so bring us some figgy pudding

I had the best day today! Yes, I used an exclamation point; my serious writer card is hereby revoked (although I also used a semicolon, so maybe I'm just on probation). But today was seriously great. I messed around the apartment this morning, taking care of things and grooming and packing, but I made it out of the building by eleven so that I could spend an hour working at Goody (with some success - the young adult book is exciting me at the moment). Then I drove to wine country, and that's when the real fun began...

First up was a very long, leisurely afternoon at Gloria Ferrer. You may remember that I became a member because I'm a fancy bitch, and so I met up with Shedletsky and Tina (aka Bride of Shedletsky), and we sat on the terrace for a long time and enjoyed the complimentary flights that come with my membership. We also had charcuterie and cheese, which was delish, as usual. And then, because we were enjoying the terrace so much, and because there was no one there, we bought a bottle of pinot noir to split; I think this was technically against the rules, but they seemed cool with it. The weather was perfect for it, and they brought us blankets when it became slightly less perfect, and we moved inside for the last half hour when it started to rain, so that was all delightful. Needless to say, Gloria Ferrer remains one of my favorite places; they may not have the best wine in the entire valley ever (although I think their sparklings are really good), but the terrace alone is worth the visit.

After we were done there, we drove up to Healdsburg and checked in at Madrona, which is where I had my weird/fabulous/eccentric night out in August. We had made reservations ages ago to go to the Dickens-themed dinner, and we were v. v. excited about this. I was particularly excited about the eggnog, which was what brought me here; as you may recall, I befriended the bartender in August, and she had told me that she had started the eggnog back in February. So when we had changed and made it downstairs, I made sure to order a pre-dinner eggnog and reintroduce myself to the bartender, who was v. happy to see me (#protip: befriend the bartender). And the eggnog was everything I had dreamed about...

But dinner was also incredible. It was a five-course menu; we started with this amuse bouche served in an eggshell that had had the top perfectly sliced off, which was so good. Then there was a dungeness crab salad, and a truffle risotto that was so fucking good (although Tina had the soup, which was also amazingly good), and beef wellington (the beef was perfect, as were the potatoes), and a fancy dessert that looked like a ho-ho and tasted like an andes mint, with meringues shaped like mushrooms around a 'log' of chocolate cake. And we had all the wine pairings, which were delish.

But the other weird/amazing/awesome thing about dinner was the Victorian-style carolers who came around and sang during courses. It was two men (a bass and a tenor) and three women, and they were in full period garb, which was super cool (if you're an extreme dork like me). They came through a few times and sang 2-3 carols each time, and they were really good (although if you hate being sung to at dinner, this was not for you - but they were carefully timed with the courses/waitstaff, so no one was ever actually eating while they sang). Tina wanted to set me up with one of the carolers, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.

But then we went back to the bar area (a covered patio with heatlamps and the awesome sound of rain pounding outside). Shedletsky and I were going to just get an eggnog to finish off the night, but Pam wanted to share some of the things she's been making, and I couldn't decline. So she comped us a liqueur, and she also made two cocktails with a special liqueur she made for herself + a homemade shrub (vinegar-based syrup) + sparkling wine, and that cocktail was *delish*. She also brought me a little bottle of the new bitters she's been making/experimenting with, and asked me to try it out at home and let her know what I think. Again, #protip, befriend the bartenders.

So we enjoyed our drinks, and talked about a lot of ridiculous things (politics, bullets, spinster honeymoons), and then we got a last round of eggnog before Pam went home. We closed down the bar so hard that the last hotel employee just showed us how to turn off the heat lamps and lock the doors, so we hung out until we could hang out no more.

And now I want to sleep, and try to sleep off the alcohol, and dream of sweet things until it's time to meet the Shedletskys for breakfast - goodnight!

you don't mess with love, you mess with the truth

I'm totally wiped out - the last two weeks have been pretty draining, somehow, despite the fun I had in Denver and the additional fun I had in New York. Some of it is probably the realization that I need to really, truly take a break from Rafe and Octavia's book and work on something else for awhile - I need to take a step back, stop pressuring myself, and find my voice again. Some of it is probably the fact that 2015 is coming to an end, and while there were many wonderful things about this year, there were definitely areas where I didn't make as much (or any) progress as I had intended.

