Thursday, November 29, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #7


13 Things about Juliadamus

Today I wanna talk about one of my favourite books: "The deeper meaning of liff" by Douglas Adams.
It's a wonderful, funny and witty book, or better said an encyclopedia or dictionary. Douglas Adams is known as a critic for restaurants at the end of the universe, and as the famous founder of the Hitchhikers Guider to the Galaxy, but this book is much more about everyday life on earth.
The purpose of the dictionary/encyclopedia is to give names to things, behaviours and feelings in life that are common and well known to all of us, but not named, yet.
For example:

To SPOFFORTH
(vb.): To tidy up a room before the cleaning lady arrives.

I hope you get the gist, and here is the first part, letters A-D:

1.) ABILENE (adj.): Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the pillow.

2.) AHENNY (adj.): The way people stand when examining other people's bookshelves.

3.) AITH (n.): The single bristle that sticks out sideways on a cheap paintbrush.

4.) BALDOCK (n.): The sharp prong on the top of a tree stump where the tree has snapped off before being completely sawn through.

5.) BLITHBURY (n.): A look someone gives you by which you become aware that they're much too drunk to have undertood anything you've said to them in the last twenty minutes.

6.) BROMSGROVE (n.): Any urban environment containing a small amount of dogturd and about forty-five tons of bent steel pylon or a lump of concrete with holes claiming to be a scuplture.
     'Oh, come my dear, and come with
me.
And wander 'neath the bromsgrove
tree' - Betjeman.

7.) CLIXBY (adj.): Politely rude. Bliskly vague. Firmly uninformative.

8.) COTTERSTOCK (n.): A piece of wood used to stir paint and thereafter stored uselessly in a shed in perpetuity.

9.) DEAL (n.): The gummy substance found between damp toes.

10.) DIBBLE (vb.): To try to remove a sticky something from one hand with the other, thus causing it to get stuck to the other hand and eventually to anything else you try to remove it with.

11.) DOBWALLS (pl.n.): The now hard-boiled bits of nastiness which have to be scraped off the crockery by hand after it has been through a dishwasher.

12.) DROITWICH (n.): A street dance. The two partners approach from opposite directions and try politely to get out of each other's way. They step to the left, step to the right, apologise, step to the left again, apologise again, bump into each other and repeat as often as unnecessary.

13.) DULEEK (n.): Sudden realisation, as you lie in bed waiting for the alarm to go off, that it should have gone off an hour ago.

Make sure to stop by next week, to read the next 13!








Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Belated humor-overkill !!!

Hi folks,

ok, ok, ok - "SORRY!" for being late again, but I spent the last two days building up the booth for the Christmasmarket.
That's why I'll give you the double-dose of humor today, combining my weekly "WTF?!" and "Tuesday Tickle Treatment" series.

I thought about what I would present to you today and finally came up with the idea to have sort of a "theme" for this post. So today's motto will be: Star Wars!

First of all I'll show you my favourite SW-remake:

Store Wars

and talking about StarWars, stores and the dark side, the famous "Chad Vader - Dayshift Manager" is a "must-be-named".



Liked it? Look for more here or here, and to watch the whole saga, just visit the directors' homepage!

May the force be with you!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Please hang yourself here!

Hey folks!

No worries, I won't call the whole blogging-community to suicide, just because of Googles PR-juggling-tactics.
"Please hang yourself here" is written on a sign in a hotel cloakroom in Berlin. Knowing the circumstances now, you can probably guess what the hotel actually intends to offer its guests.

It's just another case of "LOST IN TRANSLATION - Misadventures in English Abroad".

This is the title of a book I came across a few days ago in a bookshop, while buying a present for my MIL. It's written by Charlie Croker and its' hilariously funny. I actually couldn't stop giggling and laughing while reading it.

Well, as the title tells you, it's a collection of signs, leaflets, brochures, menus, etc., from all over the world, all of them written in English and blotched with off-balance vocabulary and iffy syntax. Some of them might be spelling mistakes, with others you can easily guess what was meant, but some are just enigmatic.

