Bye-bye, Cutie-pie!

The duck and I have moved again. And this time, we decided to leave Cutie-pie behind (on a windowsill, with a view of the changing seasons). Saying goodbye to our #1 bedroom beautification broject made us remember some of our favorite moments from when Cutie-pie went from bald little baby to middle-aged old-school metalhead to friendly aged desk supervisor and beyond. Even though the duck and I still haven’t grown to behave like proper adults at all times, in the past four years, we have learned and experienced our fair share of things we sure didn’t expect we would. Some we shared with the rest of the world, others just among the two (or millions) of us. Though our lives hardly went according to plan (despite all those detailed lists), the duck and I are proud of ourselves for having made it this far (partly literally! I definitely didn’t expect I’d ever take up jogging), sharing some of our favorite adventures with you. We still enjoy looking back at that time we got lost on our way to IKEA, shared the very inspirational story of our dog who sells hats, wrote a lot about Christmas, actualized our corny cat corner, first met our favorite mail person, tried to deal with one of our fears by drawing it, nearly froze our fingers and wings off taking photos, encountered a new mystery, to name a few. Let’s not forget all the friend recommendations and help (like that time the washing machine took up smoking) we received. And all those times the duck has insisted on being a movie star!
The duck and I are glad Cutie-pie accompanied us along the way. So, we took one last picture of our withered and always beautiful friend before saying, “See ya later, pal!”

“Hopefully, we’ll have some new adventures to share when we meet again!”

Spring trip spoil tip

The duck and I have been busy lately. So, we decided to share a single photo today. Last spring, we spent a weekend in the Ruhr region to catch up with friends. They both agreed that there needed to be a spoil tip trip (I don’t even know if that’s the right word. My coal mining knowledge is virtually non-existent) in our itinerary. So, after sleeping in following an exciting journey with Deutsche Bahn, we spent the afternoon walking up Halde Rungenberg and sitting at the top, chatting for a long while.

After ignoring a suspicious call and later realizing that it had come from the airline we had an upcoming booking with, the duck and I also learned that, alongside the incredible views, this Ruhr characteristic spoil tip also comes with impeccable cell phone reception.
We spent most of the trip eating, catching up, and watching movies. So this is the only relatively presentable photographic evidence that the duck and I were even there (well, that someone was there). But our memories (especially the one of the train journey there) are remarkably vivid in our imagination and likely will remain so for a long time.

That’s all for today. The duck and I wish you a wonderful Sunday (or whatever day of the week it is when you’re reading this)!

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P.S.: While we took this photo in spring, the duck and I don’t consider this a “spring photo” per se. So, we didn’t lie about being done with spring photo posts for this year!

Snacks: This is bananas!

Last year, the duck and I discovered a Schogetten flavor online that sounded as if it had been created with us in mind: Peanut butter, a variety we already approve of but crunchy, with salted pretzels, one of our favorite snacks that we don’t think is bland at all! We kept our eyes peeled during every grocery shop for months, to no avail. During one of our habitual chocolate shelf perusals, the duck and I saw the Ritter Sport Fernweh trio had been updated. Last year’s mildly disappointing Japanese cherry blossom-themed flavor, “Konnichiwa” had been replaced by another one, “Hola Amigos,” advertising the taste of crispy banana, to go alongside the resumed caramel and white mango passionfruit varieties. I couldn’t make up my mind about this new flavor. Did I feel like I would love it? No. Did I think it sounded disgusting? Not really. Would it make for a genuinely unpredictable taste test (unlike the pleasantly predictable coffee one last winter)? Yes! Also, Ritter Sport chocolate happened to be on sale. So, the duck threw a bar into our shopping basket, and we got ready for an exciting super subjective taste adventure:

Oh, isn’t this amazing? It’s my favorite part…

“… because– you’ll see…”

[Here’s where she finds the cookies; she won’t have devoured each of them ’til chapter three!]

With all the writing about books recently, the duck and I began feeling a bit like Belle from Disney’s 1991 Beauty and the Beast. In fact, we aspire to one day be as good at walking – no! – adventuring while reading as she is. Some might say she goes on simultaneous adventures every day.* So, since my feathery friend is not only a hunk but also incredibly beautiful, today’s movie still duckification shows the duck in the role of “Belle chatting with the local sheep.” My favorite pen to use in Procreate is the standard HB pencil. Therefore, I decided to attempt a digital pencil drawing for this one. It only took me about five times as long as the physical “Forrest Duck” drawing. Probably because I made frequent use of the “undo” prompt… until the duck had a stern talk with me about missing out on precious lazy reading time with every extra hour spent on this picture; the movie still (which, once again, doubles as a movie song still) had been duckified enough. As usual, the duck was right. The more time I spend on a single movie still duckification, the more likely it is laziness will take over before I tackle a new one.

Have you watched Disney’s original Beauty and the Beast? Are you as impressed by Belle’s doing-chores-while-reading-skills as we are?

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*Well, at least the duck and I do. We’re convinced of it!

5 advantages of reading more

The duck and I read a lot this past winter. And, so far, we still read most days. Of course, this calls for a list featuring some universal advantages of developing a reading habit. Since the duck and I don’t do universal (except for the studios. They’ve produced/distributed some of our favorite movies, and we regret not visiting USJ when we lived in Japan. Well, it seems we’ll have to explore another set of their theme parks, then- I digress!) – just look at our super subjective taste tests – we instead compiled a list (I am a nerd, after all) of reasons we are happy we’re reading more.

