The Stools

Many plants were harmed in the making of this post

2010-07-29T14:34:00.005+02:00

I've tried to expand my sowing/growing repertoire this year. To supplement our random assortment of green, non-flowering plants, we brought back some chili seeds (habanero and something called ping - which I think should be referred to as ping! - a la stereolab) from australia.

It all started off very well. Seeds were germinated. Sprouts were transplanted into small pots. Then bigger pots. 10 ml plastic pipettes were appropriated from lab to stake up the rapidly growing stalks. Even Kate, who normally has zero interest in house plants, began to talk about harvesting home-grown chilis. The only hurdle was that no matter how big the plants became, there were no flowers. Thus, no chilis. Internet research revealed that something called "fertilizer" might induce this much-anticipated transition. As such, a large bottle of mysterious green liquid was obtained from the local garden shop.

At this point everything came crashing down. Rather than carefully reading the instructions (which smart people would normally do) I haphazardly mixed a big dollop of the green stuff with some water and started dousing the plants. With the following results:

The plant on the left avoided the first pass of the fertilizer=death express, and represents one of the few surviving chili plants we have left. The heap of rotting vegetable matter on the right now serves only as a cautionary tale against over-fertilization. Here's another view, which more accurately captures the swath of destruction brought about by my idiocy.

Ouch.

Next post: Tomatoes in peril!

Whoops

2010-07-26T21:25:00.002+02:00

I've obviously fallen off that "posting after every Indians wagon." Good timing too, since they just won 7 of their last 10 games.

Not much really to report. The Berlin Heat Wave of 2010 broke last week. Which was nice since it meant we could stop using our bathtub as soaking pool. And I could return to sleeping in the bedroom instead of on the spare mattress in the (much cooler) back room.
The flora in the apartment has started doing funny things. If I get around to it I'll snap some pictures tomorrowish.

The only thing that I really want to mention is that today is my little brother's birthday. Here's a relatively silly photo of him at the recent wedding. I think he's celebrating having ditched the newborn twins at home with Abu.

Happy Birthday!

In which i talk about computer crap...

2010-07-06T18:00:00.004+02:00

I'm afraid to mention that with their win last night, the Cleveland Indians are a scant 2 points above .400. Terrifying. Curious to see if this trend continues after losing yet another starter to injury. choo down!

I got an ace new computer a few weeks ago (thanks mom and dad!), a nice little macbook pro, which is wicked cute and runs just as fast as the top-of-the-line desktop PC I bought a few years back. Crazy stuff this technology.

At any rate, I've been spending a bunch of time getting this little dood up and running, and decided to splurge on some cool new software i came across. One of the best parts about using macs is that people are writing really fun programs that are incredibly useful and don't cost that much money. First off, there's the folks at mekentosj, who are pretty focused on tools for researchers. Won't bore you guys with that - but trust me, they're pretty rad.

What I'm more fascinated with at the moment are the folks at Flying Meat, who have a nice little bundle containing two pieces of software - Voodoo Pad and FlySketch. Voodoo Pad lets you construct mini-wikis on your computer - you write out your plans/thoughts/whatever in one document, then link to other files on your computer that you can pull up pretty much instantaneously. Sounds complicated. but it's not. and very cool. The other one is FlySketch, which makes grabbing and modifying images from anywhere a total snap. Case in point:

While this is very lame, it took me about 15 seconds to do. I won't bore you poor blog readers with any further details, but trust me, it's the coolest thing since they started selling bacon packets with 15% more bacon.

I think it would be hilarious if the Dutch squad took to the pitch tonight wearing wooden shoes.

whew

2010-07-05T18:41:00.002+02:00

hi hi hi. So the Indians won on Saturday, but since yesterday was a Sunday (not to mention 4th of July, blah blah) I declared it to be a day of blog rest. Good thing too, because it remains stinky hot in Berlin, even with our new fan (I'm thinking of calling him Vince the Ventilator) installed. So stinky hot in fact, that for the first time in my life, I woke up this morning to find my sheets wet with sweat. Ick.

And yes, I'm aware that having spent quite a bit of time in Australia, the low 30's that we've been experiencing here (about 90 for you Fahrenheit folks) pales in comparison to the 40+ that we had over Christmas. There are, however, two important concepts to consider. First, air conditioning. Two, humidity. Nuff said.

Here's a picture. Graffiti is omnipresent here in Berlin. After a while, one ceases to even notice it. There are exceptions though. For example, here's a real cool snake cut-out that someone pasted next to our front door. Sssssssss...

And here we go again...

2010-07-02T15:15:00.003+02:00

If you guys get sick of these now daily updates, just let me know.

I went out to the MDC (the institute where I used to work and where Kate currently works) today for a seminar. The seminar was cool, mechanotransduction in worms - yay, but I was particularly looking forward to the chance to do my old bike commute back into town. 50 min. on average, through cornfields, large plots of city gardens, and finally into downtown. A really nice ride. Maybe I'll take photos someday.

So now I'm back home, hot and sweaty, and about to hop into the shower before the Holland-Brazil match.

Here's a photo of my mom when we went for a bike-ride during her last trip to Berlin:

This was the now-legendary mum-mom trip, where we had two maternal units visiting us at the same time! As part of the holiday we went up to Stralsund on the Baltic Sea, where we found this little gem.

Resulting in these satisfied looks:

Bloody hell

2010-07-01T15:32:00.003+02:00

I knew this was going to happen. If the Indians go on the longest win streak in MLB history (as if), then this blog is going to get boring really quickly.

Kate is arriving back from London today, and I have a bunch of errands to run before she gets in (item #1 - buy a fan). I don't have the time to search through pictures and compose witty, albeit grammatically incorrect, text. So here's a comic that made us both laugh.

Another victory, another blog post

2010-06-30T16:45:00.005+02:00

This whole situation could get old very quickly.

To conserve photos of our recent trip to the states (in full anticipation
of some ridiculous Cleveland Indians win streak), we're going to travel
back in time (cue science fiction sounds and bendy screen effects) to this
past Christmas in Adelaide. When the sun was shining and the
temperatures were soaring. Sort of like Berlin today. The odd thing about
spending Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is that the whole approach
to the holiday changes to match the weather.

For example, here's kate giving the all clear after checking in on Trevo, the Australian Christmas turkey (not to be confused with Trevor, the German Christmas turkey):

Turkey on the grill for Christmas is still a little weird for me. Although not as odd as working through the Christmas lunch while sitting outside in 35 degree weather wearing a sun hat and shorts.

I can't believe the Indians won again

2010-06-29T16:40:00.005+02:00

Nevertheless, a promise is a promise. Here's Kate feeling optimistic before the Australia's World
Cup match against Germany.

We won't talk about what happened during the match.

We even got Eila, the daughter of our friends Scott and Dawnnica, to get her Aussie spirit on:

Not that it helped them all that much...

