Ich bin ein Texaner

It occurred to me recently when I was talking to my dad (hi Daddy!) that we haven't posted any photos of our temporary place. So here you go! We've mentioned in earlier posts that we're only in this apartment for a few months. We actually just signed a lease on a permanent place, so that will be a post in a few weeks when we move in. Our temporary apartment (wohnung in Deutsch) is ours until the end of November. As you'll see, we have room for one guest, but no more. Here's the outside. Planter boxes are practically a competitive sport in this part of the world. I'm showing you our nice one first (one has flowers, and one has herbs that we're growing from seed, so not much to show yet). I'm posting this photo in "X-Large" rather than "Large" so you can see it, at least a little bit. Clearly there are a lot of apartments here! We're in the tower in the center of the photo, and we're the 5th one regardless of whether ...

One of the things I was sick of living in Austin was sitting in traffic. I even said, "I don't care if it still takes me 45 minutes to get to work. If I'm not sitting in traffic it is way better." Well, that is indeed the case. It takes me about 45 minutes door to door. But it is a much different commute here. First of all, let me say that my friends that are used to using public transportation will not think anything of what I'm saying. To those friends I say this: I drove my car every day in Austin. I had no choice. I'm not even sure that was even a bus stop within a mile of my office. Cars are an integral part of life in Austin. With that disclaimer out of the way, I will start out with the fact that I turned in our rental car last Wednesday and Lisa and I have done quite well without a car for a week and a half. Really, the only reason we are getting a car is for driving trips on the weekends, the occasional large grocery trip and, of course, travellin...

There have not been any posts in a week. What? Why? Well, because. It was a ... normal week. I started work on Monday the 2nd, which means there was a routine. There were small things that came up, but they weren't very out-of the ordinary: I returned the rental car on Wednesday; Lisa soloed a grocery store trip; the air shipment showed up. Exciting things in a way, but not particularly note-worthy. Saturday was spent going to a bike store and trying to figure out which bike to get. We left without bikes, but we have a much better idea what we are looking for. I bought power cables for my computer. Stuff happened. We did do a little wandering on Saturday after the bike store and ended up at the  Alter Botanischer Garten , I will say, the Europeans do know their gardens. We sat outside at a picnic table and sipped beers. It was lovely. So, what is the "non-normal" stuff that has crept into my routine? Well, there are things that Americans that live in large cities do t...