duh? of course everything is better coated in chocolate

Still enjoying the visit from Bridget and Silas, though we are without Trey for a couple days. He's gone to Dresden for work but will be back tomorrow. Bridget and I went to the Heidelberg Christmas market once yesterday and once this morning. We like this one- some nice stuff for sale, good crepes and sausages, and tasty gluhwein. Also, sticks of fresh fruit covered with chocolate are fairly popular at these markets. Delicious! They include chocolate covered grapes, pears, and kiwis in addition to the more common banana. Who knew chocolate covered kiwi could be so yummy? Though you might not know it from all the food talk, I am finally getting a bit of Christmas shopping done. Not really enough, though, when I consider there are only 26 shopping days till Christmas and 14 days till we head to the US. Eek!

In other news- Ellis's first tooth has emerged! I think there are 2 on the bottom, though only the first one is visible right now.

Craciun

On to Sunday...

We headed across the border to France and the Strasbourg Christmas market. This market was much, much bigger than the one in Frankfurt and we were optimistic that it would be even nicer. However, it was very crowded and a lot of the wares seemed less unique and even kind of tacky. Bridget and I agreed we'd enjoyed Frankfurt's market more. Still, we had a nice time and have plenty of pictures.

The architecture in Strasbourg was really lovely and the second floors of nearly every building were decorated for the season.Most of the markets were near the cathedral, which was incredibly ornate and amazing. We didn't have a chance to explore the inside, though.
Orrin and Silas had a chance to try on the traditional Alsatian Christmas outfits:There was a tent labeled Marche de Bredle, which contained many tables of Bredle (small, usually slightly crisp and butter cookies) . They were sold mix and match by the kilogram and the vendors were extremely generous with the samples :) We eventually realized the name of this tent was "Cookie Walk", the same as the event we've long heard about from our great-aunt's church. So perhaps this tradition is Alsatian in origin. Or maybe cookies sold by the pound is just a great idea in any culture. They also had a demonstration table:An example of some of the ornaments for sale:One really interesting thing the Strasbourg market had was a "guest country" , which changes every year and so introduced some variety to the markets. This year's country was Romania and we were pleased to see some of their crafts and sample their unique sausages, fried cheese bread, and Dracula wine. While it was suspiciously like gluhwein, Bridget called it "Draculicious". Here's a picture of the Romanian musicians. Craciun is Christmas in Romanian.

gluhwein makes you glow from inside

I'm behind in my posts, so here's what happened Friday and Saturday. On Friday morning, Bridget and Trey went down to Heidelberg and picked up a rental car big enough to hold us all. Upon their return we headed north to Frankfurt to check out our first Christkindle Markt. We didn't really know where we were going and drove around in ever smaller circles, crossing the Main River three times, before finally locating a parking garage. Upon entering the parking garage, we obtained a little disc that looked like a poker chip and I was suspicious that it contained any information about when we arrived. Then we drove several levels down to find a spot that would fit our giant (by German standards) rented minivan. Things were a little dubious up to this point, but we emerged from the parking lot to see this:
We zipped by the hundreds-year old cathedral in search of sausages and cheap wine doctored with spices and heated. This gluhwein typically comes in white or red and sometimes apple or cherry. The cherry type we tried was quite delicious.The Christmas Market was fun with lots of booths featuring ornaments and other Christmas decorations as well as many street foods and baked goods. There were even 3 carousels in this relatively small market. I can't include too many details about some of the more unique things we saw, as they are likely Christmas presents. We did try some of the other beverages and baked goods, inlcuding one we had never heard of before, magenbrot. Silas was happy to try them and smear the chocolate coating all over his face. After a couple hours walking around, we headed home, where Silas was even happier to see Scout. Saturday we headed to Frankfurt airport to drop off Catherine and pick up Orrin. To get between the terminals, we rode on the tram with a giant front window, making it feel like a slow, less exciting roller coaster.Then we said goodbye to Catherine. We had a great visit with her and are looking forward to see her and the rest of the family in a few short weeks at Christmas.

A fresh wind is blowing

I haven't put up a post for quite a stretch, and the next week or so might remain a little thin, at least from me. We have a backlog of ridiculously cute baby pics though, so Rachel will keep trickling them out for your hungry eyes.