Dudded Up

2010-06-28T10:48:00.004+02:00

Good morning blog people! Right off the bat, I'd like to note that, true to my word, Cleveland Indians victory = new blog post. I am nothing if not dependable. I had actually hoped to bend the rules a little bit and post one last week after the US football/soccer squad beat Algeria. However, an inopportune rearranging of the Stool Internet Empire (resulting in absolutely no access to the Tinternet) made that impossible.

One of the main reasons for going to the states was my sister's wedding. Huzzah! We presented us the rare opportunity to put on nice clothes for a change. Check it out:

Of particular note are Kate's fantastic red suede shoes and my dashing paisley tie. It should also be mentioned that 2.5 year old nephews in mini tuxes make awesome fashion accessories.

Update: along the lines of the laser-queen-muppet debacle. Would you go see Prince in concert? I saw him about 12 years ago and it was a ridiculously good show. I just saw a poster up that he's coming to berlin in a few weeks. How old is that dude? can he still play 20 minute bass solos? Will he sing 1999? i'm torn.

The Spoon

2010-06-19T13:57:00.002+02:00

Hi hi hi. We're back. After 2.5 weeks romping around America, we have returned to Berlin to watch the football and eat the sausage.

The holiday was great. Friends and family were visited. Sushi was consumed. And sunglasses were purchased. The only real bummer was that wicked insomnia was the name of the game for much of the trip. But don't worry blog friends! In a classic lemon -> lemonade situation, I took advantage of the many sleepless hours to rethink my approach to the whole blog posting situation. Or lack thereof, as you may have noticed.

So here's the new plan - for the remainder of the season, every time the Cleveland Indians win a game, I will write a blog post. As you may have guessed, they won last night (check here), so here's your post. I wouldn't get too excited - the way those pack of fools play, I seriously doubt that the frequency of random Stool bursts will increase that dramatically.

While there are numerous stories to relate, and many fun pictures to caption, I think I'm going to keep a promise to a certain Chop Brother (hi dougie!!) and talk about a spoon (pictured above).

The background here is that my Dad has really gotten into woodworking the past few years (to the extent that we bought him a hunk of super-duper Australian wood for Christmas). He makes, among other things, spoons. We have a lot of his spoons. And use them all of the time.

This past Thanksgiving, we had people over for the traditional turkey feast. Among the guests were our friend Paul and his daughter Lotte (if you can't figure out who is who, then you have problems). Lotte became quite enamored with one of my dad's spoons. To the extent that we decided to give it to her. Like I said, we have a lot of handmade spoons. And who wouldn't want to make a small child happy? As part of the gift though, we explained that my dad made the spoon, and that it was very special.

Later in the evening, Paul asked Lotte if he could this spoon to make pancakes the next morning. Lotte replies very firmly - "No. Because Jeff's Dad made this spoon for me."

As it turns out, Lotte's affection for this spoon has not cooled off - the latest report is that she sleeps with it at night, and still won't let Paul use it for pancakes.

And that is the story of the spoon.

holy crap

2010-04-16T13:30:00.005+02:00

via. via our friends chris and danielle.

i hate to resubmerge our blog in the greasy morass of meat/bacon porn, but this picture was just too over-the-top to ignore.

gigle giggle

2010-04-14T01:02:00.003+02:00

Fun things in the mail!

2010-04-09T14:11:00.003+02:00

Last week was a bit of a bumper crop for packages here at the Stool homestead.

First up, we received an awesome box from brothers and sisters in the states - sushi trays!
sweet-smelling goodies to make our skin smooth and radiant! hand-held video games so that we can practice our ninja skills!

The only hitch was that this package was intercepted by the lovely people at the German customs office - meaning that we had to go pick it up at the dread Zollamt. Otherwise known as one of the most soul-destroying locations on the planet. Upon arriving there, you get a fantastic little ticket:and maybe think to yourself - "this won't be so bad. Certainly the Germans, with their well-founded reputation for efficiency, will have optimized this process." Over three hours later, you realize just how wrong a person can be. But hey, three hours of my life is a small price to pay for a box of awesome gifts. So hooray!

On the very same day as the Zollamt adventure, we also got the fantastic new cookbook assembled and written in part by our good friend Kiyo!

I think that the cover really says it all. Cooking eafood has been a bit of the final frontier for us here in Berlin - mainly because it's not super easy to obtain high-quality fish, not to mention shellfish. But hey, now that we have a book chock full of yummy recipes, it is on. Gravlox here we come!

a quickie

2010-03-27T13:47:00.003+01:00

We haven't posted any food pictures in a bit - here's one from this past Thanksgiving, featuring the critical first step in the making of our "triple sausage assault" stuffing. That's right, three different kinds of sausage in ONE stuffing.

And here's one of me, many hours after the turkey came out of the oven. Looking skeptical about something. I have no idea what.

Coming soon: A story about a spoon.

a great year for pies

2010-03-11T17:43:00.003+01:00

Hi blog friends.

Yesterday was our four-year wedding anniversary - hooray! We don't really go for the more traditional anniversary events - year one was the tatoo anniversary, followed by schnitzel, then donuts last year. This year started out as the sushi anniversary, but was quickly redubbed the scotch and soda anniversary after a trip to a nearby bar. oof. We also avoid the whole concept of "anniversary photos" like the plague. But it seems like something a little cheesy is in order, so here's a photo of us on a gorgeous australian beach.

Given the fact that it is still ass-cold in berlin, this photo is more than a little heart-wrenching.

In other news, I was in Denver last week, hanging out with my brother and his family. Fun times all around, in particular since the last time I saw our nephew Jack, he was just a little fleshy bundle who didn't do much besides drink formula and sleep. He was much more interactive this time and we partied pretty hard. In a well-intentioned attempt to introduce him to some Australian traditions, I decided to do my best imitation of an authentic meat pie. Because we Stools do love our meat pies. Exhibit A:

Jack was not quite so excited:

Consider my spastic giggling in the background an added bonus.

We love the Kiwis. And their accents.

2010-02-09T18:11:00.003+01:00

While in Dresden last week, everyone was talking about some Youtube video starring a beached whale that was soooooo funny. Alex sent me the link. I forwarded the link to Kate. And the rest is history.

True to form, the Stool household went a little overboard with the whole "beached az" ouevre this weekend, spouting off over-the-top Kiwi accents at the drop of a hat and ordering a lot of fish and chips. While potentially annoying our mates (especially those actually from New Zealand), we laughed about this video (and the 11 follow-up videos. And the making of videos) for a good long time.

More pictures from Australia coming soon, accompanied by insightful and entertaining commentary.

Photoshop was not used anywhere in this post

2010-01-19T18:08:00.007+01:00

We're back! Many tales to tell and a few pictures to share. I'm feeling oddly committed to temporal order at the moment, so for now you'll have to content yourself with some pictures of where we spent our outbound layover in Heathrow. The Pod!

