Katherine & Daniel

Vanilla Cupcakes, tried and true

2008-06-29T03:22:00.000-07:00

This recipe I have tried out a few times, and as listed below makes a really nice birthday type cupcake.

Vanilla cupcakes
makes around 24 - 30
Ingredients
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups milk
1 zest of 1 lemon

Turn oven on to 375 degrees F.

Put butter in mixer and beat at medium speed until somewhat smooth. Pour in sugar and beat well. Add 2 eggs. Mix well. Add vanilla, baking powder, salt, flour, and milk. Beat until smooth and pour into individual baking cups, until they are about 2/3 full. (Note: Don't overfill, they puff up quite alot!)

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown. 24 - 30 cupcakes.

Optional raspberry Version:

Additional Ingredients
1 pint fresh raspberries
1/3 cup raspberry jam

For variety, try adding a thin layer of raspberry jam. Cream cheese frosting and decorate with fresh raspberries.

When filling the baking cups, add 1/3 batter, then a teaspoon-sized layer of jam, then the remaining 1/3 batter. *Note: Spread the jam (don't dollop, it will sink to the bottom).

Bake for approximately 20 minutes as stated above.

Ice with cream cheese frosting and decorate with fresh raspberries.

Hi again

2008-03-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Long time no post. I guess there's not so much to update. We're working quite a bit. Dan spent a month in Tampa helping them finish up the second simulator for that project we both worked on. He's spent many many hours on them so it's fitting.

I spent last month in Stolberg (missing him) but keeping very busy with work (at least it was productive). I'm pretty excited about the project I'm on now, we are just now getting the lab working well, coding at our desks, finishing off interfaces between software and hardware.

The weather has been not so pleasant, but not bad for winter. Doesn't matter so much because we haven't been traveling really. We'll get out to see some things when we have some company this year. It's nice to feel comfortable at home here now. I would say it takes a good six months to feel like your new place is home, foreign country or not.

Ciao for now.

Oh, and I do post more regularly at the KathyBou blog. It's more random over there though.

Biscotti, grown up cookies

2008-01-27T10:22:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I know that biscotti just means cookie in Italian. But they seem much more sophisticated, especially the recipes with poppy seeds and ground almonds like the one Dan and I made this weekend. This was my first attempt at biscotti and it won't be my last. This cookie has depth, it's good but also interesting to eat at the same time.

Pistachio Biscotti
Ingredients:

1½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup ground hazelnuts
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. finely grated orange or lemon zest
2 tbs. poppy seeds

8 tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature.
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup shelled pistachios

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F [325°F Convection].

Combine first group of ingredients well using wooden spoon OR with a mixer on slow.

Add butter & mix well. Add egg, vanilla, pistachios. Mix until dough has consistency of wet sand.

Turn out onto cookie sheet & form into 2 firm logs, about 2x8-inches & 1-inch deep. Don’t be afraid to use your hands to shape form.

Bake for 20 minutes until golden. Remove from oven & cool to room temperature.

Lower oven to 325°F [300°F Convection]. Cut into ¼-½ inch slices with a serrated knife: thick slices makes a chewier biscotti, at an angle if desired. Lay out on cookie sheet cut side down, like toasting bread. Bake 20 minutes until lightly golden.

Cool until crisp & store in an airtight container.

P.S.
This recipe is courtesy of my friend Lucy. She's an amazing baker, and also Italian, and I love following in her lead.

Also, I ended up adding 2 tbs. of apple sauce to make my wet sand texture more wet. Also, the poppy seeds could be optional, but the orange/lemon zest is really important for finesse.

And what not

2008-01-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

We need an inspiration for our next destination. I think we'll go somewhere in February or March, a weekend trip, but I don't know where yet. Maybe Amsterdam. I want to go to Italy but not until we have a real trip planned and at least a week we don't mind taking off. In Germany, we get 4 or 5 days of public holidays around April/May, so maybe somewhere around then.

There is a big carnival at the beginning of February in Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Maastricht is only 15 minutes from Aachen so it's very close for us. It's a costume in the streets sort of thing, bright and colorful and crazy from what I have heard. We're going to probably go with Francois, Gerry and the other Dan (guys from work).

Pictures posted

2008-01-14T14:31:00.000-08:00

on our picasa page. New web albums for Christmas 2007 and our trip to Boston in January.

.

Is it any wonder

2008-01-13T01:56:00.000-08:00

that Florida is a big winter destination?

