New Toy!!!

So, after years of me asking Oliver for a nice camera, he finally gave in. We recently welcomed a new Canon Rebel XSi into our family. So far the verdict is that the camera is complicated. When I did the research, I understood in theory the argument that you should not spend this much on a camera if you're just going to use it in auto mode. The problem with that thought process is that you have to figure out the manual modes, which are pretty time consuming and will have you shooting the same subject about 100 times to try and get 1 good picture. This one below (not ever sure if this is that good) is one of Kat sitting on the bed next to Oliver's computer. I took about 20 of this same pose and they all look different. Anyway, you can look forward to many more pictures of the cats as they seem to be willing to have their pictures taken for now...

I may become a Jersey girl...

That's right people. I went to a Bruce Springsteen concert and I LOVED it! How could I have thought that he was old and boring? I even told Oliver hours before the concert that Bruce just isn't an entertainer. What was I thinking? Obviously I had never been to a show before because that statement is just blasphemous. For those of you who secretly dream of being a rock-star, imagine selling out Giants stadium for 3 days in a row - 65K people screaming as you come on stage - it doesn't get better than that... Needless to say, we loved it.

However, we weren't in Jersey just for Bruce, we first spent the weekend with Kajal, Brett, and cutie-pie Dilan. Oliver and I are seriously thinking about just stealing Dilan for ourselves. I mean, we could pass her off as ours (Indian-German mix) and it's just much easier. Kajal has done a lot of the hard work - pregnancy, birth, getting her to sleep through the night, etc - and Dilan is more fun now than when she was born, so I think it's something worth considering. They are coming to visit in September. We need to start working on our plan now...

Fourth of July with the Germans...

So, for the 4th year in a row, I have either been with Germans or in Germany for the 4th of July. This year was spent in Yellowstone National Park with Oliver and his friends Harry and Lien and their girls Amelie and Elena. Harry, Lien and the girls came over from Germany about 6 weeks ago and have been traveling around the US in an RV. They have another 6-8 weeks to go and Oliver is insanely jealous. We had a great time. Lien is actually from Belgium, so there was lots of German and Flemish (with the occasional French word thrown in to make me feel like a dumb American - of course Harry and Lien also speak perfect English, so that was the language of choice for the weekend).

Yellowstone was really cool - I had no expectations, so the beautiful landscapes and the animals appearing around every corner really made the trip worthwhile. We only had 2.5 days, so we're going to have to head back there soon....

but not next year for the 4th, because my plan is to spend it with Americans doing American things (let me know if you have suggestions - the German is in the process of brainwashing me)...