Word around the office is...

Just a few random pictures of the time between our anniversary and Jodi's birthday. The first one shows a bit of an update on Reese's room/storage closet:
Erika snuggling with birthday bear (if you can remember, I said back in January I would post pictures of the bears the kids made for Erika's party). This is one of the last pictures we have of her sucking her thumb...

Cute kids getting ready for a walk:

And now, the main attraction, Reese and his completely original dance moves. Unfortunately, we aren't quick enough to catch his whole routine which includes sliding backwards on his stomach, rolling over, and some stuff on his feet, but here is a taste:

Jeff and Jodi

The Monster Unveiled/Our 9th Anniversary

More Snyder August history. August 21, 2008: Our 9th Anniversary. I win the award for the most romantic gift ever:

As the bandaging came off, the camera got put away as the pain got a little worse, so we haven't included the final product. Sorry. We didn't get any pictures of our anniversary supper (beefy taco dip to top off the romantic day) - making your mouth water Kory? Rest easy Peggy and Sarah, the doctor didn't give us the removed nail so it's not on it's way to your mailbox (or is it?).

Jeff and Jodi

The Unruhs Cross the Seas

So, we are still playing catch-up for the past couple of months. About three weeks after the Basel trip, Tim and Lesley came for a visit. Too bad they couldn't stay for two years though. We went to the Münster, and toured downtown in Freiburg. Me and Tim climbed up the 287 stairs to the viewing place (whatever it's called). The view of the city is well worth the climb.

Erika and Lesley enjoyed the bottom of the Münster:

We also took a day trip to Colmar (France). It was nice to see that they seemed to enjoy it as much as we had the first time we went. Lesley was snapping pictures left and right of random old doors in various camera effects (sepia, etc). We also took a ride on France's (or Europe's, I can't remember) 'largest carousel'. Not sure where they got that claim. We wandered around a bit and made our way to 'Petite Venise', and stopped at a quaint looking place for supper. We figured out from the menu that they only served pizza for a main course (actually, flammkuchen, apparently you should never confuse the two), so we ordered a couple, acquired a month's worth of salt intake, and left more hungry and thirsty than we came. Thus ended Colmar (more or less), a very enjoyable day.

We also spent a couple of hours in the Schwarzwald, at Titisee. It is a touristy kind of place that sells all kinds of 'traditional' German stuff, like cuckoo clocks and wood Christmas decorations. Tim had a tattoo appointment in Freiburg that we needed to get back to, which kind of cramped our time there (I think Tim and Lesley liked Titisee a lot). We toured the shops, checked out the lake, toured the shops, started to head back, and toured more shops, and then headed for the train. Tim got a taste of black forest cake for the return trip, which included a mickey of booze soaked into the cherries. Nasty.

We had a lot of fun during the week checking out Rieselfeld (our area of Freiburg), watching movies, eating a truckload of Mars ice cream bars, and getting caught up. All in all, our best week in Freiburg to this point, thanks for coming over Unruhs! We leave you with a picture of Lesley downtown.

Jodi and Jeff

Sick of us yet?

Oops. I think we were going to update 2 months ago. C'est la vie. So, Basel, right? I think we left off with the hot picture of me in front of the Rhine. If we can recall it right, we ended up at the Hauptbahnhof (central station) at around 12 (this is July 18th by the way), and decided we should take off to Basel, Switzerland, about an hour away. If we had enough money in our pockets for the train, we would go. The tickets came to 19.80 euro and we had 20, so off we went. Reesey sure wanted some lypsol on the train:

Being the responsible individuals we are, we ended up pulling out some Swiss francs from our Canadian car payment fund/account for some sloppy Joes, a.k.a. buns, meat and cheese, Swiss style. And no, the f***gen thing (car) still hasn't sold yet. Yes, friggen. It just so happened we landed in Basel for "All Basel Day" or some other civic holiday which poured every citizen into downtown. The train station was about a 5 km walk from downtown Basel, so we set out at a leisurely pace. A little while later, we made it to the Rhine, which is right beside the downtown part. It was pretty neat to stumble upon it. Jodi looks pretty pleasant, although I think I was preoccupied about how I would get our camera back if the fellow taking the picture decided to run:

(I think I was already hurting/whining about my new sandals. Their comfort was a definate treat). We crossed the bridge (which was really nice) and into downtown, and began the difficult search for nourishment in the 40°C heat. Along the way, we started to wonder why some streets were roped off and many people were crowding about. Jodi got a "butterbretzel" - her favorite German food - and I got a subpar sandwich, to be split three ways, of course. And one spicy water which contained only backwash after one pull by Reese. After the 'meal', we made a little bit of a wrong turn, indicated by the row of sex shops along the street, in a seedy area of the downtown. We quickly made our exit, and then began the search for a bathroom for Erika (we are seriously considering diapers for her again), and then finally found the theater and the Basel Münster:

The theater was pretty impressive (first picture), but the Münster itself wasn't too great. We are starting to realize that Freiburg's Münster is awesome. The best part of Basel was behind the Münster which overlooked the Rhine and a good portion of the city at a vantage point of about 80 feet. On the way back to the bridge, we walked along a really neat street with really old places. The one Jodi liked dated back to 1435:

Well, that about wraps up the Basel trip. We have a couple more things we want to post about before getting back to the present. In line with that: Tim/Les's visit, Füssen (Jodi's 30th birthday), Erika starting kindergarten, Reese our breakdancer, and a fun two weeks with Grandma Green. My parents are coming next week, which should be a lot of fun. Here we come Disneyland Paris!

Jodi and Jeff

Nein Nein Nie Nie Mmmm...

We thought we could mostly fill this update with pictures. So here we go. Reesey is really getting the hang of walking, although he is yet to spontaneously do it himself:

Erika's days are filled with being a Mommy to all her dolls, and picking which one gets to go for walks outside. She recently made a baby carrier for one of them (out of a belt):

The kids on the tram:

A couple of days ago, Jodi put Reese in the tub and started up the water, and checked to make sure it was a good temperature a couple of times. He started to get a little too docile followed shortly thereafter by crying, so Jodi did another check of the water. Apparently, it was a little too warm, as you might be able to see from the rouge pants he seems to be wearing. Don't worry, the damage wasn't permanent and it looks a little worse than it was, but note to self: you can't check the water enough.

The kiddies also played at a little beach nearby (aka sewer drainage). Actually it is a nice area for them just across the street; it has a water pump at the top and the water runs down a little water fall into a sandy area. The parks are quite different here in Germany, and this is an example of one. The courtyards between apartment buildings in Rieselfeld generally have these little parks in them (there are a lot within walking distance):

Next time, we will document our day trip we took to Switzerland, stay tuned. I tried to emulate German custom in this picture, har har.

Jodi and Jeff

Tour

All right. Now for the long awaited moment, a guided tour of our place - built with our bare hands - courtesy Jodi. So, here is Erika's room...

Next, the master suite:

The living room:

The kitchen:

Wintergarten:

Reese's room:

can:

Well there you have it. Bye now.

