We have the Aldi blues. I was going to put it into song-lyrics format, but I decided against it. There are two reasons for our blueness.

1. We are plumb broke. We are so broke that we didn't even have the right payment option to pay for our items at Aldi. We had to return our frivoulous wannabe purchases: milk, tomatos, sparkling water, frozen pizza, and chocolate chip cookies (for Eva). We have switched all of our remaining money allowances (we have access to more, but it is for the future purchase of another old car) into the Proton version (immediate cash flow, pin-number-less availability). Eva has now switched some from the car account over into our current amount, and we will do our best to stretch these few Euros into hundreds.

We are, however, going to play the lottery today. Who can blame us?

2. Eva has to go back to work on Monday. We are nearly truly blue with sadness over it. We have had the most amazing time together for these three weeks. We may not be able to account for all of the time, but one thing is for sure that the root of happiness is having free time and having someone to spend both with. (It did help that it was gorgeous weather!) We've not done anything extravegant, but simply little side-trips that have reminded us that we like each other's company. A couple can always use that sort of reminder.

So today. What do we have planned? A return trip to Aldi (not the same store, that's too embarassing), a bike-ride, a blackberry picking extravaganza, and a nice evening at home. I'm sure we'll get a bit melancholy sometime this evening, as it will be evident once again that issue 1 and issue 2 are real. However, these three weeks and these two issues have helped us sketch out yet another game-plan for the next few weeks/months. Oh no! Not another plan!

IN THE NEWS:
Johns Hopkins University surgeons performed three simultaneous kidney transplants in a complex piece of medical choreography that had nurses rushing organs in labeled coolers among six operating rooms. The six synchronized operations — three to remove the kidneys, three to implant them — became possible after an extraordinarily lucky, six-way organ match among the patients, their friends and their families.