silly pets

minx (kitty cat) likes to stare at nawa through the screen door and taunt her. minx, you are not a very nice kitty! but nawa, why do you fall for it?

alright already

ok, i know it has been forever since i've said anything here, and you probably aren't even on the edge of your seats, but it has been an intense couple of weeks, so i am going to post "la canadienne style" with some bullet points:

• my brother moved back to milwaukee, so now the house feels a little empty. upon arrival and attempting to start his car to take it to move back into his apartment, the key just kept on swirling around the ignition. this is so something that would happen to me. i feel really bad for him, especially since he is so stressed out about his phd comps right now.
• speaking of cars, i am selling the SW2 which has been an interesting process. the car needs some work and there is nt a huge market for jetta wagons in iowa, so i have had inquiries from omaha to st. louis to a friend of the bosnian guy who lives accross the street. i am scared of getting screwed.
• given the upcoming move away from iowa to either (a) germany (b) seattle or (c) new york, it is with great difficulty that i have begun to find a new home for nawa. some people are coming today to meet her. this whole process is the best for nawa, but it is really sad since she is my "baba" (baby in Afrikaans), "Fledermaeuschen" (little bat), and well, man's best friend all around.
• (pause, i need to cry a little)
• my parents' summer bash for work friends actually went well. i was expecting it to get out of control. but it was just a bunch of 50-year-olds sitting around drinking margaritas and cheap american beer and singing jimmy buffett songs and variations of jimmy buffett songs. so not my parents' style, but i think they had fun. i had to leave because if i heard one more rendition of "margaritaville", my head was going to explode.
• mes parents are going away for labor day weekend and by some freak act of God, i actually go saturday and sunday off. what? this amischwab is going to be walking around the house naked and have one wild party, but of course, not at the same time.
• hmmm, better get some, uh, friends here by saturday night in order for said gathering to occur.
• finally i got to talk to LJ last night. poor thing has been through hell week at her job and now is sick, but it has turned out that it was a good move for her professionally, which makes me smile and want to give her a big hug.
• matty numbchucks was in des moines for literally 12 hours his past week. we had dinner at a german restaurant downtown, which actually turned out to be really good food, though matty is not suck a huge fan of all things german, except of course, for amischwab, but then, AS is only half.
• speaking of germany, it's a month until i arrive there. i am really starting to get excited now. woohoo!
• i would like to thank everyone at work who has held me back from drinking venti caffe vanilla frappuccinos. i am up to 23 pounds lost and seriously, ditching those babies has helped that a lot.
• alright, i need to find coffee somewhere. cheers.

iowa: the lost driving rules #2: turn signal

(learners, please note, this rule is an important prerequisite for rule #3: the four-way stop)
also known as: blinker, indicator

the turn signal is a standard piece of equipment on every vehicle. it is almost always found connected to the steering column (see illustration). it is used to make other drivers or pededstrians aware of your intention to:
(1) make a right or left turn
(2) change lanes to either the right or left

the turn signal should be used on the freeway as well as on side streets.

just do it.

this week...

...has been noneventful, but meaningful at the same time. the crickets are chirping away, singing their song as i write this. shut up already. i feel like kerstin (my roomate from south africa and good friend) who was bound and determined to exterminate several species of birds while she was there.
i had a couple heart-to-hearts with my parents, which was good.
i had a great and busy morning at work on wednesday, but then went home early because i was feeling like i might have a seizure, which, as some of you know, is always fun. so now i am flying the freak flag at work as the "epileptic." woohoo. but my colleagues are supportive and concerned, so that is nice.
friday night will probably be the highlight of my time in iowa (i mean, next to the self-discovery blah blah blah).

james is coming to the iowa state fair and mutti, being the good mom that she is, got us front and center tickets. i love james taylor. not to sound all sappy, but his songs have meant a lot to me. i own all of his albums. and when i was living in washington, dc, he was prawly my best friend. so i am pretty darn excited. plus, after work tomorrow and before the concert, i will get to experience a bit of the fair. i do enjoy fairs, having myself been in 4-H in my past life. that is right. my 4-H prjoects were: sheep, rabbits, horticulture, foods, and sewing. i had the champion display at the state fair one year called "sheep! there's more to it than just wool" and one year i had the champion tomato plant. how many jetsetters do you know who can also explain the anatomy of large livestock? not many would be my guess.

now we come to a new series here on "this is most certainly true." it is entitled: iowa: the lost driving rules. my days off are spent getting lost in a small city and trying to avoid accidents. these rules pertain to things which most iowans didn't learn in drivers ed.

iowa: the lost driving rules #1: the yield sign

this sign is similar to a stop sign, except you don't have to stop if there are no cars around. if there are other cars around, you have to let them go through the intersection and go first on the onramp and then you can go. it does not refer to crop yield. commonly found on freeway entrances. just because you have a powerstroke diesel truck does not mean you can ignore it. basically, a stop sign unless there is no one around. which means you have to actually look around when you are driving, which also seems to be a growth area for you people.

the rest of the week should be fun. i close saturday and work again at 7 sunday morning. that should be fun.

a little concerned

before i moved to the midwest, i was worried i would get an accent. i have always been proud of my west coast "non-accent." at the same time, i easily pick up dialects. my brother says this is a sign of a weak personality, whatever that means. so before i moved here, i was worried i'd start to sound like an iowan, which granted is not as extreme as sounding like i was from minnesota or north dakota, but it's not me.
crap.
i listen to myself all day. working the drive thru is like having the "amischwab show." and i am noticing when i talk to people, i sound like them more and more.
so if i happen to talk to you on the phone and i sound a little midwestern, reach through the phone and slap me. please.

ok, seriously?!

are we really to the point where we are either so lazy or don't have time to put our own hot dog in the bun?

yet another sign of the apocalypse.

mein iPod ist kaputt

my iPod is apparently sad. it just stopped working and i took it to the apple store.

"yeah, it's broken," the "genius" told me. "might as well buy a new one."

thanks, captain obvious.

good thing i have a lot extra cash lying around.

fritz - ipod + long haul flight = sucky

welcome to the pity party.

midwestern exposure

i learned a hard, but obvious lesson this week.
alright, we all do this. we meet someone and we google them. sometimes stuff comes up, it is mostly random, and we know some interesting tidbits about people.
but, hello!? you never tell them what you find out, right?
it so happens that when you google me, you can pretty much piece together my entire life. i know, i'm da sh!t.
i wasn't really aware of this.
so when you show up somewhere with people you've only recently met and they start asking you things about your life which you have not yet divulged or aren't even on your myspace page, you get freaked out.
at least i did.
i was overexposed on the internet. i've done my best to do "damage control" but i am limitted by the fact that i do not control the content of many of these sites.
so welcome (again) to the internet age.
i'm such a chump.
lesson learned.