Yes, because we have to leave in 15 minutes, so this is all I got.My parents invited us for lunch today, first it was dinner, but then something came up, something with my mother and my aunt and a concert and obviosuly I didn’t really listen to what my father was saying, anyway, dinner changed to lunch, so that’s where we’re going.
Yesterday I did nothing (I repeat: nothing) for my exams and I don’t really feel bad about it. I feel more like it was a good thing to have a day where I completely relaxed. And I will still think so if I can get over myself and do something today and tomorrow. If I can do that, everything will be fine. So we watched a lot of episodes of ‚The Apprentice‘ and here’s the good thing: Since both Pi and I are no native-speakers (concerning English) we can claim watching ‚The Apprentice‘ as some kind of educational learning-English thing and be completely oblivious to the fact that we watched about 3 hours of junk TV. Though, you…? Can’t.

I also took a bath and I originally intended to read some more, but I ended up enjoying the hot water and really just relaxing a lot. The books were there but remained untouched.

So, 7 minutes to go.

I keep realizing that I am incredibly pale. When I was younger I always thought that I was a dark type which was mostly because I have brown hair and brown eyes and was even asked if I had Spanish or French or whatever ancestors (which I do not, so don’t bother to ask) a few times. Now I know that if I ever come close to one type, I’m definitely winter. Mostly because I’m really pale. One time I was in an elevator with Andreas, who is as red-head as can be, with you know really red hair and freckles and everything and there was a mirror and I had to realize that I am paler than he is. Why do I tell you this? I have no idea. It must have been the first thing that came into my mind and I’m running out of time here.

So, with 3 minutes to go I’m just gonna stop here. I got new shoes by the way. My mother bought some second hand and they fit and I’m happy. So I’m gonna pull them on right now, and then up and leave.

Current mood and Listening to…? No time for that.

It’s snowing here. I got up this morning and it had actually snowed over night and still was. Even now it hasn’t completely stopped, although it’s more snow-rainy now, but still. It wasn’t snowing in Cologne when I got on the train back home but it was definitely snowing when I got off the train in Opladen. I thought this was strange because there’s usually not a big difference between Cologne and Leverkusen (it’s a fifteen minute train ride, so obviously it’s not that far) and it should even be warmer here because of all the industry, but whatever. I like snow.

I didn’t like today’s snow that much because I had to walk to the train and I had to realize that my shoes are not made for weather like this and I even think one of them has a few tiny holes, so that water finds its way in pretty soon. I couldn’t wait to get back home, so I could finally take them off and defrost my feet. Bad shoes, bad, bad shoes.

So, maybe some more about the day before yesterday, I still haven’t written about the freezer disappointing us.
It’s really not that big of a story, although I would be freaking out, if it had turned out that our freezer was broken, which it is not, so I’m not freaking out. Anyway, Pi noticed that there was some water in the kitchen and I was pretty sure it was coming from the freezer. I was right, if you need to know. For some reason out freezer wasn’t so freezing anymore. So we (mainly Pi) decided we needed to defrost both fridge and freezer, which pretty much ruined our plan for a cozy evening on the couch, but whatever. We had water in the kitchen. Near cables. Near electricity. Never good.
So we emptied freezer and fridge, threw a lot of stuff away, because it had been in the freezer for approximately ten years or so. I tend to forget/ignore things in our freezer, because I just can’t imagine the best before date could already be over. So we defrosted the whole thing, put the food back in and that was that. Although the freezer was still leaking when we went to bed it wasn’t in the morning. So whatever was wrong, it’s gone now and hopefully will never come back.
Good thing is, our freezer is empty now. Proof is below.

I’m pretty tired again, I can’t help it. So, I’m gonna stop for now and enjoy being home and warm.

But first some wintery (I’m pretty sure that this word doesn’t exist, but I really don’t care) impressions (taken from our balcony).

Let it snow!

Let it snow some more!

Current mood: Ready to get comfy.
Listening to: Nothing.

So, for everybody out there interested in that, here’s the exclusive view into our freezer after the cleaning up and defreezing. Looks nice now, doesn’t it?
Today will be a series of somehow connected posts, because I can’t find enough time to write a real long one, so I’ll just post fragments when I can spare five minutes or so.

