Kitchen Nightmares

Today’s post was inspired by my friend Renata, who at the age of 36 looks like she is in her early twenties. If I wouldn’t like her so much I would hate her with a passion just because of that *lol*. Just the other day she wanted to play the lottery and was asked for an ID. They thought she was younger than 18. So unfair. But Renata takes it all in her stride and she is cool. Cool as a breeze. She is heavily into Martial arts and kicks ass in sports as well as real life. She is also a little caffeine junkie. Now the email she sent me this morning almost made me lose control over my bladder and water come out of my nose.

She got home in a hurry and didn’t have a minute to spare before heading out the door again and go to practice. She thought being a woman and a capable one at that, it would be a brilliant idea to multitask. So she put her stovetop Espresso maker onto the stove, ran into the shower and as it was the first cold day since summer, she had put the heating on earlier. Now you know how it smells a bit weird after you turn the heating on for the first time in months. She got out of the shower and thought it smelt a bit too weird to just come from the radiators. So she went to see what her coffee was doing. Only the espresso maker sat there doing nothing while the plastic bowl holding oranges on the backburner had melted into lava-like blue melting bubbles.

Pretty funny and also pretty damn stupid and dangerous at the same time.

I have a similar kitchen accident to admit. I had cooked pasta and was draining it in a plastic sieve. Before I arrange the food I usually put the sieve with the pasta back onto the pot so the residue water can drain. So I did that. Arranged the food on the plates, we left to eat in the dining room. Only did I forget to turn off the stove that I had put the pot back on. It was a gas burner. Ten minutes into dinner it started to smell like burnt plastic and I ran into the kitchen to find the rest of the pasta, the sieve and the pot nicely melted together in one huge lump.

What was your worst kitchen nightmare?

Nun bin ich ein krankes Katzerl

Glaubt man es, nun hat es mich doch noch erwischt und ich habe einen Schnupfen. Lilly ist von Ihrem Schnupfen und nach drei Tierarztbesuchen mit drei Spritzen gerade erst wieder genesen, schon niese ich. Die beiden Dosenöffner machen sich natürlich Sorgen und ein wenig sorge ich mich auch. Ich meine wer klingt beim Niesen schon gerne wie eine Quietscheente. Denn genau so klingt es wenn mir der Rotz mit Hochgeschwindigkeit aus der Nase fliegt.

Mama hat mich heute Morgen ausführlich gestreichelt, dabei habe ich immer wieder geniest und nun habe ich heute um 17:30 Uhr einen Termin bei unserem Tierarzt. Ich bin ja mal wirklich gespannt was das werden wird.

Ich werde Euch auf dem Laufenden halten und versuchen der Lilly aus dem Weg zu gehen. Gut, das ist nichts wirklich neues aber ich wollte es mal gesagt haben.

Euer
Maunzerl

Kitty made a boo boo

As I was sitting on our couch enjoying the sunshine flooding in our precious birddogcat jumps up and pees right on the couch. Not just a few sprinkles either but a full-on, steady stream of pee. Needless to say I was not pleased. I had forgotten that I had put the laundry in the dryer which incidently is in the guestbathroom where the cat’s litter boxes are. They are scared of the rumbling noises of the dryer and it seems birddogcat had to go really urgently.

Normally I watch out that the cat’s have access to their loo at all times and when I put the laundry in both cats were sound asleep. Unfortunately birddogcat woke up a mere 7 minutes before the dryer was done. Bad timing. I ran for a bucket and a cloth and sprayed it with Febreze afterwards. I hope to have gotten the worst off and it wont start to smell but we will see about that once it has dried entirely. Anyone has a tip what to use on catpee? Any suggestions are more than welcome.

Random thoughts

Thank God it’s Friday. I haven’t had a minute really all day so I haven’t been able to post anything yet. So we went to the grocery store after work and when we got home we made dinner. We had Spaghetti Bolognese. It is simple to make and I can prepare it in my sleep plus it is so very yummy and done the Weight Watchers way.

Now we are cozy on the couch watching the cat sitting a mere 10 inches from the screen watching The Fast and the Furious. I guess she is a Vin Diesel Fan. Yesterday we realized that our little cat is retrieving her toys. Though I have to say she has very few toys that we bought. She just finds random things in our appartment that she can busy herself with for hours. The other day she found a cable tie and she’s been dragging that thing all over the place. She brings it to us and we throw it. She goes after it, kills it with her hind legs and proudly brings it back to us. So funny. I just realized that we haven’t posted any pictures of the cats in a while but the little one has grown so much she weighs about five and a half pounds now.

The hubby seems to come down with something so I put him into a hot bath and sent him to bed. I hope he won’t get sick.

