Things I Miss

(Ticket and Ranger)

Dogs. I have come to realize that canines are very multipurpose. Not only do they provide the obvious companionship but they keep your kitchen floor crumb free! Seriously! I miss it. Yesterday I caught myself wondering, "how in the world does this kitchen floor get dirtier faster than the floor at home which stood up to more people and more pets--" and that's when it hit me. Our springers do many things well (chase cats, retrieve things, bring in early morning presents in the form of squirrels, moles, and the occassional oppossum, and leave nose prints over every window-y surface) but one thing they, as all dogs, are quite skilled in is licking crumbs off floors. I'm convinced my kitchen floor would stay cleaner longer if only we had a canine companion. However neither JM nor I want to put a dog through a trans-Atlantic flight and quarantine upon our return to the states so we are waiting till we get back. After that I have no doubt 'dog' will be the third thing on our 'to buy' list right after a truck and a place to live.

In other news - my mom comes on Friday! HOORAY! I am taking the train to the airport to meet her since she'll have two biggish suitcases and I just bought my ticket today. The train station is about a 10 minute drive away from our apartment so that is super convenient and I finally found a really easy to use Deutsche Bahn website in English to buy my tickets at! Babybarth kicks so strongly these days you can actually feel his feet (I am guessing it's a foot? Maybe an elbow) on the sides of my stomach sometimes. JM and I are pretty set in our idea to go to Norway this July to see the fjords for 5 or 6 days. Plane tickets are pretty reasonable and we'd either rent a car or get around via train and there are tons of websites devoted to booking English speaking fjord cruises that vary from 1-3 days in length. The Norwegian Krone is pretty decent compared to the USD too although I'm sure, it being a Scandanavian country, everything will be more expensive regardless but it's our "big" summer vacation so that's okay by us.

Definitely looking forward to this upcoming weekend/week with my mom - we are going to do lots of projects, putter around downtown Weiden, go on base a few times, and maybe take a daytrip or two! And at the end of the week I fly to NC for a family wedding I am standing up in so I will get to see a bunch more of my family! I will surely post pictures of all our adventures.