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.
Showing posts with label rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rants. Show all posts
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
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 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??
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, November 2, 2007
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?
Here’s Wee Laddie in the chair we got him (a while back) that matches our IKEA pseudo rocking chair. Cool, eh?
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Buddy, Can You Spare a Phonebook?
Finally went to Media Markt…it’s better than Best Buy (I say that because they have light fixtures, too, so I have something to do while Guitarman looks at CDs). We now want to buy all of our DVDs in German because then you get both German and English versions. They dub like crazy over here. I don’t know if it’s like this with most other languages, but I swear, they’ve got practically everything they have back home. You can already get the newer shows like 'Numbers' and that Patricia Arquette one and 'House.' It’s phenomenal.
We got 'Cars' for Wee Laddie, which Guitarman’s been wanting to do for a while. I kept putting him off ‘til we found it in German, which was today. Of course, then we also had to get a region 2 DVD player. I know I had a brief rant about this already, but I think it’s all just ego that prevents a worldwide standard for video. It seems that video people around the world should get over themselves and just embrace whatever’s got the highest resolution.
We also got a phone book! They don’t deliver them to your house like they do back home and nobody that I asked had ever even seen one! Well, we got a card in the mail a week or so ago saying that you could pick them up at Media Markt or at a post office. Interesting. I perused it when we got home. Not that I know what anything means, but I tried to find a few things, like our fave döner place and a pediatrician. No luck on either count.
We got 'Cars' for Wee Laddie, which Guitarman’s been wanting to do for a while. I kept putting him off ‘til we found it in German, which was today. Of course, then we also had to get a region 2 DVD player. I know I had a brief rant about this already, but I think it’s all just ego that prevents a worldwide standard for video. It seems that video people around the world should get over themselves and just embrace whatever’s got the highest resolution.
We also got a phone book! They don’t deliver them to your house like they do back home and nobody that I asked had ever even seen one! Well, we got a card in the mail a week or so ago saying that you could pick them up at Media Markt or at a post office. Interesting. I perused it when we got home. Not that I know what anything means, but I tried to find a few things, like our fave döner place and a pediatrician. No luck on either count.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Splish Splash
I’ve been wanting to take Wee Laddie to the swim group since I first heard about it. It’s at the Bulmare Schwimmbad in Burglengenfeld, and there’s a swim instructor who gives mini-lessons to the kids for $1. I didn’t relish the idea of bathing suit shopping, in a foreign language, whilst feeling particularly large, with a toddler in tow, so I was waiting ‘til our bathing suits came from home. Now that our stuff is here, we get to go!
Wee Laddie panicked a bit when we got there. I think the locker room freaked him out a bit. It’s kind of a strange setup. When you first walk in, what you see is a long hallway with opaque glass-enclosed changing rooms with glass doors. (I’d been apprehensive about the co-ed locker room, but I’m fine as long as I’ve got a place to change.) If you go through one of those, you get to the lockers and the doors to the WCs and the pool. But he’s never seen anything like that and didn’t know what to think of it. He was like whimpering and saying, 'No swim.' (Not at all typical behavior for him.) So I waited it out. We talked about it and went little by little. Once we got into the pool, he freakin’ loved it! I didn’t want to push it by trying a lesson, so we just played.
He fell asleep on the way home but talked about swimming the rest of the day, including asking to go back in the afternoon.
Before we left this morning, the movers came back to unpack our stuff. I can see you scratching your head and saying, 'Huh? I thought they got their stuff like a week ago.' And that is true. They were supposed to unpack us when they delivered the stuff, but they didn’t. And when Guitarman emailed to ask/complain about that and ask that they apply the money from that to some of our other expenses, then they send someone out. (Nevermind that they didn’t even call first.) I told them we’d unpacked and they were like, 'Oh, so all the furniture and closets and things are assembled?' I said, 'Well, yeah. We’re not going to sit here with unassembled furniture for a WEEK.' Pfffft.
