Back home - and working on Plan B

Home from a stressful but very productive trip to Germany. Accomplished a lot: Found senior apartment for Mutti that is pretty much perfect: Large, bright and airy, 10 min. from her house, next to a park, in the city center, and affordable. My friend Stephanie said it's like winning the lottery. My parent's house is on the market, and there are already three serious buyers interested. If all goes well the house sells and Mutti moves into her apartment. However... before that happens a lot of other things need to be taken care of - Sorry, Michael! (that's my brother who is stuck with the paperwork).

So while all that is good news, the bad news is that the apartment rental needs to be effective February 1st at the latest. So that means moving sometime in February, and cleaning out the "museum" (aka my parent's house). It is filled with hunting trophies, art, etc. Mutti only wants to take one piece of furniture, so we also have to buy furniture for the new place.

Why is that bad news? Well, that puts a serious bump in my plans for Florida. Bump as in "trading Welly-Land for Leonberg". Aside from the fact that stall and room are non-refundable, Remy has been going super lately and I really want to continue to 'ride the wave'.

Today was our last lesson for the year with Roz (snief) - and we finished on a very good note. His collection is getting better and better, feeling effortless. Roz reminded me to work on "less is more" when we are on our own.

So, if Welly-Land indeed doesn't pan out, we've got a Plan B: Jumping with Lisa (and JP and Chambord, of course), Dressage clinics with Laurie, trail riding, and whatever else we can find to beat the winter blues. Luckily, the indoor at Berwyck is heated, and as it's only a bit over a mile from home its a very good solution. Roz might even come back to the Frozen Tundra (aka Michigan) for a clinic. I'll also check into a remote coaching system that works with WiFi. And Remy will enjoy vacation while I'm in Germany, that's the part of Plan B he prefers.

With all the action around house and apartment I still was able to go with my friends Stephanie and Ingrid to the Stuttgart German Masters, and we had a grand time. You can google it to see excerpts. And speaking of apartment: I was super spoiled and had my very own luxury apartment during my stay in Stephanie and Harald's house. It was living like  "Eine Made im Speck" (lit. "a maggot in bacon") = to live in luxury.

How very fitting!