Here's my favorite collection, part1 - "travel & hotel":

on the plane:

"Besides, try to prepare all you need before pack, and then, you can arrange everything's position entirely, or you will make yourself confusion" - Chinese In-flight Magazine

in the hotel-lobby:

"
Please leave your values at the front desk" - Paris, France

"We have nice bath and are very good in bed." - Zurich, Switzerland

"
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable." - Bucharest, Romania

your room:

"To call room service, please to open door and call Room Service. Please call quiet, people may sleep" - Ethiopia

"Is forbitten to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read notis." - Tokyo, Japan

"Please keep shutters close or monkey make you crazy." - Brunei

"It is defended to promenade the corridors in the boots of the mountain in front of six hours." - Switzerland

"If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it." - Moscow, Russia

"Dear Guts." - Brasov Romania

"Do you wish to change in zurich? Do so at the hotel bank!" - Zurich, Switzerland

"Depositing the room key into another person is prohibited." - Japan

"Your are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid." - Japan

"Sweat Dreams" - Poland

Tehehehe, I hope I didn't promise to much ;)
I will post more from this book over the weekend and the enxt couple of days, so make sure to stop by, or you'll miss all the fun!






Friday, November 23, 2007

It's the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Hey folks!

I hope you all survived Thanksgiving and had a wonerful time.

We had some friends at our house and, as I wrote yesterday, I made pumpkin-soup to start the dinner. I haven't tried the recipe before, so we were all curious how the soup would taste.

The recipe was kind of exotic, containing ginger and coconut milk, and ... it was delicious!
That's why I want to share it with you! So bring your pots and mittens and prepare!

You need:

2 lb of chopped pumpkin
1 lb of chopped carrots
1 big onion - chopped
2 tbs of butter
2 pt of vegetable stock
2 inches of fresh ginger - fine chopped (or 2tsp of gingerpowder)
1 t of coconut milk (creamy)
juice of 1 lemon
salt, pepper, soysauce

- melt the butter in a big pot
- first sweat the onion a bit, then add pumpkin and carrots and sweat for another 2-3 min.
- add the vegetable stock and the ginger
- simmer on low heat for about 20 min. until the vegetables are soft
- puree the vegetables, until the soup has a creamy consistence
- add the lemon juice, spice with salt, pepper and soysauce after your fancy ;)

You see it's an easy recipe with an exotic twist, and it's vegetarian, too :)
I hope you enjoy cooking it, as much as I enjoyed eating it!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #6


Thirteen Things about Juliadamus


Although I'm not American, we do have a Thanksgiving party at our house. We would be watching the games anyway, so why not have some friends over here for dinner.
We've been doing this for a couple of years now, and if there's any tradition to it, then it's me, grabbing my purse and keys, hurrying to the store, last-minute-shopping all the stuff for the dinner.
That's why I have to make this a quick one today ;)

So first of all here's my twelve things I still have to get for the dinner tonight:


1. Red Wine - most likely some Cabernet Sauvignon

2. Cinnamon Sticks - for the cranberry sauce

3. Cranberries - well, that's obvious, right?

4. Camembert - the turkey replacement for the veggies, served breaded and fried

5. Pumpkin - we'll have it as a soup

6. Carrots - for the pumpkin soup

7. Ginger - goes into the soup as well

8. Coconut Milk - also for the soup

9. a Lemon - well, have a guess ... yes it's for the soup

10. Bacon - for the stuffing

11. Parsley - hmm, I like my stuffing with lots of parsley

12. Turkey - yeah I know I'm late! I told you so!

And number thirteen will be me, wishing everybody a Happy Thanksgiving!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!




Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tuesday's Tickle Treatment #5

I know I'm late again, but the whole day has been packed with classes, appointments, learning and a serious date with my couch and Dr. House!

