Where we've landed.

Hello everyone!  Guten Tag!

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week, but in a very nice way - so that it's not been stressful, just busy.

We're staying at a guesthouse near the city center which is convenient to Dan's office and Devin and Merlin's school.  We've been walking everywhere, sometimes more than once, and the weather has been cool but still comfortable.  I've not really been taking pictures, but that will come soon. 

Dan flew from Beijing and Devin, Merlin and I left from San Francisco, meeting at the Frankfurt airport, where we bought train tickets and stopped for a bite to eat.  Dan pulled two small wine glasses from his bag (how did he do that?) and bought a small bottle of champagne to toast the occasion of this new adventure.  Talk about romantic!

Here we are at the Frankfurt train station.

If I'd done my photojournalist duty I'd have taken pictures of the train, too - very clean and nice... but maybe I can be forgiven for my combination of travel-stupor and the fact that our hands were already full with far too much stuff.

Here's what our two bedroom guesthouse apartment looks like (and the view outside).

Photos of this lovely town will follow soon!

57 boxes later

A step in the right direction, from this















to this







It was lifted and rolled right out so quickly into the truck - the house felt weird after that. Now we're down to all that's left to put in the garage sale, the storage unit, and carry by suitcase to Germany.

Joking:  "Ha, there's no going back now!"

The countdown begins.  20 days.

Save Caspian and Quincy!

Two years ago we got Quincy at the pound and last year we found Caspian in the hope that the two could become good friends.  It didn't turn out as well as we'd hoped and now that we're moving to Germany, we need to find two separate homes for them. 

If you can adopt either of these cute guys, they, and we, would be so grateful.  We'd intended to give them a permanent home but hadn't figured another international move into the picture.

They're phenomenally cute and friendly as all get out.

Here's Quincy!  He has a hilarious full name, which is actually secret, but if you adopt him we'll let you in on it (though of course you're free to change it if you so desire)...

And then this is Caspian.  He's not quite full grown - or at least he's still a bit smaller than Quincy, though with all his hair he can fool you. 

We really have enjoyed these little guys and are so sad that we can't keep them and take them with us, however the fact that we won't have housing when we get to Germany (we'll be staying in a guesthouse until we find a place) makes this impossible.

The Yolo County Animal Shelter no longer adopts guinea pigs out to families and so there's no guarantee that they'd survive a stay there.

Can you help?

Delayed Details

Were it not for the fact that I'm neck deep in sorted/unsorted piles of stuff, wrapped up in moving estimates and flight schedules, and meanwhile still managing to make semi-regular meals and keeping appointments, I'd have written a very nice blog post about the same goings-on (except for the meals and appointments, of course).

Instead I've had no left over energy to compose anything worthwhile here.  That'll have to come later as there are still too many things to be done

The basics?  We're leaving next month for two or more years in Germany.

There are many adventures to come as we head toward the opposite Opposite Shore - but for now everything has to revolve around the practical.  Hence the next post to come...

no need for a jump-start

This post is the electronic equivalent of stepping into the dark garage and pulling the lightbulb chain.  There's the dusty, dropcloth-covered beater just waiting for some attention and TLC. 

Maybe after a few years of waiting, the ignition will turn on the first try.  Meanwhile, there's need of some updating...

It looks like we're going to move to another yet another shore (though significantly inland) sometime in late summer.

Hold on to your hats, it'll be a wild ride!