Munich Winter Sports

Germans (and Müncheners, in particular) spend as much time outside as possible.  In summer and winter, the English Garden is crowded and there are major traffic jams out of the city on Friday nights and back in on Sundays to the lakes and mountains. Having an appropriate amount of fresh air ("frischer Luft") is an important part of daily life, and a very frequent source of office conflict over opening the windows in winter!

So, it's no surprise that sports still go on in the winter. Not only sledding, skiing, ice skating and the other snowy sports, but also the ones we think of as summer sports.

Soccer....

 

American Football....
(we stumbled upon the end of the Starnberg Argonauts' practice and Herr J joined in to show them some perfect spirals)

Biking, walking dogs/children, and running....

 

and even Surfing....
(surfers catch the wave on the Eisbach year round)

 

A (Gummi) Game of Cat and Mouse

Herr J brought back a fun assortment of gummis from a business trip. He found these cute marshmallow gummi cats in a Hussel Confiserie, and Trolli's "PlayMouse" gummis. They are pastel with gummi worm tails.

The Advent Beer Calendar Selection

So as not to spoil Herr J's fun, I did not reveal online the contents of his Advent Beer Calendar.

Some we had tried before (in the German Beer Championship), and others were new....but the calendar opened up possibilities of non-German beers and "beers" that do not conform to the Reinheitsgebot, and thus cannot be called "beer."

The 24 Beers of Advent 2010 were:

Tegernseer Hell
Beck's Ice
Beck's Green Lime
Heineken
Beck's Gold
Paulaner Originial Münchener Hell
Paulaner Hefeweißbier Natrutrüb
Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Grapefruit
Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Kaktusfeige (Cactus-Fig flavor)
Guinness
Desperados
Magners Irish Cider
Budvar (the Czech Budweiser)
Bittburger
Cab (Dragon-Fruit flavored cola & beer)
Samuel Smith's India Ale
Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter
Foster's
Corona Extra
Samuel Smith's Nut Brown Ale
Warsteiner
Jever Pils
Legendary Duff Beer (yes, Homer Simpson's favorite)
König Pilsner

And as with any chocolate sampler, there are one or two "suprises"....here we had two potential bombs: Cab, the Dragonfruit-flavored Cola & Beer, and Desperados Tequila-flavored beer.

 
Now, you have to understand that I mock Desperados relentlessly. I had never tried it, but the commercials were endless on MTV and billboards. And I just didn't get the concept. Sure, I enjoyed a nice tequila followed by a Bohemia beer in Mexico. But I did not mix them. And most of the under-25 party crowd (the group targeted by Desperados) doesn't drink tequila for it's taste....so why flavor a beer with tequila?

But I tried it, blindly, in a taste test with Samuel Smith's India Ale. (In my cute Ladybug and Ribbit glasses that we often use for tasting....)

Herr J brought me a glass of each, without telling me what I was drinking. The India Ale was a bit too hoppy for my taste.

And after a sip of the Desperados, I said, "Wow, that's good, suprisingly sweet. What is it?"

I was shocked when he told me. Now, I probably wouldn't order it in a bar or buy a case. But it mostly tastes like a Radler (half beer, half lemon soda) or a Beck's lime. So, a super light and refreshing beer with a little sweetness. Something you would drink on a hot summer day in Texas or by the river. So, I stand corrected, and there is actually a time and a place for drinking Desperados. Not sure why they say it tastes like tequila, but I guess that makes it sound edgier than Beck's Lime or Bud Light Lime.

We'll let you know how the Cab tastes....It's brewed by Krombacher, so it might be actually be good.  

Advent Calendar Contents

The Advent Calendars were great fun this year. You'll recall that I had a Gummibear one and a Kinder Egg one, and Herr J had a Handyman's Advent Calendar and a homemade Beer Advent Calendar.

Now that there are no surprises to ruin...here's what we found in them!

The Handyman's Advent Calendar ("Heimwerker-Adventskalender"): 

This one suprised us, because it actually contained small-sized useful tools and supplies. Herr J's favorites were the multi-tool, the wall anchors (" 'Cause those are always useful"), the keychain LED-flashlight, and the padlock caribiner.

My favorite - purely for its humor factor - was Day 22...Bandaids. A must-have for every handyman!

Contents: 

Mini-Box Cutter, 2 sizes wall anchors and screws, nails, mini screwdriver with 6 interchangeable heads, Phillips screwdriver, Standard screwdriver, 2 rolls electrical tape, mini line level, surfact 2-D level, keychain LED flashlight, picture wire, mini swiss army knife, bandaids, tape measure caribiner, multi-tool, small padlock, combination lock caribiner, santa keychain, bungee cord, and magnifying glass. Wow!

