Octopus Attack!

The cuteness of Amigurimi is truly dangerous.

Baby Registry and Polite Germans

Ah, the sweet, sweet distraction of having internet once more in the apartment. I can now do various work related activities (like find ballet schools in Cologne to get fairies for my Fairy Queen and look up the dates of that conference I wanted to go to this spring) without dragging my computer across town, but it is also, of course, an enormous time sucker. Some of you wondered how I got that monkey blanket done so fast? No internet. I also didn't have anything dance-related to work on at that moment, either, which meant a few hours a day barreling through Gilmore Girls season 5 and knitting.

Now I have a couple of hot projects from the Amigurumi (Japanese stuffed toys) book that my parents gave me for Christmas-- coming soon.

We made a baby registry on Amazon in the USA for those who would like to see such a thing. All of the items seem relatively shippable (lightweight and small), but I don't think most of them can be directly shipped to Germany. We considered doing the registry on German Amazon but decided to spare you the horror of German and Euro to dollar conversion.

Actually, in Germany people do not usually make baby registries or have baby showers. People just show up to visit after the baby is born with a present. Interesting, but I think I like the American system better-- less likely to get 5 humidifiers and you don't have to be so social right after the baby is born (I hear that a newborn can be hard work).

Also, I would like to know the experiences of people who have been pregnant in America... Somehow I've picked up from books and websites that strangers start chatting with you and want to touch your belly. Is that really true? Here, no one even acknowledges that I am pregnant unless they know me well or I mention it myself. The only time someone tried to touch my tummy was during Carnival when I was dressed as the Virgin Mary and waiting for the bathroom in a cafe. A group of men dressed as nuns thought the situation hilarious and wanted to rub the belly.

Carnival, Housewarming, Chinese New Year etc..

While we are still waiting for internet at our home, I will continue the blogging from the lab. Fear not, readers, NetCologne is coming this Tuesday, and Sarah will likely resume the lion's share of blogging duties.

First, I will start by saying that Sarah is a knitting freak. Look at that crazy monkey blanket:

Little John Phillipe* is lucky to have such a talented mom.

Last week was Carnival in Cologne, and we did our best to get into the spirit, but since most of the activities related to this event are not exactly compatible with pregnancy (except perhaps initiating it) we had a little more subdued celebration this year. I never got around to finding a new costume so gave the caveman a reprise, and Sarah went as a famous pregnant celebrity:

In the background you can see the sculpture that graces the building to which my institute is

moving next week. Some may say that it looks like a giant green turd, and I would say that some are right.

On Sunday, we had a housewarming party, that also fell on Valentine's day and Chinese New

Year. The theme fell mostly toward the latter, and to that end I made General Tso's chicken, a dish that it strangely and frustratingly difficult to find here.

It went pretty fast, so I was only able get a picture of the last bits that people were too polite to take. It was surprisingly easy to make, and I would recommend giving it a try, since at home

you can control the grease and MSG levels, and be more certain that it is indeed made with chicken (assuming one trusts the labeling at the grocery store).

A prize to be determined later (not really) to the best explanation of what Sarah is doing in this picture:

Finally we got some new furniture from ikea for our new place, and that means boxes, which in turn means cat acting crazy:

*We are now calling our boy to be John Phillipe as a compromise to reflect Sarah's favorite composer, Jean Phillipe Rameau, and mine, John Philip Sousa. This compromise also has benefits on the off chance that this name sticks. First, John is better than Jean, because we fear that people would pronounce the name JEEN in the US, which we do not want. In addition Phillipe is better than Philip, since we don't want people to think that we are ripping off his cousin's middle name.

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We STILL don't have internet at the apartment. I swear, I'm going to have to get out my guillotine and make some heads roll.

Other things are falling into place, though-- it looks like I will choreograph the dances for The Fairy Queen at the music conservatory! We also have a washing machine-- Jeremy was a handy plumber last night, installing a new faucet AND the washing machine. I even used it today with no major disasters!

More later, maybe, when they get around to installing our internet....

Sonogram time!

By request, we filmed our latest sonogram. Little Jean-Phillipe seems to be incubating just fine. I think the doctor was a bit more effusive than usual, knowing that he was on camera...

amazing photos!

Well, we/I are/am still waiting for a lot of things, but I can now share with you photos from when I was teaching and performing in Schwetzingen last summer. If I look especially sweaty in the photos, it's because it was about 500 degrees on stage for the performance.

My historical dance girls

the punks delight

Hopefully, these will encourage them to hire me back this year!

wah.

I HATE WAITING!

(Fairy Queen, internet, passport, doorbell, washing machine, etc, etc etc und so weiter und so fort)

Last week at Roland Straße

Hi everyone! We still don't have internet at the new apartment, but the chairs at my favorite coffeehouse are more comfortable than anything we will ever have. So it is ok. Kind of.

Not much interesting to report... I taught another baroque dance class for musicians last Saturday, and I may POSSIBLY (oh please oh please oh please oh please) direct a production of The Fairy Queen that the music conservatory is doing this April. An opera! It will be very scaled down, if it actually happens, and I probably just jinxed it by mentioning it here, but it is much more interesting to share such a piece of news when the possibility exists rather than when it doesn't happen.

I've been working hard on the monkey blanket for Jean-Philippe.

Speaking of our little monsieur, I went to listen to friend's concert last Sunday, and Jean-Philippe didn't move around very much when she played Jean-Philippe Rameau. Boo. If he had started kicking and twirling, then we would have had to just keep the name. Beate and I will go see Rameau's "La Paladins" on Sunday, so the boy will get another chance.

We are trying to have a Carnival/Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day/Housewarming Party Feb. 14th. IF we finish working on the apartment and I figure out how to make sesame balls.