Burg Means Castle in German

I'm unsure how to start talking about our two week vacation in Europe. Do I brag about our experience by using all the synonyms for 'amazing' and 'beautiful' as I list all the sites and countries we visited? Do I tell you all the things that went wrong? Do I describe everything all at once or break up into small pieces? And if I do break it up into small pieces, how many do I realistically have the energy to do? How many segments do my readers have interest in?

Who knows. I'll probably do a combination of all the above. Come to think of it, knowing me, there's a good chance that this is the only post you'll get.

Yesterday, as I contemplated how to organize our photos and thought about whether I wanted to blog about our trip, I discovered that the newest Picasa has a moviemaker feature. I spent some time (won't tell you how much) figuring it out and made the below movie. I chose to start with this Europe experience because: 1.) It was one of the first things we did on our trip 2.) It was a pretty incredible place to visit and 3.) One of the funniest things of the whole trip happened there.

Soo...Burg Eltz was a castle we visited in Germany the day we drove from Frankfurt to Paris. That day was certainly the introduction to many things, namely the craziness of driving in Europe (i.e. it is impossible to get anywhere without getting lost) and how unbelievably cool/beautiful/interesting the sites are.

Here is the movie (the resolution gets kind of crummy if you enlarge it):



Here is the funny thing:

To see the interior of Burg Eltz, you go on a tour with a bunch of other people. Luckily it was an English speaking tour. Anyways, in the kitchen, our guide pointed out the oven, the stove, and some of the cooking equipment. Keep in mind that this was a medieval castle--as in 700 years ago. After the tour guided pointed out everything he felt was significant about the kitchen, he let people ask questions. As people are looking around, soaking everything in, this older lady points to these pans and says,

(actually, this particular pic was taken at another castle, but same general idea).

"What were those used for? Jello?"

Hahahaha!! Jello!? So classic. Brandon and I look at each other and quickly have to look away for fear of completely loosing it. The tour group was awkwardly silent; I don't even know if our German tour guide knows what Jello is but he eventually said, "Those were used for bread."

"Oh, I see" says the woman.

Then we saw the woman's daughter, who was probably 5-10 years older than us, turn away to meet eyes with her husband (who was standing by us) to share a secret laugh.

Writing this out makes me feel mean, but honestly, Brandon and I laughed about it the whole trip. It was sooooo funny picturing the castle servants preparing Jello as they shivered by the fire while the prince jousted in the court yard and the princesses painted porcelain.

Well, maybe I'm mean and maybe that video was a little too amateur, but that was Burg Eltz. Definitely a place worth visiting!

In The Airport

Yes, I am blogging from the airport. Our plane leaves in about an hour and I don't want to sleep for fear that I'll regret sleeping in Denver when I'm jet-lagged but wired in Germany.

FYI:
Germany sounds like Jabroni.

Germany, not Jabroni, is the first stop on our trip.

Also, Europe is the 5th largest continent. We actually don't know, but that sounds right.

In other news, Brandon and Harry Potter exchanged wardrobes a few days ago. I don't know if it was the robe or Brandon's manly athletic abilities, but he totally kicked Harry Potter's tooshie in Quidditch after the hooding ceremonies.

For some reason, the airport wireless connection doesn't want us to upload pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination and google Jabroni for some answers (that's what I had to do).

Sorry this post wasn't more fulfilling...I had visions of giving everyone a special treat before we headed off on our European vacation, but it didn't work out.

Thanks for everyone's support and well-wishes over the past few days as Brandon graduated and I quit my job; we feel blessed and excited to move on in our life adventures.

This Week

Monday--Nothing special except for the oodles amount of work I have to do before Thursday. That's why I'm blogging. Makes perfect sense.

Tuesday--Brandon's last day as Webelos Scout Leader (he's been doing this for our church for about the last two years). He actually enjoys working with the boys and he does a really great job keeping them entertained and earning their badge requirements, but he's ready to move on. Two years is a long time to work with 10 year old boys.

Wednesday--The American Idol Finale. Does it suprise you that I have this on my calendar? It shouldn't. I am the queen of crap TV. You should all know this by now. Anyways, go Kris! I'm really not a homophob but Adam creeps me out and has a weird robot stance.

Thursday--My last day of work. Eek! Lots of emotion tied to this one because I love my job and my coworkers. Plus I have to have all my files etc ready to hand off to my coworkers that are taking over my cases and nothing sounds off the anxiety bell more than the thought of handing off incomplete work...
Also: My mom flies in.
Also: Fancy, school sponsored, graduation dinner.

Friday--Brandon graduates with his PharmD!!! There will be lots of picture taking, eating, and congratulating on this day, no doubt.

Sat--Take mom to airport, pack for trip, last minute errands for trip, prepare house to leave for trip, attend friend's wedding in the PM.

Sun--Leave for Europe!

Conversation

So I can't fall asleep because I have a ridiculous Lady GaGa (seriously, that's her name?) song running through my head along with visions of Craig's List apartment listings. I guess I just diagnosed myself with audio/visual hallucinations. Psychosis here I come...

