Jessica's School

We're in Minnesota for the Holidays. It's great to be with my family and back together with the girls. Since we're living in Stuttgart, Jessica, my niece, asked me and Brad to speak to her German class about our experiences living in Germany. If you've been following the blog, you know we have lots of experiences to talk about! Here's some pictures of us "lecturing" the class - though I think it was closer to sharing sea stories :-)

Pictures of the Girls

Melissa, the Girl's mom, has been taking some awesome pictures of the girls. Here a couple of them...

Snow...snow...snow

It's been snowing steadily here for the last two days, with no wind and the temperatures right at the freezing point where the snow gets really sticky. Perfect snowman and snowball snow! Look at how beautiful this winter wonderland appears. Brad took these pictures today :-)

German Emergency Room Experience

Last week Brad and I got to experience going to the emergency room in Germany. (I had a urinary tract infection - real painful but needs antibiotics fast). We called the Patient Liaison Officer here on base, a German lady who gives you directions and then calls the hospital to smooth the way (there are two of them that work here).

We got to the hospital and walked in, it was 1:00 a.m. in the middle of the night. No one, and I mean NO ONE, was around. Following the Patient Liaisons directions we went to the room labeled in English Emergency Care (this is done just because of the number of English speakers here in Stuttgart). We couldn't find the place because the arrows pointed one way, which when you went there the arrows went away with no further directions. We wandered around for 5 minutes or so, backtracking repeatedly, when this German nurse comes walking up. Fortunately she spoke a little English - turns out that the intersection that we kept walking past was the Emergency Care center. There was a room to the side with glass windows which was the Emergency Care center. We never recognized it because there was NO ONE there and the lights were off!!! If the Patient Liaison hadn't called the German nurse wouldn't have been there either - she was looking for us!

She had us fill out some paperwork, I provided a sample, and then she left us there while she went and dealt with the sample. About 10 minutes later she came back and told us the urologist would see me. So we headed for the urology ward, which was empty, and waited for someone to come. A nurse and doctor finally came down the hall and took the sample from us (the nurse had given it back). After they agreed I did have an infection they finally let us in to the examining room where the Doctor asked some questions and then did a sonogram of my innards to check for infection. This was downright strange since I've had these infections before and the usually just give you painkillers, antibiotics and a wave on your way -- I've never even seen a Urologist before! After that, he gave us some sample pills - enough for a couple days - and sent us on our way.

The entire time we were in the hospital we only saw those 3 people, and the whole thing took under 1 hour. An American emergency room is guaranteed to take at least 3 hours and you leave with a prescription and another hour wait ahead of you.

The way the hospitals work in Germany is you go to the area for the symptoms you have - if your guts hurt you go to internal medicine, if you break a bone you go to orthopedics, etc. Some hospitals don't have certain wards and you have to go to a different hospital - one exact example is if you have a sick child and the hospital doesn't have a pediatric ward they send you to another hospital. And there is no general emergency room - the Emergency Care area is just for them to get our paperwork so they can get paid.

I have to admit, it was freaky - like one of those deserted hospital scenes from a horror movie!

I feel horrible because I haven't posted in so long!! I'm sorry everyone!!! Brad and I have not been doing anything terribly exciting lately, we're planning Thanksgiving, which is going to be just the two of us at home. Lately we've been doing our Christmas shopping, both online and in downtown Stuttgart. It's kind of neat, we were missing out on the whole downtown shopping. Latlely one of the things we're doing is searching for new winter coats. My bright red one isn't the fashion I want anymore - I would like a long coat that I could wear with a jeans or a dress.

Brad has been spending time online lately searching for the perfect hat and straight razor. Last summer I got him shaving cream and a brush to apply it - it works real good, so now he wants to go even more old school with a straight razor. He has also been looking for the perfect had, a newsboy cap or driving cap. He found a great hat store downtown and got two - I'll have to take a picture of him in one of them and post it!

