Ikea, Golden Acorn Squash, shitakes & Criminis

So I have been out of the bloggy world a bit lately as I've been feeling pretty disconnected from the whole adoption process. That is going to happen when you get to 19 months and no clear end in sight. Oh I know it's going to happen, but honestly, if I hear or read one more "Oh you just WAIT until you get your baby! All the memories of those months and months (try years and years) of waiting will just go out the window! You'll forget all about the wait! " and I swear I'm gonna reach through the computer and slap them silly. And you thought I was just a sweet girl who baked & canned. No it's true, the wait has gotten to me. Even as I try to celebrate every month as "another month down", it is difficult. I actually held my breath when my sister called a few days ago because I had this idea she was going to tell me she was pregnant. She wasn't, but can you believe it? What a terrible thing that I would be worried about that!!! It's just the place that I'm in right now I guess.

So, I need to get out of this funk. I need to feel like there is forward progress, even if it's only on this side of the ocean that there is forward progress happening. Any ideas out there? I have been terribly remiss in keeping my blog updated, as well as keeping up with my bloggy friends.

Today my meager attempt at getting some excitement back in my life was to go to Ikea. Our Ikea just opened in July, and today is the first I've dared make the trip. ooh I LOVE LOVE LOVE Ikea!!! And I was not let down! I found 4 more long pieces of (live) bamboo. I have been living quite unharmoniously with only 4 bamboo for several months since 4 of the 8 I originally bought died. There is irony in this. I bought 8 about 2 years ago when I was at the Ikea in Seattle. I was in Seattle for an Adoption related class at my agency, and I went to Ikea, where I bought 8 Lucky Bamboo. Lucky because Bamboo is considered lucky, but also because in China, 8 is a lucky number. So another important number in China is 4. 4 is to the Chinese as unlucky as 13 is to Americans. Know how some tall buildings in the US don't have 13th floors? well....some buildings in China don't have a 4th floor, and some others that do have a 4th floor have the #4 written only, no chinese character. The reason is that "4" in Chinese is "Si". Death in chinese is also "Si"- so they make the connection & say that for that reason, 4 is a bad luck number. So do you see the irony in the fact that 4 (si) of my 8 lucky bamboo Died (si)....yeah... So I bought 4 more today so I'm finally back up to 8 again. I also bought this great art smock that a friend of mine uses on her daughter as a bib (so CLEVER!), some sweet little mini stuffed animal friends that I plan to stuff in an envelope & send off to my cutest ever Niece Molly, and a few other fun baby things...including some plastic kid dishes! I talked to Cindy shortly after & she said that she completely understood the shopping therapy, and it explains the reason that Dumpling had a FULL closet of clothes when she came home!!!

So, after Ikea it was off to the grocery store to shop for a big birthday dinner tomorrow- today is my Roomate Jim's 25(?)th birthday. However, he is off partying with a whole lot of work friends & running friends, so we are celebrating tomorrow with Rhubarb Glazed Pork Roast, roasted carrots & Beets, roasted red potatoes with some fantastic (yet unknown) Israeli spice gifted to me a few years ago, and finishing with his favorite two flavors combined into a cake: Chocolate Peanut butter cake with Cream cheese & Butterfinger frosting.

But...tonight it's just me at home, wrapping a few gifts, cleaning the house, and enjoying some roasted golden acorn squash, sauteed shitake & crimini mushrooms, topped with some amazing balsamic glaze from Trader Joes, and a glass of Chateau de Sancerre...quite lovely.

Would love to hear how everyone else is doing with the wait...

19 Months & counting

It's true, the 19 month mark has come & passed. Do you all remember when we said "yeah but the wait wouldn't POSSIBLY go over 18 months, I mean, that's just unheard of!"

Rothenburg

So the exciting pat of being in Rothenburg this past weekend was that they were having this great festival. Re-enactors where cordoned off in sections of the city, protected behind ropes so they could "re-enact" I suppose, without the public intruding too much, but they were also walking around and mingling with tourists, getting their photos taken, etc. One of the large main streets had a huge section down the middle of it cordoned off for one group called the 1525 group. It was quite a long section of street, so they had several different activities going on along the length of the street. Yesterday's photos of the guys and the littlest Re-enactor were along that section of street, as were these guys- apparently keepers of the Torture Tools:

As we came to the end of the street, we came to edge of the town walls & what we referred to as the "Castle Gardens", although to be truthful, if there was a castle, I'm not sure where it was. The gardens had a grand entrance from the town:
Olivia loved the big grassy area for running, she had been so patiently cooped up in the stroller for quite some time, so she appreciated being able to get out and run arond. Lambie needed a bit of exercise too...
The view from the "castle gardens" was just beautiful. You could look back on the town to the left, through the countryside straight ahead and to the right. It was really a perfect time of year as everything was just electric green.
Helene & Olivia:
These kids were from re-enactor families, I'm not sure what they were selling, but they were trying to offer us something...I passed it by as the Euro is way too strong against the dollar these days for me to think about doing much shopping...

Always treasures to find when you are outside...

