We’re setting off tomorrow morning for a two week vacation, starting at Lake Garda, Italy, and ending in Istria, Croatia.  I’m bringing my laptop along, but I doubt I will have internet access, because I never have before when I’ve gone away and brought my laptop.  How does that work for other people, but never for me?  Anyways, fear not that you will be without entertaining posts for the next two weeks, I’ve got several posts scheduled for the time I’m away.  I just may not read any of your comments until I’m back.  Have a great end of summer!

From the US Consulate in Munich:

Join Us on September 14th!

In honor of the 50th Birthday of the American Consulate’s building, Consul General Eric Nelson invites all American citizens in Bavaria and their families to an “Open House” on the lawn of the American Consulate General, Koeniginstrasse 5, on Sunday, September 14, between 12 noon and 3pm.  We’re celebrating our historical building by holding our annual American Citizen Information Day on the Day of Open Historical Sites (Tag des offenen Denkmals).  As usual, representatives from the Consulate and services such as Social Security, the IRS, US Citizenship and Immigration Service, Voter Registration and the Ausländeramt will be on hand to answer questions and provide information.

Consulate staff will grill hamburgers and hotdogs for sale along with other American treats to raise funds for community projects.  As part of our celebration of the 50th anniversary of our building, designed by the architect Sep Ruf, we are pleased to have Irene Meissner, curator of the Sep Ruf exhibition at the Pinakothek der Moderne, joining us to speak about our building and the architect at 1pm and at 2pm.  We will also have an exhibit covering fifty years of Bavarian-American relations and a video of our new Embassy celebrations in Berlin.  We hope you will join us!

For further details please visit the Consulate website, http:/munich.usconsulate.gov/.  Please pass this invitation on to other American citizens, and don’t forget to bring your U.S. passport since it will be necessary to get in.

For more information about historical buildings in Munich participating in the Tag des offenen Denkmals, see the official website, http://www.tag-des-offenen-denkmals.de/laender/by/kreisfrei/7244/.

Plan a family day in Munich around your visit to the Consulate!

I’m sure you often find yourselves asking what Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Lance Armstrong, Olympics beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh, and I have in common. If you guessed that we’re all super-athletic studmuffins… well, you’d be wrong (at least in my case, I could knock you down with the wind generated by flapping my chicken wings).

As long-time readers may know, I have a bad back. Not just your regular, old, achy-muscle bad back, I’m talking degenerative disc disease bad back. This means my spine is prematurely aged, most likely due to years of heavy-duty shotputter workouts and irresponsible sports injuries (concussion and neck sprain after playing midnight tackle football on an unlit field with a bunch of Marines, anyone?). When I got an MRI done 4 years ago in Rostock, the technician stated that from looking at my scan he would never have guessed my age as under 60 years old. Yeah, sucks.

Yesterday, my physical therapist pulled out a new therapy he’s working with: Kinesio Tape. It’s that black stuff that was all over Kerri Walsh’s shoulder. Apparently, it’s being used by plenty of NFL, NBA, MLB, Bundesliga, etc, etc, teams. I’d never heard of it, but I’m always game for experimentation, so as I type I’ve got two fluorescent pink bands of tape running from just under my ribs down to my pelvic area, and two beige bands running down either side of my spine.

So far, I haven’t noticed anything. I just got them put on yesterday afternoon and they’re supposed to be left on up to 10 days (according to my therapist, 4 days according to the website). They’re made of 100% cotton with hypo-allergenic adhesive and work by compressing and stabilizing the muscles. You bathe like usual and just take them off when they start to itch.

And that’s what I have in common with the above athletes, we’ve all been treated with Kinesio Tape. I’m looking forward to seeing if this stuff lives up to the “hype.”

30 Aug 2008 Update: They’re not a miracle cure, but they do seem to do something.  First, if I’m sitting or laying against something, I notice that the tape on my back feels pleasantly warm.  Second, if I’m using incorrect posture, I notice the tape pulling a little and I go back to correct posture.  My back still hurts, but it doesn’t hurt as much as usual.  Also, the first day after the treatment, my stomach and back muscles were sore.  Clearly, it’s doing something.  Finally, I changed the title of the post.  I was having a title-writing-block and just put on the lyrics of the song that was on.  Now I’ve finally come up with a better title.  Cheers!

Here’s a behind the scenes look at the filming of the upcoming Thai cooking lessons. With Rainer out of town and us leaving on vacation shortly, I don’t think I’ll be able to edit the videos until we get back, so you’ll have to be patient. Unfortunately I can’t edit them while we’re away because I bought my laptop mainly for word processing and email. It can manage some photo editing, but I’m afraid video editing is just a little beyond it’s capabilities.

Finally, a big thanks to Tammy for providing the pictures and video for today’s post. It appears she is about to pop, so go wish her luck! We’re having breakfast this morning, so I’ll do my wishing in person.

