A few tidbits for you all. This time more military oriented.
As I may or may not have mentioned, we are presently in "PCS Season." "PCS" is short for permanent change of station. Whenever someone is stationed at a base for around a year or more on orders, typically he or she is "permanently" stationed there. There are other acronyms for temporary stationing and deployment, but that is a subject for another post.
Due to PCS Season, J's chief and commanding officers are getting rotated out and new ones are rotating in. In the interim, she is presently acting OIC (officer in charge) for her group. Really, I think the only thing she does differently right now is sign leave papers. She's already signed one:) However, I still think it's a neat little thing to have happen so soon, even if it's only temporary.
Her new OIC is now in town and we got to drive her around a little bit this morning. Her husband is a Major in the JAG Corps just as she is and they also have a baby they have brought along. Of the little time I got to chat with her, she seems to be quite nice. I feel like she and J will get along well.
We also got to see two new-born babies yesterday. As part of a little volunteer program J's group did, J made a dinner for two families. The food she made was, of course, amazing. They two little ones were so cute, and both small...6lbs and change at birth each!
On the work front, I now walk a dog daily for pay. He's a cutie...an 8 month old golden retriever. Loves to fetch, be petted, and go for strolls. It works well as his owner is one of J's co-workers who works late frequently, I could use the cash, and it is actually a job I enjoy...probably the first job I've ever had that I actually enjoy going to do. It's also something that I do everyday anyway. They are also located right by where J works, which makes it all the easier. We're thinking that if I can get a few more gigs like this, I could bring in a significant amount of money. J already knows another co-worker who has already expressed interest.
I went to a career fair last week. It was interesting how it was formatted a little differently because of the environment. Almost all of the booths were very eagerly looking for hires and were taking lots of resumes. It was also interesting how the location was a big part of things. Some booths were looking for people PCS-ing back to the states whereas others were looking for people who would be staying in Germany for a while. The focus was also narrower than I anticipated. Most jobs were only looking for computer-, intelligence-, or mechanically-skilled individuals. I actually felt like I had a bit of an edge with my background. However, most of the booths were specifically looking for military service members. We'll see if I get further fallout from it. I've already received an email from one company and a phone call from another. I'll keep hopeful.
J's really picking up on embroidery as a craft/hobby, so if any of you have any little things you'd like to send her, please do! She likes the more advanced embroidery items.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Good steak, bad driving
Da, Da, DAAAAAA!
Got this in the mail today. I know exactly when and where I got this picture taken. I was having a crazy hurried day, and while on the road, I saw a big flash in the middle of the day from the median where a known speed camera was located. I told J right away at the time because I didn't know if it would affect her record with the military in any way. From what we know, it won't, which is good news.
Granted, this was in the middle of May, but I finally got the ticket...all 15 euro of it. Pretty good mug shot, I must say, but what the heck is that on my right shoulder? I can't quite figure out if that's a jacket I was wearing or what. Apparently, it says I was only going 6kph over the speed limit. That's actually pretty generous, because I know for a fact I was going 13kph over. Eh, I'll take what I can get.
It's actually pretty good news all around considering. Only 15 euro, which is kind of a joke actually. The most serious bit is that this is 3 points against my record for the year. If you hit 12 points in a year, you get your license suspended or worse. I also now know where one of the speed cameras is.
On the flipside today, I grilled some killer awesome steak. I'm finally getting into the swing of steaks. I also figured out a different way of cooking brats and dogs without getting a single grill mark on them. Mmmmm. I'm slowly getting better at being the house cook.
I also attended a career fair today. It was worth going to. Got lots of new leads. I also may be dog-walking as a side job pretty soon, which would be a slick way of making money too.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Oh Belgium...let me count the ways...
This past four-day vacation, J and I went to Belgium. We learned a lot on our journey. Allow me to recount.
July 13
We left early in the morning...ok, that's a lie. We left probably 5 hours after we intended to. Well, we both needed the sleep. We were up until midnight the night before. The good news: it's only a 4 hour drive to Antwerp, our home base in Belgium this trip, and the hotel didn't check in until 2pm. I found a killer deal on LonelyPlanet.com...quite randomly actually. When I compared to the advertized rates at the hotel, it looks like we paid about half of the typical rate.
