Journal Entries
And thus was an alliance forged...
Posted Apr 19, 2009
...between what must be the two most chaotic families in Germany! 
For those who are confused: my sister was married on Saturday. There was a bit of a party, with guests from four continents. 
Nobody got much sleep this week, because a card tournament filled up all the local hotels, so we had a house stuffed full of guests and they nearly all insisted on turning up after midnight!
It started on Wednesday with my American grandparents missing a connecting flight and not getting into Hannover until eleven, which means they were here at half past one. Thursday, the bride and groom and the groom's father arrived from Berlin, also well after midnight - and I had to stay up until half past four myself to proofread the paper the Sistabarista was writing on my computer, due the next day and started the previous evening. Harrumph! We also finally moved into the new kitchen on Thursday (photos and such to follow when I get a chance), because we'd never have fit everyone in otherwise! It's nearly done, just a bit of trim, a few doors, and some paint missing.
Friday was the Polterabend party, (for those who are confused: read this A49997308) which filled the house with guests and meant a great shuffling of rooms until everyone had a bed, because it was raining and we hadn't put up the tents. At least we know that our new kitchen works wonderfully - we can get 12 people into it at two tables and *still* have room to move around! It certainly didn't help that the groom's aunt, uncle, grandmother, and cousins, who were supposed to be there by seven, actually arrived at two in the morning, because they only left Stuttgart at six and were travelling in a slow camper! 
We'd sent the happy couple, H and J, into town to sleep at my grandmother's, so they were out of the way already. We somehow managed to get everyone fed and dressed and leave for Northeim *almost* on time, but then it turned out that the camper was even slower than we'd assumed - largely because the driver had his pet cat along and it was sitting on his lap all the way. (I did mention that the families are both quite chaotic, yes?)
We finally found the registry office with minutes to spare, and most of the friends and relatives who weren't staying with us already there - it's a fairly big hall, and since there was no church wedding, everyone came to the ceremony there. We just had time to admire the bride and groom's clothes as we went in - they'd been keeping them secret from us. (Though we did find the wedding dress a few nights before when we were looking for a dress for the Sistabarista to borrow.)
We'd feared the worst when they said they were having clothes tailored by someone who specialised in stuffed animals, but it worked! H's dress was white and pale yellow brocade in a kind of medieval/renaissance style, with long, pointed sleeves and a lace-up bodice, plus blue shoes. J was in a royal blue corduroy suit with flared trousers, plus an orange shirt and orange Chucks - it would look riduculous on anyone else, but on him, it worked! 
(He's about 195cm tall, very thin, and has wild curls. He looks like a young Arlo Guthrie.)
SWe got through the ceremony with much giggling, rings were exchanged and papers signed. We walked the blushing bride through the shopping district to the reception while her new husband fetched the car. 
Everything else took place inside the Theater der Nacht, the "Theatre of the Night", a puppet theatre where my sister did her internship and now works sometimes - a converted fire station.
outside:
http://www.musikzug-freiheit.de/images/Theater_dN.png
inside:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_3MRDP7eVjjo/SO7hVTatk7I/AAAAAAAABis/nVYa1YQfarU/s640/HPIM1559.JPG
After 
, we made H and J saw through a log, though it was unfortunately quite small and well-cured *and* we forgot to bring the rusty saw and had to give them a decent one! They'd opened up both the café and the workshop for us, so we had an excellent buffet lunch (finally, a caterer who knew how to cook for everyone, including the vegetarians and vegans!) while the families mingled - nothing so boring as place cards for us, especially since everyone had to find a seat that fit them. The café's chairs are sculptures carved from logs, and each requires a different rear end to fit it.
It was good chance to get to know the "other side" and talk to the relatives I've not seen in a while. That includes my father and his wife, whom I avoid as a general rule. Yesterday, however, my father was in an unusually good mood and letting bygones be bygones, and even if he was annoying me personally, he was actually enjoying the party and talking to my mother's side of the family. 
He even joined us in singing the song Yarreau had written for the occasion! J's parents, also divorced, were also being quite civil to one another. There was really no drama at all during the party, the only brief fight being between our dog, Corvi, and my uncle's almost-a-dog Dachshund. 