But I feel like I'm turning a corner and figuring out the changes I need to make to be productive again, so that's all great. And I've got more fun things on tap this week before going back to Iowa for what will almost certainly be a restorative couple of weeks, so that's all good. Tonight, though, going to bed is probably the most important thing...

But first, my day. I slept okay last night despite my caffeine experience, which was kind of shocking. When I woke up, I went to Philz for a couple of hours and scribbled in my notebook. Then I came home and talked to someone who used to work for me; she's in business school and wanted to check in on her plans for next year, so we caught up for an hour over the phone.

At that point I really kind of wanted a nap, but I had committed to another writing date in San Mateo, so I drove down. Anne and Barbara were great to see, as per usual; as per usual, we also talked too much, but eventually we buckled down and I did some good work on the young adult series, which really pleased me. Unfortunately, since we talked so much, and since I actually wanted to get some work done, I stayed there until 5:45, which was deadly for traffic - it took me an hour to get home, and reminded me how glad I am that I no longer have to commute. It was worth it, though, since I won't see Anne and Barbara again until the new year, and I probably wouldn't have gotten anything done in my exhausted haze if I'd stayed home this afternoon.

When I got home, I ate a sandwich, and then I scribbled some more, and then I answered some emails and took care of sundry tasks. And now that I've taken care of my last sundry task (aka making sure my mother knows I'm alive for the day), I'm going to crawl into bed and hope I get at least ten hours of sleep - goodnight!

i walked right out of the machinery

I had another wonderful day in New York...while I wouldn't go so far as to say that I want to move here, it has certainly been good for me to get out of SF for a few days (and the thought is certainly percolating, with increasing insistence, that I've said 'it's been good to get out of SF' a bit too frequently and with too much sincerity the last few months to ignore that instinct....). But I don't know what that realization holds, other than that I expect to enjoy the rest of my weekend as much as I've enjoyed my week so far.

Anyway, today was pretty successful in terms of taming my monkey mind (although, as my dad pointed out, he has called me 'Sara Jane Monkey Brain' since I was a small child, so perhaps it's his fault!). I slept for nine or ten hours last night, and I woke up feeling remarkably peaceful. So I successfully avoided my phone and the internet, wandered downstairs, made some tea, and sipped it while looking out the window at the fantastic gorge behind Kathia's house. There's a lot of natural quartz in the area, which means the ground shimmers and sparkles as the sun comes up. And I saw deer in the woods while I was making my tea, which was a far cry from the sirens and screaming crackheads of the city of sin.

So I enjoyed my tea and contemplated life, and eventually Kathia joined me (she had gotten up at five, written, and gone back to bed while I was in hours six through nine of my epic sleep). We sat around for a bit, and then we went to a restaurant near her to have breakfast (delish) and write for a couple of hours. This felt so much like old times, which was really soothing. I didn't write, but I reread a bunch of stuff for the YA book, which I think I'm going to work on through the end of the year, since I'm feeling like romance is a lie (j/k, kind of).

After that, we came back home, walked around outside (I picked up some quartz to take home, since I will eventually turn into my ancestors and hoard rocks), and then returned to the warmth of the house. I worked for another hour or two, and then I took a long, blissful nap. Eventually, though, I woke up, showered, pulled myself together, and Kathia and I went out for a long, extravagant dinner.

The long, extravagant dinner involved sitting at the bar at The Inn at Pound Ridge, which is a Jean-Georges Vongerichten establishment. We started with a glass of champagne each (because champagne is always the right answer), and we split a beet salad (delish) and the crispy sushi with hamachi (which was one of the best bites of food I've had in a really long time -- the sushi rice was crisped up on the outside almost like a tater tot, but had spicy mayo worked into it, and it was out of this world good). Then I had an awesome awesome pork chop wrapped in prosciutto, and Kathia's lamb chops looked equally awesome (although I prefer pork by a mile). We skipped dessert, but I had hot chocolate, which somehow made me feel like a twelve-year-old after two hours of being a decadent adult, and it was somehow the best way to feel.

Then we came back to her house and had a grand old time burning some stuff while drinking a bit of Templeton rye. And then we curled up in her living room and talked until I was yawning too much to keep going.

