Ahhhh vacation! After arriving in Barcelona on December 17th, we spent four days with Justin and, for a portion of it, Mari and Hana.

Just one of the pretty Christmas streets in Barcelona

We probably put 50 miles on our shoes wandering the city and 5 pounds on our frames sampling the amazing food and drink. All dressed up for Christmas, the city was most beautiful after dark which, coincidentally was when we spent most of our time out and about. Dinner at 10pm, bedtime at 3am, back on the street by noon each day. Exactly what we were looking for and precisely how one should enjoy this town. Until next time … adios Barcelona!

Next it was on to England for a fantastic Christmas week with the family. Simon met us at Paddington Station upon our arrival from Spain and stayed with us for most of the rest of our visit. He always takes days off from his job when we visit. I love that about Simon!

The ensuing week was a flurry of activity nearly impossible to describe but here is my attempt in 600 words or less.

Christmas tree at Nigel & Karen's

A fine large family dinner at Moff’s home welcomed us to England. Following that we had one fun night with Helen and Mike in the bucolic countryside of Kent before we headed off to a Friday night birthday party for Paul & Avis’ daughter Florence. Next it was back to Kent for an unforgettable Christmas Eve with Nigel, Karen, their 4 kids and enough extended family to fill a huge dinner table with the sort of stories and laughter that can only come from years of shared connections.

Before we knew it, it was Christmas morning at Helen & Mike’s  – where time moves just a bit more slowly than the rest of the world. Presents came first, then (a very late) breakfast was followed by a gorgeous walk through the countryside, some board games and a perfect Christmas dinner. Boxing Day (December 26th to our USA friends) found us at John & Christine’s home for more presents, more food (thanks Christine and Jill!) a few visitors and a few games. My gosh I love family time!

For our last two nights we splashed out for a hotel room in central London – a luxury given the exchange rate these days. John and Christine had gifted us with tickets to a ballet on the 27th so that evening found them, us and Simon & Jill all dressed up at Sadler’s Wells for a performance titled “Nutcracker!”. Expecting the classic holiday-season ballet, we were wonderfully surprised by a fresh and modern twist on the original. More Tim Burton-esque than traditional, it was a fun night out with the family. Justin met up with us after the performance and we finished the night off with a nightcap and a final farewell to him as he headed back to Frankfurt.

Christmas table at Helen & Mike's

And then, in the blink of an eye, our last night in the UK was upon us. Simon & Jill arranged an evening with friends (Annie, Eddie and their gorgeous little Francesca), my old friend Raj drove in from the coast to have dinner and drinks and somehow we managed to while away more hours than I expected just getting caught up. At this point we were both feeling (quite literally) fat and happy. The eating must stop soon!

Simon joined us on our last day for lunch and a quick tour through the National Gallery before heading off to the airport. Ahhhhhhh! What a fantastic two weeks it has been. Good … to the last drop. We are fortunate to see the Petty clan at least once or twice every year but to join them for Christmas was, quite simply, priceless.

But wait … the fun wasn’t giving up the ghost just yet. Our flights were smooth and on time and by Thursday night (the 29th) we were back at home for a few more presents that we’d left behind and a night of jet-lag adjustment before the New Year’s weekend commenced. A quick unpacking job, a grocery delivery and a few loads of laundry later and by 6pm on Friday Chris was on his way home from the airport with our good buddies Mark & Laura – in for the weekend from Madison.

We ate, we drank, we laughed, we played Dixit and Ticket to Ride, we went to two movies (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy & The Skin I Live In) we brunched on Sunday and took a walk through the North End of Boston on Monday. On New Year’s Eve Danielle joined us as did Claude & Lisa for a simple dinner of steak, soup and salad and more board games and bubbly.

At the end of it all, after Mark & Laura returned home yesterday we spent an all too quiet night on the sofa watching the Rose Bowl and reflecting on just how fortunate we are. We have family who really LIKE each other, we have good friends and good health and a comfortable life. We are rich in all things that really matter.

As we begin 2012 we hope the same for all. Happy New Year!

