Greetings from Paris

More to come...

There are two things I am powerless against...

For some people, it's crack and booze. For me, it's chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and banana bread with chocolate and walnuts. I have zero self-control when it comes to these two things. For example, this pan of banana bread (I don't have a loaf pan, so it's more of a cake) came out of the oven last night at 9:30 pm. It is now 8:00 am and I think Pat has only eaten one square. (why does blogger flip some photos??? can anyone help me out here?)
In my defense, I halved the recipe and it's made with whole wheat flour and honey and dark chocolate. So it's good for you, right? And bananas...we all need to eat fruit, right?

Email Fiasco

The last two weeks I've been getting emails intended for some other Lindsay Young. I think some chick with the same name as me has set up a new gmail account but keeps accidentally giving people the wrong address. I've gotten a couple emails from eHarmony, an evite to Daniel's 30th birthday, a few UPS tracking notifications and a couple from the girl's parents. The first email I got from the girl's parents I thought might be spam or some phishing scam because it simply said "test". So of course, just to be cautious before I replied, I googled the couple's name and found their website which had pictures of them and their kids including their daughter Lindsay (it wasn't me by the way). I thought I would be nice and reply to them just to let them know I wasn't the person to whom they were intending to send the emails. Here is a string of our conversation.

Couple that I don't know: test

Me: Hi there - I think you have the wrong email address. I don't think I'm the Lindsay Young you're looking for.

Couple that I don't know: hello there. i will use this

(I didn't respond to this email because I was pretty sure they meant to say, "I will not use this" but just forgot to type "not". I do it all the time...leave out the important words. But no big deal right because I'm never gonna hear from them again? So then I got an email from them a couple hours later. This time I responded and tried to be more clear.)

Me: Please do not send me emails. You have the wrong email address. Thank you.

Couple that I don't know: what is the correct one?


What??? Seriously???

Am I not being clear enough? Any suggestions how I should respond?

What we've been up to...

I haven't really been in the mood to blog lately...I've been tied up reading, cooking, eating and shopping (mostly groceries). It hasn't left much time for anything else. We also had visitors. Here's a little peek at what the last few weeks have been like.

Grandma and Grandpa Young came for a visit.

We went to Prague.

And the Freiberg Temple.
We hung around Berlin.

Ate good food.

Played in fountains.
And on playgrounds.
It was pretty much way fun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a great time!!!

Hijacked!

It's been a few weeks since the last post, so I thought I (Pat) would help get the ball rolling again. Rather than backtrack, I'll start with today with this lovely gem of true love, captured while we ate pizza at Vapiano's.

Is that true love or what? Who says the newspaper is on its way out? Can you possibly surf the web and hold hands at the same time? Of course not. Love will save the newspaper!

Cardboard Home

Our friend (and babysitter), Tramaine, is here in Berlin doing an artist's residency. Her project is taking recycled cardboard and turning it into furniture and other things for her living space. She had an open studio the other week, so we dropped by to check out her stuff. It was really cool.

We had to put on slippers before we went into the studio.
Cooper liked the floor.
This is a dresser. It actually holds her clothes. So functional!
A cute little Japanese style table. (Cooper knocked it down, btw...oops)
Sleeping quarters with partition.
Curtains and cherry blossom branches made from popcorn! So cool.
This is another partition to divide the space. I should have gotten more detailed pictures...the design was so intricate.
And here's the Coop in another person's open studio. They were playing Outkast and Cooper was loving it. He just kept stomping his feet to the beat and bobbing up and down. So funny! Also, don't mind his little tuxedo tail. It was kind of cold that day so I wanted to put a long sleeve shirt on him and all he had was an old onesie that was way too small so I couldn't snap it shut. I just tucked it in, but you know, with all that crazy dancing it wouldn't stay hidden.

Sometimes waking up to an overcast sky is the best thing in the world

Because it means you didn't wake up to a crying baby.

4:44am.

That's what time the sun comes up in our neck of the woods this time of year. Which means Cooper's room gets nice and bright, and convinces him that waking up just after 5am is an okay thing to do. Today the dark clouds decided to cover the sun's rays and I got an extra two hours of sleep. Thank you Mr. Rainclouds.