The Magical Meme

I have not written on this blog for a while, and it was not for a lack of things to write about. Perhaps it is the normal winter slump, the nasty cold that I have, or my Fernweh that is keeping me away from the keyboard.

There is something special about this facebook meme that is getting people to reveal random facts about themselves; even people who normally do not take part in this tagging game. It is that special something that finally got me out of my slump. I won't bother tagging anyone, as most of you have done this already! (Don't let that stop you if you have not done this yet, though!) Here goes:

1. I love cooking with offals. Unfortunately, what offal I cook and when I cook it depends on hubby. He enjoys liver and oxtail, so I can cook those whenever I wish to. I save recipes with tripe (“Eck! Even my mother’s dog refused to eat that!”), and my favourite, chicken heart and gizzard adobo, for when he is away or when I am especially annoyed with him.
2. Since high school, I have justified impulse purchases of sale items by means of the number of chocolate bars I could have purchased with the money I saved. (“Look! I bought this shirt for 20 bucks less than the original price – that’s 40 chocolate bars at the dollar store!”) The only time I do not feel the need to do this is when I purchase books. Books are always worth the expenditure.
3. When I start humming loudly for no obvious reason, it is often a sign that I just relived an embarrassing memory. Hubby knows this and exploits it to no end, and I love him for it =)
4. I do not own a driver’s license, and plan to get one only when it is absolutely necessary.
5. Scotland Yard is my favourite board game, followed closely by chess (even though I am horrible at it).
6. The only movie I have seen where the dubbed German is better than the original English is “Ice Age”. Otto Waalkes outshone John Leguizamo as the voice of Sid.
7. I can roll my Rs using the front end of my tongue, but not the back end. Hubby tried to teach me numerous times but I usually just end up coughing.
8. I am a city-gal through and through. The only way I will voluntarily move back to suburbia is if it is extremely well connected to the city. My own car would not hurt either.
9. I do not have a middle name. I kind of wish I did. In Germany, middle names do not exist – they are counted as another first name that you are free to use when you like.
10. I love the cut-and-paste nature of the German vocabulary.
11. I think Tyler Connolly has a sinfully sexy singing voice.
12. I think Colin Firth is sinfully sexy. Period.
13. I am the black sheep on my side of the family. On hubby’s side I am the foreigner, which always makes for interesting get-togethers =)
14. My favourite beer is Erdinger’s non-alcoholic Weißbier. Very yummy and safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women to drink. It gives you a nice boost of vitamin B and folic acid.
15. During my last pregnancy, all I wanted to watch were violent and gory movies. Dramas and rom-coms bored me.
16. I do not understand how someone can be politically apathetic, even though I used to be exactly that.
17. I received a pot of orchids (my favourite flower and VERY difficult to maintain) for my birthday two years ago. It seems to have awakened the plant-whisperer in me as it is still alive and blooming. I am proud.
18. When I can, I purchase from the bakery and butcher downstairs. I love that community-feeling you get, the kind you can’t get from the large, generic grocery stores.
19. I never knew that homosexuality was taboo until I was about nine years old and my mother shushed me for mentioning that my aunt is lesbian.
20. I don’t care if my children end up being homosexual, as long as they give me grandchildren!
21. Sometimes I wake up with a very deep voice, especially when I am sick. I like to scare hubby with it, and make him think that he just spent the night with another man.
22. My favourite household chores are the ones I was never forced to do when I was a child – scrubbing the washroom clean and the laundry. I tend to drag my feet when cleaning bedrooms.
23. My singing ability makes William Hung’s voice sound like that of Luciano Pavarotti.
24. I like to sing. A LOT. I feel sorry for my family.
25. I have a Filipino accent that creeps in when I talk with my mother, or when I am flustered. Hubby finds it charming. It embarrasses me.

Weekend Summary

• I am almost finished Christmas shopping, which means I am on schedule. I always start Christmas shopping in September and try to have it all finished before the first Sunday of Advent. That way I can relaxedly bargain-hunt at the Christmas markets in December. All I have left to shop for this year are the two most difficult: my dad (who never asks for anything) and step-fathter-in-law (who has very specific tastes).

• Other than Christmas gift-shopping, I normally ban anything Christmas from our home until the first Sunday of Advent. Miraculously, the kids remembered where I hid the Christmas DVDs, and begged me to help them retrieve the films. The kids won in the end, mainly due to our second daughter's ability to bend Papa to her will by putting on her sad face. Works every time.

• Does anybody know a good recipe for edible playdough that you bake into cookies once they are shaped and does NOT include peanut butter? Last week I bought a wonderful premix from the grocery store. The kids had so much fun watching their creations bake in the oven and eating them afterward that I would like to make it a weekly activity, but I find the premix a little overpriced and I am sure it costs less than half to make it yourself. Unfortunately, all I can find are recipes that either include peanut butter, chocolate, or are not to be baked into cookies.

• Nick Jr. held a 24-hour Spongebob marathon. I do not think I need to explain the squabbling that ensued between parents and children when we tried to get them away from the television for lunch, our trip to the park, shopping, bath time and dinner.

• I have a gift certificate from last Christmas that I was not yet able to redeem and is only valid until the 31st of next month. We were finally able to find a show that agrees with both hubby's and my step-mother-in-law's work schedules, thank goodness. Barring any unforseen obstacles, we are going to the opera to see Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) on December 27th! Yay!
  

Weekend Summary

I survived my first single-mom-marathon after the arrival of baby #4! Needless to say, I am very tired; hence I am tapping my inner list-freak to summarise my weekend.

What put a smile on my face this weekend:

• Pleasantly surprised concierges - I always make a point of saying thank you. I suppose that does not occur often to a hotel concierege.
• A shortened single-mom-marathon - Hubby surprised me by catching an earlier flight home!
• As is tradition, he brought me home some yummy cheese and foie gras from Pa-ree.
• Baby said "mama" - I know he still does not associate the word with me, but it still makes my heart melt.
• Hubby's mom and step-dad - Always good for a nice kaffeetrinken.
• We went out visiting museums and random exhibits in the city. Upon seeing a case filled with crowns and tiaras, our younger daughter proclaimed to anyone who would listen that they belonged to mommy and papa because they are a king and queen.
• At no point did the children become uninterested or impatient in the museums and exhibits.
• Hearing that Bush claimed his favourite childhood book to be Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". (The book was first published when Bush was in his twenties.)
  

What did NOT put a smile on my face this weekend:

• The Eurozone officially entered recession.
• My stores of Tim Hortons coffee are now completely depleted.
• Hubby's horrible hotel experience - First the hotel left him waiting outside the airport for the shuttle which was going to arrive "in ten minutes". It took over an hour for the shuttle to arrive. Secondly, he was first placed in a smoking room - despite his request for a non-smoking room. This mistake was very reluctantly rectified. Thirdly, there was patch of mould, about 75cm in diameter, right next to his bed. (All this at a four star hotel!)
• Dishonest people who cannot read - Upon hearing that he might be able to catch a delayed flight back home a day early, he spent between five and ten minutes away from his hotel room, at the front desk, to negotiate a free cancellation of his second night in person. He made sure he hung the do not disturb sign on the doorknob before leaving. When he returned, his bed was made up, and a 50 Euro note that he left on his bedside table was missing. The housekeeper was no where to be seen. Unfortunately, hubby could only place a formal complaint by risking losing the courtesy late check-in window that the airline offered him as an exception, so he left it as such.
  
• I forgot to recharge my batteries and had to leave my camera at home.
• The weather - I do not mind cold weather, but I do despise strong gusts of wind with spitting rain.
• An arrogant waitress - I do not care if you are having a bad day; you NEVER let it show to a customer!
• Hubby's aunt - She is completely oblivious and/or condescending to everything that does not interest her or conflicts with her priorities.
  
• CNNI - Enough with Tomb 33 already! It was interesting the first two times it aired, but that was weeks ago and it now seems to be aired with increasing frequency. Wait another six months and I will happily watch it again.
  
• Our planned road trip to the Harz Mountains - We had to postpone it for mid-December.

(Photo from AP)

The almost-plane-crash

This video left me awe-struck. At first glance I thought that this must have been a fake. Hubby, however, being the flying guy that he is, explained to me how this landing could have been possible with 90% luck and 10% skill. Apparently the pilot made as sure as humanly possible that the nose of the aircraft was pointing upwards. Utilising maximum thrust the fall was, to a limited extent, controlled. With all environmental factors coming to his aid (i.e. - no change in wind, etc.) the pilot managed to swing the aircraft body around using maximum vertical trim, and what he's got left from the ailerons.

Can you imagine what it would have been like in the cockpit? I would have gone into full panic, spluttering out an endless string of expletives like #*$% ^&#& $##@$ *@&*#*$ @##@*... enough to make George Carlin squirm in heaven. And I am sure that the pilot never wants to do that again.

Tagged!

I was tagged by modern mommy and now I have to share seven random things about me. Here we go:

1. Hubby's dad and step-mom call me the 'meat-girl'. (When I first moved to Germany, I was not accustomed to having the fourth meal - kaffeetrinken - and found it to be nauseatingly sweet. I used to top it off with some salami, a ham sandwich, or anything meaty to settle my stomach.)
2. I still have my high-school kilt.
3. My alias - deunadiana - is a contraction of deutsch, canadian and filipina.
4. I am in the process of trying to convince hubby to get a eurasian (dog - not mistress!) when our children are grown up and have moved out.
5. I am agnostic.
6. Bargain-hunting is my sport of choice.
7. I live in the same building that hubby's great-grandfather lived in 1905. We discovered this whilst perusing through hubby's grandfather's postcard collection.

That's it for me. Time to tag seven others:
Melissa's Miscellany
Tatiana von Tauber
an american expat in deutschland
Stepford Wife Chronicles
The Humble Pen
My Musings
muudie

What Kind of Nerd Are You?

I found this cute quiz on Modern Mommy's blog. Hubby and I always knew we were nerds, but now we know what kind we are...

Me:

Social Nerd: You're interested in things such as politics, psychology, child care, and peace. I wouldn't go as far as to call you a hippie, but some of you are tree-huggers. You're the type of people who are interested in bettering the world. You're possibly the least nerdy of them all; unless you participate in other activities that paled your nerdiness compared to your involvement in social activities. Whatever the case, we could still use more of you around.

After that, in decreasing nerdiness, I'm a:
Science/Math Nerd
Literature Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
Anime Nerd

Hubby:

Literature Nerd: Does sitting by a nice cozy fire, with a cup of hot tea/chocolate, and a book you can read for hours even when your eyes grow red and dry and you look sort of scary sitting there with your insomniac appearance? Then you fit this category perfectly! You love the power of the written word and its eloquence; and you may like to read/write poetry or novels. You contribute to the smart people of today's society, however you can probably be overly-critical of works. It's okay. I understand.

After that he's a:
Drama Nerd
Social Nerd
Science/Math Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Artistic Nerd
Anime Nerd
Musician


How about you? Take the quiz here.

(images from m3moore.wordpress.com and roeseann.blogspot.com respectively)