Sunday, June 12, 2011
Strawberry Picking
Oscar and I went to the local pick-your-own strawberry farm yesterday. The strawberries were yummy and cheap. We filled our bucket for €1,20.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Separation of powers
Tina got home from her adults-only trip to Bavaria on Tuesday afternoon. On Thursday, she left again -- this time to the States for four weeks (mostly with her parents in Las Vegas). Calvin and Sara went with her but Oscar stayed in Germany with me (he still has two more weeks of school). We looked at getting tickets after Oscar was out of school but leaving a few weeks later would have cost a lot more money. So Oscar and I are by ourselves in Germany until the evening of July 6th.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Father / Son Camping Activity 2011
Each year in May (or early June, as was the case this year), the six English-speaking LDS military units in Germany (Baumholder, Bitburg, Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern, Ramstein, and Wiesbaden) combine for a fathers and sons camping activity that commemorates the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood (15 May 1829). Last year we went to Manderscheid Castle (Google Analytics tells me that the blog entry I wrote about last year's trip has become the second-most visited page on this blog).
This year's trip was to the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. Before the location had been announced, I did not know that the United States had a cemetery in Luxembourg. I have since learned that the American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 24 permanent military cemeteries on foreign soil (there are 124,909 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries; 30,921 from World War I, 93,238 from World War II, and 750 from the Mexican War).
Last year I took the boys in my car but this year I took the minivan because we had some extra passengers in the car. The boys' friends in the Shumway family were going to miss the camping because their parents scheduled a cruise (without the children) that would have them somewhere off the coast of Italy on the night of the camping. I thought my boys would enjoy the company so I volunteered to take two of the Shumway boys along with us (they have four boys; Ryan Green brought the oldest boy with him and the youngest boy stayed in Wiesbaden with the family that is watching the children during the cruise). Zach and Rex are very close in age to Oscar and Calvin so they have a lot in common. A few days before the activity, I heard that somebody else from our unit would also not be able to attend because of some ongoing car trouble that was not likely to be resolved before the weekend. Paul Woolston and his wife are empty-nesters with five grown children so I offered him the passenger seat in the van and he accepted.
The plan was to camp on Friday night and spend Saturday morning helping with an Eagle Scout project (cleaning grave markers and repairing the ones that have been damaged by lawn mowers). The church people who organized the activity brought pancake batter and sausages for breakfast on Saturday but campers were responsible to make their own arrangements for dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday.
Last year I arrived at 6:30PM and had to simultaneously struggle with hungry children and the need to unpack the car, set up a tent, and get everything situated before nightfall. To prevent a repeat of this situation, I had planned on getting an earlier start this year. Obviously not everybody can just pack up and leave work in the middle of the afternoon (or take the day off, as I did) so I thought it would be nice to have a group dinner on Friday night for the people that came from Wiesbaden. Beyond offering a nice chance to eat together, a group dinner would also allow late-comers the opportunity to eat as soon as they arrived. I wasn't sure how much interest there would be in this but I figured it couldn't hurt to offer it as an option. I sent the dads an email offering to organize a group dinner with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, marshmallows, and soda. We ended up having seven or eight families participate in the group dinner. Debbie Woolston added a nice selection of raw vegetables to my menu of fat, cholesterol, and empty calories.
I decided to not go to work on Friday so I could spend the morning loading up the van with camping equipment for my family plus the two Shumway boys. Once the tent, sleeping bags, and camping equipment were all packed up, I went to the grocery store to buy the food for dinner. I had quite a bit of food in the car -- 16 frozen hamburgers, 16 hot dogs, 32 buns, a box of 45 bags of chips, 48 cans of soda, two packages of Oreos, 12 1.5L bottles of water, and more. Needless to say, space in the van was at a premium. I was pretty full after I picked up the Shumway boys around 1:15PM but I still needed to stop and pick up Paul Woolston. I wasn't prepared for the amount of camp gear he had planned to bring. We had to pull a lot of things out and do some creative repacking but we were able to get everything to fit. The boys all ended up with decreased legroom because of the fold-up chairs, sleeping bags, and tents we stuffed under their feet.
