Thanksgiving

Over the last six years, Dave and I have been slowly learning how to pull off our own Thanksgiving dinner, first in California and then in Germany. It's been a lot of fun experimenting with different ways of making a turkey (frying, roasting, brining), recipes for potatoes, green beans, and pies. We've come up with a decent menu and were eager to share it with our families, so we invited the Furtaks and Susses over on Thursday.




It was wonderful to finally put all our wedding gifts - the china, the crystal, my grandma Doris' silver, and every pot and pan in the house to use!



Dave put the turkey into a saltwater bath the night before, and then roasted it over carrots, onions, and celery. I made my apple sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes, and a new green bean recipe. The family brought over more food, three pies, and about ten bottles of white wine (all but one were consumed). At about six we sat down for a delicious dinner for ten.

Lazybones

It's been a little over two weeks with Fergie now, and I continue to be astonished at how much she is capable of sleeping. She sleeps for about 4-6 hour stretches during the day, punctuated by bursts of activity that include chewing, walking around, eating, and playing. Then she'll plop back down in her bed or kennel and be dead to the world again.

Trying to wake her up is pretty funny. She'll give you a withered look, sigh deeply, and plop back down in the bed.

The last picture here shows off her 'RCA dog' move, this one elicited by my watching the new Beyonce video on YouTube.

A Different Dog Every Day

From everything we've read, it takes a while for a rescue dog to acclimate to her new surroundings - some of the estimates are as high as 6-8 weeks. That said, we're seeing Fergie progress every day toward revealing to us the dog she is deep down inside. It's not exactly as linear a process as I had expected.

The first few days, Fergie was shy around us but generally willing to go for walks outside our apartment. This all changed on Monday, when the construction guys came around to continue the process of jackhammering all the bricks off of our building as part of the reconstruction process that will be ongoing for the next few months. This completely freaked Fergie out and by Wednesday she was terrified to leave the apartment. We enlisted the help of Terri from Hounds on the Hill, a local doggie day care and training facility. She gave us a ton of tips on how to help Fergie acclimate (and how to change our own behavior to better support Fergie). I can say now that, after that mini-intervention, Fergie seems well on her way to getting used to things around here.

Over the weekend, Marsha was in town for a visit, and she witnessed the beginning of the transformation of Fergie, who seems to have figured out that she's here to stay with Dave and I. She's gone from a sad, reclusive dog toward the happy, silly puppy we were expecting. Marsha refers to Fergie as a 'star' because she attracts the attention of almost everyone on the street when we take her for walks - people throw out compliments all the time about what a beautiful dog she is, how sweet, what a unique gait she has, how funny her tail is when it sticks straight out like a bee stinger.

Inside the house, Fergie is getting to feel more at home. She loves blankets, and uses them to bury and hide the treats and bones that we give her. We put another blanket out for her on Thursday, and she proceeded to drag it out of the living room, down the hall, and into her kennel. She discovered the clothes this week and did Dave and I each the honor of dragging a piece of each of our underwear into her kennel (noticing a trend here?).





She is beginning to play with us, and more often than not is trotting around our main room with her tail wagging. She loves to play with other dogs, and in our three trips to the dog park, she's run in circles and caught the eye of many other owners. She bounds more than runs, and when she gets started, leans backwards into a kind of windup before popping forward and taking off. She runs so fast there's no way we could catch up with her, so it's good that there are fenced-off places to take her to run.

I'll try my best to get a picture of the many stretches Fergie does every time she gets up - my favorite is what I'm calling "Downward-Facing Fergie," a full-body stretch from front paws to straight-up tail that would put any yoga instructor to shame.

We're just so happy to have a new family member in the house with us, and can't wait to see how Fergie continues to change in the next weeks.

Fergie in da House

Last night at 10PM Fergie was introduced into her new home here in Denver. The poor thing was shaking so badly and so nervous in general that she couldn't eat, drink or handle taking a leak.

