more Rathaus

Don't you love it when you realize that the alternate method of extending your visa requires passport-sized photos of everyone? And so you figure you'll just print out the most recent ones you have at the local express photo, only they don't take floppies or uploads, and you can't find any memory sticks. So you figure you'll transfer the pictures onto the memory card of your camera. You sit down, hook up the USB cable, and--smoke is suddenly coming from the cable. You yank it out and find the end connected to the camera has melted.

How is this possible??? There's only supposed to be 5V running through that cable.

Hopefully the camera itself is not destroyed. It appears to still take pictures, but without a way to get them off, it's hard to use it.

And we still have to print out these pictures this morning. They will need to take the passports overnight, and we will need them back as soon as possible for our appointment in Munich (should that EVER work out).

Can you hear screaming? That's us.

You know it's some storm

when the lightning rings your phone--multiple times. I think something out there got hit--there was a huge, crackling splinter in the middle of some pretty close lightning. I have all five of my kids, plus two neighbor kids over. And a baby who wants to suck on me every single waking moment. He freaks out if I set him down to even go to the bathroom. It's really fun with a house full of 8- and 10-year old boys, let me tell you. Add to that the 3-year-old who wants to go outside and play and who has learned how to open the front door. Before the storm, the big kids all went out to play, but it's too hot to take the baby out, and three is just too young to go without a grownup, sorry. HUGE meltdown. I had to lock the front door so she couldn't escape while junior was hooked up. I've been trying all day to sort things so we can move, but I don't have any free hands. I can't sort clothes (ie, try them on) wih other kids over, anyhow. And I've been trying for four hours to retieve my wet laundry, to no avail. The one thing I can look forward to is that in an hour I can send the neighbors home for dinner, and about that same time, an extremely kind friend is bringing US dinner. Because the kids have rampaged the kitchen for every scrap of food visible, we have no snacks to send with kids to school tomorrow, and we would be left to eat breakfast cereal (if we even have any left--I think they were getting into that last) if I were on my own with it. I'm trying VERY hard not to feel sorry for myself, but um, it's not working too well.

One good thing, though--city hall has given us our visa extensions and they took care of it this morning as opposed to keeping our passports overnight. So if we EVER hear from the US embassy, we can pick up and go at any time.

Tell me something cheerful, people. I need to think peaceful, happy thoughts.