We want happy paintings. Happy paintings. If you want sad things, watch the news.

Isn't that a happy little tree?

Oh Bob Ross how I miss you, but this little gem of a site really makes me happy. The things Baby Girl will never know - you and your happy little trees and mountains are one of them.  The lack of a potentially stoned hippy painting on PBS is no reason for Baby Girl to not enjoy some painting fun though.  With this in mind, I decided to tackle finger painting with a 5 month old. 

I put quite a bit of thought into this project - more than I normally do which is odd because this is a simpler than normal project for me. I wasn't sure if she was too young to do this but at the same time I thought she would enjoy the texture of paint. This is also a clothless activity and if there is one thing the girl loves it is being naked.  But if we were going to paint it needed to be edible because everything she touches goes in her mouth so do I make paint or do I buy paint.  Then if we did paint what were we painting on and what were we making.

Pinterest you amazing little gem you - you helped answer my questions.  Of course you also gave me too many choices leaving me paralized with indecision.  After more internal debate than really neccessary, I decided to make my own fingerpaint and to create Valentine's Day cards to send to the grandparents. Mistakenly, I had a clear vision for these cards including this and this.  We had limited success executing this vision.  But full of optimism and plans we began our painting adventure.

Happy Valentine's Day - a week late : )

It's My First Valentine's Day - I'm Excited, Can't You Tell?

There are certain times my attempts to be Type B fly out the window and Type A mom appears in full force. A variety of events and circumstances can send me into crazy Type A mode.  First memories/events that you can never recreate are one.  Another one is having appropriate interaction with people I only casually know (this will make more sense in a second).

This year Valentine's Day combined in a perfect storm of both of those above events sending me into a frenzy that likley made my poor husband insane.  In addition to it being Baby Girl's first Valentine's Day, baby girl takes a music class once a week and the class fell on V-day. Capturing the first Valentine's Day was easy as pie.  I did a 45 minute photo shoot with baby girl that included multiple backgrounds, outfits, and props. (This is what every person does right?)  This just left me wondering what if anything I was supposed to do for her classmates.

The class is for babies 0-12 months so clearly the other 4 babies in the class were dying to see how many Valentine's they would receive.  So the real question is what are the other moms thinking - are we going to do cute cards (this would be my vote) or are we going to pretend it isn't a holiday.  We have been taking this class since December with the same moms yet I still have no real read on them at all. This started my most recent trip to crazytown. 

I really wanted to celebrate - it is a first holiday and thus every attempt to capture the perfect moment needs to happen. At the same time you really don't want to come off as a crazy person around people you don't know that well.  I mean no one wants to be that annoyingly over the top mom. I am also pretty sure they already think I am the crazy over the top mom since Baby Girl is always dressed in themes with matching hair bows. (This is true even, if like me, you are the crazy over the top mom.  Embrace you are crazy, acknowledge it and keep that crazy in girlfriend until you are with your friends who have known you too long to foresake you for your crazy).

Aside: I am not ashamed of my crazy or I wouldn't be writing this but sometimes it is just easier to hold your crazy back.  This is one of those times where pure laziness makes me want to hold back the crazy.

Doing what any self respecting crazy does, I sent a frantic email to two of my girlfriends who are mommies and spewed out all of the insanity running through my mind.  Being good girlfriends they helped me sift through what was insane and what was rational and come up with a plan. The plan was a good simple reasonable plan. I was going to go to Target and buy a package of simple school kid Valentine's Day cards.  I was going to fill them out, put them in my diaper bag, and go to class.  If it seemed appropriate I would pull them out, hand them out and be fine.  If not I kept them in my bag and didn't seem crazy -a simple, easy, and straight forward plan. 

But we all know what they said about the road to hell, it is paved with good intentions. In my attempt to not be crazy, I ended up being even crazier than normal. It all started when Target had nothing that really excited me.  This lack of excitment was compounded by Pinterest.  I decided that there are only 4 kids in the class and I have Publisher and card stock I am just going to print cards I like to take to class.  With this in mind, I made this:

Now you look at this and think - well this doesn't seem too over the top or crazy.  And you are right, this is not too over the top or crazy.  That is why I was unable to stop myself at this point. And the cards became this:

Of course that is for the boys.  The girls I had to do a girlier one for the only other girl in the class.

Mrs. Beth our teacher couldn't be left out either so I found a pair of women's socks.  All together this is what I ended up:

I got done with these cards and realized that my attempts to hide the crazy had failed miserably. So by attempting to be normal and not over the top I actually ended up more over the top than I had planned. This left me worried about just how everyone else in the class was going to react.  Many times I talked myself out of taking the cards.  The worry was way out of proportion to the importance of this decision. Just when I thought the worry was over - Baby Girl's music teacher was sick and class was cancelled.

So now these cards have been on my dining room table for a week and we are taking them to class this week. Here is to hoping that my crazy doesn't scare away any future friends of Baby Girl.

