a small diversion with a huge engine

Last weekend M worked some connections and was able to borrow a very rare not-to-be-named sportscar which we drove to Holland to provide a much-needed diversion for his cousin, C.

After the devastating prognosis given back in July, C was discharged from the hospital. Since then he's started with some experimental treatments in Antwerpen. His chances of survival are still miniscule, but some of his markers have dropped slightly so everyone is cautiously optimistic that he's responding in some way to the new chemo. He's actually just surprised and grateful to even still be walking around, given the doctors' predictions earlier this summer.

You wouldn't think that one could have fun in the middle of such sadness, but somehow that's what happened. The weather was gorgeous, the car was a convertible and we took a quick trip out to Gouda to drink coffee in the sun with one of his friends.

C is a car fanatic and suddenly became boyish and playful again as he hopped in the passenger seat and M revved the engine. Even his fiancée turned animated, and that's one of the few times since we met last summer that I've actually seen her smile!

This car is legendary for its brute strength, but the power it had to bring a smile to everyone's face on Saturday was what proved to be truly awe inspiring!

Boyz

When describing her younger son, Jennifer of the Verges once wrote:

"He is a constant collection of scrapes and bruises, bearing witness to his love of life as a boy."

That line has stuck with me because it so aptly describes S and B. Here is a collage of photos from their very active summer.

Stuttgart, Stuttgart, cold and dreary

I am having a hard time adjusting to autumn weather, so as a sunny diversion I created a mosaic of pictures from the non-vomitous portion of our trip to Cairo.

My digestion is still out of whack-- how's that for a lasting souvenier?!-- but am still so glad we went!

**Thank's to fd's mosaic maker for the sunny diversion!

Bitten by the Trojan horse. AGAIN!

A neighbor just popped by. Her son is one grade ahead of S and she brought me his schoolbooks from last year, figuring it might be handy for us to have a copy at home to avoid having to lug them back and forth everyday. I was really touched, and thanked her.

Then she said:

"OK, GREAT! Well if you like them, then I'd like 10 euros for them."

This keeps happening to me! Last week it was a used cell phone and a couple of weeks ago it was a pair of used sports shoes for B! This is one German custom that I just can't get used to! When I have something I no longer use I just pass it on (free of charge!) to friends and neighbors. I like making that connection; knowing that items that have served us well will go on to make someone else happy!

It just seems rude and unnecessary to try to earn chump change off of acquaintances. It's one thing to sell your stuff at a flea market, but it's quite another to offer something and then, when the person accepts it, to ask for 10 euros in return!

I think part of my problem is my Southern upbringing. I always try to accept offerings graciously, which makes it harder to back out of these "deals" when it turns out I'm expected to cough up money for something I don't really need.

I am also one of those people who is completely transparent. Just about every thought that goes through my head seems to be broadcast in neon on my forehead. Sensing that I was taken aback by her proposition, the neighbor left the books here so that I could consider her offer. Tomorrow I'm going to return them with a "thanks, but no thanks."

And for now I'm left seriously considering how I can avoid this type of experience in the future... For those of you living here in Germany: have you been hit with this as well?

The silk purse and the sow's ear

I got a well-needed laugh during the morning grind this morning. Like every other news source in the western world NPR was mired in the ridiculous flap about the now infamous lipstick comment. Then Robert Siegel, God love him, interviewed a farmer from Virginia, who was in his field surrounded by pigs. He was, of course, armed with a tube of ruby red lipstick. His goal was to try to apply lipstick to the swine just to see if it was possible.

So you hear the farmer drawling: "Well, its kinda like putting lipstick on a hairbrush. They don't have much lip!"

His final conclusion? It is possible, but it didn't really improve the pig's appearance. "But maybe if you put a cummerbund around his loins and some Birkenstocks on his hooves it may improve it a little bit..."

What's cooking Wednesday: Happiness is...

Vegetarian Sushi!

Jen always manages to make my mouth water on Wednesdays. But today I'm making my own mouth water! I learned to make sushi this weekend and it was such a hit that I made up another batch again today! Once you find the ingredients it's actually very easy-- the only really time consuming part is letting the rice cool to room temperature. Once that's done the rest of the preparation is very quick!

