Wanderings

morningmoon, evil_firmware, our friends Anne, Dan and Ed and I all jumped off the mountain Saturday, in celebration of ... well ... I guess just because we could.  And, it wasn't raining for a change.  Although, it did rain later that afternoon and all the next day ... and part of today.  :)  It's OK, just normal for here.  

Here are some photos ...

  this is my chute. I'm in tandem with Albert.  

  morningmoon with chute and scenic mountain background.

 morningmoon landing.

 my foot :)

  my shadow, on my husband, at the landing zone.

It was quite fun, and a nice ride down.  We go up the mountain (up the Alpspitzbahn this time), and the 'plot' lays out the chute nice and flat.  Then we hook into the tandem harness and wait for a good wind to come up the short hillside. (below)



The chute looks to be two layers, with little pillows open on one end to catch the wind. That's how I think it picks up initially.  The pilot pulls it up, it catches the gust and we run. Or maybe we start running as he pulls it up with the lines, then it catches the gust.  Hell, it was two days ago and I've worked since then :).  It was very awesome, either way  The harnesses had little built in seats, so it was a comfy ride down.

I have more phots on the photoshop site - if you are interested, please comment or send me an email and I'll send you the link.
Cheers,
moi!

The rules: Bold the movies you've seen, underline the ones you plan to, strike out the ones you HATE and refuse to watch ever again. As you can see, I watch a lot of movies :)


1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
5. Toy Story (1995)
6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
12. The Matrix (1999)
13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
16. Boogie Nights (1997)
17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
19. Casino Royale (2006)
20. The Lion King (1994)
21. Schindler's List (1993)
22. Rushmore (1998)
23. Memento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire
29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
30. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
37. Pretty Woman (1990)
38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
39. The Sixth Sense
40. Speed (1994)
41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
42. Clueless (1995)
43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
47. Men in Black (1997)
48. Scarface (1983)
49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
58. Ghostbusters (1984)
59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
84. Sideways (2004)
85. The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
87. Swingers (1996)
88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

Had a great birthday party for the Jazzmatazz Saturday at Freitzeitpark Loisachbad. Great park with lots of stuff to climb, boing, spin, slide and zip on, and we had about 11 kids (both German and American) there to run about and eat cake pizza chips and ice cream.

Where did we put that Ice Cream, anyway?

But it was a great party and she had fun and so did we (and the little boy monkey too.) Pix will follow one of these days ...

Please copy and post your own, I would be so happy to get to know others here better.



1. First name: Yvonne

2. Age: 36

3. Location: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

4. Hometown: RIchland, WA

5. Occupation: Public Affairs

6. Partner: evil_firmware

7. Kids: 2 wonderful kiddos 4 and 21 months

8. Brothers/Sisters: one full brother +9 years; one step brother +5 months; one step brother -3 years; one half brother - 10 years.

9. Pets: nope

10. List the 3-5 biggest things going on in your life: work, Master's Degree, family

11. Parents: several

12. Who are some of your closest friends?: morningmoon, Wendy, Heidi. ...

13. Do you drink/smoke?: drink. Recently introduced to scotch.

14. Tattoo/Piercings: 2 with one more on the way, naval, ear. one day nose.

... Imust say I spoke too soon. I hear much honking of horns. We live in a fantastic apartment right around the corner from the center of town. Unfortunately, we're near the road that runs through the center of town. :) But they are usually done with the honking in about 30 minutes or so ... it's a small town, there's only so far to drive lol

... we have one lonely spaniard running around below in the streets with a bell and a bullhorn celebrating the win. lol QUite refreshing after all of the hooliganism from previous Turkish and german wins.

Is it bad that I'm glad Espania won because there aren't many spanish folks here in Garmisch, and thus less of a chance the honking cars, drumming people, and hollering fools will wake my kids? :)

On another note, I graduate from Seton Hall Sept 5 with a Master of Arts in Strategic Communication and Leaderhip and it looks like NONE of my family can make it. I'm not so surprised. None of my family were able to make it to my graduation from officer training school. Maybe two made it to my graduation from college the frist time, probably because I was an hour away. Strangely enough, everyone was able to make it to my brother's phd dissertation. Don't get me wrong - I'm not deluding myself - we're definitely a little bitter here.

On a strange note, though, I've been taking many tests in the past few years that tell me I'm good at math. What the hell? I'm a journalism major. I work in public affairs. I write poetry. But I got 700/500 math/verbal on my GRE. a half dozen other tests keep pointing at math for me. I got a "D" in triginometry. what gives? What the hell do I do with this, now? lol
\oh well

Tags: family, germany, school

boy oh boy, do we have pflantzen. Gots me two small-tomato plants, one big-tomato plant, basil, chives and rosemary (per request of morningmoon, 6 currently-growing $15 cantaloupe plants, a row of porree (not sure if they are green onions or leeks), a row of lavendar plants, and a bunch of other stuff. Was gifted more than a dozen houseplants by my neighbor ... they are moving to Colorado; been here 12 years.

