Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Selah Lee Linebaugh


Welcome, Selah!

Selah was born on Friday evening, May 25th, at 7:40 p.m. and weighed 8 lbs, 8 oz!

I'm flying home in a week and can't wait to meet her!

Love and congrats to Darin and Melis!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Constanze and Jascha are here!


Constanze and Jascha are visiting for the week! Here is a photo of them visiting a few years ago. Doesn't everyone look happy??

They are here to do a new performance they've developed about the Spanish Civil War and to do a presentation of their "old" performance about poetry in Ravensbrueck. They are also going to speak with our Austrian-Jewish dialogue group about their work! (For those of you not in the know, Jascha plays beautiful flamenco guitar music to accompany Constanze's stunning voice.)

Very happy to have my two good friends in town!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Off to Tatzmannsdorf!


Roland and I are going to Bad Tatzmannsdorf for the weekend!

Bad T is a "therme" (therme = spa, hot springs, massages, sauna, etc.). We leave tomorrow and are going to be as silly-happy as these two fools.

It's yet another Catholic holiday (Pfingsten? I have no idea...and I don't care!)

Nothing but sleeping and reading and eating and soaking and sauna-ing and, oh, did I mention the vino???

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Utter disappointment

Bill doesn't have time for us.

He has to meet with Vladimir Putin or something.

Come on, Bill - can't you come up with something better than that? Besides, isn't Putey W's friend? I can't belive Bill would slum it like that.

Good old-fashioned American sign I want to hang in Vienna


This is coming from a woman who was late to work today because she was soaking and toothpicking her sandals free of dog shit.

(Picture found on funny site http://passiveaggressivenotes.wordpress.com/)

Bill is coming! Bill is coming!


Bill is coming to Vienna!

I got an email from Democrats Abroad-Austria yesterday, alerting all members that they are trying to arrange an event with him and asking who wants to attend.

WHO WANTS TO ATTEND? Who DOESN'T want to attend?!?!

Not all DA-A members can be there, so they were taking replies to the email and creating a list on a first-come/first-served basis. OH, please, please, please tell me I replied fast enough!!! I must experience the allure and charisma of Bill, first-hand!

Now, DA-A is the same organization for whom I have tirelessly toiled as Voter Registration Volunteer Coordinator - *ahem* - shouldn't that get me a little Bill?!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Barb and Heather, part II

As I posted earlier, Barb and Heather Rhoads-Weaver are having a boy. He’s due September 15! No names as of yet and they seem to be leaning away from jinxing anything by saying their ideas aloud. I am all for that – very superstitious! Besides, Leah says that people say awful, awful things about baby names.

“Earl? That sounds like a gas station attendant!”

“Sally? Oh, Sally Rogers was the biggest slut in high school!”

The process they went through intrigued me and Barb was kind enough to share some details. I thought it might actually be something others might be interested in, too, and Barb and Heather agreed to go public.

So, my first question was how they chose who would carry the child. Evidently, Heather’s clock was ticking a bit louder than Barb’s and she’s also more established career-wise. They felt like she could take time off and still be in a position to get back in the game, as they say. What a great, fair way to be able to approach it. They are lucky!

They explored many options for sperm donors, including friends and friends-of-friends, but finally went with Rainbow Flag, a sperm bank that primarily serves gay and lesbian families. Their agreement includes that the organization releases the donor’s identity to them when their child is 3 months old AND the donor has already agreed to be known to the child.

And this was the part I thought was really interesting – how the hell do you choose a sperm donor for your child? In some ways, reviewing files and choosing based on questionnaires and forms seems distant and formal. On the other hand, it seems better than methods many women use. *ahem*

Barb said they ordered the profiles of some donors and picked the one that seemed healthiest. She said that the profiles were very detailed and extensive and that she even nixed one because he was a Republican! Um...can’t imagine what gay or lesbian couple would go Republican in any case, but some must. To each his or her own, I guess.

Exciting news was that Heather got pregnant on their first visit to the fertility doctor! But, as Barb pointed out, they didn’t really have a “fertility” problem but were actually just missing an ingredient!