Vegetarian Maki
(Recipe thanks to Nava Atlas and her Vegetarian Family Cookbook)

1 cup short-grain brown rice
1 cup white sushi rice
1/3 cup vinegar
2 Tbs natural granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded and quartered lengthwise
1 medium carrot
1 medium avocado
8 sheets nori

Pickled ginger
Wasabi paste
Soy sauce

1. Bring 4 cups water to a simmer in a large saucepan. Add the brown rice and simmer, covered for 10 minutes. Stir in the white rice and continue to simmer until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

2. Transfer the rice to a large bowl. Stir in the vinegar, sugar and salt. Cover the rice mixture with a clean tea towel and set aside, but don't refrigerate. Plan to begin rolling the sushi once the rice is at room temperature.

3. Cut the cucumber and carrot into very narrow, long pieces, approximately the width of a sheet of nori. Cut narrow strips of avocado lengthwise. It doesn't matter as much how long they are.

4. Place a sheet of nori, shiny side down on a bamboo sushi mat. Spread about 3/4 cup of the rice over the surface of the nori with dampened hands, leaving a 1/2 inch border on the end nearest to you and a 2 inch border on the end farthest away.

5. About 1 1/2 inches from the side closest to you, lay 6 or so strips of vegetables close together. You may use one type of vegetable in each roll or combine two or all three.

6. Lift the side of the mat closest to you and roll it over so that the nori is tightly rolled over the section with the vegetables. Press down a bit to ensure a snug roll. Wet the far end of the nori and continue rolling, making a snugly closed roll. Set aside and repeat with the remaining sheets of nori.

7. A very sharp, serrated knife is a must for cutting the rolls. Keep a glass of water handy for wetting the knife before cutting each roll. Cut each roll into 1/2 to 3/4 inch sections, and arrange them on a large platter as you go, cut side up.

8. Serve with pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce.

I almost vomited vicariously for him

We were in the car this afternoon, hopelessly lost after taking one wrong exit after another.

Me: Hey B, I'm thirsty. Do you have any water left in your thermos?
S: I do! You want some of mine? I only drank half of it today.
Me: Wait a minute! What were you drinking it out of?
S: My thermos!
Me: You mean the one that's been missing since July?
S: (happily) Oh yeah! It must have been in the bottom of my backpack all along!

**shudder**

Last minute roadtrips...

This week we visited an old friend who has recently moved to Nuremberg. The city itself is beautiful and its historical center is amazingly intact. I really enjoyed exploring the cobblestone streets and wandering through the gardens at the castle and fortress that overlook the city.

Nuremberg was once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, the site of huge Nazi conventions, and is the birthplace of the Lebkuchen. (Note: this list is not necessarily in order of significance! Those of you who have ever tried Lebkuchen will know exactly what I'm talking about!)

Yesterday we wandered around downtown Stuttgart. The Stuttgarter Weindorf is going on right now and we soaked up the atmosphere and more than a little bit of sauerkraut. I discovered a great asian grocery store and bought all sorts of interesting beans and noodles and condiments. And when I got home I made my own vegetarian sushi!!! It was delicious and actually much easier than I'd expected!

Today we were planning to take a road trip, but B has suddenly "remembered" that he was supposed to have done 12 workbook pages over the summer for school, and they're due... TOMORROW! ACK!

*image thanks to Wikipedia

Finally: vacation photos!

	Blissful dirty dog
Jardin de la Fontaine, Nimes	Pont du Gard
	Sanitary Lady Bag, "So that nothing misses its mark" (???)
	Four toreadors at the Arena in Nimes
	View from La Maison Carrée de Nimes

If I could save time in a bottle...

I keep wishing that I could fold this week up carefully in tissue paper and store it until November when I usually start flagging and dreaming about unstructured time. The kids are really ready to get back to school and I'm feeling disorganized and sloppy. Isn't it funny that we accomplish the most when we're crazy busy and have the least amount of time? I don't have all that many pressing issues, but nothing's getting done because I keep getting seduced by "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" or the patch of sunlight falling just so on my deck chair on the balcony.

