BOOTS AND FLOWERS
The weather today is warm and nice with a light wind which will increase later today and the forecast for the next 3 days is a high chance of rain.  I think I'll ride someplace but first I'll walk around the lakes in my new boots to get them used to me and me used to them.  I was a bad person yesterday and had to bring a Magnolia blossom home from the park.  The tree had so many on it and I just love the smell and look of them.  I am watching it open up in my kitchen and enjoying it very much along with my orchids and my little African Violet that Anni and Markus brought over.

My boots fell apart last week and the repairman said he would charge me 66 euros to fix them.

So I bought new boots at Englehorn.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY
We had a nice dinner at our place for Valentines Day.  Steve brought home another beautiful orchid.  The white one is from last years Valentines Day, the purple one is from this Valentines.  I made red velvet brownies cut out in hearts for desert.  The two smaller candles are ones that Christina made by hand.

FREE TABLE & CHAIR
In Germany there are very few 2nd hand stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army.  I suppose there are donation places, but I haven't seen them.  The only second hand store I've been to only has clothes and small items.  Most people just put anything that they don't want out on the sidewalks on scheduled days for the big trash pickups.  The trucks come with a squasher truck and one truck to keep good stuff.  I haven't seen them ever actually put anything in the truck to keep.  They squash everything.  One day I ran out and rescued a small table and a chair.  There were a lot of chairs but I only kept one.  My idea was that this could be our hobby table to use to do some puzzles or to build models and such.  But it was a little too short, we couldn't fit our chair under it.  So I have a friend that is very capable with building things and asked him to make me some table leg extensions.  I love that they came out so perfect.  When we move back to the U.S. these will most likely be squashed.

before

before

after

The table legs go into the holes in the extension about 4 inches.
PERFECT!

MOONRISE
The weather has been pretty warm for December.  For the last few days we have had some sun.  That makes the winter much more pleasant.  This is a moonrise at sunset from our apartment window.

From the kitchen window.  Our Christmas star we bought last year at the Weihnacht Market. 

From our living room window, our Christmas tree is up too.

HOT WEATHER AND THUNDER & LIGHTNING
We have had several really hot days here, around 90 F or more.  I went for a swim in the lake yesterday to cool off.  It was really very nice and refreshing.  The cats have been like melted butter, hardly able to move.  Today it clouded up and we had a wonderful display of loud thunder, eye popping lightning and a heavy down poor of rain.  It cooled things off nicely.

Muffin is like melted butter.

HOT WEATHER
We had a few very hot days here in June.  There wasn't any wind and the temps went up and wouldn't go down even at night.  On the 3rd day of the high temps I rode my bike to Real and bought a fan.  That helped a little.  Then today all of a sudden the weather changed.  Wind came up, blew in some clouds, and rain and within 10 minutes the temperature dropped 10 degrees in the apartment.  Now all the clouds are gone and it is sunny but not hot, just pleasant at 80 F.   The temperature was up to 90 inside the apartment at one point before I got the fan.  The cats got a welcome bath in the morning but once they dried off, they looked at me like it was my fault it was so hot.  They kept trying to find cool spots.  Today once it became a little cooler, I went and pulled Patch from hiding behind the toilet in the bathroom.  He thought that was a cool spot.

At 8am it was already so hot, and got up to about 90F in the apartment and 104F in the shade on the balcony.

SCREENS - preparing for warm weather (hoping) and bugs
I made two more screens for the two others doors in the apartment.

SCREEN DOOR
Our apartment has a balcony so now that it is Spring, we want to leave the door open.  But there are flying insects that come in so I made a screen door.  If this works out pretty good, then I may make one for the other two balcony doors.  The material is the mesh that too-toos are made out of.  I used the springy curtain rods to hold it at the top and bottom.    The bottom rod is about 12 inches off the threshold so the kitties can go under it and get out onto the deck.  I put pennies in the hem so the bottom is weighted a bit so the bugs won't go in at the bottom.

Looking through the screen door to the balcony

Looking from the deck to the inside.

SUNRISE - SPRING
This winter seems like it has been SO LONG.  Now spring is here and we had a really nice sunrise.  Since I don't see them very often here because it has been cloudy most of the time, I had to take some pictures of the sunrise.  It is always a thousand times more beautiful in real life.  All my photos are from just a small point and shoot Fujifilm camera.  Also I downsize all the photos so they are not so large to load onto the website.  Several people have told me that this year has been a record year in Germany for the least amount of sun in 100 years.  I hope next year isn't going to be another record breaker for no sun.

Sunrise with jet stream trails.  Taken from our balcony.

Self timer photo of me watching sunrise from our kitchen window.

MY CATS

Patch, he is fat!

Patch

Muffin

March 12, 2013 - Wow I guess I won't be riding today.

At least not this morning.