Not sure I could do 12 years in Germany; would miss the fam.

But lots of plants. I'm enjoying it. morningmoon is going to make me a succulent garden, which will be cool. Just have to figure out a nice place to put it. Oh and strawberries ... have a neato hanging basket of strawberries.

So much for that excitement. :) No, really... tres exciting here. OK I'm really just procrastinating .. going to go back to my homework now.

warm, toastyed banana-carrot-zucchini-apple bread with yummy butter.

knowing tomorrow is Friday.

having a sort-of date tomorrow night ... well, a babysitter at least! :)

listening to Enya. Hell, evil_firmware put the Enya on. Can't beat that in a husband.

Ok, well, I guess that would count as "better" but only in the purely physiological sense. Not that that's bad ... not at all. I mean, I likes my man quite a bit ... just wanted to point out the intellectual coolness of him. And all that.

... ok he turned Enya off; I take it back. lol

wait, he turned Enya off for this:




I can forgive him that. It's a little reminiscent of Abbot & Costello. Is it really real, or is it scripted? I must google a bit for that...

... found it:
"As a rule, there is nothing funny about an oil spill. Mocking the government's response to one and its attitude towards the environment, however, can be comedy gold. This team of political satirists has been doing its fake interviews on Aussie television and radio for nearly 20 years. John Clarke's fast-talking circular logic is so perfect that this video is mistaken on the web as being real.

The interview is in reference to the wreck of a Greek oil tanker, the Kirki, off the coast of Western Australia in 1991. The pair continues to lampoon Australian politicians with their dry satire. Because of the ongoing environmental problems facing Australia, they end up spoofing the Australian government's take on things quite often."

We left Hawaii (Hickam AFB) last August and in early September heard that a friend from the countyard in which we had lived had been killed in a horrific accident - he had been loading his motorcycle on a trailer on the Nimitz highway when a van crossed 5 lanes and ran him down; hit and run. It was very sad, and devastating for his wife and all the folks in our courtyard.

Now we hear another tragedy hit friends from the same courtyard. Donny and Becki PCSd to Little Rock a year ago, but left their son james at BUY-Hawaii - he was a fantastic student and wanted to finish his teaching degree early. Well, they are now flying back a year before graduation to take his body home, as he was found dead Monday in his dorm room. It's terrible; he was such a great kid - smart, nice, played some mean guitar - had everything going for him. Don't know what happened yet, but I can't even imagine how Donny and Becki must feel.

... and the cynical part of me (of course that's a pretty big part) thinks, "Why the hell does this happen to the nice people, the nice families? Why not the jerks?" We all know plenty of jerks who deserve these kinds of accidents or untimely deaths. ... and by saying that do I jinx myself for uncharitable karma thoughts?

So, now I got me some Billy Joel goin' through the noggin - 'cause James was surely one of the good ones. My heart goes out to Becki and Donny and their two younger kids. May you have the strength to keep yourselves together, strong, and remember James for the great person he was. Blessings James.

Tuesday, we (myself and the kiddos) rode to work and school, rode home, then went oh-so-quickly to herr doktor's to get a label on the little man's anti-bs so the child care center would give him his medicine (instead of mom or dad interrupting the day!)

After, we found out papa was en route only just then from Stuttgart and would thus not be home until around 1030 p.m. argh. Well this, of course, necessitated a trip to Magiafredda, the Italian eis shoppe down at the end of the street ... after which we took a quick trip to the Rewe for jogurt und banane and I hapened to pick up a nice little basil plant. Smelled wonderful. Jazzmatazz held it on the way home and I think I put it out on the porch.

Fast forward nearly one week into the future and here I am making dinner, cleaning up dishes, helping get the kids ready for bed and wham! Basil plant ... where the heck is it? Not on the front porch, not on the kitchen porch, nor on the floor of either porch or anywhere in die hause. Gone, gone away 'tis.

maybe over the edge ... we had some wind this past weekend ... but oh, so sad. How I miss Basil. Smelled so good.

On plants, did I mention the $15 cantaloupe I bought a few weekends ago? Saved some seeds and lo! They grow! Lovely, they are ... about 6 of them popping up right now. I so happy! Definite return on investment potential there ... morningmoon will be here to hopefully share some. :)

dare I say only in Japan?

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/30/japan.closet.ap/index.html

I love the "random" feature on the left column of LJ (you know, when you're in the Post or Settings screen?) but hit some serious age nostalgia this evening when I "randomed" into some 20 year old girl's LJ page, anguishing about college life, homesickness, a boy, and other whatnots full of angst pain and confusion.

