was from the Duke ISDS Halloween Party 1999 where I went as a Bond Girl (I may not be skimpily dressed, but I had a lot of armaments). Next to me in the pic is Sining Chen, who’s now a professor at Johns Hopkins!
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Pop quiz: Verkehrszeichen
Do you know your German traffic signs? Test your knowledge with this short quiz at german.about.com. Me? I scored 88%. I’ve never heard of or seen the last sign, but now at least I know what it is.
Der arme Kerl!
My readers of the male persuasion and those with queasy stomachs may not want to read this post, and if you do, I warned ya…
There’s always complications for poor Charlie. On Tuesday he was neutered. When we went on Saturday morning for his checkup, the vet informed us that when out of our sight, he had apparently been furiously licking his wound, which has caused an abscess and “licking” eczema. So now Charlie has to wear a funnel and two to three times a day we need to put him in a stranglehold and pin him to the ground in order to rub antibacterial ointment on his incision and skin cream over the rest of his genital area. Well, if that wasn’t bad enough, the incision started leaking blood this afternoon. We rushed him to the animal hospital, where they told us that blood and pus is building up in his testicular sac (I don’t get why they left the sac on, but oh well) and we now need to gently squeeze it a few times a day to help ease the pressure. Charlie also has to wear a pair of Rainer’s old underwear with a maxi pad in it so that he doesn’t leave stains all over the carpet. The poor guy is really looking ridiculous now. The emergency doc said that this should all be a memory within a week, but with Charlie, one never knows…
It’s my party and… you’re invited
We’re having a blow-out Thanksgiving/Going Away Party on November 24th and you’re all invited. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is actually the 23rd, but more people can come on a Friday and if it gets noisy, our neighbors are probably less likely to get mad if they don’t have to get up early the next day to go to work.
I’ll send out email invites next week. If I don’t know your email address, you’ll need to email me for our address and directions. We’ve got a futon and plenty of floor space for people to crash. Hope to see you there!
I’ve been a bad, bad girl
After having a nice lunch with Lynn, I headed off to Berlin, more specifically, to KaDeWe. It is a good thing that I live this far from KaDeWe. It is also a very, very, VERY good thing that I live this far from Tysons Corner!
Note: you can order fresh turkeys from KaDeWe with one weeks notice. They think a 12-14kg turkey will fit in a German oven. I have my doubts about this.
So, back to my shopping spree: I’ve been attempting to break my bad, bad habit of buying expensive purses (hey, at least I don’t own any Louis Vuitton or anything else on THAT level, but I do have quite a few Kate Spade, Coach and Monsac bags), but I had a relapse today and return home with a really beautiful tan suede (actually, the tag says “split calfskin velvet leather”) Longchamp purse. I had been planning on maybe purchasing ONE nice item today, but also making the trip home with me is a beautiful olive green wool coat. Shhh… don’t tell Rainer!
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Charlie G. is in the house
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