Taking the Scenic Route

 If I venture a guess, this doesn’t mean quite what I think it means.  As it stands, this would be the last place I would go to have my hair done.  lol

Stopped at the Hotel Pub before returning to the room.  They serve local brews.  We tried two brews on Tuesday night, and two brews on Wednesday night.  The brews are really heavy on the hops and, with the exception of the last one we tried last night, way too bitter for my taste.  But when you are in Germany, you have to try the beer.  It’s a rule.

Both of the servers pictured here can speak decent English.  (actually most of the people here can at least speak a few words of English) The young blond girl is from France and at least Tri-lingual.   The other one has been our waitress several times.  Both are really nice.  Actually, everyone we have met here has been very gracious. 

On Tuesday, when we ate in the restaurant, I looked up how to say “no onion” just to make sure it didn’t have onions (although I have been surprised to know that there aren’t onions in everything here.  At home, almost everything has onions, especially the German-Mennonite ethnic cooking).  After we sat there for a bit, the chef came out and asked if garlic was ok, in perfect English.  I was stunned and pleased.  First, to recognize that an onion allergy might also mean a garlic one (which is true for my dad, but I am fine with garlic), second, to actually ask instead of assume.  I was impressed.  (The dish didn’t come with onions, but it had pesto, which always has garlic in it)  The food was magnificent.  I have noticed that all of the food here tastes extremely fresh and homemade.  I have yet to eat anything that wasn’t absolutely wonderful.  (well, except for that soft cheese I got the first day, but that was just because it wasn’t to my taste, there wasn’t anything wrong with it)

Our Server looked up the words in the translator just to let us know “A good German Beer takes at least 7 minutes to pour”  when our beer sat there in front of us under the taps, waiting. 

Ah, at last.  This one is our favorite.  It is the first beer I think I have tasted in my life that I actually liked, not just tolerated.  (I am not much for beer.  I like wine, but beer generally doesn’t taste all that great to me)  It is the pope’s favorite beer if I understood her correctly.

As we left the pub and walked around the corner, this sight greeted us.  It is a double rainbow, but the second one didn’t show up well in the photo, and the main rainbow was much brighter in person.  You could see all of the spectrum and it seemed to be a full rainbow.

Back in the room, the supper we got from the market.  We had it on crackers, which I am guessing isn’t the norm around here given that there were only two cracker boxes in the whole market, and one was Ritz and the other looked like a Ritz knock-off. 

The larger whole sausage is called “Fresh Sausage” and reminded me of the “fat hot dogs” I used to get at the local market from the butcher counter in the back in the small towns I grew up near.  It was a treat that we didn’t get often, and also depended on whether or not they had them that day.  Usually, we only got them during harvest time.  (because that was one of the main times we didn’t have time to drive to the bigger city to shop, so we were in the local market a lot more)  I need to remember to tell Zach to leave the “skin” on the whole thing next time.  The snap of the skin as you bite into it is part of the experience.  lol.

edited to add: I was wrong, the sausage casing is not a natural sausage casing in this case. (this casing case…lol) It is a paper of some kind and most certainly not meant to be eaten.

Germans apparently love yogurt.  This is the yogurt selection at the small grocery store we went to yesterday.  (probably a bit bigger than our local Aldis or the Buhler Market I grew up with, but smaller than any Dillons I have been in since about the 80s)

A few meats and cheeses.  There was an amazing amount of sausages and sausage like things.  I should have taken a picture of the meat counter.  Compared to the meat counters in Kansas, it was the opposite…almost no beef, but huge cases of various kinds of sausages.

And yes, there was a LOT of chocolate.  We took pictures of it all because one of our friends grew up here and wants us to bring him back some chocolate and we want to know if he recognizes any of it from when he was a kid.  This is one of about 5 or 6 pictures.  lol

Am I reading this right?  Do they actually put Flouride in Salt?

