Saturday in the nice sunny day!

Well, I didn't post anything on Friday... Friday was a rainy day... and cold - here is what the temp was when I got on base:

 BURRRRRRRR - 3 degrees Celcius.  I can't complain as it has been down to -4 and lots of rain as well, so it's been colder and more miserable...well, I COULD complain but then I would have to admit this was ALL my idea to move here - duh!  ha!

ANYWAY.  Why no post on Friday?  Well, we didn't really DO anything.  I went to work at 7:30am.  I did pay off my hotel bill for the first round - YOWZA.  2,500 euro for the last 10 days.  I'm super glad that we'll get the money back, but it's gonna hurt for a while until we DO get the money back... I think they said something silly like we'll file at 30 days.  REALLY?  ugh!!  So, we wait to get the money and in the mean time we're using the VAT forms (Value Added Tax - I do believe)... this will save us a shocking 19% off the bill and thankfully they will let you combine all costs so that is to include our food as well as we're putting that on the room at this point as well.  Still drives me buggy.  Oh, well, breathe!! 

So, Friday I went to work for the first 1/2 of the day.  I met with my boss's and their boss and then the Commanders that I will need to keep happy.  I got a quick lesson on Marine structure and I will be on a steep learning curve on that one.  I will have to start a decoder ring on the numbered divisions.  Instead of Divisions/Squadrons, we have a numbered business area.  I'm in the G6 - the good news is that G6 is the same no matter where you go with Marines.  (Comm for those wondering).  So, I'm still in Comm, I just now need to remember it's the G6.  There are also J6 (Joint) and S6 which is Staff... then you can also combine numbers if that's not confusing enough so you can have a G36. 

Yeah... BIG learning curve on structure, but hopefully I'll get there quick enough.  I DO like what I'm hearing about my job and I even have a chance to travel at least ONCE to distant lands for this.  I will get a chance to go to Norway to see parts of this and possibly somewhere in Italy and Spain as well.  THOSE ideas really thrill me and they do these every 6 months.  SO... maybe in 6 months I can go to Norway to see how they function up there. 

That part of my day took until about lunch, so I took off and got some forms done at the USO since I don't have a printer I can get easy access to.  I printed stuff off and ran it back to the office then bailed and went to get Butch at the hotel so we could make it to our housing meeting and grab some lunch as well. 

SO.  We did that... and found we had one area that we needed change for the safety of our pocketbook in that the statement said we would have a pro paint it with (tenant) also listed.  So, what they REALLY wanted was for the place to be touched up and looking good as if a professional had painted it, not that we needed to get a professional to paint it as that could cost up to 3,000 euros.  So, yeah, for our safety we chose to have that reworded to be more clear that it would be interior only and to be touched up and painted in whole if that was necessary.... hopefully it won't be necessary.  We'll find out how it goes for the prior renters as they will be checking out Monday with the landlord.  If they pass, we should be fine.

So that done we chose to eat at the steak house for dinner and had a GREAT dinner - yum!!! 

Saturday was meeting with the landlord to finish the paperwork and set a date to move in.  We chose to move in on the 15th.  THEN came home and found out our shipment of temp storage that has our sheets and towels and such in it is not to be delivered until the 18th... so we will still be in the hotel until the 18th regardless as we won't have any linens to live on over the weekend.   Sigh.  I'm OK with that, but Butch won't be.  He is going stir crazy in this place. 

I would have sympathy, but I was the same way when we moved to Aviano and we were further out of town and didn't even have a way to get around there... here he could take me to work and have the car to do as he pleased but doesn't.  So... sympathy isn't really there for him.  That and he KNOWs how to get around here... the busses and the apps are EASY now to get anywhere you want to go with a little bit of walking!  Oh, well. 

