Bagzie, so sorry one of your kidlets is battling depression. We went through that w/ DS when he was a teenager. Being moms, we just want to make everything ok for them, and I'm sure in time, things will be. I can't remember which medication worked for DS, he had to go through several before he found the "right fit" for him. He's been off meds for a couple years now, and doing fine. Keep us posted on how things go. :grouphug:

Greetings divine bovines :moo: : before I launch into ME:

Bagzilla: I can only offer my concern that your loved one will find solace and heal with meds. I have seen folks lives be healed by some of the drug therapy now offered.. I am sure the response to it will be monitored closely by your family doc and if needed be augmented by some guidance/counseling. I know you have no time to get me :chicken: bones ;) , (just hoping for a smile on that one love.) I sent you :goodvibes and a :grouphug:

Wabbita: A most downright civil service that " Bath-a-pet" ..never heard of such a thing! But fer them big furbabbies it sounds like a gawd send!
{{{ sSHUDDER}}}}, I JUST looked at my 2 babies and realized I HAVE STARTED TO TURN INTO THOSE SCARY OLD CHILDLESS LADIES :fr: ...I have HOLIDAY BANDANAS on both of them.. :yikes: . Booties are not Far off, I fear....( I will accepted knitted or crocheted.. Size Small, 8 in total please..with those cute little bootie tie strings)

KiWi,oh Queen of Puters.. :queen: ... My leetle FALL display is completed! Ken needs to take the pics as I tried and ended up with blanks on the digital. If I IM you, will you send me your email so that you can do your magic and get them posted??? I send you Air Kisses dahlink ! :chockiss: :chockiss:

Paintessa: Love you even more for that most Human commentary on counselors.. We who seek or have seeketh (? is that a word..sounds biblical like..)the help of your profession, tend to forget that they too are human, and much as we would not/or do not recognize "them" as Human beings-- sometimes their own experiences,biasis, etc can color their counseling... You have redeemed your chosen field ... in my eyes (to a degree hehhheee).. I haven't had much luck with counseling.. I always was looking for one to challenge me or engage me ..but each counselor seemed more interested in finding the right Dx in that BIG Book... and saying.."So what do you want to talk about".. :bubbles: .and nod nod "hmmm" :rolleyes: and... "so, and..." and more hmmms" .. :dz: .No real interaction or conversational or confrontational psycho help...hmmm maybe you would do well with online counseling?? just a thought..... ;) I would definitely pay you...by the ....hmmm typed word? minute???

CowHernia: I hear tell I shall be mobbed from 4:30 to 7:00 PM. I am only giving out BIG candy because I'm the NEW kid on the block-and Have no friends.... I'm pathetic, I really just want to eat the leftovers

SUGAH, speak to us lovie! And Dr.Schatzi orders you: :drill: NO TRAIN Stations FER U: 1 Year! No train tickets YAH? derstations, dasplatforms, tubes, Dertokens, discount booklets.NYET!NINE!!!. :coach: You must travel by DER cow,camel, DAS sheepie, auto, HERR balloon, FRAUrickshaw,er,der FraulineTank ...UNT, footschnagle! Capeesh?!!! And U come back to tell us of yer adventure YAH? DAS SUGARSNOOFLE IS MISSED!!! YAH???? :dizzy:

I think Darby needs her toenails painted... I'm Off! to my furmommie duties!!

IM away, m'dear.

Tomorrow I plan to travel by footschnagle. It just sounds like so much fun.

Peaches, what happens when you try to print? You need to check the cables that are attached to it and to your puter and make sure they haven't been knocked out. Do you have a manual? There should be some troubleshooting information in there, or it could be loaded onto your puter with the printer software. Mine has a folder that has a lot of carp in it such as "HP Printer Assistant" (we have an HP printer). Try to do a test print page -- on our XP you can get there by going to Start/Settings/Printers/ then choose the printer, right click on it and click Properties. On the General tab there is a button called "Print Test Page". If it prints, your problem is in the item you are printing. Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.

Bagz, sorry to hear about the troubled offspring. Depression runs in my family and I know lots of pros and cons about the Rx's. Lots of family support, which I'm sure she has, of course will help to prevent problems with the meds. With the right meds, she will probably come through this no problem and get on track before you know it. Is she in college or h.s.? :grouphug:

Kiiw

all ríght, already!
 

I'm taking time out from making a cabbage roll casserole (really!) to tell yas how it was.

My train going there was right on time, so I arrived in Marburg at 10:30 a.m. as planned and even found the cafe where we were supposed to meet.