Image from weather.com

Still on Break(!!)

2008-01-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Dan and I have been lucky enough to have quite a long break over Christmas this year to enjoy some time with our family and friends. We took 3 weeks off from work and as of now still have another week to enjoy ourselves - then it's back to Deutschland. We may not be back until next Christmas so we are trying to make the most of our time here.

It's fun to see both sides of the family, the climate extremes makes it almost comical. In Florida, we were clipping tangerines off my grandmother's tree, playing basketball by the beach, and eating key lime pie for dessert. In Quebec, we got to listen to some traditional French-Canadian music at a Gregory Charles concert, go glissading (sliding) at a snow park, and help prepare/eat all the amazing Quebec/non-Quebec food that Dan's mother and sister are masters at creating. We had some amazing food this holiday, example - dinner last night was scallop, shrimp and lobster in a white wine creme sauce wrapped in a crepes, sprinkled with cheese and baked (soo good!), followed by rack of lamb with port and raspberry sauce along with rice and broccoli, and cake with tea for dessert. It takes time, but with the whole day to relax, it's fun to make something nice. Especially on the last night of the year.

I miss hanging out with my sisters more often than we do, but we do keep in contact while Dan and I are away - we have alot of books to discuss in the coming year after the all book gifts we exchanged at Christmas. What's really great now that we've been together for over a year, is that I really look forward to seeing Dan's family too. I'm pretty sure Dan feels the same way.

Tonight we are going to St-Ephrem for New Years dinner with Dan's mothers side of the family. Will be nice to see his cousins and aunts/uncles again. We're here in Quebec until Saturday, then we're flying to Boston to see Dan's sister's place there. Should be fun. I'm excited about meeting their petit(?) chat, Morris. He sounds tres gentile.

We'll probably post photos here and on our picasa, once we have it all straightened out.

Hope everyone is enjoying their day off!

Hair cuts

2007-12-09T04:58:00.000-08:00

Buttermilk and eating the whole refrigerator

2007-12-09T04:17:00.000-08:00

I didn't know much about buttermilk in the past, when I saw it in the dairy case I assumed it was in line with heavy whipping cream or the yogurt you can't actually eat. You know, one of those ingredients you get for making one recipe and then you have this fattening cream leftovers in your refrigerator that you feel too guilty to eat, and just as guilty throwing out a week later. So, not so long ago I looked up buttermilk, and found this amusing explanation by Mr. Breakfast. Buttermilk is lower fat than milk, thick like yogurt, and great for making things soft and fluffy.

So back to this morning, Dan and I are going home for the holidays we are trying to clean out the freezer. We had trouble about 3 months ago when we were out of town and one of the circuit breakers popped and so our electricity was off for a least a couple of days. The refrigerator and freezer were full of spoiled food, it was a real mess. The freezer never fully recovered. We had the maintenance man look at the circuit breakers but he wasn't able to see any problem. So we are going to do our best to eat everything we can before we leave, just in case it happens again while we're gone.

For the frozen blueberries in the freezer, I made these this morning. The only changes I made was to substitute 1/2 cup canola oil for the butter, added 1 tsp of vanilla, and the blueberries are what really make it great, so I used closer to 2 cups instead of 1.5 cups. It made roughly 16 normal muffins (with big tops). This recipe is nice because it really is just a vehicle for blueberries, not overly sweet or too oily like store-bought blueberry muffins.

To go along with

2007-12-02T09:42:00.002-08:00

what seems like a news blog turning into a food blog, I have further resigned to myself the fact that I'm scared to cook red meat. Also, the fact that red meat, can in fact, smell fear.

Friday night I tried to make this sirloin tips over pasta recipe, and it really was almost un-salvageable. Luckily, Dan is tall, and was very hungry after driving back from Buckeburg, because the smell (it was too much red wine or something) after two hours of me standing around it and giving it the occasional stir, was almost too much. It ended up being ok, but it looked like something they would serve at the cafeteria at work here, not really a compliment. Perhaps I used the wrong type of beef.

Tonight we are hopefully redeeming the Katherine & Daniel Kitchen's culinary standard - we bought everything to bake salmon, an easy favorite.

Other than that, we have been doing typical weekend stuff, with a few preparations for the holidays thrown into the mix. It's right around the corner already!

More cookies!

