Something's amiss

I ran across an article today that I found amusing. German Toymaker Launches Barak Obama Doll.

I think this is my favorite part:

[Doll-maker Marcel Offermann] admits that the physical resemblance to Obama could have been closer. "The doll works more on a symbolic level," he said. "It's a symbiosis of the clothing and the fact it's a black doll." Although "90 percent" of the feedback so far has been positive, he admits that "10 percent of people said the doll doesn't look like Obama."

I would post photos here, but I'm sure that's a violation of copyright laws, so head over to the article to see for yourself. Do you see the resemblance?

And so it begins

Yesterday I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things. I try to avoid the grocery store on Friday because it's always crowded, but I made an exception this time. As I was trying to gather the few items I needed, I couldn't help but notice the amount of beer in some of the carts. I saw several people with 4 or more cases of beer. (A case contains 20 bottles. I know this because I counted, in case you're wondering.) I saw at least 1 guy with 8 cases. Surely this wasn't an every-Friday amount of beer. So I started thinking... Is there a holiday this weekend? Is there something special going on? What it is?

When I mentioned it to Brian, he said it was probably because the games were starting this weekend. Oh, yes, THE GAMES. That must be it.

If you're living in Europe, then you probably know exactly what games I'm talking about. Only the third largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and World Cup. Still racking your brain? It's the UEFA Euro2008! Soccer! Uh, I mean, Football!

The games are hosted by Switzerland and Austria this year with the championship game in Vienna on June 29th. Vienna has been primping and preening for months. These little fellas have been popping up around the city:


And the bushes have been properly trimmed and decorated:


Even the statues in front of Künstlerhaus are getting in on the action. (No, the statues don't normally wear cleats.)


So from now until the final game on June 29th, this blog will be all about Euro2008. Okay, that's not true. I'm sure I'll mention it another time or two this month. But I also have a garden, sewing projects and day to day minutiae to write about. Never a dull moment.

The rundown

Not a lot going on in these parts. Here's a brief list of the latest happenings.

• The washing machine broke. Fortunately, there's a washer and dryer in the basement, so it hasn't been terribly inconvenient. I did have to call the repair service to have them send out a repair. And I had to do it in German. But, boy, was I proud of myself for accomplishing that.

• Our balcony is being painted. I don't think I noticed how badly it needed to be painted until we found out that it was going to be painted.

• We had to move the garden indoors for a day or two while the balcony is being painted. I hope everything survives the move and the indoor living.

• Brian and I completed our final oral presentation for our German class last week. We have less than three weeks of class left!

Man, things are dull around here. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to write about later this week.

Boy, oh Boy

That's what I said tonight when I went outside to water the garden on my balcony.

Let me back up a moment.

Last Saturday I planted my sweet potatoes and pumpkins. I expected to start seeing little bits of green poking through the soil of the pumpkin container in one to two weeks. So when I noticed something in the container last night when I watered the dirt, I thought it was some of that white cottony stuff from the trees. (Pardon the technical terms.) This morning, I was pleasantly surprised when I realized it was actually a little sprout coming up. Not only that, but another one popped up overnight. By the time I got home from school this afternoon, there were four. And just a little while ago when I went outside to water them again, there were five. Five little sprouts poking through the ground!


These are the sprouts from one of the mounds. The other two sprouts are on the other mound.

I can't tell whether the sweet potatoes have grown any since I planted them in their containers. But they haven't died yet, so that's always positive. And still, it's exciting to see stuff happening.

I promise, I won't rattle on about my little plants every day. And I'll try not to take photos of every little change. But if I actually end up with a pumpkin or sweet potatoes, I will be posting photos. You've been duly warned.

The strawberry patch

Remember the almost dead strawberry plant from a little over a week ago? Well, take a look at her now!


It's still yet to be seen whether it will produce any strawberries, but I'm hopeful.

And while we're on the topic of strawberries...


I finished the apron for the Summer Fun Apron Swap. The apron is supposed to have a summertime theme, so I went with picnic and strawberries. This was my first time to make a pleat and my first time to applique. I think the apron looks even better in person than in the photo. I'm pretty pleased with it.

My swap partner has two little girls, so I decided to make them matching picnic place mats. I looked at several tutorials (just google "picnic placemat tutorials" if you're interested) and used them as a basis. But there's nothing tricky here.


The place mat rolls up nicely for easy carrying.


And since I'm sure I've already lost the folks who really aren't interested in sewing, I'll go ahead and show you the other thing I've made recently. It's a tic-tac-tote. (I came up with that name myself -- I think.) It's just a normal ol' totebag, but it doubles as a tic-tac-toe game board. And the playing pieces are in the matching drawstring bag.






I made it for my niece's birthday, but I didn't finish it in time. So it will be a random gift when I get around to mailing it. I have to try my best to stay her favorite aunt, you know. And, of course, gifts are the best way to do that.

On the ghetto, in fact

Last Monday Brian and I met some people at a meeting way across town. We were chatting with one woman when another woman came up and introduced herself. She asked us where we lived and when we told her the neighborhood, she responded, "Oh, that's difficult."

Difficult? I wasn't sure what she meant. Since we were speaking in English and she said her English wasn't very good, I thought maybe she had used the wrong word. So I gave some generic answer like, "Yes, it's very different than the place we lived in the U.S."

That's when the first woman piped up. She asked, "What do you mean 'difficult'? Is that a nice way to say it's not so nice a place?" And the second woman explained that she was viewing it from a social worker's standpoint.

So apparently we live in the ghetto. Or as Carla from Scrubs put it, we're from the block.

Rainy days

There's been quite a bit of rain over the last two days. Do you know what that means?

SNAILS. Big fat snails.

Hello, I'm Mr. Snail.

I don't really have anything else to say about snails. I just like this photo.