Who knows, maybe some of them are universal? They definitely are to our little two-person-universe:

Pretty priceless pigeonholes

Last year, I ranted about precarious pigeonholes. It’s unlikely I’ll ever accept when people use nothing but appearances and superficial conversations to draw conclusions about another person’s character. Neither am I amused with one-dimensional personality-based pigeonholes. This anecdote is an exception:
Let me start by recognizing that I used to be a bit of a nerd (if you ask the duck, I still very much am one. Well, I do love lists a lot); I was serious about my studies and fair comprehensible grading. That’s why my demeanor becomes particularly serious when I relate to my seniors, superiors, or people responsible for judging my work. In contrast, those who know me better (and in more casual situations) must suffer through my bad jokes and occasionally annoying cheerfulness.
One day, my friends/coursemates and I convened with a lecturer who had known us for a few years. After a long serious discussion, we were all exhausted and frustrated. I made a jokey remark, and my friends responded with a polite chuckle. When we realized our lecturer was staring at me perplexed, we froze. “Did you just make a joke?” he asked, looking as if I’d admitted to stealing a staircase.* I don’t remember the rest of the meeting, just that we couldn’t wait to leave the room and have a long, healthy laugh about the situation. Days, even years later, we still chuckled, imagining what kind of person I must have been in our teacher’s mind. It seems my “professionalism” worked too well on him.
Don’t get me wrong, I still resent feeling pigeonholed. But the way our lecturer was so sure of his reading of me and how this gave us all something to laugh about in an otherwise bleak situation made this a pretty priceless pigeonhole – one with a crystal chandelier (if we’re going with the literal sense of the word)!

So many books!*

That’s what the duck and I exclaim whenever we look at our read list from this past winter. Even my past regularly-reading self would deem the current duck and me worthy conversation partners. Last year, we met our absolutely achievable reading goal. So, for 2023, we increased it by a single book. And, before the beginning of spring, we were more than halfway there. Believe me, the duck and I didn’t start the year thinking we should try to reach our noncommittal reading goal as soon as possible. But then two things happened that appealed to our personalities so much that reading more than usual became inevitable:
#1 Like last year, the duck and I participated in a reading challenge for which we read a little bit every day in January. That went smoothly until, in a weak moment of particularly powerful procrastination, we joined two more reading challenges, comprising a combined 16 prompts to consider when picking books to read this year. As stubborn (still-) completionists and faithful friends of frugality, the duck and I were committed to finishing these two extra challenges, ideally at little to no additional cost.

This is where #2 comes in:

This will be our last spring photo post this year, I promise!

After our spring-themed snack review last week, the duck and I are keeping up another tradition on this blog. We find it extremely hard to break some of the most useless of our habits, after all. So, here is our 2023 spring photo post. We’ve been slightly lazier busier this late winter/spring than in the past few spring photo post iterations. Therefore, this year’s pictures stem from our not-very-good phone camera. We took them on the way home from one of our local, once again basket-less, grocery shopping trips. Here are the photos we could just about salvage out of our small, unimpressive selection:

Eventually, the duck and I are happy we’ve kept up this tradition for another year. Who knows what we’ll photograph and share next spring (if anything).
Have a happy rest of spring (or fall), wherever you are!

Who puts the glad in gladiator?

“Duckules!”
Since editing our Heidelberg video, the duck and I’ve had this melody stuck in our heads. We’d regularly catch ourselves referencing or singing lines from “Zero To Hero,” the song at the midpoint of Disney’s 1997 animated film Hercules; some (= the duck and I) might call it the movie’s “Hakuna Matata.” Eventually, we tried to get it out of our heads by turning it into a movie still duckification. Sort of. It’s more of a movie song still duckification. Which still counts.
The duck insists everyone who meets the duck “run[s] wild with oohs and aahs,” so it would only be logical to also “slap [the duck’s] face [and muscular body] on every vase.” Since my pottery skills are nonexistent, the duck agreed a Hercules-inspired digital drawing was good enough. Now the duck and I present the superior duck-version of the vase at the end of the song in the middle of Disney’s Hercules:

Wouldn’t this be a great way to announce a duck-themed online merch store (alongside the vases, “Zero to Hero” features lots of other Hercules merchandise, like action figures, “Air-Herc” sandals, and “Herculade” lemonade)? It would. Even though the duck is spectacular (and allegedly extremely humble), I see no duck-related merchandise in the foreseeable future. But there is this movie still duckification. And we will hopefully keep making them for a while longer.* So, the duck will have to be content with just that for now.

What do you do when you have a song stuck in your head?

☆ Sweet Potato Burger ☆ #dinerdinner #fakeAmericansrealfunexperience #itsburgertimeoclock #hunkfood #TBT

Last spring, the duck and I spent some time in Saxony. We had made dinner plans with a pal and remembered that our local friend had mentioned an American-style diner she likes. When we entered 50’s ville Diner, we were greeted by country music and immediate burger cravings. It didn’t take us long to pick the sweet potato burger to go with our accidentally large lemonade. While we have no trouble snacking all day long, the duck and I can barely eat a whole burger and the fries that go with it. But, since we’re no fans of next-day fries, we followed our completionist hearts and nearly finished our plate. Despite the subsequent stomach ache, the duck and I fondly remember our dinner with our pal in true German-American fashion. 5/5 burger buns for the food, ambiance, company… and our impressive accomplishment (or that of our stomachs, really)! ☆★☆★☆

We rarely eat junk food that doesn’t come in boxes with neatly listed ingredients (the love is true. But also, our stomachs are funny). Because our diet is relatively healthy (minus the snacks that make up 20-80% of it), we don’t even consider sharing a burger twice a year “junk food.” In fact, the duck suggested using the term “hunk food” instead. Apparently, that’s the shape of the duck’s soul or something?