kleine post...

So, I realize I haven't posted in a while, so here's a kleine (little) one...

Wednesday night was the Dr. Madhouse party!!! My neighbor, pink Kati, gave me that white suit made out of some sort of paper material and gave me glasses, face mask, and gloves. Alex (to my right... no wait, my left? ) just wore a festive t-shirt and Sabina (far right) had a thick bandage wrapped around her head. Lots of people were very dressed up though, and it was fun. This is, unfortunately, one of two pictures I have (the other is the same picture without flash).

As you may have noticed... Kati straightened my hair as well. It took a while, but a lot of people loved it. I will, for that reason, not do it often so that it will always be a surprising change.

In other news, Niko, my roommate since December, will be moving out this weekend to his new place, as well as Tissa (my Brazilian friend) and Lina (my first and one of best friends I made here) moving into their own apartment. Tomorrow will have a lot of moving. Tissa and Niko are in the picture below.


I will miss Niko (especially his cooking and groceries buying ;) but it will be great to have my own place again, and also great to have Lina's boxes out of my little apartment. Unglaublich! (unbelievable!)

Other than that, I'm still translating for Hr. Schulz-Wahle, helping another teacher translate her presentation on "Magical Gems" for California, and Lina and I are now doing the Cafeteria all by ourselves. We think we're making more money sometimes, and we're atleast making the same amount of money the rest of the time with more work (ie, buy bread in the morning, make sandwiches, go shopping almost every day, organize cars to take us to the Costco equivalent (Fegro)). Friday was also our "Abschluss" for the 7th semester... that is, graduation. I saw Hr. S-W in the hallway afterwards and he said "Nur noch zwei Jahren, Claire!" (only 2 more years!)... will anybody be coming to that?

Saturday the 14th of Feb (what day is that, sportsfreunde?) is the next MUKE ausstellung (exhibition), so hopefully I will sell lots of plastic rings and have more pictures.

HEY JOHNBOY!!! HOW IS YOU?!??!?!

the hooded man

identity revealed!

can you up date

I wandered over to Camp Selby the other day and saw that Caroline had done an update. It got me to thinking that I haven’t actually used words in a while and have been relying heavily on my use of images to convey messages. Not that I am going to stop posting pictures, but I do believe it is time for a real posting. I’ve got a few things to share, and I hope that you all will each give a little update since I am not sure what is going on with everybody… most noticeably John Selby III.

David helps me!
Last night I made my first real chicken meal. I have to say, it went down pretty well. I’m trying to learn some practical recipes so that David and I don’t end up eating Chinese food and spaghetti for the rest of our lives. So I made some chicken put some Dijon mustard on it and then put a concoction of bread crumbs, olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt that I ground in my tiny food processor. Turns out- my tiny food processor is not as tiny as I thought and fit everything in just perfectly! I think Claire’s postings of food that she makes with her friends also inspired me. In any case, it was good. Janis, our German friend, also shared in the delightful meal and while we ate we raved at the wonders of DTV.
My DTV converter box came in the mail the other day. I used my government coupon to get it in order to switch over to the new digital waves or something… you all have cable so don’t have to worry about your antenna becoming obsolete. I set it up and it is SO GOOD. It’s amazing how clear everything is! It doesn’t even falter when David puts his feet on the table- amazing! I also have tons more channels, which is not necessarily a good thing. However, I will be able to have a Super Bowl party with a clear screen now! In true Selby fashion, I think that only Germans will be coming to the party. And perhaps some others from other countries who don’t know what the Super Bowl is.

Aren't they cute? This is at Rock Center.
On another note, Lillian and Joshie (as I refer to him now) visited this past weekend and we had such a good time! Right, Lillian? You better agree! We went to a design museum called the Cooper-Hewitt museum and saw some neat wallpaper, interior designs, and affordable housing for China… we ate cupcakes at Magnolias… we visited my office… we watched a little bit of a Bollywood film (ask Lillian to do the dance!)… we went fake ice skating in an empty lake (the one where they race boats in the summer)… wandered around Williamsburg (BROOKLYN, not Virginia)… enjoyed each others companies… and oohed and aahhed over books on design/typography. Can it get much better than that, I ask you? I will add a picture of the fake ice skating for your convenience. It took me a while to get on the ice, but David, Lillian and Joshie were brave souls.
This is a long post, eh? I guess I’ll wrap it up. I forgot to mention that I made chocolate chip cookies with my new KitchenAid mixer last night and it was so great! So easy! My arm doesn’t hurt at all today, not even a little bit! Ah, the wonders of kitchen tools... I take that back- I burnt my arm taking the cookies out of the oven. My arm does hurt.
It’s snowing now and I wore my slippery shoes… bad idea. Love you all and please update me on your lives as well!

Meals on Wheels - An Oh Janey Production

Did you also forget to Mention ...

