Sledding

Several weeks ago, Tim took the Katy and Kyle (Michael was home sick) sledding with several guys from the office. Warsaw is generally flat so this hill in the Ursynow neighborhood is a popular sledding location.









Our flat plastic-foam sleds from LL Bean were quite different from the typical Polish sled which is like the old-fashion wooden sled on metal runners. Tim even found that a beach boogie board worked well as a sled!

Tour of Warsaw (for me and evidently one very lucky toilet)

Yesterday I took a four-hour guided tour of Warsaw. The weather was cold and windy with occasional snow flurries but the tour guide was excellent- knowledgeable, funny, and he maintained an efficient pace. Despite all the beautiful buildings and monuments, this was the most memorable part of the tour. Click on the photo so you can zoom in on the man on the bicycle.

See what you are missing by not visiting us?!

Saturday

In a few minutes I'm off to the airport to pick up Tim who is returning from a week at Ramstein AB in Germany. I may have mentioned to some of you before that Ramstein, part of the Kaiserslautern military community, is the largest concentration of Americans outside the US. So, Tim has had access to what we fondly refer to as the "land of the big BX" which means he will be returning with a suitcase full of American-goodness. My personal requests included Blistex and a Cadbury Creme Egg (my needs are simple). Tim is certain to have checked out all the latest DVD releases and eaten as many comfort foods as he could find (BK cheeseburger minus pickle is standard).

Going to the airport is soooo much easier than it was in Greece. The drive from our house is only 15-20 minutes and the diplomatic plates on the car allow me to sit unaccosted in the "loading-unloading only zone" indefinitely. So I'm off to retrieve my yummy egg and my sweet husband.

(If I twittered, this would be a lot shorter and definitely less boring!).

Apology to My Mother

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry for never hanging up my coat, for not cleaning out the dishwasher until after you had to nag me repeatedly, for leaving crumbs and mess on the kitchen counter after having a snack, for endless piles of dirty laundry, for waiting until the last minute to do homework and then needing help, for tracking dirt throughout the house, not practicing the piano enough, and generally leaving my junk strewn about.

What's my motivation you may ask. Well, let's just say that life has come full circle and I have become the nag-er rather than the nag-ee! But I am endlessly patient and look forward to someday watching my grandchildren annoy the heck out of their parents!

Love,
Debbie

About Brisinger...

Okay, I finally gave in and picked up our copy of Brisinger. Katy had requested it several months ago but I had refused to read it. The first in the series, Eragon, had been a fun read. The writing was a little derivative but Kyle had wanted me to read it and I admit I enjoyed it. Eldest, the second book, was a little more of a grind- endless action with no end in sight for 700+ pages- but I forged ahead, seeking resolution. Of course, being a trilogy (and now a "cycle" of four books), there was no conclusion; Eldest ended with a plot twist. Now, part three, Brisinger, is out and has been laying about the house. Kyle refuses to read it and I was trying to be snooty about it, too, but Guns, Germs, and Steel was getting a little repetitive so I put it aside for some action and a mythic hero (I'm a sucker for the lonely hero who's not sure he's up to the task).

While it's still action, action, action with more detail than I want or need, Paolini's writing has improved. I do occasionally find myself skipping pages to the end of battles, but I do care what happens to Eragon so I continue to soldier on. I won't ever reread these books like I did Harry Potter but I am committed to hanging in there until the end. Kyle can mock me all he wants but I want to know what happens (the mark of a good story?).

And while I'm admitting my guilty pleasures reading, know that I read and enjoyed all the Twilight books!

Guilty admission #2- I have never been able to finish the Lord of the Rings series.

Christmas Newsletter: The Saga, Part ?

The Christmas newsletters may start arriving this week so I wanted to remind you that the solution to the puzzle was originally posted on January 10th so you'll need to scroll down to find it. Please put us out of our misery and leave a quick comment here if you actually receive one. In an attempt to view-the-glass-as-half-full, I'm thinking how nice it was for the postal system to give our letters such a nice six-week trip for only 42 cents.

Banana Teddy Bear, By Michael

I begged my parents to go to Smyk , the polish toy store, to buy a giant teddy bear. I named it Banana for some reason. I wasn't really thinking about the name so I just thought of something fast. Banana is, I think, four feet tall. He was the biggest one in the toy store. He usually sleeps right next to my bed because he takes up too much room in my bed.