The Latest

We got a car!! A GOOD car! We bought it from a British guy whose wife just used it for shopping, so even though it's 10 years old, it only has 37K miles on it and looks brand-new inside and under the hood. We feel so much safer and happier. Now we just have to get rid of Growly, the albatross.

While running errands in the fancy new car today, I found one radio station that played Western songs. First it was the Scorpions. Then Deep Purple. '80s metal was never my thing, but it might be now. After that it was "Tarzan Boy," and between the three songs I was walking around 1987 Wiesbaden again. It turned out the station covered everything Western, because there was some Rod Stewart (crappy '90s Rod Stewart, not cool '70s Rod Stewart) and Maroon 5... but when I changed it back they had on Creedence. So it could work. It's just fun to have music in the car again.

A few words about Thai food. Today, for the second time, we went to a buffet that offered both Thai and Western food. (Is Western capitalized? Jenn?) I took both of course, because who am I to be rude? And... both times I found that I preferred the Thai food. The Western food tasted kind of bland, and both times it was actually well-made. They had a Greek-ish salad that made me quietly whimper with relief when I saw it. But Thai food is a party in my mouth. It's vivid colors on my palate. It's so good it might be ruining me.

On the flip side, I noticed the other day that I was getting some extreme afternoon sleepies. I thought about my habits; I'm sleeping fine at night, eating well and it's not a sugar crash. I remembered that I have iron deficiency issues! I looked up iron-rich foods and it's all things I have not been eating here very much, if at all: Beef. Beans & lentils. Spinach. Cereal. Oysters. Tofu. Dark chocolate! Most of these things were in my regular rotation back home, especially beans and spinach. Here it's been mostly vegetables, chicken, pork, and rice. Gotta look for a supplement.

Speaking of sleepies, I'm off to lie down. I would absolutely love to take a bike ride today but it's a bit too hot. I'd be a soaking wet mess in five minutes. Boo.

Two more days of summer vacation. I'm bummed out as usual, but we could all use a little more structure to our days. At least it will be a few hours a day that we won't have to hear the girls fighting.