MUFFIN TAKES A BIKE RIDE
I felt Muffin needed a Vet check-up because she has been acting strange.    Last week I bought a smaller carrier that would fit in the basket of my bike.   It went pretty well on the bike.  COLD though, about 35 degrees F and windy!  I put a beach towel over her for the trip, that may have helped.  She didn't make a sound.  She was pretty scared at the vet but very docile.   The vet speaks pretty good English, a lot better than I can speak German.  The blood & urine work showed she does not have a bladder or kidney infection.  So the vet is sending the samples to a lab for further work including thyroid tests and she will call me tomorrow.  She gave her an injection that might help.  She gave me a paste that I can feed her to help if it is an accumulation of hair in the intestines.  She said to cook some chicken and mash potatoes, because that will sometimes help to firm up the soft stools.  So some of this is good news, no kidney trouble, we have to wait to see if anything else shows up.  Muffin is a bit jumpy now, I just moved my foot and she jumped up in the air.

She says, "What have I done to deserve this?"

Cat on bike.

Muffin goes for a cold 20 minute ride to the Vet.
You can see part of the stairs and bike-ramp to the underground rooms where we store our bikes.

SNOW
It snowed all morning.  I probably won't ride my bike today.  I'll go to the grocery store, study German, do laundry, clean, do projects, make a cheesecake, and .... hmm I'm never bored.

View from our guest room balcony.

Looking down at the white trees.

PROJECTS - gloves and yogurt and Family History Book
While it is still pretty cold outside, in the high 20's and windy today, I choose to say indoors.   I'll work on a few projects.   I would like to repair my glove liners that have worn through at the fingertips.  I use these under the gloves I've been using while riding my bike.   I have a polypropylene pair and a silk pair.  I wasn't sure if I could repair them because it looked like the fabric that covers the open areas was gone.  But I like them and really wanted to save them.  With the holes in the fingertips like this, the glove fingers slide way down to my palm when I put on the outer layer glove.  So here is the before and after shots of the gloves.

See how the fabric is gone from the finger tips. 

I wasn't sure if I could fix these.

But hey, not bad.  Not beautiful but functional.  I'm happy.

The silk liners are actually in worse condition.  The fabric is very thin.

more results

Again not beautiful but it should work for while.

Next I'll make some yogurt.  I have such and easy way to do it.  I brought my Donvier yogurt maker from the U.S.  I have to use a big transformer that weighs about 20 lbs but hopefully nothing will blow up, over heat, or make the circuits breakers flip (I've had them flip several times using the transformer).  If you haven't tried making your own yogurt, try it, it is very easy.

Boil the milk until it reaches 185-190F (85-88C).  If you have an instant read thermometer that clips on the pan make sure it isn't touching the bottom.  I don't have one so I am using a meat thermometer propped up by a couple of utensils.

Then cool the milk down to 110-115F (43-46C).  Add a few heaping spoons of live culture plain yogurt, stir well.   Put into yogurt cups in yogurt maker.  Time for about 10 hours.  Store in Frig or put it out on the balcony like I do here in Germany because the frig is so small.  I can eat this plain but I know a lot of people like to add fruits or jams or sugars to make it taste like fancy yogurt from the stores.

Watch the temps.  Stir frequently, don't leave it, it will boil over in a lot of pans.

Poor into yogurt cups. 

Cover with lids. Put the timer on for about 10 hours.  Refrigerate or put out on the balcony like I do here in Germany because the frig is so small.  

FAMILY HISTORY BOOK
My mother made a family history book for me many years ago.  What are the odds, but a few years ago I found the exact same book (blank) in the Salvation Army store not long after telling Christina I would make one for her.  I wasn't looking for it and I wasn't looking for the same book but it was there so I bought it.  I've had it in the cupboard for a fews years now and I'm finally transferring all the data over to her book.  I've worked on this all day and have writers cramp in my hand so time to stop and continue on another day.  The bottom one is the new one for Christina, the top is the one my mom made for me.

books

What we do when it is too cold to go out and play.

jigsaw puzzle

More Snow - no trams
Last night it was raining.  In the morning it was snowing.  Something to do with this kind of weather made all the trams in the area stop running.  Even out of the city from Heidelberg.  No trams.  The snow wasn't very deep so it must have been something to do with the lines freezing.  Steve was able to contact a friend from church who has a car and was able to drive them into work.    I needed to get to class in the afternoon.   I found a special bus was running instead of our tram 7 but it wasn't on a schedule.  I waited about 45 minutes for it along with about 40 other people.  I was smart in that I got on the opposite side of the bus route going on the outbound route so it was pretty empty and was able to get a seat.  The bus only had about 3 stops before returning to the same bus stop that had those 40 people waiting and all had to cram on board.  I had a seat for about 1/2 hour before I gave it to a elderly lady with 2 walking canes that had just come on.   She gave it back later when she got off.  My ride that usually takes 20 minutes on the tram took over an hour because of all the additional stops.  It was really crowded.   But I made it to class about an hour late.  Some of the students didn't make it in.

I thought the snow was pretty on the trees and bushes.

From our apartment window