At Home Vanilla Latte

It is one of life's cruel jokes that just at the time you need the most caffeine it becomes harder and harder to get said caffeine.  Having a baby proves this rule.  You are sleep deprived so you could use the hit but it can be hard to make it work, particularly if you are like me and occasionally crave a speciality coffee drink. For me this drink is a vanilla latte. This leaves you with a few options:

1) Go to a coffee shop and get your drink - Of course this means dressing yourself (because what mother of a new kid actually wears real clothes), dressing the baby (which means multiple outfit changes because what new baby doesn't get "fluid" on the first 2 outfits you put on her), driving to the coffee shop and either praying there is a drive-thru or hauling the 157 pound infant carrier out of the car. Then you pay $5 for a drink that you finish before you get home where you immediately begin to crave a second.

2) Buy an espresso machine and learn to make the drink yourself - This of course involves finding the time to buy one and lets not kid ourselves here you are going to buy it in the middle of the night using your Amazon mom account because you won't make it to Bed Bath and Beyond (please don't pretend you will because you will only disappoint yourself).  Then you have to buy the supplies and figure out how to use it as well as where to put the big machine in your kitchen that has suddenly been overtaken by baby stuff.

3) Figure out how to make it at home without any special equipment - This is the route I took and below is what I figured out.

The initial inspiration was Martha Stewart.  She had a recipe to make an at home latte w/out espresso machine as part of a segment on adding nutrients to your diet. This was how to drink more skim milk.  As a nursing mom, I have a hard time drinking enough milk plus I love vanilla lattes so I perked up. Her directions were for a plain latte and as you can imagine involved kitchen gadgets I don't own so I modified to make the recipe below.

At Home Vanilla Latte

Ingredients (all are approximate - I am not much of a measurer when I cook):
1/2 cup double brewed regular coffee
3/4 cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2-3 pinches of sugar

Tools:
Coffee pot
Two large coffee mugs (one bigger than the other)
Whisk or fork
Spoon

1) Make a pot of coffee just a little stronger than you normally would.  How big of a pot you make depends on how many lattes you plan to make.
2) Once the pot is done brewing, pour the coffee into the water reservoir of your coffee pot and brew it through the same grounds again to get double brewed coffee.
3) While the coffee is finishing up add the skim milk to the bigger of the two mugs and begin to whisk the milk.  Whisk the milk until it gets stiff white foam on top and increases in volume. I tend to whisk for 45-60 seconds.  This determines what kind of foam top you have on your latte so whisk more for more foam and less for less foam.

4) Place mug of milk in the microwave for 2-2.5 minutes.
5) While milk heats add vanilla and sugar to coffee and stir. I am serious about the pinch here - the more sugar you add the worse this drink becomes for you.

6) While waiting on milk to finish heating begin to do a minute of squats because you notice your butt looked big and you aren't sure if the baby will be pleasant enough to go to the gym today. If you make more than one latte a day switch this step up between squats and lunges.
7) With jello-ish legs from the squats, remove milk from microwave and carry over to your mug of flavored coffee.
8) Use the back of your spoon to pour milk into coffee while holding back the foam (just like the baristas do.)
9) Once you have the milk into the coffee give it a quick stir.
10) Now use your spoon, to spoon the foam onto the top of the drink.

Enjoy your caffeine - no seriously drink it up fast before the baby wakes up from her nap.

Christmas 2011 1

Ho Ho Cheer Christmas

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Christmas 20011 2

Cranberry Snow Winter

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Christmas 2011 3

Love Hope Faith Religious

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Mandatory Watching for First Time Mom's to Be

As I sit here over due and thinking about the (hopefully soon) arrival of Baby S, I can't help but feel nervous.  It is only natural of course - we are first time parents so this is all new.  I particularly find myself worried about screwing up my kid in some non-repairable way.  Visions of therapy and stumped emotional growth dance through my head.  Am I capable of being a good parent? 

I am happy to announce that when I have these fears I have found a sure fire way to curb them...................I watch Toddlers and Tiaras.  In fact, I think this little gem of a show on TLC should in fact be required television for all first time parents to be. 

At this point, I am sure many people are wondering if I have lost my mind.  I mean how can a show about children's beauty pageant's where scenes like this one be related to good parenting.  Let me tell you how - it reassures me that no matter what I can't screw my kid up this badly.

Now now don't get me wrong, I don't hate beauty pageants.  In fact, there are occasionally girls and moms on this show that truly seem to enjoy it and are part of a normal functioning family.  To these families I say keep it up - any thing that a family can enjoy and do together is good.  But sadly this doesn't seem the norm.  Instead we see mom's living through their kids and forcing kids into crazy situations. I mean who waxes their 4 year old?  Or gives their toddler fake teeth so you can't tell their teeth aren't pretty.  In one episode, a mom actually said she thought it was cute that her 2 year old hit her and told her she hates her.  Actually this isn't normal - and you might want to listen when your kid cries as you force her onto a stage and she screams I hate you. 

So to my fellow first time parents, the next time you are up late in the middle of the night wandering what kind of emotional damage your bad parenting may cause your kid, I invite you to find Toddlers and Tiaras either on TV or online.  This is should reassure you about your abilities and help you get back to sleep.

P.S. Apparently I should also add shop on JC Penney's online to the list of must do items for first time parents. Who greenlighted this gem?

Pregnancy Paranoia

I think it is a fairly well established facts that pregnant women are a ball of hormones who can be completely irrational most of the time.  I freely admit that I am frequently irrational on my best non-pregnant days and being pregnant has only made this worse.  I find myself frequently chanting to myself "you are irrational stop, you are irrational stop."  It works about 50% of the time. Today I have found a topic of concern that I just can't stop being irrational about and I wanted to share.

As I have read pregnancy books and message boards or talked to other parents I have realized that it is perfectly normal to worry about your baby's future even if those fears are not always based in reality.  I have started to have these worries about Baby S's future.  But rather than worrying about things like birth defects, car seat safety, SIDS or other more normal concerns for baby - I have a whole other set of fears: international fear due to multi-national debt default.

Now some people reading this will wonder WTH I am talking about, others reading this are going to start laughing hysterically and think that this totally fits.  Either way, my concerns are no less real.  I feel like I am no longer emotionally strong enough to watch the news.  I have nightmares about debt default at night.

But then as I have these fears, I begin to fear that perhaps I will pass them along to Baby S.  Instead of having nightmares about the bogeyman or ghosts am I going to make Baby S fear the US's S&P rating or chaos in the Eurozone.  Is my kid going to get made fun of at school for worrying how the international financial market is going to impact the future of the economy and basic social safety net programs?

You think this is far fetched but I can assure you that I was in fact that kid.  For example at 8 years old, I cried because we had to get a new President.  I became very concerned about disruption in governance and what kind of instability this would bring to the country.  I just didn't understand why if things were ok we needed to change President.  This literally kept me up at night. (As a random aside this is particularly funny because of course the President I was afraid to have leave office was Reagan.)

Being keen to co-parent I have shared my fears with my husband.  He laughed hysterically.  So much for support.

For now I have just decided to stop watching the news and stick to E!, Bravo, and HGTV.

Haven't you always wanted to?

You are at a restaurant and your water glass is empty.  You can see the water pitcher but nothing you do can get the waitress to refill your glass.  Haven't you always wanted to just get up and refill the d$mn glass yourself?

You are at a boring luncheon where rubber chicken in on the menu.  You look longingly at the empty chairs in front of pre-set salads and cheese cake.  Don't you just want to send the nasty chicken back and go eat the extra desserts (or I suppose salads)?

Good news - when you are visible pregnant you totally get to do both of those items and no one blinks.  In fact you are applauded for your assertiveness and stepping up to take care of your body and baby.

The freedom to totally just do and say as you want and blame it on pregnancy, the baby or hormones is a heady kind of freedom and power.  All of those things that you would be judged negatively before or would mortify your long suffering spouse suddenly become acceptable when you are pregnant.  Want to tell someone they are stupid and to stop talking to you?  Go for it - it is no longer rude it is hormones.  Want to demand more bread at dinner?  No worry about being judged as a pig - carbs are "good" for pregnant ladies.  Want a specific seat - people will give it to you.  Need to cut in the bathroom line or use the family one restroom - do it!

I may or may not have done all of the items above and perhaps others - I am going to exercise my 5th Amendment rights and admit nothing.

I have found this the absolute best thing about being pregnant.  All of those things I have always had to hold back on for fear of my mother or husband's judgement, I am now free to do.  I am kind of going to be sad to have this go away.

Of course to get this power you only have to accept with the downsides of pregnancy such as vomiting, retaining water, loss of bladder control, inability to drink, acne, strange rashes, stretch marks, and weight gain.

It is totally worth the trade right? No? Maybe?

The Good, the bad, the ugly?

As someone who is suffering through her third trimester in the summer I have discovered there are some definite perks to being this pregnant when it is this hot (large hot preggos are pitiful) but there are also some unexpected downsides as well.

First, the good - when you are pregnant in the summer no one expects you to wear panty hose! The bad - people still expect you to shave your legs.  Now those of you who have not been pregnant may wonder what this has to do with anything.  Let me enlighten you.  I too was excited when I first realized that all rules about appropriate business attire kind of go out the window when you are in your third trimester, particularly when it meant that I got a pass about wearing panty hose in a business situation (hose are a nasty hateful invention aren't they).  As I have found skirts and dresses much more comfortable I was particularly thrilled about this.

Of course while you get the pass from wearing panty hose you aren't given a pass from basic grooming requirements. This is not something I thought would ever be a problem. That is until I realized about a month ago that I can't lift my leg to shave in the shower anymore.  Nor can I bend over if it is on the shower floor.  Further execrating this issue is that when pregnant the combo of hormones and prenatal vitamins cause your hair to grow like crazy (great for hair on your head and nails not so much for your legs).

This problem really left me stumped for quite awhile.  I mean what am I supposed to do?  It is too uncomfortably hot to wear pants but god my legs looked like an overweight Italian man's.  After much experimentation and debate I think I have found a solution.  Post-shower, I now sit in the tub and shave as much of my leg as I can reach.  Right now this lets me shave to the top of my knee and I figure that s good enough.  I am not sure what I am going to do when I can only shave my ankle.  Give up all attempts at grooming perhaps.........