We arrived around 5:00 (later than I had wanted) but discovered we were one of the first ones to arrive. The plan was to unload the van, get the tent set up, and then get dinner ready. The unloading part was easy.
I expected the tent to take about twenty minutes. I had not used this tent in several years (last year I rented a smaller tent from the outdoor shop on the local army base because we had been told that space at the castle was limited) so I didn't remember how it was assembled. Tina had used it several times in the last few years to take the teenage girls from church camping so she was more familiar with the tent. Her comment to me was, "it just pops right up." It actually did take about twenty minutes to set up. But that was only after several people spent and hour and half trying to untangle it. The ladies really mangled it when they put it away.
Since I was preoccupied with the tent and four boys who were throwing leaves and playing with sticks, I wasn't able to help much with the dinner I had planned. Fortunately, Paul Woolston (who did not have children to supervise) cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs. I was able to help slice a few tomatoes and get the buns and chips organized but Paul did most of the work. Here we are eating dinner a bit after 8PM:
I enjoyed getting to talk with the other dads. We had one family that arrived after 8:15 -- they were hungry and tired so it was nice to have dinner already prepared for them. We had a brief devotional meeting about 9:30 and then I got the boys ready for bed. Unfortunately, the tent was downwind from a campfire and the smoke kept Calvin up coughing most of the night.
The weather on Friday had been really pleasant and Saturday was more of the same. It was a bit cool on Saturday morning but by 10AM the boys had taken off their jackets and changed from jeans into shorts. Here they are eating breakfast:
The boys played horseshoes while they were waiting for everybody else to finish eating.
After breakfast, we walked through the cemetery. There are 5,076 American soldiers buried in the cemetery. General Patton is one of them; his grave is featured between the two flagpoles but I forgot to find it.
We spent about twenty minutes cleaning grave markers and posing for photos but the boys were bored and they weren't really helping so we didn't stay very long.
Here is one that needed to be repaired (notice the chip near the bottom).
Russ Tillett from Heidelberg helped repaired it.
After our visit to the cemetery, we packed everything up, loaded up the car, and drove home. The boys ate lunch while Paul Woolston and I loaded up the car. For the second year in a row, lunch on Saturday was supposed to be peanut butter sandwiches. And for the second year in a row, I forgot a key ingredient. Last year it was a knife; this year it was the peanut butter. They ate bananas and chips instead.
Everybody had a nice weekend and the boys are already looking forward to doing this again next year.
This year's trip was to the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. Before the location had been announced, I did not know that the United States had a cemetery in Luxembourg. I have since learned that the American Battle Monuments Commission maintains 24 permanent military cemeteries on foreign soil (there are 124,909 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries; 30,921 from World War I, 93,238 from World War II, and 750 from the Mexican War).
Last year I took the boys in my car but this year I took the minivan because we had some extra passengers in the car. The boys' friends in the Shumway family were going to miss the camping because their parents scheduled a cruise (without the children) that would have them somewhere off the coast of Italy on the night of the camping. I thought my boys would enjoy the company so I volunteered to take two of the Shumway boys along with us (they have four boys; Ryan Green brought the oldest boy with him and the youngest boy stayed in Wiesbaden with the family that is watching the children during the cruise). Zach and Rex are very close in age to Oscar and Calvin so they have a lot in common. A few days before the activity, I heard that somebody else from our unit would also not be able to attend because of some ongoing car trouble that was not likely to be resolved before the weekend. Paul Woolston and his wife are empty-nesters with five grown children so I offered him the passenger seat in the van and he accepted.
The plan was to camp on Friday night and spend Saturday morning helping with an Eagle Scout project (cleaning grave markers and repairing the ones that have been damaged by lawn mowers). The church people who organized the activity brought pancake batter and sausages for breakfast on Saturday but campers were responsible to make their own arrangements for dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday.
Last year I arrived at 6:30PM and had to simultaneously struggle with hungry children and the need to unpack the car, set up a tent, and get everything situated before nightfall. To prevent a repeat of this situation, I had planned on getting an earlier start this year. Obviously not everybody can just pack up and leave work in the middle of the afternoon (or take the day off, as I did) so I thought it would be nice to have a group dinner on Friday night for the people that came from Wiesbaden. Beyond offering a nice chance to eat together, a group dinner would also allow late-comers the opportunity to eat as soon as they arrived. I wasn't sure how much interest there would be in this but I figured it couldn't hurt to offer it as an option. I sent the dads an email offering to organize a group dinner with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, cookies, marshmallows, and soda. We ended up having seven or eight families participate in the group dinner. Debbie Woolston added a nice selection of raw vegetables to my menu of fat, cholesterol, and empty calories.
I decided to not go to work on Friday so I could spend the morning loading up the van with camping equipment for my family plus the two Shumway boys. Once the tent, sleeping bags, and camping equipment were all packed up, I went to the grocery store to buy the food for dinner. I had quite a bit of food in the car -- 16 frozen hamburgers, 16 hot dogs, 32 buns, a box of 45 bags of chips, 48 cans of soda, two packages of Oreos, 12 1.5L bottles of water, and more. Needless to say, space in the van was at a premium. I was pretty full after I picked up the Shumway boys around 1:15PM but I still needed to stop and pick up Paul Woolston. I wasn't prepared for the amount of camp gear he had planned to bring. We had to pull a lot of things out and do some creative repacking but we were able to get everything to fit. The boys all ended up with decreased legroom because of the fold-up chairs, sleeping bags, and tents we stuffed under their feet.
 |
| 5:21PM -- The van has been unloaded and the boys are playing with leaves. |
I expected the tent to take about twenty minutes. I had not used this tent in several years (last year I rented a smaller tent from the outdoor shop on the local army base because we had been told that space at the castle was limited) so I didn't remember how it was assembled. Tina had used it several times in the last few years to take the teenage girls from church camping so she was more familiar with the tent. Her comment to me was, "it just pops right up." It actually did take about twenty minutes to set up. But that was only after several people spent and hour and half trying to untangle it. The ladies really mangled it when they put it away.
 |
| 5:31PM -- A tangled mess... |
 |
| 6:31PM -- Still a tangled mess. At this point I was thinking we would be sleeping under the stars... |
 |
| 6:53PM -- It should not have been necessary to separate this piece from the tent. Now we could finally untangle the tent... |
 |
| 7:14PM -- Almost two hours later, I finally had a tent. |
Since I was preoccupied with the tent and four boys who were throwing leaves and playing with sticks, I wasn't able to help much with the dinner I had planned. Fortunately, Paul Woolston (who did not have children to supervise) cooked the hamburgers and hot dogs. I was able to help slice a few tomatoes and get the buns and chips organized but Paul did most of the work. Here we are eating dinner a bit after 8PM:
The weather on Friday had been really pleasant and Saturday was more of the same. It was a bit cool on Saturday morning but by 10AM the boys had taken off their jackets and changed from jeans into shorts. Here they are eating breakfast:
The boys played horseshoes while they were waiting for everybody else to finish eating.
After breakfast, we walked through the cemetery. There are 5,076 American soldiers buried in the cemetery. General Patton is one of them; his grave is featured between the two flagpoles but I forgot to find it.
 |
| Visitors Center |
 |
| Jewish soldiers have the Star of David on their grave markers. |
 |
| Day Turner was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. |
 |
| Over 13,000 people of Chinese descent enlisted in the Army during World War II. Not all of them came home... |
 |
| "All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally." -- Dwight Eisenhower |
 |
| 371 of America's missing soldiers are remembered here. The small markers next to some names indicate those whose remains have since been recovered and identified. |
We spent about twenty minutes cleaning grave markers and posing for photos but the boys were bored and they weren't really helping so we didn't stay very long.
Here is one that needed to be repaired (notice the chip near the bottom).
Russ Tillett from Heidelberg helped repaired it.
After our visit to the cemetery, we packed everything up, loaded up the car, and drove home. The boys ate lunch while Paul Woolston and I loaded up the car. For the second year in a row, lunch on Saturday was supposed to be peanut butter sandwiches. And for the second year in a row, I forgot a key ingredient. Last year it was a knife; this year it was the peanut butter. They ate bananas and chips instead.
Everybody had a nice weekend and the boys are already looking forward to doing this again next year.
Abandoned with children
Tina left on Saturday morning to go to Bavaria with her friend Debby. She called tonight to say she will be back on Tuesday in time for me to go to German class.
Sunday evening report: the kitchen is a disaster, the only milk we have is skim (there will be tears in the morning), nobody made the bed this morning, and there is a pile of camping gear at the bottom of the stairs that needs to get put away. We can definitely make it to Tuesday without doing laundry but at some point I'm going to have to empty the dishwasher. Maybe tomorrow...
Sunday evening report: the kitchen is a disaster, the only milk we have is skim (there will be tears in the morning), nobody made the bed this morning, and there is a pile of camping gear at the bottom of the stairs that needs to get put away. We can definitely make it to Tuesday without doing laundry but at some point I'm going to have to empty the dishwasher. Maybe tomorrow...
A new look for the blog
I updated to a new blog template because the old template was not compatible with some of the advanced features that Blogger makes available via its popular Blogger Template Designer. The new template is wider than the old one (so now I can post larger images) and it uses a more modern font (Calibri from Microsoft).
Old template:
New template:
My preference was to make the new template even wider but apparently 20% of you still browse the web at 1024 x 768 (why?). To prevent these users from having to scroll horizontally, I kept the page width as you see it now.
I also updated the banner image for the first time in six months with newer (and larger) photos.
05 June 2011:
02 January 2011:
25 October 2010:
Old template:
New template:
My preference was to make the new template even wider but apparently 20% of you still browse the web at 1024 x 768 (why?). To prevent these users from having to scroll horizontally, I kept the page width as you see it now.
I also updated the banner image for the first time in six months with newer (and larger) photos.
05 June 2011:
07 March 2010:
19 February 2010:
04 January 2010:
25 October 2009:
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Visa bought us a new laptop
A few months ago, the battery in the family laptop stopped holding a charge. It works as long as the laptop is plugged into an external power source but there is no battery functionality. Initially I thought it just needed a new battery but I was not 100% sure that replacing the battery would fix the problem so I never bought a new battery. Of course, the factory warranty (12 months) was expired so we had a number of unappealing options: buying a battery (not cheap) in the hopes that it would fix the problem, buying a new laptop (more expensive than a new battery), or just deal with the nuisance of always needing external power (free, but sometimes inconvenient). We decided to go with the last option for a bit while also thinking about the other two options.
After a few weeks of this, I remembered that Visa automatically doubles factory warranties. I purchased the laptop online in May 2009 and I had paid for it with a Visa card. The original 12 month warranty was expired but the 24 month extended warranty was still valid. I wasn't really sure what to expect from Visa but I called their Enhancement Services people and filed a claim. After confirming my eligibility for warranty service, they asked me to get a repair estimate. I took the laptop to the electronics repair shop on the local army base and the guy discovered that the battery was fine but the module on the motherboard that receives a charge from the battery was damaged. His repair estimate to replace the motherboard exceeded the initial purchase price of the laptop so Enhancement Services sent me a check that covered the price of the laptop plus tax plus the cost of the repair estimate. Nice.
Now we have a new laptop and continue to use the old one. I picked a "Scratch and Dent" Dell XPS 15 from the Dell Outlet. Most refurbished electronics come with only a 90 day warranty but Dell gives the full 12 month warranty on theirs. And Dell now offers shipping to overseas APO addresses. So basically we got a great laptop with a small dent in the lid for several hundred dollars less than the same laptop without the dent in the lid.
After a few weeks of this, I remembered that Visa automatically doubles factory warranties. I purchased the laptop online in May 2009 and I had paid for it with a Visa card. The original 12 month warranty was expired but the 24 month extended warranty was still valid. I wasn't really sure what to expect from Visa but I called their Enhancement Services people and filed a claim. After confirming my eligibility for warranty service, they asked me to get a repair estimate. I took the laptop to the electronics repair shop on the local army base and the guy discovered that the battery was fine but the module on the motherboard that receives a charge from the battery was damaged. His repair estimate to replace the motherboard exceeded the initial purchase price of the laptop so Enhancement Services sent me a check that covered the price of the laptop plus tax plus the cost of the repair estimate. Nice.
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