Updates

Sorry guys. Now I am very, very behind on the blog updates. I have been in continuous rounds of deadlines and work travel without much time to come up for air. On the bright side, things are going well at work and at home, but I won't get a real break till mid November.

In the news, a new rail track is being laid. The old one is still there and in use, but next to it they have graded and widened the bank and are now dumping and smoothing out gravel and sand. The new line is for a faster link between Kiel and Luebeck without any stops.

T went sailing with his class in the Baltic and loved it. They took out a schooner. He got to help unfurl the sails, steer the wheel, crawl out on the netting below the bowspirit, explore the engine room, and so on. From his description it sounds like they were within sight of land and rounded some point, where they could see a different lighthouse, before heading back.

I went to Freiburg (SW Germany near France/Switzerland) on a work trip a few weeks ago. It is called the gateway to the black forest (loosely translated). It was a nice town and had mountains around it with dark spruce trees covering them. I was very impressed with the waitresses in the restaurants; we were an international group and they could take orders effortlessly in English, German, French and the menus also had Italian (but we didn't try that one). There was a botanical garden in town that had a tulip poplar from the southern US. It was odd to realize I hadn't seen one in a long time and that it looked so nice to see one.

And now, V has flown back to the US for a week to help her mother with renovations, take care of some odds and ends, and bring back T's dog L. So I have been taking care of the kids on my own this week. The kids are out on fall break right now. Thankfully our apartment is very close to where I work so I can run back and fourth during the day to check on things and fix meals. Right after V gets back it is M's birthday, then I have to go to Uppsala, Sweden (work trip), then back for Halloween, then off to Vienna, Austria (another work trip). Then I get a break.