Shaz/Kaz (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kaiserkuchen) wrote2009-12-28 05:05 pm
kaiserkuchen) wrote2009-12-28 05:05 pm
Entry tags:
I apologize preemptively for spamming your flists
But I have a limited time-frame of internet time again, and a bunch of things to post still. Just posted my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
spn_j2_xmas picture in the previous entry and sent off my last UE Hist that was transformed into something almost beautiful thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshire_tabby's Mad German Beta Reader skillz. Hopefully my Prof will be so tired from the holidays that she accepts my vague yammerings and doesn't notice/mind that the 2 pages and spare change are in 1.5 Zeilenabstand XD.
Here, mainly for my own reference and "journaling" purposes, a summary of the previous, internetless days. Also known as, THE COWTOWN CHRONICLES, Winter 2009 Edition
23.12
MY DAY OF THE TRAIN RIDE(S) FROM HELL.
My planned travel time, minus the extra hour and a half to my grandparents: 10.20—14.46 My actual travel time, minus the extra hour and a half to my grandparents: 10.40—17.09
Delays up the wazoo—this is fricken the reason why I abhor train travel so much and vastly prefer planes. Give me a nice 10 hour flight any day! Especially if it is one en route to Bangkok, hah! But seriously, this was by far one of the worst train-rides I have ever had the bad luck to live through. Everything was off to an inauspicious start, even if I did in a rare moment of personal good planning, arrive at the Westbahnhof with over a quarter of an hour to spare. Still didn’t change the fact that the train arrived 20 minutes later than planned, and as it finally got moving towards Salzburg, added another 16 minutes to the delay. Which meant that I totally missed my connecting train there. But I noticed three people talking about needing to get to Zell as well, so I basically introduced myself and asked if I could just tag along with them in the search for the correct new train and platform. That was when the next snag happened, because while we actually had some of the railstaff point us in what was ostensibly the right train, well. We boarded and just about made ourselves comfortable when one of the others noticed that we weren’t actually in AUSTRIA any more. We got in the train that was headed in the wrong direction and was currently somewhere in fricken GERMANY. This is where I gotta say that I was so happy that I wasn’t alone, because I would’ve gotten my book out and went on with reading, possibly only to resurface a few hours later and be confused at why the fuck I was in Frankfurt all of a sudden :|. Again, luck was on our side, and we managed to disembark at the next station, and after running around asking the station-staff, we didn’t have to wait long in ~~scenic Traunstein (wherever the fuck it actually is I still do not know) for the next train that would take us back to the right direction. Also, as I too was in the middle of frantic phonecalls to people, I found out that Andi would be able to pick me up at Schwarzach St. Veit, which would save me nearly another hour of train-hopping. TL;DR, it all worked out in the end, and we even made a stop to buy some snacks, which was heavenly because holy fuck was I ever hungry.
24.12
My new room AKA the old one that used to be rented out by Creepy Ski Teacher Sepp for the last 20 years or so (I was so scared of him as a kid lol), is lovely, cheery and nicely renovated. Though I have to admit that what I love the most is that it is next to the fancy new toilet on the second floor, which is my favorite and also very practical when you have to go to the toilet in the wee hours of the morning.
I am enjoying the fact that I don’t have to worry about having to feed myself. The Christmas eve menu is never thrilling (Fish for lunch, noodle soup with veal sausages for dinner), but I suppose that tradition is tradition, and still, it beats what I would probably whip up on my own. The weather remains weirdly unchristmass-y, we went on a walk later and while there was still random patches of insanely tricky ice, the general feeling is more like springtime or the thaw than the middle of winter.
The Christmas tree was really pretty again this year, and I liked the added touch of using sparklers/Wunderkerzen as a starting eye-catchy decoration thing. Silvia also made Glühwein and had a spread of treats that I kept compulsively munching on. The Ferrero Rocher pralines! Everyone seemed to like my presents fine, so that was good. Amongst other things, Sara got a unicorn/Pegasus plushie that has a glow in the dark horn and that can “walk”. The sound it makes during said walking creeps me the fuck out though. And she got a kiddie digicam! That is waterproof even—which is another testament to how fast the times are changing, could anyone have imagined 5 year olds having their own cameras back when we were kids?
