I feel like singing a song. Fortunately, I don’t know how to record/link audio, or you might have to endure my talentless warblings. The sun is out, and I walked around outside without my wool coat. And I didn’t even shiver!
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A food blogger I’m not, as evidenced by this amateur photo of my dinner concoction. However, it tasted so good I wanted to capture it on, um, film. Or pixels.
Rarely does a recipe turn out exactly like I picture it in my head (or how it’s pictured in the cookbook). The instructions didn’t warn me that my entire kitchen would be covered in curry-scented grease after Monday night’s dinner, or that a particular scampi sauce isn’t so much sauce as it is two tablespoons of butter that are supposed to bathe a pound of pasta.
Last night, however, my culinary efforts were rewarded with feta-stuffed chicken that not only looked pretty and tasted prettier, but it matched the new placemats I bought in France! (I’m still in denial that they’re white. We’ve banned red sauce from our house until they’re broken in.) The recipe comes from Colorado Colore
Jeff has informed me that “every good blog needs some statistics.” So he has provided me with the following weather stats, to back up my claims that it has been a darn cold winter around these parts:
In February 2006, 17 of 28 days’ temperatures were below average. The average temperature was 2 degrees below average for the month.
In March, 13 of 15 days have been below average. The average temperature has been 10 degrees below average for the month.
Temperatures are reported in Fahrenheit (I cling to the Old Country). All data was gathered from weather.com.
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I took a little walk in Furth today and took some photos. Since you’re probably tired of looking at the snowy rooftops outside my window, I tried a couple of artsy shots. Take a look.
Having said that, I’ve also posted some pictures of a big and pretty schneestorm that happened last week. The flakes were just too gorgeous not to share. Click the cobblestone picture to the right to check them out.
-Schnee chaos is back, and now the river has flooded. There are swans swimming around in the middle of the soccer field across the road from our apartment.
-I was reminded of the genius of Jack Black (and Stevie Nicks) while watching The School of Rock on TV on Saturday evening. I’m off to download Edge of Seventeen right now.
-Jeff didn’t appreciate my insinuations about soccer fans in the last post. Not all of them are cheapskates. More seriously, I’d like to mention that while prostitution is legal in Germany, the campaigns against the practice and especially against importing workers are strong.
-Jeff’s mom gets the gold star for the day; she sent us two boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Nothing makes my weekend like a box of thin mints.
I learned today that prostitution is legal in Germany. Does that mean I need a work permit to apply? Because, apparently, they’re in recruitment mode:
CNN story: German sex industry awaits World Cup
Though, according to the CNN story, one Berlin-based lady of the evening says, “I can tell you that most men who watch a soccer game also have quite a few beers and that’s not exactly boosting their standing power, quite literally, which makes them serious cheapskates. Actually, I think this might be the right time for me to take a holiday.”
We’re pulling out all the stops today at The Blythe Spirit, so put on some CeCe Peniston and unscrew the two-liter bottle of wine cooler.
Jeff and Blythe have passed the German driving test.
I’ve avoided writing about the test because there was no reason to project my sense of impending doom throughout the land. Two weeks ago, at 7:30am, in a room populated by 17-year-old German whiz kids (and one middle-aged Canadian), we made our first attempt at the exam. We had studied the six zillion sample questions, quizzed one another on the formula for braking distances, and made road-sign flashcards. Alas, success eluded us that day. We both scored below the 90% (yes, you read that correctly) required to pass the test.
We were required to wait two weeks before reattempting the exam. In order to justify our failure, I will now go into boring detail about the test itself.
Let me remind you that we were given 1,800 sample questions (yes, I’ve double-checked that number), 30 of which are on each test, which is different for each test-taker at each administration. And, though the vast majority of questions are multiple-choice, there may be more than one correct answer to each question. Can you tell that I formerly worked in a field where the SAT was a major topic of discussion?
Some of the questions are frighteningly easy for anyone who has possessed a drivers license for more than five minutes:
You have missed the autobahn (freeway) exit. What do you do?
-Drive on to the next exit
-Reverse along the shoulder of the road
These are followed by photos of small children on tricycles next to questions asking if this child is riding his tricycle in your driveway, should you wait until he passes or mow him down because tricycles don’t have right-of-way. (You’ll be glad to know that, though the Germans have a reputation for unquestioned rule-following, they do allow for tricycle right-of-way in this situation).
Such questions lulled us into believing we might actually pass the test. Then, when we took the exam the first time, we got questions like this:
Which vehicles are you allowed to drive with a driving permit class B when considering the permissible towed load?
