The bridal shower went very well on Saturday. I only got a little bit lost on the way to the location... It was a very lovely house with a beautiful backyard perfect for the event. We did the games I had prepared, had a really good lunch (which I just helped prepare--didn't make any of it), and watched Katrina open a bunch of cool gifts. I was exhausted by the end of the day, and I drove home and sat on the couch for the rest of the day until Jon got home. :) I'm glad this year's shower season is over!

Other than the shower (or in addition to it), this weekend was nice. We went to Macaroni Grill on Friday for Colleen's birthday, and Janel (Jon's sister) and Seth (her 9-month-old son) came too--they're back in CA! Sunday was our normal Sunday: church (Jon did sound and I did my usual music stuff), fellowship and lunch with friends after church at the mall food court, naps at home, some editing work, and Jon's basketball game in the evening. And now it's back to another week of work!

Tomorrow is the bridal shower I'm hosting/helping to host for my college roommate. This is the last shower I'm doing for the year...thank goodness. I really have liked doing them, but this one has been stressful. It turned into a lot larger ordeal (and a lot larger guest list) than I had anticipated.

My to do list before tomorrow:

--print/bring gift list sheet
--finish wrapping present
--print & cut sheets for picture game
--get together all game stuff (poster, 2 sets of papers)
--buy a few packs of pens
--buy bread
--decide what to wear
--find & bring name tags

Finishing the list would be easier if today weren't my mother-in-law's birthday. We're doing dinner for her tonight.

Thankfully, the lady at whose house the shower is being held is doing most of the food. I'll arrive an hour or so early to help set up. Hope I feel OK. I've been feeling blah all week.

I'm still not feeling like blogging, but I'm doing it anyway. I should be gearing up for my 100th post, which I think occurs next post or the one after that (it seems blogger has been stuck at 97 for a couple of my posts).

Those two prospective flute students from last night will now become weekly students, which makes my total student list add up to... 3. Actually, ideally I'd like to stick to 3, max 4, while I work full-time and edit (and cook/clean, etc.).

I haven't been feeling very bloggy this past week. So I'm just checking in. Here I am. I have some editing to work on, and two new flute students are coming by the house for consultations tonight. Adios.

Back in the swing of things
This is my second day back at work, and things are going fine. I didn't experience much jet lag at all, which is nice.

I miss Ellie (Nate and Louise's daughter). She's quite cute. One of her favorite activities is to say, "Sase! Sase!" (chase) and run around one of their armchairs while someone chases her. When the adult feels it's time to stop (it's tiring!), she'll say, "Mo-wee," which means more.

Upon returning to work yesterday, I found out that I had the opportunity to switch desks with someone (the situation is too lengthy to describe, but it involves a whiny guy who doesn't want to move back to his old desk though he's being asked, so instead he asked me to move to his old place and he'd move to mine. Gosh, I guess that wasn't so lengthy). Though I like my current location (it's tucked away and has a window view, and no one can walk up behind me without my knowing--and the other location has none of these benefits), this move would move me away from annoying coworker. Hmm. Tempting. It's funny to me that whiny coworker would even want my desk, though, because I don't think he and annoying coworker get along at all. I guess he likes the people over at his old desk even less. But I don't think I'm going to give him the satisfaction. Moving both him and me makes absolutely no sense; it would probably even ruffle some feathers (even with a "directive" from boss, annoying coworker would probably realize this was something either whiny guy or I requested--this may hurt her feelings, which I don't want to do. She may also be "mad" at me for having agreed to a move that would put whiny guy next to her, since I know she doesn't like him). So, I don't think I'm going to do it, but I just find it interesting. The end.

We're back and the trip was great
We got in to LAX last night around 8:00 and back to the house at 10:00 CA time (after having traveled for 21 hours...yikes). I'll finish my little trip log...

On Thursday, Louise and I went for those massages... they were heavenly. I have only gotten one professional massage before, and I loved it. This was just as good. In fact, this was the first time I'd ever gotten a facial, and I especially loved that because they rubbed my feet. I almost fell asleep! We bought a quick lunch after the massages, and drove to the next town over to go to a discount pottery place. I bought 3 square Christmas plates with their famous design on them. Louise and I had a good time talking while we drove around that day. We watched "Sweet Home Alabama" that night to complete our girls' day!

On Friday, it was the guys' day. They rented a BMW and enjoyed driving fast to their main destination: golf. Jon said he hit 210 km/hr on the way home (around 130 mph). I think they had a good time playing golf, though I guess they were paired with a VERY slow other 2 guys for their foursome (they said there were conversations of over a half hour in between holes...).

On Saturday, Jon and I went by ourselves to Cologne (Köln), a city about 1.5 hours away from Wiesbaden that has the largest cathedral in Germany (it was huge!). We ate at McDonald's (hey, we were by ourselves and we know no German!) and took a guided tour of the cathedral. We also walked around the train station and paid 2 euros to use the restroom. By that time, it was time to head back to Wiesbaden (and hit 220 km/hr on the way!), since Nate, Louise, Jon, and I planned on going back to that good Italian restaurant (Casa Europa I think it's called) one last time. They have bruschetta to die for and really good soup (I got the cream of tomato both times we went, and Nate loves the cream of broccoli, cream being the key word!). We watched "The Saint" that evening, and Jon and I stayed up late packing.

Sunday was time to go home. Our flight out of Frankfurt was at 10:30 a.m. (though with delays and a "Folks, we'll be returning to the gate momentarily to have a faulty temperature gauge checked out" from the captain, we didn't take off 'til noon). I finished Angle of Repose on this first flight, though. We had a long layover in Charlotte and were very glad to get back to L.A. last night. I got a rush of "been up way too long" energy last night and ended up unpacking and putting everything away before we went to bed. :)

I have the day off work today to recover from jet lag (actually don't have any...yet!), get film developed, catch up on e-mail and editing, do some laundry, go grocery shopping, etc.

Trip log
We are having a great time! We got in on Saturday morning 7:00, after having gotten barely 2-3 hours sleep on the flights (there were kids sitting behind us with no parents on the flight, and it was hard to sleep anyway), but we made it through the whole day just fine with a 1-hour nap. I did sleep 12 hours that night, though (9 to 9). :) I think it was this day that we went to downtown Wiesbaden and walked around. Jon found a T-Mobile store ("T-Punkt") and was impressed with how big it was and all the phones they had that still hadn't made it to the states.

On Sunday, we went to chapel, and then we went out to a GOOD Italian restaurant for lunch. I'm blanking on what else we did this day... I think we just hung out, napped, etc., and had a good dinner at Nate & Louise's house.

On Monday, we all drove the 2.5 hours or so to Strasbourg, France. We saw the cool church (neat stained glass) and walked around the city, and we ate at a little French café (I even spoke a little French!). Then we took the 1+ hour boat guided tour of the city, which was really nice and pretty, though it got very hot towards the end. (Speaking of weather, it has been PERFECT so far every day!—mid 70s-ish and sunny and breezy.) We got some ice cream at another place, and I mistakenly ordered raspberry for everyone, not strawberry (oops… framboise=raspberry… I think fraise=strawberry). It was still really good. In the afternoon, we drove to Heidelberg and dropped off our things and Ellie with Louise’s mom at their house. Then we went out to dinner at Die Kartoffel (spelling? It means "The Potato" in German). It’s a fun tavern-like restaurant where they bring you your meat raw on a very hot stone, and you cook it yourself. It comes with 3 good sauces, a big potato, and salad. It was really good! We also walked around that city after dinner (Laderbrunen?); it’s the oldest city in Germany and has a Roman column from the year 2. That night we slept at Louise’s parents’ house in Heidelberg.

On Tuesday, we spent the day in Heidelberg. Jon and I climbed the steps to the top of the bell tower of the church (very cool views of the city) and took a guided tour of the castle ruins. The city is really neat. Pepperdine has a campus there, though we weren’t exactly sure where to find it. We had lunch at Nate and Louise’s favorite Thai place in Heidelberg—it was actually very good! That evening we drove back to Wiesbaden and had fondu for dinner and watched a movie here.

Today has been a relaxing/home day, because Louise had a doctor’s appointment (she’s pregnant, due in March) and Nate has youth group today. Tomorrow, Louise and I are going to get 2-hour massages, and on Friday, Jon’s renting a car to drive the autobahn. :o)

Toodloo!
I'm hoping to blog a bit while we're gone (the Johnsons have a computer, and Louise is pregnant and will probably want to nap and have "down time") to keep up on the different things we've done, but I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to. Don't want to be rude.

We have no trip itinerary since we're letting Nate and Louise lead the way, but I do think we'll go to Heidelberg one day and maybe Strasbourg. We're staying in Wiesbaden. Here's a map of Germany. :) I think Nate has youth group activities at least one of the nights, so we'll probably participate in that.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Updated updated to do list
-change sheets
-pack toiletries and carry-on bags

DONE:
-buy BBQ sauce for Nate and Louise from Wood Ranch
-laundry
-Coinstar our "rainy day" change
-cash? traveler's checks?
-buy new camera (it's awesome--at least I love it! A Canon Rebel--I think that's the right one)
-clean out fridge perishables
-found out about sleeping pills; might have them or might not
-buy & mail b-day card for Greg
-get out passports and other traveling docs
-pack (at least I packed. Jon, on the other hand....)
-stop worrying

Updated to do list
-change sheets if guests are staying at our house
-clean out fridge perishables
-buy sleeping pills for flight???
-buy & mail b-day card for Greg
-get out passports and other traveling docs
-pack
-stop worrying

DONE:
-buy BBQ sauce for Nate and Louise from Wood Ranch
-laundry
-Coinstar our "rainy day" change
-cash? traveler's checks?
-get camera from Ray? film? (nevermind on this one; we might get our own camera)