Serenade

My husband, Brandon, got a guitar from his parents for his 21st birthday. It's kind of a tradition in his family: all the men play guitar. And when we all get together, they pull their guitars out of their cases and take turns playing. Sometimes we just listen, sometimes we all sing along. Copious amounts of alcohol are consumed, and a great time is had by all.

Well, when he first got the guitar, he played it a lot. He hadn't learned to play prior to that, but he learned fast. Then, after about a year or so, he seemed to get bored with it. It was disappointing but what could I do? So I just mentally shrugged every time I walked past the dusty case and went about my business.

Until we got here. I guess that there is less to occupy him here, or maybe he's just feeling homesick. But whatever the reason, he's picked that guitar back up and has been playing it almost every evening. And I get my very own concert. :)

It usually happens that he's in the next room, sitting at his desk with the music spread out in front of him, and the guitar across his lap. And I will be here, at my computer, grinning like an idiot while he plays. It's cute... He knows what my favorite songs are, and he always saves them for last. It's nothing big, and it probably seems silly to everyone but me, but it's a nightly ritual that I absolutely love.

Finished!

I've been working on this blanket all winter, and I am finally DONE! I've never made anything quite this big before, so I'm excited about it. It's a gift for my mother-in-law... She was complaining just before I left to come over here that she doesn't have any throws to match the decor in her living room. Well, she soon will! I've got it in the mail to her now. I can't wait until she gets it!

roman goats

Christmas and New Year's

Christmas and New Year's both were quiet, uneventful affairs for us. We spent most of Christmas Day at the house. Bran Was on duty Christmas eve, which could have been much worse that it was. On the ship, he would have been stuck there for the full 24 hours that he was on duty. With the Unit, he only had to go in for little while that morning, and pick some guy up at the air port. (Actually, it was Bryan, a guy that was later at the Christmas party we went to. He's in a few of the pics I took.) Then, he had to go back Christmas morning to do the security rounds. But after that, it was just hanging out here until about 3, when we went to Christmas dinner. It was being hosted by Jason and his girlfriend Heather. It was nothing fancy. Jason and Heather did the ham, the stuffing, and the pumpkin pies. We brought deviled eggs. Everybody else took care of everything else. It was an interesting time, though... Staying with Jason and Heather was Jason's ex-wife, Crystal, who had come to visit their son, Jason Jr. Odd though it was, everybody involved seemed totally cool with the arrangement. The dog, Rebel, was cool too. He's old and mellow, and not at all freaked out by all the people who had invaded his territory. He just wandered from cluster to cluster begging scraps of food, and attention. After a few hours (I think we left around 7) we went back to the house to resume our quiet day.

It was definitely different from any other Christmas that I've ever experienced. I'm used to going from house to house visiting various branches of the family, all that over the course of 2 or three days. There was none of that sort of thing this year. But like I said, it was nice.

New Year's was much the same. We spent New Year's Eve together at home. Once I coaxed Brandon away from the computer (he had just set it up downstairs, where we have the Internet connection), we lit all the candles in the living room and snuggled on the couch. We talked for a long time, but when I started to doze off around 10:30 or so, I told him to get back on the computer to play with the guys, if he wanted. (I knew he wasn't sleepy.) I woke up just after midnight to what it must sound like in a war zone. You know all of those cool fireworks that are illegal in the US, except for specially licensed people? Well, over here, there are available to the general public, and the Germans go all our for New Year's. And the Americans in the area do too, since they can't do it back home. Anyway, I caught Brandon saying something about "souds like Call of Duty 4 out there" so I grabbed my phone to check the time. Sure enough, we were about 10 minutes into the new year. I called out a Happy New Year to Bran and went back to sleep.

The next thing I knew, He was scooping me up from the couch. It was about 2:30, and time for bed. Ha, like I hadn't been in bed, or close enough to it, for four hours already.

Ok...I know what you're thinking. Because, I had been thinking much the same thing all day. "How lame is this?!? Here we are, in Europe, and we're not doing anything for New Year's? Nothing???" Well, I say to you, and to that niggling voice in my head, that at least I was with Brandon. The year before last (count down to 2006) Brandon was on duty on the boat, so I spent New Year's Eve with my cat. (That was the day I'd brought him home from the SPCA.) Now, that is lame. So I'm counting my blessings. And even if it wasn't some crazy awesome Euro party, it was greatly enjoyable. I'm not all about that staying up all night thing, anyway.