I ended up working all weekend, planning for a contingency which I think is never going to happen - what a waste of time. Tonight, Monday, I got off early so Brad and I went downtown and got a hat for me, shopped around, and then finished up with a dinner at a nice Bavarian restaurant - I had a macaroni and cheese type dish with port and beef fried up on top; Brad had pork and steak with herb butter and french fries. It was all good.

This weekend the Christmas Market begins here - we'll make sure to take some pictures and post them afterwards.

And I promise I'll do better at posting!!!!

Volksfest

Wednesday Fred and Janet arrived for a visit. We're excited to have them here. Since I was working Wednesday and they were exhausted from flying for 20 hours, we took it easy. But yesterday - Thursday - we headed out to the Volksfest!

The Volksfest is what the festival is called in Stuttgart. In Munich the same festival is called Octoberfest. When I read online that things opened at 1100 and there were shops and rides we decided to just go early. We got there around 1230 and walked around a bit checking out the stalls. In addition, it had carnival type rides, haunted houses, big drays with the horses pulling the beer (you can seee it in this picture), and the huge tents where the beer drinking happens.

We walked a bit, then went into the first tent we came to. It was pretty empty, but we figured that was just 'cause it was so early. So we ordered our 1Litre beers and some lunch. you can see the beers and some of our food in this picture. The entertainment was two guys on the stage that switched between keyboards, accordians, trumpets, and more. While kind of neat, we headed out after finishing our beers and food to see what else was going on. There were some rides that looked really scarry, and if I had been in the mood for them, they would have been lots of fun. There were other huge beer tents, these with real bands and lots of people - some of the people already standing on the tables. We realized then that we must have been in the geriatric tent to start out with! The only good thing to say about the tent we went to was the food and beer were really good.

So we settled in to have some fun - and fun was had. We drank beer, spoke to the Germans at the table with us, took turns walking around and did some shopping (I bought this blue scarf), stood on the tables, sang, toasted, drank some more. It was a blast. At about 9 p.m. we had enough and headed home. The good thing about starting early was we didn't have to worry about leaving while the trains were still running. Definitely worth going to.










P.S. Check out my new haircut...

A normal week

Last weekend we went to a huge flea market downtown. It was pretty neat but the aisles were too close together and after an hour of people bouncing off of us. When we go to flea markets we like to look at each table and always pick the one thing we like the best - the thing we would buy if we had unlimited money and could collect stuff without it looking like clutter. Sometimes I like to say "I'd buy that and sell it on ebay" when there is some crazy neat stuff that we see. It would be fun to but stuff and sell it, but I don't know if we'd have any idea what kind of stuff could be sold at a profit. Plus the Euro being so strong would work against us too.

Not much happening this week, we are looking forward to next Wednesday when Fred and Janet come and visit us.

I'll be sure to post some stories and pictures from their visit soon. Plus Volksfest is going on (it's Octoberfest for Stuttgart). Speaking of Volksfest, Brad and I went downtown yesterday for our normal Saturday routine of markets and lunch, but we we ending up going home for lunch because it was crowded! I guess a lot of people come here for Volksfest. That'll have to be one of the first things we do with Fred and Janet!

Norfolk, VA

It was good to be in Norfolk, Virginia for a week.
- I was able to network and build relationships with the people I work with.
- I got to see old friends like Buddy, who lives there, and Fred, who was in town for a different conference.
- I was able to go shopping, especially book shopping :-).
- I was able to rack up another 11,000 miles on my Delta mileage - I'm about to become a Silver Medalion member (lol).
- I was able to work out in the mornings, since I woke up before 4:30 every day due to the time zone difference!
- I ate possibly the hottest Thai food I've ever had in my life -- Fred was laughing at me even while he shared it...it was oh, my god, hot. It was really good too! Plus I managed to snort some of the equally spicy soup up my nose and boy did it burn! I think I've never drunk so much water at one meal before.
- I got to eat at California Pizza Kitchen, Chick-fil-A, a Thai place, and Hooters (not my selection but the location where we had a "no host social" for the conference).
- I got to drink Starbucks Caramel Machiattos.

The only things that would have made it better (and it could have definitely used them) would have been Brad going with me, and meeting up with Kim. Maybe next time!

