What’s your dating persona?

November 29, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 5 Comments 

This test was done by Ed and Susanna, so I just had to try, and the results are amusing. Sorry boys, I’m already taken.

The Maid of Honor
Deliberate Gentle Love Master (DGLMf)

Appreciated for your kindness and envied for all your experience, you are The Maid of Honor.

Charismatic, affectionate, and terrific in relationships, you are what many guys would call a “perfect catch”—and you probably have many admirers, each wishing to capture your long-term love. You’re careful, extra careful, because the last thing you want is to hurt anyone. Especially some poor boy whose only crime was liking you.

We’ve deduced you’re fully capable of a dirty fling, but you do feel that post-coital attachment after hooking up. So, conscientious person that you are, you do your best to reserve physical affection for those you respect…so you can respect yourself.

Your biggest negative is the byproduct of your careful nature: indecision. You’re just as slow rejecting someone as you are accepting them.

ALWAYS AVOID: The False Messiah, The 5-Night Stand, The Vapor Trail, The Bachelor

CONSIDER: The Gentleman, someone just like you.

Your exact opposite:
Half-cocked

Random Brutal Sex Dreamer


Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.

If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

More Thanksgiving Recipes

November 29, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · Comment 

I am completely exhausted. No matter how much sleep I get, I always feel like I just pulled a couple all-nighters. Then I had a doctor’s appointment today (at 7:30am) and the doctor is sick and I need to come back tomorrow (I might just wait till Friday, just to be sure she’s healthy again). What a bummer! I had to pay for a tram ticket each way too! So, because I am too tired to think straight enough to write something interesting, I am just going to provide links to some more of the recipes I used for my Thanksgiving feast. Enjoy!

Cranberry sauce with port and dried figs

Orange-flavored sweet potatoes with oatmeal cookie topping - Instead of oatmeal cookies, I used a mix of Lebkuchen for spice and Leibnitz crackers for crunch (ginger cookies would work as well), I only used 6 large sweet potatoes (7 would never have fit in the pan), and I added a 1/4 cup of cognac.

Ultimate pumpkin pie

New York Style Cheesecake - I left epicurious.com (my fav. cooking/recipe site - once I move and have DSL again I’ll be able to view their technique videos - Yay!) for this recipe because I needed a recipe for a 10-inch springform pan. Please note that a bar of Philadelphia in the US is 8 oz (or 227 grams) while a bar in Germany is 200 grams.

Let me know if there are any other recipes you want, I’ll be happy to transcribe the others (they’re not already online).

Christina’s Chicken and Shrimp Dumpling recipe

November 27, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 6 Comments 

1 lb medium sized shrimp, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 lb chicken, finely chopped or ground
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 can water chestnuts, finely chopped
6 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
2 eggs, separated
3 T Maggi seasoning
1 T white pepper
1 T + 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sweet soy sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1 pack wonton wrappers

Combine shrimp, chicken, green onions, water chestnuts, 2 egg yolks, Maggi seasoning, white pepper and 1 T dark brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and knead ingredients until thoroughly mixed. Let stand for ten minutes.

Place 1 T of filling mix in the center of a wonton wrapper. Wet each corner of the wrapper with egg white, then gather corners and pinch them together. Will make about 50 dumplings.

Dumplings can then be steamed for 10-15 minutes on a steamer rack or deep fried for 1-2 minutes at 180 degrees.

Combine the remaining sugar, vinegar and sweet soy sauce in small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Spoon cooled sauce over cooked dumplings and serve with Thai chili sauce (sriracha).

Danke danke danke!

November 25, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 8 Comments 

So our one-day-late Thanksgiving/Going-Away Party went off without a hitch. Although I was just about exhausted from all the cooking by the time the first guests arrived (20 minutes early, that’s Prussian timeliness for you). Charlie actually behaved himself, in fact, I believe he very much enjoyed being the center of attention (btw, Charlie’s my dog, not my husband!) . He wagged his butt from group to group, getting bellyrubs and probably a lot of food.

My dog walking buddies were there, and gave us a wonderful photo collage of Charlie and all the dogs from the pack. I already know where I’ll hang it in the new apartment (in the office). I know we (and especially Charlie) will really miss all of them (the dogs and the people). We had some sad news from this section of the party; we learned that Norbert’s dog Paulchen just passed away after a month-long illness.

Many Berliners made the long journey out to Potsdam, Rainer’s colleagues and four Berlin bloggers, and interestingly enough, all their blogs start with “B”: Ben of benperry.net, Ed of BerlinBites, BiB, and Suzy of Bowleserised. Ben also brought his girlfriend Yuhang and another friend from California who’s name I no longer remember - Sorry!

