When I came home I was mostly zombie. I hadn't slept much at all the
night before my flight and slept for only an hour or so on the flight
itself. We had a very bumpy ride.  Several times the capt. came on
telling the flight attendants to  "suspend service"  of
course one of those times was during dinner and the turbulence was so
bad I was sure I was going to get a lapful of food. (ick, the only
possible thing  worse than eating airline food, is wearing
it)  By the time we were pulling in to Burgbernheim I was bleary
eyed and wanted nothing more than to sleep for just a couple of
hours...jet lag be damned.  Then we went around the corner and I
saw the apartment building. I sure woke up in a hurry!  Of course
I knew they were going to paint, they told us they were going to, so it
was expected. We thought they would paint it the same color as the
guest house next door.  After all, it's also owned by our landlord
and they connect by a mutual courtyard that the restaurant uses on warm
Summer evenings and special events. ie: wedding receptions, world cup parties etc. 
Well as Gomer Pyle would say........................"Surprise, surprise
surprise".     or maybe Popeye, "Blow me down."
To say we were under an erroneous impression as to the
future color would be
putting it mildly.  The whole way down the street I kept saying,
"It's pink, oh my God, it's pink. They painted it pink."  The sun
was brightly shining and it really did look a shade of pink. What shade
I couldn't pin down. I have finally decided that maybe it's not pink.
It's more of a peachy, cantaloupe, salmony color. Depending on cloud
cover or sunshine. For proof of it NOT being pink I put on my decidedly
pink crocs and stuck my foot on the wall for comparison.  Now if
I can just find that cantaloupe colored blouse for future comparison
I'll be all set.

I think it's growing on me, I think I may begin to like it quite a
bit.  And you know what? Giving direction to the house is going to
be a breeze.  Go down the main street until you get to the
brightest house on the block, we're the apartment under the roof.

 #1 boring 
Tan          #2 and 3 Our
snazzy, bright, colorful entry.  #4 side view w/ part of the gate
into the courtyard and #5 pink croc and peach (?) wall.

I'm back home safe and sound!  I promise to post later but I will
say I had a great time in the States.  And guess what!!! They're
still working on the apt. building, they have almost finished painting
though.  You have no idea what it was like to come around the
corner and see the building.  I'll take pictures so you can
share my joy. 

This time next week I'll be back in the States for  three weeks, I
miss my family, I'm going crazy, I need to hear English and see a
friendly face.  I hesitate to say vacation because while I'm there
I figured I might as well get a few of the 'annuals' out of the
way.  Since I've never heard of anyone planning their vacation
around getting their boobs squashed flat with two cold steamrollers and
their private yum yums poked and prodded, I'm just saying this is my
sanity saver.  Everyday the list of things to do while home
grows.  Thankfully most are just phone calls to companies that
don't have int'l numbers.  But sometime while I'm there I need to
get my eyes checked, see approx how much furnished apts run, scope out
a few used/new cars,. and do other odds and ends.

Then, I'm going to run from one end of the state to the other to see
friends who thinks it makes more sense for me to go another three or
four hours than for them to get in the car.  Never mind the fact
that I will drive three and a half hours just to get to the Frankfurt
airport and then fly for 7 hours, then sit in Atlanta for a couple
hours before getting on another flight and finally driving another 45
minutes to where my sis lives.  No problem people ...  what's
another 3 hour drive.  Don't let me interrupt your weekend. 

As you can see I have some ambivalence about going home. 
Sometimes it just seems like a pain in the keister.  Other times I
want to be able to see my daughters so badly that I would go around the
world twice just to be able to look across the room and see their
smile.  While I dread the actual traveling part of the trip, I
can't wait to be there.  Does this makes any sense?

This is Konigsee in South Eastern Germany just a few miles from the Austrian border.
It is arguably the most pristine lake in Germany, the only way to get
across is by electric launch.  Unless of course you had a Winter
like we did and you have almost 100 cm of ice, then of course you can
just walk across.

Last time we were here we didn't take the boat to the far end of the
lake, we stopped halfway at St Bartholoma and never got farther. 
This time we went straight to the end so we could have plenty of time
to hike to the far end of the next lake, Obersee.

This is the Obersee the lake that you get to from the Konigssee.

You can't get to either lake by car.  You can hike or you can ride
the boat but that's it, its in a protected area.  What we found
out when we hiked clear to the far end, is this, once again we didn't
know what we were doing.  Turns out that when you get to that
little cabin at the far end of the lake you can hike another 1/2 hour or so, up to Rothbach waterfall 470m or 1542 ft. high.

The problem was the last boat leaves at 6
and if we hiked up we wouldn't have enough time for my mom to see the
Church or eat.  By this time though my mom had plenty of hiking so when
we did get to the cabin we had freshly churned buttermilk and laid
around a bit and then started back to get some dinner at the lakeside
restaurant and catch the last boat back down the Konigssee to show mom
St. Bartoloma.

These look a whole lot better if you click on them and look at them larger.

I don't think I've ever seen a lake that was so pristine, it was amazing.

Don't you love little kids?  Hope you enjoy the tiny virtual tour.

Anyone remember that one from childhood?





 It's rained pretty much everyday though not the drenching downpour we had on Mon and thankfully not all day long.  It's a little after 6 am here and the "crew" should be here to start at any time.  It seems like they've been getting started earlier and earlier. 8 the first few days then 7:30 then 7am.  It has got to the point now that as soon as my eyes open that's it, I can't get back to sleep, in anticipation of the men crawling on the roof for the next 12 hours.
The really great news is my ceiling aren't raining.  All of my stuff is pretty much dry.  The bad news, the apt building has this funky wet smell.  Notice I said the building?  It's not just my apt it's the whole building.  I think everyone is wondering how long that will take to go away.   They had to wait for a semi clear day and pull off the plastic, they got it late Tuesday, they worked until 8 pm that day.  But they were able to get all the joists replaced and the new insulation in, I'm sure that will be appreciated in Dec and Jan.

(See that gorgeous blue sky?  Hope it stays that way)
The first picture was from Tuesday early evening.  This one is from Wednesday about 4 in the afternoon, amazing how fast they can get the job done.  No more plastic all the joists and insulation right where it should be.  Now all they have to do is finish putting up the tile boards and they can start laying some tile.   Bear and I predict that once they are ready to actually lay it, the whole thing will move really fast.  They don't nail it or fasten it in any way they just hook it on the boards and its own weight holds it there.  

I'm curious now to see if they are going to paint the building.  They scraped some of the paint off, whether by accident or design I don't know, but it would be great if they did.  I'm not really fond of the color now and heck they have already given me a semi-nervous breakdown might as well finish the job.

 Just before Allie went home we took her to the overgrown pond masquerading as a lake.  I wanted her to see the swans and I've been curious to see if they had babies this year.  They had babies alright.
SEVEN!  I hope more of them make it this year  Last year out of the 5 they had, only 2 made it to maturity. 

They raced across the lake ready for a handout, just like normal.  And just like normal I/we was/were unprepared and didn't have anything to give them.  

When the roofers hit their peak noise production today I'm going to go back down with my book, my ipod and a bag of bread.  That will get me away for a bit.  That's what I've been doing by the way.  As soon as I can't take anymore pounding, sawing, or stomping I just leave.  Go to the library or post office, anything to get out of the house.  Today I'm planning a little picnic for one.   

 

Here they are, 7:45 AM, later today than yesterday, I won't be able to concentrate now.  *le sigh*  Time to go anyway.  Hope everyone has a peaceful day. 

I haven't complained here about this, my very favorite place to
complain and I haven't said a word.  But today was THE
absolfuckinglutely LAST straw!

The landlord is replacing the roof and today AFTER they took the last
tile off it rained.  No wait, it didn't rain, it poured. 
Wait, it flooded!  Yes, that's it, it flooded.  My living
room and entry hall flooded.  About 2 hours after it quit raining
and just seconds before the landlords son came up with a water vac I
burst into tears.  This was after the emergency call to Bear
telling him to get his butt home.  First day off vacation and I
call him home  Remember my cute little "room" that I built for our
incoming house guests?  Flooded!  Mike's couch which we were
keeping for him got rained on, so did my brand spanking new poster from
my trip to Ireland.  I looked up and wow....a waterfall on my
wall.  Let me tell you, pictures just don't do it justice. 
Poor Stefan (landlords grown son) ((accent on the last syllable)) comes
into my apartment to find me with a bucket full off filthy water,
mopping like a mad woman and bawling like a 2 year old.  Rofl,
serves him right.  Poor guy, you should have seen his face. 
Like most men confronted with a crying woman all he said over and over
and over was "I'm so sorry."

 So, because I'm a masochist and for
insurance purposes....I took pictures. 

We came home one day and found this.

My kitchen window is on the funny little bump out thing  Our roof
window is the larger one on the left.  When they say under the
roof they mean it.

This is the very last smile you will see on my face.

The rain started about an hour later.  In fact after this one
Stefan took a picture of me pointing behind him at the black clouds
headed our way.

They very shortly started trying to get the roof covered but the storm moved a whole lot faster than the roofers did.

Look a waterfall........

This is my newly purchased "Cliffs of Moher" poster.  One of the
souvenirs I brought back from mine and Allie's trip to Ireland last
week.  Honestly, I thought it would last longer than a couple of
weeks.

*Le Sigh*

It sure was a shock to look up from mopping and see a steady stream of water running down the wall.

This is the window frame that I was hanging out of a couple of pictures back.

This is in the entry hall to the apt.  Shortly after this pieces of plaster started coming down.

Mike's couch is under this beam, lol.  Can't wait to break that to him....I wonder if a blow dryer would help?

The chaos platz sign has never been more true than it was today.

See the crack, that's what their insurance will fix among other
things.  After all, isn't this what homeowners insurance is
for? 

Doesn't look that bad from here.....

See how wet that box looks on the bottom, when I picked it up it caved
in on itself and half a bucket of water went all over me, the floor and
the tiny part of the bed that was dry.

The good news is nothing in the box was ruined.  The bad news is
nothing in the box belongs to me, it all belongs to Heather and Carrie,
I was supposed to send it to them as soon as I got their new
address. 

More good news, the landlords son took ALL of the bedding to wash in the hotel washers.  Let's be grateful for tiny favors.

Look it's covered!

Better late than never I suppose. 
You know it didn't rain here for about 2 or 2.5 weeks.  They
pulled the roof off and it rained.  I think someone in the
landlords house needs to work on their karma. 

Despite my bitching my losses are minimal.  More than anything my
nerves are shot.  Nothing a nice bottle of Kabinett won't
cure.  It's now 8:30 PM and they finally finished covering the
roof to their satisfaction, good lord I'm glad to hear the tail end of
that for the night. 

Okay the wah of the day is done...I'm sure there will be more tomorrow for your reading pleasure.

(you know I'm actually really pissed about my poster.)

http://www.williamledbetter.com/


Pictures NEVER do justice to what you can see with the naked eye, but I'm telling you this, she is beautiful.  The Muse of Literature in the Vatican Museum.

This is from way back in April.  I doubt I will even try to catch up with my pictures or blogs.  I have been to many places in too short a time period.  So in lieu of that I'll put up things as I think of them and the muse moves me.

I remember walking into this round room that some wise person had painted red and seeing all the muses.  I saw her and thought of Bill who has a real love/hate/love relationship with this particular muse.  So here she is.  I'm always doing that, seeing something that reminds me of someone I met here and don't actually know.  Like when I found the tiny childrens book with Cappy on the cover and immediately bought them for notagoose.  Thank God my husband is so completely inurred to my odd behavior he doesn't mind that I send total strangers presents, postcards and randomly take pictures because it reminds me of a favorite xangan.  In fact if I say xanga!  he doesn't even bat an eye.





Case in point....this is for my favorite Johnny Depp fan...........

This is in Rorshach, Switzerland.  I wonder which came first the movie or the bar?

All I know is when I saw it, I thought of  Sandy ....Mmmm, Johhny.  The only guy I know that looks good in that much eyeliner.



Then when I was in Austria I thought of Morgane and Cork.  Why you may ask?  I'll tell you.... of course.....  (no links, they're both private I do believe.)

They're both Australian.

Huh? you say.

Why would being in Austria make you think of  Australians?

Very simple, let a silly picture answer that question.







Exactly how many times are you asked, Where are the kangeroos before you finally have some genius that makes a magnet?

Me, I'm a smartass, I would probably say..... at the zoo! Unless they all escaped of course, then you should check the local boxing rings.

In hindsight (the 20/20 variety) I wish I had bought one.  Ah well maybe next trip.



This ends my foray into the world of catch-up.  Three pictures that reminded me of five xangans and a drunk sea bear.  What is the world coming too?

By the way I found out that when my oldest kid talks about me and people ask her what I "do" she tells them I'm a eternal tourist.  rofl, I like that, to bad by Dec. it will all be over, oh well.  Enjoy it while it lasts, that's my motto.