Oct 29 - Tuesday

Hello all! I want to start off with a Happy Birthday to my aunt Cathy!! I hope its a wonderful birthday with no flying creatures. :)

This week has been relatively quiet so far. I almost posted a flat Tony moment yesterday as the wind picked up while I was waiting for the bus at work, and the black clouds rolled in, but I was afraid that flat Tony would end up in Oz! I will try to think up somewhere fun, local, to take him this weekend. Frankly, I'm WORN OUT...so am not planning on anything to exciting this weekend. Next weekend I'm thinking of taking a train up to the Baltic Coast, so maybe something neat then.

Mom and Rylee went out on their own today - and did a 2 train trip without me! Needless to say, although I will anyways, I was proud! It's hard to get used to the trains...but they are SOOOOO convenient once you do! They went off to the Berlin zoo, which is supposed to (according to wikipedia) be one of the most visited zoos in Europe. Unfortunately, they forgot Flat Tony - but Rylee has picked which picture should have been the Flat Tony photo, so I'm attaching it. :)

I hope that everyone is having a great week - and if possible, can a few of you go out and have some Mexican food for me? and maybe a margarita? Next to Unflat Tony - Mexican food is definitely what I miss most!

Good night and God bless,

from Berlin

Oct 27 - Rylee to the Palaces

Hello all!

We woke up to another rainy morning, but when checking out the forecast, we noticed that it was to end at 9am. So we waiting until the rain stopped, and off to Potsdam we went. We couldn't have a 13 year girl in Berlin for 13 days, and not show her a palace (or 4)! After another three trains (each way), we got down there about 10:40 this morning - Mom & Rylee are becoming pro's at the train.

We stayed on the bus for the first hour + of the tour, and waited until the palaces of Fredrick the Great, to do our walking. I'm not sure which was Rylee's favorite, but we walked the grounds of Belevedere, Orangerie and Sansousi (some of those were spelled wrong, but if you google Potsdam, you'll know which I mean). It was more than an hour wait to get inside a palace, so we skipped that part, but we walked the gardens until my legs ached. Flat Tony (x2) was checking out the Belevedere palace, and us girls were hanging out in the gardens of Orangerie.

On the way home we grabbed Rylee a little McDonalds...nothing like comfort food. Mom and I hit the Lebanese restaurant for our wraps, and we got home in time for the rains to start again. All in all, great timing for when we were outside - and I think with all the fresh air, everyone will sleep well tonight! Of course, I have to go to work tomorrow and these two get to sleep in! :)

Congrats to the Fishers Tiger football team on a first round sectional win - and congrats to Brady Riley and the Fishers girls soccer team on a semi-state win!!

Miss you all, tons!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 26 - Olympic Park

Hello all!

As it was raining this morning, and none of us really wanted to spend the day soggy, we decided to postpone the Potsdam hop-on-hop-off tour until tomorrow. Instead, we took multiple trains (4 out, and 2 back) to the Olympic Park in western Berlin. A very, very cool place! Before I get into the park, I do have to mention that there was a VERY interesting character on our 4th train. Laughing and talking very loudly to himself (with a beer at 9:30am)...he was so loud, that we thought maybe he was on the phone...but there was no cord or ear bud to be found. I imagine that the voices in his head were speaking loudly, so he was trying to talk over them! Funny enough, one of the times he got really loud and walked around, Rylee notices that his sweatshirt said "Crazy" on it. It was nice that whoever dressed him this morning tried to give us a heads up! :)

Back to the Park - it was build for the 1936 Olympics, and we watched a movie about how Hitler had taken down all the propaganda before the other participants started to arrive. He was not a happy man when Jessie Owens won the running events - it was against everything he was trying to "preach". But Flat Tony had his picture taken with me, and one with the Berlin Bear inside the facility - he would actually really like the history there (and in Berlin in general). I even managed to get Rylee a picture with her little Flat Family.

Afterwards we went to Potsdamer Platz, which is about as new as things come around here. It's a shopping district with a really amazing area in the middle called the Sony Center, which has restaurants, movie theaters, and concerts in the open area in the middle. After all the walking and train travel, we ate like we may never be fed again, and everything was excellent!

Last night, we went to dinner with the American gal that my mom met on the train Tuesday (Kim) and her 5-year old son Alec. Super people, and hopefully I will see a lot more of them!! Kim is a "conflicted vegan" (she sometimes slips into the vegetarian world)...but was telling mom all about the great ways that you can cook tofu - so April/Michelle, you may just get a happy suprise on Christmas Eve!

You're all up to date. I hope this finds you well, and we will have Potsdam updates tomorrow.

Good-afternoon and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 24 - The "Rebel"

Happy Thursday friends! Almost the weekend for me - I think we're going to eat at the Greek restaurant downstairs tomorrow night - so I have something to look forward to!! Rylee has never had Greek food (she tried Lebanese for the first time last night), so hopefully she will like it.

Flat Tony did double duty again today. Mom and Rylee took him up to the Berliner Dom...he sure does like climbing all 270 steps of that. :) Rylee took a picture of him with the skyline of Berlin...look at the number of cranes in the background! I can't even imagine how much bigger this city is going to get, and it's more than 3 million people now!

I hadn't had a Flat-Tony-worthy moment today (which is like most workdays)...until I got to the Templehof train station! I had two minutes until the train arrived, and for whatever reason, I happened to look up and see this advertisement on the train station wall. For those that don't know - Unflat Tony was a Roncalli High School Rebel, so it like him stopping in to say "hello" to me!

We hope everyone's Thursday ends on a high note!! TGIF is just around the corner.

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 23 - the Wizard of Oz

Happy mid-week!! Flat Tony was two places at once today - he was a busy fellow!!

First Flat Tony went to work with me. When I was getting ready this morning...I was able to, comfortably, put my belt on the last notch. The GOOD last notch, not the bad last notch!! Sooooooo, in celebration, I let Flat Tony have a sausage croissant for breakfast! I am a really generous Mrs. Unflat Tony. :)

Interesting item from work today - I saw another extremely interesting fashion statement. Visualize this. A heavy, older man with thinning hair around the sides (bald on top), who stands about my height (maybe 5'8"). He's wearing a long sleeved button down shirt, with a sweater over it...I'm okay with the fashion statement so far. But then he had on dress slacks...that were rolled up to the mid calf, on BOTH legs! If it was just one leg, maybe I could think he was burned by a motorcycle tailpipe, or something equally manly. But that would be a big NO. It was exactly like how girls wore their sweatpants in the 80's. I'm not sure who let him leave the house dressed like that, but they definiately didn't love him. Yikes.

Second Flat Tony went touring with mom and Rylee. My favorite photo of their day is Unflat Tony with a live statue - who oddly looks like the Wicked Witch of the West from my aunt's FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME, the Wizard of Oz. Except this witch didn't need any stinkin' flying monkeys - she had a sword! Now that is the kind of wicked witch I aspire to be!!

After all of that excitement, I'm ready to settle in for the night. I hope you all enjoyed your Hump Day, we're on the downhill slide.

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 22 - Tuesday

Okay folks...I had to go back into the office today, so mom and Rylee were on their own. First things first - they rode the train to and from their adventure, without me, and lived to tell the story!! I don't even think they are as worried about it now - which is good, because I just picked up their 7-day-pass at the train station this morning.

Then, funny enough, my mom made a friend for me. I, of course, haven't met my new friend yet - but as things go, she lives two blocks from me, is also 40, and is from Montana! Praise Jesus, I have hope for hearing some English. :) Maybe we'll meet her for dinner before mom leaves, since those two are already friends. Of course the second friend they made was an older Pakistani man who informed them that he left Pakistan (as he's pointing at the young girl with him) because the children were being **slashing his throat motion**. Nothing like welcome to Germany!

Flat Tony's adventure today was with mom and Rylee, going back to the Berlin Wall. Rylee posed him for his photo op, and the she got one of her own, so I'm including both. I then came home to home-made chicken noodle soup...visitors earn another point! I know that Unflat Tony will cook when he's here...Dad, you're going to have to think up something good! :)

I hope this finds you all well.

Good-night and God-Bless,

from Berlin

Oct 21 - Monday (Woolworths)

After work today I took Mom and Rylee on a little walk around the neighborhood. They had already been out to the grocery store and the mall. Being sweet to me, they bought me a new hairdryer and a season of Bones (more English TV!!).