We did end up sleeping for about 4 hours in the afternoon. We just couldn’t take it any more. Being up for 24 hours on only 3 hours of sleep is too much.

When we woke up we decided we needed to try and find the gas station were the guy showed us how to get gas because they had food in there too. On Sundays nothing is open except restaurants and, apparently, the gas station. We looped around a few times before we figured out where it was, but we did eventually find it. The selection was pretty slim, made slimmer by the fact we couldn’t really read anything and only wanted to guess so much since we knew we would get to a grocery store on Monday night after Zach gets home from work.

We gathered our items and they didn’t give us a receipt automatically. I hadn’t thought to memorize “I need a receipt”, so we just gathered our stuff and left. (they didn’t put it in a bag either)

Went back to the hotel and went to find some supper. The hotel restaurant was closed by then, but a little shop near it was crowded with 20-somethings, which is a good sign that it is not too expensive and tastes decent. It was a good guess. Ordering was interesting though. I did discover why so many people who visit the US order pizza…it was the only thing that we could decipher easily. We couldn’t tell what the toppings were mostly, but “Pizza Italiana” looked like a good bet for Zach, and “Pizza Margaritta” is a good guess for me. We assumed the Italiana one had onions, but were wrong. Not only did it not have onions on it, but it was wonderful. I was expecting a white sauce pizza with tomato slices on it because that is what it is in our area. It was a cheese pizza. It was good too. They didn’t have a lot of sauce on it, which was great for us since I didn’t know how to say “light sauce”.

The main hitch was that we assumed by the low price (5 Euros) that it was a tiny, personal size pizza so we each ordered one. This is what came:

At the end of the meal we obviously needed to take home the leftovers.  We used our little phrase books and found “I need a bag”.  However, after saying it about 5 times to the guy and having that “what the heck?” look on his face, we handed him the book and pointed out the phrase to him.  He was still confused as heck and after reading it a few times, tentitely reached for a plastic bag and we said yes.  So, we stacked our pizza in a plastic grocery bag.  lol.  Looked wierd, but it was close enough.  It was better than carrying it back to our room in our hands, which we would have done because it was delicious and worth the embarrasement.  After that, we were afraid to try and ask for a receipt.  lol

With the pizza, we also got a Coke.  The cans were really tall and skinny. 

When we got home we finally were able to talk to the kids and my folks via the webcam.  Zora was excited.  Zane seemed annoyed, probably because he wanted the computer back to play a game.  Mom said they were doing well and had been wanting pancakes and waffles.  lol.  Everybody looked good, which was a relief.

We flipped through the channels on the tv in the evening.  It was weird to see NCIS and CSI charaters in different voices with German accents.  There was a dubbed Brad Pitt movie on too.  We ended up watching the Olympics, eventually with the sound turned off because the sound didn’t matter and it was so quiet it felt wrong to have the tv going.

We pulled up the hotel and parked in an area that looked more like a patio than a parking lot. He took us inside, where it looked like a restaurant, not a hotel. Zach and the driver retrieved the bags while the hotel guy disappeared and I stood there not sure what to do. Eventually, the guys returned with the luggage and the hotel guy returned with the key. The two German guys talked a bit, then turned to us and asked if we wanted breakfast. We said yes, so they said to put our bags near the door and the driver left. We sort of stood there and looked at each other and the hotel guy disappeared again. I read someplace that you usually seat yourself in most German restaurants, but wasn’t sure if we should just help ourselves to the food at the buffet or not.

