I Got To See What Was Available For The Next Time

I really enjoyed the girls weekend. I met some really nice ladies and got to better know the lady that organized the trip. I had met her before since she is the spouse of a man with whom Spousal Unit works. She is a very kind and gentle lady that has a passion for shopping. When I say passion, I mean it. She is a lady driven when it comes to finding the perfect piece.

Here she is, Lisa and the gal directly to my right is Carolyn, concentrating on a game she taught us. The game is played with cards and is a mixture of Yahtzee and Rummy. I warned her that I have beginners luck. I won.

Here are a couple of other gals that went for the shopping. We got a little silly playing the game and drinking a little wine and beer. We ended up staying in the brasserie entirely too late for an early morning wake up. But we had a good time.

The first day of shopping was in a covered mall area. Everything imaginable was available for sale. I kinda like the hot dog sculpture. I really wanted to buy him and put him in my front hallway. I figure if he is there the next time I go, its fated that we need to be together. The other little guy is a replica of the Mannikin Piss fountain that is located in Brussels.

Here we are out and about in Tongeren. That's me in the middle of Yolanda and Shonna.

Here is yet another picture of a pretty church/cathedral. I am still in my awestruck period. I know from experience that I will be rather blase about cathedrals and castles in a year or two.

All in all I met my goals for this trip. I got out and had a really good girls weekend. I had my hot chocolate several times. I had a Belgium waffle, not anywhere as good as the one I had in Brussels, but I had one. I also got to see what was available for the next time I got on a shopping adventure.

I'm Just Along For The Ride

Well, tomorrow morning I am off on another adventure. I will be meeting up with four other ladies to carpool to Holland and Belgium for the weekend. This will be my first girls weekend out. I believe it will be a little different than the girls gone wild weeks that I spend every year in Florida. Ya think?

The ladies that I am going with are the spouses of Spousal Unit's co-workers. The lady that organized this trip has gone out of her way to welcome me and make me feel included in their activities. I am honored that she has taken this time to include me. I also don't think that there will be too much of the "letting down of one's hair" on this trip. I may be wrong, but probably not. I may need to scale back a little of the "She Who"ness. I can be a little crazy at times. In a very adult way of course.

We are going Flea Marketing in Nijmegen and Tongeren. This is the first time that I have been to Nijmegen. A friend of ours used to go every year for the "Iron Man" March. Over 100 miles of walking over the course of four days. So I know a little about the town. It is considered to be the oldest city in the Netherlands and celebrated its 2000th year of existence in 2005.home of Charlemagne. It also has, to my understanding, a killer Flea Market.

We are driving up with just two people in a van. The better to stuff chock full with goodies. The drive to Holland will take about five hours and we should arrive in plenty of time to check into the hotel, get cleaned up and to go for dinner.

I went several months ago to the Tongeren market. I really enjoyed myself and look forward to going again. The last time, I had just arrived in country and had only been here for a couple of weeks, when a gal I met through the local online yardsaling site asked if I would be interested in going with her. Actually she wanted one more shopping adventure and she wouldn't/couldn't drive herself. I guess she thought that I was the adventuresome type. She guessed correctly and so off I went with my newly minted driver's license to drive to Belgium.

I have decided that I love Belgium. I really hadn't been to that country during my last stays in Europe and want to explore it further. If only for the waffles. I still drool about having another waffle.

I may find some treasures, or I may not. I'm just along for the ride.

Grey

I woke to this.

It is supposed to be 25 March. No forewarning of this weather.

My pretty Spring flowers are all covered in snow.

It is really this grey outside. I didn't do anything to the photos to "clean" them up.


Yucky, yucky day.

30 Years

Today is our anniversary. Can you believe it's been thirty years? I can't.

We aren't going to do anything special that I know of. (Spousal Unit may have something sneaky planned, but that isn't something I am counting on.) We are planning to go out to dinner this evening. I would like to go to the Italian place, the next town over. I had lunch there the other day and it was really good. I wouldn't mind trying it out for dinner.

Spousal Unit and I usually don't do too much for occasions anymore. All our "needs" have been met and most of the "wants" are to travel here in Europe. Which we are starting to do.

For our twentieth we went on a Caribbean cruise. He had been after me to take a cruise for years. I get so motion sick that I found excuse after excuse to avoid a cruise, until I ran out of excuses. So we went and of course, I loved it. Our cabin was on a perfect deck level for stability and the motion sickness never occurred. True, I couldn't go to the top decks, but most of the boat was OK.

I don't even remember what, if anything, we did for our tenth. Too many years ago. I know that the boys were younger and we probably were in the throes of raising the two of them. We were most probably at some soccer tournament or other kiddo related activity.

So I don't have anything planned for the day, other than to go look for the anniversary card that I purchased a while ago. I stashed it somewhere and the hunt will be to find it. Wish me luck.

The Detail Is Amazing

I officially hate Google maps. I put in a directions request to go to the town of Michelstadt. The stupid directions sent us on several tiny, and I mean tiny roads that riding on gave me a major anxiety attack. First, we had to go up a mountain to then go down the same mountain. No reason for the mountain climb, there was nothing to see on the mountain that going around wouldn't have cured.

Google maps just figured that "She Who" needed a Sunday afternoon panic/anxiety attack to keep her insanity at a consistent level.

OK.... the rant is over for the moment.

The reason for going to Michelstadt was the Easter Egg Market. I heard about it on one of the Yahoo Groups and then checked it out on the Internet. So when Spousal Unit asked if we had any plans for the weekend, I said yes. Since he was so nice to till my garden Friday and Saturday, I knew he really wanted to spend 2 hours driving each way to look at Easter Eggs.




These eggs are dyed one color and then the design is scraped into the egg by removing the dye.


This lady is dying eggs by using the Batik method. Starting with white wax and then dying, and waxing from light to dark colors.

These eggs are some of her work. The place was so crowded that I couldn't get any closer to these eggs.

These eggs are also examples of scraping away the dye.

I have no idea how these eggs were done. But the detail is amazing.

Sunday Rambling in Germany - Easter Market

After church tomorrow we are going to Michelstadt to attend the Easter Egg Market. It is about an hour and a half away.

The town is filled with half-timbered houses and I am looking forward to seeing them again. I used to drive through there all the time to go to the wooden toy stores.

They are also famous for their ivory carvings. As an American, I can't buy the ivory,but I can appreciate the workmanship.

Pictures and impressions to follow.

Spousal Unit is a manly man. He can leap tall buildings with a single bound. He can look at you and burn a hole through your soul. Not really, that is more of my thing, but he does have a certain air about him. He is digging me a garden. That make him a manly man in my book.

So what this all comes down to is... he called me early this afternoon and asked if I thought the ground was dry enough to till up the soil for my garden. It hasn't rained in quite a few days and I had to water the flower boxes outside today, so I thought that maybe it was dry enough to till.

Turns out that the soil could have been a "wee" bit drier but it was still OK to till.

The soil looks really great for a first year garden. Even so I am going out tomorrow to buy some peat moss and maybe some dolomite, if I can find it. I am also hoping to find some garden earth and compost and/or "dunger" (Cow Poop).

The Spousal Unit was able to make three tills through the soil before calling it a night. He will probably do two more swipes tomorrow before we clean the tiller up and take it back to the Outdoor Recreation place.

I also plan on getting some bricks to line the edges while the soil is still fresh. I plan on having some wall units (cinder blocks) to line the back of the garden near the fence to "house" my herbs.

Doesn't this look awesome?