Combinations of:
-a car with a permissible total mass of 3500kg and a trailer with a permissible total mass of 750kg
-a car and a trailer if its permissible total mass exceeds the empty mass of the car, as long as the sum of the permissible total masses is not more than 3500kg
-a truck with apermissible total mas of 3500kg and a trailer with a permissible total mass of 750kg
And a few made us worry there might be a surprise urinalysis when we handed in the test paper:
Which drugs can make a person temporarily unfit to drive even when consumed on a single occasion?
-Hashish,marijuana
-Heroin, cocaine, amphetamines
-LSD
This past weekend was spent once again quizzing one another on bicycle parking regulations over dinner, and pointing out poorly-parked cars on the way to the grocery store. We did our best to avoid analyzing the test and its questions, to avoid drawing sweeping negative conclusions about an entire country and culture, to avoid criticizing the evil test-writers who attempt to trip up test-takers by trickily switching a single word (“overestimate” and “underestimate”) wherever possible. This morning, I worried that it was a bad omen when we were seated at exactly the same desks where we’d failed the test before, the DESKS OF FAILURE. When we received our test papers, everything started out all right. Yes! I’ve seen these questions before. Yes! I know the answers. But about halfway through, my confidence waned. What is the minimum parking distance behind a bus stop? 15 meters or 5? Or is that at a tram stop? Must a farm vehicle drive on the hard shoulder or in the right lane? When driving in fog, is the braking distance normal or equivalent to evasive braking? AAAAAAAH. I took crazy guesses at the last page of questions. Who knows when the holiday driving ban applies? Who careS? I was sure I’d failed again. Jeff was sure he had failed as well. We were already scheming ways to convert our Oregon licenses to Louisiana so we didn’t have to take the damn thing again.
However, miracle of miracles, the glory of the Lord shone down upon us and we were saved. I’m not kidding. I am sure that some divine intervention was involved. Somewhere, someone noticed that we were tired of dealing with grumpy government authorities, tired of snowy days in March, tired of living in a place that still feels strange sometimes. And so, when the smiling test administrator shook our hands in congratulation, I thanked him profusely. He said, in a broken but friendly attempt at English, “It is you who have done this yourselves.” But I thanked him anyway. I told him, I am so happy, I must thank someone.
The outstanding entrant in Blythe’s 2006 Oscar Pool/Poll is:
Melanie Reed from Seattle WA, with 19 predictions correct, out of 24 categories. Melanie is the lucky winner of an Oscar the Grouch T-shirt. Mel is decidedly NOT a grouch, but she deserves a big Oscar for her awards-predicting prowess, and this was the only one I could get my hands on.
Second place goes to Karen Katz from Portland OR, based on her 17 correct predictions. She wanted to make it clear that her entry reflected the films she thought would win, not those she actually wanted to win. She walks away with a $10 Amazon gift certificate, which she can use toward the purchase of her favorite film of 2005, Match Point, when it comes out on DVD next month.
The Gay cowboys? What gay cowboys? award goes to Scott Butler, who did not predict Brokeback Mountain as a winner in a single category.
The special Three 6 Posse award for musical appreciation goes to David Bradley, Jill Briney, Mike Sexton, and Karl Stickel, the only people to correctly predict that “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” would win Best Original Song.
Apparently God Sleeps in Rwanda was an audience favorite, because 19 of 27 entrants predict it as a winner in the Best Documentary Short category. Or maybe that’s just because it was the first one on the ballot?
Our first-place finisher (Melanie) incorrectly predicted the awards that the last-place finisher (Jill) got right. Team Reed/Briney in 2007?
For those who are setting Oscar prediction goals for next year, here’s the score breakdown, by name and number of correct predictions:
Melanie – 19
Karen – 17
Karl – 15
Kerri W – 14
Sandi – 14
Kylee – 12
Anna – 10
Chad – 10
Martha – 10
Francie – 9
Mike – 9
Monique – 9
Erica – 8
Erika – 8
Erin – 8
Scott – 8
Daniela – 7
David – 7
Katie – 7
Kendra – 7
Kerri B – 7
Patti – 7
Todd – 7
Jeff – 6
Tracy – 6
Dick – 5
Jill – 4
Thanks for playing. And, it’s never too early to start handicapping.
Before I share my thoughts on the Oscars, I must unburden myself to you, dear readers. I know that many of you spent the telecast assuming that I was sitting in my jammies at 2a.m. watching the whole thing unfold right along with you via the miracle of satellite television. Sadly, I am a weenie who gets grouchy when I don’t get 9 hours of sleep every night. And I finally figured out how to read the online TV guide. So when I realized that Sky would re-play the Oscars on Monday afternoon, I agonized for about six seconds and then decided to watch the replay. I would have agonized for only two seconds, but the extra 4 seconds were added because I relied on the TV guide for my Olympics coverage and ended up watching 2 hours of curling final that pre-empted the figure skating exhibition. Fortunately, the curlers had the day off today and the Oscar broadcast transpired smoothly.
