Still here just busy

It has been over a year and while I am blogging pretty frequently over on the other blog mainly about how the Mini Maus is growing leaps and bounds I have not been keeping up with this one. I would like to say I'll do better but I have said that before and didn't so I won't.

So yes Mini Maus arrived on January 5 of last year and has been the most amazing gift ever. She is beautiful, bright, funny and so much more. She is so smart too its sometimes scary. She is very active loves to move around, so we are always on the go it seems.


I switched positions within the company last year so I no longer travel the country every week. While I miss the travel I would miss Mini Maus more and I cherish so much being there when she wakes up and when she goes to sleep.

We took her to Germany over Christmas and she had a ball she loves meeting new people and got to try lots of new foods and received presents - whats not to love. It was great catching up with everyone, with my travel days being over so are free flights with miles. So we are not sure when/how we'll get back across the pond for the next visit. Tickets are pretty expensive these days and now there are 3 of us. So we'll see.

Some much to do so little time

Germany was great and as always 2 weeks were not nearly long enough. Sis looked beautiful in her dress and it was about time that they walked down the aisle since they had been together 13 years and have 3 year old twins.

 Spent time hanging out with friends and family. Went to check on "my Castle" (still need to win that lottery so I can buy it from the city).

Went to the Zoo where I worked one summer and where I used to go as kid to feed bear cubs. Yes I fed and played with bear cubs when I was little.

Went to have lunch with grandma at this really cool hotel. Check out the carving outside there.

One of the greatest thing about this trip was that the 30April fell in it. I haven't been home for Hexenfeuer since the 90's. I loved hanging out with my friends around the fire and just chill.

I really hope I can convince hubby to go back for the holidays. I am working on it he says he'll go for 10 days so I just need to get 4 more days. I just don't feel like the cost and travel time is worth for just having 8 days there. even 12 days aren't enough :(

Now that I am back its off to pick up on my jet setting lifestyle again ;) Hotels, cars, planes - you know the drill.

We have been working in the yard a lot and I hope we get to bear the fruits of our labor soon - can't wait to snack on our homegrown veggies. I'll try to post more pics of that on here and go back to posting more if I get a chance.

Bierfest - Germany 2011

We are back. If we are friends on facebook then you will have had a chance too be on vacation with us - sort of. Thanks to my awesome friend who works for vodafone in Germany I had a SIM card for my Blackberry with data service. So I was able to upload pictures in real time giving you a chance to literally see what we saw.

As always the trip was much to short and over soon after it began. And it wouldn't be a trip for us if there wasn't something that went wrong. We tend to have bad luck when our US Airways flight code-shares with Lufthansa. The new LH plane was super uncomfortable I had a metal box under the seat in front of me and I ended up having major circulation problems from it. To make matters worse when we got into Frankfurt we were told my suitcases didn't make it and they couldn't even tell us where they were. It took 40Euros and 3 days to finally get them - of course they were damaged. At least we had gotten them back.

We headed from Frankfurt where we landed to Munich as Hubby wanted to check out the Octoberfest. We stayed with friends - a stroke of luck as my friends mom had some clothes she didn't need which fit me so I didn't have to wear my sweats. We headed to the "Wiesn" right away and Hubby loved it. He was so proud that he had 4 Mass of beer while our German friends switched to Radler after the second Mass.

The next days the boys checked out Dachau while I did some running around and then we had dinner at one of the local spots in Tracht.

We had fun dressing up in Dirndl and Lederhosen to head out.

After a quick stop at Neuschwanenstein castle we headed back to the East. We got to meet up with friends and family and then headed up to Berlin for a few days. Hubby fell in Love with Berlin and wants to go back.

As always 2 weeks were not nearly long enough. I feel a little better about it knowing I'll be back in Spring but still .......

Here are some pics of our trip    - there are 400 some - you are warned ;)

so much for dinner

until 3 hours ago it looked like everything was going well we boarded the plane we taxied I fell asleep. I wake when the engine rev up and notice we don't take off. the captain announces a light in the cockpit went off and it needs to be checked. after a while he states we need to go to a gate so a mechanic can check it. a bit over an hour passes we are still on the plane its hot ... then the announcement more tests needed but it looks like it was a false alarm. more time passes - yes it was a false alarm but now we need to refuel. tic toc ... now we are refueled but can't get a take off slot until another 1 1/2 hs. so here we are on the plane hot as hell. at least I brought food since I hate plane food. they finally handed out water. there is no way we'll make the connection and my back of chocolate I bought is melting in this heat.