If you are interested, Barb recommended the following clip from NPR’s Story Corp about sperm donors:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6691648&ft=1&f=1021

Congratulations, Barb and Heather!!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Babies, babies...

...and more babies!

Barb and Heather Rhoads-Weaver are expecting a little boy!

Congrats to the happy, happy parents-to-be!

(More on Barb and Heather's interesting experience to come, after a little editing. They were kind and patient enough to answer the questions of their straight, childless and admittedly naive friend!)

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Friday, May 18, 2007

UB40 was right!

I don’t even know how to begin this story. It’s really absurd but, in the end, has significance. I’ll write about the absurdity first and then get deep with importance and meaning later.

So, Roland and I recently deemed our apartment open for visitors. Yes, after one year – it’s ready! We invited our first dinner guests and, of course, I chose foolishly. Both couples include amazing chefs and they’re all real Foodies. This was intimidating so I went to the family gourmet, Jen, and got a menu. We decided I would recreate the amazing pork loin she made for Easter. I needed a roast, bones in, “Frenched and tied.” Do with that what you will.

I had no idea what a pork loin was called in German and consulted my dictionary.

Schwein. I knew that part. But loin? Turns out, it's "Karree."

In any case, I figured I could do this. Nouns are easy - you just point.

I went to the butcher at the supermarket and said, "Ich möchte, bitte, eine Schweinekarree...mit sechs Knochen...alles zusammen...nur ein grosses Stück..." and pointed to the piece I wanted. (That roughly translates into, “I want a pork loin…, …um, er…with six bones…um, er…all together…uh…just in one big piece.” That makes sense, doesn’t it?)

He chopped off the piece I wanted and I happily watched him take my meat to the rear to package it. I was very proud of myself and marched out with my roast, successfully ordered auf Deutsch, BUT found when I got home that I had actually gotten six pork chops, no bones. All wrong.

I felt like an ass but decided to call my mother-in-law, wondering if there was some secret Viennese password for a proper pork loin. Neither she nor my father-in-law had any idea but my father-in-law offered to go to the store with me to help me get it straight. A couple hours later, he said something quite similar to the butcher. I understood every word and wondered what was really so different about what I had said. I watched the guy chop and prepare my perfect roast. Okay, whatever. I felt like a fool but I got my meat, thanks to my father-in-law and his pork loin password.

I went home, prepared the roast and rubbed it down. I trimmed the asparagus, whipped up some yummy potatoes and put the roast in the oven at 7. Our guests were due to arrive at 7:30, so I looked in on it around 7:20, only to find that the meat thermometer had exploded and sprinkled shards of glass all over my beautiful, sizzling roast!

Roland wanted to wash it off...that's why he has me...but luckily, I could pull out the first order of meat and quickly rub it down and gravy it up. The evening was saved, even if I was serving my Foodie friends pork chops.

Somehow, I didn’t cry during all this. Roland cracked open a bottle of red for me, despite serving pork, and things got better – especially because we have wonderful friends.

So, here's where I get all meaningful. I think it's kind of a parable for my expat existence.

Lessons Learned

* I have to put a lot more thought into many of the things I do here and frequently make mistakes doing ordinary things.

* If I look at things objectively, I often learn big lessons from mistakes I make. Sometimes, they even benefit me later on.

* In the end, I am always surrounded by friends.

* Red wine helps anything.

It's a boy!

Congratulations to Rachel and Ellie who will be the proud big sisters of a LITTLE BOY! (Congrats to Leah and Greg, too!)

This is good news for everyone, as when Leah asked Rachel if she wanted a brother or a sister, she told her she didn't care...but if it was a girl, she said, they needed a dog. If it was a boy, there was no need for one!

Oh, good luck little boy!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

More fun with translation!


Last summer, Roland and I visited a small, kind of sad aquarium in Trieste. Everything was translated into English, including the scientific name of this special little guy.

Who knew there was a penguin named after Kevin McDermott?