On my end, work has really heated up. The old stuff from my lab in America is finally about ready to publish. Sadly, I also received a letter from one of the agencies I had applied to for funding. The letter said, more or less, "Hey, you seem like a really smart guy with good ideas and a good education. Too bad that last grad school paper isn't out. If it had been, we would have given you a bunch of money." Since I applied for 3 other possible funding opportunties, I could get this letter three more times. On the upside though, I think things are finally going to get published this time.

Here at my current job, my projects have largely swapped priorities with the result that I have been working non-stop on a project related to mitotic organization. I can't get into details on the searchable internet where our competitors might get a hint as to what we have up our sleeves, but we have found ourselves in a place where we can see a whole complex behavior; our competitors on the other hand can only see a tiny portion. It's as if they are looking out of a porthole and we are standing on the deck of the ship. Because they study the same thing though, we have to be quick and cautious. They may have come up on deck in the last couple of months with the possibility that they are already ahead of us.

Part of this project will mean traveling to Dresden this week to visit with an old labmate from America and learn a piece of software he is using in his work that will aid me in analyzying the data coming out of this new project. We only have a couple of weeks before we take our holiday to the states, which adds to the urgency to accumulate as much data as possible. Besides learning the software, I will get to visit at the Max Planck for Molecular Biology and hopefully visit with my Ph.D. advisor's advisor to discuss current and past projects. This will let me do some continental networking.

We were also approved for an additional 100,000 Euros for the equipment I need to buy for my next project. This project will combine some of my know how from grad school in a new type of application for studying larger forces. Tomorrow I will go down to Heidelberg to have a demo of some of the equipment.

So, I am finally carving out a niche over here for myself in my group and hopefully getting to stretch a little bit beyond EMBL and connect with folks in Dresden. Work is going faster, new ideas our bouncing around all of the time. It has been a long time since work has been this interesting. We missed our families for Thanksgiving, but, we also took a day trip to France today, so life over here feels pretty good right now. Stay tuned for posts on the Frankfurt Christmas Market and our visit to Strasbourg....coming from Rachel this week.

Thanksgiving Day

Hi all. Most of you probably haven't sat down to your turkey and stuffing yet, but it's almost pie time here. We had a fairly stripped down Thanksgiving menu (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts, and pumpkin pie). Only one kind of pie and no cinnamon rolls!
Shopping for ingredients didn't present as many challenges as we thought, though we couldn't find celery and ended up making stuffing with fennel root. We have so much to be thankful for this year, but frankly, I am too tired to type it all up today. It is my mind and heart though. Ellis slept right through his first Thanksgiving dinner, but here are the rest of us:

Silas helping prepare brussel sprouts
Finally, let's eat!

Silas used the halved brussel sprouts only as dippers/shovels and really only liked the cranberry sauce
It was great to have Bridget and Catherine here for Thanksgiving, but we missed the rest of our family of course. The fact that the rest of the country isn't celebrating a holiday today also made it feel a little less Thanksgiving-ish. But tomorrow we plan to head to the Frankfurt Christmas Market, so at least we'll be able to participate in the traditional American Friday after Thanksgiving shopping day!

lots of pictures to make amends for a week without posts

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Bridget and Silas arrived Saturday followed by Catherine on Sunday. So we had to get ready for the invasion by stocking up at Aldi's.Tuesday we went down to Heidelberg and found the town undergoing preparations for the Christmas season. Giant Christmas trees and stands for the markets starting next week were going up. Also, the holiday baked goods were starting to appear: lebkuchen, stollen, buttercookies of all shapes and fillings, and intricate springerle cookies meant for decorations. Which of these can I transport in my suitcase successfully? Here's Bridget getting ready to sample a zimtsterne (cinnamon star); Silas is saying "moe?" and grabbing for it.

