Yearly Archive: 2013

08
Sep
2013

HOME HOME HOMITY HOME

I am so glad to be home! I had a great 2 weeks, chilling with my mom and my sister, getting to see my favorite aunts and uncles and my grandmother, and some of my cousins, and driving with my mom through Canada to New York and stopping at Niagara, and eating all my favorite American foods and at all my favorite American restaurants, and shopping my suitcase full to the brim with new clothes, new books, and stuff stuff stuff… My mom wants me to make a list of all the things we’ve done on our Boston trips each...

24
Aug
2013

REVVED AND READY

I just looked out the window as I saw movement from the corner of my eye and the little black and white cat next door was doing that just-before-pouncing butt-wiggle thing at the little grey cat from next door. Cute! It’s the first day of vacation again (3rd time round) and my brain woke me up at 6:30 a.m. for what I thought was a quick trip to the bathroom and then gave me a panic attack of thinking I might have to be at the airport in two hours which sent me scrambling to check my flight info and...

16
Aug
2013

NATURE’S ROLLER COASTER

When I was young I LOVED roller coasters, with a white-hot heat. Standing in line for 2 hours to ride a 5-minute loop-de-loop? No problem, let’s go again! Which was kind of strange, considering that I’ve suffered from motion sickness since I was an infant. I’ve never been able to read in the car, and I always offer to drive because riding in the backseat? Not an option. Up until I was in my twenties I was a roller coaster fiend. Bring ’em on Cedar Point! What’cha got, Great America? I’ll see your Space Mountain and raise you one Demon...

13
Aug
2013

O! THERE YOU ARE!

I cannot WAIT until the kids go back to school. Back to regular routine. Back to real life. We have had a super summer and I am kind of sad, despite that first sentence, that it is drawing to a close. The fields are bare, or full of hay bales and the clouds have started rolling in. The temperature dropped drastically recently (coooool) and we’ve had thunderstorms and sudden downpours. After this summer of nearly perfect weather, it’s quite the dramatic change. It’s been on my mind to sit down and write a post for…um. WEEKS. Eeek. It wasn’t intentional,...

29
Jul
2013

A GOOD WEEKEND

I’ve never had so much fun cleaning the bathroom as I did this weekend. I clean the bathroom pretty regularly on the surface, but I’m not always so good about deep-cleaning…and I can’t remember the last time I did a COMPLETE clean. It was past time. I know there will be people totally judging me because my bathroom isn’t disinfectant-clean but give me a break. It works for us. Our house is HUGE and just keeping it TIDY is a full-time job and I already HAVE a full-time job. The kids had to help, and Karin had to help most...

25
Jul
2013

AT THE TOP OF SUMMER

The lawn is crispy crunchy underfoot, every grass blade seared and sun-brittle. No one here wastes water on lawns so the whole neighborhood has a sere look to it. In the fields around our village, wheat and oats and grasses are tawny beige as well; harvest-time is nearly here. The only thing still blooming outside of pots around our house are the roses which are still going strong. The pots add dashes of color: pelargoniums, flowering succulents, begonias and some sad blasted pansies that weren’t quite done when I was repotting summer flowers some time ago. Tomorrow is 7 weeks...

21
Jul
2013

LONDON, PART THE SECOND

Goodness, time gets away from me the second I start working again. I made it through my first week of work after 3 weeks off, but I need to post about the rest of our trip so I can move forward. 🙂 We took the train from Covent Garden out to Watford Junction (which, incidentally, is close to where my UK office is), which took several changes and a very long time. From there, we took the a shuttle to the Warner Brothers Studio, where the Making of Harry Potter tour holds court. The bus was covered an a giant...

15
Jul
2013

LONDON, PART THE FIRST

We left Salisbury on the 11-something train and found our way to our final destination…a few blocks down from the Gloucester Road Underground station. Anders had downloaded an app called Tube Map which made our visit much easier…it has the full London Underground map with all kinds of information like departure times, lines, notifications about delays or closures, when the first and last trains are going, etc., but the best part is that you don’t need to be online to get routing info or stand by the huge confusing full map and trace lines in a confused attempt to figure...

13
Jul
2013

FOURTEEN

It’s hard to remember the details this far forward, but I remember how I cried when the ultrasound technician confirmed that our second child was a girl. I was so glad that I wouldn’t have to consider being pregnant again, since we’d have one of each which is what we both wanted. Of course, then Karin arrived and was the biggest tomboy ever born, so all I could think was “be careful what you wish for”, haha! Neither of my kids wanted to actually leave the womb, and despite being three days early, a welcome change from her big brother...

09
Jul
2013

STONED ON SUNSHINE & SIGHTSEEING AROUND SALISBURY

We had mostly great weather the whole time we were in England. Lots of sunshine and I even got sunburned a bit, which is rare since I don’t sit in the sun very much. After we left the boat back in Leighton Buzzard, we took the train to Salisbury. I think of England as being so small and populated that it’s coast-to-coast towns but there sure is a lot of beautiful landscape and farmland everywhere. Salisbury is a lovely old medieval town with a great deal of ancient architecture. All you have to do is look up above the first...

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