The Hell Hole Rant

Last week, I went to Norfolk to attend a conference at Joint Forces Command. My boss picked out the hotel and I learned one very valuable lesson. Never let him pick the hotel again!

He chose the Quality Inn, it's just across the street from JFCOM. The only "good" qualities were the location and the continental breakfast (even that wasn't spectacular).

The bad things:
1. my room smelled bad
2. there were ants everywhere in the room and in the parking lot - the actually got into the car at one point
3. we were paying the gov't room rate. I could have stayed at a $200 a night, really nice Westin or Marriott for the same price. Instead of a $65/night place where we were spending $94 a night.
4. The area of town is really crappy - I wanted to go running, but no way was I going alone along that road
5. There was no workout room
6. The doors opened onto the parking lot (safety again)
7. You had to let the phone ring 15-20 times before the front desk would answer it
8. The internet was out for the first night, thus to tell Brad I got there safely I had to call him, and was charged $30 for 2 minutes!!


If I'd been staying alone, instead of sharing a rental car with 2 other people, I would have bailed in an instant and gone and found another place! I could rant about how much it sucks to share a car between 3 people who aren't friends and have no common interests, but I'll save that for another day!

Really Cool Video

This video was taken on my last deployment. If you look at the water, you can see we were having swim call while this was taken - you can see the boat and the people splashing in the water. We were also having a steel beach picnic while the jets flew by. This is an awesome video!

American Airlines Rant

American Airlines - argh! First the tickets for the girls, bought 4 months out, cost over $400 each (without the additional unaccompanied minor fee we'll have to pay). Then there website times out - even though I was careful to not click anything else or twice. Then, not only do I not get an email from them or the itinerary showing up under the frequent flyer number. So I assumed that the computer had timed out and not taken my transaction. So, an hour later, I went back on and bought the girls tickets. Now, two weeks later, the second transaction posts and they've double booked the flight! Argh! So I called up and they told me, "I'm sorry ma'am, but it's your fault you bought two sets of tickets, we cannot refund your price, the best we can do is let you cancel the flight, with a $150/ticket charge and hold the remainder on credit.". Of course, I demanded to speak to a supervisor, and they told me they were transferrng me, only to hang up on me. So I call back, go through the whole thing again and amazingly they credited the fee - it should post sometime in the next MONTH! Idiots. Don't tell me they can't have a system that prevents this, especially when the tickets were for the exact same people, with the exact same frequent flyer number, on the exact same flight!!!!

Saturday Painting

Today, Saturday, Brad and I woke up, had our coffee and headed off to the flea market. It was cold and dreary today, And raining on and off. I had my umbrella, but I learned that I need to get a littler one. Mine is big enough for two people, which also means it's so big that it gets in eveyone else's way!We drove downtown and found parking then went walking around.While there was a lot of cool stuff - though much less than normal due to the weather, I bought a small fan there that I can use at work, costing me a whomping 5 Euro - about 8 dollars. It works good - we checked it out when we got home.

Then we headed home. We were going to go out to lunch but instead decided to just get some bread & pretzels and then eat lunch at home. Next we stopped to pick up some paint. You are allowed to paint your walls here, the rule is they need to be able to cover it in one coat of white or you need to repaint it yourself. Brad decided this week that he was sick of the white walls and had them mix up some paint for us. Fortunately the paint and the painting supplies can all be picked up for free from the housing office. Brad was going to paint the front room later this week, while I'm gone - I'm headed out of town to Norfolk for a conference this week. But, since there was nothing on tv and it was a quiet afternoon, Brad started taping off the walls and we ended up painting everything today. At first we were really worried that it didn't come out right - it looked really splotchy, but we were both relieved as it all turned the same color when it dried. Two of these pictures are before shots - the first two are before shots with white walls, the next three are after shots. While these aren't pictures of the whole house, they are a couple of the shots I've been owing you! The only thing we didn't like it the color is a lot like some of our furniture and the drapes. I think I'm going to get a maroon ribbon to sew onto the curtains to give it some contrast.