So, my visit has been great, and I will hopefully meet up with Kathia in Paris or New Orleans (or come back to New York) sometime in the nearish future. But tomorrow, I must say goodbye again (after breakfast/writing/lunch) and go back to Manhattan, where I have more fun planned between now and when my flight leaves on Sunday. That means I should sleep so I can enjoy it - goodnight!

i was born under a wandering star

Sorry (not sorry) for not blogging last night - I hit the wall really hard, and I couldn't bear the idea of opening my laptop. Yesterday was lovely, up to a point; I woke up after only six hours of sleep to have brunch with Lauren (aka Subz) and Terry at a place near Lauren's house. The food was delish (I had an open omelette with pulled pork and salsa), and the company even moreso, but the wait was quite long (although we were able to fortify ourselves with lattes from down the street). After brunch, I came home, did a couple of hours of work, took Terry to the airport, came home and called my parents, and then hit the wall. I'm so sick of staring at screens and troubleshooting technical issues and slogging through an endless to-do list, and it doesn't help that those descriptions apply to both my writing and zee day job right now. So, I took last night off. And that means I stared at the wall, took a nap, watched an hour and a half of nothing and more nothing on YouTube (on my phone - I was too lazy to find my laptop or one of my other five devices), and then went to be.

But I also spent an hour or so daydreaming of gargoyles - I got all my old gargoyle notebooks out and read through some notes, since that book is purely fun and entertainment right now, not something I must do. I spent some more time brainstorming today, and on the way home from work I read part of 'Plague: A Very Short Introduction' (yes, this is my idea of a break). Work itself was good; I got a lot of sleep last night, worked from home for a couple of hours, and then drove down in time for lunch so that I could have my car down there this week, which is a system that seems to work well for me. I left the office around six, got home around seven, made some tuna salad (so glamorous), tried to procrastinate for a bit, and then sorted three months' worth of mail and started organizing my receipts for my taxes. Boo. At least I watched some "Project Runway" while working on that inglorious task. Now, though, I'm going to go to bed rather than slog - I'm trying to be a bit more even-keeled this week so that I don't reach the weekend reeling in a state of utter exhaustion. Goodnight!

once i rose above the noise and confusion

Today was v. quiet and hermity, which was lovely - perhaps I'll spend the whole weekend in hermit mode, since I do enjoy my hermit time. I dragged myself down to the gym about fifteen minutes late to train with Alyssa, since I was exchanging emails with my agent about whether to move forward with the professional formatter or do it myself, but Alyssa was still nice to me even if my legs are now super sore. That's not entirely her fault -- getting drunk and wandering around the Tenderloin in flipflops (which I've avoided wearing ever since destroying my feet by wearing flipflops all around Tokyo two years ago) certainly didn't help matters. Then I had a salad in the gym cafe, stopped at Office Depot to buy padded envelopes (my life is so glamorous), and came straight home to avoid what I guessed would be apocalyptic Friday afternoon traffic given the rains we've gotten.

Once I got home, I made some coffee and tackled the giant heaps of mail and receipts that have been accumulating for months while I was finishing up SCOTSMEN. I think I found all my tax documents, and I reorganized my file cabinet, so that was all good (albeit kind of a sad way to spend a Friday night, unless you, like me, take pleasure out of organizing things). I intended to organize my tax documents tonight as well, but I decided to take a break and read a book instead. I made it about a quarter of the way into "The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West", and I must say that it's a fascinating page turner (if such things can be considered fascinating page turners). Reading about Otto going after the Hungarians was fabulously entertaining...or maybe that's just me. Anyway, the premise of the book is that when the first millennium didn't bring the end of the world, Christians had to start building their own Jerusalem on earth, thus laying the framework for an improbable rise to dominance given how utterly backward and awful most of Europe was at the time. And maybe I enjoyed it because the author's prose is very Lord of the Rings-esque, with all sorts of talk of shadows and powers rising and descriptions of pagan barbarians that kind of make them sound like orcs (and a first chapter that was even titled "The Return of the King").

But still, it's fascinating. And in case you hadn't guessed, it's research of a sort for the gargoyles project, which I keep turning over in my head -- it's time to add some more ingredients to the stew, even if all I can do is stir things up for the next week or two before buckling down on Ellie and Nick. 1000 AD is before the time that matters to the gargoyles story, but it's an important foundation anyway, and I do enjoy reading about the end of the world.