Anybody got any idea what I could make for dinner tomorrow night? I’d like to surprise my hubby with something nice that is not too time consuming to prepare. I should maybe add that he isn’t into fish or seafood. I do cook almost every night and I do make things from scratch with fresh ingredients but somehow I seem to have run out of ideas.

Good Morning Reads!

What newssites do you read first thing in the morning? I have noticed that apart from checking all my favorite blogs and my emails I visit more or less the same old sites in pretty much the same order every f*****g day.I usually start of with Spiegel online- a weekly German news mag that has a great website

Spiegel.de

The Irish Independent

Then I move on to The Times website before I head to the gossip blogs

x17online.com

Perezhilton.com
Of course my reading may vary and as I said I spent time on checking my emails and all the blogs I heart.

Let me know what morning read you can’t do without and whether you are just quickly checking in or if you are enjoying a cuppa coffee with it.

German Reunification

Yay, today’s a public holiday here in Germany and I got to sleep in. Well not really but I was sleeping for a whole 30 minutes more. Those and the knowledge that we did not have to go into work in the middle of the week may have made all the difference.

While I lay in bed my mind wandered off and I was thinking to what event we actually owe this holiday. Seventeen years ago on this day Germany was reunited. I was fourteen years old then and so totally excited. Things had changed so much since November 9th in 1989,the year before the reunification, the wall came down. Some really frightening happenings were preceding this event. Back then I was thirteen years of age. I was a happy kid, safe in my loving family. I had great friends. In October the Monday demonstrations reached their climax and each day you came into school another one of your classmates was gone. His family had packed up and made their way through the Czech Republic via Hungary and Austria to West-Germany.

I remember being scared shitless. Always afraid my parents would take the same route, we’d get caught and separated. I had nightmares. I vividly remembered watching the news on TV (West German television- we lived so close to the border that we were able to receive their programs) with my mom and I literally begged her not to go. My mom would calm me down and tell me to relax. She said they had no plans to follow suit.

On November 9th she woke me up and told me that the wall was done and it was all over the news. My Mom, Dad and I all watched on in disbelief. We cried silently. It was just amazing and I don’t think I could understand fully what that meant. It was another four weeks before I actually set foot onto West German ground but I remember every minute of it.

So in honor of this day I will actually have a long think about where I’d be without all the events and demonstrations preceding the reunification. It really means a big deal to me.

Things that come back to bite you in the a**

No sooner have I finished my post about the blast from the past that trouble is on the step of our front door.  

My hubby has great social skills. He is very generous and helpful. Always there for friends and family. Usually to such an extend that it looks to me as if he is being exploited. Which he certainly was in the past. He can see that now. It is by no means his fault. He was born and bred like that. Always friendly, always helpful but sometimes that comes back to bite you in the a**.  

Here is an account of what happened.

When we lived in Ireland we met a great deal of people. My husband had many friends in his job and some of them moved back to Germany. So did we. We settled in nicely. Found a great apartment. Bought a car, furnished the whole place and generally tried to make our life as cozy and comfortable as possible. Now that wasn’t easy and I admit it was easier with two incomes than it would have been for a single household. Anyway. One of my husband’s colleagues (he started shortly before the hubby left the company) decided to come back to Germany as well. Started out in the same company that employs the hubby and me. Now we live about five minutes from work by car. There is very few public transport to that place but it isn’t as remote as you’d think either. 

We helped him find an apartment in our house. We vouched for him with our landlady. We helped him move, we lent him things, we cooked for him while he was waiting for his kitchen to be put in, we lent him the car, we took him to work and back on a daily basis. And what did we get back? Zero, zilch, nada, nothing, nichts…Now we didn’t expect anything except a Thank you maybe. No thank you. No money towards the gas. No gift on either our birthdays though he did attend the party and ate his way through everything. No kind words. Instead we got to wait several times in work for him to finish with work before chauffeuring him back home or shopping.

As a thank you we learned from our neighbors that he had plans to move out again. Two months after moving in mind you. Now this is where things got ugly. The neighbors knew he wanted to move but he did not tell us. We should have been the ones to know first. We vouched for him. He has a one year contract and 90 days notice. We were pissed off. Not that he was moving but at the sum of all things.  

We like our landlady. She is awesome and we could  not have been luckier to have found her or happier to be her tenants. She is fair to say the least and also goes out of her way to help you feel comfortable. It was like a fecking lottery win.

My hubby approached him and asked when he intended to tell us he was moving. He said he wasn’t really happy there and he did not know he had to involve us in his decision process. He didn’t but wouldn’t it have been the right thing to inform the people that helped you first before telling a random person? Lesson learned. Life is private now and help is only administered to friends and close family or extensive examination of the particular case.  Are we so wrong in feeling exploited? I can tell you we are certainly fed up.