As I spent a lot of time in university today, the tickle will have to do with university.
And unsurprisingly it's a mixture of university, music and humor ;)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

Lecture Musical by the Prangstgrup

Hey Teach!

Monday, November 19, 2007

What the ...?!? #6

Hi folks,

it's official now - camping season is over. We had the first snowball-worthy snow last week.
But, as you might already have noticed, Christmas season is just beginning. So, what are you going to buy for all your camping-community-friends? It should be useful and handy, but still space-saving and easy to handle?

Well, here's my suggestion for you:

The portable inflatable potty for children and adults, called Inflate-a-Potty!

And this is what the potty looks like:



adult size










children size



What? You ask how it works?

- Inflate potty quickly by blowing up like a beach ball with removable extension tube.

- Insert disposable bag and cover potty completely.

- After use remove and seal bag tightly with enclosed twist-ties.

- Deflate potty!

PeeEss: 13-kilo-trash-bags-are included.




But this is not only a wonderful present for campers, hitchhikers, truck-drivers, etc...
It is a must have for every Mom and Dad!

At least, this is what the advertisment tells us:


!I need to go now!








!Thanks Mom and Dad!






Can you hear her, too, yelling: "Blow harder, Daddy, I really need to pee now!"? Priceless!

You like the idea? Go buy it! And I'll keep thinking "Wtf?!?"

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Gingerbread and Glühwein


... these are the things you will definitely find at the famous Nuremberg Christmas Market, which is called "Christkindlesmarkt".
For those of you who never heard of it, Glühwein is hot wine spiced with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pimento, sugar and fresh orange and lemon juice ... hmm delicious. "Elisen"-Gingerbread from Nuremberg is another delicacy, made without flour, very juicy and rich.


But the main attracion of course is the market itself.
It is one of the oldest markets in Germany, the first written proof of its existence dates back to the year 1628, thoug it is very likely that the beginnings of the market date back earlier. There are about 150 stalls, selling Glühwein, gingerbread, candies, toys, food (mainly Bratwurst), ornaments, candles, handicraft, christmas balls and "Zwetschgenmännla" - little figures made of dried prunes.

Right in the middle of the market a huge manger scene is placed. People throw coins into it and make a wish. The collected money is given to charity.

The biggest event is the opening of the market. The Nuremberg Christkind is standing on the top-balcony of the church, while saying the prologue.



The beautiful market is known all over the world and there's even the Chicago-fake-Christkindlesmarket!

But why do I bore you with all this stuff? Well, despite having the market, Nuremberg is also a sister city of Atlanta, GA. I know that's not really exciting, but Nuremberg offers a stall for every twin city to represent and sell goods from their country. Some of them are run by tradesmen, others cover the work-shifts with volunteers like me. This year will be my fourth year of working in the Atlanta-booth and I'm totally looking forward to it!

We are a mixed crew of Germans and Americans, which are either married to a German, work here or are exchange students. We sell hot apple cider, CocaCola merchandise, Braves and Falcons fanwear, candies, books, root beer, mugs and food - and yes Germans do pay 6 Euros for one box of Betty Crocker baking mix, cause you can't get it any cheaper here!

All incomes are donated to the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

The market will open at November 30th and I will give you weekly updates about my work freom then on.

Prepare fpolks, Christmas is right around the corner ;)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #5


Thirteen Things about Juliadamus


Today - my favourite fruits!

1. Apples
"An apple a day, keeps the doctor away"


2. Bananas
2 bananas, 1 cup of cream, 2 tbs peanut butter(creamy), 2 tbs honey, 1pt crushed ice
put all together in mixer, blend and enjoy your smoothie ;)


3. Oranges and all other kinds of citrus fruits
hmmm, a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice in the morning ... delicious


4. Melons - all shapes, all tastes
Cut a cantaloupe-melon in two halfs, scratch out the seeds - it's like a bowl now - put chocolate ice cream in the hole, and poor Baileys on top of it!


