Lakeside

I fell asleep on the couch during the All-Star game last night, around the 2nd inning, but tonight I hope to make it until at least 10 and get myself all adjusted. I am no longer sleep deprived. I am not deprived of anything right now, really, except possibly practicing my German. I have a feeling that's going to be at the bottom of my list as long as there are more fun things going on.

Brian and I are hanging out at the Powers Lake house, doing very little. We are without a car now, which is really not a problem, because even if we had one I don't think we'd go anywhere. Today we took the canoe out, sat in the sun, filled up the baby pool, went to the beach. The most stressful thing I did was make a pasta salad.

There's a little bar down the road, and we walked over there for lunch. It wasn't lunch so much as a meal of fried appetizers. We had onion rings and cheese curds, and we would have ordered jalapeno poppers too except they were all out. Healthy? no, certainly not. We didn't care. When in Wisconsin (or Minnesota) one must eat cheese curds(The same could be said for bratwurst but I am definitely not eating any sort of sausage link while in the U.S. That's one thing the Germans do better). We may gain some weight on this trip. It won't just be from eating deep fried treats, but because we are no longer walking or biking everywhere we want to go. Right now we aren't going anywhere but when we do decide go out into the world we will hop in a car like everyone else. The five flights of stairs leading to our apartment will probably be a challenge again when we get back in August.

When will the novelty of friendly strangers wear off? Today we chatted with the bartender, I talked for a few minutes with a family who stopped to ask me directions, and people driving in their cars make eye contact and wave as they pass. In Germany I am excited if I even get eye contact from somebody.

That's all the news from here - it's warm, the sun is shining, the swimming is good, and the pasta salad is for dinner.