Jak and Nathan's Adventures

Back in Afghanistan

2012-01-25T04:33:00.001-05:00

So I realize that when I last wrote, we were just getting to Afghanistan and settling into our jobs. That was about 6 months ago, and having just found the paper I wrote the blogging email address on (blogspot is blocked on government computers) and having just returned from leave, it seemed like a decent time to write some. No guarantees on how often I will actually write, as chances are I am the only one who will read this, but it never hurts. Leave was fantastic but far too short, but we have a light at the end of the tunnel now with the possibility of being home for our birthdays. Here is hoping!
One story that must be shared with our loyal readers is our adventure of leaving the Lincoln house. As background, we brought the cats up with us so that they could have some time with their Mom and Dad, and you may remember that there are few things Tom hates more in this world than the car. All was well after the initial trauma (I think he significantly over reacts) and we had some seriously good times with them. When the time came to leave, we wanted to play it sneaky and not bring in the cat carriers (actually medium dog carriers, our boys are big) until the last minute to keep the boys from knowing what was happening. It worked fine for Frank, but Tom is smarter than your average bear. As soon as we woke up, he new that something was afoot and disappeared to his happy safe place, on top of the kitchen cabinets. The top of our cabinets houses our beer growler collection as well as some christmas lights to keep things festive, but he still has his corner of safety and disappeared up there at about 0730. Come 1100, it was time to leave, everything was in the car except for the two cats. Frank was easy, but Tom was having no such thing. As the manly man that I am, it was my assignment to climb up and retrieve 21 pounds of pissed off kitty whilst Jak held the carrier at the ready but out of sight. Tom was having none of this, and was not going to be the least bit helpful. There is not much clearance between the cabinets and the ceiling, especially when 21 pounds of fat and fur is crammed in trying to avoid what he knows will be a great car ride. I was having none of this, and managed to get a grip on him and began to slide him out. That is where things began to get interesting, as he fought desperately to get a purchase and get himself back into the corner. I am stronger than him, but he is craftier and managed to wrap his legs in christmas lights to keep from coming easily. As I held squirming cat with one hand (not an easy feat) I had to unwrap him, before finally managing to detangle him and drop him into the waiting carrier. As I stood tall on the counter in victory, I said to Jak "wow, it smells like cat pee" to which my laughing bride said "yes you do, he peed on you." As always our furry offspring had the last laugh, sprinkling my rain jacket with the pent up urine from a mornings fruitless hiding on top of the cabinets. Oh well, it was an adventure.

Re:

2012-01-21T16:12:00.001-05:00

.. http://algarveholidaysrents.com/work.link.php?ntopic=77d1

Sharana- Roubaix

2011-08-05T04:49:00.001-04:00

As an aside that about two other people may understand, what is the obsession with every race that goes on rough roads in the states adding a "Roubaix" to the title to ensure that people understand how epic it is? Got it, Paris-Roubaix is the queen of the classics, and it is one of the best to ever watch, but by definition it goes from Paris to Roubaix. Or Compiègne to Roubaix more properly, but still Roubaix is the endpoint! The only Roubaix in the US is in South Dakota, and I doubt that any race ends there. Anyways, back to the blog.

Most mornings start the same for us here, in fact most days are about the same. We get up, curse the dust, get dressed and head out on our cross bikes for our own epic cyclocross adventure. Being from New England our hearts lie with cyclocross in the wet, damp and cool of the falling leaves and sometimes the freezing snow. Here it is a bit different. Here, we ride in the dry, the dust and the rocks. It is still great, and about the best part of the day other than sleep itself. Our normal loop takes us around the entire perimeter of Forward Operating Base Sharana. It is a rough track, in retrospect we probably should have brought 29ers, but we enjoy the challenge of skinny knobby on rough terrain. Technically we are riding on dirt roads, but calling anything in this country a road is rather optimistic. There are sections of deep sand, medium sized rocks, washboards for miles and ever-present dust (have I mentioned it is dusty here?) and one short stretch of good pavement right near our quarters. All of this is at 7400 feet of elevation. It is wonderful. Because we work in the TOC, we spend our days inside with the only real views of the outside during meals or by watching feeds from intelligence assets. Our morning ride is our exception and there is a certain harsh beauty to this country. Last week there were some nomadic folks grazing their herds of goats and letting their camels wander a couple of hundred meters from the wire. The hills roll off into the distance where we can see the Himilayas towards the Pakistani border. One nice thing about the elevation and lack of humidity is you never get sweaty, it evaporates as it forms.

Other than that, our days are pretty much the same non-descript thing every day. Get up, ride, shower, breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, work, shower, sleep. On Sundays we go crazy and go to church! It is what it is and it does pay quite well. Still, we look forward to coming home to the states on leave, and we miss everyone at home, especially our cats.

Cha Cha Cha Cha Changes

2011-07-07T16:54:00.003-04:00

Okay, hopefully you know the song, otherwise the title is rather lost on you. I do have to admit that I rarely if ever read other people's blog titles, so I think we will live. Changes, this last 3 weeks have been about them. Having said that I now sound like a total toolbag who is going to make some deeply philosophical comment on the ways of the world, so here goes. In the past 3 weeks the following has happened (note, this is allowing for some relativistic shenanigans as I will be writing this as if it happened tomorrow after about 2300):
-Jak turned 25
-Nate joined Jak's unit
-Jak and Nate made Captain
-Jak deployed
-Nate turned 25
-Nate deployed

It is good to have change, but we will miss a lot. We have made family here in Graf, and many are leaving or will be gone to the states or their own deployments when we return. We are no longer the wet behind the ears butter bars we came here as, but instead people who have gained at least some understanding of their own potential and the very scary responsibilities that come with rank and potential. I really cannot look too far back at 25, but 3 years ago we were teaching cadets at Ft Knox, living out of cars and had no real clue what the army would hold for us. Today we have done the following between the two of us (not fully inclusive, just what comes to mind):
-Led 5 different platoons
-Been responsible for more than 400 soldiers
-Helped deploy 2 Companies
-Visited the birth of 9 of our Soldiers' children
-Watched the death of 2 of our Soldiers' child
-Been to the field more than 8 months
-Been in 5 different companies
-Lived in 4 states and 2 countries
-Bought a house
-Paid off our first new car
-Had 3 wonderful cats, one of whom is no longer with us
-Served under 5 different Company Commanders
-Served with 6 different First Sergeants
-Separated more than 12 Soldiers from service
-Re-enlisted more than 20 Soldiers
-Acted as Company Commander for 7 Months
-Been tested in more than 15 Urinalysis (that is mostly Jak, I am more lucky)
-Visited 6 countries
-Seen the World Championships of Cyclocross Twice (Stybar won both times)
-Raced bikes in 5 different countries
-Almost died in 1 country (that was all me!)

I am sure that the list goes on and on, but it really means we have been insanely lucky. This Army thing is tough at times, especially for our Family here and in the States, but I don't think I would have it any other way. Love to you all.
Us

Welcome to the Rock

2011-06-15T04:22:00.009-04:00

Yesterday would have been more awesome if Sean Connery had been walking around with us all day narrating things like that, but in the lack of his presence, we still had a pretty awesome day. For the first time on Vacation, we set an alarm for something other than a nap, and woke up early in order to catch the bus from Marbella to La Linea, which is the last stop on the land border between Spain and Gibraltar.

As a quick aside, there is a stratification of the general talents of drivers from different countries in Europe. At the top of this pantheon in terms of overall success would have to be the Germans. Like them or hate them, or even belong to a group they once tried to eliminate, you have to admit that had the 3rd Reich succeeded, European driving would probably be a totally different experience. Spanish drivers are not near the top. They are not the Italians, no-one is as bad as Italians, even the blue topped old ladies from back home. They drive everything that has an internal combustion engine as if they are in "The Italian Job," but it should be pointed out that if the Italian Job had really taken place in Italy, nothing would have been stolen because everyone would have crashed in the first 10 minutes. Back to Spanish drivers, they score some points for being insanely courteous to people on bikes or crosswalks, but they seem to lack any sort of smoothness or rhythm to their driving. As evidenced by our bus driver, who would accelerate to slam on his brakes while moving 10 meters at a time through traffic. I don't get motion sick, but by the time we reached la Linea, I wanted to vomit.

Given that wonderful driving experience, the day could go nowhere but up, and as you will read, it literally did. (Have I mentioned my love of the comma, and my resulting abuse of it, it is really, you know, cool.) We were expecting some sort of serious border crossing considering the websites all pretty much say IF YOU DON'T BRING YOUR PASSPORT, YOU WILL DIE BY MONKEYS AND BE THROWN INTO THE STRAIGHTS OF GIBRALTAR!!! DIE DIE DIE!!! I suppose on the standards of border crossings in the now quite open EU, it was rather stringent, considering there was actually a man standing there looking at passports or residence cards. I showed him my blockbuster membership and was waved right through. Not really, but I am sure I could have. Even more bizarre than the border was that immediately afterwards you walk across the airport to get into town. Literally across it, there are signs urging you to walk quickly, and to not drop trash as the next time the plane crashes due to FOD, "IT MAY BE YOUR PLANE!" By now we had discovered that Gibraltar is the land of melodramatic warnings, but it was amazing. You walk through lines of fortifications and can look up at the rock to see the gun galleries. We happened upon the old graveyard where many of the wounded from Trafalgar rest in the sun underneath some quite beautiful trees; but eventually we decided that it was time to summit the Rock of Gibraltar.

Now our impending promotions (1JULY!!) and associated pay raises notwithstanding, we are rather cheap. It was going to cost 25 euro per person for the cable car, or 20 euro per for the taxi tour, so we decided to walk. Can you say 50 pence per person at the park gate for walkers! We win. Now admittedly, there was no air conditioning on our route, and the commentary was provided by ourselves, but it was much cooler. Cooler as in more interesting, as cool it was not; after the first 10 minutes we were literally drenched in sweat. Our fees paid to the rather surprised man at the gate (he obviously didn't get too many folks walking up what is, after all, a huge rock) we followed his recommendation to take the Mediterranean stairs to the top. With the enticement of the word "stairs" and the awesome possibilities implied by the "Jew's Gate" along the route, we could hardly resist. The latter was a let down, as the only reference to any Semantic religions at all was some of our cursing to the heat, but the path itself was amazing. It was not really stairs in the traditional regards, but a bare single track that wound its way along the exposed southern face of Gibraltar. The views of Africa were amazing, but by exposed I really mean 12 inch wide path with 300 foot drop to the ocean below. Despite my well known dislike of heights, it was amazing. We saw the most amazing views and would come upon old fortifications at some intervals which allowed us to ensure that the dastardly Spanish were not trying to sneak any fire ships into the British anchorage under the cover of mid day. Our dues to Hornblower thus satisfied, we returned to the task at hand, which by this latter point in the trail was the scaling of truly vertical faces into which steps had been hammered by Soldiers many years before. To say we were sweaty would be like saying at times Gandhi was a bit peckish. We were soaked, but with our savings in pocket (said savings were rather damp now too) we enjoyed every step of the way. Topping out was amazing, the breeze has seldom if ever felt quite so good. The summit houses a battery of 9.2 inch rifles from the mid 1800s that have the rather impressive ability to throw a shot clear across the Straights. It really brought home the impressive historical strategic value of the land we walked on.

It is now my turn (the female half of the Miller pair) to describe our next adventure, mainly due to my distaste for monkeys. As Alli can attest, I despise monkeys (all except the little golden tamarinds, but those are truly the ONLY exception). After our sweaty hike to the top of the rock we expected to see just one more interesting creature in this odd habitat: monkeys, specifically Barbary Macaques. We had been really lucky to see fledgling seabirds with the bird parents cheering their bird kids on while taking their first flight from the nest. I don't blame them for being a bit timid though, as these birds were learning to fly on a very sheer cliff. We had also been lucky enough to see a Moorish gecko, other rock lizards, and a Gibraltar Hare. Taking the road less traveled certainly pays off, as I doubt any other bus tours saw any such creatures!

I was certainly happy about getting to play as if I was David Attenborough (at least in my own mind) when Nate and I rounded a corner and were confronted with a large, angry looking monkey. We had seen a couple monkeys from afar, but had yet to see any up close. This one looked a bit mad, and very well fed. I really get creeped out by monkeys (little carney hands, you know?), and this guy wasn't helping. We gave it as much room as you could on a narrow one lane road and kept walking. At this point we saw a stopped tour bus. Wondering what they were so intently starring at, we stopped to look with them. Well, there wasn't just one monkey. There were scores of them. They ranged from young babies clinging to their mothers to teenagers to full grown behemoths. The little babies were somewhat cute, and their mothers, although large, seemed too intent on chowing down on fruit to really be much of a threat. Now the energetic teenage monkeys were quite a different story. We were watching them roughhouse with each other when out of no where, a 20 or so lbs. juvenile monkey decided the best way to get away from the chase was to run up the back of an elderly British man and perch itself on his head. Feeling understandably frightened, he attempted to expel the creature from its roost, while the tour guide was yelling something to the effect of, "Just leave it be, if you make it mad it could get ugly." Yeah, okay, I will let that dirty creature just stay there, leaving my head to be its high ground in a monkey battle. No thanks.

The following conversation went like this:
Nate: Jak, do you want to go to the "Apes Den".
Me: No. Plus they are not apes, they are monkeys, just tailless monkeys.
Nate: I know that, that is just what the place is called. It says on the map that there is the highest concentration of monkeys on Gibraltar here.
Me: Most certainly not.
Nate: Why not?
Me: Because I HATE F*****G MONKEYS! THEY ARE NASTY UGLY ANIMALS THAT HURL POO!
Nate: Okay. Want to walk into town for a drink and some fries?
Me: Sure....if you promise there will be no more monkeys.

So that abruptly ended our monkey adventure. If one of them hadn't jumped on the old man, I may have stayed a bit longer, but there was no way I was having one of those things on my head!

Jak overreacts to the monkeys. When she says "evil looking monkey" it is like saying "threatening pugilistic penguin," namely that it really wasn't that scary. They are cute if overfed little guys, and the only threat of death by monkey was a sign warning you not to feed the monkeys. This sign was a bit confusing considering at points throughout the park there are pits into which the park places bags of fruit and vegetables for the monkeys to eat. Do as I say, not as I do. We did decide it was high time for some food and quickly descended into town from the Rock. We were required by our own somewhat strange geekdom to stop at the "Lord Nelson" for refreshments, which were quite good. They even had a certified authentic spike from HMS Victory, which was awesome. (I have just taken a short break from writing to find where to buy one of these, and they really are quite reasonable! Jak's birthday here we come) With time running out, we ran the passport control gauntlet in reverse. The bus driver on the way back was actually a good driver, but the bus company made up for that oversight by making sure that the air conditioning wasn't functioning. The only ventilation was the opened emergency exits, and when we stumbled off the bus into the 88 degree heat, it felt like jumping in at a polar bear swim. All in all, it was a great day!

Uphill both ways

2011-06-08T13:31:00.004-04:00

So Nate and I have once again embraced the Spanish life style. We wake up late (well, late for us, and my mother can certainly attest, it is not very late), we eat a breakfast of pastries, walk to do our daily shopping, eat lunch (with great local wine, of course), take a siesta, and go for a ride in the mountains, then eat dinner (cue more wine), and go to bed to start it all over again the next day. I have really been appreciating their very laid back life style. Everyone here is just relaxed. We had a fellow who was perfectly happy to drive behind us while we climbed up a mountain pass for a few kilometers, and then waived good naturedly when he finally passed on a more straight section of road. I could stay in Spain forever.

This morning Nate and I woke at the late hour of 0800 and headed out to do the shopping for the day as well as get breakfast and pick up a new cassette with slightly more gentle gearing for me. Being an idiot, I forgot to check my gearing and still had on a cassette that deals well with the rolling hills of Germany, but was killer on the mountains that surround Marbella. The guys at this great shop had a Campy 12-25 cassette that I was looking for, as well as a ton of super high end bikes that I was not. Having satisfied our need for bike things, we satisfied our need for chocolate with three large chocolate pastries. We walked back to our flat, ate some of the night before's "Vlad" pasta (so called as we got it from a Russian specialty store, and it was called "Putini" after Vladimir Putin and read until we fell asleep for Siesta (which, yes, they actually do here!). After waking up from our naps, we got kitted up to head out for a ride.

Nate and I started our ride with a hellish climb out of Marbella, as all of our rides have started. Once out of the city, we climbed into the mountains for what seemed like ages. We were passed by a couple of guys on one of the local teams, who climbed like mountain goats and looked like wonderful tanned Spanish gods. Needless to say we didn't try to keep up. We climbed into picturesque towns, and even found our way into some little caves. All in all it was a great ride, followed by a dip in the pool, and some grilled veggies, aged cheddar, fresh bread, and yes, more wine for dinner. I hope you all have enjoyed my random post, but I have had a hard time concentrating thanks to Nate looking through a Jamie Oliver cook book and exclaiming, "Oooohh that looks so good, we should make that," about every 10 seconds. We will hopefully post again tomorrow. Good-bye for tonight!

Bienvenidos A Espana!

2011-06-07T04:03:00.005-04:00

After a strenuous 4 days of work, it was time for another vacation! In our defense, this one had been planned for a while and we really did want to have a longer bit of relaxation prior to going to Afghanistan. We rented an apartment in Marbella, Spain as we had been to the Costa del Sol in college and had always wanted to return to relax and ride our bikes. Let me say, that when it comes to travel, Jak and I tend to be rather neurotic, worrying about darn near everything in our quest to make sure everything goes just how we want. This has been the least neurotic start to a vacation ever thanks to the people on the Spanish end. It turns out that the place we are renting belongs to one of the large group of British ex-pats that live in the area. They took care of everything, even finding their friend Garry with a large enough vehicle to pick us and the bikes up at the airport for the drive here late at night so that we wouldn't have to figure out the bus at 1000 at night. The owner even was waiting here to great us, and gave us the grand tour of her wonderfully quirky apartment before saying goodnight. Stress free travel to the max! We were momentarily transfered back to Grafenwoehr when we heard loud explosions last night, but quickly realized that they were in fact a fireworks display, which we sat on the balcony and watched. We appreciate that the locals recognize the truly amazing people who have just arrived, though we hope the Afghanis will not follow their pyrotechnic welcoming techniques. We are looking forward to 10 days of serious relaxation, and will probably update here pretty regularly.
As an aside, before we came here we spent the weekend enjoying Graf's 650th birthday party! It was really cool, with a fest, medieval demonstrations, concerts and general good times by all.

Happy Anniversary?

2011-05-31T14:24:00.010-04:00

So a bit more than a week ago now, Nate got a call to this effect, "Hey LT Miller, you're deploying. Get your shit straight and be ready to go with the main body." Okay. Well that was a bit unexpected. We have known for some time that I was getting lucky enough to be going to a wonderful mountainous region that no one wants to go to for some strange reason....oh yeah, because of the terrorists. Go figure. So the hubby and I spent the last week or so just scrambling to get our wills in order, powers of attorney completed and other arrangements made. The biggest issue of course was finding someone to watch our furry boys, Tom and Frank. Luckily thanks to Auntie Joni, they will be having an extended sleepover with their diminutive Auntie Dog (Dog is a cat). To make ready for their departure, we went to legal to have a power of attorney done up for them. Apparently it is an odd request to have one drafted for cats. Luckily the lawyer we saw was a good sport and simply took the template that one uses for children and replaced ever time it said "child" with "cat." Since their micro chips are registered to us, we thought it was best, just in case, to have Auntie named as their legal guardian while we are deployed. Okay, well that is taken care of. Now for the tough part: shipping them. Firstly, let me say, thank God for PetAir. Those people are saints, over charging saints, but saints nonetheless. More on that to follow.

With our anniversary weekend coming up, which I had booked a romantic vacation in Edinburgh, Scotland, we made sure that all was in order before we left. Nate and I had a great time in Scotland. Although Alli and I had made quite a mark on the city six or so years back (me scuzi!), Nate had never been to the land of my ancestors. Now let me preface this next bit with some explanation. The UK is very expensive. The pound is much stronger than the dollar, so as this was an impromptu holiday, I wanted to make our dollars stretch as far as they could, so I booked a hotel in a seaside town outside of the city in the Portobello district (no mushrooms, go figure). After flying from Memmingen Airport on Friday we arrived in Edinburgh in the early afternoon. We boarded the bus to get to the city center to get a connecting bus to our hotel. I must say that Edinburgh has some of the nicest, cleanest, and timeliest buses that I have ever had the privileged of using. Their public transport is not government owned or funded, so the competition between bus companies forces the system to run very smoothly.

We took the bus to our stop and stepped out into a quiet seaside area. The ocean looked very chilly, but was really beautiful. We walked down some streets with classically Victorian architecture standard to what you would see in most seaside towns that reached their height of popularity in the Victorian era. We got to our guest house with no directional issues and were ready for a change of clothes and a shower. I had warned Nate in advance that this was a small place, and that bathrooms would most likely be shared with other guests. This is common in Europe, so he was not too surprised with this. Once at the door, we rang the bell to be admitted. This is when Nate look at me and glared the, "You have got to be kidding me," glare. So it was a bit small. Okay, so I could touch all walls and every piece of furniture at the same time. And yes, the bathroom was shared. And it was owned by some Pakistani brothers whose grasp of English was minimal. It was very clean though, and although English impaired, our hosts were friendly and helpful. All in all, not too bad. We found a great pub for dinner (I had the best mussels!) and turned in for an early night while watching bad British sitcoms on the BBC.

The next day Nate and I took an early bus into the city. It was blustery and alternated between squalls of rain and bright sunshine. The weather didn't bother us, but kept many other tourists inside so we took advantage of this to see the Edinburgh castle. It was very impressive (and quite a hike up to it, I must say!). We visited the areas where they held American POWs during the revolutionary war and saw the Scottish Military History Museum. We also viewed the memorials to WWI and WWII. After that, we walked over to the National Gallery and then on to the Royal Museum of Scotland. While there we saw some amazing displays on vikings and the Picts. We also viewed a very large working steam engine as well as Dolly the sheep (taxidermied of course). We ate at another pub for dinner (passing the coffee shop where Harry Potter was written!) and took the bus back to our closet for some rest.

The next day was an early start for us. We got together our trekking gear and headed out to the Pentland Hills for some hiking. The winds were blowing steady at over 30 mph and gusting at over 60 mph. Add in some dramatic rain squalls and bright sunshine and you can picture our day. We hiked three main peaks, including the highest in the Pentland Hills. It was probably the most rewarding and beautiful hike I have ever been on. We passed pasturing sheep, miles of peat and heather bogs, and a wonderful waterfall. The weather certainly kept other hikers inside. We saw probably about 15 others hiking. Only two of which were men. I assume all the men in Scotland were drowning their sorrows from the Manchester United loss from the night prior. Enough said on the hike though, as I will let the photos speak for themselves.