Jodi and Jeff

Colmar

Well, it's been a while, oops. I think we have pretty much told all about our first couple of weeks and we can move on to more recent stuff. Speaking of recent stuff, about a month ago (recent?) we took a little trip to Colmar, France. It is about a 30 min train ride and 45 min bus ride which tours through little towns, including one completely surrounded by a moat and city wall. It was really neat. Erika really enjoyed the seat belts in the bus. When we decided to get off the bus (we were a little unsure which stop) we chatted for a little bit and then realized we forgot our bag on the bus. So Jodi ran after it and banged on the front door to get them to stop. The bus driver was really nice about it. At least we remembered the kids. Colmar was great, and if Jodi had her way, I would be transferring to France ASAP. The architecture is completely different than Freiburg. Now that we think about, Freiburg is gothic-y, post-war-trying-to-look-ancient, and very orderly/put-together (great efforts considering most of the city was ruined by Allied bombing accidents in WWII), whereas Colmar had a rustic and romantic feel to it. I think this will be a definate sidetrip for anyone that comes to visit. We checked in at the tourist place, and then walked the town, and ate delicious pastries - something that is unattainable in Germany (good desserts that is). Some of the highlights were: seeing a big-rear bird (the biggest swan I have ever seen, don't trust the movie), hunting for bathrooms (a common theme of any outing with Erika), a large carousel, a beautiful modern park, a gondola ride in petit Venise, Erika's Paris dress, and Jodi enjoying old doors. During our hunt for the bathroom, we found some crazy public toilets. You have to pay 30 cents to open the bomb-shelter-style facility, and the door magically slides open to display your beautiful purchase. I almost vomited. It was dripping wet inside and smelt like an outhouse. The craziest part is that the toilet didn't have a 'hole' where the excrement gets flushed down (see pictures). I know, I am still figuring it out. At first, I thought it must spray the entire interior after a deposit because it claims to self-clean. I could just picture the gushing water and flying feces. Jodi thinks she's got it figured out, and if anyone else thinks they have an idea, we are open to suggestions. Erika vetoed the bathroom, and we continued our search. And yes, we came back and paid 30 cents again to take the pictures. I don't think we came across as tourists though. (Yeah right, taking pictures of a bathroom). The gondola ride down the river was probably the highlight, although Reese could have done with a 2 min ride instead of 30. He enjoyed running through the water fountains in the park and giving the swan a drink from his cup. By the way, sorry about the stellar video quality.

Next time: a tour of our 'finished', humble abode.

Jodi and Jeff

Another Week

Well, hopefully only a couple more of these flashbacks and then we will be caught up.

June 2-9, The Aftermath

Monday June 2nd was my first day at work. First order of business: call the plumber and the electrician. The plumber couldn't make it Monday so it had to be Tuesday. The electrician assured us the cooktop was not functional and that we shouldn't use it, so they unplugged it so we could take it back. When I got home, we took off for ikea and carted the cooktop with us, along with a list of a couple more things to pick up. Well, the returns place said they couldn't help us and we needed to contact the manufacturer - which happened to be whirlpool. We tried and tried and tried to get them to understand: we spent our money at ikea, the product is faulty, so we want to exchange it for a new one. But, to no avail, we drug the cooktop with us for nothing. The list didn't come in handy either as Jodi ripped it into a million tiny pieces, accompanied by, well, you get the picture. So, we almost left the cooktop sitting in a dumpster at ikea, but we decided to take it with us, after all, we still needed to be a little frugal. We went to bed with hopes of running water for tomorrow, but we all know how that is going to turn out, right? Tuesday morning, the plumber showed up. After a few chuckles about my handiwork, he had everything hooked up, and we actually had water! Jodi was giddy, and maybe freaking the poor plumber out. Did I mention we cut the hole in the stainless steel too far from the sinks? The placement of the faucet was kind of arbitrary, so we put it where we thought looked good, and didn't give any thought to what was going on under the surface. I had to 'chisel' out about 2 inches of wood supporting the sink top with the drill using it like a rotary tool (dremel). It was pretty funny. Definately not at the time. The plumber got a chuckle from the wobbly faucet too, and he rearranged a bunch of the washers and stuff and made it look easy. I should mention, we followed the instructions from ikea as to the placement of the washers, so that part wasn't entirely our fault. Next on the list was to call the whirlpool guys, who in turn referred us to a local business who would contract out the electrician to come and check out our stovetop. The fellow came Wednesday. Five inches of his crack was hanging out the entire time he performed the operation. No englische either. Jodi describes him as the most offensively rude acting and looking person ever. We let him in, and the wild boar started wreaking havoc on the contents of our house. He used dish towels and duct tape for hot plates (to protect his gentle hands) - the duct tape actually melted onto one of the burners. When he had the cooktop uninstalled, he scraped up the stainless steel counter beside, and Jodi had to grab a random rug and stuff it underneath. Needless to say, Jodi and him had it out for at least 25 min. (remember, nobody understands each other) and they phoned me and our translator Martin at work to figure things out (on the guy's cell phone, we still didn't have a phone). The final verdict: the cooktop is functioning normally, and the smoke will wear off and the brownish hue of the cooktop is not out of their specifications. By the end of his 'test', all four burners had smoke coming off of them and had turned the entire cooktop surface browny. Note to self, and everyone reading, whirlpool/ikea blows. Please do yourself a favor and don't buy electrical stuff from ikea. At first, we wanted to stand our ground and take this to the highest authority, but after 2 more days of the run-around (ikea-whirlpool-frommer-local electrician) we figured no one was responsible, so we have given in to the big corporate machine. We are getting soft. Remember superstore? So, we resigned to get the original electricians back to hook the thing up, and they reluctantly did; they still didn't think it should work like that. Well, either it works for a long time, or maybe it will break down all the way pretty soon, and we can completely whiz 120 euros down the toilet. Enough about the cooktop. Jodi's main hope was to cook a meal before Mom was scheduled to go home, but the electricians came back the day that Mom went home - Thursday. We were glad to have the kitchen finally hooked up and complete, but we felt we were drug through the mud for so long that it wasn't even that exciting to have a functional kitchen. Thanks Mom G. for all the help during the first couple of weeks, we couldn't have done it without you. And thanks for sacrificing three weeks of your life, it was definately no holiday. Thursday was a pretty sad day with mom leaving, as we had grown quite accustomed to the team we had. Friday was much of the same. As was Saturday. And Sunday. We were enjoying the slower pace and getting things sorted out and organized. Well, I suppose that's the end of this week, the next blog will be about our trip to Colmar, France, that we did on June 14 (the next Saturday). We'll leave you with a picture of Reese, enjoying one of the many (!!!) books we brought with us.

Jodi and Jeff

Gracious Neighbours

Ok, so we are all doing a little better, and we are going to try to catch up on this thing in the next few days.

May 29 - June 1, The delays begin...

