Date WHO?

With our wedding ceremony only a few weeks away, the curtains are slowly drawing closed on the part of my life lived as a singleton. Awwww... I know, I know! Anyway, it's my opinion that there's a time and a place for everything- especially for being single...and fortunately for me, my friends and family were on board with this concept, too, and quite supportive of my single status while it lasted. I got to do all kinds of things I never thought I would and move to some places that I'd never thought I'd be, and everyone around me thought that what I was doing all by myself was just fine, and it was. Heck, it's been great! However, there's a guy named Lance in Utah who apparently hasn't been quite as lucky in finding support from friends and family regarding his singleton days! Check out Lance's predicament (and a particularly funny FAQ section!) here: http://www.datelance.com. Thanks, everybody for not putting up a billboard for me: see, I worked out just fine!

Yeee-ouch!

So, M.'s unit is doing all kinds of sporty things this summer...they collectively tried their hand at leauge softball, but despite their best efforts, the championship went to a nearby Air Defense Artillery unit. Spirits undaunted, though, they've rekindled personal athletic interests of all varieties. There's M., who is a huge soccer fan, and there are plenty of rabid golfers among the group. Then there are those individuals who enjoy slightly more exotic sports, like SGT A., who is usually wakeboarding in all kinds of far-flung places, like Turkey and Spain. And, of course, there's always a dare-devil of the truest sort lurking somewhere in the crowd, hence the unit's resident skydiver, SGT L. Now, skydiving as a routine endeavor would make a lot more sense if M. and his buddies were, say, in an airborne vet unit, but they're not. I'm not sure there's an airborne vet unit anywhere, let alone here, but I digress. Anyhoo, SGT L. is out there hurtling through the air from a plane toward the ground at top speed several times each weekend, largely without incident until his outing of two weeks ago. While preparing to land, he was carried away from the drop zone by the wind...and straight into the parking lot! So, he's headed at top speed right into the windshield of a car of another patron of the jump school. He hit smack into the windshield, breaking through, and was then again lifted by the wind over the car, finally coming to a stop after raking across the roof with the buckles of his jump harness. And this being Germany and all, of course, he was lucky enough to have just been raked over...you guessed it! A brand-new Beemer. Luckily, he walked away (albeit painfully!) from the crash, the majority of his wounds on the front of his knees and lower legs from going through the windshield. So this weekend, we were approached by a guy wearing a "skydiving.com" t-shirt (and maybe still with a barely-noticeable limp to his step!) I met SGT L. for the first time, and am happy to report that he is, in fact, all in one piece. He tells us that unless his insurance covers the accident in full, he will be (gulp!) 5000 euro lighter....which is roughtly $6250 US. That's one expensive skydive! But it's almost worth the story that ensued...but stay tuned, because coming soon to a blog near you is my answer to why swimming naked definitely IS worth the story! (And no, it didn't involve yours truly!)

Uh oh!

Uh oh...looks like somebody else had an embarassing moment in Amsterdam...and this time it wasn't me! Check it out here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=950824 . Oh, and as for the part of the story that claims that the canals are flushed nightly? Mmm, no, not completely true, according to my Dutch assistant. Given what my free-peeing friend was doing into the canal during my embarassing moment, well, all I have to say is eeeww....

The man who tires of London...

Well, the Air Force didn't escape the wrath of the media when personnel from Mildenhall AFB were officially forbidden to travel to central London earlier this week. Shortly after the travel restriction was publicized (and widely criticized by Britons, who are trying to resume normal life), the Army quietly issued it's own restriction, banning travel to London by all personnel, military and civilian...and the decision seems to have largely escaped the notice received by the Air Force's declaration. And while the decision applies to civilians, too, adjusting to restrictions as part of the military has taken some getting used to. I am not only not allowed to travel to London at present, but there are places in many areas of Germany that I and all other military are officially forbidden by U.S. authorities from visiting...mostly shady establishments that I wouldn't have been setting foot in anyway, but still, having lived a place where you can go absolutely anywhere you want, virtually without restriction for 29 years, getting used to the idea that there are places in the world that are "off-limits" to me is an adjustment. Hopefully the travel restriction won't last long...it's funny how something that's off-limits is just that much more attractive as a destination!

Jumpin' Hurdles in Hessen

Having sufficiently recovered from the trauma of inadvertently proposing to me on the same day as Tom Cruise proposed to Katie Holmes, M. will be arriving here tomorrow morning for our first hearing at the Standesamt (pretty much the equivalent of the office that issues marriage licenses in in the states.) Faxes have been flying back and forth and we made a trip there earlier this week to verify that all was in order with our papers and were subsequently granted the first of many appointments. So, we will be trekking there with our certified interpreter in tow! Hopefully, by this time on tomorrow night, we will have successfully negotiated another obstacle on the path to obtaining official permission to tie the knot! We can only hope that Tom and Katie will be required to jump through as many hoops as we are...!

Weekend o' Castles

We ventured out on a trip to Bavaria and the Tirol this weekend, returning home just in time to celebrate the fourth back home in Hessen. We drove first to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, DE, home of the 1936 Winter Olympics...and now home to a quite a few Americans lucky enough to be stationed in such a beautiful location! Nearby was Linderhof Castle, one of the palaces of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria... it's definitely the coziest of his castles, and my favorite. One of the best things about it is that the king purchased/built several outbuildings and a grotto on the grounds surrounding the palace, which makes for a really cool walk around the castle itself... To see Linderhof (and the surrounding buildings, too!) check out this link for a good overview of the park: http://www.schloesser.bayern.de/ . Click on "English", and then on "Linderhof" on the list of castles. We spent Saturday evening in Garmisch enjoying an outdoor concert in the town square by the "Big Band der Bundswehr"-the German Army's band: apparently, German radio isn't the only place you'll hear all of the old 80's tunes you could ever wish for! It was a lot of fun...even if we WERE the only people who danced! We then drove back across the border to Reutte, AT, to call it a day. On Sunday, we headed out early to Neuschwanstein Castle...another of Ludwig II's palaces. THIS is the castle that you see on the posters of Germany in the travel agents' offices! Supposedly, Neuschwanstein was also the inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland...it's not hard to see why! Take a peek here: http://www.neuschwanstein.de/english/. After spending the morning at the castle, we headed on down the autobahn, stopping off at Innsbruck, AT, for a quick leg stretch (I got to see the ski jump from the Olympics, at least!) and then on past Lake Chiemsee to Salzburg, Austria. We arrived there in the late afternoon, did a walking tour of some of the major Mozart sites (and inadvertenly, a few of the sites from Sound of Music, too!), and had a great dinner. We even had time to go running that evening in some neighborhoods just outside of downtown Salzburg...it's a really beautiful place, and our first trip was enough to convince us to go back for a second sometime in the (hopefully near) future! We arrived back at our adopted home in Germany late the next afternoon, just in time to celebrate the fourth amongst other Americans...it was a wonderful weekend! Hope yours was, too!