Trash: It’s Complicated

This topic has been described as mundane and I can’t disagree. Yet, it seems to be a big part of our lives, from our conversations (“Mom, where do I throw this?”) to our schedule (“It’s a Gelbesac day.”) to the clutter which piles up because the correct receptacle is not nearby. We have many garbage cans and a multi-colored calendar with the pick-up schedule.

 

 

By my count there are 7 different options for garbage. I hope no one is too disappointed that I do not have photographs of every option. Some things are just not photo-worthy.

I’ll start with the simplest: Glass bottles without a deposit get taken to a glass recycling location, either in the village or on base, and sorted. However, some bottles and cans require a deposit when purchased, then the empties are brought back to the store for cash.

 

Paper has its own container and is picked up once a week. This includes newspapers, magazines, copy paper, cardboard, and envelopes (but only after removing the plastic address window. Did I mention this garbage thing is a bit tedious?) We burn some of our paper in our neighbor’s burn pile – the stuff that can’t go in the paper recycling like used napkins or things that should be shredded.

 

Fruit and vegetable waste goes into the bio trash. It is just like composting but the bio is picked up by the garbage company. Apparently it goes to the farmers. This is definitely the grossest (hence, no photo.)

Metal, plastic and styrofoam go into a “gelbesac” or yellow bag. This is for all plastic – not just “ones” or “twos” - anything made of plastic including gum wrappers, sandwich bags, bubble wrap, broken toys, empty juice boxes…I could go on and on.

Any large garbage is put out on curb on the “Restfall” garbage pick up day. This happens 4 times per year. Of course this often becomes more of a neighborhood swap. So far we’ve scored 4 wooden chairs this way.

Everything else is just regular garbage. It is only picked up every two weeks and it costs 26 cents per kilogram. The can is weighed and the tag is scanned when the garbage is picked up. We haven’t seen a bill yet – we reconcile that with our landlord once a year. Then we’ll see just how trashy we’ve been.

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Typical Weekend

We lived like the locals this weekend.

We spent time watching soccer.

Andrew is playing on a team at the base.

He doesn’t like practice, but he loves the games! (They lost 2-1, but it was better than last week!)

We went to Oktoberfest.

I should say they went to Oktoberfest because I was at a baby shower. It was just the boys at this event.

The big Oktoberfest is in Munich, but there are many other fests nearby. This one was on the base. Apparently the big crowd was there Saturday night – Sunday was more of a family day.

There were games for the kids and a bouncy castle. Thomas was a better shot than the last time he did this. (Funny – he wore the same shirt both times.)

We washed our cars. I have no photos to prove this, but trust me when I say they are much cleaner. Our neighbor washes his car – with a power washer – every week. We regularly see people washing their windows, scrubbing their front steps with scrub brushes, and sweeping their driveways. Cleanliness is important here so we jumped on the bandwagon.

See how well we’re acclimating?

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Sew Busy

 Welcome to this week’s edition of SHOW AND TELL where I show off share all of my recent projects. The theme of this post is sewing.

First up is a table runner. This was inspired by the purchase of a charm pack (Moda’s Dilly Dally collection) which I purchased only to save money – with this I qualified for free shipping. The pattern is something I threw together and although there was a method to my madness I won’t bore you with the details. Toward the end of this project I couldn’t help but think of the Brady Bunch.

This is the back side. If you look very closely you can see that I tried to do a flower pattern when I quilted it (by machine.)

I’d like to thank my sister for this project – she gave me a gift certificate for my birthday to Sew, Mama, Sew! (I love that shop!) I bought the fabric and the Barcelona Skirt pattern (Amy Butler). I hadn’t made clothing for myself  in quite a while and I definitely need to learn some better skills in alterations/fitting, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. If we ever go to Barcelona I will have to remember to bring this skirt!

 There is a little baby boom going on at GK so I have been busy making baby gifts. I am trying to use up my stash of supplies and this project was a good one for that. It’s a “Taggie” – a little blanket/toy for infants. Since so many kids like the tags on their blankets best, this gives them lots of tactile ribbons to grab on to. Thanks to Jackie for the airplane fabric, thanks to Lisa for the Minkee (that is the super soft polka dot stuff), and thanks to my Mom who gave Taggies to my boys when they were babies.

These baby booties are another Amy Butler pattern, from her book Little Stitches for Little Ones. I can hardly believe my “babies” once had feet that tiny!

I usually have one “take along” project going on so I can keep busy when we’re travelling. Lately it has been knitting so I made these little baby beanies.

