Diese Woche in Kürze / This Week in a Nutshell

24. August, 2014

This week I...

• ...finished (assisting with) the translation of texts for a German city's website.


• ...pondered whether this weekly update is narcissistic and whether anybody really cares what I am up to, settled on yes and no respectively but decided to carry on when one of my favorite readers told me she liked last week's update (in part because it was shorter than my usual posts).


• ...finished one of the five books I was reading last week. Now I'm still reading four, three of which I'm enjoying. Too stubborn to quit the one I don't like.


• ...wrapped a baby gift in a "green" way - you've heard of this, right? You box up the gift and wrap the box using a receiving blanket or one of those little hooded baby bath towels for the "wrapping paper." Secure the blanket with ribbon instead of tape (because you would use the ribbon anyway).

• ...bumped into some fellow Americans in a pick-and-pay flower patch and initiated a conversation with them. This is my first face-to-face contact with Landsleute in the area since moving here in 2012.


• ...spent a day exploring Nagold, a lovely town not far from here with lots to see including castle ruins on a hill above town. I took 176 pictures! They have little - if any - information about their town in English. Considering contacting them about translating their website and/or city tour brochure.


• ...shivered. Often. Too often for August.*


• ...started another novel called Borgia Bride. I'm back to reading five books at once, six if you count the tour guide book about Nagold that I browse through and read bits of every now and then.


• ...wrote part of this list while my husband mowed the lawn with his new lawn mower.


• ...gave a spider two days to decide to relocate, then asked my husband to "deal" with her.


• ...read lots of blog posts by other expat travel bloggers and enjoyed pretty much all of them! I love reading about others' experiences, even though it is showing me that my topics aren't really all that "new and different"!


• ...wrote to the editor of the local newspaper to tell him I am really enjoying the "Photo Puzzle" they've been doing. Every two days they print a photo of part of a building in Horb with a description of its historical significance, and readers are invited to call in with their guess as to the name of the building. I've known them  all so far! Got a response from the editor, in part asking me what lured me to Horb.


• ...ordered this as a Vorspeise (appetizer) at our favorite restaurant and made food noises because it was so unbelievably delicious. Gefüllte Mozzarella auf Tomaten mit Rucola: Filled Mozzarella on Tomatoes with Arugula. Filled with what? Heavenly deliciousness. I would not have believed it were possible to make this salad more savory than it already is, but he did it. This man - the chef and owner - is a magician.

• ...spent Saturday evening asleep on the sofa for nearly three hours after the above dinner.


• ...took pictures of my husband making Rouladen for a future blog post.

*Update: M just built me a fire in our Kachelofen.