The Attic

Written by Jen:

Weekend

We had a fun weekend and fit in a lot of activities.

• Friday night my parents came over for dinner (Jen made a great $2 Chicken, twice baked sweet potatoes) and I took Dad to a show Deer Camp the musical.  We had a great time and I think the kids did with Grammy as well (playing Wii)
• Saturday we went to Build it Workshop at Home Depot.  (Chipotle for Lunch)
• Then played Starfare's of Catan, which the kids have really gotten excited about (Jen maybe not so much)
• Then went out Golfing at Rich Valley Gold Course ($54, kids are free with adult)  (
• On Sunday we went to the Mini-Maker Faire at Barnes and Noble, I brought my digital-etcha-sketch again.
• Then did a climb at REI, I made it up a 5.7+ after 2 attempts at a tricky part (quite proud of my tenacity).
• The went geo-caching at Lebanon Hills, we even paid for a year membership to geocaching ($30).
• Finished it off with dinner at Jimmy Johns (Maddie has been wanting to go there FOR-ever) and Cherry Berry for desert (thanks Mom and Dad for the gift cards)

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Business Trip to India

Since I have been using this site as I intended, I thought I would use it to help keep track of this business trip while it is fresh in my mind.

This was breakfast today, the fried spheres are Mysoke Bonda, they are basically hush puppies they weren't the best, plus I felt my veins clog just looking at them.  The white rice is (I think it is rice) is Rava Upma it is quite good, though I don't eat too much of it at one time.  The flat bread is Methi Paratha, it is also quite good slightly flavored.  The yellow rice (again I think) is Mutter Paneer Mhuri, that is a little spicy and has a good flavor.  The white spheres are Vegetarian Momos with a sweet and sour sauce.  I am a fan.

Up top there is pineapple juice and a Sweet Lassi, which is very good.  Some oatmeal and yogurt to finish it off.

Flight to India

is long!

Trane sent me business class, which made it quite nice.  On the flight from Chicago to London the seats went mostly flat.  However, I could get comfortable so I didn't sleep.  I sat next to a nice lady who was chatty (she was on vacation with her husband and 5 year old girl)

 In London we took a bus to another terminal, then had to wait in line to go through security again.  I wouldn't want to have a short layover there.  It was quite the process to get between places.

 At Heathrow there is a lounge for British Airways that was very nice, lots of food and drinks.  They also had showers you could use.

 The flight from London to Chennai left at around 2 in the afternoon.  This place had better sleeping arrangements.  I finished watching Silicon Valley (s01) and watched Pixels which was pretty good.  These seats are the first class seats, the business class seats were a little smaller.

 My first Indian meal.  Chettinad chiden, dhania pulao and tadka dal.  It is a regional Chennai dish according to the menu.  It was quite good.  Actually all the meals on the plane were pretty good.

 This was interesting they sprayed some sort of insecticide on the way into Chennai.  Of course it was safe for humans.

 Bagage claim was normal.  I picked up my bag, then had to go through a customs checkpoint and left it there... I was supposed to fill out a form, but didn't, but she just told me to go anyways.

I also didn't fill out the form at the first custom checkpoint, so the guy gave me one to fill out.

Once we got to the hotel, I verified that my bag wasn't in the car, so I had to go back.  The driver made me pay the parking fee the second time.

Nick's Short Week

On Monday morning Nick woke up, had a little breakfast, went to the B, number 2, and threw up all over Jen.  She had just walked into the bathroom and sat down in front of him.  So, that was a fun day for the 3 of them.  So Nick didn't go to school Monday, or Tuesday (he has to stay home for 24 hours after throwing up or diarrhea).

He went to school on Wednesday.  Then on Thursday had the runs in his pants while eating breakfast...  So he stayed home Thursday, Jen was going to send him on Friday, but he had diarrhea again in the afternoon.

He seemed sick and slept a lot on Monday and Tuesday, but has seemed fine the rest of the week.  Maddie, Jen and I have been fine all week.

Nick is having a...

SISTER!!!

We found out yesterday that we are having a baby girl. Jen and I are very excited. Nick is going to be a great big brother, just like his dad and uncle...

Field Trip With: Nick, Grandma, Jeff, and Mom

Jeff flew in today. He wanted to be around to visit with Grandma and Boppa before Grandma's surgery on Tuesday. Grandma is having surgery on her nose for some skin cancer that was detected. Anyway, it was fun to have Jeff around. Nicholas and I were headed up to have a seat on the good old thrown for awhile. In true Nicholas fashion, we had to stop and look out the little window in the staircase on our way up. He likes to point out "tree down." Because of all the warm weather we had this week the Christmas tree which was propped up lovely in the snow bank took a tumble down the hill when the snow around it melted. While we were doing this Nicholas saw Grandma coming, and then Jeff. He called out both of their names, and was literally shaking with excitement. I don't think we could have gotten down the stairs fasten enough to open up the door to see them. Immediately Nick wanted to playing hiding games with Jeff. He remembered this from when Jeff was home at Christmas time. He was smiles from ear to ear. He was also quite excited to see Grandma as well!

Well Grandma had some field trip ideas for us. She had suggested that we go to World of Fish to have a gander at the tropical fish aquariums. She use to take Jeff there when he was big into his fish tanks. Then she had suggested going to Wild Rumpus, a children's book store. We got the directions and were on our way.

After squeezing into a tight parking spot at World of Fish. We entered a humid environment filled with colorful fish from head to toe. Nicholas really became interested at looking into the different aquariums. He enjoyed looking for fish that might have been hiding in the coral or sea anemone. "Hiding, hiding" he would say with a big smile on his face. He also enjoyed looking at the tiny crabs who looked like they were waving. Nicholas would say, "hedoo, bye bye" to the crabs, adorable. It was also fascinating to him as some of the fish would follow his hands, because they know where their food comes from.

We left there and headed to Chipotle for lunch. Yum. Nick sure does like his "dillas". What a good little eater he was eating his rice, and beans, dilla, and drinking his chocolate milk.

Then we went on a crazy driving adventure to find The Wild Rumpus. Once we finally arrived we were greeted by the cutest miniature door for Nicholas to walk through. He loved it, I think he would have been happy staying at the door for the whole visit. Animals were all over this book store. From cats, to lizards, to birds, to chinchillas, to spiders, you name it they probably had it. Nicholas really liked the lizard, great, and really wanted 'Spike' to eat his carrots. Well after much effort was given to try to persuade "pike" to "eat" we had no luck. After our stop at the book store, we took a quick detour over to a toy store. Where we had fun playing with balls, and cooking sets, and watching marbles run through a course.

What a great afternoon. Both Jeff and Nick quickly fell asleep on the way home.

To make the day even better Chris called and said he will be home at 8:30 tonight! We are so excited to have him back, and hope he can stay awhile.

Life is good!