2007-11-29T12:27:00.000-08:00

Hooray! Dan's back this weekend. Okay, he's back every weekend, thankfully, but it's the holidays and I like making him stuff, so there. I like this recipe, I make the cookie batter, then I divide it, then add white chocolate and cranberries to half, dark chocolate and walnut to the other. Everybody wins.

CRANBERRY WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
CHOCOLATE WALNUT COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 cup cranberries
1 bar good quality white chocolate (candy bar)
1 bar good quality dark chocolate (candy bar)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream the shortening, white sugar, and brown sugar together. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture.
Divide in two. Stir in the cranberries and the white chips to one half, walnuts and dark chocolate chips into the other half.
Drop cookies by heaping spoonfuls onto unprepared cookie sheets. Bake for 7 to 15 minutes (dependent on cookie size) in the preheated oven. Take cookies out of the oven when they are light brown and not yet set. It creates a softer cookie. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to cool on wire racks.

I used 1/2 butter and 1/4 oil to make the fat more healthy. This time I used about 3/4 whole wheat flour as part of the flour, just to see how it would taste.

Marketing

2007-11-25T04:21:00.000-08:00

For the last month or so I have been looking forward to Christmas markets in Germany. Everyone said they were impressive, so yesterday I decided to drag Daniel out to Aachen. Aachen was supposed to have a big market, in the open area around the cathedral in the dead center of town.

A little introduction, since I was relatively unaware before we ended up here:
Every year, for centuries, cities and towns all over Germany celebrate Advent (the Sundays after Nov. 26 leading up to Christmas Day) with Christmas markets in their city-centers. The tradition originates with Dresden, Christmas 1434. The markets range in size and slightly in theme, the bigger ones drawing thousands of visitors. There are even vacation packages offered for "Christmas market touring", with hotel and transportation. Visitors enjoy the traditional atmosphere, the hand-made crafts, Christmas decorations and warm food and drink.

So we took the train, had some trouble at the station with the normal train schedule, strike-related we think, but we finally got into town and walked into the market on foot. At first I thought it might be quiet, it being only the second day open, but there were lots of people.

We wanted to try some Gluhwein, the hot spiced wine that is made just at Christmas time here, but the wine area was completely squashed, so we just pushed farther in. There were lots of Christmas decorations and hand-made stuff (that I never seem to be very good at buying), and music and great food.

It was actually a lot of fun, Dan was happy to go after all. Up til now, all the festivals we have seen were beer and sausages and fried potatoes and German songs we didn't understand. Christmas is pretty straight forward.

We'll have to try the Gluhwein this coming weekend when the market comes to Stolberg!

Happy

2007-11-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

Happy (U.S.) Thanksgiving everyone!!

PB Cookies

2007-11-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

So I guess we should have a section called 'Basic Baking 101', we tried yet another simple recipe over the weekend. All of these ingredients everyone probably has at home. These are good with a glass of milk. Enjoy.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter, peanut butter, and sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture. Roll into balls and place onto a unprepared cookie sheet. Press with fork to flatten cookie and to create criss-cross pattern.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Shorter time window for cookies will be soft and chewy, longer for crispier cookies. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Super Sonntag

2007-11-18T14:47:00.001-08:00

Saturday, I ran around all day - doing errands, cleaned the apartment, got my hair cut finally. Dan got back from France around 8:30 p.m. Good day. Today we did pretty much the opposite, got up late, and hung around the apartment, laundry and cooked and watched tv. Here is a picture of me with dinner that Dan thought would be nice to post (apartment hair and all).

My books came

2007-11-13T13:41:00.001-08:00

only a month late. My Halloween-scary-book spirit has departed, I'll still take the books.

We have honest neighbors; the mailbox disarray at the apartment complex:

Weekend review

2007-11-12T14:54:00.000-08:00

I forgot the camera (boo) but the weekend was really great. We went shopping on Saturday. I like shopping in France more than Germany because I understand more of the signs, and of course I have Dan to translate.

Biggest oddity, new for both of us, was at the biggest store we went into, Auchan (think French Walmart). As people enter the store, there is a machine which seals any bags you are bringing into the store. It is just a press with heat, and if you wish they provide clear bags you can put over your bag, if it's not plastic or you don't want to ruin it. I guess this is to assure the cashier that you didn't slip anything into your other shopping bags.