My New Job

I also started work at the end of December. My first official day was the day after Christmas, but I'd started before that because they were so short handed. There hasn't been too much from me to learn. Most of it has been the specific ins and outs of how this particular store operates, but I've done the retail thing before and it really doesn't change all that much from one place to the next. They've had me doing a lot of organizational stuff there, which it great for me. No one else on staff really likes that job, so they happily relinquished it to me. I started by reorganizing the beading materials section, because that was the worst. I also wanted to take stock of what we had, and what we needed to get. With that task done, I moved on to other areas of the store. I don't need to be trained on loading the kiln and such, since I already know how to do that, and I'm good to go on all the basics for a lot of what we carry. I'm lost when it comes to some of it though...my knowledge of painting, with oils, acrylics or watercolors, knitting, wood work, sculpting and framing leaves a lot to be desired. For those things, I have to plead ignorance when someone asks me for help or advice. Or, at best, I can direct them to one of my co-workers.

I'm currently being trained in the framing shop, so that if they need me to I can cross over to help them out. It's an interesting process... And it's a skill that I'm glad I'll have. That way, I can take my projects in and frame them myself. I'll still have to pay for materials, but at least I won't have to pay for the labor and I'll get to use their equipment. In a few months, one of the permanent employees will be PCSing with her husband, and my boss has indicated that she wants to train me to take her position. I'll be learning to do inventory, so I'll have another bullet for my future resume. I've also been absorbing as much as I can about crafting from the other girls at the store. Several of them are bing into sewing and quilting, and there is a lot that I don't know about those as well. It's great! This is such a great job for me. It is perfectly fitted to my skill set, and I have the opportunity to learn so much more. Yay!

Roman Goats

Sarah and Peguy have been out of town for the holidays, so Bran and I have been spending most evenings just hanging out. We've found a rhythm of sorts... Sometimes I cook a big meal, sometimes I just throw something together, and sometimes we fend for ourselves. (I try to keep us stocked with bowl noodles, ramen, hot pockets, and mac & cheese for those nights.) Then, I'll sit on the couch and read, or work on one of my blankets with a glass of wine. Bran will chill on the computer, sipping on beer or rum and coke (I'm using the work 'sip' liberally here), and checking up on sites like fark, penny arcade, icanhascheezburger or playing games with the guys. When that gets boring, or when he's waiting on the comp to finish doing something, he'll grab his guitar and serenade me.

That, I think, is the best part. He's playing his guitar again! There for a long time, he wasn't interested in it, but for the last few weeks, he's been printing up songs and learning (or relearning) how to play them. My favorites are House of the Rising Sun and Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd, not Incubus). I wish you could all hear how good he's getting to be. I just hope he stays with it.

Anyway, one of the times that I was on the couch with a blanket and he was at the computer, he stood up and said, I think I need another Roman goat." I dropped the blanket into my lap and looked at him blankly for a moment before it clicked. Rum and coke, he said. Not Roman goat. But that's what he should have said, because that would have been funnier. It will never be rum and coke to me again. :)

where was i?

Ah yes, snowboarding.

The Monday after the Christmas party, Brandon came home from work and asked me if I would like to go skiing that weekend. Feeling adventurous, I said 'sure', but then I didn't hear anything else about it all week, so I thought it had fallen through. Until I went to pick Bran up from work on Thursday. Instead of going to the car, he led me to the Dive Locker, which really isn't a locker at all but the building where the dive team part of Unit 2 works. The trip was still on after all, and Wally, one of the divers, had some gear for me to try on. Pants, a jacket, gloves, and snow boarding boots.

Wait, I thought we were going skiing? Right?

Wrong. Wally also had an extra snowboard and set of bindings for me to use, and everyone else was going to snowboard, so skiing was out and snowboarding was in. After we left the dive locker, we stopped by the Outdoor Recreation center to rent a board and boots and bindings for Bran. It was about $40 for the weekend, and if he decided to keep it for the season, they would apply that $40 to the cost of a season rental. Ok, that's cool. Let's see if we like it, first.

By the by, you know those pictures of Bran in the snowboard that were taken at the house? That was Thursday night, after we got home with the board.