Freezer Inside

Also, I need to wash my hair now.

Yesterday Andreas came over here after school, because we needed to work on a short presentation about DSL for school. We approximately spent 30 minutes on the presentation, more than an hour on cooking and eating and the rest of the time on telling each other how incredibly bored we were. At least we could finish the presentation so far. We just need to read a little bit more about it, so that we actually know what we’re talking about, but that will be fine, I guess.
I made some chicken and vegetable curry for lunch, which was really good. Naturally, cause I can cook. I really can. Then we had ice cream for dessert. (Strawberry Cheesecake and Phish Food, if you need the details, and now I know why I stick to B&J. Häagen Dasz is not quite as good and unpronouncable.)
At about 4pm I walked Andreas to the train station. I think with his holy trinity of entertainment in his bag (that is the newest episodes of Lost, Joan of Arcadia and Smallville) he had a strong desire to get home.

About the other stuff that happened, especially our freezer giving up, I will write later. Right now I’m getting terribly tired. I think it is the weather, but I’m not so sure. It’s finally getting winter here… quite cold and often grey. Not the kind of weather I like best.

Just a short post before Pi and I go play boardgames. No, I’m not kidding.

Anyway, I wanted to announce the all new version of serriste which I just put online. Okay, part of it has been online for months now, but I finally made everything fit for the new layout, so you can actually go look at it now.
Bad news is, I still have all these nonsense filler texts to replace with more readable stuff, but I will work on that later. So, there’s not much interesting to read, though hopefully that will change soon. Now that I went from frameless to frame-based I might actually think about updating from time to time, so I’m a little bit more motivated now.
It looks nice, too.

Serriste

And you should really not be so judgmental about boardgames. They’re great. And really expensive.

I cleaned up my desk a little, mostly sorting all the papers. I have at least three printed versions of my project documentation (part of the final exam of my training, don’t ask) here, a lot of useless stuff from school and a really nice and revealing ‚written chat‘ of Andreas and me during some UNIX-course. I think about scanning and posting it, although I guess it’s very hard to follow (especially with the little German every now and then) and you might actually not like me after you read it. But I still might. Worth the risk. I just hope Andreas won’t mind.

Current mood: Since I’ve accomplished something, I’m really fine.
Listening to: Reason Why by Rachael Yamagata because this is one of the best albums of the year.

Another post only because I feel like it…

Today’s dinner was part of the game ‚Empty-the-Freezer‘. So we had chicken with french fries and croquettes plus peas and cauliflower. Basically, everything that was in the freezer, still good and could actually be mixed together.
For dessert we had B&J and Campari Orange, only I always add a little bit of grenadine to mine, because I like the extra-sweetness. We bought the Campari for the cookies I made, so now we can have a little cocktail in the evening. Very nice.
By the way, I don’t actually think that this is even slightly interesting for anybody. You read it anyway, didn’t you? See?

I’m very tired now and I think I’m going to get ready for bed, go to bed, read like two sentences from the book that is closest to me and then sleep (hopefully safe & sound).

Okay, so the top three news on tonight’s RTL news are:

1) The national holiday won’t be moved from 3 October to the first Sunday in October, because… something.
2) The police is searching for eight year old Felix in Lower Saxony in what they said is one of the biggest search operation since the Second World War (yes, they actually said that).
3) Obviously, the Germans spend more money on DVDs than they do on tickets for the movie theaters.

Okay now, these are our problems??? Well, the second one I would actually consider sad news. A kid is missing and that’s never, never good.
But this national holiday thing? And DVD vs. the movies? Oh, come one… PLEASE! Isn’t Arafat dying? Isn’t there a war in Iraq and supposedly umpteen other regions of our world? Aren’t there more than 4 million people without a job in this country? Just saying.
I mean, RTL isn’t the broadcasting station with the greatest reputation for, you know, good television, but its news are usually very good, but this…? I don’t think so.

