
Monday, September 29, 2008
Home exchange: hamburger falls into the fire

Driving while fishing?

photo: Kristian Stokholm
Sunday, September 28, 2008
I'm not going to get political, but this is important...
Would my sister Beth make a good Vice President??
Vote for your favorite now...
Triplets?



Friday, September 26, 2008
Hi, bowling!
Home exchange: Hamburgers and hotdogs

Home exchange pictures shock me!
After a few days, I received a note from the German family letting me know that they had posted some pictures of their house on their listing and that they had added some information about their town. They asked me some thoughtful questions about our area, and told us about some local sightseeing. They said that they were really hoping that we would find their house to be suitable, and that they would continue to post more information to their listing as soon as they could. They wanted me to let them know what we thought of their home, and hoped after seeing the pictures that we'd still want to exchange. Yikes! I braced myself for a hideous house or a catastrophe of some sort, and looked up their listing to see the updates. I was shocked by what I saw.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Congratulations to "The Waiter" on Book #2!

The best short story ever written!

Home exchange tip: no pictures is not a good thing!
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
And the bathroom fun continues...
Stop and smell the daisies!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
But wait! Is smaller actually better?

These pants were made for travelling

Just like my sister!

Monday, September 22, 2008
Winter home exchange put on ice

Bored with your run-of-the-mill RV?
For those well-heeled adventurous types for whom money is no object and the flashier the better (you know who you are), check out the Unicat Unimog 5000. This bad boy will let you and your pals (or trophy wife/boyfriend/whatever) travel in style without having to compromise your wild itineraries because you just don't have the right set of wheels. I heard about this originally from my friends over at Apartment Therapy and then became fascinated with the whole idea. But don't just run out and buy one - be smart, shop around a little, and you can pick up a sweet deal on a used one for around $200K.
Breathtaking!

Sunday, September 21, 2008
This is genius!
Hula? No, Hulu!
Disney for free, you say?

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Envelope, please!

Friday, September 19, 2008
Speaking of retirement...


Thursday, September 18, 2008
"It's still there...it's still there..."
Home exchange redux: would you Adam and Eve it, mate?

Sam versus wild!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Is this your cup of ambition??

Last night as we were driving home from visiting some great friends, Jon and I had to stop at the toll booths to pay with cash since we left our pre-paid transponder in our other car. We're not used to navigating toward the cash lanes, and had to pay more attention than usual to the toll booth system. Oddly, all of the lanes in the middle were closed, and the only open cash lanes were on the far ends (not cool!). Do you think that at the beginning of their shift, the toll booth guys get together and goof around, looking for a way to break the monotony? Hey Bob, know what'd be funny? Let's just open up the end lanes tonight. You take 9 and I'll take 1. We'll watch all the cars scramble to get over. It'll be hilarious! Is there such a thing as toll booth humor? Maybe all jobs have their own camaraderie and humor that's only appreciated by others on the job. I know it happens all the time in the technology business, more than you'd like to think. Do you have "inside jokes" like this to pass the time where you work?
No more bad blood...

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
This is just so unsettling...
Who needs Craigslist anymore?!

Monday, September 15, 2008
Aww, shucks...
Home exchange found!
After the disappointments with the Swiss family and then the man in Paris, I have to admit that I was getting discouraged about finding a suitable exchange. There didn't seem to be any way that we would be spending the 2008-2009 school year abroad, so we settled on finding whatever we could find, and not worrying about trying to coordinate with the school year. The school doesn't like it, but I don't worry about taking my kids out as long as they are getting equivalent experience and don't fall behind. One year the kids and I went to California with my husband Jon, who was sent for a few weeks of training for his job. All of his expenses, plus a rental car and hotel room were paid for, so we just paid for the extra plane tickets and had a great vacation. I had to help Sara catch up with her homework, but we had plenty of time and she returned to school ahead of her classmates. So when we realized that we might have to take whatever we could get for an exchange, we stopped being so particular about the dates and started having better luck. One Swedish family offered us a month at their place in the summer, but that seemed so short, and so far in the future! Many families wanted to exchange with us over the Christmas and New Year European vacation (they get 4 weeks in practically every European country in December/January!!), and some people even offered us 2 weeks in October (um, no thanks). We finally found a Swedish family with a nice, comfortable house in a suburb of Gothenburg and they offered us either 4 weeks in December-January, or 10 weeks in the summer. Wow, 10 weeks was the best offer we had gotten, and although 10 weeks doesn't sound very long, 2 and a half months sounds pretty great. We decided to accept the exchange with the Swedish family, and they are very nice and the husband speaks perfect English. I like him very much, and we are even going to care for their 2 dogs. He suggested trying to find another exchange that could be consecutive (remind you of anyone?) and so I got started on finding a winter/spring exchange as well. We will be in Gothenburg from May 30 to August 1! The Swedish guy and I have been emailing back and forth to go over details, and I am relieved and encouraged by this good omen: their young son has the exact same birthday as my niece: November 5, 2007! Pretty cool.
Red hot publicity stunt?

Sunday, September 14, 2008
No comment?!

Speaking of things that feel like dating...