Next we took the steep path up to the castle and arrived just in time for the tour, which allows you in certain areas of the castle (not the ones infested by bats, though). Below are Bridget and Catherine standing over the moat. We learned that it was rarely flooded, but often filled with hogs and deer kept as a food supply. Further, it's rumored that the nobility used to "hunt" those animals from the level at which we were standing. I don't have to be the daughter of Hunter Ed instrutors to know this is very unsporting. Here we are in the balcony of the castle's chapel with the organ behind us. The chapel is available for weddings and baptisms, should you be interested.

Finallly, here's the view from the castle. You can see the (once Catholic) now Evangelical Church of the Holy Spirit on the right.Can't write much more now. Ellis is running a bit of a temperature and being fussy. So maybe that little tooth will finally be showing itself soon.

The Most Wonderful Day of the Year

Today is the third straight opening day of deer season in Michigan that I have missed. You might wonder what could be so wonderful about any day that is considered successful if it ends with pulling the warm guts out of an animal roughly the same size as you. Not to mention getting up early, lugging around all your crap and most likely either freezing or roasting because you dressed with the expectation that you would freeze and there was a sudden heat wave. Deer season and its allure is simply one of life's great mysteries.

Of course, it is the comraderie of the hunt and all of the rituals that surround it that make opening day so special. Since we started hunting in lower Michigan rather than heading up north, we have gotten to sleep in our own beds and enjoy the advantages of staying at home. This means we miss the atmosphere of deer camp, but also improve our chances by hunting better ground. Typically, our opening day started with a planned 4 a.m. pickup. But my dad was usually so excited that he would get there at 3:30. At quarter to four I would notice him in the driveway and we would head on out to the Dixie Cafe in Stockbridge for breakfast.

On the way to breakfast, my dad would ask me 10 times if I thought I was dressed warm enough and offer me his extra boots because he didn't believe that my slim gortex boots would stand up to the cold as well as his nine pounders with felt liners. Breakfast was a delicate balance. It was easy to get caught up in the occasion and get the extra side of biscuits and gravy, but over eating could mean spending part of opening morning with your pants around your ankles wondering if you could have found a softer log over the next hill. On the other hand, underdoing it, especially on a brutally cold morning, could mean wearing out your breakfast before lunch was at hand.

After breakfast we would head over to Neil's pole barn to put on our outer wear and get ready. Again I would be asked if I was dressed suitably while my dad, who at six foot one and sixty years old weighs 180 lbs. would walk into the woods looking like a portly 300 pounder. We often had conversations like this:

Dad: Are you sure you are warm enough? It ain't no fun to be cold out there.
Son: I will be fine. Too much clothing is dangerous too. You might be the first man ever to die of heat stroke on opening day of deer season.

Then we loaded up in Neil's hunting vehicle (called "Lurch") and rode over to the farm/swamp land we hunted feeling properly prepared. Often opening morning would see a couple of deer taken and on clean kill shots we would wait until lunch to dress them out so as not to miss another opportunity. On cold days we would stash a dead deer but on warm ones we would haul it back to the pole barn cooler immediately. After the day was done it was time for a quick supper and then the story telling in the pole barn as friends and neighbors cycled through for a nip and to see what we had bagged.

When I was 13, the year before I could legally carry a rifle and hunt, I was allowed to cut school to go up north for a real deer camp with my dad and grandpa. This was the last deer camp up north for my family and I never did get to return and hunt that wilder country with a rifle. Through my teenage years, I rarely hunted having too much tied up in school and sports and music. College saw no more free time and then at 25 I returned to hunting and joined those guys standing around the cooler on the evening of Nov. 15. These were guys different than me. They were all blue collar and we cound't speak to each other about our jobs with understanding. We just had opening day. Sadly, my dad was one of those guys. We have the outdoors and little more to share between us.

My second year, I got my first deer. My dad was sitting in a spot where he saw me shoot and connect. We had agreed that if either of us shot, the other would wait for 30 minutes in our stand before coming to help. That way the shooter could judge the situation and decide to stay put or get down and chase if so required. In my case, the deer crumpled and I stayed put hoping more were coming along behind the first. And sure enough they were there ninety degrees to my right by the time I was convinced that my deer was staying down. I gently edged the action of the gun forward until the bolt clicked home, ready to fire again. Before fully diverting my attention to my new targets, I glanced back where the first one went down and what did I see, but my dad standing right over it waving. When he saw he had my attention he hollered, "You got it." And, the standing deer were gone in a flash. This all happened in less than 90 seconds. I am fully convinced that my dad must have jumped out of his tree stand, rambo style, and hit the ground running in order to have gotten there so quickly.