It was essentially a cubicle with a bathroom (including shower), a foldable bed, a tv and wireless. Which is all fine and good. But the best part was the door which shut out all of idiots who run around in airports. 4 hours for 40 pounds? Worth every penny (or pence actually)

It also came with a dazzling array of light settings. This crazy blue look, in addition to adding to the podness of it all, was labelled with a mini-cartoon of two pairs of feet perilously close together. We dubbed it "sexy-time" lighting, although I reckon that David Cronenberg is the only person on the planet who would even consider getting it on under these conditions.

live pod blogging

2009-12-08T18:10:00.002+01:00

we're in a pod

360deg podcam

which certainly beats being anywhere else in heathrow airport

for dougie, and for sally

2009-11-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

genius

music and cholesterol

2009-11-21T13:02:00.002+01:00

We haven't posted any food pictures in a while, so here you go. This little concoction has many recorded names - our favorite is probably the "one-eyed egyptian sandwich." That said, around these parts (ie, our apartment) it is known exclusively as a "pirate in the hold." The ship on the right is armed with sausage cannons.

the only real events of note, aside from it being Lebkuchen season, is the ridiculous abundance of concerts at the moment. Berlin has a fairly good music scene, although it tends to come in spurts. We are now mid-spurt. Last week was Grizzly Bear, who were awesome. Not much more to say, other than we also got to learn about the autoharp over the course of their set, which was cool. More interesting, at least from a blogging perspective, was the opening act St. Vincent, who in addition to rawking, inspired a number of hilarious comparisons: "the artist formerly known as the female prince," "indie-rock björk," "mary timony with a perm," and something else involving mark knopfler. Monday was Do Make Say Think, who had moments of brilliance, and got bonus points for having four trumpets on stage at once. However they sounded a bit muddled at times, perhaps because there were 9 people crammed onto a very small stage. Next up: Yo La Tengo on Monday, followed by Great Lakes Swimmers on Tuesday.

I'm off to watch Liverpool try and repair an absolutely dismal run of football. Will they beat Man. City? Will they?

belated halloween spirit

2009-11-03T14:26:00.004+01:00

Kate was recently away in Chicago for a week-long neurobiology conference (which she'll tell you all about). I tried to make the most of her absence by spreading out 15 years of photos across our living room, making a massive mess in the process. The master plan being to organize, scan, and back-up everything.

It was an audacious plan. And while some level of organization was achieved (instead of one big box, there are now 8 piles), the scanning and backing-up remains a bit of a pipe-dream. But hey, in the process I found this gem from a Halloween long ago.
I'm particularly fond of the rope belt/shoe combo that I'm sporting.

Me! All about me!

2009-09-28T12:28:00.002+02:00

Kate has been working very hard the last few months - a serious nose-grindstone situation. Which explains why it's fallen primarily on me to update this wee corner of the internet.

In keeping with the current state of things, I present you a completely self-absorbed post. First up, the link for the Nokia commercial I was in.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=53997861

For those of you who haven't heard the story, I fell in with a very nice Finnish director who thought I had the right "look" for a commercial he was directing. See above. We got on like a house on fire, and proceeded to hatch a diabolical scheme involving him shooting a documentary following my travels across the U.S.A. en route to the Beard and Moustache and Championships in Anchorage. It didn't pan out for a number of reasons involving work, broken elbows, and global financial crises - which is a real shame because that would have been awesome. Way better than some Freddie Mercury look-a-like at the planetarium.

And here are some pictures of me and my new glasses...

The ball on the stick in the background is what I like to call local flava.

Pupster Down!

2009-09-09T22:38:00.003+02:00

Hi blog friends!

A brief, but sad update.

Maggie, the Stear family "hound" for the last 14 years, took a one-way trip to the big doghoue in the sky last week.

Here are some pictures of her in happier times.

(that first picture has the added bonus of being one of the first digital photos I ever collected)

She copped a lot of flack for being, in essence, a fluffy white football who yapped a lot. Which is fair. But I'm still going to miss that little pooch.

dum dee dum

2009-08-16T13:02:00.006+02:00

It's a lazy sunday here in Berlin; so in lieu of writing anything real, here's a picture of me eating a hot dog in Copenhagen.

UPDATE: Warning! Bad and/or scary things will happen if you enlarge this photo. So don't click on it!

The danes do enjoy their hot dogs - perhaps explaining this:

In other news, the Premier League started up yesterday, and the Stools have made their first ever foray into the world of fantasy sports. My team is called "the chops," while kate's is "now that's mediocre." As you can see, expectations are low.

Is anyone else surprised that the Indians have begun playing reasonable baseball again? It just befuddles the mind.

Hellooooooooooooo...

2009-08-04T10:31:00.006+02:00

Is anyone still out there? Are ya'll sick of staring at the French flag? We'll be back in action soon. Maybe even within the day. We don't even have a proper excuse for our two-month absence. Not that we need one of course.

Until we do a proper post, here's a quick tribute to the current state of the Cleveland Indians:

I suspect that Indian's games would be much more entertaining if everyone had to play with a cup of beer in one hand.

Update: oh, and what the hell is up with the Chicago Cubs? I think I owe someone some cake!!

Important question update:

Dear blog friends,

What would you say to a Queen laser light show at your local planetarium? Yay or nay?
And yes, I mean this Queen...

Freedom Fries Are a Go!

2009-06-03T12:07:00.001+02:00

The Stools would like to welcome Pierre, everyone's favorite frenchmen, back to the comments.

Oui oui.

Testimonials sought

2009-05-28T11:37:00.003+02:00

Dear blog people,

My good friend Sally - who does comment here, and with whom I attended a Grateful Dead show in 1995 - is considering spending some of her summer vacation in Berlin. Maybe you readers who have previously basked in the Stool hospitality (I'm looking at you Alex and Douglas) would care to share your thoughts on what we can provide potential guests. Huevos rancheros have been mentioned. The usefulness of the magic stove lamp as a sobriety test has been debated. But I'm sure that there's more.

the elbow!

2009-05-14T16:17:00.003+02:00

the only positive to have come out of my two recent encounters with bone fractures are the crazy-ass images. the surgery went well on monday - no screws were required, and they just
jammed the fragment back into place with a large needle. here's the picture:

wacky.

please note the surgeon's hand gently cradling my arm as i lie in an anesthetized stupor.

i was only in hospital for two days, which wasn't so bad. particularly since i acquired several seasons of crap american tv shows. now i'm at home, eating bowls of thai green curry (the official comfort food of the pooles - thanks kate!) and swaddling my arm in frozen peas. oh, and no cast!

1.4 mm of pure suck

2009-05-08T17:15:00.002+02:00

so it turns out that my elbow is broken. woo hoo! a very small fracture, 1.4 mm to be exact, but enough that the bones aren't lining up properly. if i'm lucky, they can push it back in through the skin with a needle. if i'm unlucky, i get opened up and everything gets reattached with screws. sound familiar? either way, it's hospital food for jeff come monday.

astrochimp stories will have to wait a bit.

here we go again...