Now, though, I must sleep, so I can do my taxes and write five guest blogs and take care of all sorts of other silly tasks. Goodnight!

nathaniel and superfly

I didn't make as much progress as I intended to make with the sequence of the book that I'm working on right now, but today was still lovely. It started earlier than I planned, which threw off my energy for the day; I was still asleep at 9:30 when our housekeeper knocked on my bedroom door. She had apparently been downstairs, and while I thought I heard something, I hadn't bothered to wake up and check. She comes every other week and usually comes in the afternoons, so I had planned to vacate before she showed up, but that plan failed. So I spend some time checking my email, etc., while she cleaned up, and then after she left, I made myself a late breakfast/early lunch, showered, got dressed (with my cute new boots, despite the fact that my plans involved some walking), and drove over to the northwest point of the city to visit the Legion of Honor.

The Legion of Honor is an arts museum, housed in a building originally intended to honor California's WWI casualties. The setting couldn't be more gorgeous -- it's on a cliff overlooking the cold depths of the Pacific, surrounded by trees and hills. I can't believe I have never been there before, given how long I've lived out here; I will hit up every museum I run across when I'm traveling, but I haven't been to any of the museums in San Francisco except for the SFMoMA (ironic, since I am not really into modern art, and yet I've been there many times). I wouldn't have gone today, but I had to go; I've been waiting for a year and a half to see a traveling exhibit that was coming here, and while it started in August, I'd never gotten around to going. It ends on the 31st, so if I didn't see it now, it wouldn't happen.

I'm so glad I went. The exhibit was 'The Mourners: Tomb Sculptures From the Court of Burgundy' -- and from the fact that it's tomb sculptures, you should bet your money on this being a research trip for the gargoyle book, not anything related to Malcolm and Amelia. The first two dukes of Burgundy had these fantastically elaborate tombs constructed within a Carthusian monastery they sponsored solely for the purpose of holding their tombs (if I were to die in my sleep tonight, I can guess where I would be buried, but even though I know the approximate location of the plot, it's a far cry from a tomb that would take twenty years to carve within a sprawling monastic community built to pray for my soul). Under the tomb of each duke (father and son, btw, with their wives), there are dozens of intricately carved alabaster figures, all in mourning for the bodies lying above them.

While the mourners usually live in Dijon, home of the former Burgundian court (but not in their original location, thanks to the damned French peasants who destroyed tons of stuff back in the 1790s), that museum is currently being renovated, and so the mourners went on tour in the US. It was actually way cooler to see them here than it would be to see them in the tomb itself -- in the San Francisco exhibit space, each of them were displayed apart from each other with enough room to get up close, see them from all angles, and appreciate the artistry of each piece rather than seeing it all in aggregate. If you want to see what I'm talking about, the mourners site is here.

Anyway, I got tons of good ideas, and I bought the exhibit book so that I can refresh my memory later. I wrote some notes in the museum cafe, then wandered around a bit more and spent half an hour in the porcelain gallery, where I was basically undisturbed since no one seems to care about porcelain even though this was one of the most amazing collections of late 1700s English and French porcelain I've ever seen. Yeah, I'm that much of a dork.

Post-porcelain, I came home, knowing that I couldn't do the rest of the museum justice in the time I had left, so I'll have to return someday. Once home, I did some writing, although not as much (or, more importantly, as well) as I would have liked -- so when Terry came home, I was super eager for a distraction, and so watched tv the rest of the night. And now I'm going to go to bed at the insanely early hour of midnight so that I can get up and write before meeting with Alyssa. Goodnight!

had a dream i was king -- i woke up, still king

I spent the entire day in the glorious south bay -- which wasn't entirely glorious, since I should have been writing in the evil city instead of bumming around my old haunts, but it ended on a high note, so I'll take it. I went down to train with Alyssa, of course; I was less sore than I expected from yesterday's brush with yoga, but Alyssa worked to ensure that I will be sore tomorrow. So, training with her in the morning should be fun. After we trained, I did another half hour of cardio while reading the first couple of chapters of "Game of Thrones", which I'm finally trying after hearing great things about the HBO adaptation of it earlier in the summer. So far, I really like it, and if it gets me to do more cardio whilst reading it, that would be a good thing.

