Setting the mood

It's snowing! It's snowing! Slowly setting the mood for Christmas. :)

Thanksgiving wishes

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We wish we could be there enjoying family time and good food. Today is a regular day for us. Work, school, the usual... But, we'll be secretly thinking of warm pumpkin pie. :)

So, in the spirit of giving thanks... Thanks for reading the blog and thinking of us! We have many things to be thankful for this year and hope that the trend will continue next year as well.

Good boy

Got to tell it like it is, good and the bad. Well, this one is good. BTW - can you tell I am still stalling from actually working...

My man has been putting in some extra effort lately. Not sure what it is. perhaps he's missed me while we've been apart this summer, or he's still feeling guilty over the birthday fiasco, or he just decided to work a little harder. Either way, he's been putting up with me and my moods exceptionally well lately.

I must admit I've been whining and complaining above average since we got on a diet together. It's been particularly hard since he's been doing so good (no joke, amazing results) and my results are marginal. I am proud to announce that he's lost a huge amount of weight. Not that he didn't look good before but now he feels more comfortable about himself. He's been exceptionally focused and super disciplined about the whole thing. Just amazing. On top of that, the often clueless, but otherwise very patient and loving guy, has done all of the laundry during the past couple of months, has let me sleep in every weekend (yep, past noon at times) and has given me a hug and a squeeze as often as humanly possible (he can get carried away with that a bit). Good stuff.

Don Johnson, my friend

This morning, since I didn't feel like working that much anyway, I decided to take a few minutes to organize my Outlook address book. As I was going through multitudes of entries I did a double take when I came across Don Johnson. I bet none of you knew that he's my buddy. Well' I didn't either. Or at least I forgot. Either way, he's one of my business contacts that I never actually met in person and, no he isn't "the" Don Johnson. Made me chuckle though.

Girlfriend had shopping karma

This weekend I was a grateful recipient of good shopping karma. I must say that it was fun and wish if it happened all the time.

Went to the mall to get some groceries. Here every mall has a large grocery store as a part of it. How handy. It was Sunday. Apparently, they stopped charging for parking on Sunday. I apparently didn't know about it so it was a nice surprise. Parking here is paid parking in most areas, parking garages especially. Went in and out in a jiffy.

Then went to another store, no waiting at the register, parking right at the door.

As I was driving to the third store (I was running a lot of errands, mind you), I realized that every traffic light that I could recall going through was green. Now I was on a roll. I felt good and was really in the mood to spend some money now. :) At the third, and final stop, I met some friends at the checkout. Talked to them for a bit, so I got held up a few minutes. Store was remodeled and freshly reopened so they were running a customer appreciation game. I honestly didn't even know what it was until my friends pointed it out. Customers took their shopping carts through a makeshift door at the exit. If a bell went off, you got the entire purchase for free. I went through, and, what do you know, the bells went off so I got the purchase for free. did I wish then that I had listen to my "buy more stuff" instinct when I was going through the store. Either way, it was great and it totally made my day.

This was the first time ever that the universe has bestowed upon me such a positive shopping experience. I am not putting down that special feeling when I find perfect shoes or piece of clothing at a bargain price. This was different though. Heck, I got paid to shop that day.

I am ready for another day like that. Just doubt it'll happen any time soon. :)

Split second

We currently live close to a railroad track and frequently cross it by car on our daily errands. I grew up next to it and have been taught to always respect the train as trains are large, fast and dangerous. As a first grader I started crossing the train tracks on foot at least twice a day. Since I was a child, I remember hearing about accidents involving careless cars or pedestrians and trains. As a grown up, I read about them. I just never thought that I'd witness one of those accidents first hand from really close up.

There are currently three train crossings in the immediate vicinity of our home. I had just picked Chris up from the airport and we were headed home. While still far away from the crossing I saw that the lights were flashing indicating an oncoming train. I slowed down. By the time we got to it the lights were still flashing but the ramp (barrier) hadn't been lowered yet so I thought that maybe the train had already passed. So I stopped and slowly inched closer to the track so I could check for the oncoming train. At that moment the ramp started lowering behind us. I have to admit that made me very anxious. But, since the ramp and a train track are more than a car length apart, I backed up a little bit and waited for the train to pass. I could see a fast approaching train from the left. Ahead of us and to the right, an elderly man was approaching on foot. It all happened within seconds. We looked over and suddenly realized that the man didn't see the train at all and kept on walking. Both Chris and I started waving and screaming at him to stop. He didn't stop and neither did the train. I couldn't look and have averted my eyes just as the two were to meet. I had to look away and prayed that the man was just fast enought to have made it across. He was just a few feet away from us as was the train. I looked up and saw that the passing train threw him some 10 feet to the side. He wasn't hit directly but being hit by train at all isn't a minor accident. Chris and I rushed out. He was still alive. I rushed back to the car to get the cell and called an ambulance. There wasn't much to do but hold the man's hand and be scared and think about how a moment of carelessness has just changed many lives.

