Bring it on 2008!

I am behind on my blogging... Again. :)

Anyway, it's New Year's Eve, around 10:40pm and I am sitting at my computer working. That's kind of sad, don't you think? Is that how my year is going to turn out, working most of the time? Who knows...

It snowed again today and it appears that it will snow tomorrow again. That's a nice way to ring in the New Year. Hope all of you have a good one. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

'Twas the night before Christmas...

We weren't well prepared today. Yesterday we didn't make it to the grocery store and today we weren't sure what the store operating hours would be. It was certain that stores would be closing early because it's Christmas Eve. We knew that it would be busy, packed with last minute shoppers like us, but there wasn't much that we could do because we still needed the groceries for the next couple of days. I was planning on doing some baking. In addition, holiday here (meaning closed stores) is 25th and 26th.

Chris got the kids in the morning and woke me around 10:00. By the time I got up and we all got ready with our winter gear it was already close to 11:00. The first surprise awaited outside when we realized that the light drizzle outside was not regular rain but freezing rain. That meant that we had to get to the car carefully to avoid slipping and also, car deicing was certainly in order. I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried to clear off the windshield. There was a quarter inch of solid ice on it. Once we broke through it, the ice came off in large sheets. I've never seen it that bad so I was a little concerned about getting on the road. I saw the snowplow equipped truck pass on our little side road. Apparently they were sanding the road even this far off the main road so I felt good about that. I saw the truck revisit again late in the day.

We got on the road but everything seemed fine. The car handled the road well. We gassed up and headed to the grocery store. Walking into the store was a little risky but we continued to be careful. We used the kid "car" cart so kids had fun and busied themselves asking for chocolate or candy every time we walked by sweets on the store shelves. Store was packed with people but still well stocked. On our way back to the car our cart (with Mia in it) slowly started drifting out of control and pulling me with it on a slightly uneven pavement. Chris was our hero and saved us from possible injury and embarrassment by grabbing the front of the cart and pulling us away from the slope.

After the grocery trip we headed for McDonald's across the street. We reparked the car to the McDonald's parking lot. A few moments later when we got out of the car again, the frozen rain drizzle has gotten much stronger and I could feel tiny little ice pellets more and more as they bounced off my jacket. By the time we got in and sat down with our food, the rain outside started looking different. After a few moments I realized that it has turned into light snow. Not like the first snow that we had a few days ago where it was more of a 1-2" dusting over two days. Minute after minute it got heavier and started falling in large clumps. It was mesmerizing. As if by magic the weather turned to snow within minutes and snow accumulation was nearly instant. Chris looked outside and said that it looks as if it were a movie, not reality. By the time we got outside, snow had to be cleared off the car.

We made it home without any problems at all just like earlier in the day. By the time we were home there was enough snow for a nice snowball fight. We ran in and got geared up for play in the snow. Chris didn't want to join so the three of us all bundled up bravely headed outside. It was wonderful. Sorry, no pictures. Itw as snowing and I didn't want it to get into the camera parts. Kids ran through the snow and were covered up in white stuff by the time we left the driveway. I headed to my parents house to borrow a sled. We walked around the neighborhood looking for a reasonable slope but weren't quite successful. Nevertheless we had fun. Ivona joined us. We made it back to our parking lot and by now there was plenty of snow for a snowman so we got to work. The snow wasn't "wet" enough though to easily form large snowballs so we abandoned the project and instead ran around and played, screamed, made footsteps in the fresh snow and made snowballs that ended up all over everyone. At one point I brought out two snow shovels (first time proud snow shovel owners here). Then kids kept arguing who will get to use them as they pushed snow around in mounds. Snow kept falling so I started shoveling the parking lot. After a while I sent the wet kids inside and I stayed for almost another hour shoveling snow. By the time I cleared off an area, it was getting covered up again with fresh snow. It was great fun. Neighbors joined in and we made our way through the large parking lot.

Note that I threw caution to the wind and didn't work today as I had planned. It was actually a work day and I have a lot of projects due but couldn't resist letting the day unravel just as it did.

Now when you look outside you can see the snow covered world that will await us in the morning. Snow is predicted for Christmas morning and present opening as well. What an improvement over the last year's Christmas when we weren't in our own home, weather was dreary and the following morning Chris had to leave us for three months.

My mom, unknowingly, helped the magical mood by bringing over dumplings filled with, of all things, sugar plums so that was our dinner. :) My sister's kids came over and it got loud and messy while we were baking in the kitchen. The afternoon was spent making Christmas bread with my mom. Everyone helped. We read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas as our bedtime story and the little ones drifted off to sleep dreaming about the numerous presents waiting for them under the tree.

White Christmas

It looks like we're having a white Christmas this year. Light snow is forecast for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Now we're just missing a fireplace to complete the picture. :) Temperatures outside have been quite chilly but we're staying nice and warm in our new place so it's not been difficult to deal with the cold... yet, anyway. Chris even bought us a couple of snow shovels. It'll be great to use them for the first time. Subsequent times will probably become a nuisance though, but oh well... can't all be great, right? I started baking yesterday and plan on making several different deserts for Christmas. This is also a time of the year for visiting. We've had some friends and my godparents visit today. On Christmas we'll go to see family. Next Saturday we're planning a party at our house. All in all, things are happening. :) Last weekend we went to a real Croatian wedding (Chris' first). I'll have to write up a bit about that too.

Finally!

It's snowing outside. It started this morning and has been snowing lightly all day. It's nice to see. Especially since I haven't even been outside today. :)

So, I thought it appropriate to show off these beautiful pictures of the Alps as we were flying over them a couple of weeks ago. Niiiiiiceeee...

Computer woes

Today, randomly, my computer shut down while I was working and I can't revive it. It is stuck trying to access my DVD drive instead of booting up. Needless to say, that's more than a nuisance to me as I use my computer to make a living. I make backups about once a week which means that I could potentially lose files and work since my last backup which would indeed be exceedingly unpleasant. Especially since one of the projects I completed was very difficult and I just got it done this morning. I need to call tech support and hope that they can help me. If I need to send my computer in to be serviced, situation will get even worse and the likelyhood of losing my files will be even higher.

Anyway, instead of spending time with the tech support, I've been waiting for over an hour for a work meeting. It is nearly midnight here and I am just waiting and stressing out. It's not the end of the world but I could think of a lot more pleasant things to do than trying to salvage my highly customized and overly expensive work computer.

Wish me luck.

Home again

It was a long and adventurous trip but we've made it home safely. I will elaborate more on it later. I am quite tired now. I suppose I am getting old and jet lag is started to get me. I never used to have problems with it before but now I travel with kids and they don't let me get any sleep on the flight.