It rained the majority of the day and was overcast the entire day. Enroute to Antwerp, we saw a mannequin in the middle of the highway, dressed as a construction worker, with his hand holding a flag and slowly swaying it back and forth. We both did a double-take and laughed. Little did we know that this situation would show up again later on.
We got to Antwerp, and sadly missed several of the things we wanted to see because most of the sights were closed. We did, however, see the Guild Halls at the Grote Markt, checked out Brabo fountain with the Roman chucking the hand of a giant, the exterior of the very large and sprawled out cathedral which was surprisingly surrounded by row building so only the main gates could be seen, and had some crazy awesome tapas for dinner.
This is St. Ursula's Church, literally merged with the surrounding buildings.
This was is the basement of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Upon excavation to begin construction, they found the remnants of not one, but two older buildings. The first (the bold dotted lines on the layout below) were believed to have been city walls built around 300AD. The second was the foundation for a church of which much of the foundation was completely intact as well as some tombs. The artwork found indicates that the church was built around 1300AD. They allowed the hotel to be built provided that the hotel allow the public to see a display of the old site for free.
Here is the inside of the old church foundations, now carpeted and being used as a reception hall!
We learned that restrooms ain't free in Belgium, at least very rarely. The public ones in Antwerp, Brussels, and Bruges cost about a half a euro per person for use.
We then crashed and planned on getting up early the next morning for our trip to Bruges.
July 14
Major fail at getting up early. We got to Bruges, but literally looped around the town center 5 times before finding parking, which was actually pretty well placed. At this point, J was about to lose it with me as it was already the early afternoon. There was, however, a flea market going on, so she immediately felt better about that.
Oh yeah, it rained almost the entire time this day too.
Bruges immediately had a more french feel to it.
We also swung by the Bell Tower, had some fries with absolutely AWESOME curry sauce, and saw more crazy awesome Guild Halls in the Grote Markt. We also saw a lot of really nice medieval art at the Groeninge Museum, went through a very pretty courtyard, could only see part of the interior of the cathedral due to a wedding and then a mass, and then went on a beer tour, and saw a lot of swans. The beer tour was interesting in that I understood absolutely all of the chemistry and tools involved, and the interior smelled quite potently of hops, malt, and beer. Oh, and there were more random mannequins in the brewery. J liked the beer that the brewery made (free as a part of the tour). Bear in mind that the majority of this town is completely intertwined with canals, which give it a more open feel too.
One of the canals that weaves through Bruges.
Here was a little patch of land where swans and ducks claimed their own little property.
I guess Bruges is artist central. We saw a lot of random artists painting in various places in the city.
We had some crazy awesome italian at Carlito's, and then went back to crash again. Failure to get up early tomorrow was not an option.
My personal favorite part of this leg of the trip was ordering the fries. While waiting in line, there were five old ladies in front of me speaking german, two young men speaking some asian language (J was guessing Korean), I ordered in English (as did the Koreans and the Italians), the young family behind me spoke either spanish or italian, and the vendors understood and spoke all of it, including french and flemish (a native Belgian language similar to german) to each other. It was crazy that I could even understand that these were the different languages being spoken. It would be even crazier if I could speak all of them.
We thought about seeing the north coast before leaving as it was only 10km away, but because of the rain, we decided against it. We'll save that for another trip.
July 15 - J's Birthday
As part of J's birthday, I found that coincidentally, the second largest flea market in Europe takes place in Tongeren, Belgium...only a one hour drive away from Antwerp, and occurs every single Sunday morning.
It rained all morning...again...which actually turned out to be a good thing in a way.
The "Antithek" was HUGE. It consisted of tons of people all selling a bunch of old stuff at their own little stands. The market sprawled around the perimeter of three solid city blocks and completely filled the interior of three large buildings (a town hall, one floor of a parking ramp, and the stretch of a mall). Items being sold ranged from furniture, to silverware, old pocket watches, rings, African statues, ivory tusks, Lenin communist Russia memorabilia (my favorite), wooden clocks, very old post cards, records, clothing, leather working tools, door hinges and fixtures, paintings...you name it, and they pretty much had it. That includes more mannequins :)
Lots of rain, which was the standard for every day in Belgium.
One shot from inside the town hall. Sorry for the bad picture quality.
I personally like this piece, but I certainly did not "500 euro" like it.
There were TONS of old postcards and pictures for J to peruse through. And peruse she did!
The good thing about the rain is that it was a great filter for determining crap items from quality items. A lot of people just let their furniture, paintings, and wares get rained on...huge indicator that it was worth nothing. Having been tempted by many items, but ultimately buying nothing, it was still well into the morning, so we decided to check out Brussels.
Again, finding some prime parking, we checked out the Grote Markt, the most impressive Guild Halls of the entire trip, the Galerie du St. Hubert, Restaurant Row where servers lived up to their reputations of aggressively marketing to touristy passers-by, and we saw the infamous Mannequin Pis. We then rotated onto Upper Town and saw the under-construction Justice Hall (friggin' HUGE), the Atomium (from a distance), one of the cathedrals, a disappointing but big garden, and a decent view of the Lower Town. We bought a TON of chocolate, and were pleased to find a t-shirt sold in a souvenir shop saying, "It rains in Belgium." We couldn't agree more. I was beginning to notice that the locals were a lot like the locals in Fort William, Scotland: it rains the light, misty rain so frequently, that they don't even bother with umbrellas, rain jackets, or hats.
The Galerie du St. Hubert was a really cool outdoor/indoor mall stretch. It looked like a gorgeous central train station without the trains or the seedy people.
This was Brussels town hall at Grote Markt (essentially town square, literally translated as Great Market).
Some of the Guild Halls...
More of the Guild Halls...
The Guild Halls are so impressive because, after all being leveled during one of the many wars, they were all rebuild with the greatest grandeur possible. How did they afford all of it? Well, diamonds and gold are the major trade in Belgium, so it was easy for them to come up with the money.
We witnessed our first sunlight in Belgium that afternoon. It lasted only about 5 minutes, but it was kind of a surreal moment.
Some statues killing other statues while some clerics sit by and watch :)
The famous Mannequin Pis. Yes, he's literally pissing, and everyone seems happy about it.
This was a pretty neat garden, with a great fountain and lots of statues of all of the local legends...most notably, the guy who first put the round earth into a flat map.
I couldn't help myself. I thought this shop name was awesome!
We had dinner at an Indian Restaurant, of all cuisines, and the food was fantastic. The head server was very friendly to us.
One thing I also noticed in Brussels, was that the vendors were so good at figuring out peoples' native languages, and speaking them, that they literally just had to look at you and could figure out where you were from. J and I were pinned as Americans immediately by the vendors. I also saw them pin down French and Flemish tourists. It was pretty impressive.
We went to back to the hotel, and the Ramada Hotel staff (who all spoke very good English), referred to me as "Mister Zhager." I now understand the joke my dad always used to have around the house naming us "Zhazhay." It made me smile and remember my dad.
July 16
No screwing around now. We had to check out at noon. We succeeded, and decided last minute to visit Ghent, since we were in the neighborhood. It was a good call.
Unlike the other cities we visited, it had a more college and less touristy atmosphere, actually had a castle, and had a free bathroom in the parking garage. We got out of the parking garage to find that we were immediately under a temporary amusement park. Well, wouldn't be hard to find our way back to the car this time!
We spent the day wandering around the town. We started with some serious seafood lunch. J had a kebab of meat and I had a glorious seafood soup. Oh yeah, it was raining all day this day too, and again, the locals were easy to pick out.
Pretty much a mish-mash of different types of seafood, but it was the best soup/stew I had in a long while.
We toured the Gravensteen Castle which was mediocre compared to other castles in some ways, but impressive in other ways: it was the first we've seen to still have a moat and the castle actually functioned more as a dungeon run by a governor or Count.
Gravensteen Castle...
Seriously, why were the handles so huge? I don't even know if I could hold a sword as tall as me.
I liked how this stairwell looked. J thought that it looked a lot like the stairwells should be in Winterfell in the Game of Thrones. From that moment, we decided that we discovered Winterfell.
I joked about this being the red-leaved weirwood at Winterfell.
We did a little shopping, shared a waffle, played some cards in a nice cafe, then headed home. Oh, we also got to say goodbye to the mannequin construction worker on the way.
I'll post some of the pictures that J took too ASAP.
July 13
We left early in the morning...ok, that's a lie. We left probably 5 hours after we intended to. Well, we both needed the sleep. We were up until midnight the night before. The good news: it's only a 4 hour drive to Antwerp, our home base in Belgium this trip, and the hotel didn't check in until 2pm. I found a killer deal on LonelyPlanet.com...quite randomly actually. When I compared to the advertized rates at the hotel, it looks like we paid about half of the typical rate.
It rained the majority of the day and was overcast the entire day. Enroute to Antwerp, we saw a mannequin in the middle of the highway, dressed as a construction worker, with his hand holding a flag and slowly swaying it back and forth. We both did a double-take and laughed. Little did we know that this situation would show up again later on.
We got to Antwerp, and sadly missed several of the things we wanted to see because most of the sights were closed. We did, however, see the Guild Halls at the Grote Markt, checked out Brabo fountain with the Roman chucking the hand of a giant, the exterior of the very large and sprawled out cathedral which was surprisingly surrounded by row building so only the main gates could be seen, and had some crazy awesome tapas for dinner.
This is St. Ursula's Church, literally merged with the surrounding buildings.
As with many of the cities in Belgium, there were canals everywhere.
Here is the inside of the old church foundations, now carpeted and being used as a reception hall!
Here's some of the outside of the church foundation wall. The older city wall was visible to the left of this picture.
We learned that restrooms ain't free in Belgium, at least very rarely. The public ones in Antwerp, Brussels, and Bruges cost about a half a euro per person for use.
We then crashed and planned on getting up early the next morning for our trip to Bruges.
July 14
Major fail at getting up early. We got to Bruges, but literally looped around the town center 5 times before finding parking, which was actually pretty well placed. At this point, J was about to lose it with me as it was already the early afternoon. There was, however, a flea market going on, so she immediately felt better about that.
Oh yeah, it rained almost the entire time this day too.
Bruges immediately had a more french feel to it.
We also swung by the Bell Tower, had some fries with absolutely AWESOME curry sauce, and saw more crazy awesome Guild Halls in the Grote Markt. We also saw a lot of really nice medieval art at the Groeninge Museum, went through a very pretty courtyard, could only see part of the interior of the cathedral due to a wedding and then a mass, and then went on a beer tour, and saw a lot of swans. The beer tour was interesting in that I understood absolutely all of the chemistry and tools involved, and the interior smelled quite potently of hops, malt, and beer. Oh, and there were more random mannequins in the brewery. J liked the beer that the brewery made (free as a part of the tour). Bear in mind that the majority of this town is completely intertwined with canals, which give it a more open feel too.
One of the canals that weaves through Bruges.
Another view of the canals. The city Bell Tower is on the right. I also mused at the house construction being so low to the water level.
Here was a little patch of land where swans and ducks claimed their own little property.
I guess Bruges is artist central. We saw a lot of random artists painting in various places in the city.
My personal favorite part of this leg of the trip was ordering the fries. While waiting in line, there were five old ladies in front of me speaking german, two young men speaking some asian language (J was guessing Korean), I ordered in English (as did the Koreans and the Italians), the young family behind me spoke either spanish or italian, and the vendors understood and spoke all of it, including french and flemish (a native Belgian language similar to german) to each other. It was crazy that I could even understand that these were the different languages being spoken. It would be even crazier if I could speak all of them.
We thought about seeing the north coast before leaving as it was only 10km away, but because of the rain, we decided against it. We'll save that for another trip.
July 15 - J's Birthday
As part of J's birthday, I found that coincidentally, the second largest flea market in Europe takes place in Tongeren, Belgium...only a one hour drive away from Antwerp, and occurs every single Sunday morning.
It rained all morning...again...which actually turned out to be a good thing in a way.
The "Antithek" was HUGE. It consisted of tons of people all selling a bunch of old stuff at their own little stands. The market sprawled around the perimeter of three solid city blocks and completely filled the interior of three large buildings (a town hall, one floor of a parking ramp, and the stretch of a mall). Items being sold ranged from furniture, to silverware, old pocket watches, rings, African statues, ivory tusks, Lenin communist Russia memorabilia (my favorite), wooden clocks, very old post cards, records, clothing, leather working tools, door hinges and fixtures, paintings...you name it, and they pretty much had it. That includes more mannequins :)
Lots of rain, which was the standard for every day in Belgium.
One shot from inside the town hall. Sorry for the bad picture quality.
I personally like this piece, but I certainly did not "500 euro" like it.
There were TONS of old postcards and pictures for J to peruse through. And peruse she did!
Here's a shot from the parking lot level.
Lots of neat little knick-knacks. If I knew how to repair pocket watches, I could make a killing!
Again, finding some prime parking, we checked out the Grote Markt, the most impressive Guild Halls of the entire trip, the Galerie du St. Hubert, Restaurant Row where servers lived up to their reputations of aggressively marketing to touristy passers-by, and we saw the infamous Mannequin Pis. We then rotated onto Upper Town and saw the under-construction Justice Hall (friggin' HUGE), the Atomium (from a distance), one of the cathedrals, a disappointing but big garden, and a decent view of the Lower Town. We bought a TON of chocolate, and were pleased to find a t-shirt sold in a souvenir shop saying, "It rains in Belgium." We couldn't agree more. I was beginning to notice that the locals were a lot like the locals in Fort William, Scotland: it rains the light, misty rain so frequently, that they don't even bother with umbrellas, rain jackets, or hats.
The Galerie du St. Hubert was a really cool outdoor/indoor mall stretch. It looked like a gorgeous central train station without the trains or the seedy people.
This was Brussels town hall at Grote Markt (essentially town square, literally translated as Great Market).
Some of the Guild Halls...
More of the Guild Halls...
We witnessed our first sunlight in Belgium that afternoon. It lasted only about 5 minutes, but it was kind of a surreal moment.
Some statues killing other statues while some clerics sit by and watch :)
The famous Mannequin Pis. Yes, he's literally pissing, and everyone seems happy about it.
This was a pretty neat garden, with a great fountain and lots of statues of all of the local legends...most notably, the guy who first put the round earth into a flat map.
I couldn't help myself. I thought this shop name was awesome!
We had dinner at an Indian Restaurant, of all cuisines, and the food was fantastic. The head server was very friendly to us.
One thing I also noticed in Brussels, was that the vendors were so good at figuring out peoples' native languages, and speaking them, that they literally just had to look at you and could figure out where you were from. J and I were pinned as Americans immediately by the vendors. I also saw them pin down French and Flemish tourists. It was pretty impressive.
We went to back to the hotel, and the Ramada Hotel staff (who all spoke very good English), referred to me as "Mister Zhager." I now understand the joke my dad always used to have around the house naming us "Zhazhay." It made me smile and remember my dad.
July 16
No screwing around now. We had to check out at noon. We succeeded, and decided last minute to visit Ghent, since we were in the neighborhood. It was a good call.
Unlike the other cities we visited, it had a more college and less touristy atmosphere, actually had a castle, and had a free bathroom in the parking garage. We got out of the parking garage to find that we were immediately under a temporary amusement park. Well, wouldn't be hard to find our way back to the car this time!
We spent the day wandering around the town. We started with some serious seafood lunch. J had a kebab of meat and I had a glorious seafood soup. Oh yeah, it was raining all day this day too, and again, the locals were easy to pick out.
Pretty much a mish-mash of different types of seafood, but it was the best soup/stew I had in a long while.
We toured the Gravensteen Castle which was mediocre compared to other castles in some ways, but impressive in other ways: it was the first we've seen to still have a moat and the castle actually functioned more as a dungeon run by a governor or Count.
Gravensteen Castle...
Seriously, why were the handles so huge? I don't even know if I could hold a sword as tall as me.
I liked how this stairwell looked. J thought that it looked a lot like the stairwells should be in Winterfell in the Game of Thrones. From that moment, we decided that we discovered Winterfell.
I joked about this being the red-leaved weirwood at Winterfell.
We did a little shopping, shared a waffle, played some cards in a nice cafe, then headed home. Oh, we also got to say goodbye to the mannequin construction worker on the way.
I'll post some of the pictures that J took too ASAP.
Friday, July 6, 2012
I have needs...
While we didn't see the fireworks at the Ramstein Air Force Base on the Fourth of July, we did grill brats, play Scrabble, go on a Volksmarch in Bad Duerkheim, sample more local cuisine, and buy a kilo of fresh picked kirschen (cherries) and some homemade erdberre (raspberry) jam straight from a local farm. Etsy made sure to swipe a brat in the 20 seconds we left her alone in the backyard to guard the food. We then capped off the night with the Sound of Music. Having not seen that musical for about 10 years, I can confess to say that I actually like it. Very good singing and acting talent and very good filming shots, lighting, costumes, and angles.
Here are some pictures from the Volksmarch that J took...
Here we are at the first check point...
They had a dog corral of sorts. Yes, that's Etsy on the left...
Lots and lots of wine to be harvested in a few months...
Roughly translated, it says that the foundations were built around 1030, in the mid-1500's the abby was destroyed because of the Palatinate (the region officials) and some other person had some words, then the abby was ultimately donated to the state by an owner out of Heidelberg...
It must have been a very impressive abby...
Dinner later that day...
Yesterday, we bought some yard tools, a cranberry plant, some blackberry plants, some flower plants for our front yard, and some rindmulch also for the front yard; we tended the front and back yards; grilled some steaks in the pouring rain; and Skyped with some family who happened to be online while we were as well.
As sheets of rain came dumping down, we improvised by relaying the steaks through the window. I think we'll try this tactic again sometime.
The crazy thing is that now, it is Friday. We get another two days off together! I'm not quite sure what we'll do, since we already had a "weekend" of sorts, but this past week I was humbled to learn something: I have needs. What are these needs? A wife, charcoal grill, fire, good grilling meat, and the outdoors. I honestly don't know how I can happily live without these. I didn't realize it at the time, but I found out that J already knew this about me. She was the one who suggested an outdoor grilling. It was oh so good.
We're getting geared up for our trip to Belgium soon. The more I read about it, the more excited I get about it: lots of canals, castles, and museums, with diamonds, seafood, and markets. I expect we'll have lots of pictures to show when we get back.
A special shout out to the burning barrel-armed man's wife! The Sweet and Spicy Chicken recipe is absolutely awesome! I think I ended up eating 3/4ths of the entire recipe (in installments, of course). If anyone has good crock pot, or meat-focused recipes, please send them on down!
Here are some pictures from the Volksmarch that J took...
Here we are at the first check point...
They had a dog corral of sorts. Yes, that's Etsy on the left...
Lots and lots of wine to be harvested in a few months...
A pretty cool abby ruin...
Roughly translated, it says that the foundations were built around 1030, in the mid-1500's the abby was destroyed because of the Palatinate (the region officials) and some other person had some words, then the abby was ultimately donated to the state by an owner out of Heidelberg...
It must have been a very impressive abby...
Looks like lunch!
Etsy approved.
Dinner later that day...
Yesterday, we bought some yard tools, a cranberry plant, some blackberry plants, some flower plants for our front yard, and some rindmulch also for the front yard; we tended the front and back yards; grilled some steaks in the pouring rain; and Skyped with some family who happened to be online while we were as well.
As sheets of rain came dumping down, we improvised by relaying the steaks through the window. I think we'll try this tactic again sometime.
The crazy thing is that now, it is Friday. We get another two days off together! I'm not quite sure what we'll do, since we already had a "weekend" of sorts, but this past week I was humbled to learn something: I have needs. What are these needs? A wife, charcoal grill, fire, good grilling meat, and the outdoors. I honestly don't know how I can happily live without these. I didn't realize it at the time, but I found out that J already knew this about me. She was the one who suggested an outdoor grilling. It was oh so good.
We're getting geared up for our trip to Belgium soon. The more I read about it, the more excited I get about it: lots of canals, castles, and museums, with diamonds, seafood, and markets. I expect we'll have lots of pictures to show when we get back.
A special shout out to the burning barrel-armed man's wife! The Sweet and Spicy Chicken recipe is absolutely awesome! I think I ended up eating 3/4ths of the entire recipe (in installments, of course). If anyone has good crock pot, or meat-focused recipes, please send them on down!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
House is no longer mine
This week shall prove interesting as many new experiences are around the corner.
First, we received notice that our house has finally sold and the closing went well. To all those of you planning on selling a house, because we had powers of attorney take care of our closing, there was apparently a small added charge for that which we were not notified of until the day of closing. Even our realtor team was unable to explain why. The amount taken was quite negligible and certainly not worth fighting about, and the long-distance closing was quite smooth so I can't complain too much. The sale certainly takes a serious weight off of our financial shoulders. Yay!
Second, our next major destination for vacation is Belgium. Antwerp, Brussels, and Bruges are on the list, but we'll see if we don't get sucked into one of them for more than a day. LOTS of sights there, and LOTS of things that I know J will be excited about: a modern fashion museum, a large Sunday flea market (in Tongeren), a seafood market and restaurant road, and more!
Third, we are doing a Volksmarch on the 4th of July and are celebrating it with BBQ and fireworks with other ex-patriots. This is going to be interesting, because I would very much like to know where the fireworks will be held where Germany won't raise a stink about the lack of adherence to quiet hours. I'm also very much looking forward to being around some grilling. I haven't seen much outdoor grilling in Germany, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Oh, FYI, firepits are not allowed in Germany...only stove cooking. I guess I was a little spoiled on that one in the States.
Finally, the Euro Cup champs: Spain. When you look at their stats, they are doing something right: won Euro 2012, World Cup 2010, Euro 2008, gave up only one in-game goal the entire Euro Cup 2012 Tournament (not counting game deciding shoot out), I even heard rumors that they changed their playing style for the tournament so that it looked flashier than their more conservative playing just so the crowd would not be bored watching. I honestly couldn't help but look at their on-field formation tactics which continuously change.
J's birthday is coming up, so I would like all readers to wish her a Happy Birthday! Her wish list is on Amazon.com if you seek gift ideas. Note that if you ship from the States, things take a minimum of two weeks to get here.
Sorry about the delay uploading pictures. I also heard rumors that the video's I posted of D-Rock and K's wedding are not viewable. Please comment on whatever page this applies to and I'll see if I can reload said media.
A special shout out to Kaleb. Congrats of your job in New Zealand! Clearly, there was no need for the Beacons of Minas Tireth to be lit.
First, we received notice that our house has finally sold and the closing went well. To all those of you planning on selling a house, because we had powers of attorney take care of our closing, there was apparently a small added charge for that which we were not notified of until the day of closing. Even our realtor team was unable to explain why. The amount taken was quite negligible and certainly not worth fighting about, and the long-distance closing was quite smooth so I can't complain too much. The sale certainly takes a serious weight off of our financial shoulders. Yay!
Second, our next major destination for vacation is Belgium. Antwerp, Brussels, and Bruges are on the list, but we'll see if we don't get sucked into one of them for more than a day. LOTS of sights there, and LOTS of things that I know J will be excited about: a modern fashion museum, a large Sunday flea market (in Tongeren), a seafood market and restaurant road, and more!
Third, we are doing a Volksmarch on the 4th of July and are celebrating it with BBQ and fireworks with other ex-patriots. This is going to be interesting, because I would very much like to know where the fireworks will be held where Germany won't raise a stink about the lack of adherence to quiet hours. I'm also very much looking forward to being around some grilling. I haven't seen much outdoor grilling in Germany, but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Oh, FYI, firepits are not allowed in Germany...only stove cooking. I guess I was a little spoiled on that one in the States.
Finally, the Euro Cup champs: Spain. When you look at their stats, they are doing something right: won Euro 2012, World Cup 2010, Euro 2008, gave up only one in-game goal the entire Euro Cup 2012 Tournament (not counting game deciding shoot out), I even heard rumors that they changed their playing style for the tournament so that it looked flashier than their more conservative playing just so the crowd would not be bored watching. I honestly couldn't help but look at their on-field formation tactics which continuously change.
J's birthday is coming up, so I would like all readers to wish her a Happy Birthday! Her wish list is on Amazon.com if you seek gift ideas. Note that if you ship from the States, things take a minimum of two weeks to get here.
Sorry about the delay uploading pictures. I also heard rumors that the video's I posted of D-Rock and K's wedding are not viewable. Please comment on whatever page this applies to and I'll see if I can reload said media.
A special shout out to Kaleb. Congrats of your job in New Zealand! Clearly, there was no need for the Beacons of Minas Tireth to be lit.
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