2009-05-07T15:58:00.002+02:00

we didn't forget we had a blog, we were just willfully negligent in taking care of it. and people still think we should have kids. so let's get this party started! baseball:

that about sums that up. both in terms of culturally insensitive logos and playing ability. all of the ex-cubs in the universe, could not pull this team out of their current depths.

in happier news we went to barcelona a while back, where people (wisely) choose to ignore the cleveland indians and focus instead on making delicious donuts - or buyons (not bunyons - ewww). behold:

anticipating the donut-consuming power of the stools, our hotel were kind enough to provide us with an exercise bike. i availed myself (at least long enough to take a photo),

while kate basked in a siesta wonderland:

whew. my blogging juices are spent. we'll be better. promise. particularly since i'm guaranteed at least one more day of state-required sick leave. i banged up my elbow (non-robot arm) falling off my bike on tuesday, and it's still all sorts of gimpy (typing with one hand = no caps). it's not broken- it just hurts and doesn't want to bend. i got a mri today (holy high-resolution imaging of my elbow batman!) and go back to the dr tomorrow. hmmm. if a 2nd piece of metal is required i'm going to be well-pissed. but i'd probably end up blogging more.

at any rate, upcoming topics include ham the astro-chimp, babies and brothers coming to visit, plus trevor 2: electric boogaloo.

jeff- now with 95% less hair

2009-03-18T19:25:00.001+01:00

and a lab of his own

look at that scientist go!

it's cold out there...

2009-03-11T23:15:00.003+01:00

we had a final burst of winter weather two weeks ago, which really pissed off one half of the stool family*. so much in fact, that Frau Doktor Stool stalked around the apartment for 1.5 days muttering "grumble, grumble," and refusing to go outside. Which is why I just about wet myself when I saw this cartoon today:

check out the rest of the site - it's absolutely brilliant, and a total labor of love. We have enough trouble spewing out bi-weekly posts containing photos of meat with dumb captions. I can't even comprehend having to sew beforehand.

Oh, and to beat the end-of-winter blahs, we're heading off to Barcelona for the weekend. 20 degrees! beach! seafood! Woohoo!

In other news, the chops are no more. They have been trimmed back to a very respectable, high-school history teacher level. Full story to follow.

*of course, the flip side here is that the other half of the stool family suffers immensely when confronted with 40+ degree days down under. All they can bring themselves to do is lie on the couch in an air-conditioned room, drink beer, and watch cricket. But there's no grumbling. Just burps.

Screw football!

2009-02-25T12:20:00.003+01:00

I think that the bacon = hipster fleisch post has run it's course. Which can only be a good thing.

Next up: Baseball!

And let me tell you, after watching some very disappointing football/soccer matches the last couple of weeks, I am more than ready for baseball season to start up. How ready, one might ask.

This ready:
Looking at the second photo, I'm reminded that Kate's shoulder has not seen the light of day in many months. Which is just a very polite way of noting that the less cold-tolerant half of the Stool family is well over winter (Cue getaway weekend to Barcelona).

Did I mention that spring training games start tonight - woot! And, as if we needed any more sport-related excitement, the first Australia-South Africa test begins tomorrow. It's like a party with an over-abundance of small hard balls. And potentially a lot of blond-tips.

The only crappy thing is that a water main near the university broke this morning. Which means that I have no water in my lab, and all of the toilets are locked. Good thing that I didn't eat any burritos last night...

Yes, we love bacon

2009-01-30T10:28:00.002+01:00

a lot even.

So far three people have sent us stories concerning the Bacon Explosion, and we're a little worried that we've been stereotyped as some sort of über-carnivore couple. What's the deal people?

Was it the boar carcasses? The meat-fest photos? Trev?

Seriously though, we haven't had the meat sweats in months!

I would make a fantastic addition to Obama's cabinet

2009-01-28T14:12:00.002+01:00

"For the love of Crom, am I the only one here who wants to keep the U.S. technologically competitive?"

Because man, do I love Conan.

Sorry for the lack of photos, dear blog readers. I've been working in Dresden this past week, which means increased time spent surfing the internet tubes and posting dumb crap here. But minimal access to the Stool photo library.

A gazillion times worse than any boar carcass

2009-01-26T18:45:00.002+01:00

ever.

i'm not a very squeamish person, but maggots are one of the few things that really gross me out.

Tales of Brave Trevor

2009-01-16T14:01:00.000+01:00

This holiday season, the Stool family briefly included a third member - a 16 lb. bundle of joy named Trevor (or Trev. or Trev-o). Here he is taking his first (and last) bath.

Trevor liked having onions shoved up his butt.

Who doesn't love a good butter massage?

The requisite mid-roast butter application

In the end he looked so good that we just had to eat him. But he will always be in our hearts. And descending colon...

(But seriously folks, applying this much butter to a turkey should only be attempted by trained professionals.)

Meat!

2009-01-16T13:52:00.000+01:00

I'm going to cut to the chase here so that I can get back to restoring my iTunes library. Harumph.

Before:

During:

After:
Boo-ya!

We hear you

2008-12-31T14:59:00.000+01:00

All of your comments regarding wild boar carcasses have been seen and noted. We're quite busy lounging around the flat in our pajamas at the moment, but will post photos of our recent meat adventures soonish (which could mean february of course). In the meantime, here's one of us at christmas, which was potentially snapped after we spent the previous 6 hours sipping homemade coffee vodka and engaging in ritual turkey consumption.

have a great new years!

Photo Dump!

2008-12-20T17:54:00.000+01:00

UPDATE: yes, i realize that the layout of the pictures is all manky. But I can't be assed to fix them now. sorry.

We've been getting a bunch of photos together for holiday purposes (we can't say more - top secret plans are in motion), and found a bunch of treasures that needed to be shared here on the blog.

For example, these photos illustrate the awesome power of beer. Observe how it buoys the spirits of two young men who were frankly a little bored at a hum-drum soccer/football match between Liverpool and Berlin.

Speaking of "buoyed spirits," here is Kate and our mate Theo all hopped up on Auslaendertag (Foreigner Day) love:
Here's Kate showing off her meat carving skills on our wild boar roast during MeatFest 2008 - take notice of the hungry mob surrounding her. Out of respect for our vegetarian readers I won't show what the carcass looked like afterward. And yes, we do have pictures.

Jeff's first exposure to Christmas crackers provokes a rare Grinchesque moment. Or maybe he's just working the pudding through.

That's it for now. What's everyone doing for the holidays? We'll be stone-cold chilling here in Berlin, surrounded by gloomy weather and good friends. We hope that everyone has a great time, eats too much food, and stays away from yellow snow.

Toof!

2008-12-08T17:33:00.000+01:00

Kate went to the dentist today, and we're happy to report that after 2+ weeks of wisdom tooth hell, she is finally on the mend. No more bacteria, no more pus tsunamis, and significantly less pain. Huzzah!

This has been a truly hellish experience, and I want to commemorate its conclusion with a photo. If things hadn't gone as pear-shaped as they did, I was planning on snapping some shots of a chipmunk-cheeked Kate on the couch, wrapped up in her fuzzy bathrobe and ringing a bell to signal that she wanted more ice cream. However, she was so miserable that pictures were not an option.

Instead, here is one of when when I got my wisdom teeth out - back in the old country, where they use general anesthesia and give you proper (ie, chock full of big-time opiate fun) pain pills afterwards. Of course, being young and somewhat stupid, I supplemented my pain medication with hefty doses of high-quality vodka. Which perhaps explains why I'm clutching a metallic pink dolphin to my chest.

Take this!

2008-12-03T01:47:00.000+01:00

UPDATED: (for those nagging grammar and diction problems)
If certain people on the internet tubes would like more pictures, then I am happy to provide them. You're just lucky that I'm an insomniac and have nothing better to do at 2:00 am on a Tuesday night.

Hey look! It's Jeff drinking beer on the 4th of July! Imagine that!

Don't let the German flag in the background worry you - it was wrapped around the 1 kg Toblerone that we brought to Denver as a house-warming gift and was pure coincidence that it showed up on the holiday. I'm chanting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" on the inside. Trust me. And that look of surprise is the lingering shock from finding Cooper's Pale Ale (local brewery of Adelaide, South Australia) in Denver.

This one is entitled "Paleontologists taking the piss."

We're at a real, honest-to-goodness dinosaur dig site - as proven by the little tags and such - with actual fossils jutting out of the ground, and these wacky scientists have scattered an army of plastic dinosaurs everywhere. I suppose it's possible that they are trying to act out what happened 100 million ago, in a very rigorous and thoughtful fashion, using these little guys as models. However, I think it's much more likely that they just get drunk and chase each around holding pint-size T-rexes and making growling noises.

This picture really isn't funny at all. Unless you say "Clark Fork" with a wicked strong Aussie accent. And then see this identical sign about 20 times as you're driving along the highway.

And finally, here's Kate being all photogenic on a ferry out to Poulsbo. She's just happy that she finally got to see the Space Needle.

So there you have it. I hope we've satisfied our three dedicated readers. I'm going to try and go to bed again.

Oh, but there is one bit of good news. The German government has seen fit to finance my crazy scientific goals for three whole years! I'll be my own boss! I'll have something resembling my own lab! And best of all, it's only a 10 minute bikeride from my house. I'm making light of this event because it's late and I'm a little loopy. But it really is a huge relief to have found a good position here in Berlin. As I mentioned in previous posts, I've been stressing about work something for the last several months, and now it is all sorted out. Woo hoo!

Now if I can just remember how to turn the light above the oven off. Dougie, can you help me with that?

Well this sucks...

2008-11-05T01:19:00.000+01:00

We had fabulous plans to go drink beer with mates and watch the election results roll in.

But then I got a nasty cold. All I can do now is rotate between the couch and the comfy chair, with quick jaunts off to the kitchen for more herbal tea.

Blech. It's 1am, I'm tired but too worked up to go to sleep. And the prospect off watching CNN/internet coverage for the next three hours without any tasty beverages is somewhat daunting.

Maybe I'll start live-blogging right from the lounge room if I find the motivation...

Right.

No news here mate

2008-10-20T20:08:00.000+02:00

Actually, there's pretty much always news of some sort or another.

Crazy times here in Berlin - so crazy in fact that we didn't the time or the energy to comment on the vagaries of the baseball playoffs. For example, we held our first (and potentially last, depending on our cholesterol levels) MeatFest, which involved about 4 lbs of wild boar, 1.5 rabbits, 6 lbs of lamb, pork, beef, and half a jar of bacon jam. Details will follow.

After a week of madcap packing (it seriously did approach something resembling a very crap tragi-comedy), my lab officially moved to Darmstadt (directly translatable to "intestine town") - I didn't go obviously, which means that I've entered a state of odd scientific limbo where I'm getting paid to sit at home and type meaningful things into the computer. We'll see how that works out.

There is also a sadder note. Maren, a close friend of mine from Seattle, passed away last week. This is not the place to go into the details, but I did want to mention it since I suspect that some of you dear readers would want to know.

Finally, here are some fun pictures:

This was the only way that Pierre would consent to have his picture posted on our blog. He's the suave looking fellow reflected in my left eye.

And here's Kate engaging in a little pre-MeatFest training. Teh germans do like their pork steaks.

Go Phillies!

Me? Bait a Cubs fan? Never!

2008-10-02T12:28:00.000+02:00

Gee whiz,
Right
About
Now I'd
Die for

Some
Laugenbreze with
A lot of
Marmalade

And CC hasn't even pitched yet.

This is relevant to at least one of our readers...

2008-09-22T12:23:00.001+02:00

congratulations to the Chicago Cubs for winning the NL Central over the weekend!

Cue inevitable collapse and another off-season spent nurturing hope and expectations.

It's almost like being English.

The American Way

2008-09-10T11:29:00.000+02:00

What do we want??

Freedom!

When do we want it??

Right after this massive traffic jam.

This is my poorly constructed analogy for the current state of American politics.

a wise man once said

2008-09-02T10:31:00.000+02:00

"There is nothing that would not be improved by the addition of a dinosaur."

the town of Thermopolis, Wyoming concurs

i present the following as evidence:

that is all

a book report, by dougie

2008-09-02T10:25:00.000+02:00

the stools would like to present dougie's book report on the red planet, by robert a. heinlein

RED PLANET by Robert A. Heinlein.

RED PLANET by Robert A. Heinlein is the story of a boy, Jim, and his friend, Frank, and also Jim's pet, a native animal of Mars, which is where they live, because RED PLANET by Robert A. Heinlein is set in the future, when Mars has become a colony of Earth administered by a company called the Company. Jim's pet is called Willis, and is basically a furry tape recorder that can record all amounts of sounds, and play them back. He is also, when it is convenient to the plot, a furry Swiss Army Knife. Jim and Frank are shipped off to boarding school at the beginning of the novel, although it takes a long time for this to happen. On the way to the school they end up meeting some Martians, who are basically very tall, three-legged, blue hippy plot devices. Jim and Frank do some transcendental meditation with the Martians, and this makes them something like blood brothers with the Martians. When they get to the school, the doddering old and loveable headmaster, who I guess is more or less Mr. Chips or something, has been sent away by the Company, and a new, dickhead headmaster is put in charge the next day. It quickly turns out that he's a Company agent, sent to help change the rules about the annual migration, which is important to Earthlings on Mars for some sort of climatic reason. And, if the plot weren't so full of holes, some sort of climactic reason, but I digress with my bad puns. Why the school should be of such strategic migratory importance is only sort of satisfactorily explained. Anyway, Frank and Jim run away from school, and the Martians turn up to help them (after they spend the night in a giant cabbage), and they get the news about the migration back to their parents, but only after learning that they've become outlaws. Somewhere in there they eat some food that is basically Quorn, which I thought was pretty impressive. But anyway, Jim's dad organizes a militia and they migrate despite the Company's policy or intention or rules or something, but then at this point the plot turns into a replay of the American Revolution (they stop just short of chanting, "No Taxation Without Annual Migration!", but Heinlein does somewhat self-consciously namecheck the Declaration of Independence). Some stuff happens and then the Martians demand the Earthlings all leave because they've violated the Martians' sacred trust. The only reason they didn't just kill all the Earthlings is because of that meditation brothers thing with Jim and Frank, which is pretty lucky. The prose is generally wooden, and the dialogue woodener. It's mellow, but not smooth. And kind of shitty. I liked it.