5. Cherries
Well, if anythings reminds me of childhood, it's sitting under my grandmas cherry-tree, having cherry pit-spitting-contests with my brother


6. Persimmon
How about some persimmon pudding?


7. Mango
Cut it in small pieces and mix with vanilla-yogurt!


8. Grapes
Serve them with some cheese (real cheese please: italian, swiss, french or from the Netherlands!)


9. Papaya
Make sure to get rid of all those little black seeds, they're extremly bitter!


10. Strawberries, raspberries, ... all berries! and black currant ;)
pure, with sugar, cream or yogurt, as a smoothie or ice cream, I just love them!


11. Pears
I especially like Nashi pears - they are really delicious, somehow sweeter than "normal" pears!


12. Nectarines
I'm addicted, I eat about 3-4 a day during summer! And I prefer them to peaches cause they are not hairy!


13. Cacao
What do you mean - that's no fruit?!? Well at least you can cut all the fruits above in slices and have a wonderful chocolate fondue ;)


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!



And please feel free to comment!



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!



Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tuesday's Tickle Treatment #4

Today I'm gonna throw pearls before swines!

Well, not that I think that my humble readers are swines, but I'd love to introduce you to the incredibly funny comic strips of Stephan Pastis. this is what the author himself says about Pearls before Swine:

"At its heart, Pearls Before Swine is the comic strip tale of two friends: a megalomaniacal Rat who thinks he knows it all and a slow-witted Pig who doesn't know any better. In truth, neither of them is very smart, but while Pig is content with his humble status in life, Rat is always on a futile search for fame, riches and immortality."

But see for yourself:



P.S.: Too small for you? Can't read it? Well either get new glasses or just click on the picture ;)

Monday, November 12, 2007

What the f...?!? #5



Oh oh folks, it's getting cold here. And I mean really, really cold.
I'ts already snowing, the wind blows harsh and you freeze your butt of while smoking outside. Scarf and gloves are indespensable.

And that's the problem: I'm a smoker, and in Germany smoking is forbidden in every public building. Moreover it will be forbidden in every restaurant, bar and pub from January 1st 2008.
So what's left is to go outside and inhale a cigarette as quickly as possible while your fingers become an ice cube.

But ... wait ... do I see a faint light at the end of the tunnel?

Yeah, if somebody knows about comfortable smoking under awful weather conditions, it's the Brits, of course.
That's why they invented the "smoking mitten" !

Yes you heard right, a mitten created for smoking outside, with a hole to put the cigarette through. It can be worn either on the left or the right hand.

Sensational! Can I send in a Christmas wish-list already?

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Do they know it's Christmas

Hey folks it's me again!

First of all I want to apologize for not posting yesterday and the day before. I was very busy with university, work and baking christmas cookies. Yes, you heard right, I really did it:

I made my first christmas cookies at the beginning of november!

You know I really hate all the stores and supermarkets for starting the Christmas-products-sale at least 10 weeks before Christmas. I think it spoils all the pleasant anticipation. Your almost fed up with it before it all actually takes place!

But then again I'm a passionate baker, a choc-a-holic and a cookie-aficionado *sigh*

So I made some Cinnamon Stars yesterday and prepared the dough for Vanilla Crescent-cookies, which I'm going to bake today. Mmmmmmmhhhh!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #4

Another Thursday, another Thirteen. This week I'll give you my all-time 13 favourite 90's songs. No worries, the other decades will follow, but as I spent the whole 90s being a teenager - yes I'm one of those lucky and blessed '79-born kids - these songs influenced me, my being a musician and so on.


I will definitely come up with a TT about my fav albums, cause in my opinion this is something different. You can love cartain songs, though you don't like the artist, or the rest of the album is simply crap.

And please don't forget that some of them I had to list because I knew them by heart when I was younger. Be honest folks, nobody listens to J.S. Bach and Chick Corea when he/she is adolescent, and the Backstreet Boys didn't get rich cause my mom thought that they are "sooooo cute!!!"