Dinner on Saturday was terrific, had dinner at a Thai place near the water in Cergy. Dan had garlic shrimp and I had chicken curry. The dishes were excellent, I would definitely go back, too bad it's in Cergy not Stolberg. We tried another place for dessert, also by the harbour.

Sunday we relaxed, until the mad car ride to the train station. Paris is the worst place to drive that I've seen - I'm sure there are worse, but it was maddening yesterday. We had ourselves an hour cushion and still needed more time. There was some outdoor street market going on, about 2 km outside of the Gare du Nord train station where I was leaving from. We drove a total of 200 m in 30 minutes time. There was only one train running to Aachen on Sunday, so if I had missed it, that would have been it until Monday. So with about 5 minutes left before the train leaves, Dan gets pretty gutsy and pulls into the bus lane, and then over into a delivery parking spot. He grabs my bag and we run, literally, as fast as my cowboy-booting feet can boogy, the last 500 meters to the front and inside, down the station where they are waving me to get on because it's leaving NOW. I leap inside, and that's it. I don't think it can be any closer than that. I was on the wrong part of the train, and had to switch in Brussels about 1.5 hrs later so I could have a real seat. Oh la la, Paris!

No, but seriously, we have decided we'll try the Metro/RER subway route next time. As long as there is no strike, it should be a more sane way to get in and out of that train station.

Tourist side note:
According to my googling, Gare du Nord train station is quite famous, as train stations go, it is the busiest train station in Europe and is in the Bourne movies 1 and 3, and in Ocean's Twelve.

Paris this weekend!

2007-11-07T00:30:00.000-08:00

Taking the train to meet up with Dan in France at the end of the week. I'm excited. I was somewhat anxious about the big train to Paris when I did it the first time. Worried I would do the wrong thing, like there were unwritten rules about traveling by train that I was never taught. And I think there are these rules, but like most things, you watch and listen and learn. So anyway, I'm so excited to be seeing Dan, and it is also a good 3 hours I can put into a book of my choosing.

Side note: The Thalys (the train company doing runs from Germany to Paris-Nord) website, really needs some work. It doesn't work with Firefox (you can look for tickets but some functionality currently isn't working), and even in IE, it shows there are errors on the pages. Doesn't exactly exude clean and safe to me.

Cupcakes

2007-11-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes and Dan and I both like them quite a lot so I'm sharing the recipe:

VANILLA CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 9x9 inch pan or paper cupcake pan.
In large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, slowly, then the vanilla.
Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally add the milk to the batter, it should become smooth. Pour batter into the pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven for the cake. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch and turns a golden color.

Boots on the brain

2007-10-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

Newly acquired:

October

2007-10-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Autumn is here. I like this season alot, probably a little because I was raised in Florida, where it brought a relief from the heat, and it's the season that marches straight into Christmas.

The last month has been mostly somber, due mostly to the loss of Don, but it hasn't been all bad. Not to sound too too sentimental, but sometimes you are made fully aware of what you have, how lucky you have been, and how precious time is. And then of course, it gets to be too emotional to dwell on so you throw yourself into other things.

I just finished a book my sister Liz let me borrow called NightWatch by Sergei Lukyanenko. I liked it, mostly because it was an unusual fiction read. It's set in modern day Russia, which is interesting, and the storyline has about 3 or 4 humps. The same characters, but in what feels like connected 'episodes.' Anyway, it keep me going strong until the end.

Dan has been working alot lately putting out never-ending fires of a simulator in 'integration' - that part where everything is thrown together, and come what may, it all needs to work. This difference with the project he is working on now (and for which I worked on for the first 2 months or so), is that there are multiple companies contributing different portions of the simulator, for example, one does the motion, the visual system and the FLIR, and another does the instructor station, the computer-generated forces, the radar, and so on. So not only do you have to deal with the common problems of getting things to work together, using relatively the same technology, but you have to interface with other companies (who are your competitors usually) to get the project completed. Add the real-time simulation requirements for a flight simulator, and you run into some tricky situations. Anyway, long story short, there is still much work to be done, but I know it will get there. Dan's awesome. And of course, there is no other option. ;)

I'm happy with what I'm doing right now at work too, I don't ever want to go into much detail on the internet, we've all read the horror stories about the employee from Microsoft, etc... but I've been given two systems for a new simulator and they are both things I've not done much with before, so I'm learning new things. Plus, I like my new group, the people seem to be good at what they do and low drama -- not trying to make themselves look good at the expense of others. Two things I really can't stand is stupid/lazy co-workers and drama queens. So I think I got lucky.

