Sweet Caroline

No sooner had I unpacked my bags from the lovely San Antonio excursion than I was repacking them for another flight. A few weeks ago my friend Tom tossed out the idea of me coming down to North Carolina to watch the first round of March Madness (woo hoo!). Raleigh, one of the regions hosting the championship, is serendipitously where Tom had moved 1½ years ago. I looked over my calendar and my frequent flyer miles and decided to go for it.

Raleigh is great fun, at least in the way Tom presents it. We rambled, ate great food, biked, hung out with cool people – his sis and bro-in-law, and did stuff. Stuff like visiting an art museum, wandering around a WWII battleship, playing in the splashy ocean and lying on the beach watching the stars come out. [sigh…] Oh. And we watched basketball. A lot of basketball. Because even when we weren’t watching four games on Friday and two games on Sunday in person, there were a few great games happening elsewhere that we didn’t want to miss. (Go Wisconsin!)

One of the reasons Tom is one of my favoritest people: the conversations. We’d be in the car or sitting at a restaurant, and I’d say something like, “Ok, explain to me all roles on a basketball team and how they’re supposed to work because I think I have sort of an idea about them, but I’ve never really paid detailed attention to that”. And we’d be off! My favorite one was, “Ok, tell me about all the presidents in the 20^th century, in order, because I know bits and pieces, but I don’t have a good picture of their sequence with key events.” And he did! Way, way cool. I can’t say I could recite it all back at this point, but I definitely learned a ton.

[Details – read on as your interest dictates!]

Wed. night: continue my recent run of (bad) luck with airlines, but somehow – after being assured it was impossible – made it to Raleigh, having ridden first class AND received a $150 voucher for my pains! Tour Tom’s “new” condo – small, but very, very cool. Tom’s a great pianist, and he finally got a piano again after not having one since leaving Appleton, so I get to hear lots of Rachmaninov, but also some Bach and Mussorgsky throughout the weekend. You really can do worse than having your very own private piano concert. Head to bed - both of us have to work in the morning!

Thurs: Tom goes off to work, and I launch a fight with his futon that outlasts the weekend. Can’t figure out how the darn thing is supposed to lock upright. Not fair that his bed doesn’t need to be folded up to enable normal room traffic flow. Then I call into work for a series of meetings that pretty much last the day. Tom gets home and we take off for a ramble-tour of Raleigh – trees are starting to bud, and many trees and flowers are already in full bloom. Life is beautiful. We get back and Matt and Mary (his sis and bro-in-law) have arrived and have an outstanding meal in the oven (and a bun! Mary’s pregnant!). Eat and play Pepper and have a great time.

Fri: Sleep in, then take off on bikes to pedal through the outdoor part of the art museum, wander through a bit of the indoor part, and head off to the stadium. Park our bikes closer than VIP parking and wander right in. Watch an outstanding game between Davidson and Gonzaga. Gonzaga loses, much to my chagrin. The other three games are great too. UNC is a class act, but the underdogs put up a great fight so the game is still a blast to watch. Have pulled pork sandwiches doused in a sweet vinegar sauce that’s to die for. By the middle of the fourth game I’m way past the limit of names and teams I can stay on track with.

Sat. Sleep in, then head off to Wilmington, which is right on Cape Fear. Wander through the USS Carolina, a battleship that saw a ton of action against Japan in WWII. Really well done exhibits with testimonials from soldiers who served on it. Fascinating stuff. Catch a good bit of the Wisconsin game at a local Applebee’s and get into a “discussion” about inconveniencing restaurant wait staff. Head to the ocean in time to swim and wander up and down Wright Beach, and then lay on the beach towels Matt & Mary lent us and “discuss” whether the lights we’re seeing are plans, satellites, stars or planets.

