Brüggelchen

Our small village of Brüggelchen has had a bit of excitement, actually two events that would make one wonder WHAT THE...............


We could hear the bullhorn before we could see where it was coming from or what was being "announced". A small white car was slowly going up and down all the streets in our village. In the passenger seat was a man with a bullhorn repeating the same phrase over and over. The only words Terry and I could catch or understand were "Attencion.....Attencion" as the car neared our house we could see it was some kind of red cross vehicle. Of course all I could think of was the nuclear plant up the road! We did a quick check of the neighbors to make sure no one was loading up their cars and heading for the hills. We asked around at the next village connection dinner and found out it was a blood drive. Who knew!


The next incident happened in the middle of the night, I was deep in the land of dreams when I heard sirens start up. OMG, Terry and I both jumped strait out of bed, sirens wailing, no announcements, no PA system, just the loud repeating sound of the town siren. Again, the nuclear plant image flashed thru my mind. The sirens stopped by the time we fumbled around and got dressed. A quick check to see if the neighbors were packing their cars and heading for the hills.............all was quiet the streets were empty and not even a light on in any of the houses. Our inquiries the next day revealed it was a call for all of the volunteer fireman to report to the hall for some type of emergency/disaster-anything from a car accident to a fire. I gotta tell you it is a teensy bit scary not knowing what was going on....... What next?


Terry is now on a rotating shift, alternating first and second shift weekly. It has thrown our "routine" off a little off which is the reason my blog has been a bit quiet lately. One bonus though is that we are able to explore more of the surrounding area during the mornings-every other week! Here are a few pictures from our last outing. Check out the the chairs below, they have lap blankets to keep you toasty warm as you sit in the square and enjoy a meal or a beverage, now I ask you, how wonderful is that!

















love and miss you all

And the winner is.............

Jim Long won first prize at the Osheim hosted first quarterly couples bunco held last Saturday evening. His lovely wife, Connie took the low score prize, very appropriate. Low score won a big box of valentines chocolates. Tom was the second prize winner and I heard his winnings were earmaked for a computer part for his wife Jen. We sent invitations out to 5 fun couples, do we know any other kind? Of the 12 attendees only three had ever played before so there was a small learning curve, no problem though-easy to play if you can count and throw dice, you can play. Other winners included Cris, Leona and I believe Mike.......

We are already looking forward to the next bunco party at Jim and Connie's, they have a traditional German courtyard home that has summer BBQ written all over it! We can play outdoors and may end up playing with 16 instead of 12!

Of course we had one, maybe two slight mishaps on the evenings festivites. We had a last minute couldn't be helped cancellation, so there was a Saturday morning scramble to find another couple. Terry and I were both making phone calls, my biggest worry was that we would both find subs. Of course it all worked out Mike and Cris came thru and as Jen said they made a nice addition to our group. I am quite sure they will remember the night for a while, the mirror hanging in the entry way gave out when one too many coats were hung, spilling the contents of three oil candles all over their jackets and almost sending them up in flames........Luckily Terry was Johnny on the spot and put out the fire and just in case Connie was right behind him ready to douse the flames..........

All in all a fun time was had by all, here you see Tyson the mighty banker exhausted from trying to keep up with who had the last bunco......... Or could it be that he was so tired from all the brisket Terry fed him or the cookies Chris shared!

love and miss you all!

There I was.......

I will start out by saying that the evening started out uncomplicated enough........

Last Saturday was dinner out with the Nadeau's, Tom and Jen. It was a celebratory dinner. We wanted to treat them to a night out as a thank you for Tom putting together our new computer, and Jen for putting up with Tom putting together our computer. Dolly Dimples is an Irish pub in Sittard and we were told served great ribs, plus they have a cider called Strongbows as well as Guiness on tap! Tom and Jen drove over to our house and the four of us headed out in our truck. The restaurant was not crowded, and in true German fashion we enjoyed a lesiurely dinner. The food was okay the company was better. And if you ask Terry the beers were delicious!


We finished dinner and as we were leaving, Terry noticed a little pub area attached to the restaurant. He thought is would be grand if we went in. "It'll be fun," he said and we had the whole place to ourselves. We got house darts and after a couple of games of cricket and a few good laughs we noitced the bar was about filled to capacity. It got loud and noisy and smoky in the time it took Terry to beat first me then Tom at darts. Time for us to make our exit. Ahh, the cool night air felt ever so good as we headed towards the truck. I was the designated driver and off we went, but wait just a minute.....there at the end of the street is a barrier blocking our exit. Hmmmm Tom and Terry get out to see if the pole can be moved, NOPE. No buttons to push to make it go down-nothing to indicate how we are supposed to get out.


Back up everyone tells me, find a place to turn around. I must tell you at this point Tom, who also was a designated driver offered to drive. I think perhaps I should have listened. Especially judging by the way the pedestrians, now on the pedestrian only street, were scurrying out of the way. Finally I get backed up and turned around only to find the street at the other end closed to vehicles, but there was just enough room to just barely squeeze the truck thru.........into an area filled with the evening crowds of strollers, once again moving quickly to get out of the way of the crazy Americans.......We were quite amused. Whew, finally onto auto friendly streets and turn the GPS on to head for home. At this point the GPS was telling me to make a left and Terry insisted we go right-Jen from the backseat said I think the GPS is right and Tom once again offered to drive....I, being the good wife that I am, listened to Terry. Once again, and I must say, to Terry's amusement, I found a dead end street-this time a construction area and this time it was bunny rabbits scurrying to get out of the way!



love and miss you all

Adventures in Amsterdam

What a city! Amsterdam is all that and more. Where shall I begin to tell about our weekend adventures? How about the bikes, have you EVER seen so many bikes in one place? Here is a picture of a bike garage. WOW! Bicycles are everywhere! It is nothing to see a young man riding a bike with his girlfriend/date riding sideways over the back tire while she is snacking on a paper cone of food with her legs crossed at the ankles, just as pretty as you please. Another time we saw a mother carting 4 kids.....two in a cart being pulled, one behind her and one the front. The bikes are also every color imaginable, I guess that would help you identify yours in and amoungst the thousands.......



It took us about 2 1/2 hours by train to arrive at the city's center. We purchased a 48 hour "package" called I AMsterdam, this included a pass to ride the metro system, a canal tour, admission to 13 different museums, discounts to numerous resturants, gifts at designated stores, lunch and a delicious cup of coffee. For us it was the perfect way to experience as much as we could in a 48 hour window, it reminded me of a scavenger hunt. Everywhere we went people were friendly and helpful if we looked remotely confused about where we were going, someone would stop and ask...."can I help you?"

check out the building listing starboard.....

Amsterdam has something for everyone, such diversity...... canal boats, 2,500 house boats, over 1,200 bridges, the high end shopping, the high end "coffee shops", the red light district, the tourists gawking at the red light district, such a fast paced city rich with history and proud of the "anything goes" attitude. It is easy to imagine when the weather warms there are even more sites to see , many out door cafe's so it would be easy to sit and watch as the city life goes by.

Mickey D's right next door to what would normally be on "the scary side of town, not here.... just business as usual.

And here you see Terry so happy to have found find a real "English Pub"

We toured and walked and gawked out way thru as much as we could in the 2 1/2 days we stayed here. I can promise you we will go back the only question would be when........oh and by the way not a single Startbucks..........hmmm.

love and miss you all

Karneval the NATO Way

..........And I quote " Karneval is a time to be a fool, as "if you are not a fool during Karneval, you will be one the rest of the year".

You can't begin to imagine what a festive time of year this is. Karneval or Fasching celebrations have pagan roots that pre date Christianity. The season officially begins on 11/11 at 11:11 and last until Ash Wednesday, ......"it is believed Christians came along, and tried to alter these pagen rituals so Carnival came to mark the beginning of Lent. The name Carnival is derived from Latin carne vale, meaning "farewell to meat".

Last Friday we attended a costume party on base, oh my what a party it was! Unfortunately our camera does not do well with low lighting, I hope to get pictures from friends, in the meantime these will have to do, trust me a fabulous time it was.

This party was well orchestrated, we saw act after act get up on stage.......dance troupes, acrobats, big bands and much much more! Most of the entertainment was "amusing" at one point there were two Elvis Presly's, one younger version and one older version. Each sang age appropriate songs. Also a "German country singer" who had the whole room singing Country Roads by John Denver. There was just something in the air........and whatever it was I caught it and by looking around the room most of the people in attendance caught it as well. A fun filled night for dancing and having a big time!

Here is Jen, better known that night as "The Soceress", who correctly predicted that we would not drink too much because the following day our group would attend a birthday party for Bailey, her soon to be 5 year old daughter. Considering that party was at Monkeys, one of those places where kids can run wild and parents should bring ear plugs........she was oh so wise. Actually, I think what she said was "HELLLLO, Monkeys with a hangover?????

Unfortunately.........Terry has been working 7 days a week 12 hour shifts.....he got to the party about 8:30 looking and feeling a little weary, the program listed activities that lasted until 2:00 am, we along with Elvis, left the building around 10:00 pm..............I am already looking forward to next year, I think it would be hilarious to have a whole group of friends dress up as the waitstaff/cooks........

love and miss you all

Heilige Drei Köinge

Heilige Drei Köinge translates to three Kings day, or literally means the Epiphany. This year the day fell on Sunday January 6, 2008. In Germany children dressed as the three kings walk throughout the villages and bless homes by sprinkling holy water on the doorway and marking in chalk on the house: 20 C+M+B 08. The initials are believed to represent the names of the three kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar; the numbers represent the year the blessing was done. There is also a belief that holds the initials come from the Latin phrase for "Christ bless this house" -- "Christus mansionem benedicat".

Either way the tradition is still practiced and we were delighted to come home and see that despite the fact that we were not home, and despite that fact we do not have a brick home to "chalk the house", and despite that fact that we did not make the customary monetary doanation to the church........our house was still blessed as you can see by the markings on our mailbox. All indications point to a blessed year.

love and miss you all

WHAT THE.........

Our computer crashed right before Christmas. Frustration is a good word and it comes close to describing what it feels like to not have technology right at ones fingertips........especially being so far away and having become dependent on the information highway for social, economical as well as entertainment purposes. To make a long story short Terry and a good friend, Tom ordered the parts to build a brand new computer, bigger better and faster. Parts came in and three trips to various computer stores later, Tom had our new computer assembled and ready for action.........but hold on just a minute , lets just throw in a connectivity problem that involved the telephone company sending out a non English speaking technician who took all of 5 mins to tell me the equipment is kaput! Great, I called Terry to tell him the news about sending it in for repairs.....waiting for them to send a new one repairing the one we had .........Well Terry wasn't going to wait, I do believe he sensed my need because he came home with a brand new modem and now we are back in business. Hip Hip horray!

I have lots to share about the happenings here in our corner of the world, I will be posting a blogs or two here in the next few days. For right now I wanted to let everyone know why I have been "silent" for the past month, so unlike me.

love and miss you all