In exactly one week I’ll be 45.  But its all good because in
exactly one week I will be in Rome with my husband.  I am so
excited that last night laying in bed I caught myself making lists in
my head. 

extra memory card for camera…check
extra battery for same…check
battery charger…check
dork in bed with light out and no pen or paper….check!

So also in current news, my anniversary is Sunday.  24
years.  I know certain people who read me aren’t even 24 years
old…lol.  It’s very weird being married this long because on a
day to day basis I don’t even think about how long I’ve been
married.  I’m to busy doing the daily job of living.  Then we
both forgot about it because we’re busy planning this 4 day weekend to
Rome.  And all of a sudden there it is in my face…..one of the
reasons for going to Rome.  I’ve been married over half my
life.   My sister called me last week and in the course of
conversation she asked me how long we had been married and when I told
her all she said was “holy shit that’s a long time.”  Then it
dawned on me it really is.  No one in my immediate family has been
married longer except our parents who divorced after 28 years. 
And they would have divorced earlier except mom waited until we were
mostly grown out of a fear dad would kidnap us. (that’s a different
tale, for a different day) suffice it to say it wouldn’t have gone
anywhere near 28 years if moi hadn’t made a surprise arrival 5 years
after my nearest sister.  I am the only one in my family that
hasn’t been married twice or more.  So I consider myself damn
lucky.  I should have bought a lottery ticket the day I met Bear
man.  If only I had known.  The fates should have been
singing a hallelujah chorus or something else equally attention
getting.  But NO instead I get an ordinary work day and an
ordinary meeting….sheesh. 

So anyway I got to thinking that I should get something for the man
even though this trip is anniv/b-day rolled into one.   I
wracked my brain for a time, (about 2 mins.) and came up with
flowers.  I never buy him flowers and he and I both love
flowers.  Especially after a long Winter of shades in gray and
white.  My thought is this, he would rather eat my cooking than go
out.  I cook almost ever day so nothing really special about even
the most “special meal”.  He doesn’t need any more junk.  He
doesn’t have a desk for a pen set or blotter or other businessy
things.  He wouldn’t be caught dead in a tie and he doesn’t wear
cologne.  That pretty much leaves washing his car for him or
flowers.  and the flowers won out over the manual labor.  See
how unromantic you can get after 24 years.  Of course we’ve never
been the “all romance” channel anyway.  More like the “Do It Yourself”
channel.  But it seems to be working so let’s not mess with a good
thing.  We love each other and after 24 years the shiny newness
might have worn off but the good solid craftmanship still
remains.  And really is there a better gift than that?

Liz and Bear on a park bench.  Ochsenfurt, Germany. Summer 2005

Someday I want to be one of those little
old couples that you see now and again.  They are walking
somewhere, holding hands and you think how sweet.  I figure were
only about 26 years from there, so its totally doable.  And what
fun and adventure will we have in the next 26 years.  Life’s
exciting isn’t it? 
Gotta run.  Hope everyone has a great
weekend! 

  Today is the Vernal Equinox, while I would love to run outside
and celebrate, since its only 41 degrees I think I’ll refrain, I might
slip on the ice.  Luckily it’s all melting under the brilliant
sunshine we have today and, despite the temperature and the brisk
wind accompanying it, it really does feel like Spring.  I thought it
felt like Spring yesterday too.  We went down to the lake and
walked around it, its that small.(Bear man says it’s an overgrown
pond.)  The ice is very thin and though the ducks could stand on
it I doubt it would hold the weight of the swans.  So here I was
in my heavy Winter coat, leather gloves and scarf on head but I still
thought it felt like Spring.  It was more than just the sunshine
it must be an internal clock. 

About three weeks ago I was thinking about our anniversary and my
birthday.  Both of which are in the first week of April.  And
I thought hmm, April in Paris.  But that didn’t last more than a
thought because as romantic as it sounds April in Paris is mostly rainy
and cold.  If I want cold I’ll stay right where I am, but the
cheap ticket on ryanair were calling me….loudly and my feet are
really itchy after this never-ending Winter.  Then my Bear man
said Rome would be warmer.  Hah! That’ll teach him to speak
without thinking.  So guess who’s going to ROME?  I booked
the Bed and Breakfast and the cheap flight on Mon.  I have the
tour guide picked out and all we have to do is settle on an
itinerary.  If you have to turn 45 might as well do it in
Rome. 

If your wondering what’s paying for this little trip I’ll tell you
because I’m actually very proud of it.  Remember I quit smoking a
little over 6 months ago and Bear man quit just over 2 months
ago.  Well every night I put either a 2 eu or a 1 eu coin in my
old purple ashtray.  If I have both I put in both.  It’s
added up in a hurry even though its not really as much money as we
spent smoking.  Isn’t that amazing.  Not only do we get all
the benefits of not smoking we get to go to Rome, Italy.  Now
that’s what I call a reward. 

Bear man doesn’t know this but as soon as we get back I’m going to
start saving for our 25th anniversary……I’m thinking Greece……..

I was finally able to get my old version editor back.  Who says
bitching doesn’t help?  If I hadn’t I never would have got an
answer. w00t! happy girl!

So here’s pictures like I promised.  If you want to you can skip
the pics and just go to the bottom for my latest entry for the “idiot
of the year” award.  I bet it would draw more viewers than the
Oscars.

We
went over to Speyer a while back and went to the sister museum of
Sinsheim.  This Volkswagon was evidently made for weddings and was extremely
popular in its day.  After I got to looking at it I thought well
why not?  After all the body of a vehicles is just a shell to
cover the engine and other working parts and a crash bubble.  So
if your not to worried about safety or getting bugs in your eyes then
why not cover it in wrought iron?

Wouldn’t that make a conversation piece at the wedding?

Every time I walk under a plane or submarine or whatever else they have
decided to display 50 feet off the ground I am convinced that it has
waited years just to fall on my head.  Now logically I know this
plane and the other hundreds of things that are suspended will not
fall.  But isn’t an irrational fear by its very nature
irrational?  And its not like I duck and run, it just makes me a
tad uncomfortable to walk under what I consider to be an inadequate
display stand.

Now
here’s a car I would like to get behind the wheel of, can
you imagine?  I bet this will move on down the road and it would
probably feel like driving a smooth running tank.  lol. 
These always put me in the mind of a big Hollywood thirties era
movie.    The glamour years.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Okay I’m done this is just a fluff filler, so don’t feel real bad about
thinking or even saying what the hell?  It’s the tail end of
Winter and it’s snowed every single day for the last 2 weeks.  I
haven’t got  much going on here and am getting VERY ready for
Spring. 

Oh!  I do have another entrant for idiot of the year awards.

I went online and ordered some scrapbooking supplies, this was
Feb.24th.    The company sent a further Email that my
order had been shipped on Feb 27th (Mon) and should arrive in 4 to 10
business days.  So I quickly counted and thought cool it should be
at the post office.  Specially since 9 of those days are postal
working days.  Ha!  It wasn’t there.  Now since there
have been a lot of times that I have thought a package should be here
and it’s arrived a week or so later than it should I finally decided to
ask.
Me:  Excuse me.  Does the army stack packages somewhere until they have enough to ship over from the states?
postal worker:  NO! Why on Earth would they do that?
Me:  Well my package should have arrived by now but I thought if they stack them well it might take longer.
p.w.:  Did it ship priority mail?
Me: I have no idea.
p.w:  Ah, well then there you go.  It could take 4 to 8 weeks then.
Me:  4 TO 8 WEEKS!!! 
p.w.  Well sure, see what they do is they all get sent to N.Y. and
put in a shipping container. When the container is full they send it
over.
Me:  So they do stack them.
p.w. Now why would they stack them?  They send ‘em over one at a time.
Me:  Not the containers, the packages inside the containers. 
You just said they wait until they have a full container.  So if
my package is the very first one into the container its going to take a
lot longer than it would if it was the last one into the container.
Right?
p.w. Ma’am, I have no idea what you just said.
Me: 
Me:  That’s okay, it will get here when it gets here.
p.w.  Now that’s a fine attitude ma’am, you have a nice day.

A German General said of the American Army during his debriefing after WWII
“The reasons the American Army does so well in wartime, is that war is
chaos, and the American Army practices it on a daily basis.”

amen brother, I hear you. 

Contrary to popular opinion I’m still not dead.  I just hate this
new editor.  Mine is not working properly and for some reason I
can’t switch back to the old one.   My biggest gripe is I
know it will do no good to write one of the guys eg; Marc, John etc
because I’m sure their Email as well as comment boxes are
flooded.  By the time they separate the wheat from the chaff in
their comments all the problems should be resolved. (crossing toes and
fingers)  I hate it when I go to one of their sites and there is
almost a thousand comments of this type…..”sweet” “wow” “2propz
dude”   How is a legitimate concern going to be heard. 
My very favorite was this one “i just felt
like commenting you..because, well my stomach hurts. <3″ 
Okaaaay, whatever.  There are many that do address the problems
with the editor.  For instance in the first 50 comments alone
there were 6 or 8 that said “slow to load” or variations of,  so I
imagine if that hold true for the entire 900 some comments poor Marc
has been told that the new editor is slow to load about 50 to 75
times.  I never thought he was stupid so he probaly already knew
that it was slow to load, after all he did type his own blog entry on
(gasp) the new editor.  I really wish they would run 2 comment
boards for all new content, one for general props and one for
complaint/suggestions.  And I would also say its always a good
idea to read thru some of the previous comments to see if your concern
has already been addressed.  I read about  200 comments and
found a very well written comment about the very same problems I’m
having, so I didn’t need to leave my 2propz dude to clutter thing up
even further.  okay, I’m done ranting about something you guys
could probably care less about.
But I will be glad when this thing is fixed.  There will be no pictures until it is and I’m getting tired of waiting.