Anyway, this morning I got up and went to the bakery to get some breakfast items. When I went out, it started snowing lightly for a while. It was really nice. It only snowed for about 30 minutes but it still made my day. :)

Leaving a good impression

Today was my last day at the office before returning to my telecomuting schedule. I am sure that I left a wonderful impression with everyone by oversleeping and showing up quite late for work. I still had quite a lot to get done this week so Sunday I got only slightly over an hour of sleep and Monday night about 5 hours. Well, last night I went to bed around two and simply failed to wake up when the alarm went off. I finally woke up at 9:40am. By the time I got ready and made it to work it was very close to 11:00. So, on my last day there I was terribly late. That made for an even busier day. Finally at 5:30 I managed to leave and took back the car that a friend so graciously loaned me for the entire month. Chris then picked me up to get me home.

At home I had a surprise waiting for me. As soon as I looked at Mia I knew that something was wrong. Her eyes were red, she had huge under eye circles and she had some type of rash on her back. Just lovely, I thought to myself. Grandma's nursing instincts kicked in and she jumped in with a diagnosis and medications. We hope for the best in the morning. Otherwise an already difficult trip will turn even worse. Traveling with a sick child has to be right up there on the list of things that we shouldn't do but we do it anyway just because we're not quite sane. Should I fail to post another blog after this, you'll know that I simply lost my sanity or ability to think coherently after the extra long trip with a sick and a naturally stubborn and opinionated 3 year old.

I'd better go get some sleep. It's 2:00am already.

Vacation is almost over

We've enjoyed last couple of weeks very much. It's been busy but pleasant. If I didn't work the entire time it would have been even better. :)

We went to Atlanta for two days and visited Fernbank Museum (natural history museum) and the Atlanta aquarium. Kids enjoyed it quite a bit including the stay in the local hotel that featured an indoor swimming pool (grandpa made an excellent choice when making reservations). Eight of us rode in the van and it made for a very fun trip. Chris just bought a portable DVD player and I am thinking that now we're fully equipped to take kids on longer trips. I suggested that we do something really soon to which he replied that we haven't even completed this trip. :)

Here is a little activity overview... Kids went to McWane center several times, then to a number of playgrounds, to Chuckie Cheeses, met up with old daycare buddies to play (that was huge success, kids had a blast), visited relatives, bought and watched new cartoons, played new games, read new books... Chris and I got to visit with friends, go out a couple of times to dinner (hooray for Cheesecake Factory) and saw a few movies (movie review in a separate post), shopped (probably too much), and ate lots of turkey and cake on turkey day. I met with a number of friends over lunch which was really great too. All of this definitely made for a very memorable month but the time has come to head home. We're traveling on Wednesday and hope for a good trip. That remains to be seen. I have a couple of more days of work and then some more packing to finish.

At the cash register

Continuing my string of money-related posts...

When making a purchase in Croatia, we frequently use cash. Especially for smaller purchases. I often find it annoying and here is why...

All cashiers, as a part of some great conspiracy it seems, absolutely always ask you for a particular combination of currency so they can give you back perfect change. For example, assume that the cost is 7.30 kunas and you pay with a 10 kuna denomination. Instead of just getting change you will instantly get a question whether you have 2.30 kunas in change so they can give you a single 5 kuna coin back. I've had cashiers give me annoyed looks because they noticed that I had smaller denomination bills or coins in my wallet and I still paid with a different bill. They'd even point out that I could pay with a different bill. I however like to keep those to pay parking and to go to the bakery. I just can't describe to you how annoying this is.

I wanted to see how US cashiers stacked up. Believe it or not, cashiers here are cool cucumbers. Not a single one asked me for specific change. They just gave me back exactly what I was owed regardless of what combination of change they had to give me back. At Taco Bell yesterday my purchase was $5.01. Without missing a beat I was refunded exactly $4.99. I don't think it even occurred to them to ask me if I had a single penny on me. I have to say that I liked that. In Croatia they would have asked you if you have that one penny. If not then they would just let you get away with it and not pay it. On the other hand, frequently if you're owed 1-3 lipas (equivalent of a penny) as change, you typically will not get it back. Yes, I am very anal and find that annoying too. Money is money I think and I don't like them rounding off the cost.

Rock bottom dollar

Dollar has reached it's rock bottom status. Simply stated, I freelance for US customers and get paid in US currency. When I convert the money to kunas, one dollar is worth less and less each day it seems and is at it's lowest exchange point ever. So money is just melting away even without us touching it. Had we not used our savings for a down payment on the condo last year and for furnishing the place, we definitely wouldn't have had enough cash anymore if we had to do it now. 4-5 years ago one dollar used to trade for some 7.3 kunas. Last year it was at about 6.3 kunas. Today for the first time it dropped under 5 to about 4.8 kunas. That just hurts. It's like everything keeps getting more expensive for us but not for others as their purchasing power isn't tied to USD.

Maybe we should just spend it all and clean out the account. Then we won't have to worry about it losing value? :) What do you all think?

Gas prices

I have noticed the gas prices creeping up to new heights. Even at these very high prices you should still consider yourself lucky. The rest of the world pays a whole lot more. One gallon is 3.785L. We pay 8kn per liter which is $1.60034. Now do a little math... At today's exchange rate in Croatia we pay about $6.06 per gallon. Now don't you feel better now?

Great timing

I find it very amusing that we managed to hit "fall back" time change in both countries. Weekend prior to our trip we moved the clock back and once again weekend after the trip. Better now then in the Spring I suppose when we lose time. :)

Bad hair day and other tales

A few of you know that we've made it safely across the pond a few days ago. The trip was quite long. Kids handled it relatively well though. Aside from Ivor's vomit episode on the flight from Frankfurt I suppose. :) We flew on the medium sized plane from Zagreb to Frankfurt, jumbo sized plane from Frankfurt to Washington D.C. , and small little airplane from Washington D.C. to Birmingham. Sounds like a Goldilocks and the three bears story, doesn't it? :) However, the little, 50 seat airplane was definitely not our favorite. There was hardly any room to even get in, but we somehow managed.

At the Frankfurt airport, where we had a three hour layover, we've learned the value of a soda. Since liquids are no longer allowed as carry-ons, we didn't have anything with us as we normally would, so Chris went to look for a beverage. He had a few dollars on him. He managed to use American currency to buy a drink for the unbelievable sum of -- $4.20 for a half a liter drink! Can you say rip off?He got Euro as change. I suppose that will come in handy at some later time.