My present haul, part one:
-30€ gift voucher for BIPA (Silvia)
-“Schwerelos” by Ildilko von Kürthy (Silvia)
-50€ cash (Oma/Opa)
-Milka Yoghurt/Raspberry chocolate & Salami sticks (Oma/Opa)
-(Andi didn’t have time for X’mas presents this year, but he says that he’ll treat us/me to pizza at some point? IDK)
25.12
Sara still reaaaaaaaaally loves me. At least today there were loads more people to distract her and I could avoid the full concentrated power of her affections, though I must say that lugging her about the house or being on horsing-around safety-watch duty could be a very effective calorie burner. At the very least I am happy that all the stuff I have had to read out loud to her so far has been new to me, too. I still have traumatic memories of having to read the kiddie Bible and a random recipe for champignon-stuffed mushrooms over and over and over again when she was two or three.
Today was a glorious orgy of food and consumption and because the Eders joined us with even more food (Erika baked two cakes and made a shitload of cookies), we were pretty much set for the day. An epic raclette spread was laid out for us hungry hoardes, with the usual suspects of beef, chicken, pork and prawns, and this time with venison even that Opa had to chop up himself a few days earlier. Dessert was a selection of what Erika made and a truly delicious Tiramisu from Silvia. It was probably delicious to me because it was a very un-coffee-laced Tiramisu, which pleased my marscapone-cream loving heart and stomach the most.
Present haul, part two:
-100€ cash & little chocolate angel (Erika/Alfred)
-Body Shop Dewberry body lotion & dangly copper/black bead earrings (Verena)
-“HOUSE OF LEAVES” (!!!) by Mark Z. Danielewski (Robert/Valeria)
It started snowing again all of a sudden in the middle of the afternoon—a fluid transition from rain, to snow-rain, to giant fucking snowflakes to a more smaller yet still insanely continuously assortment of tiny, tiny snowflakes. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of white in an instant. I even have pictures that show the insane difference that two hours of that snowfall made, and now everything really does look like something out of a storybook.
Felix, the cat that we seem to have adopted (or at least feed and let stay in the house for some time during the day), is a super cute, albeit slightly smelly beast. He purrs like a fricken diesel motor though, I have never heard a cat purr that loudly and constantly ever before.
26.12
Sara, Silvia and Andi went skiing for most of the day, so I got to do some net! Alas, I hadn’t the foresight to finish typing up any of these previous posts, so I basically used the time to randomly comment ninja at people, open as many new tabs with fic to read later as possible, do some last minute SPN_J2_Xmas research on wiki and image google aaaand send Olga my UE Hist dribbles to read and most likely shred apart. I continue to fail in writing decent and unstilted sounding Uni German—how screwed will I be in the beginning of my working life? TOTALLY, I bet.
Spent the rest of the day watching cartoons with Sara (George of the Jungle the cartoon is extremely idiotic, but oddly amusing and one of the few ones that do not make me immediately fall asleep.) and reading more chapters of Kokonuss der kleine Feuerdrache to her before her bedtime. Which is something I did not expect to enjoy as much as I do, though it’s probably because A) I actually like the book and am totally charmed by the idea of Dragon Island and their little society (THEIR NAAAMES lol Oskar Ohnesorg! Gisela Gieskanne! Duftikus Dickbauch! Gunda Guckmada! Ollemina the giant turtle! Uncle Magnus and Aunt Mette!) and B) Sara makes herself comfortable on my lap and doesn’t fidget or do much besides actually listen.
Started sketching out things for my SPN_J2_Xmas pic. Or rather, actually putting what was flying around as ideas in my head finally to paper and seeing what sticks. Will probably end up with something humorous instead of the EPIC I think I/my recipient was aiming for at first, but I am amusing myself with the idea at least?
27.12
Today was spent drawing and drawing and drawing on the SPN_J2_Xmas pic. Even got a relatively unmolested afternoon where I made the most headway. And as I type this entry, it has been completed! Will have another look at it tomorrow morning and see if there are any last minute things I need to change, but I am quite happy with how it turned out. Still, I remain a hella slow drawer on the computer though.
Also got something done for Andy, as I was roped into drawing with Sara who came to look at me work on the SPN pic and naturally got bored after a while. Tried to teach her how to use the tablet and draw flowers on the computer, but she got annoyed by that and wanted to show me how to draw “real flowers on real paper” lol. She had a little weird tantrum thing when she couldn’t draw butterflies to her satisfaction, but thankfully Silvia was also there, so I could just continue on with my own coloring (says the 21 year-old). We then veered off to arts and crafts and those bead art things that you can iron later to make them stick. Which was totally fun, and I made a cat wearing a dress. If quasi babysitting Sara means that I get to relive the fun parts of Kindergarten now, I am not protesting. Yet. And seriously, it is a wonder what an extra year of age can do to make a child more tolerable to be around for extended periods of time. Oma said that she’s always liked me because I’ve never talked down to her, which wasn’t exactly anything planned on my part and seriously the result of actually having no idea how to talk to children. I still don’t, really, except for the obvious things like DON’T CURSE. The idea of baby-talk still makes me shudder though, I get embarrassed even just by listening to other people speak it.
I should probably leave the house again soon, haven’t done so since uh… the 24th and part of me wants to take pictures of the snowy forests (again).
Today I got dragged out for a rousing round of Bockareiten, or bobsledding as I guess one would call it in English. And by rousing I mean that I refused to get on one and basically dragged Sara's sled around and up and down hills, sweating and wheezing all the time. Again, awesome work-out though. I hope the constant yawning that I was doing all the time is something that won't happen every time I leave the house, though. That and the ever present pressure imbalance in my ears sucked, too. Makes talking very strange, when you can hear your own voice echo in your head...
spn_j2_xmas picture in the previous entry and sent off my last UE Hist that was transformed into something almost beautiful thanks to cheshire_tabby's Mad German Beta Reader skillz. Hopefully my Prof will be so tired from the holidays that she accepts my vague yammerings and doesn't notice/mind that the 2 pages and spare change are in 1.5 Zeilenabstand XD.Here, mainly for my own reference and "journaling" purposes, a summary of the previous, internetless days. Also known as, THE COWTOWN CHRONICLES, Winter 2009 Edition
23.12
MY DAY OF THE TRAIN RIDE(S) FROM HELL.
My planned travel time, minus the extra hour and a half to my grandparents: 10.20—14.46 My actual travel time, minus the extra hour and a half to my grandparents: 10.40—17.09
Delays up the wazoo—this is fricken the reason why I abhor train travel so much and vastly prefer planes. Give me a nice 10 hour flight any day! Especially if it is one en route to Bangkok, hah! But seriously, this was by far one of the worst train-rides I have ever had the bad luck to live through. Everything was off to an inauspicious start, even if I did in a rare moment of personal good planning, arrive at the Westbahnhof with over a quarter of an hour to spare. Still didn’t change the fact that the train arrived 20 minutes later than planned, and as it finally got moving towards Salzburg, added another 16 minutes to the delay. Which meant that I totally missed my connecting train there. But I noticed three people talking about needing to get to Zell as well, so I basically introduced myself and asked if I could just tag along with them in the search for the correct new train and platform. That was when the next snag happened, because while we actually had some of the railstaff point us in what was ostensibly the right train, well. We boarded and just about made ourselves comfortable when one of the others noticed that we weren’t actually in AUSTRIA any more. We got in the train that was headed in the wrong direction and was currently somewhere in fricken GERMANY. This is where I gotta say that I was so happy that I wasn’t alone, because I would’ve gotten my book out and went on with reading, possibly only to resurface a few hours later and be confused at why the fuck I was in Frankfurt all of a sudden :|. Again, luck was on our side, and we managed to disembark at the next station, and after running around asking the station-staff, we didn’t have to wait long in ~~scenic Traunstein (wherever the fuck it actually is I still do not know) for the next train that would take us back to the right direction. Also, as I too was in the middle of frantic phonecalls to people, I found out that Andi would be able to pick me up at Schwarzach St. Veit, which would save me nearly another hour of train-hopping. TL;DR, it all worked out in the end, and we even made a stop to buy some snacks, which was heavenly because holy fuck was I ever hungry.