Thursday (the 29th) I had to go to work (maybe I should have got paid for this week too) to sign my contract, and the kids and Jodi and Mom came too. Jodi had to sign something too. Not sure what that was for. I guess she is an employee of the Klinik too. We had a decent leisurely morning, except for Mom - she and Jodi both had head colds. Mom's was bad. Jodi and Mom and Erika went downtown to get some more supplies, and I went to let the electricians in to hook up the stove and cooktop. Everything went smoothly and they even cut the hole in the stainless steel for the faucet for me. Of course, I was using the steel punch wrong. I suppose I should have kept the instructions. Well, we had spatzle and rotisserie chicken with cooked carrots. Yes, cooked and hot carrots. It was amazing. Our first cooked meal at home, and it was great, even if we couldn't wash the dishes in the kitchen sink (the bathroom sink was starting to build up a little residue unfortunately). So, we piled them up beside the kitchen sink, because, of course the faucet installation would be done relatively soon. We put the kids to bed and I promptly started to work on the sink. I really wanted to get the fresh water hooked up tonight so we could use the darn things. I ran a couple of measurements by Jodi, and I assured her we had about 12 inches of copper pipe to spare. Jodi assured me I could cut at least six off. So, I took the pipe cutter thing, and voila! off came the six inches on each pipe (one for hot, one for cold, of course). The faucet we bought, which was pretty cheap (10 euros, not bad), required that one of the pipes be smaller than the other or else the bolts would get in the way of each other and we would have to bend the pipes. Well, I knew we had 12 inches extra, and I already cut 6 inches off, so I could easily take off another two or three, and still have some left. Apparently not. I guess 12 minus 6 minus 2 works out to be about -4 because the stupid pipe wouldn't reach anymore. This was the defining moment of our relationship. After choice words, Jodi went and scrubbed the dishes in the toilet again, while I tried to make the pipes stretch to the friggen hole. It didn't work. Well, the Praktiker list just got a little longer. On Friday morning, to mend our relationship we decided to hang one of the 300 lb upper cabinets. They are really heavy. The concrete walls make drilling and putting screws in very difficult. I have to say, it was the hardest thing I have ever done physically trying to screw in the hangers (by hand, with pliers). Even though they were put into concrete hangers/plugs, the concrete leaves no room for the expansion of the plugs and makes it almost impossible. I couldn't use a drill either as the hangers had no grooves for a screwdriver bit. Anyways, one done, one more to go. We decided to start putting the second one together at 9 pm, and also drilling the holes into the wall around 10. Well, the neighbours below us told us in Germanese that they were trying to sleep. We sent Mom to the door to play dumb because we were being pansies hiding in our bedroom. "Can you get that Mom? Not sure what they would want..." That day we did finish most of the other projects including our bed. So, back to the sink. We solved the pipe issue, just to find out that we couldn't tighten the faucet down enough. It kept flopping around, which I am pretty sure isn't normal operation. I am sure ikea would say otherwise. We were past sanity, and Jodi was just giddy and laughing, and telling me to hook it up as is - we can at least wash the dishes. After about two more hours of trying to tighten, we decided to call a plumber. I tried to get to a plumber that night, but to no avail, and no one (we checked all of one place) was working on the weekend. Funny, we are laughing as we write this, but it was not a laughing matter at the time. I was mad. Here's a picture of one of my assistants helping me with the cabinets, and the actual placement in the kitchen. We were definately praying for the next couple of days that the thing would stay on the wall. Mom wouldn't even go near them. Can you believe we ate in this kitchen last night?

Saturday morning we finished up the second 1000 lbs cabinet and put it up. Jodi and Mom left for a little shopping excursion (actual shopping, not solely interested in household needs) while I sweated it out again trying to get the cabinet secured with those blasted hangers. After pounding the pavement for most of the day, Jodi decided to have a bath and Laveryne started to make a cup of tea. 'Started' is the operative word here. It took about 20 min. for the burner to heat up, and before it was done, we noticed smoke and the smell of an electrical fire. We vacated the kids by the time Jodi got out of the bath and opened all the windows. As it turns out, our nice cooktop was starting to burn (or something anyway) and it looked like it was burning the stainless steel top. About a two inch ring around the element was burned to a nice copper/almond color. This was exactly what Jodi wanted to hear. Well, we hit the breaker and went to bed in our disbelief. Remember, Saturday marked the two week point, and only two days ago we were certain that the sink and cooktop would be operational, and it seemed we were back to the beginning. Oh, except for the beautiful fridge. It was working. Here are a few pictures of how the place was coming along. In reality, everything else was progressing except for the non-functional kitchen.

As you can see (Figure A), there was a small hiccup with Erika's bed. Nothing a pipe wrench and some wood glue couldn't fix (the duct tape approach didn't work out). Handy Manny strikes again, and you can't even notice it. On Sunday, we went to the zoo for a little relaxation, and to get away from our place. The zoo is relatively close, and you can walk easily to it. It was actually pretty funny, you could see pretty much all the same animals at an Alberta farm. Except for the horsey thing (Mammoth crossed with a donkey) that they claimed was of North American descent. The zoo was pretty big, but only had about 10 different types of animals in it, so it turned out to be quite a haul to see everything. We stopped at the end for a ride on a spectacular carousel:

We hoped that Erika would get her euro's worth before the thing bucked her off and fell apart. After that, we started to walk back home in the 40°C weather. Needless to say, the 20-mile (probably about 10-15 km roundtrip) was a little much given the events in the last couple weeks. We started to see mirages on the way home, and considered curling up in a farmer's field. Thus ends another day on our German holiday. Sorry about the novel again. Stay tuned...

Jodi and Jeff

Uh-oh

We will have to keep you in suspense for one more day on the continuation of our story. We are all sick today. Boo-hoo. Sorry to let the masses down. Here's a little peak at what's to come: dryer installation.

Jodi and Jeff

The Stuff Arrives...

Back to the story...

May 26-28, Building days

The fellas unloaded all the stuff. And we started to put the Ikea stuff together. This is our place with about a quarter of the stuff unloaded:

I had to take off at this point and go to work to get some of the administrative stuff out of the way. So the ladies started to put stuff together. I also stopped at a local hardware store (Praktiker) to get a jigsaw and drill and some other little stuff. By the time I got home, Jodi had worn a hole in her hand from all the manual screwdriving. My project was the kitchen:

The women had already put the table and 2 chairs together, and also the daybed (our couch so all of our visitors have a place to stay, nudge-nudge), the kids' little table, a spinning play chair, and the butcher block thing (???). Our place was an absolute sty. I did get the kids to help me put some stuff together though:

The two most rewarding things were having a couch to sit on and plugging in the fridge so we could actually keep meat for longer than an hour and have some cold milk for cereal (warm, funky-smelling milk goes great with chocolate chunk cereal though). We completely underestimated the work we needed to do for the kitchen. Too bad we didn't have the cash outright to have it installed. I got the base cabinets built, and tried to figure out what we needed for the plumbing and wiring. So, around 9 pm we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. Oh my. Fast forward 2 hours later, and we just needed to put the cabinet doors on and call it a night. To make a long story short, handy Manny (a.k.a. Jeff) had put the mounting brackets on backwards, so we were never able to make the 'Click' sound - as instructed from the ikea handout - to attach the doors. No amount of brute force or cussing could make the doors attach and make the 'click' sound (as shown by a small tap of the thumb in the instructions). So I changed the brackets around, and 'click', the job was done in 5 minutes. Thus ended the day, and I had a big list for Praktiker for the next day. In the morning, the wash machine got delivered, and this was a beautiful moment. Probably the highlight of Freiburg so far, as shown below:

Then I went downtown to get my 'tax card' so that I could be gainfully employed, got some stuff at Praktiker, and headed back home. By the way, buying drill bits and special sized pipes with my knowledge and salespeople who speak mostly German do not make for a comfortable shopping experience. Also, a round trip to the store is about an hour on the train and walking. In the afternoon, we put Erika's bed together, and the ladies had already put a wardrobe, two dressers, the wintergarten bench and one more dreaded kitchen chair together earlier. So, in the kitchen, we needed a way to make a hole in the stainless steel top for the faucet, and we bought a handy little tool (manual metal punch) from ikea to do the job. Seemed easy enough, it even came with instructions. No matter how hard I tried to reef on that thing, I couldn't get it to cut through the steel. So we moved on to something else: the plumbing. Good grief. Talk about out of my league. I can barely plunge a toilet. One of the pieces in the drainage system was bought from ikea, and it came with some handy instructions, including a little hole covered by a thin piece of plastic that you needed to just 'tap' out with a screwdriver. The thin piece of plastic was unrecognizable after I was through with it. It took an hour and a half, but me and my knowledgeable plumbing assistant (with years of experience, or at least, years of 'coaching' experience) had managed to pry a large enough hole for a small amount of water to pass through. The time we were 'on the clock' included dripping sweat, blue smoke from all the nice words, and Mom's gentle prayers in the background. Good enough. Yeah right, a 'tap'. So basically, we got nothing accomplished that night and I had an even longer list for Praktiker for the next day. Well, I suppose we got a cute picture of Reese:

