Back on (alpine!) air

Ugh. The last two weeks can be summed up by TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. I tried to be a responsible adult and place in writing when we would be moving for all of our utility companies. Well, our phone company (British Telecom - the company everyone has to use in England to rent a phone line) decided not to read the letter and just cut off our service. This of course messed up our internet and long distance. I literally spent more than four hours over three different nights trying to sort things out to no avail. We are being billed for service we aren't receiving. Socialism rocks *sense the tone* Reinstating our internet would have taken 10 business days - by that time we would be ready to move out anyway. I was LIVID. So, that's why there's been no blog news. Sorry.

Me on the phone (two companies at the same time) NOT impressed. I blame it on doing "Consumer Education" in 4-H and developing American standards of service.

Right now I'm writing from a hotel suite situated in the German Alps. As many difficult things there are about the military, I like to relish in the cool stuff like this (no, don't worry, your tax dollars aren't paying for me to be here). Philip is here for a conference. I took some vacation time to come join him. I flew into Munich this morning and then took the train into the mountains. I'm excited to be here and VERY excited to have internet access in our room! I was reminded today of my train riding experiences a year ago with Destiny in Eastern Europe. I had the same challenges of trying to figure out where to buy tickets, where to go, what trains to change to and what station to get off at since everything was in German, but it was a lot easier (and less terrifying in the sunlight). We'll be here until Saturday, and then we head back to the UK to pack up the house to move on Monday! Wow.

Two weekends ago we had a wonderful time hosting someone who used to be one of Philip's cadets and his wife at det 105 in Boulder (Tyler commissioned a year after Philp and he and his wife were married a few months ago). They are stationed in Germany, and were incredibly gracious and helpful when Philip was there for his surgery. We spent a day in Cambrige together and then they went on to spend a couple of day in Germany. They were so much fun to hang out with. We talked about our European adventures, [waiting to have and trying to figure out timing for] babies, careers and reminisced about Boulder days (both Tyler and Lauren are native Coloradans and, like us, are thinking they'd like to end up back there someday post military)