Wednesday, 5/8

One problem taken care of, one problem still looming.

I didn't get the chance to write about this in any of our trip blogs but we narrowly averted a tragedy while in Germany last week.

Let me explain.

As you know, one of our main tasks tasks while in Europe is to buy chocolate that you can't get over here. Over the past couple of years I've found myself becoming addicted to a very bizarre flavor combination, put out by the Lindt company--

You can stop making that look of disgust now. The combination of dark chocolate and pink grapefruit is more amazing than you could ever imagine. And that's why restocking my supply of those bars was one of the few tasks I'd actually written down to make sure it was taken care of. You can't get them in the U.S.; you can't even order them from Germany. You can only get them in person.

So when we got to Leipzig one of the first places we went to was a Lindy outlet store, conveniently located right near our hotel. I searched through the shelves, and didn't see them anywhere. We went to a few grocery stores, and found nothing. Over the next few days, everywhere we went, I scanned the shelves, but came up empty. I was resigning myself to the fact that I was out of luck when we walked into the Galleria Kaufhof (the German version of Macy's) on Saturday, and I found a bunch of the pink grapefruit bars, just sitting there waiting for me.

So I bought a bunch, and am safe for another year.

I have no idea why I couldn't find them anywhere, especially at a Lindt store. There isn't a sign of them at all on the company's German web site, so I'm guessing that they're no longer made, and that I just stumbled upon the last remaining stock at the Kaufhof in Leipzig. I mean, it's cool that have enough bars to last me for awhile.

But it would be a total bummer if they were the last pink grapefruit bars I'd ever be able to get.

Now, onto the other problem. Look at what I saw on my favorite lilac tree in the world this morning!

Yup; the buds on my favorite lilac trees are starting to poke out, which means that pretty soon the most amazing fragrance in the world will be wafting through the air and my 3 minute walk to work every morning will take 15 minutes because I'm sticking my nose in each and every lilac tree I come across. But how is that a problem, you ask? I love lilac season. How in the world can that be a problem, even for someone as strange as me?

Well, I answer, because based on the obsessive attention I pay to those flowers each and every year I'd estimate that they're about two and a half to three weeks away from fully blooming. Two and a half to three weeks from now Loraine and I will be downstate for a high school graduation and Memorial Day weekend.

The possibility exists I could be missing peak lilac sniffing season.

I highly doubt that'll happen. We'll either get a cold snap and the blooms will be delayed, or they'll open early and I can sniff to my heart's content. And in any case you can sniff lilacs for more than the five days we'll be gone, so I will get to bury my nose in the buds, no matter what.

I just find it...funny that we could be downstate after their lilacs have already died and just as ours are reaching peak lilac-ness.

Oh, the first world problems we foist upon ourselves, huh? Good thing the lilacs were out when I was in Germany last week and got to sniff a few of them then!

(jim@wmqt.com), excelling at whining about inconsequential things.