Pastries, More Wieners and (OK, not much else.)

Tues and Weds, Jan 8 and 9, 2013

With Brad at work, things are a bit less interesting.  No castles, no far away cities.  But hanging around close to home can be good, too!

Tuesday Lainie and I walked up to the corner store which is in Leitershofen.  We are considered in Augsburg-Goeggingen, but Leitershofen is actually closer.  We went into a store next to the grocery store that I have never even noticed.  It has the Deutsche Post in it and we needed to mail post cards.  The lady that works there was very nice and we had a whole German conversation!  OK the truth is she did most of the talking and I did most of the listening.  But I understood everything she said and was able to muddle through a bit of German!  Funny how quickly you can learn something if you have to.  We got a few groceries, too.

We saw this pastry called an Amerikaner which means American.  It looks like this:

I asked the lady what it is and she turned one over so I could see the bottom.  Lainie said "It looks like a hamburger bun."  Which it did, it was domed on the bottom like the top of a bun.  I said under my breath, in English, "Well, I'm American, and I have never seen that!"  An older lady next to me laughed and said in perfect English, "I recommend the Bienenstich.  It is my favorite and I have to get one every time!"  I certainly couldn't be rude so I bought one.  Brad is lucky I saved him some because it was so delicious!

Bienenstich....beehive.  Cake, creamy filling, more cake and a crunchy, sugary, almondy topping.

Thank you, Lady!  This was beyond words.  (And by the way, I couldn't remember the name, so I Googled "German pastry images."  Try that.  You won't be disappointed.)

We had a fun time doing more Top Model pictures.  We colored and designed a few great outfits.  And lest you think it's ALL fun and games, I vacuumed.  The entire first floor.  (Which is about 800 square feet, but hey, I need to feel productive.)

For dinner we had schnitzel.  OK it was fried chicken, but what's the difference?  Lainie made a cranberry Schorle (Schorle...very popular.  Adding fizzy water to juice.)  The bottle left a heart in it...look...

Desperate for pictures...who, me?

After dinner, Brad, Lainie and I went to Marktkauf to get a few groceries and just go somewhere.  It was like a ghost town because we got there at 7:30 and they close at 8.  Just imagine, People.  No late evening Target shopping!

We came home and caught up on work and Facebook and whatever.

Wednesday: I washed that gray right out of my hair.  It was risky, seeing as how the directions are all in German, of course.  But it had pictures so I figured it was ok.  I got a little nervous when my head was half covered in brownish red goo because there was some big warning in red letters.  But I didn't know what it said, so I had no choice but to ignore it.  All is well, so you can breathe easy.

Karen was working in the city today until noon and came over after.  We walked over to Johanna's house and had a coffee.  The girls had a piece of one of the prettiest cakes!!  Johanna is a cookbook author so you know it was good.  We hung out and talked, then her kids came home from school.  Lainie stayed to hang out with Emma and Karen took Lea and I over to Marktkauf for shopping and lunch.  (yes we like Marktkauf)  This is something new to me: Marktkauf has some stores that are in it's building, but not part of it. Like a small clothing shop (called Mister Lady, because that makes sense.) and a flower shop, a hair salon.  So one of these is an olive vendor.  Like in a nice grocery store, fresh olives but also some other stuff like squid (nasty) and some dips.  Well, this olive dude also sells Doeners.  So Lea had hers in a wrap (Durum), Karen had hers on a plate and I had the Doener Kebap.  So good!

We walked around the store a bit and then Karen had to get home for Lydia.  She dropped us off and Lainie came home shortly after.

Lea Skyped with her class back home...she was so excited to talk to them and see them!!  She really misses school.

We had an easy dinner of Connected Wieners, Roesti (hash brown-like patties) and onion soup from a mix. Hit the spot.

The girls have been eating more milk products every day and have been symptom-free!  Thank God for that!  I hope it continues and that they are really healed.

Lainie and I started watching a BBC series called Downton Abbey because I keep hearing about it.  We watched 2 episodes, pretty good!  I think this will take up more of our time over the next week or so.  Maybe I will take pictures of us watching it, just to have something to post :)

Good night and see ya soon!!