So finally, the menu…
I spent 5 days cooking, and maybe I overdid it a bit, because we had a ton of leftovers, but we also had a ton of last minute cancellations (there seems to be a bad case of the flu going around, hopefully it does not find it’s way to me). It ends up buying the ham was completely unnecessary. Anyways, the turkey was brined; I made spring rolls, curry turnovers, and shrimp and chicken dumplings (I got many recipe requests for this last one); there was garlic mashed potatoes; chestnut stuffing; sweet potatoes with Lebkuchen topping (the recipe called for ginger snaps, but as they don’t sell ginger snaps here I used tradition German Christmas cookies - it was delicious!); cranberry and port wine sauce; thai pumpkin-basil soup; New York style cheesecake and pumpkin pie from scratch. Gaby brought noodle salad, Ed brought cornbread and Yuhang made her first pie (pineapple and it was yummy!).
All in all, I think everyone went home with full tummies and I ate way more than I should have, but that’s what Thanksgiving is for, right? I’m thankful that I got to spend this, my favorite holiday, with my new friends here in Potsdam and I’m sad that I have to leave and move to Regensburg. I hope all of you also managed to have a great Thanksgiving!

Just in the nick of time…

November 24, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 4 Comments 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


And while I was cooking, I accidently snorted some black pepper. My sinuses are not feeling very good right now. Don’t try this at home.

One Night in Regensburg, Three Nights in Bonn

November 23, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 6 Comments 

I think I don’t like traveling anymore. It’s yet another sign that I am aging faster mentally than I am chronologically. This last weekend I spent in Bonn, then we zipped down for a quick visit to Regensburg, then Tuesday night we returned to Potsdam. And I am just now recovered, well, almost.

So my own private Odyssey began Friday morning in Potsdam, where we dropped off Charlie at the Hundepension (Dog hotel), and were lectured by the owner that neutering a dog is no good idea because the other dogs will all be confused and will beat him up. I nodded politely, but mentally noted that dogs in the US (where neutering is common) are not always getting beaten up.

After a quick six hour Autobahn experience, which included being passed by the Hertha BSC team bus (Berlin’s soccer team) and being stuck in rush hour in Köln (Cologne), we arrived at Rainer’s brother’s house in Bonn. I found out that evening, that in the eyes of Rainer’s nephew, I am one of the coolest people on the planet because I have been inside the Pentagon and had a job interview with NCIS. He is obsessed with the US right now, so we promised him that the next time we go back, we’ll bring him along. He’s 14 now, so he had to play it cool, but you could see that he was jumping up and down on the inside.

The next day, we headed over to the train station to attend the 2nd Annual Whiney Blogger Meet Up. J and Belinda were already there, and as we chatted over coffee, the others arrived (Haddock and family, Jen and Sparky, Hamish, Heather and D, Andrea, and Christina). We made a tour of Bonn with J as our wonderful and informative tour leader. We ate lunch at this place next to the Rathaus where apparently Beethoven pee’d or puked. The lunch was fabulous, I had Sauerbraten and it was quite excellent, very tender and yummy. The Haddocks and Belinda left us at this point, and we headed over to the very interesting Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (house of the history of the Federal Republic of Germany). Rainer and I spent some of our time there stuck behind a group of older folks in wheelchairs. In the postwar reconstruction area of the museum, where the hardships that the people had to go through were shown, one of the women kept repeating, “Yes, that’s how it was,” over and over. The exhibits are unfortunately not in English, but if you can read German, I highly recommend a visit.

We headed over to Tacos (located on the Bonn Walk of Fame) for dinner, where Jennifer, a musician from Cologne, joined the group. After dinner, I was too pooped out to continue, so the group headed off for drinks and Rainer and I headed back to crash.

Sunday we made a very long, wet walk down to Rheinlust for brunch. Apparently, Rheinlust becomes a disco in the evenings and is the favorite hangout for the 18 and under crowd. We were informed that Niece had a fake id so she could go. Jen, Sparky, Christina and J were there for brunch (sadly, Vailian couldn’t make it so we still haven’t met!) which was good, although I’m not sure if techno music and breakfast go together in my head. Maybe this is just another sign of my advancing mental age. The Meet up ended for us after brunch and we headed back to Rainer’s brother’s place, where I played my first Sudoku ever. I don’t really see what’s so addicting about these things.

