Safe trip!

About nine more days until our departure and many of you have sent us good wishes for a safe and joyous journey, but they don't dare to comment in our blog. We thought it'd be a nice idea of listing those below, so here we go:

Clare Cosgrove
Well I for one will miss you lots, but wish you a wonderful fantastic amazing holiday!!!!

Clare xxxx

Sue Pasko
Have a wonderful time Regina, stay safe and well. Xxx

Cheryl Poplin Tussey

I really wish you were coming to North Carolina... I would love to meet u in person... Anyway have a safe and wonderful trip....

Gina Boland

Do be safe and enjoy your travels! We will catch up when you return! Be blessed!

Kelly Higgins McFarland

Wish you were coming to Texas! Be safe and have fun!

John Pavano

Jeez.. That time already? wow.. you must be excited. Keep in touch and i'll see you guys soon. have a safe trip and enjoy your stay here in cali! hugzzzz!

Via the Cali FB sites we got so many ideas of where and what to do, and this video surely adds to that. For all of you who are capable of understanding German, please make sure to also visit our German travel blog: Die Weltenbummler

San Luis Obispo

We really appreciate all your interest and concern in our major five week trip. Thank you for reading. :)

Summer vacation

Well, it's just a short period of time left and our family will go on summer vacation. We will finally visit all our relatives in the US. For this journey we've saved up money for quite some years. The preparations for our trip began in November last year already and ever since then I've posted on my German travel blog about it, but never here.

The plan is to not be online that much while gone, at least on my side. And still I want to keep you guys posted about where we'll be at and what we'll be doing directly from there, in order for you to get homesick or get a taste of travelling and holidays.

The second thing I came up with is that I will be writing postcards as usual and that brought to mind that I love to receive postcards myself, despite the fast way of sending e-mails. Not all inhabitants of this earth are on the internet, especially the older generations. And guess what I found? A lady who created the German postcard blog. Her name is Nadine, and she did this around Easter for the first time. All I had to do is enroll in her program. An own blogsite is required and a deadline to meet. A little while later I received a mail from her, stating five addresses where I'm supposed to send five postcards to once on vacation. All by the end of September. Then post about it, and if I want to be eligible in her sweepstakes I would have to mention her sponsors. Which I all did on my German blog already. Well, again, I'm doing it here. The more I post on her blog, about the sponsors, or the cards I send and receive the more tickets I'll receive for her sweeptstakes. Now you know.

Anyway, in a little over two weeks we'll be landing in the US already. By then my preparations will be finished, or not *lol* but we'll be on our five week journey touring the Central Coast from upper North down do L.A. in the South. I will even visit a couple of online friends I've never met before, who are diagnosed with the same illness I have. Longtime friends will also be visited. We hope the time will be enough and that we've forgotten about nothing. If you have any questions, go ahead, ask and I'll try to answer.

My next posts should be from across the big pond, or should I say, from around the globe? This will be an awesome trip!

Why do men fart?

First thing I came to experience that one doesn’t say ‚fart’ but ‚flatulate’. My headline is a vulgarism. Well, sorry, but further research brought up that the word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary! It has Indo-European origin and is confirmed by many cognate words of other languages, like Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Russian, Polish, Norse, Slavic and you guessed it, German.

So guys, forgive me if my beloved partner, whom I wanted to snuggle up to closely while waking up, rolls over and gives me a big load of well smelling gas, accompanied by loud noise… And if I get real lucky, this happens numerous times during a night rest, and he lifts his blanket and points his behind right towards me. ;-/

My b/f and my b-i-l call them roar mosquitos when we go on walks together and they just can’t stop. They say, man, there are a lot of ‘em flying around today, aren’t they? ;-/

Excuse me if I then just simply cannot call it flatulence anymore, it’s a fart, alright?

