nichtszusagen

• This has been a very busy week. We took a couple of walks last weekend, where usually we only do one.
  
  
• On Saturday, we drove to Alltrip and took the ferry across the Rhine, then parked the car and walked about an hour to the Rhineblick (Rhine view) restaurant we'd found on an earlier hike (from the opposite direction, which was a much shorter walk). It's a very good restaurant, and was especially welcome after the long walk. Camden and I had souvlaki; Carl and Curran had gyros.
  
  
• Then Sunday, we'd intended to go to the Alsbach castle, having visited the neighboring castle, Auerbach, the weekend before (pictures of which were to have been in this week's Thursday Thirteen, but I didn't get it finished). But the road up to the castle was blocked--they were having some sort of event up there. It was a German holiday weekend: Pfingsten, whatever that is. So we went to Frankenstein instead.
  
  Frankenstein was also packed, but we've been there dozens of times, so the castle wasn't the main draw anyway. I spotted a trail leading from the parking lot, and we set off. Funny, even though we've been to Frankenstein castle so many times, we never explored the trails at all. There are a lot of them. It was a very warm day, but cool and shady in the woods, and the crowds were all up in the castle area itself. Lots of fun. Unfortunately, I thought I'd recharged my camera, but both the camera's and my e-reader's batteries were dead. I hypothesized a battery-draining imp residing in my purse.
  
  
• Thursday was Curran's 19th birthday. Unfortunately, Carl had also made an appointment to take Diva to the dog groomer Thursday evening at 6:30. And apparently, it was the day for haircuts, because Curran and Camden went to the barber shop when Camden got home from school.
  
  Curran got his hair cut very short and close to his head as he always does--then he doesn't go back to the barber until it's so long it irritates him, usually 6 months or more. He definitely takes after me. Camden only got an inch cut off because he didn't want it too short, but he's not happy with it. It's too long in back, and he doesn't like the way the sides look. We'll have to try to figure out how to describe what he wants better--it would probably help if he knew what he wanted.
  
  So when they got back, and Carl got home from work--before 6, for a change!--we gave Curran his presents... well, most of them. His biggest present hasn't arrived yet. My fault, because I'd assumed it would be available at the PX, but it was sold out. *sigh* Anyway, he got a Lego train, a mini RC car, and a bunch of clothes from us, a couple Lego sets from Camden, and a T-shirt from Dagny, which arrived in the mail just in time.
  
  Then Carl and I took Diva to the groomer, leaving Curran and Camden assembling the Lego sets. That was.... and ordeal. We'd waited far too long to take Diva to the groomer--we'd had a regular groomer nearby in Miesau, and Carl kept saying we should take her there--an hour and a half drive to get the dog groomed?? Anyway, he'd found a groomer at one of the pet stores, so he made an appointment.
  
  Granted, it was definitely our fault for waiting so long, but I can't help faulting the groomer's "no-restraint" philosophy for the ordeal as well. Instead of using a harness to keep Diva still, she had us hold her in place. Personally, I think that was more stressful for her than being held still in a harness would have been. It took 2 1/2 hours, and at the end, Carl and I were covered head to toe in dog hair. And she charged us 85 euro because it took so long--over $100. Ouch. It didn't help that we felt like the world's worst pet owners.
  
  Diva after the haircut:
  
  And then we felt like the world's worst parents, because by the time we got back home, it was 9:30, and with Camden having school the next day, the birthday dinner had to be postponed. So we went to McDonald's. *sigh* To cap the evening, we got searched when we came back in the gate.
  
  The cake turned out pretty good: angel food cake with fluffy frosting with crushed Heath bars, but nobody was hungry enough or awake enough to eat much. (It's since been mostly eaten.)
  
  
• Curran went to visit his girlfriend yesterday; Carl had a trip to Stuttgart, then an office picnic at 4 p.m., for which we were to provide a rice salad. I got the rice salad made (minus the celery, which was nasty at the commissary this week), got showered, but was too wiped out when Carl got home at 4:30 to go with him. Not to mention that it would have taken me a good half hour to get ready, and he was late already. So now in addition to feeling like the world's worst pet owner and parent, I also feel like the world's worst officer's wife... which I knew anyway, so... *shrug*
  
  
• I think it's the weather that's making me so gloomy. Our summer is now over, and it's back to being cold and rainy. I don't know why I thought the gorgeous weather in April and May would continue. Summer is always cold and rainy in Germany, but spring tends to be beautiful. There's probably a meteorological reason for it--something about the mountains and rivers and air currents--but it's like this every year.
  
  
• Actually, there's a more stereotypical reason for the gloom. I never had much of a problem with PMS until I turned 40. That's when my cycle became regular for the first time, and I started having horrible cramps and moodiness. *sigh*
  
  
• Carl's mom was going to come visit today for Curran's birthday, but we've postponed it until next weekend. Thank goodness. The house is definitely not company-ready, and the weather's too nasty to sit outside and show off the new pond and garden.
  
  
• Speaking of gardens... something has eaten all my herbs. I'm so upset. I planted six, and initially it was just eating the basil. I think it was bugs of some sort, because there were holes in the middle of the leaves. That has since moved on to my sage and oregano . My cilantro drowned, and I think the bunnies have been eating the parsley, because there are just bare stems left . The chives are just kind of limp, but they're sort of hanging in there. Maybe I should try the kitchen window, but that's pretty full of other plants...
  
  
• Tonight Carl and I are planning on going to see Adventureland at the theater on post, just the two of us. I hadn't heard anything about it, but the reviews look good--it also doesn't look like anything the boys would be interested in seeing with us. Which is kind of nice. Now that Camden's older, and with him being the only kid at home for 3/4 of the year, we don't do as much adults-only stuff as we used to.
  

Labels: about me, weekend update

// posted by Darla @ 6/06/2009 11:51:00 AM