Forward Motion

Santa is ahead of schedule.

So this morning (Saturday), I did my customary weekend lay in bed because now my children are old enough to get their own breakfast thing.  Only till 9 though, because I had a lot of cleaning and laundry to do today.  I'd spent all day Wednesday and Thursday with Liz, first helping her get ready for Thanksgiving and then eating all of her amazing food. (Remind me to tell you more about Liz sometime. She's like Martha Stewart on steroids with ADD when it comes to all things domestic.)

Friday I cannot really tell you what I did other than troll the internet scooping up bargains.  Like I really need to do anymore internet ordering.  On Wednesday I had 8 packages to pick up at the mailroom and Friday there were 8 more.  My office looks like the Amazon warehouse exploded and I had to start wrapping gifts because I ran out of hiding places.

Anyway...this morning.  This post is jumping around because of two things: I am SO excited and my fingers are cold.  Because this morning when I took down the first of many loads of laundry, I stepped into a lake in the laundry room.  The floor was covered in water and it was out into the hall.  The clothes that had been hanging next to the hot water heater to dry were wet in a way that told me something had gone ker-spody last night.

DH came down to assess the damage and I told him while he was welcome to clean up the mess, I wanted to handle the problem as a dry run for the next year when he's gone and I have to handle everything alone.  So I called the housing emergency number (after bothering some guy at the fire department which I don't even know why I had that number in my phone, but I think it may bode well to save it) and they called my landlord who called the water heater technician.

He came out a few hours later and opened up the water heater door.  Need I mention he spoke no English?  If you've been reading this blog for the last few months, you should have expected that.  But I'm getting much better at understanding Italian, although my speaking is still weak.  After only a moment he said what I interpreted as "This thing is too old. I ain't fixing it."

After translation assistance from housing, we verified that yes, we were getting a new hot water heater, but not until Monday.  And yikes, no hot water until then.  I cannot TELL you how happy this makes me.  Yes, it's a pain to deal with more repairmen, but I'm getting a new hot water heater!!  One of the more miserable parts of living in Italy for me has been the lack of enough hot water in the shower.  I get maybe 4 minutes before it gives out.  We've all gotten very good at showering quickly and economizing our bathing actions to get done before the water gets cold.  When I shave my legs, I have to turn the water off and stand there wet and shivering while I hurriedly shave, then turn it back on to rinse.

I'm soooo hoping that this new hot water heater will give me just a few more minutes of hot water.  I mean, it's new.  It almost HAS to better, right?  DH thinks we might get more water pressure out of it, too.  Hey, that would just be a bonus.  I've gotten used to showering in what amounts to little more than a trickle of water.  I just want that trickle to stay hot longer.  One of my guilty pleasures is relaxing in a steamy, hot shower until I'm redder than a boiled lobster.

Now, I'm not even kidding here.  A few months ago on Twitter I had written: "Dear Santa.  Please bring me a bigger hot water heater for Christmas."  I believe, y'all.  Now I believe.

Since our hot water heater provides the water to heat the radiators, our house also has no heat now.  No hot water, no heat.  Thankfully the housing office has made arrangements for us to move into the hotel on post until it's fixed.  So I'm definitely getting a long hot shower for the next 2 nights!

Goodbye, water heater!  May your demise bring me long, hot showers next week. 

Sunlight and Gloom

It's been a lot more wet, gray, gloomy weather.

The constant dreariness had me contemplating slitting my wrists with a spork, but then this morning the sun appeared!  Not very strongly, but there were actual shadows being made, so that qualifies as sunny right now. YAY!!!

I hauled all the stuff I wanted to take photos of out and grabbed the camera and....could not find the battery.  The battery that was dead last time the sun shown and I wanted to take photos.  The battery that I charged so I'd be ready.  The battery that I took out of the transformer because it was fully charged and put it WHERE??  I've been looking all day and I cannot find it.  It's driving me insane.

I reluctantly grabbed the old Kodak and took a few shots anyway, just as the AAs in that one were dying.  My batteries all seem to be conspiring against me. 

The Sundara yarn that I had used on the fatally boring Shifting Sands scarf worked much better as a Just Enough Ruffles scarf.

 

This knit up ridiculously quickly, right up until that ruffle.  By then the stitches have tripled and it takes the better part of day to get through a row.  But it was a great project for traveling and really only took me about a week of car and sightseeing knitting.  I had to break into the second skein of Sundara for the last 2/3 of the bind off.

It's not a very long scarf, which is perfect since all the other scarves I've knit tend to get tangled in my knees because I've made them so long.  I'm so not a ruffly person, so this is about the max ruffliness I can handle.  I love how it looks like a flower when it's wound up.

 

More than the weather is gloomy around here.  This week a huge batch of troops left for deployment.  The kids reported one of their friends in tears at school and there's a general air of misery among my crowd.  DH is still here for a few more weeks and I have caught myself wishing that he would go already and stop dragging this out.  And then I feel horrid and terrible for thinking that because I treasure every day that he's here.  He took the kids skiing last week and we're going to be able to have an early Christmas before he goes.

But whew...I kind of wish I could just sleep through this next year.  Lay down and close my eyes, tell the kids to watch TV for a bit, and wake up to find that the deployment is over.  Also, that I've lost 15 lbs and my nails are really pretty. 

Nothing but a few random things

- I really have stuff to blog about, but I want to include photos.  And every day has been so gray and gloomy.  It's the kind of weather that just makes you want to curl up under the covers all day.  It's lousy photo taking weather too.  We had a bit of sun a few days ago, but when I grabbed the camera, the batteries were dead.  It's all charged up now just waiting for this gloom to clear.

- Grace has informed me that in public school PE, they warm up before each class to this song that's really annoying.  "It's called 'Achy-Breaky Heart'.  Have you ever heard of it, Mom?"  I thought one of the points of public school fitness classes was to teach the kids that exercise was enjoyable.  Maybe they're supposed to run away as fast as they can till they can no longer hear the song.

- Dh was originally supposed to leave for the deployment on Monday, the 16th.  I was kind of freaking out a little bit Sunday evening, imagining how it will be that last night before he goes.  I was teary eyed and clutching him all through the night.  This is the kind of mental joyride that is so not helpful.  Our plan is to act as though he's just going to work.  No long goodbyes, no big deal.  I'm a big believer in denial. 

- I'm knitting gloves.  My hands have been so cold.  I want to start a new sweater, but for some reason, all the patterns in my queue don't seem right.

- I have ordered so much stuff online I can't remember half of it.  I think I might be almost done with Christmas shopping, other than a few stocking gifts.  I'm not one of those people who buys all their gifts early.  I almost never have anything before December.  That's not an option now that I have to mail things overseas and because we're going to attempt to have an early mini-Christmas with DH before he goes.

- We walked to a bakery around the corner this morning.  They had doughnuts!  Almost like American doughnuts.  More bread-y, but still really good.  And the lady at the counter spoke some English.  It' was a wonderful little adventure all around.

 - From the library I got Weeds, Season 1 on DVD.  I've been wanting to watch this show, but we've never had Showtime. It's pretty good and in half the episodes there's knitting!  No one ever has any finished objects that I've seen, though.  The last episode on the DVD is messed up and it's driving me crazy not knowing how the season ends.  I've already ordered Season 2.

Neuschwanstein

 
Day 2 of the birthday trip to Germany!  On Saturday we took a tour organized by the hotel to the Neuschwanstein Castle.  We had to be ready to depart at 7:30, which is much earlier than I prefer to begin my vacation days, but thankfully Diet Coke (the real stuff, not Coca Cola Light) was available. 

On the way, we stopped at a woodcarver's store.  There were some gorgeous nativities and Christmas items, but the only thing I bought was not wooden:

He needs a better scarf.  I'm envisioning a whole wardrobe of scarves knit from my sock yarn scraps.

Our next stop was at The Church in the Meadow, a beautiful, rococo style church.  Here's a blurry photo:

 

I would have liked to have taken better photos and looked around more, but as you may be able to tell, there was a service in progress.  I was very uncomfortable snapping photos and gawking at statues while people were trying to worship.  It seemed so rude and intrusive that we left immediately.  Outside were several touristy gift shops and a little restaurant that was frying up a German version of doughnuts.  It was grey and quite cold and the doughnuts were perfectly delicious and made a fine impromptu birthday cake.

Then it was onward to the castle.  One of my friends on post had warned me that it was a steep walk up to the castle, so I told the family to be prepared.  I really like to hike and I was looking forward to the walk.  Horse and buggies were available (for a fee, of course) to take people up, which meant that the paved road was strewn with the inevitable result of horses.

