sarah went to the drug store yesterday to see about getting something for aiden's cough. we haven't had to deal with it for a while. he is a lot like me. he gets sick and then it settles in his chest for a couple of weeks. they gave her a suppository. because it is stronger. the way i see it, oral medicine can be weak because it's goes in at the source. of course this stuff is stronger. you can't get any further away.
they are CRAZY here. it's all herbs and buttholes.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
snork
the germans are crazy, socialist, homeopathic hippies.
i am sick. one of the kids' teachers suggested eating garlic for sinus issues. so i ate 4 cloves on two rolls. i'll show them. i won't be able to talk to anyone for a week.
ha! take that. germans.
i apparently had a fever today. i was freezing all morning. i built up a fire that would have made a smithy jealous. and i was still cold. then i went to bed for a couple of hours. i woke up as my fever broke. it felt like i was going to burst into flame for a few minutes, then nothing. i feel better now. i'm still stuffy. i'm going to go irrigate my sinuses here in a little bit to try to clean things out and get it re-moisturized. whee!
i am sick. one of the kids' teachers suggested eating garlic for sinus issues. so i ate 4 cloves on two rolls. i'll show them. i won't be able to talk to anyone for a week.
ha! take that. germans.
i apparently had a fever today. i was freezing all morning. i built up a fire that would have made a smithy jealous. and i was still cold. then i went to bed for a couple of hours. i woke up as my fever broke. it felt like i was going to burst into flame for a few minutes, then nothing. i feel better now. i'm still stuffy. i'm going to go irrigate my sinuses here in a little bit to try to clean things out and get it re-moisturized. whee!
Saturday, November 24, 2007
my belly hurts
we had thanksgiving dinner today. sarah's sister aileen flew in yesterday. i took the kids up to frankfurt on the train. they like doing that. we had to make the 5 block walk to the tram stop in the rain. that wasn't too bad. we all have raincoats, and the kids had umbrellas. of course, it is a 25 minute tram ride to the hauptbahnhof, so aiden was pretty much done with train rides by the time we got to the train station. i bought a cup of coffee at the train station, and we sequestered ourselves into a little heated cabin to wait for the train (it was only 15 minutes).
we were able to get into a six seater cabin that only had one old man in it. he was pretty friendly. it had a little table in it. i gave them a couple of pretzels, and we settled down to read. i downloaded some books from the gutenberg collection last week and put them on my handheld. the kids thought that was pretty cool. i read them the tale of peter rabbit. it isn't a new one, but we have to start somewhere. we made a transfer in mannheim and got some more seats in the driver's cabin end of an i.c.e. train. the kids spent the most of that 30 minutes or so looking out the window.
so we got to the airport in good time and headed for concourse c. turns out that aileen's flight went from denver to chicago. i didn't know that, so i couldn't find her flight. after a quick call to sarah, i got the 411. her flight had come in 45 minutes early in another concourse. we had to get to b concourse international arrivals stat. fortunately passport control and customs delayed her enough to get us stationed. of course, that arrival door was only about 60 yards from the c door. the kids acted appropriately as soon as aunt aileen came through the door.
we made it back to the long distance train station at the airport about 6 minutes after the train to karlsruhe left. so we had to wait an hour. it wasn't too bad. i bought some more pretzels and a cup of coffee and watched the kids play. we got on the train without any issues. we had to switch over again in mannheim. aiden managed to find a little girl his age that had been on the train with us that spoke english. they played around until the train got there, and then we sat with her and her dad in the same cabin. that made it pretty easy, with the kids playing with each other and all. the little girl has been alternating one month in KC and two months in germany since february. she speaks amazing english. it gives me hope. we got to karlsruhe and got ourselves right on the tram. with the same little girl and her mom. so the kids and aileen sat with them, and i sat behind them. we got to our tram stop and met sarah. we all wandered home in a pretty steady rain.
we got everyone settled, and then i had to go into the office (on my first ever, german vacation day) to drop some receipts off and turn on my out of office notification. yep, i'm an american through and through. i also made the mistake of stopping to say hi to my boss. that took me about 20 minutes to fix. granted, he did warn me as i came up that he had news i didn't necessarily want to hear, so i should turn around and leave. i didn't. he did. it wasn't horrible. mainly because i have two weeks off, and he has to fix it. yep, i'm becoming more german by the second. after the little trip to the office i rode over to a colleague's house to pick up a printer and some other knick knacks. he is moving, so he is trying to lighten his load. i talked to him for 30 or 45 minutes and then loaded up the bike trailer and headed home. this whole sessions was performed in a steady rain. thanks to my gore-tex coat and pants, i managed to stay completely dry. i love high tech clothing.
