The extreme darkness of.....well, darkness.....

I'm having a tough time. It gets dark so unbelievably early! Reality check, please, Michiganders....is it getting dark there at 5 p.m. or slightly before right now? I seriously want to jump on a plane and fly to where it is light....and warm, warm would be good. That whole "at least it's light when I get up" line just isn't cutting it for me. I have no desire to do anything besides go to bed when I get home from work (I'm writing from there as we speak...). I'm even considering going tanning (yes, there are tanning places here in Germany....there's one in my little town, as a matter of fact) just to try and get some feeling of sunlight and what's the stuff that the sun gives that we miss in the winter, besides the bad stuff that causes skin cancer? - Well anyways, I want some of that. I have been told, by someone here who lived in Michigan, that while we often have those really cold, crisp days where at least the sun is out, here in Germany they tend to have more overcast days during the winter. Super! Cold and cloudy for the next four months or so.

In other news, the brownies turned out well. I thought they were a little too chewy, but I only came home with three teensy, tiny little squares, so I guess that the Germans enjoyed them!

Speaking of food, I am celebrating Thanksgiving twice! We now made plans for a German-American Thanksgiving on the Saturday following the actual holiday. Should be fun. And multicultural, kind of like the first Thanksgiving. :o)


















And continuing on the happy note, the bed squeak is gone!! And here's how it went away.....the cat - which my friend David says is the fattest cat he's ever seen in his whole, entire life...no really...no seriously.....he promises......that cat is fat!.......(and yet, I call him my friend....hmm...gotta love that German directness) - jumped onto the bed the other day. And there was this funny noise, like the frame was falling apart or something (but it didn't - he's fat, but not that fat) and then the mattress dropped a tiny bit. And the squeak was gone. So I guess the mattress wasn't properly in the frame and that's why it was squeaking. I don't know exactly and I really don't care, I'm just happy that the squeak is gone. And I'm thrilled that my cat was able to accomplish such a feat. ;o)

And now I'm going to make a shameless pitch for visitors.....to my lovely, wonderful family and friends: my recent acquaintances here ask me often when you all are coming to visit. And as I cannot yet answer the question, given that no plans exist at this time, I defer to you for an answer. When will you be coming to visit? You know, just so I can let them know......since they asked......

[Wow, can you tell from this post that I love ellipses???]