In German we have an expression that goes ‘If your behind vibrates your heart is healthy.’ *lol*

While researching on the internet I’ve come across plenty of other usages of the word fart: such as ‘being an old fart’, which is a sloppy word for being old, the term ‘brain fart’, which is used to describe a senior moment, such as lack of concentration or forgetfulness, ‘fart’ was the name for cocktails, as well as ‘duck fart’ is ment to be an example. Military slang refers to a sleeping bag as a ‘fart sack’, or we know a French type of a sweet dessert, sprinkled with sugar as a ‘nun’s fart’, or have you ever heard of ‘farting around’? That means to spend ones time aimlessly or foolishly. And then one can be a ‘fart’ as well, which describes an irritating or foolish person, simply.

Up to now I made clear that it is vulgar to call it as it is. Then I explained its origin and I even came up with other usages of the word. So now just let me look at the subject from the medicinal point of view.

Medicine says it’s natural medication and to be recommended and relieving, because it fosters our health. It doesn’t have to happen in public, but in a bathroom, to get rid of this bugging bowel gas. Gas is developed through digestion of the food we take in during the day. Doctors say that with a normal nutrition these winds get blown out naturally, without even noticing, quietly and mostly odourless. This happens 8-10 times a day, if it happens to you about 20 times and that noisily and smelly, you should seek the help of a doctor, quickly. He will assist you with changing your nutrition.

There are about 400 different bacteria belonging into your large intestine, which take minerals and micronutrients out of your very last undigested leftovers. This produces gas which produces pressure. And this mix presses onto your constrictor/compressor until it gives in… you fart, pardon, you flatulate. Your intestine produces one liter (two pints) of digestion gas per day. This amount should be set free secretly in several units. One single fart which is set free after we ate is a sign of a healthy body and that everything is okay.

Now let’s talk about how to reduce the risk of flatulating.

·        While eating, don’t talk constantly

·        Chew the food good, that saves the bacteria work, less gas gets produced

·        Avoid swelling dishes, like fat meat in large amounts, too large amounts of bread, legumes of all kinds

·        Don’t eat salad past 7 pm, because it doesn’t get digested anymore, remains in your intestine over night, and produces oodles of gas

·        Eat as little sweets as possible

·        Avoid canned food as much as possible, frozen foods are no problem

·        Cooked food gets digested the best, fried food produces gas

·        Don’t eat large portions at once, because the pancreas can’t provide that many digestive enzymes at once

·        If you fart a lot you should reduce your beer consumption

·        Take a walk after your meal. The more movement, the less gas in your intestine. And if it cracks, at least you’re outdoors. (There’s an expression: A fart indoors stinks always, but a fart outdoors can be forgiven.)

 

Okay, now that I looked at the subject from all angles that came to mind, I can assure you that it is still annoying if it’s not oneself doing it. Hopefully I could entertain you a bit, and brighten your day, as well as being informative. Have a good one, and the next time it cracks: think of me! ;-) *lol*

The dowry chest - the gift that starts the home

Call me old fashioned… but I had one, and my boyfriend had one, and my daughter has one now! I thought that this fact alone is worth it to write a blog upon, isn’t it? I believe that to the most of you this custom is rather strange, if not unknown at all. So let me explain what it is:

This rite has its roots in the ancient Italy from the 15th/16th century. And the first American settlers brought this tradition with them across the Big Pond all the way to Pennsylvania.

But what is it now? When young people got married, young men had a farm or land, or a house, or similar. And the bride brought either money into the marriage, or her trousseau/endowment, which her family collected for her over the years.

Usually it held items of clothing (especially a special dress), or household linen, table linens, towels, bed linens, quilts and occasionally dishware.

Those boxes were rather fancy and heavy, meaning they were unmovable. They got artistically carved in, or painted on. Rich families used to have them. Later along the line, because the bride would leave the house and marry into another family, those chests were made movable, with drawers, or double doors (a so called SHRUNK, in German). These could be put upright and used as closets with wingdoors.