Eventually the dude came back and basically got across to us that we should go eat. lol. So we did. It was a continental breakfast with some rolls, a meat and cheese tray, yogurt (we guessed by the packaging) some fruit, some juice, and eggs (I assume they were hard boiled, but didn’t really want to take the chance). We got a roll and meats and yogurt and then tried to figure out how we were supposed to eat the meat and just put them on the roll and made a sandwich. No idea if we were tacky or not, but it didn’t really seem like finger food and we happened to sit at a table with no silverware. Eventually somebody came by and asked if we wanted coffee. YES! I figured out which of the little packets was cream and poured what I hoped was sugar from one of the shakers at the table. (it was…thank goodness…salt in coffee would have been bad). The thing we thought was yogurt tasted mostly like yogurt (or something akin to it if not). The food was good. The meat and cheese was especially good…more flavor or something. Maybe the preservatives are different in it because it didn’t have that plasticy aftertaste a lot of cold cuts do when you get them from the supermarket. I am going to get spoiled here, I can tell.

Nobody gave us a bill for the food and we sat there not knowing what to do for a while. (a theme that will be repeated often in this trip). Eventually we tracked down the guy that greeted us at the door and he had our room key. He indicated that Viega pays for the breakfast, but didn’t give us anything to sign. He said he would show us to the room which was around the corner in a different building. (The patio/parking lot has a green triangle, the building we are staying in has a red circle. You have to walk around on the street, walking in front of the hotel bar/restaurant, and a little shop where we had supper later)

So, we followed around the corner down one of those one-car streets and showed Zach where he could park the car, how to work the key to the building and we went up three flights of stairs (again, me with my luggage trying not to look like I was having a rough time with it) to another weird doorknob (pictured) and a sign that said “Rosen Suite”.

We went into the room and it was still being made up, he said it would be another half an hour until it was ready, so we left our luggage there and slipped back out the door and down the stairs, trying to decide what to do. We walked a little, but it was raining and we had no umbrella, so that didn’t last long. We went back to the hotel, this time into the bar area instead of the breakfast room to see if we could get a cup of coffee and sit while we waited. We said coffee, the same thing as earlier, but this time we got espresso. Really good, but not what we were expecting. Another couple came in and had the same thing, so I guess we weren’t doing anything weird (like sitting in a restaurant that is supposed to be closed but they let the stupid Americans in anyway). We sat there for about 45 minutes, and didn’t have anybody offer refills (or really even come back into the dining room) and weren’t sure what to do about the bill, again. Finally the guy came back and we asked if we needed to sign anything. We aren’t sure of what exactly he said, but he said something about Viega paying and disappeared again. He didn’t come back, so I guess we don’t have to sign anything. I tell you what….years of working in hotels and restaurants make “not signing” anything feel really uncomfortable.

We went back to the room and they were done. Wow, what a room. I was expecting a small room with a big bed and just hoping that we had a private bathroom. We had that, plus a kitchenette, a sofa, a table, and a tv area.

In the kitchen are two burners, a microwave, a coffee maker, and a built-in hidden (as in we didn’t discover that it was behind the cabinet for a while) fridge. In the shelves were plates coffee cups and a large selection of various wine glasses. Underneath were pots and pans, and there was silverware in the drawers. There was even a spice rack with 6 spices in it on the counter.

On the table was a tray with two bottles of sparkling mineral water and glasses made especially for mineral water and some gummy sheep. (sheep? I’ve seen bears and worms, but sheep was a new one. lol) In one of my German books it said that people in Germany don’t drink tap water, even though it is good quality and fine to drink. Everybody drinks sparkling water instead, so this showed me that book was probably on target.

In the bathroom the sink is huge and the toilet is attached to the wall. There are two buttons to press above it. After some trial, I think that one of the buttons is for a smaller flush and one is for a larger flush.

Some of the view…I will take more pictures when the light is better. It was really gray outside.

I am just enjoying the view.

Zach is trying to get an internet connection. (we ended up getting one just fine from the kitchen table, so I am posting from there, not the window. It would be pretty, but there is 4 story drop to the ground which is just begging for an expensive accident.)

Now, if anybody can tell me what this thing is, I would appreciate it. It is next to our door. (the top square toggle is like all of the light switches, but it doesn’t appear to go to anything. Not sure what the little box thing under it is)

Happy Happy Birthday,

That’s what we’re here to say

Happy Happy Birthday,

May All Your Dreams Come True!