My bride has decided that I may be able to tell the next part of our misadventures to the maximum amusement, so here goes. The trip back from Scotland was uneventful, and we returned to prepare the boys for their trip. Before we get into the details, allow me to advance to the scientific world Miller's Theory of Feline Selective Hearing. We all know selective hearing, it is what allows spousal units to not hear each other while in the same room, but up until recently it has not been observed in any other species. Well, Tom our fat (well, the vet did say he had a large bone structure) cat has been the proof positive that the scientific world has been awaiting all these years. Tell him to not torment his brother, nothing; tell him to leave the laundry alone, nothing; tell him that he will never catch that bird through the window, nothing; talk about preparing him for a trip to the States and he knows instantly. We tried to trick him (Frank is too stupid to require tricking) with a combination of medication and doing all preparations in the front yard out of his sight. We even got up at 0400 to ensure that he would not be on his toes. We didn't take into account that when you have 20 toes, you are seldom off them for long. With preparations complete, we decided to be all sneaky and not put him in his hated small cage for transfer to the large kennel we had purchased to bring him to Frankfurt. Dad picked him up as always, and Tom realized the time had come. To flash back to Scotland for a moment, everyone has heard of bagpipes described as a man biting the tail of a screaming cat, let me tell you the sounds are nothing similar, the bagpipe is in fact much more melodious. Long story short, with a lot of swearing and sweating he was ensconsed in the travel cage, and Frank took about the effort to mop ones' brow to place alongside his brother. If only we had known what was to follow, we would have paid the extra $500 to have him driven to Frankfurt. We listen to books on tape when we drive, and let me tell you, the DaVinci code is not meant to be listened to with a bloodcurdling yowl every 1.5 seconds. Once you get used to it, it only is slightly maddening, until you reach the half hour mark, and a mysterious scent enters the vehicle. Cow poo? Nope, slightly more, OH GOD PULL OVER! Yes, defecation incident number one occurred, precipitating a stop in a farmers field for emergency application of baby wipes and tossing of poo. By tossing of poo, I mean that the carpet piece, the poo, the newspaper and tissues that had been contaminated were tossed into the crops (note to self, don't eat the corn) and we tore off before anyone could note our license plate. Autobahn was entered with the now harmonious sounds of yowls as Frank now felt left out of the commotion and tried to impart some Simon and Garfunkel action to the proceedings. 45 minutes later, a no longer mysterious smell enters the car, windows come open at 95 miles an hour and a rest stop is found in short order for defecation incident two. This one was in the litter box, so removal was easier. Frankfurt is in sight when the most horrible smell comes perfectly timed with a complete stop in a Stau. Poo excavation mid-autobahn is considered and abandoned, and some Sour Krauts are made as we cut our way across to an exit to remove the poo. After we complete that, Jak points out that I have poo on my sleeve, and helpfully begins to dab at it with a baby wipe. I helpfully point out that she has poo on her chin, and return the favor. The harmony continues all the way to the airline office, where money paid, the cats ignore any attempts of Mom and Dad to show affection before their boys are whisked away to Auntie land. 7.5 hours later we reach home, shower, and cry. Words really cannot describe today, other than what an anniversary!
Some less horrific items to note:
Breakfast before our flight back was a full Scottish with a pint of beer for each of us (and I even liked the blood pudding).
We bought 5 Finger shoes (shouldn't they be 5 toe?) and hiked in them to the great enjoyment of ourselves and every observant Scot we met.
Our cats currently hate us.
We have been married for 3 years, and Jak hasn't once attempted to choke me as I so richly deserve.

That is all for now, we are off to Spain next week, and will murder without hesitation the person and families of said person, and neighbors and mild acquaintances of said person should they interrupt our vacation.

2011-05-08T02:41:00.006-04:00

So I just drank about a half gallon of iced tea. I have "Magic Dance" from Labrynth cranked (mmmmmm....David Bowie!). I am in a sun dress. I have pronounced bike tan lines. I am wicked tired. This is all directly related to my biking adventure of the the day! Well, maybe not the Bowie, but the rest of it is!

Alright, so today started off normally. I woke up, finished "Cold Mountain" (great book!), ate some cereal and did my grocery shopping. By the time I took the groceries out of the Landy, it was pushing 70 beautiful degrees and I promptly threw the perishables into the fridge and got my kit on. In Germany, you never know when the weather is going to turn, so I had to take advantage of it, at the expense of leaving all the dry goods on the counter to put away later. After grabbing a couple of bottles and throwing in some quick electrolyte sports powder into one of them I was out of door. Some chain lube and air and the tires, and I was ready for my adventure.

It all started out normally. I headed down the usual "get me out of Graf. as quickly as possible" route towards Pressath. I rode past all of the beautiful rapeseed fields to get onto the plateau. It is quite a climb, but certainly worth it! The views were just perfect today.

Anyway, cue the Dropkick Murphys. Why, you may ask. Oh, for no reason, it is just what iTunes decided to play while I write. Okay, back to the adventure. So I crested the climb and headed off to Erbendorf. See two massive climbs that last for miles and top out with a stretch of 300 meters of %20.

It ripped my legs off. Luckily, I was able reattach them with little difficulty and I was back on my way. I descended into Erbendorf and decided to take a road that I had never noticed before. Well, let me explain. There is certainly a reason I had never noticed it before. It isn't much of a road. It started out fine. I saw it meander its way up into the hills. I should have been worried when I didn't see it emerge anywhere on the hill that it climbed. Oddly enough, my better judgment had left for the day, so I went up anyway.

The views up this "road" were spectacular. When the road turned from pavement to gravel, I kept going, thinking, "No worries, they must be making improvements to this portion. Not so much. From a gravel road it quickly progressed to hard pack double track.By this point I was thinking I should turn around, but being miles in, I was already invested. From double track it turned into some of the more burly single tracks I have seen in some time. And please, dear reader, keep in mind that I am on my road bike, on rims that do not even have a brake track to save weight. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. That is really all I have to day to explain my feelings on that right now.

Although I knew that I would be screwed beyond screwed if I were to flat (I only have one extra tubie on me, and so one flat would make for a long walk, but in what direction, who knows!). I had taken many turns by this point, so was a bit *cough, *cough, disoriented. Eventually, after close to an hour, I saw an opening in the trees and saw a house. "I'm saved," I said to myself. I was thinking that I would simply knock on the door and ask the inhabitants where in God's green earth I was. Well I passed by some lovely, yet somewhat overgrown apple orchards. As I reached the house, I saw that it certainly had not been inhabited since the war. Oh well. So I kept riding, making up songs to make me feel better that all had the following lyrics: "Oh dear, I am lost today! Don't worry I will find my way!"

After a few more miles of praying that my old tubies would not flat, I saw pavement ahead. Luckily I was spit out onto a road. After using the scientific method of eenie, meenie to decide which way to go, I turned right and found a town whose name was familiar. Long story short, I made it back home. Barely. I was so hungry when I got home that I didn't even look at Frank as I doused hot sauce on a a tortilla and stuffed it into my mouth whole. When I finally looked down at my poor blond cat, he was generously sprinkled with a fair share of Tabasco. Poor guy. I was still so hungry, I considered licking it off of him. That would have been a bit furry, so I decided that was not a great plan, so instead I ate a still frozen ego. Any riding can relate to this need for instant calories, so it isn't as odd as it sounds. Well, maybe it is.

A bath and more food put me into a much better mood. I am off to a fest now with a couple of friends. I think I deserve the liter beer I will soon be drinking after today's adventure!

April showers bring what?

2011-05-01T03:23:00.004-04:00

So I don't buy the old adage, "April showers bring May flowers," As of yet, April was mostly shower free, but yet May has started with some less than perfect weather. It always seems to be like that. Having spent the first half of April in the field, where I was stuck behind a computer the whole time, the weather was just perfect. Now, when Nate is in the field and is stuck mostly in the open, the weather is pretty miserable. I am not sure how that works!

Despite the very windy and rainy weather we have been subjected to, I has been quite productive with the hubby in the field. Although I miss his company, the house has been very tidy! I have found this wonderful new running route with which I was so enamored, I ran it three times this week! It is a long climb on a running path, a few miles through the woods, and then a short bit through the old part of town back to post. All told it is about 7 miles, so it isn't too shabby of a run! I have been watching "Life in the Undergrowth," by David Attenborough and have learned quite a bit about our slimy friends without backbones (aka slugs and snails). As it is often moist on this trail, I have been able to study the things I have learned about in the series in real life. I never though invertebrates would be endearing, but they certainly are interesting creatures as a whole!

On an entirely different note, I have been following all the Royal Wedding plans and things very closely these past few months. It was exciting to finally see it all come together. Luckily, I was able to stream the wedding on my work computer from the BBC website. I am sure my NCOIC got sick of me turning the monitor towards him, or have me pulling on his sleeve say "Oooooo, look at her dress...what a terrible hat!" He certainly was a good sport though by occasionally saying , "Hmmm, yes certainly lovely." and "I agree, what a terrible hat." Thank God for tolerant NCOs that put up with the quirks of their officers! The Duchess of Cambridge was just beautiful! I loved the music they chose for the ceremony, the dress, the uniforms, everything! I got so jealous of Kate's jewelry, that I have been dropping hints via blackberry for a sapphire ring like hers...you know Nate, with our anniversary coming up.....*cough, *cough. I think he got the idea. He was talking about having jewelry conversations with his female Soldiers. As they are all fashionable girls, I hope he took their advice!

Things around here have been a bit dull (but dull is good!). We had a quiet Easter spent with our friend, Cat. We had a great night ride on the mountain bikes with him, where a small weasel type creature almost took us all out! I have been getting in some great reading as well. I just recently finished Bill Bryson's Shakespeare. It was just fantastic, as is everything Bill Bryson writes. Time for my run, so I must jet!

Musings

2011-04-14T03:40:00.005-04:00

So we are lucky. As my time in Germany (at least for the next year or so) comes to a close, I have realized just how lucky we are. In general, we are lucky people. Nate and I have a great relationship, wonderful family and friends, two great cats, and steady jobs. Although our jobs may not be our dream jobs, and our house may be former Nazi officer quarters, we get paid twice a month, and have a roof over our heads (even if that roof may have covered the heads of war criminals). We are also lucky, as the place we live is a place that we can exercise the love of our favorite sports. We ski and hike in the Alps, and ride just about every where.

I realize how blind I have been to take this all for granted. Nate and I have ridden the same roads that the legends that won Milan- San Remo have ridden. We rode over the names of Marco Pantani, Ivan Basso, and Miguel Indurain painted on the ground of the pass on the Mortirolo. We have seen two awesome Cyclocross World Championships, and raced with those same pros we watch cross the line on the world cups. We have ridden and raced in all the great cycling nations of Europe. We have torn up some of the greatest trails in the world. As my time here come to an end for a while, I realize just how much I am going to miss this.

Now be assured, I am taking a bike with me down range. Thanks to a great husband/ mechanic, I have a new Kona Jake the Snake waiting for some Afghan adventures, albeit ones that are contained within an area limited by concertina wire and fences. As the count down begins, I am trying to slow time down and appreciate what I have been blessed with. Well, must go do some errands for work for now, but rest assured, to get maximum time on the bike, I am taking my pink fixie to do them!

Long Time No Write

2011-03-14T13:57:00.005-04:00

So it seems that the posts in this blog have a theme, namely us being to busy to write them!
As an update, things are going well, vacation was amazing and much needed, and in true fashion when we came back we went from zero to a million miles an hour in no time. Jak has started her new job and faces a shop that has not existed in a year (despite being rather vital to a BCT's existence) but is having a blast. Through an interesting series of events that are rather secret, I find myself as not only the Executive Officer and Operations Officer as normal, but also the Company Commander for anywhere from the next month to possibly the next six months. It is a rather backhanded compliment that none of my higher seems too concerned by this turn of events, but it does make life exciting. I do relish the ability to effect the changes that I think are needed, but that is a story for another day.
In more relaxing news, spring has come to Bavaria at last. After one hell of a winter, this past weekend saw us riding through the rolling hills and dales in shorts!! (Forgot to mention, we have had strep for 3 weeks, so riding was very very very slow) It helps the body and soul (despite coughs to get rid of the last items mentioned in parenthesis) and was wonderful. We wandered on routes we had not taken before, and had rides on Saturday and Sunday that make you forget that on Monday your phone will not stop ringing.
Quick aside, that is not metaphorical, at one point today while on my office phone, the other line rang, the other office phone rang and my cell phone rang. Amazing!!

Quick Update

2011-01-24T05:17:00.001-05:00

So this may not be the most thrilling, but I think it is neat. As we get closer to coming home on leave, I remembered when we were last home, there was a little article mentioning how NH Fish and Game had put their topo maps for free online. Being a map dork, who loves having too much information at any given time, I think this is neat, as well as being a good resource for the north country. Check it out here! http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/maps/topo.html

Work? (UNCLASSIFIED)

2011-01-10T05:06:00.001-05:00

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

As you can tell from the whole (UNCLASSIFIED) thing, I am writing this from work using the nifty thing that allows me to email and have it turn it into a blog post. I do love technology. The New Year has started off better than our New Years Eve ski adventure would have led us to expect. Realistically this will not be the more coherent blog post, so allow me to mention some awesome things.

1. Jak and I have actually sold some bikes. I know, friends and family probably believe that this is impossible, but we have downsized the fleet somewhat. Though in all honesty, we have pretty much cleared out the bikes we never rode in order to get new ones. We have a disease.

2. We worked on the Land Rover yesterday. Our adventure pulling out the stuck German lady had left Jesus with a Landy black eye, namely his left headlight and headlight surround was banged up along with the body panel from a close encounter with a tree. Fortunately, I brought all of tools and talent to do body work with me. In the case of Landy, that involves hitting the bulged out part with a rubber mallet until it is back to new! A little rustoleum and a new surround and we will be 100% good to go.

3. It is actually sunny out. We have not seen the Bavarian sun in ages. It does, however, come hand in hand with the torrential rain of the past several days and heat wave which means all of our snow is gone!

That is all for now, I need to do at least some work.

V/R

1LT Miller, N

23rd ORD

Executive Officer

Dawg 5

475-8201

"They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday." -R. Heinlein

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Of Shame and Redemption

2010-12-30T15:57:00.002-05:00

Shame first: Shame on you Germany! You may wonder what the heck I mean by this, but trust me, all will be revealed. Today Jak and I decided to check out a local ski hill that he had not yet skied at. We should have realized that things would be less than fantastic when the line to park was out the gate, and it cost 1.50 Euro to park. Alas, we are nothing if not fatally optimistic and following a quick trip to the WC we paid our 30 Euro and got in line. Those reading stateside may think of an orderly queue, but rest assured it was nothing of the sort. That is where the shame comes in. How can an entire people be entirely without any ability to organize themselves? The cue to the lift was about 150 people doing their best rendition of Brownian motion, slowly, slowly, slowly making slight progress towards the lift. Now some could argue that it was simply the amount of people involved, or that it is our jobs biasing us, but let me point out some fallacies in the notion. We are in Germany, a land theoretically known for order and propriety, so let us imagine the opposite world. You have seen the pictures of the circumambulation of the Ka'aba, that is 20 or 30,000 or more Muslim pilgrims from multiple countries speaking multiple languages and they can pull it off smoothly. I have seen the documentary. There are obviously no German Muslims, because they wouldn't manage a single trip around the darn place. This leaves out the little bonus features such as chain smoking and lack of basic hygiene (i.e. deodorant) that our companions suffered with. Suffice to say that after 35 min, we made it to the top, skied down for 8 or 9 min, and then waited 55 min to get back up, than skied another 10 min, at which point we did not have the time to make it to the front of the line before the lift closed. Not a good day skiing, and not a good example of the mythical "alles in ordnung."
Redemption came in the form of food. Jak and I stopped at Netto on the way home to grab some bread. And potato salad. And terrible candy for Alli. Fortunately for German-American relations, the aforementioned was all amazing (save the candy) and quite cheap. It produced a dinner that managed to reduce our rage and hatred of people who cannot form lines to a manageable level, and life as we know it continued on. I suppose every day cannot be perfect.
P.S. That smile of Jak's in the picture? It is forced, and even then only successful because 3 Snowboarders had just crashed behind me. While walking. But being good at what you do is an entirely different rant for an entirely different day.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T04:41:00.004-05:00

I suppose it would be an unfair division of labor if I were to make Jak write all of these. On the other hand, as I write this Jak is in the kitchen making bread for today, but I suppose we all must use our talents as we see fit.
Christmas has been especially pretty this year, as in Bavaria it has been snowing on and off for the past 3 weeks, in fact it is snowing as I write this. Thank God for a white Christmas! The Army is generous and we have a 4 day off for Christmas, Wednesday was our last day of work for the week. Now idle time is well known to cause hands to populate with little devils, so the manly men consisting of myself, Ted, Sam and Mike decided that we had to start off the break with a bit of off road adventure. Thursday morning saw us all kissing our wives goodbye (except Mike, poor guy his Fiance is still back in the states) to go off into the woods in search of adventure. In true us style, we all forgot our cameras to document the adventures, so you will have to use your imagination. We started off in the woods that run along the fence line of post, where Jesus demonstrated how truly awesome a Land Rover is. I led with Sam providing running commentary, and we took every trail that we could make, with the exception of one trail that is beyond even the power of the Landy when covered in snow. Now I could narrate every turn and trail, but I suppose we will hit the highlights.
Now the second part of the adventure of offroading requires a caveat, namely Germans cannot drive. While not as reckless as the Italians, they seem to be permanently stuck in the first snowfall of the year lack of driving ability. This was driven home to us (punny I know!) when about 2 kilometers down a forest track we encountered a local national in her Audi A3. For those unfamiliar with the particular vehicle, it has all of the off road capability of a Ford Focus, so she was of course stuck. Imagine the expression of mild terror as 4 young Americans dismount their vehicles, but in short order she was much happier as we actually had an idea of how to get her out. With the cobination of Ted's, hmmmm "liberated" HMMWV tow strap and the unstoppable power of a LT77 Gearbox tied with a low transfer case and a locked differential we had her out in short order and were all backing down the trail to the entrance. While Jak may be an excellent driver in reverse, this woman was rather a worse example of the capabilities of the fairer sex, as she managed to get stuck 3 more times as she would swerve into the ditch while backing up. We eventually did complete the rescue and she was very grateful and even offered money. If this whole Army thing doesn't work out, I can always deliver mail and rescue cars.
The other part of our adventure was the discovery of a partially eaten wild boar head. Of course we had to bring it home and mount it on Sam's fence post, to scare off the Soldiers who use our neighborhood as a shortcut to the bars. Michaela (his wife) did not find it as cool, and it lasted about 30 minutes before going to the dumpster.
4 Days are not all mindless fun adventures, Jak and I also did some last minute shopping for a Yankee Swap (called by southerners a "Dirty Santa") and did battle with elderly Bavarians at the butcher to gain what we thought was tenderloin roast, but instead ended up as wild boar. I have to wonder if we once had its' head, but the chances are slim. Christmas dinner was the two of us while Tom surfed the counter for scraps we had inadvertently left within paw strike of our fat cat. We also attended midnight mass where we heard this Christmas Gem:
Santa was having a bad Christmas, it started when right after Thanksgiving when Mrs Claus put him on a diet, as his big red suit was not quite big enough. Then, the flu hit the workshop and half of his elves were on quarters for 2 weeks. Then, a week before the big day the Reindeer got into the fermented milk and cookies and Rudolph and Prancer broke their hooves walking home. If the OPREP for that wasn't bad enough, because the loadmaster elf was still on quarters, his secondary had to take over and he messed up his plans on ALPS, and the sleigh was loaded incorrectly, causing the landing skid to crack. Santa was in his office trying to figure out how to get the presents to their targets, when there was a knock on the door. It was an angel with a Christmas tree, and the angel said to Santa "I am the Christmas tree angel, I am supposed to go around giving these out to everyone, where do you want me to shove this?" For Santa, it was the last straw and he said "YOU CAN SHOVE IT. . ." And that is how we get the tradition of having a angel on top of the tree.
I thought it was funny.
Jak and I opened our presents this morning, with much help from the cats. We miss everyone very much, and apologize for this rather disjointed entry.
Merry Christmas!

Finally, a break in the action!

2010-12-23T04:44:00.003-05:00

So, although there hasn't been anything too extreme going on, we have been busy. Firstly, I must say that half day schedules are not really half days. Secondly, staff duty gets more, ummmm, interesting as the night progresses. Lastly, I am very thankful for this Christmas four-day holiday! Work has been a bit busy, but with the Soldiers leaving early, it certainly has allowed me to get some work done, as well as accomplish tons of stuff while pulling staff duty. Thanks to Sam getting locked out of his computer account, I had to take his shift on Tuesday.

During the day, it was business as usual, people signing out on leave, chatting with MSG Blake and SFC Elmes, and managing the extra duty folks. As the night progressed, things got odd. We recieved a frantic call trying to locate the owner of a Zippo lighter that had tried to ship through the mail. The customs fellow on the phone seemed to think it was a matter of life and death to get a hold of this Soldier, who he could only identify as SPC Jones. Seriously, does he know how many SPC Jones that the battalion has?! When we told him that, he hung up in frustration. Oh well, someone will have to do without their $10 lighter....schade. When on my checks to see if the arms rooms and motor pools were locked, I was followed by some small four legged creature every time I walked into the back area of the companies to make sure the back doors were secured. Odd. The last truly nerve wracking thing occured when I was dropping off my runner at his house. As my runner's car is not working now, and in the Christmas spirit, I offered to give him a ride to his home, as it was ony a couple of miles away and was very slippery out. On the way down the road, my windshield wiper fell off. No big deal, in the Land Rover, that is par for the course. I pulled over at his home to let him out, and to try to shove it back on. Epic fail. As I was swearing and banging at the wiper connection points, the Polizei pull in behind me, giving me odd looks due to my unsual behavoir. When getting back in the car, more odd looks were issued from the two German police officers, as I proceeded to get in the wrong side of the car (the Landy is right side drive) and drive off. Needlessly, they followed me to make sure I wasn't drunk. As I am on QRF this month and have a no drinking order, I certainly was not drunk, just a bit crazy, but that is my normal state. Pulling onto the main road to get back to post, they followed me. As my wonderful 24-year old diesel Defender excellereates at a rate of 0-60 in about 5 minutes, I was hoping they would pass me. No such luck. Meanwhile, in the car, I was sweating bullets, due to the fact that I did not have my license, as Nate had taken the Volvo the night before, which had my wallet in it. Having not slept in roughly 30 hours, I was certainly not driving my best, but thankfully made it on to post where they chose not to have the hassel of signing on to follow me. After making back to work and finishing a report, I successfully made it home to shower and go to bed. What an eventful day.

