A Deviated Path

Friday, April 07, 2006

Bed time

I've now been awake for 30 hours. I'm going to bed.

Written at 4:13 PM by Highlandgal.

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Pretty afternoon

Here we are with our little girlies hanging at the neighborhood playground this afternoon:

Written at 4:10 PM by Highlandgal.

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First German food

It should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that our first meal in Germany was Taco Bell. But only because we happened to be doing chores on base at lunchtime and ate at the food court.

Tonight we went out for real German food. I cannot remember the name of the restaurant but B. refers to it as Bigger Than Your Head Schnitzel. And he wasn't kidding. I'm including this picture of Gingey on my blog (instead of sending in to Jamie) for scale and because it's not necessarily a good example for Gingey to be hitting the beer already. We'll have better pictures for Jacob. I got my schnitzel plainert. There were four menu pages of schnitzel to choose from but it was all in German and I was afraid of blindly choosing some sauce that would ruin my meal for me. I think the truth is that my schnitzel was As Wide As My Pelvis Schnitzel. There is plenty left over in the refrigerator. I did much better than my brother whose Chicken Cordon Bleu was as big as his butt cheek.

If Gingey doesn't give you a good idea of the scale of that plate and the food, just look at the standard size knife beside the plate.

Written at 3:52 PM by Highlandgal.

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German drivers are psycho

Getting around in traffic is a dizzying and horrifying experience. Everything is done at maximum speed and it makes my stomach lurch. But somehow every psycho German driver is on the same wavelength so it works. B. says that's because they all know the rules and follow them. But the way people tear around in their cars is much too much for this booster for safe following distances.

Written at 3:42 PM by Highlandgal.

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Noni's Report, Day 1

Noni's description that accompanied this picture:

"Emma had a great time at bathtime tonight. She got so excited over her (new) play things. She dumped the bucket of water on her face of couple of times, but after the initial shock she broke into a big ole grin. She yakked and squealed at the characters on the sides of the tub and generally had a great time.

Labels: Emma's report

Written at 4:55 AM by Highlandgal.

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We have arrived safely

Yes, indeed, we are here. We were pretty well on time for arrival. B. said he and his son were standing there for about 30 seconds when we came through the door.

Right now it's 10:38 a.m. (in Germany) and C. is downstairs watching TV. We're waiting for K. to come home and take us to get our IDs for getting on base. I've unpacked our things. They provided space for us very nicely. We even had gifts waiting for us on our pillows. A bottle of wine, beer and some chocolates. Woo hoo!

As far as I know the plan is to chill out here this afternoon and then go out to eat at an Italian place called Europa for supper. I'm told we're doing De Kartoffle tomorrow.

My impression so far:

Going 130 on the autobahn was a thrill. Not my favorite kind of thrill. Unfortunately the autobahn is also now plagued with stop and go traffic. B. was later getting back to work than he planned to be.

The officious dudes checking our passports at Frankfurt cracked me up.

This area geographically reminds me of the Charlottesville, VA area.

I did notice the clusters of houses (villages) from the air with lots of cultivated fields in between. Very interesting.

They try to feed you too much on the plane. I just had to skip meals or pick at stuff. It's a long plane ride, there's no way to get around that. It would have been handy if I could have slept some. But oh well. We've been awake 24 hours now...

So basically, have been in Germany for about three hours. Will report back when I actually have something to report. Oh, and need to find B's camera cord before I can upload any pictures. So far there isn't much anyway. We need to actually DO something first.

Labels: Germany

Written at 4:46 AM by Highlandgal.

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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Waiting for Daddy

The weather is a far cry from Sunday. But pretty nice if you're in the sun.

Written at 5:36 PM by Highlandgal.

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My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

I worked until noon and then came home to finish packing. In just a little while I'll head back to town to pick up Emma. So the countdown begins. M. is working regular schedule today so he'll be home sometime after 6:30 p.m. The plan is to eat supper (canned pot roast), give Emma her bath, put her in her pajamas and head for Noni and Popi's to spend the night.

We need to be at the airport tomorrow by 10:30 so we'll leave from Noni's about 8:00 a.m. or so. Emma and Noni are going with us to the airport. I'm thinking that will be hard.

We fly from Dulles to Detroit, where we will have a layover of about three hours before boarding the plane to Frankfurt. Since M. is a big Detroit Tigers fan we plan to hit the shops in the terminal and see what goodies we can find. I'm a reluctant flyer at best, so every moment on the ground is grace to me.

I'm not sure how blogging will go. I hope to get on and update with some pictures, but I don't want to do it at the expense of time with my brother and his family. So we'll see how it goes. We're taking Gingey with us so that will add an extra element of fun. You can read about his travels here on Jamie's blog.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Written at 2:29 PM by Highlandgal.

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Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Soft Lips

She's holding a tube of Soft Lips lip balm. It's cool cherry flavor. She loves to play with it. What she really likes to do is jam her finger in the tube and dig out the lip balm and eat it. I don't particularly appreciate this behavior. Still...look who has the tube.

Written at 8:59 PM by Highlandgal.

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More sunny day photos

Since the recent photos have been lacking I return you to Sunday's leftovers. It's my gift to you since things might be lean for a few days. I know, I'm a giver ;)

Written at 8:42 PM by Highlandgal.

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Monday, April 03, 2006

Monday, Monday

No pics today. Never touched my camera.

This evening I've actually been doing some packing. We pulled out all the pieces of luggage that Noni and Popi loaned us so we could get an idea of the available space. I think we'll have plenty of room. More than plenty. But we're taking them all because we'd like to have room to bring stuff back. Tomorrow will be the big laundry night. Then I'll have things nearly finalized. I only work till noon on Wednesday so I can finish that afternoon and we'll leave for Noni's after supper and Emma's bath.

The babysitter's day off worked out pretty good. M. took Emma to his mom's until she had to leave to take a friend to the doctor's. Then M. took her home for lunch and a nap. Or that was the plan anyway. Except Emma went to sleep at Grandma G's so the afternoon nap was out. He just played with her for a while and then brought her to me at work. I had her with me from 3:00-5:00 p.m. It takes a lot of energy to keep up with her because she is constantly "exploring." After work the two of us headed home. From about 4:00 p.m. on she was a whiny pants. No afternoon nap at all makes for a cranky, demanding toddler. By the time M. got home Emma and I had had about enough of each other. Sigh. I know she was just tired, but sheesh.

Written at 9:47 PM by Highlandgal.

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Sunday, April 02, 2006

It works every time

Even when you don't want it to. She can rarely make it through the two mile walk without falling asleep.