And some stills…

Here we are cooking

And here’s the finished product. Clockwise from top: pork satay, sour apple salad, jackfruit, jelly belly beans, fried zucchini flowers, panang tilapia, green curry, shrimp basil, sweet mustard and garbanzo beans, stir fried pork with fried kale, vegetable stir fry

This week, we’ve been very lucky to have super delicious Thai food prepared for us each and every day by my mom.  Okay, well, Oliver might not agree with that, he rejected the Thai dinner on Saturday night and ate a jar of baby food instead.  We’re not sure if he was Thai-fooded-out or if he was having some issues regarding the Jack fruit we all ate after lunch that Rainer ended up being allergic to.

Speaking of Saturday night, we had Cliff and Sarah, Tammy and Matthias, and Alex over for dinner.  It was a lot of work and things were pretty hectic for awhile, but it turned out terrific (I think).  I didn’t take any photos (Tammy did), but we did take video of the preparation of about, I dunno, seven (?) dishes.  Now, it’s gonna take me some time to edit it down, and I’m not sure I’ll have that time before we leave for vacation on Sunday, but coming soon, so all of you too can enjoy yummy, authentic, Thai food, will be several Video Wednesday’s starring my mom, and co-starring me with background commentary by the above guests, on how to prepare various Thai dishes.  Also, Tammy filmed a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the series, so I’ll link to that if/when she puts that up.  Anyways, stay tuned for the upcoming fall series on Thai cooking.

British Airways is offering some great round trip prices out of Munich and Stuttgart to 23 destinations worldwide. The offer is good through September 2, 2008, and travel needs to take place between September 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009. See below for some more information and some sample prices. Seats are limited, so book ASAP to take advantage of the prices. Click here to book through Travelzoo.de.

MÜNCHEN/STUTTGART — 22. August 2008 — Mit 23 weltweiten Top-Destinationen, besten Verfügbarkeiten und hoch attraktiven Inklusivpreisen ab nur 403 € pro Person für Hin- und Rückflug ab München und Stuttgart sorgt British Airways kurz vor dem Wochenende für ein absolutes Flug-Highlight.

Dieses Special ist ab sofort bis spätestens 2. September buchbar. Doch nur wer sich schnell entscheidet, bekommt die besten Verfügbarkeiten auf allen Strecken.

Hier eine Auswahl der insgesamt 23 Ziel-Metropolen:

USA:
* New York … 403 €
* Boston … 414 €
* Miami … 499 €
* Los Angeles/San Francisco … 546 €

Weltweit:
* Delhi … 570 €
* Hong Kong/Schanghai … 604€
* Kapstadt/Johannesburg … 659 €
* Tokio … 679 €
* Rio de Janeiro … 786 €

Für alle Strecken und Ihre Buchung klicken Sie bitte hier: http://de.travelzoo.com/Newsflash.asp?453541

Reisezeitraum: 1. September 2008 bis 31. März 2009

*Änderungen vorbehalten. Angebot gültig je nach Verfügbarkeit. Alle Preise für Hin- & Rückflug pro Person inklusive Steuern & Entgelte.

That’s what I’ve been repeating to myself over the last week. All I can say for myself is, I’ve been busy.

We spent the long weekend visiting the inlaws near Wittlich. On the way there we stopped at Idar-Oberstein, gemstone and jewelry capital of Germany, which I plan to blog about later. While at the inlaws, we spent a couple hours at the Wittlicher Säubrennerkirmes (Wittlich Pig Roasting Festival). There were so many Americans there, it had to be at least 50% American, mostly folks from the many nearby military bases. Anyways, this has given me an idea for yet another future post on How to dress like an American (i.e., stick out like a sore thumb) vs. How to be mistaken for a German.

We spent some time in Wehlen sorting through some classic books (Goethe, Schiller, you know, all those light-hearted, fun German authors) and picking up an old pendulum wall clock we’ve inherited from Rainer’s godmother, then we headed over to Bernkastel-Kues to do some wine shopping.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch in Vellberg. It is a really cute, small village just off the Romantic Road. There were very few tourists and the food at the Gasthaus was good, so I can heartily recommend it to fans of half-timbered houses who hate the crowds that flood Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

After Vellberg, we stopped for coffee and sightseeing in Dinkelsbühl. Dinkelsbühl is actually on the Romatic Road, so there were quite a few more tourists, but it wasn’t bad. The signs there are all in English and Japanese, as well as German, for those who haven’t learned the language yet. The town is lovely with a nice old city wall surrounding. Definitely worth a stop.

We got back late Sunday, and early Monday I was out on the Autobahn again heading to the Munich airport to fetch my mom. It’s been non-stop since she arrived, we’ve explored Regensburg and I think we’re going to check out some of the small, cute villages around here tomorrow. She’s only here for a week, so there’s a lot to cram in!