So.... he didn't want to do anything on Saturday but I dragged him out of the house and down to the rental place to pay the owner for the one wardrobe that we are purchasing from them.  They will leave it in the house for us to just take possession of it when we get there.  We also looked at their sectional in the basement but it was WAY too big for what we wanted so we passed on it.  We plan on putting our living room in the basement, the dining room and kitchen on the main floor and our bedroom on the 2nd floor.  The 3rd floor will be guest room(s) as it will have it's own bathroom up there for folks to use.  So, the one queen bed we have will be taken upstairs and the king to the 2nd floor.  Not sure if we'll purchase another bed for up there or put an office up there or craft room.  This has yet to be determined.  I made Butch go in with me to the Lidel (like an Aldi's) there in our town - it's quite big and has good prices on everything, so I'm sure I'll shop there!!  They have a hair dryer I need to go pick up after Monday (Montag) as well as it's only 10 Euros ($12ish).  Can't beat that!

After our drive out to Gartringen we came back to the hotel and parked then walked up to the Obi (Home Depot) and looked around for Butch's charcoal.  He found some, but it's not quite what he wants, so who knows what he'll end up with.  We walked back down to the hotel and then drove out to Patch to go to the movies.  We saw Glass.  It wasn't what I expected, but it was very entertaining and I enjoyed it.

there is a hawk in the silver tree top in the center... if you look at the circle of limbs formed in the center it's a gray/white blob up there... just know there are a LOT of hawks here.  LOTS.  I have seen them just about every day in just about every town as well.

So, no pictures, just hanging out and wandering.  Butch did refuse to go to Ikea with me though... dang it.  oh, well, eventually I'll go there and get some rugs for the house... and some colorful things to put around!  and some under sink organizers and things... but those will come after shopping and after looking at the place, what the measurements are and what we will need to so we can maximize that VAT form!

OK... off to bed now... it's 10:19 and Butch is watching TV and I'm ready to get undressed and call it a day!

Thursday Host Nation Tour

Today was snowy, but we were in "class" all day so I didn't get a picture of it and it had pretty well stopped at noon when we hit the town... but during that time there was a good inch of accumulation on the ground.

So, what does "host nation" tell you about?  Well, all the DEALS we can get here on travel and such things that are IMPORTANT... as well as some language stuff and where to get classes etc.  There is a good deal on flights that I'm looking forward to researching a bit.  Wish me luck on finding tickets for about 25 - 50% discount.  Yeah... really hoping I can find that!!

Anyway after the learning we went on the town to learn about the trains and ticketing and what to do and what NOT to do.. and we discovered we could get the but with our train tickets as well, so lesson learned - use the app to get our tickets from now on! 

Then we went by the high end car store - not sure what this place really is.. but it's AWESOME!

 Cute display of metal men on motorcycles.

 SUPER cute mini made into a desk of all things!!  Fun... but out of my price range for sure!!

 The red and white old 30's car just under the butt of the plane was my favorite - it was even a convertible... not that I can afford that thing either... but look at all the $$ in this building!!!

 another older one on the bottom far left that I liked, but not as well as the red and cream one... I'm a sucker for a red car!!

 Can you say MILLIONS of dollars of cars in this building?  I wonder if it wouldn't get to the Billions with as  any as they had in here as this is just about 1/2 of what you can see in there... there were more out back as well as a wing about 1/2 this size on the other side of the jet too.  FUN cars!

THIS is the sink in the bathroom  - how appropriate for a car shop, eh?  Cute!

 Selfie - but really it's to show you the car I picked out... its the Lamborghini SUV behind Butch... yeah, they are ONLY $200,000 and that is just the starting price!!  Yep!!!  OUCH

So we walked away from the train station and the newer end of town to the "old town" which is sadly only from the 1940s as pretty much all of Boblingen was destroyed during the wars.  So all the older homes like the one below are only from the 40's, but made to look old.

 THIS building and the white and glass building attached to it are a museum.

 THIS is the church that was shown in video I shared on facebook.  This is the market platz and/or main plaza where markets are held in town.  Very cute and there was another level just below this one that was bout 2x as large as this one so it's not as tiny as it would seem.  The workers were refacing one of the 1/2 wood homes in the area - thus the lift truck and the guys working on the house putting up some sort of support mesh so they could restore the facia of the house.

 THIS is the view from the top of the hill by the church overlooking all of Boblingen.  the base is off to the left side of the picture and the place we are staying is just a bit more right of that...  SNOWY ... but LOOK, there ARE blue skies here on occasion... maybe I should put this up on my wall to remind me when it's snowing that the sky CAN be a nice pretty blue :)  ha!

 This is the brewery where we had lunch today - it was a GREAT place to eat and then as we were leaving we saw that Steve - Elizabeth's CRV was here with us in Germany - ha!!  Same color and everything... I sent her a picture and told her Steve was stepping out on her while she was at work and sneaking over to Germany to hang out at the brewery! 

This... just this... you would think that if toilet paper came with the name of Kleenex it would be soft and nice for your bum, wouldn't you?  yeah, NO... it's like sand paper and today after some schnitzel and a meat ravioli with some potatoes is NOT a friend of mine... I had a horrible cluster attack after getting back to the base.  I went in and returned some shoes that I had picked up.  They weren't quite big enough and after trying them on with other socks I decided they were just NOT for me... so back they went.  I think I will try a local shoe store for some nice brown winter shoes instead.  

So other than that, no ID as of today - I went to check my ID twice... nothing as of yet... and we wait.

And wait.

And wait....

ha!

Until then I will continue to do all I can without the ID present.

My days are running together!

Tuesday, what did we do on Tuesday?
Well, Tuesday I didn't have anything really on the schedule, so I got up fairly early and went in to work to see if I could actually DO anything.  I did have a 2pm meeting with the ID department as they had said that they could get me an ID that would work... yeah, it wouldn't REALLY work, but it would be a stop gap measure.

It would be an ID with the items written on it that would let them STOP questioning me on the BX and commissary and let me purchase things without someone questioning me.  BUT it would not let me actually log into a computer or do any real work... so it would have been a waste of time to get that one only to turn around and get another one I could get a no kidding ID for here... so I waited to see if they got me into the system correctly.  NOPE.  They still have not gotten it worked out yet.  Sigh.

Looks like this is going to take a bit of legwork to get it done.  And not by me!  I don't know who they could/would contact to get this done.

This is how SMALL the parking spots are... these are tiny cars, not really really tiny cars, but smaller ones... well, wait, you can see in the next pictures....

See that HUGE car along the wall is parked illegally in a "non" spot... aka the sign with "no stopping" either way along the wall ... yeah, they don't listen to that - at all as the parking garage is too tiny to pay it any mind.  MY car is the one in the middle - the little VW right to the front of it ... I like that spot as you can wiggle around (it's a dead end back there with, if you can believe it 4 spots along the back wall and another two beside my little car... so they wedge them in there pretty good!!

 Another case of parking where you are not supposed to out of desperation to be in the garage as there is no parking anywhere else near here that I can tell.

So, that is the parking garage and there are two levels of parking...  but not many spots at all and all very tiny to the point of having to squeeze out once you ARE parked.  Thank goodness most cars here pull their rear views IN when you park them :)

So... Tuesday I went to work, sat and chatted with Dr. Hicks, then went over to see if I had an ID yet... NOPE.  Then i went back to the house (aka hotel)... called it a day.  Yeah, I have no tolerance for sitting around doing nothing... but that shall end on Monday.  I will go in and see if I can sit with Major someone and get a feel of what my job will be.  HOPEFULLY with an ID so I can log in :)

Wednesday (today) was the hospital tour.  I went to that and road around the countryside seeing hospitals and getting to know which ones specialize in what specialty.  Yeah, still not sure.  I do, however, know what oncologist I will need to schedule with - and they tell me he is at the Sindelfingen hospital.  So.  There's that.  I finished up there at 12:30 - went to get some lunch... got that and headed to see if I had an ID - nope.  Still no ID.  I went to see Marta to tell her that it's still not in place.  She wasn't in, so I went up to talk with LtCol and ask him a few things on my schedule.  He was asking me when I was going to be done with training.  I told him Friday - which is true as I will be there and have just one appointment tomorrow then I will just have to finish up appointments once I get that blasted ID.  Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Another snowy day here in Germany

Today is a snowy day here in Boblingen. 

The roads are staying clear, but there is quite a bit of slight snow coming down... and it came down most of the day if not all day. 

This morning was our "sign the contract" day for the house.  WE don't sign, but the owners sigh.  So, now we wait until we can see the housing personnel to see what they have to say about the contract.  Then we move forward with the actual signing of the lease, setting up everything and get ready to move in.  SO it's all just in a holding pattern, but at this point it's OK as I still don't have an ID at this point to get the actual lease signed officially.  

I actually enjoyed today and going around double checking things.  I also went into the VAT office and basically told them "enough!  It's not my fault I don't have an ID card and now you are costing ME money if you don't issue these VAT forms to me to save me the taxes on my hotel bill." SO they sent my information forward to someone higher than them and got approval to add me and off we went.  Yay!  We'll save at least that much money - then I went to the hotel to get them to settle the bill and they said "wait three more days and we can do the VAT form then".  I am going to trust that they know what they are doing and let it all go.  I am NOT going to push it for the car as it's less than I paid for one week in Utah, so really - who cares, right?  I'm done fighting this and just going to let it ride and pray for the best.  I also found out that they did the passport form incorrectly.  I will have to go and get that redone again.... but that's OK too... I'll go in tomorrow and get that done as well as my ration cards.  Would you believe they ration coffee????  OK, I understand the booze and the gas and the cigarettes, but the COFFEE?  Sacrilege!!

So.  I went to the VAT office, the Passport office (fail) and the ID office as well as the other office that gave Butch access to the base without issues... which was good - now he can get his ID scanned and get into the base without jumping through hoops - yay him!!!  I accomplished a few things, but not nearly enough - story of my life at least this year.

Since all those fell through and it was now 4pm we headed over to the laundromat to get my clothes dried (they wouldn't dry in the hotel dryer - they are delicates, so I don't want them cooked)... so we went ahead and went there to get everything done at once... and it all worked out grand.  I sat and texted with Lizzie and Butch did his thing and all was well with the world.

 My view while I was sitting and surfing the net and seeing what I could see on line.  Yay me.  Talked to another person who was there as a local hire - she was in the area and got hired there, so doesn't get housing and all the lovely benefits I do.  I can't imagine trying to do it that way - nope, nope, nope!!

 I was still bundled up from being outside and walking through the snow... burrrrr.

 THIS is what I looks like as I'm walking into the laundromat...

 THIS is what it looked like as we were walking OUT just 30 - 40 minutes later... really - that much accumulation while sitting there.

 I kinda figured it would be that way from what I could see out the window while I was sitting there warming up in the building watching my clothing tumble dry.

 That's how much was on the car by the time I got back out to it and it was totally clean beore I went in... coming down good now!!!

 Yeah... starting to stick to the cobble stones...It's pretty but sure cold!!!

We headed on to the house and got a pizza (well, two small ones) on the way home.  I got one with veggies and meats on it and Butch got a pepperoni one and we split them.  Tasty and a nice meal to close out the day.  No big fanfare tonight! (and no pictures)

And this is what happens when Barbara and I snapchat - ha!  We couldn't figure out how to do anything on there... and there were a few pictures.

We were laughing so hard by the time we figured out how to hang up!  ha!  Too funny - sometimes you just need a friend to laugh with and just be goofy!

Lizzie had tried to call in the laundromat, but the connection was too crappy, I tried to call her later without response... so I'm sure she's not out of work just yet... and won't be until it's after my bedtime, so that's that :(

Tonight I'm going to go to bed before 10pm if I can.

