Up North (& Out There doing it)

Eco-Win for me

I really dislikee throwing things out. Especially since living in a house, rather than an APT, I'm really conscious about how much we're putting out on the curb.

I'm not a extreme environmentalist. If I use something and enjoy it (assuming that its not terrible for the env,), I'm OK with some trash. I hate throwing things out unused.

Also dislike putting big ticket items out on the curb that really could have a 2nd life. This weekend, I finally got around to pulling out these very heavy, almost commercial grade window AC units out of the windows that came with our house. We got these incredible cool mini split units that are quiet, efficient and really cool. (Pun intended). 

My Dad and I took one out to the curb and I put a sign on it that said 'WORKS' and then started working on removing the other one (a much simpler task after learning on the first one). By the time we were walking the other one out to the curb, the first one, at least the mechanics of it were gone!

By the time I went back into the house to make another sign 'WORKS' for the other one, the same guy had come back. Not sure if he saw the other window unit and just had a hunch that the other one was heading to the curb as well.

Next up, a set of couches that we bought with the house and have been doing not much more than 'taking up space,'. The matching set heading to the curb that night as well (Sat).

 Sure enough, half way through a beautiful Sunday afternoon, a woman got out of the car and sat down to check them out. 

15 minutes later, she's still sitting there and has been joined by a friend.

15 minutes more, the car is gone but she's still there. 

I'm thrilled! More stuff not going to the landfill. 10 minutes more, and she's gone, but the couches were still there.

I'm was so bummed! But it was short lived. 10 minutes more, they were  back with a car they borrowed and this time I wasn't missing the eco saving moment. I walked out, helped them get the first one in the car and the 2nd when they showed up for it.

Yeah me!

Water, there is nothing like it – except the bubbly.

Two times this trip, I just wanted a bottle of water. I really don’t like Naïve, pardon me, I meant Evian (spell it backwards) water. I know it was one of the firsts before bottled water was cool and probably will stick around as bottled water isn’t as cool anymore, but I just don’t like the taste. I really don’t so I try and avoid it. However, when you are buying water in foreign countries in a foreign tongue, sometimes, especially out a vending machine, you can get tripped up. I did, twice.

I ended up with the bubbly water. Not that it is really that bad, in fact, under the right circumstances, I might say that its actually good and perhaps a good alternative to Coke,  etc, but if you want water, its just not the same. No if ands of buts about it.

Everything is in Germany

If there was nothing else that I learned about this trip, it was just an eye opener for how hard it would be to move to a foreign country and not know the native language. In this case, its German.  Sometimes, you can make thing out, you can ‘tourist’ your way around, but at the end of the day, every single thing that you have to do; Buy the groceries, speak to a teller, get directions, find a bank, talk to the plumber, get your haircut, buy some toothpaste…. Its all in German. This theme kept hitting me over and over again, until I really had the eye opener. I was in the shower and forgot to bring my Dobb kit into the bathroom so I decided just to use some of AG’s Shampoo. Well, sure enough, its in German and there are two bottles.  One must be conditioner and one must be shampoo I keenly think to myself. I’ll just pour out a little of each and go with the one that looks right?

Well, they both looked undistinguishly like either product, so what to do? Well, I just pushed the two together, called it my own 2-in-1 and went on my merry way. If its really bad, I know there is a shower waiting for me with my own toiletries in Bordeaux. 

A Good Daddy Day

Yesterday started off with a screaming jolt from D. He was not happy that 'Happy Froggie' was all wet. For those of you who have little ones in diapers, you know why, after a long night of sleep 'Happy Froggie' was all wet, along with half of the other things in his bed. Yuck.

Anyways, 'Happy Froggie' goes nearly every where D does so we clearly had a problem. Shannon and I thought we were being so smart about 18 months ago by introducing two Froggies in the mix so we would never be caught without a Froggie. However, about 9 months ago, the original Froggie had the stitching fall partially out of his month. Funny enough, and even though D had us trim off the loose string, he doesn't like that Froggie is missing part of his smile and in fact calls him 'Sad Froggie' (vs 'Happy Froggie') and that Froggie will almost never will do. 

So suddenly, I had a real dilemma on my hands. The only solution? Take 'Sad Froggie' to the 'dentist' to get his smile fixed, which entailed going and finding a marker to complete 'Sad Froggie's' smile while 'Happy Froggie' went into the washing machine so he would be clean for night time at the end of the day.

I originally picked up a permanent black marker, but at the last second realized I would be totally screwed if D didn't like the new mouth because it was black and it would never come off. I popped downstairs and grabbing D's water soluble brown Crayola marker and Froggie looked pretty good.

D was very excited that Sad Froggie went to the dentist and had a new smile. Of course, he had been crying hysterically for 5 minutes while all of this was going on and his face was a wet mess. Like anyone one you 'love', D gave 'Sad Froggie' a big kiss when he saw him, (can you see where this is going?) and the brown marker got smeared all over D's face.  What was crazy was as I was cleaning D's face, he knew that the marks had come from 'Sad Froggie' even though I hadn't said anything.  Fortunately, 'Sad Froggie's' dental work held, and we were happy for the rest of the day about it.

The best part was that it clearly made an impression on him. When we got to day care, he told his teacher that Froggie had been to the dentist and even told Shannon about it when she got to day care to pick him up.

It made my day.

The Secret Post Office

How cool is this? Its the glass of water that I got from the post office that is hidden in the Mary Knoll Missionary facility. Its awesome and never crowded (shhhhhh!) and they are always very helpful. Today, not only did they give me some water, but they were being so helpful with this older gentleman who was trying to use an AMEX gift card and was slightly confused on what his balance was, how to use it, etc. The Postman was so helpful, reading the teeny tiny 800 number and writing down for the older gentleman since he couldn't read the back of the card. All of this after he said the reason that he didn't have the zip code for this letter that he wanted to send was because he typically just emails with this particular person (Zing!). The best part was one of the folks working at the post office laughed and the other one was thinking it wasn't quite that funny. To which I say, come on. Email and snail mail exist peacefully with each other and really don't replace each other. In fact, I'd build a case that a majority of people send more mail, because its special now.

Love this place, but it's not as big as I thought

So I'm shocked by how much our stuff that was crammed into our little 800 sq. foot apartment really can fill up a house pretty substancially. I'm really blown away actually.