First we went to a new park, where mom and Rylee kindly posed with Flat Tony. We had to explain to Rylee that the pretty ducks were actually boys, not girls - because the girls have to do all the work and protect the roost, and the boys are just trying to attract girls.

Then we found a Woolworths! From what I can see, Germany really likes cancelled American TV shows (Desperate Housewives, ER, Greys Anatomy) and Woolworths - which has been gone since I was a little girl (and I'm ANCIENT). :) But THIS Woolworths was VERY different than the ones I remember. I'm not sure how many of you went there when you were little...but I'm pretty sure that the items Flat Tony is posing with were NOT at the checkout!

Then we came home and I made the gang some tacos and now we're relaxing with a DVD of "Rylee's TV shows" that grandma made. We hope this finds you all well.

Good night, and God Bless,
from Berlin

Oct 20 - First Day Back

Well folks, I'm back in Germany...luckily, not alone (at least for the first 11 days). I had hoped it wouldn't be as hard leaving Indy the second time - but I was not that lucky. :( Luckily, I ran into a long lost pal at the airport, and Champs makes a great Bloody Mary!

I also had a really nice week at home with Unflat Tony - and the Fishers Tigers pulled off another big win to become 2013 Co-Conference Champions. If I have to miss the rest of the season, then I'm hoping they make it all the way to State!

Mom and Rylee flew over from Chicago and we met at the airport this morning. I took them on a bus tour today - but I think by the end of the tour we were all ready to fall asleep. Thank goodness we found a Subway on our way home - and they had Rylee's favorite sandwich - it's tough for a teen to leave her momma for a week, so comfort food was on order for her!

One of my three new Flat Tony's made an appearance today!! He mugged a little with Rylee, and then did a little pose with the Charlottenburg Palace near the President's residence. He's going to go back to Potsdam this weekend - and I'll see if I can find something new and exciting for him to do sometime this week. Otherwise, maybe I'll branch out the first weekend of November and either take him to the Baltic Coast, or Dresden.

Sorry this post isn't as fun as the others...but I don't know if I could be any more tired than I am right this moment! I will be working from the apartment tomorrow, so at least I don't have to get up at 6!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 12 - Home!!!

Okay...getting home wasn't as easy as I would have hoped! Currently, I am not a fan of Newark or United.

Instead of getting into Indy at 6pm, as I had hoped (prayed)...my flight was cancelled and I was able to get the last seat on a flight to Louisville. It was supposed to take off at 4:30 and land at 6:38...but after 3 delays - thank God it wasn't cancelled too - we landed at 9:38. I was home about 12:30 this morning. Of course...to add fun to the mix, my bag is lost in the shuffle somewhere - but I don't even care right now...I'm HOME!

Flat Tony got some fun last night though (as you know, he had a pretty slow week)...but he met some TV personalities last night. As I was waiting at the luggage carousal (sp?) I noticed a good old boy next to me that looked familiar. I went and told my dad who I thought it was (my awesome folks drove to kingdom come to get me)...and as he doesn't watch Animal Planet, he wasn't much help. I'll just attach the pics without saying who they are...but I can tell you that they were both AWESOME! And much more well-spoken than I would have imagined just watching the TV show. We had some "Live Action"!

Happy football Saturday!!
From Indianapolis!

Oct 8 - AJ and the Bus

Hello folks!! Happy Tuesday - only 2 1/2 more days til I'll be heading home for the week!! WooooHoooo.

We'll start off today with telling everyone who doesn't know - that it's AJ's 18th birthday today!! I met him when he was still a grade-schooler...time goes fast, and so much changes (whether you're ready for the changes, or not)! This time next year he will be in college and starting towards all of those "grown up" dreams...so if you get a chance, please tell him Happy Birthday!!

Now, my "learning experience" for the day. I left work at 4:30 because I had to get home to meet the immigration guy who did all of my Visa work. He was bringing back my passport so that I could get on the plane on Friday - so I wasn't missing that appointment. :) Well, I got on the 4:30 bus to head to the train. We're driving the way we always do...and all of the sudden...we go right past the train station! Now, I'm not sure if I'm on the "wrong" bus or not...but as far as I know...only one bus comes onto the Rolls-Royce campus (I will have to check on that tomorrow). So, I quickly ask the girl behind me...and she told me that, on the earlier bus (I typically leave at 5:30) you have to hit a "stop" button above your head, if you want the driver to stop somewhere! Luckily, she had just hit it for her stop...and we were still on the same road...so I just got off at her stop and walked back to the train station (it was about a 7 minute walk -- got me an extra 1000 steps on my counter)! I was early enough...I think the train comes at 4:54 or 4:59...that I made it back across the tracks before the train got there!! Shew! Flat Tony's pic is at the train stop...it's sort of an "ey yi yi" look!

All ended well, and I have my passport back in hand!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

October 7 - Monday

Hi Guys! Sorry I haven't had anything exciting to post since the visit to Potsdam...I think I'm just on the downward slide to going home - and as it's the work week, can't imagine that too many exciting things will happen in the meantime.

One amusing item from yesterday was the laundry. This apartment building - which is 5 floors, 6 apartments per floor (30) only has two washing machines and one dryer. Each load takes 2:20...yes folks, that is 2 hours and 20 minutes to wash, and another 2 hours and 20 minutes to dry! So, as you can imagine - laundry is a half day event, at best. Oh, and did I mention that there are no lights in the hallway - so if you're going from the 3rd floor (which is actually the 4th, b/c they don't count the entry floor) to the basement, after 5PM, it's pretty damn dark (I actually resorted to the elevator for that!). So, after 4 hours and 40 minutes (yes, two cycles) of drying on Sunday - all of my clothes were still damp. I think that my goal, after my trip home, will be to figure out what the words on the dryer SAY - so that I know how to dry my clothes, as opposed to whatever I did on Sunday. Flat Tony is not in the pic - no need to have him lauhging at me too - but I thought you'd all get a kick out of the aftermath. By the way, my apartment STILL looks like this, as I type.

Lord help me, and just get me to 9:45AM on Friday when my flight leaves - and while you're at it, if you can make the lovely government shutdown not affect my travel until after I get to Indy - that would be great!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

October 5 - Potsdam, Germany

Happy Saturday folks! I'll start by saying that my Fishers Tigers won last night - and ND will have their hands full this evening. I have on my shamrock earrings, so I'm sending up a little prayer!!

This morning I got up bright and early and headed south to a town called Potsdam. I did have one funny at the train station - as usual. I was on Train #2, heading to Train #3, and we stopped at a big station. I had to go one further, so I stayed put. An older, very classy looking lady said something to me...to which I just smiled and nodded, which is what I do every time someone speaks to me in German (the Lord only knows what I've agreed to via the nod). She then sent in a younger man who, thank God, spoke English to tell me that that was actually the last stop for that train (it wasn't going to move) and that another train would be there to get us in 2 minutes. :) Luckily, that same young man was getting onto my same Train #3, so he took care of me for a little bit!

I had heard that there were some beautiful castles in Potsdam (I believe at least three of them were "summer homes" built by Fredrick Wilhelm, King of Prussia). I decided on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour again...whoever invented those was brilliant! You don't have to worry about how to get from Point A to Point B, you only have to worry about what time the bus comes again, which in this case, was every 30 minutes, and what time options you have for the train home (which was every 20 minutes). I did learn, on the tour, that Potsdam is actually where Hitler took over Germany - not really the "claim to fame" you want.

It was an incredibly beautiful town - in the warmer months you can do boat tours, but those are over for the year (it's only been in the 50's here since I arrived). The two stops that I, and Flat Tony, explored were two of the castles, Orangerie and Sanssouci. Sanssouci is the one that Fredrick Wilhelm actually lived in. I didn't do the inside tour (I'll save that for when it's colder), but the tour of the grounds was something else. Flat Tony had two pictures at Orangerie: (1) a statue that still makes me laugh, and (2) the view of the front of the castle. He then had two taken at Sanssouci: (1) with a bathtub statue (he was feeling dirty after the bow hunter statue), and (2) with the yellow castle in the background.

It is definitely a tour I will go on again - wonderful history and a beautiful place. I hope you can see, just a little beauty, from the pictures included.

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

October 4 - Friday Night Football!!

Nothing exciting in Germany today folks. But, if I don't get lost on my way, I will be going to the Castle in Potsdam tomorrow. It's a new train ride for me - so we will see if I can get it figured out! The good news is, that this specific route runs every 20 minutes, so even if I butcher my times, I should only be 20 mintues off! I promise not to do anything bad to Flat Tony - but can't promise that I won't make him pose with flowers or something else equally girly!

Since it's Friday night - I want to give a quick shout out to my Football Family! I miss my guys and will be thinking of them tonight! Since they have the best defensive backs coach in the state - they should come out on the upper end of this! Go Fishers - Beat Zionsville!! I will be at Senior night next week - and can't wait!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

Oct 3 - German Unity Day

Happy German Unity Day all, I hope this finds you well!

I did get out for 3-4 hours today to go experience the holiday, which is the celebration of East and West Germany reuniting. There was a big celebratory event at the Brandenburg Gate today (I think it actually runs 4 days) - the event had two concert stages, more than a mile of vendor booths (both food and "stuff"), and many many many drink stands. I would equate the event to the Indiana State Fair, minus the fried food, but instead of one beer tent (where adults wear wristbands to get served) there is stand, after stand, after stand of beer, liquor, and even girly alcoholic beverages. That said, I still haven't seen a "stumbling" drunk - but I've also not stayed at either of these events (Oktoberfest being the other) into the evening. :)

Flat Tony had a few photo ops today - one with me and the "main stage" at the celebration. There must have been a German boy-band on stage, because with all of the little girl screaming, I wish I could have covered my ears too -- but someone had to take the pic. One is of Flat T outside the WWII Memorial - it was closed, which is why you can see the fence. And the last one is with our lunch, right before we headed back home. I do have to say - that was my first testing of the pommes freits (french fries) - and they were EXCELLENT!

Tomorrow is TGIF folks - my last TGIF in Germany before spending a week at home, in my bed, with my family!!! I hope each of you have a wonderful Thursday.

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

October 2, 2013 - Gone too soon

Hi Friends! Happy "Hump Day"...I do miss that commercial - but it probably wouldn't be so funny in German! Trying to watch Forest Gump in German right now and "Run Forest Run" is pretty much what I've got!

Apologies that Flat Tony, again, didn't do anything today. Tomorrow is German Unity day, so I will be sure to take him somewhere to see the festivities. And Saturday I plan on taking him to a Castle in Potsdam. I have promised him that I will not throw him in any motes, so we'll see what else I can find. :)

I wanted to take a minute today to remember a life cut short too soon by that horrible disease, Cancer. Today is three years since the passing of an ex-EIU-teammate, and fellow IMPD officer with Tony - Cam Brosseau. He would be very proud of his beautiful, kind hearted children (even if one is a little bit accident prone)! I met Shelly in the spring of 2010, and she is one of the strongest women (and best mothers) I've ever known - I'm honored to call her my friend. Prayers and hugs to you lady!

Good-night and God-bless,

from Berlin

October 1 - Language Barriers

Sorry folks, no Flat Tony pics today, but I do have a short story, which proves the point that I should have thought about this assignment a tad more before making my decision (due to language barriers).

As usual, I was at train station #3 20-minutes before my last train leaves for work this morning. About 2 minutes before the train should be there I hear them say "Estewelda" (sp?), which is the train I need to be on - so all is normal...or so I thought! This section of the train station has 8 platforms, and the train always comes to Platform 3. Well, 10 minutes after the scheduled departure time, I go upstairs to the information booth. Apparently, the message that I couldn't understand was telling me that the Platform changed from 3 to 4 this morning. Whoops. But she informed me that I could take 2 more trains, and 2 buses, to get to where I needed to be.

Well, I made an executive decision at that point. Those extra trains and buses were going to add another hour to my trip. So I decided to just take the same two back to where I started, and work from my apartment, which actually had me online and working 15 minutes before I would have been there had I taken my normal train!

So there you go - nothing like a day in the life of corporate Germany.

Good-night and God-bless,
from Berlin