For my boyfriend/husband to be and me it was a good thing, being able to start our household with all kinds of household stuff, not having to buy so much on our own. Even though it was weird for a guy to do so, in the 80’s both of us had it. Both of us hadn’t a box to put the stuff into, but I always dreamt about owning a Hope Chest, as it is also called. It would look impressive and sit at the foot end of my bed. *sigh* Well, that never happened…

The real funny part were our double things, so we ended up with like 4 tea sets, or triple glass sets and alike. But that way broken dishes weren’t a major issue. ;-)

I always told my teenager about this dowry chest, and believe it or not, a couple of years ago SHE came up with the idea of wanting one, too. Somehow it’s a getting ready to spread her wings and wanting to leave the family hoard. For years on any occasion, she’s collecting household stuff now. Not just linens, but dishes, cutlery, an iron, a coffee maker e.g.

To her Sweet Sixteen party we finally made it possible to buy her (a not unexpensive) box to be used as her dowry chest and it’s quite full already! *lol*

For me as a parent, who’s not poor, but not really rich either, it is such a comfort that I’m not pushing her into the big, wide world with empty hands. This way I’m able to give her at least a small head start.

Are we old fashioned? Maybe, but most definitely unusual, because I don’t know any other person who had that, or has. I believe that is a good rite to pass on to our children. Plus I would be delighted if I’d give YOU an idea for gifting to your children.

And this is our dowry chest:
it's plaited out of banana leaves, very heavy, and covered with black paint inside.

Later on it even can be used as a table, if you put a glass plate on top!

The seven deadly sins

We went out to eat Mongolian yesterday. Man, was that yummy!!! Delicious. :) We ordered the all-you-can-eat Asian buffet. They had it all, kangaroo, shark, duck, shrimp, Sushi, the baked bananas with honey, glass noodles, you name it, I'm sure it was on the buffet. *sigh*

Not just I, all of us five, mostly slim people, ate and ate and ate some more. I ended up having eaten 5 plates, 2 of them were just dessert stuff.

Sole problem was that I had five hard weeks (due to medication) which made me vomit like every other day, so my stomach wasn't exactly prepared for this. Anyway, even my brother-in-law reminded me to not stock my plate too high, but to try out many different tastes. Oh well, did I listen? Nawh. :(

Being back home, in the middle of the night, I went and hugged my friend, the toilet, several times... I still feel sick to my bones, about half a day later! I will fast today, trust me on this one, eventhough it's my bff's birthday, and I'm invited over for some coffee and cake.

So this dilemma made me think about gluttony and that it is one of the seven deadly sins, at least that's what I was taught (no, not by the bible, but...) by 'Charmed'. *lol* I went and googled it:

1. luxuria (extravagance)
2. gula (gluttony)
3. avaritia (avarice/greed)
4. acedia (acedia/discouragement)
5. ira (wrath)
6. invidia (envy)
7. superbia (pride)

The six ways to commit gluttony, including:

• Praepropere - eating too soon.
• Laute - eating too expensively.
• Nimis - eating too much.
• Ardenter - eating too eagerly (burningly).
• Studiose - eating too daintily (keenly).
• Forente - eating wildly (boringly).

So Nimis that would be me, yesterday.

Luckily I found this one chapter on Wikipedia, which says:  

In order for a deadly sin to be identified as such, it has to fulfill three conditions:

• it has to be of serious matter, a violation against the ten commandments, like adultery, murder or lapse from faith,
• the sinner has to commit the deadly sin under full awareness, he has to know about the severity of this sin before hand,
• and the sin has to be committed on his own free will, with acknowledgement.

The church describes that act a deadly sin, which a human commits consciously, while declining God's law and love that He offers, through preferring to be content through a selfmade and self produced reality, or thing, that stands in conflict with the Godly will.

Altogether the deadly sin turns away from the forgiveness of sins through the baptism and the community with God. But for a new absolution we don't have to get another baptism, the complete repentance is sufficient, because it's a willful turning towards the love of God.