UPDATE (9:35pm)

So after being trapped in the plane for 5hours they finally let us go - the flight was canceled. We had to go back into the terminal and wait for 3 hours to be rescheduled. Now we are in a hotel they put us in until we leave early AM tomorrow to try again to get back this time with a layover in Manchester England. What sucks is that I am supposed to work tomorrow never mind the fact that I had planned on floating the in pool right about now after hugging Grumpy and the little monsters - nope instead I am in a airport hotel. My shoulders are killing me from handling our heavy luggage and I am not looking forward to doing it again tomorrow. Wish me luck that all will go well and I'll be home tomorrow night

Photos

For some reason I am unable to add a slide show via Picasa or a badge via flickr for the photos - so here is the link if you'd like to see them

Germany - wedding August 2008

Back

Well we made it back. Sadly our ENTIRE luggage didn't. All four of our suitcases are still somewhere that means all our clothes and more importantly all my goodiiiiiiiieees. We were told they would call us tomorrow with the were about of our luggage.

Word of caution NEVER FLY LUFTHANSA EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are the most horrid airline ever.

SO I am working on the pictures and a post for now I am leaving you with a shot of Grumpy and I in Prague note the horns!!!!

Oh and of course we wish all of you a happy new years.

Spaceage parking garage

So I get this email today from my mom (a fwd she got) about this new parking garage in Munich that is all automatic and takes only 20% of room to store of normal parking garages holding the same number of cars. Included in the email were the following two pictures. And since its all automatic its not like the parking attendant is gonna scratch your car right. As I am looking at these pictures I finally figure out why they look so familiar. This isn't a parking garage this is the VW storage facility in Wolfsburg.

And how do I know that you ask well well, when Grumpy and I went to Germany 2 years ago for our honeymoon one of my friends had given us tickets to a Sunday brunch at the Transparent Phaeton factory including a tour of the facility. It is really neat you can see everything. And the tower where they store the cars is like the one above. The factory is right next to the botanical garden and the area of the factory is beautifully landscaped.

I told Grumpy right then and there that I WILL have one of those.

I will pick out every feature I like, go to the factory and pick it up after a yummy lunch in their restaurant (the brunch was amazing!!!) It will save me the money for a rental car while in Germany. And at the end of my trip I will drop it of at a port (now being a used car) and have it shipped here. I can't wait I figured maybe 5 years from now give or take a few. I know it looks just like any other sedan but you can't see the goodies that are inside!

I made a decision

So I REALLY enjoyed my 3 day weekend and I think I need to schedule one of these once a month during the upcoming months were I am going back to work 7 days a week. I have plenty of vacation days from my day job so its no problem to take of Fridays. And since we have a ton of staff at the restaurant it shouldn't be hard to find someone to take my weekend shift if I am scheduled for one. That just leaves the Au pairs and Busch Gardens. Well I can always tell Busch I can't work that day and as for the Au pairs that is mainly just phone or internet anyway.

hey I found this today - This is my highschool. I just wanted to be sure you see it.

Speaking of au pairs I need your input on something. So the main office has hired these placement managers that are supposed to help new au pairs for my families. Aside from it being really annoying that each family has a different one I its hard to keep them all straight other problems have surfaced. See I used to look for the au pairs myself since I know my families so it is much easier to do it instead of someone in Boston - right now my system wont allow me to see what au pairs are available. They said it'd be revamped and up by January well guess what its almost March and still nothing.

So I have had horrible miss matches and frustrated families calling me so forth. I worked with 2 of the managers and together we got the families straight. However there is a 3rd one. She has sent my family 4 obvious miss matches so far each time after I saw the application I'd point out the problems to her and sure enough those would be why the family rejects them. I have said in each email please work with me send me the applications first I look them over and make sure they are no obvious miss matches - no reply.

