Weeks 95 & 96: Softball Days

Things have been so quiet lately, there has not been much to “write home about,” so to say. So, now we have two weeks combined into one post.

Matt’s knee has continued improving every day. He goes to the physical therapist two to three times a weeks and get a lymphatic massage, and does exercises, stretching, and leg presses to increase the strength of the muscles that have atrophied. There is a small chance that Matt may be able to ride a bike when we visit Amsterdam over Easter. Matt also completely gave up his crutches and is walking with just the leg brace.

Brooklyn has been practicing softball every day after school and is loving it, but is very tired at the end of every day and Ryan has been staying after school almost every day for his various clubs.

Last Friday was my day off, but Matt and I both had orthodontic consultations so we weren’t able to go far. We ended up going to Pforzheim, which is the next city, west of Stuttgart. The only thing we knew about Pforzheim before was that there is a lot of traffic. There has been ongoing construction on the authobahn, just outside of the city since long before we arrived in Germany. It’s got a proper name, “Das Pforzheim Stau,” aka the Pforzheim traffic jam, or just the “Pforzheimer.” Everyone knows what you are talking about when you refer to it because it always adds 30-60 minutes to your journey.

Anyways, we got off the autobahn this time and drove in. We had originally thought it was just a big town, but we found an actual small city. First stop was an Asian market. We’ve been looking for good lumpia and this place was on my list of places to look for it. Unfortunately, there was none, but we did stock up on a few other items that we aren’t able to find at the commissary. Afterwards, we did a mini walking tour of the downtown area; mini because I didn’t want Matt pushing it with his knee. There is no Altstadt, or Old Town’, in Pforzheim because it was completely destroyed in WWII. At least there was a tiny bit of Stuttgart left, but there was nothing here dating back to before the war. I’m sorry, Pforzheim, but its not too attractive. There is nothing but post-war brutalist architecture everywhere and it slightly reminded me of Southwest DC, where I used to work. We had lunch a L’Osteria, my favorite place for pizza (lucky there is one in most cities), and then headed back to Stuttgart.

Saturday was Brooklyn’s first softball games. Ryan had a birthday party to attend so Matt stayed back with him. We dropped her off at the bus at 5am and then came back home and got some more sleep. I left at around 7:30 to make the 2.5 hours drive to Ramstein where she was playing. This is the closest game she will have as the DODEA schools are so spread out. Brooklyn is the back-up pitcher for her team, but the main pitcher had an injury during practice the week prior so Brooklyn pitched the full double header. She looked pretty good for being out of the game for two years. Not only did she get some strike-outs, she caught a couple of pop-flies, and assisted with a couple of outs of first. She got a hit every time at bat and scored one of only three runs scored by her team. The Ramstein team was really good. You could tell they were really established so Stuttgart lost both games, but I think they have a lot of potential for improving over the season.

Sunday, I was so tired from all the driving the day before so we stayed home and relaxed and the kids caught up with school work. Next week is the last week of the quarter, so of course we are playing the mad game of trying to get everything turned in, in time.