Tag Archives: Hofheim am Taunus

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Arran ruins our Saturday plans…

As some readers know, I have two dogs that kind of substitute for the offspring I never had.  I wouldn’t say my dogs are my life, per se, but they are very important to me.  And, just like all living things, sometimes they get sick.

A few years ago, my dog Arran had a mast cell tumor on his head.  He had it removed and, fortunately, it was pretty benign.  He healed quickly and never seemed any worse for wear.

I was hoping Arran would be one of those dogs who never gets another MCT, but I think he might have one now.  He has a hard, slightly ulcerated bump, right next to the top of his right ear.  It’s maybe an inch or so from where his first tumor was.  I suspect it’s a MCT because it seems to get inflamed easily.  Arran has also been spontaneously vomiting recently, for no apparent reason, and he’s had some pretty rancid gas.  Mast cell tumors give off histamine, which can cause bleeding, stomach upset, and gas.

Yesterday, as I was writing a new book review on my main blog, Bill came into my office to tell me that Arran had a huge accident in the night.  Sometime before we woke up, he went into the living room and had a bout of diarrhea on one of my new rugs.  We cleaned up the mess; then at ten o’clock, Bill called what I think will be our new vet.  Unlike our previous vets in Herrenberg, this practice has regular Saturday hours from ten o’clock until noon.  We got an appointment at 11:45am.

Bill met the wife side of the husband and wife team, who checked out Arran and spoke relatively good English.  She gave Arran a shot and some medications for pain and to settle his stomach.  He’s doing better today, but unfortunately, Bill had to leave for another business trip.  This time, he’s going to the States.  I’ll be here alone all week, which sucks.

I think after Bill’s trip, I will arrange to have the vet aspirate Arran’s bump and, perhaps, remove it.  There’s always a risk with MCTs because if you don’t get them all with really good margins, they can come back with a vengeance.

My other dog, Zane, has also had a mast cell tumor.  Zane is doing fine now, but he’s had his issues with stomach upset and the like.  He’s getting lumpier by the day, too, thanks to many old man tumors.  I hope none of them are dangerous, but I don’t want to put either dog through any extreme surgeries because they’re both getting old.  I suspect a lot of the tumors Zane has are fatty lumps called lipomas.

I was hoping to have something new and exciting to write about today, but unfortunately, it’s just another cloudy weekend on my own.  Maybe I’ll think of one of my famous top ten lists in the meantime, as I feed Arran a bland diet.  Arran was ravenous this morning, which is a good sign.

On another note, as happy as I am that my husband has work he enjoys in a place we both enjoy, I really hate it when he leaves town.  I especially hate it now, because I don’t really know anyone in Wiesbaden yet and don’t yet know my way around here.  I also hate driving, although I will do it if I have to.  I miss Bill when he’s gone.  I suspect I’ll be sleeping and reading a lot this week, hoping for prettier weather.  Last night, I told Bill it felt like he’d never left the Army.  He just doesn’t get to look like a hottie in his uniform anymore.

Oh well…  for President’s Day weekend, we have planned another trip to France, this time to an area we have not yet explored.  We’ve found a very inexpensive and pet friendly house to rent.  It might soon be time for another list of pet friendly lodging!

It’s a good thing they’re all so cute.
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The nicest hardware store I’ve ever seen… and more Italian hospitality!

Now that we’ve settled in somewhat, Bill has decided to try to fix the holes in the wall where the curtain rod is in our living room.  The holes were left by the previous occupants, who apparently hung heavy drapes that pulled the screws out of the wall.  Once he fixes that, I can hang my drapes and raise the Rolladens.  Actually, I’m trying to decide what we can put in our big living room so it doesn’t look so empty.  It’s like we have two living rooms now and one side has art, a rug, and our Bose speaker.  The other side has the couches.

So anyway, we needed to go to the hardware store to pick up some stuff with which to fix the holes.  In our old town, we used to go to the hardware stores in Herrenberg or Nagold.  They weren’t bad hardware stores.  In fact, they reminded me of slightly upscale American big box stores.  Our Toom in Herrenberg even had a small restaurant in it.  Germans are very civilized.

I didn’t have especially high expectations for the MS Holz Fachmarkt.  I figured it would be like all the other hardware stores I’ve been to.  I see by Google reviews that this store gets average ratings.  People seem to either love it or hate it.  I enjoyed my visit today…

The front facade.  Apparently, this is a new location with a nice big parking lot.  Check out the cool kids’ play equipment.  No, they aren’t for your kids to play on, but you can build one for your house.

As soon as I walked inside, I was greeted by the cashier.

All of your garden needs… even Crocs and hats for your kids.

 

I found Bill and a friendly staffer, who spoke English, showed Bill what he needed to fix the hole.  Bill had helpfully taken a picture of the hole, which was useful to show the man so he could advise us of the right product.  The guy even explained the directions to us in English, since the packaging didn’t have them translated.

