HISTORY 101

I love Canada, I really do...but come on!! Do we have a wall that was built in 373??!! Well now I have a picture of one that was.

The town that we are in is called Wiesbaden and the reason that they have so many old buildings is because in WWII, the American soldiers liked it here so much they made it their headquarters and didn't bomb it as much as the surrounding towns. So many of the houses and churches are still standing from when they were first built.

Mark and I toured around Wiesbaden and Mainz yesterday and I was completely blown away with what I saw. The amazing care and craftsmanship that these buildings were assembled with is something that I have never seen. We were lucky enough to be walking through a large church yesterday just as a wedding ceremony started. The organ began playing and the choir stared singing and I got goosebumps. It was unreal.

Today we toured the Rhine river on a boat for 3 hours taking way too many pictures of about 20 castles that stand along the banks. We hopped off in a town called St. Goar and were able to walk through the Burg Rheinfels. (castle Reinfels). Again way too many pictures.

The people we are staying with are as amazing as their country-

Sabine- a wonderful hostess who can't do enough for you.

Franz- the best and most knowledgeable tour guide I've ever had.

Melanie-So easy going and even if she's seen it a thousand times before, will show you again without a word of complaint.

Ava-a sweet 82 year old lady that starts to cry when she thinks about Canada because she loves it so much and.....

Heinz- the perfect host who makes sure that your glass is never empty. doesn't actually drink very much himself, but loves to watch the Canadians try to do their best with peach schnapps, cherry schnapps, asbach schnapps, schlein schnapps.....all in the same night. You could ask Mark how he did but I'm not sure he remembers.

I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures directly to the blog and not have to load them on the computer first, but alas everything is in German...

Have to run-we are on are way to Heidi and Bernd's for the next 3 nights and then off to Italy!!

Aufwiedersehen!!

we're here....

Well day one on our trip. I won't bore you with the details of everyday, but today was a first for many things.



The day started out with us coming back to our hotel from shopping to see two police cars arriving at the same time. Nothing serious, just a belligerent guy who overslept past check out and (successfully) stole all the towels in the room. Then it was on to the airport, where we found a very nice bulldog named George, who was also taking the flight with us.

We were able to waste 3 hours in the airport playing games, shopping, watching on TV how the German police had just caught a group of terrorists who had plans for the Frankfurt airport..... (don't worry Mom, everything is good now)

Our plane was delayed an hour which was good because just before the boarding call Marks' glasses broke and we had to make a mad dash for the jewelery store to find a tiny screwdriver!! Thank Goodness for duty free shopping!!!

On the plane everything went smoothly... I was worried due to the fact that Mark choose the chinese/curry/japanese combo from the airport for lunch, but if accidently eating the red wax off the babybel cheese didn't bother him, I guess nothing will. The flight was uneventful, but very long. We both didn't sleep very much and were INCREDIBLY tired when we got here.

It took only 7 minutes to break out the German chocolate and 28 minutes for the schnapps!!

Gotta run-we are heading into town to meet friends and pick up dinner!!

Miss and love everyone-talk to you again soon!!

Cara and Mark

This is our good friend Conrad. He came to stay with us recently.

I love it when he's here, Mark never laughs as hard or as much as when Conrad's around. The two of them are like beligerent 8-year-old kids. Which bring me to my point.

If you think that your 34-year-old husband is a grown-up and would no longer find fart jokes and noises to be the funniest thing in the universe...

you are SO wrong.

Where did the time go.

So there are only 13 days left before Mark and I are on a plane to Europe. If you are counting only days of work left before we leave Mark has 6 and I have 10. I'm not sure when or how this happened because just yesterday there was still 146 days to go.

That being said, I'm COMPLETELY not ready. The only thing that I am actively doing is, no longer putting my clothes away after doing the laundry. What if I forget the pink shirt that I really like? I'd better leave it out. The passports are already in the suitcase. (another story entirely-let's just say that once you've been in one apartment fire, anytime you smell something burning, you throw all you own into your new suitcase just to see "how much it can hold").

