Best Playroom Ever

Went to play in Cutiebug’s playroom this morning. The original plan was the aquarium (Sea Life) in Nürnberg but they’re closed for relocation. Starfruit looked into a couple of play areas that looked really fun, but neither one opens ‘til like 2pm. And that doesn’t fit with nap schedule for any of us.

Happily, Wee Laddie loves Cutiebug’s playroom as she has practically every toy known to man in there. (And here I’ll mention that Starfruit told me she’s a bit embarrassed at my descriptions of the playroom and feels that she should clarify that most of those awesome toys were gifts or purchased secondhand. In other words, she’s not insane.) They played with some doctor toys and the kitchen for a bit, then they painted and played with Play-doh. Fabulous time.





After playtime we all went to Hotel zum Hirschen for lunch. Yum again. I tried the Wienerschnitzel this time (which was, indeed, very good) and Starfruit had Käsespätzle and we shared. And split with the kids, who both ate very well. And we still had food left over. Oh, don’t get me wrong... I’d have gladly chowed down on the rest of the Käsespätzle if not for the carb counting and the fact that I’d also had a small amount of the Bratkartoffeln (potatoes). My blood sugar was a beautiful 112 after an hour. (I thumb my nose at my goofball doctor.)

The Baby is How Big??

Another OB appointment today. It’s sort of weird to get an ultrasound every time. We ended up with another arm shot, ‘cause Schatzi really seems to enjoy facing backwards. He’s head-down now... facing a different way than Wee Laddie was when he was in there.

My belly seems absolutely HUGE to me (and, apparently, to Wee Laddie and Guitarman), but I’ve only actually gained 3.2 kilos (7 lbs, for those of you who are metrically challenged like me) so far.

The doc seemed concerned that Schatzi is growing too fast, and she made it pretty clear that she doesn’t believe me about my blood sugar numbers. That sort of ticked me off, as I take the health of my children very seriously. (It was Wee Laddie whose tiny presence got me to quit smoking, after all, and I also managed my blood sugar well with him.) I don’t get it, ‘cause my numbers have been really good. Like my one-hour readings are often lower than the goal for two hours after eating. I’m hardly eating any bread products at all and have been eating lots of salads and smaller portions of everything. I’ve had a few high readings in the past week, but other than that I usually get like 1-4 high readings per week (testing 4x a day). The doc was predicting a 10-pounder and telling me that not taking care of this now can lead to him having problems with diabetes later in life. So then she looks at the graph again and realizes she’s marked it on the wrong week... and says, “Oh, that’s not bad.” Grrrrr. Because at this point I’m all friggin’ stressed out about it (still, frankly, even though now she’s saying it’s okay… ‘cause I don’t know if she means REALLY okay or just semi-okay) and questioning whether or not I’m testing correctly or if there’s something wrong with my glucose meter. I’ll be so happy to get back to my regular doc.

After the doc, Wee Laddie and I ran over to Laaber to pick up Christina and Oliver and the four of us went to IKEA. I broke one of our bowls the other day and wanted to replace it before we leave. So we had lunch there and did a bit of shopping. Of course, they didn’t have the bowl I need. They have a similar one, same shape and very nearly the same color but it’s not exact. And they wouldn’t let me take the display bowl that WAS the right color ‘cause they’re getting more shipped in. Sometime. I’ve no idea when. Or how annoying it’ll be to replace one stupid bowl. And I should just let it go, but I suspect it’ll bug the crap out of me every time I look in the cabinet and realize that we only have 5 bowls but 6 of everything else. Like the spoon from our silverware set that went into the garbo. Still bugs me and it’s been like 7 years.

Weigh, not Organized

The movers came this morning to do an estimate of the weight of all of our stuff. Wee Laddie and I had Total Mom so Guitarman came home from work to meet with them. We are semi-organized, but there’s still lots to do. I guess it wouldn’t actually be horrible if things went as they are now... it’ll just simplify things a lot once stuff is in storage if we can get it more organized. I’m working on it in bits & pieces (partly so it doesn’t bog me down too much, partly ‘cause that’s kind of my only option what with a toddler to entertain).