Holey schmoley, but do I ever remember those times. Makes my gut kinda twisty to think about how flitty things were, how monumental life was, how the slightest unintentional brush-off by the wrong person could crush me in seconds ... it utterly amazes me how we are able to move through adolescence, puberty, the teenage years and our twentiew and emerge generally unscathed into life.

I ache that I've not written poetry in some seriously long times. I love words. I eat books for breakfast. Meine mann gives me heck for reading as much as I do, but I read more books than he's able to complete online games. ;)

Oh well. I take pictures that are pretty good. I get to cook good stuff now and then. And I have two incredibly well-crafted little critters runnin' round hereabouts... :)

Friendly friday. Thanks to all me friends out there. There are some of you, and some of you who re-friended me too which is nice. 'preciate the words to read online and in hard copy. :)

And morningmoon will proof me on this - if anyone is hankerin' for a Deutsche care package, I'm your gal.

... until meine freunde morningmoon comes to visit! Yippee!!! (have to put that on my outlook calendar so I remember to get her at the airport ... )

(you laugh, but I am that bad for real.)

I have a nifty 1.5 liter thingy of Sangria!!! Made in the Spanisch style, hier im Deutschland. How, exactly, is that traditional Sangria? Why I do not know. But it is still tasty.

I even have ice. My step dad is convinced there is no ice in Germany. None. Kaput. Keine eis. Not quite true... there is ice in my freezer for sure. :P

I am moody today. Not sure why; could be hormonal. Still with the IUD. Gotta make that appointment. Mr little man has been a little sickly - had a burst eardrum ... what's that called ... mio eardrumo expludio ... think there's another name, can't think of what I"m thinking. But there we were, Saturday, going to the Apotheke for something to clear little man's snotties up. She gave us nasa spray and then we went outsidt to the car and I noticed stuff outta the ear. Looked snotty. GROSS. Said it was the eardrum, but the spray would clear it all up. So we gave it a couple of days, and it got yuckier. Definitely infected. NOw we have antibiotics (which make me marginally paranoid you know, the whole superbug thing - this is actually a first for antibiotics for die kinder. Not even antibac cream.) But immediate improvement, and the little guy actually sleeps until 0600 if you can imagine that. Ruptured. That's the word I was looking for.

Drove to Stuttgart yesterday for a Strategic Communication conference ... basically getting all the EUCOM component SC and PAOs together to talk shop (network) and learn about each other. I'm more of a... well, yeah I'll say it - I'm a tool, whereas they are ... well, they are tools too, I guess (military as a tool of the president - not the public diplomacy tool, obviously - I think I qualify as PD) So a bunch of PA and SC tools sittin' in a basement talking shop. How fun is that? :) Even got to see secret-squirrel info. Which, as usual, isn't so interesting. But good meeting. Point there was it involved an 0445 wake-up; an 0505 bike-to-work; and an 0535 drive-up-north in the POS Chrysler GOV that sounded sickly (the transportation gal told me it just sounds bad; it was just out from a check-up) Poor Chrysler couldn't keep up with the Mercedes on the highways (Autobahns for you romatickers)... could barely keep up wiht the Opels. Unless we went downhill .. I hit 160 hm/h a couple of times that way (translates to about 105 mph).

Even in the POS Chrysler, aaaaaaahhhhh the roads are so nice to drive on. My volvo kicks autobahn ass any day, though. I got home about 1030; had to stop at the Panzer Kaserne PX to buy clothing for my children. Can't find much here except sports equipment fur die touristas.

OK .... going for "Halfway to the Grave" some aqua and a little mehr Sangria before bett.

Ciao, bella!

pushing H2O for our Billy Blanks hour! Man has twitchy eyes but busts yer butt in a good way. We have work to do, inches to lose. I want to stay fitting into my clothes!!!

And on that note, no actually the two are not related, but where is my tax incentive? I want my money! Actually, I want to pay off my credit card :)

evil_firmware is excited for payday because it means he gets to buy a server. The following payday he buys the software to run the server. Then, a rack to hold the server. It sounds piecemeal, but all I have to say is thank goodness we don't have a car payment or he would have to make a tough decision.

Ok, so I'm looking for online master's degrees in religion, theology, comparative religion, religious studies, pastoral counseling, ministry etc. etc. etc.

The criteria are the following:

**NOT primarily about Christianity
**ONLINE preferably
**Must be accredited by an institution listed in the American Council for Education's Accreditation book.
**A 36-hour program or longer.
**Preferably not have a prerequisite of a Bachelor's in similar studies ...

:)

Not too much to ask. Prescott College in Arizona offers a liberal arts degree that might do the trick, but I'm not sure about the accreditation.