Today we're off to Playmobil Funpark and will spend the night at the house of an old friend who lives nearby.

Are you all surviving the first week of school?

And the screaming continued unabated

B and I were lounging around on the balcony in the sun yesterday working our way through a plate piled high with fragrant watermelon. D panted happily next to us, the epitomy of doggy happiness.

B: D looks very happy, doesn't she?
Me: Yeah, I think she's always happy. Kind of like me!
B: What?
Me: ME! Because I'm just always SO happy!
B: giggles.
Me: WHAT ARE YOU GIGGLING ABOUT, MISTER?!
B: Well, you are almost always happy. Except for sometimes when you're not.
Me: (in mock horror) WHAT??? WHEN!?
B: Well, like when you're talking to the cable company.

The kid has a point. Internet providers make me want to go postal. Our supposed seamless transition from 1&1 has turned into a gaping Internet-less void. It's taken many heated phonecalls and three technicians to figure out the problem, which in the end, according to the hero who came by today could have been fixed within 45 minutes if the first guys had been paying attention. Oh, and did I mention that they erased all of my antivirus software in the heat of the battle? And then denied it? Grrrrr!

Anyway, all that Internet downtime had a silver lining, because it freed up lots of time to do important things like eat watermelon on the balcony with B. And read Eat, Pray, Love, which was a major treat in itself.

So I'm happy to finally be back online. As soon as I clear the spam out of my inbox and pay some overdue bills I'll be able to start surfing blogs again and catching up on your summers!

It's good to be back!!!

are we there yet?

We've been in the car for more than 11 hours now and any minute I might start screaming and not stop...

maybe she meant space aliens?

Last night I went in to check on the kids on my way to bed. I was tucking B back under the covers when I suddenly heard slow, stealthy footsteps in the woods right outside the window. I ran to M and whispered that someone / something was sneaking around our caravan.

M was out the door like a shot and quickly searched around and under the camper. Then he got out an enormous flashlight and shined it into the woods.

Just then our French neighbors returned to their campsite. I think they were a bit drunk. They saw M with his floodlight and started giggling.

They only speak French and our exchanges so far have been limited to my limited vocabulary and M's gradeschool French.

"What are you doing?"
"My wife just heard something!"
"Oh! Ha ha. Yeah, that! That's just a djkfkfkifrfkfc. We have a lot of those around here!"
"C'est quoi?"
"A dfdflgltoflck! You know! With the points!" (She sticks her fingers out next to her face.)

M smiled and nodded. It was obvious to me that he hadn't understood what they were saying either.

I whispered to him:"You think they mean a deer?"
"No idea. I think they mean a hedgehog."

I stifled a giggle.

The neighbors tried again.

"It's a dkefkfkivkj! They come around searching for escargots!"

M smiled at me triumphantly! "A boar! I think they're talking about boars!" He turned back to the women and said:

"They're this big, right?"

To which the women broke out into raucous laughter and bid us a good night...

popping in to say "HI!"

The weather has turned beautiful again and we finally seem to have found our groove. In the last few days we've hiked the tip of the Mont Ventoux, explored Uzes and Remoulin and have spent a lot of time at the pool.

Yesterday we took an 8km canoe trip down the Gardon River- we even paddled through the arches of the Pont du Gard! Today we took the kids go-karting and tomorrow we're off to discover Arles and the Van Gogh museum there.

I just finished reading Paulo Coelho's "the Alchemist". I liked many of the ideas in there, but found it a bit hokey in general. It came highly recommended, and was apparently a bestseller in 57 different languages. Have any of you read it, and if so, what did you think? Maybe it was just due to the mood I was in when I read it?

saving the day

(Cold + crappy)weather+cold shower+(cold + greasy)fries for lunch = crabby Betsy

But then came dinner.