After lunch, we passed out the wedding newspaper, another way to get people to mingle as they compared facts on the bride and groom and worked out just who the 'ads' were meant to be poking fun at. Since H and J met via a carpooling website, the little red car he drove then featured rather prominently. (A red Wartburg made of marzipan was even used for a cake topper...) When everyone was more or less done with that, we had coffee and cake - two wedding cakes and all the other cakes people brought - and then we went in to see a puppet play about witch hunters in the local mountains, which my sister had specially requested. Since the family boasts a number of translators, we even had individual interpreters for the English-speaking guests. We got a backstage tour after the piece, during which everyone got to try on some masks.
During the piece, dinner was delivered, though people were reluctant to start eating again because we were all so stuffed already. Fortunately, it was just cold cuts and salads. The evening becomes slightly more blurry after that point - besides the wine, someone brought whisky, and it wasn't a good idea to have it right before vigorous dancing. 
The theatre's house band played (Irish folk, mostly), people danced, the usual schemes for getting rich were made at the bar. (Apparently, the family and a few friends are going to make a computer game together, once we find an investor ) Late in the evening, H and J finally opened at least a few of their gifts. Proof that the two clans were made for each other; both families were equally and honestly delighted when they got a singing saw! 
There were a few more typical and boring wedding gifts, but mostly, people had brought homemade things - both families are rather inventive, and many work at creative jobs. 
The best one was from J's uncle - he'd carved a little red car with two wooden dolls inside. When you push the exhaust pipe, the front wheels turn in, the doors open, and the dolls turn their heads out!
Somehow, we made it to about 2am, the band's performance having turned into an open folk-jazz jam session by then. (Bagpipes and electric bass guitar go amazingly well together! ) When everyone was just hanging in the theatre's seats, we decided to call it a night. We left H and J to sleep in the theatre and moved the whole rest of the caravan back to our place, where there was another great redistribution of beds because we ended up with an unplanned extra guest 
We were all finally in bed (or what passes for one) by four or so...
I'm not very awake now, despite a nap - I was the odd one out and ended up sleeping on the kitchen floor, on a leaky air mattress, being woken by the endless parade of people going to the toilet in the night, and had to get up early when Yarreau came in at eight to make breakfast. One guest had to leave by nine since he had a plane to catch from Malmö, Sweden, and a long drive ahead. Nobody got much sleep, so to be honest, we were glad to get rid of most of the guests after breakfast, and then J and H, who came by to deposit some of the gifts and pick up J's father for the drive back to Berlin.
If I've forgotten anything, I'm sure Yarreau will tell you all about it. I need my sleep now 
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Latest reply: Apr 19, 2009
Sitting on packed boxes
Posted Mar 29, 2009
Well, not literally. I didn't put the chair in a box, that would be silly.
But I'm all packed up, saving the last few dishes, for which I don't yet have a suitable box. 
I truly hope my helpers tomorrow show up - one was supposed to come today already and didn't, and one has sprained her foot - and that we find a place to park. I've been 
ing, waiting for the cars in front of the house to drive away so I could put a chair with a sign there, but so far, they've been uncooperative 
Nothing against Yarreau et al, of course (
) but I'd be looking forward to this more if I were actually moving somewhere new rather than just away from somewhere
And yet...
Goodbye, loud annoying neighbour who always plays the same song! Goodbye, kindergarten teacher in the courtyard shouting after children with your shrill voice at the crack of noon! Goodbye, constant rain! Goodbye, unheatable bedroom! Goodbye, complicated shower that barely works at the best of times! Goodbye, crowds! Goodbye, handy supermarket and greengrocer! Goodbye, Folk jam session, decent libraries, and juggling club in walking distance. Goodbye *everything* in walking distance... Good- oh, drat, I forgot what I was getting at.
At least you lot will all stay constant 
Country life, here I come! 
Discuss this Journal entry [67]
Latest reply: Mar 29, 2009
Counting the days...
Posted Mar 19, 2009
It's been quite a week. An overwhelming quite a week.
Lots of work. I had both comics uploaded by Monday evening, at least, so I didn't have to do that...
But we've had a week of doing the layout for some papers written during the last theoretical seminar - four days of work from ten to seven or eight. All on a diet of bitter coffee, biscuits, popcorn, and disgustingly early Easter eggs, with the occasional soggy lump of deep-fried something (it's better not to ask) from the cafeteria as the high point of the day. At least it counts for the last few credits I still need to write my thesis...
Or rather, the last credits I still needed to take a class for. I just have to finish two papers in the next three weeks and do a three-week internship by next autumn, and I'm all set. 
Or so I thought until Tuesday. Tuesday was a terrible day. It started off with my external hard drive falling on the floor when someone opened the cupboard I'd left it in overnight - meaning we couldn't access any of the files we'd worked on on Monday (and stored there and on the laptop of a girl who wasn't there, and nowhere else.) I tried every trick in the book, including downloading recovery software and putting it into the case of a different external HDD, all to no avail... Because I just got a new computer, it also had the only copy I still had of all the projects I've done at Uni over the last 5 1/2 years - all the things I'll need for my portfolio!
Then I went to see the woman who works in the academic office. It's open to architecture students exactly one morning per week (the engineers get three mornings!), and most of that is spent on "internal discussions", that is, having coffee with the secretary from the dean's office. 
I finally did manage to get in there, though, only to be told that I was missing a required class - and not just any required class, but one of the four major design projects that count for the most credits...
Now, I *have* done four of them, but on the last one, the professor sent the list back wrong - I'm still studying under a different system (they really can't get the Bachelor/Master system off the ground here, and change the rules every year) and he mixed up the old and the new codes. So I had my best mark to date in a class where I couldn't use it in the least, and no required class. 
She also said she couldn't change it without the professor's consent, and he was only a guest professor and has already left the Uni!
Add to that the fact that I have a mountain of packing to do, and the Mystery Illness is flaring up again (painfully swollen lumps in my neck, stiff, painful fingers and wrists, possibly unrelated spontaneous nosebleeds) and Tuesday was a pretty low point. 
Fortunately, it's looking up now. The project is pretty much done, and we *won't* have to come again until next week, meaning I can sleep in for a change, and won't be stuck in a room with eight increasingly grumpy people. After many e-mails and phone calls, I managed to sort out the trouble with the missing class, so there are just the papers to write now.
It seems that between Yarreau's external HDD, the Sistabarista's computer (my old one), the files I still had in Outlook from when I sent them to the printer, and all the things that I'd sent Tavaron to look over and she'd not yet deleted, most of my portfolio can be reconstructed. Also, the external hard drive still turns, the computer just doesn't recognise it properly. It may be possible to access it after all, somehow.
I've acquired some boxes and started packing - even dismantled a shelf to have room to stack them - and the landlord came by today and said that I wouldn't need to paint over my red walls or fill the nail holes, because he wants to renovate the place entirely anyway. 
Once I've moved, I can sort out the medical stuff by starting over with a new set of doctors...
Still too much to do, and my hands hurt. But I can put it all off until tomorrow, after I've slept just as long as I like.
(Oh, and a very happy birthday to Tav! )
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Latest reply: Mar 19, 2009
Progress
Posted Feb 28, 2009
...is being made in the kitchen, but we work on it all day with no time for anything else, except meals if someone else cooks them
Still, we're getting visible results, so I've started an album with pictures. (Lots, though I tried to limit myself 
- I had to use some of Yarreau's, too.)
http://public.fotki.com/Malabarista/kitchen-renovation/
We've almost got the framework for the first counter done - but the construction gods demanded the first blood sacrifice today. J cut his left thumb with a chisel, fairly deeply, and is now sporting a thick bandage with two Q-tips for a splint, to keep him from bending it and opening the cut again.
Fortunately, it hasn't slowed us down much - we're working together efficiently now, despite only having one set of good tools that must be shared.
Both my sisters can help during the weekend, so it'll be even quicker then
Discuss this Journal entry [176]
Latest reply: Feb 28, 2009
Martian Archaeology
Posted Feb 14, 2009
Well, that's what today *felt* like, anyway... I've been using a hammer and a chisel to chip away at the wall and floors, and we keep exposing new marvels and disasters - especially the latter. The whole village appears to have worked on this house at some point and nary a one of them knew what they were doing 
I was awakened at the ungodly hour of eleven-ish, jumped into my work clothes, ate a hasty breakfast, and then we (that is, my sister's boyfriend [and soon to be husband - hereafter known as J] and I got straight to work on renovating Yarreau's kitchen - we're currently using the small, cramped one upstairs.
The stated goal is to have it finished in time for my sister's wedding April 18th, and it seems we're slipping ever farther from that goal At the moment, it looks more suitable for growing potatoes than for preparing them...
The floor of the old kitchen (this is an *old* house, built in 1820) was partly concrete, partly cracked terrazzo, and partly wooden boards over bare soil 
. Fortunately, a professional took care of that. Unfortunately, it means the room was now even lower, and it was already barely two metres in places to begin with... So J took off the boards on the ceiling, giving us 30cm more headroom - but with plastered-over beams in it, with part of the plaster torn off because of the big nails whatever idiot put the wooden ceiling in was using...
That's how we found it today. Unfortunately, the "plaster" was straw and clay, and quite loose in places. We had to take it off the one beam to see what could be done about repairing it. Since the beams are in good condition, we decided to just expose them all - it gives us a few centimetres more room, and fits with the farmhouse kitchen. Nice clean floor covered in lumps of muddy straw, red dust everywhere... I was having to use a silk scarf to breathe through by that point. J didn't have quite so many problems, because he's at least 30 cm taller than I am and was working more next to the beams than under them like me.
Now, I'd told J several time to just leave the flat bits of ceiling in between alone. The paint was flaking, but they were otherwise intact, if not entirely level. He wasn't convinced, though - he said they'd be easy to take down, too, and he wanted it all flat... So suddenly, there was - "oops" - a hole, which we then had to attempt to make bigger to take it all off... It absolutely *doesn't* come off, though - the ceiling may be made of "primitive" materials and with traditional rather than scientific methods, but it's built to last - wooden boards wrapped with straw and then smeared with the local rich mud, a system that acts just like reinforced concrete when dry. We eventually decided *not* to take it off after all. Right after the wheel on the angle grinder broke when J was using that to try to carve out bits of it...
But we can't just *leave* the ceiling like that, of course, so it required a trip to the DIY for plasterboard, screws, laths, some tools we were missing, recessed halogen lights to give the new ceiling a purpose, at least - and plastic sheeting to cover the doorways. Due to the new floor, we can't hang the doors unless we saw them off, and there was dust *everywhere*. J, a geography student, has been joking that he can write a paper about wandering dunes and the desertification of the living room... It looks like the National Geographic photos you see of places near which a bomb has gone off, everything covered. And we needed breathing masks. We decided that coughing up clouds of fine red dust was not a good thing, and there was so much of it in the air that you couldn't see the 4m across the room!
We drove to town and bought the things we needed, and loaded them into the car. Then had to pick up my sister and grandmother, and then, somehow, the plasterboard, which they had in the back warehouse... We got back there *just* in time, the man who works the last shift back there was just leaving. (Three hours before the attached shop closes, of course ). Fortunately, he opened it up again and forklifted the boards down for us. Transported the plasterboard home with me sitting on the floor of the car (it just barely fit as is) and then got back to work.
The scene, by now, was rather eerie, as we were using strong spotlights to see what we were doing, both wearing gloves, goggles, and masks, and covered in a thick layer of red dust - both with stage makeup and powdered wigs, more or less, wielding axes, chisels, and big hammers, and the swirling dust looked like it came from a fog machine. The general impression was of set of a bad horror movie. 
When we went up to dinner, we had a wash and shook out our clothes, but we still left little piles of dust on the kitchen chairs Then back to work again.
It looks absolutely terrible right now - clumps of mud and dust and straw and cement and broken tiles, spider webs and bent nails and odd bits of wood scattered all over the floor, bare and badly-laid bricks and bare boards, things exposed that were never meant to see the light of day... Like all the electrical cables the previous generations had simply nailed through - a few of the nails were even carrying current!
We still have to fix it somehow, but we're dog tired and we'll be sore tomorrow My shoulder's holding up surprisingly well for having to work overhead, but we've already got blisters... And we can only find the hammers where the heads keep falling off Feels good to be doing something that's physically rather than just mentally exhausting for a change, though.
Discuss this Journal entry [77]
Latest reply: Feb 14, 2009
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