It's really not a surprise when you consider her transport. The rescue organization, On Point Rescue, set up a "dog transport" that included six other cars before we picked her up in Colby, KS. Check out this schedule:

PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST:
Begin City & State: St.Louis, MO
Destination: Denver, CO
Date: Saturday, November 8

Leg 1
St. Louis, MO to Columbia, MO
120 Miles - 2 Hours
Depart St.Louis: 8:00 am cent
Arrive Columbia: 9:45 am cent

Leg 2A
Columbia, MO - Concordia, MO
60 Miles - 1 Hour
Depart Columbia: 10:00 am cent
Arrive Concordia: 11:00 am cent

Leg 2B
Concordia, MO - Kansas City, MO
57 Miles - 1 Hour
Depart Concordia: 11:15 am cent
Arrive Kansas City: 12:15 pm cent

Leg 3
Kansas City, MO - Topeka, KS
60 Miles - 1 Hour
Depart Kansas City: 12:30 pm cent
Arrive Topeka: 1:30 pm cent

Leg 4
Topeka, KS - Manhattan, KS
59 Miles - 1 Hour,
Depart Topeka: 1:45 pm cent
Arrive Manhattan: 2:45 pm cent

Leg 5
Manhattan, KS - Colby, KS
265 Miles - 4 Hours
Depart Manhattan: 3:00 pm cent
Arrive Colby: 7:00 pm cent

Leg 6***FILLED, THANKS DAVE & ERIN, FERGIES NEW FAMILY***
Colby, KS - Denver, CO
234 Miles - 3 Hours, 30 minutes
Depart Colby: 7:15 pm cent / 6:15 pm mountain
Arrive Denver: 10:45 pm cent / 9:45 pm mountain


Now into her second day, she is adjusting sooooo well. Seriously, by the hour she gets used to us and the place, her walking path, etc. It's gonna be fun having her around.

A Little R&R

This time R&R does not stand for "rest and relaxation" – this whirlwind trip that has taken me through 7 of the 16 German states in just 9 days on the ground has been anything but relaxing. (Don't get me wrong, I've loved the chance to get to see many of my friends and lament that there was not enough time to see others in Kiel and Jena...it's just been busy.)

Anyway, this time R&R stands for the final stops in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Regensburg.

Waking early on Monday morn with the working class (Nati and Thomas had to get to work) I picked up my car from the Dortmund airport. I had been scheduled to get into a BMW 1-series, a compact but ripped beast that would have been a lot of fun to drive (just now coming to the USA). Unfortunately, I got a stupid Mercedes instead. (I know, I know...what kind of guy bitches about forgoing a Beemer for a Merc. This one, that's who! Seriously, there's a HUGE difference. Mercs are for farmers and old geezers...I am clearly neither. And don't let the 6 gears fool you; it's still just a small rodent pushing a wheel under the hood.)

Anyway... Hopping into the Mercedes, an A-class, I took a little jaunt from Dortmund to Rothenburg o.d. Tauber.

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Rothenburg is another of those perfect German towns that made Disney's mouth water as they tried to imitate it in movies and Epcot. Consider the following examples:

• Neuschwanstein vs. Cinderella Castle

• Rothenburg vs. Epcot Germany

(Note: pics from Neuschwanstein and Rothenburg are mine. Even with the crappy iPhone pics there's something more real about mine.)





Notice that I mentioned that Disney tried to imitate. That is to say, they gave an effort sure, but there's nothing like the original. And yes, those are people wearing lederhosen in Rothenburg.

Rothenburg is actually a very well preserved example of late 16th and 17th century German architecture and city planning. Like most places (including Regensburg) that have this kind designation, preservation is actually more a function of being too poor to renovate rather than solid planning and upkeep. Especially impressive in Rothenburg is the city wall that stands something like 8-10 meters tall and completely encompasses the old city.