Then I noticed this “wallpaper”.  In both of our German houses this time, I’ve noticed the walls have this texture on them.  I saw that it looked like wallpaper, but was curious if that’s what it really is.  Sure enough, my curiosity was satisfied.

There were a couple of things I was hoping to find… the kind of things you might find in a Lowe’s or a Home Depot.  Unfortunately, Germany doesn’t embrace one stop shopping quite as much as the United States does.  Still, it was interesting to walk around the store, which was clean and quiet and had some very attractive displays.

Ideas for when the weather improves.

A lounger with a shade!

Isn’t it beautiful?

This was a cool looking door, with the shattered look.  I think it was selling for about 1500 euros.

An artist who makes furniture with trees…

 

I loved the chair, though I don’t know how comfortable it is.  It was made with a cherry tree.

 

Then I spotted a most impressive sight!  This store has a slide in it.  Your children take off their shoes and slide down to the bottom, right next to the coffee bar.  Didn’t I tell you Germans were civilized?

Weee!  My German friend Susanne says that there was a shoe store in Stuttgart that had a slide that went to the children’s section (smart thinking) and a drug store in her little town also had one.  As an American who was denied such coolness as a child, I now feel deprived!

 

When we were finished shopping, we decided to search for lunch.  We drove around a bit, noticing the Hofladens near our house.  We eventually ended up in Hofheim am Taunus, where I spotted a pizzeria called Amici.  It looked promising.

Bill is ready for lunch… and we had a big one!

A little local water in a bottle that reminds me of perfume.

They brought out some bread and olives, and poured generous glasses of Primitivo.

We split an avocado salad that was made with tiny shrimp, pineapples, and garnished with cherry tomatoes, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar.  This was about 13,50 euros and I’m glad we shared it.  It was a lot even for the two of us, but it was very nice.

 

There was an older couple sitting near us and they were obviously regulars.  The very pleasant waitress took excellent care of them, joking and laughing.  Another couple of ladies brought in an adorable six month old baby and a toddler with red ringlets.  They were easily chatting with the older couple, who appeared to be having a great time.  I can see why they’re regulars.  The waitress was super nice and the food was great.

Bill had Rigatoni 435, which included beef and “Stein Pilze” (stone mushrooms).  He loved it, but that plate reeked of fungus!  It was a bit overwhelming for me, especially since I hate mushrooms.

I went with Linguini Scolo, which was basically linguini with “fruits of the sea”.  I couldn’t finish it, because that was a lot of protein.  It was yummy, though… shrimp, “crevettes” (little shrimp), mussels, and vegetables– tomatoes, peppers, and leeks.

Naturally, we had dessert.  Bill had creamy panna cotta, which came with caramel and was probably the best I’ve tasted in a long time.  Panna cotta is often like Jello, but this was a lot creamier.  

I had zabaione with vanilla ice cream.  We had this at Little Italy in Wiesbaden back in October.  To be honest, I liked the way they did it better.  This dessert is really more like a beverage the way it’s served at Amici.  At Little Italy, it was more like a thin pudding.  It’s basically a liquid custard made with Masala wine.  We also had a round of espresso.

As we paid the check, we enjoyed a house shot of Limoncello.  We could have also had grappa or another digestive.  I think it’s a nice touch when European restaurants do this.  It kind of softens the blow of the bill.

 

Hofheim am Taunus isn’t far from where we live, so I can see us going back to this place.  Maybe we’ll even be regulars.  I think that would be alright.  If we’d taken the first house we looked at when we were househunting, which was too small for us, we would have been really close!

Out front…  They had a nice display of wine in the front window, too, with multiple bottles of “Why Not” Primitivo.

And someone’s artistic rendition of Yosemite Sam…  There’s a large train station in this town.  We’ll have to explore it more when the weather improves.

 

All in all, we had another nice afternoon in our new area.  It may soon be time to start a new “Good eats” post, like the one I made for Stuttgart.

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All roads lead to Wiesbaden! Our intra-Germany move, part three…

Wednesday morning, the movers arrived right on time with our stuff.  As they were scattering rug protection for the floors, Bill said “We’ve already had our first shouting match.”

“What happened?” I asked, not sure if I really wanted to hear about it.  I have mentioned before that moving turns me into a raving bitch, especially if I’m also “hangry”, which I was before he started telling me the story.  Moving is a process I truly despise.  I don’t need a reason to get any bitchier.

Throwing caution to the wind, Bill explained that due to the congested road that leads to our house, the movers were forced to drive the wrong way down a one way street.  Just before the movers arrived, the trash truck was forced to do the same thing– drive the wrong way down the one way street.  We are now located on a very narrow street with many people parking their cars on the side.  It simply wasn’t possible for the moving truck to get down there the “legal” way.

Well… it seems that the moving truck inconvenienced a fellow American, who had to wait a couple of minutes for it to get down the street so he could make his turn.  The man got out of his car and started speaking perfect German… at least until he completely lost his shit and reverted to his native English tongue.  Bill said the guy was beet red and was absolutely furious that he’d had to stop so the movers could pass.  Bill took note of the man’s close cropped haircut and Washington, DC baseball cap, as well as his complete outrage at having to wait a minute for the movers.

First he screamed at the movers, who simply shrugged in response; then he started screaming at Bill.  We don’t know who this man is, but it appears that he runs a local business and Bill said he had the air of an extremely entitled retired colonel.  Apparently, he lives in our neighborhood or close by.  I’m glad I wasn’t there to witness this spectacle, because as Bill started telling me about it, I felt my own temper start to rise.

I can’t abide people who are verbally abusive.  I have a tendency to respond in kind, although I’ve now gotten to the point at which my responses are mostly non-verbal.  Make no mistake, though.  If I shoot you a death ray with my eyes, you’ll definitely know it.  Then I’ll start blogging.  If I start speaking when I’m in that state, there is no telling what will be said.  So I have learned to zip it.  I’m not sure I would have “zipped it” for that guy, though.  Actually, I might have had a good laugh at him.  Bill’s description of his out of control ranting and raving was kind of hilarious.

Fortunately, Bill is a very even tempered person and, when the pissed off American started his belligerent tirade, he calmly turned and walked away.  There is no reasoning with people who get that enraged over a moment’s inconvenience.  Perhaps a nice stroke will settle that man’s hash.  If he keeps up that level of vitriol, I think it’s a real risk for him.  Anyway, the whole incident would have lasted half as long if the guy had just STFU and stayed in his car.

One of the movers was really awesome.  I have a large dresser that the movers initially said they would not be able to get upstairs.  This guy, very enthusiastic with a “can do” attitude, managed to convince his co-workers that getting my dresser upstairs was possible.  The one insistent naysayer was the lone German on the team.  Well… the Croatians proved the German guy wrong.  Although it took some doing, they hauled my bulky dresser up the stairs with nary a scratch!  Bill rewarded them with a generous tip.

Our stuff was unloaded by early afternoon, so the movers left us to our mess.  Kudos to Weichert for sending us such a professional team.  They were truly outstanding.  I wish we could have them for all of our moves.  We’ve had a few doozies over the years!

We took a brief break from unpacking to visit IKEA for some household items and get some lunch.  I once swore I would never visit IKEA again.  Indeed, it had been a full four years since our last hellish IKEA experience in Sindelfingen.  I still hate IKEA, but we had a real need for storage solutions and didn’t want to wait for an online order, especially since we had no Internet and I was relying on my iPad with cellular access.  Our local IKEA is pretty nightmarish, but it wasn’t quite as bad as our last visit to the one in Sindelfingen.  We have visited our new IKEA twice since our move and I think I can safely say I won’t be back again for some time.  Once every few years is plenty of IKEA exposure for me.

Naturally, I was hangry after our IKEA experience, so we found a local Italian restaurant that turned out to be very nice, even if finding parking was appalling.  One thing I have noticed about the Wiesbaden area is that it’s really hard to find parking.  This area is very built up and everyone drives.  Nevertheless, we had a delightful lunch at Casalinga da Rita, tiny “hole in the wall” eatery in a nearby Hofheim am Taunus.  I notice it gets average reviews on Google, but we had a good experience there.  The other guests were Italians, which I take as a good sign in an Italian restaurant.

Bill’s blurry hands.

Spaghetti with pesto!

Tagliatelle salmone.  This hit the spot!

It’s a very tiny place, with ice cream, pasta dishes, pizzas, and cramped seating.  We’d go back.

A little culture break.

I took note of this charming bumper sticker in the car parked near ours.

 

By five o’clock, I was decidedly pissy, so Bill told me to sit down and drink some wine.  He’s a good husband because he knows when I’ve had enough bullshit for one day.  I wanted to take a shower, but the cold water tap in our upstairs bathroom was frozen from too much corrosion.  I ended up taking baths for several days, until we got the faucet replaced.  Our move also taught me the magic of using white vinegar to descale the taps, but the tap in our shower was too far gone for that to work.  Not even Liquid Wrench could free the cold water for us.

I sat on my can until Thursday morning.  Bill got up and drove back to Stuttgart to clean our old house again, pick up the dogs, and close us out of Stuttgart.  I stayed behind in Wiesbaden and continued unpacking and putting stuff away.

Bill found this in our bio bin.  I have so many questions…  Who would throw away an obvious going away gift?  Was it the recipient who tossed this, or a disgruntled spouse?  I may have to write a short story about this, once we’re totally settled and I’m bored.

I’m really glad I stayed in Wiesbaden.  I definitely would not have wanted to witness the final walkthrough with our former landlady.  More on that in the next post.

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