What, me focus?

No big news this weekend and I am most grateful. I'll therefore regale you with a desultory list of disjointed minutia that one would only string together in a blog (or a very annoying drunken phone call).

I got home last night (Friday) to an elated B, who had finally replaced the dishes etc. that the movers left in our dishwasher in Redmond. Note to self (and those who will be moving soon): update "moving out" checklist.

The moving company offered to pay for or ship these overlooked items not realizing B wouldn't hear anything after the word "pay". Thomas Edison looks downright uninspired compared to B when she needs to stretch a Euro. From the insurance settlement on the dishes etc., she managed to replace our dishes, glasses and silverware. If she can find replacements for the abandoned pot lids, she'll buy a new dining room table (yes, I'm serious). Kids, do not try this at home.
B also found some really cool liqueur glasses that I'm sure will be overflowing with Amarula in no time. While I was getting my camera ready today, I noticed the glasses casting interesting colored shadows on our window ledge. Is it just me or this a really cool image?
As a point of reference, the glasses really look like this:
I also took a cool panorama of our apartment. I can sense you're getting dizzy, but I warned you this post was all over the place...
Today (Saturday) we went to a little plaza in Leimen, a town about 10 minutes from here (see this previous post about Liemen). A quick Google reveals that Leimen is the cement center of South Heidelberg. The citizens of Leimen really should consider electing a new chamber of commerce.
Anyway, Wolfgang reminded me the other day that Boris Becker is from Leimen. There you have it: our brush with greatness for this week. There's a very cool fountain in the middle of Leimen's plaza that kids can play in and on. There are also a few restaurants around the edge of the plaza with tables outside.
Sandra and I knocked back a couple of beers while B and the kids stuck to coke and ice cream and eventually a pizza. This little plaza is an absolutely great place to kill a few hours on a gorgeous Spring day.

The kids had a blast playing in the water. We're still not sure if they were supposed to treat it like a full on water park, but no one called the authorities (that we're aware of),

Speaking of Spring, the hills of Heidelberg have erupted in greenery virtually overnight. I wouldn't have imagined it would make such a difference, but the scenery from the car and our apartment (see below) is noticeably more Summery.
It turns out B and Sandra are becoming the Big Sisters (in the Orwellian sense) of our neighborhood. Our street is pretty busy with people coming and going at all hours. Having tons of windows and a second floor vantage point, not too much gets by these two. If you spend much time on the Schwetzingerstrasse, consider yourself warned.

On the home front, they've started working feverishly on our building's garden. The dentist's office on the first floor should open on May 1st (or probably the 2nd as the 1st is a holiday here). The landlord told us that a massage therapy clinic may go in directly below our apartment. Nice. Hanging yet another "Crazy Ivan" in this post, I'll be headed to Atlanta on Sunday for a few days to attend a conference. I was hoping I'd have time to see their new aquarium, but it looks like work will prevent that from happening. (And yes, I'm turning into an old fart who is interested in aquariums). If anyone knows of good restaurants and/or bars downtown in "The Big Peach", feel free to hook a guy (me) up.

Finally, my parents will get here on Tuesday for 10 days or so. I won't be here for the first couple of days of their visit, but that should leave them plenty of time to soak in the grandkids. It's been quite some time since they've seen each other so I would have been kind of superfluous anyway.