I'm glad about that one *sigh*, because I did it neither knowingly, and maaaaaaaaan do I regret this FALL OF WOMAN!

 

The repentant ;-/

Sleep - overrated?

Okayyyyyyyyy... I thought I'd just write this out of my system and get my day going. But then I researched 'sleep' on the internet (!) Biiiiiiiig mistake. It would take me a long while before I even read Wikipedia, let alone make up my mind of what to write 8-o *sigh*

Anyway, basically I just wanted to vent and let you all know that after 28 (plus/minus 10) years, all that's left of being a couple, is him sleeping on the couch, and her sleeping in bed. What a luck we don't have to work on reproduction any longer, isn't it? *duh*

Can't even scrape him off that stupid couch. Main point: he gets tired around 10/11 pm like normal people (I) do, too. But... he remains on the couch. Our tv is his friend, because you can pause it for 3 (!) consecutive hours and switch forth and back in time. That way he always falls asleep at the very same spot and never makes it through that very recording. This game we play each evening and night. Just that I get up a zillion times to make him come to bed. Nawh, just won't happen. In the end I telephone him (!) get this, from the bedroom to the living room and IF I get lucky he might find his way into bed around 4-7 am. *ugh* At times I just don't care and let him rest there. :-/

So tonight with heavy flowing (sorry guys) and me having to run to the bathroom over and over again, it was a rather active night. And then I (who is retired and who could sleep in regularly) has to waken up everybody around the house. Well, not really has to, it's my own fault, I just do. *yawn*

I believe that so much time is wasted once you don't get your chores done in the morning hours. To that adds my MS fatigue. No, you can't relate, trust me, unless you have it, too. It's nothing you've ever experienced and nothing is similar to it. You can rest, and nap, and sleep all the way you want, get enough sleeping hours at night and you still have it: fatigue. It's being with zero energy, tired, sleepy, you're tired before, during, and after sleeping. It slows your life down! Well, my trick is Red Ginseng. It works like a charm. :) And gives me energy like the Energizer Bunny... know him?

My mother, on the other hand, goes to bed around 4 pm (she's 70+) and wonders why in the world she's wide awake again around 8 or 9 pm *lol* I keep telling her that old people (OMG, shouldn't say that out loud! *giggle*) don't need more than 5 hours of sleep. She just doesn't get it and wonders, having 'got up' like in the morning hours, went to the store (which closes at 8 pm here), why the heck the store is closed! *duh*

I don't get it, because at prime time the tv program would be interesting again. At some point she said that she has no other place to stretch out than her bed, that's when I bought her a couch instead of her love seats. Still... same story. So she forces herself to sleep and stay in bed, although she can't, and then she starts thinking crazy things from ages ago, mixes everything up. At times she ends up calling the speaking clock, you can tell from her phone bill, because she can't tell if it's daylight am or pm. *sigh*

The teenager in the house, that's clear to all of us, just wants to sleep in all day long. Thank God for the guinea pigs who won't let that happen anymore. :)

Hey, do you know by any accident if guinea pigs close their eyes while sleeping? I just can't catch them asleep. Maybe I should install a camera by the cage to find out??? ;-)

Ok, here I go now. Wikipedia says that 'Sleep is a condition of extreme peace in all creatures, and humans and animals have to sleep to survive. Why, we don't know yet. Whereas sleep deprivation is a method of torture, still.' There you have it now!

Me, myself and I? I just love to sleep. I used to drive my ex nuts. In the midst of an argument I said, well, we won't come to any conclusion tonight anymore, let me go to bed, I need my sleep, because I got to get up early in the morning. And the problems will still be there then. *lol*

Anyway, guess that's all I had to say for the moment.

As always, gimme your thoughts on this lovely subject.

Weather

Here I am, again... but this subject just so annoys me, that I finally got to put it down in writing. I swear, if WE would do our jobs so lousy, like the fairy tellers do it, we would have been fired a long time ago! Whom I mean? The people predicting the weather. The forecast people on tv, on the radio, on the news anywhere around the world.