The people who live there, and Englishman and his German wife were already there, as well as a guy who lives in Koblenz but who's originally from L.A. Actually he's from everywhere and nowhere and hasn't lived in the U.S. since 1999. He's 39, has a pony tail and is of indeterminate sexual orientation. Not at all important, but it makes conversation difficult sometimes, you know? The other two were a woman from San Francisco and her German husband. They been living in Darmstadt for the past two years now and are SO cute!! She's not sure if she likes it here yet.

The other guy who was supposed to show up but couldn't because someone threw himself in front of HIS train and they wouldn't let him get on any other one (it's cheaper if you decide on a certain train ) is from England and lives in Stuttgart.

In the beginning more people said they wanted to be there, but you know how it is - they all start copping out as the day approaches. I think it will be better next year since now they know that the rest of us aren't axe murderers. :lol:

So we walked around the town, looked at a beautiful church and hiked up a steep hill to an old castle. Then we had lunch at a Greek restaurant. After that we all went to see the Englishman's new house. That wasn't planned, but they were so nice and invited us. They have a 7 yr old daughter who put on a puppet show and danced for us. She is beautiful and will be famous one day. :carrot:

In the late afternoon the cute couple drove me and the other guy back into town to get our trains and you know the story on that already. I had to take two trains back instead of one and met a very attractive business man and two adorable university students. And a dachshund.

My pictures turned out crappy but I may send yas some anyway.

The floor is now open for questions.



{{{{{HUGS}}}} to Bagzie!!!

Questions:

1. Why can't they stop this suicide-by-train business?
2. How did you all find each other?
3. What did you eat?
4. Other than the puppet show (I LOVE THOSE!!!) what was the best part?
5. Did you talk about Bush?

Sugar, I'm so happy that no one was a axe murderer. Its fun to step out of your regular zone and meet some new ppl once in a while, isn't it? Especially ppl who are experiencing the same foreigner in a strange land thing. Do you still feel foreign? do you think you'll ever feel the teensiest bit German?

I love Schatzi's new German accent. Can't wait to see pictures of the display. I'm turning into one of those cwazy coots that talks to their dogs all the time, too, m'dear.

I brought yogurt and an apple to work for lunch. I think I may go out for a mushroom swiss burger instead. No wonder I'm starting to jiggle.

Hey to the resta youz cows.

I just want to announce in case nobody has noticed (you know how I like to be well noticed) that I'm going to go change my weighty scale bar thingie for the 3rd time since I was blessed with this leetle Jet engine in a fur jacket. She may be driving me crazy, but I have barely any time to overeat. :lol:

Sugar, your adventure sounds like a lovely lark! How very cool. I want us to do that. This continent is too durn big. If it were a more reasonable size, we could all get together when you find yourself in the Provinces. Ah well. Someday.

Yogurt and an apple for lunch! Sounds very spartan, no wonder you craved a mushroom burger.

I forgot to eat lunch, believe it or not. Had a rawther crappy morning -- our dishwasher has been leaking on our horrible kitchen floor (it's a rolling portable one) and making a bad situation worse, so today DH took it apart and cleaned out some nasty pond scum under the edges (eww, that's just evil -- why would you make an appliance that builds up food and soap crap in a place you can't get to?) and since it was still leaking, he took it further apart and apparently killed it dead. So then he came in the living room and informed me I should start looking for a new d/w. And I informed him that he could do it; I am not interested in adding more stuff to all the stuff I have to do. Guess I told him -- he went out and bought one and had it delivered and it is collecting dishes as we speak. He is very good at buying, selling, negotiating, schmoozing and so on and it is just ridiculous for me to do it. And furthermore I think he should get a job doing it. Or anything.

I'm going to the big city tomorrow and buy a baby shower gift for my SIL's impending grandson. Fun Fun Fun. Little boy stuff.

Ta.

Kiwi

where is all your weight going, Kiwi? Is Jet the answer to all our problems?

The Jett Diet? So glad you are losing weight while you frolick with puppie!

Sugahsnoofle! Ooh it sounds like much fun was had by all! What is this some Foreigners in Germany Club? How did this thing start?

Thanks to Kiwi, here are pics of my fall display.... Sunday I shall spend the day carving pumpkins to add for the 30th and 31st.

Peachez asks:

1. Why can't they stop this suicide-by-train business?

Beats me. I guess anyone standing on the platform can just jump off if they feel like it. Dh says they usually choose the Inter City Express because it's faster. Ugh. Can you imagine?

2. How did you all find each other?

Whiney Expats in Germany mailing list and stuff. Someone just suggested it would be good to get together so we did.

3. What did you eat?

We went to a Greek/German restaurant. I had gyros and others had the BIGGEST schnitzel I've ever seen. You could order XL or XXL and XXL was the size of a steering wheel. Back at the Brit's house we had tea and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and sandwiches for dinner.


4. Other than the puppet show (I LOVE THOSE!!!) what was the best part?

Just sitting around speaking English, I guess. And it was fun walking around in the town.

5. Did you talk about Bush?

No, not at all, actually. There was enough bad German stuff to talk about. But I see that the incompetent boob has gotten himself into trouble once again. :lol:

Kiweeeeee! Jett is making you thin! You could patent this. Our dishwasher works OK ( well, except for the fact that when I turn it on the electrical outlet on the other side of the room starts to smoke - dh is fixing this pronto) but it also collects that disgusting sludge everywhere. Looks like baked on chili mixed with oatmeal and I gag every time I attempt to scrape it off. Barf.

Schatzi - your German is great! Everyone here would understand you perfectly- :) Adorable Halloween displays. We're doing Halloween this weekend because ds9 is going on a 4 day field trip starting Monday and will miss the festivities. Guess I should start decorating, huh? :lol:

Painty - I only saw Gromit knitting once when he was sitting in the car. Just yesterday I heard that the manufacturer of "Stinking Bishop" cheese was complaining that he's barely able to keep up with orders since they mentioned the cheese in the W and G movie.

I'm so totally out of the loop - never heard of Stinking Bishop cheese.

Sugar - Just speaking English was the best part???? I never thought of how it would feel to have to communicate in a foreign-to-you language all the time. So you didn't answer my question - will you never feel the teensiest bit German? always a CanadianinGermany?

Schatzi! cute displays! Looks like a magazine picture of what fall is supposed to look like. The last couple days here have been gray, gray, gray and soggy. I'm not looking forward to the time change and even more darkness and gloom. Who thought up this goofy daylight savings/standard time b*lldoodoo?

The Jett diet - I think wiring my jaws shut might be less painful. I've gone through that puppy stage - arghhhhh! Congrats on the weight loss, Kiwink, very good girl. You know, I could change my weighty bar thingie too, but it wouldn't be going in the right direction :( ---- I had a dying rollup dishwasher before we remodeled the kitchen. It got to the point that it made the dishes dirtier after I ran it than when I put them in. I ended up washing dishes by hand for about a year because we didn't want to buy a new rollup d/w because we knew we were going to put in a regular one when we remodeled. It was the longest year of my life. Enjoy your sparkling clean dishes. :)

TGIF - it's been a long week. My friend wants me to go to The NW Women's Show at the convention center. I really don't want to - about the only thing I'll go to the convention center for is the garden show. Too many ppl, parking is too difficult, prices are always outrageous. I said no, but now I feel bad 'cause I really love this friend, but theres a limit to what I'll do for friendship. Invite me out for a drink or lunch and I'll be right there. :hun: :hat:

dishpan hands
 

Oh Woe....is there a way to catch a cyber jinx??? My dishwasher went Kablooey this afternoon... think a hose broke... and it had a FULL LOAD! I detest washing dishes... I dunno, my least favorite household chore..Bleah I ACTUALLY had to hand wash my dishes...positively medieval. At least this is a rental unit... Mr Bill the landlord will come to repair.....

Congrats on your new dishwasher kiwi, may it see many a load !

Wabby:Methinks Daylight savings started around WW1...Today its cold and dreary..so I am snuggled in my nest playing Nancy Drew The Curse of Blackmoor Manor...devilishly hard... and needlepointing...

Sug: I never heard of Stinking Bishop cheese either... hmmm is it stinky? Is it good? is it good n stinky?

THE DISPLAY WAR HAS STARTED AND I AM BARELY READY!!! I WILL BE EMAILING MY PICS TO KIWI ASAP!!!!---as a good sport let me congratulate the Shatz on her lovely showing!!! Fabulous darling!!! also,while i am here,let me congratulate Kiwonkers on her weight loss {chasing dogs around won't work for me----it made me eat more!!!!}and Sugar darling---so glad you had fun with the Englishspeakers----i can imagine what joy it would be!!---the French Pastry people in the market are from France and can't speak English at all===i always feel sorry for them-----this is a bilingual province though so lots of people can speak the language!----i will say hi to wabby and peachfuzz but i have to leave RIGHT now cause MIss New Brunswick won't get off my lap and it's hard to type!!!!--i love her and it's cold here and she is keeping my ample lap warm!

I am sending MY pictures to Wabby. Wabby is the new puter guru here. Go Wabby!!!

I'd just forward them on to Kiwi. I'm not the guru of anything, Peach.

Youz cowsies have a wonnerful weekend. I'm off to take Grandpa Jim to the Doctor. He needs me to be his interpreter. Let this be a lesson to you - always wear ear protection when using saws so when you're an old geezer you won't need someone to accompany you to the Doctor.

Stay outta the Halloween candy.