1. John left for DC yesterday morning. This is the first time I’ve ever been in Germany without him. It’s weird!
2. Yesterday was a marathon day. My day went like this:
- Wake up at 5:15 AM, shower, get ready and get out the door by a few minutes after 6
- Take John to Ramstein (about 1 hr drive) to catch his plane to the States
- Drive back to go to work. This was my first drive ever on the Autobahn. I’ve never been a fan of highways or driving fast, and the fact that Germans can drive so fast has always made me really nervous. The drive went well, though.
- Work work work
- Make a mail run for work at the end of the day, go from there to downtown to pick up John’s computer at the repair shop, go pick up dinner
- Come home, walk and feed Béni, reheat my food which has already gotten cold by this point
- Eat dinner and watch a TV show – the only semi-relaxing part of my day
- Rid our house of boxes (shamefully we still had the TV and sound system boxes and had added to them over the course of the week through 3 separate boxes we received in the mail)
- Do the dishes
- Talk to my brother, sister, mom and mother-in-law on the phone
- Work two crafting projects start to finish
- Walk Béni again
- Shower
- Talk to John for a few minutes
- Sleep
3. We made black bean soup this week. It was one of my new recipes to try for the month. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very good. I also made Jim and Sarah’s Broccoli Cheese Soup recently, and unlike the black bean soup, it was delicious and very easy to make.
4. Work just blocked a bunch of websites including my personal email and our blog. Lame.
5. We have received a few awards lately, and I’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t followed the “rules.” Thank you to both Vesper and Deiala for the awards!
6. I am eager to do my tax return. That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I have to pay German taxes, so I have no idea what to expect with my tax return. I know I don’t have to pay into all of the German income tax, and I have heard that the return comes out to roughly what it would be in the States, but what gets me is the word roughly. Does that mean more? less? I’m a planner, and this is driving me a little crazy.
7. This work trip will be the first time John and I have been to the States and not been visiting family since we our wedding. I’m pretty excited about that.
I always like doing my tax return, I’m sure I won’t say that when I have a more complicated one but for now I enjoy it!
Look into if you also need to file a US one (but not pay here) because my mom was filing just UK tax returns for like 20 years and then found out one day that the whole time she should have been filing a US one each year also. It was confusing and a pain in the butt! I don’t remember (or not sure I ever really knew) the rules.
Luckily, my return is done for my by the company, so I’m sure they’ll do whatever needs to be done. I’m so glad to have them handling it — I think it would be a bit too much for me! Thanks for the tip, though. I’ll remember that if I end up in another position where the taxes aren’t completed for me.
Being military and doing your taxes on a military base means that you are filing it with the US, so everything should be fine. If not, I would be really pissed finding this out later, LOL.
Enjoy your trip, Sarah! Beni will be in good hands 🙂
I don’t pay US tax. It has to do with my job. I’m not a government employee. :o) Government employees – military and civilians – file their taxes normally, though.
And thanks! I’ll bring Beni by in a couple hours.
i hate doing taxes. Even though I don’t earn anything I have to “check in” with both the US and the UK.
I totally suck at doing those blog award things too!
How is your knitting coming along? I just finished an iPod cover and am starting a cushion, LOL
My knitting is going ok. I had to put it on hold for a little over a week due to business travel last week. I planned to sit down with it tonight, but I nicked my finger with a knife during dinner preparations tonight (ouch). Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it in a day or two.
I saw you iPod cover – very nice!