All Quiet on the Western Front

It’s early morning here, and the house is quiet. (Don’t you hate it when people type quite instead of quiet?) I’m enjoying a few minutes of relaxation before the house is up and we have to start our day. I LOVE having people visit, but the days certainly are “go, go, go” because there is so much to show and so little time!

Our trip to Ramstein and to visit the puppies went well yesterday. Sarah and I were amazed at how much of the breeder’s German we understood. I’d say we got about 80% of what he was talking about. I guess after having lived here for nearly two years that should be expected but it’s harder to learn German when you spend every day interacting with your co-workers and friends who only speak English.

The breeder told us the litter of puppies had been to the vet on the 7th and that everything looked great. They checked his heart, lungs, eyes, ears, ahem… underparts, hips, teeth, nose, etc. He got his microchip (which allows any vet to figure out who his owners are if he ever gets lost) and he got his first round of inoculations. Must’ve been a long day considering they have 8 puppies to deal with.

The trip to Ramstein was nice, Sarah’s dad enjoyed seeing the planes and telling us about them and what they are for, and then we ate at Chili’s. Boy did we eat. Chips, Salsa, Queso, Burgers, Fries, Margaritas (A story about this to follow), and dessert. YUM!

On the Margaritas note… So normally we order the Presidente Margarita when we go to Chili’s. It comes in a shaker with a strainer on top (plastic type) and an over-sized swirl martini glass. (a la Mexican martini if you are from the South/Central Texas area)  However, right now the bar is under renovations so they don’t have all the normal glassware. So rather than serving the Presidente in a Shaker with a Martini Glass on the side, Our drinks came in beer mugs. Yes, beer mugs. Normally when Sarah and I order these drinks the martini glass comes with ice in it. We normally dump the ice back in the shaker and strain our drinks so that we can drink them straight up, rather than on the rocks. Margaritas tend to get watered down if you leave them over ice because the tequila melts the ice down pretty quickly. (Plus I just like my drink that way!) So I asked our waitress to have the bartender chill the margarita as she made it and then strain in into the beer mug w/salt. The bartender comes out a few minutes later and told us that she isn’t allowed to to modify how they make or serve their “signature drinks” so she couldn’t do what we wanted. I explained, I didn’t want her to modify what went into the drink, I just want to be able to drink it the same way I normally do. She said “Ok” and went back to the bar.

A few minutes later she came back with two beer mugs chock full of ice and margarita (and no salt!). She told me she couldn’t take the ice out but she did chill the drink (what the heck does that mean? You can’t chill something and then serve it over ice… well I guess you can, but its pointless.) I again asked her to just strain what she had in her hands into another beer mug without ice and with salt. At this point, I was starting to get pretty flustered. She told me she would have to ask the manager if that was ok. I replied that I would like to talk to him to, so off she went. A few minutes later she came back with our drinks made the way we had asked, and told us that they made an exception this time but we couldn’t order them like that again. (WHAT???) I asked again to speak to the manager…. Out he came… I told him that since they couldn’t modify the drinks, I either wanted it served in the original glassware, or I wanted it served how I drink it when I have the right glassware. He said he understood and that’s why he made an exception. I also noted that I could have avoided the whole thing if rather than ordering the presidente margarita I had ordered a custom margarita with the same ingredients as a presidente served up. He said, “well I suppose that’s one way to do it,” and walked off. FRUSTRATING!

Ok, well now that I am good and pissed off about the margarita issue again, I guess I should start my day.

We will post puppy pictures later this afternoon.