Anyway, fast-forward to 7am Saturday morning. We all met up at the dive locker to car pool/caravan to the ski resort. We were some of the first people there, since most of the people were late. Christian walked in at about 7:15, and without a word to anyone, went straight to the coffee pot. I said good morning, he said "ungh." At that point, Brandon informed me that Christian is not a morning person.

Side note: Before that day, Christian had never been snowboarding. But, in anticipation of that opening day at the ski resort, he had gone online and purchased a complete set of snow boarding gear. And when I say set, I mean set. His board hadn't arrived yet, but he was all tricked out in black and red Spider cold weather gear. The pants, the jacket, the gloves, goggles, everything. And, the Spider logo is, unimaginatively, a spider. So he had little spiders embroidered all over his clothing. On the back of his leg, on the arm, on the shoulder, every where. And, being the impish little morning person that I am, I decided to have fun.

"Gill, hey Gill. Gill. Gill. Hey, Gill!" (I'm not really sure how long I kept that up, but you get the idea. Oh, and it's still the same guy. His name is Christian Gill.) "Gill, You have a spider on your pants."

His only response was to reach toward me with his hand open, and then squeeze it into a fist. "It's too early in the morning for that kind of shit from you."

Then I asked if he was still planning to drive. No answer. So I asked again. This time he looked at me and said, "What did I just say? It's too early for that." And to Brandon, he said, "Is she always like a broken record in the morning?" To which I responded, "Do it till it's funny." That was for Brandon's benefit, mostly.

Anyway, by this time, he had his coffee ready. He took one sip, sighed in apparent ecstasy, and answered me. After that, he was his usual civil self, and I just shook my head at those crazy night owl people, who need a coffee IV to get going in the morning.

Ok, back to the main story line. We finally got on the road at about 7:30. I slept through most of the ride, but Bran woke me up when we got into the mountains to look at the scenery. Which was beautiful. We were climbing ever higher into the snow covered mountains, so the view was becoming increasingly beautiful. Everything was coated in white powder...The trees, the road signs, everything. And, you could see where a snow plow had gone through to clear the road: there was a wall of snow on either side of the road, at least 4 feet deep! We passed houses that were buried in snow up to their windows, and higher! They had cleared out only the spaces in the driveways, and paths up to the front doors. There were huge icicles hanging off of the eaves too, easily large enough to use for a sword fight. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good pictures. I tried but they all came out blurry.

It was just crazy. And do you know what the temp was outside? Right about 10°F.

But I didn't know that, until we got there, and the guys started opening up doors. I changed into my gear in the back seat of Christian's truck (the windows were tinted) and didn't set foot out of the car until I was fully geared up. And I was still freezing. My fingers started to burn with the cold almost immediately. It seemed to take an eternity for everyone to get ready, but we finally trouped over to the lift ticket kiosk and got everything ready to go.

We all pretty much started out on the Bunny Slope, where the veteran boarders taught us noobies what to do. It was interesting... Tromp up the hill. Sit in the snow. Fight to get the bindings fastened with hands encumbered by bulky gloves, and the cold. Stand up, and try not to fall on your face.

That last part is a lot harder than it sounds. When I started out, I thought I was doing great. I would just hop up and cruise on down the little bunny slope, plop down on my butt, undo the bindings, and do it all again. I did it about half a dozen times and was feeling pretty good about myself. So good, in fact, that I decided to brave the real slope with the guys. I rode up the ski lift with Ski, so that he could help me with getting off at the top. I didn't have any trouble with that, amazingly. I just got out of the way and sat to do up the bindings. But when I got up, I started to zoom down the slope. I was going too fast, and I knew it. So I made myself fall, so I could "control" it.

At this point, Wally informed me that I had no business trying to go down the mountain with my board pointing forward. I would go too fast, and because I didn't know how to control the board, I would end up killing myself. What I needed to do, was to get up so that my board was perpendicular to the direction I wanted to go, namely, down. Well, that's just great. It would have been nice if someone had given me that bit while I was still on the bunny slope. You know that warm fuzzy sense of accomplishment that I was feeling earlier? Yeah, that went right out the window. Or down the mountain. Or whatever. As it turned out, I could only 'hop up' with my board angled down. In order to get up the right way, I had to crab walk my arms forward until my butt was almost above my ankles, then shove off of the ground with my arms while keeping my weight perfectly balanced back on my heels. Then, once up (I think I actually managed the feat once or twice) I had to keep my weight on my heels. To go forward, I had to ease my weight forward just a tiny bit. Too far, and I would slide too fast and end up digging the front end of the board into the snow, and go down.

Ski, bless his heart, stayed with me the entire time. When it became apparent that I couldn't get up on my own (after the first time or two, my arms just couldn't muster the strength to launch my body weight up) he started helping me get up so I could at least get down the mountain. I can't tell you how many times I fell. Most of the time, it was either on my butt or my knees, but I did have one rather spectacular face plant. Thank God for the goggles I was wearing. Eventually, I just gave up on the board and decided to walk the rest of the way down. I was about 3/4 of the way down anyway, and I'd fallen hard on my wrist. I didn't want to push my luck.

So, I went to the ski lodge for lunch. Tete (pronounced tay-tay) came in shortly after I did, so I had some company. Then, just as he was leaving, a big group of the guys came in. I stayed in the lodge for probably about 2 hours, as the guys from the group filtered in and out for lunch. Bran was one of the last ones to stop for food, and when he went back out, I went with him. I didn't want to punk out in front of all those guys, half of whom were SEALs, and I figured I owed it to myself to try at least one more time. Besides, I didn't have any pictures of Bran on the slopes. They were going up the Big slope this time, so I grabbed my board and tagged along. The plan was to take a few pictures, try the snow boarding thing one more time, and if I still sucked, I could just sit on my board and ride down that way.

Well, I got my pictures. I tried again and again, but after I fell on my ass for about the 100 millionth time, I decided that it was time to try using the board that way. I sat in the middle of the board, with one binding in front of me and the other behind, with my legs crossed Indian style around the one in front. But wouldn't you know, that I couldn't do that either? There was no way to control it, really, and not a whole lot to hold on to. I kept sliding off of it to one side or the other. When my naughty bits slammed into the binding in front, I decided that enough was enough.

Now that you have a fantastic mental picture of me bumbling my way down the mountain, let me tell you about Brandon. He took right to it, like a fish to water, the bastard. He was no pro, certainly, and he did his share of falling, but on the whole he spent more time on his feet than off of them. On that second time down the mountain, he was the one who stayed with me, to help me and give me pointers. When i gave up on using the board as a sled, he convinced me to try boarding again. He'd help me to my feet, and then stay by me to help me balance. He did a lot of falling at that point, but that was because I kept knocking him down. I eventually gave up again, vowing to walk the rest of the way down. I sent Bran on ahead, with a promise to meet him at the lodge at the bottom.

The only problem with that plan was that we had gone down the wrong side of the mountain. You see, back at the top, I was having such a hard time controlling the board that I actually went down the wrong way. I kept trying to correct, taking my board off and walking back in the direction that I wanted to go, but I just kept going in the direction of the steeper slope. So, since Bran stayed with me, we both ended up going the wrong way. And let me tell you, it was even hard to walk down the damn mountain. The snow had been packed down in a few places, but mostly it was just fresh powder. I was trudging through knee deep snow on a steep incline, lugging a snow board with me. Call me what you will, but it was hard! I'm a Florida girl, remember? Anyway, I finally got to the bottom, only to realize that I had no idea where to go. I knew that the lodge was, in general, *that way* but I had no idea how to get over there. There was a bloody mountain in my way. So there I was, trudging forlornly through the snow, wondering where my husband might be and how I might get back to the rest of the group. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking, and whooops! Down I went into a little ditch in the snow. There was a creek running through there, so even though the snow was built up on either side of it, and almost above it, it still left a cleft in the snow. Thankfully, I didn't get wet, but I was definitely stuck. The snow was too unstable for me to push myself out, and I still had that damn board to worry about. There was a little family not far away, playing with their baby in the snow, who saw me fall. They were watching me, and kind of laughing (who could blame them?) so i asked them, in German, to help me. They spoke English, though, and after the guy helped me out of the ditch, I asked them how to get back to the lodge. But they pointed me in the wrong direction! Apparently, the main lodge was *that* way, but the lodge I needed to get to was *that* way. I was just about to sit down and cry when Brandon comes around a bend, and starts walking toward me.

Salvation! The couple directed us to a foot path paralleling the main road through the resort, so that's where we headed. At first, we went in the direction we needed to ultimately go, but we realized that it was taking us down the mountain. We needed to get back up, and then over. So we back tracked, crossed the street, and found a path leading up and in the right direction. It took us a while, but we got there . And, my knight in green camo carried my board (and his) the whole way. Needless to say, as soon as we got back to familiar ground, I went straight to the lodge, ditched the board, and ordered a mug of gluhwein (hot, spiced wine) and stayed there until the lifts closed.

Now, don't think that the day was miserable, and a total loss. It was a learning experience, to be sure, and one that I won't soon forget. I did a lot of laughing, at myself, mostly, and learned a lot about the guys that Bran works with. I had a good time, trials and all. Since then, Brandon has gone with them twice more. He loves it! I don't know about him being "addicted". Especially since the last time he went, they came home early because it was so ridiculously crowded that you couldn't even get on the lift. He spent all his time in line, waiting to get on. We do have a trip scheduled for the end of this month, to Garmisch, which is another skiing town/resort. Brandon ended up renting the board for the full season, so he will definitely be snowboarding, but I plan to try my hand at skiing. I've been told that it's easier, which is definitely a good thing. But, just in case, I plan to bring a book and my sudoku puzzles. :)

a long over-due post

For ease of story-telling, I've decided to sub-divide my post into different sections. To pick up where I left off in my last post, I'll start with the Christmas party.

The NSWU2 Christmas Party
The Peguy and Neil Part of the Story

Sarah had been planning to go with us right on along. The first time that I mentioned it, she's like, ooh, can I come too? I love Christmas parties! And a Christmas party with a bunch of SEALs? Even better." So, Bran got a ticket for her when he bought ours. For whatever reason, though, it didn't occur to me to invite Peguy and Neil. It should have, but it didn't. So, the day of the party rolls around, and Sarah, Peguy and I all made appointments to get our nails done at the same time. Girl time, you know? Well, it came out in the course of the conversation that Sarah was going to the party with us, and of course...

"Oh! That sounds like fun! I want to go!"

And I'm thinking, oh crap. I don't want to tell her that they can't go, but it's was an RSVP thing and they didn't have tickets. Oh well, it's not like they would turn them away at the door, right? It'll be fine. So I say,

"Sure! you guys can come! It'll be fun!"

While I'm thinking, Oh crap, Brandon's going to kill me.

So I go home, and head upstairs to find Brandon. He was sitting at the TV, playing Mass Effect on the 360, but he paused it when I walked in.

"Hey, baby, uhm, funny story," I say, sitting on his lap. I put my arms around his neck and look into his eyes beseechingly.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to find this story funny at all?"

I had the grace to look sheepish as I told the story, and he finished it for me before I got even half way through it. Personally, I wanted to go with the 'it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission' angle, but Brandon wouldn't hear of it. So he spent the next I-have-no-idea-how-long calling everyone that he could think of to make sure that it was ok for them to go, while I went downstairs to paint my nails.

He walked in while I was on my second coat, and said "You have to call and tell them that they can't go."

But I couldn't do that, and I told him so. Peguy was so excited! How could I tell her that she couldn't go? How?

So he says ok, and pulls out his phone and disappears again. Five minutes later, he comes back and says, "It's cool baby, I fixed it." And just like that, the problem of my own making disappeared.

The "Adrienne's Wardrobe" Part of the Story

Ok, back to the nail salon. I'd made my appointment to get my nails done a full week before the party, but I guess one of their techs was sick, so they were short handed. You'd think that they would have called to let me know, but noooo. I knew that they wouldn't have time to get to me before I had to be next door to get my hair done (I'd made an appointment for that too) so I decided to make a new appointment with the nail salon for after getting my hair done.

It took an hour and 45 minutes for her to do my hair... It's getting to be rather long, and I had her curl it all and pile it on the back of my head. It looked great! She even stuck little pearls in it. It was well worth the time, and the money I spent on it. (Pictures coming later.) But, back at the nail salon, they still weren't ready for me. Even though I'd moved my appointment with the from 1:30 to 4:00, but they had been taking walk-ins. So I said, screw you and your poor management, I'm out of here. Grr....

But it's ok, because I had a good time even if my nails looked like crap because I had to do them myself, and I didn't really have time to let them dry all the way and they got fuxed up. And, I had a good time even if the dress that I'd intended to wear was too small, and I had to substitute my red dress that I wore to Alanna's wedding. Not that there's anything wrong with that dress...it's gorgeous, but the neck line does plunge scandalously, and it isn't full length. It was very well suited to an autumn wedding in Florida, but not so great for a December party in Germany. Have I mentioned that it's cold here? It worked, though, and I looked good, even if I do say so myself. :)

The "Brandon's Wardrobe" Part of the Story

I'd been eagerly looking forward to this party for weeks, but as I;'m sure you all know, Brandon is: a) not all that fond of getting all dressed up, and, b) very fond of procrastinating. So we ended up looking at suits at the Exchange a mere two days before the party. We found a great black-on-black pinstripe suit that was on sale, but it definitely needed to be altered. Brandon has such wide shoulders, and such a narrow waist, that any suit jacket that fit him across the shoulders was way too big around the chest and stomach. But, when the old man came over to help us, we learned that it would takle at least a week to get the suit back from the tailors. So, no black-on-black pinstripe.

After chiding us for waiting until the last minute, he helped us to find a jacket and a pair of pants that fit him reasonably well from among the selection of separates. After that, it was only a matter of finding a shirt and tie. But again, in order to find a shirt that was larger enough around the neck and through the shoulders, we had to get one that was huge around the middle. So, $300 later, Brandon had a suit that didn't quite fit, and a tailor's ticket to have it done after the party.

And finally, The Christmas Party Part of the Story

It wasn't hard at all to find the hotel hosting the party. There was champagne and socializing before we sat down to dinner, and we took the opportunity to take some pictures. (Again, I will be posting these later.) For dinner, we ended up at the table front and center, in front of the podium, which was great for picture-taking purposes. Especially, since Brandon ended up being one of those selected to do the toast. The tradition is that the youngest and the oldest at the party each come up to give a toast, and not surprisingly, Brandon was the youngest. (The oldest was a visiting admiral that was there as a guest of the Unit.) i was disappointed, though, because the admiral led with a very simple toast, so Brandon could only follow suit with an equally simple toast: "Here's to the Navy." BOO! I know how eloquent he can be, and I felt cheated that he didn't get to give a real toast. But seriously, how could he show up the admiral? He couldn't.

Dinner was good; they served a Mediterranean buffet. We all ate our fill, and either sat or wandered to socialize. I met some of the other wives, which was cool, but none of them are in my age group. They're all very nice women, but I can't see that I'll have much in common with them, except that we have husbands at the Unit. The best part of the evening, was, without a doubt, the "Boblingen Idol" contest. It was funny as hell, though it would have been nice if more people had participated. And if more of the participants had taken it seriously. But what should I expect, from a bunch of sailors? They hammed it up, and it was quite entertaining. The only two who took it seriously were the women, and they were both awesome. Needless to say, it was one of the women who won.

We didn't stay late, only 'till about midnight. It was, as always, nice to get home and get comfy.

And, that will have to be it for now. You'll just have to wait until next time for tales of my snowboarding misadventure. :) TTFN!

a little bit like home

Aside from the fact that it's about 50° out there, today's weather reminded me a lot of Florida. The morning was overcast, and it started pouring just before noon. Then, all of a sudden, it went from raining like crazy to...nothing. Five minutes later even the clouds were gone, leaving only the puddles to indicate that it had rained. Now, in Florida, there would have been steam rising from the wet ground, but I'll take what I can get. And man oh man, does that sunshine look good!

Anyway, I have quite a bit to catch up on, starting with last Saturday (12-1). Bran came home on Wednesday and told me that one of the guys from the unit, Eli, was throwing a party Saturday, starting around 1 and going until the last one was ready to quit. Awesome! Except...I had already made plans with the girls to watch the second half of the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice. So, we were faced with a conundrum. What to do? How to make it work, with the two of us needing to go two different places at the same time, but with only one car. Brandon provided the solution: we go together to Eli's party, then I just leave when I need to, to get to my thing. When that's over, i rejoin party number one, and we stay until we're ready to go home.