Wine Festival (also known as Weindorf)

Two weekends ago Brad and I went to the Stuttgart Wine Festival. We went with both Adrian (who I work with) and Chris Santos. The Wine Festival is set up in downtown Stuttgart. They take a couple of the squares - the ones where they have the vegetable and plant markets on Saturday. Then they set up a bunch of tents and booth where they sever beer and wine. We got there at about 6 p.m. and it was already crowded. We walked around and looked at all the different foods offered and the different wine booths. We did stop and buy a bottle of wine (3 glasses worth). You would buy your glasses -- small glasses with the Weindorf picture on the side. This time, instead of putting a deposit down for the glasses, you instead purchase them outright - for .50 Euro each. Then you can reuse your glass with all the other wines you purchase.

Most of the food was traditional schwabian fare (Schwabian food is the food of the region we live in), everything from sausages to cooked dishes. Brad had a pork steak and baked potato dish. I had a pasta dish. Both of our dishes were good but the best part was hanging out with friends trying different wines. We had some people join us at our table, a married couple (she was British and he was Australian) and a german woman. They all live in Stuttgart and belong to a English club. Kinda interesting, but the German woman was both pushy and Booooring! She went into a half hour long story about getting pulled over for speeding when she was in America - the end of the story was she got a warning. Argh!

It was a beautiful night and the wine fest was really busy. By later in the evening it was so crowded that it was hard to walk to the bathroom - you had to work your way through a very big crowd. It was a good time, so good of a time that we went back on Sunday night. We ended up going back to the same place (I think our friend was sweet on the waitress). I had a fruit and cheese dish for supper and Brad repeated his meal from the night before. I don't know what kind of cheese it was, but it was really good! We walked around and checked out the other booths also, a lot less crowded on Sunday. Only problem with the place is it's pretty expensive, but we had fun. We took all these pictures Sunday night - we realized after we got there that we hadn't brought the camera on Saturday. It was another good reason to go back!

Ironically, Monday (Labor Day), we ended up eating lunch at the wine fest. Neither of us had intended to go back but we went downtown to go to the toy store, forgetting that it is on the mall that had the winefest in it! We were going to get something to eat at a place other than the wine fest, but ended up waiting too long. In the end we realized it was after 2:00, so we just got something at one of the stand up booths and ate it sitting in front of the Rathaus (this is their government building downtown). I had potato noodles with cheese, Brad had a sausage in a bun. It was really good.

When we went to the toy store (our destination downtown), we were actually looking to buy a jigsaw puzzle for me. I did get one, it's pretty cool, it's a jan Van Haasteren puzzle, the scene is of a circus. It's like a Where's Waldo picture in a jigsaw puzzle. One of the things I liked about it, was instead of just looking for the place the piece went in the puzzle by color and shape, instead I'd take the piece and spend time trying to find it on the picture on the box - so each piece became a bit of a challenge to locate it. This artist has created a bunch of puzzles, click here to check out some of them.

Exercise...exercise...exercise

This weekend I did a lot of EXERCISE. Of course, while I wish this meant I worked out a lot, in reality it means I worked a lot. We were going through an exercise at work, and they decided to start the thing on Saturday. Of course, my involvement is during the planning part, which all happens at the start of the exercise, so Brad waved 'bye to me and off I went.

Completely disrupted my Saturday morning routine too! Dang it!

The side note, is we didn't do anything cool this weekend :-(
(though I still need to tell you about the WineFest last weekend -- I'll do that later)

What is he kicking?!?

Brad and I were out walking the dogs on this hill behind our house. Brad had gone out just before me so he was over at the bottom of the hill when I was still at the stop. Looking over at him, I saw he was kicking something around on the ground and Cruiser was standing there looking at him. He said, "You need to come and look at this" (of course, it most likely was "lookit this" :-) )

He's still rolling this thing around on the ground. It was like a fuzzy ball. I thought, heck maybe it's a toy, but Cruiser wasn't getting excited so I knew that wasn't the case. Well I got closer and looked, it was a ball with all these inch long spikes poking up. Turns out it's a hedgehog and Brad keeps kicking it onto it's back because he's trying to get a look at it's stomach. when I touched it, it felt like one of those hard wicker boot brushes. Crazy feeling, but pretty neat :-)

Friday Night in the Dark...a Bar, 2 Bikes and 4 Bridges

Friday night Brad and I met up with some of my coworkers for a beer at an Irish Pub (O'Donovan's). We had done the same the week before and then were really disappointed that we had to leave to catch the last train so this time...

We headed out early, took our bikes. The bar is, according to Google Maps, 6 miles from our house. We'll we didn't want to be all sweaty when we got there so we rode our bikes to the train, took the train to Sinnigen and then rode the last little bit to the bar. After 6 hours of talking, drinking beer, eating pizza, playing darts, and listening to the d.j., Brad and I headed home. I should add here that Brad had had a few beers...

We knew how to get home from Panzer, so we just needed to go about 1 to 1-1/2 miles to get there. Adrian gave us directions and off we went. The directions were to go up a really big hill 'till we saw the base, then turn left and we could go on the route we'd been on before. (I bet you can tell where this story is heading ;-) ) Adrian also said the bad part of the hill was just 4-5 blocks. Anyhow off we went, up the hill, stopping, up the hill, stopping, up the hill, after going about 6-7 blocks Brad started debating that we should have turned left already since we'd exceeded the 4-5 blocks. I argued that the 4-5 blocks was just the really steep part but we needed to go farther. Well we went a little farther and I was getting swayed over by Brad's arguments, so we back tracked and...yes....got a little lost. Actually, I wouldn't say lost, I knew where we were, but we ended up going back the mile we'd gone and then taking a different route, with a couple stops for breathers along the way, and a fun time coasting down that really big hill.

When we reached Panzer, we took the "Tank Road" home. This road is the actual cobblestone road the tanks would use between Panzer (another base) and Patch (where we live). It goes through forest so it's real quiet and away from everyone. The road is surprisingly smooth, and also not accessible to cars so it was perfect for us. Plus, it's uphill from where we live so most of the ride would be downhill. There were a couple really cool parts of this trip. We stopped on a bridge that goes over a couple train tracks. The bridge was still fairly warm so we were laying on our backs looking at the stars. There is nothing at all around there, and the only thing that indicates you're not in the middle of nowhere is the horizon is brighter. Sitting there for 10 minutes I saw 3 - yes 3!! - shooting stars. Two of them were the kind where they are burning out in the the atmosphere directly above you and paint a wide swath across the whole sky. It was really neat.

After the bridge there is the big hill - going down - it was really surreal since you can't see any further than the ike lights, which only illuminate about 50 feet ahead of us, and we just kept going and going. The hill is about 2 miles long, and you need to ride your brakes going down or you'll be going 60 mph or faster. Right after the hill ends is the other base, so we were finally home. We didn't get home until 3 a.m., and the ride took a lot longer than we thought it would, but overall it was pretty neat.

Heidelberg

Wednesday, I had to go to Heidelberg to a doctor's appointment. The clinic here didn't have the right kind of doctor so they sent me up to Heidelberg. It's about 1-1/2 to 2 hours drive away so Brad went with me and I took the day off. After my appointment we went walking around Heidelberg. It's a college town, plus they have an old castle above the city. This picture, which I got off the web, shows the city. It's one of the more famous sites in Germany. When we got up to the castle and went to take pictures, we discovered that - though we had brought the camera - we had forgotten the memory card at home and couldn't take any pictures! We'll have to go back :-)

After we walked around the castle, we drove down to the area near the river that has all the shops and restaurants. Here you could really see how much of a tourist town this place was because they had Starbucks, Hard Rock Cafe, Baskin Robbins, etc. and everywhere we went the shopkeepers spoke English. Finding parking was quite an adventure though, we were driving along a side street when it kicked us out on the main pedestrian thoroughfare. We were driving in the middle of the walkway - no other cars around - no way to turn around - driving real slow so people could get out of our way - when Brad saw a bus off to the side and zipped over there thinking - salvation! We had definitely taken a wrong turn somewhere :-) After we got past the people we found a place to park and went and ate lunch and people watched.