And finally I broke out my embroidery machine and made every baby a personalized burp cloth. If you’re going to have spit up you might as well clean it up in style!

I’ve got quite a few other WIPs (Works In Progress) and a long queue of things I want to make. So stay tuned for the next edition of Show And Tell!

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Men’s Retreat – Feel Free Style

Eleven men from the base chapel headed to Austria a couple of weekends ago for a men’s retreat. I was hoping to have one of the participants blog about the amazing time they had, but he’s a little busy so I’ll just post some photos. In addition to quality time on the road, fellowship and Bible Study, they headed out on a couple of adventures with an outfitter called Feel Free. Saturday they went white water rafting (sorry, no pictures of that), and Sunday they went canyoning. Canyoning is rappelling into a canyon and then hiking/swimming/sliding through. Yes, it looks a little risky but no one was hurt and everyone had a great time!

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Happy Birthday USAF!

In case you haven’t been keeping track, this month marks the 64th anniversary of the United States Air Force, so we celebrated in style with a Ball. Since this is Europe, we couldn’t get more stylish then holding the event in a castle.

The biggest accomplishment of the evening was getting from the car to the ballroom on cobblestone wearing heels. If you’ve known me for a while, you have seen this dress before. I have worn it to several other events but a) I like it b) it still fits c) none of these events were with any of the same people and d) Jeremy wears the same thing to every formal military event so why shouldn’t I?

After the usual introductions, National Anthem, Ruffles and Flourishes, Arrival of the Official Party and a wonderful prayer by a fabulous chaplain, it was time to eat. The first course was the appetizer: choice of smoked salmon or baked goat cheese in phyllo. Delicious and impressive!

I’m not sure if it is the European pace of dinner or the fact that it takes an awful long time to prepare and plate such fancy food, but it was nearly an hour after the appetizers that we got the main course. Jeremy had beef but by the time I got back to the table with the camera he’d already dug in. I had chicken wrapped in proscuitto. I think the sides were some kind of vegetable gratin and potatoes with broccoli and cheese.

Of course it is not a birthday party without cake, and this event had two. I accidently ate a piece of each. (Really, it was an accident. I went to get cupcakes for us from the flag cake. At the same time Jeremy went to get slices of the sheet cake. I couldn’t let perfectly good cake go to waste!)

And just when I was ready for a good nap, more dessert arrived! Each person received this trio – chocolate mousse, tiramisu, and ice cream. Good thing I had a loose-fitting dress. After a brief speech by Lieutenant General Gorenc the dinner portion was over and it was time to break it down on the dance floor.

Only a few guys wore their party shirts. Too bad – seeing all the different shirts was one of my favorite parts of the last AF Ball we went to.

And so they lived happily ever after. Oh wait, that is the ending to a different story involving a ball and a castle. Unlike Cinderella, we did get home before midnight, I didn’t lose a shoe (but I sure could have!), and I’d already met my prince.

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Weekend Report

This weekend it was just me and the boys, since Jeremy was playing around at a men’s retreat in Austria. (They did whitewater rafting and canyoning; I’m hoping he will post about that soon.) We had a nice time just laying low here, although it was sure busy for “laying low.”

Friday night we went to the library to load up on books and videos, then went home to partake in said videos. Saturday I did some tutoring, went for a run (it was 85 degrees! I had just put away my sleeveless!), then to a birthday party for Andrew’s classmate and a little grocery shopping.

Saturday night we hung out at my friend Lisa’s house - along with a bunch of other kids, one other mom, and one other friend –  which is where we got to see a “fleet” of hot air balloons taking off right near her house. The kids were super excited that one balloon was low enough that the balloonists waved to them.

Sunday was church and then a quick visit to a local Ritter Feste. That is a Medieval Fair for the rest of us.

Andrew savored the opportunity to learn some sword-fighting techniques by watching these experts.

Apparently these re-enactors camped out here all weekend.

Musicians contributed to the ambiance.

Thomas was brave enough to get his picture with this guy. He said the sword was pretty heavy (especially compared to the Nerf swords he usually gets to play with.)

And just when we thought our weekend couldn’t be any more exciting, a parade came down our street. It was the Fall version of Kirmes. This time a new king and queen were selected.

We weren’t so interested in the High Society of our village – we just went for the ride. (yes, singular ride. There was only one.)

And the game – using a BB gun to shoot down flowers. Just for a moment, it was as if we were back in Arkansas. (sigh)

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A Guest Post

Today’s post is by Thomas. He was assigned the task of writing a character description, and here is what he wrote:

Brutally honest. I just might use this for my “About” page.

