Paris

We're back and we had a terrific time. Saturday we arrived at 9AM and started walking. 10 hours later we were exhausted. Sunday we took it easier and added a 'hop on hop off' bus and a boat tour, which helped save our feet. This morning found me at Louis Vuitton contemplating a macintosh for 1400 Euros... but only for a minute. I'll post pictures tomorrow. Happy Memorial Day to all.

Doing the expat

Last weekend was rainy and wet and we sat around all day Saturday, and only ventured out for church on Sunday. I had signed up for 3 activities through the Benvenuto club, so hanging around was fine with me.
Jeff and I went into 'limbo' mode when we got the 2 AM our time call that Dad Norris was hospitalized with uncontrolled bleeding. So we created piles in the guest bedroom in case we need to pack quick. The "I'll be there for...." pile etc. There's also the should everything in Texas return to status quo, "what we need for a weekend in Paris to celebrate our 30th anniversary" pile!
The bleeding seems to be lessening, and Ma Norris has a good prognosis from her health crisis. Needless to say, Jeff and I have been 'antsy' to know what's wrong and being so far away.....!
But as of last night all is well.
While Jeff's been trying to work, We had an apperetivo Tuesday night followed by dinner at a mexican restaurant. Wednesday was a trip to the lake with the club, and today was our monthly meeting followed by a great lunch with 5 other E.M. wives. These ladies' husbands are on a different assignment than Jeff, but I've enjoyed getting to know the ladies. It's great to be doing things too. I guess I need my house guests so we can travel together!

It's friday and I haven't blogged in over a week. It's not that we've been busy, I guess I've just been uninspired. Last week was chore week. I caught up on laundry, and got brave and decided to wash all my windows. The bugs were starting to come in so I wanted to lower the screens, but I wanted to wash the windows before I did that. I knew from observation that Milanese wash their windows regularly. I knew this was a dirty city, but I didn't realize the degree of black sooty residue that was covering the glass. I was not going to attempt this project, living on the 7th floor, without a log handled squeegee soaper thing. That proved more of a challenge to find than I had thought. But on one of my strolls in March I found one in a neighborhood 'hardware' store. Maybe I won't wait so long to wash them again. I've been busy with the Benvenuto ladies, too. Next week is a trip to Lake Orta, an Americans in Milan meeting and an evening event. I've met a fellow expat wife whose husband works with The Oil Company but is on a different project than Jeff. She has a home in Atascoscita and we had to come all the way to Milan to meet. She called yesterday and asked if I wanted to go to a movie with her, and I did! We saw Leatherheads in english, and enjoyed it, and the pints we had with our late lunch, too.

Amsterdam

A week ago today, Jeff and I headed to IAH for our flight to Amsterdam. With Jeff's Platinum status, and me a Christmas baby on a free ticket, we miraculously got upgraded to business class. The drinks flowed and the courses served and Jeff was nodding off before the ice cream, but did wake enough to indulge. We both slept over 5 hours and were feeling good when we arrived at noon Friday. The room was ready for check in and we cleaned up. We were both feeling out of synch and knew we had time to wander and time to nap. The Netherlands had celebrated 'Queen's Day' 2 days earlier and the city was littered orange. Apparently the Dutch treat this day as their 'Mardi Gras'.
Day 2 we headed for the tulips. Our overall impression of Amsterdam was of a quiet city. Their favorite mode of transportation is bicycle complete with designated lanes for them as well as traffic signals. The canal boats are quiet and traffic moves sedately. Such a change from Milan and scooter frenzy.The fact that the 3rd and 4th day of our visit were Remembrance Day, observed with a invitee only service at the old church, the laying of the wreath by the Queen in the square, and a city wide moment of silence, and Liberation Day (Monday) with no morning traffic, may have had affected this impression. All in all a relaxing weekend of good weather and food and drink.

The House J and J picked out

Clicking on the link 'floor plan' should take you to our house plan. Then click on 'interactive floor plan. Flip the floor plan using the arrow and then click on the study and the 3rd bay w/gameroom option.The gameroom and shop become Jeff's woodworking shop with unfinished floors and not connected with the rest of the house for a/c and heat. Other changes are we moved the utility to bed 2 closet, made bed 2 into a den accessible from master and other bedrooms, combined bath 2 and 3 into a larger bath and moving the utility enlarged the dining room. The front door faces south west exposing the garage/workshop to the western sun! I promise I'll get inspired to talk Amsterdam soon!

The Lot

I'm probably confusing a few of you, but what can I say, I'm posting on the fly. This is a picture of the lot that will hold the house that Janet and Jeff will be having built for them.

The Linger back yard

 

It doesn't look like much, but getting the weeds out was a chore.

This Slide show isn't working on automatic, which is OK. It allows you to linger longer over these beautiful flowers. WOW! what a site.

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