24.12
My new room AKA the old one that used to be rented out by Creepy Ski Teacher Sepp for the last 20 years or so (I was so scared of him as a kid lol), is lovely, cheery and nicely renovated. Though I have to admit that what I love the most is that it is next to the fancy new toilet on the second floor, which is my favorite and also very practical when you have to go to the toilet in the wee hours of the morning.
I am enjoying the fact that I don’t have to worry about having to feed myself. The Christmas eve menu is never thrilling (Fish for lunch, noodle soup with veal sausages for dinner), but I suppose that tradition is tradition, and still, it beats what I would probably whip up on my own. The weather remains weirdly unchristmass-y, we went on a walk later and while there was still random patches of insanely tricky ice, the general feeling is more like springtime or the thaw than the middle of winter.
The Christmas tree was really pretty again this year, and I liked the added touch of using sparklers/Wunderkerzen as a starting eye-catchy decoration thing. Silvia also made Glühwein and had a spread of treats that I kept compulsively munching on. The Ferrero Rocher pralines! Everyone seemed to like my presents fine, so that was good. Amongst other things, Sara got a unicorn/Pegasus plushie that has a glow in the dark horn and that can “walk”. The sound it makes during said walking creeps me the fuck out though. And she got a kiddie digicam! That is waterproof even—which is another testament to how fast the times are changing, could anyone have imagined 5 year olds having their own cameras back when we were kids?
My present haul, part one:
-30€ gift voucher for BIPA (Silvia)
-“Schwerelos” by Ildilko von Kürthy (Silvia)
-50€ cash (Oma/Opa)
-Milka Yoghurt/Raspberry chocolate & Salami sticks (Oma/Opa)
-(Andi didn’t have time for X’mas presents this year, but he says that he’ll treat us/me to pizza at some point? IDK)
25.12
Sara still reaaaaaaaaally loves me. At least today there were loads more people to distract her and I could avoid the full concentrated power of her affections, though I must say that lugging her about the house or being on horsing-around safety-watch duty could be a very effective calorie burner. At the very least I am happy that all the stuff I have had to read out loud to her so far has been new to me, too. I still have traumatic memories of having to read the kiddie Bible and a random recipe for champignon-stuffed mushrooms over and over and over again when she was two or three.
Today was a glorious orgy of food and consumption and because the Eders joined us with even more food (Erika baked two cakes and made a shitload of cookies), we were pretty much set for the day. An epic raclette spread was laid out for us hungry hoardes, with the usual suspects of beef, chicken, pork and prawns, and this time with venison even that Opa had to chop up himself a few days earlier. Dessert was a selection of what Erika made and a truly delicious Tiramisu from Silvia. It was probably delicious to me because it was a very un-coffee-laced Tiramisu, which pleased my marscapone-cream loving heart and stomach the most.
Present haul, part two:
-100€ cash & little chocolate angel (Erika/Alfred)
-Body Shop Dewberry body lotion & dangly copper/black bead earrings (Verena)
-“HOUSE OF LEAVES” (!!!) by Mark Z. Danielewski (Robert/Valeria)
It started snowing again all of a sudden in the middle of the afternoon—a fluid transition from rain, to snow-rain, to giant fucking snowflakes to a more smaller yet still insanely continuously assortment of tiny, tiny snowflakes. Everything was covered in a thick blanket of white in an instant. I even have pictures that show the insane difference that two hours of that snowfall made, and now everything really does look like something out of a storybook.