Of course, my dad's quick arrival on the scene cost us an opportunity for more deer, which in the moment made me a little angry. In retrospect, though, I realized he had waited 12 years for this. It was supposed to happen up north that next year after my first visit to deer camp and it didn't work out that way. I never missed hunting in those intervening years, but my dad missed hunting with me and this was his moment too, a rite of passage for both of us.

Finalmente, Venezia

So, those of you who follow the link over to "Never Here Again" have probably already read a report of our trip to Venice, but I will regale with a second account of our lavish four days and three nights in Italy's premier sinking city.

Our trip began by car to Frankfurt Hahn airport. Once parked we waited for the shuttle to the terminal. Or I should say, Rachel waited and I sprinted back to the car with Ellis tied to me in order to save my knife and leatherman from security. I know, I will never learn. Who, this day in age goes to the airport with a knife? Ellis thought the sprint was a carnival ride and giggled like a maniac the whole way while I huffed and puffed and found out that I am in no shape to go sprinting anywhere with an extra 20 pounds tied to my chest.

Our flight got away without incident. Once on the mainland in Italy we bought very reasonably priced 5 Euro tickets for the coach bus to Venice. Then it was the water bus to meet the rental agent and head over to our apartment. Everything went smoothly and we settled in to wait for Bridget and Orrin and Silas. You can read their account of late flights, water busses that were no longer running and Venice at 1 am over on their blog.

While waiting, we went out for some quick food and got our first taste of expensive Venice. A small pizza, very small sandwich, a coke and a bottle of water, was way over 20 Euros. But, Piehole was not deterred and our eating improved greatly the next day.

On Saturday we got up and headed for the famous Rialto market. On the way we had some Paninis including one with seafood salad that was really delicious. The market was the highlight of the trip. The variety of produce was almost unbelievable after the limited selection here in Germany. We brought home sea bream, the freshest shrimp we have ever eaten and a whole bunch of produce. Having an apartment gave us a lot of flexibility with how we handled meals, and this was a big bonus. On the way back we had a little pizza, nice and crispy and a good deal cheeaper than the frisbee sized disk of the previous night.

Then we were off to Saint Mark's to begin our tour of the embarrassment of cultural riches that is Venice. I can't really even tell you how crazy this place is. Every thing is tiled in gold, encrusted in jewels or otherwise decorated in an outrageous manner. I always picture god in a nice simple white robe, but after seeing one of his houses, I have to conclude, the guy likes his bling.

After a nice visit we headed back to our apartment for a little rest while Bridget and Orrin sought a grocery store. They were unsuccessful but managed to pick up a few things to supplement our dinner, including some white wine and prosecco. While they were out, I gutted and scaled the whole sea bream and made the rest of the preparations for dinner. Our first course was the shrimp, boiled and unadorned. Pretty much the only care used in cooking them was being careful not to over cook them. I wanted to chill them, but was overruled by those who weren't willing to wait. I have to say, these were the best shrimp I have ever eaten. They almost tasted like crab and I might not even have identified them as shrimp in a blind taste test.

Dinner was the bream poached with fennel, white wine and a little tomato. Side dishes were sauteed baby zucchini and pasta with two types of wild mushrooms. We had a little chocolate with our prosecco and a game of cribbage before turning in after a full 24 hours in Venice without gelato.

The next day was largely dedicated to seeing some of the shopping areas and a trip out to Murano island where the really serious glass work is done. In the middle ages, the glass blowers were thrown out of Venice proper because their kilns started damaging fires. They removed themselves to Murano, which on our day there was quite peaceful. We had a sit down 3 course lunch in a restaurant there that I would call just so-so. But, as is often the case in Italy, even the cheap wine on the menu was quite good. After lunch, I tried licorice gelato and it was as bad as you might expect.