Guitarman had a software group dinner tonight, so it was just me & Wee Laddie for the evening. Nap got off to a very late start, so we weren’t even back up until 6pm. (I usually wake around 5:30... must’ve been tired today.) We got up & had dinner and then I put him back into bed!

Aztec Dancers

To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, they had an Aztec dancing group perform in the movie theater on base. I’ve been waiting for it for weeks, so I was pleased to be able to take Wee Laddie to see it.

I was a little disappointed that a) there was only one dance demonstrated and b) the dancing portion was only about 20-30 minutes long… the rest was Q&A (but they didn’t tell us that, so we waited around a bit ‘cause there was a woman there in a dance shawl so I thought she might dance). Other than that it was great! And, frankly, I thought it was kind of cool that they even had something a little more esoteric than the kinds of dancing you might see on TV or whatever. This seemed even more culturally rich, in a way. Wee Laddie enjoyed it very much…up until the Q&A part, not surprisingly.

Oh, the Basement

Spent part of today working on getting things organized in the basement. I’d really like to be able to find things a little easier than I have been able to do over here. “I feel sad,” Wee Laddie told me. We’ve talked about how it probably seems scary since he doesn’t remember what it was like when we lived in Denver before. So I tell him that we’ll be able to see his Grandma-Grandma and his Denver cousins all the time. We’ll be able to go to museums and on playdates with our friends. I think he’ll be really happy there when he realizes how many more people we’re connected to there, but it is kind of hard to watch him feeling sad about it.

I finished the scarf Wee Laddie asked me to make for him and he wore it all day. :) Baby Spunky now seems to be his lovey. He’s been calling it a baby reindeer.





Tonight was my last German class. That was kind of sad, too. That class was probably the most connected I’ve felt to something that’s not connected to the base. At least our teacher is German! And at least the class isn’t only people from base. And I finally got to find out what Wee Laddie’s polizei (police) car says:
“Zentrale, bitte kommen.” (Central, please come.)
And something about “Verrückter Fahrer, um die ______” (Crazy driver going the wrong way.)



Note: Since I'm posting this so much later than it actually happened, I don't have my notes on what the car actually says. We tried to decipher it the other day and I managed to remember some and was able to look up some. But I posted it anyway.

Another Fire Alarm??

Ugh, more crappy weather here in Bavaria. I have this idea I’m working on that has something to do with illustrating just how crappy the weather is here. When I get it done, I’ll come back here & make a link to it or something. But seriously. It’s grey here pretty much all the time. Today there was a bit of blue sky and Wee Laddie looked up and exclaimed, “Oh no! The white is going away!”

We made another trek up to Graf and there was another fire alarm! I was waiting for our food (yes, of course, Taco Bell) and the alarm went off. So we all trooped outside to wait. Fire truck came again and the firefighters went inside. Not sure what happened, but it wasn’t long before we were allowed back in. I went up to get our food and gave them the receipt so they could see what we had. While they were working on that, the alarm went off a 2nd time! Ack. They rushed over to give me my food. I’m like, “What am I supposed to do with that?” They, not realizing that 1) I have a toddler and 2) I do not enjoy eating my food outside, standing up, in the cold, thought that I’d just take it & eat while we were waiting. Um, no. But I forgot to get the receipt. Luckily, the wait to get back in was even shorter this time, and our tray was still on the counter when I went back in. So I just took it & we went and sat down. Poor Wee Laddie is going to think there’s always a fire alarm when we come up here.

I’ve been thinking about the expat Thanksgiving and I realize that I’m a bit envious of the other expats. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to going home. But I’m kind of sad about feeling that way. This was supposed to be our grand adventure, our new way of life, our chance to be European for a while… to learn a new language and have our son get some great language learning in a foreign place. And that’s not at all what happened. I’m envious that these were couples who were both happy to be here, both learning the language and experiencing & enjoying the culture and who will probably spend more years here. We’ve talked about Germany for so long (and I’ve wanted to live somewhere in Europe for so long) that it’s kind of like giving up on a dream.

