He's Dear to My Heart

My nephew, Tony, was diagnosed this year with juvenile diabetes. He is handling it well, he's such a trooper. Before his diagnoses, I knew nothing about juvenile diabetes. Now I know that it could happen to anyone, and researchers believe a cure will be found during Tony's lifetime. I am scared to death of shots. Tony does it like no big deal, because he has to. He is so much stronger than me.

On September 25, my sister and her family are participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Reasearch Foundation Walk to Cure Diabetes. She is asking for pledges for their team. Juvenile Diabetes Website If you are interested in donating, please let me know, or let her know. Also, Marshall's is accepting donations at the register for Juvenile Diabetes. I donated $1 on Sunday and put my name on a paper shoe that they will hang in the store.

If you can't give now, I understand. I am glad I have made you a tiny bit more informed, and maybe somewhere down the road, when someone talks about juvenile diabetes, you'll think of Tony.

The World's Biggest Tomato (plant)

Make Way For Prince Ali

I'm being politely kicked out of my childhood bedroom. Lesa needs a place to put her stuff. I know most 29 year olds have already completely moved out of their parents house. I know I have waited too long for this. I know my dad (and Lesa) are being very patient. Still doesn't make it any easier. This was my place of refuge for 18 years, plus college summers and occasional weekends, and the 4 months after graduation. This is where Sara and I stayed up and designed our dream house. This is where I had slumber party after slumber party. This is where Heather and Natalie and I snuck kittens past mom upstairs and dressed them in baby clothes. This is where I could come home after dates and write for hours in my journal. This is where Cori stayed for a week when Ste. Gen flooded. This is where I could take the perfect nap in the sun, and be woke up by the light of the moon. This is one place where I always felt safe, and everything in the room reflected me.

I tried to put away a few things right when I came home from California. I bought a big plastic box, and remember Amanda telling me I didn't have to throw it all away, I could put it in the box. I keep thinking I would feel better if I wasn't being immediately replaced, if Dad had mentioned it a year ago. That's not really fair though, because he didn't need it a year ago, and if he would have mentioned it a year ago, I probably wouldn't have done anything then anyway.

I did empty my closet, stuffed all the clothes directly into my backseat, to go through them at home. I came across some funny stuff. Tons of turtlenecks, tons of t-shirts from high school and college. A signed t-shirt from many classmates saying "Class of '94." A few bridesmaids dresses, my bridal gown, my flower girl dress from Christy and Jerry's wedding, and my First Communion dress. It's hard to imagine I was that small. Many are going to Goodwill. A few I just can't part with, will make their way into the plastic box.

This was the big purchase of the trip. The little guy drinks beer on the hour every hour. Sounds like my type of guy.

No Wonder

Going to Europe has changed us. John drinks sparkling water now, and I like chocolate. I just took a bite of this candy bar, "Apfelstrudel and Bourbon Vanille." It was one of the few pieces of chocolate that we brought back that we didn't give away. I saved this one for myself because it sounded so good. It's better than good, this is extraordinary! No wonder I never liked chocolate before, American chocolate tastes nothing like this! Forget the M&Ms, I'm WAY into this candy. I could possibly like this better than the fruity candy I so enjoy, like nerds or sour patch kids.

Other interesting small differences:

There's no speed limit on the Audobon, no duh, but geeze, it's AWESOME! Dietmar took his Audi TT over 200 km/hour with me, and that's like over 120 mph. We came up behind a police car, and the police moved over so we could fly by. That's sweet.

On more than one occasion, I paid money to use the restroom. We also paid money to get information at the tourist information center. (?) We paid 35 euros in tolls on the French highway. =(

We did not see one piece of styrofoam our entire visit. We saw very little plastic. Susanne's trashcans were tiny, and they recycle like crazy. In Munich, we were in an outside market, and Susanne got a smoothie, and they gave it to her in a glass, and we stood there while she drank it, then gave it back.

Normal everyday things tastes better; bread, coffee, pretzels. The soda seems less sweet.

We didn't see any road kill. They have a fence along all the highways to protect the animals. Why on earth don't we have that?

All the young people speak English. One night at the wine festival, we met all sorts of German people our age, and they all spoke English very well. Can you imagine a German person coming here to visit, and we all spoke German to them? Why don't we start our young children with a second language when study after study has shown that kids pick up languages much easier than adults?

In Paris, they really do take a month long holiday. About 1 in every 10 restaurant was closed with a sign saying they would be open on Sept 5 or Aug 28 or whatever. French people also take lunch from noon to 2 p.m. Everything stops but the restaurants for those 2 hours.


Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese?
Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is.
Jules: Then what do they call it?
Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese.
Jules: A Royale with cheese. What do they call a Big Mac?
Vincent: Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big-Mac.
Jules: Le Big-Mac. Ha ha ha ha. What do they call a Whopper?
Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.

-Pulp Fiction

My dad and Lesa got married yesterday. As you can tell from the picture, the whole day was a blur.

Photos

Go to this website and see 121 pictures of our trip. =)

Munich Hofbrauhaus

The view from the tower of Notre Dame.

So Much To Say

I have so much to tell you about our trip, I'm not sure where to begin. I think I will just tell little funny stories here and there, some I'm still remembering.

One of the funniest parts of the trip was when John and I taught Susanne, Dietmar (Susanne's husband) and Ron (our friend from CA) about "Deez Nuts." For those of you who do not know about "Deez Nuts" you need to listen to more Dr. Dre specifically the Chronic cd. Dr. Dre and Snoop Dog have a part on the cd where they call a girl, and say, "Hey did those guys get a hold of you," and she asks, "Who?" and they said, "Deez Nuts." You have to drag out the "Deez Nuts" and say it in a high pitch. John and his friends think it's the funniest joke ever, time and again, year after year. There's variations where you put it in songs, like instead of singing, "I want to hold your hand," you sing, "I want to hold deez nuts." So, we taught it to the Germans. It's very funny because of their accent. At the wedding reception, Susanne asked her sister in law, Haike, if "those guys called you?" Haike said, "Who?" and Susanne said, "Deez Nuts. " That was awesome. Susanne is friends with a girl from Conneticut who lives in Germany now and married a German guy. She said she hadn't heard that joke since 1995. I told her it's not a retro joke in our house, John never stopped doing it.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again.

Fly Away From Here

so tired of the straight line
and everywhere you turn
there's vultures and thieves at your back
and the storm keeps on twisting
you keep on building the lie
that you make up for all that you lack
it don't make no difference
escaping one last time
it's easier to believe in this sweet madness oh
this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees

in the arms of an angel
fly away from here
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear
you are pulled from the wreckage
of your silent reverie
you're in the arms of the angel
may you find some comfort there

-"Angel" Sarah McLachlan