Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Congratulations Bas!
Bas got his birthday present early this year... he got the promotion! So this is what happened - the guy that hired Bas - head of the PMO got a new job a couple months ago. He recommended Bas and so Bas applied for his job, and got it! We'll get a small increase - but more importantly, a new paygrade - senior manager, and a company car!! And company cars here are serious fun - BMWs, Audis and the like!!
Can you believe it? 3 months on the job and already promoted!!
Congratulations Bas!
Can you believe it? 3 months on the job and already promoted!!
Congratulations Bas!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
White Spot Disease
It's sweater weather!! The high today was 60 - it was a gorgeous day, but definitely chilly! The rest of the week the highs are not supposed to get out of the 50s!!
Bas and I have white spot disease... we got home today to take a shower before we went out for dinner and we were both covered with white dots... can't imagine what has caused it. Fortunately Luna doesn't have it!
We spent the afternoon yesterday, and most of the day today painting. The red color in the living room turned out to be easier to cover than expected, but it still took 2 coats of white - and this is before we can put up the color! (which I am assuming will take at least 2 coats, too!) The blue color in the office is worse than expected. It's not matte and, the paint just slides across it. It's awful. We will be able to do it in two coats, but one coat takes forever to put up, because you really have to lay the paint on thick... Biggest reason it took so long this weekend - we ended up having to paint the ceilings, too. And we ran out fo paint. It's not like teh US where you can just run to teh store eventhough it's Sunday! Oh well - we got our rest!
We got the test patches up for the colors, so we're about ready to finalize downstairs. Still have to do all the taping and prep in 3 uptairs rooms before we can even get started up there. Since we're doing all the registration and inspection work on the car tomorrow and Tuesday- most likely won't get back to painting until later this week... but a break is probably good, too! At least teh white spots won't be back until then!! :)
Bas and I have white spot disease... we got home today to take a shower before we went out for dinner and we were both covered with white dots... can't imagine what has caused it. Fortunately Luna doesn't have it!
We spent the afternoon yesterday, and most of the day today painting. The red color in the living room turned out to be easier to cover than expected, but it still took 2 coats of white - and this is before we can put up the color! (which I am assuming will take at least 2 coats, too!) The blue color in the office is worse than expected. It's not matte and, the paint just slides across it. It's awful. We will be able to do it in two coats, but one coat takes forever to put up, because you really have to lay the paint on thick... Biggest reason it took so long this weekend - we ended up having to paint the ceilings, too. And we ran out fo paint. It's not like teh US where you can just run to teh store eventhough it's Sunday! Oh well - we got our rest!
We got the test patches up for the colors, so we're about ready to finalize downstairs. Still have to do all the taping and prep in 3 uptairs rooms before we can even get started up there. Since we're doing all the registration and inspection work on the car tomorrow and Tuesday- most likely won't get back to painting until later this week... but a break is probably good, too! At least teh white spots won't be back until then!! :)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Pics of house!
Hey- we got the keys to the house today. Here is a link to the set on flickr with the pictures... it is uploading as I type, so it may take a few minutes before they are all there. I'm on my way out the door...
http://flickr.com/photos/lunacolette/sets/72157607245637738/
http://flickr.com/photos/lunacolette/sets/72157607245637738/
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Once Again...
i stand corrected... "KGs" in my post below shoudl have been "GMs!" Silly me. I knew I wasn't talking 600 or 100 kilos, but kgs, didn't sound do dominatingly heavy!!
Excuse Me...
Bas has just corrected me... we bought a THIRTY-SEVEN inch TV last weekend, not a 32" one!
Cabbage
So I am finally resorting to a homepathic remedy for a clogged milk duct. Luna and I had our last nursing two weeks ago, and now I have a clogged duct. I've been doing everything I can to get it to go away, but I finally decided to buy some cabbage today to use a cabbage leaf compress. The last thing I want right now is mastitis.
So anyway - my point is... I understand why Germans eat so much saur kraut and coleslaw, now! The cabbage heads here are HUGE! The smallest one I could find still weighed like 600kg!
POST DR. update - Luna has gained 100kg herself!
So anyway - my point is... I understand why Germans eat so much saur kraut and coleslaw, now! The cabbage heads here are HUGE! The smallest one I could find still weighed like 600kg!
POST DR. update - Luna has gained 100kg herself!
Updates...
Hey everybody- just wanted to post an update so that you all know what's going on here lately...
Luna gets a booster shot today. Poor thing - she doesn't know what's coming.
We get the keys to our house tomorrow. YAY! We don't plan to move in until October, but this way we will get everything ready before we move in. This includes painting at least 4 rooms and installing new carpet. The paint in there currently is pretty dark, so we will likely have to do a couple base coats first. Fun. But worth it! At least we have lots of time!
We got a new TV last weekend. Got a good price on a 32" LCD (can't believe what we spent on ours only 2 years ago!) Hopefully we can get that in stalled early as well, so that we have the satellite all figured out once we are ready to move in. They use PAL here, so we're not sure if teh one we already have will work w/ teh satellite or not - but we need 2 anyway, so we can figure out teh American one later. We will have 2 satellites, so that we can get English TV from GB, and Dutch TV from NL.
We should be picking up the Subaru on Monday. It will get temp plates, and inspected that afternoon - then the following day we will take it to get the conversion work it needs done (headlights, etc.) So hopefully we will have that by the end of next week!
Going to a party tomorrow with the new friend I met at the grocery store. Will be nice to meet her husband and have Bas meet them, too!
Next week one evening I will be going to the IWG charity workshop. Bas gets to stay home with Luna!
Bas's parents are coming the weekend of his birthday. (The 21st.) Looking forward to seeing them again, and will enjoy a break from all the painting!
Expect we will get eth carpet installed the week after that, and schedule the moving truck week 1 October - as well as making a big Ikea purchase on furniture, and hopefully finding a good deal on a washer and dryer before we need it in teh new house. Hopefully we will have the keys to this apt until 10/15 to make that transition a little easier!
Oh - and Luna is walking all the time now. Barely crawls anymore at all. Even if she falls, she gets back up and walks. (She falls alot! 2 bruises on her face!) Apparently she has some competition in her little cousin Jake, so she's working hard! She's a very busy girl!!
Gotta run off to the pediatrician - but also wante to mention I just finished this book called "The Amateur Marriage" by the same author who wrote "The Accidental Tourist" which I've never read, but I found this in eth very small English speaking section of teh library here. Anyway - absolutley loved it. A bit sad, but a very beautiful chronicle of 60 years for one couple. Extremely well written.
TTFN!
Luna gets a booster shot today. Poor thing - she doesn't know what's coming.
We get the keys to our house tomorrow. YAY! We don't plan to move in until October, but this way we will get everything ready before we move in. This includes painting at least 4 rooms and installing new carpet. The paint in there currently is pretty dark, so we will likely have to do a couple base coats first. Fun. But worth it! At least we have lots of time!
We got a new TV last weekend. Got a good price on a 32" LCD (can't believe what we spent on ours only 2 years ago!) Hopefully we can get that in stalled early as well, so that we have the satellite all figured out once we are ready to move in. They use PAL here, so we're not sure if teh one we already have will work w/ teh satellite or not - but we need 2 anyway, so we can figure out teh American one later. We will have 2 satellites, so that we can get English TV from GB, and Dutch TV from NL.
We should be picking up the Subaru on Monday. It will get temp plates, and inspected that afternoon - then the following day we will take it to get the conversion work it needs done (headlights, etc.) So hopefully we will have that by the end of next week!
Going to a party tomorrow with the new friend I met at the grocery store. Will be nice to meet her husband and have Bas meet them, too!
Next week one evening I will be going to the IWG charity workshop. Bas gets to stay home with Luna!
Bas's parents are coming the weekend of his birthday. (The 21st.) Looking forward to seeing them again, and will enjoy a break from all the painting!
Expect we will get eth carpet installed the week after that, and schedule the moving truck week 1 October - as well as making a big Ikea purchase on furniture, and hopefully finding a good deal on a washer and dryer before we need it in teh new house. Hopefully we will have the keys to this apt until 10/15 to make that transition a little easier!
Oh - and Luna is walking all the time now. Barely crawls anymore at all. Even if she falls, she gets back up and walks. (She falls alot! 2 bruises on her face!) Apparently she has some competition in her little cousin Jake, so she's working hard! She's a very busy girl!!
Gotta run off to the pediatrician - but also wante to mention I just finished this book called "The Amateur Marriage" by the same author who wrote "The Accidental Tourist" which I've never read, but I found this in eth very small English speaking section of teh library here. Anyway - absolutley loved it. A bit sad, but a very beautiful chronicle of 60 years for one couple. Extremely well written.
TTFN!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The Welcoming Committee
So when Bas and I first got here we started going to a little gasthaus that is just one little town over from the town our temporary apartment is in. We live in Munchaurach, and the next town over is named Falkendorf. We can even walk there quite easily. We found that the gasthaus had great schnitzel, and a nice place to sit outside. There was always a group of locals there as well, drinking beer, doing shots and smoking - mostly old men, but some children with them as well. We felt a little like we were under the microscope - after all Falkendorf probably has a population of a couple hundred or so, but like I said - the food was good, and the service pretty decent. And we felt pretty confident in our ability to be friendly and speak decent German.
When Bas's parents came for a visit we decided to take them there on their first night here. So we drove up and parked and made a bt of a spectacle of ourselves when we had to flag down his parents in the street so they didn't drive by - but were very excited to share an authentic Franconian dinner with them.
Bas went in to ask for the "kinderstuhl" which we had taken outside both times before. Bas returned soon and announced that the highchair was broken - AND we were going somewhere else. Turns out that the proprietor informed him (I imagine with a smirk) that it was broken. Bas got the message... we weren't welcome.
Honestly - it didn't surprise me. I guess the scrutiny we seemed to have attracted on our previous visits made it almost seem expected. So we went somewhere else - and had a very nice meal. And of course decided that we wouldn' be checking back to find out when the highchair got fixed. Too bad - they had great schnitzel. We even joked about it when we would drive by - talking about how the little town was probably like the one in Texas Chain Saw Massacre or one of those horror flicks, and that if we tempted fate we'd end up being tortured in some dingey basement and becoming the latest delicacy du'jour for the locals or something!
So it shouldn't have been a surprise when I noticed yesterday that high up on almost every single light post, where no one could possibly tamper with them, was a sign for a political party called the NPD. The signs are red, black and white, with a big Nazi-esque X on them, and proclaim "Sozial geht nur Nazional!" (my spelling is off I'm sure.) So ofcourse I googled the NPD when I got home. Turns out they're the neo-nazi party of modern Germany, very conservative, very anti-foreigner, and basically insane. (Look it up on Wikipedia - they even have a picture of a similar propoganda sign) I can't even believe that there are really people like that out there, let alone enough to fill a small village! Guess that explains the kinderstuhl. And even though I keep thinking about their schnitzel, I guess we definitely won't be going back for more - for fear that an angry mob of local villagers show up at our door in the middle of the night with torches and pitch forks! So much for the welcoming committee...
When Bas's parents came for a visit we decided to take them there on their first night here. So we drove up and parked and made a bt of a spectacle of ourselves when we had to flag down his parents in the street so they didn't drive by - but were very excited to share an authentic Franconian dinner with them.
Bas went in to ask for the "kinderstuhl" which we had taken outside both times before. Bas returned soon and announced that the highchair was broken - AND we were going somewhere else. Turns out that the proprietor informed him (I imagine with a smirk) that it was broken. Bas got the message... we weren't welcome.
Honestly - it didn't surprise me. I guess the scrutiny we seemed to have attracted on our previous visits made it almost seem expected. So we went somewhere else - and had a very nice meal. And of course decided that we wouldn' be checking back to find out when the highchair got fixed. Too bad - they had great schnitzel. We even joked about it when we would drive by - talking about how the little town was probably like the one in Texas Chain Saw Massacre or one of those horror flicks, and that if we tempted fate we'd end up being tortured in some dingey basement and becoming the latest delicacy du'jour for the locals or something!
So it shouldn't have been a surprise when I noticed yesterday that high up on almost every single light post, where no one could possibly tamper with them, was a sign for a political party called the NPD. The signs are red, black and white, with a big Nazi-esque X on them, and proclaim "Sozial geht nur Nazional!" (my spelling is off I'm sure.) So ofcourse I googled the NPD when I got home. Turns out they're the neo-nazi party of modern Germany, very conservative, very anti-foreigner, and basically insane. (Look it up on Wikipedia - they even have a picture of a similar propoganda sign) I can't even believe that there are really people like that out there, let alone enough to fill a small village! Guess that explains the kinderstuhl. And even though I keep thinking about their schnitzel, I guess we definitely won't be going back for more - for fear that an angry mob of local villagers show up at our door in the middle of the night with torches and pitch forks! So much for the welcoming committee...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
More pictures...
So yesterday while we were out and about I picked up this little toy stroller for Luna. She has taken a strong interest in her stroller (like when I let her down at the playground (spielplatz) she just wants to push her stroller) and I found this one for only 8 euros. She LOVES it. I also wanted to get some pictures of her in these adorable little tights she has on today. It's been hard to find dresses for her here, but I did manage to find these cute little shorts that look a bit like lederhosen - although their corduroy.
The drawing is a little art project we did yesterday. I couldn't find any really big tablets of paper for her to draw on, so in order to save the floors here I got a big roll of craft paper. I did the outline obviously, but she did most of the scribbles. She was more intersted in eating the crayons, though!
The drawing is a little art project we did yesterday. I couldn't find any really big tablets of paper for her to draw on, so in order to save the floors here I got a big roll of craft paper. I did the outline obviously, but she did most of the scribbles. She was more intersted in eating the crayons, though!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Pictures
Here are some pictures from this weekend. Luna got some new shoes I'm really excited about. Since summer is over, soon we won't be able to go around barefoot, otherwise old ladies at the grocery store will tell me she needs shoes... We needed something leather so that she can't destroy them by crawling. And they needed laces, or elastic - not velcro, so that she can't pull them off. So I've been looking and looking here, and even sent my Mom off to get me some from the states, bcause all the leather ones here are at LEAST 30 euros - but the good ones are even 60! (Don't worry Mom - if you sent any - we'll still get good use out of them!!) So we found the ones in the pictures on sale, in her size for 20!
The pictures of buildings are downtoen Herzo, as are the ones of Bas and Luna in the playground. The lilly pond and frog are from the botanical gardens in Erlangen.
The pictures of buildings are downtoen Herzo, as are the ones of Bas and Luna in the playground. The lilly pond and frog are from the botanical gardens in Erlangen.
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