So while Dan is gone in France for work during the week, I have been watching old seasons of One Tree Hill. I am strangely addicted to this show right now. It's drama, it's based on high school, things that happen are sometimes(usually) highly improbable, yet for some reason it makes me warm and fuzzy. So who cares. I really hope the new season is good and the momentum continues so it can stay in production.

I ordered some books from Amazon.co.uk, the closest online English book dealer (that I know about), but I haven't received my shipment of books yet. I unknowingly ordered right at the beginning of the strike there, seems like every country in Europe is on strike about something.. Anyway, it's been 3 weeks and still no package. Not looking good. I'm going to the post office here tomorrow, see if the notice got lost, maybe I'll get lucky.

Back from somewhere

2007-09-03T09:49:00.000-07:00

So Dan and I have been running around in circles for the last month or so.

First Dan starts getting shipping to France, then I came for a Paris trip on the weekend, then vacation to Greece the following weekend for a week. We get back from vacation with Dan needing to return to the France site, and the Tampa office needing me to go to Ft. Campbell for an issue on the project I turned over to the other radar engineer there. I got to see some family in Florida on the way back, luckily. I'm back in Germany as of yesterday, but I thought I lost my keys to the apartment, turns out we left them in my bike bag, but I find them today, after Dan had already driven back to Germany from France to pick me up from the airport, take a nap and eat and then drive back. Sigh. Sad part is, I kinda like that kind of schedule. Though I prefer it when Dan and I are in the same place.

I think we both miss home but are taking these times for what they are, a good experience.

-Katherine

Sunday

2007-07-29T03:59:00.000-07:00

Work and life are becoming more routine. But a nice routine. Dan is going to work for a couple weeks at one of the companies partnered with CAE for one of our projects. It's about 40 minutes from Paris so we are going to meet up on the weekend and do a trial run on touristing in Paris.

He is getting a CAE car so he's packing the GPS, it's about a 4 hour drive from our little Stolberg. I'll meet him by train next Friday. It's supposed to be a bit tricky though because the train station is supposed to be big and crazy and cars cannot get very close and neither of us has cell phones or know anything about Paris, yet.

For me, I'm starting on a new project tomorrow. It's a project that is just getting started so there is much of the design and preparation for meetings going on this coming month.

I am about 200 pages in the last Harry Potter novel. It's good, I'm reading it slow just because there is no one speaking about it in English around here to ruin it for me. She is a good author, all the hype aside. This last one reminds me of a final episode of a TV series though, with cameos and references to past books and characters, but so far I think she's done well. We'll see how it ends.

It's a rainy Sunday here, all day it's been raining all day. It's okay though, Dan and I are working on some work things we don't have time to do during the week, and I'm taking a little break from that to make this post. The weather this month is better than June, but it's definitely not the summers I think of... in Montreal summer is usually perfect, and in Florida, it's ridiculous hot, it rains, then it's hot again. Perhaps not ideal but familiar. Here it feels like Florida in November with more rain. Everything is very green though, when it is sunny.

We booked our tickets for Greece. No idea where we are staying yet, but we have a general plan in mind. Greece is supposed to be crazy with tourists in August.. we'll see.

Internet Again

2007-07-08T13:29:00.001-07:00

-English-

Finally, we have internet again after over a month of waiting. Our dsl connection is good, so I don't feel the need to re-hash this ordeal. Suffice it to say that living in Germany takes more patience than living in North America. More posts to come soon.

-Francais-

Finalment, nous avons l'Internet maintenant, après plus d'un mois d'attente. Le connection est bonne, donc nous ne nous plaignon pas. Disons que vivre en Allegmagne prend plus de patience que vivre en Amérique du Nord... Plus de nouvelle à bientôt.

No Cats, no Dogs

2007-05-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

-English-

That is what the landlord re-iterated at least 4 times during our meeting to sign for the apartment. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to mind if you have other pets. He mentioned rabbits, pig, birds, etc.. as not being a problem. Also interesting, in Germany, laws against yearly leases make it such that you usually only need to give 3 months advance notice when you want to end renting a dwelling.