Dr. Douglas Cowie

Tacos!

2008-08-23T15:07:00.001+02:00

We just watched a very lean German woman with improbably high knee socks knock off the bar in the high jump competion.

Moving along, here are some pictures of tacos:

The scene of the crime - taqueria #3 in Ellensburg, WA

They serve a lot of crazy stuff here - tongue, brain, tripe - but thinking ahead, and wishing to avoid food poisoning (which plagued my last trip to Seattle) I went for the spicy pork. Because people never get sick from eating that.

I'm not throwing up. Yet.

And to show off the magnificent macro capabilities of our new camera, check out the close-up. You can almost see the salmonella waving at you.

Look at the size of that radish!

Seriously though, the food was delicious and there were no stomach problems at all. We saved that for the huevos rancheros. Which is a story for another day...

Dum Dee Dum II

2008-08-21T11:27:00.000+02:00

We've been working very hard at being the laziest bloggers ever. In fact, if there was
some sort of Olympic category for that we would be standing on top of the podium, biting that
gold medal with tears streaming down our cheeks.

Oh well. The Olympics are almost over (go Great Britain??) so it's time to get on with it all.

Here are things that have been happening in no particular order:
- Fantasy Film Fest in Berlin: awesome assortment of sci-fi, horror, and thriller movies, all in
English (or subtitled in English) accompanied by buckets of popcorn. We saw Afro Samurai (Sammy Jackson, not surprisingly, makes a bad-ass samurai), Mad Detective (and you thought cops were crazy in the US), and Outlander (Who doesn't like a sci-fi Viking epic?)

- We got a cleaning lady. The upshot of which is that I can sit on my couch and post on the blog while our bathroom magically cleans itself. This situation has leapt into contention for one of the best things of all time.

- We just bought 4 lbs of wild board meat yesterday. So if anyone happens to be traipsing through Berlin, let us know and maybe we can organize a good old-fashioned pig roast. Yeeha!

- And we went on a massive trip through the US of A. There were many highlights, including introducing ourselves to our newest nephew (Jack-Attack!), eating tacos from a taqueria, and visiting a dinosaur dig site. However, one of the best bits was driving in a remarkably fuel-efficient car from Denver to Seattle. We saw a lot of this:

Broken up with stuff like this:

Lord love a road trip.

I'm off to try and find a job in Berlin. Maybe I'll post more while our floor is vacuuming itself.

Dum Dee Dum

2008-06-24T13:30:00.000+02:00

At least we have very good reasons for not posting on our blog.

First off there was the whole allergy season thing, which caused about 6 weeks of non-stop sneezing, massive tissue consumption, and the generation of approx. 6 liters of gross bodily fluids. Jeff has crossed the finish line into 95% allergy-free living, while Kate is still suffering a bit more.

Then there's the whole work situation. Jeff has spent the last two months putting together his first ever DFG (which equals Deutsche Forschungs Gemeinschaft, which equals money) grant, to try and obtain a job in Berlin for the next three years. And Kate has been working very hard poking mouse neurons with glass needles, staring into microscopes, and proof-reading Jeff's grant.

But just to show that it's not all snot and stress, here's a photo from Jeff and Gary's recent bike-trip through the Sachsen countryside. Talk about poo-gefahr.

Oh, and Italy got bounced out of the Eurocup tournament, which should make everyone happy.

We're leaving next week for holidays in the States, and if we aren't too busy stuffing ourselves with tacos and beer we'll post up fun vacation pictures.

Hooray!

The Tribe in Berlin

2008-05-22T11:36:00.000+02:00

Our last post didn't seem to spark much interest - was it the cackling? The Enland bashing?
Or just the stupid video?

Anyhoo, here's a little discovery I made while exiting our former neighborhood hippy food store.

It would seem that there's at least one other Cleveland Indian (aka the baseball team from my home town) fan in Berlin. I wonder if they're as disappointed as I am that they have lost their last FIVE games - including three to the Cincinnati Reds, their supposed in-state rivals.

Ugh.

Ausländer + Too Much Beer = Late Night Indoor Cricket

2008-05-15T08:41:00.000+02:00

Behold one of the sillier moments from Ausländertag:

The cackling batsmen is yours truly.

And yes, the English do seem to perform better at this form of cricket than they do at the outdoor, sober, international level.

Honk

2008-05-08T16:27:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone. We're back. For now at least.

I don't really know where to start.

For our friends birthday several weeks ago, we went to a Russian supermarket and sat in a funny tent in front of the store. There was a very large woman there, wearing a fur vest who served us a lot of pork. Periodically, someone would get up, go into the store, and return carrying many bottles of russian beer. The flavor was nothing extraordinary, but the labels were cool. For example:

I've been "hanging out" in Dresden a lot recently. Which basically involves moonlighting at my former job at the MPI in pursuit of scientific greatness. Elusive thing, that. One of the many changes in Dresden has been the grand opening of a pretty cool restaurant called "Hell's Kitchen" (so they're not very original). They serve a mean burger (veggie and otherwise), fantastic tofu and something that is called the CRISPY CHICKEN TOWER. I've eaten about four of these bad boys in the last two months, and kept trying to snap a photo of one. Unfortunately, the flash on my phone was broken and the pictures always looked crappy. But no longer!! Behold...

That's right. Two breaded chicken patties. Two Kartoffelrösti. Cheese. Assorted veggies. And a fried egg. Needless to say, the bun melts about 30 seconds after it arrives at the table, leaving one with a big frickin' mess. But it tastes sooooo good.

Next post: Ausländertag!!

UPDATE: Oh, but I almost forgot. The genome of the platypus, (AKA Schnabeltier) has been sequenced! This article only reaffirms my long-held belief that platypi are the coolest animals evar. 10 sex chromosomes? Heck yeh! And by extension, my platypus tattoo is now even more awesomer than it was before.

Science = Purty

2008-03-26T18:10:00.000+01:00

The wonderful world of science has been a tad stressful recently.

One could even say that I've been having a hard time finding the fun in it all.

But then you collect images like this and everything seems a little bit better.

Now if only it would stop snowing.

Super duper award points (ie, beer) for anyone who can provide a reasonable guess at what this is. And don't look at the file name - it's not "laminin"

The Elder Statespeople of Cool

2008-03-10T16:52:00.001+01:00

We've been spending a lot of time reading this website lately:

nailonthehead.com

I particularly enjoyed these two posts:

#80 - the idea of soccer
#84 - t-shirts

And here's a picture of the banjo that Kate got me for Christmas. Next to our giant inflatable dinosaur.

Streik!

2008-03-06T15:27:00.001+01:00

So there's this really fun strike going on in Berlin right now. No subway, buses, or trams are
running until further notice. What makes it funny is that the first day of this strike was yesterday. Which just happened to coincide with the first real snow of the year. Coincidence?

This situation will become even more interesting on Monday, when the German train system plans to begin a strike of their own. Which means that there won't even be any commuter rail service (which both Kate and I require to get to work). We'll be living in a city of 3 million people with absolutely no public transportation. And both of these strikes are open-ended, so no one has any clue when this will end.

