Beef Noodle Soup

This weekend is supposed to be cold, rainy, and dreary. That's just the thing for me because my plans for the weekend are to sleep in, remain in my pajamas for as long as possible, and get cozy with my DVR.

And the perfect companion to a cold, dreary, DVR-cozy weekend? A big pot of soup. So, on the last day of the month, I give you September's Meat Meal: beef noodle soup.


The first step: carrots. Lots of carrots.


After handling all the ingredients, my hands smelled like celery and black pepper, which reminded me of stuffing, which made me think of Thanksgiving and Christmas. So, bonus.


There is a big old piece of beef at the bottom of this pot. You'll have to take my word because I couldn't bear to photograph it. Maneuvering it into the pot entailed much squealing and shrieking. I'm sure you can imagine.


Perfect. Lots of carrots, al dente ditalini, and a sprinkle of Romano cheese.

There and back again.

We are back and I'm not sure how, but I seem to be back on Eastern Standard Time already. I'll post more later, but I can tell you that much beer was drunk at Oktoberfest (and that's not the only thing that was drunk), we had a snowball fight at Hitler's teahouse (serves the old creep right), and Melis and I marched across the garden fountain at Mirabell Palace just like the Sound of Music kids did during "Do Re Mi" (but we were not dressed in drapes).

Linda and I had some homemade Slovakian brandy in an antique shop in Bratislava, Dad and Jimmy smoked Cubans, and my mother sampled lots of Viennese chocolates.

Also, the potato salad is amazing. I can't wait to go back.

And we're off!

If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.

-Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Packing for Germany and Austria

It has long been a dream of mine to carry on my luggage for a trip abroad. A lofty goal considering I can barely do that for a weekend in Houston. When I went to Italy I took a suitcase large enough for three people. Not three people's stuff. Three people. But even that was a step up from my trip to England seven months prior, when I packed like Rose DeWitt Bukater.

For Germany I was determined to do better, if not go whole hog and just carry on everything. Tonight I assembled it all to see if carrying on was possible or just a sad little pipe dream.

I started out by making an extensive packing list. Oh, how I love lists. Then, I assembled everything I planned to take on my bed:


Whilst doing this, I checked things off my list which, as you know, is the whole point of making a list.



These packing cubes are a life saver. They keep everything so organized and I swear they shrink the size of the clothes you pack. It's some sort of witchcraft.



The toiletry/comfort items section includes my beloved neck pillow, a constant companion on trips, as well as a full-to-bursting quart bag of liquids. Hopefully the TSA folks don't bark at me for packing it so tight. I eagerly await the day when the regulations expand it to a gallon bag.

The yellow clutch wallet was a present from Kris. It has sections for American dollars and Euros, pockets for ID and credit cards, and a zippered section for all the ticket stubs I'll be saving. And on the front is a retro 80s mix tape. In short, it is perfect.

Also, I'm taking Sharpies. I don't like to be without Sharpies.


The tech stuff and chargers take up quite a bit of space, but I could never leave them behind. And then there is the ubiquitous Rick Steves travel book.



And here's what I'm praying it all fits into. I'd just like to take a moment to mention this this suitcase is two entire linear inches smaller than the maximum allowed for carry-on luggage. I'm trying not to think about what I could do with those extra two inches.



Halfway in, two pairs of shoes and two large packing cubes down, but four small packing cubes and a bunch of toiletries to go. Can it be done?



Turns out it can. Behold! All of my stuff for 8 days in a foreign country and all of it will accompany me personally onto a Lufthansa jet. There is a nice space in the top of that backpack for the camera with which I took this photo, and I didn't even unzip the puff out section on the suitcase. Quite frankly, I cannot believe it.

Bon voyage to us all!

Ten years.

He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory;
The rock of my strength,
And my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.

Psalm 62: 6-8

Sauce Day

It smells like my childhood in here.

Well, this is going terribly.

So I had all these plans to learn some German before leaving for Germany and Austria. I listened to some tapes in Italian before going to Italy and it really helped my comprehension while we were there, so I figured it would be the same with German. Oh, nein.

I thought I'd pick this up with no problem. I was imagining something like this:



But what really happened was closer to this:

Except that I have better hair than either of these people.

For one thing, lots of German words are very similar to their English counterparts (one is ein, weather is wetter, etc). Even more, German sentences are constructed just like English ones. Adjectives precede nouns, adverbs precede verbs, that sort of thing. But the differences, if not numerous, are emphatic.

For example, nouns can be not just masculine or feminine (as with Spanish and Italian) but also neutral, and each of these three requires a different modification to the adjective used to describe them. So if you want to say "beautiful weather" it's "schönes wetter" but if you want to say "beautiful evening" it's "schöner abend." The word for beautiful (schön) changes from schönes for a neutral noun to schöner for a masculine noun. I don't even know what it would be for a feminine noun. So you have to learn four times as many words for adjectives and in addition to that there's no indication of what gender any given word is. You just have to memorize them. Heilige kuh!

And all of this is nothing compared to my pronunciation problems. For some reason, if you slap down an Italian or Spanish word in front of me I have no problem pronouncing it correctly immediately. It's hardwired into my brain. But German? I cannot even tell you. Yes, "W" sounds like "V" and "D" at the end of the word sounds like "T"; that I've got. But I don't even know where they're getting the pronunciation for stuff like "schlechtes." There are extra letters thrown into that pronunciation just for fun, I swear it! And then there are words that are so intimidating in their very appearance, you can totally understand why this was the language of the Nazis. Verschiedenen, zuständigkeiten, geschwindigkeitsüberschreitung*... are you frickin' kidding me?

To mitigate this problem, I had planned to learn the German for "please excuse my horrendous pronunciation," but it's "bitte entschuldigen sie meine schrecklichen aussprache" and I'm pretty sure I can't pronounce that.

I am going to fail like the Atlantic Wall on D-Day. So at least I have that in common with the Germans.

*Despite appearances, I swear I did not just make that word up by randomly hitting a bunch of keys on my keyboard. That is an actual German word.

Blargh.

So, the Academy has gone ahead and officially announced that Eddie Murphy will be hosting the Oscars. This is so disappointing because I find him to be neither charming nor funny. And the worst part of all of this? For weeks they teased me with the possibility of Billy Crystal himself coming back to host. And now this? It's not to be borne.

I have to say, it was clever of Mr. Murphy to go for this year's hosting duties since a wet sock would look lively and amusing compared to the nearly-comatose James Franco, who is usually so charming and who I still insist was tranquilized for last year's awards. Perhaps it's best that I go in with low expectations in any case.

In related news, I just found a sliver of Swiss Roll coating under the keyboard at my desk. I cannot remember the last time I had a Swiss Roll at work.

They're coming to get you, Barbara.

Remember when I posted about the best engagement photo ever? Here's the whole series.

These people are the bomb.

Indolence

Today I slept 'til 11, went out for brunch, came home and took a nap, and then went out for dinner. An episode of Project Runway made its way in there and that's the closest I came to work.

Happy Labor Day.

Start your holiday weekend with a smile.

You may remember me blogging about Improv Everywhere, the improvisational comedy troupe who complete brilliant "missions" in NYC. Check out their website. I still maintain that The Moebius is a slice of fried gold.

This is the type of thing they do. And if that doesn't make you smile, I really don't know what can be done for you.