Among other things.....

T-Punkt, as I neglected to mention in my diatribe (thanks, Aunt B.), is defined by T-Com (http://212.184.6.43/tpunkte/index.html) as: "erleben Sie moderne Telekommunikation, Computer und Multimedia live. Wir bieten überzeugende Komplettlösungen inklusive einer kompetenten, freundlichen Beratung, die sich an Ihren Wünschen orientiert." or ~you experience modern Telecommunication, Computer and Multimedia live. [You could probably figure out most of that sentence on your own....amazing how many English words have been simply adopted into the German language. Today I heard someone say "upgedatet", which is taken from the English "update" and the Germans use frequently in reference to receiving information - I've been updated - or to documents - the document has been updated. Makes me laugh every time I hear it. But the only use it in past tense, interestingly enough. Anyway....] We offer convincingly complete solutions including competent, friendly advice, which is oriented to your wishes/desires ~
And here we've found my problem!! Instead of calling and emailing, I should have visited my local T-Punkt! But, where is that again???? (I checked online, it's just doors away from my bank, I'll have to pay better attention next time I'm at the bank.)

By the way, I have not received Splitter #1 or #2 yet....

Can I just say a brief word, and I promise to keep it brief, about living in an apartment with cats? Okay, it's gonna be a few words, not just one, but I'll keep it brief nonetheless. I was SPOILED with a basement (and here I'm referring to the location of the litter box). I'll leave it at that and the rest can be up to you to work out. See, I promised to keep it brief! Let me just add that by virtue of now living in an apartment, said litter box receives WAY more frequent cleaning AND is NOT in the guest room, where you will be staying when you come to visit (When is that again? Email me your dates, please, I seem to have misplaced them.) If you live in an apartment and have creative ideas, let me know!!

Could my neighbors actually never want to meet me because I don't let my cats outside?? I promise, they roll down their Rollladen as early as possible and they seem to make every effort to avoid ever, ever seeing me. I feel slightly distressed about this, but have no idea how to fix it, because the cats are not going outside. Period. (And now you're asking what Rollladen are, right? They're like metal "shutters" but they roll down instead of coming from the sides. Awesome if you like sleeping in complete darkness!! Here....)

I booked my flight for Christmas. The outbound flight is direct Frankfurt-Detroit. But on the return flight, they offered me only Detroit-Amsterdam-Frankfurt. So I thought, if I have to have a layover anyway, I might as well check into flying back into Stuttgart (there aren't any direct Detroit-Stuttgart flights). So I did the multi-city thing and it ended up being cheaper to fly out of Frankfurt, but into Stuttgart. Weird, huh? In a country with public transportation, this odd flight plan is totally doable. Now I have to find a place to board the cats for the duration and I have to do that sort of soon, because I think the whole country goes on vacation twice a year, not just in August, but in December too.....

I've been slacking off on my Stuttgart weather reports....since the beginning of September, we've mostly had sun and upper 70s or low 80s nearly every day. It's been beautiful!!!!

I spilled cat food all over the floor tonight. And I really, really don't feel like cleaning it up. Do they care if they eat off the floor rather than out of a bowl? It's like a little experiment....Poor things, I'm going to switch their food again (no worries, I'll transition them properly). The food I've been giving them is just way too expensive and they go through it way too fast. So I spent like a half hour at the pet store the other night, trying to pick out a new one, where cheaper does not equal junkier (I cannot believe how much filler and fat some cat foods have!!) I found one where the nutritional content is fairly similar and it's about half the price. Hope they like it!

What do you think (about cat food, about utilities, about cleaning, about vacation, about litter boxes, about customer service, about unfriendly neighbors, about.....)? I realized that in the approximately the last month, I have had one comment. One single, solitary, lonely comment (thanks Andrew!!). Just making an observation....................

Speaking of readership, my Germany stats jumped significantly as soon as I posted the T-Com saga. Odd, huh? And I've officially had a reader from Spain and one from Canada!! SarahMovestoGermany is going even more international!!!! :o) Let's just hope Sarah herself gets to go more international.
(Yuck, did I just write about myself in the third person?? Must be time to go to call it a night!)

Mom, less than 24 hours to go!!!!!!!!!!

One last thing....blogspot offers Webdings as a font. WHY?????? It's gibberish!! Someone please explain.