Saturday, December 16, 2006
Diana's first annual Christmas letter via blog!
Stay tuned!! Coming soon! (as soon as our internet get turned back on)!! LOL
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Jess and Leos' wedding pictures!!!
Yes, today, October 5th, 2006 I gained a son=in law!
Here are the pictures:
Date is off on camera... Jess and Leo on their wedding day, doing what they do best. (note Leo dozing off)
The castle in Hanau where the wedding was performed
Leo being Leo... Jess not minding a bit.. Also note the sun... It was supposed to rain all day, Kathy and Papa sent their love via sun... as soon as Leo and Jess were married, the rain came back!! Thanks Kathy and Papa!!! We love you!!
Diana the official wedding photographer..
OK, have you EVER seen Jess hide from the camera?? LOL Leo being Leo again
This picture is one of my favorites
Waiting for the wedding to begin
Right before the civil service began.. rings on the pillow. Bridal cup in front also
Exchanging rings
Doesn't she look amazing??!!!!
They had to hold that kiss for like 20 seconds because, of couse, the freaking new batteries I put in the camera were already failing. sheeesh
Here are the pictures:
Date is off on camera... Jess and Leo on their wedding day, doing what they do best. (note Leo dozing off)
The castle in Hanau where the wedding was performed
Leo being Leo... Jess not minding a bit.. Also note the sun... It was supposed to rain all day, Kathy and Papa sent their love via sun... as soon as Leo and Jess were married, the rain came back!! Thanks Kathy and Papa!!! We love you!!
Diana the official wedding photographer.. 
OK, have you EVER seen Jess hide from the camera?? LOL Leo being Leo again
This picture is one of my favorites
Waiting for the wedding to begin
Right before the civil service began.. rings on the pillow. Bridal cup in front also
Exchanging rings
Doesn't she look amazing??!!!!
They had to hold that kiss for like 20 seconds because, of couse, the freaking new batteries I put in the camera were already failing. sheeesh
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
BORING blogs
God, as life has become settled here, this has become a BORING BLOG! LOL
Sory, no changes coming that I know of for a while. I've had to cancel the trip to Scotland ecause my son has FINALLY decided to come visit, which means I am sending the out of work bum (J/K) the money for his passport, then I need to save for his plane ticket. I am soooooooooo happy his has finally decided to visit. Now all I can hope is that he stays a while. We'll see.
The other news, which I have no idea if I had posted or not, so you're getting it again,(I'm too lazy to look at past blogs) is that my MOM is getting rid of everything she owns and moving over next August! COOL! At that point our goal is to make our way down to Italy to live. Starting in Germany will be easier for her, the weather, etc is more like home, plus the whole fact that she won't have to visit the consulate in Chicago. Then since she will be registered as a resident in Germany, she should be able to go to the consulate in Frankfurt to get her permissions to move to Italy. I really want her to make a couple trips down there first before she decides whether or not to move there, it is a LOT different than even Germany, sooooo.
So other than that, I really don't see much else to write about for a while. I think I will take a month or two hiatus(sp) from this and save you all the trouble of checking all the time. If anyone really LIKES hearing about my daily boring life, let me know, but I have already had one friend who told me to stop writing about Taco Bell (while I still worked there) cause she was tired of hearing about it. LOL And I don't really see any trips, even local, coming up for a while, cause Jess will never go with me. Once my mom gets here I know we will go crazy, cause she will have time open and WANTS to spend time with me (jab at Jess)
So anyway, unless anyone really loves listening to stupid babbling, I will be back in a month or so to update you on what is going on. Love to you all!! - diana
Sory, no changes coming that I know of for a while. I've had to cancel the trip to Scotland ecause my son has FINALLY decided to come visit, which means I am sending the out of work bum (J/K) the money for his passport, then I need to save for his plane ticket. I am soooooooooo happy his has finally decided to visit. Now all I can hope is that he stays a while. We'll see.
The other news, which I have no idea if I had posted or not, so you're getting it again,(I'm too lazy to look at past blogs) is that my MOM is getting rid of everything she owns and moving over next August! COOL! At that point our goal is to make our way down to Italy to live. Starting in Germany will be easier for her, the weather, etc is more like home, plus the whole fact that she won't have to visit the consulate in Chicago. Then since she will be registered as a resident in Germany, she should be able to go to the consulate in Frankfurt to get her permissions to move to Italy. I really want her to make a couple trips down there first before she decides whether or not to move there, it is a LOT different than even Germany, sooooo.
So other than that, I really don't see much else to write about for a while. I think I will take a month or two hiatus(sp) from this and save you all the trouble of checking all the time. If anyone really LIKES hearing about my daily boring life, let me know, but I have already had one friend who told me to stop writing about Taco Bell (while I still worked there) cause she was tired of hearing about it. LOL And I don't really see any trips, even local, coming up for a while, cause Jess will never go with me. Once my mom gets here I know we will go crazy, cause she will have time open and WANTS to spend time with me (jab at Jess)
So anyway, unless anyone really loves listening to stupid babbling, I will be back in a month or so to update you on what is going on. Love to you all!! - diana
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Scotland
Just booked a flight to Scotland from Sept 9th to the 12th. Total cost is $60. Not bad. Now I just have to figure out what part of Scotland I want to go to, Loch Ness? The coast? It looks like there is a big regional food festival in one area, so I am not sure what to do. Research, research, research. Anyway, that is all that is new. Later!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Diana the Library Technician
Taco Bell display I helped create
And another view
Wild animal on my mother's porch!! :-)LOL
Yep, second day of work here. It turns out they can only pay me for 20 hours a week, so I am work at Taco Hell on Friday nights, Saturdays form 3 to closing, and one day a week doing their accounting. Nick, my boss has been showign me how to do cash and sales, bills, etc So I can handle that type of thing. Works for me and will look great on a resume.
So anyway, the library. Basically my entire work with this month is as follows:
Mondays - Library from 4:15 pm to 7:15
Tues-Thurs - Library from 3:15 to 7:15
Fridays from 12:15 to 5:15, then from 7-10:30 at Taco Bell
Sats from 3-10:30 at Taco Bell, Sundays off
Then one night a week, paperwork at Taco Bell for probably 2-3 hours.
Honestly, the working at the library is like being sent to heaven. I love libraries, everything about them. It is really wonderful.
Also, not only will I be issued an army email address, but I can use it to register for online lwearning that is available to members of the military.
There are some computer classes (bah) but I am more interested in the German and Italian classes. (Yaye!)
ANNYWAY.. The weather has really cooled off, Inthe the 70s. Another odd thing is getting off at 7:15 at night. I haven't been off that early since last December when I started Taco Bell. I am actually at a loss as to what to do when I come home. LOL
I don't watch TV, new movies are really not that interesting to me....... I am going to try and get back into reading, for a long time I haven't been able to concentrate on reading, of course that could be because I was coming home anywhere from 10:30 to 2 am.LOL
Anyway, things will be slowing down again for me, thank god........ Looking into where to go in September.. Decided not to go anywhere this month, so once again the location will have to do with where the cheap airfares are... I am off on Monday the 14th, so I might take a roadtrip that Sunday, MOnday and be back early Tues. Still not sure, I hate planning that far in advance..... But it would be nice. Maybe Belgium, or actually I was thinking Switzerland, maybe Bern. I am not sure if there are Alps that always have snow on them or not. (pardon my ignorance)I need to do a bit of research on where to go.
Other than that, all my cats are fine. Gizzy got a bunch of teeth removed last month, and now she is all lovey.... Jess is still a pain in the ass, but what else is new. I love her dearly, but do look forward to not having to live with her....
Well, am off to get in my jammies and look at the books I checked out, maybe even get to sleep before 11 pm. :-O
Later!
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
A Day In The Life
I don't know, today so far has been sort of a typical, atypical sort of day, but it sort of sums up my living in Germany, kind of, not so much fitting in, maybe settling in is the phrase.
I was up at 7:45 UGH! First sort of atypical thing about today. I usually sleep MUCH later, but a lot of things have been going on lately at ungodly hours of the morning.
Today I had to go down to HR and get a form in so they could get in sent in with a batch of others. ( I THINK it was for a background check, it was too early in the morning and I just signed what she put in front of me. It could very well have been something to put my mom in a nursing home. (sorry mom, I can't use the giving away my first born anymore, no one will take them))
HR also gave me like a 10 page booklet to fill out, both sides, in order to be able to enter it into the computer tomorrow. 10 years of jobs, schools, relatives, friends, type of toilet paper I use..... LOL
I go in at 1:30 tomorrow to enter it in, I guess the library needs me badly.. (yaye!)
So that was done by 9:00. From there I tried to find the Dr's office to get my prescription refilled. Dr Lomiento, my reg Dr is on vacation this week, and I REALLY need my meds. Soooooo. after heading off inthe wrong direction, getting lost, calling, doing the usual "does anyone speak English?" thing on the phone, I got the right directions, This is of course only if you understand German streets said over the phone.....Kastanalllanaliineeeee which luckily turned out to be something sort of similar I found.... I actually made it there with only one more phone call! Let me tell you, German street names are freaky... WAYYYYYYY to long.
I got there, did the VERY nice refilling of prescription, which basically consists of you telling the secretary what you need, her filling out the form, having the Dr sign it, and sending you on your way.
This is really something almost incomprehensible to me, trusting people enough to have them just tell you what they need, and giving them a prescription for it. I mean, this was a Dr that had never even seen me before, no office visit, just come in between 10-12 when they do the prescriptions, and you are done. Again, then you go to the pharmacist (Apoteke) hand them the script, and then hand you a box of medicine. Simple, easy, no problems. Have I said that I love living in Europe???
Soooo... after that I was supposed to go get brakes for Jess' car. To do this I had to take money out of the cash machine with her credit card. She had given me her pin, well the first time it didn't work, nor the second... and I was having such a wonderful day, the little bad imp inside of me said.. "Go ahead, try it a third time, this is Germany, it probably won't eat up the credit card..."
WRONG!! *rotflmao* It did...
Jessica was NOT amused when i told her she had to take her lunch hour to come try and retrieve her check card.. :-P
She was even LESS amused when they said they could not open the machine and the card would most likely be sent back to the stateside main bank......
LUCKILY there was a woman who worked there that convinced them to get the woman who could actually open the cash machine (something I figured all along) and they got her the card back... I knew it would work like that!!!!
Anyway, this whole time Jess is pretty much telling me how I am on her shit list saying random things like now I owe her $20 (WHAAAAA???) and now I have to mail her stuff at the post office AND pay for the postage (HUH???)
She cracks me up, when she is under stress I alwasy seem to owe her money for some reason...... (Too much bribing when they were young???)
Anyway, the whole time I am just trying not to laugh...... The imp inside was really getting the kick out of it. PLUS now we know that German cash machines will actually eat up credit cards after 3 times wit a wrong pin. A true learning experience.
I evem bought her a whole kilo of the MOST gorgeous red cherries from the open air market inthe marktplatz, along with some outstanding raspberries for myself. Those I ate warm, straight from the container, while I sat on the steps of the bank waiting for Jess to get there.
I love the lifestyle here, I really do.
Now I have to go buy her brakes, and go mail the stuff at the Post office for her. LOL I will be hearing about this for a week. I'll bet she even tries to gt me to do her turn washing dishing, saying I "OWE" her. LOL who cares, I am happy to do it. (she used cold water and I have to redo them all anyway) *g*..
Tschüß from Germany!!(pronounced almost like choose, or cheers with a strong accent, means bye!)
I was up at 7:45 UGH! First sort of atypical thing about today. I usually sleep MUCH later, but a lot of things have been going on lately at ungodly hours of the morning.
Today I had to go down to HR and get a form in so they could get in sent in with a batch of others. ( I THINK it was for a background check, it was too early in the morning and I just signed what she put in front of me. It could very well have been something to put my mom in a nursing home. (sorry mom, I can't use the giving away my first born anymore, no one will take them))
HR also gave me like a 10 page booklet to fill out, both sides, in order to be able to enter it into the computer tomorrow. 10 years of jobs, schools, relatives, friends, type of toilet paper I use..... LOL
I go in at 1:30 tomorrow to enter it in, I guess the library needs me badly.. (yaye!)
So that was done by 9:00. From there I tried to find the Dr's office to get my prescription refilled. Dr Lomiento, my reg Dr is on vacation this week, and I REALLY need my meds. Soooooo. after heading off inthe wrong direction, getting lost, calling, doing the usual "does anyone speak English?" thing on the phone, I got the right directions, This is of course only if you understand German streets said over the phone.....Kastanalllanaliineeeee which luckily turned out to be something sort of similar I found.... I actually made it there with only one more phone call! Let me tell you, German street names are freaky... WAYYYYYYY to long.