Best Seat in the House

Wee Laddie loves to watch TV like this...

Early to Rise

Wee Laddie woke at 5:45 am, after not falling asleep until nearly 10 pm last night. It doesn’t happen often that he gets up that early, but it always makes me wonder why my husband hasn’t gotten tired of co-sleeping yet. Don’t get me wrong, I like the co-sleeping, too. To a point. I suspect that we’d be making better progress with the nighttime potty training (the pooping in the diaper every night thing, I mean) if we had Wee Laddie in a bed with a plastic mattress. Like, say, the toddler bed phase of the convertible crib we bought… which is set up in Wee Laddie’s room, but goes largely unused. Especially since he usually now sleeps on the air mattress when he goes to sleep in his room (which is every night nowadays). Aaaanywho...

This morning while we were getting ready to meet Starfruit and Cutiebug for swimming, Wee Laddie fell on our stairs. Thankfully, he didn’t fall all the way down...but it scared the crap out of me anyway. He was trying to bring the broom upstairs and I have no idea what happened, as I was in the bathroom getting ready. I saw a flash of something (broom handle probably) and then heard the bumps. I came running out and he was lying about halfway down the stairs (just starting to cry) with the broom on top of him. God, how I hate these stairs. I will not miss them.

Now we went swimming despite my hesitations about it after last night’s lack of sleep. Lesson learned. Wee Laddie kept throwing toys no matter how many times I asked him to stop. He got a time-out-of-the-pool (sitting on my lap watching everyone else have fun) twice, and once I just took him back into the locker room while I decided what to do. One time-out was for not listening when I was calling his name (the circumstances were that he was headed down the steps into the big pool… I got to him JUST as his head went under!), the 2nd was for pulling Cutiebug down in the baby pool. (I know he didn’t mean to endanger her or anything but since we’d just had an issue with him grabbing her and them both falling plus the whole fact that it’s dangerous for him to do that in the pool, I felt I had to let him know that it IS actually a big deal.) And then he threw yet another toy… and we made our locker room trip. We ended up coming back out to have lunch and went home after that. I’d thought about trying to swim again after lunch but Wee Laddie wasn’t listening to me during lunch either and I’d told him that maybe we could swim again if he listened really well during lunch.

On the way home, he fell asleep… a bit too soon, as I’d feared. We got home right around the 20-minute mark. Our neighbor was out using the log-splitter for his enormous pile of firewood, Wee Laddie woke as I was loosening the car seat strap and was looking at the neighbor when I got him out of the car, so I thought it was all over. Took Wee Laddie upstairs and snuggled up and took slow, deep breaths right next to him… and (wonder of wonders!) he fell right back to sleep.

Sometimes even the strongest fighters succumb to the lure of a good nap.

The Expat Thanksgiving

I think I've only been away from home for 3 Thanksgivings. The first was during my student exchange to England during high school. The People-to-People group (their part of the Sister Cities Int’l group) threw us a Thanksgiving dinner which I find very funny, since it seems almost an anti-England holiday. The second was just a few years ago when Guitarman and I went to visit his parents in Florida for the holiday. And then this year.



We had a very lovely dinner at Christina’s. It’s an annual tradition for them to invite local Americans & other assorted friends to the Expat Thanksgiving Dinner. It was an interesting collection of people... about 1/2 American and about 1/2 other, I’d guess. I had a nice chat with the German neighbors, who were talking about how Germany doesn’t really have an equivalent holiday with a celebration & food and all of that. They seemed to really enjoy our holiday.

And the food was fabulous. Everyone brought a dish to share. And far from being a replica of all of the traditional American Thanksgiving foods (green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top) it was a fantastic spread of all sorts of international flavors. Yum. The stuffing was made with apples & sage, for example. I brought a curry-butternut squash soup that was yummy. I overheard a couple of remarks about it, one of which was a wife to her husband, “Here, you’ve got to try this soup,” which was followed by a brief chat about how he’d have never thought to put cilantro with it but that it really worked. So yay me. Or rather, yay Allrecipes.com.

I’ve learned that my kid is a natural problem solver. Ok, I already knew that. But isn’t it much more fun when I make it seem like you’re along with me on this journey of learning fun things about my son? Remember, he's just shy of 3. Anyway, he was trying to get a container of toys through the baby gate but it wouldn’t fit. So he tries again and still no luck. So he slides the container up to the top of the gate and reaches over to grab it. Genius, I tell you. ;)

Cutiebug's Playroom

We were invited to spend the morning in Cutiebug’s playroom. Wow, I thought we had a lot of toys! It’s amazing. She’s got a kitchen, a medical cart, a Bob the Builder workbench. And all the toys that go with each. An art table & chairs. Playdoh tools, paint, toy food, scarves, books. Just a ton of stuff, really. The kids had a wonderful time.



After playtime we went to have lunch at Hotel Gastof zur Post. I would definitely recommend it if you need a place to eat in Velburg. The food was good and the waitstaff was very nice.

We were letting the kids kind of walk around in our section (we were the only ones back there). There was one section of floor that was higher than the rest and Wee Laddie and Cutiebug were right by the edge there and I think Wee Laddie was trying to snuggle Cutiebug or something and he fell and pulled her right down with him and she bonked her head on the edge. Ugh. I felt horrible, he felt horrible and Cutiebug felt pretty horrible, too, although for a completely different reason. And she ended up with this big goose egg on her head. :( Forehead, of course. And right before they’re getting some professional pictures done. Of course.

This evening after nap, I went to the commissary solo to get a few things for my contribution to the expats Thanksgiving “do” at Christina’s. I really like shopping in the local stores and it would’ve been more convenient timewise except that I don’t know that they’d have everything I needed (and I know they don’t have frozen waffles, which are worth their weight in gold to my son). Plus it’d probably have cost a small fortune.

When I got home, Wee Laddie came over and hugged me around the legs and said, “I’m glad to see you.”

Friends & the Almighty Dollar

Went for lunch with Christina and her little Oliver to Hotel zum Hirschen. Even though we don’t eat there often, I will miss that place. I miss the Käsespätzle already. After we’re home and I’m able to be off the gestational diabetes diet, I am going to have to start doing some research and trying to replicate that meal. I’m not a “signature meal” kind of gal, really, but for that meal? For that meal maybe I’ll become that kind of gal.

Anyway, it was a nice lunch. Everything’s starting to have that “last time” feel to it. (Have I said that already?) We will see Christina & Oliver again, as we’re going to their house for the Expat Thanksgiving Dinner, but that may be the last time.



We went to Möbelhof after lunch and Wee Laddie was admiring the sling Christina was using to carry Oliver. When we got home, Wee Laddie used a pair of pants as a sling to carry Baby Spunky. And he was carrying him around in his jacket like this:



And the dollar is now worth .6535 euro. Ouch.

Wiggly Worm

Our little Schatzi is getting really wiggly. I love to feel him moving around in there. :) I know some women don’t really enjoy pregnancy so much... I love it. Parts of it suck, sure, but it’s just such an amazing time. I feel so lucky to be able to experience it.

In German class, we’re still working on past tense (vergangenheit… How’s that for an easy word?). It’s hard, but I’m glad I chose to keep working on my German even though we’re leaving soon. It makes me feel like I’m taking a bit more out of this experience to have at least tried to learn some of the language.

Wee Laddie didn't want me to go to class tonight and was really clingy at bedtime. He wanted Daddy downstairs & me by the computer (just outside of his room). We usually switch off, so this is Guitarman’s night to be upstairs. Sometimes we indulge Wee Laddie, sometimes not.

Big Belly Goes Shopping

Went to the big PX today for our usual Taco Bell fix. Happily, the weather was clear enough to drive up. It’s a long enough drive that we don’t like to go if the weather is iffy.



