Reunion!

5 Days Until We Are All Back Together Again!!

Dad is Home Alone

Dad is home alone and doesn't know what to do. He did win 1st place in the 6th flight of the Snee Farm Match Play Club Championship, but he has no one to celebrate with. He can be seen wandering morosely around the house, rinsing his single dinner dish, eating the leftovers until there are no more and then starving. He can be seen on the beach at 6:30 am with two dogs, or late in the afternoon on back beach with two dogs. Someone come home and help Dad.

mom and claire

I get to see mom and Claire today I get to see mom and Claire today I get to see mom and Claire today I get to see mom and Claire today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family Picture '08

Hi family! Wishing you all a wonderful and warm week! I, for one, am going to buy a space heater today so that I won't freeze to death in the middle of the night. I think we will all benefit from this. It has to be below 50 degrees or something for the building to turn on heat. CRAZY!

Here's what I think our family photo will look like this year (per request of U.Him)! Don't worry.. Dad (aka Jr. Bear) will race over to the clouds in time to make it for the picture :)

where's claire?

When does Claire come home to South Carolina?

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I know that this is my second post of the day, but I have to bring up something that has been bothering me and I haven't been able to successfully google any support for my reactions. First, has anybody read the F.Scott Fitzgerald book The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? If you haven't then you can probably find it online. It's very short and very interesting.. however, making a movie about it? Are you out of your crazy mind? And making a loooong movie at that? Please.

I know that the movie is (key word) BASED on the book, but it doesn't even seem to come close. Granted, I'm making a post about a movie that I haven't seen and have no desire to see. From what I've read about the movie the only thing that I can find stringing it to the book is aging backwards. THAT'S IT. Key points of the story seem to be overplayed by romance in the movie.

If you're going to make a movie out of a short story, please... read it first.

Future of Publishing

A not-so-great week for publishers.
For those interested... links about what's going on...

Random House
Essay 1
Essay 2
The counterpoint

Half Marathon

Does anybody want to do the Kiawah Half Marathon with me next year? It's a year away, but I think I could start training now...

Thanksgiving in Hanau

Hello all! I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the turkey before it got carved into, but it looked GOOD! I would like to thank my one and only mere for the (VERY TIMELY!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH) calm and thorough recipe emails and texts in response to my frantic ones. I was so proud of the turkey... Daniel was grinning the entire time, he was so happy. I also made a stuffing that stuffed the turkey and another stuffing in a casserole dish for the vegetarians. In addtion, we had: canned green beans I'm pretty sure mom bought me while here in the spring because she knew I would need them for thanksgiving, gravy (everybody LOVED it too), cranberry sauce (or 'preiselbeeren' from Ikea), handmade mashed potatoes from Kati, some kind of flat and flakey crusted mushroom and cheese thing from Nissa and David, and vegetable patties with sour cream from Feli (Daniel helped me with the turkey and stuffing mainly by running to the store last minute and picking everything up).
(L-R: Daniel, Kati, Nissa, Feli, David. Not picture due to lateness due to climbing gym are: Sabine and Jan. I am, duh, taking the picture.)

We had the entire thing at Daniel and Kati's place because a) Kati suggested it since they have way more room there and b) they have an oven... and a pan for the turkey! We also, per mere's suggestion, went around the room and said what we were thankful and wow... it was a near to tears experience. I had even been too embarassed to ask until Jan and Sabine got there to ask people... once again proving that mom's are always right ;) We were all thankful for a lot of things, but most of all each other. It was a wonderful thanksgiving.
Prost, family!

Thanksgiving on Sullivan's Island

I had a hard day!

Thanksgiving Day preparations started with the traditional peeling of the potatoes and picking up of the dog. Both the potatoes and the dog were overjoyed, as usual.


We did decide to go for something a little different - frying the turkey. Grandma declared she would not like it, despite the fact that I told her Norman Moore told me how to do it. However, after the fact, the turkey was declared a success. Further, John and I considered it a great success that there were no injuries or fires (we went out in the middle of our back yard, way away from everything).

Finally the time came for the feast, which was, of course, excellent. Absent from the picture are me, taking the picture, and Lynda, the main cook who I believe is not allowed to come to the table until at least 5 minutes after everyone else has started. Contrary to popular belief, this tradition did not start with Grandma, but is practiced by cooks everywhere for some reason (yes, even you brother). Papa is almost ready to sit.