Last night I emailed my manager to help me with this person but I think she is still out sick anyhow so I get 2 emails this morning. One from that person she copied me on a new match and one from the family saying the AP looked good but wont arrive until the summer but they need one in May what should they do? So I emailed that lady in Boston trying to see why she matched the family with a summer AP. She said she wanted to see if the AP can come earlier and had just heard she can't. Again I ask please do not match until you know the AP can come early and again ask me for help. Nothing. Later this afternoon my family emails her noticing the AP is out of their account which they find interesting since they didn't provide her with any feedback yet. So she replies she received feedback from me!!!!!!

I am soo mad I can't even tell you - this bitch! So I can't reach anyone I'd like to talk to about this I think she needs to be reassigned since she is incapable of working together to ensure the family is happy.

High school meme

I got this MEME from Real and since I have not much else to say today ... Check out the photo from my senior class - can you find me??????


1. Who was your best friend?
Daniela and Sylvia but I didn't met Sylvia until Dani and I got to our High school (the german school system is a bit different and not everyone goes to high school) Dani and I were together in Grammar school and then went on to the same gymnasium while some of our classmates went to realschools and vocational schools ...)

2. What sports did you play?
Sports teams in Germany are not tied to schools - but I was in a swim team and was part of a life guard association

3. What kind of car did you drive?
well I had 2 simson bikes my first was a red S51 and I loved it but it was old and kept breaking so I bought this really cool metalic blue one which kept breaking too.




So when my mom drove me to the repair shop she saw this brand new red scooter and bought it right then and there and I had that one until I was 18 and got my car divers license and for my birthday I got my blue Trabant.
The trabant used to be built in my hometown before the wall came down and it was out off all the once I have driven since my favorite. Who cares that it only goes 60 miles an hour. You could fix everything on it with duck tape!

4. It's Friday night, where were you?
since the age of 13 I went out every weekend so the chances were I was at the "Erle"

5. Were you a party animal?
ahmmm yeah I was famous for my parties everyone loved coming since there was allways enough booze and food

6. Were you considered a flirt? I don't know I never knew when guys were interested. I guess

7. Ever skip school?
Who me? ahmm gee

9. Were you in any clubs?
none but my own but then again there were no clubs in our schools

10. Suspended?
never !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As far as my teachers knew I was a grey mouse that didn't do anything bad

11. Can you sing the fight song?
whats a fight song?

12. Who was your favorite teacher?
I don't remember honestly it wasn't like I paid THAT much attention. I was to busy catching up on sleep so I'd be fit for practice and dancing.

13. What was your favorite class?
Swim class in 11 & 12 grade we had to choose 4 different PE semesters I picked swimming, volleyball, judo and tennis. In swim class all I did was goof off since i already knew everything so unless the teacher had me demonstrate stuff I got to just play in my own lane. loved it!

14. What was your school's full name?
Georgengymnasium

15. School mascot?
no such thing

16. Did you go to dances?
what? like school dances now I told you we didn't have those school is there to be learned in nothing more - and yes I may have attended a few back in grammar school when it was still east germany.

17. If you could go back and do it over again, would you?
I mean it was great no responsibilities and stuff but no i don't think I would

18. What do you remember most about graduation?
skipping it to go camping with my friends, my social life was never in school or with school people i had my friends outside school and thats who I hung with (except for Dani and Sylvia but they didn't hang out with me to much since I was kind of wild but they'd come to my parties)

19. Favorite memory of your Senior Year?
field trip to Paris I guess oh and last day of school were we TP's the principals car and spraypainted it.

20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall?
i doubt I would have if we had one - well maybe next to a condom wrapper since I was the one person everyone would hit up for condoms thanks to me having an unlimited supply at the AIDS foundation.


22. Where did you go most often for lunch?
Grahams Bakery they had the best french baguettes with lettuce and eggsalad. To this day I will not be in my hometown without stopping by there. (my school was in the city so we could walk everywhere in town in no time)

23. Have you gained weight since high school?
oh hell yeah liked doubled

24. What did you do after graduation?
i didn't go to gratuation remember I was camping and that night drinking with some lifeguards I had met until midnight and then drove 6h to get to my life guard duty station.

Oh you mean like after in general - ahm got married (twice) moved across the world ...

