The Olympics
Sorry I haven’t been around much. I’ll explain in a later post as to what’s going on.
For now… our little family has been watching the Olympics every single day. We follow it online and discuss it over dinner. We’re having so much fun (it’s a much needed break) that I’ll be sad to see it go next week. Luckily, it’s every 2 years.
Peanut’s favourite is “nastics” while the girls are tumbling on the TV, she tumbles for us.. does her little swan moves, and takes a bow.
So here’s some interesting things about the Olympics:
- Ever wonder why divers shower after getting out of the pool? I always thought it was to wash the chlorine off. Well.. Hubby found this article.
- The winner of 4th place is said to receive a potato medal, according to the Czechs. Isn’t that hilarious?
- The Olympic motto is “Citius, Altius, Fortius” in Latin meaning “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.”
- The five interlocking Olympic rings are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. They represent the five major regions of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
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McCain and Czechoslovakia
John McCain once again refers to Czechoslovakia, instead of Czech Republic. You think if he’s such a blow hard for foreign policy that he’d get this right.
He’s made this mistake several times and not once corrected himself.
And another thing.. NO MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM SHOULD BE IN CZECH OR POLAND! STAY OUT!
Filed under: czech | 1 Comment
Another round of interestingness
Hubby found this somehow and now none of us can get enough of Shaun the Sheep. According to Disney, they do air episodes but they never list the times.. so I assume they do it in between other shows.
Even when Peanut leaves the TV to play (we encourage it), Hubby and I sometimes stay there and watch it. It’s hilarious!
While Peanut is busy with that and using her imagination to go fishing, Mommy has been watching TED videos. Which their subtitle says “Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers” and they couldn’t be more correct. There’s a range of topics, real insight by people, and just some awesome inspiration that makes me feel like this world isn’t so bad afterall.
I suggest you check it out. No real recommendation on who to watch first, it’s up to you.
Hubby is out to play soccer today with all of his Czech buddies. I want to go and watch them, but maybe I’ll wait until they get better. I like watching Hubby sweat! Yum!
Filed under: children's tv, fun stuff, reading | 2 Comments
Czech-American Marriage
My blogging bud Tanja has graciously graced my inbox with her story of being a Czech woman and married to an American guy. And if you haven’t gone to her site yet.. do so! She’s got an interesting post going on about Czech/American baby names.
Thank you for the guest post Tanja! 
How is it to be married to an American husband
It’s great. I love it. But I have a feeling that I am just married to a great person, regardless of his nationality. First of all, I really admire the fact how he had tackled the Czech language when we were first married. We could not find any Czech course in our neighborhood at that time so he had secretly enrolled in a self-paced program at our local college. Not only was the course taught by a Russian but the textbook was type-written and published in 1968. Most of the Czech phrases he was memorizing are not even being used anymore! But he tried…
My husband has a great sense of humor! I call it the Czech-style humor: quick, witty, off-the-wall but it can be hurtful at times. Therefore our rule is “handle Czech humor with care”. Anyways, he makes jokes about me loving potatoes so much, he calls me Half-Czech-half-potato and sings me songs such as “One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four…”. Just to give him back on one of these “potato” days I would serve him Bramborak for dinner as punishment. That brings me to my cooking. My husband loves my cooking, he thinks I have a great talent. He says that my dream menu for him would be Potato smoothie for breakfast, for lunch Potato sandwich and for dinner Potato mignon. Every time I get the Czech food cravings and I whip something VERY ethnic in the kitchen, like Prune dumplings for dinner (it is very un-American to have a sweet dinner course), he patiently eats it all.
Being married to an American made me realize that stereotypes don’t exist. Before I came to America I thought that young American guys were good-looking (my friend and I would used to call them “thick-necked”) but kind of dumb. But after I spent some time living here I realized that guys here are like everywhere else: some are dumb and some are smart; some are cute and some are not. Lot of them actually do (like my husband) love history and culture.
Also, he is not pessimistic and critical as lot of Czechs/Europeans can be. He does get critical at times but it is still nothing compared to what I was used to when I was growing up in Czech. In fact, sometimes, when my husband gets negative, I jokingly ask him: “Are you Czech?” or “Who is the Czech in this family?”
Filed under: czech, czech culture | 4 Comments
Crying Men Portraits
I’m really digging these crying men portraits done by Sam Taylor-Wood. I don’t think I need to explain the beauty of these portraits.. or the irony of them. Look at them for yourself. They’re breathtaking.
Out of all of them, I’d have to say Robin Williams, Daniel Craig, and Forrest Whitaker look to be the most authentic in crying.
