From Deutschland

Hi, everyone. Dan Peterson here. I suppose it's about time I post something.
I'm the middle of three boys from Inez (11 of 11) and Wendell. My wife Siobhan and I are living in Frankfurt, Germany with our two daughters, Aoife and Emily. Aoife will be three at the end of the month, and Emily, who was born here in Frankfurt, is 18 months old today.
I'm working in the IT security department of the European Central Bank, albeit just as a contractor. Some people wait months for a job openning there, but I fell into it by plain dumb luck.
Siobhan, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, is raising the two girls and working on setting up a retail childrens products website here in Germany. German stores don't have much in the way of new innovative products (and not-so-inovative things like simple sippy-cups that don't spill!), so we're hoping her store takes off. The website isn't posted yet, but the URL will be http://www.comfykids.eu/, if you want to have a look. Hopefully it'll be up by the end of next week.
We're really enjoying our time in Frankfurt, although there are some inconveniences like everything being closed on Sundays. Life is calmer. It's much less hectic and aggravating, at least compared to Chicago city life. My daily commute is a whole whopping 5 minutes by bike. Restaurants and such are plentiful, but we don't have too many opportunities for going out. That will change as the girls get bigger.
One of the really nice things about Frankfurt are the excellent public swimming pools. They have a beach and wave-pool section, waterslides, outdoor and indoor parts, and really warm kiddy pools. The girls love it and can spend the whole day there.
We've had some opportunities for travel. Siobhan and the girls frequently go to Dublin, where they'll stay for a couple weeks at a time at Siobhan's parents house. We've also been able to visit friends in London, and take weekend trips to towns like Marburg, Bad Ems, and Baden Baden. We're hoping to make bigger trips to Rome, Greece, and other warmer areas.
Here's one of our weird mom-things: You can tell whenever someone from Iowa is calling on the phone because my mom's voice immediately changes. She becomes louder, more nasally, and says "Oh, Yah!" every other sentence. Maybe some of you have noticed that too, except for those who are still in Iowa (because, that would be your normal voice!).