Travel

Happy Hannukah!

Last Night was very cool. I headed over to JTW’s much anticipated Hannukah party. How he described it is much how it was. (Well.. except for the exotic fruit.. but we’ll get into that in a moment. ) A gathering of a bunch of non-Jewish folks to have latke, drinks, listen to some klezmer music and play with a dreidel. Oh and light a menorah. (because you have to have a menorah to call it a Haunnukah party.)

Pretty much, that was it. Only, at some point, some of the guests decided to go get some gluhwine mix (and sacrificed a few bottles of wine to the hot stove) and because money was leftover – some exotic fruits. Don’t ask me what any of them are, but I wound up getting photos of us trying a few – for better or worse – hideous face or quizzical expression.

Tasty... NOT!
Cecelia and Leah trying some strange fruit that turned out to be NOT so Tasty.
Chef Niall
Niall takes a break from preparing gluhwine (hot spiced wine served around the holidays here in Germany) and digs in to a bright pink fruit that resembles an onion on the outside.

 

Oh – we also got to catch part of a Riot at Hackesher Markt – from his 7th floor windows. Couldn’t see much, but the sounds, number of cop cars, ambulences and etc were impressive. Of course, that pretty much also explains WHY at midnight pretty much no one was at Alexanderplatz or Hackesher Market when that’s normally a highly traffic area due to clubs, bars, and various eating establishments.

Let's start a RIOT... Let's start a RIOT!
Finally, in honor of the holiday, I figured we should all sing a round of Adam Sandler’s most famous song…

Meanwhile, I’m going back to some exotic fruit. (UH GUys, are you sure I’m supposed to eat this? It looks like a hairy goat’s ball that’s been cut open….)

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The Magic of technology…where the unknown become known

While I was on my Thanksgiving vacation, I took a ton of pictures. I got photos of friends, things that I did and so on – most of these I haven’t uploaded or even processed yet. I’ll get there – I promise. Why the delay, you ask?
 

 

The answer is because while I was there I got a nice little hobby that I had to work on. You see, I’m an odd duck (yeah, no surprise) because I like to go to Cemeteries, etc when I can. This trip, I managed to hit two of them. One of which – the Bingham City (ghost town) cemetery happened to have an Boy scout (Eagle scout) project going on.
 

Bingham City Cemetery
 

 

Thing is that at the time, I didn’t realize that what I was going to do (take pictures) would actually be able to help. You see, the project they’re doing is to GPS map, identify unknown graves, restore and preserve those that are deteriorating, and just simply take care of this old cemetery.
 

 

You see, there are a ton of headstones in this old cemetery that are completely unreadable. Cemetery records weren’t kept until the turn of the century – and there are graves here from way before – some from the 1870’s. So, there are alot of unknowns – and more whose markers have become unreadable or just are missing completely.
 

 

Through the magic of technology (and me being determined to see what I could see) photoshop allowed my photos to be processed – and allow us to see a few markers – and help identify some of these settlers to Utah. I also got to see/read the inscriptions that previously were just faint grooves. Yeah, it took some time (in a couple cases well over an hour per picture) because of switching to black and white, enhansing, tone tweaking, color tweaking, blowing up, shrinking down, highlighting etc etc etc. But in the end, a few more people don’t have to be called “unknown” anymore.
 

Broken Cross knocked over Split Headstone
 

 

How cool is that? (you can click on the pictures to see a larger size AND read what suddenly became clear on them.)
 


Someday, I hope that someone would be willing to do the same for me….

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Gobblin goodness!

There are just certain times of year where you have to pig out. I’m sorry, but no amount of dieting, being thin, and simply denying oneself food is going to cut it. For me, one of those times is Thanksgiving. Sure, it’s time for family, it’s time for friends, and it’s time to be thankful.

It is also time to make the turkey.

Now, I’m guilty of this – I assume most of us are. There is only one time a year I actually buy an ENTIRE turkey, and quite simply go to town. It’s funny to think about – I eat turkey sandwiches, and turkey this and that… but I rarely sit down and just buy the entire turkey and roast it. Anyhow, I did the typical American thing this year – went to wal mart super center and bought a discount turkey on sale. Go ahead and laugh at me. I did.

From there, I got up at 7 am, started the stuffing (all the guys were asleep) and all the other prep – for garlic mashed potatoes, steamed asperagus, pies, the like. Yeah, it’s great being able to cook. What’s even better is when after a day of the guys watching football and playing on the computer (ok I admit Bri did help with the washing and basting of the turkey and peeling of potatoes – thanks love!) when the entire cooking area was done – and sitting down to enjoy the feast. The appreciation of a good meal, and a great movie – well, that counts for something. What’s more, the knowledge that this meal is only once a year (there are leftovers of turkey soup in the freezer, turkey sandwiches in the fridge, and turkey and cheese breakfast burritos ready to go) but can last much longer for folks that can’t cook… that makes me smile. Just knowing that I was able to make their day a little brighter. Yeah, that’s great.

Hope your “gobbling of turkey goodness” was great too.

Now, On to the black friday shopping! (yeehhhaaa!)

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