Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

...another TV series. Well, not TV...HBO. You and I know there's a big difference between regular network series and HBO series. I watched the five seasons of Six Feet Under in a period of about four months. The problem with watching the DVDs is that when I get hooked, which I so often do, I binge and watch an entire season in a period of about two weeks. The only reason it took so long to watch Six Feet Under is because I had to wait for discs to come in at the library and through Netflix. I think it's different watching series this way, rather than sticking with it week to week, year to year. If you have the chance to watch this extraordinary series, please do so. I know what you've heard, that it's about a family who operates (and lives in) a funeral home. That's true, but it's a lot more. It's about the bonds of family. It has its macabre moments, that's true, but all in all, the show teaches the viewer to appreciate life. And I don'...

Josiah with two German boys, at Burg Teck Hiking up the hill Well, two out of three ain't bad... And did Hans get called at all by any of the aforementioned annoying military leaders this weekend? NO. So...I could have gone to Prague. Sigh. Oh well. I still had a very pleasant weekend, though it involved dealing with a lot more crying and diapers than I had originally planned. Yesterday we did our usual weekend shopping jaunt to the PX, ate in the food court, let the kids tear around for awhile. Oh, and they finally got haircuts. Josiah was not too bad, but Annika was starting to look like a wookie. Poor curly girly. On the way home, I decided that the time had come to stop at the piano store in Sindelfingen. I have been thinking about getting a piano for...ever. Josiah has recently expressed some interest in learning to play, which got piano-buying on my mind again. The PX had a Yamaha digital piano a few months ago and I hemmed and hawed. By the time I decided I should get it, i...

Here is the princess and her pirates, earlier this week:

To the generals and colonels who have ruined my last two weekends... That's right, I didn't go to Prague, because Hans "might" be called into work this weekend and by the time we got wind of it, it was almost 5:00 p.m. yesterday. No one was around who could be an on-call babysitter this weekend. No one. I was supposed to be breakfasting in Prague this morning. And guess who is sleeping in? Answer: not me.

I'm sitting here listening to Carson, Josiah, Nicky and Annika. They're all playing some sort of imagination-powered game involving dragons, knights, princesses, ghosts and fires. Carson is definitely the head knight...right now he's leading all of them around and telling everyone to be "very quiet". They're hunting dragons. Oh, there's a pirate ship! And Captain Hook! I'm getting a big kick out of this. When I was young, my siblings and I played so many games like this...dressing up and using our imaginations. Little House on the Prairie was a favorite. And Gone With the Wind. I'm sure that I've told you all that my grandpa fashioned me a hoopskirt from an apron and some baling wire--yeah, he loved me like that. I confess that I would still love to have a real hoopskirt and a Scarlett O'Hara-ish dress. I have looked at them on eBay...there's a real market for Civil War-era reproduction clothing for re-enactments. So, if I sh...

Here's the Hotel Lowenhof, which I've discovered is actually about 20 km away from Zell-Am-See. This is where we'll be staying when we go to Austria on the 4th of July. Any suggestions on what to do with our bit of leave in mid-July? And no Mom, I'm afraid that we aren't able to come home. Sorry. Picture something a bit more...European. We haven't been to Paris yet, or Copenhagen or anywhere in Italy. Lake Como is actually reasonably close. Anyone have any ideas?

Every once and awhile, I go through a period of insomnia. I'm guessing that it happens to most everyone. It never happened to me until I had children. I had a particularly bad period in Japan a few months after Annika was born. I remember calling my mother one night in tears because I couldn't sleep and was beginning to come undone. Obviously. Annika was just a couple of months old, but she was sleeping through the night, or rather--overnight. She would wake up early. I remember going to bed every night, tossing and turning, taking two or three (sometimes four) sleeping pills to no avail, getting up to read, feeling sleepy and then as soon as the lights were off--more tossing and turning. Looking at the clock and thinking "OK, if I fall asleep now, I can still get six (five, four, three, two) hours of good sleep". There's no reason why I'm battling insomnia right now. I mean, if there is, I can't figure out what it is. I drink two cans of pop per day. Some...