The man's daughter in law appeared maybe a couple of minutes later. She was just passing by when she saw us on a patch of grass next to the track. She scrambled to find his heart medicine as she thought that he had had a heart attack not realizing that he was hit by a train. Until I told her. Before long the ambulance was there. After they whisked him away there was nothing else to do but go home. I read in the newspapers today that he has passed on earlier this morning. That's just very, very sad. Chris got many extra hugs from me this weekend. Many of them because I've missed him so much over past weeks. And then many more on account of this reminder of how fragile life is.

The year of many suitcases

We're back in Croatia after our 5 week trip to the US. As I was sitting in Chicago airport watching kids run around during our mega layover (5 hours), I've realized that this marks a total of 9 weeks of being away from home just this year. I must say, that may have been a bit much. What a fun year but all of the traveling, airports, cars, constant packing and unpacking can wear on a person. After just a couple of days though, we were back in our daily routine as if we haven't left home at all. School started a week ago. It's nice to be home.

Still, many memories were created in the last 9 months. For years, I've hoped that some day we may be able to make certain trips. As if by magic, much of it came true this year. Kids got to enjoy their first trip to Disney World. Even though it was January, weather was just perfect. Though short, it was a wildly successful, memorable and wonderful family trip. Eight of us went together. It'll be close to impossible to manage that again. It was a once in a lifetime thing and I have hundreds of awesome photos to remember it by.

This summer, we went on our first cruise. We've spent 8 days visiting foreign places and enjoying a high life of the cruise ship. We visited Italy (Venice, Bari), Greece (Olympia, where Olympic games started), Turkey (Izmir and Istanbul) and Croatia (Dubrovnik). I snapped away hundreds of photos while enjoying the sights of exotic (to us anyway) locations. More terrific memories. We had a cabin with a balcony and could sit outside and enjoy the beautiful and calm seas of Adriatic. Food was great. Every night we got to see a theater performance. Theater was the kids' favorite part. Even though they weren't too keen on sightseeing, I hope that sights of far away places and different people will stay etched somewhere in their memory.

Then we headed to Alabama to spend an entire August (and then some) there. I worked, kids played. Time simply flew by and now we're back to our every day grind. Well, almost everything was back to normal. Chris stayed in the US for an extra week. We worked out an arrangement so he could attend DragonCon in Atlanta with his best friend. He stayed in Croatia for three and a half weeks after we left. Then joined us for a week and a half and then stayed another week after we returned home. Though it all worked out like a charm I missed him terribly. Probably even more than I did when we were three months apart two and a half years ago. We've been together for 14 years, 12 of those married. You'd think that we'd have enough of each other by now. Still... I was relieved to have been able to pick him up at the airport. The moment he got home, all was well and life returned to normal.

We have no further trips planned at this time. Unless a trip to Slovenia's water park counts. We'll have to do that some time soon. But that's only 30 minutes away.

Getting lonely

I miss Chris. Haven't seen him in two and a half weeks (since we got to the US). It's starting to get lonely. 8 more days til he shows up.

Summer heat

Summer finally remembered to visit Croatia. June was cold and rainy. But, finally, the sun came out and temperatures skyrocketed. The temp has been into the 90s for the past couple of days. No big deal, right? Just stay indoors and drink lots of water. Well, we don't have air conditioning yet so indoors has been hot! We have one portable fan per person in the house and move them along with us. We've also installed three ceiling fans which is highly unusual for Croatia. People usually don't have ceiling fans in private homes. Fans are helping us live through the heat. I am thinking that we'll just have to spend the money and get it done for next year. It just seems like such an unnecessary expense as it gets truly hot here for maybe a month out of the year. Still, during that month, I am thinking that it would be worth every penny (that would be every "lipa" here).

The unusual thing is that Croats don't really seem to like air conditioning their homes. Quite a few people that I know do have air conditioning installed in their apartments, yet they don't use it even when it is oppressively hot like it is now. Others claim that they would never, ever want to have one. Now, I can understand if they say that because it's expensive and it uses a lot of electricity. On the contrary, claims are that then it gets too cold and that the AC will make them sick. I sure could use one now to prove them just how wrong they are.

