Life down here on earth

At least they drive on the right side of the road here

So Greg and I made it to Germany and spent the afternoon yesterday after our arrival blearily wandering around the Mercedes-Benz museum.  Well, I was bleary. Greg was surprisingly not.  But then again, the sight of the first internal combustion engine ever mounted to a vehicle with wheels is a lot more exciting for some of us than it is for others. 

The museum was really fun, though. Super modern and loaded with lots of cool cars.  You just have to skip past all the different kinds of engines and head straight to the racecars or Princess Diana's car or, my favorite, the Pope-Mobile. Today, we are borrowing my brother's car (not a Mercedes) and are driving up the autobahn to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  I'm a little nervous. There's a scary glint in a car enthusiast's eye when you say  the word "autobahn."

Tomorrow we are headed to the Rhine river valley which promises boat rides and castles and fireworks! I had thought I'd be missing fourth of July fireworks this year, but I guess I was wrong.

BUY!

There's this cryptic note on my calendar.  It simply says, "BUY".  It's written in fuschia marker as if it were so important that I grabbed the first writing utensil at hand to mark it down.  It's in the top corner of Monday, August 27 and Friday, August 31.

This note has been haunting me for a week and a half.  I have been racking my brain trying to remember what it means.  Am I supposed to buy something?  Stock? Groceries? Random eBay item? 

A week ago I almost posted about it here and then decided not to because it might turn out to be something embarrassing and then I'd have to tell you all about it when I finally figured out what it was.  I'd hate to have to admit in public that, say, the release of Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 was so important I marked it on my calendar.

The truth isn't nearly so exciting, but one lesson I learned from my Grandma is that the mundane details of your life are important to the people who care about you.  I hope y'all care that much.

Yesterday Greg made tuna-fish for lunch- only he doesn't call it 'tuna-fish', he just says 'tuna'- and turned to me in frustration holding what used to be a loaf of bread but was now just a plastic bag with a tiny heel in it.

So I told Greg about my commitment to make school lunches for the kids after making them buy all last year.  Sam had been making really lousy food choices at school and this seemed like a better plan. After only a week and a half I ran out of bread (that's a lot of sandwiches!) and I was surprised to learn that Sam was loathe to buy his lunch even if it meant taking pretzels and cheese sticks, but Jack bought his lunch for two days.

And then *bing* I remembered why "BUY" was on my calendar.  Jack and I had been through the school lunch menu for the month and those were the days he opted to buy his lunch. (See? I told you- not exciting.) I'm glad I figured this out because it was really making me crazy, all for "Chicken Nachos with Chips" and "Hot Dogs with Multi-grain buns."  (Nevermind what's in the hot dogs! We're serving multi-grain buns! That's healthy!) 

I'm sleeping in tomorrow

I, for one, am glad that daylight saving time is coming early.  For the last couple of weeks I've been jolted awake with the sudden awareness that it's light in my room and OHMYGOSH! I must be late!  only to realize that I still have 15 minutes before the alarm goes off.  I hate that. 

Then I keep falling back asleep and dreaming that Ryan Seacrest and I are dating. I don't even watch American Idol, but I swear that man is everywhere. He just creeps into your subconcious whether you want him to or not.