And the destination is...

Feel a little bad saying this considering the votes, but Mr. Porter & I are headed to England in April!

Greg, Ian's dad, is visiting in the summer & is dieing to go to Italy. Thus, we will go on that trip, but just a little later in the year. We have only spent a long weekend in London, so we are excited to see more of the city and do some day trip.

A Hate Letter to the Ausländerbehörde

So the day of the visa appointment finally came....and went...without us getting our visas. BLARG! We know standards have been raised, but we were much more prepared than when we received our visas in 2008. We had an appointment, a list of required documents, official German insurance, and a smile.

Apparently when they sent us a list of required documents they thought it was very efficient not to ask for some beforehand and just see if we telepathically foresaw them being asked for.

How to Toss a Pizza Pie

Last night we made some AMAZING pizza, courtesy of my Uncle Dave's (should be) Famous dough recipe. SO good! And my Uncle Dave even sports a mean toss technique. Check out the apprentice, Ian, at work.

Perfect Gift

We are going to a new Irish friend's birthday tonight & we were brainstorming about what to bring. Then it hit us:

Stars & Stripes Bourbon

We once saw a crew of Russians wheeling a whole shopping cart of this & bottles of coke out of the Real grocery store. Perfect.

We also do classy drinking sometimes, like when we went to a very refined whiskey tasting in Berlin. More often, we just drink on the UBahn for the UBlau.

Turnhalle - Day at the Gym

Thursday is the day Ian takes the kids to the gym, or turnhalle. Hilarity ensues.

"There is a game where one little kid gets a tail.
How do you attach it? Do you velcro it or something?
No- just stick it down their pants.
What?!
Well, they are wearing tights and...anyways. Doesn't matter. The kids aren't too bright, they are supposed to catch the fox, so the 'fox' runs in a circle and they all chase him. I'm like 'Just cut him off! Work your angles!'

So little dumb Mina is the fox. Saphire, our little Canadian princess, starts running straight for her. Mina ran smack dab into Saphi in a hit that would have made the NFL highlight reel. Mina laughed and Saphi just looked at us sucking wind. 'Whew!' Whew!' In the meantime, Darius saw a kid standing by himself and decided it was the perfect time to push him down. 'How does that hardwood taste?"

This is a Thursday in Ian world.

Hertha v. Union - Berlin Football

We heard about this game before we even came back to Berlin. West Berlin's team, Hertha did poorly last season and was regulated to the 2nd league. On the east end of Berlin, the old iron worker's team Union did very well and was promoted to second league. For the first time ever- it would be  

Berlin v. Berlin

We went, we saw, it was epic. I will let the pics & videos speak for themselves.

Ready for some Berlin madness

Apartment Tour #2: Prenzlauer Berg

2nd apartment, 2nd Tour. This tiny abode was our place in Prenzlauer Berg for January.





Want more pics and stories of apartments in Berlin? Click the apartment label for full gory details of our many, many moves and read What Moving 6 times in a Year has Taught Me.

Alec likes destruction...

There is a toddler in Ian's early morning class. He sees him every day. His name is Alec. At least one English parent, Alec's English language skills are pretty good. And....Alec is evil. Only an evil genius would refer to himself in the third person.

"Good morning children, how are you?"
"Alec has apocalyptic rage!"

Spending Spree!

We spend so much time being frugal, always kinda freaks me out when we actually spend some euros. But we did spend our Saturday getting some super cool stuff:

postcards (sorry for anyone who hasn't gotten one. Complain & one will be sent)
Calendar -yes we are that cheap that we wait until after Jan 1st. Berlin 1900s for 7 euro!
Bottle opener- in the shape of the German Eagle (had Ian's name all over it)
Thia food fixins - twas one of our best Asian inspired dishes ever
Picture- AWESOME photo of Oberbaumbrücke in black & white with the yellow U-Bahn train
Entry to the German History Museum to see the Hitler exhibit

An excellent Saturday.

Ian Encounters a Gypsy Family at the Penny Markt

Ian doesn't know how to put pen to paper, (or finger to keyboard in this case), but every day he comes home & tells me funny stories. For example.....


A Stop at the Penny markt before Home