Carl's working again

Carl is officially a working man again. As of Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. That should be great news! Well, it is, for the most part. It is nice for him because he was bored with being a househusband and he now gets to work on Blackhawks again. He has missed it since getting out of the Army.

So far, he likes it, too. He has met some nice people, and really likes the team he is working with more than any of the others he met before he got his team assignment. He will be making very good money, as well as get all the German and American holidays off. He got a German bank account for us last week too; since he's being paid in Euros, we won't lose any money on the exchange rate to have it just deposited straight as Euros.

The only bad thing is that we don't have another car yet. We have been looking around but really haven't seen anything cheap enough to buy. So, that means he drops me off at work on his way in, and picks me up on his way back. I just have to either walk, hitch a ride with someone, or take the shuttle during the day if I have to go cover a story. Sounds simple enough, right?

Only bad thing is, he goes in at 7 a.m., and doesn't get off 5:30 p.m. And he works about 30 minutes away from where I work.

So, this week, I've been getting to the office around 6:15 in the morning. He picks me up about 6:15 p.m. I hate it.

So far I have learned how to sort of fall asleep in my chair in the mornings. There are Soldiers outside doing their PT, but if I leave the lights off and keep the door closed, it's still dark enough and very quiet for a couple hours. I brought a blanket from home and just sort of twist my way into a semi-comfortable position in my desk chair, sometimes with another one pulled up in front of me to stretch my legs out on. NOT FUN! Next week Kelli will be back to the office though, and she comes in at 7 or 7:30, so I won't be alone for too long in the mornings. (but that means less napping at my desk).

Don't ask about co-workers taking me home either, because I can't write about it on here. I have had a few offers, but not from anyone who lives close to us. And taking the bus is an option, but it is about an hour-long trip with all the stops and I don't know which stop is closest to us!

It's okay though, soon enough we will just buy some sort of hooptie for him to drive and it will all be okay.

On another note, Tuesday was costume night at bowling. We had big plans for our costumes but never got around to making them, of course. Then, with Carl starting work Tuesday we actually wouldn't have even had time to go home and put them on.

Some of our teammates did dress up though!

This is Lira, my boss! She was dressed as "a Tennessee Co-Ed"
And this is Regina from my office with her husband Dan.

Carl dressed as a Mexican and wore my Chevy's Sombrero from Washington that I got at my birthday lunch! I dressed as a tourist with my Grand Canyon sweatshirt and camera. Okay that wasn't actually a real costume but it almost worked.

And here's another funny photo I just have to share. I took this today at work. I was covering the Book Character Parade at one of our elementary schools here. The students dressed up as a character from their favorite book. The Grand Marshall was our commander (my boss's boss!) dressed as Mr. Incredible.

And here he is with his command sergeant major, who dressed as a Transformer.

I thought they were so funny!

Tomorrow is Friday and I get to stay home all day. Our dryer broke two weekends ago, and they are finally coming to fix it tomorrow. Did I ever write about that? How we had to start hang-drying our clothes? Thankfully there is a room in our basement that is already rigged full of clotheslines and clothespins. But, since our house is heated by oil, the clothes kind of started to smell like oil. Normally in the winter we can leave the door open and fresh air will blow into that room, but it's too cold here now. Also tomorrow our temporary furniture is also finally getting picked up. It will be nice to get rid of it but we are still sort of using it in our extra living room, so that just means some furniture purchases are in our near future too!

Saturday we are having a big get-together for my whole office at Regina & Dan's house. It is kind of our pre-Thanksgiving dinner together as everyone is bringing some sort of American Thanksgiving dish. Any guesses on what I am bringing? Green bean casserole and, of course, watergate salad! My favorite! Lira is bringing my other favorite, the cranberry mush. MMM!!!

Well it is about a quarter to six here now and Carl should be here in about 30 minutes. We had daylight savings time last weekend. It gets dark very, very early here now. It is pretty much already pitch black out there. Kind of depressing! Oh well! I'm still smiling! I will be smiling more when I get home and plop down on the couch for the evening!