G

And Baby Makes 3, oops I mean 5

So as many of you know we already have two small four legged children who have been with us for quite awhile. I can't help but wonder how they are going to adjust to having a new sibling. What I do know is that they already keep us on our toes and ensure lots of laugh -see below for an example.

I have really been enjoying the sound sleep of a pregnant woman. As a former insomniac, sleeping all night has been a nice bonus so imagine my surprise when at 7:45 morning the other morning I was rudely woken up. What was truly odd was that what woke me was our bed literally moving across the bedroom floor. Saying many many bad words that I won't list here, I tried to wake up enough to figure out why I was moving. At that point I realized a few items:

1) Hank (our 12 year old Shih Tzu) was sound asleep in the bed snoring loudly despite the fact we were moving.

2) I could hear what sounded like a person choking loudly.

3) A massive thunderstorm was taking place.

Adding these strange pieces of information together my sleepy mind then realize Sophie (our 8 year old Jack) was missing. I realized at this point that I wasn't actually hearing choking but instead was hearing Sophie grunting and crying because she was completely melting down due to the storm. Picture a 20 pound dog having a temper tantrum similar to a toddler. During the course of her tantrum she had managed to:

1) Move Mike's night stand

2) Knock over a pole lamp

3) Move a large under the bed plastic storage container full of bedding and

4) Move our queen size bed about 6 inches

All in an effort to get under our bed and hide from the storm. Clearly an upstairs room under a window is the safest place to go during severe weather (note to self: Sophie is not to instruct Baby S on emergency procedures).

After verifying that Sophie was indeed ok (btw it is no small feat to get on the floor and crawl under the bed at 28 weeks pregnant) I moved the bed back against the wall and crawled back in. It was at this point I realized Hank still hadn't woken up.

I think Auntie B has it correct - all we can do is hope that Baby S inherits Hank's sleeping talents.

Never a dull moment in Sheltonland.

G-

To Blog or Not to Blog

This blog has been inactive for almost two years. After a long wait it appears we finally have something worthwhile to share with the world. Or at least I think we have something worthwhile to share with the world, Mike may disagree.

I'm going to attempt to blog about my last trimester of pregnancy and the arrival of Baby S as a method of keeping folks updated. My hope is that this is easier for me time wise than lots of group emails.

Fair warning - I only speak in sarcasm so expect snakiness and really you shouldn't take anything I write too seriously.

Expect the first snarked filled post soonish.

Cheers - G

Medieval to Mod

Bavaria day three (Rothenburg): funf wurst (five bratwursts)...sadly, that's the last of Bavaria.

Munich (Munchen) is great, and cheap - go there if you can. Since Gena isn't the most practiced bike rider, we didn't do that in this very bike friendly town (or Amsterdam, which may be the Western Hemisphere's bike capitol). Not that we needed to, as Munich is very walkable.

Leaving Munich, we stopped off at Rothenburg o/d Tauber (like Springfield in the USA, Germany has many Rothenburg's so you need some suffixes to make sure you end up in the right one). This Rothenburg is pretty much what you envision when you think of olde timey Europe at Christmas. It was beautiful in the heat of August, so it has to be tremendous with some snow in December.

Then we headed up to Bacharach, a little Rhineland burg. Bacharach is tiny, with good food but not much going on. Using it as a cheap home base, we toured the Rhine's castle-row by boat and hiked the town of St. Goar and it's massive castle remains. This length of the Rhine between Bacharach and St. Goar (about 90 minutes by boat) has (from memory) six castles...physical testiment to Germany's feudal system past.

The Rhine has for centuries been a key trading transportation hub - some say it sees more annual trade traffic than any other river in the world. The castles would be set up (one literally in the middle of the river) to block boats from passing until they paid a fee. Would sorta be like all of Ohio's counties along Lake Erie assessing their own pass-through fee for every boat headed to/from the Upper Great Lakes. Some of the strongest supporters for doing away with feudal principalities in favor of a stronger/larger Germanic nation-state? Would you believe....the merchants who utilized the Rhine?

After this foray into the Rhineland, our train pulled into Amsterdam. We really only had one day - which I thought may be too little time, but now I'm not sure you really need much more than that. First, if you're planning on going there in the next three years, the train station is under heavy construction. So, just kinda follow the crowds for the way out of the station and onto Damrak (the city's main drag). Second, English might as well be the national language. If you were hoping to practice your Dutch, better find another location.

In many ways, Amsterdam is Europe's Las Vegas. Obviously, there is the, ahem, reputation for ill repute in both cities. But in my mind's eye - they are unnatural settings for human existance. Vegas is in the middle of the desert. Amsterdam is in the middle of, well, the ocean. Without tremendous human engineering, neither town would exist. As such, to me, both cities are a little silly, if not preposterous.

A ton of federal and state taxpayer dollars go into keeping Vegas supplied with sufficient water supply. On the opposite end, Amsterdam has to pay dearly to keep their city above water. The buildings are on top of thousands of pilings, that are hundreds of years old. As those pilings fail, the buildings get a shade slanty. Hopefully we can post some pics, because it's like people are living in the Leaning Tower of Pisa all over town. Trouble is, the townhomes are right up against one another...so as one starts to lean...

The buildings are beautiful, but if I lived there, I would definately stay a renter.

Thankfully, the Anne Frank house is not one of the slanty houses. It is, however, one of the saddest homes you would ever hope to visit though. The world owes Anne Frank much. Perhaps because she was a child, when her diary was finally published many readers could identify with her. As a result (and a few other works like Night), it became ok for other publishers to print material from Holocaust victims/survivors. Without the chord that her diary struck across the world, we may not have widely published works from other survivors. Check out Primo Levi if you can.

Gena & I agreed the house itself was larger inside than we had previously imagined, with the steepest stairs we'd encountered. But we were only inside for a couple hours...Anne and her fellow hiders were there for years, of course. Though the house is unfurnished (intentionally), some of her personal effects remain such as the posters she hung on her shared bedroom wall to daydream herself out of the house. Heartbreaking.

Altogether another form of daydreaming can be done at the Van Gogh museum, which is also excentally presented. While it does not currently have Starry Night (perhaps his biggest crowd pleaser), it's collection is stellar. From Potato Eaters to Sunflowers to Wheatfield with Crows, the museum is excentally laid out including his influences, life chronology, and stylistic development. I was previously unaware of how crucial his sister-in-law was to ensuring his works were protected after his death.

I found cruising the canals of the city (more numerous than Venice) underwhelming, though there are worse ways to spend an afternoon. It is a nice view of the city's pretty architecture, but the canals themselves are fairly littered with debris, taking away from the experience.

As for the Red Light district - not as dirty and seedy as I had anticipated, but still pretty sketchy and surreal (especially when we would see a customer duck into a door...or worse, come out). We cleared out before darkness fully fell, though, so it could be a bit ranker then.

But let me tell you about the fully modern hotel room we had in our last night in Europe - best thing ever! Citizen M...trippy cool lights with matching music soundtracks, separate freestanding/circular enclosures for the toilet and shower, and all electronics on a PDA-like remote control. And about 1/3 the cost of a traditional place in Amsterdam, with walking distance to the airport (which we found quite difficult and frustrating to navigate). They have an expansion plan across Europe in the next couple years - so if you're making the jump across the pond, check to see if they're in the city you're planning on going to.

Hello You-Woo Photo and other random ruminations

So we are in Munich and I am not going to lie I am not in love with this place. I think I am just tired but it is making me cranky. To avoid sinking too far into a bad mood I thought I would share a few more random thoughts from the trip thus far.

1. Hello You-Woo Photo - This little gem comes to via Paris. While in the City of Light we decided to take a night boat cruise on the Seine. Like manz tourist traps this place wanted to take a commermative picture to sell zou at the end of the cruise. But they used the world´s worst method to achieve this goal. First they had not one but two photogs. The first took random pictures of you on the ship´s gangplank. But he didn´t tell you he was just sort of in a corner snapping random pictures as folks walked on. The result was that no one was looking at him and sometimes people were only half in his pictures. Now if you can believe this the second photographer was actuallý even weirder. He was walking around the boat and he would come up to a group of people (sometimes they weren´t actually together as a group just happened to be sitting togehter) and he would yell Hello, You-Woo Photo and then immediatelz snap a picture. The result was everzone had one of two expressions -startled or confused. Again not a good business model.

I thought I would be smart and out smart him. I saw him coming and grabbed Mike and we posed. We got off the boat and went to the thing to see the funnz startled or confused expressions. Must to my surprise was our picture. Yes we were posed and smiling but my tank top had slipped while I leaned forward. These crazy people printed a full color 8x10 picture of us and one entire half of mz bra is out. Lovely.

2. Cliff Diving - In Murren, where we stayed in Switzerland the big thing is cliff diving. Now for those not familiar with this ´adventure sport´ allow me to explain it. You are given this skinny parachute and then thez shove you off of a cliff. The goal is to see how far you can free fall before you decide to pull the parachute cord. Of all this is down of course while attempting to not hit the cliff face. People were doing this is droves and paying around 200 bucks for some one to push them off a cliff. I believe there are wards and drugs for these folks. Mike wanted to try it. I told him he had good life insurance through the state so to go ahead I´d collect the body.

3. He can walk its a miracle - So today we saw the crippled walk. What caused this miracle you ask? A holy relic at an ancient church perhaps, nope 2 beer cans that were thrown in the trash. That´s right we were at a train station waiting for a connection and there was a young boy there in a wheelchair. Two girls finished two tall boys and put them in the trash can. The wheel chair bound boy got up out of his chair, walked to the trash can, fished out the two empties, crushed them and put them in his backpack. I wanted to yell it is a miracle he´s cured. Mike just said the German´s take their recycling seriously.

4. The former royal family is bad at screwing tourists - Today we went to visit Neuschwanstein castle. For those who don´t know click the wikipedia link. But basically the two castles are built around a village whose whole purpose in live is to soak as much money as possible out of tourists. These places are for the most part owned by family to the former royal family. They are so serious about soaking tourists here that they force you to have downtime between tours in their shops. Once again I am forced to point out the flaws in a tourist traps business model (though maybe I shouldnät make suggestions on how to take more of mz monez). This town had 1 ATM which was out of service, no money exchage and no shop or food place took credit card or any kind of money but a euro. We had a grand total of 8 euro which we needed to pay for the public transportation to and from the train station. Now we were hungry and crankz but reallz the parties truly hurt by this are the businesses themselves since they can´t fully bilk tourists under this system. Mike says he is buying a stand there and selling food and beer while accepting credit card and exchanging money at a horrible rate. But it won´t matter because we have no competition.

I think that is it for me for today. I am exhausted. We have walked and walked. Also who knew but Munich is miserably hot with terrible humidity. It has been 90 the past two days yet nothing has AC. I kind of want to curl into a little ball and die.

Cinderella´s Castle

Just back from Neuschwanstein to visit King Ludwig II´s unfinished masterpiece (as well as his boyhood home castle) in the Bavarian Alp foothills. This is the castle that inspired Walt Disney to work up a home for Cinderella. Very pretty, with the best ceilings ever. Probably would have been better if we had done a little reading about Wagner beforehand, as Ludwig was obsessed with the guy and his opera´s, so pretty much every painting has something to do with a Wagner opera. Still, definately a sight to see.

Yesterday was a sad day at Dachau. This is a massive facility, that oddly was repurposed for a short time after the war to house "guest workers" that came for the Restoration construction work...walking down the wide gravel path between the former prisoner barraks was disturbingly pretty, a ruse the Nazi´s used to demonstrate to the Red Cross what kind of conditions prisoners were living under. It now houses a very well done (organized in typical German order) museum that traces the history of the facility and the country´s conditions giving rise to National Socialism (Nazi) power.

Proud moment though, when looking at the plaque dedicated to the U.S. Army unit that liberated the camp (actually two units converged at once, but one got hung up shooting it out with the Nazi tower guards, while the other unit circumnavigated the guardhouse to get behind the Nazi´s...at which point the Nazi´s laid down their arms posthaste, knowing they had been left behind to give up and knowing the Americans had overwhelming firepower).

Highly recommend this, as well as the Radius Tour company we hitched along with for interpreting the silent remains of this gruesome place, if you ever find yourself in Munich.

For something completely different, went to the famed Hofbrau House for dinner after walking the stunning town square (Marianplatz, or Mary´s Place, dedicated to baby Jesus´mother) with its jousting glockenspiel. Though touristy, it still maintains local cred with all of the tables that have been reserved for decades by local groups. Plenty of oompah music to enjoy our steins of beverages with. Still, sobering when considering that Hitler would give some of his major early speeches here to win over the locals, due to its ability to hold thousands within its walls.

So, the running tally would be -

Bavaria day one (Munich) - drei wursts, zwei breze (three sausages, two big pretzels)
Bavaria day two, so far (Fussen/Munich) - ein wurst, ein breze (one sausage, one big pretzel)...I cannot wait until dinner

To slightly continue the last post on energy policy - environmentalism has worked miracles here that we have witnessed with our own eye. At the train platform, a passenger we had seen wheeling around in a wheelchair noticed that someone had put two aluminum cans into the garbage bin. Like Lazarus, up he rose, walked (propelled by his singular commitment to the Earth), retrieved said cans to put into his chair´s bag to place them in the proper disposal container at a later time. The healing powers driven by the evironmental spirit have no boundaries. That, or the phenomenal exchange rate Germans must be given for turning in their cans. My knowledge of the German language does not allow for such mysteries to be revealed.

A random thing I forgot to blog about earlier - the Irish have no idea what "Erin Go Brah" means (nor do I), and detest the "Kiss me I´m Irish" business. Seems these are American inventions to include more people in the St. Patty´s Day festivities. We´re a bit more inclusive when it comes to celebrations, it appears.

Now, about that wurst count....

Let us talk about energy policy

Guess who is blogging.

First, the Alps are amazing. They are now going to be my top hiking recommendation in the world. After, of course, Hocking Hills State Park.

Second, it seems that much of Europe is very imposing. Obviously, the mountains (but I am sure the Rockies are as well). But the buildings here are just massive structures. It is like virtually every building was made with the thought of lasting a few centuries. This is, sadly, not the case in the U.S. How long will the cardboard shacks that make up Easton Town Place, Polaris Fashion Mall, and Dayton´s The Greene (or whatever absurd name they have given that Easton wannabe) last? Think they will be around 500 years from now? I would be generous in saying they may last 40 years. The whole reason for Polaris existing has already changed (remember the outdoor concert venue there?).

Which gets me thinking about energy policy, which, like the French drains I couldn´t stop noticing once I picked up on them, I cannot stop thinking about as we train through this string of really old human settlements.

We like to say that we can build these lame shopping malls all over the place because America has the room to spread out. The big secret is that Europe does too. There is farmland as far as the eye can see here, once you step out of the city walls (literally).

What is interesting to me is how they are adapting their old cities. Since touching down at Heathrow Airport, I have not used a urinal that uses water. That is two weeks, five countries and counting.

We passed commercial wind farms in rural Wales and Germany. Solar panels seem to be standard issue in Germany´s countryside homes. What was clearly a sophistically capped landfill was harvesting methane in Germany. Most of the towns we traversed in the Alps had a no car policy (because they simply were unnecessary). The trains we have ridden have been effecient, easy to negotiate regardless of the language they were issued in, and have always been clean.

Finally, when we were driving in Ireland, I noticed, since it was the only time I had to fill the tank, that gas was 1.10. Not bad, right? First, you have to convert that to Euro´s from American dollars. So, really that is 1.65. But then, you realize they are on the metric system (name that movie: "they wouldn´t know what a quarter-pounder was"), and the gas price is per liter not gallon. There are about four liters in a gallon. So, now you are talking 6.30 per gallon of gas.

While that hurt the travel budget, I am quite sure it drives travel decision making for the average European.

I know American´s love their cars - I know I love mine...but it seems that Old Man Europe can still teach the young kid a thing or two on best use of available resources. Like Bill Bryson said in his fun European trip novel - "We used to build civilazations. Now we build shopping malls."

Sorry to rant (you knew it was coming sooner or later), but it is just frustrating to see us lag behind folks who use words like "queue" and endless amounts of hair product on a regular basis.

Now that I am off that whole trip for now, yes I do love the location of our Munich hotel (per Gena´s most recent post).

Next up - some sadness at Dachau Concentration Camp (the first one Hitler created). Not sure I will be able to blog after that (especially knowing we are hoping to visit the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam).

The German is coming in handy - managed to get myself a poppyseed roll with dinner, anyway.

Umm I don´t this is where I was supposed to end up

First, once again this is a German keyboard but has yet a different layout of keys, still the z and y reversal though so I imagine that will once again be an issue.

We left Murren this morning and headed to Munich. This was a ridiculous case of multi country you can´t get here from there. It took us more than 8 hours to make the trek and it involved going west to the border of France and Germany and about two hours farther north than Munich actually is to arrive here. To put it in context we took a train through the entire black forest region to cut back east to get to barvaria. It was so obscure that the conducter at the station at Murren felt bad and printed out a schedule for us with instructions to try to prevent us from getting lost. We didn´t get lost and arrived right now time.

There was some issue with us getting to Munich tonight because we weren´t actuallz supposed to arrive until tomorrow so we had no hotel reservation. The hotel we are staying out was full for tonight so we needed alternative arrangements. Tommorrow we are taking a tour of Dachau and the trip leaves from the Munich Central station so we just decided to stay close to the station since we didnät get in until after 8 pm. To find a hotel we consulted our handy dandy Rick Steves Germanz. He directed us to what he called the best value for monez in the area if zou donät mind the two strip clubs. We though whatever we will onlz be here a few hours.

What he neglected to mention is that it isn´t two strip clubs it is an entire street of strip clubs and sex shops -seriouslz like mazbe 5 blocks of nothing but adult establishments of some sort or another. And because it is Europe the sidewalk ads for these establishments are very descriptive if zou will. We just went out for dinner and
1. I swear we passed a prostitute
2. We walked towards places with food like names onlz to find out that thez were in fact more strip clubs or other such places
3. I was embaressed to look at all the men walking down the street because it was quite clear what thez were going to be doing tonight.
Finally we found a sandwich shop and grabbed something and brought ti back to the hotel. The hotel is quite nice and is probablz the nicest place we have stayed so far and is bz far the cheapest. Thez have a nice eating area with a free computer with internet access. We sat in the eating area and watched the street. Oddlz among all of this adult oriented businesses are throngs of tourists and oddlz families with reallz small children. It is completely weird. While I feel safe in guessing that our hotel tomorrow wonät be this nice I will happilz move into the old center of town awaz from whatever in the world this is.....again I donät think this is where we were supposed to end up.

Finally what vacation is supposed to feel like

This is a joint Shelton blog here....we are pleased to announce that we are in love with the Alps and could franklz staz here forever. This is what we thought vacation would be like. It is beautiful, relaxing and peaceful. The other tourists are mellow.

We hiked an actual alp today. It was amazingly beautiful but exhausting. We met some fun fellow travelers and took a path that lead us from an alpine valley of cows to the woods and behind a waterfall. Here is some info on where we are and what we hiked. August no brown bears to speak of just a lot of cows. We took the train up the mountain and then took the north face hike down but split off at the bottom to go to the falls and Gimmelwald. It was lovely but we both are quite sunburnt today. We miscalculated the amount of sunscreen needed when you are at this altitude.

We leave for Munich tomorrow and will be sad to leave this behind. Mike has furthered his obsession with pretzel bread here and hopes that a German Village baker will take up the cause so he can feed this addiction upon our return to Cbus.

We'll see you all soon and look out for our German adventures to come soon.

Est ist Michael.

Ahhh...Parieee, the City of Light, the City of Love...

Well, I guess. The Eiffel Tower is pretty amazing. It is fun to climb the stairs to the Arc de Triomphe and look down on the zany people driving from twelve different directions. The facade of Notre Dame is just about as intricate a building as you will ever see. The food is amazing, especially if you have the opportunity to pack a picnic after buying one thing from seven different stores, each with their own specialty. (And amazingly cheap, good wine to go with said picnic.)

But after that, Paris is kind of a dud. If you have been to Washington, D.C., it largely resembles the good architechture and city layout (including public parks) of Paris, for obvious reasons. The streets are narrower, giving a more intimate and neighborly feeling than D.C. But I am not sure if a quality structure has been built in Paris in the past two centuries. They are ugly, unfunctional eyesores in my opinion.

It is interesting to use their Metro, which was apparently the first underground subway system in the world. And to fully appreciate the term "French drain" as they are ingeniously employed everywhere.

What is odd, is I would think it would be more enjoyable to be a Parisian than a Londoner or Dubliner. Paris is certainly more relaxed, except for the throngs of tourists. Plus there seems to be more ways to enjoy the open spaces and many more restaurants with better food. However, I could never get along in that city...I am just not wired to take things as slow as the Parisians prefer.

For example, it is not uncommon to seat yourself at a cafe and then wait 20 or 25 minutes before you are acknowledged and asked if you want something to drink. Expect another 20 to 25 minutes before you are asked if you would like something to eat. This is not rude, this is because Parisians want to enjoy their time people watching when they go out to eat, so they want to show their customers that same respect. Trouble is, when I (like most Americans, probably), jump into a restaurant, it is because I am hungry now, and want to eat now. So, to live there, one would have to plan their meals...or readjust their bellies to not get hungry until 9 or 10 pm for dinner.

Also, Parisians do not care for things to be cold. Like water, or any drink really. I do not get that one, because it is pretty hot and muggy.

Oh...one cool thing about Paris is they love St. Michael...a major boulevard and statute thingy mark their love of him. In front of the statute thingy is where student protests against the machine usually start. So, I am pretty proud of all that.

Due to timing, and a desire not to lug our backpacks all over God,s Green Earth, we had to lopp off French items on the front end (WWII Normandy Invasion beaches) and back end (Burgundy region wine tour). I was pretty sad at missing the Normandy beaches, but perhaps another time when I have kinda forgotten about not really enjoying Paris/France as I thought I would.

We have arrived in the Swiss Alps, though, and it is truly inspiring. I am loving it here and we are only about three hours in. Huge ice capped mountains that our little chalet looks out on from the teeny town of Murren. Going to do some hiking tomorrow, and no need to be worried about being hit by a car because they are outlawed up this way. Probably best for everyone,s safety.

Plus, this gives me a chance to put that Cleveland Public educated German to use....

Like Gena said, we are using a German keyboard, so apologies if some things are typed incorrectly or there is weird punctuation (tried to find the best substitute possible).

Auf Wiedersehen...

These are a few of my favorite things

I am high in the Alps and even though really I am no where near Salzburg I can't help singing songs from The Sound of Music - sue me.

Disclaimer - I am using a German keyboard and well none of the letters are in the same place so forgive any weird misspellings particularlz z's insteand of y's thez are reversed on the keyboard.

Contrary to how some of mz posts have sounded, I am actually enjoying my trip. I realize I sound like a cranky old lady - but really I am just an irritable youngish person.

We hit the Alps today and it is beautiful and wonderful. There aren't many people to begin with and those who are here are low key. It is a blessing as if I had to spend one more day in Paris I might have hit someone. I am enjoying the sheep and cows though we are so high up we had to use a cable car. I don't care what anyone says they can't be safe. I am sure I am going to be the next CNN story "Ohio Couple Killed in Freak Cable Car Accident".

To prove that I am not completely cranky and mean I thought I would share some of my favorite things thus far.

1. London's Red Phone Booths - I wasn't sure if these famous booths had survived the cell phone era. They have and now are in one of two forms. The first is rather harmless. Thez are empty booths set up for tourists to take pictures. The second is not nearly as wholesome. They still have phones in them and are set up for phone sex. The walls are plastered with posters of naked woman advertising the equivelant of 1-900 in the UK. I love it because people still pose for this traditional familz photos yet there is porn clearlz visible in the background. We watched a father pose his young songs one night in a phone sex booth and we laughed and laughed. We are mean I know but so funnz.

2. Complete lack of open container laws - I am not sure why I enjoz this so much maybe because I feel like I am secretlz being bad but it is nice to just random drink in public places.

3. Trains - I love them and the people I meet there. I am that person who makes friends in airports I know it. But trains are quick and clean and you see things along the way I love it. I wish the US had a better rail system.

The trip is now more than half over and we are on the back end. The big cities are prettz much behind us so hopefully I can become less angry at mz fellow travelers : )