The first......

Our very first geocache was called "by the gate to eternal peace".. lol.. ok, hopefully geocaching will bless me with eternal peace, right now it is giving all of us tons of fun - that´s already good enough for me.. ha ha
During a doggy sitting weekend we went for an evening stroll along the outskirts of Oppenheim when it started poooooooouring rain! I had expected maybe a couple of drops but not this.. lol.. but we still had fun and the nice thing about rain is that generally nobody else is out.
We actually didn´t find the cache that day because my Neandertal-GPS was pointing us directly into the cemetary and I was pretty sure that could not be right.. then it pointed to the inside of a building and that sounded wrong as well.. so we looked around a while, found some interesting things and went home for the night.
The next morning we checked it out again and it all the sudden made so much sense to look where it was actually hidden - wohoo!!!!!
First find, first log, wohoo!!!!

Caching with the little ones...

If you´ve ever been geocaching with small children (in this case 5, 5, and 2.5) you´ll know what I´m talking about..well, actually it applies to most travels.. ha ha..
Are we there yet? How much higher do we have to climb? Can you carry me? Can you pull me? Can I ride on the dog? :-D
Once we made it to the top (yes, it WAS a steep climb straight up through the vineyards with 2 breaks) they loved it! They couldn´t get enough of the view and kept discovering new things on the horizon every second - begging me they could stay there all night.. ha ha..
As this was only a micro cache I thought it would take about 2 minutes to get it but.... we were totally misled by the many footprints up and down the slope until I was about to give up.. and remembered the hint in the listing of "Happy Birthday".. tadaaaaaa. The kids were all excited (yeah, me too.. lol) and we logged happily and deservedly.. grin..
The descend all the way down to Oppenheim was fun as well and the kids dropped into a deep coma once they hit their beds - mission successful on all levels! Wohoo.. grin

Geocaching with monsters :-D

On a beautiful sunday morning, a small group of Germaricans ventured out towards the unchartered country of Rheinhessen... a small settlement called Dalheim was the destination. Armed with a treasure seeking dog, bottled water, fruits, diapers, wipes, a cell phone and most of all - a BRAND SPANKING NEW GPS (!!!! - can you tell I´m ecstatic? lol), the small brother- and sisterhood made their way despite of the scorching sun. The goal was: Fuchsloch - our first family cache. Cache? Yup, after I´ve been reading and learning about geocaching for a couple of months now I finally hooked up our ancient PDA with the GPS unit that we bought in.. 2001?? OMG - in GPS terms that is more than ancient.. lol.. Neandertal..it´s generally off course about 50 feet which is alot..
Nevertheless, that combination got us up to Stage 3 of this cache last time but then ran out of batteries.. goshdarn.. lol.. so this time we were armed not just with a new GPS but also with spare batteries and Alex who was in school during the last attempt. He proved himself worthy because I made him find the first stages on his own using the GPS. Then we had a really hard time looking for the stage 3 micro cache where the final coordinates were hidden. So while Alex and I looked for it, Isa and Juju climbed around, picknicked and explored the vineyards in the area.. no grapes yet though.. ha ha
Once we finally found it we packed up and made our descend back to the valley. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that after the initial hike up to the ridge (5 minutes) we were able to just walk comfortably with a great view and hardly and elevation changes.

Half way down we had a muggle alert since one of the local farmers was picking off potato bugs from the plants... so we hung out for a while and played with the dog and talked to her - meanwhile Alex was searching the area for the location... (small user error.. lol) but we had a small climb ahead of us. After shaking the muggle eyes off us we went for the last stretch and while I thought it was somewhere else, Alex made a straight shot for the cache and found it within a minute!

The cache was in great shape and we retrieved a travelbug from it called "Oscar the great" - his destination is California but right now he´s hanging with us, enjoying a well earned small vacation with German Hefeweizen, BBQ and some good old Puerto Rican salsa! :-D

Right now Oscar and the rest of the Clan are gearing up to go find a new home for him... I´ll be sure to write about it!

Blogs it?

Yes, we are back :-D
New digital, tons of things that are going on and pictures to document it - yippeh!
Mothers Day brought a new digi and the following weekend we went shopping for a brand spanking new GPS - not the ancient neandertal one I had before. No, we didn´t get rich overnight, I used my christmas gift card finally.. lol
So watch out Internet....
On the quicky - Kat and BF just moved into a new place, Alex is about to graduate, Isa is enjoying her last weeks and months in Kindergarten because she´s hitting 1st grade this August and Juju is being Juju.. sweet trouble..
When sweet trouble is sleeping I´ll post some pic because right now he´s outside watering everything but the mailbox :-D

I knew it. lol..actually, I was thinking Silver Surfer..

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 95% Wonder Woman 72% Robin 72% Spider-Man 70% The Flash 70% Green Lantern 70% Iron Man 55% Supergirl 47% Batman 45% Catwoman 40% Hulk 35%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Christmas in the Bayerische Wald

What a beautiful Christmas Day in the Bavarian Forest, close to the Czech border...
Yeah Yeah Yeah.. Christmas was more like a couple of days ago but while I was still hanging on almost holding my breath for the chance to go and shop for a new digital I was reluctant to post the pictures I stole from MOM.. he he.. or was I just too busy?
So here they are, finally :-D
Our hotel and the village of Neunußberg from the nearby castle ruin:



hmm..older brothers don´t usually share, huh? :-D

the gang (Jill, Vivian, Isa and Julius) at the waaaay cool Weinfurtner Glasdorf

hey, I like this old castle stuff.. you can get into all kinds of trouble! :-D

We´re online buddies

Vivian helping the glass blower make a beautiful sphere (which Omi bought 2 days later after it went through the whole cooling down process) - it turned out quite gorgeous!

Jill and Isa hanging out

the rest will follow.... the SNOW pictures, proof that there was actually a thing called WINTER around :-D

Poinsettia Christmas Tree

This is a poinsettia made of around 2500 single plants, watered 3 times a day :-D It stands at the Wiesbaden Kurhaus - this picture does not pay it enough tribute though.

The German Christmas Pickle is back... die deutsche Weihnachtsgurke ist zurück!

It never fails, every year I stumble across "one of the oldest german christmas traditions", the Christkind secretly places the presents under the tree, lights the candles (usually real candles on a real tree) and rings a very high pitched tiny bell to let the children know it was there.

after research it seems that it was only dubbed a german tradition over time.

So there you have it, the Pickle.

Which can be found in my fridge. Sour and in a glass jar. :-D

p.s., since my digital is still dead I will have to wait until my Mom emails me the pictures of the GORGEOUS pointsettia tree in the Wiesbaden Kurhaus made of 2400 (or so) pointsettias - maybe tomorrow? I´ll be sure to post it!!

A thought for the afterlife. :-D

This is for all my quilting friends who are not sure how they want to be getting cozy for that last long trip.. :-D

http://elbowoodsworks.com/casket_specialties.htm

Another quilter found this link and I had to share.. lol.. think they could do a log cabin or crazy quilt? Or maybe we should bring our own - what do you think?

My digital died..

it seems official, I can´t fix my trusted digital.. sniffers..
I´ve had it for at least 8 years, it´s a really nice yet totally outdated fuji MX-2900zoom that has travelled across continents with us, a small transformer in our luggage because it is 110 v.
Guess I´ll have to make myself a christmas present this year and find a nice digital again - or maybe just get a cheapo for now and look for a nice one next year.
Any suggestions?
I am SO LOST without my digital.. lol.. And I can´t post pictures of my new project either. Maybe I´ll just have to sneak my parents´ digital? he he he.. we´ll see.
Until I find a solution there probably won´t be many posts but that dilemma will hopefully be resolved within a couple of weeks!

Swan in love :-D

Only in Germany (?!) - this is the story of a swan that fell in love with a velo-swan this year and won´t leave his side.. lol.. it´s too cute.. now that the velo has to go to be stored for the winter they found it in their heart to put it in a location that is convenient for the ignored real swan so it can stay with it during the cold season.
I love this story - isn´t it great that the city of Münster is going out of it´s way and investing money into letting this swan be with his admired one? Over the course of the year the citizens of Münster have paid more and more attention to "black peter" and his girlfriend so that all efforts were made to give them both a way to make it through the winter together.. lol.. not so sure if the big white one cares but the small black one followed it the whole time into the winter accomodation.

Amazing Paper Cuts (not on my finger though :-D)

Wow - actually, at least triple-wow.. lol..
I´m off today..
I get to check my mail AND stroll through my favorite blog-neighborhood to see how everyone has been...
and I found this amazing paper art - click on A4 Papercut - I SO enjoy other people´s creativity!!!! He doesn´t just do those small paper cuts but tons of other things - the A4 cuts just happen to be my favorite this morning! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!!
Back to my very own creativity challenge this morning - how to put a diaper on a 2 year old while crocodile wrestling with him at the same time.. lol..

Halloween 2006

Whew - who´d have thunked we´d get this lucky with the weather on all hallows eve? It´s been pretty warm all October and we decorated all around the house and between our neighbors and our house, set up outside and in the garages just in case it would rain. We´ve had many drenched trick or treatings in the past years but this one turned out to be perfect! For german standards we had alot of kids come to get candy and they were all dressed up really great - our first all german halloween was really fun! We´ve been so used to being in an american area where you know there´s candy in almost every doorway that it seemed odd to stay in our all german area this year - since we wanted to have a party here our choice was already made. The kids had tons of fun zipping around like a horde of energizer bunnies, the grownups were dancing all night - first salsa, then a bit heavy metal, back to salsa, merengue and then sort of 70/80s funky stuff - remember kung fu fighting? lol.. everyone had a great time and is already trying to get us to throw another one of these next halloween.. haha.. it really was great! Good food (salads & BBQ & german pretzels & greek tzaziki &&&..yumm) good company and good fun - what more can you ask for? When it finally started raining at around 1 am we were just greatful that it didn´t rain earlier. Unfortunately our digital is acting up so I didn´t get all of the pictures I wanted and didn´t even get all the decorations on either - darn! Here are some selected few though:


Nicole the dead school girl

and of course, Alex and Amber

clumsy surgeon and witch
we´re so dead :-D
the scary boriqua viking and death unveiled

Isa the mermaid breakdancing

What season are you?