   
The Kinder Surprise Egg Calendar:

The Kinder Egg one was incredibly fun...not only do you get chocolate, you get toys...and the challenge of some assembly required.  This calendar included everything from several Christmas ornaments (cute animals, strangely all wearing backpacks...guess they were carrying gifts??) to an inflatable paper cat (atop the capsules that contained the toys)...along with a ring that stamped "Hello" in Russian, a spinning top, and a cute brontosaurus.

For those of you not familiar with this wonderful German treat, the Kinder Suprise Egg ("Kinder Überraschung") is a life-sized chocolate eggshell (in a milky chocolate, healthy for children) which contains a toy stuffed into a yolk-looking yellow capsule inside. Toys range from preassembled small cars or animals to larger toys requiring some thought in how to follow the instructions. The designers who create these things and figure out how to efficiently stuff a huge toy into an egg rival Apple's packaging designers!

Here's a great example of the design genius - a plastic glider wrapped up inside the egg:

Yup, I like my man purse

I had a suspision that this might happen:  Frau A got me a man purse for Christmas.  She explained,  "You thought you wanted one, and I knew it would take you forever to take the plunge yourself."  She was right, of course.  The concept of a man purse seemed to be functionally a perfect item for me, but there were too many style options to select one.  It required an expert to avoid disaster.  (Note:  after seeing her operate in Sephora in New York City, I now fully appreciate how years of training allow women to survive and flourish in what is effectively the most perfect testosterone vacuum ever created by science and choose from endless arrays of products.)

I was pretty sure a black one would go with a business suit and casual clothes, and that I would prefer something with minimal flair/decorations/etc.  I "tried on" a few in stores, but was never really sure.  Frau A was there for the man purse expeditions, and thought one of them was right for me -- turned out to be a good choice.  Here it is:

For me, function is more important than fashion, and on this level it's great.  The bag is structured like a satchel (similar to Indiana Jones and Jack Bauer, of course), with just a flap to close rather than a zipper.  I like fast access to the stuff inside.  Maybe I need an extra gun clip and a whip too.

Internally, a separator creates two areas.  The area closest to the body has small, soft pockets for things like a cell phone/iPod, plus a zippered pocket where I keep my wallet (feels more secure).  It also has a long key leash that makes it easy to find keys right away.

The area that lies away from the body has no internal pockets, and is perfect for a paperback, compact camera, gloves, and even a tote-sized umbrella.  It would fit an iPad no problem, and could temporarily carry a laptop too (except the largest ones).

I like the look too.  Nice, thick black leather with just a small adornment on the front.  The leather is starting to break in already, and feels strong but soft.  It's great to get something that I'll use every day.  Thanks, Santa. 

Dining by Pulley

While visiting Frau A's parents over Christmas, we stopped by Rosebank Farms (located in coastal South Carolina).

Rosebank Farms is touted as "one of the last working family farms on Johns Island", it was an adorable place to spend an hour.  The main attraction for Frau A is the "barnyard" -- a petting zoo.  You can spend quality time with potbellied pigs, miniature horses and miniature brahma cows, bunnies (ridiculously soft), a mule, and goats.  They also have chickens, turkeys, and peahens (didn't see a peacock though), but these are not exactly pet-able.

I was particularly pleased with one of the goats.   Next to his stable was what looked like an old gumball machine, that, for a quarter, dispensed a handful of dry food.  As soon as the goat heard you, he headed up a spiral staircase to await his handout, delivered by a pulley!  It's a nice way operant conditioning is used to make the feeding process a little more interesting.  We got it on video here:

The Psychology of Sephora

Guys, have you ever ventured into a Sephora store?  I have lived in NYC, but never actually went into one.  I was mostly prepared for the sheer volume and variety of products.  I would bet that their web site is the first to truly use all 16.7 million colors that modern computer monitors can display.  (Many lipstick colors looked basically the same to me, but the ladies inform me that subtle shade differences are really important.  Sorry, but I don't feel deprived that women have a better ability to discriminate colors in the red-orange spectrum.)

But the most amazing part for me was the product names.  They range from fun & funny to incredibly aspirational and emotional.   Guys need to take a graduate course on the psychology of this stuff.  You can't tell me that a product line called "Unconditional Love" isn't setting high expectations from shampoo!  The copy on the bottle uses phrases like "you see all people and all living things as beacons of light" and "you have unconditionally arrived realizing the love you sought was the love you already owned".  Oh.  My.  God.  It is like Barack Obama in a bottle.

The Sephora web site has a fingernail polish selector showing colors with more incredible names:

Finally, when the glitzy creams, shampoos, and makeup aren't enough to make the fairy tale real, one can settle for an Orgasm, Super Orgasm, or possibly the mystic Multiple Orgasm.  Men, take note:  there is something going on here that we don't understand.  However, a good start might be this gift for Valentine's Day that should, um, satisfy both parties: