Thursday, April 15, 2010

Siebzehn unt Achtzehn

At least I think I'm chronicling (does that word look weird or what?) Days 17 and 18. I skipped a day and now I'm all confused. Maybe I skipped two days...? Who knows. I have to count on El Niño to keep track of the days of the week for me, but I don't have a handy blog helper.

Yesterday (Day Siebzehn? Maybe...?), we met with the realtor and our landlord to draw up the tenancy contracts so we'll be all set if and when we get that approval from Housing to live off post. I'm still getting used to Germans and I kept thinking the landlord was angry until he'd finish what seemed like a huffy tirade in German and then smile at me. ?? Different body language, different tonal sounds and I don't understand the words, so really I was lost and mildly concerned through most of the meeting.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in our usual routine...picked up some dinner from the store, hit the bakery, swam in the pool. Well, the kiddos swam and I knitted. While not in the pool.

I was again surprised at how cheap it is to eat here. I went to the grocery store and bought a big bottle of water (no gas!), a decent bottle of wine, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a cucumber, two frozen lasagna portions, two different chocolate treats for the kiddos, a small cardboard puzzle that Cheeseball had to have that a day later still sits unwrapped on the dresser, and some yogurt for less than € 10. Then, of course, I stopped at the bakery and got two big, soft pretzels and a tiramisu schnitten for about € 2. I think schnitten means jello and I should have thus realized that the tiramisu flavored portion of the dessert was a jello layer atop the cream layer atop the cake layer atop the different cream layer atop the last cake layer. Which was a little strange. But, the non-jello portions were delicious.

And, now I'm realizing that I should have gone ahead and written up siebzehn and achtzehn separately. But, too late now, forward ho.

Today, the kiddos and I wandered back to The Coolest Park Evah, which they were super excited about right up until they realized that the trip was really just a sneaky ploy by Mom to drag them to the yarn store that I've been dying to go to. I haven't blogged much of it, but I've been knitting quite a bit.

Before we left North Carolina, I knitted two pairs of fingerless mittens for El Niño.

052-5


The funny thing about these was that I knitted a pair, and one had the gray stripe and one had the red. He really liked them, so I knitted him a second pair and again it was one gray stripe and one red. So, we re-paired them and I'm completely amazed at how the variegated yarn works out in patterns.

Cheeseball had picked out a yellow and white yarn before we left, and I made her a little purse the other day. She asked for another one that was a little bigger and I started working on it. I've almost run out of that yarn, though, hence the trip to the yarn store today.

knit purses


Look what I got!

new stash


The yarn store had SO many beautiful fibers, but I had to contain myself. I picked up the orange to finish up Cheeseball's purse, the gray for a pair of leg warmers that I've been trying to work on (but not finding the right yarn for) for at least a month and a half and the last skein I just couldn't resist. Isn't it pretty!? I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I'm sure I can find something.

Fresh off my high from the yarn store, I got a call from The Man that totally bummed me out. We were at the PX yesterday and I almost bought that Lamborghini bike. But, I would have to walk it home and drag the kiddos with me, since I had them both and no trailer. So, I decided to hold off. He went back in today to pick it up for me (which was really sweet, because he was thoroughly UNexcited about riding a pretty, woman's bike home) and they had sold the last one. Since yesterday! Booooooo. :(

I guess I'll have to get a performance bike. High class problem.

Technorati tags: knitting, yarn, Germany

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