With Christmas here, Nate and I will be celebrating the holiday with the cats and then going over to a friend's house for some games and festivities. Although I have, and will continue to complain about my no drinking order during the Holidays, luckily Nate and I have produced a ginger ale that has no more alchohol than a serving of cough syrup! While others have their gluhwein, I will have my home made ginger ale, so all holiday spirit is not lost for me! Thanks for reading our ramblings and have a wonderful Christmas!

PS. The pictures are from Sunday's snowshoeing adventure in Pottenstein and off-roading in our Land Rover Defender, Jesus!

Christmas Time

2010-12-17T04:48:00.006-05:00

So we've not written in a while. I am just waiting for DPW to come and fix my flooding kitchen, so I've decided to write. So get this, last Saturday we woke up to a couple of inches of water in our kitchen. Our dishwasher was in the process of exploding, and both cats were on top of the fridge. The sensible thing to do would be to place a call to the department of public works (DPW) to get a plumber to the house ASAP.

So we looked in the phone book and called the number....no answer. Okay, no problem, we'll just call the emergency DPW line....the fire department picked up. Well, there are two issues with this: the first problem is that our house is so saturated with water at this point, there is no way it could ever ignite. Problem number two: they can't do a damn thing about it. After a while of explaining why we need the services of a plumber, and no it cannot wait until Monday, two guys showed up to our house. Although decked out in overalls, our Mario and Luigi look-alikes didn't provide much help. They explained to us that they were working on over time as they don't usually work weekends (or ever it seems, seeing that I am still waiting as I type this) and that they really don't deal with dish washers. Well, then please explain what you do deal with , I asked. They replied that they deal with pipes, they need the wash-meister to deal with this on Monday, but the problem is, is that he doesn't work Mondays, or any day for that matter, but Fridays. Go figure. So with that said, they made to leave. At this point I basically barricaded them in and Nate forced them to at least disconnect the water so the Niagra effect would stop. At least they successfully accomplished that. As it is now Friday, I am waiting for plumbers or dish washer meisters, or whoever to show up. Who knows, as it is snowing, that may not happen either. Thanks Germany, you suck at this efficiency thing.

On a completely unrelated note, Nate and I spent last weekend working on things around the house. We did the normal winter cleaning and Christmas prep, but also decided to tackle a project that we had been planning to do for a while; that is, make a new play structure for the cats. I must explain that my cats are a bit large. As our vet says, "Tom is not obese, just a bit fat. And plus, he has a large bone structure!" Thanks for sugar coating it, doc! Frank is also large, being a Norwegian forest cat. The existing play structure we have was fine when they were little, but is not sturdy enough to support one of them, let alone both.

When looking for materials to build our cat jungle gym, we decided to find as many textures as possible for the cats to enjoy. Due to an ice storm my favorite lilac tree fell down last week, so Nate cut the remainder of the tree down to use in this play place. We also scored some great remnant pieces of wood at Obi for super cheap and some carpeting. Add in some rope, and voila, new cat palace is finished. We consider this a success, as they not only like playing and resting on it, but they like it better than any of the boxes that they are usually drawn to as their preferred leisure locations! Anyway, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Oh the field!

2010-09-06T03:13:00.004-04:00

So as most of you all know, Nate and I just got out of the most ...um....interesting field training exercise ever. It was 2+ weeks of my life that I want back. People in hell want ice water, so fat chance there! Anyway, Nate "suffered" about 20K from the flag at his convoy lane while I got the full brunt of the Hammer. It was great, not. Oh well. We learned some things, taught others some things, and embraced the suck. Thank God we are now home.

To try and shake off the post field blues (and two killer sinus infections) Miller and I have taken this four day training holiday to relax and get reaquainted with our wallets. Friday was an interesting shopping trip to Regensberg where we delightfully perused a bike shop the size of a Wal-Mart. We left with much lighter wallets, as well as some great new tires (30 Euros for a pair of Continental Race Kings!), some cables, and other necessary junk. Our lovely Volvo then drove us into the worlds smallest parking garage so that we could unload more cash in the pedestrian zone. There I purchased a giant mortar and pestle for my culinary delights (and made the hubby carry it), some undies in a newly found TK Maxx, not TJ Maxx (that is the international version), and fantasized about purchasing a Picasso charcoal line drawing in an absurdly expensive antique store. With our wallets a tad lighter, we ate some pastries and drove home. Saturday was not quite a day for adventures, but we enjoyed our time shopping at Obi (I picked up some lovely mums) and gardening. That evening we went to a Tapas bar with friends and ate/ drank to our hearts content. Yesterday was our first time back on the bike since before the field, and it was a punishment. We rode with some friends down some technical trails and ended the 3-hour ride with some great German food and beer. Hopefully today will be full of adventure! If you still read our boring ramblings, please comment on our posts so we know that at least a couple people care!

Staff Duty Ramblings

2010-07-29T14:45:00.002-04:00

So here I am on staff duty. It is 0040 and I am a tad tired and bored. Only eight more hours to go! It has been a while since I have pulled staff duty, so I do not really mind very much, yet it is one of the more boring duties that the Army has. I thoroughly scared myself silly when doing the arms room checks by imagining sounds and things that were not really there. It is just a bit creepy at night by yourself. Some may ask, what does one do at staff duty? Well, the answer to that is, not very much. Upon assuming duties this evening, I watched the extra duty clean (taking off chunks of the wall while I was at dinner, which infuriated the CSM), read, looked on facebook, treated my runner to "1000 great photos by the LT" on flickr (poor guy!), and went on my security checks. That brings me up to now...which is why I am writing to you. I have a book on Palestine, but it is a bit dense for my very foggy mind right now, and I have to stay awake, so you all are listening to my incoherent ramblings. I am sure I will be bored later, and may write again.

Home Again

2010-07-24T04:53:00.003-04:00

So Nate and I are back home again. After five stages of TransAlp we very unceremoniously exited the race after Nate was taken off a high Italian peak by Alpine rescue personnel. No worries, he is fine, but hypothermia and dehydration got the best of him. Under the recommendation from a great Italian doctor, we abandoned the race. Despite extreme amounts of suffering, TransAlp was an unforgetable experience that allowed us to meet some of the greatest cyclists/ people we have had the pleasure of knowing. Thanks to our great Canadian, Australian, English and South African friends, we made it as far as we did. My dear husband was truly disappointed that we did not get to finish, but this way we will have the opportunity to do Transalp or other long distance mountain bike adventures in the future. Regretfully, the same cannot be said for another rider who unfortunately died from unknown causes during the course of the race. This is just one more affirmation that life is fleeting, so living it to its fullest extent is ever so important. For full details of the race and interesting journey home, we will be mailing out DVDs that we are making right now of our adventure. I will mail a bunch to Alli for the NH folks, but if anyone else wants one, just tell me and I will get it in the mail to you! I will blog more later to really catch you all up.

What a busy time of year!

2010-06-20T08:41:00.004-04:00

Everyone speaks of the Christmas holiday season as being the busiest time of year, but I must disagree. I think of it this way: why would anyone want to train when it is cold and miserable....let's wait until summer so we can be warm and miserable! Although the weather held out this week (in a Grafenwoehr way at least), and things were not that miserable, it was still a very busy time, and will remain so with no end in sight until well into the fall. This past week, Nate ran a CS gas chamber for his company, in which he used far too much CS for entertainment factor. As entertaining as that must have been, I am very glad I was busy doing other things and could not attend. On my plate this week was a rousing few days of hand grenade ranges. Myself and fellow New Englander, SFC C, successfully detonated (with how much boom they make, I think I can safely use that word) 233 live grenades with no issues. Some of our Soldiers and leaders gave us a bit of a scare with their lack of throwing abilities, including myself (as Bean can attest, I am no all-star thrower).

With the work week safely past us, the hubby and I have spent our long weekend reading, napping (as the cats have happily joined us in), and riding our bikes. Yesterday we raced in Hohenfels where Nate took 1st place in his age group and 4th or so overall. It was a great result for him. I was able to hang on to first in my age group, but took my first loss of the season by pulling a 2nd place overall. I did not feel bad losing to this particular opponent though, as she is very talented, and Hohenfels is really her course. Our teammates did well this weekend as well. Joe managed to get second in his age group and win the coveted mini beer keg prize during the Huffy Toss (yes, it is exactly as it sounds, if you are unsure of what it entails, ask Alli). Even after starting late, rob still managed to catch most of the pack! Even after a bent rotor (on Joe's bike), a fully non-functioning bottom bracket (on my bike), and a fallen off crank arm (on Nate's bike) we still all managed to finish the mudfest that was the race. Although it was painful, a bad day on the bike is better than most good days off it!

Thanks everyone for reading our boring little blog. It is time for us to take out the 'cross bikes for a ride, so I must be going! Happy Father's Day to everyone as well! PS: The photos are of Frank being bad (but very cute!) and Nate tossing the Huffy, and truly displaying why I should be glad that he wasn't at my grenade range!

We are not good at this game. . .

2010-05-31T11:34:00.002-04:00

As implied by the title, Jak and I are really not that good at keeping this thing up to date. Things are busy as always, but life is good. Jak and I finally figured out what we are going to do over our block leave. We are going to race the Craft Bike Transalp! Even for the uninitiated this should sound impressive. About 600 kilometers with 19500 meters of vertical over 8 days. We aren't crazy, we are actually going to do this for fun, though many of our friends (and especially our NCO's) think that we are a little bit nuts.
It is also our second anniversary today, and as with the first we get to spend it apart. Jak is down in Miesau with her company and will be back later this week, while I am at home with the cats. The cats are currently resting up so that they can do battle with each other later. Frank still is trying to figure out this whole litter box thing, the number 1 is pretty much set, but number 2 is only about 50/50 on target. He is not the brightest cat. In fact, he may be the dumbest cat I have ever met, but he is sweet.

Oh What a Beautiful Morning!

2010-05-24T03:37:00.002-04:00

So I am blogging at work. I know, I am a bad person wasting the government's dollars. That being said, it is such a nice day, I felt that I needed to comment on it! Miller and I have been having a great time enjoying the nice weather now that the rain has stopped (for now at least!). We had a great ride yesterday through Pottenstein with some friends. We found some great trails, and finished it off with some good beer. Despite the fact that I found my way onto the wrong side of a large ravine, while the rest of the group was on the other side, it was a truly enjoyable ride. Nate had a spectacular crash into a VERY muddy patch of ground leading up to a stream which caused the bike to stop and him to keep going. He luckily vaulted the bike and landed on his feet in the stream. We were all impressed.

On Saturday, we went shopping in Anberg for some traditional German outfits. Nate walked away from the store with lederhosen and all the accessories, while I did the same with a dirndl. Unfortunately, our wallet was about $500 lighter. Oh well, you only live in Germany once!

I know I have not blogged in a while, so I will catch you up very quickly, as I really should be working! Last weekend, the Grafenwoehr Mountain Bike Race took place only 5 minutes down the road from where we live. It was a tough course, but Nate managed to get a 3rd place, while I came in first in front of a rider who beat me last year at the Hohenfels race. I expect to be battling it out with her for the rest of the season! We have spent a good deal of time riding, and will hopefully be able to ride tonight when we get out of work. Luckily, it stays light here now until about 2100. I will go back to work now, and stop wasting the government's money!

To catch you all up

2010-04-25T14:12:00.006-04:00

So, I know we have not written in a while. I feel bad enough, so I will make up for it now by blogging about all of our recent adventures. Starting with last weekend, I will catch you all up! Last weekend, the hubby and I made our way down to Italy for some great bike racing. We managed to fit ourselves, all of our stuff, four bikes, and a set of extra wheels into our new Volvo. The gas milage was great, and the powerful engine was a nice feature on the Autobahn. Miller was going 170K while I was sleeping, and said he couldn't even feel how fast he was going. I think that may be a slight exageration though, as he never went that fast while I was awake. I just think he knew I would yell at him for going that speed if I knew about it. Thankfully for him, I fall asleep as soon as I get into a car.
We made it safely down to Aviano, Italy and enjoyed some time pre-riding the mountain course before going out for dinner with our friends Joe, Carmen, their son, Alex and Chris, and Irina. I made the mistake of ordering a half-liter of wine (italian is NOT my strong point) and drinking it all. Luckily it seems to have loosened up my legs well, as Miller and I were able to both win our catagories on the mountain bike course the next morning. After the race, more food and wine followed (when in Rome.....or Aviano). We both had great results the next day as well, with myself taking the womens' win, and Nate coming in second in the men's race. Both of our friends who were racing did great as well. Overall, a great weekend for Lost River Cycling Team. Once again, a trip to a winery remedied any craving for wine (we took a case of bottles home). We had a relaxing drive home the next day and were in to work on Tuesday.
I spent my week doing some land navigation training that I planned for my company while Miller worked on the thousand or so tasks that needed to get done in the office. The week went by quickly and culminated yesterday morning with a German ruck march. Some Soldiers and Officers from the 18th CSSB (our parent unit) participated in a ruck march competition held by the German reserve unit out of Freihung, a neighboring town. We enjoyed doing the timed event of about 8 miles over the course of 2 hours with about 40lbs in our rucksacks. Although we had fun, and enjoy training with our German compatriots, both of us can barely move today, so of course, Nate and I went on an epic mountain bike ride! We enjoyed exploring in an area that we usually ski at in winter. While biking around Mehlmeissel, we encountered some very hairy, yet smaller, black cows. They wree quite cute, and tolerant as we asked them "How now...black...cow?" over and over again. Although we were hurting, the ride was great, and the 70 degree weather made everything hurt a bit less! Anyway, that is about all we have for now, but please don't forget to check our our Lost River Cycling blog for information about the team and our sponsors!

More Adventures Abroad

2010-03-24T12:29:00.006-04:00

This last four-day was exciting as usual. With all the hard work we have been doing, Nate and I rewarded ourselves with a little road trip to Italy. It was wicked awesome! Not only did we drive through (and stop in) some beautiful places in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, we also got to spend quite a bit of time enjoying the Mediterranean air of the Italian Riviera! After a full 10 hours of driving and multiple tanks of gas at outrageous prices, we arrived in the sea-side town of San Remo, Italy. This small vacation town is the terminus of the longest one-day race on the pro-tour calendar, Milan-San Remo. This exhausting race, funnily enough, goes from Milan to San Remo...go figure. Not only did we get to see one of our favorite riders, Oscar Freire of Team Rabobank, win the race, we spent two days riding through the tough terrain of Italy and France.

Our ride the first day was challenging, but fun, as we made our way through some impressive Italian traffic and grime into a much less crowded and much cleaner France. Everything you have heard about Italy is true....it is very dirty, the food is awesome, and the men are just beautiful (no worries, Miller, I still prefer a scrawny, blond, pale guy any day!). Most things about France are not true. They do not hate Americans, they do not smell, and the people are really very freindly , even when you garble thier language while using a French-Canadian accent! When in France we ate some great bread and just enjoyed the gorgeous sea-side. I imagined Napoleon marching his troops on the same route we took, and envisioned the immense sea battles Admiral Nelson fought against Boney on that very coast. The history of the area was just daunting! After our ride, we saw the finish of Milan- San Remo and treated ourselves to REAL Italian pizza, tiramisu, and gelato. The food was really tasty!

With our fat stores built back up, we decided that a very long ride with a combined 33,000 feet of climbing was in store for the next day. We rode for over six hours, but took one rest stop at a great little pastry shop we found. We spoke VERY little Italian, so we pointed and gesticulated until we had bought a sample of nearly everything in the shop.....and two very cold Cokes with fresh lemon. It was certainly the most satisfying ride I have had in a while. After dinner and more gelato, we turned in for the night in order to prepare for our ten-hour drive home. Luckily the cats did not trash the house too much (only a few wild parties), and the plants were fine. I would say the excursion was a great success! I love you all, and wish that everyone could have these great adventures with us (especially those people who know some Italian...wink, wink, nudge, nudge, Alli).

What a difference a week can make

2010-02-28T02:21:00.008-05:00

So spring is certainly on its way. As is the fashion in Bavaria, the feet of accumulated snow that we had last week, has retreated so quickly, it is as if it was never there. I sense this is not the case back home in NH, from the pictures Mum has sent me over black berry messenger. This week was busy for us, but considerably more fun than most, as we have been able to ride every day, except for the days I was in the field.

These riding adventures started last weekend. Nate and I planned to get our friend Chris off the indoor trainer for good last weekend. On Saturday, we had a chilly yet uneventful ride through the rolling hills in the direction of Weiden. Sunday, was much more eventful than Saturday due to the propensity of Grafenwoehr weather to be as unpredictable as New England's storm fronts. When the three of us started out on our ride, although cloudy, the air was dry and not very winding. We were enjoying our ride, yet seemed a tad dismayed over the increasingly darkening sky. Despite the potential for bad weather, we continued to ride only to be caught in the most impressive of snow/ sleet storms. We suffered through over ten miles of misery with precipitation that felt like razors hitting us in the face. When we finally made our way home, and took off our shoes, my feet were so swollen from cold that they looked liked like sausages with toes!

Despite bad weather and very icy conditions, Nate and I braved the cold to ride over lunch of Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my company went to the field for some training. It is the battalion commander's guidance for us to gain experience in a more classic style of warfare than we are used to fighting, as he is trying to prepare us for less traditional deployments which may come down, such as for Africa or Eastern Europe. In otherwords, we are learning how to be the Army of the 80's. Although foriegn to many of my Soldiers, ROTC has prepared the officers for this task just fine. The infinite knowledge of my 1st Sergeant and older NCO's has proven indispensable. We convoyed out to the field site (with a slight detour, thanks Sam). Once out in the muddiest place I have ever seen, we set up our tents, camo nets, etc. and started digging in. This may not seem to be much of a process, but when you sink up to your knees in mud (Bean would have HATED it), it is not very easy! After spending the night, and teaching some different skills to our Soldiers, we packed up and started home, but not before Sam's platoon baptized him in the mud, as it was his first field exercise with the unit.

The rest of the week was uneventful, except for a poorly timed flat tire on Nate's bike over one of our lunch time rides. Luckily we were not far from home. Yesterday, we attempted to ride again with Chris, hopefully under better conditions. The weather held out, except for some killer wind. We wandered around our favorite ride routes and discovered many more. We climbed over 3/4 mile vertical, which was quite impressive, seeing that we rode less than 40 miles. We did see some great old ruins on top of one of the taller hills we climbed. Riding makes the week pass so much more quickly, and hopefully the weather will cooperate! Hope everyone will get a dose of spring like we did (not that we expect it to stay that way!).

Cute

2010-02-20T06:58:00.004-05:00

This post is just cute cat photos....no other purpose than to preserve the cuteness of the world!

Odd things happen in Germany

2010-02-15T12:21:00.004-05:00

So here we were minding our own business, cross country skiing. On Saturday, we trekked out to our favorite skiing location. As usual, we waxed our skis and got under way. Quite a few other skiers were doing the same. We made our way onto the trails and were enjoying some great cardio adventures, when all of a sudden we heard some funny noises. Dogs panting and people yelling is not usually what one hears while going out for a peaceful ski in the woods. Miller and I turned around only to see a team of dogs and a musher (I think that is what you would call a dog sled driver) barreling toward us. We promptly got out of the way of the dogs only to see another team following. It seems we had stumbled our way onto a dog sled race course. I say stumbled, but apparently, all the other skiers had done the same. The mushers thought nothing of us skiing, so we took that as a a sign that they would ignore us, and we would ignore them. So we skiied, taking care not to step in any dog poo, while they made sure their happy wagging teams did not run us over. It was fun not only to ski, but to see all the different teams of dogs, some composed of the average small, but sturdy husky mixes, to malamutes to one team of just ye olde mutts. Just another surprising day in the life of the Millers!

Boredom

2010-02-13T06:28:00.003-05:00

Nate and I are two very busy people. So what is the best thing to do with our free time? Stay busy of course! As usual, the work-week has provided us with little to no time for relaxation. Luckily for us this weekend is a four-day training holiday. With ample time to do as we please, we have decided to redecorate. As Mum and Bean are very familiar with, when I get bored, I paint. I am not talking about impressionist or cubist works of art, but walls. We have decided that we are sick of our dimly lit, but nicely floored bedroom. Not even hard-wood can keep me in that room for much long, so we have decided to relocate our sleeping quarters to a brighter, yet much hated room in the house. So as those who have visted our very humble (and wicked crappy....no, don't give me the same junk about us having a nicer place than most 23 year olds....face it, I am too elitist to be happy with the "better than most" idea of things!) abode know, our formerly yellow room was by far the least used room of the house. I hated everything about it, the flooring, the light fixtures, and most of all, the color. I detest yellow with a passion I cannot describe. I think it may have something to do with the fact that blonds never look good in yellow....unless we are talking about gold, that is entirely different story (hint, hint, my hubby dearest). So we decided blue was the way to go, Blue bedrooms are inviting and calming, so off to Self-Help we went to pick up some blue paint. After about 18 coats of paint as thick as glue on the worlds oldest and junkiest wall construction, we are finished with the bulk of the work.

On an entirley different, and hopefully more coherent note, yesterday, like last weekend, we went skiing. Skiing in Mehlmeisel, a town about a half and hour away, has given Nate a bit more confidence on the slopes than our other Alpine adventures. I always seem to forget that the man is deathly afraid of heights. In my opinion, the best way to get over a fear is to face it. Hence skiing. Luckily for him, there are also cross country ski trails in the area as well, so we can do that when I am not in need of an adrenaline rush. The trails in the area are great and well groomed, and best of all, free. While the paint dries, we will be heading off there today! I hope everyone has been enjoying the weekend. Also, If you like what we write or just want to say "hello," please post a comment so we know that you all are reading our often-times pointless blog!

'Cross the Pond

2010-02-03T14:05:00.004-05:00

So this week has been hectic. Very Hectic. Work has been super tiring, but as usual, there is very little that can be done about it. Luckily, we have truly been enjoying our weekends. This Saturday, Nate and I spent a great day cross country skiing. We were able to ski on some fresh powder through some really great trails. Although we spent our time switching who was in the lead to break track, it was still a ton of fun. Later in the day, we went to Liam's first birthday party at the Oradat's house. We had a great time, where luckily Jennifer and I share a love of scrabble, and were able to get our scrabble fix for a while. After three games and far too much food, Sam (one of my fellow ICTC LTs) gave us a ride home in his super ghetto, yet functional low rider, which he bought from a super sketchy South American, for far too much. After far too little sleep, Nate, Chris and I embarked on a great adventure.