It worked out really well, actually, except that I was actually in the mood to drink but I was obviously the DD so I couldn't (for the second night in a row, I might add) and the rare opportunity passed without use. Oh well. I did have a really great time. I got to meet some of the other unit 2 wives, which was cool, though most of them were enough older that it was hard to fund much in common with them (beyond the obvious military connection). One though, Eli's wife, Brandy, can't be more than a few years older than me. Nothing much happened at this point, because it was only an hour or two before I had to leave for Peguy's. There were two things of note: Eli's kick-ass brisket, and Brandy's kitten. The first was delicious. The second was adorable.

I was the first to arrive at Peguy's, aside from Sarah, who was staying there for the weekend. We were joined by Maria and Leah, two of their friends from EUCOMM, and then we had all the frozen pizza, banana fondue, and Colin Firth-as-MR.-Darcy that we could handle. It might sound like an odd combination, but it was AWESOME!!! The BBC version really is better than the Kiera Knightly version. That one is ok, particularly for those who are not Jane Austen fans and are satisfied with just the basics. But this one covers every aspect of the book, is perfectly cast, and overall just very well done.

We were having a great time, but I wasn't sure when the other party was going to wind down, and I didn't want Bran to be stuck there alone, feeling awkward after everyone else had left, so I took my leave (to many protests) and headed back to Eli's. The party was still in full swing. I ended up sitting on the kitchen counters with Brandy, discussing all manner of things, but mostly we ended up talking about religion. It was an interesting discussion, and one that I enjoyed thoroughly. It was punctuated by visits from Gill, who was floating from little group to little group, trying to find one that was talking about something a little more down to earth (apparently, the group outside was talking about quantum physics), but I think it was probably kind of like scrolling though the radio stations and finding nothing but commercials. You know when that happens? You can't reach your CD's and there's nothing on so you just keep scanning through the same stations until you find one playing something you like? Yeah, I'm sure it was like that.

We ended up staying there until about 11. For those of you who know me well, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Knowing Adrienne, she probably got tired and wanted to go home and get to bed. She is, after all, a morning person and not a night owl." But, if that is indeed what you were thinking, then you would be wrong. I was having a great time, and not even thinking about heading home, when I wandered out into the dining room and found Bran sitting at the table with his head down. Apparently, he had been drinking non-stop since we'd gotten there that afternoon, and was definitely feeling it. I guess even juggernauts have their limits. So it was amid jeering taunts questioning his masculinity, to which I readily contributed, that I gathered him up and herded him toward the car.

Apparently, joining the guys in teasing him was exactly the right thing for me to do. When I told Sarah about the whole thing, she told me that it was a good thing that I hadn't tried to defend him. In the course of her job, she's spent a lot of time around military guys, and more specifically SEALs. She said that had I told them to back off, that they would have just ribbed him all the harder at work the next week. Which made me feel better, because I had been feeling a little guilty.

So....that was Saturday.

Monday I went to Stuttgart with Sarah to help her get moved in to her apartment. That is definitely a story in itself, but I really don't want to be here all night, so we'll just say that it was a comedy of errors and leave it at that.

Tuesday I stayed home, and did a whole lot of nothing. By which I mean, I spent my day alternating between working on the cross-stitch, and playing the 360 RPG that Bran recently bought for himself. Not that he has a problem with me playing, he just didn't expect me to like the game. But I love it! And Bran has found himself competing with me for game time.

Wednesday, I'd intended to go to the gym, hit up the USO and get some shopping done, but when we got to the gate on base so that I could drop Bran off at work, I discovered that I didn't have my wallet. Turns out, I'd left it in Sarah's Xterra on Monday. So, I went home and did nothing (see above definition of 'nothing') until time to go back for Brandon.

Yesterday, I just stayed home since I was without my ID and such. But Bran got off early, so we headed back to Panzer to get him a suit for tomorrow, then over to Patch to get a Christmas tree. Hopefully, we'll be decorating the tree tonight. :)

The Christmas party is tomorrow night...Yay! I'm super excited about it. I'm even going in to get my hair and nails done...I didn't even go to get my hair professionally done when I got married! But, this is my first formal party in Europe, so i want to do it right. I will definitely be taking pictures, and I won't waste any time putting them up. I still have more from before to post....

