Yesterday was my birthday, but technically, I could have celebrated today (Monday). I had never thought about what people do who spend their life in a completely different time zone than where they were born. Here’s the thing — I was born in the evening on February 8th, which means I was born in the wee hours of the morning on Feb. 9th in Germany. So technically, today is my birthday here in Deutschland but yesterday was my birthday in the States.
Of course, I chose to celebrate yesterday because the 8th will always be my birthday. However, I’m betting there are some people out there who get really confused about when to celebrate their birthday. For example, if you were born at 3 in the morning in China on Feb. 8th, then you were born at 1 PM on Feb. 7th in Texas. If you moved to the US after being born in China, when would you choose to celebrate your birthday? Calendar-wise it makes sense to stay with the 8th, but time-wise you’re not another year older until the 7th. Thoughts?
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I really did have a great birthday yesterday. John made wheat waffles with blueberries and Earl Grey tea per my request for breakfast. He also surprised me with 3 small potted plants that I love! I have been wanting some plants in our place, so they’re perfect.
For lunch, we went to the Kaffeehaus in Schwetzingen. If you don’t know by now, that is my favorite place to eat around here. We had our traditional Sunday brunch for lunch, which includes meats, cheese, fresh breads and coffee. We added a croissant, walnut bread and a mimosa to the mix this week. It was delicious!
During the afternoon, we did the cake thing and I opened some very sweet cards and gifts from family and friends. By the way, John made my birthday cake and it was delicious (and looked awesome)! It was a 2-layer strawberry cake with strawberry jam filling. He iced it with cream cheese icing and took the leftover icing, dyed it purple and wrote “Happy Birthday Sarah” on it. He also had the candles we used for his birthday again on my cake. It was perfect!
After cake time, we drove an hour to Ramstein. We shopped at their PX (actually, BX) for some stuff that we don’t have here and then went to dinner at Chili’s, which is a huge treat for us! I had Monterry Chicken (grilled chicken topped with bacon, cheese & tomatoes) and fresh steamed veggies. Yum! Of course we also had queso and a margarita, which is one of the main reasons why Chili’s is such a treat. You canNOT get a decent margarita in Germany unless you make it yourself or go to Chili’s. (At least not from our experience…)
The flowers John got for me, which also match my cake (how awesome is that?!)
John is a master cake baker and decorator!
He even sang “Happy Birthday” to me. Then I had to contemplate what to wish for.
And yes, I managed to blow out both candles. 🙂
Waiting for our table at Chili’s
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Of course, today is Monday, which means it’s also time for some “Not Me! Monday” fun. “Not Me! Monday” is a blog carnival (I think that term is weird, by the way) by MckMama at My Charming Kids
I get up early every day, so it definitely wasn’t me who fell back asleep from 8-10 AM the other day. Nope, not me.
The chocolate caramel cookies I made last week have 114 calories each. It wasn’t me who ate at least 5 or 6 of them in as many days. I’m trying to be healthy and productive with my new commitment to the gym, so I would not jeopardize that by eating so many delicious cookies.
I took John to work one day last week, and we were about to walk out the door but I hadn’t had my morning yogurt. Of course I thought about skipping the yogurt. That means I did not attempt to give John something else to do before we left while I shoveled the largest mouthful of yogurt known to man into my mouth. Nope, definitely not me. Also, John is not so wonderfully patient with me that he laughed at my ridiculous attempt to divert his attention from the fact that we needed to leave.
– Sarah
Happy birthday, a little late! 😀
I wish I could help you with the margarita problem, but come to think of it I don’t believe I’ve ever ordered one in Germany at all!!! But, I can vouch for the mojitos at Acht Grad and at Hemingway’s.
Thanks! And does that mean the mojitos there are good or questionable?
1. sarah you are looking fabulousss (i mean you are and always have been!!but ya know what i mean!)
2. you and john are looking soo cuuute together in those pics ( (i mean you are and always have been!!but ya know what i mean!)
3.it looks like john did a great job on the cake =]]
Thanks, Hannah! And he sure did a great job — it was so delicious!
The mojitos at those places are good. 🙂 (At least when we had them!)
Re: Acht Grad, we have only been there once, it’s kind of a club/bar near the Hauptbahnhof. It wasn’t too annoying as clubs go…I don’t frequent them that much. But, the mojitos we had there were the best we ever had.
Hemingway’s is a bar/restaurant on the Neckar, a block down from the Bismarckplatz. They have good burgers and a lot of the kinds of food that are popular in the US, like club sandwiches and healthy-style burritos. It’s really small inside, and popular, so it’s good to get there earlier rather than later, or in the summer there’s lots of seating outside. (Actually you can sit outside year-round if you’re up to the cold!!) We go there pretty often because of the good location and to satisfy the occasional burger craving! They also have Strongbow (not on tap – but you can get it on tap across the river at O’Reilly’s*) which I appreciate.
*O’Reilly’s is one of the big Irish pubs (the other being the Dubliner) and is full of English-speaking expats. They also have good burgers but you pay Irish prices (expensive) for everything there!! I never had a mojito or margarita there, though.