I Don't Think She Liked It

One of my new found friends just couldn't wait for pie. She dashed into the kitchen, afraid that something was going to make the pies disappear. She didn't believe me that I really made two pies.

My handsome, long suffering husband, Spousal Unit. He, being always the gentleman waits patiently for the possibility of a sliver of pie.

Behold the pies. I really did make two.

I don't think my gal pal likes the pie. She even got some on her nose.

I know she doesn't like crust. Some of the crust must have gotten mixed in with the pie.

I don't think she liked it. Do you?

Family, Friends, Food and Boys and Their Toys

Our host, hostess, and mom of the host, on her first visit to Germany. OMG... Shirley, the mom is one excited Grandma, and mom. Four little girls to spoil for two weeks, a little bit of travel and shopping are planned.

The Munchkins. I asked them to give me their best silly faces. They complied and then said to stop taking pictures 'cause they were hungry. Something about getting back into the kitchen and finishing the cooking.

The table. It was laden with awesome goodness. I went back for seconds. Spousal Unit had fourths.

Ah... here we have very happy Munchkins. FOOD. The German fest table is just the right size for the Munchkins. Normally the fest tables hold very large mugs of beer. I am really glad the Munchkins didn't ask for the usual.

Oh and lest we forget. The boys must have their toys. I guess the Thanksgiving day game isn't on yet.

Giving Thanks

I am thankful that my family is healthy.

I am thankful that I am finally here with Spousal Unit.

I am thankful that I have new found friends with whom we will spend the holiday.

I am thankful that I have old friends who invited my boys to spend the day with them.

I am thankful that even though I no longer have a job, we are not suffering.

I am thankful that I have wood for my stove.

I am thankful that if I can't get the stove lit I can to turn up the electricity if desired.

I am thankful to be given the opportunity to have new adventures in my life.

I am thankful that Spousal Unit, after almost 30 years still want to be a part of those adventures.

I am thankful.

Thanksgiving ala Maxine

Enjoy. To you and yours have a lovely Thanksgiving.

Watch Out Waist I'm Cooking Again

Right now I am just returning from the commissary (military grocery store). The place was packed, as I knew it would be. I drove around the parking lot for 20 minutes before I found a parking spot.

Here in Germany, on the bases, grabbing a parking spot is a learned talent. On most days it pays to get to where ever you are going as soon as the store opens, or even prior to the opening, just to get a parking spot.

If the possibility of an early arrival is not feasible, you learn to lurk and hover. You drive slowly around the lot and wait for a shopper to come out of the store. Follow the shopper to the parked car, put on the turn signal and wait till all the purchases are loaded and the shopper pulls out. Quickly pull into the newly vacated spot before someone steals the spot and proceed on about your business.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, every spouse in this corner of the world was there. Hence the crammed lot.

I just needed to pick up a few things. I really should know by now not to go to the grocery store when I am hungry. I just needed some Fritos scoops and a couple cans of chili (chili cheese dip) for a dish that I am making for the potluck luncheon tomorrow.

Well, once there I picked up the finishing touches for the day after Thanksgiving dinner I am making Spousal Unit. We are invited to spend the actual holiday with new found friends. But I want leftovers. So I am going to cook a full dinner on Friday.

I am making my famous coconut cream pie for taking to the Thanksgiving dinner, but felt that wasn't enough, so I bought some more eggs to make deviled eggs to take also.

Then I got a craving for my chili cheese casserole (totally different dish than the dip) for dinner tonight. Which meant that I needed to buy cheese and get some salsa fixings. You can't have chili cheese casserole without homemade salsa. I also needed to get sour cream for the tacos to go with the casserole.

You get the point. Everything kinda snowballed and we now have a very well stocked pantry and fridge.

Watch out waist I'm cooking again.

Guten Appetit

We opted to go to Spousal Unit's favorite Greek joint for dinner this weekend. Restaurant Athens. He started with the retsina. Retsina is a Greek white wine that tastes like Pine Sol because it is aged in pine casks. Served very cold, the taste grows on you. Like a fungus. Actually, after a glass or two it isn't too bad. But it is definitely an acquired taste.

I chose to have a pils. Bright, crisp, and tasty. I love a good German pils.

Our salads came at just the right time. I was hungry.

For the main course we both chose souvlaki. A shish kabob, grilled to perfection. The meat is pork and so tender and succulent that it had to have been brined. I need to ask next time we go there.

I also decided that I wanted spaetzle (Egg noodles, boiled and then sauteed in butter) rather than the normal pommes frites. (French fries). The white sauce is tzaziki. A yogurt, cucumber, garlic sauce. The sauce was OK, but I like my home made better.

And no, I didn't eat it all.

New Friends, Good Times, And Of Course....