Wee Laddie panicked a bit when we got there. I think the locker room freaked him out a bit. It’s kind of a strange setup. When you first walk in, what you see is a long hallway with opaque glass-enclosed changing rooms with glass doors. (I’d been apprehensive about the co-ed locker room, but I’m fine as long as I’ve got a place to change.) If you go through one of those, you get to the lockers and the doors to the WCs and the pool. But he’s never seen anything like that and didn’t know what to think of it. He was like whimpering and saying, 'No swim.' (Not at all typical behavior for him.) So I waited it out. We talked about it and went little by little. Once we got into the pool, he freakin’ loved it! I didn’t want to push it by trying a lesson, so we just played.
He fell asleep on the way home but talked about swimming the rest of the day, including asking to go back in the afternoon.
Before we left this morning, the movers came back to unpack our stuff. I can see you scratching your head and saying, 'Huh? I thought they got their stuff like a week ago.' And that is true. They were supposed to unpack us when they delivered the stuff, but they didn’t. And when Guitarman emailed to ask/complain about that and ask that they apply the money from that to some of our other expenses, then they send someone out. (Nevermind that they didn’t even call first.) I told them we’d unpacked and they were like, 'Oh, so all the furniture and closets and things are assembled?' I said, 'Well, yeah. We’re not going to sit here with unassembled furniture for a WEEK.' Pfffft.
Nap? No, Thanks.
Today was yoga class. Turns out that all of the regular yoga & pilates classes were cancelled but this one wasn’t. This is officially a 'Mommy & Me' class and wasn’t on the cut list. Yay!
Wee Laddie was crying for Daddy on the way home (nevermind that we had JUST had lunch with Daddy), then he fell asleep. Of course, he woke when I was getting him out of the car (he almost never sleeps through that) and then wanted to look at pictures of Grandma. So we did that and he stayed awake for another hour plus. When I finally got him to sleep he slept for 2.5 hours. Crazy boy! It seemed like he would have slept even longer but I woke him up by trying to move him.
We got a dual-voltage, multisystem (NTSC and PAL, at least) DVD HD recorder with HDMI (at this point my mom tunes out of the blog). Somehow we forgot to check on the regions. Turns out it’s only for Region 1, so if we want to watch any German DVDs (which we most definitely do) we have to get a Region 2 player. I understand the whole piracy thing, but the security stuff sure can be a pain at times like this.
Wee Laddie was crying for Daddy on the way home (nevermind that we had JUST had lunch with Daddy), then he fell asleep. Of course, he woke when I was getting him out of the car (he almost never sleeps through that) and then wanted to look at pictures of Grandma. So we did that and he stayed awake for another hour plus. When I finally got him to sleep he slept for 2.5 hours. Crazy boy! It seemed like he would have slept even longer but I woke him up by trying to move him.
We got a dual-voltage, multisystem (NTSC and PAL, at least) DVD HD recorder with HDMI (at this point my mom tunes out of the blog). Somehow we forgot to check on the regions. Turns out it’s only for Region 1, so if we want to watch any German DVDs (which we most definitely do) we have to get a Region 2 player. I understand the whole piracy thing, but the security stuff sure can be a pain at times like this.
Monday, February 12, 2007
When Do We Eat?
We tried to have brunch at the mess hall this morning (which we’ve been doing a lot on the weekends) but all of a sudden they’re only open for breakfast from 8:30-9:30 instead of brunch’s timeslot of 9:30-1:00. Now, despite the fact that we were there just LAST weekend for brunch, they all acted completely surprised that we would show up there a little after 9:30. Expecting food, of all things.
Having not learned our lesson (nor read the schedule) we tried again at dinner, since we haven’t had a dinner there yet. We picked what we thought was a logical time for dinner (6ish, I think it was), but they foiled us again. Dinner is from 3-4:30! Wow, talk about early-bird hours. So we went to Burg Imbiss, my favorite döner shop. (There aren’t many options, so we’re delighted that the döner shop that is right nearby is also very yummy.)
Having not learned our lesson (nor read the schedule) we tried again at dinner, since we haven’t had a dinner there yet. We picked what we thought was a logical time for dinner (6ish, I think it was), but they foiled us again. Dinner is from 3-4:30! Wow, talk about early-bird hours. So we went to Burg Imbiss, my favorite döner shop. (There aren’t many options, so we’re delighted that the döner shop that is right nearby is also very yummy.)
Monday, February 5, 2007
The Dual Duel
Went to Würzburg for some electronics. Kind of sucks having to replace all this stuff, and I really hope we haven’t jinxed ourselves by buying dual-voltage stuff this time. The thing that sucks about buying dual-voltage is that the selection is sometimes very limited. So we’re trying to decide about some things, like vacuum cleaner, microwave, etc. It’s probably not worth getting dual-voltage on everything… it’s just hard to decide on which things.
I got an email the other day saying that all yoga & pilates classes on base have been cancelled due to lack of participation. I’m so bummed… I was really enjoying our yoga class, and it was such a great opportunity for me to do something for my own health (and sanity), while still giving Wee Laddie something fun to do.
I got an email the other day saying that all yoga & pilates classes on base have been cancelled due to lack of participation. I’m so bummed… I was really enjoying our yoga class, and it was such a great opportunity for me to do something for my own health (and sanity), while still giving Wee Laddie something fun to do.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Dishes and Closets and Trains, Oh My!
Went to IKEA. I love love love that store but holy crap, are they crowded on Saturdays! Yikes. We got new dishes. Partly because ours aren’t here yet (although they should be very soon), but partly because what we have now are Guitarman’s old dishes from his life with his ex-wife who shall remain nameless. I think ditching those will just about clear out all belongings from life with other spouses. That just can’t be a good vibe to have around, ya know?
And we got some more train track pieces for Wee Laddie. He’s really getting into putting the track together. All part of his increased independent play, which is very good for Mama. :)
We also got some wardrobes. Houses here do not come with closets. It’s nice from a furniture-layout point of view, in that you can put your furniture wherever you want… but it’s not so nice when you’re waiting for all of your furniture to arrive and all of your clothes are just lying on the floor in the meantime.
Renters here also are usually expected to put in their own light fixtures and they take them with them when they go. Somehow or other, I’m sure that explains the ugliness of the ones in our house: I think the landlord wasn’t expecting to have to put fixtures in for us, so he just grabbed whatever he had out in his garage. What it doesn’t explain (and what just might defy explanation altogether) is why he had these fixtures in the first place.
And we got some more train track pieces for Wee Laddie. He’s really getting into putting the track together. All part of his increased independent play, which is very good for Mama. :)
We also got some wardrobes. Houses here do not come with closets. It’s nice from a furniture-layout point of view, in that you can put your furniture wherever you want… but it’s not so nice when you’re waiting for all of your furniture to arrive and all of your clothes are just lying on the floor in the meantime.
Renters here also are usually expected to put in their own light fixtures and they take them with them when they go. Somehow or other, I’m sure that explains the ugliness of the ones in our house: I think the landlord wasn’t expecting to have to put fixtures in for us, so he just grabbed whatever he had out in his garage. What it doesn’t explain (and what just might defy explanation altogether) is why he had these fixtures in the first place.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
A Narrow Miss
Wee Laddie didn’t sleep well. Sometime in the night he and I had a disagreement about whether or not we could sleep with his arm wrapped around my throat (I have trouble even wearing too-tight turtlenecks, in case you were wondering which side of the argument I was on). Ended up with me getting grumpy and him getting very upset. It later occurred to me that this is still a very huge, strange adjustment for him and I need to bear that in mind. I mean, our stuff still isn’t even here… it must be hard for him to feel any sense of security or stability. And, as all parents know, young children LOVE routine.
We were supposed to get our DSL installed today. This morning I asked Guitarman if they’d said afternoon or if I was just guessing that.. he said the thought it was afternoon. Then he pulled out the letters from T-Com and guess what? The freaking router is on backorder until APRIL. (yup, you read that right) So I just about had a nervous breakdown before breakfast, even. Perfect timing that I’d bought that dictionary last night or I’d never have been able to figure out what the letter said. Oh, or that they were in fact scheduled to come in the morning, by 10 am.
Long story short, I found out that they shipped us the router on 29 January so we should have it today or tomorrow. I’m supposed to call when we get it and they‘ll reschedule the installation. Thank goodness. Some of you can well imagine how upset I was at the thought of TWO MORE MONTHS of no internet at home.
The German word for relieved: erleichtert
We were supposed to get our DSL installed today. This morning I asked Guitarman if they’d said afternoon or if I was just guessing that.. he said the thought it was afternoon. Then he pulled out the letters from T-Com and guess what? The freaking router is on backorder until APRIL. (yup, you read that right) So I just about had a nervous breakdown before breakfast, even. Perfect timing that I’d bought that dictionary last night or I’d never have been able to figure out what the letter said. Oh, or that they were in fact scheduled to come in the morning, by 10 am.
Long story short, I found out that they shipped us the router on 29 January so we should have it today or tomorrow. I’m supposed to call when we get it and they‘ll reschedule the installation. Thank goodness. Some of you can well imagine how upset I was at the thought of TWO MORE MONTHS of no internet at home.
The German word for relieved: erleichtert
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Guitarman Heaven
Got a couple more inches of snow overnight. I woke just after 5 am, the snowplow came about 20 minutes later. Our neighbor started shoveling at 5:45 am. On a Saturday. Are you kidding me? Good grief, some people have no manners. I was still awake after 6 am and was thinking of leaving my two guys up there snoring in bed. I had just about decided what to do whilst I drank my cuppa, then Wee Laddie semi-woke saying, 'Grandma’s house, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.' And then he was really awake so I had to snuggle him back to sleep. I have a pretty hard & fast not-before-7 policy. If I’d gotten up it would’ve been all over.
Drove up to the Thomann music store in Tippendorf with Guitarman just for the ride. It’s a huge music store out in the middle of nowhere. They have tons of instruments, though, including strings, drums… even DJ stuff and whatnot. Guitarman seemed pleased with it. The guy that rang Guitarman up was British but has lived here a long time. Guitarman asked how long it took him to learn German, he said 6 months. He said most people go to the Irish pub with friends and watch CNN, but he jumped right in with an apprenticeship and had to learn. That supports my theory that we should mostly watch regular (German) satellite instead of AFN (Armed Forces Network, which is all in English). But I may be alone in that theory. At least at our house.
Had lunch at the Bistro Pizzeria Alberto right across the street from the guitar store. It was yummy but smoky… we’d only just gotten used to dining smoke-free in Denver and now we’ve gone back a step (says the ex-smoker). Guitarman tucked in Wee Laddie tonight, so I got a little time to myself. Happily, I didn’t have to spend it studying for the drivers’ test this time. Sadly, no internet at home yet.
3 words: Sponge Bob Schwammkopf
Drove up to the Thomann music store in Tippendorf with Guitarman just for the ride. It’s a huge music store out in the middle of nowhere. They have tons of instruments, though, including strings, drums… even DJ stuff and whatnot. Guitarman seemed pleased with it. The guy that rang Guitarman up was British but has lived here a long time. Guitarman asked how long it took him to learn German, he said 6 months. He said most people go to the Irish pub with friends and watch CNN, but he jumped right in with an apprenticeship and had to learn. That supports my theory that we should mostly watch regular (German) satellite instead of AFN (Armed Forces Network, which is all in English). But I may be alone in that theory. At least at our house.
Had lunch at the Bistro Pizzeria Alberto right across the street from the guitar store. It was yummy but smoky… we’d only just gotten used to dining smoke-free in Denver and now we’ve gone back a step (says the ex-smoker). Guitarman tucked in Wee Laddie tonight, so I got a little time to myself. Happily, I didn’t have to spend it studying for the drivers’ test this time. Sadly, no internet at home yet.
3 words: Sponge Bob Schwammkopf
Saturday, January 27, 2007
What, No Kitchen?
This morning a couple of guys came to 'fix' the kitchen island (not that they bothered to call first or anything). I say 'fix' because all they did was put a new back on it. It’s more substantial, but now there’s a strip along the back of it that matches the back but not the rest of the top, so it looks kind of weird.
And here’s where I’ll talk about German kitchens. Most German apartments/houses do not come with kitchens. No cabinets, no appliances… not even a sink. Sometimes not even a floor. (Because we rented through the housing office on base, ours did have a kitchen.) Those of you who have looked through IKEA catalogs are now understanding why half of it is taken up by kitchen cabinets & stuff, I’ll bet. Aside from the initial expense, I kind of like the idea of having your own kitchen move along with you. I’ve lived in so many places where I didn’t like the cabinets, or the lights or whatever other things… would’ve been nice to have my own stuff to put in. The only really tricky part would be how to have the kitchen fit from one place to the next. (More on closets & lights in another post.)
Guitarman’s car failed the inspection, so he can’t register it yet, which means he’s got these very obvious American temporary plates. Kinda makes the car stick out like a sore thumb. He’ll go in on Tuesday to have Peter fix the car (something about brake pressure not being the same on both sides or something).
The guy at the car center on base was really rude to Guitarman today, so he came home in a horrible mood… ready to pack it in & be back home. (Not really, but pissed off at having to deal with the stuff that comes with being in a foreign place. The guy that pissed him off isn’t even German so it wasn’t about that.) I think things’ll be a lot less stressful once our stuff is here. It’s so hard to feel 'at home' like this, and we’re not really relaxed enough to want to go be touristy either.
And here’s where I’ll talk about German kitchens. Most German apartments/houses do not come with kitchens. No cabinets, no appliances… not even a sink. Sometimes not even a floor. (Because we rented through the housing office on base, ours did have a kitchen.) Those of you who have looked through IKEA catalogs are now understanding why half of it is taken up by kitchen cabinets & stuff, I’ll bet. Aside from the initial expense, I kind of like the idea of having your own kitchen move along with you. I’ve lived in so many places where I didn’t like the cabinets, or the lights or whatever other things… would’ve been nice to have my own stuff to put in. The only really tricky part would be how to have the kitchen fit from one place to the next. (More on closets & lights in another post.)
Guitarman’s car failed the inspection, so he can’t register it yet, which means he’s got these very obvious American temporary plates. Kinda makes the car stick out like a sore thumb. He’ll go in on Tuesday to have Peter fix the car (something about brake pressure not being the same on both sides or something).
The guy at the car center on base was really rude to Guitarman today, so he came home in a horrible mood… ready to pack it in & be back home. (Not really, but pissed off at having to deal with the stuff that comes with being in a foreign place. The guy that pissed him off isn’t even German so it wasn’t about that.) I think things’ll be a lot less stressful once our stuff is here. It’s so hard to feel 'at home' like this, and we’re not really relaxed enough to want to go be touristy either.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
I Need My ID NOW!!
Went to the ID office today. For some reason, our first IDs had a very short lifespan and we’ve been getting reminders every day from the security guards at the base entrances. Anyway, about 2/3 of the ID office staff has been deployed so they are desperately unable to keep up. Guitarman had an 11:20 appt...we didn’t even get in until an hour after that (and then had to wait outside a while, mid-appointment, for one woman to come back from lunch).
After we’d gotten kicked out for a bit there was this other civilian woman who was being really aggressive about her 1:00 appt. (Rather like a boss I used to have. Those of you who know her will know who I’m talking about.) She just kept talking about her 1pm appt and was trying to physically work her way in front of me, all the while acting friendly to me. I seriously wanted to smack her. You know, I would have gladly let any one of the soldiers jump in front of me in line, but I was NOT going to budge for this woman who isn’t fighting for our country, and whose appointment was much later than ours, and who didn't have a small child in tow. If anybody’s going to get preferential treatment, it ought to be the men & women who are out there fighting so that the rest of us don’t have to.
Anyway, that whole thing took so long that by the time we ate lunch, Wee Laddie & I went to the store for drill bits, I finished reversing the door of our fridge and got Wee Laddie tucked in for his very late nap, there wasn’t even time to go to the grocery store! Luckily, Guitarman picked up a pizza, so we had a mellow dinner at home.
Guitarman also tucked Wee Laddie in for bed so I could study for my drivers’ license test. The rental car goes back on Friday (it’s ridiculously expensive so we don’t want to keep it any longer) so I need to hurry and get the USAREUR license so I can drive Guitarman's car ‘til we get another one. (There’s not adequate public transportation here to/from the places we go.)
After we’d gotten kicked out for a bit there was this other civilian woman who was being really aggressive about her 1:00 appt. (Rather like a boss I used to have. Those of you who know her will know who I’m talking about.) She just kept talking about her 1pm appt and was trying to physically work her way in front of me, all the while acting friendly to me. I seriously wanted to smack her. You know, I would have gladly let any one of the soldiers jump in front of me in line, but I was NOT going to budge for this woman who isn’t fighting for our country, and whose appointment was much later than ours, and who didn't have a small child in tow. If anybody’s going to get preferential treatment, it ought to be the men & women who are out there fighting so that the rest of us don’t have to.
Anyway, that whole thing took so long that by the time we ate lunch, Wee Laddie & I went to the store for drill bits, I finished reversing the door of our fridge and got Wee Laddie tucked in for his very late nap, there wasn’t even time to go to the grocery store! Luckily, Guitarman picked up a pizza, so we had a mellow dinner at home.
Guitarman also tucked Wee Laddie in for bed so I could study for my drivers’ license test. The rental car goes back on Friday (it’s ridiculously expensive so we don’t want to keep it any longer) so I need to hurry and get the USAREUR license so I can drive Guitarman's car ‘til we get another one. (There’s not adequate public transportation here to/from the places we go.)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Feelin’ Like a Moron
We went up to one of the other furniture shops by IKEA... it’s called Hiedl. There was a discount furniture place that seemed a little lower in quality than IKEA so we didn’t get anything there. I mean, IKEA’s got good bang-for-your-buck, but if you go much lower than that on quality I think you might have some regrets. We got a rug for the living room (I was surprised that Guitarman actually was okay with a big orange rug for the living room… he’s said before that he didn’t want to have bunches of colors in the house just for the sake of having lots of colors. And we do already have a red sofa!), some childproofing things and a stroller.
I had my first official 'I’m an idiot for never becoming fluent in another language' moment. We were checking out and while Guitarman was doing VAT forms and I was confused about the German instructions we were getting on how to actually get the stroller (some stuff you can just stick in your cart, some stuff you have to have sent over from the warehouse, apparently) we forgot a bag at the counter. We got to the car and realized it was missing so I went back in to get it… it had already been sent to where we had to go to pick up the stroller. So we get there and the guy says something to me in German. I told him I don’t understand German and he just walked away. He brought over the bag and asked if it was ours (through gestures), so I said yes ('ja') and he gave me that and our stroller. It was one of those moments where you can just tell exactly how big of an idiot another person thinks you are. I hate those moments.
Wee Laddie is having a lot of trouble listening lately. Well, I suppose it’s more the doing what we want him to part that he’s really having a hard time with. I know he’s two and all so there’s that. But I also think the upheaval is taking its toll on his behavior. We’ve been doing all this furniture shopping (another factor, I’m sure, along with the fact that it’s almost never warm & dry enough to spend any time outside here) and he just takes off running through the store and won’t stay with us at all. Makes it even harder to get this shopping done.
I had my first official 'I’m an idiot for never becoming fluent in another language' moment. We were checking out and while Guitarman was doing VAT forms and I was confused about the German instructions we were getting on how to actually get the stroller (some stuff you can just stick in your cart, some stuff you have to have sent over from the warehouse, apparently) we forgot a bag at the counter. We got to the car and realized it was missing so I went back in to get it… it had already been sent to where we had to go to pick up the stroller. So we get there and the guy says something to me in German. I told him I don’t understand German and he just walked away. He brought over the bag and asked if it was ours (through gestures), so I said yes ('ja') and he gave me that and our stroller. It was one of those moments where you can just tell exactly how big of an idiot another person thinks you are. I hate those moments.
Wee Laddie is having a lot of trouble listening lately. Well, I suppose it’s more the doing what we want him to part that he’s really having a hard time with. I know he’s two and all so there’s that. But I also think the upheaval is taking its toll on his behavior. We’ve been doing all this furniture shopping (another factor, I’m sure, along with the fact that it’s almost never warm & dry enough to spend any time outside here) and he just takes off running through the store and won’t stay with us at all. Makes it even harder to get this shopping done.
Friday, January 12, 2007
A Better Place to Stay
We’re definitely renting the house in Parsberg… Guitarman met with the landlord & a guy from the housing office today to do a walkthrough. He’s supposed to take the rent check to the landlord tomorrow. It’ll be really nice to get out of the hotel & into a place that’ll be ours even if our stuff won’t be there for a while yet.
We made a run up (down? over?) to IKEA in Regensburg tonight after Guitarman got off work. It was a horrible trip doing something I normally really enjoy. The people who lent Guitarman the truck (it’s connected with work so they can only use it for a short time) didn’t have their paperwork together, so it took him like 1.5 hours to get the truck. Those of you who know how patient he is can imagine how that affected his mood. (And I’ll just leave it at that.) He was supposed to have the truck at 4pm, IKEA closes at like 7 or 8pm (I forget exactly) and it takes probably 1/2 hour to get there.
The drive up was awful...my first time driving on the autobahn. Here’s the deal with the autobahn: There is technically no speed limit for the whole autobahn, but certain areas are marked with speed limits for certain conditions (60kph when wet, 80kph because of road damage, etc). And if you’re in an accident and are doing over 130kph (which is roughly 80mph) you can get in some big trouble if they think you were driving too fast for conditions. Still, a lot of people drive very, very fast. So I’m driving this Lancia rental car that is essentially a Euro minivan… tall, top-heavy, plus it’s shorter and narrower than a US minivan. And on this drive it was really windy. I felt like I was getting blown all over the place! So I wasn’t able to drive very fast but was trying to hurry. I'm a fairly confident driver except when weather conditions make me uncomfortable.
(photo from constructeurs.photos.caradisiac.com...trendy people included for perspective)
Wee Laddie and I ate dinner in the car (sandwiches from the Esso gas station…gotta say, much better than the 7-11 kind) and then we made a mad dash around IKEA, Wee Laddie in tow, trying to get all this stuff. We wanted to get: a bed for us, a bed for Wee Laddie, bedding for all, a TV stand of some kind, and some seating for the living room while our sofa is en route. What we got: a bed
and bedding, but just for us. (Guitarman had already picked up a TV, of course.)
There’s a weird phenomenon here… all the people in shops love to give out gummy bears (or sometimes lollipops) to the little children. Wee Laddie was being really whiny at the Esso when I picked up dinner and the woman handed me one for him. I stuck it quickly in my pocket so he didn’t see it because I was not about to reward his whiny behavior. I did refrain from telling her that, though it probably was mostly because my German is so limited.
We made a run up (down? over?) to IKEA in Regensburg tonight after Guitarman got off work. It was a horrible trip doing something I normally really enjoy. The people who lent Guitarman the truck (it’s connected with work so they can only use it for a short time) didn’t have their paperwork together, so it took him like 1.5 hours to get the truck. Those of you who know how patient he is can imagine how that affected his mood. (And I’ll just leave it at that.) He was supposed to have the truck at 4pm, IKEA closes at like 7 or 8pm (I forget exactly) and it takes probably 1/2 hour to get there.
The drive up was awful...my first time driving on the autobahn. Here’s the deal with the autobahn: There is technically no speed limit for the whole autobahn, but certain areas are marked with speed limits for certain conditions (60kph when wet, 80kph because of road damage, etc). And if you’re in an accident and are doing over 130kph (which is roughly 80mph) you can get in some big trouble if they think you were driving too fast for conditions. Still, a lot of people drive very, very fast. So I’m driving this Lancia rental car that is essentially a Euro minivan… tall, top-heavy, plus it’s shorter and narrower than a US minivan. And on this drive it was really windy. I felt like I was getting blown all over the place! So I wasn’t able to drive very fast but was trying to hurry. I'm a fairly confident driver except when weather conditions make me uncomfortable.
(photo from constructeurs.photos.caradisiac.com...trendy people included for perspective)
Wee Laddie and I ate dinner in the car (sandwiches from the Esso gas station…gotta say, much better than the 7-11 kind) and then we made a mad dash around IKEA, Wee Laddie in tow, trying to get all this stuff. We wanted to get: a bed for us, a bed for Wee Laddie, bedding for all, a TV stand of some kind, and some seating for the living room while our sofa is en route. What we got: a bed
and bedding, but just for us. (Guitarman had already picked up a TV, of course.)
There’s a weird phenomenon here… all the people in shops love to give out gummy bears (or sometimes lollipops) to the little children. Wee Laddie was being really whiny at the Esso when I picked up dinner and the woman handed me one for him. I stuck it quickly in my pocket so he didn’t see it because I was not about to reward his whiny behavior. I did refrain from telling her that, though it probably was mostly because my German is so limited.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
This Hotel Room Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us
Semi-sick day. We skipped the hotel breakfast (which is pretty good, as German hotel breakfasts seem to generally be) because of excessive whining. Not by me, though I'm going to whine a bit right now. The hotel room was way too small for us today… we had a bad night’s sleep and a bad nap.
Guitarman was charged a 2nd time for a notebook he’d already bought at the PX (he told the bitchy cashier that he’d brought it in and she totally ignored him…and he’d even written in it already, not that she checked). It was less than $1 but it’s the principle, you know? I’m not sure why, but the German workers on base all seem to hate Americans. (Actually, I’ll revise that: The security people at the entry gate are nearly always nice as are most of the mess hall employees. But the people at the small offices around base are mostly pissy.)
I can totally understand why some people might not like Americans... especially Americans stationed in their country. But, really, if you feel that way, why the hell are you working on an American military base??
Guitarman was charged a 2nd time for a notebook he’d already bought at the PX (he told the bitchy cashier that he’d brought it in and she totally ignored him…and he’d even written in it already, not that she checked). It was less than $1 but it’s the principle, you know? I’m not sure why, but the German workers on base all seem to hate Americans. (Actually, I’ll revise that: The security people at the entry gate are nearly always nice as are most of the mess hall employees. But the people at the small offices around base are mostly pissy.)
I can totally understand why some people might not like Americans... especially Americans stationed in their country. But, really, if you feel that way, why the hell are you working on an American military base??
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Nary a Vegetable in Sight
Went to the base at Würzburg to check things out. The PX there is huge… way WAY bigger than the one here in Hohenfels.
Had dinner at the döner kebap (Turkish food) in Seubersdorf (a town where there’s a house we’re going to look at on Sunday). We always get a good workout for our German when we go to foreign-food restaurants run by people for whom German is a 2nd language… they frequently don’t speak English so we’re on our own. It was sort of a weird little place--part restaurant part cyber café, I guess (although the computers there weren’t on). The owner showed us a game room in the back (not sure why but he seemed to like us) that had pool tables & stuff. At first when he was calling me over to see it I felt like I was in a mob movie or something… here’s where you see the back room where the secret poker games take place. Anyway, the food was good.
Tonight we tried to have Guitarman tuck Wee Laddie in… didn’t go so well. He was very upset, crying a lot. The manager of the hotel called to check on him. She told me that someone said he was outside, but I guess she could hear that he was in the room with me ‘cause she said, 'All ist klar,' and hung up. Now I don’t know if that was really the whole story or what but it made us uncomfortable. Guitarman was worried that someone who hates Americans might report us for something we didn’t do and the police would come arrest us or whatever… I was annoyed that we were having to make different choices than we want to just for the sake of placating other guests at the hotel. I mean, I’m sorry our child was crying and I wouldn’t want to keep the other guests awake or anything, but we still need to do what’s best for our son. We’ve only been here a few days but I already feel like we’ve got to get out of this hotel if it’s going to mean that we’re not free to make the choices we need to make for the best of all of us.
Had dinner at the döner kebap (Turkish food) in Seubersdorf (a town where there’s a house we’re going to look at on Sunday). We always get a good workout for our German when we go to foreign-food restaurants run by people for whom German is a 2nd language… they frequently don’t speak English so we’re on our own. It was sort of a weird little place--part restaurant part cyber café, I guess (although the computers there weren’t on). The owner showed us a game room in the back (not sure why but he seemed to like us) that had pool tables & stuff. At first when he was calling me over to see it I felt like I was in a mob movie or something… here’s where you see the back room where the secret poker games take place. Anyway, the food was good.
Tonight we tried to have Guitarman tuck Wee Laddie in… didn’t go so well. He was very upset, crying a lot. The manager of the hotel called to check on him. She told me that someone said he was outside, but I guess she could hear that he was in the room with me ‘cause she said, 'All ist klar,' and hung up. Now I don’t know if that was really the whole story or what but it made us uncomfortable. Guitarman was worried that someone who hates Americans might report us for something we didn’t do and the police would come arrest us or whatever… I was annoyed that we were having to make different choices than we want to just for the sake of placating other guests at the hotel. I mean, I’m sorry our child was crying and I wouldn’t want to keep the other guests awake or anything, but we still need to do what’s best for our son. We’ve only been here a few days but I already feel like we’ve got to get out of this hotel if it’s going to mean that we’re not free to make the choices we need to make for the best of all of us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)