We've moved! Sort of. The stove in our new place came yesterday, but it still has to be connected. The living room is partially oiled (the wood needed some treatment), but we ran out of oil and couldn't get more, so it's not quite finished. We did install a cool closet treatment in the closet room, a couple of racks in the kitchen, and we built a workspace/cart that we got at Ikea yesterday since there are no countertops, cupboards, or anything similar in the kitchen. We have no hot water and the toilet seat is not attached to the toilet. BUT: we have a bed. If we compare the current bed with the king-size bed of days of yore, it shrinks into insignificance. But if we compare it to the mummy-shaped camping mattress in the tiny hole? It suddenly seems like acres of paradise. Although the bells of the Evangelische Stift do not intend to allow us lazybones to sleep beyond seven am, there is little or no traffic here and that is delightful after listening to the 3am road races at the old place. We still go back to the other apartment to cook and shower, but we'll be out of there tomorrow.

It was great to have a visit from an old friend who is also over here in Germany this weekend. Not only were we able to use his strong muscles to help us carry our new (antique) Spanish chest from the Flohmarkt (flea market) to the new apartment, but we were able to eat, talk, and plan dissertations and trips. After he left, B and I headed out for what promised to be a delightful, relaxing 15-16 miler after last weekend's 20plus. I'd carefully planned out a new route that took us past the cloister at Bebenhausen, up through the woods, and back along the Neckar. The first hour or so was as delightful as promised, but then we started having trouble finding the way. This broke things up a bit so that it was hard to settle into a rhythm. As long as we remained in the woods, it wasn't so bad. At the point where we were supposed to be returning along the Neckar, however, it turned out that we were initially returning along the Autobahn. Far less pleasant! Eventually we hit the path that brought us through clinging vegetation along the bottom of a cliff--much nicer than it sounds, except that it was getting dark. Neither of us could figure out why it was getting dark so early, though. Stranded at last on a two-way highway bridge with deceptive footpaths that lead us onto the bridge and then left us, we finally climbed down in the dark and accosted a man with two children and some glow-in-the-dark balloons. We were only a mile and a half from home, but when I turned off the heart rate monitor to check the time, we realized that it was so dark because we had somehow spent 50 minutes along the way looking for the way! In other words, a run that was thankfully, gratefully forgotten as soon as it was over.

Today is a holiday in Germany (Reunification Day), but no one celebrates. Unfortunately, the stores close anyway, so we won't have oil for the floor or screws to attach our new Ikea purchases to the wall (don't get me started on our trek from the Ikea south of Stuttgart to the subway station... sweat, misery, and cross-training with heavy heavy furniture are all involved, plus locals calling us crazy). Coming home to discover that the new bathroom lamp was half missing, the new mirror and towel rack have no screws included, and so on? Not fun! But as I write this over the stable internet connection IN BED!! and watch the sun stream in through our (multiple!) windows onto the wood floor and the newly laid bedroom carpet, who cares?