The weather was beautiful the whole way. A little bit of rain that we started out with turned into sky full of sunshine and kids enjoyed peering out. Neither of the kids wanted to sleep of course. They probably figured that sleeping would make things too easy on their parents. They had to play the part. So we told stories, amused them, played card games and had tea with Disney princesses. And finally it was time to land at Washington D.C. 10 minutes to landing I sat next to Ivor and talked to him. 6 minutes to landing I looked over and he was sound asleep. See the problem there? It was a 9 hour flight which sounds like enough time for a little nap but he waited until it was time to land. Unfortunately, he had to be woken up and the fun began. We had an hour and 50 minutes to clear the immigration, customs, claim and recheck our baggage and catch our connecting flight. All with two excessively sleepy kids in tow. Namely it was their exact bedtime by the Croatian clock, and good and obedient kids that they are, they just wanted to sleep.

Anyway, we joined the massive crowd all gathered to pass the passport control. That seemed to drag on forever. We then claimed our 4 large bags. We traveled with 5 carry-ons (2 laptops, one food bag and two kid entertainment bags) as well as 4 jackets (it's cold in Croatia folks). Add two kids to the mess and you've got yourself quite a pile. Fortunately, we were able to pile everything on two carts. Kids were pleased to sit atop the bags and go for a ride. Then we gave a courteous nod to the customs officer. He was kind enough to just let us through. After checking the bags we proceeded to look for our flight. After a long walk around we managed to find the departure gate for our next flight with a few minutes to spare. Once we boarded, the kids went back to sleep. Mia slept on top of me as I tried to make her nap as comfortable as possible. My back was hurting and my arms went numb but we lived through it. Grandpa and aunt Ann Marie waited to greet us at the Birmingham airport.

We rested the next day. Kids had some catching up on sleep to do. The next day was Halloween so as the day wore on we got ready for a fun trick-or-treating evening. We joined Ivor's daycare buddy Brady and the fun began. Brady's dad got a wagon full of hay so we enjoyed a hayride on a mild Alabama evening. It was great. The kids had a lot of fun and got some candy. They were exhausted but happy. Sorry, the pictures are still in the camera and it's already getting late for me to get them downloaded. I'll try to do that in the next few days. I do have to go to work in the morning and will need to go get some sleep soon.

Yes, I've been working regular business hours. It's been weird to have to get up in the morning to go to the office. It's been well over a year since I've had to do that. It was great to catch up with everyone again though. I am seeing many fun lunch dates in the near future catching up with friends.

Also, on Friday, a new member joined the Phillips clan. Evelyn Marie (aka Evie), was born Friday morning to Chris' brother Michael and his wife. Cute little one too. Yes, I'll have pictures but not yet.

You know, writing all this, it sure seems like we've already had an eventful stay in the US.

That finally brings me to the event that describes the title of this post -- the bad hair day which happened on Saturday. Our perfect looking children were not given their haircuts prior to the trip. We really tried but it simply didn't happen. So Saturday we figured we'd take them to get their haircuts at a local Hoover hair salon. Well, our intentions were good but the results were awful. Both their haircuts look bad. I had to tell you all that so if the kids don't look perfectly adorable in the pictures like they normally do, you'll know that we're not to blame. We tried explaining what we wanted to the hairstylists there but without luck. Grandma tried to comfort us by saying that it wasn't that bad. Yes, it certainly could have been worse but we know that it should have been so much better. Anyway, I am thinking that we'll be visiting our regular hair stylists as soon as we're back. We were appalled at the price too. It cost us $31 for two haircuts (that we didn't like) and we typically pay about $10. I'll just have to get over it though. I think that I probably would have handled it better if it was me that met with the hair mishap and not the kids.

Got to go to bed now. I have to get up waaaay early tomorrow morning. Oh, the cruelty...

Makeover

The kids are getting adjusted to the new house very well. Since we’ve moved, I’ve noticed that more and more often I find them gone to their rooms playing on their own. They didn’t used to do that before.

So the other day I am walking by Mia’s room. Then something stopped me in my tracks. I heard Ivor saying: “Mia, do you want a makeover?” Then they both proceeded to walk past me to get a chair for Mia. They went back and Ivor, sporting a serious, professional look on his face, gave her a makeover. Painted her face up nicely.

Where in the world did he learn a word makeover to begin with? Secondly, I hardly ever wear any make up these days. I couldn’t have been their inspiration. I was surprised to hear Mia ask me to buy her a play make up set a month or two ago. I was even more surprised that Ivor was quite familiar with it. Go figure. Mia was pleased with the result and when they were done they both got a bath. Seems to me that soon I’ll be learning make up tips and tricks from them.

Anyone need a free makeover?

Gone Fishin'

Saturday was a fun day. Ivor got to go to a "fishing school." He has been asking me for well over a year to take him fishing. Neither Chris nor I know anything about fishing though. Honestly, we don't have much interest in learning either.

At the fishing school, school aged kids (Ivor must have been the youngest one there) were invited to attend a 3 hour outdoor session to learn more about the environment and to learn how to fish. Each got a fishing pole to use and take home afterwards. They had a little snack and got diplomas at the end. The event was originally scheduled two weeks ago but it rained quite hard so it was cancelled then. This Saturday didn't look so great either. It was quite cold (about 42F). However, the sun came out, we dressed well and had a fun day out and about. Ivor wore his rain boots so he could even splash around the shallow water looking for animals and insects. I helped translate while we were taught about the local animal population.

Chris and Mia walked about and played during that time.

Then Ivor went fishing. His daddy gets a lot of credit for that one. I tried putting on the first worm but did a lousy job. I didn't know that they had to be live and I just had a hard time dealing with it. Chris then helped and kept up with Ivor so he wouldn't get hurt by the hook.

Ivor caught four little fish and was proud to show them off. However, he wouldn't touch them once they were on the fishing line. Couple of hours later everyone was hungry and tired. Then we all got some ice cream (even though it was cold) and headed home.

I was so excited for Ivor. He finally got to go fishing like he wanted. At the end of the day I asked him what was his favorite part of the day. He said watching Harry Potter later on in the day with Domagoj. That was disappointing. Still, I think that both Ivor and Mia had a memorable day.

Time is just flying by

It's been busy lately and I just realized that our trip to US is in just 19 days. Wow, we still have much preparation to do so we can be away for a month. Don't be surprised if you run into us somewhere around Birmingham then. :) See you all soon!

Tooth fairy

The tooth fairy visited for the first time tonight. Saw her running off with Ivor's tooth. She took the tooth and didn't leave anything behind so I had to remedy the situation by putting a few coins under his pillow. Let's see what the kid will do with the money. :)

Puppy love

I had to introduce to you this little, adorable critter that my sister and her kids adopted not so long ago. When the pooch joined the family she was a toothless little snowball, so tiny she still had to be bottle fed. Of course the puppy stage lasted extremely briefly and she grew by leaps and bounds within days it seemed.