One of my favorite TV shows, House M.D., is coming back for its new season on Tuesday, 9/16 (Fox, 8 p.m. for those of you without a DVR) and it got me thinking about doctors. Not sexy English actors who play doctors and, incidentally, who have re-negotiated their contract to the tune of $400,000 an episode, making them among the highest paid TV actors, but real doctors. Medical professionals. Over the past 3 years I have been to more than my share of doctors and I have liked all of them as people (well, except one who was kind of uptight but she is a great doctor so I didn't mind all of the humorless exchanges) and I have a great deal of respect for them. I hit it off particularly well with one of my doctors - she is my age, we have similar backgrounds and interests, and she is really funny. So just the other day I had an appointment with her, and I had been thinking that I would ask her if she wanted to have a drink sometime, or maybe get together for dinner. It seemed like sort of a strange idea, like asking her on a date, but how else do people become friends?? I've asked a million people if they wanted to grab a beer, no big deal. At the end of the appointment she was telling me the nurse would be coming in and she sort of paused at the door, and said It was great to see you. Really great. Pause. Yeah, I said, you too. Pause again. Um, awkward! The nurse did her thing and as I was checking out, I started to think about it more. There's no reason to be so weird about it, it's just another person. It's not like I am asking her on a date! So I booked my follow-up appointment and did the only mature, logical thing a person could do...I wrote her a secret note!
My so-called dog's life

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Home exchange on the rebound?
So after about a week, I emailed the French exchanger after to let him know that per his advice we were still looking for another exchange, but we hadn't forgotten about him and wanted to know what the next step was. Yay, we were very excited and Sam was starting to ask me about France. He responded back that unfortunately, because he was due to leave for the States within 2 weeks, he would have to decline our offer. What!!?? I read and re-read his message, and then copied it into Google's translator just to make sure I wasn't totally crazy. Nope, I understood it - he was blowing us off. Tempted as I was to send him a nasty message, I didn't want to blow the exchange so I said that I didn't understand, I thought we had agreed on an exchange in February so why was he coming to the States in 2 weeks? Was it for a different exchange? No, he said, we did have an agreement for February but he didn't want to wait any longer for us to make a decision, and so he would give us one week to decide if we still wanted to exchange. Huh?? I referred him back to me original message, and again said that yes, we are on board, ready to go, and would like to take the next step toward fixing exact dates with him. I apologized for my poor French, and hoped he understood. I didn't hear from him for 4 days. 4 days! I wasn't sure what to think, when he finally replied back to me:
I can't wait for you any longer. Unfortunately, I have to decline your offer for September. Regards. September? This guy wasn't making sense in his own language, no translator was going to help me with this problem. But this was Paris. Paris!! So, of course, I started writing back to him. We are prepared to purchase plane tickets for your offer of a home exchange from February to July. Are you still interested in making this exchange? But before I sent the email I started to think about it. If this man didn't seem trustworthy, or even coherent, over email, did I really want to set my kids up for disappointment and set myself up for non-refundable plane tickets? Would I want this man staying in my home even if the exchange did work out? I knew the answer was no, but like a bad relationship, I just didn't want to let go. I didn't know at the time that a great opportunity was just around the corner.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Afternoon delight

Last call!

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Not just archery and bug juice anymore

And the worst boyfriend award goes to...

In memoriam

Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Paper Doll Heaven?

Home Exchange, Part Don't

Laughing so hard

Seriously?

Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Home Exchange, Part One
I wrote up my listing, and took a million photos of our house and then re-took them until they were perfect and posted them right away. I wrote carefully-crafted personalized messages to the most promising listings, letting them know that we were looking for a long-term exchange, ideally a year, in a non-English-speaking country in Europe. We didn't care which country, what type of home, inland or coastal, apartment or two story house, it didn't matter. We were looking for new experiences, foreign language knowledge for our kids, interesting new foods. We were looking for culture! Hours passed, then days, then nothing. A whole lot of nothing, no replies, no offers, just nothing. This isn't supposed to happen like this. Then, one morning, I had an email from someone looking for an exchange! Finally! The email said:
Dear exchange partner:
We would like to exchange our home with you this summer for 3 weeks. We have a nice home in Ireland, close to the coast and to shopping, that you will like very much.
Please respond right away, thank you.
Hmmm. Alas, this was the way it would go for a long time, and I did receive a few very lovely replies from families who were not available for long-term travel, or who had already found exchanges. However, the promise of finding a perfect home exchange after only a matter of weeks was out of reach and the process started to feel more and more like internet dating. Why aren't they replying to my email? Maybe they don't like the way I decorated? Maybe they appreciate my sense of humor in my listing? I'm funny, aren't I? My house is nice, isn't it? Finally, after a few months of little to no interest, I decided my house could no longer suffer these indignities and I decided to take a drastic step. I joined the other website. Things were about to look up.
Speaking of missing things...
I can't believe I am going to miss this!

Being a kid

My heart melted and I started thinking about the innocence of childhood. I can remember looking forward to being old enough to ride my bike across the street alone. If I made it, I would be able to buy a pack of the coveted chocolate gum for 16 cents. I remember being so proud when I turned 10 that I was finally a "double digit." I wouldn't be able to sleep the night before our family left for our annual month-long beach vacation because I was so excited to see my friends again. I didn't worry if they would still like me, or if our rental home would be clean enough, or how I would pay my bills after taking a month off from work. All I needed to think about was finding my friends and when I would get my chocolate gum. What a luxurious vacation!
Lions and tigers and Bear Grylls!
One of my favorite parts about the show is Bear's pants. Not in the way that you think (pervert!), but he wears these cool adventure-guy type pants with reinforced knees. Those pants justs seem so...professional. I would never, ever, in my wildest dreams find myself in a situation where I would need pants like these. It seems that many women like the part in the show when Bear inevitably takes his pants off and dives for some dinner in the frigid waters , but I don't know, I think I prefer the cool pants.
This is it!
So bear with me as I iron out the quirks of blogging and get my page up and running with something you'd actually like to read. Stay tuned!