I haven’t yet read any press coverage of the awards, so the following is straight off the top of my cheese-and-greasy-cracker-addled head.
Jon Stewart – I thought he did a good job. The Oscar host is not meant to be hilarious or to steal the show. He did neither, but contributed some crack-me-up moments (Bjork vs. Dick Cheney, for example).
Who seated Jack Nicholson next to Keira Knightley? Does he slip cash to the people who organize this thing? Or is he one of the producers? I’m sure she tried to swap seats with that guy next to her.
Best fashion comeback = Michelle Williams, thanks to a risky choice. No one would ever mistake that dress for something she might have worn to the Flathead High prom.
Hottest couple = Meryl Streep (she looked amazing) and Lily Tomlin. I loved their bit and I want to know if/how much they practiced it. They balanced poor Lauren Bacall‘s teleprompter problem (somebody get that woman a pair of reading glasses – where’s Paul Giamatti when you need him?) nicely.
Outsider of the year = Matt Dillon, who never changes, he still looks just as hot as when he played Dally in 1983. If I were Cameron Diaz, I think I would be questioning my life with Justin Timberlake right about now. Oscar nominee vs. Britney’s ex…hmmm…
The Crash moviemakers are going to have a week like the one that Marisa Tomei had when she won her Oscar – first thrilled, then defensive, then cranky, then they’ll go on to make some movie that’s even more interesting and say screw the naysayers.
Best Mom shout-out = Philip Seymour Hoffman, who loves his mom despite having to live with the middle name “Seymour” throughout his childhood.
Reese looked very pretty, it was nice to see her in a full-length sparkly gown. I wish I could see the details better; were those beads? rhinestones? silver threads?
I think Rachel Weisz was wearing Catherine Zeta-Jones‘s maternity dress from 2003, sans sequins.
Those crazy March of the Penguins guys were edged out for Best Use of an Acceptance Speech Accessory by the bow-tied makers of Wallace and Gromit and their teeny Oscar bow ties. It’s all about preparation, people.
Um, who invited Buddy Holly? and the $6-million Man?
I’m glad Jennifer Garner didn’t fall down. And I was so happy to see that she was wearing a dress that I could imagine that someone who recently gave birth might wear, versus other Hollywood mothers who seem to have found some Magical Kool-Aid that shrinks their bodies to pre-pregnancy size within hours of delivery (see: Heidi Klum in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show).
My feelings about J.Lo‘s fashion choices tend to be strong, and I thought her green dress was lovely this time around.
I just love Dolly Parton. Apparently she can work the stage so well that she doesn’t require strange, slow-motion tableaux or dancing prostitutes to illustrate the message of her song.
Speaking of songs, wasn’t that Andie, Toby’s wife from the West Wing who wrote and performed the song from Crash??
I wasn’t wild about the black dresses, especially Charlize’s giant shoulder bow, with the exception of Felicity Huffman who (as always) looked so lovely that someone ought to paint her portrait. Bonus points for the sparkly hair accessory.
I know you won’t believe this, but Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter were looking as good (read: normal) as I’ve ever seen them. It’s a shame about her hairdo but at least she seems to have found her own hairdresser, instead of letting Tim style it?
You might have caught Naomi Watts promoting the Lexus hybrid that she chose instead of riding in a limo to the ceremony. She’s such a friend to the environment, I think her dress was made of 100% recycled materials.
Having the most fun = Amy Adams looked so happy, she was living it up. Three 6 Mafia, of course, were having their own party right onstage. And I’m pretty sure the whole crew from Crash is having a good time now that they’ve recovered from their simultaneou
s near heart attacks.
P.S.
I’m sorry if you experienced any technical difficulties loading the site today; apparently my service provider was having some problems. Probably due to the massive traffic that my oscar poll generated. Results are being tabulated and will be announced tomorrow.
Oprah stopped by The Blythe Spirit last night and gave it a makeover.
I wish. But you’ve probably noticed the new look. Hope it’s not too, um, PURPLE for you. Please let me know via comments or what have you if there’s something that doesn’t work for you. I’m no graphic artist, so pointers are appreciated.
Incidentally, Oprah would feel right at home here. The temperature hovers around freezing and it’s been snowing all day. Lovely, fluffy snowflakes, like frosting on the tile roofs outside my window. I’m concerned that Mother Nature hasn’t been reading her email, because I thought March was supposed to be a springtime month, but never mind.
