I didn’t buy the hat. One gets a little silly after walking around Old Town for an afternoon while the girls go shopping for dresses. I was the driver so I couldn’t even drink.
At least I had my iPhone. And the Mexico hat. And I let them take a picture of me.
Well, I’m back home. Finally. It is good (and bad) to be back home. I get to see the dogs. Of course Tucker decided to pee on the bed last night. He gets stressed whenever I travel. Luckily I caught before it soaked the comforter.
It is also strange to have breakfast, lunch and dinner by myself. For a whole week I almost never ate alone. Maybe lunch once or twice. I could get used to breakfast at the brickyard cafe.
I did find some cool toys (if you can call them toys – maybe miniature statues) in Old Town (see, it wasn’t really all dress shopping). I got two little warrior figurines made out of welded nuts, bolts and various machine parts. Now to make sure that Will and Ben don’t throw them at each other.
I finally got a canoe today. A 17′ red canoe by Mohawk. It is huge. Big enough for a week long trip. But it is light, only 65 lbs or so. And it matches the Jeep. Not that it is important.
I’ve also been looking at getting some sky lanterns for this summer. I have an idea… hopefully I can find an evening without too much wind to let them float up.
This is a color scheme based on the Sherwin-Williams historic Victorian exterior colors. Concord Buff for most of the house and barns, with Rookwood Dark Green for the trim and Rookwood dark brown for accents.
Here is the house as it stands:
Right now it is white with almost none of the trim painted green. Get rid of the ugly storm windows, and nicer green wood storm windows. But what to do with the enclosed porch. It is pretty ugly.
We decided, after much fussing, to have our pizza dinner as a picnic. We watched a movie in the theater on the base today, so we didn’t have our normal pizza-movie night. Tomorrow the weather should support painting the barn.
Today we had rain. And snow. Luckily the snow didn’t stick. The boys were up early, and had no problems getting the bus. I started thinking about selling the house this summer (if the refinance falls through) – but I’m tired of moving and that would create its own stresses. More on that later.
I downloaded a WordPress app for the iPhone a while ago. I couldn’t get it to work at first. But the new version seems to work.
This morning I started my journey home. We had to get up early to take the 7.30 bus from Storvik to Gävle. I was going to catch a 9.15 regional train to Arlanda. When it didn’t list a track, Susanna asked at the ticket counter. Apparently it was cancelled; they gave me a ticket on an earlier X2000 train instead. It is a much better ride on the X2000.
I had a wonderful week off. I got lots of time to relax. We had good food and ok wine. But damn Sweden is expensive. The exchange rate doesn’t help either.
I have plenty of time at Arlanda for a coffee and some reading (as well as playing on the iPhone).
Saturday was a big family outing. The outing was all planned by Susanna; which of course is nice for me (not having to plan). Our trip centered around watching a play at the Oddfellows Playhouse in Middletown, CT. The play was only for one hour (I think it wound up being only 45 minutes or so), so we planned to visit the city and the children’s museum there as well.
We drove up late in the morning, giving us plenty of time for lunch before the play. We parked on the street next to the playhouse (and even saw the fire hydrant that Susanna got a ticket in front of the previous week).
Ben having his root beer at lunch
The first stop was to walk to Main Street and find a place to eat lunch. We walked by a toy store, and of course had to stop and look. I told the boys that they could only look (we weren’t there to get toys). That doesn’t keep them from begging to buy a toy (“It’s only 7 dollars, I’ll pay you back when I get home…”). But we managed to get out of there with no new toys and not too many tears. We had a wonderful lunch at Javapolooza Cafe on main street. The boys even got a free doughnut for dessert, and had their favorite drink ever, root beer.
The next stop was back to the toy store…. where the boys got a toy tank (they were very good at lunch without me even promising them that they could go back and get a toy). We had a few minutes for them to stop and play as we waited for the start time of the play.
Will and Ben playing with their toys Stopping to play
After stopping to play we walked up to the playhouse for the play. It was an original play put on by a group of 10 year old children. The play was about the other side of the story – how maybe the villains in the fairy-tail stories have never had their side told. It was very funny, and everyone enjoyed the play. Even if the boys did get restless a bit (Will definitely had trouble sitting still, and even Ben was restless and bumped his lip on the chair in front of him – don’t ask, I’m still not sure how he did that). It was fun to visit the playhouse that Susanna has been working (volunteering for school – she needs to observe/teach for a two 7 week internships – one of which she is doing here) at for the past couple of weeks.
Playing at the children's museum
After the play we walked across the street to the Kidcity Children’s Museum. The boys thought that was the highlight of the day, and didn’t want to leave when it was time to head home. I thought it was maybe geared for kids that were a little younger, but it had lots of fun stuff for them. It is certainly bigger than the children’s museum in Niantic.
After the museum we all headed home (a tired family) for quiet time and dinner.
Here are some more pictures from our trip:
Susanna at the MuseumTrains at teh children's museum
Here is a picture from last summer. I took it on one of our beautiful days outside when we were living in Taftville. I had hung the sheets out to dry on the laundry line, and William posed in front of the sheets. I then took the picture and made it a sepia toned photograph using GIMP. I think this is one of my better pictures of William.
Benjamin sitting on a chair
This next picture was from around the same time as the one before it. It was an adjustment living in Taftville and being a single parent half of the time – but I think we made the best of it (of course it was a difficult summer for all I am sure). Here is Benjamin showing his best smile (something he doesn’t always do for pictures).
I did find some cool toys (if you can call them toys – maybe miniature statues) in Old Town (see, it wasn’t really all dress shopping). I got two little warrior figurines made out of welded nuts, bolts and various machine parts. Now to make sure that Will and Ben don’t throw them at each other.
