tschüß winnweiler

checked out of our house in winnweiler today.  after living there for nearly three and a half years it was kinda tough to walk away.  lots of memories there...  but i never made it to the bischoff brewery down the hill in the village.  maybe next time.

any how, we’re looking forward to writing the next chapter of our lives in california.  but first we’re off to brasil for a couple weeks.  a little calm vacation before the school storm!

btw - the landlord took this picture in his office when i was checking out.  he takes pictures of all his tenants so that he can remember who the tenant is.  it’s pretty tough when you have like a thousand rental houses i guess.  

auf wiedersehen!

three year old mess

hi everyone!  it’s been a while since the last post so i wanted to give you all an update on what were doing.  if you’re reading this you probably know that we’re in the middle of moving to the other side of the world.  the last month has been pretty crazy.  and the next two should be about the same.

adriana and the kids took off for brasil this week and left me here all by myself to deal with a, nay many, piles of junk three years in the making.  so with the movers coming in a week and a half i need to ‘organize’ things a bit to ensure things are packed in the right shipment.  (if you’ve ever been through a military move you’re probably familiar with the dynamic of moving your stuff in three to four separate types of shipments.  ...not including the car shipping fiasco!)  in addition to ‘organizing’ stuff, you really need to disassemble anything that can be taken apart (i.e. beds, tables, shelves).  otherwise the screws and bolts will almost certainly get lost, transforming your beautiful furniture into a pile of useless wood.

so my mission for the weekend: #1 clear out the attic (did i say the movers won’t go up there so you have to clear it yourself?  ...good thing we stored all our heavy stuff up there!).  #2 disassemble furniture.  #3 “organize” shipments into three areas.

good times!

well, the weekend is almost over and i’ve succeeded at #1.  the cover picture on this post is our living room.  a lot of that stuff came from the attic (two floor up).  see those boxes?  ...full of books!

this (above) was gabby’s room.  just 24 hours earlier it was full of toys, clothes, and a her bedroom set.  now it’s the transition room that i use to hold stuff i don’t want the movers to touch.

this (above) was lucas’ room.  used to be full of toys, clothes and a bedroom set.  that stuff is still there, but the bed is broken down and half of the attic and most of gabby’s stuff is in there too.  the mover’s are really gonna love this room!  ooops.

victory!  the attic is clear.  what about tasks 2 and 3 you ask?  along the way i managed to disassemble most of stuff that needed it.  still one 500 lb gorilla left: adriana’s closet.  as far as separating the piles...  well the problem with moving all the stuff from your attic into the main part of your house is that all that stuff takes up space.  ...not sure there’s enough room left to organize anything in this house.  

but for now, i’ll just enjoy my clean attic.

baltic tugboat adventures

hi everyone.  we just got back from our baltic sea cruise, with stops in stockholm sweden, tallinn estonia, st. petersburg russia, copenhagen denmark, and kiel germany.  okay, so the title is a little misleading.  it wasn’t exactly a tugboat.  more like a 16-deck commercial cruise liner.

we had a good time seeing some places we wouldn’t have otherwise taken the time to see.  but for all the frills and luxury of the ship the kids kept us on our toes and firmly grounded in the reality of parenting two little ones.

overall we were surprised at the places and things we wound up liking over other places.  we really liked tallinn for its almost medieval aura combined with the remnants of a former soviet state.  we also liked copenhagen for its seagoing charm, beautiful scenery, and vibrant city.  on the other hand we weren’t so high on stockholm or st. petersburg.  we found both to be overrated and over-priced.

a day into the trip i decided to record a twitter-esque catalog of events.  it’s a little long and random, but so was the trip.  here’s how things went down:

(note: boarded the boat on 5/16 at about 4:00pm)

5/17 8:00pm - bought a hello kitty notebook to catalog our trip.

5/17 8:25pm - captain’s gala, free booze on the 6th deck...jackpot!

5/17 9:30pm - in the theater watching the nightly show.  just saw a performer sit on her own head!

5/18 11:57am - sitting on the tour bus in stockholm.  pack of indians, from india, trying to figure out the difference between blue and yellow (bus lines).  7-11 on the street corner.

5/18 12:00pm - teenagers in the park playing duck-duck-goose.