I got there, did the VERY nice refilling of prescription, which basically consists of you telling the secretary what you need, her filling out the form, having the Dr sign it, and sending you on your way.
This is really something almost incomprehensible to me, trusting people enough to have them just tell you what they need, and giving them a prescription for it. I mean, this was a Dr that had never even seen me before, no office visit, just come in between 10-12 when they do the prescriptions, and you are done. Again, then you go to the pharmacist (Apoteke) hand them the script, and then hand you a box of medicine. Simple, easy, no problems. Have I said that I love living in Europe???
Soooo... after that I was supposed to go get brakes for Jess' car. To do this I had to take money out of the cash machine with her credit card. She had given me her pin, well the first time it didn't work, nor the second... and I was having such a wonderful day, the little bad imp inside of me said.. "Go ahead, try it a third time, this is Germany, it probably won't eat up the credit card..."
WRONG!! *rotflmao* It did...
Jessica was NOT amused when i told her she had to take her lunch hour to come try and retrieve her check card.. :-P
She was even LESS amused when they said they could not open the machine and the card would most likely be sent back to the stateside main bank......
LUCKILY there was a woman who worked there that convinced them to get the woman who could actually open the cash machine (something I figured all along) and they got her the card back... I knew it would work like that!!!!
Anyway, this whole time Jess is pretty much telling me how I am on her shit list saying random things like now I owe her $20 (WHAAAAA???) and now I have to mail her stuff at the post office AND pay for the postage (HUH???)
She cracks me up, when she is under stress I alwasy seem to owe her money for some reason...... (Too much bribing when they were young???)
Anyway, the whole time I am just trying not to laugh...... The imp inside was really getting the kick out of it. PLUS now we know that German cash machines will actually eat up credit cards after 3 times wit a wrong pin. A true learning experience.
I evem bought her a whole kilo of the MOST gorgeous red cherries from the open air market inthe marktplatz, along with some outstanding raspberries for myself. Those I ate warm, straight from the container, while I sat on the steps of the bank waiting for Jess to get there.
I love the lifestyle here, I really do.
Now I have to go buy her brakes, and go mail the stuff at the Post office for her. LOL I will be hearing about this for a week. I'll bet she even tries to gt me to do her turn washing dishing, saying I "OWE" her. LOL who cares, I am happy to do it. (she used cold water and I have to redo them all anyway) *g*..
Tschüß from Germany!!(pronounced almost like choose, or cheers with a strong accent, means bye!)
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
New job with benefits!!!!!!!!
Woo-hoo! I am so excited I keep hitting weird keys. :-p
I had applied a while ago for a Permanent PT position as a library aid at the library on our base. I never even got called in for an interview, and was so upset. Then a few weeks ago a flex position came up at the library. I had no idea if it was a permanent or if it had benefits, but I applied for it anyway. I went in last week for an interview, and the assistant director loved me, but when I found out it may not have benefits, I knew that if I was offered the job, I wouldn't be able to accept it. Then today I received a call from the HR woman asking if I was intereted in the PT regular library aid job. I asked if it was the flex job and she said nope, it it the regular one with benefits. I told her the story and how badly I wanted it, and she said. "well you really must have wanted it badly because the person they offered it to declined the job, and then someone suggested they hire you!"
YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!
So now I still only have to work PT, will get benefits and even better, will be working in a library. This also gives me the option to transfer within the system when the base closes down, etc.
The woman I interviewed with said I had "mad" computer skills. (LOL) which I think is part of the reason they hired me. anyway.... I have been so depressed lately because I have applied for sooo many jobs, and not gotten anything, but now I can sort of relax and know that as long as I want to be here, I will be able to stay.
(should I get horned rimmed glasses??) LOL
I had applied a while ago for a Permanent PT position as a library aid at the library on our base. I never even got called in for an interview, and was so upset. Then a few weeks ago a flex position came up at the library. I had no idea if it was a permanent or if it had benefits, but I applied for it anyway. I went in last week for an interview, and the assistant director loved me, but when I found out it may not have benefits, I knew that if I was offered the job, I wouldn't be able to accept it. Then today I received a call from the HR woman asking if I was intereted in the PT regular library aid job. I asked if it was the flex job and she said nope, it it the regular one with benefits. I told her the story and how badly I wanted it, and she said. "well you really must have wanted it badly because the person they offered it to declined the job, and then someone suggested they hire you!"
YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!
So now I still only have to work PT, will get benefits and even better, will be working in a library. This also gives me the option to transfer within the system when the base closes down, etc.
The woman I interviewed with said I had "mad" computer skills. (LOL) which I think is part of the reason they hired me. anyway.... I have been so depressed lately because I have applied for sooo many jobs, and not gotten anything, but now I can sort of relax and know that as long as I want to be here, I will be able to stay.
(should I get horned rimmed glasses??) LOL
Monday, July 10, 2006
Back in Germany
The trip back from Sardinia was nothing special. I had to leave about 7 am to get to the airport, etc, and the flight back was no biggy. I did find out the Ryanair has a shuttle form the airport to Frankfurt main train station. This was good because Jess had my car and I wa son my own getting home. LOL.
One of the reasons that Ryanair has such good fares is that they do run fly out of the conventional airports. They fly out of smaller ones, sometimes quite a ways away from the reg airports, which can mean that transportation to and from can be a bit hairy. I had jess and Leo leave with me at like 3 am to get us to the airport to go to Italy, and we got lost several times. Luckily I saw the shuttle sitting outside the airport when I got back, so that sames me several hours of switching trains, buses etc. I was able to go to the main rail stations for 12 euro, then catch a train back to Hanau for 6, and that included catching the bus from the Hanau train station to the stop close to my apartment.
I knew I was going to have to work the day I got back, but it has taken me from Thursday to yesterday to sort of get back into the swing of things at work. My mind has just not been able to concentrate. I am already planning my next trip. LOL
Looks like we are getting another car. Jess is working farther away now, no bus service there, so Leo and I have been taking turns picking her up at night, and I have been either driving her in the morning, or letting her have the car til lunch. But we still have problems when I work at 4 or 5, and she is off at 6. This means we needed to get another car. I"ve been watchign the parking lot where everyone parks the For Sale cars on base, and saw a little Mitsubishi hatchback I wanted to try. I got ahold of the woman today and went down, drove it and really liekd it.... She wanted 975 for it, and I really wanted to talk her down to 70, but I only went down to 800. Jess is paying me 300 for the car I have now, so then it will only cost me 500. Then we will all be able to get back and forth to work with no porblems.
I have still been looking for other work, though now it looks like the store manager will be leaving in just a couple of weeks. If my supervisor Nick takes over the store like we hope he will, he will be talking to "them" W\(We have had long conversations about who the hell exactly IS THEM
In the meantime I actually had an interview for a helper/receptionist at a veterinary clinic! Man I wanted that job sooooooooooooooo bad. But it has been over a week and I have not heard back from them, so I guess that one is a no go.
So now it is back to the PT evenings and FT weekends job of slinging tacos in Taco Hell. LOL I will be glad when the weather cools down a bit, pretty hot in there this time of the year.
Anyway, that is about it. i am trying to decide where to go next, and also checking the airfare to see where there are deals. Seems like you can pretty much always get a good deal going to Ireland, which is one of the place I do want to go... I just want to go to Southern Italy next, though it will have to be before the first of August when all Italians go on vacation..... We will have to see.
In the meantime I SHOULD be going to pick up and register the new car tomorrow...
Later!
One of the reasons that Ryanair has such good fares is that they do run fly out of the conventional airports. They fly out of smaller ones, sometimes quite a ways away from the reg airports, which can mean that transportation to and from can be a bit hairy. I had jess and Leo leave with me at like 3 am to get us to the airport to go to Italy, and we got lost several times. Luckily I saw the shuttle sitting outside the airport when I got back, so that sames me several hours of switching trains, buses etc. I was able to go to the main rail stations for 12 euro, then catch a train back to Hanau for 6, and that included catching the bus from the Hanau train station to the stop close to my apartment.
I knew I was going to have to work the day I got back, but it has taken me from Thursday to yesterday to sort of get back into the swing of things at work. My mind has just not been able to concentrate. I am already planning my next trip. LOL
Looks like we are getting another car. Jess is working farther away now, no bus service there, so Leo and I have been taking turns picking her up at night, and I have been either driving her in the morning, or letting her have the car til lunch. But we still have problems when I work at 4 or 5, and she is off at 6. This means we needed to get another car. I"ve been watchign the parking lot where everyone parks the For Sale cars on base, and saw a little Mitsubishi hatchback I wanted to try. I got ahold of the woman today and went down, drove it and really liekd it.... She wanted 975 for it, and I really wanted to talk her down to 70, but I only went down to 800. Jess is paying me 300 for the car I have now, so then it will only cost me 500. Then we will all be able to get back and forth to work with no porblems.
I have still been looking for other work, though now it looks like the store manager will be leaving in just a couple of weeks. If my supervisor Nick takes over the store like we hope he will, he will be talking to "them" W\(We have had long conversations about who the hell exactly IS THEM
In the meantime I actually had an interview for a helper/receptionist at a veterinary clinic! Man I wanted that job sooooooooooooooo bad. But it has been over a week and I have not heard back from them, so I guess that one is a no go.
So now it is back to the PT evenings and FT weekends job of slinging tacos in Taco Hell. LOL I will be glad when the weather cools down a bit, pretty hot in there this time of the year.
Anyway, that is about it. i am trying to decide where to go next, and also checking the airfare to see where there are deals. Seems like you can pretty much always get a good deal going to Ireland, which is one of the place I do want to go... I just want to go to Southern Italy next, though it will have to be before the first of August when all Italians go on vacation..... We will have to see.
In the meantime I SHOULD be going to pick up and register the new car tomorrow...
Later!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Good grief Charlie Brown!
LOL Well, have been having a hell of a time, the only problems being loack of internet access and the fact that MY FREAKING DIGITAL CAMERA FELL INTO THE OCEAN WHEN GETTING OUT OF THE SNORKELING BOAT. LOLOLOL CRAP... We were in one of those rubber boats like they use when white water rafting, and thinking I would be cool (first mistake) I decided to just slide down the side to get out instead of being a wuss and going down the stairs in the back like normal people do. I lost my balance when I hit the sand and went all the way in. (is this where you stand up, act like nothign ahppened and try to give the look like "I'm cool, I meant to do that") ROTFLMAO. Yeah well I don't think I pulled that look off too well.
Anyway, I did still have the pictures from the underwater camera, soo..... I bought a disposible camera today and am going to go back to the most beautiful view in the world and take pictures for you.... *sigh*
I was going to go snorkeling again today, but no alarm clocks in Italian room (forget the time, go by your own speed, miss your plane). The hotel was supposed to call and wake me up, but the first day it was just one short ring... That may have happened today, or they forgot. My second snorkeling seesion was going to be at another beach about an hour from here, stintino.... but when I woke up and called to ask what time it was they said it was 9:30, that's when the boat left, so no go.
Yesterday's snorkeling was such a blast. It only cost 25 euros, like $30. We left at 10, got back at 12:30 or so.. What a deal! Got to wear a wet suit (suck that stomach in) and they took us out in a boat to a little cove surrounded by HUGE cliffs. I have some pictures of it on my digital camera, but.......
When we first got there we thought, no way, where is the green water we want to be in? But when you got closer there were spots hit by sunlight.
I will always be spoiled by the snorkeling in Maui, I will have to go back some day. Every time I have gone since, I keep expecting the same beautiful florescent fish, etc... and have been disspointed every time. So this time I decided to just relax, enjoy being there and started looking at the boulders themself that were covered wit life. Nothing florescent with the exception of one wildly res starfish, but when you got up very close you discovered a whole new world. Tiny little weird fishes hiding in the vegetation, odd plats, just a lot of cool stuff... I was so into it, I loved it... I decided to take a scuba class the next day, but ended up not signing up because to be able to actually dive would take you the entire day, and I thought I could use my time in abetter way. NEXT time!
A lot of people werein the water only a 1/2 hour or so, but a few of us staying there every second we could. I loved it, though after a bit i had to go get a drink of water, salt in the throat. A few of the people swallowed a lot of water and wanted to puke.
Once we were all back in the boat and heading home, I closed my eyes and just thought of how lucky I was to be there... Sitting on the side of a big rubber boat, boating along on the meditteranean(sp) feeling the breeze on my face, hearing the motor, the people taliking around me, looking at the amazing scenery on all sides. Again I thanked the powers that be for allowing me to be in such a beautiful place.
It turns out we go tto go to a second cove! I mean, I think they undercharge for this..