Been meaning to post this ... it's the last poem I wrote, back in April 2001. Ok last poem before my few lines on Gardenia. :)

Friday Night in Alamogordo
--------------------------

The perspective of my disappointment
sees your fatigue,mine ... I've cleaned, but
maybe I"ll go do my nails.

Witching through the hours
my open door welcomed you,
but all too soon I'm thinking -- bed.

Possibilities are the Taps sounding
through my body ... I have to wonder,
if it's chemistry of indigestion of life.

What rules us? Is it the book
we live under and if so,
when do we judge the cover inappropriate?

Your double hazlenut latte went cold
and I drank it while working the
boss-man's Friday night.

History and future soon drank the caffeine
from me & the quartz
weighs my arm heavy.

How easy is it, I ask the face,
to push through politesse into need,
and just go wake you the hell up?

"Weisswurst" ... a sausage that is white (probably the bacon fat) and made without preservatives so it is traditionally a Bayernish breakfast sausage - that's unique.

Old women walking up to us and our blonde children on the fusgangerweg saying things like, "I remember when there were a lot of blond haired, blue eyed children around here" ... and commenting on my husband's statement that his mom didn't have blonde/blue, "You must have been bred that way" ... definitely unique to Germany.

But entering offices which are veritable jungles of house plants, not unique but definitely strange.

My first experience with this was on meeting Jeannie Chen, our British expat (is that accurate in the EU?) who works in the transportation unit, and gives us our European driving test class. Imagine a 5 foot tall, 105 lbs soaking wet little British lady saying, "Rollsplitt (loose gravel)" with a great big rrrrrrrrroool of that r. very funny. But going into her office, following up on our household goods, was literally like entering a jungle. Fairly good sized and she has great windows for it, but everywhere plants of all sorts, shapes, sizes.

And she's not the only one. I've seen dozens of other offices here with the same thing - like the owners are trying to be plant Arks. Down the hallways in windowsills - succulents, ivy, hosta derivatives, philodendron ... they gather in corners, on stairwell balconies, near conversation groupings of furniture in the break room. Almost like the Birds, except much quieter (and less aggressive)

So plants, everywhere. Balconies are greenhouses and gardent; homes are wombs for the nurturing of clippings ... and the aisles at the garden areas are packed with men and women stocking up for the great plant dearth of 2008, so it seems.

Myself, being a rather greenish-black thumb with the house vareity, (ok let's be honest here - it's not so much a black thumg as a sort of binge and purge relationship with water) thought "hey - when in Rome" and asked coworker Anne to hook me up with clippings.

This has soon progressed to 12 nifty white potted plants from those original clippings, three tomatoe plants, two pepper plants, lavendar, two vareity pots, and three rectangular "birthing" posts containing Porree (I think they are leeks; I was going for green onion) More tomato plants (what can I say, I like marinara sauce) and $15 cantaloupe (in a rather long rectangle ... I want to get my money's worth out of that melon!) Not to mention the Gardenia.

... o gardenia ...
your mirror-green,
ruffle of fan-card-hand petals,
hides the clandestine nub of to-be-white ...
unfolding, it bathes with unfailing redolence.

... Anyway, I think my front "yard" plot in Hawaii killed three Gardenias. SO far so good, here. Maybe because the sun is a less harsh mistress. I love them. We speak lovely things to our Gardenia because she smells so sweet. I'll probably be similarly nice to the lavendar.

So I've given in. I don't understand the motivation behind the seemingly obsessive houseplanting, but I can't complain ... gives one something more to care for; sweetens the air, provides a splash of color. And maybe, just maybe, I'll have some killer marinara this fall. :)

My goal, though, is to have one of these:




If you can identify this plant, please contact me here. I would be most obliged.

Got a bunch of his "Dresden Files" books to read (thanks to mom for the B&N gift cert!!) So far, so really good. I was reminded a little at first of Simon R Green's Nightside series ... Harry's charscter seemed a little familiar ... but I finished the first book and was pretty darn happy. He's great with detail - not too much to be long-winded, but enough to make you think he knows what he's talking about re: potions, spellcasting etc. Hoping for a little more character development in the second novel, Fool Moon. I gots me two weeks to fill with reading!

Almost made an Ikea trip today ... but felt it was a little overboard to go just for rugs. I do have an issue with the footstool (goes with the easy chair) in that it is missing a vital groove in one piece so I can't put it together (no groove means it can't hold the panel upon which rests one's feet) but it's an hour drive. Tough. I'll put it off another week ... my honey takes one of his certification tests this week and won't be studying next Saturday. Can probably get him to go then. I need more friends, who can go with me to Ikea.

OK gotta go plant me some flowers.

by the way, you can get great swedish vodka (think gimlet) at Ikea. Very smooth, and I ain't a vodka gal. Or, didn't used to be.