nichtszusagen

• Last week, I talked about our trip to Prague. I'll try to get a little more catch-up done today.
  
  
• The rest of the time Dagny was here, we took day trips locally, to Dilsberg, Neckarsteinach, and the Frankfurt Zoo. The Four Castles at Neckarsteinach wasn't quite as nice as we'd hoped, because it was a hot and humid day, making hiking up to the castles less than pleasant.
  
  It was hot at the zoo as well, but we enjoyed it anyway. The only problem was the monkey house, which was enclosed and definitely gave us a feeling of being in the jungle. We kept wanting to leave because we were so miserable, but the chimps had two little ones and we couldn't tear ourselves away. The slightly older one kept showing off and trying to distract the adults' attention from the baby, and it was just hilarious, and very human.
  
  
• We saved our annual trip to Italy for after Dagny left. Which sounds mean, except that she only had time for one trip, and Prague suited her more than Italy.
  
  
• Italy is our "spa vacation." We drive to Camp Darby, which takes about 12 hours in Moby. The drive is part of the fun. In the 24 hours of driving, we finished listening to Jim Butcher's Summer Knight (finally!), listened to (an unfortunately abridged) Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich, and I'd brought along a variety of music CDs for the captive audience, including Stray Cats, Savatage, The Raspberries, 10CC, and Thin Lizzy. The biggest hit (after Summer Knight) was the two George Carlin CDs I brought along. I've already started looking for comedy CDs for next year.
  
  
• While in Italy, we always do the same things. I'm always up first, and I have coffee and cereal out on the porch. When Carl gets up, we walk to the gym and work out for an hour or so. I do about 40 minutes of Callanetics, then work with dumbbells for 20 minutes--the machines there use free weights, and I find them a wee bit intimidating. Rinse off and relax for a while, then go get some lunch.
  
  In previous years, the mess hall was open and they had great food. But the mess hall has closed, so we alternated between the little Italian restaurant on post and the bowling alley (which served Greek food--go figure). After lunch, we'd drop the boys back at the cabin and go to the commissary to get food for dinner. Then another hour or so of relaxing--we usually used this time to watch an episode of Planet Earth, which is very cool--I highly recommend it. The best part of those was the end: the "Planet Earth Diaries," which showed just how much trouble the film crews went to to get some of the scenes. Just amazing.
  
  Then around 3 p.m., we went to the beach, a tradition we've developed after years of experience. We go late in the day for several reasons. First, parking and umbrellas used to be half price after 3 p.m. They aren't anymore, darnitall. Second, most people go to the beach first thing in the morning, and if you go early and aren't one of the first people there, your chances of getting an umbrella are pretty slim. Third, the beach really tends to get old after 4 hours or so. Fourth, we never end up with sunburns when we go later in the day (even when using sunscreen, that mid-day sun can be vicious).
  
  We even have a routine at the beach--get an umbrella and ditch our stuff, then go play in the water. I usually call it quits first, and I go back, shower off the salt, then read a while. The boys all come back, shower off, then go get french fries (I stick to the snacks we brought along). Then Carl and I go for a walk along the beach for an hour or so. When we get back, the boys go back in the water, and I may or may not--it depends. We never leave the beach until they're ready to close it down.
  
  Then after the beach, it's showers and dinner. We eat really well in Italy--the fresh fruits and veggies are great there. This year, it was a little more challenging because our antique camp stove (it had belonged to my surrogate grandparents who'd used it about 60 years ago) died. Fortunately, the cabin had a microwave, and even more fortunately, I'd thought to bring a microwavable bowl.
  
  After dinner, we watched an episode or two of South Park, then crashed. A few nights, we'd go into Tirrenia and get gelato and wander around the market, and we went out for dinner one night. Italy is definitely great for night owls. Everything's open very late.
  
  Sunday we always go to Pisa, mostly for the market, but also for dinner. Carl took a bunch of pictures with his camera, and got some pictures of the people having their pictures taken in front of the tower. It's a tradition--everyone who goes to Pisa gets their picture taken holding up the tower. So when you're walking along, there'll be dozens of people all posing with their arms straight out to one side. It makes me smile--it's definitely an equalizer, because everybody does it.
  
  
• When we got back from Italy, Carl's dad came for a visit--the first time he's been back in Germany for... a decade at least. And the first time we've seen him since he visited us in San Antonio about 10 years ago. It was a nice visit, though he didn't stay long. He stayed with Carl's brother Mike, and we went there one day, and they came to our house once.
  
  
• Also coming by that day was Carl's new boss, noteworthy in that he's the doctor who delivered Camden, here in Heidelberg, almost 15 years ago. It's a small world.
  
  
• This summer's been a rough one for Carl. Back in May, he turned 50. Shortly afterward, he started having doctor appointments. He has flat arches, and they finally got to the point where he couldn't run, so he had to make several trips to Landstuhl to get orthopedic inserts for his shoes.
  
  
• And then there was the skin cancer on his face. He got the phone call from the doctor confirming it as we were leaving for Italy. Good thing I brought those comedy CDs along! He ended up being sent back to the US for microsurgery to have it removed. Because it was on his face, they wanted to use microsurgery to minimize scarring, and because he's active duty, they sent him to the US instead of to a German doctor. He asked for and got San Antonio instead of Walter Reed, which was nice. And it would have worked out really well--he had a conference in Albuquerque the week before, so he planned on just going from Albuquerque to San Antonio.
  
  But that's not taking bureaucracy into account. If he'd come back to Germany from New Mexico and flown back to Texas the same day, they'd have been fine with it, but since he was trying to streamline things (and, incidentally, save the government about $1000), they wouldn't allow it. Something about the two trips being paid for by different units, and for some bizarre reason they charged all the travel to the conference, and that unit wouldn't allow the extra charges. It could have been worked out eventually, but he didn't get the orders for the medevac until Friday, and he was supposed to leave for the conference on Monday. So he canceled the conference.
  
  Which added a few more problems. He and Curran were going to be on the same flight to Dallas, then connect to San Antonio and Albuquerque. Several phone calls later, we got Curran's flight delayed another week, so they could fly back together. Curran wasn't too upset because it meant he got to see his girlfriend one more time.
  
  
• The surgery went well, though Carl ended up missing Camden's first week of high school and the neighborhood picnic, and he's back and slowly getting over jet lag.
  
  
• Hmmm. I'm nearly caught up. I think I'll stop now and try to catch up one more time next weekend. I'm sure I've missed a few things.

Labels: about me, weekend update

// posted by Darla @ 9/12/2009 12:11:00 PM