nichtszusagen

• Last Sunday (3 Feb), we went to a Fasching parade in Michelstadt with Carl's mom. It was an absolutely perfect day for a parade. Bright and sunny, and not even all that cold. As a result, we took 130 pictures. I'm foreseeing several Thursday Thirteens to share them all. Here's a small sample:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We had a really nice day. I was a little annoyed that we'd forgotten to bring silly hats: Camden has a huge collection of them, and Fasching is the perfect time to wear them.
  
  After the parade, we people-watched and window-shopped in Michelstadt for a while--it's really a gorgeous town, which is why it's our pick for things like Fasching and the Christmas market--well, that and the fact that it's 10 minutes from my MIL's house.
  
  Then we went to Erbach to our favorite Italian Eiscafe and had gelato for dinner.
  


• The kids had Monday and Tuesday off--for Fasching, which was on Tuesday, but the school justifies it with other reasons: teacher work days or something. The DoDDS schools always have Fasching off. Those days were rainy and stormy, though, so we were thankful we hadn't planned on going to the parade in Erbach which was on Tuesday. Had lunch at our favorite Thai-Vietnamese restaurant on Tuesday, which thrilled the boys, until they realized that meant we had dinner at home on Wednesday (our usual going-out-to-dinner night).


• Got some more news about the upcoming move: Heidelberg is a go. Well, as much as anything is before you actually have orders in hand. The question now is whether it'll just be a foreign service tour extension (FSTE) or a consecutive overseas tour (COT). The FSTE locks us in for only one year, which makes it convenient if something's opening up in San Antonio in the near future, but also leaves us vulnerable to being sent somewhere we don't want to go. Moving somewhere other than San Antonio stateside would likely mean we'd have to sell our house, which we want to avoid for at least a dozen reasons. The COT locks us in for three years, which is only a problem if it makes us miss an opportunity in San Antonio. It also gives us the benefit of COT leave: a free trip back to the US, which, when you're talking about 4 tickets, adds up. Plus, after 3 years, Carl can retire if he wants (he could have before the promotion, too, but accepting a promotion obligates you to stay for a while). So Carl's doing some research on upcoming vacancies to help make our decision.
  
  We're still avoiding telling his mom until we have orders in hand. It would be too cruel to get her hopes up--Heidelberg is only 45 minutes to an hour away from her--and then say "sorry, it didn't work out."


• But with it being nearly certain we'll be staying here, we decided to go car shopping. The used BMW (hooptie, clunker, beater) we've been driving as a 2nd car is on its last legs, and we'd been planning on getting a new car this summer if we'd moved back to TX--leaning toward a hybrid Altima or Camry (the Prius being a bit too small to fit all 5 of us).
  
  However, hybrids turned out to be not an option. Cannot buy one here with American specs at all. Period. Could buy one with German specs, but between the exchange rate, the 19% sales tax, and the inability to take it back to the US with us, it just doesn't work. It would be roughly $40,000 for just a Prius, for example. Not going to happen.
  
  So after spending all day Saturday (skipping lunch, even!) car-shopping, we've narrowed it down to 3 possibilities:
  • Audi A4
  • Mercedes C300 Sport
  • Volvo S60
  The Volvo salesman was the most knowledgeable; the Mercedes salesman the best-looking; and the Audi salesman had the best accent. And if that's not bad enough, the Volvo has the best price; the Audi the best gas mileage; and the Mercedes the best look. We've only test-driven the Volvo. The other two we had to make appointments for test-drives. Decisions, decisions. I'd be happy with any of them, to tell you the truth.
  

Labels: about me, weekend update

// posted by Darla @ 2/10/2008 11:35:00 AM