This was an interesting little door. We tried to imagine where it went, but none of our visions were too appealing. I'm certain that I would not have wanted to explore it any more in 1525, than I would today...

This church on the end of town was a pretty quiet area. There was another church located directly in the main square, although for a change, I didn't go in either of them. The last time I was touring in Germany was in Bamburg 2 years ago, in search of the castle my friend & I ended up exploring 4 churches. Seriously, the second and third times we actually thought we had found the castle, until we walked inside only to discover, no, another church. By the third one we sat down & looked at the map, only to discover the church was 2 miles outside of town. By the fourth one, we saw it and just looked at each other and said, 'oh what the heck, we aren't getting to the castle anyway...' Ironically I think the last one was the most charming of them all. The others were beautiful, but the last one was small and quiet with only a few people, but plenty of charm.The entrance back into the main street section, I think the church formed a sort of secondary wall, as we actually had to walk back in through the wall again to get to the town. You can see the stairs cross in front of the tower. You can walk up stairs at various parts of the wall and walk at least most of the way around the town up on the wall. It gets quite narrow in some areas, and the stairs to get up are quite steep in some areas, but it's a wonderful view to admire the city from up on the wall.

This business looks an awful lot like the restaurant we ate lunch in, but it is a different building. I love the use of red & green on the shutters and wall colors. At the peak of the building you can still see the pulley wheel used to haul things to the top floors. Many buildings in Rothenburg still have these.

One of my favorite types of windows in Europe- it's stained glass although I'm sure it must have some special name. I call these windows "bottle bottom windows", because they remind me of the bottoms of wine bottles...

I have no idea what this says- but I can read 1535. whatever it is...it happened in 1535. Fantastic.

Rothenburg, Germany

Saturday I went with my friend Helene and her darling daughter Olivia (2 1/2) to Rothenburg. First off, Olivia was a little dream, she was incredibly patient so her American Auntie could snap a bunch of photos...such a little sweetie...! Second, I'm apologizing now for the lesser quality of the photos...the truth is when I travel, I don't have access to my photoshop program on my home computer, so what I shoot is what you get, sometimes that's lovely, sometimes, not so much.

So off we went to Rothenburg, it's a 15th century walled city which miraculously survived World War II, despite being less than 50 miles away from Nuremburg which was more than 70% destroyed during WWII.

The city is filled with amazing houses in all state of repair, mostly in better shape, a few needing some work. We stopped here for lunch:

The English menu modestly said "cheese noodles"- which turned out were cheese Spaetzle!!! There is little I love more in this world than a good dumpling, but I have to say that Spaetzle is the closest non-dumpling thing there is to stealing my heart away...and Cheese spaetzle? Oh be still my beating heart!!! It was truly amazing!!!

After getting a little sustenence into our bodies, we set off to explore more fully. It was a perfect weekend as they were having their annual festival celebrating the town and it's heritage. Throughout the town we could see re-enactment groups everywhere, but rather than the North American norm of civil war re-enactors, these were Medievil re-enactors. On this corner there was a musical group who also gave out bread with a lard based spread & mead of some sort. I didn't try any of their treats...but they were quite talented musically.
One of the women passing out bread...
The groups were much like you'd find in a civil war re-enactment group in the US, families coming together to create the groups, from the very young (I saw a little boy in one of the groups who could have been just about 18 months old) to the very old- this little girl didn't seem too thrilled to be on display with her photo being taken approximately every 1.2 seconds, but she was an active participant & sang right along with the adults.
These are a German treat called Snowballs. They are made of pie dough, although Helene told me they normally don't taste like anything. I see this as a challenge. I *love* the idea of these lovely little hand held round balls of pie goodness, but will have to think about how to add some goodness to them! How to keep the round shape but create a filling that one wants to get down to...sounds like a challenge!
This is the main square of the town. You can look at my (not very well lit) photo here:

Or you can take a look at the real thing here. For the west coast people, 8 or 9 am latest is the best time to take a look, before it gets dakr...
There were people dressed up as 15th and 16th century folks everywhere you went. Which also meant they were constantly getting stopped to have their photos taken. What I didn't notice about these ladies until later when looking at the photos, is they are posing quite carefully to look "time appropriate"- notice they are all hiding their ice cream cones behind each others or their own backs...

There was a long section of one of the side streets roped off down the center where a group called the 1525 group was camping. These guys were haning out near the torture devices...

turns out even in the 16th century there had to be a bit of entertainment, throughout the day I saw several people (children and adults) on the see-saw...notice the little boy? I saw him running around quite a lot- he could not have been more than 18 months old.

More photos from Rothenburg tomorrow...

Rothenburg

On Saturday I met up with my friend Helene and her Amazing little girl Olivia! As Auntie, I proclaimed her the sweetest and cutest little girl in all of Europe. Helene agreed so it *must* be true!
Who could resist a face like this????
We drove out to a beautiful town called Rothenburg....stories to follow...this is just a bit of eye candy for now, but it had been a few days since I posted photos, so I hope this will tide us over until tonight!

