I'm A Social And Culinary Success!

On Sunday I made the most delicious baked good I have ever made in my whole long life. It's called a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, and it is just the embodiment of everything dessert should stand for. It's a torte with three chocolate layers and one firmer cakey crust on the very bottom to hold it all together. Between these layers come cherries and whipped cream, and the entire thing is decked in a ton of more whipped cream. Fine grated chocolate is sprinkled on top, accompanied by a few more cherries. The last, most challenging step is putting this treasure away in a cool place to let it chill out for later without burying your face in it first. Parting with this miracle the moment after I had finished it was heartbreaking, I don't know if I can express it. Imagine Beethoven having his hearing taken away. Oh wait... bad example. I think you get my point, though. Later, when we finally sat down to eat it, you could almost feel the electrons in the air buzzing more buisily than usual from the tension. This was a big moment! What if it didn't actually taste as good as it looked? What if it turned out I was lactose intolerant? What if Santa wasn't real? Well, my doubts were set to rest when Heiko made it through his whole piece without saying any comprehensible words, choosing instead to stick to moaning and heavy breathing in between chewing. It was amazing. I feel like a more successful human being after having baked that baby.

And it actually snowed here on Sunday night! The 23rd is officially my favorite day of the month. I was so happy that I went outside and did my First Snow of the Year Dance. If you've never experienced it before it's a sight to see, let me tell you. Anyway, I must have energized the Snow Gods or something, because that night it snowed more than my family could remember it ever having snowed here before. I didn't actually ask them about that, I'm just assuming that was the reason they only had two pairs of snow boots for a five person family. Me included in that five. Well, short story long, Susan, Consty and I all went outside and played in the freshly fallen Freude. Freude is the German word for happiness. Sorry, I needed to make use of my bilinguisticity (I just made that word up) to complete that alliteration. We built a snow man, threw snow balls (I nailed Susan in the head) and skidded around the solid three inches on a bike, which was a new experience for me. I also saw part of Miami Vice in German that night and ate wurst with cheese in it. And another piece of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte. Delicious.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine flew to the US for a little while. I asked him to bring me back some Cheez-its for a little taste of my country and because salty snacks are hard to find in Germany. He brought me back four boxes. FOUR BOXES! I gladly spread the wealth, having known I would never have gotten through them alone. I love Cheez-its, but they are extremely dangerous for me. I never reach a point where I think, "There is no way I will fit one more of these miniscule crackers in my stomach," so then I eat one more. And one more. And one more. Suddenly half of the bag is gone. I swear, I have no idea where they all go. I only eat them one at a time! That should mean I don't eat very many, but it just doesn't.

I was invited to two birthday parties this weekend. I'm just a really big deal here. You know, like a celebrity. I think people invite me to things because they want to further observe my curious behavior. They want to know, for example, if I regularly break out into song upon the smallest, most obscure cues. The answer is of course yes, and everybody seems to be okay with that.

I'm going to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow with a half-American friend. I'm really excited, and I hope there is good stuffing. I looove stuffing. Is it weird how so much of what I consider relevant enough to write about concerns food?

Consty got an iPod Touch. It's really cool. I looked at Concord on Google Earth and saw my house.

Christmas time here is going to be so cool, and I only have 15 more days of school until vacation. I can't wait.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'm thankful to you for reading my blog.

Tommy