Easter etc

How was everyone's Easter weekend? (OK, I know that was a while ago, but not THAT long...)

We had a nice trip to visit Patrick's family (we're enjoying the innovation of breaking the trip into two parts, leaving after work the day before and staying in a hotel half way). Kate really likes seeing her cousins.

The weather was perfect for a Saturday hike (I recommend the trails at Recré-eau des Quinzes, particularly the Sentier l'explorateur, if you are ever in the area- not that I expect any of you would be!)
Kate also enjoyed the Easter egg hunt at the local library. Her efforts were captured on the local newspaper's website here.

Back at home on the holiday Monday we had my parents over for an Easter lunch. The Easter Bunny decided that Kate had not done enough hunting and so left another stash of treats in our backyard, of course.

Aside from Easter we have been enjoying the early departure of snow (today's unexpected precipitation notwithstanding), spending as much time outside as possible. Dad has kindly constructed my square-foot raised beds - all they need now is some fresh soil and seeds!

Patrick has been accepted to grad school for September - his first step in making a (hopeful!) transition from researcher who uses the Archives to archivist who shows researchers how to use the Archives. So that will be a big but exciting change for us next year.

We are also preparing for Kate to move on from day care to pre-school in September. The waiting lists are long around here, and it is a tough to choose amongst the different options. We have been offered a spot at the local French pre-school (she has had no instruction in French as yet) but are still on the waiting list at the English school. So we'll see what happens there.

We are also starting to look ahead to summer holidays and have plans to return to Washington, this time with Patrick's brother and his family along for the ride. Another great chance for Kate to have some fun with her cousins!

Sent from my iPod

All tuckered-out...

...after a sleepover at Granny's.

:: right now ::

Ha - so I bet you were all expecting a big long post after that last one. Well, I haven't been able to get on Blogger for a whole week - some silly redirect loop. So I am stuck doing another email post from my iPod.

I'm going to do a "Right Now" post, à la Soulemama (I'd make that a live link if I wasn't doing this via email! - look it up yourself if you are curious) Blogger issues resolved :o)

So, Right Now I am:

:: LOVING the warm weather

:: starting to make plans for a Square Foot vegetable garden (again, I wanted to make that a live link, but you're on your own...)

:: admiring Kate's creativity in bedtime excuses - the other day she told me she couldn't sleep because her eyebrows hurt

:: really enjoying being in my new choir, despite (or perhaps because of) the grueling rehearsals (We're recording an album! Check out our site or blog)

:: smiling at the lime green car that is always parked outside my office window in a sea of drab grey and brown cars - don't know whose it is, but it always makes me smile

:: disappointed that the second season of Downtown Abbey has ended just as we were getting hooked on the series

:: grateful that Vision TV is replaying the first season so we can catch up!

That's about it for me. What are you doing right now?

Sent from my iPod

aaaaand, we're back! (sans photos)

So I guess it's been a while since I was here. The truth is, I've been procrastinating because of PHOTOS.

I always felt that there was no point in posting if I didn't have any photos to share. And since photos tend to stay on our camera for months before getting downloaded, this meant that I've been spending a lot of time feeling guilty and thinking "I really HAVE to download those photos!".

But, you know what? I really don't like taking photos - having to remember the camera, having to remember to take photos during an event, feeling disappointed when the photos don't turn out (which is most of the time), remembering to download the photos (that I'm not really happy with), feeling guilty that once the photos are on the computer they are neither organized nor backed up - see what I mean? A veritable mine field of guilt and frustration.

So I'm done. No more worrying about photos. The point of this site was to share news with friends and family, and I can do that without photos. It's less pretty, but I can do it. If I have some pics to share, of course I will do that, but mostly it'll just be me. Consider this the radio news rather than the TV news.

So now that I've sufficiently lowered your expectations :o) what have we been up to? Stay tuned...

Sent from my iPod

We have faces!

Kate's latest hobby is drawing faces -lots and lots of faces...

Daddy is particularly proud of this one:

Beaten by Mt Mansfield

We're back in Vermont for Labour Day weekend this year.  After last year's success with Camel's Hump, we were eager to try Mt. Mansfield this time around.  But we had to "abort" the attempt after almost 1 mile (and 1300 ft of ascent).  I blame:

• a late start due to a longer-than-expected drive to the trail head and a sudden thunderstorm that we had to wait out in the car (we didn't hit the trail 'til almost noon and had lost that early-morning enthusiasm!)
• a slippery, muddy trail due to aforesaid thunderstorn (and, of course, last week's hurricane!)
• hiking with a 2 1/2 year old who is MUCH heavier to carry (poor Daddy!), much less willing to ride in the backpack (good for Daddy!), and much more vocal about her opinions ("I go back HOtel") than the 1 1/2 year old we had along at Camel's Hump.  :o) 

But, it is a nice hike - interesting, challenging terrain - and we did get to stop at a little mountain stream for a little exploring (sorry, can't get the picture off my iPod right now - will post later...).

Kate-isms

A few of Kate's current (cute) words:

• hippopomolus
• bicle (bicycle)
• helpacopler (helicopter)
• teh-bear (teddy bear)
• bokalers (binoculars)