I actually found a few maternity tops I liked. The selection there is very limited so I usually find one shirt, max. And I tried on a few jackets ‘cause mine is already barely fitting me. There’s a brand here called Jack Wolfskin, that is sort of like the European version of North Face. They make some really good technical jackets & stuff. The jacket I ended up with is one of theirs. It’s fleece, but it’s some type of fleece that’s supposed to block wind 4x better than regular fleece. And it’s water resistant & all that, too. And it may actually be useable post-partum, too. Early Christmas present from Guitarman.

There was no line at the Taco Bell when I went to get in line. It was so awesome to be able to just go right ahead and order without having to wait 20 minutes! (Oh, how my standards for quick Mexican have changed!)

A Bit of the Mundane

Guitarman was on shift today. Wee Laddie and I went to Burger King breakfast, but it’s not as much fun without Daddy there. We go anyway because it’s our weekend tradition and sometimes Guitarman can at least swing by and say hello.

When we got home we played for a while, then ate lunch & had a nap. And Wee Laddie didn’t even fight it too much today.

Believe it or not, that does actually happen sometimes.

Swimmin’ with the Girls

Wee Laddie and I met up with our friends Starfruit and Cutie-bug at the pool in Burglengenfeld this morning. We splashed & played for a while then had a picnic lunch in their dining area. (It still seems weird to me to eat our own food there, but they really don’t seem to mind.) The kids had a wonderful time.

The interactions between the kids is pretty fun to watch. Cutie-bug is more than a year younger than Wee Laddie but they get along smashingly.

I really like Starfruit and Cutie-bug. They’re maybe the only people from the playgroups that we know well enough and see often enough that I can honestly say I am going to miss them. They leave here next summer and Starfruit said that Hawaii’s first on their list and Colorado is 2nd, so there’s a chance they’ll end up in our neck of the woods. (They spent 6 years in Hawaii prior to coming to Germany, so I don’t know if that makes it more or less likely that they’ll get sent back there.) It’d be fun to have some friends from Germany turn up in Colorado.

In a month from now, we’ll be back home.

These Boots

Today while getting ready to leave the house, Wee Laddie pulled on his boots and stood up.

“You just stomp them on,” he told me. “That’s what Grandma says.”

The Downside of Potty Training

What do you do when you’re in the car, with a ways to go, and there’s nowhere to stop? Wee Laddie had to pee on the way home from base. It’s too cold to stop anywhere outside and there’s not really anywhere convenient where we can stop inside. We had to go home for him to potty, which means I couldn’t drive around ‘til he fell asleep… and that makes for a tough naptime.

And then, my darling Guitarman wouldn’t go pick up a döner kebap, which is what I really, really wanted for dinner since the nearest Chipotle might as well be on another planet. I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Wee Laddie has been saying some pretty funny things lately. Well, they’re not really that funny unless you think about the fact that they’re coming out of a two-year-old’s mouth:

“Maybe, but I'm not going to do that right now.”

“Stay there. I'm just going to go play by myself.”

“I'm just going to look. I won't touch them.” (in regard to the babies at Total Mom)

Memos & Morning People

Ugh. This morning Wee Laddie woke at like 5:30 or something (I’m not even sure what time it was, I was in such a stupor) and did not go back to sleep. It’s moments like this that make me wish my hubby wasn’t so pro-co-sleeping. But I don’t argue ‘cause it’s his one kind of crunchy, granola “vice” and it’s also a great connector for those two, I think, to have that time just being close. But anyway, Guitarman isn’t the one who ends up trying to keep Wee Laddie quiet and in bed until at least 7 am. I’m not sure whether he goes back to sleep or not... although he's mostly very attentive, he has been known to sleep through the sound of a crying baby before.

My child apparently did not get the memo: Mommy is NOT a morning person.

This pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. Add to that the fact that Wee Laddie was completely squirrelly from waking up early himself, and you can imagine how friendly a bunch we were today. The trip to the grocery store was sort of a nightmare, although there weren’t any tantrums or anything... just a constant barrage of “no” and then, once he’d been banished to riding in the cart, trying to keep Wee Laddie from grabbing everything within reach.

Then tonight, it took until nearly 10 pm for the child to fall asleep. What is going on??

My Little Helper

Wee Laddie very much likes to dress himself so I usually let him… mismatches and all. Two different socks? Boots when it’s warm out? Whatev. So today, no big deal that he put his pants on backwards. At lunch Guitarman commented on it. I said that yes, I knew they were on backwards. Wee Laddie makes a remark about taking them off and putting them back on sideways. I laugh, ‘cause I’m trying to picture sideways. My son jumps up & drops trou right in the middle of the mess hall! Guitarman jumped up and stopped him… I was laughing too hard to be of any help whatsoever.



I’ve figured out a new way to get a few minutes to work on a project: let Wee Laddie wash the dishes. He loves to do it and it takes him ages so it gives me time to actually do something, as long as I can do it close by… because it makes me nervous, him standing on a chair or something. (I’ve been using his highchair for it since it has kind of a step on it.) So today I got a little knitting done while he did the dishes.

Now THAT is a beautiful thing.

The Internet in Any Language

I’ve got a bit of a computer-related rant today. I know, I was just complaining about Microsoft dumbing things down. This one has to do with living in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language. If you’re not in that situation, then you probably don’t know that there are web sites out there that check your location and default to a site specific to that country. And in that language. I get that… it makes sense.

Unless they don’t give you an obvious way to be able to access the information in another language (when you know that the information exists in that other language). English, say.

I type in www.google.com and get sent to www.google.de. And there’s a link called “Google.com in English.” Perfect. Many sites will have either a little British or American flag icon that gives you English. But Samsung’s site doesn’t have any such link. (Nor does myspace, not that I actually need to go to myspace… I’m just saying.)

But Samsung. It sure would be handy to be able to get the driver I need to re-calibrate my monitor so Photoshop stops giving me error messages every time I start it.

Snow Big Deal

What I learned today: Do not stall about putting snow tires on when you live someplace like Bavaria. I suppose we got a bit spoiled last year with the remarkable lack of snow and the fact that our cars had the snow tires on already, it being January and all.

We got snow overnight so we took Guitarman's car to base this morning to have BK breakfast and check out the holiday bazaar. He said it was slippery and that he hoped we could get an appointment for the tires before we leave. I thought that remark was for dramatic effect since he has reminded me a couple of times about the tires...but no, the first available appointment at the car shop on base was December 8. Yikes. The woman there was unusually nice and suggested another shop and even called them for me. The guy said to come in an hour... they're in Parsberg. Readers who've ever tried to get anything done quickly in Germany (and especially on a Saturday, for goodness' sake!) are probably now sitting with mouths agape. But I swear this is true.

Anyway, we went home, Guitarman put the tires in my car while I shoveled the driveway... and off I went. Got stuck on the first hill up out of our neighborhood. Downside of living somewhere hilly. The upside of living somewhere hilly is that I was able to back down far enough to find a spot that went uphill, so I could get enough speed to get back out. Didn't get stuck anyplace else and, thank goodness, didn't run into any other cars at any corners on hills... but I was sliding all over the place. Not pretty. Been a long time since I've driven in snow in a rear wheel drive car.

Memories

We were supposed to go swimming in Burglengenfeld with Kelly & Kaitlyn but Wee Laddie had a little bit of the runs last night (after saying his tummy hurt), so I didn't want to expose anyone to anything in the event he is actually sick. He probably isn’t, but you never know. I wonder if he’ll one day be mortified that I’ve posted his bowel habits on the Internet.

This surprised me: Wee Laddie suddenly mentioned juggling balls today. Sometime in summer 2006, it must have been, we went to Wendy’s with our friend Rutabega and her mom. In Rutabega’s kids’ meal, the toy was a set of three juggling balls and her mom swore she was going to learn to juggle so that she could entertain Wee Laddie. I was so surprised that he actually remembered that!

Waiting for Waffles

Wee Laddie’s breakfast often consists of a waffle (you may have heard me mention them here before) eaten in the car on our way to an activity on base. For some reason, he has recently decided that he doesn’t want to start eating it until we get to the main road. I don’t know why. So the first part of our trip is always filled with, “Is this the main road?” “No, not yet. Soon.” Then when we get to the big announcement of the main road, he will finally start eating.

