You say it's your birthday...

Today marks the one-year-and-a-day anniversary of the inaugural post on this, the Molly Murphy blog. It's been quite a year...thanks for reading and stay tuned for more adventures!

Oh yah, you betcha!

With the help of my mom and a coincidental conversation she had at a neighborhood block party, I've met yet another South Dakotan here in Germany! The daughter of mom's neighbors, F., is living in a suburb roughly 15 minutes from mine! It's great to make another connection and hey, if a new friend happens to hail (even just originally, like F.) from South Dakota, well all the better! (M. might disagree just a tad...our first acquaintance from Custer, South Dakota, made quite an impression on M. when she ran smack into his parked car on Christmas Day...with M. riding shotgun! Yeaaah....) ANYWAY, M. was willing to give we blond South Dakotans ("geez, is everybody from South Dakota blond?") one more chance as he was in town and we ventured out to the local Weinfest as a group last night...a little too early, it turns out. We arrived just as the early bird special crowd was arriving...ehh, hmmm. There was plenty of polka, though, and hey, there's nothing like polka to get you into the mood to party, right? Hmm. Well, it was gonna take a little more than that to kick things into gear for us, so we passed on the Weinfest. Fortunately for us, there are several really good restaurants on the town square in my suburb, which also happens to be walking distance from my apartment. We found a great Italian restaurant and sat out on the square for dinner. It was a great meal and a ton of laughs...here's to coincidence and new friends!

Nostalgia TV

Fellow children o'the seventies...does this ring a bell? "It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights..." That's right! "On the Muppet Show to-nite." Cue the dancing pigs! "It's time to put on make up...it's time to dress up right. It's time to get it started on the Muppet show to-nite!" We knew it was being released last week in the states, but I was ecstatic when we found a copy of the entire first season of the Muppet Show on DVD in Würzburg last weekend. We wound up spending most of Saturday evening indulging ourselves in the bad jokes and 70s style dance-and-music numbers by guest stars like Sandy Duncan, Phyllis Diller and Jim Nabors. I had almost forgotten about it, but really, this was the show that I just couldn't...wait...to...see on TV as a kid. Gonzo, Scooter, Kermit, Piggy, Rolf, and, of course Fozzy Bear all made appearances in Season 1. And, speaking of Fozzy Bear, I think we NOW might finally have a clue as to where M. might've picked up his early joke telling, ahem, abilities! And, in addition to the other characters, it's no wonder we thought the Swedish chef was hilarious: every single Swedish chef skit involves either: 1) a gun being used as a food preparation tool; 2) the throwing of food; or 3) both, all accompanied by the completely unintelligible narration of the Swedish chef himself! Anyway, it was a totally worthwhile purchase that M. and I highly recommend, particularly if you're in the mood to revisit 70s feel-good TV. So maybe I'm not so TV-free, after all!

Vroom!

I have discovered that another little piece of home has made its way across the Atlantic! Thaaaat's right: last weekend, Spangdahlem AFB held its very own version of duh duh daaaah...the Sturgis Rally! They had a total of 50 bikes participating this year. While that's not exactly say, the 500,000 Harleys that the real Sturgis generally attracts, it was still nice to know that I'm not the only one in Germany who misses the rumble that only half a million bikes can create...and is best enjoyed on a hot, mid-August day in South Dakota! I miss it more and more all of the time!

Schwimm-bad

So, the adventure of the weekend had its genesis in a tip passed on to us by the 5-year old son of M.'s first seargent, N., who alerted us to the fact that there is a "reeeeally cool" indoor schwimmbad (pronounced "schvimm-bahd") at Bad Mergentheim, just over the Bavarian border into Baden-Württemburg. So, on last Saturday afternoon, which was decidely cool in a fallish-feeling way, we set out to see if we could find the schwimmbad. What's a schwimmbad, you ask? Aah, this is critical knowledge for surviving summer sans-air conditioning here in Germany. Schwimmbads are nothing more than swimming pools (usually more like water parks) but they are a very, very big deal here in Germany, in part because there aren't too many of them and most people here live in un-airconditioned housing. So, spending a day at the pool is generally a family event and is very, very popular in the summer. Acting on N.'s tip, M. and I drove over to Bad Mergentheim, and then quickly realized that the town schwimmbad also meets the other axiom of most German swimming pools: for some reason or other, they are always totally unmarked and ridiculously hard to find in any given town! In fact, the schwimmbad here in my town was so hard to find, that a few weekends ago, we drove around for a good 20 minutes looking for it until finally, we saw a kid with a pool noodle walking through a residental neighborhood and I'm in the passenger seat screaming at M. "FOLLOW THAT KID! FOOLLLOOWWW THAT KIIIID!" We wound up basically having to stalk this poor kid and his whole family through a residental neighborhood just to see which route they were going to take to get to the pool-but it worked! They led us to this incredibly well-hidden, but public, water park just a few minutes from where I live in Hessen. So, anyway, we've quickly learned that when you set out to find a new schwimmbad, it's bound to be somewhat of an adventure. So, yesterday afternoon, a few wrong turns, empty parking lots and one conversation with a non-English speaking gas station cashier later, we found the pool called Solymar. Even though it was an indoor complex, it was a lot like the outdoor parks: there were several pools, all with different themes and there was even an indoor waterslide and some waterfalls for kids to play in. But all of this fun comes with a hefty price tag. Unlike parks in the states where you might pay a flat rate for the day, at this pool, you pay by the hour. With the exchange rate, it costs roughly $20 for two people to swim for 2 hours, but it was well worth it to add another schwimmbad to our "found" list and as an added bonus, M. got to test out the waterslide. Plus, we found out later that Bad Mergentheim has been known for centuries for it's mineral water baths and it's a beautiful town that we plan on re-visiting soon. It was a successful adventure to cap off the weekend. Hope your weekend was relaxing, too!

Saving the Date

Our applications have been pored over by government marriage officials in no fewer than three, count 'em, three German cities and two different states and I am pleased to announce that we will tie the knot on September 23 at the Standesamt in beautiful Heidelberg, Baden-Württemburg, Germany!

Feline infidelity

So, as many of you may know, my kitty, Sammy, had a frank talk with me before I left for Texas about this time last year. He explained to me that, well, he'd become quite fond of his new surroundings in the Black Hills...beautiful weather, a posh pad, and well, he had this new roommate named L. that he'd become quite fond of...she grows her own catnip, you know. By the time we had this chat, Sammy and I had traveled a lot of miles together. First and foremost, there was his narrow escape from death row in Nebraska, after which he became my unofficial thesis advisor, spending hours alternatively poring over stacks of manuscripts and chewing on my computer cables. In the years that followed, he's driven Route 66 and seen Santa Fe in the fall. Sammy's spent a lazy weekend in Taos and visited Chicago during the winter holidays....the twinkly lights on Michigan Avenue were wonderful. He's even tried out almost every LaQuinta Inn along I-25 in Denver at one point or another, and found almost every single one to his liking. But despite his love for travel, he explained, he'd put down roots in South Dakota and was just a little reluctant to give it all up. Even for life in Europe. Thus, Sammy has made his South Dakota his home for now. And I'll admit to missing him quite a bit. Now, this is a dangerous thing for me to admit to around here. Why? Because M. works with veterinarians, and I have discovered that the vets are the equivalent of Match.com for the animal world. Their attitude is a little bit like, "What? You're not currently in a committed relationship with a pet? Well, let's get you hooked up!" It's hard enough just to go around the vet clinic, where there are tons of cats in need of homes being cared for by the vets, most of whom are pretty soft-hearted when it comes to strays. And, apparently, M. is becoming part veterinarian, as the latest installment in me trying to avoid adopting the pet-of-the-week involves a phone call from M. earlier today from a vet clinic he was visiting near Poland. M: "There's a kiiiiiiitty here." Me: "Uh, okay." M: "He's cuuuuuute. And being neutered tomo-ooooorrow." Me: "Great...glad they're getting that taken care of! I'm sure he'll make a nice pet." M: "Good. He'll be ready for pickup on Friday." Oy.