Delayed Details

Were it not for the fact that I'm neck deep in sorted/unsorted piles of stuff, wrapped up in moving estimates and flight schedules, and meanwhile still managing to make semi-regular meals and keeping appointments, I'd have written a very nice blog post about the same goings-on (except for the meals and appointments, of course).

Instead I've had no left over energy to compose anything worthwhile here.  That'll have to come later as there are still too many things to be done

The basics?  We're leaving next month for two or more years in Germany.

There are many adventures to come as we head toward the opposite Opposite Shore - but for now everything has to revolve around the practical.  Hence the next post to come...

no need for a jump-start

This post is the electronic equivalent of stepping into the dark garage and pulling the lightbulb chain.  There's the dusty, dropcloth-covered beater just waiting for some attention and TLC. 

Maybe after a few years of waiting, the ignition will turn on the first try.  Meanwhile, there's need of some updating...

It looks like we're going to move to another yet another shore (though significantly inland) sometime in late summer.

Hold on to your hats, it'll be a wild ride!

Welcome to Our House

After a long search, we've got a home in Davis!

Welcome!

The Living Room

Below: Looking into the living room from the dining room.

Below: Looking into the dining room from the living room.

View of the walkway from the dining room.

The dining room has a door to the deck and backyard.

Below: The backyard.

Below: The girls' room.

Our room.

Hallway

Grandpa's room.

Grandpa's bathroom.

The "moving of the stuff" commences Tuesday.

Whirlwind

It seemed like I'd gotten back to a good posting volume in December, but then lost it right around New Year. That would be because right around the last few days of December we made a decision to return to CA.

Of course Dan is still working here, but Devin, Merlin & I are returning so that we can help out my dad who is recovering from a second back surgery. We'll be moving in together when we get back to Davis.

I'm looking for a house and trying to get all this accomplished as smoothly as possible, so I may not post very often in the meantime. In fact I don't know what that means for the fate of the blog, though technically, since we're going back, it'll be the Opposite Shore of the one we're on currently.... I don't know.

I do have a lot of pictures and things I'd been planning to post, so I may just drag them out a bit longer even though we're returning in a week.

Welcome to the whirlwind!

Beijing Nights

A while back I meant to write a post about the night life on our street. It's a bustling place as soon as the lights go on and people come out of doors in search of a cheap and easy meal. All up and down the street vendors wheel their carts and three-wheeled bikes along the curb and open up shop, patching in to the electrical system to light their incandescent bulbs. Even as the weather gets chillier, they're still out there. There are big barrel ovens with baking sweet potatoes and small coal stoves heat big woks full of something that looks like black stones in which chestnuts are roasted. Other vendors have glass-faced shelf-boxes in which "kabobs" of fruit are laid, having been drizzled or dipped in a sugar syrup so they're gleaming and colorful.

The big draw are the carts that open up into trays of bubbling soup. Vegetables and meats are strung on kabob sticks and then customers come and choose what they want to set into the boiling, spicy soup. When they're cooked, you just pull it out and eat it.

We tried it but it was spicier than the girls liked, so it's not something we've done since, though we have gone out just to walk through the crowd and get a festive feeling.