Anyways, about the DVD vs. the movies: I admit I haven’t been to the movies since (oh god, this is gonna be awkward and embarrassing) Van Helsing. Yes, I have seen Van Helsing. Yes, I actually went to the movies, bought a ticket and saw Van Helsing. Voluntarily. And I enjoyed it. Van Helsing. Yes. YES, that crap movie with Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale and the vampires and those other things. Of course it’s crap. You are supposed to not think watching it. Didn’t you know?
Where was I?
So let’s say I haven’t been to the movies in quite a while. And you know why? Because I can’t stand those dubbed versions anymore. And the chances of a good German movie are so f***ing rare that I usually miss when one is playing. That’s why. I want originals.
Oh and by the way, if any DVD-shop is reading this: You should really think about your price strategy. I still think it’s strange that I can get all my DVDs cheaper when I order them in CANADA than here. (And, for the most part, sooner as well.)
So, okay, I don’t really contribute to the economical well-being of this country. I don’t go the movies and I order more than half of my stuff from Canada and the U.S.A.
I guess, I’m done here.

And the national holiday thing? I really don’t want to bitch about that right now. Let me just say this (and this goes to our politicians, especially the ones with nothing better to do): I know that this isn’t a holiday with great celebrations going on there, so for that matter, you might as well kill it, but moving a national holiday to a flexible date is just wrong. I am willing to work on a holiday, so take whatever holiday you want and make it a normal workday, but that idea you had? Was bullshit.

Obviously I only have to say something about the unimportant stuff. But then again I guess there isn’t much to say about a kid missing. Only that this is just so much more important than that unimportant stuff.

Current mood: I came, I say, I bitched. I’m all okay.
Listening to: The news from the living room and Pi playing the piano.

I just got home from school. I should have stayed home, but that’s what I usually think about school and today wasn’t that bad after all. I think I’m gonna skip the first four hours tomorrow, especially since Andreas told me that there won’t be anything about the hours we missed without excuse on the final school reports.
So I had to get up early today, but turned on the computer anyways, especially since I wanted to read about the voting results of the U.S. vote, but nothing was definite yet. It seems that it still isn’t. I expected the difference between Kerry and Bush to be very small anyway, so I’m not surprised about what I read on the internet so far. We’ll see.
The last days haven’t been that interesting though. We were invited to Howard’s birthday on Sunday and really had a nice evening and a great dinner then. I also took some pictures, but I won’t post them now. I don’t want this blog to become a photo-album, so I will only post pictures every now and then. Howard is leaving for Manchester today and will return to Australia after a week or so, but hopefully he’ll be back next year. I guess it’s all a question of money. We would love to go to Adelaide for a vacation, but although we wouldn’t need a lot of money there, we just can’t afford the flight. I definitely need to get a well-paid job once I’m done with my training, but I still hope that Pi will find a job soon.
Final exams are coming closer and I still haven’t studied a bit for them. I should though. The good thing is that I’m pretty sure that even without any studying I would at least pass them. But honestly – I’m too ambitious for that. So hopefully I will pull myself together soon and not be disappointed by the results.

I also try to take part in the NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, this November, but I haven’t written more than 350 words so far. The goal is 50,000 and I don’t see how I will ever manage to reach that wordcount, but I want to try anyway. The idea for my story is very vague, I guess I’ll just make it up as I go along (which is basically the idea behind the project as I understood it).
So you better not read what I’ve come up with up to now since it’s just 350 words and I have no idea where it is going or whether it will be any good. If you can’t help it, it’s my other blog. If you have any ideas, I’m open to that, just don’t be too critical… remember – it’s just for fun!

Current mood: Kind of tired but happy that school was over at 11 am today. Literally saved by the bell.
Listening to: Drum loops Pi is working on in his room.

We’re back. Back and exhausted. This whole day was just too much, so when we got back here we went right for the TV and both fell asleep. So, I’m not going to write a lot now, but save it for later when I’m more motivated. Until then, I have some pictures…

Before…

…and after

The happy bride

I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures, cause my camera has only an 8MB smartcard, so it only could save 24 pictures. I guess I had some high quality settings, because I think that you can at least take up to 36 pictures with it, but didn’t have the motivation to check it out.

Current mood: A little more relaxed and grateful that Monday is a holiday. Oh, and hungry.
Listening to: The TV from the living room.

This will be the shortest blog so far, cause I’m really tired and I just long for my bed, but I couldn’t wait to post this:

Sheep and Hearts

I’ll gossip when I’m back on Saturday. Until then, have a great time!

Current mood: Exhausted and excited.
Listening to: Are you kidding me? I’m tired already.