Note to those who are moving: When they say that your unaccompanied baggage will be picked up any time between 0700 and 2100, they ain't lyin'. Nothing like giving you a 14 hour time window to sit in an empty house. Our guys showed up at 1800.

Second note to those who are moving: The vehicle registration office closes at noon the last business day of the month for inventory. That info would've been nice to know when we set up our car shipping appointment for the last business day of the month. They're also closed on German holidays (Monday's Communism Day, I mean May Day), so if we hadn't raced to get there at 1120, we would've been out of luck for clearing.

Third note to those who are moving: Don't get a billeting room with a kitchen when you're outprocessing. Your TLA is double! Woo-hoo. That will offset the money my husband had to shell out to CIF.

Thank goodness this week is over.

Posted by: Sarah at 11:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, the house is packed. The movers said they had never spent four hours packing a kitchen before. I guess fourteen boxes of dishes and kitchen stuff is a bit much. Our household goods are mostly dishes, yarn, and books.

I noticed one thing today. You'd think that people who design military housing would make it conducive to moving. Since people are always moving in and out, maybe twisty staircases and right angles in the hallways are not a good idea. I watched the movers bang my stuff a million times while they were trying to maneuver out the front door and down the huge step. These houses should have ramps!

Posted by: Sarah at 11:59 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Charlie Puppy made it off OK this morning. I think. He was crying up a storm when we had to leave him, but I think he was only crying slightly harder than I was. He still has another 11 hours until he gets to the Midwest.

We're getting ready to take apart the computer. It goes in unaccompanied baggage, along with ma games and trophies. (There's a little AFN humor for ya.) We're staying with Erin for two nights, so I might find the time to hop online at some point before we go.

Now I'm off to organize our school clothes, and maybe a winter coat.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:52 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 We got a big kick out of this

Posted by: The Girl at April 24, 2006 01:55 PM (HqRyY)

2 I remember our last night in our on-post housing. We were only qualified to have four nights in the Krystall Inn so we "roughed" it for two nights on our own...only the army bed in the guest bedroom with one blanket and pillows...thank goodness it was the beginning of August and we didn't have to worry about staying warm! We caved in through and eventually went across the street to the Boggianos...yeah, we're babies!

Posted by: Nicole at April 24, 2006 07:49 PM (CpOyu)

3 Safe travels Charlie Boy! (oh and happy belated birthday..)

Posted by: MaryIndiana at April 25, 2006 12:50 AM (YwdKL)

4 Godspeed on your travels Sarah! Oh and for Charlie too! I am sure he arrived in style and complete comtempt from being stuck in the belly of a plane, I'm mean come on according to him he should have been lounging in first class! We just sent our puppy Bella back two weeks ago and I cried while the dog gave me this pathetic look. Bella arrived fine and I am sure Charlie will too! HH6

Posted by: Household6 at April 25, 2006 01:14 AM (Gj0PV)

5 I'm guessing my grandpuppy should be in Kansas City by now. I'm sure the airlines took good care of him, even though he probably was wondering what in the world was going on and where are my Mommy and Daddy? Good luck with the movers on Tues. and I will talk to you soon. Love you both, Mama

Posted by: Nancy at April 25, 2006 03:01 AM (5taAd)

6 Less than a week! LESS THAN A WEEK! That last night goes on forever. You can't sleep. I sure couldn't. The tacos, they are calling your name.

Posted by: Jason at April 25, 2006 10:04 AM (vPhtz)

7 Just a note. Charlie is doing fine and loves the backyard. He can not decide which animal to chase or smell. The only bad thing is that he brought cold and rainy weather with him from Germany. I guess it might help with the transition. Love, KC Mom

Posted by: ME at April 25, 2006 06:44 PM (g1qn0)

8 Maryellen, I've been thinking about Charlie and wondering how he did with the flight and adjusting to new surroundings. He's probably in heaven with his new playmates and the backyard. Have fun! Nancy

Posted by: Nancy at April 27, 2006 02:09 AM (OeioM)

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Charlie just loves that big bear that his friend Lewis gave him. He drags it around everywhere with him, apparently even when he has to pee. Just a minute ago I heard my husband downstairs say, "Charlie, you cannot take that thing outside."

Tomorrow starts the big moving process. We take Charlie to the airport at the crack of dawn on Monday. Our phone and internet gets shut off on Tuesday, which is when the movers come, so I will probably be out of the blogging loop for a while.

Only nine more days until Dairy Queen.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:58 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Yesterday was Charlie's first birthday. He invited six of his closest friends over to the house. They had Beef Bacon Cheddar cake and Charlie got lots of toys and treats as gifts. And all his friends went home with party favors as well.

The party went much better than you might expect for inviting multiple dogs into your home. We videotaped the event, and this was the one screen shot where we could get all seven dogs in the picture. So here's Charlie being the center of attention...

And here's Charlie, worn out at the end of the night, playing with his new birthday bear...

