Personal record

I must have beat my personal record... I've just looked around my work desk and I have 6 large cups, 3 bottles, 2 plates and 2 bowls in various places on my desk. Can you tell I live at my desk? :)

My native tongue

Croatian is my mother tongue so I don't expect to ever really forget it. Whenever I called home or visited, I always spoke the language without any trouble. So when we moved back, I was surprised to suddenly come face to face with my lacking vocabulary. I probably moved too early in life so I've never encountered a number of situations in a Croatian speaking environment. For example, I've never held a job that required Croatian so writing Croatian business correspondence is a very painful task indeed. Also, anything that has to do with computers and design mostly leaves me speechless because I have trouble finding the words to say what I want to say. So, complex discussions of any sort now leave me struggling for words. I am sure it makes me look very intelligent when I answer such a frequently asked question of what I do for a living. Saying that I use computers to make pictures just doesn't sound very impressive. Since I work from a home office and people never actually see me go to work, I am sure that most people just think, yeah right, sure you do.

A few days ago during an online work meeting, I was faced with an impromptu review of a project I was working on. Sure, it was confusing material. That's why we were sharing lessons learned amongst ourselves. As I was listening to myself speak, I realized that I sounded just as incoherent as I would be if I were presenting in Croatian. Could it be that it was late and I was really tired? (good excuse) I don't know, but that wasn't one of my proudest moments. The ideas in my head were as clear and organized as they could be. Getting them out in a constructive, effective manner just wasn't happening though. So my audience quickly lost interest. I'll collect my findings in writing and will distribute to the team later. I suspect that it will make more sense then. It was weird to face an inability to communicate well. Still, I say to myself, making my brain work overtime while it lives two languages side by side, constantly switching between the two, will keep my memory fresh and Alzheimer's at bay some day. Cheers to that.

Frost

We awoke to our first frost covered landscape of the season. Though beautiful, it is annoying when we have to clean off the car. Especially if we're running behind schedule which, I admit, does happen, ahem, often... By Saturday night temperatures will dip into 20s.

All I want for Christmas is...

Instead of sending Santa a letter, Chris usually sends me an e-mail with his Christmas wish list. I don't comment on it but make a purchase. By the time Christmas comes around he forgets about his e-mail and then he's pleasantly surprised about his great gift. His wife is so talented that she always knows just what to get. The system works. Until this year. He's so excited about what he wants that he's sent an e-mail and then followed up with a phone call (from work) and then talked about it at home. Repeatedly. I get the hint. I am not that dense.

So last night he brings it up again and actually asks if I had ordered it. And, if I hadn't ordered it that he'll do it the next day just to make sure that he got what he wanted. This is unusual behavior so I had to learn more about it. What he wants for Christmas is a new Fallout 3 computer game. But not just any Fallout 3 will do. He wants the "limited edition." And those go quickly he says. Because they only make so many and he just really wanted one. And it will be sold out so he'd better order one. Limited edition or regular, it is the same game, I said. Nooooooo, he replied with a straight face. Limited edition comes with a LUNCHBOX! That was an excited reply of a 36 year old man who hasn't used a lunchbox since elementary school. Oh yeah, it comes with a bobble-head action figure (read: doll) as well. I bet kids won't be allowed to touch it. LOL.

How much does it cost to fly?

I've spent the weekend searching for airfare for our Christmas vacation in US. At first I was delighted to see that prices haven't really gone up. I expected them to be much higher so this was a pleasant surprise. Quite the contrary, the prices were at par or in some instances lower than they were 3-4 years ago. Good, I thought. Perhaps this won't be as bad as I anticipated. The warm and fuzzy feeling lasted until the checkout time. The taxes and fees have ballooned up to be two thirds of the price of the actual fare. That means that the advertised price is nowhere close to the actual price (like it used to be). In addition, it makes it very difficult to comparison shop. I went through the beginning of the checkout process with three web sites to determine that the final price was about the same. They varied in what amount they allotted to the ticket price and what amount went to the taxes and fees. I knew that I would pay more than last year. But I find it upsetting that the costs have to be lied about like that. As if you wouldn't notice the difference at payment time.

On a more positive note, see you all at Christmas!

Got to brag a little

My sister and I have been working on a pet project for three years now. First we just talked about it over the phone, then we put it on paper, then we started taking actual steps to make something happen... After many, many, many hours of work, we launched an education portal (zbornica.com) on September 1st. That's why I haven't been blogging much. As it turns out, working on a site like that requires a whole lot more spare time than I could have anticipated. Since I have a paying job in addition to this new hobby of mine, I've been scrambling to find free time. In addition, I am just learning the software that runs the site as I go along, so there are still quite a few things that I'd like to have fixed. However, the site is humming along and we're starting to get regular visitors. I figured, within a year or so, we'll have us a decent little site going.

Last week we experienced our very first hacker attack. The IP was "hijacked" and it attempted to download PDFs onto users' local machines and it tried redirecting to their site. This is entirely new territory for me and I had absolutely no clue as to where to start. After much searching, reading, digging and complaining, I managed to locate the evil code and bid it farewell. I am so proud of myself as honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. For now, things are OK and will hopefully stay that way as I've spent a huge amount of time trying to figure this out. I hope this bragging doesn't come back to bite me in the ***. If it does, you're sure to hear about it. Back to work now...

Kids

A friend of mine had her first child several months ago. I finally got to meet the toothless, bald, smile-as-big-as-his-face baby. The worn out saying of "nothing will ever be the same again" just doesn't even begin to describe what that really means. Yes, she's having a hard time as all new parents do. She is just learning to love and care for that little baby. It's actually not until much later that it hits you what interesting and wonderful little people you're living with. Honestly, I wish if I had it written down every time Ivor or Mia came to me with one of their unique comments on the world around them and life in general. They both change constantly so their comments change and it will keep us amused until preteen years (or so I am told).

I don't get ordinary kisses. Mia stands on her tiptoes and lifts one of her feet off the ground behind her (like in the movies) to plant a smooch on my face. She wished upon a star tonight to have a real live pony when she grows up. She declared that it was her "dream come true" when, much to our surprise, there were fireworks so we rushed out into the cold in our pajamas to watch, kids' eyes big as saucers. That was a couple of weeks ago and she won't stop talking about it. At age four and a half she has her life figured out, knows how many kids she will have (2 or 4), what their names will be (I honestly can't remember any more), what pets she'll have (list too long for this little blog), what color her car will be (rainbow).... Today I attended a birthday party for one of her stuffed animals and we had to sing happy birthday in three languages (Croatian, English and German). I must confess though, I wasn't there willingly, she pestered me until I came.

Ivor knows what he will be when he grows up. Few years ago he started out with the usual policeman, firefighter. Now we're getting more specific. He's decided to have several jobs. At the age 7 he knows that he'll start up an aquarium, just like the one in Atlanta and has been researching fish so he can know which ones to get for the aquarium exhibits. He'll also have a hotel and a water park alongside the aquarium so you're all welcome to stay for a few days. I'll keep you posted. He'll be a ninja in his spare time so he can fight off any zombies that might happen nearby. You can never bee too careful I suppose. So on our way to school in the mornings we clock the speed of our car at 68mph to see how fast the fastest fish in the world can swim (called sailfish or istiophorus). Or we slow down to a seemingly slow pace of 30mph which is how fast the fastest shark in the world is believed to swim (mako shark). He knows how chocolate was discovered and how it is made and is curious about everything from electricity to space travel.

There are no boring days when you have kids. They'll leave tiny and sharp things on the floor for you to step on (be careful how you go through the "prickly forest," says Ivor), jump out of the shadows to scare you (funny how they don't even have to learn this one), leave sticky trails on light switches, mirrors, walls and your chair at the table, and will pack your house with treasures like dirty rocks, stray pets (Ivor is very good at this), priceless drawings, broken toys, pooped underwear and much, much more. Much patience is required for the job. Oh, and the pay sucks unless you don't mind getting paid with sticky hugs and sloppy kisses. It's kind of sad to think that they will turn into tired, stressed out adults like me some day.

Square peg in the round hole

I've been busy, perhaps more so than usual, so I've not done much blogging. Today's events, however, were too good to pass up. Have you noticed how writing (and reading) about something bad or negative is a lot more fun than writing about sunny days and happiness? Well, that's the way it is and I am using this post to vent my frustrations.

First I need to commend my family for yesterday's major milestone. We've just passed the two year mark of our move and have fully and I believe, successfully integrated into the local life (last major task completed this morning, I'll explain). Finally. It's been a long and at times painful and exceedingly frustrating process. The usual daily grind stuff, I suppose.

This morning I finally got my health insurance. Surprised why it took so long you might ask? Because I don't fit the bill, as usual. That's the way it has to be I suppose. If things came to us too easily, we just wouldn't appreciate it one bit. Right? I don't know. It's hard to be constantly patient without getting stressed and frustrated. Why did it have to take 7 years for me just to get the green card after I got married? It's paperwork people. Bureaucracy at it's best. Less than intelligent rules enforced by even less than intelligent people. So here's the skinny on the latest...

Kids were eligible for health insurance right away because they were minors and Croatian citizens. That was my primary concern and I was glad when that was finished. Chris couldn't get insurance until he had temporary residency which, as you might recall, wasn't that easy to come by. The culmination of it was his three month departure back to the US so we could follow the law and get it done right. Made it through that and many other stumbling blocks in between (read old posts), and he was granted health insurance as well. We paid it on a monthly basis until he got a job in April. Now he's covered through his employment. And that leaves me. Saving the best for last.

Well, any way you looked at it I just didn't and couldn't fit into anything that they had on paper there. I didn't have a job in Croatia to get insurance through work; wasn't a student; wasn't a minor; wasn't self employed (in Croatia); didn't have an employed husband with permanent residence (else I could get insurance through him); couldn't go through unemployment office because I didn't report my status change (loss of job, finishing school, etc.) within allotted 30 days; didn't believe in bribing someone to fix it up for me... I've only missed that deadline by some 6,205 days. Couldn't they just look the other way? I've spent two years trying out all of these options. Certainly it could have been done faster, but this was being worked on along with many other important things like kid's health, immigration applications, home ownership paperwork (a nightmare in it's own right), work (wow, got to pay bills and eat)... Still, luck stayed on my side and despite it all I didn't get sick for two years. That's a miracle in itself, isn't it? I did try to get "fake" employment but that soured as well. At a suggestion of the health insurance office worker, I asked a friend to hire me for 2-3 weeks and then I could quit so I'd have paperwork that I could take to the unemployment office within 30 days of quitting date and qualify for insurance that way. The HR person that was supposed to do that for me, clearly never seen someone with a strange situation like mine (I am one in a billion you know) persisted to convince me of all sorts of things that I've already tried and checked on so I gave up on it. Not worth getting her in trouble with her boss, a friend of mine that was to do me a favor. Besides, she also insisted that she needed a certificate where my insurance was cancelled (something like certificate of creditable coverage in the US) which clearly I don't have and I should have obtained, I suppose, some 17 years ago.

My last and only option, I found out, was to pay one full year of insurance (in arrears) so I could start paying every month for the privilege of using the health insurance. I didn't do that right away because I've hoped to find some other solution as some of the other options looked promising. It wouldn't make sense to just throw the money away. I was determined to try out other things first. I probably did it for the same reason why I refused to hire an expensive attorney to get my green card done (aside from an application fee, a free process) so it took 7 years instead of maybe two. Or the same reason why I refused to hire a real estate agent because it defies common sense to pay someone $12,000 for something that I can do on my own. You should have seen how mad I was when we had to write a big check to the buyer's real estate agent (buying and selling real estate agents split the 3% fee) who was so incompetent that if we left it up to him the closing wouldn't even happen. I collected the right paperwork and brought it over to the closing. We negotiated over the phone until I just plain told him no on whatever he was trying to scheme up. After a while he got either scared or embarrassed to call and all future communications were strictly e-mail. He suckered some poor couple to get the house that was way beyond their means and ended up rolling up all of the closing costs into the loan. What do you think are the chances that they are still in that home? I digress...

So, mad at the system I went to the health insurance office again this morning. Been there so many times that they recognize my face already. Told them what I wanted to do and their suggestion was to wait until I need to go to the hospital or something and then do this paperwork. I could just see myself on the stretcher signing the paper so I could get medical care. I turned the paperwork in to one of the clerks. He processed it and told me I had to go make the payment at the post office. Post offices function as mini banks here so one can pay bills and make other miscellaneous payments there. There are no checks in Croatia (only direct pay or electronic payment). He didn't happen to have a spare payment slip there so he gave me a copy of someone else's with, of all things, their name, home address, date of birth and social security number on it. Oh, lucky day. I shoud have ran with it and gone straight to some steel-the-identity guru so I could get some illegal cash, recover the money I was paying them and go on a shopping spree of a lifetime. So I took the slip, and used it as an example to fill mine out, paid the bill and the unavoidable (excessively high) processing fee for the privilege of paying at the post office, and then I return back to the health insurance office. So I enter back into the smoke filled (yes, you read it right) office to find that the clerk wasn't there so I inquired about him. Then I found out that he went on a smoke break (did you notice the smoke-filled statement earlier clearly implying that they smoke in the office so why even leave when you need a smoke?). So the other clerk goes out for a walk to look for him and comes back because she couldn't find him. Then it occurred to her that she could complete this on his behalf. She went over to his desk, office covered with privacy information (HIPAA alert!), and all she had to do is give me the completed paperwork and take the payment receipt from me. I did comment and said that he shouldn't have given me someone else's name, address, SSN... to which she just smiled and said that there's nothing they could do since they don't have any prefilled payment slips there. I did make the painfully obvious suggestion of just writing the account number and other applicable information on a piece of paper to which she just shrugged and said that they don't think anyone will abuse that information, that they, get this one -- trust people.