Meet Lory.

Lory stayed with us for four days while my sister was out of town. She desperately tried to get us to fall in love with her by pooping and peeing her way through the living room and by chewing on everything in sight. While nobody can deny Lory extreme cuteness and endless energy, her little stay with us helped me remember while I so adore my (nearly) perfect cat.

My kitty is a soft, lovable, and above all clean creature that is happy to lounge around and sleep all day without any needs for potty breaks at 5:00am. She supervises my exercising efforts while perching on her cat tree and trying to catch the handle of the elliptical trainer and the she'll happily sit in my lap while we watch TV. She's next to me right now lounging away on one of her cat beds (she has quite a few sleeping spots) a few inches from my laptop. Go cat people! :)

Anniversary

Today marks exactly one year that we've boarded the plane in Atlanta and started our European adventure. Wow! What a hard, memorable and successful year it was.

New school

Ivor and Mia have just completed their second week at the new school. It's further out than the last one so we now have to worry about the daily traffic but hopefully it'll be worth it. We've joined a Montessori program. They have a small group of only 23 preschoolers. All other kids are grades 1-5. All together the school has some 100 or so students (I haven't seen updated numbers for this school year). Next year Ivor will start first grade there and hopefully Mia as well when she's big enough. So far things have been going very nicely and smoothly. The teachers are taking interest in the kids and asking us relevant questions. Their group is small; environment is nice. Almost sounds too good to be true. Ivor even has a little American buddy, Ian, in his group. Ian is also 6. Apparently his family moved to Zagreb from Texas. Ivor loves it because he has another bilingual friend in addition to his Canadian buddy, Daniel that we play with when we can. We also saw another family there that Chris met through the language classes. Their daughter is now in first grade. All in all, many new friends are being made.

Put on the jackets

Just last week it was quite hot. It was in the high 80s low 90s during the day and we all thought that it would be nice if it cooled off a little. A little, mind you, not a whole lot! Temperature plummeted over the course of past two days. This evening, I decided that it was officially cold enough to turn on the heat. So I've cranked up a couple of radiators to get the temperature up. Chris thinks its funny but I disagree. Today's high was 53 and low 47. To me temperature in the 40s is a sufficient reason for heating. I see that Birmingham is still balmy. I'll have to come by...

We've had better days

Today was just one of those not so great days. Certainly, there have been worse days but it still hasn't been too much fun. After daycare I took kids to the store to get some new shoes. Besides getting stuck in traffic, we found absolutely nothing we liked, and it started raining quite a bit as we were heading home. I started not feeling so well. Several hours later it's turned into some sort of a mild stomach virus. I really dislike vomiting so this is worse for me than being in pain. I must have gotten it from Mia (who was sick a couple of days ago) who probably got it from Ivor (who was sick some three days before that). To top it all of, Chris finally got the dreaded news that his work contract won't be extended so in a couple of weeks he'll be unemployed again. We should just go to sleep before anything else happens. I hear that at least the cold and rainy weather will start improving by tomorrow.

License to drive

We're glad to share with you that Chris is now an owner of a proper Croatian license in addition to his previously obtained ID card (In Croatia those are two separate cards unlike in the US). We're both quite excited about it. We've been here for 11 months and I drove during that whole time. Even though I enjoy driving, I have to admit that it was starting to get hard not to get an occasional break. He was very patient until we managed to take care of all of the other very important things like housing, mortgage, immigration... We managed to collect appropriate paperwork (including a document from the Alabama DMV) and based on that he got his license without having to take a driving exam. He's doing well finding his way round here. Should he get lost, you're sure to hear about it in the blog. :)

Chocolate plight

I really, really miss being able to buy chocolate chips. I finally managed to locate that dangerous chocolate bundt cake recipe and now I just need finished chocolate chips so I don’t have to cut up my own chocolate. Two dangers here – one, I could potentially chop off a finger (those are precious for blog typing) and two, I could potentially eat the chocolate before it is chopped up and it would never make it to the cake. Not that I’ve never just opened a bag of chocolate chips and eaten them before. I would never…

I did manage to make the yummy cake for Saturday though. We had our first official guests over. Kind of like a mini housewarming party. Some of my friends came (knew them since we were in diapers) and some food and drink (nonalcoholic only) was to be had. It really was fun. I hope to be able to do it again soon. I suppose I should start taking those pictures of the place for you. I am guessing that it won't get cleaned up much more than it already is. :) Give me a week. I'll try to post something.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Or shall I say the lack of one. Read on and I'll explain... :) We've been officially moved in for a month (YAY!). It feels like the place's been ours forever though. Chris was surprised when I told him that it's been only a month as he's convinced that it's definitely been longer. We've put some of our things on the walls, bought a couple of pieces of furniture, the kitchen stuff is in place (now if I could only cook something edible). Very nice overall. When people come visit they don't even realize that one crucial thing is missing -- a mirror. We have one tiny little mirror in the main bathroom so Chris can at least shave. Other than that, we're unconcerned by our appearances and meander around with food stuck between our teeth and shirts messed up (just kidding). :) Well, sort of. Anyway. I've been the difficult one and haven't liked any bathroom mirrors we've seen so far and we haven't had much time to go look for one. So, we've been mirrorless until we figure out how to proceed. I am thinking that it really is time to do something about it. Say we try to find something next week so we can move on and see. People might start thinking that we're vampires or something. In case you are not "learned" that way, vampires don't see their reflections in the mirrors so they don't have any or would drape them with cloth. Makes you wonder how come all of the movie vampires are always so good looking and put together with perfect makeup if they can't see themselves in the mirror. Shall I point out that we typically go to bed between 2 and 4am. Except we don't fly around like bats looking for fine, edible treats. We sit around staring at the computer screen, wasting our eyesight and our wrists and work to make a living. Or write blogs when we should be sleeping...

Family milestone

Last weekend marked another big milestone in our family life. All of you with kids will surely appreciate the importance of this important event. Mia finally accepted that she's a big girl and that she needs to use the potty, not diapers. She's still wearing a diaper at night but hopefully that will soon go as well. That will mean an end of a 6 and a half year "dirty diaper" period. Wow! It sure doesn't seem like it.

