Did you know?

Since I no longer own a tv and Dear Husband is not around to entertain me, my computer has become my lifeline. In the last post I mentioned that I watched a lot of stuff on abc.com. So it became a problem when I kept getting a message that my video feed viewing was not optimum because my bandwidth was less than 500 kbps. What? So I got on the phone to speak to tech support of my cable provider. This wouldn't have been so pathetic if this conversation wasn't happening at 11:30 p.m. on a Friday night. I was clearly not adjusting well to husband being gone. So there I was trying to explain to Richard, the dude who was handling my call, about what kind of message my MacBook Pro was getting while I was trying to watch Grey's Anatomy. He was very profession and not at all judgemental about my lack of social life. But basically he prescribed the usual unplug-your-modem-and-let-it-reset, and it worked! He went on to explain why this would help but I was clearly more interested in whether or not George's dad was going to die. So in the morning, Wil called from school and I told him about what happened. Then he gave me the same, if not more detailed and with a few more tech lingos, lecture Richard did. My husband, the computer genius. I sometimes forget that he does this for a living, among other things. I knew there was more to the job than looking hot in his uniform :). Anyway, so I learn that I'm supposed to unplug the modem every once in a while to allow it to clear the stored memory, which could just be garbage and take up bandwidth and cause my computer to slow down. The modem will also pick up a new IP address, and if I wasn't falling asleep during Dr. Wil's lecture, I would be able to tell you why that is important. My thing is how come nobody told me this before? I've had cable modem for years now. It didn't even come with the instruction. So now I know.

Life in the Slow North Carolina Lane

Whew! It's been a crazy couple of weeks! I should have known the move to Germany was going wayyy too smoothly. Well, the other shoe finally dropped and we found out last week that I wouldn't be flying to Germany anytime soon. By soon, I mean 6-8 months. Wil will be leaving as scheduled, and the boys and I will join him as soon as we can. What's the hold up? Immigration, my friends, immigration. The short story is that we got some bad advice from the people who were supposed to know what they were talking about. Important paperwork didn't get filed when it was supposed to, so now I'm back in line behind everyone else. So during this past week both Wil and I had a lot of running around to do. First thing on the list was to sit down with our immigration attorney to explore our options, which turned out to be very few and mostly sucked. That by no means is a reflection of our new attorney, whom I really like and highly recommend, but rather the whole immigration process, which really puzzles an American like my beloved husband. My poor poor husband. Anyhow, I had to get lots of shots and many viles of my precious B+ blood drawn to prove that I bare no strange disease originated in the jungle of Thailand. We made Fayetteville Kinko's very happy with the enormous piles of photocopies of our supporting documents. Movement order had to be changed, moving dates canceled, and a few things unpacked. It just so happened that the first shipment to Germany that consists of most of my kitchen content and excess winter clothes were already packed and on their way to Baumholder as I typed. At least now I have a valid excuse to order takeouts all the time and go shopping :). See, I see the positives in everything. This whole thing is a bummer but we are handling it as best we can. I threw myself a pity party early, while my beloved tried to calm me down from the other end of the phone line. Now that I got it out of my system, I'm more worried about Wil. I know he's so frustrated that there isn't much else he could do and hates the idea of us being apart. He's been the strong and solid one through this fiasco but I know he's worried. There will be lots of care packages until I can reclaim my kitchen and properly feed my husband again. Speaking of cooking, I plan on occupying our time apart with housewife lessons: cleaning, cooking, sewing. I discover that baking isn't as scary as I thought (so the dogs like burned cookies...), sewing is a lot of fun, and cleaning is just a necessary evil (not that I didn't know that before but I was happier to spend my time with husband than to dust). Also, I will be taking German class at night at a local highschool in preparation for our belated German rendezvous. Wil will be so busy with his new unit and duties he wouldn't even know that we are apart. Or so that's the plan, for now. We still have a couple of weekends left for our stateside fun, and fun we shall have!
Did I mention that I blew up my TV? Sort of, anyway. I turned it on, heard a pop, and soon smoke followed. It wasn't pretty. So now I don't have a functional TV in the house. I refused to buy a new one and canceled our cable service. Only people who will be around a while buy a new tv and have cable services. I'm leaving--SOON. It's the whole "if you build it, they will come," mentality. If I really believe that I'm not going to be around too long, then the Immigration people will start to think that they need to push my paperwork a little harder. One can hope. God bless ABC for putting full length episodes of their shows on the internet. And Netflix--the coolest way for me to waste $17.99 a month.
All the shots I got apparently don't agree with each other. At least that's how my stomach has been communicating it back to me. Let me say that projectile vomiting, though looks pretty funny on SNL, is not all that entertaining when you are the one doing the projecting. I would kill for pizza right now... So on that note, I'm going back to sipping broth and watching a free episode of Grey's Anatomy on abc.com. Peace!

