The day started by sleeping in to 9:30! The handyman was coming soon. Before we knew it, our doorbell rang and 2 guys and a gorgeous young german girl were at the door (with their wet boots on - oh well i'm used to it now). The fraulein, Janine, was the daughter of Frank the handyman. She would be the interpreter and was really charming. Her dad went right to business with his sidekick who was more like laurel to Frank's Hardy. They were always laughing about something. They went from one project to the next... I kept saying "perfect" then, "next one." They loved to mimic the "next one" part. But they were extremely fast...hung pictures, light fixtures, shower head (in the guest bath), mirrors and curtain rods. Non stop for 2 hours. They were good!

Janine wants to email Emily to learn english better and so Emily can practice her german. When she started talking about shoes, Mary showed her Nordstrom.com...and all of a sudden, Dad understood english and groaned... "oh no, no more shoes"

They left the apartment at 1:30 and the place was a disaster. But, we had everything up and in place. Pete said it would have taken him a week to get that done ('measure twice, cut once. blah blah). We took a walk to our grocery store
to pickup supplies for our new fridge (note well-stocked fridge with salad, beer, wine).

We ended the evening going to our favorite fave restaurant (so far) "Lumen" that we found on our last visit. Great ambience, in the market center, great food. WARNING: food channel lingo follows.... pete had herb-crusted swordfish with creamy leek risotto which may have been the best thing we ever tasted. Mary had baby fingerling potatoes with fresh spinach and toasted pine nuts sauteed in brown butter.
OK - for Katie Egart Sr: the wine was a dry Weissburgunder from a local wineyard http://www.wagnerstempel.de/englisch/start/frameset.htm
Yes - there is excellent Rhine wine in this region that is not sweet!!

We have been listening to MPR almost non-stop. It's odd hearing Scott Simon on Saturday afternoon. But we'll take him any time.
Tschuss!