The dinner was excellent with the fried turkey (only covered in butter, nothing else), sweet potatoes with marshmellow, green beans with whatever those crispy kind of french fry material on top are/is, mashed potatoes (always loved by John), and pumpkin pie and pecan pie for dessert. John, Morgan, little Morgan, and Olivia threw the football before dinner and J, M, O, and me went to beach afterwards. Also, Wii tennis was played by Beka and Olivia, Claire was skyped, and a good time was had by all.


Two days later two of John's friends came over to watch Georgia Tech beat Georgia!!!!!!!!! and App State win their first playoff game in their quest for 4 straight national Div IIA championships. We played a great two hand touch football game on 26 1/2 station with the final score being 4 to 4 (or 28 to 28 for football purists). Mom took a few movies including the one below of John catching a touchdown pass.


Tomorrow John heads back to ASU for last week of school and then finals. On Thursday, Mom and I head for Chicago with Caroline housesitting. Claire arrives late Friday night. And that's the way it is, Nov. 29, 2008.

Thanksgiving in Virginia

I hate to move down those beautiful movies of me (ha!) but I thought I would share my Thanksgiving pictures in hopes that you all will share the pictures of the fried turkey!

The Linaburg Thanksgiving is a very very yummy one! We had such great food, hosts, family and friends! As my first Thanksgiving away from home, it was definitely a good one! I also had a little birthday party here and the Linaburgs made an amazing coconut cake for me! YUM!

Thanks all for your birthday wishes! I love you all and can't wait to see you at Christmas! Thanks for the scarf mom and dad, it smells like home!!!

Oh my little springy, singy schwester...

I thought a video might be a nice little "abwechselung" ... for my sister, who I love above all!!!!!

Happy Birthday Isabelle

Way to go Bene, being the first. I propose we all make a short post to Isabelle including some weird picture we found. Here is mine from an old cell phone I no longer have. Who is with Iz? And what is the date?

John-Boy's alleged post

I believe that John made this comment to his birthday post back in September:

John-boy said...

Thanks All! Had a great birthday ill try to write a full post a little later
September 14, 2008 7:48 PM

Now, I have never seen that post and am partially convinced that he will never write a blog posting. To be fair, I haven't seen a post from Mere in the history of Selbies either.

The reason that I bring this up is because TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!!! and we were looking up pictures of my siblings at my work birthday party where I had delicious cupcakes! They all think that I look like Caroline Kennedy and wanted to see if John looked like John Jr. They decided that he didn't. In any case, now I want to know what John did for his birthday and why he never got my birthday present I mailed him WAAY in advance :( hello hello.. is john out there?

My Weekend

I had a really good (cheap) weekend, so I think I will share...

David and I went to the Museum of Moving Images in Astoria, Queens yesterday for a friends' birthday and it was great! First of all, it was free, secondly it's an amazing space. They had costumes, photos, old tvs, cameras... everything you can think of and it's almost hidden! They also had a green screen where you could change backgrounds, a sound studio where you could put different music with different movies (Vertigo, Independence Day, Twister...) and a voiceover booth where I did the voice of Audrey Hepburn from a scene in My Fair Lady. Whoever visits next will be forced to go to this land of wonderment with me!

We also went to the MoMa to see the Joan Miro exhibit and discovered that I can get 3 guests into the museum for free. Awesome! So, naturally, we did not feel badly about only going to the 6th floor to see the Miro. It was great and well worth the free admission :) So, also whoever visits next will get to go there with me! (originally $20 or so!!)

SCHNEE SCHNEE SCHNEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

It snowed!!! (schnee = snow).

It's also 32 deg. F in Hanau (really... I checked). What is that in Celcius?

I would write more, but it is laaaaaaaaaate! I'm so happy because it's the weekend and I don't have anything planned!

david's website

I update David's website pretty regularly since I can't figure out how I want it to look.. but I think right now it is nearing something close to what I want. We are also learning dreamweaver so hopefully I make make a REAL site soon. I'll let you know when that happens. For now, take a look: DAVID's SITE