We have most of what we wanted to bring for gifts. Maple syrup, socks with the Canada flag on them, maple syrup, Canada t-shirts, maple syrup, clover honey, maple syrup....

Mark has everything planned out carefully for us. I LOVE him. I haven't had to do a thing. He's booked tickets online for us to go the museum in Florence where Michelangelo's David in on display and he's read everything we'll need to know while we're there.

We'll be posting online about where we are and what we're doing, mostly here, but on facebook as well. If I can, I'll try to get some pictures posted.

I should probably go and take out our wedding pictures out of the suitcase.

Katharina Victoria Penner Bennett

I love you.

Thanks for a great day!

Excuse me while I rant...

OK, first let me tell you that I already know that I'm going to sound like both my Mother and my Father...

There is no work shortage in Kelowna and I understand that people really have to struggle to find employees who want to work in retail, fast food, gas stations etc...Which are not glamorous jobs, I'm sure, but jobs none the less.

This is the problem that I have....Where is the service in this customer service industry??? I recently was at the mall with a friend and we stopped for lunch. I placed my order and when what I received was not at all what I asked for, I was told, "Oh, we made a mistake - you need to pay more". Pardon me???

As we made our way through the shops on that rainy day, we saw and heard so many stories like -last nights party-the fact that Jesse no longer likes Brianne-and what is going to happen when Julie finds out? In one particular store, we stood there waiting for someone to acknowledge our presence and saw all 4 employees (one wasn't even working-he just stopped in to chat - how nice) ignore the fact that we were there, ready and more than willing to throw some cold hard cash their way. Silly me, I thought they worked on commission.

Stop me if I'm going to far....

I had to actually ask the girls, sorry - Baristas, at Starbucks last week if I could interrupt their conversation about how the medication the the lovely dark haired girl had been given for her strep throat was o.k. because she could still drink while taking it. (In case you're wondering, it all turned out OK because her ex was going to be at the same party and she really shouldn't drink around him anyway.)

I don't think that I'm being unreasonable...all I ask for is the following:

• acknowledge me sooner rather than when you feel like it, as I may be on lunch or in a hurry
• say please when you ask me for my money, I'm positive that I've worked my tail off for it and I know that I said please when I asked for your help.
• "thank you" goes farther than you could possible know.

That being said, I think that I will go, curl up with a good book, some chamomile tea and stay away from anyone being paid to "help me".

Thank you.

The Letter(s)

Dear XXXXXX
I would like to appologize for my behavior on May 29, 2007 that led to you "having" to call my wife. What I did was irresponsible, juvenile and did not show you the respect you deserve.
When I am at work I am paid to perform certain duties and should do so in a mature, prompt fashion. Not in the fashion that I did on May 29th, 2007.
I still have not been able to watch television, play Playstation, use the Internet or even go looking at bikes.
I hope that this letter shows you that I am truly sorry for the disrespect that I showed you, and I will endeavor to perform to the best of my abilities in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Mark.

P.S. you are a poophead.


Dear Cara:
I am sorry that you were taken away from your work on May 29th, to have to deal with a phone call from my supervisor in regards to my lack of work ethic, and my poor behaviour at work.
I am sorry for this.
While I am at it there are some other things I should clear the air about
1) I am sorry I shrunk some of your clothes in the dryer.
2) I am sorry I don't always pass along phone messages.
3) I am sorry I drank all the milk and just put water in the jug.
4) I am sorry that while you are sleeping, I make faces at you.
5) I am sorry that I got you to sign a form to have our last name legally changed to "Awesome" without you knowing.
6) I am sorry that I used your good scrapbooking scissors to cut popcans open when i had a really good idea for Christmas tree decorations. (It didn't work as well as I thought)
7) I am sorry that while you are at work I let stray dogs into the apartment and dress them up in your clothes.
So really when you think about it, getting a phone call from my work is not that bad. I will try not to let it happen again, but lets keep things in perspective.
Sincerely yours
Mark Awesome

p.s. you are not a poophead.