Meteor

Apparently exotic events take place around here as well. On Wednesday around noon a meteor estimated to be about 100kg (say the size of a large person) flew over and exploded in the air and the pieces scattered about. They're looking for the meteor remnants now. No, I was not one of people that reported the sighting. I believe I was in bed taking a nap at the time. :)

Hot dogs and more about the weather

I've discovered that things here (like hot dogs) go bad in the fridge in no time. It turns out that it's not the fridge that's at fault, nor the food products... It's the fact that they don't seem to put as many preservatives in food as in the US. I'd say that's a good thing but it sure gets annoying. Mayo and sour cream will last for a measly couple of weeks (unlike months as I've grown used to). Same for hot dogs (will last 30 days from day of manufacture) and other similar prepackaged meat products. Since it is getting expensive to let our purchases go to ruin, we've decided to start freezing all items that would handle it and then cook them directly from the freezer. Sounds like a solid plan! By the way, hot dogs don't come precooked and ready to eat either. And they don't sell hot dog buns either...

Here is a little update on the heat as well. It's finally let up a little yesterday. Temperatures have been around 100; with no air conditioning mind you. We're slowly recovering and hope that the worse is behind us. After many, many sunny and hot days that have turned into drought, yesterday it stormed. The power went out and the wind got quite strong. We didn't even realize how strong the wind got until it was over and we saw that two of our neighbors roofs got picked up by the wind and tossed to the side. I also hear that many people had minor roof tile damage. Fortunately, we were fine other than being without power for hours. Today, weather is back to normal. It's been sunny though not quite as hot.

The heat is back

High temperatures are back to make sure we remember it is summer. Today's forecast is 96 and tomorrow's 97 degrees. I heard that the heat is supposed to persist till mid August and then a nice cool off (probably the end of the "real" summer) is to begin.

We've been working on our apartment but haven't spent the night there yet. There's just so much to get done. I've spent the weekend moving, sorting and putting up our clothes. Chris spent the weekend cleaning and we're both exhausted now. Kids are excited and won't let us take a break. They're ready to sleep there and enjoy their new place. :)

The move is on!

The great migration has commenced. We got the key some 10 days ago and slowly our things have been trickling to our new home. My dad and Chris have moved just about all of the furniture and the storage room we rented looks quite lonely now. We've managed to put together all of the closet shelving on our own and it looks great. The kitchen cabinets aren't quite done yet. Most of them are up but the sink hasn't been delivered. We hope that the kitchen will be wrapped up tomorrow so we can finally plug in our pretty new fridge and so we can give our dishwasher a test drive.

There is quite a lot of cleaning to do. As furniture and boxes are dragged and construction folks are still doing minor repairs and touch ups, the dirt is being tracked in. We still need to polish all of the floor (hardwood is standard here, there is no option to choose wall-to-wall carpeting). The kitchen cabinets need cleaning as well and that is going to be quite a task.

The first day to sleep there is planned for the next weekend. We have to wash all of the linens and towels s well as rewash all of the dishes. We're also waiting for the phone line to be connected. Having that is essential as we both work from the house. The Internet connection is a must these days.

We hope to have some pictures to share with you soon.

Croatian movie stars

Even little Croatia has it's international movie stars and all the scandal that goes with it. A couple of days ago I read in the paper about Goran Visnjic and the paternity suit he's facing. That certainly doesn't fit his image of a nice, married guy with a kid (from the marriage). I just popped open Yahoo and saw the big write up about it. For those of you that don't know, Visnjic is a part of a cast on ER. He also starred as the bad guy in Practical Magic with Bullock and Kidman.

4th of July

Happy Fourth everyone! Enjoy your burgers and the fireworks tonight.

Summer in the city

July 1st marks the true start of the summer in the city of Zagreb. It's as if overnight everything changes and only on September 1st everything returns back to normal. July 1st marks the beginning of mass vacations. Literally! The city loses a large number of its some 1 million inhabitants who all migrate elsewhere for a while; primarily the beach. By Croatian law (and in many other European countries) 4 weeks (20 business days) of vacation is guaranteed. Most people choose to take most or all of their vacation during the summer. As you might imagine, that doesn't necessarily leave enough people to keep the businesses open. For example, at my bank, they will work from 8:00am to 2:00pm only during these two months. Other months of the year they have two shifts and are open till 8:00pm I believe. Many other businesses will follow suit and close their doors for the part of the day they are typically open.

It's not just businesses that are affected so significantly. I was very annoyed to find out that our daycare will be combining their groups for the summer. The kids and teachers get reshuffled as most of the kids and teachers appear not to be around for large chunks of time. As I got properly Americanized and workaholicazied, such behaviors are strange and hard to comprehend. Maybe some day in the future, we'll be able to do the same thing. Yours truly will be working hard all summer trying to make a buck. As things look right now, my July will stay quite busy as American calendars don't quite realize its summer. Maybe its the air conditioning in the US (not quite common around here) that made everyone forget about the summer.

I understand that Italians do the "gone for the summer" thing to an even greater extent and some companies will flat shut down completely for a month for vacations. Can you imagine that?No wonder Italians seem to be so laid back.

Hot!

To be honest, I was afraid of spending my first winter here. I am no longer used to cold weather, snow and such. As it turned out, it was the warmest winter on record with no snow. Go figure. But, the heat has certainly kicked in. It is in mid 80s to mid 90s during the day. That may sound like something that might be easy to live through until you realize one thing -- no A/C in homes! That translates into one very hot summer. Fortunately, we bought a car with A/C. Yes, many cars here still aren't equipped with cooling. We weren't planning on spending the money to add air conditioning to the condo until next year but we just might change our minds. It might be time to revisit the budget and cancel some other projects and instead add air conditioning to our list of "to dos." At the moment though, we've equipped ourselves with nice big fans so we can make it without melting away.

It's also worth mentioning another important milestone. Today is exactly 9 months since we've arrived to Zagreb. And, we're just days away from getting the keys to the apartment. Chris and I did a little shopping today. It's a holiday here today (and Monday as well) so kids are at home making it hard to put in our work hours during the day. So, we went shopping. We purchased a dishwasher (yay!), a refrigerator and a TV (kids will be happy about that one). Few days ago we purchased a clothes washer and now we're waiting for all of that to be delivered. Yes, we'll get a dryer as well. We just can't make up our minds which model to select. Here very few people have dryers and clothes are usually drying outside on clothes lines. The clothes smell nice and fresh but it sure is a pain to do the clothes washing that way. Chris and I decided to forgo the experience and get the dryer. Since most homes aren't equipped with a dryer connection, here they sell models with a condenser. It looks like a great solution. I am not sure why they wouldn't make those available in the US. At least I don't recall seeing any. We'll let you know how well they work.

Update

It's been a busy, busy, busy six weeks so there hasn't been much time for blogging. I will revisit some of the events from past weeks and add some photos later. During this time we've enjoyed the company of two dear visitors from the US. Ann Marie, Chris' sister and Doug, a family friend came to stay with us just a few days apart from each other. We went to the beach for a week and enjoyed some vacation. Chris and I continued our bureaucratic adventure. He got his temporary resident status so we can finally get that off our minds. I worked during and after the vacation to finalize the first draft of the textbook my sister and I have been working on. It's been accepted for publication but we still have many changes to do. My sister is currently revising the content and then I'll get the material back for another pass on the layout. We're both happy about it.

We finally signed the house contract and the loan that we've worked on for 2 and a half months was finally approved. We're currently wrapping up a myriad of paperwork that comes with all of this so there are going to be many more errands before we can close a chapter on that. Barring any other major disasters, we'll get the key to the place next week. Now we're in the process of contracting people to get our kitchen and interior stairs completed. After much investigation Chris and I decided to do all of our own closets instead of paying a lot of money for someone to make shelving to size. We also have a painter coming in to put some color into kids' bedrooms. We have to choose and purchase fridge, washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc... Should all go as planned we may be able to spend our first night in the place within some 10-15 days, or as soon as the kitchen's there. :) As you see, we've not been bored. I'll write another post soon with more details.

Car photos

Many months back I bragged about how we were pleased with our new (used) car, and stuff. Believe it or not, I still haven't had a chance to snap a picture. Probably because the car is dusty just about all the time. The fact that it is black doesn't help as it shows dirt readily. But, we also do a good bit of driving on several unpaved roads. The city seems to be under perpetual construction. You're bound to run into a road that's being repaved, fixed up, sewer system or gas lines being put in, etc. And sometimes these construction projects take a while (think months). In the meantime we have no choice but to drive around or through it so a car gets dusty even after we give it a nice wash. We're not known for washing the car too often to begin with. :) So, I decided to get a couple of nice, professional shots online and post them.
Cars here a good bit different as they have to be made for city driving and crazy narrow roads. That's why we picked a short but relatively tall car so we still have lots of headroom, we're higher up off the ground to see traffic better, yet we can still squeeze into most parking spots. The trunk is short but high so we still have a good bit of room for things.

Horsing around

Here we are just horsing around on the couch, watching TV as any good Americans would. :) I think that we owe the grandparents some more pictures so here they are.

Since pictures speak more than words, I'll try to post more, even if it's just kid snapshots.

Birthday party notes

I wanted to share a few pictures from Mia's birthday party from a few days ago. She was so delighted by that whole birthday week. She had a birthday cake made by my sister on the actual day of her birthday.
Then we sent some cookies to school with her to share. Then, she had an actual birthday party at one of the local playrooms. I believe that she enjoyed it quite a lot.
She picked the Little Mermaid cake but she also wanted a "zebra" cake. We don't know why she's been fascinated by zebras lately. So we decided to give her both. In one of teh photos, you'll notice her gingerly licking icing off of one of the zebras that were guarding her pink cake.
At home after the party it was time for present opening. She did it under the watchful eye of her big brother. He wouldn't leave her side for a second until all of the toys were out in the open.
Up to this point Mia asked whether it was her birthday every day. Since the party, she hasn't asked once. I believe that she's "birthdayed" out for a few weeks and I am sure she'll be back to the birthday countdown in no time. Now it's Ivor's turn. He's getting very impatient and hates to have to wait for 7 whole weeks before it is his turn to celebrate. :)

More Americans in Zagreb

The whole last week a group of some 14 Americans came to visit Zagreb. About half of them are from Birmingham and the rest from all other parts of the country but it seems that they all know each other through UAB. Majority of them radiologists. They went to visit castles one day, got a tour of the old town, went to national park Plitvice, and then a couple of days to Dubrovnik. I managed to get together with them over dinner one night. It was really late already. I left at 9:00pm and managed to find them even though they were in a part of town which was difficult to access by car. I didn't want to walk as it was late and I was by myself. Chris stayed home with the kids. We stayed out until after midnight when the restaurant closed. They seemed to really enjoy the stay. We had great fun over dinner talking about all sorts of things. We knew one couple as their daughter went to daycare with Ivor. Just so you know that Croatia makes a great place to vacation. :) Ann Marie, my sister in law is next. She'll be here in 2 weeks. Then Doug, a friend of mine, in 4 weeks. Heard a rumor that Noel, a friend and colleague might visit too sometime in June. Who's next? Any takers. You're missing out. :)

Labor day

Happy (Croatian) Labor Day! Labor Day is celebrated on 1st of May in Croatia and many other countries around the world. It is a holiday here so people are enjoying their day off. Many people took an extra day off and most left the city for the beach. We stayed home but enjoyed the outdoors today as we spent a nice morning at the park.

School decisions

Yesterday we went to visit a small Montessori daycare and elementary school. They have a total of some 70 kids 20 of which are in daycare and the rest in first through fourth grade of elementary school. Coming from a posh Birmingham daycare, we've not been overly happy with a city daycare here and we knew right away that it wouldn't be a permanent solution for us. Here everything (daycare included) rotates around the school year. That means that daycare and school admissions are typically taken care of in May for the next school year starting the first week of September. I found this Montessori school online and thought it interesting enough to check out. I couldn't have been more pleased when we've visited the facilities. People were nice, toys, kids, everything. We somehow got past the waiting list as I know that there is a waiting list to get into this school as it is rather small. We got a call several hours later that we were accepted. We're very excited and hope that it will work out really well. It'll be safer for the kids. They'll have access to dance, tae-kwon-do, ceramics, piano, art and other classes in addition to the regular school program. They'll also do a lot of practical, hands-on work and a lot of art. Ivor in particular, is likely to respond well to that environment as he loves projects. His dislikes are having to sit down and write so this type of environment is likely to suit him well.

Pictures from the coast

I finally got to go to the beach! Sort of. :) My sister and I went to the coast a couple of weeks ago to drop of my nephew, Domagoj, at a pulmonary treatment medical facility. Apparently the air there is supposed to be perfect for people with pulmonary problems (like asthmatics) so he usually spends 3 weeks there every spring starting with spring break. Unfortunately, we stayed there for only three hours and then headed back home. But, the scenery was so beautiful. It looks very similar to what you’ve seen in the movies about Italy. Picturesque stone homes, curvy, steep roads, and of course, beautiful sea. We plan on going as a family in about a month and I look forward to a week of sunny weather in Southern Croatia close to Dubrovnik. My sister in law is coming so we’ll all go together while she’s here.

It's birthday time!

It's Mia's third birthday today and she is so excited. She's been talking about her birthday and planning it since her last one. She still remembers her cake and the party that we had for her 2nd birthday. The party is on Saturday and she can hardly wait. What a big girl she's grown into. :) Even though we're getting ready for a party in two days, my sister made her a cake for this special day so we enjoyed it with our dinner. When she saw the cake in the fridge Mia whispered: "I love it."

Tax time!

That joyous time of the year is here again. Yes, even though we're not there with you, we still have to do the dreaded taxes. There or not, we're still obligated to file taxes every year. I completed the federal tax return via TurboTax and have e-filed it last nigh. But, I don't have a copy of our last year's return (it's somewhere in storage with dozens of other boxes) so we still have to send a sheet of paper to IRS with our signatures on it. I was going to complete everything online but in addition to the federal thing I need to mail, it turns out that I can't e-file Alabama return since we no longer live in Alabama. That's a real nuisance. So for the first time in a very long time, we'll be filing via snail mail. To make things more fun, I ran out of checks (I was planning on paying online, electronically) and the rest of the checks are packed up somewhere as well. So, we'll use some ancient ones that somehow hid in my otherwise empty checkbook. The checks still say SouthTrust Bank on them instead of Wachovia. Oh well. It should still work out. I don't think our money will be turned down. And yes, we ended up owing on both federal and state. Oh what fun. :)

Funny names

I've been more aware of meanings of people's last names since I've moved back. I don't know why but many struck me as quite funny. Perhaps since I haven't heard many in a long time. The major of Zagreb (largest city in Croatia) for example, has a last name of Bandic. In my (unprofessional) translation, that would be something like "ganger" (as in gang member). How appropriate is that for a city major! :) The country's president, Mesic, would be translated something like "meaty." Then I read an article about plastic surgery. The guy mentioned in the article has a last name of Dzepina, which would mean "huge pocket." That one certainly beats the rest.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Easter and other religious holidays are a pretty big deal here. Croatia is mostly Catholic so Easter, along with a bunch of other religious days (not just Christmas), is a national holiday. Today absolutely everything is closed. Tomorrow, just a few shops will be open for a few hours and that's it. Croats like their days off. :)

It was a nice day today. Kids painted the eggs and helped bake cookies. Tomorrow is set for an Easter egg hunt. The weather is going to be terrific. Seems to be warmer here than in Birmingham.

The BIG 10

Chris and I reached the BIG 10 today and celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I have to admit, it doesn't really feel like it as the time just blew by. If this is how it is, then 20 will be here before we know it. I hoped to do a lot more than a lunch together to commemorate the milestone we're proud of but that won't quite be possible at the moment. I plan on booking us a nice relaxing couples massage for next week and then maybe during the summer, we can have a proper party to celebrate. In that nice new home I hope... :) Come to think of it, we've lived at 5 different addresses so far and will soon add number six. That averages to less than two years per address. Wow! Didn't realize that. Maybe we can make the next one stick for a while.

What a long week

What a long week it's been and it's not even Friday yet. Both good and bad things are happening all at once. We're looking into one week of vacation at the end of May and I am starting to think that we'll all be desperately needing it.

Chris is back and we're all very happy about it. We're proceeding to work on his immigration application. We went to the local police station for an interview, then to the main headquarters downtown. Turns out that we're still missing another document. OK, we figure we'll go get that taken care of. They explain that the application will be approved within a week. Terrific, we thought. Almost done. Not quite though. Then they say that Chris would need to go to the Croatian embassy in the US to get the stamp in the passport. Now we get to go visit a number of bureaucratic offices to see if we can get it in writing for Chris to receive the stamp here. We figured that we could overnight the passport to Washington as the last resort but that does get pricey when sending half way across the world. This is certainly nothing insurmountable but is annoying, stressful and very time consuming. I was hoping that we could get this so we can make him the local ID and the local driver's license right away so he could drive. It would be helpful if I didn't have to do all of the driving. Now we have to keep waiting to get those important documents. Anyhow, it'll be done but just can't be simple. Never is.

The condo has entered the final and very exciting (for us anyway) phase of construction. The tile is finally being installed this week under my close supervision. I am getting very tired of loooooong conversations with the builder, changes, discussions why something will or won't work... The complex layout bathroom will be done by tomorrow sometime. That'll be a relief. The good news is that it all looks really nice and I think we made good choices. The upstairs bathroom in particular as it looks unusual in layout and color choices. It'll be very slick and I look forward to it. All of the electrical isn't completed though and there's been errors. I'm just ready for them to complete it already. The hardwood floors (standard method of construction here) are set to go in Monday and that will take several days to be done.

Once we actually get the key, we still have a good bit of work to do in addition to moving. Getting kitchen cabinets, for example. That's considered furniture here and doesn't come with the house. Then we need to buy fridge, washer, dryer... and let's not forget a small round stairwell to connect the two floors. We also need to take all of the documents to have the ownership legalized, then we have to take care of all of the utilities and the hefty property tax. It's a lot more complicated to do that then in the US. Our motivation will be very high though after living for 7-8 months with my parents so I think we'll get it done as quickly as it is humanly possible.

As of today, following construction items are still on the "to be completed" list: finalize tile, hardwood floors, landscaping, tile on main stairwell and basement storage, electrical, attaching the radiators, installing tub/toilet/sink. Sounds like much but it really isn't. These are finishing things and most of this is already done in other units (there are 9 units all together). Ours is always being done last. They must like us a whole bunch. :)

We've started the loan process and the situation isn't going smoothly either. Paperwork missing or incorrect. Things we got to figure out... My sister is having to get involved as a cosigner because I have a foreign employer so they can't take that income into account for the loan. Crazy things, I tell you.

All in all, things are actually going well. I know that it may not sound like it but it will all resolve soon. If not, you'll find me happy and content at some looney house around here. :) Next 4-8 weeks will just be absolutely crazy and after that I expect things to start quieting down. Mybe we can have a peaceful summer then. Even though absolutely nothing is going smoothly (does it ever?), it is getting done nevertheless. We're putting in the extra effort to get to the goal. Wow, we're ready for a break.

The wait is over

Chris returned to us today. The long three month wait that seemed to last forever is finally over. The funny thing is that as soon as he walked in, it felt like he never left. Everything just fell back in place. Mia just kept saying"I'm so happy" even before we went to the airport. I officially got kicked out of kids' bedroom tonight. Mia declared twice that daddy will be putting her to bed. I am going to have to figure out what to do with my new found freedom. :) So far so good. Tomorrow it's business as usual. Kids to daycare, Chris and I to work. He started freelancing as well. Now if we could just get that condo to be finished...

