jar-jull

I went to the doctor today - sick again- this one was new and young and, even though working in an English language office, not quite confident with her English. She was trying to tell me how to take some medication and wasn't sure of the word...google translate is apparently her friend too:)

So - she looked it up, mouthed it to herself and then told me I could buy XXXX in tablet form or I could get it to "jar-jull". Jar-jull? Jarjull. Let's try that with the J being a G like in giant...Gargull.... now let's put that in to English and use the G like you would in good or great or gosh... GARGLE.

(Side note - I had to go back later in the week and saw the main doctor. She was great. The nurse who did the medical testing was adorable and my visit turned in to a czech-english/english-czech lesson at the end.)

why would anyone target Ikea?

I had no idea Ikea was so controversial. Apparently all over Europe someone - in the loosest sense of "one" - has been putting bombs in Ikea. A few countries have been affected however after the bomb is placed, someone - again, loose term, maybe not the same someone - calls in a bomb threat. Prague was affected this past week when a bomb was placed in the Prague - Zlicin location. Fortunately the police had evacuated it and found it before it detonated.

I don't understand this.

things to do at 4 am

We were in the US for a while recently. When we got back to Prague it was in the middle of a heat wave - too hot and humid to do anything. I had brought back some new cookbooks I wanted to try, and without thinking about the weather I started buying ingredients for some of the recipes. It wasn't till after we were done shopping that I realized what a mistake that was - it was too hot to turn on the stove, let alone the oven!

A bad combination of insomnia, jet lag and oppressive heat kept me up for a few nights in a row. One night, after giving in to not sleeping, I got up. It was about 4 AM. With 2 fans on full blast and all the windows opened it was finally only moderately hot in our house... so I opened up the cookbook and tried my hand at making meatballs... and then meatloaf... and then experimented with pasta. The kid and the cat woke up about 6 - we had quite a hearty breakfast that day.

BTW - I make really good meatballs now.

chocolate - not just for eating anymore

Apparently you can sniff it too. With a special chocolate sniffing machine that sends the chocolate powder in the air and up your nose - and when you put chocolate up your nose, you do, in fact, taste it.

Who thinks of this stuff? Apparently this guy... and he has his chocolate shop here in Prague.

trends i don't understand

This week I spoke with a very pleasant young woman. She was pretty, elegantly dressed, bespeckled, quite bright, articulate and yet there was something off. Half way through I figured it out. Her glasses didn't have any lenses.

College ?!?

College orientation has been completed! The kid has registered for her first college classes - they start next week.

Hard to find a good egg

I think a few years back (HOLY COW! We just passed our 3 year anniversary here!) anyway... a few years ago I think I wrote about the kid's disgust with finding feathers stuck to the store bought eggs. I say I think I wrote it because I really think I did, I know I meant to at least, but I'm not going to take the time to confirm it by sorting through all my past posts as they're mostly missing any sort of label...

So - eggs. They come with feathers here. It's a little unsettling when you come from a culture where eggs come with a shell and maybe an expiration date stamp but definitely nothing more than that - they're always really, really clean without a trace of their farmyard origins. However, we've adapted and finding a fistful of feathers in a carton of eggs is really no big deal anymore. Maybe I should start saving them to stuff a pillow - it would take a while but with the frequency with which we find them I bet we could collect enough.

Back to the point. She doesn't even notice the odd feather or two any more and neither do I. However,yesterday she was in the kitchen making herself breakfast (yes, she was in the kitchen! cooking! for herself and without having been directed to do so!) and she grabbed the carton of eggs. I wasn't paying much attention to her actions until I heard a big groan of disgust and then I asked what was wrong. She said, "This egg!" as she placed the offensive egg back in the box and headed towards the sink. "This egg is covered in bird poop!"