Stop. It's Hammer (drill) time.

Blog world... L Dubs back with more to say.

Once you get the hang of this blogging stuff... it gets pretty fun.

So since we moved we've had a list of things needed to make this place livable.  Internet in the apartment was one, bank account, a close grocery store, cell phones, figure out the trams... etc, etc.  Well we have whittled and whittled away and the final thing on the list was blinds.  Basically our apartment has a wall of windows that face west- pretty nice actually (except for the run down abandoned building that sits to the left of our view).  The problem is that from about 4pm until 8pm, the unmerciful sun blasts light and heat into our living room with the strength of almighty Zeus himself.  Blinds were critical to our success in Deutschland.  We found a nice hardware store called "OBI"...  think Home Depot, but every worker speaks German.  So we went, spent an hour trying to figure out a way to do curtains cheaply but couldn't get it to work with such a large wall of windows and a funny configuration to the neighboring walls.  Blinds would be the only thing that would work... thankfully we found the perfect sizes.

So we lugged them back to the flat and I went about my business trying to hang them with a 6V hand drill. Unfortunately when I tried to drill into the ceiling to hang these bad boys I was surprised to find out that the ceiling was CEMENT.  I'm up a creek...

So back to OBI, more awkward conversations in broken english, nearly buy a hammer drill, eventually rent one, and back to the flat.

But... the bit won't fit into the drill.  Back to OBI, more awkward convos which mostly consist of me trying to speak German with my hands like charades, and get an adapter.

Then back to the flat and I set to hanging these puppies.  Basically, not to pat my own back, but I knocked it out of the park.  Despite with L Mama's "encouraging" comments throughout, the blinds were hung and work perfectly.  They provide nice shade and much needed privacy.  Finally the list is basically done... now to finalize the contract and get down to work.

Also... we have are first visitor tentatively scheduled for January.  My brother Curt and his wife Hannah will visit us and hopefully we will go to Dresden and Prague with them...

And I leave you with this:

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Working in the shadows

Hammer. Drill.

Final result.