Sun: Easter! Hooray! Head to Matt & Mary’s, where we’re fed the I-can’t-stop-eating kind of waffles, and get to see and learn about their way-cool pets. Fish, cats, poison dart frogs, and a ball python. Then we tag along with them to church. They do a really cool thing where anyone in the audience is invited to go up and join the choir in singing the Hallelujah chorus. Head back to Raleigh and the next two games. Watch little tiny Davidson trounce big awesome Georgetown – chance in a lifetime to get to see that – and then UNC strut their stuff with Arkansas. UNC is just fun to watch because they’re so good, and Arkansas really fought it. Davidson has taken up the Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline as their theme song and it's so fun to hear the audience sing it to them - the audience pretty much went nuts as Davidson made their comeback. Wind up at the Mellow Mushroom, a pizza joint (literally?) from the 70s, and then go back to the condo for another piano concert. [sigh…]

Monday: Tom goes to work, and after conceding final defeat to the futon (which really was comfy, so I'm not actually complaining), I work from his place for the morning, and haunt coffee shops with free internet for the afternoon. Tom picks me up and we check out this sweet little free trade store, and then we head to the airport. I’m on the first leg of the flight now, and if all goes well, I’ll be back at work tomorrow morning at 8:30!

The upshot: Raleigh --> cool. Go if you can.

More pictures HERE!

dance halls and dead bodies

This morning we slept in, and Linda made me pancakes! After a mellow morning, we headed to San Antonio to the Witte Museum's "Our Body: the Universe Within" exhibition. About 20 full bodies and 200 body parts are on display; all "plastinated" so they can actually be dissected and frozen into place. Apparently there are three of these floating about the country, so it's kind of goofy that I saw one here while a different one is also on display in Milwaukee. Really, REALLY fascinating stuff.

We stopped for fish tacos (hooray!!) on the way back, rested a bit, and I went for a ramble - missed the park I was aiming for and ended up exploring most of Texas! Then Linda, Linda's husband Bill, and their grandson Clayton and I headed to Gruene. Gruene (pronounced "green") Texas has been "gently resisting change since 1872". It boasts the oldest dance hall in Texas, a general store, and a bunch of other antiquey/artisan-y and tourist-type shops. Very fun. We went to the Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar and had fantastic food. I finally got some good ribs - which I sort of felt Texas owed me. All in all, lovely time, lovely food, lovely people! Linda and Bill kept telling me about all the awesome stuff I'm missing and that I have to come back and experience.

Tomrrow? Opening day of Sea World! Zah hoo! And then Sunday I head home, where I hope they've still saved a tad of snow for me to get a few more good skis in before the trees start blooming!

More pictures posted to this album.

the Alamo and the Spurs

For the afternoon I wandered around the Alamo. Beautiful grounds, and there was a speaker giving a presentation to 4th graders about the siege of the Alamo. Learned a ton! And they have beautiful plants and shrubs about - I took some pics earlier, but didn't have my camera with me during the afternoon.

Deanna's cousin Linda picked me up around 6 and we headed of to the Spurs game!! Hurray for an outstanding game happening when you happen to be there!! This is a (very far off!) picture of Timmy at the line.

phoon III

Bother. Patrick had phooned marvelously - still can't figure out how he got a picture of it! - some time ago and I completely spaced posting it. Just ran across it now, and figured it was time. Some people sure know how to make other peoples' day.

Phoon thread

Heaps o' phoons on Flickr

oh yes and a wee update

SA continues to be fun and interesting, by the way. A restaurant yesterday really tanked - I tried ordering ribs and they were horrible (thought things like that weren't supposed to happen in Texas). It's my own dumb fault for going to a chain, I suppose, but there was a group of people going there, and - me being me and all - I rated company over food selection. Happened again tonight as a matter-of-fact. They all wanted to go to Mexican - which we had just had for lunch. I compensated by getting something without cheese: baby goat! Yep, I tried it. And really liked it actually, though it was a lot of work (like lamb can be). It sounds so horrible to say "baby goat" that I got to thinking about why we see lamb and veal on menus, but they don't list goat as.... (and, the light goes on!)

I've also explored a few different bits of the Riverwalk. Thumbs still up! I like how it's all "below" - kind of like the Atlanta underground, or Seattle or something - and yet open air and with those crazy pigeony things and great masonry and bridges. It's been great fun to be here long enough to really take things in.

techknowledge conference

OK, it's really feeling impossible to be at a conference about technology and learning all week and not share something about all I've learned. So I won't get into details, but these are cool things I have picked up.

"Wikis in Plain English"
"Blogs in Plain English"
(these are very cool, even if you already happen to be one of the favored few who knows what both of those things are).

And then, did you know:

• you can text Google, and receive instant text back for phone numbers & other info? (MUCH cheaper than spending $2 a call for dialing 411!). Try it! Text to Googl (e not required if you're lazy: the numbers 46645):
• pizza 54911 [phone number, address]
  
• amzn [to get the stock price]
• ua115 [airline/flight number]
• weather paris
• 54911 to chicago [directions]
  
• define schadenfreude [to settle Scrabble arguments]
• you can go to grandcentral.com and have all your numbers and voice mails sent seamlessly to one number - and even switch between them mid-call? I know we can't get YouTube at work, so again, check this one out at home: http://youtube.com/watch?v=aAMbuX06tYg (it's hilarious!)
• you can have voice mail messages converted to text automatically (MUCH better than trying to take notes on what was said - and you can sort through them and choose which to read first)
• simulscribe.com (paid)
  
• callwave.com (free)
  

(I haven't tried any of these myself yet, so play at your own risk!) :) These are all from a talk by David Pogue of the New York Times.

I'll be curious about what you think!

to pray

And on a completely different note: your thoughts and prayers for some friends who are struggling would be greatly appreciated right now:
- my friend Jen slipped a disk in her back a few weeks ago and is still recovering; she's also got permanent knee issues that affect her doing things she's always loved to do, like run.
- my friend Katie's grandma is dying of cancer (she's an awesome woman and I already miss her - how much harder it is for the family)
- my friend Tracy is having weird health issues that are affecting her significantly
- Grant and Jen (bro/sis-in law) are heading toward divorce - very rough on the whole family.

Thank you....

Lone Star State musings

So, from everything I can tell, there really is a place called Texas. I had to fly a long time to get here, a few people have drawl-y accents and cowboy hats (yee haw!), lots of service-people about (SA has FOUR army bases), and there's a lone star painted or embedded in cement everywhere you go! (And Deanna, you were right about the men here - they're very, uh, notice-y!)

I left Appleton in the swirling storm of a LMS go-live, so I've been spending every spare moment trying to support that from afar. But I've also taken the time to be at the conference and to get to know the people attending the conference. Learning lots of cool stuff, the go-live is going well overall, and I should be able to ease off shortly a tad and enjoy myself here a bit more. I have NOT held back on enjoying the food, and the Riverwalk is a sweet, sweet place.

I went for a ramble last evening after the conference (the concierge gave me a safe route to run), and it was great to see a smidgen more of the town. I found some coolio things and captured them with my cell phone, but I can't figure out how to upload the pics! If I get 'em, I'll post 'em.

Observations:
- don't palm trees always seem unfinished somehow? (it hadn't occurred to me before, but there are palm trees in Texas. If it really is Texas.).
- I flew here from Kansas City in the seat next to a border guard who was first grouchy with me for the size of my laptop case. But then we got to talking about the whole immigration deal, and I think he had some great thoughts I hadn't considered before - I'll post more about that if anyone's interested. He really likes how Colorado is handling the issue.
- there are these pigeon-y creatures here that are most like the Tui of New Zealand as anything I would have imagined finding in the 'States (if that indeed is where I am). They make very tonal cooings and calls. Must investigate further.
- it hit 90 degrees here. Today. 'Tho tomorrow it's supposed to cool off and be in the 60s.
- I have yet to try brisket, though I believe my friend Terry would be proud of me if I did. I have, however, had the best steak in my life, the best Mexican ever (enchiladas with mole sauce!), and crab cakes. Have yet to try goat, but really can't promise that will happen. Seeing the brisket on menus here really has me half convinced that I am amusing myself in the Lone Star State after all!

BOW and scrape!

One day Jen and Joce and their friend Angela headed up north to Become Outdoorswomen. And that's what they did. After all, if a woman can winter camp/scrape herself out sleeping quarters from a snow bank, use a map & compass to find her way from one end of a parking lot to another, dogsled, skijor, and cook in a Dutch oven, what would you call her?!

Jen - a friend from Appleton who now lives with her hubby in Minneapolis area, and Joce - my college roommate - are fabulous people. Spending a weekend with them - in the context of such fun and interesting and DIFFERENT stuff, was just good ol' fashioned plain ol' northwoods fun. Can't say how well we'd (or at any rate I'd) do at any of those things without lots of coaching and help, but gee whiz pop how fun to give them a shot!

Pics | BOW

how to have a girls weekend

So last fall my friends Katie and Jen, my sis Augusta, and Amy decided it might be fun to have a girls winter weekend up in the north woods - and this weekend it happened! Unfortunately Jen couldn't make it, but Katie, Gus, Sherman (Gus's dog - and he's an "it" so the extreme girl-ness of it all didn't completely knock him out) and I got up to Amy's place in Iron River late Thursday night.
So much fun. To have a girls weekend, all you need are great girls to hang out with, great food options, one English bull dog, and plenty of things to do!
The people in this case are a given, as far as awesomeness goes.
Food: besides Katie making homemade pizza and Amy making to-order omelettes, we also made it to the Delta Diner where I just have to say the food is outstanding, and an amazing Thai place, Thai Krathong, in Duluth.
Things to do: well, we made it out nordic skiing twice (hooray!! Katie had never done it before, and took on the challenge like a pro. Gus hadn't been since she was a kid but you never would have known it! Amy hadn't been on classic trails for a long time, and got a whammy of a blister situation :( but had fun getting out there too). We watched tv, bummed around, slept, talked (of course!!), and went to Duluth to see 27 Dresses (definitely a chick flick, but definitely recommended), visit the co-op (hooray!), and eat Thai food.

All in all, quite lovely!

Also - I got the blood work results back on Thursday before I left - and the results for Celiac Disease are negative. *phwew! and thank you Lord!* So I go back for another endoscopy at the end of February (*much scrunching*), and hopefully the doc will have good things to say at that point.

Señor Hanks

Today wrapped up a 2-week work trip to the Neenah location for Thomas the North Carolinian. If I get pics from him, I'll post them, but I think he had a great time. His dad & Nancy and Poky-the-puppy came up from Illinois last weekend - Nancy went to the Packer game last Saturday (thank goodness it was that one, and not today's!). He also hung out with the game night crew, started getting me addicted to the miniseries House, went with me, Javier and Katie to a Badger basketball game, went cross-country skiing, sent Ray & Becky off on their honeymoon, helped me find a car, and took me with him to meet his friends the Falks in Milwaukee on Friday night.
Michael Falk is a school buddy of Tom's who also was the 2006 winner of the Jeopardy tournament of champions! We had a great evening of playing Outburst, Pictionary (that had been a long time!), and Catchphrase. Michael & Courtney were great fun; very down-to-earth and interesting to talk with. A highlight of the evening was watching Tom and Michael play an intense version of Trivial Pursuit of their very own: 15 minutes for the whole game, no turn can last more than 5 seconds or it's forfeited, and Courtney read all the questions. Tom had a huge lead on Michael for the first half, but choked on the last pie piece while Michael bounced around the board filling his. When the timer went off, Tom still had not filled the last pink piece, while Michael had his filled and was just trying to land on the center space - so he won. I've never seen anything like it!
Saturday we hung out with Katie & her brand-spankin' new boyfriend Joel (ok, he's not that new - but she met him not long before the holidays, so I'm still getting to know him!). We had a great time, eating, chilling, and playing Rook and Dutch Blitz. Overall, I think we convinced him that Wisconsin isn't quite as bad as he remembered it being! Now to talk him into moving back!!
After taking Tom to the airport, I met Dave & Paula for lunch (hooray!), and I wrapped up the evening watching the Packers tank with my friend Linda. Ooh-da-lally. Somebody prescribe Prozac for the state!

the world and I are restless

I went for a ski tonight after work. An illegal one. The park was closing just as I got there, but it was bright out with all the snow, so I just went for it. Somehow, the world matched my mood. Forgive the cosmic arrogance: I matched the world's mood. It was so cold that the snow was nearly silent; I would be within 20 feet before the deer would notice me and slip away. It was windy and great swirls of snow would arise and disappear in the woods as I passed. It was eerie and wild and breathtaking and achingly beautiful.

a man without a horse is like a man without legs

I love that quote from The Man from Snowy River; and if it was true in the wild west (or the Australian outback, for that matter), it must be true today. Even if we're talking cars, not horses. I had written in November about my car needing to be replaced. Well, it's still true. Still love it, and in spite of that it still eats inordinate amounts of oil, and the clock is ticking on it. Thankfully, I have awesome friends willing to help me in this miserable endeavor. Some of them even insist that they like doing things like car shopping! It's really an amazingly diverse world, if you think about it.
So last Saturday, I went car shopping with Tom's dad & sister who were up for the weekend. And we looked at cars that Ray and Becky had found in their searches. I got a feel for several cars, and then tonight Tom & I headed to Waupaca to look at a Ford Focus a lady was selling there. And I bought it! It needs some minor repairs, (and a new set of clips so I can move the bike rack to it) but overall it's in good shape. It's a 2003 with just under 50,000 miles on it. Now I just have to decide whether to keep my white car for around-town trips till it dies, or just junk it and move on. *sob!* Even though the new one is beautiful and has electric windows, a pass-through to the trunk, and a few other things... I still like my white car!!

gag me with a spoon

So! I have a weird medically thing going on - I went in last Tuesday for an upper endoscopy and they found a small ulcer on my esophagus. So I have to take Prilosec for a few months to see if it can be healed. :( Then yesterday they called to say the biopsy results are back, and I needed to come in for more blood work so they can rule out celiac disease. I went in tonight, so the results should be in early next week. Gee whiz! At least it's not cancer, hey?

Speed Limit: 8 MPH

Well, I got back from Germany and a Christmasy/New-Yearsy loop through Wisconsin/Minnesota in time to take down my wudgy wittle Christmas tree, go to work and do a bit of laundry before heading off to districts (the annual gathering of high schoolers in our denomination) for the weekend. Had a great time overall; Mike (the youth leader) is a bit of a rebel, so our group sort of walked to the beat of its own drum - definitely the way to go! Good speakers, good band, and the kids were awesome as usual. They're just fun people to be around. Our buddy Josh from St. Louis drove up to join us - we'll probably see him again when we go to St. Louis this summer! My only bad moment was when all the boys were up in their room watching football, and the girls decided to pull out the iPod and play musical tunes and dance to them. They're great people, but singing along to musicals is the opposite of a good time in my book... they were having a great time, and I didn't want to rain on their parade - but holy cow! I loved this pic: took it in the parking garage near the KI center. Think I need to plaster a poster of it on my wall at home!

holidays

Spending Christmas in Germany meant catching up on holiday-ing on my return! Here are some photos - I kind of fell off as the weekend progressed!
Saturday: I headed up to Iron River to celebrate with Amy and her kids and mom. Gus, Chris and Sherman, Grant and his daughter Margo, Katie, and Grandma Beth were all there. It was so neat to be able to see everyone again and catch up.
Sunday: I headed down toward Bloomer where my college roommate Joce lives. On the way, I stopped in Shell Lake to visit with Uncle Dean & Aunt Dar for a bit. It was great to be with them; they're just fun to be around. Jocelyn, also, is great fun. Her kids Annabelle & Brooke have SO much personality (wonder where they get that!!), and Ed and Joce and I had some great conversations.
Monday: I headed to the Twin Cities to celebrate New Year's with Jen & Mustafa. It was great to catch up with them - Jen and I skied across Medicine Lake, and later the three of us went to a comfy little Thai restaurant. Then we chilled, talked and watched the ball drop.
Tuesday: I started heading back. I met up with Mom, Harley, Jody & Dan in Eau Claire for some present swapping and a lovely meal, then Joce and I met up for coffee, and I headed back across the state and home.
I'm happy to say that in spite of copious oil chugging, my car did quite splendidly throughout it all. *sigh*.

and back again

Well, it's official, I'm back in Wisconsin. The trip back was pretty much uneventful compared to the trip out there! Dee and I got up at 6, she got me to the airport without a problem, and I was on my way! I read most of the way back, trying not to sleep. My mom had given me Tears of the Giraffe (part of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series) as part of a Christmas gift, so I read that completely en route! Since I had done as much of my homework as I could without an internet connection, and the rest of the books I brought were in my checked luggage, I ended up buying The Bourne Ultimatum in an airport store and reading that the rest of the way (so far liking the book better than the movie - Marie is still alive!!).
Now I'm off to visit friends and family throughout Wisconsin and might even dip in to Minnesota a tad to celebrate New Year's with Jen & Mustafa!
Happy New Year, one and all!

last full day in Heidelberg

Oh dear, it's Thursday, the day before Friday, when - if all goes as planned - I head back to the States. Not that I dislike my home! But it has been marvelous here and it has felt wayyy too short. 3 weeks in New Zealand must have spoiled me!

Dee and I started out the day by heading to Heidelberg castle. It had loomed tantalizing over our heads for every previous visit into Heidelberg, day and night - so it was time! It was great fun; it's one of the largest ruined castles in Europe, and it truly was difficult to comprehend both its age and size. We had a guided tour that was helpful, but even so there was much I missed with my abysmal knowledge of European history. People to look up: Lisalotte and the little sun king (that's a note to myself!). One of my favorite bits was the huge tower that the French had blown up as they ditched the castle at the approach of the Germans. Check out the width of those walls! Another was the huge underground wine cask; apparently a big-time status symbol at the time it was built. I would think it would work for today as well, but it might be a tight fit in my garage! And just when I was hoping so much to impress everybody...

Deanna had to work in the afternoon, but her friend Christina offered to take me to Dilsberg in search of good chocolate! There was no resisting that one, so we took off this afternoon for the tiny walled city. It used to be one of four fortresses protecting Heidelberg. Unfortunately, the chocolatier there runs on odd hours, and apparently today was not one of her days. It didn't slow us down much; we wandered the town, the castle ruins, and even a few shops. We found amazing pottery in the quaint attic of one - it's probably a good thing it was closed when we came back through - and we stopped for crepes at another one. The were AMAZING! Pear-honey-green pepper (as in the seasoning, not the fruit), and plum-ricotta-cinnamon. Really fun to try. And the shopkeeper had on an Arwen necklacy thing. :) The castle was locked, but still neat to see from the outside walls, and it was funny in such a small town to find a Protestant church on one side, and a Catholic church on the other. I'm sure there are interesting stories about that one.

After a stop at a grocery store for chocolate (we had missed it at Dilsberg after all, and I couldn't very well be readmitted to the 'States without it!), wine, and greyere cheese (which I've really developed a taste for since I've been here) we returned to Deanna who was making roast! I don't remember if I mentioned this but she's a great cook, and this was no exception. She hadn't even made it before, and this one was smothered in small tomatoes and whole garlic cloves - ooh la la! Robert & RJ came over for that too, and Lane and Jacquie even stopped by for a bit.