This second one had HUUUUUUUGE bloders and crevices into the sides of the cliff, it as a LOT deeper and just a little scary.. I forced myself to just relax and then had another amazing time. You could snorkel almost right up to the cliffs, and then you would have the waves goig over you, kind of sucking you back and forth, so sometime you would have to back paddle a bit not to hit the rocks, but was FUN... Again, tons of interesting things attached to the rocks. I REALLY want to scuba next time.
Anyway, after abou 45 minutes there we finally headed back... To be honest I was about as relaxed as I was driving home the day after visiting Amsterdam. LOLOL
That evening I went to the restaurant called Pacos that everyone in the Trip Advisor forums recomends. I was a little upset because they had horse on the menu, but the kind I wanted was only available at lunch. I just didn't know if I wanted to go for a straight horse steak.... I decided to order as an appetizer the fresh tomatoes sliced whith mozzerella on top. with freshj basil leaves you cut up and put on top also. The mozzerella in Italy is NOTHING like it is there. Here is is very watery, bland and sort of rubbery, but very good, just not what you would think of there when you get it.
Then I had gnocchi ina cheese sauce with balsmaic vinegar drizzled on top. I wasn't thrilled with the vinegar, but otherwise it was good. For the second course instead of the horse steak (i was tempted to go there for lunch today to get it) instead I had traditional Sardinian sausages. OH MY GOD were they good. I am going to stop at the store here and get some, though now that I think of it, I may not be able tpo bring them back into Germany. Not sure... Will have to check..
Sardinia in July seems to be nothing but British and French tourists. I mean, we all know not to go in August because that is when all the Italians close down the country and take their vacations, so I guess the rest of the people in Europe know to go in July. L
Anyway, I slep too late today to really do anything, thanks in part to the fact the the Italians won against Germany last night in the world cup games. MY GOD! I was hanging out my 3 floor window watching them all going down the street haonking etc.. The people on scooters were absoultely suicidal, going bewteen cars let and right, down thye sidewalk, everywhere. LOL. I called my mom to talk to her and held up the phone so she could hear. LOL
So the rest of the day I am going to go back up to where I was yesterday, take some pictures for you with a real camera with film (how cute and antiquated and a pain in the ass to develop) LOL and then find something to eat and go to bed early. I fly out at 9 am tomorrow. ;-(
At least I have an alarm clock to get me up on time. (darn it)
Later!
Anyway, I did still have the pictures from the underwater camera, soo..... I bought a disposible camera today and am going to go back to the most beautiful view in the world and take pictures for you.... *sigh*
I was going to go snorkeling again today, but no alarm clocks in Italian room (forget the time, go by your own speed, miss your plane). The hotel was supposed to call and wake me up, but the first day it was just one short ring... That may have happened today, or they forgot. My second snorkeling seesion was going to be at another beach about an hour from here, stintino.... but when I woke up and called to ask what time it was they said it was 9:30, that's when the boat left, so no go.
Yesterday's snorkeling was such a blast. It only cost 25 euros, like $30. We left at 10, got back at 12:30 or so.. What a deal! Got to wear a wet suit (suck that stomach in) and they took us out in a boat to a little cove surrounded by HUGE cliffs. I have some pictures of it on my digital camera, but.......
When we first got there we thought, no way, where is the green water we want to be in? But when you got closer there were spots hit by sunlight.
I will always be spoiled by the snorkeling in Maui, I will have to go back some day. Every time I have gone since, I keep expecting the same beautiful florescent fish, etc... and have been disspointed every time. So this time I decided to just relax, enjoy being there and started looking at the boulders themself that were covered wit life. Nothing florescent with the exception of one wildly res starfish, but when you got up very close you discovered a whole new world. Tiny little weird fishes hiding in the vegetation, odd plats, just a lot of cool stuff... I was so into it, I loved it... I decided to take a scuba class the next day, but ended up not signing up because to be able to actually dive would take you the entire day, and I thought I could use my time in abetter way. NEXT time!
A lot of people werein the water only a 1/2 hour or so, but a few of us staying there every second we could. I loved it, though after a bit i had to go get a drink of water, salt in the throat. A few of the people swallowed a lot of water and wanted to puke.
Once we were all back in the boat and heading home, I closed my eyes and just thought of how lucky I was to be there... Sitting on the side of a big rubber boat, boating along on the meditteranean(sp) feeling the breeze on my face, hearing the motor, the people taliking around me, looking at the amazing scenery on all sides. Again I thanked the powers that be for allowing me to be in such a beautiful place.
It turns out we go tto go to a second cove! I mean, I think they undercharge for this..
This second one had HUUUUUUUGE bloders and crevices into the sides of the cliff, it as a LOT deeper and just a little scary.. I forced myself to just relax and then had another amazing time. You could snorkel almost right up to the cliffs, and then you would have the waves goig over you, kind of sucking you back and forth, so sometime you would have to back paddle a bit not to hit the rocks, but was FUN... Again, tons of interesting things attached to the rocks. I REALLY want to scuba next time.
Anyway, after abou 45 minutes there we finally headed back... To be honest I was about as relaxed as I was driving home the day after visiting Amsterdam. LOLOL
That evening I went to the restaurant called Pacos that everyone in the Trip Advisor forums recomends. I was a little upset because they had horse on the menu, but the kind I wanted was only available at lunch. I just didn't know if I wanted to go for a straight horse steak.... I decided to order as an appetizer the fresh tomatoes sliced whith mozzerella on top. with freshj basil leaves you cut up and put on top also. The mozzerella in Italy is NOTHING like it is there. Here is is very watery, bland and sort of rubbery, but very good, just not what you would think of there when you get it.
Then I had gnocchi ina cheese sauce with balsmaic vinegar drizzled on top. I wasn't thrilled with the vinegar, but otherwise it was good. For the second course instead of the horse steak (i was tempted to go there for lunch today to get it) instead I had traditional Sardinian sausages. OH MY GOD were they good. I am going to stop at the store here and get some, though now that I think of it, I may not be able tpo bring them back into Germany. Not sure... Will have to check..
Sardinia in July seems to be nothing but British and French tourists. I mean, we all know not to go in August because that is when all the Italians close down the country and take their vacations, so I guess the rest of the people in Europe know to go in July. L
Anyway, I slep too late today to really do anything, thanks in part to the fact the the Italians won against Germany last night in the world cup games. MY GOD! I was hanging out my 3 floor window watching them all going down the street haonking etc.. The people on scooters were absoultely suicidal, going bewteen cars let and right, down thye sidewalk, everywhere. LOL. I called my mom to talk to her and held up the phone so she could hear. LOL
So the rest of the day I am going to go back up to where I was yesterday, take some pictures for you with a real camera with film (how cute and antiquated and a pain in the ass to develop) LOL and then find something to eat and go to bed early. I fly out at 9 am tomorrow. ;-(
At least I have an alarm clock to get me up on time. (darn it)
Later!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Writing this froman outside restautant in Alghero
Italy! I made it here. I missed Italy so much. Sardinia,well Alghero is a lot diff fromthe hill towns in Umbria. A lot more run down, a LOT of construction going on everywhere, and HOT! 90 something today. I didn't get any sleep last night because I worked until 10:30, and had to leave at 3 am to go to the airport, so I took iteasy today, got to the hotel, walked around a bit, then took about a 3-4 hour nap.LOL Then got in the car and took off towards the south in the car. Good lord, you would not believe the cliffs youdirve along. The roads are good, but the scenery amazing!
I am heading north tomorrow I think it wil lbe flatter, one of the beaches I want to visit lookd sto be on a penninsula, so my guess is, no cliffs. LOL
Actually first thing I am doing tomorrow is going on a 3 hour snorkeling cruise. YAYE! It leaevs at 9 am, comes back at 11, you get about an hour in the water. Was only 25 euro, I thought that was good.
So I had my melone gelato today, along with coconut and honeydew scoops. When I am done with this will make sure to have another one before I go back to the hotel.LOL
I forgto about the wholeItalian stray cats thing, I hate that, malkes me so sad, I want to take them all home.
The dinner I had tonight was tortellini, and it was actually a microwaveble meal!! I laughed out loud when I realized it. Hey it was only 5€, soo.. But they didn,t even get all the top wrap off the paper dish and didn,t even try putting it on a regular plate. Sheesh.. BUT that meant I was able to take the whole thing with me and go feed it to one fo the homeless cats (what was left of the meal)
After that expereince I went online to the TripAdvisor forums to get some restaurant recommendations.
So not I am sitting outside along the beach at a table, all kinds of peploe everywhere, scooters all lined up. Teens hanging out, kids yelling, it is great! Now if I just had that perfect Italian man, all would be as it should. *g* Anyway, I am having a great time, looking forward to snorkeling tomorrow, and also getting some sleep tonight. I am off to get the promised gelato, and then to bed.
I will try writing again tomorrow, much better then trying to remember it later. Ciao! Oh yeah, the name of the restaurant is Ciau, Ciau where I am sitting, forgot the name of the place I ate. UGH. Later!
I am heading north tomorrow I think it wil lbe flatter, one of the beaches I want to visit lookd sto be on a penninsula, so my guess is, no cliffs. LOL
Actually first thing I am doing tomorrow is going on a 3 hour snorkeling cruise. YAYE! It leaevs at 9 am, comes back at 11, you get about an hour in the water. Was only 25 euro, I thought that was good.
So I had my melone gelato today, along with coconut and honeydew scoops. When I am done with this will make sure to have another one before I go back to the hotel.LOL
I forgto about the wholeItalian stray cats thing, I hate that, malkes me so sad, I want to take them all home.
The dinner I had tonight was tortellini, and it was actually a microwaveble meal!! I laughed out loud when I realized it. Hey it was only 5€, soo.. But they didn,t even get all the top wrap off the paper dish and didn,t even try putting it on a regular plate. Sheesh.. BUT that meant I was able to take the whole thing with me and go feed it to one fo the homeless cats (what was left of the meal)
After that expereince I went online to the TripAdvisor forums to get some restaurant recommendations.
So not I am sitting outside along the beach at a table, all kinds of peploe everywhere, scooters all lined up. Teens hanging out, kids yelling, it is great! Now if I just had that perfect Italian man, all would be as it should. *g* Anyway, I am having a great time, looking forward to snorkeling tomorrow, and also getting some sleep tonight. I am off to get the promised gelato, and then to bed.
I will try writing again tomorrow, much better then trying to remember it later. Ciao! Oh yeah, the name of the restaurant is Ciau, Ciau where I am sitting, forgot the name of the place I ate. UGH. Later!
Last minute prep
Well, here I am, 2:30 am, just trying to get everything packed and ready to go in the next 15 minutes when I have to wake Jess and Leo so the can drive me the one and a half hours to the Frankfurt Hahn airport.
I have my underwater camera, bathing suit, sarong, sun tan lotion, towel, sandals, my itinerary all printed out, though I forgot to go get euros out of the ATM, that will be no problem, there should be ATMs at the airport.
Now I have to quickly jam them all into mysuitcase and get the hell out of here! Talk to you in a few days!!!! Italy here I come!
I have my underwater camera, bathing suit, sarong, sun tan lotion, towel, sandals, my itinerary all printed out, though I forgot to go get euros out of the ATM, that will be no problem, there should be ATMs at the airport.
Now I have to quickly jam them all into mysuitcase and get the hell out of here! Talk to you in a few days!!!! Italy here I come!
Monday, June 26, 2006
late posts and friends lost
Sorry, I know that if I don't blog right away that I will end up not blogging at all, which is what happened with London.
Driving on the wrong side of the road was sadly dissapointing. Most of London has double lanes in each direction, or one way streets, so if you kept in the right lane it was just like driving at home. Plus I had a German rental, which meant that the steering wheel was on the side that I was used to. The only problem was taking left turns, where you had to be careful because you needed to stay inthe left lane. I wasn't too bad, and I am proud to have become a member of "I have driven on the wrong side of the road in England" club.
The first day we were there they had a heat wave.. (84) LOL BUT our room had no airconditioning, so we bought a fan just to be able to sweat out the night. VERY hot and stuff room, but a good price for London. BE PREPARED TO PAY ALMOST DOUBLE THE US DOLLAR. Truly horrible exchange rates, I was appalled at home much money we ended up spending. For some reason I came with the idea that for every British pound would would pay $1.50. Try closer to 1.9x!! Augh!
So we shopped and sweated away the first day. All I ended up with was a pair of Van's tennis shoes. LOL Jess got some good deals on light weight shirts for her new job at the Child Care Center on post. Other than that we got lots of exercise walking.