A 180 degree turn around in lives and attitudes.

OK, maybe it's sleep, maybe it's just being told to chill the heck out... maybe it was the LONG walk to and from dinner?  Who knows?  Better yet, who cares.

I got up and decided to take pictures of the reality of our living situation...

See that tower on the far side, just to the right?  That is where we walked to last night... this is the typical skies here right now.  it's not horrible, but it's raining a little today.

 I have NO idea what this is next door, but they aren't loud.

Nice panorama of our room.  that is a king size bed, to that is nice... and my suitcases on the far left... mostly they are closed.  Two clothing baskets under the TV... then Butch's suitcase.  Why on earth do we have suitcases in the room all over?  Well, this is why:

 THIS is literally the ONLY drawer in the joint... no really.  The. Only. Drawer.  I have stuffed some bra's in there and some undies, but it's rather small and useless.

 THIS is what is in the mirrored cabinet... a minifridge with a coffee maker above (we haven't used it to date), the safe and Butch's camera bag.

The next cabinet over (skinny little thing) is an ironing board... then the hanging area... with all of 10 hangers... so I have been alternating what clothing I have out for me to wear :)

So...

The reality of my bedside station... the one I have pulled over to the bed to work on my blog from - yeah... tons of JUNK everywhere and a suitcase and computer bag behind the softa in the corner.  Ah, the joys of living out of suitcases.

So, while I was taking pictures and getting ready Butch and I were talking about what we wanted to do for the day...

I was wanting to do the Pig Museum today... you laugh, but it's a real thing - check it out here: 

https://www.stuttgart-tourist.de/en/a-pig-museum

Honestly just reading the name made me giggle and want to see it.  Butch was less than thrilled with my plans even though it was supposed to be my day to plan as I saw fit... BUT I went along with the changes and relented and chose to go to the other bases around the area... but first I decided I wanted to go by the house that we missed yesterday.  Really?  torture myself a bit more?  Sure, why not... I missed the drive the first time through as it's really just a tiny one way alley to the house... and as we were driving by there was a man walking from the garage into the house.  I pulled over of course and asked him if he was moving IN or OUT... he answered out and then OFFERED to let us come in and see the place?  He didn't have to ask twice, we pulled up the road and parked and walked back to check it out!

So this is the one that we were looking at:

 This is apparently in 2013 when it was being built.  it is a stand alone house with a single garage - the garage is well big enough for my little Reba... and it has cobble stones on the front stoop.  It has the Rolodans (metal shutters) that they had in Italy and it's fairly modern.  Yes, that is a three story house.  It's also got a basement.

 THIS is the basement room that is used as a den/family room - to the other side of the stairs to the left is a laundry room and a storage room of sorts down there.  These stairs are what are throughout the other house - the other pictures show them as solid stairs but the ones in the house we toured was not solid, they were open - I like them!  This also has floor heating down here... nice!!

 This is the view from the opening to the kitchen looking into the dining/living room on the main level.  There is a VERY tiny yard out back, but well big enough for us to do what we need... just grill out - so it's like 15' deep with a hedge that is growing in.  There is limited grass out there as they have a dog (Rottweiler) that has been rough on the yard to say the least.

 this is the view from the far corner of the picture above looking back at the kitchen and the entry (just past the column in the entry hall).  The kitche in tiny, but, really?  Who cares, it has a good kitchen to do what needs to be done, nothing more.

 This is the bathroom on the 1st floor (aka 2nd floor) where the master and a 2nd bedroom is... the bathroom is shared which is OK as it's quite large.  The shower is big enough you can wash your feet without having to rub your butt too much on the tiles - ha!

 This is the opposite side of the bath above - two sinks and a little bit of storage... works for me!