With a 0530 wake up on a Sunday morning, the three of us piled into the VW with as much warm clothes as we could carry to head to Tabor, Czech Republic for Cyclocross Worlds. Upon arriving into one of the more sketchy cities in the country, we boarded a bus to be transported with many other cyclocross fans to the race course. First up was the women's race. Our American ladies did not do as well as we had hoped they would, but it was still a great time cheering them on. Katie Compton, who was in the running for the win, had to bow out in the first lap due to an ongoing injury. It was still exciting to see Marianne Vos power through to a great victory over the hometown favorite Katerina Nash. The men's race was even crazier! Tim Johnson, despite a poor start moved up into the top 20, along with Jamie Driscol (who we formerly raced with in the ECCC). Our other guys didn't do as well, with a truly poor performance from Ryan Trebon. Throughout it all, we enjoyed freezing our rear-ends off in the super cold weather while eating bratwurst and drinking Budvar Budweisser (which is about as nasty and tasteless as the American version). Chris enjoyed himself heckling and cheering. Nate took a ton of great photos, and I got to talk to a photographer from Cycling News. All in all it was a great time! We are looking forward to when World's is in Germany next year!

We have been quite busy, but that is no excuse for not writing!

2010-01-24T08:49:00.004-05:00

So Nate and I have been quite busy lately. Longs days at work have translated to falling asleep on the the couch in the first five minutes of any leisure time activity. Never-ending power point presentations have sucked up all of our time, and leave only the time after all of our Soldiers have gone home to finally start our days work....at 1800. Hopefully it should slow down a bit though. Tom and Frank have been putting up with our extended work days with great indifference. As long as they get their food on time after PT, all is well. We do apologize for not writing as often as we should, so I will catch you all up on our recent adventures.

Last weekend, Miller and I checked into a cute hotel in Garmish for a bit of skiing. The hotel was grand (but cheap, go figure) with a wardrobe in our room that could have held all of Narnia. We (well, I) enjoyed skiing some of the challenging terrain in the German Alps. I will forever thank my mother for turning me into quite a profficient downhill skiier, as the skill has been indespensible in later life. Although the skiing was great, with plenty of powder, the trails were crowded with Europeans who apparently think it is a waste of money to pay for a lesson, and would rather tumble aimlessly down a black. As funny as it is to watch, it can become rather trecherous to try to navigate around bodies that are quickly reaching terminal velocity. We enjoyed eating sausages and drinking beer on the slopes. Although I much prefer the trails back home, they do have thier slopes-side cuisine down to a science! After a mid morning binding readjustment, my new skis were great. Unlike my old sticks, they have a narrow waist which provides responsive turning with a greater length to increase speed. I think I would give Alli a run for her money on these bad boys. Nate did as well as a guy who is deathly afraid of heights would be expected to do on a 10,000 foot peak. He increased his carving skills on some of the gentler trails and was able to challenge himself on some of the steeper inclines. Although I would not call his experience, fun, I would say that he is slowly working in the right direction to make skiing fun. As everyone knows, it is never fun to ski when you haven't developed the muscle memory for it. Off the slopes, we did get some good shopping in. Nate also found a great restaurant that serves tex-mex food, Guiness, and Bulmer's. It was wicked!

This week, my beau and I spent our lunches getting in some great running, as work has been so busy, we have been working through PT. We also ordered new breaks for the VW. As I have to shift down to first to stop, I think it is time to drop some cash on these very necessary parts. On a very exciting note, we will be adding a new vehicle to our car quiver! Yesterday we ordered a new Volvo XC60 which will be rolling off the production line in Sweden in early April. Miller nearly died thinking about the money we were dropping on this car, but with all the repair costs I have been sinking into our silver bullet, it will be worth having a new car with a 5 year, 60,000 mile warrenty (which includes wear and tear, like breaks and windshield wipers). We will be keeping our VW, as we have to own at least on standard car. We wanted the Volvo in standard, but it is not worth it in an SUV. The gas milage is actually worse with a standard in modern cars, and despite being fun to drive, the benefits did not out weight the costs. So my beautiful blue beauty will have a steptronic transmission (same as in my mum's car). The XC60 will be dark metalic blue with black leather interior, extended moon roof (it is almost the length of the car!), heated front and rear seats, 3.2 liter engine, all wheel drive, and so much more! I wish we had it now, but it will be worth the wait. Also, it will be quite inexpensive to insure thanks to some great safety features. Okay, now I will stop talking about the car! Anyway that about catches you up!
PS.
If you want to check out our new car, build one here: http://www.volvocars.com/us/models/xc60/Pages/BuildYourxc60.aspx

I love how wussy Germany is....no wonder they lost the war!

2010-01-09T04:52:00.003-05:00

So Germany is full of a bunch of Sallies. At least when it comes to snow. Reading the BBC News website this morning, I discovered our dusting of snow to be front page news. "Germany Hit With Massive Blizzard!" The page read. I took one look out the window, and said to my dear husband, "What the heck are they talking about?" Yesterday post closed at 1200 due to weather. No business in Graf was open after 1400. Everyone battened down the hatches for the storm. Nate and I went out an skied. I get it, the roads get bad when it snows, but the reaction here is just a bit much. It has been consistently snowing for the last week or so, so we have taken the opportunity to enjoy it. Last Saturday we ventured out for a snowy cyclocross ride in the forests surrounding our little town. During the week, we went for various walks on the farm trails. Yesterday we cross-country skied in the darkness on the forest roads surrounding the town of Moos. All in all it has been fun, but a tad disconcerting that we have seen none of our fellow townsfolk (besides some hearty Americans) doing the same. This can only lead me to one conclusion...Germans are wussy. They seem to have the fortitude of the most warm blooded southerner. I never thought I would meet folks more afraid of the cold and snow than Southerners, but these Bavarian Germans have proven me wrong. Next weekend, hopefully we will be hanging with a more robust crew, as we have booked a place in the Alps so we can enjoy some higher altitude fun (aka skiing on some F-ing awesome trails).

On another cold-weather related note, Alli has been enjoying our place in Lincoln, taking advantage of mid-week ski rates, and a great vaiety of snow-shoe and XC trails. Alli had the privilage to see a pair of otter while snowshoeing in the back country. She couldn't get a photo of them, but has plenty of shots of their slides into the river. She also saw (ans smelled I am sure) a steaming pile of moose poo, which cut that hike short pretty quickly. I have been a bit jealous of the great snow conditions back home, but am happy with the activities here. Tom and Frank are now fast friends who spend the day sleeping in each other's company, vying for the sunny spot on the rug, talking to us in turn, or playing. They are truly fun together, and Tom has really welcomed Frank (except for dinner time at least, when Frank doesn't finish his food, Tom, being a fatty must lick the plate clean!).Anyway, housework beckons.

WTF mate?

2010-01-01T05:24:00.006-05:00

So Frank is offended. Very offended. Poor Frank has very long hair, and occasionally, when using the litter box he gets a bit dirty. Well, not dirty, just has some .....remnants....sticking to the fur around his bottom. Having dropped Nate's parents off at the airport this morning, things were quiet in the house. Well, they were quiet until we decided it was a good idea to throw our new kitty into the tub. We had no need to wash the whole cat, but just the rear area. I prepped for this by taking our the aroma-therapy calming lavender pet shampoo and turning on a gentle stream of warm, but not hot, water in the tub. It all started normally with the usually very pissed off cat clinging to my husband's shoulder for dear life. No surprises there. After wrestling a very squirmy critter into the water and trying to direct a spray towards his backside, we soon figured out that the particles were far too affixed, more like cemented, to the fur. I tried everything to break it up, including, but not limited to thoroughly molesting my cat. Never have I had my hand in such close proximity to my pet's balls for such a long period of time. All the while, Frank was pitifully meowing while Tom stood at the door chirruping a not-so-comforting "better you than me" sound. Eventually the molestation had to stop....out came the scissors. After what seemed like pounds of fur and fecal matter came of the ass end of the cat, Frank was finally clean. We put him on a towel, where he just looked at us with utter disgust. Tom took one look at Frank, with his half wet body, and just sat down and seemed to laugh. Poor Frank. But at least now he smells nice. By the way, aroma therapy for cats is a crock of shit!

2009-12-30T16:02:00.001-05:00

BTW we renamed our new cat: Benjamin Franklin.....Frank for short, it just fits him better

Manifest Destiny

2009-12-28T13:54:00.004-05:00

So we would like to introduce the newest furry addition to the family: Meriwether Lewis. Our new Norwegian Forest Cat (yes, finally we have gone into the realm of pure bred pets) is starting to acclimate to his slightly less wealthy home. With an original staggering price tag and higher ranking owners, Lewis, as we call him, has condescended to agree to live in our humble abode. At five months of age, and already tipping the scales at 14 lbs. we expect that he may soon eat us out of house and home! He is just a sweetheart, that has very large feet (another harbinger of monstrous size).

On an entirely different note, Ma and Pa (Miller's rentals) are over from the 'States to spend some time over the holidays with us. We have enjoyed eating, hiking, and spending time with the cats (I love being able to say "cats" instead of "cat" again!). We hiked in Pottenstein yesterday, seeing the great geology of the area, and to a slippery walk up the extinct volcano in Neustadt am Kulm today. We enjoyed the crisp, yet lovely weather on both days. Ma and Pa came over the day after Christmas, leaving us to spend Christmas day liesuely getting lost while wearing the best pants in the world (thanks, Mum). We also greatly enjoyed speaking to the family and seeing the fabulous photos from Christmas Eve.

Work has been going fine, with the occasional delay due to snow. We really enjoy getting a delay, as it is reminiscent of snow days in grade school. This week should be fun, as we are taking a day trip to Prague tomorrow and will be heading to the Alps later this week. As always, please feel free to check out our photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtwash125 .

Around the Next Bend. . .

2009-12-16T15:23:00.004-05:00

One of the character building experiences of growing up in our houses was hiking. Once Jak and I had been dating for a while, we discovered that both of our parental units (or more properly, our Mothers) have a strange disability when it comes to hiking. While our mothers are normally experts on directions and distances, when hiking all destinations were strangely "just around the next bend."
Now in Ma's defense, while hiking in the Grand Canyon this is strictly true, however, it doesn't really count if you can see the campsite a half mile away. . .across the canyon. Only hours later would one actually reach that fabled "around the next bend." There is no defending Mum, there is no mythical bend that shows, well anything at all. Bends therefore have grown to symbolize that intangible feeling that comes from hiking in the woods. Or more accurately, that "Damn it I am tired and hungry and have no freaking clue what we are doing out here!!"
Now that we hike on our own, we have found that the disability is genetic, as both of us have inherited it to a greater or lesser extent. Jak to a slightly greater extent, as while she can without fail find a 1 square foot sign in the middle of a land navigation course, simple things like trails can on occasion defeat my fearless adventurer. Nathan has inherited Ma's almost perfect sense of direction, as well as her inability to be truthful about the trail ahead.
I cannot simply blame genetics, as the German's continue to make rather asinine decisions in cartography that do not help matters. Contour intervals are mere suggestions, trail markers a rarely seen oddity, and who in God's name makes grid squares that are 1400 meters wide?
Despite this all, we managed to have a wonderful time hiking down in Garmisch this week. We were down for a Marriage Retreat (what are we retreating from?) with my company, which in our chaplain's eyes is best served by having at most 2 hours of seminar in the evening and giving us the days to destress and relax. For most that involved relaxing in the pool or seeing the sites, perhaps with a bit of shopping. We strapped on crampons and mountaineering boots and climbed one of the smaller Alps on a path that can only generously be considered a trail. It was wonderful and relaxing, and exactly what we needed. Tom wasn't the most happy to be left at home, but considering he gets worn out after half an hour of "Throw the Catnip Mouse and watch Tom run into the wall trying to get it" with Dad, it was probably best he stayed at home.

So what, my cat is spoiled!

2009-12-10T14:38:00.003-05:00

So Tom is a bit lonely. We have yet to find him the right friend, so we have been lavishing attention on him. The spoilage doesn't stop there though. Tonight, both Nate and I have been preparing for my company's Christmas party. I have been making my famous pulled pork, while he has been making his classic twice-baked potatoes. I have substituted the water that I would normally throw into the slow-cooker with the pork, for a Belgian Ale. We shall see how that goes. In the process of prepping the meat for cooking, I was removing any really large fatty pieces. Not wanting to waste anything, all fat scraps were thrown into my cast iron skillet, cooked, and then pureed for my feline child. I gave him a bit tonight, and he just went wild for it! It will be a welcome substitute for his special indoor cat wet food diet for the next couple of days (in addition to his dry food, of course). I know he is a bit fat, but I can't help in feeding him, as he is just so cute! Being a good boy, he never begs at the table, nor has he ever eaten "people food." I think he just likes to eat, which makes him a bit chubby. Hopefully we find a girlfriend for him soon, as he is just not meant to be in a one-cat home. I have been tempted by ads for pure-bred maine coons, but it would go against my belief that cats are not something that should be bought (especially at hefty 400 Euro price tags!). There are enough unwanted kitties out there, but none of them has yet to stumble their way into our lives.

So the Holidays are here...so everything must go wrong...it is in the rules!

2009-12-06T12:28:00.003-05:00

I am not sure who wrote these rules, but they should be shot....by a firing squad ...no better yet, defenestrated! In short, this week was terrible, until today, that is. On a very somber note, we unfortunately lost our beloved Aaron Burr to a short illness. He passed away under anesthesia, so felt no pain. It was very tough for us and his brother, Tom. We have been lavishing Tom with attention, but he certainly misses his furry friend. As Pa told me, time heals all wounds, but right now, this one still hurts. Cats just are not meant to live alone, so when the time is right, Tom will be getting a sister. We are looking for an adult female cat in the Grafenwoehr area, so if anyone knows of a kitty needing a home, please let us know. Thank you all for all of your condolences, and thanks to our friend, Jen, who was a great help to us during this week.

So, after a tough week at work and the loss of our pet, what would feel better than a bike ride with friends? Yesterday, Nate, Chris, Joe and took out our bikes for some cyclocross practice. We decided to start the ride with a run up of our favorite dirt hill. I was the first to ride off towards the path with Chris, a ways behind me. No sooner had I passed a car parked off to the side of the road, when from out of nowhere came a large, black, vicious dog. It chased me for about 500 meters before I had to chose; either kick it in the face to stop it from following me into the road, or let it run into the road and let it get hit by a car. As much as this animal's demise seemed the best for it, as it was slowly taking chunks out of my ankle, I thought that that bitch of a woman who was half-heartedly yelling at it to come back, might miss it. So, I chose to kick it. Landing my size 8 cycling shoe right in its face, it quickly decided that I was not worth the effort. The rest of the ride was enjoyable and uneventful, for which I was quite thankful. After showering, we went to Obi to grab some Christmas decorations and went out to dinner with my commander, who rightfully thought that we needed to get out of the house.

Luckily, today was better. Nate put up with a cleaning frenzy this morning. He is used to this, as I do it at least once a day. When you own a cat that just won't stay off the counter (yes Tom, I am talking about you), you have no choice but to sterilize often! Our friend Chris, who owns a truck, came with us to pick out a Christmas tree. I chose both Chris's and our tree, while they cut them down and carried them to get wrapped. It was very manly to say the least. While waiting for the tree to dry, as it was a wet day, Nate helped Chris build a bike for his wife, while I put hooks on all the baubles for the tree. We took a break to ride down to the Advent Market in town and sample some Gluhwein (hot mulled wine), bratwurst, and roasted nuts. It was very festive. We put up our gigantic tree (about 8.5 feet tall!) and Miller is now bottling some home brew. Hopefully our life is uneventful for a while.

Oh, by the way, we both got promoted this week. No more butter-bar.

Victory is Mine!

2009-11-23T12:39:00.003-05:00

So, sometimes in the Army you have to make some sacrifices in your daily life. One such sacrifice is the occasional food item at the commissary. This week it was celery, which being the week prior to Thanksgiving, was a crisis! Well, let's start this story right....they do not have any rhubarb, fluff, soup bones, nor gravy master. So why would we shop at a place that cannot stock even these simple items? Well, in one word: CHEAP. When faced with paying a Euro to Dollar exchange that would make even the richest folks faint at the thought, our American tax free food shopping is really the best option despite a limited selection. I would expect our commissary to not have regional items that are very New England specific, but some things you would expect them to always have. Celery is one of them. I mean, how would I make my stuffing or turkey salad? Well, in the end, we had to go back to get some, late on a weekday night. We were victorious, but it was a close call! There is an unwritten rule at the commissary or PX, which is, if you find something that you want, buy as many as you can, as who knows when they will stock it again. This leads to buying bulk in items that most people do not stock up on, like bread (our freezer is full) and ground pork (once again, limited freezer space). Next time celery is in stock, I may have to stock up on that, but I am still not sure how I would keep it fresh! I will miss the families for Thanksgiving, but you are all in our hearts and minds.

My Turn

2009-11-20T03:39:00.002-05:00

I don't have pictures of a new bike (or newly painted bike) to show, in fact I have no pictures because where I have been working this week it is against regulations to take pictures. But I feel obligated to write a post, even though I have absolutely no idea what I am going to write about.
As a little background on the no pictures, this week I tagged along with some of my Soldiers to 1st CTC's Certification Exercise down in Miesau. Now for most folks, Miesau does nothing to excite, but for the ammunition world outside the states, the world revolves around Miesau, which is the home for the Ammunition Center Europe. I'll be quick, as this is rather boring to all but me. In short it is an area about 20 square miles filled with bunker after bunker of things that go BOOM!! When I was asked by Higher what my plan was for my Soldiers was if there was an explosive event, my answer was "ummmm, run away? If you're not vapor already." In reality the danger is fairly low, and the training was excellent.
So now that the boring part is past, I have to complain for a second. I enjoy the army, I like my job despite the occasional frustration but there are some things that drive me nuts. One is Power Point, the Army has decided at some point that life did not exist, things did not happen, and questions could not be answered before Power Point came along. Telling where the bathroom is? PowerPoint slide. Plan to eat lunch? PowerPoint Slide. Nap time? PowerPoint slide. You get the general idea. While I in no way shape or form tolerate or support Terrorism, if they managed to crash PowerPoint, I wouldn't complain too much.
The other complaint is what is called the Army Writing Style. Yes, we have a manual and standard for everything, including the number of multisyllabic words a sentence should contain and mandating the capitalization of such things as Soldier. It all conspires to create writing that is aimed at an 8th Grade education, which is about what we can honestly expect out of some Soldiers. Now most of you reading are from New England, and let me assure you that our 8th Grade must be very different from the rest of the country, because this writing style would have been beneath even the special education rooms in 8th Grade here.
I digress, by which I mean that I still have nothing to write about. Love to you all, I promise a better post sometime soon.

Some things are worth waiting for!

2009-11-16T12:00:00.002-05:00

Almost a year after the movers wrecked the paint on my favorite bike, I finally have it back. Fresh from the paint shop at Marinoni in Canada, here he is. Words cannot explain.

Just one more reason why riding in Germany is just more fun!

2009-11-15T04:26:00.004-05:00

So yesterday, Miller and I built up a 29er frame that had been sitting in the bike dungeon for the last couple years. It is nothing special, just a Motobecane frame with a beefy Surly rigid steel fork and some other sturdy yet heavy parts on it. Nothing could make this bike light, so I didn't even really try. In absence of a chain tension-er (yes it is a single speed) we threw on an old Ultegra derailleur until we could make it a bit less ghetto fabulous. In short, this bike is a beast, but man, is it fun! When we finished it, we took the taxing walk across the lawn to show it to our fellow bike guru, Joe. This is dangerous, as when we show him some cool new bike part, it is usually just a matter of time before he gets some bike envy, and ends up with another bike, hence his new Cube 'cross bike! While showing him the new rig, we decided that although it may be dark, muddy, and rainy, a night ride was in order to take my steed through its paces. In short order, we ran across the lawn to go get into our bike gear, eat some of Carmen's (Joe's wife) awesome salsa, and grab the lights for a night-time adventure. After meeting back up, we started out on some of our usual trails. After a couple wet-root induced wipe-outs (I don't feel bad, Joe's son, Alex, wiped out in almost the same spot, he is five years old though!), we all were really enjoying ourselves. Riding at night is super fun, as it always feels like you are going so fast, simply because the range of your lights does not allow you to to look too far ahead on the trail, like you would during the day. We bombed around on the trails for a while until Joe and I switched bikes for a while so I could rock some full suspension glory while he tried out my fully rigid 29er. At this point, like a horse to water, we were taking the trail back home, when we decided we were far too parched to continue. We needed some refreshment before we could make it the last mile home. We stopped at Jalisco's, our favorite Mexican place for some Zoigl. Luckily Joe is good friends with the bar tender, as he allowed us to bring our bikes inside, as we didn't have any locks with us. Refreshed and happy, we made our way back home. A very good ride, with good company and good beer. What more could anyone ask for!

Happy Veterans' Day

2009-11-11T10:04:00.003-05:00

Firstly, I just want to start this post by wishing all veterans who have served in all capacities a happy Veterans' Day. We should not forget though, that although we may use it as a day to thank and remember our veterans, it is also a day to mark the ending of the first World War. On this day, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in peace to lay wreaths to remember the many Soldiers and civilians that died in that horrible conflict. This action gives us all hope that currently waring peoples such as those who are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, may someday remember this conflict in a more peaceful time. Please pray for all Veterans, both of the past that have made the ultimate sacrifice and for those around the world who currently take up arms so others do not have to.

Work....

2009-10-29T14:47:00.004-04:00

So there is not all that much to post about. Miller is gone right now to go welcome the forward part of his element home from their 12 month deployment. I on the other hand am very busy with a change of command inventory among many other things like ranges and Soldier issues. I came home from the field last week, but have had no to time to rest! Both Miller and I will be super busy these next couple weeks. We are looking forward to the Holidays coming up (even though we both have to work on Thanksgiving night!). Ma and Pa will be coming to Germany for Christmas, which will be very nice, yet it will be different not being home! We will really miss all of you back home though. We are so busy, but hopefully will have time experience some of the holiday markets and the such. Sorry for the short post, but I am so very tired, so I will be turning in early. P.S. The above photo is a silly picture of the company leadership. Yes, I am the one getting the "wet willy."

When Jaks' Away. . .

2009-10-16T13:12:00.003-04:00

Well for first, the mouse definitely will play. By play I mean that Barbara escapes daily (I wish I knew how) and goes to live under the chair in the bedroom for a little. It is an annoying habit, but as of yet I still have not found the avenue of escape. We shall see. Winter has started to arrive, as it has been snowing on and off for the last several days, without any significant accumulation but a sure sign of things to come.
Jak is in the field for 9 days, so I am temporarily living the bachelor life style. Work is busy, so bachelor life style tends to consist of eating dinner, chasing the cats around for a little, and doing random things that need to be done around the house. Exciting to say the least.
Our brewing is going well, the Belgian Ale is bottle conditioning, and is probably ready for consumption, I am just waiting on Jaks' return to try it. We made a Irish Stout which I bottled last night, a Pumpkin Ale on Sunday that is now bubbling happily away in its' secondary fermenter, and an Apfelwein that I just made last night. The biggest problem not, other than not sounding like drunks, is the waiting.
This weekend promises to be pretty exciting, as the Cyclocross World Cup is coming virtually to our doorstep. Chris and Joe (our riding buddies) and I are heading to Plzen on Sunday to watch the races, which should be truly amazing.
I guess this isn't the most thilling report on our lives, but hey, boring can be good sometimes.

4 Day

2009-10-12T08:31:00.003-04:00

One of the hidden gems of being stationed in Germany is that once a month we get a 4 day weekend. This gives an opportunity to relax a bit, travel some, and generally take a quick breath before going back to the deep end. In our case, we used this weekend to ride bikes, climb an Alp, brew beer, make cookies, fix furniture, clean the house, chase cats, and generally do a bit of everything.
Yesterday Jak and I hiked up the Hoher Fricken, mainly because the name is fun to say and half way up there is a cave called the Frickenhollen. It was a fricken good time and absolutely beautiful, if a shade too vertical for our joint's tastes. The trail starts out on a kid's path, with questions here and there about trees and the like. It was a nice easy way to start, but it got even better. The first kilometer of the trail is through a gorge with waterfall after beautiful waterfall. Fricken awesome! From there, the trail does the very normal thing that trails do in the Alps, namely went straight up. Via a series of switch backs in short order we were high above the valley floor with views one way to the Zugspitze which was getting the first snows for the season and the other way out on the plains leading towards Munchen. It was stunning, and the weather was perfect. For the first time this year we were able to hike in pants, which was a welcome change from our normal au-natural adventures. Just kidding, we normally hike in shorts, but there is something very nice and reminiscent of home about hiking in pants. We both were trying out some new gear, which was very successful. After much searching we had gotten Jak some mountianeering boots which she tried out with great success, and we both wore our new packs which did not destroy our bodies like the one's we climbed the Zugspitze with.
The only catch with the hike was that we were literally hiking between storm fronts, with the rain of the previous 3 days about to give way to another several days of rain, so we had to hike quickly to make sure we had time if the weather socked in. We managed to get most of the way up before the clouds started to roll in and as rain started to darken the horizon we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and headed back down. Many amusing slips and two pairs of burning quadriceps later, we made it back to the car with plenty of time to gas up, eat some Subway and head back home. I love living only 3 hours from the Alps, though we are definatley jealous of those stationed in Garmisch where we were hiking, that must be the best posting in Europe. The only disappointment of the day was that the Frickenhollen proved impossible to find.

We love days off!

2009-10-10T03:20:00.003-04:00

These past couple weeks have been very busy for us at work, as I am planning a field exercise which starts on Tuesday, and Nate has been dealing with some rather interesting Soldier issues. I have also recently (meaning on Thursday) found out that I will be double hatting as XO (my current job) and taking Second Platoon as a PL. This is great news, although it means a ton more work. I will love having a platoon again. The rest of second platoon is down range at this time, but will reintegrate as soon as they come back in a couple months. This means I am next in the shoot for deployment, which I could not be happier about, as with being XO, I would have almost no change of deploying. My fellow PL, Ted will be leaving for Iraq in a couple months, but I am next to deploy hopefully when his platoon gets back. I am pretty excited to be faced with some new challenges of working with a new platoon. Not too much is new on Nate's end, but he continues to enjoy his job as a Rear Detachment commander. Although things have been busy, they are moving along just fine.
Last night, we had a great cyclocross ride in the dark. Around dusk, we set out to ride the trails with some lights. We saw some deer (which means that Nate saw some deer, while I saw dark jumping blobs). Other than that, the ride was uneventful. We are truly enjoying the rainy and cool fall weather. The colors are not nearly as good as at home, but the trees are pretty nonetheless. Although we have no racing planned for this weekend, last weekend we raced a time trial on a very hilly course. Nate raced on his fixed gear, suffering in style. I took my TT bike for a spin. We didn't win, yet didn't finish last, so things went well. We also got schooled by a guy with one arm....well, it didn't hurt that he was on a 5,000 Euro bike....Anyway, out to adventure! We will write soon.

Ouch!

2009-09-27T12:31:00.006-04:00

Jak and I ride rather regularly with our friends Chris and Joe, who in normal life are Captains Myers and Patterson of the MP Brigade. While we would not normally advertise hanging around MP's (Military Police), they are wicked cool and fun to hang around with. After many attempts, they finally got us to go to a race with them this weekend down at Hohenfels. This area is normally known in the military community as an area in which to conduct miserable training (MSG Surratt sank a tank there), but the terrain is perfect for Mountain Biking. Considering it was the USAREUR championships this weekend, we really could not pass up the invite to ride. Kind of like Jak cannot pass up the chance to criticize my grammar and spelling as I write this. Anyway, long story short, we went down and Jak, Joe and I raced. Chris was out with a pulled back, though we are sure this is just a symptom of him being old and a West Pointer (Sarcasm). The course was a 3.5 mile lap that went down some awesome single track, went up a God-awful climb, wend down an even more awesome single track featuring a giant hole (more on that later) than took a long fire road climb to the start area. In the women's race, Jak did 5 laps of that and managed to fall into the giant hole only once! Despite the short detour to the center of the Earth, Jak took home the win in the Open Women category by a comfortable margin. In the men's race, I started off with the leaders before realizing that the leader was a 19 year old German prodigy on a 16 pound bike who apparently does nothing but train and inject EPO. Soon after that realization, my legs exploded, spraying the surrounding area with shrapnel and killing many of my opponents. Not really, my legs did explode and propel me back to the middle of the pack. By lap 3 my legs had come back to me, and by lap 5 I was back up higher in the rankings, crossing the line just in time for the German Prodigy to lap me for a second time as he won. This lapping coincided with my finishing my water and Nutri Grain as a hard bonk set in, leaving me to complete the remaining two laps with visions of Coke and Sugar Plums dancing in my head. Don't ask me where the Sugar Plums came from, or even what a Sugar Plum is, I was just really hungry. Though my body was now against me, I managed to finish with a respectable 3rd Place in the Men's Open, though many of the Master's smoked me. It was a great time, and Joe rode an amazing race to get 5th in the Masters, smoking me as well in the process. Much fun was had by all, and we retired to Grafenwoehr to consume large quantities of Mexican Food.
On Sunday, Operation Home Brew reached its second critical phase as we racked the beer into the secondary fermenter. We sampled a little and it tastes good, even though it has another week until bottling, and another week after that until normal drinking. At the risk of courting disaster, I think we may have a pretty good beer on our hands.
Throughout all of this, Aaron Burr was having a rare attack of well-behavedness. We are required by law and his threats of continuing cuteness to add this picture.

I'm Finally Writing One!

2009-09-23T15:28:00.004-04:00

So there are times (cough all the time cough) when a husband relies on their wife. Recently, if you can count a post a month as recent, I have been relying on Jak to keep you all in the loop as to our lives and adventures. Finally, I am taking the reigns for a little of the ride and writing myself!

Okay, so what things are new. . .I am now the rear-detachment commander for the 23rd Ordnance Company, so it is nice to finally be back to the fields I belong in, which is awesome. We are selling my car to make way for what will hopefully be a Land Rover Defender. It is not going far, our neighbor and MP riding buddy extraordinaire is buying it off of us. But the most important change is that Jak and I finally broke down and started brewing beer. When we were home we had gotten the kit and all necessary equipment and tonight we brewed! It was a lot of fun, really easy, and we didn't destroy the house, cause the fire department to show up, or cause any international incidents. On other sides of the fermenting yeast fronts, Jak has been baking up a storm to support the bread side of our bread and soup diet. I am considering checking the Kukla and Fifield lines for any mixing of Goldsteins to possibly explain how amazing her Challah bread is. Her beer breads are equally fantastic, and the cinnamon raisin bread is to die for. We have to limit ourselves on the bread intake for fear of totally defeating the diet part of this whole plan. It is awesome.
We are also finally taking a step or metaphorical pedal stroke back into the competitive arena with a mountain bike race this weekend and in a couple of weeks the beginning of our Cyclocross season. At this point, I really don't have much else to say than to send our love and to promise to write more.
Tchuss!!
Nathan and Jak

Bread and Catnip

2009-09-22T15:29:00.003-04:00

No, I did not make a catnip bread, no matter how much the cats would have liked it! This weekend Nate and I had a relaxing time (we went to bed accidentally at 7:15 on Friday night) getting chores done and riding our bikes. After falling asleep reading very early on Friday evening, we awoke about 12 hours later to some rigorous house cleaning. After a busy week with very little time at home, it was some good stress relief! This allowed me to spend some much needed baking time as well, whipping together a beer bread with some home-made brew from our friend Ted, a co-worker of mine. Being exciting folks that we are, we moved on to raking leaves, and pulling out the plants in our garden that were either on their way out, or just plain not going to make it after the first frost. We had a relaxing dinner with Ted and Ashley at our favorite Chinese place (much cleaner than back home!). Our Saturday ended with watching some documentaries from the library (if you haven't seen it, see National Geographic's "Ambassador: inside the Embassy")
Sunday was a far more exciting day, complete with some catnip crazy cats. I recently purchased the pair a new litter box online, and decided to get a couple toys too while I was shopping. The litter box (Booda Cleanstep Dome) has been great for keeping out pet odors and has decreased litter tracking by a ton! It has a neat little stairway too, that looks like the cats are boarding a space shuttle and not going in to do their business! I digress... anyway, I gave the cats this little flashy lizard catnip toy, and holy moley, it was so funny. As soon as the hubby gets home (he was stuck in a 4 hour Stau today and is still trying to make it home from the K-Town area) I will post the video and pictures I took. While watching the cats be truly funny, I also had time to whip up a Challah bread. I was amazed how well it puffed up, yet remained surprisingly moist! I may be a loser, but I truly enjoy baking bread, and Nate truly enjoys eating them! Luckily for us, prior to gorging ourselves on bread, we had ridden a few hours with our friend, Chris. Anyway, I shall end this disjointed post. I love you all!

So it's been a while!

2009-09-13T11:44:00.003-04:00

Alright, we appologize for the length of time since we have last posted. Not too much has happened. Nate got a new job working for 23rd Ordnance Company, where he is the rear detatchment commander. We spent some time hiking, most notably climbing the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany at about 10,000 feet. That was miserable, but not every hike can be a good one! We went home to NH and the other New England states for a bit where we hiked, ran, and generally enjoyed the North Country. We spent time visiting family and friends in the flatter regions of New England before heading back over to Deutschland. The cats enjoy having us home again and it has been nice to settle back into life here.
This weekend has been spent doing many things which include a ton of baking, walking, and cyclocross riding. We completed our first sourdough bread from a starter we made as soon as we returned home. Although I would count myself a bread specialist when it comes to baking, I had yet to delve into starter doughs. It was a success, as was the brown sugar raisin loaf, and the Sam Adams beer bread (surprisingly sweet and buttery!). We have also been spending time preparing our meals for the week, as we have taken a page from my mother's book and gone for a soup diet. Miller purchased a new cookbook with all different varieties of soup, and we have been enjoying experimenting with them. The only failing I could see in this plan, is the only way I can eat soup consistently is with a large amount of home-made bread as a side. We will see how it works. We have been enjoying the early fall weather to ride our cyclocross bikes on all of the dirt roads and farm paths in the area. We will try to keep everyone update more frequently!
Love,
Us

Another Please. . .

2009-07-16T12:56:00.004-04:00

Pilsner Urquell
4.4%ABV
Its been a bit since I have reviewed anything, especially a beer. But what was given a passing mention yesterday deserves a bit more comment. Pilsner Urquell, or Plzeňský Prazdroj as it is called in Czech is probably one of the best things to come out of Czech since, well, 1842. It is the original Pilsner style beer, and obviously all other Pilsners owe their lineage to this beer. Originally an attempt to have some sort of beer that could compete with the Germans, it has done just that (despite being brewed first by an imported German Brewmaster) and is one of the best beverages I have consumed in Europe. Forget all the other Pilsners you have quaffed, this is the real deal and has all the refreshment they do with a bit more bite which balances out perfectly. It is the Leatherman of beers, it drinks well when it is hot or cold out, goes with darn near anything, and the only complaint I can have against it is that it only comes in those annoying 1/2 liter bottles around here. Even Jak likes it, and for those of us who know her normal palate of dark and complex, it says wonders about that sharp bottom fermented taste to say that she likes it too.

Czech Please

2009-07-15T15:17:00.003-04:00

Okay, so any foray into the Czech Republic demands corny jokes, and it is only fair to pass them on. Considering that Czech is only 40 minutes from home, it is easy to czech out the sights. This last weekend Jak and I, along with several other officers from our battalion decided to spend a bit of time in Prague. It was a bit late for the Prague Spring, so our experiences may be lacking, but the Prague Early Summer is probably more enjoyable for all.
The first impression when you drive into Prague is, ummmm, did I really want to come here? Is that guy selling his kidneys? Or crack? Or is it two for one buy a kidney and get some crack Saturdays? It is probably all three, but once you lock your doors and hit the older part of the city it is much nicer. The Czechs do not share the German insanity for cleanliness, but it is slightly comforting to see some graffiti and see hobos peeing behind bushes in the park. Jak has an extended philosophical discussion about the post-Soviet impact on Czech, Miller is rather more concerned on where Slovakia went. In all honesty she is quite right, there are some of the telling signs that occur from a country that is continuing to emerge from the old days (read almost 30 years) of a command economy into the burgeoning arms of capitalism. At exactly the wrong time. Perhaps the global downturn is less reflected here, in the land of cheap everything, more in the quality rather than the quantity. Goods are abundant and abundantly bought and sold, but their quality in everything, from ladies of the night to glassware, is very different. It is the first place I have been where the juxtaposition between success and failure is so evident, with beggars prostrating themselves for change outside of Hermes and Gucci. The notable exceptions to this general trend seem, rather hopefully, to be Skoda, Pilsner Urquell, and education. The last is the rather important one, as education is the one that can change the qualities already mentioned. More people speak English here than anywhere since Ireland, and universities abound. The arts are celebrated, with multiple excellent classical concerts competing at any given night. Hopefully Czech will change from the industrialized doorstep to Germany into something impressive of its own right. Only time will tell.
Anyways, we went to Prague. It was fun, the food was fantastic and cheap, and the sights were awesome. Music was second to none, and no parts of our cars disappeared. One of our compatriots even was able to bribe the police to avoid a ticket. They were honest police though, and only took their fixed bribe for making a ticket go away. Compared to police in the 3rd world where I have been (Hi Honduras, please stop being so crotchety) they are models of law enforcement. For all of the dark humor, Prague was rather stunning in parts.
On the home front (possibly a source of the dark humor) work goes well but very busy. Miller has managed to crash several government computer systems simply by glaring at them, which makes work harder. Jak is saddled with several cadets at the moment, but they seem like they will be good and be less of a hindrance than expected.
Love to you all.
Us

Alpine Adventures!

2009-07-10T14:23:00.005-04:00

So how many cool things can happen in Austria in four days....well, about a million! I know we are a tad tardy in posting, but we have been a bit busy. I have been wearing a few hats at work, as I am training our newest LT to take over for me, as I am moving up to XO. Nate has been busy being UMO (Unit Movement Officer) extraordinaire. We have been putting in long days, but have been rewarded with some awesome weekends. Our most recent adventure to the Alps was just amazing.
On Friday, the first day of our four day weekend, we woke early and started moseying to the Austrian border via Munich on the the Autobahn. Our drive was uneventful, except for a tad bit of traffic. As we reached the border, the Alps just rose out of nowhere. They are just a stunningly large mountain chain, of whose size, I just cannot truly fathom. We reached the village of St. Anton, which was the location of the 2002 Alpine Skiing World Championships. Well, I can see why! The town pretty much dies in the summer, but it was quaint and picturesque. Due to our love of a ski town in the summer months, our room was half the price it was in winter, and we were the only guests in the guest house we stayed in. We wandered a bit, bought a good topo-map and turned in early in anticipation of our next day's hike.
Although we got up quite early Saturday morning, the hotel owner was awake and served us a delicious, yet simple breakfast of tea, rolls, jam, cured meats, and cheeses. Although it may not suffice for breakfast in the 'states, we have learned to truly appreciate this sort of breakfast too. Anyone who knows me knows I can never turn down good bread, regardless of the time of day. After setting off to find the trail head, we wandered through town admiring the flocks of sheep and herds of horses and cattle that sprinkle the countryside in this area. Austrians have superior looking sheep, I will say that much! We passed a series of gates up to the trail ( it goes through a series of higher altitude grazing areas for sheep) and started to climb steeply. We slowly made our way up to the first peak, Mount Gampen (6056 ft). From that modest peak, the views were splendid and the alpine wild flowers were in full bloom. I have never seen a more beautiful variety of flora in my life! Next we moved on to a neighboring peak, Mt. Kapall (7600 ft) where things started to get cooler, and snow patches more common. We even started to see glacial formations nearby mountains. The air was noticeably thinner and the wind much stronger. This was quite welcome, as the heat and humidity of the lower areas was really bothering Nate and I. Our final peak for the day was Weissenschrofenspitze (9028 ft). This peak was truly daunting. Its trail wound in switchbacks up the steep gradient, as a direct ascent would have been nearly impossible. We saw delicate varieties of wildflowers growing from the rocks and glimpsed two alpine marmots (thanks to their shrill calls, which sounded oddly like emergency whistles!). After reaching the summit (well, a point 100 meters from the real summit), we quickly descended due to some bad weather coming in. We showered and had a very disappointing dinner at an overpriced and very mediocre restaurant. After watching the Williams v. Williams Wimbledon Final, we turned in for the night.
The next day, we woke to rain. So we did what any sane people would do: we strapped our boots on and set out to find some waterfalls! After following a trail on our map and meeting some truly fantastic elderly Irish hikers, we found some of the most stunning waterfalls. We continued along the trail, reaching no peaks, but following a contour line at an elevation of roughly 6000 feet. From a clearing in the trees, we spotted what appeared to be the Rabobank Cycling Team bus. When we finally reached town after descending for a few miles, we discovered with delight, that it was the team bus! In addition, numerous other professional cycling teams were there as well. After talking to a Silence Lotto mechanic, we learned that the Tour of Austria was in the area. We vowed to find it to see the start the next day. We made it back to the chalet to shower and drove through some impressive mountain passes to find some better dinner in the next town over, Lech. Well, we found a great restaurant in the charming ski town, ate gourmet pizza, drank radler (it is known as "cyclists' beer" as it is a mix of beer and lemonade). We wrapped up the night by watching bits of the Tour de France and seeing the most impressive Wimbledon Men's Final I have ever seen. Poor Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer, whom I still dislike more than most human beings on this planet...but that is another post for another day!
Our last day in Austria started out soggy. We finished breakfast, thanked our host (well, we tried, our German was very incompatible, as Austrians have such a strong accent, it is almost impossible to get even a bit of what they are saying) and set off to find the race. Luckily, as we were leaving, so were all the cycling teams, so we followed them to the start. I will not bore you all with cyclists and teams you neither know nor care about, but I will say that it was awesome. After seeing the start and a bit of the race, we started heading home and stopped briefly in Garmisch to check out the shops. It was a truly fantastic weekend in all! We love and miss you all very much.
-The Millers
PS: The cats say "Hi" too and also very much enjoyed the run of the house while we were gone!

Thoughts From Staff Duty

2009-06-30T17:40:00.003-04:00

The army is all about chain of command. We have a lot of chains. Some of them occasionally get cut and than someone steals Kevin's HMMWV and leaves it in a drop zone. But that is an entirely different story. One of the wonderful end results of the need to maintain that chain of command and responsibility is that every now and then some poor sucker (read me) gets stuck on Staff Duty. It pretty much entails sitting at headquarters all night transferring morale calls from downrange and occasionally making trips out to check the physical security at our motor pools. What it also does in this case is give me some time to write for our very neglected blog.

Thoughts Of Home
For the first time since 4 July 1986 I find myself more than about 4 hours of travel from some part of New England. While I truly love it here, there are some random moments when I get really homesick. Jak has the same thing happen, but it never ceases to amaze me what will actually spark thoughts of home. SSG Clement works in my company in the Maintenance section and despite him being a Mainer we share some thoughts of home from time to time. The weather today actually made us both homesick. Not because it was a particularly nice day, in fact it was rather a miserable one. What made us think of home was the rain. It was raining on one side of the motor pool and not the other. New Hampshire, Maine, New England in general, watch out, Germany's weather is just as retarded as yours.

Planet Earth
Jak and I don't have a TV over here. While some would miss it, I challenge anyone to watch a single show on Armed Forces Network and not want to commit violent acts on whoever thinks of their terrible commercials. What we do have is my computer (Jak's died last month, she blames Aaron Burr and she just may be right) with its DVD player. Our DVD collection is extensive and selections abound from such classics as "Beerfest" and "Hot Fuzz" to legitimate movies like "Gladiator" and "24 Solo." We really don't watch any of those, instead on the occasions that we do watch a DVD instead of read, we always watch "Planet Earth." Admittedly, we could save time and money just looking out our window to see some of planet Earth, but the cinematography isnt as good, and My Birds of Paradise is just as annoying. While we love to watch it, the cats love it more. Nothing amuses them more than trying to figure out how to get to the pint sized elephants and whales on the screen. Every day when we at work they pull out the pencils and papers to try to figure out how to break those delicious looking creatures out and snack on them. If the mice are any test of their hunting prowess I fear that the endangered creatures will, if anything be, more safe.

Electoral College Dropouts

2009-06-27T13:46:00.004-04:00

Also known as the case of the cats who don't learn too well. I know it is a stretch for the title, but what is blogging without creative puns. Our cats are a source of constant amusement. As in the "hey we figured out how to get to the mouse cage and in our attempts to play with the mice we knocked the cage off and then got scared and neglected to actually try to get the mice and instead the people had to search until they found them behind the bookshelf and under the fridge" sort of amusement. While episodes like that can be frustrating, it is really nice to come home not only to each other but also to the pitter patter of scrambling feet. The cats have grown from their original handful sized selves into their current awkward teenager incarnations. Aaron Burr is still smaller, but has become the HTMIC (Head Trouble Maker In Charge) mainly by virtue of his "I did what wrong?" facial expression and trips into the recycling bin. We tell him that if he keeps playing in the recycling we will just recycle him and get a better cat, but he knows the real deal. Thomas Jefferson is more sedate, after all he still hasnt dueled anyone. He is most definatley a he, after his initial gender confused stage he has emerged as the more responsible big brother of the HTMIC. Tom's biggest asset is the fact that he understands when he is in trouble. If you yell "NO" or as Jak sometimes prefers "NO YOU STUPID F@#(*!N CAT!!" he will immediatley cease and desist. Aaron Burr is slightly more hard headed, or persistant depending on the side of the terrorist/freedom fighter debate you stand on. He greets shouting with the "Who Me? Cute little me?!?" look. Probably his biggest use of this face comes on his forrays onto the kitchen counter or into the empty bath tub (he has only had one trip to the full tub, and that was just funny). Miller has found what may be a solution, as both places have ample water supplies. Instead of bothering with the spray bottle it is more effective, and more fun, to simply lift said cat, yell "NO" and douse his head under the faucet. Being an army cat, he then attempts yet another training jump (read tossed kitty) and . . . well as yet nothing has happened after that, but we have high hopes that he will learn, or at least get his master jumper wings. We love the cats, and they add that spice of adventure that all houses need.