The second day we decided to scrub the walking and go on a bus tour. Smartest move we made while in London. It was a fleet of double deckers, top open (YES) and it made the rounds of all the main attractions in London, you buy a ticket for one day and could get on and off the buses whenever you pleased. We ended up just taking the entire round trip (sore legs)only getting off at Buckingham Palace ( a must!) and Harrods ( a dissapointment)but otherwise was a cool way to see the sights from up high. They had a tour guide on every busm so we got all the information you could ever want. We even got stopped near Parlament(sp) when out of the blue a motorcycle cop comes from another way, stops traffic in all four directions, and then a BUNCH of police, limos, ambulances, chimney sweeps(j/k), you name it came out of the building and drove away. Someone important obviously. So we at least drove by Big Ben and all the other thingys....
I was also dissapointed there were not fish and chips vendors on the street corners. LOL Obviously they don't sell them on corners in the little cons made out of newspaper anymore. NO! And the only way I even got to eat fish and chips was when we stopped in a pub near Buckingham Palace to eat lunch. But no cone, just a plate. They WERE good though.
The last day before starting home we decided to take a short road trip and drive out to Windor Palace. You are able to tour what the call the Royal Apartments. LOLOLOL. Yeah, of Kings from about 1,000 years ago. (I wanted to see the new apartments dang it. LOL. Yeah, but St George's Cathedral was amazing, and they actually ahd a guard out from behind fences, so you could pose with him. I told him that I apologized for everyone who gives him a hard time. (Had to do it, sorry) They are so YOUNG, they all look about 18, probably the only ones who can stand motionless for so long.
We also bought two St Christopher medallions, the patron saint of travelers. (snort) Yeah.. We put them on and headed back to drive down to Dover to catch the Ferry back to France and start the drive home.
I think we hit every traffic jam within 1,000 miles. We ended up missing the Ferry, though we were able to catch the next free of charge. Getting off on the France side we discovered that our GPS navigation system no longer worked.
This was the beginning of a FIFTEEN hour hellish drive through the entire country of France. We should have been home by 3 am LATESt, we got home at 10:30 the next morning, 2 hours before I had to work.. My daughter spent the entire night keeping me awake by telling me not to drive off the road. Oh my lord. (Needless to say, we immediately took of the St Christopher medallions and have not worn them since. LOL)
France seems to be the country of NO largehighway system. Once we got off track, we literally had to go through all sorts of odd roads through small towns, etc, even with a map.
I did however get to dredge up any of the French words most people have heard along the way, in order to talk to the people at the gas stations. I mean, we were in France no man's land, these people spoke NO English. I quickly dug up the words, merci, S'il vous plait , bon jour, oui, the whole bit. Everything else was communicated via shrugs, hand gestures, pointing to things and a LOT of dumbfounded looks on my part. I love how when people know that you don't know the language, they still ramble on, leaving you with a stunned look like "You REEALLY expected me to understand that??" LOL
But hey, just one more adventure under our belts.
I already have my next trip planned, BY MYSELF!
I am leaving Monday, July 3rd to go to the Italian island of Sardinia. Paradise I have been told. Aifare cost $75 round trip, though now I am adding another $50 to it, simply because I found out I can stay another day, and so I didn't get the one cent fare on the second way back. Hotel is $65 a day, 3day/nights on the beautiful island of Sardinia ran me $320 minus food, etc. Not bad! I may also take a ferry over to the mainland which would be Cinque Terra (sp) a place I have always wanted to go.
Anyway, I am pretty excited about this trip.
On a much sadder note, a man I worked with at the State of Minnesota was killed this past Friday in a truly horrible car/motorcycle accident. Unfortunately he was driving the motorcycle.
Karl Boese was his name, and I remember him always having a big smile, always willing to help out when I had problems.
He was only 42 and leaves behind his wife of only two weeks, and their unborn child.
I am not a religious person, but those of you who are, please say a prayer for him, his wife and children.
This was the news report on the accident: News video
Driving on the wrong side of the road was sadly dissapointing. Most of London has double lanes in each direction, or one way streets, so if you kept in the right lane it was just like driving at home. Plus I had a German rental, which meant that the steering wheel was on the side that I was used to. The only problem was taking left turns, where you had to be careful because you needed to stay inthe left lane. I wasn't too bad, and I am proud to have become a member of "I have driven on the wrong side of the road in England" club.
The first day we were there they had a heat wave.. (84) LOL BUT our room had no airconditioning, so we bought a fan just to be able to sweat out the night. VERY hot and stuff room, but a good price for London. BE PREPARED TO PAY ALMOST DOUBLE THE US DOLLAR. Truly horrible exchange rates, I was appalled at home much money we ended up spending. For some reason I came with the idea that for every British pound would would pay $1.50. Try closer to 1.9x!! Augh!
So we shopped and sweated away the first day. All I ended up with was a pair of Van's tennis shoes. LOL Jess got some good deals on light weight shirts for her new job at the Child Care Center on post. Other than that we got lots of exercise walking.
The second day we decided to scrub the walking and go on a bus tour. Smartest move we made while in London. It was a fleet of double deckers, top open (YES) and it made the rounds of all the main attractions in London, you buy a ticket for one day and could get on and off the buses whenever you pleased. We ended up just taking the entire round trip (sore legs)only getting off at Buckingham Palace ( a must!) and Harrods ( a dissapointment)but otherwise was a cool way to see the sights from up high. They had a tour guide on every busm so we got all the information you could ever want. We even got stopped near Parlament(sp) when out of the blue a motorcycle cop comes from another way, stops traffic in all four directions, and then a BUNCH of police, limos, ambulances, chimney sweeps(j/k), you name it came out of the building and drove away. Someone important obviously. So we at least drove by Big Ben and all the other thingys....
I was also dissapointed there were not fish and chips vendors on the street corners. LOL Obviously they don't sell them on corners in the little cons made out of newspaper anymore. NO! And the only way I even got to eat fish and chips was when we stopped in a pub near Buckingham Palace to eat lunch. But no cone, just a plate. They WERE good though.
The last day before starting home we decided to take a short road trip and drive out to Windor Palace. You are able to tour what the call the Royal Apartments. LOLOLOL. Yeah, of Kings from about 1,000 years ago. (I wanted to see the new apartments dang it. LOL. Yeah, but St George's Cathedral was amazing, and they actually ahd a guard out from behind fences, so you could pose with him. I told him that I apologized for everyone who gives him a hard time. (Had to do it, sorry) They are so YOUNG, they all look about 18, probably the only ones who can stand motionless for so long.
We also bought two St Christopher medallions, the patron saint of travelers. (snort) Yeah.. We put them on and headed back to drive down to Dover to catch the Ferry back to France and start the drive home.
I think we hit every traffic jam within 1,000 miles. We ended up missing the Ferry, though we were able to catch the next free of charge. Getting off on the France side we discovered that our GPS navigation system no longer worked.
This was the beginning of a FIFTEEN hour hellish drive through the entire country of France. We should have been home by 3 am LATESt, we got home at 10:30 the next morning, 2 hours before I had to work.. My daughter spent the entire night keeping me awake by telling me not to drive off the road. Oh my lord. (Needless to say, we immediately took of the St Christopher medallions and have not worn them since. LOL)
France seems to be the country of NO largehighway system. Once we got off track, we literally had to go through all sorts of odd roads through small towns, etc, even with a map.
I did however get to dredge up any of the French words most people have heard along the way, in order to talk to the people at the gas stations. I mean, we were in France no man's land, these people spoke NO English. I quickly dug up the words, merci, S'il vous plait , bon jour, oui, the whole bit. Everything else was communicated via shrugs, hand gestures, pointing to things and a LOT of dumbfounded looks on my part. I love how when people know that you don't know the language, they still ramble on, leaving you with a stunned look like "You REEALLY expected me to understand that??" LOL
But hey, just one more adventure under our belts.
I already have my next trip planned, BY MYSELF!
I am leaving Monday, July 3rd to go to the Italian island of Sardinia. Paradise I have been told. Aifare cost $75 round trip, though now I am adding another $50 to it, simply because I found out I can stay another day, and so I didn't get the one cent fare on the second way back. Hotel is $65 a day, 3day/nights on the beautiful island of Sardinia ran me $320 minus food, etc. Not bad! I may also take a ferry over to the mainland which would be Cinque Terra (sp) a place I have always wanted to go.
Anyway, I am pretty excited about this trip.
On a much sadder note, a man I worked with at the State of Minnesota was killed this past Friday in a truly horrible car/motorcycle accident. Unfortunately he was driving the motorcycle.
Karl Boese was his name, and I remember him always having a big smile, always willing to help out when I had problems.
He was only 42 and leaves behind his wife of only two weeks, and their unborn child.
I am not a religious person, but those of you who are, please say a prayer for him, his wife and children.
This was the news report on the accident: News video
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Holy Moly!
What a crazy last few days. We are heading back to Germany today, but stopped into an internet cafe to check mail, bank balance (gulp) and write a bit in the blog, before we head back across the pond to mainland Europe, Germany, and jobs. (sigh)
We headed out of Hanau about 10:30 Sunday night, drove though Germany, a bit of Belgium, very nearthe Amsterdam border ( I was sooooooo tempted to stop in *wink*) and then through a bit of France to the town of Calais, on the English channel. We got there about 4 I think, and ferry across did not leave until 6:30, so we queued(sp) up with the other drivers in a line to get on, then walked around a bit, hung out in the car, etc. Jess was really nervous about the whole boat thing. I told her not to be, because the English Channel is very shallow, not like a real ocean, etc.
The only thing I was worried about was if there would be enough movement to get seasick. I had only been out on a boat in the ocean twice before, once in the Florida Keys when we went snorkeling, and once whale watching in California. THAT trip I got really seasick.
Finally at about 6:15 everyone started driving onto this HUGE ship. I have pictures, but they will have to be posted after I get home. So they SQUEEZED this three lanes of cars onto the ship, I was the first on in the middle line,and he stopped us so there was NO room on my side to get out, and Jess' door could open between two cars. i thought this weird until I remembered we were driving a car with the steering on the wrong side for England, so usually the other side is where the driver got out. SOOOOO I got to crawl over the shift knob, with visions of knocking it out, the car jumping into gear and the whole first 12 cars dumping into the English Channel. (Hey, what can I say, I have an active imagination. LOL)
So all parked and out of the car, we followed the line of people upstairs. I wanted to go outside to take a look around, and we found the back deck and Jess sat down, begging me not to go near the rail, hang onto my camera, etc. LOL It was funny. I have a picture of her sort of hunched over in a seat, scared to death.
I LOVED it out there, we had picked the perfect time to cross over, the sun was just coming up, seagulls doing their thing and making there noise, you could see out into the Channel from the back of the boat. GOD!!! This is life! I am scared I will never be able to go back to a so called "normal" life ever, after all of this. (thank god)
Finally the boats engines started churning, right under us.. You could just feel the boat vibrating, and see the water behind churning. All the seagull and some tern like birds landed in the water behind. It looked like the boats engines were churning up the fish, so all the birds were hanging out getting an easy breakfast..
I just couldn't stop smiling. Here were were, on the edge of France, with our car on a ferry, waiting to sail across to England. AUUGHHH.. I could barely stand it..
So we back out of the port, then as the ferry started turning around, we headed in to check out the rest of the ship.
It was huge, four decks high, and huge restauarnt area, a coffee shop in the front with windows along the whole front. That was as close as you could get to being outside along the front. There was a duty free store, mostly liquer, a huge cosmetics store, along botht side were windows and nice plish seats to sit in, or sleep in. While we were up front with a couple of cups of coffee, there were several members of a sporting team, still in uniform with the coch snoring like crazy.LOL
The whole journey across the channel took about 75 minutes, and then you could start to see England! It looked like sandy dunes with green gross on had been scooped downword so as if someone had taked a spoon and scooped them. They were high,but looked more like sand from far away. As we got closer we saw a big castel, etc.
People started heading down to their cars so we also did. We docked, the front went down and we all started driving out. NOW I would get to see what driving on the wrong side of the road was going to be like!!
Well, not to be rude, but I have to get my car out of parking, and we need to head out. I will write more tongiht when we get home (hopefully) Hang in there, hope you all are well!!!
We headed out of Hanau about 10:30 Sunday night, drove though Germany, a bit of Belgium, very nearthe Amsterdam border ( I was sooooooo tempted to stop in *wink*) and then through a bit of France to the town of Calais, on the English channel. We got there about 4 I think, and ferry across did not leave until 6:30, so we queued(sp) up with the other drivers in a line to get on, then walked around a bit, hung out in the car, etc. Jess was really nervous about the whole boat thing. I told her not to be, because the English Channel is very shallow, not like a real ocean, etc.
The only thing I was worried about was if there would be enough movement to get seasick. I had only been out on a boat in the ocean twice before, once in the Florida Keys when we went snorkeling, and once whale watching in California. THAT trip I got really seasick.
Finally at about 6:15 everyone started driving onto this HUGE ship. I have pictures, but they will have to be posted after I get home. So they SQUEEZED this three lanes of cars onto the ship, I was the first on in the middle line,and he stopped us so there was NO room on my side to get out, and Jess' door could open between two cars. i thought this weird until I remembered we were driving a car with the steering on the wrong side for England, so usually the other side is where the driver got out. SOOOOO I got to crawl over the shift knob, with visions of knocking it out, the car jumping into gear and the whole first 12 cars dumping into the English Channel. (Hey, what can I say, I have an active imagination. LOL)
So all parked and out of the car, we followed the line of people upstairs. I wanted to go outside to take a look around, and we found the back deck and Jess sat down, begging me not to go near the rail, hang onto my camera, etc. LOL It was funny. I have a picture of her sort of hunched over in a seat, scared to death.
I LOVED it out there, we had picked the perfect time to cross over, the sun was just coming up, seagulls doing their thing and making there noise, you could see out into the Channel from the back of the boat. GOD!!! This is life! I am scared I will never be able to go back to a so called "normal" life ever, after all of this. (thank god)
Finally the boats engines started churning, right under us.. You could just feel the boat vibrating, and see the water behind churning. All the seagull and some tern like birds landed in the water behind. It looked like the boats engines were churning up the fish, so all the birds were hanging out getting an easy breakfast..
I just couldn't stop smiling. Here were were, on the edge of France, with our car on a ferry, waiting to sail across to England. AUUGHHH.. I could barely stand it..
So we back out of the port, then as the ferry started turning around, we headed in to check out the rest of the ship.
It was huge, four decks high, and huge restauarnt area, a coffee shop in the front with windows along the whole front. That was as close as you could get to being outside along the front. There was a duty free store, mostly liquer, a huge cosmetics store, along botht side were windows and nice plish seats to sit in, or sleep in. While we were up front with a couple of cups of coffee, there were several members of a sporting team, still in uniform with the coch snoring like crazy.LOL
The whole journey across the channel took about 75 minutes, and then you could start to see England! It looked like sandy dunes with green gross on had been scooped downword so as if someone had taked a spoon and scooped them. They were high,but looked more like sand from far away. As we got closer we saw a big castel, etc.
People started heading down to their cars so we also did. We docked, the front went down and we all started driving out. NOW I would get to see what driving on the wrong side of the road was going to be like!!
Well, not to be rude, but I have to get my car out of parking, and we need to head out. I will write more tongiht when we get home (hopefully) Hang in there, hope you all are well!!!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Off we go to England!
Sorry I haven't kept up. I've rented a 2006 Volkswagon Polo, we've booked a hotel, I have bought my gas coupons, my friend has lent me his satellite navigation system (WAY cool) and it it about 9:45 Sunday night, and we aree packing, planning to get out of here by 10:30 to start the drive. Will keep you informed!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Road trip!
But not your ordinary road trip... We aren't talking Duluth or South Dakota. We are talking London!
Just booked a car for this Sunday through Thursday, though we will be really going sunday night, coming back wed night.
Ryanair didn't have any good specials so soon, you usually need to book a couple of weeks in advance, so what I ended up doing is booking a little Volkswagon (do you know that volks means people in Germnan, so in effect it is called a people car.LOL) Polo (golf??) sized car.
We will drive through Germany, Belgium and a bit of France, park the car on the France side of the English Channel and then ride the ferry for the 1 1/2 hour trip.
Driving will be about 5 1/2 hours, then 2 hours to get to England. WOO-HOO!
That is all I have planned out so far. LOL Will keep this updated daily with more info as I book the hotel, etc.
Car rental is only $214, but I plan to add insurance and probably theft since it will be parked in France a couple of days, so I am guessing about $300. Gas, should only take me less than two tanks according to a friend who has driven to England, so I can get gas coupons from on post to get gas at the US price, not the $4-5 it is on the economy.
YES!!!!!! England!
OK, have to go sling some tacos now. Later!
Just booked a car for this Sunday through Thursday, though we will be really going sunday night, coming back wed night.
Ryanair didn't have any good specials so soon, you usually need to book a couple of weeks in advance, so what I ended up doing is booking a little Volkswagon (do you know that volks means people in Germnan, so in effect it is called a people car.LOL) Polo (golf??) sized car.
We will drive through Germany, Belgium and a bit of France, park the car on the France side of the English Channel and then ride the ferry for the 1 1/2 hour trip.
Driving will be about 5 1/2 hours, then 2 hours to get to England. WOO-HOO!
That is all I have planned out so far. LOL Will keep this updated daily with more info as I book the hotel, etc.
Car rental is only $214, but I plan to add insurance and probably theft since it will be parked in France a couple of days, so I am guessing about $300. Gas, should only take me less than two tanks according to a friend who has driven to England, so I can get gas coupons from on post to get gas at the US price, not the $4-5 it is on the economy.
YES!!!!!! England!
OK, have to go sling some tacos now. Later!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Landstul Medical
Kind of an interesting day today, I drove Jess' boyfriend Leo down to Landstuhl. It's about a 1 1/2 hour drivethere, and Leo didn't think his car would make it.
What is interesting about Landstuhl is that is where they take those injured in the Middle East, etc. So any of the people who have been held hostage inIraq, etc have been flow to this facility.
Here is some information from its web page:
In 1938 the Hitler Jugend Schule (Hitler Youth School) was constructed. Several buildings on the Landstuhl U.S. Military post still standing were part of the school.
Throughout the Cold War, the 2nd General Hospital continued to expand its structure and modernize its equipment, thus improving its capabilities. The hospital was a staple in the European Theater, providing healthcare during several high-profile incidents. Some of these included treating U.S. Marines injured during the aborted 1980 rescue attempt of American hostages in Iran and those injured in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Soldiers were also treated at the hospital after being injured in the 1986 LaBelle Disco bombing in Berlin, and in 1988, the hospital treated 500 casualties of the now-famous Ramstein Air Show Disaster.
In 1994, the 2nd General Hospital was deactivated and the center was renamed the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The hospital also received 274 permanent Air Force staff positions. LRMC serves as the primary medical treatment center for casualties of U.S. operations within Europe, Southwest Asia and the Middle East. During Operations Desert Shield and Storm, the hospital served as a repatriation point for more than 4,000 American casualties and more than 800 U.S. Military personnel deployed to Somalia were evacuated and treated here. In addition, the hospital was the treatment point for hundreds of Bosnian refugees injured in the 1994 Sarajevo marketplace bombing. LRMC is a major fixed medical facility assisting in the Balkan operations (Operations Joint Endeavor, Guard, and more currently, now Joint Forge). The hospital treated American and Kenyan victims of the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi in August 1998 and played an integral part of the three American POWs repatriation. LRMC Personnel treated the sailors injured in the USS Cole bombing. Today, LRMC provides medical treatment to casualties injured during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Other than that, noting much going on. Still applying to other jobs, etc...
Later!
What is interesting about Landstuhl is that is where they take those injured in the Middle East, etc. So any of the people who have been held hostage inIraq, etc have been flow to this facility.
Here is some information from its web page:
In 1938 the Hitler Jugend Schule (Hitler Youth School) was constructed. Several buildings on the Landstuhl U.S. Military post still standing were part of the school.
Throughout the Cold War, the 2nd General Hospital continued to expand its structure and modernize its equipment, thus improving its capabilities. The hospital was a staple in the European Theater, providing healthcare during several high-profile incidents. Some of these included treating U.S. Marines injured during the aborted 1980 rescue attempt of American hostages in Iran and those injured in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Soldiers were also treated at the hospital after being injured in the 1986 LaBelle Disco bombing in Berlin, and in 1988, the hospital treated 500 casualties of the now-famous Ramstein Air Show Disaster.
In 1994, the 2nd General Hospital was deactivated and the center was renamed the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. The hospital also received 274 permanent Air Force staff positions. LRMC serves as the primary medical treatment center for casualties of U.S. operations within Europe, Southwest Asia and the Middle East. During Operations Desert Shield and Storm, the hospital served as a repatriation point for more than 4,000 American casualties and more than 800 U.S. Military personnel deployed to Somalia were evacuated and treated here. In addition, the hospital was the treatment point for hundreds of Bosnian refugees injured in the 1994 Sarajevo marketplace bombing. LRMC is a major fixed medical facility assisting in the Balkan operations (Operations Joint Endeavor, Guard, and more currently, now Joint Forge). The hospital treated American and Kenyan victims of the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi in August 1998 and played an integral part of the three American POWs repatriation. LRMC Personnel treated the sailors injured in the USS Cole bombing. Today, LRMC provides medical treatment to casualties injured during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Other than that, noting much going on. Still applying to other jobs, etc...
Later!
Friday, May 19, 2006
Zoo pics
OK, I know I have been lagging, but it has still been really boring here. I am almost out of debt, so hopefully in another month I can start to take a few trips. LOL Then again, you never know what is going to happen, do you?
A week or so ago Jess and I actually had the same day off work, so we took a trip to the Opal (Opel??) zoo north of Frankfurt.
This zoo is amazing, not only because of how it is laid out, but because you can feed the animals. I don't mean just the goats, but the monkeys, elephants, even the artic dogs! They sell both pellets and fresh carrots. Obviously people here are smart enough to NOT give them popcorn and junk like they try to do in the states.
Jess even has a baby monkey reach out and grab onto her finger and hold it... This place was great!
I will get right to the good stuff and post a link to the pictures.
Click here
Anyway, not much else new. Still slinging tacos, applying for more army jobs, some even in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, short term jobs to make some money.
Our friend Cari will be passing through Frankfurt on the 30th, on her way to Rwanda with a group. She has a layover of something like 13 hours, so yeah! We will at least be able to meet and and do some catch-up!
Sorry this is another short blog. Later!
A week or so ago Jess and I actually had the same day off work, so we took a trip to the Opal (Opel??) zoo north of Frankfurt.
This zoo is amazing, not only because of how it is laid out, but because you can feed the animals. I don't mean just the goats, but the monkeys, elephants, even the artic dogs! They sell both pellets and fresh carrots. Obviously people here are smart enough to NOT give them popcorn and junk like they try to do in the states.
Jess even has a baby monkey reach out and grab onto her finger and hold it... This place was great!
I will get right to the good stuff and post a link to the pictures.
Click here
Anyway, not much else new. Still slinging tacos, applying for more army jobs, some even in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, short term jobs to make some money.
Our friend Cari will be passing through Frankfurt on the 30th, on her way to Rwanda with a group. She has a layover of something like 13 hours, so yeah! We will at least be able to meet and and do some catch-up!
Sorry this is another short blog. Later!
Friday, May 12, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Help for son
Hi there. The time has come for me to get rid of my Honda Civic. I can't make the payments any longer, and Nick, being 19, cannot afford both payments and insurance, so I am asking for you help.
Does anyone out there in MN know of a decently priced car? I mean a beater car, it doesn't have to be pretty, but needs to be reliable so that he can get back and forth to work. I can't pay a lot, I mean VERY little, (under $1,000) but could really use your help... Thanks so much......
Anyone that has any information can contact me at helpfindcar@hotmail.com. (is a valid email, I set it up just for this).
Not much else going on this week. Just working.. I have today and tomorrow off, and now that I have internet at home, was able to catch Nick online and IM with him for about an hour. YES!!!!!!! Still trying to get home to come to Germany, trying to lure him with free rent, home cooking, an inexpensive car, a PT job paying about $9 an hour...... no go, he still gets really mad, saying he will never move here.. *sigh*
Anyway, am working like crazy trying to clean house, catch up on email, update bookmarks, etc........ Am possibly going back up to Amsterdam in a few weeks, maybe with a tour from post to see the Keukenhof(??) gardens........
Will write more in a day or two......
Does anyone out there in MN know of a decently priced car? I mean a beater car, it doesn't have to be pretty, but needs to be reliable so that he can get back and forth to work. I can't pay a lot, I mean VERY little, (under $1,000) but could really use your help... Thanks so much......
Anyone that has any information can contact me at helpfindcar@hotmail.com. (is a valid email, I set it up just for this).
Not much else going on this week. Just working.. I have today and tomorrow off, and now that I have internet at home, was able to catch Nick online and IM with him for about an hour. YES!!!!!!! Still trying to get home to come to Germany, trying to lure him with free rent, home cooking, an inexpensive car, a PT job paying about $9 an hour...... no go, he still gets really mad, saying he will never move here.. *sigh*
Anyway, am working like crazy trying to clean house, catch up on email, update bookmarks, etc........ Am possibly going back up to Amsterdam in a few weeks, maybe with a tour from post to see the Keukenhof(??) gardens........
Will write more in a day or two......
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Amsterdam!
