The days, they are a-flyin'

Thursday, 7/6th: Annabelle and I walked into Käfertal in the morning to find a yarn needle so I can graft the toe to my newest knitted sock. Along the way, we found this quaint little house:

We wound up at the Mini Mal, so we went ahead and got the fixings for a great picnic lunch. Annabelle also got this cool World Cup hat for 5 euros (I saw it in downtown Heidelberg later in the week for 15!):

We took our picnic lunch and headed over to Miramar to meet my friends Jutta and Iris and their kids. The pictures on my camera of the 3 of us girls didn't come out very good, so I'm waiting to see if Iris had any better luck with hers. I'm kicking myself for not having grabbed all the kids together for a group photo, but here's a picture of Mike and Annabelle with Iris's kids:

And here's one of Mike, sporting some seriously crazy hair:

Friday, 7/7th: Annabelle and I rode the streetcar:



over to Heidelberg to meet my friend Jennifer for sushi:



After lunch, we walked all the way down the main street of town to catch a glimpse of the castle ruins:



and then we shopped our way back up the street:



By the time we got back to the streetcar stop to head home, our arms were aching from carrying all our bags. The biggest score of the day was a pair of Josef Seibel shoes for Annabelle for 20 euros (about $25 bucks). Seibel shoes sell for $100+ back in the States. (Yes, Fred, even in Europe, I am saving you billions of dollars . . . by buying stuff!)

Saturday, 7/8th: I took Annabelle up to Hanau on the train to drop her off for a sleepover with her friend Autumn, who used to live across the street from us here in Mannheim. It was a quick and easy trip, but it reminded me of how much I love riding the trains over here and how much I wish that we had more time so as to squeeze in more traveling. Annabelle and Autumn were very happy to see each other:



Sunday, 7/9th: Not much to report. I spent a lot of the day starting to sort our stuff for the trip back to the States on Wednesday.

Last night we watched the final game of the World Cup. I was cheering for France, and you see how well that turned out for the French. I think I could have a lucrative career. Say you're a fan of Team X--you could pay me to root for Team Y. If I'm going to be cursed, I think I should at least be able to profit from it.

"We're number three! We're number three!"

The rodents really got into World Cup fever. They made a couple friends and drank way too much beer:

Day to day stuff

Monday, 7/3d: The kids and I went downtown to do a little shopping. Mike wanted a World Cup jersey, and Annabelle wants anything related to Diddl Maus. It was hot though and downtown Mannheim is apparently under construction, so we didn't stay for long.

We did stay long enough though for me to lose the kids in Kaufhof! I stopped to pay and they said they were going to go look at something, and the next thing I knew they were gone. I knew they were fine, but after a few minutes I started to feel panicky. After all, none of us were carrying cellphones. They had no money. And they have only limited German skills, so even if I had them paged, were they going to understand the announcement? Finally I did have the cashier put in a call for them: "Zwei kinder, Michael und Annabelle blah blah blah . . . " It worked though, and the next thing I knew, 2 very indignant kids were coming down the escalator demanding to know WHY ON EARTH I hadn't thought to look for them upstairs in the toy department.

That evening, I got a tremendous craving for icecream, so Annabelle and I set off on a little walking tour of Käfertal. Lots of places were closed since it was Monday, but we finally found a little pizzeria, where I was able to get my Spaghetti Eis. Here is the waitress pushing the icecream through the pasta press:

On our way home, we found Eddie's German twin:


Tuesday, 7/4th: I went out for Indian food (yum!) with my friend Sibylle, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. The kids and I walked back into Käfertal to the pizzeria Annabelle and I had found the night before and grabbed a (relatively) quick bite to eat.

We made it home just in time for the beginning of the Germany-Italy World Cup game. I mostly hunkered in the kitchen and called out occasionally for Annabelle to give me an update. By 10:30 nobody had scored, so I felt it was safe to leave and go see the 4th of July fireworks. We returned just in time to see Germany defeated, which was just crushing. If you had told me a month ago that I would be this depressed over a soccer game, I would have asked you to please share some of whatever wacky drugs you were smoking.

Wednesday, 7/5th: Hot, hot, and hot! Too hot, in fact, to do much of anything other than turn on the portable A/C and sit in front of it all afternoon, knitting and watching the first season of the BBC version of "The Office." Nothing worth taking a picture of.

No drunk blogging

"No drunk blogging." That's my new (and possibly temporary) motto. So I think I'll just go to bed now. But first let me say . . .

WOO HOO, Germany won tonight!!! I would like all of Germany to please take a moment to acknowledge my role in this accomplishment, as nothing good was happening the whole time I was in the same room as the TV. But then I went to tend to my laundry, and things started rocking and rolling.

We went out to dinner tonight with the Mitchells and one of Mike and Rebecca's friends, and it was just glorious, seeing people driving around waving flags and listening to the fireworks and the honking of car horns. I hope Germany wins the Cup, and I plan on doing laundry for as long as necessary just to ensure their continued success.

Good night!!

Do you have your World Cup shoes on?

I do:

Seen in Walmart this afternoon

Amy and I went to Walmart to pick up the fixings for fondue, and we saw a group of men gathered near the deli department to watch the beginning of the Germany-Sweden game: