Done.

It has been a busy weekend. We are trying to decide what to do with our kiddos, see. As I have alluded to once or twice, we are a wee tight on money right now, what with a move to a new continent being slowly reimbursed (and not quite 100%, either) and not being able to sell a house or two. Due to that, we have been a little slower acquiring furniture than we had originally planned. We had planned on moving here, using our two twin mattresses for the kids and buying ourselves a new bed. Well, beds cost money. Here, they cost a LOT of money. So the kids slept on cheap air mattresses for a couple of months, and we kept the real mattresses. Then, we found a sale on some thick, roll-up foam mattresses and bought a couple for the kids. They were pretty excited. Unfortunately, they are still on the floor. So we went to a local store to look at bunk bed frames on Saturday. This involved a 30 minute tram ride. We then walked for about 10 minutes before we found a spot to cross some Deutsche Bahn train tracks. Turns out, the crossing was at the next tram stop. So we could have simply ridden the tram for another 90 seconds and saved about eight and a half minutes. Oh, well... We then walked another ten minutes or so to the store. Now this isn't really a nice store. It is a lot like a low end IKEA. But they had a better bunk bed selection, and the prices are fair. We wanted to check the quality, though, before we made any decisions. The beds are OK. I think we will end up with one. We are going to wait until next month to buy it, though.

After the furniture store, we walked back to the track crossing and caught the tram (minus the extra ten minute walk). We headed into town and stopped at a clothing store that tends to have good deals on kids' clothes. They were having a sale. We picked up some new shoes for B. They are as blue and boy as can be, but they were only €5, and they have Velcro straps. Now the littler monster can get herself ready. We are hoping to buy her something that won't force her to struggle with her identity later, but we needed a stop gap for the time being since her old shoes are falling apart and are too small. And they have laces. We found a pair of house shoes for Aiden as well. He is always cold, and we haven't been able to find any that we have liked. He has a pair that he wears in Kindergarten (it's a German thing), but they normally run about €30 a pair. We managed to find him a pair that look like mine that were only €5. Hell yes. Then, on a whim we stopped to look at some thin gloves. The kids have some nice thick ones, but they don't have lighter weight ones. We got him a pair of fleece gloves for €3.50. Nice. B got a pair of stretch gloves with the alphabet on them and some super fuzzy pink ones that she was adamant about. They were only a couple of Euros. It was nice.

So, after getting our children clothed, we went to an open house at a school that is aimed at prepping kids for starting school here in Germany. It is more of a 'I am not sure my kid can pull if off' sort of Montessori school. Now, since the Germans don't seem to actually teach anything until about age 20, we aren't worried that Aiden doesn't know enough. The problem, however, is how much German he can speak. We simply don't know how much and/or how well. We know he is speaking it in Kindergarten, but he won't do it around us. So he doesn't necessarily need to learn how to count, per se, but he does need to learn how to count/identify numbers in German. He also doesn't know the German alphabet. It's the little things. So we visited the preschool to check it out. It seems OK. We are going to take him in for a complimentary visit next month, but I think we won't follow through. We are supposed to get a TV next month as well. I think that having some German playing at home will get him where he needs to be quickly. We'll see. From what I can tell, he learned everything he needed (concept wise) for starting German school during his first year of pre-school in St. Louis when he was three. They really do have low entry standards. His only problem is the language.

Today we stayed around the house. Briana has a cold, and she didn't sleep at all last night. I got to bed late (a little after midnight). She was in bed with us, but still up and down until around 4:00. At 2:45, she got up and announced that she was getting up and planned on going downstairs to play. Sarah managed to get her back in bed, and once she finally drifted off, she slept until 8:00 or so. Aiden, however, came in at 7:30 ready to go. So I dragged my sorry, tired ass out of bed and played the cheerful daddy. I found some cartoons for him online and watched with him for a little while. Then I made a huge pot of coffee and baked three loaves of bread. Sarah came down around 9:30 or 10:00. I was feeling all productive and managed to convince Sarah to stack the washer and dryer. We have been threatening to do this for a few months now. We got it done and then brought up part of a shelving system that fit between the wall and the appliances while still staying under the water heater (that is hanging up on the wall near the ceiling). It looks really nice in there now. It allowed us to moved some stuff around and get rid of some clutter due to a lack of horizontal storage space. Then I went down into the cellar and put the rest of the shelf together and tidied up down there a little bit.

Once I was done in the cellar, I brought up my truing stand and settled in for some bike maintenance. The spokes on the front wheel of my commuter bike were a little loose. That makes the rim sing when I brake if the pads are damp. So I tightened them up and then fine tuned the rear wheel. They were in surprisingly good shape considering how much I ride that thing and how many big bumps I hit. I followed up with the wheels on the kids' trailer. I noticed a month or so ago that some of the spokes on it were just short of finger tight. It took some more work, but I got that done. But, while doing that, I noticed that the hubs felt rough. So I cleaned and repacked them. Then I told Sarah I was done with being hunched over a stand, so I was going to put everything away. So she asked me to look at her front brakes. Her wheel was off center. So I had to pull it off and line it back out on the truing stand as well. So I trued up 5 wheels today and rebuilt the hubs of two of them. Oh, and I took the tire off of my front wheel so I could true it up "right". That was a pain. I have these HUGE rims, and, while they make the wheel bomb proof, they also make it almost impossible to remove and install a tire. My hands are absolutely aching now. I did not bother with the rear tire.

Okay, it is almost ten o'clock, and I am beat. I am going to wrap this rambler of a post up and get to bed.

Toodles...

-jd