Happy Happy Birthday,

From All of us to you.  HEY!

Yeah…too many years waiting tables…this is the song that goes through my head now days. lol.

After long conversations with each of his parents on the phone (they each live several states away), my folks invited us to Carabas for Zach’s Birthday.  Much to our suprise and delight, Steve and Joy were there too.  Joy looks a lot better and even treated us to a glass of some decent wine.  Yum. 

So very appropriate for my guy.

Zora’s first cannoli. 

She was pleased.

Zach and Employment

In the past, when we called the temp agencies, we usually had to wait a week to call them back, and then maybe a week later they might call us to see if a particular job matched up.  Yesterday afternoon at 2:30ish Zach called one of the temp places he has worked with before and left a message, called up another one, left a message, and got in touch with of a third one.  By the time he got off the phone with the third one, he had emails from the first two, hadn’t even answered them, and he got a call back.  And then another one.  He ended up spending an hour talking to people and emailing things to people and had to wait to go out (he was planning on running to the store with Zora right after leaving messages) because it was almost time to go to Zane’s speech therapy.  That was a surprise. 

The two more solid leads sound like there is a job in Hutch, but the pay isn’t spectacular, although my folks would be beyond thrilled if we moved back there, so there is that benefit.  (it is about an hour from here, so we could commute for a bit, but gas prices might make that a little dicey if the pay isn’t enough).  There is another solid lead for a job downtown that sounds really promising.  A good company, pretty good pay (not jaw dropping, but better than teaching), and it sounds like it would be a good match.   (who would have guessed that C++, of all of his vast computer skills, would be the one that might get him a job)  The sadly ironic part is that one of the things they would really like, that Zach doesn’t have, is the ability to speak German.  German, of all things.  lol.  I am the only person in my family that doesn’t speak German, and I grew up in a community where the only language class available was German (no Spanish or anything else).  I think I took Home-Ec, a totally useless waste of time for me (my skills were so much higher than what they taught it was beyond laughable), instead of German and I have been kicking myself for years.  So, if we get that job, it will be motivation to finally learn German beyond food and hymns.  lol.

Late last night Zach took some benchmark tests in C and C++ and got the results back today.  He did very well.  He is very proficent in C++, and considered a “Master” in C.  He did better than 93% of the people that have ever taken the test and is considered to be somebody who can mentor others in C language.  Not a surprise, but it feels good.  The company downtown was quite pleased with the results and is fast tracking the application (according to the temp person), so it is looking hopeful.

So, even though the job we really want isn’t calling back, I am SO relieved to finally hear something back that sounds good.   Neither of us want to move.  We are rooted here and don’t want to go away from my folks because they are such good grandparents to our kids (and it is really nice to have family around…I would really miss that).  The only job that would be worth moving for is the federal one, but if we can find a place here that fulfills our needs, then even that wouldn’t be as attractive.

Me, in which I realize I am a food snob

In the last few weeks, the budget has gotten so tight we are having to go back to shopping at Aldi’s and only shopping sales for meat.  I hate having to go back to that.  It is petty, but when I was going to the store, it really made me feel good to be able to buy what I was hungry for when I wanted it.  It made me feel more normal, like we weren’t so dang poor any more.  Well, even though I wasn’t going out and just being crazy about it, it was still killing our budget, especially when gas prices went up so much.  So, I realized that I have to reign it back in and go back to my old skill set.  I didn’t realize how important it had become to me to have the freedom to eat whatever fresh veggies, ect, appealed to me.  I never wanted to step foot in Aldis again because it represents a time in my life when food was scarce and I lived in fear of not having enough (because sometimes there wasn’t enough). 