All pictures at the end of the blog
Yeah! First road trip since we have been here. AMSTERDAM! My poor daughter will never be the same. LOL
We took the car up, had no problems with it all all, except having to use about 40 euros in parking meters. What a waste! We were also able to buy gas along the way at American prices, not the $5 it is a gallon (4 liters) here... Because we work on the army post, we can buy gas coupons to use outside the post, for the same price we would payon post... Pretty nice!! We used porbably less that $60 in gas, thinking more along the lines of $50.. Not bad!
There was really no border to speak of going into the Netherlands, though we took a couple of pictures in front of the sign, coming back into Germany there was not even a sign!
Our plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank's house, and to the Keukenhof gardens (link : Keukenhof) south of Amsterdam, hopefully seeing some tulip fields and old fashioned windmills on the way down, then MAYBE head through to Belgium on the way back to Germany, but most of that went down the tubes... or should I say "up in smoke" LOL
We got into Amsterdam with no problem, but it took up about an hour to find the hotel, which was located about 3 minutes from the Van Gogh museum.. The hotel was a privately owned place with only 8 rooms I think. To get in, you came though a door on street level and walked about, no lie, about 80 or 90 stairs! These were not flights, bought one solid libe ofnarrow, VERY steep stairs. Thank god our apartment is on the fourth floor and we have no elevator, I am used to stairs, and made it up these without even being short of breath!
I took a couple pictures of our room, it made me think of what a room in a French hotel would be like. It had a 12 or 15 foot high ceiling, and windows that ran from floor to ceiling, very nice. The only problem I had was that there were no towels! When we first arrived we just wanted to got check out the town, so I said nothing (also figuring I might have to pay for them!!!) And later I was too stoned to worry about it. Lastly we slept until about 5 minutes before checkout time, so I had no chance to even shower. LOL
It was about 6 pm before we got settled in the hotel and found that the pay parking i knew about would either take a geldacard (bank card from a German bank, which we didn't have) or coins. 20 euro worth! Let's just say getting change was NOT the easiest thing to do, and we ended up feeding the machine about 6 times throught the night.
We decided to go see the Van Gogh museum first, it was too late to do that and see Anne Frank's house, and since the museum was right there we picked the museum.
I really enjoyed it, but I know Jess was pretty bored. It cost 10 euro (each) to get in, but I was in awe of the works displayed. Unfortuately Starry Night is not on diplay there, but "Sunflowers" was on display as well as the self portraits, etc, so I was pretty thrilled. It was sort of like when I saw Abe Lincoln's stovepipe hat that was on display when the travelling Smithsonean(was that the museum??) came into Mpls a few years ago. Pretty cool.
After leaving the museum we started walking around, trying to get an idea were everything was...mainly the red light district and the famous "coffee" bars that sold pot. It was cold and windy, raining, and by this time were are getting hungry and grumpy. We stooped at a Pancake house and I had a regualr pancake for 3 euro, and Jess had one with bacon and egg on it.. These pancakes were thinner, more like a panakkukken(sp?) really, but the size of.... probably about the size of a large pizza! GOOD stuff.
So far we are NOT too impressed with Amsterdam, and to tell you the truth, it was not what either of us exp[ected, but it did get better later, and I admit, we were there on the offseason. People we talked to later said that in the summer you can even move down the street in the red light district, it is so crowded, so I am glad our first trip was now. First trip meaning I am definitely going back!!
We finally took the car and went hunting for the famout red light district.
Oh yes, everyone we ran into at the business in Amsterdam spoke great English, but I have to tell you, driving up there, listening to the radio... I mean German you can sort of pick out the words sometimes, but Dutch!!! AAUUGHGHH... I thought German was gutteral, I don't know how they manage to get some of the sounds OUT!.... And nothing sounds even remotely like a language you could ever understand. Very weird!
Anyway, it is dusk now, not dark yet, but we figure that we can just drive around until we find a block where there are red lights everywhere. Makes sense, right"??? Well, one more expectation brought down.. We had such a hard time finding the dang place, and at last when we got there, red lights seemed to be few and far between. Itw as SUCH a dissapointment.. But then again, we figured maybe things got a lot wilder much later in the night. We didn't last that long.. the night before we drove up, neither of us went to sleep at all, and for the last two evenings before, I was up until 3 and 5 am respectivelly, so we were tired...
So we drive and we drive , though tiny little roads and big roads, across litle bridges that span one of the canals (made me think of what Venice looks like) and FINALLy come across and area that looks promising.. not seedy, just a couple of sex shops..
WARNING, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT AND SMOKING POT, SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT SET OF BOLDED LETTERS (my disclaimer notice)
We decide to park the car (more money) and get out to take a look around...
BINGO, within a block or two down we hit the red light district. There is no road persay to drive down, it is an all pedestrian area...
We start walking down it one way.....A few of the windows are open, YOUNG girls still in clothing at that time, staring out the windows and doing their little suggestive dances... Kind of funny in a way, sort of sad, but these were not the nasty looking women you see in porn films (NOT that I have ever watched one mom!!) but young really attractive women.. ....But still there really isn't much going on. We continue walking, and look down into a window and see a group of people who look like they are having a MEETING, regular people. with a nun heading it.. Liek a bible study group! We decide that these people will be doing some sort of sordid sex show there later. LOLOLOL...
There is one huge place there, which was the only place aglow in red neon, it was a live sex show place...... Now maybe some of you (and you KNOW who you are) will be dissapointed that we did not go in there and then report back to you, but believe me, it was weird enough going to the red light district with my DAUGHTER, no way would I ever do anything like that with her along. UGH..
This is the honest to god truth, we are standing at a corner, trying to figure out what to do when we are suddenly surrounded by a large group of asians... What the??? Jess suddenly starts laughs and shows me a man at the head of the group, who is holding up an unbrella like our tour guide in Italy did!! They were actually running TOUR groups through the place, all of them oriental...... That was pretty bizarre!
Now some of you may judge me at the point, most I am sure won't care, but i thank god comments are off now, because we then decided to stop into one of the coffee bars and smoke some pot.
Jess had only smoked once before, actually just a week or so ago, and had not even gotten stoned.. That can happen the first time you smoke, so she wasn't really sure what she was getting into. Me on the other hand.... well that is all I have to say about that.. *g*
I had read online about the coffee bars where they have actual menus of different types of pot and their prices... Now I thought everyone knew it was legal to smoke pot in Amsterdam, but obviously my mother didn't know, because when I spoke to her this afternoon after we got home and told her about it, she was NOT happy I smoked with my daughter, etc... and then she asked me when I was going to grow up??? LOLOL I told her I had been grown up for the last 23 years, and now I had come here to NOT be grown up.
Anyway, we go into the bar, and up to the counter, tell the man it's our first time in Amsterdam, and asked what he could suggest. He showed us the menu with all kinds of diiferent typpes.....and jess picked out a little bag for 15 euro, I decided to go for a single joint. He asked if I wanted it pure or cut with tobacco. i decided to try with tobacco, because I had no idea how strong this stuff was....
I also bought a space cake (this was pound cake with THC or pot in it) and we got two waters and sat down.... Jess had bought a little pipe, but I think smoking from a pipe is too harsh, and so did she once she lit it up.
My prerolled joint was kind of weird to get used to. It had like a mouthpeice on it, which made you want to hold it like a regular cigarrette, which is truly dumb, but you couldn't really squeeze the end to inhale it, so... anyway, I wasn't too impressed with my choice of pot, and after we had been there a half hour, I was a bit fuzzy, but nothing great. we decided to buy one more joint, not cut with tobaccao, and walk around outside and smoke.
Where the first joint had cost 4 euro, this one was 7.50....... We went down the street to a place that sold all sorts of candies, cookies etc made from pot or hashish, and they even had mushrooms! i couldn't believe that.. They also had muchroom tea, etc... Maybe another time.. LOL But, jsut bought a couple of "Bob Marley suckers" and we sucked on those while we went back to the red light district...
OK, second joint was a winner, poor Jess was NOT liking being stoned, and liking even less that fact that I was having a hell of a time!! ( I am her mother you know, how embarrassing)
After driving her crazy for a while, and going back to put MORE money into parking, we decided to go back to the first coffee bar and sit for a while....
At that point the laughing part of being stoned hit me.... Oh.... my.... god...... First Jess was appalled, then she was laughing as hard as I was at things like me saying " I can't look over at the rest of the people here, they know I'm stoned... Oh wait, this is a place where people GET stoned, and they are all probably as stoned as WE are!!" This statement was followed by hysterical laughter by both of us,....... The problem is, Jess came down WAAAAY before I even started to, she had barely smoked any of the second joint... so after a while she was just going.... Oh my god, I don't think I can handle this... being stoned with my mother... this is freaking me out.... which of course put me right back into hysterics.........
FINALLY I tried to compose myself so we could drive back to the hotel.. We had a parking place next to and parrallel to the canal.... Now I had a hard time not getting nervous getting out of the car when I was straight.. but stoned.... EEWW... I am not sure why Jess let me drive, but after I got in, started the car, and inched forward a foot or so... I panicked and said oh my god, I will accidently drive this car into the canal... I CAN'T DRIVE!!!! I was so scared that I was going to get out of the car and fall into the canal just going around to the other side, I had to climb across the front seat while Jess got in the driver's side.
Now anyone who has done drugs at all KNOWS that even though you ask someone if they are still high and they say no..... don't believe them... So when I asked Jess and she said no she was fine... I didn't beleive her. At that point I started panicking about HER driving us into the canal, at which poiunt SHE started panicking about driving us into the canal. LOLOL
I waould have been very happy to just sit in the car a few hours... but she decided to start driving.
Now she swears she was still not stoned, but I tell you, it took us over an hour to get back to the hotel. Not that I think we were lost because she was still high, but that she just got lost, and was the worst FUCKING driver I had ever seen. I swear we went over curbs, she would change lanes in front of people.. I was just waiting for the police to zoom in and take us to stoners' jail.... Then again, I may have just been really stoned.. LOL
Anyway, by the end of the hour we drove, i was now down enough to help decipher the map of Amsterdam we had, and she finally found the way back to to hotel....
At which point we plugged MORE moeny into parking. Jess now decides she is hungry, and it is like 11:30 at night.. We wonder down the street..(ok, I am stilled stoned, just not stoned silly anymore) looking for food... Everything was either closing in 5 minutes, closed, or had expensive food or nothing we liked. We wandered back and forth between three blocks I kid you not, 3-4 times and finally went into the last restaurant open. It was way too expensive and by this time we are pretty broke, so i do the old "We are going to keep it light tonight" to the waiter and we ordered two appetizers(sp), a dessert and a big bottle of water. (I love Europe and the big bottles of water you order at restaurants.)
The food was good, a shrimp spring roll, some penne pasta and a dessert that was apple slices,with a few walnuts, covered with a sort of thin custard sauce, and had ice cream... unfortunately there was no vanilla in the sauce, and an abundance of rum, YUCK...We were so hungry we didn't really care.
We walked back tothe hotel. Jess was pretty down (depressed) now, it wasn't as she expected and she would never get stoned again (i can hear my mom saying "GOOD" out loud as she reads this) and she wanted to go home, drive back down to Hanau right now, 12:30 in the morning.. Well, I would have almost said ok, except I hadn't really slept in like 4 days, and just needed sleep. PLUS I wanted to keep the option open to go to the Gardens the next day, with the possibilty of going through Belgium on the way home to check out the chocolate. (only one extra hour driving to do this) Ann Frank's house has gone the way of the wind (or smoke) a long time ago.. I convinced her to stay there and get some sleep, also reminding her that they bring breakfast right to our room in the morning helped her. LOL
So we went back to the hotel and were asleep in like 5 minutes flat.
I woke up inthe morning long enough to let them bring in breakfast, then went back to bed until 20 minutes before we had to check out.
We got dressed, though our stuff back into our backpacks, scarfed breakfast and headed back down to Hanau.
Breakfast was a typical European one..... toast, jam, a couple of boiled eggs, coffe, tea, some extra bread and a couple of slices of both meat and cheese. You can eat all, or a normal way of doing it is to makes sandwiches of the meat and cheese and take them with you for lunch... Which is what we did, though we eat them in the car about 10 minutes later. LOL
Going home was fast! Anyway, I have to get back there by early May to see the gardens in all their glory, and to go see the Ann Frank House. Ok, I am tired now, going to upload the pictures and go to bed!!
PICTURES
Me by the Netherlands sign
And then Jess!
Although this is not MY car, it is the same make, model, year and color, so you can see what we are driving on our trips across Europe.LOL
Old style windmills
New style windmill!!
Amsterdam
One of the canals running through town.