After finishing cardio, I showered, changed into clean gym clothes, and hung out in the lobby for an hour reading a story for tonight's writing group and taking care of some other tings while drinking a smoothie (I'm such a yuppie). Then I had a stretching session with Brian (hence the decision to stick around the gym, which I don't usually do), who worked on my hamstrings and calves -- I'm pretty sure he bruised me, but I feel temporarily looser than I usually do, so hopefully that will help.

I finally left the gym and snuck over to my old place of work to kidnap Heather (aka dear respected madam) and take her to Starbucks for a blissful hour of gossiping. I hadn't seen her since before I went to Germany since her family was in town for two weeks right when I got back from my trip, so catching up with her before I go to Iowa next week was imperative. She was in reasonably good form, and I was quite happy to see her even though it was too short for my tastes. After I dropped her off, I grabbed a v. early dinner at Chipotle and worked on their patio for awhile; I had to relocate to another Starbucks to use their free wireless briefly, since I needed to upload a last-minute blog post for the group romance blog I'm part of, but at least I got some stuff done.

The reason I stuck around the south bay was because I had my writing group tonight. I'd taken the unusual (for me) step of sharing something that was still an early draft, with a lot of details still to be figured out -- they read the second chapter of my non-gargoyle top secret young adult project and gave me feedback. It was super helpful to see what they thought was working and what wasn't, and it's all good stuff to keep in mind as I keep pressing forward with the rough draft. Sadly, I'm still a long way from being done, but the idea has me v. excited, and it was good to get some validation that the writing group thought it was cool too. We also discussed a short story about Anglo-Indians, written by our host, which I quite enjoyed, and we all sat around and discussed writing and the industry and life until it was 9:30pm and I needed to get back to the evil city before collapsing.

Meeting with writing groups, whether it's this one or the romance writer community, always makes me feel very excited and eager to get cracking, so I'm a little resentful that I have to drive down to Palo Alto and train in the morning. But I'm keeping my weekend much freer than I did last weekend, so hopefully I'll make some serious progress. Now, though, I should sleep so that I can make it to the gym on time -- goodnight!

storms are brewing in your eyes

I need to get up in less than six hours, which is criminal, so I shall be as brief as possible. I made it down to Palo Alto just in time for my ten a.m. training session with Alyssa, which was a miracle given how much I didn't want to get out of bed. Alyssa found new and creative ways to torture me, but I left feeling victorious. After I showered, I went to Joanie's and had my usual cobb salad (they know what I want as soon as I walk in), then spent an hour trying to run my errand for the day -- finding bolts for my patio table. I tried to be good and frequent a local non-chain hardware store, but was punished for my do-gooder nature because they only had three bolts in the size I needed, and I needed 24. However, I did get them to make spare keys for our apartment, which we'd been meaning to do for awhile, so it wasn't a total wash. And then I proceeded to Home Depot, where the bolts I needed came in packages of 3 or 4 for $1.15 (nuts included), instead of the $0.55/bolt (not including nuts) at the local place. And we wonder why small businesses struggle...granted, I would have bought from the small place because they actually tried to help me find what I needed, but it ended up being cheaper to go to Home Depot, buy and rip open a couple of bags of bolts to make sure they were the right size, and then procure the rest.

Armed with $8 of bolts, I came back to the city of sin and put together our patio table -- so now (or perhaps after I clean the cobwebs off of it) we can sit on the roof deck and enjoy the fine California weather. Then I spent some quality time chatting with friends online, which I almost never ever do, so that was good. I also made some more notes about zee gargoyle book; I brainstormed at lunch and I've been thinking about it quietly in the background all the time, so I think I'm close to understanding what happens next. That's the danger of going into the book without a clear plot -- sometimes I have to stop and let things percolate, which always feels like laziness even though there really isn't another option at that point.

Eventually, though, I had to get ready and go out. My friend Jenni (whose fiance passed away this spring) just moved to the city with Lauren (not Subz - my old boss from a million years ago who was really more like a friend than a boss), and they invited me, Durand, and two of Lauren's b-school friends to an inaugural dinner party at their new place. They would only be a 10-15min walk from me, but as it's straight uphill, I drove instead and spent as much time looking for parking as I would have walking, but I arrived non-sweaty, so that was worth it. I had a totally fabulous time; it was great to see Lauren, Jenni and Durand, as usual, and Durand and I hit it off with the b-school friends quite well (to the point that I told two people I had just met a few hours earlier that I once baked a cake, decorated it to look like Poland, and then 'partitioned' it at a Germans vs. Austrians theme party, which is usually not something I divulge right off the bat as it makes me look crazy). I didn't get home until 1am, sort of forgetting until I was in my car that I'm supposed to be in Berkeley at 8:15am to meet some people before the monthly romance writers meeting. Ugh. So I should really, really go to bed -- goodnight!