Felix, the cat that we seem to have adopted (or at least feed and let stay in the house for some time during the day), is a super cute, albeit slightly smelly beast. He purrs like a fricken diesel motor though, I have never heard a cat purr that loudly and constantly ever before.
26.12
Sara, Silvia and Andi went skiing for most of the day, so I got to do some net! Alas, I hadn’t the foresight to finish typing up any of these previous posts, so I basically used the time to randomly comment ninja at people, open as many new tabs with fic to read later as possible, do some last minute SPN_J2_Xmas research on wiki and image google aaaand send Olga my UE Hist dribbles to read and most likely shred apart. I continue to fail in writing decent and unstilted sounding Uni German—how screwed will I be in the beginning of my working life? TOTALLY, I bet.
Spent the rest of the day watching cartoons with Sara (George of the Jungle the cartoon is extremely idiotic, but oddly amusing and one of the few ones that do not make me immediately fall asleep.) and reading more chapters of Kokonuss der kleine Feuerdrache to her before her bedtime. Which is something I did not expect to enjoy as much as I do, though it’s probably because A) I actually like the book and am totally charmed by the idea of Dragon Island and their little society (THEIR NAAAMES lol Oskar Ohnesorg! Gisela Gieskanne! Duftikus Dickbauch! Gunda Guckmada! Ollemina the giant turtle! Uncle Magnus and Aunt Mette!) and B) Sara makes herself comfortable on my lap and doesn’t fidget or do much besides actually listen.
Started sketching out things for my SPN_J2_Xmas pic. Or rather, actually putting what was flying around as ideas in my head finally to paper and seeing what sticks. Will probably end up with something humorous instead of the EPIC I think I/my recipient was aiming for at first, but I am amusing myself with the idea at least?
27.12
Today was spent drawing and drawing and drawing on the SPN_J2_Xmas pic. Even got a relatively unmolested afternoon where I made the most headway. And as I type this entry, it has been completed! Will have another look at it tomorrow morning and see if there are any last minute things I need to change, but I am quite happy with how it turned out. Still, I remain a hella slow drawer on the computer though.
Also got something done for Andy, as I was roped into drawing with Sara who came to look at me work on the SPN pic and naturally got bored after a while. Tried to teach her how to use the tablet and draw flowers on the computer, but she got annoyed by that and wanted to show me how to draw “real flowers on real paper” lol. She had a little weird tantrum thing when she couldn’t draw butterflies to her satisfaction, but thankfully Silvia was also there, so I could just continue on with my own coloring (says the 21 year-old). We then veered off to arts and crafts and those bead art things that you can iron later to make them stick. Which was totally fun, and I made a cat wearing a dress. If quasi babysitting Sara means that I get to relive the fun parts of Kindergarten now, I am not protesting. Yet. And seriously, it is a wonder what an extra year of age can do to make a child more tolerable to be around for extended periods of time. Oma said that she’s always liked me because I’ve never talked down to her, which wasn’t exactly anything planned on my part and seriously the result of actually having no idea how to talk to children. I still don’t, really, except for the obvious things like DON’T CURSE. The idea of baby-talk still makes me shudder though, I get embarrassed even just by listening to other people speak it.
I should probably leave the house again soon, haven’t done so since uh… the 24th and part of me wants to take pictures of the snowy forests (again).
Today I got dragged out for a rousing round of Bockareiten, or bobsledding as I guess one would call it in English. And by rousing I mean that I refused to get on one and basically dragged Sara's sled around and up and down hills, sweating and wheezing all the time. Again, awesome work-out though. I hope the constant yawning that I was doing all the time is something that won't happen every time I leave the house, though. That and the ever present pressure imbalance in my ears sucked, too. Makes talking very strange, when you can hear your own voice echo in your head...