Ljubljana

We've been in Ljubljana for 3 days now. We've had fun here. We drove over to Trieste, Italy, yesterday. Today we roamed around the town and took the funicular to the castle in the middle of town. I'll inclue here a picture of one of the dragons we have seen around town. Dragons seem to be the mascots of Ljubljana. Tomorrow we go to Graz, Austria. If you get bored today, try typing Ljubljana. It's hard. I think fingers are used to stretching out to the aeiou instead of typing a thousand consonants in a row. Some fun towns we've seen: Uggl and Egg. Also, a street named Duh. Oh, whoops, I don't have dragon pics on my laptop yet, so instead I will show you some funny signs we've seen.You can't really have any sort of fun at the lake. You're not even allowed to pet snails!

slap savica

Slap means waterfall, I think, and Savica is the name of the falls that feed Lake Bohinj. 9 km bike ride each direction (that's 5.4 miles each way) and a short hike. Very pretty. More later.

Austria

We're on vacation again. This time it's Austria and Slovenia. It's been a beautiful trip so far. Warm weather and dry. Except on the Grossglockner Road, but that's cuz it was so high in elevation. Here are a few pictures I took in Innsbruck. The dragons were in a royal garden near a playground. And I was glad to see that both men and women are allowed to cross the road there. Apparently, tho, only if they are dressed up. And I'm not sure what they are supposed to do between 6 am and 10:30 am. It's hard to post pictures in a hotel lobby, so I'll get more up in a few days, or whenever we actually have internet access in our room. Right now there are three women and a man staring at Rob and I. I think they're speaking Slovenian, cuz it doesn't sound like German.

Proof!

When I see a sign or hear an announcer and I don't know what it means (ie, it's in German or some other language), I tell Rob it means that there are bears around, and you better watch out. He always laughs and doesn't believe me. Now I have proof. When we were at the bank today, withdrawing money for our vacation, it was right there on the screen: Bearbeitet. Pronounced in German, it says, "bear-bite-it." See? You do have to watch out for the bears. We knew someone was taking a 1% bite out of every purchase we make (I'd show you our bank statements, but, um, well, you know) and now there is proof. It's the bears.

Dishwasher Salt, or, An Ironing Board on my Head

Yesterday I spent about 4 hours taking trains and walking to find an ironing board, an ice chest, and bandaids. I needed bandaids for my toes that got rubbed raw when I finally wore my cute new black shoes, on which I had to replace the button a few weeks ago. I needed an ironing board because one of the legs on the board that came with the apartment went left when the rest went right, and leaning the ironing board against the wall just doesn't work all that well. And we wanted an ice chest for our upcoming vacation. I found the ironing board and ice chest, but couldn't carry them both home, so I didn't get either, and instead today we went to get them when Rob got off work. We took the train to the train to the walk to the store. By the time we were heading home, it started to rain. So, after we got off the train near our apartment Rob began carrying the ironing board over his head. I wasn't so lucky, because the ice chest really isn't big enough to cover me. So Rob shared the ironing board. I'm sure we looked pretty weird walking down the street but we were dry!

Today the little red light on the dishwasher got to me. It said, "Salz." I know that means salt. The dishwasher was asking for salt. It has been asking for salt for a week or two, and today was the day I decided to find the salt. I found the specialsalz in the dishwasher section of the local store. I opened the place in the bottom of the dishwasher that said salt in 4 languages. Then I didn't know how much to put in. So I got Rob to get the manual down (stored above the fridge). I couldn't read it. Rob could read some words, but didn't get the gist of it. I typed the information into google translator and got this:
"Door open, remove basket. 2nd Cap stocks of the salt container counterclockwise untwist. 3rd Only for initial start-up: Salt tank fill with water (about 0.5 l). 4th With delivered to funnel opening of the stock container stuck. Special salt due to funnel in the reservoir to fill. Assets depending on the version grain approximately 1.0 - 1.5 kg. Tank with special salt not overfill.

The filling of the water runs Spezialsalzes ousted from the salt tank in the bottom of the Spülraums. This is fine, because this water at the start of the next Spülprogramms off. 5th Opening the stock container of salt remains clean. 6th Cap in a clockwise direction until it reaches zudrehen otherwise special salt into the dishwater. Troubled glasses could occur as a result. 7th If you do not immediately after your Salzeinfüllen the dishes, you should see the program run Vorspülen. this will übergelaufenes salt water and salt grains off. Depending on the grain it may take a few hours until the salt is dissolved in water and salt control display again goes off. The setting of the Wasserenthärters and thus the salt consumption are dependent on the local water hardness."