Man, I really have McD on the brain these days...I see him wherever I look!

Only me...and four other people, too!

Okay, maybe it's hard to take me seriously when I post about embarking on my new life as an academic immediately following a photo of the Brat Pack, but I guess that's just me. Anyway, somehow Patrick Swayze and atrocity go together, don't they?

I recently got to look over the courses I'll take next semester and discussed them with my advisor. I think we've settled on a seminar on refugees, a seminar on comparative genocide and a class about "Racial Thought and Body Politics." I'll also try auditing a German course, to try to keep it up.

I think I am more excited about this than Bob was about Bowling class at SMC!! I can't remember being so excited about classes. Ever. Not even Contemporary Bioscience. Kidding.

I've been working so closely with people for such a long time - now it's time for some books and quiet time. Especially after the hyper-intensive work I've been doing here with the refugees, I can really (naively?) imagine loving being locked up in a library. Check back with me in a couple years but, for now, I am pretty jazzed!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Do it for Johnny!


I just felt it necessary to post this.

Can any of you believe that Ralph is perhaps the least successful of this bunch?

And does anyone else think that Tom Cruise looks like Kevin McD in this picture?

Spun!


Alana and I got our butts out of bed at 6 am and did a Spinning class this morning! So far, I am loving it. I tried it a few times in DC but never got into it...maybe it was the snoot-tay instructor who told me that my clothes and shoes were all wrong? And he didn't mean functionally...

This instructor was great and the promise of an amazing sauna after helped, too. It also didn't hurt that A and I have enchilada plans tonight at Tacos Lopez! Just when we thought we would fall off and die...we'd look at each other and say, "Do it for the taco!"

Monday, May 14, 2007

Mom got an iPod!


My mom got an iPod Nano! I am so impressed and proud! Also, jealous. My iPod is like 5 years old and is a dinosaur. I literally hide it on the subway so none of the cool kids see my black and white screen!

So, Suze, now we gotta load the Abba and the Dolly Parton onto it!!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Most beautiful and wonderful cousin!


A little blog-happy today! Looking through pictures and wanted to show off my drop-dead-gorgeous-amazing-wonderful cousin and new cousin-in-law! Jen and Kev got married last July and I thought I would post a picture within a year of the wedding! Sorry guys, that's my pace...isn't she beautiful???

Cool Vickis from Wisconsin

Paul Schiefer and Angie Kartusch got married on Friday and the reception on Saturday went from about 3:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.! Paul and Angie have very cool friends - some we already knew, others we met yesterday. We had so much fun, dancing and singing...all the Wieners knew every world to American Pie! Brought a tear to my eye! They also seemed to know every word to Sweet Home Alabama...weird! Of utmost cultural importance, I learned that the 80s song Major Tom was actually sung by an Austrian band and in German. When I sang, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE, EARTH BE-LOW-OW-OW US, they thought I was a freak!

Equally as important - I met another cool Vicki and she's from Wisconsin, no less! Paul was a foreign exchange student in Wisconsin when he was about 21 and stayed with Vicki and Stan. V and S have no kids but have hosted something like 30 exchange students. They kept referring to their "Big 3" - Paul and two others they fell in love with and kind of adopted.

As good adopted parents and very fun party-people, V and S came all the way to Austria for Paul's wedding and we hung out with them most of the day yesterday. After hours of telling funny stories and a little too much vino, I confessed that I only know one other person from Wisconsin and she is seriously one of my favorite people in the world AND her name just happens to be VICKI! (Or, Wicki, as I prefer to call her..) Long story short...it seems that Vicki performed Stan's nephew's wedding! Small world of Wickis, huh?

Trying it again

I am seriously the world's worst blogger! I have a third inspiration now...Wicki was, is and always will be my first true Blogging inspiration...then, there came Binh...and now a new classmate, Emily. I have to get off my butt! Okay, trying, trying. I figured out how to post via email, so maybe that will help me?

Are any of you still reading this thing? Let me know. Maybe if I can get it together, I'll send another email to people.

Do you really want to read my crap?