Kid Dreams

Every night at bedtime, either Chris or I talk to our kids about their day. Sometimes those conversations go off in different directions where we discuss anything from math, to current events, to weather or whatever else might come up. Tonight we made shadow puppets while we talked. Then the conversation drifted off in a different direction. The other day Ivor had a nightmare about all of us getting eaten by a crocodile so I asked them today about their dreams. Mia's answer surprised me. I expected to hear about ponies and butterflies. Mia told me that she had dreamt about going to school naked and that other kids laughed at her. Being naked in public is a classic anxiety dream and I bet just about everyone has had it at some point. I just didn't know that five-year-olds had those as well. I was genuinely surprised. So even in her little five-year-old world there was enough anxiety to cause a dream like that.

Ivor chimed in and said that he had a dream like that too except he at least had his underwear on and that he wasn't really stressed out about it. Apparently, in his dream, it just got him in trouble with the teacher. I am thinking that we'll talk about dreams more often now.

Economic Crisis

What happened in the US some 12 months ago appears to be at our door as we speak. Even though the economic situation in Croatia has always been hard (I can remember late 70s raging inflation when I was just a little kid), it's been getting worse each year at an increasingly faster pace since the war. Well, it's getting ready to hit rock bottom it seems. Pay cuts have been announced for the second time this year. This time retirement checks will not be spared either. Retirement checks roughly amount to $250 to $600 per month. A few days ago it was announced that school books will no longer be provided free of charge. It's just weeks from school year starting back up and parents are starting to break into cold sweat over expensive books. Only unemployment and prices are predicted to keep going up in the foreseeable future. Gas is still at some $5.6 per gallon.

So long Mr. President

While we were out of the country on our 8-day vacation with no access to local news and print, Croatian Prime Minister quit his job (without an explanation) and Croatia was left without a government. As if the political and economic situation isn't already messy enough. Now they are predicting another cut in government jobs paychecks (including already severely underpaid teachers and similar professions) and another cut in retirement pensions (which are already too low to live off of). Before the war things weren't good. Then the war came along and it's been getting progressively worse every year since. Nice doing Croatian leadership. Shame on you.

Sad to say but I am inclined to agree with this Washington Times article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/04/croatias-leader-resigns/.

VACATION!!!!

Here we go again... Vacation week is upon us and we're staying up all night packing. I am not sure how come we can never get it done in time. Chris concluded that when we're doing well, we start stalling and end up doing other things. Probably true. It would likely help if we had the house prepped for the trip a bit sooner than doing it at the last moment.

Either way, in slightly over a week, we'll post some exotic, fun and exciting pictures from our European travels. Weather is not favoring us the first few days but we're planning on not allowing that to ruin our fun.

Time to departure, 2 hours. Current time, 2AM. It sure feels like vacation already. :)

Really BIG jeans

Well, Croatia now has a dubious distinction of having put together a largest pair of jeans. Why would anyone even think of doing something like that? Sure, they've raised around $10,000 for charity (some 50,000 kuna). It might have made more sense to take the jeans and donate them to the needy along with time and resources that were used to stitch this thing together. I think that might have done more good.

You can read the whole story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090614/od_afp/croatiaoffbeatguinness

A dozen resons to celebrate

We have a dozen good reasons to celebrate today. It's our twelfth wedding anniversary. I am amazed at how quickly the time went by. World has changed, we've changed, kids came along, much has happened. It seems like we just met but it also seems like we've always been together. It's a strange but reassuring thing. :)

Greetings from The Mud

Here is a little trivia for you. City of Zagreb is comprised of a number of small communities. We live in one called Blato. Translation - The Mud. And it's been really trying hard to live up to its proud name. I am assuming that it was named some 50 years ago when there were just a few homes here and probably few or no streets which is a far cry from a densely populated area that it is now. In recent year, Zagreb has finally started expanding its infrastructure to its outskirts including city water, gas, sewer. I know that you feel like in the US that kind of work sometimes takes forever, gets messy and annoying. You have no idea. So for the past three year our street has been stripped of the asphalt (other streets on and off to different degrees) so the work could be done. No, its still not completed. Unbelievable, I know. At different times the project ran out of money, or construction was happening elsewhere, or it was too cold, or there was no apparent reason why nothing was being done. Now that we are several weeks away from local elections, the work has magically resumed. Do you really think these folks are worth reelecting? Me neither.