heil heidelberg

I am blogging v. early in case I don't have Internet access tonight. Chandlord and I are sitting on a bench in the Frankfurt airport train station, waiting for the train that will take us to Lepzig, where we will switch to a train that will take us to Berlin, where we will attempt to find the apartment we are renting. But despite the fact that we got up earlier than I ever like to (6am), we've had a lovely day so far. Even though last night's hotel was quite strange, their breakfast was acceptable, and so we fueled up before hitting the road to Frankfurt.

En route, it became clear that we had tons of time, and so we stopped off for an hour in Heidelberg, an ancient city with the oldest university in Germany. Our destination was not the university, though; instead, we wanted to check out Schloss Heidelberg, the ruined castle overlooking the city from vast heights above a hill. There isn't much left of the castle; it's all in ruins, with crumbling walls slowly descending into the grass filled moat (although I suppose that descent has been stopped by the town's desire to preserve the remnants and charge people money to see them). But even though the interiors are long destroyed, the exterior still has some wonderful masonry, sculpture, etc., and it was quite easy to imagine how imposing the castle would have been hundreds of years ago in all its glory. I took tons of pictures for my gargoyle research, so I am glad that we were able to stop; Heidelberg is a city that I will have to come back to, since an hour was not enough to do it justice.

And then we brought the car back to the airport, bid it a fond farewell, grabbed some Thai food from an airport restaurant, and sat down to wait for our train. And now I shall bid you a fond farewell as well - I will blog again sometime in Berlin!

she's got nothing on but the radio

Chandlord and I are in the ancient and beautiful city of Augsburg, enjoying a stay at a v. strange hotel before heading to Berlin via Frankfurt tomorrow. We arrived around ten a.m. and spent the day exploring; unfortunately it rained all day, which was all the excuse I needed to buy an umbrella and two sweatshirts, but the city was still lovely despite that.

Augsburg was founded by the Romans and remained an important city in Bavaria for two millennia. Our first stop was the cathedral, which had a romanesque crypt underneath the gothic main building. The stained glass was incredible, and the artwork was also lovely. From there, we wandered to the Rathaus and saw the Golden Hall - I was disappointed that this had nothing to do with the golden hall of Rohan in Lord of the Rings, but it was still quite impresive. The Rathaus was the town hall, built in the 1600s, and the Golden Hall was about as gilded as you would expect given that name. Augsburg was home to the Germans' version of the Medicis and was the foundation of German finance, and the money that flowed through this town over the centuries was obvious in the quality of the art and buildings.

After the Rathaus, I wanted to take a break and enjoy the prilosec that an apothecary gave me for my stomach, so I had a cappuccino while Chandlord climbed the tower next to the Rathaus to get a view of the city. When she returned, we finally had Bavarian pretzels before wandering down the street. We saw the Damenhof, which is now a restaurant but used to be the lovely courtyard of the women of one of the richest families in the city - it had a gorgeous pool/fountain and a lot of tiles and pillars, and Chandlord somehow came to the conclusion that it was like Miami or Vegas. Then, we proceeded to a gallery of baroque art; the ticket seller there proclaimed that we were art students and let us in for free, which was v. kind of her. I must say that I loved the gallery, since it gave me all sorts of ideas for the gargoyle series and was also not filled with rain, unlike the outdoors.

Post museum, we grabbed pizza at a cafe that used to be a cinema. Chandlord wanted to walk around some more, but I was eager to write down my ideas, slightly sick to my stomach, and tired of the rain, so I had tea in a super cute cafe while she explored. When we reunited, we retrieved the car, checked into our hotel, took a nap, and then walked back into the old town to have dinner at an Italian place that Chandlord found on her walk. The food was delicious - I had lasagna and she had gnocchi, and while I should have taken it easier and so ended up with a stomachache, it was still a lovely meal.

And now, I must say auf wiedersehen; we leave for Frankfurt v. early tomorrow so that we can return the car in time to catch our train to Berlin. Goodnight!