Traveled from Boston to London on Friday – completely uneventful. We had booked a very low-cost hotel at the airport for Friday night because it was 9pm when we arrived and our flight to Barcelona was early the next morning. The hotel turned out to have two things working against it from the start.
1) It wasn’t actually “at the airport”. It was more accurately “in the general vicinity of” the airport but required us to purchase rather pricey tickets on a shuttle that then careened all over the place for about 30 minutes before actually stopping at any hotels.
2) The entire lobby (including the restaurant and bar) was taken over by a group holding their office Christmas party. I can’t even describe how loud it was and how drunk everyone was by the time we arrived to check in. Loads of sequined dresses, big hair-dos and smeared make-up hobbling around on painfully tight shoes or hanging off of equally drunk shirts and loosened ties. The hired DJ was spinning excruciatingly loud 80s music and my head was already hurting. Fortunately, the room was quiet and there was a little pub down the road where we could get a drink and a bite to eat.

Left for Barcelona in the morning and were checked in at Hotel Curious by 1pm. It’s been a good couple of days of walking and wandering and poking into shops. The sun is out and the sky is blue and the streets are lit at night with beautiful Christmas lights. Happy days indeed.

One more day here and then we are off to England and what is shaping up to be a rather merry Christmas season.

More later … For now, some photos of graffiti that Chris shot today in the El Born section of town – very old, narrow and curvy streets lined with three or four story apartment buildings with small shops at the street level. It was a gorgeous day of wandering …

Colin, Christina and Erin all had to head back to their real lives the day after Thanksgiving. And lo and behold, Teresa popped in!

A day at the shore

Five minutes after kissing Erin good-bye we found Teresa outside baggage claim and commenced a very fun couple of days of just hanging out and visiting and eating and drinking. Walking with a bit of a gimp due to a recent foot surgery, she was game for almost anything as long as it didn’t include running.

Beauty and the beach

We spent a wonderful Saturday at the beach – it looks much, much colder in the photos than it actually was! We packed some snacks and some wine and a blanket and sat by the sea for a couple of hours nursing hangovers from Friday night and watching the waves crash on the shore – pretty much a perfect afternoon. A comedy club that night, a long brunch with Danielle on Sunday, board games that evening and our holiday weekend was complete. We wish Teresa lived here. I think she wishes she did too.

Alas, it was back to work on Monday as Teresa headed back to Wisconsin.

Cleared for entry

In anticipation of our upcoming trip to Europe, and with big help from Chris’ assistant at work, we have finally  been christened Good To GOES.   After filling out a few forms, paying a small fee and submitting to a totally tame interview with Customs and Border Protection, Global Online Enrollment System has deemed each of us a Trusted Traveler. What it means for now is that we can sail through the re-entry process when coming back to the United States from international travel – a quick swipe of our card at an electronic kiosk and we are in. What I am hoping it will mean in the future is an equally quick sail through security whenever we travel. A pilot program is in testing at five USA airports that allows trusted travelers to go through security in priority lines with their shoes and belts on, their liquids stowed safely in their carry-on etc. As soon as Boston’s Logan airport is included in the program we intend to get in line. For now, we have these new mugshots to add to our wallet. Sweet!

Packages are all “tied up with string” and either on their way or being mailed tomorrow. Greeting cards have all been signed and Christmas dinners with local friends are being scheduled. On Friday we finally fly off for two weeks in Europe – first a few days in Barcelona for some rest and regrouping and then a nice long holiday week with family and friends in England. Christmas with Helen and Mike, Boxing Day with John and Christine, visits with extended family in between and lots of time with Simon and Jill. We haven’t spent Christmas in the UK since 2003 so are really, really looking forward to it.

Feeling fortunate. Feeling supersonic. Hello Christmas!

On Friday morning, while still half-asleep despite a hot shower, Chris found a relatively large puddle of water on the floor in our bedroom closet. Uh oh! We moved a few things out of the way and found more water and obvious water damage at the bottom of the wall that is adjacent to our shower. Something was definitely awry.

A call to the contractor and within 90 minutes I had three big burly guys on site searching for the problem – in the dark! (The light fixture in the closet had mysteriously stopped working the day before.) The water problem was quickly determined to be a small piece of grout that had pulled away at the bottom of the shower allowing lots of water to flow into the wall and, ultimately, into our closet. How much do I love it when …

• a call for help results in three men arriving at my door within 90 minutes
• problem diagnosed within 30 minutes
• a promise to be back on Monday with the solution
• AND they were able to fix the problem with the closet light fixture!

Happily, no clothes or shoes were harmed in the process. And now, there are guys back there as I type this repairing the walls and regrouting the shower. In the meantime we’ve been using the shower in the guest bath and I am happy to discover that it’s an excellent shower! Lots of good water pressure, plenty of room to move around, etc. So the throngs of guests who’ve experienced it haven’t been lying after all!

THANKSGIVING!

Hurray for the fun is the puddin' done? Hurray for the pumpkin pie!

