But..... we did, and Boy,weren't we!
We went on a quick trip into Germany last week to check out the newish Exchange on the base in Spangdahlem. We looked around and weren't all that impressed with the way the store looked, the employees, or the empty shelves, but we DID have an awesome lunch...... TACOBELL! I know :-) but on a continent where Mexican food consists of tortilla chips, TacoBell is like a little slice of heaven. When we came out of base, we needed gas, so we went looking for the nearest town with a gas station, only to get the "CHECK OIL" light. We stopped, and checked, but it was full, so we sat for a bit, checked it again, and it still registered full, so we started the car, to be greeted by a really odd noise. So we turned it off again and called the insurance roadside assistance people. This was not an easy task. Not because the number wasn't readily available, or my phone wasn't working right, but because this girl couldn't figure out how to dial the number! LOL. You see, instead of 0 for international, and the country code, lose the first 0 for the city code and dial the rest of the number as given, they somehow managed to have a + in front of the number.......... I have looked at this since we came home, but I figured it just meant you needed an extra number if you called from out of country, never realizing that you actually DIALED the + and the number! DUH!
I sometimes really wished somebody would write a manual for people that haven't been here for a while. Since I speak the language (kind of) and grew up here, people assume I know these things! :-)
Well, once I figured that little bit of information out, we got a tow to Bitburg. Mind you, we called around 1, the tow got there at 4 and by 5.30 we finally got the ok to rent a car. At that time, we were told, it was not sure whether we would get the car home, or whether we would have to either get it there on our own dime, or had to turn it over to the insurance, in Germany. Mind you, we're now looking at walking 2 miles to the carrental place, 20 minutes before they're gone for the weekend, and a bunch of shit in the car that we're not sure of whether we ever see it again...... So we took my purse and Mikes tools out of the trunk and started walking. When we got to the carrental place, we found out that the car they had booked for us would cost us 150! Euro's for 24 hours. We also found out, that we would have to pay for it, because it was not covered in the insurance, even though it stated on the paperwork, that "repatriation of car and occupants" was a covered benefit. That was something we would have to clear with the insurance broker, we were told, but if we wanted the car we better decide fast, because it was already past closing. So we took the car, went back to base for more TacoBell, and started for home.
On the way, instead of smalltalk, we were figuring things out.... We would have to take the car back to Aachen, but we had transport home, because the train that runs thru our town, comes from there. We had no idea if the trip would cost 3 Euro's per person or 30, but we were in no position to check, so that went on the list of "to do's before the rental goes back"
We needed to go by base and pick up things Mike would have a heck of a time getting home on the train...... also on the list.
We needed to get cat-food (they don't sell the dry food here in town, and let's face it, me, carrying a 10 pound bag home on the train after which would come a 15 minute brisk walk, was just nog going to happen, so...... added that too.
There were a couple more things, so by the time we hit the house, we had a plan of attack for Saturday, and a train ticket for Mike to get to work on Sunday, and we would do more thinking when we heard back from the insurance (Which turned out to be Wednesday afternoon!)
Wednesday, we found out that the car would come home, but there was no indication who would pay for it. This needed to be decided by the insurance broker, who had left the office by the time the roadside assistants people called, and who will not be back in the office until TUESDAY! The Roadside Assistant lady did tell us, that it could take up to 3 weeks for the car to get here, so at least we knew that we would have to start saving our 1 and 2 Euro coins, so Mike could buy his way to work for that time frame..... (It's amazing what looks like progress, sometimes.....)
The paperwork from the insurance states that we were supposed to be able to get replacement transportation, but that question will have to wait with the one about who pays for things, until the insurance broker is in the office. I left a message on wednesday, didn't hear back from them, so sent an email on Thursday, and will call again on Tuesday at 9.30 when they get back in. (I have to make sure I call between 9.30 and 12.30, or between 1.30 and 4.30 to catch anybody, but they usually just let it go to voicemail, and try to call back about 10 minutes before they close, so if you don't pick up, they're off the hook from calling back) They've been good (as good as insurance will be) when we've had a claim, but it's unbelievable how much they don't know on things they really should, and how you have to hunt every little bit of information down, to get anything done. There's no volunteering of information, at any time, on anything. If you don't think about it, you'll never know, unless you need to. This makes for some very interesting turns of events!
So that's been our week..............
Saturday, I turned Grump, and scrapped all day. Mike was looking for cars (IF we need a new car, I want my KA back!) and I got a lot done on the kits I was running behind on, so I will post those below. And than............ there was dinner! I'm not a bad cook, just a clueless one, obviously LOL. I have been wanting to make a quiche, ever since my sister bought me a springform. So yesterday, I felt brave, and started..... The spinach didn't work out, because between the paper and rocks that were in the frozen package, I knew, if I put it in the quiche, I wouldn't eat it anyway, so I unceremoniously dumped it in the garbage, and happily soldiered on with the rest of the recipe. I am a grown-up, I can adapt! HA! That thought only lasted until I poured the eggs in the dish, and it came out the bottom as fast as I poured it in at the top. Obvioulsy, you CANNOT replace a solid crust with potatoewedges! So, it ended up being a not so bad ovendish, that had no particular structure what-so-ever. If I had just started out with throwing everything in a square dish, I would have been done about 2 hours faster LOL.
YUP! I'm done! Thanks for sitting thru this conversation, and if you need a tylenol for that starting headache..... I totally understand! :-)
For the eye-candy and (hopefully) a treat after reading this far:
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| Final Day page of the Progressive Scrap over at The Studio. |
This picture was taken thru a porthole at the aquarium. I was so happy it came out this way. One of the few that were completely in focus. I'll have to get some pointers from my sister how to get thru 5 Inches of plexiglass and still have everything clear in the pictures :-)
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| Boo's One Step Beyond kit #17. Coming out today. |
This HAS to be my favorite picture of Jesse. There's just something about the whole thing, that makes me smile when I look at it. I'm sure you'll see it go by many more times......
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| Boo's kit Summer Whispers. |
Two of my loves on one page....... Mike and Iris' :-) I'm not sure what happened to the color of the Iris when I merged the layers, but they were NOT this blue. They were more the color of the one on the bottom, but a little less bright. Sometimes, (and I'm sure its me "not getting something" about the settings) photoshop just seems to have a different idea what the end-page should look like than me. LOL
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| Because of You is the name of BooLandDesigns kit. |
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| Boo's One Step Beyond #16, combined with page 18 from her Photo-album series. |
I hear a vacuumcleaner calling............... I wonder if it will stop if I don't react? Probably not! LOL
Don't forget to hug a loved one!
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