So we are a bit behind on our blogging....

2009-05-31T13:34:00.006-04:00

Repeated field exercises, trips to Ireland, rumors of deployments and crazy cats have been a bit of a hindrance to our regular blogging. With that said, we are now going to catch you all up on the goings on of the Millers. Firstly, Aaron Burr and Tom asked us to thank Helen for her great gift to them. They have been having a ball! Who knew that a remotely controlled mouse could entertain two cats for so long (For a super cute video, click here)! With that said, we should explain our forays into foreign lands, namely Ireland, and the Czech Republic. Both locations share great beer and a high unemployment rate, other than that , the two places have absolutely nothing in common!
Ireland: Well, it all starts with a four hour drive to the world's most ghetto airport to catch our Ryan Air flight. Keep in mind, Ryan Air is CHEAP, like 15 Euro tickets to Italy (our next adventure) cheap. Although it is no frills, and you all rush the plane, as there is no assigned seating, and the pilots fly in a manner that makes you believe that this is their first time in the cockpit, we had no complaints! We flew from a converted US Air Force base that the Germans now own, and use as a hub for Ryan Air. All in all, a bit sketchy, but it did the job. We arrived in Dublin with our friend, Katie, all in one piece. After meeting her Irish friend and conversing a bit, she volunteered to drive us to our hotel. She was undoubtedly the worst driver I have ever ridden with. In addition to almost dying under the wheels of numerous double decker buses we got a native Dubliner's (yes, like the James Joyce collection of stories) tour of the city before dropping us off near our hotel. We stumbled with our ruck sacks into our modest hotel to discover that it was merely a modest number of rooms (picture the Leaky Cauldron) above the most wonderful Irish Pub. Now I am not talking about an Irish pub in the sense of tourist ridden eatery, but a legit pub with live music and beautiful Irish beers and ciders on tap that you could have with breakfast if you wanted to (which the Irish apparently partake in quite regularly). We spent the remainder of the day exploring the lovely parks and eating fish and chips chased by pints of Guiness and Bulmer's. As much as we love Germany, you can only stand so much Schnitzel and purity law enforced bland beer varieties. We turned in early to the sounds of a great traditional irish band playing in the pub below. Waking early, we went to see the National Gallery of Ireland which houses one of my favorite Vermeer's. Miller enjoyed seeing some of the nativie Irish art, and we both detested every bit of Italian Renaissance painting that the gallery had to offer. Altogether, quite a nice place, thankfully devoid of hordes of people. Following the gallery, we walked around the city a bit more, and read in St. Stephen's Green. Following our taxing day, we went back to our home pub and had some lovely Irish cheeses with copious amounts of Guiness....what a day. Our third day, being country folk, we decided to escape the city to do a bit of hiking along the coast. After taking a half hour train ride out to Howth (pronounced like both) we found a great hiking trail around a peninsula and spent the better part of the day exploring some truly striking scenery. We walked along cliff faces and spotted seals in the Atlantic. After a truly disappointing lunch in the seaside town, we boarded a train back to Dublin to sample some of Dublin's own microbrews. Sadly, we were disappointed again in our meal selection, as the brewery we were at tried far too hard to try to distinguish themselves from commercialism, that their beers were quite lackluster, and the service poor. Oh well...so we walked back to our own pub to read and sip irish coffee. Our last day was uneventful. We declined a ride from Katie's friend, fearing for our lives, and rode on the top of a double-decker bus to the airport where we meet up with Katie and caught our flight back to Germany. It took us far too long to get home thanks to construction and a truly confused GPS. And that was the end of our Irish adventure!

Czech:
Ever since we have arrived in Bavaria, it has been on our Czechlist to Czech out the Czech Republic. Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. We live not quite 45 minutes from the border with the Czech Republic and so a couple of weeks ago Jak and I decided to hop the fence and head to Plzen, home of the origional Pilsner beer. Crossing the border is a shock. We are used to New England, where it isn't so much a delineated border as a zone of confusion. The border with Czech is quite different. One moment you are in Bavaria, where everything is so neat and prosperous that I swear they sweap the forrests. With only a stop to pay a toll in the form of buying a bright reflective sticker for your window, you change from that ordered exsistance into a world where a black market liver is just around the corner. In reality it isnt nearly that bad, but it is quite a contrast nonetheless. Jak and I drove to Plzen, only 90 minutes away, to take the brewery tour we had heard so much about.
Reading this it may seem that we are alcholics, or more properly drunks as we do not go to meetings, but in reality it is a combination of our curiosity with only a little of our love of libations that drive us to tour brewerys the world over. The Pilsner Urquel brewery is reminiscent of Wonka's factory. In the midst of drab Plzen rise towering wrought iron gates that hold a massive cobbled court yard that is the home of Pilsner. We signed up for the English language tour, and paid our several hundred crowns to get that and a photo pass. (An aside, it is really cool to hold a 1000 crown bill in your hand, until you realize it is about 25 bucks) We were unsure what to expect, but the tour was awesome. An elderly gentleman who spoke perfect english with a Mensa vocabulary escourted our group through the new brewery and bottling line that have been recently built. It was really neat, but it was even cooler when we hopped on the largest elevator in the Czech Republic only to find it doesnt work. Following attempts to revive the elevator, we broke down and walked the 1 flight of stairs to the actual brewing room. From there we went down on the coolest (and coldest) part of the tour, part of the 19 kilometers of man made tunnels where the beer has been traditionally aged. They still brew it the old way to ensure that the modern batches match up, and we ended the tour with glasses of beer right from barrels the size of our Volkswagen.
The drive back to Deutschland was uneventful, and it ended up being an awesome forray into a totally different world that is right across our doorstep.

We Rode to a Castle!

2009-05-17T13:08:00.004-04:00

Okay, mountain biking anywhere tends to be pretty awesome, and back home we have seen some amazing things. On the other hand, I have never ridden to the ruins of a castle. Jak and I went riding today with some fellow officers at an amazing nature park. We rode for a few hours, climbed to the top of a very high fire tower, stopped at a shrine, and even explored an ancient ruined castle. It was awesome! A less than awesome event was the impressive crash of one of our fellow riders. The only way the man could have flown through the air better, would have been with wings. Although Chris caught a stump with his face, he was fine....well, close to fine! After his near death experience, we finished our great ride with some really technical descents.
Yesterday wasn't as exciting, as we spent the day reading, with a short interruption of Jak's softball practice. Her team is tied for first place now in the league. Hopefully they will win their game on Wednesday. With that win, they will officially be hired by the Yankees as coaches....Just kidding.....kind of...we also took some time out of our reading day to play a bit of tennis. Just a good day all around. Although this weekend was a bit dull to the outside observer, we had quite a bit of fun. next weekend though will prove to be more interesting, as we are heading off to Ireland....Yay to Guinness! Yay to Leprechauns! Yay to Bono! But more on this next week!

Where to Start?

2009-05-10T14:18:00.004-04:00

There is much to write about, and as such we may have more than one post here. I will start with the most recent. As with many impressive things like Nessie or Sasquatch (who will appear herein later), there is no true photographic records of today's adventures. After a morning that involved Nathan sitting around reading and Jak going to softball practice, we met up with one of Nathan's NCO's to go mountain biking. Deciding to go outside the immediate area we followed SGT Davis' directions to Pottenstein, where the three of us went on what can only be described as an epic ride. We should have known today would be something to write about when the trail that we selected to start the ride on had a picture of a soaring eagle on it. And in the future, lack of practical German knowledge or not, I am staying the hell away from things marked with soaring eagles, because they describe not the sights to be seen but instead the only practical method of going up said trail. Alternatley ropes, hammers and pitons would have worked, and may I take a moment to point out to my bride and her sister that this is in fact the proper use of the word piton, as an implement of scaling great heights, not as a descriptor of any small object whose name is not properly known. We finally did ascend the soaring heights, I am sure with SGT Davis cursing LT's under his breath, and were treated to the sight of, you guessed it, more climbing. Eventually we did summit the ridge and took the endless trails that wind through all of the hills and dales of Pottenstein. It was possibly the most amazing ride I have ever had. We found amazing stream crossings, hidden stations of the cross, and an entire field of stinging nettles. The last took some identification as they look different from their American cousins. They also appear to have something to prove, as their is no practical reason that anything needs to sting that bad. Once our legs stopped burning, (kinda. . .Jak's are still burning) we continued our trek and found what is undoubtedly the most epic singletrack to end all singletracks. Now epic can't really describe this trail. When a trail starts between stations 9 and 10 of the cross, you know if Jesus cant keep it rubber side down you may be up for a challenge. Admittidly I would have a hard time riding anything in a loincloth, sandals and a crown of thorns carrying a great honking piece of wood. I prefer styrafoam for my headgear. I digress, and risk smiteing, so back to the trail. It was barely the width of our handlebars, and followed the contour line. While following the contour line is a good thing in terms of vertical challenges, it exposes the rider to an entirely exciting new twist of vertical drop off to the side. I really cant describe it, and have no pictures of it, but I can say that it is something that any devotee of two knobby tires should ride before they die. Beacause riding it may cause dabbing, elevated heart rate, sweatyness, and death. SGT Davis and Miller almost got to expierence the latter, while Jak was only wondering how to rescue them with her spare tube while laughing. Because no pain is too great to not laugh at. Especially other peoples. It was amazing, and we only got a little lost on the way back. And we saw gnomes in the forrest, not cool "I can sell my story to National Enquirer" but the more, shall we say, garden variety. We also ran over what had to be Sasquatch poop. We would have seen him if the horses riding in front of us hadnt scared him away. We also managed to barely avoid killing a weiner dog, but that would have been okay, because the dog violated the German Cool Dog rule. It was amazing, and we will have to ride it again, with a camera and a bit more life insurance.
PS: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A Column for Pigs and Cats

2009-05-02T14:55:00.003-04:00

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, or at least that is what we are hoping will happen. While walking through the old part of Graf, we have often wondered at a really cool old pillar that is right near the town hall. Now, in a particularly ironic bit of timing, we have finally figured out what the column is there for. I know columns don't always need to have a purpose, I mean come on, who doesn't like a bit of random column action in their own town, but this one does. It was erected by the grateful villagers of Graf back in 1496 (shortly after Columbus didn't listen to his wife's advice to stop and ask for directions) in monument to their having survived the plague. Considering there are two plagues facing us, we can only hope it still works. Obviously the first plague is of the swine variety, which happens to have made its appearance not just in Germany but only 45 minutes drive away at that. We aren't that worried, but a bit of luck cant hurt anything. The second plague is much more fun, and only has two cases so far. The plague is one of kittens, and while that may not be the best description of our furry companions, it does tie in at only a slightly monumental stretch with the swine flu and column thing. The cats continue to amaze us, not only with their adorable antics and quick growth, but also with the amazingly foul array of odors that they can produce from their litter box. Tom has grown quite a bit and is beginning to show the promise of his adult characteritcs, while Aaron Burr has learned to vocalize his opinions as well as Tom does. Aaron Burr has also picked up some serious martial arts moves from his political compatriot, which should stand him in good stead (as we all know) should he encounter a feline Alexander Hamilton. It is wonderful to come home to the pounding of kitten paws as they charge us, hoping for some renewed excitement. We have continued our exploration, mountain biking and hiking the sorrounding hills and dales, and visited our first European Brewery, but that is something for another entry. Love to you all.
-The Millers

It is raining gender confused cats, but no dogs. . .

2009-04-25T08:41:00.003-04:00

Variety is the spice of life, and so when we saw an add for more kittens, naturally we had to call. Now Tom has a brother, Aaron Burr. Tom's full name is Thomas Jefferson, so our vice kitten has thus far proved to be an adorable and good influence on Tom. But as with any good story, there is a twist. Yes, readers of our blog, we can exclusively present a little know historical fact, Thomas Jefferson may have been a girl. Or perhaps he is just cold. After seeing our obviously boy kitten Aaron Burr, and watching Tom turn over to play with him, we noticed, shall we say, a difference. We are not experts, and according to online sources, it can be hard to tell at this age, but it is entirely possible that Thomas Jefferson is a girl. Interesting. . . At this point we are waiting until they are done doing battle with catnip mouses and string to see if further discoveries can be made. This does bring into question the name Tom, I am in favor of keeping Him/Her/It as Tom, Jak is undecided. And we have discovered that while Aaron Burr is a calm sort of individual, Tom is like a heroin junkie on a bad trip when he has cat nip. I am sure that more amusing updates will follow.

Tom Cat

2009-04-23T12:42:00.003-04:00

No, we have not succumbed to Scientology and have no fascination with Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes, or whatever weird thing either of them is doing at the moment. In all honesty we are rather cut off from the events of the US, we get our news from the BBC, and only catch the highlights. Or lowlights as the case may be. No, the Tom Cat we are referring to is our cat, Tom. And despite some reports, it is quite an origional name. We have given him the venerable name shared by such notables as Jefferson, Bombadil, Boonen and even Riddle. But the last, we really can't talk about his name. Writing these with my bride proofreading really shows my hatred of the apostrophe, what a damned foolish piece of punctuation. She also points out that I have 18 run on sentences so far, and my grammar is that of a 4 year old. Nonetheless, I have temporary control of the keyboard, and if I wish to maintain it, I should get back to the point. We have a cat, a kitten really, he is all black and promises to have a beautiful medium length coat. He is a postal cat, insomuch as we got him from a gentleman who works at the post office. And Tom is quite adorable, and has quite a loud voice with which he occasionally voices his displeasure at being seperated from his mother and siblings. Now I think our menagiere of pets is complete for the time being with the two mice and the cat. The only thing we need now is a boxer, probably a puppy so that the cat and boxer can get along famously. I have great faith that in due course fate will present us with the perfect puppy, and that Jak will then be the happy queen of a further expanded household.
-Miller
PS: Ma and Pa can now visit in the safe knowledge that Pa's favorite animals will be present.

A return to reviews

2009-04-20T12:30:00.002-04:00

So I originally intended this to be an outlet for our opinions on things, and have been decidedly lax on that front. Now considering I live in what could be considered the capital of beers, the very people who inspired Beer Fest, and who annually hold Octoberfest, it may be surprising that the beer I chose to review now is a bit closer to home. I bring you Samuel Adams Boston Lager! Oh and an aside, proof that they like their beer, the entire state still hasnt sobered up enough to realize that they hold Octoberfest in September.

Samuel Adams Boston Lager
4.8% ABV and 35 IBU

This is as much a review of German Beers versus American Beers as much as it is a review of Sam Adams. My annalogy is to relate them to cars. I love German cars, VW, BMW, Mercedes, they are refined, generally flawless, and a joy to behold. But anyone who saw my first car knows that I like a bit of what would be generously described as roughness. Not 120 grit sand paper rough, I mean rough around the edges. My first car was also Aaron's first car, and Ethan's first car, and it was older than me. It was a 1983 Chevrolet Crew Cab with an extended bed. It was light blue, though it spent various times in its life with us with brown doors, a mismatched rust and blue paintjob, and its final baby blue courtesy of Pa and I and a June afternoon. I digress, but you may see the difference I am hinting at. German beers are wonderful, perfectly smooth, balanced as only hundreds of years of brewing the same recepie can be. But they lack that origionality, that tail pipe about to fall off edge that I really like. This difference led me to a proclaiment last Friday night, when I looked in the fridge and said to my bride, "I need some American Beer." Now while that could have meant Coors or Miller or Budweiser, I wanted an origional car, not a 1983 Honda that belches blue smoke. Sam Adams is a readily accesable representation of what makes American beer great. It has the right blend of hops, that hint of spice, and the rich warm color that make you feel like youre back in New England again. It goes perfectly well with steak or hotdogs, as a refresher after mowing the lawn or something to enjoy after dinner while my bride quafs a Guiness. It is like Otis, my stuffed dog from when I was 4, that reminder of warm days and happy memories. It can go anywhere and still be great, even if it is the young whippersnapper compared to its neighbors in my refrigerator. And when push comes to shove, it is easier to justify 12 ounces over 1/2 a liter.

No Cows in Moos

2009-04-19T13:13:00.004-04:00

Sorry for our extended absence from these pages, the last several weeks have been rather hectic, and a stressed Miller is one who does not really have a desire to write. So, to update on the last several weeks, Ethan and his girlfriend, Chris, and her kids came down our neck of the woods for Easter. It was a blast, we had dinner prepared by my lovely bride, and hiked up to the tower on a clear day this time and saw what there was to see. It was beautiful, the only hitch was that I am now apparently a pedophile, as Jak paid the kids rate going up the tower, while Ethan, Chris and I paid the adult rate. The gentleman collecting the money would not let Jak pay the adult rate. Funny and economical all in one!
We no longer have the dog, last week a call came from his old owners asking for him back, and while he was happy, we decided that although we were happy with him, it was unfair to pull, the "he's mine and too bad" act. There will be other dogs for us, and we will be in the market for a boxer. You can't really top Helen, but we will try to come close with our next dog. If anyone is looking to sell a preferably white boxer puppy, we have a dogless home that needs one!
Although work has been truly stressful for both of us, we are at least finding a bit of time to take some great bike rides! Jak made a crazy suggestion on Saturday, that had the full potential for disaster, but worked out gloriously....fixed gear cyclocross! If you have no idea what this entails, ask Alli and she can tell you how crazy we are. Well, needless to say, we loved it, and will be riding tons more cross, minus the free wheel. The only snafu to a great ride was our ending up in a cow farmer's yard. We had accidentally ridden down a cow path that lead to great big cow barns. When we had realized that we were in fact right in front of his house/ barn area, it was too late to escape as his jack russell terrier had already sounded the alarm. Both farmer and wife came out to check out why in heck two spandex clad bikers were in thier yard. At that point, Jak, being Jak thought it best to act as the silly girl she is. Instead of explaining that we were lost, she simply asked "Where is the road?" although it was in plain sight on the other side of an irrigation ditch. Both farmers looked at us like idiots, and simply pointed to the road. We thanked them and asked if we could traipse over thier lawn to the road. Thankfully they allowed us to do so, more to get rid of us than anything. Ironically enough, the cows were not in the Town of Moos that we often ride by, but in the neighboring town Grub. Go figute. I am sure they will be talking about us over thier Sunday dinner!
Anyway, we miss you all and love you.

The Two Towers

2009-04-06T15:10:00.004-04:00

Okay, same tower, second visit. No Ents. No Dark Riders, in fact very little similarity with the above literary reference. But what are bad puns if not tenuous at best. Jak and I decided to return to the scene of our earlier adventure in Neustadt am Kulm and the really cool tower. This time we were dressed somewhat more appropriately for adventuring, namely there was no spandex, we were wearing practical shoes, and we had a huge black dog. I suppose if Jak didnt wear her glasses and it was really dark and misty out and she was in the mood to be imaginative, we could mistake him for a dark rider. Minus the rider, so more of the dark rider's horse. Now my reference is less tenative.
Anyway, the tower is even cooler than we could have hoped for. After using our phones to free translate the parking signs, we figured out where to leave the car and went for a hike up the hill to the tower. It reminds me so much of Connecticut it isn't even funny. It has the same rock scree slope as the ridge back home, which was really fun to negotiate while trying to keep up with Rocco. On our way up we saw numerous bronze age archeological sites, but we didn't manage to find any pieces for ourselves, which was dissapointing. All dissapointment was banished when we got to the top and found that the tower is open to the public all the time. 82 Stairs later (I think) we reached the top and despite the hazy day we were treated to quite a view. Rocco was unimpressed, he mainly wanted water, as we have discovered that we own the most hydration obsessed dog in the world. After a quick lunch and nap at home, we went to Obi (wan Kenobi), which is the cooler German brother of Home Depot. They even have the same orange clothes for the employees, but their logo is a Beaver. Which did spark a question for Jak and I as to whether or not they have Beavers over here. I am inclined to think they don't, as in "Buffalo Girls," they have beavers in a Zoo only, but they may have proliferated and become plentiful again. (Note: Pretty much that whole sentence will only be fully understood by the Weidner-Miller side of the family) And now the long awaited answer, thanks to wikipedia. . . . (drum roll) there are beavers here!! They were hunted nearly to extintion, but have been reintroduced in such awesome areas as Bavaria, Austria, and SERBIA!!!!! And I also discovered that there was a pre-historic Giant Beaver in North America that was the size of a Black Bear. I want one to go with a giant german rabbit. The Beaver will be named Tiny and the Rabbit will be named Gigantor. Jak says that the big dog is enough, but I firmly believe that Rocco should be the beginning of a menagere of giant animals. At Obi (wow that was a long side track) we got plants and gardening tools so that we can begin to make our yard look less like Peyton Place. Don't ask me what Peyton Place looks like exactly, but apparently we look like that. Which is a bad thing I think, as mention of it drives my wife into a cleaning and gardening frenzy. Pretty much, I don't want to go to this Peyton Place place. Apparently it is Guilmonton Iron Works, so sorry Guilmonton, I will not visit. All in all a successful day, and a tired Jak, Miller, and Hund. Goodnight and all our love!

The Epic Poo

2009-04-04T03:10:00.004-04:00

So Miller was right, big dogs take big poos. Yesterday we had to take the car to get a new spring-thingy put in. While the car was being fixed we decided to walk around the surrounding countryside. We had to cross through town to get to some walking trails, and while doing so, mother nature called on Rocco. Seeing what he was doing, I quickly pulled out a bag. He had to have chosen the narrowest cobbled sidewalk to conduct his business. One preface to this next part of the narrative: Germans will tell you if they don't like what your are doing, and expect others to do the same. So some guy in this crappy little Fiat decides to yell out his window while driving way too fast (as is the German way) something about how he hates poo.....whatever. So I attempt to pick up this cow plop sized mound....well, it was just too much for the bag. Admitting defeat, I tied up the bag with a good portion of poo in it, and we quickly made an exit to the farms on the outskirts of town....where Rocco could crap to his hearts delight, I mean, the cows do!
Following his pooing adventure, we walked for almost four hours, covering about twenty kilometers before the car was ready. During that time, we were able to solidify some old obedience training (sitz and platz) and teach him some new ones (fus and give paw). He is a very quick learner, so the rest won't be much of a problem, I just have to keep my supply of cut up hot-dogs and cheese on me until he gets the hang of them all. The poor boy does have an ear infection though, which we are treating with drops, but I don't think are doing very well, as it is tough to get him not to shake them out, so I think very little medicine is getting in. We will discuss this with the vet when he goes in next week for a check up and to schedule for him to be neutered. Just like Zack always did, even though Rocco is very much a boy, he still pees like a girl....oh, and did I mention he is afraid of the dark and small dogs....so much for a big manly dog! Anyway, we are going to spend another day gallivanting around the Bavarian countryside, as is our habit!