Pause to ponder all of this. It's like a scene from a 50s eastern-block-country movie. All we needed was to make it black and white, and remove women from the scene because they should have been home taking care of babies anyway. Except the reality is that it's 60 years later and just down the street are state of the art buildings filled with latest technology. Except the modern age hasn't quite caught up with majority I suppose.

Deep breath...

Now you know why I felt compelled to sit down right after I got back, hair still smoke-scented, fists still clenched. Should I ever get into a place of any kind of power only a few scenarios are possible: I would quit over frustration that I couldn't get things done; I would be universally hated for stepping on everyone's toes or I would be assassinated because I wouldn't let the lazy and corrupt get away with things.

So, how have all my faithful blog followers been? I know, I know, everyone is worried about the financial situation. Trust me, I make sure to read upon it every day. My money is in the bank down the street from you, you know, so I very much care to see how this unravels. Plus, the inflation and economic trouble is present here too. I am still waiting for them to lower the gas price from $7.06 per gallon. Didn't they notice that oil prices went down?

Weather

Weather this week has been beautiful, mid 80s and sunny. Friday to Saturday it'll suddenly drop by over 20 degrees to 62. By Monday it'll be in mid to high 50s, just perfect for us to pull the jackets out and turn the heating on. But, just to keep it interesting, by following Saturday it'll be back to 70s. Welcome to Croatian weather.

Cost of Living

This one really blew my mind. I just read the Forbes' article listing the most expensive cities in the world. You know what the shocker was? Zagreb placed 49th, ahead of LA which is 55th as only the second most expensive city in the US (NY taking the top US honor, ranking 22nd). So maybe we should have moved to California instead? You know, to save some money.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/23/cities-expensive-world-forbeslife-cx_zg_0724expensivecities.html

Independence Day

Initially, I planned a barbecue for family and friends but, as is customary here in Croatia, July isn't a good time for such events. Everyone leaves town to start their long awaited vacations. American Chamber of Commerce in Zagreb organized an Independence Day picnic and rodeo, so we welcomed the event. It was fun despite the extreme heat and an excessively long and slow line for food. The bottom line is that kids had such a terrific time that the annoyances for us adults were worth it. We took my niece with us, and the five of us headed off to the local ranch for barbecue, ice cream, music and fun.

Rodeo, the main event was quite delayed so we nearly missed it. Still, kids managed to stay awake despite the late hour. Mia even got to see her first fireworks ever. In an awe of a four-year-old she proclaimed: "This is so neat!"

Once on the road to get back home, all three of them (10-year-old included) promptly fell asleep, absolutely exhausted from the day. I hope that we get to do it again next year.

More pictures (scroll to the bottom of the linked page): http://picasaweb.google.com/mirjana.phillips/200806.

The "sky" is back in place

The unfortunate plaster falling incident turned into quite an ordeal. Last 3-4 weeks have been consumed remedying the situation. After the initial damage, contractors came out immediately and made repairs at their expense. Naturally, the mess followed. It took a while to clean. Then just as we had them scheduled to come out to put on finishing touches by applying some nice ceiling paint, we came home to another mess. Another section came down as you can see from the pictures. Then the following morning another large section came down. This time we were home and heard it happen. This was clearly turning into a larger problem. Unbelievably though, through the whole ordeal nobody got hurt and nothing got damaged.

After a couple of spirited phone conversations, we were left with two options. One would have been to try to fix up the damage. Second option was to work on the entire ceiling (kitchen, dining room, living room) to prevent any future problems. Naturally, we picked option two which was better in the long run. In the short run, however, it made things interesting.

So, bravely, we forged ahead. The kitchen cabinets were emptied and taken down from the walls. On an extremely short notice, we managed to get the same company that put them up, to come over and dismantle their work. The entire living room/dining areas were emptied out except for couches and the dining room table. Things were all over the place. Pantry was relocated onto some shelves in the stairwell in front of the main door like a modern mini art exhibit, and the rest of the items simply scattered all over, literally. It was almost a bigger mess than when we first moved in. For 3-4 days we didn't have any use of the kitchen at all. Kids slept in our bedroom and we slept in the multi purpose room upstairs. Cleaning became the word of the day for an entire month.

Since we went through the trouble, we figured that this was just as good of a time as any to finish up some of the things that were still on the list. So, I hired an electrician to come out and put up light fixtures and ceiling fans (ceiling fans in residences are a novel concept here) throughout the whole home. That, of course, meant that the mess spread all over. 14 fixtures purchased over the last 12 months were put up over three days. Kitchen cabinets stayed down for a while but we managed to cook despite that. In the meantime we purchased an island vent hood for the kitchen. While the cabinets were down we had the wall, ceiling and cabinets prepared for the vent hood installation. That is now ready and the vent hood will be installed in a few days.

I also purchased three colorful bar stools. Kids love them and often choose to eat there while they watch what I do in the kitchen. I got some plants for the place and now things are looking pretty good. Before you know it, we won't even remember the mess that was the last few weeks.

More home improvements were going on at the same time as the ceiling repairs. Before this event came to pass, we've ordered some big-girl furniture for Mia's room. Furniture arrived just at the "right" time and was assembled right before the ceiling repairs started. Her room was completely reshuffled. So we had to make space for her old furniture elsewhere. That was a mess in itself. We turned her crib into a full size bed. We had previously purchased a frame kit just for that purpose and had a mattress at hand to use (until then the mattress was just sitting on the guest room floor waiting for us to take care of it). Turns out what they sold us didn't quite match the headboard and the footboard that we had, thus we couldn't assemble the bed. Should have seen that one coming from a mile, er, kilometer away! Chris and I tried a number of creative solutions over a period of days but weren't successful. Finally, with help of my dad, I found a carpenter. We took the bed to the carpenter's workshop so he could properly drill new holes and make custom hardware so that bed could be reassembled. I was relieved when we got the bed home. I figured that we can get at least one room fixed up. Man, was I wrong or what! The holes had to be drilled slightly higher than their original placement. Once we assembled everything and put the mattress set on, the bed was so high you'd need a ladder to get in. It was sad and very comical, all at the same time. The decision was made. We were going to just toss the whole thing and get a different bed. Then we wavered and decided to give it one more shot. We would look for some bed slats to replace the bedspring, thus reducing the monster bed height. Here is a word for you - standards! Every single thing you can think of has different standards in Europe and US. Everything from electricity to bed size, sheet size, tables, chairs, plates, threads on screws that are otherwise same thickness (found that out the hard way)... The bed slats (which here come neatly framed so they couldn't be trimmed down) would have been 1.75" too wide. It looked like the fate of the bed was sealed; junkyard eagerly awaited. Refusing to throw in the towel, and at Chris' suggestion, I went by a home improvement store, got some wood, had it cut to size (for free) and we made our very own, homemade version of bed slats for the guest bed and it looks awesome! Phillips 1 - home improvement mess zero! Next person that comes to visit us, will get to try out the bed and how wonderful it turned out. We did, however, toss the bedspring. Chris didn't say anything but I think he felt strangely pleased to be able to exact revenge on the heinous bed, when he took the boxspring out to toss. He insisted on doing it alone. "It's not heavy, it's just large." So I got reprimanded by neighbors for making my husband lift heavy objects all by himself. Spousal abuse? Naaah, when we travel our suitcases usually weigh more and he has to carry them nevertheless.

In conclusion, we got one killer place to show off. Granted, it usually looks like it's under a brutal toy attack (toys take turns, different toys on different days) but other than that, the place looks lovely.

The sky is falling

I did a couple of all nighters in a row helping out with a big, time-sensitive project at work. After a record breaking 18-hour shift, I was understandably exhausted. I helped get kids ready for school and went to bed. They woke me up at 5:30pm when Chris brought them back. Looking concerned, Chris asked me if I had heard anything while sleeping. Understandably, I heard nothing. Deep asleep there was no waking me up. Apparently while I was asleep, a large piece of plaster fell off the ceiling crashing down on the floor below. Wow! I am suspecting that the plaster was aggravated because of the stairs we've put in to connect two otherwise separate condo units to make a larger home. The stairwell opening still needs finishing touches; concrete still showing around the opening. Well, the builder still agreed to come fix the damage so we have someone over taking care of it as we speak. As a bonus it looks like we'll get a freebie and have the concrete covered up and prettied up. So, in retrospect, it all worked out for the best. Still, once is enough. I'd prefer the ceiling stay where it's supposed to in the future.

Tooth fairy incident

Tooth fairy started visiting our family a couple of months ago. Recently Ivor's front teeth got loose. It took a while but the first one finally came out. Chris was in the bathroom with Ivor. Two of them were above the sink working on the tooth in front of the bathroom mirror. Suddenly there was commotion, Ivor ran out with blood dripping out of his mouth (looked awful) looking quite upset, and Chris trekked out right after him. Apparently in the excitement of the situation Ivor knocked Chris' hand and the tooth went down the drain. Ivor was visibly upset because tooth fairy would be unable to fulfill her duties. He went as far as wanting to block the bathroom door so nobody would accidentally run the water in the sink and wash his tooth away. It took a few minutes to stop the bleeding and calm him down. We tried to reassure him that all would be OK but he was inconsolable.

Kids finally went to bed and two tooth fairies had to come out at midnight and fiddle with the drain. After much trouble, tooth fairy daddy managed to undo the drain and pull the priceless tooth out and it was magically returned to the boy along with some money that night. Unfortunately, now we can't tighten the drain back so we'll have to call the plumber for help. That’ll be one expensive tooth. In the meantime, a plastic bowl is catching dripping water under the sink while a boy, oblivious to all the trouble others go through for him, happily checks out his toothless grin in the mirror above.

Birthday bash

Ivor couldn't wait to celebrate yet another birthday. He now boasts to be 7 (even though the actual birthdate is June 25th which clearly hasn't ocurred yet). We celebrated early while his friends are still in town. This week the school is over and the summer officially kicks in with people abandoning the city for the beach in droves. We scheduled the party at a playroom. We had close to 20 kids show up and they all had a blast. Here most parents just drop their kids off for birthday parties and don't stick around. While I don't agree with the practice, especially when it comes to smaller kids like 4 year olds, we did what we had to. Chris and I tried to keep up with them, refilled juice cups, wiped noses, kissed boo-boos (quite a few of them, actually) and took them to the bathroom. Ivor barely had a moment to slow down and blow out the candles. We actually had to make him do it. He and a bunch of little boys ran around without stopping for nearly 4 hours.

You can take a look at more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/mirjana.phillips/200806.

Picture sharing - finally

I've finally uploaded some pictures to Picasa - online picture sharing. I'll try to be good and add a few each month. Enjoy! :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/mirjana.phillips

13

There was a tram accident downtown today (no, we weren't anywhere near it, just saw it on TV). Tram #13 jumped out of the track at 13:13, and there are 13 injured people. How strange is that?

Catch up time

A Mongolian, Turk, Croatian, American and Australian walk into a bar... No, it's not a beginning of a joke even though it sounds like it should be. :) On Friday night Chris and I went out to a club, a rare ocassion these days, indeed. We went with some of Chris' Croatian school classmates, thus the strange line up of folks from all over the world. That was really amusing. Everyone spoke English in addition to their native languages (unless English was their native language of course). We had a really good time and came home at the unusually late hour of 5:00am. The wake up time is 6:00am (or a little later on good mornings) which is when Ivor gets up every morning, but still, it was worth it. Chris got the kids that morning so I slept till noon and than we swapped so he slept till late afternoon. It took us some time to recover.

I can see that my blog has been suffering lately and it's not for the lack of things to write about. I've simply not felt like it. Life has been very busy lately and I've not had the energy to include blogging on my list of "to dos."

I am glad to announce that Chris has been employed for over a month now. He started working as a Systems Integrator April 7th at a company named Ericsson Nikola Tesla. He searched for work for about 6 weeks, which I admit, is significantly less than the average here. It all went pretty smoothly.

Every morning now I turn into a soccer mom and shuttle everyone around town. I drop Chris off at work and kids at daycare. Then I head home and do some work myself. In the afternoon I pick the kids back up and we then we cook dinner, clean, talk, do baths and bedtime. After kids are asleep, I go back to work until my bedtime. Chris goes from work to his evening Croatian classes; 2.5 hours every day, 5 days a week. He makes it home by 10:15pm every night (takes public transportation to get home) and then we start all over the next morning. The schedule's been working out but it does leave us both quite tired. This will persist until mid June when his school semester ends. He decided to go at least another one to two semesters so he can keep working on his Croatian which means we'll have a busy year coming up.

In the Fall there will be another student in the family, in addition to Chris. Ivor is enrolling in the Croatian school system. Well, sort of. He'll get to enjoy the better parts of the system as he's attending a small private school downtown Zagreb. That means tiny classes, a lot of personal attention and more time spent working on practical assignments and less time just sitting down and staring at the blackboard. So far, he's very excited. I am not sure how long that excitement will persist though once homework materializes. He's been attending prep classes for a couple of hours every day for a month already, culminating with last week when he had real classes and regular school days so he can get a feel for what to expect when school actually starts. He did well (says he), but wasn't up for sharing too many details on what they did. His typicall response: "Oh, the usual" as if he's been going to class for years. He said that there are three other kids in class learning Croatian so he won't have to feel left out. He mentioned that they spoke German. This is in addition to German, Italian and English speak children that he spends time with at daycare. If you were to ask Mia what foreign languages she's learning at daycare, she'll tell you that she's learning German and Croatian. :) They actually have German and English classes a couple of times a week. In addition to that Ivor has been taking Tae-kwon-do couple of times a week. We're going to find out what he's learned soon at a recital that he's getting ready for, so let's see if it's been time (and money) well spent. He's very excited about it, of course.

We celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary 5 weeks ago. It turned out into a really nice evening away from home. We got to go out and spend some time together. Had dinner at a terrific restaurant. Went out for our favorite desert and watched a romantic movie. About three weeks after that, we all went to visit some of my relatives. Conversation turned to many things including, what else, but food. It turns out that my cousing works as a pastry chef at the place that sells our favorite local dessert. Even better, it turns out that she made those. What are the chances? :)

As usual, we've been chasing paperwork, a standard Croatian love-beuraucracy-or-perish thing. Last week, Chris got his residency permit for another year. The process went smoothly this time (unlike last year) but was still tedious. We had to collect a ton of paperwork, do document translations (where applicable), wait in line (long waits, multiple times) to turn it all in, do another interview at a local police station then go back to get the stamp in the passport. Now that is done so we need not worry about it; for a while anyway. For his job Chris had to do a number of things as well including getting official paperwork and tax documents (I don't even have those yet). He even had to have a medical exam, a standard employment procedure here. Even Ivor had his share of things to get done in the last few weeks including a full physical and a dentist visit so we can get his stuff in order before he can be enrolled in school. We still have a sizeable list of things to get done but hopefully, slowly, we can start crossing them off the list.

Mia's fourth birthday party is behind us as well. She had a princess cake and got lots of great presents. We planned an outdoor event but fickle Spring weather (lots of rain this year) messed it up for us so we ended up celebrating at home. It turned out great and we still had a fun birthday. Now it's time to start planning Ivor's party. He can't hide his excitement. Let's see how it goes.

Under Siege

This Friday and Saturday Zagreb will literally be under siege. As you've probably heard on your local news, Air Force One (yes, the one from your neck of the woods) will be landing at Zagreb airport some time this Friday afternoon and will be leaving some time Saturday. That's all great and wonderful. George and Laura will tour the city, eat local food, talk to our president and make some speeches. All in all that would be fine four us regular people if it weren't for the whole security thing. Zagreb sewer holes are being welded shut throughout the part of the city that Bush will go through for security reasons. On Friday, schools and daycares are closing way early causing great inconveniences to parents who will have to beg their employers to take off work early. Roads and parking lots will be closed off to traffic as needed without much advance notice, and cars will be towed en masse from legal parking spaces if they are deemed to be a security threat. It's all top secret. Good luck to those who live near by. Basically, we've all been advised to stay home, close the shutters (!?!?) and keep quiet so Bush and his entourage of several thousand people (did you know that it took that many support staff for him to travel) can enjoy the city all to themselves. So we'll change plans and stay home. I suppose we'd live with that too (as if we have a choice), but so it just happens that Saturday Chris and I celebrate (or would like to celebrate) our 11th wedding anniversary. Since we're no celebrities and aren't of any political importance, our celebration can't stand up to the disarray that one simple two-day-visit will cause the city. I suppose meeting the president is out of question...

Story time

Chris and I love stories, whether it be books, movies or theatre so kids aren't any different. We've started visiting local movie theaters and both Ivor and Mia can't get enough. So we figured that they might be ready for more. Through their school they went to see a kid theatre performance "Miffy" (about a bunny) and couldn't stop talking about it. When I saw that Disney's Beauty and the Beast is on stage we had to go take a look. The performance was absolutely mesmerizing. Music was wonderful with the live orchestra and actor's voices were spectacular as well as they were singing the familiar Disney songs. Yes, the words were all translated appropriately and it was done so well that it seemed like it was meant to be sang in Croatian. I am proud to say that both munchkins managed to last through the three hour performance (I didn't know that it would be that long) and have loved it. The story does get scary, so I've prepared them ahead of time. We talked about the plot and costumes, and how it all comes together on stage to tell a story, just like in a movie. They understood and got a little nervous when "wolves" showed up on stage but after a little reassurance they've really enjoyed it. Then a week later we went to see Sleeping Beauty on ice. That was fun as well. Now they keep asking what we're going to do next. As if I am supposed to have live entertainment ready for them daily. :) Chris and I went to see Za Ondekoza (Japanese drummers) perform a few weeks ago and that was really nice as well. Our near future theatre plans include Cinderella and Miffy (again) as soon as it's on stage.

White Easter

We went out of town for Easter to a small mountain town of Brinje, an hour southwest of Zagreb, actually already close to the coast. I have some more distant relatives there, so it made for a nice day trip for all of my family (parents, sister, her kids included) to head out there. They got to meet Chris and the kids and I could catch up with everyone. The road was nearly empty as most people got on the road two days earlier. We saw a light dusting of snow on the ground as we got closer to Brinje and it was beautiful to see. We spent the day eating sweets and talking to people. In the early afternoon though, we noticed that it started snowing outside. Yes, snow on Easter. I must say that the view was just breathtaking. We were in a valley surrounded by tree covered mountains all covered in snow. Just like a in a postcard.

Since the ground was still warm enough we figured that we'd be OK driving back. Yeah right! A one hour trip back took an amazing three hours. Snow accumulation seems to have been instant. By the time we pulled out of the driveway, the snow plows were already going through the town. Same on the highway, the roads were already being cleaned. That was nice to see. They are used to snow and ice in these parts and the snow crews were ready. Despite that, the roads were still so treacherous that we drove some 20mph for much of the way. Snow was so heavy that visibility wasn't very good. We drove a bit faster as we got closer to Zagreb. Close to the city the snow turned into heavy rain. That rain turned into snow overnight so we woke up to snow covered streets in Zagreb on Easter Monday. It all melted quickly, though, so by noon it was all gone. Til next winter (I hope).

All shook up

Kids are in bed; Chris is in class; I was sitting at the computer in a quiet room when the house started shaking and I could feel a loud rumble. I jumped up while searching for clues as to what was going on and the shaking stopped. Apparently we've just had an earthquake. No apparent damage. Kids didn't even wake up. My hands sure feel a little shaky though. Media isn't as fast here so I guess we'll know by later this evening or tomorrow how strong the quake was. Back to work now...

UPDATE:
Just found out. It was only 3.3 on a Richter scale (4-5 on Mercalli scale). However, it turns out that we were about a mile from the epicenter so I suppose it felt strong. Back to work now... (again).

The BIG 100 and a special vomit story

Here is my 100th blog entry chock full of our February ditties. Try not to eat while reading. Enjoy.