(Oh - in the interests of full disclosure, this photo was not taken from either of us, but ripped from the Spiegel site. However, I do bike past this stop every day, so I felt justified in putting it up.)

what the?

2008-02-12T20:26:00.000+01:00

Fishing!

2008-02-01T18:36:00.000+01:00

In keeping with our well established tradition of only posting photos of stuff months after the fact, I give you fishing in Tasmania:
Obviously this is Jeff looking dashing in sun gear and a life jacket, but behind him is Bob Mackinley- fishing guide extraordinaire, and a man inclined to call the french "frogs"

Speaking of which where did the french guy go? haven't heard from him in a while

Jeff hooked the first fish- a monster big Brown trout that managed to break the line and get away- about 5 seconds after this photo was taken

Kate's rainbow trout- look at that beauty

This is the "after" shot of the rainbow trout- I must say I was a little disappointed at how he tasted- could have been better

Oh yeah- that's fish number 2 - this time a brown

that i kindly let jeff clean for me- we couldn't eat it so Bob Mackinley promised to give it to his next door neighbour, who happens to be David Boon- which will make absolutely no sense to anyone not from a cricketing nation. A man known, not only for cricketing prowess, but also his amazing capacity to drink beer

Maybe these guys aren't so bad...

2008-01-29T12:07:00.000+01:00

Crikey!

In America these guys are called yellowjackets. They swarm around your picnic, sting you , and are a general nuisance. Australians refer to them as "Europeans Wasps" and tend to become a little panicky when one is around. Not quite high-pitched squeal, but getting there. Which is surprising, because there are way more poisonous critters in Australia than there are in the States.

At any rate, everyone can agree that this wasp is nothing compared to the absolutely terrifying insects described on this page...

Scary Bugs!

Taking care of business

2008-01-17T22:30:00.001+01:00

We've finally gotten around to posting a bunch of photos from the World Beard and Moustache Championship. Which took place on Sept. 1st. So we're only 4 months late.

www.welovethefrench.com

Enjoy!

Birthday Present from Cell

2008-01-13T19:25:00.000+01:00

In reference to this little gem by alex:

The pictures posted there are great, but I think this one captures the spirit of my collaboration with Gary a little better...

After a long day of collecting high quality TIRF data, Gary just happened to pass out on my couch.

In other news, we're back from australia and will be updating the blog soon. Tons of cool photos of animals, food, and people. Plus the usual supply of not-so-witty comments.

mark's not so special

2007-11-18T14:00:00.001+01:00

seems that everyone who comes past and understands our blog must be a genius

aren't we all special

though since there is a distinct lack of methodology described on the website that determined that we pitch our discourse at the genius level, i think we should probably remain skeptical

in other genius news- alex is also apparently part of the "big brain crowd"

We are lazy

2007-11-12T10:15:00.001+01:00

We have not been posting very much lately.

Maybe you've noticed.

Kate's busy with her new job, I was in Dresden all of last week, and truth be told it's all been a bit boring as of late. Plus the weather here has been absolute shit, and very demotivational. The high (or low) point was a crazy snowstorm on Saturday. Huge flakes, high-speed wind blowing everything horizontal, and massive thunderclaps to top it off. It was fun to watch from the safety of our couch (conveniently located in front of the fireplace). Which is where we spent the rest of the weekend.

Inspired by the beginning of winter, here's a classic photo, taken two years ago in the wilds of Vermont.

Pictured here are Scott and Dawnnica, along with the two of us. What you can't know from looking at this photo is that we're about to go home and eat super yummy steak with bacon gravy.

shock finding

2007-10-05T20:19:00.000+02:00

after watching the video found here:

http://www.spiegel.de/videoplayer/0,6298,21336,00.html

pierre makes shocking discovery:
But, in my opinion, since he spelled weido wrong we can discount him as an unreliable source

chop bruvva

2007-10-05T19:43:00.001+02:00

as promised, a post for dougie

This is dougie, he used to be kate's friend but then he met jeff. And then all of a sudden they're brothers in chops. I'm not jealous, really. Any way we stayed in london with dougie before the beard contest, and drank alot of beer, he has a very cool terrace. It's a shame he doesn't live in berlin anymore, drinking beer and shootin the shit with dougie is fun- even if the conversation does often turn to facial hair.

Jeff and dougie, chop bruvvas, neither a genius but both ranking well above the toaster*

*see post below

Mark vs. the Toaster - A German Unity Special Edition!

2007-10-03T12:19:00.001+02:00

This is our toaster:

It burns a skull and crossbones pattern onto our toast:

Pretty nifty.

This is my former PhD advisor, Mark Roth, celebrating with me after my thesis defense*. He dyed his hair blue to honor my previous hair color experiments.

For the last several months I've been tormented by the following question: Who is more intelligent - Mark? Or our toaster?

Luckily, the nice people at the MacArthur Foundation have resolved this issue by awarding Mark with one of their Genius Awards. For his work examining suspended animation **. If you aren't aware what the hubbub is about, check out more info here:

Mark is a genius

It really is quite a prestigious prize, and should put you heads and shoulders above the majority of toasters in the world.

So I guess that's that.

Oh, and today is Mark's 50th birthday.

Congratulations and happy birthday from Berlin!

It's German Reunification Day today, so I'm off to drink beer and eat fried meat.

* check out the fledgling chops. and the 22 oz. can of Rainer. yum.
** while not directly involved in this work, I do remember the first day that Mark came into lab and started describing how he was going to induce suspended animation in C. elegans. At that point in the game I had grown pretty accustomed to a certain level of lunacy escaping from his mouth - but this seemed different. Lunacy, yes. But more like a core of genius covered in a rather thick veneer of madness. Similar in many respects to a peanut M&M.

2005 vs 2007

2007-09-30T15:24:00.001+02:00

Same photo, different chops:

Berlin 2005 Brighton 2007

MULLET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-29T15:56:00.000+02:00

Hello ladies

Finally, after years of hassling, Alex mulleted his hair, specially for brighton- all i can ask is why the wait?

Bogan-chic*, it's the new black

*for the americans in the audience (and possibly also for that crazy french dude that sometimes pops by) a bogan is the australian variation of a redneck - just without the gun

yeah yeah we know

2007-09-29T15:47:00.000+02:00

that we said we would put up more photos from the competition and we are also well aware that we have not done it yet

here are two more photos as a teaserthe final steps on the road to brighton
jeff freshly styled (personal stylist to the left) and ready for the stage

seriously, look at those chops

A Preview

2007-09-09T20:33:00.001+02:00

Kate is attending a conference on the Italian coast this week (which apparently also involves some beach reclining), so we won't get around to assembling a complete collection of Beard and Moustache Championship pictures for a couple more days. Here's a little teaser though, taken by a professional photographer in Brighton. The rest of his photos can be found here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimnaughten/

and should include pictures of most of the contestants.

Woo hoo!

Pbbbbbbbbbt!

