Myrna's loving the new foods - banana mixed in rice cereal (something her mother even thinks is tasty). Soon she'll be on to saurkraut.
We've missed quite a few blogging opportunities in the last month, but Myrna's May Photo Album has the highlights - like Mother's Day and our trip to Seattle.
Wir haben gelandet. Two planes, two trains, and two automobiles eventually got us from Seattle 
On the planes, Myrna slept quite a bit and, on the whole, wasn't difficult to fly with. We slept a bit too, and even caught a movie, as last year's Palm d'Or winner, The Class, was playing onboard. Believe it or not, that was only the second film either of us had seen since March. What else...? Ah, I said that Myrna was very civilized, and that's true, but she did go through three changes of clothes. One, in particular, was a bit of a disaster, as our flight from Seattle to Washington D.C. was on a plane that had no changing table. We were told that people usually just change their babies on top of a turned-down toilet lid but, c'mon, no they don't. Also, my iPod decided to announce its demise somewhere over the Atlantic. This is particularly well-timed, as iPods are almost 30% more expensive here.
Then came the trains, which went much worse, only because we were now wholly responsible for transportation and management of our five suitcases, three backpacks, one diaper bag, and one stroller. You know that logic game where you're a farmer and you've got to get a fox, a chicken, and a bag of grain across a river in a small boat? It's like that, but crossed with Without A Trace. This resulted in miscommunications, misplaced tickets, and an obscene spectacle wherein I pushed an over-capactiy luggage cart down a cobblestone street and, stuck in a mini-pothole, poured all of our suitcases off the cart and onto the sidewalk in front of dozens of locals and tourists.
The cars, on the other hand, were little miracles. On both ends of the trip, we managed to pack all of that stuff into cars not designed for freight. That was thanks to a lot of good, creative help.
Anyway, we're now in Freiburg. About half of our permitting and registration is complete. We're not into our apartment yet, but we've at least seen the neighborhood. And we've already started in on the Ritter Sport. Jet lag is riding all of us pretty hard, with Myrna furious that we didn't get up to play at 1:00am. But after two hours or so, she stopped screaming and went back to sleep - no big deal... The day after, she's been in a better mood, and has had her first brush with autonomous mobility. Starting this afternoon, she's been rolling from her back to her stomach as a way of getting closer to out-of-reach toys. Which means that we've only got a few more weeks before we'll have to find a better place for our antifreeze, Bunsen burners, and box of live scorpions than on the floor next to the coffee table. We'll keep you posted as this develops.
Busy times here, with another move just days away. We've left this blog sorely neglected, but now that we have so much to do over the next couple of days, posting here should be just the opportunity for procrastination we need.
Two weekends back, we had a visit from my cousin Matt. He lives down in San Diego and managed to find a space in his busy schedule of design work and rock-show attendance to fly up here and watch us sit around the apartment. Catching me in one of my more absent-minded spells, he endured trips to cafes that we actually knew (but had forgotten) would be closed, and shook his head as I forgot to pack a bottle for Myrna twice in one day. Oh, also it rained the whole weekend.
Even and still, we had a great time hanging out, reacquainting ourselves with our old friend Tecate, laughing at the hipsters on Telegraph, and listening to music. It was a long-overdue catch-up, given that I don't think we'd seen Matt since summer '07, and Myrna had been waiting to meet this Uncle Cousin Matt she'd been hearing about.
Every music site on the block has been linking this but, in case you haven't seen it yet, this is a good time. Here Blixa Bargeld of proto-industrial band Einstürzend Neubauten (as well as The Bad Seeds) reads product descriptions, ranging from matter-of-fact to quite animated (and all in German, of course). Not a gallery installation, this is actually a series of aired television advertisements for a German hardware store.
In the wake of the new outbreak, I must assure you all that Pig - and all his friends - are healthy indeed. Sadly, Pig did have to cancel his trip to Tijiauna, but the flu would be the least of his worries there. Instead, he's chosen to stay home and protect his new best friend, Myrna.
Note: the CDC does not recommend gnawing on the ears of pigs unless you know them well.
A couple weeks back, I sent my friend Meg a casual email. Several hours later, I had a reply with the subject line "Meg coming to San Francisco next week!" As it happens, Meg was attending a conference in San Diego, and had already made arrangements to afterward spend a long weekend in San Francisco, visiting another friend who, as it happens, Kelly and I also know from Seattle.
And so, here she was last weekend. Meg, Jennifer, Kelly, Myrna and I kicked it in Berkeley on Friday, where we shopped for baby hats and had lunch at Chez Panisse (boo ya!). On the super-warm Monday, we finally made it over to S.F., where we met up with Meg at Blue Bottle, continuing onto SFMoMA, the 826 Valencia pirate store, and a plantain snack in the Mission District. At the art museum, Myrna loudly shared her aesthetic scorecard: Warhol up, Kentridge down.
Myrn was showered with gifts - a flowery dress (see above), and an elephant onesie from Meg and Brett, and a handmade dinosaur from Jennifer. Yay!
This weekend has so far paled in comparison, me all flunking a statistics exam. But next weekend it looks like Matty's coming up to see us....
This weekend we were treated to one of Grace's favorite tourist trips. We've joked about how we haven't been in San Fransisco since moving here - and actually we still haven't - but we've now seen some beautiful redwoods and wineries. Saturday Grace took us first to the Muir Woods to check out the California redwoods.
Grace also showed up at our place with a gift for Myrna (and her parents) - a BabyBjörn - which was awesome to try out in the forest. Now, we haven't quite mastered the BabyBjörn photo shoot poses; it's going to take some practice. Let me just say the print material that comes with the BabyBjörn is awesome (and did you know you can get one in satin for those special occasions - like the prom?) I can't wait for the America's Next Top Model photo shoot when they have the girls do a print ad for BabyBjörn - it would be awesome! (Christina, please let me know if they've already done this).
After the redwoods, we headed to vineyard land to visit the Gloria Ferrer Winery.
We had to taste the full spectrum (and perhaps this may tempt some potential visitors - did I mention it was 75 degrees out and sunny?)
More pictures are on Myrna's April Picasa Page.
Myrna is a drool machine and in an effort to keep her dry, we've been trying out some of her new bibs (silly me thought babies didn't wear bibs until they were eating solid food). They certainly get quite damp - but that may also be due to the fact that Myrna insists on eating them. We have a pack of three bibs in the theme of Winnie the Pooh. Now two of them have Pooh bear and his friends on them - but the third one is simply pink and white striped. Myrna was donning this bib (since it matched her outfit so well), but then Chris asked the million dollar question: "Why do I want something on my baby that just says 'Classic Pooh'?"
I'm waiting to find pj pants that have the words 'Classic Pooh' written on the rear end. More (non-Pooh) photos can be found on Myrna's new April picasa page.
Now that we've moved on to April, Myrna's March photo page is up-to-date. And it certainly is about time we changed the title of this blog, since we are no longer in Köln and it is no longer about Chris & Kelly. But, our creativity is a bit stifled, so any suggestions for a new title are more than welcome (and don't worry, the url will stay the same).