today we got up early (like, 6:30) and started getting thanksgiving dinner ready. the kids let aunt aileen sleep until about 7:xx (where xx.gt.00 and xx.lt.59, sorry for the fortran. blogspot won't handle angle brackets that aren't html.). so she got up and moved her sleeping down to the sofa. and, oddly enough, that actually subdued the children for a while. she said she had to read them one book before they would leave her alone. then they sat on her and watched a movie while sarah and i kept up the cooking. we were somehow able to pull off cooking a turkey, a pumpkin pie, some home made rolls, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, and glazed carrots by 2:30. christian and julie came over at 2:15 with some green beans and red cabbage. with cloves in it. yes. i said cloves. in red cabbage. it was good. weird, but good. we then proceeded to eat the hell out of it. i was stuffed. then i ate a piece of pumpkin pie. after that, i had a piece of apple pie (that sarah cooked while we were eating). that did it. i actually couldn't eat the last two bites. it was shameful. of course, it was better than throwing up on the table.
and one last piece of family news. aileen was talking to aiden after he went poop this morning. she was helping him get everything taken care of and all. our toilets are not real aggressive when it comes to flushing, so it doesn't always work as planned. assuming you aren't planning on turds and paper being there after it is all said and done. so aileen was fretting about it. aiden reassured her with, 'don't worry, aunt aileen. sometimes you have to let the poop sit in there a little while. when it gets waterlogged, it will sink to the bottom. then you can flush it.' yes. he not only used the word waterlogged, but he managed to use it while talking about poop. that's my boy.
we were able to get into a six seater cabin that only had one old man in it. he was pretty friendly. it had a little table in it. i gave them a couple of pretzels, and we settled down to read. i downloaded some books from the gutenberg collection last week and put them on my handheld. the kids thought that was pretty cool. i read them the tale of peter rabbit. it isn't a new one, but we have to start somewhere. we made a transfer in mannheim and got some more seats in the driver's cabin end of an i.c.e. train. the kids spent the most of that 30 minutes or so looking out the window.
so we got to the airport in good time and headed for concourse c. turns out that aileen's flight went from denver to chicago. i didn't know that, so i couldn't find her flight. after a quick call to sarah, i got the 411. her flight had come in 45 minutes early in another concourse. we had to get to b concourse international arrivals stat. fortunately passport control and customs delayed her enough to get us stationed. of course, that arrival door was only about 60 yards from the c door. the kids acted appropriately as soon as aunt aileen came through the door.
we made it back to the long distance train station at the airport about 6 minutes after the train to karlsruhe left. so we had to wait an hour. it wasn't too bad. i bought some more pretzels and a cup of coffee and watched the kids play. we got on the train without any issues. we had to switch over again in mannheim. aiden managed to find a little girl his age that had been on the train with us that spoke english. they played around until the train got there, and then we sat with her and her dad in the same cabin. that made it pretty easy, with the kids playing with each other and all. the little girl has been alternating one month in KC and two months in germany since february. she speaks amazing english. it gives me hope. we got to karlsruhe and got ourselves right on the tram. with the same little girl and her mom. so the kids and aileen sat with them, and i sat behind them. we got to our tram stop and met sarah. we all wandered home in a pretty steady rain.
we got everyone settled, and then i had to go into the office (on my first ever, german vacation day) to drop some receipts off and turn on my out of office notification. yep, i'm an american through and through. i also made the mistake of stopping to say hi to my boss. that took me about 20 minutes to fix. granted, he did warn me as i came up that he had news i didn't necessarily want to hear, so i should turn around and leave. i didn't. he did. it wasn't horrible. mainly because i have two weeks off, and he has to fix it. yep, i'm becoming more german by the second. after the little trip to the office i rode over to a colleague's house to pick up a printer and some other knick knacks. he is moving, so he is trying to lighten his load. i talked to him for 30 or 45 minutes and then loaded up the bike trailer and headed home. this whole sessions was performed in a steady rain. thanks to my gore-tex coat and pants, i managed to stay completely dry. i love high tech clothing.
