Day 76: More shopping!

I let Ted sleep in until 9 as he's been working so hard lately and I want to make sure he's well rested. We have a breakfast of my favorite, honey nut cheerios and German milk (from a glass bottle). It has a little bit more fat than we're used to (3.8% instead of 2.0%) but it's good nonetheless.

While I'm cleaning up the kitchen and doing the dishes, Ted showers and then it's my turn. I clean the bathroom after we both are through using it and run the swiffer mop on it. I DO like these shiny tiles in the bathroom. They are SO easy to clean!

I take one last look around the apartment to ensure everything is in order and we are on our way. It's raining today so out come the umbrellas and it's cold so I put on my California spring/fall/winter jacket.

First stop: The bank on Panzer. We have to pay that speeding ticket. When we got into the car, Ted realized he stowed the paperwork in the glove compartment. HOORAY! That means we don't have to stop at his work to get the paperwork. We get to the bank and the teller takes about 15 minutes to prepare the draft. The Germans are nothing but efficient. We'll pay them directly from our bank account and be done with it. We only had a week to get it paid anyways.

Second stop: The PX/BX which is also on Panzer. I want to get all of the paint supplies (with the exception of the paint) from the BX. It will be cheaper in the long run. We also need to get some "painting clothes" as Ted cannot afford to use his work pants to paint in. When we go inside, there are some displays for flat screen TV's. Ted, of course, needs to check those out. While he's doing that, I look around for some clothes but I'm not spending $30 for a top and pants just to paint in them. I'll use my sweats. I can always get another pair of sweats later on. I know he's going to be awhile talking to the guy with the TVs so I go over to the paint department and pick up rollers, drape cloths, painters tape and everything I think we're going to need to do the painting. When I'm done, I go looking for Ted. This is where our cell phones used to come in VERY handy. Now it's hit or miss. I find him, where else, in the TV department. He said he figured that's where I would look for him and he was right.

We go looking for "paint clothes" for him. Ted finds a pair of nylon pants (workout pants) for less than $10 and we get those and decide that he can wear one of his old t-shirts to paint in. Some of them are threadbare!

He wants to get a stein at some point and he found them and wanted to show them to me but he doesn't want to spend $42 for one. I agree. He spots a cowboy hat that's waterproof. It's black with a German and US flag embroidered on the side. He looks good in it. It will keep his head warm in the winter (it's 100% wool) and dry. We don't know the price but we'll see when we check out. I have to show ID every time I check out either in the PX or in the Commissary. They don't want just anyone buying American goods there! We load everything into the car and by this time, Ted is hungry.

Third Stop: The Commissary and cleaners on Patch. To save time, I had Ted drop me off at the Commissary while I did some shopping. I didn't have a whole lot to buy so I should be done by the time he gets his pants from the cleaners.

Fourth Stop: Lunch at KFC. Yes, they have a few "fast food" places here in Germany. Although I would have preferred a German sandwich, Ted is happy to go there.

Fifth Stop: The German Red Cross Furniture Store. I want to check out what they have. We were told they have really good furnishings at 1/3 the cost of new. We travel to an industrial section of town and park the car. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into but I was incredibly and pleasantly surprised when we walked in. There is a display area with glasses and other items for sale. All of them sparkle! This was not your ordinary discount or Goodwill store. This was actually nice and clean! I look at a few of the glasses and picked them up. These were clearly from an estate sale. They are beautiful. I'm not in the market to buy anything today but for future reference. I whispered to Ted that these elegant glasses could be bought and sold on eBay! A set of six lovely etched glasses (wine or aperitif) were 12 EURO!! That's an incredible price! But I'm not here to look at the glassware, I'm here to look at the wood furniture.

We go into the warehouse and I look at row after row of German-styled entertainment units. I will have to measure the living room wall but some of them are beautiful and barely used! They are well-kept and clean. We look at the beds and the slats. Ted was complaining that he thought he made a mistake and should have come here first. I don't mind the entertainment center being used but I draw the line at the bedroom. There are end tables and kitchen tables (some of them were hand made in oak). Ted was whining that he loved those old tables. I remind him that we do not have room for them and that we already have a table. Thank you.

He sees a Knotty Pine entertainment unit and he's in love. Suddenly, I'm back in the 50's at my Grandma's house where they had Knotty Pine in the basement! I nixed the Knotty Pine.

They also have kitchens. Here comes the whining again. And while I know we could have saved a lot of money by buying the kitchen used, I reminded Ted that someone had to install it and who knows how much THAT would cost and there would be a time issue...something we didn't have enough of to get all of that organized. No. We made the best possible choice in getting the kitchen from the previous tenant. As it is, we have to paint and put together furniture so dealing with installing a kitchen and/or light fixtures was out of the question!

