whisper

well... i think i've made a decision about my daylight spare time in berlin. joy was telling me yesterday that the berlin wall is traced throughout the city by bricks that were installed in the ground where it once stood. so i think i'll be able to get a good idea of it's presence. plus, i think the remaining wall segments at the east side gallery are pretty vandalized. so i'll just take the hop-on, hop-off tour. she said the jewish history museum was awesome. i don't know if i'll ever make it to berlin with brendan someday, but i feel like that's the kind of think i'd want to do with him since he's a big admirer of jewish culture. so i might just put that one off for a later date. i'm sure that someday, maybe when we're getting old and past the choose-your-own-adventure style of holiday planning, that we'd take a european tour to many different cities on a bus.

i'm in the process of making a stuffed animal for so-and-so. it's a little rabbit that i've named after the protagonist in 'watership down' - hazel-rah. i've finished the head and body, and am currently working on the arms and feet. it's pretty super cute and i'm very pleased. since our place is small, and little babies don't actually play with stuffed animals, this will be little so-and-so's only stuffed animal until he/she is bigger and he/she has a room of his/her own. it's funny because people tend to make a face when i tell them this will be the baby's only stuffed animal (for a while), but they seem to understand once i explain it to them. we're definitely not out to deprive our baby or gift-block baby-lovers. i just think it's sensible to be realistic about how much space we actually have to work with. it's 510 square feet!

we inherited a bunch of baby gear from gene yesterday, which we really appreciated. seeing baby stuff in our living room made this change very real. i suppose it would be prudent of me to start figuring out where to keep stuff and perhaps move a few existing things around.

on saturday i tried to clean the cat pee out of my backpack. in the process i found a hole on the bottom of the bag that i don't actually know where it came from. when everything was all said and done, it still smelled. i think because it's a backpack with all sorts of crevasses and curves, it didn't work that well. had it been a suitcase, as the instructions were intended for, it probably would've been more effective since there wouldn't be hiding spots. so i bit the bullet and bought a new bag from mec. i read a great review of it, it wasn't expensive and i like that it comes with a day pack. while i was at it, i orded a big pod backpack that i've been eyeing for a while to use as a diaper/baby things bag. i'm pleased because i got free shipping! i don't suspect it will arrive before this saturday, but i can use the suitcase my dad's friend wayne passed on to me - "wayne's suitcase" as i like to call it. it's small, but expandable, so i think it'll be fine for 6 days in berlin. i'll pack light and bring my day pack as my carry-on if i need more space. i just have to make sure there's room for the beer i'll buy for brendan on the return trip. airplanes won't let you bring bottles in your carry-on, so it has to go in my luggage.

things i need to do before saturday are... get some euros from moneymart and learn basic phrases in german. danke very much ;)

is it getting better?
or do you feel the same?