today we got up early (like, 6:30) and started getting thanksgiving dinner ready. the kids let aunt aileen sleep until about 7:xx (where xx.gt.00 and xx.lt.59, sorry for the fortran. blogspot won't handle angle brackets that aren't html.). so she got up and moved her sleeping down to the sofa. and, oddly enough, that actually subdued the children for a while. she said she had to read them one book before they would leave her alone. then they sat on her and watched a movie while sarah and i kept up the cooking. we were somehow able to pull off cooking a turkey, a pumpkin pie, some home made rolls, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, and glazed carrots by 2:30. christian and julie came over at 2:15 with some green beans and red cabbage. with cloves in it. yes. i said cloves. in red cabbage. it was good. weird, but good. we then proceeded to eat the hell out of it. i was stuffed. then i ate a piece of pumpkin pie. after that, i had a piece of apple pie (that sarah cooked while we were eating). that did it. i actually couldn't eat the last two bites. it was shameful. of course, it was better than throwing up on the table.
and one last piece of family news. aileen was talking to aiden after he went poop this morning. she was helping him get everything taken care of and all. our toilets are not real aggressive when it comes to flushing, so it doesn't always work as planned. assuming you aren't planning on turds and paper being there after it is all said and done. so aileen was fretting about it. aiden reassured her with, 'don't worry, aunt aileen. sometimes you have to let the poop sit in there a little while. when it gets waterlogged, it will sink to the bottom. then you can flush it.' yes. he not only used the word waterlogged, but he managed to use it while talking about poop. that's my boy.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Utilities
We are learning to be very conservative here. It is very unlike us. Sarah kept at least one light on in the basement ALL of the time in Saint Louis. St. Louis City charges a flat rate for water usage based on the number of water fixtures. That meant that the kids took lots of baths and played in water a lot. Not here. In St. Louis, we had a nice, gas, over-sized water heater. Not so here. It is about half the size of a typical water heater. Since electricity is insanely expensive here, we have a plan that splits costs. We have really expensive electricity during the day and from 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM it is cheap. That means that the water heater heats during that time. If you run out of hot water during the day so are screwed. Or you pay premium rates to heat that dude up. It is enough that I actually think about what I am doing when I turn water on in the bathroom to make sure that I'm not drawing water out of the water heater that isn't actually making it to the faucet. I take showers with as little water as possible. We plan our showers and the kids' baths with our house cleaning schedule as well. It is a lot of planning.
The same is true with our heat. We have these radiator type things. But they are electric. They are filled with ceramic bricks and either brine or oil. They are heated based on the same schedule as the water heater. How hot they heat is based on a setting for the size of the room and the actual thermostat setting. The tricky part here is planning how cold it is going to get during the day. The radiator is basically just a heat battery. There is a fan under them that circulates the warm air when the room temperature drops. If you turn up the thermostat during the day (or you simply have it set too high), you are likely to use it up so that they are cold. So there is a lot of planning there. Fortunately, we also have a wood stove that is lined with thick bricks, so if you work it out ok, you can get a fire going in the morning and then just keep it running low so that the bricks stay warm all day to supplement the heaters. If you really get it going, you can set up a fan in the foyer to feed that extra heat up to the bedrooms and Sarah's stained glass workshop.
So we are really learning how to manage ourselves so that we don't use utilities. We have to separate our trash into recyclables, food waste and normal trash. Since we have little trash cans, we really work on that. The nice thing about having a wood stove is being able to thin our the paper waste by using it as kindling. That is good, because we generate a lot of paper/cardboard waste. Definitely not as much as we used to.
This is a good experience for us. It is nice to feel like we are actually impacting the environment less as the family grows.
The same is true with our heat. We have these radiator type things. But they are electric. They are filled with ceramic bricks and either brine or oil. They are heated based on the same schedule as the water heater. How hot they heat is based on a setting for the size of the room and the actual thermostat setting. The tricky part here is planning how cold it is going to get during the day. The radiator is basically just a heat battery. There is a fan under them that circulates the warm air when the room temperature drops. If you turn up the thermostat during the day (or you simply have it set too high), you are likely to use it up so that they are cold. So there is a lot of planning there. Fortunately, we also have a wood stove that is lined with thick bricks, so if you work it out ok, you can get a fire going in the morning and then just keep it running low so that the bricks stay warm all day to supplement the heaters. If you really get it going, you can set up a fan in the foyer to feed that extra heat up to the bedrooms and Sarah's stained glass workshop.