This was fine, but I was still a little puzzled about what to do, so I opened Babelfish and translated again. This time I got this:
"The water displaced when filling in the special salt runs from the salt storage vessel into the ground of the Spülraums. This is harmless, since this water is evacuated with the start of the next rinse cycle. 5. opening of the storage vessel of salt remainders clean. 6. Cover cap in the clockwise direction to a complete stop otherwise arrives special salt closes in the rinse water. Cloudy glasses could be the result. 7. If you immediately after the salt filling in your table-ware to rinse should not let you run the program Vorspülen. thus overcrowded seawater and salt grains are rinsed out. Depending upon granulation it can take some hours, until the salt dissolved in the water and the control display salt expires again. The attitude of the water softener and thus salt consumption depend on the local water hardness."

I decided to pour in about .75 liters of the salt. I'll find out what attitude it has when I run it.

My Eyes were Wellin'

Today I had to go to the market before lunch, because I had no lunch in the apartment. A few days ago we talked to Meg and Lauri on the phone. Meg mentioned that she had sent a package. So every day when I go out, my heart starts pounding a bit when I walk past our mailbox. I peek into the slot to see if there is anything there. Today there was! A blue card with lots of German words on it. I have no idea what it said, except at the top, where it said addressee: Mom and Dad. I knew what it meant. Our package had arrived. But where was it? I determined that as soon as I got home with my cheese spread (lunch) I would open up my laptop and google translate the German.
On my way to the market, I saw a yellow bike, and a woman pedalling it. It was about two blocks from our apartment. On it was a big yellow bag with the post office symbol. I thought, aha! Mail is delivered by bike. And I continued on to the market.
On my way home, the pedaler of the yellow bike was stopped at a building right in front of me, so I said, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" and she shook her head, no. Then I pulled the blue card out of my purse and asked, "How?" She said, "Moment." She walked away with some letters in her hand, about 50 feet (sorry, I don't do meters yet), and stopped at a big green bin that I had thought was a trashcan. She jingled her keys, then reached in and walked back to me. Handed me a package from Meg!!! I recognized her handwriting immediately and tears sprang to my eyes.
How did that happen? The timing, the location, whoa! I quickly said thanks and sprinted home to open the package. Oohed over the paper punch for scrapbooking, ahhed over the book for Rob, and drooled over the Dagoba organic chocolate bar. Then I remembered the cheese and pork in my purse and put it away.
Thanks Meg, you made my day!

Silly Signs updated

I like to take pictures of funny signs and store names. To see my collection so far, click here.

Cover your eyes

Today we decided it was time to go to the Englischer Garten. It's a big, big park just to the east of the city center. The weather was beautiful so we decided to ride our bikes. The garden has a big Chinese pavillion in it, and seated in the pavillion, several stories up, was an oompa band. You know, the typical German band that plays polka like music. So, English garden, Japanese structure, German band. Hmm. There are tons of paths, some just for walking and some for biking. You can generally tell the difference because of signs like these.

We rode for awhile, up near a lake with paddle boats and lots of geese and other water fowl. Then we saw this other view. If you haven't seen female buns before, you may not want to scroll down. But really. You may not have heard of Veggietales before, but there is a silly song about a ceboo in it. I'm not sure what a ceboo is, but the song ends with questions, like, "did the sick ceboo get better? Did the sad ceboo get happy?" So questions like that were flowing through my mind: Did the girl know her buns were so exposed? Did her boyfriend notice when he walked up? Was he embarrassed for her, or did he enjoy the view so much that he said nothing? Does she always dress like that? To protect the innocent, I won't tell you who I was biking with. But he asked, as you might, "was she even wearing underwear?" So here now is the picture. Eek!

Anyhow, we rode around for awhile longer and then headed home. I also took pics of pretty buildings, which I will post somewhere soon.