Blogging record high in January, is definitely being followed by the blogging record low in February. Can you tell it's been busy? :)

We've kicked off the month by signing both kids up for swimming lessons. Mia attended three times a week and Ivor attended 5 times a week. It was exhausting but they loved it and had great fun. The program was actually very useful for Ivor. He's made good progress in his swimming readiness. The exercise and excitement wore him out and most evenings he'd beg to go to bed as soon as we got home. Mia didn't get the expected benefits. She decided that swim lessons made a terrific play time pretending to be a mermaid, fisherman, boat, diver, bunny (apparently this bunny isn't afraid of water), princess... She was not inclined to go with the idea that she should learn how to swim or do any exercises as instructed. It couldn't be helped. I tried then gave up and just let her be. She was OK with making mommy do what she wanted. I saw no remorse in those pretty blue eyes. Ivor was very sad when the program finished three weeks later but we're simply unable to continue at this time. It was difficult to work in the time since the classes encroached on the kids' bed time. I think we'll give it another go come summer but that'll have to be it for now.

We went to Serbia one weekend to visit some of my relatives that never met Chris and the kids. The visit was fun (well, sort of, read on for more) but the cause wasn't. My uncle has been diagnosed with cancer and his health is declining very rapidly so we went to visit while he was still with us. He was so glad to see us and I am really glad we decided to do it. That was about a week and a half before the Kosovo independence announcement. As things are now, I don't think that we'll go visit any time soon so we really did it in the nick of time. Now Chris has another exotic destination to add to his "been there" list.

During the weekend both kids got sick at some point. Every parent's worst nightmare. Mia started off by running a fever as soon as we showed up over there so she was overly clingy and whiny the entire time. Fortunately, Tylenol we brought along kept things at bay until we could see a doctor Monday morning. Then, during the single night that we slept there, Ivor kept us up most of the night by throwing up an impressive 4 times. It was nasty. His vomit was "liquidy," brown and sticky and smelled worse than your average puke (as if there is any that actually smells good). Quite an awful site. After some investigating I concluded that he overate chocolate wafers (which he loves). While we were briefly away that evening, he got into some cookies and apparently ate more than one tummy can handle. Who knew so many cookies could fit into a child-sized stomach all at once. Well, they couldn't fit in there for a long time anyway. Result was unpleasant for all parties involved, especially grown ups (aka child's parents) as we got to do all of the cleaning. Now this is the crowning moment... My cousin just finished his house and got it ready to move in. His dad (my uncle) is, as I mentioned, terminally ill so my cousin and his family are staying with him for the time being. They have never slept at their new house yet. Not even once! When we came down for the visit, they've insisted that we sleep over there so we'd be comfortable. The house is beautiful, sparkling clean, brand new tan carpets, brand new furniture, just lovely... Come in the Phillips clan, two small kids in tow. We show up and what do we do that one night we sleep at the house? Have a kid throw up dark brown chocolate-laden vomit repeatedly throughout their beautiful house and onto spotless (never again) carpets. I just froze when it started happening. We cleaned and cleaned and hoped desperately that we wouldn't leave a mess. I hope that our incredibly gracious hosts will forgive us. Can you imagine? During the first episode I ran through the house rummaging through stuff trying to find something that I could use to clean up. Didn't want to use any of their brand new towels so I found what looked like a small white rag (yes, also looked new). At the end of the night (actually around 3:00am) it looked more brown than white and not even good soap washing would help. So there we were in the formerly clean bathroom with me feverishly trying to clean the rag in the sink. I looked up at Chris and asked him what we should do. Dead serious, he looked back and said:" You know there's only one thing we can do now." "What?" I said figuring that he had some awesome plan that will magically make everything right. "We'll just have to steal the rag." His suggestion caught me off guard so I burst out laughing as for a moment there I thought that to be a really terrific idea. I mean it was embarrassing enough already that we messed up the house that hasn't even been lived in; had to go through their closet to find something to clean with... Needless to say, I didn't sleep well for the rest of the night. All I could do was to repeatedly apologize the next morning and hope that they won't take it against us. Really, we make better guests than that. I promise. I think. Now you know that if you take us in and we have kids in tow, we can't guarantee anything. You've been warned. During the cleanup session Chris and I exchanged vomit stories and he sure has a winner. He said that one year he ate all of his Halloween candy on right after trick or treating. Apparently it took a little bit for it all to get bubbly inside. Next day in the lunchroom of all places, he got sick and vomited across the table onto a friend of his. As he had quite an audience in the full lunchroom, he said that once other kids took in the sight and smelled the delightful aroma of the half digested candy, several of them decided to join the party and vomit themselves. That must have been some site and, I am sure, a joy to clean up for some unfortunate person. Moving on...

As I've mentioned, upon our arrival to Serbia, Mia decided to start running a fever. She contracted scarlatina (throat bacterial infection accompanied by fever and body rash) several days prior but of course we didn't know it. Five day incubation period expired the afternoon we arrived there. Fortunately Tylenol was at hand so Mia made it OK. We made the doctor's visit when we got back home and antibiotics took care of the rest. However, that meant a 10 day period away from daycare. One day before she went back to daycare Ivor got sick. I promptly took him to the doctor. He contracted strep so then he got to stay home for 10 days, on antibiotics as well. A few days before he was to go back to school Mia got a fever again so we made another doctor's visit. Fortunately, it was something minor so she only stayed home for three days this time. I am happy to announce that as of Thursday they're both back to school and I hope that they stay that way for a while.

A week ago significant changes occurred in Chris' schedule as well. He's started intensive Croatian classes. He goes every evening, 5 days a week, for three class periods. At that pace he'll be speaking native in no time. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Other news include Chris' job search. As of February he has his work permit so we've started sending out resumes. He's had two interviews so far. One of them was actually today at Ericsson's and it was very promising. The job seems good, the location is awesome (right next to daycare, yay me!) and Chris said he liked the people he'd be working with. Let's see how this one unravels.

I think this is enough for one blog entry. Stay tuned for more in March!

Computer "fixup"

My laptop has been "down" for some 6 weeks now. Simply couldn't boot it up at all. That was annoying and concerning but I moved to our secondary computer whose main purpose it to serve as a backup unit should my laptop malfunction. So I did. Then, last week the kid computer went down. So the family of three computers suddenly shrank down to one. That left one computer for us to fight over. Yes, including kids. Even Mia at the tender age of three has an array of games that she likes to play on her own. She's mastered the mouse and the keyboard and totally "gets" computers already. When I was three we were lucky to have a turntable. I think... Maybe those weren't out yet at that point. Anyway, today Chris fixed both computers and order will soon move back into our family's electronic world. The balance has been restored.

Bomb scare

Yes, it was the real thing but not what you'd expect. We've, however, not experienced it but heard about it on the news. It was not close to where we live. Apparently an American WWII airplane bomb was found at a construction site about 7 meters underground. Since it was unstable, they had to deactivate it on-site so the entire block was evacuated as a precaution. To make things more interesting, this was the 4th WWII bomb found at the same construction site. I sure would hate to be a construction worker there.

One would think that WWII was such a long time ago and long forgotten ago but every few years new findings are still made.

American Citizens Information Night

I periodically visit Croatian US Embassy web site and today I've learned that they're organizing the first ever American Citizens Information Night in February. Naturally, we're going and look forward to it. The flyer mentions that "American" snacks and drinks will be served and I can't wait to see what's on the menu. :) Will they have imported Mountain Dew especially for us? One can only hope... Or maybe they will have found some good sharp cheddar cheese that I can't seem to find anywhere. Or perhaps there will be pop-tarts. I'll keep you posted. No pictures though. We'll have gone through a very, very thorough security screening so there won't be any cameras, cell phones...

Shop, play, and learn English (or Greek, or Latin...)

Zagreb has enjoyed a shopping center boom during the past 2-3 years. Names of all of the places are in English so should you come to visit, it really won't be a stretch for you to remember whether you've visited King Cross, Avenue Mall or City Center One (implying that City Center Two will come to existence at some point). I really can't say that I understand or agree with the English labels. English is not the native language here so why push it? Say my mom goes shopping to a mall... She doesn't really know how to spell the name of the place because it is not Croatian. Then at the store, it'll say "sale" in English, German or Italian. Since she doesn't speak those languages, she might as well just walk by and not bother spending her money at that store because clearly Croatian customers aren't targeted to begin with. I suppose good old Croatian apparently isn't good enough or fancy enough to advertise a sale. My job is marketing and in my opinion, this is not good marketing.

I am also curious as to who approved those names. I've been looking into potentially starting up a little business. Do you know where I've been stuck for three months? Company name. I know, you'd think it would be easy, but Croatian law seems to exist to complicate things and contradict itself. Let's see..., potential business names must be submitted and are then reviewed by a judge who then approves (or in my case not) a name. So I thought, OK, makes sense, they want to make sure nobody uses a vulgar or otherwise inappropriate name. Well, here is a little discussion on the rules... The company name can be a Croatian word but can't use Croatia in it. That is reserved for special folks and I am not a part of the club. Denied! OK, I'll forgive them that one even though there are millions of combinations of web site names with word Croatia in it. In a country with 4.5 million people we're not likely to run out of good names soon. The word has to be in Croatian, Latin or Greek. Hmmmm... I need to have a name that'll work for English speaking customers. I don't think any of them speak Latin or Greek. I see a potential problem there. So I come up with a really good one with a Latin word and a number. Denied! Can't use a number unless it's spelled out. Why is it OK spelled out but not OK when it's a number? See the problem here? It's called micromanagement. I am wasting their time and they are wasting mine. Nobody wins, no revenue, no new jobs created. Once I finally figure out a name I have to get a business license and do all the paperwork so I can go waste a day waiting in line to ask them if I could please, please have that web site domain name because someone was kind enough to finally approve a suitable company name. I'd rather sit at my computer at 2 in the morning and go online to purchase a domain name but that's not possible for .hr domains. I came up with another one but I am afraid to send it to them because they will likely deny it again. I am not bitter! I'll let you know how it goes.

Let's get back to more fun topics. Like shopping! :) There is one, well two, extremely good things about those new shopping centers that are popping up. Each one has one or more playrooms as a part of the facility and yes, believe it or not, it's free, supervised and in a confined area so you can just drop the kids off and do a little shopping and come pick them up in 1-2 hours. Not bad! Sure, usually those are in conjunction with a toy store (but not always) and kids have talents when it comes to talking you into parting with your money to buy necessities like all important stickers, toys and candy. But it's fun and useful and we like to go visit different playrooms. Especially now that it is chilly outside. We approve of their variety and equipment which ranges from slides and climbing gear to one recently discovered place that actually has dress up toys, and legos and such. Actually, the plan is to head there Saturday for some fun.

Second nice thing about malls is a grocery store. Each mall has a large grocery store (think Bruno's times three or more) as one of it's anchor stores. So kids go to play and I go get groceries. Everyone wins. Good thing. Today we did just that at King Cross after getting the kids from daycare. Strangely the pavement was fenced off right by the entrance. I thought that maybe they were fixing something. Then I realized that they turned it into an ice skating rink for customers and it's... yes, free! Ice skates included. How cool is that! We'll try to make it there this weekend or next weekend. Hopefully it'll still be there. If not then we'll just have to settle for a moonwalk inside.

I've heard that a new, biggest yet, shopping center will be built right in our neighborhood. Don't know it's name yet but I bet it'll be in English. I am thinking that it'll be some two miles away. Perhaps less. I am not that good at guessing distances. I don't know why we need more shopping centers as it seems to me that there certainly are plenty around. But, I like the idea that it will be supremely close and convenient so bring it on! We're in a dead end street so traffic won't change but the convenience factor will go way up. Hooray for city living! Maybe, if I manage to supress my American "love-my-car" instincts, I'll even dare to sit on a bike to get there. I give it 5-10% chance. What do you think?

The death of a snowman

With a heavy heart I would like to announce that Snowy (as kids have named him) has perished yesterday, a victim of January sunshine and sudden rise of temperatures. First his carrot nose fell of, then the pebble eyes fell to the ground, and then his left "arm". We knew the end was near when we came home to find his head had rolled away. Mere shadow of a snowman, it was just a matter of hours before he ceased to exist. On a brighter side though, I heard that special snowmen like this one, tend to come back if there are willing kids around to help remake him. I got a couple of those snow-loving kids and they keep persistently bugging me and asking if it will snow again. Judging by current temperatures, it certainly doesn't seem likely. However, that too could suddenly change. Stay tuned...

Blast from the past

2007 was a year to revisit some past events that I truly haven't thought of in many, many years. It seems that 2008 will most definitely continue that trend. I just got a note from a college friend, then an international student from Germany, that I haven't seen in some 16-17 years. Just saying that makes me feel old. It's nice to reconnect though and to know that people remember me. I honestly didn't think that so many people would. Just like all college students I felt invisible at times. A few weeks ago I got a note from a computer science club buddy. It was nice to see happy family pictures on his blog. All of us from high school and college got scattered, literally, all over the world yet I am still in touch with so many. Hooray for Internet and e-mail!

Last year I had my 15th high school reunion and that felt strange. It was a wonderful opportunity to renew relationships and to see what became of all of us "kids". Now we all look older and most of us are married with kids but I've noticed that everyone's behaviors and personalities stayed exactly the same as I remember even though years have passed.

Last week I got a note from a local journalist here (see her previous blog comment entry) and we exchanged a couple of e-mails. That e-mail exchange got me thinking about the past and I pulled out some old pictures. I even found the all important letter I wrote to my parents in December of 1991. That was an interesting read. In it I told them that I decide to stay in the US on my own and hoped to get their blessing. Now I know where my Mia gets her stubborn streak. :)

Thanks for stopping by

May I just point out that I've been doing extremely well this year. This is my 6th post in 7 days since 2008 made its debut. I have my doubts that I'll be able to continue this winning blogging frenzy. Certainly not for the lack of having things to say (just ask Chris, I can talk his ears off in no time) but because it's hard to make time.

