We love you, daddy!(Update: Ok, for those of you who read this earlier, don't worry-my own father had to correct me that Father's Day was not yesterday, but in fact will be next week. At least I didn't forget it altogether :-). Todd informs me that I now owe him another bottle of rum....)
Yesterday (Sunday) was Father's Day in the US. We didn't get to celebrate too much here, where it was a normal Sunday, meaning EVERYTHING besides a few restaurants remained closed all day. Luckily, I had been prepared for this and bought Todd a bottle of rum on Saturday. Saturday night we had wandered around the Marktplatz in order to see the International Festival that was being held there. There were lots of booths selling foreign foods (mostly Asian and some French wine). There was also a cute little carousel, face painters, and a stage with live music. We didn't stay long because we got there just in time to see everything start to close :-). On our way home, we tried to stop at a liquor store on the way home and it was closed. The liquor store closed at 6:00 on a Saturday evening. And of course it would never open on a Sunday. This is all very strange to my American sensibilities - I thought consumer demand drives everything.
Right, so yesterday we celebrated Father's Day by going to Mass at the very old church here in Radolfzell. We're not quite sure what happened, but we're pretty sure we didn't have a first reading. According to Todd, the first lector read a reading that was "according to St. Paul." We then definitely sang a psalm and had a Gospel reading. There were 6 servers, all tiny; the tiniest who must have been about 7 years old and was carrying a gigantic candle. Also, instead of having an offertory procession where ushers come around and gather money and then it is presented with the bread and the wine, they skipped the procession and had ushers collect money through the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. Ah, Germany efficiency. That's about all I can tell you about Mass because I couldn't understand a word of it :-).
After Mass, we stayed around our place. It was 30 degrees (around 90 F) by the time we got home from Mass making it too hot and humid to do much outside. Today (Monday) the rain finally came. One would think this would get rid of the humidity, but so far it has not. It is supposed to storm some more so maybe we'll be in luck. Knowing it was supposed to rain all day, I decided to run Reese down to REWE quickly to pick up some lunch and dinner supplies. Unfortunately, we beat the rain on the way there but not on the way home. I managed to carry 3 grocery bags and an umbrella while pushing Therese in a stroller all the way home. Therese was a trooper- she was soaking wet by the end but still wanted to push her stroller down our street.
After our adventure in the rain, I tackled two new chores: laundry with our German wash machine (Todd did it last week) and changing our sheets. I realize this sounds really silly, but these were two big accomplishments for me. The wash machine went ok after I pushed a million buttons. The wash cycle here lasts around 1 hour and 15 minutes. The clothes are still in the dryer which takes about 2 hours. The making the bed was a whole different story... The owner of this place asked (in very fast German) if I wanted fresh sheets. I actually understood the fresh part and said yes. I had to strip the old sheets and put on the new ones - a feat which lasted a good hour. Before all of my American friends start laughing at me, I should explain that German sheets are different than American ones (which I can handle quite well, thank you). Anyhow, our beds, which look like every bed and advertisement I've seen here, have a sheet covering the mattress and then a big square pillow and what is like a comforter. That's right, no "sheets" - very hard to get used to. Anyhow, just as the pillow has a pillowcase, the comforter has a case that is changeable. The pillowcase and comforter case were the items I had to wrestle with today. And these cases don't just have a hole on one side where you slide the item in - they somehow fold over the ends to hold everything in place. Ok, I realize that this is not looking more heroic as I explain so I'll stop. Just remember, if you are planning on coming to Germany and like sheets to sleep with, bring some, because you won't find any here.
Therese walking her stroller home from church (she kept stopping, pulling it down so she could look at the seat, and saying, "There's no Reese in here!").
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