5/18 12:10pm - still on the bus.  just as we are driving down a street full of big name fashion import stores and a girl in a miniskirt on a bike rides by, audio tour says “they” expect fashion to be sweden’s next major export...hmmm.  lucas fell asleep.  bus driver helps out the indians with the color chart.

*retro note - getting on the cruise ship.  two-thirds of the crew is from brasil.  ...got the hook-up!

5/18 12:15pm - one of the indians accidentally got off the bus at a red light.  i think she’s lost.  international incident coming.

*retro note - saw a do not poop or pee on the church sign in kiel.  need to remember to take a picture when we get back.

5/18 1:05pm - still on the bus.  lucas woke up.

5/18 2:00pm - eating lunch at a swedish coffee shop.  cinnamon roll tastes like cloves.  still pretty good.

5/18 3:00pm - just got to the bus stop to head back to the ship.  next one leaves at 3:15.  50 min bus ride to the port.  boat leaves at 4:00.  crap!

5/18 3:10pm - running to the cruise liner bus stop to catch another bus.  missed it.  double crap!!

5/18 3:13pm - grabbing a cab to the port.  he says it’ll cost 290 krone.  i have no idea what that means.

5/18 3:45pm - made it, 370 krone later.  still don’t know what a krone is.

5/18 8:00pm - sitting at dinner.  lucas is pounding down soda.  ice cream on the way.  it’s gonna be a long night.

5/18 8:38pm - on the very “aft” of the ship looking at the baltic sunset over several small islands.  amazing!

5/19 8:21am - woke up.  boat should be docked in tallinn etsonia.  can’t tell.  no windows in the room.  it’s a cave.  lucas hit his head already.  that’ll leave a mark.

5/19 11:32am - walking through tallinn.  got a medieval feel to it.  definitely russian.

5/19 1:24pm - eating lunch at the “beer house” in tallinn.  awesome beer menu.  food kinda sketchy.  fried pigs ear?!?  lucas wants a drink...

5/19 1:36 - lucas is out cold.  that’s what fried garlic bread and a mouth full of bh premium will do to a 1-year old.

5/19 2:25 - standing outside waiting for the girls to come out of another “crap you don’t need” store.  toyota across the street has zip ties holding the hub caps on - estonian style.

5/19 2:30pm - yet another “crap you don’t need store”...  no fish allowed in there...

5/19 2:40pm - nice porsche parked on the side of the road.   pimped out with sound system in the back - estonian style.

5/19 8:30pm - just finished our nightly 5-course dinner.  gabby tells me, “wow man, you ate like 5 dinners.  you must be starving!”  lucas found the internet cafe.  he wants to send an email.

5/19 9:36pm - at the show.  dude tap dancing.  so foggy i can’t verify his feet are even moving.  i think he’s on drugs.

5/19 9:41pm - still at the show.  3 dudes in pleather.  holy gayness batman!

5/20 11:29am - standing on the 15th deck of the ship waiting for our st petersburg tour to start at 2:00.  big city.  lots of smog.  old lady on the pool deck needs a bigger bathing suit.  ugh!

5/20 2:19pm - on the tour bus.  smells like cigarettes and vodka.  our tour guide looks like michael jackson in a skirt.

5/20 2:28pm - michael jackson says port was made from a landfill.  30 sunny days per year here.  this is one of them.

5/20 2:35pm - michael jackson says, “russia = bad roads + fools”.  wow!

5/20 4:32pm - back on the bus.  got some matryoshka dolls.  good thing they took credit cards.  left the cash in the room.  adriana is jumping for the camera.

5/20 4:40pm - michael jackson says pushkin (russian writer) was killed in a duel by a guy named dantes.  gabby, “he was killed by a dentist?!?”

5/20 5:32 - building on fire on the horizon.  random.  standing in front of the church on spilled blood.  crazy!

5/20 9:16pm - show starting.  lucas going nuts.  take him outside to calm down.  amazing russian islands passing by.  get back into the theater.  michael jackson is doing thriller.  what is it with mj today?  he’s everywhere.

5/21 3:45pm - spending today at sea.  sitting on the deck wrapped up because it’s a little chili today.  lucas staggering around like a drunk pirate.

