Oberservations

We are out to a nice rainy start to the year here in Germany. To me, this means coffee shop and mocha time! This presents a problem for me, since Germany fills the function of the "coffee shop" with their bakeries. Don't get me wrong, the more often I can stuff my face with bread the better, but sometimes on a cold and rainy day, all I want is a cozy coffee shop in which to enjoy my overly sweet chocolate and coffee mix.

While on the subject of food (tummy rumble), I recently went shopping with my dear friend, who lives on an army base. Yes, my friends, this means I was able to spend way too much money on things I NEEDED, you know, like Kraft mac and cheese, and saltines and peanut butter. It is a little slice of heaven when I walk into my kitchen and smear some peanut butter on a cracker. Seriously, if you only knew the magic of this: somedays when I am in a bad mood and another German Frau is giving me a lecture on how I am wearing the wrong shoes for the weather (true story) I just picture myself, at home, peanut butter laden cracker in hand.

With the rain and snow comes muddy, muddy dogs. I will not bore you with details about my cleaning regimen, just know that I may set some sort of world record for the number of times I need to wipe mud off the walls.