As far as I assume, they have to study some science or something, get a weather diploma, have computer programs, experience or alike, don't they?
Even the farmers had their weather rules, which were so true! Like: 'St. Swithin’s Day, if it does rain full forty days, it will remain St. Swithin’s Day, if it be fair for forty days, t’will rain no more'. *lol* You know what I mean? ;-)
Don't they have to meet some quota? If the weather was predicted more than 50% wrong, they'll lose their job? Why don't they?
That way, they would be way more careful about what they foresee. They're no seeers, but scientists, aren't they? At least they should be.

And I mean, I know NOT ONE SINGLE WEATHERFORECAST that ever has been correct!
At times I wonder if they were mistaken with their calculations by a whole planet, or done wrong by the century they're generating.
We can't blame the Ozone Hole for everything, guys!

I found out IF I really want to know how the weather is: I stick my nose out the window and look around. IF I want to know how the weather will be like in the afternoon, evening, tomorrow, two weeks from now: I take a good guess! It will be all more precise than what they scientifically assume with all their technical equipment, trust me!
And I mean, AFTERWARDS it's no biggie being able to tell it right, how the weather WAS... ;-/

2010 July - Tanabata

On Saturday, July 10th 2010, we were invited over to the Japanese annual Tanabata celebration at a friend's house. A reason for me to research what this is all about and what to carry along as a gift for the hosts. I hope my research below is correct, and I'd ask Genpo Doering (the father of my daugter's best friend) to correct it where necessary and to put his two cents in. So here I go:

The princess, the cattle herdsman and the summer triangle

This story stems from Japan. It's about the cattke herdsman Hikoboshi and Orihime, the daughter of the heavens god Tentei. Hikoboshi herd his cows and Orihime was busily weaving material for the gods clothes. Tentei became the matchmaker of Orihime and Hikoboshi, to spoil his daughter with a little distraction. But you know how it is with young people... out of love they completely forgot about work. There was no material anymore and the cows were running around everywhere. So Tentei banished both to opposite sides of the big heavens river Amanogawa. That wasn't exactly of help - because now they both were too sad to work properly. And that is why both of them are allowed to meet once a year, on the 7th day of the 7th month each year, from then on. Unfortunately there wasn't a bridge over the Amanogawa. When they wanted to meet for the first time it didn't work out and Orihime cried so much, that a big swarm of magpies rushed by and promised to build a bridge with their wings. They would do so from now on into the future every year - but just if it wouldn't rain that day.

Look up into the nightly sky in July: the bright star up left is Orihime; better known as Vega. Below in the middle, the bright star Altair can be found, in the constellation of the Eagle: Hikoboshi. Both are separated through the Milky Way - the big river Amanogawa. Between both you see the bridge of magpies: the dark clouds of the northern coal sack. Together with the bright star far left in the middle - Deneb - Vega and Altair build the famous summer triangle. In August it's at the zenith of summer - right at the time, when Tanabata celebrations were usually celebrated (and in some cities like e.g. Sendai still are).

With celebrations nowadays one isn't interested in astronomy that much anymore. One writes ones wishes on little sheets of paper, which are hung up everywhere with lots of other decoration. There are parades and decorating competitions, eating and drinking and altogether a lot of good mood ;)

(C) Florian Freistetter - researched via Google

Well, from my point of view it reads a little bit like Romeo & Juliet in Japanese, don't you agree?

As a gift of the guests to the Japanese hosts they suggest to give sweets. And the other two things slipped my mind now... :(

In case the invitation for us parents still stands and in case my health tags along as well as my agenda permits, I'm very curious to experience this celebration, which my daughter is totally excited about. I will report then.

And now... feel free to correct my information anytime! Thank you.

Johnny asked me about the details, so that's why I translated them for my fellow native English speakers, and the details can be found below the photos of my Tanabata album... Please go, have a look! And I'd eagerly expect your comments on them. Thank you.