Go ahead. Laugh.

On Wednesday, Eric and I started taking the dogs on walks since the weather has finally become nice (gee, it's only almost April). I noticed yesterday morning that my skin was a little blotchy on my face, but nothing too bad. I just figured it was from my MAC microdermabrasion scrub that I use in the shower or something. SO, yesterday evening, Eric and I went on another walk. Mind you, our house is near a wooded area with a canal..actually, several little wooded areas and athe same canal goes through different parts of the country side.

I wake up this morning and my face is completely inflamed. It's so swollen that there's no real ridge between my nose to my eyes...I essentially looked like a pink mashmellow head. I could barely open my eyes up enough to see my way through the house. It was VERY painful and extremely itchy! WTF happened to my face?!? Luckily, I had some awesome cortizone cream that one of the local Belgian quacks prescribed to me from last summer cause I was constantly getting bit by their psycho spiders and they itched like a mutha. I pretty much slathered that stuff ALL OVER my face and down my neck..it helped a lil, but not much. Taking a shower for work was fairly painful (felt like acid on my face)..put yet another layer of cream on my face..didn't bother wasting my makeup and went to work au' natural.

Once at work.. I was told (nicely) that I looked like hell (thaaaank you) and that I looked miserable. Thank you so very much, lol. I made my way over to the IDMT office considering I was, in fact, absolutely miserable. This is the SECOND time this has happened to me..but this time is far worse than the first. When I explained what was going on, the SSgt instantly told me it was due to this pesky lil guy:

I know you're probably thinking, "Erika, you're insane. A caterpillar? Really?"... it's ok, I thought the same thing when the SSgt told me. In fact, this lovely lil pain in the ass has toxic fur that it sheds on warm days (like the last few days) and tends to chill out in wooded areas and near canals. REALLY? You dont say! Those happen to be all around my neighborhood! OH THE JOY!

Basically, since it's now "officially" Spring..these lil buggers are gonna come out of the woodworks and share their fuzz with the world till they become something else in a prettier / less toxic form. Some people are allergic to 'em, some arent. Apparently, I'm one of those lucky peeps who IS allergic. All I can really do is continue to slather my face with cortizone as well as pop Benedryl as if it's Pez. 

I did a lil researching online and .... I kid you not.. the Belgian military had deal with 'em 3 years ago cause they were causing so many problems (and by the way, I live in the Limburg providence):

The Belgian army has declared war against … hairy caterpillar! Here’s the story:



 Belgian soldiers are to be deployed in the country's forests to combat the menace of hairy caterpillars, Reuters reports.

The procession caterpillars - so named because of their habit of marching in convoy - boast long hairs which provoke toxic dermatitis and respiratory problems in humans and account for around 80 per cent of doctor visits in their operational area in the eastern province of Limburg.

Accordingly, the authorities have ordered in the troops. Belgian military spokeswoman Ingrid Baeck said yesterday: "A bit less than a platoon, about 24 soldiers and airmen, will be deployed to help the fire brigade and civil protection authority combat the caterpillars."


Following the failure of previous weapons, including helicopter-sprayed pesticide, the grunts in the frontline will assault the insects with "super-size blowtorches" during a six-week campaign.



Baeck explained: "In teams of two people, they will go through the forests and burn the little animals off the trees. There have not been enough people to do this and I think we can make the difference." ®

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Oppsie

I forgot to post about these lil' things I picked up while Eric and I were in Germany the other day....

There's a place right outside of Ramstein called "The Big Emma's"..it's got AMAZING, traditional German food. I think I posted about that place several months ago..and I didn't take any pics of the food this time around considering we got it to go. BUT, I went to their beloved website and aquired some pictures for you so you can see what I'm talking about:

Schnitzel

Chicken Salad

This is a HALF size Hamburger...HALF. The full size is the size of a sheering wheel. Seriously.

Here's what the inside of the joint looks like:

And outside...

ANYWAY...back to the whole reason why I started this post, lol... While we were waiting for our food, I saw that they actually sell a lil "Big Emma" figurine. Sure, it might be silly to buy her, but come on.. that place rocks. The employee's are really nice, the food is amazing and we've never had a bad experience there. SO, here's my official Emma's goody:

Within Ramsteins BX / PX, there's a little shop that sells random european signs and such. You can have custom made stuff or just buy a blank plate if you so desire. Being how we're stationed in Belgium, I thought it'd be pretty cool to get a mini license plate (Belgian, of course) with our town on it. I WOULD'VE gotten "Kleine Brogel" on it, but you only have 9 characters allowed..otherwise, I would've gotten a German plate (Those have a "D" on it) and had "Vandegrift" put on it..alas, my maiden name has 10 characters. DAMN! Anyway, here's the sign I had made...the guy was REALLY nice and made it right then & there:

I also picked up a mini "Ausfahrt" sign :) It's going to be positioned right outside of our bathroom..hahahaa...