Caroline's Birthday

We celebrated Caroline's birthday last week (which of course comes between Mom's and Isabelle's). The restaurant of choice was Yamoto's, a favorite b'day place of John's you all might remember. Uncle Bayne, Hank, Caroline, and Aunt Lynda all caught the shrimp this time!!! Our cook was impressed. When he reviewed orders, he also noted that Grandma had not ordered one of the regular choices but had opted for sushi. Yes, this did create a lot of confusion as everyone, including Grandma, tried to determine if she had ordered sushi, and, if not, exactly what she had ordered. Not sure how that ended up, but everyone had a great time. So great, in fact, that a woman from the next table over insisted on taking a picture of all of us with her camera. That picture is not here now, but in it's place is rare documentation of something we have never seen before (however I checked this out on snopes.com and it's true). If you are an exceedingly pretty girl and you rub a Buddha's belly, he will smile. As you all know, the Buddha at Yamoto's is not very happy (as noted in picture at top). But at the end of dinner, as is the tradition, Caroline the birthday girl was asked to come up and sound the gong. In addition, she just HAD to rub the Buddha's belly. Submitted, for your approval, from The Outer Limits.

why the dinosaurs are extinct...

Remember when Claire, as a wee child, colored in this dinosaur drawing for grandma? I found it, I found it! (not an original claire work)

the David Transition

As we all know, David's haircut lengths range from very long to very short. Here is my documentation of his most recent haircut at the Dominican barber shop down the street. David's hair smells like Pina Coladas!

Even his faces changes with haircuts... interesting.

Isabelle Update

Some new from this week. I realize that I've mainly be posting pictures lately and no real information, so here's a little update on the life of Isabelle. Feel free to post above with a little update of yourself! (we selbies are to apologetic about posting)

This week, the week of Mom and Caroline's birth, has been a nice week. Catalog is out, so at work things have slowed down a bit. I joined a gym that is in Rock Center (so I don't have to go outside in the cold/rain) that I will be, hopefully, fully utilizing. If I can ever wake up early I would like to do my workouts before work. I have realized that in the "real world" sitting all day is very very tedious and when I get off work I feel like running a marathon. Therefore, this exercise routine will hopefully help me become more healthy, as well as less hyper. Looking forward to spinning classes! This week I have also considered becoming a famous (or non-famous) fashion photographer, a web site designer, an editor and the most powerful woman in America. I'm not sure if any of these will work out. I think I could beat Sarah Palin, though. Actually, I don't want to be the most powerful woman in the America anymore. There goes one off the list. I have also been contemplating honeymoon ideas with David and there are many exciting options- mainly on the European continent. Even though driving around could be nice. Who knows what the gas prices will be then! Agh! Agh!

I've mailed out most of the save-the-dates this week and have gotten very positive reactions to Lillian's great design! I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody there!

Do we have any plans for a vacation next year as a family? I wonder...

I guess that not much else is happening this week. Had a nice dinner with Charleston friends last night and played a game called "Apples to Apples", collected a lot of books at work again, and going to see David play tonight with some Charleston people. I think I forgot to tell everyone but David is now a music teacher (no longer a baby store employee) and has taught everything from guitar to violin at the public schools (P.S.) in the East Village and Chinatown. Apparently he is very good with the kids.

All is well here, and hope that all is well in your parts of the world!

THE ISABUG

Mom's Card

I sent mom this card for her birthday, and I like the pictures so I will share it with all of you as well!

LOVE YOU MOM!

Grandma Story

At Lynda's birthday at the Grandparents last night (Great! Best crab cakes ever!!! - How does that happen???), we heard of a great story idea Grandma has for the new Obama puppy. It would be a children's book where a little puppy from the pound in Chicago (who always has big dreams the other dogs say won't come true) gets chosen to be the new Obama girls' puppy. Grandma says the older girl has a kind of dog allergy, so this puppy will be non-allergic. The puppy will then go to the white house and explore every room, finding out all kinds of interesting history. He will look at everything from the commonpuppy point of view, since previous white house dogs were usually pure bred. The book will be fun, happy, entertaining, but of course informative about the White House to the young reader in that sneaky way adults do. I may have gotten one or two of the ideas not quite right and so apologize to the conceiver of this book, but I think I got the gist of it. We unanimously thought is was a great idea. Caroline is considering doing the writing. Can I get an Amen!

Happy Birthday Mom!

bow
wow
wow










happy birthday my wonderful mother who takes me on walks, combs my hair and feeds me daily!

xoxo
GUS

Claire's name

?????? is not a good name. After 5 different people comment with a name choice, the one picked most will win.

Fermentation

Thought I would show you chemists in the group some fermentation in action.

This is my third batch, English Ginger Beer, that I am making for Christmas. Added a lot of ginger root to the malted barley extract in the wort. Then when the wort (pronounced wert) was ready, transferred it to this plastic bucket, aka the primary fermenter. Added yeast. Nothing happened by the next day, so I got a little worried and moved it inside thinking it might have been a little cold outside. Fermentation started at about 24 hours (that is within the normal range). After adding the yeast they (the yeast) first multiply to an optimum level and then they start breaking down the sugars. At about 6-7 days I will transfer this to a secondary fermenter mainly to get rid of sediment. Won't be much, if any, more bubbling at that time.

This picture is from the last batch where I did the primary fermentation in the 5 gal glass carboy. There was no extra room at the top, so I got spillover a lot during the fermentation. The plastic pail in the movie is 6.5 gal so there is some free space in the top of the pail and everything stays a little neater and cleaner. This weekend I will move it to the glass carboy.

A week after that we bottle. Speaking of which, here is Mom helping me bottle batch 2, the Old Peculier.

Celebrity Amy Grant brings Halloween Holiday to Germans.

My Jack (Skeleton)!
Happy Halloween/Alleheiligen!!! Amy and I brought in the freshly spirited year at the school's Maskenball (which I, big head, helped out A LOT with... thank goodness other people let us leave at 2am and not clean up!)... It was great and all my friends managed to speak a little english with Amy! We even had a Bjorn fire show before hand, and more than the people in this photo were in my apartment at one point (crazy).

(For anyone who doesn't know... Amy is my first roommate from college and one of my best friends. It is SO great to have her here and I spend a lot less time on the computer due to her actual (and not virtual) presence!) We took the train the next day to Mannheim, where we were taken in by the wonderful Baumgarts... and Bene was even home, due to sickness! During the time home, he partied, ate rich foods, slept, etc. I think he must be feeling better by now ;) Also, his mom gave him a haircut: Ok... more later! Great trip so far! I hope Amy's impression of Germany doesn't extend only as far as Hanau in the future though...

Book Awards

Check out all the Simon & Schuster and Free Press!!

The NYC Chapter of the National MS Society presents its 13th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards.

Claire's Poll

Hello Family Members,

Claire Bear's poll has closed and I have declared that her name be BadBear! However, popular vote decided on CläirchenBärchen.. waaay too long. In any case, it's debate time! Who will win this important election?!!?!!

Here is my vote:






Comments PLEASE

Im a Manatee

I just got back from hearing John Lithgow speak here at Simon & Schuster! It was great- he really is a performer. He sang us two songs (I'm a Manatee, and I've got 2 Dogs) and read us a story (Mahalia Mouse Goes to College). I would try to type out everything he said, but I think I may pass on that and tell you individually later. I'm sure all of the Selbies would have loved it.

Huge Rain

We had a huge rain last night, got 6 inches I believe. I barely made it home from work through flooded roads, particularly on the crosstown. It was nice sleeping last night, but when we woke up it looked like this.

Ben Folds Five reunited

Ok fam... I saw this and got so excited... till I was hit with the harsh reality that most full episodes of anything won't play here in Germany:

BF5 reunites for the Unothorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.

You guys can though.
I did, however, get to check out a few songs here:

Magic, Don't Change Your Plans for me.

Just so you know, this is my favorite Ben Folds album.

In Claire life... I feel like there's a lot going on! Amy Grant (my famous friend from Transy), is coming on thursday, the MASKENBALL (the party our semester has to do, which I automatically got put on the Deco committee for) is on Friday, and we might be going to Munich or Mannheim or who knows on Sat/Sun. Also, as always, I need to work more on translating. Ahh! For now, my neighbor Hannah and I are going to ride bikes to Frankfurt to go to the museum. I love you all! Gus and Lucy too... keep up the posts!

Ps: I was indeed hit with the harsh reality that the young, hip band I loved with "Brick" has gotten OLD!

Just wondering...

As some of you may know I was thinking about going to hear John Lithgow talk about this children's books next week. Turns out that there is a waiting list and I was not one of the first 50 to respond. Even though I emailed within 2 minutes- I thought that was fast! In any case, I looked at one of the books and it looks exactly like Gus and Lucy- I GOT TWO DOGS.

Did they secretly get John Lithgow to write a book about them?

I love you all

Hello from Gus.

Lucy has no comment at the moment..

Back to sleep.. zzzzzz...

Bene and JoJo are coming!