Grab Bag

Hey all, this is going to be one of those posts where I just flush out whatever's stewing in my brain. Hope you can cope.

Here come the bullet points:

• Right now, it is yet another half rainy/half sunny day in Stuttgart. I won't complain too loudly because yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and we spent several hours outside. It's just that this summer has been unusually wet and annoying, in that it will rain for awhile, then the sun will come out just long enough to tempt us into gearing up to go out, by which time another rain cloud will have moved in. Repeat this ad nauseum.
• It's also extremely humid, which I don't recall from last summer. Probably because it's been so wet, duh Rachel. I don't have to consult the weather report to ascertain relative humidity--I can just consult how coiled Annika's curls are. Corkscrews = 98% humidity.
• I recently bought myself a Dove battery-operated face-scrubber thingy. Can I recall the name of the darn thing this moment? No. You buy these little pillows to stick to it with one side a pad and the other a scrubby, turn it on and go to town. Skin Revitalizer, I think it's called. I looove it and spend way too much time with it.
• I haven't had a decent night's sleep for almost two weeks now. I guess this shouldn't be surprising as I have just entered the third trimester of pregnancy, but I was really sleeping very well up until I went to Paris. I blame Paris.
• Speaking of babies, I had my regular appointment today, except for the (wheee!) fact that it was gestational diabetes testing day! Yay! I was required to fast as of midnight last night, so right before bed I ate four pieces of toast. The good Dr. Voss was kind enough to get me in first thing in the morning so that I wouldn't have to be hungry for long. They drew my fasting blood, I drank the horrible sugar water--whatever it is, it's doubly repulsive in Germany--sat for an hour, then they took more of my blood.
• Dr. Voss did a very quick ultrasound to check his heartbeat--I was pretty sure it was unnecessary as he was busy doing his morning Jujitsu during the ultrasound. Yep, it was beating. I will get a better, longer ultrasound at my next appointment. That will be the last four week, then we go down to appointments every two weeks. Eeek.
• I was highly impressed at our ability to get everyone out the door this morning by 7:45. Everyone got up, ate, got dressed, brushed teeth. I even made all the beds and put some dishes away and we still had a few spare moments before we walked out the door. Maybe I will be able to do this school thing...
• For anyone following the detailing saga, Hans is still working on it, but he got some good advice from his friend the admiral mid-week that is helping him to make these tough decisions. And he's talked to a lot of people at various commands who have great jobs available and are willing to put a "by-name" request in to his detailer for him. Let's hope and pray that by the end of next week we have a set location and a job locked in. Hope, but don't bet on.
• In addition to blogging right now, I am desperately trying to come up with something interesting for Hans and me to do on our date night tonight. Here are the options thus far:

1. Empanadas at a local restaurant - he always goes on about empanadas. Followed by a screening of "Gran Torino" in the comfort of our living room (there are no good movies playing on post or at the English-language theater).
2. A visit to Stuttgart's TV tower, I guess one of the tallest around...on a clear day you can see Alps in like, three countries or something, and they have a restaurant on site.
3. Chinese food at a local restaurant followed by "Gran Torino".

I'll have to report back to see which option he chooses. Thank you for putting up with this mish-mash of a post. Have a great weekend!