Yes, another installment of odd bits and pieces that don't quite make up for a satisfying blog. I am going to Prague next weekend. I decided this on a very complete whim. I am going all by myself ! Do you all think that the kids will be OK without me for a weekend? I'll really only be gone one entire day. How does this work, you ask? Well, I get on the bus on Friday night at 11:45 p.m. and ride through the night, have breakfast in Prague, do an entire day of sightseeing in Prague, then spend an evening blissfully alone in Prague reading by a castle or river or something, pretending I'm Czech. Sunday, I'll have breakfast and do some more sightseeing, then in the afternoon, we board the bus and drive for hours and hours back to Stuttgart. Yes, that is very whirlwind, but it works perfectly with our schedule. No need to find a babysitter on a workday. I'm going to be wiped out on Monday morning, but we'll get by. What else? I just took Josiah's blanket, ...

Seriously, you guys know me and you know how much I truly, truly dislike sports. Right? I can't say that I love basketball that much, but if I had to watch any sport on TV, I would watch basketball. I've been to more than a few Timberwolves games...heck, we even went to see the Timberwolves play in L.A. when we lived in San Diego. Of all the athletes out there, I have always loved Kevin Garnett the best. As a somewhat Timberwolves fan, it was so annoying to see him devote himself to the club year after year with nothing to show. I truly believe that KG is the classiest and most amazing athlete out there. So, when I found out that the Celtics pounded the HELL out of the Lakers last night to win the championship, I felt a little sniffly with happiness. Kevin finally got his. YEAH!! Good job Kevin! I'm sure there are a lot of Minnesotans out there celebrating this win today! Stupid, stupid Timberwolves.

I forgot to tell you all about Josiah's little bike ride last week. So...there's a bike out front in the bike rack that belongs to everyone in the stairwell. Meaning, someone left it behind eons ago and now it's common property. It's nice because it's a little bike with training wheels, the perfect size for a little guy learning to ride. That's exactly what Josiah's been doing. Learning to ride. This has involved a few spills and tumbles and a lot of rides "around the block". We bought a helmet, much to his father's chagrin and Josiah's delight. It's blue and features bugs with googly eyes. It was either that or Disney Princesses. There's not a lot of selection at our PX. Anyway. So last Thursday, Josiah was begging and begging me to go and play out in front of the building. This means dragging out the scooter and the tricycle and the bike helmet and letting the kids ride up and down the sidewalk. One of my neighbors just...

Frauenkirche We don't know, but they look cool, right? Beer Hall Putsch...1923...something to do with Hitler Hans had to hold the camera up at arm's length in the crush to get this shot...the guys in tights were playing trumpet fanfares...very cool to hear. The "new" rathaus, built in the gothic style. The green portion with figures is part of a clock that chimes at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. every day. We happened to be there at 11:00. Bavarian band. Our band uniforms were never so cute! Exterior of the Frauenkirche The fountain outside the Frauenkirche, ideal for children to climb on. Surprisingly, no one got wet. Portion of the old city gate. Bavarian costumes--notice the cute little wicker purses. They look like little houses and have a "roof" that opens up and little feet to sit on. One of the many beer and bratwurst stands on the plaza. The rathaus Pictures of Legoland and a post about the weekend's activities below. Far, far below. Sorry for the g...

Josiah's first rollercoaster ride One of the playground areas Lego Neuschwanstein Lego Amsterdam Annika in the Lego house Riding the train Watching Legos being made

Munich's 850th birthday party. It strikes me as strangely strange and fortuitous that we should decide, out of nowhere and with very little planning, to stay overnight in Munich on Friday and do our sightseeing on Saturday...the actual birthday. I had heard somewhere that it was a year of celebration for Munich and so we assumed that's why there were so many people in full Bavarian dress out in the streets. The year-long celebration of something or other. Surely that's why there were bratwurst and beer stands running the length of the pedestrian zone in the Marienplatz. And about 1.2 million people. Right? Wrong. It was the actual birth day of Munich yesterday. Kind of bizarre. They are celebrating all year, but yesterday was the actual day. Sorry for repeating myself over and over again. We were just so surprised by the coincidence. But first, let's go back in time. Join me, if you will, in the waving of your fingers in front of your face, a la Wayne's World . Doo...