I've noticed that my readership has increased to more than just close friends and family. It's a flattering thought and I appreciate all of you visiting our family blog.

Budding artists

Our corner bathtub is situated under a sharply slanted ceiling so it is actually possible to touch the ceiling drywall. Today I discovered scribbles in one place and couldn't help but smile. Offending party seems to have used one of bathtub crayons to embellish the ceiling. The ceiling must have been too white or too irresistibly close, or perhaps both. Both kids were appropriately reprimanded (but not punished) as neither would accept responsibility. I can't exactly encourage them to do this but in actuality I didn't mind so much. The place has a lot more personality now. This adds to the decor of dirt stained wall around the light switch in the small bathroom. That's how they mark their territory. :)

Croatian wedding

December 15th, 2007. Part three of my holiday blogging catch-up...

On the 15th of last month (last year even), we attended a wedding for one of my friends. Chris finally got to experience a full blown Croatian wedding. I asked him to write me a blog entry about it but he's yet to come through about that. Perhaps he'll change his mind about it in the future (yeah, right!). In the meantime, here is a little write up on the events of the evening.

Bachelorette party was one week prior to the wedding. Since the bride to be was about four months pregnant at the time, I didn't expect anything too wild and indeed that was the case. About 15 women gathered at the bride's house for the evening full of talking, food, drinks (not soda if you know what I mean) and music. It was nice but I must admit that I found a few things surprising. The first one was that just about every single woman there was a smoker. The second that just about every single woman there smoked in the presence and in the home of a pregnant woman (who quit smoking when pregnancy came about). And third that the pregnant woman didn't just tell them to take it outside. I certainly wouldn't have thought twice about it. I came home smelling like an ashtray. Lovely...

The wedding was in the afternoon the following Saturday. We got babysitters lined up, got ready and headed downtown. I wasn't completely certain about the location and navigating downtown Zagreb isn't necessarily the easiest of tasks. It started snowing earlier that day so the streets were slick and wet. We managed to find a parking garage in the nick of time. I decided to put on my snow shoes which made a nice ensemble with my coat and formal dress but I didn't care so much. It was really cold, we were running late and outside streets were full of ice. High heels wouldn't have cut it. We ran out into the street and found the church two minutes past the scheduled wedding time. I saw the bride bundled up at the church door so I figured that we've made it as she hasn't even entered the church. Then she looked up and I stopped... It wasn't the right bride. Quickly I thought back to our driving path and whether I've seen any other churches along the way but I knew of no other ones that fit the description that I received along with directions. That area is full of centuries old beautiful old churches though. I can think of 5 right of the bat within a half a square mile including the cathedral. I thought that we should look inside nevertheless. It turned out that the wedding has already started so we simply caught a seat in one of the available pews. The bride at the door was probably there for a wedding following the one we were attending.

After the ceremony the newlyweds didn't just walk down the aisle to leave the church as I had expected. They stayed at the altar while everyone congratulated them. From the church we headed to reception. Since we weren't in a rush anymore and I knew where we were, I suggested a different route to the parking garage. We took a scenic evening walk through an old picturesque part of town while it was snowing. It was very romantic. I found a picture of the street but without snow. You can imagine that part.

The reception started at 7:00pm with newlyweds' arrival. The announcements were made and then the food started arriving. We started with individual assorted appetizer plates. After that there was a break and the band played music. Newlyweds danced their first dance. Then soup was served. Then we had a break and some more dancing and music. Then the main course was served buffet style (we were already quite full by this part as sweets were also on the tables the entire time). After that, there was dancing and music. Several toasts were made in the meantime. Then the cake was cut and served. You guessed it, after than more dancing and music. Then long speeches came -- maid of honor and best man had to do say a few words. During the whole time drinks were served including an open bar with quite an array of available choices. It was 2:00am already. Then it was time to give gifts to the couple. We lined up and congratulated again and gave our gift to the couple (most often a card with cash, rather than purchased gifts). Then we split for the night.

I am certain that the party continued until the early morning hours and at least one more meal was served. We didn't even make it until the bouquet toss. All of that would make one Croatian style wedding. We were stuffed, danced out and tired and were glad to get home to try and recover. I can't imagine how tired the bride would have been considering that she's with child. Yes, everyone smoked away so I came home smelling like an ashtray — again.

Christmas train

December 22nd, 2007. Part two of my holiday blogging catch-up...

Right before Christmas we took the kids for a ride on the Christmas train where they got to meet Santa, listen to holiday songs, got candy and got to ride on a real train. Ivor's Canadian friend Daniel and his parents joined us. Kids loved the experience because of Santa, candy and an hour long train ride. We loved it because it was a low hassle parenting experience -- we stayed warm, didn't have to walk far nor carry heavy children, didn't have to worry about kids running off somewhere, getting in trouble, getting kidnapped or hurt. It was a win-win situation for all involved. Even Santa as he got paid to be there and McDonald's for sponsoring the event. As if we don't go there enough already. :)

Christmas morning

December 25th, 2007. Part one of my holiday blogging catch-up...

Christmas morning the kids got up at their regular time of 7:00am. I suppose they are still too little to try for the 5:00am wake up or maybe they know that we wouldn't reward that type of behavior with early present opening.

Mia went straight for the stocking and started opening stuff up so she was immediately in trouble with Chris. They had to wait for me to show up, then for me to take a few pictures... I think they were starting to get annoyed.

Finally we let them get to the gifts. Mia wanted a wrist watch so bad and was delighted to see that Santa got the message. She has no idea what time it shows but she's been wearing it since she got it. She even sleeps in it. At least I know that she liked the present.

Ivor got Yu-Gi-Oh cards that he wanted, and of course, a bunch of other toys. It was fun and loud and messy while it lasted. :)

Down the slope

It snowed lightly yesterday and today. It was nice outside this afternoon so we went outside to play. After donning on appropriate multi-layered winter gear (it is quite chilly these days), we borrowed some sleds (we haven't bought any yet) and I took the kids for their first ever sledding experience. Ivor absolutely loved it. He caught on immediately, figuring out how to make the sled go faster and how to slow it down. Afterwards he announced that he'd love to learn how to ice skate as well as ski. We'll see about that. Mia declined to go down the slope. It must have looked too scary.

Upon our return home we took it upon us to build a first ever Phillips family snowman. He was dashing featuring two delicate branches and our kitchen pot that otherwise rarely gets any use. The look was completed with two dark pebbles and, to kids' delight, a carrot that we just happened to have handy.

You can see our home in the background in it's "lovely" peach/gray glory. :) Entrance into the building is on the left. Two top floors are ours. You can see some of our decorative sculptures peeking through the windows.