However, we did it.  As depressing as it is, it is really nice to be able to do it smoothly.  Being able to cook at a really frugal level is a skill that I guess I haven’t lost.  The nice thing is that we aren’t having to have meal after meal of beans and rice or white noodles or ramen noodles with no meat, not because we are vegetarian, but because we can’t afford it.  This time, I am able to get some meat, just maybe not exactly what (or as much) I want, but it I am still able to make really good meals because I know how to cook from absolute scratch.  (pretty much anything in a box or can is out for us anyway because I am allergic to onions).  We cut out almost all of the snack foods, except a few select things for the kids (some cereal and pretzels) and it looks like I was able to stretch the budget enough that I only spent $100 in the last two weeks to feed my family, including at least one meal with meat every day, and I still have a few leftovers in the fridge for when the next paycheck starts tomorrow.  I am proud of myself for sucking it up and pulling myself out of the shallow little pity party I was having for myself.  It was stupid.  Just because we have to be on a tight budget doesn’t mean we will suddenly have nothing.  I know that is silly, but I felt like if we started living like that again, we would shoot back into being super poor again becuase it brought up so many old feelings.  Not reasonable, but once I realized what was getting in the way, I was able to work through it and our lives are better for it. 

Zane’s favorite snack, since he was a toddler, is bread with hot sauce.  It has evolved into a hot sauce sandwich.  This is really gross to me, but his little sister has been very impressed with his culinary choices and has been pushing to have the same thing.  She can’t handle hot sauce though…she eats it, and then cries and desperately claws at her mouth like most of us would do in that situation.  However, she is desperate to have one just like her brother.  So, today it occured to me that she loves ketchup (that gene came from grandpa because Zach & I both dislike ketchup) so I pull out the ketchup along with the hot sauce when Zane wanted his snack.  Zora starts clapping.  The ketchup sandwich was a hit, although now I have two snacks that make me wonder where my children came from.  eeewwww.

Well, that was different.

Zane is not yet completely well.  He has a horrible cough at night and, despite saying he feels ok, he is really lethargic.  He is not the least bit interested in doing school today and wants to watch cartoons that he used to like, but has mostly outgrown.  I am guessing he isn’t actually feeling very good.

He is, however, craving hot sauce.  It is not unusual for him to want hot sauce, but today he seemed like he couldn’t get enough.  I figure that he has some sort of throat bug and his body was wanting the hot sauce to help kill it.  (I know that I sometimes crave super spicy foods when my sinus or throat is bothering me).  However, he doesn’t have a good grasp on what is too much hot sauce.  

I was sitting on the couch with Zora, who had just woken up from her nap, and all of a sudden he sprints past me to the bathroom and I hear the sink turned on and screaming.  I jump up and run to see what the problem was.  I think he threw up in the sink, but he was yelling “clean up, clean up” in between screams and his face was really red.  He was trying to get his face under the facet (wasn’t fitting).  I flip on the shower, rip his clothes off and stick him in there.  As I turn on the shower, Zora gets really excited and comes running as she is stripping off her clothes.  She gets underfoot which just increases Zane’s panic, so I lift her up, set her outside the door and close the door.  She is really mad and proceeds to spend the entire rest of the time we are in the shower pounding on the door. 

I get Zane in the shower and he sticks his face in the stream of water (something he doesn’t usually do willingly), but is still screaming and crying.  All I can think is that the hot sauce isn’t dissipating fast enough and is burning him, so I run to the kitchen, grab the jug of milk and pour it on his head.  Yeah.  ice cold milk on his head…you can guess how well that went.  However, it did seem to stop the burn.  He was still crying, but it wasn’t in a panic anymore.  He wants out of the shower.  I find the Benadryl and put it on his face as much as he will let me (he isn’t thrilled about it), and ask if he wants some chocolate milk (to help his stomach settle) and he does. 

I went through the entire gallon of milk in under 3 minutes.  However, his face is returning to it’s normal color now and he is playing happily in his room, so it is very worth it. 

