This is where I live!!

Today I went for a walk. A long walk. In our apartment complex, there's a one mile walking loop. I usually start my day by walking it once with Scooter. Then, later in the day I do a few more miles. It's good because it helps me measure my time and distance but it's pretty boring and not very scenic. The views consist of buildings that all look like mine, cars, and trash. So today I walked just past Ledward Barracks and set out for a more scenic walk, one that Jerry had recommended. Sometimes he runs here for PT in the mornings. I'm so glad he suggested it. Not only was it beautiful but a great workout with nice hillage. It's hard to believe I live in such a green and pastoral place. These photos were all taken from my walk and are all just a few miles from my house!

Soon, I hope to be biking as well as walking here in this beautiful country. Yesterday, Jerry had to make a trip to Grafenwoehr, a post about two hours away, and I got to join him for the trip. It was great to go there, as we will most likely be moving to that post when Jerry returns from deployment. Most of the people at Schweinfurt are in the process of moving to that larger post and by the time Jerry returns from deployment, pretty much everyone will have relocated to Graf and Schweinfurt will be filled with a different group of people. The post is much larger than the Schweinfurt posts, much more spread out. And it is located in a smaller town. So it doesn't have the rich cultural appeal of Schweinfurt. But it has some brand spanking new ammenities, including a new commissary, PX, and food court. The PX is huge!! It mostly has the same stuff as ours, but more of it, and a slightly better selection. Jerry was excited to find shoes in his size and I found an inexpensive bike that would be great for me to get around Schweinfurt. Unfortunately, we didn't have a vehicle that could carry the bike back for us. But I was able to request the bike to be transferred to my own PX. So hopefully I'll be sporting some new wheels in a week or two!

The PX also had a larger assortment of doggy toys and they had one that I thought would meet Scooter's discriminating taste. He doesn't like anything too fancy. His favorite toys have always been simple fluffy shapes with a squeaker inside. Here he is guarding over his new toy. Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and have my camera ready for an action shot of him whipping it around like a maniac. And by maniac, I mean the tough dog that he is!

And as if those weren't enough great finds at the PX, I found something even more exciting: photo albums! Since the wedding, I've been searching for perfect albums to hold about 500 wedding photos. We're primarily displaying them using a digital photo frame and I'm having some smaller albums made, but I wanted albums for all of the hard copies of the photos. Most albums that I've seen have that silly memo column on the side. That might be nice for most photos, so that you can write down information about them. But since all of the photos are from our wedding, it seems a little silly and redundant. At the Graf PX, I found a set of photo albums that have wooden collage frames on the front cover (one in black and one in a rich red) as well as another stylish one (with no memo column). They were very affordable, exactly what I had in mind, and will hold all of the photographs!! Yay!! Now I just have to wait for the photos to arrive with the rest of our stuff....only one week to go!