My books came

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

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!

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

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

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 9x9 inch pan or paper cupcake pan.
2. In large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, slowly, then the vanilla.
3. 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.
4. 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

Newly acquired:

October

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

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