I miss my fangs already...

The Vampire Ball (Ball der Vampire) 2009 in Heidelberg, Germany. What am amazing night... If you want to see more photos and you're not on Facebook, email me and I'll send you a link.

blueberry soup

if you've been reading this blog from the beginning, you'll know that i have a love/hate relationship with IKEA. i love it because it's great for things like wine and champagne glasses that can be broken without guilt, and simple, temporary storage solutions for german houses without storage. i hate it because i don't think i've ever walked out of that store happy. i end up tired, frustrated, dejected... i'm leaning towards simplifying the relationship and just hating it after this afternoon.

today i had to go pick up a few things. since there's no chance that sean will read this blog before he gets home tonight (or ever, for that matter) i can tell you that i organized his office for him for valentine's day. seriously, we have lived here since may and the man had not unpacked boxes or taken out his trash ONCE. after the splinter of 2003, i stopped cleaning his office, but that's another story... anyway, i needed to use the bathtub in the office bathroom for storage, which is no problem since i don't see sean taking bubble baths while he's on conference calls, so i needed a screen to hide the junk in the tub. that was my number one goal. i also wanted to pick up some simple plastic storage thingys for his papers and business cards, as well as a six-pack of champagne glasses for prosecco drinking. yeah, that's how we roll.

so i get to IKEA, go through the top section and can't find the screen i had previously found online. no worries, i figure i'll just look it up downstairs. i'm prepared, and know the german word - raumteiler. when i get downstairs i grab a cart. but not just any cart. the LOUDEST freaking cart in the world. i put stuff in it before i realized how bad it was, so i didn't want to go back and change it out. so i figure out that if i go very, very slowly and actually pull UP on the cart as we're moving forward, i can keep it to a dull roar. but this means i'm there longer, so i quickly abandon that plan and burn through there like a freight train. of course it's 2pm on a thursday, so the store isn't crowded, and is relatively quiet EXCEPT FOR ME. when i get to the stacks, i look up the screen i need on the computer and they don't have any in stock. i figure i'll try a different furniture store on the way home so i skip that and head to the cashier. when i'm checking out, the cashier first tells me that i've grabbed a display item, and i can't buy it, so there's one thing i need gone. then she gets to the paper trays and notices they are bent, so there are now two things i need that i don't have. there was no way i was going back inside, so i ended up with champagne glasses and a few other things i didn't really need.

i did go back in after i went to the car and loaded my haul. i got a hot dog, which was okay, and some blueberry soup, which i am strangely excited about. so there's my silver lining. and i ended up, two stores later, with everything i need including a shower curtain rod for the bathroom. it looks great, and i am excited to show sean when he gets home.

this WILL be the last nice thing i do for him that involves IKEA.

comments

i figured out why it was so hard for you guys... so if you tried to leave a comment before and had a hard time, try again some day. it should be easier now.

What??? No Olive Oil???

This is a portion of the response I got back from a reservation inquiry at an Italian farmhouse...

The price also includes Baby Cot, Electricity, Gas, Water, Linen, Towels, Weekly Change of Towels and Linen, Final Cleaning, Wi-Fi, Fitness Equipment, Use of Swimming Pool, Parking and excludes Heating, Extra-Virgin Olive Oil.

I hadn't really thought about it before, but from now on I think I will only stay at hotels where olive oil is included in the cost of the room.

chasing tacos

so sean and i have been chasing mexican food for the past month or so... we have two places near the big air force base in ramstein, but these are about an hour away and aren't that great. we started by driving to stuttgart on a saturday. we had two possible choices, one rated higher by americans than the other. we started there... closed. so we drove over to the other one. again, closed. we ended up eating at subway and wasting about four hours on our mission. then last saturday we decided to try out a mexican's reccomendation. so we drove to karlsruhe. and, you guessed it... closed. luckily the trip wasn't an entire waste, as we were able to catch up with our friends who recently left heidelberg.

so we found ourselves trying to figure out where to eat in geneva, and i suggested we try to find tex-mex. it's very international here, why not? so we find this place...

and then we see this...

of course we have the dogs with us, so our plan seems foiled. then sean convinces me to go in and try and sweet talk them into letting the girls come in... i did, and it worked. i told them i was living in germany, but was from texas, and hadn't had a decent tex-mex meal in ages but had my dogs with me... the bartender asked the owner if it was okay, and he sat us right in the front, just in front of the entertainment. little did he know this would make my night even better.

the food was great, best we've ever had in europe, and the mariachis played 'cielito lindo' for me... success, finally!