Fresh round of work means a fresh layer of mud to drive over while the street doesn't really look like a street. So Friday our dead end street was blocked by equipment as I was returning from dropping the kids off at school. So, I decided to be enterprising and take a shortcut over an unpaved empty lot, conveniently adjacent to a neighboring street. This lot was commonly used as a temporary "bridge" in situations like this by many of us. Unfortunately, it rained two days previous. You see where this is headed. An inviting meadow turned into a menacing mud pit within seconds. Yes, it was a bad decision but once you're in it there really is no turning back. To make things more interesting I was giving a lift to a couple of carless neighbors returning from a grocery run so I ended up having an audience for the adrenaline pumping ordeal. While trying to maneuver the car onto grass a number of things went through my head including reprimands from my husband and my dad's face when I called him to help me dig the car out. A few seconds later I managed to finagle my way onto the road and could breathe a sigh of relief. I trekked to our clean, paved parking lot which quickly got covered in mud dripping from the car. The car was covered top to bottom, windshield included. It was comical.

It was embarrassing to drive the car over the next two days. I was going to drive it to the car wash the same day but our regular car wash is currently closed for some reason and I didn't know of other locations. There aren't that many car washes around here. So today I finally took it in to a newly discovered location. In Croatia, a car wash is a lot more personalized experience. A prewash is done by hand so two to three guys work at each car wash. All glass is wiped by hand as well after the wash. I don't have to tell you the looks that I got when I pulled up. I just tried to keep a straight face. Cool as a cucumber I emerged on the other end with a clean, shiny car. I haven't told Chris that I washed it yet. I want him to be pleasantly surprised when he sees it in the morning.

Mamma Mia

Mia, my 4 and a half year old, came home a few days ago singing Abba's Mamma Mia song. I didn't think that she's ever heard it, let alone that she'd remember it once she'd heard it. She proceeded to tell me about this really neat movie with a "cowboy" girl (Sophie, one of the characters in the movie wears a cowboy hat in a scene or two I think) and singing and dancing and then this girl is getting married... Apparently she saw Mamma Mia (the movie) and instantly fell in love with all of Abba songs. So we bought her the movie and she's been singing and dancing to Abba for the past few days. Ivor can't help it. He's watched some of it too and so far really likes the music too. Oh, and in case you don't know this (Mia told me), Mamma Mia song is about Mia and her mommy. So no one better go around claiming otherwise!

Fit and trim (as if)

The last decade of my life has been sprinkled with failed attempts to get to the gym long term. A couple of months at a time just doesn't cut it as you might imagine. Still, I am one of those people that don't lose hope. Despite having less and less free time (as if that is even possible) I have, yet again, enrolled in a gym. Just to spice things up, I've done things differently this time. I am starting to regret it already. I've signed the kids up as well. They can go to a sports playroom where they hang out on a trampoline, climb a climbing wall, tackle an obstacle course, play soccer... They've decided that it's a lot of fun and now they are pestering me all the time to go. So now I have to go. So now everything hurts and I can barely climb the stairs. Naturally, it would have been wimpy to start out again with regular Yoga. It had to be power Yoga. Oh, the pain, the pain... Should we take bets to see how long I last this time?

Work desk feng shui

My work desk, over time mysteriously fills up with interesting, at times morbid stuff, courtesy of my kids. They randomly bring stuff over and then never retrieve it. Today, I have the pleasure of being observed by a decapitated Squidword and a prince doll whose torso is torn in half. Both are patiently awaiting an opportunity to get acquainted with some glue so they can feel whole again. Instead of office supplies, on my desk I currently have a Power Rangers mask, a green play phone, a shamrock lei, a handmade Christmas ornament and a cardboard Valentine's day heart. Now I just need an Easter bunny and my collection will be complete. No wonder I often don't have room for a notepad and a pen.

Facing the Facebook (finally)

Well, I've finally joined Facebook. I really didn't want to as I already have too many profiles and passwords and pages to keep up with. But... I've finally caved to peer pressure. There, I said it. :)

Anyway, I see that I've gone a record two months without a blog post. I've just been insanely busy so it may be a while before I get back to regular blogging business. So, really quickly, here is a summary. We went to the US for 3 weeks over Christmas. I've worked while there. Then we went to Disney World for several days. We had an absolutely wonderful time. Then we went back to Zagreb and I've been hard at work since. Not too much to report other than that we have some 1500+ (no, it's not a typo) photos from Disney. Maybe I'll even share a few when I have some time.