So get prepared, here we go:



Thirteen Things about Juliadamus


13. Jump around - House of Pain

12. What's up - 4 non Blondes

11. Everybody (Backstreets Back) - Backstreet Boys

10. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

9. Uninvited + Ironic - Alanis Morissette

8. Song 2 - Blur

7. Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice + U can't touch this - MC Hammer

6. Männer sind Schweine - Die Ärzte

5. Smells like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

4. Killing in the Name of - Rage against the machine

3. Everybody hurts - R.E.M.

2. Walking after you - Foo Fighters

1. Millionen Legionen - Die fantastischen Vier


Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. Babystepper

2. Patti

3. Santa's Elf

4. Deb

5. Mama Archer

6. Alasandra

7. Doubledeckerbusguy

8. Malcolm

9. Linda

10. Kat

11. Shan



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!





Oki folks, hope you enjoyed the list! And remember, please leave your adress in the comment, and I will give you linky love.

Greets Julia

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Sing for me, my angel, sing for me!

Sorry folks, I know I'm a bit late today, but no worries - here's your weekly laugh muscle stimulation!

As some of you might know I work in a Karaoke-Bar. And I'm a musician. And I'm becoming an ESL-teacher.
This means I'm not only used to drunk people performing their version of "My way", but also to working with dictionaries and training my pronounciation.

And guess what? Somebody just came up with the right thing for me - a online karaoke-dictionary called Dictionaraoke!

What does this mean? Well, have you ever been to a decent online dictionary? Or do you own one on CD? there you have those little soundfiles that pronounce the word in correct RP.
For the Dictionaraoke those soundfiles were put together, accompanied by music to form karaoke-classics.

Just visit the site and try it, it's pure fun!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Tuesday's Tickle Treatment #3

Hi folks,

I know I'm a bit late today, but I'll literally give a f*ck! As an eager student who's becoming an ESL-teacher, I'm always looking for decent sources to improve my grammar and my vocabulary.

And here it comes:

how to use the f-word correctly

It might take some time to load, but it's worth it.

Now enjoy and educate yourself!

Monday, November 5, 2007

What the f...?!? #4

Hi folks!

It's monady again and so it's time for the weekly "WTF?!" again.
This week I'd like to make you move. Yes guys and girls, get your more or less fat butts out of the armchair and off the couch and get into the groove.

No excuses folks, these guys will help you look fanzy and classy on the floor ...



And now ... disco!!!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #3


Hi folks!

Last week I told you about my favourite books - and I'll definitely have another TT about books, cause I realized that I'm too much of a bookworm to just have 13 favs ;)

Anyway, this weeks TT is about my favourite films, and I sense another TT on this topic as well, cause I know that those thirteen just won't be enough!

By the way: the films are not in any order of favor, I love them all the same!



Thirteen Things about Juliadamus


1. Blues Brothers

A classic, best soundtrack ever and full of comical genius.

2. Lola Runs

A german film that even made it to the US market.

3. Ghostbusters

Who could resist a huge Marshmallow Man

4. Life of Brian

"Splitters!!!"

5. Fight Club

Hmmmm ... Brad Pitt! And I really do like the plot twist at the end.

6. King Pin

Hilariously funny!

7. The Full Monty

Adorable, witty, english humor. And hell - those guys can dance!

8. Payback

Mel Gibson wants his money back.

9. UHF

Weird Al Yankovich simply rules!

10. Star Wars IV - VI

Harrison Ford is soooo cool! I don't have to comment on the new trilogy, do I ?!

11. Lord of the Rings - Trilogy

Yep, I did the "watch-all-3-films-(extended version)-on-one-day" marathon, and I survived.

12. Eight Days a Week

The most romantic, funny movie I've ever seen.

13. Memento

Genius, pure genius. I had to watch it at least twice before I roughly knew what's goin on.

Hope you enjoyed reading the list, as much as I enjoyed watching the films ;)

Please comment and leave a link to your TTand I will give linky love back to you!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. Sleeping Mommy

2. Patti

3. Joanne



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!




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