Well it’s Sunday so that means I had my weekly call from my daughter this morning from Germany. She says that she is beginning to like Germany a little better now. It snowed this week and it was so beautiful. They are in the Bavaria region. And the most important thing happened, they found a good Italian restaurant in downtown Schweinfurt. Really, that’s all you need. The bad news (of which there is plenty) is they both have that nasty chest cold/flu thing I had. I was afraid that would happen. And Solider Boy has to go into the field for 6 weeks starting on February 3rd so Brooklyn will be in the hotel by herself for several weeks. Yes, I said hotel. They are still at the Bradley Inn. Seems that Solider Boys paperwork was really screwed up by Aberdeen. His orders stated that she could travel January 6th or after. But his newest orders don’t have her on them, even though the sargent gave the travel office approval for her to come. There is a lot to it and so much red tape. Long story short, she will be doing the running around to get into the new apartment while he is gone. The apartment they want won’t be available for 3 weeks. But it is a furnished 2 bedroom apartment on base and that is what they really want. So it is better for them to have her stay in the hotel while he is gone and wait for the furnished apartment. To add insult to injury, their room is above the night club at the hotel. Did I mention the live band on weekends?



She wants me to send her a care package to help brighten up her days. I am only too happy to oblige. I asked her what she would like in it. You’ll love this. Toilet paper. Yes, my daughter asked me to send her toilet paper. Oh well, what can you do but to send your child the Charmin? She asked for a few other things too such as entertainment magazines, puzzle mags, chocolates, etc. So I am going to make her up a nice little care package. They have these flat rate boxes at the post office where you pay one flat fee and you can cram whatever you like into the box as long as you can close it. I think a nice craft kit would be a good thing to send too. What sort of craft kit I don’t know but that means I get to shop! I sort of love shopping when I am on a mission. But I hate mindless shopping or shopping for myself. I should be a personal shopper since I do it so well for others.

You aren’t going to believe what I woke up to this morning. Thunder! I awoke to a loud clap of thunder. It is a rare thing to get a thunderstorm in the Midwest in January. And I don’t think I like it. Sonny Boy had to be at work at 9:00am so I had to get up and dressed early (for me) on a Sunday. Wouldn’t you know it, that was when the thunderstorm was at it’s worst. About an hour after I dropped him off at work the storm stopped and now the sun is peeping out.



I am calling my doctor tomorrow and insisting on a referral to an Ears/Nose/Throat doctor. The remnants of the crud that I had is mildly lingering on (as I knew it would) but my ears are still infected and in a bad way. I have never had my ears in such pain before. Don’t they put tubes in kids ears to drain them or something? I think that is what I need. I can’t even blow my nose anymore because it causes sharp pain in my ears. My doctor is one of those who would rather see you die than admit he can’t treat you and needs to send you to a specialist. So I know I have a fight on my hands but I am not giving up. I happen to enjoy hearing most of the time and I don’t care to give that up. If this boob keeps treating me my ears will get so bad that I’ll lose all hearing in 6 months. Need I mention the fact that I have had a swollen lymph node in my neck for the past 2 years that won’t go away. Doctors, who needs ‘em?! What do you call it when you have 500 doctors at the bototm of the ocean? A damned good start!



I’ve got a cheesecake in the oven now so while that is baking I am going to dash to the store and pick Brooklyn up a few things (including Charmin). I have the best cheesecake recipe. Believe it or not I got it from my sister in law (Yes, THAT one). For the crust you crush up a box of zwieback toasts (that you find I the baby food aisle) and mix it with cinnamon, sugar and butter. It is so good. I had to ask where the bay food aisle was in the store last night though. When you don’t have a baby you just don’t know those things. Do you know the baby food aisle is in the clothing/baby equipment section of Meijers? It’s not anywhere near the food section. I thought that was a little weird and it was almost like baby food wasn’t considered “food”. And once I found the aisle I couldn’t find the zwieback toast. I actually had to ask this young mother where it was. And of course she looked at me oddly when she found out I needed the baby food for cheesecake recipe. Once she heard the recipe though she thought it sounded good. And it is. But why am I sitting here babbling? Off to the store while the cheesecake still has 2 hours to bake!