Water Chestnuts

Today, being Saturday, meant that it was shopping day. Our wishlist was simple: a can of water chestnuts and a lightbulb. Also, return the charger that we bought for the dead cell phone. We got on the Ubahn, went three stops, and transferred to the next train for one stop. Our destination was Marienplatz, which is the shopping district in the center of Munich. It was extremely crowded because it's a tourist destination. We've learned that it's really good to hold hands going through places like that. People tend to go around you then instead of through you. Anyhow, our first stop was Karstadt. It's sort of a mishmash of little shops. When you go in there's a candy shop on the left, and bedding on the right. Towards the back is a cell phone store and some stationary. A few weeks ago, we discovered the great downstairs secret: They've got foods that people from other countries seem to like. So we got our water chestnuts. Why did want them, anyhow? For cashew chicken. Last time Rob made cashew chicken he used celery for the crunchy part. It was okay, but not great. So now we are set. We bought 2 cans!
Next stop, Saturn. No, not the planet. Saturn is larger than a Best Buy but smaller than a Frys. We showed the receipt for the phone charger at the door. A woman stamped it and sent us upstairs. From there we went to the service desk. They said to take the charger and receipt to a person in a blue shirt. The first person in a blue shirt said to take it to exactly the department in which we bought the charger. Finally, we found an available blue-shirted person there. He took the charger from us and stamped the back of our receipt. We filled out our address and such, and then he stamped it again and filled out some other blanks. Finally, we were told to take the receipt back downstairs to the cashier (kasse) where we would get our refund. We walked past a lightbulb display on the way there and got our lightbulb. Also we saw an indoor/outdoor thermometer gadget. So we bought those, got our refund, and crossed that off our list.
We had also heard of a toy store near the end of Marienplatz. It was just past a McDonalds near a big fountain. We found it and headed downstairs, where we heard there were games. Wow! There sure were! We looked for one called "The Struggle for Rome" but didn't find it. We did however find a new expansion for Settlers, called Traders and Barbarians. Looks good. Also got a game for Keith (yes Keith, it has to do with...s oh wait, i can't tell you.)
Success!

another inspiration by Meg

Today I sat on my bed all day.

This is a sentence that Meg wrote in her school journal in kindergarten. It applies to me today. It rained a lot and instead of going for a bike ride we decided to stay in. So far, all day. And it's almost 5 pm.

How I live

Here is a link to views of our real house, our apartment when Rob first moved in, and our apartment now. just click here.

Today I opened my first bag of dark chocolate m&ms. Rob brought me 4 bags from Colorado! Yum. He also bought a new cell phone because his old one really was dead. So you can once again call me on it if you really want to spend a lot of money. Since Rob was jet lagged from his trip, he slept in some, and then we went to the big grocery store I discovered last weekend. We bought 44 Euros worth of groceries at one time! Probably a record. See, the good thing is, Rob and I DROVE to the store, so we could stock up. Both tomorrow (friday) and sunday the stores will be closed. Tomorrow is some sort of Catholic holiday and a lot of people have the day off. Including Rob, not because he's Catholic but because his company observes the holiday here. (sorry Portland TQS's)

Done!

I finished! I finished at 6:59 pm. And Rob called to say he'd just landed at 7:06. Woot! Last night I dreamed that Meg has been hatching sheep. Yah, I know, it's weird. But she was really good at it, kind of like my mom hatching tortoises. So, Meg had this whole bowl of sheep, and they were really cute. They were small, like, each sheep could fit in your hand, and of course they were much cuter than real sheep. They were fuzzy and cottony. Good job Meg! Not only are you good at transporting moths and old people, but you can hatch sheep too!

progress

Yesterday I figured out how to open a bottle of wine with a weird corkscrew. I also wandered around the center of the city without a map. Before I went out I had been working on the puzzle for several hours. I had a lot of conversations with myself. I said, "we need to get out," but me said, "just one more piece and then we'll go," and then I got annoyed with me and we left. Today I worked on the puzzle some more. We also went out (myself and I) ( I don't know where me was). I checked out the third mall in the Munich area. I think it's the best. Altho it didn't have a toy store. I also managed to take the garbage out today. Not a pleasant job, because the dumpster is in an enclosed area, so it's unpleasant to breathe. So I don't. Until I've gotten out and shut the door and walked about 20 feet. Takes skill! Tomorrow sometime Rob comes home. Hooray! someone else to talk to. I actually called my Dad yesterday, and told him how much I felt like him when I check my map for an hour and wish I had a compass so I knew which way was which. Not sure he was impressed. Oh well.

Skype

I just set up my Skype account so that it can display my Oregon cell phone number when I call. It says it won't show all the time, but it might. Now you can tell it's me calling. Although, when you see 123456000000 calling, that may be me too.

And here are some pictures of the puzzle i've been working on. What else to do while watching the olympics? Bonus: There are some earrings in these photos. Can you spot them?What are you wondering? Do you have any questions about life in Munich? I'd love some ideas on what to write about. At the end of any blog entry there is a little word that says "comments." Anyone can click on that and leave a comment. It can be anonymous, or you can enter your name without having to put in any more info than that! Talk to me!!
The olympics are still sounding like ooga oogah flooga omega blah blah blah. blah blah United States oogha flooga. blah blah...