For all it's outer beauty though, the town is pretty dead. There weren't many people walking the streets and those that were happened to be foreigners (like me). I guess in that sense it has more in common with Disneyland that I gave it credit for. Anyway, this means that my suggestion is to stop through on the way somewhere else but not to make a whole day of it.

One of the best parts of leaving Rothenburg is hitting the A6 on the way to Regensburg. There were 30 mile stretches were I completely had my foot in it, pounding that miserable Merc for all it had. (Unfortunately this only means achieving 200km/h on a good downhill and 180km/h on the slight uphills.)

Once in Regensburg I was greeted by Stefan and Angela with lots of hugs and congrats. A great home coming! We went out for pizza at my favorite place (Pam Pam), known for its wood fired oven and then for a coffee and beer at my fav cafe (Orphee). While we were drinking I reconfirmed that beer in Bayern simply tastes better. I mean, even the worst Weizen in Bayern tastes better than the best Weizen from the north. Don't believe me....then try it!

Tuesday was a last great shopping day. Probably the funniest I was looking for was a Alpen cow bell for Fergie – not to wear but to ring when she wants out. The looks I got when asking it are the kind you get when people feel like you fell off the short bus. I never did find one. The funniest thing I actually brought back would be a shit load of sugar...in all forms. Chocolate, check. Vanilla sugar, check (in three different forms). Marzipan, check (1.2 kilos of it). Lebkuchen, check (too many to count).

So, any of you needing a German sugar fix, just step right up.

The trip ends with my trek back to the States on Wednesday – a 21 hour jaunt across the ocean. With that, I've come full circle and really do need some R&R before getting back on the job search horse.

we CAN and we DID.

The party is really happening here in Denver now that Obama gave his acceptance speech. It's just like being in Europe during the World Cup - people are driving laps around the city, honking their horns and yelling. I've never seen the country like this before, and am sad Dave had to miss it.

I cried on the couch when they called the election for Obama, and cried again when he was giving his acceptance speech. Somehow, my faith in the American people and our system of government, which had been completely destroyed in the last eight years, has been restored.

Signing off from BLUE Colorado!!

Fergie

Dave and I have been wanting a dog since we were living in California, but have been holding off for obvious reasons - graduate school for us both, Germany, living on two different continents (and with parents). Once we found our place in Denver, we started thinking more seriously about dog breeds, doing research on what personality of dog would be the best fit for our home and our lifestyle. However, we thought we would wait until Dave had a job, so we would have a better understanding of his commute and how much we would be around for a dog.

In the meantime, our dog envy has been building exponentially, to the point that Dave has been making friends with strangers at cafes on our street and in the park, asking people about their dogs and where they got them. It all came to a head last Saturday when we were rollerblading in City Park. Since I was moving very slowly, I was able to see all the people out with their dogs on a beautiful autumn day, and I was extremely jealous. What were we waiting for?

I turned to Dave, and he wholeheartedly agreed. We went straight home and started looking online at Pointer Rescue websites, since that was the breed we had settled on. Dave found a few dogs right away, but one dog in particular stuck in my heart as soon as I saw her picture: Fergie.


We contacted the pet rescue site, got a call the next day, and things moved very quickly from there. Yesterday I had a home visit from some other pointer owners to decide if I was dog-worthy or not - I was so nervous I didn't even invite the kind couple who came over to sit down. Alicia, who was visiting for the weekend, listened graciously to our entire conversation about Dave's and my plans for kenneling her, taking her on walks, exercise, food. I called Dave right when they left and said, "I think it went well?" only to be corrected by Alicia, who yelled, "Erin, they said 'Congratulations when they left!! What more do you want?'"

Last night we got the official word that we'll be able to adopt Fergie NEXT WEEKEND. She's in Missouri, so the head of the Pointer Rescue (OnPoint) is organizing a car-relay where different people will drive pieces of I-70 between Missouri and Kansas, and we will pick up Fergie in Colby, KS on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

Here's what know about Fergie from the OnPoint website:

Fergie is a 6 month old, orange and white, female, English Pointer. She along with Lady Di found their way onto the property of a good Samaritan in rural southern Missouri. All attempts were made to find their owners with no luck. OnPoint Rescue was asked to help with the girls and luckily we were able to make some space for them.