On Wednesday, exhaustion was setting in from trips to Praktiker and endless building projects. You might imagine our lot: meat and cheese and buns for almost two weeks does not a happy troupe make. We decided that I wasn't a trained electrician, and we wanted to get a professional to hook up the cooktop and oven. So, how do you find an electrician without knowing German? Well, you head to the place you bought the garbage and try to get some numbers. And we did. 2 numbers, I think. The public phone in our quarter of town wasn't working, so Jodi and Mom took the tram downtown (15 min) to make some calls. The first guy never answered. The second one hung up on Jodi twice. The first time she thought it was a mistake. The second time she got the hint and realized this fellow was maybe not the best choice. So they headed to another electronics store nearby and a nice salesman did the calling for us, and after an hour and a half of waiting for them to call back, we had an electrician appointment for Friday. What a nice salesman, we didn't even buy anything from him. That night, I fiddled around with some more of the plumbing, figured out we were missing more pieces, and wrote it on my Praktiker list. So, in conclusion for the day, here's what I accomplilshed (couldn't have done it without a 1 year-old):

Actually, I think we did the desk and bookshelf, a wardrobe, last dresser, and Reese's crib. Oh, and somewhere in the last couple of days (Tuesday??) we made another fun trip to ikea with two strollers so we could bring back another mattress and some other random items. It was a good time, and free from rain.

Jodi and Jeff

The 7th Circle of Hell (Ikea)

Before we get back into the story, I have a couple of sidetracks I thought I would divulge. First and foremost, a special 'hello' to Lesley, Tim, Bailey, Nichole and especially Griff. We are praying for you guys and we hope all goes spectacularly during the procedure tomorrow. Ok, now, on the less serious side - it seems I am quite adept at bathroom etiquette. In the last month and a half, I have walked into three bathrooms while people were conducting their business. The last time was today, in a public bathroom in the klinik of all places. It is completely on my mind now whenever I open a bathroom door. I think I will adopt the strategy of knocking everytime before I try the door, no matter what. The thing I don't understand is, lock the friggen door! If the door was locked in these cases, it would have never happened. Who doesn't lock the bathroom door, especially in public places? Oh, and I am not talking about walking in on Jodi or Erika either. Today, my new, aged, hospital 'acquintance' was tucking Captain Winkie into his pants when I walked in. I am more than happy to pass this vision on to you. Well, back to the story...

May 24, Hello again Ikea (ih-kay-ah)

While perusing the Ikea receipt (which seemed as long as Santa's list), we came to the conclusion that they hadn't ordered us a kitchen sink cupboard. For the uninitiated, ikea freestanding kitchens require a cupboard bottom first, and then you put on your range or sinktop or counter surface. So, we had a kitchen sink coming, with no where to install it. Well, off to ikea to pick up the missing part. We were hoping to add it on to the large delivery we already had coming for Monday, but as our luck would have it, this couldn't quite be arranged. So, we lugged the 100 lb base cupboard from ikea to the bus stop (0.5 km walk) onto the bus (20 min), transferred onto the tram (0.5 km walk, 15 min ride), and then from the tram station to our place (0.2 km). Oh, and we also had some other purchases to take with us as well. And Erika and Reese. Did I mention it was raining? Grandma took care of Erika and Reese, and I took the one box and Jodi took another one, and we tried our best. Jodi's hands started giving out on the 2nd transfer, so the 45 min trip took a little longer than expected. But, we got it home, and it wasn't too bad to put together:

I even had time to showcase my electrician skills (of course made difficult by ikea), but it sure felt good to have a light in Erika's room (or any room for that matter):

So, now all we have to do is cut a hole in the back for the water taps, and a hole in the bottom for the drain, and easily install the top and faucet. Doesn't sound too bad...

May 25th, Reese's First Birthday

Not much happening again in Freiburg for the Sabbath, so we were free to relax and enjoy the gaffer's birthday. We started off with some buns and meat and cheese for breakfast, and then took the tram to Günterstal (a ritzy suburb) and caught a bus to the bottom of a small mountain nearby. From there we could take a ride up a cable car to the summit (Schauinslandbahn).