Blast from the…

…Past.

Why is it that quite frequently people from your past pop up either in person or by writing you an email, even though you haven’t been in touch for several years? Unlike my parents that were born and raised in my hometown and who basically did not leave it apart from going away to study, my husband and I  have been around (no, not like that- take your minds out of the gutter).

While my parents have had the same friends since High School and have a very tied bond with them I have friends from my childhood,  from middle school, high school, my Au-Pair year, university, my hometown, my first job and my new job. Now it so happens that from each period of your life you will slowly lose touch with those friends and usually one or two of each period remain. Those are the friendships that mean the world to me. Friends I’d go out of my way for to make them happy or help them. You may not have spoken to them in months or even years but when you do decide to call them you seem to pick up where you left off and it seems not a day has gone by since then. 

Then there’s people that you have had a connection to. Nothing too strong. People that you barely think of now. Yet they pop up frequently like a blast from the past. After a forced conversation or one or two emails or phone conversations they disappear once again. This usually leads me to ponder about the past and why I have left things behind. It is like those memories leave a bad taste in your mouth and I was wondering if it is just me or if somebody else thinks like that as well. You may like the people but there’s things in the past that I’d rather they stay there without being constantly reminded *lol*.

Bathroom fun

So Monday is almost over and I finally have a minute to blog. The hubby just got home from soccer early. He was hurting. After asking him what was wrong he clenched his teeth, smiled crookedly and said he was getting old. Ha. I knew he would eventually admit it.

So he decided a bath would be just what he needed right now. This is where the fun started. Now don’t get me wrong, my husband is a well-groomed and very neat person. He just doesn’t do baths. That is unless he is hurting some way or another. A bath when a cold is approaching. Sure. A bath when your muscles are hurting from sports. Certainly. A bath for relaxing purposes? No way. What do you think?

So I knew it had to be either a cold or some other pain in an undisclosed area. The scenario that unfolded later was too funny. I hear the water running into the tub when all of the sudden I hear “Kat, can you come here for a second?” “Sure” I yell back while rolling my eyes. “How do you keep the water in? Oh I see, the cat pushed your make-up into the tub and now your eyeshadow is clogging the drain and I can’t push the plug down. What foam bath can I use? Is it okay if I use yours?” WTF??? It sure is, you are living here as well.

Sweat is running down my forehead now as I try to picture the scenario. Before he does any more damage I decide to join him in the bathroom and enter just as my beloved husband is about to get into the tub. He sticks one foot in the tub that is short of being filled to the brim. “Hot, hot, hot” He yells and jumps back out. Apparently testing the water is not what a manly man does.

Water is all over the floor now. More cold water is being added while my husband (he is quite tall) is kneeling pathetically next to the bathtub looking a bit helpless. I am being lectured that real men are very heat sensitve. At their feet. So before I die laughing or of a heart attack I decide to leave him to it. How come men can be geniuses but can’t take a proper bath?

Things I really dislike

The weekend is almost over and the dreaded monday morning is creeping closer and closer. Fall is finally here. The chestnut tree in front of our balcony has lost almost all of its leaves.

After spending yesterday morning shopping at IKEA (gosh how I love it) we were invited for a BBQ. We were all a bit melancholy knowing that this might quite possibly be the last BBQ as well as the last evening that you can sit outside without getting frostbite.

Lilly even came to check in with us. Was it the smell of the meat on the grill or her longing for contact? We don’t know but she sure looked cute before she took off again and was later found sleeping in a nearby bush. Her little cat body all curled up.

Since I really despise Sunday evenings because they mean that the weekend is almost over, I have compiled a list of things I really don’t like. I didn’t want to use the word “hate” which I find should only be used if you feel very strongly about something.

Maybe you feel like sharing what you don’t like.

Things I really don’t like

1. People speaking on their cell phones so you can understand their entire conversation
2. Queues
3. Grocery shopping
4. The sports pages of the newspaper
5. Waking up 10 minutes before the alarm clock was supposed to go off anyway
6. Dieting
7. Bad drivers
8. people who let their bad-mannered children run wild
9. cold coffee
10. Sunday evenings
11. Dubbed movies
12. Going through Airport Security
13. Finding bras for my big bust
14. Buying stock that falls the following day
15. Rudeness
16. Having no money left over at the beginning of the month
17. Companies cold calling in general and especially at night
18. Falling asleep with damp hair. I wake up with a dead poodle on my head.
19. Drunken people.
20. Lazy postmen that drop you a note to have you pick up a package instead of ringing the doorbell to see if you’re home. They may have to walk two flights of stairs.