5/21 8:25pm - at the disco club at the back of the boat.  gabby has a kids disco pj party.  random.  view from the back: nothing but ocean all around.  cool.

5/22 7:57am - woke up in copenhagen.  weather is pretty foggy.  kinda cool.  last night was pretty rough.  the fog horn was blowing all night.  i felt like i was on a tugboat.

5/22 12:45pm - just walked through copenhagen.  what an amazing city.  eating lunch at the “hollywood cafe”.  food kinda sketchy.  beer is awesome.

5/22 6:47pm - back on the boat.  there was a samba parade in copenhagen as we walked back trough the city.  most of the women had next to nothing on.  they should have worked out more over the winter.  ugh!  sitting at dinner now.  20+ windmills out the window in the middle of the baltic sea.  weird.

5/23 8:20am - eating breakfast in the ship in kiel, germany.  it’s been a long trip.  it’ll be nice to be home.

*retro note - yesterday in copenhagen we had to make an emergency diaper stop.  apparently their credit card machine only accepts magic danish cards.  we didn’t have danish krone.  what is a krone?  long line behind us at the register.  the store clerk spoke zero english.  oops!

5/23 9:24am - waiting to get off the boat.  that was supposed to be at 9.

5/23 6:05pm - after 7 days at sea and 12 hours of driving, we are at home...

happy birthday buddy

lucas turned one year old last sunday.  luckily grandma and grandpa were able to make it our to his birthday party along with a few friends.  a pretty good time was had by all...  and lucas really liked the cake! 

march update

hello everyone.  we’re sorry we haven’t posted in a while.  it has been a really busy time here in casa del pietz.  recapping the last couple months...

if you’re reading this you probably know we’re due to move this summer.  i’ll (jesse) be going back to school for a while so that’s where we’re headed.  we expect to move in august-ish to be ready for the fall term.  the catch is we still don’t know where we are going.  one place seems more likely that the other options at this point but the military life dictates that we understand it’s never a sure thing until you get your orders!  more to follow on that...

in other news, my promotion board results came out a few weeks ago (link) and i got selected to be promoted to major.  of course it will be another year or so until the promotion actually occurs, but good news nonetheless.

we’re getting ready for lucas’ 1st birthday party.  that’s right he’ll be one in one week (March 14th, same as einstein!).  we don’t have anything crazy planned, just getting together at the youth center on base with friends.  dad and phyllis will be there too!  there will be cake, ice cream, a bouncy castle, and more toys.  woohoo!

gabby has been taking swimming lessons (in addition to the pre-school, gymnastics, and music classes she had already been doing).  i think we finally found something that sparks her interest enough to be worth the time and money we put into it.  she really loves swimming and i’m sure she’ll be good at it too since she’s gonna have clown shoe sized feet!

gabby has been learning to read!  we are really excited about that.  for the last month or so she’s been part of a reading group in pre-school.  right now she’s reading these little books that have a couple of words on each page with two, three or four letters in them - like to, mat, cat, tree, etc.  maybe she can help me in school next year?!?

lucas isn’t walking yet.  we think he’s quite satisfied with crawling right now.  he has four teeth - two on top and two on the bottom - all right in the front.  the top two are kinda big and have a little gap between them.  if he had a little flat tail we’d call him the beev!  he does not like baby food of any kind.  he’s gotta eat whatever we’re eating - rice, beans, veggies, steak, ice cream, cookies, whatever, bring it on!  he really needs more teeth.  above all his, weakness is milk shakes.  a couple of weeks ago we were in the mall and we got a milk shake.  being how he is - gotta have what mom and dad are having - he campaigned for a sample.  game over.  if that boy gets within 25 years of a plastic cup with a straw in it, he thinks it’s a milk shake, and goes absolutely berserk.

adriana is holding it all together.  needless to say she’s a busy lady.  she took her braces off a few weeks ago (after having them on for two years), and her teeth look amazing!

we’re trying to squeeze in one last trip before we leave europe, got a new car, wind storm blew the dish off the roof so we have no tv, it’s march and we had six inches of snow yesterday, got some new knives and pans for the kitchen, and sunscreen is my new best friend.

life is good!