Our hotel room
MOM, DO NOT LOOK AT THE NEXT PICTURE!! (I love you)
Jessica
Yeah! First road trip since we have been here. AMSTERDAM! My poor daughter will never be the same. LOL
We took the car up, had no problems with it all all, except having to use about 40 euros in parking meters. What a waste! We were also able to buy gas along the way at American prices, not the $5 it is a gallon (4 liters) here... Because we work on the army post, we can buy gas coupons to use outside the post, for the same price we would payon post... Pretty nice!! We used porbably less that $60 in gas, thinking more along the lines of $50.. Not bad!
There was really no border to speak of going into the Netherlands, though we took a couple of pictures in front of the sign, coming back into Germany there was not even a sign!
Our plan was to go to the Van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank's house, and to the Keukenhof gardens (link : Keukenhof) south of Amsterdam, hopefully seeing some tulip fields and old fashioned windmills on the way down, then MAYBE head through to Belgium on the way back to Germany, but most of that went down the tubes... or should I say "up in smoke" LOL
We got into Amsterdam with no problem, but it took up about an hour to find the hotel, which was located about 3 minutes from the Van Gogh museum.. The hotel was a privately owned place with only 8 rooms I think. To get in, you came though a door on street level and walked about, no lie, about 80 or 90 stairs! These were not flights, bought one solid libe ofnarrow, VERY steep stairs. Thank god our apartment is on the fourth floor and we have no elevator, I am used to stairs, and made it up these without even being short of breath!
I took a couple pictures of our room, it made me think of what a room in a French hotel would be like. It had a 12 or 15 foot high ceiling, and windows that ran from floor to ceiling, very nice. The only problem I had was that there were no towels! When we first arrived we just wanted to got check out the town, so I said nothing (also figuring I might have to pay for them!!!) And later I was too stoned to worry about it. Lastly we slept until about 5 minutes before checkout time, so I had no chance to even shower. LOL
It was about 6 pm before we got settled in the hotel and found that the pay parking i knew about would either take a geldacard (bank card from a German bank, which we didn't have) or coins. 20 euro worth! Let's just say getting change was NOT the easiest thing to do, and we ended up feeding the machine about 6 times throught the night.
We decided to go see the Van Gogh museum first, it was too late to do that and see Anne Frank's house, and since the museum was right there we picked the museum.
I really enjoyed it, but I know Jess was pretty bored. It cost 10 euro (each) to get in, but I was in awe of the works displayed. Unfortuately Starry Night is not on diplay there, but "Sunflowers" was on display as well as the self portraits, etc, so I was pretty thrilled. It was sort of like when I saw Abe Lincoln's stovepipe hat that was on display when the travelling Smithsonean(was that the museum??) came into Mpls a few years ago. Pretty cool.
After leaving the museum we started walking around, trying to get an idea were everything was...mainly the red light district and the famous "coffee" bars that sold pot. It was cold and windy, raining, and by this time were are getting hungry and grumpy. We stooped at a Pancake house and I had a regualr pancake for 3 euro, and Jess had one with bacon and egg on it.. These pancakes were thinner, more like a panakkukken(sp?) really, but the size of.... probably about the size of a large pizza! GOOD stuff.
So far we are NOT too impressed with Amsterdam, and to tell you the truth, it was not what either of us exp[ected, but it did get better later, and I admit, we were there on the offseason. People we talked to later said that in the summer you can even move down the street in the red light district, it is so crowded, so I am glad our first trip was now. First trip meaning I am definitely going back!!
We finally took the car and went hunting for the famout red light district.
Oh yes, everyone we ran into at the business in Amsterdam spoke great English, but I have to tell you, driving up there, listening to the radio... I mean German you can sort of pick out the words sometimes, but Dutch!!! AAUUGHGHH... I thought German was gutteral, I don't know how they manage to get some of the sounds OUT!.... And nothing sounds even remotely like a language you could ever understand. Very weird!
Anyway, it is dusk now, not dark yet, but we figure that we can just drive around until we find a block where there are red lights everywhere. Makes sense, right"??? Well, one more expectation brought down.. We had such a hard time finding the dang place, and at last when we got there, red lights seemed to be few and far between. Itw as SUCH a dissapointment.. But then again, we figured maybe things got a lot wilder much later in the night. We didn't last that long.. the night before we drove up, neither of us went to sleep at all, and for the last two evenings before, I was up until 3 and 5 am respectivelly, so we were tired...
So we drive and we drive , though tiny little roads and big roads, across litle bridges that span one of the canals (made me think of what Venice looks like) and FINALLy come across and area that looks promising.. not seedy, just a couple of sex shops..
WARNING, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT AND SMOKING POT, SKIP DOWN TO THE NEXT SET OF BOLDED LETTERS (my disclaimer notice)
We decide to park the car (more money) and get out to take a look around...
BINGO, within a block or two down we hit the red light district. There is no road persay to drive down, it is an all pedestrian area...
We start walking down it one way.....A few of the windows are open, YOUNG girls still in clothing at that time, staring out the windows and doing their little suggestive dances... Kind of funny in a way, sort of sad, but these were not the nasty looking women you see in porn films (NOT that I have ever watched one mom!!) but young really attractive women.. ....But still there really isn't much going on. We continue walking, and look down into a window and see a group of people who look like they are having a MEETING, regular people. with a nun heading it.. Liek a bible study group! We decide that these people will be doing some sort of sordid sex show there later. LOLOLOL...
There is one huge place there, which was the only place aglow in red neon, it was a live sex show place...... Now maybe some of you (and you KNOW who you are) will be dissapointed that we did not go in there and then report back to you, but believe me, it was weird enough going to the red light district with my DAUGHTER, no way would I ever do anything like that with her along. UGH..
This is the honest to god truth, we are standing at a corner, trying to figure out what to do when we are suddenly surrounded by a large group of asians... What the??? Jess suddenly starts laughs and shows me a man at the head of the group, who is holding up an unbrella like our tour guide in Italy did!! They were actually running TOUR groups through the place, all of them oriental...... That was pretty bizarre!
Now some of you may judge me at the point, most I am sure won't care, but i thank god comments are off now, because we then decided to stop into one of the coffee bars and smoke some pot.
Jess had only smoked once before, actually just a week or so ago, and had not even gotten stoned.. That can happen the first time you smoke, so she wasn't really sure what she was getting into. Me on the other hand.... well that is all I have to say about that.. *g*
I had read online about the coffee bars where they have actual menus of different types of pot and their prices... Now I thought everyone knew it was legal to smoke pot in Amsterdam, but obviously my mother didn't know, because when I spoke to her this afternoon after we got home and told her about it, she was NOT happy I smoked with my daughter, etc... and then she asked me when I was going to grow up??? LOLOL I told her I had been grown up for the last 23 years, and now I had come here to NOT be grown up.
Anyway, we go into the bar, and up to the counter, tell the man it's our first time in Amsterdam, and asked what he could suggest. He showed us the menu with all kinds of diiferent typpes.....and jess picked out a little bag for 15 euro, I decided to go for a single joint. He asked if I wanted it pure or cut with tobacco. i decided to try with tobacco, because I had no idea how strong this stuff was....
I also bought a space cake (this was pound cake with THC or pot in it) and we got two waters and sat down.... Jess had bought a little pipe, but I think smoking from a pipe is too harsh, and so did she once she lit it up.
My prerolled joint was kind of weird to get used to. It had like a mouthpeice on it, which made you want to hold it like a regular cigarrette, which is truly dumb, but you couldn't really squeeze the end to inhale it, so... anyway, I wasn't too impressed with my choice of pot, and after we had been there a half hour, I was a bit fuzzy, but nothing great. we decided to buy one more joint, not cut with tobaccao, and walk around outside and smoke.
Where the first joint had cost 4 euro, this one was 7.50....... We went down the street to a place that sold all sorts of candies, cookies etc made from pot or hashish, and they even had mushrooms! i couldn't believe that.. They also had muchroom tea, etc... Maybe another time.. LOL But, jsut bought a couple of "Bob Marley suckers" and we sucked on those while we went back to the red light district...
OK, second joint was a winner, poor Jess was NOT liking being stoned, and liking even less that fact that I was having a hell of a time!! ( I am her mother you know, how embarrassing)
After driving her crazy for a while, and going back to put MORE money into parking, we decided to go back to the first coffee bar and sit for a while....
At that point the laughing part of being stoned hit me.... Oh.... my.... god...... First Jess was appalled, then she was laughing as hard as I was at things like me saying " I can't look over at the rest of the people here, they know I'm stoned... Oh wait, this is a place where people GET stoned, and they are all probably as stoned as WE are!!" This statement was followed by hysterical laughter by both of us,....... The problem is, Jess came down WAAAAY before I even started to, she had barely smoked any of the second joint... so after a while she was just going.... Oh my god, I don't think I can handle this... being stoned with my mother... this is freaking me out.... which of course put me right back into hysterics.........
FINALLY I tried to compose myself so we could drive back to the hotel.. We had a parking place next to and parrallel to the canal.... Now I had a hard time not getting nervous getting out of the car when I was straight.. but stoned.... EEWW... I am not sure why Jess let me drive, but after I got in, started the car, and inched forward a foot or so... I panicked and said oh my god, I will accidently drive this car into the canal... I CAN'T DRIVE!!!! I was so scared that I was going to get out of the car and fall into the canal just going around to the other side, I had to climb across the front seat while Jess got in the driver's side.
Now anyone who has done drugs at all KNOWS that even though you ask someone if they are still high and they say no..... don't believe them... So when I asked Jess and she said no she was fine... I didn't beleive her. At that point I started panicking about HER driving us into the canal, at which poiunt SHE started panicking about driving us into the canal. LOLOL
I waould have been very happy to just sit in the car a few hours... but she decided to start driving.
Now she swears she was still not stoned, but I tell you, it took us over an hour to get back to the hotel. Not that I think we were lost because she was still high, but that she just got lost, and was the worst FUCKING driver I had ever seen. I swear we went over curbs, she would change lanes in front of people.. I was just waiting for the police to zoom in and take us to stoners' jail.... Then again, I may have just been really stoned.. LOL
Anyway, by the end of the hour we drove, i was now down enough to help decipher the map of Amsterdam we had, and she finally found the way back to to hotel....
At which point we plugged MORE moeny into parking. Jess now decides she is hungry, and it is like 11:30 at night.. We wonder down the street..(ok, I am stilled stoned, just not stoned silly anymore) looking for food... Everything was either closing in 5 minutes, closed, or had expensive food or nothing we liked. We wandered back and forth between three blocks I kid you not, 3-4 times and finally went into the last restaurant open. It was way too expensive and by this time we are pretty broke, so i do the old "We are going to keep it light tonight" to the waiter and we ordered two appetizers(sp), a dessert and a big bottle of water. (I love Europe and the big bottles of water you order at restaurants.)
The food was good, a shrimp spring roll, some penne pasta and a dessert that was apple slices,with a few walnuts, covered with a sort of thin custard sauce, and had ice cream... unfortunately there was no vanilla in the sauce, and an abundance of rum, YUCK...We were so hungry we didn't really care.
We walked back tothe hotel. Jess was pretty down (depressed) now, it wasn't as she expected and she would never get stoned again (i can hear my mom saying "GOOD" out loud as she reads this) and she wanted to go home, drive back down to Hanau right now, 12:30 in the morning.. Well, I would have almost said ok, except I hadn't really slept in like 4 days, and just needed sleep. PLUS I wanted to keep the option open to go to the Gardens the next day, with the possibilty of going through Belgium on the way home to check out the chocolate. (only one extra hour driving to do this) Ann Frank's house has gone the way of the wind (or smoke) a long time ago.. I convinced her to stay there and get some sleep, also reminding her that they bring breakfast right to our room in the morning helped her. LOL
So we went back to the hotel and were asleep in like 5 minutes flat.
I woke up inthe morning long enough to let them bring in breakfast, then went back to bed until 20 minutes before we had to check out.
We got dressed, though our stuff back into our backpacks, scarfed breakfast and headed back down to Hanau.
Breakfast was a typical European one..... toast, jam, a couple of boiled eggs, coffe, tea, some extra bread and a couple of slices of both meat and cheese. You can eat all, or a normal way of doing it is to makes sandwiches of the meat and cheese and take them with you for lunch... Which is what we did, though we eat them in the car about 10 minutes later. LOL
Going home was fast! Anyway, I have to get back there by early May to see the gardens in all their glory, and to go see the Ann Frank House. Ok, I am tired now, going to upload the pictures and go to bed!!
PICTURES
Me by the Netherlands sign
And then Jess!
Although this is not MY car, it is the same make, model, year and color, so you can see what we are driving on our trips across Europe.LOL
Old style windmills
New style windmill!!
