Visit to Germany

For Columbus Day weekend, we visited our dear friends, Carole and Tony, who happen to live in the Altstadt of Kaiserslautern. Everything one needs is right there....the market, church, restaurants, knit shop, museums, history....the list goes on. Just a couple of drives the entire trip made for a wonderful, relaxing, and enjoyable visit.





Pasta people in the market





Fun in a park




An outing into the countryside included a meeting with the Camuso men



Synagogue ruins... Looking through binoculars that are posted give visitors the means to see how it looked when it was intact.

Reindeer at a wildlife park

After our time with the animals, we drove to Kusel for a delicious meal at Cafe-am-Markt.

Home, sweet home!

Of Mice and Us

In case you have read previous blog entries, you may recall the mention of the numerous neighborhood "cats" that keep the "mice" away. Well, the weather is cooling and those cats are not keeping the mice away! I saw one creeping up the stairs having come in from under the garage door. Later that evening, one ran through the living room as we had up to that moment been seated comfortably watching our big screen. I called a neighbor and asked if she had ever encountered any, and the reply was, "Yes." A negative of living by a beautiful field and it's a neighborhood thing as she informed us about a sonar plug-in deterrent, some little sticky houses, and regular traps. 


As we continued our relaxation (not as relaxed as earlier), my Flintster saw the critter race by. It ran under the television cabinet near the front door. With a mop in his hands and the Swiffer vacuum that makes noise in mine, I was going to flush him out, and The Flintster would attack! The vacuum didn't make enough noise so I used the compressed air for cleaning computer keyboards. That made him run along with my screeches and Flint's calling the tiny thing various bad names! But, we didn't get anything but a broken mop! And our neighbors may think we have lost our minds.....


But isn't it crazy how seeing a mice will make one clean house!? We keep a clean house, but after those mice, this place sparkles.... the windows haven't been cleaner!


Flint came in from work yesterday with enough sticky traps for more mice than I ever hope to see. His explanation of  how they work (as told to him by his local friends) is worth the price of a ticket. It includes sounds that I don't think can be spelled. We placed one downstairs and one in the living room. One down this morning....... 


to be continued???

A Handful of Olives

This is our olive crop from the little tree in our front yard. Literally a handful all growing in the same area except for one alone on the other side.

Parking...Quite Often an Adventure

Parking is where you can find it

On our recent trip to the airport for the long weekend, we drove through to find all the lots full and men instructing us to park on the sidewalks, etc. We parked on the street pretty far down from the entrance in an area where people have had their cars stolen in past years. Flint paid a fee and took a picture of the guy. The guy put a paper on the dashboard and off we went without giving it TOO much more thought. Upon returning, we found our car just as we expected. No problems whatsoever.

Another airport parking story came to mind as we drove around looking for a parking spot. Years ago as we searched, we followed a car as it turned into a lot under the raised bar and parked. Then we went merrily on our way. Upon our return, we loaded our car and waited 15-30 minutes for an airport employee to leave so we could exit behind his car before the bar lowered. Free parking, but we haven't had the nerve to try it again.