Poor guy.  Scared the poop out of me. 

Zora is still mad at me and wants a shower.  lol

My son, who will not eat a single vegetable (even carrots, potatoes, and corn) will, apparently, drink spinach and bok choy, even in large quanties, if blended with apple juice with the Vitamix.  Woah.  Our other blender couldn’t get it smooth enough to get a drinkable texture for him (we tried, since he will drink the $5/bottle juice off the store shelf of a similar make-up).  Suddenly the Vitamix (our tax refund purchase) seems worth the price. 

Tomorrow, carrot ice cream!  (Yes, you can make ice cream with the thing, really good ice cream actually.  Or, you can make “yogurt ice cream” and just blend yogurt with frozen fruit, and maybe throw in some nuts, and the kids will think they are in heaven because they can have “ice cream” for breakfast every day if they want to.)

One exciting thing first:  Zane ate a few bites of carrot.  Willingly.  He has not eaten a single vegetable since he was a toddler.  He used to be a human garbage disposal until the food adversions started around 2ish.  It was a carrot shaving made after taking off the peel that he put on top of the salad he made.  (he wanted to make a salad with spinach and wanted carrots on it).  He wouldn’t eat the salad under it, but the fact that he wanted to make one gives us hope that he might give it a try in the near future.

The rest of life is just playing with kids, getting the next semester’s therapy sessions in order, and figuring out the lesson plans for homeschool. 

We start a more structured homeschool on Monday.  I got a new curriculum this week and am going through it to get it laid out and ready.  It is called Moving Beyond the Page and is basically a series of unit studies that includes all the subjects together on the same themes.  It is exactly what I wanted…flexible, easy to expand on topics he is interested in, and covers all the basics in a comprehensive way.  It is a particular challenge for me to try and remember what needs to be included because he doesn’t just pick up on things in his environment the way most kids do.  He has to be specifically introduced to subjects, and having been on the earth a while longer, I overlook the obvious too easily.  I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to do it on my own, but I knew I wanted more than math, writing, and phonics/reading.  I love the unschooling philosophy and am very willing to be flexible, but in it’s purest form it was not really working for us.  Strewing interesting things around to spark interests doesn’t work as well when your child is somewhat oblivious to it and can’t actually ask questions. 

I am supplementing the material with the math we have been doing since he likes that, and continuing the Headsprout Phonics program, and some bible stories.  Add to that, the different exercises and things from his therapies and Reading Explorer’s group and I think it will be plenty.

Being Christian, I am sure people are wondering why didn’t I choose a curriculum that already has the bible stuff integrated, since that is actually the norm.  The main reason why is that, as far as I can tell, almost all the curriculum come from the most conservative end of the spectrum and I interpret Jesus’ message very differently than the conservative extremists.  I don’t want to see anything about literal creationism (I believe God created everything, evolution was the method…and the time line in the bible is metaphorical, not literal), abortion, no recognition of religious differences, or homosexuality.   I don’t think there is a place for teaching hatred to children.  When they are older, we can explore some of the stickier issues, but at this age, kids should only hear messages of love and acceptance, since that is the central message from Jesus.  I can’t trust the “Christian” curricula to stick to that since I can’t actually see any of the curriculums and just have to go off of descriptions.  My experience says that many are so blind to the fact that other Christians don’t have the same interpretations, that I doubt they would be able to recognize the propaganda anyway, so it is sort of pointless to even ask, unless you know the person well and know where they are coming from.

I have also been working out how to make some better visual schedules for some of the routines.  It is a lot more complicated than it looks like it should be on the surface.  You have to think about all the different variations life can throw at you and try and predict how the routine would work in different situations and adjust accordingly to avoid as many potential land mines as possible.  Once a routine is set, it is hard to move around without a lot of painful adjustments, so it is better to wait and get it as close to right as possible the first time out.

My beef stew is tempting me away from the computer, so I must go now.  Yummy.