Sunday, June 2, 2013

Bridge over Flooded Waters



This is a view from the Old Bridge in downtown Heidelberg. 'But hey, don't you live in downtown Heidelberg?' you ask. Yes, we do, but fortunately, unless you ask the boys, the rising waters did not turn our street into a 'super-duper river-pool'.

At first, the boys could not really grasp that downtown Heidelberg was under water. They know what a flood is, but they couldn't believe that it could happen just a few streets away. Are you calling me a liar?

And that's how we ended up on a flood watch on the last day of the boys' two-week school vacation. On the way down, I checked out the river levels by our street and was a bit surprised to discover that we were only four inches away from having a watery basement. The boys were impressed, but not for long. Surprise, surprise.

We circumvented the flood and headed to the Schnitzel House, where David and Tommy burst into a variation of a new game that I regret inventing the other day. Mine was actually just a spin-off of 'tag' that I called 'Foots-it', which is what I would shout as I stomped on their toes and run off giggling. David, being the bright boy he is, came up with his own game called 'Butts-it'


Tommy, along with a bunch of Asian tourists, absolutely loved that David was racing around the plaza butt first. It was around this point that Angie decided to walk up to the flimsy aluminum flood gate and just, you know, stare.


At one point, I meandered over to Angie and asked her if maybe she wanted to take a turn watching the boys butt-tag each other. It wasn't so much an answer as it was a giggle that ended with 'no'.

Eventually our food arrived and as we stuffed ourselves, the boys noticed the stuffed boar's head hanging over our table.

'Ah, Mama, look - that's so sad.'

'You do realize that you are eating a pork schnitzel, right?'

'Yeah, it's yummy. Why?'

Angie gave me her 'should I?' look, to which I responded with my 'hell no, change the subject' look.

'Who wants strawberry cake?'

Oddly enough, only Peter wanted dessert. Tommy and David were holding out for ice-cream, which we had promised them for the way home.

After giving my wallet a tip to stop eating out, we moved on. We passed an ice-cream shop that was not our 'regular' parlor. Tommy didn't give two scoops, though.

'I want ice-cream.'

'Yeah, buddy. I kinda figured that one out when you raced in here and started beating on the counter, but we're going to Gelato Go. It's right around the...'

'I want ice-cream.'

'Tommy, listen, that's what I was just trying to...'

'I want ice-cream.'

I motioned to Angie to move on with the big ones and stayed behind with broken-record boy.

'Tell you what, buddy - you can have an ice-cream from this shop, but that means you're not going to have one from Gelato Go. Deal?'

'I want ice-cream.'

The guy behind the counter was starting to get impatient.

'Just give him a scoop of whatever the hell he starts frantically pointing at and throw some sprinkles on it.'

As we walked to catch up with the others, Tommy totally devoured his cone. After his ice-frenzy, he turned to me, burped and screamed that he had a 'brain cold'.

'Ha, ha. I think what you mean is...'

Before I could respond, he giggled 'BYE-BYE' at me and suddenly *POOF* - Tommy was gone. Finally. 

I rather enjoyed the rest of the walk to Gelato Go. That is, of course, until I saw Tommy emerging from the shop, prouder than a peacock and gripping another ice-cream cone. I turned my disbelief on Angie.

'I can't believe that you bought Tommy a second cone!'

'What do you mean 'second'?'

Angie and I were heatedly discussing the protocol governing the purchase of ice-cream for children when Tommy raced over screeching like a stuck owl.

'I have again a brain cold!'

At that point, Angie gave me her 'should I tell him it's called a 'brain freeze'?' look, to which I responded with my 'hell no, let dessert boy suffer' look and changed the subject.

'So, boys, who's ready to go back to school?'

--------------------------------------------
Ladder Talk:
1) What was the best part of your day?
Peter: That we could go in the Schnitzel House.  
David: That we go'ed to the Schnitzel House and that Alessio and Chiara was here.
Tom: That we was by the Schnitzel House.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
Peter: That we couldn't come with the bikes to the Schnitzel House.
David: That Arman couldn't go with to eat schnitzels.
Tom: That we was not by ga-ga-mitchy.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
Peter: I want to play with Arman 'Kaka Vögel'.
David: I want to learn much in school.
Tom: Go to Africa.

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