The one shop there that we thought was really neat was a Christmas store. The intricate woodwork in the German Christmas decorations is simply amazing. Brad and I are going to have to leave Germany with a whole new set of Christmas decor!

A New Clock

Last weekend, Brad and I took things easy. We got up on Saturday and followed what has become our weekend routine. We took the train downtown and walked around the fresh food market buying raspberries and tomatoes. I bought some flowers and a mint plant. Then we went into the indoor market where they sell all the more exotic food goods where we got some bread, fresh mozzarella and pine nuts. Then we walked around the flea market :-) This is Brad's favorite part. The flea market always has a bunch of cool antiques, but we've been looking hard at the clocks. Well, last weekend we found this wonderful Dutch Zaanse clock. I thought it was really nice looking and pointed it out to Brad, who negotiated it down to a price we were willing to pay. I really like the silver and gold against the dark walnut. The clock rings once on the half hour and chimes out the hour. It's an eight day clock so the weights have long chains they hang off of. When hanging it up we had to keep this in mind and put it high enough. To adjust the time you just have to raise and lower the weight, so we've been adjusting it for the last week and think we finally have it just right.

Zwiebel Fest

It feels like it's been so long since I posted anything so I thought I'd catch up today. Two weeks ago Brad and I went to the Zweibel Fest, which translates to Onion Festival. They serve everything with onions there including onion cake (kind of like quiche) to steak and onions. Fortunately there were no onion desserts - that would just be too gross. If it were an episode of Iron Chef America, I imagine one of the chefs would have made onion ice cream - on that show they're always making the grossest ice cream... So Brad, I and Chris Santos, a friend of ours, hopped the train and headed off. The fest was in Esslingen, which Brad and I want to go back to someday, it was really a neat town, with some really interesting buildings! This building with the clock and the WWI monument in front of it is just an example of the interesting buildings there. When we got there, we looked around. It was a small fest, just taking up one small square area with all the restaurant booths set up around the outside edges and some more on the inner edges. You could walk through the fest in one big square. There were people at the fest, but it wasn't really crowded so we ate dinner, then walked up the hill behind the fest to the top where there is this old fortress. It was quite a haul up several steps to the top, but you can see the awesome view. We sat at a cafe on the top of the hill, inside the walls and had a cup of coffee (me) and beers (Brad & Chris). After hanging out there for a while, we headed back down to the fest to discover that it was now extremely busy, and there was no where to sit down at all! Plus the crowds were packed in the walkway. So we circled, like buzzards, looking for a place to sit down when a couple got up and left. We squeezed ourselves in to a space that really fit two people and spoke with the german couple across from us. They spoke a little English so we were able to communicate, somewhat. It was a lot of fun. When it got later we all headed back to the train and home.

My lessons learned:
(1) do the tourist stuff early
(2) once you find a place to sit, don't give it up
(3) onion cake is not very good but onions with steak is awesome and onions in potatoes is really good too
(4) crepes with nutella are always a success
(5) the waitresses will hunt you down demanding the cost of the broken glass if you make the mistake of breaking one. (Not like in the states where they just absorb the cost, here, if you break it, you buy it)

Something else we've learned from going to all these fests is that the Germans don't believe in plastic cups or plates. They give you glass cups and plates, you give them a deposit of normally 1-2 euros. When you bring the dishes back, they give you back your deposit. I think this is a really good thing since beer tastes so much better in a glass than in a plastic cup.

Sunset

These are two awesome pictures Brad took right outside out apartment. What a view. While these aren't our building, our's is just like it. I know I owe everyone some pictures of our place, and they're coming! Soon...I promise!

The Wierdest Toilet

When we were preparing to move to Germany and doing all the research to figure out what the deal was here, one of the wierd things Brad came across was a reference to the strange German toilets. The thing he told me was the toilets had a platform that you'd go on, so you could check out your stuff afterwards. He says they are called Inspection Toilets. I thought he was kidding, especially after we arrived here and none of the toilets were like that. Well, I was WRONG. At work this is the kind of toilets we have. These strange toilets do exist, and they are gross! Not only do I not want to see the results of my business, but they stink! Since everything is left in the air, instead of in the water where the stuff is supposed to be, it makes the bathroom at work smelly. You can imagine Brad's great amusement when I told him he was right. Check here for more info and a hilarious blog about these things.

Friday night in Stuttgart

I wish I could type that we've been up to fun and exciting stuff this week, but in reality it's been pretty boring. I'm settling in to my job, still working until 6-7 p.m. but we're finally getting ahead of things instead of trying desperately to catch up. My job at AFRICOM is in Global Force Management, what we do is request the forces that AFRICOM needs to accomplish our missions. So we deal with the Joint Staff and other commands to make sure we get what we need. My part of the job is the annual requirements -- my counterparts work on emergent (like right NOW) requirements. The disadvantage is I have to go back to the states, one time already with three (3!!) more trips in Sept and October. I guess I'll be racking up the Delta flyer miles... Brad said I need to build up the miles so I can upgrade him into one of those chairs that turns into a bed :-)

I made a few changes to the blog. Let me know if you like them.

Brad is settling in, making friends and figuring his way out around town and on the bases. He's got it all wired already. He's also building planes and giving people tips on RC setups. So far we're both really liking it here.

Tomorrow we're going to the Esslingen Onion Fest. We'll take some pictures and I'll let you all know about it.

Tampa and Sommerfest

I've had a busy time the last two weeks, last week I went to Tampa, Florida for a conference. I had all these plans for things I would do in the states, everything from going to the bookstore, to buying Brad glue at the model shop, to getting my hair cut, plus more. But instead, I ended up working all the time! (Okay I did get books and the glue but still...) And it's a miserable experience to spend all that time in the airplane, airports, and another airplane. I was figuring it out and it comes out to about 15 hours of travel, with a 10 hour flight going to the states and an 8 hour flight coming back.

One funny story while I was in Tampa is me, and my counterparts who were also from Stuttgart attending the conference all went to SOCOM (Special Operations Command) to a meeting. Anyhow, we had gone to get lunch and on the return we (as visitors without passcodes to the doors) were calling back to our escort when someone came out of the door. So I held the door for my counterparts, while the one guy wouldn't get off the phone (even though he wasn't talking to anyone). I guess at SOCOM their doors are alarmed and the security guys were searching for a blond female officer that had held the door open and then let in other people also! To add insult to injury, they then tell us since we had clearances and green badges that our badges would have worked on the doors!!

Saturday, after I flew back into Stuttgart, Brad and I went downtown Stuttgart. We went to the flea market and checked things out, then had a cup of coffee -- Brad had a beer -- and a piece of cake. It was really good. After taking it easy for a while we headed over to the Stuttgart Sommerfest. This festival, is big, spreading out over two large areas. There are a lot of food stands and (of course) beer stands. You can see just one small segment of the festival behind Brad in this photo. We walked around a lot but then I was tired so we headed home. The real appeal to the Sommerfest is in the evenings there are five stages set up with bands playing all different kinds of music. On Sunday evening we went back, meeting up with some people (Chris, who attended the school in Norfolk with me and his friend Alex), drank beer, ate supper and listened to music. We ended up hanging out by a pretty good celtic rock band. Best of all, Brad and I had ridden our bikes to the train station, so after we got off the train we rode home - the best part being that neither of us were driving so we could both have beers :-)

There are five festivals here in Stuttgart - the spring beer fest, the fish market (which we went to), the Summerfest (check that one off too), Octoberfest, and Christmas festival. So far we've attended all the ones we've been here for and enjoyed them all :-).

Promotion to Commander

Here they are - my promotion photos! MajGen Jackson, my Directorate boss promoted me. It was a nice ceremony, outside by the tanks (though you can't see them in either photo, they are on both sides of the area we're standing at.