Sewing Class

Leaving Industrial Design never stopped me from wanting to make things. Since I no longer have a woodshop at my disposal, smaller projects have my interest. I was always fascinated by sewing. My nanny was a very talented seamstress, and she taught me how to sew by letting me finish closing up the pillow she was making for me. For some reason, we never moved on to machine sewing. When Wil and I got together, I always lamented about how I wish I taken the time to learn. So I was over the moon when I came home one day to a sewing machine sitting on our front step, literally. Apparently, my beloved husband, who was deployed to Iraq at the time, wanted to surprise me and had ordered the machine online to be delivered for my Christmas present. The container in which the sewing machine came was too big to be wrapped or cover and it had the exact picture of the thing right on the box. And the delivery guy just left it sitting on my step. Wil was so excited about his "surprise" to me, I didn't have the heart to tell him that I knew what it was already. So when he came home in January, we celebrated our Christmas and opened our presents. It wasn't until then that I realized that I didn't know a thing about sewing machines. I didn't know how to thread a needle, put together a bobbin, and, subsequently, sew. So my pretty white machine just sat there. That was Christmas 2005, people. I've been asking around about a class and finally found one a year later at a local community college. Better late than never, I say. Today was my first class. We didn't do anything except getting our supply list for our first project: pillow cases. I was so elated after class I went straight to the fabric store to browse. Fabric selection was not as simple as I had imagined. Color combination, graphic composition--this was my first project and I had to slightly overcompensate for the inaction my machine saw over a year. The Anal Martha in me was coming out with force. Will take a picture for you to see how badly I mangle my project.

Wil just called from Georgia. His beloved Ohio State is not doing so hot and my husband sounded like he was going to cry. Oh, and Paddy just chewed up my one-week old adapter to my Macbook Pro. THAT makes me want to cry. And here's some recent pictures of the mutts. Enjoy!
Uma

Welcome!

Hello! Or should I say "Hallo" since our move to Germany is the reason why Wil and I decide to start this blog. Life certainly has been colorful in 2006 and we are very excited to see what 2007 will bring. We intend to use this blog to keep our friends and families up to date with and entertain through our culture shock, fun travel, and Wil's having to live with his short-attention-span-and-soon-to-be-unemployed wife. Brutus and Paddy , our adorable sidekicks, surely will be adding an element of mischief to keep the Germans on their toes. But before the great relocation, we have some less than enjoyable tasks to take care of first. Both of us have been doing a lot of running around taking care of paperwork, dealing with the movers, fixing up the house (we have two puppies, so damages are inevitable), and getting rid of stuff we don't need. Those who know me well are familiar with the fact that I dont' handle stress in the most graceful manner, but thankfully my beloved husband is here to save the day(s). It must be that "adapt and overcome" attitude :). He's kept my spirit high through out this moving process and I am so grateful for that. Moving meltdowns are neither fun nor productive. Anyway, you'll be hearing from the both of us, so be ready for The Steinhauers' version of "He Said She Said."
Uma