Erlangen

Erlangen is a little college town about 10 minutes away from Herzogenaurach. From what I've seen, it has to be at least 8 times the size, and I think it also has the Germany Headquarters for siemens. There is a daily farmers type market, and it has all of the charm of a German town, but with a little bit of the metropolitan love. On friday I mentioned to one of my colleagues (an American who works with the hip & trendy shoes) that I was thinking about going to Erlangen. She kind of turned up her nose & said "We never think to go more than a few minutes away to go out to eat..." and I responded with "well it's not like there are a whole lot of choices in Herzo!" to which she responded "well *I* live in Nuremberg." Hmm...noted. She officially snubbed Erlangen. Too bad. I think it's a totally sweet town. When I got back to the hotel after work, I asked the woman at the front desk if they had a map to Erlangen. She kind of looked at me blankly, so I said I have a map, can you show me how to go? She looked and kind of gave a half attempt at pointing to roads then said, "then you are in Erlangen." So I said, which part of Erlangen is best if I want to walk around and eat? She responded with that same puzzled look as my colleague and said "eat? Oh, I guess go to the center. There are smoky bars there. I don't go to Erlangen, I live in Nuremberg!". Ohh...poor Erlangen! Snubbed not once but twice!!! Okay then, I was all the more determined to go! They deserve a little bit of love!!! After all, compared to Herzo it is down right happening!!! Granted Nuremberg is just another 10 minutes further down the road, but they get a whole lotta love...so sometimes you gotta give a little bit to the little guy too!

So off I went, and miraculously, not only did I find my way pretty easily, but I found my way to the exact same parking garage I parked in the last time I was here 2 years ago. I remember it clearly, because it was just 1 month after starting my adoption paperwork, and when I was leaving the parking garage, I walked by a clothing store where I bought the first two shirts for Sprout- two pink short sleeve shirts. Can't believe it's already been 2 years and still it's "going to happen later" and not now. Okay, back to trip stories.

One thing I enjoy about revisiting places I've been is the memories that come back to you when you are in that place. It happens when I'm in Vermont, it happens in China, and it happens in Germany. So the wonderful memory I recalled when in Erlangen yesterday was that the last time I was here the weather was a bit warmer, and I stopped at a creperie on the street. I had a crepe with nutella and sour cherries....oh it was perfect! The weather was beautiful, the crepe was the most amazing ever, I was floating on the clouds because after more than half a year trying to decided if I could become a single Mama to a little sprout, I had finally made the decision and was on my way! I had two little shirts in a bag in my hand, was savoring an amazing tasting crepe, and had the sun on my face! What a perfect memory of a perfect day!

I can't say that I have such a perfect experience this time- it's perfectly lovely but not nearly as exciting as that! I went to Erlangen in search of some good photos...here is what I came up with.

I really really love shutters on windows in Europe. I don't understand the "decorative" shutters in the US- we had them on my house growing up, I see them in Portland, they're around, but after years now of seeing the functional ones in Europe, I just appreciate them so much more! I really love when functional things are beautiful, and Shutters in Europe seem to fit that description most of the time.
I'm not a religious person by any means, although I do consider myself somewhat spiritual, just on a different level. However, I adore looking at houses of worship of every variety. Christian Churches, Bhuddist Temples, Jewish Synagogues- I find beauty and wonder in all of them. I think that buildings can take on the feeling of the people inside them- religious instututional buildings are filled day in and day out with so many feelings an emotion, how can you not feel it, regardless of your faith? It's the same in someone's home- once someone has lived in a house for enough years, it has the "feeling" of them. For years I felt like my house was not "warm" enough- but after 4 or 5 years living there, I felt like it really reflected the person I am. And I don't think it's just in what goes into my house, I think it takes on a bit of the people who live there. It takes time for a building to absorb energy- and I think religious buildings that are often used for hundreds of years, have had plenty of time to absorb energy of thousands of thousands of people. What an amazing history they have seen!
I'm also a little bit of a fanatic about doorways. Architectural details in general are very exciting to photograph, particularly in Europe where they are so well done.
I think this was a restaurant- I totally dig the teal blue shutters!!!
this is the back of the church in the photos above. I didn't go in as it was evening and I'm sure it was closed, but I was surprised to see a sweet little courtyard with a fountain in the area behind the church.
I'm not really sure what this guy is doing to the fish. If he's catching it bare handed...way to go!
Signs in Europe are often quite clever- or at least beautiful. Maybe Europeans don't see them as clever but as "ordinary"- but to me, they are downright clever. This was the only sign for this business, I have no idea what this store sells, but my money would absolutely be on WINE. Can you imagine a place like this in the US with no sign showing the name of the shop? Imagine telling a tourist "oh yeah, go to the hanging grapes shop at the corner of SW 9th & Morrison." But it totally works in Germany...LOVE this guy. He had a friend, incidentally. There was one on each side of a doorway to a resaurant. There was a woman in the restaurant (eating) who was sitting in the window watching me as I was taking photos. I took quite a few as I futzed with the light, so I looked up a few times and each time she was still staring at me. I gave her a little smile but no reaction. So, she either was not actually looking at me (it was an empty courtyard except for me), or she was trying to figure out why someone would be taking a picture of this guy on the left side of the door. Or...she was thinking "crazy tourists..."