It used to be the question was, "do i need it," and, "can i afford it." Now the question is, "can i find it," and if i can, "can i carry it home?"

Olympics

This is what the Olympic coverage sounds like to me: blah blah blah blah oh! blah blah blah twenty five blah blah. blah blah cat blah blah blah.

Today Rob left for Colorado. So I did what I do best: I went shopping. Actually, I wanted to explore the two malls in Munich that I haven't seen yet. I went to one in Neuperlach. I found a big toy store with tons of games. And then I finally found it...a store that is almost like Fred Meyer. Lots of selection of foods. And other things. Hooray! At the toy store I got a puzzle, because that's a good thing to keep me busy while I watch the Olympics and Rob is gone. Here is what the puzzle looks like now. It has 2000 pieces. I saw the cats in the picture at a store called Kaufhof. They were made of china and quite expensive. I think that's why I chose this puzzle though. It looked familiar.

And for dinner tonight. Stew. Note number one: potatoes that have been stored in the fridge for several weeks can probably be used to play raquetball. Note number two: Celery comes with slugs. That's right. I was rinsing off my celery and there it was. In my sink. A slug. EWWWWW. So I picked him up with a big paper towel and threw him in the trash. Then I hurried and finished cutting up my vegetables to that I could take him and the trash out. By the way, to take my trash out I have to bring my key. To open the door to the trash bins, to open the door to my building, and to open the door to my apartment. Cool thing: we have a buzzer, so when friends come they can ring the buzzer, and then I can push the button and it opens the downstairs door for them. Uncool thing: Newspaper delivery people randomly push buzzer buttons until someone opens the door for them. Annoying!

The cell phone

Dang, I did kill it.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I . Wait. Two days ago I hopped on my bike. No map, no toilet paper trailing off my shoes. I went west. Then south. Then I came back.

Yesterday I worked almost all day on a scrapbook from our vacation. Now I just have little bits to finish--the small details.

Today I fried the phone charger. I thought the thing I plugged it into was a voltage converter. Alas. At least the phone still works, and we went to Saturn (think Fry's) to buy a new charger. It's good, because Rob is taking that phone to Colorado with him tomorrow.

Tonight we are enjoying a great thunder and lightning storm. It blew a breaker in the apartment, including the TV and the dining room lightbulb, but the TV is back on. Can you imagine being without the TV on the opening night of the Olympics? AGH! Scary thought. Lots of lightning going on still. It's great! Lauri--are you jealous?

Yesterday

Yesterday I ironed a Tshirt

Landshut

Yesterday we hopped in the car and drove to Landshut. Pronounce it more like Lands - hoot. It had a really old town section, like all the other places we've been. A lot of people like my silly signs posted on Facebook so I decided I'd catch some more. When I get a whole bunch more I'll put them on Facebook again.

Games Night

So, maybe you thought that by moving to Munich we would not get to celebrate the first Saturday of the month as Games Night. Wrong! There's a website I use, um, Toy Town Germany (Germany's English Speaking Website). I posted a topic about games, specifically, Settlers and Carcasonne. A lot of people were interested, so I said the first 6 to sign up were welcome to come. I thought, wow, we can meet some Americans who live in Munich! Well, 6 people signed up, and they all came. We had John (from Northern Ireland) and Janine (from Hamburg) (She was with John, and she could speak English well, so that was ok), Leon (from England), Savio (from India), Jayanti (from Canada), and Ema (from Bosnia with some time spent in Ireland). It was really cool. We played Doodle Dice first, then ate spaghetti and whatever everyone else contributed (lots of wine and beer, Janine's chocolate mousse, and Ema's cracker selection), then half of us played Settlers (I didn't win. Leon did) and the other half played Carcassone (Rob didn't win (or whine), Ema did). While we waited for the carcasonne game to end I introduced my table to Blokus. Then we finished off the night with all of us (except Savio, cuz he had to work the next morning) playing Cranium. The girls won in spite of my inability to act out "taste test" or to describe aromatherapy using only words that began with "s." Rob had to hold Leon's hand to draw a broken heart (personal bubble meets total stranger here!). Everyone left around midnight (0:15), and then Rob and I crept around trying to do some basic straightening up without keeping our downstairs neighbors awake any longer. I think we used every plate, bowl, cup, mug, glass, fork and spoon in the apartment, so we've got lots of clean up today. We all liked each other and agreed to meet...the first Saturday in September, at John and Janine's (say it like Yanine, cuz she's German). Aww. Happiness!