Fergie is a fun loving Pointer puppy! She has a lot of energy that is always ready to go! She spends a great deal of her day playing with the other dogs and her new toys. She also cat naps throughout the day - as any puppy should do.

Fergie has a sensitive stomach and we are working on finding the best diet for her. We are definitely on the right track, just have to be cautious when introducing new treats. Fergie is looking forward to finding a family of her own to share her puppy silliness with! She is crate trained and has had no accidents in the house.

I've been nesting for her like crazy over the last week, ordering a crate and dog bed, picking up toys, and yesterday I had a dog tag made for her. We can't wait to welcome Fergie into her 'Forever Home'!

Booo-RU-ssia...

...Boo-RU-ssia BVB!


Just got back from a game with Nati and Thomas. We went to see the battle of the B1 (a major state highway in Westphalia) between Dortmund and Bochum. Last year, Dortmund (AKA Borussia BVB) was really good, making it all the way to the Bundesliga final before losing in the end to Bayern München. This show down was to be a shoot out, but Dortmund is having a tough time of it, tying 6 out of the last 10 matches. This game was one of those ties and a bit of a snoozer in the last half.

Nonetheless, going to the game was a good time. The fans are just a little freakish (to say the least) and always amped up...even in losing. So, seeing all the bumbble bees in their home was great. In order to take this into fully, you have to imagine 71,000 fans singing like they spent the last 3 hours in the beer tent – and many have – and just need to belt one out. It's pretty damn cool.

Prior to hitting the game today, we took a little drive around the Ruhrgebiet and checked out the immediate area around SO-DO (South east Dortmund to you outsiders). Along the way we stopped in Lünen to see Natalia's office and walk around a bit.


Then we went to an old set of locks on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, the Henrichenburg Locks. Both locks were commisioned by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1899. One set of the locks was more modernized somehow normal than the other – except that after sinking some 20 meters to the new level you had to float through a tunnel under a bridge.


The other set of locks are a prefect puzzle for physics types like Erin's dad or even for Erin's dreaded sinking and floating curriculum. It is basically a tub or trough (Trog) that the ship floats into. The trough is adjusted by a system of 5 pistons and buyous that are capable of suspending the trough, water and weight of a ship. Based on this priciple, the ship was lowered 14 meters by simply adding or removing more water in the trough...changing the system's displacement ratio so that the trough would rise or sink. (Notice, no mention of weight there!!!) A very cool idea and so simple. They really only had to use small motors to get the process going and then the whole thing more or less took care of itself.

Update from Dave

Hi all,

Yep, I'm officially done. Wahooo!!!

The whole thing lasted about 45 minutes and included me stressing pretty hard. Highlights include:

• the SLOWEST ever taxi ride through Berlin.
• Oh, ya....the taxi driver is a recently hexed man (in Morocco apparently) that is now recovering after seeking a blind shaman here in Berlin. Previous to my taxi ride he had been in a 6 month long hex that was cured only when the blind dude did something to him that made him bleed from the nose, heat up, and puke before sleeping for 5 days straight. Then he got in his taxi and drove me to school.
• One prof forgetting that I was defending.
• Some tough questions, detailed where the whole plight of passing rested on a single word that I had to guess correctly.
• I got sent out and then returned for some kudos and the grade (they asked if I had thought about getting a PhD).
  

Thursday night Tina and some friends came out with me. Lots of drinking and some dancing at this very secret bar where you have to know the password to get in.

Friday we to headed out to Havanna Bar for some fun in dancing and a couple of beer.

Now I am off to Dortmund to visit friends Natalia and Thomas at their new place.

Thanks for all the well wishes and notes.