We hear you

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!

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!

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!

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...

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

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!

Gee whiz,
Right
About
Now I'd
Die for

Some
Laugenbreze with
A lot of
Marmalade

And CC hasn't even pitched yet.