All sorts of good fun. Lots of food, a family photo shoot at Boston Common on a gloriously sunny day, a Green Bay Packers win (thank goodness – wouldn’t have wanted grumpy faces at the dinner table) and leftovers for days. On the down side, the oven started smoking halfway through the roasting of the turkey so we set off all the smoke alarms … twice!  After dinner the whole crew pitched in and clean up was done in a snap. Chris and I left the kids to their own wicked ways and joined the party already in progress at Danielle and Ryan’s house. That boy cooked up an amazing Thanksgiving dinner for 12 people and then invited about 40 more for an unbelievable dessert buffet. Lots of calories, lots of drinks and soon we were all off to bed … 5 pounds heavier.

And to all a good night.

Check out our Thanksgiving slideshow

(Photo credits to Chris and Erin with a little help from Christina and me.)

Not as many neighbors showed up as we had hoped but Cherie and Joe came all the way from Syracuse, Danielle and Ryan were there and many of the rest of our usual suspects. It was good to get back into the “planning” mode despite the fact that it meant cleaning the house down to every nook and cranny. I love the details of a well-planned party. The food was good, the drinks were in abundance and we had a really fun soundtrack – songs with “house” or “home” in the title or lyrics. Through the magic of iTunes and our large library of music we came up with 98 songs and 6 hours of music. I am sure we missed a few.

Even this one made the list:

Totally appropriate for us this year! We are so looking forward to our Christmas with the Petty clan in England.

But before we do that we have Thanksgiving – the 4th Thursday of every November. In its origins in North America, Thanksgiving was a time to give thanks for a good harvest. In our modern version we celebrate with the Thanksgiving Day parade (from New York city) on TV in the morning, cooking going on all day in the kitchen and a big feast on the table by late afternoon. There are no religious overtones, no gift-giving component and, unless you are the chef or traveling through our oh-so-secure airline corridors, no actual stress points. We talk about our year and the things we are thankful for and beyond that we just enjoy. Erin and Colin arrive early next week for our first family Thanksgiving at home in 5 years! The shopping list is almost finished – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, creamed corn – it’s going to be a carb fest! We’ll have pumpkin pie and apple pie and leftovers for days. I love, love, love Thanksgiving.

The kids both have to leave on Friday and about 10 minutes later Teresa arrives from Madison to spend a long holiday weekend with us – and help us plow through the flotsam of food sure to be on hand.

So much to look forward to. So much to be grateful for.

For our American friends … what is your favorite Thanksgiving food/tradition/memory? I’d love to hear about it.

For our English friends … you really are missing out. As holidays go this one is about nothing but family, friends and food. (And, some would say, football but that’s just, well, silly.) In recent years it has actually turned into more of a shopping holiday for many if you believe the newsfeeds – the big-box stores all open at midnight on Thanksgiving night, long lines are already waiting to grab whatever deals are being advertised, and far too many people have to actually show up to work … at midnight … on Thanksgiving. It’s beyond me and a sad, sad mutation of an otherwise perfectly good reason to hang out with the ones you love most.

I see a game or two of Monopoly in our near future.

We have Claude & Lisa coming over tonight to play bridge before Chris and I both travel tomorrow morning. Chris is off to Chicago to attend a conference with the International Order of Police and launch what sounds like a very sexy new product. I am driving over to Syracuse to get out and see the landscape a bit and to visit my sister Cherie and her family. All in all, a nice weekend.

Anyway … it is high time we “warmed” this house.

We’ve had a few people (Danielle for one) mention that, despite promising to throw a party when the renovation was said and done, we haven’t actually followed through. We have disappointed. We have reneged.

So … we are throwing a party  -  on Friday, November 11th (11/11/11) – and you are invited.

Via our building-wide email board we’ve invited most of the 42 units in our building. To date, 5 have responded (4 yes, 1 no). It looks like a reminder needs to go out sometime next week. We’ve also invited the local friends we’ve made here. To date we are batting 500 with them (4 yes, 3 no, 1 maybe.) And now we have invited you.

I don’t even know how to predict what kind of turnout we will get. I have to think that some of the neighbors will come just out of curiosity – to see what we did to our unit. I suspect a few more will come just because it’s a free party. At any rate, it will be a fun Friday night. Of course, now I am in planning-mode and have lots of good ideas but am looking for your help.

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Blue Cheese

I’ve promised “small food and large drinks”. The drinks are pretty easy – wine, beer, etc. -  but I am scouring (and begging) for ideas now for small food. I’ve already decided on

• bacon-wrapped dates with blue cheese
• white bean hummus with kalamata relish

White Bean Hummus with Kalamate relish

Good, right? As always, there will be cheese and crackers, sliced meat and olives for nibbling but I need a few more fun appetizers.

If you are reading this, please consider yourself my helpers. Send me one (or two) of your favorite appetizer recipes – something fairly easy to prepare with ingredients that are easy to come by but beyond that … no restrictions.
Pretty please?
Ready?
Set?
Comment.

Celebrate Madison!

Chris and I were in Madison last weekend and I’ve never seen that town so dazzling. As if waiting on a very special visitor, she put on her Sunday best and got ready for her close up. The sun shone “like a National guitar”. The skies were as blue as they ever get and the leaves on the trees were in peak performance color – loads of bright yellows and oranges. Even the temperatures cooperated with warm days (80F) and temperate nights (55F). It was a crazy good time.

Checked in with Colin on the night I arrived. He looked great. He is great. He was headed off the next day, though, for a weekend of camping with friends so I only got the one evening. Hadn’t seen him since New Year’s so was very glad to get my “fix”.

Laura & Mark

Caught up with Mark and Laura on Thursday night. They always lend us their guest room when we are visiting so it allows for us all to stay up late talking. Spent Friday night with Teresa, Scot & Mykol for a traditional Wisconsin fish-fry and more catching up with old buddies. Why is it nobody can stop laughing when Scot is part of the mix?

Another Saturday Night!

The reason for the trip was to celebrate with Jay and Allison – who tied the knot earlier this month. Jay is honestly, and quite distinctly, our oldest friend in Madison. Chris and I each met Jay in very separate circumstances – shortly after all of us arrived in Madison. It would be some time before I met Chris and the three of us knew each other as friends but from that humble beginning grew the very large and very cherished circle of friends that we treasured then and are still enjoying today – what came to be affectionately known as The Usual Suspects. It all started 20 years ago this month with one Mr. Jay Roberts. I guess we have to call him Friend Zero.

Allison, Jay & Katherine

Karen, Kelly & Stef - the winds of the old days!

Jay met Allison a few years ago and, after making each other very happy ever since, they married earlier this fall in a small private ceremony. Then, last Saturday they celebrated with a party at the home of a friend in Mt. Horeb – a 30 mile drive from Madison. The weather was perfect, the home and yard were gorgeous and the party was loads of fun.  It’s funny … when you see friends after a long absence it seems that their kids have grown by unrealistic measures but they themselves haven’t changed a bit. I love that about old friends!

Brunch with Paul - can't believe this weather!

The Madison Chainsaw Massacre

Had to return to Boston on Sunday but not before an outdoor (80F!!) brunch with Paul Wesselmann (special old friend and neighbor who can always be counted on for stimulating conversation), a quick trip to see the home renovation Jay tackled this fall – still a few weeks from finished – and a quick visit to Teresa’s backyard for a drink and some playtime with her power tools. I feel like we soaked up every last drop of that weekend!

Thanks Madison. We owe you one!

On a flight to Milwaukee in 150 minutes.

A rental car, a 90 minute drive and then dinner with Colin tonight … can’t come soon enough. Alas, he is leaving Madison tomorrow so I only get tonight.

Chris arrives tomorrow and together we get to spend one splendid fall weekend in our old stomping grounds.

We are staying again with Mark & Laura in what they call their Mylanta room – truly an unusual choice of paint color but an uber-comfortable place to hang one’s hat for a weekend. Alas, they too are leaving Madison on the weekend but we get some catch-up time with them tomorrow evening.

Dinner plans with Teresa, Scot & Mykol for Friday. A party in Jay’s honor on Saturday. (He has gone and got himself married again!) Brunch with Paul on Sunday and then it’s time to head back to Beantown – most certainly fatter and happier!

Wishing you all a fine fall weekend. Watch for pictures from Wisconsin in the near future …

K.

Our big dark screen & our sunny living room.

9 months we’ve lived here with no television service.

We’ve had this jumbotron in place since January, kept it dusted and stared blankly at it from time to time but, due to antiquated wiring in the building have had no option to actually watch television.

Not entirely true, I guess. We’ve had the option to play DVDs and to stream movies via Netflix so it hasn’t necessarily been cold turkey. And, to be perfectly honest, it hasn’t been a problem. Save for the occasional breaking news item, daily updates on the Tour de France and my personal favorite, The Academy Awards telecast, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how little we miss it.

