Diplomacy in action....or how not to impress your German neighbors...

You know how sometimes you just have a bad day? Well, yesterday was one of those for me. I just wanted to go home and read my book all day.

I should also say that this past weekend was really great. Gabe found a hobby shop in a nearby town, we bought a kitchen island and an entertainment center at IKEA which we assembled on Sunday. We also went up to the Potzberg Wildpark and went on a hike with the dogs. They loved it and we had a beer (him) and a cappucino (me) after while we enjoyed a view of the entire valley with the windmills spinning in the distance. Not Dutch windmills, but the huge metal ones. There was still fog in the valley and the windmills looked like they were floating.

So, after such a great weekend, Monday kind of sucked. I went home and moped about for a bit. Gabe had bought a new book and some new magazines so he was busy. Finally, we both made some dinner and we were sitting down, reading while we ate, when the doorbell rang. We looked at each other....I went to put the dogs downstairs while he answered the door. We both had no idea who it was....who did we know in the area that would call at 8pm? We had forgotten one major event - HALLOWEEN.

That's right. Here we are with all our rolladens up (heavy German shades most Germans put down in the evening) and half the lights in the house on, practically screaming "come to our house, we're American and we have candy!" Except that we didn't. The poor little German kids we so cute as I tried to explain to their parents that we had just moved in and hadn't remembered to buy candy. I did, however, offer them chocolate chip cookies. They were happy with that and went on their way. Funny, most American kids wouldn't be allowed to have unwrapped candy. Needless to say, we put our shades down and turned off most of the lights and had no more little ghouls stop by.

Anyhow, I had been thinking that I would decorate the front stoop and have candy ready so that we could make a good first impression on our new neighbors. It's safe to say that this was not accomplished. I don't think we made a bad impression...we just came across as a bit stupid. Ahh well, such is life. I doubt we'll forget Halloween next year!