Here are my tidbits...all the mish-mash that crowds my brain until I find a spare moment to sit down and get it all out: Had the most expensive oil change ever yesterday at the German VW dealership. The service guy asked me if I had brought my own oil. My own oil? Huh? I was completely stumped until I came to pick it up and got the invoice. 117 Euro for oil. Oh. Holy. Sweet. Lord. That's about, what $170? For just the OIL. That didn't include the labor. Why oh why didn't I have Pete change the oil while he was here? Well, an expensive lesson was learned. I will only be taking my car to the VW dealership on the even mile check-ups (ie: 20,000, 30,000, 40,000) and taking it somewhere on base for the odd mile check-ups, which are really only oil changes. Volkswagen has some really great vehicles here that don't make it over to America, so going to the dealership is always a good time. I can't get enough of looking at all the baby VWs and getting high off the new car o...

Gen, E, remember how hilarious that joke was? Between Bear Butte and the naked statues at Crazy Horse, the Black Hills were so dang funny! So...Annika just stripped off all of her clothes and started running around naked. Right in the middle of a visit from Jen and her boys. I swear, she's never done that before. She couldn't figure out the mechanics of her diaper. Today, the mystery was revealed. I blame it on her Aunt Sarah's post about how cute naked babies are... Actually, I think it may herald the beginning of potty training. She wants to be naked, I said fine, be naked, but you have to put a diaper on unless you use the potty. She went back and sat on the potty with no results, but at least she's interested. Maybe I'll try potty training using my friend Mariska's method of stripping 'em naked and letting nature take its course. Yeah, right. What else is new? Hmmmm. We decided on a whim to travel up to Ramstein Air Base on Sunday. Why? Wel...

Remember Esprit from the 80s? It was a big trend in the hamlet of St. James to have an ESPRIT school bag. Mine was gray with a black ESPRIT in block letters. It was so uber-cool, and uber-unoriginal. Like my Swatch watch and my Guess? jeans. Whoo-hoo. Remember those bags though? They were about as basic as a bag could get... Anyway, Esprit is a chain store here in Europe. They are all over the place in Germany. Our PX recently started carrying a few Esprit items. I was surprised at how cute those items were, so when we stopped to see the cathedral in Ulm on Monday, I popped into the Esprit store there. I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of great stuff...I'm still struggling to find the right balance between cute, functional and slightly trendy but not too youthful, you know? I bought two shirts and a very cute dress for around 80 Euro, which is a bit expensive, but I'm hoping the quality is good. I thought I had found my niche in J Crew, but I'm finding ou...

First, Mom and Dad are gone. Though it was time and I was ready, I still feel like something is missing from our home. Their flight got delayed. They haven't even left Stuttgart as I sit here writing this. Their flight was supposed to leave at 11:00 a.m., last report it was delayed until 4:30 p.m. We found this out this morning, just as we were leaving to drop the kids off at daycare and take Mom and Dad to the airport. I have been feeling ill all day, thinking of the fact that the mother and father that I love dearly are sitting five miles away, killing a day in the airport all because I am an a$#hole. I wasn't in the best of moods this morning. Sorry Mom. Sorry Dad. I hope that you still had a good time in Germany. We accomplished a great deal in a short space of time, though. We saw Tubingen. We ate at a real German restaurant with real German food. Dad drank a lot of various German beers. I gave Mom a pedicure. We watched a lot of movies and the entire series of Band of B...

Tubingen, last Saturday American cemetery - Luxembourg Modeling an Eisenhower jacket at Bastogne Memorial wreaths from above The monument at Bastogne Back to Luxembourg - Patton's grave at the cemetery I'm sure some of you have been wondering what's been happening here at Camp D4 2008. Without further ado, here is a very quick rundown: Mom and Dad arrived last Friday On Saturday, we went down to Tubingen for a little picnic and to wander the streets. We took the long way home through the country. On Sunday, we were lazy, except for having supper at a German restaurant nearby. On Monday, Memorial Day, we attended a program here on base, had a quick lunch and then headed to Freiburg to meet Hartwin Thielhorn, our (not-so-distant) relation that we recently discovered. We spent a few hours with him and his lovely wife, pored over some family trees, pictures and other information and then drove home the long way, through the Schwarzwald. My parents love to take the long wa...