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Wheeeee!!!

This past week has been rather hectic between work and..well..life. I'd talk about work and all that fun jazz, but I rather not break out in hives anymore than I already deal with while I'm there.

On Thursday, Eric and I went over to Mannheim, Germany to help out one of the new guys in his shop. He (new guy) managed to find a mini-van to buy since his option in Belgium were pretty slim. Given, he really wanted to get a Honda Odessy, but for some reason, Honda won't sell them in this country due to warrenty issues or some garble like that. Once we got to Mannheim, he called up Mr. Army Guy since that's the guy who was selling the van.. long story short, this guy was kinda...umm..special. LOL. Once the van was sold, the paperwork was done and such, he asked Max (the guy we drove to Germany) if he could swing him by the thrift store since he had stuff he needed to drop off..fine and dandy. Then he needed a ride home since he didn't figure out ahead of time in terms of what he was gonna do after he sold the vehicle...the dudes house was 20 minutes in a way opposite direction we were going. I'm sure you're thinking "Well, why were you sticking with Max still? He bought the van and could go home without you."...you're right. But, he didn't have a GPS and he was wanting to go to Ramstein and shop around for a TomTom, and also wanted to hang out with us a lil more since we were giving him tips & tricks about the area. He's a nice guy! Well..once we dropped off Army Guy, we went to a store called XXXL Mobilia ...no, it's not a porn place. It's like a MASSIVE Pier One! They had some AWESOME stuff! Some stuff.. in all honesty... I couldnt figure out what it was, but most of the other things were pretty cool looking. I scored a cute yard decoration heart that says "liebe" (love) on it as well as some "rocks" for my candle hurricanes. AND, a cute lil "milk bottle" rack..there's a local florist here who sells 'em but I wasn't really willing to pay what they were asking.. I got mine for 3 euro! woot!

When we left the euro style Pier One, Max happened to toss his coat in the back of the van to realize that Mr Army Guy left his oh so important brief case behind. We would've gladly driven back to his house to return it to him, but like most places in Europe, his house was on some beaten road and I couldnt remember for the life of me where it was. Max tried callin the guy, but there wasnt an answer...so...what to do? Off to Ramstein we went! It was an hour away from where we currently were..sooo...whatever.

We get to Ramstein and Max tries calling him again, this time, Mr Army Guy answers. Turns out, he wants Max to call a friend of his who is over in Landstuhl, which is 20 minutes from Ramstein..and drop off the brief case with her. Now...call me silly, but if it's your brief case and you were the num-nutts that left it in the car, shouldn't you be the one to call around and see if you can arrainge for someone to get it for you? Especially if you're not willing to come get it yourself. Oh..I'm silly. Tee-hee! After him and Max playing phone tag (on Eric's cell phone) through out lunch at Macaroni Grill, Max called up this friend that Mr. Army Guy was referring to. Turns out, this gal is just a vague acquaintance, lol. I can't blame the gal for saying that she wasn't gonna pick this guys stuff up for him.. I mean.. come on. Max ended up dropping it off at the USO place with the guys info and the dude is gonna go over there later on Monday or something to pick it up. Funny thing is, the guy is literally counting down the days till they PCS and his PCS paperwork is alllllll in the bag (his works, we didn't open the bag up to see for ourselves). Brilliant! Yes!

After stuffing ourselves silly with amazing Macaroni Grill, we waddled off to the new and improved BX/PX. Keep in mind, the last time I saw their BX was before they opened the behemoth that it currently is. This thing is massive...I mean, MASSIVE. When you're standing at one end of it, you can't see the other end..it trails for days! We frolic'd in the bathroom section and got some much needed bath towels, some electronics that our lovely base in the Netherlands never have in stock, booze (desperately needed), painting supplies, and some goodies for our dogs. All in all, with did some pretty good damage in the place, but it was for alot of things that we were really needing to pick up.

There's a shop outside of the BX that sells German stuff... truth be told, some of their stuff is really marked up. There was a specific keychain I REALLY liked, but it didn't have a price tag on it..that should've been a clue, right? I'm not gonna say what it cost..but this isn't going to ever be used with keys..lol. It'll go nicely with my collection of "travel goodies".