Here we are pretending to pose for a photo op at a waterfall, but really we are catching our breath:

Once we reached the castle, we had some time before our tour began for admiring the view and taking more pictures.

 I'm not so sure how impressed I was with the castle.  It seems huge, but because the king died before it was finished, a lot of it is not open for viewing.  I wish it had been a self-guided tour, because I didn't get to look very long at some of the most interesting rooms, like the bedchamber.  I was particularly disappointed that no photos were allowed inside the castle due to copyright.  Hmpf.  Still it was a castle and a very cool one!  I'd really like to visit more castle, especially older ones.  Neuschwanstein is one of the "youngest" castles and I want to see some of the really old ones that served as more than just fancy showplaces.

From the window of Neuschwantstein, I took a photo of the Yellow Castle (not the official name) that descendants of the royal family still live it.

Grace wasn't exactly sick, but not feeling 100% that weekend, so I gave her a break didn't make her hike back down.

 

This was without a doubt, one of the best and most memorable birthdays ever!  When I saw the hang gliders drifting through the air all weekend, I told DH, "Maybe I'll do that for my 40th!"  But no.  I don't think so.  I'm getting older, not insane.

Up. Way up.

 
I had a great 39th birthday.  From now on, I want to take trips for my birthday instead of getting presents.  It was more fun sharing 4 days with the family than having a gift from them just for me.

Poor DH got sent up to Germany again at the beginning of the week and got back Wednesday just to turn around and drive back up there on Thurday.  Fortunately, getting to the Edelweiss Hotel in Garmisch was only a 3 1/2 hour drive and the scenery along the way was amazing.  The leaves were changing and there was snow on the mountain peaks.

When we made the hotel reservations, I thought it was kind of expensive for a military resort hotel.  (Not that it was that pricey, just that I am cheap.)  It was definitely worth the cost, though.  The rooms were nice, there was a nice big pool and and even nicer outdoor hot tub.  It was a shock to hear everyone there speak English after hearing Italian everywhere for months.

On Friday, we had planned to take a tour of a cheese making place and a monastery brewing thing.  I don't really know, I just picked the tour that didn't start too early.  But that tour was cancelled because not enough people signed up.  I was fine with that, I figured we would sleep in,then bum around Garmisch for a bit, and later take a swim and relax.

But when I was wandering around the lobby after breakfast, I found information sheets for lots of different things to do nearby.  When I saw the one for the Zugspitz, the highest peak in Germany, I thought, "We can't come here and not see that!"  Tickets were sold there at the hotel and thank goodness I didn't know how much it would cost.  When the cashier said, "$150, please." I nearly choked.  DH just shrugged and handed over the credit card.

I'm glad I didn't know about the cost because I doubt I would have spent that just to go up a mountain and look at the view.  Little did I know:

SO worth it.

 
We took a cogwheel train up the mountain.  Cogwheel sounded kind of old and rickety to me, but it was really just like any other train.  We spent a long, long time in a tunnel, most of the 30 minute ride was tunnel, I think.  We got off the train at the ski area, which is where I'm standing in the above photo.  The slopes had just opened that week.  Then there was a short ride up to the summit on a cable car.  I am generally not fond of vehicles that are suspended from wires, but the car was big enough that I didn't notice any swaying or other fear inducing movements.

It was a perfect day to visit the Zugspitz.  Sunny and clear, but not too bitterly cold.  Having lived in Georgia and Texas for the last 5 years, we really do not own proper winter clothing.  My hand knits finally were useful!

Here are the Anatolian Mittens admiring the peaks.  Somewhere in that direction is France. The older I get, the less I like heights, but the Zugspitz did not bother me at all.  The viewing platforms are very large and there is a beer garden and a restaurant up there.  I avoided leaning over the rails, of course.  I did get a bit woozy just watching this guy:

 

We had noticed the thin strap that was set up from the platform to the peak when we arrived, but didn't realize what it was for.  Later, we went to see what the small crowd was looking at and here's this guy walking across barefoot.  He is tethered to the strap, but good grief.

Here's Alex at the top:

 
 
 And Grace:

Next post - the castle.  I'm kind of tired tonight since yesterday we drove 5 hours up to Germany and 5 hours back again.  All in one day and just for yarn.  Oh, but it was Wollmeise yarn.