Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Flashbacks

I was browsing the food section from today's Washington Post and came across two articles that brought back fond memories:

(1) Way back in 2000 (or maybe it was 1999, I'm not sure), I sent in a postcard to enter a contest on a now-defunct local classical music radio station and promptly forgot about it. A few months later we were visiting San Diego when I checked my work voicemail and had a message from someone at the radio station telling me I'd won a trip for two to Vienna (luckily, it wasn't one of those contests where you have 15 minutes to call in because I never would have heard it). This would have been exciting no matter what, but was especially a treat because Gretchen had studied there for a semester in college and had never been back, while I had never been to Europe at all. They flew us both over, put us up for five nights at the opulent Hotel Imperial, and gave us second-row tickets for a concert at the Musikverein. The night of the concert, the folks from the radio station treated us to dinner at the hotel, where I had the most unbelievable, almost paper-thin Wiener schnitzel imaginable. That trip, which also included travel on our own dime (with much more spartan hotels) to Prague, Dresden (which someday merits a story of its own), and Berlin, really ignited the international travel fire under us that ultimately led to our time in Switzerland. I was reminded of all this because the paper had an article about Wiener schnitzel featuring none other than the Hotel Imperial in Vienna. Mmmmm...I can almost taste it.

(2) One of the last trips we took when Gretchen was pregnant was a long weekend drive around southern Germany. One of the quirky things we tried on that trip was Rauchbier, or "smoke beer," in the charming Bavarian city of Bamberg. While I'm glad I tried the Rauchbier, it's definitely an acquired taste that I don't feel the need to try again, and wouldn't expect to find it here anyway since it seemed to be such a local niche. So I was surprised to see in this article (the "liquid bacon" description they give it is not inaccurate) that the brewery where I had my Rauchbier actually exports to the U.S. I don't think I'll be rushing to our nearby German food store to see if they carry it.

Happy New Year and all that

All we're doing tonight is going to see friends for dinner, so we will almost assuredly be in bed well before the clock strikes midnight (hoping that a blast of cold, windy weather that rolled in today will keep neighbors from setting off fireworks), but want to wish all a Happy New Year (or, for those in Switzerland or Germany, einen Guten Rutsch* und ein gutes neues Jahr)!

*Roughly, "a good slide," because you're presumed to slide into the new year...

Saturday, December 27, 2008

M&Ms, dining with strangers, and other holiday stuff

It's been a great Christmas week, even if it's been a bit of a whirlwind. It started on Sunday, when Mädchen's Ama arrived at the airport from North Carolina:


Her arrival allowed us the rare treat of getting to go on an actual dinner date Monday night at a restaurant downtown we've been wanting to try for awhile, and it didn't disappoint. Tuesday morning we were in the car for a relatively easy drive to NYC. Even though my brother's family lives out in Queens, it's such a rare treat for us to get up to NYC (where I was living when Gretchen and I met) that we decided to stay at a hotel in Manhattan. I don't really care for Times Square all that much, but the central location and easy access to the subway to Queens made it a logical place to stay. Besides, you can do worse than having this view out your window:


Mädchen couldn't get enough of staring out the window at the sights:


She was enthralled by the sights outside as well:


What was she so excited about seeing? Was it the taxis? The bright lights? The throngs of people from all over the world? The three-card monte con men? The crazy drunk men urinating in the subway stairwells? No...it was the M&Ms. (Did you know there was a store devoted to M&M products? Well, there is. And judging from the crowds inside, the number of people taking pictures outside, and the amount of time Mädchen spent asking to see the M&Ms, it's a big draw.):


Christmas Eve was the one day we had to wander the city, but unfortunately it was pouring rain so all we could manage was a quick walk around Soho before realizing that maybe a two-year-old would rather be seeing M&Ms from her hotel window than wandering cold and damp past expensive shops. Oh well, I guess that just means we need to go back soon. Later that afternoon, my brother brought Mädchen's four-year-old cousin in to meet us. Despite having only met each other once before, and despite Mädchen's general shyness around people she doesn't know well, they immediately bonded as if they'd known each other forever:


That night we went out for an amazing dinner at a trattoria near their house, where we had a sublime "Feast of the Seven Fishes" and too much red wine. At one point we realized Mädchen's cousin (who can be as gregarious as Mädchen is shy) was no longer at the table, but was instead seated by himself at the bar. Before long he had moved over to befriend a guy who was eating his dinner alone at the bar:


The next morning it was back to my brother's place for Christmas Day. Mädchen tore into her presents like there was no tomorrow, not even really stopping to look at what she got:


And her stocking, which wasn't actually a stocking but was instead a bag that was almost as tall as her, required great effort to get to the bottom:


After presents we stretched our legs and walked down to the East River, where we had a nice view across to Manhattan:


And after another big meal we tried to take a self-portrait with the timer on our new camera (despite Mädchen's usual reticence to be in the photo):


Alas, the next morning it was back on the road with seemingly half of the people in the Northeast for a long, traffic-filled drive home. Hopefully everyone else had happy holidays as well!

Geographic quirk

Our drive to Asheville to North Carolina at Thanksgiving was 466 miles, and we drove through only two states--Virginia and North Carolina. Our drive to New York for Christmas was half as short (according to Google Maps, exactly 233 miles), but we drove through five states--Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York--plus the District of Columbia, as well as Pennsylvania on the return drive because we had to take a longer way around to bypass traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.

I'm not sure what that means, except that it provides lots of opportunities for collecting tolls.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Cousins' reflections, NYC subway, Christmas Eve

Thursday, December 25, 2008

I'm dreaming of a slushy Christmas

Some idyllic Christmas scenes:

The winter wonderland that is the bucolic New Jersey Turnpike, where we dodged big hunks of snow and ice flying off of trucks...



...and a last bit of snow in Soho in a cold Christmas Eve rainstorm...



...alas, all that's left now is the occasional patch of dirty slush in the roadways. Sigh. But it's still better than DC, which has only had a few snowflakes this year.

Meanwhile, a former neighbor of Gretchen's family sent us this picture of the current owner of her former childhood home using a snowblower on the roof so that it doesn't cave in under the weight of all the snow they've had this season. And Gretchen wonders why I'm not so eager to move to Wisconsin:



ADDENDUM: Across the street from my brother's house this afternoon...does this qualify as a white Christmas?

More great moments in hygiene

We were riding the subway around in New York City yesterday (we're here spending Christmas with family), when Mädchen decided she wanted to stand and hold onto the pole instead of sitting down with us. Moments after Gretchen took this picture, I looked down and our daughter was happily holding on...and LICKING the pole. And what could be cleaner than a NYC subway pole?

Saturday, December 20, 2008

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

'Tis the season for Christmas carols (which we refuse to listen to until after Thanksgiving). I finally loaded all of our old Christmas CDs into iTunes so we don't have to take them out of the attic every year, and it got me thinking about what my essential Christmas music would be. Nothing too exciting, but these would probably be my top ten choices (in alphabetical order):

"Do They Know It's Christmas" (Band Aid) - I generally don't go for the modern stuff (for example, hearing Wham!'s "Last Christmas" makes me want to tear my hair out and smash the radio to pieces), but this gem came out my first year of college and features a bunch of musicians I was actually listening to at the time (as frightening as that might be in retrospect). The video is one big New Wave flashback. And it was for a good cause, even if some of the premise is laughable (they might not know it's Christmas because, well, they might not actually be Christian, and of course there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime). But I can't hear it without wanting to sing along, and I make no apologies about that.

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" - I'm not sure if this can be considered a classic since it was written in the 1960s, but I guess something about the music and the lyrics just grabs me.

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" - This one makes me think of being at late-night Christmas Eve church services. Very uplifting.

"Joy to the World" - Same as previous. It's a good one for someone (like myself) who has an atrocious voice, because you can either belt it out and not feel too awkward about it, or you can just mouth it (my usual option) and no one else will notice you're not singing because they're belting it out.

"Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" (Bing Crosby & David Bowie) - I can't imagine what someone was smoking when they thought of getting together Ziggy Stardust and Der Bingle, but against all odds the combination works. The other day I had Mädchen saying "rum-pum-pum" and pounding on a chair cushion like she was playing a drum.

"Messiah" (Handel) - OK, this is probably cheating because it isn't a Christmas carol (in Europe I think it's more commonly played around Easter), and it's a whole oratorio rather than an individual piece, but I can't choose just one part (or at least not just one chorus...some of the solos don't do much for me). We very seldom go to orchestral performances, but I've seen "Messiah" performed three times and got chills each time. Also, when Gretchen was pregnant with Mädchen (and feeling just a bit hormonal) we were listening to it before Christmas and she burst into tears when "For Unto Us a Child is Born" came on.

"O Come All Ye Faithful" - This is part of the triumvirate with "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Joy to the World" that have to be part of Christmas Eve services. I'd have to give serious thought to just going home if I got to service and saw in the bulletin that any of these three weren't going to be sung.

"O Holy Night" - We were just talking about this tonight, and Gretchen said she used to play it on the piano when she was growing up. I'm not sure I would have called it one of my favorites (I originally had "Away in a Manger" on the list instead), but having listened to it a couple of times I've realized it really is one of my favorites.

"Once In Royal David's City" - I'm not sure I was even aware of this one until about five years ago. We attended a candlelight choral performance at the Kennedy Center, and when the lights went down a soloist sang the first verse, with the rest of the choir entering down the aisles by candlelight while singing the rest. Stunning. I think it might be more popular in Britain, which is a pity for us.

"Silent Night" - Growing up, every Christmas Eve we would drive a couple of hours up to my grandparents' house to spend the afternoon/evening with my Mom's family. After lots of eating, playing with cousins, and opening presents, we'd pile back in the car for the drive back to San Diego. We'd listen to one of the local AM stations that played Christmas carols (and that would also broadcast Santa "sightings," which kept us occupied scanning the skies for his sled and/or Rudolph's red nose). Inevitably, not long after getting in the car they would play "Silent Night," and a part of me will probably always associate it with sitting in the back seat of the car in the dark, looking out over the ocean on the quiet drive down the coast, wondering what Santa was going to bring me.

(Adam Sandler's "Chanukah Song" just missed the cut.)

What are your favorites?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Just for the record...

...Mädchen does smile. A lot. I realized that she looks so serious in so many of the pictures we post on the blog, but she's actually a really funny little girl who basically never stops talking/laughing when she's with us or close friends/family, but as soon as we get the camera out the smiles stop (or she actually runs away). Then again, Gretchen's Dad (who was one of the most gregarious people you'd ever meet) never smiled in photos either. She was a very serious baby who didn't smile a whole lot and would just study everything very intently, but now she's a little comedian.

It's the same thing when we're around people she doesn't know so well--she gets really shy and clams up. She's evidently even that way in school, where her teacher says she never speaks unless she's responding to a question. There's nothing wrong with her being shy, of course (she gets it from me, after all); it's just funny that people who don't know her well probably think of her as a quiet, timid child, when at home she's a dynamo who runs us (especially Gretchen) ragged.

Anyway, here's proof that she does indeed smile (with her Ama at Thanksgiving):

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Holiday prep

We've had lots of fun activities these days getting ready for Christmas. Last week, we had a cookie party and gift exchange with Madchen's playgroup (and my beloved Moms group). I'm not sure what she enjoyed more, opening presents...



...decorating the cookies...



...or eating the sugar and sprinkles that are supposed to go on top of the cookies!



She got some more practice opening presents when a surprise "Happy Half-Birthday" package arrived from her aunt, uncle and cousin in New York.



Green Eggs and Ham! What a lucky girl!



Up until recently, Madchen REFUSED to touch the best part of any cake or cupcake... the frosting! On both her first and second birthdays, we had to separate the frosting from the cake before she would eat it. Apparently, she's gotten over her fear of being messy, and we FINALLY got some pictures to prove it!



This was actually a birthday party (for Kirk and several of his friends) rather than a Christmas party, but Madchen is wearing her holiday dress so I had to include some pictures.



Gotta love that Christmas tree (and that girl)!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Ecumenical moment...

...in which our goyische daughter discovers at a friend's house just how entertaining a giant inflatable dreidel can be...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Happy birthday to my boy!

Doesn't it stink when you get old and you just have to go to work on your birthday and it ends up being like every other day? I think everyone should get to take the day off to celebrate.

Since that wasn't the case for Kirk today, I took Madchen into the city to see Daddy at work (pictures to come). To celebrate his special day, we had lunch with him at the cafeteria in his office building. Madchen was much more interested in hiding behind the drapes in the cafeteria than sitting nicely at the table eating the hot dog and french fries I bought her for lunch. But at least we got to spend some time together on Kirk's birthday, I got a peek into the real world (that I used to know) of the working people, and Kirk's coworkers generally seemed amused to see a cute 2 and a half year old running around the office rather than annoyed at the added noise.

Happy birthday to my favorite guy in the whole wide world!

PHOTO UPDATE:

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Swiss art theory

It's a bit long, but I enjoyed this because (1) if you didn't know it was satirical, there's enough of a kernel of truth about the Swiss that you might actually believe it; (2) the Swiss German accent brought back lots of memories (if you live there long enough, you can quickly tell from how someone speaks English whether they're German or Swiss German); (3) if I had to choose one stereotypically Swiss male name, it would be "Urs" (which I'm assuming is short for "Ursus"), and I also worked with several Wehrlis:



(Hat tip to Chris for this.)

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Catch a wave

Oh, sure, you may have gone to some fancy-schmancy, elitist East Coast school, but I'll bet your alma mater wasn't named the #3 surfing college in the country, was it? IN YOUR FACE!

Monday, December 08, 2008

The dark side

I happened to come across this post last week about the author's daughter being obsessed with bad news, and immediately thought OH MY GOD THAT WAS ME AS A KID (which I promptly told Gretchen). It's an old joke in our family that when we were in Kindergarten (maybe preschool?) and painted pictures of our houses, I would paint big tornadoes in all of mine. Never mind that San Diego doesn't actually have tornadoes--I saw them on the Wizard of Oz and read about them in books and newspapers, so that was enough (it's a good thing The Weather Channel didn't exist when I was a kid or I might have never left the house).

The scary thing is, Mädchen is already showing signs of having the same type of personality. When we were at PetSmart the other night, there was a family buying a hamster, and when the employee went to put it in a box, the hamster started going ballistic and trying to bite his fingers. I made an offhand comment that the hamster was unhappy, and for the next hour all Mädchen could talk about was that hamster. "Why he unhappy? What the matter? Hamster not happy." We tried to explain that the hamster was going to be very happy when he got to his new home, but the damage was done. We've realized we have to be extremely careful about expressing any sort of dismay within earshot because she gets so sensitive about things. I may give Gretchen a hard time about how Mädchen talks nonstop (which she clearly inherited from Gretchen), but it looks like I may have given her some of my neuroses as well. Lucky Mädchen!

Good grief

When we got our Christmas stuff out of the attic, Mädchen managed to find our old VHS tape of A Charlie Brown Christmas in a bag with our Christmas CDs. Since then, I think she's averaged watching it at least 2.5 times per day. Time to start shopping for Snoopy accessories...

Sunday, December 07, 2008

O Tannenbaum

It seemed like Thanksgiving was later than usual this year, because Christmas is sneaking up FAST. So we decided to take advantage of last evening's snow flurries to go get a Christmas tree. As we were walking out the door, however, we realized we didn't find our old Christmas tree stand amongst the rest of our holiday decorations in the attic. OK, change of plans--we'd go to Target to buy a stand, then go get a tree. Of course, not only was Target so mobbed that we couldn't find parking, but then when Gretchen went in they had already sold out of tree stands. DOH! And by that time, Mädchen had become set on walking through the neighboring PetSmart store to see the birds and hamsters and cats and "doggies getting haircuts," which we gave into. (One of the little surprises of being a parent was that going to the pet store can be just as entertaining for a two-year-old as going to the zoo, and it's much closer to home. The only downside was that being there made us really miss having a dog. Not enough to actually get another one, but still.) Anyway, by the time we finally found a tree stand at a local hardware store, it was too late to go get a tree.

Instead, since I went out with friends last night (I was finally collecting on a bet for scoring highest among the four of us on my NCAA tournament bracket this spring) and had one glass of wine too many and was feeling a little sluggish, we decided to skip church this morning (tsk, tsk) and go find a tree at a nearby shopping center instead. Since it was freezing cold and very windy, we weren't nearly as selective as we normally are about finding the perfect tree. Instead we very quickly raced through to scope out the selection...



...Gretchen found one within three minutes that looked good at first glance, and it was too cold to look around for anything better...



...and once we got home we realized it was one of the nicer trees we'd ever chosen, and by noon it was fully decorated...



Let the Christmas caroling begin...

Flurry of activity

Not that it was enough to do more than leave a light dusting that is pretty much gone by now, but it was certainly exciting to look at the window yesterday afternoon and see the first light snow flurries of the season. We haven't had a really good dumping of snow since we've been back, and I think we're overdue.



Of course when we went out to run errands last night and pointed out to Mädchen that it was very exciting that it was snowing, she scrunched up her face and said "I no like snow. It too cold." Evidently she hasn't had a change of heart since last winter...

Friday, December 05, 2008

Questions I cannot answer

I'm sure we've written before about the VERY curious nature of our little girl. It's now become clear that we've entered the phase of the unanswerable questions.

A couple weeks ago, she was examining my nose (very up close and personal, I might add) and wanted to know the name of all the parts. She was satisfied knowing about the nostrils and the bridge, but then needed to know more. "What the name that part, Mommy?", she asked as she pointed to the little part between the nostrils.

I have no idea. Does that part have a name?

At the breakfast table this morning we were counting with apples. She was quick to remind me: "I no like apples, Mommy". Once she reached the conclusion that I wasn't going to force her to eat one, she showed me the stem. Then she flipped the apple upside down and asked me the name of the little stem thing on the bottom.

I have no idea. Does that part have a name?

I think I need to start a list of all of these unanswerable questions. I'm sure there will be more.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Good influence

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but I just bought something on iTunes (The Moldau by Smetana) because I heard it when Mädchen was watching her current favorite show, Little Einsteins (each episode is based around a specific work of art and piece of classical music), and liked it. Aren't I supposed to be the one shaping her musical tastes?

(Actually, come to think of it, she's recently become slightly obsessed with "No No Never" (you'd be hard-pressed to find a better country song by a German/Australian band) by Texas Lightning because we told her that I used to dance around with her to that song when she was a little baby.)

He's back!

You may remember that last year at this time I posted about our neighborhood Santa who rides a motorcycle, rather than a sleigh. Thanks to this Santa, Madchen believed (last year) that Santa says: "Vroom, vroom", rather than "Ho ho ho".

Well, here comes Santa Claus!



This year I was brave enough to take a picture. After taking the picture, we stood outside this house for a good 10 minutes while Madchen studied every last detail of Santa and the giant Snowman that sits just next to him. She flooded me with questions like: "What's that on the Snowman's hat?" (it's called holly), "Why the Snowman hold his hand like that? (because he's waving), "Why the Snowman have a carrot on his nose?" (because Snowmen have carrot noses), etc.

At one point, the owners came out to have a smoke on their porch and make sure everything was OK since we were staring at their house for so long. They told me they were hoping someone might be interested in buying their house (which is for sale) since so many people are stopping by to look at the Santa. In general, I love our neighbors, but these folks are of a different sort. These are the neighbors who, several years ago, kept a goat as a pet in their backyard. Keep in mind this is suburban Washington, not rural West Virginia. We don't see a lot of livestock in these parts. Believe me, this house isn't likely to sell anytime soon.

Eventually, I convinced Madchen that we should continue on our walk around the block. As you can see, she insisted on pushing "baby" and wearing her (empty) backpack on this walk to see the Santa and the Snowman. Whatever it takes to get some fresh air!

Monday, December 01, 2008

Just for the record

(1) Despite our complaints about the long drive, we had an excellent long weekend in Asheville. Mädchen got to spend many hours playing with her Ama, Gretchen and I got to go out on a couple of actual dates sans Mädchen, we ate well, etc. We don't have many pictures to prove it because our camera's batteries literally only last long enough to take one picture (yes, that's something we know we need to deal with), although I was at least able to take one with my Mom's new webcam that I can't seem to post over this slow dial-up connection. Oh well, maybe when I get home later this week.

(2) The conclusion of our drive home this morning was thankfully much less eventful than the first half. We took a slightly different route than originally planned to reduce the risk of traffic, and even though it meant more local roads, we didn't have any bumper-to-bumper traffic at all, and I even had time to go into the office and get to Baltimore (where I am now) before the worst of the rush hour.