On Saturday we made something remotely resembling a round trip through the villages around our town.

A co-worker had told me where to find farms selling their products in little shops, so we tried to find the ones she told me about and were more than successful. We stopped at three farms, offering meat, vegetables, fruit, milk and dairy products, pasta and more. There were always those products that the farmers had produced on their own farm plus lots of other things.

It was lots of fun, plus I saw several cats, a really big dog, lots of cows and some goats. It’s amazing, since it’s really close to where we live, but it’s so country. Now I did some research and there are lots of other shops close to where we live, selling fresh fruit and vegetables in season and whatnot. How could we have missed that for so long?

The absurd thing though is that you basically need a car to be able to buy your food fresh from the farm and similar shops. It’s too far to walk (unless you’re on hiking trip or something) and I wouldn’t want to rely on the busses there. Maybe that’s the reason why I never actually thought about where we could get farmer’s products, since for a very long time, everything that wasn’t easily reachable via foot or public transportation didn’t seem like a real alternative to me. I mean, after all, I still gotta get those bags home somehow.

I think I’d rather feel stupid than superior. At least when it comes to work.

The explanation is very simple: If I feel stupid that probably means that I’m working along with people who know more than I do. If I feel superior that basically means that I’m working and dealing with stupid people. And I’d rather work with people who are smarter than I am. It also means that I can learn something instead of telling others the same thing over and over again, because no matter how often I tell them they always ask again.

Plus, since I know that I’m not really stupid, feeling stupid means that I’m probably working on something a bit more advanced and challenging (like I already said).

I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday. I can’t believe it’s three more days (not counting today) until the weekend. I can’t believe the week just started.

And I still don’t get why I only get two days off for five days of working. A three/four ratio would be a lot easier to understand and accept.

Oh no. OH NO!

I forgot this year’s Tubey Awards. How could I have forgotten them? How?
Now the first results are up and I don’t even know all the fun things I could have been able to vote for IF I HADN’T FORGOTTEN TO CHECK IT OUT.

How could that have happened?

I’m devastated and sad and cranky and grumpy and I still can’t figure out how this is even remotely possible. The Tubey Awards are like the highlight of my TV season. And I totally forgot.

Sniff.

1) Be annoyed less. Most of the time it’s just not worth it.
2) Do more things that are fun.

It’s only two items. I should be able to do this, right?

My computer makes strange noises and I want it to stop. Not because I’m worried, but because it’s driving me insane. Just like leaking water faucets and creaking doors drive me insane.

Yes, it’s the theme of the past week and it will be the theme for the weeks to come. Deal with it. I’m going through a food phase. Everything is about food here. I read about it, I think about it and I write about it. Blame whatever you want. I just love food and that’s that.

We were invited to dinner at my aunt’s in Cologne, but took off early in the afternoon since we wanted to check out the big Asian food store in Cologne. I bought a lot of basic Japanese ingredients (according to Naomi Moriyamas „Japanese Women Don’t Get Old or Fat“), plus two little soup bowls (the one they usually serve miso soup in) and one heavy mortar. It’s really heavy. We also finally got our rice cooker. I tried it out today for sushi and i’m still enthusiastic. I have never had better rice before. Honestly. And it’s so easy. You just fill in the rice, add some water, close the lid, turn it on and wait until it turns itself off. Easy. And good.

But I digress.

I really wanted to tell you about when we had a bit of sushi on Saturday. No, actually I really wanted to tell you about what I drank when we had a bit of sushi on Saturday. As a spur of the moment thing I ordered an insanely overpriced „matcha soy shake“, basically a milkshake made from soy milk flavored with green tea powder.

And let me tell you it was good. It was actually nearly worth the price. Plus, I guess it was even healthy. Now of course my next goal is to find out how to make it myself. I figure it can’t be too hard. I just need some matcha powder and some soy milk and trial and error my way to the perfect glass of matcha soy shake. Really, with basically two ingredients, how hard can that be?

I just hope they didn’t have a secret ingredient mixed in there. I’ll keep you posted.

Yesterday I feel asleep on the couch around 9:30 pm and only woke up when the husband asked me if I would like to spend the whole night on the couch. I managed to get up, brush my teeth and then fell asleep again in our bed.

I think that’s a definitive sign that right now there’s something not quite okay in my life. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any major problems, I just always feel like I can’t get everything I want to done. I always go to bed thinking about all the things I want to do and never have the time to.

Then again I have three days off in September, so hopefully I can relax and get things sorted out then and afterwards everything will go more smoothly. I need new and improved daily routines. I need to know what to do when and for how long. It’s nothing big, but I have the strangest feeling that once I improved my routines just a teeny little bit, it will help me a lot. Let’s hope I am right.

I have been browsing my cooking magazines constantly the last few days, always in search for a) good things to cook for dinner and b) good things to make for our family reunion in three weeks.

Now I finally found the perfect cake to bake for the party. It’s a pie filled with chocolate ganache (whatever that is, it’s chocolate, that’s all I need to know) and topped with lemon curd. How much better could it be?

I mean, hello?!? Pie? Chocolate? Lemon? It’s a perfect combination!

I saw the recipe in a cooking magazine at the supermarket yesterday, but didn’t want to buy another magazine, since I already have tons of those at home. I wondered if I should just copy down the recipe right there but decided against it. At home I googled for the recipe and thankfully someone had typed it up from the magazine. I’m pretty sure this is not completely okay with the copyrights, but right now I couldn’t care less. I would have paid for the recipe, I just didn’t want to buy another cooking magazine.

Anyway, I will try it out soon and tell you if it was just as good as I expect it to be.