I am starting to get excited about Thanksgiving. We are in a new place, but have received an invitation to share dinner with a couple of gal pals and their families.

I meet with the new gal pals, usually once a week for coffee. I am unofficially the newest, favoritest, most wonderful Aunt "She Who" to their munchkins.

I am looking forward to visiting with new friends, good times, and of course...

"Mist" What???

Several posts ago I mentioned that I was going to Belgium for the flea market. Well, I went and had yet another adventure. For me, anymore, getting out of bed in the morning is an adventure.

The drive wasn't too bad. I even drove in the dark which is something I seldom do anymore. It was raining, but there wasn't too much traffic. It only took us 2 1/2 hours and my new found friend and I chatted all the way.

The market is in the town of Tongeren. Seems that they hold a market every Sunday in the square and around the town. There are two halls that have vendors with indoor tables.


A statue/fountain in the town square. Ladies, aren't you being a little risque?


My new found friend is leaving to go back to the States in the beginning of the year and was scared that she wouldn't get every treasure she wanted before leaving. She did.

The van was loaded. Here are a couple of her treasures. Two wooded well water buckets and a pair of old shoes someone painted with flowers.

This bucket she had been eyeing for some time. She thought that it was for the grape harvesters in the fields. The pickers wears the bucket on his/her back and put grape into it. Imagine her surprise when the sales gal said it was for the "mist." What??? "Mist" What is that?? The cow shit. For fertilizing the grape vines. Well, I must say that is going to be an interesting conversation piece hanging in her living room.

This is just a random tower sitting on the side of the road, as I got lost on the way back home. I hadn't printed out the direction in reverse and my new found friend had a hard time interpreting them backwards.

This is my treasure. I had been wanting a magnifying glass for some time now. It really has nothing to do with my age related eyesight. Honest. But it is an English antique with inlaid stones.

Yup. Caught Red Handed

Silly me. I like to tippy toe up to the Spousal Unit and take pictures.

Here he is taking a break from the high finances to play his favorite game. Snood. Why he likes the game? I have no idea. Looks like I need to suggest that he get a haircut in the near future. Boy is he getting a little shaggy.

Spousal Unit's desk is a little messy. That's OK. He is still sorting through the receipts of the past few months. That is when he isn't playing Snood.

Look a that expression of sheer concentration.

Uh Oh. I think he may be on to me. May be I didn't tippy toe lightly enough. Maybe it was the camera's flash that gave me away.


Yup. Caught red handed. Or camera'd.

Boy, Is My Tummie Full And All Is Right With The World

I have returned from the land of the living dead. What ever I had was not pretty. I am not 100% yet but am feeling much better. So much better that Spousal Unit suggested dinner out tonight.

Well that got me off the sofa. The sofa and I were becoming new BFFs and I didn't want to have such a long lasting relationship.

Being hungry and not wanting to go too far away we went to our neighborhood restaurant, up the street. Da Toni Pizzeria. I haven't had any pizza there yet. Why would I want to? Too much other good food to enjoy.

This is Spousal Unit enjoying a beer. Weisenbeer. A wheat beer that he prefers.

Being under the weather for the past week, I chose to eat light. A bowl of Goulash soup.

And a salad.

Spousal Unit, on the other hand decided that he was going to go full tilt boogie and get the scallopini limone with spaghetti and garlic sauce. Don't hold back on the red peppers.


This is our host Toni and Spousal Unit. Boy, is my tummie full and all is right with the world.

Heavy On the Booze And Go To Bed

Right now I am brain dead. I am getting so sick. It started coming on early this afternoon.

The nose started running. The sneezing started.

I never sneeze unless I am dusting the furniture. I avoid dusting at all costs unless I have company coming. Because really, dust is a protective covering for furniture and ya gotta take care of your investment.

Or else I am coming down with something. I usually just don't sneeze.

Well this afternoon. I had a sneeze. I didn't think too much of it. I was on my way to the flu shot clinic and trying to find my way. Spousal Unit gave me directions coming from a different direction than where I was and I needed to translate them in reverse. Normally I can do the translations.

Later I was sneezing and sneezing. And my head was filling up. Snot city. I love that visual.

I needed to get to the flu clinic or else I would lose out on getting the shot. Most people here can get the Mist. Me, because I am an old fart, can only get the shot. But the window of opportunity for the shots is very narrow and I do not ever want to get the flu again.

Anyway, it is now early evening, I have had my dinner, I feel like crap, I was successful... I got the shot, and I think the best thing to do is make myself a Hot Toddy. Heavy on the booze and go to bed.

Bits and Bytes

I am going to Belgium tomorrow. At 0 Dark Thirty. ( That means I am getting up at 3:oo to leave here at 4:00 to meet at 5:00 AM in the morning.)

A gal I met online to buy a freezer is going to accompany me to a Flea market. I bought her freezer, her crockpot, some of her plants. Yesterday through the local online yard sale site I bought her 220 volt paper shredder.

One of the plants I bought.

Today I requested to buy her planters. She mentioned in a reply post that she wanted to do one last Flea Market shop in Belgium. This Flea Market is awesome. She got a crazy thought that maybe I might want to go to the Flea Market. Well DUH.

Who woulda thunk that I would have met up with someone so soon to be a shopping buddy. Major tears. She is leaving. This could have been a match made in heaven. Sorry Spousal Unit, us girls gotta stick together, when it comes to shopping. Love you anyway. Kiss, kiss.

Today Spousal Unit and I went out to pick up the Komode. (Piece of furniture that will hold the phone and hide all the other stuff.) It comes in a box and you get to build it. Not IKEA quality. But functional. He does an awesome job, doesn't he????

I also bought some plants for landscaping the side of the house. Most of these are perennials so I won't have to buy them again.

My best buy of the week, I think is my new watering can. $1.25. It shows a little wear and tear but just the size I want. I love thrift shops.

Oh yeah. The curtains fell down again.

I'm Just Glad That She Didn't Leave Us A Gift

I really like living in my village. Surprises abound.

The other morning as I was coming down the stairs I saw I had a visitor. Well hello there. I had a cow at my front door. I dashed to get the camera. She must have been a little shy because she moved on and I wasn't able get a picture of the door with the cow's nose pressed up on it.

I was able to run out and get the cow behind the rental car.

And more of the cow behind of the rental car. She decided to check out the back yard and peek in on the neighbors.

I'm just glad that she didn't leave us a gift.

OMG, I'm Attending Parties

Last weekend I went to the Bazaar and didn't spend anything. Not a penny.

That in itself is significant. I am the shopping queen. Or, at least I used to be.

Well, after the Bazaar I went to a Tupperware party. This was my first Tupperware party in 30 years.

Why you say, did I attend a Tupperware party? I'm glad you asked.

I attended because this is the way people, American military/women/spouses, meet each other through parties if they are not comfortable to meet each other in the other traditional manners of military protocol.

Being the retired, old farts that we are, we do not fit the criteria that most young military couples have. We are not on the radar.

I have joined several Internet groups and have met some lovely people. Munchkins included. I choose to reach out and touch people. That's me.

OMG, I'm attending parties. I am not expected to buy anything. But, meeting other gals sure is nice.

Vote True 2008

Just do it. VOTE

For Your Viewing Pleasure...Curtains

Being a pack rat is sometimes a good thing. I have stored these curtains for the past 16 years never thinking I would ever use them, but now I am.

Lace curtains allow you to see out and not have all the neighbors see into the house. They afford privacy during the day. In Germany you see lace on just about every window.

I went around the house measuring all the windows and found that all the old curtains were use able in this house. Hurray for me I saved some money.

I had been here for a little over a week, with my newly passed my driver's license, when I went out exploring and drove to Kaiserslautern (Largest/closest city in the area) to purchase curtain rods. They are the standard cafe rods with the adhesive stick to the window rod holder.

I came home with my newly purchased rods and put the curtains into the laundry. The best way to prepare lace is to wash it and hang immediately while still damp. No wrinkles that way.


The front door.

The bedroom. I was really clever on this window. I didn't have a pen to mark the tape measure and didn't feel like going downstairs to get one, so I used my eyeliner pencil to mark the measure to get the curtains at the same height. My eyes didn't like it the next morning though.

The kitchen side window.

The kitchen front window.


Oh yeah. My upstairs hallway. Can you say I wasn't happy the next morning? OR the following morning? (NOTE: The rolladens I mentioned in a much earlier post are down for the night.)

For your viewing pleasure. Yet another view.

Who Is This Person??

I went shopping today. Spousal Unit is out of town, actually out of country, so what do I do, I go shopping. Honey, Sweety, Snuggs I was lonely. I miss you and I don't really have any girlfriends here to yak with. I was bored. The house just isn't enough to keep me occupied. Yada, Yada, Yada. This speech usually works. I'm spoiled like that. So....

I went to the Bazaar, kinda up the street. 30 minutes away, but everything is close to 30 minutes away from the house. That's OK, I like where I live.

I didn't buy a thing. OMG.... me not buy anything at a Bazaar. The world must be ending.

I saw a couple of antique pieces I wouldn't mind having, but they were either sold or not in my budget at the moment.

I got to taste the really Yummy Holland cheeses that I remember. I saw some of the Belgium chocolates that I adore.

I wandered throughout the Bazaar and kept thinking that not much has changed except me. I've been there, done that, and trust me I already have most of the stuff that was offered.

OMG!!! Who is this person?