For dinner, the family took us to Tung’s, a Chinese restaurant at Rheinallee 2, in Niederkassel-Mondorf. I had my doubts heading in, but it ended up being pretty good (even though my Szechuan beef, that I asked them to make REALLY spicy, wasn’t spicy at all - although Rainer disagrees and claims that it was spicy). I’d describe it as something halfway between what you’d expect to find in the suburbs of Bonn and what you’d expect to find in the Chinatown of a large city (you can get shark fin soup, but I didn’t because shark fin soup just isn’t my thing). It’s right on the Rhein, with a nice interior, and is slightly expensive, so be warned.

On Monday, we headed over to Regensburg, stopping by our new apartment in Laaber just at dusk, where we realized that we made a HUGE mistake in taking this place. I think Rainer will be spending all of next week down there renovating. On Tuesday, I had my job interview, which I think went okay, and Rainer became a professor. He had to swear to respect the constitutions of Germany and the state of Bavaria, and swear that his work will never go against the interests of Germany or Bavaria. We had lunch at the campus pizzeria, that actually has a non-smoking section, then jumped in the car and sped back to Potsdam. About 20 minutes outside of Potsdam, we stopped for dinner at Sam Kulman’s American Diner, located right off the Berlin-Leipzig Autobahn in Brück. We think the guy must have bought a prefabricated diner in the US and had it shipped over because I thought it looked fairly authentic (if slightly too new), and Rainer kept repeating that, “This is not German construction.” The food wasn’t bad, better in fact than most American diners that I’ve been to over here, but as I only had the easy-to-make Turkey Club Sandwich and Rainer had a mediocre New York Cheesecake, which I’m pretty sure was diluted with Quark, we can’t make any sort of definitive statements.

Postscript: Upon picking up Charlie Wednesday morning, the very German Hundepension owner told us that he’s “ein ganz Lieber aber mächtig temperamentvoll” (or “a very sweet guy but extremely high-spirited”). Yeah, I’d have to agree with that statement.

Shall we play a game?

November 15, 2006 · Filed Under Uncategorized · 10 Comments 

So recently Mausi had a guess the first lines of the first ten songs that came up on her Ipod post. I didn’t manage to guess any, but I thought it was a really cool idea, so I’m going to do it too. I actually thought of doing random lines from my movie collection, but that’s much more effort than just going to my music library and hitting shuffle. So here goes (and no googling allowed):

Update: Times up! The answers are below, and I’ll blog about my weekend soon (hopefully I’ll have some time tomorrow).

(1) My DJ’s got the cuts and the beats are on…
Beastie Boys, “The Negotiation Limerick File”

(2) All veils and misty streets of blue…
INXS, “Mystify”

(3) Never 21 when everyone’s a sailor…
Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Animal Bar”

(4) What the f*** is this world running to? You didn’t…
Pearl Jam, “Porch”

(5) Color me any color, speak to me in tongues and share…
Collective Soul, “Gel”

(6) September ‘75 I was 47 inches high…
Ben Fold’s Five, “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces”

(7) Is it any wonder that I shine when I’m around you?
Fighting Gravity, “Bend the Light” - a local Virginia ska band, they rock, check them out!

(8) I took her out, it was a Friday night…
Blink-182, “What’s My Age Again?”

(9) And so it is, just like you said it would be…
Damien Rice, “Blower’s Daughter”

(10) Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand…
Stevie Wonder, “Sir Duke”

Eh! Why stop there? Here’s another ten for your guessing enjoyment:

(11) My name is Cupid Valentino, the modern day Cupid…
Vicky correctly guessed Outkast, “Happy Valentine’s Day”

(12) It took so long to remember just what happened…
Tool, “Prison Sex”

(13) Girl it’s only you, have it your way, and if you want you can decide…
D’Angelo, “Untitled (How Does it Feel?)”

(14) Don’t say one thing one day, then something else the next day…
Everything But The Girl, “Troubled Mind”

(15) There’s a man going round taking names, and he decides who to free and who to blame…
Rita correctly guessed Johnny Cash, “The Man Comes Around”

(16) Here we are, still together, we are one…
Lenny Kravitz, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over”

(17) I’m stuck in my apartment on Eleventh Street, I push the pen around…
Lisa Loeb, “Single Me Out”

(18) Lime green, lime green and tangerine, the sickly sweet colors of the snakes I’m seeing…
The Cure, “Wrong Number”

(19) You never miss a good thing till it leaves you…
Usher, “Throwback”

(20) You’re a bad little girl, it’s true, but I’m not gonna walk out on you…
Solomon Burke, “You’re Good For Me”

BTW: these are the first sung lines, I skipped over any spoken intros to the songs. And (7) may be difficult, but those of you who went to college in Virginia around the same time as me should have a good chance at it *hint hint* (and there’s at least three of you)!

Next Page »