On Sunday we also tried the Italian version of tapas while Rachel took a little rest with Ellis. There were about 15-20 hors d'ourve size items in a case for around 1 Euro each. We sampled a broad selection which included canapes of crabmeat, chestnuts or fish and one with slices of octopus in what looked like aspic. Simply put, it looked like octopus head cheese. There were pickled onions wrapped in anchovies and another with raw or possibly lightly cured salmon. Again, a 1.50 Euro glass of cheap red was better than what one would hope for from a glass three times as expensive in an american restaurant.

Sunday's dinner was less impressive. Without having found a grocery store to fill in the gaps, we simply had to make do with the stuff we didn't put in the previous night's supper. So we had big plates of mushroom pasta with broadbeans in tomato sauce and raddichio cooked with apples. It was pretty good and dessert made up for it. We had read about a place which served a dish consisting of a big cup of whipped cream into which they put a brick of very dense ice cream flavored with chocolate and hazelnuts. It was more or less a Nutella sundae. The ice cream was indeed dense and frozen hard enough to be sliced from a bigger brick. The ice cream wasn't especially fatty, but this was made up for by the 3-times-the-volume-of-the-ice-cream portion of whipped cream that went with it. Bridget failed to acknowledge on her blog that as we left she had an additional cone with gelato to fill in the spaces in her belly. I feel that this is an important detail that must be recorded. Other than this hazelnut-chocolate concoction, I generally found the gelato to be dissapointing and not as good as the ice cream we have here in Bammental.

Monday we hit the Doge's palace before heading home. This place, again was an undescribable embarrassement of wealth. Sadly, some of the art is in a state of disrepair. The treasures in this palace include a fresco by Titian that is above a doorway that leads to stairs. One can climb the stairs halfway and view it straight on from only about 10 feet away-close enough to appreciate the labor that must have gone into creating a painting in a plaster skim coat.

After the Doge's palace, we hit a quick museum and then had to repeat the sequence of water bus, land bus, airplane, road bus, car that would get us home. Ellis had a pretty rough flight. I would say he was more or less miserable and everyone knew about it. I have to wonder though, why does a six foot eight, 300 pound Italian getting on a half-full plane think that it is a good idea to sit in the seats at the front where Ryan Air concentrates the babies?

All in all it was a good trip. Venice was really interesting and really expensive. I am glad I have been there, but might never go back. The place is sinking and part of its charm is the fact that it is currently exists in a state between "city" and "ruin". This did give me the feeling, though, that it is no longer a fully alive city, but that it is becoming more of a Venice theme park. That is fine for what it is, but also made it feel a bit hollow.

Some Culture Notes

Just a couple of notes to keep you all informed. I won't resort to bullets, but they would be appropriate.

Today, the car passed its inspection with only a mere 170 Euro expenditure necessary. And, that includes pulling out a bent up fender and sealing up some small rusty spots. We have a car now that no German could love. But it is in great shape under the hood and if someone dings it up, I don't have to get to bent out of shape about it. Since cars take a beating in the cramped parking lot at work, all the better. My German coworkers think I am crazy for being satisfied with this state of affairs, but when I ask them what their pristine cars do that mine can't, they are left speechless. And I think, yeah, it just makes you feel better. Bah!

Interestingly, as I prepared to leave the mechanics this morning, he told me not to worry too much, because generally Toyotas and Hondas do better in the inspections than the German and American made cars. Even better than Mercedes and BMW. The German auto club also reports every year that the Japanese cars result in fewer roadside assitance as a percentage of the total road fleets.

That leads me to another story. One of my labmates has the typical German obsession with his car. He picks on me all the time for having all-season tires. He has even jokingly said that when I slide off the road and into the pasture at the end of the lane down from EMBL this winter, he won't call me a tow truck. I tell him I come from a place with Aprils that look like their Januaries and that we learn to drive differently in bad weather rather than relying on the false security of changing our tires.

So the other day, we were chatting at work about buying a car in America and how American's feel about their cars and how important they are etc. And they were asking my why I like Japanese cars and why Americans like Japanese cars. This coworker mentioned above turns around and says, "I bet mostly American's who like Japanese cars really are thinking, 'I really wish I could afford a German car.'" He was pretty much serious. I suggested that perhaps, not everyone was interested in the same things as a German and some folks might like something more reliable. He said, "But, who would want a car that isn't built right." So there you go. Ideology over data is rampant over here too.

