I didn’t do anything today, just stayed at home. Whenever Michael came home, I left the boys in his care (a dangerous prospect) - he had to feed them and get them ready for bed. I went out to schlecker because we needed more distilled water and misc other things. After that trip, I figured, what the heck, I’ll try and take my coke bottles in and get my pfland (deposit). After watching 3 people do it before and asking questions on the net, I was ready! I took my 10 bottles in, which is a total of 1.50 euros. I get up to the machine, put my bottles in and…nothing. Huh? I try it again. I try the upper slot, the lower slot, it says the same thing. Am I supposed to remove the label? Remove the cap? Huh? Why isn’t it working???? I asked a passerby if she spoke English and she did. She tried to help me and did the same thing but it didn’t work for her either. I was hoping she would translate the error message it was giving me but she went to the cashier and asked him. He just said to bring it to the register. Now I don’t know if I have to do that each time or if the machine is broken. He counted 8 bottles in the bag and didn’t see 2 buried underneath so he gave me 1.20. But I’m a sharp cookie and asked for my .30 euros! He was like “oh yeah”. I came back home, proud of my accomplishment. Michael was still feeding them Fruit Cocktail. So I went out a third time, this time to drop off the “no money” recyclables. I miss curbside recycling! We used to just throw everything into a bin, no separating. Now, not only do we have to separate, we have to go down the street! I had to take the aluminum covers off the glass baby food jars and put them into separate bins. I also had some plastic jugs to put in. Paper recycling is done at our apartment complex, thank goodness!

Michael was finallly done feeding them, he has to learn how to feed them when they are distracted. Everytime he thinks they don’t want it, I come in and always manage to feed them more. He thinks it’s magic and I don’t correct him.

We watched Pleasantville last night, pretty good movie, I forgot how much I liked it. Michael went downstairs to fiddle with his climbing/ski stuff. I think he misses having a special room for his gear and every now and then running his fingers through his cams. It’s all downstairs now, in the cold basement area.