Amsterdam
One of the canals running through town.
Our hotel roomMOM, DO NOT LOOK AT THE NEXT PICTURE!! (I love you)
Jessica
Thursday, March 30, 2006
damn computers
LOL We are online, but only on Jess' computer. Mine doesn't have XP, so am having problems. Then bought a wireless router yesterday and blew out the power adapter using it on German electricity. GRRRRRRRRR... have to bring that back and also going to thrift store to look for hub and or cheaper router. i don't even care about wireless anymore, just want MY computer online.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
internet
We now have broadband internet at home!!!!!!!! Yessir.....
I will now be online with Aim or Yahoo or MSN Messenger at times where you are either sleeping or in the evenings after you work. LOL
Off to work..........
I will now be online with Aim or Yahoo or MSN Messenger at times where you are either sleeping or in the evenings after you work. LOL
Off to work..........
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Stuff
It's 9:30 in the morning here in Hanau and i have been awake for the last hour. Almost unheard of in my world to be up this early, but I had to give Jess a ride to work, then I stopped at the US mailboxes to check mine, I am waiting for a couple of movies to come in from Netflix. I was walking from my car to the Post Office and thought how weird it is to be in Europe yet be surrounded be in a US Army post. My life is a strange concoction of US and European lifestyle that is not always pleasant. A large part of the reason I left the US was because of the people. Not all of them obviously, but the general population. And now I find myself spending a good portion of my day working with them, Mind you, I am so grateful for the work here that allows me to stay in Europe, yet having to deal with them can be very wearing.
For example yesterday (Monday). I don't usually work Monday and Tuesday, they are the slowest days of the week and therefore I usually have them off, but the restaurant was short a closer, and since closing is what I do best (5 of 7 days) I was asked to come in. The people who visit the restaurant on weekends are in a vastly different mood than the Monday people. Maybe it is because, obviously, it is the weekend. But yesterday the people I served were so rude, I had a difficult time even putting on a smile after a while. They were, to me, typical rude Americans. They wanted what they wanted NOW, and their looks of disgust made them very unattractive. Everything they ordered had 16 modifications, etc. The men, especially the young soldiers, never seem to be the problem. They are always smiling, joking, polite, ma'am is used etc. It is the wives who are PAINS IN THE ASS. Rude, condescending, impatient. I thought it was funny at first to be looked down upon. I mean, I CHOSE to leave a very comfortable lifestyle to come work at this dinky Taco Bell in the middle of Germany. OK, so I didn't exactly CHOOSE this part, but I chose to take the chance that I might end up at a job like this. And I don't mind at all helping the soldiers, regardless of what I think about the war, America etc, these are the guys who are coming and going from Iraq that I am helping, and I am very proud of that.
OK, I have sort of drifted off the main subject that I wanted to write about, but hey, that's the fun of having a blog (where no one can comment), I get to wander in any verbal direction I want to and no one can complain. Read it, or go away. LOL.
Anyway, what I started out wanted to write about was the weirdest of being caught between two different, VERY different cultures. Especially when one is the military.
I find it fun and different to have one half of my life lived out on an Army post, without actually having enlisted in the Army! You have the typical army type buildings, vehicles etc. Shoppettes, post offices, PXs, dining halls, laundry facilities, libraries etc. Even a thrift store where we have managed to come away with some pretty neat free things, including my daughter's 19 inch color TV with remote. ( she wanted a TV of her own so badly but could not afford even a used one in the thrift shop), then one day we walked in and they were giving one away ( too many TVs for sale) what a deal. LOL.
Anyway, so we come to work, show our civilian Department of Defense IDs to the German guards in uniform outside the post, go and do our jobs with Americans, then leave post and drive home to our apartment in the middle of a German town. Weird, but interesting. I really do try to stay away from buying things on post, especially food, but sometimes you need things not available on the economy (off post).
I have probably taking way too many words to say what I wanted, but again, it is so early in the morning. I don't usually get up until at least noon.
I work til at least 10:30 pm, and have been known to be there until 2 am, helping out my supervisor until 11 or midnight, then standing out in the parking lot talking for a couple of hours. In our parking lot at night there are always at least one or two deer walking around. Midget deer, at first I thought they were fawns, but they are actually full sized deer. There are also always bunnies hopping around in the grass by the dumpsters. Being the weird person I am, I always say “Bunny, bunny, bunny!” to them, knowing damn well they have no clue what I am saying, that I should probably be calling out the German word for bunny, which of course they would still not understand. LOL
Annnnyway... Next week we are FINALLY taking our first road trip to......... (cue drum roll) ..... Amsterdam! Yeah, party on Garth..... We intend to have a hell of a time. Jess and I are driving up with a woman who works at the bowling ally on post, where Jess' Subway (where she works) is located. It is Amber's birthday, and she wanted to go up, so we said lets go! Yes, I intend to smoke the reefer and do any other slightly illegal thing possible to do in Amsterdam, damn right!
We are driving up Monday morning, coming back Tuesday sometime. It is I think a 4 hour drive away, and with the three of us sharing expenses, shouldn't cost too much. AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands.. YES SIR! Should be a lot of fun. Just hoping I don't land in jail or anything.. (just kidding mom..)
We finally decided to get landline and Internet at the apartment. The phone is up and running, but we have to get a DSL modem from the company today to get the Internet going. OH MY GOD, one of life's luxuries back again, Internet at my actual home. I mean, I will be able to be on the internet any time day or night. WOW! LOL... Been almost a year without it. Been almost a year since this whole adventure started. I think I gave my notice at work on April 18th, a year ago. Seems like forever.
The anniversary of my sister's death was just a couple of days ago. NINE YEARS she has been gone. I still think of her every day. Funny how that is, and strange how she will never age or be old in our minds. Eternally young, as she should be remembered.
Well, I have to get up in two hours to return something to the thrift shop, we tried getting a used DSL modem there, but it is not working. So I need to get back to bed so that I can wake up in two hours. (note – later found out that DSL: will not be up and running until tomorrow (WED))
I am guessing you will be seeing way more rambling blogs once we are connected at home. I am not sure if that will be good or bad, but will certainly be a fact of life. Later......
For example yesterday (Monday). I don't usually work Monday and Tuesday, they are the slowest days of the week and therefore I usually have them off, but the restaurant was short a closer, and since closing is what I do best (5 of 7 days) I was asked to come in. The people who visit the restaurant on weekends are in a vastly different mood than the Monday people. Maybe it is because, obviously, it is the weekend. But yesterday the people I served were so rude, I had a difficult time even putting on a smile after a while. They were, to me, typical rude Americans. They wanted what they wanted NOW, and their looks of disgust made them very unattractive. Everything they ordered had 16 modifications, etc. The men, especially the young soldiers, never seem to be the problem. They are always smiling, joking, polite, ma'am is used etc. It is the wives who are PAINS IN THE ASS. Rude, condescending, impatient. I thought it was funny at first to be looked down upon. I mean, I CHOSE to leave a very comfortable lifestyle to come work at this dinky Taco Bell in the middle of Germany. OK, so I didn't exactly CHOOSE this part, but I chose to take the chance that I might end up at a job like this. And I don't mind at all helping the soldiers, regardless of what I think about the war, America etc, these are the guys who are coming and going from Iraq that I am helping, and I am very proud of that.
OK, I have sort of drifted off the main subject that I wanted to write about, but hey, that's the fun of having a blog (where no one can comment), I get to wander in any verbal direction I want to and no one can complain. Read it, or go away. LOL.
Anyway, what I started out wanted to write about was the weirdest of being caught between two different, VERY different cultures. Especially when one is the military.
I find it fun and different to have one half of my life lived out on an Army post, without actually having enlisted in the Army! You have the typical army type buildings, vehicles etc. Shoppettes, post offices, PXs, dining halls, laundry facilities, libraries etc. Even a thrift store where we have managed to come away with some pretty neat free things, including my daughter's 19 inch color TV with remote. ( she wanted a TV of her own so badly but could not afford even a used one in the thrift shop), then one day we walked in and they were giving one away ( too many TVs for sale) what a deal. LOL.
Anyway, so we come to work, show our civilian Department of Defense IDs to the German guards in uniform outside the post, go and do our jobs with Americans, then leave post and drive home to our apartment in the middle of a German town. Weird, but interesting. I really do try to stay away from buying things on post, especially food, but sometimes you need things not available on the economy (off post).
I have probably taking way too many words to say what I wanted, but again, it is so early in the morning. I don't usually get up until at least noon.
I work til at least 10:30 pm, and have been known to be there until 2 am, helping out my supervisor until 11 or midnight, then standing out in the parking lot talking for a couple of hours. In our parking lot at night there are always at least one or two deer walking around. Midget deer, at first I thought they were fawns, but they are actually full sized deer. There are also always bunnies hopping around in the grass by the dumpsters. Being the weird person I am, I always say “Bunny, bunny, bunny!” to them, knowing damn well they have no clue what I am saying, that I should probably be calling out the German word for bunny, which of course they would still not understand. LOL
Annnnyway... Next week we are FINALLY taking our first road trip to......... (cue drum roll) ..... Amsterdam! Yeah, party on Garth..... We intend to have a hell of a time. Jess and I are driving up with a woman who works at the bowling ally on post, where Jess' Subway (where she works) is located. It is Amber's birthday, and she wanted to go up, so we said lets go! Yes, I intend to smoke the reefer and do any other slightly illegal thing possible to do in Amsterdam, damn right!
We are driving up Monday morning, coming back Tuesday sometime. It is I think a 4 hour drive away, and with the three of us sharing expenses, shouldn't cost too much. AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands.. YES SIR! Should be a lot of fun. Just hoping I don't land in jail or anything.. (just kidding mom..)
We finally decided to get landline and Internet at the apartment. The phone is up and running, but we have to get a DSL modem from the company today to get the Internet going. OH MY GOD, one of life's luxuries back again, Internet at my actual home. I mean, I will be able to be on the internet any time day or night. WOW! LOL... Been almost a year without it. Been almost a year since this whole adventure started. I think I gave my notice at work on April 18th, a year ago. Seems like forever.
The anniversary of my sister's death was just a couple of days ago. NINE YEARS she has been gone. I still think of her every day. Funny how that is, and strange how she will never age or be old in our minds. Eternally young, as she should be remembered.
Well, I have to get up in two hours to return something to the thrift shop, we tried getting a used DSL modem there, but it is not working. So I need to get back to bed so that I can wake up in two hours. (note – later found out that DSL: will not be up and running until tomorrow (WED))
I am guessing you will be seeing way more rambling blogs once we are connected at home. I am not sure if that will be good or bad, but will certainly be a fact of life. Later......
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
pictures
no time to write,late for work. I decided to actually move into a bedroom like i was going to stay for awhile. pics below.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Picture time!
OK, going to post some pictures. I am sacrificing my dignity and putting two of myself on here also. Hope you can tell I lost 50 pounds, I did not however, get any more photogenic. *LOL* Here goes.
Our apartment when we first moved in. When they say unfurnished, they mean nothing on the walls and floor, no light fixtures, NOTHING! Luckily after a month they installed a kitchen, that is unusual. We have done nothing to the floors and walls yet until we decide if we are staying in Hanau or going elsewhere. We are leaning towards the staying in Hanau.
Same view, a bit better with our obligatory cat climber we made.
Shot of the plants I have gotten.They will probably be dead in a month or two.I try so hard, but cannot keep a plant alive. *sigh*
Bammy on the cat thing. Even though she doesn't look it, she is much happier since having 6 teeth pulled last month.
Miss Kitty sleeping
Karnival in Hanu. (coincides(sp)with Mardi Grasin the States)
The view down the street from my window.
Me,50 pounds lighter. I didn't realize my new pants were already baggy again. YEAH!
Closer view(for my mom) to show her my hair, etc...
That's it! Nothing much else new....... Later!
Our apartment when we first moved in. When they say unfurnished, they mean nothing on the walls and floor, no light fixtures, NOTHING! Luckily after a month they installed a kitchen, that is unusual. We have done nothing to the floors and walls yet until we decide if we are staying in Hanau or going elsewhere. We are leaning towards the staying in Hanau.
Same view, a bit better with our obligatory cat climber we made.
Shot of the plants I have gotten.They will probably be dead in a month or two.I try so hard, but cannot keep a plant alive. *sigh*
Bammy on the cat thing. Even though she doesn't look it, she is much happier since having 6 teeth pulled last month.
Miss Kitty sleeping
Karnival in Hanu. (coincides(sp)with Mardi Grasin the States)
The view down the street from my window.
Me,50 pounds lighter. I didn't realize my new pants were already baggy again. YEAH!
Closer view(for my mom) to show her my hair, etc...That's it! Nothing much else new....... Later!
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