Potato Soup with Papa

"Look deeply into my eyes. Follow my slowly moving hands. Give into sleep...see Papa, it is annoying when someone tries to put you to sleep when you want to do something else."

"Papa, that potato soup was made with cow's milk. The union contract says only mother's milk."

*No babies were harmed in the production of this post. Nor were they fed anything that their immature digestive tracts weren't ready for.

excuses, excuses

Post on our trip to Venice is in the works, but delayed due to Ellis's recent extreme crabiness. I am chalking it up to a reaction to Tuesday's vaccination. The pediatrician prescribed a couple things to help him deal with any mild reaction (fever, fussiness, etc). The pharmacists described it as being for "unquietness." Well, that certainly sums up my darling son's behavior these last couple days. We also have visitors from the East: a former labmate of Trey's and his wife who are living in Dresden. So I had to clean the bathroom, vacuum, and a few other household tasks to make it look like we're not complete slobs. Finally, just as I was telling my sister that a break from writing work might be nice as we approach the holiday season, more has popped up.

5 months plus a little

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but here is the 5 month update and a few pics. We have official height and weight from the doctor's scale, which indicate that our scale is somewhat off.
Weight: 18.2 lbs
Height: 25.6"
Vocabulary: He's pretty much noisy whether he's happy or sad. Lots and lots of grunting all day long, plus a couple happy screaming/ squealing session each morning and evening. His vocalizations are also increasingly varied and he's giggling now, rather than just smiling.
Mobility: Sitting up is getting better, as these pictures show. He still tends to lose his balance if something exciting catches his interest. Tummy time is become somewhat less distasteful, but there's no further progress with rolling over.
Motor skills: We've definitely entered the "I must taste all items" phase. His grip has become stronger and more precise, for better or worse. Thus, he can grab and item and get it right to his mouth. Watch out!
Favorite hobbies: Watching and grabbing for the dog has become very popular. He's sucking his thumb a bit, but not too often. More aggressive sort of play (being tossed up in the air or spun around) really get him laughing these days.
Solid foods: I'm hoping to delay solids a bit longer, at least until Ellis is sitting up confidently and showing some signs of still being hungry after nursing. However, he did accidently get fed a tiny bit of Silas's sea weed snack by his Uncle Orrin last weekend. I'm happy to report there were no ill effects from this.

coming soon to a blog near you...

Okay, I know it's been a while. But we've been to Venice, Ellis turned 5 months old and had a doctor's appointment today. Plus, all the Christmas stuff is out in the grocery stores here! So, there is plenty of fodder for posts and we will be reporting on all happenings soon. For your trouble, here's a pic of us bundled up and headed out to the pediatrician's this morning.

even now, i should be doing laundry

Dear internet,
Sorry for being such bad bloggers this week. Trey is being very industrious at work, I have been sleep deprived and in a crappy mood, and Ellis only bangs the keyboard when we offer to let him post. Thus only Scout has been available to report the happens from our household. But it's only going to get worse since we are going to Venice with Bridget, Orrin, and Silas. I'm not too proud to resort to bullets:

• Ellis is being super cute and getting so interested in the world. He's been making this little chimp face whenever he sees something he wants to "taste." Will try to obtain photographic evidence.
• Just yesterday I was thinking that I was tempting fate, by leaving our kale and chard in the garden and that I must pull them out and freeze them before we headed to Italy. Last night, it frosted for the first time. Perfect.
  
• Forgot to post saying that the piñata went over well at the party on Sunday. It broke pretty easily after all the kids got a couple turns.
• Experiments creating a pretzel-chocolate-peanut butter confection have begun. It would be wrong and too Sandra Lee-ish to call it a recipe, but I will post the results when my taste testers and I are fully satisfied with them.
• My writing assignments from the company I've been working with have (possibly temporarily) dried up. So far I have been too lazy/afraid of rejection to send out queries for freelance work. Why am I so lame?
  
• Here is a picture to tide you over until the 5 month post next week (eek!).