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