OK, one for passing time. .lol..

You Belong in Spring

Optimistic, lively, and almost always happy with the world... You can truly appreciate the blooming nature of spring. Whether you're planting flowers or dyeing Easter eggs, spring is definitely your season!

What Season Are You?

I can sew this.. but can I read this??

Gosh darn it - I love the internet.. :-D
And I LOVE stumbling across free patterns, especially when my japanese reading skill really suck.. lol. but I think this is simple enough for me to figure out without actually having to read it, huh?
Domo aregato internet!!

London - finally some pics

Oh yeah - we finally got the pictures back from London - yippeh! Yes, it was my fault we didn´t have the digital with us to begin with but since it´s 110 V I figured noone in England would have a 110 outlet.. lol.. WRONG - out hotel sure did in every room! sheesh.. haha So I took the good old trusted 35 mm and here are some of the pictures. I can´t even put all of my London impressions in less than a 10 page essay so I´ll spare you the pain :-D But if you ever have the chance, go visit! I flew in on Thursday around noon with my colleague and got picked up by a limo service - veery nice, thank you Amgen.. lol.. then on to discover some of the surroundings of Hyde Park and Oxford Street until we got a hold of our boss and met up for a beer in a nice little pub around the corner from our hotel. Later on we had a business dinner with all the attendees of the meeting which was kinda fun since they were from all over Europe including the newer States of Lativa, Lithuania, Slovenia and other more eastern countries. Of course there were all the other European Nations as well but I was more curious to meet the ones from the areas I am not so familiar with. The next day was filled with one meeting chasing the other and worked our brains quite thoroughly but everything was well organized and the work part of this trip was fun as well (yippeh again! lol). Then DH flew in late afternoon and we began our venture through this 8 Million people city. I can´t believe how clean and green London is and felt so much more safe than in New York which has 8 Million citizens as well... So Saturday we went out bright and early to walk ALL OVER the city with hopping on and off buses and walking walking walking.. the weather was wonderful and we had a great time. At night we then went on to dance salsa at Salsa! on Charing Chross which was great but really crowded and hot. So we ate good, danced for a bit and left again to bathe in the huzzle and buzzle of a busy city like London at midnight. So here are the pictures mostly without comments as you can probably tell where they are taken at.. smile.. Oh yeah, no fabric shopping for me as I was more interested in oysters and toys at Harrods and forgot to visit the fabric department.. lol.. oh well, it was probably overprized anyways!


Disney Store on Oxford Street.. gotta love it!

Food Halls at Harrods. .hmm.. oysters..

Harrods at night (after our oyster feast)

at the London Tower

London Bridge from the Tower

London Bridge from the Bridge :-D




just another nice pub.. they´re everywhere I tell ya!

By Hyde Park - only in London :-D


Westerminster Abbey

What would HM do without bagpipes?? :-D

World Quilt Championship 2006 pictures

For all of you that have been waiting for the pictures to come online, here is the link for the german entries:
http://www.catherine-pascal.net/mancuso06/mancuso06.htm
Some of them just take my breath away and I know that I could NEVER EVER make anything even remotely as gorgeous - but I happily remain one of the people who totally appreciate the beauty of them so I guess that makes me part of the reason they´re made? lol.. or something like that.. ha ha..
Thanks Catherine (she´s the coordinator for Germany) - marvellous job putting it all together!!

And tomorrow I´ll finally post the pictures from London.. promise! :-D

why do babies grow up?

all I can say is SNIFF... why do our babies grow up??? Alex, our 2nd oldest is turning 18 tomorrow and is out partying as I speak (a little reminder, legal drinking age is 16 over here, staying out past midnight you have to be 18 though). Meanwhile back at the house of chaos, I´m making a cake for him that turned out to have 2 layers of devil´s food cake, some vanilla frosting in between and chocolate frosting on top... since I didn´t really have decorations and I had no idea what to do (just like Alex who has no clue about what to do now that he´s 18 and a MAN.. lol) I am calling it "I´m so confused".. lol..

Oh, in case you wonder about the Sky Diver dude toy next to the cake, that is the clue to his birthday present.. grin grin.. I wonder how long it will take him to figure out what it is..

Before I got around to making the cake we were all hanging out

outside with whomever walked by - including his cute little turkish friend from the neighborhood.. and of course the icecream eating monsters he usually hangs with...

nices, sunny day - what more can you ask for?