We go up on the second floor and that's where they have the units that the Germans (and Italians) use in their front hallway. There was one but it was reserved. We'll have to come back to find something for that hallway. There are desks and office chairs for very little money (between 20 and 50 EURO). In three years, we can just give it back to the Red Cross, it will have served its purpose.

In the car, I tell Ted that I like the European wall units so much that I wouldn't mind shipping one back to the US.

Yes, we are DEFINITELY coming back here to pick up the missing pieces of our household goods.

Fifth stop: MoMax. It's the furniture store that the previous tenant recommended. While we've already decided that the Red Cross is the best bet for anything in the way of furniture that we need, MoMax appears to have a really good selection of sheers. They don't do a whole lot of drapes. But their colors or SO incredibly wild I'm going to have to wait to see where we are before we get the sheers. Thankfully all the windows have exterior blinds so if we don't want to use sheers we don't have to but I'm sure we will at some point.

We also look at fitted sheets for the beds. Mostly everything we see is stretch jersey. What's up with that? Don't they use cotton?? Ted and I have a theory. We think it's because it gets so cold here in the winter time that they use the jersey to keep warm. I had purchased a new comforter and sheets before we left the US thinking we would be getting an American bed and not knowing that we would like the German beds so much! So we will have to buy the fitted sheet for the mattresses and use the top sheet and the comforter. We have pillows although I'm liking the European pillows more and more. Perhaps I'll get them later on. I just don't know yet.

Ted told me we have an appointment with Klaus the furniture guy from Reutlingen. He told Ted that our car would not be big enough to get the mattresses to our apartment and that he would personally deliver them to our home for a beer! What a guy! I told Ted we will have to at least give him gas money. Gas is very expensive here.

We did see fitted sheets at Klaus' store so I will probably get them there. I didn't see any sheers there but it's interesting. Department stores as well as OBI and the furniture stores sell fabrics! I can't even imagine them doing that in the US. I guess a lot of people sew their own drapes / sheers. I know our landlady did. Because all of the drapes in the hallway and in all of the rooms here are the same fabric! LOL! And of course, because I asked her.

I'm ready to leave. I've seen enough.

As we leave, we see it is actually an outdoor mall (sort of). And of course, Ted spots the typical six foot ice cream cone and wants ice cream. The stores are on the exterior sides of the mall and have a cement walkway between them with parts of that walkway covered with what I believe is Plexiglas and parts of it are open. I would imagine it's important to have part of it covered especially because it rains so often here.

We sit down outside and order our "gelato". There are women behind us smoking. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy being in a place that does not allow smoking. And we are downwind so I get a whiff of it every now and then. We finish our ice cream and are waiting for the bill when an older couple sits down behind us. They too are puffing away and they are closer to us than the other women. I'm ready to start coughing. I look at Ted and I said I couldn't stand it any longer and that I was going to find the waiter and pay the bill. I get up and paid the bill giving him a small tip and we leave. Ted wants to go investigate the rest of the mall but it's getting cold and I didn't bring my sweater. It was warm when we came here but the weather changed so quickly!

We walk out and down the steps to the entrance to the parking deck. Uh oh! The door to the overpass is locked. I guess we are not going that way. Another reason why we should learn German. I bet it was on the door when we came over. Oh well. We'll just have to navigate across the street when there's no traffic.

Ted took my hand and said, "Follow that couple...they are going to the parking deck". We follow them and there's a break in the traffic and we cross without incident.

Now how do we get up to the third floor where the overpass (and our car) is located. By the way...for those of you from Youngstown, that overpass TOTALLY reminds me of the one that was at the downtown Strouss' store way back when. The length of it and the style of it. It brought back fond memories even if we were in Stuttgart!

Ted tells me there's an elevator in the center of the deck and we go to it. There's a dispute as to which floor it's on...the third or the fourth. I say fourth because there's something written in German above it. Ted says the third. We go to the third because I have to follow my fearless leader. I tell him, check and I'll hold the door. It's the fourth floor. When I point out why I thought it was the fourth floor, he says, "why didn't you say so?" UGH!

We get in the car and realize that we didn't use the parking attendant (the electronic cashier). He parks the car in the no parking zone and I quickly go to validate the parking ticket. It was 2.50 EURO!! To park the car for an hour?? That's highway robbery. We won't be doing THAT again. No wonder there weren't that many cars parked there! (Ted thought it would be full where the overpass was - now we know why)

Sixth Stop: M.C. Dean offices. It's on the way to OBI and Ted wants to get the shorter bar stool and take it to the apartment so we'll have something to sit on.

Seventh Stop: OBI. We get to OBI and get inside and go to the paint desk. We have NO idea how much paint to buy and the paint person speaks NO English. Thankfully there was an Iranian guy standing next to us who spoke English and did some translating for us. We ordered our paint and they do the same thing in Germany as they do in the US. They punch in a code and the paint colors are mixed and then they shake it up. We also buy stock white paint for the ceiling. Ted reminds me that the paint stick we bought was for a round can. These cans are oval. Uh Oh. So we buy the European version of the Paint Stick and decide to return the other one to the base. It's OK because we go to the base regularly so it's not a big deal and I'm anal about saving the receipts so it's really not a big deal.

We find out we don't have enough cash on hand and ask if they accept VISA. Thank goodness they do, because she already mixed the paint. We also need a ladder. Ted goes in search of a ladder and finds them. They don't measure the ladders in terms of the size of the ladder but in terms of how far you can reach. Doesn't that depend on how tall a person is? Now THAT is a-typical for Germans! We can't remember if the ceilings are eight or nine feet. We're just going to try though because we have to get something.

We go to the checkout and I wonder if they will do a VAT form. Ted stops by the service counter and the service person couldn't understand VAT form. But Ted said Tax Free and the guy's face lit up. He understood! We'll have to come back and have the form signed by them. We're supposed to do that on the spot but I forgot about it. Hopefully, it doesn't ding us too much.

Seventh Stop: Home. We want to drop off a few things and we're closer to home than the apartment and I want to change my shoes to carry this stuff up to the apartment.
We decide to bite the bullet and get the laundry done after we drop off this stuff at the apartment. I figured it would be a little late so I packed us a sandwich, some chips and some water to eat while we were doing laundry. It's going to be another late night.

Eighth Stop: The apartment. It was raining hard by the time we got there and we decided to park the car in the underground garage and carry the paint and other stuff up the one LONG flight of stairs and then the four sets of 8 - 10 steps to our apartment. Ted of course, wanted to play with the hydraulic lift to park the car on the bottom section even though NO ONE was parked on the top section and the person who shares the lift with us, is a dentist so she wasn't there. He insisted. Of course he did! LOL!

We unload everything from the car and put the seats back and put the clothes back in the car. We move the paint, chair, ladder and bags in stages. First to the door going into the apartment. Next up that big flight of stairs. Next up the first set of steps and so on. Ted carries ALL of the paint, poor guy. I'm SO glad I convinced him to put on his knee brace. By the time we got everything into the apartment, we both were sweating profusely! I pulled out a bottle of water and we both drank from it. He thanked me for thinking about bringing water!

Ninth Stop: Laundromat on Kelley. It took us all of five minutes to get from our new apartment to Kelley. Since it will be a bit of time before we find a suitable washer and dryer, we'll be doing laundry on Kelley. It's nice to know it only takes five minutes to get there as opposed to the 20-30 minutes from where we are staying right now. We get there and I don't have any US cash to put in the coin machine. There's a lot of cars and Ted says if there are too many people inside, we'll bag doing the laundry until tomorrow but it's my decision. I go inside and all of the commercial washers are empty so we will be doing laundry after all.

Ted goes in search of the ATM machine to get some cash. I wasn't thinking when we were at the PX. I could have bought a roll of quarters then. I should have written it down. There were SO many things to think about I couldn't remember it all. Thankfully, Ted doesn't complain too much about it. I remind him that he could have reminded me so that I could write it down!

He comes back and gets me the change I need and I load the washers. He brought in our sandwiches but I told him it smelled in the laundromat and I wasn't eating in there. He wanted to eat on the bench outside but it was too cold so we ate in the car. After eating a sandwich and some chips Ted went to check the mail. When he came out, he said that he had checked it yesterday. Today was Saturday. Didn't they deliver the mail to the slots today? He told me the Europeans only deliver mail three times a week. OK. I wouldn't have a problem with that. I'm sure the US postal system will come to that one of these days.

When we get back into the laundromat, the clothes are still washing but are on their final spin and should only take a few minutes. Finally, they are done and I quickly shove the wet clothes into the dryers opposite the commercial front loading machines and put in the coins. When we first started doing laundry at the laundromat, I told Ted about my parents owning laundromats when I was a kid and how my mother dragged me three times a week to all of the laundromats and how the washers and dryers had keys that you had to turn and turn and turn and turn to get them open. I also told him that part of my job was to fill the candy machine. Now THAT was fun! :)

I spend the time waiting for the dryer, looking at my little notebook and making note of the money we spent for the ice cream and the parking as well as anything else we spent cash for. It's amazing how much money goes through your hands if you are not conscious of it. I reconcile our EURO and DOLLAR cash monies every weekend and inevitably it's always off because something got missed (Ted doesn't always give me the receipts - but he's getting better at it.)

I fold the last of the clothes and we head for the car. It's raining again and I ask Ted to take me to the front door so the clothes won't get wet from the parking area to the door of our apartment. It's midnight and we have to be very quiet when we enter the building. We don't want to disturb our landlords.

Finally the clothes are sitting on the kitchen table and I'm beat. Ted wants to check his email but me...I'm heading for bed. I'm exhausted!

Saturday 06/06/09