So we are really learning how to manage ourselves so that we don't use utilities. We have to separate our trash into recyclables, food waste and normal trash. Since we have little trash cans, we really work on that. The nice thing about having a wood stove is being able to thin our the paper waste by using it as kindling. That is good, because we generate a lot of paper/cardboard waste. Definitely not as much as we used to.
This is a good experience for us. It is nice to feel like we are actually impacting the environment less as the family grows.
Numbers
I went on a ride Sunday with a colleague. It was nice. We took it easy, though. He is training for the Iron Man next year, and he has started a lot of other planned workouts, so I got to tag along on a recovery hill ride. I spent Saturday cutting and splitting wood for our wood stove, so my legs were pretty tired from bending over repeatedly to pick it up and stack it. After the 3rd hill or so, I was feeling it. We were about 45 minutes into the ride before we hit the hills, and then I had to really back it off. The downhills were nice. I finally have a bike that fits, so I can comfortably get into the drops and fly.
Tuesday was the first day in months that it rained (for real) on my commute. I think I've been lucky. While Karlsruhe is pretty sunny compared to the rest of Germany, it is still Germany. So while there has been some rain, I have been lucky enough to be able to time my commute to miss it. It wasn’t too bad, but I did get wet. So I started to look back at was has been happening lately while I was trying to ignore how wet my pants were getting, I started thinking about our time here on this trip, and some of the numbers involved (I am an engineer, after all).
4: the number of months we have been here. It has flown by.
6:The number of weeks the kids have already been in school.
2: The number of times we went swimming at the local quarry thanks to a cool summer.
2: The number of weeks at the beginning of August I spent in St. Louis. Those 2 weeks are the only time I have driven since we left in mid June.
2: The number of times (excluding that trip to STL) that I have not ridden my bike to work since I started in July. That comes out to around 82 days. I missed riding the 1st day because my bike was in a box being unloaded from a shipping container. The Friday of my 1st week, I had to make a trip into town to handle our Kindergeld, so I rode the tram on into work from the city instead of going back out to the house and then riding back to the office. Other than that, rain or shine, I bike it.
1: Number of weekend trips by bike to France with the kids in tow in their trailer. I hope to do more next year. That is 1 of the reasons I moved to Europe. To see it.
3: The number of months it took me to get my first promotion here.
7: Number of years I held the same position in my other office. Granted, my responsibilities grew during that time, but I was pretty much as high as that was going.
6: Number of months we have had our house on the market.
0: Number of offers on said house.
1: Number of times our fence next to our driveway has been destroyed since we left.
12: Minimum number months since I have slept soundly.
15: Number of days of vacation I get for the six months I am working this year.
30: Number of vacation days during a full year.
OK. I am going to go read the kids a book and get them to bed.
Tuesday was the first day in months that it rained (for real) on my commute. I think I've been lucky. While Karlsruhe is pretty sunny compared to the rest of Germany, it is still Germany. So while there has been some rain, I have been lucky enough to be able to time my commute to miss it. It wasn’t too bad, but I did get wet. So I started to look back at was has been happening lately while I was trying to ignore how wet my pants were getting, I started thinking about our time here on this trip, and some of the numbers involved (I am an engineer, after all).
4: the number of months we have been here. It has flown by.
6:The number of weeks the kids have already been in school.
2: The number of times we went swimming at the local quarry thanks to a cool summer.
2: The number of weeks at the beginning of August I spent in St. Louis. Those 2 weeks are the only time I have driven since we left in mid June.
2: The number of times (excluding that trip to STL) that I have not ridden my bike to work since I started in July. That comes out to around 82 days. I missed riding the 1st day because my bike was in a box being unloaded from a shipping container. The Friday of my 1st week, I had to make a trip into town to handle our Kindergeld, so I rode the tram on into work from the city instead of going back out to the house and then riding back to the office. Other than that, rain or shine, I bike it.
1: Number of weekend trips by bike to France with the kids in tow in their trailer. I hope to do more next year. That is 1 of the reasons I moved to Europe. To see it.
3: The number of months it took me to get my first promotion here.
7: Number of years I held the same position in my other office. Granted, my responsibilities grew during that time, but I was pretty much as high as that was going.
6: Number of months we have had our house on the market.
0: Number of offers on said house.
1: Number of times our fence next to our driveway has been destroyed since we left.
12: Minimum number months since I have slept soundly.
15: Number of days of vacation I get for the six months I am working this year.
30: Number of vacation days during a full year.
OK. I am going to go read the kids a book and get them to bed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