What this all means is that when we arrive at our destination on base, we have to sit in the car while Wee Laddie finishes his waffle.



My mother finds this very funny.

Anger Management

At Total Mom today we talked about stress and anger management. At some point in my life, I remember thinking of myself as a very patient person. These days, however, I’m embarrassed to say that I definitely have some issues with anger management. Particularly at naptime, when Wee Laddie will NOT go to sleep. Those are not my best parenting moments.

Actually, we're a houseful of hotheads and only one of us has a valid excuse: toddlerhood. Hopefully we can all chill out a bit when we're settled back in at home and Gman is back at a job he likes and I'm all blissed out on impending baby/post-baby hormones.

Halloween on My Mind

German class was just me and Kim tonight and I was clueless. It’s a little easier to BS my way through with more people there but it’s also that, since there were only 2 of us there, we had to participate more.

We talked a little about Halloween here and how it’s growing in popularity. How sad that it’s still shrinking in the US. Trick-or-treating used to be such a blast! I loved trying to think of a really unusual/creative costume and then seeing people’s reactions to it. One of my funniest Halloween moments was the year that two of my best friends and I went as coneheads. We’d made our cones out of cardboard (this was before they had ones you could buy) and they had holes in the top. We were at one house, and my boyfriend at the time went up on the stairs to look into the hole to see if he could read my mind. Pretty funny.

I’ve started to work on getting organized for the packing. We don’t have to pack our stuff (in fact, even if we did pack it, they’d have to unpack & repack it… I think because of customs and to make sure we don’t bring anything illegal), but I’m trying to get it organized so we can find things later. It’s a big job.

On the Wire

My “people” are so not wired. It drives me crazy sometimes, as it makes them difficult to get in touch with sometimes. And some of my closest friends have never even read this blog! I'm always trying to set up online "networks" between friends & family so we can communicate, share photos, etc. meanwhile, some of them never even check their email accounts. Oddly, despite her reticence about technology in general, my mom isn't on this list. She reads the blog AND checks/sends email.

What led to this rant is that I was sort of irritated w/Snapfish 'cause I got a notice that I needed to hurry & order something or they'd delete my photos. (Yeah, I know... I've got some nerve bitching about having to pay a tiny bit for a valuable service!) I'm not organized enough to order a photo book yet, but it hardly seemed worth ordering some random print for $0.12 when I can print them at home (and would much rather spend more, but get something cooler). Anyway, in one of those weird, serendipitous kind of moments, I'd gone to clean up a folder in my Yahoo email and found a link to playgroup photos that a friend had uploaded to Snapfish. So for about $2.50 I was able to download 50 high-res photos (there are more but the download limit is 50 at once)... and prevent Snapfish from deleting my stuff. Sweet.

Ah, Football Season

Made the trek up to Taco Bell in Graf again. The weather is grey & cold, so there’s really not much else for us to do around here. Wee Laddie kept asking if there was going to be another fire alarm.

It’s football season. Guitarman complains that he doesn’t get to watch much of it but, seriously, isn't it on like 4 nights a week nowadays?

Next is a LeCorbusier

Why does a suction cup suddenly stop suctioning? I’ve had a razor on one in our shower for months, and then it suddenly fell off a few weeks ago. I thought I’d gotten it well re-stuck but it came off again tonight (after my guys were asleep, of course) and went crashing down.

Here’s Wee Laddie in the chair we got him (a while back) that matches our IKEA pseudo rocking chair. Cool, eh?

He's a Playah

There’s an elementary school right near the PX, so we drive past it all the time. And the gates are always closed and locked, even when the kids aren’t in school. Today as we drove by it Wee Laddie said to me, “I’ll play on that playground one day.”

I said, “I don’t know if you will, ‘cause we won’t be here that much longer. But you’ll get to go to lots of playgrounds back home.”

WL: “Back to my ladies?”

Me: (laughing) “Your ladies?”

WL: “My friends.”

Me: (still laughing) “Where do you get this stuff?”

WL: (now laughing and shaking his head) “I dunno.”