 THIS is one of the upstairs bedrooms that will become a guest room I'm sure - as there is a bath up there as well.  So, if you're keeping count that is a large living room/laundry/storage in the basement.  main floor has a 1/2 bath (not mentioned), living room and kitchen.  The next floor has two bedrooms and a bath, the same for the floor above but with sloped ceilings.  and the added bonus of the balcony and that in indeed the view it has - or close enough by a few houses one way or the other...

it's a 19 minute walk from the house to the train station... so really close all things considered.  We're walking that much to go to the bus stop to catch it to the train and still walking that much... here it's around the corner to the bus, then to the train if you so desire.

So, the folks living in the house (Tanya and her husband) called the landlord and then we had the number for her... and tried to call a few times and even sent a text at one point.  Anyway, she never called us back, so we had thoughts of showing up at the house at 4pm when the next people were going to look at it and having the contract with us... but opted to not be THAT pushy... and came back to hotel and slept.. but not before driving the town and trying to figure out how on earth to call a german number from an american phone as they want a + sign in the number.  No, really, there is a +49 at the beginning of the number.  Weird and the only way to do this is to add that person to your contacts so you can actually contact them.... either way, she left me a text that said she would call us at 6pm... so we settled down in the hotel and I took a LONG nap... zzzzz  That helps with attitudes as well :)

6pm came around and she called and we told her we would like to initiate the base housing contract with her... she is going to meet us at 9:30am here at our hotel.  YAY!

SO... we have chosen and we will be getting the contract signed by the landlord tomorrow and have a scheduled contract review on Friday with the housing office.  This is all fine and good as the folks who are in there won't be out until the 5th and we're not in that much of a hurry to move out there just yet.  They did warn us that traffic is horrible at school times... but I"m typically earlier than school times.  They stated that if I was on the road before 7am I would be just fine and have a 15 minute drive into base... sweet.  They have school aged kids and the drive at 8am was more like an hour than 15 to 20 minutes.  I'm good with that!  I can be an early bird, that doesn't bother me and is actually prefered.  :)

AND the other house that we had been toying with, we really looked at what was available around that house and it's more like a true residential area.  It's not in a little town and there are no shops and bakeries nearby or anything.  This one that we're going to sign on has all sorts of stuff within a 5 minute walk and the trains within 19.  NOT bad, not bad!!!  And a Milchautomat just to the west of the house (milk vending machine) no, I'm not kidding... it's not that far from us at a farm and you can drive by with a few euro and get fresh milk on demand from a vending machine - as in NON pasturized milk.  WOW - talk about fresh!  They said when it's open they have cheese and other products there as well.  Looking forward to using that market to get stuff!!

So, the mood had already improved this morning and I was determined to be flexible and not stress.  And look we found a house.  I have only had one second doubt but only until I looked at the surrounding area of the other place to find that there were no shops and it was really just residential and not at all what we were looking for in our experience here (walking to town for the bakery and restaurants).  So... that decision is made and we can slow roll the rest of this as long as it takes as I know I have a house lined up and ready to go and it's somewhere I think we'll be quite happy!

I don't think I'll announce we have a house until after we confirm with the housing offices that this is a firm "go" on the contract, but I don't see any issues as they rented to america prior and they were simply moving closer to their base (Patch) and where they wouldn't have to fight so much traffic with later arrivals to work.

And with that we had dinner at the steak place downstairs tonight but when i saw a dessert walking by I planned ahead and only had a chicken caesar salad instead of something heavy. 

 The wine and the olive oil with spices... with the yummy bread to dip in there...

This break was SO good - that was grains in there... not sure what they were, but goodness it was good bread!

AND this was why I ate lighter tonight and this brownie was fudgy and it was WARM!!!  OMG it was so good... and I already ate the blackberry from the middle of the strawberry decoration with the cute jam smear.  Decadent... I mentioned the AugieDog move... flapping ears in happiness

I do believe that is a percemion of types as the decorations as well.. very interesting... and quite good!!!  this is the first dessert we have had since eating here and it was well worth waiting the week to have it :)  Actually it wasn't planned as most nights we're too stuffed to think about eating anything more!!  ha!