A HOT HOT THURSDAY IS JUST BEGINNING.........

GUTEN TAG,

I do not mind hot weather, especially when it is only for a few days, but we forget how wimpy we are, when we do not have air conditioning. Yesterday was a scorcher, almost 90, and today is going to be in the 90's, and I thank God for one fan we have! But sleeping has been no problem so far and by tomorrow it is suppose to be back in the 70's, so I will try not to complain. As I look on the Internet and see all the bad, rainy and hot weather in the US I know I need to just be quiet and get on with this life I have been given.

Tomorrow, is a down day for the military, so Lennie is taking a day off and we will go do our "errands" which take all day when we are walking and riding buses. We must go buy our tickets for all our fun things ahead at SATO, which is one post than we must go to PX, that is at another post and than Commissary which is yet at another place....so it truly does take a whole day. What will be nice, we do not have to waste a week-end to do this. So Saturday we are getting on the train and going to Brugge, Belgium for the week-end. This truly is my most favorite city in all of Europe. We are going to stay at our favorite place and eat at our two favorite restaurants. This time I will not walk up the 387 stairs to the top of the steeple....maybe the next time when I have TWO new knees. Today it is so quiet outside. I think I could hear a pin drop. I hear a dog barking, which is very rare, but otherwise, besides the bus that just arrived at my window it is eerily quiet. I was telling Lennie yesterday I do not know their names, but I am getting to know my neighbors and their daily habits. I can bet money on when the lady who works in the Backerei will come out for your smoke breaks. She can really smoke it fast does not seem she is even enjoying it. Than the ladies who have their different color baskets and bags who shop on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They have been doing this for along time. My neighbor who lives upstairs across from our bedroom gets up every morning, very early, opens her rouladens until 7:30AM. She closes them and must go off for the day and they are not opened until the next morning around 6AM. If I saw her on the street I would know her but she is just the lady who I see every morning when I am rolling up my rouladens. No name, no personality, just the lady drinking her coffee at her kitchen table I "meet" every morning!

Oh, yesterday I found the market in my neighborhood. It was so exciting. It is just a smaller version of what is down in Markethalle and the fresh flowers and fruits and veggies were everywhere. I bought blackberries as big as the end of my thumb and cucumbers that are huge and the grapes are coming in now every color and taste imaginable. It was our farmer's market in Leavenworth, w/o the sweet corn....darn it anyway....oh how we have missed our sweet corn this summer. With a mix of a Italian clothes and kitchen supply market....just a mix of everything. One of things I saw that was so funny to me. There were these two little kids who were eating raw corn like it was candy. They were literally eating it off of the cob right from the seller. Lennie says in the Arab countries this is the way they eat their corn. It is NOT sweet corn friends....it is corn only eaten by the pigs in our country...the Europeans do not do sweet corn, as we know it, but their corn is what farmers in America grow, as I said for the pigs etc... In so many ways we are alike in so many ways we are so different. That is what makes the world what it is. I ponder why we all want to be alike. Is that not why God made Tower of Babel?

I am going to close now. I must run over to the Penny Markt and get some more cottage cheese. This has to be the yummiest cottage cheese I have ever tasted. I mix nuts and fruit with it for my lunch. Also, I must get some more cream for my blackberries and strawberries. We just eat them with wonderful cold, rich cream over them. Wish I had my ice cream maker with me could try and see if we could use it and make luscious blackberry and strawberry ice cream. Plus I must get our daily dose of fresh brochen(bread) ...we are spoiled.

Unti later........love to you all as I put this baby to bed...

Tschuss,

Debby