25. When did you graduate?
July 1996 don't know the exact date since I wasn't there


26. Where are most of your classmates?
Germany

27. Did you have a high school sweetheart?
no I don't believe in dating people from your school or work. I did see someone be he was part of the clique I hung out with. I loved when he came to pick me up from school in the winter and we rode the bus (public transportation there are no school busses) home together.

28. Have you changed since?
mhh yeah my hair is back to its natural color I work on the weekends instead of going out and so forth. Being a grown up sucks!

29. Have you been to your high school since you graduated?
yes last year for the first time it was my 10th high school reunion. oh but wait it was somewhere else and my school is not a school anymore so I guess the answer is no. (I did walk past it a few times)


So did you find me in the picture above??? No well here lets take a look again click on the photo to enlarge it.

Best friends

I have been thinking a lot about my friends at home and that I am really lucky in that department. Grumpy and I were talking about how I'd love to get them all together for new years and celebrate. I don't see my friends nearly enough and sadly I don't write or call as often as I'd like. Most of this is due to the fact that I work a lot and they tend to be deep asleep when I get home and all of us are just to busy. But that is the great thing about REAL friends; you don't have to be together every waking moment or call each other all the time - but if you need them or just want to talk to them and see them they are there for you now questions asked. I admit I have the best friends a girl can ask for and I have to thank my mom for part of that. She raised me well and raised me to be a best friend to my friends. Growing up I didn't have a big family so my friends were always that - my family.

I have friends that I made when I was 3 and I have some I made as recent as last year that are here in my new home and around the world. My philosphy for friends is simple - if you are my friend I will do everything in my power to be there for you - I would walk thru fire for my friends and I know they'd do the same for me. Often you wont know if someone is a real friend until they are tested and sometimes that one's you thought were such turn out not to be. I am not sure why I am thinking about this now maybe its the belated Christmas present filled with all my favorites from my friend that I don't talk to that often and besides Christmas cards we never send stuff to one another or the fact that we are going to Germany and I am trying to plan out our trip. I hope all of you are blessed with friends as I am.

Schutzengel - Guardian Angel

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Fahre bitte, denk daran, nie schneller, als ich fliegen kann! (Remember never to drive faster than I can fly!)
This little guy was in the box too and is going to be taped to my dash board from now on. He was handcrafted in the Ore mountains where I am from (my hometown is Zwickau).

I got a box

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

Belated xmas present from germany was sitting on my steps when I got home. My best friend (the one that has my hangovers for me) sent all my favs. A Christmas figurine, Nougat, 5 min ready meal - mash potatoes with coutons, powder for chocolate milk, conditioner, my fav mustard, treats for the pups and cats and yummy soups. I ate the mash potatoes and one bar of the Nougat right away. SOOOOOOOO good. I had no clue she sent this so this was a total cool surpise. I am hoping to see her in December when we go home. I have been playing wiht the thought to see if I could get most of my friends together for New Years eve and party like old times. That would be soooooo cool.

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Originally uploaded by dino0477.

I got a present

Memories to keep from 2006

January: I was naturalized. I am now officially an American citizen. I also got to see my old friend Paul while at a meeting in Dallas. It had been a few years that we had seen each other. I had dinner with him and his girlfriend and we had a few hours of catching up. It was very nice.
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February: V-day was nice we went to my favorite restaurant the day before (we both had to work v-day of course) otherwise nothing special just work. Got to go on a business trip to San Francisco which is one of my favorite cities.
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March: mhh nothing much the AP's and I continued to write cards to recruits. The local press heard of it and came out to do an interview with all of us.
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April: I went to see Maureen graduate from Marine boot camp in South Carolina. It was something else. (the oldest of the kids whose au pair I was a long time ago)The nice part was her whole family was there so I got to see everyone. It was great. We are all so proud of her. She was 17 and a Marine so grown up. I took her back with me to Virginia since her boyfriend was at the music school near me. She would go there to after she went home for her high school graduation. She was the first person ever to walk in Dress Blues for her ceremony. I wish I could have seen that but I am sooo glad I got to at PI.

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May: Oh there is too much, my 1st anniversary with Grumpy which got cut kind of short because I left for my 10 year highschool reunion in Germany that day. Due to that I missed his college graduation :(.
The 2 weeks at home were wonderful but my favorite would have to be the Saturday before I left. I had gotten in touch with a few friends including Uwe and old childhood friend, who I had not seen in 8 years.
I met my best friend Dani and her man at 3pm and we went into one of the many Ice cream parlors / cafés that you have everywhere. There we met another childhood friend of ours and celebrated her first pregnancy (it is a baby girl) and birthday.