-Katherine

-Francais-

Le propriétaire a ré-répété au moins 4 fois pendant notre réunion pour signer pour l'appartement, pas de chats, pas de chiens. De façon intéressante, il ne paraît pas faire attention si vous avez d'autres animaux familiers. Il a mentionné des lapins, cochon, oiseaux, etc. comme n'être pas un problème. Aussi intéressant, en Allemagne, les lois contre baux annuels sont tel qui vous n'avez qu'a seulement donner une notification de 3 mois lorsque vous voulez terminer de louer une habitation.

-Katherine

Moving to Stolberg

2007-05-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

-English-

So we're here. Work feels like work. More on that to come. Outside of work we still have a long list of tasks:

Apartment
Transportation
Sports/Gym

Apartment

Our time at the Yellow House in Aachen is about half done, hard to believe we've been here for two weeks already. This place has been good -- once we found an internet source -- and we will be happy if our next place has more readily available parking. When we arrive here after 7:30 p.m. there is little to no parking left near the apartment. And it's all parking on the street, parallel parking on hill with a manual transmission. The manual part is harder for Dan, the parallel part is harder for me. It's good practice is the bright side.

We found a place we like in Stolberg. It's within our price range and it's the first apartment we've seen where a "normal" sized kitchen is provided. I.e. it has a refrigerator, an oven, and this one even has a dishwasher. High tech. We will call the landlord tomorrow and confirm everything, he's also speaking English which is a big plus for us.

Dan and I need to find furniture that will do the job but not be too much of a loss in 2 years. Many suggested IKEA and a few other stores. We visited all but 1 (which is not open on the weekend), and found that IKEA was indeed the best place to find cheap furniture. We drove to the closest store, which is in Heerlen, the Netherlands, about 20 min from Aachen. The store was large and very busy. I think IKEAs are like this everywhere. It had an amusement park feeling, whole families go together, and of course once you are inside it's pretty much a maze of furniture ending at the cashier. Anyway, we found good prices here. Dressers for hanging clothes (since the apartment doesn't have any closets), bed frame, lamps, etc, etc..

Transportation

While we were still in Canada/USA, we were thinking that we might not need a car in Europe. The trains, metros, buses. When we arrived, and were driving everywhere, we were thinking "we are definitely going to need a car." We're not completely sure yet, but with the apartment in Stolberg, we are changing our mind again.

Reason 1: Proximity. The apartment is 3.5 km (2.2 miles) from work. This is definitely do-able by bike. There is a grocery store, pharmacies and restaurants within walking distance from here. With rain protection, since it's supposed to rain quite a bit but not really snow, it wouldn't be so bad to take bikes into work.

2: Price. Gas is over 5 dollars a gallon. It took $50 Euro to fill our small VW Polo. Yikes. Add to that the cost of buying a used vehicle, or renting a new, insurance, parking ($50/month at the apartment).

3: Infrastructure. While nothing is quite like getting into your car and driving, there is a good infrastructure for not having a car, similar to Montreal. There is a train to Aachen which is about 10 min transit. Plus there are rental car by the hour services, supposedly available almost everywhere, we're going to check into this for trips and errands that require a trunk.

4. Adventure. I'm sure this will lose it's appeal almost immediately, but we've never lived without a car. I'm curious to know if this is possible. Worst-case scenario, we buy a car and end up with two bikes on the side. The summer I'm not worried about but cold rainy winter days... well, we'll see.

Sports/Gym

Finding a gym has been somewhat of a task. We're not done yet. Things are much harder to find online, my main source of research, mostly because of the language. We found the big ones and worked out today at one called Team World of Fitness. Their building in Stolberg is pretty amazingly close to the apartment, about two blocks. We haven't gotten a membership price yet though because this is handled by a salesperson, and they don't seem to work on the weekend. It's one of those big gyms where there is never a set price, like a car dealership. Hopefully we can get a price we can accept because we really like the place. Also, it seems like it is one of the few things open on Sunday.

-Francais-

Donc nous sommes ici. Le travail sent comme travail. Plus sur cela venir. En dehors de travail nous avons encore une longue liste de tâches:

* Appartement
* Transport
* Sports / gymnase

Appartement

Notre temps à la Maison Jaune à Aix-la-Chapelle est au sujet de moitié faite, dur de croire nous avons déjà été ici pour deux semaines. Cette place a été bonne--une fois nous avons trouvé une source de l'internet--et nous serons heureux si notre prochaine place a le parking disponible plus aisément. Quand nous arrivons ici après 7:30 p.m. il y a peu à aucun parking parti près de l'appartement. Et c'est tout le parking sur la rue, parking parallèle sur colline avec une transmission manuelle. La partie manuelle est plus dure pour Dan, la partie parallèle est plus dure pour moi. C'est le bon entraînement est le côté clair.