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Come to Mamma!

I finally caved in. I couldn't take it any longer....

This lovely speciman has been officially "laid off". It's a horrible...HORRIBLE vacuum cleaner! Using my broom on the rug was more productive!

Eric bought it when we first got here since we had to leave our beloved Dyson Animal with my Dad. I didn't wanna risk bringing it here and attempting to run it through a transformer..lord knows I know a few gals here who have done that with their vacuum cleaners only to hear horror stories of something burning followed by a "POP" sound...and a dead vacuum.

I've been debating back and forth about getting myself a 220v Dyson. Yes, we "only" have two years left here..but damnit.. I'm not going to suffer with a shitty vacuum for two more years! After working my ass off this last pay period, I got a nice fatty check. Given, I could put that money towards a mini trip or something.. but my house is suffering and I can only sweep so much without my arm starting to look like Pop-Eye.

After thinking about it long and hard...not to mention, the other "vacuum" finally pissed me off enough.. I hopped onto Dysons website and checked out their different models. The euro models are pretty different from the ones they offer stateside..mainly, their vacuumes are the smaller "canister" style rather than the tall uprights like we use. I mean, you CAN get the uprights, but you're gonna pay through the nose. By the way.. it's not like the Belgians will lemme buy a Dyson in American Dollars... of course I gotta pay in Euro's. That, alone, is expensive.

This is the model I ended up getting:

It's a nifty lil canister vac. Maybe weighs like 3lbs? The collection canister pops off nicely and it works UHHHH--MAZING! It was 319 euro, which converts to about $440. When you think about it though, that's an average for what the Dysons run in the States..so I can't really bitch too much about the price, ya know?

Sorry Mr. Piece-O-Shit vacuum..you're fired!

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...

It's all crystal clear to me why people at this base keep to themselves.. CRYSTAL clear. The explosion of drama over something so small is .. oh geeze.. dare I say it? Dramatic? Over-reactive? Theatrical?

Apparently I'm not supposed to care. It's ok, don't worry. I won't anymore.

The End.

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Steal of a Deal!!!

One of my friends here is gettin' ready to move back to the States. Like any normal Military family, when you PCS (Permanent Change of Station), you usually end up unloading a bunch of stuff before the movers come since we're alloted only a certain amount of weight. Anything over the alloted weight is something we have to pay out of pocket (it can get rather expensive if you're a total horder).

Well, she emailed me a link to the local yard sale site..just to humor her, I checked it out. Since we're SUCH a small base, there's rarely ever anything updated or of interest that's added to the site for sale. So, I hopped on and noticed a link for "wood chest", clicked on it and fell INLOVE with this wooden "treasure box" looking chest!

I emailed her for it (yay) and told her I'd swing by later on in the evening to check it out. This thing is basically BRAND NEW! It still smells like cedar (very strong) and she got this back in 2001 (she thinks) from when she was in the dessert for a TDY. This whole time, she hasnt really used it for anything, lol.

It's now sitting comfortably upstairs in our guest room :) I figured we could use it for my Dads socks and shoes since we have a smaller dresser up there for him. Not to mention, he can keep some of his medical supplies in it.

By the way... $100 for this bad boy. YEAH. STEAL OF A DEAL!

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March Madness

I gotta say...this past week has been a prime example of Murphy's Law. If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. EVERYTHING that you could think of went south..

One example:

To make a very long story short, John brought home a progress report and he's barely hitting a 2.0 GPA. Needless to say, his prime source of distraction is officially out of the picture now. What was distracting him so much? His Xbox. No worries.. it's now happily living in someone elses house and being appreciated by it's new ownter. As for John, he's got some major work to do before the end of the school year. Between his progress report sucking ass, then finally getting a copy of last semesters report card (which was just as bad)...he's potentially getting yanked from his class trip to Amsterdam. Not only that, but he might not be coming with us when we go to Paris in May. Hopefully, this will be a massive wakeup call for him... the fact that we sold his xbox should let him know that we're not messing around anymore.

Second example:

Work was pretty much hell. That's all I can honestly say without getting dinged...ya know..just incase any of those peeps happen to read my blog.

Third example:

My Dad has been dealing with probate for going on two years now....this is starting to become rather frustrating considering alot of things are getting held up due to lawyers in New York. Given, I understand probate takes time...but two years? Come on! FREAKING RETARDED!!

vent vent vent vent

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