ISABUG!!!

I think I forgot to Mention..

BADBEAR!!!

Christmas Pictures

i haven't made a post here in a while (wow!) so I thought I would just upload some pictures from Christmas!

Why is everyone sleeping? Waaah!

Mom wants to why everyone one is sleeping. So sad. She says to come back and wake up. John was the last one to go (and David right before that for some reason). Caroline says she will come over some day and wake up. In the meantime we are reduced to waking up every morning and checking in before I go to work. As you can see from the graph we are pretty consistent. We are going to Prime Time 3-4 days a week. This week it has gotten really cold here, as everyone except Peddie probably knows, so no running outside. Anybody notice the new Mom Mii? She has been experimenting (yes, Mom). The last one had a pretty severe determined look. This one looks particularly good in ski goggles or penguin suit.

In the absence of children, the dogs have decided to encourage us in our Wii endeavors, particularly yoga. Gus and Lucy seem to sense that they are somehow related to Downward Facing Dog. Unfortunately, they seem to think Downward Facing Dog is really London Bridges and have taken to continually walking back and forth underneath me. Lucy started it and Gus follows. Mom decided to take a picture which, of course, made them decide to take a break and pose for the camera. Needless to say, this does challenge your concentration (almost as much as Isabelle "helping" you during balance games). Oh well.

The Tree is Gone ...

and so are the kids. Just so you will believe it, here is documentation of the tree being carried out on the back porch by Dad and John for the annual "throwing of the tree". And here it is being thrown over the edge. However, as we are using Dad's camera that always seems to have a variable delay, it appears the tree was able to escape before the picture was actually taken.

Claire is back in Hanau, Isabelle in Brooklyn, and John in Boone. Mom, Dad, Gus, and Lucy are doing okay. Nice day yesterday. Supposed to start getting cold now and stay cold for about a week and a half. Yes, even in South Carolina. Thanks, everyone, for a great Christmas. Have a super 2009!

Where I Work

I forgot to post this when it happened. If you're interested.... this is one of the views from where I work. Also, it was snowing this day!

12th floor at Rockefeller Center. This image is looking onto 48th Street between 6th Ave and 5th Ave.

Homecoming

You may think that I just left dear old South Carolina... but guess what? I'm going back!!! If you think I'm crazy just view the photos below. Which do you prefer?


OR THIS

That's what I thought....

The penguin in Germany is freezing.

It's true. I can't stand how cold it is today. I told my friend, Victor, that and all he could say is that today was warmer than yesterday. He's from Russia, so I'm not going to take his weather opinions seriously anymore. This is what I woke up to monday morning:


So, aside from the beautiful (but TREACHEROUS) snow (and the mold in my apartment, which I won't even get started on...) here is a picture of ye olde werkstatt, where you can see the ring I'm working on (plus a beloved and handy dippin' dots cup from King Street, courtesy Dan Hanf)...

... a relief of a whale I decided to make in the Pacific Northwestern Indian spirit...



...and some paper thing held up to the light so you can see it better. Can anybody see what's hidden in it? Here's a hint: might look something like a picture in your wallet...

So anyway. Wanted to let you guys know I'm still alive and working. There's another exhibition on Saturday (Art & More) and we're going to do sandcasting! Hopefully will not forget my camera for that!

I LOVE AND MISS YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!! UNGHHHH!

Why everyone needs a Wii!

It is official! For reasons I can still not quite compute, the Wii is a unique gaming platform (to use the appropriate terminology). And the Wii Fit has really been well designed. At least we haven't tired of it yet. It seems to hit the right balance (as with all things in life) between fun, encouragement, tough love, etc. And as in the picture above, it's always nice to see C and C talking together as well as L and I.

We all agree everyone did a great job with their Mii characters, but I now propose we have a vote on whose character is the most accurate representation. Look for the voting sidebar to pop up soon.

Whoa! What's going on here?!?

We may have to have a vote on the favorite game. Early on the balance board seemed to be the people's choice, but now skiing, hula hoop, snowboarding, ski jumping, and even some yoga moves have entered the fray. By the way, I am afraid I have to tell Lillian that her No. 1 position in hula hoop ultimately fell. And further, John and Isabelle have amped up their competition over skiing and soccer ball heading to heights we didn't know were possible. Peddie may still leads in a number of categories, as does Caroline. In fact, Caroline has been invading Uncle B's previously private yoga territory. Not fair.

How can an old man compete with this?

(Old Man chron age = 56, Wii fit age = 52 today!)

At any rate, I guess we will know we have really entered the 21st century techno age when our Wiis are connected via Internet (apparently not that difficult if you have wireless router in the house) and we play together from different states (countries?). In the meantime, I am practicing doing Wii commercials wearing my white lab coat in hopes of making beaucoup greenbacks.