Sweet as a Kitten

It took me 3 days to decided where to put it, but now here it is: The Kitchen Aid.

 Only thing missing now is some fresh yeast so I can bake some bread. Decent bread. Nothing like the chewy stuff they sell here. I did find some super German bread at Trader Joe's, but it was kind of an overkill. Rock hard full of pumkin seeds. A little too extreme for my taste. Finding yeast has turned out to be a little trickier than expected. I have been to ALL supermarkets, it is easier to find ghee (used in the Indian kitchen) than yeast. Last hope is now Ralph's which claims online that they sell fresh yeast in November/December. If that fails, I need find a nice little bakery (not that many around so I guess it will be any bakery) that might sell me some.

Also, my iPhone has arrived! It still needs to be activated with SSN and the whole lot so I have to wait for husband to come home so we can drive down to the shop. Everything is a little different here :) Since  have no SSN, I officially don't exist.

A couple of things on the agenda today:

• Buy a new hoover. A proper one. Not a monster a la American style as shown below 

which Gavin bought when he first arrived here. I gave him an ultimatum, either you buy me a cutie like this or you can do the hoovering yourself. Babe, I know you are reading this, so see this as a reminder:)

They are about twice as expensive but soooo worth it. Trust me, I still haven't figured out how to turn the monster on and off and surely there must be some technique how to move it around but to me, it seems very inconvenient.

• Secondly, we need to find a pediatrician. I have been recomended a Swedish one in Laguna Hills and there was some kind of an information event held at her office last night. Unfortunately hubby was stuck in traffic and Tom Tom let me down. I drove around in circles until I decided to use myu last 4 euros on my German prepaid phone to Gavin to let him know, meeting was probably over and I was parked up on a dark parking lot next to the hospital. 10 min later he found me and we were able to find the office in a huge Taj Mahal building. Who names a building full of doctors offices Taj Mahal, seriously? I was more thinking of an export import company and would never have found it on my own. Anyways, it was closed and today we have to sort something out since time is ticking and the ob/gyn has asked us several times already about which pediatrician we have chosen. This pediatrician is not associated with the hospital we have chosen for the birth so she will have to choose someone who is to visit the baby once she has been born. If she is not bothered, the ob/gyn will pick someone at the hospital to do the first check ups. Lots of choices to be made here!

• Need to buy such an exciting thing as a bin, or trash can, as they say here. It is for the plastic which can be recycled. Best thing about this apartment complex, well, after the pools, BBQ areas and the gym,is the large bins. There a four HUGE ones, two for all kinds of rubbish, two for recycling, however, they mix paper, plastic and glass. There is always space and they are emptied at least once a week. Now, in Germany we had 4 bins, quite small, and e.g. the yellow (plastic) bin was only emptied every second week. We always had to calculate when to bin things and fight for space so the HUMONGOUS bins are much appreciated. Only thing I really dislike is the mixing of paper, glass etc. Coming back to buying a new bin, good citizens as we are, especially after being trained in Germany, we separate everything, hence we need more bins. Lucky us, we have a coupon with 20% discount for Bed, Bath & Beyond. LOL.

I guess one of the reasons why you need big bins here is all excess packaging. The amount of plastic   and paper we have to take down to the bins on a regular basis is just unreal. Every time I open the mail box there is at least a kilo of advertising and coupons, half of LA Times consists of advertising, or every time I order something online or buy something in the supermarket, this normally requires one or to trips to the bin. Still like the big bins though:)

• Need to post my application for the work permit. No worries, I am not planning to apply for a new job, but without this piece of paper I cannot get a social security number. And without the SSN, I am pretty much a persona non grata here. No credit card, no phone contract on my own, no car lease..The only thing I can and need to do without it is to apply for a Californian driver's license. Which I also need to do this or next week.

• Last thing on the agenda, South Coast Plaza. Still need to do some walking, there is no better place than inside a cool, large shopping mall! Might even pay a cheeky visit to Sephora!