And finally, speaking of posting: we will have phone and internet AT HOME as of December 17. Unless something goes wrong, which is always possible. But, keep your fingers crossed!

still snowing

No, not snowing again, but still snowing. It never stopped! Before I could leave the house this morning, I had to scrape a good 2 inches worth of snow off of the car... It's kind of crazy: I was looking at the pictures that I took when I first got over here, and everything looks so green. But, when I first got over here, I was thinking that everything looked red and yellow. It's amazing the change in perspective. At first, I was comparing everything to how green it is in Florida. Now, that everything is brown and white, I'm comparing it to what it looked like when I first arrived. And I'm still enjoying the change, even if I did nearly lose my fingers to hypothermia in the process of clearing the car this morning. :)

After posting yesterday, I realized what a pathetic little post it was and decided that I needed to correct the oversight as soon as possible. So, consider the following what I should have included in yesterday's post:

It was nice to have Bran home for the weekend. When I picked him up from the unit on Friday afternoon, I had actually been on my way to the commissary to stock up. But, he got back before I expected him to and that meant that he got stuck going with me to the store. I offered to take him back to the house, because he definitely didn't want to go, but he told me to just go to the store. I told him that I really didn't mind, that I could take him home and go back, but he was like, "It's not just that I want to go home. I don't want to go to the store, but I don't want to go home either if you're not going to be there." (I'm not sure that I got that verbatim, but you get the idea.) He was being rather surly, and kind of sulky, but how could I be frustrated with him when he was sulking that he couldn't be home and be with me at the same time? And he would rather go to the store with me than be home by himself? So cute. :) I just hope that I never have to leave town without him.

Saturday afternoon, I decided to tackle trying to make some apple pies. I'd promised one to Herr Dreher anyway, for taking down the wall paper in the master bedroom, and I just thought it would be fun. I made the whole thing from scratch, which was...interesting. I didn't have a pastry cutter, so I had to use a potato masher to blend the flour and the shortening. and I didn't have a rolling pin, so I had to use the salt container to roll out the dough for the crust. It worked rather well, actually, but by the time I was done the container was ruined (it was only card board) and I had to transfer the salt into a Tupperware container. And what do you know, but the crust came out perfect! Not like a patchwork quilt, like my first crust, but whole and beautiful and even! I was so excited... When I got the crusts prepped, I started on the apples, but there were so many of them! Bran ended up coming downstairs to peel them for me, while I sliced them. I'm so glad that he did...I would have been there all night otherwise. After that, the rest was easy. I just had to mix the apples with the sugar and stuff, roll out the top crusts, and top them. I have to tell you, I am quite pleased with the results. The first one went to the Drehers, but Bran got into the second one before it was anywhere near to being cool, and proclaimed it to be a total success. I even really liked it, and I'm not a huge fan of apple pie. So maybe I'm bragging here, but I'm proud of myself. :)

Sunday, Sarah came over and we made devil dogs, which are oh-so-sinfully good. :) She made the cream filling while I did the cookie/cake batter, and it worked out perfectly. And, right as we were finishing up with the cookies, it was time to start the Mexican pizza for dinner. Yum! Of course, by the time that the pizza was done, I was pretty much full from the devil dogs, but that's ok. One of Bran's friends from the unit came over too, which was cool. It was the first time that Bran had had a friend over to the house, so I thought it was a good thing. Christian Gill, or just Gill, is one of the guys that went to Vilseck with him, and I guess they bonded. When Gill showed up, he had a house warming present for us, or more specifically, for Brandon. The guy got us a huge flippin' bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label scotch whiskey! According to Bran, that's a $120 bottle of scotch. The silly thing came nestled in a bed of silk, along with an official bottle number and a booklet, for crying out loud. I don't know what happened in Vilseck, but they must have really bonded. Anyway, expensive liquors aside, dinner was awesome. The company was great, the food was great, everything was great.

Monday we didn't do much of anything. Bran and I went to the gym, but on the way there, the called and told him that he'd be leaving again this week, so when we got back to the house I got started on laundry. Fun, fun. Since he left, I've been mostly working on my arts'n'crafts projects. Not just the ctoss-stitch, but I've started crocheting a large throw for Sarah. Apparently, she's always wanted a handmade blanket, so she's commissioned me to make one for her. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy crocheting. :)

And...yup, that's about it. Now I feel that I've redeemed my sorry excuse for a post, from yesterday.