Family- Rocco, Rocco- Family

2009-04-02T15:21:00.005-04:00

Well, Jak and I have a new addition to our family. Rocco. He is beautiful, big, and every bit of the dog we wanted.

WE ARE GETTING A DOG!

2009-04-01T15:29:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are getting our dog!! We are adopting him from an Army family whose small son has developed a really bad allergy. His name is Rocket, though that is going to change. Possibly to Werner, but we will see what he thinks. Oh, one more thing.
HE IS HUGE!!
As in bigger than Jak.
No Joke.
I'm getting a saddle.
Western, maybe English for Jak
Maybe a tandem Saddle
He is that Big.
I am not even joking.
He is big and beautiful. He is a Lab/German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix, and I think his feet are the size of mine.

Positives: Huge Dog
Negatives: Epic Poops
More to follow
-Miller
PS: Jak got the fire department called while cooking dinner. I have the pictures of the 2 firetrucks and 2 MP vehicles that showed up. German sirens sound really cool. And German firemen are nice. And dinner wasn't even burnt. I am now fully confident that we will not die in a fire. Or even get a nasty wax burn from an errant candle. Or even light a match in peace. Because they don't have those nice move the smoke away from it and it stops sounding the air-raid siren type alarms. Nope, none of this backing out or exit strategies. Once you're on fire here, you are committed. Screw stop, drop, and roll, they will be there in a minute at most to save you.

High on A Hill. . .

2009-04-01T10:56:00.003-04:00

I will preface this by saying that we never did see the lonely goat herder. Perhaps societal expectations of a lonely goat herder demand that they shun outsiders, as otherwise they probably would not be all that lonely.
Okay, a bit of explanation is probably required. On Sunday, Jak and I drove to Pottenstein, which is better known to my troops as the place where steak-on-a-stone is. While we did not visit this gustatory Xanadu, I do have to put forth Jak and my opinion. At this particular restaurant, which fascinates all of our battalion, they bring out a really hot stone to you that you then cook your dinner on. It is reminiscent of taking out a pan, putting it on a stove, and cooking in it. Wait a moment, it is pretty much the same thing. Except you pay for it. I have to give the owner credit, that is a work of genius. Get the silly patrons to cook their own meals and sit back and watch the deutschmarks (now euros) roll in.
Moving on, Pottenstein is in fact a startlingly beautiful ancient resort town, complete with hot mineral springs, and cold ponds full of fish. Where there is no fishing allowed. Very German. The immediate surrounding area has more than 450 Kilometers of hiking and biking trails, so we decided to park and avail ourselves of some of that length, cameras in hand. Or bag. We hiked past an absolutley beautiful house that is perched on top of a pilar of dolomite. We didn't go inside, but from the looks of the place you can stand off an army. Even an army that would have to storm its heights in order to go to steak-on-a-stone. While the house was cool, Jak and I tend to run to more simple tastes, namely the goats we encountered further down the trail. Now you understand the Julie Andrews references above. As evidenced by the more than 100 pictures we took of them, they were quite cool. If you look at our flickr, you can see some of the more choice selections, with such gems as Goat Looking Angry, Goat Standing, Goat Doing Goat Things, and my favorite, Goat So Bored It Is Chewing One Leg. Did I mention we like goats? We were also able to see the locals enjoying the mountains, and a real live boar. . .Kinda. Fortunatley, we were able to escape the viscious local ducks, and bring these pictures back to you. It was a great day out, we cant wait to go back.
-Miller
PS. We saw the Pope!!

In the land of Benedict...not quite the German shepherd we were looking for...

2009-03-22T10:01:00.002-04:00

So today Miller and I went Pope hunting. Not really! As we live very near the birth place of our dear Pope, we often think of him. At least I think of him, as far as I know, Miller has passing appreciation for the man he refers to as "Benny". We decided to take a Sunday drive , as is quite in fashion here, but as we are in farm country, most residents' drives include farm equipment. We strolled through the green countryside our Pope grew up in and the Russians ravaged during World War Two. This place has just so much history! On our drive, we encountered many churches and shrines. It is astonishing that most of these structures were erected long before the United States separated from England. Although spring, it was quite chilly and started to flurry. The pictures came out alright (including one of a three legged cat), yet the sky made for a very difficult time in trying to not make each photo look washed out. The relative humidity also gave us a bothersome haze to work around, or that may have been simply from the sheer amount of cow dung each farmer uses to fertilize his fields! It has been a nice relaxing Sunday, as Miller is now reading a book on the couch. I have been taking a bit of time to refresh my mind on German history. I love the weekends....

All Around the Watch Tower

2009-03-22T04:52:00.003-04:00

There must be some kind of way up there
Said the husband to the wife. . .

Jak and I went wandering yesterday on our bikes. That is a nice way of saying we spent the day mildly lost. Though I suppose we could contest the lost thing, because if you really don't have a destination, I do not think you can really be lost on the way to nowhere. Nonetheless, we were faced with the most difficult of decisions that shall face us many times, namely left, right and sometimes even straight. We started from Grafenwoehr towards Pressath and wandered our way from there along the beautiful bike paths and perfect one lane roads that are all over this area. The roads are actually one lane in size only, they are used for occasional two way traffic at 100K an hour both ways. It is exciting to drive them, but for riding they are absolutley amazing. They go through gently rolling farm land, populated with the most picturesque little villages and buildings. I love seeing the village signs when riding in or out, one that we rode through yesterday has been there since 1291. Even the young villages are older than the US. We eventually started to guide our wanderings towards a watch tower that stands above the whole plain near Neustadt am Kulm. It turns out that the watchtower is located on top of an actual basalt volcano cone. We ended up riding the dirt roads to try to reach the tower on top, but in the end we would have needed to walk up some serious hiking trails, which in bike shoes would not have been fun. Our ride back took us past what appears to be a really beautiful monastary. I realize that my narration of the ride is rather linear, and lacking in any sort of good descriptive words or onamotapetic phrases. But pictures really do speak much better for our ride than I can. It is the sort of riding that makes you not want to stop, except when you begin to bonk so hard that your wife laughs as she blows by you on slight hills.

I love my bowl mixer!

2009-03-18T14:43:00.003-04:00

Look out Nana, here I come! Having finally gotten a nice kitchen back, in all spare time that I can find, I have been cooking and baking like a fiend! Although Miller has been eating everything I put in front of him, tonight, I decided to pull out the stops. As we are having guests over (Ethan and his girlfriend), I thought a special meal was appropriate. Our Canadian delight of brown potatoes and pork fit the bill! So I dragged out my heaviest cast-iron dutch oven and went to work. I did over ten burn cycles before I was pleased with the color of the broth...no ancient Chinese secret for me (well, they don't sell gravy master here anyway!). I also tried a new french bread recipe found in my trusty Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook. With the help of my Kitchenaid mixer (thanks Nana and Grampa!) it was just so little work! The dough certainly rose the best of any I have made, and created two light, large crusty loaves! Next of course was dessert, and a quick and easy banana bread came out perfectly....I certainly missed Miller when I was in Virginia, but darn, I missed cooking almost as much! I now sleep with my pistachio mixer by my bed, as I suffered from severe separation anxiety...never again could I leave it for so long!

Together At Last!

2009-03-14T15:13:00.004-04:00

Well, as the title would imply, for the first time in far far too long Jak and I are back to having our own house to share, not for a few days but for months and months and maybe even years!! I picked up Jak from Frankfurt yesterday and brought her to home, Building 116B, in Graf. She immediately whipped the house, and I into shape before collapsing gratefully into our swimming pool sized tub and than our amazing Serta bed. I must say, whatever those animated sheep do in those commercials, it works. We slept quite well in that! Today brought our first morning together, with Pillsbury Orange Rolls, which Jak has a definite weakness for. We journeyed out today, and went to several bike shops to see what they have. I must report the sad demise of my beloved dinosaur shower curtain, he has been replaced with a flowery one that better matches the decor of the bathroom. In a fair fight, without Jak on his side, my Dinosaur's would eat those wussy flowers. . . Miller

So...I love Germany! Miller and I took a great ride today. There are great bike paths everywhere. It seems like all elderly people have bikes and ride them everywhere! So we shared our lovely path with some older people out for a stroll or ride, as it was Sunday and NOTHING is open on Sundays. It is so nice, as there are little farms everywhere, and these really nice shrines on the sides of all the roads from hundreds of years ago! On a totally unrelated point....In defense of my shower curtain....well...I don't live in a kindergarten, so I am not quite inclined to have dinos in the bathroom. We spent the first couple days here trying to get the place in shape (at least to a point where I would live in it!). If you all want to see what the rest of our place looks like, pictures are on flickr. We have yet to get our living room and office in order, so there are not pictures of those areas or the hall, which I need carpet for. Also, we need to pick up curtain rods, so there are no curtains yet. I really love it here! Our guest room is nice (it is the one with the striped bed spread) and we would love to have some family and friends over here.

A Quick Update

2009-03-10T15:58:00.003-04:00

I regret that I have not had the same amount of adventures as my beautiful bride. I wish I had been able to share said adventures, but come this Friday we will be able to adventure together again! My adventures have been of a more frustrating nature, but there have been some great upsides. I am settling in really with my platoon, I have to say that I got lucky with the best platoon and the best NCO's in the Company. I have great faith that they will teach me what I need to do to do the transportation dance, while at the same time I will always remain at heart an Ordnance officer. We now have a really nice dining room table, and an amazing bed! It is a Serta, and anything that has a picture of sheep on it cannot be bad. The only downside to the arrival of my bride is that I have been informed that my beautiful dinosaur themed shower curtain will be removed (cough THROWN AWAY cough) upon her arrival. It and I are enjoying our last days together. Love to you all!

Old New Hampshire!

2009-03-09T12:24:00.005-04:00

So yesterday in the fine state of New Hampshire it was 55 degrees and sunny...today it has snowed 7 or so inches and is about 25. Just the way I like it! On Sunday, Mum, Alli and I went exploring. We decided to hike in southern NH, finding some new trails a bit closer to Manchester. Wilton, NH, specifically the Heald Trail system truly fit the bill. The first thing we saw when exciting the car were large bear tracks! I was excited, but Mum, not so much! We hiked up an old road, with many stone walls bordering the rough and snow covered track. Alli had it right with the snow shoes for much of the trail, but crampons worked fine too. The trails were a bit scattered with debris from the last ice storm, but that did not hinder our progress too much. We saw quite a few more animal tracks such as deer and what appeared to be large fisher prints, yet we did not see any of the animals who made them. We did find some interesting glacial erratics in some odd configurations. Overall, it was a great hike. There is nothing better than being in NH, in the woods, with people you love!

We're all going to die! We have five inches of snow!

2009-03-03T19:35:00.007-05:00

So tomorrow marks my graduation from Quartermaster Officer Basic Course! Although that is a truly exciting fact, that is not why I am blogging. This week we had a snow storm. It all started with a call from my friend Molina: "Hey Miller, look outside and see all these idiots jumping around in the snow." So, taking this wise New Yorker's advice, I opened the curtains and promptly started laughing. There must has been at least twenty people frolicking in about two inches of slushy junky white stuff. Now these were all adults, not a child in sight! It was like they had never seen snow before...well, I guess they may not have seen snow before! I am all for frolicking, but preferably in a secluded wood, where no one else is laughing at you from their hotel window. Anyway, with that being said, this Monday, the governor of Virginia declared a state of emergency....for FIVE inches of snow! Post was closed, and the power was down. So while others were freaking out, I was doing my snow day dance (my mum has seen it many a time, yet not since grade school). I had a free day with nothing to do! Well, I take that back, I had to go to the post office. The one on Ft. Lee was closed, so I ventured off into Hopewell. I expected people to stay home, but there were literally no cars on the road, so I took the opportunity to do a couple of E-brake slides around some corners. I made it to the post office only to be greeted (if one counts sneering as greeting) by the world's most ornery postal worker who complained constantly about the weather. Again, I laughed. With that done, I made it back on post and decided to go for a walk on the battlefield. I figured that the snow would keep the confederates at bay. I was right. Apart from a couple of my classmate who I meet at the trail head, I did not see a soul on the trails. My deer we bedded down somewhere else, so I had to content myself with taking numerous bird photos. Virginia's state bird, the cardinal was out in full force. I got some great photos of the males, but the females seemed a tad shy, and would fly off as soon as I spotted them. I also so quite a few carolina wrens. They are just fun birds, as they actually sit still! Although not as pretty, I did see quite a few turkey vultures as well. I did not know this, but these birds prefer their meat to be a few days old before consuming it, and due to their weak feet, they cannot hold on to live prey....interesting, huh? Although I saw plenty of individual birds, I only saw two more species during my walk. I am having a hell of a time identifying this little guy. The others were really obvious, but I just have no idea, about this one, so I will call him Fluffy, the gray bird! I also saw a cooper's hawk, a first for me, but was unable to get my camera up in time! Earlier in the week, while walking along the river, I was lucky enough to see a bald eagle, who winter in this area! Anyway, enough of my rambling! Enjoy the rest of the photos at www.flickr.com/mtwash125!

Better To Beg Forgiveness. . .

2009-03-02T16:33:00.002-05:00

Than To Ask Permission.
Just a short update, as I am quite tired. Things go well in Deutschland. I still apparently look German, at least when I wear a hat that hides my quite obviously US Military haircut. I have spent the last several days painting, hence the title. Painting is allowed, the self help place will give you several different colors, but I am not sure that they are all for the extent and colors I have been painting. The bedroom is now Blueberry (actually the exact color as scotch brand painters tape), the kitchen and dining room is Cognac (camel color to Jak and I) and the living room is Orange (the same orange as Rabobank for the cyclists out there) Painting has gone well even though I have managed to contract some wonderful sickness that feels a lot like strep. I will have to get it looked at next week as I have the class still this week. The end of this week should show my express shipment arriving (weeks after my slow shipment showed up) as well as my car and the new dining room table and bed. Busy week!! This weekend should yield a dog for Jak and I, hopefully to come home with me over the weekend, if not than to pick up during the week. Now I am off to bed in my amazing blue bedroom, counting down the days (11) until my bride gets here!! Sorry to not be interesting, I promise more poignant and flowing prose at a later date.

Fix Bayonets

2009-02-28T17:59:00.006-05:00

So, what does this photo have to do with what I am about to write? Absolutely nothing! I just thought it was a reasonably good pic of myself and the QM General, Brigadier General Cross...nice guy, but totally beside the point! So I was running today...big surprise, right? It was my favorite type of day, raining and cold, which meant the trails were all mine. No one in their right mind would be out on a day like today. Although it was nasty out, the trees were budding and the crocuses were just peeping out of the ground, so I figured, being a hardy New Hampshirite, that a nice long run would be perfect.
Donning my spandex and layers of tops, I started out for the battlefield. The battlefield is a great place to engage in any outdoor activity, but there are some risks involved. One such risk is the deer. I love them dearly (no pun intended) but something spooked the herd my way, and I think I gave the poor animals quite a fright, as they all ran headlong onto my trail, only to be rudely interrupted in their flight by this scrawny biped. Well, they put on the brakes, and so did I, and we both turned tail and ran. I made it a couple hundred yards before my curiosity made me go back. I wanted to see what could have spooked a herd of the most calm deer in the world. So I jogged towards the clearing that I knew was close. I could here movement, which was odd, as I am the only person ever to go that way (at least I have never seen another soul by this ruined old foundation/ chimney that reside in the field). I slowed to a walk coming out of the woods, and could not believe the scene in front of me. I had a platoon of rebels coming my way! The damn Confederates were out in full force. So I did what any good soldier would do: I dove for the closest cover and concealment (a large well placed sycamore) and started making a plan. Could I take them all on my own? I was weaponless, but those single shot riffles didn't look too deadly...Hold on...the Civil War is over! Now this poor little LT was just confused. Crouching behind my tree, it dawned on me. These guys were Civil War reenactors! So, feeling very foolish, I made my way back to the trail and continued with my run. Further on, going back towards the car, I did run into a couple of them making camp. Once again, I had a hard time believing I was in 2009, and not 1864. They not chatted with me a bit and were true southern gentlemen. I could swear I was in Gone with the Wind. All I have to say to that is, "Oh, Ashley!" As I have said, there are some dangers you must look out for when running on the battlefield, yet I never expected one of them to be Confederates!

Possibly Coming To An Editorial Page Near You

2009-02-26T15:35:00.004-05:00

The below explains itself mostly. I hope this is the only place that this is ever posted, I hope we can clear this up. I want a dog. And I thought this was relatively well written. I just hope that I can get to print it out and let Trueman chew it to pieces:

For my wife and I, both new LTs and Platoon leaders in Grafenwoehr, Germany is our beginning. While we have been together for more than 5 years, and have been officers for coming up on a year, this is our first permanent duty station. Like any young couple, we are eager to start a family, but perhaps not in the normal way. While children are definitely in our future, the family we are talking about needs just one addition. That addition should have 4 (or 3) legs, a tail (or stub), lots of energy, big ears (or small) and a nice wet nose. Yes, we came here looking for a challenge, for the beginning of our careers, and a dog. In all honesty, I expected the first two items to be the challenge, not the last. Not just any dog will do, we want one that loves us, and that we can love. I thought we had found that with Trueman. A mutt in the truest sense, Trueman stole our heart from miles away. Over the internet my wife and I searched from both sides of the Atlantic, and stumbled upon the dog of our dreams. Using my D- earning to its fullest, I waded my way through emails until finally being put in contact with Trueman’s foster mom. Which is where it got difficult.

I have experienced prejudice against soldiers before, I am from a famously liberal part of the country where ignorant people stain my fine political leanings by using it to mock and abuse the holders of duties and responsibilities they don’t comprehend. But I never expected to encounter it in a dog foster parent. Nowhere in my mental list of challenges on the road to doggie adoption was this even a consideration. Yes, it would cost extra to get my rental car cleaned of dog hair, yes, I would have to hurry up the unpacking to spare our belongings from becoming chew toys, and horror of horrors I would have to pick up dog poop. I just didn’t think that being a Soldier made me incapable of taking care of a dog. I thought a dog that had been in care for longer than I have held a commission would be easy to adopt into a loving home. I never thought that among the wonderful people who deciphered my mangled German in emails, the one who spoke English would hold me in such contempt. Yes I am bitter, yes I am sad, and yes, I wish Trueman were here. Don’t let this stop you from the search for your own addition to the family. Let it be a warning, that there are some who don’t respect what we do, and who let that get in the way of rescuing those fine creatures that cannot help themselves.

Gruss Gott

2009-02-24T15:29:00.007-05:00

Okay, so it has been too long since I update the blog on my wanderings and adventures. Now, thanks to a moment or two to breathe, I will seek to ameliorate that. In the spirit of full disclosure, that means that for the evening I have given up on unpacking and have surrendered to the war zone that is unpacking without sufficient storage equipped furniture.
Oh yes, as the previous statement would imply, Jak and I now have another house. This one isn't ours to keep forever and ever, but it has its compensations. Like the fact that I don't pay the mortgage, the rent, the utilities, or damned near anything but the internet. We (I at this point, we in 18 days, not that I am counting) now reside in Building 116B, USAG Grafenwoehr. It is actually a really nice place, with the exception of some rather dated flooring. If you dont believe me, ask Ethan and Pa, they are the only other souls who have set foot in it so far, and they can attest to how nice it is, and how futile my unpacking efforts have been so far.
I moved in last Wednesday, and they came down that evening to help with things. It was awesome to see them both, I had on the previous weekend as well, but both times were great. I must admit it was frustrating that Pa's German seems to be better than mine. So much for that old dog new trick thing.
In other news, I am now the Platoon Leader of 2nd Platoon, 41st Transportation Company, 18th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, 21st Theater Sustainment Command. How is that for a mouthful? It is quite cool, every LT dreams of getting a platoon right off of the bat, and I have.
Now, as with all things in the military, there are several twists. I am an Ordnance Officer, quite proud of it, yet I am leading a Transportation Platoon. I wont go into details, but the names themselves should suggest the great difference between those two jobs. I still know how to lead troops, I just dont know what they are doing. I took over last Tuesday, just in time to take a PT test in a snow storm, doing the run in a parking lot that was kind of, by which I mean not really, clear of snow. After a total of 4 days with my platoon (okay 3, one of those days I was moving in) I was assigned to be the Unit Movement Officer. Again, explanation will have to wait, lets just say I had to ask what that was. The first part of that is to take a 2 week class, which started yesterday. So my second week in charge, in the midst of trying to work with my equally new Platoon Sergeant on a training schedule, is now spent away from the unit. To be exact, it is spent 115 Kilometers away in Bamberg, a distance myself and 2 NCO's from my unit drive back and forth each day. I am not complaing (much), I am just saying there is never a lack of excitement with the army.
Now for some fun things I have encountered, placed in bullet format as I fear my writing is beginning to deteriorate:

I have driven on the Autobahn at 150KPH and been passed like I was parked. . .
I did the same going 120, in a snow storm
I found a bike shop that has parts stockpiled in a parts area the size of our Condo, many of which I havent seen except in the "New Old Stock" sections on Ebay
I have already become know as the biking LT, and I havent even gotten a chance to put them back together yet
I have been assigned as Jak's sponsor
I bought a dining room table and chairs, they are wicked cool
My express shipment was sent to the wrong end of Germany, so I still dont have the things that were supposed to be here first
I heard Tina Turner for the first time on the radio. . .
and than heard her for the second time. . .in one day
I saw Ethan, and his iPhone is inferior to my Blackberry
I have cooked myself dinner every night since I have moved in, and God it is amazing to cook again!
Multiple old German women have assumed I am German. . .
Until I start talking
I found a Xylophone in our stuff
I spelled Xylophone right

That is all for now, sorry for the ramblings.

2009-02-22T18:14:00.002-05:00

These are the most wonderful invention ever! Well, I might exaggerate a little, but these workout bands are fantastic! I know I need to strength train, but I detest lifting weights. I will go to the ends of the earth to avoid it. By using these bands (and the neat instructional DVD) I was able to get a pilates strength workout in just over half an hour. I love that you can vary the resistance depending on ability level or exercise. I cannot be happier with my $14.99 purchase! This may sound like a commercial, but I like them...Alli, I think these are great, and you should get a pair to help work your arms in preparation for mountain and 'cross seasons. They are also good for a killer ab workout, too. Mum, with your killer arms you would snap them...just kidding, but close! Next time you see me, I may almost (and by almost I mean not even close) be able to beat Mum at arm wrestling! Anyway, this was my success for the day. I had a good run, chatted with Miller a bit, and got a bit of work done. I miss you all. Can't wait to get out of here! 18 Days until Germany!

A Day in the life of a lonely LT in Fort Lee....

2009-02-22T09:49:00.002-05:00

So I am a complete loser. Yesterday was a good day, at least in my books. In the morning, I went down to Williamsburg, stopped at the outlets and bought some neat stuff (I am stocking up on the things I like that are harder/more expensive to get in Germany). After that short excursion, I came back to the Fort Lee area and decided to walk the battlefield...how unusual! Not. Although the light was poor, I did get some interesting photos. None of them were all that great, and I must have looked funny sneaking through the woods to get close to the deer (not a very challenging thing), but it was fun. Later, I was able to aquire all the rest of James Herriot's books, and read one, All Things Bright and Beautiful, last night. I really have enjoyed reading his books, all true stories about a rural veterinarian. I would suggest them to anyone who loves animals and a bit of humor! Anyway, that about wraps up my day yesterday. I know it isn't exciting, but I enjoyed it!

Ode to the Old Man and Car Washing Adventures

2009-02-18T16:20:00.002-05:00

So I miss him. I think I drove by the site four times this last weekend and got teary every time. People not from New Hampshire probably do not get our obsession with a chunk of granite that looks like a face. They may ask why we still keep it on our license plates and road signs. I don't really know why we love the Old Man of the Mountains, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that most New Hampshirites see ourselves in him. We are a tough group who are solid and predictable. We enjoy the changing of the seasons and possess the abilities to withstand whatever is thrown at us. So even though he is no longer with us, the spirit of New Hampshire that he embodied lives on....and whatever people say, Indian Head will not replace him, as I stared at Indian Head (off of exit 33 on 93 North) for ten minutes and still couldn't see an indian's head in the rock!
Now on to a completely different thought: car washing. So, like the good OCD person I am, I wash my car and vacuum it out far more often than most people, including my lovely husband who has been known to let things rot in his car. When I drove in to the carwash yesterday, I lovingly scrubbed my car, rinsed it, and even put on the shiny tire stuff I love so much. I then proceeded to vacuum it, wash the interior windows, and clean the leather. When putting the final touches on my sexy VW, I noticed that not only was I the only female in the packed car cleaning place (I expected that), but I was the only white person there. Why is it that people of other ethnicities take care of thier cars so well? Granted some of the cars they drive look silly with 23 inch wheels on a civic, but that is a whole other rant entirely! I mean, the guy next to me had a late '90's Toyota, but was waxing it as if it were a Mercedes. It looked as if it had just rolled out of the show room, even though it was ten years old. That was also true to be said for every car in the carwash lot. Why is it that white people just don't seem to care about thier cars. Case and point: Miller NEVER had washed his car before he got his Jetta and I started forcing him to. Alli had Red Hots embedded in her floor mats last week! It kills me to see it, because I would wash and vacuum that car every week in the summer. I even did that to our decrepit '87 Camry that she and I shared in high school (granted any love I put into it went out the window when the brake line burst and Alli ran into the back of a black Ford Focus after school senior year...). I don't know why I love my car and obsessivly take care of it, or why a higher percentage of blacks keep thier cars in pristine condition. I am not sure what this has to do with anything, but it is food for thought!

Our New Place

2009-02-14T22:45:00.003-05:00

Firstly, I must say, "Thanks Auntie Robin for being the best mortgage broker in the world!" Secondly I must say "Thanks random Air Force LTC for leaving us a ton of good beer in the fridge!" Alright, so today was the first full day that Miller and I were homeowners. It felt great! I love saying that I own a place in Lincoln, NH, my favorite town in the world! The previous owners kept the place spotless and left even more than was in the contract (we bought it furnished), including my favorite lamps that they said they were taking. The location is great (less than two minutes drive from Loon Mountain, and about 15 minutes from Cannon). Everyone has dogs in the neighborhood (always a good sign!). To top it all off, the previous owners left us a rock from Antarctica, a ton of awesome board games and two MREs. What more could you need in life! Anyway, if you all want to check out photos they are on www.flickr.com/photos/mtwash125.

TAKE THAT MET LIFE!!

2009-02-13T18:10:00.003-05:00

After months of mild disaster brought on by the evil manipulations of Snoopy's puppet masters, we have not only left them behind for Merrimack Mortgage, but Merrimack has actually done the impossible. Namely, they have said "here is a closing time" and than done it!!!! So thanks to the magic of blackberry messenger being free and working from here to the states, my beautiful bride informs me that we are now homeowners!!!

Fort Lee....

2009-02-11T20:36:00.002-05:00

I know I have not written in a while, as I have been a busy bee or a bored bee, one of the two. I used to think that working with petroleum or water purification would be very interesting. Not so much anymore. Let me just put it this way: yesterday it was 72 degrees in lovely Virginia. That is just a death sentence for my concentration abilities for dull subjects. I, having no desire to go to class made some appointments to square away my thoroughly jacked-up orders, get a new ID card, and arrange for the the shipment of both my stuff and myself to Germany. Having left class very early in the day, I thought that it wouldn't do any more damage for me to miss a bit more instruction after finishing with my administrative excursions, so I went for a six mile run, took a long bath, and finally dragged my well pampered rear-end back into class. The instructor was still talking about the same subject as when I left five hours earlier! To make it worse, he didn't even notice I had left, picking up a conversation I had been having with him earlier while we took a short break during the lesson. Some days here, I wonder what, if anything I am learning. Now don't get me wrong, I do not condone skiving off class, but sometimes, for the sake of sanity is necessary... I mean heck, I have gone through so many soduku books here (I would read, but that is really obvious, whereas writing on a soduku page makes it look like you are taking notes), I should own stock in puzzle book companies!
Although I have been bored, I did have a great adventure this last weekend. I took a drive to Richmond to find some new MTB trails and found a gold mine of fun! Not only did I ride on some great trails (although I am still a bit sick, so I did spend quite a bit of time hacking), I found the niftiest park. Right in the middle of the city, there is a park called Belle Isle. To get there, you have to walk on a suspended pedestrian bridge that spans the James River. After crossing the river you can walk along all the trails by the water. From these great trails, I was able get onto some rocks pretty far out into the river to get some great photos of white-water kayakers. It was a blast. If you ever come to Richmond, a city I truly enjoy, be sure to check out all the great recreational activities it has to offer. Richmond is just dandy, as it is truly dedicated to preserving its great history and natural spaces, while progressing into a modern city (but luckily, the city has recently voted to ban any expansion into the surrounding areas to prevent urban sprawl). Just my very biased opinion...Lastly, I will in NH this weekend!

Crazy Europeans

2009-02-11T15:09:00.002-05:00

Just for now, here are some of my observations of Europe's quirks (at least from an American perspective).

-Sports: they like random ones, making Eurosport always fun. Some prime examples of things I have watched so far are the Welsh Open Championships of Indoor Boccie and Competitive Arm Wrestling

-Bike Paths: They are everywhere! This is amazing, or it will be once my bikes show up

-Pork: It may just be a German thing, but the love of pork is something I was surprised by. It is pretty tasty and wicked cheap though

-Built in Tax: Dear USA, please take a hint. It makes much more sense to put the tax on an item in the price, or maybe that is just me. I also like it because for major purchases I can get a VAT exemption form, removing that 19% tax from the item.

-Pants: Yes they wear pants, but damn, how do they get into them. At least when I have been in some of the city centers on my admittedly limited travel, I have been impressed. It must take forever to get dressed.

-American Music: Now I have never been all that up to date on my music tastes, but than again I have never thought it acceptable to have UB40's Greatest Hits playing in a store. They like the most randomly bad American Music.

-Beer: Their beer is heavenly, but strangely their purity laws (in Germany at least) prevent any playing around with ingredients. It is still awesome though

More will follow I am sure

A Week In Review

2009-02-06T07:15:00.004-05:00

Well in all honesty, it is slightly more than a week. Last Saturday myself and the other two LT's from my unit, Katie and Jen, went to Regensburg. It is a beautiful medieval city, with an absolutely stunning cathedral. Complete with a gargoyle of Jews suckling on a pig. Who says anti-Semitism is a new phenomenon. Well I suppose no one does, but it is disturbingly interesting to see something like this that is hundreds of years old. The inside of the cathedral was amazing, but no photos allowed, so I will just have to say it is breathtaking. And it has a catacomb, which is wicked cool. We wandered around the town, having amazing Gelato, seeing lots of cool stuff, and had dinner in a restraunt that in the states would have cost us a fortune. All in all, Regensburg is awesome.
The week was more eventful, as on Wednsday I came down with what can only be described as hellish gastrointestinal fireworks. Further explanation need not be delved into. We also had the memorial for the soldier who died the Friday before I got here. The ceremony was the most emotional thing I have seen in long time, my thoughs are with his family, and I know they will get the answers they want once the investiation is complete.
Thursday was the culmination of my Head-Start class (Germany for Dummies) where we went to Anberg for a field trip. Saw another amazing church, totally different style but still stunning. We had lunch at the restraunt right there (its from the 1600's) and I had venison, which was awesome. Then we explored the town, which again, is amazing. I have never expierenced the sheer beauty of the towns and cities here, and I really dont think it is going to get old. We also went to Real, the German version of Wal-mart, where I bought the essential things in life. Gummy Bears, Bike Magazines, and Harry Potter. The last is for Jak, as reading it still is way beyond my German abilities, but I still felt cool.
I am starting to recover from my gastrointestinal adventures, and Jak is out of the field, though still quite sick. I should find out about our housing situation this coming week after some paperwork SNAFU's, as always, people seem to have no idea what to do when there is a dual-military couple. Anyways, I am rambling, and have things that need to be done. Love to you all.

-Miller

Gotta wear your yellow pages in this park

2009-01-31T20:47:00.002-05:00

So things here stink pretty badly. This week has just been disastrous, so to clear my mind, I will share an experience I had Friday. So....I am usually in the mood for adventuring of any sort. Late Friday afternoon, on a very balmy 45 degree Virginia day, I decided to go for a light hike. Having been stricken with the flu (even though I had a flu shot.... that I did not want in the first place... but trying to tell ye olde medic about creating a super-flu is like talking to a heap of guano....anyway...) I wanted to find a local park where I could take it slow. I pulled out my "handy" dandy (all of you German speakers should get the pun) blackberry and searched for some nature area in the vicinity. The closest result was Appomattox Regional Park. I had seen signs quite a few times, and attempted to find it once, but every time I looked, I seemed to wind up in the Federal Corrections parking lot. Being adventurous, I decided to try once more. Well, trusting the technology in my car, I once again found myself in the parking lot of the county prison...lovely. I mean, hey, I miss Miller, but I am not quite looking for a nice "pen pal" who simply got "screwed by the system."
After thinking about this for a few minutes with my doors soundly locked, my thoughts were interupted by my Magellen prompting me to take a "left turn in .5 miles." Ellen, as I call my GPS, must be losing her mind! But as I was about to lose faith in my computer friend, a bumpy dirt road caught my eye. Putting my car in gear, I continued on my journey. My poor V-Dub didn't want to get dirty..."you just washed me," she cried! You all must understand, that my dear car is a very spoiled prissy girl. With my mind set on finding this place, I ignored her, something I never do. In a way, I wished I had listened.
With Ellen rooting me on, I traversed the dirt road. After driving a minute or two though, I noticed a figure in the distance. As you all know, my eyesight isn't much to write home about, so I did not immediately think much about the fellow. As the road was not well cared for, I was driving slowly to minimize my car's complaints. Well, as soon as I took one good gaze at the guy, I said "Sorry car" and and nailed the excelerator. Picture this...a deranged looking Paul Newman (as he would look now, i.e. decomposing) in 1980's styled clothes carrying a paper bag, i.e. his possessions from prision! Well to any sound-minded individual, one look would make anyone pull a u-turn and get out of Dodge. As I had explained earlier, I had been having a bad week, so I wasn't quite thinking with much sense, so I just kept driving. Within 5 or so minutes I reached the trail head and got out. I had a lovely walk and took quite a few photos, none of which were superb, but a couple were alright. I safely hiked back to my car, hacking and blowing my nose the whole way. I am not sure what made the ax murderer not turn around and come dismember me. I like to think it was God looking over me, as I think He sometimes does, but with all liklihood, the crazy killer heard me coughing up a lung from a mile away and didn't want to come within miles of Typhoid Mary. Another day without being hacked to bits by a guy who should be on CSI...that is a victory in my book.

Poor Honest Abe

2009-01-30T13:16:00.006-05:00

We are at war on many fronts, the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the War on Literacy. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the one we have won. The War on Pennies. Well to be perfectly honest, we have only won the European Theater. Wherever you go in US Army Europe, there is nary a penny to be found. In the year when we seem to be celebrating the great Lincoln, I guess the army has moved on from his current lasting memorial. It may have something to do with the economic viability of shipping an item made for 2 cents that is worth 1 which is worth at today's rates about .77 cents of a euro.
But I obviously digress. In fact, digression may not be the word, as not one coherent thought has escaped my lips, or in this case fingertips, since I began this particular rumination. By now, you are probably wondering what I have been doing over here. So please be prepared for a rather lengthy account of my travels thus far.
Ma and Pa dropped me off at Boston Logan to catch my flight. Thanks to my powers of persuasion, a military ID and a set of orders, I was able to avoid the 200 dollar upcharge for my third bad. Phew. Once inside airport security I found a restaurant that happened to have Harpoon UFO (one of my favorite beers) on tap. Score one for Miller!! My waitress was really nice, and shared stories of her son's deployment to Iraq with 82nd Airborne. In short order, it was time to board the 6 and a half hour flight to Frankfurt.
The flight was uneventful, I did have an empty seat next to me, which was a god send, and enjoyed a surprisingly good meal washed down with an impressively good German beer. You have to love Lufthansa. I arrived hours later and not much the worse for wear in Frankfurt, and began a long yet ultimately successful quest to find the USO. To make a long story somewhat shorter, I inprocessed and found myself on a bus to Grafenwoehr. Properly, I was in fact headed to the Rose Barracks, more commonly known as Vilsek to meet my sponsor and get into my hotel. Joe (my sponsor) picked me up and brought myself and my bulging luggage to the hotel, and moments later we were on our way to Graf proper to meet my new commander.
Instead I met her dog. Now dog in this case was at first overly generous, as the cats are all bigger, but it ended up being worthy of the designation and is in fact a pretty cool dog. I was then taken to meet the Battalion Commander, where I found out that I had not in fact met my commander, but Jak's as they had switched the positions that we were going to. I met my new commander as I helped carry some of his stuff into the post office. First sign that I will like it here, all of the various higher ranking officers I met were nice, and seemed to honestly care about a snot nosed new LT, which at this point is something exciting and new.
By this point, my body was confused, and it was time for dinner by my watch, lunch by my stomach, and nap by my body. The former two were heeded, and Joe and his wife took me to have my first dinner in country. Mexican food. Probably one of the best burritos I have ever had, with not a single Mexican person in sight.
I apologize if my account of the first day is disjointed, but I am trying to piece it together from jet lagged memories. The rest of the week has gone uneventfully, I have met some of the folks at my new unit, gone to my first OPD, had amazing Italian food (don't worry, German dinner is due some time this weekend), completed part of my in processing, and begun to reset my body clock.
Today was a flex day (Army for we have nothing that you really need to do, so don't bother coming in), so I had my first solo adventure outside the fence, and hopped the bus to Auerbach. (full name Auerbach in der Oberpfalz) It was awesome. I wandered through a city older than any in the US, found a bike shop, ate delicious pastries, managed to avoid and linguistic disasters that could cause a Third World War, and even made it safely back to post in the end. I also encountered friendly gnomes, a statue of a bull equipped with . . .well. . .it was obviously a bull, statues of saints, of god only knows what, and generally just a beautiful little town. I will definitely return.
Alas, this has brought us to the present, and fortunately for you all the end of a rather poorly written narrative. I love you all very much, and miss you, but Jak and I have been able to talk on skype, so all in all the world isn't bad at all.

-Post Script. Re-read the first sentence if you have not caught it already. Thats right, I guess we got another winner there. War on Literacy. Oops

I Made It

2009-01-26T13:29:00.003-05:00

I am officially part of the permanent party here at USAEUR Grafenwoher. And man am I tired, my body has no idea what time it is, but im trying to make it catch up to local time. I have my unit (41st Transportation Company and the CO has as many bikes as I do!) and Jak is going to the unit I was origionally going to. Complicated story that will come later when I am more coherent. Love to you all.

The Army makes me look so much cooler than I acutually am...

2009-01-25T17:11:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the Army, my job, and therefore myself, looks so much cooler than it really is. To prove this point, look at the picture to the right. How nifty is that? A Chinook flying with a Humvee through the air has got to be one of the neatest things you would see for a while. This is what I got to do on Friday. We rigged a bunch of stuff to lift, guided the helicopters in, attached the loads, and did not get electrocuted. What a day. When we do things like this, you feel cool. So look at all my photos on Flickr and think of how cool I look. Just don't remember that I am a wicked dork who still loves the X-Files and has read every Harry Potter Book at least 10 times.

Woodland and Swamp Adventures

2009-01-25T14:50:00.004-05:00

Hey nonny-nonny, hey nonny-nonny. For those of you who get this Disney reference, you can guess what this post may refer to. For those of you who are sadly behind on Disney films of the 1990's, I will fill you in. Yesterday I decided to go to the coast. I had had a very stressful week, so I took a cue from a great American writer and started driving. Like Herman Melville said in my favorite sentence in the English language, "...I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." I would quote the whole sentence, but it is 87 words long, and I have no desire to type the entire thing, but if you must see it, read the fourth sentence in Moby Dick. Even better, read the book. You might find you like it better now than you did when Mr./Mrs. Fillinthename made you read it for high school English. I know that I do.
Anyway.....did a bit of internet searching and found a great state park right outside of Virginia Beach. It is said that Virginia has the best state parks in the country. I would happen to agree! When driving into First Landing State Park, I noticed that it was not only well taken care of, but quite popular for such a chilly and rather damp day in January. This great park was established through the help of the Civilian Conservation Corps, as were many other parks not only in Virginia, but across the country. Thank you FDR! Although popular and well taken care of, I was still able to feel quite alone (in a good way) in the woods, with few other hikers to disturb me on the trails. With over 19 miles of well marked trail, even with many runners and hikers enjoying the space, I never felt crowded.
This park was named to commemorate where the settlers from the Virginia Company first landed before moving on to Jamestown. Although it is a great wilderness, I can certainly see why they did not stay. The terrain is unforgiving, and it is easy to lose oneself in the cypress swamps, salt marshes, maritime foresst, freshwater wetlands, dunes, and shoreline. I was excited to see some tropical flora, like cypress and and palms. These plants are native and have addapted to fit in with the southern pines and hardy sea grasses that are common in the area. Some photos from this hike are posted on www.flickr.com/mtwash125.
After expoloring for a few hours I left to walk Virginia Beach. It was chilly, so I snapped a few photos and left to conduct some much need retail therapy. I was able to score some great clothes at 80-90% off at the outlet stores in Williamsburg. In fact, I got so many great deals I went back this morning to get some more! All in all, I spent less than $100! Got to love this crashing economy. As I heard on Marketplace on NPR " 94-92% of you still have a job and are making no less than you did last year...so act like it!" Not only do I agree, but I am doing my part to stimulate the economy by looking cute in my new duds!

WTF?

2009-01-20T17:40:00.004-05:00

For those of you who do not know, WTF stands for What The F@#k. And it is one of those days yet again. I said goodbye to my bride early this morning, which stinks, as she really is the best thing to ever happen to me. But goodbye always has to come before hello can be said again. Than I waited for Bean's exercise equipment to arrive by truck. While waiting I hopped in the shower, figuring that if they arrived, they would ring the bell or call the house phone. Apparently those things are too hard. I came downstairs after my shower to find the phone ringing, and answering found the dispatcher from the delivery company on the phone. Apparently I had just missed their delivery. Curious person that I am, I asked what their driver had done to find out if I was there. They knocked on the door. The garage door. Now call me crazy, but knocking on a garage door is not the traditional way I attempt to hail the members of a household. The driver was re-dispatched, and when he did arrive, I short cut the process by opening the garage door before he came up. His explanation was that no-one had answered when he knocked on the garage door, so he had left. I try not to disparage the working man, but WTF? I then loaded the car with everything for up north, got my hair cut, and ate some lunch when Aunt Robin called, asking me to stop by the office. Cue evil music. Met Life, the same ones who said that there would be no problems to close today, and to let all the involved parties know, has decided once again that they need more asinine information. Auntie's company is pissed, I am pissed, and now I understand the financial crisis. These people cant find their own posteriors with two hands, a flashlight, a pair of night vision goggles, an FBCB2, and damned near everything else that one can use to find anything. The only people who have come out shining on this are Auntie's company. If you ever need a mortgage, go to Reliant Mortgage, they are saints. Without them and Auntie, I would have committed murder ages ago. Love to you all, wish us luck.

Whenever It Rains, It Snows

2009-01-19T17:49:00.004-05:00

Do you ever have one of those days? Has it ever lasted a week? We have!!! Things to do this weekend: 1. Have Jak arrive in Manchester 2. Close on house 3. Move in to house 4. Fly Jak back to VA Results: 1. Late 2. Tuesday 3. See #2 4. Delayed till tomorrow morning due to snow. All in all a wonderful weekend for our last weekend together until the end of March. And it seems that our luck rubs off on others. Mum's car broke down. In an intersection. Where Bean than had to go direct traffic. And it than had to be towed 200 feet. After which she had to use Alli's car. Which had a soda explode inside. Everywhere. As in it took Alli 5 minutes to go all CSI in her efforts to find said can. There were, however some upsides. . .
Ummmm, upsides. . . right. Well, seeing family was good. We met Alli's latest Andrew (is this number 2. 3 or 4?) He was nice, and the 4 of us went to Portsmouth where Miller drank a Paddle of Beer. More on that to come, as you may have guessed that a paddle is not a traditional unit of measure for beer. This weekend has called for beer. Lots of it. We are going to the Wild Rover in Manchester to have a beer. They probably don't have it in paddles, but for now, it will have to do. Love to you all, remember, there is always one step further down you can go.

-Nate for both of us