It was a really good time, except Mom G. almost derailed the car and tried to claw herself out of 6 inches of plexiglass. We were just talking about random stuff when Mom started focusing really hard and concentrating on an otherwise superficial topic. The bells went off for Jodi and she knew the claustrophobia was kicking in.

Luckily, I had a thick pamphlet I could wave her way to lower the body temperature enough to keep her from passing out (and/or taking us all with her). The frantic waving got things under control in a couple minutes, and the remainder of the trip was amazing and pamphlet free; the mountain is full of 'diverse vegetation' (Sarah and Peggy). It was really green, moreso than I have ever seen before:

The top had a cute playground for the kids, and a little (albeit touristy) restaurant which Mom bought us lunch at. The trip down was much less eventful, and Reese was pretty tuckered out. All in all, a pretty fun first birthday.

Jodi and Jeff

Corpus Christi / Schnitzel

Today, we are going to do two days. Look out!

May 22nd, A German Holiday

Needless to say, a random German holiday falling on the first week we arrived kind of set us back a bit. Absolutely nothing was open on the holiday (and every Sunday) except for the Turkish vendor selling meat that grows on a stick (donair anyone?) and kebobs. We took the time to go to downtown Freiburg and explore for a bit. The old city has these little canals with supposedly fresh water running in them. I wonder how many intoxicated locals have relieved themselves after a long night of boozin'. Being ignorant as we are (ahh, bliss) the kiddies sure had fun (it's actually a common thing to do):

There is supposed to be this big, grand church - the Münster - in the middle of Freiburg (built in the 1300s) that Mom G. and I couldn't find on our last visit for some reason. So as we wandered around, we figured we should try to track it down. Turns out it wasn't that hard. It's rather large. It's funny though, even with a building that big, you have to have a break in all the other buildings to be able to see it because everything is so packed together. With the events of the past few days, it was really cool to see this building and walk through it. It's going to sound corny, but pictures just don't work to convey its structure and beauty and grandness. Seeing something like this kind of erases all the garbage we went through this week. Well not really. Sort of. It was neat. Here is a picture of us just after we spotted it through a narrow alley. We are definately showing the effects of the last few days. Jodi looks like she just wet her pants, and I am staring off into space/constipated. You can see the top of the Münster (barely) behind us.

And that's the extent of the pictures we got of the Münster. Better luck next time (I suppose you have to come see it for yourself). We did get a couple of the inside, but they do not do this amazing building justice.

This lady was nice enough to pose for us:

Erika lighting a candle for Corpus Christi:

And that was about it for this day.

May 23, Deutsche Bank/Arcor/Martin

Another day of smiling like the good Canadians we are and signing things we don't understand and leaving the kids with Grandma. In the morning, we opened up a bank account and set up our phone line. We couldn't believe how long it was going to take to have a phone - 3 weeks at least! But the guy was really nice. We also got a 24 euro broom. Don't ask. But it does have a nice ladybug molded on the bottom. "The envy of all brooms", apparently. The broom was soon accompanied by a matching toaster, for a modest 54 euro. You heard right, $80 CDN for a 2-slice toaster. We did do a lot of penny-pinching at Ikea... all for the toaster I guess (not shown). So, we picked up Grandma and the kids and went to Martin's for lunch, which was a good time, thanks to Grandma taking Erika for a 2 hour walk. Elizabeth (Martin's lady friend) sent us on our way with a large piece of coffee cake. We also got some directions to a large department store downtown, where we found a wash machine, electric teapot, hairdryer, and Grandma got Reese a little push car - "The Big Bobby Car" a.k.a. "Big Booby Car" courtesy of Erika. We ended the night with some delicious buns and meat and cheese, and I think we will sign off today and leave you with a movie starring the Big Booby Car. Voila: