Hello, 2012!

These aren't really New Year's resolutions, but a few things we'd like to do this year.  We know we won't do them all, but we know we'll also find some cool things to that we haven't thought of yet!

Travel:

Since we'll be using all of our vacation to organize or attend our wedding and honeymoon, we'll be trying to take trips that we can do on weekends or days from Munich.

Suleyman MosqueEaster in Istanbul - For an annual trip with friends from business school, we plan to meet this year in Istanbul. Last year's trip to Japan had to be cancelled at the last minute, but we're expecting Istanbul to work out this time. I went many years ago but that was before having a good camera and knowing about HDR!

The Ice Church - This ice church in Mitterfirmiansreut (near the Polish border) looks interesting and like a great photo op. Now that we've been to our Igloo, it's only fitting we visit "God's Igloo," as it is called.

photo from http://www.eisriesenwelt.atEisriesenwelt Werfen - The largest ice cave in the world is conveniently located just south of Salzburg.  It opens again in May.

Slyrs & Lantenhammer Distillery - After tasting some of their whisky and liquers, we'd love to visit the distillery. It's only an hour train ride away and conveniently located within walking distance of a BOB station!

Bamberg - We almost visited last year, but it wasn't worth going when most of the sites were still closed for winter. We'd love to see its charming old town and taste some good Franconian beer!

Skiing! No need to explain. Though it would also be fun to try the waterskiing place in Ascheim. I haven't been in years and love it

SchoberhütteWe'd love to go back and do different routes on two of this year's hikes. We'd love to hike to the Schoberhütte at Fuschl (we hiked only to the Frauenkopf because we had afternoon plans). And I have a masochistic desire to hike UP the Höllentallerklamm to the Alpspix. We hiked down, and I don't think my muscles have ever hurt so long from a hike! I suspect the up will be more difficult, but result in less pain the next day.

Munich Sights & Events:

Above all, we'd like to spend more time taking advantage of all of the local museums. The Deutsches Museum would be great for cold, rainy days. And we're so close to the Münchener Stadtmuseum (City museum) and the Jewish Museum. And we've seen too few of the city's art museums!

Beer gardens & Euro 2012 - While we have 2 more years to wait for the World Cup, Germany takes the UEFA European Football Championship (Europameisterschaft) just as seriously.  It also coincides with beer garden weather...

If the city again offers free Bavarian folkdancing lessons leading up to the Kocherlball, I'd love to learn a little and go do the Kocherlball right this year. We'll have to arrive much earlier this year...

There's just so much to see here. We'll probably still go to the same festivals, but hope to try some of the smaller ones this year and take more advantage of what Munich has to offer.

Hobbies:

Finish the half-sewn dirndl that had to be put away when work got too busy - perhaps in time for a Starkbierfest outing! The top and bottom are both made, but have not been sewn together. Time to take the plunge! And of course finish my scarf. But that will take just one or two train trips to Frankfurt!

Photoshop - I received a great book on Photoshop for Christmas and I'd love to get better in using it. More importantly, to take the time to go through the thousands of pictures sitting in folders on my hard drive.

Kitchen experiments - I have dreams of trying to create some German fusion dishes. In fact, I might just try something this week. Stay tuned! Plus I'd love to make use of the cake decorating tips and the cute little Bavarian cookie cutters I bought last year.

Other:

Christmas in July - I say this every year, but I'd love to do a Christmas party in summer. If we can keep it alive, we'll decorate the tree (he's potted, not cut, but the last one didn't survive summer on my balcony).  Make some Christmas cookies and feuerzangebowle.... It's always too busy around the holidays to actually do any baking and decorating, but I'm tired of that stopping me. So, we'll just have Christmas again when there's plenty of time to enjoy!

Perhaps the biggest to-do this year for us will be the small matter of planning a wedding in the US. With a lot of legwork from my wonderful parents, Herr J and I were able to set the date, church, and reception over a few days of our Christmas trip and I found a wonderful dress. Now for all of the other details....

If anyone has other recommendations for fun and interesting things to do in the area, we'd love to hear them - or better, your plans for 2012!

Wishing you all a very happy New Year, or as we say here Einen guten Rutsch!

Privacy with your Pilsner

Probably has something to do with the fact that it's the season of Christmas parties, but we've discussed several times recently how we're glad we didn't have smart phones when we were younger and less wise.

These days anyone can snap an embarrassing photo of themselves - or another person - and immediately upload it to Facebook or Twitter or any number of other sites. Kind of scary - at least in "the old days," there was a time lag of developing or downloading the photos the next day and usually realizing that sharing them was not a nice idea.

South American beer brand Cerveza Norte has come out with a solution: A beer cooler that keeps your beer cold and blocks photos of your party by responding to photo flashes with its own light that blurs our the photos.  According to Fast Company, it's a device for anyone "who values privacy along with their pilsner."

And of course it comes with another fun foreign commercial.

via FastCompany

More Design Gifts

Tis the season for gfits... Here are a few on my wishlist. Though since the wishlist would also have to include space for them, I may have to settle for the fun of giving them as gifts.

For the eco-savvy LEGO lover (or just someone living by the German recycling rules), Italian designers Flussocreativo have created the cool LEGO-style "Leco" recycling center. Space-saving and cool-looking!

via w ooh ome

Another clever way to make use of space is Finnish designer Martina Carpelan's Kulma shelf. Kulma means corner in Finnish, and works to take advantage of either negative and positive space created by a corner.

via CMYBacon

For a smaller gift that's both clever and cute, Icelandic designer Stefán Pétur Sólveigarson's I Could Eat a Horse spaghetti measurer brings truth to that phrase. It measures pasta portions to fit child, adult, and the super hungry. (The horse-shaped measure feeds 4)

via w ooh ome

Also cute and useful in the kitchen would be Australian designer Toro Legno's Kitchen Bull. This cute guy combines a cookbook shelf with a knife holder and and a cheeseboard that pulls out of the bull's back.

I have a magnetic knife rack mounted on the wall and way too many cookbooks to fit him, but he is adorable!

via CMYBacon

For your world traveller friends, the Scratch Map is a world map that lets you use a coin to scratch off each country you've visited. And provide fodder for future travel dreams

Available from iwantoneofthose.

For those who want a little bit of creativity, the MoMa store offers Ricard Saint-Clairs Chalkboard Bud Vase. You can use it for messages or to draw your own vase.

Also from the MoMa store is this great collapsible water bottle. The difference is that this one not only rolls up into a light and portable piece of plastic, but it also stands up like a bottle while full. And comes with a mini caribiner to attach to your hiking pack.  I got one of these for Herr J when in NY last year and was very sad on our Pyrennees hiking trip that I hadn't bought one for myself also!

I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets and clever designs!

Herr J's New Scarf

I still haven't finished the dirndl, but did take up a new hobby that:

1) Fits into my work-travel schedule,

2) Is portable, and

3) I can actually finish in a reasonable time!

KNITTING!!

It kind of started as a joke, with me asking Herr J if he wanted a scarf. He said he would wear one but didn't have one. I joked, "I'll make you one," and he replied, "I'd definitely wear it!"

And so off to the wool store I go and find some lovely wool dyed in different shades of blue, grey, brown. And some needles.

And then I consult Google and figure out how to knit. I found a pretty simple pattern for a manly scarf that was ribbed and only had knit and purl stitches - nothing too fancy.

There were some speed bumps along the way and something I did was wrong (perhaps winding the yarn the wrong direction?), but i actually liked the way it turned out. And then halfway through it started to be ribbed again. I had to figure out what I had done wrong, rip out the "right" rows, and go back to the wrong way. But, it worked and Herr J now has a warm scarf.

And of course having no experience, I bought twice as much as I should have. But I love this yarn and am making myself a girly scarf (long, ribbed, narrow, and with fringe).

The key to this is that I've been knitting on the train between Munich and Frankfurt. I'm sure it's a funny sight - the 1st class car is mostly German businessmen in suits...and one businesswoman in a suit, knitting.  But it helps to pass the time and I feel great accomplishing something.

Have you seen... [microwave makes plasma]

Most people know that there are three common states of matter:  solids, liquids, and gasses.  There is a less understood fourth state, called plasma.  Wikipedia says is plasma is similar to a gas but some particles are ionized.

You've seen these things in gift stores?  They're "plasma lamps".

Three things to know.  First, a microwave oven can induce ionization and briefly turn a gas into plasma.
Second, due to the ions, a plasma is electronically conductive, resulting in effects (neon lamp uses plasma).
Lastly, people on the Internet and YouTube will try just about anything with a microwave oven.

In the first YouTube video, the skin of grapes is creates an electric arc that produces a small plasma discharge.
It gets more interesting when the host places a glass over the grapes to capture the plasma (1:45 mark).

In the second video, a match is lit and partially covered (enough to keep oxygen flowing but trap the plasma).
The sustained plasma gets so hot that it breaks the glass.  (And I think the gas is toxic, by the way.)

Finally, having nothing to do with plasma, check out the instant art when microwaving a CD or DVD (3.45):

Of course, don't do any if this at home unless you want fire, explosions, and toxic fumes in the kitchen.

An American Classic

Spotted on the street this weekend in central Munich

 

Makes you think of family road trips... or perhaps the Griswolds are back for another European vacation.

European Stereotypes

Recently I received an email listing the new workshops in Europe offered by the Nikonians Academy.

Notice anything funny about how they targeted these courses?

For the UK customers, they focus on getting the most out of your software and hardware...

For the Dutch customers, the same technical focus, plus nature photography....

And then we see what they offer the French, Italian, and German customers....hmmm....