I have been insanely productive the last few weeks. Crossing things off my list, paying bills, paying taxes (on time), doing my paperwork, vacation planning, Christmas shopping, and so on. I watched part of all of the Lord of the Rings this weekend, but I burned out on sword fighting after watching Gladiator too. That is Mike's fantasy weekend. I just do not want to spend a ton of money before we go to Europe and suffer the lowly value of the dollar over there.
Mike's family pics scanned nicely and easily were downloaded into the digital picture frame we are giving his aunt for her birthday. We had to get an adapter too, and that took some thought. It worked out really well. I told Mike that I did not post any pictures, but I was dying to do it. Maybe he will let me post a cool old picture anyways. I love going through people's pictures. It is funny how pictures look the same from our childhoods due to the fashions and type of cameras used.
I was stressed out first about the lodging (it appears our hotel is open) and transportation. The transportation ended up being quite time-consuming and complicated. We are renting a car from Frankfurt and returning it to Paris (we will get rid of the car the day we arrive to France to make things less complicated) For a while, we considered renting a car and then taking the train. I got so many prices quoted for either option, and finally got a reasonable offer on Friday just to rent. I have not really driven a manual much, so Mike thinks I should learn on the rental car so I am ready to test drive my Maserati (I got a second invitation in the mail a couple of days ago). So an manual eurobox on the Autobahn! Yahoo!
Our French ability sucks! I hope I get to hang out with Mike Castle at least one day there. We went through my French cookbook last night and wrote down what sounded good. I am just going to buy a beret, wear a knotted red scarf around my neck, and say, "Oolay Voolay Voooo". People keep giving us recommendations, but Mike and I just hear "Ooolay vooolay vooooooooo". It is annoying, because I usually deal with Spanish (I have some background there) or now German (which is not too bad, really) reasonably well. I get to speak my crappy Spanish on the job at times, and it really can get me through things pretty well. I just can not understand drunk people in Spanish or those who talk really fast. So we grabbed a phrasebook tonight and hopefully it will help. I am getting more comfortable not being able to communicate. I treated a little girl for 2 years who was Japanese. Her mother spoke barely any English, and the girl went to a Japanese language school. It was fine suprisingly, and the little girl started picking up English from me during sessions. She would speak Japanese, I would respond in English, but it was amazingly appropriate. She was really cute, because she would sing her little kid songs in Japanese (usually about butterflies and dragonflies).
I did not have much shopping to do (just money for nephews) and most of it was internet based. I finished Christmas cards tonight. It struck me why I have not been talking to anyone. I just do not have much to say. The last 9 months have consisted of saying, "We are staying out here and looking slowly for a house". Otherwise I go to work, go to the gym, and lie around the house. So I wrote we are staying out here and looking for a house a bunch of times and called it a day. I am sure nobody wants a form letter from me. I suppose you just get the painful day to day version on this forum!
I just pray this week that I stay healthy. I need to get a mask on the way to work tommorrow. Too many kids coughed in my face last week.
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