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Showing posts from February, 2008

Note to Self: things I take over with me

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In the last few days, we've looked at a lot of pictures of Berlin and Vienna as a family. While it's closer to the top of my mind, I wanted to write down the things that I usually buy here and take over with us for Study Abroad. I'm being a little more generous at present because of the weak dollar, but here is what I have taken, and a few things I have wished that I'd brought. 1. school supplies. paper, notebooks, pencils, backpacks and even binders. 2. top drawer desk supplies: tape, pens, scissors, post-it and shopping list pads, glue sticks and very basic art supply kinds of things (crayons there are terribly expensive) 3. tool/fix it kit: screwdrivers (both kinds, especially a small one for battery toys), duct tape, double-sided tape, and something like pliers (could also buy a tool kit from IKEA) 4. baking aids: baking soda, baking powder, and recipes for things without brown sugar (the zucchini bread recipe worked well there, also some brownies and other treats t

Rob Hits the Airwaves

This week, BYU's International Cinema is showing The Lives of Others. In conjunction with that, Rob was asked to talk about divided Berlin and surveilance societies on Thinking Aloud with Marcus Smith. You can listen to him here for about half an hour, but if you haven't seen it yet, see the movie ! It is incredible, and deservedly won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2007.

LOVE Day

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Rob brought these to me last night. He designed it himself and I think it looks wonderful (I am a big sucker for tulips). He said that he was walking down the hall in his building with it, and there was a wave of "Ooof! I gotta go get flowers!" behind him. He is extremely organized about Valentine's Day (like getting the flowers the day before, because he says "You've got to enjoy them all day long"). He claims that we're still making up for lost time, but it's a day he believes in. As opposed to our friend Katie, who is a conscientious objector. She doesn't allow candy or flowers or frou, but she's relented on books, so her husband always gets her something good to read. This was our FHE lesson brainstorm last week. For once, I was organized enough to get the Valentines not only made, but mailed in time. You'll notice not only people and things, but some ideas too, like "Garbage Day" "Springtime" and "Local Fo

Science Fair

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So last week was the school science fair. Maddie's project was to include an actual experiment, and she decided that she wanted to compare regular grocery store eggs with the free range organic eggs we've been getting in our neighborhood. She made three recipes: scrambled eggs, chocolate souffles, and a ham and spinach quiche. You can't really see the difference in color in this picture, but it is pretty pronounced. The other thing she noticed is that the organic eggs are more viscous, and particularly the membrane around the yolk is a lot stronger which you can see, because the ones on the left broke when they fell in the bowl. Everyone noticed a difference in taste in the scrambled eggs, and preferred the organic eggs. No one could tell once there was chocolate or ham and cheese present. It is always difficult to find a project that your child is interested in, and something they can really own -- this was good because Maddie could do most of the cooking, and she learne

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Narnia . . .

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. . . always winter and never Christmas, if you know what I mean. It has been snowing or grey since the beginning of December, and doesn't show any signs of stopping. But I will say that snow appeals to my work ethic, because if it is going to be cold and grey, it should at least be productive; like the opposite of storing up food for the winter: storing up your water for the desert summer. The poor birds are getting a pretty raw deal in our neighborhood since there aren't any trees off our street. Sebi and I decided to make some more pinecone feeders yesterday. Sebastian took it very seriously, especially the part where he had to lick all the peanut butter off of his knife each time. It got entertaining once we got out the birdseed and he kept licking, stopping only to spit out the birdseed. We hung four on the maple tree and four on a pine tree and they've had customers ever since. At least the birds are ready for the next snowstorm, which I hear is coming in tomorrow.

Broken

Everything at our house is currently broken. Our heater is on the fritz, both vacuum cleaners are completely useless, the kitchen light and the cold storage closet are out, the computer is giving me fits and won't post pictures to my blog, and the ice maker doesn't work. The biggest blow to the household economy is the dishwasher. I was minding my own business while it was running, when I heard a pop and saw a wisp of smoke come from the faceplate. Not a good sign. Now you don't have to feel too badly, because we do have another dishwasher downstairs. I've been commuting all the dishes up and down to clean them, put them back, clean them again, and so on. But the dishwasher was, once upon a time, voted the Appliance Most Likely to Save Our Marriage (probably the year was 1999, and it resulted in the great Cuban Tithing Blessing dishwasher which is another story for another time). In the intervening two weeks since it busted (don't get a Bosch in a square state -- to