Shopping experience

Shopping here is quite different from what you might face in the US. Today, I took the kids to a beautiful new playroom in a large shopping center. They were excited to go play. I was excited to see a friend I haven't seen in years and to meet her 3 year old son for the first time. She gave me directions and it all seemed rather simple. In the morning, however, it started raining and I hoped that the rain wouldn't make it harder to find the place. We found it OK but couldn't find parking. Every time I visit one of many brand new shopping centers, I get newly amazed at the poor exterior planning. Interiors are beautiful and mostly well executed. But getting to the shops and dealing with parking is the hardest thing.

The shops are varied, plentiful and well stocked unlike how it was when I was growing up. In the past couple of years, especially, selection of quality goods and services has significantly expanded. Chris and I will soon be buying kitchen appliances and such and I'll tell you, the selection here far surpasses what I've seen in the US. Selections for appliances, tile, kitchens... It is beautifully designed. Like walking onto a Home and Garden TV show. Welcome to the shopping paradise to all of you who have cash. I'll talk more about that some other time.

We couldn't find parking. The parking was poorly designed in a comb shape. That means that cars had to back out if they mistakenly thought there was an open parking spot and there were none. There was no other way to turn around. The access roads were poor. It was hard to get there and hard to get out. The cars lined up behind each other in a hurry, signage was poor. I managed to get around the building and proceeded towards the residential area and parked there. It took us about 30 minutes to accomplish this. Parking so far also means that, had we bought groceries or large items, it would have been quite a trick to get them to the car.

The playroom was great though. Believe it or not, we've been to a couple of playrooms here that don't even come close to anything they have in Birmingham. These places are several times the size of Pump It Up (for those of you that know what I am talking about), are indoors and have terrific equipment. It's kid heaven by all means. Exterior playgrounds though aren't nearly as nice as vandalism quickly deteriorates new playgrounds. Design of outdoor playgrounds also leaves a lot to wish for regarding kid safety. It's like a polar opposite to the indoor ones.

We had a great time and once kids looked like they're about to fall over (takes about two hours of continuous running to accomplish that), we were ready to leave. I took them to McDonald's on the way back and they loved it. Good little Americans. They ate up all of their french fries (or American potatoes as it says at Paris airport fast food places) and sat around the house exhausted for the rest of the afternoon. It makes bed time a lot easier this way.

Forgot to mention another interesting shopping tidbit... If you go grocery shopping here, you have to either bring your own bags or you pay for the ones you take. How about that! They don't give you 10 bags for 10 items like they do at WalMart. Here you think twice about how many bags you get because you're paying for them. It's a nice way of reducing waste. This is the case for grocery stores only. Other stores give bags. Probably because the amount purchased is usually considerably smaller than when it comes to groceries.

Brrrrrr

True to the forecast and one day before the first official day of spring, we woke to snow flurries. The flurries soon turned into large clumps of snow. It was beautiful to see, not so fun to drive in. Three hours later it stopped and melted by the afternoon. I hear that it will still be cold tomorrow. Hopefully, it won't last. Then, we can put up our winter jackets. Again.

Snow

I've just read that snow has been forecast for Monday. They say that the temperatures will drop sharply and precipitation will turn into snow. I've already put up the winter jackets because we were wearing short sleeves today. Strange weather patterns continue in what promises to be a very memorable year.

Our weekend alone

What an interesting weekend it was. We had great plans. The weather has been absolutely beautiful lately. Warm and sunny. Trees are starting to bloom. Spring is in the air. My parents left town for 10 days. My sister went out of town on business and her kids spent the weekend with their dad. It was me and the kids and it sounded like the perfect time to just relax and enjoy each other. I was planning to catch up with some friends I haven’t seen in years. As always, things didn’t quite work out as planned.

On Thursday night Ivor started running a fever that persisted into Friday morning. Fortunately, just days before I finally managed to get kids’ health insurance taken care of so we didn’t have to worry about that. Turns out that Ivor got Scarlet fever. That just didn’t sound so good but the doctor didn’t seem overly concerned. She gave me antibiotics for Ivor and, as a preventative measure, for the other three children in the household as well. I was also told that Ivor needs to stay home for at least 10 days. Since I work from home, kids staying at home always spells trouble. On top of everything, I had to give both kids medicine every 8 hours, meaning that I would have to wake them during the night. Both of them! Little kids aren’t very happy when someone wakes them at night. Especially if that little kid’s name is Mia.

Next two days were quite interesting. Ivor did OK during the day but nights were a little different. He threw up that first night. Then he couldn’t settle down to sleep, moaning all night and talking in his sleep (at least I think that he was asleep). Second night he did the same but not as much. So, our weekend was rather uneventful and spent at home trying to get better. Ivor has recovered so much that he’s literally bouncing off the walls and is giggling and running around like crazy. He’s very pleased with himself because he gets to stay at home while Mia doesn’t. He also spends his day pestering me for the internet connection so he could play games online. He just can’t quite grasp why I would need it and what that means that I need it for work. Now I am looking forward to him going back to daycare so I can resume some kind of a normal schedule.

The evils of exercise

Now, can you believe that we've moved six months ago. We've managed to organize the move, pack everything, cancel ALL of our accounts, forward mail... Wow, what an achievement. No, wait; there's one thing that's left. GYM MEMBERSHIP! Can't get it cancelled. Can you believe the blood suckers. I submitted everything necessary in September. When they tell you that you can cancel the contract in case you move, they're lying through their teeth. To make it worse, the annual contract renewal is up so you'd figure that I could cancel it based on that. Not even that! Still automatically renewed and they've sent the bills. You've got to be kidding me. This is sufficient for someone to go postal. Have you ever seen that episode of Friends where Chandler pays for his gym membership for years because he can't get it cancelled? Yep, probably based on a true story. This is why we all get fat, because we're afraid to sign up at any of these places.

Macho man

In Chris' absence someone had to take over as the man of the house. Ivor decided to step up to the plate. He asked to have tattoos put on his chest and then asked for a button-down shirt so he could show them off. When I asked if I could take a picture, he proudly showed off as you can plainly see. He put on the meanest, toughest face he could muster.
Mia wasn't going to be outdone so she asked for a tattoo as well but she put hers on her tummy.

Better late than never

Here are the pictures from our one and only snow day, January 25th. Considering that the temperatures reached sixty degrees today, I think I am way overdue on posting these. Ivor is still upset with me because he didn't get the snow I have promised him when we first talked about our move. Perhaps next year will be snowier.

In the meantime, Spring has arrived. Trees are starting to bloom and temperatures are steadily going up.