But the conversation I am really going to write about took place a few days ago as Brandon and I were falling asleep. It is more or less as follows:

Brandon: My feet are so sore.
Alison: Yuck, I'm sorry. Let's get you some new shoes.
B: No, the ones I have are fine.
A: But you complain of sore feet every day!
B: I'll just get some insoles.
A: Noooo....It'll be nice to have them when you start your residency.
B: Come on. Insoles will be fine.
A: (getting frustrated) You've had those shoes for two years, it's time for some new ones.
B: No I haven't
A: YES YOU HAVE...I bought them for you. I remember.
B: That's impossible.
A: Not even. (starting to get shrill) I was an intern when I bought them. I had a gift card to Kohl's...that was TWO YEARS ago.
B: Agggh (playful whining)
A: BRANDON. YOU NEED NEW SHOES. THE ONES YOU HAVE SUCK. IT ISN'T GOING TO KILL YOU. WE HAVE THE MONEY.
B: Ok. I'll get new shoes.
A: What?! You will not get new shoes. You are lying to me.
B:Look at yourself! You are getting so worked up over shoes! No wonder you can't sleep at night. You stay up and freak out about my shoes. I'll get some new ones so you can relax.
A: Huh?
B: Really, we can get me new shoes.
A: Oh, OK. OK, well thank you. That'll be good.
B: Feel better?
A: Yeah. That was weird.
B: You're telling me.

Anyways...there you have it folks. Conversations between Control Freak and Captain Thrifty. Luckily Captain Thrifty knows when to throw in the towel. I'll let you how the shoe shopping goes. The last time we did that, Captain Thrifty almost had a melt down. There were witnesses.

These Two

These two people are my parents. Today is their anniversary. I love them a lot. I love them individually and also adore how their relationship as been an example of love, support, fun, decision-making, and togetherness for me and all my siblings. Happy Anniversary! 30 years!

The Shire

For some reason, we named our apartment The Shire when we moved in. I don't really remember how that name came about (other than the obvious LOTR reference). Anyways, now that we are getting close to moving out and in the midst of looking for a new place to live in Tucson, I find myself frequently thinking of our building and this apartment.

Our building. FYI, it is on the ugliest block in all of Denver. But, we both knew as soon as we walked through the apartment that it was the one for us. And we've never regretted it.

Some things:

I caught the janitor of the building smoking the other day. He's a super nice church going man always telling me about his grandchildren and garden. I kind of felt betrayed when I saw him smoking. I also think he was trying to hide it from me. Isn't that weird that I was so disappointed by it?

The crazy (literally) lady downstairs was found dead in her apartment last week. She used to wear hats and jackets even when they weren't in season and was known to say, "Get the hell away from me" when crossing her path in the hallway. A few times she asked me to help her take the elevator to the third floor so she could visit David (her equally crazy friend). Once I saw her and David kissing in the hallway. The last time I saw her she told me to "Get the hell away " while I was getting the mail. I told her that it made me sad that she would speak that way to me since I thought we were friends. She just looked at me and said, "Oh." I hope she didn't kill herself but I don't really want to find out either.

Our building also has a history of bedbugs. Sick! We've never had a problem and we both think it is divine intervention. Remember this?

Our kitchen is carpeted and has hardly any counter space. I hate it because it makes simple spills hard to clean. Every time I look at ads for apartments in Tucson I think, "Well, there's no carpet in the kitchen so that's a bonus."

The other thing about our kitchen: Brandon and I have learned that it is for the benefit of our marriage if only one person is working in the kitchen at a time.

Only counter space (I have no idea why I took it this picture. Probably because I was really proud of myself for doing the dishes or something).

We do have awesome closet space. Considering I'm a pack rat, we have never felt too cramped in our one-room apartment. There is so much closet space, in fact, that Brandon and I are both able to fit two dressers and two laundry baskets in our non-walk-in closet without losing too much space for our clothes and shoes. I doubt we'll be able to have that in another apartment.

This is an old pic of me (with long hair!) that illustrates a wall of closets (and a messy night stand).

Needless to say, I am looking forward to finding a new place. I know this sounds crazy, but we are thinking about splurging and going for a two bedroom with a washer and a dryer. The renter's market looks pretty good right now so I don't think we'll have to settle for a carpeted kitchen!

We Were Sick Today and Wanted a Laugh

We can't figure out if it is something we ate or a nasty virus one of us picked up somewhere, but we've been pretty sick and sluggish for the past 24 hours. We both stayed home from work and spent the day sleeping and trying to drink juice. Anyways, a few hours ago we finally felt good enough to at least sit up, eat some mac-n-cheese and pretend to be coherent. I made Brandon look up this video for me because I wanted a laugh. Many of you have probably seen it--if so, do yourself a favor and watch it again. I love it when the little boy roars like a lion. Sometimes I wish I could do that.



I'm pretty sure we'll be fine tomorrow, which is good because we can't take much more of this mopin' around.