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Home!

I'm home. My flights were smooth, everything happened on time, and the house is standing. There are tons of weeds to pull in the yard and I'm looking forward to getting out there tomorrow. I'll try to round up some of my houseplants and get my parakeet soon. Thank you to everyone who helped keep things going, with a special thanks to Monica!

homeward bound

I come home on Tuesday. I can't wait. My plane lands at 11:20 am. Stephanie will pick me up at the airport, and I will treat her to Panda Express Orange Chicken. I can't wait!
I have dinner with Meg and Mladen on Wed night, sewing with Steph on Thursday, and games at the Volz's on Friday. Then Saturday and Sunday I'm packing surveys for the church fund raiser. And I get to see my church friends on Sunday morning, too. The next week is wide open. I hope I get to see lots of friends then. So everybody, call me, and let's hang out!

Quilting

But first, here's how they sell corn here.

When I packed for Germany, I brought fabric for 2 quilts. The first one was already cut out and ready to go when I packed it. After sewing only about 9 of the 48 squares I gave up. I'll work on it back in Oregon. The second quilt has been my focus this week. So here are some pictures of what I've been doing now that my suitcases are packed (yah, a bit early). First, here is the link to a picture of the quilt in the magazine that inspired me. And now here are pictures of my progress. First, cut, then partly sewn, then sewn some more. The rest has to wait for Oregon cuz I don't have the border fabric purchased yet, and I don't want to spend 20 Euros/meter for it!

Ole Madrid

We went out for dinner tonight, to a place called Ole Madrid. It was really good. The strawberry margarita tasted like a strawberry margarita. The chicken wings were good too (not sure why they're considered spanish). The nachos con queso was good too. My only question: why do the Germans think that vegetables belong in tortilla chips and tacos? There were carrot slices in my chips!

vienna hotel, trip pics, and silly signs

Here is a link so you can see my facebook picture collections: click here for our fancy hotel room pics, click here for our Slovenia and Austria in general pics (lots of castles and rooftops), and click here for updated silly signs.

I forgot a few things

Other things I look forward to that didn't make the top 10 list:
a. soft water--my hair is looking rather frazzled
b. the clothes dryer--then my clothes will be soft before i put them on and wear them for a few hours
c. TV in English, on a screen bigger than about 4x6 inches
d. cashiers that talk to you and ask if you found everything
e. Tillamook Mudslide icecream
f. drinking fountains
g. free public toilets

Top 10 things

When I get back to Portland, I look forward to:
10. Panda Express (orange chicken)
9. Mazatlan Mexican (strawberry daquiris and enchiladas)
8. A seemingly endless supply of dark chocolate M&Ms
7. My house
6. Driving my car whenever I want, wherever I want
5. Shopping at normal grocery stores
4. Church
3. Sewing
2. Playing games with friends
1. seeing Meg and Lauri and Mladen and Keith and Stephanie and Mike and Nicki and David and Aurea and Rawdon and Kathleen and Colin and Julian and Monica and Emma and Jeff and Alex and Brad and Darsy and MB/DA and Ward and a prego Jennifer and...everybody...

there's a piano in my hotel room

Solska Pot apparently means "school crossing" in Slovenian.

no kidding! a baby grand in my room. The last time we were told our room had been upgraded, it was a sad story: we were above a bar in a very hot room. This time it looks and feels too good to be true. But we're in a room facing into the back, about the 4th or 5th floor (they call it the 2nd floor, but you enter, then reception is one floor up, then the mezzanine, then floor one, then floor 2. I think). Today we are in Vienna. The last 2 days we were in Graz, where there was no internet. Actually, you could use the machine in the hotel lobby, cost 1 euro for 10 minutes. At 9 minutes and 53 seconds I still hadn't connected to my email. Got my euro back!
Here, also, is a pic of the dragons we saw in Ljubljana (a tshirt there said loob-lah-nuh)