a snowy valentine’s day

we had this great idea to go over to this town about an hour away to take a rhine river boat tour.  after doing a little research on the particulars we had a plan.  when we woke up this morning it was snowing.  (i’ll come back to the snow later.)  that made the boat tour sound even better.  we figured the snow would make for some pretty nice scenery.

we all hopped into the car and headed out.  once we got there we realized that, well, we weren’t there after all.  apparently my navigator didn’t enter the entire city name into the gps so we wound up in a completely different city (rüdesheim vs rüdesheim am rhine) with no time to reposition before the boat embarked.  doh!  it’s kinda like wanting to go to panama city beach and telling the gps to take you to panama city.  anyone who’s ever been to the florida pan-handle knows - two different places.  so we weren’t able to get on the boat but it wasn’t a complete loss.  it was a nice little town with some decent restaurants.  kinda dead on a winter saturday but okay.

back to the snow...  we’ve been getting a good amount of snow the past few days.  usually some flurries in the early evening and then some more over night into the early morning.  it’s been nice.  but, here’s the rub.  the germans have a law (or maybe a rule or maybe just a general understanding - who knows) that you have to keep the sidewalk in front of your house clear of snow (apparently dog poop is okay though).  on top of that, we have some really meticulous neighbors, which is nice.  well every morning they’re out there sweeping and shoveling their driveway and sidewalks - even if it’s still snowing!

on thursday morning i was heading out to work in a rush and there were four guys on my street out doing their thing as the snow continued to fall.  they guilted me into doing my part.  the “law” is the law right?

the nice people across the street take this cleaning thing pretty serious too.  with their sweeping, their shoveling, their salting...  when we were coming home today after our missed boat tour adventure i couldn’t help but notice how nice their front yard looked with its clean driveway, its clean walkway and a little rug on each step leading up to the front door (so the mailman doesn’t slip?!?).  you’d think these guys are the most conscientious people on earth.  other than the fact that they keep parking their car right across from our garage and it requires a 47-point turn to get in and out, they’re great!

the story of the yellow balloon

about a week ago dad and gabby had a fun day out.  we ate pizza at a kids place in town.  gabby played games and got prizes.  one of those prizes was a yellow balloon - i suppose prize is the wrong word for it because i paid $1.25 for it -  anyway...

after lunch we went to the store on base (the BX) to look for a new pair of tennis shoes.  then we went to eat ice cream.  it was a happy fun kinda day until...  we realized that we left the yellow balloon in the store, presumably in the shoe department.  so after ice cream we went to the store to recover our lost yellow balloon.

as we turned the corner to go upstairs to the shoe department we saw a man with a boy with (you guessed it!) a yellow balloon.  so i asked the guy whether the balloon belonged to the boy or if they found it in the store because my little girl left her balloon upstairs.  the guy replied (in a german accent*), “no no it’s his”.  disappointed, we continued our search upstairs.  as we walked up the stairs gabby kept saying, “that boy has my yellow balloon”.  and i couldn’t help but think that either they’re giving away yellow balloons in the store or that guy was lying.

we looked around upstairs and of course there was no yellow balloon to be found.  and there we were, gabby going on and on about how that boy has her yellow balloon and me stewing over the nerve of that jerk to basically steal a balloon from a 3-year old little girl.  after a minute of planning we went back downstairs on a mission to get back our yellow balloon from that kid and his scheming dad.

we finally tracked him down on the other side of the store and i questioned the guy about where his boy got his yellow balloon.  caught without an alibi, they guy admitted that they found it in the store.  after, more forcefully this time, explaining to him that this yellow balloon belonged to my little girl, the guy relented and graciously offered to return it.  

at the end of the day, we walked away happy with some left-over pizza in a box, a little ice cream on our faces and our yellow balloon.

*you may wonder why it’s important to the story that the guy was german.  well when we moved here a guy explained that many germans have this passive-aggressive mindset where the guy who speaks the loudest or insists usually gets what he wants.  apparently there’s a german word for it but i can’t remember what it is.  anyway, i’ve seen this in action many times, usually on the road but never toward a 3-year old little girl.

gabby’s valentines

gabby has been going to a pre-school in town.  so far it’s been great, but the homework has been killing mom and dad.  we spent a good part of today putting together valentines for gabby’s little friends from pre-school.  any parent who’s ever helped their child with homework knows that this means mom and dad made, cut out, and painted a whole bunch of hearts while gabby supervised.