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Door to Door

This is our front door. It looks just like a run-of-the-mill regular door – except for one feature – can you spot it? You may notice the chalk writing on the bricks on the right side. Those are blessings from Epiphany visitors. I’ll explain more when Epiphany rolls around again.

While walking around our village I’ve noticed some very unique doors. Most are not the standard Home Depot variety that you’d find in the States. The doors are much more noticeable since they are right next to the sidewalk. Few people have front lawns because when most houses were built land was most valuable for growing crops or grazing cattle and wasn’t to be wasted.

Some homes have large doors like this one. I imagine they were once used for storing farm equipment or horses (they are usually on older homes) but now they open up to beautiful courtyards.

Apparently I either hold the camera crookedly or don’t stand up straight. I like the doorknob on this one.

This color is so striking. It made me think of red velvet. (The cake, not the fabric.)

The iron over glass concept is quite popular.

 

 

The wood carving is beautiful, and I also love the leaded glass windows on the sides.

Check out that door handle! It ROCKS!

The most important thing to know about our door is that it is always locked from the outside. I’ve got to be very careful to avoid locking myself out!

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Good-bye Swiss Miss, It Was Nice Knowing You

If it seems odd that I am writing about hot cocoa on Labor Day, let me explain: First, Labor Day is not a German holiday; therefore everyone in the Gorline family went to work or school today. Second, it might not be hot cocoa weather where you are, but here it has been hot cocoa weather nearly every day in the last 5 months that we’ve been here. I’m just sharing this with you now so that you can have the ingredients on hand when that Fall chill arrives. I’m not sure when that might be – I’ve lost touch with normal weather patterns.

I’ve made many things from scratch in my life but hot cocoa was never one of them. The recipe on the box of Hershey’s Cocoa seemed way too complicated. At best I warmed up some milk and added some Nestle’s Quik, but more often it was hot water and a packet of Swiss Miss. Not anymore! This is super easy and much better.

Last week we went to a local cafe and this is what I got when I ordered hot cocoa:

The chocolate chips were in a chilled glass; the milk was steamed and hot. Just dump the chocolate into the milk and stir and…

VOILA! Deliciousness is served!

And in case you need a second opinion, here is what Andrew thinks:

Special thanks to Eugenia, who spontaneously funded this post. (After finishing my cocoa I realized I didn’t have my wallet in my purse. Mea Culpa! Eugenia, I owe you one.)

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Little America

We just got back from a quick trip to Ramstein AB, about 3 hours away. Ramstein is a large Air Force base, with several Army bases near by. I was told that area has the greatest population of Americans living outside the U.S. I have not verified that but it seems likely.

The occasion for our trip was a Change of Command ceremony for the 86th Airlift Wing. Brigadier General C.K. Hyde took command. The Hyde family was stationed at Little Rock AFB with us and we got to know them at the Chapel there. It was great to be there to see the big event. We also got to see other friends who are living in the area so we had a nice little mini-reunion.

I was also happy to see my friend Amy who had been at Keesler AFB with us. She was so gracious to watch the boys during the ceremony! (The Hyde family had often sat near us during church on Sundays so they knew well how antsy the boys often got – I thought I’d save them a replay of that.)

We stayed 2 nights at Ramstein, in the hotel at the right side of this photo. We also spent plenty of time at the KMCC (Kaiserslautern Military Community Center) also known as the “mall.” It is pretty funny to me that we spent so much time there since we are most definitely not recreational shoppers, and in the last 3 years Jeremy cannot remember going to a mall a single time.

I should clarify – this mall had no Gap, no Aeropostale and no Dillards. But it does have a huge BX (Base Exchange) and a lot of small stores that sell things like Polish Pottery, Christmas decorations, Turkish Rugs, German Wines, and even an American bookstore! We saw a movie at the theater – Cars 2. I don’t think I’d ever seen a movie on base before so I was surprised when instead of previews, the showing began with the playing of the National Anthem, and everyone stood up and put their hands on their hearts! There was also a food court so we indulged in Johnny Rockets, Taco Bell, Subway, Cinnabon and Baskin Robbins (but not all at the same meal.) This is quite a shopping mecca. We saw a few people we knew from GK, and it was quite busy and crowded.

Besides shopping, we did have some fun at the indoor pool. We’ll be heading back there in a couple of weeks (I ordered new glasses and will need to pick them up) and are looking forward to it.

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