Final Celebrity Dream Of 2014?

Robert Downey Jr. was a roommate at my mom's house. 

He clogged every toilet in the house and didn't deal with it. 

My other roomates were really angry.

A Brief Interruption For Christmas

This is why I don't like paper napkins at Christmas -- cloth burns so much more slowly!

I was chatting with my nephew's wife at the table after dinner and I looked to my left to see a napkin start to catch fire from a candle. I grabbed the napkin and started to move toward the front door, but the breeze from my motion fed the flames. "Stop, drop and roll," right people? I dropped the napkin to the hardwood floor and stamped on it. I think it might have melted the bottoms of my shoes a little bit.

The floor took no hits, the white carpet is fine, and many in the room missed the excitement.

Christmas 2014.

European Vacation 2014, Part 4.5

A few more notes about day one in Cologne.

You can see the cathedral from everywhere.

We are in love with this modern building by Karl Band. It's a religious vestments store. Check out the door pulls!

 This little fountain was on our walk:

So many beautiful things to see.

European Vacation 2014, Part 4

Does this really count as day four? It's our first full day in Germany.

This morning we woke up and caught the train. 

The train trip was excruciating because I was so tired, and so excited that I couldn't sleep because outside my closed eyelids was Germany and I didn't want to miss anything. The train ride from Frankfurt to Cologne runs along the river, and it very much reminded us of the ride up to Garrison from Manhattan on the Metro North. It was so beautiful that I really struggled to stay awake. 

Our hotel in cologne is right near the 4711 museum. Upstairs in the museum they play old commercials from various eras where men and women douse themselves with the stuff. Mentos clearly owes a debt of gratitude to 4711's 1970's commercials.

The cafe next to our hotel (Cafe Printen Schmitz) makes yummy gingerbread, and a place nearby makes Weckmann. I am now hereby going to eat man-shaped food for the rest of the trip.

I ate it even though it had this bee on it. All the Weckmann have bees on them.

In our first day discoveries was also an antique store called Loft. I bought two amazing linen backed instructional aids that show how insects pollinate orchids and how carnivorous plants trap flies. Now I have to figure out how to ship them home.

Now off to dinner somewhere...