Of course, anyone following Chris on Facebook knows that we’ve spent more than our fair share of time in local pubs on Sunday mornings watching Man U games so there’s always that option as well.

Suddenly, last week we were presented with the option of DirectTV. Apparently, while we slept September away, a new dish had been installed on the roof and all new wiring placed throughout the building. Surprise! Of course, it comes at a cost – a new line item in the monthly budget – so discussions took place and now we suddenly have television again. Seemingly thousands of channels. It’s a bit overwhelming, really. So much so that we’ve actually made a pact to limit our intake.

Let there be light.

The service came with a number of “tiers” of pricing. It goes without saying that to get the things we actually want to watch (Boardwalk Empire, Californication, Sundance channel, English League Soccer) we had to opt for the top tier. Chris did a brilliant piece of “cost rationalizing” when he decided that eliminating the average two trips per month to the pub on a Sunday morning would save us almost the cost of the service. (You don’t do the pub games without a full English breakfast and a couple of pints each.)

So we are in. It’s all a bit heady.

I am happy that instead of staring at the Sony logo on the TV installed above the treadmill I can now watch any number of things while I run. Perhaps I’ll run further and faster?

All signs point to Erin staying with us through the end of October so she is happy that once we have vacated her bedroom (also known as our living room) at night she can surf to her heart’s content.

Worth it.

And, of course, this screen sums Chris’ happiness.

Bring on the games …

Erin returned to Denver on Thursday but is back to Boston on Monday.  The group she’s working for seems less than well organized with their staffing.  While they have told her they’d like to have  her back for a couple more projects, possibly into November, at this point she’s coming back for only another week. 

It has been good to have Erin around.  I’ve noticed a long stay like this feels very different from a short visit.   It is more relaxed, less frantic or full of things we ‘must do’ right away.  On the flip side, our “Murphy bed in the living room” concept was really intended to cover the ‘short stay’ version – it hasn’t been much of an issue for me but I am sure it keeps guests aware they aren’t here for the long-haul!

At work: we had a fun lunch organized last week.  A good thing to blow off some steam during the end of quarter craziness going on.  Someone on the organizing committee picked a charity and we raised a bunch of money for the Lazarus House a local group that aids people in need in the community.  There was a raffle and prizes but most of the money came from ticket sales for the ‘dunk tank’.  Here’s me: the final dunkee of the event – what does it tell you that an awful lot of my colleagues were lined up for my turn?

What’s next?  We’d love to be in the UK for Christmas this year if we can pull it off.  I think we’ve stayed in the US every year since 2003 so I am really missing  a bunch of traditions:

• opening presents on Christmas Morning per protocol (none of this Christmas Eve mess!)
• Christmas Pudding with Brandy Butter.  Inexplicably Kryptonite to every American but delicious to me, and
• Of course my English family and friends

Since the transatlantic fligths are likely the expensive part, ideally I want to tack on a side trip somewhere for some basic vacation time.  Some preliminary digging yesterday found reasonable flights to London (around $750 return) and it looks like from there, we could get cheap EasyJet tickets (or equivalent) to most places in Europe.  A couple of days foreign city or warm weather before Christmas in England would be excellent.  Where should we spend 3 or 4 days?  Any suggestions?  Our shortlist so far has Barcleona, Palermo, and Paris (always good but likely cold and damp) – what do you think?

Lots of Love

Chris

There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.  ~  Jim Morrison

I think it was a post in January that first started talking about the two problem doors.

It was June (22nd to be exact) when our bedroom door was finally installed. The handles came along a couple weeks later. What happened between January and June was a frustrating tug-of-war over who was responsible for the damage, who would pay for the new door and who would install it (the contractor was refusing to attempt another install). After meetings between all parties, the situation was slowly and painfully resolved and the door is now in.

Sliding door (to closet/bathroom) and pivot door to our bedroom

The Doors - The end

That left the roll-up door in the bathroom as the only remaining issue and on August 4th, that came in. It allows just enough room for accessing the laundry and allowed us a much bigger guest bathroom.
And, it works!

Not much left to do really.  A final inspection and a Certificate of Occupancy are still on the list but nobody here seems to think we need to do that part. I’m not sure. Anybody out there have experience with this? We have a building permit from the city that I presume needs to be “closed” with a final inspection but what happens if you don’t do that part?

Hmmm …

]]> http://pettylarseny.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/things-known-and-things-unkown/feed/ 1 klarsen19 DSCN0462 DSCN0466 DSCN0464 DSCN0465