Home again

It's been an.. enlightening weekend!

We visited Jörg's best man in distant Swabia, who has three sons and no plans for more, so we got a huge box of baby clothing + a nursing pillow + babyphone + stuff from them. That was very nice (though to be fair otherwise they'd just have thrown it out because they no longer needed it and it was blocking up their attic, or so they said). Weekend as such was slightly stressful, as two of the three sons are rather complicated and noisy and continually demanded attention and threw stuff down if they didn't get it (or even if they got it). By Sunday it was kind of hard to keep back and not constantly tell them what to do, because the parents clearly didn't so the boys just kept on being fussy. But that would probably have looked pretty bad, the not-yet-parents-guests acting as if they knew better than the actual parents. So we mostly managed to keep our mouths shut.
Sunday afternoon we went to the local Fasenetsumzug, which for some reason starts there as early as right now. Swabian/ Alemannic carnival is rather different from what we know from Cologne and surroundings - limited range of traditional costuming options but going a loooooong way back. Despite the different background, however, the actual practice was much like in Cologne: Groups with more or less impressive costumes and displays parading through roads lined with drunk people stepping on each other's feet. Pity. I think in Cologne at least the audience participates more.

Since we were in Swabia already, Jörg dropped me off at barbardin's on the way home, where I had two more vacation days! Quails were cooked and devoured, movies were watched, Terry Pratchett was fangirled, so that was good. (Also, one night on barbardin's fantastic air bed cured the knotted muscle in my neck that I'd suffered from all weekend. Yay!) Went home by train, which against all probability reached Cologne exactly on time, so I got an earlier bus than expected, so Jörg couldn't pick me up because he was still at work. Managed to walk home (in the last daylight, too!) just fine, although mom-in-law would probably be extremely cross if she knew how heavy my bag was...
Train journey had its surreal moments; for a long while the tracks go through the beautiful Middle Rhine valley, which due to the massive snow in December and the massive thaw of the past weeks was quite flooded. Weather kept changing between foggy, rainy and bright sunshine perpetually, and the river was insanely vast. All the usual riverbank had disappeared, Pfalzgrafenstein castle was no longer upon an island, roads and gardens were under murky water. A bit more and the train tracks would probably have been impassable...

Back home I was welcomed by a parcel from rahja which contained - more cute baby stuff! ^^ Thank you so much! I watched the DVD today and was indeed hugely amused by them expectant parents and their overacting *g*

And my aunt Karin (she of the five sons) has also invited us to drop by and pick up used baby clothing. Seems like the only part we'll have to worry about is a nursery...

(Which is indeed going to be a bit difficult. Eh well, we haven't been working on the actual house for such a long time, serves us right that now we've got a sort of deadline... ;))

And today I got a letter from mirien which contained the most adorable felted crow ever. Thank you! So cute. ^^

So this is a good week. Until tomorrow when I find out that there are still no further results to be had, I assume...