Posted by: Sarah at 02:36 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 While my irrational fear of dogs (above knee level) would have sent me through the roof, the party looks like a success. It almost looks as if Charlie is giving everyone his "Thank you for coming" speech.

Posted by: Vonn at April 19, 2006 09:11 AM (dEgRi)

2 You girls are just tooo funny! I love it! As much as I love Toby, I never thought to have a birthday party for him! And party favors too! Wow! Wish I could have been there! Your mama

Posted by: Nancy at April 19, 2006 11:28 AM (6s7Zq)

3 It is so cute to see those "tired eyes" in our dogs. When we keep ours up to late she just looks at us like please, please let me go to sleep. Charlie had a big day!.

Posted by: Ruth H at April 19, 2006 11:35 AM (uZYtv)

4 Sarah, I love how your husband is corralling Lewis while MY husband is just sitting there...

Posted by: Erin at April 20, 2006 04:01 AM (z9os7)

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Charlie likes to sit on our bed and look out the window. Here's an old pre-haircut photo of him doing it.

Two minutes ago he was sitting on our bed like this and caught sight of our neighbor going out to her car. He barked once and then leapt towards the window, crashing into the glass, nearly impaling himself on the window handle, and falling to the ground.

Sometimes I think he's brilliant, and other days I'm not so sure.

Posted by: Sarah at 05:31 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Erin asked me if I was going to write a post about Easter today. My day started out great, with the last Sunday Knitting Club at my house. But it was all downhill from there. My husband needs a military vehicle early tomorrow morning, and we spent over two hours driving all over Bavaria trying to find the soldier who has the TMP keys in his pocket. At that point we were both already quite grumpy, so after dinner we sat down to watch a movie and relax. Of course it didn't help our mood when the disk started skipping and we had to restart the DVD player five times. And then Charlie nipped my husband's hand while they were playing and got him pretty hard on the finger, and I cut my hand on the medicine cabinet and started bleeding myself. We gave up and came upstairs to go to bed and forget about today.

But Happy Easter anyway.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Sad. Don't you hate those kind of days? Happy Easter.

Posted by: Erin at April 16, 2006 03:44 PM (2D/WI)

2 Be thankful the day if over and look forward to a great week.........and only 15 more days in Germany!

Posted by: Vonn at April 16, 2006 07:13 PM (Wy1BF)

3 That sucks......Thank god it's over, now watch Racheal Ray and have a better day!

Posted by: Kelly at April 17, 2006 01:34 AM (a54xk)

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Found this on a knit blog and immediately wanted to do it.

Name 5 of your favorite books:
Alas Babylon
The Cornish Trilogy
Lolita
The Power of One
Contact

What was the last book you bought?:
The First Three Minutes

What were the last 3 books you read?:
War of the Worlds
Just a Couple of Days
Gates of Fire

List 5 books that have been particularly meaningful to you:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Atlas Shrugged
To Kill a Mockingbird
Stranger in a Strange Land
Skinny Legs and All

Name 3 books you've been dying to read but just haven't gotten around to:
Taking Science to the Moon
Up From Slavery
The Soul of Battle

My husband and I did some final unpacking from Iraq last weekend. His tattered, dirty, torn copy of Atlas Shrugged fell out. I had promised it to Erin since Amritas gifted me a nice new copy, but when I saw it and thought of how it had kept my husband company for so many hours out at that stupid bridge over the Tigris, well, I just couldn't part with it. I'm buying Erin her own copy.

Posted by: Sarah at 10:45 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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1 I tried to get my girlfriend to read Atlas Shrugged a few days ago. I, too, have a worn, tattered copy. She read the first few pages and decided that the writing was "boring," which I can admit that it is. But I do love that book. Even though the characters never change or have varying emotions, and even though the whole book is just one long essay. I like the message. To me, it's not right or left - not in today's world where everyone seems to care more about power than success.

Posted by: Will at April 06, 2006 02:40 PM (eIQfa)

2 Sarah, I can't wait to read Atlas Shrugged. But don't buy me a copy, silly! I know how to work amazon.com just as well as you do!

Posted by: Erin at April 07, 2006 12:58 AM (wNSIT)

3 Sarah, I'm sort of pleased to see that "Alas Babylon" is one of your favorite books, but I want to make sure it is the same one I know. The main character is a reserve military type who organizes security during a nuclear war in the Orlando FL area? Maybe, maybe not. But it was a great story anyway. I liked the book. Subsunk

Posted by: Subsunk at April 08, 2006 07:39 AM (dMUm8)

4 "Even though the characters never change" Atlas Shrugged is in part about the awakening of Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart. They change, though John Galt does not.