2007-08-28T21:36:00.000+02:00

Yes, we have been very lazy about updating our blog lately. As you'll read below, things have become increasingly hectic as the Beard and Moustache Championship approaches. Dry cleaning needed to be picked up. Buttons had to be sewn. The proper headband/shirt combo had to be found. And it's not like we live in France where you only need to work four hours a day. So yes, things have been busy. But we're back again. And many more photos will magically appear after we return from Brighton.

Gold medal here I come!

2007-08-28T21:28:00.001+02:00

Well, the beard and moustache championship is almost upon us and preparations have hit a fever pitch. After a two hour salon session today, I think the beard is looking in top form. Now all that's left are a couple of critical decisions. For example: Do I wear a head band?

or funny glasses?

And perhaps more importantly, what will I eat first when arriving in England? Curry? Fish n' chips? or bangers?

As always, opinions should be left in the comment section.

Brother Birthday Blogging

2007-07-27T01:27:00.001+02:00

An oldie but a goodie. It's Kevin's birthday today, so I wanted to take the opportunity to post up an embarrassing picture of him. Taken almost 15 years to the day. I'm on the left, cutting a dashing pose in my tie-die. In the middle is arne, my first ever German exchange student. And on the right is my scrawny-looking little brother. Possibly drunk on German beer. Happy birthday!

For Kevin

2007-07-18T16:44:00.000+02:00

I promised my brother a gross picture of my scar - here you go. Of particular note is the big hole in the top right of the photo. That's where the drainage shunt came out of the wound. When they pulled that sucker out it hurt.

In other wrist news, I had my first physio appointment today. Where I got to hear the words:
"Ok, I'm just going to massage your scar now"
Surprisingly, it felt pretty good.

Old and New Bears

2007-07-18T16:32:00.000+02:00

The big white bear here was a gift from Kate for my 33rd birthday this year. He doesn't really have a name yet, but is an integral part of our lives here in Berlin.

The slightly beat up guy in front is Old Poo*, my most beloved stuffed animal as a kid. I knew that my mom had saved him away somewhere, but I haven't seen this guy in over 25(?) years.

I got a care package from home today, discovered him hiding in there, and promptly burst into tears. Couldn't really say why. But now that I think about it (and I'm trying very hard to not be all Hallmark Cardy here) maybe it's always a shock to be reminded that you were a kid once.

*and yes, I recognize the inherent irony that someone as gastro-intestinally challenged as myself should have a stuffed animal named "poo".

My new wrist

2007-07-05T17:51:00.000+02:00

The last week has been less than fun. Last Sunday, the tiniest of slips while playing ping pong resulted in me heading off to the hospital for 5 days. Woo hoo! While there I met many a random German, had my first experience with hospital gowns, and was fed a lot of really gross food. Oh, and I got a big titanium plate stuck in my arm. Check it out:

Next week: physiotherapy! Typing with one hand sucks, so I'm stopping now.

The grill works

2007-06-12T23:07:00.001+02:00

With the exception of the toast, all of this food was cooked on our fantastic new grill (Thanks kevin and gaby!). It's not a burger (duh), but it was delicious. Next time we will optimize the coal placement, purchase some proper fracking lighter fluid, and manage a nice medium rare roast. Until then, we're just going to wait for some bird poo to land on our window.

Respect

2007-06-12T23:00:00.000+02:00

A bird shat on our window in epic fashion last week. First, take note of the impressive splatter effect. Second, be aware that our window is recessed in about 1.5 feet from the roof. It was either very windy or some bird executed a textbook dive bombing maneuver.

From this perspective it looks like the poo spatter is a giant monster eating a nearby building (the slightly famous Berliner Verlag tower).

The shit stain has remained on our window for about three weeks now. We're thinking about holding a vigil until Mom or Mum comes back to Berlin.

Know the enemy

2007-06-12T22:57:00.001+02:00

Which in this case is pollen.

The word for it in German is Heuschnupfen. And it ain't fun. Jeff was crippled in March. And now Kate is sneezing like a mini snot tornado. Where are the gut parasites when you need them?

An oldie but a goodie

2007-06-12T22:51:00.001+02:00

When our friends Scott and Dawnnica came to Berlin we took them to one of our favorite off-the-beaten-path tourist spots deep in the heart of East Berlin (Treptower Park for those who care). It's basically a Soviet WWII memorial, but that doesn't begin to do it justice. This, my friends, is propaganda at is finest. Check it out...

No more words need to be said.

We think it's a pencil sharpener

2007-05-22T19:56:00.001+02:00

This may be the first installment in an upcoming series on the crazy shit offered to us by Major League Baseball.

Due to some sort of copyright issues, we aren't allowed to watch American commercials during breaks in the baseball. So we get tossed a random assortment of crap instead.

First it was a weird combination between Pong and slow out-of-focus pans of a baseball stadium.

Then we had the baseball pac-man - entertaining for the first five minutes - then you realize that it's the exact same pattern over and over and over and over again. And that the person who is "controlling" Pac-Man/Mr. Baseball Head is a drooling idiot.

Over the weekend we got this:

This image stares at you for about four minutes and then you go back to the game.

I don't know what else to say.

this one's for moiz

2007-05-21T22:53:00.000+02:00

Monntag = Monday

2007-05-21T21:42:00.001+02:00

This would have been a fantastic show.

We bought tickets months in advance.

While we were eating breakfast on Tuesday, all we could talk about was excited we were for the concert that night.

Oops.

But hey, it wasn't as bad as booking plane tickets for the wrong week in March.

Just saying.

party of one

2007-05-21T21:09:00.000+02:00

we now have a blog roll- if indeed one link can be considered roll-like in nature

and it'll lead you to this guy:

ladies, this is alex- he's single (i think), smart and would look great with a mullet

and i get the feeling he will kick my arse for this later

The Way We Were

2007-05-06T18:25:00.000+02:00

These pictures were all taken at Kate's old flat as we were getting ready to leave. It was the middle of winter; we were cold, overwhelmed, and slightly dispirited by the whole moving process. Of course, looking back now, it was all worth it because our new place is super kewl.

Before contemplating the chaos that was the old apartment, jeff needs to put on his thinking cap.

kate unscrews coat rack #1

jeff sneaks in some quality polar bear time

Pork Burgers Here We Come!!

2007-05-02T00:11:00.000+02:00

Behold our lovely new grill.

We will teach the germans how to make hamburgers.

An Australian will teach an American how to roast lamb choppies.

And our neighbors may call the cops because of the smoke belching forth from our balcony.

Not to dwell on Knut or anything...

2007-04-25T23:07:00.000+02:00

But this picture is super cool

Do they make teething rings for polar bears?

2007-04-17T20:45:00.000+02:00

Knut is getting his first tooth, and there have been some complications.

He's in some pain, has a slight infection, and is running a fever.

But he's going to be alright.

Berlin, the money people at the zoo, and kids across the world all breathe a collective sigh of relief...

finger on the pulse, man

2007-04-14T16:49:00.001+02:00

kate and jeff finally join the modern age

with this

our blog

which will potentially only ever amount to this post, plus some photos of knut, maybe