A little while later another one of my friends and her husband joined us. After 3 hours of amazing looking Ice cream cocktails we said goodbye to the soon to be mommy and walked down the street to my favorite Chinese restaurant. [The Chinese food in Germany tastes different than it does here - so does all the other chain food].

There Uwe joined us. We had a great time. Around 9pm we said good bye to my best friend and her boyfriend as they left to go watch the German version of Dancing with Stars. The rest of us sat and chatted for a bit longer before walking down the street a bit further to a bar. There we stayed until we said good bye after midnight. Uwe and I chatted a bit longer outside my moms house until I finally go home a bit after 1 am. It was great. I got to see everyone and have a great time.

Thinking back about that night makes me homesick I do miss my friends from home a lot.

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June: Well it was Grumpy's b-day but he had to go into work. I was obsessed with the Soccer world cup since it looked like Germany had a chance. I switched my blog from myspace to the blogger. My mom came to visit so we could do her green card paper work. Since we were near Virginia Beach we went down the prominade and then hoped over the the Little Creek base where the school of music is to visit Maureen and Austin. My mom had not seen Maureen for 9 years.
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July: I got to go jet skiing as part of an Au pair meeting. This was awesome I love jet skiing. Its like riding a motorcycle on water. I also got to go to Chicago for a meeting where I saw my former host family and my friend Evelyn who was an AP with me. She and her boyfriend had flown in from Switzerland for a wedding of the niece of our host mom. Also

*drum roll*

I got to meet our very own Miss Jin and Brioche in person (well and Mister Jin and ....). Jin made lunch for Erin (she is the youngest of the kids whose AP I was) and I, then we got to sample all her goodies. OMG talk about a kid in candy land. I can't wait to go back and try the things I couldn't fit.





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August: Mhh nothing major - I got to go to Seattle for the first time. While I was waiting to go up on the Space needle I get a call form one of my girls saying she got kicked out by her host parents. WTF. So when I got home I had to house my first AP. After I found her a new family, Grumpy and I took the puppies to the beach Mac hates the sound of the waves and will not go in the water. We don't know what it is with her and the ocean. Sassy was in the water , swimming and having a good time. We took a nap on the greens later but I couldn't read my book because people kept coming up to us to ask if they could pet the doggies. What can I say to cute for their own good.

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September: Well there was Ernesto the nice little tropical storm that cost us power for a few days and caused quiet some damage. We got lucky while it snapped of a tree limb the size of most trees, the limb missed the house by inches.

There was also my first Sweetbox from Jin. It was a early b-day present so we could take it with us to our trip. MHHHHHH so good.
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October: Happy Birthday to me!!! I got my wish and Grumpy, the pups and I went to a cabin in the West Virginia mountains. It was sooo pretty. I loved it. The cabin was so isolated in one of the valleys no one would ever find it. We saw the local sights and took a drive to the Maryland side where we got to see the beautiful colors of the leaves. It was soo relaxing and the pups loved it because they got to come with us everywhere we went.

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November: The house turned into Hotel Katy as I housed one AP for 2 weeks in the beginning of the month (I will see her when I go to LA next week) and then after Thanksgiving I got another AP that needed a place to stay until we found her a new family. Thanksgiving was nice and I since I was off the day after I went and did my Locks of Love donation. I think Grumpy is still getting used to the short hair. I am mean I never tell him when I do it, just show up with short hair.
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December: Ohhh so many things. Mhh I got a Cherry box, a Jin box and I saw the Transiberian Orchestra live. And most importantly Grumpy and I got to go out for New Years ever for the first time in 6 years. We had a ball. We went to the bar where we met and just hung out. Mhhh what a way to finish this year.
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When I started the post I didn't think the year was all that, but now looking at it it almost makes my life sound interesting doesn't it? Wonder what this year will hold I mean I am supposed to graduate from college with that a new job, Grumpy and I are planning on going to Germany for Christmas and New Years (I haven't been home for the holidays in 10 years!) .... Lots of potential