Posted by: Amritas at April 08, 2006 12:01 PM (WnSrS)

5 Subsunk -- Yep, same book. Man, what a page turner.

Posted by: Sarah at April 08, 2006 01:42 PM (imqSY)

6 IMHO, Dagny and Hank don't really change - they just hold out longer than anyone else. But their characters remain the same. It's not a bad thing, it's just not the most interesting thing to read. Especially after page 1000, when we've seen every version of the argument that Hank, his wife, Dagny, her brother, etc, etc, can have.

Posted by: Will at April 08, 2006 03:35 PM (eIQfa)

7 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? *Gags*

Posted by: Pericles at April 08, 2006 08:20 PM (eKf5G)

8 The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.' Ahwww....

Posted by: Will at April 08, 2006 08:57 PM (eIQfa)

9 On what basis exactly are you two making fun of Zen and the Art? I'd like to understand.

Posted by: Sarah at April 09, 2006 03:58 AM (3qZs7)

10 I was just teasing. I haven't read it in a long time. I really didn't care for it when I read it, but some of my reasons may have been very personal rather than anything to do with the "Quality" of the book itself. I've mentioned on here before that I studied philosophy, and I wasn't thrilled with the way that the book reinforced the notion that philosophers tend toward mental illness... It may just be snobbery on my part, really. It is a hard thing to write books that get philosophical ideas across to a mainstream audience. It is no surprise that people who have read more of the classics will find popular books a little thin. On a different subject, I'm curious why Atlas Shrugged gets so much more attention than The Fountainhead. I've always thought that the latter was the superior book. In some sense they're the same book, really, but not only is The Fountainhead a little shorter, the characters seem slightly more human. Although I never understood why Rand can never get a hero and heroine in bed together without its bordering on rape.

Posted by: Pericles at April 09, 2006 09:23 AM (eKf5G)

11 OK, thanks for clearing it up. I was trying to guess why you might gag at the book. That reason makes sense to me now. Yeah, Ayn Rand's sex stuff weirds me out too. But beyond that, I like the books. And I liked The Fountainhead best for a long time because of Roark, but after reading Atlas Shrugged again recently, I appreciate Galt's Gulch so much more now than I did when I was in high school. Back then I just didn't really care about railroads...

Posted by: Sarah at April 09, 2006 10:26 AM (3qZs7)

12 It is a good question, by the way, about what books have been personally meaningful. Putting together a top 5 would be hard for me, without a lot of thought. Stranger in a Strange Land might be on my list, too. A lot of Heinlein is horrible, but that is pretty good. Maybe The Fountainhead could make my list. I'd have to include Crime and Punishment, and maybe The Brothers Karamazov, too. Perhaps Great Expectations, although maybe not. Dickens is probably my favorite author, on the whole, but are his stories really deep enough to be among the five most meaningful? To Kill a Mockingbird could make my list, even though I haven't read it since high school. Also maybe The Catcher in the Rye and Huck Finn.

Posted by: Pericles at April 09, 2006 05:10 PM (eKf5G)

13 You should give To Kill a Mockingbird another read. I think it's phenomenal; in fact, if we have a son, his middle name will be Atticus. I personally thought Catcher in the Rye was overrated, but I think I was expecting too much because of its banned status. Maybe if I read it again without all the hype, it might seem better. I thought Crime and Punishment was a very good book too.

Posted by: Sarah at April 10, 2006 01:41 AM (81mkK)

14 A couple of books that caught my attention: Alas Babylon. Great! For awhile in high school I could not turn down a book about the apocolyptic-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it. This is one of the books that was read several times in that period and a few times since. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I read this book when I was down with the flu in Dombas, Norway. It was a training trip, mostly skiing and I go the flu real bad. Left alone in the barracks to recover, this is the only book I could find in my teammates gear. Actually, it belonged to my team leader, a captain that was a little off center but a good guy. I struggled through the book, partly because of my illness, partly because of the psychological nature of the book. I've not seen nor heard of it until your list. Atlas Shrugged. [rolling eyes] Great story. Too drawn out. The part that really killed me was Galt's (I think it was him) speech on the radio that lasted something like 65 pages. Guy, if you can't get your point across quicker than that... Anyway, I enjoyed the story, the moral, if you will, but it is a dull read. I'm already thinking about which book I'll bring home tattered and care-worn. Any ideas?

Posted by: JACK ARMY at April 17, 2006 04:21 PM (6AoYx)

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When my husband left for Iraq, I started a patchwork quilt. That was two years ago. Sewing it all together was fun and easy, but as soon as it came time to actually quilt it, I thought it was too hard. The quilt sat on a shelf for over a year, but I knew I had to finish it before we moved. I finally finished this week; it really wasn't as hard as I thought, though of course there are all sorts of mistakes that I just whatevered and kept going. I tried to take a photo of the finished product today. Naturally, everything in this house belongs to Charlie, so he grabbed it and ran down the hall with it.

Charlie has chewed on some valuable stuff in his lifetime, but this might take the cake. Unless you count the envelope of $300 I wrestled away from him on Monday.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:19 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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