Filed under: photography | 2 Comments
The Cure, The Concert
I took Mudd last night to see The Cure (her favourite band ever) and we had a nice time. They played for 3 hours. Yea.. 3 hours. They got off the stage close to 12:30am. I have no voice and my ears are still ringing. But we had a fabulous time. We were close enough for Mudd to see the white of Robert Smith’s eyes (she kept threatening to run on stage and “just touch him”)
A few interesting things of note:
- I saw the absolutely most beautiful girl in the world. She had on a blue and black polka dotted dress (one of those 50s kind) and black curly hair like Marilyn Monroe. I’ve never been taken away by beauty before, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her. Is this what they mean by a girl crush?
- One chick danced her heart out all night. She was fascinating to watch.
- I think at all the concerts I’ve been to, I’ve always been such a huge fan that I was engrossed with the band. This time.. I was watching the people and they were much more interesting. Some looked happy, some miserable, some you could tell wanted to “let loose”, and some must’ve been there because they had season tickets..
Very good show. Robert Smith is wonderful, the band was excellent. I’m hungover from all that energy in the building.
Filed under: concert, music | 1 Comment
New member of family
We have a new member of our family. His name is Bobby (guess who named him?) and he’s a beta fish. I don’t know what came over me to actually agree to having one. Maybe because they don’t need a bubbly thing to breathe, and his little home is a simple round tank that I can clean once a week.
My mom was worried that the fishy will get lonely, but I told her that I knew betas were solitary fishies, and not to worry because Peanut’s nose is pressed to the glass every few minutes asking Bobby if he’s ok.
The organ that helps them breathe without a bubbly is called a labyrinth. Wouldn’t be awesome to have an organ called a labyrinth?
Filed under: fun stuff, peanut | 5 Comments
My new blogging buddy
Tanya (I like her official name better) emailed me a few months back about her and her website, and we’ve now re-kindled our email correspondence, as well as leaving comments on eachother’s blogs.
I’m American married to a Czech, and she’s a Czech married to an American. I’m hoping she’ll agree to cross-post on here on the experience of being married to an American man. She’s the one who came up with the idea for me to write what it’s like being married to a Czech guy. Today she’s posted it! I suggest you check it out (yea, didn’t say czech it out. heh). Plus, if you want to get some great Czech news (and not just politics) you should visit her site!
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Espen Lind
So.. yea.. I read Perez. It’s my one guilty pleasure on the ‘net… and it allows me to wade in the shallow pool for a while and provide an escape.
That was a long excuse.
Anyways.. he spoke about Espen Lind on a post today! I’ve loved Espen since Hubby brought me his CD called Red. It’s breathtakingly good! I liked his other CD too.. but Red is the one I listen to the most.
Even Hubby loves listening to his music. Especially When Susannah Cries, Lucky For You, American Love (which we danced to at our wedding), and one of my favourites is The Buffalo Tapes. Czechs are pretty familiar with him (from what I’ve been told) and now I’m thrilled that he’s getting some recognition here in the States.
Filed under: music | 1 Comment
Voluntary Simplicity
Just what the name says. You live simply voluntarily. The people who live like this without much choice is typically called “So poor you don’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of”
My post is stemming from this article from the New York Times article (and a nod to the Metafilter thread) about a family leaving all their worldly possessions behind in order to move to the country and live as simply and self-sufficient as possible (Dad is still keeping his job that generates a pretty large income).
I admire them for doing something like this, but also question it. Why do you have to run to the country to live self-sufficient? It’s easy to let go of all your stuff and then move to the country, but how about letting go of all your stuff and live simply in the city? This way you’re showing others the benefits of living simply and expanding the idea on a more metro level then in the forest where deer and bears don’t really give a shit.
I think it’s a fantastic idea really, and I think the idea could be expanded upon for others to start adopting a more simple life without having to abandon all of their stuff. There’s some sites that touch upon the subject, but I think if people really want to see how to live simply… go to a village in Europe. It’ll be a crash course, I promise you.
But all this talk about simple living has me remembering things my mom has told me about her childhood in the war and also how resourceful she is now. She said they didn’t have much growing up so you had to use what you have or think of other ways of getting what you want. Hubby is the same way. And now I’m starting to try and change the way I think because I’m the epitome of a greedy American. If I want something, I go out and buy it. I don’t want Peanut to live in this manner. So I’m making the change… it’ll be a slow change, but a change nonetheless.
The Simple Living Network - A very valuable resource.
Off-Grid - Another site filled with articles, tips, resources
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