The evening ended on a less lovely note - I had to pack! And fit in everything I'd bought with everything I'd brought! And now to pray for gentle baggage handlers... :)

Wednesdays in Germany

So on Wednesdays in Germany we always go to France. At least in my experience. And what jolly fun it is too!

Christina (Deanna's good friend) came with Dee and me today. It was snowing much of the way there, so - while it made driving challenging for Deanna, it really made the trip there delightfully beautiful. I unfortunately slept part of the way - we'll blame that on remnants of jet lag and never mind what my New Zealand travel buddies say. I did wake up enough to see a bunch of deer stands - and actually two deer! - and these big fuzzy puffball things in the trees that I couldn't quite figure out.

Strasbourg was beautiful in the snow. They actually had a merry-go-round running, and a Christmas Market still underway!! So I got to experience that and gluhwein (or vin chaud: we were in France after all) - woo hoo! - after all! The picture is of Dee and Christina warming their noses on theirs! We did get pretty cold. But we wandered all the way up and down it, and inside the Strasbourg cathedral. The cathedral was built between the 13th and 15th centuries and is remarkable for its architecture, history, and the voice that comes on the PA system shushing everyone every half hour. It also has the biggest, oldest astronomical clock that's still functioning in the world. Tres cool. I'll put more details on pictures of today in case you're interested (today's start here)!

We stopped in Soufflenheim on the way back to look for an open pottery shop. We found one (hooray!) and had great fun trying to figure out what (not to!) get. We also found a restaurant where I got to try several things for the first time, including veal cordon bleu with a mushroom & white sauce, garlic-y frog legs (what Deanna ordered!), and capers (on Christine's pizza - I'd always heard of 'em but never tried one!). All three things recommended - although Deanna has informed me a tad about nasty ways in which veal makes it to the plate, so I may not go that route again....

And just to make sure this account isn't too sugary; we did have "discomfortable" moments - nearly running out of gas, having the gps thingy quit for a while, wishing very hard for "toilettes" to be a little more convenient to find, AND getting quite cold wandering about.

All in all though, it was a great day. Awesome people to do fun stuff with in a great country that serves incredible food - Wednesdays in Germany are most highly recommended!!

Christmas Day

Today was lovely. But it's late and I'm tired, so I will try to be brief! (wish me luck!)

This morning Jemila, a friend of Deanna's who's fairly new here (she's a nurse) had no plans for Christmas Day and was working last night and tonight. So Dee invited her for brunch! She made us shirred eggs (yum!!) and lots of other good stuff, and set the table out beautifully. We had great fun, and Jemila hated to go even though she desperately needed to sleep.

Then I took a nap, and then we headed to the Philosopher's Way, a street here in Heidelberg that runs parallel to the river and overlooks the city on the other side of it. I guess Heidelberg has been a huge place for philosophers to congregate, and many of them would walk that route and look over the city and contemplate! Mark Twain lived here quite a while too. We ran across this huge hand-statue that says something like "Have you philosophized today?" How sweet is that?!! The walk was beautiful, and it was neat to see all the people out and also walking and enjoying the view. Deej says that's one thing she loves about Europeans; they mostly walk on Sundays.

Then we headed to her favorite-friends' place for Christmas celebrations: Christina & Robert and son RJ, Jacquie & Dane, and the two of us had a great afternoon/evening - complete with wine, amazing food that Christina had spend all day making, games, gift opening, and MARSHMALLOW PIPE GUNS! What more could you want for Christmas day?!

Dee & I wrapped up the day by coming home, getting in our jammies, and watching The Nativity Story, which neither of us had seen before. Actually, quite well done, though they did change the story in places.

Losing a day in travel snafoos has really made my time here seem short; we head to Salzburg, France tomorrow (and a really great pottery place on the way, John!). We're hoping Jacquie and Christina will be able to join us. Then the castle here on Thursday morning (Dee has to work in the afternoon), and then I fly out of Frankfort Friday morning. Eeep!

Merry Christmas, all.