Gulp! Only 1 day left and we're not packed. Not only that, but our kids aren't packed and I'm starting to really worry.

Yikes.

Lisa broke out the German vocab flash cards again. This isn't the first time...and it won't be the last.

We actually met 9 years ago (August 1996) in German class. So far meeting my wife is the only good thing I got out of German class...maybe this trip will make 2 things. It's hard to imagine, but this December we'll have been married for 4 years.

Today our new camera bag came in the mail. Holy huge freakin' camera bag Batman! This thing is big enough to carry a few regular lenses (all of the ones I own), a couple large lenses, a couple bodies, a ton of accessories, and it has a place for a laptop. It'll probably weigh 50 lbs fully loaded...pray that the doctors performing my corrective spinal surgery have steady hands...*crack*

I'm suprised Lisa hasn't exploded yet. We don't know where we're staying for 2 nights in our trip :-) Lenny is working on it though...so far he's come through amazingly well for us and I'm sure we'll have a great place to stay. Hopefully when we get back we have great stories and pictures from our trip...especially about the couple of nights we had to live in the streets of Munich.

One week away from our trip to Germany! I know we're going to have a great time. I'm still a little worried about the details and I'm very anxious about leaving the kids behind. I know this is the best time for us to go though.

We'll spend 2 days in Munich, take a day trip to Neuschwanstein castle (if the area isn't devistated by flood) on day 3, fly from Munich to Cologne and spend 2 days there. Then, our friend Jens will pick us up and drive us to Frankfurt, where we'll stay 3 days until we rent a car and drive back to Munich.

Last night, in preparation, (Nerd Alert!) I got out my German flash cards from high school and college. I saw just how much I've forgotten and am astounded at how much German I actually learned in college! A good number of my flash cards are German on both sides! I knew a word so well, that I was able to describe it another way in German. I can't say I'd be able to do that now. We'll be relying a lot on the German's excellent educational practices, which require that all students take English from the 4th grade through college. I'll stick to simple questions, ordering my meals and greetings while we're there, I think.

$2.57 per gallon? Are you kidding me? If they can turn urine into a AA battery, they ought to be able to do something for our cars!!

I've just seen the most horrifying thing since I became a mother. I was driving on Virginia right by where Kristen and Emily live and a fire truck and three police cars blocked the right lane. Of course traffic was slow as we all merged and passed by the scene. When I looked at what had happened, my heart just sank. There was a mini van at a subdivision exit with a child's bike stuck underneath the front end. I'd seen the children walking along the sidewalk on their way home from their first week of school. This poor kid didn't make it home today. I shudder to think of the phone call his mother got. I wonder if she was at home waiting for him to arrive safely or if she was 20 miles away in an office building. There was an ambulance still at the scene and I hope that means that the child was inside getting a bandaid put on his scraped knee before his mother came to drive him home, but I'm more worried that the ambulance with the child had already gone to a hospital.

As a mother, I just can't fathom what this family is going through this afternoon. I'm just trying to keep myself from imagining one of our children in that situation. What a nightmare! I also feel for the driver of that van. It's one of those events that he will relive for the rest of his life.

Doug's been out of town all this week and it's kind of had me down in the dumps. People often call their spouse their "better half." It's obvious to me now that he's at least my motivating half. I've just kind of been going through the motions this week, waiting for the days to pass so I can get to Thursday when he comes home.

I miss him. The kids miss him. Come home soon, Doug.

Hello from San Diego!! This is the view from my hotel room.

The weather is great and I'm sure the conference will go well...I recomend visiting San Diego this time of year...it's very nice.

Doug

Just wanted to let everyone know that William started to soldier crawl tonight. He really works hard at it and is so adorable. He's learning! He also ate his first Cheerio!

I'm sure our Germany trip will be great, but it will be a bit more last-minute than I'd like. Currently it looks like we'll be renting a car and driving around from city to city...hopefully it's not too stressful.

The good news is that we should get a good price on hotels due to our "international connections."

Next week I'll be in San Diego for a trade show. I'll be representing the company in the booth and answering questions about the product. It'll be nice to sit back for a moment and see all the infrastructure that's built around the product that I played a major part in bringing about. Hopefully it'll be another learning experience about the industry...meet lots of potential customers...hear what the buzz is about the product.

Had a good interview at work today...potential new hire.

Doug

Well, off to a great start. It's been 2 days and I already forgot that I had one of these things.

Our Germany trip plan has changed again and we're going to be driving a lot more than we'd wanted to. I'm starting to fear that we'll have spent all this money and time planning our trip and it's just going to fall apart on us. I'm imagining something like European Vacation or The Out of Towners. I can see us now, robbed blind, dripping wet and trying to get a room with a reservation for a hotel that doesn't exist. I sure hope I start feeling better about this soon.

Don't worry dear, we'll pack some raw potatoes in our bag in Munich.

Lisa

My very first blog! I don't know which is more appealing, the way the word sounds or the fact that I have one - even if it is a shared one with Doug.

Everybody that will read this already knows me. So I'll try to give you some interesting tidbits you might not know.

Did you know that...
1. I lived on the island of Nevis for a year in high school?

2. My favorite food is Italian?

3. I hate spiders to a debilitating degree, but I am getting better?

4. Sometimes I talk to myself in the mirror and pretend I'm on a job interview? (I always get the job)

5. I often get interrupted on the computer by my children crying...

I enjoy my job. Currently I'm running training...which is truely boring. It requires so much repetition that I just want to die. The good thing is that we're training a new trainer, so a few more kill-me moments and I'll be done with training for a nice long while. I'm writing this while in training...sometimes I fall alseep.

Lisa and I are planning our European vacation in more detail. Maybe this is when being in the travel industry pays off. I know some german agents that will try to get us some cheap hotel rates in nice hotels...BWAHAHAHA.
We've starting purchasing travel-related supplies even though we haven't gotten our tax refund yet. This weekend we bought a super wide-angle lens (19-38mm equiv) to make sure we can capture the interiors and landscapes of Germany. We'll be taking 2 camera bodies, renting a lens, buying another lens, and buying some other photography stuff. Hopefully we get some wall-quality pictures of Germany.


Doug