Wee is enjoying her new bunny kabob, a souvenir from America.














No, Boose didn't die, he's just taking a nap at 8 a.m. after a wild night.




















Yay! I grew a tomato! Yup, only one.

The Rocky Road Back to Dresden

It all started last Friday. Driving back to Beaverton from a delicious dinner and a bit of shopping in Midland, I was talking to my brother and sister-in-law, when suddenly, I felt something on my back. Then it started moving. I reached back and felt something furry. “AAAAH!” I thought there was some sort of rodent on my back, and there was! A hamster. Butterbean II, Bill and Colleen’s new hamster, whom they had bought earlier in the evening, had escaped from his fortress made of a small cardboard box and a larger plastic container to attack me. This started up a whole search effort involving flashlights when we reached my parents’ house, because hamsters can really do some damage to cars. Butterbean II was found promptly, however, and without incident.

The next day, Saturday, was my day to depart to return to Dresden. My plane was at 6:30 p.m., and since it’s a bit of a drive to Detroit, we planned on leaving around noon. I woke up around 9:00, and was peacefully reading the paper before taking a shower, and the electricity went out! And it didn’t come back on. That meant no coffee, no shower, nothing. Fortunately my brother and sister-in-law saved the day. They still had power in town, so my mom took me there so I could prepare for the day.

We arrived at the airport on Saturday without any problems, and after a couple of flights I landed in Berlin on Sunday. The passport control people were closely checking every passport, which surprised me, but no problems there. I proceeded on to pick up my luggage and waited, and waited, and waited…and then came a little sign that said “End Bags”. Huh? Where was mine? Still in London, that’s where. About 10 of us didn’t get our luggage, so we had to go to some office, and make a report, which was no problem, and honestly, I was rather relieved to not have to carry my extremely heavy backpack back to Dresden. My bag arrived at my house on Tuesday morning.

And now for the rocky road in Dresden. On Tuesday afternoon a colleague of mine and I had a mission: Operation Fix Sarah’s Bike. This Operation has been on since July, when I started getting flat tires every time I went out. I think that was a result of bad repairs on my part, I didn’t find the object that had been puncturing my innertube, so it kept on flattening my tire. Operation Fix Sarah’s Bike was a very complex task, involving approximately 10 tools, a stripped bolt that had to be removed by force, a full tire inspection, an innertube patch, an attempt at fixing the broken front brake, and a test ride. Everything seemed okay, until my chain fell off 3 times in a row yesterday on the way to work.

But all in all, everything is great! The bunnies are home, seemingly without any psychological damage, my friends and family (and bunnies) are in good shape, and the weather is nice, so I can’t complain!