We dined in the courtyard of an ancient farmhouse, surrounded by azaleas. The kids relished plates of gambas in pastis sauce. M savored a perfect steak and my ratatouille was fabulous; crisp and flavorful. Bats pirouetted gracefully above our heads, and when it got dark the owner came out and placed flickering candles on every table. It was a perfect evening...

very sorry I am. (oui oui!)

I am spoiled. And I'm not just talking about luck and love in the usual sense, but in the ease that comes when one can finally articulate one's thoughts well in a foreign language.

German has become very comfortable for me lately. If I'm not yet ready to stop with my lessons it's only because I'm fascinated by linguistic acrobatics and niggling grammatical nuances.

With French, however, it's a completely different story. Despite my best efforts it's never really "stuck". In Flanders there was little opportunity for practice and I was never able to get up enough momentum to speak more than the most basic French.

So suddenly here I am in a French-speaking environment and am struggling with even very rudimentary phrases. Probably I should just give up and teach myself how to say: "Ignore that gibberish I just spit out! Despite all evidence to the contrary, I'm not actually stupid!"

The other day we were in a restaurant and I decided to swallow my pride and place my order myself. (How else am I ever going to learn if I don't practice?) So I ordered a salad, and then explained that I'd like a pasta dish with vegetables. No meat and no dairy, please.

I was so relieved to have it all over with and proud of myself for my excellent language skills!

Much later the water returned bearing trays laden with food. He doled it all out and I was left sitting there with my drool-soaked placemat and a stunned look on my face.

He didn't bring anything for me!

The only thing I ended up eating that evening was a big slice of humble pie!

Back to le old drawing board...

Wissenswertes ueber die Roemer

We just had one of those "aha!" moments that every homeschooling parent dreams of!

I'm doing workbooks with the boys everyday- B is working on English spelling / grammer, and S on German. Coincidentally S's chapter this week focuses on the ancient Romans, which fits right in with many of the sights we saw in Nimes yesterday.

Today's lesson is about aquaducts, and includes a large picture of the one at Pont du Gard! He was so thrilled!

This afternoon we're off to go see the real thing with our very own eyes! I love it!

just checking in...

Hello from Pont du Gard in southern France! We're camping next to the Gard river. I'm devouring French chocolates and German literature in copious amounts. (So far dark chocolate with sesame and Erich Remarque top my list!)

This weekend M and I lounged around topless in the dappled shade of an ancient tree while the boys caught frogs who all seemed to be named either Bob or Speedy.

S and B spent an inordinate amount of time yesterday paddling upstream in an inflatable boat. (Which meant, of course that I then spent an inordinate amount of time rescuing them from the groping tentacles of river algae.)

Today we explored Nimes, which is a lovely city! There's an extremely well-preserved amphitheater which saw its share of gladiator fights back in the day. I also really enjoyed the Jardin de la Fontaine with its Roman baths and Temple de Diane. (I'm composing this via M's Blackberry, otherwise I would include Wikipedia links, because it was really awe inspiring!)

Today I dined on cheeseless pizza and coffee with rice milk. Blech. (And to think that up until now you were probably feeling jealous!? ;-) Just thought I'd throw that note in there to even out the playing field...)

It's raining cats and dogs (and loaves and fishes) right now. Have I mentioned how grateful I am not to be sleeping in a tent on a leaky air mattrass?!

I hope the summer is treating you all well! A bientot!

when I leave the sun behind me...

An open courtyard in the middle of a 16th century farmhouse. I am jumping on a trampoline. Or flying, rather. The Kink's "This Time Tomorrow" is blaring through my iPod headphones. Suddenly life slows down and I am living a scene straight out of a Wes Anderson film. There are children tumbling around everywhere. Their mouths are open but I can't hear what they're saying. Bubbles float up over my head and drift off to seek their freedom in the clear blue sky...

Change of plans

A neighbor here has suddenly died. of cancer. he was only 57. So we will wait to leave until later on today so that my father-in-law can help with arrangements. My mother-in-law is busy baking quiches.

I seem to be the the only connecting factor between all of these disperate people. Those of you who know me personally are probably breathing a sigh of relief that I'll be out of pocket for the next three weeks. At least you're safe for now...