Nous avons trouvé une place que nous aimons dans Stolberg. C'est dans notre gamme de prix et c'est le premier appartement que nous avons vu où une cuisine de taille "normale" est fournie. I.e. il a un réfrigérateur, un four, et celui-ci a même un lave-vaisselle. De pointe. Nous appellerons le propriétaire demain et confirmerons tout, il parle aussi anglais qui est un grand plus pour nous.

Dan et moi devons trouver mobilier qui fera le travail mais ne sera pas trop d'une perte dans 2 années. Beaucoup ont suggéré des IKEA et quelques autres magasins. Nous avons visité tout mais 1 (lequel n'est pas ouvert le week-end), et avons trouvé qu'IKEA était en effet la meilleure place pour trouver le mobilier bon marché. Nous avons conduit au magasin le plus proche qui est dans Heerlen, la Hollande, approximativement 20 min d'Aix-la-Chapelle. Le magasin était grand et très occupé. Je pense qu'IKEAs sont partout comme ceci. Il avait un parc d'attractions que les familles sensibles, entières vont ensemble, et bien sûr une fois vous êtes à l'intérieur de lui est à peu près un labyrinthe de mobilier qui termine au caissier. En tout cas, nous avons trouvé de bons prix ici. Habilleurs pour les vêtements pendants (depuis que l'appartement n'a pas de placards), châlit, lampes, etc, etc.

Transport

Pendant que nous étions encore au Canada / USA, nous pensions que nous ne pouvons pas avoir besoin d'une voiture en Europe. Les trains, métros, autobus. Quand nous sommes arrivés, et conduisait partout, nous pensions que "nous allons sans aucun doute pour avoir besoin d'une voiture." Nous ne sommes pas complètement sûrs cependant, mais avec l'appartement dans Stolberg, nous changeons encore notre avis.

Raison 1: Proximité. L'appartement est 3.5 km (2.2 milles) de travail. C'est sans aucun doute faire-capable par vélo. Il y a à peu de distance une épicerie, pharmacies et restaurants d'ici. Avec protection de la pluie, depuis qu'il est supposé pleuvoir souvent mais pas vraiment de la neige, ce ne serait pas si mauvais de prendre des vélos dans travail.

2: Prix. Le gaz est plus de 5 dollars un gallon. Il en a pris $50 Euro remplir notre petit Polo VW. Yikes. Ajoutez à que le coût d'acheter un véhicule usagé, ou louer un nouveau, assurance, se garer ($50 / mois à l'appartement).

3: Infrastructure. Pendant que rien n'est tout à fait aimez arriver à votre voiture et conduire, il y a une bonne infrastructure pour n'avoir pas de voiture, semblable à Montréal. Il y a un train à Aix-la-Chapelle qui est approximativement passage de 10 min. Plus là est voiture de location par l'heure entretient, soi-disant disponible presque partout, nous allons vérifier dans ceci pour les voyages et commissions qui exigent un tronc.

4. Aventure. Je suis sûr cela perdra c'est demandez presque immédiatement, mais nous n'avons jamais habité sans une voiture. Je suis curieux savoir si c'est possible. Pire scénario, nous rachetons une voiture et fin avec deux vélos sur le côté. L'été je ne suis pas inquiété au sujet de mais jours hivernaux pluvieux froids... bien, nous verrons.

Sports / gymnase

Trouver un gymnase a été quelque peu d'une tâche. Nous n'avons pas encore fini. Les choses sont beaucoup plus dures trouver en ligne, ma source principale de recherche, principalement à cause de la langue. Nous avons trouvé les grands et avons résolu aujourd'hui à on appelé Monde de l'Équipe d'Aptitude. Leur bâtiment dans Stolberg est assez étonnamment près de l'appartement, approximativement deux blocs. Nous n'avons pas encore obtenu pourtant de prix de l'adhésion parce que cela est manié par un vendeur, et ils ne paraissent pas travailler le week-end. C'est un de ces grands gymnases où il n'y ont jamais un prix résolu, comme une concession de voiture. Avec optimisme nous pouvons obtenir un prix que nous pouvons accepter parce que nous aimons vraiment la place. Aussi, il paraît comme lui est une des peu de choses ouvre dimanche.